Based on pictures of the 50′s era Police Box, but lots of liberties taken to make it easy to laser cut. First version was 1/8 scale to make it easier to figure out the cuts.

Laser cut from 3mm hardboard and assembled with a bit of glue, but mostly it press-fits together.

KwartzLab friend and pumpkin carving guru, Jeff-o, held such a workshop for us on Wednesday evening. And as a graduate of the kitchen knife & stitches school of pumpkin carving, I was first in line! I’ll share some of the tips we learned after Hacky Hallowe’en. In the meantime, however, you can take a peek at our technique!

Andrew opts for a "fancy" lid.

Pumpkins are tasty.

Taping the pattern to the pumpkin.

Transfering the pattern to the pumpkin.

Doug shows off the KWAwesome pumpkin

Awesome-looking pumpkins, that don't require blood sacrifice.

More pics over here.

There’s a rule of thumb in the hackerspace community – hold your open house on Tuesday. It’s completely arbitrary. No matter what day of the week you do pick for your open house, there will be someone who just can’t make it. Many just pick Tuesday by convention and no more thought is needed. Unfortunately, it makes it hard to visit other spaces since members generally want to be at home base for the open house. But since I was out of town with no hopes of making it to Kwartzlab, I had a perfect excuse to take a Tuesday to visit Hacklab.to.

Tucked away between two shops in the north end of Kensington Market, it’s an easy place to miss. It’s one of those mysterious doorways in the city that appeals to my inner child (who has a love of the paranormal, secret passageways and hidden worlds). Whose door is it? What’s behind it? There are a few clues that suggest there’s something more to 170 Baldwin Street. A simplex push-button lock and RFID reader guard the door while an infrared LED-lined camera provides overwatch.

I arrived just after 7 to a full house. Rent in the big city isn’t cheap and space is at a premium, meaning seats at the main work table fill up fast. At less than 500 square feet, Hacklab isn’t a space for manufacturing big things, either. They’re much closer to the stereotypical description of “hacker” than most of the other spaces I’ve visited, with a strong emphasis on electronics, software, and information security. But even with the limited floor space, there’s still a wide variety of projects going on. A model railroad hangs from the ceiling. A box of locks for locksport enthusiasts can be found in the lounge. There’s even an ’80s Mac Classic hanging out in a closet.

At 3 years old, Hacklab.to is the oldest hackerspace in Canada. In the big picture that’s not a long time, but it’s long enough that Hacklab can claim at least partial credit in helping establish a few other hackerspaces in the province such as Site 3 and Kwartzlab. Being the first, they’ve also been able to attract some media attention from places like BoingBoing and Discovery Channel.

Hacklab has a number of great tools available to the membership. A workbench constructed over the bathtub holds an Epilog ULS (my bad) laser cutter – a cheap craigslist find that some lab members brough back to life with extensive hardware and software rebuilding. A tricked-out Makerbot 3D printer lives on a shelf near the main work table, and evidence of it’s capabilities cover the short wall next to the stairs.

In addition to the oddles of thermoplastic gizmos and doodads next to the stairs, there are member projects scattered everywhere in the space. One of my favourites was a touch-screen computer hanging on a central support near the main work table. The display oozed with data and information, such as the date and time, and news feeds. Other mostly complete projects seem to collect on any available flat space. It’s not clutter – they’re evidence of learning and education. For many, hacking isn’t about the end product, it’s what you learn on the way. These leftovers, then, are trophies of accomplishment. Of conquering the unknown.

Hacklab.to is located at 170 Baldwin Street in Toronto, Ontario. They run an open house on Tuesday from 5:30 PM to 11:00 PM every week.

I remember reading an amazing article in National Geographic back in the early ’90s about lightning. There were a handful of brilliant photographs, but the one that really grabbed me was a night shot overlooking a city as a storm front moved in, capturing 30 or more forks of lightning over a 30-second exposure. I’m no photographer (as I am happy to admit at every available opportunity), but when I saw an incredible storm front moving in on the evening of the 24th, I couldn’t resist trying to create some of my own photographs of lightning.

