Archive:Newsletter
In order to show what's going on at and around the space, we've decided to create a weekly newsletter. Here's the archives
CW 49
Hackathons!
Team MuMaLab won the #wehacklove Hackathon. Congratulations to all those who participated, thanks for representing the Lab. If you want to particiapte in an upcoming hackathon, go hang out in the Hackathons flow on flowdock to get all the importants news.
Cleanup&Plenum
It was Plenum week this week, so we all got together and decided on things. This time, the big focus was on finding a new space! Get all the details in the wiki, over at https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/20161211_Plenum.
Christmas Party
We have our Christmas party coming up this Thursday. There'll be Glühwein, and hopefully some food, if you make that happen. There'll be a dedicated invitation later, so hang on for that.
End-of-year Donations
The Munich Maker Lab is a non-profit organisation. Every cent you donate to us is tax deductable. And we need these cents (better in units of euros) more then ever with the upcoming move and all... You can find all necessary information at https://munichmakerlab.de/about.html, and if there's any questions, give a shout to Peter or Severin, or send an email to vorstand@munichmakerlab.de
CW 48
Server things
Nicolai cleaned up our datacenter and moved all servers clean and tidy into the rack. You don't want to know what it looked like before (well if you do go and scroll http://log.munichmakerlab.de, there's a picture hidden somewhere). Mad props!
Laser cut skateboard madness
Theo built a skateboard, and then sent it to Braille Skateboarding, a YouTube channel that tests all different kinds of homemade skateboards. So they put it through quite abit of skating (all while giving us a big shoutout), and it held up really well. See it for yourself: https://youtu.be/4rktGpS5Ylk
Finding a new space
As you probably know by now, we need to move! SDI has bigger plans for our building, so they need us out of there within 3 months. We're still checking some options with them, but let's stay with that assumption. Now before we all go into crazy searching mode, let's organize this a bit. There's a flow ('Exodus') and a wiki page to coordinate our searching efforts: https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/Exodus.
If you have something at hand that really needs some reaction/decision right away, contact @Peter or @Severin in flowdock or drop an email at vorstand@munichmakerlab.de
We haven't publicly announced (e.g. on social media) that we're searching, because we want to try to do some fundraising together with the search efforts. Still figuring this out, so give it a few days.
CW 47
- We fixed the music buttons on the remote controls. Yay for pausing music without getting up from the table. It also stops the music when you close the space. Yay for saving another 1.5 seconds on your way to the last S-Bahn.
- The small VGA projector has been taken down. The construction in the building around us has entered our space, and they are laying cable trays alongside the big pipe above the windows. The arm holding the small projector was in the way of that, so people had to remove it. The projector itself is in one of the shelves next to the electronics corner, so feel free to use it if you need to (Cables are in the cable bins as usual).
- We have a new oscilloscope: https://www.instagram.com/p/BNU7mO7hfUF/ Jorgen organized this big badass machine which is in the shelf above the electronics table. It takes a while to boot and is a bit complicated to use, so if you want to measure something real quick, you're better off using the analog scope on the right side of table, but if you need some fancy digital magic, we finally got you covered. For an introduction how to use it, hit up Jorgen or David or Severin, they've been playing around with it already. And a big thanks again to Jorgen for organizing it.
- Theo organized a small public viewing of "B.E.A.R.D.S", a live pen & paper game broadcasted online, at the space last Friday. Sounds like that was fun, and quite a few people came to watch. The next episode is going to be on January 21st, and chances are high for another public viewing in the lab.
- The next Plenum is coming up in two weeks. If you have topics you want to discuss, or thought of some awesome machine we should buy, please put it in the list on https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/Plenum
CW 46
Internet of fridges
Even though it doesn't load Google Calendar, we still have an internet-connected fridge now. It let's us know when someone opened the door, and how cold it is inside. Right now, it just triggers the traffic light, and shows the temperature on one of the dashboards on the Wall of Monitors. If you have any ideas what else we can do with it, talk to Peter!
