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MindKits News and Blog

CoLab - Creating Technologies Conference with LiliPad creator Dr Leah Buechley

Tim Carr - Tuesday, May 26, 2009
CoLab is proud to present ‘Creating Technologies’  – a one day conference exploring empowerment and engagement through technology.

Tim from MindKits (that's me) will be there. We all hope to see you there and it's going to be an awesome day with so many fantastic speakers so make sure you come up and tap us/me on the shoulder and introduce yourself (if you can find me in the crowd).

Tim
MindKits Chief Ninja



Our keynote speaker is Dr Leah Buechley director of the  High-Low Tech research group at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Lab. The High-Low Tech group explores the integration of technology from cultural, material, and practical perspectives, with the goal of  engaging diverse groups of people in developing their own technologies. Leah is a well-known expert in the field of electronic textiles (e-textiles) and she developed a method for creating cloth printed circuit boards (fabric PCBs) and designing the commercially available LilyPad Arduino  toolkit. Her research has been featured in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Popular Science, CRAFT Magazine  and academic publications.

The conference program also include some of New Zealand’s top industry experts, creative artists, technologists and foremost thinkers. They will explore issues and themes of technology and empowerment, including the democratization of technology, new models for participation, creativity and business, technology and gender and e-textiles. 

Please see the attached speaker bios and the CoLab conference info flyer






Arduino Workshop in Auckland- Sat 23rd and more dates to come.

Tim Carr - Saturday, May 16, 2009

The team at MindKits are so pleased to have teamed up with Auckland University of Technology to be able to offer budding tinkerers the chance to build upon their Arduino knowledge at a day long workshop.

Tim from MindKits will be popping in to say hello and have an opportunity to meet with some of you so it'll be a good opportunity to ask any questions you have, request new products or just share your ideas with us. We love tinkering and are tinkerers ourselves so we cant wait to see you there.

Email AUT at the address in the poster below but CC Tim at MindKits.com to let us know you're interested and we'll be sure to come say hello.

Thanks for all your support and I wish you all the best with you Arduino learning and tinkering.

Regards,
Tim
MindKits Chief Ninja

 

 

 

 

Arduino telemetry payload in a class C rocket

Tim Carr - Monday, May 11, 2009
The team over at SparkFun showed a link to this great project which embedded a an Arduino Pro Mini into a rocket and I felt it was worth exploring further. Check out the Arduino Pro's and Pro minis in the MindKits store as they are awesome for embedding in projects that you plan to leave in place for a while, power by battery or need to tuck away in small spaces. They're also cheaper than the Arduino USB boards and you just program them with a USB to serial adaptor which we can supply you too.

 

From the article:
"Yesterday I headed over to a local trotting track with Thomas to meet up with Marc Alexander, Rohan Fernando, and their kids to do a couple of launches with Marco Ostini's class-C rocket fitted with an Arduino telemetry payload. Rohan brought a video camera and Marc brought a still camera, and it was a beautiful day so we got some really good coverage. This was a triple-purpose trip: Arduino development for Practical Arduino, rocketry education for Lunar Numbat, and an excuse to have some fun."

Check out the article for more

The lost transistor?

Tim Carr - Sunday, May 03, 2009
While conducting historical research for the recent MAKE presents: The Transistor video, I came across references to an earlier iteration of the device apparently created way back in 1933 - a full 14 years before Bell Labs researchers had a working model. What makes the discovery even more compelling and inspiring is the fact that its inventor, Robert Adams, was only 13 years old when he made it. Though no patents or publications were created describing its functionality, Adams is said to have built multiple crystal radios utilizing the device. Though Dr. Robert George Adams passed away in 2006, his website documents some of his work -

 

adamscrystalamp.jpg