2023-02-01 Transcript

Steve Barnett
  20:05
Meeting 01/02/2023
Attendees: Steve, Theo, Gareth Howell, Andy Foan, Malcolm Childs, Andrew Walters, Andrew Armstrong, Mike Haber, Ian Turner, Chris Reddish, Douglas Creek, Isatou, Atlas, Connor Wood, Adam Kulesza
20:09
Aaron joins (edited) 
20:10
Upcoming Events
Hack the Space - Sunday 5th which is the upcoming Sunday from 10am (edited) 


Steve Barnett
  20:16
We're a members run organisation, and Hack the Space day is a day for members to come in and make the space better. For example someone is coming in to fix the Blue Room tap. Trustees are coming in to top up and check health and safety stuff. Some members are in to clean stuff.
Theo's wife cleaned the dusty area when they were last in.
Mike asks people if they have anything particular they'd like to work on.
Gareth: Talking with Malcolm about coat hooks for the upstairs bathroom stalls.
Apparently it's been done by Malcolm and Andrew W. :slightly_smiling_face:
Mike: Reglue the lino in the kitchen. Could do with buying some glue.
Theo: Asks if something is wrong with the Dishwasher - apparently it doesn't take the soap.
Andrew W: Confirms soap isn't deploying. Likely needs someone to check it.
Gareth: Cleaner probably needs washing through and it needs rinse aid and salt. Will bring what is needed.
Steve: Will look at front door keypad, maybe some RFID things.
Gareth: Asks about electronics door.
Mike/Steve: It needed resetting because someone pressed the emergency exit button. It can be reset with the key which is usually kept in the grey box attached to it.
Mike: Suggests that people might need to be made aware that if they use the press to exit button they should let us know so someone can reset it.
Various: Point out that people are most likely going to ignore such a sign in the moment.





20:17
Mike: It does alert, but we don't know how chatty the alert is.
20:17
Might be good to make those alerts more obvious.
20:18
Please turn up to Hack the Space if you can and help out, there's always stuff to do.
20:20
Marianna Coulentianos joins
20:20
(Discussion about the Blue Room and the Piano)
20:24
One Shot Wonders - RPG Taster Sessions - Role Playing Games
Gareth: Played Call of Cthulhu last month, meeting again to finish it next Thursday
No game scheduled for February yet, but if interested ask in person or on Slack. It's good fun and quite silly.
Some members of the Combat Robotics group are going to an event on the 9th. Ant Freeze in Hinckley. It's a good thing Hackspace people are doing as a group. Also good as a spectator if you're interested in seeing what it's like.
Wiki page: https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Combat_Robotics
Theo offers some Lego Mindstorms stuff he is giving away
20:26
Metalworking Area:
Douglas - floor is currently in a state, we want to put down new flooring and once we have sockets and flooring we can move stuff down. There has been a slight change of plans, need to confirm with Josh how many sockets we need so we can get them ordered.
Will be useful to get the room empty. To do this we need to get people in to take it away. Chasing the people who moved the piano but it's been quite slow, so open to suggestions about other companies who might be suitable.
20:27
Do we expect to see anything before next meeting? Possibly yes - hopefully removals will happen on short notice once it starts moving. Not a lot more that can be done before that.
20:27
If any help is needed Douglas will post in #metalworking or #hackspace2point5
20:28
Actions and Minutes of Last Meeting
Just a few things with teams and setting the date for HTS day.
No actions.
20:30
Team Updates
Andrew - Emily can't make it but laser team has pruned current members. She will be doing a meeting for people interested in doing inductions on Sunday. Dominic is coming in to do some more major maintenance on the laser. Hoping once the team is back up we will get the backlog of inductions sorted.
Malcolm - Woodwork update - planer is now working. Mike is getting bags for the extractor in woodwork. Andrew W suggests it needs a good vacuum clean behind many of the tools. Ryobi bandsaw's days may be numbered. Motor is dead and it has other problems.
20:31
Andrew W suggests we should consider buying a new one. Mike asks for options.
20:31
Andrew suggests Josh's input would be helpful on this.
20:33
Network - Scheduled upgrade of our internet connection on Saturday 4th Feb between 13:00 and 18:00


Steve Barnett
  20:34
CNC - Theo suggests that the CNC repair is unsafe. It will call and will probably cause damage to something when it does fall. Really needs a race to support the bottom end of the leadscrew.

