We discussed briefly whether we would have a 4th Wednesday meeting in December (We WILL NOT have a 4th Wednesday meeting in November).  As the 4th Wednesday falls in the holiday doldrums on December 28th it might be fine for an informal, project show and dream and tell meetup.  Roy will be there no matter what.

Rick showed the programmable LED artwork he made with pool concrete, LEDs and film canisters.

Roy  showed the LED t-shirt he screenprinted (his first) and lit with the knowledge he got from Rick’s LED class.  Roy also showed my first steps with Arduino — a PWM sketch that faded in, then faded out an LED.  Woo hoo!

Dru demonstrated us his excellent progress on the sewing machine that Judith had brought.  After removing the rust on a few key components he had it cranking and sounding like a real live stitching machine.

Rick’s LED Artwork

Judith’s Sewing Machine Dru Fixed

Sewing Machine

Roy’s LED Shirt

Hello to all you atoms out there!

Are you ready to get this laser going?!

You call that a response? It sounds like you’re in a ground state out there, and I’m going to need you at least two or three levels above that! That’s right, I’m going to need you to get excited tonight! Come, on let’s get this population inverted!

Hey, that’s better! It looks like some atoms in the back have a nice wavelength going – let’s all join in for a cascading effect!

If you’re digging this gain medium, let me see you get amplified!

Yeah, now you’re getting your photons in step!

Now, without further ado, please welcome to the stage, the reason you atoms are so excited to be here, the one, the only – Stimulated Emission!

Details

What: The Midsouth Makers are hosting a laser class and demonstration! The goal is to demystify lasers and how they operate. For the demonstration, we will be etching some aluminum business cards with your designs, which you will then be able to take home with you!

When: November 19^th at Noon

Where: The Space

Cost: $10 for Midsouth Makers Members, $20 for Non-Members. (The price covers both the business cards and the cost to run the laser)

What to Bring: Please bring a laptop on which you can design your business card. The cards themselves are 3.5” by 2”, and we ask that you try to come with your design ready to go, but open to changes if necessary.

Please sign-up on our events page if you wish to participate: http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/

Y’know, back in my day, the only game we had was Stick Ball Beta Four. It was a hard game to play, especially considerin’ there was only one ball in the whole town, and you had to compile the entire game yourself! Oh sure, any Tom, Dick, or Haderach could find a stick, but a bunch of whippersnappers standing around with just sticks might as well have been Stick Ball Alpha! No siree, Stick Ball Beta Release #4 was the only respectable game in town, and if you didn’t play you might as well have not existed. Heck, we picked our mayor because of his tenacity on the augmented reality Stick Ball courts! And what have we got now, eh? Stick Ball Beta Five?! FIVE?!?! Bah! The gall of the Stick Ball developers! The sheer nerve of those rubes thinking they could improve upon a classic like ol’ SBb4! Before you know it, they’ll be asking us to wait until the game is actually finished before playing!

Details

What: The Midsouth Makers are hosting a Cookout & Game Night this Saturday evening! Pick your favorites games and bring them over. We’ll try and play everything, but preference is given to those who get there first and to people who are extremely persuasive about their game.

When/Where: This Saturday, November 12th – 6pm @ the space

Cost: Free! (Though donations for food are greatly appreciated!)

LAN WARS from Midsouth Makers on Vimeo.

What: This will be Midsouth Makers 4th LAN party/fundraiser/cookout event! Pulled pork and fries will be served. Feel free to bring any games you’d like to play. There will also be a Minecraft tournament with special prizes!

When: October the 29th from 4:30pm until we get tired of seeing at you.

Where: Our space – 2203 Freemont Road, Memphis, TN 38114. We will be setting up the shop to hold as many contestants as possible.

Things to bring:
-A computer (PC or Mac, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Power cables, USB cables, etc.)
-Copies of the game(s) you wish to play.
-Drinks
-If you want to participate in the tournament or just play Minecraft for fun, you will need at least 1GB of free HD space. (We can provide copies of Minecraft to you.)
– Headphones
– Ethernet Cable
– Bring your own drinks, or bring cash to buy drinks from us

Cost: Free, but donations are highly encouraged because they help make events like this possible!

Sign-up on our events page: http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/

We hope to see you there, and as always, may the force be with you!

Great Scott! What’s the date? Oh thank goodness, we’ve still got time.  Listen, I know this may sound “heavy” to you, but we’ve got to get you to the Midsouth Makers soldering class on October 8^th at noon or the consequences could be dire! I can’t tell you why it’s important without creating a temporal paradox, but I can promise you that learning how to build a RBBB (“Really Bare Bones Board”) Clone will be pivotal in your future in some way.  An RBBB is one of the smallest, most affordable arduino-compatible boards available right now.  You don’t even need any plutonium to power this baby, just plug it straight into the breadboard that the Makers will be providing to all the class participants. How many gigawatts is it?  Where we’re going, we don’t need gigawatts, just bring a soldering iron and the rest will be provided. Once you’ve completed this class, you’ll have you’re very own arduino compatible microcontroller, power cable, data cable, and breadboard to build it all on, the combination of which should help you save you from – oh no, I’ve already said too much! Hurry and sign-up on the events page at the following link: http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/.  Then you too can say, “I finally made something that works!”

Details

Class: Soldering Part II: RBBB Clone

Cost: $35

Date, Time, & Location: October 8th  at the Space at Noon.

What to bring: Soldering Iron

What you get: An arduino compatible microcontroller, power cable, data cable, and a breadboard to build it on, plus a greater knowledge of soldering and circuitry.

You must sign-up before the day of the class so that we know how many parts to order!

You can do so at the following link: http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/