Electronics Friday 01/04/2011: GGHC Build Meetup #2
March 31, 2011 by kakeman · Leave a Comment
At previous GGHC Build Meetup, we defined the scope and milestone for The Story Box. It’s our target to have a workable prototype by the end of the meetup.
What?
- Hardware: Build a bare bone prototyping circuit.
- Software: Write a bare bone program.
- Target: When a button is pressed, the LCD will display a random word (retrieve from internal EEPROM).
When?
We are usually open as early as 4pm, with a break for dinner at around 7-8pm. And continue on till 10:30 or 11pm. If you want to come earlier, the best time is usually around 6:30 (before we go off for dinner)
Where?
Hackerspace KL
Who?
Members of Hackerspace KL.
And NO, this is NOT an April Fool joke. However, some April Fool pranks might happen in the space.
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Reminder: Security Meetup – SCADA 101
March 30, 2011 by j00dan · 4 Comments
Please be reminded that HSKL will have its monthly security meet-up on 05/04/2011 (Tuesday) from 8pm-10pm. Although it is open to everyone and we would like as many people to come, seats are limited in the space.
If you would like to join us please put your name down here. If you have questions please drop me an email at jordan (.at.) hackerspace.my
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The Story Box Build Meetup #1
March 29, 2011 by spoonfork · Leave a Comment
Tonight’s meetup was a productive one. At the end of the meetup, we were astonished as to how simple the Story Box is. But keeping things simple is not an easy task. Especially at a hackerspace. For the past one year, we’ve been a motley crew of hackers, hobbyist, engineers and coders. We operate in an agile environment, and we do stuff as we see fit, or the way we like it. There’s no time frame, no reports, no documentation – just the freedom to build, tinker, make, hack and code the way we want. But in a competition, we have to have discipline. We got to have a plan, and we have to stick to it. And the most important rule of all: keep it simple, stupid.
Kakeman explaining TWI (Twin Wire Interface)
During today’s meeting we manage to list out the features that we want to implement. We’ve set milestone and timelines. We got rid of useless features. We drew some diagram. We even have a picture of how the final product will look like.
Mind map of the Story Box component and features
Due to its simplicity, the Story Box is actually pretty simple to do. All you need is an LCD shield, and an Arduino. Or you can have an LCD and a push button, wire it all up to the Arduino, and start coding. And because of its simplicity, The Story Box will be cheap to build as well. The next thing that we will do is to customized the PCB, and make the form factor smaller – enclosed in an acrylic box.
A sketch of the final product
To track progress and making sure that we follow the plan and not go overboard in terms of design and build, we’ve created a simple milestone chart. At the end of the week, we will have a working prototype built using LCD shield.
LCD Shield
and an Arduino with battery
Seeeduino
That’s all for now. In the next post, we’ll introduce our team. (This post is cross-posted to the element-14 community site)
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The Story Box: Build Meetup
March 29, 2011 by spoonfork · Leave a Comment
Hi all, we’ll be meeting up tonight at HSKL to start building The Story Box. The Story Box is our entry to the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge. If you are interested to participate, do show up. We’ll be there from 8pm onwards till late.
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The Great Global Hackerspace Challenge
March 28, 2011 by spoonfork · Leave a Comment
As some of you may have already known, HSKL is one of the thirty hackerspaces from around the world participating in the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge.
What is the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge?
Thirty hackerspaces around the world will be chosen to participate in the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge to create something cool and useful for education. Each of the thirty spaces that complete their project will receive some nice soldering setups so that they can better teach how to make cool things with electronics. These thirty hackerspaces will each get $900 and two months to finish their project. Three finalists will be chosen to show off their projects live (in person, or virtually) at the San Francisco Maker Faire May. A panel of geeks will pick the one they think is coolest, and the winning space will win a handmade trophy and bragging rights, and perhaps some other way cool stuff.
What are the prizes?
- For participating and completing the project: USD900 and a set of soldering equipment
- Semi finalists: Fluke 233 DMM (worth US$300) , Fluke 381 Clamp Meter (worth US$500), Tektronix PWS4205 Power Supply (worth US$865), Agilent HH DMM (specific model TBD)
- Winner: Tektronix MSO2024 oscilloscope (worth around US$5,600)
Who are the 30 participating hackerspaces?
We are one of the four hackerspaces from Asia. The others are: Hackerspace Singore, Tokyo Hackerspace and Xin Che Jian (Shanghai).
What are we building?
Our project for this challenge is called The Story Box. It is a simple battery-powered device that display random word, and students create sentence containing the word.
