Bricks by the Bay - Second Day

This was the first public day. 

Some adjustments were needed in the demos as can be seen here.

There was a lot of traffic at the booth, which restricted my ability to search though the brick piles for needed bricks.  Multiple times there 7-9 year olds asking very hard questions on operation of the Brick Controller and how I constructed the demos.

Explaining to a very bright 7 year old how the Brick Controller worked

Busy Day

Did not get much time to eat so these were very helpful.

Finally here are some short videos from some of the train oriented MOCs

Bricks by the Bay - First Day

Bricks by the Bay - First Day

This was the second day of setup and the beginning of the convention as can be seen in the next three pictures showing the schedule.

But what do you really do at a Lego convention, besides by product from me.  You look at what everyone else has built and you look though brick piles for those pieces you need. At $10/pound, it is much cheaper than any of the one line sources.

Sold more controllers and USB power sources to vendors who wanted to have automated displays either at their booths or back at their brick and mortar stores.  Finished connecting all of the demos and remembered to bring the tablet for the interactive demo.

Talked to quite a few attendees on how MyMakerTools Brick Controller might help them motorize their projects as well as just power them.  Tomorrow the public shows up, so we will see what happens.


Here are some pictures from the first day.

Last minute fixes

I was very interested in this.  I want to build a large cliffscape for the space station and this will be useful as a guide.

Interesting bar scenee

Small Star Wars fighters

Japanese Swords

Tropical Paradise

City Skylines

B-36

B-29

Rupaul's Drag Race Winners

Brickheadz

Bionnicle Dragon

Door Scene from Monsters Inc

Part of the train layout

Bricks by the Bay - Setup

Well we rolled in at 5PM and setup for this year's Bricks by the Bay, Jul 12-14 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.  

The MOC area setup was well under way when we got there

Only missed a few things in the packout.  Fortunately we live close by, so it was no big deal.

Attendees were already setting up their MOCs

The view from our location

Since we did not have a MOC for display this year, I took three of the pieces from last year and used them.

Setting up connections for the MOC Demo display

Final Setup for MOC Demo

Setting up the interactive display, forgot to bring the tablet though

Even though it was only vendors and attendees with displays, sold one Brick Power 2 unit to a vendor with a motorized display.  He forgot to bring extra AA batteries and his battery pack was already low.  When he saw how the interactive display was powered, he bought one on the spot.

Tomorrow will be for attendees only, then Saturday and Sunday will be open to the Public.

Brick Controller II

I have been slowly studying the layout of the Brick Controller II, looking for subtle errors. I realized I will not have it ready to sell by Bricks by the Bay, I have decided to put more effort into review,

Here is the latest design in 3D.

Here is the top (red) and bottom (blue) layer without the ground fill.  The top layer is prominent. 

I am very close to generating the gerber files and sending it out to fabrication and assembly.

Store Offerings

One thing we have never written about is the online store. 

It can be found here https://store.mymakertools.com/

The store is where you can find all of our inventory that you would normally see at our shows.

Here is our low cost Brick power module.

https://store.mymakertools.com/products/usb-brick-power 

This is the Brick Controller I and it's power module.

https://store.mymakertools.com/products/usb-brick-power-rev-2 

https://store.mymakertools.com/products/brick 

We also have combinations kits where you can purchase different modules together at a discount.  It is a nice way to build up a tool kit for your development.

 

https://store.mymakertools.com/products/maker-pro-kit 

 

https://store.mymakertools.com/products/maker-expert-kit 

 

https://store.mymakertools.com/products/maker-ultimate-kit 

Finally we do take custom orders for our SoftWear line.  But please no large orders.  Remember that each one of these hand made with extra care.

  

https://store.mymakertools.com/products/shirt-with-brick-builder-motif 

Sunnyvale Electronics Flea Market

Last Saturday we were at the Sunnyvale Electronics Flea Market in the Frys Electronics parking lot.  This used to be at DeAnza College for years, but last year moved to Frys Electronics.

This event is put on by the local ham Radio clubs.  Originally it was a way for them to swap equipment, it was a true swap meet.  Now it is a place for old test equipment, just about anything electronic, tools, and excess computers.  One time a vendor was selling 20 Agilent 3G test stations for $100.  At a minimum they were good spectrum analyzers. This event occurs the second Saturday of the month, March thru September. It starts at 5AM and goes to 12PM, but you can always find early shoppers there at 4:30AM looking for the best deal.  You can learn more about it here

https://www.electronicsfleamarket.com/

Why are we here? Good question, well as electronics hacker from way back, I have acquired lots of things.  So we are here to sell of excess stuff that I dont want to end up in land fill and to show our MyMakerTools products.

