Pumping Station: One

Are you new around here?

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and you’re hardly alone. PS:One has seen explosive growth in the past year or so, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that we need a formal way of teaching new folk how to be a healthy, happy member of PS:One.

Meet with PS:One old-timers (including at least one former president) to learn the many opportunities available to PS:One members, plus hacks for getting around easier.

You’ll learn:

• the one and only rule you need to remember at PS:One!
• what mailing lists and IRC channels you should join
• how to get discounts on classes, tee-shirts, stuff around town, and even monthly dues!
• how to get certified on equipment
• how to bring new equipment into PS:One
• how to create a class, event, group, meeting, or what have you
• how to request a class, event, group, whatever
• how to blog
• the wiki.
• do-ocracy and how to do-ocratize things

The basics:

• Who: anyone who wants to learn how PS:One works
• When: Monday October 22nd, 7 pm
• Where: PS:One 1st floor
• Cost: free

Here are the class notes for folk who can’t attend.

EDIT: this is on 9/23, not 9/20.

Taken on our last brew day – why not use the hydraulic jack to siphon? You would if you could.

I never expected Beer Church to be as popular as it is! You’re all great. We now have 2 beers in the Brewing Station: One fermentation chamber under the patient temperature control of chillmon. We aren’t sure which of them is going to rejuvenate TOOOL during Locktoberfest on October 20th, but one these is it!

I don’t know if we’ll brew on Sunday, but the great thing is that we’ve got a Brew & Grow a quick saunter around the corner and all the gear we could need right on hand. If you want to brew this weekend, hit up the comments or the thread on the public mailing list and we might get something going!

Beer tasting: bring a few bottles of something you like that you think others may not know. We will do a potluck beer tasting. Tiny beer steins (for tiny beers) will be provided but bring your own chalice/mug/other drink receptacle if you prefer. Homebrews are highly esteemed, and you will get some beer peer review from your peers in beer! Neither of our brews are ready to rock yet, so we’ll have to wait for tasting our own creations.

You are of course welcome to come even if you do not consume beer or other alcoholic beverages! You must be 21 to drink at beer church. Come on down to 3519 N Elston at 12:00 PM on 9/23!

The next NERP (Not Exclusively Raspberry Pi) meeting will be at 7pm Monday August 27th. The new regular format of the NERP meetings is

1. a new user orientation (first session) at 6pm
2. The regular meeting (second session) from 7-8:30pm.
3. The after party which goes on until the building closes.

The orientation sessions help new users get their Raspberry Pis booted and quickly demo where the start buttons are in the operating system. The second session is a forum for talks, demos, free discussion, and questions. Subjects can be of general interest or advanced and highly focused. *

occidentalis – the black raspberry

The purpose of NERP is to promote discussion and exchange of knowledge and ideas. Interruptions and dumb questions are encouraged. The flow of a meeting can be deliciously chaotic.

I didn’t set out to take minutes at the NERP meeting last Monday, but there was so much good information flying around that it was hard to resist jotting some things down.

• Drew demoed many of the apps that come with the pi by default.

• Looked at Quake on the RPi. Learned about the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) (“…a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms’ graphics, sound, and input devices…”)
• Looked at /opt/vc where the broadcom videocore libs and utils live. Note to self: some of the utils look useful for low level tweaking at run time.
• Clarified the difference between Arduino and Rpi by running a blinky demo with the arduino hosted by the Pi
• Cortex M-series is the microcontroller family of Arms. There are <$20 ARM M4 boards.
• The logic level output lines are weak. Voltages are: USB = 5V, general i/o = 3.3V, HDMI = 1.8V.
• It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that adafruit clear box and breakout board.
• Everything is a file. How to do output in Bash:

echo “out” > /sys/class/gpio/gpio4/direction
echo “0” > /sys/class/gpio/gpio4/value
echo “1” > /sys/class/gpio/gpio4/value

• The video output problem… There are cheap 3.5” video screens (for car rear view cameras) on amazon
• From Jay: Demo of a Motorola dock for a phone for $55.   11.6” HDMI 1333 x 800. Works well with RPi.
• Watch ebay, amazon, China direct sellers for cheap $15 -to $50 HDMI to VGA adapters.
• In the initialization/setup tool set Pi to force HDMI so it doesn’t try to default to composite output at boot. It’ll get stuck there and won’t see the HDMI if plugged in later.
• Pi has undocumented connectors for CSI (camera serial interface) and DSI (display serial interface) Broadcom is planning a backpack HDMI rez camera for RPi
• The broken wireless driver problem is sometimes helped by using the Occidentalis v0.1 distro/mod from http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-educational-linux-distro/occidentalis-v0-dot-1
• All the cool kids are ditching plain Raspbian. Occidentilis (derived from Raspbian) is the one to have. It’s specifically for doing electronics. It has good support for SPI, I2C, one wire, and more WiFi sticks.  Black Raspberry – wheezy. Yes.
• Drew will make a wiki at PS:One (DONE)
• Computer vision is the killer app.
• That, and network services that interact with the physical world.

