After weeks of planning the first week of Maker Camp is now behind us. Did you have fun? We sure did and there are five more weeks to go so stay tune for a lot more making.
One of the cool things about Maker Camp this year is our community page on Google+. We didn’t have that during last year’s camp. Following the community page offers a real window into the vitality of the maker movement. Each day on Maker Camp we present one easy-to-build project and it’s fun to see makers post their versions of the projects on the community page. But the community doesn’t stop there. The community is buzzing with lots of other projects. I’ll be highlighting some of the builds that caught my eye at the end of each week. Take a look and if you’ve got a project of your own or one you saw on the G+ community page, please post in the comments for all to see.
During Day 1 we presented plans to build a two-liter motor boat. We got lots of great pictures and videos of the boats makers made. I loved this one submitted by the Saxon Area Library because of the beauty of the setting: a little dock, a pond, and a warm summer day. Now that’s camp!
As I said, the community page is loaded with makers’ versions of the projects we featured on the broadcast, but it’s clear makers are using those are as a point of departure.
Andrei Aldea posted this cool build for an Arduino-based rover. He says:
So what I have is a Tamiya America track chassis and dual gearbox, which I spraypainted black and rusty yellow, the top parts are 3D printed, then spray painted. For a microcontroller, I went with a Arduino MEGA 2560 and an Adafruit motorshield. I changed the headers to stacking headers (not shown here) and added some 5V and GND rails which are again not shown in the pictures. I used 2 analog reflectance sensors from sparkfun. (don’t remember the model numbers off the top of my head). For obstacle avoidance, I used an SRF05 ultrasonic distance sensor mounted on a servo, which took snapshots of the distances of objects left, right, and in front. For power it uses 2 9V batteries (one for the arduino and the other one for external power for the motor shield) I did all the code and building myself and am really proud of it (second robot I’ve built…). So what do you guys think?
I think it’s great.
For something totally different but equally cool, check out Ross Radford’s steampunk-inspired mask and goggles.
Says Ross:
I used a respirator mask, brass tacks and some other miscellaneous. The brown material is actually from a brown paper bag that I imbibed with candle wax to give it a darker, more “leathery” look. It also makes it more durable and water resistant. Still a work in progress. I’ll probably wear it on Halloween.
Ja D came up with very clever board game: Periodic Paradox.
The main concept is that it is supposed to be an innovative way to learn about elements, chemicals, and a base idea of how black holes work. Eventually I hope to made a better version using a wooden board as the base and making the hawking photons radiating from its other side a wire that emits a light that shoots down the wire to module the negatively charged photon radiation emitting from the black hole. There are game cards and rules. Object of the game is to collect all the elements you need to make all the chemicals on your “grocery list.” First to collect all the chemicals on their list calls out “Paradox!” and wins.
Impressive stuff all around. Keep making and see you at Maker Camp next week.
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