2019.11.16

Attending,

Les, Tony, Arthur, Joe, Mark, Mike, Jeff, Stan and Theo.

the raspberry pi zero project moves on another step.

The pi on the right mirroring the windows machine on the left. Windows has tightvnc server running while the pi connects with remmina.

Tony brought some vintage die cast dinky cars for restoration.

Arthur worked on the range finder for his robot.

Joe continued work on his “war driving/walking” project.

Mark was familiarising himself with a new phone and installing required apps.

And in his own words, Les tweets:

2019.11.9 meeting

Attending

Mark, Anthony, Jeff and Mike.

The three items the raspberry pi zero project had been waiting for. HDMI to VGA converter, usb to usb converter (for the keyboard)

And a usb adapter for programming the SD card.

Nothing displayed on the screen as the pi booted, but fortunately, Anthony knew that the boot config file would need changing to indicate we had a VGA monitor attached and not an HDMI screen. Once Anthony demonstrated how to modify the config file we were in business.

Next week, Jeff is bringing his router for us to set up the WiFi connection.

Ubuntu 19.10 upside down

On Saturday, Les mentioned he was impressed with his new install of Ubuntu 19.10, so I decided to give it a try. This is what it looked like on my HP Probook 6440. Upside down!

The install took 17 minutes from booting the installer to rebooting into the new system. It is very responsive, and almost as fast as Xubuntu on the same machine.

upasidedown

Working upside down, I selected try ubuntu. Once started, I opened a terminal (still upside down) and used xrandr to look at the problem. The screen was set to inverted.

 

Screenshot from 2019-10-27 07-28-18

I thought I could use ‘inverted’ again to turn it the other way up, but not so. ‘Normal’ is the parameter needed, as shown in the screenshot  below.

The last command at the bottom shows the xranr command to correct the problem.

Screenshot from 2019-10-27 07-29-29

This is only a temporary fix which is lost after a reboot, so before rebooting, do this:

sudo apt-get remove iio-sensor-proxy 
the above info is from 'ask ubuntu'here: 
Fix inverted screen

 

2019.10.26

Attending this week:

Mark, Mike Hull, Les, Jeff and Mike Hewitt.

This week, the meeting had a raspberry pi flavour.

From the archive:

October 2015 we opened the doors to our new space. It lasted 4 years and finally closed in September 2019.

https://blackpoolmakerspace.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/we-are-open/

October 2013, getting busy at Ripon road

https://blackpoolmakerspace.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/blackpool-makerspace-getting-busy/

Ten years ago, doesn’t time fly!

https://blackpoolmakerspace.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/acer-aspire-one-tips/

Right to repair – International repair day

Saturday 19 October 2019 marks the third International Repair Day,  and the theme this year is “Repair for Future”.

The “Repair for Future” theme for International Repair Day reminds us that we have to act now in a way that will ensure the survival of today’s young people and future generations, not just here in prosperous, high-consuming countries but everywhere.

The Restart Project started after years working with communities on the sharp edge of our voracious appetite for resources: farmers having their fields seized for pine plantations used for paper production; communities whose common land is taken from them for mining.

2019.10.19 meeting

Attending: Arthur,Joe,Jeff,Mark,Mike Hull, Mike Hewitt.

Two projects continued from last week.

Arthur continued to work on his range finder.

Joe had more to do on his wardriving project.

Mark looked at AVG antivirus for his new Samsung phone.

Jeff discussed a raspberry pi project in the pipeline.

The two Mikes sat in the corner and sorted Brexit out 😁 with help from every one else.

2019.10.12 Palatine library meeting

Attending: Arthur, Joe, Mark, Mike

Arthur arrived with a portable oscilloscope and used it to investigate a problem with a range finder which was not responding as expected.

Joe worked on some hardware he had built to do wardriving:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving
The equipment is portable, so ‘warwalking’ is possible. Picture below.


Mark started looking for a new internet service provider. He had been a BT customer for seven years and realised he was paying an excessive amount for the service provided.

I spent the morning playing with slackware and Porteus Linux.

Right to repair

Dear Blackpool Makerspace,

I am getting in touch with you on behalf of The Restart Project, a London-based charity and social enterprise that aims to fix our relationship with electronics.

Last year, we held Fixfest UK, a UK-wide event in Manchester with participants from 25 community repair groups from across the country.

Together, we drafted [The Manchester Declaration](https://manchesterdeclaration.org/), calling policymakers and companies for more repairable products.  Over 30 community repair groups from around the UK have added their voices as signatories, alongside organisations like Greenpeace, Keep Britain Tidy and more.

Any UK repair group, whether fixing electricals or other products, is invited to sign and show their support, as well as any ally (makerspace, school, company). Based on your work, we think your organisation may be interested in singing and joining the movement too. Together, we can all push for our Right to Repair in the UK.

We look forward to hearing from you,

Isabel Lopez , Communications Assistant,  @The Restart Project