Read the full Instructable here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Kickstarter-Backer-Alert-with-Stats-Scroller-using/

After a lot of work and frustration, we've finally launched the RGB LED Shades on Kickstarter!

"We're excited to announce our newest piece of wearable electronics: RGB LED Shades! They're colorful, bright, hackable, and the pinnacle of conversation-starting technology. A fun way to learn programming and electronics, yet just as entertaining for experienced tinkerers. But if you need a stunning fashion accessory without writing code, they're pre-loaded with dazzling patterns out of the box!"

We've put ShiftBrites, Headerless ShiftBrites, and MegaBrite 90's on sale:

ShiftBrite 2.0

The ShiftBrite 2.0 is a redesign of the very first macetech product. It's a bright RGB LED module that uses a simple shift register control method to output 30-bit color. Most RGB LED solutions can only do 255 brightness levels per color; the ShiftBrite can do 1023. It has a sturdy mounting hole pattern, and 6-pin connectors that match our cables for trouble-free mounting, hookup, and maintenance.

Headerless ShiftBrite 2.0

The Headerless ShiftBrite 2.0 is the same as the regular ShiftBrite, except that the headers have been left off for more flexible hookup options. You can solder your own headers (straight or angled), another 0.1" spaced connector, or just use wires. This is a good option for tighter spaces.

MegaBrite 90  Read more»

My friend Scott randomly dropped by the macetech LLC lab up here in Pullman, WA. He brought a cool thing to show off...a big array of 60px/m RGB pixels using the WS2812 LEDs. It's very bright in person and I was impressed with the matchup of the 60px/m LED spacing and the fluorescent lighting louver grid. I've definitely used the grid in a lot of projects, but never made that connection! His controller uses a custom WS2812 library running on a Digilent chipKIT Max32 with plenty of CPU power to spare.

We've got a new article over on Makezine today, showing how I added an audio-detection circuit to both the RGB Shades and the LED Matrix Shades. The result was REALLY cool and finally used the extra pins I'd made available on both designs. Audio detection is just the beginning...I have a few more ideas for sensors to add to LED Shades, and it would be great to see your suggestions. They might make it into another video!

Anyway, head on over the Makezine to see the full article: Hacking the Macetech RGB Shades

Back in 2012, in the few weeks preceding Maker Faire Bay Area, I was excited about a new secret project. We had the macetech LED Lounge again, but this was a way to take the party with you. Wearable LED slotted shades with a built-in Arduino-compatible controller!

They were a huge hit, both at Maker Faire Bay Area and Maker Faire New York. It was impossible to walk down the street in Manhattan without getting comments and questions every few seconds.

However, the first LED Shades were nothing more than prototypes. They were hurriedly designed. Didn't have much resolution, didn't have folding hinges or cables with connectors, the battery was taped onto the side, and so on. The biggest problem was one that didn't show up for months, but claimed all but one of our prototypes (which still works to this day). The problem was that the LED driver ICs along the top edge of the PCB would crack internally due to flexing stress while being worn.

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LED Matrix Shades BLOWOUT SALE
Due to a small marking error on our LED Matrix Shades, we're selling them all at deep discount. They still work perfectly. 100% AWESOME at 70% of the price! Read the whole story below...

A quick introduction: LED Matrix Shades are a very cool piece of wearable technology that integrates a fully hackable Arduino-compatible processor with an LED matrix you can see through. They are the ultimate attention grabber at social events, and inspires curiosity among technology enthusiasts of all ages. Every function can be reprogrammed by the user, and there are even places to solder your own circuits and sensors.

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Kickstarter for RGB Shades: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/macetech/rgb-led-shades

The big event of the maker movement, O’Reilly Bowl *cough* I mean Maker Faire Bay Area 2014, happened last weekend (May 17th and 18th). As with most words used to describe Maker Faire, “happened” is a little insufficient. It’s a tremendous and complicated event that requires a massive effort from everyone involved…the O’Reilly Maker Faire team, the Maker Shed, the sponsors, the performers, the speakers, the exhibitors, and the event staff. And one more group that I didn’t fully appreciate until this year…the attendees (let’s call them participants). This was the first year at Maker Faire Bay Area that I was not an exhibitor, and instead wandered the exhibits and crowds. It was amazing and exhausting, just as much as if I’d been running an exhibit table.

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The WowWee MiP ("mobile inverted pendulum") robot is the first of its kind on the mass market. It's a toy robot that does what most other toy robots do: it rolls around your living room floor, making squawks and beeps and bumping into things, and being really cute in general. However, the MiP does it with style. The mechanical design is not inherently stable. If the MiP is turned off, it will not stand upright on its own wheels (a handy stand is provided for display). Instead, an onboard sensor suite and powerful ARM Cortex processor keep it teetering upright just like any self-respecting science fiction robot (or slightly less self-respecting tourists on Segways).

Researchers and hobbyists have been building devices like this for a number of years, but it's always exciting to see a niche technology make it to mainstream (much like the quadcopter boom in the past couple years). Robotics hobbyists pay close attention to the toy market, because a lot of technology can be hacked back into customized designs.

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If you've attended a Maker Faire or Mini Maker Faire in the past few years, you've probably strolled past a table where someone seems to be tending to a jumble of wires and metal rods, and there's a whiff of molten plastic in the air. You might have stopped and watched as a plastic object appeared (slowly) and you might have been amazed (slowly) at the possibilities. You may have suspected this, but yes...we haven't been left behind, macetech has been 3D printing right along with the rest of the cool kids!

My first 3D printer was built in 2011, after reading up about RepRap and finding an older cartesian assembly robot on eBay, made by Sony. It was huge and heavy, and I drove deep into the Santa Cruz mountains to pick it up from a barn crammed with an analog and relay computer collection. I purchased an extruder from MakerGear, and practically duct-taped it to the robot in order for it to print better mounting parts. The original control board was stuffed with FPGA's and a 486 processor, but I had to remove that and hack the stepper drivers to receive pulses from an Arduino Mega. It's been useful over the past few years, allowing us to create various brackets, adapters, holders, prototypes, and even parts of the LED Shades. Here it is today:

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