September 28, 2015: Post Maker Faire Review
The Let's Make Robots Maker Faire Team
We had an amazing time at Maker Faire this year! I would like to start by thanking the whole crew.
- Rwinscot, my partner in crime Maker Faire organization, and his daughter Paige
- Robotgoldfish, and his lovely wife Barbara
- Franciscodr, for providing remote support and handling social media
- Cyrus Lalkaka, a friend of the DF Robot crew and all-around great guy
- My family: Marty Marino (brother-in-law), William (my son), and Linda (my wife)
Fun at the LMR Table
The load in on Friday went pretty smoothly. We had lots of help on hand, and a nice space under a big tent in Zone 4 with other robotics exhibits. We had four long tables arranged in a "J" shape, and filled them with robots.
- John (robotgoldfish) brought Robot Goldfish and RG2, for lots of fishy fun.
- Rick (rwinscot), brought his Red Rover, a yellow dune buggy, and a blue RC buggy. CIRKO made an appearance on Saturday, but he was non-functional and took Sunday off.
- We had a Dagu Doodle Bot on hand, which a lot of people found interesting.
- Barbara brought one of Chris the Carpenter's Tadpole robots.
- I brought EconoSpazzi, Fish Tank, Piranha Tank, and Minion Stuart.
- One of Lumi's DF Robot Insectbot Hexa, which we used for our workshop, was on display at our table as well.
We had good traffic by our table all weekend. Lots of people interested in our robots. We handed out many LMR stickers (designed by Rick), and hopefully we'll see some new members coming to the site.
We also handed out tons of DF Robot stickers and pins, plus a bunch of their t-shirts, notebooks, and a few Insectbot kits for especially worthy visitors.
Robot Workshops
The big news was our workshop, though. We got a prime location inside the NYSCI building in the Make: Workshop area. Classes were all filled to capacity, with signups being skillfully managed by Barbara (I can’t say enough about how helpful this was!).
John (robotgoldfish) led the first class, with Rick, Cyrus and Barbara assistig. The class went well, based on outside reports. However there were parts of the build that were frustrating, especially for our younger makers.
The second class we applied some lessons learned. We limited signups to ages 13+, except for a few particularly talented young makers we thought could handle it. We also spent hours pre-building the most “fiddly bits” of the kit. This was screwing the three mini servos to the 3D printed body, and bending the piano wire legs and installing them on the servo horns. Plus we had more hands on hand for the workshop to help makers who were falling behind.
Rick did a fabulous job leading the group through the second class. John, Cyrus, Barbara and I were there to help where needed. I wasn't at the first session, but everyone who was agreed we really improved things for this one. Apparently, the Make team agreed. We received an Editor's Choice Award for Best in Class for an educational workshop. Congrats to everyone who made this workshop possible, especially DF Robot!
Our own Lumi originally designed the Insectbot. Later, DF Robot hired Lumi and he developed the design into an official kit for DF Robot. For anyone who doesn't know, Lumi sadly passed away earlier this year. I reached out to Ricky from DF Robot, and he agreed to donate the kits and provide some funding for us to run the workshops. Lumi was an active member of a hackerspace, and loved working with people to build robots. We felt using his kit for this workshop at Maker Faire was a wonderful way to remember him. We miss you, Lumi. Wish you could have been there!
Wrap Up
Francisco put together a nice summary on Storify that provides a good feel for the weekend.
I was also pleased that Cbenson from Robot Shop stopped by to say hi. He's a really nice guy and it was great to meet him in person. Our plans for Maker Faire this year were too far in progress for Robot Shop to be involved in any real way, but we're looking forward to working with them on future events.
So, thanks to all who participated, and the many visitors and participants in our workshops. We had a great time!
August 26, 2015:
Lots of good news to share! The Maker Faire crew is growing; it looks like we'll have quite a group of us:
- Andrew (ignoblegnome) and his son William and his brother-in-law Marty
- Rick Winscot (rwinscot)
- RobotGoldfish and his wife Chance
- Yahmez and his daughter
- birdmun
- ossipee
- Kevin Biagini (K120189) will come for Saturday
- Francisco (Franciscodr) will be there in spirit, supporting us remotely on social media
- nschreiber0813 is a maybe
- isotope is a maybe
Rick and RobotGoldfish received their DF Robot InsectBot kits so they can work on instructions. It turns out Yahmez writes instructions for a living, and can help with the written instructions.
Allen from DF Robot shipped the remainder of the kits plus promotional materials to Rick, who should received them this week.
Rick heard from the Maker Faire organizers, and they approved us to use the makerspace at the NY Hall of Science for the workshops. This is a great space and we'll have 60-90 minutes for each workshop.
Andrew and John bought tools and batteries for the workshop. Rick is working on shirts, which should be something like last year's cool bowling shirts, with the addition of a DF Robot logo on the shoulder.
Also, if you can't make it to Maker Faire, but want to send a robot, get in touch with me pronto!
More news to come!
August 4, 2015:
About time for an update! Good news, Maker Faire accepted our application, so we are definitely going.
Even better news, DF Robot has agreed to provide kits so we can run robot building workshops at Maker Faire. We did something similar two years ago, and it was a huge success. We'll have 100 kits to share for people who sign up at the LMR table. These are DF Robot's Insectbot Hexa kits, which were originally designed by late LMR member Lumi. Ricky from DF Robot wanted to do something nice to honor Lumi's memory, so these workshops are dedicated in his memory. Lumi was always sharing his knowledge and love or robotics with others, so it is a wonderful way to remember him.
I'm reaching out to those that said they would like to volunteer to help at the LMR table. We'll need lots of help with the workshops too. If you are on the fence and haven't communicated with me, it's not too late. Please let me know ASAP!
June 11, 2015:
I'll be hosting a Google Hangout this evening at 4:00 PM EDT to do some planning for the faire. It will mostly be Rick and I, but anyone is welcome to join and contribute. Reach me on Google+ if you want to be added. (https://plus.google.com/+AndrewTerranova/posts)
Discussion:
- Who's coming?
- What sort of things would we like to do?
- Review and possibly fill out application to attend Maker Faire
June 10, 2015:
Hello, LMRians!
Rick Winscot and I are organizing for LMR's presence at Maker Faire in NY this year. We had a great time last year, and we're hoping to interest more LMR members to come and help this year.
Dates for the fair are Saturday and Sunday, September 26-27. We typically set up on Friday.
Please comment below or send Rick or I a PM if you would like to come. We typically can get free entry for people, in return for time volunteering at the LMR table.
Rick and I are also planning a Google Hangout this Thursday (June 11) evening. Time TBD. If you know you would like to come the the faire and want to participate in the Hangout, Let us know ASAP!
Happy to hear!