[chbot] Notes for Robotics Group meeting, Monday 20 Aug 2018, 6:30pm, 5 Idris Road

[Mark Atherton]

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the late summary.

Enthusiastic turnout with 26 attendees, and lots of huddles-of 
tech-talk. $101 + change (in gold, and flat-money) collected and 
transferred into the robotics loose-change jar (for later banking).

Quick reminder: equipment donations are welcome for the trading table, 
but no CRT based product, printers, fax machines, toner or items that 
are likely to be a disposal burden. All sales from the trading table 
should go into the brown box on the wall, and are directly for the 
benefit of our host club, NZART Branch 05.

With thanks on behalf of the group,

Mark Atherton

============

Thank you Chris for bringing a huge pile of interesting stuff, including 
several servers as well as four and eight channel examples of ex-DSIR 
bi-lateral unimix diverters. Mike donated some lighting product, and 
Russel brought in an unopened (!) Zilog Z8 emulator. Peter H brought in 
a used 250W solar panel, which was immediately snapped up. Quite an 
amazing evening for donated stuff. Also, the group is now the proud (?) 
owner of an 8 inch reel of 6250 BPI mag tape. Thank you everyone.

Charles brought in an enclosure he had fabricated from his 3D printer, 
along with a cross-axis power test he carried out using his laser 
cutter. Most interesting.

Andrew E talked about some projects he has on the go, including the 
Oxford Men’s Shed Maslow CNC, as well as his ‘junk CNC’ project.

Andrew talked about the ‘Crate Escape’ project, and how his contribution 
is progressing.

Andy brought in, and discussed some LiIon battery management modules he 
had purchased from Ali-Express.

William gave us an update on his 8 bit machine including steps towards 
adding a video output.

Rudy talked about some Ali Express security issues. It appears that new 
accounts requires significant amounts of personal information be entered 
which may not be acceptable, or appropriate.

Andrew Sands talked about linux.conf.au which is coming to Christchurch 
in 2019. He strongly recommended that our members attend. He also kindly 
handed out some LCA bags, and more interestingly, some tiny conference 
badges, based on the EFM32HG309 controller. This part is a 32-bit ARM 
Cortex M0+ processor with USB device, and a ton of other peripherals. 
Stay tuned, Andrew will be posting updates on this list as they become 
available.

Henry talked about his three-phase woes, including the possibility of 
running the output of a VSD through a transformer to drive 415V three 
phase motors.

Robin is interested in sourcing some 4mm+ thick steel sheet for a 
'Rocket Heater' project, and asked for low cost potential sources since 
it appears that almost all of the local scrap yards are closing their 
doors to the public.