Our friends at New Blankets has been talking with the FFL about collaborating, and invited me and Jon Santiago from NYC Resistor to visit the library and meet with Lauren Britton Smedley, the librarian behind the project. We built bristlebots, and printed kid’s designs on the Makerbot.

Making bristlebots

The library is located in the hundred-year-old L & J.G. Stickley furniture factory. One wing of the factory has been turned into the library, and the other wing is where the fab lab is going to go. It’s a huge space – several times the footage of CRASHspace, and it’s all open space, so they can build it out however they want. They’ve raised over $250,000 to build the hackerspace. It’s going to be a great space.

Inside the FFL Fab Lab

They already have two MakerBot Thing-O-Matics, and plan on adding a laser cutter, CNC router, and other maker tools.

On Friday the 6th, we had 25 kids from The New School, and showed them how to make bristlebots. Between the kids and the staff, over two days, we used up 50 pager motors (none of the kids knew what a pager was, so we had to call them cell phone motors). The motors didn’t have long leads, so we had to add a wire to one side, but soldering irons aren’t allowed because the factory has burned down twice, and there are still wood chips and sawdust on the floor of the unfinished wing. Lauren knows they need to allow soldering irons if they really want to be a hackerspace.

Joe Deken shows the kids how to make bristlebots

After the bristlebots, we printed up a storm on the MakerBots. We had computers set up so people could use 3Dtin.com and tinkerCAD.com to make their own designs. In no time, this girl designed a horse, which we printed out for her:

A horse, of course

Saturday was an open house, and we had all sorts of folks visit. Everyone seems excited about having a pace where they can learn to make things. It’s great that a space like this will be open to the public for free, and that they’re building a space where people can make things in a former factory where they used to make furniture.

Hopefully you already know about Safecast – they are a group of hackers and volunteers who are working to map radiation levels in Japan after the 3/11 earthquake earlier this year and providing all the data freely and openly for anyone to use. In doing this they realized the need for this kind of data outside of Japan as well and are teaming up with some hackerspaces to help fill in other areas around the world on their map!

The main way they are taking these measurements is with a device designed at The Tokyo Hackerspace called a “bGeigie” – it’s basically a geiger counter paired with an arduino and a GPS module which gets strapped to a car and driven around. Starting with the US (if this experiment works we’ll add the rest of the world soon) we have the idea of doing a bGeigie Hackerspace tour. The plan is, one bGeigie will make it’s way around the country, from hackerspace to hackerspace, measuring and mapping all the way. For a hackerspace to participate, the agreement would be to drive the device around your city taking a ton of readings, uploading the data to Safecast, and then physically driving (taking readings along the way) the bGeigie to the next closest participant. Ideally this will start and end in Los Angeles here at Crash Space, so with any luck the route will be a big giant loop. Depending on who volunteers.

Want to get in on the action? AWESOME! Please fill out this interest form and we’ll start planning the route right away.

We were featured in Hack This!

Check out upcoming events, highlights from last week, and Sparkles’ debut as a centerfold in our latest newsletter!

Read More…

Crashers Justin, Kyle, the kids and I built the trebuchet from plans featured by John Park on the Make TV show. The kids assembled and were taught how to use it before the faire. His team showed off this trebuchet, a golf ball hurling catapult, a home made crossbow, and sword fighting (along with written info cards and dioramas of the coliseum). Separately, the other teams showed off foods, outfits, gods and goddesses, and how mummies are prepared and set into a kid-size sarcophagus. The mummies all came back to life after being laid to rest. It was at this time that I realized mummies have been replaced by zombies in the modern age.

Make Magazine is the ultimate printed resource for folks looking for Do-It-Yourself projects that generally involve electronics, crafts, and hands-on science. So when Editor in Chief Mark Frauenfelder suggested the idea of having a night where Crash Space would host a Show and Tell of projects people have been working on -AND- the presenters could score a paid gig writing about the project for Make, we jumped at the chance!

Friday night, we had a dozen projects to show off and Crash Space members presented them in a fun discussion format guided along by a 10 minute timer. Mark found all of them to be possible candidates for various sections of the magazine. A feature article, full DIY write-ups, one-page overviews, projects in three steps, and a potential new section entitled “ReMake” were all exciting possibilities.

List of Projects!
- Clever Furniture Repair via Michelle
- Dazzling Laser Light Show via Chris
- Internetable Robotic Heartbeat via Theron
- DECO Cosmic Ray Detectors via Levi
- Safecast GPS Geiger Counters via Mike
- Wii Interactive Whiteboard via James
- Arduino iPad Emulation via Russell
- Sparkles the Unicorn via Matt
- Timelapse Video Mount via Matt
- Daryll’s Digital Dominos via Mike
- Store Front Music via All
- Physics Defying Waterfall via Naim

The night was an awesome example of the diversity and creativity people have in devoting their time and energy to a project. We explored a side of invention that includes the practical, the instructional, the important, the ground-breaking, and just plain cool. I hope to see these projects covered in future issues of Make. But more than that, I am excited to see how others discover,  build, and expand on these projects and go on to make their own.

