I'll be setting off for the Faire for the second time this morning in 30 minutes. I wrongly assumed that it would be starting at 10:00 like yesterday, but it's actually 11:00, being Sunday, so I came back to the hotel. I've started creating a web page for my photos, I need to find out how to do thumbnails.
At breakfast I saw some people speaking Dutch who had T-shirts with "Shapeways" emblazoned on them. I asked them about it; they provide a 3D printing service via the Web:
Was that the photo that looked like a "RepRap" 3D printer?
I saw a video where they "printed" a ball race interlinked through another ball race. I can get my head around the larger rings but not the formation of the balls within each of the races
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Style and grace : Nil point
The trick is that they are printing a support material as well or they are printing in powder where the unfused (fused by inkjet or laser) provides the support.
I got some quite good photos of one of the Tesla coils (last three pics). I used a time exposure of about 1s to capture more of the discharges. Not having a tripod I held the camera against the rail, hence the blurred background. The Tesla coils are used as loudspeakers, with the middle one controlled by a guitar and the two outer ones controlled by a keyboard. The chap who was playing the keyboard didn't turn up today, and they couldn't find a proper guitar player, so they never got all three working at once. I don't know why they didn't record some music as a backup.
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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
heater said...
Did I spot an XMOS dev board with a Propeller sticker over the chip in that collection? Cheeky[noparse]:)[/noparse]
Sorry, I couldn't resist
I have to say Leon is just as charming in real life as he is on the forums.
And very spritely for a 68 year old.....
Thanks Leon for turning up today, we kept each other going all day with mugs of Tea.
Tony D Turned up again too with his family, he was very pleased his kids were having fun and learning by making up circuit boards.
Well, we had another busy day on our stand with lots and lots of interest in Propeller.
Many of the visitors were Arduino users and looking for something with a bit more power hence the interest in Propeller.
Most had heard of Propeller but had been put off by having to learn a language they'd never heard of before so I told them about the wonderful tools users on this forum are developing such as PropBASIC, Catalina, BST and all the others. I hope I managed to convince a few to take another look at the Propeller.
I didn't really know what to expect as this was my first Maker Faire but I have loved the whole experience and there was a real 'feel good factor' to the whole weekend.
As I have said before it was very well organised and extremely well attended with all sorts of visitors expressing interest in our work, it made me feel quite proud with all the compliments we received. I really enjoyed sharing our experiences with total strangers who just wanted to know more and more. I ran out of business cards late Saturday afternoon, I totally underestimated how we and the Propeller would be received.
We showed our Hybrid and PropGFX, DR Acula's DracBlade, Rayman's PSB, Cluso99's RAMBlade, Spinvents PropLAB and Parallax Demo and Proto Boards.
The kids loved playing the games on Hybrid and gave Rayman's PSB board a real good workout, I thought sometimes it was to hard a workout but it survived without any real drama which is great!
Everyone was impressed with RAMBlade and the 'CPM Computer in a matchbox' tag that I gave it (although some of the younger visitors had no clue what a Z80 or CPM was)
Overall I guess I would say we need more events like this over this side of the pond, so Ken if you are listening, please, please orgainse something for the UK/Europe, I for one will be happy to help, lets convert some of those many Arduino users and others into Parallaxians.
Regards,
Coley
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Congratulations Coley & Baggers. Thanks for exposing the propeller to a lot of potential users It will be particularly good if we can get some Arduinoee converts on board.
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Hi Mathew, good to see you, yes, the stand was quite busy which was good exposure for the Prop, hopefully like Cluso99 said we can convert some Arduino users to move over to the prop [noparse]:D[/noparse] and then start the mass exodus [noparse]:D[/noparse] lol, would be nice to get some across though!
once they start playing with the prop and see it's goodness I'm sure they'll love it, and help spread the word!
