Local Startup Lights Up Maker Faire

A Foster City electronics start up looks to make their mark at with their LED creations.

Macetech LLC is a a small electronics startup in Foster City that designs LED lighting products sold online and by special order.. Run by residents Jason Moungey and Garrett Mace in their spare time, their LED creations have light up high profile events such as the 2010 Winter Olympics, Blue Man Group shows and the Twilight Eclipse movie.

"It's exciting to be involved in high profile projects, things that a lot of people will see. However, there's always a short lead time and we end up working late nights. Every project has setbacks, such as production delays of custom components, or part that were critical to the original design suddenly going out of stock, requiring a fast redesign," Mace said.

While the hours may be long, seeing their projects light up the silver screen makes the hard work worth it.

"Several times, we've spent days hand-assembling circuits that really should be built by machines only," Mace said. "Putting in the extra hours pays off though, when you can finally see your hard work on TV!"

The team currently operates out of Mace's home in Foster City, but has plans to move to a larger commercial space in the future. And because they both have full time jobs in addition to their work with MaceTech, Moungey and Mace often have to wait until nightfall to light up their creations.

MaceTech began as merely a hobby. Mace works as a field applications engineer for a company that builds industrial control electronics and Moungey manages software engineers at an education-related dot-com company.

"We got started when I designed a small LED module for fun, in 2008. I built a few, showed them to some peers, and they wanted to buy some. I built about a hundred more modules, and they sold out in a week," Mace said.

At the time, Moungey and Mace were roommates. Mace initially planned to build the business slowly, but Moungey offered to pitch in funds for a larger production run of LED modules and MaceTech was born.

"It's been growing from there, we keep designing new products and doing shipping and tech support in our spare time," Mace said.

Want your own MaceTech original? Some of their homemade products are available for sale on their website (www.macetech.com/store). Others are designed specially for their main client, Alex Beim with Tangible Interaction in Vancouver, who has helped bring their projects to light in major events.

MaceTech's project for the 2011 Maker's Faire was inspired by a recent Tangible Interaction creation, named "100 Lanterns."

"They used our LED products within a 10x10 array of paper lanterns, and used MADRIX software to generate real-time audio-reactive visuals," Mace said. " It was used during a New Year's party, and was a stunningly beautiful addition to the venue."

MaceTech's giant LED ceiling version will be similar, featuring a  a 16x8 array of 128 lanterns.

"We'll have some couches and chairs for Maker Faire visitors to chat with us about LED projects, or just kick back and relax while watching the ceiling "glow and shimmer in response to music," Mace said.

About 100,000 people are expected to visit the two-day Maker's Faire this weekend, there to see nearly 800 maker entries—everything from Burning Man installations to arts-and-crafts booths to the Stanford solar car project.

MaceTech will be located at Booth #111 in the Expo Hall. For a full list of makers, including their specialty, place of origin and where their booth will be located during the event, visit the Maker Faire website.

What: The 2011 Maker Faire
Where: , 1346 Saratoga Dr., San Mateo
When: Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Cost: Tickets are $10 to $25 per day; click here for details.