The Sport and Hobby Show was exhausting but also a great success and a great deal of fun. Hackforge had many interested visitors, most fascinated by the 3D printer. On Sunday, John brought his Artec Eva 3D scanner and scanned cosplayers from our neighbouring booth. All in all, a grand show!
Rob takes picture of our booth, while his own picture is taken.
FIRST robotics had an impressive display across from our own booth.
Some handle manning the booth better than others.
Chris manning the booth.
Hackforge often leads to odd statements. In this picture, I'm slicing Phil.
John works intently massaging a just-scanned model.
To finish off Sunday evening, Phil is our last print of the show.
Michael McMaster dropped in today and spent several hours helping us out with organizing tools and our Vex robotics workstation. Thanks, Michael!
Not everyone knows this, but the access control system at Hackforge is rather unique. Instead of a closed, commercial system we built our own.
Members Randy and Terry are responsible for the latest version of the system. Randy is an expert in python programming, and Terry is an expert in electronics. Together they built a system around a Raspberry Pi. Running Linux, the RFID card reader and a relay control board are connected to the GPIO pins on the Pi.
When it boots, it runs a python script that waits for card numbers sent via serial to the Pi. When it receives a number, it checks the number against an SQL database on the SD card. If it finds the number, one of the GPIO pins is pulled high. This signal tells the relay board in the upper left to turn on its relay. The relay then disconnects power from the maglock on the door, and the person who scanned their card is able to enter.
The Pi rests in a 3D printed case, made using member Amber’s LulzBot. Thanks for the work everyone, Hackforge wouldn’t be the awesome place it is without you!
The other day, members Dez and Chris pulled out their tool belts for a team effort and assembled another bench for the shop. The wooden stool in front is courtesy our friend Chuck, the best scrounger we've ever met. Thanks guys!
