Surrey and Hampshire Hackspace evening - 21st February

Last night was another great evening at the Hackspace with more new people coming along which is fantastic.

During the week a kind person contacted the hackspace and offered to donate some test equipment and books.  One of the members offered to go to Croyden and collect the stuff.

some of the donated books and kit

What a great donation. It included many electronics books. Some were of great interest from a nostalgia standpoint but will be great for introducing new concepts to members starting out.The book on the 741 op-amp is a great little read and introduces the fundamentals of analogue signals and circuits in a nice easy but practical way.  Amongst all the books were an lcd projector and an oscilloscope. Both in perfect working order and will be a great addition to the resources the hackspace has for meet-ups and building circuits.


With new blood came new and interesting possibilities. There were great discussions about pic programming in assembly, control circuitry for race cars, home heating automation with a Raspberry Pi at the heart of it amongst other tops.

A real interesting topic was a satellite developed in Surrey that is controlled using a mobile phone.
More details on the University of Surrey website
Below is video showing what is in the satellite, what it does and how it's all put together.

So, the hackspace is going from strength to strength with more people taking part.

Here's looking forward to the next meet-up and some more interesting discussions and demos.

A selection of pictures from the evening. (sorry for the poor quality - mobile phone pics)

Egham/Staines Raspberry Jam 20th Jan 2013

Back in October I started the process of hosting a Raspberry Jam at my employers office in January.
It took nearly 2 months to get it sorted but we got there and on the 20th of December I announced the first Raspberry Jam at the Gartner offices in Egham on the 20th of January 2013.

In case you're unaware a Raspberry Jam is an event for people interested in the Raspberry Pi computer. An opportunity to meet like minded people and hopefully get inspired or connect with people who are looking to achieve the same or similar goals to yourself.

I attended a couple at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes in October and November and was even more convinced that Raspberry Jams were a great idea and well worth organising.

Well, with 2 weeks to go there are only 3 tickets let of the 50 allocated on Eventbrite. http://eghamraspberryjam.eventbrite.com

There 2 confirmed presentation, including the amazing near space live images project Pi in the Sky.

Based on the demand so far I'm hoping for a full house and if this one goes well I will work to get it set up so we can have Raspberry Jams regularly at the Gartner offices.

A big thank you to Alan O'Donohoe  @teknoteacher for getting the ball rolling with the Raspberry Jams and also for talking to me about what is involved in preparing a successful Jam.

Here's looking forward to the 20th of January and a successful Raspberry Jam.