Just like the garage computer explosion of the 70’s through the 80’s, which brought us such things as Apple, pong, Bill Gate’s hair, and the proliferation of personal computers, the maker movement is the new garage hardware explosion. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement.
Enthusiasts who want to build the products they want, from shortwave radios to personal computers, and to tweak products they’ve bought to make them even better, have long been a part of the electronics industry. By all measures, garage-style innovation remains alive and well today, as “makers” as they are called continue to turn out contemporary gadgets, including 3D printers, drones, and embedded electronics devices.
Making is about individual Do-It-Yourselfers being able to design and create with tools that were, as of a decade or two ago, only available to large, cash-rich corporations: CAD tools, CNC mills, 3D printers, low-quantity PCB manufacturing, open hardware such as Arduinos and similar inexpensive development boards – all items that have made it easier and relatively cheap to make whatever we imagine. For individuals, maker tools can change how someone views their home or their hobbies. The world is ours to make. Humans are genetically wired to be makers. The maker movement is simply the result of making powerful building and communication tools accessible to the masses. There are plenty of projects from makers that show good engineering: Take this Arduino board with tremendous potential, developed by a young maker, as example.
The maker movement is a catalyst to democratize entrepreneurship as these do-it-yourself electronics are proving to be hot sellers: In the past year, unit sales for 3D printing related products; Arduino units, parts and supplies; Raspberry Pi boards; drones and quadcopters; and robotics goods are all on a growth curve in terms of eBay sales. There are many Kickstarter maker projects going on. The Pebble E-Paper Watch raises $10 million. The LIFX smartphone-controlled LED bulb raises $1.3 million. What do these products have in common? They both secured funding through Kickstarter, a crowd-funding website that is changing the game for entrepreneurs. Both products were created by makers who seek to commercialize their inventions. These “startup makers” iterate on prototypes with high-end tools at professional makerspaces.
For companies to remain competitive, they need to embrace the maker movement or leave themselves open for disruption. Researchers found that 96 percent of business leaders believe new technologies have forever changed the rules of business by democratizing information and rewiring customer expectations. - You’ve got to figure out agile innovation. Maybe history is repeating itself as the types of products being sold reminded us of the computer tinkering that used to be happening in the 1970s to 1990s – similar in terms of demographics, tending to be young people, and low budget. Now the do-it-yourself category is deeply intertwined with the electronics industry. Open hardware is in the center in maker movement – we need open hardware designs! How can you publish your designs and still do business with it? Open source ecosystem markets behave differently and therefore require a very different playbook than traditional tech company: the differentiation is not in the technology you build; it is in the process and expertise that you slowly amass over an extended period of time.
By democratizing the product development process, helping these developments get to market, and transforming the way we educate the next generation of innovators, we will usher in the next industrial revolution. The world is ours to make. Earlier the PC created a new generation of software developers who could innovate in the digital world without the limitations of the physical world (virtually no marginal cost, software has become the great equalizer for innovation. Now advances in 3D printing and low-cost microcontrollers as well as the ubiquity of advanced sensors are enabling makers to bridge software with the physical world. Furthermore, the proliferation of wireless connectivity and cloud computing is helping makers contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT). We’re even beginning to see maker designs and devices entering those markets once thought to be off-limits, like medical.
Image source: The world is ours to make: The impact of the maker movement – EDN Magazine
In fact, many parents have engaged in the maker movement with their kids because they know that the education system is not adequately preparing their children for the 21st century. There is a strong movement to spread this DIY idea widely. The Maker Faire, which launched in the Bay Area in California in 2006, underlined the popularity of the movement by drawing a record 215,000 people combined in the Bay Area and New York events in 2014. There’s Maker Media, MakerCon, MakerShed, Make: magazine and 131 Maker Faire events that take place throughout the world. Now the founders of all these Makers want a way to connect what they refer to as the “maker movement” online. So Maker Media created a social network called MakerSpace, a Facebook-like social network that connects participants of Maker Faire in one online community. The new site will allow participants of the event to display their work online. There are many other similar sites that allow yout to present yout work fron Hackaday to your own blog. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement—although makers can be found everywhere in the world.
7,245 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Functioning 3D Printer For 10€
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/26/a-functioning-3d-printer-for-10e/
There was a time when crowdfunding websites were full of 3D printers at impossibly low prices. You knew that it would turn out to be either blatant vaporware or its delivery date would slip into the 2020s, but still there seemed always to be an eager queue ready to sign up. Even though there were promised models for under $200, $150, and then $100, there had to be a lower limit to the prices they were prepared to claim for their products. A $10 printer on Kickstarter for example would have been just a step too far.
