Hacker/Makerspace Meeting in Review
November's meeting took place on the Union College campus, in the inexplicably difficult-to-find Olin Center. I guestimate about 40Exactly 33 people attended, and four presentations took place.
First, Jorel Lalicki, RPI undergraduate and creator of the successful PILED Kickstarter project gave a presentation on the ins and outs of open source hardware and software development and the benefits and pitfalls of using Kickstarter. He also demonstrated his PILED programmable lighting device, and some simple control software for it.
Next, John Rieffel gave a talk on 3-D printing, its possibilities, and available technologies. He then demonstrated the makerbot 3-d printer, and handed out samples to the group for examination.
Then, Tom Tongue presented an overview of the Raspberry Pi computer (they're so cute!) (and cheap!) (I mean *really* cheap...). He showed us one of his Raspberries, and demonstrated a couple of his configurations for it (hint: the OS lives on an SD card, so you can swap them like game cartridges!).
Finally, Craig Cantello, president of the Edison Tech Center in Schenectady, spoke to the group about the possibility of creating a maker/hackerspace at the center, and described the type of opportunities that are available. He is enthusiastic about creating a common-use makerspace at the center with volunteer effort, and would welcome our participation. Amazingly, at the end of this talk, he invited members of the group to return to the center with him after the meeting to look at the potential space! Several members took him up on that offer, and we expect a report soon...
Tom distributed a survey to the attendees, to help figure out what they really want out of the group, and spoke briefly about some ideas for organization, and determined that the group wants to hold events like this one at least monthly. After the meeting, lots of discussions took place, and there was a great deal of enthusiasm expressed.
It was an amazing experience, and demonstrated that there are both solid interest and realistic opportunities for a makerspace/community in the Capital District!
[Addendum 2012.11.29 17:33]
Kevin posted photos of the Tech Center to our meetup group!
Comments
Totally amazing! there were approximately 33 people in attendance including the content providers (speakers) [with
an error of plus or minus 3]. The content was absolutely amazing, from Intelligent LED array drivers, to 3D ABS
printers, to Low Cost/Small Footprint SoC Computer platforms; the night was not only engrossing but informative.
But Saving the best for last, the President of the Edison Tech Center offered a location for a HackerSpace, and
encouraged all sorts of engineering and discovery with essentially Zero fear from liability* [no lawyers were in
attendance from GE]
I'm not only excited but optimistic that our group has a very stable and well built platform now to operate off
of!
I am also an ITT TECH student and hopefully I can convince not only the other Electronics students to Join but
hopefully the administration to become part of the endeavor as well: bringing new inventions to the Tech Valley /
Capital District region!
Hi Blaise,
Thank you for the great synopsis of the meeting, I very excited to see so many people and the energy and enthusiasm was palpable! We're off to a great start, and I really appreciate how people are already pitching in to make this a success!
--Tom
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Thomas Tongue
Web: http://d0tproduct.wordpress.com/
Web: http://www.thomastongue.com/
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Thomas Tongue
Web: http://d0tproduct.wordpress.com/
Web: http://www.ThomasTongue.com/
Craig Cantello gave us a tour of the Edison Tech Center which is primarily a hands on learning museum where you are allowed to handle many of the artifacts. Inside there were wall-to-wall displays including Edison Phonograph's, Homemade lightbulbs and Tube Radios. I focused my attention on Steimetz's Electric Car. Craig said it weighed less and was more efficient than a Chevy Volt. I was impressed by the fact that it was still registered and had plates.
Part of the Edison Complex is a 5-story building which is not currently open to the public. They use it to warehouse the museum's large collection of artifacts. We weren't allowed to see the inside, but that got me thinking. You know with some much-needed rehab, we could have a makerspace with 5 STORIES of workshops all accessible by cargo elevator.
We ended the night with a tour of the basement. It was surprisingly warm and dry down there. The surface of the concrete was cracked and scaled in many places. The dimensions are about 75'x 75' and it's divided by many brick columns. What's not evident in the photos is the slope to the floor. From the fire door, it ramps up at an angle of about 15 degrees. I'm 6'1", so I was ducking by the time I made it to the far wall. It's not currently open to the public either, but Craig envisions us using it in the future.
Craig's main focus was to spread the word that the Edison welcomes donations of anything that might be useful to the cause: old printers, scanners or whatnot. If it's something you might have squirreled away in your closet or a storage unit or something you might otherwise throw out, contact Craig first. You just might get a tax write-off. Power tools, drill presses, milling machines, lathes, welders, stereo lithography machines are also welcome too! Tom mentioned having a scrapping day. Take stuff apart and scavenge it for useful parts. This could also be a time to teach the newbies how the old-pros do it.
In addition to being a virtual cornucopia of knowledge, Craig is also an expert in 3D visualization. In other words, he could design 3D scanners in his sleep. Who doesn't want to hear more about that? Chime in and let the organizers know that we want him to present at the next meeting!
-Kevin
Thanks Kevin for the extended summary of the Tech center visit on Wednesday night!
We will have an announcement for the Junk Jam shortly (watch the events space), and an administrative/organizational meeting to follow where (among other things) we'll form a space committee to investigate all the makerspace options for the group, both at ETC and elsewhere, so that we can report to the general meeting in early January.
--Tom
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Thomas Tongue
Web: http://d0tproduct.wordpress.com/
Web: http://www.ThomasTongue.com/