Category: Meetings

Posted on

Post-Meeting Breakdown

So we had two new folks show up at tonight’s meeting at the Arlington Library. I’d consider that a success. Thanks to Spud for putting the feelers out there on Reddit. Quincy Hall, a pizza & beer hall around the corner from the library, was great. Decent pizza, lots of beers, super fast service and great prices.

Tonight’s souvenir coin was a lithophane of my amazing face. A lithophane is sort of a topographic 3d print of a photo so that different levels of shading are represented by corresponding thickness in material. The end result is something you can hold up to backlighting and see the image as if it has been printed.

Posted on

Public Meetup Alert

Here we go again. Our second Public Library meetup of 2023! Monday 11/27 at the Arlington Central Library, Quincy Room. 6:30pm. Public-transit accessible.

The room seats 16. We have no idea what happens if we reach capacity. Let’s test the system.

There should be trinkets available for those who sign the guestbook. Probably stickers too. Maybe a door prize or two. Who knows what’ll happen with this bunch?

Posted on

DC540 Library Meetup!

We haven’t met in a public library since 2019! And here we are.

Gum Spring Library, Meeting Room B, 6:30PM on Monday. Since it’s the evening before Halloween, well, if you feel like a bit of holiday participation, please feel free. This meeting is open to the public, or at least as much public as we have room for. Let’s get to know each other without a strict agenda. But we do expect there will be some badge design discussion.

Posted on

Social House meeting this evening

We’ll be meeting at Social House this evening. Trying out a new thing where we offer small custom souvenir collectibles to folks that show up at meetings. Gotta catch ’em all. We’ll see if this takes. It fits well with our upcoming “library tour” plans.

Social House in South Riding, VA. Approximately 1830. Look for the table of nerds.

Posted on

DC540 will be at Social House in Chantilly this evening

Find us around 1830. Should be lightly attended, so if your social anxiety balks at crowds, this evening might be the night for you. We’ll be celebrating last culmination of our nine-part series on MicroPython & PCB Design with the RPi Pico, and getting ready for the next installments, which enhance your artistic toolset with regard to PCB design. I recommend the Margherita flatbread and a Space Dust. Look for the Defcon hat. Strangers are welcome.

Posted on

Tonight: MicroPython & PCB Design Class: Catching Up

What better way to spend Black Friday evening than cozying up by the fire and tuning into DC540’s catch-up class on MicroPython & PCB Design. We’ve done 7 classes so far of a planned 6-class series, and last week we started in fabrication prep. Enough people are traveling this week that we decided not to take the class forward this evening, but enough people are around that we’re going to hold “class” anyway, and dig deep in whatever direction folks want to explore.

No promises about next week. I’m having minor ear surgery next Friday morning. We’ll see how it goes.

7:30pm on Zoom.

Posted on

Monday 9/13 DC540 Meeting = VIRTUAL

I polled the core group, resulting in two votes for virtual and two votes for “either.” The virtuals win. 6:30PM Monday in the group’s Discord.

Reminder that the Meetup site is going away. I believe it’s going away this month sometime.

Posted on

Monday August 23 meeting: another solder party

I was hoping to demo a laser engraver for this week’s meeting, in addition to assembling the last of the preordered Tree of Life badges and prepping the rest for stocking and immediate sale. But Amazon sent me a BabyTrend mini nursery instead of the laser engraver I asked for.

So the agenda for tomorrow evening is: meet at the usual space, work out a minor assembly line, and knock those out. It will be far easier than last time — I should have most of the front boards already assembled before then; and the castellated edge solder method is much, much faster than using pin headers, and leaves the back side of the badge much smoother.

There will also be some discussion of prototyping to try out a feature for next year’s badge. I ordered some Space Dust, but I’m low on other beers, so if Space Dust isn’t for you, and you’re not into Malört, Skrewball or Woodford, consider bringing something.

Posted on

Meeting ON this evening

Meeting at the usual place this evening. Sorry for the late notice. Was traveling, got in late last night, really wasn’t sure what I was up for. But I got hot tweezers and I’m dying to try them out. And some folks who didn’t go to vegas might be interested in badge&stickers show&tell. Also there may be some front-side badge soldering.

Meeting will be hybrid on Discord as well. But you can’t taste Malört through a screen.

Or maybe you can.

If you’re new to the group, hit me up via DM on the Discord or on Twitter if you’re interested in attending. If I met you in LV, mention that. Otherwise, generally we like to get to know people a little bit before inviting them to the private space.