Check out the "Barnes and Noble" Mini-Maker Faire's

November 6-8th (2015) every Barnes and Noble store in the United States will be hosting a Mini-Maker Faire.

Announcing: Barnes and Noble First Ever Mini-Maker Faire's

This link gives a better idea concerning how it's being organized as well as the days and time for different aspects of the event B&N Mini Maker Faire's

I applied (just under the wire,but before the deadline) to exhibit at local Barnes and Noble locations (Joliet, Naperville and Bolingbrook locations).  The confirmation for my application stated that I would hear, if I was accepted, by the end of the day on October 9.  So..., it seems that I didn't make the cut.  I'm quite anxious to see who is getting the chance to exhibit their projects to the public, any chance to meet other local Maker's is a great opportunity that I look forward to (I would love to find other people to collaborate and exchange ideas with). 

My main goal is to encourage others to engage in Making - to discover and learn new things, apply what they already know in new ways, and of course to ask questions and pursue solutions.

Please, encourage everyone you know to come out and support "Making" next month (Nov. 6-8th) at your local Barnes and Noble Bookstore.

From what I can tell from the B&N link above, this is the layout:

The Featured and Sponsored Brands (I included direct links to their websites instead of just to the products that B&N are selling - so you can see what each company is all about) .

Featured brands:

• Protocol New York (http://protocolny.com/) - drones, gadgets, fitness
• Spin Master Spin Master Meccano Meccanoid G15 (http://www.meccano.com/meccanoid-about )
• Ozobot (http://www.ozobot.com/ )
• Sphero SPRK (http://www.sphero.com/sphero-sprk)
• Lego (www.lego.com ) - not clear if they are featuring building sets, robotics or both
• XYZPrinting (http://us.xyzprinting.com/) low cost 3D printer
• Snap Circuits (http://www.snapcircuits.net/ )
• Think Fun (http://www.thinkfun.com/ ) STEM education puzzles and games
• littleBits Electronics (http://littlebits.cc/ ) great electronics learning/teaching materials
• The Creativity Hub (http://www.creativityhub.com/ )– Extraordinaires Design Studio Pro (http://www.extraordinaires.com/ )
• Raspberry Pi (https://www.raspberrypi.org/ ) - looks like they are featuring Maker Media's Delux Kit
• Make Magazine (http://makezine.com/ ) (of course)

Sponsored Brands:

• Toby Rich (http://www.tobyrich.com/ ) smartphone gadgets
• Circuit Scribe (http://www.circuitscribe.com/ ) conductive ink
• Light Up (https://www.lightup.io/ )
• Makey Makey (http://makeymakey.com/ )
• Lomography (http://www.lomography.com/ ) photographic media

It looks like The B&N Mini Maker Faire's are being divided up (by times) into the following categories (or areas):

• Make Workspace
  • Product demos, tech-education. So, expect to see cool new tech and tech education products from the sponsored and featured brands named above.
• Meet the Maker
  • “Come meet the leaders of the Maker movement! These are the people changing the way we learn, ideate, design, create, and build the future. They’ll be visiting your local Barnes & Noble store to talk about their process, their creations, and their vision.” - it seems more a talk/lecture than an exhibit with hands on explanations. 
    • I believe this is the area I applied for in my application to Barnes and Noble and Make. Informed that if a local B&N store could use me that I'd be contacted by 10/9/15.

• Make and Collaborate
  • “Get hands-on experience in design, handcrafting, and construction in the spirit of collaboration and teamwork.”
    •  This looks like the area that could be the most fun and engaging to kids!

A breakdown of the days and times (compiled from the B&N website) is summarized below:

Friday	(11/6)
	03:00 PM	Make Workspace
	04:00 PM	Make and Collaborate
	05:00 PM	Make and Collaborate / Meet the Maker
	06:00 PM	Make Workspace
	07:00 PM	Meet the Maker
Saturday	(11/7)
	11:00 AM	Make Workspace
	12:00 PM	Make and Collaborate
	01:00 PM	Meet the Maker
	03:00 PM	Make Workspace
	04:00 PM	Make and Collaborate
	05:00 PM	Make and Collaborate / Meet the Maker
	06:00 PM	Make Workspace
	07:00 PM	Meet the Maker
Sunday	(11/8)
	11:00 AM	Make Workspace
	12:00 PM	Make and Collaborate
	01:00 PM	Meet the Maker
	03:00 PM	Make Workspace
	04:00 PM	Make and Collaborate
	05:00 PM	Meet the Maker

Mini Project - PCB Vise

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I've wanted a Panavise for a long time, but have only had a cheap set of Helping Hands.  I've put off buying one since I figured that I should be able to put something together that would work just as well.

Finally, after acquiring 5 flexible goosenecks from an old lamp, seeing an add for an awesome helping hand in Make Magazine, and realizing I have some scrap aluminum T-slot extrusion (20mmx20mm from the company 8020, they have an Ebay page for public sales.

