Kwartzlab Society Inc.

 
Mitch Altman and Jimmie Rodgers came by kwartzlab tonight on their maker space tour of the mid-west. They brought tons of cool kits to show. We bought 'em up and got right to the soldering. For the new folks, Mitch gave a great intro to electronics and soldering basics. Great turnout and a fun night. Thanks a lot, guys!
 

More after the break...
 

 
Just got word from Ben that my build of the Wacky Sound Generator is very popular at the kwartzlab booth at Maker Faire Detroit today. I printed off a bunch of sheets with the schematics and bill of materials and they were snapped up in nothing flat. That's awesome. This is a great project for beginners, can be built in an afternoon, and is a heck of a lot of fun. It outputs an astounding variety of noises. This is not my design, but rather one of the great offerings from the folks at Music From Outer Space. Thanks MFOS! Buy their kits!
 

Attached to this post is a PDF of the instructions I scraped from MFOS. It's just a bit easier for printing out. Hope that's ok, guys.
 

Happy making and wish I was there,
DW

 
Peter Nesbitt and Rob Green discuss their Dalek Auric project. Part 1 of 2.
 

More vids after the break...

 
EXTERMINATE! It was another great Tuesday Open Night at kwartzlab this week. We had a double-header of Rob Green and Peter Nesbitt's fantastic Dalek Auric (show above) and Eric Boyd's Sensebridge gear. Click through for some video and pics.
 

More after the break...
 

 
A funny thing happened on the way to the Site3 open house...
 

More after the break...
 

 
Karl and I took a ride over to Toronto on Saturday to see and support our friends at Site3, a "colaboratory" that has just opened its doors. Here's our good friend Seth Hardy demo'ing a Rubens' Tube (made by Adam Smith, I believe). Propane is pumped into this tube and escapes through a series of holes on the top. A speaker at one end of the tube plays a sine wave (or other sound) which changes the height of the various flames and approximates the wave form. Site3 loves fire.
 

More after the break...
 

 
We had a great time at kwartzlab last week at the second 5+5 event, where we invite 5 local artists and 5 kwartzlabbers to give 5-minute lightning talks on what they love to do.

Paul Walker is walking us through the Bananaphone design here.
 

More after the break...
 

 
'Twas the night before 5+5...
 
As with any show, there are a bunch of makers working in the background to make it all possible. I call these guys my 5+5 Roadie Posse, and they take the show up to a ho nutha level. I'll call them out here so you can thank them in person at the lab.
 
* Ben Brown - rockin the web streaming setup, the food prep, and 14 other things I'm forgetting
* Alex Williams, James Bastow, Karl Williams - cleaning and shuffling furniture
* Rob Adlers - total rework of the sound system including remounting the mixer and amp on sliding drawers, running additional speakers out to the lounge, and loaning his video projector for lounge simulcast
* Ed Blanchard - macgyvered up an awesome mount for simulcast camera and worked with Ben on the projector mount. Oh, and he'll also replace a light bulb if you ask nicely.
 
Thanks also to Darcy Casselman and Cedric Puddy for more chairs!
 
Big thanks, guys. One cool outcome of 5+5 so far is that each time we increase our capabilities at the lab. Last time was the main digital projector and a sound system. This time we're adding lounge simulcast, serious audio setup, and stream video.

More after the break...
 

 
Got my toolchain sorted out by switching to WinAVR with AVR Studio 4. Simple code, blinking out Vegas-style.
 
Happy making,
DW

 
James Nye - July's guest artist at kwartzlab opening Tuesday! Yeah, that's right, Tuesday for 5+5. Double header!
 
Help us spread the word! Print and hang this poster
 
Check out the event posting for deets.
 
Happy making,
DW