UKLEM 24 - Surfleet Village Hall - Friday 6th, 7th, 8th & 9th April 2018 UK

The 24th (ish!!) United Kingdom Laser Enthusiasts Meeting!!

UKLEM - 24 - Surfleet, South Lincolnshire England UK

Starting Friday 6th-7th-8th-9st of APRIL 2018 - 4 Day event.

The dates for the hall are booked for the next Surfleet Laser Enthusiasts Bash and it will be starting at 09.00hrs Friday Morning till around 16:00hrs on the Monday.

All the usual Surfleet gubbins plus the upper gallery & hall area will be available again for Sleeping & Snore practice purposes as normal.
There is a huge cooker & 3x fridges available to use throughout the weekend even though the Kitchen area IS normally used as the main workshop area.
Electronics, Electrical, High Voltage, Multicopters and General Radio Control Equipment also Very Welcome.
CAA outdoor laser approval will be sorted for the Friday, Saturday & Sunday night outdoor bashes as usual.
Bring your BBQ's, Horses, Sheep, Antelope's, Bleach, Frogs etc and hope for some decent weather and nice hazy, cloudy nights.

NO Chinese lanterns Please!

Milling machines accepted as long as you leave them outside in the rain :)

Surfleet Village Hall
Station Road
Surfleet
Spalding
Lincolnshire
UK
PE11 4DA

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?zoom=1...%3DGB&qs=PE114DA

Places to stay:
http://www.shipinnsurfleet.com/ - ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE PLACE - THEY TREAT YOU AS FORTH CLASS CITIZENS - DON'T BOTHER!! But they are availiable :)

http://www.theriversidehotel.info/ - A bit naff but they don't mess customers about like the Ship does! Food is good!

Travelodge Spalding
Springfields Outlet Centre
Camel Gate
Spalding
0871 984 6383

http://www.themermaidinnsurfleet.com/
The Mermaid is just up the road from the Hall, well within walking distance - If you have legs it is anyway!

Failing this, there are plenty of B&B's around the area all findable on Google.

THE COST FOR ANYONE ATTENDING FOR UP TO 12 HOURS WILL BE £15 PER PERSON
ANY LONGER THAN 12 HOURS AND THE CHARGE WILL BE £40 PER PERSON - NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE PLEASE.
NEWCOMERS WILL NOT BE CHARGED

Payment can be made via PayPal or Direct bank transfer.

Paypal 'GIFT' only to: smogthemog a--t gmail d-o-t c-o-m

Bank details given via PM only.

The hall fee's need to be covered and with a few of these meetings in the past, being short of bodies, I need to make sure the hall fee's are covered, hence the price.
You will be issued with Black bin bags to be kept at your area and ALL your rubbish from the weekend MUST go in these bags AND TAKEN HOME WITH YOU!!! No exceptions to this PLEASE!

Upon early leaving of the event and on the Monday during clear up, you will be expected to tidy your area and remove cable ties, tape etc and stack your unused chairs.
It will be greatly appreciated if this is done xxx

There are no other rules at this event which is what makes this event what it is, chilled, easy and sociable.

The organiser accepts NO responsibility if you get injured etc and by coming to the meeting YOU accept FULL responsibility for YOUR actions.
You understand the dangers involved and will not nail my arse to a wall if you get blinded by a stray beam of nice coherent laser light - OK!!!
If you do not agree with this then please do not come.

Please keep your equipment and area neat and tidy AND PLEASE, NO CABLES ACROSS THE CENTER OF THE HALL, ACROSS EMERGENCY EXITS & GENERAL DOORWAYS.
Come, enjoy and be very Lasery!

https://www.facebook.com/events/487959091558489/?ti=cl

Well done Jim, thanks for organising yet another one of these amazing LEMs.
Booked Mermaid, so see you next year!

Registration paid. Mermaid Inn booked. Flight about to be. :cool:
Haven't told the other half yet but... she'll just have to deal with it.
I'ze comin' damnit!! *retardo

Edit - Flight booked! I hit Heathrow Thursday morning about 10:20am. :)

you wont regret it brad

I'm sure I won't. :) Now we just need to push for a nice turnout. Lot of people I'd really like to finally meet in person. I've never seen a 'scope run live either.

damn... now i want to go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bradfo69

Registration paid. Mermaid Inn booked. Flight about to be. :cool:
Haven't told the other half yet but... she'll just have to deal with it.
I'ze comin' damnit!! *retardo

Edit - Flight booked! I hit Heathrow Thursday morning about 10:20am. :)

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I'm in! *retardo

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Originally Posted by swamidog

damn... now i want to go.

