No eDay this year

It’s around its time of year I would be getting ready some projects for our local eDay and like our local Maker Faire, eDay too has been cancelled 😦

But fear not after speaking to the organisers I’ve found out it’s been cancelled due to building work that is happening at the venue. So here’s hoping eDay returns back to its usual time next year.

eDay7

We were at eDay again earlier in the month (Saturday 6th October 2018) as part of Newcastle Maker Space. This is the seventh year its been going and as usually we had a great time showing off various projects.

We had the following R-Kade and PiZythn and Rc2014 projects on show.

For those who don’t know what eDay is: eDay is a local digital skills day where various digital technologies are demonstrated to an enquiring general public. A sort-of geeky show and tell where local groups and individuals meet at Gateshead Central Library and show off their projects or what interests them.

eDay6

A few weeks back we were in eDay6 at Gateshead Central Library. This is the 6th year we’ve been at this great event.

For those who don’t know what eDay is: eDay is a local digital skills day where various digital technologies are demonstrated to an enquiring general public. A sort-of geeky show and tell where local groups and individuals meet at Gateshead Central Library and show off their projects or what interests them.

Maker Space has played a mayor role since it first started 6-years ago with demonstrations on 3D Printers, CNC machines, Arduino’s and Raspberry Pi. Other were there with Quad Copter racing, Ham Radio and retro.

eDay5

Earlier in the month we participated in eDay5 at Gateshead Central Library. From the number at the end of eDay you can probably guess it was the 5th year we’ve been helping out at this great event.

For those who don’t know what eDay is, eDay is a local digital skills day where various digital technologies are demonstrated to an enquiring general public. A sort-of geeky show and tell where local groups and individuals meet at Gateshead Central Library and show off their projects or what interests them.

Maker Space has played a mayor role since it first started 5-years ago with demonstrations on 3D Printers, Arduino’s and Raspberry Pi. Other groups  provided demonstrations of Oculus Rift,  music, Ham Radio, DJing, retro computing and gaming and Lego Mindstorm.

There are some write ups of previous eDays here:

http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Council%20and%20Democracy/news/News%20Articles/E-Day-Is-A-Winner.aspx
http://www.makerspace.org.uk/blog/2012/09/gateshead-library-eday/
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152189820215287.920059.91558475286&type=3

 

For myself, I took along my two Raspberry Pi based arcade machines: R-Kade and R-Kade Mini and in addition an early build of my latest project Pi project: a pretty large LED Display.

 

Check out Twitter for @gatesheadlibs  and #eday5

Son of R-Kade

Sequels are always an interesting proposition. Some are as good or better than the original, for me the film Aliens is a great example of this. Some sequels take things in a different direction, again I’ll use Aliens as an example for this: action vs. horror. But in reality most sequels are just pants 🙂

So when the Raspberry Pi foundation announced their 7″ Touch LCD Screen, I knew I wanted to make a sequel to my Raspberry Pi powered bar top arcade cabinet: R-Kade.

I designed R-Kade for the Raspberry Pi way back in December 2012 after wanting to build an Arcade Cabinet but never having the space for a full size cab and the Pi’s small size offered me a chance to make something on a smaller scale. It was built it in early 2013 and took it to the Maker Faire UK in Newcastle in April of that year. It’s been to every Maker Faire UK since, Edinburgh Mini Maker Fire twice, eDay three times and numerous other maker events. I finally got around to updating its wiring earlier this year by designing and making “ArcadeIO”, an joystick and button input interface HAT-like board. Whilst it is built like a tank and has taken almost every abuse the eager punters have thrown at it, it was always a big and cumbersome thing to carry to events. So with new 7″ LCD in hand here goes…

opening sequence:

Son of R-Kade

p.s. Here’s hoping its not as bad as Phantom Menace (oh wait a minute that was that a prequel)

R-Kade getting a upgrade

The wiring in my Raspberry Pi mini arcade cabinet is getting a much needed upgrade.

I originally build R-Kade for Maker Faire 2013 and its been at various other Faire’s around the country and at eDay for the last two years. It was quickly build out of a bookshelves, old VGA monitor, WII arcade controller and a raspberry pi. The control board was removed from the WII arcade controller and the joystick and buttons wired directly to a prototyping board on the Pi. Unfortunately, it’s this wiring which is becoming a problem and needs redoing.

Rather than just strip out the wires and rewire new, I decided to make myself a better solution and have designed a Pi ArcadeIO board. The ArcadeIO board has screw terminals for connecting the wires to the Pi’s GPIO signals. In addition the GPIO signals have in-line resistors to limited the effects of any short circuits. There are addition screw terminal positions for connecting common grounds for the arcade switches and joystick.

eDay3 Over for another year

Today saw the 3rd eDay technology and maker event take place at Gateshead Central Library. Wow 3 years.

