First off, a hearty thank you to anyone who stopped by the SparkFun booth this weekend at USASEF in Washington D.C. - it was great to meet all of you. I personally really enjoyed talking to quite a few customers at our booth and definitely met a bunch of great people. We taught a lot of people how to solder, met a lot of interesting folks, and saw many cool projects! Keep an eye out for photos and videos coming in the next couple weeks. Also, thanks go out to all the folks who attended the SparkFun Soldering Competition! From what I heard, it was a great time - we'll have more of a recap coming up shortly as well. Today, we're talking about another SparkFun event - the Autonomous Vehicle Competition (or AVC).
This post is just to serve as a reminder that on June 16th, 2012 (a bit more than a month now) from 8:30 a.m. to around 5:00 p.m., SparkFun will be hosting the popular AVC event. This event invites teams to descend on SparkFun headquarters and compete in a robotic rally race around the SparkFun building. The only tricky part - the vehicles must be autonomous and circumnavigate the building without any human interference. You can read the full rules on the AVC product page.
Competitor entries have been filled up for quite some time now, but the event is free and open to the public for spectators. All we ask is that you register on our EventBrite page so we can get a feeling for numbers. There will be food, fun, and - of course - autonomous racing. We hope to see you there!
The soldering competition was excellent! Congrats and bravo to everyone involved in making it happen! I enjoyed talking with Nate and the staff over it.
May I make a suggestion for a silly video for the recap?
For the FINAL race with the 40-pin headers, please have someone commentate it with this song: NFL Primetime Song 1
For people who can't view Youtube, it's the "NFL Primetime Song 1."
Seriously. You guys (and gals) need to come out here to Ohio. There's nothing out here, and its boring as Antarctica here but I'm sure us Ohioans would enjoy the company.
We purchased the Simon kit at the USSAEF this weekend, and my 10 y.o. couldn't wait to put it together. Will a wee bit of assistance from his dad, he was able to do the project 99% on his own. He was SO proud to complete the project and can't wait to share his game with his friends at school. THANK YOU for attending the festival and for sharing your love of science with the kids!
I was at USASEF, and got a great discount on a fun Simon kit. Plan on reprogramming it.
into a...?
SPACESHIP! :D
I dont know.....? perhaps port the game to Arduino (its currently in AVR C) and add a few features with some external sensors. Also, It might make a good lock key pad thingy
What would be awesome would be if we could mail our robots and have you guys just activate them on site, while they maintain a persistent WIFI internet connectivity. That way we learn how to develop robots that can be reprogrammed while in the field (where the field could be the lunar surface)
Is there a Dark Horse trip planned afterward?
We're looking forward to being there!
~FIRST 3729
Looking forward to the AVC event this year. I'm traveling down from Vancouver, any suggestions for things to do on Friday night before the big event?
There is lots of stuff to do in the Boulder area. What types of things are you interested in? Outdoorsy stuff, seeing breweries, shopping? If you give me some ideas of what you are looking for, I can definitely make some recommendations!
Well I don't get into town until mid-afternoon, so breweries seem like a great idea! Suggestions appreciated.
Avery Brewery is open from 11-11, little tricky to find, but worth the trip!
I live between Balto. & Wash. DC and was fortunate enough to meet Nate at OH/DC then I assisted at the National Electronics Museum booth on Sat & Sun at USASEF. I could see the Sparkfun booth and the throngs of people talking to the Sparkfun folks and waiting patiently for the soldering school. How many burgeoning hackers did you run through there? Great job Sparkfun!
I am not sure how many people got to solder. I know we ran out of Kits on Sunday!! We had 6 year old childern soldering Simon kits like pros! It was awesome. :)
How did I NOT know this was going on?! I work in, and live near DC, and would have LOVED to come to that event! I'm jealous! Were the flight sims as cool as they look in the USASEF website?
no, they were quite laggy actually, and the sheer number of people made it hard to play too. I found sparkfun to be the highlight (other than the mythbusters, Space X and parallax) of the fair
MYTHBUSTERS TOO!? Aww.. man.. I knew they were in town for the White House event, but I can't believe I missed meeting them too!