Category: Posts

Meet the Maker and Learn to Solder

Posted on by oldpostholder in Classes, Events and meetups, general, Posts

Adam Wolf of Wayne and Layne, and Twin Cities Maker Member will be hosting a class on how to solder one of his popular kits the blinky POV.

If you’ve never soldered before, this is the class for you! This course teaches through-hole (90% of electronic kits) soldering and is recommended for the beginner. This is a hands-on class where the students learn techniques to help them solder through-hole components. Soldering can be daunting for the first solder joint, then the 2nd solder joint is not so bad, and by the time you’ve assembled the blinky grid, you will be quite confident and proficient in basic soldering skills.

Classes take place at The Hack Factory. We provide all the tools, irons, solder, parts, and seats for up to 8 students.

There is a minimum age requirement of 8 years old, but other than that, anyone is encouraged to sign up. We teach people all the time with no previous soldering experience! You do not need to be a member of Twin Cities Maker to attend.

The class is expected to take around 1.5 hour to complete, there is a buffer built in in case we go a bit longer.

Prerequisites: None! Just bring yourself. The class price includes the cost of the blinky POV kit.

What to bring: TC Maker will provide all the tools, irons and solder.

Proceeds above will go to help keep TC Maker, support the space.

Time and Place: Tuesday Feb 7th 7:00pm to 9:00pm at the Hack Factory

Cost: $16 (This is a great deal, the retail price is also $16, but with out the hack factory to solder at, and no Adam to be taught by.)

Sign up on Event Brite

Handmade Music: Minneapolis Pure Data Workshop

Posted on by oldpostholder in Posts

Handmade Music: Minneapolis Pure Data Workshop


Pd (aka Pure Data) wikipedia is a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing. It is the third major branch of the family of patcher programming languages known as Max (Max/FTS, ISPW Max, Max/MSP, jMax, etc.) originally developed by Miller Puckette and company at IRCAM. The core of Pd is written and maintained by Miller Puckette and includes the work of many developers, making the whole package very much a community effort.

Download Pure Data for free and bring your computer.

Free, open to the public, bring your computer
January 21st• 7pm – 9pm
Hack Factory
3119 East 26th Street

TCM and Make:Blog, and books and other stuff.

Posted on by oldpostholder in general, Posts

Some recent happenings of Twin Cities Maker that have made an splash on the outside world. This is not comprehensive but kind of neat to look at none the less.

Riley’s FoshayBuchay 2.0 was featured as the opening photo for this Zero to Maker piece.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=109786


Adam Wolf of Wayne and Layne, one of two Twin Cities Maker’s open source kit manufactures, was featured in Meet the Makers


John Baicthal and Adam Wolf wrote a few articles for Make:28, they are not online so you will need to pick up a physical copy. They wrote about making a Van de Graaff generator from a soda can making a wireless arcade-quality joystick-and-button-panel for playing video games.

Matthew Varas put up directions on how to make his chomping Pacman Suit.


We are also featured in John Baicthal’s Hack This! Yep, that is Twin Cities Maker is on the cover. John also has another book out Cult of LEGO, featured in the print edition of Wired!, and if rumors are true it will be on one of those in flight magazines on one of the major airlines, so look out for that.

Join today’s new revolution in creativity and community: hackerspaces. Stop letting other people build everything for you: Do it yourself. Explore, grab the tools, get hands-on, get dirty…and create things you never imagined you could. Hack This is your glorious, full-color passport to the world of hackerspaces: your invitation to share knowledge, master tools, work together, build amazing stuff–and have a flat-out blast doing it.

Twin Cities Maker co-founder John Baichtal explains it all: what hackerspaces are, how they work, who runs them, what they’re building—and how you can join (or start!) one. Next, he walks you through 24 of today’s best hackerspace projects…everything from robotic grilled-cheese sandwich-makers to devices that make music with zaps of electricity. Every project’s packed with color photos, explanations, lists of resources and tools, and instructions for getting started on your own similar project so you can DIY!
– from Amazon.com



Notropic Design, the other favorite open source manufacture of Twin Cites Maker, pushed out a new design, the defusable clock and has gotten an pretty amazing response so far, above is the Christmas Advert.

Matt Mackall, of Twin Cities Maker’s favorite open source code management tool Mercurial, is in the process of getting an Art Shanty built in the space. More on the Art Shanty project here.


And finally here is a short video of Twin Cities Makers Learn Arduino class performing on thier new noise machines.

Update: Twin Cities Maker also loves the kit business Crazy But Able, check out their stella amp.

 

2012 Member Dues Updates and More!

Posted on by oldpostholder in general, Posts

Dear Community,

The Hack Factory and Twin Cities Maker are announcing an updated dues schedule.

The great news is that we’ve experienced a blossoming of membership numbers over the past two years, and we want to keep the space going strong!

Over the last two years, the organization has been absorbing the cost of sales tax for all membership dues. What we need to do is recover that cost so we can more accurately budget our finances and our member needs.

Going forward, we are going to increase the dues by $5 per month.

Effective January 1st, 2012:

  • Regular membership dues will be $55/month
  • Student memberships dues will be $30/month

For the month of January, 2012 we are going to have a membership special, giving a chance for folks to save on dues:

  • One year membership for $550 – this includes two free classes. This is a savings of $110 to $250.
  • Six month membership for $275 – This is savings of $55.

TC Maker is offering these deals so we can help to increase our membership and have a stronger cash flow. We need your help in spreading the word about TC Maker, and recruit new members.

Important Notes:

  • All memberships are deemed non-refundable, and are kept by the organization.
  • For the classes, if the materials fees exceed $25, we may ask that you pay the difference that would apply to materials fees.

TC Maker will also be offering Rock Star memberships of $75/month.  What does this give you?  A warm place in our heart, and a listing on our Rock Star page.

Want to do a prepaid membership? Send an email to treasurer[-at]tcmaker.org.

If you have questions or comments about these changes, please send an email to info[-at-]tcmaker.org.

Thank you for your continued support and membership in TC Maker. Have a wonderful, productive, and Makerly New Year!

Sincerely,

The Hack Factory & Twin Cites Maker

Welcome to Seward Arts Fest Crawlers, Dec. 2-3!

Posted on by oldpostholder in general, Posts

Twin Cities Maker’s Hack Factory is open for visitors during the Seward Arts Fest and Frankin Frolic!

Come see some of the art and fun things that are built here at the Hack Factory. We’re showing some movie and tv props, costumes, drawings, paintings, sculptures, and of course our ever-popular Spoonapult and Trebfoshay.

We’re welcoming visitors on Friday, Dec. 2 from 5-7 PM and Saturday, Dec. 3 from noon until 5 PM.