This past week was the Durham Comics Fest at Durham County Libraries. As part of the week, they unveiled our most recent project, the Durham Comics Project Comics Kiosk.

The kiosk is a simple image viewer, showing a set of comics from the “Comics Contraption,” a huge comics panel machine that has let people around Durham make a comic–one frame at a time–that riffs on the previous comic frame.

The kiosk was built from a donated point-of-sale touch screen kiosk that we modified. Unnecessary bits were removed and we replaced its computer with a simple laptop running the stripped down linux and web server needed to power the image viewer.

We love collaborating with Durham County Libraries, and hope to do more projects with them soon. You can check out the kiosk at the Southwest branch of the library, and come to the space if you want to work on something similar.

Makerfaire NC has come and gone, and it was fantastic.

Every year since it started, MFNC has been bigger and better than the past year. This was no exception, as the Faire was in the larger Exposition Center.

Splatspace had a huge table, which we shared with the Efland Cheeks Elementary school group. We had an awesome wireless enabled cloud–an actual cloud–that flashed and animated colors that could be set from a terminal running below.

We also had a MIDI player you could control with a wiimote.

As always, we had the Bullitron set up, which was very popular. We also had custom vinyl decals being printed on a mini vinyl cutter and a cardboard pepakura velociraptor that was big enough to be called a Utahraptor, if anyone had measured it.

Lastly, and possibly most popularly, we had paper Poplocks robots in place for visitors to build.

The rest of MFNC was really cool too. Efland Cheeks Elementary had their usual Squishy Circuits set up, and a very popular stand to disassemble hardware. There was a great focus on teaching at the Faire. There was a learn to lockpick station, and a really popular learn to solder station.

And there were a huge number of other awesome displays, like the chaos engine or the trebuchet or the mobile NERF weapons platform.

Makerfaire NC is a genuinely awesome event. If you didn’t make it out this year, you owe it to yourself to get out next year.

Here’s this week’s shedule at the space:

• On Tuesday we’ll have our usual Open Meeting, from 7:15pm. This is a business meeting too, so the first half hour or so will have officer reports and some Splatspace business to sort.
• On Sunday, from 6pm, we’ll have Software Project Night.

We hope to see you out!

Here’s this week’s schedule at Splatspace:

• Tonight, Monday, from 7pm, we’re having June’s Techno-Activism 3rd Monday (TA3M) meeting.
• On Tuesday, from 7:15pm, we’re having our usual Open Meeting.
• On Saturday, from 2 to 5pm, TriEmbed is holding a Hack Afternoon at the space.
• On Sunday, from 6pm, we’re having our usual Software Project Night.

Also, this weekend in Charlotte is the SouthEast LinuxFest, a really great conference with multiple tracks on Open Source Software and Linux.

So, last weekend was the NC Makerfaire. We're getting a post together showing how that went, but in the meantime, here's a post about the other area makerfaire–Burlington Mini Maker Faire. As alwasy, it was a blast.

At our table we had a ton of projects members have been working on, ranging from a homemade Operation style game made from a Lego mini figures box and other lego parts to a the newest version of an open source evolution rig, producing bacteria that create various useful proteins.

We also had our usual 3D printer display, some papercraft, and the 3D printed thumb piano we posted about before.

But the big draw at the mini maker faire isn't any one table. It's the sheer display of making on display from all over the region.

There were robots playing ball. There were steampunk props. There was a family showing off their daughters' Mindstorms robots.

Speaking of Mindstorms, Efland Cheeks Elementary had their own table, showing off their Mindstorms collection and squishy circuits.

The Makerfaire even had blacksmiths, with small portable forges.

And last, but not least, the Alamance Maker's guild table had musical tesla coils.

The Mini Makerfaire was really something. If you didn't make it out this year, make sure to get it on your calendar for next year.

Here’s this week’s schedule at the space:

• Tuesday, from 7:15pm, we’ll have our usual Open Meeting. Please note the changed time: we’re starting later as the lot is now charging for any fraction of an hour used before 7pm. If you arrive at or after 7pm, the lot will be free, though you will still have to take a ticket to get in.
• Sunday, from 6pm to 8pm, we’ll have Craft Project Night.
• Also on Sunday, from 6pm, we’ll have Software Project Night.

We hope to see you out!

Makerfaire is tomorrow from 10am to 6pm, at the NC Fairgrounds in Raleigh.

A ton of NC makers and DIY enthusiasts will be there. Come see new projects, find new gadgets, and get excited to make things!

Here’s this week’s schedule at Splatspace:

• Tuesday, from 7pm, we are having our weekly Open Meeting.
• On Sunday, from 6pm, we’re having our weekly Software Project night.

Also, NC Maker Faire is this weekend! It’s on Saturday, from 10am to 6pm, in the Exposition Building at NC Fairgrounds in Raleigh. Maker Faire is always a ton of fun, with interesting hackers and makers from all over the state. You should really come check it out.

We hope to see you!

Splatspace has made Raspberry Pi cases before, but recently a member made a new case of a more pop cultural bent:

If you’re a fan of Adventure Time and the Lumpy Space Princess, checkout thingiverse for the print. And keep an eye on the creator’s page, who promises a new, lumpier version in the future.

Here’s this week’s schedule at Splatspace:

• Tuesday, from 7pm, we are having our weekly Open Meeting.
• On Saturday, from noon to 2pm, we’re having a “Cultural” celebration. Come show off or see various cultures–yogurt, beer fermenting, kefir, and all sorts of others. Cultures and various equipment for homebrewing and making things like yogurt will be shown.
• On Sunday, from 6pm, we’re having our weekly Software Project night.

We hope to see you at the space!