Our workshops generally run on a pay-as-you-can model that fosters accessibility-to-all, as well as an invitation to have a positive impact on our continued ability to run them.
Here's a list of our upcoming workshops. If you would like to register for one of these sessions (or to be put on a waiting list for a future offering), please send an email with your full name to steamfx2024@gmail.com. If the session fills up, we'll keep you on a waiting list for future offerings.
Workshop - Hacking for Spark-fx: Driving High-Power Devices with a Microcontroller
Date: Wednesday January 27, 2027
Time: 6:00 - 8:00
Duration: 2 hours
Place: incubator13 (room 124), Rideau High School community hub, 815 St.Laurent Boulevard
Presented by: STEAM-fx Collective
Prerequisites: Knowledge of basic electronics (such as that attained in the "Introduction to Basic Electronics" workshop) would be helpful, but not required.
Age range: 15+
Cost: Free.
(Small cash contributions are always accepted and go toward raw materials for STEAMakers projects and build-it-keep-it workshops.
For larger, tax deductible donations please refer to our Care to Donate? page.)
What to expect:
Would you like to learn how to make electronic stage effects by hacking electronics to be driven by Spark-fx Scene responders?
Do you need to be able to control high-power devices from your microcontroller (BBC micro:bit, Raspberry Pi Pico, Arduino, etc.)?
Spark-fx is a community-developed, Arduino-based electronics hacker's ecosystem for creating battery operated, remote controlled stage effects. It is designed, built, and supported by the volunteers at the STEAM-fx Collective to be highly reusable and resource-shareable across community performing arts groups in the greater Ottawa-Gatineau area. This workshop provides instruction on how to hack electronics--such as various types of LED technologies, relays, and motors--to operate under the control of a battery (of some suitable sort) and the Spark-fx Scene Remote responder board.
You will learn about the various output ports on Spark-fx Scene Remote and Scene Pixel responders.
Muddling your way thru responder channels, SparkNet port numbers, and Moteino I/O pin numbers.
We'll also look at some sample circuits and test them via Spark-fx Maestro and a simple DMX-512 lighting board.
Though the workshop is geared more for Spark-fx Scene responders, the content is directly applicable to microcontroller applications. You can do quite a bit with a few useful tools.
We've recently set a date for a, tentatively named, "Introduction to Stage Lighting with DMX-512 workstop": Wednesday January 13, 2027, 6:00 - 8:00 in the incubator 13 room. We should a proper entry posted here soon. [2026-09-28]
We're also in the process of preparing introductory programming workshops using a visual programming language (such as Scratch or MS Blocks), and physical computing workshops using (again a visual programming language), the BBC micro:bit computer (an excellent entry for ages 7 to 99), and sensor and actuator modules to allow for computer interaction with our physical world. Further into the future we expect to develop workshops on physical computing using the MicroPython programming language--a scaled down offshoot of the ubiquitous Python programming language (this language is today what the BASIC language was in the 1970's and 80's, only better equipped for structured and object-oriented software development).
The following workshops are being proposed, but have not yet been developed. These will be developed based on a sufficient level of interest. So, please send an email with your full name to steamfx2024@gmail.com if you find one or more these workshops worthwhile to attend.
Workshop - Spark-fx Configuration and Operation
??
Date: <TBD>
Time: <TBD>
Duration: 2 hours
Place: incubator13 room, Rideau High School community hub,
815 St.Laurent Boulevard
Presented by: STEAM-fx Collective
Prerequisites: none
Age range: 15+
What to expect:
(As we are still in the process of evolving the Spark-fx prototype (nee DMXW) ecosystem into a more productized version, the contents of this workshop are likely to morph over time. We're in the process of easing the configuration process.)
Spark-fx is an Arduino-based electronics hacker's ecosystem for creating battery operated, remote controlled stage effects. It is designed, built, and supported by the STEAM-fx Collective to be highly reusable and resource-shareable across community performing arts groups. This workshop provides instruction on how to configure the Spark-fx Maestro, the wireless controller for such stage effects. In this workshop you will learn:
Introduction to SparkNet, Spark-fx Maestro, and the Spark-fx Scene responders.
What is the SparkNet wireless network and how do stage elements communicate? (Looks like DMX-512 + configuration & troubleshooting data exchanges.)
In the legacy DMXW version of Maestro, the following are treated differently. Of particular note, the legacy prototype enforced a one-to-one mapping between a SparkNet channel address and a (scene responder number, port number) pair. The new Maestro will allow multiple pairs to respond to the same SparkNet channel. Also, in the new Maestro, mapping a DMX-512 channel address to a SparkNet address will become an independent configuration step.)
How to configure a DMX512-to-SparkNet channel address mapping on Maestro?
How to configure a Spark-fx Scene Remote board (from Maestro) to respond to a SparkNet channel.
Mapping one of a Spark-fx Scene responder's output ports to a SparkNet channel address.
Orientation for Maestro connectors and controls.
How to operate Maestro in standalone mode (manually backstage).
How to operatre Maestro in DMX-512 mode.
How to connect Maestro to a DMX-512 bus.
SparkNet troubleshooting commands on Maestro.
Using the Web interface to configure Maestro and Scene responders.
Powering Spark-fx Scene responders. (12V lead acid batteries, 9V batteries, ...)