Blinkdom

San Antonio Mini Maker Faire 2016

Saturday March 26, 2016, we got up early, packed up Blinkdom, and headed to the Central Library to put up a booth at the 2nd Annual San Antonio Mini Maker Faire .

We moved in next to Artpace and they were cool enough to change spots with us. They got a tall table for their hologram demos and we got a darker corner. We were across the room from the main entrance so it was easy to find us.

We had 3 columns of Blinkdom installed for a 24x25 pixel image in 600 water bottles. It was pulled away from the back wall so people could walk behind it to see the bottle wiring and the electronics powering Blinkdom. An iPad ran TouchOSC with a custom interface to control the visual remotely, which some visitors used to change the preset being shown. A large Blinkdom sign helped people know what they were looking at.

We brought a few props to tell our story, a Hint water bottle, a strand of LEDs, and some Raspberry Pis. A slideshow of the build process photos cycled on an LCD screen running on a 1st generation Raspberry Pi. Everything was sitting on a table our robot made for us.

Our friend, Dale Bracey, was volunteering at the Maker Faire, and shot this quick video of our entire setup.

How'd It Go?

It went great! Some people stayed back and enjoyed the visuals. Others had questions. Some wanted to hear the story. Most were happily surprised to learn Blinkdom is made of recycled water bottles. Technical ones appreciated our use of a Raspberry Pi 3, the stand-alone switched network, and the robot-cut wood structure.

We spoke with kids, parents, teachers, musicians, artists, nurses, architects, Ghostbuster cosplayers, engineers, hardware re-cyclers, hackathon organizers, metal workers, software developers, CNC machine designers, makers of all kinds and did an interview with GeekOut SA . Where else can you get such an interesting mix of people?

Thanks for the encouragement. We will keep going. Please continue your support of local makers so we can hurry up and host the San Antonio Mini Maker Faire.