As the first picture shows we have our normal products (except the Soft Wear since this crowd is not really into that).  Also you can see some of the items we are selling as we downsize my collection of goodies from the past 20+ years.

It is an interesting collection of people.  Ham's looking for the right component for their next project, Makers looking for old equipment that they can re-purpose and  hackers with old computers looking for parts to keep them running. It is always interesting talking to people and the projects they are working on.  There are four more flea markets this year and we will probably be at three of them.  The one in July conflicts with Bricks by the Bay, which we will have more about later.

Soft Wear Design

On another side of the creative spectrum, MyMaker Tools also features fun custom handmade fabric creations, what we call Soft Wear. So far, we have comfortable 100% cotton shirts (inspired by aloha shirts), pillowcases, and a child’s quilt. The shirts range from child (S-M-L) to adult (S-M-L-XL).  All shirtshave size and care labels. These items are machine washable in cold water, prefer minimal drying, and reside in a smoke and pet free environment.

The inspiration for these springs from the fabric that we find. We have gears, monsters in gears, circuit boards, brick toy construction characters, robots, and are constantly on the lookout for colorful prints with fun themes. Here are a few examples of our current stock. The shirts are great for Maker events or whenever you want to stand out in a crowd.

Seattle Motif

Brick Builder Motif

Since our fabric inventory is limited, we only have a few samples made up, but can complete your order with short notice.

Brick Interface

The Brick interface consists of three parts.

1. Motor Control
2. LED Control
3. Input Control

Motor Control
The Motor Control is similar to the motor control in the original Brick Controller.  There are connectors for up to four motors.  In the original Brick Controller the motor control was either on or off, that is it was full speed or off.  In this version, I have implemented Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control, thus allowing for independent speed control of each motor. I suspect that the first version of firmware and app software will not have this implemented yet, but will be an upgrade.

LED Control
There are controls for 10 LED sources.  LED 1- 9 are controlled by the LP5569 LED controller.  LED 10 is controlled by the PIC32 and is connected to a PWM generator in the PIC32, so it will have some lighting effects.  The LP5569 provides a wealth of capability.  I suspect like the motor controller it will be implemented in stages as the firmware and software coalesce into a working application.  If you want to see what the capabilities are, search the blog for LP5569.  There were 9 entries in the spring of 2018 where I was working on this as a standalone LED controller.

Input Control
While this was implemented in the original version, it was not very clear how to use it.  This time I put some more thought into it.  It is still very basic and it may still evolve.  Mostly I will need to verify that there is sufficient electrical protection on each input.  What I would like to see is a two fold interface.  First is an ON/OFF type input.  The user will connect the input to ground, provided in the connector, which will casue the running script to do something.  Second is to provide a variable voltage, 0 to 3.3VDC again this in the connector, to an input.  As the voltage changes, the running script will do something. The first option was implemented in the in the original version.  The second will take some thought as to how it will be implemented and thus will probably be an upgrade in the future.

Electronics and Soft Wear, Why?

If you visit the Web site or see us at an event, we are easy to find because we always have colorful theme shirts on.  Additionally we are showing theme shirts, unique pillow cases and even quilts.  We are the definition of a Maker.

Gears and Monsters Adult Shirt

Our theme shirts were inspired by aloha shirts. Early in our life, we lived in Hawaii while one of us was in the Navy and the other an accountant in a local (and colorful) CPA firm.  But large tropical prints or iconic beach scenes aren’t appropriate to every occasion. There are times when you need something besides a t-shirt. These shirts are comfortable. They’re colorful. They’re a way to make a statement. They’re fun. They can make you chuckle, like an inside joke or a belly buster to share. They’re a way to say, hey,  I’m unique, I’m fun. They help you stand out in a crowd.

Child's Brick Builder Shirt

For our first Maker Faire event, we wanted a way to show our commitment to the cause….we’re creative and fun and proud of it. I found fabric with gears similar to the logo on the business cards, and the rest is history. We received many enthusiastic comments, so I made a few more for the next event, and even sold a few! And in kids sizes too. 

Large Brick Builder Theme Quilt

At our next event, done forget to stop buy and see the Soft Wear side of what we Make.