Making Makerspaces at Maker Faire!
Working on starting a makerspace? Register now for a How to Make a Makerspace workshop, Friday, May 17 at Maker Faire Bay Area in San Mateo, CA.
Year: 2013
New MAKE Video Series: Projects with Ryan Slaugh
Today we debut a new monthly video series: Projects with Ryan Slaugh. Each new episode will air on the first Tuesday of the month. The series aims to help people with their own projects by giving them ideas, techniques, and inspiration. While most projects will be electronics related, many built around Arduino and Raspberry Pi, some projects will offer insight on using specialized tools and working with different materials. The projects will range from easy to challenging and from application-based to something done just for fun. In his first video, Ryan will show us how to make an Arduino-powered, Pelican case-based mobile prototyping platform for writing code, arranging tools, and all around making.
Cardboard Tube Smokestack, Paper Towel Smoke
I’ve been enjoying some of the clever stop-motions videos I’ve seen created using Twitter’s newish app, Vine. One of my favorite Vine users is Brock Davis. Though he’s only posted a few videos, I like how simple and creative they are. Simple + creative is a winning combination.
Maker Faire Inspires Father/Daughter Steampunk Table
Last year our first trip to Maker Faire Bay Area. My daughter Sawyer and I saw many creative projects and were inspired by the work we saw. Sawyer, who was 7, really got the bug to make things. One of our first projects was a table built out of 1-inch black steel pipe, wood 2 x 4s, and glas
Knock Knock Calculator
Knock Knock is a clever Arduino-controlled calculator toy, designed for small children. The user knocks out a calculation on the surface — addition, multiplication, subtraction, or division — and Knock Knock will spit back the solution, in the form of knocks, of course. It’s a fun idea for a toy, but good luck trying to use this in secret during a “no calculators” test at school!
Mapping Buildings with a Kinect
This cool mapping system created by MIT uses a Kinect motion tracker, a laser range finder, GPS, and inertial sensors to map out the interior of a building. [via Beyond the Beyond]
Pitches with Prototypes: Solar Tracker
To get the most efficient use of solar electric energy, you must keep your solar panel pointed at the sun. Manually moving the solar panel is impractical. An automated solution may be beyond the reach of many green energy enthusiasts or anyone who just wants to keep the lights on without developing robotics expertise. Hoping to fill that need is technology savvy Jay Doscher, with his prototype solar tracking robot. His tripod mounted, GPS steered solution is portable and could be used for emergencies, camping or any time off-grid power is needed.