Circuit Hacking Monday

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What? Where?

What: Weekly get-together to solder stuff!
     You can easily learn all of the skills you need in one session.
     Make a project tonight, and take it home with you!
     If you have your own project (advanced or simple),
     bring it by, and if you would like help, you can get it!
When: 7:00pm till ?? -- Every Monday (it is totally fine to come late!) Most projects take about 1.5 to 2 hours
Where: Noisebridge, 2169 Mission St., San Francisco, 94114 (at 18th St., near 16th St. BART station). Map: Getting_Here
Who: You! It is fun to make things in the friendly community of Noisebridge.
     Come join us. Everyone is welcome.
Cost: Instruction is free! We ask that people pay only for the cost of the parts used -- kit prices range from $10 to $30.

Happy hardware hackers at Circuit Hacking Monday

Learn to solder! Mitch will bring kits to make cool, practical, intriguing, hackable things that you can bring home after you make it. Of course, you can also bring your own projects to hack.


Plenty of cool kits are available to make, including:

  • TV-B-Gone (turn off TVs in public places!)
  • Brain Machine (Meditate, Hallucinate, and Trip Out!)
  • Mignonette Game (play fun games!)
  • Trippy RGB Waves (interactive blinky lights!)
  • LEDcube (animated 3D cube!)
  • MiniPOV (more cool blinky lights!)
  • MintyBoost (charge your USB enabled gadgets!)
  • microcontroller programmers (program all your AVR family chips!)
  • Arduino clones (make just about anything!)
  • Open Heart (animate fun patterns in the shape of a heart!)
  • Atari Punk Console (make cool noise from an Altoids tin!)
  • And more.

More info on many of these projects is on Mitch's website http://www.CornfieldElectronics.com (click on the "maker faire" tab).


Anyone can learn to solder! Even if you have never made anything in your life, you can learn this very useful and enjoyable skill. It really is fun! Mitch has taught thousands of people to solder all around the world, and he can teach you, too! Add yourself to the ever increasing community!

Topics

As interest warrants:

  • soldering (everything from through-hole to SMD rework)
  • breadboarding
  • powering your circuit (bench power supplies, ATX hacking, batteries)
  • making LEDs blink and fade
  • programming microcontrollers
  • using AVR / Arduino / Boarduino to make circuits easier
  • using oscilloscopes / multimeters to debug circuits
  • reverse engineering circuits
  • Designing PCBs using GEDA and EagleCAD

Who?

Everyone is welcome, regardless of experience level or age. If you have never made a circuit before and have no idea where to start, bring a few dollars ($10 to $30 to cover materials costs of a Brain Machine kit or other cool kits) and build it. Everyone gets personal attention, and everyone will learn enough to complete their project. If you have experience, please come and enjoy working on your project with others -- and share what you know!

Why?

Learn and share with others of all skill levels! You can come with an idea, or a question, or a circuit you want to hack. You can research ideas on the Internet ahead of time and come put them into practice! Or, you can learn with a large selection of easy-to-make kits that are available each week.

What can I bring to help?

No need to bring anything -- just yourself and your desire to play, learn, and/or share. We have everything you need. But if you lke, you can bring:

  • Your own tools (we have all you need, but you can bring your own)
  • Arduino / clones
  • USB - serial dongle for your Arduino
  • breadboards
  • If you bring your laptop, we can set it up to program microcontrollers
  • 9V or AA or AAA or other batteries (a bulk donation would be great)
  • parts for your own project(s)

I am a blank slate! What should I do?

  • make one of the many easy kits that are available each week.
  • make an Arduino fade an RGB LED in varying color patterns.
  • make a microcontroller illuminate a 3x3 LED matrix in varying shapes.
  • reverse engineer something you're curious about.
  • come to Noisebridge and brainstorm!