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SuperCon Workshop Descriptions

A project log for Hackaday SuperConference 2015

This is where SuperCon attendees and speakers can discuss logistics (like transportation and where to stay) and get to know eachother

sophi-kravitzSophi Kravitz 10/21/2015 at 23:556 Comments

Advanced Microcontroller-based Audio Project page

In this hands-on workshop run by Teensy creator Paul Stoffregen, you'll wire up parts on a breadboard to get them playing, synthesizing, and analyzing sounds in real-time. Some prior experience with Arduino is recommended. Bring a laptop computer capable of running the Arduino software. Recommended to bring headphones.

BRING: Laptop & (optional) headphones. All the hardware will be provided. We're going to cover a lot of ground with hands-on activity. It's critical that everyone use identical hardware which precisely matches the written steps. That's why the audio workshop costs a bit more.

For anyone who's ever been frustrated with audio on a microcontroller... it didn't sound great, it used too much CPU time, your program was burdened with fast low-latency data movement so you couldn't use delays or simple blocking libraries like Arduino's Wire for I2C, you couldn't play or synthesize several sounds, or apply complex effects, or get high res spectral analysis in real time with proper overlapping windows, this is definitely the workshop to see. If you're used to the limitations of 8 bit chips, I believe you'll be pleasantly surprised what good a 32 bit microcontroller can do for audio!

Squeezing Blood From A Stone: Getting Back Memory and Performance Project page

We’ll* guide you through a series of labs to explain how to measure performance and memory, then the basics of improving them based on your goals.

Since this is a hands on but very short workshop focusing on using the following free tools (Download and install it yourself BEFORE the workshop or you’ll be sad) and cheap hardware:

*I am looking for volunteers to help me make sure everyone gets the most of out of this workshop. If you are comfortable with C, compilers, and know/can figure out the basics of the above programs, reach out to me by contacting me at volunteer *at* rebelbot.com or tweet at me. You’ll get in the workshop as well as the conference for free and meet some of the most interesting people in SF working on hardware. Totally worth 2 hours of work.

Crowdsourcing Control with the ESP8266 Thing Project page

Toni Klopfenstein will give a general overview of the ESP8266 Thing and show basics of creating circuits that can be controlled via WiFi. There will be an interactive demo that the entire audience can participate in controlling, to show the crowd-sourcing capabilities of IoT devices.

Kicad 101 Project page

A 4-hour version of Anool Mahidharia's popular introduction to design your own 100% custom PCB using Kicad. This workshop is tailored for the electronic enthusiast who has been breadboarding circuits but has never used an Electronic Design Automation (EDA) / computer aided design (CAD) program.

Learn Circuit Simuation using SPICE project page

Using LTspice (Windows) or NG Spice (Linux/ OSX), Tom Anderson will briefly go over what a simulation is and the common types (time domain, frequency domain, and noise). He'll also explain how they work and what happens when you run them. You'll have a chance to build simulations of an RC filter and find out how to simulate the time and frequency domains to show a Bode plot. You will also build simulations of an opamp using a voltage-controlled voltage source, plus other simulations. Come with your laptop and LTSpice or NG Spice installed.

Discussions

Thomas Sarlandie wrote 10/28/2015 at 23:03 point

Will the talks be recorded? It's very hard to choose between Mike and Paul on Saturday morning!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Paul Stoffregen wrote 10/29/2015 at 11:38 point

Hands-on workshops really don't lend themselves well to video.  I'm also
not excited about the additional pressure recording or broadcasting
places on everyone attending the workshop.  They're experiencing this
material for the first time, which inevitably leads to little mis-steps
or mistakes that are part of the learning process.  Getting past those
details, together as a group and with an instructor there to help is
what makes a workshop wonderful.  Broadcasting them to the world, not so
much.

Good video production requires planning, recording well practiced
activity with at least a couple cameras, a screencast and microphones
placed where they clearly pick up voices.... and above all, editing. 
Recording needs to be done with additional lighting and in a quiet room,
pretty much the opposite of a typical workshop setup.  I would love to
make a well rehearsed, well edited video tutorial based on this workshop
material.  I honestly don't know if I'll find the time to do that, or if anyone else will do much to help.... but in my dream world where there's plenty of hours in every day, I really want to make a *good* video.

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Richard Aplin wrote 11/06/2015 at 00:39 point

[off topic] Teensy 3.1 is awesome Paul; even though I've been a professional firmware dude for many years and have dozens of different MCUs within arm's reach, Teensy is almost always my go-to because they're so damn quick to throw something together with. You did a terrific job on the whole thing. 

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Anool Mahidharia wrote 10/28/2015 at 03:49 point

I set up my workshop as a project : https://hackaday.io/project/8204-kicad-101-workshop-hackaday-superconference

I'll use it to post links and stuff.

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Sophi Kravitz wrote 10/27/2015 at 00:19 point

Simple RF Circuit Design

Michael Ossmann will show specific examples from his own designs including Ubertooth One, HackRF One, and YARD Stick One. Participants with prior experience designing non-RF circuits should be able to be able to walk out of this workshop with the ability to design boards to use RF transceiver ICs.

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opprud wrote 11/05/2015 at 07:56 point

this workshop seem  to be unavailable on the eventbrite instantly, tried to sign on few hours after it was announced, is it due to it being free ? 

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