One of our members brought in a CT scan of a Kinder Surprise to show the lab one Tuesday evening, during open house.
Some of those lucky enough to be present this night had the unique chance to see what a CT scan looks like and learn about the process. The picture below provides a glimpse at the detail these machines can capture as well as the difficulties that can be encountered when trying to navigate the UI in the attempt to see around a proverbial and literal corner.  The photo described as view from top down is the top view looking at the imaging data. It is a little hard to distinguish what shape it is what as well as where one object starts and another ends. While in the second image a reference object is present in the foreground aiding the ability to distinguish shapes present in the background of the image within the CT scan imaging. This is why I said those who were present were lucky on that Tuesday evening, we were able to learn about and were provided a glimpse into what medical professionals may see and some of the difficulties they encounter when using visualisation technologies to identify and distinguish between objects.

CT Scan. View from top down.

A CT scan of a Kinder Surprise. In the foreground can be seen the Plastic toy. Background can be seen the toy still in the Kinder Egg.

Hacklab Soldering Workshop (for beginners, free but RSVP required)
Monday December 16th, 2013, 7pm-9pm
Want to learn how circuits are assembled? We’ll show you how to solder, the process of using a hot iron to place parts permanently unto circuit boards. Many easy to assemble and cool kits to choose from!

During the summer we had two guests stop by on a Tuesday for help with a special project.
To build a Adam West era Bat Phone, which was to be a birthday gift.
So to make sure the gift was not spoiled I was a bit extra cautious and did not post any photos.

Now that the coast is hopefully clear I can post several build photos from the project.
Several HackLab members jumped in on this build aiding with the modification of the phone.
Teaching how to solder and assembling the PCB the guests bought for the project, and
of course quality assurance. Quality assurance in the sense of everyone who was
around once the build was done had to try out the finished build.

Replacing the Bulb with an LED.

Determining how the original guts of the phone are to be reused.

Assembling the sound shield for the Arduino.

Successful installed new LED.

Bat Phone all built and tested.

This weeks photo of the week comes in a pair,  I could not decide upon a single photo from last weeks Open house.

Preparing a lock to have its pins drilled out.

Marking where the pins are to be drilled out.

As we mentioned, hacklab gave a talk about 3D printing, hackerspaces and maker faires to the Toronto Reference Library a few weeks ago. It was extremely well received! We showed off 4 different 3D printers, actually operated one to print an object live (under a magnifying camera which streamed to the projector!), passed around a large number of 3D printed objects, and also demoed a variety of wearables projects. About 100 people saw the talk, and judging by how many stayed around to ask questions, and then how many came to hacklab to get a tour, we really made an impact! The library put a blog post about it themselves: An Evening with HackLab.TO at the Toronto Reference Library. I’ve also uploaded a variety of photos to my flickr. Thanks go out to Norm, Jammies and Rob for making this event a big success. We’re looking forward to continued conversations with Toronto Public Library about their plans to have something like “maker spaces” inside both the Toronto Reference Library and the new Fort York branch.

This years Mini Maker Faire in Toronto is over, but it was a grand success in my eyes.
People from all walks of life and age came out to explore, create, share ideas, and hack.
I believe the community just became a little bit bigger from this weekend, and a lot closer for those already in the community creating new connections and friendships.
I am hard at work combing through the photos, trying to decide what to do with them all.

I hope everyone had a blast this weekend and made memorys.
Here are a few moments I captured that I care to share.

This is the Droid you are looking for.

Lock-Pick Village

RGB LED strip Holds wonder.

Hacklab.TO will be giving a talk at the Toronto Reference Library tonight, Wednesday September 11th, at 6:30 till 8pm. We’ll be demoing our 3D printers and talking about the Maker Movement. The title of the talk is Technology and Creative Community Spaces: HackLab.TO, and it’ll be Eric Boyd, Rob Gilson & Alice Thorne speaking. The Toronto Reference Library is at 789 Yonge Street (just north of Bloor), the talk will be in the Atrium on the ground floor, just inside the security gates, you can’t miss it.

Yes that’s right, we’re moving next door to a larger space! Our Hacklab.to is moving indiegogo campaign is off to a great start, with $870 pledged only 2 hours in! We have awesome swag rewards including stickers, t-shirts and mugs. We’ll be using the money raised to help fully equip the space: everything from tables and chairs to new tools for the shop to kitchen essentials. Go pledge now!

This weeks post is split into two, the first half is about a bearing made at the lab this week. The second half below the 4 photos from this week you will read about my adventures in Alberta and how I relate them to the community. This week  Atrain decided to outdo me and print a better bearing. If you frequent Hacklab, you may have played with the bright green printed bearing that is stiff and does not seem to be effective. Both of these bearings are open source, the bearing design is generated in OpenSCAD and is personalized to your printer. You can find the design on Thingiverse. Well Atrain did just that, went ahead and printed a bearing out of orange ABS on the Cupcake printer. The Cupcake is the oldest 3D printer the lab has, and of late it has been receiving quite a lot of TLC and some upgrades causing it now provide the Ultimaker with a bit of a competition. See the photos to see the great print quality, and the bearings in action.

Close up of the bearing.

Atrain preparing the 3D bearing for a test spin.

The Bearing in action.

The bearing resting,

LED's behind a defusing medium.

I have been a little lax this month on posting new photos.  This has not been out of laziness, or the excuse there is simply no room on my camera. No, I have been away travelling around Alberta and volunteering at the annual  Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology conference (CITT). This year the conference was held in Calgary and while in town I took the chance when I had it to visit Protospace, Calgarys hacker space.                                 .

Moving Head fixture. This light on closer inspection is mainly built of stepper motors and controllers. The case contains atleast 9 stepper motors.

The CITT conference is an annual trade show for industry Representatives, Technicians, and more. Over the last few years of volunteering at the conference I have seen more DIY, RaspberryPI, Arduinos, 3D printing, and approaches to theatre discussed in a hacker and maker mindset. Theatre has always been a hacker and maker space, using little to no resources and lots of ingenuity, and usually little time.                          The diverse background of those in theatre, are possibly akin to those in the maker and hacker community.  Each person in a hackerspace has unique knowledge and skills. I forsee in the future theatre nestling or cuddling up to the maker community. The future should be an interesting one.