This week on Maker Update:
Sending pixels down the tubes.
A workbench that fits any lifestyle, thin film optical filters,
party parrots, alien crystals and escape rooms for introverts.
Hello and welcome back to Maker Update.
I'm Tyler Winegarner, and I hope you're doing great.
I don't know if it's the change in the weather
that Donald was talking about last week,
but I've been having a few breakthroughs in some of my projects.
So there's definitely some kind of spark in the air.
Let's keep that momentum going and check out the project of the week.
For the past few weeks,
we've been featuring projects that serve not just a function
but perform that function with an undeniable sense of style.
This week's project by elliotmade might only do the style part of that equation.
But my goodness, what an esthetic it provides.
I might be stating the obvious here, but there's a whole lot going on
in this fiber optic matrix display. Hidden back behind the scenes is a
16 by16 matrix of addressable RGB LEDs.
Each one of those is isolated by a grid, so it can feed into a single strand of
end glow, Optic fiber material, which terminates as one of the pixels
in a 35 x 7 matrix made from milled aluminum.
Not only do you see the final result of the colored pixel in the display,
but you also get this fantastic light show
as each pixel makes the journey to its destination.
The whole show is directed by a Raspberry Pi pico. On the board.
There's also a clock
module and a few buttons that Elliot had from a previous project
so it could be ready made to display time... if that's what you wanted to do with it.
And that's the beauty of the project.
Well, aside from how beautiful it is - is how open ended Elliot left it.
I also really appreciated the way he documented and presented the project.
He has access to an entire machine shop with a CNC mill, and he used it
to fabricate a lot of the parts out of steel and aluminum.
But he published the basic design files with notes for various considerations
for what you might be able to expect if you made the parts using a laser
cutter or FDM printing or SLA printing or any other technique.
It's this type
of product documentation that really gets me excited to read
because for me, it's a jumping off point for my own ideas,
and that's exactly what Elliot intended.
But he's also created a gorgeous project,
and that certainly deserves respect all its own.
Escape rooms can be a lot of fun, but you need to find
the right group of folks to get the most out of them.
If you can't be bothered or you'd rather just stay inside,
check out this laser cut puzzle box by DURSS.
This is a handheld puzzle made of three sheets of 1/8" plywood.
There's some obscure hints engraved into the top layer, but
the real magic is the middle layer where all the magnets and the mechanism live.
This thing is incredible.
As you solve each clue, you get access to the tool
to help you solve the next one.
If you solve the whole puzzle, a drawer pops out
with enough storage for a hidden message.
It would probably ruin the puzzle, but I know I'd be tempted to make the top
layer clear just so you can see what's going on behind the scenes.
If you've ever wanted a proper workbench for fine woodworking
that has all the fixed years for bench dogs and clamping,
but you're either intimidated by the expense, or the space, or the weight,
Check out this portable mini workbench by Tamar of 3x3 Customs.
This bench has all of that going for it just in a smaller serving size
and it can be clamped to your existing workbench or to any other work surface
If you don't have one yet.
This is a really thorough guide,
and Tamar not only walks you through how to build the bench, but
also how to build all of the jigs she used to make the bench.
On Adafruit, I found this guide from the Ruiz Brothers and how to create this edge lit
acrylic zoetrope starring everybody's favorite gif.
The Party Parrot.
There's no shortage of Zoetrope projects out there,
but I don't think I've seen one that works quite like this.
And it's deceptively simple.
Normally you need to worry about properly timing
your lights to the animation frames, but in this one, a single stationary
neopixel just waits for an acrylic panel to pass by in the cycle
and lights it up when that happens.
There's a photo interrupter to track the rotation of the Zoetrope
and cycles the color of the neo pixel to keep things lively.
This looks like a fun one to reproduce.
And on Hackaday I learned about the Infinity
Mirror Hyper Crystal by Innana Malick.
This is a physical piece of generative art made of infinity mirrors
to create a beautifully alien sculpture.
It's lit internally by these towers of white LEDs
but the light is filtered through dichroic film,
so the color changes depending on what angle you view them from.
It takes the chaotic weirdness of this project over the top.
Check it out.
Time for some tips and tools.
If you want to know more about how dichroic filters
and, well, any number of other colored optical filters work
this YouTube video by IMSAI Guy might be the perfect thing to watch.
He talks about the science behind absorptive filters,
Thin film filters and a handful of others.
How they work and how they perform.
It's full of examples and more than enough science to go way over my head.
But if you like playing with light, give this one to watch.
Last week, when Donald was introducing
MandalaGaba, I was immediately reminded of Polygonia Design.
This is a web tool for creating geometrically tileable designs
that you can send to your laser cutter or pen plotter
or any other vector tool you have on hand.
The interface does take a little getting used to, but that's
because there's a lot going on here.
But even just by futzing around, you can create some really pretty designs
in just a few minutes.
From the assistive tech makers community on Facebook.
I learned about this great tip from Ron Nelson
for using TRRS jacks as disconnects for i2c devices.
You're probably most familiar with TRRS, or Tip Ring Ring Sleeve
as 3.5 millimeter headphone cables.
There's other adopted standards for i2c, like a Adafruit Stemma.
But if you need something that's a little more robust or easy to disconnect,
this one might be the trick.
It's probably
worth mentioning that these should not be used for hot swapping.
You'll want to power down the device before connecting stuff.
And finally, we have this great video from Great Scott!
comparing the most popular options for wire connectors for your house.
Wire nuts,
And two different Wago connectors.
Which are the easiest to use?
Which offer the least electrical resistance?
which one is least likely to get the wires pulled out?
Can any of them catch on fire?
Scott tests all of these and more.
I know I'm most familiar with wire nuts since they come packed into every fixture,
but it's nice to know there are some other options out there.
For this week's Digikey Spotlight, Shawn Hymel has a great tutorial
on how to build a face tracking, pan/tilt camera using OpenMV.
Usually these are built using a Raspberry Pi, which is faster, but the OpenMV board
offers a more affordable, and less power hungry option.
Shawn's video talks you through all the code for a face
tracking algorithm.
So you're never lost about what's doing what.
If you've ever wanted a thorough breakdown of what's going on in the code here,
check this one out.
Okay.
And that is going to do it for this week's show!
I hope these projects have given you some inspiration
to jump out on some of your own projects. If any of them did,
I'd love to hear about it down in the comments.
You can also give us a thumbs up if you dug the show or sign up for the
maker update email list to get the show sent straight to you every week.
Donald is still on vacation, so you won't see them right away,
but he should be back next week and you'll see them then.
Big thanks to Digikey electronics,
Take care. We'll see you soon.