Maker Fun

Thanks for having me at Manchester CoderDojo earlier today. Some great micro:bit programs being created, will put code not cakes onto the  #microbit  website.    I finally have something cooler than twinkle twinkle to play out on my micro:bit. Name that tune?!

Two weeks to go to our Hannah Festival celebration and it is all hands on deck to get our Aerobots finished to support our first robot workshop. Follow our journey in pictures. Find out more about this year's Hannah Festival .   1. From BOM to unwrapping! 2. Preparing to apply the solder paste 3. Three up, now with solder paste  4. Double sided tape holds those tiny components in place  5. Really wishing I had my reading glasses 6. Vacuum pick and place by hand   7. First Aerobot out of the oven 8. Triplets! Many thanks to Kitronic  for letting me hang out out their place and cook up my first three robots in their lovely oven!

Here is a first look at my new yellow Maker Fun Aerobot boards and a glimpse of my hot off the press (literally) Robot Fun T-shirt made at Fab Lab Manchester yesterday! 

Having challenged myself to make my first robot I placed an order for 15 circuit boards.  On the 29th of January I received my first batch of 15 'drink coasters'.  If you would like to buy one feel free to get in touch! How did my robots turn into coasters? Lesson Number 1:  When downloading open hardware files make sure that ALL the files are the latest version.  Check, double check and check again before you click on order, buy or get anywhere near the checkout. If you  the don't you may end up with circuit art.  It is not that I didn't look at the files before I ordered them it's just that I hadn't realised I could open all the files simultaneously in my gerber viewer.  Thankfully 3pcb.com have a hands on approach that goes beyond simply making what you ask for and extends to checking your files. When I asked them to print a stencil that didn't match the board they explained the problem.  Karen Lin got back to me with this picture showing

Just before Christmas I saw this article in Wired for a DIY  10 dollar robot  called AERobot. Not to be confused with an aerial robot this is an affordable educational robot, AERobot. It does all the cool things that you would want of a first robot like following edges, lines and light too. The robot can be programmed using a graphical programming language called Minibloqs  and it captured my imagination as being the perfect project for getting young children into robotics.  Michael Rubenstein and colleagues at Harvard Research give a really good overview of the AERobot:   Join me over the course of the next few weeks as my robot adventure evolves from bare boards to a world record attempt and lots of lessons learnt in between! 

Sonic 'Pet' Pi I was looking for inspiration for getting started with Sonic Pi and found this quirky compilation by Sarah Angliss. Her Sonic Pi composition features an adorable dog, fascinating music archive from a time when music was printed on cylinders not vinyl and lots of imagination. Take a look.  Find your own music gems here: The Internet Archive . And more Sonic Pi inspiration from the Sonic Pi: Live and Coding  website. 

Looking back on Maker Fun's first year we have delivered 26 events, and over 450 'makes'. Over 430 kids have taken part, joined by over 200 parents! We have hosted our own events at our local village library, supported our local Coderdojos in Manchester and Stockport, and delivered events at Museums. Our top three activities were: 'Making Dragon Snot and Slime', turning Jitter Bugs into 'Art Bots' and our popular 'Dashing Reindeer and Dancing Angels' with a Frozen make-over, enter Sven and Anna and Elsa. Missed out? Then check out our Maker Fun Recipes and bring Maker Fun home. Our most memorable event was our first Maker Faire at Newcastle Centre for Life. We hoped others would be interested in our club and were overwhelmed with the positive comments and response. What's next? We want to reach double the number of kids and families next year. We would like to launch the Maker Fun Library too!