HARDWARE HACK NIGHT: FOREST MIMS AND CITIZEN SCIENCE
Tonight we look to citizen scientist Forest Mims, who democratized electronics in a series of hand-drawn engineering notebooks that were published and distributed around the land at Radio Shack branches.
(If you’re too young to remember what Radio Shack was, it was a chain store where you could buy all sorts of electronics ranging from circuit boards to game consoles). We love Forest’s spirit of discovery and motivated self learning and his desire to spread knowledge far and wide in a down to earth, accessible
print book.
How can we make electronics, programming and the arts more accessible for those around us without losing its punch? You never get the sense that Mims “dumbed down” anything he did.
Joule has a big binder of Mims’ notebooks somewhere in the SudoRoom print library… we should do a roundtable reading one of these days in a group!
“Like many of us, Mims had no formal education in the fields that were to become his stock in trade. A graduate of Texas A&M with a degree in government, Mims was largely self-educated in electronics. ... Mims continued to teach himself electronics in the early 1970s in exactly the way his Engineer’s Notebook would later document — one small project at a time.”
HACK ON ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING
○ Projects: can range from building course materials for teaching local kids electronics to a robotic arm that draws, to light projection art, to people building their own microchip boards! We provide the space, tools and peer learning – you bring your project and enthusiasm!
○ Group Sewing: Learn to do simple mending or get help with technical fabric and textile projects. In addition to regular machines our Sewing Lab features heavy-duty industrial sewing machines and sergers. Our in house sewing guru CC has worked for Academy or Art College, Tesla, SuitX, and Zipline and has vast sewing machine repair and maintenance experience; bring your own machine to tune up for tip-top operation and sew alongside others.
○ General Repair: Fix it Clinic’s weekly Oakland residency: bring your broken, non-functioning things – electronic gadgets, appliances, computers, toys, sewing machines, fabric items, etc.– for assessment, disassembly, and possible repair. We’ll provide workspace, specialty tools, and guidance to help you disassemble and troubleshoot your item. First-time repairers and “Fixing Families” are heartily invited. Learn more at https://www.fixitclinic.org/