Next Level Geeks

I have attended a fair number of conventions over the years.  All of those conventions had their share of obsessed members.  People who were so intensely, and passionately involved in their crafts it was above and beyond hobby or career but instead flirting with the term insanity.  There have even been times in my life where I edged into that spectrum myself.  But I have never seen anything like these people.  This con, when it was over, was nearly indescribable but I am going to try my best.

Friday, day one, was badge hacking.  That was it.  Everyone was programming or soldering parts onto their boards.  But mostly they were talking and sharing information.  Much different from my next closest obsessive-attendee experience,  the Defcon Hackers convention in Las Vegas.  Those people don’t like to share information openly at all.  As a funny aside, since I brought up DefCon, when I was in Phoenix, my host-driveway-owner asked me if this conference I was attending was a “Black Hat” (code words for bad guy) hacker conference.  First off, I was surprised the black hat terminology had made it into the mainstream but I would unequivocally say no, Supercon a propeller hat conference.  

The real difference is at Defcon there is an overwhelming degree of intellectual snobbery.  Asking questions is more than likely going to get you an eye roll and encouragement to “RTFM”, all the while facial expression of arrogant annoyance with your foolishness.

I can say all of this, knowing in the Defcon playing field, I can sort of hold my own.  I have been in IT Security for twenty plus years.  I don’t ask the questions of a moron.  So it was amazing how different Supercon was.  I only learned about micro controllers a couple of years ago.  I spent the first couple of days asking people questions even I knew were dumb.  You know what I got?  Without exception I got a person who was excited to share with me everything they knew about what I asked, plus a bunch of apologies that they didn’t know more, but some advice about resources.  It was incredible how open and sharing every single person I talked to was.   

As an umbrella comment I couldn’t help but notice how much 3-D printing has changed so many prototype projects.  From LED dragon scales  sewn on to your shoulders to Ironman helmets.  Many small projects were able to be made to look so professional with looking parts or enclosures.  The folks that put on Supercon distribute a 3D printer file for the badge circuit board.  Many arrived at the con with enclosures pre-printed.

It was just cool to see and hear about so many things but some of my highlights were… 

A talk by a team of people who came into position of a one of the original Apollo guidance computers which were used in both the capsule and LM.  The one they acquired had never flown but just the time of kicking around and natural degradation made it a big job.  They restored it to working order.  I missed the first half but the second half was quite amazing.  It used a very old type of computer memory that hasn’t been in use since the invention of the transistor.  

A great talk by a pilot who encouraged people to join the Experimental Aircraft Association.  He had built his own plane and explained how it is a machine you then fully understand.  Because of this you get the latitude from the FAA to add features and accessories other pilots can only dream about.  An example was some 3D printed parts as stall detectors.  Installing something like that on your factory Cessna, due to FAA regulations, is impossible.  But on an experimental aircraft it is no problem at all.  It is an experiment, is it not?

I talked to a guy who connected a wire to each one of his guitar frets, and a ground wire to the bridge of an electric guitar.  Now by installing a current sensor on each wire he can determine what fret is being played.  He can then program a microcontroller to make some decisions based on the fret.  For instance one effect peddle when the upper neck and being played, a different effect for the lowers.  It was an interesting project.

Addressable LEDs in a lite flexible format.

There were several talks regarding textiles.  From robotic-companion stuffed toys to 3-D printed, fabric covered balls and toys.  But one I found particularly interesting was involving the improvements made to individually addressable (WS2812) LEDs.  I have used these types of LEDs in clothing projects but they were big and clunky.  I modified a unicorn pajama/onesy costume with a built in microphone so the LEDs with flash with the music and change color depending on the average frequencies.  …I looked badass in it, btw.    I also worked with my friend, The Seamstress,  who made herself a skirt with fiber optics to attend the Lady Gaga concert.  I did the programming using the LEDs to just do a revolving color spectrum.  Again, they were bulky.  No woman really wants to add four inches to her waistline even if she knows they are just LEDs.  The new ones I saw were tiny and super flexible.  I wrote The Seamstress from the presentation and told her we *have* to use these for something!

The microcontroller bartender

Bartenders are great people but sometimes you just don’t have the money to hire them for an event you want to host.  You want basic drinks served.  Nothing fancy.  That was the spark to lead a team to build an automated drink maker.  It used peristaltic pumps controlled by a micro controller.  The idea was, put ice in your glass, set it under the nozzle, push a button for your selection and the machine would dispense correct proportions of drink and mix. You aren’t going to get “shaken, not stirred” from this device but you want a rum and coke?  Bada-bing, you got it. 

I met a woman from Minnesota who works with a company building self contained pollution monitoring boxes.  This is something I know a little about.  I have worked with pollution data for years.  I got to tag along on a couple of times  in the early days.  Back when a pollution monitoring station was the size of a large garden shed.  It had to have electricity run to it and if possible landline telephone service.  The station would collect the data from the VOC/SO2 monitors and transfer it back to the home office via modem once per day.  

Particulate (dust/dirt/smog) monitors were only monitored weekly.  We had very, very accurate scale we would use to weigh a piece of filter material, install it, come back in a week and swap it out and weigh the old one.  Using this method we could determine how much particulate matter 10 microns and larger, were in the air.   Here was this woman holding something, roughly an eight inch cube, that by only adding a few extra parts inside of it, could do everything an entire building of equipment used to do.  She was there with her boss and the two of them were attempting to hack their badges to be an environmental monitor.  They asked me to get involved…Ok, ok, this sounds geeky, I happened to have a particulate pollutants monitor with me in the van.  I was too involved in the talks though and didn’t really have the time.

I met a guy named Eric Grey and joked with him about us having the same last name.  I called him Mr Grey every time I ran into him from that point forward.   He did a badge hack where he reprogrammed the micro controller installed on the badge and allowed you to switch into a mode where using the buttons, you could play the classic arcade game, Astroids.  Amazing!

My lame-ass badge hack.  Display the
temperature and humidity.

I walked away from this con knowing with absolute certainty I will return next year.  I have never been to one with this degree of open welcomeness.  Such a support structure for helping others succeed.