MakerFaire2012
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Maker Faire Bay Area 2012, in pictures: 3D printers, unicorns, tesla coils and zombies (video)
Did you miss Maker Faire Bay Area 2012? Did you go but want to relive the experience a little? Well look no further: we came, we saw, we conquered. As one of our friends acutely observed, you couldn't throw something this year without hitting a 3D printer. Below you'll find pictures of said 3D printers, but also unicorns, Tesla coils and yes, even zombies (!) -- all lovingly curated from the hundreds of shots we took at the event this past weekend. Craving something with a bit more meat? We've made a convenient list of our Maker Faire posts. Once you're done digesting that, hit the break for our lovely video montage. Hands-on with the Electric Imp at Maker Faire (video) Raspberry Pi hands-on and Eben Upton interview at Maker Faire (video) Hands-on with the MakerBot robot petting zoo at Maker Faire (video) The Engadget Interview: Ben Heck talks Raspberry Pi at Maker Faire (video) Electric Motor Werks hands-on at Maker Faire (video) %Gallery-155867%
Electric Motor Werks hands-on at Maker Faire (video)
Have a BMW 3-Series that requires major engine work? Want to convert it to electric and improve performance, ActiveE style? The folks at Electric Motor Werks have you covered. Instead of making purpose-built electric cars, the company -- which showed a converted 3-Series sedan and coupé at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 -- provides affordable and environmentally responsible electric conversion kits for the BMW E46. These are available directly to consumers but Electric Motor Werks is also building a network of installers (via tuner / speed shops) and setting up its own facilities. We chatted with founder Val Miftakhov who gave us a tour of the prototype kit in the vehicles on display, so head past the break for more information and for our hands-on video.%Gallery-155864%
The Engadget Interview: Ben Heck talks Raspberry Pi at Maker Faire (video)
It's really no surprise that we bumped into the legendary Ben Heck at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012. Still, he was kind enough to give us a few minutes of his time. We talked about the Raspberry Pi, robot luggage, portable 3D printers, pinball machines, pretzels and cheese curds -- oh my! Just take a look at our video interview and don't miss the outtakes at the end.
Hands-on with the MakerBot robot petting zoo at Maker Faire (video)
A robot petting zoo at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012? What could possibly go wrong? Nothing, actually. The kids loved it -- only the robots cowered in fear (of being sat on). MakerBot spent eight weeks building four different species of robots using its Replicator 3D printer -- wheelies (robot chickens), bubble bots, button bots and bumper bots. Judging by the crowds the event was a complete success. We caught up with Michael Curry of MakerBot who told us how the robot petting zoo came to be and walked us through some of the robot specifics -- designs that should appear on the company's Thingiverse website by the end of the week. Next stop: Maker Faire New York. Are you ready for an invasion of cute robots? Find out in our hands-on video after the break.%Gallery-155803%
Raspberry Pi hands-on and Eben Upton interview at Maker Faire (video)
Unless you've been hiding under a rock lately, we're pretty sure you've heard about the Raspberry Pi by now -- a $25 credit-card sized PC that brings ARM/Linux to the Arduino form factor. As a refresher, the system features a 700MHz Broadcom BCM2835 SoC with an ARM11 CPU, a Videocore 4 GPU (which handles HD H.264 video and OpenGL ES 2.0) and 256MB RAM. The board includes an SD card slot, HDMI output, composite video jack, 3.5mm audio socket, micro-USB power connector and GPIO header. Model A ($25) comes with one USB port, while Model B ($35) provides two USB ports and a 100BaseT Ethernet socket. Debian is recommended, but Raspberry Pi can run most ARM-compatible 32-bit OSes. This past weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 we ran into Eben Upton, Executive Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and took the opportunity to spend some quality time with a production board and to discuss this incredible PC. We touched upon the origins of the system (inspired by the BBC Micro, one of the ARM founders' projects), Moore's law, the wonders of simple computers and upcoming products / ideas -- including Adafruit's Pi Plate and Raspberry Pi's prototype camera add-on. On the subject of availability, the company expects that "there will be approximately 200,000 units in the field by the end of June". Take a look at our hands-on gallery below and our video interview after the break.%Gallery-155800%
Hands-on with the Electric Imp at Maker Faire (video)
Yesterday at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 we visited the Electric Imp booth to chat with the startup's founders and get some hands-on time with the tiny wireless computer. What is the Electric Imp? It's a module containing an ARM Cortex M3 SoC with embedded WiFi that's built into an SD card form factor. While the device looks just like and SD card, it's not pin-compatible with the standard -- the idea is to leverage a reliable and affordable connector for the Electric Imp. The module is not very useful on its own -- it only comes to life when inserted into one of several boards, which provide the Electric Imp with power and access to the real world. In turn the device gives these boards a brain and an Internet connection. Eventually the company hopes that appliance manufacturers will incorporate Electric Imp slots into products to make them network aware. We talked with CEO Hugo Fiennes (formerly with Apple) about the past, present and future of the Electric Imp so hit the break to read more and to watch our hands-on video.%Gallery-155789%
