User:Reportingsjr

Skills

• Linux
• Electronics design
• PHP
• C/C++
• Python
• Brazing
• Soldering
• PCB Etching

Skills Wanted

• CAD
• Welding
• Woodworking Tools

Improvements to the Hive

Woodworking

Thoughts: This area is coming along very nicely with the help of Ed. Hopefully within a month or two it will be much nicer and more usable than current. Improvements:

• More workable area for certain tools
  • Ed wants a nice long workbench. Have to remove the junk shelves before we can get further on those.
  • Move the tools around. Maybe the table saw can go on the edge between 1D and 2D so we can push wood out into the open area since it is permanently an open space.
• Wood Stock storage
  • Currently it's nearly impossible actually store wood at the hive. We need arm shelves or something where people can put their stock. I've had issues with plywood before and half a sheet went missing (I'm sure someone got it mixed up). A large portion of the dirty room is taken up by scrap wood and members trying to store wood have to lean it against tools/tables with a note on it with their name.
• Tools
  • As with everything more tools would be awesome! The collection is growing, so I'm pretty happy with this. It would be nice to have some more organized wood working tools instead of more general carpentry tools. (stuff for furniture making kinda tools)

Electronics

For scincihacks I cleaned up the electronics bench a lot and then left it. It has more potential, but just isn't there.

• Lighting
  • Lighting is a huge problem with the electronics bench right now. It is extremely important to have great lighting for electronics since there are so many small parts and awkward angles. If it's night time you might as well give up outside of the small area that is lit up.
  • New lighting was installed before the 2012 Yearly Anniversary Party as part of the giant cleanup. Plenty of light now!
• Shelves
  • It would be really nice if the workbench had more smaller shelves for stuff like test equipment. Right now there is only the bench and then well above line of sight a huge shelf that isn't good for much besides storage. Things like lab power supplies, bench dmms, oscilloscopes, etc go really nicely on shelves above the bench where they are out of the way and still usable.
  • Each electronics bench has a small shelf. It looks like it would be a large help to add another level of shelves to either side.
  • We need to make shelves for part storage. Dave B. and I were talking and he recommended using clear jewellery boxes and making some shelves for them. This would be good as it works for almost all electronics components along with mechanical hardware.
• Tools
  • The hive has ok tools for working on basic electronics. It would be awesome to have some more advanced tools. If everyone agrees to improve the area a bit more with things like the shelving and lighting I might bring down the cheap DSO scope I have since I use it maybe a few times a month and I live right by the hive. Mostly from donations/long term loans from Dave B. we have much better electronics equiptment.
  • A reflow oven is pretty cheap to make and would be a phenomenal help down at the hive! We already have a toaster oven, just need the controlling circuitry. Dave B. mostly finished the reflow oven project in January, 2013!
• Parts
  • The parts down at the hive are, to say it lightly, a nightmare. I believe this is partly due to the nature of everyone and multiple people combining some components they didn't want. Not so awesome. Maybe the hive could fund some jelly bean parts (smd resistor/capacitor books are cheap on ebay. Maybe some common ICs, etc). There /really/ needs to be an inventory system for this where people can keep track of everything. Simply way too many small parts to use the "hackerspace method" of simply knowing where everything is.
  • We are just about (as of Jan. 23rd) to vote in spending requirements which means I will likely get $100/month to spend on stocking the hive!
• Stereo Microscope
  • Going along with some of the other smd capabilities since Dave B. graciously is long-term loaning some smd equipment to the hive (solder paste dispenser, tweezer set, special solder, etc) it would be awesome to have a stereo microscope. SMD stuff is tiny tiny and only the best eyes can easily do smd without aid. I got a stereo microscope in September, 2012 and brought it down to the space.

