This month we had a great turn out to see Because We Can speak and to make EL wire at Tech Liminal on July 6th and at The reMake Lounge on July 13th.

As always our members showed off their cool projects. At The Remake Lounge Steve showed his progress with his EEG controlled robot. He has now integrated a new headset from NeuroSky with the Mindstorm. His next step is getting to the raw EEG signals so he can do his own signal processing. Be sure to check out his website for all the details

Because We Can spoke about “Turning Pro: Becoming a Professional Maker” The ideas that stood out for me were “Good Ideas are Useless, Good Execution is Priceless” and “Fail Often, Fail Better”. They also were realistic about running a business saying that you will only spend 20% of your time working on the things you love to do and that you should not start your own business if you are in it for the money.

Then it was onto EL Wire with the kits coming from Cool Neon.

After choosing colors and some delicate soldering….

It lights up!

After that you can make anything light up including your hat!

We had a great time and we can wait to see you all in August!

Hello Makers,

Well, I guess this month it is Fixers because we going to have a Sugru Hackquarium. If you don’t know what sugru is, it is a hand moldable silicone rubber that can stick pretty much anything together. It dries at room temperature and then it is water proof, basically heat proof, and strong. So search around and find all the things you want to fix, customize, or just make better and bring them to the meeting and get hacking. Check out their website to see all the cool stuff people have done with it.

This project will be free for members! and $10 for non-members.

Also we are starting a project to buy and build a MakerBot CupCake machine for all of you to use! Already, we have three people donating money towards the cost of the machine but we need more. So if you are interested helping out make this project happen come and talk to us at the August meeting or send us an email and we will explain what we are planning.

This fun-for-all-ages event starts at 6:30pm. Children under 14 need to be accompanied by an adult.

Where to go:
reMake Lounge
50 Post St Suite 9
Crocker Galleria (near Sutter St)
San Francisco , CA 94104

New to Make:SF? Here is what you can do:
- New to making? Come and explore with a fun mini-project.
- Have an idea? Come and we will help you get started making it.
- Making something? Come and demo it. Get feedback and network with the Makers.
- Come to see the speakers we bring in talk about their projects, tools you can use, etc.

Hello Makers,

Well, I guess this month it is Fixers because we going to have a Sugru Hackquarium. If you don’t know what sugru is, it is a hand moldable silicone rubber that can stick pretty much anything together. It dries at room temperature and then it is water proof, basically heat proof, and strong. So search around and find all the things you want to fix, customize, or just make better and bring them to the meeting and get hacking. Check out their website to see all the cool stuff people have done with it.

This project will be free for members! and $10 for non-members.

Also we are starting a project to buy and build a MakerBot CupCake machine for all of you to use! Already, we have three people donating money towards the cost of the machine but we need more. So if you are interested helping out make this project happen come and talk to us at the August meeting or send us an email and we will explain what we are planning.

This fun-for-all-ages event starts at 7:30pm. Children under 14 need to be accompanied by an adult.

Where to go:
TechLiminal
268 14th Street
Oakland, CA 94612

New to Make:SF? Here is what you can do:
- New to making? Come and explore with a fun mini-project.
- Have an idea? Come and we will help you get started making it.
- Making something? Come and demo it. Get feedback and network with the Makers.
- Come to see the speakers we bring in talk about their projects, tools you can use, etc.

Maker Faire 2010 starts Saturday morning at 10am

Make:SF will be hosting our usual hosts Tech Liminal and reMake Lounge.

Stop by EXPO Hall Booth 173 and say hello.

We’ll be demoing our mini-workshops (45 minutes – 8 people… first to sign up first served.) so join us to sharpen your soldering skills by assembling a Drawdio, or try your hand at a soft-circuit project.

Workshop schedule:

Saturday
11am – 12pm Drawdio
1pm – 2pm Soft Circuitry
3pm – 4pm Drawdio
5pm – 6pm Soft Circuitry

Sunday
11am – 12pm Soft Circuitry
1pm – 2pm Drawdio
3pm – 4pm Soft Circuitry

What the heck is Drawdio? We made them in a Make:SF mini-workshop a while back.

Making Drawdios in a Mini-Workshop

What about Soft Circuitry?

Interested? Stop by our booth and have a look, or better yet Join Us.

Hello Makers!