There is a project that’s come close to that mark though, even though the magic figure is 10 euros rather than 10 dollars, so just short of 12 dollars at today’s exchange rate.
[Michele Lizzit] has built a functioning 3D printer for himself, and claims that magic 10€ build price. How on earth has he done it? The answer lies in extensive use of scrap components, in this case from broken inkjet printers and an image scanner.
The claimed resolution is 33µm, and using the position encoders from the inkjet printers he is able to make it a closed loop device.
10€ closed loop control 3D printer from old inkjet printers
https://lizzit.it/printer/
Inkjet printers are incredibly cheap and most printers do not last more that a few years before the inkjet nozzle breaks or the paper loading mechanism starts to fail; as a consequence lots of broken inkjet printers can be easily obtained in junkyards or from friends.
Each inkjet printer has 1 axis that is very similar to what a 3D printer needs with only one difference: most inkjets do not use stepper motors anymore. Inkjet printers usually work by using a cheaper DC motor coupled with a linear optical encoder, the DC motor runs at full speed while the data from the encoder is interpolated and used to trigger the inkjet nozzles.
What I did is to build a 10€ 3D printer by disassembling 3 inkjet printers and an old scanner.
The only parts I could not source by disassembling printers are an hotend (4€) and part of the electronics (~6€).
If you want to build your own printer you need:
3 inkjet printers and a scanner (or a multifunction printer)
an hotend (4€)
an ATmega328 (or an Arduino nano) (1.5€)
an L298 or L298-based motor driver (1.5€)
3x A4988 driver boards (3€)
a BDX53 or other suitable high-current darlington transistor (<1€)
My printer now uses a cardboard frame and this is what most greatly affects the precision, I am working on a more solid metal frame and on an improved z-axis.
The resolution of the axis is already pretty high and is at the limit of what a DC motor can achieve without a full PID controller, but still it could be further increased by using a more powerful MCU (like the SAM3X8), by implementing a full PID controller and by reading the encoder using mouse sensors instead of the usual 3-diode encoder.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Harvesting Copper from Microwave Ovens
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/26/harvesting-copper-from-microwave-ovens/
Obsolete appliances were once a gold mine of parts, free for the taking with a few snips of your diagonal cutters. Times have changed, though, and most devices yield only a paltry supply of parts, so much so that only by harvesting raw materials can you get much value out of them. And so we have this example of reclaiming copper from used microwave ovens.
Free Copper – Copper Bar from a Microwave Oven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92XIafi7Cg0
Tomi Engdahl says:
Iteration 8
https://hackaday.io/project/18518-iteration-8
Science in your hand. A pocket-sized instrument capable of visualizing and exploring the world around you. (Iteration 8)
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Cardboard Computer – IO is my name
https://hackaday.io/project/19048-the-cardboard-computer-io-is-my-name
My goal is a 4-bit CPU using recycled cardboard substrate and Diode Transistor Logic. This will develop into an educational platform for me.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Casting Metal Directly Into 3D Printed Molds
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/27/casting-metal-directly-into-3d-printed-molds/
Casting metal and 3D printing go together like nuts and gum, and there are no shortage techniques that use the two together. Lost PLA casting is common, and sculptors are getting turned on to creating their works in plastic first before sending it off to the foundry. Now the folks at FormLabs have turned the whole ‘casting metal and 3D printer’ thing on its head: they’re printing sacrificial molds to cast pewter.
There are two techniques demonstrated in this tutorial, but the real winner here is printing a complete sacrificial mold for pewter miniatures. While this technique requires a little bit of work including washing, curing, and a bit of post-processing, you would have to do that anyway with anything coming out of a resin printer.
How to Make Metal Miniatures With 3D Printed Pewter Casting Molds
https://formlabs.com/blog/metal-miniatures-3d-printed-pewter-casting-molds/
The Power of Pewter
Pewter pieces have their own unique color and patina. The relatively soft alloy can be buffed and polished by hand or with a rotary tool to achieve a high gloss finish. The parts can be easily electroplated in precious metals to simulate gold or silver for beautiful jewelry, or nickel plated for higher mechanical strength. Create replica keys and hood ornaments, the possibilities are endless.
Plunk down your beautiful mini character with pride!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Primitive Technology: Forge Blower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVV4xeWBIxE
I invented the Bow Blower, a combination of the bow drill and forge blower to make a device that can force air into a fire while being easy to construct from commonly occurring natural materials using only primitive technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blast Your Battery’s Sulphates, Is It Worth It?
