Artificial Intelligence / LLM Workshop

June 24, 2024 chris Leave a comment

Making an AI LLM Workshop — Ian covers how to make an AI LLM on a local PC.

We held our first Artificial Intelligence (AI) / local Large Language Model (LLM) workshop at Castlemakers last Thursday. The focus was on downloading & creating an AI LLM local model using Ollama on a Windows PC, but given the target audience (those unfamiliar with AI) we used a ‘docker’ to keep it simple and spent a lot of time explaining all of the terms involved.

Discussion around using AI LLMs — Attendees discuss what’s involved in a LLM.

We decided to try a more cutting edge topic to expose people to AI and open source LLMs – plus help people realize it’s not as hard to do as it might seem. Having someone in our midst, Ian, that has been trying and using the different models also really helped! Folks attending had an option to take home a USB drive loaded with the software to install and try the software on their local computer at home.

If you’re interested in the topic, stop by Castlemakers during our Open Shop hours – we still have the system installed on a surprisingly small computer and with the Ollama interface you can try different open source LLM models on a local pc. It’s a great way to learn and experiment with something that will be effecting all of us already and in the coming future…

Making, STEM

First Friday Season

June 11, 2024 chris Leave a comment

Building Catapults at Castlemakers during First Friday — There was lots of activity inside building catapults before going outside to hurl objects at a target.

One of the things we always look forward to in the summer and fall is Main Street Greencastle‘s First Friday. With our location in downtown Greencastle on Franklin Street, we have a great location to have a hands-on, youth-oriented, ‘making’ project outside for people attending the monthly event. It’s also an opportunity for folks to checkout the makerspace & some of the current projects – although Open Shop times are another time good for that too.

Testing a catapult — Getting ready to test launch a catapult.

Projects change each month, but June was one of my favorites – catapults, something we’ve done a lot of with youth over the years. Given the age span of First Friday visitors and the time typically spent, this time we had them build chopstick and popsicle stick catapults – although one youngster was there for 1.5 hours working on his!

Plans are in the works for July 5th First Friday, please stop by. And don’t forget our annual Putt Putnam County event, which will be held on Friday October 4th from 6-8:30 pm. Last year we had 13 mini-golf holes built by people in our community. It’s not to early to think about building a hole and we’re always glad to you build one!

Programming

AI Making

May 25, 2024 chris Leave a comment

Not surprisingly given some of our member’s interest in software, there’s been a lot of discussion at Castlemakers about Artificial Intelligence(AI). We started experimenting with machine learning, an application of AI, several years ago in a squirrel proof bird feeder. And since two of our members work with software it’s been a hot topic during a lot of Open Shop times recently.

Screenshot of Ollama running TinyLlama on a local i5 Windows PC at Castlemakers to test local AI queries.

Many people don’t realize how rapidly using Large Language Models (LLM, but for that matter all AI) is becoming possible using smaller computers. One of the big changes has been open source software that provides installation capabilities and a front end for the LLM that you can run on a Windows/Linux/Mac machine.

Which has led into a workshop/class on the subject in June. It started as a way for more of us to learn about running an open source LLM on a workstation or laptop, but realized there might be more people that would like to find out more on how easy it is to set one up on a local computer. So June 20th at 7 pm we’ll be having a small class in using Ollama to install an open source LLM on a Windows PC – please check our Classes webpage for more information and to make reservations if you’re interested!

CNC, Laser Cutting, Making

The Value of Prototyping

April 28, 2024 chris Leave a comment

Power vs Speed grid to determine proper levels for the desired depth & darkness in black walnut wood.

One of our members wanted to make a commemorative plaque for his church using the CNC and laser engraver at Castlemakers. I volunteered to help, thought it would be a good chance to use our bigger CNC with some newly updated software and we could both learn in the process.

CNC plaque cutout with the first prototyped laser engraving. — First engraved prototype in plywood next to a full thickness pine cut out on our CNC.

Given the nice wood they wanted to use, doing several prototypes with lower cost wood seemed in order. It also would give him something to show the church committee approving the plaque. Ed was able to locally source some rough cut black walnut wood and another member Ian used his planer so the wood could be glued to an appropriate width.

