Anyone interested in a workshop in Houston, TX? Or does anyone know of an Arduino usergroup?
I'm in Houston, but I do not know of any groups here. How about we start one?
sounds good to me. how much experience do you have with the arduino?
not all that much, to be honest. I'm playing around with danger shield right now, but trying to get my mind wrapped around charlieplexing leds.
Myself and a couple of co-workers play with them right now. I've worked quite a bit w/ them for motion and camera control, and am currently getting real deep into the TSL230R light sensor. I'd be more than happy to talk about using the TSL, easy drivers, motion topics, and camera stuff.
One of my coworkers seems to have just about everything in any way related to the arduino =) He could probably talk about a more extensive range of interfaces.
!c
I'm in Austin, but I might attend one of these if you had one. I'd enjoy learning about motion and camera control and other hardware stuff and could probably discuss software topics if anyone was interested.
Mikal
sure lets set something up. is there any particular time/day that's better for you guys? after 5:30 is good for me. i'm located in the med center and might be able to get a room to meet in after work if thats a good location for you, otherwise i'm down to travel wherever (after traffic dies down!).
lets get together a list of topics people would like to present also. i'm pretty much new to the hardware platform (been playing about a month now) but i've made some interesting toys mainly with a wii nunchuck and a few servos.
let me know what you think.
edit: yeah mikalhart, that would be great if you can come. the more the merrier! watch this thread to stay updated.
I'm down for a workshop/get-together - but will be hard pressed for time until after the holidays. Definitely can't do anything before 12/10.
Perhaps we should schedule the first for post-new years, that way we have time to get a few presentations together and drum up a little more of an audience? I could certainly get together just to chat for a couple of hours before then, but anything more productive is going to be a bit out of reach.
!c
ok sure. sorry, i sometimes forget i'm relatively unattached without family/kids/wife/ect ;D
i've been trying to think of something i could present that would be of interest as well, so that would give me time to find a project, order parts if need be, and have time for a suitable write up too. 
what do you think the next steps should be? drumming up interest and deciding who will present/what to do during the meeting?
I live one hour from Austin and two from Houston.
Count me in.
My Bride and child seem to enjoy it when I am away. 
Definitely to drum up some interest would be a first step - would be kind of boring to have just two or three people there grin Then we should have some sort of line-up for what talks would be available.
I would happily do a talk on making useful representations of the data from the TSL230 series -- all of the online examples range from banal to purely useless. I should have a library out by January that will allow you make real (e.g. photometric) calculations from it easily... Running down this path also made it clear why there weren't any good examples -- I've had to go buy refresher books on Algebra2 and Calculus =)
Would we want presenters to make kits available? i.e. if we give a talk on how to solve a problem using a particular circuit, we could have kits together with all of the components, and those who want would sign-up before hand and get the kit there...
!c
I'm all for presentations and kits, if we've got that available. I'm thinking something along the lines of each person in attendance giving a short overview of their favorite project as of lately. We'll have a mix of beginner/intermediate/advanced then. As for a date, how about January 5th or 12th? That will give people time to reassemble themselves after the holidays.
That TSL230 stuff looks like fun, but admittedly a bit over my head at this point! Are you getting an analog measurement of light intensity from it?
I'm good for the 12th - that should work perfectly for me.
As for project overview, I think that would be a good idea - it may help people to figure out who to ask questions of, if they're working on a similar project.
w/ the TSL230, it's a matter of getting a frequency out of the chip, which then has to be mapped out to a wavelength of light to get the amount of power falling on the sensor. All of this is fine for simple applications where you just want some relative measurement of light. However, if you want to go further into light-topics, such as measuring the perceived amount of light reflecting off a surface (lux) or radiating from a source (lumen) - you have to take into account wavelengths, surface area, and the responsivity of the chip to different wavelengths.
... I'm working on a library to do most of the conversions for a user of the chip, and also will be putting a tutorial on the best way to get information from the chip (hint: it's not pulseIn() =)
I'm not sure what kind of a kit it would work out to be for such a talk, I mean, all you would need is the chip and an arduino - I'm thinking I'll perhaps make it a talk about controlling camera exposure via metering ambient light (which is my goal), which would require a few more components.
!c
Did you guys ever have a workshop? I'm relatively new and looking to learn as much as I can. Also looking to possibly hire people to help me put together some Arduino based artwork (sculptures).
No, we're planning on a meeting come January 12.
If you don't mind a rookie being there, I'd be interested in attending.
Is the Houston meeting still a go? I'd love to hear someone talk about the basics of designing and building your own printed circuits. Perhaps we can make a checklist of topics that people are interested in hearing about or capable of talking about.
Is there a specific location/time planned yet? It may be hard for me to make it mid-week, but I'll try!
MIkal
Mikal - good question - razorrifh had mentioned he has a possibility for a location, if not - we'd need to find somewhere to meet.
!c
Happy New Year!
Perhaps what we meant was January 11th? The 12th is a Monday and may not be feasible for those coming in from outside of Houston proper. Regardless, January 11th is fast approaching. Anyone have an idea for a good location? I was thinking we might be able to get use of the upstairs area of the Flying Saucer downtown in the early afternoon. Their food is good and beer selection is unbeatable for those that are interested. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated, of course.
I've been slacking a bit on Arduino stuff lately, but I'm always up for talking about ideas to pursue. My latest play thing is an RGB led dimmer. Press a button to increase/decrease Red, Blue, or Green. Certainly not anything impressively advanced, but it amuses me. I'll have an RC plane radio transceiver and receiver, some servos, and a wowee roboquad to play with next week, so maybe I'll have something more to share by the time the 11th comes around.
I'm looking forward to meeting other Houston area Arduino enthusiasts. Please reply if you intend to attend.
I am in the Austin area but would like to attend your meeting. I have a son in Houston that may also attend. How do we sign-up to be notified etc...