Fab Lab

• Stock
  • Same as with wood for the laser most stock comes in sheets which are best stored vertically in cubby type shelves. We have shelves which everyone just lays stuff on which is a terrible solution.
• Tools
  • Not sure how good the Stratasys FDM 200 actually is, considering it is nearly two decades old, but I think it is still a bit better than the makerbot. Would be nice to have it set up. However, as we all know the power situation is not so awesome.
  • In my opinion (yeah, I know. Just my opinion) the makerbot is taking up a lot of space with that huge table. Maybe we could find a bit of a smaller table and the FDM 2000 could sit next to it. Would make that workbench a nice 3D machines table.
• Might be a good idea to actually run some drops into this room for computers, instead of throwing switches/routers everywhere.
• Workstations
  • There is a rather nice machine that Dave Myers brought down that is useful for many things and I would like to see its capabilities improved (3d modelling, sound recording, media editing). Ed also brought down three small work stations. They aren't amazing, but they are nice to have there in case anyone wants to actually sit down and work at a usable computer for stuff like emailing, writing stuff, research.
• Laser
  • Get it moved back in to this room for starters!
  • I do not think the current computer desk is at all a good solution for a work bench. A desk like the makerbot has would be much more useful for not only assembling stuff on since that square table is in the middle of the room taking up a lot of nice space, but a lot of the times more than one person is using the laser cutter. Maybe we can switch the makerbot table out for the laser cutter and then find a smaller one for the makerbot/FDM 2000.
• Vinyl cutter
  • would go nicely next to the laser computer since it is used for that a lot. Again, a longer table would be nice for this reason.
• Sewing Machine
  • Currently just gets stuck in a corner on top of storage unit. It would be nice to have a nice pair of scissors/roller cutter and a decently sized cutting mat for this. Also a decent table to work on this stuff. Might not be hard to get some fabric stock as many people save fabric that they want to get rid of.
• Tiffany brought in some stuff for light drafting. Maybe some more drawing stuff would be nice to bring in artsy people? Nice drawing utensils are fairly cheap!
  • A light table would be /awesome/. I would love to build one if I could get some help from wood working people.

Business/relaxation room

• Server stuff
  • I would really like to see the server rack actually cleaned up (Don't rip everything out if you are not going to repair it though!) and a solution for better maintenance be created. Currently you have to side-waddle behind a table to get to the back of the rack.
  • Currently the voip stuff is also really messy. I think there are two phones hooked up right next to each other. (Might both be bases? We could just get a long telephone line and run one of the bases elsewhere...)
• Projector
  • It would be nice if the projector was made a bit easier to access. It might be a good idea to move some of the gaming stuff in here as the projector is pretty nice, this room is fairly separated from the rest of the space so it's quite and the seating is better than out where the current gaming area is sort of located.
  • Also, there are several patches in the wall RIGHT where the projector points. If anyone has some white wall paint that would be awesome to make it cleaner.
  • If we were to move the gaming area in here it would be nice to clean up how and where everything gets connected. I originally thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to move it to the front of the room, but I'm now rather against that.
• Sound
  • On the note of the projector if it gets easier to use maybe a bit of a nicer sound system could be set up? This room is fairly small and has lots of fabric so the sound could be fairly nice. The server rack is fairly noisy, unfortunately.
• Space Usage
  • Right now this room is a bit of a cluster fuck for anything at all. The seating isn't the best, there is the messy server rack, there are may too many small end tables and tables for what the room aims to be.
  • The white foldable table currently in this room can go elsewhere. It serves no purpose in this room and when I moved it there the plan was only so people could put computers on there to present or what have you, but that obviously failed. I think that table would go very nicely in the fab lab for the makerbot if that computer desk is removed.
  • Remove some of the small tables floating around. They mostly get in the way and usually only drinks are set on them and then left there.

Kitchen

• Cleanliness
  • The kitchen is currently cleaned very rarely which makes it pretty dirty and dingy to use. Not so awesome.
  • Personally not a huge fan of the kitchen as the hive is meant to be a workshop where food shouldn't really be. Workshops are just dirty (sometimes dangerously so when chemicals are involved!) and doesn't need to be mixed with food. Obviously a small eating area is nice to have for extended working periods, but the current kitchen set up is extremely sub optimal for the space. If anything it would be nice to keep it much more separate from the space.

