This class teaches the basics of using a Linux system, starting with what Linux is, where it came from, and why you might want to use it. Continue reading
Linux Basics (August 2014)
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Networking Basics (July 2014)
Come out and learn basic computer networking skills!
The topics we’ll be covering include:
- Network addresses
- Basic home network design
- Physical interfaces
- Wireless networking
- Debugging basic networking problems
What have we been up to this summer?
It’s been a bit quiet around on the blog this summer, but that’s mostly because we’ve been pretty busy. I thought I’d put up an update on what’s been going on around the space.
Thursdays!
We’re always out at the space on Thursday nights for our public meeting, so drop on by! We had a lot of fun last week playing with some Tormach stepper drivers that Tom M. brought in, but every week brings something new and exciting.
Libraries!
We’ve been doing a lot with libraries all over the burbs. You might remember this thing that we built for Glen Ellyn Public Library back in May. In addition to that, we also do a lot of classes and DIY fairs.
This summer, we ran events at Bloomingdale, Glen Ellyn, Indian Trails, Winfield, Lisle, Addison, and at Lake Park High School. We’ve got even more events coming up in the next few months, at the libraries I mentioned before as well as Roselle and St. Charles.
Improving the space!
We’re currently updating the back room, with the front room next on the list. There’s been a lot of great discussion about what to do with the front room, and we’ve got a team working on getting it all done.
Paul R. did a bunch of work to rehab Prof. Braino’s Enco mill, and it is now up and running. We’re going to be offering a class to members this summer to get them up to speed on how to use the mill.
Classes!
We’ve been a bit lax in getting classes scheduled, and we’re trying to address that. We have a bunch of classes scheduled this summer, so check back for scheduling details once they’re announced. Next up on the list are Electronics 101 and Basic Networking, both this July.
We’ve got a bunch of other topics coming up, here’s a condensed list:
- Electronics
- 3D Printing
- CNC Machining with Shapeoko
- Networking Basics
- Running the Lathe
- Linux Basics
- Cloud Computing
- HAMP (see this for more info)
- Intro to Hadoop
- Running the Mill
- Using the RPi GPIOs
- Arduino 101
- Arduino Music
Let us know (info@workshop88.com) if you’ve got requests for other classes, we’ll see what we can do about getting them scheduled!
Electronics 101 (July 2014)
This is an electronics class for the absolute beginner – we will cover many basic concepts such as:
- Current
- Voltage
- Resistance
- Ohm’s Law
- Power
- Measurement tools
- Breadboards – How to use them to prototype circuits
- Circuit diagrams and circuit elements
Another makerspace serving the Chicago suburbs!
Our friends over at SpaceLab are running a KickStarter this month to raise funds to move into a more functional location.
SpaceLab started out as a co-working space, but they realize their members and the the south suburban community will benefit by adding the resources of a makerspace to their offerings.
Workshop 88 is thrilled to support SpaceLab’s kickstarter! We were an early backer:
I just backed SpaceLab: A South Suburban Chicago Makerspace on @Kickstarter http://t.co/DaMXxw3EUr
— Workshop 88 (@Workshop88) June 26, 2014
At Workshop 88 we believe that makerspaces and hackerspaces grow smartly by working with other like-minded people in our area. Please consider supporting SpaceLab and sharing their campaign with anyone you know! They are about 2/3 of the way to their goal as of this post. Help them get all the way there!
Introduction to Arduino class (Arduino 101) Wednesday July 2, 2014
Workshop 88 is offering our introduction to the Arduino platform at our makerspace in Glen Ellyn. This class is for anyone (member or non-member) who wants to learn how to get started with the arduino microcontroller, regardless of experience with programming or electronics. Class attendees will learn how to configure their arduino programming environment, how to design simple circuits for interfacing with the arduino and how to write simple programs to control the arduino. What is Arduino, you ask? From their home page:
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
If you need to get an arduino, please see the Workshop 88 Arduino Store. Sales from that store are fulfilled by amazon.com, and help support Workshop 88. Alternatively, you can order Arduino systems from several places, including Adafruit and Sparkfun. Both companies have lots of tutorials and howtos to get you started with Arduinos. If you’re looking for a local source to get Arduinos, try Trossen Robotics.
What you’ll get from this class:
In this class you will learn how to start programming in the Arduino environment including interacting with the inputs and outputs of the Arduino.You should bring: a laptop with the Arduino environment downloaded and installed, and your Arduino supplies. Please contact us (info@workshop88.com) if you have any questions.Image credit: By Linuswiki (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Introduction to C programming
What will I cover (for sure)?
C – Kernighan & Ritchie style. Starting with variables (ch 1 K & R) and ending with functions (ch 4 K & R). We will also cover “printf” formatting (ch 7 K & R) ’cause you’ll need that.
What should you bring?
Good: You don’t need noth’n but paper and pen to take notes.
Better: You could bring a PC w/enough installed to create / run Arduino programs.
Best: You could bring a Linux PC with “vim”&”gcc” installed ready to write, compile and run example programs.
What might be covered (extra stuff)?
