Thank you [Dr. Ducharme], for helping get the word out. We received 260 views on Friday, over four times our previous record. Let's keep spreading word for the ideaLab.
On Saturday, [Matt Turner] brought in his portable N64 and we managed to get it working. His project is coming along greatly and we really like his initiative. Using a couple guides, [Matt Turner] was able to combine an N64, a PSOne screen, a controller, and various switches into a fully working portable N64. The really interesting bits are his charging switch and custom case. The switch allows him to easily change between recharging his battery and running off the power from the wall plug, while his custom case places his buttons in easy to access locations. We plan to use the vacuum former to make an improved case and make a connection port to allow a second portable N64 to sync up for multi-player fun.
We'll have a link to his project shortly, but in the meantime here are some photos.
On Sunday, we continued work on the vacuum former and fixed the CNC mill. [John Cope] arrived and brought a couple boxes of Lego parts, including many Lego train parts. We created a Lego test track in the back of the room and started work on two projects for it: modeling/printing custom parts based on Jurassic Park to recreate the T-Rex chase scene, and a part dispenser that delivers resistors and other components when ordered through a web page.
By Tuesday, we expect the end stops to be installed on the CNC mill and the frame of the vacuum former to be completed. By Thursday, the vacuum former should be completed (or very nearly) and the CNC mill settings should be properly keyed in to allow reliable cuts. Then all we'll need is the laser cutter to have this lab up and running with equipment for students to use.
Some news of interest:
Stanford is offering courses on Artificial Intelligence, Introduction to Databases, and Introduction to Machine Learning. These classes sound very interesting and you can bet that they all will be practical for many later projects in this lab. While you won't get credits for taking them, you will get a nifty certificate to show off. The best parts are that they are free and you do not need to take any prerequisites. There's no risk involved and you can help Stanford as a beta tester for a new form of online course.
The Donkey Show is a local monthly event where people can offer free courses on various skills (mostly programming from what I've seen). Take a look at the website to see if any upcoming courses interest you. Our own [John Cope] teaches the Processing class there, with the next one held on 2011.09.09. Try to make it as these classes can really help people of all levels learn new skills to make them a more well rounded makerThat's all for this week. We hope to see some new faces in the ideaLab this next week.
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