In January, we started the Silicon Valley Hardware Meetup group here at Tindie HQ, with the goal for people from all around the South bay and Peninsula to meet other hardware enthusiasts like them as well as show off and discuss projects they are working on. We provide pizza and drinks and about halfway through the evening, there are 2-minute demos where attendees can give a “show and tell” about the project they are working on or featuring on Tindie, resources they are looking for, or introduce an idea they are working on. We have these meetups on the last Thursday of each month and February was another success!
We had even more 2-minute demos this time! Below are some quick recaps on what we saw:
Nick Sayer: Geppetto Electronics
Nick brought two of his projects: the J1772 Hydra and OpenEVSE II. The Hydra is a dual-head electric vehicle charging station/splitter, available in splitter or standalone EVSE. The variants can either be put into a 208/240 volt electric circuit or a J1772 inlet to share an existing charging station with two vehicles. The OpenEVSE II boards easily assemble with a J1772 connector, cable, and other components to create your own charging station.
Philip Freidin: OSHChip
Philip is working on an upcoming project called OSHChip. It is a very small processor board with built-in Bluetooth radio and is packaged like a 16 pin DIP. He is also looking for someone to help out making a great website for this project, so click his name to get in touch!
Daniel Debeer: Ezsbc
Daniel brought a few projects he has available through Tindie, including the ArduRF family of boards. These are Arduino compatible boards that come in three sizes, each optimized for a different application environment. All have integrated wireless capabilities and LiPo battery circuits.
Nathan Jauvtis: Bolt Motorbikes
Nathan brought in the Bolt M1, a 100% electric bike that has a 50 mile range, goes up to 35 miles per hour, and connects to a smartphone to start, which makes it keyless. The entire system is powered by a microcontroller and a lithium battery to get around urban traffic and go green.
Vince Bressler: Precious Metal Validator
Vince demonstrated his Precious Metal Validator, an innovative hardware and software system for testing precious metal bars and coins for authenticity using ultrasonic pulses.
Mike Jennings: Kinoma
Mike brought in the Kinoma Create, a Javascript-based prototyping platform that is wi-fi and bluetooth enabled. This device helps prototype electronics and has a touchscreen, I/O for sensors, and 66 hardware pins.
Christoph Kohstall and Jelena Jovanovic: Nixie
Christoph and Jelena gave a demo of the Nixie, a wearable, flyable quadcopter. With a simple gesture, the Nixie can fly, take high definition images and 1080p video, and return to you. They are also hiring designers and engineers. Click on their name to see what positions they are looking to fill for their team!
Greyson Jennings: Slash Screen
Greyson is working on his first smartphone app. With Slash Screen, you will be able to use your camera to capture colors from everyday items and save them to your Adobe Kuler account!
Graham Edwards: Pebble
Graham demonstrated the new Pebble Time smart watch, currently featured on Kickstarter. By using the data pins on the back or bluetooth, it is easy for Pebble Time to interface with your projects and give you a new platform to work on.
Shingo Hiranuma: Logbar Inc
Shingo showed off Ring, a wearable ring that pairs with IOS or Android to detect the smallest finger movements and, with customizable gestures, take action. The battery lasts 1-3 days and you can do things like adjust volume on your phone, skip a song, turn on lights, and even exchange contact information.
Aaron Cunningham: Hobbyist
Aaron returned this month with an update about his miniature Macintosh computer: he now has a blog with more detailed photos and build log. The project is based on a Raspberry Pi compatible board running Linux and an emulator with Mac OS 7.5 that he mainly uses for playing Oregon Trail and watching After Dark screensavers.
Iru Wang: Yours
Iru spoke about her new company, Yours, that has created a new social, mobile app that helps others anonymously seek or give advice, express their feelings, and meet others. She is currently looking to expand her team, so get in touch with her for more details!
Sridhar Rajagopal: Software Engineer & Maker
Sridhar is working on an IoT startup focused on air quality. He is currently looking to expand his engineering team. If you are interested, get in contact with him by clicking on his name above!
Surya Satyavolu: Sirab Technologies Inc
Surya has a software and hardware platform start up that’s focused on active safety applications for automotive. He is currently looking for an experienced embedded systems engineer to join as a co-founder with a strong background in safety-critical software, hypervisors, DSP, and signal processing.
Kory Yahagi: Jigowatts Inc
MAMORIO, “the world’s smallest bluetooth beacon” is in production now. It’s waterproof, small enough to fit in your wallet, attach to a keyring, or even a pet collar. It will send alerts straight to your phone and has an option for “crowd-tracking” which allows others nearby to help find your misplaced item as well.
We will not have an event in March here at Tindie HQ, but for anyone in the Shenzhen China area, shoot us a note if you are interested in attending a meetup there! Keep an eye on our meetup page for details of the April meetup as well as an upcoming local factory tour. More photos from the evening are below!
