Thursday, July 22, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Next Meeting: June 11, 2010
Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on June 11, 2010, at HobbyTown. (Note the new earlier time!)
Monday, May 24, 2010
Next Meeting: May 28, 2010
Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on May 28, 2010, at HobbyTown. (Note the new earlier time!)
Friday, May 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Next Meeting: April 30, 2010
Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on April 30, 2010, at HobbyTown. (Note the new earlier time!)
We've finally got our meeting schedule in order! From now on, we'll be meeting regularly on the second and fourth Friday of each month, at HobbyTown, at 6:30pm, with any exceptions announced right here (and on our Google Calendar).
Last meeting, Frank showed us how he'd got his parallel-port AVR programmer working, and Joe borrowed my USB-based AVR programmer to try out at home. This time, we'll continue sorting our donated supplies, start stripping an old laser printer, and talk about our personal projects.
We've finally got our meeting schedule in order! From now on, we'll be meeting regularly on the second and fourth Friday of each month, at HobbyTown, at 6:30pm, with any exceptions announced right here (and on our Google Calendar).
Last meeting, Frank showed us how he'd got his parallel-port AVR programmer working, and Joe borrowed my USB-based AVR programmer to try out at home. This time, we'll continue sorting our donated supplies, start stripping an old laser printer, and talk about our personal projects.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Next Meeting: April 16, 2010
Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on April 16, 2010, at HobbyTown.
This meeting, we'll finally have some proper storage, so we can organize and inventory the new stuff we received two meetings ago. Also, Joe picked up some parts and supplies, and Frank has been playing with AVR chips and learning how to program a bootloader, and I've been to a few tech-themed local events lately, including a robot competition and an engineering expo for high school students. We'll discuss all this and more at this Friday's meeting, please come join us!
This meeting, we'll finally have some proper storage, so we can organize and inventory the new stuff we received two meetings ago. Also, Joe picked up some parts and supplies, and Frank has been playing with AVR chips and learning how to program a bootloader, and I've been to a few tech-themed local events lately, including a robot competition and an engineering expo for high school students. We'll discuss all this and more at this Friday's meeting, please come join us!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Next Meeting: March 12, 2010
Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on March 12, 2010, at HobbyTown. I'll be bringing along two laptops and a wireless access point provided by RPCUG, our parent organization. We'll spend some time loading the laptops up with Arduino and similar software, and try to get the wireless link up and running.
At our previous meeting, we sorted through some donated equipment, including an old working oscilloscope, a probably-working logic analyzer (we'll need cables), several "trainers" (breadboards with maybe-working power supplies and other goodies), and lots of unsorted electronics components, cables, etc.
Now that we have some tools and materials, we can start planning projects and workshops - suggestions are welcome! We still have some funds to pick up more supplies, and a "group buy" might not be a bad idea either.
At our previous meeting, we sorted through some donated equipment, including an old working oscilloscope, a probably-working logic analyzer (we'll need cables), several "trainers" (breadboards with maybe-working power supplies and other goodies), and lots of unsorted electronics components, cables, etc.
Now that we have some tools and materials, we can start planning projects and workshops - suggestions are welcome! We still have some funds to pick up more supplies, and a "group buy" might not be a bad idea either.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Next Meeting: February 19, 2010
I've been very busy since the last meeting, and haven't had a chance to post the last meeting's minutes yet, so here's a combined post....
Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on February 19, 2010, at HobbyTown. Topics to discuss will include a report on a big pile of recently donated supplies and equipment, which I hope to be able to bring to the meeting for some hands-on inventory and testing. I've also picked up some screwdrivers and such for the workbench, so we can do a little junk salvaging during meetings from now on.
At our previous meeting, my son helped me demonstrate two "kid's programming languages": Scratch and Alice. Each of these serves as a friendly-for-any-age introduction to modern object-oriented, event-driven, multi-threaded programming, and can be used to create simple demos and games, talk to other networked computers, talk to an Arduino, and much more. We compared those two languages to Lego Mindstorms NXT-G, Java, Arduino, C++, and others.
We also discussed upcoming robot-related public events, and one reason why I've been so busy lately: my son's FIRST Lego League robotics team won their local qualifying tournament, and have been meeting often to prepare for the big regional tournament at the end of this month. I had been planning to have enough free time to prepare for our club to set up a robot-demo and member-sign-up table at the upcoming Rockland Youth Fest, but I can't do it myself this year - next time, with the club better organized, we'll be there.
Upcoming events of interest:
Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on February 19, 2010, at HobbyTown. Topics to discuss will include a report on a big pile of recently donated supplies and equipment, which I hope to be able to bring to the meeting for some hands-on inventory and testing. I've also picked up some screwdrivers and such for the workbench, so we can do a little junk salvaging during meetings from now on.
At our previous meeting, my son helped me demonstrate two "kid's programming languages": Scratch and Alice. Each of these serves as a friendly-for-any-age introduction to modern object-oriented, event-driven, multi-threaded programming, and can be used to create simple demos and games, talk to other networked computers, talk to an Arduino, and much more. We compared those two languages to Lego Mindstorms NXT-G, Java, Arduino, C++, and others.
We also discussed upcoming robot-related public events, and one reason why I've been so busy lately: my son's FIRST Lego League robotics team won their local qualifying tournament, and have been meeting often to prepare for the big regional tournament at the end of this month. I had been planning to have enough free time to prepare for our club to set up a robot-demo and member-sign-up table at the upcoming Rockland Youth Fest, but I can't do it myself this year - next time, with the club better organized, we'll be there.
Upcoming events of interest:
- Hudson Valley FIRST Tech Challenge - February 21 at PACE University
- NYC FIRST Robotics competition - March 12-14 at the Jacob Javits Center
- Make Magazine's Maker Faire NYC - September 25-26 in the New York Hall of Science in Queens
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