Originally, LED throwies were intended as a form of non invasive public art. They make great portable add ons to just about anything you want to light up. We offer a small kit every year to those interested in an inexpensive way to add lighting to ornaments, costumes and decorations. At $1.99, you can get three LED’s and the coin cell battery. We would love to se what use you can find for these too, please send us some pictures of you favorite throwie project on our Facebook or Twitter streams!

As we’ve grown, we have met many great people here that are building things, making art, developing new ideas, or just come to peruse and ponder their innovative ideas.  Some come by on a regular basis to either work on projects at our hack nights and workshops. We’ve even been asked if there were space to store their projects, and we’ve considered it.  When it comes down to the basic function here, we are the parts and supply for anything and everything you want to invent with. What we are being asked for, and what we want to build is an organization that can couple function and tooling with the inventory and ideals that stores like the Reuseum have to offer. What we need is well known in the DIY community as a hackerspace. That word has floated from the mouths of many here and elsewhere in our local community, and now we’re saying it too. For those wondering what a hackerspace is we can explain it as a publicly accessible R&D/fabrication workspace. Our 3d printers will be there, CNC’s, laser cutter and other tooling will have a presence soon as well, we will be able to host creative workshops and safety classes about the various tools.

Self sufficiency is a key to the growth of a group that performs the work a hackerspace can accomplish. Like all of the tools I’ve mentioned, this kind of organization must be crafted by hand, and while it seems like a great idea, logistics and detailed planning are the key to success  That is why, on Saturday, the 22nd of October at 6pm, we will be hosting a meeting for all concerned citizens who are interested in being involved in any way with an organization such as this.  Please come and share your opinions and ideas, that is after all, what a hackerspace is all about.

In our third year of the Boise ‘Bot Competition, we have been  honored to watch it grow in many ways, while staying true to  its purpose in being a grassroots celebration of  technology and  creativity.  We are proud to again have the event hosted than  the Discovery Center of Idaho, their partnership in collaboration  has made many things possible  that would not be otherwise.  This year, we are also thankful to have many other local  individuals and  companies supporting the Bot Comp with their time and participation,  many of which are displaying exhibits of new and innovative technology beyond robotics.

This year our esteemed Tech Fest presenters are;

Opportunities also abound for those who would like to build a robot and compete with it in our Sumo Competition. If you build a bot, you will receive free admission into the Discovery Center that day!  It’s like a geek can of soup.  For information on the types of robots that will compete and the different tournaments, you can visit the Sumo Rules page on the competition website. Don’t forget to register your ‘bot!

We will also have many great activities, presentations and workshops available, fit for all ages,and all about cool and creative ideas, technology and projects. We hope to see you there!

Saturday, October 1st from 11am to 9:30pm we at Reuseum will be displaying demos and tutorials of all things robotics. This is in preparation for our 3rd annual Boise ‘Bot Competition following on the next Saturday 10/8/11. We will have various kits on hand for activities held at the ‘Bot Comp, such as bristlebots, light seeking robots, and sumo kits for those interested in participating in the sumo tournament.  Come explore your imagination and ingenuity and have fun making your own unique creation! There is no cost to come down, there will be materials and components to experiment with.  Kits of several different type of robot will be made available to purchase to make and take home.

UPDATE 10/4/11. There were many great successes at this workshop and we hope everyone had as much fun as we did. Here is a gallery of some of the robots that were made at the event.  Everyone should be proud that they invented a new species of bristlebot!

Its been another year, and ‘bot building season is coming upon us so very quickly!  In our third year, we and our partners in crime, and hosts of the Bot Comp, the Discovery Center of Idaho are putting together an event filled with fun activities and awesome exhibits. For those endeavoring robot builders, our new challenge this year is to make an even smaller sumo robot.  While we will still be having our Mini Sumo tournament (6″x6″ max size) as the main event, advanced builders have the opportunity to condense their handiwork into a 2″x2″ square for our first ever Micro Sumo Tournament. Often just getting the necessary circuitry to fit into the qualifying dimensions is a tougher hurdle than actually competing with such a small robot.

Leading up to the Bot Competition at the Discovery Center, the Reuseum and Discovery Center both facilitate classes and workshops on robotics. Please don’t hesitate to come down, and staytuned for events and workshops themed for the competition.

Groups, individuals and organizations are also welcome to register and promote their passion for technology at the Tech Fest,.  If you would like more information, or would like to reserve a free table, please email boisebotcompetition(at)gmail.com

For a full schedule, information on exhibits and activities and more, you can visit Boisebotcompetition.org We hope to see you there!

As we started making a store online, it was a hard choice deciding what items in our store would be in the initial product line. Everything here is just so random, we were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to show off the true nature of our store to our friends abroad…. yeah whatever, don’t listen to this. We can do that in a heartbeat.  The first product we created was sort of a ‘Hi, how are ya, this is what we are.’ and it came in the form of our Mystery Boxes.  There are three different sizes to choose from ( Small $14.99, Medium $34.99 & Large $54.99) and we basically pack them full of some of the funnest, oddest items we have in the store. Some who have been in the store have asked us to pack Mystery Boxes as gifts for friends, which is always fun. Every time we pack one of these, we sort of go on a treasure hunt of the store and fill it with as many project ideas and curiosities as we can.  The only thing that you can expect to be the same each time we pack one of these fine assemblies is pure randomness, and surprise.

Saturday, July 16th at 6pm, we’ll be having our first ever workshop on solar energy.  Each participant will receive a kit comprised of  recycled and surplus components that can be reused in many combinations in order to make several different projects, like a night light that glows like a firefly, or a solar charger for small circuits, wearables like jewelry that have that extra geek chic, a small bug-like robot, or even a solar powered fan to cool you down in the hot summer weather. Truthfully there is an inexhaustible resource every day that we can use to fuel our creativity, ingenuity and education, and we fully intend to empower our community to utilize solar energy to make new things and maybe even power old things in new ways.  Feel free to sign up here, or talk to David at the shop. We hope to see you there!

The Summer Solar Kit includes;

-5 ea Solar Mini Cells

-Potentiometer

-1 ea Motor and Fan

-2 ea NPN and PNP Transistors

-6 ea. LED’s

-Various values of resistors and Capacitors