WEEK 1

 

I had joined a week late and thus when I joined the Pre Fab Academy I had a bit of catching up to do that was done during Week 1 of the programme. When I joined the Pre fab programme I saw a pleasant English speaking Spanish gentleman who went by the name Francisco Sanchez. He seemed scary at first but I was to learn about how chilled out (and a patient teacher too) out this tutor of ours was in the month of making to come. He had setup and was managing a Fablab in the beautiful coastal town of Sitges in Spain.

Catching up:

 

Day 1

Installing Software

The following software need to be installed for the programme and will be useful:

 

Ubuntu

 

“Any computer working on anything other than Ubuntu be wary”. Francisco’s threat was indeed serious. The very first pre requisite for the Pre Fab Academy programme, Ubuntu.

 

The open source debian-based Linux Distribution, Ubuntu literally translated from the Nguni-Bantu languages roughly as “human kindness” or broadly as:

“a quality that includes the essential human virtues, compassion and humility”.  

For going through the installation one would ideally have to posses these values.

Though I have often used Ubuntu, I was never a regular user.  Till then I was using a Mac for the time being for the past few months and I was comfortably getting quite used to it as well. For installing & instilling human kindness, I had to get an old laptop (Toshiba) I had at home and also a bootable version of the OS onto a flash drive and install it onto the Toshiba. It wasn’t easy with my laptop showing errors and refusing to budge. Several errors & debugging later, finally, I managed to install it - Ubuntu V.14.04.03. But even though I did, sometime in between the programme it (Ubuntu) managed to crash again and I lost some data, documentation and screenshot; and the rest of the time I had to rely on a Mac.

 

 

Though extremely hostile and apprehensive at first, over the course of the programme, I learnt to appreciate Ubuntu much more than before. Ubuntu (philosophy) is an ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people’s allegiances and relations with each other.

 

Ubuntu

“-I am what I am because of who we all are.”

 

I found this a useful read for any beginner in Ubuntu.

Link :

 

 

Fab modules (compiled version)  (Link : kokompe.cba.mit.edu/)

 

One can install all of the dependencies with the command on Ubuntu:

 

sudo apt-get install python python-wxgtk2.8 python-dev python-pip gcc g++ libpng12-dev libgif-dev make bash okular libboost-thread-dev libboost-system-dev cmake

 

Other software that needs to be installed include:

 

·         “Terminal here” add-on for Nautilus

·         Kokopelli retro

·         antimony

·         inkscape

·         Openscad

·         Gimp

·         Cura

·         Arduino IDE (>V1.6.5) & ATtiny addon for arduino IDE

·         Processing

·         Qcad

·         GIT

·         Eagle

·         Kicad

·         Wine & part works in wine

 

 

Day 2

Creating Accounts

 

The following accounts need to be created for creating a well-documented system, strong repository of your code, work files and work in progress:

 

·         Github account

·         Fablabs.io account

·         git.fabcloud.io account

·         Dropbox account

·         Sketchfab.com account

 

Day 3

Documentation

 

 

Francisco explained to me that documentation is the most key thing of the entire process. It should be a narrative of your journey through Fablab, rather than the text of a boring monotonous lecture. Write what you experience at the fablab as it is, like a journal entry.

 

The Github account plays a key role in the documentation. Through this account I would be updating my documentation of the Fab Academy.

Also, for creating a webpage it is necessary to know HTML, or if not learn it.

One can make edits and updates on a local folder and later commit these changes onto Github when required.

 

Day 4

Cleaning

 

The rest of the participants had engaged in cleaning the Fablab section by section. Since I was not present on the cleaning day Francisco was kind enough to teach me the virtue of the same and allotted a few tasks to me:

 

·         Cleaning the Roland Modella machine and getting it ready for milling wax

·         Clearing & cleaning the soldering stations and the electronics

·         Organizing & checking if the connections and labels were right on the 120V converters. Since the equipment has been imported it has to be converted from 220v to 120v and one has to be very careful while using the same. If it is connected directly the equipment may be damaged.