Do you have hardware project that’s been simmering on the back burner because you can’t get access to a 3D printer? Come on down to the Disrupt Hackathon and use one of the MakerBots and Raspberry Pis we’ll have on site for anyone to use. Build toys, robots, Arduino cases, or whatever you want and enter the Disrupt Hackathon as an inaugural hardware hacker. We dare you.
The best hardware hack as chosen by the judges wins a brand new Replicator courtesy of MakerBot – a $2,000 value.
What can you do to prepare? For starters, I’ll have four Raspberry Pi boards available for hackers to futz with during the evening courtesy of our friends at Adafruit Industries. If you’d like to get access to one (and to keep one) you must contact me at john@beta.techcrunch.com before this Friday and I’ll choose four hackers at random. You’ll want to bring an SD card with Adafruit’s own Raspberry Pi Linux Disro already ready to go so you can get down to hacking instead of spending precious minutes flashing images. Also check out the tutorials available online for hacking the Raspberry Pi.
If you’re already an advanced hacker, pack up your Ardunio board and bring a selection of sensors and motors. Once we get better at the hardware portion of the festivities we’ll be sure to bring a supply for you all to use, but this year in SF we need your help to shape our hardware hacker best practices. Come ready to build something in 24 hours with a team of strangers and please don’t roll in with a fully-formed multi-armed robot you designed over the past decade (although that would be badass).
I’m looking forward to seeing some hardware hackers at our Hackathon on September 8 and please drop me a line if you have any questions. Again, the Makerbots will be available all night and four individuals will get a Pi to play with so plan accordingly.
May the hacks be ever in your favor.