Yet More Hull Pixelbot Fun at our Hardware Meetup

Sorry about the blur. It’s what I get when I try to be artistic

We had our hardware meetup tonight at Hull MakerSpace. Plenty of folks turning up and building/programming robots. We are still working on the rules for Robot Rugby, but in the meantime folks spent today attaching battery packs so their robots could wander around with no wires. I’ve started writing a book which describes the process we are going through. You can find the first part here. I’m going to be adding sections as we build each part of the robot.

Free Hull Pixelbots at March 20th Hardware Meetup

If too many folks turn up will run a draw for these

Thanks to the generosity of “Player Piano Ross” we have some Hull Pixelbots to give away at the next Hardware Meetup at the Hull Makerspace at Central Library Hull. The meetup is on Wednesday 20th March and will start at 5:30 pm and continue until around 7:00pm. We are going to spend some time doing “Robot Training” with a little obstacle course we’ll try to program our way around.

The long term aim is to swap out the existing Arduino Uno controllers on the robots and replace them with Raspberry Pi Picos. This will let us run Python on the devices and program them over Wi-Fi. For the session on the 20th we’ll be using Python-ish and connecting our robots over RS232. I’m going to bring a few original pixelbots including Crystal Masie and Captain Black. It would be lovely to see you there. Bring your laptop, some AA batteries and a winning smile.

And you might get a free robot of your own.

Musical Meetup Fun

We had a fair amount of hardware to play with

We had a lovely meetup this evening, greatly enlivened by some newcomers keen to learn stuff. The theme was musical and so we had a few devices to play with including my Chocolate Synthbox, a Synthstrom Deluge, an Organelle, a Norns Shield and Tenori-On. Much fun was had, with plenty of clicks, beeps and musical-ish sounds beating out.

We had some wonderful chats about ChatGPT, air quality, how a piano works (and how to mechanise it), lithophanes, HueForge and of course robots.

There was so much interest in Hull Pixelbots that we’ve decided to get together and build a bunch. We’ll be meeting up in two weeks (20th March) at 5:30pm in Hull MakerSpace and having a go. I’ll be publishing a shopping of list of parts soon. If you want to go on the mailing list for the Meetup send an email to addmetothelist@hullpixelbot.com

Musical Hardware Meetup March 6th

I’ll be keeping the lid on though

Our monthly hardware meetup for March will be on Wednesday 6th March in the MakerSpace at the top of Hull Central Library. We start around 5:30 pm and then go on until 7:00 pm or so. We theme the meetups, the March one is all about music. I’ll bring along the MIDI CheeseBox, Crackers Controller and Chocolate Synth along with a few more conventional devices. If you’ve got something you want to show off or talk about, feel free to bring it along.

No need to sign in or anything, just turn up and take part. It would be lovely to see you.

Hardware Meetup

It was a quiet meetup on Wednesday this week. Just three of us chatting about 3D printers, life and the universe. It’s always fun to go down to Hull Makerspace and see what people are doing. If you fancy joining us the next one is on Wednesday 7th of February when we will be doing some Robot Rugby. Come along and pick a side. We’ll be starting at around 5:30 pm and going on until around 7:00 pm in Hull Makerspace in the Central Library in Hull.

Hardware Meetup Wednesday 17th January

Printer Poop produced when switching colours

We’re having a hardware meetup next Wednesday evening at Hull Makerspace in the Central Library in Hull. We’ll be opening 5:30 pm with a presentation of 3D printing lithophanes and the HueForge program starting around 6:00 pm. We’ll finish around 7:00pm

There’s no need to book, just turn up and look interested. If you’ve got anything to show off we’d love to see it.

Future Meetups

The MakerSpace is a good looking place..

I’ve put together a schedule for hardware meetups for the first part of this year:

Wednesday 17th of January Colour 3D printing

I'll bring in some examples of colour printing and show how to use Bambu Studio to colourise prints and create lithopanes. I'll also show off some work made with HueForge (https://thehueforge.com/)

Wednesday 7th of February Robot Rugby

We'll set up a Hull Pixelbot rugby match and get a game going.

