Lisbon Maker Faire 2015

Now this post is long overdue! And, since this year's Maker Faire will be in June, I think it's time to revisit last year's event. It took place on the 18th, 19th and 20th of September and it surpassed all expectations, welcoming over 14000 visitors!

This was the second edition of the event and many things were improved since the first one, most noticeably the dropping of the "Mini" adjective from its name, being this second one a full scale Maker Faire.

Lisbon Mini Maker Faire

Last weekend, on the 19th 20th and 21st of September, I had the amazing opportunity to be part of the first Portuguese Maker Faire. It took place in "Pavilhão do Conhecimento" or in english, the Pavilion of Knowledge, in Lisbon and it was visited by over 9000 people, making it mini only in name.

Maker Faire is the greatest show and tell in the world! Originally created by Make magazine, is an event to celebrate arts, crafts, engineering and science projects associated with the Do It Yourself (DIY) movement where the main focus is the sharing of knowledge, experiences and ideas.

New Hardware

I usually don't participate in random internet contests, we all now how annoying they might be and you're lucky if you don't get yourself a new subscription to spam. However I recently tried my luck at a Facebook contest from Texas Instruments Europe, it seemed simple enough and since it's from TI, I knew I could trust it. So imagine my surprise when I found out that I was actually one of the winners!

The prize was an MSP430 BSL Rocket from Olimex, which is basically a programmer for MSP430 microcontrollers with a rocket shaped PCB, a collaboration between TI and Olimex. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to try it yet, but I'm counting on using it soon.

So, thank you TI Europe for this prize, I'll make good use of it!

So this is how it starts..

Hello world!

As a maker, a hobbyist and an electrical engineer I end up doing a lot of projects. Some are interesting, others not so much, but they all help me learn a few things. But, as these things usually go, often are the times when I'm barely finishing a project and already with my mind on another one, running with excitement over this and that, which is good, but also a bit problematic.