Hello, my friends.

It is with a heavy heart that I convey to you the passing of Quincy Jones. We were notified from his wife Sarah that he had passed last week.

***UPDATE: We have moved our regular January meeting and workshop
to January 27th, 2024 due to inclement weather. 

Hello my friends! As we start a new lap around Sun, we have some pretty big goals for the new year! At the end of last year, we started talking about these goals which can be grouped under the idea of "increasing membership and community."

It is that time again! You can almost smell the freshly cut pixels in the air! It's website update time and we need YOUR help to make it all about US!

DID YOU KNOW??? MTRAS will be 15 years old in 2022?

Starting in April, we will be conducting 10 weekly (one per week) online workshops around the ESP32 line of processors. The ESP lines of microcontrollers are used in many of the IoT devices that you might find online or at local retail stores. The ESP8266 and the ESP32 are popular platforms for connected projects online due to compatibility with the Arduino programming environment and vast open user projects and community. We are focusing on the ESP32 in this workshop as it is the newer and more feature rich processor that is intended to replace the ESP8266.

On April 25th, we had the privilege to host a workshop by Mohit Bhoite on building free-form circuit sculptures. During the workshop, Mohit walked us through a small project and covered planning, materials, methods and tips. By the end of the event we each had started our own "SevenSeg" bot.

Hey folks, I was thinking about hosting a short intro to NodeMCU Zoom session if anyone is interested. It would have to be one evening this week. You wouldn't need to have one on hand necessarily.

If you are participating in the event and planning on bringing materials, display projects or competition bots, please read these load-in / out instructions for the event!

As most of you know, Make Nashville recently opened their doors on July 30th. Now that things are up and running, they have been working hard on workshop options. Check out their schedule. In the next month alone, there are workshops for 3D printing, fundamentals of CNC routing, apron making and more. Have an idea for a great workshop? Check out th...

As many of you have noticed, our group is growing - at every meeting there are new faces and new projects. Growth is good! With each new person we add excitement, experience and wonder to our little corner of the Maker community. Of course with growth in numbers, we also need to grow our support for those numbers which is why we have decided to invest in some upgrades to our online presence. While our original site was great and absolutely helped grow our community, it, like all websites, needs to grow and adapt to changing technologies and demands. 

Hi Makers, fellow member Tony Youngblood is bringing back his Modular Art Pods exhibit next year. The call for artists is now open. What is a modular pod? Here's a description from their website:

"Modular Art Pods (MAPs) is an open-source collaborative art tunnel. Each artist designs a pod and builds it. Attendees can experience the tunnel by going through the pods or walking the perimeter. Anyone can enjoy Modular Art Pods no matter their age or accessibility needs. Some large pods are wheelchair accessible. Smaller “crawl” pods can also be experienced through an accessible “backlot tour,” featuring peepholes, behind-the-scenes views, and inside/outside interactivity."

Come out and support the home team. Members Azeem Husain, Quincy Jones, Andrew L Hoover, Karl and myself are building an Art Pod. Our theme is Recycled Space. Our pod is 4ft x 4ft x 6 ft tall. Features include musical floppy drives, an experiment panel, an electrical panel, robot arm and a dome to take in the view as you orbit planet earth! Complete your own space mission to get a mission patch themed token. Most of our pod utilizes upcycled parts. For more info checkout the following link. Thanks!
http://www.ozartsnashville.org/tnt-modular-art-pods/

We rescheduled our November meeting to November 14th to coincide with the Adventure Science Center Whistle Stop Weekend.  There will NOT be a meeting on November 21st.

Please be aware there are some changes on how to sign in for our monthly meetings.

Starting on October 24th MTRAS members will use a separate sign in table.

A member of MTRAS or Larry Dunlap-Berg, with the Adventure Science Center, will staff the table between 9:45 -10:15. (ASC’s front desk admission staff will be busy preparing to open the science center so please do not ask them for assistance.)

As you approach the science center, please use the entrance doors on the left side. When you enter the lobby look for the sign-in table, which will have a MTRAS flyer attached, on your left (near Jack Wood Hall).

You will sign in as you have in the past but will be given a wrist band specific for MTRAS members, and then you may go to Eureka Corner for the meeting. You MUST have a wristband to attend MTRAS meetings and afternoon workshops, and we encourage you to re-use your meeting wristband for the workshop.

Sad our workshop got rescheduled? Don't despair, our homies over at Make Nashville are doing an "Electronic Costume" workshop this Sat Oct 17th! Add some tech to your costume and check it out. From 11 - 2pm at Emma Bistro. Ages 12 and up. Be sure to register.

Overview

Beginning with the June workshop, MTRAS will now be offering an Arduino Basics Series for those who are new to robotics and specifically new to the Arduino platform. One of the most common questions we are asked is "I love robots and really want to get started but I don't know where to begin." Our goal is to help those who are just getting started and those who are currently tinkering, get a good foundation on which, to build their own ideas. 

Hello Roboteers. As a lot of you already know, there is a sort of new maker group in Nashville called "Make Nashville". Right now they are meeting over at Anode in East Nashville. The group is strong and is looking for a space. I am hoping MTRAS will be able to utilize this space at some point whenever the Science Center cant accommodate our needs. For example, when we are working on a big project that may require some welding etc. In in effort to help them, I have donated laser cutting time to help them with a fund raising campaign. Id like to be able to cut something maker friendly as swag to people who donated x amount to help with a deposit on a space. So I ask the members of MTRAS to come up with some fun maker related doodad I could cut out. Something using maybe 1/8in acrylic, no bigger then 2x2". If you have any ideas Id love to hear them during our next meet or reach out to me at on Facebook or MTRAS.

Thanks!