Make: Online: Maker Faire Archives

Archive: Maker Faire

July 17, 2009

MultiMachine at Maker Faire Africa

We've posted about the MultiMachine before, an open source, all-purpose machine shop uber-tool, designed with the developing world in mind. Pat Delany, the 74-year-old designer of the MultiMachine, is hoping to make it to Maker Faire Africa to demo the device.

There's a piece on the MFA Blog offering a vision of what the MultiMachine could mean to under-industrialized regions:

Wikipedia describes the MultiMachine as:
"...an all-purpose open source machine tool that can be built inexpensively by a semi-skilled mechanic with common hand tools, from discarded car and truck parts, using only commonly available hand tools and no electricity. Its size can range from being small enough to fit in a closet to one a hundred times that size. The MultiMachine can accurately perform all the functions of an entire machine shop by itself."

Lets think about this for a minute "an all purpose machine tool that...can accurately perform all the functions of an entire machine shop" built from discarded parts by semi-skilled mechanics (replace with jua kali workers, suame magazine fabbers etc.) What may be missing? A power source of sorts with the necessary torque and availability even in the most rural of areas. Perhaps coupling it with a system like the multifunctional platform would solve that problem.

(Maker Faire Africa will take place on August 14-16 in Accra, Ghana.)

The MultiMachine as a Roadmap

July 16, 2009

Maker Faire Africa, August 14-16, in Accra, Ghana

Just a reminder that the Officially Unofficial Maker Faire Africa is scheduled to take place August 14-16 in Accra, Ghana. We hope to have some people on the ground there and will be covering it here on Make: Online. If you want to keep abreast of Faire happenings, they have a blog on the MFA website. They're also looking for donations to help make the fair happen. There's a donation widget on the main page.

Maker Faire Africa

July 6, 2009

Maker Faire on Brink tonight

Set your DVRs, VCR cat feeders, and Arduino-controlled doggie dish dispensers for 10:30pm tonight. The Discovery Science Channel will be running a segment about Maker Faire on their Brink program.

Brink: Science Channel

July 5, 2009

Run for your lives! Its the Maker Faire beaste!

Look what happens when you go to the check out the Life Size Mousetrap...Some crazy beaste comes galumphing through the place.

Yikes. Anybody got details on the build?

July 3, 2009

Musical makers at Maker Faire '09

Scottish sound designer, the Amazing Rolo, traveled to Maker Faire this year especially to see what sorts of cool musical technologies people were cooking up. He made a series of videos of makers demoing their wares. Of the three videos above, he writes:

First up is Elly Jessop, a Masters Student at the uber-cool MIT Media Lab, and her Vocal Augmentation and Manipulation Prosthesis (VAMP). Next is Barry Threw, from Keith McMillan Instruments, showing off the K-Bow (and accompanying software) for extending stringed instrument performance into the digital realm. And finally, the amazing Moldover and his totally bonkers Syncomasher.

The Amazing Rolo

June 28, 2009

Heads on Fire at Maker Faire

Heads on Fire hosted the Bay Area Maker Faire Fab Lab. At Maker Faire Austin, the Fab Lab has been hosted by the Boston Fab Lab at the South End Technology Center. Wikipedia has a decent list of the various Fab Labs around the world.

June 27, 2009

Getting real with Physical Design

[Image from Shopbot Tools]

Daniel Smithwick has been working to develop a new model for architecture. Instead of building each structure as a custom object, people can use software and hardware to make repeatable designs that can be manufactured and assembled where and when they are needed.

He recently wrote an article on the Shopbot site to help explain his vision of design and manufacturing of housing and other objects.

Our company's vision is to revolutionize architectural design and production and to make these processes transparent by empowering consumers throughout the world with the online tools and resources that enable them to become the producers of their own creations.
Not only are there incredible inefficiencies in the current practice of design, fabrication and construction of architecture, but until now these processes have been limited to costly design professionals, wasteful manufacturing facilities and labor-intensive site work.

You may want to take a look at the Physical Design site for more information.

Blimpduino and UAV at Maker Faire

Chris Anderson demonstrates the systems of the BlimpDuino.

The Blimpduino kit is a very low cost, open source, autonomous blimp kit. It consists of an Arduino-based blimp controller board with on-board infrared and ultrasonic sensors and an interface for an optional RC mode, a simple gondola with two vectoring (tilting) differential thrusters, and ground-based infrared beacon. Assembly is required, including soldering.