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Yes..., yes you do. Flight was only $575. :) There are others that should too!
(Pings Hank...)
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Life is memories. Without memories there is no life. What else would you be doing that weekend? Just mashing buttons to make abstracts??

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Originally Posted by danielbriggs

I'm in! *retardo

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for more than 2 hours?

;)

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Originally Posted by andy_con

for more than 2 hours?

;)

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. O_o

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Originally Posted by andy_con

for more than 2 hours?

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2 hours? Hell, at my age 2 minutes is considered good.

Wait, what were we talking about again? :D

Damn... Gotta figure out how to make this trip work. Think - think - think!

Adam

Hey Jim

The map link doesn't work, just shows you London

And for anyone else, Google shows it wrong if you search for it
This is where it is: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/...0.137914?hl=en

just follow the BEAMS from london :-)

Getting closer!! :) Ya'll US folks need to be scanning flight prices and such.
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Question - I happen to have about 100 euro left over from going to the ILDA conference. Should I exchange that into pound sterling before hand or, will places in England readily accept euro? I'm thinking predominately about things like paying for train and tube tickets and such, when I first arrive.

Pretty much nowhere will accept Euros here (unless you're in southern Ireland) :)

Thanks! That's why I asked. (Figure the money is already "spent" since I converted US to euros for that other trip.)

give the euros to jim as fee for the hall

I would have expected you to say save them for you in exchange for sexual favors or some such nonsense. :rolleyes:

Bit gay, if that's your expectation for the meet you might be disappointed!

Well until you go upstairs anyway

I think I know better than to venture upstairs at this point. From what I've read, dozing off in a chair on the first floor can be dangerous enough! ;)

Watch out for sheep up there also

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Originally Posted by andy_con

Watch out for sheep up there also

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Especially from Rob; knowing his latest ovine roof dealings!

I've heard Jim also accepts potato's (peseta), if you have any old currency

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Originally Posted by andy_con

I've heard Jim also accepts potato's (peseta), if you have any old currency

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I've heard Jim also accepts payment in swarf.

You are fucking bang on there Briggs, he's loves a good bag if my swarf

7 weeks from now, I will be dozing at the Mermaid Inn looking forward to 9am Friday. :cool: Can't tell you how many times this week I have Google "driven" around the area, seen the hall, charted the navigation from Heathrow and back with train and bus numbers and times and such. SOOOO ready to get the heck out of here and go on this trip! :D Can't believe it's finally getting within the grasp of reality.

Have a blast,Brad!

Looking forward to meeting you Brad

Ok so.... serious question. (Since I am trying to figure out what to bring with me.) I'm not likely going to pack a laser since I assume there are plenty of them there. But I'm planning to bring a bunch of shows and the necessary means to play them and my hope is, I'll have a bunch of material not seen by you all before. For example, I don't know how many of you have ever seen a Christopher Short (Swamidog) abstract show in any other fashion except as a Youtube video, or any of Jason Salt (saltydog's) LSX work. There is a lot of older historic content I have as well to watch and (hopefully) enjoy, both as beams or as graphics. However, I don't know the normal format of your LEM. I've been to some LEM's where it's more about tinkering with equipment and fixing this or soldering that, rather than actually playing anything.
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SELEM is a bit unique in that, we have several spaces where people can go to enjoy whatever aspect of a LEM it is they enjoy. Whether that's sitting and watching shows all day and night or, tinkering around with ions for hours trying to get a crusty old tube to fire or, creating a club like atmosphere where people can jump on consoles and play live with a performing DJ into the early hours of the morning or, a whole area dedicated to showing off technology their working on - whether that's software creation, building and programming LED panels, RC airplanes, cars and quadcopters, experiments with writing with laser on glow in the dark paint or whatever. Plus another area for instructional seminars and such. Some just wander from area to area joining in whatever conversation strikes their fancy. I know you don't run your LEM's in quite that fashion.
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What generally fills up your four days? Any structure to it? Is there a sound system and, will people sit and watch any shows if I brought them?
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Oh, and is there a Buy/Sell/Trade area set aside for things?

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Originally Posted by Bradfo69

Any structure to it? No ;)

Is there a sound system and, will people sit and watch any shows if I brought them? Yes :)

Oh, and is there a Buy/Sell/Trade area set aside for things? Yes :)

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The LEM's over here tend to take on a life of their own. Whether it be stripping down a 'Scope' to tinkering with small projectors to playing with VR stuff/Drones/Fireworks/decorating Con's car with fairy stickers etc etc etc. Everybody flits around just doing whatever takes their fancy at that particular moment. This is what makes them so great, it's just basically a sort of free for all, but somehow it just works wonderfully.

