This week on Maker Update: a knife throwing robot,
snakes with legs, the simplest camera slider ever,
metal 3D printing, learning new skills
and a new spin on a classic tool.
Hello and welcome back to Maker Update.
I'm Tyler Winegarner and I hope you're all doing great.
Do you ever have the experience of sitting on a problem for a really long time
and then just suddenly coming up with a simple solution that solves it?
That's what my past week has been like.
I hope you're finding quicker solutions to your problems.
We've got a fantastic show for you and I can't wait to get into it.
So let's check out the project of the week.
Okay, look... I'm not going to candy coat this one.
I've always had an affection for machines that can do violence.
Maybe it's a lifetime of watching Battlebots
or catching the odd performance of Survival Research Laboratories.
But this knife throwing machine by Quint builds really spoke to me.
I'm not a violent person myself, but there's something
about these kinds of machines that just make me happy.
But that's not the only reason we're featuring this one.
As you can imagine, there's a ton of cool engineering that goes into them.
but it also needs to spin the knife before releasing it.
And it also needs to know how far away the target is
so it knows how much spin to put on the knife.
In a fairly short video, Quint has a great job
of explaining the challenges and the wins.
He's really familiar with stepper motors, but they're too slow for the task.
So he uses high speed servos. By using two of them together,
he can modulate the speed between the both of them to get the spin just right.
There's a solenoid and an electromagnet to release the blade,
and from there everything else is problem solving.
Of course, there's a lot of problems to be solved.
The blade not being released right,
3D printed parts failing.
Not using the right metal for the throwing knives.
But I think my favorite part of this project is that it's also a father son story.
Quint's son wrote a ton of the code that makes this project work.
Some parents play catch.
Some go fishing.
But I don't know how many build knife throwing robots.
It's a super fun watch.
I think it's worth checking out
now for some news.
If you're in the Bay Area or you can get there this coming weekend.
You'll have the chance of meeting with a fantastic collection of makers at Sili-Con.
Adam Savage, who is an advisor on the event,
isn't trying to replace Maker Faire, but wants to introduce
some of the same energy and interaction
on the roster as Bob Claggett, Sophy Wong, Bill Duran,
Simone Giertz, Ian Charnas, Jorvon Moss
and so, so many more.
I'm bummed that I'm going to have to miss it, but I
hope you can make it.
More projects! As makers, we're all a little guilty
of coming up with solutions that are still looking for problems.
I don't mean that to dismiss the latest video from Allen Pan,
where he's trying to give snakes their evolutionary legs back.
But it turns out snakes have kind of figure out their own workaround.
After tons of research of herpetology and some rudimentary robotics,
Allen is determined to help snakes
get back to moving around like their lizard brethren.
It turns out at least one of them is willing to go along for the ride.
Hopefully he can work in some interactivity for them in the future.
Cut Transform Glue released this video about making a custom spaceship model
from scratch and spare parts.
I know we’ve featured a ton of kit bashing videos in the past and while I can't stop
being fascinated with them, there's a whole lot more going on here.
They're using auto body filler to create new shapes, leftover
laser cut pieces to add details and a ton of other clever hacks.
This is a pretty wild free form design, and I think there's a ton of great tips
to pick up on here, like using styrene to cover up structural details or gluing
in 3D printed inserts with heat-set inserts to add threaded holes.
Inserts on your inserts!
What are they going to think of next?
And I have to give a shout out to Slidee.
The Non-Motorized camera slider by Shivam Dehinwal.
If you've spent any time with us here, you know I have a little bit
of an obsession with camera motion control,
and I also love a simple hack.
This project combines both of those.
This is just a 3D printed enclosure
that houses a few smooth rolling wheels.
There's also a 1/4" 20 mount for camera mounting and a tape measure.
The tape measure is what makes this project special.
Not only does it enable the motion of the slider by retracting the tape,
but you can also control the retraction speed
by varying the pressure on the side of the tape measure.
There's a threaded 3D printed part that lets you adjust
that pressure so you can set the speed exactly to what you need.
This is a novel approach
to a classic problem, and I think it's a fantastic solution.
Now for some tips and tools, being able to print in
metal is sort of the forbidden fruit of 3D printing.
It allows you to create reliable, durable parts,
but the machines that can do it are really expensive.
But how strong are the parts, actually?
A new video from My Tech Fun puts metal 3D printed parts
to a torture test against standard ABS parts.
He has test for tensile strength, shearing stress, deformation,
and he even had a metal twist drill bit printed and tests its performance.
The bonus tip in this video is that all of the parts were printed
using JLCPCB's, 3D printing service.
And it's not that expensive to get metal prints.
Keep them in mind the next time you need a strong part made.
Speaking of stronger prints, it's pretty common knowledge
that the layer lines in FDM 3D prints are the weakest part.
CNC Kitchen is trying to make the layer lines stronger
by brushing on a solvent between every layer.
This looks like a fairly tedious process, since the printer needs to be paused
between every layer so he can brush on the acetone.
The process does result in some pretty ugly prints,
since the acetone is actively dissolving the part while it's been printed.
And the results were pretty... disappointing actually.
The layer bonded parts were noticeably weaker
than their traditionally printed counterparts.
But you never know until you try, right?
From ElectroNoobs, I learned about this handheld PCB based multimeter.
Not only is this thing tiny, but it completely changes
the design of a traditional multimeter by turning it into more of a test probe.
It can measure all the typical stuff you want a multimeter for:
DC Voltage, Resistance, Capacitance, Inductance and Current.
There's even a Bluetooth
module that can be used to cast the output to external displays.
He's still developing the project software, but he's sharing the PCB
files, the code and the bill of materials so you can build your own.
And finally, Jeremy Fielding has a great video on
how to learn new skills quickly.
Part of this process is understanding
the difference between skill and knowledge.
Sometimes when you're trying to learn something new, you get caught up
in trying to learn all the knowledge but never practice the skills.
He also talks about reducing barriers, including the big one for most people: finincial cost
And the other big one.
How to manage your own fear of failure
and how to be okay with being bad at something for a while.
It's a long video, but a tremendous resource.
Check it out.
For this week's Digi-Key Spotlight,
They have a helpful video on finding the right relay for your project.
Relays are one of the best ways to use
software to be able to control high current circuits.
So if you're planning to build some smart home controls for your dust
collector, these are the components you'll want to use.
But how much current can they carry?
How much voltage do you need to switch the coil?
This video walks you through all of it.
All right.
And that is going to do it for this week's show.
Hope you all enjoyed it.
If you did, give us a thumbs up, hit that subscribe button and leave us a comment.
Tell us about the most dangerous project you've ever thought of.
I once thought it was a good idea to let the Internet control an angle grinder.
Now, I'm really glad I talked myself out of that one.
As always, huge thanks to digital electronics
for making this all possible and to you for watching.
Take care. We'll see you soon.