This week on Maker Update, robots at your command,
The best everyday carry holster, getting the most out of a cheap miter gauge,
wireless LEDs, singing sculptures, and a rotary phone for your zoom calls.
Hello and welcome back to Maker Update.
I'm Tyler Winegarner and I hope you're doing great.
We've got another great show for you, so let's not waste any time getting into it.
Let's check out the Project of the Week.
James Bruton is a robot maker,
interaction designer and a man with a problem. Before Covid hit.
He had built these robots
that event goers could control using these small armatures.
Events are starting to appear on his calendar again.
But he doesn't want to deal with the risk assessment of needing
to sterilize the armatures after each person touches them.
Fortunately, he has computer vision on his side.
by using a Raspberry Pi camera and a Jetson Nano,
He's able to perform a lot of computer vision operations,
like object detection and gesture control.
In this case, he's using a module called PoseNet,
which uses the camera to generate a 2D pose figure
based on a few recognizable points on the human body.
This gives him a data set to work from that he can use
to control the robots without having to touch anything.
And I guess this is really common in robotics.
But what really surprised me is how he’s using DMX as the communication
protocol, DMX is traditionally used to control lighting systems for stage use.
But it's been around for decades.
So it's well documented
and there's plenty of software out there that he can use to control it.
The software also gives him
a ton of opportunity to smooth out the animation for the robot.
So it doesn't have that telltale jerky servo motion.
More importantly, he's able to use it as an abstraction
layer between the computer vision control and the robotic output.
Because the Raspberry Pi camera has no ability to determine depth,
the data created by PoseNet is strictly two dimensional.
Which is why the robot's motions all happen in a flat plane.
Still, it's a really fun interaction to make the robot dance or wave
and see your own motions reflected in the robot's body.
James provides all the code used to control the robot,
as well as all the CAD files for you to print your own.
Time for some news.
Last week, the online security site. Have I been pwned?
Reported a security breach on Thingiverse,
one of the most popular repositories for 3D printable models.
The breach is reported to effect over 200 thousand users
and can potentially expose their dates of birth, email addresses,
IP addresses, names, passwords, physical addresses and usernames.
The official statement by Makerbot is significantly downplaying
the extent of the breach.
You can see if your email was part of the leaked data by visiting
Have I been pwned?
But it's probably a good idea to change your password on Thingiverse if you have an accout there.
More projects!
Last week, Laura Kampf came up with the perfect weekend project to make a tool
she can use every day: a holster for her measuring and marking tools.
In her case, the stuff she always wants to have are a measuring tape,
a folding ruler and a deep hole marker.
It's a simple enough project, just a wide strip of leather that's been stitched
into a pocket with an additional loop for the tape measure’s belt clip.
But I think the exercise is even more interesting than the execution.
What are the measuring tools that you're always reaching for?
A few months ago,
we featured this animatronic cardboard Skeksis by Cecillia Hillway.
Now she's taken the concept one step further
by adding the ability for her characters to perform a live lip-sync of her voice.
The setup is pretty simple.
A single servo controls the head or jaw movement of the character
and the software created in Make:Code just maps the volume level
recorded by the microphone to the servo position.
But the result is still pretty convincing.
Sure, a lot of this is hinging on her skills as an artist,
but it's a great way to create some simple and satisfying
characters for your upcoming Halloween gathering.
Finally on Instructables, I found this project by DiceYukita
on hacking a rotary phone to be your microphone for zoom calls.
Dice is also an interaction designer, and he loves exploring
how different objects can transform everyday experiences.
What he found is
that because you need to hold the phone handset to your face,
you end up being far more engaged with the call.
He hacked a USB headset for the microphone and earpiece,
and then fit them into the handset.
The real fun part about this build is the function of the hang up
button, since the hang up button
just opens the circuit for the microphone and speaker.
It works perfectly as a mute switch; almost.
Because it also cuts the speaker.
You can't keep listening in on a call.
Still, it's a fun way to break up the tedium for your daily stand ups
and adds a fun conversation piece to your desk.
We've got a bunch of tips and tools for you this week.
Steve Ramsey of Woodworking for Mere Mortals has a bunch of great tips
on getting the most out of that cheap miter gauge that came with your table saw.
This video is chock full of
great tips if you're just getting started making crosscuts with a table saw
and it doesn't skimp out on beginner safety rules.
But there's a ton of other stuff that might not be obvious,
like adding an extension fence to your gauge or using these screws
to fine tune the positive stops for 45 and 90 degrees.
Maybe this can save your cheap miter gauged from the junk pile.
On Adafruit, I found a guide for using this popular
IoT power outlet with WipperSnapper by Dylan Herrada
WipperSnapper is an interactive module for adafruitIO.
that allows you to manipulate devices and microcontrollers
without writing a single line of code.
Perfect for automating your outdoor Halloween decorations.
And because this relay controlled power outlet
takes all of the guesswork out of powering high voltage devices, it's
perfect for newcomers or anyone wary of working with high voltage AC.
WipperSnapper is still in beta,
But there's a ton of other tutorials on
how it can be used in a variety of projects.
There's also a great overview on WipperSnapper
and I'll link to it down in the description.
Also on Adafruit, I found this great introduction to wireless
LEDs from John Park.
You heard that right. Wireless LEDs.
If you make book nooks, or models, or dioramas,
and want to add some light, but never wanted to deal with the wires,
This looks like Promethean fire.
These are powered by a massive inductive loop.
But they look like they have the potential to unlock so much
creativity for lighting in small spaces.
And finally on the Stumpy Nubbs woodworking YouTube channel.
I saw this fantastic tutorial for making precision jigs for your table saw,
and it's all based around three eights by 16 threaded rod
because the thread happens every sixteenth of an inch,
It means you have a perfect positive stop every sixteenth of an inch.
In this case, he has two pieces of threaded rod resting
against each other, locking it in place.
But you could just as easily make a hand crank
and a locking mechanism for more precise adjustments.
For this week's DigiKey Spotlight, we're answering a simple question:
what is a diode?
OK, you probably already know that it's
this magical one way door for your circuit designs that only allow
voltage to flow one way in your circuit and never the other.
But this video gets into the actual chemistry of how diodes are made
and how that chemistry affects the way they work.
Personally speaking, I bombed out of chemistry.
So a lot of this goes way over my head.
But for those who can follow it, it's great to see this depth of explanation.
All right, and that is going to do it for this week's show.
I hope you enjoyed it or got something out of it.
What would be in your everyday measuring and marking holster?
Let us know down in the comments.
As always, you can sign up for the Maker Update email list
so you never miss an episode or you can do
all this subscribe-y like button-y the YouTube stuff, too.
Big thanks to DigiKey electronics for making this show possible. Take care.
We'll see you soon.