Wednesday 21st February Music and MIDI

I'll bring in a bunch of MIDI music devices (some Pico and Pi powered) and we'll have a go at making some tunes

Wednesday 6th March Analogue photography

I'll show you how to get started taking analogue photographs on instant and black and white home-processed film. If we can have access to running water in the Hackspace we can take a bunch of pictures and process them on the night.

All the meetups are in the Makerspace in the Central Library in Hull. Doors open at 5:30 pm and we start the presentations and whatnot at 6:00pm after some chat. We finish around 7:15pm or so. Anyone can turn up and you don’t need to book. If you have a topic that you’d like us to cover (or better yet you fancy running a session yourself) get in touch. If you want find out more you can find it all on our Mattermost page here.

Next Hardware Meetup is all about 3D printing

YOu could have one of your very own….

We’re having our next Hardware Meetup in Hull library in the Makerspace on Wednesday 1st November starting at 5:30pm. It’s all about 3D printing. There’s an exhibition of 3D printing on at the Makerspace at the moment and lots of stuff worth looking at, whether you own a printer or are thinking of getting one.

It would be lovely to see you there. If you have something you’ve printed that you want to show off, bring it along. There will be a small (3D printed) prize for the object that everyone likes the most. I’ll be talking about the fun you can have making 3D printable objects from Python code - which is something of a thing for me.

We’ll also have free tags of fun to give away, and we might have a Tag Joust championship. It would be lovely to see you there.

If you are around earlier on Wednesday I’m going to be in the Makerspace fiddling with stuff for the entire afternoon if you want to drop round for a chat about hardware.

Connected Little Boxes at the Hardware Meetup

We had little Meetup tonight. Alifeee was there and we had a good chat about Connected Little Boxes (and Brian got his loaded with the new firmware and working). Alifeee has written a great article about the Hull Bus Sign project, which you can find here.

The next meetup will be on Wednesday 1st of November. I’ll be taking along my super-big camera to record the event - so be there if you want to be immortalised on proper film.

Connected Little Boxes at the Hardware Meetup

I’ll bring along a text display too.

I’m bringing a bunch of Connected Little Boxes to the Hardware Meetup next Wednesday. I want to show off the web configuration and deployment and what you can do with QR codes.

If you fancy coming along you can just turn up at Hull MakerSpace on Wednesday 11th of October from around 5:00 pm onwards. I’ll be around with some devices to show off, and even ones that you can take home with you (numbers permitting). It would be lovely to see you.

Playing Pong on a Bus Sign

I was very bad at this game

We had our first Hardware Meetup at Hull Makerspace today. There was a good turnout and lots of stories were exchanged. Alifee was there making a Hull City Council Bus Sign play pong. The signs used to be in the bus station, but now the Makerspace has a bunch and lets anyone with an interest in electronics and interfacing have a go with them. Alifee has connected an Arduino and to a sign and got a game running. You can find out more on GitHub.

It was great to see people old and new turning up. Our next Meetup will be on Wednesday 4th of October. If you fancy coming along it would be lovely to see you. We start at around 5:30pm or so at the Makerspace on the top floor of Hull City Main Library.

May Meetup Fun and Games

Apologies to Ross who arrived to late to be in the picture.

We had our May meetup last night. We had some great chats about this and that. I was showing off the latest release of the Connected Little Boxes system and it actually worked.

Brian has been experimenting with a cheap lidar system. The spinning bit has a distance sensor and should be able to “see” objects around it. I want to try putting one on a pixelbot. Brian is getting data out of it, but it is not terribly sensible just yet. However, that’s not stopped me buying one to play with. If you fancy getting one too you can find them here.

