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Who are we?

We are the T-Exchange, a registered Makerspace established eight years ago and currently specialising in a range of technologies including Raspberry Pi, Arduino micro-controllers, 3D printers and Robotics. We have held the status of a Scottish registered charity, since July 2018 with our main charitable objective being the promotion of STEM Education, particularly targeted towards the young people of Moray. For example in Autumn/ Winter 2019-20 we ran a soldering and electronics course for 8 yrs and over in Findhorn.

During the last year we supported local events such as Open Doors Day in Forres. At AJ Engineering we set up several displays and a range of practical tasks. In November 2019 T-Exchange organised a 3D printer event @St Giles Centre, Elgin, showcasing our own self-built printers, 3d animal shapes, machine parts and a range of learning materials including a DNA coding kit.

In previous years we attended several science festivals including Inverness, Strathpeffer and Orkney, providing educational displays and hands-on activities in schools. At the latter several of our members worked with local schools to provide practical age-appropriate workshops e.g. in computer coding (Scratch and Microbits).

Technical Knowledge and Skills

Many of our members possess knowledge and skills honed over many years in fields of Education, Science, Computing and Engineering. Recent examples include an extensive Covid-19 PPE Visor project involving the use of our own 3D printers and 3D Modelling software. We are also using website design tools, as we edit our website to better meet our future needs. We are happy to share our extensive experience for the benefit of others and to this end we develop targeted displays and practical activities for public events plus several computer coding clubs for young people across Moray. 

 

 

Making Music with Raspberry Pi and Arduino

In this presentation Mark Dammer will show us how both the Raspberry Pi and the Arduino can be used to make music.
Mark will demonstrate his own self made Arduino synthesizer, and will show us how a Raspberry Pi can be turned into a fully fledged electronic music studio with sequencers, synthesizers, effects and MIDI capability.
Last but not least he will give an overview about freely available software for the Raspberry Pi to generate sounds and edit or compose music.

Crowdfunding Update, June 2020

Thank you for all your support as we approach our goal of £3000. So far we have delivered over 2500 visors to 120 locations across Moray. In addition we have delivered over 1250 single-use visors, 1600 face mask relief straps (fits behind the head and takes mask elastic away from your ears) and 150 door dongles (fit in the hand and allow the user to avoid touching door handles, cash points etc…). If you know anyone who needs a free visor etc… just use our contact form at www.moraymakerspace.com

Synthesizer Course, June 2020

Following on from his recent synthesizer talks Maarten has developed a four lecture series that builds on his talks and takes certain aspects a little further, this course is aimed at participants with no previous knowledge of synthesizers. The lectures will be delivered at the end of June and beginning of July and are between 8 and 9pm, to allow those of us who are working to get home and recover a little.

All you will need is a computer with speakers and a microphone and an internet connection.

The course will take place via ZOOM, if you are interested please get in touch using our contact form.

The course is free but donations to the T-Exchange’s PPE just giving page is very much welcomed. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ppefacevisorsformoray

Covid-19 Visor Project

Our Covid-19 3-D Project

Since late March 2020 we have worked hard 3d printing much needed PPE in the form of Visors, Face Mask Relief Straps and Door Dongles for NHS staff, Care Workers, Childcare Hubs and other hardworking members of our Moray Community. We have now delivered over 3500 3d Printed visors, 2500 face mask relief straps, 1275 single use visors and 620 door dongles to over 170 locations across Moray. 

Process Montage

By early May 2020 we had a very active team of 18 3-D Printer owners working hard in their own homes, schools and businesses. Some volunteers were Makerspace members alongside other local 3d printer owners and some schools. All volunteering their time and energies to help others in our community at this challenging time. 

Here are some of our happy customers

Support us by:

  • Donating towards our costs  Moray Firth Makerspace Just Giving Page
  • Offering to stock our 3d printed visors (please contact us through the contact form)
  • Offering to print visors, door dongles and face mask relief straps (we have the stl files we can send on).Recent press coverage of our activities :-

Northern Scot Article April 7 2020

Frontier Magazine

Press and Journal

Northern Scot Article

Below is a link to our previous Just Giving page, now closed having reached its initial target. It has updates showing how the Covid-19 project progressed from the end of March 2020 until August 2020, when the initial fundraising target was reached and funds were released to us for use in the project. 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ppefacevisorsformoray

Northern Scot Article April 7 2020
Northern Scot Article Image April 7 2020
Copyright Northern Scot

Inverness Science Festival, May 2019

Here is one of the quieter moments at The T-Exchange stand.

This year the Festival Family Day was busier than ever with over 1,800 visitors of all ages. Perhaps one of the most popular offerings was the three Organic Orchestra instruments; The Carrotene (piano), the Percolator (drums) and the Rhubarbium (tubular bells). As full volume from the three 200Watt amplifiers was a bit much for the older adults the volume controls were regularly turned down, only to be turned up again, after a little while, by younger adults… As these instruments appear to work by magic, explaining the function was a challenge.

The more academic visitors quickly moved on to the Coder Dojo and Code Club section, where a lot of concentration went into code design, the graphical programming language ‘Scratch’ and other teaching technology.

An ‘Ender 3’ 3D printer was demonstrating how to print “Smoothies” for blowing bubbles inside bigger bubbles. These were a small part of the entertaining performance by highly skilled bubble maker Philip Noble at the next activity.

Most importantly, The T-Exchange stand was well supported by members with 11 taking part, including 3 Juniors.

What a GREAT Fun Day!

The April 2019 meeting

Founder Member, Maarten de Vries returned to render a talk on music synthesisers; with sound effects. i.e. with the support of eight or more (it was hard to tell) boxes of electronics and audio amplifiers.

This turned out to be not so much a talk as a full-bloodied tour de force, covering everything from the first Moog synthesisers via East versus West Synth Style (look it up) to the latest cutting edge devices.

We were all a bit stunned by the performance, not so much by the electronics (we’re used to that) but by Maarten’s incredible skill at twiddling the multitude of knobs and switches with microsecond timing. Wow! He even finished up with an electronic chanter, which supported by the synthesisers filled the room with a hundred pipers an’ aw’ an aw'(or was it awe)

Weel done Maarten. A brilliant exposition. Thank you.

As usual, Mark Dammer is ahead of the rest of us and provided backup to Maarten demonstrating the latest software synthesisers. For anyone who would like to follow up:- If you have a Raspberry Pi with the latest software you have Sonic Pi and you have a synthesiser to explore.

Maybe the image below gives you some idea of the impact the evening made on the members.