Wednesday was the day we finally got together and started the tedious process of mastering microcontrollers.  What began with just some simple LED illumination evolved and progressed throughout the evening.  In the end we had individually, but collectively, written programs for interpreting analog inputs, displaying binary values, and performing counting and reset operations.  The evening was pretty fulfilling for some less experienced members and refreshing for the remainder.  Another microcontroller experiementation session is being planned for the near future.

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This video is in response to the one posted here, where a Mr. Riley Porter moves a 35 pound dumbbell with his CNC.  We decided to try to trump his CNC’s weight-moving ability by pushing our machine to lift and move first 45, then 55 and finally 65 pounds!  We wanted to continue with the weight increases, but did not have a safe way to attach more weight to the Z-axis assembly.  Our CNC build is turning out to be quite the beast.  Now all it needs is a catchy name…

The CNC machine’s construction has advanced to the point where we can begin to cut items.  Being a bunch of teenagers trapped in adult bodies, someone decided that we should cut a throwing star from sheet aluminum.  One copy of CamBam and 6 minutes later and the star was ready to be cut!  After a few adjustments and a bit snapped in half from being dragged through the metal too fast, the cutting was underway.  The star took about 10 minutes to cut and was an excellent first attempt at metal production.  The next step is to use the CNC to cut more precise parts for itself and help bring about the Robot Armageddon.   Special thanks to our newest sponsor, CamBam, for supplying us with a free copy of their most excellent software.  Note: The soundtrack to this video may change at any time as we are experimenting with YouTube’s AudioSwap feature.

Very quick video documenting our Robonova’s first steps, warts and all…  A bit rough since he has yet to be properly calibrated or balanced and his battery pack is still hanging off of his back.

HaHa member bsom acquired a Robonova-1 bi-ped robot kit for his day job and brought it to the space for us to assemble, configure and generally play with.  So far, the robot is about 85% done, requiring its wires to be properly tucked and its motors to be centered.  Then we can dig in and learn some hardcore RoboBasic.   Videos of the finished bot will be posted once he is up and running.

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A while ago, HaHa member bsom introduced us to non-Newtonian fluids and the idea of using cornstarch and water in conjunction with a speaker/amp and function generator to produce what he called a “Cornstarch Monster.”  The video below is an excellent representation of what can be done with this simple yet captivating recipe.

Also, keep an eye on our new YouTube Channel, available here, for more videos, tutorials and technology dissections.

Tonight our CNC showed signs of life. We attached a pen and drew images of circuits, skulls, and Road Runner. The CNC Router was the first project we started working on and it has taken many nights of team work to get to this point. There is still a lot more to do. We started working on the Z-Axis tonight and once that is finished we will have to take most of the machine apart and make fine adjustments to make it as precise as possible. After that there is the long process of mastering the 3D Software.

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I know I’m bad with these photo updates. Mostly because I am having too much fun at the Hackerspace that I just forget to take photos. I took a lot more photos than these but it turns out that my flash card was bad and my camera never let me know. I’ll try to recover those images later.

So, last week we finished building the Y axis for our CNC project and we talked about launching a payload into near space. Before that we built a Corstarch Monster for Electronica Fest and we were messing with some PIC kits (microncontrollers) using speakers and LCDs as outputs. Now that I have a new phone which actually takes decent photos (the above were taken with my Palm Pre) I will probably be able to share more of our hackerspace with those of you who don’t like to leave your computer chair.

First, we would like to thank Loyala College in Maryland for their generous donation of a IBM Laptop.

We were all very excited to learn that the IBM laptop came with a built in parallel port. However, after a few hours of hacking and puting the stepper motor on the CNC we found out that the laptops port is not compatible with our CNC. So we will need to resort to a desktop for now. We loaded the laptop with Windows and Linux and I’m sure we will find a million other uses for it.

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I could not help but smile really big during yesterdays meeting. There was the real feeling of a hackerspace with Miles building a prop gun, all of us pitching in on the CNC Machine and a few of us tearing into a work related project of mine. Then to top it all off Logan from Baltimore SDIY stoped by and demonstrated his projects. We all had a great time.

Now we need to take th CNC apart and paint it.

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