We have an AR.Drone now!
Date: 30 April 2013
A little late on this one but we now have a Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 of our own!
Read more…
News Things that have been going on.
Chelmsford Game Jam 2013
Date: 12 April 2013
This May we’re running Chelmsford Game Jam, over the course of a weekend teams and indivduals will be challenge with making a game in 72 hours using anything they can find or bring along.
Anyone is encouraged to come and you can build a game in anything you like. We’d recommend at least some experience with making a game beforehand, even if it’s just a drag and drop program.
It’s a three day event, running from Friday 3rd May - Sunday 5th May, entry is free and food will be provided throughout the day.
You can register for a ticket, as well as follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook for any future updates.
No easter meeting
Date: 01 April 2013
Just a note to remind people that there’s no meeting on the 2nd of April due to most of us being away on holiday. We will be back on the 9th as normal. In the mean time, keep an eye on Twitter for any updates.
Introduction to game programming and development workshop
Date: 04 March 2013
Learn the basics of how to develop games at our intoductory workshop to game programming and development, hosted by Sam Gibson of Uncoded Studios and Will Hunt.
The workshop will be hosted on the 26th March in the Scout Hut, 7:30pm – 10:00pm.
Pricing is £3 for non-members, and £2.50 for members of the space.
More information to come in the following week.
Questions? Suggestions? Contact us!
Schools and code
Date: 26 February 2013
Here at Chelmsford Makerspace, we love getting people into programming and helping each other out with their code but it’s shocking that schools don’t teach it.
For most of our current member base, the most we were taught in ICT (or as we like to call it, Super introduction to Microsoft Office) was maybe a few HTML tags before we were moved back to spreadsheet work.
As anyone following what goes on here will know, we do some pretty crazy things with code here, from making LEDs blink to horror games to flying drones with bananas!
Every time we talk to someone in a technology related industry, they all say the same thing. That they need more programmers or at least people who know what they’re doing with a computer instead of these people coming out of school who only know how to use one version of Microsoft Office.
Now for the real reason for this post, after the jump we’ve embedded a video containing some of the best minds in the technology industry talking about programming and schools.
Read more…Rewired State Parliament Hack 2012
Date: 04 February 2013
So a couple of us went to Rewired State Parliament last year and now the video from it is up, see if you can spot any of us!
Read more…Bett and BananaDrone
Date: 03 February 2013
This week, we attended the 2013 Bett show and helped Stephen Heppell on the Learning Together stand.
We were invited by Tom Stacy to help teach kids Scratch and Python.
New site design
Date: 27 January 2013
In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve overhauled the site design quite a bit!
Changes include SVG artwork, responsive design based on Foundation and what I hope is a generally better experience.
If you’d like to report any issues, please do here (alternatively, you can just contact us), as always you can fork and submit pull requests on the GitHub repository.
Nesta Digital Makers
Date: 12 January 2013
A little while ago, Richard met up with Victoria Mason, the Industry Intelegence Manager for Essex County Council at Chelmsford City Camp.
After that, she came across and told us about Nesta’s Digital Makers fund.
A long story later and we’re applying for the grant to get the makerspace up and out of the Scout Hut.
We’ve embedded our application video after the break! Read more…
Raspberry Pi Session
Date: 08 November 2012
Ever wanted to program computers but didn’t know how?
Well we’ll be teaching people (even absolute beginners) how to use and start making things with a Raspberry Pi.
Chelmsford Makerspace Wins Chelmsford Grand Award
Date: 16 October 2012
Earlier this year we attended an event at Anglia Ruskin University called City Camp Chelmsford, this was an unconference about how we could go about making Chelmsford a better and safer place.
Read more…Microsoft Gadgeteer Workshop
Date: 09 October 2012
Today Richard and Ben went down to the Ideas Hub to check out the Microsoft Gadgeteer Training Workshop.
The Workshops showed people how to use the Gadgeteer to quickly prototype new and interesting ideas.
At the workshop we made a fully functioning digital camera in minutes, using the gadgeteer and a few lines of code.
We hopeully plan to run further workshops using the Gadgeteer and obtain some for use at the Makerspace.
Weekly Meetings
Date: 19 September 2012
We have now changed from fortnightly meetings, to weekly meetings.
Meaning that we can get on with a lot more makery!
Chelmsford Ideas Festival
Date: 19 September 2012
This weekend Saturday 22nd - Sunday 23rd September from 1pm we will be at The Hub at the Chelmsford Ideas Festival!
For two whole days, we will use the pop-up community hub as the location for our pop-up Makerspace and to show off some our our cool projects including our Coke Can Sterling Engine, Floppy Disc Orchestra, Robotics and more.
Summer BBQ
Date: 22 August 2012
We hope you all enjoyed your summer, now that it is unfortunately coming to an end, the Makerspace will be starting up again with a Summer BBQ on Wednesday 29th August.
Read more…First Meeting
Date: 29 June 2012
After many years in development our First meeting will be on Wednesday 4th July. Its in writing! Hopefully it will have been worth the wait. Meet at Galleywood Scout Hut, and pop in anytime between 7pm and 10pm.
Please try and bring £2.50 for the running of the club, its a little high this week, but we’re not sure of the turnout.
Read more…Venue Update
Date: 16 April 2012
Our proposed new venue (Galleywood Scout Hut, Jubilee Park) has said that we should be able to get either a Tuesday night or a Wednesday night.
Read more…