Blog 2016

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Next Year

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2016-12-27 Tuesday

  • Jon and Terry worked on model railway designs
  • Jon laser cut a couple of jigs to assemble a buffer stop for a model railway - he had already had the brass plates etched (see photos).
  • Imi and his daughter worked on refurbishing and configuring laptops
  • Ryan installed and configured Linux on an old IBM SurePOS 500 computer
  • Martin inspected the new lathe and evaluated how to repair or refurbish some tiny multirotor aircraft gears (possibly laser-cutting replacements)
  • Attendance tonight = 6

2016-12-20 Tuesday

  • Vina laser cut some very nice crafts and seasonal gifts
  • Jon further worked on laser analysis
  • PaulB further assembled the lathe and did some test operation - worked well!
  • Kevin worked on bicycle repair and enjoyed a mince pie
  • Ryan upgraded the ethernet in the space to be all-gigabit and tested the IBM SurePOS 500 4851 Kiosk computer. (Upgraded RAM from 256MB to 1GB of memory)
  • Vina brought a visitor over to Little House to discuss various making things
  • Attendance tonight = 6

2016-12-18 LASER cutter extra

Jon has been evaluating the laser cutter to try and understand its characteristics. RML have been donated a Dohicky laser power meter (in fact an anodised aluminium target to work with a thermocouple) Russ Sadler has a very informative youtube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqCyShJXqnElPTUnxX0mD5A and he has donated one of his Dohicky's to us see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXPZ0yWOt8&feature=youtu.be we haven't yet tried this.

Jon's experiments to date are based on Russ's experiments with clear Perspex on edge.

I took a block of clear Perspex about 80mm square and about 10mm thick and put it 'on edge' and then cut a series of short lines at 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90% power at 5mm/sec. I then repeated at 1mm/sec, At both speeds the cut depth was greatest at about 40-50% power - after that the depth did not improve. The perceived wisdom is that you should only run a laser tube at the power required to get the deepest cut - after that you are not getting any more power out of the tube, but risk degrading the gas within the tube, so basically we shouldn't run this tube above 45% power to prolong its lifetime.

After Christmas I'd like to do several things.

1)  With the Dohicky - you fire the laser at an anodised aluminium 'target' and this heats up, and by measuring the temperature gain and plotting it on a graph against a known tube we can calculate how much power you machine is actually producing. We then repeat the test after each mirror bounce and work out if one is causing a loss of power.

2) I'd like to try (with Paul) aligning and cleaning all the mirrors and the lens - I'm sure the machine is not delivering the same power equally across the bed, which suggests the mirrors are not quite right. The other side effect of the test I did was that the test cuts appeared to be slightly off-vertical as if the final mirror wasn't quite in the right alignment. It might also be worth checking the lens is the right way up, and the focussing 'tool' is the right length for our lens. My tests at 50% power and 1mm/sec was cutting about 10mm into the Perspex - but that was at the top left hand edge of the bed nearest the laser, so it would be 'best case'.

3) Neither of the above involve any permanent change to the machine, but No3 would - I'd like to but an ammeter in - it would be pretty simple, depending on the length of wire available we might just be able to cut a wire and put the ammeter in the gap, but we can always find a longer bit of wire, but again the purpose is to tell how much current the tube is using, which would help to ensure we weren't over powering the tube - a tube like ours would take 18-22milliAmps - much more than that and the tube life would drop again. In an ideal world we would cut a 30mm hole in the case to fit the ammeter, but we might be able to mount it in a little laser cut box on the side of the machine, but it wouldn't be quite as elegant.

2016-12-13 Tuesday

  • Arthur worked on his 3D printer design
  • Ben identified a faulty monitor
  • Jon, IanB and Gavin added to the biplane tail
  • Imi looked more into Libre Office, with help from Andres and IanB
  • Jon tested the laser cutter power -decidedly low
  • Mr Lamb brought in a laptop with a no-boot problem. Didn't touch it as there's still 6months warranty to go
  • David W brought in a Lenovo all-in-one computer that couldn't connect to the internet. We all had a go at it, and eventually it started working properly again. Result!!
  • Carl helped Phaedra fix up a new bike she had purchased. He replaced the brake pads and some brake cables and ordered a new seat stem.
  • Next week we will be open as normal, then not open again until 3rd January, whatever the web site might say.
  • Andres Brought in a Dell Inspirion 640 m that was working but needed to be formatted to be given to a new user. Data was scrambled and ubuntu was removed to install Lubuntu 32 bit version 16.04.
  • Andres finally learnt how to use the octoprint facility and printed out caffeine! Great for earrings or pendant!
  • Attendance tonight = 10

2016-12-12 Monday

  • A social gathering to recognise that Xmas is imminent
  • Some glasses of Prosecco were raised
  • Biscuits, mince pies and a non-xmas lemon drizzle cake were offered
  • Take-aways were fetched from local shops: Pizza, curry and meat pie
  • Christmas Pudding was consumed !
  • A good time was had by all
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-12-06 Tuesday

  • Ben continued learning about his PC repair
  • IanB built a tail wing for the biplane
  • Jon had a good look at the cooler, cleaned it up, disposed of the worst bits. Now it's ready for a test
  • PaulB had a 3D print to do
  • We welcomed a newcomer, who might look in on us again
  • Ryan helped IanB with an OpenWRT router, and set up LEDE router software on another HomeHub5A
  • Imi did some printing and borrowed a laptop
  • Vina collected the pressure gauges. Couldn't stay long. Has a need for a device to assist in elder care - new project.
  • Kevin did some woodwork repair to a 12-string guitar. Also will contact Bike Jon to offer help.
  • Attendance tonight = 8

2016-11-29 Tuesday

  • Jon and Gavin collaborated on the biplane build, while Ben took apart a PC in need of repair
  • Kim was busy with the laser cutter
  • Matt had been converting one of the 'Metal Mickey' surveillance cameras all week and brought it along. He has replaced the camera pcb with a Raspberry Pi camera, and added an arduino to control stepper motors. There's control over focus, zoom and night vision, with pan and tilt coming soon. He plans to add end stops and homing triggers, plus some form of positional feedback.
  • Konstantin was drilling out a metal panel
  • Dan, Ryan and IanB had an interesting debate on DNS and MX records. Dan is transferring administration of RML's domain to RML.
  • PaulB started another long-term 3D print
  • The CNC router has been moved to the cloakroom, and the HUG gazebos have moved silently to the loft area.
  • Welcome to new member Asif. He likes to repair or re-purpose items and will find our tools and workshop space really useful. Asif contributed most of today's photos, too
  • Carl brought a rear lamp for a bicycle that didn't seem to work. Between him, Jon and IanB, it was got going again. This was a Busch and Muller Toplight Line Brake Plus with standlight problem.
  • Carl and Jon wired up a simple radio receiver using the electronics kit. After some fiddling about, it eventually worked. Not quite Bang & Olufsen, though.
  • The pressure valves have been retrieved from NPL, and are awaiting collection by Vina.
  • Kevin offered to store some bikes for the Youth Centre Bike Workshop, and offered to build secure bike storage in the Little House yard. So far, the offer has not been taken up, so we need to get back to Bike Jon and see what he needs.
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-11-22 Tuesday

  • There are now two model plane builds proceeding. Ian B and Jon gave some help
  • PaulB had a blown Mac power supply, which he's now well on the way to repairing
  • Arthur was printing another part for his bootstrap 3D printer
  • David visited us, with a laptop that was not performing properly. We gave some advice
  • Among other things, Konstantin looked into laser-cutting
  • Kevin successfully repaired a bicycle saddlebag
  • Dan had some PAT testing questions that were fully debated
  • Carl cured the annoying hum on a mains-powered radio
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-11-15 Tuesday

  • PaulB and Ryan helped diagnose a sickly 1980's cassette tape recorder (needs new belts most likely)
  • Konstantin printed 3D models using the Deltamaker
  • Ryan soldered in replacement filter capacitors into his Macintosh SE/30 Resto-Mod Project
  • Martin donated an ADSL2+ modem, Ryan reconfigured it for Kevin's ADSL2 service with the dead Huawei modem and Kevin reported back he was online again (yay!)
  • IanB helped mentor on the wood plane build
  • Jon helped orientation of a Ph.D graduate student focused on materials science and making
  • Robin provided wisdom and good cheer
  • Vina dropped by to say hello
  • Carl and PaulB successfully repaired the convection microwave oven
  • Dan dropped by to say hello
  • IanB and Carl discussed various RML and HUG items
  • JJ dropped by and inquired about the laser cutter training
  • People seemed amenable to doing a holiday drinks/mini-party and suggested a Doodle to figure out a good day
  • Attendance tonight = 14

2016-11-14 Monday

  • No subject for a talk today
  • Informal discussions
  • PaulB re-flashed Raspian on an SD card for the 3D printer
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-11-08 Tuesday

  • PaulB rebuilding a laptop for elderly neighbour
  • Ryan washed dishes and reattached laptop hinge with PaulB's help
  • Kevin worked on refurbishing the power-washer
  • Konstantin and PaulB worked on rapid prototyping methodologies (3D printing file format exchanges and other related items)
  • Had two visitors (each with dogs coincidentally) offering various technology goods for donation or recycling
  • The unusual quiet continues - possibly due to the very cold weather
  • Attendance tonight = 6