I got some quite good photos of one of the Tesla coils (last three pics). I used a time exposure of about 1s to capture more of the discharges. Not having a tripod I held the camera against the rail, hence the blurred background. The Tesla coils are used as loudspeakers, with the middle one controlled by a guitar and the two outer ones controlled by a keyboard. The chap who was playing the keyboard didn't turn up today, and they couldn't find a proper guitar player, so they never got all three working at once. I don't know why they didn't record some music as a backup.
Maker Faire @ Newcastle was a great event with a well balanced emphasis on family fun style activities. My kids totally enjoyed the weekend, they loved the opportunity to build something for themselves.
The time seam to pass so quickly I wish it had lasted longer and I had more time to talk "shop". But it was great to meet Coley, Baggers, Leon, TonyF from this forum and many other non Parallaxians who were at the faire. Hopefully it will be back bigger and better next year and we can all met up again, perhaps have a few beers next time when the doors have closed
I wish I had come up too. As expected not one call out happened.
I know what you mean about the reluctance to learn Spin, one guy at work was getting intrigued by the projects I spoke of and sometimes played with at lunchtime but as soon as it was seen that it wasn't C he just used that as an excuse to not bother, he can't do C either.
I have a couple of "Arduinos" here, it uses up some of the drawful of AVR I have. Sometimes they get used for "building bricks" I had a MCS52 Basic board running 40x24 VDU from a PC KBD. One 8052(ish), one ATMega168 and two ATTiny2313s = four cores !
One of the EPROMS has its window by a hole in the case for erasing. Kept me off the streets, for a while.
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Style and grace : Nil point
This looks like an excellent UK event to attend. The diverse nature will hopefully attract the young people to take an interest in technology and use it. Nice to see Leon in his famous "Inmos" T shirt, or was it even "XMOS" Flashed by so fast not possible to pick up on the branding very easily.
Well done everyone for the UK leg of exposing the Parallax Propeller to the masses at the show. Aren't they just really great devices... We all need to look forward to Ken Gracey & his trusted team of helpers organising the European Tour now. I think the support is there already!
Parallax owes a tremendous thank you to Baggers and Coley for giving our products an extended presence at Maker Faire UK. And the support from Leon, Tony and Matthew is equally appreciated. I recognize that we're very fortunate to have customers and friends as you to share common interests. If it were all about business we'd have been bored with this about 20 years ago. I'm carving out some Propeller time in April for myself so you'll see me back here asking a few silly questions now and then. . . . proudly paving the way for anybody who is terrified to immerse themselves in the pool of Prop experts!
We hear the request for UPE GB (or UK)! Pick a location and I'll get with OBC on finalizing the date and venue. He's put the idea on his radar but it's going to take a bit of encouragement to have him fly across the ocean. OBC will certainly jump in once we start the ball rolling on this idea. XMOS is invited, too!
A bit late to express our appreciation - been wrapped up in the planning to launch a Haas CNC router in our office in about four weeks (solar products, robot bases, enclosures, etc.). If there's anything you'd like us to make please let me know.
Thanks for that, and you're very welcome, it's a pleasure to feel a part of something great [noparse]:D[/noparse] especially when it's something I enjoy!
I look forward to UPEGB or whatever the name ends up being lol
Nice one QuattroRS4, Yeah we're thinking possibly Manchester as it's central and has a big Uni, so could be a good place to do it, and also has a good Airport so would help out anyone not in the UK wanting to come.
Manchester is good for me too - and it should be convenient for the EU Propeller heads. About 50% of spinvent sales are from the EU so I'm sure quite a few people from the continent would like to attend. I hope to soon get a venue/date for a Propeller day here in Buxton - maybe now that can be for a 'warm-up' event for the 'Big One' in Mcr.
The Propeller is getting more UK exposure now, (see the EPE magazine), which should help the numbers.
Thanks, it really was a great event well worth all the travelling and expense just to meet like minded people. There was some really great stuff there and it never ceases to amaze me what people do with their 'spare' time.
@All,
Manchester would be good for me too, the university is one of my customers so I'll make some tenative enquires for a suitable location for such an event.
@TonyF
Count me in for the Buxton event.
