[chbot] Robotics Group meeting, 5 Idris Rd, 6:30pm, Mon 15 Dec 2025 report

[Mark Atherton]

Hello everyone,

Good turnout with 29 attendees, and lots of huddles-of tech-talk. $43 + 
change (in gold, and flat-money) collected and transferred into the 
robotics loose-change jar (for later banking).

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, Christchurch 
Amateur Radio Club, NZART Branch 05.

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.

With thanks on behalf of the group,

Mark Atherton

==========

Mark talked about 'Vector Drawing Machine Number 4' (VDM4), a homemade 
CRT based display platform with STM32G491 CPU for exploring vector based 
clocks and games.

He also talked about a clever pre-punched knockout in the bottom of a 
microwave oven. If the turntable motor needs to be changed, the feature 
can be punched out, rotated and the knockout becomes an externally 
fastened cover.

David Bourke talked about the first hardware hacker Meetup and promised 
updates on our email reflector.

William talked about his round, LED speedo/tacho project.

Robin Gilks talked about addressable LEDs, and how to access 12,000 of 
them from a single STM32-Black-Pill.

Andrew Dean talked about adventures about 
hoarding-when-you-make-escape-rooms-for-a-living. He passed around some 
of the spoils.

Andy Gardner talked about all of the projects he had been working on 
that were too large to bring in to demonstrate.

Jothan talked about Electric Unicycles, and some prototypes.
Interesting YouTube videos:

Erosion of ownership rights over digital devices bounties.fulu.org
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW-mdprDL3k