dorkbot bristol

Click here to sign up for the July Dorkbot - http://dorkbotbristol.eventbrite.com/

Following our last Dorkbot meeting it would be great to use they July meeting to plan out what  we can do for the Mobile Music event in Bath on the 29th August and Dconstruct in Brighton on the 4th September.

 At the moment suggestions for Bath are for circuit bending with Arduino workshops. If we had a collection of interesting music installations to get passers by curious (any offers) we should be able to get people to stay a bit longer to do a workshop, (anybody interested in a car boot sale trawl for some donor electronic toys to play with).

Here is a link to Dconstruct in Brighton, http://2009.dconstruct.org/ The focus will be robotics but again we should have some latitude.

Come along with your ideas and any ongoing projects that you might think would be appropriate. We can set up a couple of discussion groups to concentrate our ideas.

 Look forward to you joining the fun.

June’ s Dorkbot was a wonderful array of projects being presented. For those who do or don’t know, Bristol has a superb robotics presence in Bristol with both Universities running courses. Our audience for the night were treated

to a presentation by David McGoran who introduced the Heart Robot a project developed whilst on a BSc (Hons) in Robotics at UWE.

Jamie’s music controllers demonstration, see more at his website.

Paul has been working with the wii remote to track motion and he showed us all some of the experiments he’d been working on including a pong game and a paint package he’s been exploring possibilities for. More info to follow….

We discussed the events that Bristol Dorkbotters have been invited to showcase, hack and make at! From Bath to Brighton we have been given the opportunity to show how it’s done with musical projects in Bath and robotic antics at DConstruct in Brighton.

So if you think this sounds like a bit of collective fun, we’re putting together ideas, you can just turn up and make a project, work with others in collaboration, you name it! It’s up to you.

We’ll be meeting up, organising hacks and getting the details together so watch this space. You can log your interest by emailing us at dorkbotbristol @ googlemail.com or twitter it to @dorkbotbristol.  We will also be publishing a sign up in the next few days so watch this space.

It’s that time again to get ready for Dorkbot time! You can sign up here at http://dorkbotbristol.eventbrite.com/

June’s Dorkbot is a Jivn’ with Jamie’s interactive audio/visual installation/tool for music production and performance. It utilizes motion tracking with camera technologies to form new intangible communication possibilities for human-computer interaction. Full on eh?

If you want a quick look at what this is go to http://alexanderthomasresearch.wordpress.com/

We’ve also got a couple of new projects for Dorkbotters if you’re interested?

For those that like the idea of hacking things together we’ve been invited to leave Bristol and head to Bath and Brighton for a couple of events.  It’d be great to find out who’s up for a trip away with Dorkbot for hackdays where you’ll need a bucket and spade or maybe just bits of circuitry.

If you have anything you might like to present please email us at dorkbotbristol@googlemail.com and then simply come along.

There will be refreshments provided for a recommend donation as usual.

We look forward to seeing you at the next Dorkbot.

Lots more to see and do…look forward to seeing you there!

The next Dorkbot Bristol encounter will take place at our usual home of the Pervasive Media  Studio, Anchor Square, Bristol on Tuesday 19th May 2009, starting 7pm and running right up to 10pm.  An “open dork” with invited guests as well, bring something to share or something to show or just yourself to watch and take part in open discussion.  Drinks available for a donation as per usual.

We have a mixed bag for you this month as usual, so turn up and get involved in the mix in the bag.  So far kicking around there are:

• Phill Phelps will be coming along to show us his home made ‘copy cat’ tape loop machine made from an old twin compact cassette tape machine.
• Our very own David B will be telling us about the plans for electronic graffiti (or is it crickets) he has for a future Dorkbot.
• Mark Summers will be demoing his mobile-soundsystem-in-a-rucksack.  It is apparently rather suprisingly good at big bass noises, so we might have to take it outside.
• and we have an update on the Hackspace Bristol proposal with news from Hamilton House and Bristol Wireless.
• Finally Amias Channer will be making some music with a Tenori-On to see us out of the building and on to a local watering hole for post-dorkbotic refreshments.