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/25/blast-your-batterys-sulphates-is-it-worth-it/
A lot of us will own a lead-acid battery in our cars without ever giving it much thought. The alternator keeps it topped up, and every few years it needs replacing. Just another consumable, like tyres or brake pads. But there’s a bit more to these cells than that, and a bit of care and reading around the subject can both extend their lives in use and help bring back some of them after they have to all intents and purposes expired.
One problem in particular is sulphation of the lead plates, the build-up of insoluble lead sulphate on them which increases the internal resistance and efficiency of the cell to the point at which it becomes unusable. The sulphate can be removed with a high voltage, but at the expense of a dangerous time with a boiling battery spewing sulphuric acid and lead salts. The solution therefore proposed is to pulse it with higher voltage spikes over and above charging at its healthy voltage, thus providing the extra kick required to shift the sulphation build up without boiling the electrolyte.
If you read around the web, there are numerous miracle cures for lead-acid batteries to be found.
You can even buy commercial products
So so these pulse desulphators work?
Battery Desulfation
http://www.reuk.co.uk/wordpress/storage/battery-desulfation/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheap and Easy Magnetic DNA Separation Method Needs Your Help
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/28/cheap-and-easy-magnetic-dna-separation-method-needs-your-help/
When you consider that almost every single cell in your body has more than a meter of DNA coiled up inside its nucleus, it seems like it should be pretty easy to get some to study. But with all the other cellular gunk in a crude preparation, DNA can be quite hard to isolate. That’s where this cheap and easy magnetic DNA separation method comes in. If it can be optimized and tested with some help from the citizen science community.
Commercial DNA separation methods generally involve mixing silica beads into crude cell fractions; the DNA preferentially binds to the silica, making it possible to mechanically separate it from the rest of the cellular junk. But rather than using a centrifuge to isolate the DNA, [Justin] from The Thought Emporium figured that magnets might do a better job. It’s not a new idea — biotech companies offer magnetic separation beads commercially, but at too steep a price for [Justin]’s budget.
Project: Paramagnetic silica zeolite for DNA extraction
http://www.thethoughtemporium.com/paramagnetic-silica
This project stems from a need for an improved way to extract DNA. Currently the standard silica technique for extracting DNA can take well over an hour to run, uses several organic washes which need to be collected and thrown out seperatly and isn’t particularly efficient. Alternatively DNA can be chemically altered to bind to special paramagnetic nano particles and removed mechanically with an electromagnet. While this is better, it requires chemical modification of the DNA which risks destroying it, or at the least wasting more time on removing the modification. Our particles change all that.
By coating the paramagnetic nanoparticles in a mesoporous silica zeolite shell the pros of both systems are utilized without any of the cons. And because of the silicas structure adhearance of DNA is increased with the massive acccesible surface area. Further, our particles are made through a green one pot method and a single 25ml synthesis can produce enough particles to run 50-100 DNA extracts.
This simple solution allows for easy extraction of DNA in minutes and with far less work. Combined with low cost and our improved green synthesis, our particles are set to change how DNA is handled in the lab.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OtterVIS LGL spectrophotometer
https://hackaday.io/project/10738-ottervis-lgl-spectrophotometer
A super cheap decently resolving open source VIS-spectrophotometer. The cheapest in the OtterVIS line.
Description
The OtterVIS LGL is a cheap 3D-printed open source lens-grating-lens visible spectrophotometer. What more do you need to know?
It’s so cheap it can be literally given away to public schools to help spark their pupils interest in science, or as a high school science project prize. (And I intend to do both). The main goal however is to populate my high school’s lab with one spectrophotometer pr 2 students, and to give others the possibility to do the same.
School budgets are tight and even cheap low quality low resolution spectrophotometers easily cost 700$ or more per piece. Acquiring enough equipment to be able to engage all students at the same time can be something of a financial challenge.
I aim to keep the cost for the OtterVIS LGL under 100$.
The optics are chosen for their quality, availability and low price.
The OtterVIS LGL is a super cheap decently resolving entirely 3D-printable open source DIY spectrophotometer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scorpion 3.0
Multi tool design for the IIIrd world countries
https://hackaday.io/project/26124-scorpion-30
Scorpion 3.0 aims to be a multi purpose tool for the masses, a cheap product but not a cheap design, of what could be a better way of living for some people.
In the rural areas, people are trying to develop better living conditions here and to begin to use some small solar panels and some lead acid batteries to power a few lights and maybe in some cases, charge their mobile phones. The technology is many times too expensive for these places and people are ending up connecting their refurbished solar panels directly to some old car batteries. This dangerous practice for a desperate cause to light up some 3W light bulbs at night, leads many times to setting the batteries or the houses on fire.
