Thanks to Innovati in Taiwan for sending us a sample that we had fun assembling on Sunday afternoon. Great gift idea for the holidays.

Although rated as 12+, the assembly is definitely not trivial and it would probably be best to have an adult helping; we had Angie, Paul, Ricky and Angie’s friend help out with the assembly and it still took an hour or two…. And we’re still not sure the neck servo is assembled correctly.

The kit retails for NT$1200 (about 254RMB or USD$40).

Shyu Lee from Meteroi came by the space and he wants to help with ARM/FPGA classes,  buying components, spare parts and providing some of his own hardware so members can experiment.

His big project at the moment is software radio with hardware-acceleration. The hardware component will have a USB and/or Ethernet interface to PC to be compatible with GNURadio. Another similar project, from Microsoft, is SORA. His innovation is to provide an higher performance hardware solution; while other solutions rely on computers for processing and ADC/DAC interface to do the data acquisition, he has everything done in hardware. He’s currently looking for a supportive university or other organization to support his work full-time for 3 to 5 years so he can focus on software integration and hardware improvements. You can read the proposal “An Open Source General Purpose Software Defined Radio Development Platform” (note that the project name will be changed because of trademark conflict).

He’s also really interested in space communication; one of his project is to bounce a radio signal off the moon. Radio communication with space will be very useful to communicate with our space robots as part of the 100YSS project.

He’ll be giving a class on ARM and FPGA at XinCheJian Saturday December 10th using his own development platform, DevStation 1000E. He will be leaving one development station for members interested in getting some practical skills after the introductory session at XinCheJian (Register Now!)

Time：December 4th at 1PM

Fees：RMB160 (including materials)

If you’ve never heard of the most useless machine before, it proves the the uselessness of this machine again. To keep it as useless as possible, by all means DO NOT google the term or follow the link below.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/YkuiawKN3JA/

If you want to make it even more useless, nothing beats wasting your own time to learn to make one for yourself (or make several of them). So come and join us @ XinCheJian to make some useless machines! All parts and
tools needed are provided with customizations welcome.

Sign up for the event here: http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=79

Quad Copter workshop by He QiChen – 26th Saturday 9am – 12pm
You’ll get every single part you need to build your own quad copter and fly it. This workshop is run by He Qichen
Sign up online here: http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=73

Roboracing – Sunday 1pm – 4pm – free
If you’re going to race send an email to xinchejian@googlegroups.com, if you’re planning on watching please let us know by signing up here: http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=71 race starts at 2pm loose with setup/testing from 1pm

Can the champion hold onto his *wictory* cup?

Come and join us, we’ve still got Kits available for those who want to learn to solder or produce something worthwhile in an hour. fun to do and fun to play with, get the brain machine to truly relax.

This morning, we had two classes for the price of one: learning how to program (for non-programmers) and using the Arduino to interface with electronics. Given by Ricky and Paul with some help from Edward.

Documentation on our wiki and source on Github.

We’ll be redoing the same content in different combinations of Chinese/English and experienced programmers/non-programmers.

Power tools can be dangerous. Whether its the band saw cutting a finger or that hand held Dremel shooting a plastic shard at your eye, please treat power (and non-power) tools with respect.

Don’t be afraid to use tools.  Attend training classes and practice using the tools.  Be aware of safety for yourself and others.  If someone is doing something unsafe, ask them to stop.  Ask questions if you’re unsure.

Guidelines for using power tools at Xinchejian:

1. At least 2 people are present

2. The operator has received training in its use

3. The operator has permission to use the equipment

Before using power tools be aware of:

Personal:

-  Wear protective gear – safety glasses, gloves, grounding strap

-  Attitude/state – tired, drunk, emotional

-  Potential Problems – long hair, loose clothes

-  Knowledge – equipment operation, first aid, emergency cut-off switch location

Surrounding:

- Potential distractions – music, people

- Potential dangers – falling items, being bumped, wet floor

Equipment:

- Knowledge – have proper training or experience, just ask

- Right tool/adequate tool for the task

- Equipment or tool well maintained?  Safe or effective to use?

- What direction is debris/cut-off/sparks heading?

- Locate emergency cut-off

- Clean machines/area after use

- Report damage or problems

Plan:

- Have a plan when using equipment.  What is the goal?

- Plan the equipment usage – think through the actions, visualize the steps and backup steps

- Think through potential problems and dangers

Stay focused and use common sense

3 days class designing solutions to prevent used cooking oil unsafe reuse.  Research, reflexion, brainstorming, idea selection, storyboard, presentation. Interesting ideas around intelligent oil recycling bins and cheap one time paper tester.