Please sign-up to the event to let us know you’re coming and while you’re at it why not download the Dorkbot Bristol Summer 2009 flyer in as an A4 poster or  an A6 flyer and get posting it around your work, home, university, laboratory or favourite hovel?  You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Dorkbot Bristol’s April event will take place on Tuesday, 21 April 2009 7:00pm - 10:00pm at the Pervasive Media Studio, Anchor Square, Bristol.  We have March’s mad hatters coming back to show us how their dorkabotical hats have developed. and as we get them we’ll post details here about some of the other things you can expect.  Dorkbot Bristol’s Tuesday evening meetings are free entry and we’ll be providing a selection of refreshments for a recommended donation.

The story so far ….

Amongst many other things you can expect the following at our next Dorkbot meeting:

• Tarim presents Instant Graffiti by Media Playgrounds, a chance to draw all over building socially via projection, a chance to draw all over building socially via projection. Guaranteed fun scribbling by night only to see it disappear before dawn!
• The Compass Hat is an Arduino-based hat that gives the wearer a sense of which was is North, using a magnetic sensor and a hatband full of pager vibrate motors.
• We have a quick revisit of those mathematical marvels Fractals with an explanation of a Julia Set explorer written entirely using JavaScript and the HTML 5 canvas element.
• Find out more about our ideas to create a Hackers paradise with a proposal for Hack Space Bristol.

Also, Dorkbot dates for your diary.  The following Dorkbot Bristol events are already booked for Tuesday 19th of May, Tuesday 16th of June and Tuesday 21st July.

Dorkbot is taking shape again this month with a Hack a Hat day over at Hamilton House.

Saturday 21st March 2009 from 12 noon till 6pm.

This month we invite you to the challenge of creating a wacky hat creation.

You can use whatever materials you like, hi-tech, lo-tech, it’s up to you! We will also provide some materials free and some that you can buy to try to use in your creations!

We will have two categories: Individual and Teams (no more than 5 people),  so if you are a team let us know!

At the end of the day we will have a judging and prized for those that are voted the best!

To sign up for this event click here

Tell your friends, get some people along for tea and cake and the grand finale at 5.30pm. It’s high time that we have a more diverse Dorkbot, so whether it’s participants or wider audience , if you know of others including engineers, artists, etc you name it, lets get them to it!

During the day, we will also have an Open dork session, so bring along your latest electronics, robotics, art, psychology, or evening gardening project to show and tell what it’s all about, discuss with others, exchange tips and generally dork out!!!

If you want to do a bit of promotion for us and think that you can put a few flyers in your office, home, local pub or café, school, sixth form or university, then why not download the Dorkbot March 2009 Flyer A6 or Dorkbot March 2009 Flyer A4.

We will be providing soup (vegan) and bread for lunch for a modest donation and invite you to bring along anything you’d like to pimp up your broth!

It’s just for fun so come along and play, make and drink tea!

Look forward to seeing you there,

Rachel & Mike

February Dorkbot proved that ‘Show and Tell’ is as popular as ever.

It was a real mix moving from the highly technical Arduino demo that opened the evening from John Honiball to the likes of Sam Machin’s demo of his interactive Penguin complete with controllable flippers. It was a busy evening, Tarim brought a friendly pack of dogs into the studio. These were the results of the recent collaborative workshops that saw groups make Robotic dogs at Supertoys held at the Arnolfini.

Red Rhythmic Dragon played us out with a new bit of kit that gave us some real club style tunes. Mike Harris brought along his Sinclair ZX-80 and Rachel Carney filled in with Bokeh Type while waiting for Stefan Goodchild to tell us about Sweettweet.co.uk a new on-line app using feeds from Twitter that he and Theo Cushion have recently put together for a bit o’ tech fun.  Drew then showed us a bit of processing and gadgetry.

