Guest content provided by our friends at SATS-SAFF ry.
Blast from 2023 (apologies from blog editor for publishing this guest feature late!)
The SATS Rocket Boys go Vaasa, again!
Our team of five rocket enthusiasts (2 x Matti, Timo, Vesa and me, Mika) participated again in organising the Finnish CanSat event from 30 March to 2 April 2023. CanSat is a competition run by ESERO, the European Space Education Resource Office, coordinated in Finland by Heureka Science Centre.
And what a Hacklab’ish competition it is! 4-5 person teams composed of pupils in middle school and secondary education (yläaste ja toisen asteen oppilaitokset) build cansats, soda can sized “satellites” with Arduino-based electronics that make simple environmental measurements. The mandatory measurements are air pressure and temperature, but all teams also choose their own extra task. There we saw sensors such as a muon detector, geiger counter as well as visible light and infrared cameras. Below, an example of the internals of a cansat by the team Kvanttikala, “Quantum Fish” from the Finnish Secondary High School in Estonia. Note the heavy duty internal structure protecting the electronics from the stresses of the flight and landing!
Laser cutter @ Hacklab
The cansats are flown hundreds of metres in the air using various methods. Quite obviously, we think the only correct way to fly satellites is using ROCKETS!
The Hacklab members have probably seen quite a lot of rocket building activity during the winter. Many of those rockets were for this event. Fins and bulkheads were cut with the laser cutter, the airfoils formed with belt sanders, motor holders machined with Lotta. One day we may also see better paint jobs, when the painting room gets finalised. Hacklab is the perfect place for this kind of craft, too!
And of course, everyone wants to see a rocket launch. The one below is team TAIGASAT’s extra flight with a bit bigger than standard motor, H225-WT, shoved into the back end of Timo’s rocket “Kuituhirviö”. Flames, hot exhaust plume and happy faces at the beginning of a fully successful launch!
All photos Ⓒ Jan Holmgård
The competition was again a great experience. More wonderful photography by Jan Holmgård here and videos compiled by Matti Lepomäki:
Helsinki Hacklab has returned from Chaos Communication Camp 2023, after a week long hacking, creating and partying in Germany with our friends from hacklab.fi, CitySec, Salmiakki Village and the whole Cold North Cluster. The cluster is our village friends from from all around the Nordic countries and beyond. Nice to see all the familiar and new faces joining the area! The cluster keeps the doors open for new participants in the future as well.
Do not cover
Oulu took a big role in the logistics again, with their patent pallet crate full of all important stuff for the proper camp experience. We had multiple people from Finnish hackerspaces in Salmiakki Village alongside with infosec people and others. Cold North cluster was the most successful of all the camps so far, even if the planning was a bit fuzzy in the start. Thanks for everyone taking part in the communications making it the greatest so far, even if the village did not have a sauna this time. We’ll fix that for the next Dutch camp in 2025.
Some of the cluster highlights: the open area in middle of the cluster and shade from sun, Omega’s tesla coil, Anderstorp’s party booth and playlist, BornHack’s sticker collection, daily cluster meetups and DJ open decks by rambo. The communications channel is now established better than before, so we’re set to sail for new camps and congresses. Such as the new Mastodon feed we set up!
Big thanks also to all the visitors in our cluster and for those ones brave (and fast) enough to get the taste of salmiakki, and our apologies if you were left out due to high demand.
MCH2022 camp is now over and the Finnish village empty in the scouting field of Flevoland, the Netherlands. Helsinki Hacklab was represented alongside with Hacklab.fi, HelSec, TurkuSec etc. other groups and individuals, plus joining forces with other Nordic villages forming the Cold North cluster in “the noisy corner”.
Originally the camp was supposed to be in 2021 but got postponed to 2022. In total the participant count was about 3 500 hackers, many of volunteering as well. If you want to get a glimpse of the atmosphere, get to know what the event is all about, most of the streamed talks are already archived online.
