This week on Maker Update: a workstation set to exterminate,
a boat powered by ionic thrust,
How to use an oscilloscope, tool organization, space fishing,
and cracking the code of QWOP.
Hello and welcome back to Maker Update.
I'm Tyler Winegarner and I hope you're all doing great.
I'm deep in the work of a project that I hope I'll get to share with
you really soon - and hopefully you've got something propelling you forward as well.
We've got another great show for you,
so let's kick it off with the project of the week.
Sometimes you get a call to build one of THOSE projects,
the one where you get to build something absolutely outrageous.
And when it's built, you just know it's going to go
to a very happy client.
That's what happened to Jeremy Fielding
in his latest build,
Where he’s constructing this Dr. Who themed CAD workstation.
And he's building it for a recipient in the Magic Wheelchair program.
He didn't have to worry about the design, just the fabrication.
But that's when they dropped the other shoe:
He needed to deliver the thing in just over two months.
Building structural elements is right in Jeremy's wheelhouse.
But these wild curves and delicate features are something else for him entirely.
His first pass over the design was to remove some extraneous features
to make the design a little more practical.
One element that he just couldn't let go of
were these tentacles coming out of the Daleks.
They probably couldn't be used as actual supports for the arms of the desk.
But he just couldn't bear the thought of getting rid of them.
They're just too cool.
After a whole lot of welding, cutting, machining and gluing.
The basic structure was starting to come together
and as the 3D parts were coming off the print beds,
the original design was taking shape as well.
But to make this one really come to life,
Jeremy called in the help of Brian from the Smugglers Room.
There's a whole other video about this build on his channel
About the painting, the finishing of the desk.
Also, I loved the detail of adding magnetic breakaways
to the arms of the Daleks, since it's possible that Jennika
will eventually bump into these and damage them.
Now they'll just break away cleanly and snap back on.
That's cool.
When the delivery day finally came,
Jeremy was more than happy to do the final install,
and Jennika couldn't be happier with the final result.
This thing is just frickin cool looking,
and it's such a rare treat to have the excuse to build something like this.
And a testament to the skill and craft of everyone involved.
More proects!
From the plasma channel.
I found this video on building a mini catamaran
powered by ionic thrust.
As futuristic as it sounds,
Ionic thrust has been around for a long time
and you can build a thruster with basic plumbing parts.
But if you have the know how, you can build a more impressive
one using modern 3D printing technologies and good design.
One of my favorite tips from this video
is that he's using a transformer from a stun gun.
They're pretty easy to get your hands on
and they're a reliable way to turn five volts into 40,000.
That's just one of the catches for ionic thrusters.
You need really high voltage to make it work.
Of course this isn't all clever tech for the sake of being clever.
While powered sea travel was a revelation for humanity,
it hasn't been great for marine life.
The noise generated by powered propellers
has been a huge detriment for all types of sea life.
Ionic thrusters are completely silent.
And while their thrust output is still fairly low,
the technology is still in its infancy.
The field test of this catamaran was a success.
It's not going to break any speed records, but it's
cool to see this coming together for the future.
Trying to impress your friends with 3D printing is
maybe one of the most difficult challenges with the technology.
Which is why I am constantly impressed with the efforts of Devin Montes
of Make Anything to use 3D printing in his exploration of game design.
This fishing game is based on the game he used to play with his mother,
just modernized.
each fishing pole has a strong magnet used to catch a metal
washer embedded into each of the 3D printed fish.
Devin’s video is a wonderful iteration on his design process,
starting from his original all-3D printed design to the final fishing rod.
Devin has published all the files if you want to print up your own game of space fishing
Check out the links down in the description.
and finally the Ruiz brothers just dropped this 3D printed Ultrahand
cosplay prop from The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
At first glance, this looks like a fairly straightforward
3D printed prop using LCD noodles for lighting.
But what really caught my attention was their leveraging
of the parametric design features of Fusion 360.
Since everybody's body is different, the ability to adjust the spacing
and diameter of these rings really makes this one a slam dunk.
Time for some tips and tools.
I'll admit I have no idea how to use an oscilloscope.
That's probably why I've always excused myself out of buying one.
Zack Friedman's latest video demystifies the differences between multimeters,
logic analyzers and oscilloscopes. And that's when he explains
the deceptive simplicity of these workbench tools.
Zack explains how to understand what the scope is telling you,
what to do with that data, and when the errors are caused by
the probe itself.
Izzy Swan has been taking a new approach to tool organization
in this workshop, and there's a ton of interesting ideas here.
of course tool and shop organization
is one of those super personal topics and everyone has their own approach.
For Izzy, accessibility is a key factor,
and there's a ton of interesting considerations here.
He's using Kaizen foam inserts to organize his tools in tool chests,
but the trays can also easily drop right into these rolling carts
for direct accessibility at the work area.
Over on Adafruit,
I found this guide by Anne Barela on using circuit design software to make jewelry.
It's been more times than I care to admit that I've attempted
to learn circuit design software only to become overwhelmed and run away screaming.
Anne’s guide gives you permission to learn the software with a less critical approach.
using the contrast between the copper plate and the solder mask
and just making cool designs.
As you level up, you can add in simple circuit
elements like LEDs to make your design come to life.
Anne’s guide works as a primer for KiCad,
Gingerbread and Affinity Designer.
And finally, the latest episode of The FOSSPod features an interview
with Lukasz Erecinski about the open source and open hardware work of Pine64.
These folks are making all sorts of open source tools for makers,
including my favorite soldering iron.
This podcast episode serves
as a wonderful primer to the company and their approach to projects.
And if you haven't heard of the FOSSpod before,
This is a podcast specifically dedicated to free
and open source software projects and products.
Be sure to check out their past episodes on Raspberry Pi
Inkscape, Blender, Octoprint, and even VLC.
For this week's Digi-Key Spotlight
Shawn Hymel is answering a question that probably no one is asking.
Can machine learning learn to play QWOP?
If you're unfamiliar, QWOP is a game that tasks you
with navigating a sprinter over the finish line,
But your controls are the basic thigh and calf muscles of thee runner’s legs.
Shawn breaks down the basics of how
to train the neural network to learn its objectives.
It's a cool breakdown. Check it out.
All right.
And that is going to do it for this week's show.
I hope you enjoyed it.
And if you did, please tell us about it out in the comments and give us a thumbs
up and hit subscribe with the bell so you don't miss the next one.
As always, huge thanks to Digi-Key for making the show possible and to you for watching.
Take care. We'll see you soon.