This is a guest post by Adam Ellsworth, part of the 8-Bit Lit team, makers who had a great idea (videogame inspired lamp), found traction on Etsy with it, and are now taking it to the next level via crowdfunding.
Bluetooth has never had a reputation as being easy to work with, but with the arrival of the Bluetooth LE standard, all that has changed. We look at two of the new Arduino-compatible micro-controller boards on Kickstarter with Bluetooth LE built-in.
Here at Make, we’ve been fans of crowdfunding as a way for makers to move their dreams from prototype to product for a long time. We are just now starting to take baby steps towards curating and recommending these kinds of projects to our readers, but we think this can be a valuable service, since we have so many connections to the makers taking these leaps, and those who already have.
Andrew “bunnie” Huang backed Formlabs’ 2012 Kickstarter for the Form 1 liquid resin (SLA) printer and just scored a pre-release beta unit through his connect with Neoteny Labs.vAnd, naturally, the first thing he did was tear it apart.
Ever battled SRAM limitations with your sketch on the Arduino Uno? Decided reluctantly to break out an Arduino Mega, and suffer with the resulting shield incompatibilities? Then the new Goldilocks board might be just what you’re looking for in a micro-controller.
The Photon, an affordable 3D scanner, has already quadrupled its $80,000 Indiegogo goal, with still two weeks to go. Almost as gratifying: the Photon has generated a flurry of proposed uses for the device beyond the original “maker hobbyist” market they were targeting. The Photon is the first product from Toronto-based company Matterform, founded by friends and collaborators Adam Branejs and Drew Cox.
