It seems like Makers are able to hack everything these days, from disk drives to dot-matrix printers, to give once-ordinary devices some symphonic superpowers.
And, while 3D printers have been used to create one’s own Imperial Army of miniature stormtroopers, did you know that the same machine could also play their theme song? That’s right. The team at Zero Innovations has successfully rigged a 3D printer using its Z stepper motors to perform the iconic Imperial March from Star Wars.
“By hacking a simple MIDI file, and then outputting a Gcode which will produce the same frequencies and duration of each note within the music, the stepper motors are able to put out quite an incredible ensemble,” 3DPrint.com writes. “The stepper motor moves the print head around in a 3D printer, and as it does its job, it makes quite a racket. But clearly, one man’s racket is another’s symphony.”
As impressive as Zero Innovations’ project may be, it’s certainly not the only makeshift musical creation we’ve seen over the past couple of months. Take a look at some others below…
While we lose out yet another year, we figured what better time to compile a list of some of our other favorite (non-musical) 3D printer hacks.
Air hockey playing robot
While reminiscing your childhood, there always seemed to be that one game that truly captivated your attention inside an arcade: air hockey, of course! A very talented Maker by the name of Jose Julio recently decided to relive those memories by creating an air hockeyplaying robot using some readily available RepRap 3D printer parts, including an Arduino Mega (ATmega1280) and RAMPS.
Jello shot printer
It’s officially the holiday season, and for some of us, that means partaking in the ubiquitous and inevitable jello shot ritual. Now, most of us just down shots without giving the ingredients or appearance all that much thought. However, a Maker by the name of Sprite_tm recently realized something was missing from the contents of his cup, namely a design. In other words, what if a bartender could print actual designs inside a jello shot? As a result, the Maker quickly grabbed a syringe and injected food dye into one of the jello shots, successfully creating a pattern of sorts. Ultimately realizing it would simply take too long to execute each jello shot by hand, Sprite_tm decided to whip up a specialized 3D printer for the alcohol infused task, powered by an ATTiny2313 nonetheless.
Tattoo machine
Makers Pierre Emm, Piotr Widelka and Johan Da Silveira have replaced the extruder of an [Atmel AVR powered] Makerbot Replicator with a tattoo instrument, effectively transforming the 3D printer into a fully-functional, permanent inking machine. The hacked device, dubbed Tatoue, attaches a traditional tattoo gun on rails to a square metal frame. These components move along three axes, enabling Tatoue to follow the path of any line or curve of the human body. An embedded sensor can read the skin’s surface, which allows the needle respond to changes in texture and dimensions of the inserted limb.
Knitting loom
While the Maker community has been using 3D printers for some time now, the industry has been primarily focused on producing plastic or metal objects. However, a new open-source digital fabrication tool has recently emerged that will knit your next sweater in under an hour. A small team of Barcelona-based Makers led by Gerard Rubio hopes to put a new spin on the market with their Arduino Leonardo-powered (ATmega32U4) OpenKnit, a “printer” that automatically knits thread to create clothing based on digital templates.
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