Back from NY Maker Faire 2013

Sept. 21^st, 2013, Saturday

Day 1

We got up quite early due to the jet lag(New York is 12 hours later than in Shanghai), and got to the venue at 8 o’clock Saturday morning, but the audiences were already lined up to buy tickets. Who said that Americans are lazy? 

The staff of DFRobot also worked hard, they moved a small box to start the stall. Unfortunately the weather continues to be overcast, let’s hope it won’t affect today’s audiences.

 

The nextdoor is a large 3D printer area. Each times MakerFaire is a big gathering of the latest 3D printers, according to the 3D print fever. The latest 3D printers are always published on MakerFaire. Ultimaker 2 showed the latest Ultimaker 2 3D printer on MakerFaire this time. Isn’t the new Ultimaker 2 much pretty? Details of Ultimaker 2 can be found on the homepage of Ultimaker.

 

Next to Ultimaker is a big mac. It is an oversized Gigabot. It is said that you can print the size of 40cm. If you don’t have a clue on 40cm, just take a look at the sword it prints, by comparing to the foot on the right, you can estimate the size of the sword.

 

Many new print structure appear on this time’s MakerFaire in addition to the standard 3D printers, such as Delta, also known as parallel robot, always used in high-precision SMT placement machine.

 

The following yellow 3D printer is quite a piece of work. This printer(Simon) used a mechanical structure that was originally used in industrial robot, which can ensure the positioning accuracy. Besides, this printer’s print head is controlled via lines just like a puppet, it’s very creative. Although the print quality is not so good, there’s much room for improvement.

 

Suddenly we found a non 3D printer in 3D printer area, this maker intends to convert the 3D printer into a machine that can carve the print circuit board. But he has not succussed yet, so he used a pen to trace first. Isn’t it a waste using 3D to do 2D things?

 

The followings are some other 3D printers in 3D printer area. There are more in the venue, I’m not gonna introduce them one by one due to the space limitation.

 

A great function of MakerFaire is the popularization of science. Let the kids DIY, arouse their interest for making and creating, and plant the seeds of innovation. These seeds are now the force of United States innovation.That’s why almost all MakerFaire have specialized workshops for kids.

There are many peculiar workshops in MakerFaire, like blowing soap bubbles, welding, using simple mechanical tools, etc. The following picture is a woodworking workshop, it’s kinda like our seiko practice in university, only they are 10 years earlier than us. Pay attention to the kid protection, they have everything from goggles to safety gloves, that’s awesome. 

Stay tuned.