hacklab.to

Monday October 31st: Halloween, no workshop. Make your own costume and get out there and impress :-)

Monday November 7th 7-9pm: Arduino Projects Workshop
Got an Arduino-based project or idea for project that you’d like some help with? Come to our Arduino Projects Workshop! All levels welcome, from complete beginner to seasoned Arduino user, there is always more to learn. We’ll help each other out! If enough beginners show there may also be a guided lesson similar to the last workshop for total beginners. If only a few, Eric will individually help those people get started and work through a few basic examples. Bring your own laptop, Arduino (any kind will do) and USB cable. Instruction is free and open to the public, no RSVP is required.

Monday November 14th 7-9pm: Learn how to Solder
For total beginners, or those with some experience. Learn how to solder. Soldering is a method of assembling an electronic circuit using a hot iron and solder, a metal which liquefies at a fairly low temperature. Instruction by Eric is free, and we’ll have a variety of interesting kits on hand for you to purchase as learning templates. You’ll take your kit home at the end of the night, working, guaranteed! Instruction is free and open to the public, RSVP here (limit 10 people):
http://hacklabto-soldering.eventbrite.com/

Also, reminder that Monday October 24th (next week) is the T-shirt hacking workshop, bring your old T-shirts and make them fresh!

(updated: added the fact that both workshops are 7-9pm)

Come visit hacklab Sunday October 16th, 3pm onwards as we revive the “gamfternoon” gaming sessions of hacklab lore. There will be a copy of Settlers of Catan and Dominion (with Seaside expansion) on hand, or bring your games to share with others for the afternoon. The more the merrier, invite all your friends! Non-members totally welcome, the door will be unlocked. We’ll be repeating these gaming sessions every other week, so: Oct 16th, Oct 30th, Nov 13th, etc.

Free and open to the public.

Hacklab will be having a t-shirt hacking workshop on Monday October 24th, 7-9pm. We’ll be working with t-shirts and doing things like:

– laser cutting them, ala Diana Eng
– boxy to foxy, like this: Boxy to Foxy
– stylishly cut up your t-shirt, like this:
Cut up the Back of your T-shirt
Revamp an old t-shirt.

Or any other t-shirt hack, if you’re keen and you find some instructions, let’s try it out! Bring your old t-shirts and let’s make them fresh again!

We’ve received some queries for further details on the Arduino Workshop. So here’s some more info for those of you thinking of coming:

Arduino Total Beginners Workshop
Monday Sept 12th 2011, 7pm-9pm

You’ll need to bring your own Arduino (any kind will do) and a laptop on which you can install software. Also please bring any cables required to attach your Arduino to your laptop – typically this means an A to B USB cable. If you do not have an Arduino, you can purchase one at Creatron, only a few blocks away from hacklab at 255 College Street.

As before, all are welcome, no RSVP required. Eric will show you how to get started with Arduino, the super-friendly microcontroller platform that even artists love. We’ll cover getting the software installed and going, hooking up the Arduino, and a little bit of basic programming, via explanation of the Examples. You too can cut and paste your way to a working project!

The Hacklab.TO Monday Workshop series is starting again! Each Monday we will be offering a way to get started hacking. Learn some basic skills, meet some friends, and see what hacklab is all about!

Monday Sept 12th: Arduino Beginners Workshop. For total beginners. All are welcome, no RSVP required. Eric will show you how to get started with Arduino, the super-friendly microcontroller platform that even artists love. We’ll cover getting the software installed and going, hooking up the Arduino, and a little bit of basic programming, via explanation of the Examples. You too can cut and paste your way to a working project!

Monday Sept 19th: Learn how to Solder. For total beginners, or those with some experience. Learn how to solder, which is one method of assembling an electronic circuit. Instruction by Eric is free, and we’ll have a variety of interesting kits on hand for you to purchase as learning templates. You’ll take your kit home at the end of the night, working, guaranteed! RSVP here: http://hacklab-soldering.eventbrite.com/.

Monday Sept 26th: 3D Printing. For hacklab members only. Come learn how to use the makerbot from Christopher. Note: this is not a modeling workshop, you will not learn how to design 3D parts. You’ll learn how to use the Makerbot to actually print them. RSVP here: http://hacklab-3d-printing.eventbrite.com/.

Hope to see you at a workshop soon!

Come one, come all, to the 3rd Train Overlord Hackathon. Saturday August 6th, 1pm onwards.

The plan for the Hackathon is to put up way more track. With super awesome acrylic base. But if you’ve got passion to hack on the engine, the software, or whatever, come and hack! The more the merrier.

