Dale Dougherty, Make Magazine publisher did this nice Ted talk on Makers. If you are ever looking for a good way to tell people what LVL1 is all about, have them watch this video. BTW, Dale is from Louisville and visited our Hackerspace last summer.

We are having a Car-B-Gone workshop at the space this afternoon. Sorry we did not get the Eventbright announcement up. Just show up to build your very own Car-B-Gone tonight at 8-ish. If you do not know what a Car-B-Gone is… it is another fine Mitch Altman project. Read about it here

Following the Car-B-Gone workshop will be the ever popular Beer-B-Gone workshop. Hope to see everyone there.

Brian

A son of one of LVL1′s members got a little too close to a bandsaw over the Christmas break… Remember, safety first! But what started as a lesson on what *not* to do (i.e. don’t be too cavalier with a bandsaw) turned into a nice lesson on DIY stitches. Why would you stitch yourself up? His explanation was “something something waiting rooms something something scar tissue.”

Remember if you can’t fix your body, you don’t own your body.

Just in time for the holidays! Build a small & simple, but very powerful USB charger for your iPod, iPhone, mp3 player, camera, cell phone, and just about any other gadget you can plug into a USB port to charge! Perfect holiday gift! Only $35 – cheap!

Sign up for the class here: http://wiki.lvl1.org/MintiBoost

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

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 Monday Sept 20th we’re starting a Louisville Soundbuilder’s group that will be meeting every other Monday. We meet to talk shop about analog and digital synthesizers, circuit-bending, electronic noisemakers, computer music, etc. You are encouraged to bring equipment and show off some sounds. The focus is DIY and is a great resource for people that want to learn how to get started.

This first meeting will feature demonstrations from Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo, Elephant 6, et al. He will be demonstrating his Teletron, a hacked Mindflex device for completely mind controlled synthesis experimentation. Some video here:

I will be demonstrating my homebuilt analog synthesizers, including exotic interfaces like the Klee sequencer (a bit shifted analog sequencer) and some experimentations in isomorphic keyboard design.

The meeting is at 8pm sharp, free to anyone who wants to attend, learn and contribute.
Help out by promoting the facebook event page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127615557287197&ref=ts

I just finished building the “Brown Sound In A Box 2″ distortion pedal. I’m not a professional by any means but it was a fun project.

TOP

GUTS

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leIS6up0dtQ

[Les Paul Studio / Marshall 2x12 Combo amp]

This past weekend I experimented with dyeing some etched PCBs. I used Rit dye easily found in grocery stores. It was quick and dirty. I just boiled some water, mixed in a heavy concentration of black dye and let it sit for a couple of hours.



The dye worked well enough. Rather than just soaking in a cooling dye, I should have been applying a constant heat and agitating the solution in order to get a darker saturation. And when removing flux after soldering the board, dye came off as well. But in general this is a promising way to make nicer looking DIY PCB boards in the future.