A great part of SparkCon is its atmosphere. It is basically a block party held by 23b Shop and friends in the same business park. Located in Fullerton, CA, the venue's neighborhood is a mix of residential, retail, and commercial properties. As a practical matter, this meant good eats like Don Carlos Mexican Restaurant and Monkey Business Cafe were in easy walking distance.

Originally my Day 2 was going to start bright and (too) early for me at 9AM with the KISS Tindies presentation, but the relaxed easygoing nature of the event meant a schedule change was possible and we did it at noon instead. I loved talking to all my fellow people who thought my circuit sculptures were more interesting than a certain football game taking place around the same time.

[caption id="attachment_17778" align="alignnone" width="2048"]Roger presenting at Sparklecon - Drew Fustini Photo by Drew Fustini[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_17777" align="aligncenter" width="1536"]Roger presenting at Sparklecon Photo by Jaren Havell[/caption]

It was another great opportunity to practice public speaking. I think it went well and some people let me know afterwards that they enjoyed the talk. Success!

https://twitter.com/23bShop/status/1092146559888674816

https://twitter.com/helenleigh/status/1092158332104818694

https://twitter.com/pdp7/status/1092162091190968320

The table and couches of NUCC once again hosted various hacks. Emily's little green-tinted CRT attracted immediate attention.

Emily green tinted LED on NUCC table at Sparklecon

It wasn't long before it hosted a Matrix waterfall of characters.

https://twitter.com/Jaren_Havell/status/1092168288073768961

Emily wants to host a version of Adafruit Hallowing's default eyeball program on her tiny round CRT. To see how it would look, Emily and Jaren took a video of the Hallowing eyeball and played it back on a Raspberry Pi.

https://twitter.com/MLE_Online/status/1092222703275102208

While this was underway, I was unwinding by playing with my copper wires. Yesterday I made a crude taco truck, today I tried to make an abstract steam locomotive out of a single wire. There was no planning involved, so it was no surprise I ran out of wire before I could finish.

Single wire steam engine

Elsewhere on the table were electronic noisemakers to play with. To the left is a "Dronie" assembled by @hackabax this weekend, next to another of his noisemaker devices whose name I forgot. Inside the metal case in the right is one of Emily's earlier projects, a simple sequencer powered by a pair of 555 timers.

Noisemakers Unite.jpg

One casualty of the pouring rain were the robot competitions, but the Hebocon boxes were still set out for people to play with. Maybe we won't have robots this time, but we can still have other interesting contraptions.

Hebocon boxes at Sparklecon

Sometimes "interesting" veered into "unsettling"...

Barbie head baseball flag thing

It was a great weekend, rain or no rain. I had the opportunity to present one of my projects and saw it was well-received. I got to see people I've met before at other events, and met some new people too. And it was a great way to learn about spaces I've only heard about before. Chances are good I'll be back at 23b Shop and/or NUCC before next Sparklecon rolls around.