This week on Maker Update, the slowest video player ever made, a 5-axis 3D printer, a flip-digit
clock, an NFC music player for kids, an internet controlled drawbot, NeoPixel octocouplers,
gesture controlled LEDs, and the joys of gaffer tape.
Hey, I’m Donald Bell and welcome to another Maker Update.
I hope you’re all doing well.
I’m feeling good and I have another fun show for you, so let’s get started with
the project of the week.
Over on Medium, Bryan Boyer talks about his Raspberry Pi-based e-paper movie player.
He calls it the VSMP or Very Slow Movie Player.
Instead of playing back a movie at 24 frames per second, his project plays video at 24
frames per hour.
For example, a 2 hour movie like 2001 A Space Odyssey would play out over 8,000 hours -- almost
an entire year.
It’s a crazy idea, but with the right movie, there’s something kind of beautiful about
it.
Bryan’s piece on Medium goes over some of the project’s hurdles, his artistic intention,
and an overview of how different makers and companies have put their unique spin on e-paper
technology.
If you’d like to give the project a shot, he links over to his GitHub repository with
all the code you’d need.
In news this week, I was excited to see this post on Makezine about the development of
a 5-axis 3D printer.
Developed by Q5D Technologies, the printer’s extruder sits at the end of a robot arm, allowing
it to lay down filament at angles that would otherwise be impossible.
It remains to be seen what the practical advantages are for this technology, but it’s exciting
to see new ideas being developed.
More projects.
Through the Tindie blog I learned about Coyt Barringer’s flip display clock.
Any kind of flip-display tech gets me every time, and this one looks and sounds just like
I’d want it to.
Coyt goes over every aspect of the design and shares every file and detail you’d need
to make your own.
As a shortcut you can also buy the assembled board from him for $170.
But my favorite practical bit here is learning that you can score single 7-segment flip digits
on ebay for around $11.
I don’t know how I’d drive it just yet, but I’m real tempted to pick one up and
play around with it.
On GitHub, this children’s MP3 player by oxullo plays back songs based on RFID badges
placed in its mouth.
The project uses an Adafruit Feather M0 with a Music Maker Featherwing, to handle control
and music storage.
An amplifier breakout board and small speaker are used to get the sound out.
An NFC reader from Seeed studio reads the cards, signals the Feather, and brings joy
to children.
On Hackster.io, 8bits and a Byte shows off how they made an Internet-controlled drawing
robot that broadcasts its drawing in real-time.
The plotter is based on the Let's Robot platform, typically used for little telepresence robots.
Instead they've got their stepper motors mounted to a wall, controlled by a Raspberry Pi and
an Adafruit DC motor hat.
A Pi camera broadcasts the drawing while people control it over the Let's Robot website.
Also on Hackster, Pedro52 shows how to trigger multiple relays using LED strip.
By matching each LED with it's own phototransistor, you can set the pin high or low on an inexpensive
relay breakout board.
What's useful about this technique is that because LED strip only needs one data pin,
you could use a tiny board, like a Trinket, to sequence dozens of relays.
There's also a guide by Dan Ionescu on how to easily add gesture control to LED projects.
The trick is this Sparkfun gesture board and Arduino library.
With it, you can translate waving in different directions into triggers for different LED
animations.
Maybe I'm crazy, but how cool would it be to combine those last yep projects and make
a motion controlled relay sequencer?
I might do it just for a way to play with the sound of those snapping relays.
I have just a few tips to share with you this week.
I came across a site called MakerCase.com.
It’s a dedicated web app for making laser cut boxes or enclosures.
It’s free and has a useful amount of options.
On Thingiverse, Andrew Askedall posted his design for a 3D printed Braille alphabet.
The design is a hybrid of an english alphabet with an overlay of Braille raised dots on
top, matched to their corresponding letter or number.
Could be a useful option for any printed sign project.
OpenRndr is an open source creative coding environment, similar to Processing, but with
a few advanced features.
It’s free to download and play around with.
I’m still barely competent with Processing, but if you’re ready to branch out, this
could be a good fit.
And for my Cool Tool of the week, if I could pick one new year’s gift for you to give
to yourself, give yourself the gift of Gaffer tape.
I’ve been using two different rolls of from the Gaffer Power brand over the past year.
It doesn’t leave a sticky mess, it tears nicely in straight lines, and the matte backing
is great for writing on.
If I had to Kando my tape collection, this would be the only stuff I’d keep.
Maker Faires!
Coming up, we’ve got Maker Faire Bangkok on the 19th and 20th, and then Nurnberg Germany
on the 26th.
If one’s near you, go check it out.
And that does it for this week’s show.
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Alright?
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.