Jonathan Oxer

[Blog]

>> Walktime Blog #33: MendelMax v2 unboxing, part 2

Mon, May 27th 8:12am 2013 >>

The second half of my Mendel Max v2 3D printer has now arrived. Let's take a look at what comes in the hardware package.

View or comment directly on YouTube: http://youtu.be/40eO6ITp-bg

>> Walktime Blog #32: MendelMax v2 unboxing, part 1

Thu, May 16th 10:56am 2013 >> Walktime

The first half of my Mendel Max v2 3D printer just arrived. Let's take a look at what comes in the electronics package.

View or comment directly on YouTube: http://youtu.be/uD4on9Mei4s

>> Behind the scenes at the Advanced Instrumentation Technology Centre

Sun, Feb 17th 6:20pm 2013 >>

The Advanced Instrumentation Technology Centre at Mt Stromlo has developed into an amazing facility, with both excellent physical infrastructure and very smart and experienced staff. Much of the new infrastructure has been built for Australia's part of the Giant Magellan Telescope project, but it also has spin-off benefits that hopefully will spearhead a revival in Australian space technology capabilities and industry. While I was in Canberra for the linux.conf.au 2013 conference I was lucky enough to be given a behind-the-scenes tour led by Dr Naomi Mathers and Roger Franzen.

These facilities may be used for future ArduSat missions, including as a ground station for communications with the satellites and possibly for integration testing.

View or comment directly on YouTube: youtu.be/HQ_XU47c83s

>> Walktime Blog #30: Tour of Canberra hackerspace Make Hack Void

Thu, Feb 14th 8:48am 2013 >> Walktime

The very nice folk at Make Hack Void (the Canberra hackerspace) were very accomodating to all the extra geeks in town for linux.conf.au 2013. Not only was the hackerspace open days and evenings during the conference, but they also ran a "Makerconf" event on the Saturday right after LCA ended.

This is a bit of a random look around the current Make Hack Void premises on a busy night when a bunch of LCA delegates were visiting. Unfortunately this building may soon succumb to a bulldozer, so MHV are now looking for an alternative location.

Sorry about the dodgy phone-camera recording. I really need to upgrade myself to a proper camera for things like this.

View or comment directly on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=co7skwW7EpQ

>> Walktime Blog #29: Arduino Miniconf 2013 assembly session

Tue, Feb 12th 8:46am 2013 >> Walktime

The assembly project for the 2013 Arduino Miniconf was "HackCNC", a CNC plotter designed (mechanicals) by John Spencer and (electronics) by Luke Weston, with software development lead by Bob Powers. For more info about HackCNC and the Arduino Miniconf see www.arduinominiconf.org

View or comment directly on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TWiKmIdnUo

>> Walktime Blog #28: Hard copy datasheets

Mon, Dec 31st 5:27pm 2012 >> Walktime

I like hard copies of datasheets. Yes, it means printing and using paper, but there are advantages to having a datasheet in a folder or on a clipboard instead of just a PDF on your computer screen.

View or comment directly on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcEZbC8yoaU

>> Walktime Blog #27: Electronics design as an online team sport

Mon, Nov 12th 11:18am 2012 >> Walktime

Electronics design has traditionally been a solo activity. Some high-end packages have a degree of collaboration using shared libraries and synchronisation tools, but Upverter is the first project I've seen that allows real-time online collaboration. Multiple engineers can be working in the same project simultaneously, and the project updates live so all participants can see changes as they happen. Now with Upverter's latest release they've extended their initial schematic tool to include PCB layout, which may just tip it over the edge to being a major contender as design tool of choice for many engineers.