Hello everyone!

Since the last Beer Church, Eric & co’s This Is Your Grain On Chocolate has come and (sadly) gone. We’ve got 5 different Beer Church creations hidden away in bottles, and they’re all coming out to play this Sunday. Bring them some playdates in the form of a bottle of your favorite off-the-beaten-path beer – whether your own homebrew, or from a store. We’re not picky (but we are snobs)! Small beer steins will be provided to consume from, but you’re welcome to bring your own chalice.

Once we’re done with the tasting, Eric will demonstrate how to use a Soxhlet Extractor to create flavor extracts from a fruit or herb (undecided yet) – so far, we’ve used 2 of them – in our dearly departed friend, This Is Your Grain On Chocolate.

After we taste & make some flavor, we move forward to build out fun time. Our current fermenter was built hastily to get us off the ground and we’re going to try to get started replacing it with a better designed and larger home for brews. Chillmon has a new circuit board courtesy of Ryan, and we might find the time to get it working with the new fermenter. Along the way, we’ll figure out a superior storage solution for our gear (this time, with organization!). No brew today, but we’re hoping for a productive and fun day of woodworking, tasting beers, electronics, programming, and tasty science.

tl;dr

When: Sun April 7, 2:00PM-5:00PM
Where: Pumping Station: One, 3519 N Elston, Chicago
Why: Because you like tasting beer & building things
What: Potluck & Beer Church’s brews beer tasting, Buildout
Extra Credit What: Demonstration of Soxhlet Extractor flavorant creation for use in beer making
Who: Anyone 21 years or older

Back in January, we got word that Philip Strong, a past member of PS:One, worked for a company that needed to get rid of a working scanning electron microscope and was considering donating it to PS:One. While we have an existing SEM in the space (a Leica S440, owned by JP, a member), this one supposedly was fully functional, had documentation, and we could get some help from the microscopist, Susan Young, who used it. Of course we were interested!

On Monday the 18th, I learn that yes, the donation was approved, but with a catch: It had to be moved on Saturday the 23rd! Read the rest of this entry →

Both the fire poker and the railroad spike knife classes will be offered on SUNDAY April 14th at Pumping Station:One.

Ever thought of Blacksmithing as a way to relieve stress? Well then, sign up for THE FIRE POKER CLASS where you will make a fire poker to soothe your
anger while also pleasing your inner pyro . You will learn to taper & draw, twist, and to scroll some steel. And you get to take it home and show it off!

Or, if you are more into stabbing junk mail through the heart, make yourself a RAIL ROAD SPIKE letter opener! You’ll learn to sledge, taper & draw, and maybe even twist your handle.

Please sign up for your preferred class and time using the booking link HERE!

Cost:

• $40 for members ($50 for non-members) for the two and a half hour long instruction & materials needed for the *fire poker class*
• $25 for members ($30 for non-members) for the *rail road spike* class.

Both classes will also certify members to use the forge!
What you need to know:

1. If you have a nice pair of safety glasses, bring them – we have some available, but they may not be comfortable.
2. Wear ONLY cotton clothing and closed toe shoes (preferably leather with rubber soles) Any other fabric may catch fire and will melt onto your skin and continue burning you which is never fun. A lightweight, long-sleeved shirt is preferable to protect from flying slag.
3. Bring a water bottle- forging is hot work.
4. Your off hand (non hammering hand) will be holding the steel and will require a glove (though two gloves is REALLY preferable). Please bring well fitting all LEATHER gloves if you have some (calf skin gloves work best). This helps reduce chafing and prevents burns. Your hammer hand does not have to be gloved, but better safe than sorry.
5. This activity has a high risk of burns – you will be dealing with glowing hot steel, sparks, and hot slag. Wearing appropriate clothing and gloves minimizes this risk, but accidents still happen. You have been warned, now come have some fun!

• Please try to arrive 5-10 minutes early so we can get started
right away.

International Tabletop Day

If you haven’t heard about it, please visit http://www.tabletopday.com for info.

