The PopTech conference is currently underway in Camden, ME. We sent some emissaries from MAKE, namely Zach and Kim DeBord, Mike Gould, and Stuart Gaines. Zach is an artist and BEAMbot builder. He did the awesome bots (and photos) for my "Pummer, Dude!" [PDF] piece in MAKE, Volume 08. Mike Gould has a project, "Lunchbox Laser Shows," in the upcoming "Kids of All Ages" issue, Volume 20, of MAKE. Stuart Gaines writes:

In Camden Maine this week, the annual PopTech conference has taken over the town's beautifully-restored 18th century opera house where an "A-list" of speakers contemplates the "re-invention" of America.

Just down the block, on Elm St., in a converted auto garage, two master makers are demonstrating how to take everyday objects, found in the techno-trash or commonly sourced on eBay, and re-invent them as high-tech gadgets with new purpose. It's a mini-Maker Faire amidst the dazzling fall foliage. All day long, a steady stream of PopTech attendees wander into the garage. In the first bay, they meet Mike Gould and learn how he embeds red, green, and blue lasers into lunchboxes and slide projectors. In the next bay, Zach DeBord and his wife Kim are fashioning buzzing, twittering toys, soldered together from junked calculators, spare motors, wires, and postage stamp-sized solar cells.

Just down Route 1, in nearby Rockland, a lucky group of PopTechies got a chance to pull a spoke-shave at The Apprenticeshop, one of the oldest traditional boat-building schools in the country. Lance Lee, founder of the Apprenticeshop, was on-hand to explain the joys of working with wood, and his boat-building projects, including a smaller version of Tremolino, a 19th Century lateen-rigged Mediterranean workboat used by Joseph Conrad.

Back at PopTech, speakers expound on the impact of new technologies with a thought-provoking mix of optimism and fear. A disturbing contrast to "creative re-use" was photographer Chris Jordan's photographs of seabirds brought down by plastic refuse. Jordan has just returned from Midway Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. His photographs were literally "breathtaking." The opera house audience was left speechless by his story of the destructive impact of these everyday materials. See "Midway: Message from the Gyre" on his site.

PopTech runs through Saturday, October 24.

At Maker Faire Rhode Island, I saw Christina waiting near the AS220 Fab Lab for her son Forest. She was holding some of the replacement parts that he had made for his MakerBot. We talked a bit about what making means to her and Forest. They're already looking forward to Maker Faire 2010.

MAKE subscribers, watch your mailboxes for Volume 20: Kids, which should be arriving very soon.

Fortunately for me, Maker Faire Rhode Island was just a few days away. I knew that I'd be able to get my hands on a TV-B-Gone kit and build it at the soldering workshop. Maker Faire RI was a blast, and towards the end of the evening, I settled down with the iron and got to work.

The other night at Maker Faire Rhode Island, I met up with Raphael. He had brought along these neat prototyping kits made from cigar boxes. I asked him about why he made them and what he does with these mobile prototyping platforms.

You may also want to check out Raphael's Twitchie kit, which people were passing around like mutant babies. Very disturbing indeed.

In the Maker Shed:

Make: Arduino

Set your DVRs for this awesome segment on the Travel Channel, filmed at Maker Faire Bay Area 2009.

Extreme Conventions, Travel Channel, "This ain't no Dental Convention!"

Wednesday, September 23rd at 8PM Eastern time (check local listings for your area)

Photo Credits (clockwise from left): Phil Torrone, no_id_i_want, Matt Mets, David Nunez

Maker Faire - 9/17/09

Every week, Limor and Phil from adafruit industries do a Ustreamed "Ask an engineer" live chat. This week, tonight, they're going to do it from Maker Faire Rhode Island. Here's what they said on their site:

Tonight is our weekly "Ask an engineer" live chat - 10pm ET tonight, we're going to attempt to "broadcast" LIVE from Maker Faire Rhode Island. We'll see how it goes, we might need to go text only if there isn't a good connection. Either way - stop by! Here are some handy details:

* Visit our new "chat" section on Adafruit at 10pm ET - 9/19/2009
* Or visit our Ustream page
* For old schoolers, you can use IRC, you'll need a Ustream log/pass, check out the Ustream IRC how-tos here and here
* We are #adafruit-industries6796 on IRC server chat1.ustream.tv
* There will be a trivia question at the end of the night as always!
* Lastly, if anyone can save a log we'd appreciate it

"Ask an engineer" live chat - 10pm ET tonight LIVE from Maker Faire Rhode Island (hopefully)
Maker Faire Rhode Island

If you're in the SF Bay area, don't miss the segment on Maker Faire tonight at 7pm on CBS 5's Eye on the Bay!

