Live Updates: Maker Faire Bay Area 2016

Maker Faire Bay Area 2016 is alive and kicking! We’ll be posting regular updates right here so you can see what is happening at the greatest show & tell on earth. Be sure to check back often to see the wild and wonderful things that makers are doing in San Mateo this weekend.

Sunday

Makey had too much fun. What a wonderfully crazy #MFBA16! See you next year #makerfaire pic.twitter.com/oPqp4YqaEA

— Maker Faire (@makerfaire) May 23, 2016

Van der Graph fun and games (Alasdair, 5:20pm)

We love Makey (Hep, 3:51pm)

The FPV racing tent took drone racing to another level. These guys already pushed out an edit of one of their runs. Wild! (MS)

CNC Router Parts spent the Faire building ukeleles from scratch — from absolute raw materials to musical instrument in no time at all. Then they gave away all the ukes! See our video overview/interview of their exhibit here.

Mike Senese asking a couple quick questions with Adam Savage as we walk through the hectic and wonderful chaos of Maker Faire! (caleb kraft 3:00)

The Twitch Chat reaction when Adam Savage addressed the question about how to deal with it when someone denigrates your work: (2:30pm TW)

Awarding the coveted Editor’s Choice blue ribbons at Maker Faire. (2:15pm, Alasdair Allan)

Reverse global warming: This biomass gasifier burns agricultural waste (like wood chips or nut shells) to produce electricity and "biochar" charcoal (carbon) that's buried in the ground, not released into the atmosphere as CO2. Carbon-negative power from All Power Labs of Berkeley,California (Keith Hammond, — Reverse global warming: This biomass gasifier burns agricultural waste (like wood chips or nut shells) to produce electricity and “biochar” charcoal (carbon) that’s buried in the ground, not released into the atmosphere as CO2. Carbon-negative power from All Power Labs of Berkeley,California (Keith Hammond, 2:00pm)

Adam Savage just gave a great speech about overcoming the frustrations, failures, and difficulties of making things. He’s now signing stuff and sharing smiles with makers! See the full story here. (caleb kraft 1:30)

Pocket NC’s new FR4 clip-and-build CNC machine is simply brilliant. (11:30am MS)

Microdrone 3.0, fresh from its massively successful crowdfunding campaign, wowing the crowd in the Maker to Market Pavilion. They’ve got a microgimbal coming out in July, using super-tiny brushless motors. (MS)

Line out the door for the lockpicking workshop. 14 and older, sorry kids! (MS)

Maybe my favorite moment at Maker Faire. A moment before snapping this photo, this young photographer’s sister intently directed R2D2 to look at the camera for his portrait. So sweet! (MS)

Star chef Yahshimabet Sellassie of Yahshi Bakes shows off her cake-making skills and techniques.

3D-printed insulin molecules from the Open Source Insulin Project by Counter Culture Labs in Oakland, CA. They’re aiming to find an alternative synthetic insulin, which is currently the only drug of its age that does not have a generic version.

Everyone loves mini donuts. Even the Tinkercad folks. (10:06MS)

Serious costumage from a couple young attendees. (1005am MS)

Some impressive demonstrations of the ease and power of the BBC Microbit controller at Microsoft booth. Its LED array is a unique and useful aspect for making the board itself a display, and is able to also register light levels. Plus it has accelerometers and wireless BLE capabilities. (9:05 am Mike Senese)

Humans aren't the only ones making things in San Mateo this weekend. The Beekeepers' Guild of San Mateo County brought several frames of hardworking buzzybodies, viewable in the Homegrown Village. (10:45am Sophia Smith) — Humans aren’t the only ones making things in San Mateo this weekend. The Beekeepers’ Guild of San Mateo County brought several frames of hardworking buzzybodies, viewable in the Homegrown Village. (8:45am Sophia Smith)

Female Makers convene on Sunday morning for a “Women Who Make” meetup — talking personal projects, swapping stories, and feeding off of each others’ amazing energy! (8:30am Sophia Smith)

Day three is about to begin! We’re tidying up the site to get things ready for the 10am gate opening. There’s a wonderful, eerie, silent magic to the faireground in the early hours before the show starts. (7:56am Mike Senese)

