Due to a scheduling conflict, the Milwaukee Robotics Club meeting will be postponed. Re-schedule to be announced later.
Author Archives: Royce
Tonight’s Meeting Canceled
Given the likely impending Snow Emergency we are canceling the official meeting for tonight. If you feel its safe, members are of course welcomed to gather at the space but no votes will be taken or major decisions made.
Now Accepting Membership Nominations!
Milwaukee Makerspace is now accepting nominations for membership! Come to one of our Tuesday evening meetings, or another open-to-the-public event, make a couple friends and join. Be sure to read through our By-laws.
We meet each Tuesday from 7PM to 9PM at:
3073 S Chase Ave, Bldg 34
Milwaukee, WI 53207
“Nominations?! You mean I can’t just plunk down some money and join up?”
You see the thing is, we have some equipment that is very expensive and/or very dangerous. What’s more, at our heart, we are a social group. By requiring folks to have some human contact with us before joining as full members we hope to maintain a safe and friendly environment for everyone in the space. Please don’t be intimidated, we are really very friendly folks.
As a member of the space you’ll get unfettered 24/7 access to the space and its tools. Browse through the Available Equipment Gallery to see just some of the things we have. Or, even better, drop by the space on a Tues. evening and take a tour!
Once nominated the subscription rates for membership are
| Period | Cost | Cost/Mo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 month | 80 USD | 80 USD |
| 3 months | 225 USD | 75 USD |
| 6 months | 420 USD | 70 USD |
Gift Memberships are available, please inquire with info@milwaukeemakerspace.org
Move-in Begins!
Tonight we began moving in! Just a few items so far: some desks and chairs, a table saw, a band saw, an arbor press and a PCB etching station. This Sat at 10AM we’ll do a bunch more move-in.
Access Control PCBs
The PCBs for the latest version of the Access Control system showed up at last. I’m excited to give the a try! The exterior unit really ought to be OK as I prototyped that one. But the interior unit is a new layout. Hopefully it goes well.
Giant Logo!
We painted our logo on the 20ft wall today. It looks AWESOME! We also painted the lower half of the machine shop area in a nice red color. It too looks pretty swanky. Not pictured is Jason Gessner who also did a lot of work on the logo.
Fritizing
Raster posted recently about Fritzing.
It appears to be a specialized Schematic Capture and PCB layout program targeted at beginners. The program actually starts you off in a solder-less breadboard centric capture mode where you are literally placing components in the holes of a breadboard and running jumper wires between them. This mode looks fantastic to me for the purpose of giving tutorials.
At the recent BarCampMilwaukee5 I gave an Arduino presentation where I found myself really wishing I had a macro focus web cam so I could show the actual wiring I was creating on an actual breadboard with an actual Arduino. This program would probably be faster, cleaner and no less instructive than the real thing.
For beginners I see that ability to have a breadboard jumper wire configuration automatically converted into a schematic and pcb layout rats nest could be huge to understanding and very empowering. It can also be a good introduction to the basic concepts running around the semi-professional programs so that the learning curve is not so high. I want to try this out on a beginner soon!
Milwaukee Makerspace has a space!!
Milwaukee Makerspace has a space!!
It’s been a long 13 or 14 months to get to this point but we are finally there! We signed the lease and wrote the check this evening. The new space is at
3073 S. Chase Ave, Bldg. 34
Milwaukee, WI 53207
The plan now is to move in over the course of November. With luck we’ll officially open our doors sometime in late Nov. I can’t tell you how excited we all are to get underway with a real space. I see great things for us in the near future! Keep your eyes peeled for our Grand Opening Party!
Jason G became a founding member!
Jason Gessner joined the ranks of Milwaukee Makerspace tonight as our latest, and quite likely last, founding member! We are gathering steam folks!
Brant H signs up as a founding member!
Another founding member has joined the ranks! Brant Holeman became the latest tonight!
Buy Milwaukee Makerspace shirts and stuff at our Zazzle store.
