Tremendous appreciation to our customers and friends who attended Parallax EXPO/UPEW

[erco]

@Tommy: Great meeting you, you are quite a character. I love your passion & fantastic stories. I could have listened to your stories of life in California all night down in the Blue Oaks (?) room at Staybridge.

When I finally tore myself away to get some sleep, you were debating whether to sleep in the bed in your truck or plunk down cash for a hotel room. Now seeing your incredible haul, I'm guessing you decided to save your dough for Parallax goodies, and I don't blame you!

Your first Stamp, I believe?

Any comments on the line follower contest?

[Matt Gilliland]

I'd like to publicly thank Erco, WBA Consulting (Andy), Rich (W9GFO) (and his two fine sons!), and ttailspin (Tommy) for their willingness to step up and help with all the kids that came into the Tech Talk Tent.

In spite of the fact that I called on you at the last minute, you rose to the occasion and made the impact that we had hoped for the kids (especially).

You guys were amazing! The smiles and excitement that you'all produced were Spectacular!

Thank you so much - you all made it happen!

-MattG

[WBA Consulting]

Thanks Matt, glad I was able to help out! I thoroughly enjoyed doing the tech talks for the kids and their obviously proud parents. Seeing the interest in their eyes as I explained the Propeller Based Reverse Geo-Cache project was definitely worth it. I recall a boy of about 8 or 9 in the late Saturday tech talk I shared with you that had some very good question for his age. And to hear him say he "was learning C and already knew HTML" amazed me.
Your talk about safety that used your "Christmas Eve Quadcopter Incident" to stress the importance of safety glasses struck home with Liberty (and I am sure everyone else who went through one of your safety tech talks). She has mentioned it a few times! Great job on that talk!

Overall the event was a blast. I enjoyed being part of the event staff and being able to help out. My wife and daughter enjoyed it as well. Speaking of, you need to send a note of appreciation to your son Tracy for showing my daughter Liberty (age 6) how to solder in the S2 Badge Soldering Tent. She really liked learning how to solder and I of course am even prouder of her. I post a few pics when I get a chance to get them from the camera.

I must say that Erco in person is as much of a kid at heart as his presence on the forums suggest. Very cool to finally meet him and his gadgets drew a lot of attention. I also enjoyed visiting with several forumistas/parallaxians : Tracy Allen and his son, Jazzed, Joe Grand, TTailspin, Bill Penz, Kevin Cook, Matt H, Ken G, and a few others that I am sure will come back to my mind in time. Also, as a kicker, I have to leads on new business for my employer. How cool is that!?! I even sold a handful of Powertwigs by past customers hunting me down.

@davejames: yes, we didn't touch base, but I'll be in touch. Funny thing is that I saw you and your shirt and thought "cool, I have seen that somewhere before". Had I realized where I had seen it (your avatar, duh), I would have introduced myself........

[Whit]

Nice pile of loot Tommy!

@all - ScribblerKart and I would sure like to come next year too!

[davejames]

@davejames: yes, we didn't touch base, but I'll be in touch.

...roger that!

[Invent-O-Doc]

No, thank you.

What a fantastic event. Everyone at parallax was s friendly (not a surprise) but the size and effort put into the event was really something else. It was also great to see online friends and to have made a few more. The best part was all the effort towards and by the youths at the expo. Whether it was 10 year old Carson helping little kids solder or those kids hustling drinks for donations it was cool to see siome of the emerging engineers and hobbyists.

I visit a lot of companies, universities and conventions each year. I have never seen anything as honest, personable and creative as with the community around parallax.

[Ttailspin]

Whit, I would have got more loot, and a room, if the "check wallet light" in my work truck didn't come on two days before the show,That sure made short work of my Fistfull of cash, really fast..

WBA, thanks for bringing the Power Twigs, I can't wait to put them to work on my next robot.
They are tiny and are going to save alot of space.. so I can add even more gadgets.

MattG, Anytime bro! I had a great time showing off my toys, Never thought about them fascinating the kids like they did. The miles of smiles was worth every minute, and I was glad to help.

