Projects

This is a dump of all projects that people have expressed interest in working on!

Space Improvements

Backing up Production Computers

• Ideally: A simple method for doing as close to a bare metal backup as possible of the primary production machines at AHA, ie:
  • Scotty (CNC/Laser/3D Printing machine in Proto room)
  • AHA-Central (Windows 7 Ultimate: Shift machine behind desk)
  • All Hands Active (Windows 7 Ultimate: Main machine in primary AHA Workspace)
  • AHA-Mega (Ubuntu Box: Label Printer Machine on side work bench in AHA Workspace)

• Once a month should be often enough to get most of the general / major changes covered
  • Having one or two USB Bootable Clonezilla drives for plugging in, booting up, and one or two steps for a general user to activate backup.
  • Testing to make super backup implementation is just as simple

• Centralizing where production files (ie: Personal .gcode, .stl, etc.) go, and having those backed up online more often would be nice
  • Raises the question of whether or not people want their files being uploaded onto the internet.
  • Raises the question of what sort of privacy people can expect with their files.

Shared Folder across Production Computers

• Temporary solution = Dropbox (ahadump@gmail.com = username)
• Permanent solution? - NFS using LDAP from one of AHA's servers. Public shares and private shares then lock down everything but a users home folder? This would keep PC's clean and still allow sharing and moving of files between PCs. Requires a user to log out and log in as themselves. I'd be happy to setup LDAP/NFS if a server is provided - Tyler
  • Currently setup on ALLHANDSACTIVE (machine in main area of AHA Workspace)
  • Needs to be setup on: AHAMega, Scotty, AHA-Central
  • Josh Williams & Michael Shvartsman know username/password if it's needed.

5/16/2012 - Front Door Display

• There is a desire to make this more fancy, but this would involve having a higher powered machine.
• Chris Chan has donated an Intel Atom box for this.
• A 24" LCD, VGA cable, and stereo cable with 1/8" audio jack have been installed
• The shift machine currently operates the AHA / Diablo III background. This needs to be dedicated on a separate machine.
• Needs:
  • Someone to connect the dots

5/16/2012 - Shift Machine Replacement

99% sure this is done already. If someone can confirm (e.g. Josh), we can remove this from the list. -- Mike.

• Purpose: Replace the current 10 y/old shift machine with something more modern
• Needs to run Windows XP or more recent (Smartlaunch)
• Make being on shift more enjoyable, and more productive through better hardware/software (not for gaming atm)
• Chris Chan & English Green have donated parts to make this happen, machine is built, needs Windows loaded.

DogFort ventilation

• Purpose: make for less stinky death in dogfort!
• Requires some HVAC engineering / math stuff.
• Main project page: Dogfort Ventilation

DogFort dust collection

• Purpose: Wall mounted suction for each work station, makes clean up easy and can be hooked up to some tools!
• Requires: pipes / valves / cyclone dust collector.
• Main project page: Dogfort Suction

Rapid protyping room clean up/part use/CNC enclosure

• Purpose: Get the back room in working order, improve safety!
• Requires:
  • CNC enclosure (Parts there to build). Good diagram here: http://ilab.usc.edu/wiki/index.php/CNC#Dust_Box (requires a login?)
  • Better CNC bed: the bolted-together extruded aluminum setup is pretty useful for flat objects but adds too much height for 3d CNCing. Could we mount it directly to the CNC instead of the particle board thing? Some other idea?
  • Laser cut wooden/plastic spools for 3D printer ink (3MM) that isn't on spools.
  • Mount spools
  • Build spare extruder
  • Produce parts for 1ft x 1ft x 1ft printr bot (parts can be printed and fit with spare extruder

Contact: Tyler W

Memorial Weekend Improvement Plan

• Main Room
  • Shopvac Floors
  • Organize Bright Futures Madness Josh
  • Organize Backyard Brains Madness Dotz

• DogFort
  • Final Paint / Trim Coat
  • Window holes need work, talk to Josh. Sizes of remaining holes: 6 x 3.5, 1 x 3.75, 1 x 4, 4 x 7, 2 x 7.25, 2 x 7.5 (num holes * inches diameter for each hole). Rule of thumb: cut acrylic half an inch smaller. Cut cardstock ring up half an inch for outer and half to 3/4 of an inch inner.
  • Sort through tools, remove shoddy duplicates
  • Remove items that are not:
    • Power Tools
    • Servers
    • Paint / Paint Accessories

• Bathrooms
  • Scrub Sinks/Toilets/Counters/Mirrors/Walls
  • Mop Floors!

