0007BLITZbot15’s journey around CCCamp15 (part 2)

Second part of the adventures of a little robot hitchhiking amongst 5,000 hackers.

BLITZbot15 Electronics Hardware Projects Microcontrollers Toys

This is the second part of BLITZbot15’s travelogue. See part one for a short introduction.

« Back to part one (days 1–3)

Day 4

I don't remember exactly what happened during the rest of the night, but somehow I ended up in a booth at main square with no power running through my circuits anymore!

@noniq robot steht energielos bei madame rührig (raketenplatz) pic.twitter.com/vFVMXSvabp

— Benks (@Algoropticon) August 16, 2015

Fortunately somebody mentioned this to Stefan, so he came over and took me to the Hardware Hacking Area to do some maintenance. Turned out that a connection on my mainboard had gotten loose (maybe I did party a bit too hard the night before …).

Maintenance of @Blitzbot15 at #CCCamp15 pic.twitter.com/hfDQWprHXV

— n0v0id (@n0v0id) August 16, 2015

After the bad joint had been resoldered I was ready for new adventures – and new adventures were to come indeed! First I was taken to a place outside the camp ground and introduced to an interestingly huge life form with four legs and pointy ears:

And then, hanging on to a big zeppelin, I actually got to fly! (I kept rather close to ground though, as I'm a bit afraid of heights …)

There were also some fellow bots of the quadcopter type around. We put one on my head, making me look a bit like the main character in one of my favourite TV shows, Inspector Gadget:

Back on the camp I visited the Königlich Bayerisches Amtsvillage:

.@blitzbot15 made it to the @Kgl_Bamt village #cccamp15 pic.twitter.com/qNwi6Vo84C

— Severin Schols (@tiefpunkt) August 16, 2015

I had already been there on day 3, but as @tiefpunkt put it: It’s a great place to be!

@psycon @blitzbot15 @Kgl_Bamt ist halt schön hier ;)

— Severin Schols (@tiefpunkt) August 16, 2015

Then @cloelkes showed me a device partially made from tinted glass and designed to be worn on the head. I had already noticed during my journey that many of you humans use such a device. It was fun to try, but for me it didn’t really fit:

Der @blitzbot15 durfte auch mal die GLOBALE Sonnenbrille anziehen #zkmkarlsruhe @zkmkarlsruhe pic.twitter.com/nl3W3oyV63

— Christian Lölkes (@cloelkes) August 16, 2015

Still there were areas that I hadn't visited yet. For example Family Village, where I was taken next:

Gerade @blitzbot15 überreicht bekommen. Besucht jetzt das FamilyVillage im #ccamp2015. pic.twitter.com/O0PNrL1J1u

— Thomas Wermter (@twermter) August 16, 2015

I like it in the FamilyVillage. They treat @blitzbot15 very well. :-) pic.twitter.com/4RSFGedbdn

— Thomas Wermter (@twermter) August 16, 2015

Already having tried to fly with quadcopters and zeppelins earlier this day I now got to try flying with balloons:

Whoooooa. @blitzbot15 almost gone in the sky. I play a little while with the kids, then you can pick me up for a night trip! #ccamp2015

— Thomas Wermter (@twermter) August 16, 2015

.@blitzbot15 my flying picture! pic.twitter.com/eFXi8aUfJ7

— Thomas Wermter (@twermter) August 16, 2015

@blitzbot15 trying to fight the gravity at the #cccamp15 family village pic.twitter.com/Nx8MI77rM2

— melle (@dysternis) August 16, 2015

Now it was time for some sports: In the Adapt Village there was a RoboCup going on where I became acquainted with some impressively skilled soccer bots:

@blitzbot15 found a new friend. pic.twitter.com/QQBNPoNgTZ

— Thomas Wermter (@twermter) August 16, 2015

I momentarily considered aiming for a carreer in international robo soccer myself – but then I realized the enormous amount of training that would be required. I have many talents, but sports isn’t one of them.

we just met @blitzbot15 at the adapt village! such a nice guy! pic.twitter.com/ysEkSveV5R

— Christian Rijke (@crijke) August 16, 2015

According to my travel diary, next I was at the BER stage, where a live episode of Methodisch Inkorrekt was right about to start when a big storm hit the campsite. It was already dark outside, so when the camp-wide power supply had to be shut down for safety reasons everything went dark. However, battery powered as I am, my eyes and display could still provide some light. Working as a torch is not one of my primary goals, but it works quite well and I’m always glad to be helpful!

