October 2011
6 posts
Intro to Arduino is here again!
Want to make a pocket digital translator? Wondering what makes robots do useful or entertaining things?
The answer to all your [technical] curiosities is Arduino!
We are teaching our monthly Intro to Arduino class at Metrix Create: Space
on Broadway, tomorrow
Tuesday, October 25 at 7 PM
We’ll be going over the basics of the hardware of the Arduino board as well as getting into some of...
Thank you for helping us celebrate!
Many thanks to all of you who came out to celebrate the Metrix Create:Space 2-Year Anniversary! And those of you who couldn’t make it: Shame on you! You missed out on a seriously fun night of drinking and making.
We know you are all dying to find out who the winners are of the very first
Metrix Create:Contest/Tangram Edition
It was rough out here for a Tangram...
1 tag
2nd Year Interviews
Metrix’s second year anniversary party is coming up tomorrow (be there at 7)! I thought I would take the opportunity to interview a couple of people close to the shop and get their takes on how Metrix has grown and changed, and a little of where the shop is headed in the future. The first person I interviewed was Matthew “Wilson” Wilson. A longtime friend of the owner, Matt, Wilson has “been at...
Metrix 2-Year Anniversary - Create:Contest
Besides commemorating our 2-Year Anniversary with a range of apple beverages, we will be holding the very first
Metrix Create:Contest / 3D Tangram Edition
Contest Rules:
each entry must use at least one 3D Tangram kit; no maximum limit
unlimited number of entries per person
each entry can win only in one category
$4 per kit
winners do not have to be present at time...
3 tags
Two Years of Making
Metrix Create:Space opened up two years ago this Saturday. To commemorate the event, we are throwing a party. Just like last year, we are shutting off the laser, cutting power to the kiln and breaking out the booze. Safety is important.
Show up at 7 to get first crack at the cider and join the Create:Contest. There will be prizes…
10/15 Saturday night. 7pm through Midnight.
Metrix...
1 tag
Getting our Ducks in a Row
Many of you who have come into Metrix over the last few months have wondered about the ducks. As this post unfolds, it will uncover the story of the Metrix ducks, so read on…
The concept behind our army of ducks is to have a single object as a sample of the various production and fabrication methods we offer at Metrix Create: Space. Using the same object allows for easy comparisons of...
September 2011
6 posts
Mod Your Plush Makeshop POSTPONED
Unfortunately due to a number of factors beyond our control (apartment upheaval; extended family funeral) this Makeshop is POSTPONED. Watch for it closer to the Winter Solstice holidays, and keep thinking of new and different things to do to improve on your stuffies!
Mod Your Plush Makeshop
Thursday October 6th 7pm to 9pm
Metrix 623A Broadway East Seattle WA 98102
$25 with all materials,...
Everybody loves robots part 2
Awesome things you can do with your Arduino driven robot:
1. Connect it to the internet, get visual feedback from it, and control it through your computer or phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsvqQ5h7QMY&feature=player_embedded
2. Attach a Wii nunchuck to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlukl5fLi7s&feature=player_embedded
3. Or make it remote controlled.
4. Make your robot...
Everybody loves robots!
Making your very own servo robot is only a workshop away. Did you always want to make awesome things with microcontrollers but thought it might be too complicated or didn’t know where to start? No idea what a microcontroller does but like the shiny robot in the picture?
Come to the Intro to Arduino workshop, Tuesday, September 27th, 7-9 PM.
You’ll get your very own Arduino board...
Resistors, Capacitors, Integrated Circuits, oh my!
Want to know how to turn this:
into your very own cool light fixture…
or a super sneaky spy robot?
Come to the Basic Electronics workshop, Tuesday, September 20th, 7-9 PM.
You’ll get the foundation in electronics that will get you started on your path to all kinds of awesome projects. With a few basic, cheap components you can create the beautiful light fixture above or...
4 tags
Open 7400 Logic Competition and the Logic Counter...
Dangerous Prototypes just announced their Open 7400 Logic Competition, and it just so happens that Metrix Create:Space has recently acquired more logic than Vulcan.
We’ve been sorting and cataloging what we have over the past week and putting it on the LogicCounter wiki page.
Are you working on a project? Do you want to win prizes and fame on the Internets? Come on down and make...
Mod Your Plush Makeshop Thursday October 6th...
Come to our October Makeshop on stuffed animal surgery! We will provide you with the raw materials to create a complex recreated animal with lights and noise, and you will go home with an awesome modded plush!
You are also welcome to take on one of our advanced projects (hack a Furby!) and/or plan making your own electronics (noise/sound/lights).
Your Makeshop catalyst has interned at...
August 2011
2 posts
Intro to Electronics Workshop next week, Thursday...
Another exciting Intro to Electronics workshop is coming up in a week. It’s perfect both for total beginners as well as those who need an electronics refresher. We will be going over the basics needed to understand how a circuit operates at its simplest level. We’ll be covering voltage vs. current, resistors, capacitors, microcontrollers. Through a series of quick LED projects the...
The next Intro to Arduino Workshop is coming up on...
Arduino is a great platform for creating awesome projects both small and large in scale and varying in complexity. It pairs a board packed with fun components and an open source programming software. The board integrates a microcontroller with a set of inputs and outputs. The inputs can be as simple as a button or a switch or as fancy as real time streaming data. The outputs can be motors that...
July 2011
4 posts
Arduino Workshops on Sunday 7/24
Arduino is an open source prototyping platform. It combines a microcontroller (computer brain) with input and output ports to enable virtually any project.
Example projects range from playful, like LED cubes, to practical, like a mouse trap!
Two workshops will be held on Sunday: Intro to Arduino from 2-4 pm, and Arduino Programming from 5-7 pm. The Intro to Arduino workshop will...
Big Robot Lives
Late last night, we had our first print on the big robot. This robot eats chipped HDPE milk jugs (the plastic ones, clear and opaque both) and extrudes them a lot like a big RepRap. We’ve been working on it for a few months now.
The nucleus of the machine is a CNC router table, a DynaCNC 1000. The company is out of business, as you might notice from the website, but they were located...
Clonedel Electronics Packages
What do you do when the electronics kit you want to buy is more than you’d like to pay, or doesn’t have the right mix of features? Stop by Metrix and create your own of course! I recently spoke with Logan Bowers about his plans for creating and selling his own electronics package to work with the Clondels- also being made at Metrix.
For those who aren’t sure what Clondels are, I’ll give...
Summer Workshops
Here is our upcoming schedule of workshops. Please see our workshop wiki page for more information, or click on the individual workshop listed in our calendar. For Youth Summer Camps, please read more information here. As always, please call the shop (206-357-9406) to reserve your place in advance. We look forward to seeing you down here!
Thursday, July 14, 2011 7-9pm Basic EL Wire
...
June 2011
1 post
Windowfarm: Growing a Garden in Your Window
Do you enjoy having plants, but don’t have enough space in your tiny urban dwelling? Are you interested in growing at least a little bit of your own food? Want to get into hydroponics or aquaponics, but you don’t know where to start?
(Seedling in the Bottle! PJ)
Come to the Windowfarm Workshop this Saturday to learn to build a DIY hydroponic garden that fits in a window....
May 2011
3 posts
Design a Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
You’ve got the hardware working perfectly. The software is awesome. The fantastic project is ready to meet the world. But if it’s on a breadboard, how are you going to deploy it to the real world? A circuit like the one below isn’t going to survive long.
(A new 20 pin PIC design on the breadboard for software development while waiting for printed circuit boards - Jon...