2016-11-01 Tuesday

  • Em and IanB added hardware to the model plane rudder
  • The biplane has been lost. A new fuselage has been cut from thin plywood and Ben started gluing it together.
  • PaulB brought a genuine historic ZX81. It's difficult to find an analogue TV receiver to use as a monitor, these days.
  • Harry started to experiment with CAD
  • Constantin printed a small device in PLA. He needed a very smooth finish on the front edge and found that a spray of black gloss paint did the trick.
  • Overall, an unusually quiet evening, for a Tuesday.
  • Attendance tonight = 6

2016-10-25 Tuesday

  • A busy evening - several new faces. Welcome!
  • Three laptops were looked at, one could be repaired, two not so lucky
  • Hello to Petros from Athens, visiting makerspaces in the UK
  • Kevin has taken the pressure washer apart, it's in need of a specialised gasket
  • Vina's decorative bottles are getting on well, requires some help with CNC
  • Jon rigged up a hot wire cutter to trim some foam packaging to size - so successful he's considering a laser cut v2.0
  • Jon used his bending jig and the heat gun to form some more pipework.
  • Attendance tonight = 14

2016-10-24 Monday

  • IanB gave a talk on Dynamic DNS, or "Running a web server without a static IP"
  • Some discussion on mechanism for motorised curtains
  • Idea for a future event: Writing software to make competitive bots
    • possibly starting with "Battleships"
    • or "The Prisoner's Dilemma"
  • Matt has an idea for a drinking device for his cat
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-10-19 Wednesday

  • Andres gave a tour to visiting dignitaries Zac Goldsmith and Pamela Fleming from LBRUT
  • Ryan helped Richard further with his upgraded PC - installing drivers, reconnecting drives, verifying reliability
  • Ryan found dead capacitors from 1989 in his Mac SE/30 upgrade and is ordering replacements
  • PaulB continued to print a mystery object
  • Attendance today and tonight = 5

2016-10-18 Tuesday

  • Arthur's 3D printer continues to make parts for itself
  • Andrew's 3D printer is now able to print parts, but it's not yet free from problems
  • PaulB continued to assemble his new delta printer
  • The model-biplane-under-construction has disappeared! ??
  • Ryan helped retrieve data from a laptop that had suddenly died
  • Jon & Terry made parts for models
  • Dan had discussions on electrical safety and PAT tests
  • Andres and Dan improved the Library Countdown screen display.
  • Ryan has a plan for remote access to the Library Countdown system
  • Kevin worked on an amplifier which he brought
  • Carl looked in briefly to say Hi.
  • Attendance tonight = 14

2016-10-11 Tuesday

  • Arthur brought his bootstrap 3D printer. It has already printed its own extruder mount and may print more parts for itself in the coming weeks
  • PaulB has a dual-extruder delta 3D printer. It's in the process of being assembled.
  • Andrew brought a 3D printer in need of faultfinding and adjustment. Together with IanB and Arthur, we made a little progress. -To be continued.
  • The two model plane builds moved on, one with the tailplane fixing and the other with fuselage covering.
  • Martin brought a tiny radio-controlled car and wondered about getting started in robotics.
  • Ryan fixed an inkjet printer, and the owner donated two laptop computers.
  • Ryan and PaulB allocated a computer that will be configured and donated to the local YMCA for youth music production - it will replace a computer that is probably 12 years old.
  • We looked at the Green Screen projector but couldn't find out why it isn't working.
  • Jon laser cut some boxes.
  • Attendance tonight = 13

2016-10-10 Monday

  • Matt described a watering system for tomato plants, controlled by a Raspberry Pi running a Bash script.
  • It was all put together in a few days, to keep the plants fed and watered over a holiday period.
  • The system could be accessed and controlled remotely, because it established a reverse ssh connection to a server.
  • Some discussion on using reverse ssh with the Library Pi
  • Attendance tonight = 4

2016-10-04 Tuesday

  • Some IT stuff was going on near the kitchen
  • Paul B. Fixed the laser cutter: emergency button failed
  • Took the third (and least capable but still usable) LG oscilloscope and donated it to London Hackspace Amateur Radio Club.
  • First layer of yatch varnish for new exterior table
  • Cleaned Laptop - trackpad fails with poor quality power supply. Fitted better quality power supply but does not charge battery. The new charger needs the 1-wire protocol identification for proper charging will attempt to to salvage the chip from the old crappy power supply.
  • Jon developed an innovative plastic pipe bender
  • fixed a wheel for bike trailer
  • found a hidden fuse in a microwave that blew
  • Gave away 3 heater boiler jackets on behalf of SWLEN
  • Had some visitors interested in documenting makerspaces for an academic project, hopefully the exchange will prove useful.
  • Assembled apple pickers
  • metal work holes for connector in a panel
  • Home-made 3D printer progressing nicely
  • Checked the guts of two laptops to fix.
  • Interrogated Ryan about USA politics
  • Attendance tonight = 18

2016-09-27 Tuesday

  • Nick continued with a 3D print
  • Arthur continued to build a 3D printer
  • Kim did some laser cutter work
  • Vina was die-cutting decorations for wedding invitations
  • Phaedra kindly scrubbed out the place where the cooker used to be.
  • IanB completed the bees wings upgrade and handed them over.
  • Jon used the laser cutter
  • Vina made a robin, a blue-tit and a snowman in felt.
  • PaulB brought along a compressor, it will be useful
  • Vina donated a Bosch pressure-washer. It needs a leak to be fixed but, hey, we can do that.
  • Ryan installed SSDs into two laptops and installed Ubuntu on them. Now ready for donation or used as loaners.
  • Jon helped Ben with the biplane build
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-09-26 Monday

  • Second Linux, BSD and Open Source meeting
  • Jeremy completed the OpenVPN presentation (from last time) with a script to set up the server
  • Kris spotted something in the log about compression, and the VPN was demonstrated successfully, switching between browsing from London and browsing from New York.
  • Andres gave a talk on the Bus Countdown system, and its application in the Ham Library.
  • Iain had re-written Countdown in Javascript, but the minimal browsers on the R Pi were not able to cope with it. Firefox worked OK but couldn't be started in full-screen mode. Chromium would start in full-screen mode but didn't recognise one of the function calls.
  • The Library display reverted to php for now, but the Javascript version will be installed when everything is sorted out.
  • Attendance tonight = 6

2016-09-20 Tuesday

  • Matt hacked on the CTC 3D printer with a more powerful 12v supply - still encountering some funky component voodoo
  • Jon continued on the model plane build
  • Jon and Terry did some precision model laser cutting
  • Kim did some laser cutting of art pieces
  • Vina shared her art including woolen bees, steampunk key-clocks and more
  • Martin brought in some hard drives for e-waste disposal and did a teardown analysis of a BT HomeHub 3A with Ryan
  • Phaedra brought in her broken bee-wings which were re-engineered by IanB
  • Ryan hacked together a push-pull pole arm for effectively opening Velux windows with the help and resourcefulness of IanB
  • Arthur further perfected his 3D printing configuration
  • Liam continued woodworking away outside in the yard
  • Jean popped in for a cordial visit and was shown various improvements to the building and space.
  • Attendance tonight = 11

2016-09-13 Tuesday

  • Hottest evening of the year, not many members
  • The model plane build started an hour early due to other commitments
  • Vina demonstrated the Cricut, which cuts shapes and lettering out of card
  • Martin brought along a faulty hard disk drive, which he is going to try to revive
  • Interesting chat about the nature of sub-atomic particles
  • Attendance tonight = 8

2016-09-12 Monday

  • First of the Linux, BSD and Open Source meetings.
  • Jeremy demonstrated how to set up a virtual private network (VPN) connection to a server. This could be used to anonymise your internet identity, or for secure data storage and retrieval.
  • The demo also introduced us to VPS by digitalocean, easy to set up and destroy servers, with datacentres all over the world.
  • We talked about ssh and security.
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-09-06 Tuesday

  • Created a new group that will meet every other Monday. Linux, BSD and Open Source
  • More work was done on the model plane. Motor fitted, rudder started. The Bi-plane also had some work done on it.
  • Matt did some more work on the CTC 3D printer. Next week, we might see it print something!
  • Vina had a cute drinking glass that showed colourful LED lights when there was water in it. We were all curious to know how the water was being detected (and would it work with gin and tonic?).
  • Liam was woodworking away outside in the yard.
  • Paul's 3D printer started on a job that was being planned last week.
  • Ryan was working on installing OpenWRT in a Belkin modem/router. Unable to finish it this week.
  • Andres learnt to chop videos. $ avconv -ss 60 -i video.mp4 -t 86 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -metadata track="3" "Part III.mp4"
  • Attendance tonight = 17

2016-08-30 Tuesday

Normal Open House Session

  • Welcome to Bob and Nathan, interested in the 3D printing process
  • Arthur brought his MarkII wooden-frame 3D printer. Still a work in progress but the motors and end-stops are now working.
  • Thanks to Matt for activating the CTC 3D printer. It's not far from being operational. May need calibration, but we can do that.
  • The model plane had wing covering done by Ben and Jon
  • The other model plane had important work done on the tailplane and elevator by Em and Ken
  • Attendance tonight = 12

Special afternoon session with two 6 yo girls

  • Played with scooter the robot!
  • Did design for table (just because we did not want to throw away a metal tube)
  • Drilled a hole on a discarded chopping board. Filed the edges with a half round.
  • Built a table by using duct tape for the top!
  • Swept the wood bits, tidied up and left it tidier than we found it.

