The sign is laser cut acrylic covered in black paint. It’s mounted behind the red (fibre glass?) panel so when the power is turned off, it looks like a plain red panel. Very cool. For the nervous, the laser has a hard enough time cutting 1/8″ hardboard so no it’s not going to cut you in half. That being said, it will deliver a nasty pinpoint burn so there’s that.

Upgrade number tow was adding an LED light strip inside laser workspace. It’s wired into a limit switch I mounted next to the door-is-open-safety-switch. So the lights come on when the lid is closed! Also tres cool. There’s also a switch on the right-hand side which turns off the circuit, if for some reason you want the lid closed AND the lights off.

Much improved, except for the fact that the zip tie mounts keep falling off! Too heavy I suppose. I’m wondering if I should double them up, use some stronger double-sided tape (tried some foamy stuff already – no go) or drill holes and bolt the damn thing in place. Still many laser upgrades to do – air assist, replacing the jenky pot, computer power control.

Have a safe trip and we are looking forward to your return.

Oh, and tomorrow night (7pm) is the hackerspace Salon here at the thinkhaus. Hope you can make it then too!

When: Sun, September 25, 11:30am – 7:00pm
Where: think|haus, 25 Dundurn St N, Hamilton ON (map)Description: Come play retro and not so retro games, eat sugar cereal, and relive your childhood days. We will have the following game systems on hand:
* Nintendo 64
* Atari 2600 flashback
* NES
* dosbox with Carmen Sandiego
* Xbox 360
We have one big teevee, a projector, and a bunch of monitors. Bring yourself, your games, your system, and maybe your pjs? Come hang out and play games just like the good old days.

$5 entry – everyone welcome

We are going to have to print two chains, one to go along the x-axis and another for along the y-axis, but we are going along well.  There is more than enough room within the cable chain for everything we want.

Here’s how it works:

You set the dimensions of your work space (eg under File, Document Properties) to match that of your material. (only the height is really necessary) Measure your material for best results, and note which edge you measure if it isn’t square.

Launch the plugin, click on “Double-sided cutting” and export

The plugin will export everything you’ve selected, but it includes a copy flipped vertically and shifted up by the page size.

When you put your material in the laser be sure it is lined up accurately with the table coordinate system (look for the marks on the table bed – thanks Adina!)

You can run the job at half the normal power (or less – in my case about 1/3)

Run the job as you normally would. When it comes time to laser the inverted geometry EMC will pause with a tool change operation. That gives you a chance to flip the material over. You want to flip it long-wise if that makes sense. Basically flip the material the same way it gets flipped in Inkscape (eg vertically in Inkscape).

Resume the job and that’s it!

It does a pretty reasonable job, but alignment and measurement is critical especially on large pieces. These were cut at 400 mm/min at 5mA and turned out nicely aside from some alignment issues.

These pieces are about 11″ long and the alignment was off by maybe 1mm or less. I’m making some wooden blocks that folks can use as guides for aligning material. Stay tuned for updates!

Anyhow, here are some progress photos:

The box is laser cut hardboard (designed in Inkscape). The charring gives a smart border. Inside is an Arduino, Nokia 3310 LCD screen and some connectors for interfacing with sensors. The temperature sensor is a simple thermistor, and the flow sensor is a FS-4400H. I’ll be posting source code, schematics and designs when I’m closer to finishing.

think|haus members spent the last couple of days representing Hamilton’s hackerspace at the MiniMakerFaire in Toronto and had an absolute blast. If you’re in the GTA and you missed it… well, you missed a whole lot! Plan on being there next year I guess.

Here’s a bunch of pictures from the weekend.

If you think MakerFaire is cool, keep your eyes peeled for SoOnCon2011 this fall and SoOnCamp2012 next summer.

http://makerfairetoronto.ca/

Toronto Mini Maker Faire is the ultimate celebration of making, crafting, DIY-ing, tinkering, hacking and sharing. It’s a weekend where makers of all kinds will show off their projects and hold how-to workshops, with hands-on activities for all ages. Exhibits on display will include robots, laser cutting, letterpress printing, a 3D print gallery and kinetic sculptures.

Here’s what we’re bringing…

Think|Haus is Hamilton’s shared work space / social space and collective all about hacking, crafting, DIY and doing awesome stuff. The history of Hamilton is intertwined in the “make it happen” ethos of the DIY mechanic, the basement engineer, the warranty violator, the patent ignorer.

Members of Think|Haus will be on hand at Toronto’s Mini Maker Faire to soak in all the maker goodness, and to show off some of their own projects. Come see their entry into the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge, a CNC egg decorating machine, some robots, an ornery do-nothing box, a magic mirror, and other great stuff. They’ll also have an operating ham radio station, where they’ll be talking and texting people around the world, using HF radio waves and amateur satellites. And if we’re really lucky, they may even make a radio contact with the International Space Station.

TH-GGHC2011 think|tubes Demo Video from Think Haus on Vimeo.

think|tubes by think|haus

Our concept for think|tubes was to make an expandable, modular system which allows the measurement and recording of various physical phenomena. We’ve built some sample exercises, such as a device to measure how hard someone can punch. This fun activity engages students, while teaching concepts of levers, acceleration, and force. Other sensors, such as light, temperature, barometric pressure, etc. are easily added to the think|tubes, allowing for customized usage. Any lesson plan that would benefit from experimentation and measurement can use think|tubes.

Beyond measurement in the classroom, however, think|tubes can be used throughout the school. An applause meter at a school talent show, a game show buzzer system for fun quizzes, or a timing system for track and field – all of these uses are easy to add to think|tubes due to its modular design, standard Arduino hardware, and the bus which allows communications between modules.

think|tubes make learning tangible. They provide a hands on way to interact with the physical world. Think it, do it, measure it, learn it. With think|tubes.