You can see some items in the Dorkbot Bristol Flickr group and we were also lucky to have the UWE media team that turned up video the evening, so watch this space for video clippets in the near future!!!!

Photo by Drew: Precise motor positioning using PID feedback motor and positioning sensor from a Canon Pixma IP 4000(?)
Using Lady ada motor shield (very good shield as would be expected).
It’s a work in progress, and needs some optimisation. Considering some more experiments, and making a 3D printer.

The first Dorkbot Bristol meeting of this year will be on the 17th February 2009 at the Pervasive Media Studio from at 7pm until 10pm

So we have some idea of how many of you might be coming please help by signing up below:

This is a FREE event.Click this link and Sign up here

After taking a well earned break in January, we are more excited than ever to bring us all together for another ‘Show & Tell’ session.

‘Show & Tell‘, is  an open invite to anyone to come and show a thing, enthuse about something they love, share new ideas or even give a short presentation of a project to find people to work with. Come and watch or get involved!!

Why not download the  Dorkbot February Flyer A4, print it and post it up for others to see?

So what next?

Your ‘Show & Tell’  can be 2 minutes, 5-10 or 20minutes so don’t think you have to do something really polished it’s just about putting forward ideas or looking for feedback on a project or even just let others know about  great gadget or website you’ve found!

We will be providing some sound equipment and digital projector with Internet connection for those wanting to use this kit, the project accepts SVGA or S-Video input, so please remember to bring your video adaptor with you (especially Mac users with DVI, Mini-DVI, Micro-DVI, etc.)

We’re putting the programme together as we go and there’s a few things on the agenda already.  As often happens February’s Dorkbot will close with a musical extravaganza, this time in the form of a performance from Mark K (aka Red Rhythmic Dragon).

We’re looking for you to complete our programme by publishing your ideas as comments to this post. So get publishing dorkbotters or email us on dorkbotbristol at googlemail.com (replacing the at with the @ sign)

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And so for those of you that missed it at the top of this page!

This is a FREE event, with donations taken for refreshments.

So whether you’re turning up or taking part we won’t hold you to it but…

So we have some idea of how many of you might be coming please help by signing up below:

Click this link and Sign up here

 If you have an idea for a Dorkbot, want to host one or help organise the next one email us,
we’d love to hear from you dorkbotbristol at googlemail.com (replacing the at with the @ sign)

Some photos from Saturday’s hacklab day at Hamilton House.   We all had a superb day last Saturday at Hamilton House, lots of geekery and gadgetry and some delicious soup cooked up by Amias.   More photos available on-line on the dorkbot bristol photostream.  We’re taking a break for January and the next dorkbot Bristol meeting will be on the 17th February 2009 at the Pervasive Media Studio from at 7pm until 10pm.  We’re planning a second dorkhackbot day at Hamilton House for March 2009.  Merry Xmas one and all!

December’s Dorkbot Extravaganza is
The Hamilton House Hack!! 

Saturday 13th December 2008 from 12 noon till 6PM
at Hamilton House, Stokes Croft (entrance on City Rd)

Dorkbot Bristol goes itinerant with a different location (kindly provided by Coexist), a different day and a different time. Click here to download the flyer.

Three days earlier than normal this month, but just in time for the festive season’s festivities to begin, we’re pleased to bring you a whole Saturday afternoon of dorking!!  From robot hacking, tech from the archives, web mash-ups, the Astronaut Show, a bring your own Arduino lab, a performance of the Space Echo - the geostationary effects pedal, indoor satellite internet and whatever else we all bring along on the day.

Starts at midday on Saturday, we’ll have food and refreshments available for donations, and you’re welcome to bring something to share.

We do need to know that you’re coming, so do please sign up using the form at this link.  We welcome any suggestions and proposals for activities and workshops, especially if you’d like to run a workshop on the day.  If you do please email us at the address on the contacts page or why not simply add your comments to this posting.