Technology

Big Weekend for Bay Area Young Makers

Big Weekend for Bay Area Young Makers

We have another two wonderful Young Maker/Open Make events happening in the San Francisco Bay Area Saturday, March 16. Just like last month, you’ll have to pick just one of these two happenings because they occur simultaneously on opposite ends of the Bay. Each offers a flurry of activity that starts at 10am and ends with an inspiring “meet-the-makers” panel discussion.

The events are at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Each museum is also hosting a plussing session, where registered Young Makers can develop and finesse their projects for Maker Faire Bay Area.

Continue Reading Michelle "Binka" Hlubinka
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.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan4
What Happens When Your Kickstarter Fails?

What Happens When Your Kickstarter Fails?

Andrew Deagon, Steve Frehn, and Ian Schaser were inspired to create NeckFX after Andrew dreamed up the idea while recovering from knee surgery (Because you know…pain meds). NeckFX is a custom attachment for guitars that light up LEDs as the guitar is played. While I don’t play the guitar (or have any musical ability what so ever) an LED powered guitar seems pretty cool to me. They built a few prototypes like the one shown in the video and even sold them to bands and musicians. They launched a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising enough money to ramp up production and really scale up their maker business.

But it didn’t work out that way.

Continue Reading Stephen Murphey22