CNC parts, Video, TF2 lanparty, ROV
ROV (underwater remote operated vehicle) project is underway. Check out the mailing list for more information.
CNC routing mill parts have arrived. The 60" axis and 35" axis parts should be ready to be built out.
Vex is working on the laser engraver controller.
There is talk of a TF2 lan party. Ping Mark G if interested!
New video recording system parts are mostly in. Still waiting on a few connectors and the final cameras. Will be programming the AMX for it this weekend.
Skillcrane is rocking (www.rocktheskillcrane.com.) It did close to 1000 plays yesterday.
Members-Only Cookout
The members-only cookout was a success! And by success, I mean, we managed to not burn-down anything.
The lab now has its own mini-grill, so we can look forward to future cookouts. The next one will probably in a few weeks, on a Saturday in the late afternoon. Also being planned is a LAN party, probably featuring Team Fortress 2, and possibly open to a small number of guests / non-members.
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- Mike assembles grill, Harold starts fire with heat gun
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- Mark & Mike set-up the grill
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- Mike cooking, TJ eating
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- TJ, Caroline, Ethan, & Brandon eating
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- Charles compliments the condiments cart
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- Ethan & Charles find Mike passed-out
First recorded presentation goes live
The first recorded presentation at 757 Labs has been posted to YouTube. A short talk on jUnit (Java Unit Testing) by Geoff from HRGeeks. The recording quality should be seen as a test. New (but used) cameras are being added at this moment as well as a direct feed from the projector into the video switching system. The new (but used) cameras can store positions in them and be commanded under computer control. It's a glimpse of what is to come and should give the lab a great capability.
Also, we've made improvements to the audio setup and will be testing settings with regards to better encoding of the videos for youtube and other free distribution.
Skillcrane is back in it’s glory!
The internet connected skillcrane is back, complete with full time internet video feed and player overlays. There is still a few small tweaks coming, but it's been running flawless (and non-stop) for a 4+ hours now.
I'm planning to make it so that when meetings are going on, the crane automagically goes administratively offline with a notice to users to return in a few hours.
Samsung 226BW / GH22WS LCD monitor fix
Over the weekend George brought by a Samsung LCD monitor that was having issues. The screen backlight would flicker somewhat fast. It looked like the CCFL back light tubes were failing on the monitor, or something was up with the inverter. Upon further inspection it was common bad caps issue. So if you have one of these, you're going to want two 820uF 25V caps and a 330uF 25V cap. You can see the bulging ones inside. C110 and C112 are two of them, the other is in between. I seem to recall similar issues with a different model Samsung that was donated to the lab, perhaps the power supply boards are the same. Faulty components from the manufacturer led to this issue.
24-Hour Comics Day Time-Lapse
We decided to record a time-lapse video during the 24-Hour Comics Day event, here are the results.
Music Jam Session Saturday, October 16, 2010
757 Labs will be having another amateur music jam session. We will hold it on Saturday, October 16, 2010. Plan to setup your gear around 5:00 PM EST, and spend the next hour or so messing around with MIDI, pushing buttons, tweaking configurations, etc. Then around 7:00 PM EST, we will get down to business.
Feel free to add comments to this post, to let us know who will be attending, and what gear you will be bringing. Hopefully, we will have some webcams setup to stream live video, or at least record some audio samples. Anyone interested in electronic music and related musical gear is welcome to attend, regardless of skill level.
24 hour comics day this weekend
Heads up everyone, 757 Labs is the only site in Virginia hosting a 24 hour comics day! See www.24hourcomicsday.com for more info on the event. Participants write 24 pages of comics in 24 hours. It starts Saturday at noon and runs until Sunday. Big thanks to Mike B. for putting this together, and Local Heros for a sponsorship of it!
Open lab night, Saturday. 4PM till whenever.
Lab opens at 4pm till whenever. Open hack night. Project discussion, work being done, perhaps board games. More details on the mailing list. Will echo to Facebook.
Location
Google Calendar
@757Labs
- No public Twitter messages.
Links
User Groups
- 757 CCC Comic & Cartoon Creators
- 757 Objective C Group Objective C and Cocoa programming group.
- 757 Python Users Group
- 757.rb Ruby Users Group
- HR Geeks Hampton Roads Geek Community