Just like the garage computer explosion of the 70’s through the 80’s, which brought us such things as Apple, pong, Bill Gate’s hair, and the proliferation of personal computers, the maker movement is the new garage hardware explosion. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement.
Enthusiasts who want to build the products they want, from shortwave radios to personal computers, and to tweak products they’ve bought to make them even better, have long been a part of the electronics industry. By all measures, garage-style innovation remains alive and well today, as “makers” as they are called continue to turn out contemporary gadgets, including 3D printers, drones, and embedded electronics devices.
Making is about individual Do-It-Yourselfers being able to design and create with tools that were, as of a decade or two ago, only available to large, cash-rich corporations: CAD tools, CNC mills, 3D printers, low-quantity PCB manufacturing, open hardware such as Arduinos and similar inexpensive development boards – all items that have made it easier and relatively cheap to make whatever we imagine. For individuals, maker tools can change how someone views their home or their hobbies. The world is ours to make. Humans are genetically wired to be makers. The maker movement is simply the result of making powerful building and communication tools accessible to the masses. There are plenty of projects from makers that show good engineering: Take this Arduino board with tremendous potential, developed by a young maker, as example.
The maker movement is a catalyst to democratize entrepreneurship as these do-it-yourself electronics are proving to be hot sellers: In the past year, unit sales for 3D printing related products; Arduino units, parts and supplies; Raspberry Pi boards; drones and quadcopters; and robotics goods are all on a growth curve in terms of eBay sales. There are many Kickstarter maker projects going on. The Pebble E-Paper Watch raises $10 million. The LIFX smartphone-controlled LED bulb raises $1.3 million. What do these products have in common? They both secured funding through Kickstarter, a crowd-funding website that is changing the game for entrepreneurs. Both products were created by makers who seek to commercialize their inventions. These “startup makers” iterate on prototypes with high-end tools at professional makerspaces.
For companies to remain competitive, they need to embrace the maker movement or leave themselves open for disruption. Researchers found that 96 percent of business leaders believe new technologies have forever changed the rules of business by democratizing information and rewiring customer expectations. - You’ve got to figure out agile innovation. Maybe history is repeating itself as the types of products being sold reminded us of the computer tinkering that used to be happening in the 1970s to 1990s – similar in terms of demographics, tending to be young people, and low budget. Now the do-it-yourself category is deeply intertwined with the electronics industry. Open hardware is in the center in maker movement – we need open hardware designs! How can you publish your designs and still do business with it? Open source ecosystem markets behave differently and therefore require a very different playbook than traditional tech company: the differentiation is not in the technology you build; it is in the process and expertise that you slowly amass over an extended period of time.
By democratizing the product development process, helping these developments get to market, and transforming the way we educate the next generation of innovators, we will usher in the next industrial revolution. The world is ours to make. Earlier the PC created a new generation of software developers who could innovate in the digital world without the limitations of the physical world (virtually no marginal cost, software has become the great equalizer for innovation. Now advances in 3D printing and low-cost microcontrollers as well as the ubiquity of advanced sensors are enabling makers to bridge software with the physical world. Furthermore, the proliferation of wireless connectivity and cloud computing is helping makers contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT). We’re even beginning to see maker designs and devices entering those markets once thought to be off-limits, like medical.
Image source: The world is ours to make: The impact of the maker movement – EDN Magazine
In fact, many parents have engaged in the maker movement with their kids because they know that the education system is not adequately preparing their children for the 21st century. There is a strong movement to spread this DIY idea widely. The Maker Faire, which launched in the Bay Area in California in 2006, underlined the popularity of the movement by drawing a record 215,000 people combined in the Bay Area and New York events in 2014. There’s Maker Media, MakerCon, MakerShed, Make: magazine and 131 Maker Faire events that take place throughout the world. Now the founders of all these Makers want a way to connect what they refer to as the “maker movement” online. So Maker Media created a social network called MakerSpace, a Facebook-like social network that connects participants of Maker Faire in one online community. The new site will allow participants of the event to display their work online. There are many other similar sites that allow yout to present yout work fron Hackaday to your own blog. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement—although makers can be found everywhere in the world.
