As part of their sponsorship of Maker Faire, Chevy offered to loan us a Volt for a week leading up to the Faire. When I heard about this, I jumped at the opportunity to review it. So, here’s the first MAKE car review. Hybrid Chevy doesn’t bill the Volt as a hybrid, but rather, an “extended-range electric vehicle” or E-REV. What this means is that you can plug in the car, and 4–8 hours later, you have around 35 miles of range strictly on battery power. This is great range, as most commutes are typically less then 35 miles. The car will charge on 110 or 220 volts. A lot of homes have 220 in the garage for a dryer, or a fuse box nearby where you could bring a 220-volt line over near your car. If this is the case, the charge time cuts in half, and you can go from a completely empty to a full charge in about 3–4 hours. At work, as an example where you might not have the liberty of running a 220-volt line to your parking space, you can charge over 110 with a normal outlet.
Economy 
Since the car can be run entirely on the battery, you can get some pretty amazing gas mileage. I started out my week of test driving with normal trips to work (about 15 miles roundtrip), the store, and around town. The first three days of driving, I only used 0.3 gallons of gas. The onboard computer was telling me that I was averaging over 250+ miles per gallon. After three light days, I stretched out with some longer drives, once to the coast to go rock climbing, once for a camping trip with my son, and then down to the Oakland Airport to pick up my brother. All in all, with the single tank of gas that Chevy provided for testing, I drove over 450 miles in a week, and only used five gallons of gas. Undeniably, 90 miles per gallon is pretty amazing in real-world driving. Performance I had no idea what to expect as far as performance goes, and to say that I was surprised would be an understatement. The car sports aggresive style and it doesn’t let you down when you put the pedal to the floor. One caveat here: I think that the Chevy engineers were thinking that the end user would always be thinking about conserving energy, and there are checks in the car to help reinforce that notion. During normal driving, when you plant the pedal, the car gives a slight bit of hesitation, enough for a gut check, and then takes off. Every time, it made me think about what pushing the pedal down was doing. I had the conscience thought about how I wanted to be driving, and how that would impact energy/fuel consumption. At first, this was frustarting, but I grew to like it. That slight hesitation made me a more, dare I say, eco-conscious driver. 
Now, you may not always want to be eco-conscious. Sometimes you want to drive fast. Sometimes you want to lean your neck into the headrest and lay down some rubber on the road. Is the Volt the car for you? Well, perhaps. The Volt offers a sport mode, which removes any hesitation from that powerful electric engine and releases all of the electric power that the car can offer. While maybe not neck-snapping, it’s certainly quick. What surprised me the most while driving was how smooth acceleration was. This could be due to the single planetary gearset that the car has. In no time flat, you can be doing 70, all in the same gear, and just as smooth as can be. One other quick note regarding performance: to turn the traction control off, you press a button that is on the ceiling. Every time I did, I felt like Han Solo making the jump into hyperdrive. We're losing a deflector shield. Go strap yourselves in. I'm going to make the jump to light speed.
Looks  My boy playing with stickers in the back seat of the Chevy Volt. As for looks, I think this car wins in the hybrid/electric wars. It’s not a Tesla, but not trying to be one either. It looks similar to the Chevrolet Cruze, and for a four-door sedan, sits pretty nicely in any driveway. The loaner that I got was “Silver Ice” and had a great black leather interior. The instrument cluster was all digital, and in addition to speed/distance readings has options to bring in GPS directions, tire pressure readings, and a tutorial for how to use the car. One highlight for me was a gauge that measured acceleration and deceleration. As I mentioned above, everything is built to maximize efficiency, so keeping everything as smooth as possible was important. The center console has a great, big display that toggles between satellite navigation, music options, efficiency screens, and a little favorite, the current weather. In addition to an AM/FM/CD player, the car has XM radio, an auxiliary port and a USB port where an iPod/iPhone can be plugged in. You can browse your albums, artists, and playlists all from the built-in console. This worked great with both my iPhone and my iPod Nano. If I owned this car long-term, I could see plugging in an old iPod and just leaving it in the center console. The dash can also play DVDs while parked and media from a HD. The car has seating for four. Rather then having three in the backseat, the batteries are in the place of the middle seat, so sliding across the seat isn’t possible, but there is a nice area with a cupholder and 12-volt hookups. The backseat is actually split, so if you’re loaded up in the trunk, you can spread longer items, like camping chairs, through when more room is needed. My only complaint is the lack of a wiper on the back window. I know that not all cars have a back wiper, but this car, with the large sloping back window, got really dirty after being rained on in a sandy campground, and was almost impossible to see out of when driving home. Cost So, is it worth it? The car retails at $31,645, but that’s after $7500 in tax rebates. A well-specced Impala is $30,300, and about $5000 less for a Camaro, but neither car can go 35 miles without gas, or average over 90 mpg when running around town. If you have the money, and gas mileage is important, then this car could be worth it for you. For some, the cost of gas that is recovered makes all the difference. For me, this car would be a serious contender in my book of new cars. The combination of smart looks, great economy, and plenty of sport under the hood makes it a standout. At Maker Faire this year, Chevy will be in the south lot doing test rides, and I urge everyone to check it out. It’s a great car, and I recommend it.          