A fairly technical and good solution would be to design a low price adjustable and multi-purpose DC to DC converter power supply that is very simple to use. My idea is to have a small 40W custom built solar charger that has the possibility of converting into a battery to device power supply that can allow multiple voltages at it’s output. This multi-purpose tool could have an AGM battery charger implemented in it’s menu and it could also have a Li-ion battery charger.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: An Open Source Kiln
https://hackaday.com/2017/08/30/hackaday-prize-entry-an-open-source-kiln/
For his Hackaday Prize entry, [Matt] is building a small kiln for melting metals and firing clay. He’s making this kiln out of materials anyone can acquire — dirt and a bit of nichrome wire.
Most kiln builds you’ll find on the Internet use fancy refractory bricks and other materials you may not have in your back yard. [Matt]’s project is entirely DIY, and starts with a large pile of dirt and rocks.
RepKiln
A small and inexpensive kiln for melting metals and firing clay
https://hackaday.io/project/21642-repkiln
Tomi Engdahl says:
Toy Dash Turned Gaming Interface
https://hackaday.com/2017/08/30/toy-dash-turned-gaming-interface/
We see a lot of MAME cabinets and other gaming emulator projects here on Hackaday, but it’s not often that we see one the form factor of which so elegantly matches the ROM. [circuitbeard] converted a Tomy Turnin Turbo toy dashboard into a mini arcade machine playing Outrun.
Tomy Turnin’ Turbo Dashboard Outrun Arcade
https://circuitbeard.co.uk/2017/08/28/tomy-turnin-turbo-dashboard-outrun-arcade/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How To Do PCB Art In Eagle
https://hackaday.com/2017/08/30/how-to-do-pcb-art-in-eagle/
Last month I had the pleasure of creating a new piece of hardware for Tindie. [Jasmine], the queen bee of Tindie, and I designed, developed, and kitted three hundred Tindie badges in ten days leading up to DEF CON. The badges were a complete success, they introduced soldering to a lot of people, and were loved by all.
Building a DEF CON Badge in Two Weeks
https://hackaday.com/2017/07/27/building-a-def-con-badge-in-two-weeks/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Repurposing Moving Coil Meters to Monitor Server Performance
https://hackaday.com/2017/08/31/repurposing-moving-coil-meters-to-monitor-server-performance/
Snazzy analog meters can lend a retro flair to almost any project, but these days they often seem to be retasked as indicators for completely different purposes than originally intended. That’s true for these Vu meters repurposed as gauges for a Raspberry Pi server, and we think the build log is as informative as the finished product is good-looking.
Audio VU Meters & Raspberry Pi
using VU Meters to monitor system activity on Raspberry Pi
https://hackaday.io/project/26951-audio-vu-meters-raspberry-pi
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Source Barbot Needs Only Two Motors
https://hackaday.com/2017/08/31/open-source-barbot-needs-only-two-motors/
Most drinkbots are complicated—some intentionally so, others seemingly by design necessity. If you have a bunch of bottles of booze you still need a way to get it out of the bottles in a controlled fashion, usually through motorized pouring or pumping. Sometimes all thoe tubes and motors and wires looks really cool and sci fi. Still, there’s nothing wrong with a really clean design.
[Lukas Šidlauskas’s] Open Source Barbot project uses only two motors to actuate nine bottles using only a NEMA-17 stepper to move the tray down along the length of the console and a high-torque servo to trigger the Beaumont Metrix SL spirit measures. These barman’s bottle toppers dispense 50 ml when the button is pressed, making them (along with gravity) the perfect way to elegantly manage so many bottles. Drink selection takes place on an app, connected via Bluetooth to the Arduino Mega running the show.
Barbot is a cocktail mixing robot controlled with the hybrid mobile app via Bluetooth
https://github.com/sidlauskaslukas/barbot
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tracing A Scene An Old-Fashioned Way
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/02/tracing-a-scene-an-old-fashioned-way/
Taking a picture is as simple as tapping a screen. Drawing a memorable scene, even when it’s directly in front of you, is a different skill entirely. So trace it! Well, that’s kind of hard to do without appropriate preparation.
[bobsteaman]’s method is to first whip up a pantograph — it tested well with a felt marker on the end. Next, he built a camera obscura into a small wood box with a matte plexiglass top, which didn’t work quite so well. A magnifying glass above the camera’s pinhole aperture helped, but arduous testing was needed to ensure it was set at perfect position for a clear image.
I’ve made a drawing-machine (pantograph and ‘pinhole’-camera combination) that can trace te world.
http://imgur.com/gallery/tmgGc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Poetry in Motion with a Sand-Dispensing Dot Matrix Printer
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/03/poetry-in-motion-with-a-sand-dispensing-dot-matrix-printer/
Hackaday gets results! Reader [John] saw our recent Fail of the Week post about a “sand matrix printer” and decided to share his own version, a sand-dispensing dot matrix printer he built last year.
