Meet Ottawa Maker, Alan Rushforth

* This is an article I sent out in our February newsletter.  Have you signed up for our newsletter yet?  It comes out monthly with news, events and project ideas.  You can sign up for our newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/GMbrX *

Earlier this year I was introduced to an Ottawa maker, Alan Rushforth. Alan is a retired Aeronautical Engineer and a prolific maker! If you've ever ridden the snowmobile simulator at the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology, you are familiar with his work.

We started off talking about technology. I was interested to see how he was using littleBits. He uses the wireless components in interesting ways. Here's an example.

On a visit to a dollar store, Alan was inspired by a little moose toy. It's the kind where you push the base in, and the moose collapses.

From this idea came an entire band! The band plays along with Alan's Awesome Homemade Street Organ. Here's a picture of the drummer:


And this is how the drummer knows when to drum. Alan's using the littleBits wireless receiver to get the signals from the street organ. Yes, those are some homemade circuit boards too.


Pretty cool. Want to get started with Animatronics? I'm excited to be hosting an Animatronics day camp this March Break. We won't be making our own circuit boards, but we will be figuring out how to get things moving. And Alan will be stopping by to demonstrate some of inventions. I hope to see you there!

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