[Sweeping Synth Music Playing]
This week on Maker Update: From Zero to Robot Arm,
The return of the Hackaday SuperCon, a 3D printed sewing machine,
rolling tape measures, repairing threads, and printing glass on your FDM printer.
Hello and welcome back to Maker Update.
I'm Tyler Winegarner,
I hope you're all doing great.
Staying cool, and working that fun projects.
Recently I've been building a ton of picture frames in different sizes
and appreciating the benefits of assembly line methods of working.
It takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process.
We've got an awesome show for you, so let's not waste any time in
checking out the project of the week.
This one's been a long time coming, but you have to check out Jeremy Fielding's
home built industrial robot arm, now that it's finally complete.
Maybe it's just me
and my personal fondness for motion control camera systems,
but I've always wanted
an industrial robot arm, ever since I learned about Bot & Dolly.
But I never imagined that it would be possible to build one on my own.
Which is not to suggest that Jeremy just knocked this out over a weekend.
He's been doggedly pursuing this project for over a year and a half.
And while he was able
to bring all of his existing knowledge as an engineer to the table,
he still had dozens and dozens of challenges to overcome.
which is to be expected for any project,
let alone anything that's this complex.
This robot combines a little bit of everything: engineering,
machining, electronics, motor control, software, design, the whole lot.
The real surprise was Jeremy revealing that he'd never actually seen
an industrial robot arm in person, at least not until he was invited by a few companies
to learn their own software control systems.
Maybe that can be helpful to some, since they can take
a more blue-sky approach to design and problem solving.
But it's still impressive to consider all the problems
he managed to overcome without a direct reference.
This robot - this project, is nothing short of jaw-dropping.
One of those lifetime achievements.
This video is more of a final build montage of the project,
and it's more satisfying than directly educational.
But if you want to drill down into the nuts and bolts,
Jeremy has several videos documenting the entire process of building it.
But as an inspiration, this really can't be beat.
Having a vision for the thing you want, and pursuing it
through all the challenges and finally arriving at the result
is just one of the best feelings you can have as a maker.
Don't take it from me.
Just listen to Jeremy on this one.
[Plasma Cutting Noises]
[Jeremy] Woooooooo!!!
[Jeremy Laughing Triumphantly]
[Jeremy] YES!!!!!
Time for some news.
After a few year hiatus, The Hackaday SuperCon is back.
Set for November 4th, 5th and 6th,
Fifth and sixth in Pasadena, California.
This will be the first live and in-person SuperCon event since 2019.
There's still plenty more information to be released about badges and tickets
in the coming weeks.
But in the meantime, the call for presenters is currently open.
They're accepting proposals for 20 and 45 minute talks
and the opportunity for that will remain open until August 18th.
If you're interested, get on it.
Time for more projects!
I was blown away by this DIY 3D
printed sewing machine by Fraens.
Also, I'm just going to apologize because I probably butchered that pronunciation.
Anyhow, whether you've been
stitching things together for years now or never sat down at a Singer,
you have to be impressed by the design of this thing.
Every part of every mechanism of a standard sewing machine is on display here.
So you not only get a functional tool, you also get to marvel at how it works.
This stitch hook alone is just a work of art,
and getting to see it in action is nothing short of mesmerizing.
If you want to start sewing, you're probably better off
just buying a sewing machine.
They're pretty cheap these days.
But if you want to build one of these, they provide all of the 3D printed files
to make your own over on Printables and Thingiverse.
I'm guessing you're on your own to make the metal parts.
This thing is rad, and I'm glad it exists.
This maker has a bunch of other 3D printable versions of traditional machines,
and I'm willing to bet we'll be seeing more of their work in the future.
On Instructables I found this digital measuring wheel by AGBarber.
This is sort of like a traditional measuring tape,
but it works by rolling the tool along a surface to take the measurement.
When you take a look inside, you'll see the entire rotating part
is an internal gear driving a mouse encoder.
There's an OLED display for a visual readout,
a few buttons for mode setting and an Arduino Pro Micro to run the show.
It's an impressive piece of hobbyist industrial design,
and there's even a mode to determine RPM of a spinning object,
If you press the tool against it.
Also on Instructables, I found this
gorgeous bubble lamp by DIY-MVB.
When you take a look inside, you'll see the entire rotating part
It seems simple enough.
A fish tank airstone creates the bubbles and some side mounted
led strip illuminates them.
But there's a ton of clever design to take in here,
like the 3D printed jigs to help align the plexiglass for assembly
a few buttons for mode setting and an Arduino Pro Micro to run the show.
and the servo mechanism for moving the air stone.
I'd want to stare at this thing for hours.
If you want to build your own, you can follow the links down in the description.
Finally from YouTube, I found this video
for creating a diorama of the Star Wars Battle of Geonosis.
by Boylei Hobby Time.
At first blush, this looks like your fairly standard
diorama using 28 millimeter figurines.
But where was genuinely surprised by this project,
Was the use of these led filament segments to represent the Blaster fire in mid-air.
These are the filament segments
that would normally be used in LED versions of Edison bulbs.
You can get them in a couple of different colors.
This seems like a good thing to know about and could be useful
in a number of projects.
Time for some tips and tools.
I found this great guide for making mostly transparent FDM prints
by Rygar1432 on Printables.
I've seen a few different versions of this before, but this is the first one
I've seen that didn't involve a ridiculous amount of sanding.
Was the use of these led filament segments to represent the Blaster fire in mid-air.
The trick here is to print with 100% infill, no top and bottom layers,
and with an infill pattern that has a consistent direction.
If you can do all that and use a properly clear filament,
you can get these strikingly transparent 3D prints.
There's nothing more heart-sinking than destroying the threads
of an expensive or irreplaceable part.
So this review by the heroes at Project Farm
for the best tools and techniques for thread repairs is right on the money.
While this is primarily a tool review channel,
I never knew until watching this video that threads could be temporarily repaired
using stranded copper wire or even Loctite.
But it goes into traditional thread repair tools like Helicoils
and other repair kits.
Hopefully you never need this, but if you do, this video should serve you well.
Over on Adafruit, I found this eight pin magnetic connector
that can easily adapt into your own projects.
Whether you're designing a project that requires a hot swappable interface,
or you just need something that can easily break away and reconnect
without damaging the part, this seems like it could have a ton of uses.
The permanent side has an array of 0.1 inch pins that you can solder to
any standard perfboardboard, and the connector
is even keyed to make sure you don't plug it in the wrong way around.
The folks over at Carbide 3D put together this helpful video
on five different tools you can make
If you have access to a CNC router. There's some pretty obvious stuff
like tool jigs, but I'm not sure if I've ever seen a fillet gauge before.
Or this center finding jig.
There's a lot of cool little tool tips that you can manage to make on your own.
Whether you have a CNC router or not.
Check it out.
For this week's Digikey spotlight, we've got a tutorial about MyLists,
a parts list manager available on the Digikey website.
Whether you're trying to organize a bill of materials, prepare a comparison
list of similar parts, find substitutes or anything else.
This video offers a thorough guide on organizing
your lists, putting the right information front and center,
Importing from external files and more.
This is a really powerful looking tool.
Check it out.
All right, and that is going to do it for this week's show.
Thank you so much for being here and watching it.
If you enjoy the show, give us a thumbs up.
Leave us a comment and tell someone about the show if you think they would like it.
As always, big thanks to Digikey for making the whole thing possible and to you for watching.
Take care. We'll see you soon.