Attendance = 3

2016-08-29 Monday

Bank holiday Little House clean-up special event!

  • Kim did some laser work with her family in tow
  • Special thanks to Vina, Ian and Andres for doing great work on Thursday complementing Monday - cleaning, scrubbing and improving the space - well done!
  • Andres, Ryan, Jon, Imi, and IanB all gathered for some Little House Refurbishing
    • Rearranged desk in small office to better facilitate multiple people and walking through
    • Repaired and recalibrated the Rolling Shutters for Little House - the natural light and extra egress point is very nice
    • Swapped the sharp edged rectangle table for a rounded red door making it easier to get around
    • Stripped down and cleaned out CTC 3D Printer - rebuild in progress
    • Cleaned kitchen and moved brewery equipment into now-empty cupboard
    • Added a Richmond MakerLabs sign in the Northeast window (visible when shutters are up)
    • Moved some canopy and sign parts to the loft
    • Inspected wood shipping crate for outdoor storage viability
    • Cleaned up outdoor courtyard and removed rotting wood fixtures
    • Recycled 40 kg of scrap metal, 50 kg of wood, 30kg of garden waste, and 30 kg of waste electronics at Townmead Recycling Centre
  • Attendance today = 7

2016-08-23 Tuesday

  • Opened an hour early to make a big push on building the model plane. Em started on rudder, Ken took on the elevator hinges, Ben found a new skill in covering wings with mylar. Jon got involved, helping to smooth out wrinkles in the covering using a hot air gun. We still have a way to go.
  • Kim was doing some designs for the laser cutter
  • Massive work done by Ryan and others installing T-clips on the roller shutter in front of the door. This now opens and closes, and it makes a good alternative entrance door.
  • Cleared area in front of side window to allow repair of that shutter as well.
  • Elena collected her (now virus free) PC and was very grateful.
  • Nick gave Laurie some tuition in understanding software code.
  • Vina showed how to make felt shades for LED light chains. There was more talk about the bottle cutter but no further progress.
  • Liam did a little more woodwork, this time putting a Dremel sander to good use.
  • Graham brought a 3D printer in need of some attention but there was not time to look closely at it this evening. Hopefully at the next session.
  • New member Bob had an interesting display of colour LEDs controlled by Arduino
  • Phaedra now has a bike, and several people helped with adjustment and maintenance.
  • Attendance tonight = 21 (Is this a record?)

2016-08-22 Monday

  • Mopped the floor of kitchen and bathroom
  • Cleaned bottle and cutlery found in sink
  • Labelled areas that should be left cleaner than found.
  • Labelled the switches needed to get hot water in kitchen and bathroom. Tip: switch all three of them on.
  • Cleaned one yellow bucket.
  • Put a wire frame to stop the wire jumpers from falling off their rails.
  • Configured computer near kitchen so that it can print to laser printer in office.
  • Duster, mops, brooms and similar items are now hung on coat hanger in coat room.

2016-08-21 Sunday

2016-08-16 Tuesday

  • Thanks to Matt for donating a 3D printer. Attractively held together with duct tape, and sporting at least 5 cooling fans, it will be a useful tool for training and experimenting with.
  • The laser cutter was back in action with a new tube. Still seems under-powered. We still have to find out why.
  • Ryan, Dan and others continued to clear up and re-arrange, to make more space
  • Welcome to several new members - with some interesting ideas
  • Ryan Jon and Matt investigated the front shutter mechanism, and have a better understanding of both why it doesn't work, and what will be required to fix it.
  • Vina and IanB tried cutting a bottle, using the new bottle-cutter tool and a hot-water, cold-water method of stressing the glass. It was partly successful, but the break wasn't fully aligned with the glass scoring. That bottle went for recycling, and more experiments will be done.
  • Attendance tonight = 13

2016-08-13 Friday

  • Handed over four refurbished desktops and one laptop to London Hackspace to be used for their robotics programme
  • Special project time - refurbishing the RML DeadDyson DC33 by cleaning plastic pieces and replacing the motor


2016-08-09 Tuesday

  • Ryan cleared the outside area, swept the floors, recycled our e-waste bin and took the rubbish bags to the tip.
  • Kim did some more laser cutting
  • Two refurbished mini-tower computers with screens and keyboards and a laptop were given away! There was rejoicing and three happy youngsters who will learn Linux.
  • The model plane build continues. The two sides of the fuselage were glued to the bulkhead panels. It's taking shape!
  • Fitting of ornamental lights into a Sapphire bottle progressed to a second prototype.
  • Jon and Terry continued modelling
  • A magnetic bottle opener was made in wood, using most of our wood-working tools. It was a successful build.
  • Krish stopped by and checked out our space after joining our chat group - mentioned he found us via hackerspaces.org
  • Attendance tonight = 14

2016-08-02 Tuesday

  • A welcome visit from Paul G, founding member, who we hadn't seen for a long while
  • The laser cutter was in use, with reduced power. A new replacement tube has arrived, not yet tried out.
  • We attempted to cut a glass bottle, by heating nichrome wire and plunging the bottle into cold water. We couldn't get the wire to glow red-hot. Need more power!
  • Welcome to a new member who came here for a look-round. He's now a HUG member and is subscribed to the mailing list
  • Andrew fitted a new motor to his 3D printer. It turns out that another motor had destroyed one or two of the driver electronics, so he will repair and try again
  • Attendance tonight = 15

2016-07-28 Thursday

  • Matt assembled a small automated tomato watering assembly out of recycled wire, a 5V pump, and heatshrink tubing and relays connecting to a Raspberry Pi
  • Ryan refurbished two Dell PCs and two HP PCs to be donated to anyone that wants/needs them
  • Paul refurbished the old lasercutter PC with more memory, an SD card reader and attempted to upgraded it to Windows 10, without success.
  • Paul printed items with the DeltaMaker
  • Ryan almost updated the DeltaMaker IP address but got distracted
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-07-26 Tuesday

  • Model plane build was continued thanks to Laurie -the others being away for a while
  • Happy to meet a couple of new faces at the MakerLabs -we hope you liked what you saw and will become regulars
  • Holes drilled in glass bottle, to convert it to an attractive ornamental light source
  • Paul 3D Printed cyclone dust collector
  • We took a die-cut press apart to see what was wrong with it. If we can get a spare part, it may yet work again.
  • We repaired an item of medical electronics. It was only a blown fuse, but the fuse was hard to find.
  • Nick had the Dell working again and upgraded it to Windows 10, just a few days before the end of free upgrades.
  • Nick also gave Laurie some assistance with understanding how electronics could drive a geared motor
  • Glad to see Andrew again. He completed the new extruder for the 3D printer and then started on the business of levelling, adjusting and calibrating.
  • Jon tidied up - Little House is looking like a bomb has gone off inside - Again.
  • There was some discussion about tidying up the courtyard, and what constituted a weed, but little enthusiasm to implement the plan.
  • The laser cutter is limping on at restricted power, but another new tube has arrived, so a repair is on the cards for this week.
  • Attendance tonight = 16

2016-07-19 Tuesday

  • Nick completed the Dell data backup for Elena (although there may also be the malware/virus backed up as well so care needs to be taken before plugging it in anywhere) Elena bought an licence key for Windows 7 and we will then upgrade to Win10.
  • An electric scooter had a new controller fitted, battery recharged and the repair was a complete success!
  • Jon did some rather impressive experiments in vacuum forming, using a frame he had cut on the laser a few weeks ago, the heat gun and the vacuum cleaner
  • Charlotte was learning how to use the 3D printer
  • Charlotte and a.n.other (sorry didn't catch your name) member were discussing polishing home/hand made jewelry - possibly a new section
  • The model aircraft made further progress, this time the second side of the fuselage was glued together.
  • Imi was practicing lock picking with a transparent padlock.
  • The laser cutter is currently out of service, waiting for a replacement laser tube
  • Someone from NADHack collected the "old" laser cutter, with a view to doing a full repair to it


  • Attendance tonight = 15

2016-07-12 Tuesday

  • The new tube was fitted to the laser cutter, but it didn't work. The old tube was put back again.
  • Welcome to a couple of new members!
  • A microphone stand was padded and wrapped in black & yellow tape for Phaedra and the bees.
  • JJ brought over three more computers for our use, and he installed Ubuntu on them all. Thanks JJ!
  • Some work was done on extracting data from a Hard Disk, but it couldn't be finished by the end of the evening.
  • Attendance tonight = 13


2016-07-10 Sunday

Little House was opened briefly for a bit of computer-related housecleaning:

  • Recycled dying/obsolete computers and components at Townmead Recycling Centre
  • Disposed of two black bin bags of rubbish at Townmead (did NOT have space for that weird blue bag of plastic rubbish that may also have collected rainwater)
  • Brought six blue 2GB USB wristbands with Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit for ease of installation for future computers. (Reusable when new distros/OS versions come out, make life easy)
  • Cleaned up the computer room a bit to accommodate work/fiddling/installations
  • Disconnected possibly virus-laden computer from the network (Note: Please don't leave something questionable like this unattended, powered up and connected - it was stuck on 'shutting down' when powered up the monitor - yuck) - there was a Manu Chao music CD in the CD drive - put that on the table in case it is to be copied over to Neo.
  • Installed Wifi adapter in old-Neo computer and did rough-test - seems to already work automatically
  • Configured new i3 computer to connect to the giant television and setup keyboard / timezone and updated software
  • Consolidated cables/connections on 48-port ethernet switch to enable future second VLAN for fast gigabit network installation/booting/diagnosis from server novo.
  • Chatted with walk-in visitor/resident with daughter about RML and provided a HUG membership application with the RichmondMakerLabs URL on the back. Moved some of the stickers to the application folder
  • Attendance = 3

2016-07-05 Tuesday

  • Something happened here unsure what it was.
  • Something to do with a visitor from other hackerspaces?
  • Laser cutter diagnotics?
  • * Attendance tonight = >3?

