HacDC

There's a great article today in Wired Magazine on the trend of "Open Source Hardware" and DIY custom fabrication. It mentions the hackerspace concept in particular.

At HacDC, we have a RepRap available for use (and volunteered hacked improvements), and our members and friends own a good selection of the fabrication tools mentioned in the article. Some of them are perfectly willing to take orders with enough lead-time. If you are interested in learning more about this general trend and participating, feel free to stop by HacDC whenever we are open!

Wow!  HacDC friend Carl Leonard has done it again!  His most recent (and always fantastic) "Robotcast" video podcast is all about the RepRap Build-a-Thon we had at the HacDC space last month.  Great video of a bunch of interesting and enthusiastic folks building robots, with a surprise appearance by Adrian Bower.  It is kind of a music video for hardcore hackers, and nicely shows off the space and people of HacDC.  Thanks and props to Carl for sharing it with us and the world!

"Wow!"  "Amazing!"  "I want to be involved!"  Just some of the comments that I heard during the HacDC RepRap Build-a-Thon yesterday and today.  Thanks to the participation of a range of very talented local (and not-so local!) folks, the event was a tremendous success.  In particular, thanks to the speakers, Zack "Hoeken" Smith and Adrian Bowyer (virtually, from the UK) as well as the breakout session leaders Adam Koepel and Brian Dolge.  Obviously, huge thanks to Nick Farr for organizing the space and activities, as well as to the many HacDC'ers who stayed up into the wee hours working on a Darwin RepRap machine!  Keep an eye out for more details on this blog and on the HacDC wiki here.  Carl Leonard was also very busy with his video cameras, so I am sure we can expect to see more more about this event on his amazing video blog, Robotcast.

Thanks to fellow dorkbotDC-er Carl Leonard, we have a whole video podcast on DIY rapid prototyping and related technologies.  It is a fantastic compliment to the upcoming Build-a-thon. See the video here.  This is an episode of the fantastic Robotcast video blog series, every episode of which is packed with robotic goodness! Well worth checking out for interesting points of view on a range of robotics topics!

Open invitation to anyone interested in rapid prototyping! HacDC is holding a free RepRap Build-a-Thon at HacDC this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, starting at 10:00am. It is located at the HacDC world headquarters at 1525 Newton St NW in Washington DC (Near corner of 16th and Newton NW). Attendees will participate in the construction and use of a remarkable open source tool, the "Replicating Rapid Prototyper" or RepRap.

[caption id="attachment_278" align="alignleft" width="281" caption="A "Darwin" RepRap built from laser-cut acrylic"][/caption] Join the HacDC and and the Baltimore/Maryland RepRap User's Group (RUG) for a weekend of RepRap fun!  Save the weekend of January 24/25 for our R