http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1000984973

The LVL1 Hackerspace will be hosting a Surface Mount Soldering

Workshop on Saturday, November 20th, 2010 from 1 to 5pm.  This
workshop will teach you the basics of soldering surface mount
components with a standard soldering iron, using a standard soldering
iron tip.   You’ll be given the tools required to build your own
surface mount projects, and during the workshop, you’ll work on
assembling your own Open Balloon CPU (A design of LVL1′s own White
Star Balloon Team).  You’ll solder 0805 Resistors and Capacitors, 1206
LEDs, and TQFP Microcontrollers, among others.  You’ll learn about the
packages  which can be hand soldered, and the packages which cannot,
along with the techniques required to assemble a working board.

At the end of the workshop, you’ll walk out with the knowledge and
skills required to build any reasonable surface mount project, along
with your own Open Balloon CPU.  These tools include small-gauge
solder, flux, non-magnetic tweezers, and a magnifying loupe.  The Open
Balloon CPU you’ll be assembling is a VERY general purpose sensor
platform, which can be used for a variety of projects which aren’t
related to Balloons or UAVs whatsoever.  Aside from the form factor of
the PCB, everything about the electronics design is generalized for
whatever development the user sees fit.  We will be outfitting the
Balloon CPU with a temperature sensor and Microcontroller, along with
all the passive components required to burn code onto the chip.  If
desired, workshop attendees may add additional sensors (a Real Time
Clock and/or a Barometer) for additional cost.

If you can read newsprint, and have a reasonably steady hand, you can
solder surface mount components!  We will also be doing demonstrations
of hot-air soldering and hotplate reflow soldering, to provide a small
taste of even more advanced soldering techniques.  We can provide
soldering irons, but if you would prefer to bring your own, feel free.
We also recommend you bring a laptop.  If you’ve got an FTDI cable
and AVR programmer, you can start hacking at your balloon CPU
immediately!

For a preview of the skills we’ll be teaching, watch this Youtube
video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NN7UGWYmBY

Note:  If we do not fill at least 12 seats by November 10th, 2010, the
workshop will be cancelled, and all tickets will be refunded.  Sign up
early, and sign up often!  Any questions, feel free to send them to
bradluyster (at) gmail.com

Sign up early, and sign up often!  Seating is limited.  Buy tickets at eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1000984973

This is just a reminder to everyone that Denis Oudard, a Project Manager from Solar Energy Solutions, will be at the space this Sunday Oct. 17th at 6PM to give a presentation about solar power systems. He will be hanging around to answer any questions that you may have about grid tied and standalone alternative energy setups, so if you’ve ever thought about a setup like this for your home or business, this would be a great time to ask questions and get some free answers.

I hope everyone can make it!

See you all on Sunday!

http://www.solar-energy-solutions.com/

LVL1 and the IEEE Louisville Student Section are happy to announce that LVL1 will be hosting the University of Louisville IEEE and their soldering workshop.

This soldering workshop will take place at 1PM on October, 16th, at LVL1 (814 E. Broadway).  This workshop will bring in 15 Electrical Engineering students from the University, with 5 walk-in seats held for the LVL1 community.  These seats are first-come, first-serve, and the cost will be $10.

Students in this workshop will be soldering together a small variable frequency sound generator based on a 555 timer IC.  Students will learn basic thru-hole soldering skills, wiring components to perfboard.

The IEEE Louisville Student Section is a University Student Organization which serves as a professional and social network for Electrical Engineering students at the University of Louisville.

Denis Oudard, a project manager from Solar Energy Solutions in Crestwood, KY will be coming to LVL1 on Sunday, October 17th at 6PM to give a presentation about the various components of home solar energy systems.

This should be an interesting presentation for anyone interested in renewable energy systems.  I have asked Denis to show examples of Grid-Tied systems and Standalone systems, but if anyone has any other specific requests for the presenter, please feel free to email me and I will relay the message.

thenovicemonk@gmail.com

Circuit-bending rock band CMKT 4 will be in town for a workshop on contact mics. They manufacture and sell bottle cap contact mics and plan to show how they do it. Bring cash if you want to purchase materials.

From CMKT 4:

We are circuit-bending rock band CMKT 4. We manufacture and sell bottle cap contact mics. We teach workshops about the process we use to make our microphones.

We price the workshops at $15 per person, which includes materials and instruction. Additional DIY kits are available at $10 apiece. We’ll also have finished mics for sale. We encourage people to bring instruments to which to add a piezo pickup or they can make a stand-alone model for use on various instruments.

This weekend is filled with awesome events LVL1 is a part of.

Friday is Actor’s Theatre of Louisville rooftop concert. We are labeled as AWESOMENESS on the flyer. Several members of LVL1 will be showing off projects at the event. There will be bands, art, music and a cash bar on the roof of the Actor’s Theatre parking garage.

Saturday afternoon between 1pm and 5pm we will be hosting Mitch Altman and Jimmie Rodgers for their traveling electronics workshop. Mitch and Jimmie are currently touring Midwest hackerspaces, teaching electronics and soldering to anyone interested *for free*. Mitch is the inventor of the TV-B-Gone, Trip Glasses, a founder of Noisebridge in San Francisco, widely regarded as a pioneer of Virtual Reality and all around cool guy. Jimmie Rodgers is a full time hacker, maker and circuit bender. He sells kits for Open Heart v2.0, Atari Punk Console and LoL shield. Instruction is free and they are selling kits for attendees to build *at cost of materials* in the $10-$30 range. LVL1 is excited to have them!

And this Sunday night at the Rudyard Kipling I will be performing my homemade synthesizers in my band Nzambi.

Learn to Solder with Mitch Altman and Jimmie Rodgers

August 14, 1PM-5PM
Mitch Altman, founder of the hackerspace NoiseBridge in San Franciso, and Jimmie Rodgers, creator of the LOL Shield, will be holding a learn to solder class at LVL1! Come by to learn a useful and fun skill. Several kits will be available in the $15-$30 range for your building pleasure. This class is appropriate for all ages. Bring your kids with you and introduce them to the wonderful world of electronics.

We’ve got another workshop planned for August.   On Saturday, the 21st. LVL1 will be hosting the “Beyond Arduino” workshops, extending your knowledge of microcontrollers and physical computing.

Info and Registration

At least some knowledge of Arduino and/or C programming and elementary electronics is highly recommended as a prerequisite for this course.

We have two new workshops scheduled for August.

Saturday August 7th we’re doing another soldering your own Freeduino workshop.

Info and registration

And then…

Saturday August 28th we’re doing another TV-B-Gone soldering workshop.

Info and registration

I have put the materials on line for the Freeduino Spring Training class if you want to take a look. In these lessons you will find sample circuits for most of the things you might want to do with your Freeduino/Arduino. All of the code examples work and are debugged. Enjoy!

http://wiki.lvl1.org/Freediuino_Spring_Training

Brian