-Ed_B

*If you would like to show your work or lead a discussion on NERP, email ed at kineticsandelectronics dot com to set up a time.

NERP (The Not Exclusively Raspberry Pi embedded systems interest group) will meet Monday August 13th at 7:00pm. During the last meeting we talked about what the Raspberry Pi is and the nature of its capabilities. Jay showed a couple of videos to demo the HDMI output and described the process of setting up a new RPi. Drew Fustini took notes and has posted some comments and resources on the PS:One public list.

After the meeting, a few people stayed around to try some fun but not completely simple experiments with the RPi’s serial port. Using what I learned in the NERP serial port experiments, I made a RPi demo for to the Evanston Mini Maker Faire. The demo involved adding a 1984 Televideo 910 dumb terminal to a serial port on the Pi. The terminal is text only and displays characters as green on black. In addition to the normal gui session on the LCD screen, the RPi ran a separate user login on the dumb terminal. The LCD screen showed a video clip every 40 seconds, and the terminal showed a root login. Quite a number of people stopped by to check out the terminal and were surprised to learn about the Raspberry Pi’s role in making the demo run. More images of the Raspberry Pi at the Faire, and more technnical photos are at  http://kineticsandelectronics.com/RPi-makerfaire

On Monday 8/13, Drew will demo some of the basic applications that one might run on the Pi, and possibly discuss some issues around the subject of hardware interfacing. Open discussion is always welcome. An hour before the NERP meeting begins, Jay will be available to help anyone who has a RPi and would like help installing the basic operating system and apps. Jay starts at 6pm. The regular meeting is at 7pm.

I am teaching a 1.5 hour intro to your Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera class on from 2pm to 3:30pm August 19th. The class, presented through Communiteach,  is free (free is good) and is being held at the Whole Foods at 1550 N Kingsbury. Everyone, especially members of the PS:1 community, are invited to attend.

Description: “Do you have a new DSLR camera that you’re trying to understand, or perhaps you’re not quite sure what all the knobs and dials on your existing camera do? Wondering why people get all worked up about JPEG vs. RAW (or what those even mean)? Intimidated or bothered by the all the bizarre lingo and jargon thrown about by other photographers? This LearnIt should help you get more comfortable with your camera and associated technology so that you can focus on what’s important: taking better pictures. Bring your camera with len, battery, and memory card as this will be a hands-on session. Point-and-shooters are welcome to join (particularly if you’re looking for guidance on shopping) but you’ll get the most out of the class if you have a camera you can work with.”

Date: Sunday, August 19th

Time: 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Location: Whole Foods, 1550 N Kingsbury

Cost: FREE

Registration: Sign up here.

Hackers on Train 2012 will be pulling into town the first week of August, and maker instructor extraordinaire Mitch Altman will stopping by our hackerspace for a special “Arduino for Total Newbies” workshop on Thursday, August 2nd.  Mitch writes:

You’ve probably heard lots about Arduino.  But if you don’t know what it is, or how you can use it to do all sorts of cool things, then this fun and easy workshop is for you.  As an example project, we’ll be creating a TV-B-Gone remote control out of an Arduino you can take home with you.

Registration: Eventbrite (space is limited so please register as soon as possible)

Cost: $40

Date: Thursday, August 2nd, 2012

Time: 7:00 – 10:00pm

Where: Pumping Station: One, 3519 N Elston Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Workshop Itinerary:

• Very short lesson to learn everything you need to know about electronics!
• Then we will learn to solder. Don’t let this scare you! Mitch has taught well over 35,000 people to solder, many of whom have never made anything before in their lives. It is actually a very easy skill to learn. It is also very useful.
• Then we will each make our own Arduino clone from a kit made by Ladyada: BoArduino
• Now that we each have our own Arduino, we will set up the free and open-source software on our laptops (if you bring one) — Windows, MacOS, or Linux are all fine!
• And then its time to make something and learn how easy it is to use Arduino! Mitch will show you how to read schematic diagrams, and you’ll put together your own TV-B-Gone remote control using your BoArduino. We will use a solderless breadboard. These are really useful, and provide a fast, and very easy way to put circuits together without needing to solder.

