Family Hack Day a Success!

Eugene Maker Space held our very first Family Hack Day on June 1, 2013.  We had a decent sized group of kids and families show up to get some work done on their own projects.  And boy did work get done.  We also had several EMS members show up to lend a hand and teach some new skills.  Thanks to everybody who came out to make this event a success.  It went so well that we intend to put on another one in the not-too-distant future.  Keep your eyes peeled for updates on that.  In the meantime, check out what everyone was working on!

Connor showed up and spent some time designing a plastic spoon/fork combination to print on the 3D printer.  He based his design off of a wooden one he brought with him.

Joshua, Benjamin, and Quinn brought in a few home made airplanes to show off.  These planes run off a tiny battery and motor and are capable of flying over half a mile.

Joshua worked on a Chaotic Doodler.  This contraption uses gravity and magnets to generate a random doodle every time you put some energy into the system.

Here’s a video of the doodler in action.

Joshua also spent some time fixing up his autonomous robot. This robot is able to sense when it runs into something and then reverse itself and turn to try and get around the obstacle. The most impressive thing about this robot is that it doesn’t use a microcontroler as you might expect. Instead, Joshua made his own “3-bit computer” using wheels and contact switches. You just have to watch the video to really understand how awesome it is.

Quinn wanted to work on a robot to help him clean his room. He spent a good deal of time learning new skills to help him build a remote control panel for his robot.

Benjamin spent some time improving his mode made electronic gyroscope.

Ben worked on a Tamiya kit with his son Alex while his other son Marcus was learning how to use the soldering iron.