2016-06-28 Tuesday

  • Lots happened, and we had a lot of new guests/members, it was a bit chaotic, but in a good way.
  • A visitor brought an electric scooter that needs some repair
  • Jon laser cut the bits for a vacuum forming tool - it appears the laser needs alignment?
  • The airplane build continues
  • Dan took more photos, for promotional use and for the web pages
  • Paul upgraded the raspberry pi in the 3d printer and then printed a clip to hold crutches for Jon's Mum.
  • Phaedra soldered some speaker wires to a suitable plug.
  • We worked on an electronic teaching kit.
  • We laser cut a jig for wreath making for Vina.
  • Rob showed Vina how to use the chop saw to cut bamboo for making a garden home for ladybirds
  • Paul tried to rescue data from a dying hard drive without success.
  • IanB modified a software program for Rob.
  • We checked out a Windows XP computer and we offered to exchange it for an Ubuntu alternative.
  • Other stuff happened but your correspondent couldn't keep track of it - perhaps one of the others can edit the wiki.
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-06-25 Saturday

Andres opened in the afternoon for a group of 6-9 year olds and their parents

  • Demonstrated laser cutter, 3D printer, ubuntu computer, robot, Inkscape, blender, minetest.
  • Donation of tasty italian cake yum!
  • Attendance = 8

2016-06-24 Friday

Organizers meeting at Ham Brewery Tap

2016-06-21 Tuesday

  • The model aircraft had the tailplane completed. Work started on the fuselage
  • Kim was using the laser-cutter, and found time to cut out a number of heart-shapes for Vina. After that Jon cut some more model bits for Terry, and then test cut a sheet of 10mm acrylic to establish if it was worth salvaging some more (it is).
  • Arthur continued on software development
  • Phaedra was pleased with the bee-wings and wore them the whole evening. Her wings twitched any time she mentioned Monsanto, Chevron or Exxon. Next up - Phaedra wants yellow and black platform-sole boots.
  • We received a delivery of i3 pcs, arranged by Ryan
  • Carl brought along a poorly X-Box. Paul B started analysis of the hard-disk.
  • Carl had an interesting discussion with Vina on the chemistry and science of soap-bubbles.
  • Andrew continued with woodwork and the extruder for the 3D printer
  • Dan took some photos. Anything worth showing on this page?
  • Attendance tonight = 15

2016-06-14 Tuesday

  • Had a bit of a tidy-up at Little House - some signs from other HUG groups (used for Ham fair) were put in the loft for long term storage.
  • Carl replaced the front light on his cargo bike, which involved threading a wire through one of the front forks. It didn't pass down the hollow tube as easily as it should, 'cos every time Carl pushed on the wire, something was pushing it back. Eventually, a disgruntled spider fell out of the fork, and after that the job got finished easily.
  • Jon and Paul sorted a mass of donated items, and disposed of those bits we wouldn't be able to use, then Dan did a visual inspection of the mains-electrical's that remained and disposed of anything potentially unsafe. Soon he will PAT-test anything that passed the visual inspection. We still need to be selective about what we accept - we now need to dispose of 75% of what was donated as WEEE waste.
  • Kim busy with the laser-cutter, EM and Ben continued to assemble the model plane, Ian and Ian discussed entropy, thermodynamics and came to no significant conclusion.
  • Welcome to new member Vina, who is keen to do some practical craft-work.
  • Phaedra came by with her her bee costume, and somehow we are going to add a motor to the wings, to make them flap.Bee_Wing_Flapper
  • Jon did a bit of CAD on his project, then moved onto the CAD for a laser cut vacuum forming jig - he needs some materials and a couple of hours on the laser cutter.
  • Carl proposed an organiser meeting to discuss what we need to do next. Friday 24th seemed the best day. Ham Brewery Tap seemed the best place. 8.00pm seemed a good time to start. All welcome. If you can't make 8pm, come when you can.
  • Attendance tonight = 11

2016-06-11 Saturday

Ham Fair

  • Started preparing things from 9am and by 11am 3 plots where set up: HUG (including Ham Hydro, allotment, Library garden, and the apple press), Neighbourhood Forum, and RML.
  • Richmond MakerLabs had our own Gazebo for the first time - RML's message was much clearer to get across.
  • Star of the show was Ian's Rep-Rap 3D printer, we ran this almost constantly using the two big backup batteries to power the printer, and the battery on Ian's laptop boosted by a PC backup battery donated a few weeks ago.
  • Loads of visitors came to our stall. We talked to lots of interesting people about their projects and ours, and hopefully we may have lots of potential new members.
  • Tidy up started at 16:30 hrs and by 17:40 hrs all was back in little house.
  • One Gazebo is getting a second days use on Sunday at the Cassel Hospital celebrations for Ham Amenities Group, so RML having taken it down on the green, moved it to the Hospital grounds and set it all up again!
  • Attendance = 8 Plus the rest of HUG!

2016-06-10 Friday

  • RHP and LBRUT visit in the early morning.
  • Attendance = 6

2016-06-07 Tuesday

  • Andres brought pizza
  • Kim brought biscuits & crisps
  • Andres emptied the trash (so rare it is worth mentioning!).
  • People working on own projects:
    • Laser cutting
    • Arthur and Andres got the wild life monitor working. All we need is a USB power plug and somewhere to test it for a while.
    • Software processes
    • Model plane
    • Networking
    • OpenWrt
    • 3D printer modification
    • Woodworking
    • Repairs


  • Ham Fair preparations:
    • Looked at examples of RML flyer
    • Got a few more volunteers to help
    • Start at Little House at 9:30 am
  • Attendance tonight = 15

2016-06-2 Thursday

  • Terry & Jon laser cut buildings for model railway layouts.
  • Attendance tonight = 2

2016-06-1 Wednesday

  • Flaming June?
  • Kim laser cut
  • Jon, Carl, Imi, PaulB all popped by.
  • Our Wednesday keyholder Harriet couldn't make it - too much work following her holidays, this may be the last formal Wednesday meeting for some time - please check the blog or email list to see if we are going to open on a Wednesday before travelling.
  • Attendance tonight = 5


2016-05-31 Tuesday

  • Nice to see Arthur again after a number of weeks away
  • Rob looked in, recovering from an operation, good to see you, too
  • Ian discussed Twitter with IanB, a case of the blind leading the blind :-)
  • Ryan had motherboards all over the table, setting up diskless network booting for OS installs / system wiping / diagnostics, etc.
  • Jon was quietly constructing scale-model fuel tanks
  • Kim had a pile of laser-engraving to do
  • Imi did some research on-line
  • Kevin revived a phone and a radio
  • William got a problem with python solved, and managed to complete his application processing an RSS feed
  • Had a visit from Malcolm of the Thames Valley RepRap group. He brought along some parts to complete an extruder for Andrew's 3D printer, and had a chat with PaulB about 3D printers generally.
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-05-26 Thursday

  • Jon & Terry continue to laser cut parts for 'The Albany' model, they discovered plans on Richmond's planning applications site, and then discovered some of what has been cut was wrong, but its too late to change!
  • PaulB continued 3D printing
  • PaulB and Jon showed Imi how to use formulas in Excel
  • Attendance tonight = 5

2016-05-25 Wednesday

  • Due to keyholders holidays there was NO MEETING on Wednesday 25th.

2016-05-24 Tuesday

  • Kim was engraving and cutting
  • PaulB was creating the Millennium Falcon in the 3D printer
  • PaulB did some aluminium brazing
  • Jon and PaulB bottled the last of the apple cider - bottles available to take in the kitchen.
  • IanB showed a demonstration video using chroma-key
  • Ian did some soldering, then turned to html
  • Ken was a new member. He showed a range of components and assemblies that could be sourced very cheaply from the markets in Shenzhen, through his contact, Toby. Some time soon, Toby will be making a visit to the UK and he may come to see us at Little House.
  • Andrew continued cutting wood to construct a table. Also discussed a new extruder for his 3D printer.
  • The stone-polishing machine had been running for about a week, and the stones were, by now, highly polished. What next?
  • Dan, Iain, Kevin and Imi all showed up too.
  • Attendance tonight = 11

2016-05-19 Thursday

  • Jon & Terry experimented with laser cutting paper labels
  • Jon swapped the stone polishing media with a finer grade and re-started it for 4 days of tumbling.
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-05-18 Wednesday

  • Kim laser cut
  • Harriet worked on a cable display
  • Ian glued the wings of our model plane together
  • Paul B installed a new lens in the laser cutter
  • Attendance tonight = 5

