87,500 Feet of Awesome

Another succesful mission for NC Near Space! The NSL-7 capsule soared to 87,500 feet (about 16.5 miles) above North Carolina before plummeting to Earth near Raeford (West of Fayetteville).

The capsule contained a hacked SPOT GPS tracker, Trackuino board with a TinyTrack MicroAmp 3 and transmitted APRS packets for location on 146.39Mhz.  Three cameras were mounted pointing outward and below.

A few experiments were part of the payload as well: a partially inflated party balloon and a bottle of colored water.  The team reported seeing signs of freezing around 35,000 feet.

NSL-7 Flight Data (Google Earth)The flight data, which can be viewed in Google Earth, are available on the team's website.  This is a LOT of fun to explore.

We love bringing exciting events like this to Maker Faire North Carolina.  This is something that you and your family can do yourself!  Contact the group via their contact link and find out about the next launch so you can be part of the fun.

Congratulations on another succesful mission and thanks for inspiring thousands at Maker Faire:NC!

MFNC with Hack a Week

Dino Segovis from Hack a Week shared this video with us about his experience with the third Maker Faire North Carolina.  See the laser range finder, laser oscilloscope, ball launcher, and more from this prodigious Maker followed by a tour of some of the other Maker projects. Enjoy!

Maker Faire: NC 2012 -- Huge Success!

Maker Faire: NC 2012 is over!

Actually, I don't think it is -- and that's what makes it such a huge success.

Our many wonderful Makers -- the craftspeople, the hackers, the folks sharing special skills, costumers and re-enactors and inventors and more -- went way above and beyond in answering the call to get attendees hands-on and excited to MAKE.

In response, visitors did just that.  They reached out, put their hands on stuff, and tried new things.  And again and again we saw that magic moment when someone switches from "This looks cool" to "Wow.  I want to do this".  People suddenly go from "I wouldn't know where to begin" to asking "How do I start?". 

When people ask "How do I start?", magic happens and great things are set in motion. It's the question your brain asks when your heart has already decided to act.

And that is why I think Maker Faire: NC 2012 isn't over.  People went home asking themselves "How do I start?"  They'll be out there today, in the coming days, and (with a bit of luck) over the coming years Making the world a richer, better place.

Cool Stuff to do at MFNC!

In addition to all the Maker projects that you can see and touch today there are dozens of interactive and awesome things to do today. Here are a few, don't miss out!

• Drive a Bot Hockey robot with Carolina Combat Robots (battles every hour)
• Make a t-shirt with Kitchen Tees
• Witness Tesla coil firings every 15 minutes out front
• Countdown to the launch of a nearspace balloon around noon with NC NearSpace
• Make n' Take some groovy up-cycled art with The Scrap Exchange
• Make an LED Throwie with TechShop
• Free photo booth by Red Bridge Photography
• Experience Entropy In Action at the Chaos Machine
• Enjoy all of our performers throughout the day
• Play a round of hockey against other attendees -- WITH ROBOTS
• Learn to solder -- and take home a blinky robot pin
• Grind and cut glass as you learn to make jewelry
• Play Fahrfall -- an original 2012 video game that runs on an original TRS-80 computer
• Get your kids into STEM Bus -- the mobile science learning laboratory
• Play the SplatSpace Winnitron arcade machine
• Build and play with ThinkerLinkers
• Spin yarn right off the rabbit with Petit Bones
• Witness Hackaweek's Dino Segovis in action
• Make socks from scratch with Li Sashay
• Learn about beekeeping and see into a transparent hive of bees
• Make some music with Not Dead Yet's recycled instruments of musical mayhem
• and much, much more

GET EXCITED AND MAKE SOMETHING!!!

Here come the HACKERS!!!

For those of you not familiar with the original use of the term, a "hacker" is NOT someone that breaks into computers.  A "hacker" is someone that "hacks together" cool stuff using their knowledge and passion.  A "hack" is often rough around the edges (though not always), but implies a work done by an individual that is generally in the realm of the "secret lab" or "mad scientist".

Well, guess what?  Those Mad Scientists are more numerous than you might ever suspect.  What's more is that they don't tend to hide out in secret lairs, but instead share knowledge, experience and good times with one another in open, inviting places known as HACKERSPACES!

A "hackerspace" is a workshop/meeting space/toolshop/library/etc in which people with a passion for "hacking out" a better world through knowledge, conviction and sweat come together to work, learn and share.

Best of all?  They're ALWAYS looking for other people to join them in this adventure.

Several hackerspaces are coming to Maker Faire: NC to show you some of the amazing things they're doing -- and to ask YOU to join the adventure!

We have Alamance Makers Guild (Burlington), Splat Space (Durham), Hackerspace Charlotte (umm... Charlotte) and Fablocker (Winston-Salem).  They EACH have an amazing assortment of people and stuff to share with you!  These folks welcome everyone regardless of race, religion, gender, national origin -- all that matters is having a desire to build a better, cooler world with your own hands.  TALK TO THEM!  They need YOU to help them make the world AWESOME!

I'd also like to give a special shout out to TechShop RDU.  They are one of Maker Faire: NC's sponsors and one of the reasons I rekindled my own love of hacking our way to a better world.  TechShop is a membership-based workshop with an UNBELIEVABLE array of tools (think laser cutters, 3D printers, and giant CNC routers -- ShopBots and plasma cutters -- as well as full woodworking and metalworking shops) for members to use.  If it wasn't for TechShop, I wouldn't have met almost ANY of the great folks that make Maker Faire: NC happen.  I think most of us met there.  If you are in the Research Triangle area, you owe it to yourself to pay them a visit. It's where I built my living room table (on a ShopBot), learned to use a laser cutter (in a class taught by our own MF:NC director, Jon Danforth), and my whole family learned to weld!

So... a very personal thank you to all Hackerspaces for making the world more awesome and especially to TechShop for their contributions to Maker Faire: NC and to my own life!  Many, many thanks!

(Kevin, Maker Coordinator for Maker Faire: NC 2012).