Author: avery

October Wrap-Up: Python! Robots! Nerds! Makers! Haunted House! TAVES!

Written by avery on November 3, 2015. Posted in Announcements, Post-Event Report, Robotycs, Upcoming Event.

October 2015 YLab Group Shot — October YLab Meeting Group Shot.

October was a crazy month. YLab is all about tech community, so it’s more than just the events we put on. YLab regulars, volunteers and friends have been all over the place, including:

YLab’s Python Constricted class, hosted by the Markham Public Library, where a dozen people were introducted to the Python programming language, and helped along by ylab volunteers.
Our second monthly Robotycs meeting, hosted once again by Logics Academy, covered an intro to Arduino and Raspberry Pi. We’re looking for a serious competition project!
We have a small offshoot of beginners from Robotycs who are eager to learn and will start some hands-on weekly training by hacking remote control cars. Experienced volunteers will be showing up to help them with soldering irons, oscilloscopes and Arduino gear.

Robot Ross Giving a Presentation and Halloween at the DDO.

We were busy with our friends at the Markham Public Library, where:

YLab’s Robot Ross and Jedi Jay displayed their wares that the Mini Maker Faire.
A few ylab regulars’ faces were in the audience for their evening with Cory Doctorow.
Their Nov 13 TEDx put out a call for speakers. We introduced a couple of ylab friends from The David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) and Site 3 Maker Space who have been selected. Our proposal for a Site 3 flaming demo in the parking lot… well, that went down in flames. Tickets are going fast!

Speaking of the DDO… We wrapped up the month with a Halloween eve visit to their Haunted House in full geek-out costume, complete with pocket protectors, taped eyeglasses and white socks. That was after a visit to TAVES Consumer Electronics Show held at the Sheraton at Hwy 7 and Leslie. Big thanks to the TAVES organisers for the free weekend passes. The must see item: the Richmond Hill AMD team’s virtual reality demo.

YLab Visiting TAVES to get an AMD VR Demo — YLab Visiting TAVES and Getting an AMD VR Demo

The DDO’s Haunted House was augmented this year by contributions from YLab friends and robotics experts Eric and Brett Hagman. The sound-activated, full-size crawling skeletons were a nice touch.

Stay tuned for more November announcements!

Securing Your Home Router Recap and Upcoming Events

Written by avery on September 18, 2015. Posted in Post-Event Report, Upcoming Event.

Filling the boardroom with makers and networking equipment.

It was an amazing turnout at our September 16th event centred around securing your home router. After going through some background information on routers and how their firmware is developed, YLab makers eagerly started reflashing their router’s with open source alternatives such as dd-wrt, OpenWRT, and Tomato. And the best part was managing not to brick them! The iconic blue and black Linksys WRT54G routers of course made an appearance as well as many common open-source friendly alternatives.

Flashing a router with DD-WRT. — It’s always nice when everything works perfectly while explaining the process.

We also did some penetration testing with Router Check‘s founder who went through the basic Dos and Don’ts of securing your home network and showed off their Android app (a great way to quickly check if your network is secure). Some basic tips we learned: never use WEP, turn off the easy setup, and check against all the common vulnerabilities (because once a hacker gets access to your router your computers are next)!

Group shots of the makers in attendance . — Group shots of some of the YLab makers in attendance.

We’ve also got two great free events coming up that still have some space for new makers:

The inaugural YLab Robotics Group monthly meeting is on September 30th. At last count there was only 4 available spaces left. To register click here.

Looking to get a basic footing in Python? We’re hosting a crash course for experienced programmers at the Markham Public Library, click here to register.

First Month Recap and Top Ten Things We’ve Learned

Written by avery on August 28, 2015. Posted in Announcements, Update.

At Wednesday’s Arduino class, YLab regulars were talking about how hard it is to believe that it’s only been a month since our Kick-Off event. That was way back on July 25, and the Arduino class was on August 26. OK, a month and a day.

It’s been a challenge, an inspiration, and most of all, a whole lot of fun for the growing group of volunteers, makers, techies, geeks and just plain enthusiastic people who’ve been showing up. All ages. All skill levels. All having a great time.

Our planning is best described as “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”. Much to our amazement, it all worked out. We’ve been growing in numbers as more and more York Region makers are discovering us. We’re always happy for those curious to check us out or contact us on social media if you have any questions at all (Facebook or Twitter)

So what’s next? Watch this space for the announcements – we’re working on some new amazing events and updates! They’ll be up soon we promise. In the meantime I bet you’re wondering what we’ve learned in our first month?

Top 10 Things Learned in YLab’s First Month:

YLab Outside The Markham Library — 10. Libraries Love Geeks

YLab at DDO 3D Printing — 9. People love lightsabers and 3D Printing, but they really love lightsabers.

