Regular Member Meeting 2013 07 09

Time and Location

July 9, 2013

Called to order at 1935 by Ben.

Members present: 11 at Hac, 3 online.

Others present:

Quorum?

Quorum met? Yes.

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

Regular Member Meeting 2013 06 11

Recognition

Dan Barlow, Martin, Jon Singer, Chas, TC

Massive thanks for Optical Table delivery (including difficult rigging). Advanced mechanical (eg. advanced 3D printers, CNC mills) and optical (eg. microscopy) engineering is now possible at HacDC.

Director Reports

President's Report

Nothing to report.

Vice President's Report

Nothing to report.

Treasurer's Report

Here is the financial summary spreadsheet for June 2013: File:HacDC Financials 2013 06.pdf. We regained Nick Mapsy as a member. Andy Walker, Eric Miller, and TJ Johnson left. Five people (members and non-members) made non-dues donations.

Project Awesome

We had a surplus so I am able to declare a $250 Project Awesome dividend and add $113.49 to our reserves. Here is the Project Awesome spreadsheet for June: File:HacDC PA Projects-2013 06.pdf. There are currently 15 votes.

Secretary's Report

Nothing to report.

Project Awesome Reports

Project LASER

Dan: Showed proof that the laser has cut something.. test pattern on plexiglas. All seems to work. Needs to be be placed in a cabinet. Will be working most evenings this week at the space setting things up. Do not use the laser without being cleared by Dan for saftey!

Project BYZANTIUM

Some updates, including adding Groundstation (software). Organizing repositories. Starting 4th milestone.. lots to do, heading towards a beta quality release.

Project KITBUILD

[Alberto:] Tim S has been reimbursed [treasurer@, please confirm/deny?] for soldering irons and other Project Kitbuild supplies he had ordered. The first Kitbuild will take place next week, July 16, at the 1st of 4 sessions of HacDC Summer School 2013. The boxes with the soldering goodies have been taking up valuable space in the shop for a few weeks. I have been unable to get to the space to do anything and apologize for that clutter. I'm recruiting helpers to move it out of there to a better storage location and would appreciate guidance on where best to store the stuff.

Discussion: things are ok where they are for now.. we need to get rid of more stuff in general around the space.

Project SUPPLIES

No expenditures this month. Ongoing equipment setup and cleanup has been a priority. Also, we have many semi-sorted components (resistors and similar) taking up several boxes. Consolidating these into a mini-rack would be useful and save space.

Member Reports

mirage335

Imagnus

• NDA will be narrowly limited in scope, and not apply to HacDC members who do not sign.
• So far, we have informally agreed to a mockup CAD model within about a week, and a complete technology demonstration in about a month. These goals are easily feasible.

alberto

For the next four Tuesdays, we will host workshops (publicized as HacDC Summer School 2013) providing an introduction to physical computing with Arduino, Danger Shield, and Processing. As noted above, the first of these will be a kitbuild for the Danger Shield. The class filled up instantly and I increased seats from the original 10 to 16.

I'm sure we could bring a lot of new people into the space with similar offerings. It may be a good idea to try to design a series with a big arc so that folks stay engaged on a broad topic but can get value from attending just one workshop. One addition which would dovetail nicely as a run-up to these 4 sessions would be an Intro to Electronics, and a series which might fit nicely as a follow up would be one on AVR programming. I want to thank Katie, Martin, Phil, Shawn and Chris for offering to help out, especially during the first one.

David Mc

Starting planning for 3DP build run. 3DP_Build_Run_2013.07 Would like to go with Kossel Pro, but Kossel Mini seems more likely.

Dan Barlow

Thanks to Chas, Martin, and TC for helping with wrestling the optical table into the basement. New shelves and cabinet were donated.

Hax

'Data center' issues with overheating and lack of ventilation. Working on plan for updating and organizing the hardware there.

New Business

Dehumidifier

Several have expressed desire for a dehumidifier in the basement. Has been talked about on the member's list. Discussion is leaning towards buying a AC/dehumid unit from Sears as per Dan B.'s suggestion.

• Ben proposed allowing a $500 expenditure by Katie for a unit picked out by Dan B.

  Approved by member vote.

New Members

• Greg Toth (visiting) - DC Internet of Things (Meetup) dropped by to invite members to join

• Jason Fox -video with robotic garden and Mendel Max under construction.

  Nominated and voted in as a new member.

• David Pietrocola - heavily into robotics, teaching, and assistive technologies.

  Nominated and voted in as new member.

• Chris Danicic - metal working, starting electronics

  Nominated and voted in as new member.

Adjournment

Adjourned at 2045.