This was only my second Bay Area Maker Faire and was looking forward to going to more of them. It is such an amazing collection of people ready and willing to teach newcomers new things and to learn the joys of making! I was hoping to write an article telling you the joys of maker faire and why you should go but that might not be the case now that Make Media has shut down. Hopefully, the faire will come back in a new incarnation and with the cadre of self-starting people, I think that is a definite possibility.
Below is a few of my experiences from the even!
Experiances
The major thing I wanted to see this year at Maker Faire was the Adam Savage’s, Sunday Sermon. I have bee watching Mythbusters and his Tested YouTube channel for years but it was amazing to see him in person. His ability to interact with the crowd and to relate on a personal level was a wonderful opportunity to witness. Here is the link to his talk Adam Savage Maker Faire 2019 Sunday Sermon
I also had the wonderful opportunity to listen to Alex Glow and Odd Jay talk about their robotic pets. Not to mention escape the pouring rain. They were full of information on how they have iterated and iterated on their robotic familiars giving advice on how you could make your own.
There were wonderful sculptures and machines outside the exhibit halls that showed off the imagination of their creators.
As one of the sponsors, Google had its own tent where they were showing off their Google Wing which is performing autonomous deliveries in Australia.
The Beaglebone organization also had a booth displaying the different variants that are now available from the classic Beaglebone black to the Blue robotics version and even a new board which incorporates an AI chip.
One of the more ridiculous events at the faire was the toy car racing. Participants took used toddler cars and souped them up with powerful electric motors. They then proceeded to race them around the track at high speed. The race officials vamping almost caused me to die of laughter!
These DIY beatbox machines that were made of a few arcade buttons a couple of speakers and some cardboard. My friend decided to try it out! It made some cool sounds and the interactive buttons made it a much better experience than tapping on a touch screen.
The R2-D2 builders club was also there in full force (pun intended)! These amazing builders have put so much effort and detail into their builds it boggles the mind. They are near perfect replications of R2-D2 or other astro-mechs.
The new Matrix Voice development board incorporates an FPGA and a microphone array to allow the user to develop cool voice enabled applications similar to the amazon echo.
Gallery
Here are a few more images from the faire. There was just soo many people to talk to and cool projects to see!
Let’s bring Maker Faire Back
It is impossible to quantify the impact the Maker Faire has had on the community. It is an inspiring experience seeing all the things people are making and developing and is a wonderful platform for sharing your widget with the community. It is also a great family experience for kids interested in science and making things. With various coding and soldering workshops geared toward them.
I hope that the community can come together and make this event continue for future makers.
