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View Full Version : The Makers Fayre & Raspberry Pi



logobear
30-04-2013, 11:19 PM
I spent all sunday at the Makers Fayre in Newcastle. Brilliant! - I intended to go for a couple of hours, then come home and go back with the kids so they could play with the robots and press some buttons, but I got so hooked, I stayed all day by myself!
There were some excellent applications of pentograph actions, - in some cases modified plotter/cutters, and in others made from scratch from lego, mecano or even laser cut wood.
Instead of cutting vinyl and printing t-shirts, the motion was used to control cutting lasers, coupled with extrusion guns to make 3d printers, or my favourite was attached to a nozzle that extruded pancake batter, straight onto a hot griddle, so they could print& cook text and shapes in food!
Everything about the place appealed to the inner geek, the DIY culture, and attitude towards technology, fix and improvise, and play, fiddle, experiment and learn..... And I realise I use all these qualities in decorating garments, and we share our knowledge and experience here on DSF
My big treat was a Raspberry Pi! (this post written on it!)
Under £30 has got me a complete computer running Linux (Rasputin) - which I have combined with a few things I have lying around to get me up and running!
In under an hour I have downloaded a kirnil, flashed an image, booted from an xd card, done some config stuff, and now am surfing the web and contributing to DSF on a £50 computer running Linux! (it is straightforward, and there are forums etc)
It makes me smile, and so far, it seems very intuative, perhaps windows is guilty of making things over complicated, if power corupts, ..... then maybe we just need tiny computers that have none!
It is like having a blindfold taken off...... but don't imagine I will be using it for work for a while .....
Check it out!
Phil

Justin
30-04-2013, 11:24 PM
Often toyed with the idea of getting a Pi.....good to hear of someone using one, they sound fantastic! and Wow what a price!

I had to boot a friends pc the other day into Puppy Linux and it reminded me just how good this stuff is.....note to self, buy a Pi, make some time to play!

smo
30-04-2013, 11:27 PM
Pi's are great, i've been considering using one to make a set of instruments for pressing to give me IR temp readouts and a VR pressure sensor to accurately guage pressing pressure on a "manual" (adkins) press.

Keep us updated on any projects you do with it :)

logobear
30-04-2013, 11:45 PM
Dear SMO, I am still crawling, pretty pleased with myself that I could switch it on! - I can already see myself getting more than 1, - but what to do with them ? - Love the idea of your project, been looking at IR thermometers, but to make one would be soo much better! - tell how you get on.
P

Ask_Alan
01-05-2013, 09:39 AM
The inner geek had one from santa this year :cool:. Not had much time to play yet :( , fun device though. Thinking of using it as a local web server on the home network or to power a led cube.
Alan