South West Makers

Hi, it's on again: Event: Robofair 2015 Date: Sunday 6th of December 2015 Time: 10 am – 2 pm Location: Engineering Pavilion (Building 215) Curtin University Kent Street, Bentley Same place, same time, in Dec. instead of November, so it could be a bit warmer. PM me, or email me if your interested in ...

Oh, so how well does this work? yes, it's ok: LED ring.1.jpg well that doesn't look that bright does it? Lets just pull the camera back a bit: LED ring.2.jpg Yep, that's bright enough I picked up some ring LED's in Shenzhen. This one eventually will have a 3D printed mount that will fit onto my came...

It's hard photographing small Helmet Orchids in winter. July through August is their peak flowering time. When you have your head stuck in a sedge bush, under some Peppi trees, there usually isn't much light around for a good photo. My elcheapo Canon camera's flash only starts working out at 50cm fr...

Thanks Phillip. Yes, and they where nice cookies!

What's being printed and cooked next month?

1) It's not plugged in? But that's too obvious
2) no getter. Manufacturing missed the getter phase, so too much bad gas still inside?

Well, it's been a frustrating week of correspondence, but it's looking like once again that due the the type of insurance the event has, we won't be able to attend the BREC SW Science Spectacular event, well, not hosting a display table.

Moving on, the Robofair is next.

Hi BJ, might help if I tick 'Notify when a reply is posted'. Yes, PLA. Not too sure what I might use them for. Maybe the GIS-Pi project? I did see a number of battery sellers at the Shenzhen SEG building. Some had some handy flat battery packs. I wanted to purchase a number of them so I could mount ...

These are a bit longer than a D Cell battery and can hold around 5500mAhr at 3.7V or 20.35WHr of power. I purchased 4 of these 143gm TrustFire babies recently from dx.com - just to have a play with. I knew the battery tabs from element14 would take some adjusting, so I just did a quick mock up desig...

I woke up one morning and I realised that I hadn't tested to see what kind of thread the old 1970's soldering iron might be using. Sure enough it was one that a common 3/16" bolt would screw into. I just happened to have a bag of long bolts. Stephen was kind enough to turn down three of them to...

Well, this year season is ramping up already. I am no where near ready for it as I should be. Last year I wrapped the Tanglefoot insect traps in glad wrap, so they could be transported to Perth for further analysis. That lead to a sticky mess when we tried to unwrap them. This year I have quickly de...

People building simple RPi based Robots: http://piwars.org/getting-started-with-robotics/

Hi, it was nice to see so many people making things at the last monthly meeting. It got me thinking or wondering if there is any interest in holding specialist meetings on other weekends. These might run for a morning, afternoon or perhaps an entire day. Some types of events: ⋅  3D design ...

Hi, with the local SW Science Spectacular going under, or not happening this year. How about we do something our selves. Just a few ideas: 1) We could start small and just setup a few tables at the local Malls on a Saturday morning and display some projects, or 3D print things etc. I am presuming th...

Some early bad news. The School have changed their mind and are no longer going to run the usual day long event. Instead they are just going to run a night time paid event on Sat. the 22nd July from 17:00 to 21:00. This is being held at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre (BREC). It will cost ...

Love to have you along!

The next SW Science Spectacular is being held this year on Saturday, the 22nd of August 2015. I have lodged an application form and called the new event manager to make the case for them to cover us for insurance. It all sounded positive, but time will tell. As a backup, I had the thought of seeing ...

another interesting project there BJ. What's in the LH green box? Is that a webcam, or have you made your own housing for the RPi camera? Are you georeferencing the photos? Yes, I want to have a play with SDR for testing/benchmarking RPi RFI issues. I am (hopefully) close to ordering one of these: m...

One of these would lighten the load a bit: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2946015/consumerization/a-bigger-faster-google-glass-is-headed-for-the-workplace.html I think it would be very hand to have a HUD like this showing where where to go and what is or was around the place. Maybe one day I c...

Had fun on the weekend designing up a camera sled and camera mount for DOC-Pi. The requirement was that it had to be adjustable, so I could slide the camera up and down a bit. I thought I would start with this, so I can fine tune the location while I am testing the unit. It's built in two pieces, on...

It's been a while, but I have been on a geek holiday to Shenzhen, checking out the factories and markeys etc. Great place, and a recommended geek place to visit. Before I left, I painted the outside MDF wood surfaces of GIS-Pi in chrome yellow. I went to assemble it, then realised I should really pa...