2016-05-17 Tuesday

  • PaulB demonstrated a quadcopter with video camera, sending images direct to a mobile phone
  • Jon & Terry continued making model buildings
  • Kim was laser cutting and brought some fine milk chocolate brownies!
  • Dan was repairing an electric bass guitar. Made good progress with it.
  • A couple of visitors arrived, with a laptop that couldn't be used because the passwords were all forgotten. We put our best brains onto it and managed to copy all the data on to a memory stick. After that, it would be OK to re-install Windows.
  • Ryan kept busy allocating new IPs all around the place, re-established communication with the laser cutter on its own special network. Oh, and the 3D printer is now on the network.
  • Ian got a LED light connected up and working
  • Andrew and Ian B worked on Andrew's 3D printer, took 2 steps forward and only one back
  • Andrew chopped wood on the mitre saw, but felt obliged to stop before 11pm, in consideration of local residents.
  • A tumbling machine for polishing small stones was donated. It seemed to be all in working order, so we started a 48 hour-long session, polishing some stones. Results on Thursday, maybe.
  • Attendance tonight = 11

2016-05-12 Thursday

  • Ryan worked to upgrade our broadband
  • Jon &Terry laser cut
  • Paul worked on a raspberry pie camera to monitor the 3d printer remotely (that's what you need when your prints take 60 hours to appear)
  • Attendance tonight = 5

2016-05-11 Wednesday

  • Kim cutting stuff on laser cutter.
  • Kevin has downloaded Python onto a Raspberry Pi and is wondering why it doesn't work.
  • No wifi because of broadband upgrade.
  • little office is full of monitors....
  • Attendance tonight = 5

2016-05-10 Tuesday

  • Kim did some laser cutting.
  • Paul B 3D printed a case for the 7" Raspberry Pi touch screen.
  • Jon was soldering a brass etched train carriage.
  • Attendance tonight = 7

2016-05-05 Thursday

  • Ryan made progress with BT HomeHub and the process of flashing it with OpenWRT.
  • We discussed the possibilities or 3D printing the frame, and laser cutting the panels for various circuit enclosures with a new member
  • Attendance tonight = 5

2016-05-04 Wednesday

  • Attendance tonight = ?


2016-05-03 Tuesday

Little House was open 19:30-11pm.

  • PaulB was 3D printing a Pentagonosenlazados, and fixed some earphones.
  • IanB and BillM tried to repair a TV by replacing some components. It didn't work, and the TV is now headed for the dump.
  • Em and Ben finished the second wing of the model plane. Things are moving faster now they are getting skilled at it.
  • Ryan came back from far away. Ignoring the effects of jet lag, he opened up a BT HomeHub and started the process of flashing it with OpenWRT. This will be our modem/router/WiFiAP for Fibre Broadband, coming soon.
  • Ian has a dead Raspberry Pi. This was confirmed by checking the current drain on the 5v supply -about 500mA, compared with less than 200mA on a working Pi.
  • Kevin continued fitting a new battery into a mobile phone. The battery is not designed for that phone, but it's going to get connected up ultimately.
  • There was some discussion of bicycles, with a lot of respect for the penny-farthing.
  • Carl has built a hedgehog house. All he needs now is a hedgehog.
  • Attendance tonight = 11

2016-04-28 Thursday

Little House was open 8-11pm.

  • For much of the evening Terry and Jon had the run of the place to laser cut more model railway building bits.
  • Later Chas appeared to borrow Paul's compound mitre saw, and Carl's Cargo bike to get it home!
  • Paul helped Carl modify a hedgehog logo to laser cut and add to the hedgehog house he is building with his kids.
  • We investigated the broken SWLEN display stand, and Chas now has details of the manufacturer, and will try and obtain some spares.
  • IanB popped by to find out the ip address of our new broadband.
  • Jon survived the cider tasted yesterday - we may have written it off as vinegar too soon - we need to bottle off the remaining 3 demijohns next week (should give us 20-25 pints! ).
  • Attendance tonight = 6


2016-04-27 Wednesday

Little House was open 19:30-10pm.

  • Kim did some laser cutting and her support to RML is acknowledged in our front page with her Facebook page
  • Dan and Kim discussed about making a new web page.
  • Andres worked on the wild life monitor project. Soldered a wire, followed some tutorials to upload the code but the pictures are not coming out.
  • Pizza was eaten.
  • Some plans for Ham Fair were made. And idea for 3D laser cut presents.
  • Discussed about getting cheap gazebo as we lost track of ours.
  • Some cider tasting. Pressed, and fermented at makerlabs, we had previously feared we had made cider vinegar, however a last ditch tasting suggests that it might actually be OK - were we too impatient? We have a stock of bottles that need to be cleaned and filled.
  • Attendance tonight = 6

2016-04-26 Tuesday

Little House was open 19:30-11pm.

  • We received a donation of a PC in a large case, a laptop, a couple of thin client terminals and various other bits & pieces. Needs to be evaluated.
  • The same donor gave us an LG analogue oscilloscope. It's in good working order, has a built-in signal generator and would make a good training aid.
  • Paul B fixed a laptop, 3D printed a case for his Pi Zero and re-aligned the laser cutter.
  • Kim got on with some laser cutting.
  • Ian did some soldering and got his LED light working!
  • Jon and Paul B put up a magnetic tool holder
  • Dan took apart a non-working clock-radio. It was working again by the time he re-assembled it.
  • Bill M brought along a Toshiba television with DVD. It had stopped working and was completely dead. With Paul B's help we opened it up and guessed what parts needed replacement. Ian B will get those parts by next week, and Bill will learn how to change the components.
  • Ian B brought his 3D printer and connected it to a 12v battery. It worked fine, and can be run all day long at the Ham Fair.
  • Kris arrived with 8 high-spec 20" monitors, on long-term loan from Cisco. They are great, and we once again thank Cisco for all their support.
  • Attendance tonight = 10

2016-04-21 Thursday

Little House was open 8-10pm.

  • Attendance tonight = 4

2016-04-20 Wednesday

  • Fixing Guy's Toshiba laptop with Spinrite to fix disk problem. Initially we thought it hadnt worked but on second attempt things looking much more positive! What a great bit of software!
  • Looked at 3d printing microscope clip for phone (designed to hold a glass bead)
  • Attendance tonight = 6

2016-04-19 Tuesday

  • Lot of stuff going on today. Fill in more details here, please
  • Jon helped a new junior member laser cut some film holders for a pinhole camera out of cereal box card.
  • Paul left some of his tools here.
  • Ian examined a LED torch that wasn't working. Battery dead?
  • Dan took some photos
  • Paul B set up the illuminated sign outside
  • Model plane got one wing finished. Next week, the second wing.
  • Andrew demonstrated problems with his 3D printer. To be continued...
  • Attendance tonight = 15

2016-04-14 Thursday

Little House was open 8-10pm.

  • PaulB started documentation on using the 3D printer
  • IanB installed Libre Office 5 and Python 3.4.4 on a laptop in preparation for Saturday's Coder Dojo
  • Imi came with questions about spark quenching on relay contacts, and left with a solution
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-04-13 Wednesday

Little House was open 8-10pm.

  • Attendance tonight = 5

2016-04-12 Tuesday

  • The model biplane has been put on ice for a while. Instead, we started to build a Tomboy Senior with a 48" wingspan. This is a well-established, sturdy design, and it should not take too long to build. Our thanks to Tony Tomlin who is mentoring this build.
  • PaulB returned from his travels and assembled an electric fretsaw. This will be a useful tool, probably more useful than the bandsaw which we didn't get.
  • Welcome to new member Andrew. Fortunately, he liked what he saw, and has said he'll be back.
  • Thanks to a donation, we acquired another Dell server which Ryan quickly commissioned. It needed some RAM and maybe a graphics card, otherwise it's pretty useful.
  • Dan was working through some Wordpress themes, with a view to improving the RML website. He got IanB to undertake to upgrade the Wordpress installation to the latest.
  • Imi got a relay-timer working, with a view to making a quick-charger for lead-acid batteries. He's also going to try getting used to the Raspberry Pi operating system.
  • Attendance tonight = 8

2016-04-07 Thursday

Little House was open 8-10pm.

  • Jon spent a while clearing off a lot of the stuff on his old netbook with a view to putting on the new one, then discovered there wasn't space. Learnt how to import AutoCAD .DWG files into Fusion 360, and wasn't very impressed. Discovered that the new netbook hasn't got enough RAM to manipulate CAD files with hundreds (let along thousands) of objects, so is now deciding what to do (keep netbook for travelling and buy ANOTHER PC, or return and swap for something better for CAD but more unwieldy for travelling?
  • Jon is unavailable as a keyholder on 14th, however Ian is stepping into the breach so there IS a meeting next Thursday 14th.
  • Terry assembled some laser cutting from previous weeks.
  • Kim did some laser cutting.
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-04-06 Wednesday

Little House was open 8-10pm.

  • Attendance tonight = 5

2016-04-05 Tuesday

  • Jon reorganised the pots in the courtyard, to free one of the alcoves then pushed the wooden crate into the space so it is out of the way.
  • We had a fantastic present from Hitachi power tools https://www.facebook.com/Hitachipowertoolsuk/ , who have donated 2 brand new DV18DGL cordless drills and 4 batteries to RML - thanks!
  • Ryan has brought a scrolling LED display panel which used to be mounted on a bus (as in 'the wheels on the bus go round and round' sort of bus, not some sort of computer communication bus)and investigated why it wasn't working with help from new member Matt.
  • Rob worked on his hydrogen generator.
  • Jon put up new shelves above the laser cutter using our new Hitachi drills
  • William was programming an Arduino with Arthurs help.
  • Ryan, Dan and Ian tried to find the QR label printer software on the server - I think - it was a bit difficult for a Luddite to follow.
  • Dan & Others discussed photospheres and how best we could proceed.
  • We discussed how we could make our website more attractive (wordpress? ) and how we could make RML more attractive to new members, particularly those with more arty/creative backgrounds than the present mostly geeky guys. Also why we thought being bigger was a better idea,


  • Attendance = 11

2016-04-01 Friday

Small session on the afternoon with 5 to 6 year olds and some adults.