This project only took an afternoon to workup, 3D Print and put together.

Materials for project:

• Section of Square 20mm x 20mm Aluminum T-Slot Extrusion
• 6 x M5 Button Cap with hex drive (rounded top with hex key slot in center)
• 6 x M5 nut to fit T-slot
• 2 x M3 Button Cap with hex drive
• Nylon Spacer
• Old Gooseneck Desk Lamp (for the Gooseneck - look at Goodwill or Yard Sales)

Tools for project:

• 3D-Printer (you could substitute more square T-slot for the clamp and a piece of aluminum angle to fabricate the attachment to the gooseneck)
• Hex keys (or screw drivers, depending on the type of screw used)
• note - you can easily substitute different types of screw into the design - knurled thumbscrews, phillips head, slot/blade head, torx, square, etc. as long as it is compatible with the T-Slot you are using

Pictures of parts, assembly and finished prototype:

All the parts

Parts for each side of vise

Guide assembly (3mm screw and nylon collar - cut down and melted onto screw)

Mount secured to GooseNeck

 

Mount Secured to T-Slot with M5 screws

 

Jaws secured with M5 screws and nuts

 

Vise in action

This is only the temporary mount for the PCB Vise - my plan is to mount it to a board on my work bench along with additional tools (lights, airflow, holders/clamps, magnifiers) using the other goose neck pieces that I have.  In the meantime, this is working great and makes work a lot easier.

Design files for clamp and attachment of gooseneck to T-Slot.

• Thingiverse Link

By far the coolest helping hand (as well as the actual awsome one I mention above) for building circuits boards is PCB-Grip.  This company has the nicest set of hardware tools for prototyping, building and debugging PCB's that I've seen.  Currently they are beyond my meager budget - but we can all dream.

Project SSTC1 update

Continuing work on improving my Musical SSTC.  Here is a newer video of the coil with an actual top load:

I've also added a fiber optic connection for the interrupter to reduce EMF interference - which solves a number of issues in testing.  Prior to adding the fiber optic connection - feeding interrupter signals to the coil using an Arduino controlled adjustable interrupter with a 16x2 LCD display (to enable me to see the frequency and duty cycle) did not work - as soon as the coil was powered interference would scramble the display.  I did try shielding the Arduino etc. but the direct wired connection to the MOSFET controllers carried too much interference back to the Arduino.

I 'have also done some experiments involving input to the MOSFET drivers - the UCC37321/2
chip enable pins are pulled HIGH (internally, according to the datasheet) so I was/am confused as to how to use them.  Other people have used the enable pin to turn on the enable pins (providing a HIGH - 5v logic signal).  Since the datasheet indicates that they are normally pulled HIGH I thought that possibly using a totem pole configuration (NPN and PNP transistors tied together) could keep the enable pin pulled LOW (off) when there was no HIGH (on) signal.  I tested this and it did not seem to change performance except that the coupling between the primary and secondary coils increased and the current levels through the primary coil increased to the level that the wires heated up and melted the polypropylene insulation I had between the primary and secondary coils.

As you can see, the polypropylene was effectively cut in half by the wire on the primary coil.

I have also built the audio modulation board from The Geek Group, with a few changes (which I will post soon).  I decided to put this together myself after I found that The Geek Group no longer had kits in stocks. In addition, the schematics they put up are missing the actual interface between the interrupter board and the driver board for the primary coil (not that hard to figure out, but is missing - I will also post this when I'm able).

A little side note - I'm trying to collect materials to build a DRSSTC, which requires high voltage/high current capacitors for the primary coil.  When I can find these I'll be able to build a coil of the same size that has a much greater output (more impressive display for the same size coil).

Project Signal Generator - ICL8038

The first chip I've had success in testing is the ICL8038 Precision Waveform Generator  (I have also tested the AD9850 DDS Synthesizer - but I'll post that separately).  This chip is fairly inexpensive off of eBay (just a couple of dollars a chip).  The ICL8030 only needs a few external components (resistors, potentiometer's and capacitors) to generate a sine, triangle or square wave.

Vary stable chip (I haven't accidentally fried even 1 of them).  I have not been able to test the frequency sweep function due to some issues with my bench PSU.  Using the test circuits presented in the datasheet I was able to produce sine, triangle and square waves.

Sine wave

Triangle Wave

Square wave

Datasheet Test Circuit

Formula for determining resistor and capacitor  values

Frequency range is ultimately determined by the capacitor value, so it would be necessary to be able to change  values for different ranges.  You are able to sweep through frequencies by varying input voltages across pins 7 and 8.

Current ranges at pins 4 and 5 are set by the resistor values Ra and Rb and need to fall within the range of 0.01mA to 1mA (so resistor values depend on supply voltage - I'm using 12v so my range is 2.6k to 260k).