maker faire

Maker Faire was really fun! actually I spent most of Saturday looking at stuff with fellow classmates, then Sunday my housemate wanted to go so I went to try the rides I missed like the Water Swing and stuff cos the queues were much shorter the next day. My favourite item from the Arduino tent was Ember:

ember hack

Maker website: Ember Kit|| Lower East Kitchen

It’s conceived by this engaged couple; he’s a plasma scientist and she’s a writer and they worked together to come up with this really cheap yet effective arudino kitchen appliance hack. Basically it’s a box controlling the heating/cooling of an appliance precisely so you can achieve perfect sous vitae temperatures (I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s infinitely useful) This really really really excites me because I used to be a backyard chemist, and maintaining temperatures on a consistent level was one of my greatest difficulties (the other one is humidity). Most of the examples listed on the blog/website are developed for Heston-esque cooking techniques, but it can be easily applied to things like distillation of alcohol (70C), 1st stage polyermisation of thermoplastic (85C), making resins/epoxy (104C), bain marie (40C) etc etc… I really want to get one!!!!!!! I think you could even hack to get higher temperatures by combining it with a pressure chamber,  which would be really good if you’re trying to maintain temperature in a  non-conductive element.

I also really like it ’cause it’s very reasonably priced compared to some of the other items at Maker Faire…. like some of the 3-d printers cost thousands while the more complicated circuits could run into hundreds! Here, it was a complete kit with prices ranging from $50 (the total DIY) to $80 (pre-assembled, just drill and affix)

Anyway I really enjoyed going to Maker Faire, I hope they have another one next year!