Raspberry Pi Club?

I joined yesterday and spoke with my tour host (apologies, I forgot your name, but you were fantastic—thanks for the tour!). We discussed the idea of a Raspberry Pi club. They mentioned we’ve had one before and that the classroom calendar tablets, which run on Raspberry Pi, aren’t all functional right now.

I’d like to propose restarting the Raspberry Pi club, expanding it to include Arduino and similar projects, with our first project being to repair the classroom tablets. Is there any interest in this? What’s the process for getting something like this started?

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Hello Rie, this sounds like you are looking to make a SIG. If you are looking to so this informally, then all you need is at least 3 members. For a formal SIG if you do need to have a sponsoring committee.

https://source.dallasmakerspace.org/display/RULES#RulesandPolicies-SpecialInterestGroups(SIG)

I think that electronics or science would probably be the most logical sponsoring committees. One of our members was already thinking about an arduino class. Our focus would be more on using embedded systems for experiments, scientific tools (like a tensile strength tester), and automation type stuff (perhaps designing an automated 3d printed plant growing system for example). We meet every Sunday at 3PM and electronics is right next door (keep an eye out on the calendar for their office hours)

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I say go for it!

Start by teaching introduction classes for Raspberry Pi and Arduino to be followed by more advanced subjects later.

Arduino classes used to be very popular.

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Welcome!

For an informal SIG you just completed the process :slight_smile: (i.e. ask around and pick a time to meet). You only need a formal SIG if you want dedicated space and or budget; that can come later if you are wildly successful. Seriously though all you need to do is convince a group of people to show up. That takes a bit of planning and organizing. It is effectively a users group. The ones I’ve seen succeed in the past had a coordinator that planned a list of topics and each meeting convinced people to present one of the topics. Another option is to make the SIG based on a specific project goal to build something; reconstituting the classroom tablets is an example. For a project focused group, you’d want to create a project plan with a list of steps and then create meeting agendas around the plan. Both of these approaches only attract a group of people if they are well coordinated.

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I posted this some while back -

There has been interest creating sigs for rc/drones, ardino, etc. RPi and Arduino along w/ others could fall under the umbrella of embedded systems. A sig is not needed for a project or to teach. Historically the interest has come and gone. And no one thus far is willing to take on forming and running a sig.

The classroom calendar tablets fall under IT. Check the event calendar for the nxt mtng.

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I’m interested.

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I’m all for anything to do with Pie’s :smiley: (and Pi’s). Count me in

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Looks like we need to make an informal SIG. I will attempt to figure out how to teach a class with the needed supplies and then collect votes at the end of class to create a SIG. I was thinking once or twice a month before or after Science since I’ll likely want to attend that as well.

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I’m in. We just need someone to coordinate the gatherings. Anyone willing to do that and create an agenda? Maybe post it here?

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Why are you guys hating on the Arduino lovers?

Haha! Nope even included in the first post!

I’ll create it!

MakerBytes: First Meeting Agenda
Date: Sunday, February 2nd, 2025
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Location: Dallas Makerspace, Electronics Area

1:00 – 1:15 PM: Welcome and Introductions

Introduction to MakerBytes: Mission and purpose.

Facilitator introduction.

Roundtable introductions: Name, experience level, and goals.

1:15 – 1:30 PM: Overview of MakerBytes Goals and Plans

Discuss group vision: Fostering creativity with Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and more.

Highlight opportunities: Knowledge sharing, workshops, and collaborative projects.

Share a sneak peek of future meeting topics.

1:30 – 2:00 PM: Icebreaker – “Show and Tell”

Attendees showcase their projects (finished or in progress).

Share ideas for future projects or learning goals.

3–5 minutes per participant.

2:00 – 2:30 PM: Workshop – Getting Started with Raspberry Pi and Arduino

Raspberry Pi Demo: Flashing the Raspberry Pi OS on and SD card and discussion of matching the Raspberry pi version to the project

Arduino Demo: If someone else will show I’m inexperienced in Arduino

Share beginner-friendly resources and links for further exploration.

Open Q&A.

2:30 – 2:45 PM: Brainstorming – Future Topics and Group Projects

Discuss potential future meeting topics: IoT, robotics, AI, and more.

Suggest collaborative projects: Smart mirrors, weather stations, automation tools.

2:45 – 3:00 PM: Closing and Next Steps

Recap meeting highlights.

Announce the next meeting date, time, and topic.

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I’ve submitted the event so hopefully I did it correctly.

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I’ll try and be there, the first sunday is typically committee meeting day for 3dfab, digital media, creative arts and animatronics. But I’ll be sure and stop by to drop my sig vote :smiley:

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I’ll try to make it there as well. Looks like the meeting was set up to be compatible with timing of our weekly science meeting.

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“It’s groundhog day…”

Meetings take a couple of days to show up on the calendar. If you provide a link to the event page, everybody else will be able to check it.

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You might want to change the venue to one of the meeting rooms. The Electronics lab really isn’t set up for a meeting.

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Depends upon how many she is expecting. Meetings have been held in Electronics before. They can always overflow into the flex area or people can drag chairs over from there.

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It was cause I want to attend both.

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