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.
6,826 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Open Bike Shoe
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/02/hackaday-prize-entry-open-bike-shoe/
Shoes are some of the most complex pieces of equipment you can buy. There’s multiple materials ranging from foam to weird polyesters in a simple sneaker, and if you dig into shoes for biking, you’ll find some carbon fiber. All these layers are glued together, stitched, and assembled into a functional piece of exercise equipment, with multiple SKUs for each size. It’s really amazing.
Accordingly, [marcs] created N+ Open Bike Shoe Platform, the purpose of which is to create open source, customizable, and repairable shoe platform based on 3D printing, though with other techniques like rubber molding and sewing fabric uppers are included as well.
N+ Open Bike Shoe Platform
Additive-enabled, modular bike shoes made with a 3D printer and a sewing machine.
https://hackaday.io/project/27769-n-open-bike-shoe-platform
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dale Dougherty, Founder & CEO, Maker Media
http://scnavigator.avnet.com/article/october-2017/dale-dougherty-father-of-the-maker-movement/
“There are still those that dismiss the community as just a bunch of tinkerers or hobbyists, etc. and my response to them is yes, they are that, but they can also be so much more.”
“It’s a very different world when you are driven by a love of technology and problem solving, as opposed to simply being in it for the money.”
“How do we define a career path that is driven by an individual’s ability to create value, as opposed to simply holding degree from a four-year college? This is a conversation I would love to have with executives.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mendocino Motor Drives Cubicle Conversations
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/05/mendocino-motor-drives-cubicle-conversations/
Mendocino motors are solar-powered electric motors that rely on pseudo-levitation. The levitation comes from magnets mounted on either end of the shaft, which repel same-field magnets fixed below them into the base. When light shines on the solar panels, current flows through connected magnet wire windings, creating an electromagnetic field that interacts with a large stationary magnet mounted underneath. These constantly repelling forces spin the shaft, and the gaps between the solar panels provide the on-off cycle needed to make it spin 360°.
Solar Mendocino Motor
http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Mendocino-Motor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Microfluidics Control System
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/03/hackaday-prize-entry-microfluidics-control-system/
Microfluidics is the fine art of moving tiny amounts of liquid around and is increasingly used in fields such as biology and chemistry. By miniaturizing experiments, it’s possible to run many experiments in parallel and have tighter control over experimental conditions. Unfortunately, the hardware to run these microfluidic experiments is expensive.
[Craig]’s 2017 Hackaday Prize entry involves creating a microfluidics control system for use by researchers and students. This device allows for miniaturized experiments to be run.
[Craig]’s rig consists of an ESP32, a 40-channel IO expander, 3 pressure regulators tuned to different pressures, and around 2 dozen solenoid valves mounted to manifolds.
Microfluidics control system
An all-in-one solution for controlling microfluidic chips
https://hackaday.io/project/27511-microfluidics-control-system
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meccano Piston Pump Made With a Syringe
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/03/meccano-piston-pump-made-with-a-syringe/
[Mohamed Sami] built a syringe pump out of Meccano building set parts. It consists of a simple framework with a DC motor mounted on it that actuates the syringe when powered. A check valve harvested from an ordinary household spray bottle keeps the syringe from sucking back liquid that it has just pumped out, so it can keep pumping forever. A lead-acid battery powers the whole thing.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Syringe-Piston-Pump/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Heat-Set Insert Jig Grants Threads to 3D Prints
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/07/heat-set-insert-jig-grants-threads-to-3d-prints/
FDM 3D prints might be coming home this holiday as seasonal ornaments, but with a few tweaks, they may even stand up to the tests of the real world as functional prototypes. Heat-Set inserts are one such tweak that we can drop into a print, and [Kurt] spares no expense at laying down a guide to get us comfortable with these parts. Here, he’s created a drill press adapter and modified his soldering iron to form an insert jig to start melting these parts into his next project.
Heat-set inserts grant us proper screw threads in any thermoplastic. Simply heat them up, stake them into your part, let cool, and: voila–a screw thread that’s firmly embedded into our part.
