Maker Faire is a sum total of the work of makers, producers, volunteers, participants, artists, technologists, and creative and curious people of all stripes. It also engages businesses who not only believe in the maker movement, but in many cases are makers themselves. Check out some of the innovative companies at Maker Faire Bay Area this year – educators, tool makers, reuse and repair enthusiasts, and geeks.
Crunch Labs is “where kids and adults learn to think like engineers.” They do so online and through an enormous Willy Wonka like warehouse of fun based in the SF Bay Area led by Mark Rober, Head EnginNerd & former NASA engineer, with more fun and games brought to you by a small team of fun-loving engineers, designers and makers. This year at Maker Faire Bay Area, the Crunch Labs team has lots of extra special stuff planned.
- “Science Bob” Pflugfelder (Jimmy Kimmel Live, Live With Kelly & Mark) brings his love of science and making to life through stories and some science demonstrations that will almost certainly require a cleaning crew to the Foundry stage.
- CrunchLabs toy designers: Danielle Gleason, Mason Landon Smith, Evan Barnes, Dan Tompkins and Bam Singhasaneh for engaging insights on what inspired them to become makers, where they find inspiration, and how they take ideas from concept to finished product. Learn about their process of prototyping, iteration, and the challenges of designing toys for mass production.
- Creativity is a skill that anyone can benefit from having in their toolbox. Moreover, creativity is like a muscle that you can strengthen through exercise. Designer Bam Singhasaneh will be discussing what it means to be creative, the factors that affect your ability to think creatively, and ways in which you can foster your creativity.
From a Robot Arena to a Claw Machine, Microchip delivers a wide variety of exciting interactive demos. Join the Wizard of Make, Microchip’s Bob Martin for an update on the latest developments in the Arduino / Maker Space ecosystem. microcontrollers (MCUs) were there from the outset, providing first the AVR® MCUs, and later the SAM MCUS, as the hardware side of the equation. Artists, designers, inventors, engineers, musicians and even school children use Arduino with boards designed around AVR or Arm®-core based MCUs to turn brainstorms into real working things. By delivering a unique combination of performance, ease of use and a free GNU GCC compiler, our MCUs perfectly complement Arduino and the needs of makers. Microchip MCUs and Arduino are the original duo at the heart of the global maker movement.
Cocoa Press 2.0 for Chocolate Printing
Food printing used to mean wacky experimental nozzles grafted onto random 3D printers, but chocolate printers are really a thing now, purpose-built machines with their own markets from DIY foodies to pro bakers and confectioners. Ellie Weinstein and her company Cocoa Press were among the first to get it dialed, and their new 2.0 machine is a big upgrade in capability and precision, with new BigTreeTech electronics and Klipper firmware to make it superfast and accurate, a new touchscreen UI, and a cool new a fast-swap extruder system so you can move into the world of multi-color – multi-chocolate! – printing. Their head of community, our bestie Matt Stultz, will be showing off the shiny new Cocoa Press 2.0 machine and where they’re headed next with their Cocoa Buddy multi-material system. Always wonderful to visit with Matt and see what he’s working on next, especially when it involves edible art and tasty chocolate samples.
Prusa Research and Multi-Extruder Printing
Founded as a one-man startup in 2012 by Josef Prusa, a Czech hobbyist, maker, and inventor, Prusa Research is of the most innovative and most trusted 3D printer companies in the world. Prusa machines just work! And support their products and customers with a vibrant community, a 3D file sharing platform, and excellent upgrades for owners of older machines. This year, they are the first to achieve the Holy Grail of multi-material printing with virtually zero waste, with their Prusa XL 3D printer with 5-extruder tool changer. Finally! Come see it in action, printing previously impossible things in one go. Not only do they make excellent printers, in addition to supporting Maker Faire Bay Area this year, they have helped to expand the maker community in the Czech Republic by working with producers Make More to produce Maker Faires in communities large and small across the Czech Republic, including in Prague–one of the world’s best maker events.
Coast Runner Desktop CNC Mill
The Coast Runner desktop CNC Mill is a formidable tool and highly accessible for those with smaller spaces and a smaller budget. They have also made a product called Coast CAD. Read more about it our review of the machine HERE.
DaigiKey is working on expanding our product offerings and growing our Maker.io website with more and more amazing products, projects, blogs, videos, and much more. We are continuing to be a leader in innovation by having the newest products and product solutions available when they are launched. This gives us the opportunity to be the go-to distributor for innovative products. Check out more about amazing maker projects.
At Maker Faire Bay Area, DigiKey Technical Content Creator Jorvon Moss aka @Odd_Jayy will also be speaking on the Make: Live Stage about his Wearable Robot Companion on Saturday @ 1:30pm. Learn more HERE.
Mill is a really special kitchen garbage can. We all know that food waste is a huge problem–for restaurants and home cooks. Following a central ethic of the maker movement – reuse – the Mill system reduces food waste to almost nothing by composting food scrap off all types into compost efficiently, silently and without smell. Nourish your garden or work with Mills partners to redistribute your food waste. Mill makes it easy for people to keep food out of landfills and take climate action at home. The Mill food recycler uses integrated sensors and advanced artificial intelligence methods to quickly and quietly dry and grind food scraps, transforming them into clean, dry grounds that can be used to feed farms or gardens. Learn more about consumer food waste and Mill HERE.
LightBurn is layout, editing, and control software for laser cutters and engravers. Lasers are versatile machines, with utility in an endless variety of projects, including photorealistic engravings, jewelry, 3D models, signs, and art installations. LightBurn was founded by makers and is developed with those diverse creations in mind — our goal is to make sure that inadequate or unwieldy software is never the barrier to jumping into the world of laser crafting, and realizing whatever amazing project you can think up. Drop by the LightBurn booth for a live demonstration of our software. Or check out the handy tutorial channel when you get home HERE. Looking for more information on lasers – check out our guide to laser tools. Lightburn friend Laura Mathews will also be at #MFBA24 with her dragons….
Shout out to Seeed Studio who will be joining us at Maker Faire Bay Area before putting on their own show in Shenzhen! Seeed is a hardware innovation platform for makers to grow inspirations into differentiating products. By working closely with technology providers, Seeed provides technologies with quality, speed and supply chain knowledges. A leading Open Hardware company since 2008, empowering more than half a million global developers from different verticals to co-create and make their solutions available for diverse markets. As the AI hardware partner, Seeed provides industrial-ready modules and devices, along with Fusion services of prototype, produce and promote.
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