TinkerSoc

Schematics, OpenMic and Hoodies

matt — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:30:24 +0000

This Monday at 6.00pm in the Sim Lab as usual we will be running a schematics workshop. We will teach you about and give you hands on experience drawing schematics and fixing broken circuits.

The week after (Monday 13th) we are going to be holding another OpenMic session – if you have any great new projects to talk about please get in touch!

Also, the hoodies. There are currently issues with the payment getting from Kent Union to the hoodie people. I will let you know once we know more, sorry.

Cheers,

Matt

TV-B-Gone Programming and Hoodies

matt — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:10:18 +0000

Hi Everyone!

Hopefully everyone enjoyed our first trip to the lab this year, and some of you even had working TV-B-Gones. Result.

This Monday at 6.00pm in the sim lab in the Jennison building we’re going to be teaching you how to program the chips, and heading off to somewhere with a TV to try it out. This will be a free session, just make sure you bring along the TV-B-Gone you made last week!

Hoodies: Orders have been placed, payment has been made, and information about when hoodies are coming is one the way. It shouldn’t be long now, sorry to keep you all waiting.

Cheers,

Matt

Wearables, OpenMic and a Disturbing Tape Thing

matt — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 19:15:01 +0000

Last week’s session (tape sculptures) went well, our monstrosity of a creation even made it to reddit!
http://www.reddit.com/r/canterbury/comments/mlb0e

Next Week

This Monday at 6.00pm in KS14 we are going to be running our rescheduled wearables electronics workshop (unless a vital component doesn’t appear, in which case we’ll do something equally fun)! Please bring along some old clothes you’re willing to modifier, or failing that we do have a few hats that you can work on.

Coming Weeks

The week after we will be having an OpenMic session. There are still free slots for speakers, so send us you talk ideas! The wider the range of talks the better.

Important Info

6.00pm on Monday, KS14 Wearables
Send in your OpenMic talks
Further information on hoodies coming soon, we’re waiting on our supplier.

Cheers,

Matt

OpenMic, Beer and Hoodies

matt — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:53:02 +0000

Next Week

This Monday at 6.00pm in KS14 we’re hosting our second OpenMic of the year, and we have a list of talks including topics such as a home-made Keytar, a MakerBot and a computer controlled Lego railway. If you were eager to talk about something, please tell us! We always have room for an extra talk

Coming weeks

The week after we are going to be holding a pub social, where we’ll be going to be taking you to a couple of our favourite pubs in town.

Other stuff

Hoodies! So far we only have a few hoodie orders, if you want one get your order in as soon as possible! Go to our page here to order, and then to this form to tell me how you want it personalised.

Do you want to help run TinkerSoc next year? Are you curious how the committee decide what to do? If you want to see the inner workings of the TinkerSoc committee (i.e. a pub lunch on Thursdays) email us at contact@tinkersoc.org and say that you’re interested.

Important Info

OpenMic at 6.00pm in KS14 on Monday
Hoodies! Get them here.

Cheers,

Matt

Pumpkins, Hoodies and OpenMic

matt — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:32:15 +0000

Next week

I promised a wearable electronics for this Monday coming, but alas, there has been a change of plan. We will, instead, be running a joint pumpkin carving and simple circuitry session. So, no need to bring a t-shirt to ruin. Same time (6.00pm), same place (KS14).

Next Month

After the pumpkin carving and circuitry evening we will be running our second OpenMic of the year. We already have a few volunteers giving talks, but please get in touch if you have something awesome to share with us.

Hoodies!

You can now buy exclusive TinkerSoc hoodies and t-shirts! Pay for them at http://www.kentunion.co.uk/organisation/TinkerSoc/ and then tell us what you would like under the front logo at http://goo.gl/Z8l9e. More information here.

Important Info

Pumpkin carving & circuitry - Monday 6.00pm at KS14
Get a hoodie! - See here

Buy a TinkerSoc Hoodie!

matt — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:12:21 +0000

How to buy

The TinkerSoc hoodies are now on sale at http://www.kentunion.co.uk/societies/TinkerSoc/. Just go to the left hand column and click “add to basket” for either the hoodie, t-shirt or both. Once you checkout you’ll be asked for your sizes.

If you want one (and of course you want one!) make sure you order it quickly. We’re going to be sending out a bulk order once we have enough orders from you, so make sure you encourage your friends to get one!

Personalisation

After discussion with our suppliers, they agreed to give us the personalisation under the logo for free! To add your name or other personalisation make sure you fill out the form at http://goo.gl/Z8l9e, and we’ll ensure that it gets added to your order.

Prices

Hoodies - £20

T-Shirts – £10

Personalisation – FREE

Electronics, Geocaching and Hoodies

matt — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:28:59 +0000

Hi Everybody,
Congratulations to our two winners from our Bottle Rocket Social! The other scores are at http://tinkersoc.org/2011/10/bottle-rocket-scores, have a look to see how you did.

Saturday

This Saturday we will be GeoCaching! Have a look at the email from Mex for more info. Spaces are tight, but if you’re interested please get in touch with martin@tinkersoc.org.

Monday

Back to electronics next week with Breadboarding 101 in KS14 at 6.00pm on Monday as usual. Breadboarding is a circuit prototyping method, and can be used to experiment with different circuits, components and designs. We’re going to be using breadboards to teach you a few circuits to develop your electronics knowledge.

Remember, you need to be a member to attend this session, but if you haven’t yet attended a session and want to see what we’re about please get in touch with a committee member (contact@tinkersoc.org).

Coming Soon

The week after we will be holding our wearable electronic workshop where you’ll be able to put the skills learnt in Breadboarding 101 to use! If you have an old t-shirt that you don’t mind damaging you’ll want to bring it along!

Hoodies

We’re going to be ordering society hoodies! Current costs are £20 (+£2 if you want it personalised), with a small amount going towards the societies running costs. Not only will it keep you warm in geeky fashion it will also help your society! Win win!

If you want fill in our form at http://goo.gl/Z8l9e and we’ll get back to you when we have enough orders.

First draft, end result may vary.

Important Info

GeoCaching - Watch out for Mex’s email or contact martin@tinkersoc.org for more info.
Breadboarding 101 - Monday 6.00pm in KS14
GET A HOODIE! http://goo.gl/Z8l9e
JOIN US! If you aren’t a member you won’t be able to take part in our next session or geocaching. Simple solution? Join us.

Cheers,

Matt

Bottle Rocket Scores

matt — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:10:48 +0000

Hi All,

Here are the scores from Monday’s bottle rocket social:

Name	Distance (in Matt Paces)
Berni	37
Rhian	21
Michael	17
Davoh	15
John	13
Rich	13
Jack	13
Peter	10
Adam	10
Ed	9
Joe	8
Ben	8
Oliver	8
Chris	7
Gairne	6
Mozilla Guy	5
Craig	5
Steve	0

Announcement email to come shortly.

Cheers,

Matt

Bottle Rockets, Geocaching and Upcoming Electronics

matt — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:32:36 +0000

Happy Thursday everyone!

Hopefully you all enjoyed the OpenMic this week, thankfully we’ve already heard that a few of you want to give a presentation next time which will make it even better.

Next Week

This Monday at 6.00pm in KS14 we will be starting our Bottle Rocket Social. We will be spending a short while customising our rockets in KS14 and then promptly heading out to a grassy expanse of land and launching them. Once our highly customised rockets have been sent in to space we’ll be heading to the nearest bar to start the social proper.

If you have one spare bring an empty 2 litre bottle to use as a rocket, we should have enough to go round but I wouldn’t leave it chance!

Coming Soon

The Saturday after next (22nd October) we will be organising half a day of Geocaching. More details to follow from Mex, so keep your eyes on your inboxes!

We are also nearing the next four-week rotation, and will be starting by teaching the basics of breadboarding, and using that knowledge in the next week to create wearable electronics. Breadboarding is a method of testing out circuit design without having to worry about solder, so it’s perfect for the classroom!

Important Info

Bottle Rocket Social next Monday 6.00pm at KS14
This is the last free session! To continue to attend our sessions you will need to JOIN US! As always, see here: http://tinkersoc.org/join.

Cheers,

Matt

OpenMic, Geocaching, JOIN US, and Bottle Rockets

matt — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:19:11 +0000

Hopefully you all enjoyed the processing workshop this week, if you’ve completed any scripts we would love to see your code/screenshots to share on the website. Please send them on to committee@tinkersoc.org.

Next Week

This Monday at 6.00pm in KS14 we are hosting the first TinkerSoc OpenMic of the term! An OpenMic is an evening in you can share the cool things you’ve been working on, or even just something interesting, with the rest of the society in a short (~15 min) talk. This week, to start us off we have a variety of talks with topics ranging from the workings of biometrics to how satellites are used to monitor the oceans.

We encourage all of our members to contribute talks, start thinking now for something you could talk about in the future!

Coming Soon

The week after our OpenMic we will be holding our Bottle Rocket Social, and the committee in our boundless generosity have decided that we’re going to let non-members attend for free. After that, however, you will need to be a member to attend any of our sessions.

We are also arranging an introduction to Geocaching day to be held on Saturday 22nd October, so come along and give it a go! If you’re interested please email us at committee@tinkersoc.org. This event will be strictly members only, so get those payments in ASAP

Important info

OpenMic next Monday 6.00pm at KS14
JOIN US! Visit http://tinkersoc.org/join for more information.

Cheers,

Matt

P.S. Hopefully the mailing list should be working perfectly now, if you notice any oddities please let us know!