Soldering Iron Drill Press Adaptor
https://retrotechjournal.com/2016/06/21/soldering-iron-drill-press-adaptor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless Arduino-powered Vibrator
https://hackaday.io/project/11445-wireless-arduino-powered-vibrator
Building your own silicone molded vibrator. Use a 3d printer for printing the form. Drive the vibration motor with a Arduino board.
Building your own silicone molded vibrator becomes now easier. We already have presented 3d printed forms for building your personal vibrator
The vibrator uses the body interaction vibrator development board. The body interaction board has a Arduino compatible microcontroller, vibration strength control by motion, a vibration motor and a rechargeable battery. Another option is the Dilduino board with 3 motor drivers but without accelerometer and battery charging.
What is new? The electronics including battery are in the base of the vibrator.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Source Motor Controller Makes Smooth Moves with Anti-Cogging
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/07/open-source-motor-controller-makes-smooth-moves-with-anti-cogging/
Almost two years ago, a research team showed that it was possible to get fine motor control from cheap, brushless DC motors. Normally this is not feasible because the motors are built-in such a way that the torque applied is not uniform for every position of the motor, a phenomenon known as “cogging”. This is fine for something that doesn’t need low-speed control like a fan motor, but for robotics it’s a little more important. Since that team published their results, though, we are starting to see others implement their own low-speed brushless motor controllers.
The new method of implementing anti-cogging maps out the holding torque required for any position of the motor’s shaft so this information can be used later on. Of course this requires a fair amount of calibration; [madcowswe] reports that this method requires around 5-10 minutes of calibration.
Anti-cogging Feature
https://discourse.odriverobotics.com/t/anti-cogging-feature/293
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low Cost Accurate 3D Positioning
https://hackaday.io/project/27457-low-cost-accurate-3d-positioning
A ridiculously low cost sensor for real-time tracking of precise coordinates of the tip of a stylus, in confined 3D space.
The basic idea behind this 3D sensor is the use of a parallelopiped water container as a water potentiometer device. This principle is employed to develop a ridiculously low cost sensor for real-time tracking of the precise coordinates of the tip of a stylus, in confined 3D space (within the dimensions of a container).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cardware
An educational system designed to bring AI and complex
robotics into the home and school on a budget.
https://hackaday.io/project/19920-cardware
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robotic Arm Rivals Industrial Counterparts
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/08/robotic-arm-rivals-industrial-counterparts/
We’ve seen industrial robotic arms in real life. We’ve seen them in classrooms and factories. Before today, we’ve never mistaken a homemade robotic arm for one of the price-of-a-new-home robotic arms. Today, [Chris Annin] made us look twice when we watched the video of his six-axis robotic arm. Most of the DIY arms have a personal flare from their creator so we have to assume [Chris Annin] is either a robot himself or he intended to build a very clean-looking arm when he started.
6 axis stepper motor robot and control software – Gen2
https://github.com/Chris-Annin/AR2
Tomi Engdahl says:
Key-tar Lets You Jam at the Hackerspace
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/08/key-tar-lets-you-jam-at-the-hackerspace/
We’ve seen our share of stepper motors making music, but [Tanner Tech’s] key-tar takes it to a whole new level. Incorporating an acoustic drum to accentuate the stepper motor sounds and a preamp to feed a guitar amplifier, the key-tar is a fully playable instrument.
Moving the stepper via an Arduino at different speeds creates different notes. The user interface is an old PC keyboard. Apparently, [Tanner] recycled most of the parts in his model. The stepper came from an old printer and the keyboard was a dumpster rescue.
Stepper Motor Key-tar: a New Kind of Instrument
http://www.instructables.com/id/Stepper-Motor-Key-tar-a-New-Kind-of-Instrument/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Star Wars Speeder’s Finishing Touch: Mirrors
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/08/the-star-wars-speeders-finishing-touch-mirrors/
[Super 73] make electric scooters, and they made some Star Wars Speeder Bikes with a twist for Halloween; adding some mirrored panels around the bottoms of the bikes made for a decent visual effect that requires no upkeep or fancy workings. Having amazed everyone with the bikes, they followed them up with a video of the build process.