1 reply
2 months agoView thread


Steve Barnett
  20:35
Steve: Agrees that the current setup is not good, there's a lot of trust being put in some loctite.
20:36
General agreement to discuss it at the machine on Sunday.
20:37
Membership: Aaron suggests we should be asking if anyone else wants to do membership tours.
Mike: There's a script for it, and the best way to get into it is to follow someone else's tour around.
Andrew W tentatively volunteers
Mike: Currently working okay with the rota with people adding themselves on fairly short notice. Not super formally organised at the moment. (edited) 
20:38
Quite good to get to meet people, but not like inductions where you get expenses reimbursed, but they're rewarding.
20:39
Connor Wood: Electronics - not a lot of jellybean parts. No 555s or pin headers.
20:41
Steve: Currently the expectation is the electronics parts have been donated at some point and people have sorted them. People can take parts from electronics to get a project done but generally it's better to replace them once.
Discussion about what counts as a consumable and whether the Hackspace should restock them when they disappear.
Where do we draw the line?
20:43
This would be something that would be delegated to the Electronics team who would be able to make that decision and use some of their budget.


Steve Barnett
  20:46
Financial Update - No update

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2 months agoView thread


Steve Barnett
  20:46
3D Printing
There have been discussions in Slack about the 3D printing area around proposed guidelines and rules.
20:49
Do Not Hack - how to manage donated filament and people taking stuff. Is there a difference between the 3D printing area and the rest of the space?
Douglas: Suggests it comes down to whether the space provides filament.
In general, if you have an item it should be in a box or in Large Project Storage with a do not hack sticker. Obviously it would be expected that stuff with a DNH sticker shouldn't be taken, but that hasn't happened here. Best not to leave stuff lying around.
20:50
There is a lot of donated filament but it's the wrong diameter for the Enders.
Mike: We have stuff for inductions but the space doesn't provide filament for general use. The filament left as a donation possibly muddies things a bit. There are no consumables - all donations.
20:51
Various: Unless it's got a DNH stuff on it people might use it. There's a risk associated with using the space unfortunately.
20:53
Mike: Usually 3D printer filament is a raw material rather than a work in progress. A DNH sticker usually requires a project in HMS to print.
Andrew W: People might still label the raw materials with the project they intend them for.
20:54
Ian: We have guidelines. Put it in your box. If it's valuable take it home, and put a DNH sticker. This all stems from an unfortunate incident where someone forgot to put it away.
20:56
Marianna: Had a similar comment asking how big of a problem it is to understand how much time we should be spending on this. Also think even if it is a one off incident might be good to reflect on how to advertise those guidelines, especially if there is an intention to have more raw materials available. Will post a link in the channel to University of Manchester who are trying to get rid of filament because they recycle material. Are we actively looking for donations?
20:56
Douglas/Mike: Suggest we'd be open to free filament but best to suggest to the 3D Printing Team on Slack.
20:58
Connor: Suggests it might be good to have a few basic colours available.
Mike: That would be something to delegate to the 3D Printing team who have a budget they could use for it.
20:59
Connor: Do we need to expand the 3D printing team?
Mike: Dave has mentioned in the channel he's looking for help.
Chris R: Points out that a few people have offered but there have been a few barriers to entry.
21:00
Gareth: Talking in Slack the other day - Chris arranged a bulk order - seems like if members are willing to coordinate it's quite easy to get a variety of filament between them. Possibly rather than it being a thing that is expected of the Hackspace it might be good to just chuck in for a few extra rolls for people to experiment with next time we place an oder.
21:01
Mike: Don't currently know what it would cost currently.
21:03
Adam: Benefit of the space providing filament is we can pick a brand and people can develop good slicer settings for it.
Atlas: Suggests there's also a benefit to trying a lot of different varieties of printers. Seen a lot of people printing exotic materials like TPU but newer users might struggle to find good settings.
Someone suggests knowledge sharing would be good.
Douglas: Suggests the intention was the Ultimaker would be the printer that just works while the Enders would be more experimental. Unfortunately the Ultimaker is taking a while.
21:03
Suggestion of sample packs, which is a thing we used to have. Might be good to have in the vending machine.
21:04
Douglas: Suggests it could go in with the laser stuff for sale.
21:04
Boils down to desire for consumable filament by members but needs to be managed in a good way for fair use.
21:05
Douglas: Fair use, and also overnight prints. How much is too much use? Have there been times when you've turned up and a printer has been taken? Personally if the length of time people have been printing is an issue it would be worth getting more printers.
21:06
Various: Never seen all printers in use at the same time.
21:07
Discussion about unattended printing.
Chris: Suggestion that the Ultimaker is a higher risk since it's made of wood while the Enders are a lower risk.
Some confusion about whether leaving a print unattended means 5 mins or overnight.,
21:09
Discussion about fire risks.
Suggestion of downstairs solvent cabinet for the resin printer.
21:10
Ian: asks if people would leave their printer going overnight in their own home?
Mixed responses
21:11
Connor Wood: As someone who works in software, wouldn't trust the firmware alone to always behave perfectly
21:13
Gareth: Just wanted to suggest we find a way to make timeslots bookable, but more flexible than HMS is for the current tools. For new materials it's helpful to have time to experiment. Maybe just a whiteboard if not something in HMS for people to informally manage time among themselves.
21:15
Mike: Suggests it would be good as a thing the 3D printer users of the space could self manage.
Gareth: Hopefully friendly and open communication on Slack would solve that.
21:17
Discussion of clashes. How to avoid this if someone has commuted to use the printer. RFID access is a long term goal but will hopefully help that. The suggestion of using Slack to manage it might help in the short term.