The next Pitch Make Night is expected in about a month. Let us know if you have a project YOU would like to show and tell!

Becoming a non-profit will open up new funding sources to help CRASH Space further it’s mission. We’d like to continue to teach people interesting, useful stuff they wouldn’t otherwise have learned as cheaply as possible. We’re hoping to be able to subsidize a “scholarship” fund, perhaps even help fund some opensource community projects, etc.

To complete the process, we need cash for the application fees and a lawyer with California 501(c)3 (and CRASH Space) experience. He is going to file for our change in status as well as totally reinvent our corporate structure as a membership based corporation. We are hoping to raise $5,000 (US) to cover his fees, taxes, transaction costs and hopefully to put any residual into the scholarship fund.

We hate to ask, but we all want CRASH Space to not only live long and prosper but really make an impact here in LA and in as part of the bigger hackerspace movement.  The membership has piles of ideas and crazy antics on-hand for raising this much need funding, but the most efficient way to solve the problem is through donations, so please help us start the process by giving here:

To borrow a trick from public radio,  if you participate in the pre-fund-drive-fund-drive, we’ll have to do less interrupting of our usually awesome blog for things like this.

Thank you so much, from all of us!

Created from pictures taken by the Crash Cam

Sparkles 2 is our plan to build a new version of our mascot, Sparkles The Soldering Unicorn, that is capable of moving around, and has onboard radios and features for interaction.

So we’ve started the project in earnest, and will be focusing our upcoming classes on the design, features, and hardware.

We have a tumblr to track resources, inspiration, and pictures of the project: http://sparklestherobotunicorn.tumblr.com/

On Monday, February 7th at 8pm, we’ll have a design meeting, laying out the features, research areas, and necessary components for the first version of Sparkles 2. If you have a gadget or feature you think Sparkles just HAS to have, or have insight into the path our prototyping and research phase will take, come on by.

February 14th we’ll be discussing radar and radiolocation in general, and what systems sparkles will be able to use to see what’s where.We’ll have some cool demos, and possibly a version of what will actually be on Sparkles.

February 21st we’ll be discussing Zigbee low power digital radios, we’ll have a bunch of zigbee radios in the house, and talk both behavior and hardware. It’s a good bet one will end up on Sparkles, and we’ll talk about exactly what they’re capable of, how to use them for your own projects, and where to get them.

As our mascot, Sparkles is enduringly popular, and I think our robotic version will only be more so, as well as give us a platform to test cool mobile radio applications, show off our stylish hacker sensibility, and give people something really cool to look at, producing videos and pictures to get crashspace in the interblawgs more.

Get in touch with me if you have any input or ideas. outlawpoet@gmail.com

What will we do?

You will learn the basics, workflow and methods of this programming environment and paradigm through a few simple examples.
From there you’ll start to see the innumerable possibilities and get a glimpse under the covers. We will really start to see how it is changing our approach to large installation based projects, performance based art pieces and other realtime digital media. Getting a feel for this environment will no doubt inspire more questions and ideas which will dictate where we more deeply explore. Expect a great collaborative learning environment as dynamic as TouchDesigner itself.

Have a look at the forums and you will see that the community is small, but steadily growing. You can find answers to many initial questions there. One can also find a great repository of shared files and components offered by users and developers in an effort to connect TouchDesigner with a slew of amazing technologies being explored in digital creativity.

Explore the following:

- implementing a Kinect to create an interactive game or control device
- getting an arduino input working for an accelerometer
- light sensor feedback fun???
- a user interface to control a robot?
- a musical instrument that creates tones based on camera input???
- an interactive graphical environment or data visualization

So what is it really?

The interface is similar to Max/MSP or Pure Data, in that it is a visual, node-based programming environment. The objects at your disposal range from simple mathematical operations to complex OpenGL texture generators. There are several ways to customize and hand-code your own methods, as well as extend and connect to external generators, controllers, sensors, cameras, etc. You could look at it like a custom rigged combination of openFrameworks, processing and Max/MSP with a focus on creating real-time OpenGL based graphics.

Who is our guide?

The class will be led by Peter Sistrom. Peter is an architectural designer by trade, who’s interests have been veering towards generative art, realtime graphics and media environments for the last 3 years. He has worked in designing, installing and performing interactive and media based projects. These days, Peter devotes his free time to creating abstract visual animations and actively developing realtime media for live performance with TouchDesigner.

Of TouchDesigner Peter says:

In the last year I have been using TouchDesigner for my personal art making and some production work. In this time, I have grown more and more convinced of its place at the top of the new wave of multi-media art and production tools. This year has also seen the program used in several rather high profile productions, ranging from YouTube’s Guggenheim awards ceremony to the Plastikman (Richie Hawtin) world tour video system. Aside from full blown production, TouchDesigner has also been used in interactive installations and collaborative art making at MIT. TouchDesigner is also quite a pleasure when used for smaller personal projects, whether it be a music visualization, as the backbone for some fun I/O hacking, or just about anything else you can think of!

Come to Crash Space on February 23rd at 8p (cal link)
We’re asking non-members for a $10 donation to pay the instructor and keep the space open.