Depends on you. We could spend a few minutes to talk about basic computer hardware – before talking about C programming. We could spend a few minutes to talk about C++ – after talking about C programming.
Where will you use this?
Probably when you write stuff for your Arduino. But keep in mind C programming is found all over the place. Especially in Unix machines. That covers everything from an Apple/Mac computer to a Sony TIVO PVR. And learning C is a great way to get acquainted with other programming languages like C++ or Java. And, if you are going off to college, it’s probably the programming language of choice in that CS101 course you’ll need to take.
Audible Donation Box
Our local library recently asked us to help them out with their summer reading program, which is raising funds to support the Willowbrook Wildlife Center.
Here’s what I came up with:
When a patron turns in a book they’ve read for the summer reading program, they get a token to drop into the box. Since the Willowbrook Wildlife Center rehabilitates native animals that have been injured, I thought that playing local native animal sounds would help create a connection between the program and the organization it is supporting.
Here’s what the box looks like inside.
The speakers are driven by an Adafruit Music Maker Shield run off of an Arduino Uno, using the Adafruit VS1053 library. The token detection mechanism uses a high-intensity LED and a voltage divider, consisting of an 180 ohm resistor and a CdS photocell, to create an optical detector. The voltage across the small resistor is checked with an analogRead() in a tight loop to detect a token falling through the slot. Volume control is done through software on the VS1053, so I just hooked the sweeper on a 10K linear potentiometer up to a second analog input. When a token is detected, I play a random sound from the SD card in the background while continuing to check the volume control.
Here’s the schematic and a breadboard layout. I’ve just shown the control circuitry, as the Music Maker shield should be pretty easy to hook up.
All of the code, these schematics, and a Fritzing file are available on Github. Pay particular attention to the pin assignments at the top of the sketch if you’re using the Adafruit Music Maker board. They are hard-wired on the shield, but Adafruit’s tutorial is based on their breakout board, which you have to wire to an Arduino yourself.
One thing I had to consider with this build was power. I initially powered the box off of 4 AA batteries, and it looked like it worked great. After a few days of testing, it started to act a bit flaky. After being on for about 10 minutes, the speakers would just play static. After some testing, I found that the supply voltage was too low, so I swapped in a USB power supply for the batteries, and it worked much better. Since this has to run all day long for a couple months, USB is a better solution anyway.
We’re teaching a couple audio classes this summer, make sure to check back for scheduling details if you’re interested in doing something like this project yourself!
Revamping Workshop 88
Spring is in the air, flowers are emerging, and Glen Ellyn is slowly climbing out of what has been an incredibly trying winter.
The new season has inspired us to take a new look at Workshop 88 and revamp our main room. While it’s a homey basement that holds many fond memories, members have been encouraging me to come up with some new ways to change the space around to be welcoming to new members. I wanted to post some photos of the current layout so that we can work on rearranging some things.
Workshop 88 members spend so much time working on their projects and discussing new ideas that they don’t pay much attention to the space around them; but space is important. Space communicates what we value, inspires our creativity, and develops our sense of belonging. Therefore, it is really important that we spend time recreating Workshop some in order to make our space more inviting.
What do you think we should do to revamp Workshop 88? Maybe some color? Reorganizing the layout? Please comment with your ideas!
THOTCON 0×5 Badge Revealed
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THOTCON is the annual, small venue, hacking conference based in Chicago IL, USA. THOTCON is a non-profit, non-commercial event looking to provide the best conference possible on a very limited budget.
For the past 2 years Workshop 88 has been honored to design and produce the electronic attendee badges for the conference as a service to the local community. The badge crew this year consisted of: Paul Reich, Bill Paulson, Karl Knutson, Zach Cassity, Russell Lankenau, and Rudy Ristich
This year’s badge was inspired by portable gaming systems from the past and featured 102 x 64 pixel graphic LCD screen and a push button interface. Once again, the badge features an Atmel AVR based microcontroller. The badge used nearly every byte of the 32k available SRAM on its Atmega32u4 chip. The software consisted of a Break-out style game which participants could play to passtime, a complete schedule of talks and labs for the day long conference, and the ability to patch into arcade panels hosted in the Hacker Village, and a few surprises for discovering inside.
Just like the THOTCON 0×4 Badge, the 0×5 Badge is compatible with the Arduino open hardware programming environment and can accept standard Arduino shields. This means the badge can be easily reused and repurposed to power any sort of project. An improvement from last year’s badge is that no additional parts need to be added; conference goers can simply plug the badge into their laptop once burning a bootloader to reprogram it, encouraging easier exploration and badge hacking.
The badge is designed to be completely open hardware and software. Workshop 88 would like to thank the open source hardware and software community especially: Arduino, Oliver Kraus and other contributors to the U8glib graphics library, Dean Camera for the LUFA Project, and last, but far from least: Twisted Traces, our local assembly partner in Elk Grove, IL.
Workshop 88 will be holding a badge hacking contest throughout the month of May. Judging will consist of a panel from Workshop 88 and the THOTCON crew. Interested contestants can register on the badge website: http://badge.workshop88.com
Full details on the badge specifications and firmware will be released on May 1st in conjunction with the opening of the badge hacking contest.