Maker creates an impressive Steampunk-inspired 3D printer

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This 3D printer would surely make K. W. Jeter proud. 

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First coined by author K. W. Jeter, steampunk is best defined as a sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy literature that commonly features some aspect of steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century. Over the years, there has undoubtedly been a rise in the theme’s popularity, as seen across Maker Faires and in a number of slick DIY projects like this wristwatch. And, while we’ve seen countless devices arise, one space that seemed to go untouched was 3D printing. That was until now.

That’s because John Davis recently devised a steampunk-inspired iteration of the Printrbot GO, which essentially consists of the printer housed inside of an antique wooden suitcase from the 1920s. Aside from the inclusion of an LCD display, it’s safe to say that it looks a machine straight out of the “Wild, Wild West.” Job well done!

The unit itself is equipped with antique bronze extruder gear, a set of spur wheels, a Frankenstein-style knife switch, and a pair of leather straps, among a number of other features to round out its aesthetics.

“Since before I even owned the GO, I had a vision in my mind about turning it into a steampunk steamer trunk kinda thing, and critical to that vision were suitcase belts,” the Maker writes. “I can’t imagine a single feature (well, in addition to darkly stained wood) that says ‘olde timey’ like leather belts up the sides of a piece of a luggage, so I knew I needed to get something like that working for me at some point.”

Beyond that, Davis located some old-school weather dials that once measured temperature, humidity and barometric pressure and repurposed them to monitor the 3D printer’s performance. These were placed on the other side of the suitcase, away from an LCD that he modded the gadget with. The Maker also decided to enhance his contraption’s display, swapping out its original bluish screen for one that was amber-colored to provide that full Steampunk visual effect.

And, of course, the alternative world-esque device is driven by a Printrboard electronic set (AT90USB1286) and powered by an X-Box 360 PSU. Impressively, Davis was even able to add a Raspberry Pi with OctoPrint to allow for wireless control and remote monitoring of his prints (by webcam) via his smartphone. The Pi was mounted inside the front right hand panel, which enabled him to attach the camera onto the side of the gantry.

Those looking for the perfect Maker Faire accessory can head over to Davis’ exhaustive project page here, which breaks down the build step by step.

Nibble is a pocket-sized development platform for Makers

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Wi-Fi connectivity + OLED display + SD card + IR transmitter = An Arduino variant that Makers will love.

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Designed for Makers and electronic enthusiasts, Nibble is a credit card-sized, Arduino-like device that can be used to create projects, devise games or simply learn the basics of programming.

Nibble crams everything a DIYer could possibly need in a development platform into a form factor that can be easily pocketed and carried on the go. Based on an ATmega328P, the gadget is equipped with a 802.11 b/g/n programmable Wi-Fi module, a 128×64-pixel OLED display, a microSD slot for data and charging, an IR transmitter, a two-channel piezo speaker and a 300mAh LiPo battery that lasts for roughly six to eight hours. These electronics are all housed inside a somewhat transparent 3D-printed enclosure.

On top of all that goodness, Nibble features eight pushbuttons (that come with variously colored replacement caps) that are perfect for playing handheld games along with an expansion port for ICSP, I2C, digital and analog pins. According to creator Simone Picchioni, “Thanks to the expansion port, Nibble is able to read inputs (pushbutton, Twitter message, sun light) and turn it into an output (turning on an LED, moving a motor).”

The Maker has open sourced an Arduino library exclusively for Nibble, which you can use to develop games and utilities. Looking ahead, Picchioni will also provide examples and tutorials.

Intrigued? Check out Nibble’s Kickstarter campaign, where Picchioni is currently seeking $31,760.

Maker creates his own Pixar lamp robot

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Having a bad day? Luci the lamp robot can help cheer you up! 

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Sitting at your desk for hours on end can get lonely, especially for those who work from home or spend quite a bit of time inside their dorm rooms. Sometimes all you need is a friend — or a robotic lamp that could be straight from a Pixar flick.

Inspired by the animated short “Luxo Jr.,” Maker Jochen Alt decided to create one of his own named Luci. While she may not be able to hop around like the character, she sure does share many of the same attributes and has one heck of a personality. First spotted by MAKE: Magazine, the lamp is controlled by an ODROID-U3 running Ubuntu Linux with computer vision using OpenCV and Boost. This software takes care of the facial recognition and trajectory computations.

Meanwhile, Luci’s servo-driven movements are controlled by no other than an ATmega328P. The ODROID control board also has a self-made Arduino shield on top. The AVR chip handles the PWM output for the servos, switches the relays and regulates the voltage for the servos to provide smooth movement for its initial position.

