This meeting will be held at Deid’s place. Start time 10am. Email deid@drsol.com if you need the address.
Sep 13, 2025 – What I did last summer
Sat. Jan 11, 2025 – What I got for Christmas
Happy Holidays to everyone. At this meeting we’ll share with each other what cool tech gadgets we received from Santa.
We will meet at Serious Coffee in Esquimalt, which has provided the mezzanine space to us (stairs are inside the coffee shop). Please buy a coffee or beverage on your way in to help support this business.
Where: Serious Coffee, 1153 Esquimalt Rd #27, Victoria, BC
When: 9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentation
This is a Hybrid meeting (in-person and on Jitsi).
Join Us Online here:
Sat, May 13, 2023 – Projects Day
We will be having a discussion about Projects that we are working on, but haven’t shared with the group. These can be projects that are successful or ones that just didn’t work out and have been abandoned. We’ll enjoy hearing about other’s projects, and perhaps even offer to help.
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentation
This is a Hybrid meeting (in-person and on Jitsi).
Small Boardroom @ Quality Foods, 27 Helmcken Rd #110 · View Royal
Join Us Online here:
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
June 25, 2022 – Recent Projects
Come share your recent projects with the group, online or in person.
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation (virtual)
10a Presentation
QCollege has welcomed us back to meet in-person. We thank them for their support.
George shared some pico links
https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-circuitpython
https://learn.adafruit.com/getting-started-with-raspberry-pi-pico-circuitpython/blinky-and-a-button
https://learn.adafruit.com/getting-started-with-raspberry-pi-pico-circuitpython/neopixel-leds
Virtual…
Sat. Dec. 12, 2020 – Virtual Projects
9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentations
Jitsi connection:
https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
See the Projects presented here.
Postponed – Projects and Challenges
Due to the current situation @ March 14, 2020, in-person meetings have been suspended until further notice. Please do join us on Slack or at our online learning sessions using Jitsi. Write to hello at vicpimakers.ca for invitations and information.
Q-CollegeSuite 303 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC – 10am
1) Hack Challenge, by George
Modify a window alarm to be a useful or entertaining device. Window alarms to be supplied free March 14th, one per attendee.
2) Hack Challenge, by Deid
New “Christmas Light” patterns
3) … bring projects that you want to share or need help with… If you like, email a description to be added to this page.
It is fun to repurpose battery powered consumer products. For instance, here is a Leak Detector made from a window alarm. The article includes the window alarm schematic.
And George made a bike theft deterrent alarm with remote radio alerting from the same window alarm.
In normal operation, the window alarm senses separation from its external magnet via its internal reed switch and feeds its piezo disk with an oscillation. The window alarm runs on 3 button cells and draws no current when the reed switch is open. There is also a slide switch to enable/disable the alarm.
Here is a photo of the circuit board: The OUT signal from the 8 pin oscillator chip is a 10V DC wave, pumped up by the inductor from 5 volts. A voltage divider can be added to lower this chip output signal to less than 5v to feed another device.
Or the piezo can be used as a microphone, providing about 100mv into a very high impedance input
In May we can show what we achieved.
New “Christmas Light” patterns
Deid successfully connected a 50 light string of addressable LEDs to an ESP8266 to cause the lights to light and change colour and move and …
Deid created the following patterns:
- Primary
- Random
- Web Safe
- Follow
- Lead
- Random On ***
- All On
- All Off
- Rainbow
- Moving
- Colour
- Christmas
- Rainbow Group
- Dual Colour ***
*** Shown in the images
The ESP8266 C code to do this can be found here. Deid makes no representation that the existing code is good. In fact he knows some of it is not. Feel free to fix.
The challenge is to add more patterns and the code to implement the patterns. If you send Deid the code he will load and try the code. Unless someone comes up with a better way for folks to test remotely.
Intro to Pi & Others Part 3
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Q-College
Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC
Intro to Pi & Others is a 4 part series of short monthly sessions to help get you up and running with your Pi or Other (embedded device). It is a structured hour-long session where you can ask questions.
Please bring in your Pi, HDMI cable, and power supply. All other equipment will be provided.
This is a four-part series with each session building on the previous sessions, where Pi basics of software and hardware will be explored. Read More
Apr 13, 2019 – Spring Project Update
10:00am
Q-College,
Suite 303 – 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC
How’s your Project coming along. How can we help? Spring has sprung, we’d like to hear how the projects are doing?
Come share your favourite software or project with the group.
February 9, 2019 – Project Day
VicPiMakers will be supporting Projects in 2019. What are Projects?
George Bowden – Timed Lock
Heidi Bada – Intro – https://badadigitalmarketing.com/piprojects/
Ideas
Phillips Hue – timed dim/
Weather Sensors
Wearable Sensors in sport
Home Safety –
Flow sensor in
Launchpad pro using python – Open Firmware project
Environmental Sensors – birdfeeder motion (
Pi version of “the clapper”
Eileen & Cody – Space Station Light & Sound – https://github.com/cozyhost/
Plan on lighting Neo Pixels
Peter Sprague – Packet Radio Satellite tracker
Portable, run in
Moved from
Dan Willis – LED running as a Canadian flag flying
Weatherproof boxes outside
10:00am
Q-College, Suite 303 – 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC
Contact projects at vicpimakers dot ca to share your project on our next Project Day.