Recently Ben, Cliff and Claudio have built Diametric’s Mini Quadcopter. We met a fellow RepRap user- Diametric- at this years Midwest RepRap Festival in Elkhart Indiana. He brought along a 3D printed quadcopter that he designed and built.

The quadcopters are remarkably inexpensive, the design, models and bill of materials can be found on Thingiverse. They are easy to build and easy to get off the ground. We’re still learning how to fly them however. While all three have taken flight, we have had some accidents and damaged the frames on 2 of them, twice. We’re not too worried when that happens, for we can always reprint the frame within about an hour and a half on one of our 3D printers.

Building the quadcopters

Claudio’s Quadcopter

Cliff’s Quadcopter

Claudio’s Second Quadcopter

Ben’s Second Quadcopter

Ben’s Quadcopter- We are still learning…

For all those that may not be aware, good friends of Midsouth Makers, Makers Local 256, down in Huntsville, AL are having a pig roast and LAN party extravaganza on June 2nd starting at noon. These guys know how to throw down a good party with awesome food and a great selection of games. If you go down for a visit, you wont be disappointed. The LAN party wont happen until later in the evening, but for the early part of the day you’ll get to enjoy the excellent yummies they’ve prepared. In addition to the food, it’s a great opportunity to see what other spaces look like. They put on an excellent open house with the grub. There won’t be any lack of exciting things to see with them showing off projects, tools, shop upgrades, and the vast array of all the cool things the Makers have going on. Any of the Midsouth Makers that are free to go down that weekend should take the opportunity to go hang out with our fellow makers. It will be great motivation for what kind of things we can have going on here at our very own space. The LAN party will undoubtedly be a blast as well. They always put on a great set of tournaments with prizes and amusement all around. There are pretty good chances there will be some interesting Minecrafting going on, as well as all the fun games from Steam that everyone loves such as Team Fortress and Monday Night Combat. The LAN is assured to go on into the early morning so be prepared for lots of fun. If you manage to go, don’t forget to take a few bucks with you as well as your computer. The Pig Roast is 1 for $10 or 2 for $15, and it would be equally kind to make a donation to the Huntsville guys for putting on the LAN party in addition.

What: Food and Games
Where: Makers Local 256
When: June 2nd @ Noon, LAN party starting later that evening
Cost: $10 for 1, $15 for 2, and any other donation

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!)

You got it, we have our very own Zombie Walk here in Memphis.  Who woulda thought that we would actually have something cool.  For those of you who aren’t into the geeky aspect of zombies, I do seriously apologize for the fun that you will miss out on.  Any who, this event has gone on since spring of 2007 and is back again for its fourth run.  Maybe this will be a good chance for us to get out there, have some fun, and put ourselves in a visible light while doing so.

The general idea is this.  You dress up like a zombie.  You meet a Beale St. dressed like said zombie.  When the walk begins, you “travel” (not exactly walk) down a predetermined path “attacking” the people that are clearly marked as “innocent bystanders.”  Rinse, eat brains, repeat.  Sounds like fun right?  Well then let’s make sure that some of us are there.  Hope there are plenty available to attend, and I hope everyone has a blast being slightly straaaaaaaaaaange.