How do I participate?
Be a member!
As part of the challenge guidelines, we are required to document our journey at the element-14 community portal. So here goes:
- Our Great Global Hackerspace Challenge Entry
- A short but concise description of the Story Box. It is also documented in the wiki.
- Our make process
- The Great Global Hackerspace Challenge at element-14
- The participant packet
Initially, the were supposed to be 10 participants to be shortlisted for the challenge. In order to participate, each hackerspace had to write a short description on why they should be selected. Wearing our creative caps, we decided describe HSKL in pantun style:
Arduino, Freeduino, LEDuino, Seeeduino
But our first was a Severino
Resistors, capacitors, LEDs, and diodesAt HSKL, the blinkenlights will run riot
We got workshops, we got meetups
At one year old, HSKL is going up and up
Security, electronics, open source and tinkering
We can’t dance and sing, but we sure love lepakking
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GGHC Meeting 02 (29/03/2011)
March 25, 2011 by kakeman · Leave a Comment
After a fruitful discussion held on the first meeting, everyone was very excited about the challenge ahead. Now it’s time for execution.
What?
- Build a prototyping circuit.
- Write a bare bone program.
- Write necessary supporting documents.
- Document the whole process as we go.
When?
We are usually open as early as 4pm, with a break for dinner at around 7-8pm. And continue on till 10:30 or 11pm. If you want to come earlier, the best time is usually around 6:30 (before we go off for dinner)
Where?
Hackerspace KL
Who?
Members of Hackerspace KL.
We can make it into semi final 
San Francisco here we come!
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Reminder: April – June Membership Fee
March 25, 2011 by spoonfork · Leave a Comment
This is a gentle reminder to all HSKL members that the membership fee for April – June is due. If you have paid up until April (meaning that you joined as a member in February), you can pay for May and June. Please be prompt in membership payment!
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Electronics Friday 25/03/2011 – Special Edition: GGHC Meeting 01
March 22, 2011 by kakeman · Leave a Comment
Our weekly Electronics Fridays meetup is on from 8:00pm – 11pm, 25th March 2011. However, this will not be an ordinary Electronics Friday as we are going to discuss on our participation in the exciting Great Global Hackerspace Challenge (GGHC).
What?
- Form a team that will be directly involved in the competition.
- Brainstorm for idea.
- Plan for winning
When?
We are usually open as early as 4pm, with a break for dinner at around 7-8pm. And continue on till 10:30 or 11pm. If you want to come earlier, the best time is usually around 6:30 (before we go off for dinner)
Where?
Hackerspace KL
Who?
Everyone is welcome! Even if you are not a member and you want to check out what HackerspaceKL is about, feel free to come.
Cost?
Free for members. Non-members however, cannot use any of our equipments (to be fair, they are paid by the members). Non-members can buy the electronics components from us. We have stuff to sell to – QuarterK, and Seeeduino.
See you guys there!
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HSKL in Great Global Hackerspace Challenge (GGHC)
- Your hackerspace will create a project to help with education, using US$900 (or equivalent) provided by Element14. The project must use a microcontroller and a portable power source.
- You have 6 weeks to complete your project, documenting your project as you go. All spaces that complete their project will receive 10 soldering setups.
- Three hackerspaces’ projects will be chosen as finalists to present at the Grand Finale at the San Francisco Maker Faire. All three of these spaces will receive some really nice electronic test equipment. One person from each space will be flown out to present their project at the San Francisco Maker Faire over the weekend of 21-May & 22-May.
- One project will be chosen at the Grand Finale at the San Francisco Maker Faire to receive some extra goodies, including a very nice oscilloscope.
Hurry, we have only 6 weeks, and the clock is ticking.
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Security Meetup- SCADA 101
March 20, 2011 by j00dan · Leave a Comment
What?
- What is SCADA?
- What is inside a SCADA system?
- Where can you find SCADA system?
- How it is used in industries?
In this presentation, I will walk you through:
- Introduction to SCADA system
- The usage of SCADA system in industries
- Introduction to SCADA security
When?
- 5/4/2011, 8pm – 10pm (Tuesday)
Where?
- HackerspaceKL
Who?
- Everyone is invited. If you want to know the answers to those questions, you should be there!
Cost?
- Free for members. We’re all about keeping knowledge free, but in the real world that we live in, everything requires money. Hence non-members are required a minimum donation of RM15. Your donation will be used for the upkeep of the space.
NOTE: If you are interested to talk at our HSKL Security Meetup event, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Fill up this form and we’ll arrange it from there!