[chbot] Robotics Group meeting, Monday 14 May 2018, 630pm, 5 Idris Road

[Mark Atherton]

Hello everyone,

Excellent turnout with 29 attendees, and lots of huddles-of tech-talk. 
$38 + change (in gold, and flat-money) collected and transferred into 
the robotics loose-change jar (for later banking).

Possibly the largest number of new faces turned up this evening; hope 
you enjoyed yourselves, please come back and join us at any meeting.

Quick reminder: equipment donations are welcome for the trading table, 
but no CRT based product, printers, 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

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

William brought along a home-made hardware demo for interfacing a 
Raspberry Pi to the outside world, mainly with the interest of 
connecting to a UPS, using opto-isolation. He also brought along an 
Arduino attached to temperature and humidity sensors. For output, the 
unit connected to LCD and 7 segment LED displays.

Darran demoed a very impressive image recognition software with a web 
cam for image capture, and Python with OpenCV for processing. Thanks 
also go to Col for saving the day by bringing a uHDMI cable and adaptor, 
allowing Darran’s laptop to be connected to the video projector.

Paul from Oxford brought along quite an impressive start on his 
flight-simulator-in-the-garage. He has moved from a non-technical 
background into this new hobby, and has made significant progress in 
this multiple-skill project, including 3D design and printing, Arduino 
interfacing, and is making a start on interface programming.

Levi and Seb gave an interesting talk about adventures with 3D design 
and printing. They have invested a huge amount of time and effort 
learning about mechanical design and printing, as well as real-world 
issue. Well done.

Spencer talked about his waste-water management system. Latest hardware 
is assembled to a very high standard. He also mentioned interfacing to a 
4-20mA sensor.

Continuing from a discussion initiated by Andy G several weeks ago on 
the email reflector, Mathew gave an interesting talk about Kismet. This 
is a software network detector, packet sniffer, and intrusion detection 
system.