Luci’s frame is comprised of birch wood along, several brass axes and 20 ball bearings. The Maker designed a 3D model of the head with TurboCAD, which were later printed in ABS. Alt tells MAKE: that there are springs to help off-load some of the weight. The servos are tasked with driving the rotating base, as well as extending and contracting the upper and lower struts. There’s also an additional servo embedded inside Luci’s head to help with turning.

The robotic accessory works by first scanning her environment until detecting a face. Just like you, Luci can express a variety of feelings and then react accordingly. For instance, she’ll move back quickly when surprised, put her head down if she finds herself being shy, or nod if she’s in agreement with you.

Intrigued? See Luci in action below!

Creating instruments that surprise, amuse and excite

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OK GO, KORG and the Royal College of Art recently collaborated on a project that explored innovative musical instruments.

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By now, most of you probably know that the band OK GO is a large advocate of the Maker Movement. The group recently collaborated with music instrument producer KORG and students from the Platform 21 unit in the Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art in London. The project, called Hack ’n Roll, encouraged participants to create a series of objects that would not only generate sound, but would do so in a visually appealing and entertaining way.

The Makers were divided into three teams: Team OK, Team G and Team O. Each team used a variety of KORG products as a starting point, devising instruments or a space that would enable the musician to play while being free from traditional constraints imposed by existing tools. The goal was to have a set of devices that would interface between the performers and the instruments/system and could be played on stage with their bodies. The song that they would perform was “Another Set of Issues” by OK GO, of course.

First, Team OK based their creation on the concept of “visual amplification” where the circuitry of a KORG MS-20 mini was hacked and rewired to play only four notes from the song’s repeating bassline. Rotating a handle on its side triggers the circuit and oversized keys to play the corresponding notes. Aside from the mini synth, the system was comprised of a half-dozen Arduino boards, stepper motors, stepper shields and Fresnel lenses, as well as some pieces of clear acrylic and lumber.

“The faces and bodies of the band members are magnified and distorted as the chorus of the song, ‘Another Set of Issues’ is played on KORG’s MS-20 mini. The six notes to play the chorus sequence are programmed as triggers that rotate six stepper motors that are attached to large Fresnel lenses within the frame,” the team writes.

The next group, Team G, focused on “floating keyboards.” This consisted of eight modular keyboards linked together to make one long keyboard. As its name implies, each keyboard’s height changes with the music and is choreographed to the lyrics. This was achieved by attaching the keyboard to two motors, one on each side. The system is complemented by pulleys that create an extra visual effect and an optical light illusion.

“The concept for the floating keyboards is creating an object that both enhances the stage, audience experience through light and visuals, as well as creates a new humorous platform to play electronic music. Thus, making the experience more human based compared to pushing a button on a stage and just counting on lighting and visuals. The floating keyboard also allows OK GO band members to choreograph a routine both in tune with the song and their humorous style,” the Makers explain.

Lastly, Team O was tasked with “inflatables and contemporary busking” — an instrument specifically for one person that lets them deliver a range of different sounds. This particular unit was made up of five KORG synthesisers and a KORG Wavedrum. A trio of KORG Volca synthesizers was triggered by a foot switch, that when pressed, delivered one note programmed into the synthesizers. Meanwhile, a pair KORG Monotron were hacked and put through an Arduino to ultrasonic distance sensors. From these sensors, the pitch is controlled by hand on the side of the plinth.

“The closer your hand is to the sensor the lower the pitch and vice versa. All the devices are sent through a mixer, which is connected to an amp that outputs the sound. Having all the devices on display it allows the user to adjust anything and also shows the audience what devices are being used. A completely portable product contemporary busking brings its own style to street performance,” its creators mention.

When all is said and done, Hack ’n Roll was one pretty impressive project. However, you have to see it all in action to truly experience the full effect. Read all about it on its official page here.

[h/t Creative Applications]

Building a ‘My Little Pony’ donation box with Arduino

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One hackerspace has created an over-the-top, extremely awesome donation box with a wind tunnel, LED matrix and dollar bill-triggered tunes. 

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As the vice president of the Los Angeles-based, non-profit hackerspace CRASH Space, software engineer Michelle Leonhart knows a thing or two about donations. At each of their events, the group will typically leave out a little jar for people to contribute to their cause. Up until now, however, that jar was nothing more than an old Cheezy-Poofs container with a small hole cut into its lid.

But shouldn’t a place oozing with innovative projects and dynamic Makers have a collections basket that properly reflected their creativity? Being one of the more whimsical hackerspaces out there, CRASH Space’s mascot is a soldering unicorn named Sparkles. With this in mind, Leonhart decided to go about giving the donation box a My Little Pony makeover.

