Making A Note Here Huge Success
On February 7th, 2017. We released our kickstarter, looking for money to help us produce the Mearm Pi, a version of the Mearm that ran using the Raspberry Pi. In less than twenty four hours, we hadn’t only reached our goal, but we’d surpassed it. None of us here were expecting that, and then the ride continued.
Blogs and News Sites picked us up, our little Robot Arm got into Forbes and The Verge. Our friends at Pimoroni did a show just for the Mearm Pi on the Bilge Tank. We were even featured on the Raspberry Pi website!
We went to the Raspberry Pi Birthday Party, spent a weekend there showing off three of our prototypes. It was fantastic to see the reactions of kids, big and small, getting their hands on the joystick controls, drawing and even managing the fabled crayon transfer!
On March 8th 2017, 852 of you gave us £56,376 to support the production of the Mearm Pi, 563% of what we initially asked for. We continue to be blown away by the support and good vibes you’ve been sending in our direction on twitter and kickstarter itself.
“So you’ve been pretty successful! Good job! What now?”
The past few weeks since the kickstarter ended has been pretty hectic, we’ve been putting the finishing touches onto the Mearm Pi. The polish before we go into production and then, very soon, we’ll be full steam ahead.
“But what if we missed your kickstarter and still want to get one as soon as possible?”
Good news hypothetical person asking these questions! (Where did you come from by the way?) We’re now on indiegogo accepting orders from there. To do so, just go to our page and order one.
Read morePress Release - MeArm Pi on Kickstarter
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nottingham, UK - Mime Industries launches Kickstarter campaign to fund their Raspberry Pi powered robot arm kit that’s simple enough for kids to build
On February 7 2017, Mime Industries launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the production of the world’s first robot arm kit for the Raspberry Pi. Designed to be easy to assemble and not requiring extensive knowledge of electronics, the MeArm Pi STEM kit helps kids and adults learn robotics and teaches them how to code.
Created by Ben Pirt of Mirobot and Ben Gray of MeArm, this is their fourth overfunded technology campaign and is based on the original MeArm, launched back in 2014. “We believe in helping children to have fun whilst learning about technology and the MeArm Pi is completely designed around that goal” said Ben Pirt. “Our products are simple to build and can be easily understood. Meaning you can use them to learn whilst playing, adding your own imagination to make something great”.
The MeArm Pi integrates smoothly with the Raspberry Pi, the ubiquitous educational computing platform. The kit uses a Pi HAT (a plug-on board that fits on the computer) with on-board joysticks for control. MeArm Pi is made from plastic parts for the structure, screws and 4 metal gear servos in addition to the Pi HAT. It can be programmed in Python, Scratch, Java and many other programming languages.
The MeArm Pi campaign launched on the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter on February 7 2017 and runs until March 9 2017 with a goal of £10,000 (Approx $12,400 USD). All early birds are sold out, rewards include the standard MeArm Pi Kit of £60 (Approx $75 USD) which includes a robotic arm. All kits deliver free worldwide.
For any press enquiries, please contact [email protected]. Images below are free to use for promotional purposes (click through for high resolution downloads)
Launching the MeArm Pi on Kickstarter
It’s a big day for all of us at Mime; the launch of our first new product - the MeArm Pi. We’re back on Kickstarter (where else) so head over there and back us if you already haven’t!
The MeArm Pi Kit is a build-it-yourself robot arm that’s controlled by your Raspberry Pi. It includes a standard Pi HAT which attaches to your Raspberry Pi and has a couple of on-board joysticks to control it. Because it’s connected to the Pi you can program it through any of the various programming languages that already run on the Pi. There’s also free software available which lets you program it through a web interface using drag and drop programming environments like Scratch and Blockly or with Python and Javascript for the more experienced.
It’s been some time in development and we’re proud to unleash it on the public now.
If you’re looking for a press release or any other promotional material, head over here
Read moreMakey Makey Makes a Controller Out of Anything.
We’ve already mentioned this product in one of our Christmas Gift Lists, but personally I love the concept of the Makey Makey’s simplicity as a tool for learning.
Take a banana, or a key, or your grandma, or anything vaguely electrically conductive and then hook it up to a circuit to use it as a joystick controller or a keyboard input. It succeeds in such a way that it allows people just go through the process of being creative through making and playing with it without being dragged down by the technicalities.
As such it is pretty much perfect for school age kids, or their maker parents, to learn about electricity, making circuits or even programming games. That level of accessibility has ensured that the Makey Makey is pretty commonplace in schools and science museums, even featuring on TV shows such as Go 8 Bit.
We used an orange to start a youtube video running in the space of five minutes, but even from that base, it’s pretty easy to imagine how you could develop games for this system.
Whilst Ben Gray and I were discussing this post, we were talking about potentially making it so we would be able to control a Mearm with a makey makey type system. So watch this space!
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