Last year on a Saturday morning in April, our family didn't know what to do, so I looked up the Life Science centre.

There was an event on, called the Maker Faire. It sounded as if it could be interesting.

It was! I was especially impressed by someone who had build an engraving machine out of old printer parts. To control his -pretty crude- mechanics he used something called an 'Arduino'. Fantastic! This was just the thing I always wanted to do: Control things with a computer.... So I bought some books about the Arduino, got some ideas.... And well, like it happens so often, that was it.....

Then on Christmas I got my own Arduino! together with a starter kit and an 'advanced project' kit.

My first project was a traffic light. Three LEDs, which changed from red to green when I pushed a button.

I soon advanced to different sensors, LCD displays and finally an old Epson printer was sacrificed for 2 stepper motors. It was time to build something useful...

The PhotoLift was born:

not very pretty to look at, but good for a first prototype.

The electronics were on a breadboard:

To develop the software was easy.... (I knew Java programming before and C is not so different)

Currently I am cleaning it all up. The electronics are on their own PC board (the first one I etched) and the lift will be build out of aluminium. (Updates will follow soon)

And best of all: This year I will have my own stand on the Maker Faire!