[chbot] CHCH Robotics Group, meeting notes Mon 21 Aug 2017

[Mark Atherton]

Hello everyone,

Good early turnout with 24 attendees. Lots of huddles-of tech-talk, and 
$24 collected and transferred to BR05 account.
A Robotics-donated three-phase VSD was also sold for $40, with expected 
direct transfer to the BR05 bank account under the description 'Robotics 
Donation'
The recently prompted email regarding equipment donations to the trading 
table has resulted in quite a pile of ‘new’ equipment. Just to 
reiterate; yes donations are welcome, but not CRT, printers or toner.

With thanks on behalf of the group,

Mark Atherton
==============

We had a first! Peter Harris attended with his Electric-Leaf, and 
charged his vehicle during the meeting. He made a suitably generous 
donation to cover energy use. Might be time to suggest to our host club 
that some vehicle charging stations may be required in the near future.

William brought along the upgraded home-built CPU project. New features 
include 30 instructions, 256 bytes of memory, and an LCD interface.

Winston brought along his home-made 3D printer, an Australian designed 
Hypercube, constructed out of 20-20 T slot ali-extrusion. Can print 
using many different filaments including PLA (corn-starch based 
plastic). Print volume is 200 x 200 x 180mm. During the meeting, he 
printed a demo-piece using light-sensitive PLA.

Marek brought his home-made Wilson-TS 3D printer (based on the original 
reprap design). Max print volume 200 x 200 x 200mm. Unit is enclosed in 
a plywood box, with total cost around NZ$500.

Rudy attended a Canterbury Astronomical Society lecture on the Sofia 
stratospheric observatory for IR astronomy. He presented a talk based on 
this lecture for us.

Wallace bright along a tiny ‘scope "2MHz Touch Screen TFT Digital Mini 
Handheld Oscilloscope With Battery" which appears to be around NZ$100 
landed.