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.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize 2022: Compact Solar Tracking System Doesn’t Break The Bank
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/28/hackaday-prize-2022-compact-solar-tracking-system-doesnt-break-the-bank/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automate Your Desk With The Upsy Desky
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/28/automate-your-desk-with-the-upsy-desky/
Sitting at a desk, on the other hand, is definitely not something that we’re adapted to do, so it’s important to take some measures to avoid many of the problems that arise for those that sit at a desk or computer most of the day. This build takes it to the extreme, not only implementing a standing desk but also a ton of automation for that desk as well.
This project is an improvement on a prior build by [TJ Horner] called the WiFi Standing Desk Controller. This new version has a catchier name, and uses an ESP32 to run the show. The enclosure is 3D printed and the control board includes USB-C and a hardware UART to interface with the controller.
https://github.com/tjhorner/upsy-desky
This repository contains the source files for the Upsy Desky, a device which lets you connect your standing desk to any home automation system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/29/magic-eye-tubes-go-solid-state-with-this-plug-in-replacement/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/30/maiden-kansas-city-keyboard-meetup-was-a-clacking-good-time/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Controll yer Roomba 600 series with ESP8266
https://hackaday.io/project/183524-controll-yer-roomba-600-series-with-esp8266
Another ESP8266 project. If some hardware has an interface / API to connect to, it’s waiting to be assimilated into the home-hive.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Open Source Autarkic Laptop
https://hackaday.io/project/177716-the-open-source-autarkic-laptop
A Raspberry Pi-like System on a Chip Design project that runs on 5mW
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/30/making-a-pipe-crimper-from-scrap/
Tomi Engdahl says:
So You Want to Get Started with Robotics
Aug. 18, 2022
Open Robotics’ Katherine Scott talks about how to make the plunge into robotics, and discusses the company’s latest Turtlebot 4.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/robotics/video/21247033/electronic-design-so-you-want-to-get-started-with-robotics?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220829121&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
OPEN Power
I didn’t have enough to buy a Lab Bench PSU… So I made one.
https://hackaday.io/project/164913-open-power
Tomi Engdahl says:
Water Level Sensor Does Not Use Water Level Sensor
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/31/water-level-sensor-does-not-use-water-level-sensor/
When interfacing with the real world, there are all kinds of sensors available which will readily communicate with your microcontroller of choice. Moisture, pH, humidity, temperature, location, light, and essentially every other physical phenomenon are readily measured with a matching sensor. But if you don’t have the exact sensor you need, it’s sometimes possible to use one sensor as a proxy for another.
[Brian Wyld] needed a way to monitor the level of a remote body of water but couldn’t use a pressure or surface-level sensor, so he used a sensor typically intended for geolocation instead. This particular unit, an STM-type device with a built-in accelerometer, is attached to a rotating arm with a float at one end. As the arm pivots, the microcontroller reports its position and some software converts the change in position to a water level. It’s also paired with a LoRa radio, allowing it to operate off-grid.
Water level lora sensor
https://hackaday.io/project/186862-water-level-lora-sensor
Detect liquid level using a float to rotate battery powered device with accelerometer to detect inclination, send data using LoRaWAN radio
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/31/hackaday-prize-2022-a-sun-chasing-robot/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/31/mh-z19-like-ndir-co2-sensor-hc8-found-and-explored/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Converting An Old ATV To Electric Drive
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/31/converting-an-old-atv-to-electric-drive/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Solar Cells As Art Form
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/31/solar-cells-as-art-form/
When most of us approach a project, we have a certain problem to solve. 3D printing, microcontrollers, batteries, and all kinds of technologies are usually tools to accomplish some task. This is not necessarily true in the art world, though, where the intrinsic nature of these tools can be explored for their own sake rather than as a means to an end. The latest one that came across our desk is this light-powered sound generator.
The art piece looks a bit like a mobile with rotating arms, holding various small solar cells each connected to a speaker. As the arms pivot, the light falling on the cells changes which drives a specially-designed circuit connected to a speaker. The circuit acts as an oscillator, passing the changing voltage from the cell through various capacitors and transistors to produce changing tones in the speaker.
https://hotchk155.blogspot.com/2022/08/a-solar-power-light-modulated-buzzing.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rolling Sphere Robotic Arm Seems Serpentine
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/rolling-sphere-robotic-arm-seems-serpentine/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is DIY battery Still a good IDEA?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMRVB7-2wNU
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheapest 48 volt LiFePO4 Battery, Pre-Built with BMS, Testing and Review, Gyll from Signature Solar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYJ25izYSGc
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY sonar scanner (practical experiments)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4uxC7ISd-c
DIY Sonar Scanner Ep. 2 (STEM, RMT tricks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evao3XUUAOY
Tomi Engdahl says:
SonicSurface: DIY ultrasonic phased array for levitation, haptics, and directive audio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAEZvYlUnEM
Do you want to build an integrated 256-channels ultrasonic array? It can be used for acoustic levitation, haptic feedback, directional audio and other cool ideas that you have in mind. We show example applications and how to assemble the array.
