Where DIY goes: the most interesting from the festival Maker Faire Bay Area 2016

Maker Faire is a festival of creative people who love to create something interesting with their own hands. Makers get together to learn about new trends in DIY and make a feast of technology, ingenuity and creativity. We bring to your attention a report on the most interesting projects of the festival, recently held on the west coast of the United States.



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This is not an innovative moonshine, but a tool to combat global warming. The gas generator burns agricultural waste (for example, sawdust or nutshell) and produces electricity and "biochar", which can be used as fertilizer, while not emitting CO ₂ into the atmosphere. Gas generator created in the laboratory at All Power Labs, University of Berkeley .



During the whole festival, CNC Router Parts manufactured milling ukuleles with a guitar, and then distributed them all to visitors.



The video describes in detail the technology of making guitars.



Installing FR4 CNC glass fiber made in Pocket NC.



MicroDrone 3.0 quadcopter, whose production was funded by crowdfunding. In July, the copter is expected to be updated - it will be supplemented with tiny rejectable brushless motors. The maximum size of the copter is 65 mm, the weight is 56 g. The MicroDrone 3.0 is one of the smallest quadcopters in the world, equipped with a camera stabilization suspension.



MicroDrone 3.0 transmits video to VR glasses.



It looks like popcorn, but in fact it is 3D insulin molecules, made in the framework of the Open Source Insulin Project, implemented by Counter Culture Labs , where they want to develop alternative (and cheap) synthetic insulin, because today its generics do not exist.



Demonstration of ease of use and capabilities of the BBC Micro: bit controller at the Microsoft booth (the company provided its project with the development environment Touch Develop ). Micro: bit is an educational platform for learning how microcontrollers and electronics work. The BBC plans to distribute over 1 million of these controllers to schoolchildren for free.



BBC micro: bit is part of the BBC educational project Make it Digital, whose task is to develop children's interest in learning modern technologies and programming. The board has built-in accelerometers, low-power Bluetooth, a 5x5 matrix of 25 LEDs, three buttons (two for the user, one for reset). Other characteristics of the project are presented here .



An Intel Edison based setup recognizes a person’s face, then rotates and tracks its movement. Edison, if you don’t know, is a Linux-based mini-computer for the Internet of things, although its capabilities are quite enough for a smart dron's “brain” capable of automatically flying around obstacles.



The founder of 1Sheeld arrived , who created an adapter for the Arduino in conjunction with a mobile application that allows you to control smart home sensors via an Android smartphone. This time, the new interface toggl.it was introduced to create a smart home: for example, you can turn a regular door lock or a switch into a device that can be controlled from a phone.



Quin Etnyre, a young inventor, demonstrates a Qduino .Qduino Mini based photo printer, debuted on Kickstarter, is a quarter-size Arduino processor board (only 25x38 mm). The board is in no way inferior to full-size counterparts, while it has a built-in charger and can be used in small devices where it is physically difficult to place an Arduino.

And yes, the photo did not deceive you - it really depicts the author of the project, who created the board at 14 years old. In addition to her, he has several other completed and successful projects. Two years ago, at the 2014 Maker Faire 2014 exhibition, Quinn demonstrated the “home animal robots” he had created, controlled by Arduino. All projects of the inventor are presented on the site Qtechknow.com .



PancakeBot from Lego-crafts has become a normal commercial product. PancakeBot - a fascinating product - a 3D printer for baking pancakes. Who could have imagined such a few years ago? The printer distributes the dough in a pan, giving it any shape selected by the user. True, with three-dimensional objects while there is complexity - your picture of the pancake robot Bender will be as flat as a pancake. But how much do we need from the test?



Ponytrap's drummer robots are made from auto parts and motors from electric drills.



Homemade Dragon Copper is the best decoration for any geek party.



Electronic knitting machine Brother KH900. With Arduino, you can send images for knitting directly from the computer. You can also transfer the design to the fabric with a punched tape mechanically.



A completely insane thing - the giant mechanical squid Mechateuthis , capable of moving tentacles on command. Squid is made by hand from a pile of unnecessary things (for example, suckers on the tentacles - these are bottle caps) by inventor Barry Crawford. And, of course, there is also an Arduino to control movements.



Watch out, fire turns to ice! Steam cooler from Kinetic Steam Works . “Kinetic steam works” is a team that has been engaged in steam engines and steam kinetic art for more than ten years.



Recreated vintage printing press of sample 1896. To create an accurate color image, four printing cycles are required, one for each CMYK color.



The Granuleggs project from students at the University of CCRMA (Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics), which explores real-time physical interaction with electronic sound. It is difficult to explain this in words, just look (and listen):



Granu - because they use the principle of granulation. Eggs - because they look like eggs. The movement of one "egg" changes the volume of the sound, the movement of the second - the height.



Create robots from Makeblock sets. Makeblock are the designers consisting of universal aluminum details from which it is possible to assemble various robotized structures.



Five-meter delta SeeMeCNC 3D printer. On this printer, you can print furniture and sculptures in human growth.



Mechanical Roy and his author Brian Roe.



Photo from the master class in the manufacture of props. In particular, the guests were told how to dye and age the chain purchased in the store.



The solar-powered floating frog robot is made from wine corks and plywood.



This jeep is printed on a 3D printer. For a smoother surface, the case was additionally polished. Local Motors uses the same technology to create its Strati cars.



Strati is one of the first printed cars. It appeared in 2014 and was created in 44 hours. However, the main elements of the electric transmission and suspension are taken from the European version of the car Renault Twizy, and some other elements (batteries, wiring, etc) are made to order by conventional methods.



MCM's “Giant Board” (Giant Board) with integrated Raspberry Pi. It is fully functional, and rented visitors to the booth using the built-in video module Pi Camera.



The smartphone with the Science Journal application measured the speed of rotation of a rack with hanging cups using a light sensor. In general, Science Journal can use all sensors of an Android-based smartphone, measuring in real time and storing a variety of environmental data in memory. Science Journal can sync with Arduino-based devices, turning your smartphone into a real test bench or lab.

Well, let's just finish with photos showing how the festival looks like makers outside the booths. Here you have crazy costumes, an installation of masking tape, a race for home-made karts, a selection of things in the style of retro-futurism, and, of course, Lego.