SpaceExchange

Objective

Our goal is to learn from other hacker & maker spaces, fablabs, computer clubs and other nerd assemblies of all sorts around the globe. That's why we like to visit those locations whenever we get a chance to while being abroad. Ideally this may lead to a return visit, the exchange of good ideas and lasting friendships. If you're visiting the Frankfurt/Rhein-Main metropolitan region or if you're an exchange student, please consider dropping by. You're also welcome outside the official open space hours, please drop us a line on IRC (#schaffenburg @ irc.hackint.org), Facebook, WhatsApp, E-Mail. We've experienced very warm welcomes, interesting conversations and great hospitality in other spaces and we indend to provide the same! And bring your hackerspace passports :)

Our foreign affairs officer is Fraxinas

Guests from abroad

Makerspace Nanaimo's Chris Gerlinsky

Visited us: 2018-08-16

• from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
• a friend of naxobyte who invited him to our space
• works as a self-employed reverse engineer
• recognized for his research in cracking pay TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhbSD1Jba0Q
• https://twitter.com/akacastor
• https://makerspacenanaimo.org/ https://twitter.com/NanaimoMakers
• about 60 members
• weekly electronics, software and game nights
• keyless entry with personalized FOBs and presence logging
• https://schaffenburg.org/?p=618&preview=true

Alex and Nico from Project Vulca

• https://schaffenburg.org/visit-from-team-vulca/

Newport Makerspace

• Ruth and Adrian aus Newport, UK, zu Besuch bei Tochter in Hessen
• Gegründet 2021
• Viel Platz oberhalb einer Art Sozialkaufhaus, gute Ausstattung dank städtischer Zuwendung
• Noch wenige Mitglieder, viele Besucher
• Newport Makerspace
• Kontakt: contact@newportmakerspace.org

Spaces we've visited

Abroad

Roglab Ljubljana

Visited by Hendi, December 18, 2018. Just a short unscheduled visit, met Ivan and Tanya there, preparing a laser cutting workshop.

Fablab located close to city center at the bank of the Lubljanica river, housed in two "upcycled" former goods containers, 46.050791N, 14.516106E

• Laser printer, CNC mill, several filament deposition printers and a laser lithography printer, cutting plotter and t-shirt press available.
• Small and cozy space.
• Open about every day, regular workshops to teach guests about the tools and machines.
• Member of FabLabNet - Interreg EU Programme, Housing containers aquired by a EU programme for reuse of industrial material, too.

Brmlab Prague

Visited by: Fraxinas, 2011-10-26

Make Riga

Visited by: Fraxinas, 2017-12-30 Situated in an engineering institute 30 minutes (by tram) outside Riga city center. Very notable activity: A hacking olympics in 2016 which consisted of multiple quests to solve, ranging from theoretical computer science, hacking, amateur radio, mechanical puzzles. Thank arsenijs for the tour!

Hacklab Helsinki

Visited by: Fraxinas, 2018-03-01

Helsinki Hacklab resides in a basement of a crafts business building 20 minutes (by car) outside Helsinki city center. They have 400+ m² which divide into

• a storage area (1 plastic box per member)
• a metal workshop (incl. lathe, drill press, welding equipment, smelting furnace...)
• a big lounge / seminar room with adjacent kitchen
• small library room
• CNC workshop with adjacent paint spraying room
• electronics workshop
• a room sublet for the "Finnish Space Agency" / builders of model rockets
• a very big wood workshop with adjacent sublet workshop for a professional joiner

Hacklab Tampere

Visited by: Fraxinas, 2018-03-02

It is situated in a commercial area 10 minutes (by car) outside Tampere centrum.

• Over 300 members
• 150W laser cutter
• plasma cutter

Entry system by a GSM module which recoginzes caller IDs

Thanks to Ketturi & Otto for the tour!

All the Finish hackerspaces are part of the http://hacklab.fi/ collective. This is a very interesting approach which reminds us a bit of some of the ideas of Chaos Computer Club (CCC) which we are losely associated with. It gives the Finish hackerspaces a concerted voice when it comes to political discussions. This is something that in Germany the CCC raises the claim of, our hacker spaces really aren't really a political discussion partner yet because they lack an umbrella organization.

