Fwd: [MakerSpace] Clear motor controller case

[Joe Kerman]

WOW! very impressive project from the milwaukee makerspace (both the controller itself, and the beautiful laser cut case)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ben Nelson <b...@hdvideoguy.com>
Date: Sun, May 27, 2012 at 3:24 PM
Subject: [MakerSpace] Clear motor controller case
To: milwaukeemakerspace <milwaukee...@googlegroups.com>


Update on my clear motor controller case.

Thanks to Jason H. for cutting out my main shapes of plexiglass.

Recently, I laser-etched the Open Revolt logo into the top of the
case, and labeled the bus bars on the ends with laser etching as well.
All laser etching was done from BEHIND, so I mirrored the logo and
text before lasering.

I did some experimental glueing - as I've never glued plexiglass
before. I used a fancy plastic welding solvent from the hobby store,
and tested on some scrap before I glued the case.

I also played around with LEDs to see how they will look lighting up
the logo and lettering. The LEDs I had were too wimpy to show up well
(other than in a very dark electronics lab.....)
Royce had some super-bright green LEDs that seemed to work much
better. After some more playing around, it looks like using another
piece of plexiglass, drilling holes in it the size of the LEDs, and
then mounting THAT to the controller case, should work well to light
up the box.

See a few photos at:
http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy#103517

[Walker, Larry]

I just noticed that awhile back I had put an Event on my calendar for next week, the up-coming Transit of Venus.

Twice in a great while (two times 8 years apart, separated by over a century, to be precise), the orbit of Venus lines up so that it directly crosses the face of the sun. It takes the pea-sized black dot of Venus about 6 hours to move across the disk of the sun.

A transit of Venus can be used to precisely measure the distance from the earth to the sun (using parallax from opposite sides of the globe), and it gave us the first precise measurement of the actual scale of the known universe (following the invention of clocks both accurate enough and portable enough to be carried around the globe). The 1600s and 1700s events were accompanied by global expeditions of scientists to observe and measure the transit from the (literally) furthest reaches of the planet. Teams of scientists/adventurers/crazy-men trekked for many months to get to some far-flung island in the middle of an icy southern ocean only to spend transit day in foggy overcast. And then die of some travel mishap on the journey home. (True stories!)

So it seems like we at Sector677, in the spirit of honoring civilian science (the original open-source movement), ought try to view this historically significant astronomical event. The full event is not visible in North America (apparently we miss the end, but can see the start), so we can't join in transit-measuring experiments. But I believe I've seen at least one largish telescope at Sector67 and we have a live cam feed and a large parking lot, so I'd like to organize a transit viewing and camcasting event for the 2012 Transit of Venus event.

The transit begins around 5pm locally on Tuesday, which is a Sector67 monthly open meeting night, Would any telescope owner like to volunteer to set up their instrument? Anybody got a web-capable video cam with a standard scope-mount adaptor? I'd like to set up to view the beginning of the event (and maybe try to get the most accurate start-time measurement we can manage, just to work a hack in), then use my 7-minutes of meeting time to explain what's set up in the parking lot and give a quick summary of some of the crazy expeditions of the 1700s events...

Larry

[Chris Meyer]

We'll be attempting this observation from our parking lot tonight yet, no guarantees but at the very least we'll have some welding helmets to stare through!


Chris

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[Bob Baddeley]

I made hackaday this morning.

http://hackaday.com/2012/06/07/getting-your-stuff-built-how-to-shop-conduct-business-stay-alive-and-eat-your-way-through-shenzhen/