Pumping Station: One

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 (Attorney)

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.

There will be an intro-level Arduino class next Sunday 2/19/12 from 3-5pm in the big room. The emphasis is on understanding circuits and hooking stuff up.

This will be a 4-part series or so. There are 10 seats available, but observers are welcome after the 10 seats are filled.

I’ll have a kit for sale on site to get people started. Price is $29.00. It has a board, chip, USB adapter, LED’s, and a couple of other things to get you started. Because I’ll be packaging the kits for the occasion, I ask that if you attend, you purchase the kit.

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

The first session (2/19) basic description is:

• How to Solder: Solder up an Arduino workalike.
• How to run the Arduino development application on your laptop.
• Basic Arduino program structure. Run an LED. (Hello World blinky).
• Show where the built-in examples live in the IDE. Run an input example and an output example.
• For inspiration, demo a couple of circuits with an Arduino and some connected hardware.

That’s probably all that will  fit in two hours.
Future sessions may discuss Arduino-compatible accessories, motors, simple sensors, and so on. There are many possibilities.

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

Cost: $29 for the kit. Email ed at kineticsandelectronics dot com to reserve and to arrange payment.

When: 2/19/2012 3-5pm

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

Join the members of the circuit-bent rock band CMKT4 for a workshop on building your very own EconoMIC Bottle Cap Contact Microphone (from Creme DeMentia). CMKT4 will show you how to solder up a piezo-electric pickup and house it sturdily in a recycled bottle-cap housing of their own design! Stick around for a set from the band as the tool-handle dip on your freshly built contact microphone dries.

Additional take-home kits and other surprises will be available, come build a mic and see and hear some of the circuit-bent instruments you’ve read about on www.GetLofi.com up close. Bring your own instruments and objects to amplify!

The workshop is $15 for PS:One members, $20 for non-members; additional kits will be on sale for $10, and we’ll have fully assembled mics in several varieties for sale as well. We’ll have some other fun goodies also. Interested onlookers are encouraged to donate if they don’t want to build a kit.

CMKT 4 are Austin Cliffe, Zach Adams, and Jeff Cox. The circuit-bent /rock trio has made it their mission to leave no hackerspace behind on their way to their next Maker Faire; they want to bring new devices, sounds, and ideas to your town. They are constantly working to make new and interesting devices and music.

Facebook page for this event: https://www.facebook.com/events/306544426052351/

Want an extra-special detail added to your costume this year? I’m teaching a short series of classes on theatrical makeup starting this Saturday, the 8th, at 5pm-7pm [possibly shorter depending on the number of students]. The class will cost $10-20, based on the size of the class. the more people show up, the cheaper it’ll be, so bring your friends! The first class will be going over bruises, scrapes, and small superficial wounds. The second class will focus on deeper cuts, peeling skin, bites like the one pictured, and some serious gore. The third class will be focusing on embedded items, like pencils, knives, and so on, and will include a recipe for washable, edible theater blood and we’ll be making our own embeddable items!

Days: October 8th, 15th, 22nd
Times: 5-7pm
Cost: $10-20 based on attendance [the more the merrier cheaper]

This meetup has been moved to Google Chicago 20 West Kinzie St., Chicago, IL

This Thursday @ 5PM there is a special interest group meetup of chicagoandroid.com

We will meet to talk about programming Arduino boards:

1. workshop: electronic components 101 – Uki D. Lucas
2. workshop: electronic schematics and symbols 101 – Uki D. Lucas
3. workshop: Android ADK – TBD
4. showcase of projects by Chicago area enthusiasts
5. review of boards / shields available – Lwin & Min Maung
6. review of books – Lwin & Min Maung
7. review of projects – Lwin & Min Maung

Please bring your:

- Arduino phone running v. 2.3.4, or tablet 3.1

- books, boards, electronic equipment you want to connect

- spare electronic parts

- laptop with Android SDK (Eclipse) installed

Lynne Bruning, self-defined and award-winning “textile enchantress,” will visit PS: One to tell us about her soft circuit projects on July 19th.

LEDs in clothing? Absolutely. But Lynne also created a haptic feedback coat, intended to give the blind a virtual cane using vibrations that tell them how close they’re getting to objects. The project’s called “Bats Have Feelings Too!” and is a Creative Commons project that can be found on Instructables along with many of Lynne’s other projects.

Lynne brought her education in neurophysiology and architecture to a scale somewhere in between. To learn more about her background and her projects, check out two interviews she’s done recently: one on Body Pixel and one on Green by Design.

Due to Lynne’s schedule, we’re bumping our usual meeting at 8 to make room for her chat with us, followed by a choice to either join in our regular meeting or attend Lynne’s usual Tuesday eTextile Lounge (a global eTextile hackerspace via uStream) at 9. Join us!

(photo by Lynne via her Flickr)

Update (2): run time clarification – this workshop runs from 10am to 6pm (or really, until the machines are complete).  These are complex machines – expect for this to take a while.

Update: just to be completely clear: this event is open to anyone who signs up via Eventbrite. PS:One membership is not required.

We’ve got a fever, and 3D printing is the cure!

On June 18, PS:One member Chris Jansen will be holding a build-your-own RepRap Mendel Prusa 3D printer workshop.  Workshop cost will be $100 (for materials).

If you don’t know what it is, a RepRap is a 3D printer that can print many of it’s own parts. A REPlicating RApid Prototyper.  If you have one RepRap, you can make more RepRaps, and even give them to your friends!

At the workshop, we will receive the parts and support to build the X-Y-Z gantry for a RepRap Prusa – all the plastics, mechanicals, belts, pulleys, MDF build platform, etc. At the end of the day you will have a fully-built XYZ body and build platform that just needs electronics installed and programmed to get up and running.

PLEASE NOTE: To complete the build, you’ll need to purchase another $200-$300 worth of electronics and stepper motors and hot ends (price varies depending on the bells and whistles you choose).  Please see the wiki page for a listing of electronics not included in this workshop. If you bring your own electronics along with you, assistance may be available to get your electronics installed (no promises).

What: Build your own RepRap Mendel Prusa X/Y/Z gantry and build platform

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

How much: $100 per person (Limit 20).

A great introduction to 3D printing and the RepRap Mendel Prusa we’ll be building on 6/18:

PS:One now has an official infosec group called PS:Pwnsauce. We meet once a week on Sunday evenings at 6:30pm. These meetings are open to ps:one members and invited guests.

Last night we played with nbns spoofing and intercepting iPad traffic using Burp Suite.

Next week we will discuss and demo cache poisoning.

On the heels of Mitch Altman’s Circuit Hacking and Soldering Workshop on Thursday, we’d like to welcome to Dale and Dwayne of 2dkits.com, teaching a blinkies workshop this Saturday, April 9, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Straight from the source:

Build-A-Blinkie is where you get a kit (circuit board, LEDs, and other electronic parts) and solder them together to make a working blinkie. Basically, a little board with blinking lights.  You can proudly wear your very own blinkie as a pin or attach it to a lanyard as a necklace, or just put it on a shelf and let others admire your technical abilities.

We bring eleven unique blinkie kits to choose from, soldering stations, lights, and everything else necessary to build your blinkie.  The ability to solder is not required, and we provide as much or as little assistance as is needed.

We’ve been doing this for over 10 years now. Thousands of folks of all ages have been building blinkies – many of them who have never soldered before. We guarantee you will leave with a working blinkie!

Come one, come all! Build your very own blinkie at PS:One! More info about their kits here.