Check out this pedal-powered rice thresher at Maker Faire Africa, shown off by Hazwan Razak.

Here's Kipp Bradford talking about the planning behind Providence's DIY Maker Faire Rhode Island, which concludes this weekend!

Photo credits: Matt Mets, Dug Song

The folks over at AfricaNews put together a nice compilation video about Maker Faire Africa, including a chair made from plastic bottles, electric cream used for food preservation, and many other fine projects!

Did you miss the Faire this year? Don't fret, an even bigger version is being planned for next year! In the meantime, be sure to check out some of the other coverage of this year's Faire.

(Thanks, Daniel Carter!)

Grab your friends, your relatives, and your robots, and get ready for a great time this Saturday at the Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire! Don't let the mini in the title dissuade you, there will be plenty of cool things going on. From the event website:

Local "Makers" will demonstrate robots, bookbinding, electric vehicles, computer-controlled machinery, high-altitude balloons, vortex cannons, and other projects, devices, and inventions at the first Ann Arbor "Mini" Maker Faire, Saturday August 29, at the Washtenaw Farm Council Fairgrounds. Visitors can silkscreen their own t-shirt and learn to solder by making their own "Wee Blinky" electronic circuit to take home. Admission, parking, and all activities are free. Over 25 different groups and individuals from the Ann Arbor and surrounding area are scheduled to exhibit.

I'll be exhibiting a few of my projects there, be sure to stop by and say hi!

WHAT: Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire
WHERE: Washtenaw Farm Council Fairgrounds
5055 Ann Arbor Saline Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 29 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
HOW MUCH: Free!!!

So you couldn't get a visa to Ghana, misplaced your tickets to Accra, didn't have an up-to-date yellow fever shot or for some other reason couldn't make it to Maker Faire Africa...Well lose that sad face, the feed is just beginning. It always seems that during amazing events like Maker Faire, the online coverage doesn't really get rolling until people get back to their home base and upload their photos and videos and write up their reflections.

Here are a few of the feeds that are worth watching regarding Maker Faire Africa. Afrigadget has had some great coverage of the lead up and goings on of the event. They are tagging their stories for easy retrieval with MFA09. Over at Twitter, the same tag turns up some great results.

Adam pointed us to the Maker Faire Africa pool on Flickr, and has picked out some great projects worth checking out.

Amy Smith's research group from MIT has an annual month-long international conference, which this year coincided with Maker Faire Africa. You can check out the IDDS blog for more day to day info on their gathering.

Erik Hersman who usually blogs on White African, has been writing on Afrigadget during Maker Faire Africa, also has a great collection of photos from the event on Flickr.

If you see something else, please mention it in the comments. If you went to Maker Faire Africa, drop a line with more stories of the great work that you saw and did and of course, the MAKE Flickr pool is hungry for your photos and video of the event.

www.makerfaireri.com

My first visit to Rhode Island was in 1990. I vividly remember getting off I-95 at the downtown Providence exit and being confronted by a multi-story pile of dirt at the end of the ramp. I became lost as I wandered beneath the highway overpasses, challenged to find the heart of the city. After moving here for college in 1991, my quest expanded beyond Providence. Over time, I became captivated by the diversity of people and ideas that I discovered wandering through so many small towns mostly by bicycle and occasionally by car. Almost twenty years later, that pile of dirt is long gone, replaced by revitalized buildings and newly invigorated community, but I have found what I had been looking for. A spirit of creativity and fostering innovation, what Bert Crenca, founder of the local community arts organization AS220, has described as the "compost heap" of art, design, technology, science and more, has come to define my experience in my adopted home.

