Island Labs is a collective of technology enthusiasts from Long Island, New York. We aim to improve the world by creatively rethinking technology. Some focuses of the group are mechanical, software, electrical, chemical, social, and food engineering. A lot of us are artists, musicians, and generally fun people. \o/ All meetings are open to the public, we have newcomers every meeting. Please see the irc link below to talk with us live now.
News
- We made Make Magazine's Blog!
- In case you haven't noticed the picture wall above: This was a triumph
- The Red Cross wrote us a thank you letter!
- Newsday wrote an article! pdf version
Interact
- Come chat with Island Labs members *live* on IRC (#islandlabs on freenode)
- Join the discussion on the Island Labs Mailing List
- Follow our identi.ca group to keep super up-to-date
- Meet us in person every Wednesday @ 7:00pm in the Math Tower room 1-113 at Stony Brook University
Explore
- Learn the definition of a Hackerspace
- Read our HackerSpaces.org registry page
Create
- Here are some projects we are working on, add your own!
| Page | Description | Tags |
|---|---|---|
| ABX Listening Tests | Seeing if people can tell the difference between various lossy and lossless audio compression technologies Equipment The weakest point of this setup was the source - we need digital out next time. * Source: Intel HDA on T61p laptop * Amp: Denon 2803s * Headphones: Allessando MS-2s | projects, science, music |
| Analogue Computer | Abstract: TODO! But look at this for <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer> for some ideas. This was just in passing... I will add details later when I think about it. projects, analogue, computer, mechanical, electrical | projects, analogue, computer, mechanical, electrical |
| Blinkenlighten | Building blinking lights with a 555 timer. Purpose These blinking lights will blind our enemies, or at the very least, confuse them into disco dancing. Kit Each kit costs $15, and you get: * 1×555 Timer * 1x3mm Green LED * 2x100Ohm Resistor * 2x220Ohm Resistor * 2x1k Ohm Resistor * 1xNPN Transistor * 1×800 Pin Breadboard * 2xAlligator Clip wires * 1xOpen Push Button Switch * 1xSmall Paddle Switch * 1xMabuchi Motor | projects, electronics |
| Bus Pirate | Jonathan and Bill each have a Bus Pirate v3 If you do not have a usb to ftdi cable, you can use a bus pirate. Here is how we setup a bus pirate v3 with firmware and bootloader 4.1 to a Cupcake ( bot 779, batch 11, motherboard firmware XXXX, plastruder firmware XXXX ). | projects, makerbot, arduino |
| Catch The GrueMouse | * jedahan has a deadmau5 head * jedahan has a pop gun * tonyb has a safari hat * bfix might be getting a net whenever a tour group is on campus, the deadmau5 hops around, and pretty quickly afterwards the hunter chases with the net projects, social SUCCESS! * gruemouse cooked some beans for an ARS class, and was chased by a scientist in pink glasses. pics to come | projects, social |
| Clockwork Engineering | Abstract: The magic and skill of building a “old” but beautiful analogue clock. From wall clocks to pocket watches... it would be fun to explore the inter workings of analogue clocks and build one! Document TODO: * This was just a quick thought... more to be added when I think about it. | projects, clocks, analogue, !digital, mechanical |
| Corn Starch Experiments | make the corn starch dance! <http://www.newsday.com/long-island/island-labs-at-stony-brook-1.1687667> projects | projects |
| Epic Light Show | Abstract: Using a basic microcontroller or maybe digital signal processor (DSP), one would program it to run a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) application on microphone input. User would set thresholds for an array of LEDs (different colours) to switch on and off when a given frequency range at a >= level was reached within a set time. This would then trigger LEDs to match the “mood” or “tone” of the music or audio coming into the micro. Maybe added a smoke machine/firecrackers for better effect? … | projects, fft, dsp, micro, sound, music, lights, software, hardware |
| Gazortch The Windows! | We are going to gazortch the windows clean with streak free cleaning fluid balloons. projects, science, danger | projects, science, danger |
| Giant Display | Giant Display A window sized LED display can have many uses. * Conway's Game of Life Simulation * Twitter Ticker, message @sbutwits to be viewed by the campus community * Reverse shadow puppets - use a webcam to light up whatever people are doing behind the board | projects, electronics, social |
| Internet Coffee (HTCPCP/1.0) | Abstract: Design and implement RFC 2324. That's right, a Ethernet enabled coffee pot! The project guidelines can be found here: <http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2324.txt> We take this April fools joke and turn it into reality! :) Design: Modify a coffee maker so one can load a can of coffee into it and also equip it to have a pump to load water into the reservoir. All this would be electronically controlled via HTCPCP/1.0. A Ethernet enabled Rabbit microcontroller [1] would be running the coffee… | projects, htcpcp, rfc2324, coffee, ethernet, drink |
| LED Table-top Christmas Tree Method | As was requested... This document explains the process behind developing an LED Table-top Christmas Tree. It was the one that was mentioned in the Newsday article (Sun. 01/10/2010). The specific components of the tree are NOT as important. The tree was developed as a quick project. So, in the development, time was a constraint. Much of this information is apparent. This 4-step process was not as methodical as described. | projects, methods |
| Magic Door | Make a mechanism for unlocking the door via secret knock, text message, twitter update, face recognition... The current design will include a scanner stepper motor, controlled by a motor driver made from 2 DPDT relays, 2 transistors, 2 diodes. This will require 4 bits to control. | projects |
| Makerbot | Software * See Bus Pirate instructions * Update the extruder firmware * Set the temperature a la <http://wiki.makerbot.com/adjusting-the-thermistor-settings> * Change skeinforge settings projects | projects |
| Near Space Launch | Island Labs has successfully launched a balloon 29km up and took incredible pictures. Torrent up soon. GO TEAM GO! What The members of Island Labs will assemble a balloon and instrument package, travel to a “safe” inland area, plot an estimated flight path for a several-hour flight, and attempt to track and recover the flight vehicle after landing. | projects, science |
| Pneumatic Air Cannon | Planning to plan. Place ideas, designs, and links here. :) projects, danger | projects, danger |
| Retro128 | We have a working commodore 128. Woot! * Ethernet Adapter projects, c64, software | projects, c64, software |
| Shoe Phone | Inspired by the TV show Get Smart. Take any type of shoe and try to give it the ability to pick up calls (and maybe dial them too). As of now ideas include to put in a slot to store the phone and attach a bluetooth headset to the phone. projects, Get, Smart | projects, Get, Smart |
| Spy gagdets | It was just a quick thought, but the idea is to take random things and try to give it some random dual ability you would see in a James Bond movie. projects | projects |
| arduinome | Conway in Haskell. Requires <http://hackage.haskell.org/package/hosc> {-# LANGUAGE GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving #-} import Sound.OpenSoundControl import qualified Sound.OpenSoundControl.OSC as OSC import Control.Concurrent import Control.Concurrent.MVar import Control.Concurrent.Chan import Control.Monad.Reader import System.Random import Data.Array --import qualified Network.Socket as N import Debug.Trace data Press = Press Int Int Int deriving (Show, Eq) isDownPress (Press _ _ 1) = True isD… | projects |
| x86 On Acid | Abstract: To really get to know the inter-workings of a “common” computer at the machine level. One can make/do very cool things using assembly with DOS (FreeDOS of course!), a parallel port, a COM port and even the video display! This would prelude into building some devices (via parallel port or even PCI bus) and controlling them using DOS in ASM. | projects, hardware, software, 80x86, asm, FreeDOS |