Blog Archives

SW Makers July 2017 Busselton Meeting

28/7/2017

Once again, a few library patrons came over to see what was on display. Only two members could make the meeting, so we had room to spread out and work on our current LED projects.

A flexible sheet of 64 Neopixel LEDs with the brightness turned down:

That's not a LED panel, THIS is a LED panel - 256 LEDs, with a string of another 256 LEDs. It was very memorising to watch waves of rainbow colour wash across it all:

If any one is interested in custom cables, Dirty Prototypes offer a US$9.99 sample pack:

Stephen's, new Sprite quadcopter arrived:

Stephen started playing around with some STM32 development boards. The battery is a largish 3.7V 2500mA Li-ion:

You can also pick up some cheap WeMOS ESP8266 boards, and various add-ons:

Paul tested out a 3.3V to 5V translator board, so he could drive a string of Neopixels from a ESP8266:

He also experimented with a couple of home made Infr-red LED boards (850nM and 940nM) to see how they worked with a Raspberry Pi camera:

A RPi IR view of the electronics world:

0 Comments

Shire of Dardanup - Councillors Display

28/7/2017

0 Comments

On the 19th of July, the SW Makers where invited to put on a display for the Shire of Dardanup Councillors and Shire Staff. Four members where able to present some of their projects:

It was a full table, with 3D printers and card making machines whirring away and lots of robotics and electronics:

A white board was commandeered:

0 Comments

SW Makers July 2017 Eaton Meeting

10/7/2017

0 Comments

We had a couple of new people pop in and say hello and work on some robotic projects. We also had the Dardanup Shire President visit us and we talked about IOT technologies, Make Spaces, education and his vision of the future for the Shire of Dardanup.

Stephen showed off the Nano and Tetra Pineapple WiFi www.wifipineapple.com/ scanners, as well as his HackRF One SDR receiver:

He also programmed up his new Nextion programmable LCD:

His ESP8266 based Sonoff IOT power switch recently arrived:

Need a 180 degree USB adaptor? Well they exist:

There was a Makeblock tank robot kit stripped down, rebuilt and running autonomously around the library floor:

Someone has a new metallic foil transfer machine, which produces some snazzy looking cards:

and there was a great textured/embossed card:

A new member seeing what we where up too, drove home and picked up their Mindstorm robot kit and started the build of a book issuing robotic system:

Diane has finished her Sashiko table runner:

and Sashiko rice stitch cloth:

My Raspberry Pi based pollinator /flower time-lapse camera rig was dusted off, ready for another season of winter use:

Version 2.2 of my home made ESP8266 based LED driver board was being tested out - now 6mm shorter than Ver: 2.1:

0 Comments

SW Makers June 2017 Busselton Meeting

4/7/2017

0 Comments

Meeting in a Library is a great way to meet new people and bringing along strange apparatuses is a way to start a conversation. We have a number of people introduce themselves and ask what was going on and what we where up too.

Phillip's 3D printer printed out a great LED housing: