Interested in soldering, but need help getting started? Come learn tosolder at HackPittsburgh with the fun and simple Tactile Metronome kit. We will guide you through the art and practice of soldering with this easy-to-assemble kit. This class will teach you to solder, or help you practice your through-hole soldering skills if you are a little rusty. You will also learn how a simple electronics kit works as we assemble and discuss each section of the board. Kits (and batteries!) will be provided and in the end you will go home with your brand new Tactile Metronome! All supplies will be provided but we engourage you to bring your own soldering iron and safety glasses.

When: Saturday, September 18th, starting at 1:00 PM.

Where: HackPittsburgh shop, 1926 5th Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (around back)

Tickets are for sale here.
If you have any questions, please contact classes@hackpittsburgh.com

In this class, Marek Michalowski of Dirty Robot Brew Works and Jon Speicher will present the history, techniques, and equipment behind a range of fermented carbonated beverages.  As a hands-on activity, we’ll be crafting an old-fashioned root beer from all-natural ingredients.  Over the course of the activity, we’ll discuss how the same processes of cooking, fermenting, bottling, and kegging can be applied to home-brewing your own beer, mead, and sodas.  Participants will take home their own freshly-capped bottles of root beer to enjoy on these warm summer afternoons.

The class will be on Saturday June 26th at 12PM.  Tickets are on sale now!

http://fizzydrinks1.eventbrite.com

Thanks to everyone who attended our soft circuits workshop this Saturday, we had a blast!  As promised, I’ve started a page of soft circuit resources.  It has a list of the materials that we used in the class and some cool sites and projects for inspiration.

Take photos of the event?  Be sure to add them to the Hack Pittsburgh Flickr Pool!

• Amateur Radio Study Sessions – Mondays, 7pm-8pm
  • Study for your FCC amateur radio license! We’re currently studying the Technician and General level material. These classes are free, but they are open to members only.
• Intro to Soft Circuits – Saturday Nov. 14, 1pm-4pm
  • Learn to create soft circuits by sewing with conductive thread. Students will create a light-up cuff bracelet from industrial felt, battery, and LEDs. No previous experience with sewing, electronics, computing, or soldering is needed. Participants with favorite sewing scissors and needlenose/beading pliers should bring them, however we will have enough to share. All materials will be provided.  $30 for members, $40 for non-members. Buy tickets now at EventBrite.  The last day to buy tickets is Monday, Nov. 9th.
• Intro to Arduino 1: Build an Arduino – Saturday Nov. 21, 10am-1pm
  • Back by popular demand!  We will guide you through the process of building an Arduino-compatible microcontroller from a kit.  This class is a great opportunity to learn to solder, or to practice your skills if they are a little rusty.  You will also learn how the hardware of an Arduino works as you assemble each section of the board.  Kits will be provided and in the end you will go home with a brand new DIY Arduino clone, ready to make your project dreams come true.  You will need to bring your own soldering iron and safety glasses.  All other supplies will be provided.  $30 for members, $40 for non-members. Tickets are on sale until November 13th 14th, so get them while you can!
• Intro to Programming Arduino: Physical Pixel – Saturday Nov. 21, 3pm-7pm
  • Build a physical pixel with your Arduino microcontroller! Combine this with the morning Arduino 1 class for a great way to learn Arduino in a day! In this introductory-level class, participants will:
    • set up and configure the Arduino environment on their laptop
    • learn basic electronics skills while building a small, functional circuit
    • write code that:
      • explores the inputs and outputs offered by the Arduino platform
      • reads a dimmer
      • controls the color of an RGB LED
      • sends messages to your laptop for status and debugging purposes
    • meet interesting and like-minded people who are passionate about technology and the DIY ethic
• Prerequisites: an Arduino, a laptop, and a cable to connect the two. If you attend Arduino 1 in the morning, you’ll already have the Arduino!
• $30 for members, $40 for non-members. Tickets are on sale until November 13th 14th, so get them while they last!