New space status
We have an awesome new space status switch. Well, more like "refurbished", since it's since the same switch, but it's been super upgraded with lights and things: https://www.instagram.com/p/BM4M64JBcEC/. Many many thanks to Paul, Adrian and Heiko for making that happen. Now, there's really no excuse not to switch it on when you're the first one at the space.
Electronics corner fixup
We cleaned and fixed up the electronics corner (isn't it beautiful: https://www.instagram.com/p/BM1D62mhyfa/ ). Now all (well, except for one) gadgets in the shelves above are connected to power, so you can measure all things int your circuits, without having to look for the right power plug in that mess.
Lost and Found
We sorted through the "Stuff from the table" box again, here's what's in the "Last Chance" box now: http://pasteboard.co/sGrwNkEV6.png. If it's yours, grab it and store it away safely.
Space shutdown mode
With the new space status, we also redid some of the automation stuff connected to it. Now, the space status controls power to the electronics corner, the monitor wall, and soon also the sound system. They turn on when you open up the space, and shut down 30s after you close it with the status switch. Because safety and stuff.
Air compressor
ThomasE finished the chamber in the basement for the compressor, and the tubing for getting compressed air around the space. Pretty neat, and big thanks! Next up is some electric wiring, to make sure the compressor gets switched off when it's not needed etc. Any ideas on how to do that best?
Laser Log
Heiko has recovered some data from the laser hour counter, which we thought was lost when the whole VM thing came crashing down. So we got that back, and you can see some of it on one of the dashboards on the monitor wall. But if you have any other ideas on what to do with that, let us know. What we have is a database of laser job durations with timestamps. Crazy statistics which days are more laser than other ones? Let's make that into something cool.
CW 45
It's the... eye of the laser!
We installed a camera system into the laser cutter: http://log.munichmakerlab.de/post/153098556845/implementing-a-camera-into-our-lasercutter-to. It's not for time-lapse videos but to monitor the cutting process from below (to see if the beam penetrates). The camera isn't fixed yet and a second channel on the display is still free. If anybody has a camera module sitting around we can maybe use it there.
Monitor wall
It's been planned for a while, and we finally got the first two screens onto our new wall of monitors. Next to the lasers, we have two displays on a pole, cycling through a set of websites and dashboards: https://www.instagram.com/p/BMtBfJNBVEA/ There are more to come, once we got new Orange Pi One boards to control them. If you have any ideas on what we shoul display on theose screens, let Heiko or Severin know. Also, if you have any WhateverPi board that you want to donate to the space, let use know as well, and we'll build it into the next screen we put up.
The Thingsnetwork Munich meetup
Last thursday, we had the first The Thingsnetwork Munich meetup at our space. There was a talk by Wienke Giezeman, one of the TTN founders, and some great discussions. We have more awesome talks planned, so stayed tuned for those announcements.
CW 44
Talks on Thursdays
We had our first Talks on Thursdays this week. Severin told about 15 visitors and members about the Erfindergarden (a new fablab in Munich), and the current state of the eWindow. We try to make a thing out such talks. If you like to present a cool project, talk about some specific topic or showcase something, the stage is set. =D
ToDos
We have a new thing to collect things that need to be done: http://log.munichmakerlab.de/post/152817251120/we-got-a-fancy-new-todo-list-thingie-in-the-space Grab some tasks, and make them to move towards the right columns!
More parts organizer shelf space
Remember when Heiko built the first rack to keep our parts boxes? Turns out we have too many of those. So he built an even bigger one \o/ Very big thanks. Now we can keep the parts boxes in the big one, and use the smaller one for personal cases. Feel free to move yours from the membershelves over to the small rack, so we have a bit more space back there.
Big meetup next Thursday
Electronica is coming up next week, and some of the The Thingsnetwork folks are in Munich. So they're doing a meetup, and it'll be at our space. If you're interested in LoRaWAN and the whole IoT craziness, pass by. It might get full ;)
CW 43
T-shirts!
Happy people have awesome MuMaLab Shirts! We ordered a few extra in different sizes. If you want one, ask Severin, JanS or Peter.
Air compressor
We repaired the air compressor that Liviu organized. ThomasE will lead the effort to get all that air to places where it can do some good, so please help him in any way you can.
