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.

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

Virtual Arduino

Design and test Arduino circuits using the Tinkercad simulator.  https://www.tinkercad.com/ 

Here I am testing the use of inline assembler instructions in the Arduino IDE to blink the onboard LED.

Vulca Makers mobility program visit Blackpool Makerspace

“Vulca’s main objective is to understand the impact of makers & hackers on mobility throughout Europe.

To demonstrate this impact, we plan to launch a research project about makers & hackers and their mobility via several networks, including Fab Labs, Biolabs, Makerspaces & Hackerspaces.”

“With hundreds of spaces and thousands of citizens involved in the Makers/Hackers movement, VULCA will soon be working on a PILOT PROJECT in collaboration with the European Commission. Pioneers of the Makers/Hackers Mobility in Europe, we invite you to join the 3rd VULCA Seminar in POZNAN. We have organised this seminar in close collaboration with the Hack’Mak’Fab’ Poland network and Zaklad Makerspace.”

2 – 4 May Vulca seminar :- https://vulca.eu/seminar_poznan/

First contact:-

Hi  Makerspace FY1,

We have seen your page on https://blackpoolmakerspace.wordpress.com/, so we have a question is MakerspaceFY1 is still alive and the Makers/Hackers community active in this part of Blackpool?

Just a quick introduction about us:
Vulca Makers Mobility Program is an Association created in 2015

We are starting 2019 with a ninth VULCA TOUR after 3 years traveling all over Europe.
Our team for this ninth VULCA TOUR is based on 2 Volunteers makers from France. I (Thomas Sanz) and Alexandre Rousselet.

Vulca is an initiative to facilitate the exchange of makers within the network of Fab Labs / Makerspace / Biolabs / Hackerspaces in Europe.
We are actively working to study and prove the Makers Mobility Impact. (Based on Skills and knowledge transfer, Soft Skills, and so on …).

Behind this European association, nearly 100 volunteers are working on that. They visited nearly 250 spaces these last few years and 2 members of our team are actually passing in UK.

This is our Agenda for this expedition:

1)  IRELAND – 14th to 24th January
(Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Sligo, Ballyshannon, Manorhamilton, Derry, Belfast)

2) SCOTLAND – 25th to 30th January 

(Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Findhorn, Edinburgh, Glasgow).

3) ENGLAND + WALES – 31st January to 28 February

Cockermouth + Dumfries – 31th

Sunderland + Newcastle upon Tyne – 1st

Airedale + Leeds + York + Hebden Bridge – 2/3rd

Lancaster + BlackPool + Preston – 4/5th

Work in progress

Can we come to Blackpool and meet you the 4th?
(When it suits for you the best)

If yes, when is it possible to meet you exactly? In attachment some picture of us in Ireland these last few days to make this email more personal and maybe you’ll see some familiar faces…

Have a good day.

Best regards.

Alex” & Thom”

Hello from Poland

Blackpool Makerspace received an invitation from Poland to attend a financial services conference to be held in London on Thursday 4th October.

The invite generated much discussion about the media the invite arrived on. A 3.5 inch floppy disk!  One of our younger members, Josh, had never seen a real floppy disk before.

Some suggested the floppy was a stunt to make the invite stand out and become a talking point, as only geeks would have the ability or hardware to read a floppy.

On a separate note,  Dan Lynch from Liverpool Makerspace came for a visit today before going with Les to the Blackpool Raspberry Jam birthday party. Four years and still going strong.

Energy Self-Sufficiency in an Urban Environment

2018/8/18 meeting

Some of the members of Blackpool Makerspace have been considering undertaking one or more energy self-sufficiency based projects with reference to a Blackpool Town-House.

Water recycling, Solar hot water generation, Solar electric generation, wind generation of electricity, other types of generators which can or could use a range of different fuels.

Also considered as possible projects: How to store the energy for later use, using batteries, water tanks, piles of bricks and other yet to be thought of ideas. How to minimise energy use, and how to conserve energy.

Food production is also being considered. Compact growing systems for confined spaces, including hydroponic and Aquaponic.

While looking for projects, it became apparent that there are numerous old patents and designs which have been sidelined or forgotten about in the name of progress. There was also a suspicion that big business buy up patents if the patents in question may pose a threat to their business model.

Practicality, cost, and return on investment will be considered for each project under consideration. For example, it was pointed out that the cost of the scaffolding alone would be over £1000 before any type of solar panels could be put on the Makerspace roof. With wind turbines, there is legislation regarding hight and size to be considered. There is a lot of conflicting information relating to solar and wind generation, with the marketing people tending to push the most expensive option as opposed to the most efficient, or best value for money option.

Energy companies in the UK are pushing (marketing) smart meters as an energy awareness and possibly energy saving option. But it has been reported in the press that the meter might cease to be smart and need replacing when you switch to a new supplier. It is also reported that the meter may not save the user any money at all. Given that switching supplier is becoming more common, needing a new meter every time you switch looks like a huge waste of money and resources.  http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-4912922/Smart-device-replaced-swap.html

There are numerous free and open source methods of energy monitoring which may be more appropriate and waste less resources. The Open energy monitoring project: https://openenergymonitor.org/

More details of our progress will appear as we continue to investigate the options.

Jon travels from New Zealand to attend the Blackpool LUG

Les, Tony and Jon –    The Screaming Penguins together again…..

 

 

AGM Summary

Attending: Mike, Tony, Les, Jeff, Mark, Dave and Josh.

Mike Hull was re-elected as Chairman, Mike Hewitt was re-elected as secretary and Tony Hughes was re-elected as Treasurer.

The Treasurers report indicated the club finances were in reasonable shape with a small surplus. It was discussed if we should spend this surplus on tools and equipment, or use it to complete the shower/bathroom.

We discussed the upcoming (in October) Craft Council Make:Shift:Do event and wondered how we could better promote the event this year.

With regards to how the club is progressing, and any pros and cons, it was suggested that maybe the club should have something like a mission statement, or an overarching focus/vision/aims statement. This is to be discussed further.

 

Annual General meeting 2018

 

It is time for an Annual General Meeting. It is proposed we hold the AGM on Saturday 23 June 2018 at 10am.

It would be great if as many as possible members and friends can attend to voice their opinion on the ongoing operation of Blackpool Makerspace and LUG.

 

Blackpool LUG and Makerspace May 30th 2015

Attending: Mike Hull, Mike Hewit, Joe, Ricky, Tony Jeff and Martin

This week Tony experimented with an Arduino driving motors salvaged from floppy/hard drives, with Martin as an interested observer.

Ricky was repairing his robot which had suffered from a ‘meltdown’

Joe continued working on his gaming servers, while I looked at dcore  Linux, a Debian derivative of tinycore Linux which can include self contained applications.

Ongoing restoration of the basement space

The two new concrete lintels in place above the doors. The doors need to be higher because the floor will be higher after the insulation and ‘floating’ floor has been fitted.

The first layer of waterproofing has gone onto the bare bricks at one end of the basement. The waterproofing is going on all the walls and floor before the insulation is put in place.