Classes

Hi Resistors! This is a page for tentative class ideas. I want your class proposals to be in a batch formatted more or less like "Raphael's Classes" below. Please feel free to add any proposals you want but keep them in a group with your name on it, and don't edit any class descriptions but your own. This goes for redundant descriptions. If there's a class in somebody else's section that you want to teach, copy and paste it into your section, or make up something similar.

Class Policy[edit]

Ultimately, it is up to the instructor. If the instructor is a member Resistor and not a visitor, the rule is as follows: if they ask nice, they can fill a slot in another class taught by the same instructor. If they are mean, then they can go to hell.

-- There is no refund if you miss the class without 48 hours cancellation notice.

Resistor members get in at half price. Lab fee not included.

Getting Your Class in the System (eventbrite/calendar/blog)[edit]

Once you know what you plan to teach,

(1) Consult the eventbrite calendar at http://nycresistor.eventbrite.com/

(2) Pick a date and time

(3) Send email to Ben Combee or Raph including the Course Name, Course Description, Date, Time, Duration, and any Lab Fee. He'll get it entered into the eventbrite system and our Google Calendar.

(4) Once your class is in eventbrite and on the google calendar, blog it at http://www.nycresistor.com/wp-admin ! If you don't have a login to the blog, get yourself one. Always put a picture in your post, no matter how ridiculous it is.

New Classes[edit]

June 2012[edit]

Arduino Uno 101[edit]

1 session, 3 hours

Students learn stuff, which we will fill in later, after we finish sketching out the class.
Arduino Uno Programming Instructions by Max W and Alison L

January 2011[edit]

Soldering/Arduino 101[edit]

1 session, 3 hours

Students learn to solder by assembling a Freeduino Board. After completing assembly, students learn to program a "hello world" to blink an LED. They are finally introduced to basic inputs/outputs. (Tactile push button switches and potentiometers)

Stable of Instructors: Mimi Hui, Jon Santiago, Max W

Freeduino Soldering Instructions by Mimi and Jon

Freeduino Programming Instructions by Max W

General flow of the class:

Heat up your iron - Do a test joint. Compare with bad joints [1]
Unpack package, confirm all parts
Solder up your board
Have the instructor test your board when you're done
Install the Arduino IDE
Confirm your computer can talk to your board by running the blink program
Get badass on that board! Add a button! Poke a potentiometer!

Materials provided:

Freeduino kit
USB cable
Fresh 9 volt battery and clip
A push button - or - A potentiometer
A mini bread board
A couple-few pre-cut jumper wires

Infrastructure provided:

Soldering irons
Lead-free solder
Wicks for desoldering joint which is crap
Reference freeduino board
Fully tested Arduino IDE for confirming your completed board

Students MUST BRING

A laptop with a functioning USB port.
Take a shot at installing the Arduino ahead of time: Code is here [2] Operating System specific instructions are here [3]

May[edit]

Introduction to LEDs[edit]

1 session, 2 hours

Introduction to LEDs for complete beginners. Explain how LEDs work, how to hook them up, how to read data sheets. Students will assemble basic LED circuits on breadboards. Explanation of how to build and drive LED displays.

Instructors: amayer, bpettis, "dclausen" May 21, 7-9

LED Matrix[edit]

1 session, 2 hours

Learn how to make your own 8x16 LED grid. This class will teach you how to use a jig to solder 128 LEDs that you can use for other projects. Combine this to the "Driving LED Displays" class and you'll have a programmable display!

$25 Lab fee for LEDs and jig.

Instructors: amayer, bpettis, "dclausen" May 28, 7-9

June[edit]

Driving LED Displays[edit]

1 session, 2 hours

Learn the basics of driving an LED display. You'll learn how to program a microcontroller with shift registers to drive a display. Combine this with the LED Matrix class and you'll have a programmable display!

$25 Lab fee covers the Microcontroller and materials needed to hook up to a display. If you haven't taken the LED Matrix class, ad

Instructors: amayer, bpettis, "dclausen" June 4, 7-9

June[edit]

C for Beginners[edit]

2 sessions, 2 hours each

A gentle introduction to the C programming language for people with no prior programming experience. C is one of the most widely used computer programming languages in the world, and it's surprisingly simple to learn. In just two short sessions, you'll learn just about everything you'll ever need to know about C.