Space cleanliness
Thursday evening... the space was so clean! Awesome and thanks to the people who cleaned without beeing asked to 👍🏼
Virtual Machine Server
Last week our virtual machine server died due to a bunch of failing hard drives. Sadly, not everything on there was backed up, so some things, like our VPN access VM, were lost. But JanS is in the final steps of putting in new disks, and getting the thing back up and running. Thank you :)
LoRaWAN
We built a small LoRaWAN client, with a GPS unit, and did some tests of our gateway. Turns out things are not quite ideal yet. One of the things contributing might be the antennas we're using. New ones to test with have been ordered, so we'll do some more tests next week.
eWindow
We've made some progress on the eWindow -> http://log.munichmakerlab.de/post/152284780155/working-on-our-ewindow-which-is-supposed-to. Severin has built a WebRTC thing for it, so the video part works fairly well now. Next steps are working on the UI, both from the hardware, as well as the software side, and then getting that stuff out into the other spaces. Help is very much appreciated, especially if you have some JS skills. The current code is on github: https://github.com/munichmakerlab/ewindow_webrtc
CW 42
Neberaum warning light
There's now a warning light next to the main door in the space, indicating whether the Nebenraum is properly locked (http://log.munichmakerlab.de/post/151951056930/every-once-in-a-while-someone-forgets-to-lock-the). If it lights up when you're about to leave, please check and lock the door to the Nebenraum properly. Note that the light only goes out after two key turns.
Soldering tip burnout
The soldering tip of our main soldering station wasn't looking so good. This is probably because it was left on for a long amount of time. Please always make sure that you turn it off after using it. Can't hurt to check whether everything is switched off befor you leave the space as well. In the meantime, we got some new tips: http://log.munichmakerlab.de/post/152119009665/old-vs-new-today-with-soldering-tips
LoRaWAN Gateway
As discussed in the last plenum, we're building a LoRaWAN gateway. Never heard of LoRaWAN? Check this out: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Wide_Area_Network. Anyway, here's our first shot: http://log.munichmakerlab.de/post/152211858820/setting-up-our-first-lorawan-gateway-well. It seems to work, but we didn't build any client devices for further testing yet. So that's the plan for next week...
All the social medias!
We have an instagram account now. Because: why not! -> https://www.instagram.com/munichmakerlab/
More documentation in the wiki \o/
Turns out there's quite a bit of stuff going on in the wiki recently. At least a lot more than before -> Woop woop. Go check that out over here: https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/Special:RecentChanges, and if you don't have an account yet, go to this place: https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/Special:RequestAccount
CW 41
New firmware for the doorlock
Our doorlock was suffering from some issues when entering the PIN. We put a firmware fix in; please let us know whether it works better now (or not at all).
Door sensor for the Nebenraum
There had been some discussions about how to make sure the door to the Nebenraum doesn't stay unlocked. Heiko and Severin went ahead putting a first approach into place: A sensor on the door, which is connected to our MQTT bus, and a light next to the door in the main space to show whether the Nebenraum is locked properly or not. What do you think?
Flowdock/IRC-Alarm
The alarm light found a new and a little bit more stable place, and is, against all rumors, working properly. Can you find it?
New Make Magazin
A new edition of the German version of Make Magazine made it to the space. You can find it in our little library corner.
"Zeug vom Tisch" Box
We rotated the "Zeug vom Tisch" box on Thursday. These things are now in the "Last Chance" box, grab them if they are yours: http://pasteboard.co/fLJKASELR.png
CW 40
Cleanup session
We cleaned the space Sundays and changed the way how and where the laser material is stored. Most of the "member-owned" material moved downstairs, the rest is on the left side of the cutter. The "Free to use" materials are right beside the box storage shelfs.
Plenum
We had our Plenum with lots of participats! You can find all the stuff we discussed on the wiki (as always): https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/20161009_Plenum
Lasercutter usage fee
We have an new usage fee rate for the lasercutter:
- 2€/10min for Members
- 3€/10min for Hammer and Shield
- 4€/10min for Externals
- 5€/10min for Commercial Projects
Tshirts!
