News

We're always pleased to see companies opening up to their customers, friends and fans, and we've been watching our friends at Pimoroni's new project with interest: the Bilge Tank, a regular live show in which the team show off their latest creations and answer incoming questions. For too many companies - even those in the otherwise open and friendly world of the maker - customer interaction is strictly limited. There'll be the occasional news post, typically limited to new product launches, and other than that the only interaction comes when someone emails in with a query or complaint. It's a...

There's a new group in the UK Maker Belt this month, and it's dedicated to the topic closest to our hearts: making. The Northern Assembly of Creative Technologists (NACT) is to hold its first meeting at MadLab, Manchester's premier makerspace, later this month, and it's looking for local makers to get involved. NACT isn't an inexperienced collective by any means: it has been born from Arduino Manchester, the group responsible for the excellent musical bowls we so enjoyed at Manchester MakeFest earlier this year, and represents a new, more inclusive paradigm. "Arduino is still relatively young, but it’s proved itself...

It's always a pleasure to see Arduino devices being used to solve real-world problems, and a new video from US firefighter Robert Thomas offers exactly that: a look at a home-made programmable LED light designed to be fitted to a helmet to improve visibility in low-light situations. Designed to improve his safety during fire and accident response, Robert's creation uses an Arduino Nano to provide controlling logic for an ultra-bright LED matrix mounted on the front-side of his helmet. While a simple power switch would allow the matrix to be turned on and off, the microcontroller lets Robert toggle between...

For many, making is a hobby - but for a growing number, it's a viable career. Back in April we posted about the Life Science Centre in Newcastle and its call for a maker-in-residence, and now there's another job opportunity for makers with a focus on electronics thanks to Hackney-based tech learning outfit Technology Will Save Us. Best known for its work with the BBC Trust on the soon-to-launch micro:bit microcontroller platform, Technology Will Save Us is currently recruiting for the position of maker-in-residence for its London lab. While the maker will be expected to provide support for the company's...

If you're a UK student with an interest in electronic, programming, and developing real-world solutions to environmental issues, you should give real thought to entering the Farm Tech Challenge. Open to UK students aged between 11 and 19 and organised by agriculture giant Syngenta, the Farm Tech Challenge does exactly what its name suggests: challenges students to come up with technology to address real-world agricultural problems, using anything from your favourite programming language for a software-based solution to an Arduino-powered hardware fix.The Challenge revolves around Syngenta's 'Good Growth Plan,' a set of six targets through which the company aims to...