We sat by our friends from Make: Magazine, and took turns attending the lectures.  The Hackerspace Village opposite us was constantly filled with people “populating” their RFID badges, to track their movement throughout the conference.  Many attendees continued to work in the Hackerspace all night, aided by Club Mate, the popular and powerful beverage for sale.

The “intro to lock-picking”, by TOOOL, was a fun break to our day. Constantly changing throughout the day, classes were based on skill levels of lock-picking and various lock types. The Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists were also fascinating, with retro-computers that proved the true origins of “smart phones”.

Our newSolar Modification Kits gained a lot of attention with the diy hackers. While the Discover Electronic’s Kit, and Papertronics were a big hit, and  we made some great connections for getting them into classrooms! One group of young-builders chose to DIY at the conference, and reported later how their Papertronics made great night-lights for their hotel room.  

Sparkle Labs had a great experience at our first ever HOPE conference, and we can’t wait for the next Maker Faire in Detroit Rock City in August.

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Then we have the Detroit Maker Faire. July 31 & August 1st, at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Maker Faire is always great and it is nice to have it in Motor City.

1st Annual World Maker Faire New York, September 25 and 26, 2010, at the New York Hall of Science.

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For Volume 3, we wrote a step by step guide to casting and molding for your electronics enclosures or homemade projects.

In Volume 4, we started our Primer series on microcontroller programming. This first installation is a basic introduction to microcontrollers and the different options and approaches. Using a PIC microcontroller and the least expensive environment, we get the readers up and running.

Volume 7 contained the second article in our series on Microcontrollers. This article shows you how to experiment with a seven-segment LED display and an LCD. Make your own cool signage!

Volume 9, the third part of our series, We built on our readers previous knowledge. In this segment, we work with seven-segment displays and alphanumeric LCDs to make a cool digital clock. We custom made our own buttons and an enclosure for our clock.

Our projects are also in the book, the Best of Make.

Stay tuned to Make magazine for our article on making your own solar charger and making an eco-remote!

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From the site:

Organized by a2geeks and a2mech shop with support from other local groups, Maker Faire is a newfangled fair that brings together science, art, craft and engineering plus music in a fun, energized, and exciting public forum. The aim is to inspire people of all ages to roll up their sleeves and become makers. This family-friendly event showcases the amazing work of all kinds of makers–anyone who is embracing DIY and wants to share their accomplishments with an appreciative audience.
We encourage you to join the fun and enter a project to exhibit. You can submit an entry through the web using the link described below.

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