The top slot in the donation box is equipped with a distance sensor mounted right beneath it in hot pink acrylic hearts. Whenever someone slips in a dollar bill, the sensor detects a change in distance and cues the donation box to react. At this point, the words “THANK YOU” scroll across an RGB LED matrix while emitting the My Little Pony theme song, and two fans begin to toss the bills around as if it were one of those money blowing machines.

The LED matrix is driven by an Arduino Nano (ATmega328), while the sound system consists of a robertsonics MP3 trigger board, SPST relays, a 5V power adapter, as well as a speaker and amp, of course. All of the electronics are housed inside an upcycled, clear acrylic box.

“The robertsonics MP3 board is designed to play an MP3 file every time a trigger is closed. To close a trigger, you just need to close the circuit between the two pins in the trigger. Notice that this board has 15 triggers, and therefore can support up to 15 different sound files,” Leonhart explains. “Right now mine only plays the My Little Pony song, but this leaves room for future upgrades… to play up to 15 different My Little Pony songs.”

Intrigued? Leonhart has provided an excellent tutorial on how to go about constructing a donation box of your own along with all the necessary files, code and everything else you could possibly need. See it in action below!

[s/o Samy Kamkar for sending us the tip!]

What time is it? The TimeDock Sleepeasy will tell you

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This interactive docking station allows your Pebble Time smartwatch to talk to you with a wave of your hand.

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Picture this. You’re in bed, wondering how much time has gone by since you haven’t been able to fall asleep. What if there was a device that could tell you the time so you didn’t need to put your glasses on to find out? At the Pebble Rocks Boulder Hackathon, one team devised a gadget to solve that specific problem.

The TimeDock Sleepeasy is an interactive docking station for your Pebble Time smart watch. The gramophone-like unit allows you to find out what time it is, without having to turn on a light, press buttons or touch the Pebble while it’s on the dock charging. Even better, the device will read the time and talk to you, so you don’t need to do anything except wave your hand.

Inspired by the old-fashioned gramophone, the team created a 3D-printed mount embedded with an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) inside. The 3D design enabled the sound to be amplified mechanically, resulting in a gramophone look-a-like. The Arduino then communicates with the Pebble and leverages a sensor to respond and tell you the time.

The group figured out how to get the Arduino talking to the Pebble, and they used an ultrasound sensor so that users can wave their hand at the TimeDock and learn the time. To open communication between the Arduino and the Pebble, the team configured the ATmega328 board to send a request to the Pebble for the time, then programmed the Pebble to reply with the time and a request to say it. Its creators loaded .WAV files on the Arduino for a range of other notifications programmed on the Pebble — when the Arduino gathers information on the notification, it plays the corresponding .WAV file.

“TimeDock was developed as a charging station for the Pebble Time and Time Steel, and was a successful Kickstarter campaign. For this hackathon, we wanted to see if we could make TimeDock do more than charging. The TimeDocks that you see in use in this article have been modified to allow connection to the smart strap serial data port on the Pebble Time,” the team explains.

Mission accomplished! You can read all about the 48-hour build process on its Hackster.io page here.

Solving the Rubik’s Cube with Raspberry Pi and Arduino

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A Maker duo created a Rubik’s Cube-solving robot using recycled FAC system parts, a Raspberry Pi Compute Module and an Arduino Mini.

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Solving a Rubik’s Cube is no easy feat. In fact, for a vast majority of folks, it’s a downright daunting task. But what if there was an automated mechanism that could do it for you? That’s exactly what the duo of Maxim Tsoy and Wilbert Swinkels has developed. Inspired by other DIY cube solvers comprised of LEGO and Fischertechnik, the Makers brought their creation to life using antiquated FAC-System parts — a modular system developed back in the early 1950s.

At the heart of the machine lies a Raspberry Pi Compute Module along with Arduino Mini. The Compute Module actuates a series of  motors and grippers, while also running a two-phase algorithm from Herbert Kociemba. Aside from that, the ATmega328 board was employed to control an LDR-based scanner which consists of three modified ColorPAL sensors. The data is sent to the Arduino and based on the incoming set of information, the program begins computing how to solve the cube and relays commands to the motors.

“It turned out to be very easy to connect Arduino to Raspberry and make them work together,” the Makers reveal. This called for nothing more than two wires and a level converter from SparkFun.

The entire system is mounted onto an MDF base, which houses all of the electronic components. It should be pointed out that, at first, an Arduino was implemented as the brains of the entire operation. However, the Makers realized that an RPi would be a much better suitor for the job. After all, the sophisticated cube solving algorithms required quite a bit of memory — more than the Arduino could provide.

Pretty cool, right? See it in action below, and check out the project’s elaborate overview here.

Automating an old sprinkler controller with Moteino

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Maker upgrades his sprinkler controller by integrating it with his Monteino home automation gateway.

