Throw the Mind [dot] Com » MakersLocal

Playing with a Maker Bot

Nathan — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:28:42 +0000

A couple of nights ago, Bob and I started playing with a Maker Bot one of the Makers Local 256 members left at the shop. I asked the member who owns it if I could try to get it working while he was gone on work travel. Of course he said “Yes”. He had been trying to get it to make a shot glass for a while. Bob and I started playing around. We installed the latest version of ReplicatorG and some new firmware. Bob then determined that the head needed to be about .6mm off the printing service. After he tagged me in, and I started playing with laying down a raft. After a few failed attempts where the head didn’t seem like it was moving up the Z-axis enough, I learned to set the Flow Rate of the plastic to 230 instead of 250 in skeinforge. Along with Bob’s findings we seemed to have found a very nice solution. I was able to make a coin, most of a shot glass (something happen 3/4 the way through), and a companion cube.

Tags: CupCake CNC, MakerBot, MakersLocal

My First Kit – The Brain Machine

Nathan — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:12:10 +0000

When at The Next HOPE I bought The Brian Machine electronic kit for $20. It’s a product I have heard lots about and really wanted one. I figured I would spend the money and actually make it myself rather than buying a pre-made one.

The kit went together fairly easily once I figured out how to do it with a little help from other Makers Local 256 members. It took me a couple of hours to complete the project. I had a ton of fun making it and think I’m going to make more kits.

Tags: Electronic Kit, HOPE, MakersLocal

Buying Out North Alabama’s Supply of Parallax RFID Readers

Nathan — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:47:08 +0000

Yesterday Ratmandu and Myself headed out on a journey to find the last remaining Parallax RFID Readers from Radio Shack. We headed to Decatur first, where we found 5 in stock. From there we went to Florence and picked up another 4. According to Radio Shack’s database, north Alabama and south Tennessee no long have them in stock.

Also while looking around the Florence Radio Shack we found the Palm Pre Touchstone charger on sale for $16. We tested the output and its 5v. So basically for $16 I now have a wireless charging setup. I would like to put it in my phone, but it looks to be a pretty big challenge.

Tags: Deals, MakersLocal

Makers Local 256 visits Arch Reactor

Nathan — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:12:34 +0000

Raymond, Tim, Justin, and I decided to go to St. Louis for the grand opening of Arch Reactor the local Hackerspace up there. They had made a post to the hackerspaces.org mail list inviting everyone out to there space. I asked a few members if they would like to go, and we made a weekend trip out of it.

I had spoken with a few of the Arch Reactor members beforehand and made arrangements to crash at a members apartment. We left Friday night in the middle of a snow storm. Lucky Tim is from upside down Vermont and thus knows how to drive in bad weather. A 6 hour drive took us 10.5, but thanks to my Droid we never missed a beat with Pandora.

Once in St. Louis we found a McDonald’s to get food and then napped in the parking lot. Then we traveled over to the Arch and did the touristy things. We walked around the museum and rode up in the Arch. Being about lunchtime we headed over to Arch Reactor were we hung out for the rest of the night.

The open house was tons of fun. They probably had 50 or more people show up. They had a Maker Bot and a CNC, along with a bunch of old and new computers. There was some cool art, and a few talks. Tim and I even showed off the photobooth and gave a short talk about it. OH! and they had life sized Jenga!

As expected after only a few hours of sleep and parting all day with only caffeine to keep us awake, we crashed hard Saturday night. Sunday morning we had lunch with a member of their space and headed home. The drive home way way easier than the one going up. On the way through Illinois we saw a sign for Metropolis, IL aka Superman’s Home. Naturally we stopped and saw a giant Superman at the courthouse.

Here are the picture I took, I’ll update it later if anyone else has posted their pictures.

Tags: MakersLocal, Road Trip, Trip

Misc Pictures from Makers Local 256

Nathan — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:03:41 +0000

Here are some pictures taken over the last couple months at the shop. Stop by and see us sometime!

Tags: MakersLocal, Party, Picture

Yuri’s Night

Nathan — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:09:47 +0000

Yuri’s Night was a couple weekends ago and a bunch of us went to it. For those that don’t know Yuri’s Night is an international celebration held on April 12 every year to commemorate space exploration. It was rather fun. Saw a ton of space related costumes and met some new people. Oh! Also it was held at the Davidson Center at the Space and Rocket Center. So we partied under a Saturn V. Here are some pics including costumes made by Makers Local 256 members.

Tags: MakersLocal, Party

Apple Store Why Not A Linux Shop

Nathan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:23:47 +0000

I was listening to Twit this morning while they were discussing Apple Stores and why people go into them. All of the speakers on Twit said people go to Apples Stores because they get to play with the computers and talk to knowledgeable people. While this is true, but I think the main reason is that Apple computers are different from what most people are used to. They get to break away from Windows and try something new. Then if they like it, they can purchase it right there. I don’t think its the fact that the computers are there to use, but more the fact that the computers are different.

This also got me thinking, what if there was a Linux Shop. A place with computers set up running different kinds of distributions, showing off Open Office, InkSkape, The Gimp, and many other open source programs. It would be just like an Apple Store, but for open source. Computers could be sold at a cheap price because of the free operating systems. The employees could answer Linux questions, and help new comers. I think this sounds like a good idea, but not a good business idea. Maybe something Makers Local could do.

Tags: Apple, Linux, MakersLocal

#makerslocal Photobooth Mark II

Nathan — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:00:14 +0000

The week leading up to Outerz0ne was crazy. We spent many hours working on the new Photobooth. Big thanks to Tim for a crazy design which I firmly believe he sold his sole to Satan for. Bob was awesome, he spend many hours putting the thing together. Venkat did a great job on the new software. Greg, Scott, Justin and I’m sure a few others also helped get this project done.

We had planned to leave Thursday night for Outerz0ne, but as the week rolled forward, it started looking like Thursday night might be a work night for everyone involved. Indeed it was, we worked late into the night, then got up Friday and continued to work. We finally finished working on the thing at about 6pm. Once it was done, we promptly tore it down, packed it up and stuffed it into the car. Then raced to Outerz0ne.

This was a great project to work on, and I believe it is far better than the first one. This photobooth actually breaks down and folds up under the seat. The only components that do not fit are the computer and curtains, but I think we have enough room under the seat for the curtains. There are a few areas which need improvement, but these are things that can be taken care of fairly easily, and hopefully can be done right without being rushed.

Below are pictures taken while building was taken place, and here is the link to the pictures the Photobooth took from Outerz0ne 5

Tags: Con, MakersLocal, Outerz0ne, Photobooth, Projects

Makers Local 256 Field Trip to Inergi

Nathan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:30:59 +0000

A couple weeks ago we took a field trip to across the road to Inergi. They invited us over to take a look around and see what they do. The place is huge. They have 3 acres under roof. We only checked out a few places in the building, but all of them were awesome. They make some cool things over there. So if you ever need to have some fast prototyping done, they are the place in town to go to. Here are a few pics I took while we walked around.

Tags: Field Trip, MakersLocal

Pics from Makers Local Open House 11-15-08

Nathan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:02:21 +0000

Saturday we had a Open House / Swap Meet at the shop. I think everything went great. We had about 30 people show up and hang out for a while. Brian made a bunch of t-shirts and we ended up with a bunch of stuff. I think we will be going through it all for a while to come. Thank you everyone that came out, we hope to do this again. Here are some pics I was able to take.

Tags: MakersLocal, Open House