Here at Metrix Create:Space, we don’t really sell coffee. We provide it as an amenity to our members and customers and we drink a lot of it ourselves. It does cost a dollar, but that dollar doesn’t go into paying staff, or rent, or even paying back the upfront cost of the robot (eventually we’ll pay for that thing somehow). It goes towards Vivace beans, our nifty poker draw cups, milk, and tasty tasty Oregon Chai. We’re not a coffee shop. We’re a workshop. We like coffee, it keeps us moving, so we have the good stuff.

We do understand how coffee shops work , and how you and many of the laptop carrying, working-from-home mobile workforce out there live within their rules. You see, at one time, we worked on software, and we were laptop hobos.

Working from home, or working ‘out of the office’ is a hard thing (well, it’s not hard like a salt mine or working at a desk or anything, but it can be inconvenient). For the most part, coffee shops have become the haven of the hobo. There are lots of social rules to setting up camp in a coffee shop. Mostly they involve picking up a coffee or a pastry every now and then, trying not to tie a table up every single day at the same place, tipping the barista kind of heavy so they don’t glare at you (too hard), not bringing in packed lunches and outside drinks. There’s a fine line you tread to not wear out your welcome, or run the place out of business. That’s why you’re buying the scones even though you don’t really like them. That’s why you don’t sleep much. It’s not the stress of the workplace, it’s the 4 latte a day habit.

Coffee shops, have become the third place for workers, some by design, some by accident. For the most part though, coffee shops focus on their coffee, not their Internet. And for coffee shops, the Internet is an amenity that they have to have, rarely understand and don’t like paying for. Lots of coffee shops don’t even have a computer in them other than a cash register. Which is why their Internet is slow and laggy.

Here at our workshop, we spend a lot of time working on our robots, building shop projects, buying tools and supplies and going about the things we need to do to make your projects go smoother. For that we need the Internet, and we like the Internet, so we make sure our Internet is awesome.

Some of you may have noticed that there is effectively no lag at Metrix Create:Space. That’s because we have fast tubes (50mbps/10mpbs). We have a managed Cisco switch rather than a linksys hub. Our WiFi gear is from our ‘other store’, which primarily sells WiFi gear to people building WiFi businesses. We give you a publicly routeable IPV6 address. If the wireless is too slow for you (because 802.11g is only 20mbps), we even have a couple of wall jacks that you can plug in to, and get the full 50. Remember we mentioned that we like the Internet here? That may have been an understatement.

Unfortunately, this makes us both appealing to the laptop hobo , and confusing. The rules are different here. It’s a new thing. We don’t have scones. The coffee doesn’t really pay for anything. How can you hobo without running us out of business? We know a lot of you are concerned about how we survive, because you ask us, and sometimes we wonder ourselves.  We have thought about your concerns, and are offering you an option.

Today we are introducing Hobo Tokens and an actual tip jar. Hobo Tokens are a totally optional currency of goodwill. They let us know that you care about us, and remind us to keep that awesome Internet connection around. There are no rules, you can buy them and lock them up in a curio cabinet, give them away as gifts, or put them in the tip jar. They have no monetary value and are worth nothing in the store. Rest assured though, if you hobo hard, and you tip us in tokens, we know you care about the shop.

Like the rest of the shop, this is kind of a weird experiment.

They’re available online (we will mail them wherever you want) or at the counter for $5. 5 for $20

We’ll also put them on Thingiverse.   They take 3 minutes each to cut, so if you cut them yourselves, they’re $4.80 each.  If you have your own laser and material, they’re free goodwill.

9:26 pm  •  12 January 2010 by metrixcreatespace   •  view comments

Our first Using Transistors workshop went well today. We managed to
continue the tradition of blowing up at least one component per class.
This time it was a transistor that shattered due to excessive current.
As usual, the exploding component served to highlight the facts
covered in the class. The workshop attendees got to play with logic
gates, switches, sensors, and motors.

Interest in both of our electronics workshops has remained strong. The
Intro to Electronics workshop on Thursday has been full for a few
weeks, and we already have people on the waiting list for our next
classes. Next month we’ll be having another set of electronics
workshops, so register early to reserve your spot.

We haven’t forgotten about those of you who want a soldering workshop.
We’re hard at work designing a workshop that’s worthy of you. As soon
as we’ve got a curriculum we’re satisfied with, we’ll start scheduling
the soldering workshops. 

Introduction to Electronics
Sunday, February 7 2010
2-4:30
Cost: $40

This workshop covers everything you need to know to get started in
electronics. We’ll start from the basics of electricity and work our
way up to using integrated circuits. You’ll leave the class with some
simple components and the knowledge to use them.

Using Transistors
Sunday, February 21 2010
2-4:30
Cost: $40

We’ll explore transistors, what they’re used for, and how to use them.
After an overview of the function of transistors, we’ll spend the
class making some simple switches, logic gates, and an amplifier.