The Shirts arrived, please contact Peter for yours. =) The ones with Name cost 17€, the rest 13€.
Stickorrs!
After our great shirts we want to print new Stickers! Ideas anyone? =D
"Zeug vom Tisch" Box
We rotated the "Zeug vom Tisch" box on Thursday. These things are now in the "Last Chance" box, grab them if they are yours: http://pasteboard.co/1ijfkK7PO.png
CW 39
Plenum & Cleanup coming up
October 9th, so in little more than a week, we will meet again for our next Plenum and cleanup session. As always, if you have something you want to discuss, complain, cheer on or if you want the space to buy something, add it to the wiki: https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/Plenum
T-shirts final call
We will order sunday evening. It's now or never. https://pad.riseup.net/p/Mumashirts Payment is due when you get the t-shirt btw.
We joined the IoV movement #bullshit
We are now part of the growing IoV community with our Internet connected vacuum. If you have a great Idea what should happen if you switch on the vacuum (besides spreading cleanliness), write in Main with #IoV
CW 38
T-shirts again again!!1!
New Designs! Thanks Jorgen! =D https://pad.riseup.net/p/Mumashirts We will order next week, so put your name in NOW!
Network Stuff
We got a new (external) MQTT broker. Big thanks to Matthias for setting that up, as well as doing so much other awesome stuff to our IT setup, such as decent monitoring, and mocing the wiki. He's also planning to setup another, internal broker, and a few more things. So buy him a beer next time you see him ;)
Lost & Found
This week's bin rotating somehow didn't happen, so one more chance to claim your stuff before it hits some black hole: http://pasteboard.co/oq8X8D0v.png
CW 37
Streetlife
So much awesome! Streetlife Festival was great fun. If you haven't seen them yet, check out our pictures of day one (http://log.munichmakerlab.de/day/2016/09/10). Let's do it again next year.
Hackathon
While part of the crew was out at Streetlife Festival, other went to Techfest in Garching, to win some prices. Congratulations to the ambitious and successful hackathon folks!
T-shirts again!
We were missing a order link last time... please put your name in if you like one: https://pad.riseup.net/p/Mumashirts Has anybody other ideas for designs?
Lost & Found
There are some big things in the "Letzte Chance" Kiste, make sure to claim them if they are yours: http://pasteboard.co/oq8X8D0v.png
CW 36
Streetlife
This is coming directly from the Streetlife Festival! =D Everything is running smoothly and it's great fun to be here! Come tomorrow if you like, we'll be here till 2200. http://log.munichmakerlab.de/day/2016/09/10
Multifactory Workshops
We ended the last week with two great video workshops, one at HEi and one in our space. Great fun, now it's off to make some videos. For starters, Lorenza and Giulio did two walkthrough videos of the space, check them out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XET8952wOg8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhYeS7Y-0LE. We still have to work on the eWindow, it's not quite working yet. Maybe a geekend some time in October to get it fully functional?
T-shirts
Moar T-shirts! Who is interested in ordering new MuMaLab Shirts? Last time we got them from shirtinator.eu, for around 25€ apice (with two prints, on high quality shirts)
Marketing stuff
We need more stuff with our logo and fancy texts and pictures! Business Cards are almost in the making, some flyers would be awesome. Anyone willing to throw in their awazing design skills? Let us know. We should also do another stickers run, supplies are getting low. Any new designs?
CW 35
Multifactory
Last day of the eWindow workshop today. There's some software and electronics magic going on at the space later, and some more actual building of the windows at Werkbox3. Tomorrow, there's a video workshop at HEi, which starts at 11am. Feel free to join anytime. The second part of the workshop will be at our space again, on Sunday. I've heard there might be some BBQ going on in the afternoon on Sunday. More on everything as usual on https://multifactory.hackpad.com/Multifactory-Project-Munich-F5xvmQpW6Wy, and if want to take a look at the software magic, check out https://github.com/munichmakerlab/ewindow
Streetlife
Only one more week until the Streetlife festival. Who's coming? What should we bring and show off? Let's do some planning in the wiki: https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/Streetlife_Festival and on flowdock: https://www.flowdock.com/app/mumalab/streetlife-festival
Lasercutter
The lasercutter seems to be having some hicups lately. Looks like it's time to do another maintenance day. If you want to help and learn more awesome laser skills, check out the #lasercutter flow on Flowdock: https://www.flowdock.com/app/mumalab/lasercutter. In the meantime, please be gentle with it (well, you should always be gentle with it, actually).