The Viper is one of the most ambitious projects ever created for Maker Faire. This dedicated group of Young Makers decided to build a fully functioning flight simulator. They sketched their idea in Lego, and then brought it to life. All it took was a chopped up fuselage, software engineering, welded frames, a ton of servos, sound design, a Battlestar Galactica marathon, and of course, teamwork. Experience The Viper at Maker Faire Bay Area, May 19th and 20th. You can also check out our interview with Team Viper. Subscribe to the Meet The Makers Podcast in iTunes, or watch it on YouTube. Check out more episodes of Meet The Makers.          Delta Faucet asked us to do something with them and their touch-faucet technology. Of course, our first thought was: Tell us how it works. We interviewed Bob Rodenbeck, director of research and development, and here’s some of what he had to say. -Gareth 
 Make: Can you first give us an overview of the faucet itself? Is this the first of its kind?
Bob Rodenbeck: For more than 10 years, Delta Faucet Company has been researching and designing touch and hands-free faucet technologies. The company introduced its first electronic kitchen faucet in 2005, on the Brizo brand Pascal culinary faucet, which launched in 2006 with a combination of touch-activated and hands-free sensing. In 2008, we introduced the first touch-activated faucet under the Delta brand (Delta Pilar pull-down kitchen faucet with Touch2O® Technology) and have since continued to expand from there. In 2011, Delta Faucet introduced Touch2O® and Touch2O.xt™ Technology (touch and hands-free) to the home bathroom. Besides convenience, electronic faucets also help reduce the transfer of messes from the hands to the faucet. Make:Can you give us an overview of the faucets and the tech? Bob Rodenbeck:Our Touch2O and Touch2O.xt technology were born of ethnographic research and human behavior studies to satisfy an unmet need of turning on a faucet with messy hands and turn off the water when it’s not needed between tasks. One of the interesting things we found during our research of consumers is that while the idea of hands-free technology resonates with them, they prefer the control and responsiveness of our touch technology in the kitchen. So much activity happens in and around the kitchen sink that hands-free sensing can activate water when it really wasn't needed. We call those surprise activations. MAKE: How does the touch technology actually work? (We have a fairly sophisticated audience, so don't be afraid to be technical) Bob Rodenbeck: Every person has a characteristic called capacitance. Capacitance is an electronic value measure in farads. Capacitors store electrical energy. A human body typically has 22 picoFarads of capacitance. A result of this capacitance is often felt in the winter months, via static discharges that occur when walking across a carpet and touching a metallic object. Walking across a carpet generates energy that is stored in the body's capacitance. This energy is discharged when touching another object at a different voltage potential. A capacitive touch sensor is basically a sensing device that measures capacitance in its environment. When a touch sensor is connected to the faucet, it first establishes a baseline level of capacitance. Once this is established, it then looks for an increase in capacitance that occurs when a person touches the faucet (the human body's 22 pF). The sensor detects the increase and either turns on water flow or turns off water flow. When the person releases the faucet, the decrease in capacitance is also detected. Touches and grabs are distinguished by measuring the duration of the person touching the faucet. Touches are defined as being less than 300 milliseconds, and grabs as more than 300 milliseconds. There are two capacitive touch sensors in the faucet. The first sensor is connected to the handle and the second is connected to the spout. If a touch sensor is connected to anything conductive (wire, metal sheet, metal bar, etc.) that conductive element becomes an extension of the touch sensor. The first sensor is attached to the handle which is made of brass. Since brass is conductive, the entire handle of the faucet is a touch sensor. The second capacitive sensor is connected to the spout. As the spout is also made of brass, it is also a touch sensor. MAKE: Are there technical challenges to this type of sensing? Bob Rodenbeck: The technical challenges we faced were isolated to a few areas: adding electronics to the faucet without taking