What time is it? It’s time to #MakeAwesomeHappen and learn to program the new Pebble Smart Watch! We’ll be teaching a three hour class on 18 May on how to write custom watch faces that work with the official Pebble SDK. The programming environment is low-level C, with no memory protection, and no emulator nor a debugger, so you’ll need to be fairly comfortable with writing embedded code or at least not afraid to debug with printf()*. If you’ve programmed a device like an Arduino you should be ok with the class. Tickets for the class are on sale for $125. The hackathon afterwards is free!

If you haven’t heard of it, Pebble was the wildly successfull kickstarter project that pre-sold over 80,000 watches. The watch has a 144×168 transreflective e-paper display, an ARM M3, Bluetooth, an accelerometer and lots of potential. MyPebbleFaces has a few hundred ideas for fun projects and many people have already programmed their dream watch faces.

After the class, we’ll be holding an all-night hackathon to write some new watches. Developers from Team Pebble will be here to hack with us and help answer any deep questions about the API. The hackathon is open to everyone with a Pebble and is a great chance to meet other wearable wrist-watch computing enthusiasts in New York. If you don’t have your Pebble yet or don’t want to risk your prized wristwatch, we’ll have a limited quantity of factory seconds that might not be waterproof, might have glue bubbles, or discoloured bezels or other QC issues available for $75. Tickets for the class and hackable watches are available here!

Make music – or funny noises – with technology! On Saturday, February 16th, learn to make a soft and cuddly electronic synthesizer, and on Sunday the 17th, use the power of the LAZZZOR to make whistles and ocarinas!

Soft Circuits 2: The SofTone! Saturday, February 16, 2013 from 2PM – 5PM
Learn to use conductive thread and fabric with an inexpensive microcontroller to turn a piece of cloth into a simple electronic synthesizer. No electronics, programming, or sewing experience is necessary – but I’m hoping some embroiderers will take this class and really make something beautiful! All materials are included. Here’s a video:

Click here to buy tickets for Soft Circuits 2 on EventBrite.

Laser Whistles: Sunday, February 17, 2013 from 2PM – 5PM
Just like our regular laser class, only more whistly. In this class, you’ll learn the principles of the computer-aided laser cutter, what materials are safe to cut, and how to create your designs in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. Plus you’ll learn how whistles work, and design and fabricate your own! After you’ve taken this class, you’re qualified to use the laser cutter at a discounted rate at NYC Resistor’s open nights. All materials are included, but please bring a laptop with Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. Here’s some of the whistles we made in a previous class:

laser whistles on flickr

Click here to buy tickets for Laser Whistles on EventBrite.

Introducing Make-A-Long, a new monthly crafting event at NYCR.  Make-A-Long is a self-guided craft workshop where participants learn new skills, explore new materials and make great things!

In this session we’ll explore the wonderful world of felting using carded wool (also known as wool roving).  Using water or needles, wool roving can be manipulated to form a myriad of different shapes.  Learning how to felt means you can make things like:  felted soap, felted creatures, felted jewelry, felted ornaments and more!

Are you a beginner? Don’t worry! We’ll provide instructions and materials for a variety of projects.  Facilitators will be available to help guide you through a project of your choice.

Are you a master? Bring a project, use our materials and hang out in a great space while doing what you love.

Sign up here: Make-A-Long:  Felting With Wool Roving, December 15, 5-8pm

SMT is here to stay, so let’s all just get on with it and learn how to use these tiny things. You can make better, faster, cheaper, more durable, smaller and neater projects. Bonus: you will feel like a great big giant.

Resistor member Raphael Abrams will be teaching an introductory course this Sunday at 3PM. Come on down and get modern!

Click here to sign up!

Just look at this accelerometer datalogger! It's got a 40Mips uC, a 4MB flash, RGB LED, RTCC, and a battery to last a week, all in about 1.5 inches. And it can be thrown against a wall without breaking. Half the parts on here are only available in SMT packages.