Upcoming Hackerspace Build-Off!
Deven 
Full details have not been release yet; but this will be open to the public (as long as you fill out the release form). Here are the details so far:
- 5 Hackerspaces will compete in a professionally recorded web-only event.
- theTransistor has already been selected as one of these groups.
- The build-off should start the first week of August, but the exact dates are still unknown.
- The build-off will last 2-3 Weeks.
- Participants will not be required to show up every day.
- The build-off will revolve around a task that will be announced on day 1 to all participants.
- Each space will be given a budget to complete the task.
- As far as I know there are no prizes / etc for ‘winning’. This will be more about learning and doing.
- Participants will not be required to be a member of the hackerspace or pay any entry fees to help.
- Participants appearing on camera will need to sign a basic agreement with the producing company. ( Very basic: you aren’t allowed to talk about the results / etc. until after it ‘airs’, they aren’t responsibly if you blow up / melt / etc.)
- You DON’T need any special skills; this should be about the community. Anyone who would like to can participate.
If this interests you please stop by this weekend (2010.07.31, 6:00pm) for more details and to sign up. This will be a great opportunity to get together and help with a project.
Upcoming group project: MAME CABINET!
Project the first: MAME Cabinet(s)
theTransistor has been commissioned to create a MAME cabinet for a local business. Their employees will spend many a break using this machine. ( All games will be licensed of coarse. )
We will have a parts budget of around $1000.00 to complete this build, and we will cover the entire process from the ground up. Here is an estimated timeline:
Week 1 (Jul. 17): Planning and Research
Week 2 (Jul. 24): Design the cabinet in Autocad
Week 3 (Jul. 31): Order parts / Prepare artwork in Illustrator / Photoshop
Week 4 (Aug. 7): Get parts back from CNC, Build cabinet
Week 5 (Aug. 14): Internal Assemblies
Week 6 (Aug. 21): Final Assemblies / Artwork Installation / Completion
The panels will be CNCed, we will order professional artwork. This will be a good 1st group project for the space. Come be a part!
This project will be open to the public. Come and watch or help. Just show up to Arduino / Electronics night and ask. Currently Saturdays 6pm to 9pm.
Diavolino – As sweet as it is EVIL! BWAHAHAHAAHA
We recently got a shipment of the new Diavolino PCB’s from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. We coupled the Diavolino with one of our Minimalist Kits and a couple spare parts from around the lab. We assembled it in a ‘permanent for shields’ / ‘tinkering’ format
I would suggest a couple changes for version 2, but we can save that for another day. All in all this is a pretty sweet board and it’s PERFECT for most of our Arduino projects. ( I won’t post the downsides as much of it may be personal preference, and this is a good board. )
Now go visit EMSL and order a couple! If you need the FTDI programmer I suggest Modern Device, though the programmer at EMSL should do fine.
Make:Provo
Greetings everyone. The folks here at the Transistor have decided we’re going to start a Make:Provo group. If you’re interested check out the website at http://makeprovo.com. Our initial meeting will be Saturday June 12th from 6PM to 7PM. We hope to see you there.
P.S. We will have FREE Make:Provo decals for everyone attending the initial meeting!
Nixie Tube Display
Well, it’s been a couple months in the making, but I finally got my Nixie Tube Display working. There’s tons of details on the projects page, accessible here, but here’s a couple movies of it working, and me explaining it.
Major Update and Plans for the Future
Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates the last month. We’ve been busy working on all our various projects. I’ll try to keep up-to-date in the future with current pictures of our projects and plans. Enjoy the heaping piles of pictures from the last two months we have for you to see posted below!
Since last the page was updated, we’ve made some organizational changes here at tT. We’ve moved the start time of Arduino Night from 5PM on Saturday nights to 6PM on Saturday nights. This is basically when people have been showing up anyways, so the change is just to match reality. We encourage anyone who’s interested to come down and have a look around, bring their projects or ideas and share them with everyone. It’s usually a fun time, with lots of cool projects, people, old-school gaming systems, and random silliness.
We’re also intending in the near future (or so Deven keeps telling me…) to update the website to have a store which will allow us to sell our Minimalist Arduino kits to anyone willing to pay for shipping in addition to the price of the kit. Currently we only sell them here at tT in Provo, but keep an eye out for this store to appear here soon.