The village cluster got lucky the rental sauna, after a competing reservation for a different event got canceled and the idea was greenlighted from the organizers. Just like last time, the awesome new conference badge also got an app for the temperature tracking, though this time our village managed to release it quickly on day zero. As usual, our party tent was full of salmiakki in all shapes and forms except for salmiakki ice cream.
The villagers pushed maybe three or more apps in the badge app store, took volunteering tasks, competed in the CTF and arranged workshops or talks. Helsinki Hacklab provided laser cutted deco for the area. Our machine works great for this type of job because the the working area enables cutting large banners with a single run.
Due to holidays, unavailable people and events, new key member interview in August had to be rescheduled from usual first Monday of month to a later date. The new date is now on Wed 10.8. and is updated in our calendar as well.
Assembly Summer 2022
Hacklab.fi and Helsinki Hacklab participate in Assembly Summer 2022 with projects and other display stuff. Come greet us if you’re around and ask questions if you want to know more what we do!
New tools and improvements
We have lots of new things going on in the lab: a new sharpening tool for woodworking and pressure air etc. And most notably, we are working on a solution to get small scale painting and surface finishing finally doable in a designaged corner.
Helsinki Hacklab ry:n hallitus noudattaa kaupungin viimeisintä ohjeistusta ja sulkee yhdistyksen tilat viranomaisten suosittelemaksi ajaksi 30.11. – 20.12.2020, eli alkaen maanantaista. Tällä aikavälillä ei ole mahdollista tehdä henkilökohtaisia projekteja labilla. Avainjäsenillä on rajoitettu pääsy työtilaan, mikäli tähän on tarve. Suosittelemme FFP2-tason maskin käyttämistä, jos olet paikalla lyhyttä vierailua pidempään.
Jos käyt labilla sulkemisen aikana, ilmoita siitä Slackissa/Matrixissa kanavalla #lockdown.
Yhdistyksen syyskokous järjestetään kokonaan etänä 5.12. klo 14. Osallistumisen ohjeet jaetaan lähempänä kokouksen ajankohtaa. Avainjäsenhaastatteluja järjestetään seruaavan kerran vuoden vaihteen jälkeen. Ilmoitamme jatkosta ennen 20.12. viranomaisten ohjeiden perusteella.
Hacklab closed from November 30 to December 20
The board of Helsinki Hacklab ry follows the latest guidelines of the city authorities and closes the association’s premises for the period recommended by the authorities from 30 November to 20 December 2020. During this time, it is not possible to do personal projects in the lab. Key members have a limited possility to visit the workspace, if there is a need. Use a nose and mouth covering mask if you move indoors. We recommend using an FFP2-level mask if your visit lasts longer.
If you visit the lab during shutdown, report it on Slack/Matrix channel #lockdown.
The autumn meeting of the association will be held completely remotely on 5 of December at 2 p.m. Instructions for participation will be announced closer to the time of the meeting. Key member interviews will be held next time after the turn of the year.We will announce more information before 20.12. based on the instructions of the authorities.
Yhdistykseltä on kysytty paljon viime aikoina erityisesti uusien jäsenten ja perusjäsenten tilankäytöstä. Käytäntöjä ei ole määritelty erityisen tarkkaan ja joudumme myös seuraamaan mahdollista muuttuvaa tilannetta ja reagoimaan sen mukaisesti. Tässä joitain kesän ja syksyn aikana vakiintuneita toimintatapoja, joita olemme pyrkineet noudattamaan:
Avoimet tiistai-illat ja muut säännölliset tapahtumat ovat peruttu.
Perusjäsenet ilman omaa avainta joutuvat järjestämään pääsyn tilaan sopimalla asiasta jonkun avainjäsenen kanssa. Parhaiten tämä onnistuu kyselemällä etukäteen Slackissa tai soittamalla läbin puhelimeen. Avainjäsenen ei ole pakko päästää ketään sisään, jos hänellä ei esimerkiksi ole siihen mahollisuutta kiireiden tms. syiden vuoksi. Pääsy työtilaan ei onnistu lähettämällä sähköpostia hallitukselle.
