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Welcome to Bloominglabs, Bloomington's very own hackerspace!

A space for sharing tools and knowledge to make stuff

Bloominglabs is Indiana's first hackerspace (also known as a makerspace). We are a group of group of people who rent a shared workshop where we can build projects both collectively and individually. Our space is located at 1840 S. Walnut Street.

Bloominglabs is open for members, however, due to social distancing requirements, Bloominglabs has suspended all open meetings until further notice. Send email to contact@bloominglabs.org if you are a non-member and wish to connect with us and/or access our tools and facility.

Contents

Who are we?

We are a bunch of people that want to do interesting things and explore the world and technology around us. Expression of this interest takes at least as many forms as we have members, and often employs an amalgam of found and newly-constructed hardware and/or open-source and self-authored software components, but may be as simple as screwing some pieces of wood together to make a useful tool we don't have yet.

Bloominglabs was forged from the Bloomington Hackerspace Initiative and the former IU Robotics Club.

  • Read our Bylaws for a more formalized overview

What is a hackerspace?

A hackerspace is a physical location where people can share resources for their own creative pursuits. It's also a resource where people can come in off the street and advance their own knowledge. In urban locations it can often be hard to find places to weld/build/make noise and keep projects on-going without having to tear down and put-up your work each evening. With a hacker space people can work on their projects and not worry about annoying their neighbors or spouses. The social aspect is also an incredibly important component. Having people to bounce ideas off of and discuss your projects with when you get stuck is a great thing.

Stay informed

Support

Bloominglabs Incorporated is a non-profit registered within in the state of Indiana and has 501(c)3 charitable status. Want to make a donation with PayPal? Please use this link:

  • (Note to members - this link should not be used for paying membership dues)

Also, we have an Amazon Smile Account For Bloominglabs. If you use that link to place an order on Amazon, we get a little cut. Thanks!

Members, this is how we process cash and hardware donations: Donations.

Hardware Donations

We appreciate hardware donations too! However, please ask before bringing any item donations and arrange to meet someone for the handoff. contact@bloominglabs.org This gives us a chance to decide what of your donation is useful to us currently. For things we can't use, we'll help you figure out other groups in Bloomington who would appreciate them or help you determine the best way to dispose of them.

Current & Upcoming Events

(PastEvents)

  • Pick It Up Day
    • Bloomington Parkour and Bloominglabs will be participating in Bloomington's Pick It Up litter reduction initiative. Meet at Bloominglabs at 3p and pick up trash around the creek and Switchyard Park.
      • When: Sunday, March 21st, 3pm
      • Where: Meet in front of the main Bloominglabs entrance and Auto lift garage door.
      • What: Clean up trash and litter around the creek and Switchyard Park.
  • May the Sith be with you -Day!
    • Join the dark side, we have cookies! us in Slack for a group call to chat and bake cookies on Wednesday, May 5th, 2021. 7-8pm
  • Public meetings!
    • Due to COVID-19, we are suspending open meetings until further notice
    • E-mail contact@bloominglabs.org or ask in Slack if you would like to arrange access to the space
    • Come build projects, ask questions, teach things, and learn stuff
    • All ages and everyone is welcome

Upcoming Workshops

More workshops listed at: Workshops

All workshops are for age 12 and older unless otherwise specified. Parents must come inside to fill out a minor liability waiver for children under 18 (unless previously filled out). Some workshops have limited seats available, see descriptions for details.

Pre-registration is required, and payment is due at the time of registration. Virtual workshops will send out room links 24-48 hours before a class. Virtual workshops with kits will coordinate pick-up of kits. Please direct any questions to contact@bloominglabs.org.

Introduction to Police Scanners

Tuesday March 23, 2021 -- 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

  • Date: Tuesday March 23, 2021
  • Time: 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
  • Format: Virtual
  • Cost: $15 for the public, or $10 for Bloominglabs members (all proceeds go to Bloominglabs)
  • Maximum Class Size: 10 students

This two hour online workshop will orient the participants to the hobby of public safety radio scanning (listening to Police/Fire/EMS radio traffic), with a focus on listening in the Bloomington and Monroe County area.

