Usually once a month we'll host free educational workshops open to everyone of all ages!  We have a wide variety of attendants from young students and engineers to retired folk and hobbyists.  Each workshop is approximately 45 minutes to 1.5 hours, some are longer depending on the speaker.  Take a look at a few of our recent workshops, then visit our store or give us a call to sign up for our mailing list so you can receive updates and information on upcoming events!

This Halloween themed workshop went over some of the basics on Arduino code inputs and operation.  The regular topics of sensors and motor controls were gone over and the focus with this Arduino workshop was working with remote control transmitters and receivers to trigger code and eventually motorize the jaws and prosthetic eyes within our model skeletons!

2018 Halloween Animation Handouts

2019 Halloween Animation Handouts

Mr. Gillette started at Hallicrafters as an engineer designing ECM receivers. As Hallicrafters evolved to Northrop Grumman, he held a number of positions in engineering, research, marketing, and program management, including VP of Engineering.  Richard retired from Northrop Grumman with 30 years of service.  He then started R. F. Gillette Inc. where he worked as a consultant through 2017. This workshop includes adjustable signal generators, a multiplier/s, and a phase modulator. It is Excel based using a graph as a multi channel oscilloscope and Excel's FFT and a graph as a spectrum analyzer.  This workshop provided a neat way to introduce RF functions to students, and as the generators allow clipping distortion up to square waves, those with more experience can see various undesired effects including audio clipping, over modulation, RF clipping and a lot more.  A full IQ phasing method SSB generator is included, with user adjustable variables.

This intro is being presented by geophysicist, Christian Sutton, who has an interest in circuits, math, programming, and music.  His Introduction of Python involved the application of the computer game Minecraft from a Raspberry Pi, which he used to demonstrate different operations.  Along with his introduction was creating a homemade VPN / ad blocker and circuit experimentation.  None of this is limited to RaspberryPi and can be used in a plethora of applications.

Dave works for the Houston Community College NW as the Professor of Audio Electronics in the Audio Recording Technology Program!  He's a good friend of the store and did a fantastic workshop on ham antennas, how to build various types of dipoles, off-center fed dipoles, and full-wave loop antennas for amateur radio.

EPO Customer, Mike Condon, gave a presentation on the basics of transistors from switching things on and off to making simple amplifiers using a very common NPN 2N3904

Thanks to Bill Swann, a retired mechanical engineer and EPO customer, we had a fantastic solar workshop!  He went over some of the types of solar panels and the main systems for household use.  A true DIY legend!

Former EPO employee and electrical engineer, Bill Nachefski, presented an eye-catching workshop by shooting lighting bolts across the store!  He went over the basics of how a Tesla coil works, how they came about, and demonstrated one of his for us inside the store.

We had a fantastic workshop presented by Tom Taylor, retired aerospace electrical engineer, on bread boarding along with Lance Bordon, president of the Bordon Radio Company!  They shared some of their vast knowledge on many different topics such as electron tubes, tube radios, and the mechanics of breadboards.  He had lots of hands on projects and ideas to give out.

Lance Borden Tube Radio

Stefan is a Geophysicist who was interested in catching the attention of students and the younger generations to learn more about electronics.  What better way to do this then to present a workshop on one of the most important and basic electronic components out there?  Stefan went over the basics of what a capacitor is, the main principles that make it function, and what they're used for.  Students and adults also viewed Stefan make a capacitor completely from scratch to fully illustrate the answer to the question "what is a capacitor?"

Will Maze has given multiple hands on workshops on the properties of magnetism that have always left our audience smarter than they were walking in the store!  He has gone over many important principles such as Lenz's Law and induction using homemade displays as well as how to make your own simple magnets at home.  These laws and properties of magnets were put to the test when everyone in the store got to build their own motor using a universal AA battery and solid copper wire.

DIY Enthusiast and close friend of the store, Caz Bowyer, presented a great introduction to motor controls with her extensive Arduino skills.  The applications for these controls are almost endless!  She was able to demonstrate these controls with a micro-controller (computer).

Robert Berry, the professional magician, has given a few workshops on slight of hand and how to successfully fool your friends with elaborate tricks!  While providing excellent entertainment, Robert did a walk through of the tricks we sell to teach and inspire people.  While magic is thought to be a lost form of entertainment, it has recently been popular among the younger generations.  It is truly amazing to witness objects come out of thin air and seemingly impossible scenarios unfold before your eyes!

Steven Craig has talked about a lot of different things with us before and he presented an intriguing workshop on sound! What is sound?  How is it produced?  How to we hear sound?  All of these questions were answered in his hands on presentation on how to control sound with an Arduino.

The former factory rep for Triplett Test Equipment gave a presentation on how to properly clean electronics with DeOxit chemicals!  This presentation was applicable to home electronics such as amplifiers, receivers, etc. as well as appliances and industrial electronics that may be outdoors in harsh conditions.

We hosted a presentation in "Protecting Against Cyber Attacks" with EPO customer, Miguel Huezo. Miguel has background studying web development. He will be conducting the presentation reviewing how the internet started & works.  He will be demonstrating how satellite hacking occurs, showing live demonstration of hacking find your personal data.   He will also give a history of hacking to modern day including the recent Crowdstrike incident.

