Pumping Station: One

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

There are a bunch of credit card size and smaller computers out there, but the
one closest to the Raspberry Pi in purpose and features is the Beagle Bone. The
BeagleBone is a credit-card sized Linux computer that connects with the Internet
and runs software such as Android 4.0 and Ubuntu. NERP first saw the Beagle
Board during Drew’s high-level overview in March.

The current Beagle Bone (~$89) costs more than the Raspberry Pi, but the Bone
has better perfomance. Tomorrow, 4/23/13, circutco.com will publicly announce a
new, more powerful, more featureful, and cheaper Beagle Bone. The price for the
new board will put it closer to the Pi. The revolution is over, but the
competiton for the smallest, most powerful, most versatile, and cheapest
embeddable computer has just begun. Adafruit, one of several Beagle Bone
resellers, is getting revved up for the new release.

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1278

Tonight Brian Chamberlain will give an in depth introduction to writing code on
the Beagle Bone. Brian’s talk will  “…cover how to setup and run remote
debugging on a BeagleBone from within the Eclipse IDE. It will include a
walkthrough of the key steps for setting things up. Then a demonstration of how
to step through lines of code, inspect variables, and generally cause havoc on a
simple program running remotely on the BeagleBone. Also, as a segway from our
normal RaspberryPi discussions there will be a brief overview of the BeagleBone,
its features, and how it compares to the RaspberryPi.”

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

NERP meets at 7pm 4-22-13 at Pumping Station:One, 3519 N. Elston Ave. in
Chicago. NERP is free and open to the public.

Ed Bennett ed @ kinetics and electronics . com

Monday Dec. 3rd. is back-to-basics night at NERP. In Part 1, Carl
Karsten and Bonnie King will give an introduction to Python programming
for novice programmers. The target will be the Raspberry Pi, and the
focus of their teaching examples will be on input/output to simple
hardware. In Part 2, yours truly will demo control of output devices
including simple circuits for interfacing electronics to
electro-mechanical devices.

Find us here…
http://www.meetup.com/NERP-Not-Exclusively-Raspberry-Pi/

-Ed

There are loads of people who want to learn how to program, and thankfully there are loads of high quality free tutorials and classes from big names like MIT (the class a small group of us are currently using), Stanford, and Google, from start-up educational resources like Khan Academy or Udacity, and other free resources like Python-course.

All of the courses listed above teach the easy-to-learn Python programming language.

Starting Thursday, May 17th, every first and third Thursday of each month PS:One will hold Python Office Hours.  This is a chance for people learning to program in Python to get together for moral support, project assistance, and homework assistance.  We’ll have an experienced python developer or two on hand to help answer questions and explain difficult concepts, plus loads of students at all skill levels to provide assistance and community (there is no better way to learn than teaching!).

This is an “office hours” event with volunteer teaching assistants. The expectation is that students watch lectures, read tutorials and attempt homework on their own, then use this as a resource to aid in learning, not as a class, workshop, seminar, private tutor session, or other primary learning tool.

• Who: everyone is welcome, regardless of skill level!
• When: First and Third Thursdays of each month, 7pm, starting May 17
• Where: Pumping Station: One 3354 N. Elston Ave, Chicago, IL
• Cost: Free ($5 recommended donation to help us keep the lights on!)

image: flickr user dougwoods

PS: in lieu of apples, our TAs prefer adult beverages as thank-you presents.

PPS: interested in becoming a TA for this series? Contact the author of this post.

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

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

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

The third installment of DIY CNC night will be Wednesday, September 14th at 7pm!

DIY CNC night is a monthly (second Wednesday of each month) event held at Pumping Station: One, 3354 N Elston Ave, for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and professionals to celebrate and explore Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) tools such as laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC mills, lathes, plotters, and more!  Attendees are encouraged to bring along any machines or work examples they wish to show off.

The usual schedule is as follows:

• 7-7:15 introductions / show off stuff you brought along
• 7:15-7:45 brief presentation
• 7:45-9-ish mingling, discussion, tour of Pumping Station: One, general schmoozing, and machine repair/assembly/upgrade

This month Bart Dring of MakeSlide and buildlog will be talking about his projects.

Miniature Taj Mahal designed and printed by thingiverse user tc_fea.

Next Wednesday 3/30/2011 at 7:00 PM Tony Johnson will be teaching an introduction to programming class with the Python language.   The course will cover the fundamentals of software development and act as a stepping stone to more advanced programming topics.

UPDATE:

1) You will need a laptop.
2) There is no cost to members or the general public.
3) You will need Python 3.2 installed on your computer.
Here is the link to download python: http://www.python.org/download/
4) Any simple text editor that is already installed on your OS will be sufficient.

Creative Code Workshops

workShop[0] = Processing;

Over the past several decades of advancement in computer technology, a fledgling movement of computational and digital media art has emerged. Initially the province of a handful techno-savvy pioneers, today there is a wide range of tools and resources available to artists and designers, drastically lowering the barrier of entry for anyone interested in computer art. This series of Creative Code Workshops explores the sometimes-nebulous territory of Code-As-Art, bringing creatives and technologists together to make interesting, complex work.

In our first workshop, we will explore Processing, an open-source programming language and framework developed for the visual arts community. Originally created to teach computer programming fundamentals within a visual context, it has grown into a robust yet flexible platform serving both artists and pedagogues. Its open-source license has led to a vibrant developer community that has contributed to its extension into other regions of computational media, including computer vision, audio processing, networking, data visualization, and tactile media. This hands-on workshop will help both artists looking to get their hands dirty with computer programming and programmers looking to explore their creative side.

Where: Pumping Station: One. 3354 N. Elston, Chicago, IL.
When: Saturday, September 25th, 2010, 4pm.
Cost: FREE
Accessibility: Open to the public

About the presenter

James Patrick Gordon is an emerging digital media artist based in Chicago. His work covers a range of topics in digital and computational media, including responsive environments, augmented reality performance, virtual worlds, interactive narrative, sacred computing, the cultural and social ramifications of information networking, and the convergence of art and social justice.
You can find him on the web at: www.thaumatropia.net, or email him at: james.patrick.gordon@gmail.com

About Pumping Station: One

Pumping Station: One is Chicago’s premiere hackerspace and community workshop. Its mission is to foster a collaborative environment wherein people can explore and create intersections between technology, science, art, and culture. Hackers, makers, artists, developers, scientists, and craftsmen come together in a collaborative environment that explores the intersections between technology, art, and culture.
More info can be found at: www.pumpingstationone.org, or email them at: info@pumpingstationone.org

When: Thursdays, April 8th & 22nd, 8pm
Where: PS:One, 3354 N. Elston

Like an artifact from an alien civilization–or is it from the future?–Haskell fascinates and confounds. Is it good? Is it evil? What does it want from us? PS:One member Robert Lee has investigated its mysteries, cut the Gordian knot of deep mathematese that surrounds Haskell, and emerged with near-mystical coding powers. He comes to share his newfound wisdom with the coder masses.

He has scheduled his first two classes in April. There will be more afterward, to be scheduled. Bring your laptop. Before we start, he requests you  install GHC and spend some time with Learn You a Haskell For Great Good. This will not be an introduction to programming–you probably need some proficiency with basic programming concepts. If you know what recursion is, you’re probably solid.

He promises you will merely gain familiarity with cutting edge techniques in functional programming. Haskell is not madness-inducing. You may go mad, but if you do, it will have nothing to do with this class.