It turns out Kickstarter is just what it says: a start. Don’t let the countdown timer – 30 Days, 7 Days, 48 Hours – fool you into thinking this is anything remotely close to a month-long sprint. The Kickstarter campaign is like the montage sequence in The Empire Strikes Back where Luke trains with Yoda. An awful lot happens in a short, condensed period of time, but there’s a long buildup before and even more action afterward. It’s a short, hectic month in the middle of a much longer process. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the buildup to a Kickstarter campaign and my mental model for understanding it: the Artist-to-Audience Ratio. I tried to debunk Seth Godin’s statement that a Kickstarter project is the “last step” but I didn’t go into much detail. Now that we’re in the thick of the after-Kickstarter-craziness with the OpenROV project, I thought I’d take some time on the topic. First of all, it’s crazier than I expected. I think this is probably true for every Kickstarter project that gets funded, but especially so for those who are building actual, physical products. To give some context, there seems to be a spectrum of options based on how many widgets you need to produce. On the one end, there are basically handmade goods, like The Floating Globe Lamp. In this situation, the next steps are pretty straightforward: build and ship them. Other platforms and tools seem to be a more common option – Etsy, Unique, Craft Fairs – but there’s certainly a long tail of low-volume projects on Kickstarter. In either case, if the demand grows past a certain threshold, the bottleneck eventually becomes the maker’s ability to make things fast enough. On the other end are the Pebble watches of the world. Projects and products that go crazy on Kickstarter and clearly need a full-on manufacturing strategy. As complicated and intimidating as that may appear, my understanding is that the next step is fairly straightforward in this situation: work with PCH International or Dragon Innovations to navigate Shenzhen, China.
 Of course, this is overly simplistic. Running your own handmade business or working with a manufacturing partner can be unthinkably hard and strenuous. I would never intend to downplay that. However, I’m more concerned with the middle of that spectrum – the handmade business-gone-crazy or the small-batch manufacturer that doesn’t have enough volume to justify one of the big manufacturing partners. That’s where OpenROV sits. And so have a lot of the other maker businesses I know. It’s a strange sort of no man’s land that hasn’t been fully explored. Companies like MakerBot and 3D Robotics are blazing a trail, and companies like TechShop and Ponoko are busy trying to provide the right services to support this new type burgeoning enterprise, but there’s still a long way to go. One thing I do know: we’ve had to learn a whole lot in a short amount of time. From all the business administration stuff like legal and accounting, to sourcing parts, to managing inventory, to finding space. It’s been (and continues to be) a whirlwind. Eric and I unloaded everything we were thinking about onto a whiteboard in his garage. After a few days it was covered with part sources, lead times, design changes, testing needs, and anything else we could no longer keep in our cluttered heads. At one point, we spent a few minutes just staring at the board, then at each other, then back at the board. We’ve got it under control, but it’s a lot. As has been our philosophy, we want to be as open and transparent about OpenROV as possible. For the sake of the project, as well as the off chance we can make the process a little easier for any groups that come after us. I plan to write a series of posts that deal with each of the issues on a more in-depth basis: basic business administration for makers, sourcing and inventory management, packaging and shipping, finding space, etc. As always, let me know if you have any specific questions. I’m not an expert by any means, but I’m happy to share anything we’ve learned. More:
Keep up with all of David Lang’s posts on MAKE Filed under: Crowdfunding, Maker Pro         
 
“I believe that we need a national PR campaign for skilled labor – like, a big one.” – Mike Rowe
Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) recently went in front of Congress and told them we need to train a whole new generation of plumbers. I like Mike’s train of thought. However, I think he’s missing a few critical points: 1) Closing the skills gap is doable for anyone, like, right away. It doesn’t take a new college degree – just spend a few weekends a month at your local hackerspace. 2) These are not our grandparents tools and we need to stop preparing people for our grandparents economy. The maker jobs of tomorrow are not the craftsman jobs of yesterday. The tools have changed – rapid prototyping, social media, crowdfunding, etc – and there’s such a grander opportunity. It’s not about re-skilling people to be plumbers, it’s about inspiring them to re-invent the toilet. 3) This is not a solo journey. There are so many makers around the country and world who are happy to teach these new skills and tools, you just have to ask. I’ve never met a more welcoming group of people. Discuss. Filed under: Education         
 