  • Played with robot
  • asked lots of questions
  • played minetest
  • Discussed solution for missing wireless driver
  • Some preparation of a camera jig.
  • CD buring some files, laser cutting those files.
  • Saw videos of 3D printer.
  • Played solitaire on a huge plasma screen.
  • discussed games to learn programming: the foos, light-bot and also page [1]
  • Used saw and Sandpaper on artwork.
  • Attendance afternoon = 6

2016-03-31 Thursday

Small session on the afternoon with 5 to 8 year older:

  • Played with scooter the robot
  • asked lots of questions
  • saw the brains and guts of scooter the robot
  • played minetest
  • learnt about switch on plasma screen. *facepalm*
  • Attendance afternoon = 7

Little House was open 8.10-9.30pm.

  • Jon arrived a little late, spent about an hour pottering, failed to find cable clips to put the fairy lights up, and went home at 9.30.
  • Thursday night opening was always a trail, but as so few people have transferred over to it, the trial may come to an end now that the evenings are starting to get lighter. There will definitely be a meeting on the 7th, but Jon is unavailable as a keyholder on 14th.
  • Attendance tonight = 1

2016-03-30 Wednesday

Little House was open today from 8-10pm. Dan, Ian and Harriet designed and started to fabricate a two-axis bracket for a panoramic camera.

  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-03-29 Tuesday

Little House was open briefly in the afternoon and then normal open hours in the evening

  • Afternoon special children session:
    • Found a non working workstation
    • Tried stored laptop to play minetest but client version was too old. (Trisquel 6.0)
    • Played with scooter the robot

Attendance tonight = 2 Evening

  • Jon tried out a new toy - APT-prototype train with DCC sound and lights - see here for the real thing https://youtu.be/p9rBcSZb3bE?t=1m3s - Carl provided a controller.
  • Ian and Iain had a light debate on geometry
  • Ryan rearranged items in the kitchen and reduced mugs by 10% due to oversupply
  • Ryan and Jon finished refurbishment of the new workstation connected to the big screen - Jon cut the video card to fit in the x8 slot, Ryan installed Ubuntu and various packages
  • Dan and Ian B worked on the QR code system and debugged label printer configurations
  • Several visitors came in working on Arduino projects
  • William has built a talking book for the blind, built into a real book
  • Welcome to new member James who plans to learn and share blacksmith skills, using the fireproof BBQ space outside
  • A group discussed Photo Spheres again.
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-03-24 Thursday

Little House was open 8-10pm.

  • Jon worked on a secret project which made rather a lot of dust (then vacuumed the floor - are we sure the vacuum cleaner actually works? )
  • Paul tidied various items up, and considered putting the new illuminated sign up, but concluded it could wait for a day when it wasn't raining.
  • Support for Thursday has proved rather sparse, the formal 'opening on Thursdays' trial might come to an end fairly soon if numbers don't pick up a bit - we will see over the next couple of weeks.
  • Attendance tonight = 2

2016-03-23 Wednesday

Little House will be open 8-10pm for CAD and electronics practice.

  • Harriet cleared the tables, hoovered the floor and emptied the bins. More bin bags are needed.
  • Kim did some laser cutting
  • Jon and Harriet tested some 6V ac relays Jon has donated: they work ok with 6V dc.
  • Harriet has taken responsibility for the donation which means that if she does not use them in 6 months and no one else wants them they will be recycled.
  • All attendees expressed shock and awe at the clean kitchen.
  • The ancient HP laptop was tidied into the office.
  • An SD card was left on the round table under a lot of other stuff, this and all other items from both tables have gone in the clear plastic box.
  • Tea and biscuits were consumed.
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-03-22 Tuesday

  • A very busy night.
  • Talked about our minetest server, this got our young (and older) members excited.
  • Tried to 'edit' a motherboard so that a graphics card would fit.
  • Learnt a bit about other hackerspaces in area
  • discussed a photosphere/Google interior view of RML
  • SVG Slideshow editing with inkscape and sozi.
  • Discussed about the wild life monitor: put the camera inside the library. we need an SD card
  • Airplane building has continued
  • Raspberry Pi testing websockets to screen data to webpage.
  • Learning about GNU Image manipulation processing (GIMP)
  • Javascript bus-countdown was discussed (will need to remove api keys and upload to our repositories)
  • New potential member: Hi Will!
  • Discussion about weather monitor in island in lake in congo.
  • Started to put shelves up but found a solid concrete pad instead of breeze block - drill not up to job!
  • There was some pizza
  • Andres forgot to talk about having a bitcoin pool and a wallet.
  • Fitted LED's into new RML sign and debated where it should be fitted to give best visibility yet still be protected from the weather.
  • Discussed about where to put the large-scale plotter or if we should accept it at all. (no conclusion reached)
  • Cleaned counter-top surfaces in kitchen and rearranged kitchen items for better use of space
  • Rearranged items in office space for better access
  • Scrubbed up toilet
  • Repaired a broken USB wifi adaptor and helped build a human-sized bee costume
  • Attendance = 16

2016-03-17 Thursday

Little House was 8-10pm for CAD and electronics practice.

  • Jon & Terry did some laser cutting
  • Paul assembled the RML Sign. He then moved onto a 3D printed model of the solar system for his Daughters homework!
  • We were visited by a would-be new member, we did the tour and suggested coming back on a Tuesday when there was a bit more life!
  • Attendance tonight = 4

2016-03-16 Wednesday

Little House was 8-10pm for CAD and electronics practice.

  • Carl suggested projects for MakerLab.
  • Harriet emptied the bins.
  • Paul spray painted RML Sign.
  • Attendance tonight = 4

2016-03-15 Tuesday

  • Laser cut wooden case
  • 3D print an apple watch stand/charger
  • Model plane continued
  • Added a pre-amplifier to a power amplifier
  • Lessons in lock picking
  • 'Resistance' soldering used to assemble model railway kit
  • Thanks to Kim for iced buns, to Iain for gingernuts and to Imi for apples
  • Good to see Arthur and Kris again
  • Attendance tonight = 11

2016-03-10 Thursday

Little House was open 8-10pm as usual.

  • Kim laser cut
  • Paul continued building his replica apple 1
  • Jon did a bit of preparation for soldered assembly of a brass model
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-03-09 Wednesday

Little House was 8-10pm for CAD and electronics practice.

  • Harriet worked on programming ESP8266 using Arduino IDE and emptied the bins.
  • Jessica and Paul 3D printed scale model of the solar system to be mounted and painted.
  • Attendance tonight = 4

2016-03-08 Tuesday

  • Evening started quietly, no model plane building today
  • Paul B repaired a stage cable, called a 'snake'
  • Some discussion on venomous spiders, snakes and scorpions
  • Ian B assisted RD with audio tone generator and amplifier
  • A little laser cutting and model assembly
  • Paul B is assembling a reproduction Apple Model 1
  • Attendance tonight = 10

2016-03-03 Thursday

Little House was open 8-10pm as part of our extended opening hours trial.

  • Paul worked on an illuminated sign for RML
  • Terry tried a model railway locomotive on a rolling road.
  • K did some laser cutting
  • Jon cut some more windows for 'The Albany' to replace those that were a bit small, then tried out the Trotec material for Hamworthy station building.


in other news:

  • Ryan mailed some surplus Power over Ethernet adapters to a hackerspace in Italy called Mittelab - our first international technology redistribution?
  • Jon emailed Trotec about thin laser material on Monday, by Wednesday they had sent samples of Trolase ADA in 0.8mm thick, and today we lasered some - very prompt response from Trotec - thanks!


  • Attendance tonight = 5

2016-03-02 Wednesday

Little House was open 8-10pm as usual for CAD and electronics practice.

  • Harriet back-edited blog.
  • Paul tried to print planets: the earth and rest of the solar system.
  • Mos collected filing cabinet.
  • Imi brought ice cream.
  • Ian replaced the bulb in the store.
  • Attendance tonight = 8

2016-03-01 Tuesday

  • Jon discovered that the light in the loo had been left on and now wasn't working, he crossed his legs and temporarily re-deployed the bulb from the store room - a new bulb will be ordered.
  • Rob and Ian worked on interpreting the output from a signal generator.
  • More aeroplane work.
  • Kim laser cut all evening.
  • Andres tried to load a new OS onto a donated laptop - hindered by the poor broadband in Little House. [Current_Projects#You_build_it_you_keep_it]
    • UPDATE: Ryan saved the day/night and we have had positive feedback.
I am thankful about the computer Its going help in my studies,research and also with keeping incontact with my family.I am very thankful 
  • Also assessed another donated laptop and concluded it was too old to be useful, so it will go for recycling.
  • Paul continued printing ?himself? an Iron Man mask on the 3D printer.
  • Attendance tonight = 10

2016-02-26 Friday

A short notice visit to Ham Library project

  • improving the bus countdown in the library Current_Projects#Ham_Library_Project
  • help with a temporary replacement for a mobile phone until the screen is fixed.
  • Discussion of the new project: information kiosk for library.
  • Attendance this morning = 3

2016-02-25 Thursday

Little House was open 8-10pm as part of our extended opening hours trial.

