list of hackerspaces, 2012 vs 2013

2013

2012

Not as dramatic growth as I would've expected :)

something interesting to compare to -- people taking Learning Creative Learning as of the third week  of class or something

I made a video about hexapods.

I made a video about hexapods! yay. I'd estimate it was a full 4 or 5 days working on it, learning final cut pro along the way. It basically covers my journey through 2.007 two years ago, and is meant to be a resource for students in the class.

Note to self: shortcuts: < > ctrl-= alt-w

Meanwhile, I think an instructable a week sounds like an excellent plan for Spring semester senior year.

how to be a rich homeless intern in SF, research braindump

[Edit: 15 May 2012: I came to my senses and realized I don't actually want to be homeless this summer, and am now looking for an apartment next to a makerspace like a normal person.]


this post is a work in progress, last updated 18 April 2012.

well I'm working for fitbit (yay wireless shiny / internet of things)
and they gave me an offset for housing
but then I realized I'd much rather spend that offset on cool classes and project materials than housing

it's a no-brainer for me ^__^ if your brain is on a different frequency see:

Also, again, I would much rather dump 2k into a makerspace or some worthy cause rather then spend $2000 on something I will rarely use just to "fit in." I want to live and breathe making things. The second choice would be to find a [free] camp-able place near these spaces (dump the $2k into classes and materials), but I don't think I'm that hardcore yet. 

-- email I sent, date: Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 5:00 PM || subject: Re: Live-in makers' space in SF? Re: SF digs

-1. summary of findings

(you can also skip to the very bottom of this blog post to see my current plans)

From Nancy Ouyang on Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 4:07 AM

 I am looking for summer accommodations as well. I am able to afford a reasonable flatshare, and Ted and Guilia and I are looking for apartments (possibly not all of us together).
 Specifically, I myself would much prefer to pay for
[project storage + knowledge acquisition + tools access + after-work maker community]
than
[human storage].
Are there "art" or "maker" or "shop" spaces that would be okay with me crashing there for three months? I'm willing to pay as much as for a flatshare (3k or 4k over 12 weeks).
 I have ruled out American Steel Studios and the Crucible due to Oakland shootings hotspot research (they are not officially live-in either and thus likely are not lively after work hours). I believe Noisebridge does not welcome this, and have not yet called NIMBY. Obviously the Tech Shop is not an option.
 My requirements ("human-livable")

• bathroom w/ running water within 1 minute walk

• wifi

• safe after 5pm

• <10 min from BART station (work is @ montgomery BART station)

• approximately zero inertia between waking up and making things (or at least talking to interesting people)

My preferences ("MITERS ... in San Francisco")

• in San Francisco

• has large mill, esp. cnc mill+lathe, welding, other heavy machinery, lasercutter awesome

• community of people making things after 5pm

• also has EE (high voltage community)

I am fine with making my own foldable bed or pile of blankets and paying for daily showers at a 24-hr gym or making a bucket shower garden or whatever if that's the optimal solution. Obviously, I have no problem falling asleep anywhere.

Now I will go into more detail.

Here is the progression of my summer plans

initial estimated search constraints

• work (625 market street)
• makerspace (unknown)

Therefore my initial step was

0. ask future work people & current maker friends about prototyping resources in San Francisco

after checking out the hackerspace listing of course.

hacknyc intro / api intro stream of thought / liveblogging

 Saturday, March 24, 2:10 PM Hackny
http://hackerleague.org/hackathons/spring-2012-hackny-student-hackathon/wikipages/4f6e1d1e0e3c4d0001000045
http://hackerleague.org/hackathons/spring-2012-hackny-student-hackathon/wikipages/4f6e2fda74a9980001000010

emergency motor controller fail

just an update to say no, i did not successfully make a motor controller in 48 hours :)
(see previous post for schematic: http://orangenarwhals.blogspot.com/2011/12/eagle-persistent-hotkeys-emergency-h.html)
what was it? a 6.131 final project / motor controller for hexarideablepod (derived off of an instructables):

which works, but uses an arduino and two victor speed controllers -- total overkill. also, terrible UI: it uses a hard to reach switch for fwd/bwd and foot pedals, which little kids have issues reaching even with the awesome!adjustable-car-seat.

block diagrams! ewww.

https://github.com/nouyang/hexapodtroller for the eagle sch/brd. You can see terrible routing here:

power board (4 FETs to make a full H-bridge)

sig board -- attiny44 and four FET drivers (21844s). also, chain voltage regulators from 24v battery to 15v for drivers to 5v for attiny logic.

speed routing and my inexperience led to use of 24 zero ohm resistors and I still used a jumper :)

hai zero ohm resistor friends

If you look closely, you can see some of the trace fails (compare IRL to board layout) which were probably due to too high error allowances when the fab module was creating the roland modela machine code. See: pins 8 and 9 on the top right side of the topmost IC, the attiny44. They're connected on the board but not on the schematic. I used eagle's erc/drc and it didn't point out a warning so I'm going to assume it was mill code generation settings, not limits of mill capability.

I discovered how useful eagle layers are, even in the interface is terribly clunky.

I create zero-ohm resistors a dumb way that actually turns out to be helpful when populating a lot of them. Since they each have an air wire, I can set air wires to a nice contrasting color and see where they all are:

Another note, I milled out the moles CNC-ly too using GIMP to get the traces I needed, but :/ milled them out too small and had difficulty getting the 3.5mm spacing power connectors to go through the board -- had to carefully use a vise.

