Open Tech Space

There is an article in the Oregonian on ‘tool libraries’, where people can check out tools for free. There are two already open in Portland, with a third one opening soon, would would mean that Portland will have more tool libraries than any other city in the US.

We have a brand new digital scope now in the electronics lab at TechShop. Many thanks to Tektronix for the donation, and to Monty Goodson and Bart Massey for making the donation happen.

The scope is a MSO2024 4-channel 200MHz 1Gsps digital oscilloscope and
logic analyzer. More info at http://www.tek.com/products/oscilloscopes/mso2000/

Please feel free to use the scope, but we ask you to treat it nicely. Especially the probes, which are expensive and somewhat delicate. We advise you to leave them on the 10x setting unless you are absolutely sure you need the higher sensitivity — this will help avoid frying the scope inputs.

Workshop: circuit design for fabrication (TechShop Dec 5, 1-5pm $35)

As many of you may be aware Laen from dorkbotpdx has been putting together a group ordering process for circuit board fabrications somewhat like SparkFun’s BatchPCB service except with less time lag and the fabrication is done in the USA.

To introduce you to the tools needed to create circuit boards for this service (and most other circuit board services) we are presenting a workshop teaching you how to design a circuit board using Eagle PCB with an emphasis on getting designs that can be fabricated.

Workshop Time and Location

* December 5th through OpenTechSpace at Techshop (10100 SW Allen Blvd., Beaverton, OR 97005) (Google Calendar Link)

Follow-up Session:

A follow-up session will be offered on December 6th, 1pm-5pm at PNCA (NW 12th and Johnson, room 205), to go over your designs, help with any problems, and getting them ready for submission for fabrication.

Fabrication included

Signing up for the class gets you three copies of your (up to 2 square inch) design in the December order. Designs submitted by the 10th of December will be included in this months PCB run and can be picked up at the meeting on the 21st (or mailed).

Topics covered.

• Creating schematics
• Organizing your files and libraries.
• Laying out your parts effectively.
• Routing your signals
• Creating / finding parts that you need.
• Documenting your board in the silkscreen
• Using DRUs to design for a specific board fabricator
• Using the ERC to check your designs for problems

What you will need

You should have some basic understanding of circuits but it is not critical You will need to bring a laptop which is capable of running eagle (linux,windows or mac — see http://www.cadsoft.de/info.htm). The class is $35 and is limited to 30 so it is best to reserve a space in the class. Please rsvp at http://tempusdictum.com/tdproducts.html (eagle for fabrication)

The Portland Area Robotics Society is now having meetings every other Monday at TechShop. These are in addition to their normal monthly meetings. The idea is to have a more informal meeting where people can work on projects.

The second such meeting was tonight, and we discussed doing a group project together. We seem to have settled on the idea of building some “swarm robots” — robots that individually obey simple rules but in a group are able to perform some larger function. There is an example of this at http://swarmrobot.org

Have you ever wanted to build your own microcontroller and learn how to run a program on it?

OpenTechSpace, TechShop, and Tempus Dictum present an “Arduino Cult Induction” Workshop at TechShop on Sunday, October 11 2009, from 1 to 5 pm.
The cost of the workshop is $35, and includes all the parts you will need.
TechShop is at 10100 SW Allen Blvd, Beaverton (http://portlandtechshop.com/index.php/about-us)

In this workshop, you will build a complete and functional Arduino-compatible micro-controller (Dorkboard), and will upload and run a program on it. The Arduino development environment is very popular with artists and other creative people, and can be built and programmed even if you have little hardware or software experience.

To sign up for the class, go to http://tempusdictum.com/tdproducts.html
and purchase the “Cult Induction 11 October Tech Shop Session” workshop
If you have any problems, email Don Davis – don@tempusdictum.com

You will need to bring the following:

• A laptop (Mac, Windows, or Linux, although there are some problems with the latter)
• A USB cable (standard A->B type — like http://www.cablewholesale.com/specs/usb-cable/10u2-02203.htm)
• A soldering iron (20-30 watt pencil type) and solder
• Wire cutters (dikes)

Other tools that can be helpful, but are not strictly necessary, include tweezers, a magnifying glass / helping hands, wire stripper, needle nose nosed pliers or small hemostats (locking forceps), etc.

You can find most of these things at Harbor Freight, Radio Shack, or most hardware stores.

You will be supplied with:

• A Benito USB to serial programmer (see http://www.dorkbotpdx.org/blog/feurig/benito_7_the_next_big_thing)
• A Dorkboard kit (see http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/dorkboard)
• An introduction to the Arduino and microcontrollers in an artists setting
• Help when you need it
• The knowledge that what you built works!

For more information on the workshop, see http://www.dorkbotpdx.org/workshop/arduino/cult_induction_rev4
For more information about the Dorkboard, see http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/dorkboard
For more information about Arduino, see http://www.arduino.cc/
For more information about TechShop, see http://portlandtechshop.com
For more information about OpenTechSpace, see http://groups.google.com/group/open-tech-space or http://opentechspace.org
To find like-minded and helpful people, see http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/meetings and http://www.portlandrobotics.org/

Note that this Workshop is identical to the popular Arduino Cult Induction that has been held at PNCA.

Open Tech Space has a new space at TechShop! This new room is set up with tables and whiteboards. It can be used for workshops and classes, but what we are really hoping for is for it to be used for hacking sessions, code sprints, and other informal meetings. If you would like to hold an informal meeting there, just let us know.

It will also be used for the new mobile application lab that we are just starting to put together to help people build applications for mobile phones. If you would like to help with that, contact John Roberts at hacksoft@opentechspace.org

We have some really comfortable chairs for the new space, which were donated by Qualcomm. They also donated the whiteboards, as well as some stacking chairs that are being used in the TechShop classroom.

Here are some photos of the new space:

We need a name for the new space, and I’m thinking of calling it the “hack hut” (short for Akbar & Jeff’s Hack Hut — Where the Elite Meet to Greet, Tweet, and Complete Neat Feats).

Willamette Week did a story on TechShop, including a quote from yours truly:

http://wweek.com/editorial/3529/12608/

Fun article, worth a read.

Today was the official unofficial opening of TechShop in Beaverton (http://portlandtechshop.com/). They have already been teaching some classes, and even though they only have about half of all the tools and equipment they hope to have, they decided to officially unofficially open. They are continuing the deal where if you join now, not only do you get a discount, but your membership doesn’t start ticking until they officially officially open! Already they have a fantastic woodshop, welding equipment, some metal shop stuff, and have recently added a sewing and fabric arts area. We have started adding tools to the electronics lab, including some soldering stations, a digital oscilloscope, and have received several donations from people of parts and components. About the only thing we need to start teaching classes is some comfortable stools to sit on (we have plenty of comfortable chairs, but they are a little low for our fantastic workbenches).

Busy week! We got the electronics lab organized on Tuesday, with the benches in place and power run to almost all of the benches. We got our first donations of tools and parts the same day as well. On Wednesday, we gave a tour of TechSpace and the electronics lab to a bunch of people who came over after Lunch 2.0 at OTBC and people told me they really enjoyed it. Thursday, we got some things from Tektronix, and will be getting more stuff from them.

As of now, the space is actually usable, with a few tools (more coming soon), a soldering station, two scopes, several cabinets full of parts, a magnifying lamp, several cabinets full of parts, and a couple of boxes of random useful things (including a bunch of Legos).

You can see photos here: http://leler.com/gallery/v/lunch2/P1156086.JPG.html

To receive announcements for Open Tech Space, please subscribe to our Google Group
http://groups.google.com/group/open-tech-space/