Pumping Station: One

This workshop is part two of a two part intro to the Arduino being held at Pumping Station: One. Part 2 is for people who have a working Arduino setup running on their laptops. The emphasis in part two of the Arduino class is on programming. We’ll assume that you know where the different types of pins are located on the board, and that you can run the blink example. Ask lots of questions!

You will need to bring a laptop. You will need an Arduino. The best choice is Sparkfun’s “Flex” kit http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10174 If you don’t already have an Arduino, Pumping Station: One will loan you a Flex kit to use during the workshop session. Ask lots of questions!

images are CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 sparkfun.com

Workshop contents:

• The Arduino language: a simplified mix of C and C++
• Programming basics and interactive demos
• Experiment time to play with programming examples
• The Arduino language – special libraries
• Experiment time to play with library examples
• Arduino shields and i/o modules (demo)

Instructor: Ed Bennett
ed at kinetics and electronics dot com
kineticsandelectronics.com

Tickets are $25 and available  through Eventbrite.

This Monday join us for a special edition of DIY music night featuring Mashup artist Adam Dzak. Adam will be showing off his work in progress, a MIDI controller based on The Maven, an Ableton Live controller custom-built for world-renowned DJ Sasha. Adam will talk about his inspiration for the project and his (ongoing) journey toward completing it. More importantly, Adam will demonstrate his own creative process, and you’re invited to use the equipment and make your own Mashup.

This class is part one of a two part intro to the Arduino.  It’s an intro for people who have no experience with programming or electronics. Ticket information is at arduinointro1.eventbrite.com

You will need to bring a laptop. You will need an Arduino. The best choice is Sparkfun’s “Flex” kit http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10174 If you don’t already have an Arduino, Pumping Station: One will loan you a Flex kit to use during the workshop session. Ask lots of questions!

images are CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 sparkfun.com

Workshop contents:

• What’s Arduino?
• Installing the Arduino editor on your laptop
• Tour of the Arduino board and the Sparkfun “Flex” kit
• How to use a breadboard – hooking up sensors
• How to play with the built-in examples
• Experiment time to play with some examples
• Things you can do with an Arduino

Instructor: Ed Bennett
ed symbol kineticsandelectronics dot com
kineticsandelectronics.com

Arduino 101: A hands-on workshop presented at Flourish 2012 by Pumping Station: One (pumpingstationone.org) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Room 430 Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted, 1:00pm

Instructor: Ed Bennett

The purpose of the Flourish Conference is to promote the use and adoption of Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) by demonstrating the practical applications of FLOSS in the business and academic world.

The workshop had around 40 attendees. It introduced the Arduino platform starting from the basics of software, hardware, and microcontrollers. Since there were a lot of programmers at the conference, we went a little further into the “behind the scenes” aspect of the Arduino environment than is usual with basic introductions.

Working with circuits and breadboards isn’t hard, but you have to train your eye to see the physical sense of the thing. Starting afresh, it’s very easy to make mistakes. If it weren’t for the volunteers from PS:One who patrolled the room watching for people needing help, the workshop would not have been possible.  Patrick, Anna, Avner, Steve, and Eric stayed very busy for the whole two hours.

More images and the workshop outline are at KineticsAndElectronics.com.

Images by Anna Yu.

Session 3 of the Circuits and Arduino class will meet Sun. 3/18. from 12:30-2:30pm. Session 3 will be Motors and Actuators part 1: Servos.

In session 2, we read analog sensor input into the Arduino, and had the Arduino print the data to a character display.  In session 3, we will read sensors with an Arduino, and then interpret the data to control the position of a servomotor. If you want to build an Arduino-controlled entity that has physical motion, this is a very good place to start.

The only new hardware component introduced this week will be the servo. I’ll have a small quantity of servos available for sale on Sunday for $12 ea. For class you will need only one servo, however there is the option to use more than that for your own experiments.