I just want to apologize to the 150 kids that walked up to the display,
grabbed the N64 Joystick, started mashing buttons. and getting no response from either robot..
Thats just not the way things work at UPEW!.
The looks I was getting from the little darlings, suggested I had somehow gone mad...
Funny thing, I had the Line Following code loaded, so the N64 Joystick did not function,
until I couldn't take the sad looks anymore, and went back to my room truck to reload the Joystick code,..
The faces are much happier faces when the Joystick works... (note to self: glue wires in place, and wear shin guards.)

erco, you are a patient man to sit and listen to my drifting ramblings of my favorite state..
I think I have you to blame for my first Basic Stamp purchase, seeing all those wonderfull toys you put together,
is really inspiring, Well, all your toys, and the fact they were giving them away for $25 bucks..


-Tommy

[erco]

MattG, Anytime bro! I had a great time showing off my toys, Never thought about them fascinating the kids like they did. The miles of smiles was worth every minute, and I was glad to help.

I just want to apologize to the 150 kids that walked up to the display,
grabbed the N64 Joystick, started mashing buttons. and getting no response from either robot..
Thats just not the way things work at UPEW!.
-Tommy

Just goes to show that kids (OK, everyone) just like pushing buttons and making something happen. In retrospect, I wish I had made more interactive exhibits instead of the carefully choreographed demos I did. And kids like personalization, too. If kids lined up to use my cheesy little BS2 badge printer, imagine what they would do to to get a small CNC machine engraving their names in a plastic (or laser burning on plywood) badge. NEXT YEAR, MATT!

Hmmm... can I make a BS2-controlled laser cutter, or just a burner? Someone point me to the right laser and I'll take care of the rest.



.

[davejames]

...and the fact they were giving them away for $25 bucks.

I wanted to pick up a couple of the BS activity kits, just because it was SUCH A GREAT PRICE!!! But, restrain surfaced - and then I used the money on other Parallax goodies!

[davejames]

Hmmm... can I make a BS2-controlled laser cutter, or just a burner? Someone point me to the right laser and I'll take care of the rest.

(BIG smiles!!!)

[Matt Gilliland]

Tommy said:

MattG, Anytime bro!

erco said:

NEXT YEAR, MATT!

Already got you guys penciled in - I promise to be more organized next year! With all the "infrastructure prep" (power dist., network cables, etc), I was not quite out of my mind, but close

I count my part in this as a success, due in large part to you guys "pitching in" when I obviously needed a hand.

W9GFO and WBA are penciled in as well - even though they might not know it . With this post, they'll know...

-MattG
PS: others of you are going to be hit-up as well - you just don't know it yet...

[Matt Gilliland]

WBA said:

Funny thing is that I saw you and your shirt and thought "cool, I have seen that somewhere before".

Exactly! Me too! Dang!
-MattG

[davejames]

Exactly! Me too! Dang!

Well Sir - you were inundated with people. Otherwise I would have said "hi".

FYI - for those interested in doing similar with t-shirts, Staples makes it real easy. Not super-cheap, but for the one-off shirt for this type of event I found the cost reasonable.

I'm guessing other "office stores" have equal offerings.

[vanmunch]

My wife and I had a great time! Thanks everyone!!! So tired....

[davejames]

Hey vanmunch - any chance of getting a copy of our video interview?

Glad you made it home, safe & sound.

[vanmunch]

Here's a link to the talk where Ken & co. talked about the medical contest:

http://youtu.be/06RkvzaZeSk

@ Davejames
Sure, the video is 340 mb, where do you want me to send it? Do you have a "DropBox" account? The intro level is free (that's what I have).

[davejames]

Do you have a "DropBox" account?

Yes I do...account PM'd.

Thanks!

[Roy Eltham]

These expo's get better every year. I had a super awesome time! I talked to more people than ever before, because everyone was interested in the 3d printer.
Thanks, Ken, Jeff, Lauren, Emily, Matt, and everyone else!

[User Name]

So can erco's badge printer be put to use drafting PCB traces? Sharpie ink is a decent etch-resist.

[erco]

Sure, if you have all day and can live with the curvilinear distortion! I'll have to make a video of it printing, it's no speed demon. Which makes it all the more amazing to me that kids lined up to make a badge, even as slow as it is.

I just ordered a 1.5W laser to see how fast that could etch/burn wood to "print" on wood. That would use a pan/tilt device instead of pivoting arms, so no curvilinear distortion. Some spherical distortion, depending on distance from laser to target.