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.
Check back again later for summer parent-child appropriate workshops.
Workshop - Introduction to Basic Electronics
Date: <TBD>In development: aiming for June 2026
Time: <TBD>
Duration: 2 hours
Place: incubator13 room, Rideau High School community hub,
815 St.Laurent Boulevard
Prerequisites: none
Age range: 8+
What to expect:
How electrical current is like water current.
Identify and understand the basic workings of many of the electronic components that we tend to use regularly at STEAMakers and STEAM-fx: resistor, potentiometer, capacitor, diode, bipolar junction transistor (BJT), field effect transistor (FET), relay.
Similarly, a sampling of some electronic modules: ultrasonic distance sensor, LiDAR, motion detector.
How to read the value of a resistor and capacitor.
Using a kickback diode for a relay, a current limiting resistor for an LED.
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
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, ...)
Workshop - Hacking for Spark-fx Scene Remote
Date: <TBD>
Time: <TBD>
Duration: 2 hours
Place: incubator13 room, Rideau High School community hub,
815 St.Laurent Boulevard
Prerequisites: Knowledge of basic electronics (such as that attained in the "Introduction to Basic Electronics" workshop).
Age range: 15+
What to expect:
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 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.