This Saturday, the 30th, will be an international game day event! Want to play some creative, imaginitive games? Want to have some home brewed beer and some tasty snaks while you do so? How about hanging out with some awesomely geeky people? Analog Game Night is the event to do all of that in one awesome hackerspace! Got an old favorite or something you just bought at a Tabletop Day event at your local game store, or maybe a game you designed at home and want to bask in the overwhelming geeky glory you so deserve? Bring it and play it with all of us at Pumping Station: One!

When: This Saturday, the 30th, at 5pm
Where: Pumping Station: One

NERP is not exclusively raspberry pi, the small computer interest group at Pumping Station:One in Chicago.

Ste Kulov (like “steve” without the “ve”) is the signal processing guru of Pumping Station:One. He’s also a great teacher who’s enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge of the theory and practice of analog and digital circuit design. Tonight Ste will show NERP what FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chips do and how to use the chip manufacturers’ development tools.

Xilinx.com

FPGA’s are very fast logic chips that can perform better than microprocessor CPU’s in a number of high throughput applications. FPGA’s are programmable, but FPGA programs aren’t necessarily seqences of instruction like a C program would be. In fact, on an FPGA you can “write” a CPU. All the cool kids are learning to use FPGA’s, and you should, too!

Tonight’s agenda from Ste:
1.) What are FPGAs & CPLDs and what do they do?
2.) Why would you want to use one?
3.) Explain how you would program one using a hardware description
language such as VHDL or Verilog.
4.) Go over a quick Verilog example & demo of displaying “NERP” on the
4-digit 7-segment display on my dev board.
5.) With the remaining time, demo off my Nintendo DS video output
project to illustrate the neat stuff you can do with these things.

Find NERP and Pumping Station:One
at http://www.meetup.com/NERP-Not-Exclusively-Raspberry-Pi/
and http://pumpingstationone.org

NERP meets at 7pm 3-25-13 at Pumping Station:One, 3519 N. Elston Ave. in
Chicago. NERP is free and open to the public.

Ed Bennett ed@kineticsandelectronics.com
Tags: announcement, electronics, embedded, meetup, NERP, Open Source, raspberry pi–

Happy Happy
-Ed

http://KineticsAndElectronics.com

Sines, sines, everywhere a sine.

This is a Fourier. We will not be analyzing it.

This 2.5 hour class will cover:

• When and why does the fourier transform ‘work’? (Convergence conditions, etc)

• What does linear algebra have to do with Fourier analysis? (A lot.)

• How do we know it works? (Somewhat rigorous derivation)

• Are there similar concepts/tools worth knowing? (Yes.)

The overarching goal is to demystify the magic formulas
and give a more conceptual grounding in what’s going on.

Recommended background: Calculus II (integration),
trig identities, and basic knowledge of complex numbers, with a
provided cheat sheet and a refresher/intro to those tools at noon.

• When: Sunday March 24th at 1PM
• Where: Pumping Station: One Electronics Lab, 3519 N Elston Ave
• What: Deltas, epsilons, bases, sines.
• Who: All are welcome, PS:One members or not. Please RSVP to patrick.m.dixon@gmail.com by Saturday so I can make enough handouts.
• Cost: Free!

An event description from Tucker Tomlinson:

Interested in home brewing but unsure how to start? Confused by mash
schedules and monitoring? Well I have the Beer Church for you! This
Sunday I’ll be running a cider making workshop, which will show you
how to make 1 gallon batches of cider in your own kitchen. Each
attendee that wants to participate should leave with a 1 gallon jug of
precursor potent potables, and instructions for its care and use.

The plan will be to start around 1PM at PS:One. We will make a quick stop
at Jewel for anybody that hasn’t picked up juice or spices. Then we
will head over to Brew and Grow to pick up some fermentable sugars and
equipment. Then it’s back to PS:One to mix up some delicious concoctions.

all the required items to participate can be purchased at the event,
but participants should consider bringing the following:

Some tips:

If you have more questions, get on the Beer Church mailing list and ask! We have several knowledgeable folks who can give you all kinds of helpful advice.