Halloween Levitating Star Wars Speeder Costume
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikXP1NT_eZA
Tomi Engdahl says:
Review: JYE Tech DSO150 Oscilloscope Kit
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/09/review-jye-tech-dso150-oscilloscope-kit/
If you look at most stockists of electronic kits these days, you are likely to find an oscilloscope kit in their range. These are volume produced in China, and the same design trends appear across different models. You can buy surface mount or through-hole, and most of them feature a bare board with maybe a piece of laser-cut Perspex standing in for a case. There are one or two models appearing that come with a case though, and it was one of these that we ordered. The JYE Tech DSO150 is a single-channel ‘scope with a 2.4″ 320×240 pixel colour LCD screen and a 200kHz bandwidth. Its specification is typical of the crop of similar kits, though its smart case sets it apart and made it an easy choice.
Connecting the signal generator to our DSO150 allowed the exploration of its bandwidth. The claimed 200kHz is pretty spot-on
So then, the JYE Tech DSO150 oscilloscope kit. A nice little ‘scope within the limitations of the STM32F103C8 microcontroller that drives it. If you can put up with a 200kHz bandwidth and a 50V peak input voltage then it’s a useful pocket instrument. Its calibration will depend on the STM’s crystal and voltage reference, but as with the rest of its specification, when you consider its pocket-money price those become minor considerations. Add in that its software is open-source, and you have a very nice platform indeed.
DSO Shell (DSO150) Oscilloscope DIY Kit
http://www.jyetech.com/Products/LcdScope/e150.php
Tomi Engdahl says:
Grease Gun Hydroforms Custom Motorcycle Parts
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/10/grease-gun-hydroforms-custom-motorcycle-parts/
Never underestimate the power of an incompressible fluid at high pressure. Properly constrained and with a full understanding of the forces involved, hydraulic pressure can be harnessed to do some interesting things in the home shop, like hydroforming stainless steel into custom motorcycle parts.
Hydroform
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A66iw8P5NQ4
Tomi Engdahl says:
These Are The Top Projects In The 2017 Hackaday Prize
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/10/these-are-the-top-projects-in-the-2017-hackaday-prize/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Sandbox for DIY Pinball Design
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/11/a-sandbox-for-diy-pinball-design/
DIY Pinball, the cheap way
A 3/4 sized pinball table running on 12v and cheap ebay bits
https://hackaday.io/project/27816-diy-pinball-the-cheap-way
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Source Underwater Glider Wins 2017 Hackaday Prize
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/11/open-source-underwater-glider-wins-2017-hackaday-prize/
The Open Source Underwater Glider has just been named the Grand Prize winner of the 2017 Hackaday Prize. As the top winner of the Hackaday Prize, the Open Source Underwater Glider will receive $50,000 USD completes the awarding of more than $250,000 in cash prizes during the last eight months of the Hackaday Prize.
Open source underwater glider
A versatile autonomous environmental drone using a buoyancy engine
https://hackaday.io/project/20458-open-source-underwater-glider
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fluid Simulations in the Kitchen Sink
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/11/fluid-simulations-in-the-kitchen-sink/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rewire Your Own Brushless Motors
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/15/rewire-your-own-brushless-motors/
Hackaday likes the idea of fine-tuning existing hardware rather than buying new stuff. [fishpepper] wrote up a tutorial on rewinding brushless motors, using the Racerstar BR1103B as the example. The BR1103B comes in 8000 Kv and 10000 Kv sizes, but [fishpepper] wanted to rewind the stock motor and make 6500 Kv and 4500 Kv varieties — or as close to it as he could get.
Tutorial: Brushless motor rewinding based on a BR1103B
http://fishpepper.de/2017/11/10/tutorial-brushless-motor-rewinding-based-on-a-br1103b/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Surprise Your Loved One with a Heart Keychain
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/15/surprise-your-loved-one-with-a-heart-keychain/
Sometimes the simplest projects can be the most impressive. Most of the time our simple projects are not as neat and elegant as our more time consuming ones. Sometimes they don’t even leave the breadboard! When [Sasa Karanovic] first envisioned his key-chain idea, he knew it would be simple. But he made up for the lack of sophistication with style.
The heart-shaped key-chain has one goal – to flash a pair of red LEDs when a capacitive button is touched. He was able to accomplish this with a PIC12LF1822 and a handful of supporting components.
