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2012/07/01

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Maker Faire Kansas City 2012 Highlights

Last weekend the second annual Maker Faire KC took place at Union Station, Kansas City’s 1914 beaux-arts train station.  The grandeur of the Union Station is hard to resist, but of course it really was the makers of the Midwest who made Maker Faire KC such a special event.

According to organizers Luis Rodriguez and Joy Torchia, the fair attendance doubled from last year to 10,000+, and the number of makers also doubled, to 230.  The fair’s exhibits truly mapped across the Maker Faire range, from deep craft through robotics to auto hacks. Noted exceptions to the rule were no bikes (?!), but an evident and exceptionally strong 3D printing community.

I’ve uploaded a survey of exhibits and makers here on the MAKE Flickr pool, but before going to the swath of pics, here’s a look at a few standout makers that had great stories and fun projects:
 
Josh Bookout’s “Selectric II,” an Ascii Art Type-O-Matic:

Josh turned an old IBM Selectric II electric typewriter into essentially a serial printer. He runs a text file through serial to Arduino, through a controller board, actuating one of the 14 solenoids. The wires attached to the solenoids pull Erector Set levers, which actuate the key presses, which in turn type out the ASCII art.


 

Josh has great build videos and posts on his site with more explanation—and lots of live typing! http://robotdialogs.com/


 
Bandit Guns of Missouri:

These super cool, laser cut rubber band “shotguns” sold out at the end of the first day! Shoot and then “pump” and another rubber band jumps up the staging “ladder,” ready to be fired.

The guns are awesome but Bandit Guns went above and beyond, designing and creating this equally beautiful shooting game target range. They have a great pistol version too. Find them at banditguns.com.

 
Weird Doctor Office by Prof. Yekaterina Maksimova:

You couldn’t really hear what was going on in Prof. Yekaterina Maksimova’s exam room, but you could watch. Here ArcAttack’s Joe DiPrima is getting his lifesignal checked. Somehow the Jacob’s ladder is involved (arcs were climbing behind Joe during the exam), as well as a lot of switches.

 
Anthony Clay’s series of Electrical Engineering Reference Posters:

In part thanks to a recent successful Kickstarter campaign, Anthony Clay has produced a series of four EE reference posters. Topics are Ohm’s Law and Resistors (“It’s the Law!”), Capacitors and Inductors, Transistors, and Microcontroller Quicknotes. These posters are great looking and definitely a great makerspace accessory.

 
Tom McGuire of Hack.Art.Lab and Witchita State University and his Foam Cutting Machine:

Tom’s computer-controlled cutter turned out perforated foam sheets that people could then punch apart and make wacky hats from.

The Foam Cutting Machine is a bit like a tattoo gun, with the needle made of a sharpened piano wire.

 
Randal Strong-Wallace and his roller coaster models:

Last year Randal brought five of his model roller coaster models to Maker Faire KC. They were such a hit that after the fair, they were given permanent exhibition space inside Union Station’s Science City. This year, Randall brought his tallest, steepest, fastest model yet: “Dragon’s Flight.” Randall has put together some great how-to videos at http://www.modelcoasters.com/buildamodelrollercoaster.htm For a fast insight into the making, check out his materials list: http://www.modelcoasters.com/modelmaterials.htm

 
Iron Man, War Machine, and Rescue from IBOT (Iron Brothers of Topeka):

The ratio of rad costume makers in Kansas City was surprisingly high. These guys, the Iron Brothers of Topeka, were just one (though definitely the most spectacular) of the characters roaming around the show. War Machine had a boombox integrated into his back, so they even had a SOUNDTRACK while they were walking around!


 
Kudos to ALL the makers who showed up at Maker Faire Kansas City, demonstrating to the globe that creativity is not a byproduct of coastline geography. For more pics, see my Flickr feed as well as Maker Faire KC on Facebook. See you in 2013!





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Google I/O After Hours

As expected, Google I/O 2012 started off with a bang. After unveiling the Nexus QNexus 7 tablet,  and Android 4.1 Jellybean operating system, everyone broke into work sessions. At the end of the first day of meetings and presentations, my brain was abuzz with new ideas. And I was exhausted. But the night was not over, not by a long shot. Here is a recap from Wednesday night’s Google I/O After Hours party.

Riding the Mechanical Bull

After a delicious dinner at the Indian restaurant Chutney, we made our way to the party and realized that ordering that third serving of tikka masala might not have been the best idea. The band Train was already on stage and right as we pushed our way to the middle of the room, they finished their set. A little bummed that we’d missed the show, we walked over to the side of the expo hall towards the  Madagascar Institute's mechanical bull ride. Here, our Web Developer Jake Spurlock gets ready.


Robotic Snake: Titanoboa

The team that developed the Titanoboa was at the event showing off their massive metal snake. The  body is made out of welded together custom fabricated metal joints.  Each section has two hydraulic pistons that provide mobility, with each piston capable of delivering 7,000 newtons of force. The project took a year to design and an additional year to build. The last step is going to involve adding scales or a skin of some sort, within the next month, but the team is divided on whether to use translucent material or not.

You can see more information about the Titaboba at their website .

DJ Paul Oakenfold

The second performance of the night came from DJ Paul Oakenfold. We rushed to the front of the stage as the bass thundered out. The show included lights and lasers in the background with the three massive screens displaying live images and videos using the new Google+ Event feature. This allowed everyone at the party to take photos with their phone or tablet and instantly uploaded to the G+ After Hours Event page. Here are all the images from the Google I/O After Hours Event.

Quadcopters:

Toward the end of the night, Tyler Moskowite and I made our way to a large black cube of black mesh. Inside the mesh cage, a team of mechatronics students from Zurich were using autonomous quadcopters to build a brick tower. Using a triple redundant wireless connection system, the quadcopter vehicles communicate with the base stations and pick up a white foam brick where it then uses the local GPS network within the cage to determine its position.  Watching the demonstration was so mesmerizing that Google had set up bean bag chairs so that attendees could sit and relax as the quadcopters buzzed about their job. By the end of the night, we were all tired and ready to walk back to our hotel. A perfect end to the first day of the conference.




This Sundial Spells Solstice


At the campus of French engineering school Ecole Supérieure des Mines de Paris sits this astronomical sculpture by Jean Salins, who created it in 1980. Four times a year, when our planet is in the appropriate alignment with the sun, the shadow it casts onto the ground spells out either “solstice” or “equinoxe.” [via Neatorama]





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