Maker Faire RI , for me, is a celebration of this innovative spirit and the impact it has on peoples' lives. In addition, it is a showcase for the cool projects people are working on in their garages and gardens, kitchens and basements, workshops and community centers. As an affiliate of MAKE Magazine and part of the larger Maker Faire community, we are bringing an event to Rhode Island and New England to gather together local Makers, Innovators, and Creative Thinkers. Our goal is to catalyze sharing of ideas, make connections between those with varied interests, and create opportunities for teaching and learning.

Maker Faire Rhode Island consists of a series of events organized by a dedicated team of volunteers and coordinated with other partner organizations. We begin with a kickoff party September 6th, during the Rocktucket Block Party, part of the Pawtucket Arts Festival.

The second event is a fundraiser for The Steel Yard in Providence, on September 12th. Come enjoy a family barbecue while watching local welders and artists compete for the title of Iron Chef Steel Yard.

From September 14th through the 17th, we have hands-on D.I.Y. workshops in Pawtucket at the Slater Mill, the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. An historic mill building and working museum steeped in the history of industry and innovation in this country, the Slater Mill workshops are a great opportunity to connect the history and future of innovation in America. We'll wrap up the workshops with a celebration at the art gallery and recording studio Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket.

Moving back to Providence on September 18th, we'll meet the Makers at JTJ Investment's Eco Office, at 27 Walcott St. This is the only "Net-Zero" office building in Rhode Island, and is the new home to a leading regional renewable energy concern, Alteris Renewables.

Finally, Makers will showcase their projects, gadgets, inventions, products, designs, technologies, fancy foods, and much more at the Maker Faire at Waterfire. With an audience ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 attendees, we expect to have a fantastic family friendly event.

The Iron Chef fundraiser requires a ticket purchase. All other events are free to attend. Workshop instructors may provide kits for sale at the Slater Mill D.I.Y. workshops.

Hayford Bempong, David Celestin and Michael Amankwanor from Accra Polytechnic set up a local Maker Faire Africa radio station. The group announced upcoming activities, broadcasting at 101.7 FM, and could be heard up to a couple thousand meters away using gear they designed and fabricated from scratch.

[via AfriGadget]

Congratulations to the MFA 2009 crew!

From the Maker Faire Africa Flickr pool

• Bicycle hacksaw [above, top-left]


• Plastic recycling press [above, top-right]


• Air food cooler [above, bottom-left]


• Local chlorine production [above, bottom-right]

Last Saturday, I helped out at the Mini Maker Faire that was held in a local bookstore in Petaluma, CA. This was one in a series of Mini Maker Faires that we've held this summer in and around MAKE's hometown of Sebastopol, CA.

I was making toothbrush bristlebots and LED throwies along with one of the Make: Labs engineering interns, Eric Chu. Other makers that came out on Saturday included David Nutty, working with basic electronics; Elaine Barr, cranking out some sweet t-shirt stenciling; Terry Reilly with High Tech Bikes, showing solar and dual motor bikes; Peggy Jo Ackley crafting collage greeting cards; and Brad Prather with his fun, quirky solar gadgets. All in all, it was a stellar lineup, and the day was a huge success.

The bristlebots project was probably the most involved, and I'll be honest - this was my first time making one. The step that I (and seemingly everyone else) found the most challenging was making a solid connection between the end of the stripped wire and the contacts on the pager motor. We weren't soldering, so we used conductive tape instead, which unfortunately, isn't very sticky! That fact, combined with the fine motor skills required to manipulate the wire and tape on the tiny motor contact, made this step a real challenge. I ended up making two bristlebots, and I used regular tape on my second generation, which seemed to be a better option, given what we had to work with.

The final Mini Maker Faire is this Saturday, Aug. 8, at Copperfield's Books in Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa, CA. It runs 11am to 1pm. Stop by if you're in the area!

Featured makers: Bob Peak from Beverage People with a cheese making demonstration, David Nutty demonstrating the basics of electronics, Brookelynn Morris with needle felting, the MAKE team making bristlebots and LED throwies, Francois Cordesse with astronomy gadgets, and Community Bikes, showing you how to fix your bike.

Here's a charming, inspiring little intro to the documentary about William Kamkwamba, the Malawian teen who got a book out of the library on windmills (which had pictures of the them, but no tech details) and figured out how to build his own to bring electrical power to his family.

William will be participating in Maker Faire Africa.

William Kamkwamba is Coming to 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

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

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

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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)