• Rear Stairwell
  • Paint!
  • Finish trim around bathroom walls / doors

• Misc Awesome
  • Create large / clean / legible signs for different areas
    • Electronics
    • Craft
    • Prototyping
    • DogFort
    • Library
    • Hand Tools
    • Safety
  • Mount Laser Cutter Key to light weight & bright pink fist sized object with reminder "Please Pay!"

Member Projects

Backyard Brains Projects

LED Neural Encoder

We are trying to build a DIY device to convert an analog spike or muscle activity signal into an LED bar graph so students can easily see the amount of activity and quantify it. We have some prototype boards. But we still need some help. Let me know if you are interested in helping! Contact: Greg Gage

LED Neural Encoder

Bluetooth RoboRoach

If you are not familiar with the RoboRoach, it is the world's first commercially available cyborg (half machine - half cockroach). And it was made right here in Ann Arbor. We used to hack a HexBug to make this work, but recently updated this to use a Bluetooth Chip. It worked, but its too fancy. It's Bluetooth 4.0, which only works on the iPhone 4s. We want to make a Bluetooth 2.1 version using the Arduino, or some other PIC. Want to help? Contact: Greg Gage

DIY SMT Soldering Oven

We want to use a toaster oven, an Arduino, and a temperature sensor to allow us to do Reflow Soldering. Reflow soldering is a process in which a solder paste (a sticky mixture of powdered solder and flux) is used to tack down tiny chips. Once heated up, the solder paste melts and creates an electrical connection between the chip and the pads. This invention would be really useful for hackerscpaces around the world. Contact: Greg Gage

Big 3D Printer

This will be a longer-term project involving the construction of a Rostock delta-like 3D printer; should give us a lot more speed and precision, along with a much larger printing area, and it should be easier to maintain if something breaks. We've got most of the parts on order. Get in contact with one of the folks below if you would like to help!

Contacts: Michael Sh., Tyler W., Nate Y.

Vending Machine

One goal is to internet-enable a vending machine so as to dispense goodness from afar. Next step is to integrate a networked computer for controlling the vending mechanism.

Contact: Not-Bearic-Eric H.

Quad Copter

Main project page: Quad Copter

The current goal is to create a quad copter platform that is modular enough so that

• people can use it for various types of projects (flying inside / outside, controlled / autonomous, avionics using off-the-shelf or custom code etc).
• It's cheap enough and easy enough to fabricate where if someone wants to make another one (or a swarm!) there is a simple path to follow.

Skills needed:

• Mechanical engineering / CAD (for designing chassis)
• Arduino / electronics (for control hardware, sensors)
• Software development (for interfaces, non-autonomous control etc)
• AI / machine learning (for autonomy)
• Enthusiasm and awesomeness (for learning all of the above!)

Interested Parties

Nate Y. 
Michael Sh. 
Josh W.
Tyler W.

Fabric circuits / wearable electronics

Main project page: Fabric Circuit Actigraphy

It seems like there are a lot of folks around who like working with textiles, clothing etc, and a lot of folks around who like playing with electronics. Let's combine the two! Conductive thread / fabrics are available on the intertubes and quite cool. Some possibilities:

• Multi-sensor wearable actigraph. What is actigraphy? The science of measuring human activity levels from non-invasive sensors. Single-sensor consumer devices already exist (e.g. fitbit, wakemate, to some extent nike+) but I wonder how well you could do with a shirt that passively tracks your motion, heart rate, ambient temperature etc and some clever software. Interested parties: Mike Sh., Cory, Kimberly
• Clothing with persistence of vision (POV) displays.
• Tron costume with real glowy bits.

Skills needed :

• Sewing and other fabric / clothing-oriented skills.
• Electronics

Scanmera

Currently in a working state. Excellent for events where we need a reliable project that's interactive and engaging.

Here are some people to poke if you have questions about the Scanmera:

Xander H.
Jenn M.
Josh W.
Nate Y.

Before Memorial Weekend Improvement Plan

• Fix Lighting in DogFort
• Organize Network Cable & Power Madness for Servers

Estes E2X Equivalent

• Project Page: E2X Equivalent
• Lead: Josh W.
• 12 Pack of Easy to Assemble Rockets costs $66 from Estes, that's $5.50 p/student
• Can we make similar, or equivalent pieces with a 3D Printer?
  • What is the time to print?
  • What is the cost of materials?
  • Does it hold up?
• If all goes well, what possibilities are there for custom built pieces for more unique rockets?

Maker Faire Detroit 2012

• Look over here: MFd2012 for details
• Barbie Car, Teacheasy, Dome dome, Gamification