There were many amazing things at the Faire this year, but the wide assortment of hackish items at the S&T Geotronics booth really caught my attention. The first thing that drew me in to the booth was the replica of a “stereotypical” bomb with a timer attached to it. Although I doubt many modern bombs look like this, it would be a really bad idea to try to travel with one.
On the less threatening, but still possibly TSA-unfriendly devices side, this booth also featured Marc’s replica Enigma machine. It’s beautifully crafted as a part of a limited run of these devices available for sale. Understandably, the encoding is done electronically, not via a set of mechanical rotors like the original. As cool as something like that would be, the cost to make one would likely be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
If you’re wondering why the name of the company includes “GeoTronics,” they were showing off a wide assortment of geocaching and reverse geocaching gear. All of their equipment is open-source, which fits in well with the Maker Faire surroundings.
Finally, they also had a LED panel system on display powered by Arduinos. Each of the 32×32 panels can operate by itself or in conjunction with a master controller. This display had a great assortment of parts and equipment, both for the hobbyist that wants something ready-made, and for someone who just wants to build a giant LED screen. And who doesn’t want to do that?
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