  • K on the laser cutter
  • Jon & Terry started fitting windows to 'The Albany' pub model, for model railway layout being built by Twickenham Model Railway Club
  • Paul worked on data from a hard drive using a USB cable that plugs directly into any HDD.
  • Imi popped by briefly
  • Attendance tonight = 5

Ham Library was open with the Green Screen 19:00

  • The screening of *Internet's Own Boy*
  • Interview with Cory Doctorow, Tim Burners-Lees and others.
  • Stayed after for discussion and questions.
  • Attendance tonight = 10

2016-02-24 Wednesday

Little House was open 8-10pm as usual for CAD and electronics practice.

  • Kevin 2 borrowed some more Arduino bits and pieces to practice on.
  • Harriet made a couple of pvc card cut outs using .dxf files exported from 3D model extrusions.
  • Paul helped Harriet Laser Cutter and showed Kevin 2 his 3D printer.
  • Kevin 1 tried to clean print head with medical ultrasonic cleaning device and propanol with help from Jon.
  • Harriet demonstrated interoperability of of Autodesk Fusion and FreeCAD to Imi.
  • Carl arrived.
  • We all had tea.
  • Attendance tonight = 6

2016-02-23 Tuesday

  • Busy evening. The model plane continued.
  • Ryan patiently tested donated computers, separating the good from the bad
  • Kim did some precision laser cutting. Also brought choc flapjacks. Very nice!
  • IanB provided an audio function generator running on a Pi
  • Iain explained the principles of software design to Ian and Gerry.
  • A couple of new faces showed up and we explained what we do and why.
  • Jon finally got the Epson printer to work (sort of) used quite a lot of ink doing nozzle cleaning - something to learn, if we are donated a printer with nozzles, and don't immediately use it, it's likely to get bunged up and therefore be useless! Printer added to the wireless network.
  • Imi modified a phone to make it easier to charge.
  • Paul dismantled his 3D printed 4 wheel drive remote control car to replace the drive shaft U/J sockets
  • several people went outside to look at Jupiter, which was very clear and bright in the sky, none will have a future as a stable hand, as all of them left the door open, and let the heat out/cold in. Project idea - re-instate the door closer mechanism. Note to would-be new members, we don't wish to be unfriendly, the door is only kept closed to keep the warmth in at this time of year, if the gate is open, then someone is home - please knock loudly, and we will let you in!
  • Attendance tonight = 15

2016-02-18 Thursday

  • Little House was open 8-10pm as part of our extended opening hours trial.
  • We put up a holder for our safety glasses
  • The switch with the noisy fan was swapped with a more modest hub which will be both quieter and hopefully more energy efficient.
  • Paul made up an adapter for a microphone with an odd plug
  • Kevin popped by and took away a spare radio/cd player to test.
  • Jon put up a shelf for the stereo tested last week to live on and wired it up
  • Attendance tonight = 3

2016-02-17 Wednesday

  • Little House will be open 8-10pm as part of our extended opening hours trial.
  • Harriet started work on a panic button for the elderly, a cheap watch will be used to house the electronics.
  • Harriet helped a visitor (Kevin) to get started with Arduino and CAD.
  • Paul B bought some storage containers and started populating them with components (washers, nuts, screws etc)
  • Imi made a car alarm out of an old Nokia (see pictures).
  • Attendance tonight = 5

2016-02-16 Tuesday

  • The biplane has two wings complete. The fuselage was started.
  • A LOT of clearing out of the small room, created valuable space - one too many filing cabinets was in there - can we get rid of it?
  • Everything that was not RML stored in the small room is now moved to the loft store.
  • At present the small room is a quiet computer space. It might be converted to a noisy cutter space...to be discussed.
  • A bit of laser cutting was done.
  • A new tool rack has been bought and laid out.
  • PaulB took the new tube out of the old laser cutter as the first step towards it leaving Little House.
  • Paul showed some very low power consumption bulbs in an unconventional bulb holder.
  • Some more tidying occurred. New members please don't be put off by our obsession with tidying - it's just we have recovered from a rather slow start and have desperately needed to catch up!
  • This wiki was switched over to the new server provided to us by Bitfolk.
  • Thanks to Iain for some very fine home-make cakes!
  • Attendance tonight = 13

2016-02-11 Thursday

Little House was open 8-10pm as part of our extended opening hours trial.

  • K did some laser cutting
  • Jon had received the cartridges for the Epson, and spent some time trying to work out why two were not accepted by the printer - conclusion cheap printer cartridges are rubbish - complaint in hand to ebayer. Fate of printer/scanner still undecided.
  • Jon investigated one of the CD/Tape/Radio units to listen to whilst waiting for someone else to arrive - we might mount it to the wall, so it is both out of the way, and available for use? There are a couple of other radio/cd players in the space that are available to a good home or could be recycled.
  • Paul & Jon did a bit of random object sorting - the electrical bin is starting to fill. Does anyone want an Iomega 'Rev' drive and 8x 35gb discs? (for backing up PC's)
  • A wall socket marked 'does not work' was tried and discovered to in fact work, therefore another 4x power lead was plugged into it and screwed to the wall.
  • Attendance = 3

2016-02-10 Wednesday

Little House was open 8-10pm as part of our extended opening hours trial.

  • A rather quiet evening, plans were discussed to see if a 'theme' for a Wednesday night project could be the way forward to attract a greater attendance.
  • Harriet threatened to convert her CNC router to a CNC Easter Egg icing machine. Something like this for the print head? http://www.argos.co.uk/beta/static/Product/partNumber/4145071.htm
  • Things I didn't know existed #346543 'EggBots' http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Arduino-controlled-Egg-Bot/ -we certainly have all the skills required to build these if anyone would like a fun introduction to laser cutting, Arduino programming or robotics/CNC
  • Jon disengaged his brain for the evening and sorted his metric nuts & bolts back into their correct spaces in the organizer box - this having capsized and burst open in his bag last week - not exactly the most technically demanding project!
  • Attendance = 2

2016-02-09 Tuesday

  • Further development of a VESA desktop stand for monitors. Getting ingenious (but not yet very successful).
  • Biplane wing construction continued. Rob taught a safe effective way for cutting balsa sheet
  • Having taken advice, the biplane may never fly with powered radio control (too fragile), but it will be completed as a static model. An alternative more suitable design has been suggested by our expert, and examples of this in flight and showing another under construction were viewed on youtube on the big screen - this new design will be taken forward.
  • Kevin brought another guitar needing some repair.
  • Rob was winding a transformer, we helped with selecting a suitable gauge and preparing Litz-wire
  • Ryan and IanB switched mailman to the new VPS provided by Bitfolk
  • PaulB is building an emergency call button that will deliver a notification to a mobile phone
  • Ryan took a few of our spare monitors over to London Hackspace where he thinks they will find happy new owners - a win-win sharing donations between makerspaces.
  • The review of printers and scanner has started, we have HP officejet 5610, Canon Pixma ip8500, Cannon Pixma ???, Cannon MP240 and probably best Epson Stylus SX600 which has a sheet feeder and is network and wireless capable, and has lots of card slots in the front - Jon has ordered some cheap cartridges to evaluate printing - if this one works all others will be recycled.
  • HP deskjet printer will be recycled, cartridges have already been removed for recycling for charity - Jon collects HP and some cannon types for charity - more welcome.
  • Terry wanted some logos's cut on the laser, PaulP and Jon helped with the IT, logo's cut successfully in a variety of materials.
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-02-04 Thursday

thumb Prototype monitor arm, laser cut from offcuts of plywood
thumb Prototype monitor arm, laser cut from offcuts of plywood

Little House was open from 8-10pm as part of our extended opening hours trial

  • Much credit is due to the Wednesday tidy team - we hardly recognized the space!
  • We need to unblock the access to the mail box!
  • The monitors in the office seem to be breeding.
  • Jon tried his laser cut monitor arm out - promising but the monitor is too heavy to rely just on friction - perhaps a bungee cord back to the wall might help? Also needs M6 wingnuts, bolts and washers - not M5 as currently installed.
  • A couple of boxes of random cables were sorted.
  • Extra tool boards were discussed
  • A string of fairy lights were discovered - like all strings of fairy lights known to mankind, they were hopelessly tangled - now coiled around a bobbin. Could we use these to illuminate Little House (or the sign) when we are open, to make us easier to find?
  • A bit of washing up and putting away happened in the kitchen.
  • Attendance = 3

A little look around Little House on 4th February

  • What could YOU do in a space like this?

