gary – Page 8 – Tog Hackerspace

21/05/201721/05/2017

TOG Calibration

If you work in industry or business, you probably have your electronic test gear and multimeters calibrated regularly. If you’re an amateur you probably don’t. We don’t have a fancy calibrator at TOG which can cost 1000’s and need regular calibration in itself. We do however have a 2 Euro voltage reference based on an Analog Devices AD548 voltage reference. Checking some of the multimeters that we have around, and the results are surprising.

The reference outputs 2.5, 5. 7.5 and 10V. Now this is a bit of a crude test, because this little reference is not calibrated or traceable to any standard. If you assume however that the voltages it gives are “exact”, a 20 year old Fluke multimeter is reading almost perfectly . Some other multimeters that we checked are a bit off, but still not too bad. We’re going to check some of the ultra cheap meters that we have too.

Fluke 77: 2.499, 5.00, 7.50, 10.00
Standard ST-3343 Clamp Meter: 2.495, 5.01, 7.51, 10.02
Velleman DVM890: 2.47, 4.96, 7.44, 9.92

05/05/201706/05/2017

Electronic “Build-It” Workshop

Back by popular demand, it’s our electronic “Build-It” workshop in TOG on Saturday 20th May from 15:00 – 18:00. Many visitors to TOG tell us that they would like to get started with electronics, soldering or assembly, but they are unsure how to do so. This workshop will help. You get to build (and keep) an electronic kit. The kit that we have chosen is a line-follower robot car. It will follow a black line or any line where there is reasonable contrast. You can see a video of the kit in action, from our previous workshop here.

The kit comes as a complete set of mechanical and electronic parts including a bare circuit board. You do all the electronic assembly and soldering as well as the mechanical assembly. If you’ve never built an electronics kit or soldered before, then this workshop is ideal for you. We’ll show you everything that you need to know. No previous experience at electronics, soldering or kit assembly is needed. We’ll explain the circuit and how it works too. All tools and equipment are provided. The workshop will take up to 3 hours, which is plenty of time. All proceeds from this event go to support TOG.

You might like to stick around afterwards for our regular Open Social evening which is happening on the same day.

*** You must be 18 or older to take part in this workshop. Please do not book places for children ***

20/04/201706/05/2017

Lathe Surgery….update

This is a tale of going to TOG to do one thing, but ending up doing something completely different. The intention was to write some code to talk to some electronic hardware. Actuality was taking the lathe apart. You can’t get more different than that.

One of our members reported that the lathe was unusually noisy and also a faint burning smell. We thought that it may be splashes of oil burning on the hot halogen lamp, but soon ruled that out. We disconnected the drive belts from the motor. The motor turns freely by hand, but seems to be hesitant in starting. It’s also drawing way too much current. Needs a bit more troubleshooting. Hopefully just a bad capacitor or something else simple.

Update…. so its bad news. One of the motor windings is burnt out. But it’s no big deal really. We’re sourcing a new motor. They’re not that expensive. A nice project will be to add some overcurrent and thermal monitoring to it, as well as an RPM readout. Sounds like a job for an Arduino!

15/04/201715/04/2017

TOG April Open Social

Hey All…… Sorry for the very short notice but…. this month’s Open Social evening takes place this evening, Saturday 15th April at 7PM.

If you’ve never been to our Social, you’ll find it a great alternative Saturday evening in town. Come in and look around. If you’ve never been in before, we’ll give you the grand tour of the space. Talk to members and visitors about projects or things you’d like to do. Ask about our our new brew room and photography darkroom that we’re getting ready to build. If you like what you see, ask about joining as a full member.

Hopefully there’ll be, caint, ceol agus craic as usual. The space stays open until the last member is left……usually the small hours of Sunday morning. The evening is free to attend for members and visitors alike. No need to book…. just turn up. You can drop in for 10 minutes, or stay the whole night. We have parking available. Bring beer, food, gadgets! Our doors are open from 7PM. Hope to see you there.

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