Freeside Atlanta

I purchased one of the new FLIR E4 thermal imaging cameras  (TIC) a couple weeks back because I am working on a new project called Motobrain . It is an automotive power distribution unit with a nominal current capacity of 100A. For those not in the know, 100A is a TON of current! Because this project is designed to move so much current and will be small I need to understand its thermal characteristics very well. To that end I've been operating the device and taking measurements. What I found is that I just could not get the kind of detail I wanted. The reason is that the resolution of the  microbolometer  in the FLIR E4 is not very high and the lens does not allow you to get very close to the device under test (DUT). The means that you cannot just zoom in after you take a photo either. So, what is a person to do if they want to take a macro photograph with a consumer grade TIC? Go to Amazon.com of course! I purchased a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) lens meant for a CO² laser for about $4

I (Ben Bradley) have made several of these for my personal use. My early bookcases were three feet wide, but moving was a process of putting books into boxes, moving the shelving and the boxes, and putting the books back on the shelves. It was unknown whether the bookcase would hold together if tilted while fully loaded, because it was too heavy to pick up when fully loaded This one was assembled at Freeside after the November 5 Open House and is based on my current design, as follows: Components used (available at any Home Depot or Lowes): (4) 1" x 8" x 6 ft pine board (actual measurements 3/4" x 7 1/4") (1) 4 ft by 8 ft. x 1/4" plywood board. (48) 2" long wood or drywall screws, coarse thread preferred (about half of a 1 lb box) (30) 1" long wood or drywall screws, coarse thread preferred (about a tenth of a 1 lb box) Tools used: Chop saw, table or circular saw, hand sander, electric drill/electric screwdriver (two preferred, one for

Some of you may have seen our most recent monster creation at Alchemy or Atlanta Mini Maker Faire - The Infinity Portal. The Infinity Portal is a 10 foot tall archway with a 7 x 4 ft infinity mirror inside of it. The mirror is made with two-way acrylic, so you can push on it to warp the effect for people on either side of it. It is lit with addressable LEDs, so there is a counter-rotating rainbow vortex in there too. You may remember seeing our write-up about prototyping the design a few months ago. Defying all expectations, the thing actually survived both events that we brought it to! So we're really happy with it and will find a place to keep it in the mean time. We actually (surprisingly) did a pretty good job of documenting this build, so we cut it together into a video to show how we built this huge, epic piece of art. Enjoy!

Again with the weekly (more or less...) list of delectable offerings by Freeside, your friendly local dragon and hamster breeder. Sunday, 10/20: Freeside Laser: Basic Usage and Safety at 2pm Learn how to use Freeside's new Laser Engraver/Cutter ( wiki page ). You'll learn how to use the software toolchains to cut or engrave vector and bitmap artwork into a variety of materials. And after the class, you'll be eligible to schedule a one-on-one session an approved user to supervise and assist with your first project, and thereby gain authorization to use the laser unsupervised. That's right. Just you and the laser. $40/person. Pay on Meetup. Tuesday, 10/22: Chump Car Build at 7pm Ever wanted to race a car, build a moving art project, or learn to work on a car? Here is your chance to do one or all three! Please join us at Freeside to learn more! And it's totally free, man. And simultaneously... Tuesday, 10/22: Open House at 7:30pm Where the house is open,

Step right up, ladies and gents!  Never seen such fine taxidermy before?  The best in all the land! I see a lot of disappointed faces - you there, reading the article!  You some kind of Internet-dwelling, city slicker?  Oh, you are.  Very well then - that's totally not  a problem!  What's that you say?  What's going on?! Welcome to the Trading Post - tales from the wild and unsane  world of hackerspace skills trading. One of the key benefits to being part of a community of skilled people with diverse backgrounds is that you're surrounded by opportunities to try something new and learn from each other. Whether you're into taxidermy, python, arduinos, or rebuilding arcade machines, you can leverage your skill set to learn new skills from other hackerspace members.  If you successfully find a match, then that's what we at Freeside call The Gift of the Magi moment.  Cherish it. This week, I promised Paul I'd get his website hosted and up and runnin

It's about time for Atlanta Mini Maker Faire 2013 (10/26). LearnToSolder.org and Freeside Atlanta are once again hosting a free Learn to Solder tent. Last year's tent was a huge success, teaching around 100 kids (aged 4 to 80) how to solder together a basic electronic kit. This year, we hope to double that number, but we need help! We've got all the supplies, irons, solder, project kits, helping hands, band aids and burn gel. What we need are volunteers to supervise and mentor the kids in constructing the kits. These kits are simple, and designed for first timers, but gives them something they can be proud of and show off. You're there to help troubleshoot (solder bridges, cold joints), teach (show them how to do the first joint), and supervise (make sure they know which end of the iron is the hot one), etc. Sign up for a shift (as many as you want!) today! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ah20TrVBysxUdGVKSHd5a0VDV183UEJWamhSX1ZVNlE&usp=sharing Informat

