#splat space

Due to the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic, SplatSpace is currently suspending all new memberships.

SplatSpace will remain open to active members; however, we highly encourage people to stay at home. If you do visit the space, please wear PPE such as latex gloves and a face mask. We are enforcing social distancing by only allowing 1 person per room or station. We also ask that you clean any equipment you use. Gloves and cleaning supplies can be found throughout the space.

SplatSpace’s policies during the COVID-19 pandemic will change as guidelines and regulations from the CDC, government bodies, and other organizations update.

We appreciate your cooperation and understanding during this time.

Scrap Exchange DIY Fest Hebocon Grand Champion

          The post Splatspace/Scrap Exchange Hebocon 2018 appeared first on Splat Space.

Splatspace and The Scrap Exchange are co-sponsoring a Hebocon event to be held during the Scrap Exchange DIY Fest April 21, 2018.  More details coming, but to find out what Hebocon is and why you might be excited by it, try this page or search for hebocon on Youtube.

Workshops for making hebocon entries will be held at the TriDIYBio Reuse Arts District Laboratory at 24 Shoppers Street next to Freeman’s Creative near the Scrap Exchange on the three Saturdays before the contest event: March 31, April 7, and April 14 from 1-4pm. Those intending to build and enter “robots” into the contest are requested to register via Eventbrite.

Splatspace members and supporters are invited to attend the three pre-contest workshops to help entrants while organization of the main event and more specific tasks are finalized. Helpers will need to be familiar with the Hebocon Rules so everybody is on the same page and there are no rude surprises (apart from those involved with the humility engendered by this event!)

The post Hebocon Contest Coming appeared first on Splat Space.

Sign at UIS

Recently, Splat Space had the honor of being invited to and attending a school Maker Faire at Union Intermediate School in Clinton, NC.  We were contacted by the school librarian, Caren Long,  who had gone to Wake Tech Mini Makerfaire and had seen us there and wondered if we’d be interested in helping fill out her own Faire she wanted to host at the school.  Of course we said yes!

Clinton is a small town about an hour and 40 minutes southeast of Durham.  It is a very rural community surrounded by farmland.  We were informed by Caren that the school surprisingly has a very diverse population of students and many of the kids are bilingual.  This is maybe not what might be expected from a rural community in North Carolina.

A big game of operation using pie plates, foil and metal tongs!

The UIS Maker Faire was held in the gym and there were quite a few other exhibitors there with Splat Space including Legos for Kids and the IEEE Mobile Outreach Vehicle.  On one side of the gym the kids’ science projects that were being judged were on display.  The projects were really fun to look at it and the subjects really ranged.  There were so many great projects, including a giant game of Operation,  using metal tongs and aluminum pie plates as part of the game board.

Splat Space had three stations set up.  On one table, Ben, one of our youngest members , brought 3 projects to display: a proximity sensor that showed a different color depending how close a hand was, games he wrote himself running on an Arduino with a graphical display and an RC car that he was controlling with his laptop!  Pete S. had squishy circuits to play with and Dawn had her “Blues Bubbler” keyboard display set up.  On the next table Shannon had “Bash The Trash” set up where kids could choose to make wind whistles out of plastic bottles or noisemakers.  The next table was dedicated to our member Tony Abbate,  aka The Science Wizard.  He had a theremin and lots of other noise making items to have fun with and learn about.

Ben’s Car

Ben’s Proximity Sensor

            The Science Wizard, Tony Abbate

Squishy Circuits

              Decorating a wind whistle

Dawn’s “Blues Bubbler” Keyboard

              IEEE MOVE

On the school playground, the IEEE Mobile Outreach Vehicle was parked.  This vehicle is called out by the Red Cross to help provide infrastructure after a natural disaster like internet access, phone and device charging and even lighting to victims as well as the disaster response workers.  The vehicle has an array of power options for charging phones and other devices as well as satellite internet access to be able to provide wi-fi when everything else is down after a disaster.  It was recently deployed this last fall to help victims of Hurricane Irma.

