Author: Dan
Technically a brain in a jar.
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FabLearn 2012 at Stanford
Stanford was beautiful and warm, the people were beautiful and warm, the food was… I think you know where this is going. I had a great time on campus listening to the informative talks and participating in strange workshops. I got a good reminder about keeping an open mind.
I had two whole minutes to talk to a room full of teachers, easily my biggest opportunity this year. How well did I do? That’s a tough call. I think what I’ve learned is that marketing in the states is not worth it for me because I can’t make an on-the-spot sale, even when people are waving their wallets at me. I just hope they visit the shop and place an order.
In any case, here’s some photos of things I saw on my trip.
Miscellaneous
New Drawbot Assembly Instructions; New Forum.
Get the new Drawbot assembly instructions right here. Please have a read through and let me know if I’ve missed anything.
Tomorrow I’m running Introduction to Arduino at the VHS. Monday I’m working at a local SFX company. Tuesday I’m on a plane to Stanford. Friday I get back. Saturday I’m working on projects for my database clients. Sunday I have Introduction to Soldering at the VHS. Then I’m back to the SFX company and working on the pan and tilt head for Malcolm, followed by the Quarterly GM on Sunday again. Light reading in bed is about how to market my business better. If I get a chance to take a break it’ll probably be spent raking the half ton of leaves that fall on my front yard every day in fall. My TODO list is growing all the time. I need to figure out the best way to use what time I have in my day.
I definitely have troubles staying positive, engergized, and focussed. How do you do it? What’s your secret? I’m taking Vitamin D, getting out in the fresh air every day, and making sure I don’t get dehydrated. Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated. I need to stay efficient and on the ball, not under it.
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Can Drawbot hold a child’s attention?
Ben says “It is a hit! The kids love it and teachers too.” I couldn’t be more pleased. This is exactly what I’m trying to do – inspire, educate, and maybe pay my bills (in that order).
Now if only I had some lesson plans…
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Record Time for Order Fulfillment; 3D printing challenges; IndieGoGo; new pen holder; Skycam
Wow! Some days there is just too much news. I should split this into 5 separate postings but one of my news dissemination providers just changed their TOS and it means I can’t post as often as I’d like.
I’m setting new records for fastest order fulfillment! It makes me giggle. It’s almost ticklish, in a good way. Fastest order to fulfillment time is now 30 minutes, including the time it took to bike to the post office. I’ve got another one today, and that means I have only two Drawbots (or one skycam) left in stock. Better get that 3D printer going and restock ASAP.
Segues? We don’t need no segues! IndieGogo’s Robots for School campaign ended yesterday. Thank you to everyone who participated, shared, tweeted, linked, and so on. Those of you who contributed have been emailed a coupon code for the shop and a sneak peek at the next kit.
Alan, one of the local VHS members, bought a Drawbot from the shop (thankyouthankyouthankyou) and has been playing with Shapelock to design a better pen holder. Check this out!
Nice work Alan! Have you made some tweak to your drawbot the world should know about? Please share! I’m seriously considering a forum.
I’ve got FabLearn 2012 on my mind. I haven’t figured out how to save time to work on the next kit. I don’t remember the last time I felt like I was working on something fresh from the top of my dome, so to speak. More parts are due from Adafruit any day now and I’ve found a chinese supplier who can get me 12v2a power supplies for about 1/3 of what I’m paying right now.
Lastly, because I’ve been sitting on it forever and haven’t done anything… The Skycam code is now on github. I haven’t documented it yet. I hope it encourages you to buy a second Drawbot and do something cool, like build a room-sized machine that builds LEGO houses or something.
