Bristol Hackspace

Mitch Altman, creator of TV-B-Gone and co-founder of Noisebridge the San Francisco hackerspace will be giving his workshop ‘How To Make Cool Things With Microcontrollers’ at the Bristol Hackspace. Mitch says: “At the workshop I have lots of projects that anyone can make and take home, even if they’ve never made anything before.” You can see a list of the projects below.

The workshop will run from 1pm to 5pm on Sat 27 Mar 2010 in the Hackspace in Hamilton House on Stokes Croft. There will be some time spare to finish up at the end if we run over. Also feel free to join us for lunch in the Canteen cafe/bar on the ground floor from 12pm.

The half day workshop costs £20, or £10 if you join the Bristol Hackspace as a member (which also gets you hefty discounts on future workshops). Parts are extra, costs vary depending on what you make but start from just £5. See the list below for details.

There are limited spaces available so book now to avoid disappointment.

Here’s a list of the projects you will be able to build

And here are some pictures of them.

Mignonette Game kit @ £30 each

A way fun, way low-resolution hand-held computer console that you can use to create your own games.

Trippy RGB Waves kit @ £5 each

Waves of colours follow your hand as you wave it over these.

TV-B-Gone kit @ £15 each

Turn off TVs in public places from up to 50 meter away!

USBtinyISP kit @ £15 each

A programmer for AVR microcontrollers.

MiniPOV3 kit @ £15 each

Display messages of your choice through the air you wave this through.

Brain Machine @ £15 each

Hallucinate beautiful colors and patterns while you drift off into fabulous meditation.

MintyBoost kit @ £15 each

With 2 AA batteries you can charge anything with a USB charging input (such as an iPhone).

Drawdio @£15 each

Fun and annoying noiseamaker that changes noise as you draw on paper.

LEDcube @ £15 each

3 x 3 x 3 cube of LEDs with animated sequence.

DC BoArduino kit @ £15 each

Arduino clone kit

FTDI cable @ £15 each

This is not a kit — it is required to communicate with the BoArduino (and many other open-source projects).

TripGlasses @ £25 each

This is not a kit — it is a ready-made version of the Brain Machine. Hallucinate beautiful colors and patterns while meditating!

EU TV-B-Gone @ £15 each

This is not a kit — it is the ready-made keychain to turn off TVs in public places (with a stealthy batman-like look).

NA TV-B-Gone Pro SHP @ £30 each

This is not a kit — it is a ready-made version, the size of an mp3 player, that turns off TVs in public from up to 150 meter away! One model for the entire world! Comes with built-in rechargeable batteries and a charger.

Open Heart kits @ £15 each

I’ll probably also have some of Jimmie Rodger’s Open Heart kits, too. These kits are super easy — they have 27 LEDs in the shape of a heart that you connect to an Arduino (or BoArduino) to animate blinky-light sequences.

Mitch Altman, creator of TV-B-Gone and co-founder of Noisebridge the San Francisco hackerspace will be in the UK for the Maker Faire March 13 & 14. While he is in the UK he will be giving his workshop How To Make Cool Things With Microcontrollers at hackspaces around the country, including Bristol! Mitch descibes the workshop thus:

At the workshop I have lots of projects that anyone can make and take home, even if they’ve never made anything before. Anyone can learn this stuff, including how to solder — I’ve taught thousands! My time is free. I only ask that people pay for the cost of the parts. (If I break even on my workshops, I’m happy — I only do it because I love it.)

We will be hosting Mitch in the Bristol Hackspace in Hamilton House. Exact details of the time and date and how to sign up will be posted soon.

Update — the workshop will be the afternoon of Sat 27 Mar 2010. Book your tickets now!

I’m delighted to be able to add the Arnolfini to our roster of partners and to thank them for their commitment to support the Bristol Hackspace. It is especially pleasing given the involvement of so many people from Dorkbot and Bristol Wireless (two groups with whom we share a considerable overlap) in the recent unCraftivism weekend which opened the Craftivism exhibition and series of events. You can see some of the stuff people got up to on the Craftivism wiki.

I’m delighted to be able to announce that the first three of our corporate partners — Futurelab, Connecting Bristol and Bristol Wireless — have confirmed their support. We look forward to working with them to build a fantastic space for hanging out, messing around and geeking out with technology in Bristol.

We are also talking to a number of other like minded organisations and we will keep you posted on developments.

Watch this space.