Talks

Tuesday 21st August 2018 - Laser Lecture

This page is here to capture any talks that people either want to see at our meetings or talks that people want to volunteer to do. Please edit this page and add either of these to the list.

Current Plan for Talks

Talks will generally be held on the third Tuesday of each month.

Talks volunteered

Please add any talks that you would like to volunteer to give (please include your name). These can be about any topic. There are two types of talks. Full length talks can be any duration. Lightning talks are lightweight 5 minute talks, it is likely that several of these would be grouped together.

Interactive Workshops

Note that some of these suggestions may require payment of a fee for parts and materials, or that participants bring their own equipment.

• Casting and Mouldmaking Crash Course

  Hosted by Dave Kirkby and Support Team, this is a two part workshop in which we will instruct you in various forms of mould-making for an object of your choice - or we have some suitable demonstration objects if you have none to hand. The second part of the course will be on casting items in resin, using the mould you made in part one.

Historical Talks Promised

• Frank was due to be giving us an overview on the use of git and github

• PHP part 2 - Vince

  This time Vince will cover, Form field authentication (using jQuery), Contact form with email output, Flat File Manipulation

• Introduction to Linux (for Windows users) - Tim/Jon

• Getting started with Arduino (the quick and easy way) - Frank Carver

• Getting started with Arduino (the cheapest way) - Frank Carver

Talks we would like to see

Please add any talks or topics that you would like to see covered at a future meeting. This is a wish list so don't worry who is going to talk about this

• Building a multirotor

  some sort of introduction into the various parts, options and capabilities.

• Hardening a LAMP server

  How to harden an internet facing LAMP server such that it is sufficiently secure to put live on a home network

• Surface-mount soldering

  Even for those familiar with traditional through-hole soldering, the techniques required to attach the newer, smaller, surface-mount components can be a scary prospect.

• Making project enclosures

  It's easy enough to make a simple electronic or electro-mechanical project which just about works. However, making it robust enough to use again and again, and good-looking enough to show to people who don't care so much about how it works is a completely different set of skills. I'm sure some of the Makerspace crowd can manage this, but for the rest of us it's baffling.

• Getting started with low-cost 3D design software

  While you can get a fairly long way with a 3D printer using other people's models, it becomes much more useful when you can design your own. Getting started with 3D design software is not at all obvious, though. It would be great to learn from those who have managed to find and work out how to use some low-cost 3D design software.

• PID and control theory for robotics

  On the surface it seems easy to make a robot. Just connect some sensors, motors and servos to a microcontroller. The tricky bit comes when you try to make use of the sensor information to adjust the motors and servos. It's easy to move things too much or too little, too fast or too slow. This is where control theory comes in. It does involve some maths, but once you get a basic understanding, it makes it much easier to work out and fix what's wrong with your robot, and why it never seems to do what you want.

Past Talks Presented

• Tuesday 21st August 2018 - Laser Lecture.

  The Mysterious Stranger held forth on the finer points of blasting objects with beams of light. Invaluable to anybody who wishes to use a laser cutter for just about anything.

• Node-RED - Jon L (presented 26th February 2015)

  Node-RED is a tool for wiring together the internet of things and can be used to connect pretty much anything with an API to anything else with an API. This can create some powerful workflows and do some cool things.

• PIC Micro-controllers - Ben (presented 26th March 2015)

  A brief history and introduction to the Microchip PIC micro-controller

• SQL for beginners - Part One - Tim (presented 23rd April 2015)

  The first of a three part series into the basis of creating, using and managing SQL databases

• SQL for beginners - Part Two - Tim (presented 28th May 2015)

  The second of a three part series into the basis of creating, using and managing SQL databases

• PHP for beginners - Part 1 - Vince (presented 25th June 2015)

  This was a basic introduction to PHP, it went down very well, so there is likely to be a part 2 at some point. PHP

• Introduction to through hole soldering - Keith Ellis (presented 24th September 2015)

  Moving an electronic design from breadboard to proto-board, or assembling a typical electronic kit, usually requires the ability to solder components into pre-drilled holes. This can be daunting for anyone new to soldering. A quick overview of through hole soldering, followed by a practical exercise, the tutorial can be seen here

• Oscilloscopes 101 - Ben (presented 26th November 2015)

  A talk through what oscilloscopes are, what they do and how they can be used to fault find projects

• Programming Arduino and Raspberry Pi on Windows with Visual Studio (presented 28th April 2016)

  A great talk by Alan Hume on using Microsoft Visual Studio to program both Arduino's and Raspberry Pi's

• CakePHP - Tim (presented 26th May 2016)

  Demonstration of development framework CakePHP, Tim will demonstrate how CakePHP can create a dynamic, highly-functional website in minutes from the SQL definition of its database.

• AutoDesk Fusion 360 walk through - Keith Ellis (presented 23rd June 2016)

  Fusion 360 is a free (to Makers/Students) 3D CAD/CAM design software which is easy to get into but with very advanced features. It can be used for produce simple 3D models to fully functioning mechanisms with joints and defined movement ranges. It has very good rendering abilities and can easily output files for 3D printers and laser cutters. This will be a very quick walk through to demonstrate some of the essential techniques to 3D modelling generally and also some of the Fusion specifics such as the Time Line. Link to presentation