User:Shane

Hello, I'm Shane.

I'm fairly new to the hackspace (April, 2024) and I'm eagerly giving some love to the wiki. If I've gotten ahead of myself, lemme know!

Project: Wiki

I’ve always liked Wikis, but Wikipedia has always felt a bit too awkward to contribute to. There’s not a specific niche that I feel helpful in filling the gaps of and the places I do know a bit about are well trodden enough that I feel I’m stepping on other people’s toes by editing them.

The Space wiki has loads of room for pages to expand and be updated though! There are hundreds of articles of documentation here that are in need of a bit of extra detail or modernising. As a new member to the Space, I’ve found editing the pages a nice way of finding history and discovering what we have to offer. Along with our Member Guide, this space is the landing pad for many members, and it’s important to make it an approachable one.

One of the first notes we have on the Wiki is “be bold”. I’ve been embracing that recently. I’m also aware that I have a strong voice whilst writing (which I struggle to shake off), so feel free to let me know if I’m adding in a tone that we don’t want to foster here. I’ll keep chugging on until someone says otherwise.

Specific goals:

• Kick off the Wiki and Documentation monthly meetings again. I’m not sure why they stopped previously (and it might be worth figuring that out before I try to start them again) but having a dedicated, social event to spend an hour or two improving and expanding doesn’t seem time badly spent.
• Start a #wiki-and-documentation channel on Discord to coordinate and share latest changes.
• Bring Access to the space, Getting to the space, and Cleaning the hackspace page to high standard that’s quickly useful for new members.

Project: Dog stank bike

There's a bike that's been in the hallway (you know the one) that has been there for as long as I've been a member. I imagine whoever left it there is in a bit of a pickle: with the flat tyre, they can't get it home. Maybe one day they'll have the energy to carry it home, or maybe that friend can give them a lift with the bike... It's all too much of a faff.

Specific goals:

• Fix the bike for them. I've recently learnt how to fix bike punctures and we have all the stuff to do it! Maybe I'll just do it.

Project: Robots in the Kitchen

This is a draft project, basically. Still in the ideas phase.

This is a pie in the sky project, which I’m hoping to start *very* small with and go step by step.

This is an electronics project where I’d like to get a couple of robots cooperatively working to complete a sequence of steps which moves an object from different states, to a final state where the operation is complete. Moving the object from State 1 to State 2 means taking it and placing it in a specific area for a few moments. Then, finally dropping off the object in its completed state.

I’d like to make Overcooked, but with some robots.

Now, I have zero ability with electronics and my only coding skills are in web development. I’ve basically no understanding of how to make the two robots communicate, or to have them know where they are, or how to spot the ‘plate’ they’re working on.

Phase 1: Where am I?

I’d like to create a number of Tiles which each have an identifier. A Box can be placed on the Tile and know where it is.

Even this seems like a lot for me to be learning about electronics.

Not a grid of tiles?

My first thought was that I'd have a chess board of tiles to cover the entire "area of play".

I was considering rfid in the tiles, but it seems the range will be too long. NFC is much shorter, but still will struggle when the tiles are next to each other.

Then I realised: maybe the tiles don’t need to touch each other. I’m thinking of path finding across the map of tiles, but actually maybe that’s not needed.