Singapore Mini Maker Faire 2014

As electronics amateur and Robot.Head to Toe company, we decided to attend Singapore Maker Faire. Yes, we are bringing rero to share the fun of building robot too.

Well, preparation is necessary for this maker faire. We are bringing rero and Robot. Head to Toe product, we asked for two booths and the organizer is generous enough to give us two big booths :). Rero will be selling the complete set during the maker faire, hardware and software design need to be finalized before the faire. Our team works very hard to get this done and finally we did it.

The paper packaging boxes come in 2 weeks before the date, nice!

Besides the box, we also finalize the head module and the sensor modules for rero:

 Head module (come with RGB LEDs, Infrared and sound sensor) 

Infrared sensor: sense distance user can set a threshold output digital

Look similar? Well this is Ultrasonic sensor, not infrared sensor 🙂

The full packing list:

That is quite a number of stuff to play with!

Our engineers also finalize the controller operating system software and released it. Now the rero controller has new user interface:

OK, that is for rero. How about Robot.Head to Toe product? What should we bring? We have a few in mind. Let’s bring:

CTcab, our version of Segway, self-balancing human transporter. Re-furbishing is necessary 🙂 We customize 1 cm thick transparent Acrylic as the top cover to show the internal component when people ask about the circuit and sensor. Use 5500mAh Li-po battery instead of SLA battery for better power and longer usage. We have also uses Cytron version of 5DOF IMU, change the controller and tidy up the wiring. To light up the robot, the RGB LED strip is utilized.

 Design engineer, Idris is testing the CTcab in our office 

Quadcopter. It has been sometime since we build the quadcopter, there are plenty of DIY and ready quadcopter in the market, but it is still a DIY product. To promote maker movement, we decide to bring the quadcopter: 

CuteDuino, the low cost yet easy to use Arduino compatible controller. If you need a controller with 5 I/O, analog input, PWM, check it out.

 CuteDuino pin diagram

DIY (Do it Yourself) Multifunction mobile robot, PR23 Rev2.0. This is very popular product that allows you to learn soldering, programming, electronics, sensor, wireless communication and many more.

There are more products we would like to bring and share with the public, but we are driving cars only and the cars need to take passengers too. There is not enough space for all. Anyway here is the list of thing that you could check out if you are interested.

• Stereo FM Radio module, FR02A. We modified and hacked an old speaker and utilize Arduino with this module to make it digital radio, I bet the tutorial is coming soon.
• CIKU, PIC based Arduino form factor controller, enable Arduino shield to be utilize with PIC microcontroller. It is still in prototyping stage, launching it early of September 2014. Currently we are having public discussion in our technical forum.
• Wireless device which include SKPSW, BlueBee, XBee-WiFi, wireless 434MHz UART module and more.

Now, let’s talk about the trip to Singapore Maker Faire. We went there with 3 cars, fully packed with passengers and robots :). Stopped by KL on 24^th Jul night and continue our journey on 25^th morning, we need to reach Senja Cashew Community Center by 2pm. The organizer allocates setup time from 11am to 5pm. Looking at the robots and parts that we bring, we need to be early. After going through custom and everything else, finally we reach the venue around 3pm, quite a jam near the Johor-Singapore Bridge.

Setting up the booth is not an easy task, TV, game field, charging station, bunting, decoration, layout, etc! Luckily we have a team of dedicated engineers and helpers, and with spirit and hardwork, we manage to get it done before 6pm.

 Overview of the maker faire venue

 The bunting that we bring

Maybe, just maybe because we are from Penang Malaysia, far away from Singapore, the organizer offers bigger booth size for us and locate us in front of the stage. Here is the map of the maker faire.

 Maker Faire Map, Cytron RH2T is located at V2 and V3, while rero is EN19, right in front of the stage.

After a good night rest, next morning we wake up at 8am and after the breakfast at our hostel, we get ourselves to the venue.

There are quite a number of 3D printers showcase in this maker faire. 

We also met pcDuino designer and they brought the latest pcDuino 8 beta. Comes with octa-core A80 processor on it.

There is a booth showing mini Tesla Coil.

The maker is university student and did a big Tesla coil for Singapore Science Centre, well done!

Check out his work here and the video of Tesla Coil in the video:

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVQ4qpGTemo[/youtube]

Oh, did I forget? Intel also brings their Intel Galileo to showcase.

Well, kids have fun with rero and they love it. 

Oh… My love.

 They look happy!

And many tried the CTcab and have fun with it.

The young!

 The “not” young!

 Even the Engineer tried it!

This little girl is having fun with the “SweetBot” 

Well, it is superbly fun! We would like to thanks the organizer, other makers, public that make our trip all the way to Singapore memorable! Hopefully we will have Maker Faire in Malaysia soon. Not to forget our staff, from engineers, sales team and production team, you all are awesome! Finally, we would like to highlight our special appreciation to volunteers that helped us during this maker faire.

Let’s build your own robot Today! See you next maker faire. Check out more photos in Cytron Technologies and rero fanpage