Hello to all. I hope you're having a fabulous week, made even more tantalizing with the following offerings from Freeside for your enjoyment and edification. Sunday, 10/6 Liberated Tech Pre-Build and Build  at 1pm Tuesday, 10/8 Chump Car Build  at 7pm and Open House  at 7:30 Wednesday, 10/9  TED Talks and Discussion Night  at 7pm Thursday, 10/10 CryptoParty at 8pm Saturday, 10/12 Bicycle Repair 1  at 3pm and  Freeside Build Day (and potluck)  all afternoon. And if  when you head over to one or more of these events, go ahead and take pictures, share ideas, dig yourself eye-ball deep, and make the space a part of yourself, just as you are a part if it. Have ideas for classes or events at the space? Get in touch ! The only limit is yourself. -Kendra

Great numbers turned out to fight the good fight on Thursday. Together we faced the mural and, each in our own hearts, said words over the icon that had been the auditorium mural. I had hated the mural, but in spreading the first layer of grey-green over the inaccurately spray-painted earth, I realized that I did not hate it, but loved it, in its passing, as a metaphor, a cautionary tale. It represents what happens when art and science are separated. Like a guitar tuned to .05 Hz below standard. Like a sculpture slowly collapsing from lack of structural support. The moon, so obstinately shining on the far side of the sun, was a reminder that only together can artists and engineers accomplish beautiful and functional things. We should all take care to remember that, as we move forward into a brave new age that contains 3D-printers, makerspaces, and DIY culture. Engineers, do not sneer at the BA's of the world. Artists, do not abstain from telling technical types that their desig

It's been about a year since my last Kickstarter, a failed attempt to launch a mini USB host Arduino compatible mirocontroller platform. I am back for a double helping of humble pie. This time, my project is a Bluetooth 4 enabled automotive power distribution unit (PDU) and solid state fuse block. I go into great detail of the details of the project at my website motobrain.net and at the Kickstarter page . Suffice to say, it is a really smart, smartphone programmable, PDU with 8 outputs and 4 inputs. The inputs are used to link outputs logically with other circuits (either OEM circuits or custom switches or sensors). It is a very flexible system. For example, you can setup your aux fog lights to turn on with the ignition BUT it will also turn them off whenever you turn on the high beams. The PDU can sense the ignition and you can program circuits to turn on the in response to the ignition and by linking the high beams to one of the inputs you can program the PDU to shut down t

Do you need to brush up on your CSS-fu? Freeside is hosting  ProCSS , a professional CSS development lecture and workshop Saturday, September 7th 3:00 PM. ProCSS is a people-first look at what makes code good, and how CSS development can be organized for rapid development of front-ends with minimal fuss from browsers and whiny clients. Students will be taught to abandon improvised ("hacky") workflows in favor of a more pragmatic approach that keeps work simple as projects get complicated. The techniques taught in this course apply to dinky five page websites and to enterprise scale web applications. ProCSS is for people who have used CSS, but who need more practice or a better way of doing things. Experienced CSS developers can also benefit from learning new tools introduced in the course, such as CSS preprocessors and component libraries. Attending the course gets you lecture notes, source code and an one hour long workshop hosted by an experienced front-end developer

This is the first of what are (hopefully) many installments of Hacker Trips - encounters of the first and fourth kind with other hackerspaces throughout the country.  Freeside knows no bounds; our members appear and disappear throughout the world!  We're coming to your hackerspace and it's gonna be OK!  My own travels are likely going to take me to the DenHac sooner rather than later, so I'm definitely planning to report on that. Tallahassee, Florida.  The word Tallahassee  means "abandoned fields" in Seminole.  It is a town of about 180,000 residents, home to FSU and FAMU colleges which turns the city into a ghost town during winter and spring breaks.  Tallahassee kind of looks like a shrunken Atlanta - complete with its own perimeter, airport, and transit system.  I grew up in Tallahassee.  I have fond memories as a child of traversing its fine ground water drainage system that linked all the neighborhoods together, and some parts of downtown, like the ol

For our art project for Alchemy this year, we plan to build a huge archway in the forest with a portal to hyperspace. This is no easy task, so we decided to do some small-scale prototyping so that we can look into some of the challenges of this build and play with different effects to see what looks the coolest. Our design is based around an infinity mirror, which is a cool device that is build from one regular mirror and one two-way mirror. Lights placed in the center echo between the two mirrors until they fade too low to be seen. The viewer looks through the transparent side of the two-way mirror and can see the effect move with their perspective. Kevin and Edward working with the assembled frame. That's the two-way mirror in the foreground.  I had some help with the build from Kevin and Edward, who came in for the Tuesday night open house and got recruited to the project. Nathan (not pictured) also joined in to help, so we had 4 people working on it. We also ma

Howdy e'rybody! Just wanted to give you a little update on the awesome that is Analog Game Night. We're now up to bimonthly, with board and card game fun to be had on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month. Last Thursday was the first time we went for the second night a month, and given only two days' notice,  we still had 11 people show up to play Isla Dorada  and The Good, The Bad, and The Munchkin . There was also poi, Chex mix, a yoga demonstration, and excellent taste in beer.  So now you know. Y'all come now, and bring games, friends, and beer if you're so inclined and of age. It's a good time, and has been a great way to introduce new folks to the space. Incidentally, I am also learning to make videos and work a DSLR, so we made this time lapse video of the first few hours of the evening. Enjoy.