Sandscript – Sand Printer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW-IqDJhunQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Low-Power Can You Go?
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/01/how-low-power-can-you-go/
[lasersaber] has a passion: low-power motors. In a bid to challenge himself and inspired by betavoltaic cells, he has 3D printed and built a small nuclear powered motor!
This photovoltaic battery uses fragile glass vials of tritium extracted from keychains and a small section of a solar panel to absorb the light, generating power.
3D Printed Nuclear Powered Motor – TriNano EZ-Spin – Tritium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B5JPuEUCyc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Clunke Button
Assistive input device for interacting with adapted toys and tools.
https://hackaday.io/project/13288-clunke-button
This is a low cost, printable AT button. It interfaces with any standard 3.5mm mono jack system, commonly found in support situations for people living with physical disabilities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adaptive Guitar
https://hackaday.io/project/26088-adaptive-guitar
An electro-mechanical system designed to allow a disabled musician to play the guitar with one hand (and a foot).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Breathing Assistance Apparatus
Assists a human with breathing malfunction to improve breathing day or night.
https://hackaday.io/project/26826-breathing-assistance-apparatus
Commercial alternatives retail from $1000 to $4000 depending on the software features necessary to help the user. Because of the huge costs of commercial treatment many people do not seek to treat themselves and thus deal with the significant physical and cognitive symptoms. This project will give those people another option.
GPLv2 hardware designs & software. All text/imagery on this project page are GPLv2. The license is in the GitHub repository linked.
3D printable radial centrifugal compressor and BLDC motor. Motor must be wound. Plans will be breadboard based. Arduino controlled.
Goals:
* Energy efficient, 12v power supply for ease of off grid usage.
* Low noise.
* Low cost, aiming for < $100 materials.
This project will not include a humidifier, tubing, a respiratory mask, nor will it scrub excess water from the lungs. However these features and others may be looked into in the future.
There are a variety of breathing function afflictions a person may experience that are relieved with a radial centrifugal compressor, such as:
Lung cell oxygen adsorption deficiency [3]. Deficient oxygen is bad. Treatable with higher than atmospheric pressure "constant pressure".
Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome.
Obstructive sleep apnea. In a deeper state of sleep, muscles relax, and obstructions could occur. Treatable with "auto adjusting pressure". The pressure adjusts into appropriate rhythms until the obstructions stop.
Central sleep apnea. This is Ondine's Curse. In a deeper state of sleep, the body "forgets" to breathe.
Ondine's Curse during the day!
Pleural effusion. "Fluid on the lungs".
Note a person may be afflicted by two or more of the above things. In both forms of sleep apnea, the body notices low oxygen when deeper sleep is entered. First the heart rate will rapidly accelerate from say 50bpm to 100bpm in an attempt to fix the problem- which cannot fix this problem. The body then rises out of the deeper state of sleep in order to breathe again, and the heart rate returns to normal. The body then enters a deeper state of sleep and the cycle repeats again, over and over all night long. Hardly any deep sleep is obtained while exhausting the heart.
Commercial diagnosis and treatment is out of reach for many people in the world. Maybe $1000 for a sleep study. And $4000 for the breathing device. This is very expensive and out of reach not just for the typical person, but especially for someone with a disabling condition who experiences exhaustion all day every day due to their heart running a marathon for hours every night.
Further, the individuals affected are unable to perform non-trivial mental tasks either, as they experience brain fog and cognitive decline.
How this project will alleviate or solve this problem
By publishing completely open source designs to a low cost solution, and instructions on how to build it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Metaverse Lab
https://hackaday.io/project/5077-metaverse-lab
Experiments with Decentralized VR/AR Infrastructure, Neural Networks, and 3D Internet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How To Select Just About Any Electronic Part
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/03/how-to-select-just-about-any-electronic-part/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY AA Batteries!
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-AA-Batteries/
Today we’re going to learn how to easily make our own batteries from very inexpensive household materials.
An AA battery is a standard size cylindrical battery commonly used in portable electronic devices. The exact terminal voltage and capacity of an AA size battery depends on the cell chemistry but are usually rated at or near 1.5 volts.
An AA cell measures 49.2–50.5 mm in length, including the terminal and 13.5–14.5 mm in diameter.
AA batteries account for over 50% of general battery sales and the average price of a quality AA battery can range from $0.59 to as much as $1.42 or more.
Think this would be helpful in an emergency? Is this a viable and renewable source of energy? Would this be a good way to teach kids about science?