away from the aesthetics, identifying and sourcing the right materials to ensure the technology worked as it should across a wide range of faucet styles and installations (sink material and type, water quality, installer variability, etc..), and determining the precise sensitivity to ensure the functionality was intuitive and convenient to the end user. Our biggest challenge with this technology really had nothing to do with the technology itself and more with the mindset of users. There are certain perceptions or opinions about electronic faucets – mostly based on past experiences – we needed to overcome. By far, the largest challenge of incorporating capacitive technology into faucets was changing the perceptions and habits of faucet installers. In the case of Touch2O, the installation isn't itself that hard, but it is different from a traditional faucet installation. A key technical challenge involved ensuring the faucet is properly isolated from any surrounding metal (i.e. sinks) and ensuring that water (inside and outside the faucet) doesn't affect the performance of Touch2O Technology. MAKE: What are some of the positive benefits of this sort of technology? Disadvantages?
Bob Rodenbeck: Touch2O Technology is amazingly intuitive and extremely responsive to the user, resulting in economies of motion and ease of use. Touch2O Technology and Touch2O.xt Technology make it easier to turn on the water flow when hands are messy or turn off the water when it is not needed between tasks, potentially saving water. It also helps keep the faucet cleaner while helping to reduce the potential for cross-contamination. The only disadvantage we've noticed so far is that these faucets are still relatively new and as with all new technologies and innovation platforms, there's a certain learning curve. We're still working to change attitudes toward electronic faucets and also address hesitations about the idea of mixing electricity and water. In reality, the technology operates on batteries and uses the energy stored in our own bodies to activate the faucet.
MAKE: Where are some of the places you see this type of technology going?
Bob Rodenbeck: There is a lot of research, collaboration and testing that comes into play when the research and development team is working on launching a new product. The R&D, design and engineering team all work together throughout the process because we believe that the collaboration results in creating better products for our consumers. You can find touch technology almost everywhere now and continues to expand into new applications. Touch functionality is on phones, computers and other tech gadgets. But, it isn't something you expect to see on a kitchen or bathroom faucet. Our research and development team is always looking for new applications of the technology as we aim to provide people with a better way to work with water.          
Need a way to protect your wares from sneaky snoops? With some light soldering to a basic recording module, a small assortment of tools and components, some clothespin hacking (yes, seriously), and other parts you probably already have around the house, you can make your own Talking Booby Trap! Like all ambushes, you arm and set this device, waiting for unsuspecting culprits to trip your trap. When they do, whatever you recorded on the module will be instantly shouted out, your voice-alarm telling the perp “Not so fast!” Attach and hide the device directly or tether the circuit with fishing line to a remote location. Watch the video below to see the trap thwart thieves in action. 
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What do you get when you cross a hoverboard and a DeLorean? A Delorean hovercraft, of course! San Francisco grad student Matthew Riese has built just that. With the help of money he raised during a Kickstarter campaign in 2010, he was able to buy the materials needed to build it, including epoxy resin, latex mold-builder, a MIG welder, and fiberglass. The finished hovercraft can travel on any flat surface, including water. However, it does not reach 88mph, so Matthew did not have to involve himself in any illegal parking lot dealings to obtain plutonium for the flux capacitor. (The DeLorean hovercraft’s top speed is around 45mph.) Great Scott! If you’re going to be at Maker Faire this weekend, you can check out Matthew Riese and his DeLorean hovercraft in person! Use the Maker Faire app to plan your time at Maker Faire wisely (For iOS and Android). 
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