Next round of projects
Now that the balloon launch is done and we were able to see some great results, it's time to start thinking about new projects. Matt C/Mark G and others have their simulator project going (and kudos to them for such great structure!) There has been a little talk among other members about starting some new projects.
UAV - Unmanned Ariel Vehicle. 757 Labs started developing an open source control program called OpenVulture. We could build a plane, run it on existing microcontroller platforms. We could fly OpenVulture with some work. We could work on building our own foam plane platforms.
ROV - Remote Operated Vehicles. Generally underwater exploration vehicles. We've also got some ideas on floating saucers that do underwater mapping, and some other neat ideas.
Interested? Have other ideas, or are interested in other things? Post on the mailing list!!
Fri Sept 10th, Open Lab Hack Night 8pm till
Another open lab night is happening Friday, starting at 8pm. Not sure which projects will be getting attention but it's fun as always (everyone is welcome to attend.) It should be open until midnight.
757.rb Learn to Program #1 a success!
On Sept 08th the 757.rb Ruby Meetup Group met at the lab for an introduction to Ruby programming. Attendance hit at least 23 people, and the presentation was good. Thanks to all for coming out, and thanks to Ken Collins for putting it together!
The next 757.rb meet up (in a month) will detail actually writing applications in Ruby.
Game development project underway
There is a new project at the lab around making an arcade game/simulator. There is an ambitious schedule on a whiteboard upstairs, and a development system where a few of the open source racing applications are being tested to see which is the best candidate as a starting point. It could be quite exciting! Matt Crainer has a background in modeling & simulation programming, and a number of others are assisting. Drop him a line if you are interested!
Open Lab, Fri Sept 3rd after 9:15pm
Just a heads up, lab will be open (assuming it doesn't flood too bad) Friday September 3rd after 9:15pm. This is after the 2600 meeting that takes place in Virginia Beach.
Ground Control to Major Tom
On or about 16:30 on the 29th day of August, 2010 757 Labs successfully recovered the high altitude balloon that we launched for the Hackerspaces in Space contest.
The balloon was launched from 'Middle of Nowhere' Suffolk, VA and recovered the balloon in 'Where the Hell Are We', NC. According to the raw data I have, launch took place at about 10:55, hit a peak altitude of 103,258ft at about 13:04 and last received location at and altitude of 3,244ft at about 13:32. After that it was searching the ground and listening for chirps and data bursts.
As I type this the recovery team is on their way back with the payload and the pictures we all can't wait to see.
Update:
We just got a picture from the recovery team which shows the curve of the Earth and the black of space... and part of the payload container.
Open hack night Friday night (Aug 27th), 8pm till…
I think I've got the energy to be at the lab and handle an open hack night from 8pm till whenever. So doors will be open! Maybe we will play a documentary or two, and mentally prepare for the high altitude balloon launch going down on Saturday. See you there!
Samsung Syncmaster 203B fix
Another dead LCD graciously donated by Mark G, and fixed!
Symptoms: Powers on for a brief second then goes off again. Will not power on.
Fix: A few 820uf caps are bad (normal bad caps issue) as well as possibly a 330uf. Couldn't find them locally, replaced 820uf caps with 1000uf, and replaced the 330uf with one of similar value. Seems to work fine. YMMV.
This is now the labs nicest LCD monitor!
Shopbot Camp @ Hines Design Labs
Heads up! There is something exciting coming up locally for those interested in CNC routing! Shopbot and Hines Design Labs are throwing an all day event. Presentations, demos, and some food. It will be on September 11th.
For more information check out the facebook event page. Want to see something cool Angus made with his? Puzzle piece parquet floor! Floor info here.
See you all at the event!
“Get Lamp” Screening, C64 and more
If you missed the "Get Lamp" Screening on Friday, you missed a good time.
The labs got in full swing around 9:30 and saw a lot of general conversation and general hacking.
Harold continues to push the 757 Labs in Space project forward, and Friday saw a lot of soldering, testing and the intermittent sounds of the life-support like de-soldering machine.
Vex brought in Commodore 64 with a couple of floppy drives which worked like a champ after he discovered a decidedly non-enduser mod to enabling them. We had a random assortment of software, including one title which you would have had to be a REALLY desperate man to ever play. Are those Mom jeans?
We had a few new people around which is always good to see and remember anyone is welcome to come and hang out.
Of course we screened the documentary Get Lamp: The Text Adventure Documentary which was a pretty interesting look into the early life of INFOCOM and the world of Interactive fiction.
Look for some pictures soon.
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- 757 CCC Comic & Cartoon Creators
- 757 Objective C Group Objective C and Cocoa programming group.
- 757 Python Users Group
- 757.rb Ruby Users Group
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