Maker Space was there again with 3D Printing Raspberry Pi and Arduino projects. Over Eng’D and Polar Pong gave a new meaning to the words physical computing with a mass of stepper motors and pulleys. R-Kade my Raspberry Pi mini arcade was brought out again to entertain those people wanting a trip down video gaming history. Who would have guesses that Pacman, Galaga and Donkey Kong would still appeal the younger audience.

The local radio amateur group, Angel of the North Amateur Radio Club (ANARC) were there for the first time. They had brought various radio receivers and transceivers for us to listen too.

The local Imperial Troop from the 99th Garrison made sure no droids got lost during the days proceedings 🙂 The Stormtroopers, Tie Fighter pilots, Bounty Hunters and Imperial Officers made an impressive sight.

There was also Vector 76 with oculus rift, html workshops, Retro Gaming, ChromeBuild Lego sessions and drop-in maker activities from Victoria Bradbury.

eDay2 a Great Success

eDay2 was a great success. Many thanks to all those Makerspace members who came along on Saturday (7th September) to Gateshead Central Library and helped out during the day or just showed up to give moral support.

We had at least 5 3D printers on display, numerous Arduino projects, Makey Makey, Bare Conductive painting and Raspberry Pi stuff.

The day was well attended with around 250 people coming along to see what it was about. Around 50-60 teachers, students and parents attended the Raspberry Pi workshops.

More details at the Makerspace blog:

Maker Space @ Eday

eDay2 – Saturday 7th September 2013

Last year Makerspace helped organised a special technology and digital skills event called eDay with Gateshead libraries which introduced the general public to new technologies such 3D Printers, Raspberry Pi’s, Arduinos, Lego Mindstorms etc.

eDay was a first for UK public libraries (and possibly the world). It was really well received with lots of other public libraries looking to emulate the event.

Here are some write-ups of the day:

Gateshead Library Eday

https://govx.socitm.gov.uk/spaces/twictpublic/discussion/messages/736926
http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Council%20and%20Democracy/news/News%20Articles/E-Day-Is-A-Winner.aspx

This year eDay2 will be on Saturday 7th September 2103 and will take place as part of the British Science Festival.

It’s a free event but you’ll need a ticket to come along, details are here:

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/5720145108

They’ll be Raspberry Pi workshops in the morning and afternoon. These will be delivered by Dr Alun Moon from Northumbria University, assisted by my good self.

As well as Makerspace, Vector76 will there again and this time they’ll be bringing their awesome Oculus Rift! There’ll be lots of other groups helping out so expect to find lots of other digital stuff going on during the day.

* 3D Printing,
* Raspberry Pi and Ardunio show and tell from Makerspace Newcastle
* Simple Maker activities
* Retro Gaming
* Makey Makey

Raspberry Pi Workshops

You can expect much of the same

Teachers and Adult Workshops

10am-10:40am

11am-11:40am

Workshops for age 8+

13:00pm -13:40pm

14:00pm – 14:40pm

eDay – Gateshead Library 29th September 2012

I’ve just about recovered from helping Newcastle Maker Space put on a great makers event at Gateshead Central Libraries eDay

We had a really great day. Thanks to all the makers for helping out and to  Gateshead Libraries for asking Maker Space to get involved.

We had not one, not two but three 3D printers on the day. A big thanks to Paddy, Cay and James for bringing them along. They spent the entire day printing out glyphs and minecraft blocks for the kids who thought the 3D printers for great.

Ed and Iain were doing Arduino stuff in the other corner and Brian, Chris and myself were manning the Raspberry Pi tables.

We had a nice crowd, over a 150 by my estimation. At most times during the day all the 7 Raspberry Pi’s we had set up were being used by people. The kids liked to program in Scratch no doubt showing off to their parents  and were happy to play the retro games we’re had the RPi’s emulating.

We were busy from the start, right up to about 2.0pm when things started to trail off. Every thing went well, even the youngsters braying the crap out the raspberry pi’s and their keyboards and mice didn’t stop the show. Hoorah for the plastic cases 😉 The big screen
projection worked a treat. We had the 3D printers and RPi media playing on it for all the day.

I spend my entire time talking to ICT teachers who were really, really interested in getting the RPi into their schools.

We had big Maker Space banners on the walls which made a great impression and there was talk of making eDay a regular event.

Only thing I forgot to do was take some pics, so I hope someone can post some pic’s on the Maker Space’s wiki for us all to see.