Building a Telescope Presentation — 8. Amateur astronomers are also uber-makers? Who knew???

YLab at Markham Library OBD Reader — 7. Embarrassed yourself because your car diagnostics demo isn’t working? No problem. The attendees will figure it out for you.

YLab at Logics Academy — 6. How do you get two robotics shops, a library and a giant telescope to let themselves be invaded by a bunch of makers? Just ask!

OBD Presentation at Markham Library — 5. The owner’s manual says you don’t have to change those spark plugs for 160,000 km? With our road salt, they might rust in place by then.

Making an Arduino Blink — 4. If we build it, they will come. They’ll even come from Toronto to York Region. You know who you are. We have pictures.

YLab Volunteers at the DDO — 3. Amazing how a bunch of uncoordinated volunteers can make a website and social media come together.

DDO Telescope Closeup — 2. Need a 70 inch mirror re-coated by aluminum vapour deposition? No problem. We got yer’ big honkin’ vacuum chamber right here. In Richmond Hill.

And the number one thing we learned:

YLab Member Group Shot — 1. York Region has AMAZING makers!

Thanks to Pek, Markham Library, and Uncle D for the pictures.

A Physicist, Programmers, Roboticists and Some Newbies Walk into an Arduino Class

Written by avery on August 27, 2015. Posted in Events, Post-Event Report.

It’s no joke. Attendees for YLab’s first formal training class ranged from beginners to experienced hardware hackers with enough experience to teach the class themselves. And how did it all work out? Unbelievably well. Attendees helped each other out, and everyone got their circuits and programs working.

Arduino Lightup — *Its Alive! The first project was to make the LED light blink.*

The class was generously hosted by Logics Academy . Ramy and his team did an amazing job setting up the class, projector, wifi and anything else we could think of. They let everyone hang out until I-can’t-remember-how-late to talk shop and compare notes.

Arduino Class Overview — *After everyone got their bugs sorted out, the challenges began.*

Ramy and instructor Brett Hagman amazed us with some of the contraptions they’ve built using the Arduino controllers. Logics Academy uses it in their facility for [Shut up! That might be confidential!] and in their robotics and electronics courses.

RJ from YLabs and Remy from Logics Academy — *Discussing fun uses for robotics with Remy from Logics Academy.*

Big thanks instructor Brett, Logics Academy, the growing cast of YLab volunteers, and most of all to everyone who attended to make it another successful YLab maker evening.

Sold Out Event At The David Dunlop Observatory

Written by avery on August 21, 2015. Posted in Events, Post-Event Report.

DDO. WOW.

We sold out and filled every seat available for Makers at the David Dunlap Observatory: Old Tech Meets New Tech. Arriving visitors who had never seen the site were slack-jawed at the beautiful telescope and administration building.

YLab outside the DDO

The David Dunlap Observatory, sitting right smack in the middle or Richmond Hill, is Canada’s largest optical telescope. It’s operated by an all-volunteer force of members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) Toronto Centre.

Starting The Tour

Who knew that the RASC-TC members are uber-makers? The session featured presentations and equipment demos by Jim Chung, author of Astro Imaging Projects for Amateur Astronomers , and Lance Clarke and Allard Schipper of the Southern Ontario Telescope Makers Group. We were astounded at the variety and complexity of amateur-built telescopes. We heard how Allard built much of his equipment using facilities and tools from the Toronto Tool Library. The Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan libraries may be hearing from us.

YLab DDO Presentation

We had the special privilege of seeing and hearing how the volunteers maintain the main telescope. Who knew that mirror resurfacing by aluminum vapor deposition in a vacuum chamber could be done on site? Who knew what the preceding sentence meant before their patient explanations? Where else do you get to see huge 110V DC (not AC!) systems?

YLab Inspecting The Homemade Telescopes

Along with the telescopes, YLab makers Jack, Jay and Richard brought out a 3D printer, robots, light sabers and other creations. Richard drew up a 3D model of the DDO dome and had it printed out by the end of the evening.

Printing the DDO

We’d like to thank:

The RASC-TC’s Diane, Karen, Paul, Nicole, Gilles, Eric (those are the names we remember) and other members who so generously took the time to show us this gem of a facility and explain its workings.
The DDO’s volunteer high-school students for helping the RASC-TC members
YLab’s high school volunteers Katrina and Maxine for handling welcome and registration duties.
Pek and Uncle D for taking the awesome photos you see above and on our Facebook page

Last note: we owe someone with initials AB a $5 refund because the registration desk didn’t have enough change. The volunteers did try looking around for you. We have your name but no other info. Contact us through the ylab.ca web site.