Second Santa Cruz Mini Maker Faire

The Santa Cruz Mini Maker Faire (http://santacruz.makerfaire.com/) is 2017 April 29, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. at Gateway School (126 Eucalyptus Ave in Santa Cruz, near Lighthouse Field).  I have been accepted as an exhibitor again, and I’ll have with me some of the freshmen from my freshman design seminar course.  This year was the most successful run of that course, with all three groups being able to demonstrate their projects.

Two of the groups collaborated to do an EMG-controlled arm.  One group did the electromyograph amplifier, the other built a MeArm from a kit and programmed a Teensy board to read the EMG output and use it to control the arm.  On their public demo during exam week, they had two working channels, to control the shoulder and gripper of the MeArm.  With a little practice, the operator was able to pick up a light object with the arm.  These groups will be joining me at the Maker Faire.

The third group build their own gripper out of medium-density fiberboard, using the scroll saw and drill press in the fab lab.  They were able to demonstrate the gripper, but did not have time to build the wrist that they had also planned.  I don’t know whether this group will be joining me at Maker Faire or not.

I’ll have a number of demos from the applied electronics course also—I still need to figure out what I’ll display and how I’ll lay things out on the table.