maker faire
Latest
Maker Faire ceases operations amid financial trouble
It's a grim time for fans of homebrew gadget creation. Maker Media, the company responsible for Maker Faires and Make:, has stopped operations and laid off all its staff. CEO Dale Dougherty explained it to TechCrunch as a matter of financial trouble. It "wasn't that interesting to its investors," and sponsors were backing out. Autodesk and Microsoft didn't fund the flagship Bay Area Faire in 2019, for example. This came despite healthy demand. The recent Bay event met ticket expectations, for example.
Ultimaker debuts its latest 3D printer ahead of World Maker Faire
Over the past few years, Maker Faire has transformed into something of a 3D printer fest, and there's no reason to expect that this weekend's event in Flushing, Queens will be any different. Ultimaker, for one, is launching a new printer, the simply named Ultimaker 2 (though the product itself displays the name as Ultimaker squared). The next-gen product doesn't seem to bring a ton of new features to the table, though the company promises that it's faster and more accurate than its predecessor. It also ships with Cura software, which should speed things up even more. Also, the launch coincides with the unveiling of the company's Thingiverse-esque YouMagine online collaboration site, which will help you find objects to, you know, print on the thing. Again, the Ultimaker 2 will be on display this weekend, and has an asking price of 1,895 euros ($2,563).
Expand and World Maker Faire: Two great events at one smart price!
What's better than getting to attend a hands-on technology event with thousands of like-minded enthusiasts? How about attending two such shows for one low price?! We've teamed up with our good friends at MAKE Magazine to make that a reality: now for $50 you can pick up a bundle ticket that gets you into both World Maker Faire in New York City on September 21st and 22nd (choose your day pass when purchasing the bundle), plus our own Expand NY on November 9th and 10th. That's two amazing opportunities to see and interact with some of the most interesting projects and people in technology, from the next great inventors to the biggest names in consumer electronics. Don't miss it...
Get $100 off MAKE's Hardware Innovation Workshop this May 14-15!
We come bearing tidings of good savings from our friends at MAKE: get $100 off the regular price of the second annual two-day workshop designed for makers turning their projects into real businesses. The Hardware Innovation Workshop kicks off at the College of San Mateo just before Maker Faire Bay Area on May 18-19, and features big names in the world of making and innovation as well as startups you haven't heard about -- yet. The workshop will focus on innovative tools and technology, platforms and projects and devices and designs based on open hardware. Read on to find out who's speaking...
Caption Contest: Maker Faire's morning pick-me-up
Some mornings you just don't want to get out of bed. We've all got our own methods for starting the day, but few are quite so...electric...as this this one spotted at Maker Faire over the weekend. No doubt even Tesla himself couldn't have concocted a better way to shake oneself loose from a bad case of the Mondays. Richard Lai: "Starbucks now brewing Electric Latte. Espresso with steamed milk and a dash of lightning, finished with a sprinkle of copper dust." Darren Murph: "Jump Start kind of undersells things, no?" Jon Fingas: "The best part of waking up is 10,000 volts in your cup." Billy Steele: "The folks at Jolt Cola are not going to be happy about this." Tim Stevens: "No, it's pronounced 'coffeen' not 'caffeine'!" Terrence O'Brien: "Bobby's decision to learn Conjure Refreshment really started to pay dividends when his mage reached level 64" Zach Honig: "Would you mind nuking this for me?" Brian Heater: "Just another McDonald's lawsuit waiting to happen." James Trew: "Electrici-Tea." Dan Cooper: "Van De-Caff Generator."
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%
MaKey, MaKey turns the whole world into a keyboard
The litany of exciting Maker Faire products continues with MaKey MaKey, a device that turns anything capable of conducting electricity into a controller. Developed by MIT Media Lab students Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum, you simply run an alligator clip from the board to an object and hold a connecting wire in your hand. Connecting over USB, it's entirely programming-free, but if you find your interest piqued, you can flip the board over to use the Arduino module baked into the hardware. It's already surpassed its original $25,000 Kickstarter goal and when the run begins, you'll be able to pick up everything you need for just $35 -- but if you can't wait that long, head on down to the Bay Area this weekend. [Thanks, Ryan]
Visualized: Arduino gets super-sized ahead of Maker Faire
This is Make's John Edgar Park, manfully clutching his Arduino Grande. The oversized device isn't just for show though, it's a fully working unit for those projects where a standard sized PCB just won't do. He'll be taking excited modders though the process of building it at Maker Faire on Saturday, just head over to the demo stage at 5:30pm with your pre-written Super Size Me jokes close to hand.
