April 2026 Newsletter
Many joined Melbourne Tech Guilds in collaboration with Linux Users Victoria as we celebrated Hardware Freedom Day — an annual event dedicated to the spirit of open hardware and maker culture. Hardware Freedom Day is an annual celebration organised by the Digital Freedom Foundation, promoting the use of and contribution to free and open hardware projects. More info: wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_Freedom_Day
Technology enthauastists came and saw real working projects built by local makers, heard directly from the people who designed and built them, and connected with Melbourne’s vibrant maker and tech community.
It was a great day with people attending from across Victoria. Several groups exhibited their projects including:
Alexander with his CNC cutting circuit boards and
Patrick demonstrating his musical FFT player & visualizer
Ben giving away microcontrollers and components
Mick showcasing his LightBox — A 64×32 LED unit displaying custom text, animations and a VU meter
People took the opportunity to discuss the exhibit and then see how it could be applied in their projects.
Thanks to LUV and Inspire9 for supporting the event and providing a FREE Lunch!
Chris’ Robotics Project Demos
🤖 Minimax — Multifunction wheeled robot with built-in Machine Learning capabilities
🐾 RoboKitty — Open-source four-legged platform with custom movement algorithms in development
🦾 Robot Arm — A commercial arm hacked to provide greater user control and programmability
Alexander’s CNC Machine
Alexander showcased his PCBs created with a budget CNC machine build. Great for prototyping without chemicals or long waits. How’s that for hardware turnaround time!
Ahmet’s Swarm Robots and Presentation
Ahmet from the Deep Dive Guild demonstrated SparkNodes — A collection of ultra-low-cost robots that move and operate as an intelligent swarm. This was followed by a presentation highlighting his vision and the struggles he overcame on this journey so far.
FPGA – From Zero to Calculator
Fareed found someone selling an Altera DE1 and had to take it home. From staring at it not knowing what to do with the strange contraption, to getting a very basic calculator working, he showcased his fascinating journey towards custom special-purpose logic machines. Thus the Coding Guild was relevant on Hardware Freedom Day!