Beginner’s Arduino workshop: A beginner’s introduction to micro-controllers using the popular Arduino prototyping platform.

We will cover:

C programming basics,
sensors,
motors and actuators,
making music
shift registers
DACS (digital to analogue converters)
An understanding of these topics will enable you to:

Make LEDs light up in different colours and patterns
Detect switches, lightness/darkness and touch
Make sounds
Drive motors and other mechanical devices
Control lots of lights and make complex sounds
Communicate between a computer and the Arduino
trigger sounds on a computer using environmental sensors

When?

10th March ’2012 – 11th March ’2012. We will run from 10am to 5.30pm both days.

Where?

Pervasive Media Studios, Bristol. Website Location

What you need to bring!

lunch for both days
your arduino and kit of parts if you have one already
your laptop with the arduino IDE already installed

Sorry tickets have sold out.

Come along to the BotLab AGM on Thursday 16th Feb to find out more about what BotLab does and what it can do for the creative technology community in Bristol. Best of all you can help shape it. A new cooperative constitution will be adopted at the meeting. You can become a voting member at the meeting to both stand and vote for a new board of directors for the company.

The AGM will be held in the Hackspace at BV studios in Bedminster, doors open at 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start.

The aim is for the business of the meeting to be prompt. Refreshments will be provided to celebrate the occasion for those who want to stay and chat and/or hack.

A fuller account for the agenda of the meeting can be fount on the Hackspace Wiki at the following address:

http://bristol.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/doku.php/agm_16_02_2012_and_adoption_of_new_botlab_constitution

If you’re interested in learning to program Arduino micro-controllers then Bristol Hackspace are running a beginners course on 30th/31st July 2011 at the Pervasive Media Studio.

By the end of the weekend you should be able to:

• Make LEDs light up in different colours and patterns
• Detect switches, light/dark, touch
• Make sounds Drive motors and other mechanical devices
• Communicate between a computer and the Arduino
• Control lots of lights and make complex sounds

Cost is £50 or £95 if you want an Arduino kit to keep after the course is over.  Concessions are available on a case by case basis – make an offer and say what great projects you’re going to get up to when you know how to program Arduinos

Signup: https://bristol-hackspace.eventwax.com/arduino-workshop
Contact: matt[at]mattvenn.net

Bristol Hackspace http://bristol.hackspace.org.uk/ is a non-profit organisation – money goes towards supporting Bristol Hackspace activities which mostly involve helping people re-purposing old electronic gear in weird and wonderful ways.

KWMC are running the “Whose Data?” project with the aim of showing how data collected locally can influence the decisions made by people in the locality and the wider community. The archetypal project is the Electric Footprint project led by Dane which used energy monitors to help residents understand how electricity was being used in their homes. Other data sources of interest include environmental data (weather, air quality, pollen counts), ecological data (wildlife sightings, production in allotments), social and family histories and health (food consumption, exercise and emotional states).

Last week, 8 artists worked at the centre and presented proposals of which 4 will chosen for longer residences. There are possibilities for collaboration with the selected artists when they are in residence and more generally, KWMC are open to suggestions for new projects within this umbrella project.

The Bristol Civic Society is planning a day of events on the 25th June and is looking for partners in bring the event to life via real-time location-aware data streams from mobile phones to be visualised on the web and in the main event location at the “Bear Pit” (Evening Post
June 19, 2010, October 26, 2010)

Elsewhere in the Hackspace, a quadracopter was undergoing flight testing, high energy LEDs lit up another corner and project ideas bubbled away. A great evening.

So, if you’ve got an interest in electronics, or just want to find out more, do come along to next week’s Thursday evening get-together! Just turn up, any time after about 7pm, at the hackspace in BV Studios, Bedminster.

At Bristol Hackspace on Thursday evenings there’s a lively bunch of beginners and experts  happy to swap advice and ideas.   Currently underway are projects with multi-coloured LEDs, LED arrays , a quadacopter and a radio-controlled clock.  Come and check us out this Thursday evening.

Studio G11
BV Studios
37 Philip Street
Bedminster
Bristol
BS3 4EA

The hackspace is on the  corner of Phillip Street and Stillhouse Lane. Here we are on Google Maps. If you’re looking on Street View, the building has been refurbished . We have large windows and a side door onto the lane.

Meetings are every Thursday night from 7.00 pm onwards and are open to all hackers.