Anderson created the BlimpDuino with Jordi Munoz of DIY Drones. Their entry, shown in the video above, took first place in the Sparkfun Autonomous Vehicle Competition a few months ago.

If you want to build the BlimpDuino, the documentation is on the site and pretty good. Printing the build notes out and setting aside a few hours with the soldering iron should have you in pretty good shape.

June 26, 2009

Mini Maker Faires at Copperfield's starting this weekend

Starting this weekend, Copperfield's books in CA is hosting a series of mini Maker Faires, we hope you can join us for a fun afternoon this summer! Download this PDF for more information.

Mini Maker Faires at Copperfield's:

6/26 - Sebastopol (11am - 1pm)

7/11 - Petaluma (11am - 1pm)

7/18 - Montgomery Village (11am - 1pm)

7/25 - Healdsburg (11am - 1pm)

8/1 - Petaluma (11am - 1pm)

8/8 - Montgomery Village (11am - 1pm)

Weekend Project: Potato Gatling Gun

Here is a brand new version of the popular potato cannon built by the DeRose family
and shown at this years Maker Faire. Check out their website for more details.
To download The Potato Gatling Gun MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes.

June 24, 2009

Rodney Brooks at Maker Faire

Rodney Brooks, of MIT's AI Lab and iRobot, is one of my all-time heroes. His work has had a huge impact on how I look at technology in general, robotics in specific, approaches to problem-solving, and more. So I was bummed that I missed his talk (and meeting him) at Maker Faire. Thanks to FORA.tv, I didn't miss it, nor did you. His 33-minute talk is a fascinating look at the coming "age wave," the need for robots to help/subsidize an aging population, the role of makers in industrial and technological innovation, discovering where the exponentials are in technology and manufacturing and exploiting them, and much more. Good stuff.

Rodney Brooks: Remaking Manufacturing With Robotics

June 19, 2009

Weekend Project: Arduino Rumble Robots

Learn how to modify the classic Rumble Robot toy with an Arduino. Thanks go to
Dino Segovis for this Weekend Project from Maker Faire.
To download The Arduino Rumble Robots MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes.

June 14, 2009

Aquaponic education and the Sun Curve

Megan Simmons of ISKME tells us about the Sun Curve Design Challenge. OERCommons is a place where they are storing and sharing educational resources about the Sun Curve and other educational projects. The structure and systems were designed by INKA Biosperic Systems. You might also check out her photos of the project at Maker Faire.

June 13, 2009

Bilal explains Instructables

Bilal has been hanging out with the Instructables folks for a while. When I bumped into him at Maker Faire, he was typically animated as he told me about what they do there.

BoingBoing video at Maker Faire

BoingBoing video visited Maker Faire!

In today's edition of Boing Boing Video, Mark Frauenfelder and Boing Boing Gadgets editor Lisa Katayama profile three cool things found at the recent Bay Area Maker Faire: The Yudu personal screen printer, an interactive, collaborative, musical Tesla Coil, and a candy-fabbing device from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

More:

June 12, 2009

Weekend Project: Frankenstein Prototypes

Designing and offering a new invention usually requires making a model
of what you have created. Perry Kaye explains the art of Frankenstein Prototyping
and shows us a new invention and how he built it in this Weekend Project from Maker Faire.

June 10, 2009

Faire-inspired spot illos

Daniel Carter, our Art Director, writes:

James Provost, an illustrator from Vancouver, attended Maker Faire, and it inspired him to create a sweet set of "DIY spot illustrations" which he's posted on his site and on Flickr. I love the illustrations -- very MAKE!

Thanks, Daniel (and James)! Sweet, indeed.

James Provost, Technical Illustrator

James Provost's photostream

Remaking a Maker Faire booth

So, what to do with a slightly-used booth from Maker Faire? Well, if you're Dino, of DinoFab, you make a food prep/passthrough counter for your kitchen. Nice that he's still wearing the shirt, too. Memories.

DinoFab

TechShop Post-Maker Faire Open House

There's a big Open House at TechShop, Menlo Park, this Saturday, 6/13/2009 from 10 AM to 6 PM.

There will be a presentation and workshop by Bob Johansen (Fellow from the Institute for the Future) discussing points from his book on leadership skills for makers.

They're also offering TechShop Maker Faire Membership Specials, going on until 6/15. These are memberships for $75 per month, $375 for 6 months, and $675 for a year. They're apparently selling fast, so get while the gettin's good. Jim Newton tells me they might be full by the end of the week.

TechShop Post-Maker Faire Open House #2

June 9, 2009