Who: everyone (members and non-members are welcome), seating is limited to 10 people. Reservations are preferred but not required.
Cost: $12 for a servo, unless you bring your own
When: 3/18/2012 12:30-2:30pm  (Please note the time change.)
Reservations: email ed at kineticsandelectronics dot com
Where: Pumping Station: One 3354 N Elston Ave Chicago, IL 60647

Friday Evening, March 16 at 6:30

Dwayne Forsythe and friends from 2DKits are coming to Pumping Station: One to teach us how to solder by making Blinkies.

photo by 2DKits.com

This is where you get to build one of those LED flashing things.

You start with the kit, use the tools we have in the room. When you are
done, you will have a working blinkie. We have blinkie Techs to help you
debug any problems.

We do allow and encourage children to build their parent’s blinkie,
but the parent has to stick around and learn about the process.

• When: Friday March 16  6:30 to 9:00
• Where: Pumping Station: One
  3354 N. Elston, Chicago
• Who: Open to the public
• Cost: $5 suggested donation for non-members plus cost of kits.

Kits will be provided by 2Dkits. They cost between $7 and $21.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of skill level.  Join us to hang out and enjoy knitting with others.  I will help you get started, figure out a pattern, troubleshoot problems and work on designs.  If you have questions or need guidance in buying supplies, email me at ARTG33K74@gmail.com

The second meeting of the Intro to Arduino Class will be Sunday March 4 at 3pm. There are 10 seats available, but observers are welcome after the 10 seats are filled. In the first meeting, we learned about soldering and reading circuit diagrams by making an Arduino work-alike from raw components and a blank proto-board.

In the second class we’ll

• learn to use a breadboard for doing quick “sketches” with electronic parts.
• use a pushbutton, a photoresistor, and a potentiometer to learn about providing inputs into an Arduino program.
• use a serial data connection to communicate with a small LCD character display that can show two lines of text.
• have a first look at ways of powering our circuit when it’s disconnected from the computer.

If you weren’t at the first meeting and therefore don’t have a copy of the board we made, you can still participate by bringing your own Arduino or Arduino-compatible.

The session-2 kit has a breadboard, LCD character display, heavy duty 5-volt adapter, and a couple of other things. If you attend, you should purchase the kit. Price for the session-2 kit is $29.00

I’ll take reservations by email and payment for the kit on site.

Who: everyone (members and non-members are welcome), seating is limited to 10 people.

Cost: $29 for the kit. and to arrange payment.

When: 3/4/2012 3-5pm

Reservations: email ed at kineticsandelectronics dot com

Where: Pumping Station: One 3354 N Elston Ave Chicago, IL 60647

Making a business is just like making any complex new thing – there are new tools and materials to become familiar with, new skills to be learned in manipulating them, having a plan, perseverance and acquiring that  strange combination of mania and fear that is the hallmark of the experienced entrepreneur.  The result, with some luck, is a machine that excretes more money than it consumes.

Where: Pumping Station: One Main Room 3354 N Elston Ave, Chicago IL

When: Wednesday Feb 22 2012 7PM

What: Tales from the entrepreneur trenches and practical tips – Panel Format

Who’s Invited: The Public

Who’s Presenting:  Tim White (35 yr entrepreneur – 1o businesses & 6 jobs) & Laurie Rich (“law enthusiast”)

We will start off with an introduction by Laurie on legal matters, then I will start off by listing the names and outcomes of the ten
businesses I have started over the last 35 years (ranging from high tech to pure art), and offer some lessons learned.  Then we will open it up and see where things go.

Contact: Tim White tpwhiteco(at)gmail(dot)com

This weekend we welcome Chicago Primitive Skills for a general workshop on tool sharpening. It will cover tool, steel types, angles and edge types and sharpening with water stones, oil stones, hones and strops.

This will be a limited hands-on presentation, so if you have tools that need sharpened and you have sharpening stones, hones and strops, please bring them with you. If you are bringing tools please RSVP.

Where: Pumping Station: One

When: Saturday, February 18th, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm.

Space will be limited so please RSVP at their Meetup page.