757 Labs A Hackerspace in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Events for Saturday, March 5, 2011

Here are two events scheduled to be held at the lab on Saturday, March 5, 2011:

2:00 PM EST - basic soldering class by Harold; bring eye protection and something to solder

in Harold's words:

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:30:14 -0500
Subject: [757labs] Class this Saturday

I finally decided to dive in and become the experimental pig for the first class!  Well at least the first "hardware" related class.

This Saturday, at 2:00 PM, I plan on holding a Basic Soldering Class for anyone who wishes to show up at the Lab.  With that said, if for some strange reason we are swamped, I must give preference for room to current Lab Members.  That is only fair to them.  I doubt we will run out of room, so please show up if you want!

The game plan is to have the herd assembled by 2 PM and the actual start time might be 15 or so minute later.  The one thing that would be nice is to have a list of who all plans on showing up so I can have a roster to know when it is time to start.  I won't wait all day and plan on letting 2:15 PM being the delayed start time.

For anyone who wishes to attend please bring the following if you have it:

1.  Your soldering iron, station, whatever you currently use.   PLEASE DO NOT RUN OUT AND BUY SOMETHING!!! Unless you really want to. There are the good bad and ugly types of irons to waste money on.

2.  Hand Tools.  Most soldering hand tools could be classified as side cutter diagonals or regular diagonals if you don't have those.  A straight pick, tweezers, any heat shrinks etc..  Again, don't run out and buy stuff if you don't have it already.

3.  Safety glasses.  I am not going to demand that anyone wears a pair; however, if you do not wear any type of glasses normally ... I suggest getting a cheap pair.  Remember, solder is molten metal.  Your eyes do not like it.  Burns to your skin are one thing ... burns to your eyes are something you more than likely wont recover from.

4.  If you have any type of circuit kits or solder breadboards etc.. that you would like to work on, please bring them.  If you don't have anything, please try to snag a cheap one from Radio Shack to play with. Also, if you have some old components like resistors etc.. drag them along so you can have something to solder on.

5.  Solder.  If you have your own type that you are used to working with bring it.  If not, I should have plenty for everyone to play with.

6.  Solder wick / Solder sucker.  This is something that would be nice to have, but it is not required.  We can pass around what we have.

7.  If you have a board vise or any other sort of device that you use to hold circuit cards etc.. that would make life easier on you.  If not, we will do it old school.

The objective to the course is not to turn everyone into a uber solder dude but to at least give you some insight and hands on experience to allow you to enhance your current skill set.  Since I just decided to get stupid and give a class (oh joy!) I don't really have a course written up so please handle the lack of continuity and we will all get through it.

8:00 PM EST - game development meeting by Matt (cyberflux); bring your ideas

in Matt's words:

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:20:12 -0500
Subject: [757labs] Game Developers Team (March 5)

I am looking to have a game.dev meeting this Saturday for those interested in creating games at the Lab. Those who are interested feel free to show up sometime around 8pm or so, but I should be there earlier. Currently I am loading services on an older dual Xeon 2 server that will host development environments for Net applications. There is currently no defined hardware for the group so there is flexibility in what platform to go with, however most have been looking at diving into the mobile device market. Any input prior to the gathering is welcomed.

Hope to see some people there! Cheers!