Good news!

After their grand opening last week, KWartzLab is buzzing with action. Gus and DW are inviting makers of all stripes to their TON (Tuesday Open Night) tomorrow night. Bring your own tools and a project to work on from 7:00 - 10:00PM.

More details here: http://kwartzlab.ca/events/2009-10-06/tuesday-open-night-ton-dw-gus

This is a great way to get to know what the space is like, meet other makers and have a good time building something in the presence of other makers.

Actually, all of Cafka's (http://www.cafka.org/) Veracity project (http://web.mac.com/ringrob/VERACITY_VISITORS_GUIDE/HOME.html) sounds cool, but this is especially interesting:

http://web.mac.com/ringrob/VERACITY_VISITORS_GUIDE/PROJECTS/Entries/2009/7/3_EYE_WRITER.html

Graffiti Research Lab’s motto is “Dedicated to outfitting graffiti artists with open source technologies for urban communication.”  Eye Writer is the next generation of their Laser Tag system, which first gained them international notoriety.  Using an eye-tracking interface, the user is able to write or draw on a building’s surface simply by looking at it.  Eye Writer was first developed as a tool to allow the legendary L.A. graffiti artist Tempt, who has been paralyzed by ALS, to continue tagging.  Eye Writer was developed by the Graffiti Research Lab with openFrameworks and the Ebeling Group.
 

Performances will take place September 18, 19, 20, 22 & 23 at 19:30 in the Civic Square at Kitchener City Hall. 
 

Hey everyone (who still visits this site),

Voting started today on the SINGER Kids Crafts Contest.  I have one entry in the contest, the Thingamaplush Robot.  I'm fairly sure it will do well, but I'm always nervous about these things.  I'd love to get your vote if you're a member of Instructables!  Of course, you may vote as many times as you like, so if you see other entries that you like please vote for them, too.

Thanks!

Today at work I fixed a board by blowing on it.

I'd been trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with it.  I could see no reason why it was failing, but despite all my hours of work I just couldn't pin it down.  I'd swapped parts and tested continuity between at least 100 points.  For some reason I decided that I ought to hit it with some compressed air, and once I did that, it started working!!  Some thing conductive must have shorted some pins.

So there you have it.  When you're working with electronics, inspect and clean up debris as you work.  Keep your work area clean.  And, remember Occam's Razor.

Hey there, I've heard some folks are having problems finding the kwartzlab lists (announce and discuss).. the only way to get on those lists is to create an account on the kwartzlab website, and set your mailing list preferences. MakeKW user accounts aren't linked over there. If you're a member, send an e-mail to either Steph or myself (ben [at] kwartzlab.ca) with your username, and we'll bump it up to member status.

The announce list is mandatory, but the discuss list is currently opt-in, so if you have an account but aren't getting discuss messages, then you may want to check out your mailing list prefs over there ;)

Just a heads-up!

I just came across this video of a balance bot, and I was impressed....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LUpN9PZ84g&feature=player_embedded

I didn't get the grand prize, but I did win a sweet Thingamakit from Bleep Labs for my Laser Synth-Guitar.

See all the winners here:  http://www.instructables.com/id/Art-of-Sound-Contest-Winners/

And yes, I will certainly bring in my thingamakit to show off once it arrives and is built.  :)

Hey, don't just watch the video tour of kwartzlab's new home, come on over to my kwartzlab blog and check out stills from our cleanup-meetup.  Oh yeah, and join us!  Time's a wastin' for getting in on a founding membership which comes with a leap-of-faith key right out of the gate and a warm fuzzing feeling inside when you discover you've found your people.

DW

Where: Barleyworks Board Room @ Huether Hotel
When: Thursday August 20th @ 7:00pm

Hey folks, we've got another social meetup on the books! Once again we're getting together to share ideas, show off projects and have a pint or two in good company. Gus has talked about doing a 'Howto' theme where we bring making-related books. If you have a favourite 'how-to' book, magazine or manual, bring it along! Alex will be bringing out her digital sewing machine as well.

The kind folks at the Huether have asked for a better idea on how many people are attending (so they can allocate people, etc). If you're coming out, please RSVP by adding a comment to this post, or e-mail me directly (ben [at] generik.ca).

Hope to see ya there!

Location Details: Huether Hotel Board Room (upstairs at Barleyworks) - 59 King Street North, Waterloo (google maps)

a few pics over at the new blog on kwartzlab...

Hi everyone,

This is sort of a two-part post.  I'd like to describe a simple little project that has been simmering on my back burner for a while, but that I'd like to resurrect.  I'd also like to suggest offering it as a kit that we could sell (hopefully, one of many!) to help fund the Hackerspace.

