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Cue "May the Circle be Unbroken"

From the editors of MAKE magazine, The Maker Pro Newsletter is about the impact of makers on business and technology. Our coverage includes hardware startups, new products, incubators, innovators, along with technology and market trends. Please send news you know to makerpro@makermedia.com.

Making in Germany

Germany has been a surprising latecomer to the maker movement. With strong technical and engineering chops, plus a vibrant hacking culture which includes the Chaos Computer Club and its annual Congress, Germany might have been expected to be a first mover. Tim Pritlove's 2001 Blinkenlights project was an early example of social, creative hardware hacking. MAKE has talked to many Germans who are puzzled that only now are we seeing signs of growth. German publisher Heise produces Hardware Hacks magazine, which increasingly covers Arduino and maker-related themes and projects. The magazine's editors were at last year's World Maker Faire in NYC, and now they are planning a Maker Faire this year in Hannover, on Aug. 3.

If there's a German city that you'd expect to have a Maker Faire, it's Berlin. MAKE's Dale Dougherty visited Berlin last summer, giving a talk as part of a Guggenheim "pop-up" exhibit. There's plenty of new evidence that Berlin is a creative capital that is becoming a maker capital.

Two young entrrepreneurs from Berlin, Simon Höher and Emanuel Schwartz, founders of Knowable.org, were visiting the Bay Area recently, doing the rounds in SF and Silicon Valley. Their project had won a small amount of funding through Seedcamp in London, which arranged for them to visit Boston, N.Y., and Austin, in addition to S.F. They are meeting with mentors, experts, and potential investors.

Knowable.org, which is in beta, is "a social network for makers." At this stage, it looks like a simpler version of Instructables, providing a shared space for project documentation. Höher says Knowable's goal is to support the idea that "anyone can build amazing things." The key is collaboration. "We see decentralized collaboration in software development," says Schwartz. "We don't really see it yet in hardware development."

Höher and Schwartz both say that making is "ready to take off" in Germany. "There are tons of people who we'd consider makers who don't yet call themselves that," says Höher. He notes that Hamburg is a hub for Arduino enthusiasts, and mentions the Fritzing project, open source software for circuit board schematics and layouts, which is developed by the Interaction Design Lab at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

Betahaus Berlin is a new space that fosters creative collaboration and co-working. They held their second Makers Weekend in February. The event featured workshops focusing on design and making, topped by an Open End Party, where you could "expect strange and loud DIY interactions prepared by our team of designers and creators."

The event was organized using Gidsy.com, an online service listing "local things to do" which is aimed at "explorers, cooks, pilots, crafters, tinkerers, makers, and so much more." Gidsy, which was founded in November 2012, is located in Berlin at The Makers Loft.

Lowell Reconnects with its Past

Cue "May the Circle be Unbroken": A trio of activists in Lowell, Mass., "America's first industrial city," are planning a makerspace.

In the mid-1800s, Lowell led the world in textile production, and pioneered the use of water power to run mills. Since the mills moved South, on their way offshore, Lowell's best-known product has been Jack Kerouac. But many of the solid, brick warehouses remain, and Kamal Jain, John Noto, and Eric Sack are now actively scouting them for LowellMakes, a facility they hope to open this summer.

Hardware dreamers of all stripes will be welcome at the space, which will feature a contemporary collection of 3D printers, CNC mills, and other equipment. But when we spoke to Jain, he said the founders are planning to attract a number of additional revenue and activity streams for the facility with the aim of improving its sustainability. Among the planned partnership ideas, which other makerspaces could adapt: training welders and machinists for Raytheon, which is located in the area; collaborating with a fashion makerspace that recently opened in downtown Lowell (Jain mentioned 3D-printed buttons as a possibility); fabricating and distributing collaborative designs hosted by services like makexyz; and creating prototypes for local manufacturers. A community planning meeting is scheduled for March 20.

pcDuino Debuts

The pcDuino board is a mini PC capable of running Linux like Raspberry Pi with Arduino interfaces ($60 at SparkFun). The board is about 50% longer than the Raspberry Pi and has a 1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM.

"The difference is noticeable," says MAKE's Michael Castor. "This board is very responsive."