https://www.instructables.com/SonicSurface-Phased-array-for-Levitation-Mid-air-T/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/04/hackaday-prize-2022-drying-clothes-with-ultrasound/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/04/magnetic-maniac-manages-mangled-memory/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/04/2022-cyberdeck-contest-the-black-beast-will-help-you-survive-a-robot-apocalypse/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/hackaday-prize-2022-a-spring-driven-digital-movie-camera/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/powering-a-cellphone-with-gasoline/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/small-engine-failure-leads-to-impromptu-teardown/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Ease Of Wireless Charging, Without The Wait
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/02/the-ease-of-wireless-charging-without-the-wait/
Historically, there have been a few cases of useful wireless power transmission over great distances, like a team at MIT that was able to light up a 60 W bulb at several meters, and of course Nikola Tesla had grand dreams of drawing energy from the atmosphere. But for most of us wireless power is limited to small, short-range devices like cellphone chargers. While it’s not a lot of work to plug in a phone when it needs a charge, even this small task can be automated.
This build begins with a 3D printed cradle for the smartphone to sit in. When the device detects that the phone has been placed in the cradle, it uses a linear actuator to drive a custom-built charging cable into the phone’s USB port. Similarly, when the phone is lifted from the cradle the cable is automatically removed.
https://old.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/x2ae48/usb_autocharge_phone/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize 2022: A Cooler For Your Footwear
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/02/hackaday-prize-2022-a-cooler-for-your-footwear/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/02/magnetic-gearbox-can-go-fast-but-not-hard/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing A Prosthetic-Compatible Golf Club
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/02/3d-printing-a-prosthetic-compatible-golf-club/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/03/oops-all-analog-sticks/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/03/plotter-churns-out-labels-with-roll-of-tape/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize 2022: Treadmill Becomes Human-Powered Generator
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/03/hackaday-prize-2022-treadmill-becomes-human-powered-generator/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nevermore Is What You Get When Engineers Design Air Filters For 3D Printers
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/03/nevermore-is-what-you-get-when-engineers-design-air-filters-for-3d-printers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Fume Extractor With ATtiny13 Speed Control
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/04/diy-fume-extractor-with-attiny13-speed-control/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A-Wheel
https://hackaday.io/project/186906-a-wheel
Another Satisfying Single
Wheel
Terrifying Hoverboard Conversion
Tomi Engdahl says:
Advanced Hydroponic Garden of Eden – IoT
https://hackaday.io/project/186996-advanced-hydroponic-garden-of-eden-iot
A self-watering and self nutrient feeding tomato hydroponics apparatus with live monitoring and environmental data analytics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Polyformer – Ideal Filament Recycler
https://hackaday.io/project/185304-polyformer-ideal-filament-recycler
The ideal machine for recycling plastic bottles into 3D printer filament. Designed for developing countries and remote communities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Modular Interconnecting Formwork System
https://hackaday.io/project/187149-modular-interconnecting-formwork-system
An open source project to produce tooling for the manufacturing of formwork for the construction industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The UV Budgie – A Fun IoT Alert For UV Solar Rays
https://hackaday.io/project/187077-the-uv-budgie-a-fun-iot-alert-for-uv-solar-rays
Explorations in living for IoT devices that give your family interactive alerts on API data – well in advance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/iron-nitrides-powerful-magnets-without-the-rare-earth-elements/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cutting The Grass With Frickin’ Lasers
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/02/cutting-the-grass-with-frickin-lasers/
We techie types are quite often much more comfortable in front of a keyboard knocking out code, than out in the yard splitting logs for winter, and even the little jobs like cutting the grass are sometimes just too much like hard manual labour for our liking. The obvious solution is a robot mower, but they’re kinda boring, with their low-tech spinning metal blades. What we need is a big frickin’ laser. YouTuber [rctestflight] has been experimenting with using a 40W blue diode laser module to cut the weeds,
Mowing My Lawn with a LASER!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTPHsouuGq4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amitabh Shrivastava’s “Human-Powered Generator” Upcycles Old Exercise Gear Into Power Sources
With up to 25W of sustained power from a treadmill and 100W from a bike, why not power your electronics with personal effort?
