EVENT IDEA: Arduino Hack Night

[Tetragrammatron]

I myself have had an arduino kit sitting around my house for quite some time now, along with a propeller starter kit from parrallax, and a bunch of unprogrammed micro-controllers.

I propose an evening of arduino and other hardware hacking? I do embedded systems development at work, but it sure would be nice to have someone guide a bunch of us noobs through a quick and easy project. Perhaps this is something that should wait until we get a space, but I'd love to start events like this more often. We could even do it as a fundraiser for the hackspace (charge $10 fee?).

Edit: Also, could we get a forum for events specifically? It could keep track of various events.

[DigitalOSH]

I would happily pay $10 for this. I'd love to learn.

In regards to the events forum, yes massah. Your wish is my command. viewforum.php?f=15

[Kaldonis]

Very interested, definitely in.

[ADDandy]

i'd be in, i've done one project with the arduino, but i've done a couple projects dealing with embedded systems (8bit, 32bit). i don't know if i would call it teaching but i could sure help people if they need it.

[DigitalOSH]

Does anyone else have some serious arduino experience? I'd love to have a couple of tutors take this on

[Bergo]

I'd like to propose a group buy of Arduino dev kits - Somethig like the Budget Pack for Arduino from Adafruit Industries. Would be helpful to all start off with a common set of components. I don't have an arduino board, but would be interested in taking part.

of course purchase should be optional, if you have one bring one sort of thing.

[DigitalOSH]

Oooh, that's not bad! I've heard of arduino knockoffs that were cheaper, but i dont know about build quality, etc. Does anyone have any first hand experience with these?

[Bergo]

another interesting idea would be to construct a programmer ahead of time, and show up with a bunch of blank AVRs and breadboards, get poeple to build power supplies, flash chips, and end up with a fleet of arduino clones at the end of the night. have a follow up class on how to use them?

[DigitalOSH]

I'm behind this idea too. It would be nice to learn the ins and outs of building one before learning how to use one

[JamesCooper]

Not a bad plan. I already have an AVR programmer (the AVR Dragon) that you're welcome to use. I also have a fair bit of experience with AVRs, though I haven't done anything with the Arduino.