Hackerspace Kuala Lumpur http://www.hackerspace.my Make the world a better place by making things together Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:41:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Electronics Friday 24 Feb 2012 is Onhttp://www.hackerspace.my/2012/02/21/electronics-friday-24-feb-2012-is-on http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/02/21/electronics-friday-24-feb-2012-is-on#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:33:00 +0000 sweemeng http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2252 OK Folks, the space will open these Friday, this is one of our usual bring your project session.

Event: Electronic Friday

Date: 24 Feb 2012

Time: 19:00 – 22:00

Sorry for the late notification

]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/02/21/electronics-friday-24-feb-2012-is-on/feed 0 The Space will closed by 17 Feb 2012http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/02/15/the-space-will-closed-by-17-feb-2012 http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/02/15/the-space-will-closed-by-17-feb-2012#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:56:55 +0000 sweemeng http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2243 The space will be closed this Friday 17 Feb 2012. Sorry for all the trouble

]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/02/15/the-space-will-closed-by-17-feb-2012/feed 0 We are open 3rd Feb i.e TODAYhttp://www.hackerspace.my/2012/02/03/we-are-open-3rd-feb-i-e-today http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/02/03/we-are-open-3rd-feb-i-e-today#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:35:59 +0000 sweemeng http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2230 Alrighty folks, CNY is just over, we will open today!!!!! Not just today, we will open NEXT FRIDAY AS WELL.

Today the agenda is, bring your own project day. Anything you want to work on or want to know come to us.

If you can’t make it today, come next friday, it will be another bring your own project day!!!!

P.S I Apologize for the late notification

]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/02/03/we-are-open-3rd-feb-i-e-today/feed 0 Live Long and Prosperhttp://www.hackerspace.my/2012/01/21/live-long-and-prosper http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/01/21/live-long-and-prosper#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:56:14 +0000 sweemeng http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2227 For this Lunar New Year, we wish everyone, a Happy New Year. 新年快乐。。

 

 

]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/01/21/live-long-and-prosper/feed 0 Automated Payment Reminder Email Testhttp://www.hackerspace.my/2012/01/10/automated-payment-reminder-email-test http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/01/10/automated-payment-reminder-email-test#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:14:25 +0000 sweemeng http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2222 We are currently testing an automated Payment Reminder mailer, please check your email, and if there is any feedback, drop in the comments.

p.s the account number is wrong though

]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2012/01/10/automated-payment-reminder-email-test/feed 2 The Vortex Lamphttp://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/21/the-vortex-lamp http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/21/the-vortex-lamp#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:21:14 +0000 Chein http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2194 Yet another electro-mechanical lamp/light project. A vortex lamp for your desktop, living room or as a night light.

The lamp produces a spinning water vortex inside a glass, that is then illuminated with LEDs.

Another look (sorry for the poor photo quality)

Similar to how a magnetic stirrer works, a motor will spin a permanent magnet creating a spinning magnetic field. Placing a ferromagnetic metal within that field will cause it to spin as well. The metal spins without making any physical contact with the magnet or motor. The spinning motion of the metal stirs the water in the glass, creating a twister/vortex effect.

The stirrer used is a paperclip, coated with epoxy (to prevent rusting)


Parts are pretty basic. The (somewhat) difficult thing is sourcing for the Neodymium magnet . Any kind of magnet won’t do, especially those ferrite fridge magnets. It has be a neodymium magnet for it to work. Or at least the old school samarium cobalt magnet (if you can find one). I got mine from a dead hard drive. Other source of these magnets would be those magnet therapy bracelets (though the price is an utter rip-off). If not, you’re going to have to shop online as neodymium can’t really be purchased off the shelf (at least in this part of the world).
Magnet stuck to the middle of a standard PC cooling fan. The blades were cut off.
A tall drinking glass as the vortex cylinder.
The thickness of the bottom of the glass is very important. If it’s too thick, then the magnetic field that reaches the stirrer will be too weak. If you’re stuck with a thick bottomed glass, put a lid on it and use it upside down like I did.
The shape and depth or the vortex is more dependant on the shape and size of the stirrer (paperclip) used. Fiddle around with different sizes to get your preferred vortex.
The fins house the LEDs, while limiting the light into a narrow vertical beam. I found that the beam, being perpendicular to the vortex, produces the best illumination effect compared to other placements. The fins were cut from old DVD case.
Final touch, light diffuser added on the fin’s opening. It is made of clear transparency plastics layered with double sided tape. These tapes make quite good light diffuser.
So that’s it, happy hacking/ making.
]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/21/the-vortex-lamp/feed 0 HSKL Meeting Notes for 17/12/2011http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/17/hskl-meeting-notes-for-17122011 http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/17/hskl-meeting-notes-for-17122011#comments Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:01:03 +0000 sweemeng http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2189 Attendance

