Proposed projects

This page has been archived. All information in this article is historical.

This is a page where members can propose projects they'd like to work on, and potentially receive funding for. Anybody is welcome to post a project, and, in the last meeting of each month, a vote will be held to determine which project(s) is/are awarded funding. The projects may be personal, or may benefit the space. Or be anything else, really, we aren't going to be picky (it's up to the members to vote). See Project funding for more information.

In our current Budget, we have $100/month dedicated to projects. Projects can request all or part of the money, as needed. Our goal is to make this as simple as possible.

Instructions:

• Post your project at the bottom of the list
• Estimate the dollar value - if your project is selected, you'll be given a cheque for that amount
• Be prepared to talk about your project at the last meeting of the month
• Create a link to a page where you describe it, if possible
• At the end of each month, I'll archive the old projects. Feel free to move it back to the 'active' list

Projects seeking funding

SkullSpace Beer and Soda

• Proposed by: Rylaan
• Amount requested: $200
• Amount received to-date: $100

SkullSpace brand Beer and Soda. Need $200 for ingredients and parts.

Have purchased kit. Looking for additional funding for ingredients. Note: unable to start brewing at Skullspace until the indoor temperature stabilizes.

Pizza / Wings / Chinese / Etc.

• Proposed by: Mak
• Amount requested: All the money we can get

This project involves buying pizza and anything else we can get for hackathons or hangout nights, as dispensed by me.

Changing CronD's Name

• Proposed by: Mak
• Amount requested: $100

Our newest member, Kyle Gregory Thomas Fysh, has an unreasonable number of Ys in his name. It's unsettling. He even has a Y in Fysh. I mean, who does that? This project is for renaming him to something cooler - suggested names include:

• adding an extra Y for symmetry - Kyle Gregory Thomys Fysh
• replacing all Ys with Is - Kile Gregori Thomis Fish
• making it more exotic! - Kieel György Thomás Fisz
• frightening, as yet unspoken, plans that live in Mak's mind

Necessary funds:

1. Certificate of Name Change: $100
2. Birth Certificate with new name: $40
3. Driver's License with new name: $10

Available funds:

1. Amount Mak is willing to contribute: $50

All other changes can be done free of charge.

Note that his irrevocable permission has already been obtained on IRC:

06:40 < crond-mobile> We are renaming me?
06:40 < crond-mobile> Okay mak is in charge of choosing a new name, the project fund can pay for the name change.
...
06:50 < crond-mobile> Damn you mak lol! If that gets voted through, I will 1) be shocked, 2) do it.

Skullotron

• Proposed by: Mike Legary
• Amount requested: $250+

With the recent donation of an awesome steampunked cabinet, it's time to build our own version of a Winnitron.

Mike is donating a computer, but the cabinet will still need controls and a monitor.

A picture of the cabinet can be found at http://ysarro.com/quarter_1.jpeg

Vote for this, or Crond's name is at risk! :)

VM server hardware upgrades

• Proposed by: Mark Jenkins
• Amount requested: $100

Support the [capital campaign], which will also seek donations in other ways. Current upgrade project is to switch to a CPU with VT extensions, which will improve VM performance, allow for 64bit guest OS, and also make more guest operating systems available that are currently a no-go with Virtualbox and no hardware extensions such as OpenBSD and FreeBSD.

Projects that have received funding

SkullSpace Beer and Soda

• Proposed by: Rylaan
• Amount requested: $200
• Amount received to-date: $100

SkullSpace brand Beer and Soda. Need $200 for ingredients and parts.

• Open Cola info
• Club Mate recipe

Hydroponics project

• Proposed by: Siu
• Amount requested: $200
• Amount received to-date: $100

Now that we have two towers successfully running, we would like to build more. Unfortunately, while empty pop bottles are cheap (free!), and we have surplus of some materials, we need more pumps!

This money would be used to buy more air pumps, tubing, and miscellaneous hardware to expand our garden into the classroom. We are currently driving two towers from one single-output air pump, but would prefer to use a single 4-output pump per window, thus easily supporting 4 towers in each window.

These pumps are approximately $30 each: we will need one per window, plus tubing, connectors, and mounting brackets.