Saturday

Live right now on Twitch.tv/make — Power Wheel Racing! Watch the stream here. (6:00pm MS)

Intel Edison-powered “face watcher” — uses computer vision to identify a face, then moves via servos to turn and follow it as it moves. (545pm MS)

Arduino’s David Cuartielles and Seeed Studio’s Eric Pan, catching up in the Arduino booth. (5:28pm MS)

Ask the expert — Arduino’s David Mellis, in this case. (5:29pm MS)

Make Electronics stage has the best backdrop. (5:20pm MS)

1Sheeld founder Amr Saleh is launching a new connected home interface called toggl.it, a series of housings that let you convert your ordinary door lock or lightswitch to phone-controllable devices. Expected to ship in early 2017. (5:30pm MS)

Quin Etnyre with his Qduino photo printer — one of our fave young makers who’s been part of the Maker Faire family for years. (5:31pm MS)

The journey of the first PancakeBot from Lego to refined commercial product can be seen at their booth. (5:33pm MS)

Alexander Weygers’ booth shows his historic visions of the future — including this glowing UFO glass sculpture, and a 1950 illustration of the San Francisco of the future. (5:25pm MS)

Ponytrap’s robot drummers — made out of auto store parts and Black and Decker drill motors — bang out a favorite theme. As featured in the new issue of Make magazine! (Keith Hammond, 5:22pm)

This beer bottle video display, #flaschentaschen, is driven by Raspberry Pi and can run up to 160fps! @noisebridge pic.twitter.com/iYrHGhiwDk

— Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) May 22, 2016

Bubbles (5:12pm, Alasdair Allan) — Bubbles! (5:12pm, Alasdair Allan)

Copper the Dragon (5:05pm, Alasdair Allan)

“Here be dragons.” Beware! (4:35pm MS)

DJ Q-Bert and Rich from Thud Rumble talk about the crossover of DIY technology and turntablism. (4:15pm MS)

Space Helmet Selfies (3:18pm, Alasdair Allan)

The San Francisco Machine Knitters Guild brought some Brother KH900 series knitting machines, and are showing off various set-ups, including one that is hacked with an Arduino to feed an image directly from a computer to the needle bed. The machine above shows how the design on the punchcard is mechanically transferred to the knit pattern. So cool! (3:10pm Sophia Smith)

I just shot some footage of this incredible piece. It is absolutely mesmerizing to watch it undulate. Details and video here! (Caleb Kraft 3:00pm)

Red Flyer Racers, peddle tricycle racers for kids! (2:53pm, Alasdair Allan)

Behold, fire turned into ice! Steam-powered refrigeration from our friends at Kinetic Steam Works. If only we'd had Freon in the 1800s. — Behold, fire turned into ice! Steam-powered refrigeration from our friends at Kinetic Steam Works. If only we’d had Freon in the 1800s. (Keith Hammond, 2:48pm)

A Chandler & Price "Old Style" printing press, circa 1896. It take four rounds of precise printing for color: one each for black, magenta, cyan, and yellow. As cool as it was, I'm pretty happy with our current methods of printing issues of Make: (2:45 Craig Couden) — A Chandler & Price “Old Style” printing press, circa 1896. It take four rounds of precise printing for color: one each for black, magenta, cyan, and yellow. As cool as it was, I’m pretty happy with our current methods of printing issues of Make: (2:45 Craig Couden)

"I recently got into teaching kids what I know because I feel like I didn't get that privilege [in school]" -- Sasha Jaffarove at the Make: Live stage (Bonus: "Making is not graded!"). This girl is awesome! (Lisa 2:42) — “I recently got into teaching kids what I know because I feel like I didn’t get that privilege [in school]” — Sasha Jaffarove at the Make: Live stage (Bonus: “Making is not graded!”). This girl is awesome! (Lisa 2:42)

Making Magic (1:55pm MS)

Granuleggs created by students of the CCRMA. Granu, because they use the principle of granulation. Eggs, because they look like eggs. Move the left changes volume, and the right changes pitch. (Lisa 1:33pm)

Massimo Banzi talking on the State of Arduino. You can read more about the new Arduino Create elsewhere on Makezine. (1:28pm, Alasdair Allan)