Want to start now?

– Derivative’s TouchDesigner has an extensive feature list.
– Other Derivative applications
– Derivative has produced some great video tutorials.
– Check the system requirements and download the free edition

[Updated 2011-11-13] fixed formatting and product name to “TouchDesigner”

[Updated 2011-11-21] updated link for Arduino-TouchDesigner interfacing

[Updated 2011-02-15] RSVP, invite your friends, or just see who’ll be there with the facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110587359019435

The CRASH Space BBS is a physical, “real world” space for posting interesting things.

Dozens of awesome, knowledgeable, and skilled software and hardware experts will see these posts.

Unlike online “bulletin boards”, passerbys will have multiple chances to read a single message as it is in “physical space” and has a more lasting presence.

CRASH Space members currently have posting privileges for reasonable levels of use (i.e. whatever they can get away with, see informal rules). We are now rolling out a paid posting service on our board to further engage the community with our members and their skills and because money is nice. Details on our wiki, here.

You can also contact the current project manager at

tl;dr = A list of some awesome things we did in 2010.

1. The Vimby/Scion Hacker Space Challenge
Last summer we were asked to participate in a contest to build a project for a web series involving 5 hacker spaces across the US. Funded by Scion, designed and judged by Mitch Altman, and filmed by Vimby. This event brought all our members together to help build Store Front Music and have an epic party.

2. Roboexotica 2010
Invent a robotic drink making machine and bring it to Vienna, Austria for the annual Roboexotica competition. We built The Exciterator from parts lying around the space and won the award for “Most Pleasurable Side Effects”.

3. Sparkles the Soldering Iron Unicorn
From a hastily drawn prototype to full-color reality, this electrically augmented pegasus melts lead on contact while maintaining her infectious smile. Need a third hand for some tricky soldering? Sparkles’ got ya covered!

4. Take-Apart Tuesdays
What to do after the regular meeting every Tuesday? We have screwdrivers, wirecutters, and a sawzall. Let’s take things apart! Thus Take-Apart Tuesdays was born and soon we had many cool items to explore and cannibilize. From discovering exactly how a calculator works to looking at the monstrous internals of a larger-than-life HDTV projector, this is a crowd favorite.

5. Radio Mondays
Every week, here lies a lesson and conversation on anything related to radio emmissions. Wireless communication, Ham radio, TV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, space-faring balloons, and more. Did you know a Jacob’s Ladder showcases early radio transmissions? At Radio Mondays, you have a chance to discover why.

6. Wednesday Speaker Series
Move the chairs and tables around and Crash Space becomes a Venue. We’ve been lucky enough to host awesome speakers and visitors like Mark Frauenfelder from Make, Johannes Grenzfurthner of Monochrom, Dave Mickey from CalArts, Steve Trousdale: Ghost Hunter, Chris Owens of Intelligensia, a demo from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories with more to come!

7. Hand Made Music Night
People make things. Some of those things make music. So let’s have a night where people who made music making things make music! Some electronic, some acoustic, all awesome. The event brought together musicians and sound enthusiasts from all over LA for a night of audio discovery. This popular event will happen again.

8. Makerbot Concerto
Crash Space had the largest concentration of Makerbots on the West Coast. We took those Makerbots and with the help of a talented composer, they played a tune through the movement of the bots’ servo motors. With the digital and mechanical components, it’s a cross between electronic and industrial music. The Makerbot Concerto took place on Hand Made Music Night.

9. Mega Take Apart/E-Waste Roundup
We collect electronics. Harvest the usable parts. And haul the leftover shreds of metal, plastic, lithium, etc. to an e-waste center. We call it Mega Take Apart. Other people call it reduce/reuse/recycle.

10. Sunday Crafternoon
A weekend not spent fighting zombies is well spent making needle and thread cow to your will. Sunday Crafternoon brings together those skilled in the cloth arts and makes room to tutor the uninitiated. Interested in wearable electronics or just something to wear? You can haz Sunday Crafternoon.

11. Crash Space Classes
If you want to learn it, someone at Crash Space can probably teach it. Schooling newbies and giving a chance for experts to freshen their skills, Crash Space classes cover all kinds of topics and projects. Make a TV-B-Gone. Learn all about 3D printing on the Makerbot. Build and program and Arduino microcontroller. Write your own Nintendo DS games. Classes are good for your thinking thingy.

12. Movie and Game Nights
When not inventing new circuits or repurposing off-the-shelf ponies, a night of offline entertainment makes for a fine time. Board games, card games, and tile games one night, zombie and sci-fi movies another. It’s fun to hack, but we, too need some downtime.

13. Lost Season Premiere – in an alternate timeline this would be #1
Forgoing the usual Take Apart Tuesday, we hooked the tv to an ancient visual transport system called a Roof Antenna to intercept transmissions of the season opener of the TV series, Lost. Nothing is quite like watching a weird, mysterious TV program in a room full of hackers. “You call that an atom bomb?!”

Here’s to our first year and to adding N more awesome in 2011!

Bonus! The CrashCam Flickr stream all in one go:

My Pummelvision from crashspacela on Vimeo.