Zombie Tech, who bill themselves as "A forum for engineers, scientists, and inventors to ponder on the technologies needed to survive the inevitable zombie apocalypse!" have taken a break from interviewing electronics luminaries like Joe Grand, Dave Jones and Chris Gammell to cover AZ and HeatSync Labs in specific! In the past they have interviewed Joey Hudy, and local hacker John S, two weeks ago they talked to HeatSync Labs co-founder Rickoooooo and this week they interviewed Jacob Rosenthal on HeatSync Labs and hackerspaces, his trip to China and resulting interview with Mitch Altman, and his goals in ubiquitous computing and body modification.

Check it out!

Heddatron robot build @heatsynclabs! Screencap by Will Bradley.

If you've been in the space at all in the last few weeks, you've probably noticed a number of robot parts scattered through the lab. After Tim and Jacob worked on the Festival of Creativity display they were contacted about the plausibility of creating five robots in four weeks for a production of Heddatron for the Stray Cat Theater. Jacob was in China at the time so Tim took project lead and accepted the challenge. The time frame meant that there very likely wasn't enough time to test and compare parts and designs. The motors, gear ratios, torques, and wheels all had to be chosen based on theory and calculations rather than experimentation. Further, it was immediately obvious that the mechanical and technical portions of the project would take the entire four weeks so Tim began searching for someone to help with the artistic front. Wanting to include local artists in the project, Tim approached Monsterland and was connected with one of their monster designers, AJ. AJ took on the ambitious task of designing and building the bodies for two of the robots, Hans and Billy, in only a week.

Because of time constraints Tim's initial goal for the robot bases was to utilize RC cars or Roombas. In testing, however, the weight of these six foot robots was too much for their little frames to handle. Tim went with a custom designed two motor chain driven four mechanum wheel with rotating axel setup.

It was a tight build with a very worried director a day before opening, but in the end the opening night went off without a hitch despite the cast losing a couple days of rehearsal to build time. Director Ron May confided that ten other productions of Heddatron have been attempted with only four successfully opening precisely because the difficulty of putting technology on a theater stage with a theater schedule.

Many at HeatSync helped throughout the accelerated build. During initial design phase Colin and Prescott were incredibly helpful. Jeremy sourced some great freeware female silhouettes for Julia, the major remaining bot, and KZell Metals came through as usual with a hail mary laser cut of the sheet metal while Nate Caine and Austin Kipp spent several late night hours welding together a frame and coming up with a cool green light! We even had cast and crew from the show stop by HeatSync to help out and test robots. As usual it was amazing to see HeatSync through their eyes as it is easy to get used to our insanity.

Heddatron runs Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun through June 9th and you can buy your tickets here. The play is incredibly funny and lurid with live mixed media and even references to the singularity. Several of us have already seen it and we think you'll like it!

The CMKT4 Team mods an original gameboy. Photo by CMKT4.

On May 11th, HeatSync Labs will be hosting a workshop from the travelling circuit-bent band CMKT4 where you can learn to build your own piezo-electric pickup and listen to a live set as the your finished build dries.

Join the members of the circuit-bent rock band CMKT4 for a workshop on building your very own EconoMIC Bottle Cap Contact Microphone (from Creme DeMentia). CMKT4 will show you how to solder up a piezo-electric pickup and house it sturdily in a recycled bottle-cap housing of their own design! Stick around for a set from the band as the tool-handle dip on your freshly built contact microphone dries. Additional take-home kits and other surprises will be available, come build a mic and see and hear some of the circuit-bent instruments you've read about on www.GetLofi.com up close.

Bring your own instruments and objects to amplify!

Additional kits will be on sale for $10, and we'll have fully assembled mics in several varieties for sale as well. We'll have some other fun goodies also. Interested onlookers are encouraged to donate if they don't want to build a kit.

About the Instructors:

CMKT 4 (from DeKalb, IL), the makers of Creme DeMentia Contact Microphones, have traveled the US teaching their workshops. In July of 2010, they attended the Detroit Maker Faire, which gave them a glimpse of the growing hackerspace movement. Shortly after, they had developed a kit for building their contact microphones in a workshop setting. They introduced their workshop at OmniCorpDetroit. Since then, CMKT 4 has taught workshops at 40 hackerspaces across the US, as well as several galleries and other venues. From Crash Space in LA, to As220 Labs in Providence, RI, the band has been canvasing the country in an effort to leave no hackerspace behind. CMKT 4 now offers a second workshop (Circuit Bending 101: Build a Bending Buddy), and has made return visits to several hackerspaces. The workshops are intended to provide a unique perspective on DIY electronics, while encouraging the creative use of recycled materials. Make sure not to miss CMKT 4 next time they come to your town!

Make sure you sign up ahead of time for the workshop! The workshop is 20$ and you leave the workshop with a complete and working bottle cap contact mic! And HeatSync Labs members can get 5 dollars off by using the code IMAMEBER when registering.

HeatSync Labs is located east of Robson on Main Street at:
140 W Main St.
Mesa, AZ 85201

Nate's custom printed EL Wire driver. Photo by Nate Plamondon, all rights reserved

Once I had the board(s) laid out, it was time to actually make the thing. At HeatSync Labs, we have a few methods available for creating PCBs. My favorite so far is using the laser cutter. Unfortunately, the laser is unable to cut or etch copper, so we use black spray paint as a mask.

