Category:Hidden categories
Hack.RVA was founded by Luke Libraro and Schuyler Roebuck sometime around 2007. It began very informally in their apartments. About 2009 they rented a corner of a loft on E. 7th street. The loft was a big common area, and nobody else was there when we came in at night. Luke had a Cupcake 3d printer, but that was about the only tool. We had a few movie nights, watching geeky movies. Luke installed an RFID reader to open the door, and then he had a tag implanted under his skin. We had a few classes, including one to make a Drawdio, a device that makes sound with pencil lead on paper. Eventually the main lease holder was moving out so we found a new place. We moved to an office space on North Hamilton. It had several rooms, and we put it some work tables and a few tools. It was interesting to see the rooms split by members into hardware and software. One night we got an unexpected visitor from Red Bull. He had been trying to catch up with us for a few months. It was about the Red Bull Challenge, a competition for makerspaces. There was a box, laser cut and engraved. Inside there was a PC board in the shape of their logo, an NES controller, and a few other parts. The parts were obviously meant for the pc board. We soldered them on and plugged in the controller, and connected to an old TV. A video game screen came up, but there was no start button. Someone suggested the Konami code, and it worked: We got Rick-rolled. There was a light blinking Morse code. It didn't help. There was one channel of the audio making a strange whooshing sound. Ron had a spectrum analyzer, and it showed the Red Bull logo. Then someone peeled the foam from the inside lid of the box and found a web site. It led to phase 2 of the challenge: Build a modern thing in a retro way. We built a pong game with old inkjet print head mechanisms to move the paddles across the bed. An optical sensor read when the ball went through, and an Arduino kept the score. When a ball went through, a vacuum cleaner turned on and sucked up the ball, and then it turned off and dropped it in the center of the board. Based on that, we were invited to the finals in Chicago (?) that was similar to junk yard wars. Luke, Paul, and one other member went. They built a wheeliebot from an old dryer drum, a shopping cart, and a wheelchair motor. It got third place. Out of three. About 2009 we moved to Scott's Addition, in what used to be the ice cream warehouse for Friendly's ice cream restaurants. The area was mostly empty, run down warehouses. The main rooms are made of prefab refrigerator rooms, with metal walls. A member donated a 3d printer, and that helped recruit members. We added worktables, and wood working equipment. For a while we had a blacksmithing setup and we made some knives out of railroad spikes. We started making badges for RVASec in 2009. The design was done with an old Nokia screen bought surplus, but the big order turned out to be a different model, and the pins were reversed. Ron tells me there is already a page on the history of hack.rva, so I will quit now and see if I can find it.