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.
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.
Some development in the workspace – the next Open Tuesday still undecided!
Open Tuesdays and other weekly happenings should soon return, but as for now, the cancellations are still going on. The floor gets painted, and it might be impossible even to visit the hackerspace during following next days.
Hopefully we can return to normal actions on the second week of February. Please follow updates on this site to know better.
Update: Helsinki Hacklab closes its doors between 6th Feb. and 12th Feb
This year organized by Hacklab Jyväskylä for the first time! The event is held simultaneously with Instanssi digital culture and demoscene party. Our HSF robot competition is presented to the audience, and all the demoscene shows are also available for the hackerspace groups. We also have time to plan co-operation just with our hacklab.fi friends.
Major theme will be deciding if hacklab.fi should organize itself into a formal registered association, as a top level co-op of Finnish hacklabs. We hope that these hackerspace and makerspace groups can join in the discussion.
Hacklab Summit Finland has been organized annually since 2012. The ticket shop is now open!
Small robots try to find their way in a maze and bump against walls. This is our annual robot race in nearby Strömberg Park, which was organized by hacklab.fi last Saturday! (Or actually biannual, if you count in the indoors winter races organized in Hackerspace Tampere Hacklab)
The idea is to build robots in Hackerspaces all over Finland, and many spaces have their own copy of the “hacklab.fi standard robot maze” at their location. The track is 1×2 meter wooden box with corners that turn left and right. Although it’s a speed race, usually the best show starts when a robot has no idea of its next move.
This is the second time we have made our previously closed doors competition into a public event here in Helsinki, especially for families and children. New this year was a large and sturdy pop-up tent in case of bad weather, better marketing, posters, website, stickers, sound system and more better general idea how we should handle building the event site. This year all our robots were autonomous, and in total eight took part in the race. Robots from previous years were on display in the table and some of them (working ones) took laps on the track as well.
Most bizarre robot this year was thjt‘s Höyry robot, which consisted of a Wilesco steam engine, rotten plywood, bunch of old Legos and IR sensor electronics. It managed to go about ⅔ of a lap before literally running out of steam or dropping a pulley belt. Because it had difficulties to turn right, we gave it a special permission to run the track counterclockwise.
The race was dominated by robots from Kuopio, which took both first and third place. Second place went to Tampere with a robot that was controlled by external computer that monitored the course with hanging camera setup over the track.
Co-operation network hacklab.fi is an attempt to have more interaction between Hackerspaces in Finland, in similar fashion as UK Hackspace Foundation etc. Robot competitions such as this one have been in our schedule once or twice a year since 2012 as a part of Hacklab Summit Finland, which gathers Finnish Hackerspaces together making the scene work more with each others. Making the robot competition a public event became more obvious as the competition became more established tradition and the number of robots started resemble a real competition. This year’s race was supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland. Participants in Hacklab Summit Finland event came from cities Helsinki, Tampere, Kuopio, Vaasa, Turku and for the first time, the small town of Virrat, which might see its own hackerspace in near future.
Shortly in English: Hacklab.fi co-operation network gathers at Tampere this weekend for robot competition, making plans for future and having a good time. Another similar event is organized in Helsinki Hacklab later this year.
We are looking for interested people to join us for SHA2017 camp in August. The event takes place in Netherlands and organizers expect about five thousand people across world to come there. Our IRC channel is #sha2017.fi @ IRCNet.
Hacklab Summit Finland 2017
HSF järjesteään Tampereella nyt viikonloppuna 27.-29.1.
Mistä on kyse?
Hacklab.fi on Suomen hacklabien yhteinen verkosto, joka kokoontuu kaksi kertaa vuodessa säätämään kaikenlaista yhdessä, kisaamaan roboteilla ja tekemään suunnittelemia tulevasta.
Paikalle voi tulla myös vain pitämään hauskaa yhdessä, vaikka lennättämään quadkoptereita tai saunomaan. Tänä vuonna tehdään vierailu Suomen Pelimuseoon.
