Title: HACMan Location: MadLab Description: HAC:Manchester are a hackspace group based in Greater Manchester. Start Time: 19:00 Date: 2012-01-11 End Time: 21:00
HAC:Manchester is a Hackspace Group, a community-run arts, science and technology club. We run weekly drop-in workshop sessions, providing electronics, mechanical and computing knowledge, and tools for personal and group projects.
Our aim is to provide a space where people can work on their projects, hang out socially to talk about making things, plot world domination* and work together to develop their collective skills.
You’ll find us every Wednesday evening, downstairs at the MadLab, Manchester’s Geek Mecca.
Title: Ho-Ho-Holiday HackNight Location: MadLab Description: HAC:Manchester are holding the first annual Ho-Ho-Holiday HackNight. Start Time: 19:00 Date: 2011-12-21 End Time: 21:00
This is an open-to-all event, where participants will be making lovely decorations, gadgets and flashy things ready for the holiday season.
Please come along, and feel free to bring Cakes, Snacks and Drinks, and lets build some great stuff!
About HAC:Manchester
HAC:Manchester is a Hackspace Group, a community-run arts, science and technology club. We run weekly drop-in workshop sessions, providing electronics, mechanical and computing knowledge, and tools for personal and group projects.
Our aim is to provide a space where people can work on their projects, hang out socially to talk about making things, plot world domination and work together to develop their collective skills.
Title: Robot Hackday 2011 Location: MadLab Description: Bring your old electronic junk and toys down to Madlab. Take them apart and put them back together again as… robots! Start Time: 10:00 Date: 2011-10-22 End Time: 16:00 Price: Free Suitable: All ages Booking: Essential, Places are limited
It’s that time of year again!
MadLab will be hosting our famous annual Robot Hackday during the Manchester Science Festival 2011.
Our special activity for this year is building BEAM BOTS!
For those who don’t know: BEAM is an acronym standing for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, Mechanics
Biology It’s tough to beat 4 billion years of evolution; the world around us is a wonderful source of inspiration and education. Bear in mind, of course, that unlike Mother Nature, you also have the advantage of gears, motors, bearings, and good glues!
Electronics It kind of goes without saying, but this is what we’ll use to drive our creations. BEAM robots, though are normally created from simple analogue circuits. Here’s the key: small and understandable circuits, that can be surprisingly complex in behaviour.
Aesthetics This just means your creations should look good! There will be prizes for the best Robots….looking good might help!
Mechanics This is the less-than-obvious secret of many successful BEAM bots…less if often more!
We hope you will join us making the BEAM Bots…..but if you like you can bring any electronics / robotics project down on the day and get some help and feedback from our hackers.
Work on your own or team up with others – there will be prizes at the end of the day for the best entries. Don’t worry if your robot building skills are not up to scratch, we have experts to guide you in your robot creation and there will be some special guests present also!
Experts on hand to help out during the day include HACMan, Adrian McEwen, Oomlout and others, don’t be shy. Get thinking creatively and we hope to see you there!
Here are some photos from past Robot Hackdays in 2010 & 2009 to get you inspired in the meantime.
We are proud to present the makers of MadLab – Fashion Hackers and HACMan. These groups show that MadLab is not only about the virtual, but attracts groups who want to make something with their hands. Different but similar, these groups gather those interested in inventing, designing and making things, hands-on projects joining fun and need. The benefits of coming together in a shared space are are not hard to point out – starting from sharing equipment ending with the idea that doing things together may lead to bigger-greater ideas than tinkering alone. (more…)
“Lets make something new for Handmade at FuturEverything”
“Ok”
“Oh and make sure it has water”
“Ok. wait, what?”
“It’s at Victoria Baths”
“I see…”
- [paraphrased] Conversation at Maker Faire
We mooted quite a few different project ideas in the following weeks, from the obscenely complex (multitouch swimming pool simulator) ot the obscenely difficult (dripping water + strobe + vision recognition), and finally settled on crossing a theremin with a fountain to make something ludicrously big, wet & loud!
We used a 800w fountain pump (aka the uberpump, aka that stupidly oversized pump you bought because it was cheap), a few meters of hose, 2 sheets of plywood, way too much paint, a powered speaker set, a modified drawdio kit (leftover from Music Hack Day), about 200 screws, and 2 weeks of work to build it, totally worth it!
The copper bar on the front of the machine is connected to one of the drawdio probe pins, the other is connected to a coil of wire inside the hose opening. The user grabs the copper bar, and puts their hand in the stream. The resistance of the user’s body plus the resistance of the water in between the opening and their hand changes the pitch of the drawdio’s output, which is directly connected to the input of the amp.
The Madlab is a community space for people who want to do and make interesting stuff - a place for geeks, artists, designers, illustrators, hackers, tinkerers, innovators and idle dreamers; an autonomous R&D laboratory and a release valve for Manchester's creative communities.
We're a not-for-profit organisation dependent on funding. If you think what we're doing is valuable, we'd be really grateful for any donation you could contribute towards this project.
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ManchesterDigitalLab:RT @davemee: Tho I may be gently ribbing them, really pleased the Pythonistas and Rubists are sharing a floor @madlabuk tonight. All involved will win.
