Alpenglow Solder Sesh

We had a great time chatting with Elecia about everything from how she learned embedded programming to different products she's worked on to writing books to teaching classes to her interest in origami to all sorts of other stuff too! We did some show and tell and we also did some crafting with paper circuits!

JP is a friend of ours who graciously allowed us to crash his black tent at LA Maker Faire a few weeks ago, and he's a fellow LEDaholic! Over the past year, he dove deep into making 3D printed fiber optic LED-lit hot air balloons, and we put together a tiny balloon kit he's developed live, and hear all about his path into STEM and maker journey!

We were super excited to welcome Ben to the stream! We add LEDs and a PixelBlaze to a sign and show you how to use the awesome LED microcontroller platform to light up your own projects! And we dig into PixelBlaze history, show off some NEW NEW NEW features, and hear all about Ben's journey to LED wizardry.

We were so excited to talk to Claire and totally geek out about lasers! We show off some of her awesome designs, talk about what it was like running her laser-based business and doing shows, and how she got into STEM stuff.

This week we welcomed special guests from Arduino to the stream! Alessandro Ranellucci, Head of Maker Business at Arduino, Anna Vigano, Marketing Manager, and Giuseppe Pinto, the Make Your UNO Product Head! We chat with them about the new soldering kit, and learn about its development!

This week we chat bots with Jayy and he shows us a NEW bot he's designing for workshops with Digi-Key!

We talk electronics, craft, and activism with Dr. Anuradha Reddy this week, while crocheting a very handy pincushion for all those thru-hole resistors you've got lying on your desk!

We were excited to have Nancy on the stream, we recently shared an article together (also with Emma of Learn to Solder Kits) in Make! Nancy is a Mexican-American software engineer and CEO-founder of Kitco - modular cardboard-based construction systems that are compatible with Arduino and micro:bit, which educators use to create open-ended projects with students. We talk all about her path into STEM and how she came up with the idea of Kitco, and we even put a little something together live!

Danielle creates companion bots that help preserve and teach Native American languages, while also teaching the basics of robotics and STEM. She is a truly impressive force and highly accomplished - she founded a non-profit organization called the Steam Connection that provides companions bots and robotics education to indigenous groups for free, she has spoken around the country including at the White House, and she's won several awards for her work. It's my pleasure to have her on and chat robots and making STEM more accessible with her!​

You know what came in the mail? Our Sensor Watch board! We were so excited to have Joey Castillo, creator of the Sensor Watch on the show! We replaced the board on our yellow Casio LIVE and talk to him all about the project! Which is open source - Happy Open Source Hardware Month!