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Practical Guide to Designing PCB Art
How to Turn Custom Artwork into Fun and Functional Electronic Circuit Boards!
https://medium.com/@urish/a-practical-guide-to-designing-pcb-art-b5aa22926a5c
Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are literally all around us: nearly every consumer electronic good contains a PCB, and more and more we see people designing their own to use in their DIY electronics projects — I’ve certainly designed a few myself for all kinds of funky projects!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Impressive Drawing Machine For One Made So Simply
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/04/impressive-drawing-machine-for-one-made-so-simply/
Not all of us have CNC machines, laser cutters and 3D printers, and I’ll bet most of us didn’t start out that well equipped. The low-cost drawing machine that [jegatheesan] made for his daughter reminds us that you can prototype, and then make a functioning mechanical Da Vinci with very basic materials and mostly hand tools. He also wrote his own drawing software, with an interface that has its own simplicity.
There really are a lot of things to like about [jegatheesan]’s project. He first works out the math himself by doing something the likes of which we’ve all enjoyed, digging out the old school trigonometry and algebra books for a refresher.
https://hackaday.io/project/26872-cute-drawing-robot-servo-and-android
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tough Pi-ano can Take a Punch
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/04/tough-pi-ano-can-take-a-punch/
There will be no delicate solos for [24 Hour Engineer’s] Tough Pi-ano. It was built to soak punishment from aggressive youngsters in musical therapy, specifically those on the autism spectrum and those with Down’s syndrome. The Tough Pi-ano will be bolted to a wall with heavy-duty shelf brackets so it can’t fall on anyone. The keyboard is covered in plastic and it doesn’t have any exposed metal so there will be no splinters.
[24 Hour Engineer] made a short video demonstration and if you listen closely, he has a pun in all but one sentence. We love that kind of easter egg in YouTube videos. Check it out after the break.
Inside the 48-key instrument are four Raspberry Pi Zeros where each Pi controls one octave. The redundancy ensures that a hardware failure only drops out a single octave and the kids can keep playing until replacement parts arrive. Each Pi has identical programming and a thumbwheel switch tells it which octave it will be emulating.
2017-01-31 (Tu) Tough Pi-ano COMPLETED
http://www.24hourengineer.com/2017/02/2017-01-31-tu-tough-pi-ano-completed.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Économique Bionic Leg System
https://hackaday.io/project/26362-smart-conomique-bionic-leg-system
The project emphasizes on providing value for money by using a bionic leg for sprinters embedded with smart monitoring system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Useless backscratcher
https://hackaday.io/project/27158-useless-backscratcher
I want to build my own useless machine, but with an articulated finger which snakes out to switch itself off. I’ll start with a backscratcher
Tomi Engdahl says:
bracelet for the blind
https://hackaday.io/project/25764-bracelet-for-the-blind
The solution is leveraging from the available stuff, affordable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Vibhear
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/05/hackaday-prize-entry-vibhear/
Hearing impairment, either partial or total, is a serious problem afflicting a large number of people. Almost 5% of the global population has some form of hearing disorder. For those affected by this disability from birth, it further impacts the development of language and speech abilities.
[Srdjan] then started work on building the Vibhear – an assistive hearing device to be used when the main hearing aid is removed or not working. It is a low-cost arm-band that provides a vibratory signal in response to high ambient noises.
Vibhear
https://hackaday.io/project/26277-vibhear
Vibhear, as assistive hearing device, ensures safeness for people with hearing loss, when hearing aid is not used or is not working.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Hackaday: How Small is Your Shop?
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/06/ask-hackaday-how-small-is-your-shop/
Electronics, metalwork, carpentry, sewing — however you express your inner hacker, you’ve got to have a place to work. Most of us start out small, assembling projects on the kitchen table, or sharing space on a computer desk. But eventually, if we’re lucky, we all move on to some kind of dedicated space. My first “shop” was a corner of the basement my Dad used for his carpentry projects. He built me what seemed at the time like a huge bench but was probably only about five feet long. Small was fine with me, though, and on that bench I plotted and planned and drew schematics and had my first real lesson in why you don’t reach for a soldering iron without looking first. My thumb still bears that scar as a reminder.
Now it’s your turn. How small a shop do you have? Does a small shop limit you in any way? Do you think it makes you a better craftsman? Is your small shop just a temporary space on the way to bigger and better thing?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bringing Back the iPhone7 Headphone Jack
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/07/bringing-back-the-iphone7-headphone-jack/
Plenty of people bemoaned Apple’s choice to drop the 1/8″ headphone jack from the iPhone 7. [Scotty Allen] wasn’t happy about it either, but he decided to do something about it: he designed a custom flex circuit and brought the jack back. If you don’t recognize [Scotty], he’s the same guy who built an iPhone 6 from parts obtained in Shenzhen markets. Those same markets were now used to design, and prototype an entirely new circuit.