This is what the final half-populated boards looked like:

China Makerspaces Visit Planning

I'm hoping to / planning on visiting Chinese makerspaces between end of term (12/19 for me, as I have not finals) and IAP (January 9).
[last updated: 11/24/2011]

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/China
Shanghai

•   http://xinchejian.com, active as of today november
• Sat/Sunday 14:00 – 15:00 open http://xinchejian.com/event/
• Tuesday 19:00-21:00 weekly staff meeting
• info@xinchejian.com
• Anhua Road No.76 suite 301, Changning District, Shanghai, CHINA 200050 (near Jiangsu Road)
• http://wikitravel.org/en/Shanghai
• 88spaces.com (not alive?)

Shenzhen

•   www.chaihuo.org, active as of november 2011
• Saturdays, 14:00 – 16:30 (gcal sidebar)
• ch.makerspace, g.com
•   SZDIY (shenzhen diy lab) active as of today november
• 聚会Every Thursday / 每周四 19:00～22:00
• 答：Seeedstudio 是深圳创客空间（Chaihuo）的主要赞助商，Chaihuo与SZDIY目前达成协议在特定时间（每周四晚）免费提供聚会场地给SZDIY社区使用来举办固定聚会
• szdiyadm, g.com
• http://wikitravel.org/en/Shenzhen

Beijing

•   http://bjmakerspace.com/ (both flamingoeda and gkfab have been subsumed by this, active as of october EDIT 11/24 active.)
• meetings every Tuesday 20:00 to 22:00 (http://www.bjmakerspace.com/Event.html)
• open every day (according to email correspondence 22 nov 2011)
• http://space.flamingoeda.com/ (last update july)
• GKFab (not alive?)
• We have weekly meeting at Tuesday night, and workshops at weekend. The space is opened every day, and you may want send us a mail before you come so we can make sure there is some members in the space
• bjmakerspace, g.com
• yff -- not sure if it's actual makerspace looks corporate or spam. 

Guangzhou:

• hackerspaces@gz (1 member?)
• HTG (not active since 2010)

So looks like I should try to make Shanghai and Shenzhen, possibly Beijing although that's covering a lot of ground in a week (mmm transportation costs). Guangzhou ones seem dead, which is a pity since that's actually close to Shenzhen.

==
http://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2011/10/16/first-open-hardware-gathering-in-china/
Ooh look! Someone I know is there! Star Simpson is apparently in China until January or so. And Maja Wichrowska (roomies shoutout!) is in Beijing for the semester. o.o Whoa. A lot of people I know are in China...
===
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Call-inJan 1st, 1600 EST
===
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Japan

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Hackerspace@tamabi

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/4nchor5_la6

http://www.tokyohackerspace.com/en/contact

• kubotaa@tamabi.ac.jp (no response, dec 2011)
• info@456.im (no response, dec 2011)
• Tokyo hackerspace (contacted via form):
• Tokyo HackerSpace has an open meeting every Tuesday night, from 7 PM. 
• Unlike most other hackerspaces, our members have very little free time, and as such, the space is not in constant use. Our members have a key, and can come any time they like, but its hard to predict when that will be.
• I would highly suggest that you join our google group and introduce yourself and your schedule there: http://groups.google.com/group/tokyohackerspace You'll have a better chance at finding what everyone is up to, and when they can meet up.

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/China
? None in Taiwan nor Korea.
===
Visas and Passport Renewal
Proxy Chinese Visa service: http://ask.metafilter.com/95095/Visa-service-recommendations e.g. http://china.visahq.com/ (also does passport, also well-designed site)
Emergency Passport-ness: http://travel.state.gov/passport/npic/schedule/schedule_852.html

Boston-specific:
I found a local Chinese company helping with visa application:
国际文化旅游公司
Cambridge
617-868-3096
最便宜的机票+最优质的服务$170 total /1 year multiple entry。 If you fill out the form. Sounds reasonable. close to what they charge here.It is close to T. ~5 walking from T station. 2 stops from harvard (outbound).Go to the web site, fill out the file and print out. take 1 2x2 picture, the passport valid for 6 month and blank page .
经纬旅游 Boston 617-426-3123
===
electronicky shanzhai 山寨
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=284
and also awesome book:
http://craphound.com/ftw/download/ which is a fantastic romp around gaming culture, economics, and unions.
more on shanzhai
http://www.tigoe.net/blog/category/environment/295/#more-295
more on shenzhen http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/shenzhen
the linked article is account-walled so here is the article http://www.strategy-business.com/article/09315?pg=all&tid=27782251

===
personal

1

Transportation FCU

55 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02142 Driving Directions  Send to Phone

ATM Deposit-Taking Surcharge-Free 1.16 mi

https://www.deltacommunitycu.com/personal/locations/locator.asp

=== Options: personal tours. Or get MIT departmental backing (talk to Anne Hunter / Brandy Baker) for report publication, go in officially.

=== Oh hey look, someone wrote about MITERS in Chinese.

http://www.chaihuo.org/2011/10/19/%E5%88%9B%E5%AE%A2%E6%94%BB%E7%95%A5-%E4%BB%8Emaker-faire-%E5%88%B0mit-4/
"not the game, nor is it the job, just love" Thanks, google translate :)

===
update 2 dec 2011
according to David of shanghai's xinchejian, There are current 4 in China. OnionCapsule in Hangzhou is the first student lead hackerspace in the China Academy of Fine Art by a group of new media art students. They have a public performance scheduled on Dec 24. If visiting hackerspaces is one of the goal of your trip, I'd suggest you visit them at this event. It's crazy party and a lot of fun.