Introduction to stained glass

Interested in learning to create stained glass windows but don’t want to buy all the expensive equipment? Take our introduction to stained glass course! You’ll learn to design, cut, and fabricate your own stained glass projects under the tutelage of Site 3 member Dana Sarafinchan.  During three sessions of two hours each we will teach you the terminology, equipment, and skills to complete a copper-foil window hanging for your home. We’ll supply everything you’ll need and then some; you just need show up and enjoy the company while learning a new skill at your own pace!

Course fee: $120 + HST (includes all materials)

Class sizes range from one-on-one to groups of up to four.

Scheduling: To schedule, please contact Dana directly by emailing dsarafinchan@ this domain.

Electronics Workshop with Mitch Altman and Jimmie P. Rodgers

Mitch Altman and Jimmie P. Rodgers are coming to Toronto, and we’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be hosting one of their famous “learn to solder” workshops at Site 3! They’ll be joining us at next week’s open house: Thursday, August 5th, starting at around 7:00. Best of all, the workshop is FREE! You just pay the cost of materials, $10-30 depending on which kit you choose! Mitch has taught thousands of people to solder and make cool things at his workshops all around the world. He can teach you, too, if you like.

If you have ever had any curiosity about making something with electronics, then please join us. Anyone and everyone can learn to make cool things. And it’s fun. And easy! You can learn to make something cool with electronics in one workshop, and take your cool project home with you!

There will be plenty of cool kits available to build, including:

* TV-B-Gone (turn off TVs in public places!)
* Brain Machine (Meditate, Hallucinate, and Trip Out!)
* LEDcube (cool cube of blinky lights!)
* Mignonette Game (play fun games!)
* Trippy RGB Waves (interactive colored blinky lights!)
* MiniPOV (more cool blinky lights!)
* MintyBoost (charge your USB enabled gadgets!)

and for the more advanced:

* microcontroller programmers (program all your AVR family chips!), Arduino clones (make just about anything!), and more.

More info on most of most of these projects is available on Mitch’s website: http://www.CornfieldElectronics.com (click on the “maker faire” tab).

Mitch is the brains behind Cornfield Electronics, and one of the co-founders of Noisebridge hackerspace in San Francisco. Mitch is best known as the inventor of TV-B-Gone, but his list of great hacks and cool electronics includes a lot of other great projects. When he is not at Noisebridge building awesome and amazing things, he is on the road from hackerspace to Hacker-Con and back again, sharing his love of electronics.

In summary:

Learn to solder electronics kits with the famous Mitch Altman at Site 3 coLaboratory. Stop by our open house anytime after 7:00 on Thursday, August 5th, choose a kit for $10-30, and we’ll help you build it! Everyone is welcome!

RSVP’s are not necessary, but are appreciated. You can do so for free (or with an optional donation) here. Please note: this registration is just for our information, and does not guarantee a spot; it looks like we’re going to be busy, and it’ll be first-come, first-served. That said, the workshops will be happening for several hours, so hopefully if we share soldering irons we’ll be able to accommodate everyone. Worst-case scenario, you can buy a kit from Mitch and we’ll help you put it together some other time!

Intro to KiCad: Designing Your Own Printed Circuit Boards

We’ve got another upcoming workshop:

Intro to KiCad: Designing Your Own Printed Circuit Boards

KiCad is an open source software suite for electronic design automation (EDA) – designing schematics of electronic circuits and printed circuit boards (PCB). It is similar to the popular EAGLE design software, but is completely free and has no restrictions on size and commercial use.

This workshop is an introduction to KiCad, where we will cover all steps of creating a PCB for a simple electronic circuit:

* Using eeschema to create a circuit schematic
* Creating new parts and part libraries
* Using cvpcb to assign footprints to components
* Creating new footprint modules
* Using pcbnew to lay out the PCB and components
* Using gerbview to verify the Gerber files used for fabrication
* Resources for board fabrication

If you’re interested in moving from breadboards to custom PCBs for your project, this workshop is for you.

More details and registration at:

http://site3kicad.eventbrite.com/

Site 3 Opening Event – July 24

SITE 3 – WE HAVE A SHOP!

Saturday, July 24, 2010
Noon until 2am (details below)
At our new workshop at 718R Ossington Ave.

This will be the first event in our new space. Not just a party, we’ll be running informal workshops and showing off the projects we’ve been working on. We want to give people an idea of who we are and what we’re doing, and hopefully inspire people to get involved and create awesome things.

12pm – 5pm : WORKSHOPS

Learn to solder with fun electronics kits! Turn a pencil into a musical instrument, or build a universal TV remote that only has an off button. Find out what the Arduino is, and how it’s revolutionizing interactive art. Make music with Game Boys. Learn how to draw a four-dimensional cube (and what that means). Play with our 60W laser cutter (if it arrives in time!).

5pm – 8pm : GALLERY

See demonstrations of some of the projects we’ve been working on. Circuit boards. LED light installations. Fire that you can control with the power of your mind. Details of the Heart Machine, a very large interactive fire art sculpture, and Flux and Fire, our project for this year’s Nuit Blanche.

8pm – 9pm : BREAK

You’re welcome to stay, but maybe you want to get dinner at one of the amazing restaurants nearby? We suggest Lalibela for great Ethiopian food. Why just a break? Because…

9pm – 2am : PARTY

Stay ’til late for music and some drinks. Meet other local artists, share ideas, talk shop. More party details coming soon!

WANT TO STAY UPDATED ON WHAT WE’RE DOING?

More about Site 3 : http://site3.ca/
Facebook group : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=407649745533
Announcement list : http://site3.ca/mailman/listinfo/announce_site3.ca
Community discussion list : http://site3.ca/mailman/listinfo/discuss_site3.ca

Maker’s Month at TASK

This Wednesday at TASK (Toronto Area Security Klatch — the local information security professional group), Site 3 will be presenting some of the work we’ve been doing. We’ll be joined by Think|Haus, a similar group out of Hamilton. Attendance is free (and they even feed you, if you consider Pizza Pizza to be food), all are welcome, for more details see the TASK website.

The event description, also from the TASK website:

While TASK usually focuses almost exclusively on information security issues, this month we’re proud to present something a little different for June: The TASK MAKER’S MONTH.

Several TASK “regulars” are involved in what’s informally known as the “Maker Community”; small, grass-roots groups that meet to push the limits of home-grown technology projects and artistic expression with a fierce DIY ethos. We invited a few groups to present their current projects and interests and we’ll be receiving presentations from Seth Hardy (Site 3 coLaboratory) and James Arlen (Think|Haus) – both leaders in the Canadian Maker’s space.
Both speakers have presented at previous DEFCONs; we expect that the TASK Maker’s Month will have material both interesting and offbeat! We hope you’ll join us.