Are you a hackerspace member with an event you’d like to publicize? Send it to johnb@makezine.com or tweet me at @johnbaichtal and I’ll post it. Also feel free to subscribe to my hackerspaces Twitter list. Hackerspace Happenings runs weekly(ish).
Surface Mount Soldering Class at NYC Resistor
 There sure are some nifty new electronic components coming out these days! (Three axis accelerometers! Five watt LEDs!) The only issue seems to be that none of them are available in good old through-hole packages. But don’t worry, because surface mount soldering is not nearly as scary as you might think – there’s loads of tricks to make it easy for anyone. Hand soldering, reflow methods, tools and techniques are all covered. Your circuits will be sturdier, more powerful and a lot prettier. Let’s get tiny!
The class is this Sunday, August 19 and you can sign up via Eventbrite.
Food Flinging Hackathon at Louisville’s LVL1
 This October, from Saturday the 20th to Sunday the 21st, pit your building skills against 9 other teams attempting to assemble the finest food-flinging machines in the world! Your challenge is to build a machine in 24 hours (or less) that can fling the tastiest foodstuff the longest distance with the most style. Teams can bring in any supplies they want (up to $150 worth– We will be asking for receipts at the door!), but you can’t put anything together until the start of the competition. From then on out, it’s a free-for-all to build your contraption using the supplies you’ve brought in alongside the supplies at the LVL1 hackerspace.
Sign up aa Eventbrite.
Soldering Contest at Vancouver Hack Space Are you the fastest solder in the west? Come on down to SHHH August 18 at the VHS (45 Hastings, alley entrance) and find out. We provide the gear, you provide the skills. First place and second place winners get a Seeeduino. The rest get to flail and gnash in misery and despair. The Drawbots will be there, the 3D printers will be there, and everyone will have an awesome time. I hear a rumor there may even be live music.. Remember kids, safety third and August 18 from 7pm until really really really late. See you there!
Rope Making Class at HackPittsburgh Join us this Friday for the ins and outs of Rope Making, as presented by Russ Waspe: Sometimes you just can’t find a rope with the feel that you want. Maybe that soft 4 strand hemp is a little out of your price range. We will show you how to make rope out of just about any sting, yarn, twine or cord. This ancient art is really not as difficult as it may seem. We will also show you how to make your own rope making equipment. Feel free to bring your own yarn or twine to make your own unique rope. This Friday, Aug 17th – Free & open to the public.
Doors open at 7pm, event starts shortly thereafter.
We’re at 1936 Fifth Avenue, in the garage around back (on Watson). Look for our flag over the door.
Wifi Hack Vectors Workshop at HackMiami Ariel Braverman will go over different vulnerabilities and attack vectors that common FREE WI-FI users are exposed at coffee shops, airports, subway, etc. A complete demonstration on how attackers can compromise a free wi-fi network, record and view its traffic even through SSL. Planet Linux Caffe- 1 PM
1430 Ponce De Leon Boulevard
Coral Gables 33134
The event will take place August 18 .
Open House at Bloomington, IN’s Bloominglabs Don’t be bummed that the Summer is over. Join Bloomington’s Makerspace, Bloominglabs, for our Open House Saturday, September 8 from 10am to 3pm to see what we’ve been up to. We’ll have projects on display, some games, and we’ll be having a cookout, too. Come see our new tools including a mill and a lathe we recently restored. You can get in on the action yourself making molds with the vacuum former or you can make some speakers or water rockets. You can pick up a TV-B-Gone kit if you feel inspired to start soldering. Weather permitting we’ll be launching water rockets and Twinkies outside. We’re at 3927 W. Roll Avenue in Bloomington, IN, hope to see you there!
Raspberry Pi Workshop at NYC Resistor The Raspberry Pi foundation is stopping at NYC Resistor on their Hackerspace Roadshow. Come and join us for an evening with talks and hands-on time with the Raspberry Pi. Special guests from Adafruit will be joining us as well, with some of the awesome stuff they’ve designed for making your Pi even more tasty. The Raspberry Pi is a tiny, insanely cheap mini computer. It combines a 700mhz ARM processor, a GPU, hardware h.264 decoding, and a bunch of GPIO pins for interacting with the real world, all for about $25. The Pi was designed with students in mind, but there’s tons of potential for interactivity, robotics, and art when you can literally afford to build the computer into your installations. Talk:
RaspberryPi: Past, Present & Future – An introduction to the RaspberryPi, including an overview of its history and development, details on the technical specification and an outline of future developments with many cool tech demos along the way. Followed by a Q&A session
The talk is free, but you still have to sign up via Evenbrite. Filed under: Events, Hackerspaces         
  Ask MAKE is a monthly column where we answer your questions. Send your vexing conundrums on any aspect of making to askmake@makezine.com. If we don’t have the answer, we’ll scare up somebody who does.
Robert asks: I use Edge shaving gel and I noticed that some cans will not dispense the gel as a foam while others will. Would it make an interesting project to find out how the spray head is suppose to work and find a way to fix it if it is not foaming the gel?
Dear Robert,
According To Edge’s website, the gel is supposed to remain a gel when it exits the can. Therefore, if it came out foaming on occasion for you, I can only guess that it’s due to an abnormality or defect in the can itself. For curiosity’s sake, I went ahead and bought a few cans of Edge gel and put them through their paces in the hope that I could replicate the foaming action you speak of. 
All three of my seven ounce cans came out as a gel straightaway. But I had the suspicion that perhaps it would start to foam towards the end of the can, so decided to empty one out completely. 
Though it produced a lot of gel, after exactly 41 seconds the can simply stopped producing anything. Next I decided to get crafty and try a different spray tip.
I opened the outer casing of the can with a screwdriver and found the tube was not the proper size for a standard aspirator tip (like one you’d use on a spray paint can). So, I gently melted the tube with a lighter and forced the tip in once the tube was malleable enough. 
To my surprise, the aspirator tip still produced gel, not foam. My next recourse was to melt and deform the Edge gel nozzle itself.
Unfortunately, the deformation of the nozzle did little to nothing to change the output from a gel to a foam.
 In the end, the results are inconclusive as to your question, but I tried my darndest to obtain the results you’re looking for. My suggestion to you is to spray some gel into your hand, then agitate it with the fingers on your other hand until it foams up. I hope this helps. Filed under: Ask MAKE         
 