There are two standout features that Castor really likes:

• The operating system (Lubuntu) comes pre-loaded into the board's 2 GB of onboard memory. No hassle of loading an SD card with an ISO. Also, it supports Android, which he hasn't tried but wants to.
• It has onboard ADCs and the same pins as an Arduino. However, he thinks they missed out on a big opportunity by not having the pins laid out the same way as an Arduino. Instead, the digital and analog pins are next to each other, requiring a breakout board to make it shield-compatible. It comes installed with a text-based version of the Arduino that works well for examples, but is extremely clunky.

The pcDuino was developed by LinkSprite, an embedded systems manufacturer in Colorado known for industrial RF-type applications.

News Briefs

MakerBot Unveils 3D Scanner

MakerBot jump-started the anticipated hardware buzz at this year's SXSW conference by showing a prototype of a MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner. MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis used his talk on the opening day of the conference to announce the scanner, which he says will "use lasers and cameras to replicate physical objects into a digital form and file." The prototype scanner does not yet have a price or a release date, but it will join a rapidly expanding 3D printing product line from the Brooklyn-based manufacturer. MakerBot's expansion plans were also behind a release last week that said it plans to hire 50 people in the next few months. (Look for more on this year's SXSW in next week's newsletter.)

SparkFun kicks off National Educational Tour

The online retail store announced a program that aims to stop in 50 states on 50 dates, teaching skills such as programming, soldering, and building circuits along the way. The tour will touch down in your town or school for $1,500.

Solidoodle Goes Global

At a press conference, the Brooklyn 3D printer manufacturer said that its first international 3D printing factory will open this summer in Moscow. TechHive reports that Solidoodle is also partnering with the Brazilian company Linotech 3D, the company's first official distributor outside of the U.S. Solidoodle CEO Sam Cervantes said the company also plans to expand to other markets including Canada, South Korea, Japan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.

Upverter Plans to Move Hardware Engineering to the Cloud

The Toronto-based company just landed $650K in seed funding to "start a new era" for hardware prototyping and product creation.

Business Skills Before You Start Your Startup

Programmer and "business guy" Spencer Fry has collected a Startup Checklist on the eve of launching his third company. It's software oriented, but there's plenty of helpful details that a maker might overlook. Have you set up your Goals tracking in Google Analytics? You won't forget if you keep this checklist handy.

We really like this business documentation trend among professional makers. (Subscribers may remember the Dispatch from United Pixelworkers we linked to last issue.) Well, the irrepressible Limor Fried, aka Ladyada, has added significantly to the genre with her multi-part guide, Maker Business & Manufacturing Software - Our Tips & Tricks. The Adafruit Learning System has also published their collected wisdom on How To Start A Hackerspace: Money and Resources.

Laura Bruland of Yes & Yes Designs also takes a step back to explain how she grew her business, on MAKE.

Have we given you enough to start a bookmark folder? Then add Sharing Best Practices from the Open Source Hardware Association. If you notice any gaps, contribute to the Google Doc.

More of this kind of meta documentation, please: First tell us how to use your product, then tell us how you created the organization that made the product.

Open Source Online Shopping Carts and a Real-World Cash Register

As the user experience for online shoppers gets standardized, open source shopping carts are less intimidating to set up. This guy had 24 hours to set one up for a client. After he caught up on his sleep, he described the eight carts he considered. His choice? It's deep in the lively comment section: Magento, "because of the code it outputs and its many great features."

Are you ready to upgrade your company cash register from that plastic tab on top of your smartphone? Square is waiting for you with a cash register product — Business in a Box. It's an iPad-based cash register that comes with a card swiper, an iPad stand, a cash drawer, and a printer. Cost: $299.

Intelligence: New Materials

If new materials mean new opportunities, it's double rainbow days for makers.

University of Virginia physicist Lou Bloomfield has created a new type of silicone rubber called Vistik that's malleable enough to take on any shape when pressed, but is still resilient enough to offer support, as it gradually starts to return to its original shape as the pressure is released, Gizmag reports. Ultra-Ever Dry, a treatment that was recently demoed at TED, hates wet with a passion. You may soon be able to feed your 3D printer milk jugs, which could dramatically lower your 3D printer filament bills. And flexible, mineral-based paper made from stone is a thing, sayeth Wired.