Dates: June 14th and June 21st, 1-3pm
Instructor: amayer

Arduino Audio[edit]

2 hours, 1 session + $15 kit (2x AD5206, 1x 74C14, 1x 4093, breadboard, stereo jack, various capacitors, resistors and wires) Prerequisite: Familiar with Arduino. Some Arduinos will be provided, but is best if students bring their own. Only soldering required is for the stereo jack.

A survey of different ways to get sound from the Arduino, with the primary focus on using AD5206 digipots to produce 3 or 6 voice polyphonic sound.

Here's some examples of projects: http://itp.nyu.edu/~gpv206/2007_fall/arduino_audio/

Instructor: Gian Pablo
Date: June 18, 7pm

Arduino and Processing[edit]

2 hours, 1 session Prerequisite: previous Processing + Arduino experience desirable, but not required. Students should bring their own Arduino and components for projects. (Some materials may be provided)

Techniques for interfacing the Arduino with Processing. Covers setting up Processing and Arduino environments, setting up connection, writing simple code to make stuff happen on the Arduino, and to read sensors into Processing. Cover various protocols and techniques, including Simple Message System, call/response, etc.

Instructor: Gian Pablo
Date: June 25, 7pm

Past Classes[edit]

Raphael's Classes:

Soldering 101: basics

1 hour +$10 lab fee (parts, solder, etc)

Using a simple electronics kit the student learns the basics of through hole soldering to a circuit board. At the end of the hour, the student will take home an LED blinky of their own construction!

Soldering 103: surface mount

2 hours +$15 lab fee

Another soldering kit, this time in all surface mount parts. The student will learn about the various simple techniques for soldering teeny little parts. All fear removed, the student will now realize that surface mount is actually pretty easy. Solder-wick and flux, tiny leds with lots of lux! [[For the kit, how about an led heart light or something like that?]]

Soldering 102: FREE FORM!

1 hour +$5 lab fee

Break the shackles of Big Circuit Board. Create incredible looking widgets by soldering the parts to each other directly. It's slightly dangerous, very tricky, and really fun. Great for LED throwies and other prank electronics. No kit this time, just a small pile of parts that the student can go to town with.

Electronics 101: simple circuits

3 hours +$20 lab fee

No theory here! Just instantly useful and very simple circuits. Learn about motors, light bulbs, resistors, switches, buttons, solenoids, batteries, power supplies and more. Safety will also be covered. The student will leave the class with a kit of useful parts for experimentation at home.

Electronics 102: more circuits

2 sessions, 2 hours each + one time $50 lab fee

Simple circuits not enough? Let's get serious: relays, latching circuits, transistors, timers, capacitors, transformers, and Amazing Electrical Magic! You can build a whole lot of blinking twitching gadgetry once you take this class. It's AMAZING!

Electronics 103: Large and Small

2 hours

How do I get that big giant motor/jet engine/automatic grape smasher to activate when I want it to? This class covers the sometimes very frustrating subject of using small currents and voltages to activate massive currents and voltages. Turn on a Tesla coil with an Arduino? Yes! Use soil moisture measurements to activate a garage door? Yes! This is how giant robots get their brains, people!

Electronics 104: Sensors

2 sessions, 2 hours each + one time $30 lab fee

No exclamation points here, this is serious stuff. We will cover analog sensors and how to condition their outputs to make them useful. Light, heat, flex, magnetism, acceleration, sound, pressure, and more. Some op amp circuits will be covered and also a bit about the ADC on the Arduino. This is a pretty hard class, so bring lots of patience and maybe some coffee. No, we'll bring the coffee.

Microcontrollers 101: Arduino!

5 sessions, 2 hours each +$60 lab

This is it! This is big time fun! Microcontrolers do EVERYTHING and you will be able to command them to do your bidding! Using an Arduino provided as part of the lab fee, and also a handful of fun parts, the student will learn all about programming microcontrollers in the Arduino language. We'll be getting right to it with fun things happening on the first day! Learn about servos, data acquisition, blinking lights and more. Basic programming techniques and concepts will be covered, along with a 15 minute refresher on simple circuits. WOW!

Diana's Classes:

Fashion Hacking 101: Shirt Circuit

1 session, 1 hour + $10 lab

All sewing, no soldering! Learn to sew a basic circuit using conductive thread and tips and tricks that make electric components fashion friendly. Bring your own shirt.

Fashion Hacking 102: Living Fashion

2 sessions, 2 hours + $60 lab

Use the body as input and fashion as output. By putting sensors in clothing, students will learn how to make fashion that reacts to the body's motions. We will use luminecent el wire to create patterns on clothing that change based on movements of the body.