I grabbed my camera and tripod and set up for a simple 5 second exposure under the cover of the patio. It became obvious pretty quick that this wasn’t going to work. With the storm already on top of me, any forks (sparks?) that found their way out of the clouds were illuminating the whole area, leaving a washed-out, white mess.

I dropped to 3 seconds, but it was still too long. Though it was interesting to see how the lighting on the treeline changed depending on whether the lightning was happening behind me or in front of me.

Eventually, I set the exposure time for 1 second and managed to catch my first clear spark.

But with a 1 second exposure, it became much harder to capture lightning. I couldn’t just pull the trigger and wait anymore. Well, I could, but the chances of actually capturing anything in that time was pretty low. And even when I did, things were still getting washed out.

So I finally tried a half second exposure, and that seemed to get some decent results.

By this point I had taken about 260 pictures and filled up my SD card. With only 1 or 2 worth showing by this point, I had developed a much greater appreciation for the quality of the pictures on the Wikipedia page for lightning.

I dumped the card to my laptop and ran outside with an umbrella to see if I could get some pictures with fewer trees in the way. The lightning at this point was incredible. I could tell when a good one was coming because it would start from behind me, lighting up the trees. Then, from a hole in the clouds, tendrils of lightning burst through, like the tentacles of an octopus, and spread out in a circular pattern, crawling and dancing along the bottom surface of the clouds, spreading out like the spokes on a bicycle wheel.

Thinking back to that National Geographic article and comparing it with my experiences during this storm, I’ve got some clues to improve my pictures for the next time. First, I need to get up to a higher spot of ground so that I can get clearer pictures of the sky with fewer obstructions. I’m not going to go stand on a bare hill with my metal tripod of anything, but something like an apartment balcony would be great.

Second, it seems that once the storm is on top of me, it’s going to be a lot harder to get a good picture. I should set up so that I can get a clear shot of the front as it approaches. There are a couple of advantages to this – shots from further away won’t light up the entire sky as much, making it easier to capture clear pictures of lightning. It’ll also keep me ahead of the rain, and safer from the sky.

Finally, I really need to learn how to work my camera properly. At one point I managed to mess up the focus meaning there’s a series of 3 to 4 shots that are pretty blurry. I was also shooting in shutter priority mode on the D40. I believe there is a way to get control over both the aperature and shutter speed at the same time, but I’m not sure how. I think a smaller aperature would have let me do much longer exposures without having the whole scene washed out. But then again, with the reflections due to the clouds, it may not have helped that much. More experimentation is needed.

On Victoria Day Monday, I joined a handful of folks from the Hamilton hackerspace Think|haus in Mount Nemo to have a look at one of the leading location candidates for SoOnCamp 2012.

SoOnCamp will be an outdoor hacker meetup, modeled on the popular European hacker camps like the quadrennial Chaos Communication Camp held in Germany. The idea of hacking and camping is a curious juxtaposition, not only due to the classic stereotype of hackers living in unlit basements, but for more practical concerns as well. Our makerly society is largely dependant on the infrastructure of our cities, especially electricity and internet access – two utilities that are scarcely found in nature.

SoOnCamp, then, will be less like camping and more like Everest Base Camp. A temporary city, complete with utilities, infrastructure, and 1500 artists, makers, and hackers, plopped down in the middle of the Canadian wilderness.

The similarities between the European hacker camps and the famous Burning Man, as a vehicle for counter-culture community development and self-expression, are hard to ignore. But the hacker-centric events also bring a strong influence from information technology and small-scale manufacturing. At mini Maker Faire Toronto, I noted how strange it was that 3D printers have become so popular and widespread in the hacker community that they outnumbered traditional printers (in fact, I didn’t see any paper printers at the event). Even stranger it will be, then, to see these production capabilities in the middle of nowhere, Canada, churning out ABS knick-knacks in SoOnCamp’s prototyping building.

