Many of us dream about the wonderful widget we could build that would revolutionize our homes, parking, health, gaming, factories or whatever domain gets our creative juices surging, but how many of us take it the next step? Even when you’re ready to live on your savings, prototypes can be expensive and royalties add to the pain. … Read More
The introduction of the Arduino heralded the huge growth and interest in MCU based designs by people who could never before easily put together the hardware and software system required for implementation of their ideas. I remember the first time I saw the Arduino in use. I was at a talk on how a system for controlling propane jet solenoids… Read More
It is often said that things go in big cycles. One example of this is the design and manufacturing products. People long ago used to build their own things. Think of villagers or settlers hundreds of years ago, if they needed something they would craft it themselves. Then came the industrial revolution and two things happened. One… Read More
One of the great devices in maker lore is the Polaroid 6500 Series Sonar Ranging Module. It was originally part of the autofocus system for their SX-70 cameras circa 1978, long before through-the-lens optical autofocus sensors were perfected. Back then, people couldn’t focus. Dr. Land thought he was teaching people to compose… Read More
If you happen to still be looking for a Christmas gift for a tech savvy youth, the answer to your search may be an Arduino. This funny sounding word is the name for a family of easy to use low cost circuit boards and related items used to build projects that contain a microcontroller. With an Arduino it is possible to build projects with… Read More
As I wrote about last month, this weekend is the Maker Faire in San Mateo. If you are interested in the cutting edge of what people are getting up to outside of the corporate world, this is the place to go. You will see stuff that you will not hear about for a year or two when it finally goes mainstream.
Increasingly, there is a lot of electronics… Read More
A few years ago my then-girlfriend was an artist and she had some friends who were in the maker movement, one who ran a tool “lending library” and so on. So she wanted to go to the Maker Faire, which is a huge event held in San Mateo exhibit center. In those days it was more like an outgrowth of burning man but there were already… Read More
The DIY Maker Movement has been using Atmel-powered 3D printers like MakerBot and RepRap for some time now. However, 3D printing has clearly entered a new and important stage in a number of spaces including the medical sphere, architectural arena and science lab. 3D printing is now at that crossover point where it is going from being… Read More
