Midsouth Makers - Memphis Area Hackerspace

DIY 3d Printer Build Off Event in Huntsville, AL July 21-22

Joe — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:29:22 +0000

Midsouth Makers is proud to announce the 2nd build off event will be held July 21-22 in Huntsville, AL at Makers Local 256. Sign ups for the event are already open and work has been under way in preparation for our Huntsville build off. All the information and signup info: https://www.3dprinterbuildoff.com/reserve-your-spot/

Vegetable Garden Project – Getting Started

critter42 — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:53:49 +0000

My wife and I will shortly be moving into a new house. This house has nice side section on the side that is fenced off and I think will make a good vegetable garden, so I figured I’d keep a project log.
There are a couple of facts I need to make the reader aware of
1) Here is how this area looks now:

As you can see, it has been pretty neglected and left to run to seed.
2) The closest I have ever been to growing things has involved an animal-shaped pottery and some slimy seeds (http://www.chiapet.com/index.php/original-chia-pet). Since when it comes to growing things I am a complete dummy, it should come as no surprise that I will be using this book:

To guide me along.
My ultimate goal when finished is to have a garden of different types of vegetables (and maybe some fruit here and there) to supplement our groceries, help us eat healthier and make things more convenient than having to run to the store all the time for different items.
The first step (and most likely the hardest) is clearing out this area. Complicating things is that there is no telling what is hidden in the overgrowth, so until I clear the space out I will list the “treasure” I find each day.

DAY 1
TOOLS:
1 Gardening hoe (no jokes!)
1 Garden Fork
Based on the images above, I made the assumption that everything was dirt from the shed to the far fence. However, once I started, this is what I found instead:

Bricks and paving stones!

It might be hard to see above, but click the image to see the large size – there are bricks and paving stones covering much that area. So, I will need to pull most of these up before I start planting. I will probably leave a small area for a path and place to put a small table and chair under the awning.
Even with the little surprise, I was able to accomplish what I planned for today – I cleared as much of the overgrowth from the fenced in section as I could and enough on the other side to allow both gates to open and close freely.
GOAL: Clear out fenced in section of overgrowth
Status: Mostly Complete, with a surprise!
Treasure: A 5ft long post hole digger(handles intact and metal in excellent shape), bricks/paving stones, a decomposing Croc, and some empty aluminum cans, vintage indeterminate
OTHER THOUGHTS: I should have brought a large blade straight edged and a curved edge shovel and a couple of shears/loppers of various sizes. Those will be included next time as I go to work on the saplings and brush that has sprung up in and around this section of the garden.

DIY Home Audio Project – Tube Amp

Ben Eishen — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:42:55 +0000

Recently Roy and I set out to build set out to build a better headphone amplifier for our higher end Sennheiser headphones. A headphone amp simply boosts the power to the headphones a bit, this results in better sound on the bigger headphones. The design is built around a know design over at Diy Audio Projects. It is a Class A amplifier with a 12AU7 tube. We ended up puting a spin on the project and added a PCM2704 USB DAC (sound card). Sweet glowing tube action pictures are below.

Adventures in Rapid Prototyping: Shaving Brush Stand

orias — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:20:34 +0000

I have a badger-hair shaving brush that I’d like to keep for a while. I’ve read that the brush will last longer if it’s allowed to hang and dry versus being left sitting in the lather bowl. After looking around for a hanging stand I decided to make my own. My first model took over 6 hours to print at 60mm/sec.

It turns out I made the model quite a bit larger than necessary. After placing the brush and the razor on the stand, all the extra unused space is really evident.

I decided to see how much time and material I could save on my next model so I tried to use circles and ellipses to minimize the printed area while still leaving enough structure. The new model has a hanger for the razor and a slot with drain holes for the extra razor blades.

This model printed much faster, it only took around two and a half hours at 60mm/sec.

The stand works well enough, but I’m not happy with how tall and light it is, it’s too easy to knock over early in the morning.

For the next iteration, I’m going to flare out the base a bit to prevent tipping and may increase the amount of material towards the bottom of the model. The blade storage slot needs to be deeper as well.

Adventures in Rapid Prototyping: Banner Stand

orias — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:20:10 +0000

We have a banner stand that is starting to fail at work. The plastic collar is starting to crack. Rather than simply replacing the whole stand, I figured I could make a quick replacement clamp. 10 minutes later thanks to TinkerCAD we have our replacement part model.