SoOnCamp takes place July 5 through 9, 2012. Tickets, when they go on sale, are expected to cost $200 for the 5 day event. If you’re interested in helping make SoOnCamp a reality, check out the SoOnCamp wiki.

April 5th, 2011

2011-04-05 kwartzlab Tuesday Open Night on Flickr

April 12th, 2011

2011-04-12 kwartzlab Tuesday Open Night on Flickr

April 19th, 2011

2011-04-19 kwartzlab Tuesday Open Night on Flickr

April 26th, 2011

2011-04-26 kwartzlab Tuesday Open Night on Flickr

May 3rd, 2011

2011-05-03 kwartzlab Tuesday Open Night on Flickr

May 10th, 2011

2011-05-10 kwartzlab Tuesday Open Night on Flickr

On April 21, a delegation from Kwartzlab made the trek to Toronto to check out fellow hackerspace Site 3 – and in particular their laser cutter!

The ground floor of Site 3 is dedicated mostly to a large, open workshop filled with big tools and large, well-lit workspaces.

The electronics workbench has a few Weller WES-51 soldering stations and a Madell bench power supply, all set up and ready to go. There’s also convenient access to parts bins right from the work space. The only thing missing is an ESD-safe table surface.

In the back corner sits a Makerbot 3D printer, hiding on a shelf and surrounded by little knick-knacks that have been printed out on it. But as Seth Hardy, one of the founders of Site 3 tells us: “A Makerbot isn’t a tool, it’s a project. You buy a Makerbot to spend time fixing a Makerbot, and contributing to the open source 3D printing world.” I’m paraphrasing a bit, but that’s the jist.

And here’s the reason we came. Gus gets a lesson on the operation of the Site 3 laser. This unit was purchased from China for about $4000, all in, including a bunch of extra parts to replace pieces that wear out. The total cost of ownership for one of these units comes in at less than half of one of Epilog’s entry-level “Zing” units, and Site 3 is quite happy with both the unit’s performance and the supplier’s customer support.

The laser in action.

Before using the laser, members and guests are required to take a training course on the proper use of the machine. At the end of the course, students cut out a sample image to demonstrate their knowledge – many of these samples are hung on the wall next to the laser.

By carefully adjusting the power settings, it’s even possible to etch a pattern into cloth or paper towel!

The upper level holds a clean workspace and lounge area for members. There’s also tons of storage space.

There was also a Portal 2 release party happening at the same time. All the computers and projectors were being dedicated to this awesome game! And… is that cake?

Yep, there’s cake. No lie. As Darcy has shown at the Ubuntu release parties hosted by Kwartzlab, you can’t have a release party without cake.

It wouldn’t be Site 3 if there wasn’t some kind of fire effects going on.

Toronto Mini Maker Faire was all kinds of awesome. Thanks to all the kwartzlab friends and members that came out. Our tables were packed with projects and people!

I don’t think I got pictures of even half of what I saw, so be sure to check out photos from others. Here’s what I’ve found so far:
MiniMakerFaireToronto == Awesome from think|haus
Toronto Mini Maker Faire 2011 by squiddity of toronto on Flickr
2011 May – Toronto Mini Maker Faire by syberchic on Flickr
Toronto Mini-Maker Faire by gordasm on Flickr

If you’ve got any more, post them in the comments!

A huge thanks to Site3 and the Treehouse Group for making this all possible. I hope it returns next year! Follow @MakerFaire_TO on Twitter for updates!

Photos from another excellent chiptunes event presented by Bitmasters Netlabel at Maxwell’s Music House in Waterloo.

DW has a great writeup with additional photos on his blog, makebright.

Here are a few pictures I took at the 8-bit music festival, PRESS START, presented by Bitmasters Netlabel at THEMUSEUM in downtown Kitchener.

Event info on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=196325367060500

The music and visualizations were absolutely fantastic. It was quite a challenge to capture the very animated performers. I ended up uploading only 43 of 439 photos.

I’m looking forward to the next event, hopefully this summer.