Revision as of 21:11, 12 November 2015

* Admin:Logos
* Admin:Equipment
* Furniture/equipment donations
* Furniture/equipment wishlist
* Hack the Space!
* Special:AllPages

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Logo Contest

Submit your Oxford Hackspace logo here: Admin:Logos

Oxford Hackspace

We now have a large and lovely space in Oxford, open daily, for the hacking needs of our diverse, creative and talented maker community. Please see the OxHack homepage for the address and opening times.

Members and visitors are welcome to drop in at any time when we're open to work on their projects. Wherever your interest lies, this is a space to do it. You're always welcome to do your own thing or take part in workshops. The more diverse our group, the more stuff you learn.

Come introduce yourself to the community on the mailing list! Your ideas and enthusiasm are sure to be met with excitement here.

Current status

The space is open every day for hacking, making and fixing. Check the calendar on the homepage for opening times.

How we got here

• October 24th 2015: OxHack has moved into the basement of the OCFI building!
• Before July 2013, we had been meeting at OARC every Thursday evening from 7-11pm for nearly a year.
  
• November 2012: Began negotiations with OVADA about establishing a space in their warehouse
  
• March 7th, 2013: First trustees meeting between the two organizations
  
• March 14th: OVADA open evening for Oxhack members to view the building
  
• March 21st: Oxhack formally founded, constitution adopted, banking agreed, trustees elected, subscriptions amount agreed, collections started
  
• April 3rd: Second OVADA-Oxhack trustees meeting
  
• April 6-7 & 13-14: Oxhack members spent 4 days with OVADA members building studios, tearing up floors, putting in walls, etc.
  
• April 20th: Bank account established, Oxhack cards issued to bank signatories
  
• May: Month's wait while we and OVADA trustees sort roof leaks, replace wiring, internet cabling etc.
  
• May 9th: Oxhack confirmation to OVADA that we will take the studio.
  
• May 28th: Oxhack request to OVADA to start formal contract talks this week. They replied that they are working on setting this up. In the mean time we have permission to decorate the space.
  
• June 4th: Inquiry from Oxhack as to OVADA's progress.
  
• June 8th: Informal meeting between Oxhack trustees and OVADA head trustee at OVADA. A lot of progress--nearly there now!
  
• June 13th: Informal discussion between Oxhack coordinator and OVADA head trustee at theirs. To be followed-up on.
  
• June 20th: We now have a licence in hand, and we are negotiating terms. A final meeting (hopefully) is to happen shortly.
  
• ASAP in June: Our move-in date, as agreed previously with OVADA trustees.
  
• July 11th: We moved into our studio!
• July 23rd: During heavy rain the guttering overflowed, sending rain over the internal roof, into our space, and somewhat into the neighbouring space. There was concern at the time that this could be a fundamental problem but the roof has been seen to relatively thoroughly by OVADA and as of the week of September 17th, we've not had a similar problem again. A roofer who is a friend of the organization has just given them a quote to alter the roof above us, and our infrastructure is coming along nicely.
• September 17th: We are now fully painted, with two tiers of shelving along one wall, a painted floor, tables and a 3-person couch, reclaimed TV and mini-fridge, gaming console and the beginnings of many sorts of supplies and hand tools. It's a great place for working and socializing with other bright sparks--come join us!

Our Interests

Here are some of the things our members are currently interested in:

Crafting - carpentry, embroidery, fabric dyeing, sewing, weaving, welding

Visual Art - drawing, photography, light shows, installations

Physical Computing - motors, sensors, lighting, electro-mechanical interfaces, microcontrollers, robotics

Programming - games, phone apps, demoscene

Electronics - data logging, home automation, soldering

Sciences - NHS hackdays, biohacking, bio-computing, chemistry, high-altitude ballooning

Open Source - software, hardware, mechanical design, ethos, open collaboration, open science, open data

...and way too much more!

Things we're doing right now

• 3D scan selfie to CNC milled pumpkin for self-ish jack-o'-lantern
• Quadcopter - learning how to build stuff that can fly and be hacked
• Panoramic camera gimbal - fully automated and to be open source
• The Nuisance - a plasma ball thing that plays with you
• Heater - A computer based heating system for our space
• Sensor networks: river levels, air quality, possible crowdsourcing of data.
• The Octopus - That Thing with tubes
• Cut on the Wall - Wall hanging CNC cutter/router

Joining

• Become a member: if you use the space regularly, you should join and become a member.
• Join the mailing list to follow our progress and introduce yourself: https://groups.google.com/group/oxford-hackspace
• Join us in our IRC "chatroom": channel name #oxford-hack-space on the freenode network. You can use the Freenode web interface to find us.
• Find us on Google+
• Meet us in person: We're at the space most days of the week and Thursday from 7pm is our social night. See http://oxhack.org/ for our opening times and directions.