Bluetooth Location Tracking at the Hardware Meetup

We’re still having regular Hardware Meetups at the MakerSpace in Hull Central Library. First Wednesday of the month. Start around 6:00pm. Bring hardware to show off or problems you want to talk about.

Today Martin brought along some nifty Bluetooth location tracking hardware to show us. The device on the end of the stick (in the picture) is being tracked by four carefully positioned devices on the table. We could wave it around and the laptop showed the realtime position. It was awesome. To think this is being done using radio is amazing. One day we might use it to find our way around airports and public buildings.

I took along my big camera (took 1 picture) and a robot dog. Great fun was had.

Hardware Meetup

A good hardware meetup is one where you don’t have time to take pictures because you are too busy talking. By that standard the meetup this evening was a great success. But unfortunately there are no pictures. There was a great range of discussion covering all kinds of stuff, from Pure Data to new Bluetooth standards for device location.

The next Hardware Meetup will be on the 1st of March, starting at 6:00 pm at Hull MakerSpace in the Central Library. Come along. We’d love to see you.

Christmas Meetup Fun at Hull Makerspace

We had our Hardware Group Christmas Meetup at Hull Makerspace this evening. We had sweets, mince pies, instant pictures, a robot dog and a digital trombone. As you do. Much fun was had. I’d taken along “Bluey” my Sony Aibo (he’s called Bluey because he’s, well, bluey) and he was on fine form. He could easily see his pink ball against the Makerspace floor and it was great to watch him chasing it around the place. We’ll be having more events next year. I’ll keep you posted.

Theramin Fun

We had another great discussion at the hardware group this evening. Although the number of folks who turned up wasn’t that many that chat was of high quality. Brian even got around to demonstrating the Theramin that he is building with a bunch of distance sensors.

Puncture and Meetup

I think I’ve found the problem…

I was all set for the Connected Humber Meetup this evening. However, as I was headed down the road I got a warning about low pressure in one of the tyres. It wasn’t hard to see why. Fortunately, I was very close to Endyke Tyres so I popped in to be told that it was time for a new tyre. The good news is that they can get one in tomorrow. So I put some more air in the tyre, drove home very carefully, swapped cars and managed to make it to the Meetup just about on time.

The meetup was excellent. I showed off my oven and bits and bogs. Brian had brought along a really pretty display, powered by a really beefy power supply. He also had his PICO audio device playing Gerry Rafferty.

Ion had brought along a very accurate sine waves for amplifier testing. Ben turned up and finally got his lights with names in. John came along and we talked about bits and bobs. My laptop decided to update everything during a demonstration audio which didn’t go too well but there was lots of other good discussion too.

Great fun. The next meetup is on the 5th of October. If the parts arrive from China I want to do some live surface mount soldering.

Quiet Hardware Meetup

I had a nice set of devices ready for the hardware meetup tonight, but I was the only one who turned up. No matter, it was nice to have a few chats with the folks in Hull MakerSpace.

Chocolate Synthbox at the next Hardware Meetup

The next Connected Humber Hardware Meetup is on Wednesday 3rd of August at Hull MakerSpace, starting at around 5:30. I’m taking my Chocolate Synthbox, which I’m hoping will be a bit more reliable than last time I showed it off. If you want to have a play with it, or bring something musical along of your own, we’d love to see you Find out more here.

Wrapping temperature sensors

One of the things we discussed last night at our Meetup was the our air quality sensors. We started out with four sensor three years ago, in locations around Hull. All the ones still in place are still working, but they have fallen foul of the recent heatwave.

The temperature sensors are wrapping round when the temperature gets above 40 degrees. To save space in each LoRa message the temperature data is restricted to a range of -24 to +40. This gives a range of 64 which can be expressed in six bits. As you can see above, this doesn’t work too well when things get really toasty.

I think we could use some cunning code to figure out what that temperature should be, even though it has wrapped around. However, the next version of the code is will need to be changed to handle these high temperatures that we are now seeing.