First, the copper is covered with a layer of black spray paint. Once dry, it’s placed on the laser cutter’s bed, and the design file is imported to the control software. Since the software isn’t very well-written, importing requires several file conversions.

• Jasper tests the SEM's vacuum chamber using plasma and ions! Photo by Jasper Nance.
• Tim installed his light sensitive Mesa Creativity Festival installation in the front window. Photo by Nate Caine.
• Just the remnants of a late night at the lab. Photo by HeatSync Labs.
• Yet another one of the interactive art exhibits that was on display at the Mesa Creativity Festival. Photo by HeatSync Labs.
• Ryan McDermott welded a coffee table together at the lab. Photo by Ryan McDermott.
• Robert Bushman repurposed a turntable to make a fire tornado. Photo Ryan McDermott.
• Ryan Rix is almost done with his high power model two rockets. Photo by Prescott Ogden.
• Colin and Jacob are done with another prototype of their LED watch. Photo by Colin Ho.

Come hear about our budding neighbors and more this Friday! Photo by Will Bradley

This Friday is second Friday! You know what that means, it's time for our unfortunately named Hot Topics speaker series! Come see what projects people in the lab are working on and find something awesome to work on yourself!

Our roster so far is:

• Chad Stearns: Electronic Music Box
• Will Bradley: LED Matrix Kit
• Jeremy Leung: Xerocraft Shenanigans
• A mystery prerecorded video that is tech related. Oooooh!
• And you?

If you want to present on friday drop us a mail on this google groups thread and we'll hook you up. We won't be able to market for you beforehand, but we can get footage and get your video on the Tubes of You.

Along with the talks tomorrow we also have the Mesa Festival of Creativity having its opening night. This even thas pieces from some of our very own members and shares a lot of the same maker spirit found at the Lab.

All HeatSync Labs meetings are open to the public for free; Cover charges are for Scottsdale night clubs! If you really want to give us money though, t-shirts, membership and sponsorship subscriptions will be available and hustled aggressively by our volunteers.

HeatSync Labs is located east of Robson on Main Street at:
140 W Main St.
Mesa, AZ 85201

This could be YOU! Photo by Dawn Nakaya.

This Saturday at 11am and 5pm Austin Kipp will be hosting a Crash Course on Welding which will also certify you for use of our welding equipment. Each class will accommodate 3-5 people and last as long as 4 hours! The class will focus on MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welding but will include grinding and related metal work to be successful in welding.

Learning to weld correctly involves a combination of instruction and practice. For each hour of instruction, the student needs to put in MANY hours of practice, the combination which is sometimes difficult to accommodate in our busy schedules. So, in an attempt to meet the needs of more people and make it more affordable and flexible, Austin will give the instruction and then you will do the necessary practicing on your own.

What you bring: Non-synthetic clothing with long sleeves and long pants (jeans and a cotton long sleeve shirt work fine) plus sturdy, closed toe shoes. What you leave with: Box or frame (TBD) you welded!

HeatSync Labs is located east of Robson on Main Street at:
140 W Main St.
Mesa, AZ 85201

Local Maker Joey Hudy shows off his Marshmellow cannon to the President. Does this photo really need a caption? Photo by Kevin Lamarque, Reuters

Joey Hudy, local 14 year old maker of awesome, was at the White House this week for the White House Science Fair. Joey's inventions and hacks have won him awards and sponsorships at the various maker faires and now even a trip to the White House. Congratulations Joey!

Fused Glass Photos, photo by John Groseclose, All Rights Reserved

HeatSync Labs has another class coming up! This time around, Holly Schineller will be giving an introduction to warm glass fusion.

What is Warm Glass?

Warm or Fused Glass are general terms that loosely cover most actions involving glass and a kiln. These include:

• Fusing (two or more pieces of glass heated to about 1480 degrees F until they melt together to become one)
• Slumping (using a mold in the kiln to change the shapre of a piece of glass)
• Casting (melting many small pieces of glass into one larger shape)

In this 2 hour+ workshop you will learn a brief history of fusing, the basic rules of fusing (like what glass wants to do, can and cannot do) and how to put together glass to recreate what you have in your mind.

You will get the chance to cut your own glass if you wish. The work will be fired off site. This is a simple workshop to let you experiment with some different types of glass and see how they fire up. If you plan on taking the next level class then use this as an opportunity to create test tiles for your more advanced (and expensive) piece. The next level class will be offered at Holly’s home studio to have easier access to the kiln.

2 weeks after the class (likely sooner but we’re just being safe here) you can pick up your finished 3.25 square slumped dish and other small items you made during class such as magnets or pendants.

To attend you must sign up at our guest list link: http://guestli.st/85836

Instructor

Holly Schineller attended both the California College of Art and ASU to complete her degree in Studio Art. Her commercial work has been focused on Glass Fusing for the last four years. Her work for pleasure includes drawing, painting, and occasionally street painting. You can see some of her commercial pieces on Facebook under Life With Art.

HeatSync Labs is located east of Robson on Main Street at:
140 W Main St.
Mesa, AZ 85201