Hackster Spotlight: Harold Pulcher

Harold Pulcher is a .NET developer and maker who helps to run the Dallas Fort Worth Hackster meetup. We connected this week to chat about his Hackster meetup, his workshop, and the projects he’s been working on.

It depends on what you mean by “hack”. My current job is a full stack .NET developer. Any given day (like today), I will work on stored procs in SQL Server all the way up to the user interface, which is currently Foundation.js and Backbone.js.

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My Dad. He was a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. He worked for Marathon LaTourneau. They make huge trucks that work in mining. Dad would take classes for work, everything from air-conditioning to electronics, and he would let me sit with him and follow along.

Dad bought me a Radioshack 150-in-One electronics kit, and he also had me “help” him whenever he fixed stuff around the house. One day I got a ‘How to build your own laser’ kit. I got a glass tube to build the laser, and managed to put it together. Dad showed it to his coworkers and they thought it was pretty cool.

Dad also introduced me to remote control airplanes. I like them because they’re both tactile and intellectual at the same time. I now enjoy 3D printing for the same reason.

By far the biggest of my first hacks was while I was working at Showbiz Pizza Place. It almost got me fired. They made Billy Bob, the banjo playing bear, “interactive”. I wanted to make the other characters interactive as well. I got the schematics for the control systems, an upside-down plastic cheese bin, a really long roll ribbon cable, a few switches, a soldering iron, a couple of Wico joysticks and got busy. Soon Ralph and Earl (pictured) were interactive as well. I had lots of fun with that until Corporate found out.

My “Lab.” Well, it’s my garage. I really like the Dallas Makerspace as well, but I spend so much time away from home it’s not all that feasible. For some reason my wife really likes to see me every now and again :-)

I have a smattering of woodworking tools. There’s a rigid table saw, a band saw, chop saw, a couple drill presses, and a bunch of sanders. Most of my tools were SAE and Imperial standard until I started working with 3D printers. Now I have metric tools as well. As far as electronics go, I just have the basics, like digital multimeters.

Yes, we ran a class last spring. At the class we built 17 Tevo Tarantula a 3D printers – 16 of which are still printing. One of the printers was auctioned off by the Rotary club to raise money for a school playground. Another one got donated to a teacher high school art teacher.

Our meetups began near the end of 2015. I have always loved working with microcontrollers. Using software to control real world things is just fun. I wanted a way to get more people to play in my same sandbox.

Our meetings are held at my current employer: Improving. They have a training area, and due to their commitment to the community they offer the empty classrooms at night to any user group as long as they have space.

We get lots of different kinds of people depending on the subject matter. Sometimes they’re professionals in the industry, sometimes kids, lots of hobbyists, some looking to change careers, and even a few retirees that are looking for something cool to do.

Most of our meetings are combination of presentation, show-n-tell, and assisting folks with whatever project they are currently working on. Every few meetings, we will schedule a hands-on workshop during the normal meeting. Those are a lot of fun.

Once a quarter I hold a 3D printer Saturday. Typically 30 people RSVP and 15 people show up. A couple times I’ve had a full house — once a guy came in an Uber and the Uber driver thought the event was cool so he stayed as well!

Yes. I’m a Microsoft MVP, so I’m using Microsoft Cognitive services in a project. It takes your picture and decides whether you’re happy or sad. Depending on your mood, it will display a little animation.

Another project I’m planning is a way to turn my lights on and off dynamically with the sunset and sunrise using a photon and a bunch of relays.

Want to learn more about Harold? Find him and his projects on his website, on Twitter as @haroldpulcher, and on YouTube.