Posted on 4. November 2017. by Sasa Karanovic
Make your own Heart Keychain
http://sasakaranovic.com/projects/diy-heart-keychain/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Super Low Tech Mario
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/16/super-low-tech-mario/
Browsing around the depths of the Internet we came across a super low tech version of Super Mario from [Sata Productions]. The video presents a complete tutorial on how to make a playable, cardboard version of the famous Super Mario game. If you are a fan, you probably going to like this.
You basically need cardboard, a hot glue gun, a ball bearing, a couple of DC motors, some iron BBs, some magnets, batteries, some wires… it sounds just like shopping list for a MacGuyver episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6gXzqvnc_s
Tomi Engdahl says:
K.I.T.T. – KNIGHT RIDER badge/brooch
whowhow. whowhow. – formally known as purple rider
https://hackaday.io/project/25944-kitt-knight-rider-badgebrooch
just some svg to dxf to board stuff and purple leds and purple boards
Tomi Engdahl says:
Barb Makes Things
Custom DIY projects in high speed, every Tuesday.
https://hackaday.io/project/8882-barb-makes-things
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prototyping, Making A Board For, And Coding An ARM Neural Net Robot
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/21/prototyping-making-a-board-for-and-coding-an-arm-neural-net-robot/
[Sean Hodgins]’s calls his three-part video series an Arduino Neural Network Robot but we’d rather call it an enjoyable series on prototyping, designing a board with surface mount parts, assembling it, and oh yeah, putting a neural network on it, all the while offering plenty of useful tips.
In part one, prototype and design, he starts us out with a prototype using a breadboard. The final robot isn’t on an Arduino, but instead is on a custom-made board built around an ARM Cortex-M0+ processor. However, for the prototype, he uses a SparkFun SAM21 Arduino-sized board, a Pololu DRV8835 dual motor driver board, four photoresistors, two motors, a battery, and sundry other parts.
Arduino Neural Network Robot
An Arduino based robot that avoids light by navigating using a neural network. Project for Make.
https://hackaday.io/project/27938-arduino-neural-network-robot
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Interview with Alex Williams, Grand Prize Winner
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/20/an-interview-with-alex-williams-grand-prize-winner/
Alex Williams pulled off an incredible engineering project. He developed an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) which uses a buoyancy engine rather than propellers as its propulsion mechanism and made the entire project Open Source and Open Hardware.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cardware
https://hackaday.io/project/19920-cardware
An educational system designed to bring AI and complex
robotics into the home and school on a budget.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fully automatic low cost PCB milling machine
A PCB milling machine with automatic toolchanger that doesn’t cost €10k
https://hackaday.io/project/28310-fully-automatic-low-cost-pcb-milling-machine
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anouk Wipprecht: Robotic Dresses and Human Interfaces
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/21/anouk-wipprecht-robotic-dresses-and-human-interfaces/
Anouk Wipprecht‘s hackerly interests are hard to summarize, so bear with us. She works primarily on technological dresses, making fashion with themes inspired by nature, but making it interactive. If that sounds a little bit vague, consider that she’s made over 40 pieces of clothing, from a spider dress that attacks when someone enters your personal space too quickly to a suit with plasma balls that lets her get hit by Arc Attack’s giant musical Tesla coils in style. She gave an inspiring talk at the 2017 Hackaday Superconference
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reanimating Boney the Robot Dog
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/21/reanimating-boney-the-robot-dog/
[Divconstructors] cashed in after Halloween and picked up a skeleton dog prop from the Home Depot, for the simple and logical purpose of turning it into a robot.
Boney the Skeleton Robot Dog
Will control with Arduino Mega and Program using Visuino
https://hackaday.io/project/28190-boney-the-skeleton-robot-dog
Tomi Engdahl says:
Roll Your Own Rotary Tool
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/22/roll-your-own-rotary-tool/
[DIY King 00] built himself a cordless rotary tool for less than $10 out of commonly-available parts. It doesn’t run nearly as fast as commercial rotary tools, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. He made the body out of 2″ diameter PVC and mounted a 12 V, 400 RPM DC motor directly to one of the fiberglass end caps. Tools are chucked into a collet that screws into a coupler on the motor shaft.
