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By NICHOLAS VINEN Sydney Mini Maker Faire . . . and hackerspace highlights On Sunday 24th November 2013, Sydney’s Powerhouse technology museum hosted a “Mini Maker Faire”, an exhibition of various groups and businesses dedicated to people building “stuff”. Well that’s rather vague but it really does cover a wide range of hobbies including electronics and robotics but also 3D object fabrication, textiles, electric vehicles, sculptures, dioramas . . . just about anything you can make yourself. T HE PURPOSE OF the Mini Maker Faire was for makers to show off their completed (and in some cases, partially completed) designs and to encourage interested parties to get involved. It was a particularly good opportunity for those aged 10-18 or so (and in many cases, their parents) to learn about electronics, 3D printing and 3D construction in general and become enthused over the idea of building their own robot, gadget or other device. The fair consisted of 60 booths spread throughout the Powerhouse Museum building. Of course, visitors were also free to experience the usual attractions at the museum including a number of locomotives, aircraft and some quite fascinating cut-away or exposed mechanisms, many of which are motorised to show how they work. Many of the booths were staffed by organisations that our readers would 86  Silicon Chip be familiar with such as Freetronics (with Arduino), Bitscope, 3D Printing Systems, German RepRap (another 3D printer distributor) and even the Ripperton superbike we featured on the cover of last month’s issue, shown alongside an electric scooter from Sydney Electric Vehicles. There were also a couple of groups that you may not be familiar with but that would be of interest to SILICON CHIP readers. Primarily, we are thinking of Robots & Dinosaurs, the Sydney “Hacker Space” organisation and the Sydney Robot Workshop, who shared the same space. You couldn’t miss their part of the space since it is occupied by life-size R2D2s and Daleks. Hackerspaces The “hackerspace” phenomenon has sprung up in the last few years to support the “maker” movement. In essence, it consists of clubs in major cities (and some large towns) around the world where members pool their money, time and equipment to set up a location where they can gather to build things, discuss building things, help each other out and generally socialise. There are already spaces in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth, Dubbo, Newcastle, Geelong, Townsville . . . the list goes on. A more-or-less complete listing can be found at this website: http:// hackerspaces.org/wiki/Australia So what’s the benefit of joining one of these organisations and how much does it cost? Well, the main advantage is that you get a place to work on your projects. This is especially useful if, say, you live in an apartment and don’t have a workshop or office where you can do your soldering, drilling, cutting and so on. siliconchip.com.au Importantly, there is also a lot of great gear that you can use or borrow while you are there, some of which you may not be able to afford or which is impractical to keep at home. At Sydney’s Robots & Dinosaurs for example, there are two laser cutters, multiple 3D printers, CNC mills, lathes, band saws, drill presses, power supplies, oscilloscopes, soldering stations and a large variety of hand tools and assorted components that members can use. There is also quite a variety of raw materials that members can purchase, such as sheets of acrylic, plywood, plastic and metal rods, reels of 3D printer plastic and so on. The cost of these “consumable” materials is charged on top of the membership fee. Generally, hackerspaces also provides some basic refreshments such as bottled water, at a nominal cost. The typical cost to spend a day (or part of one) at an Australian hackerspace is generally $10-15 plus the cost of any supplied material you use. If you attend more than once a week, it’s cheaper to pay the monthly membership fee which is around $40-60. Not surprisingly, the weekend is the most popular time to be there but the space is open on some weekdays too, mostly in the evening. But perhaps just as important as the access to all this equipment is the fact that the members and operators of the club have the knowledge and experience to operate it all (and do so safely) and are more than happy to help beginners learn how to do so successfully. For example, they can show you how to draw up a design in a CAD package and then cut and/or engrave it out of plastic or wood on the CNC laser cutter. At the time of writing, Robots & Dinosaurs is in the process of moving from Gladesville to Meadowbank. Activities involved Different hackerspaces will emphasise different skills and hobbies depending on the make-up of the membership. There is certainly a fair amount of electronic tinkering going on at Robots & Dinosaurs, perhaps not surprisingly mainly in aid of building robots or remote-controlled vehicles of various descriptions. A number of members work with Arduinos or similar devices, controlling stepper motors, servos, lights, producing sounds and so on. siliconchip.com.au Having said that, there is also a lot of time spent designing and building 3D mechanical objects with no electronics at all (or maybe just something basic like a motor). For example, a motorised wooden wheel was demonstrated by the R&D crew at the fair. It picks up marbles from a tray at the bottom and lifts them up to the top, where they roll down a ramp and the cycle repeats indefinitely. We guess is that you could call that a “kinetic sculpture”. Many members also like to make static 3D objects from laser-cut patterns with various intriguing shapes and forms. In fact, the laser cutter is one of the most popular tools at the space; so much so that they recently built a larger and more powerful one which includes an impressive CO2 laser tube, over 1m long, for cutting faster and through thicker material (up to about 12mm). While SILICON CHIP readers will most likely be interested in attending a hackerspace in order to work on electronic projects and brainstorm designs with other knowledgeable members, it is quite fascinating to see the other types of projects that members work on, many of which are quite ingenious. See it for yourself Since it was a success, attracting more than the expected number of visitors (3000), it’s likely that another Mini Maker Faire will be held in Sydney during 2014. Similar fairs were held last year in Melbourne (Eurisko, November 2-3 at the Arts House Meat Market) and Adelaide (April 6, Adelaide College of the Arts), so look out for repeat events SC this year. January 2014  87