{"id":171,"date":"2014-05-15T11:14:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T11:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/camjam.me\/camjam\/?p=171"},"modified":"2014-05-15T15:02:42","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T15:02:42","slug":"camjam-may-2014-the-big-write-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camjam.me\/?p=171","title":{"rendered":"CamJam – May 2014 – The Big Write-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Thanks to Jarle Teigland<\/a>, Darren Christie<\/a> & Alan O’Donohoe<\/a> for some of the photos and thanks to Andy Batey<\/a> for arranging the streaming and recording of the talks. Think of this as a Virtual Raspberry Jam!<\/em><\/p>\n

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Introduction<\/h2>\n

This was a very special Jam. We had decided after the December 2013 event<\/a>\u00a0that we wanted to try and make each Jam different to the previous one.\u00a0We had already introduced programming workshops for kids and planned to continue that into the February Jam<\/a>. So, what could we do for the event after<\/em> that\u00a0to make it special, to make it unique? The answer lay in the aims of the Raspberry Pi Foundation<\/a>: Education! We decided that for the May Jam we would have our focus on education; we just had to make the concept for the event fit the resources and space we had available.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

At\u00a0our current venue, the Institute of Astronomy<\/a> (above), we’re fortunate\u00a0to have the following available: a 180-seat lecture theatre; a large foyer; a small 30-person meeting room and a small mezzanine with a couple of levels. It would be fair to say we went through quite a few ideas before finally settling on the concept: We would turn the lecture theatre over to presentations for educators (calling it ‘Focus on Education’) and hold workshops in the meeting room and foyer. We would also have projects on display on the mezzanine (we call it ‘Show and Tell’) and a cut-down version of our normal marketplace around the edges of the foyer with a slant towards education where possible.<\/p>\n

Preparation… or\u00a0“What does it take to make Jam for 200 people?”<\/span><\/h2>\n

We’ve held three previous Jams at the Institute of Astronomy and have sold out each time. Normally, we sell about 180 tickets and this time we were going to be inviting educators to the party, so we knew we had to be very prepared and very organised. We simply didn’t want to let anyone down, especially the teachers!<\/p>\n

Normally we meet once every week or two for a two-hour meeting to discuss progress on the various tasks that need doing. Sometimes, we meet at the pub (if you’re ever in Potton, Bedfordshire<\/a>, visit The Rising Sun<\/a> where we meet!) and sometimes we meet round Tim’s house. We realised with an event of this size and importance\u00a0that we\u00a0would definitely need to meet every<\/em> week in the three months after the February Jam, just to make sure that everything was done.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Rising Sun, Potton – place of many-a-meeting<\/em><\/p>\n

An\u00a0idea that we had been thinking about for some time was having \u2018maker tables\u2019, where people could bring their kit along and experts would help them out with building them, or they could buy kits at the event and make them then and there. \u00a0We decided that this would be hard to plan for as we would not know what kits were coming and therefore who could help. \u00a0However, the idea of making things stayed with us, so we started to plan for a number of workshops instead of the usual one.<\/p>\n

Eventually we fixed on workshops in which the Pi would detect and control the outside world: flashing LEDs (everybody likes those!), making sound, detecting temperature, light and movement, using a line follower and distance sensor, and controlling motors. \u00a0On top of that, we added in using the Raspberry Pi Camera module, Minecraft and using the Pibrella add-on board.<\/p>\n

In the end we had 9 hands-on workshops to sort out. \u00a0Yes, 9 \u2013 we must have been out of our minds! Actually, make that 10 because some bright spark had the idea of running a soldering workshop throughout the day!<\/p>\n

One of the things we wanted from the workshops was to develop a set of worksheets and kits that we could sell at close-to-cost to the people attending, which they could then take away with them. This meant ordering a lot of individual components from China and sorting them out into the kits. Tim ordered dozens of mini breadboards, hundreds of LEDs and resistors and lots and lots of sensors, along with motors, wheels and jumper cables. Which all needed to be sorted into bags. And<\/em> our SD cards needed sorting out with all the software that would be required. And<\/em> we also needed to find people\u00a0to lead and assist in the workshops. Fortunately we\u2019d built up an ideas-and-assistance group of about 20 people, and many of them were willing to give their time and energy to preparing the workshop material and teaching it.<\/p>\n

\"SensorMan\"<\/p>\n

Nice sensors, man \ud83d\ude42 Just a small part of the huge amount of kit\u00a0ordered for the workshops<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mike started sorting out a programme for the Focus on Education and asking people to the Show and Tell, doing a lot of the Jam & EventBrite<\/a> admin and communications along the way. So, as you can tell, weekly meetings were a must!<\/p>\n

On the day<\/h2>\n

So, there we were and suddenly it was three months later: the 10th of May had swung around. We had even managed to find time to hold a social Jam\u00a0(Potton Pi and Pints<\/a>) in the meantime just to keep in touch with everyone.<\/p>\n

At 8.30am on the morning of the 10th, we hit our first snag. Normally, we can get everything in Tim’s estate car (which is, basically, a huge cavern) for the trip to Cambridge. This time, however, we had a lot more\u00a0to transport:\u00a0we’d bought some tables plus all the kit for the workshops meant that we just couldn’t fit everything in. So, in two cars, we set out for the Institute.<\/p>\n

The get-in for a Jam is always a bit chaotic, and damned hard work, and this time was no exception. The Institute looks very different on our arrival but, thanks to Andy Batey<\/a>, (who works at the Institute, arranged the venue in the first place and is just an all-round helpful chap) we (including half-a-dozen volunteers, known as Jam Makers) manage to transform it into the configuration visitors see when they arrive. The most ‘fun’ task this time was to move a big marquee about 50 metres from one end of the quad to the other. Much mud was encountered!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Foyer workshop area (foreground), Marketplace (left) and Show and Tell mezzanine (top right)<\/em><\/p>\n

If you want to get a feel for the day overall, Mathew\u00a0and Leo have put together this brilliant video. You can even spot Tim (getting interviewed at the beginning) and Mike (with the loudhailer):<\/p>\n