March 4th, 2010 by noise

If you didn’t get a ticket to Ignite Minneapolis or would rather hang out with a bunch of cool geeks instead of marketing drones and social media consultants then head over to the Hack Factory.

There will be minimal structure, just another great night of creating at the factory, including but not limited to the following:

• Free software swap – bring your favorite free app on a cd to trade, be prepared to do a pitch about how cool it is.
• Lensbaby test and review.  John Baichtal from Make blog and Geekdad scored some lenses from Lensbaby so he could write a review, so we will be testing those out.  He has a pinhole and soft focus lens, can anyone say geek boudoir?
• Kicad hacking, etc. – Adam Wolf (inventor of the Tactile Metronome) will be there doing something awesome as always.

March 2nd, 2010 by noise

What a great night! Our first Handmade Music was a big success, lots of people showed up and got to show off and learn a bit more about sound. The night was mostly just a free for all with no direction or organization, it was awesome, none-the-less we had a great response and some terrific enthusiasm.

A few people brought things to show off or play. It was a pretty diverse collection:

- Cigar Box Guitar
- PICaxe-based Synth
- Mini-theremin kit
- Synth chip and MIDI file playback.
- Drum Pad Game Controller
- MIDI drum pad and ChucK apps
- PAiA Theremin, KAOSS Pad, Drone Lab, Supercollider Apps, MFOS Weird Sound Generator
- 555 Throwies, Arduino Synth, Thingamagoop, Assorted contact mics

I didn’t take a head count or record attendees (live and learn) but I think we probably approached around 30 people total throughout the night.

Here are some pictures from the event.

And here are some of the ambient sounds of Handmade Music.

The next event will be on March 25th, 7:00 to whenever again at The Hack Factory, please bring things to share with the group. More information on that night and future nights can be found at Handmade Music Minneapolis Page on TCMaker’s Wiki.

February 14th, 2010 by noise

The first handmade music is coming up on the 25th @ the Hack Factory. The itinerary is being worked on currently as more info becomes available we will be posting it here.

Sneak peak: we have procured a sound system and are planning on having a little performance at the end of night, and lots of people at Saturday’s minne-faire have shown interest in the event, it should be fun.

We are exploring some ideas for the first time around, so please if you have some ideas or thoughts worth sharing about handmade music or perhaps you have been to an similar event and know what works, please share. You can comment on this post or email myself at sobczak.paul at Gmail or Pat if he wants to post his email.

Hi, this is Pat.  Feel free to email me at lifeisnoise at gmail or post on the forums or tcmaker google group.

More on Handmade Music over at Noisepages

First Update:

I’m thinking a fun project we could do is 555 “throwies” that I’ve been working on.  It’s an idea that is still in development (I built one prototype which I gave away), so it could be fun.  I’ll try to build one and post a pic later today.
Wayne (wammie) also has some speech synthesis chips that could be fun to play with.

We are looking for 2 acts to perform each set will be 30 minutes long, but we would like the artists to walk us through exactly what they brought to the stage, nobody is currently booked so if you are interested let us know.

February 18 update:

People have been wondering what this even is really all about, to get to the bottom of it I offer the following justification.

Handmade Music: Minneapolis is trying to cultivate a DIY music scene in Minneapolis, by having these open nights at the Hack Factory for people who make sonic machines to socialize and share ideas. (Note: This is basically the same goal as TC Maker has but just narrowed down to musics.)

Wayne will be bringing 2 or possibly three of the SN76477 chips to the event.

Talking to him last night about the chip, he had these up and running about 15 years ago so there is no telling if they still work but it should be fun to try. There are a few suggestions on the data sheet of setups to try, see the suggested setups from the data sheet:

The mothership connection again from the data sheet has the following setup:

I think we will try to set up one of the first ones. And possibly someone will wire up the mothership connection and bring it to a future event. If in the mean time you at home are interested in messing around with this chip there is a newer version of it here.

There has been some interest in performance but nobody has jumped forward as of yet so if you are interested let us know. There will be no compensation this time around as we are not charging for the event at all, that said, if you have been looking for a venue to show off what you have been working on this might be it, read it doesn’t have to be a finely tuned, a bit of sonic tom-foolery is welcome.

Also If you are currently working on or with with any of the following things:

• DIY Analog/Digital Synths
• Max/Msp
• SuperCollider
• Pd
• Arduino
• Circuit Bending
• Instrument building ect…

We are looking to find people to teach classes at The Hack Factory if you are interested and have some ideas of things you would like to do in the future let us know and we start to set it up.

For those new to The Hack Factory we do have some things if you want to build a kit or do a bit of trouble shooting during the night, We have a few soldering irons and 1 (1/2) oscilloscopes, a dc power supply and a few other things so you can bring pretty much anything to put together. We don’t have any electrical components yet so if you have some that you would like to donate that would be great.