Regards,
Coley
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ PropGFX - The home of the Hybrid Development System and PropGFX Lite
Comments
At breakfast I saw some people speaking Dutch who had T-shirts with "Shapeways" emblazoned on them. I asked them about it; they provide a 3D printing service via the Web:
www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/384-A-new-3D-printing-material-Alumide.html
The Alumide material looks interesting.
They have a stand, I'll look them up later.
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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Post Edited (Leon) : 3/14/2010 10:35:40 AM GMT
Times were different then, lose a pupil or two, no worries.
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For me, the past is not over yet.
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
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I saw a video where they "printed" a ball race interlinked through another ball race. I can get my head around the larger rings but not the formation of the balls within each of the races
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Style and grace : Nil point
Graham
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Style and grace : Nil point
www.leonheller.com/MakerFaire%202010%20(2)/
I got some quite good photos of one of the Tesla coils (last three pics). I used a time exposure of about 1s to capture more of the discharges. Not having a tripod I held the camera against the rail, hence the blurred background. The Tesla coils are used as loudspeakers, with the middle one controlled by a guitar and the two outer ones controlled by a keyboard. The chap who was playing the keyboard didn't turn up today, and they couldn't find a proper guitar player, so they never got all three working at once. I don't know why they didn't record some music as a backup.
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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
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For me, the past is not over yet.
Don't worry we now have pictures of Leon. All we require now is the copies for every lampost in the land !
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Style and grace : Nil point
Sorry, I couldn't resist
I have to say Leon is just as charming in real life as he is on the forums.
And very spritely for a 68 year old.....
Thanks Leon for turning up today, we kept each other going all day with mugs of Tea.
Tony D Turned up again too with his family, he was very pleased his kids were having fun and learning by making up circuit boards.
Well, we had another busy day on our stand with lots and lots of interest in Propeller.
Many of the visitors were Arduino users and looking for something with a bit more power hence the interest in Propeller.
Most had heard of Propeller but had been put off by having to learn a language they'd never heard of before so I told them about the wonderful tools users on this forum are developing such as PropBASIC, Catalina, BST and all the others. I hope I managed to convince a few to take another look at the Propeller.
I didn't really know what to expect as this was my first Maker Faire but I have loved the whole experience and there was a real 'feel good factor' to the whole weekend.
As I have said before it was very well organised and extremely well attended with all sorts of visitors expressing interest in our work, it made me feel quite proud with all the compliments we received. I really enjoyed sharing our experiences with total strangers who just wanted to know more and more. I ran out of business cards late Saturday afternoon, I totally underestimated how we and the Propeller would be received.
We showed our Hybrid and PropGFX, DR Acula's DracBlade, Rayman's PSB, Cluso99's RAMBlade, Spinvents PropLAB and Parallax Demo and Proto Boards.
The kids loved playing the games on Hybrid and gave Rayman's PSB board a real good workout, I thought sometimes it was to hard a workout but it survived without any real drama which is great!
Everyone was impressed with RAMBlade and the 'CPM Computer in a matchbox' tag that I gave it (although some of the younger visitors had no clue what a Z80 or CPM was)
Overall I guess I would say we need more events like this over this side of the pond, so Ken if you are listening, please, please orgainse something for the UK/Europe, I for one will be happy to help, lets convert some of those many Arduino users and others into Parallaxians.
Regards,
Coley
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PropGFX - The home of the Hybrid Development System and PropGFX Lite
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Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: CPUs Z80 etc; Micros Altair etc;· Terminals·VT100 etc; (Index) ZiCog (Z80) , MoCog (6809)·
· Prop OS: SphinxOS·, PropDos , PropCmd··· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBlade Props: www.cluso.bluemagic.biz
Nice to have met you all· Baggers,TonyF,Coley.
I was impressed at how busy your stand was. Its just the sort of exposure Propellers need...
....Maybe we can get a few prop converts?
Cheers. Mathew
once they start playing with the prop and see it's goodness I'm sure they'll love it, and help spread the word!
