S&T Geotronics at the Atlanta Maker Faire

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.

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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?