The
Maker Faire is one of those awesome
Bay Area things that always fills me with excitement and gets my imagination
going.
Zoe and I went again this year to check it out, as best we could within the
time constraints we had to work within (opening time and her nap time, minus
travel time). She definitely enjoyed herself.
We took the
Caltrain, because
historically driving and parking has been a bit of a nightmare. The optimal
train to get to get there before it opened (at 10am) was the 9:19 train from
Mountain View, which was scheduled to get in at Hayward Park a little before
10am. It just so happened that there was a Giants game on in San Francisco
today as well, and the train was absolutely packed. We only got a seat
because one kind gentleman was getting off and explicitly gave his seat to
us. One lesson learned: don't try and take the
BOB stroller on the train.
Even when collapsed, it's way too bulky. For future Caltrain outings, I'll
take our
City
Mini stroller instead, as it folds much flatter.
I also took our
macpac
Possum child carrier backpack, and Zoe was pretty happy to just sit in
it for the bulk of the time. I think it had novelty value for her, as we
haven't used it for a while. I probably could have gotten away without
taking a stroller at all. I was very glad I took the backpack, as it gave
her a much better vantage point for everything that was going on than she
would have gotten from sitting in the stroller.
There was supposed to be a free shuttle from the Hayward Park station to the
Maker Faire, but there was a huge crowd waiting for it, so I decided to just
walk. It didn't take too long. For the return trip, I think I exited from
the wrong side of the fairgrounds, and couldn't figure out the shuttles, so
I just walked to Hillsdale station. At least the return train wasn't
crowded. Overall, using Caltrain to get in and out was successful. Zoe was
very well behaved for the ~30 minute train ride each way.
The Faire was quite a bit bigger this year, and has spilled out into the
parking lot on one side. I'd heard stories that O'Reilly had quadrupled
booth prices as well.
Trying to abide by the program was too difficult, so we mostly just wandered
through the main Expo hall and looked at various booths. I just did a full
read through the website of all the exhibitors to see what I missed out on.
Here's some of the stuff I saw in person, or discovered via the website:
- there was a really excellent looking Dalek running around (way better
than the photo on the page linked to here). I also learned that there's a
whole Dalek-making
website. Awesome.
- RAFT (Resource Area For Teaching) had lots of really simple, low cost projects for demonstrating various concepts in physics and science.
- Linux for makers was
represented
- This Arduino-controlled
automatic fish feeder looked cool. I didn't get to see it in person, I
discovered it while I was trawling through the list of exhibitors.
- Shop-in-a-box. I'd have
liked to have checked this out.
- Build a bug habitat. I'd have liked to check this out out as well.
- Solar bike trailer. My
Dad would have liked this, as he has an electric bike. I imagine this
wouldn't be all that hard to make. The trailer looked pretty long from the
photo though, but hey, no pedaling.
- The water causeway. Now
this looks interesting. I would have loved to have seen this one in
person. I love clean tech. There's a whole bunch of videos linked off the
page for this.
- Wave energy capture
model. Another clean tech thing I'd have liked to have checked out.
- Roominate looks really cool.
Something for Zoe when she's a bit bigger.
- There was a table extolling the virtues of growing your own algae for consumption (as
spirulina) and bio-fuel. I'm interested in finding out more about the
latter.
- I saw some HEXBUG-related stuff
near the Geekdad table. This looked
like a dressed up version of the "take a toothbrush head and glue an
electric toothbrush motor on the back" type project. I'm curious to see how
expensive the kits are, as they looked like a lot of fun.
- Ratduino sounds
intriguing, but I can't find out much about it.
- Urban scale wind
turbines. One that I needed to have seen in person. Unfortunately I
missed it.
- GlueMotor looks cool.
- Low-cost push-button
clicker. I'd have liked to have found out more about this. If it's what
I imagine it is, this could be quite revolutionary in the classroom.
- Hardware Startup
Showcase. I have ideas. I'd like to see them get out of my head and into
existence. Turns out there's even a MeetUp group.
- Kits by Kids. I'll have to
check this out to see what sort of stuff I can do with Zoe when she's a bit
older.
Kickstarter is really becoming
huge in the maker community. There were heaps of exhibitors there with
(mostly robotics) projects that were past the initial prototyping phase and
were seeking funding on Kickstarter to go into mass production.
Some of the talks I'd have liked to have seen:
Zoe was really well behaved for the entire expedition. I don't think she
really gave me any grief at all. There was a brief period where she wanted
me to carry her, but I managed to negotiate her back into the stroller after
not long.
I think her favourite was
ArcBotics, which had a
robot insect that would dance
and wave at her. She kept asking for it to do more dancing.