Hi all -

This is the last weekly update I'll be posting to the general
arg-announce list (which includes the Media Collective and Idio-Audio lists), so if you haven't done so, please sign on to the discussion forum. This list will only be used to announce show dates, etc., in the future.

At this week's meeting - Tuesday the 6th - I'd like to concentrate on pinning down plans for future workshops, etc. I'm putting together a revised version of the original grant proposal -
http://www.interaccess.org/arg/spaceprobe/proposal.html
so it would be really good to have a solid list of upcoming activities: workshops, concept development, resource material development, materials and equipment we might need, "toolbox" design, presentations, etc., that we will be applying for.

We also need to discuss the possibility of submitting a proposal to the JAWA show. As it turns out, if we want to be involved, we will need to submit something fairly concrete right away. I hope this isn't pushing things too much. We need more "fooling around time" at the beginning, but perhaps this would be a good project to give it a bit of focus. What do you think? Norm White sent me a few ideas which I'll post to the discussion forum (he'll be out of town for a while).

So please think about these two things - plans for upcoming activities and for possible exhibition scenarios. It might be a good idea to review some of the previous updates and materials on the discussion forum at
http://www.interaccess.org/forums/arg/ and to post some of your ideas there. Only two other people have posted there so far - please don't be shy! I need to know that I'm not just, uh, spitting into the wind...

It would be really helpful if people could bring a copy of their CV or resume, ideally on disk as well as paper, to the meeting. This will also help with the revised SpaceProbe production project application I'm working on. Peter Flemming volunteered to do some video documentation at the next meeting. I'm also putting together a proposal for some direct funding from InterAccess which I'll submit to the Programming Committee meeting on Thursday. There's still the possibility of applying for our own exhibition, but as we discussed last week, it seems it may be a bit early for that.

We're going ahead with the purchase of several BASIC Stamp 1 microcontrollers for the group to experiment with. I don't think Peter Venuto was able to get them on the weekend, so we can do a mail order this week. Mike Steventon volunteered to set up the '386 computer so that it can be used for programming. There will be no charge to InterAccess members for using the '386.

At the InterAccess members' meeting last Thursday, Tom Leonhardt brought up the fact that, in light of the changing nature of the organization, the $40 membership + $20 studio access fee was perhaps too high, and might prevent people from participating in things like the SpaceProbe project. The members voted to reduce the membership cost to $25/year, and eliminate the studio access fee (studio access priveleges will require an orientation interview). I think this represents an excellent value, and a real committment from InterAccess to support projects like ours, so I hope people will take advantage of it.

April 26th meeting notes:

Last week, we started off with a demonstration by Paul Davies of programming the BASIC Stamp 1 microcontroller. Paul connected a floor-mat switch and a surplus digital sampler (both purchased at Active Surplus) to the Stamp. We hooked up an old '386 computer running DOS (Windows is not necessary) to run the programming software, and a cable which Paul had wired up, to connect the Stamp to the printer port of the computer. A simple program was written to demonstrate triggering the sampler in response to stepping on the mat, using the "button" command in PBASIC1.

The circuit diagram, program listing, and manual page for the "button" command was handed out at the meeting. Note that you can download the complete BASIC Stamp manual for free from: http://www.parallaxinc.com/stamps/manual.htm

Jim Ruxton then demonstrated how to turn a motor on and off. Since the Stamp can only put out about 20 milliamps ( 1/50th of an amp ) of current, Jim used a MOSFET transistor, an IRL510 available from Electrosonic for about $1, which can handle up to 8 amps. The transistor has three wires - one is a "gate" which can be triggered with the low-current output of the Stamp, which allows electricity to flow between the other two wires. It is essentially a switch that can be opened or closed by the Stamp, although it only allows electricity to flow in one direction, i.e. DC or direct current. Therefore, the motor could only turn in one direction. Jim explained that a circuit configuration known as an "H-bridge", using four transistors, can be used to allow the motor to turn in both directions.

After a discussion of options for upcoming grant applications and participation in the JAWA show, we closed the meeting with a brief demonstraion of the MAX programming environment and David Rokeby's Very Nervous System, which will be used in Mitch Kirsch's upcoming dance project at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Mitch wasn't able to make it last week, but will be presenting his project within the next couple of weeks I hope.

After a wild goose chase around Queen St., we finally settled on Squirrelly's for after-meeting refreshments... --
Jeff Mann