Suosittelemme käyttämään läbiä vain projektien tekemiseen ja työtilan ylläpitoon, ei yleiseen pitkäaikaiseen oleskeluun.
Uusien avainjäsenten hyväksymisessä pyydämme ottamaan ennakkoon selvää mahdollisimman paljon kaikesta nettisivuilla ja wikissä löytyvistä tiedoista, nyt kun emme voi tavalliseen tapaan edellyttää aiempaa näyttöä jäsenaktiivisuudesta avaimen myöntämisessä. Emme toivo että avainta haetaan hetken mielijohteesta poikkeusaikojen pakottavan tarpeen vuoksi lyhyelle aikavälille. Tule haastatteluun vasta kun olet lukenut yleisiä ohjeita avainjäsenyydestä, tavaroiden säilytyksestä ja wikin työtilan kuvauksesta. Kirjoitetun ohjeistuksen ymmärtäminen ja ohjeiden etsiminen on avainjäsenelle edellytettävän tärkeää, ja tätä arvioidaan myös haastattelussa.
Yksinkertaisissa kysymyksissä pyydämme esittämään kysymykset jäsenistölle Slackissa ja lähettämään hallitukselle kyselyjä vain jäsenyyteen, raha-asioihin ym. aiheisiin liittyen.
We have received many questions about how to use the space lately. We don’t have a complete list of instructions, but here are some practices we have applied so far during the exceptional opening hours:
Open Tuesdays etc. are canceled.
Basic members without their own key, have to arrange themselves in the lab accompanied by a key member. Best way to do this is to ask beforehand using Slack or calling our telephone. There is no possibility to arrange an appointment by email.
We recommend to use the lab for projects and maintenance only, not spending time in general.
New key member applicants have to be better prepared for the interview than usual, now that we cannot help them getting to know the place in the usual way. We hope the applicant has read most of the information available on our website and wiki. We assess in the interview how the applicant has done their research.
Simple questions concerning are asked to be directed in Slack channels and not hallitus/board email. You are welcome to send email concerning about memberships, fees etc.
Hacklab member exhibitions in MUU Galleria, Galleria Sculptor and Grenna Museum
Muu Galleria, Lönnrotinkatu. Nov 9th – Dec 15th.[website]
Opening of the exhibition on Friday 8 November, 2019, from 5-7 pm. All Hacklab members are invited!
Anu makes drawings with oil paint medium. Unlike paint, which would bleed along the fibres, the medium retains its shape on the paper. Areas saturated with it become translucent compared with the untreated opaque paper, and the drawn marks become visible when seen against light. Instead of being reflected from the surface, light in these works passes through the substrate. Filtering through the marks made with the painting medium, light itself becomes a material. The passage of light through the paper is determined by the marks drawn on it, not unlike the human mind that with its definitions and conceptual thinking delimits the endless possibilities of the world into a specific shape.
All welding of LED light steel tubing stands have been made by Anu using Helsinki Hacklab workspace and tools.
Pia Männikkö: NordiSkulptur
Galleria Sculptor, Eteläranta. Nov 1st – Jan 8th. [website]
A duo exhibition in Galleria Sculptor. Pia’s art features bodily connection between a viewer and an artwork to create immersive situations and spaces for the viewer to enter. Mapping the passage of time, as well as creating objects that gradually grow and change, play a central role in her working process.
There’s also an additional display at the Nordic Culture Point´s window gallery, Kaisaniemenkatu 9.
