This week on Maker Update, Cyberpunk Samurai,
rolling your own tape echo, sound reactive lighting, all the filaments
and a closer look at salt batteries.
Hey I’m Donald Bell,
And welcome back to another episode of Maker Update, where each week
we round up some of the coolest maker projects on the Internet.
So if you're ready to get inspired, let's get started with the Project of the Week.
At the intersection of cosplay
and product design, you'll find Valima’s Rail Blade 2.0.
This is an original design loosely based on a weapon
from Metal Gear Rising with a dash of Gundam thrown in
Essentially though, he's designing incredibly detailed props for a sci fi universe
that's entirely in his own imagination.
So this ring of NeoPixels that spins up when he presses a button,
to him, that's an energy reactor that powers up the servo actuated antennas
that jam the enemies signals and launches cyber attacks on their equipment.
It's all pretend.
But I love how adding these back story elements to the design
makes it all feel a little more grounded in an alternate reality.
I mean, it's enough that it looks awesome and it blinks and moves,
but I'm equally envious that he got to sit down
and think through the imaginary practicalities of why things are there.
Speaking of practicalities,
there's a ton of great design ideas packed into this project.
There's the cavities he's built in to neatly mount
the ESP 32 board and some breakouts for lights and servo control.
There's the use of 3.5 millimeter mini jack audio sockets
to route power and data lines externally using cables.
Not only does this give you some modularity and extensibility
for adding things later, but it just looks super cool.
It also looks like some of these jacks really just act as dressed up holes
for passing through cables, which looks cooler than it should.
Then there's the layering of the 3D printed design.
We see this in a lot of cyber deck builds too,
but having a core framework separate from the decorative or panel layer,
Not only do you have an opportunity for using different colors
and adding a geometric pattern and texture to the exterior, But you have an excuse
to use more screws and rivets to attach everything.
For something like this, the more visible screws, the more convincing it looks.
a skin of panels like this also means you can cover up
a lot of the telltale 3D printed layer lines on the frame,
especially if you face the textured print bedside out.
You get more of that factory made look.
Finally, so much of this is held by two lengths of aluminum extrusion in the scabbard.
Aside from the sword, everything is bolted down to this.
these help to keep everything rigid, but also save a ton of printing and gluing
because you're not asking for strength from the plastic.
Anyway, it's great.
I can talk about it all day.
You can find a link to Valina’s video
in the description along with the link to version 1.0 from last year.
That actually gets into the original concept more than the latest video.
More projects! On his channel,
Mark Gutierrez shows how he made this analog audio tape
delay effect using scrap parts and cheap portable cassette players.
This is one of those projects that for most of us is
probably more about the journey than the destination.
I'm fascinated by old magnetic tape technology
and the mechanisms found inside tape decks and how can all be repurposed.
Do I really need a delicate lo fi tape delay?
Probably not!
But I definitely enjoyed watching Mark
put this together, and I think you will too.
For another project about transforming audio.
Check out Erin St Blaine's latest guide on Adafruit.
She shows how to create these sound reactive paper lanterns
that do way more than just uniformly flash the music.
Like a lot of her recent work, she's using an Adafruit Feather ESP-32 board here
flashed with the WLED software.
This gives you a no code interface for customizing your LED colors and patterns.
But the secret sauce for this particular project is a free
bit of open source computer software called LED FX.
The software is specifically engineered for driving
sophisticated frequency dependent LED animations from audio.
Both the WLED and LED FX interfaces have presets
for integrating with each other, so set up looks really straightforward.
Nevertheless, Erin's guide does a fantastic job of stepping through
both the hardware
and software requirements to get a project like this up and running.
Now for some tips and tools,
Do you ever wonder if there's a better 3D printing filament you should be using?
Well, to help you answer this question and hopefully steer you away
from some disastrous options, Zack Freedman ranks every practical category
of filament in a video that stretches 44 minutes long.
That sounds like a lot, but if you know Zack’s style,
a fast paced, thoroughly entertaining ride through the world of 3D printing.
And in the end, you really do get a solid list of practical filament
options with plenty of surprises, which I won't give away here.
Another great list comes from Essential Craftsman
who offers up five steel fabrication tools he wishes he'd bought sooner.
If metal fabrication is your jam, you're bound
to find at least one item here to add to your arsenal.
marking tools, holding tools, cutting tools.
There's a little bit of everything here, along with some useful tips.
On his channel, Great Scott!
takes a look at sodium ion batteries, a promising
lithium free alternative to today's battery formulas,
which are arguably problematic and unsustainable for a lot of reasons.
But a rechargeable battery technology based on something as abundant
and inexpensive as salt seems almost too good to be true.
It's still early days for this technology and there are some notable tradeoffs,
but it looks like sodium ion batteries have arrived.
So check out the video
for all the details on discharge rates, AMP hours, cycles and more.
Finally, have you ever seen Japanese wood crafts that are finished
in what looks like a hammered or notched pattern?
The technique is called Naguri and it's traditionally done
using a carving gouge and a lot of patience.
But in a video demonstration, woodworker Takurou Seino shows
how a similar effect can be achieved using a router,
a bowl bit, and a creative jig that rocks the router back and forth.
In the video, we get to see every step of how the jig was made.
But he also sells the jig directly,
If you want to support a fellow maker
and jump right into carving Naguri patterns.
for this week's DigiKey Spotlight,
Did you know that DigiKey has a whole other channel just dedicated
to showing off new products?
Not only you get to see unboxings and demos for a mix of professional industrial
and hobbyist products, but there's also a great collection of tips.
I think you'll like it.
All right. And that does it for this week's show.
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Big thanks to DigiKey for making this show possible.
And thank you for watching. I'll see you soon.