Helsinki Hacklab ja hacklab.fi osallistuu tänäkin vuonna suunnitelmien mukaan seuraaviin tapahtumiin:
Model Expo 2017, 21.-23.4. – Tule tapaamaan Hacklabeja osastollamme. Expoon lähtee myös Suomen Avaruustutkimusseura.
Järjestämme Helsingissä kesällä vuoden toisen HSF:n. Ajankohta täsmentyy myöhemmin.
Assembly Summer
SHA2017
Keräämme porukkaa lähtemään elokuussa Alankomaihin SHA2017-leirille. Kyseessä on Keski-Euroopan tämän vuoden suurin maker/hack/yms. -kulttuurin tapahtuma, johon odotetaan osallistujia joka puolelta maailmaa. Esityksien, pääohjelman ja workshoppien lisäksi leiritunnelmaan kuuluu oleellisena osana osallistujien itse tuottama ohjelma ja tekeminen leirialueella – ja yliampuvat LED-valaistukset.
Suomesta lähtevä joukko kerääntyy suunnittelemaan osallistumista IRCNetin kanavalla #sha2017.fi, jossa mm. pohditaan omalle leiritontille yhteistä isoa telttaa ja saunaa. Tähän mennessä listalle on saatu n. 20 henkilön lista kiinnostuneista lähtijöistä. Leirille odotetaan yhteensä 5 000 – 6 000 osallistujaa. Vastaavanlainen vuoden 2015 leiri Saksassa näytti tältä.
Hacklab Summit Finland 2016 järjestetään taas Tampereella tammikuun viimeisenä viikonloppuna 29.-31.1.2016. Seuraa ilmoittautumistiedotusta Tampereen Hacklabin sivuilla ja Freenoden #hacklab.fi-kanavalla.
HSF kerää Suomen hacklab-aktiivit nyt viidettä kertaa Tampereelle. Ohjelmaan kuuluu jälleen kerran perinteinen robottikisa ja yhteistyön suunnittelua. Vapaaehtoiseksi tapahtumaan voi ilmoittautua myös muualla kuin Tampereella asuvat. Helsingistä lähtee autokyytejä perille – kimppakyytien sumplintaa kirjoitusalustalla: http://kirjoitusalusta.fi/HSF16-helsinki-kimppakyydit
Helsinki Hacklab vieraili tiistai-iltana Suomen Avaruustutkimusseuran tiloissa Etelä-Haagassa. Yhdistys on vuokrannut samaa tilaa jo useamman vuosikymmenen ajan, mikä näkyi hienosti myös tilan arkeologiassa ja yleisessä patinassa. Tässä lyhytsanainen kuvareportaasi niille, jotka eivät päässeet paikalle.
Helsinki Hacklab ja Tampereen Mode 5w tapasivat perjantaina 4.6 Tampereella Demolassa. Tapaamisessa oli minun lisäkseni Helsingistä vain Torsti, Helsinki Hacklabin tekeillä oleva mendel-tyyppinen RepRap robotti, sekä tämän yksilön muoviosat tulostaneen Cupcake CNC:n omistaja, mukanaan hänen oma lähes valmis mendel-botti. Lisää 3D-tulostimien ihmeellisestä maailmasta tulevassa blogi-postauksessa.
Mode 5w on siis Tamperelainen hacklab, jota on käynnistelty vajaan vuoden verran ilmeisesti. He saivat yhdistyksen rekisteröityä vuoden alussa, mutta kaipaavat vielä lisää jäseniä. Tampereella on kuitenkin ollut kiinnostusta, ja nyt he ovatkin siirtäneet jo pitkään jatkuneet Ruby on Rails illat Demolaan, joka on eräänlainen kohtaamispaikka, jossa on pidetty muun muassa Ubuntun julkkarit (http://demola.fi). Tiloja etsivät aktiivisesti, saa nähdä kumpi ehtii ensin saamaan oman tilan.
Kutsumme heidät tietenkin Helsinkiin käymään kunhan saamme jonkilaiset tilat, ehkä muutaman kuukauden sisään.
