#metrixcreate

Scenes from Circuit Church.  

Simply the fastest electronics design to fabrication exercise on the planet.  

From a list of parts to programming in under 6 hours.

You get your Bill of Materials at 6pm

~2 hours design time on Upverter's Cloud PCB Design tool 

The circuit is cut on our LPKF Protolaser system

SMT Assembly, Soldering and Program/Test by midnight.

We are proud to announce the First Circuit Church is happening this Sunday. 

Circuit Church is both a learning exercise and a skills challenge.  A night of quick turn electronics with a curated Bill of Materials (B.O.M.).   

Building hardware is hard, and like most hard things, only experience eases the pain.  Circuit Church is designed to skill us all up on making electronics from scratch, fast.  

At the beginning of the summer, Metrix Create:Space added a LPKF Protolaser S to the robot roster and we built out our Advanced Circuit Lab as an adjunct to the Open Hardware Lab.   For those of you that don't know, this machine allows us to create circuit boards more accurately and on more materials than chemical processing with no hazardous materials impact.   It's more reliable than milling, and it is faster than anything else out there, including the fastest quick turn pcb houses.  It allows us to go from design to physical board in minutes rather than hours, days, or weeks.    

Just like 3D Printing's rapid results change the way we think about physical fabrication, this tool changes the way we think about electronics projects, the speed in which we implement, the materials we pick, and the chances we can take when we're not waiting weeks for an iteration.   

We know that having a tool like this is a game changer.

Additionally, we've been lucky enough to find Upverter, a cloud-based PCB design tool that gives us the ability to share designs quickly. It runs on limited resource computers, yet is powerful enough to do very complex boards and its free to use for Open Source / Open Hardware projects.  We've found that its easy to learn even if you only have a basic knowledge of electronics, and we'll be learning more and more about this tool as we go down our path.

Circuit Church is a program that we believe will get us all up and running towards and making the future we want.   

Circuit Church is Sunday nights and costs $30.   Space is limited, so call or come by to sign up.

Here's the basic agenda:

We drop the BOM at 6pm

Participants design boards in upverter until 8pm(ish)

Designs get sent to CAM and are processed by 9pm.  

PCB/Parts are distributed

Assembly/Test/Showing off on the white tables until closing time 

All participants will bring a computer for designing their board in upverter.  

Join us on Sunday, February 24th 2013 at 7 PM for the first in a series of workshops on design for 3D Printing!

I will explain principles and considerations for the design of a 3D print.  No previous 3D printing experience is required as we build a foundation of knowledge for designing models with intent of printing them in plastic on a 3D printer.  

3D Printing has made its way to the consumer-level and the significance of this technology is changing the way we think about commerce, consumption, production, hacking, repair and design. 

It’s not just for prototypes anymore!  With 3D printers dropping in price and improving in print quality, countless people are using 3D printing to create everything from works of art to toys and models; robotic linkages and prosthetic limbs to wall hangars and switch covers.  But like all technologies, to get what you want, you need to give the machine what it needs.  

In the case of 3D printing, you need to provide the machine with a clean, feasible model to print.  3D printing has its limitations like all manufacturing processes do and you need to know what those are if you want to have consistently successful 3D prints. 

This first workshop covers a brief history of the technology, the mechanics of a 3D printer and the physical limitations, quirks and (mis)behaviors of 3D printing with plastic.  By the end, 3D printing should be a whole lot less mysterious or intimidating and you can move on to using design software to bring your ideas to life!

The workshop rate ($50) includes 2 hours of instruction.   Call (206-357-9406) or come down to the shop to sign up. Space is limited.  

No supplies are required but taking notes is recommended.  If you have an idea of something you are wanting to print, bring it up and we can break it down to determine the ways to make it printable! 

Feel free to look at some of my designs and the designs of others on the “Thingiverse” website to get a feel for the kinds of ideas and designs people are coming up with! 

http://www.thingiverse.com/ErikJDurwoodII/designs 

See you soon! 

Brent J. Rosenburgh

Metrix Create:Space opened up two years ago this Saturday.   To commemorate the event, we are throwing a party.   Just like last year, we are shutting off the laser, cutting power to the kiln and breaking out the booze.  Safety is important.

Show up at 7 to get first crack at the cider and join the Create:Contest.  There will be prizes...

10/15 Saturday night. 7pm through Midnight.

Metrix Create:Space is open to the public on 10/15

12PM to 12AM.  7 Days a week.