What is Train Overlord? It’s hacklab’s robotic denizen, our friendly robot overlord, who rules with an iron rail. (well, actually, the rails are aluminum, but the overlord doesn’t let that stop him). The Train Overlord is controlled wirelessly, there is a web interface, and you can download an app on your smart phone to control him directly from your phone. Our goal for the Train Overlord is to have him able to ferry empty cans from the desk to the recycle bins, on command. To that end, the Train Overlord is equipped with a winch mechanism. He also sports a laser, because what self-respecting robot doesn’t have a laser?!?

Anyway, come join us and hack on robots, no experience necessary! Saturday August 6th, 1pm onward.

Come visit hacklab this Sunday, 3pm onwards as we revive the “gamfternoon” gaming sessions of hacklab lore. There will be a copy of Settlers of Catan and Dominion on hand, or bring your games to share with others for the afternoon. The more the merrier, invite all your friends! Non-members totally welcome, the door will be unlocked. We’ll probably repeat gaming sessions on a regular basis, though dates and times may change.

Hacklab is going to have an awesome booth at the Toronto Mini Maker Faire, a celebration of maker culture:

Toronto Mini Maker Faire is the ultimate celebration of making, crafting, DIY-ing, tinkering, hacking and sharing. It’s a weekend where makers of all kinds will show off their projects and hold how-to workshops, with hands-on activities for all ages. Exhibits on display will include robots, laser cutting, letterpress printing, a 3D print gallery and kinetic sculptures.

At hacklab’s booth, you’ll be able to meet our members, and see some of our various projects including:

• 3D printers: Maker Bot, RepRap, Hacklab RepRap, lots of printed objects
• Soldering workshop! We have blinky LED kits available, learn how to solder!
• Train Overlord, our robot on rails (now with laser!)
• Buttons, stickers, fliers: get your Hacklab swag!
• Laser poster – information about our laser cutter
• Sensebridge: North Paw compass anklet, Heart Spark pendant, conductive thread
• HUGE Capacitor bank, good for making HDD platters jump (can crushing demo!)
• Slide show of Hacklab activities
• Some members have their own booths: GoodRobot (Alan) and Strich Labs (Sarah & Lisa)

Come visit us and support making stuff in Toronto!  The Mini Maker Faire is Saturday and Sunday this weekend, 10am-6pm, at the Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Ave, Toronto.

Eight people met tonight and we decided on a plan for hacklab’s new robot overlord. Some of us will be meeting at 9am to start the shopping expedition (first stop: George’s Trains). We’ll be reconvening at or before 1pm tomorrow (Saturday) in order to start construction.

The robot will be a gondola robot, hanging from train track suspended from the ceiling. It’ll have a winch, enabling it to raise and lower a load up and down. We envision an ultimate application being to carry empty pop cans from the desk to the recycling bins :-)

At least four different teams will work in parallel:
– suspended track construction
– gondola train mechanism
– motor control electronics & programming
– winch mechanism

Once the robot is moving, we have a super long list of cool features to add such as responding to light & sound, wireless control via ZigBee, pan & tilt laser “eye”, eyebrows for expression, R2D2 sound effects, etc. Hopefully we will get to some of that fun stuff tomorrow!

If you’re keen to learn about robotics or get put to work in any way on a robot, please show, we can totally find something for you to do! 1pm tomorrow, Saturday April 8th, 2011.

Come one, come all and help build a robotic denizen for hacklab! Announcing the first ever robot hackathon at hacklab. We’ll be gathering on Friday April 8th 7pm-onward to brainstorm and discuss what to do, and then all day Saturday April 9th to hack on our robot! Alan and I will be running the session, thanks also to Rob and Geordie who will hopefully be there as well.

The plan is basically to make a robot of some sort that will be a permanent resident of hacklab. A possible idea is to make a “spider bot” that would live above the bar area, roving back and forth on a clothes-line type of thing. It would be able to raise and lower itself from the line, and could have light and sound sensors to enable it to respond to it’s environment. It would be Arduino based in order to make it easily hackable. Bonus points if it can lower itself into a charging port when needed! But this is just one idea, if we can come up with something better that would awesome! We’re keen to have something fun to show off at the hacklab party later that month.

If you’re at all interested in robotics, please come! No experience necessary, we will be forming small teams so that more experienced people can help less experienced people learn, in the true spirit of hacklab. Stay for as little or as long as you like. If you’ve got stuff to donate to our cause (motors, batteries, electronics, etc.) that would be super awesome as well. The more stuff we get the less we will have to buy and the more things our robot will be able to do!

So mark your calendars for April 8th and 9th and prepare for your new hacklab robot overlords :-)