The iPhone 7 features a barometric vent, which sits exactly where the headphone jack lived in the iPhone 6.
Making everything fit wasn’t easy. Two iPhone screens perished in the process. But ultimately, [Scotty] was successful. He’s open sourced his design so the world can build and improve on it.
Bringing Back the iPhone Headphone Jack – in China
http://strangeparts.com/bringing-back-the-iphone-headphone-jack-in-china/
Flexible circuit board design for adding a headphone jack to an iPhone 7 http://strangeparts.com
https://github.com/strangeparts/niubi-headphones
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Hackaday: How Small is Your Shop?
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/06/ask-hackaday-how-small-is-your-shop/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Non-standard Circuits: Jazz For Electrons
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/05/non-standard-circuits-jazz-for-electrons/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How many MIT grads does it take to hook up a light bulb?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/powersource/4458777/How-many-MIT-grads-does-it-take-to-hook-up-a-light-bulb-
Home> Community > Blogs > PowerSource
How many MIT grads does it take to hook up a light bulb?
Paul Rako -August 30, 2017
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My friend Rob sent out a funny video showing how MIT grads can’t hook up a flashlight:
I like stuff like this since so many of my pals went to MIT, including Professors Lee and Lundberg, not to mention half of the folks at Analog Devices. My mentor Bob Pease also went to MIT. Rob noted that our first instinct when faced with a problem should be to get more information. He pointed out, “I had a couple of questions I would have returned with. What is the battery voltage and current sourcing capability? What are the operational characteristics of the bulb, including voltage and current? The “a wire” thing had me concerned as well. Why not two wires? But seriously, MIT grads can’t work this out?”
Audio guru Stephen Williams wrote back, “To give an honest opinion I need more info on why the video was made. Seems like it was made to ‘prove’ a presupposed point. That is, its propaganda. Yes, an engineering graduate should have some rudimentary grasp of 3rd-grade science.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A 3D-Printed Coffee Grinder
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/07/a-3d-printed-coffee-grinder/
If your coffee enthusiasm extends to grinding your own direct from the bean, then [Christian Pederkoff]’s project should hit the mark, he’s created a rather neat 3D-printed coffee grinder. Sadly the creation of a steel burr and ring was beyond his 3D-printing capabilities so those parts come from a commercial grinder, but the housing, shaft coupler and hopper are all from his printer.
http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printed-Coffee-Grinder/
Tomi Engdahl says:
I’ve Seen the Future and It’s Full of Freakin’ Huge Bricks
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/08/ive-seen-the-future-and-its-full-of-freakin-huge-bricks/
“Did you know you can 3D-print LEGO bricks that can actually be used as regular LEGO?”–me, in 2009
Those magical words made real to me the wonder that was 3D printing. It was a magical time! Everyone was 3D printing everything, though most of it wasn’t very good because the technology wasn’t there. But just as every technology goes through an evolution, the goalposts of coolness move on past what used to be remarkable to the new thing everyone’s talking about.
In 2009, LEGO started appearing on Thingiverse. wizard23’s Parametrized Lego Brick is a good example.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Touch Sensitive Power Supplies For EL Panels
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/08/hackaday-prize-entry-touch-sensitive-power-supplies-for-el-panels/
[fool]’s entry in the Hackaday Prize competition is a modular and configurable lighting system the purpose of which is to assist seniors and others with limited mobility navigate safely at home. For [fool], this means the quiet steady hum of electroluminescent panels and wire. EL stuff is notoriously tricky to power, as it only operates on AC. The MoonLITE project is the answer to the problem of an easy to use EL power supply. The goal is to create a 5 watt, quiet, wearable EL power supply that outputs 100V at 100Hz.
MoonLITE
https://hackaday.io/project/26271-moonlite
Interactive lighting elements for the mobility impaired. Designing a power supply for architectural scale interactive EL installations
Tomi Engdahl says:
Things Learned From Hot Wire Cutting a Droid’s Body
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/09/things-learned-from-hot-wire-cutting-a-droids-body/
One of [Bithead]’s passions is making Star Wars droids, and in the process of building the outer shell for one of them he decided to use hot wire foam cutting and make his own tools. Having the necessary parts on hand and having seen some YouTube videos demonstrating the technique, [Bithead] dove right in. Things didn’t go exactly to plan but happily he decided to share what did and didn’t work, and in the end the results were serviceable.
[Bithead] built two hot wire cutters with nichrome wire. The first was small, but the second was larger and incorporated some design refinements.