I have a small projector that you are welcome to use for any graphic/abstract shows (lovely tight beams).

Just relax, go with the flow and you'll have a fantastic time. The banter is second to none, although it may take you a short while to adjust to the "English' sense of humour (with a second 'U' :D).

Looking forward to finally meeting you.

Cheers

Jem

as jem said really, there are projectors running all day so you can sit and play with lasers, some people run shows so you can watch them, lots of parts in the kitchen if you like that sort of thing, im sure jim will be drilling holes in his car, if you like modding ya car. there will be a ton of sweets, jager shots, laser engraving, 3d printing, drones. im sure steve will bring a lawn moawer to trim the grass. there will be car park action when it gets dark, fireworks, decerating cars.

the list is endless and if you want serious, you will be in the wrong place...

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Originally Posted by andy_con

im sure steve will bring a lawn moawer to trim the grass.

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This is the best.

Looking forward to it Brad! It's been a while since we last caught up.

All sounds good! Basically sounds like a LEM *retardo Counting down the minutes. :)

i keep checking under my couch cushions, but no sign of plane tickets. ;(

SO what you're saying is.... I need to finally buy some shows to take over to show these guys, so you can... in turn, then purchase a plane ticket, right?? >:)

Yeah Brad, bring Swami over!
Would love to meet him in real life and talk about his lovely abstracts, visible and invisible lasers ;-)
I finished packing up last night, have all the parts to make a new RGB projector. Just some drilling, tapping and wiring to be done. Hope to get far. Will do dichros at home with Bart for both projectors (also redo the one i built last year). Both need to be ready for festival season ;-)

Look forward meeting you, if you respond to my PM on FB we can reach you when we arrive in the Mermaid Inn tomorrow night and go for some food with the four of us.

See you tomorrow Brad. Have a safe flight.

i so wish i could make it, but the timing is impossible...

however, i sent brad a secret dropbox link to a bunch of swami shows. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hobbybob

Yeah Brad, bring Swami over!
Would love to meet him in real life and talk about his lovely abstracts, visible and invisible lasers ;-)
I finished packing up last night, have all the parts to make a new RGB projector. Just some drilling, tapping and wiring to be done. Hope to get far. Will do dichros at home with Bart for both projectors (also redo the one i built last year). Both need to be ready for festival season ;-)

Look forward meeting you, if you respond to my PM on FB we can reach you when we arrive in the Mermaid Inn tomorrow night and go for some food with the four of us.

See you tomorrow Brad. Have a safe flight.

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Attachment 53819
Made it! Plane, tube, two trains and a bus. The hardest part of the whole thing was finding the damn long term parking lot at the craptastic Newark Liberty sorry excuse of an airport. Gonna be a fun weekend!

Can I just turn up to this? Never been to one before.

Yes, just bring some cash to pay for the visit - £10 for a day or £40 for the weekend I think

No Live feeds ? any SMS to text messages
Jeez lads , I miss a day !

Hopefully make it sat/sun night :-)

Paul

Quote:

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Originally Posted by swamidog

i so wish i could make it, but the timing is impossible...

however, i sent brad a secret dropbox link to a bunch of swami shows. ;)

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Chris... Your abstract shows are amazing!

Brad was kind enough to set his projector and computer up last night so we could watch them. Each show got a round of applause, which I think pretty much summed up our feelings. Brad's little Kvant projector with the 506 (I think) scanners was amazing. Super scanning and crisp colour rendition enhanced the overall experience.

Cheers

Jem

Got any pictures of that projector? Wondering which one Brad used...

Adam

PS: Bounce-castle fan + plastic "sock" with holes in it for outdoor fog distribution is pure genius, BTW!

Oh thank you so much for the kind words. I’m glad they were enjoyed. If you have any photos or video, i’d Love to see.

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Originally Posted by Jem

Chris... Your abstract shows are amazing!

Brad was kind enough to set his projector and computer up last night so we could watch them. Each show got a round of applause, which I think pretty much summed up our feelings. Brad's little Kvant projector with the 506 (I think) scanners was amazing. Super scanning and crisp colour rendition enhanced the overall experience.

Cheers

Jem

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Originally Posted by buffo

PS: Bounce-castle fan + plastic "sock" with holes in it for outdoor fog distribution is pure genius, BTW!