We just got the news we won a LulzBot AO-100 3D printer as part of their giveaway contest! Our submission landed us a spot in the 8 finalists out of over 200 submissions.  We even got a shout-out about Dr. Glass' original  medical research ! Check out the announcement !

Tuesday [7:30p]: CNC Build Project, Public, Free. Freeside veterans, Preston and Eldon, will be leading this project to assemble and tune a smaller CNC for high-precision work, then design and build a full-size 4' x 4' CNC mill for the space as well. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/113727692 Tuesday [7:30p]: Open House, Public, Free. We host this meeting every Tuesday so that people can check out the space, chat with members of the organization, and get together to plan projects, events, and classes. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/113155422/ Tuesday [8:30p]: Introduction to Basic Electronics, Public, Free. Chris Moore and Wayne Salhany explain basic electricity and electronics concepts that you can use in your next project. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/113583832/ Friday [8a-6p]: Telecommute from Freeside, Members-Only. Members, come join your other telecommuters at Freeside and “work” remotely. S

Have you been itching to donate things to Freeside, but you’re not sure what we need? Have you been looking for volunteer opportunities to use your awesome skills?  This monthly post shall be your guide, henceforth! Look for all these things in our up-to-date Wishlist , the next time you're out and about and wondering what extras you could throw in the cart to bring on down! We're always looking for new opportunities to facilitate projects/education in the space. New equipment can help us do that, so we decided to make a wishlist of some of the things that we need for the space. Volunteer Opportunities: Electrical wiring: running new outlets, and...other activities... Woodworking, construction: help with shelf/hutch building for electronics, help with member storage build-out Mural Art: artists, pick a spot on the wall and make it yours!  We also want input on designing logos for each of our zones Consumables: ABS: Our 3D printers need more spools in a variety o

This Week at Freeside Tuesday [7:30p]: Open House, Public, Free. We host this meeting every Tuesday so that people can check out the space, chat with members of the organization, and get together to plan projects, events, and classes. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/111247782/ Tuesday [8:30p]: Introduction to Basic Electronics, Public, Free. Chris Moore and Wayne Salhany explain basic electricity and electronics concepts that you can use in your next project. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/111334442/ Friday [8a-6p]: Telecommute from Freeside, Members-Only. Members, come join your other telecommuters at Freeside and “work” remotely. Coming Up Next at Freeside Please note that Analog Game Night moved, due to a schedule conflict! Analog Game Night will resume to its regular schedule of first Wednesday of the month starting in May. 2013-APR-10, Wednesday [8p-11p]: Analog Game Night, Public, Free. Come get your board

Last year for Alchemy , we decided to launch a really ambitious art project on a really short timeline. It almost didn't get done, but we were able to get it out just in time... and it worked! Ferris, Abigail, and Robin playing with the bubble generator Our project was to build a different kind of art car. Alan got the idea to build an Off Road Wheelchair for our friend Robin, who is an anthropologist and a disability advocate, so that she could get around these outdoor festivals to enjoy all of the crazy awesome stuff that happens there. We did the first round of fundraising at the Alchemy Art Fundraiser  ( FB event link here ) and afterwards Alan, Joy, and Robin set up a second fundraiser at Freeside. Once they raised the money (which still had us on a razor-thin budget), I picked up the project from there and managed the planning and build. As it turned out, I was in way over my head. The idea was this - Robin had a really hard time getting around at these events an

Tuesday [5:30p]: CNC Build Project, Public, Free. Freeside veterans, Preston and Eldon, will be leading this project to assemble and tune a smaller CNC for high-precision work, then design and build a full-size 4' x 4' CNC mill for the space as well. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/109131302/ Tuesday [7:30p]: Open House, Public, Free. We host this meeting every Tuesday so people can check out the space, chat with members of the organization, and get together to plan projects, events, and classes. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/109154682/ Tuesday [8:30p]: Introduction to Basic Electronics, Public, Free. Chris Moore and Wayne Salhany explain basic electricity and electronics concepts that you can use in your next project. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/109104052/ Thursday [7:30-9p]:  Building Interfaces between Computers, $10.  Free for Members. Chris Moore and Wayne Salhany help you design and build a "stack"

Tuesday [5:30p]: CNC Build Project, Public, Free. Freeside veterans, Preston and Eldon, will be leading this project to assemble and tune a smaller CNC for high-precision work, then design and build a full-size 4' x 4' CNC mill for the space as well. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/106771092/ Tuesday [7:30p]: Open House, Public, Free. We host this meeting every Tuesday so people can check out the space, chat with members of the organization, and get together to plan projects, events, and classes. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/106718942/ Tuesday [8:30p]: Introduction to Basic Electronics, Public, Free. Chris Moore and Wayne Salhany explain basic electricity and electronics concepts that you can use in your next project. http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/106481602/ Thursday [7:30-9p]: Building Interfaces between Computers, $10.  Free for Members. Chris Moore and Wayne Salhany help you design and build a "stack"