VM Service

• Proposed by: Mark Jenkins
• Amount received to-date: $100

Improve the VM service.

.NET Quadcopter

• Proposed by: Craig (AKA. Jackal)
• Amount requested: $300
• Amount received to-date: $200

A .Net based quadcopter (4 bladed helicopter) similar to the Aeroquad. I already have the control board (Netduino GO! with Shield Base), 3 axis accelerometer and the required 4 motors, speed controllers and props. The requested funding would go towards purchasing the required radio equipment Spektrum DX7s.

Archive

Hovercraft

NOT SEEKING FUNDING AT THIS TIME (will be funded independently at a later date)

• Proposed by: Molly
• Amount requested: $300

I wish to finish the SkullSpace hovercraft.

Fundraising Party

• Proposed by: Courtney
• Amount requested: $500ish

A bunch of us want to have a party at the children's museum because it's too creepy to go when there's kids around. We might as well make it a fundraiser. We'll need money to pay for the room, food etc. Hopefully we can make some money and return it to the project fund.

Robotic Parts Finder

• Proposed by: Rylaan
• Amount requested: $500

Robotic Parts Finder. I would probably want to hack this design a bit to make it usable for more than just small trays. http://www.instructables.com/id/StorageBot-voice-controlled-robotic-parts-finder/

USRP

 NOT SEEKING FUNDING AT THIS TIME 

• Proposed by: Mak
• Amount requested: $1,000 - $2,000 (USRP only)

If we can ever get together some crazy money, we should get a USRP. Sniff all the things.

Examples of what we can do are:

• Demonstrate sniffing cell (IMEI) / bluetooth (MAC) / wifi (MAC) to identify nearby individuals
  • A creepy application of this would be a webpage with, at a minimum, the number of people in SkullSpace
• Examine our keyfobs, and try to crack and clone them

Updates

• 2012-03-19: We've looked into things, and for a basic USRP it'd cost $1,000, but for doing something like capturing all of bluetooth / wifi (2.4 GHz ISM) we'd need $2,000.
• 2012-03-20: Clarified that we're not seeking funding, as we're still in the research stages.
• 2012-03-22: Compiled list of all Basic and Advanced Exam questions for amateur radio exam, required for sending radio signals outside ISM bands.
• 2012-04-17: Colin[0] bought a USRP, Mak registered a domain.
• 2012-07-29: Mak attended 5+ talks on software-defined radio at DEFCON 20.
• 2012-07-31: Colin[0] and Mak have signed up for an Amateur Radio course, contact them if you want to come. It's $25.

Signs

• Proposed by: Roswyne
• Volunteers required first!
• Amount requested: $100 (estimated)

We could use some signage to help people recognize where SkullSpace is physically located. This could include:

• A sign at the front door, in the lower portion of the door (replacing the really old Cre8ery sign).
• A banner to be hung on the William St side of the building (to attract the attention of RRC students).
• An insert for the colour-scrolling sign, which could potentially be placed in a window.

We could also use additional signs within the space, to help people find the washrooms and make the drink machine look better:

• Hanging signs in the hallway, pointing which way to go to the washrooms and AssentWorks.
• A replacement front panel for the drink machine, with a cool logo.
• Labels for the drinks actually in the drink machine (replacing the handwritten scraps of tape).

Many of these can probably be done at AssentWorks for the cost of parts, if anyone is familiar with using the vinyl cutter, etc.

Community calendar display

 CANCELLED -> ADDED TO THE TOUCH DISPLAY PROJECT 

• Proposed by: Gorgeous Mike
• Amount requested: $200

Putting a monitor up in the hallway and displaying a live updated version of the community calendar. This way all members and guests and first Friday people can see what's going on in the hacker community. We should have enough computers around that can drive a display but a ~20" TV would look really nice out there as well.

Parts database and organization

• Proposed by Ben/Justin
• Amount requested: TBD (could be anywhere from $0-$500)

There are lots of parts at the space available to users, but no one really knows what exactly we have. We would like to index all the parts in the space. We have a database setup at parts.skullspace.ca, but it needs to be populated yet. In addition to this, we would like to better organize the storage of the parts. The money could go towards anything from buying food for a part-indexing party, to building a sweet storage system, installing a dedicated inventory kiosk, or making a nearly-autonomous inventory tracking system. This project could also tie in well with the proposed robotic parts finder.