January 20th, 2010 by noise

Twin Cities Maker will be having its usual weekly meet and greet at the Hack Factory this Wednesday, Jan 20, at 7 pm.  This event is open to the public as well as members.

For those new to the organization, our weekly meetings are usually geek fests where you can meet up with and talk to people about whatever catches your fancy.  Ask for help, share thoughts, inspire and be inspired.

Of course, anyone wanting to pay dues or bring in tools (or anything else they want to contribute to the stocking of the space) is welcome to do so.

Highlights:

• Building Workbenches
• Jim W. will be doing initial planning for the Life Size Operation Game.
• Nick L. may be there to share his plans for some sort of Blofeldian device that punches holes in steel with electromagnetism.
  

We’ll see you there!

Hack Factory
3119 E 26th St
Minneapolis, MN 55406

Use the side door, it’s yellow and just around the corner from the garage door.

View Map

January 19th, 2010 by noise

A few of us are getting together this Friday, Jan. 22nd at the Hack Factory to do some group hacking. Bring your projects and join the fun. Somebody will be hacking at the factory starting at 8am and going until at least 8pm.

I’ll be working on a couple of arduino video projects that I’ve been itching to check out and who knows what else.

BYO-Project, BYO-Tools, BYO-Whatever else you might need, I expect we’ll order pizza at some point.

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matchees/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

December 29th, 2009 by noise

Let’s have our meet-up at the new space this Wednesday.  It will just be a casual get together, no business, but everyone should try to stop by and pay your dues so we make sure to have rent for the first month.

Make sure to bring all the cool toys you scored for Christmas, or anything you made over the break.

See you there: 3119 East 26th St.

December 17th, 2009 by noise

It’s official! Twin Cities Maker will partner with Hack Factory of Minnesota to share a maker space. The members meeting resulted in a unanimous vote to merge with Hack Factory. The new space is located at 3119 East 26th St. in Minneapolis.

Starting January 1st, monthly dues will be $50. Membership will include access to the space and other benefits to be determined.

Full details on partnership structure, membership responsibilities and opportunities, etc. will be resolved going ahead. We’ll announce further information as we have it. Both the Twin Cities Maker and Hack Factory names will be retained in some regard.

December 16th, 2009 by noise

This month the business meeting will be held at 3119 East 26th St. in Minneapolis. This will be the location of our new space once we officially merge with Hack Factory. Details will be discussed at the meeting. Please be prepared to pay dues (cash or check).

To enter the space go through the chain link gate on right side of the building and enter the first door on that side of the building.  There should be some signs in place to help. Here is a link to the street view of the building, you can see the yellow door on the side of the building just past the gate (right side of the image): Street View.

Bring your own chair (or bean bag or pillow or whatever you feel like sitting on) or you may be sitting on the cold concrete.

Tentative Agenda

• Introduce Hack Factory to TC Maker
• Vote on merger with Hack Factory
• Brainstorm about the future

November 30th, 2009 by noise

The next casual meet-up will be held at the house of noise (a.k.a. Secretary Pat Arneson). To take maximum advantage of the changed venue (and frankly because I’ll be ready for some visitors after a few days of an empty house) people are welcome to show up any time after 5pm. Let’s also do an informal potluck for anyone that feels like bringing something. I will try to get together a pot of clam chowder or chili.  Bring your own beverage of choice.

Most importantly, bring something to show off or play with, especially those things that you wouldn’t normally feel comfortable bringing to Common Roots (hmmm, lots of room for misinterpretation/misuse in that sentence).

Here is the map. My house is on a hill, so if there’s something you don’t feel like dragging up the stairs feel free to drive around back in the alley.  There will be space enough for a couple of people to park.

November 13th, 2009 by noise

LTSpice is a free SPICE simulation tool from Linear Technologies.

For those in the electronics world, SPICE simulation can be a great way to answer the “will my circuit work as advertised” question without breadboarding. It’s a great sanity check- if it don’t work in SPICE, it won’t* work on a breadboard.

LTSpice is Linear Technologies’ own incarnation of SPICE. It’s a nice little product, and comes with models for many of Linear’s products (power supplies, op-amps, etc) along with many supporting components from other manufacturers (diodes, transistors, capacitors, inductors, etc) and generic parts (555s, LEDs, etc). Obviously, they provide it expecting people to download it, sim up a solution involving Linear parts and then sell eleventy-billion a year, thus providing a nice income stream for Linear (and it works- LTSpice makes it much more likely that I’ll reach for a Linear part for power supply design than another manufacturer’s parts).

[via uptownmaker]