Required Equipment:
Breadboard, Multimeter

2:57 am  •  11 January 2010 by metrixcreatespace   •  view comments

Morgan’s tasty transistors workshop - transistors are like delicious grilled cheese sandwiches, except that if you eat them you will get sick. Also, transistors can do a lot more neat things than a sandwich can.

~ Jen

9:56 pm  •  10 January 2010 by comradebunny   •  view comments

Jesse and Angela (pic 2, right) were down here tonight make some nifty LED light boards (pics 1 & 4) - when those things are on it’s like Christmas all over again. You can’t see it in the still shots, but they can be programmed to oscillate and generally look even more spectacular. They’re from a kit for LED light bricks, but Angela and Jesse are going to put them in a translucent acrylic case rather than setting them in an acrylic brick so they can access the board to reprogram it later if they want.

Their friends Kevin and Jaime (pic 2, left) were also down here putting together bliplaces (pic 3), sound-reactive LED button kits they got from the vending machine of wonder. That’s a pretty impressive night’s work for some first-time solderers, and they got to walk away with a badass homemade piece of shiny.

~ Jen

3:08 am  •  9 January 2010 by comradebunny   •  view comments

He did it! At approximately 3am this morning, Matt finally finished the 2-axis laser writer he’s been working for the past week. Congratulations Matt :)

~ Jen

8:56 pm  •  7 January 2010 by comradebunny   •  view comments

Wow, Kraft Nite is doing wonders for my productivity…I made seven wooden cog pins, I’m on my way to finishing a couple more little hip-pockets, and I’ve got pictures of everything I made. It’s amazing what you can pull of if you just have the right tools. If I can do all that in a few hours, just think of all the progress you could make on your own crafty goodness :D

There’s also a fractal quilt in progress - if you stop by in a few Kraft Nites from now, you might even get to see the finished product.

Jen Power is a nerdy crafter, Cap Hill resident, and writer of Life on the Hill and Other Stories

1:22 am  •  6 January 2010 by comradebunny   •  view comments

Yay, Kraft Nite! If you want to join the fun, just stop by any Tuesday night after 6pm and get your craft on :)

1:10 am  •  6 January 2010 by comradebunny   •  view comments

The member badges have been cut.   If you signed up for a membership in 2009, your very own, uniquely identifiable badge is now ready for you to pick up.

Yes, there is a secret contest.    I’ve probably said too much.

2:42 pm  •  4 January 2010 by metrixcreatespace   •  view comments

It’s New Year’s Eve, and what am I doing? Hanging out in the best basement EVER.  And getting lured into blogging for Metrix cuz, well, I hang out here too much anyway, and I might as well write about it. So while everyone else is getting drunk waaay too early in order to be obnoxious well before midnight, I’ll be here watching Helen Cook make laser-cut puzzle boxes and while I create tiny adorable purses out of upholstery fabric samples. And blogging about it.

Jen Power is your friendly neighborhood geekcraft blogger, as well as the author/pontificator of Life on the Hill and Other Stories

9:25 pm  •  31 December 2009 by comradebunny   •  view comments

If you’ve been around the shop lately, you’ve probably heard us mention that we’re going to build Johnathan Wards’ MTM PCB Mill.   We’ve been making good progress.

We don’t have a shopbot, and our first attempt at getting some parts made on a neighbor’s CNC didn’t work out, so we lasercut our assembly out of 6mm plywood and did a bit of glue work to get a nice solid frame.  This not only looks nice, it gives us a lot more control over how we can build the thing.  Turns out the first failure was a good thing because other than the initial body,  our mill isn’t going to be very much like the original at all.   Which is of course the point of Open Source Hardware.   It’s not really a blueprint, it’s a starting point.

We’ve been really interested in is seeing if we could build the mill without going through the MTM BOM.   Sure, it’s reasonable pricing if you’re looking at CNC mills, but buying 108 bucks worth of Frelon lined linear bearings when we already have a bunch of tools that make tools seems silly. We can make linear bearings. We have a makerbot and a spool of HDPE (slippery plastic for the uninitiated).  Add to that we have printer rods in the Junk Box, extra threaded rod from our second makerbot build, stepper motors, drivers, arduinos, DC motors, and pounds upon pounds of screws and nuts.  We started looking around the shop and figured out we can make this thing with stuff we have laying around.  Once it’s built, we can use it to make itself better too!

Tonight was all about hacksaws and printing with HDPE for the first time.  It was a bit of effort, but we got all our rods cut and built an X axis that slides pretty smooth. We also got some ideas for the next round of cuts, which we should be able to fit in the scrap from the first round.   We’ll keep you updated on our progress, and publish our plans so you can make what we do, and change what you want.

Once it’s done, we’re going to put this robot to work.  Come in and make surface mount PCBs in a little under an hour.

If you’re wondering how to make boards (we sure are), we’ve started up a wiki page on the toolchain that the Center for Bits and Atoms uses.   It’s pretty cool stuff.

6:49 am  •  24 December 2009 by metrixcreatespace   •  view comments