Projects that involve many members of the Makerspace community.

Nocturne is an annual art festival that takes place on the streets of Halifax every Fall. Halifax Makerspace's project for 2014 was a playground of light and sound for adults.

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More info coming soon!

Here's some of what our Makers are working on:

• Adam Smith
• Shawn Wilson

Adam is an apprentice electrician, and is learning electronics and programming on the side. Areas of focus: Household wiring, AC theory, Arduino, PHP/MySQL

Intended to be a DIY version of the commercially available Budweiser Red Light, but better. Plays sound and activates red light when a goal is scored, in real time with live NHL games. Ability to be expanded to other leagues or sports. this is being built as a gift. More

Desktop sized mock traffic light controlled with an Arduino Mega 2560. Based on demand using sensors in the 'road' instead of a fixed timing. More

Adam built a spark gap tesla coil while in electrical trade school in 2012. More

Also created back in trade school. Has 2 interchangeable vertical armature, one with 2 poles and the other with 3. Top speed about 3500rpm. More

Amtel/Arduino powered microcontroller to control RGB LED strip lights. Controlled using IR remote, maybe serial and web as well. Fairly simple to do, just need the motivation.

Maybe some day in the distant future

Shawn is a programmer by trade. His interests vastly exceed the capacity of both his calendar and wallet.

A meatspace version of the popular Adobe tool. Sensor at the tip, lights up the “glass”, 8 segment display for the color hex code on the back. It's gone through several failed versions so far. The cheap photoresistor/RGB LED combo sensed color okay with reflective surfaces, but was crap for matte. I have higher hopes for the Flora color sensor from Adafruit. The RGB LEDs that will light up the “glass” part of the Eyedropper were too difficult to fit in the casing (made of MDF, acetate and hardboard), so I'm hoping the strips of individually addressable leds will fare better, and allow some rudimentary animation. Several false starts with this project. I will use a Nano instead of the Uno, and I'm trying to figure out a novelty light mode, which would require wall power, so it might make sense to include a recharging circuit and LiPo instead of the 9V battery I originally planned.

Not sure what its final form will be, but right now, trying to use a stepper-controlled mirror to make 8 beams. Hoping to make it trigger servos to rap on wine glasses and/or have a midi jack. Stepper might need to be replaced with galvo.

Not sure whether to keep it simple, using an oven to heat the plastic in the frame, or to make it more complicated, with a heater built-in to the unit. I recently stopped using my toaster oven, so I may canabalize it to go with the latter. I built a very small, simple former, which works well, and the frames fit in my toaster oven, so I may delay building the full-size version.

Delving into foam RC planes, courtesy of the Makerspace.

Made my workshop door into a TARDIS, with light-up windows, lantern and “Police Public Call Box” sign. Plays the Dr. Who theme and lights the lantern when the door closes. Some day I'll get around to documenting it.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Rotating-Three-Marshmallow-Toaster/

Toast 3 marshmallows evenly at once.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Incline-activated-Fireball-Shooter/

Kind of dangerous, but made this for a friend.

Foldable, mobile electronics storage and bench. I've been reluctant to work at the Makerspace in case I found I needed a part from home. This mobile shop should let me keep everything together, with enough room to grow for a while. Folded, it measures about 20“ x 20” x 48“. Open, it has 34 “bays” for custom 4” x 4“ x 18” swappable cardboard trays, plus an area for common tools/soldering station/bench supply. I added a couple casters to this, but they broke on its maiden voyage. Also, though I designed it to fit in my van vertically, I must have forgot to carry a one somewhere, because I was off by a couple inches. I had to lay it on its back. Much less mobile than I'd hoped. Still works great as stationary shelves, and is mobile enough, but I might want to redesign it someday.

A gift for my wife, Christmas 2014. My first cutting board, this was trickier than most end-grain boards, as they usually rely on gluing up strips of pixels. Because this didn't have a repeating pattern, each pixel needed to be glued individually. And because the glue dried too fast to do all 324 pixels, I had to work in 8 sections, then sand and plane each section into alignment. Huge PITA, but it turned out well. Used jotoba, walnut, padauk, pau amarello and birch. Finished with mineral oil and beeswax. I got this idea from somebody else on Instructables.

A quick, cheap project that seems to have turned out well. Made of cheap lumber and a few plumbing pieces. This was for holding and manipulating the Makerspace's pinball playfield as we worked on it. Instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Pinball-Playfield-Rotisserie/.