Public Facing Touch Screen Terminal

• Proposed by: Gorgeous Mike
• Amount requested: $50-$100

Based on the awesome donation of a touchscreen computer from ENTS in Edmonton I have a few more ideas to incorporate to the public hallway display.

• Calender to see all the space and community events ( from depreciated project above )
• Maker Passport stamper ( Linky )
• Simple interface to enter credentials to open door for forgotten fob or locked out members.
• Display checklist of 'last man out items' Lights left on, doors locked etc. (use inputs from Arduino for monitoring)
• Interface into parts database

• USB Camera for the following:
  • Visual guestbook ( Take a pic and add your info! )
  • Scan QR codes! We can have little slips of paper sitting with projects! Scan one, enter your email and you will get an email filled with info and links about that project / talk / person!
  • Request to enter mode - Takes pic, sends it to a group that has remote access to open the door for people that forget / don't have a fob or guests!

We would need the following:

• Touchscreen ( Donated already )
• Arduino and some small servos for the passport stamping machine
• Some programming skills
• Various small sensors

• • NOTE: This could be utilized for a SkullSpace Geocache in some way as well.

Evaporation cooling for the space

• Proposed by: Gorgeous Mike
• Amount requested: $200-$500 (may be considered part of the renovation budget)
• To be considered later in the year, after current renovations have been completed. :)

A "Swamp Cooler" is a type of evaporation cooling system that uses dry air to remove heat from water via evaporation to the outside air. There are several different designs but the best case is to mount a frame in the window of the ventilated room (beside rear elevator) and run water over a cooling pad. This would pull cool moist air into the space at all times as long as we had a fan blowing out somewhere else in the space. --OR-- Put a large fan to pull air in and run ducts to various rooms, its more money / work but much better air flow. The electrical load of such a system is much less than a standard window AC unit (quieter too!) It may not be a 100% solution for the heat problems in the space but it will definitely help!

We would need the following:

• Pump (sump or fountain) anything over 50GPM
• Furnace fan
• Garden hose
• Water storage tank (Blue RubberMaid would work)
• Cooling pad material

Vertical wind turbine farm

• Proposed by: Gorgeous Mike
• Amount requested: $100-$300
• To be considered later in the year, after current renovations have been completed. :)

Building a small vertical wind turbine farm on the roof would help us offset our carbon footprint as well and reduce our electrical load on the building. We can use it to run lights, small projects etc. The whole project would hinge on if we can get get roof access from the landlord unless we build one off the roof access ladder.

Also good training for the apocalypse!!

We would need the following:

• 55 Gallon drums ( $20-$40 on Kijiji )
• Magnets
• Magnet wire ( We have a large spool in the space )

Awesome Foundation

• Proposed by: Awesome Michael
• Amount requested: $100/month

Join the Awesome Foundation's Winnipeg chapter as a trustee. A representative of SkullSpace could be chosen monthly by lottery, and that representative would join in the granting process for that month.

This would be a long-term project that would take the entire $100/month, and the requirement to pull out is to find a replacement trustee.

SkullSpace could push for the $1000/month Awesome Foundation grant to go towards other projects on this list that are doing awesome things.

SkullSpace Hardware Programming Challenge

• Proposed by: Mark Jenkins
• Proposal withdrawn until a prototype is in place
• Amount requested: Indefinite -- but able to make use of $100 per month to make progress (see below)

Development of levels for the SkullSpace Hardware Programming Challenge. Each level will be based on a strange hardware platform where participants have to program it to extract a secret message. All funding will go towards small honoraia ($5/hour) for the real technical work of level development (software development, circuit design and assembly, quality documentation, etc). Things like project co-ordination will be 100% volunteer all hardware will be donated/on loan.

A one month allocation of $100 will fund 20 hours of progress and will always be targeted for a level under development that is near completion. Development of levels will continue at a slower, volunteer pace during unfunded months.