When I was younger, I absolutely loved the Pinewood Derby, the miniature car building and racing competition that we participated in as Cub Scouts. Recently, I was talking to a group of fellow ITP students and we thought, wouldn’t it be fun to hold our own derby, but with no rules? The idea took off and before we knew it, we had a CNC’ed track, an Arduino-based timing system, and a bunch of interesting cars made out of materials like Lego bricks, plaster, cheese, golf balls, and of course, wood. Our first race was a ton of fun, and we’ve decided it would be great to let everyone try it out at World Maker Faire New York this year! We’re calling it the Nerdy Derby and we’re still filling in a lot of the details about the competition, but check out our site for what we have so far. We’re looking forward to racing at Maker Faire New York! Filed under: Maker Faire, Toys and Games         
 
Ian of Dangerous Prototypes went to Singapore Mini Maker Faire 2012 Report and made this great video the Faire’s highlights. Singapore's Mini Maker Faire had a bunch of unforgettable projects. Check out improvised instruments, PC-controlled toys, a Twitter controlled blimp, the banana piano, a DIY Aquaponics system, and a sling shot controlled Angry Birds clone. The Director of the Science Center Singapore shared his motivations for holding a Maker Faire. We also talked to Robot R US, a Singapore distributor of common names like Seeed Studio, SparkFun, Digilent, and DFRobot. We demoed the Bus Pirate connected to an I2C EEPROM, with the Logic Sniffer visualizing and decoding the signals. Also on display were a couple Sick of Beige cases and the ATX Breakout Board. In between demos we played with the LED matrices we got from Kobe Electronics.
See Dangerous Prototype’s coverage of Singapore Maker Faire 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized         
  Chilled Cast Iron – Unknown Artist, via PAXCam  Metallography is a method of materials analysis used to characterize the microscopic structure of a metal sample. Generally, the process involves cutting a sample from some object of interest, polishing its surface to high smoothness, and etching it with a chemical agent to highlight grain boundaries, inclusions, and other microstructural features. The sample is then imaged using one of a number of types of microscopy. The resulting pictures are often strikingly (if incidentally) beautiful. That’s OK by me, personally—incidental beauty is usually my favorite kind.
I have written here about metallography before. Back in 2009, I had a hard time finding nice high resolution metallographic images to share with you. Happily, there seems to be more of it available online, now, and I’ve picked out three academic and commercial image libraries, sampled above and linked below, for those interested in digging deeper. Some of the captioning is still less detailed than I like (many of PAXCam’s images, for instance, are simply labelled as “Metallurgy Image”), but beggars oughtn’t to be choosers. So I’ll simply leave it with this: Hey metallographers! More pretty pictures! Please and thank you!
CCWJ Pictures — Metallography
PAXCam Image Library — Metallurgy Images
Struers — Materialographic Wallpapers Filed under: Art, Chemistry, Earth Science         
 
The official Arduino wifi shield is out, and it’s kinda sexy! The Arduino Wifi Shield is finally here! We’ve been working for a while on this new wifi shield for Arduino that is quite different from what you can find already on the market. Instead of just getting the usual pre-made module we decided to build a product that would encourage hacking and modifications so we decided to use an AVR32 processor running an open source version of TCP/IP and the WIFI software stack. The Arduino communicates over SPI with the AVR32 and this in turn controls the WIFI module, an HDG104 from H&D Wireless. Following the Arduino tradition the full software stack running on the AVR32 is released as open source as well as the Arduino library that controls the shield. Having the full source for the software stack allows adding more complex protocols directly on the AVR32 without using the limited code space of the atmega328 on the Arduino. On top of this, skilled C developers can re-program the shield to operate as a standalone device without the need of an Arduino connected to it. Since we expect that there will be amazing new features created by the community we made updating its firmware very easy, just connect a usb cable to the shield. We believe this opens up to a lot of hacking potential.
Want one? You can buy the shield from the Arduino store. Filed under: Arduino         
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