[Noisebridge-discuss] Where's Circuit Monday?

Tue Jul 9 05:00:00 UTC 2013

I am sure a bunch of people could get together and run CHM nicely. It works
well to have more than one person there for teaching and on the spot
helping-out when people get stuck.   I can't do it for a while yet as I am
not feeling well enough physically.

It works well to get hands on as fast as possible without too much talk
first. But a bit of an intro is good! And definitely, encouraging people to
talk to and help each other is good to do.  Then people who are strangers
at first will turn to each other for advice.

The kits Mitch keeps in stock are pretty awesome. I have felt that some of
them are easier than others or take less time for beginners.  So I think of
some of them as good first kits and some as better for a 2nd kit or for
someone who does not mind spending hours.  What takes a confident /
experienced person an hour to do is going to take many people a lot longer
so they have to be ready to stay at NB till 11pm or later working on it.
NB itself can be a bit overwhelming and distracting so that factors in as
well.

Most of the fun/good/exciting kits are $20.

I like these:

Dice kit: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10212 (simple and relatively
fast)
Weevil: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10723  (cheaper)

Firefly jar: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11833  (haven't tried it but
it looks fun)

Drawdio: http://www.adafruit.com/products/124
TV B Gone: http://www.adafruit.com/products/73  ( a bit more time, but so
awesome)
Mintyboost: http://www.adafruit.com/products/14  (Harder in some ways,
parts are tinier, hard to do in bad light, can be screwed up)

Small simple 2-LED kit, very cheap:
http://www.makershed.com/Learn_to_Solder_Skill_Badge_Kit_p/mkls01.htm
Blinky lights, a little more expensive
http://www.makershed.com/product_p/mkdw3.htm

I can't remember the other kits Mitch has or where they come from but they
are all really cool!

Cheers

- Liz

On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 9:32 PM, Alex Buie <alex.buie at frozenfeline.net>wrote:

> I'd be interested in helping out at CHM in the future, and also fronting
> buying some cool kits for people. Anybody have suggestions for places that
> have good kits, or specific kits they've had good luck with?
>
> -a
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 9:24 PM, Liz Henry <lizhenry at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Johny Radio,
>>
>> That is how I started doing CHM when Mitch, Rolf, or Miloh weren't able
>> to do it. People would show up from out of town kind of excited and want to
>> do stuff.  So I would sell them kits either that I stocked up on myself, or
>> from Mitch's stash of kits, and show them how to solder and go through the
>> instructions. Simple enough.  Nearly everyone who shows up has a smartphone
>> at least to look up the kit instructions.
>>
>> It is not too hard to mobilize others in the space to help lay out some
>> soldering irons and equipment on Monday afternoon.
>>
>> When we run out of solder, which we do often, you can take up a
>> collection to buy new solder. I have in the past restocked the solder and
>> other equipment. It is best to buy a big roll but in a pinch just go by
>> Radio Shack.  http://www.mpja.com/ is good for buying solder in bulk.
>>
>> People sometimes will buy one kit and take turns doing the bits of it. So
>> you don't even need that many kits to start off with.  If you don't have
>> the money to lay out for $20 kits you can find cheaper, but less exciting
>> ones. I really liked having the Maker Faire robot badges since they are
>> cheap and easy and give people a taste of what is possible. The last batch
>> I got of them for the Burton High kids were not as good for explaining
>> circuits though because the instruction sticker covers the printed circuit,
>> so you don't see that it is one continuous wire printed on the board.
>>
>> I never asked Noisebridge to buy the CHM equipment, but sometimes took up
>> collections around for specific needs (like the solder).     As long as you
>> have solder, and you can access and properly track the kits already in the
>> space, you can run CHM without having any capital up front.  I don't think
>> that $10 a month is going to help you.  Batteries are in the kits!   Write
>> the kits down on a paper and put it in the plastic tubs then email Mitch
>> which ones people bought and paypal him the money, or get together with
>> someone who can do it.
>>
>> Most of the irons could use a cleaning with tip tinner and those metal
>> brillo things.  There are a bunch of extra tips in the red metal bin on
>> wheels.
>>
>> If you get a lot of people coming to CHM, it is really helpful to sort
>> out who has ever soldered before, and pair them up sitting near the people
>> who haven't, so they can be helpful!
>>
>> - Liz
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 8:27 PM, Johny Radio <johnyradio at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>  Hi,
>>>
>>> there are about 5 peeps here at da Bridge for Circuit Hacking Monday,
>>> including a nice lady and her kids visiting from Alaska. They wanna hack.
>>> Is somebody leading this?
>>> I would run it, but we don't even have known working batteries (well, i
>>> asked the membership for $10/month for circuit stuff, but no go).
>>> Anyway, is somebody doing Circuit Hacking Monday tonite?
>>>
>>> Johny Radio
>>>
>>> Stick It In Your Ear!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
>> Liz Henry
>> lhenry at mozilla.com
>> lizhenry at gmail.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>>
>

-- 

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
Liz Henry
lhenry at mozilla.com
lizhenry at gmail.com
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