Axel Straschnoy: Float
Nya Småland & Grenna Museum Polarcenter, Sweden. Oct 12th – Dec 31th[website]
The buoy was launched into the sea off the coast of Lofoten, into the Norwegian current. The current carries water along the west coast of Norway, towards Svalbard. A part of it continues towards the Arctic. Thus, a buoy let loose into it has some chance to make it to the Arctic. Once there, there is a non-zero chance of it getting frozen-in in the Arctic ice. Once part of the Arctic ice, there is a non-zero chance it will one day be over the North Pole. The possibilities are slim, yes, but so were Andrée’s.
Parts of the buoy were adjusted by Axel in our metal workshop room before the final assembly and launch.
The usual early fall rush hours have started, we have new people visiting and lots of projects going on. This blog post tries to catch up recent months that have been yet uncovered since summer.
This year’s major European hacker camp Chaos Communication Camp 2019 was in Germany, in the same brick factory musem as in 2015. Hacklab.fi was there together with infosec groups TurkuSec, HelSec and others, joining forces under the moniker Salmiakki Village. Just like at SHA2017, the Nordic hackerspaces such as Labitat, Hackeriet and Xil.se, formed a combined tent village Cold North which Salmiakki was a part of. Together, we got a nice spot in the shadows and next to a balcony to get away from the heat of day.
Building a village this size the logistics was split in two batches: Oulu people sent a 3m high fully loaded pallet of mostly personal, networking, electricity and lightning stuff, and Helsinki Hacklab drove a van through the Baltics and Poland [photos] loaded with a party tent, a fridge and lots of other larger items. Most stuff ended up being used and not much was lacking from the load. We’re getting good in this.
Salmiakki Village
Salmiakki village was essentially a party place, but we had also packed some nice light effects, video art and of course salmiakki in different form. The village also was the homebase for Finnish CTF team, which ranked sixth in end results. Big thanks for Ponakka for lending us the sound system, which we hooked up into Rambo’s Technics turntable pair. Sadly we got no permission for a sauna this time (though a pizza oven elsewhere in the area was excused for some reason). We had to regret the unfortunate situation for many people, but the area had high risk of forest fires that time and electricity too scarse. Hopefully this can be fixed next time in the forthcoming IFCAT camp in Netherlands year 2021, like we had at SHA camp.
We had some time to visit Fukusima Sauna in Riga on our return trip. Thanks long time hacklab member Vihannes for hosting us and showing us around. Next time we try to plan ahead so we have time to also try out the sauna itself and see the local makerspace. The Cold North area is going to be developed further with more shared planning, information exchange and other coordination. There is the Nordic mailing list and even a new wiki set up by Hackeriet. For the next camp, the cluster should return even greater than this year!
September: Dust collector redesign and space improvement
Dust collector installation
Woodwork room got some new space after moving the dust vacuum in a different spot outside the room itself. The pipings and hoses that move the dust now have more outlets, which means even hand tools should be easy to attach. The vacuum is now located next to our back door emergency exit on ground floor. Thanks to Depili and Harald for making most of the work.
The mitre saw was changed to a new one, that has a soft start motor and built-in laser guide. Tarmo has worked on a router table, but there is still some work to do and parts to be changed, but it’s looking good already. The wood workshop also got new lights, because the old ones started to crack in pieces when opening the dust cover. There are some new fire extinguishers and quite many old ones here and there, and the wood workshop got an extra first aid kit. We got no instructions to correct anything in the space after a fire inspection took place. Remember to keep the emergency exit area clean of any trash or workpieces.
Helsinki Hacklab made a contract with a local cleaning service and scheduled a cleanup every two weeks, including the meetup room, kitchen, 3D-printing area, toilets and other semi clean rooms, which do not include the woodworking room and metal work rooms. Hopefully this helps us to maintain a tidier hackerspace when the volunteer does not have to start from complete disaster each time they have a need to clean something. After painting the floor in July, the place looks a lot better and the new surface is easier to clean.
