Chicago Mini Maker Faire

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Published: Sunday, 28 June 2020 06:37

Written by Super User

For several years I volunteered at the Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire. The Faire is put on by the amazing Christina Pei and her army of volunteers. While I was working with Trossen Robotics, I would go to show off our robots and let people interact with them. I has a trick where I attached a leash to a Joystick mounted on one of our hexapods and would let people walk it around. We also had some fun Robot arm demos and sometimes Don from MadLabs would come over and show of his drones.  

The Last year I was at the faire as a Trossen Representative was the best. I built an arena out of EVA foam and set up a game using Trossen's Budget Bots. The bots were modified with FPV cameras meant for drone racing and an Xbee for communication. On the other end was a monitor and a Arduino translating I2C communication from a Wii contorller into XBEE to the budget bot. The arena had colored 'goals' and was filled with balls I got at the Party Store. Each competitor had to play from their monitor - they couldn't watch the arena directly (thanks Mech Warfare!)  

We had so much fun. And I'm so lucky to have Wade, Kat and Olga all helping me wrangle kids, bots, and awnings when the wind picked up. I took the arena to a couple of other events after that and one day I hope to bring it out of storage.

3D Logo Plates

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Published: Wednesday, 08 November 2017 18:00

Written by Super User

My Hedgehog Eddie 3D

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Published: Tuesday, 25 October 2016 14:01

Written by Kyle G

By happenstance, I'm in Ohio, a short drive from Cleveland Heights, so I started Listening to Crying (which I love) and decided to get tickets to the show.

When I went to see Streetlight Manifesto, I made a tiny Streetlight for Toh Kay (not sure if he ever got it, I had to give it to a roadie to pass along). But how could I possibly top that?

I present to you My Hedgehog Eddie 3d. I found a great Sonic the Hedgehog model and an awesome Totoro model that I did unspeakable things in Meshmixer. I made some rookie mistakes the first time and sonic's face melted off, but the second time was a charm. The model is too big for its own good (I'm not a 3D modeler, I just play one on TV). But it printed quickly and for the small amount of time I had to get it done, I was happy with the results. Now to see if I can hand it off to Crying tonight.

Thing a Month September - NPC Mini Head

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Published: Thursday, 13 October 2016 00:38

Written by Kyle G

So it's more than half past October and I never got around to posting this. I don't know that this counts as a real thing, it was more of an experiment, but it was fun. Please forgive my ineptitude with stepper motors, I'm much better with them now. And sorry for the pictures, I was on the road.

Read more: Thing a Month September - NPC Mini Head