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Dremel-Tool/
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Tomi Engdahl says:
High Resolution Absolute Encoder – Arduino & Pi
https://hackaday.io/project/19463-high-resolution-absolute-encoder-arduino-pi
Bourns ACE-128 Absolute Contacting Encoder – 128 positions – with I2C interface – Arduino & Raspberry Pi libraries
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Chemistry and Engineering of DIY Photochromic Glass
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/28/the-chemistry-and-engineering-of-diy-photochromic-glass/
[Ben Krasnow] is no stranger to exploring the more arcane corners of hackerdom, and the latest video on his “Applied Science” channel goes into a field few DIYers have touched: homemade glass, including the photochromic variety.
Without a doubt, [Ben] crossed over into “mad scientist” territory a while back, and we think it’s great. What other way is there to describe a guy who has an electron microscope, a high-power ruby laser, a CT scanner, and a cookie making robot in his basement? Whatever you call it, we like the results.
Glass engineering – designing and making photochromic glass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUcUy7SqdS0
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/29/coin-cell-challenge-use-coin-cell-win-prizes/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making A Motorized Turntable Portable
https://hackaday.com/2017/12/05/making-a-motorized-turntable-portable/
[Robin Reiter] needed a better way to show off his work. He previously converted an electric TV stand into a full 360-degree display turntable, but it relied on an external power supply to get it spinning. It was time to give it an upgrade.
Putting his spacial organization skills to work, [Reiter] has crammed a mini OLED display, rotary encoder, a LiPo 18650 battery and charging circuit, a pair of buck converters, a power switch, and an Arduino pro mini into the small control console.
DIY Battery Powered Display Turntable feat. Arduino and Fusion360
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or4wcMsPPiA
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Futuristic Plant To Inspire Bright Ideas
https://hackaday.com/2017/12/04/a-futuristic-plant-to-inspire-bright-ideas/
A good video game prop can really spruce up the decor — doubly so if it’s a glowing, futuristic potted plant transplanted(sorry!) straight from Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Making glowing plants from DeusEx Human Revolution (DIY)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyStNKpD0CA
Tomi Engdahl says:
Woman Gets Diabetes, Builds Own Pancreas
https://hackaday.com/2017/12/06/woman-gets-diabetes-builds-own-pancreas/
For the most part, when we break out the soldering iron to make a project for ourselves – we do so for fun. Sometimes we do so for necessity. Rarely do we, however, do so to save our own lives. [Dana Lewis] is one of the 30 million people in the US who suffer from diabetes. It’s a condition where the pancreas fails to make insulin, resulting in a buildup of sugar in the bloodstream. Managing the levels of insulin and sugar in their bodies is a day-to-day struggle for the millions of diabetics in the world. It’s a great deal more for [Dana], however. She sleeps with machines that monitor the glucose levels in her blood, but lives with constant worry.
What she needed was the glucose data from the device and use it to trigger a louder alarm. It wasn’t long until she found someone who had done just this. Using a Raspberry Pi, she was able to capture the data and then alarm her via her phone. She then setup a web interface so others could see her data and call her if she didn’t wake.
The next step is obvious. Why not make the state of the insulin pump a function of the data? And thus, a sort of artificial pancreas.
The project is open source for anyone to use and improve upon.
Principles of an Open Artificial Pancreas System (OpenAPS)
https://openaps.org/reference-design/
Tomi Engdahl says:
My Kingdom for a Capacitor
https://hackaday.com/2017/12/07/my-kingdom-for-a-capacitor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Junkyard RC Conversion Looks Like Mad Max Extra
https://hackaday.com/2017/12/07/junkyard-rc-conversion-looks-like-mad-max-extra/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Danielle Applestone: Building the Workforce of 2030
https://hackaday.com/2017/12/08/danielle-applestone-building-the-workforce-of-2030/
You wake up one morning with The Idea — the one new thing that the world can’t do without. You slave away at it night and day, locked in a garage expending the perspiration that Edison said was 99 percent of your job. You Kickstart, you succeed, you get your prototypes out the door. Orders for the new thing pour in, you get a permanent space in some old factory, and build assembly workstations. You order mountains of parts and arrange them on shiny chrome racks, and you’re ready to go — except for one thing. There’s nobody sitting at those nice new workstations, ready to assemble your product. What’s worse, all your attempts to find qualified people have led nowhere, and you can’t even find someone who knows which end of a soldering iron to hold.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coin cell battery powered spot welder
Wait overnight and do your welding job!
