Ylab’s metal master Ylab’s hosts at the David Dunlap Observatory have a nice simple reception desk – but they want the ability to lock  up whatever is on top. You know, big things than won’t fit in a drawer. Which is kind of impractical because there are  no drawers on the desk.  They asked us if we could do something...

It’s alive! And reliable! Last week, we provided updates 1, 2 and 3 on the City of Richmond Hill’s DDO activities over the spring and summer. Ylab helped out with all of them, but those were not our core maker activities. Our makers quietly been up to all kinds of things in our basement lair. We’re now taking the time...

How did he get hold of that? Sometimes, ylab is just plain silly fun. On Friday August 23 the City of Richmond Hill and Deputy Mayor Joe DiPaola hosted their First Annual – Explore the DDO outdoor movie night. City staff invited DDO partners and other groups to participate. Ylab was asked to join the fun because of some shiny light...

History is so cool. Just in case you didn’t hear or see the news elsewhere… On July 31 2019, the Government of Canada officially designated the David Dunlap Observatory a National Historic site. Our congratulations to Maggie Mackenzie and Heritage Richmond Hill for all their hard work. In digging through ylab’s lair...

We’ve been quiet on the blog over the spring… and even quieter over the summer as we got distracted by vacation, herding kids around, long lazy evenings and other seasonal distractions. We have a lot of news to catch up on, and we’ll start with the most important thing: our wonderful home at the City of Richmond Hill’s...

Disaster recovery in a briefcase. Part 1. A ylab member has a requirement for a backup firewall… and more. At her company, they use a top-quality commercial firewall that provides and front-ends a suite of other services like,VPN access into the company and a captive portal to control to several outbound VPNs to customer. They use multiple...

Ylab invades a library. Again. Richmond Hill’s Richmond Green Library held their third annual March Break Maker Week Kick-Off on Saturday March 9 2019 – and ylab was there. It’s ylab… so of course we had light sabres! Mandatory equipment: 3D printed DDO dome an light sabres. A big hit with the kids was the hand-cranked...

More robots! More mayhem! Many of the early ylab members were brought together by their love of robotics, and on Tuesday February 19 they’ll be sharing the love with our first Robotycs open house since our re-opening. This will be the start our our monthly Robotycs nights. There have been a lot of advances s since the last time we...

Not him. The plastic. The end of 2019’s first January cold snap brought out a whole lot of members and new visitors to our What’s This Laser Cutter Stuff All About? open house. Ylab’s Richard gave an extensive presentation on the materials you can use and the types of engraving you can make. Great attendance from visitors...

Did it or didn’t it? Ylab isn’t the only group haunting the DDO. We’re responsible for the strange sounds emanating from the basement – the things that go bump in the nights we are there. OK, more than bumping. Sparking, zapping, banging… On the upper floors we have the Royal Astromical Society of Canada Toronto Center...