Miami isn’t just a destination for the Heat vs. Thunder NBA Finals, world-renowned clubs, five-star restaurants, and professional beach lazing. It also boasts an evolving technology scene with tons of monthly events (e.g., game hackathons, app-building workshops). A notable contributor to the city’s culture of innovation is HackMiami, a hackerspace where professionals, students, and innovators can “invent/develop new technologies, develop new skills, enhance old skills, collaborate with other like minded individuals to create something that is better than what they can do on their own.”
The group’s multitalented members work on projects as diverse as secure servers and UAV designs (see video below).
Below are images Rod—one of the group’s members—submitted of the hackerpace.
HackMiami meets at the “Planet Linux Caffe” (Source: HackMiami)
HackMiami runs events such as workshops and contests such as the Homebrew Antenna Contest at DEFCON XX in Las Vegas, NV.
After reviewing the photo submissions, I asked Rod for a bit of info about the group. He quickly filled me in.
C. J.: What are we looking at in the photos? Is that HackMiami’s actual space or are you holding an event a local establishment?
Rod: We hold our meetings at Planet Linux Caffe in Coral Gables, Florida. Planet Linux Caffe is a Open Source community place.
C. J.: What is the group’s “mission” or purpose?
Rod: We are hackerspace based in Miami, FL. We focus on information security and vulnerability research.
C. J.: What is your group like? Do members come from diverse tech backgrounds? How often do you meet?
A HackMiami meeting on the topic of cyber weapons (Source: HackMiami)
Rod: We have an open-door policy. Everybody welcome, we have people from ALL ages and ALL backgrounds. We meet every two weeks. Here is where we publish our meetings: meetup.com/hackmiami.
C. J.: Does HackMiami do any work with embedded tech (e.g., embedded security, MCU-based designs, etc)?
Rod: We have done some work with DD-WRT, Plug Servers, Pinapples, Arduino, etc.
C. J.: Tell us about the quadracopter project. When did you build it? How many group members were part of it? Can you tell our readers about some of the parts you used (e.g., MCU, motor controls, etc)?
Rod: This was done in December 2011. There were around five people involved in the project. The idea is in principle to create a network of communicating self resilient UAVs. Here is the list of the parts for the drone. For more information please contact Twitter handle @d1sc0rd1an.
- Power Distribution Board
- (4) 710Kv Motors
- (4) 30 Amp ESC
- (2) 12 X 3.8 APC Props
- (2) 12 X 3.8 APC Pusher Props
- APM v2.0 (Arduino + IMU board)
- Xbee 900Mhz Wireless Kit
- 8 Channel RX and TX
- Frame Carbon Fiber
- ZIPPY Flightmax 4500mAh 4S1P 35C
Wrapping up, I mentioned to Rod that we’re always looking for interesting projects to share with the embedded design/programming community. He said HackMiami members likely will be working with Raspberry Pi in the near future. Sounds exciting. We can’t wait to see what the group develops.
