SXSW2013

Sneak Peek: Board Forge Pick & Place

Sneak Peek: Board Forge Pick & Place

Born out of a collaboration at famed Chicago hackerspace Pumping Station One, Board Forge is a six-person startup developing a prosumer-grade, open-source circuit board assembly robot. This weekend at SXSW Create, I got a chance to snap a few photos of their prototype version 1.0 while chatting with founder Jeff McAlvay about the democratization of industrial electronics assembly equipment.

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“Heads Down” Display for Bicycles

“Heads Down” Display for Bicycles

So far the coolest thing I’ve seen at SXSW has been this clever early-stage prototype from our own Matt Richardson. It’s a “dynamic bike headlight” which can project your speed (and other useful information) onto the road surface in front of you. Matt showed off the proof-of-concept build, this morning, at Bike Hugger’s Built: Make & Tell event. Well done, Matt!

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SXSW Hardware Startup Meetup

SXSW Hardware Startup Meetup

This afternoon, more than sixty hardware hackers, makers, movers, and shakers defied the drizzle to gather under a large tent at Autodesk’s SXSW Create pavillion for the official SXSW Hardware Startup Meetup. Organized and hosted by Ryan Brown and Bartley Gillan, the main event was a panel discussion and open Q&A with SF Hardware Startup Meetup organizer Nick Pinkston and the founders of four active hardware startups representing some 1.75M in pledged crowdfunding dollars among them.

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DIY Rocket Competition

DIY Rocket Competition

At South By Southwest (SXSW), DIYROCKETS and Sunglass announced a new competition for an “Open Source 3D Printed Rocket Engine” that would be capable of sending nano-satellites into orbit. The competition starts today and runs through June.

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MakerBot Unveils Desktop 3D Scanner Prototype

MakerBot Unveils Desktop 3D Scanner Prototype

MakerBot announced today it’s developing the Digitizer, a long-in-the-works desktop 3D scanner that will complement its line of 3D printers. MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis made the announcement at Austin’s SXSW Interactive.

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