Category Archives: Meeting Announcements

DPRG Monthly Meeting: Intro to CAD – August 24, 2024

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Slide Deck (DesignSpark Mechanical / 3D Printers): Slide Deck (PDF)

Join DPRG on August 24, 2024, 10:00AM CDT, at the Dallas Maker Space for dual presentations highlighting two perspectives on how to get kickstarted into learning computer aided design, CAD. Learning CAD can be daunting, and beginners are often overwhelmed. Presenters Jon Hylands and Doug Paradis will show two approaches using different CAD programs: onshape, an excellent web-based CAD program, and DesignSpark Mechanical, a simplified version of SpaceClaim Engineer.

Both presenters will be stressing “How do you get started?”.

The presentations will use a simple pendulum example proposed by Paul Bouchier and follow up with a slightly more complex bumper design. Again, overcoming the hurdle of getting started and the mindset used versus the mechanics of the programs will be the emphasis of the talks.

This is a great opportunity to finally figure out how to get started in CAD and meet others with similar interests. Pizza will be served at the meeting.

Note: If you want to follow along with the presentations you should have an account with both onshape and DesignSpark, and have the free version of DesignSpark Mechanical loaded on your computer.
onshape registration
DesignSpark Mechanial Download and registration

DPRG Monthly Meeting: Swap Meet and Gathering – July 27, 2024

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Join DPRG on July 27, 2024, 10:00AM CDT at the Dallas Maker Space for a Swap Meet and social gathering. There will be no presentation this month, however there will be pizza. Members are encouraged to use this opportunity to socialize with other members and guests, and to dig deep into their hoard of robotic parts and offer them for swapping. This is a great opportunity to get to know other members better, prove that you aren’t really a hoarder (you just like shiny), and maybe pick up something interesting.

Join Meeting Remotely:

• Join Hangouts Meet https://meet.google.com/mwm-imzg-rss
• Join by phone: (US) +1 470-222-8542 , PIN: 334726924

DPRG Monthly Meeting: Using AI to Detect Traffic Cones – June 22, 2024

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Slide Deck:  Slide Deck (PDF)

Join DPRG in a virtual meeting held on June 22, 2024, at 10:00AM CDT for a presentation by Bob Cook, winner of the 2023 SRS RoboMagellan, on how to use AI to detect traffic cones. Bob will cover everything from data collection to building a model and loading it onto a small board computer. This is a great opportunity to see in a practical manner how a model is built.

RBNV – Robot Builders Night Virtual – May 28, 2024

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Meeting Video:

Chat Record:  Chat record (PDF)
Star Rewards  (★ = significant robot progress, ⭐ = robot progress and running on floor):
Stars are awarded by group during the meeting.

No stars rewarded this week

Robie’s Highlights:
• Ray C. – Described his appliance that links his robot to his laptop via Serial using a ESP-NOW.
• Brief discussion of Wixel.
• Jon H. – Showed his progress on a new robot based on Adam Savage’s Star Wars robot prop.
• Discussion on Roborama rules.
• Discussion on sensors used by Mike W. on his 3 unit ToF sensor’s with 8×8 senssing array per sensor.
• People discussing problems (whining) they were having with their robots pre-competition.
• Paul B. offered basic PiDog program for Quick Trip on GitHub to encourage participation.

When

• May 28, starting at 7:30 PM Dallas time (CDT).
• Robot Builders Night Virtual (RBNV) meets each Tuesday evening.

DPRG Monthly Meeting: Designing and Making PC Boards – April 27, 2024

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Meeting Video:

Slide Deck:  Slide Deck (PDF)

Join DPRG at the Dallas Maker Space on April 27, 2024 at 10:00AM CDT for a presentation by Brady Pamplin on how to design printed circuit boards and have them made professionally. Use the DPRG Door Bell for entry. Pizza will be served during the meeting. Meeting will also be streamed over Google meets (new link: meet.google.com/mwm-imzg-rss Join by phone: (US) +1 470-222-8542, PIN: 334726924) for remote viewing.

DPRG Monthly Meeting: KABAM Robotics Presentation – March 23, 2024

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Saturday, March 23 at 10:00 AM CDT, DPRG will have a presentation from Rob Salsman, KABAM Robotics VP, who will talk about their security robots CO-LAB (indoor) and HALO (outdoor).

KABAM Robotics is a Singaporean company specializing in security and surveillance robots. They are ramping up their US activities, and also starting to hire engineers to be based here. This could be a great networking opportunity if you’re looking for work in Robotics!

You can look at videos of the robots in action on KABAM’s website at https://kabam.ai – The robots have interesting solutions to navigation problems that robot builders try to solve for DPRG’s Roborama contests.

Following the presentation and questions, members are encouraged to bring their projects and robots for a show and tell.

Meeting Videos:
Part 1- KABAM Robotics

Chat Record:  Chat record (PDF)
Part 2- Regular Monthly Meeting

Chat Record:  Chat record (PDF)

When:

  • March 23, 2024
  • 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM CDT – Pizza will be served at lunch time

Where:

  • Dallas Makerspace – North Lobby Classroom (ring DPRG doorbell to be admitted)
  • 1825 Monetary Ln, Suite 104 · Carrollton, TX

Remote:
The meeting is available to remote members and interested parties using the info below.

DPRG Annual Meeting for 2024 – February 10, 2024

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Annual Meeting Update
YouTube Video:  Video
Chat Record:  Chat record (PDF)
Slide Deck:  Slide Deck(PDF)

DPRG will hold its annual planning meeting on February 10, 2024. The meeting is scheduled for 11:30 AM – 4:00 PM at the Dallas Maker Space.

The tentative agenda is:

  • Officer Election
  • Planning for 2024
  • Robot Show and tell. Members are encouraged to bring their robots or robot projects to the meeting.

This is the first in-person meeting of 2024 and will cover many items important to the club. Members are strongly encouraged to plan on attending. There will be a Google meeting link for remote members.

Watch for updates.