October 6th Main Library Meetup

We had our first indoor meetup in many years at the Main Library. For me (Lakota), this brought back nostalgia from the Wednesday meetups used to hold there in 2018. A small group of us found a quiet table on the third floor, and we had an enjoyable time. An opened cassette rewinder was brought for donation, and we were able to observe the intricacies of the internal mechanical parts. It is truly amazing how so many sets and layers of gears are required for a seemingly simple, yet delicate and precise task.

However, a major source of entertainment came from something very low-tech: a windup toy caterpillar from the dollar store. Kids’ cheap windup and battery-operated toys can contain useful and intriguing parts that can be hacked and repurposed for other projects. Sometimes, it’s just fun to open them up and see what’s inside.

Needless to say, we dissected a caterpillar for science at the library, and it worked properly when put back together. 🙂

Windup dollar store caterpillar, inner workings revealed. Opened by and photo courtesy of Diane Bruce.
Everyone ought to have a screwdriver or multi-tool on their person at all times. Nope, definitely no geeks at this table. 🙂 Photo courtesy of Diane Bruce.

We will have future meetups at different locations (some of our favorites from before the pandemic and potentially some new ones), but overall, this one was a blast.

Hack613 In-Person Meetups

With the COVID-19 pandemic rocking the world, our meetups up until last year had been entirely online over Zoom. Zoom proved and continues to be a useful resource for many people in the group, as it eliminates commuting from the various parts of Ottawa. Additionally, it has enabled the group to connect with other makers and robotics enthusiasts outside of Ottawa. For a time in 2020, we (consensually) Zoom-bombed a robotics club in Sheffield, England and had several laughs and interesting conversations. We’ve also had ongoing connections and virtual meetups with the Vancouver Robotics Club.

However, despite the benefits, we’ve had far fewer opportunities to capture fun memories and share them. Our website has been very quiet over the years as a result. In 2023, with the coming of summer, we began holding in-person meetups once a month at Britannia Park or Remic Rapids. They have been well attended and have helped to reinvigorate the spirit of our group. We did park meetups again this summer and in the colder months hope to continue meeting at least once a month in an indoor location.

Both online and in-person meetups have their advantages and disadvantages, so we aim to maintain this hybrid model into the future to accommodate the preferences of all in this unique maker community.

Remic Rapids Park meetup on August 13, 2023. Photo courtesy of Diane Bruce.
Britannia Park Meetup on September 3, 2023. Photo courtesy of Lakota Gellner.

Summer Meetups

All branches of the Ottawa Public Library will be closed on Sundays for the summer starting June 30th. This means we will not be able to use the Imagine Space on Sundays for our meetups until the fall.

For the summer, we will be holding meetups at different locations. Some locations being considered are the uOttawa Makerspace and Minto Park. There have also been suggestions from a few members about holding meetups on Saturdays so the Imagine Space can be utilized.

The calendar will be very tentative for the duration of the summer. Meetups may be held less frequently depending on turnout and host availability.

Your feedback is very important. If you have location suggestions, please voice them in the Google Group forum. If suggestions are proposed by the main hosts, please provide your opinions, both supporting and dissenting.

Google Group Email Delivery Preference Instructions

Proceed to the Hack613 online discussion!

Instructions

The following information describes how to adjust the frequency in which emails from our Google Group enter your inbox:

  1. Click the Discussion link above.
  2. Click the Sign In button in the upper right-hand corner of the page and sign into your email.
  3. Click the My Settings button near the upper-right corner (person with a gear beside it). From the drop-down menu, click Membership and email settings.
  4. In the Email delivery preference: section, select your preferred method from the drop-down menu and click Save. This completes the process.

Make a Sign

Here’s another challenge for people to have some fun with! To make a sign to post at our meetups so others can find us easily.

Rules: None

What can you win? A super cool remote control cockroach like the one Lakota has. 🙂

How to win: We keep track of questions and mentions any of the signs at the meetup. The one with the most wins.

Blink CNC

Blink CNC is a group CNC build within the hack613 community!

The fist challenge is to build a drawing machine based on this electrical kit.

Two of these steppers with controllers ($3.88 CAD)
One of these servos ($1.83 CAD)
An Uno ($7.64 CAD)
A power supply ($4.31 CAD)

That comes out to $17.66. None of this links or prices are well researched, your mileage may vary. Many people will have an Uno and a power supply so for them this is a $5 project.

A drawing robot was chosen because it gets rid of the spindle. Also the servo can simplify the Z axis.


Future Options to be Considered

2) 2 AxisTwo of these steppers or these cheaper steppers. This motor shield. One of the above servos.The above Uno. Some kinds power supply.
3) 3 AxisThree of these steppers. One of these grbl boards. Three of these stepper drivers. Some kinda power supply.
4) 3 axis nema 17 kit: Parallel port based kit.Desktop computer with mach3Spindle kit.
5) Baby CNC 3018 kit.
6) base level cnc 3040 various machines
7) Base level cnc machine 6040 machinevarious machines

Why is it called BlinkCNC?

Way back a few years ago for a short time our group was called Blink. The idea was that when newcomers came the objective was to get them to be able to run the Arduino Blink program. Sort of an initiation and also a way of welcoming new people to the group.

That was pretty successful.

Our group has made many leaps and bounds since then and now we’ve got a group build of an experimental CNC machine! Newcomers can now get a CNC machine at low cost.

Wednesday Meetup

Our last meetup was a bit more sparse than usual but it looks like some progress was made on fixing up one of the participants guitar amp.

Also some pictures from Drawing at the Rooster.

 

 

Hover Board

Ray brought in his hoverboard. What a crazy device.

Also Doug and Lakota showed off the latest versions of their carts.

Here are the pictures. Credits: Lakota, Darcy