Justin's Classes:

Game Boy Software Development 101: Basics

2 sessions, 2 hours (optional lab fee if you want to load your game onto a cart)

Requires basic knowledge of C programming. In the first session we learned about basic raster graphics, how to do the cool raster bars routine, backgrounds and sprites. In the second session we will learn about scrolling backgrounds, fixed point math, affine sprites and backgrounds, and sounds. You might be interested in Gameboy 101 Class Notes.

Game Boy Software Development 102:

2 sessions, 2 hours

Sprites, accessing the DMA controller, tricks, demo coding. At the end of the session the student will have a fleshed out library and will be able to build full featured games.

Zach's Classes:

These classes will be focused around the 'Arduino Learner Shield' I'm working on. I probably wont be able to teach a class until May 1st.

Arduino Programming 101: Hello World

1 session, 2 hours

Introduction to the environment, how to program your arduino, what a variable is, what a function is, how to call a function, basic statements, and finally a LED blink program.

Arduino Programming 102: Basic Input / Output

1 session, 2 hours

This one would cover doing digital inputs and outputs, analog inputs and outputs, and more advanced programming things such as loops and if statements. I imagine doing something like an LED controlled via trimpots or something like that would be a cool demonstration.

Arduino Programming 103: Intermediate Programming

This class would focus on bringing it all together. It would be focused around writing more complicated software for the learner shield to make sounds, fade leds, etc. We would cover writing your own functions, using libraries, and doing more advanced programming stuff all around.

Bre's Classes:

Video Basics for People Who Make Things

1 session, 2 hours

In this class I'll cover the basics of using video to document and share your project and get you started shooting, editing, exporting, and publishing your own videos.

Rose's Classes:

Knitting 101: basics

2 sessions, 2 hours +$10 lab fee (yarn and needles)

First session, students will learn to knit, cast off, and cast on again. Homework: practice knitting! Second session, students will learn to purl, increase and decrease.

Will also go over reading simple patterns, and make suggestions about first projects.

Eric's Classes:

Wordpress 101

1 session, 2 hours

Using wordpress to go from 0 to website in 15 minutes. This class will cover installing, setup, themes, and customization using some amazing plugins.

Advanced wordpress (aka, wordpress for web developers)

1 session, 2 hours

Starting with a super-quick overview of installation, this class will move quickly into deep customization including theme editing and writing your own plugins. HTML, CSS, and PHP knowledge will be helpful, but are not strictly required.

Intro to linux

1 session, 2 hours

Walk through an install of ubuntu Linux to see just how easy and awesome desktop Linux has become. From there, well move on to some of the essential command line tools you'll need to make the most of your new system, and how to work with remote Linux installs like your webhost via SSH.

Vector graphics using inkscape

1 session, 2 hours

Learn how to use the open source Inkscape vector drawing program to create logos, typography, drawings, and even design websites.

Making your own MythTV

1 sessions, 3 hours

Make your own commercial skipping monster of a DVR, using the open source mythTV. Bring your own hardware and walk out with a working system, or work with others to see how it works.

George's Classes:

Wiki Ninja

1 Session, 2-3 Hours (More like 30m)

Tap into the vast amount of power that wiki's have. Learn how to create powerful templates, organize your information, and make your information easily found and understood by the public. Also Learn how NYCResistor's wiki is more kickass then other wikis. I will teach how to edit on both NYCR's wiki and Mediawiki Wiki's (Such as wikipedia). You can look at the my presentation Here. Its a Work In Progress, since Its about how to edit a wiki, I thought it should be made on the wiki =)

Kelly's Classes:

Copper Etching for fun and profit

1-2 hours, half of which is spent waiting for things to etch

Use the awesome powers of ferric chloride to make copper disappear. Makes pretty decorations, also handy for making your own circuit boards. See this example of terrifying craft projects: http://diytv.com/diy/cr_books_boxes_boards/article/0,2025,DIY_13746_5473978,00.html

Matt's Classes:

Practical counter-surveillance methodology and practices.

Time indeterminate

Projects:

creating an infrared detector
interfering with cameras using infrared
creating a hidden camera detector
creating an ultrasonic detector
transmitter discovery
discussion on radiological intelligence gathering methods
practical application of Faraday cages
heuristic counter measures

Unwiredben's Classes

Webduino: Putting Your Arduino on the Web

small web server library that you can use with Arduino Ethernet Shield
turned into a real project, see it at http://webduino.googlecode.com