Altlab Lisboa

NOT visited by: Fraxinas, 2018-05-08

• Altlab is the only Portuguese Hackerspace listed on https://wiki.hackerspaces.org
• supposedly still active, despites few members
• twitters technews compilations on a weekly base
• public open day is tuesday (who would have guessed) 21-23h
• I went there, met 2 other hackers from Germany & Holland in front of the closed door. We waited for >1h, no reply to our twitter message and e-mail (still no reply after a week)
• pretty poor user experience

Edinburgh Hacklab

Visited by: Fraxinas, 2018-10-26

• Exists since 2010
• ~100 members
• The space is located in Summerhall, the former veterinary college of the University of Edinburgh
• Split into mainly 4 rooms (are hoping to get additional rooms on the floor to grow)
  • "Main" Room: Conference Room, "Shop" Board for common parts / Arduinos etc., small fridge, minimalist kitchen (only source of Club Mate in Scotland), Hamradio Station, Electronics & Measurement equipment
  • "Metal Workshop": Lathe, Circular and Band Saws, Sanders, Big Router, Welding Equipment
  • "Laser Room": 2 Laser cutters (one is 100W, 2x our size) plus filters and cooling, smaller cnc router
  • "Storage": 2x 3D Printers (Prusa 3, Ultimaker), Member Boxes, Server Rack with their own ISP Endpoint

What I liked best:

• All rooms and big machines are access restricted with personalized NFC tokens (e.g. Oyster card)
• "Shop"-wall for often needed electronics items
• Location in an arts exhibition center / independent conference center / coworking place
• centralized, laser-cut cash box with separate slots for shop, drinks, donation, laser cutting, 3D printing

Visited aswell by lua on the 26th and 28th of march 2024

• Space still exists, still in Summerhall (which is an awesome location in my opinion) and flourishing
• Expanded to 5 rooms, one main/conference room with a small workshop area (see "Main" Room), one wood workshop (most likely the old "Metal Workshop" but more or less centered around with wood, metal processing still possible), one laser room (see "Laser Room"), the storage room (as in, "Storage" with member boxes, a serverrack with members hardware, consumables stored there aswell) tho they moved the printers into the new printing room where they also have an old sewing machine they found on the streets (5k stiches per minutes) -> "we are informed that theres a space in germany where they have a better, numatic sewing machine" => Wer ist das wohl *shrug* /gen
• appendix to fraxinas "what i liked best": - the general vibes, not as cuddly as entropia but very comfy hack/makerspace vibes

Robots & Dinosaurs Sydney

Visited by: virengos 2017-10-07

VisitRobotsDinosaurs07102017

IdeaLab Novi Sad

Visited by: JanT 21. Jun. 2019

• Exists since 2017?
• ? members
• The space is located on the main campus
• It is funded by EU and university, so it's very new, shiney and tidy but is not yet fully equipped
• only two rooms
• http://www.idealab.uns.ac.rs/

Creative Space Timisoara (Temeschvar)

Visited by: JanT 4. Jul. 2019

• less than 5 active members
• The space is located in a industrial area outside of town
• It is funded by the few main people
• More than 100m², a lot of rooms, a lot of machines
• same problem as in Novi Sad: No interest by local people. They come, see, tell "great" and are never seen again.
• https://creativespace.ro/

Revspace Den Haag, Netherlands

Visited by: Fraxinas 23. April 2022

• is the biggest hackerspace in the netherlands
• was welcomed very warmely and shown around by Shiz and talked a lot to io and @techwolf12
• space is ridiculously spacious and well equipped with everything from welding, metal & woodworking, chemistry to microelectronics

Fablab Torino, Italy

Visited by: Fraxinas 11. Mai 2022

• not so much of a makerspace atmosphere, mainly fabrication/realization of specific projects (woodworking / 3d printing / plotting / cnc)

Xerocraft Tucson Makerspace, USA

Visited by: Fraxinas 7. Januar 2023

• spacious ex storage building near train station in downtown Tucson
• moved there in 2013
• Computer Terminal for automated member Login, reception desk staffed with volunteer
• very big metal, woodworking shop behind a dust curtain, all thinkable (vintage) machines
• textile / classroom area on ground floor
• basement with jewelery / glass workshop, another classroom, storage, (comparably) small electronics workbench
• little upstairs gallery with computer / CAD workstations
• women & transgender nights on tuesdays
• 5 hours per month of volunteer work for a free membership
• we were shown around by Bob and talked to Hans about his planned Arduino workshop, thanks to them and to Ray at the reception!