Once the stand was disassembled, I switched out and replaced the collar. It’s a bit brighter than the stock part, but the stand is repaired!

Once I saw how easy it was to create models in TinkerCad, I decided to get caught up with some of our other needs. This is a replacement clip for a hanging banner.

The original clip slides into a channel, the replacement slid right in!

How to make a website presentation April 6th @ Republic Coffee

Joe — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:53:46 +0000

This Friday’s meeting at Republic Coffee I will be giving a presentation / demonstration on how to make a website. We’ll cover a lot of content and a lot of topics. Below is my rough outline for what I plan to cover. It won’t be too long and drawn out, but I’ll welcome any questions anyone may have. We’ll get started around 7:15-7:20 to give people enough time to get to Republic.

- What’s in a (Domain) name?

- Here hold this: Finding a web host

– Cpanel

– Shared? Dedicated? Colo?

– To SSL or not to SSL

– PCI Compliance: the worse villian in the web host world

- Blogs and Forums – your own soapbox

– WordPress

– phpBB

– Vbulletin

- Traffic and How to monetize it

– Basic Traffic stats w/ awstats

– Google Analytics

– Adsense / Adwords /

- Search Engine Considerations

– Google Keyword Tool

Mid-South Makers’ First Annual 24 hour Make-In

Joe — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:37:18 +0000

Mid-South Makers’ First Annual 24 hour Make-In

The Make-In will be 24 hours of concentrated space-based making from 12 noon on Saturday, March 17 until 12 noon on Sunday March 18.

Start and/or finish the projects you’ve been putting off.
Inspire, and be inspired by, other makers’ projects and progress.
Stay 24 hours, or drop by as you can.
Use the space as a maker with other makers.
All members are invited.

More info on our wiki

A Very Maker 3D Valentines Day

orias — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:39:02 +0000

I’ve been wanting to print some of the geared items on Thingiverse for a while. With Valentines day coming up it seemed like an excellent opportunity to try out the Screwless Heart Gears by Thingiverse user Emmett. After reading the assembly instructions the heart came together quite nicely with the help of a hot air gun to help let the printed pins slide in easily.

Cisco II Feb 18th – 3 Class Times Limited Space

Joe — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:41:51 +0000

A friend of the group, Brandon Tice, will be coming back to teach another Cisco Networking Class. This class will build on the information learned in the first Cisco class but will still be easy enough to follow for entry level network skill. This will be a hands on demo where you will need to bring your own laptop. We will be providing a USB/Serial adapter for you to connect to a set of Cisco equipment and configure. You’ll be working with the Cisco IOS software to setup and configure your set of hardware in varying configurations. We’ll be doing small class sizes with multiple classes.

Class size is limited to 5 people. The class is going to last approximately 1 hour. Each of the 3 classes will cover the same content.

Where: The Space
When: Feb 18th Noon to 1:30 PM, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM, and 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM (click link to book your seat)
Cost: $10 for Members $20 for Non Members
What you Need to bring: Laptop w/ at least 1 free USB port (We’ll provide USB/Serial Adapter and Cisco Hardware)

Space is limited. Please confirm your booking and pay via Paypal at your earliest convenience. All bookings are first come, first serve.

Direct Links to Each Event: (you don’t need an account to book your spot)

Noon to 1:30 PM: http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/cisco-class-2-feb-18th-noon-to-130-pm/
2:00 PM to 3:30 PM: http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/cisco-class-2-feb-18th-200-pm-330-pm/
4:00 to 5:30 PM: http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/cisco-class-2-feb-18th-400-pm-530-pm/

To cancel or check the status of your booking: http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/my-bookings/

Hacking the PowerBag – Quick and easy lunchtime hack

Ben Eishen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:26:45 +0000

Today a buddy at work got a new PowerBag, come to find out the micro usb cable would not charge his Galaxy Nexus. The .8 A that the micro USB port was putting out was not enough to charge the device. Luckily there was an apple port that was rated to charge devices at 1 amp. Since he doesn’t own any apple devices, a quick snip took care of the Apple plug. A little solder, and a donor micro USB cable the PowerBag had a brand new micro USB that would charge the Nexus!