Hack Like Heck: MAYER MAKES

makerkaren — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 17:42:39 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by makerkaren on 7/4/2018 5:42:39 PM

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Audition Video
players.brightcove.net/.../index.html

Declaration of Intent	MAYER MAKES intends to Hack Like Heck
YouTube Channel	MAYER MAKES
Hack Like Heck Project Progress	FINISHED, SUBMITTED....now I'll get some sleep..or start another project rightaway

Name:mayermakes

Element14 Community member since: June 3, 2014

Plan to Hack Like Heck: Making it easier for others by using readily available components.

Notable projects: Portable Workbench, Lunchbox Dev Kit

More about the contestant:

How did you first get into electronics?

My first lurk into hacking stuff was in fact modding and building electric guitars, just because I wanted my guitar to be different, I soon realized that after building a few custom guitars, that I'm better at making stuff than playing those instruments so I left the Trash/Industrial Metal Band that I Co founded in about 2004.

But my real first Projects were PC game mods, espacially Wolfenstein3d (which was illegal to own in austria because of the WW2 theme), I started modding it and making my own non ww2 themed versions of that game and shared it on Floppy disks with hand drawn Logos on them ( I had no access to a printer). I can't remember when I started that but it must have been around 1998/99.

(That flash from the past also might have something to do with my Raspberry Pi build.... *hint hint*)

What would you say are your top projects that you've post to element14? Any that you've done that didn't get posted to element14 that you love?

Well, my favourite Project i have posted to the community is of course the Lunchbox dev kit remix. I have created tons of stuff over the past years which are mostly posted on my Youtube Channel and the paid ones are posted here. https://blog.conrad.at/?s=mayer+makes

My favourite one of those is the IOT-Cookie Jar https://blog.conrad.at/iot-keksdose/

Overall my most favourite project is always the one I am currently building. I tend to pump my enthusiasm always in the ongoing projects..and then move on to the next one.

Currently I'm building a 1:10th Scale RC Crawler (for Rock Crawling) to drive it in the austrian championship ASTS ( austrian scale team series). I have set some serious challenges to myself with this project :

it has to comply with the rules for Class C1 or C2(basically if it would be a real car it would pass a DMCA/TÜV inspection and needs all the scale details like licence plates and functional lights/signals)
it has to perform great in extreme offroad conditions
it has to look freaking awesome ( its a Vw Baja Bug)
AND I have only 24 workhours time to finish it.

HERE IS THE FULL VIDEO for Element14-Community Members in this project! Video is in german but you don't need to understand what Iḿ saying.

I finished this build right before the HLH BOM arrived. The frist drive happened on April 7th and I edited it on April 8th (CET).

A lot of the contestants for Hack Like Heck do video game hacks. You are more of a generalist when it comes to projects, a little bit of everything, but I believe you have done some game hacks. Can you tell me about those projects?<

Yes there was even a sign on Maker Faire Salzburg calling me " The generalist among Makers"...

I've done the usual Retropie projects, hacked a Sega master system to alter its clock speed (you can change the game speed with a switch). Repaired some old Computers that were used for gaming, like an Atari portfolio ( I love that thing!!)and an Epson HX20....veeeery BASIC...get it BASIC... ;-)

I made games on my graphing calculator back in school along with the mentioned Wolf3d mods. I made a portable PS1 and a N64 portable but sold these long ago...I do not hang tight onto finished projects.

Do you do hacking and making for a living, or is it more of just a hobby, or in your case, passion?

It started as a hobby and turned into a passion... mid 2017, I had to start a little business so I can legally do sponsored/paid projects. I dream of doing this for a living. For real. Right now I have a regular day job, selling farming supplies..... not so much my dream.

UPDATE: no more sellign farming supplies...Now I do 3D printing all day for a living at a filament company. Hurray! This means more videos for you!

Want to know more? Ask in the comments below and tag mayermakes!

Tags: challenger_hlh, mayermakes