Regular Member Meeting 2013 11 12

Time and Location

November 12, 2013

Called to order at _____ by ______

Members present:

Others present:

Quorum?

Quorum met?

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

Regular Member Meeting 2013 10 08

Regular Member Meeting 2013 09 10

Regular Member Meeting 2013 08 13

Recognition

nootroope - Hosting a class at HacDC for CAD modeling and 3D printing, two highly important skills. Awesome! juri aka. Julia Longtin - Two ~40mm aluminum extrusions, two more on the way. These are extraordinarily rigid, and expensive. We should build a large-area high-precision CNC machine on the optical table with these ASAP. Dan Barlow - Continued laser cutter upgrades and maintenance.

Director Reports

Treasurer's Report

Here is the financial summary spreadsheet for October 2013: File:HacDC Financials 2013 10.pdf. We gained Blake, Justin, and Zach, who were all voted in last month. We lost The Doc to San Francisco, Jason Fox to Argentina, and R. Mark Adams, PhD, to Cambridge.

Project Awesome

Here is the Project Awesome spreadsheet for October: File:HacDC PA Projects-2013 10.pdf. I'm able to declare a $1000 dividend and add $284.54 to our un-earmarked reserves. There were 17 votes, unchanged from the previous month.

Secretary's Report

A big thank you to Alberto for all the incoming queries from [email protected] he has responded to.

Project Awesome Reports

Project SUPPLIES

Financial Outlook

At >$1.4k, we have a sufficient reserve to make major repairs (~$300) to 3D printer, CNC mill, and laser cutter simultaneously. Supplies funding should now be reduced to a trickle in favor of EXPANSION.

Recent Purchases

Spare Prusa Mendel hot-end ($87.00). Laser cutter upgrade materials ($18.19). Small plastic containers. Useful as storage for small parts, solder paste tools, or laser cutter stock ($13.72).

Prusa Mendel

Ordered waterjet laser cut custom glass bed. Unfortunately, it cracked on installation, so I have eaten the >$68 cost :'(. Continuing attempts to laser cut, or manually cut, a new sheet of glass. Alternatively, an overlay may be used, see the red plastic mounted over glass on the printer.

For anyone interested, One Day Glass does offer excellent service.

Member Reports

Martin - HARC Technician License prep class 11/13 and FCC License exam session 11/23. David and I are wrapping up installation of a donated asterisk server and VOIP phones at St. Stephan's.

mirage335

Pardon the long winded report...

Temperature

It's getting colder. Low temperatures are generally less problematic than high temperatures, but some of our equipment (ie. laser tube) will self-destruct as 0C is approached. If safe, perhaps we should invest in a window unit with heating capability in the back room.

Leaving the laser tube pump running indefinitely has also been suggested.

Occupancy Sensor

False indications (bounce) occurred Sunday night, however, normal functionality returned in the morning. Probably due to low temperatures slowing down the MCU oscillator. A more reliable system has been published at github. Nevertheless, the low temperatures observed are cause for concern.

Biohacking

Imagnus

NDA

As reported last month, participating members will retain rights to their own technology. Important lessons have been learned negotiating the NDA that probably should be applied to similar arrangements in the future.

Expected Benefits

A few hundred dollars, probably soon. Royalty payments, probably much more significant.

Status

More progress. Will give more information with permission. Has eaten far more of my time than expected lately.

Biosignal Amplifier

USB 24bit ADC merged with host board and built. Medically isolated RECOM power supplies integrated. Batteries and soundcards eliminated, proper casing and software support in progress.

Projector/OpenDisplay

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/search/zip?query=projection&zoomToPosting=&srchType=A&minAsk=&maxAsk=

Two giant Fresnel lenses have been delivered to HacDC's basement. We still need three more giant Fresnel lenses from rear projection TVs. Project is stalled until we get these lenses.

Alternatively, it may be possible to optically combine smaller displays, an approach which could offer even greater light output and resolution. However, this would require a video combiner, and alignment would be technically challenging.

Design/OpenSource

Just a reminder, the design is published, with CAD models, as OpenDisplay.

https://github.com/mirage335/OpenDisplay

FlexReplicator

Advanced multi-tool desktop factory based on OpenRail.

Intended to simultaneously operate multiple milling, laser, extrusion (FDM 3D Printing), and inkjet (powder 3D printing, 2D coloring) tools. Simulations indicate deflection should be 8mm/metricTon of lateral force.

Still in progress. Nearly complete design, just needs actuators (ie. threaded rod, timing belts).

Project EXPANSION

We might want to fund new purchases (eg. metal working tools) or projects (eg. better laser cutter) to expand HacDC capabilites. In some cases, smaller or better organized hardware may be desirable. Plan to propose a project awesome EXPANSION fund for this purpose.

Would like to see this operate democratically, with proposed purchases/projects and votes on the project's wiki page.

myDAQ and myDSP

Ahmed Aden bought us a myDAQ and myDSP for us almost a year ago. These devices can add core testing and signal processing capability to our test cart.

Eric Miller has been holding them since. Reportedly, he has not been using them, but is unwilling to make a "special trip" to deliver them back to us. It is also possible that he has lost track of, or otherwise did not verify, the software requirements.

They were NOT purchased with Eric Miller's own money for his own use. Ahmed Aden has volunteered to ask him to return these tools, and we agree the request needs to be polite.

That said, I am deeply disappointed in Eric Miller's conduct.

PCB Fab Efforts

A variety of approaches have been tried to fabricate professional quality circuit boards on the laser cutter. All have failed, and the CNC mill remains superior. Our CO2 laser is just not suitable for this kind of work.

ToDo Tracker

An experimental project/task management application using web2project has been created for HacDC members and guests. Please see HacDC Projects, and add anything that might benefit HacDC.

HacDC Shelves

Recommend we allocate $600 for two of these shelving units, one in each room. Also recommend someone besides myself build them (eg. haxwithaxe), which shouldn't take more than a day.

Designed for HacDC Basement. Intended for placement a few feet away from wall in both rooms as necessary, accessible from both sides, providing a sort of warehouse. 8' high, 16' long, 4' deep, 16" elevations, density-optimized reinforcement. $264.99 for 384 sq.ft. at $1.44/sq.ft.

For comparison, I estimated the shelves on the back wall of the workroom to offer only about 50 sq. ft.

There will still be plenty of room in the basement for the optical table and power tools, particularly if we do not immediately implement the second unit. In fact, this will definitely increase the available space both upstairs and in the basement as items are taken off the floor.

Please see github for CAD model, BOM, and simulation results.

Corporate Membership

At least two organizations are interested in corporate membership. Perhaps we should put together a policy on this, focused on keeping financial gains high enough to justify any risks. A supplementary remote or RFID entry system might also be helpful.

Adjournment

Adjourned at ______