Labitat Copenhagen, Denmark

Visited by: Fraxinas & Purplegecko 19. Februar 2023

• Situated close to the central station near a main road with good bus connection / no parking
• Sous terrain with 4 big rooms
• About 35'ish active members
• Regular cooking / dining events
• They have 2 actual WWII bunkers in the courtyard
• Thank you Hafnium, 0m.ax and Raymond Feesh for showing us the space and doing the photo tour of the copenhagen lights festival afterwards

Germany

AfRA

short visit by lua and riley on january 19th 2024 for like 5 mins, exchanged stickers

Backspace Bamberg

Hendi und Jasmin waren am 30.8.19 Abends als Auftakt ihres Kurzurlaubs zu Besuch. Schön eingerichtet, immer mal wieder gewachsen, 80 Mitglieder, viel Geblinke. Als wir da waren waren noch die Nachwehen des Camp zu spüren (AUCH MIT SPUREN VON SCHAFFENBURG!). Viel Spielzeug, Besucher werden rumgeführt, nahezu konstant unterhalten und zu einer Runde eines Spiels herausgefordert. :-) Dg3hda (Diskussion) 20:31, 13. Sep. 2019 (CEST)

Update 2021-07: * Now with SLA Printer, CNC Router, KNX space automation

Binary Kitchen Regensburg

Visited by Byteturtle, Fraxinas, lua on their 0x1010th anniversary April 30th 2023

CCCB (Chaos Computer Club Berlin)

visit by lua, riley and SC++ on january 21th 2024, chatted with yaya, exchanged stickers, got some stamps (dont remind lua about this)

CCCHH (Chaos Computer Club Hamburg)

lua spent several weekends in june there, the space itself is smaller than expected (in total maybe only 1.25 - 1.5x bigger than Schaffenburg), many LED's, good tschunk, very comfy vibes... they also have several 3d pronter and many nice folks there

CCC Darmstadt

CryptonicAlpha hat den Space des CCC Darmstadt gegenüber vom Luisencenter besucht. Der Space hat zunächst einen Großen Plenumraum mit Tischen in U-Form angeordnet mit mehreren Gigabit Switchen und Steckdosenleisten. Im gesamten Space befinden sich Ubiquity Wlan Accespoints und es gibt eine Space Automatisierung mit Homeassistant. Außerdem gibt es eine Chillecke im Plenumsraum und eine Werkstatt, sowie eine Küche mit Tisch und einen alten Fernseher aus der Airbase Ramstein. Auf dem Balkon gibt es einen kleinen Kräutergarten.

lua besucht den space seit ende 2023 regelmäßig

CCC Frankfurt am Main

• Counter-visit from Franz T. 2018-09-4

Chaosdorf Düsseldorf

Visited by Fraxinas on May 13th 2023

Entropia Karlsruhe

Visited several times by lua in january 2024, very cuddly, sticker exchange happened

Code for Heilbronn

Frequently visited by Fraxinas (+ byteturtle, Robert, Hendi)

• very well equipped spacious premises
• very low membership fee (30€ annually, due to subsidised rent)
• most of all: they're an extraordinarily good team
• i've invited their board members to come visit and tell us about their secrets
• have helped us out with 5 members for the repair café 2018-09-29 !!

Shackspace Stuttgart

• Germany's most spacious hacker space
  • big lobby / hackcenter / lounge room
  • double conference / lecture room
  • 3D printing / laser workshop
  • metal / wood workshop
  • electronics lab
  • roboter room
  • textile workshop
  • retro computing room
  • kitchen
  • 2 storage rooms
  • bathrooms w/ shower

ZTL Zentrum für Technikkultur Landau

• visited on July 13th 2021
• shortly after their grand opening
• interior work took 1 year+
• makerspace consists of members of linux user group, ccc, freifunk, darc & model railway club
• 200m² in a former storage floor
• huge conference room
• 3D printing / electronics lab with a radio amateur station
• big metal and wood workshop
• kitchen and lounge
• everything is outfitted with sensory, custom space automation
• 2 factor (rfid + pin) access control
• yearly "Macherdaach" (maker day fair) in Landau, next date: 25.9.2021