  Charging bins for cell phones and devices

  It was an honor to be invited to the fun at Union Intermediate School! We had so much fun and it was a great day.  Union Intermediate School is doing amazing things serving the kids in the area and seeing the kids’ projects and their creativity was great.  Thank you to UIS for having us!

  The post Union Intermediate School Maker Faire appeared first on Splat Space.

Splatspace member HL Herring is working on a tesselated cheese board, using our laser cutter. Fans of M.C. Escher will recognize the design.

It’s coming along well, and we hope to have images of the finished board soon. Nice work, HL!

The post Tesselation inlay with the laser appeared first on Splat Space.

We had a fantastic time at Wake Tech’s Mini Maker Faire this past weekend in Raleigh!  The Faire was hosted at Wake Tech Raleigh in the Student Services building.  There was both an upstairs section, where most of the activity was,  and a downstairs section that had crafts for kids.

Splat Space had about 5 tables total set up:  2 were dedicated to Learn To Solder,  1 held Pete Soper’s hot air soldering station, 1 had Splat flyers and info as well as Shaw’s Serial+Arduino Terminal,  and Bill Culverhouse had his table set up with 3d printed items for raffle,  a 3d printer and his FPV RC cars.

One of our students learning some more advanced soldering techniques.

The Faire was continuously busy throughout the day.  The Learn to Solder table was also consistently busy all day and it was hard to keep up with all the people wanting to learn. There was huge interest in it.  Quite a few people told me they had never soldered before and were excited when their projects worked out.

Bill Culverhouse’s raffle for the T-Rex and other 3d printed items continued to do well this weekend too.  Many people were very excited about the chance to win the 1/6th scale 3d printed T-rex. Bill was originally worried no one would want it,  because of its size but that was quickly laid to rest on Saturday,  when a lot of people specifically entered the raffle just for the T-rex.  One woman told us it would make her the “coolest grandma ever” (no arguments here).

Vulpine Vinyl’s lovely display of vinyl colors. The first one is a glittery gold that looked awesome when cut.

We met a lot of really amazing people too. Our neighbors directly next to us,  Vulpine Vinyl,  were a ton of fun to share space with,  and we hope they come to visit us at the Space and keep in touch.  They do custom vinyl decals and had a beautiful array of vinyl colors to choose from and some fun and great designs.

We also got a chance to talk to ChickTech Raleigh.  ChickTech Raleigh is a local group looking to get more young women involved and retained in tech fields. Their goal is to do some great workshops.  They were excited to talk to us,  and hopefully combine forces with us for workshops and classes.  They had a sewable LED display on a tshirt at their table,  so our groups mesh very well.

It was a fun and crazy day,  as is the case with most Maker Faires.

The post Wake Tech Mini Maker Faire Report appeared first on Splat Space.

See the “TV Cars” Bill Culverhouse created and other exhibits at the SplatSpace booth. Take advantage of the Learn To Solder workshop and share in the fun at the faire on Wake Tech’s main campus this Saturday.

The Faire is in the Student Service Building at 9101 Fayetteville Road, Raleigh, NC 27603

More details here.

The post Raleigh Mini Maker Faire: 10am Saturday @ Wake Tech appeared first on Splat Space.

The Splat Space RC Car

  This past Saturday,  September 16th,  a few of our members participated in GeekSpark,  the technological  side of Sparkcon. GeekSpark was located in Red Hat Annex in Downtown Raleigh,  as it has been the past couple of years.

  The cardboard race track.

Heading Splat Space’s representation at GeekSpark was Bill Culverhouse,  a long time member of the makerspace.  He built a really fantastic cardboard racetrack with two first person view remote control race cars.  The cars had small cameras mounted to them that wirelessly transmitted their video feeds to two monitors on a table next to the race track.  People sat at the two screens with their controllers and watched the screens to steer their cars. There were two cars, so people coule race against each other.

As well as his Creator Pro 3d printer, Bill also brought a lot of 3d printed items to raffle off on behalf of Splat Space,  including his 1/6th scale Tyrannosaurus Rex!

Bill will be doing an Instructable about how he did his cars,  so stay tuned!

The post SparkCon GeekSpark Report appeared first on Splat Space.