2016-02-03 Wednesday

thumb Servicing the Vacuum
thumb Servicing the Vacuum
  • Little House was open from 8-10pm as part of our extended opening hours trial.
  • Whilst it was quiet (and moderately tidy) we tried to sweep, and then vacuum, the floor - vacuuming only re-distributed the swept dust back across the floor, but not into the vacuum dust trap...
  • ...so the Vacuum cleaner was dismantled, unblocked and tested - quite how it go SO blocked whilst working SO badly is unclear!
  • Entire floor given a serious cleaning - furniture was moved!
  • Some investigation into 'stuff' stored in corner of Little House - some scrapped, other stuff has been sorted into an 'at risk' crate - at risk of being scrapped as waste!
  • If you have a pet project stored in little house, and it might appear to others as 'scrap' you really ought to consider labeling it with What/Who/Why and your phone or email address so that if it is 'discovered' during periodic tidying, it is correctly identified as worthy of retention.
  • A pair of PC speakers were discovered, and our 'power supply' storage crate raided to provide power - they worked and will be installed on the general use PC.
  • The terminals on the big backup battery were taped over to avoid accidental shorting.
  • Jon brought some s/h USB mice and a keyboard - time to review our PS2 keyboard stock as well!
  • Other stuff probably happened but your reporter left early...
  • Learnt a bit about openscad and created 3D model of a surface graph.
  • Managed to change the password on computer without knowing the previous password. Memory a bit fuzzy but it took a live CD and coping an artificially created password hash copied over the old one.
  • we can 3D print over the wifi network but not over ethernet. Octoprint has a tutorial as to how to do it as desktop computers don't have wifi.
  • 3D printed above surface graph.
  • Attendance tonight = 6

2016-02-02 Tuesday

  • Continued checking donated PCs and recycled some systems at Townmead Road Recycling Centre
  • One desktop PC was offered to us, but was politely refused, unfortunately for the time being we are not accepting older (>5 years) PC's or screens, but newer (<5 years) laptops or tools are still welcome.
  • K. on the laser cutter
  • Jon laser cut the prototype parts for a plywood articulated monitor arm out of left over scrap - results appear promising, but further work required.
  • Arthur gave some help and assistance with understanding Linux
  • Ryan brought Server_Novo back, and installed it in the "office" and rearranged items in the office (Making laser printer more accessible,
  • Jon failed to resolve why the PC that worked last Tuesday didn't after Thursday, Ryan has fixed this by taking the HDD and putting it into a slightly higher spec system.
  • Ian B and Dan set up the equipment database application, on Novo
  • Kevin was working on renovating a guitar.
  • Dan brought some extra USB mice - we seemed to only have PS2 types!
  • Paul started building some microscopic etched stainless steel Star Wars spacecraft kits
  • Adaptor made for 12vDC micro-soldering iron
  • more investigation into the table legs (against the far wall) there are two types with different offsets, which it why it won't push against the wall - may need extensive dismantling to correct!
  • Thanks, Imi, for the apple pie
  • Attendance tonight = 10

2016-01-28 Thursday

  • The First Thursday of our extended opening trial - Little House was open from 8pm to a little after 10pm.
  • Technology: Another PC gutted and out for recycling.
    • Some servers and switches reviewed, some for re-use identified, some to go to a contact at London Hackspace, some have been recycled at Townmead.
    • New server being built.
    • Route of broadband telephone line into Little House traced back to behind the lower cupboard in the kitchen.
    • One of the PC's that was working last week isn't now - Jon may have re-connected using the wrong VGA cable so it might just be a display issue.--Amunizp (talk) 12:46, 29 January 2016 (UTC) VGA cable from Plasma screen was working. jonhall (talk) - no not that one, the other one on the right hand side - I moved it to get at the wall behind, I may just have picked up a duff cable, but this wasn't discovered until tidying up!
  • Jon returned to form and put up more shelves - we still need more shelf material ~300mm/1ft wide by >4ft long
  • Cut slot in workbench to go around heater - discovered table was wrong way round and the legs stop it going back against the wall - might need some more thought! Heater can be turned on without risk of nearby clutter catching fire - please try and maintain this status!
  • Ryan ventured up into the loft and saw remnants of the previous tenants - whilst he was there we passed up some more stuff from the previous tenants. --Amunizp (talk) 08:02, 1 February 2016 (UTC) They are still tenants there are still storing things and have access. what was moved? This is SWLEN we can orginize restart parties with them.
  • Two more 4/6 way mains adaptors wall mounted for easy access to plugs.
  • Location of water stopcocks ?re?discovered - cupboard no longer painted closed! location highlighted in marker pen.
  • The pile of printers/scanners is now trembling with fear after we discussed a potential move to recycle/re-purpose/strip for stepper motors etc. --Amunizp (talk) 12:46, 29 January 2016 (UTC) no mercy.
  • Attendance = 3 plus Andres popped by to open up for us.

2016-01-27 Wednesday

  • As part of a trial to get more people involved in RML, and to allow members more room to work, we will be opening on Wednesday and Thursday evenings for the next month or so. This was the first Wednesday, and things were a bit slow, but everything has to start somewhere.
  • A second large Plasma Screen offered by CISCO on long term loan to Richmond Makerlabs, but RML doesn't have the space to use it so it was collected by two guys from London Hackerspace for use there.
  • CNC machine work
  • Remainder of desktop PC's rounded up - still looking for a volunteer to go through them and establish what's worth keeping
  • Attendance = 4

2016-01-26 Tuesday

  • Pizza from Andres!
  • Model biplane, second wing, ribs and stretchers got glued up
  • Recently donated computers were checked, we want to set one up for general use, including browsing and to allow some 3D CAD training/practice, several Dell PC's were dissembled to evaluate what had the best spec available, and along the way a couple were identified as u/s, but some of their parts live on to upgrade the best PC.
  • helped with viewing VOB video files on a Dvd. VLC to the rescue.
  • removed 3V batteries, cpu, jumpers , ram and sata cables from unwanted computers.
  • demonstrated SoZI (an inkscape addon) for presentations.
  • removed the out of date redevelopmentbplans from the side of the building.
  • some programming discussion.
  • 2 PC's shells added to the recycle pile.
  • Some small HDD's were disabled for confidentiality and will be recycled, along with a handful of CD and DVD drives. We now have quite a lot of 256 and 512mb DDR2 ram that we are unlikely to use - available free!
  • Trisquel 7 was installed on one new-ish machine, connected to the plasma display, freecad and inkscape installed. OS updated.
  • We started to re-do the street-sign that helps new visitors find us
  • A bluetooth speaker was successfully repaired. (Thanks, Rob!)
  • Some discussion about passing on the old laser cutter to another Hackspace.
  • 360 is 3+6=9, 180 is 1+8=9, 90 is 9, 45 is nine, 22.5 is 9, ... and so on. Explain why.extra points is you link it to Babylonians and Mayan.
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-01-22 Friday

  • Some of us met at the Ham Brewery Tap

Provisional Agenda:

  1. Get some drinks and paninnis if needed
  2. Talk about finance with HUG treasurer (I've sms might be a bit late notice)
  3. Talk about Ham Close Redevelopment
  4. Talk about soon to be actioned Items.
  5. talk about long term future.
    • talk about ethos/drive/motivations for RML
  6. AOB

2016-01-19 Tuesday

  • A busy, busy evening!
  • We received a massive donation of about 12 Dell towers, a few Dell servers, 6 ethernet switches, 4 Wifi access points, some POE power supplies and a bag of ethernet cables. One of these might be a worthy server in the space. The pile was rapidly divided into worth/not worth keeping, and there's now some stuff to go to the tip.
  • Arthur is making a 2-wheel line-following vehicle
  • Jon was assembling the laser-cut buildings
  • Paul B was going to get his CNC router ready to use, but was constantly diverted to other tasks!
  • Phaedra brought in a bust USB microphone, which got fixed by 2 Ians and Paul B. Phaedra also distributed loaves of bread to those that wanted it.
  • The model biplane's second wing got half completed
  • Ryan introduced himself and immediately installed a better router and WiFi on the existing broadband
  • Andrés brought pizza. Thank you Andrés!
  • Harriet taught Kevin how to solder and took away some home-brew cider.
  • Carl suggested a meeting at the Ham Brewery Tap for discussion of the club's development plans. It's to be Friday 22nd at 8.30.
  • Phaedra and Andres Talked about social media communication twiiter vs gnusocial. Andres did not know twitter was left and Facebook was right.
  • Talked about creative commons and public domain. Phaedra and Andres
  • Talked about Maidsafe Andres feels it should be avoided, but he avoids things with licences such as Maidsafe licence.
  • Other people shared advice and experience. If I've missed anything, add it here. It's a wiki, for goodness sake!
  • Attendance tonight = 18

2016-01-12 Tuesday

  • Paul had parts for a touch screen from Adafruit
  • K. did some laser cutting
  • Jon was puzzling over a car radio with a remote control
  • Kevin continued with plans for a cycle wheel tester
  • Dan Kris & Ian got a network printer for Little House installed and working
  • Arthur was looking at a robotic controller for some future project
  • Ian & Jerry brought a faulty microphone to be tested
  • Construction of the second wing of the model biplane commenced
  • Attendance tonight = 12

2016-01-05 Tuesday

  • Discussed about what camera system would be best for setting up in a car.
  • J. donated a 28" screen, a pvr or freeview box and a toaster we had to say no to the toaster but K. Took the rest home.
  • connected the wild life monitor to a screen, the streaming via arduino still works like that further work might be needed. Discussed about simply using another raspberry pi.
  • Paul B and Ian B showed some 3D printed cases for the component tester PCB
  • our broadband went down for a while.
  • Discussed about changing group me for xmpp. At the moment rml <at> conference dot Skylab dot org.this is discussed in our Social Media
  • Following from our picture in the front page we thought of setting up a video and audio streaming so people can see what is going on. Maybe a fish view from the ceiling?
  • more laser cutting
  • more work in the past week about setting up the lock on the webpage LetsEncrypt
  • People = 12

Past

Blog_2015