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[Reply #15 on:]

Is there a Toronto Arduino Group meeting this weekend?

[Reply #16 on:]

The next meeting of the Bug'n'Bots group is the BBQ on the second saturday of August. So the next robot build fest is on the second saturday of September. Sadly, no other Arduino members make it to the last build fest.

[Reply #17 on:]

Sorry guys for my absence, just finished moving to Richmond Hill. If anyone is still interested I could ask my school (located Bathurst and 407) if they would let us use a room on saturdays. The school is about an hour ride via transit or 40 minutes by car from downtown. If I can get some people together I'll set a date. Also the school is a lot closer for waterloo people cause its right next to the 407 hopefully we can get a meeting within the next couple weeks!!!

Hope this thread hasnt gone dead yet...

Nigel

[Reply #18 on:]

I'm at Bathurst and Steels, so you can count on me being there. Looking forward to a meeting!

[Reply #19 on:]

Nick,

I am interested and I am sure that one or two other people from the Waterloo area might be interested in car pooling with me.

[Reply #20 on:]

I'm interested and Bathurst/7 is certainly close enough for me.

[Reply #21 on:]

K well seems that we definitely have an interest here, so I will ask the head of the student council to line up a room for us on Saturdays, It will probably be either a science lab or if possible the computer lab, not sure since they are currently upgrading to Imac's ) I have a few students at school interested, so hopefully we have a good turnout! Also we should come up with an agenda of what we want to accomplish with our meetings. I think we have gone over this at some point in the thread but would like to refresh everyone's memory.

1. Introduce everyone and share a little bit of past experience of working with electronics.
2. Share one (or more) of our current projects or, a project idea that we want to work on, or need help with.
3. A discussion about what we want to happen in our group, future meeting times, a group projects, group orders to get special pricing?
4. Spend an hour or so networking with people that have expertise in different areas (for example I'm not great at coding but love the hardware side of electronics)

Please feel free to add to this agenda, all ideas are welcome!

Hopefully I will be able to set a date for Saturday the 27th (or if there's enough people who can make it, the 20th) If it is more convenient for the majority I don't have problem with Sunday, so give me some feedback on what's best for you!

Nigel

[Reply #22 on:]

My preference would be for a Sunday

[Reply #23 on:]

My preference would be for a Sunday

I'm fine with Sundays, if it's not before 1PM (church day...). Saturdays would be better tho...

So at the first meeting we'll be doing points 1-4? That sounds cool! Can't wait to get there!

[Reply #24 on:]

My preference would be for a Sunday

I'm fine with Sundays, if it's not before 1PM (church day...). Saturdays would be better tho...

So at the first meeting we'll be doing points 1-4? That sounds cool! Can't wait to get there!

[Reply #25 on:]

Do you know of a shop in Toronto that can do custom plexiglass laser-cutting?
Thanks.

[Reply #26 on:]

florinc,

if you type "toronto custom laser cutting" into your favourite browser you will find a gazillion hits.

Finding a laser cutter is not hard, they are a dime a dozen . . . finding one you can afford is a completely different matter.

I can assure you that almost every one of those nice laser cut projects you have stumbled upon on sites like Instructables, have most likely been cut via skunk works or black ops methods (i.e. someone works at a place with a laser cutter and they manage to run off a "government job" after hours).

Very few hobbyists' have enough coin to pony up the $100+/hour most shops will charge.

Your best bet is to try and find a hacker space with a laser cutter and join up.

[Reply #27 on:]

CSingleton,
Thank you for your help.
I've been google-searching for "toronto laser cutting" for a while, with no success. Most of the gazillion results are useless, that is why I, somehow reluctantly, asked the question here. Believe it or not, I was not able to find a shop where they can cut plexiglass for $100/hour. I would appreciate if you can point me to at least one of these shops.
Thanks again.

[Reply #28 on:]

University of Toronto has one Get some kid to do it for you!

http://www.daniels.utoronto.ca/resources/model_workshop/laser_cutter/3196

Hacklab.to might have a laser cutter but I'm not sure...

By the way CSingleton: Did you end up joining the waterloo maker group?

[Reply #29 on:]

Darudude good to hear from you.

No I didn't join the KW Make Group . . . it looked interesting, but there were two things that held me back:

The first was finances as I was laid off for a couple of weeks over the summer and am now only working 3-4 days a week . . . with my job still very much in jeopardy.

The other issue for me was that since I have access to a complete machine shop (though my current tenuous employment) and have a fairly well equipped home shop, the group seemed to offer me primarily a networking opportunity at a fairly heavy cost of about $600/year.

For that much money I could buy a lot of Arduinos (maybe a couple of Megas and a Gator version) or better yet purchase a used lathe or mill for my home.

Unfortunately, the laser that I had access to last year is located at my former division; however, there are rumors of an amalgamation of the two buildings, so if I manage to survive the coming corporate shake out . . . I might just have the use of it once again.