But perhaps the king of new materials is graphene, which according to Bloomberg Businesssweek, could "unlock a new era of super energy-efficient gadgets, cheap quick-charge batteries, wafer-thin, flexible touchscreen computing, and a sturdier lightweight automobile chassis."

Scientists are still discovering applications for this carbon material, which is plentiful and relatively cheap to produce. The Businessweek report captures the enthusiasm for what it says could be "the plastic of the 21st century."

Marketing/Fundraising

Thinking Beyond Kickstarter

Kickstarter is the rock star of crowdfunding, no doubt. But Wired points out that the site's "one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t fit every dream, or every group of dreamers." The article highlights niche crowdfunding sites like Zokos, Petridish, and DonorsChoose to make the point that entrepreneurs should take the time to find exactly the right crowdfunding platform for their projects. With equity crowdfunding nearing the launchpad, more niches, and opportunities, are on the way.

Rolling Your Own Crowdfunding

Another option, if Kickstarter doesn't quite fit your goals: roll your own. Lindsay Cohen, a vice president at startup foundry Sandbox Industries, offers detailed advice on this DIY option in a two-part series in MAKE, based on her experience launching Scout, a "next-generation home security system." One priority for crowdfunders who go it alone: getting the word out. Without Kickstarter's built-in audience, Lindsay says, it will be up to you to generate all the buzz.

Local Commerce Will Trump E-Commerce for the Next Decade

Good news if your product doesn't travel well through the tubes of the internets: former VC Mike Ghaffary, now with Yelp, believes that economic momentum has shifted to the physical. Of course he's biased, but his list of products with "the highest local coefficients" is worth reading. "The next wave of innovation will be less about how to deliver an experience online," Ghaffary says, "and more about how to enhance it."

Horizon Scan

Are You Ready for 4D Printing?

Oh yeah, we forgot about time. Here's the video from the MIT group, led by Skylar Tibbits, that's working on the idea. Although we have to agree with one commenter that Chia Pet (now with more animals than an O'Reilly bookshelf) was ahead of everybody on this concept.

New, Tiny ARM Chip Will Let You Get Smaller

Bugged by that small idea that's just out of reach? Maybe you should take another crack at it, now that Freescale has created an ARM chip that Wired categorizes as "insanely tiny." And speaking of scale, a "related" link at the end of the article reminded us of a recent innovation at the other end of the spectrum: a really big 3D printer that can print out an entire bicycle frame.

The International Housewares Association

You probably didn't make the trip to Chicago for this annual event, but the Association's online Housewares Connect 365 allows you to see who was exhibiting by popular categories like "clean, contain + sustain" and "electrics + home healthcare." It's a good window on what's coming in markets that many pro makers are targeting.

People

Printrbot's Out-of-the-Box Brook Drumm

Making 3D printers more affordable and portable were the two goals Brook Drumm had in mind when he started creating his own. With Printrbot, Drumm also wanted a 3D printer that was not inside a box, which is a bit like Drumm himself. He's an unexpected innovator with an unusual amount of determination. Read more about him in this terrific profile in Forbes magazine. Then watch the MAKE video.

83-Year-Old Maker Wins "Global Desktop Factory" Contest

Time tells the story of Hugh Lyman, who invented a way to turn plastic pellets into affordable filament for 3D printing, and just won a $40,000 prize in a global contest sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation, Maker Education Initiative, and Inventables. Inventables Zach Kaplan reports the story on MAKE.

What makes the story even more interesting: Lyman's invention is open source. Almost 12,000 people around the world have already downloaded his plans, Time reports, and some of them have been building their own units, sometimes modifying or improving upon his design. At least one 3D printer company, LulzBot, hopes to sell a pre-assembled version.

Events

If you're taking a pass on SXSW, and SXSW Create, it's not too late to get a March blast of technology and hardware innovation. You can attend Expand, in San Francisco, March 16-17. Organized by Engadget, this event will feature some of the most influencial visionaries in consumer electronics, product design, and mobile devices. One more reason to attend: If you sign up for a full pass for the weekend, you get a free six month subscription to MAKE magazine.