The project is a simple clock, that displays the time in a matrix of 4 by 9 LEDs.  They are arranged as four colums of 9 LEDs each.  Each column corresponds to a time digit - hour10s, hour1s, minute10s, minute1s.  A separate LED blinks to show seconds.  The whole thing runs on a single ATTiny2313.  Perhaps you saw me show it off at the very first Arduino meeting.

Anyway, I think this would make a great kit to sell, and to offer as a soldering excercise.  I estimate the cost wold be under $20 in parts.  Everything is through-hole and easy to build with only basic soldering expertise.

Why not start today?  Well, the software needs work.  My prototype tells the time just fine, but it needs a bit more flash!  Right now the LEDs just turn on and off during time transitions.  I think it would be great if they "fell" from the top when incrementing, and drained through the bottom when transitioning from 9 to 0.  That'll take some programming skill that I don't yet have.  Is anyone willing to pick up where I left off?  I'm perfectly willing to handle all the hardware stuff, from supplying materials to ordering PCBs from China (and of course assembly).  Let me know and we can meet up sometime to work on it.

- Jeff

P.S. Oh, one more thing.  Once it's done we could write up an Instructable to help promote it!  I'd suggest registering "KWArtzLab" as a usename for this purpose.

Hey everyone,

Check out this project on DIYAudio.com:  http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59357&perpage=...

It's a bleeding-edge DAC and headphone amplifier.  It's designed to plug into a TOSLINK (optical) or digital coax connection, and sounds so good you'll hear compression artifacts in anything but well-mastered CDs and DVD-Audio.  How do I know?  Well, someone at my work built one and contributed to later revisions, and says that it's The Best Evar (my words, not his!)

So anyway, I was thinking of building one or two myself (one as a gift).  The trouble is that single boards are expensive, but if you buy a few then the total price goes down.  Same goes for parts, though not quite as dramatically.

Does anyone want to build one, too?  You'll need some elite surface mount soldering skills, though I can help with that if you don't want to ruin the board or parts.  Total cost would be about $250.

A great turnout at Barley Works last night!

I just received a jtag from virtualvillage on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310156711561

I'm beginning to suspect that this company maybe a bit shady, but I could be wrong. The hardware itself looks fine. I opened it up and there is nice traces and what looks like some heavy duty IC's in there.

But the software on the other hand....

This is what is on the CD

• ULINK-CD
  • mkd320.exe uVision3 Setup KEIL
  • MKD322a.exe uVision3 Setup KEIL
  • MDK323b.exe uVision3 Setup KEIL
  • ULINK UG.pdf
  • bin
    • UL2ARM_RDI.dll
    • UL2ARM_ULINK1.dll
    • UL2CM3_ULINK1.dll
  • PIC
    • 01.JPG
    • 02.JPG
    • 03.JPG
  • LIC
    • KEIL_Lic.exe
  • windows
    • inf
      • keilul.inf
    • system32
      • FTCJTAG.dll
      • drivers
        • FTCJTAG.dll
        • keilul.sys

What has me worried is the KEIL_Lic.exe which when I run says it's a keygen from my friends at EDGE....

Has anyone delt with KEIL and is this normal?  All I want is the debugger that will go with my system. It looks like this is a whole development system.

Now that we're confirmed for location, here's the updated info for Thursday's meetup:

What: Yet Another General Meetup / Show & Tell

When: Thursday August 6th @ 7:00pm
Where: Huether Hotel (The Board Room, top floor of Barleyworks)

I would like to see if more people are interested in doing quick presentations on what they've been working on. Also, even if you don't have a physical project you're working on, tell us about something else you're cooking up!

RSVP back by commenting to this post, or reply to the thread on the discuss list and let's see if we can make this an even bigger meetup than the last.

Hope to see ya there!

I've moved my blog to KWartzlab's newly launched site.  C'mon over and check out the thing I wrote about running your own meetup.

DW

Hi everyone!  I've got great news!  My son, Zander, was born yesterday at 4:26pm.  Big sister Kieran is very excited!  He weighed in at 9 pounds 5 ounces.  Mom and baby are still at the hospital resting and waiting for test results.

He and his sister are far and away the best things I've ever made.  ;)

In talking with people about KWartzLab, I'm increasingly getting questions on the difference between KWartzLab and Make:KW.  Here's a crack at an explanation...

It's official: KWartzLab is incorporated!  Just got the papers back from the gov on Wednesday.  This lets us move forward on all fronts: bank accounts, insurance, leases, ...

We wasted no time in calling the first official board meeting.  Click through for deets...