Darren Kitchen from Hak5 is currently on his Hack Across America tour.  "What is Hak5?" you ask.  Hak5 is an internet show that deals with all things hacking.  Darren will be stopping by CodeChops this Friday night to do a talk about "Alternative Internets for the Coming Zombie Apocalypse."    The fun will begin with the talk at CodeChops at 5:00PM.  Then at 7:00PM, Darren and crew will head over to Eugene Maker Space to hang out and talk all things hacker, geek, etc.

So come down to Eugene Maker Space this Friday night at 7:00PM and "Trust your Technolust" with the Hak 5 crew.

More information available at Hak5's website.Add Media

Science Factory and EMS Fliers

The Mythbusters came to the Matthew Knight Arena last Friday March 15, 2013. The Science Factory had a table to promote themselves as well as the upcoming Eugene Mini Makerfaire (June 15, 2013). I was invited to help them out and was able to bring a few EMS fliers to put out on their table to help promote our own group.

Vaccuum Powered Ping Pong Ball Cannon

The Science Factory brought some conductive and non-conductive play dough. Attendees were invited to build working circuits out of the play dough. The Science Factory also brought their own vacuum powered ping pong ball cannon that was quite impressive and caused a stir. For more photos and videos, check out the Eugene Mini Makerfaire website.

Open Hack Night is every Tuesday and Friday night. Our address is 687 McKinley, Suite 2, Eugene, Oregon.

For Marie's birthday we made a custom pinata that closely resembled the printer from Office Space that got beatdown, if you aren't familiar with Office Space or need a reminder of the printer beatdown

The age group for these events is typically ages 3-7, plus parents of course.  We thought that building and launching paper rockets would be a great event for this age group.  It's also relatively inexpensive for us to host since we already have two available rocket launchers and the rockets themselves are made from just computer paper and masking tape.

We also brought a few other toys for the attendees to check out and play with.  I (Rick) was working the makerbot 3D printer, printing whistles and other objects.  It's great to see that both adults and kids as young as a few years old are both interested in seeing how the printer works.  James hooked up his hexapod and let the kids control it via laptop.  They had a lot of fun making it walk around, dance, etc.  Bob brought his Blinkenlights project, which seemed to be an attention getter for sure.  Who doesn't love blinking LEDs?

While all of that was going on, Mark and Taper helped teach people how to build the paper rockets.  Once the rockets were constructed, the kids could take them over to Bob and Cord who would get the rocket launcher setup.  A few strokes of the bicycle pump was enough to send the rocket flying across the room towards the garbage can at the other end.  There were a few mishaps of exploding rockets, but a few people managed to hit the targets.  All in all, people seemed to have a great time.

It sounds like we will be invited back towards the end of the year when EPL does another round of these Sunday events.  We'll have to think up another fun group activity to keep everyone engaged and having a great time.  If you didn't make it out this time, definitely consider volunteering next time!  It was a lot of fun for the kids, parents, and the volunteers.

Building Rockets

Rocket launching!

So many people!

James' Hexapod

Having a great time

Rocket Launching

Eugene Maker Space Invites You to Visit

Make-O-Rama: “Tooling Up”

Our Semi-Annual Show & Tell/Open House

February 23, 2013

11:00 to 4:00

687 McKinley Street, Suite #2

www.eugenemakerspace.com for more information

Making awesome tools to make awesome stuff!

Come see what we’re building now:
Laser Cutters! Vacuum Tables! 3D Printers! Welding Booths!

We are here.

Eugene Maker Space now has its name on the sign out front of the building. We are easier to find than ever before.

Eight Makers Making

Open Hack Night was busy tonight. I did not catch what everyone was doing. I did catch that Michelle was gluing together a puzzle box, Ben and Kassie were installing Raspbian on their new Raspberry Pis, Celeste was prototyping an LED-illuminated yo-yo kit for girls to make, Taper was wiring up a circuit to drive some Nixie Tubes (?) from an Arduino, Austin was printing a plastic fan guard and then a special-purpose Wii holder on the MakerBot, and I was making the wiring harness for my laser cutter project.

We've been getting really good turnouts at Open Hack Night lately. It must be the lovely weather. (-:

This is a video of our cat with special dietary needs using her RFID feeder. It is made from an hacked cd-rom drive and an Arduino with a RFID reader attached. It also uses a PIR (Passive InfraRed) sensor to make sure it doesn't close on the cat. It has actually saved us considerable money as the food is very expensive and the other cats love to eat it, so both a fun and very useful project!