NYC Resistor

Yes there is no laser night tonight. Why? Because its HALLOWEEN!
So please go give children candy instead, and leave some for us adults too. Laser night will return next week at its regular place and time.

Kevin Green, who is making a new Arduino compatible rapid prototyping board, approached us to see if we’d be interested in chatting about his new project. It’s essentially like an Arduino, but instead of just having rows of headers that you can plug anything into, it’s designed to accept any of a bunch of pluggable sensors and parts. It has a breadboard built in, and it dresses like a New Yorker (that is, all in black), so it looks pretty rad. I asked Kevin a few questions about the project, which you can read after the jump, or you can head straight to his kickstarter here

Who are you, and why did you start this project?
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We’re all out trick-or-treating tonight, so lasering will have to wait for next week.

I love Chris’ final answer in the interview:
“Why build an electromechanical computer?”
“Because I have a 3D printer, and I can”

Don’t forget that Sunday, 10/23, we have two back-to-back excellent workshops at Resistor: Alexis’s HTML5/CSS3 deep-dive workshop (sold out), followed by pumpkin hacking for Halloween.

The pumpkin party starts at 4pm. Please register (free!) on Eventbrite to RSVP. We’re thinking circuits, laser cutting, and maybe more.

We have a very small number of pumpkins available, along with cutting tools. Please BYOPumpkin. If you’ve got orange or purple LEDs or weirdo electronic components (or UV LEDs?!), bring those. We wouldn’t say no to contributions of snacks or tasty libations, either.

Photo: Trammell Hudson

Catarina helped me build a prototype of a “Nixie” tube illuminated with electroluminescent wire. Unfortunately the wires are too dense and too dim to work well with the ten layers of thickness, so the prototype is a beautiful failure. The number frames are based on Futura and cut on our Epilog laser using my opensource epilog driver. Side view and SVGs follow.
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This week come craft yourself a new liver at Not-NYCResistor!! Craft night is CANCELED this week (Oct. 13th) but we’ll all be at Pacific Standard just around the corner.

Why is craft night canceled?

Because we said so. Also because we are getting the space all painted so it looks shiny and new for NEXT craft night.

So, to recap:

Please DO NOT show up to NYCResistor on Oct. 13th but DO go drink yourself silly at Pacific Standard. It’s a nice bar, once they let us bring our robot over. Please DO come back on Oct. 20th in the newly painted spaced when craft night will resume at NYCResistor with the candlestick and Prof. Plum. Ms. Peacock will also be in attendance.

Very truly yours,

NYCResistor

Let’s get glowing! In this class you’ll learn about the different types of EL materials, drivers, and how to solder, shape and apply EL wire.

Everyone will get 3 ft of angel hair EL wire and 1 battery-powered inverter. No prior knowledge of soldering required.

Register on eventbrite!

We’re throwing a Halloween pumpkin-hacking party! We’ll be making pumpkins light up and react to touch sensing or maybe motion. We’re also thinking up pumpkin-y desserts featuring cooking those gourds with lasers and fire. Who’s in?

Bring your own pumpkin, with the seeds already scooped out. (We’ll have an extra or two, but you’ll have much more time to enjoy circuitbending your pumpkin if you come prepared.) Please also bring your own LEDs and any project components you might want to use. We’ve got plenty of soldering equipment.

Join us on Sunday, October 23rd, from 4-8pm. Space is limited, so get your (free) tickets here

Photo by Windell Oskay of Evil Mad Scientist Labs.

Are you interested in book arts? Have you always wanted to bind your own books? Or design pop-up books? Did you know we now have an intaglio printing press at Resistor? Guess what! We’re having a super-mega DIY Book Arts workshop on October 8th from 1pm to 5:30pm where you can learn about ALL those things!

Class cost is $125 – this includes your materials. We’ll teach you some different book binding techniques, cover a bunch of paper engineering mechanisms, and even give you an introduction to printing with the Intaglio press (one of its abilities is letterpress-style embossing!). Not bad for a single afternoon!

Register on eventbrite!

This afternoon workshop is taught by NYC Resistor members Shelby Arnold (myself) and Alicia Gibb.

(Pictured above – a version of River Song’s “spoilers” book I made for myself the other night.)