Update: wow! Thanks to the 38 people who showed up on five days’ notice! I really didn’t expect that many folks to show. Here is a link to my notes (I’ve added a little more based on our discussion).

Original post:

Are you new around here?

There’s nothing wrong with that, and you’re hardly alone.

PS:One has seen explosive growth in the past year or so, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that we need a formal way of teaching new folk how to be a healthy, happy member of PS:One.

Meet with PS:One old-timers (including at least one former president) to learn the many opportunities available to PS:One members, plus hacks for getting around easier.

You’ll learn:

• the one and only rule you need to remember at PS:One!
• what mailing lists and IRC channels you should join
• how to get discounts on classes, tee-shirts, stuff around town, and even monthly dues!
• how to get certified on equipment
• how to bring new equipment into PS:One
• how to create a class, event, group, meeting, or what have you
• how to request a class, event, group, whatever
• how to blog
• the wiki: WTF is that about?
• do-ocracy and how to do-ocratize things

The basics:

• Who: anyone who wants to learn how PS:One works
• When: Wednesday July 25th, 7:30 pm
• Where: PS:One 1st floor lounge
• Cost: free

image

To nurture the Midwest experimental electronics community, the circuit bent duo Roth Mobot hosts a free weekly “eSymposium,” a lateral lecture series where participants are both teachers and students. There’s soldering, tinkering, Q&A, show-&-tell, bending circuits, hacking toys, and Chicago’s only weekly Circuit Bent Open Mic. Stop by, or keep in touch with the growing membership via the eSymposium’s Google Group, or listen to some unedited audio from the open mic on the eSymposium’s SoundCloud Channel.

Who: anyone!

What: Circuit bending eSymposium with Roth Mobot and friends

Where: Pumping Station: One Electronics Lab (2nd Floor) 3519 N. Elston Ave Chicago, IL 60618

When: Saturday, 7/21 at 12pm-3pm

Beer Church returns! Do you like science, doing things rather than buying them already done, and beer? Then this event is for you!

Beer tasting: bring a few bottles of something you like that you think others may not know. We will do a potluck beer tasting. Tiny beer steins (for tiny beers) will be provided but bring your own chalice/mug/other drink receptacle if you prefer. Homebrews are highly esteemed, and you will get some beer peer review from your peers in beer!

After (and during) the tasting, we’ll discuss the science of beer brewing and other scientific questions and pursuits. Peer review of projects will happen if people have something to show; 300 seconds of non-fame with frequent interruptions.

For this Beer Church event, we’ll be exploring homebrewing at the space further. Last time we broached the subject and had some homebrews brought down from the Evanston Homebrewing club – this week we have a fridge that could get modded to be set up as environmental control for brewing and we’ll look at the possibility of using the safe room as a cold storage location. An unknown (to me at least) benefactor has also deposited a carboy and a corking machine on premesis! I’m not sure whether we can use those (holler if they’re yours) but I’m hoping so.

You are of course welcome to come even if you do not consume beer or other alcoholic beverages! You must be 21 to drink at beer church. Come on down to 3519 N Elston at 12:00 PM on 7/22!

Do you need a midday Sunday social gathering? Do you like science, doing things rather than buying them already done, and beer? Then this event is for you!

Beer tasting: bring a few bottles of something you like that you think others may not know. We will do a potluck beer tasting. Tiny beer steins (for tiny beers) will be provided but bring your own chalice/mug/other drink receptacle if you prefer. Homebrews are highly esteemed, and you will get some beer peer review from your peers in beer!

After (and during) the tasting, we’ll discuss the science of beer brewing and other scientific questions and pursuits. Peer review of projects will happen if people have something to show; 300 seconds of non-fame with frequent interruptions.

For this Beer Church event, bring all the homebrewing equipment/supplies you have if you can, and are willing to let other people perhaps use! We’ll do a show and tell, and plan some home brewing events. If we’re feeling up to it and have enough gear and willing brewers, we’ll make it a brewing party! We have enough space now to brew! Make sure to bring a turkey fryer or propane based stove if you have one, as we don’t currently have a stove at the space.

You are of course welcome to come even if you do not consume beer or other alcoholic beverages! You must be 21 to drink at beer church. Come on down to 3519 N Elston for beer, peers, and brewers.