[SGVHAK] Thu 10/3 meeting recap

[Lan Dang]

Hi all,

Before I get to the recap, I'd like to again promote the SGVLUG meeting next Thursday.  This promises to be pretty cool because our presenters are a couple of engineers from JPL who work with FPGAs and embedded systems.  They are talking about how they use open source tools at JPL, but we will also be hearing about the technologies and projects they've developed.
http://www.sgvlug.org/2013/10/03/using-open-source-tools-for-hw-slash-sw-development-at-jpl/

RECAP:

There was quite a bit of Arduino/Pi/Beagle Bone action at this week's HAK meeting.  

James got his  Borderless Arduinos from the indiegogo campaign (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/9-arduino-compatible-starter-kit-anyone-can-learn-electronics) and was working his way through some exercises involving blinking LEDs and playing music through a speaker.

Michael was either working on his new Raspberry Pi or Beagle Bone.  I believe his project is to connect the device to his turntable so he can transmit music wirelessly through the Internet.  At some point, he will have to implement full jukebox capability to select and flip records, or he is going to get a lot of dead air when the record ends.  

Steven brought a bunch of gear to the meeting.  He has a lot of toys.  He was focused on his Raspberry Pi.  He has a bluetooth dongle for the Pi that acts like a serial connection; he can use the Blueterm app on his phone to connect to the Pi's serial console.  He also had a webcam attached.  It is a small peripheral about the size of a thumbnail, but the picture is really good.  I believe Steven's project is a weather balloon.

He was also successful in unbricking Michael's Raspberry Pi...or at least proving that while it might reject all of Michael's SD cards, it works happily with one of Steven's spare cards.  That is when I heard that Raspberry Pis might be finicky about microSD cards and their adapters.  That is unfortunate because I tend to buy microSD cards for their versatility in fitting in my phone, tablets, usb thumdrives, and other devices.

Braddock came as promised to meet about Internet in a Box.  He was hacking the firmware on a Seagate NAS device to get it to boot off the hard drive.  He was also meeting with IIAB folks to tell them about areas that require attention.

John W. and Joel came a bit later.  John recently started up a Meetup group for his Domestic Manufacturing Cooperative (http://www.meetup.com/A-Domestic-Manufacturing-Cooperative/) which has been gathering followers.  Joel was there for IIAB and just general socializing.

Dave, as usual, is a font of information and advice about all things electronic.  We are lucky to have him around.

Afterwards, most of us went on to Carmine's for dinner and more tech talk.

All in all, it was another great HAK meeting.

Lan

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