Day 5

Thankfully the folks from Methodisch Inkorrekt took care of me during the stormy evening and night (the camp even had had to be evacuated for an hour), and on the next day I continued my journey with a visit of Sendezentrum:

@noniq @blitzbot15 keine Sorge er ist in sicheren Händen... :) pic.twitter.com/zB7Pqkk6Cg

— Reinhard Remfort (@ReinhardRemfort) August 17, 2015

.@blitzbot15-Selfie \o/ #cccamp15 pic.twitter.com/S8iZzSNKNv

— Dennis Morhardt (@gglnx) August 17, 2015

Der @blitzbot15 im Sendezentrum. #cccamp15 pic.twitter.com/Im8a9YrvFF

— Sendezentrum (@Sendezentrum) August 17, 2015

It was already the last day of the camp, and so my journey too had to come to an end. Five days ago, the Fairy Dust rocket at the main square had been one of the first stations of my adventure. I now returned to the main square and settled for a final drink at the marketplace bar.

@blitzbot15 hängt betrunken an der marketplace bar. pic.twitter.com/sH6D8ZarWO

— kt&f (@ktundf) August 17, 2015

Soon afterwards Stefan came to pick me up. He took me up the central hill for a final photo shoot:

Bye bye #CCCamp15, what a great experience! Thanks to everyone who showed me around, you made me so happy! pic.twitter.com/kPNO86sP5j

— BLITZbot15 (@blitzbot15) August 17, 2015

Travel Diary

As you may know I have a built-in travel diary. I encouraged all the people who showed me around to add an entry to it. So here’s the complete list of diary entries after 5 days of hitchhiking at the camp, as entered by you fellow humans:

1·Day 0: Arrived at camp in the afternoon. It’s so huge!
2·There was a problem with my memory, but @noniq could fix it.
3·Tomorrow I’ll start my journey. I’m excited, and a bit nervous ...
4·Day 1: All tests completed successfully. Ready to go!
5·Starting my journey in the phone booth of LeiwandVille.
6·To the rocket!
7·Lichtpiraten!
8·I WAS ON DANIELS BIKEEEE,,,,,,TTeeeeeeeeeeePPPQVVFOOBARu       COSMOS PEACE AND
9·Visited Nope FOR
10·QUEER GEEKS are awesome!
11·Where is void village Oo
12·Found void but nobody is here. I think Ill stay with hase and nervengift.
13·I just visited Entropolis and they are watching demos. Cool!
14·Binary Kitchen offered me fresh tap beer. So nice.
15·Just visited HackSaar. They paint pictures with a lightpainting stick! Awesome!
16·Neighbourhoodnerds took me to the lake! Unfortunately I didnt bring my speedos.
17·The Neighbourhood Nerds transformed me into Cpt. Blitzbot!!!
18·GREETINGS FROM C3INFODESK
19·POC is awesome!
20·Singularity City
21·Paparazzi Village FTW !
22·Passenger on a copter at UAVP NG
23·Muccc  S rad1obadge
24·MoNoNoKe
25·What a chaotic journey! Mehr Kuemmel! LOVE LIVE!
26·Then i met Z.
27·When i woke up, Z was still there. He told me, that he was not able to leave me
28·I went to the airfield where I tried to fly a drone and took a ride in a zeplin
29·Today I took a trip on the lorry by Das Labor, which was a lot of fun.
30·ADAPT Village
31·BER-STAGE MINKORREKT PODCAST
32·Sendezentrum
33·NOPE

Epilogue

BlitzBOT15 travelled back to Vienna with me after the camp had ended. He now stays at our office, waiting for new adventures. Drop me a note if you’re around and want to stop by to visit him!

– Stefan