Junk independence day at hacklab again, Sunday March 22nd!  2-7pm. Bring your e-waste, root around in other people e-waste, and walk home with new treasure!  On previous junk independence days people have gone home with wonderful treasures like a 1TB HD, an iPod touch, a decent desktop computer, a classic Macintosh, and various pieces for projects… Anyway, come with your e-waste and have some fun at hacklab!   All e-waste will be responsibly disposed of by Revolution Recycling, they are scheduled to pickup stuff at hacklab on Monday March 23rd.  Thanks Revolution!

RSVP on facebook!

Come celebrate Pi Day (March 14th, 3/14, 3.14…) at hacklab! Bring a pie and get in free, otherwise admission is $10/person at the door. All types of Pie welcome – e.g. Shepherds pie, quiche, Australian meat pie, and of course fruit pies, lemon meringue, etc. We’ll be baking pies starting at 1:59pm if you want to join that. Main party starts at 6pm (dinner will be pies, of course!). Bring friends and feast. BYOB, stay tuned for more details.

This will also be a Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality wrap party, one of many dozens occurring all over the world on Pi Day. For those who don’t know it, you can read it in full at hpmor.com. It’s a fanfic of Harry Potter raised in a scientific household. Totally awesome read. The author will be posting the final chapters over the next month, so we’ll be celebrating the end of the story. (There are 100+ chapters, so if you haven’t started, you might still be able to catch up.) We might share favourite passages or try to experiment with magic ourselves. :-)

On the other hand, even if you’re not an HPMOR fan, there’ll be pie, and that’s a good enough reason to come and have fun!

Raspberry pi: getting started with physical computing – Sun Feb 15th 2-5pm, in the hacklab classroom.

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/raspberry-pi-workshop-getting-started-with-physical-computing-tickets-15644682667

Getting started with Raspberry Pi physical computing workshop. All are welcome. We will show you how to start working with Raspberry Pi and get it to interact with the physical world. This will include setting up the Pi, connecting some electronic components to it and doing a “Hello World” project.

Please bring a laptop and a Pi if you have one, we will have a number of them provided, but probably not enough for everyone. You can buy one at Creatron at 255 College Street or online at http://canada.newark.com . The new version of Pi just came out, but is still on backorder at Newark(element14), so it will be a dilemma for you – get an “older” B+ or wait for new Rpi2 :)

If you have any ideas for a project, bring it along with any components you might need and we will help you get started with that!

Finding Hacklab: We’re at Queen and Dufferin, NW corner, buzz unit #12.

A PWCY (pay what you can) donation of $10 is suggested. Nobody turned away for lack of funds.

http://hacklab-arduino-11.eventbrite.ca

Arduino Beginners Workshop. For total beginners. All are welcome. 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!
***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 at 255 College Street (or online, of course). The Arduino Uno is the recommended board for beginners, but any arduino will do if you have a more specialized project in mind.***
Finding Hacklab: We’re at Queen and Dufferin, NW corner, buzz unit #12.
A PWCY (pay what you can) donation of $10 is suggested. Nobody turned away for lack of funds.

cadsoft EAGLE workshop: Feb 9, 16 & 23
$free (donation to hacklab encouraged & appreciated)
https://hacklab-cadsoft-eagle.eventbrite.ca

Come learn CADsoft Eagle, “award winning software [that] offers user friendly, powerful and affordable solutions for PCB design, including Schematic Capture, Board Layout and Autorouter.” It’s used by many hobbyists thanks to the free version, which isn’t horribly crippled, and it’s used by Spark Fun, so many open source PCB designs are already available and easy to copy from! The tutorial will be in three parts, over three consecutive Mondays:

Monday February 9th: Schematic Capture. Taking your circuit schematic and laying it out in Eagle, including things like adding parts, wiring parts, and naming things. ERC electrical rule check.

Monday February 16th: PCB Layout. Including part placement and routing of signals. Trace thickness, autorouting, layers, and DRC design rule check.

Monday February 23th: CAM Processor, Ordering Boards & using the Parts Editor. Using the CAM processor to create Gerbers (the data files that all board houses accept). Quick review of some PCB making services. Creating a new part. Copying and editing an existing part. Library management.

Attendees should come to all three sessions, to get complete coverage of Eagle. So make sure you are available for all sessions before signing up. Please download and install Eagle before the first session.

The tutorial will be taught by Eric and Sen, we both have years of experience using Eagle to make PCBs for shipping products.

NOTE: the interface is confusing, you need only one ticket, just pick the first date from the dropdown, and you’ll be registered for all three dates of the event.

Hacklab will be hosting a weekend Open-House on Saturday December 20th, starting at 2pm and going until at least 6pm (but likely later). Come bring your curiosity, neat projects, your weird and crazy ideas and your awesome selves.  As always, our open-house is at 1266 Queen Street West, Unit 6.  Buzz our unit number at the door to be let in.

Any questions about this event can be directed to us via the Contact page.

Hope to see you there.  Happy hacking!

After countless design revisions, we’ve finished our Hacklab Indiegogo Plaque! See complete gallery on flickr. Thanks to everyone who supported our campaign, we raised over $7000 towards moving expenses, and everyone got some awesome swag! The plaque consists of 3 layers: a laser etched wooden base (wood cut and finished by our friends at Ultimate Workshop), a laser-etched acrylic map of the space, and a third acrylic layer highlighting the awesome skylights and treehouse areas in the space. Hex spacers provide the distance between layers. The vertical parts of the plaque also create this super cool shadow effect when you move lights around! Thanks to Khuyen Forsythe for the design work, MakeWorks for use of their laser cutter (which is super fast at etching), and Martin Tomsky for the idea of laser-cut layering.

That’s right, our Grand Re-opening Party is TONIGHT, Friday Oct 24 2014 8pm-late! We’ve got some epic lighting installed in the classroom, there will be a DJ, and of course our usual geek-welcome! Tours provided. BYOB.

Our address is 1266 Queen Street West, Suite #6. We’re just west of Dufferin on Queen Street, on the north side. Buzz unit #6 and we’ll let you in.

Hope to see you all soon!

Come one come all, hacklab has moved and we’re having a party to celebrate our grand re-opening! We’re in a much larger space on Queen at Dufferin, where we’re in the process of building out all kinds of awesome stuff, including a shop, a darkroom, a lab, a kitchen, and a classroom space! We’ll have the classroom setup as a party space, with a DJ. Tours of the space will be given! Everyone is welcome, you do not have to be a member to attend. BYOB, and also bring friends!

What: Hacklab Grand Re-Opening Party

When: Friday October 24th, 8pm-late

Where: Hacklab 2.0, 1266 Queen Street West, Suite #6. Queen just west of Dufferin on the north side.

Why: Our new digs are awesome and you need to come see them!

We’re also open every Tuesday evening 5:30pm-10pm for our open house, as usual.

You can RSVP on our eventbrite if you want (free admission).

As previously announced, hacklab will be moving to new much larger digs at 1266 Queen Street West. We’re interested to find out what people who are not currently members of the space would like to see us have. Here’s a quick 2 minute survey you can take to have your say! Totally anonymous, feel free to express yourself.

Please send a link to anyone you think would be interested in hacklab!