Make Munich 2017
Martin let's us know that the next MAKE MUNICH will take place on May 6th+7th 2017. Please help us and join the organizing team: send us an email to info@make-munich.de. A kickoff meeting will be announced soon.
This Newsletter
Do you like it? Any ideas for imporving it? If you want something added, just drop a line with #newsletter in the flowdock main channel, and we'll try to put it in here. We're also keeping an archive at https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/Newsletter
CW 34
Multifactory
We did some more tests for the eWindow. Parts are in the mail now, so let's meet up on Monday, 6pm, at HEi for the kick off. https://multifactory.hackpad.com/Multifactory-Project-Munich-F5xvmQpW6Wy Also, if you know some JS and would like to build some software for the ewindow, hit me up.
Hydroponics
Peter is reinventing the wheel, with plants in it. Oh, and the watercress. It's spreading /o\
Money for drinks
We got a new cash box thingie for drinks money. Please put bills in the "big" safe box, and cash in the small one.
Streetlife
Streetlife is coming up fast, so Heiko is making some plans on how to do our booth. If you got any good ideas, share them with him.
CW 33
Multifactory Project Update
Small update, we managed to get a video link based on WebRTC going in preparation of the Multifactory workshop. https://multifactory.hackpad.com/Multifactory-Project-Munich-F5xvmQpW6Wy. Remember, we'll kick it off on Monday, August29th, 6pm, at the HEi. Join us!
Cleanup
Some major cleaning was going on before the plenum last Sunday. We cleaned out the free-to-hack shelves, which are super tidy right now (let's try to keep them that way). Thanks to everyone who participated!
Plenum
The plenum was productive and fun as always. You can find the notes here: https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/20160814_Plenum
Money for drinks
To something not so fun: it seems as someone is not only not paying for drinks, but activly stealing from the cash box. We will introducte a second, locked register for paper money. And please watch our for unknown persons throwing greedy looks to the box.
What grows there?
Not mold but watercress! Have a look at:
CW 32
Newsletter
We heard you like news. So here's the newest news, wrapped in a newsletter: We now have a newsletter! We thought about how it inform everybody about what's happening and went back to this. Because. it. works! ... expect one every week until we think differently about that (or we forget about it). If you have something that should go in the Newsletter: Post it into 'Main' in Flowdock and attach the #newsletter hashtag.
Street Life Festival
We have our own booth at the next Street Life Festival! A small one, about as wide as Severin's Fire truck. Which will be on there to provide power and Mate. It's on the weekend from the 10 - 11 September. Find more info here: http://www.streetlife-festival.de/ ... BeeDooBeeDooo
Multifactory Project
You know what's cool? One makerspace. You know what's even cooler? More makerspaces! That's what the Offene Werkstätten folks thought, so they started an initative to get the spaces in Munich to collaborate. Together with FabLab, HEi and Werkbox3, we will take part in the first Multifactory Project workshop week, from August 29th til September 9th. There'll be two parts, a 2 day video workshop where we'll create some videos about our spaces, and a 2+ days workshop to build eWindows (video connections between the spaces). You can find more informaation at http://www.offene-werkstaetten.org/seite/multifactory-netzwerk and the full schedule at https://multifactory.hackpad.com/Multifactory-Project-Munich-F5xvmQpW6Wy. We'll kick it off on Monday, August29th, 6pm, at the HEi. Join us!
Plenum & cleanup
The next Plenum and cleanup session is on the 14. August. We will start at 1400 to clean, and will start the Plenum right after. Part of the cleanup is looking at the stuff in free-to-use and sort the trash out. If you have some stuff for the Plenum, go right here: https://wiki.munichmakerlab.de/wiki/Plenum
PS
Use #stream in Flowdock to update our 'Stream of consciousness' Twitter account: stream_of_muma