Miguel plans to also address cyberattack, XSS(Cross site Script), Car hacking and showing web pentesting lab.

This workshop is available to everyone. This is also an opportunity to hang out at EPO for complimentary coffee and donuts and talk to other cool people who are interested in data privacy!
This workshop is available for everyone, from the elementary school student to the post-graduate hobbyist.  There is no charge to attend.

Your RSVP is critical for this workshop as it helps us to know if we need to schedule a second class to prevent over crowding.   We may repeat the session later in the day if we get a lot of RSVPs.  We hope to see you here!

We hosted a Solar Inverters workshop presented by EPO customer and solar expert, Bill Swann.

Bill has been a solar enthusiast for years and active with the Houston Electric Car Club.  He also suffered a Centerpoint Power Outage for 3 weeks since Hurricane Beryl hit Houston on July 8th, 2024.  He will be giving a presentation on a Solar Generator to provide power after a storm. He will address inverters and techniques to repurpose electric car batteries salvaged from wrecked vehicles including an example of a battery pack he made from Nissan Leaf Cells.  He will give you a good idea in this presentation how much of an inverter is needed to handle various house hold loads and how this could be connected up.   This is a good presentation for those of you interested in solar energy and preparing for extended power outages.

This workshop is available to everyone. This is also an opportunity to hang out at EPO for complimentary coffee and donuts and talk to other cool people who are interested in solar energy!

The slides for this class you will find it here: https://epohouston.com/workshops/solar-inverters-and-repurposing-damage-electric-car-batteries/

This workshop is available for everyone, from the elementary school student to the post-graduate hobbyist.  There is no charge to attend.  Your RSVP is critical for this workshop as it helps us to know if we need to schedule a second class to prevent over crowding.   We may repeat the session later in the day if we get a lot of RSVPs.  We hope to see you here!

This was a battery presentation presented by retired Shell Research Scientist and Cool Guy Bill Werzner. Bill has extensive background battery chemistry as relating to lead acid car batteries. What ever happened to the "Lifetime Car Battery"? this and other questions will be addressed.

Bill will bring slides and discuss: Primary (Single Use) and Secondary (Rechargeable) Batteries.

We will explain voltage and current ratings, recharging and testing procedures, battery life cycles, Power retention

In practical terms:

* Choosing a battery type for an applications
* Sizing for application
* Getting the most out of your battery and how to extend it's life.

Including Lead Acid, Zinc Carbon, Alkaline, Lithium.

This was a DIY programming class for beginners presented by EPO customer and solar expert, Bill Swann. Bill has been a solar enthusiast for years and active with the Houston Electric Car Club and has to program a lot of micro-controllers for his projects. Today's presentation will be focused on programming and introduction
to getting started using FLOW CODE for a beginner utilizing an Arduino Uno with some push buttons.

Flow Code is a versatile program that can be used for programming a variety of microcontrollers.
Flow code can be downloaded at no cost (for personal use) www.flowcode.co.uk.

This was an in depth discussion on AI presented by David Brunet, President of Innovation Spark and Super Cool Customer.

This talk will demystify artificial intelligence and empower you to build your own AI applications using tools like Ollama, LangChain, and Streamlit. We'll explore how Python, the language of AI, connects these powerful components, enabling you to run large language models (LLMs) locally for enhanced privacy and speed. Learn how to create intelligent chatbots, automate tasks, and explore the cutting edge of AI, all from the comfort of your home computer. Discover how LangChain orchestrates complex AI workflows, and how Streamlit makes your creations accessible with user-friendly interfaces.

Dive into the exciting world of local AI, where you control the data and the possibilities. We'll cover everything from installing and managing LLMs to building interactive applications. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a hobbyist, or simply curious about AI, this talk will provide you with the knowledge and resources to start your own AI journey. Explore different LLMs, learn practical Python skills, and discover the ever-evolving AI ecosystem.

This workshop was presented by Cool EPO Customer and Guitar Enthusiast, CJ Landry. CJ already repairs and builds high end custom guitar effects pedals for professional musicians. Today he is sharing his skills and insight with you. Specifically, he will be using Jimi Hendrix's favorite fuzz box circuit as an example. He will go over and explain the workings of the circuit then lead you to modify it for various other effects. CJ will guide people through building pedals using parts off our shelves. If you would like a set of parts to take home and work with, those can be purchased in the store at low cost.

This was a BioMedical Technology workshop presented by EPO customer, Youtuber, and Bio-Technician Justin Barbour. Justin has a unique role in servicing and integrating medical technology systems. He is also an avid YouTuber who stumbled on our store a couple years ago and featured a walk through of our store in a collection of interesting places to visit. We didn't know until people started showing up after seeing his video of us. In this presentation, Justin wants to explore the anatomy / physiology of the human body and the electronic test equipment used to simulate the body and measure medical devices for accuracy. The Biomedical Equipment technician is responsible for every medical device inside a hospital. BMETs are experts in electronics, hydraulics, pneumatics, high voltage, low voltage, RF energy, XRay energy, industrial power generators / UPS, medical networking and human physiology / anatomy. Come see the coolest career you've probably never heard of.