Maker projects

Documenting and sharing projects is very important for our own learning and for all the maker movement. Sometime it's hard, but normally I try to document all my projects in Instructables and recently Github.

Here is a selection of projects I've done in the last couple of years.

Maker bike

Before I started creating makerspaces, I was tinkering with a concept to take maker tools such as 3D Printers to schools and public spaces. The result was the Makerbike, used at the "Hacedores CDMX" Faire.

Besides making the project, one of the most rewarding parts was getting a photo (the last one on the right) from a Maker in Colombia who used the Instructable to make his own cargo bike,

Conductive Stickers to Hack and play in the Cities

I love street art and especially stickers. This form of expression is a way for young artist to play with their urban environment. What would happend if the stickers, besides looking good, we could use them as interfaces for games and other virtual interactions? Using conductive paint, a vinyl cutter, makey makey and a computer we started doing some designs and put them on the streets to have people interact with it.

Pirate Radio on Wheels / Radio Pi

Normally radio stations have one big antenna to reach millions of small receivers,in cars, houses, etc. Using the inverse logic, the project wanted to explore the effect of broadcasting a message from different small antennas in bikers backpackers, using a recorded audio, a small antenna, a raspberry pi and a battery pack. Two years later this project became a radio workshop for rural communities in Chiapas and Oaxaca, where students recorded and edited their radio show on Audacity on the Raspberry Pi, created music with Scratch and at the end broadcasted it using an amplifier. The shows the students recorded and transmitted can be heard here.

Ruido CDMX- Mapping Noise Pollution in Mexico City

It is an open source and hardware project, to gather open data and narratives to generate awareness about the impact impact of noise pollution in Mexico City. The effects of prolonged exposure to noise, include not only pain inside the ears and head, but hypertension and tachycardia and, eventually, irreparable hearing loss. Add to these, in some cases, nervousness and depression. In Mexico City noise pollution is not being measure and sometimes even culturally accepted and encourage.

Using open source software based on Arduino Yun, together with Phi Requiem, we developed a DIY IoT Device to monitor and map the noise levels in different parts of the city. The noise measurement data is sent in real time to a platform built specifically to host and visualize this problem. Anyone can use it to host their data or implement changes to store them the way they prefer.

#RuidoCDMX explores the results of academic research, which places the main sources of city noise in the excessive load of cars, buildings, industry and commerce. It is an open invitation to generate data from the inhabitants of the city for the action that impacts the quality of life of its inhabitants.

Raíz Móvil

As the final project of a 3 month workshop, my students and I developed a guerrilla gardening project caller “Raíz Móvil” or mobile root in english. The idea was to take a small example of hydroponic gardening to the streets and do an urban intervention. Every plant was located in different parts of the city, together with a QR-Code for a website that explained what the project was about. The plants were attached with velcro so people could take them home.

Graffiti con Luz- Graffiti Research Lab México

In an attemp to continue the work of the Graffiti Research Lab, I started with a group of students the project Graffiti con Luz, where we explore the history of graffit and street art and translate it into digital media form. This project took place in Mexico City and Guatemala City.

RFID-Bicycle-Lock-Prototype

With the idea in mind to start a public discussion about biohacking and electronic implants, 4 friends and I decided to get an RFID Chip implanted and test different projects. My personal project was a bike lock concept for my bike. This project was also feature in Hackaday.

Aquaforense- Using Micro:bit for Citizen Science

Using Micro:bit and simple sensors, we develop 4 experiments to measure water quality in the community of Tamazulapam,Oaxaca, in the poorest region of Mexico. The idea was to create awareness about how technology can be used as a tool for the environment and how they could preserve their ressources using DIY Tools.