Maker Profile-Daniel Davis

This month at Splat Space I’ve decided it would be really great to interview some of our amazing members for a month-long event I’ve dubbed Makerspace May.  I hope to highlight a few different members of Splat Space this month, because our members are what makes Splat Space great. I think one of the great things about makerspaces like Splat Space is that you get to meet so many interesting people and get to be inspired by so many projects, big or small.

This first week I wanted to interview Daniel Davis,  who we are lucky at Splat Space to have as our PR board member this year.  He is often the guy making the posts to Splat Space’s blog recently,  so I thought it would be fun to turn the tables and see what he is up to.

 

thetinkernut

 

Question 1: Who are you?

 

I’m Batman. Let me rephrase. I’m Daniel Davis, a Nashville, TN native. I moved to Durham, NC in 2009 to pursue a passion for making how-to Youtube videos. Since then I’ve started my own website and video series called Tinkernut and have been doing that professionally ever since! (Also, not Batman.)

 

Question 2:  Do you consider yourself a tinkerer, a maker, a geek, an artist,  or a mesh of all of those titles?

 

Of those four, I’m more heavy on the tinkerer, maker, artist side. Growing up I was always really good at art and loved it…but I also loved computers, programming, and ripping stuff apart. To be honest, it wasn’t until Youtube came along that I felt I actually had a platform that could appease all of those passions. Then the Maker movement started evolving and now I feel a part of a much broader, exciting subculture!

 

Question 3: How are you involved with Splat Space?

 

I became a member of SplatSpace about three years ago. The main reason was to have access to tools that I otherwise wouldn’t have access to. I found that SplatSpace had a lot of involvement with teaching people about technology and I felt that was a good match for what I’m doing with my Youtube channel. There was also the added benefit of having a fantastic group of people that have such different hobbies but all share the same level passion about them.

 

 Question 4. What’s on your workbench right now?  What’s holding your interest?

 

Currently I’ve got a WL-520GU router for some videos I’ve been doing regarding extending wifi and DD-WRT, so my workbench is covered in routers.
 danielsworkbench

 

Question 5.  Favorite project you’ve ever worked on?

 

I love Raspberry Pi’s and love all the amazing things you can do with them. So my favorite project would have to be my Raspberry Pi Arcade machine, just because it combines new technology with retro arcade goodness!

 

Question 6.  Any favorite or hilariously bad epic failures?

 

I shocked myself half a dozen times when trying to make a disposable camera EMP. I did a video about magnets one time where I said that “like attracts like”, which is totally not true. I’ve bricked several different devices while trying to load custom firmware. Out of 100% of the projects I attempt, I’d say that only 60% actually work.

tinkernutlogo

Thank you so much for answering my questions Daniel!  Go visit his website and watch his super fun videos if you want to see what else he’s been getting up to.