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It seems like everyone across the U.S. is experiencing a drought these days. So when it comes to conserving water, an older sprinkler system may not be the most efficient in doing the job. Cognizant of this, Felix Rusu decided to channel his inner Maker and to upgrade his unit by integrating the outdated irrigation controller with his home automation gateway. This, of course, enabled him to define his own schedule and control it wirelessly from his smartphone, among a few other things.

“I took apart the sprinkler controller to figure out how it works. There are two boards, one hosts the 24VAC TRIACs and circuitry that powers the solenoids. The other was a controller board with user interface, LCD, buttons etc. This gets power from the first board and controls the TRIACs through a ribbon cable. A quick continuity test reveals the pins of the ribbon connector control the gates of the TRIACs, simple enough,” the Maker explains.

At the heart of it all lies a Moteino (ATmega328). To interface it with the sprinkler system, Rusu first had to create a PCB interface. This board, which he calls the IOShield, features a buck power supply that regulates the 24VAC power of the sprinkler down to 5VDC for the MCU and two 74HC595 shift registers. The output from the shift registers are connected to a pin header where the stock computer would normally have been plugged in. It should also be noted that the IOShield is daisy-chainable and features 16 channels along with 16 indicator LEDs.

“I have nine sprinkler zones, but one IOShield will support up to 16 outputs. I can use the TRIAC board and only tap into the nine zones that are active,” Rusu writes. “I can just use the first board with all the TRIACs and then replace the clunky standalone sprinkler controller board with the IOShield+Moteino combo for completely wireless control and integration to the gateway.”

With some programming and an accompanying mobile app, the new board is able to take over the sprinkler’s TRIACs, enabling him to turn on and off the zones with a touch of a finger. Intrigued? You can read all about the Maker’s project here, or listen to his detailed overview below.

[h/t Hackaday]

Building a life-size animatronic Terminator

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Maker creates an animatronic, ATmega328 powered T-800 out of balsa wood and cardboard.

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If you liked the ‘80s blockbuster hit Terminator, then you’ll love this recent project from Kaled Souky. That’s because Maker has created an impressive T-800 Model 101 replica primarily out of balsa wood and cardboard. And we’re not talking about just a static statue either, it’s actually a life-size animatronic prop.

The model’s head and arms are actuated by an ATmega328 based controller board, along with several servos and pulleys. The legs are not motorized, however, and there to offer support.

“One of the most demanding parts of the mechanical design was the arm holding the gun,” he writes. “On the levers of the third kind that conform the shoulder joints and elbow, much weight is generated, so the servos and pulleys exert a force that achieve a torque of over 40kg/cm respectively, to easily overcome the resistance that can offer the hand holding the gun, which when the arm is fully stretched, its length reaches over one meter long.”

The Maker programmed the T-800 by writing some code in the Arduino IDE, which allowed him to control the position, velocity and acceleration of the servo.

“For determining the angular position in some joints, the reading system of resistive variation is used, and in other cases a mechanical system of counterweight is applied,” the Maker explains. “The energy is provided by a commercial power supply that provides five volts and 10 amps, plus also features a DC boost converter with adjustable regulator, which collaborates with the best driving performance of some servos.”

Pretty awesome, right?

Building a 3D-printed, Arduino-powered dog feeder

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Maker creates an over-engineered, automated treat feeder for his pup using Arduino and his Ultimaker 2. 

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We’ve seen some pretty sweet pet projects as of late, and this recent one from JonPaul Laskis surely doesn’t disappoint. The Maker has designed an over-engineered DIY solution to feed his pup a treat after every meal.

Upon finishing his dinner, Laskis would always give his dog a Dentastix treat to help maintain his oral hygiene. However, the treat wasn’t always delivered at the same time, which as any pet owner knows, isn’t something our furry friends enjoy. This inspired him to build an automated machine that would dispense a treat for his impatient pup without requiring his assistance.

How it works is pretty straightforward: The dog places its paw on a lever, which activates the machine. From there, the device will decide if a treat will be granted or not. (The machine is programmed to only dispense one every eight hours.) When not in operation, it will remain off to conserve battery. The feeder is able to keep track of the appropriate times and the amount of treats remaining in the tube before rotation by storing these values in the EEPROM of an embedded Arduino Uno (ATmega328). These values reset after each treat.

Laskis designed his project in SolidWorks and 3D printed each of its plastic components in lime green PLA with his AVR powered Ultimaker 2. In addition to these parts, the automatic feeder is comprised of a dozen six-inch-ling clear acrylic tubes and a laser-cut sheet metal base.

Want to make one of your own? Head over to the Maker’s Thingiverse page to get started. Meanwhile, you can see it in action below!