Join the Steel City Makers for the first meeting of Make:PGH at the HackPittsburgh hack space. The meeting is free and open to the public which features a MakerBot 3D printer, mystery activities, and an ioBridge-based, iPhone controlled fighting Domo toy.
“Andy Leer will share with us his experiences using the ioBridge to create fun interactive web enabled dioramas. Find out how with a few minutes and some simple hardware you too can put almost anything on the web.”
We found out what happens when you place two lovable toys against each other. They attack!
Hack Pittsburgh member Andy Leer created an interactive toy fight featuring Domo and Munny squaring off. You get to control one of the characters and watch the battle via a webcam live. Move over “Internet of Things” - make way for the “Internet of Vengeful Toys”.
Munny vs. Domo
The Munny and Domokun are attached to servos. The servos are connected to the ioBridge servo controller and IO-204. You control the toys with servo slider widgets. Andy’s blog mentions that the next version will have iPhone support. Visit his blog to play and sweep the leg at the Domo Dojo.
The ioBridge Team will be at Hack Pittsburgh Friday, November 13th at 7pm. We will talk about web-enabling projects and getting microcontrollers online fast and securely. The session will include hands-on demonstrations of ioBridge projects and Q&A. The presentation is open to the public. Get more details on the MAKE community bulletin board or on HackPittsburgh.org.
HackPGH is a non-profit group of makers from based in Pittsburgh, PA that runs a dedicated workshop for project development and training. To find out more about Hack Pittsburgh, visit HackPittsburgh.org – community-based activities, schedule of events, and projects.
A number of ioBridge users created some amazing ioBridge-based projects for this Halloween. We were impressed with the diversity and how they interacted with the IO-204. From using some new offline features of ioBridge to using social networks to poke fun at their Halloween prey.
We have a steam powered steampunk pumpkin that blows smoke out if it’s ears. We have a spider dropping on it’s victim and snapping a photo and posting to Twitter via TwitPic. We also have a motion sensing, talking skull that scares co-workers in the owner’s cubicle. Check them out!
We wanted to say thanks to everyone that visited us at the Maker Faire. We had a 10×10 booth filled with web-based projects – Scrolling LED Twitter Sign, Internet Controlled Donkey Kong, Power Monitoring, Dog Treat Dispenser, X10 Outlet Control, Temperature Charting and Logging, and an Interactive Message Center for the Serial LCD Screens. Our booth consumed 4 kWh over 2 days and peak power usage was 290 Watts.
Maker Faire Projects
Lots of people helped out to make it happen – thanks to OharaRP and thecapacity for working the LED sign. Maker Faire had some really interesting projects – underwater robots from Jesuit Robotics, a Giant LED display, Tesla Coils, Art Meets Science, cool stuff in the Maker Shed, and lots of people.
Here are some photos from Flickr of our booth before we got swarmed:
ioBridge went online in November 2008. Since that time, we have had the chance to work some really brilliant “makers” from all walks of life. Maker Faire Bay Area 2009 is May 30 and 31st in San Mateo at the fairgrounds – a gathering of people that make things, re-purpose dusty equipment, and bend circuits – our kind of people. The ioBridge team will be there with an exhibitor booth. We look forward to meeting some of the people behind all of the blogs posts, YouTube videos, and forum posts. Our booth will be filled with gizmos to play with, setup, and configure. We invite you stop by and say, “Hi” and experiment and meet the ioBridge crew. We would love to meet you and see what projects your are working on. We have a few surprises in store, so check us out. If you can’t make it to the Maker Faire, follow the action on Twitter – our booth will be live on the web!
If you happen to be flipping through the April 2009 issue of SERVO Magazine, you might just notice an article about ioBridge and the IO-204 being released. SERVO is one of our favorite robot/hobby/hacking magazines and we were thrilled to see the write up. Thanks so much! SERVO is also sponsoring the Bay Area Maker Faire 2009. We will see you there…
Every time we check in on Jay of thecapacity, he is mashing up more technologies to wreak havoc on his co-workers, friends, and/or wife. This time Jay has created a remote controlled Airsoft Gun that is sighted using an IP camera and controlled using the feedback from a Wiimote — all from his Internet web application. A harness supports the gun which allows the gun to aim using a servo. The trigger is also servo controlled and linked to the trigger of the Wiimote. The ioBridge allows Jay to be anywhere in the world to reign terror on unsuspecting victims. On thecapacity blog, you can find some cool YouTubevideos of the making of the system and see him take down some space invaders.
The inventor known only as “hacklife” created an iPhone-controlled dog feeder. He converted some household parts into a stable, servo-controlled food dispenser. At the heart of the system is the IO-204 from ioBridge that allows the iPhone to direct servo positions over the Internet with no programming involved. His YouTube video, ioBridge Forum post, and MAKE post explain the system in more detail. Well done, hacklife.