When it came to use his self-made tools, one of the biggest discoveries was that not all foam is equal in the eyes of a hot wire cutter.
https://bithead942.wordpress.com/2017/02/09/hot-wire-foam-cutting/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Epaper Display Badge
https://hackaday.io/project/25326-epaper-display-badge
A mini EPD badge with bluetooth LE and SD card for standalone display
Tomi Engdahl says:
InspectorBot
https://hackaday.io/project/25581-inspectorbot
An open source robot to inspect under vehicles, crawl spaces and any other dark dirty space you need to take a look at.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: IO, the Cardboard Computer
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/10/hackaday-prize-entry-io-the-cardboard-computer/
[Dr. Cockroach]’s goal was to build a four-bit computer out of recycled and repurposed junk. The resulting computer, called IO, consists of a single 555, around 230 PNP and NPN transistors, 230 diodes, and 460 resistors. It employs RISC architecture and operates at a speed of around 3 Hz.
The Cardboard Computer – IO is my name
https://hackaday.io/project/19048-the-cardboard-computer-io-is-my-name
My goal is a 4-bit CPU using recycled cardboard substrate and Diode Transistor Logic. This will develop into an educational platform for me.
Tomi Engdahl says:
These Twenty Assistive Technologies Projects Won $1000 In The Hackaday Prize
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/11/these-twenty-assistive-technologies-projects-won-1000-in-the-hackaday-prize/
Today, we’re excited to announce the winners of the Assistive Technologies portion of The Hackaday Prize. In this round, we’re looking for projects that will help ensure a better quality of life for the disabled. Whether this is something that enhances learning, working, or daily living. These are the projects that turn ‘disability’ into ‘this ability’.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Source High Power EV Motor Controller
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/11/open-source-high-power-ev-motor-controller/
For anyone with interest in electric vehicles, especially drives and control systems for EV’s, the Endless-Sphere forum is the place to frequent. It’s full of some amazing projects covering electric skateboards to cars and everything in between. [Marcos Chaparro] recently posted details of his controller project — the VESC-controller, an open source controller capable of driving motors up to 200 hp.
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=89056
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pedal-Pi, simple programmable guitar pedal
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/12/pedal-pi-simple-programmable-guitar-pedal/
t Pedal-Pi — a simple programmable guitar pedal based around the Raspberry-Pi Zero. It is aimed at hackers, programmers and musicians who want to experiment with sounds and learn about digital audio. A lot of effort has gone in to documenting the whole project. Circuit analysis, a detailed BoM, programming, assembly and background information on related topics are all covered on their Forum.
Pedal PI – Raspberry Pi ZERO Guitar Pedal.
https://www.electrosmash.com/pedal-pi
Pedal-Pi is a lo-fi programmable guitar pedal that works with the Raspberry Pi ZERO Board. The project is totally Open Source & Open Hardware and made for hackers, programmers and musicians that want to experiment with sounds and learn about digital audio.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Relay Computer: You Can Hear It Think
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/11/relay-computer-you-can-hear-it-think/
Modern digital computers have complex instruction sets that runs on state-of-the-art ALUs which in turn are a consequence of miniaturized logic gates that are built with tiny transistors. These tiny transistors are essentially switches. You could imagine replacing with electromagnetic relays, and get what is called a relay computer. If you can imagine it, someone’s done it. In this case, [jhallenworld].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1hJoalcK68
Tomi Engdahl says:
I’ve Seen the Future and It’s Full of Freakin’ Huge Bricks
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/08/ive-seen-the-future-and-its-full-of-freakin-huge-bricks/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Room-Tracking Red Vines Flinger
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/13/hackaday-prize-entry-room-tracking-red-vines-flinger/
[Vije Miller]’s Arduino Licorice Launcher is based on the simple and logical premise that one must always have a voice-activated Red Vines catapult in the workshop. When he calls out to the robot, it turns to aim at him and flings a piece of licorice at his head.
Arduino Licorice Launcher
https://hackaday.io/project/12893-arduino-licorice-launcher
Voice Activated, Room Tracking, Catapult Launching, Magazine Reloading, Arduino Licorice Launcher
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Massive Adjustable Standing Desk From Scratch
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/13/a-massive-adjustable-standing-desk-from-scratch/
Standing at your desk all day is healthier by far than sitting, but the commercial options tend to be expensive. [drivenbyentropy] had to contend with a heater right where the desk would go, but building an adjustable office desk to accommodate it turned out — well — gorgeous.
Two 18″ heavy duty 12 V DC actuators raise and lower the desk with a 600 lbs static load capacity and 200 lbs of lifting load each.