In the meantime one of the other church members created a great looking design for the engraving. For the first prototype, done in birch plywood, we just used the laser to cutting the shape to show others for approval. This resulted in a few minor changes and a decision by the group to add gilding to part of the dove and the rays on the plaque.

Black walnut test gilding before changes.

The final plaque is on darker wood, so we engraved a sample portion on some scrap black walnut and it’s a good thing we did! The original rays were too thin, making gilding extremely difficult. Now with the final design was completed, another prototype was made in pine the thickness of the final plaque to make sure the CNC portion of the project was going to work with the engraving.

Amateur Radio

Pictures by Radio

March 10, 2024 chris Leave a comment

An amateur radio mode called Slow Scan TV (SSTV), given the speed of transmission, is really more about sending pictures than sending video. I’m guessing the name came from it’s similarity to how television video used to work.

SSTV picture of Castlemakers received using an app & ham radio.

I’ve used slow scan to receive images transmitted from the International Space Station as it passes overhead, which has been covered in a previous blog posting. At that time we recorded the transmitted ‘image’ using a voice recording app on a cell phone, emailed the image to a computer, and then used MMSTV to turn the recorded sound into an image. A more permanent/perhaps better setup would be using an interfacing cable to connect the radio directly to a PC with sound input.

Several months ago Ian stumbled across a simple phone app that decodes SSTV images, Robot36. It decodes the image directly on your phone, using the cell phone mic as input. After discovering a similar SSTV encoding app, SSTV Encoder, we realized we could send images directly to each other using our handheld amateur radios.

Closeup of our sign at night using a handheld radio to transmit the picture wirelessly.

Of course you should be able to use this setup with walkie talkies, FRS or even GMRS radios. We’ve used it over our local amateur radio repeater for even longer distances, and planning a demo with some of the other local amateur radio operators probably during Field Day in June.

We’ve started a webpage that explains SSTV and some of the software you can use to view it in more detail if you’re interested in trying it/learning more!

Making, Programming

Squirrel Proof Birdfeeder Testing

February 16, 2024 chris Leave a comment

One of the longer term projects I’ve been working on at the makerspace is a squirrel proof birdfeeder that uses machine learning to identify squirrels vs birds, then make a noise when those darn squirrels try to get a snack in the birdfeeder!

Squirrel proof bird feeder made using acrylic and 3D printed parts. — Bird feeder without the onboard ESP32-EYE camera housing, which will be mounted on the right side.

The project goes back a few years when I stumbled across a Google project to make a design using a Coral development board to accomplish the same thing. Since we had the equipment to make most of the components at the makerspace, except the development board, I started making one and looking into improving their idea.

First minor change was an error in the CAD files, which I’ve corrected on my GitHub. It also seemed like the board they chose was overkill, I had wondered about using a Raspberry Pi, but then Brian pointed out it might need a board with a better GPU. Ian mentioned the ESP32 board/chip could run TensorFlow Lite & might do the job. Cost of the ESP32 boards was appealing, so I started going down that path even though I didn’t know much about the subject at the time!

Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder test picture — ESP32-EYE image from the bird feeder. The onboard facial recognition software generated the yellow box.

I made was the birdfeeder housing and seed holder well over a year ago, which turned out quite nice. But the ESP-EYE housing got complicated between mounting locations, how to power the device, how to create the noise and lots of other distractions, so it got put aside a while ago until I could get back to it. Earlier this month, with some help from a student working at the makerspace, I started working on it again creating a prototype housing for the ESP-EYE v2.1 board in Fusion360 and restarting the work on the software.

It’s now at the point where it’s taking pictures and we’ve begun training the software to identify squirrels (cat pictures work pretty well). It still needs more work, and I’ve gotten other projects that need finishing first. But I’ll put a page on our website when more details are finished. Or stop by our makerspace & we can show you the progress in person!