Steve Barnett
  21:19
Discussion of various systems that could solve this. Unfortunately this is never quick in our experience so better to rely on people's good behaviour to solve the problem.

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2 months agoView thread


Steve Barnett
  21:20
Andrew W: Suggests there are systems in place if things really fall apart to provide arbitration.
21:22
More discussion about whether we can write a software system to solve the problem. Other suggestions that anyone suggesting this should write it otherwise it's just a road block to action.
21:25
Suggestion that we need to get back to the proposed guidelines.
21:26
7 hour maximum for long prints is contentions - this is lower than the current 8 hour bookable slot on the Ultimaker.
21:27
Rule 4: Better to say something like "Remove prints as soon as possible after they finish. If you find a print is cool and hasn't been removed it's okay to remove it"
Custom response


Slackbot
  21:27
Respect the Hackspace: http://rules.nottinghack.org.uk/en/latest/respect-the-hackspace.html


Steve Barnett
  21:28
1 - do not hack the printers - seems like a no brainer
21:28
2 - do not run beyond recommended settings - same as anything else in the space - do not abuse the machines
21:28
3 - also same as anything else
21:29
5 - remove your filament and SD card as soon as possible - roll into 4 somehow
21:30
7, 8, 9 - this is already covered by hackspace rules (edited) 
21:30
10 - change to 8 hours (edited) 
21:31
11 - this is common sense
21:32
Ian Turner - via text:
sorry GTG soon - my AOB was people not clearing / hoovering up after themselves in the dusty room last week - floor was nearly 1cm deep in dust and shavings - thankfully Trixie (Theo's wife) cleared it all up. Can we remind people somehow about cleaning up after themselves please.
21:33
6 - multiple printers...
Mike: 3D printing team members need to self organise, post in the channel that they'll be doing this, don't want the trustees to have to police this
Atlas: Suggests maybe members should only use the second printer for short prints, not leave them unattended
Andrew W: suggests this should maybe be by prior arrangement only
21:37
Douglas: Raises the case where an issue was using a printer connected to a computer.
They are designed to work that way.
Better to be something that isn't left unattended.
More useful for a test print/calibration than as a common case, generally less reliable than printing from SD generally.
21:37
May have happened because there were no SD cards, and they are not a consumable. Not an easy solution to that.
21:40
Connor: RE: No print farming, is there some way to set up a print server.
Steve: Octo Pi works quite well for me at home, how we manage it in the space might be an issue. Might be good to set up with local access to avoid encouraging unattended printing. Can run on a cheaper Rock Pi or on a PC. (edited) 
21:41
Any Other Business
21:42
Nope. Thanks for attending.
Mike suggests meetings at the space is a better way to resolve things than Slack.
Meeting Closed