https://hackaday.io/project/28462-coin-cell-battery-powered-spot-welder
This is my entry to Coin-cell challenge contest; goal of this project is making small spot welder to weld metal terminals of 18650 Li-Ion batteries, powered by CR2032 or similar cells.
In the meantime, try to guess how many welds can be done using power from single ubiquitous CR2032 battery.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coin Cell Challenge: Jump Starting a Car
https://hackaday.com/2017/12/08/coin-cell-challenge-jump-starting-a-car/
Clearly a believer in the old adage, “Go Big or Go Home”, [Ted Yapo] has decided to do something that seems impossible at first glance: starting his car with a CR2477 battery. He’s done the math and it looks promising, though it’s yet to be seen if the real world will be as accommodating. At the very least, [Ted] found a video by [ElectroBOOM] claiming to have started a car with a super capacitor, so it isn’t completely without precedent.
Coin Cell Jump Starter
Starting a car with a CR2477 coin cell
https://hackaday.io/project/28432-coin-cell-jump-starter
Tomi Engdahl says:
MakeFashion Unveils StitchKit
An Interview with Co-Founder Chelsea Klukas.
https://blog.hackster.io/makefashion-unveils-stitchkit-97a02585ba15
Tomi Engdahl says:
State of the Maker Movement in Germany
https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1332753
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making Solar Cells
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/04/making-solar-cells/
We will admit that it is unlikely you have enough gear in your basement to make a solar cell using these steps. However, it is interesting to see how a bare silicon wafer becomes a solar cell. If you’ve seen ICs going through fabrication, you’ll see a lot of similarities, but there are some differences.
The process calls for a silicon wafer, some ovens, spin coaters, photolithography equipment, and a dice saw, among other things. Oh, you probably also need a clean room. Maybe you should just buy your solar cells off the shelf, but it is still interesting to see how they are made.
Modern solar cells have some extra structures to improve their efficiency, but the cells in this video are pretty garden-variety.
http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/echem/echem2.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hack Your Own Computer Science Degree
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/04/hack-your-own-computer-science-degree/
We ran across something interesting on GitHub of all places. The “Open Source Society University” has a list of resources to use if you want to teach yourself computer science for free. We found it interesting because there are so many resources available it can be hard to pick and choose. Of course, you can always pick a track from one school, but it was interesting to see what [Eric Douglas] and contributors thought would be a good foundation.
Path to a free self-taught education in Computer Science!
https://github.com/ossu/computer-science
Tomi Engdahl says:
Win Big Prizes With Repairs You Can Print
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/16/win-big-prizes-with-repairs-you-can-print/
Another month, another contest, and this time we’re looking for the best 3D printed repairs you’ve built.
The Repairs You Can Print Contest on Hackaday.io is a challenge to show off the real reason you bought a 3D printer. We want to see replacement parts, improved functionality, or a tool or jig that made a tough repair a snap. Think of this as the opposite of printing low poly Pokemon or Fallout armor. This is a contest to demonstrate the most utilitarian uses of a 3D printer. Whether you fixed your refrigerator, luggage, jet engine, vacuum cleaner, bike headlight, or anything else, we want to see how you did it!
Repairs You Can Print Contest
https://hackaday.io/contest/32812-repairs-you-can-print-contest
Repair something through 3D printing, win prizes. We’re looking for replacement parts, tools, and custom jigs that get the job done!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coin Cell Hacks That Won the Coin Cell Challenge
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/15/coin-cell-hacks-that-won-the-coin-cell-challenge/
It’s amazing what creative projects show up if you give one simple constraint. In this case, we asked what cool things can be done if powered by one coin cell battery and we had about one hundred answers come back. Today we’re happy to announce the winners of the Coin Cell Challenge.