Dirty Room

• Clean it up! Right now there is so much stuff in the dirty room that it is difficult to use. It would be great to see stuff like the wood scrap pile move out.
  • CJDavis, that damn TV. Is it ever going to go somewhere?!
• Fume hood
  • A small fume hood hooked up to that vent would be awesome for stuff like the Methyl Acetate used for gluing acrylic, etc. Maybe a bit more powerful of a blower would be necessary, but this is just an idea.
• Is the huge refrigerator in here really necessary? The only thing that I have every seen stored in there is solder paste which could go in a much smaller cooler (adafruit has used one of those super cheap single-softdrink coolers). If a dirty fridge is really still wanted we could easily find a cheap dorm fridge from some kid who moved out of dorms.
• Forge stored in here?
  • The forge needs a large area of sand or similar to cast on so molten metal will not get everywhere and wreak havoc. Since it's sand maybe this would be a good area for it to stay?

Area next to wood working (1C)

• Personally I would like to see that huge projection TV go elsewhere (I don't think it's currently working anyhow?)
  • Mame Cabinet, slot machine, pacman could stay out here. I just don't think it's a great area for tv type games.
• Inherently dusty/dirty since it's next to wood working. Not good for many things!

website

• I would love to see more activity on the website. I think it would be a great idea to have a main announcements blog and then have a separate member blog that way people can follow space projects if they want and everyone can see announcements if they want. That is one thing I know personally that has held me back from posting anything to the main blog (that and being lazy about write ups :)). I think a separate area where people are /often/ encouraged to post would be a great way to show the activity of the hive and keep people interested. I feel like since not a ton is communicated to the website w.r.t. current projects (even updating wiki pages isn't that great as they don't show updates well) that people from the outside may think that the hive is a kinda inactive place when in reality it has been picking up quite a lot recently.
• A members info page would be awesome where important (and unimportant) links are aggregated so members old and new know where everything is. I know I still occasionally find new areas of the website that I wish I had known about before only to lose the link to it later on. It would also be nice on this page to list some of the stuff you get as a member. Chris Anderson has a blog hosted on a subdomain which some people may want to take advantage of. People may want to access the laser site, but forget/not know the link to it from home. If we add an online inventory that would be nice. The url for ssh into the hive network would be nice to list (maybe keep that one a bit more private?). If we do member blogs that could be listed here. We have a website and we can do so much more with it than we currently are especially with the level of tech that people have.

The Space as a Whole

• I would really like to see other people help clean up. Currently it's mainly Paul and I who clean and improve most things. I think if more people pitched in some more the space could get really nice an organized. I think if we organize the space so that way everything is much more usable we can possibly draw in some more people and equally as important we can have more people working on projects!
• If we could PLEASE try to limit food to the kitchen and class room area I would be ecstatic. Maybe not even the class room area. After every single meeting I have to spend 15-20 minutes going around and picking up other people's trash, because they set napkins, cups, plates down and are either too lazy to clean up or forget about it (I know I have accidentally forgotten stuff around before). I constantly find trash around the space which is really annoying as it's unclean and is just not awesome.

I know that the Hive is still relatively young at an age of 2, nearly 3. I think as a group we are still figuring out how best to deal with everything in a chaotic organization such as a hackerspace. From the first time I arrived in January of the first year I have loved the atmosphere of the Hive. Since then there have definitely been ups and downs with the actual space due to disorganization. I attribute this to the mentality of the group of people at the hive. They are used to working on projects at home where organization isn't absolutely vital for projects to be worked on. This is not the case for such a space as the Hive. So many people use the tools that if they are not kept organized and well set up that people working on projects will be drastically slowed and maybe discouraged from using the space. I absolutely hate to see this happen as I want the space to be as usable as possible. I personally find it rather difficult when I work on stuff at the hive and constantly have to hunt down stuff such as scissors and tape measures. In the time that I have been coming to meetings and since I have become a member I have seen an increase in the number of projects at the space, the tools down at the space, and the people who visit the hive whether just to test the waters for a few weeks or sticking around. There is a lot to be done around the hive to improve and make sure that in the future everyone can enjoy a high tech, creative, and fun space where we can work on projects that range from practical, such as an electric motorcycle, to the whacky like a soda can based energy storage device. Hackerspaces are a great place for people to meet up and be inspired and I'm enthused that such a culture is growing in the US and I can be a part of it. I know I have hugely benefited from the people and the equipment that our hackerspace offers. Unfortunately I do not think we are even close to our maximum potential with what we have right now due to a general chaos. If we can get people to focus on improving our space I think in a short period of time we could have an absolutely amazing place for people to hack on projects and ideas and a place to truly inspire many people young and old.