Interested in enhancing your clothing with electronics? In this introductory class, learn to create soft circuits by sewing with conductive thread. Students will create a light-up cuff bracelet from industrial felt, battery, and LEDs.

No previous experience with sewing, electronics, computing, or soldering is needed.

Participants with favorite sewing scissors and needlenose/beading pliers should bring them, however we will have enough to share. All materials will be provided.

Buy tickets now at EventBrite.  The last day to buy tickets is Monday, Nov. 9th!

The details:

WHAT: Introduction to Soft Circuits
WHERE: HackPittsburgh, 1936 5th. Ave.
WHEN: November 14, 1pm – 4pm
INSTRUCTORS: HackPittsburgh members Elizabeth Perry and Matt Mets
TICKETS: $30 for members, $40 for non-members available until Nov. 9th ]]> http://www.hackpittsburgh.org/class-announcement-intro-to-soft-circuits-nov-14/feed 2 http://www.hackpittsburgh.org/amateur-radio-classes-fun-times http://www.hackpittsburgh.org/amateur-radio-classes-fun-times#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:20:07 +0000 schmarty http://www.hackpittsburgh.org/?p=350 Starting Monday, October 12th, HackPittsburgh president Matt Stultz is running members-only training classes for Amateur Radio Service (a.k.a. Ham radio) license certification.

Yesterday marked the first of these classes, with Matt running about 5 students through some of the question pools for the Technician class examination.  Matt drilled us on questions about FCC licensing requirements and responsibilities, calculating frequency bands (easier than it sounds), and more, before running the whole group through a practice exam which (collectively and with much wisecracking) we passed!  Between Matt’s expertise and the witty sarcasm of the students, an educational and enjoyable class was had by all.

Matt plans to run these Technician-level classes every Monday at HackPittsburgh, from 7pm-8pm, until enough members have passed their Technician exam and are interested in moving up to the General class.  If you’re a HackPittsburgh member, and you’re interested in learning how to get your amateur radio license, all you need to bring is yourself and something with which to take notes!  There are lots of exam opportunities coming up soon, including a test at Carnegie Mellon on October 25th, so now is a great time to start learning!

Want to learn basic video editing so that you can get your upcoming Zombie film finished in time for Halloween?  Taught by HackPittsburgh member Lori Hepner, this class will teach you the basics of video editing using iMovie ’09 so that you can get started making your short films, interviews, documentaries, avant garde art films, and of course zombie films for YouTube stardom!  We will provide a flash drive with footage to learn on, so all you need to bring to the class is a laptop with iMovie ’09.

The class will be held at HackPittsburgh on October 24, from 2pm-4:30pm.

This class is $25 for HackPittsburgh members, $35 for non-members. No video editing or shooting experience is necessary, but students in the class *must* bring a laptop with iMovie ’09 installed.

Students will take home a USB flash drive with the video footage used for the class.

Only 15 slots are available, so sign up now!

You can register at EventBrite, here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/448983923

You can add this event to your calendar here.

Thanks for sending this in to us Steve (and thanks for the link in the video).  This is the kind of stuff that makes doing all this fun.

This past Saturday, July 25th, Hack Pittsburgh held the second run of the “Introduction to Arduino” Class, the first class to actually be taught at the Hack Pittsburgh space!

Matt Stultz, with a bit of backup from Jon Speicher, Marty McGuire, and the Solder Cam led a class of 7 students in constructing and testing out their first Arduino-compatible electronics platform, the Freeduino!

As a first-time soldering project, the Freeduino is both very challenging and very rewarding.  Participants with previous soldering experience were able to get things up and running easily, but even our youngest first-timers, 11 and 9 years old, respectively, were able to get their boards up and happily blinking away!

All-in-all, it was a pretty huge success!  We’re very grateful and happy for everyone who participated, and we hope to see everyone again, soon!

For more pictures from the class, be sure to check out the HackPGH Flickr Pool!