We will present a brief history of public safety radio communications from one-way broadcasts up to multi-site digital trunking systems. Then we'll talk about and demonstrate the equipment required to receive these different systems, as well as show several online listening options for those without their own scanning equipment. Audience participation is strongly encouraged!

No special equipment is required, but participants will need a computer that can run video-conferencing software.

This is an introductory-level workshop, however later this year we will be hosting an advanced workshop where participants build a P25 digital police scanner from a Raspberry Pi computer and Software Defined Radios.

Pre-registration is required, and payment is due at time of registration. Paid participants will receive the video-conferencing link 48 hours prior to the workshop start time.

Please send any questions to contact@bloominglabs.org.

Intro to Police Scanners

Personal Mail Servers

Saturday, March 27th, 2021 -- 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM

  • Format: Virtual
  • Cost: $15 for the public, or $10 for Bloominglabs members
  • Maximum Class Size: 15 students

Running your own email server can still be done and we’ll show you how in this virtual workshop. Doing it yourself gives you more freedom and control over what you can do with email. There are many different recipes, we’ll cover using your own domain names, mx records, Linux MTA configuration, and various services you can use to offload parts of the process if desired.

Are you a Bloominglabs member?

Rain Barrel Workshop

Sunday, April 11th, 2021 -- 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM In cases of weather postponement,workshop may be moved to April 18th.

  • Format: In-Person, outside
  • Cost: $50 for the public, or $40 for Bloominglabs members
  • Maximum Class Size: 3 students

During the summer months, lawns and gardens account for an average of 40% of household water usage. Water barrels can help to reduce water usage and bills by allowing you to tend to your lawn and garden using naturally harvested rain water.

Are you a Bloominglabs member?

Plant Tower Workshop

Sunday, April 11th, 2021 -- 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM

In cases of weather postponement,workshop may be moved to March 28th.

  • Format: In-Person, outside
  • Cost: $50 for the public, or $40 for Bloominglabs members
  • Maximum Class Size: 3 students

Plant towers are a vertical garden that can house 50+ plants in 4 sq ft of space. Plant towers also contain a composting tube to allow users to easily return their vegetative waste back to their plants.

Participants will build their own plant tower and compost tube from a recycled food grade barrel. 2 hour class.

Check out Workshops to see even further into the future!

Current Initiatives

These are things we are working on, or would like to see, to improve the space. If you are interested in any of these, feel free to work on it! If you are unsure where to start, please get in touch!

  • improve the tool and workspace arrangement and cleanliness
  • purge excess junk
  • vend snacks and drinks (we used to do this at the previous space, but haven't since moving) Achieved!
  • revive the asset management system, and add our new assets to it
  • make Bloominglabs's web presence friendlier
    • The page you get when people from the public go to bloominglabs.org has an overwhelming amount of information on it.
    • The New Members page and the Membership Manual should be merged together.
    • In general, it would be great to see more participation in the wiki, especially on the [Projects] page.
    • It might be good to have a page that lists all members with their name, picture, username, email, interests, areas of the space they are familiar with, etc.
  • make the 3D Printers more reliable, make the 3D printing process easier, and spread the knowledge
  • wire the CCTV system
  • wire speakers in the lounge (and maybe in the classroom)

Public meetings and Membership

Currently we open to members but are closed to the public until the pandemic situation improves.

Despite this we are still accepting new memberships! Since we are closed to the public for the time being please send mail to contact [at] bloominglabs dot org to arrange a tour and to learn more about our on-boarding process. Please see the Membership Manual and New Members for more details.

During normal non-pandemic conditions we would meet every Wednesday from 7pm to 10pm and every Saturday from 1pm to 4pm at 1840 S. Walnut Street. These meetings were open to the public; anyone was welcome to attend. Having access to tools is only part of the equation. Socializing with people and learning from each other is another large benefit from our group. Pretty much whatever people want to work on or learn is fair game. If it's cool and interesting then we are all interested.

Nearby Hackerspaces/Makerspace or initiatives:

Other Cool Groups in Bloomington & Monroe County

Special Wiki Pages

Uploaded files

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