What is Freeside?
Lights to the North
About $30 in parts and many hours with Zane's brain.
http://zanecochran.com/entry.php?blog_id=335
Check out their group at http://www.7hillsmake.org/ and tell them Freeside says "Hello."

Our Dr. Glass and Sparr fight it out on who can create the fastest. From Dr. Glass:
This was part of a "Day Project" at FreesideAtlanta.org
In all fairness, Sparr and I became challenged in a Speed-Modeling contest. Me on Lightwave 3D and he on OpenSCAD. Sparr was victorious, but agreed to let me upload my model anyways. Thanks bud.
I'm including this original as well as the Freeside Atlanta emboss.
Sunrise Alarm Clock
Part List:
- Arduino
- Real Time Clock Module (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/99)
- 24xAssorted LEDs (In my case: 3UV, 2 Blue, 4 Red, 3 Yellow, 12 White)
- 24xResistors, 220ohm
- Solderless Breadboard
- Assorted wires
- 3x74HC595 shift registers
- A Shadow Display Box
- Frosting Spray
To put this thing together I used Elco's ShiftPWM Library to control the 24 LEDs. You could go bigger, but I wanted this to all fit into the box.
Personally, I had some PCBs from a previous project that I could fashion to make the LEDs easier to mount.
Everything is hooked up like in the schematic:
The "To SCL" and "To SDA" lines go to the Real Time Clock Module.
Load the program below in and you can set the time on the clock with the following command in serial monitor:
T(00-59)(00-59)(00-23)(1-7)(01-31)(01-12)(00-99)
T(sec)(min)(hour)(dayOfWeek)(dayOfMonth)(month)(year)
You can then set the alarm with a command:
A(00-59)(00-23)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)
A(min)(hour)(sun)(mon)(tue)(wed)(the)(fri)(sat)
The alarm will attempt to be done with the cycle at the appropriate time set, so it will start with the UV LEDs and move through the progression fading the LEDs in and out as indicated in the arrays at the top of the program.
Frost both sides of the glass for good distribution of light, then cut away the side of the box so that you can power the Arduino with it mounted inside the box.
This is a very sped up version of the alarm sequence looks like this... the lights at the beginning are part of the power up sequence of the Arduino.
Makerbot Dual Extruder Demo
Anyone interested in our progress on this is welcome to come read about it at http://www.linkreincarnate.com/
Free Stuff from Freeside!
Mini 3d printer meetup.
Open Source 3D Printing Class: 7/28/2011 @ 7:30pm
- Basic Printer Operation
- Various 3D printer designs including reprap and MakerBot
- OpenSCAD modeling software
- Common print materials
Making print cartridges for a Z400/Z402 3D printer
There are currently two known ways of making these cartridges ready for the printer.
The first method is to cut the cartridge in half, remove the foam inside, cut a Blue Falcon BD-50 Centrifuge tube in half, and epoxy it and a small O ring to the reservoir at the bottom of the cartridge. This is how the cartridges that are sold by Z Corp are made.
An alternative method is two drill two holes in the cartridge, epoxy down some type of barb, and flush the cartridge. This is the method I am currently using in my Z402. Click below for full instructions and a few pictures of the process.
Freeside Buildout 7/9!



We also painted the back hallway wall a lovely chartruese (bwahaha) and took care some of the less seemly graffiti. Next buildout will be scheduled in the near future! :D