Maker Faire is on the horizon and it is time to get your project ready. So this month we are having the Maker Faire Dress Rehearsal/ Happy Hour. If you are presenting at Maker Faire come with your projects and show them off. Practice your presentation and give your project a run through before the big day.

If you want to see some neat projects you can come and check them out without the crowds. Meet the Makers and see their projects close up. We will start at Tech Liminal at 7:30pm and then after the demos (around 8:30pm) we will head over to to Spicy Monkey Cafe for some food and fun. We are getting drink tickets so the cost will be $10 for members or $20 for non-members for the first round of drinks and appetizers.

New to Make:SF? Here is what you can do:
- New to making? Come and explore with a fun mini-project.
- Have an idea? Come and we will help you get started making it.
- Making something? Come and demo it. Get feedback and network with the Makers.
- Come to see the speakers we bring in talk about their projects, tools you can use, etc.

Hello Makers,

We had our monthly meeting at the reMake Lounge last week. We had some great demos and then played with Processing and Arduino to make the Temperature Clock.

First we had Chris who made the MUNI light

It polls the MUNI information for a stop you set and determines when you need to leave the house to reach that stop. It goes from blue to blinking red the closer the bus is to your stop. You can check out his website for more cool stuff

Then Andrew showed off a crank LED flashlight he found with way too many features including an neat adapter to charge an iPhone.

Finally we had Jeff show off his new project: the Minimalduino. It is a shield compatible Arduino with the minimum number of parts you need to make it work.

Check out his blog for more pictures of this project and for all the other cool stuff he has made. Also, if you are interested, you can download the Eagle files for the Minimalduino and make one yourself. Another cool thing he mentioned is that the Portland Dorkbot does a PCB order every month. They charge $5 per square inch and you get three copies of your design. It is a great way to get a few professional boards without paying a lot of money.

Then we went on to our Temperature Clock mini-project. Everyone was able to get it working and then had some fun playing around with the different displays. If you want to try this project yourself all the information is on the Make:SF wiki. Feel free to download the files, go through the tutorial, and make any changes you want.

See you all next month!

I found this site through EDN. It is called eReplacement Parts and it has all the parts for a huge number of power tools. This could be a great resource for things like gear assemblies, triggers, cases  etc.

It's Alive! - Exhibition of Kinetic and Interactive Art

The Crucible’s Cathedral Gallery seeks Bay Area artists to participate in their upcoming juried group exhibit: ‘IT’S ALIVE!!! – An Exhibit of Kinetic and Interactive Art’ .  The exhibit will feature artists’ explorations combining art, movement and interaction. Any submission  capable of movement and active interaction, by either a motor, programming, directly per instructions by the observer, will be considered. Work must be in functioning order throughout duration of the exhibit to remain in the show. The exhibit will be held May 20th to July 2nd at the Crucible’s Cathedral Gallery located at 1603 Broadway in Downtown Oakland.

For more information and online submission form:
http://www.thecrucible.org/gallery/347

Deadline is May 7th!

This week we had a couple of demos and then made Dawdios.

Steve showed off his Rock, Paper, Scissors Playing Glove. It is a glove that plays rock, power, scissors with the person wearing it. Unfortunately one of the flex sensors had broken but he was able to demonstrate the cool display he made. The project uses two flex sensors and an accelerometer to determine what is played and when it is played. Also the glove will alter its play to take advantage of any bias in which moves the player makes.

Check out all the details including source code at grathio.com

The Hermes showed his running light. It slides under the laces of your shoe and lights the as you are jogging.

Finally Jorden told us about his idea for Space Invader masks.

Then it was onto our Drawdio project and despite a solder shortage we some great success.

If  you are interested in making a Drawdio your self, there are kits for sale at Tech Liminal.

We had a fun time this week at Techliminal. First we Esperanza Pallana speak about urban farming. She has a treasure trove of knowledge and has a very scientific approach to the whole enterprise. For example she a has found a chart that you can use to map the daylight a point in your garden will get. If you are interested in getting more information you can contact her at Pluck and Feather.

Then we made some music with the Drawdio mini-project.

The kits came from Adafruit. They also had some really good instructions.

Everyone was able to get theirs to work and we were able to create some cool sounds.  We still have more kits that you can buy. Contact Anca at Techliminal if you are interested. Check out the rest of the photos on Flickr.