Greencastle's Makerspace

Reflections on 2023

January 23, 2024 chris Leave a comment

As a nonprofit organization we elect our board & officers during January and use the annual meeting to look back to help with planning going forward. The pandemic hit us hard like many organizations that rely on volunteers, people, and contact with others. Even with our conservative nature and financial reserves it was a challenge; we made it through but the aftereffects continued throughout 2022. And like everyone else utility and other costs went up significantly. Sometimes as much as 20%, which is difficult for a small all-volunteer nonprofit. After some downsizing and cutbacks however, by the middle of 2023 it appears we turned the corner – and since seeing more interest, donations, and volunteer activity.

While members help cover our costs, donations from other organizations are critical also. Walmart Foundation‘s Local Community Grants have really made a difference in letting us continue our program efforts – many people don’t realize how Walmart through their foundation helps many local nonprofits. We’ve also received in the last 2 years a grant from Buzzi Unicem and were a Darrell Wiatt Family Philanthropy Essay Contest recipient through the PCCF – both greatly appreciated.

Individual private donors have also made a difference, we’ve listed many of those on our contributors webpage. You can also help – stop by during our Open Shop hours and ask to learn more, or you can donate directly through our website, or help out by volunteering with our organization!

Artistic Endeavors, Laser Cutting

Laser Etching Glass

December 9, 2023 chris Leave a comment

It started right after some donated glass fusing and slumping equipment, more on that in a future post, that was dropped off at Castlemakers. Troy, one of our more creative members, came in during open shop night with a sheet of glass and asked what our laser engraver/cutter would do to it. Since I wasn’t sure, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to find out.

As it turns out it, it works great for etching! Power settings were modest and it gives a nice frosted look to the glass in a single pass.

Cutting really didn’t work though. We weren’t totally surprised that cutting would be more difficult, so started experimenting with the settings.

With wood or acrylic you can make multiple passes that will continue to cut through the material. A slower process, and sometimes takes refocusing the beam, but you can get the job done.

In this case we learned that the glass seems to absorb enough heat that it starts chipping and cracking. Perhaps it was the type of glass we were using, the glass used was a home project leftover. You can see from the picture it was not a clean cut and eventually created a longer crack in the glass. For now we’ll just manually cut glass until we get the new diamond saw setup. But we did learn how to etch using the laser!

3D Printing, Making

Halloween Making at PCPL

November 6, 2023 chris Leave a comment

For the last several years we’ve been helping out at the Putnam County Public Library (PCPL) with their Scary Science event on Halloween. It always draws a crowd and love making things for the event.

A trick or treater tries on the animated eye mask we made for Halloween.

We usually bring one of our 3D printers to make something there and this year we printed out a mask for an artificial animated eye. And while not original, we made a ghost for a robotic vacuum that was often seen wandering around the library’s lower level cleaning up things.

Topping off our tricks was an updated version of Pepper’s Ghost, an optical illusion that makes animated things appear to be floating, using a tablet and a prism created on our laser cutter. We already have some ideas for next year’s event!

Putt Putnam County

2023 Putt Putnam County

October 12, 2023 chris Leave a comment

You could start the course by the downtown square.

The First Friday in October is always one of my favorites because of our annual mini-golf hole tournament in downtown Greencastle. We had a record number of holes again this year, with 14 mini-golf holes lined down Franklin Street.

Maker Challenge mini-golf hole at Putt Putnam County 2023 — Maker Challenge had 3D printed obstacles.

With so many choices it’s always hard to pick a favorite, plus a few of the most popular mini-golf holes from previous years reappeared. Putnam County Public Library‘s new entry was popular, along with the Halloween themed hole that had a skeleton with light up eyes. Walk in the Park was a new themed hole based on input from Putnam County youth that stopped by our September First Friday project. And the Maker Challenge hole was updated this year to literally include a green castle!

2023 Putt Putnam County Virtual mini-golf hole. — The golf ball traveled through downtown Greencastle.

A personal favorite was the ‘virtual’ mini-golf hole where you hit a physical golf ball that then appeared on a Google map of downtown Greencastle displayed on a TV screen. The hole even had an easter egg where a hole-in-one on the first 2 screens would let you try your hand at navigating the one way streets and road construction in downtown Greencastle. Look for this hole to be back in the 2024 Putt Putnam County event… with a new virtual course and of course more construction obstacles!!

Greencastle Indiana's Makerspace!