October: Aluminium welding course plus more
Aluminium welding is something quite many people have asked, but due to the difficulty of learning it by yourself, many have hesitated to give it a try. Luckily, Anle knows the processa and promised us to arrange a weekly workshop. The interest in the course was anticipated to be high, so we eventually had to use lottery to choose participants. As of writing this, there are still two lessons left in this course. We cannot yet promise if there will be any repetitions of the course in near future.
Aluminium welding course going on
The welding course is not the only skill we have teached each other this September. Other tools we’ve given courses in include the metal lathe, laser cutter and various woodworking tools. If any of our members know a skill and want to share knowledge, there is always a possibility to have either small introductions, recurring lessons or even weekend long intensive workshops.
We are painting the floors, there is no Open Tuesday on 16th July
Start of following week the place is in very limited use
There is no Open Tuesday on 16th July
Maalattava alue on suunnilleen tämä
We paint the floors in lecture room, kitchen and 3D printing room, which means that there is either no access or no easy access to most parts of the lab (kitchen, toilets, machining room etc.) plus there is pungent paint smell everywhere. Also we need to move stuff away from painted area to other rooms, making them possibly difficult to use.
Please avoid using the lab if possible, until we can announce the place usable for working again. The job is done by our volunteers, reply in discourse forum if you can help us.
Maalaaminen tehdään viikonloppuna 12.-14. päivä, ja seuraavana viikkona avoin tiistain on peruttu. Muutoinkin alkuviikosta työtilan käyttö on vielä hyvin rajoitettua, ja esimerkiksi keittiö ja vessat eivät ole käytössä. Pyri välttämään läbillä käymistä siihen asti, kunnes paikka ilmoitetaan taas käyttökuntoiseksi ja maalin kuivumisen ohjeiden mukainen aika on kulunut.
Maali on kuivuessaan voimakkaan hajuista, joten jos sinulla on naulakkoon unohtuneita vaatteita, hae ne pois heti. Maalina käytetään samaa ainetta, millä mm. elektroniikkatila ja laserhuone ovat maalattu, ja hajuhaitta tiedetään jo ennalta voimakkaaksi ja pitkäaikaiseksi. Lisäksi joudumme siirtämään tavaroita maalattavalta alueelta muihin huoneisiin, mikä voi vaikeuttaa näiden tilojen käyttöä.
Maalaaminen tehdään omin vapaaehtoisvoimin, yksinkertaisimmillaan työ on tavaroiden siirtelyä maalattavalta alueelta pois ja lattian siivousta, joten kokemusta maalaamisesta ei tarvitse olla:
Lyhyesti – Avainjäsenten hakemusten käsittely muuttunut: avainhakemukset käsitellään jatkossa vain live-haastatteluina hallituksen kokousten yhteydessä ja avainten myöntäminen nopeutuu.
Helsinki Hacklab now handles key member applications like this:
We have specific dates for new key member interviews. Look for “Apply for a key”-events in our calendar.
You don’t have to send any emails or application forms anymore
You should generally get your key soon as we have interviewed you
Just arrive on time, no requirement to inform us in advance
We previously had situations of unprocessed applications from applicants we never met in person or never replied us back, or that accepted new key members had to wait for their key too long. As previously, Hacklab always interviews all new key member applicants. We decided to cut out the extraneous application form, skip straight to the interview part, and promise all applicants that they get their key immediately after a successful interview. This model sort of copies from Stockholm Makerspace.
Apply for key events coincide with board member meetings, which are currently held on second Monday each month, with exceptions during summer/holiday seasons and possible extra meetings every now and then.
Key members are crucial for our club’s existence! We couldn’t afford our rent without all our great key members, who sponsor us paying a monthly key fee. If you’re interested in 24h access in Helsinki Hacklab with benefit of own storage boxes – plus helping us making our activities possible – we highly recommend getting yourself a key! Helsinki Hacklab does not receive or rely on any regular sponsorship from outside sources, so it’s really up to us to run the place together.
