Pot 'o' Gold Lives!

Wed, 2010-01-20 19:22 — Royce

Last night the gang all pulled together and got a prototype Pot 'o' Gold electric parade float up and running! TomG, as usual had all the scrap pieces we needed to put together a sweet little ride...

Join Milwaukee Makerspace!

Looking For A Few Good 'Makers'

If you would like to join us in the structuring of the Milwaukee Makerspace please feel free to attend the weekly meeting held at the Culver's located at 1672 S 108th St, West Allis, WI. The meeting starts every Tuesday evening at 7 P.M. and lasts about 2 hours. If you want to stop by just once to listen in, or if you want to give your 2 cents we would be glad to have you join us to conceive, collaborate, and create. Hopefully you'll like what you hear and will decide to join us as a member!

Milwaukee Makerspace Is Now Accepting Members

If you would like to become a Founding Member of the Milwaukee Makerspace we now have a limited number of Founding Member positions available. The first 25 people to join will receive a $360 discount off the first years membership and only have to pay $600. Monthly memberships dues of $80 per month will start being accepted after the initial $12,000 goal is reached and the Makerspace officially opens its doors (A $100 security deposit is required for all memberships). To better understand the structure of the Milwaukee Makerspace we recommend reading the By-laws.

To become a member bring two original signed copies each of the following forms to the weekly meeting along with a check for $700.00 made payable to Milwaukee Makerspace Escrow Account.

Escrow Form
Membership Agreement
Member Release Form

The idea behind the Escrow account, as you'll seen in the form, is that if we don't get the $12,000 we need to open our doors by Jan 1, 2011, you get your money back. Our escrow account is being administered by attorney Stephanie S. Mares, J. D., S. C.

What is a Makerspace?

Check out the full Wikipedia page, but here is a nutshell summary: A Makerspace is a real (as opposed to virtual) place where people with common interests, usually in science, technology, or arts can meet, socialize and collaborate. A Makerspace can be viewed as a community lab, machine shop, or workshop where people of diverse backgrounds can come together to share resources and knowledge to build/make things.

Modern software, the Internet and economies of scale have all come together to allow ordinary people with a little bit of know-how to begin blurring the lines between manufacturer and consumer.  With some effort and the help of a growing community of makers it is possible for a lone individual to make things of amazing quality and functionality. Makerspaces that act as hubs for the maker community are popping up all over the world. We may be on the verge of the 'Age of the Amateur', as one blogger put it.

144V 700A Motor Controller

Sun, 2010-02-07 22:16 — ChrisC

So today Ben brought over the kit sent by PaulHolmes for their OpenReVolt open source motor controller. The plan is to build the controller and use it in my EV Motorcycle I've been working on for several months. Today I accomplished a few things. First, I got a brief soldering lesson from TomG; I've never done any small electronics, usually only car audio/misc. wiring. Second, I started soldering in some of the resistors and capacitors into the control board.

Access Control for MkeMakerspace!

Fri, 2010-02-05 18:45 — Royce

So TomG brought home a pretty sweet little haul from his recycling business last week. Some seven exterior access control units that featured a keypad, 2x16 LCD, an RFID reader,  and RS-232 link to talk to an interior unit that runs the door strike or whatever. One even had a track 1 magstripe reader! (The others have a slot but no reader).

Right Turn, Clyde! (Lettuce)

Fri, 2010-02-05 14:58 — Royce

Woo! After only a day the one of the sprouts has made a right turn towards the LEDs!!! You can see one sprig is still going towards the window still. It will be interesting to see if it turns as well.

Carrie's drop watering scheme, which is a few days old, may have helped as well.  Its an old flower holder/feeder. She worries that part of the problem may have been dryness from the hand watering we had been doing.

 

Pot 'o' Gold Build Session

Fri, 2010-02-05 13:54 — Royce
2010-02-09 00:00
America/Chicago

For those who were not at last Tues meetings, this is just a reminder that the next meeting (the 9th) is another build meeting!

This time we'll meet at TomG's warehouse at:
7760 S 6th St
Oak Creek, WI 53154

Electric Car Build Sunday 2/7/2010

Thu, 2010-02-04 20:43 — TomG
2010-02-06 10:00
2010-02-06 16:00
America/Chicago

Status:

Chirs's Bike:   Got the bike rolling with a controller from E-bay, but on the 2nd run the controller crapped out.

Motor Controller Test stand:  Worked on wiring the lights and building a controller test stand.

Ben's Controller: Trouble shot the controller

 

Plans:

Neon:   Install the temperature sensors and update the software on the monitor system

Chirs's Bike:   Wire Lights

LED Refresh - Indoor Lettuce

Thu, 2010-02-04 13:10 — Royce

Well, my lettuce sprouts are dying. Of the four that spouted only one is left and is growing... straight towards the window. So, either the led modules are not putting out enough light or the light is the wrong color. To address this I designed a new module with almost double the LED density. The board will have 28 ultra bright blues in addition to 30 ultra bright reds. The chains have been reorganized into 6 in a row for red and 4 in a row for blue with an increased supply voltage of 15 volts. That reduces my future battery supply options, but to heck with it. I want growing lettuce!

 

Li-Ion Protection / Softpower

Thu, 2010-01-28 23:55 — Royce

I got my softpower circuit to work finally. After numerous attempts and configurations using only a single N and single P channel I wound using two N-Channel FETs and one P-Channel. That's more than I wanted, but I have the FETs already in only two chips, so, the heck with it. It works!

Sprouting Lettuce!

Wed, 2010-01-06 14:10 — Royce

In very short order our lettuce has sprouted! It actually sprouted several days before we left for vacation on Dec 29th, less than 10 days after we planted.

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