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
·
Thanks Leon for the photos.
The time seam to pass so quickly I wish it had lasted longer and I had more time to talk "shop". But it was great to meet Coley, Baggers, Leon, TonyF from this forum and many other non Parallaxians who were at the faire. Hopefully it will be back bigger and better next year and we can all met up again, perhaps have a few beers next time when the doors have closed
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- Tony
http://zuzebox.wordpress.com/
I know what you mean about the reluctance to learn Spin, one guy at work was getting intrigued by the projects I spoke of and sometimes played with at lunchtime but as soon as it was seen that it wasn't C he just used that as an excuse to not bother, he can't do C either.
I have a couple of "Arduinos" here, it uses up some of the drawful of AVR I have. Sometimes they get used for "building bricks" I had a MCS52 Basic board running 40x24 VDU from a PC KBD. One 8052(ish), one ATMega168 and two ATTiny2313s = four cores !
One of the EPROMS has its window by a hole in the case for erasing. Kept me off the streets, for a while.
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Style and grace : Nil point
www.leonheller.com/Maker%20Faire%202010/
www.leonheller.com/MakerFaire%202010%20(2)/
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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Post Edited (Leon) : 3/16/2010 5:17:04 PM GMT
Baggers + Propeller @ 1:30.
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
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It really was a great event, we'll be there next year too....
Regards,
Coley
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PropGFX - The home of the Hybrid Development System and PropGFX Lite
Jonathan Street has a nice write up here:
http://jonathanstreet.com/blog/newcastle-maker-faire-2010
and the guys and girls from sonodrome have also posted some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonodrome/sets/72157623644925608/
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- Tony
http://zuzebox.wordpress.com/
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
·
Well done everyone for the UK leg of exposing the Parallax Propeller to the masses at the show. Aren't they just really great devices... We all need to look forward to Ken Gracey & his trusted team of helpers organising the European Tour now. I think the support is there already!
Regards
Mike.
Parallax owes a tremendous thank you to Baggers and Coley for giving our products an extended presence at Maker Faire UK. And the support from Leon, Tony and Matthew is equally appreciated. I recognize that we're very fortunate to have customers and friends as you to share common interests. If it were all about business we'd have been bored with this about 20 years ago. I'm carving out some Propeller time in April for myself so you'll see me back here asking a few silly questions now and then. . . . proudly paving the way for anybody who is terrified to immerse themselves in the pool of Prop experts!
We hear the request for UPE GB (or UK)! Pick a location and I'll get with OBC on finalizing the date and venue. He's put the idea on his radar but it's going to take a bit of encouragement to have him fly across the ocean. OBC will certainly jump in once we start the ball rolling on this idea. XMOS is invited, too!
A bit late to express our appreciation - been wrapped up in the planning to launch a Haas CNC router in our office in about four weeks (solar products, robot bases, enclosures, etc.). If there's anything you'd like us to make please let me know.
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Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
Follow me at http://twitter.com/ParallaxKen for some insider news.
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Leon Heller
Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Thanks for that, and you're very welcome, it's a pleasure to feel a part of something great [noparse]:D[/noparse] especially when it's something I enjoy!
I look forward to UPEGB or whatever the name ends up being lol
We'll come up with a location.
Cheers,
Jim.
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
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Regards,
John Twomey
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'Necessity is the mother of invention'
'Those who can, do.Those who can’t, teach.'
'Convince a man against his will, he's of the same opinion still.'
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
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The Propeller is getting more UK exposure now, (see the EPE magazine), which should help the numbers.
TonyF
Thanks, it really was a great event well worth all the travelling and expense just to meet like minded people. There was some really great stuff there and it never ceases to amaze me what people do with their 'spare' time.
@All,
Manchester would be good for me too, the university is one of my customers so I'll make some tenative enquires for a suitable location for such an event.
@TonyF
Count me in for the Buxton event.
Regards,
Coley
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PropGFX - The home of the Hybrid Development System and PropGFX Lite