Hi guys, the weekend in Montreal was great, really hot out there but we still had a lot of people coming down to the Big O for the Faire.
It was a first time event for the Montreal Maker Faire organization and I think they did a great job. They will be taking in all that experience and making an even better event next year. (Better venue? Maybe)
Did I mention that it was hot?
Here are some pictures of the CanadaDrones boot (note that we changed location, Day 2 location was way better as we had some shade and wind!)
The demo flight part of the exhibition did not go as planned. When we tried to fly our copters there we were facing several “issues”... First it was an all concrete environment and you guys know that landings might be rough some times to say the least so crashing there would have meant a lot of repairs. Also for some strange reasons the copters were spinning like 4-5 complete turns (yaw) on their axis until you clear 2-3 feet. I suspected high current wires in the concrete to maybe affect the compass? Plus there was a lot of “noise” in the 2.4mHZ band, one of the other exhibition was some radio relay stations and they were cranking up the signals. So ultimately I decided to only fly the QR-LadyBirds for safety reasons.
What a blast, we could interact a lot more with the kids without fear of slashing them apart.
A lot of people were happy to just see the evolution of the hardware and showing the APM1, APM 2 and APM 2.5 side by side was a great way to explain how fast things are evolving.
Thanks to all the CanadaDrones customers who came and brought some project to work on and show.
(In no particular order and I am sure I forgot someone! Blame the heat)
Bob Roach
Eric Pichet
Daniel Boivin
Eric St-Denis
Fred O'Donnell
Ellison Chan
David Galley
Dianne Boisvert
I did not manage to take as many pictures as I wanted as it was non-stop busy and hard to just take a break. Next time I need to plan to get someone else there as a “real” pilot so while he fly I can still answer questions. This was a great learning experience and I really had a blast!
If you have more pictures please share them, I know a lot of people were taking pictures and recording video so I will see if I can get more to show.
Finally big thanks to Jani and Nin over at jDrones for the special carbon fiber hexa to put on display as well as the cool new pancakes motors and power distribution board (no picture sorry!)
The 3DRobotics swag also disappears in a blink of an eye, thanks for the stickers!
I will sure repeat the wonderful experience that the Maker Faire was. Hummmmm there is an Ottawa Mini Maker Faire in October.... :)
Comments
I just missed this. I am planning to take vacation in Montreal in two weeks. Thank you for posting the photos.
Monroe, you can't really see me there. You can only see my shadow in one of my pictures. I'm a spook. ;-)
Eagle, too bad you missed it, maybe Ottawa or next year.
I was glad to see your table was always pretty much flooded with people, Dany! I heard that there was more attendees than expected, so that bodes well for the future of this event. If you're still looking for a pilot for next year, just ask me ;)
On my end I got what I came there for; spoke with one of the founders of FabLab Laval and it looks like he might help me start a hackerspace in Quebec. This should be interesting.
hahaha Fearless leader! yeah right! (I think your still suffering from the heat stroke!)
Nice pictures Ellison, thanks for sharing. These were from day #1, too bad you could not make it for Day #2, we had a lot more things to show off and a better location too.
There is a lot of other pictures here too: (I am told they are still uploading...) http://www.flickr.com/groups/2102781@N22/pool/with/7860583572/#phot...
Again a big thanks to Danielle Dyson and Alex Ruaux for making this work! (plus all the other people working in the shadow)
Hi folks, I updated the previous blog with the pictures, and a mini-review.
Here's a link to the update and photo album:
Old Blog
http://diydrones.com/photo/albums/montreal-mini-maker-fair-2012
Money shot of fearless leader:
Hey Dany, sorry I had to bail on you. I would have loved to have gone but it was better that I stayed home and got some important work done.
The Ottawa faire sounds interesting and would be much easier for me to attend, but it also looks like there's not much opportunity to fly? :(