fizzPOP Howduino

The fizzPOP Howduino will take place on Saturday 21st of November from 10am to 5:30pm at VIVID in Digbeth, Birmingham [map]. We'll be taking over the gallery's warehouse space so there will be plenty of tables and chairs. It's up to you to bring your laptop (if you need one) and any bits and pieces you might need for your project. The exceptions are for the workshops.

For everyone doing Gismos for Beginners, you will get a Freeduino, which is a fully Arduino-compatible microcontroller as part of the workshop price; you will need to bring your laptop. For everyone doing the Animated Gizmos workshop, you will need to bring an Arduino compatible micro-controller, and your laptop, you will get all of the other electronic components as part of the workshop price. There is more detail on the workshop pages.

Entry to the event is free, but we're encouraging people to make a donation to contribute towards the event and refreshments.

Tickets for the 40 available places will be released on Friday 6th of November on a first-come first-served basis. Likewise for the workshops.

Gizmos for Beginners workshop (8 places, approx 2.5 hours of tuition plus Freeduino and other components) £25, sign up in advance, pay on the day.

Animated Gizmos workshop for those with some experience with Arduino (8 places, approx 1.5 hours of tuition plus components, bring your own Arduino/Freeduino) £12.50, sign up in advance, pay on the day.

Places for the workshops have now all gone. If you missed out and have a regular attendee ticket, but are still interested in attending a workshop if we can make more places on them available, please add your name to this page.

If you don't wish to attend the Gizmos for Beginners workshop, but would still like to buy a Freeduino from us, then please contact us on info@fizzpop.org.uk before Monday November 9th. We will try to arrange to have some Freeduino's for sale on the day, but please understand that we may not be able to obtain enough.

fizzPOP is a hackerspace based in Birmingham. The fizzPOP Howduino is supported by Hello Digital and VIVID.

Who'll Be Attending?

Tickets have been released, and are available from http://fizzpophowduino.eventbrite.com/

We'll get the most out of the day if we find out a bit more about who's coming, what sorts of thing you're interested in, and your areas of (or lack of) expertise.  Tell us a bit about yourself below, then start brainstorming what we can build on the PossibleProjects page.

1. Adrian McEwen - blog twitter.com/amcewen - Howduino organiser and Arduino hacker, better at software than hardware
2. Thom Shannon - blog twitter - Another Howduino organiser and Arduino hacker, mainly a software guy
3. Nikki Pugh - npugh.co.uk @genzaichi - fizzPOP organiser. Enthusiastic learner of new stuff. Needs to learn more about programming, but is happy to noodle around inside bleepy toys.
4. Antonio Roberts - blog @hellocatfood - fizzPOP organiser, manipulator of data
5. 'GB-)' Bulmer - fizzPop-er, Ourduino workshops, software & some hardware, explorer of time and sensors 
6. Helen Street - maker of things usually involving fabric and/or stopmotion. Has no understanding of technical wizardry.
7. James Steventon - www.jamessteventon.com - Apologetic Artist.
8. Dave Johnson - software engineer, radio amateur, space geek http://www.uk.amsat.org/
9. Annabel Smith - Total technological novice. English teacher, interested in data/circuit bending.
10. Lori Amor - Artist with a tiny bit of experience with electronics and programming. Been wanting to have a play with Arduino for a long time now and happy for an excuse to do so...
11. Ben O'Steen - always interested in teh shiny and fun. Particularly interested in connecting the physical with the networked. Most current idea is trying to make a happiness detector/meter using OpenCV to detect 'thumbs up' from people and an arduino controlling the physical feedback.
12. John Eccleston - software engineer.  Interested in systems "observing" the physical environment
13. Dan W - @iamdanw - Tinkerer. More software than hardware experience. Will probably be making silly tweeting things.
14. Stephen Spicer - Artist with vague and unworkable ideas about re-using old and new technology. 

Projects

Got an idea for something?  Stick it down here, particularly if you need some help working out what parts you need, or just want to drum up some help from fellow attendees.

Somewhere to Stay?

If you're travelling from outside of the region and need somewhere to stay the nearest places are The Old Crown and the Birmingham Central Backpackers

Food / Refreshments 

We'll be providing basic hot and cold drinks and some biscuits to keep the blood-sugar up. There aren't many food options nearby, so the easiest/quickest thing to do is to bring your own lunch with you. We'll be speaking with local sandwhich shops to try and arrange a coordinated order and delivery on the day - more details to follow...

I Don't Know My Soldering Iron From My USB Cable

Don't worry.  We're still working out exactly how things are going to work, but there'll be something for all abilities.  Head over to the PossibleProjects page and add your thoughts to the "Beginners Projects" discussion.

Keeping Up With Changes

When you join this wiki you'll automatically (I think) get sent an email whenever it changes.  If you want to stop the emails then you can change the setting in your account profile.  If you want to track changes in your RSS reader, then subscribe to the recent changes RSS feed.  There's also the @Howduino twitter account where we'll be tweeting about all things Howduino.