Well the first day was awesome the newcastle makerspace team alone put on an excellent display of 3d printers, raspberry pi`s doing many wonderful things and a number of other projects on display. Then you had Laser Caper which was a great chance to try a mission impossible style challenge by making your way from one side of the room to the other whilst trying to avoid the randomly placed laser trip wires that got harder to see the further you progressed you had to do it all in the dark and against the clock and to put the icing on the cake smoke effects and a giant timer projected on the wall great job ed and everyone at makerspace newcastle.
There is way to much greatness and geek porn to mention here so if you can, get yourself there tomorrow. i will be over with the hackspace foundation uk volunteering in the learn how to solder around area D. i only helped for about an hour today because i was there with my son but it was great how many people where prepared to come over and just give it ago i cant wait till tomorrow when i can spend the full day helping out. Mick
Hello Everyone I bought a a joblot of electronics a while back and got this unknown board with it Pictures Here but i am unable to find anything online about it. It has a Xilinx Spartan V XCS30XL FPGA onboard (XILINX-SPARTAN-V-XCS30XL Datasheet), 4 LMD18201 3A 55v H-Bridges, 4 DB9 ports 2 male 2 female and a wealth of other components. it looks like some kind of motor development board and has motion control node written on it I was thinking i might find some use for it on some kind of CNC Project or even for just learning about FPGA`s but I dont want to try an power it up via the LM323T Voltage Regulator until i have a better idea of how to use the board. Any ideas and help will be much appreciated if you would like any other pictures from different angles let me know and i will try to answer any questions and do any tests i can. Thanks Mick
hello mate glad to hear from another uk maker i still have not been up to the space yet but from the discussions going on on their board there is some very talented people up here
and if you manage to get it working could be invaluable. or take a look here in the retired section there is some logic shrimp boards they maybe older version but i`m sure you could still get some mileage from them http://dangerousprototypes.com/store/in ... 20a&page=5
Its hard to say without knowing what you already have but i learnt smd with some old circuit boards found in old damaged electronics and a hot air paint stripper. i would maybe get something from here http://dangerousprototypes.com/store/in ... ex&cPath=7 then once you have practiced on some junk pcbs you could try for real on one of them. or save up to get a scratch and dent to try and hone your fault finding skills.
Thanks for the invite Tony i should be able to get up there at least once a month by train if i remember correctly you are only 1 or 2 metro stops from the main station so it should easy enough, as long as the signals cable does not get stolen again which is what happened on our visit to the Discovery Museum. :)
i have a ton of parts, old electronics and different micro-controllers that i could bring up if anyone want to play with them but from what i was reading on the discussion board room is at a premium at the space for the moment so i could probably keep the stuff here and make a list and if anyone wants it i`ll bring it up on my next trip. i need to sort a few things out first but i will definitely get my self up there with in the next month or 2. Thanks Mick
Great stuff your are right Hartlepool is about 30 mile from Newcastle me and my son have been looking to join the makerspace up there http://www.makerspace.org.uk/ and maybe we will see you at the maker fair. i have started getting more involved this year with makers because i am trying to move my business from PC Repair to 3d printing and CNC Conversions + a bit of prototypes for people mainly because i always like a challenge and i would also like to open a hackspace in hartlepool sometime in the future. I would love to talks with Zach Hoeken for a few hours about a few CNC ideas i have (maybe one day) its a shame what MakerBot Industries did to him but i think now he has moved to Shenzhen the OSHW scene is going to see some great stuff from him.
As for you friend in Halifax maybe if you have the time you could pop into the Leeds Hackspace on the way upto Newcastle, i do not know them personally but they have been on hackaday with the PiFace to Minecraft hack entry from their Raspberry Jam event and i`m sure they would like to meet up and share ideas.
Dont worry about the Spam Hammer i think it is working just fine i`m sure people would complain alot more if the site was full of engrish links to gucci bags. i also help a charity administrate and build their site so i to know the joys and pains of running a website i also add this to my .htaccess from HackRepair.com. Anyway i could go on all night but i wont, got to save some stuff for later rambles thanks for such great products keep up the good work . Mick
one way to save on Paypal fees is if people transfer money from their bank to their Paypal account then send the money as a personal transfer using the gift option also this option allows the sender to pay the fees before hand to avoid confusion i think but i just noticed their might be a cross boarder fee of 0.4% - 1.5% for the UK and 0.5% - 2% in the US if using paypal balance or bank transfer depending on where the money is sent from it is much higher for card payments. look here for more info US versionUK Version
Here is a little free tool that can help calculate what customs charges you might have to pay if you are involved in import/export to and from most countries http://www.dutycalculator.com/ i have used for sending and receiving many times and it is normally right or very close to the real cost. Mick
i dont think it will be like that what i think he is on about doing is sourcing and buying the stuff if enough people want a certain thing then the seller sends it to a shipper and then sends to us so basically he is just looking about for things he wants and can haggle for better prices for himself and us. so in a way he will be getting something, the products he wants cheaper than normal and maybe a better relation with the sellers and shippers. as long as we all understand that there might be some issues out of his control and not bitch about things if something does not go exactly to plan things should work out nice for everyone.
But still i would be happy to make a donation on top for ians time and knowledge. Mick
That all sounds good, do you have a maximum order or could we order as much as we wanted. Also I would be happy if needed to redistribute items for UK Buyers if they only want to order smaller amounts within reason and if Ian is ok with what you want. Mick
I know i`m new here but i could be interested in a few things and i would happly accept your terms Ian as others have said there would be a better chance of a good product from you than just some random seller on ebay. Thanks Mick
First I have to say gota love the spam hammer it just slapped me right round the chops for posting a profile :) that will teach me for not reading the terms and stuff first.
Apart from that just wanted to say hi thought I better sign up as I have finally just purchased a Bus Pirate and Open Logic Sniffer and I am sure I will be needing help at some point also I have been loving the videos from the geek tour.
I am also looking for any UK hackers who are preferably as close to Hartlepool in the North East England as possible to maybe work together on projects and share ideas.
I am currently working on my second CNC mill the first was made from an old TV cabinet and was very under powered but i learnt a lot building it hopefully this one will be a workable machine. I love making and hacking things and just like many other people the list of things I want to learn and build is an ever growing list.
well that enough about me for now and respect where it is due Ian and your team have built an awesome community here and thanks for some great well priced products. Mick
