This Is How We Made the 7’5″ Tall Mega PocketC.H.I.P.

IMG_0540-ANIMATION

Creating a monstrously large version of PocketC.H.I.P. took three months of planning, and a mad-sprint to finish in time for Maker Faire Bay Area.

Sharps and Jordan designed Mega PocketC.H.I.P. to be a 7’5″ tall working replica of PocketC.H.I.P.. This mega device not only had to look and operate exactly like PocketC.H.I.P., but also had to be entirely powered by C.H.I.P.! And just like Mega C.H.I.P. before it, all of the Mega PocketC.H.I.P. design files had to be open source.

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PocketC.H.I.P.’s Grand Day Out: Maker Faire Bay Area 2016

Last weekend we took Mega PocketC.H.I.P. and pockets full of PocketC.H.I.P.s to Maker Faire Bay Area. Attendees got a chance to play PICO-8 games, code them, and even got a peek at the PocketC.H.I.P. user interface.

This is the first time we’ve taken PocketC.H.I.P. to a public event and it did not disappoint. The booth was packed all weekend and Mega PocketC.H.I.P. won two Editor’s Choice Blue Ribbons from Make: magazine.

For those of you who were not able to make it out to the event, you’ll find some photos from the three days we spent at the Faire below. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth, it’s always a pleasure to meet C.H.I.P.sters and Pocketeers in person.

If you took any pictures of our booth, share them with us in our forums or tweet us @nextthingco.

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Links We Like: $1 Microscopy, Open Source Lab Equipment, and a History of Bioluminescent Organisms

Mountains of Foldscopes! Photo via

Mountains of Foldscopes! Photo via foldscope.com

This week’s links are all about different aspects of science. From empowering kids with inexpensive microscopes to building open source lab equipment and tracing the history of human interactions with bioluminescent animals.

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C.H.I.P.s & DIPs: 5 New Community Accessory Boards

Spinach you'll want to have!

Look closely behind the Spinach DIP and all its spinachy goodness and you’ll spot C.H.I.P.!

A few weeks ago Kolja Windeler’s Queso DIP was featured in a blog post. Queso connects to C.H.I.P. and adds four additional USB ports, plus handles power.

But Queso is not the only DIP JKW, as he’s known on the forums, is working on. He currently has five more DIPs in development! Make sure to use the forums and let JKW know if you have questions about his awesome new DIPs!

DIPs are add-on boards for C.H.I.P. that connect directly to it and expand its functionality. A good DIP design doesn’t add every possible feature all in one board, but focuses on adding one or two new features. That’s why there are so many different DIPs starting to appear on the forums –each DIP is meant to specialize.
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Try PocketC.H.I.P. at Maker Faire Bay Area!

Come see, use, and learn about, PocketC.H.I.P. this weekend during Maker Faire Bay Area, May 21-22 in San Mateo, CA.! This is your first change to get your hands on PocketC.H.I.P..

And don’t miss Dave’s talk, PocketC.H.I.P. or: How and Why We Made the SciFi Device from our Childhood, Sunday at 4:00 PM on the Center Stage.

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