Next steps:  turn into engineering projects and products?

时间分布和周期：每周日下午1点至4点。共6周。

时间分布和周期：每周日下午1点至4点。共6周。

第一堂课日期：10月16日

最后一堂课日期：11月20日

课程内容安排：

Week 1:
P5介绍，软件面板功能介绍/ 基本的2D图形绘制/ 基本的2D图形绘制与鼠标的互动

Week 2:
变量的概念/ 判断的概念/ 循环的概念/ 函数的概念

Week 3:
对象的概念/ OOP（基础）

Week 4:
数组

Week 5:
位图应用/ 摄像头应用

Week 6:
一些有趣的第三方类库的应用与实例

每次课程的大致时间段安排：

1：00 – 1：30 － P5作品欣赏

1：30 – 2：20 －当日计划的概念知识点的教学与实例的演示

2：20 – 2：30 － 休息

2：30 – 3：00 － Q&A，个别的提问与答疑

3：00 – 4：00 － DIY，根据当日教授的知识制作，个人创作，结束时展示

针对受众：入门级P5互动爱好者 / 艺术类学生，人数控制在15人以上，30人以内。

备注：需自行携带笔记本并备有当日课程需要的文件（在每次课程的前一天共享当日的课件，学生自行下载）

收费：每个人整个课程18个小时的费用为800元，在校学生可以打7.5折。

报名：有兴趣学习的人请联系：mlhsieh@xinchejian.com

教师资料：

Raven Kwok | 郭锐文
the-moor.blogbus.com
weibo.com/ravenkwok
vimeo.com/ravenkwok

Personal Showreel 2007-2011:

Colloid Text：

Landscape:

Having fun exploring Logisim, an OpenSource digital simulation software with a tiny project.

Perfect tool for our future digital logic workshops to teach basic boolean operations and logic constructs.

Hello to all the Enthusiasts and hackers out there, come join us this evening for a jam packed 2 hours, so get up off the couch and make a difference.

As always, hacking wednesdays is open to the public, if you’d like to support the space and help us continue hacking Wednesdays feel free to donate either cash or buy products from XinCheJian (even drinks!), only your support will help us sustain the space.

Mitch Altman kits are still in stock, jump on those before it’s too late, learn how to make the LED cube using multiplexing and learn how to solder.

==== Hacking Wednesdays ====

If you want to try your robot in this weekends race and have yet to finish it or build one, dont fear, come down to XinCheJian tonight and buy a R/C car like rickys 70rmb, rip the guts out and replace it with an Arduino 180rmb, theNelsons h-bridge shield 50rmb and 2 ultra sonic sensors 35rmb.. everything you need is in the space, not only will you be a hacker but you’ll learn some awesome skills while you do it.

Tonight Min Lin and Ricky will be around to share stories from their recent hacking journeys.

Get an insight into processing. we have a special guest coming down who’ll be setting up a processing workshop, find out whats involved tonight.

Michael (RubberDucky) will be drilling into the walls to setup some computer benches, and also hooking up his mega-super-awesome-button-box for the new restricted toys (lathes, mills, bandsaw, drill)

Paul will be discussing the lock-picking study with interested participants.

Lio will be figuring out how he’s going to do the bamboo go-kart with those interested for the ben heck challenge (find out more tonight) and how you can be involved.

After the event around 9pm the hackers will take to the tracks for some go-karting “research” at Chang Feng park indoor race track for some super awesome driving skills “bring a head mounted camera”

If you thought this Wednesday is fun, wait for the weekend..

==== This Weekend ====

Saturday – all day: Organic waste workshop.. find out how to make bio-diesel, sign up and more information here:

http://xinchejian.com/event/?regevent_action=register&event_id=55&name_of_event=OrganicWasteRecyclingWorkshop

Saturday afternoon – 5 presentations from XinCheJian will be delivered at _Barcamp_ Shanghai so come and show your support for xinchejian.. sign up and more information here: http://techyizu.org/shanghai-barcamp-2011-september-24

Sunday morning – Ardublock workshop.. never programmed in arduino before? use ardublock to visually program.
sign up here: http://xinchejian.com/event/?regevent_action=register&event_id=58&name_of_event=ArduBlockWorkshop

Sunday afternoon – Robo Racing championship, find out if the Title stays with XinCheJian for a 3rd victory, find out if anyone can take on theNelsons or mindstorm robots! Man vs Machine will Machine win again!
Sign up here: http://xinchejian.com/event/?regevent_action=register&event_id=57&name_of_event=RoboracingCompetition