jamius.com

Hello Jamiuns!
I was thinking, now that there's a few of us all communicating with each-other and sharing our projects, wouldn't it be awesome if each month we set like a Poster Project Challenge?
The advantages behind this are pretty obvious but I'll list a couple here.

Most importantly WE'D ALL LEARN SOMETHING! The good thing with it being a poster set challenge, unless one of us is an expert in that particular field then we'd have to learn a thing or two which will hopefully aid us in the long term for future projects.

Got piles of old junk laying about, collecting dust? "I won't throw it away, I'll need it for something." Well now you can! (If you don't already) Imagine all those Ink-jet printers you could harvest for stepper motors, or that flat screen monitor you could turn into a projector. The possibilities are endless. And now you'll have an excuse to tear all the stuff apart and harvest its bits. Bring that old junk back to life!

The end product - Say one week the challenge is to create a simple radio. You decide to put a slight variation on it and harvest that old garden light for its solar panel. You rig your home-made radio up to the solar panel and VOILA! You've got yourself a solar radio, for use whenever you like. This applies to anything you build, you get something out of your hard work and brain power.

Team-Work! Some months the challenge may be a little too much, or completely outside your area of expertise. To counter this would rely either on watching a ton of YT vids or scouring the internet for knowledge, OR Teaming up with a fellow Jamiun. Again, imagine if one week the challenge was to design a small radio controlled robot? I wouldn't have a clue where to start! But enlisting the help of a fellow board member to complete the project would not only get the job done but it would also earn me a new friend, who may in turn introduce me to their friends and so on.

I'd like to point out this probably won't be set in a competition format unless requested. The main aim of this is to help people learn a little more about recycling, electronics, construction etc. And to encourage team-work. At the end of the month all the designs/projects will be showcased and discussed. I recommend keeping a video diary or at least step by step pictures of your build. It would also be an awesome way to get more people into posting onto YT. Another good thing about it not being a competition as such is the fact we can post videos of our projects mid-build without the fear of someone ripping off our design, because, in some weird way, we're all helping each-other anyway.

I hope this idea is well received, I can't imagine a place where this would go down better.

Some project ideas I've had for example;
Digital Clock
Basic Radio
Solar light that works at night
Wind up power generator
Simple electric musical instrument
Radio Controlled Car
Radio controller walker

Some of them may sound a bit simple but I'm just testing the water here, as we get more confident we can work on the crazy things, like CNC plotters from that old printer (which could then later be upgraded to a simple laser cutter.)

The possibilities are endless, I'd love to know anyone's thoughts on this and how we could implement this or any project ideas you might have.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, now I just ask for a few more minutes to let me know what you think. Thanks in advance,
Knux

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=53

What do I win?

Interesting stuff bro, and loads of people are into it =D You sir, win a cookie =P
But seriously what do you reckon? You could put all that knowledge to physical use for hobby uses =D And since I haven't been following that thread, if a challenge ever comes up with Microcontrollers involved you'll all have a head start! =P
Keep up the free education bro, sorta what I was aiming for with this, teach things that usually wouldn't be worried about.
Peace!

Oh I'm workin on making something cool with the knowledge. I just want to build up to it. It's dumb for me to build it then have to take it apart again to show people how I built it. lol

That reminds me, I need to buy more atmega8s...