Circuit-Bending Hackerspace Rock Band, CMKT 4, is doing a workshop Wednesday, May 9th, 7-9:PM building contact microphones in conjunction with Quelab. These microphones are powerful enough to do whatever you want, and accessible enough for all skill levels. Plus, they’re made out of bottle caps, which is just awesome. It’s a DIY electronics project [...]]]>

Circuit-Bending Hackerspace Rock Band, CMKT 4, is doing a workshop Wednesday, May 9th, 7-9:PM building contact microphones in conjunction with Quelab. These microphones are powerful enough to do whatever you want, and accessible enough for all skill levels. Plus, they’re made out of bottle caps, which is just awesome. It’s a DIY electronics project that leaves you ready to do other projects, too. Register at any hacknight or through Eventbrite.

Workshop attendees will learn how to solder/improve existing soldering skills, work with recycled materials, and develop a basic understanding of piezoelectricity. The process involves a 45 minute dry-time, during which CMK4 will entertain the workshop attendees with a live performance. Additional kits and microphones will be available for purchase, as well.

There will be a separate members-only event later in May. If you’re interested, please contact us about details!

See them in action on YouTube.

Photos from the workshop can be seen here, And Wookie (Ready handed Media) took some video.)
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?w=1645712%40N24&m=pool&q=CMKT

Members: Think of stuff you can bring for show and tell. Remember that the public is drawn to flashing lights like moths.

A $5 donation is requested.  See you there!

Our next Board Game Night is coming up on Thursday, May 10th at 6:30 pm.  Play one of our board games or bring your own.

Come Be a part of that and help spread out the load!

Sunday, May 6 from 4:30-6:30
1112 2nd street NW

agenda can be seen [...]]]> We are a member oriented Volunteer group, We all take on a lot of labor and responsibility to make sure this is a great Hackerspace.

Come Be a part of that and help spread out the load!

Sunday, May 6 from 4:30-6:30
1112 2nd street NW

agenda can be seen here, http://quelab.net/wiki/index.php?n=Main.05-06-2012-General

March of the Robots is here. Come build a robot minion during the month of March and we’ll show them off at our March of the Robots event on March 31 from 6-9pm. There’s been talk of BEAM Bots and photo-voltaic awesomeness. Want a Dalek to serve you? We can build [...]]]>

March of the Robots is here. Come build a robot minion during the month of March and we’ll show them off at our March of the Robots event on March 31 from 6-9pm. There’s been talk of BEAM Bots and photo-voltaic awesomeness. Want a Dalek to serve you? We can build that. Want to build a bot that can navigate mazes? We can do that, too. We’ll be working on robot related madness on hacknights all month – Tuesdays and Sundays. Come the end of the month, we’ll be having a public event to show off, build some simple bots with the public and generally have a great robotic time. Craig Goldsmith will be on hand with some hand built 1uffakind robots. They’ll be walking around doing what a robot does.

See the March of the Robots forum for more discussion.

Instructions to build a photovore

I know how that feels. I got a Nook to replace a tablet that died. so far, the Nook has proven to be one of my favorite [...]]]> We know the story. The Nook Color from B&N is pretty fun and awesome. But its not a real Android device ’till you have the full Android experience.

I know how that feels. I got a Nook to replace a tablet that died. so far, the Nook has proven to be one of my favorite tablets yet. But following the CyanogenMod instructions left me wondering what I was doing wrong — Why wasn’t I getting a nice little “thank you!” message? Well because B&N changed some things. Here’s what I had to do to get a real version of Android running on my device:

Standard Disclaimer Applies: I am not responsible for you bricking your device, the device blowing up in your face or the entire planet deciding you don’t deserve to breathe. The following is presented as-is. Neener^3. 

What you will need

• (1) 1GB+ MicroSD card (that you can loose the data from)
• (1) microSD card reader
• (Windows) Win32DiskImager (I can’t help you find that)
• (Linux/Mac) dd

Extra Data

• CyanogenMod 7 for Nook Color (“Encore”) — Stable is fine
• Google’s Applications for Android 2.3 (CM7) as an update zip
• DizzyDen’s CWM Images (Choose the one for your SD card size)

Procedure

1. Clear/Deauthenticate/Erase all the data on your Nook. THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT. If you don’t, you’ll run into some STRANGE problems having to do with the main environment.
2. un-gzip the CWM image you downloaded (if you haven’t already) as this will be pushed directly to your SD card.
3. “Burn” the image to your SD card. Under Windows, select your SD card in Win32DiskImager and select the CWM image. Under linux, recite the following in a shell: dd if=(image name) of=(sd card device, e.g. /dev/sdb, /dev/sdq, etc.) bs=1M ( keep in mind here that the device may have been mounted before. If you get an I Can’t Let You Do That moment, find what is mounted on the SD card and unmount.
4. Mount the SD card and create a folder called “update”
5. place the CM7 file in that folder and the GApps zip.
6. Unmount/Sync/Safely Remove the SD card. THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT. If you don’t make sure ALL of the two Zips are palced there you will get a message saying “HEY YOU DIDNT DO THAT RIGHT”
7. Power off your Nook, 110% off.
8. Insert the SD card and plug the Nook in. This should bring up a Skull And Crossbones “LOADING” screen.
9. Select “install update from zip on SD card” (or something like that) using the Nook button
10. Navigate to update/cm7-….encore….zip
11. select Yes from the field of No’s
12. Wait.
13. Select “install from SD card”
14. Select the gapps zip
15. Tell it yes
16. Remove the SD card and select “reboot device” (If you don’t, you’ll be sent back into CWM)
17. Enjoy!
18. Optional: Format the SD card (in Android or on Windows) and use it.
19. Probably a good idea: install CWM (ClockWork Mod) Recovery to the device via apps drawer -> ClockworkMod -> Install ClockworkMod -> Nook Color.

If you experience problems with the interface (it happens sometimes) try clearing the data off the device. There are some cases where there is lingering content from B&N that causes it to freak out.

Now you’ve broke it!

If you want to return to the original, stock Nook image, you can go back to 1.2 thanks to our good friends at XDA-Developers. The two versions there will either flatten over CWM or leave it alone.

Looks  like its a popular Instructable, this morning they made it a “Featured Instructable”.

Check it out here,  http://www.instructables.com/id/Candybar-Milkyway-Rocket-Engine/

I’m excited for our next Linux Night on Tuesday March 13th at 7 pm.  They have been popular in the past, and if the turnout at this one is big enough we might make it a monthly event.  Compared to some of the experts around here, I’m still a Linux n00b, although hanging [...]]]>

I’m excited for our next Linux Night on Tuesday March 13th at 7 pm.  They have been popular in the past, and if the turnout at this one is big enough we might make it a monthly event.  Compared to some of the experts around here, I’m still a Linux n00b, although hanging around this crowd has made me into a total open source convert.   I even started installing new distros for fun.  I’m starting to think it might be a problem…

Bring your computer down and our resident experts will help you install, troubleshoot, or answer any questions you have about Linux.  We’re requesting a $5 donation because we enjoy these events and want to keep bringing them to you.  See you there!