This week, on Maker Update: a Pi powered portrait plotter, screaming plants,
Time for your old TV, trash Kang,
Big bones, and a quest for animatronic perfection.
Hey, I'm Donald Bell and welcome back to another Maker Update.
I hope you're all doing well and excited for Halloween this weekend.
If you need some last-minute inspiration, I've got some cool projects
to share with you.
We've also got lots of non Halloween stuff too,
including the Project of the Week.
As part of their master's thesis, Felix Fisgus and Joris Wegner
created this beautiful looking computer vision portrait plotter.
They call it the Pankraz Piktograph, and it uses these vertically
mounted jointed arms to move the pen across the paper.
Now I've shown dozens of plotter projects on this show.
This one is really something special, and I'm not even sure where to start on
how to geek out on it.
I guess let's start with how it looks.
It looks like a commercial product.
It looks better than most Kickstarter projects, but it's not for sale.
The whole look is flawless from the powder coated sheet metal enclosure, the stand,
the aluminum arms, the tiny touches like the braided cables and the remote control.
It looks like it should be in a museum.
But then there's the software, which we get an incredible description of.
Thanks to a PDF writeup they composed for their masters evaluation.
The first software layer is a combination of open frameworks and OpenCV.
It's running on a Raspberry Pi 3, with a connected
camera mounted up in the top left corner of the panel.
This is the real
heart of the machine, and it handles a surprisingly involved number of steps
to process each image, adjust the contrast, detect edges
vectorize the design and apply a drawing style.
All of this is detailed in the PDF.
The other software layer is the code used to drive the stepper motors,
which is handled by some trinamic drivers connected to a teensy
microcontroller, communicating back to the Raspberry Pi.
And remember, it's not just doing x y coordinate stuff,
it's moving these jointed arms around and triggering the servo
to lift the pen on and off the paper.
The whole thing is outstanding and definitely has me inspired
to create interactive projects at a higher level of fit and finish.
I also love that it's a collaboration as we emerge from this pandemic.
I am excited to work with other makers again.
More projects.
Sam March has a new video out on how he turned his houseplants
into screaming babies that cry out for water
when their moisture levels are low. To make it happen,
He created a custom circuit board design and Arduino code that tracks
light and moisture levels and triggers the Baby Cry alert,
when things aren't going so well.
To take it to the next level, Sam also created a companion app
that plots the water and light levels on a cute chart.
You can find the code,
the CAD files and the board files, all on his GitHub page.
On Instructables, Marcio T has a quick guide on turning an old CRT TV
into a retro eighties themed clock that you can configure over Wi-Fi.
You'll need an ESP32 compatible board
and an RCA cable, and that's about it
with the code uploaded and the cable connected with jumper wires,
You can call up the Settings menu by connecting to the ESP32
just like you'd connect to a Wi-Fi router.
It's a cool trick, though I'm sure the image would burn in over time.
What I'm mostly excited about is this idea that you can send composite
animations like this out of an ESP32 board using just two wires.
Now, for some Halloween projects, OCD maker shows how they made this life
size lawn decoration of Kang the alien from The Simpsons.
Not only do I love how this thing looks, but I can't get over
how scrappy and low-tech it is.
You're looking at chicken wire, tarps, pool noodles, a hula hoop
and a beach ball for the eye. To make it move back and forth,
The attached the eye to an old oscillating fan.
It's projects like this to help me realize that I probably have
everything I need in my junk pile to make something fun for Halloween.
And sometimes it's the improvised look of the thing that makes it endearing.
That said, if you're going to sink the time into something, why not go big?
Check out this giant foam skeleton
that looks like it's busting out of the house.
On Instructables, Haunted Spider shows how he created these giant props using PVC
pipe as the armature and foam sheets that he glued and carved by hand.
It's a real process, but along the way he offers tons of tips
for getting the look you want.
one in particular that I thought was useful
is this technique for coating the foam with PVA glue and sand
to form a bone like texture.
And once you've graduated from Haunted House to amateur
Imagineer, you'll be ready for Kieran Meadows ten part series
on making an animatronic rod puppet.
From eye mechanisms to jaws, sketching your character,
working out the mechanics in fusion, cabling, servos, 3D printing, casting.
It's an incredible resource and I don't think many people know about it yet.
Go check it out.
Now for some tips that are more immediately practical,
Technochic at Brown Dog Gadgets offers six ideas
for taking a cardboard robot costume to the next level.
Most of these involve a simple microcontroller action of some kind.
Theater chase led animations, a gauge made
with the servo, LEDs that react to your voice.
There's a lot of great ideas here that you can add to a costume or prop.
If you're looking for a spooky way to keep your driver bits organized,
this denture bit holder by iPlop may do the trick.
It also recently got the 3D Thursday treatment from the Ruiz brothers at Adafruit.
Speaking of 3D printing for this week's Digikey Spotlight,
they've got a new video out that outlines their 3D printing service.
It's all of the convenience of 3D printing
and none of the hassles or hardware upkeep.
Or maybe you like me and you have a regular FDM 3D printer, but
you want to print a part in SLS without investing in the technology.
The Digikey service, which is powered by Jabil, gives you a bunch of options
and handles all the headaches.
And that does it for this week's show! Be sure to subscribe,
Leave a thumbs up.
Leave a comment if you've got a cool
Halloween decoration or costume that you came up with this year.
I'd love to hear about it.
You can get on the Maker Update email list if you want to stay on
top of each week, show a big thanks to Digikey Electronics,
Thank you for watching, and I'll see you soon.