  • Kakeman
  • Mel
  • Marcus
  • Tinker
  • Syed
  • Tracey
  • sweemeng

About

Financial

  1. Balance in account: Negative RM2290.51
  2. RM350 From HITB Booth
  3. Members That Paid, 7
  4. Members That Haven’t Paid, 6
  5. Total owed by unpaid,  RM1850 until Dec
  6. Moving Forward:Actively Sending Reminder to Members for the membership dues
  7. To remind members of payment dues
  8. Per Members Payment, and dues record, and automated reminder.
  9. Building lease continue until end of 2012

Membership

  1. There will not be increase in fees,
  2. There will be a optional extra contribution, for members that want to contribute more money.
  3. Add donation button i.e paypal and alternative in blogs. Get help from sniffit
  4. Money from donation use mel’s paypal account.
  5. Suggestion: Add a centralized bank account for HSKL under mel.
  6. Test run on ads on blogs. Ads format, make it relevant to community.

HSKL Direction 2012

  1. Group Study for Stanford Machine Learning and Crypto class on weekend, depend class schedule
  2. Monthly electronic project, with kits, one friday for one month.
  • We prepare the kit
  • The participant will pay for the kit, the price shall include some contribution to the space
  • Anyone can start joining
  1. We should start Workshops,
  • no tentative schedule.
  • Anyone with participate with donation.
  • Not formal.
  • It will depends on those that want to coordinate it
  1. Security meet up,
  • first Tuesday of the month, tentative.
  • Get OWasp to get involved.
  • We provide a space, and reserved for Security Meetup.
  • Member do not need pay
  1. We offer a space to other community
  • Members come in for free. If payment ever needed
  • Standard Rule apply Read the wiki
  1. Google spreadsheet for events
  2. AGM in 2012, so need item, action item, who is responsible.
  3. Update google calendar

AOB

  1. EShop, is a go.
  2. Accept electronics junks
  3. Help the space button, with donation for both money and toys

The note is online in https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nSHLZFhxYC1EAR4LW4ZB3-K7pSOtpECI8JOjYKRJSFE/edit?hl=en_US

]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/17/hskl-meeting-notes-for-17122011/feed 1 Board Game Event Cancelledhttp://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/15/board-game-event-cancelled http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/15/board-game-event-cancelled#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:46:11 +0000 sweemeng http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2174 Due to our host, Chee Leong, have last minute issue crops out. The board game saturday event is cancelled. REPEAT CANCELLED.

The meeting is still on, this have nothing to do with the meeting, happening the same day.

I APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.

]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/15/board-game-event-cancelled/feed 0 Boardgame Saturdayhttp://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/14/boardgame-saturday http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/14/boardgame-saturday#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:17:28 +0000 sweemeng http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2172 We going to have a boardgame session this Saturday, we have game brought in by Chee Leong, one of our geeky friend.

Event: Boardgame Saturday

Date: 17 December 2011

Time: 11:00 – Before sun down, maybe

Agenda:  we will play the game below;

  • Battlestar Gallectica the Board Game (it’s a game of surviving and betrayal)
  • Bang! The Bullet (western shootout with some suspense element)
  • Power Grid (management and mathematics)

 

Anyone is welcome to join. And we will continue until we decide to done. Interested in these game. JOIN US ON THIS SATURDAY!!!!

p.s I have posted there event on facebook for sometime, I just forget to put it here. sorry
https://www.facebook.com/events/295891067105754/

]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/12/14/boardgame-saturday/feed 0 Teardown of a 12V DC to 110V AC Inverterhttp://www.hackerspace.my/2011/11/25/teardown-of-a-12v-dc-to-110v-ac-inverter http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/11/25/teardown-of-a-12v-dc-to-110v-ac-inverter#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:27:19 +0000 klks http://www.hackerspace.my/?p=2133 A few weeks ago as i was browsing eBay i came across this item. It was a 12/24V DC to 110V AC Inverter (5W). Seeing that it was only around RM10, i bought one to rip apart and see its inner workings.

Fast forward 2 weeks, the item arrives. No idea what the Chinese writing means. So lets crack this baby open

 

After disassembling everything we are presented with this fairly simple PCB. One plus point of the PCB is that the components and its values are printed on the board (Only thing that didn’t have a value was the small transformer).

Another shot of the PCB

And the back of the PCB. Afew of the solder joints were poorly done (expected) and there was one cold solder joint upon closer inspection.

I changed the red & white multi-core wire to a more sturdy single core copper wire and took some readings in AC & DC. Also probed the board with the Rigol scope and didn’t really see an AC sine wave on the output (AC coupled the probe). I did however see an AC sine wave (~30V) one one of the transformer pins (On the input side).

.

 

After that i decided to plot the schematic onto eagle (beware of mistakes :P ).  If anyone can make any sense of any of this or helps you in anyway, do drop a comment!

]]> http://www.hackerspace.my/2011/11/25/teardown-of-a-12v-dc-to-110v-ac-inverter/feed 0