• new videos for element14 presents

    07/27/2019 at 18:02 • 2 comments

    For the first new video I've finally worked some more on my R2-D2 vs. Johnny V mash up robot. You know, the one where I was too lazy to work on both, so I've joined them together :D Anyway, the matrix voice kit was a bit frustrating and I was all over the place with what I wanted to do with this robot, it probably shows.  

    The second video is an LED matrix that takes midi inputs or listens with a microphone. Inspired by close encounters of the third kind, of course! This video was so much more fun to make then the matrix voice robot. Finally a video where I was certain enough, that a bit of "regrettable acting" wouldn't hurt this time.

  • MakerFaire Berlin 2019

    05/21/2019 at 13:44 • 6 comments

    For this year's MakerFaire in Berlin @Alex, @bitluni, @Clemens Mayer and I formed a collective called "⅘ Sterne". Everything that happened, everyone I've met and everything I have seen, wouldn't fit in a single tweet, so I thought I would write a bit.

    Setting up started on Thursday, since the next day the MakerFaire would be open to school classes. Clemens wouldn't take any projects with him on the plane and Alex's projects are - well - tiny - so I had the two tables to my self on Friday. With a red paper table cloth and yellow tape that would only be enough for 80% of a 4/5 Stars "tape art" logo. Fitting. It was my first "school day" and I noticed: those days are weird. Kids come with a totally different expectation than on the regular days. They come to be entertained and expect you to have games prepared. Luckily Bitluni arrived with a new top secret project, that we took for a test run on the parking lot. 

    On Saturday Bitluni was assembling his projects from the beginning of the opening. He quickly ran out of table space, even though we sneakily moved a table from our no-show neighbours. At one point I yelled "Promise me this is the last project!". We were looking forward to meet people from "all over the world", who announced that they would come. One of them was @deshipu  - he didn't get a table but we were more than happy to share table space, so he could show his Tote and Pew Pews. The mighty @Stefan Kremser joined the booth for a bit, I handed him back some Game Boy mainboards that he was so kind to lend me for a video.

    I was happy to see my Cousin and his son and also a friend from school I haven't seen in ages. And then there was "Great Scott" and yes, "Senpai noticed me!", because he knew me from my element14 videos :3 From the first "Hardware Happy Hour" I've seen three people (that I remembered at least). People that I only knew from twitter before where - not just Arturo182. But we were happy to drink beer with him in the afternoon, to the sweet live music by wu-tang clan and public enemy - they were playing live, very very close.

    we declared @arturo182  as our fifth member on Sunday, by handing him the spare MakerFaire badge and I think he enjoyed his Berlin MakerFaire experience. There was a Mexican family with maker kids, who call themselves "moon makers" ( https://www.instagram.com/p/BxsArl_pJf4/ ) and they've interviewed me for a bit. Made me happy to see how both are interested in the making scene! For element14 I'm currently working on a video for the Matrix Voice hat and by coincidence was running into a developer. I'm also pretty sure he used a selfie to escape my questions.

    As always we noticed we weren't prepared enough, really need a lot more info material / handouts to not always tell the same things. At this point it seems like we can try this again very soon in August, for the MakerFaire in Hannover. I had a lot of fun, it was also exhausting and I would have enjoyed more time with the gang to actually build something. Thank you to everyone I've met, that helped, visited etc. and sorry to the Danish guy that told me a brief excerpt of his very fascinating life story - you were always very busy when I was close to your booth to say hi again!

    My favorite moments where when kids were happy about my R8-J4 robot driving towards them, even though it was basically a cheap trick and I want the robot to do so much more. But also whenever I was talking about my Game Boy music player, I saw my excitement pass on to the people I was telling them about. 

    -- 

    Totally forgot Spencer from "RFC2795 Ltd" [https://www.tindie.com/stores/Semachthemonkey/] and Robert from "part fusion electronics" [https://www.tindie.com/stores/PartFusion/], fellow tindie sellers - they had a booth too and we drank some beers, was fun...

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  • Shameless Self Promotion

    05/10/2019 at 17:39 • 6 comments

    I've filmed two videos for element14 now, and I feel like I should promote this here. You don't have to watch it or click on it, I just wanted to get the word out some more. I will bring both projects with me to the MakerFaire Berlin from the 18th to 19th of May. We will have a booth there, that's me, @Alex , @bitluni and @Clemens Mayer!

    I might have talked about this somewhere already, but here's my original hardware, portable music player. They call it "Gameboy Walkman", I call it DMG player.

    This video shows my 2nd version of the #Skeleton Attiny85 Handheld - before the resin.

    And here I am putting it in resin, like so many in the comments wanted me to do.