MakerBot uncovers the miracle of 3D printed 'bot making (video)
There are few things out there that can send you into a shame spiral of career despair quite as quickly as watching a group of people with arguably one of the funnest jobs in the world. People like the MakerBot 3D design team, who were tasked with assembling an army of cuddly robots a "petting zoo" for this weekend's Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, granted, we're sure they all work hard, but we can't help but feel a little jealous at the opportunity to design kid-friendly 'bots using the company's Replicator 3D printer. Check out a video of the team in action after the break.
MakerBot printing out Robot Petting Zoo for Maker Faire
Sure, it's no $500 3D printer, but the folks at MakerBot always have plenty of fun stuff floating around their Brooklyn headquarters. Stuff like, you know, a Robot Petting Zoo. The company's prepping a slew of 3D printed 'bots for display at the upcoming Maker Faire in California. CNET's got shots of the robots, each of which have special functionality like old Button Bot pictured above -- not so great for petting, but he likely knows more tricks that your average sheep. More images at the source link below.
The Engadget Show is live, here at 6:00PM ET! (update: we're done!)
Are you ready for this? If not, too bad, because we're back, and boy have we got jam-packed show this month. The next episode of The Engadget Show starts shooting tonight at 6PM ET, and you can join us at this very URL -- so keep your browser locked to this spot. This time out, we'll be testing out the Grace One electric bike on the streets of New York City, paying a visit to the Frog laboratories to check out some awesome design projects, popping by Maker Faire in New York and discussing DIY projects with Make:Live co-hosts Matt Richardson and Becky Stern, getting serenaded by viral rock star Jonathan Coulton and discussing the origins of everyone's favorite dancing robot, Keepon. Update: That's a wrap! We'll have it edited and up on the site as soon as we can!
MakerBot's Turtle Shell Racers cruise around our offices (video)
This weekend's Maker Faire in New York City was lousy with 3D printers. Every tent in the outdoor area was packed to capacity with the things, their owners standing beside them, showing off the small trinkets they'd created with the devices. Judging from their presence, there seems little question that the technology has proven a success with the maker community. Amongst the general public, however, they've been a much harder sell. Perhaps it's the price, or maybe it's the generally dull connotations of the word "printer," or it could just be the fact that there hasn't been the right iconic image to help sell the products to the public at large. MakerBot's Turtle Shell Racers may well be just the ambassador that the world of 3D printing needs. The toy football-sized RC cars are proof positive that the devices can turn just about anything you can imagine into reality. There are certain limitations, of course, like the fact that the objects printed can't be larger than five inches in diameter. The Shells' creator circumvented that admitted shortcoming by assembling the products out of small pieces that snap together. Check out more hands-on impressions and a video with the racers after the jump.%Gallery-134372%
Arduino brings the (new) goods to Maker Faire New York, welcomes ARM into the fold
When Arduino unveiled a boatload of new products on Friday, we could have taken the easy route, posted the PR and called it a day. But, since the crew happened to be in town for Maker Faire, with a few folks from Atmel (makers of the AVR chip at the heart of the open source MCU) in tow, we figured why not go straight to the source. Arduino founder Massimo Banzi gave us a look at the company's latest offerings: the ARM-powered Arduino Due, the low-cost Arduino Leonardo, and aptly-named Arduino WiFi, as well as a peek at some of the group's upcoming plans. Keep on reading after the break for the juicy details.%Gallery-134242%
Brainlink lets you control your toy robots, Roombas, before they control you (video)
Let's be frank for a minute -- we need to gain control of our robots before they get control of us, so why not start with the robots you've already got taking up space on your shelves at home? At this year's Maker Faire in New York, BirdBrain Technologies showcased a way to hijack your toy robots, Roombas and other bits of home electronics: the Brainlink System. The forthcoming little triangle hooks up to your existing technology, letting you program commands, add sensors to the device and generally teach it new tricks. The company's chief robot designer, Tom Lauwers, showcased the technology on a Robosapien, a TV and a Roomba, the latter of which you can see in the video after the break.%Gallery-134202%
Stepping into the Polaroid Matrix at Maker Faire (video)
Sometimes it's the simplest questions that lead to the most important innovation -- other times it's more that they're just plain fun to answer. Take the one asked by Grand Rapids, MI-artist, Sam Blanchard: what would the Wachowski Brothers' bullet-time effect look like, were it shot on, say 20 Polaroids, instead of a room full of expensive digital devices? The answer, naturally, can be found in the Polaroid Matrix, a circle of cameras on display at Maker Faire in New York, this weekend. The Kickstarter success story arranges the cameras into a circle -- a subject can be sat in the middle, or the cameras can be oriented outward, to take a panorama of the surrounding environment. Once the rig is fired up, the cameras make that familiar Polaroid warm up hum -- times 20. The actual photographing happens almost in an instant, with 20 flashes. The photographer walks around the circle and collects 20 photos, which are bound into a photographic flipbook. Check out a video of the Polaroid Matrix in action, after the jump.%Gallery-134201%