https://www.hackster.io/news/amitabh-shrivastava-s-human-powered-generator-upcycles-old-exercise-gear-into-power-sources-28f8c2448d0c
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Coolest 1990s Film Scanner To Work With Windows 11
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/06/the-coolest-1990s-film-scanner-to-work-with-windows-11/
Unless you happen to be a retro enthusiast, it’s fair to say that any photography you do (whether on your phone or a dedicated camera) is going to be digital. The world of photography has all but completely moved away from film, but the transition was not instantaneous. Instead there was a period of about ten years from the mid-90s when film and digital existed side-by-side in some form. A profitable sideline for photography shops was providing scans of film, and there were a series of high-end scanners aimed at that market.
[Kai Kaufman] shares the experience of making one of these work with a modern Windows version, and it’s interesting both because of the scanner itself and the epic tale of software detective work required to bring it up to date. The scanner in question is a Pakon F135, the product of a Kodak acquisition, and an all-in-one device that simply spools in a roll of film and does all the hard work of identifying the frames, cropping the images, and reading any other data from the film.
The problem in 2022 is that these machines have drivers which only work with relatively ancient 32-bit Windows versions, so most of the write-up involves some significant detective work into the drivers.
Reviving the coolest scanner you’ve never heard of
https://ktkaufman03.github.io/blog/2022/09/04/pakon-reverse-engineering/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electric Surfboard Gets An Overhaul
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/06/electric-surfboard-gets-an-overhaul/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/06/2022-hackaday-prize-save-the-world-wildcard-challenge-begins-now/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/06/hackaday-prize-2022-diy-landslide-warning-system/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize 2022: A Backup Battery Pack
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/05/hackaday-prize-2022-a-backup-battery-pack/
These days, we’re all running around toting smartphones and laptops that could always use a bit more charge. Portable battery packs have become popular, and [Anuradha] has designed one that packs plenty of juice to keep everything humming.
The pack is designed to be charged via solar panels, at 18 V and up to 5 A of current. It’s intended to work with a Maximum Power Point Tracking module to ensure the maximum energy is gained from the sunshine available. For storage, the pack relies on 75 individual 18650 lithium cells, arranged with 3 cells in series, each with 25 in parallel (3s25p). They’re spot welded together for strength and good conductivity. Nominally, the output voltage is on the order of 10-12 V. The included battery management system (BMS) will allow an output current up to 100 A, and the pack can be used with an AC inverter to power regular home appliances.
Backup Battery Pack
https://hackaday.io/project/170192-backup-battery-pack
A Li-ion battery pack which can be charged from an 18V solar panel and can output 230VAC through an Inverter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10mbps over 1km on a single pair of wires
https://hackaday.io/project/179020-10mbps-over-1km-on-a-single-pair-of-wires
A simple 50mmx44mm module to route power and differential signals (RS-485) over RJ-45
μDiff provides an easy way to reliably transfer power and a digital signal over a long-distance using an inexpensive RJ-45 cable. This can be useful for large robots, LEDs, or any device that needs reliable communication over more than a few meters.
It uses RS-485 differential signaling and 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet pinouts to achieve this. It can accept an input voltage between 8V-28V, and provides outputs of 5V and 3.3V. All signals and voltages can be accessed through an 8-pin header.
Current is limited to 1A with the default components, but can be upgraded to ~2A with a different 5V switching regulator and fuse. Beware of current limitations on the RJ-45 cable, it’s typically ~700mA for an AWG26 shielded wire pair (2 wires).
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Simple Web Configured BLE To GPIO Bridge
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/06/a-simple-web-configured-ble-to-gpio-bridge/
Daniel Dakhno] kept ending up in a situation where the ability to read the status of, or control a few digital IO pins with minimal effort, would be terribly useful. Not wanting to keep compiling code, for such simple needs, they instead used a nRF51-based module as a physical interface and produced a general purpose firmware that could be configured with a simple web interface. The NRF51-IO-module was born, whose job is to pair with whatever device you have in front of you, provided it supports BLE, and give direct access to those IO pins.
Rather than acting as a rather slow logic analyser, the firmware is intended for mostly static configurations. The web application sends a configuration packet over to the nRF51 board, which then programs it into FLASH and restarts, reading the updated configuration and applying it to the IO pins.
https://ble.nullco.de/
Tomi Engdahl says:
RaaS Remote Managed Smart Service Robots
https://hackaday.io/project/186813-raas-remote-managed-smart-service-robots
Solutions to reduce carbon footprint, increase safety for humans and bring practical usable service jobs to those with disabilities.