Nitty Gritty

Event Host: Tucker Tomlinson
Date: 3/17/2013, 1PM
Location: Pumping Station: One, 3519 N Elston, Chicago IL
RSVP: Please post to the beer church mailing list or otherwise notify Tucker Tomlinson that you are attending so he knows how many people to plan for.
Requirements: Be 21 or older, and that’s it! You don’t have to be a Pumping Station: One member to participate.

NERP is not exclusively raspberry pi, the small computer interest group at
Pumping Station:One in Chicago.

Tonight Drew Fustini will demo the Beagle Bone.

BeagleBone (http://beagleboard.org/bone) is an open source, low-cost
credit-card-sized Linux computer that connects with the Internet and runs
software such as Android 4.0 and Ubuntu.

BeagleBone is capable of interfacing to all of your robotics motor
drivers, location or pressure sensors and 2D or 3D cameras. It can also run
OpenCV, OpenNI and other image collection and analysis software.

Through HDMI, VGA or LCD expansion boards, it is capable of decoding and
displaying mutliple video formats utilizing a completely open source software
stack and synchronizing playback over Ethernet or USB with other BeagleBoards.

Drew will also hit the high points of a Raspberry Pi interface board called the
Pi Face (http://pi.cs.man.ac.uk/interface.htm)

Pi-Face Digital is the first of a range of interfaces to allow the Raspberry Pi
to control and manipulate the real world. It allows the Raspberry Pi to read
switches connected to it – a door sensor or pressure pad perhaps, a microswitch
or reed switch, or a hand held button. With appropriate easy to write code, the
Raspberry Pi then drives outputs, powering motors, actuator, LEDs, light bulbs
or anything you can imagine to respond to the inputs.

Find NERP and Pumping Station:One
at http://www.meetup.com/NERP-Not-Exclusively-Raspberry-Pi/
and http://pumpingstationone.org

NERP meets at 7pm 3-11-13 at Pumping Station:One, 3519 N. Elston Ave. in
Chicago. NERP is free and open to the public.

Ed Bennett ed@kineticsandelectronics.com

Mike Vasquez will be giving a talk “The Printed Athlete – How 3D Printing is Changing the Face of Sports.”  It is free and open to the public.

Over the past two decades 3D printing has radically shifted the way that many industries design new products.  The medical field uses the process for creating bespoke hearing aids and aerospace companies use it to design more efficient aircraft.  However, one of the sectors that is on the leading edge of this revolution is sports.  All the major sporting goods brands have started to adopt the technology.  From 3D printed high end parts for F1 race cars to multi-colored 3D printed footwear prototypes at Nike; the opportunities offered by the new manufacturing process has the chance to transform how athletes and customers interact with the games they love. This talk focuses on how 3D printing technology already has and will continue to revolutionize sports using examples from Mike’s time at Burton Snowboards and Loughborough University’s Sports Technology Institute.  Additionally topics such as the future of the technology and growing areas of innovation including mass customization and protective equipment will be discussed.

About Mike Vasquez

Mike recently finished his PhD at the Sports Technology Institute at Loughborough University in England.  The institute is the world’s largest research facility completely dedicated to solving technical engineering problems in sport.  As part of his work he helped Burton Snowboards design new materials that could be used to 3D print snowboard binding components.  Originally from Minnesota, Mike made his way out to Boston to attend MIT.  While there he was able to combine his passion for sports and engineering by working at the MIT Sports Innovation Center.  He earned a BS (’08) and M.Eng (’09) in Materials Science and Engineering.  He was a captain of the MIT baseball team and continues to stay active by playing baseball, snowboarding, and distance running.  He finished his sixth marathon last fall.  He is the co-founder of the Sports Technology Podcast and has worked with Burton Snowboards, New Balance, Rawlings, Easton Sports, Wimbledon, 3M, and Progressive Sports Technologies.

About Automated Manufacturing Night
Automated Manufacturing Night is a monthly event where a speaker will discuss a topic related to Automated Manufacturing on the third Thursday each month. It is affiliated with the CNC Build Club (http://www.meetup.com/CNC-Build-Club/), a group where folks work on automated manufacturing machines at Pumping Station: One. It is also open to the public.

Pumping Station: One is a Chicago hackerspace located at 3519 N Elston, Chicago IL 60618.