The robot dance party rolls on at Maker Faire. Play that funky music… (1:24pm, Alasdair Allan)

Microdrone 3.0 transmits first-person video and has a tiny micro-gimbal option. (12:45pm, MS)

Intel’s outdoor booth has a load of interactive exhibits. Dancing spiders, RC rover challenges, a rocking-horse racing game and more. (12:30pm, MS)

Building robots with Makeblock. (12:10pm, Alasdair Allan)

The unnecessarily high five at #MakerFaire. #HighFive #MFBA16 pic.twitter.com/YEjqGTiN6m

— Alasdair Allan (@aallan) May 21, 2016

17 foot tall 3D printer from SeeMeCNC (Keith 11:55am)

Slack for iOS Upload (1) — … And here’s a close up of one of its life-size 3D prints! (Lisa 11:57am)

Only at Maker Faire is a posse of R2s a pretty normal sight. (11:32am Alasdair Allan)

Splash of rain this morning has come and gone. Nice fresh air for a wonderful Saturday at Maker Faire! (11:30am, MS)

• What It’s Like In Space: Weird Stories from Those Who’ve Been: My review of the new book by Ariel Waldman — I’m interviewing her onstage at Maker Faire today at 2:30pm. (11:30am, Mike Senese)

Building robots at Maker Faire (11:00, Alasdair Allan) Hey, that’s Mechanical Roy and his builder, Brian Roe! They’re both great. (11:20, MS)

• Don’t miss out! We’re livestreaming demos from the Show and Tell Stage, and Power Wheels Racing throughout the day.

BatalaNYC, a samblanche of Music & Dance (10:50am, Alasdair Allan)

A drum line rolls through Zone 5 into the heart of the Faire. (10:50am Sophia Smith)

The Northern California Haunters group has displays on how to create spooky props. Here's how you to paint and age a store bought chain. (Hep 10:19am) — The Northern California Haunters group has displays on how to create spooky props. Here’s how you to paint and age a store bought chain. (Hep 10:19am)

Having some fun in the dark room. (Lisa 10:13am)

And the gates are open!! #MFBA16 #makerfaire pic.twitter.com/uhJrd8MKlz

— Maker Faire (@makerfaire) May 21, 2016

Ruth Tillman created this zen koi pond completely out of yarn. I'm feeling the calm (lisa 9:17am) — Ruth Tillman created this zen koi pond completely out of yarn. I’m feeling the calm (Lisa 9:17am)

gerard_from_bay_area____1024 — Gerard from Bay Area R2 Builders preps for the crowds. The astromechs will be in the Sequoia building, but Gerard says they like to tease the people waiting for the Faire to open by driving past the line. :) *(8:11 Lisa Martin)*

r2-kt_1024 — An R2-KT arrived this morning too *(8:11 Keith Hammond)*

slack_for_ios_upload_1024 — Lighthouse Community Charter School has crafts and activities lined up for the day. You can see their booth in the Zone 10 tent.

• Ars Technica: From drone racers to pinball: Maker Faire Bay Area 2016 doesn’t disappoint — nice photo roundup from Ars Technica’s Cyrus Farviar (8:00am MS)

Friday

Good night! See everyone tomorrow bright and early. (10:00pm MS)

A bop it clone big enough to stand inside to play, with added fire *(7:38pm Fri, Alasdair Allan)*

Dinner is served! The Friday evening Maker Dinner is a great tradition, all the exhibitors get to relax and mingle before the weekend surge really kicks in. (5:45pm MS)

Getting ready for the traditional pre-Faire Maker Dinner of Gerald's Paella. — Getting ready for the traditional pre-Faire Maker Dinner of Gerald’s Paella. (5:31pm Alasdair Allan)

Arduino Create was released from beta today, and allows Makers to write sketches as well as share them and collaborate in a new web-based platform. Read more here. (5:30pm Alasdair Allan) — Arduino Create was released from beta today, and allows Makers to write sketches as well as share them and collaborate in a new web-based platform. Read more here (5:30pm Alasdair Allan)

Robot love. (5:00pm MS)