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Yeah courtesy of mr. Rob Faulkner. Very smart, we have used this also on a few events.
Hadn't i come to the UKLEM i would have never known about "the smoke sausage".
Rob Always has this super kinda top tips from the pro's !

This was on Facebook but, I'm posting here too. It bears repeating. :)
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Well... another whirlwind trip over and, after years of threatening to do it, and some non-believers doubting it... I can now finally say I've attended the UKLEM. What a great experience. I love England anyway and was reminded that it's been far too long since I've crossed the pond with any regularity.
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Many thanks of course to Jim for organizing the events and keeping them going all this time and it's nice to see they've reached four days. We're up to five for SELEM and, it's still never enough time to be with those friends who share that common bond of loving this strange light. Some other special thanks include Dimitri Modderman who organizes the DutchLEM and went out of his way to make sure I had no travel issues and make me feel welcomed the night of my arrival. I am suitably impressed with your dedication to finishing the building of your RGB projector and the attention to detail in its construction. For those that don't know, I think he actually "built" this projector about 3 times. Taking it apart, adjusting something, putting it back together, taking it apart, adjusting something, putting it back together, etc. I'm glad you decided to carry it to completion and actually run it in the hall on Sunday.
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Thanks to Carl for putting up with my pestering of getting some shows that I've really enjoyed so far and his patience with copying them over. Your laser harp is amazing and it was cool to actually see one in person. I bought a kit to build one some years ago and, it's a project I'm going to have to give some attention in the near future.
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I shouldn't name names lest I forget someone and, that's a very good possibility so please don't be offended but, it was great to finally associate a face, personality (and an accent) with so many people. Robin, Martin, Andy Con, Rob Faulkner, Nigel, Jem, Paul, Kevin, Aiden, Simon, seeing Dan again (you have a keeper in Emily!)... the list goes on.
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For those that are wondering, there is a lot of similarities between the UKLEM and US based LEM's. Yes there are some differences. FLEM is different from SELEM, which is different from the TexLEM, which is different from the NWLEM, which is different from CarribLEM, which is different from the NELEM which is different from the UKLEM but, that's what makes them all so worthwhile to attend. There are lasers of all shapes and sizes, there are shows of various styles, there is building, fixing and repairing, trading and buying, there is learning, there are different faces but, interestingly enough, I found myself looking at similarities. How "this" person at the UKLEM reminds me of the role of "that" person at SELEM. Who are the "gas" people. Who are the solderers. Who are the ones fascinated by history and bringing something like the Laser Chorus back to life. Who are the ones huddled around a 'scope trying to get it to breath life?
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We really hope that some of you will give some serious consideration to make the trip to come to SELEM. I think you will find, as I did, that while different, the meet and the people are very much the same. Yes, we have to have a bit more organization because of its size but, we also work very hard to make sure that whatever area of lasers you are into, you've got something to fill your senses and be worthwhile. Flying back I made the decision that I am going to be announcing something soon to help "sweeten the pot" in an effort to make it a more affordable trip for some lucky UKLEM person.
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Finally, I seriously want to thank Rob Stanley. For taking the time to help me in mounting and setting up my single mode diodes and setting your drivers. For creating an awesome show to a tune called Chicago and allowing me to have a copy. Which has in turn, turned me on to the Deep House genre and I'm itching to set it up and play it in my venue. And... for just general, all around awesomeness. Not just for me but for all of those you have given so much of your time and experience to over the years. You my friend, are a rock star and I am both pleased and humbled to have had the opportunity to meet and interact with you.
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How soon can April 2020 get here?? I'mma be back! And hope to drag some other folks with me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by buffo

Got any pictures of that projector? Wondering which one Brad used...

Adam

PS: Bounce-castle fan + plastic "sock" with holes in it for outdoor fog distribution is pure genius, BTW!

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Ya just gonna have to join Facebook Adam :D, I hate to say it but it's much more user friendly for posting photo's etc. Sadly, I was too busy being mesmerised by the shows to think about taking pictures. I do know some of the others took video so I guess they'll appear on here eventually.

There is a pic of Jim looking at Chris Tate's Fuck Show on there too. (Adam IS on Facebook - just not that often recently.... sorta like here. :rolleyes:)

who on facebook do i have to stalk^H^H^H^H follow to see pics of uklem?

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Originally Posted by Bradfo69

There is a pic of Jim looking at Chris Tate's Fuck Show on there too. (Adam IS on Facebook - just not that often recently.... sorta like here. :rolleyes:)

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