TED Talk: Massimo Banzi, the inventor of the Arduino, explains its uses.

I've got to say, the chair that tweets whenever someone farts, is brilliant! I can't wait to see what students at SCHS come up with, once we've got this stuff figured out.

Ultra Thin Silent Cooler

I just found this cooler. It is for next generation laptops and tablets, but I think that if anyone is looking into computers or tech that requires a fan or some sort of cooler, they may want to look into this.


http://www.extremetech.com/computing/143102-ge-develops-ultra-thin-almost-silent-cooler-for-next-gen-laptops-and-tablets

Makerspace Session: 12/11

Howto:  Capacitive Touch Sensors:

If you've got a pencil and paper, you've got a button.

We're going to need Arduinos, so if you have check one out, bring it to the meeting. Also, if you have any LEDs to share with the group, you can bring those too. Otherwise, we can always test over the serial monitor.




Note: Mr. Dittes will be picking up ~15 laptops today that were donated to the SCMakers. So no need to bring your own. We might ask for some help getting Linux onto those laptops.

The Arduino Cloud

I saw this online and just had to pass it along.

This thundercloud contains lights and speakers, all controlled by an Arduino processor.  It's an amazing work of art, absolutely amazing.

If you're interested in building something like this--or learning more about the project, Core77 has video and a link to the code that created it.

Proximity Sensor Controlled LED

Before today's meeting, we came up with the challenge (to a group of novices) to control a LED so that it turns on based on the distance of an object from a proximity sensor.

One verified technique:**

#include 

#define TRIGGER_PIN  11  
#define ECHO_PIN     12  
#define MAX_DISTANCE 200
int ledPin = 10;

NewPing sonar(TRIGGER_PIN, ECHO_PIN, MAX_DISTANCE);

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  delay(50);
  unsigned int uS = sonar.ping(); // Send ping, get ping time in microseconds (uS).
  Serial.print("Ping: ");
  float objDist = uS / US_ROUNDTRIP_CM;
  Serial.print(objDist); // Convert ping time to distance and print result (0 = outside set distance range, no ping echo)
  Serial.println("cm");
  if(objDist > 0.1 && objDist <= 25){
   digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); 
  }
  else{
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
  }
}

**The html formatting to post the code removes the library name from the #include line. The library name should follow the #include command.

Makerspace Session: 12/4

Howto: Soldering 9V Arduino Power Supplies
  -Soldering
  -Heatshrinking






Assembly should take about 45minutes.
SCmakerspace will provide: 10 - snap connectors, 10 - 2.1mm jacks, soldering irons

Meeting Announcement: 11/29

Agenda/Minutes:

• Outreach to possible members
• Community Bench Philosophy
• Soldering iron orders $5.00 for 30W soldering iron
• Project Idea Collection: Line Following Robot... 
• VW's transparent factory.

New Hardware

Student sets of Arduino's have arrived!

Each set contains:
Arduino Uno
USB Cable
AC adapter
Half-sized Breadboards.

To check out a set, see Mr. Caine.

To get started on your home computer, see the tutorials at ladyada.net.

Note: As a gift with purchase, adafruit shipped a Raspberry Pi along with the arduinos if anyone is more interested in dealing with OSs rather than physical computing.