I'm digging these little aquatic solar-powered frog bots. You can make one at Cardboard Robots in Zone 4 (Lisa 4:39pm) — I’m digging these little aquatic solar-powered frog bots. You can make one at Cardboard Robots in Zone 4 (4:39pm Lisa Martin)

3D printed Jeep, part of the Department of Energy’s exhibit. It was built in conjunction with Local Motors, using the same technique used for their Strata 3D printed car. You can see the print layers inside the jeep and under the wheel wells. The body is even printed, and smoothed out by spraying another layer of material on top that can be polished flat. (3:57, MS)

While Next Thing Co.'s booth sports a giant Pocket C.H.I.P., the giant board at MCM's booth is the Raspberry Pi. The giant board is fully functional, and right now is using the new Pi Camera Module to watch faire goers as we watch it. — While Next Thing Co.’s booth sports a giant Pocket C.H.I.P., the giant board at MCM’s booth is the Raspberry Pi. The giant board is fully functional, and right now is using the new Pi Camera Module to watch faire goers as we watch it. (3:25pm Alasdair Allan)

Checking out the new Science Journal app from Google. It looks fun and we can't wait to try it! Read more about it here (Lisa 3:07pm) — *Make:* editor Sophia Smith checks out the new Science Journal app from Google with the help of one of their product experts. We can’t wait to use it in our next experiment! Read more about it here (3:15pm Lisa Martin)

IMG_20160520_135801642 — Nick Dong’s “Cosmic Dance” uses electromagnets to levitate smaller pieces above a suspended, sculptural base. (3:00pm Sophia Smith)

IMG_20160520_141700664 — Bay Area Lego Users Group (BayLUG) displays a mindblowingly detailed scale aircraft carrier. (3:00pm Sophia Smith)

The Pocket C.H.I.P., the super handy fun computer from Next Thing Co., comes in giant size here at Maker Faire. (2:30pm Alasdair Allan)

The undulating tentacles of Mechateuthis are mesmerizing to watch. The individual tentacles can be hand-cranked manually by members of the crowd, or controlled digitally. (2:10 Craig Couden)

The Drone Racing League heats are really fun to watch, and it’s easy to see how much skill it takes to make it through the course. (2:00pm Craig Couden)

Google's mobile Science Journal launched this morning, and we got to play around with external light sensors that are hacked to measure the speed of a rotating tower of paper cups. (1:45pm Sophia Smith) — Here’s a closeup of Google’s Science Journal app complete with external sensors. We got to play around with a rotating tower of paper cups, measured by a hacked light sensor that monitors the rotational speed. (1:45pm Sophia Smith)

So much eye candy in the dark room. I’ll be spending a few hours in here experiencing each project in its fullest. Two cool ones that I just stopped to stare at for a few moments:
(1:20pm MS)

And we’re off! The Maker Faire gates are open. Over 20,000 students and educators are expected to visit today. It’s a full Maker Faire opening, so you can come too! (1:02PM MS)

• Qualcomm Showcases DragonBoard 410c’s Expanded Developer Options at Maker Faire

Qualcomm's Snapdragon DragonBoard 410c development board. — Qualcomm’s Snapdragon DragonBoard 410c development board.

Spotted: sweet new Makey robot pins! (12:00 MS)

One of the benefits to being here during the setup is that we can sometimes talk makers into doing fun things before the crowd arrives. I’ve loved this guy’s embroidery for a while and I dumped out my bag to have him make a cute little dog for me. Only at Maker Faire! (Caleb Kraft 11:30)

That right there is an adorable embroidered dog.

There is a Makey robot walking around! (Caleb Kraft 11:00 am)

...and he's giving out hugs! (11:15am Sophia Smith) — …and he’s giving out hugs! (11:15am Sophia Smith)

There are 100,000 schools in America. There should be at least 100,000 maker spaces. –@dalepd #makerfaire #mfba16 pic.twitter.com/8tepqgK2vH

— Mike Senese (@msenese) May 20, 2016

Russell the giraffe can now turn his head! *(8:45am Caleb Kraft)*

Power Wheels Racing track being built. *(9:10am Mike Senese)*

Friday morning: Final setup happening. Gates open today at 1:00pm for all, with students and educators being our special guests (8:50am, Mike Senese)