6,973 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/news/daniel-danyk-s-circadian-lamp-uses-a-hand-built-pcb-to-totally-rid-a-room-of-blue-light-aa07801b699c
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ben Eater’s Gosh Darn Good Job at Reverse Engineering TVGuardian’s Naughty Word Filter
https://www.hackster.io/news/ben-eater-s-gosh-darn-good-job-at-reverse-engineering-tvguardian-s-naughty-word-filter-a91a3c441ef5
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Smart Wireless Bandage Not Only Monitors Your Wounds, But Treats Them Too
Designed to monitor wounds and deliver electrical stimulation, this smart bandage can cut healing time by 25 percent and scarring in half
https://www.hackster.io/news/this-smart-wireless-bandage-not-only-monitors-your-wounds-but-treats-them-too-a77d223b51e5
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.arduino.cc/2022/11/28/see-how-ben-eater-reverse-engineered-an-80s-tv-censoring-device/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/the-shannon-decoder-a-much-faster-alternative-to-the-pwm-dac/
Tomi Engdahl says:
HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN ANALOG PHONE NETWORK
https://hackaday.com/2022/11/23/how-to-build-your-own-analog-phone-network/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/07/transparent-metal-hydroxide-without-mr-scott/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Recreating The Sounds Of The ’90s With A YM3812 Synthesizer
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/07/recreating-the-sounds-of-the-90s-with-a-ym3812-synthesizer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Wheatstone Bridge Matches Your Pots
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/07/a-wheatstone-bridge-matches-your-pots/
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Affordable And Programmable PLC
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/08/an-affordable-and-programmable-plc/
We’re all used to general purpose microcontroller boards such as the Arduino or its many imitators, but perhaps we don’t see as much of their industrial cousins. A programmable logic controller (PLC) is a computer designed to automate industrial machinery, and comes with protected interfaces and usually a specific PLC programming environment. Thus [Galopago]’s work with an inexpensive Chinese PLC clone is especially interesting, providing a route forward to using it within the Arduino IDE ecosystem.
Opening it up, the processor is identified as an STM32F103, and the connection needed to place it in bootloader mode is identified. Then it can be programmed from the Arduino IDE, even though its bootloader can’t be changed. Then to complete the process it’s necessary to identify the various different inputs and outputs by old-fashioned hardware reverse engineering.
Repurposing a PLC clone for use with Arduino
https://galopago.github.io/english/repurposing-plc-clone-arduino/
Attack of the clonesPermalink
These boards mention compatibility with GX software, which is manufactured by a Japanese company that makes PLC and also cars. At first sight, the compatibility is not official, as no trademark is printed. Their origin is unknown, maybe they were simplified copies based on original schematics and source code, or somehow the native binary format of the PLC was reverse engineered and an interpreter was built and runs in the microcontroller translating the code. Most of the cards are based on STM32 microcontrollers, and according to some articles and videos, the original programming software actually recognizes them as an original PLC!
Due to their low cost (around $25 USD), and for their relay isolated outputs, optically isolated inputs, RS232 serial port and regulated power supply, are great candidates for small projects as long as they can be programmed with a free multi-platform tool like Arduino or STM suite. In addition, a schematic diagram is needed to find out which I/O of the microcontroller goes to which peripheral in the board!
Tomi Engdahl says:
In-Car Social Media Detox (Blocker)
https://hackaday.io/project/188262-in-car-social-media-detox-blocker
Block access to social media when you start your car, with social media restored once your journey has ended.
Use the SocialsDetox[0] API[1] to block access to social media when you start your car, with social media restored once your journey has ended.
Following on from The Big Red Button for Social Media[2] comes the In-Car Social Media Detox (Blocker). If you’re unable to drive a vehicle without the urge to (“inconspicuously”) check social media at every opportunity – traffic lights on red, junctions, driving your articulated lorry/semi truck, etc – then this project could be for you.
It may also help alleviate stress when in the back of the Maybach after you’re finally sick of reading, or tweeting, about your recent $44 billion acquisition.
The Big Red Button for Social Media
https://hackaday.io/project/187435-the-big-red-button-for-social-media
Block access to social media at the touch of a big red button
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/05/radial-vector-reducer-rotates-at-really-relaxed-velocity/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rotary Dial Number Pad Is The Perfect Prank For Retro-Phone Enthusiast
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/05/rotary-dial-number-pad-is-the-perfect-prank-for-retro-phone-enthusiast/
We’re not sure about the rest of you, but to us, a keyboard without a number pad all the way over to the right just seems kind of — naked? We might not be accountants, but there’s something comforting about having the keypad right there, ready for those few occasions when you need to enter numbers more rapidly than would be possible with the row of number keys along the top of the keyboard.
What we are sure about, though, is that rapid numeric keying is not what this rotary dial numpad keyboard is all about. In fact, it’s actually an April Fool’s prank [Squidgeefish] played on a retro-phone-obsessed coworker, and it worked out pretty well. Starting with an old telephone dial from what must be an exceptionally well-stocked parts bin, [Squidgeefish] first worked out the electrical aspects of interfacing the dial with a cheapo mechanical keyboard. It turns out that there’s a lot of contact bounce in those old dials, leading to some software hacks to keep the Arduino happy.
https://squidgeefish.com/projects/rotary-keyboard/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Homebrew 3D Printer Goop Promises Better Bed Adhesion
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/06/homebrew-3d-printer-goop-promises-better-bed-adhesion/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rocket Mounted 3D Printed Camera Wheel Tries, Succeeds, And Also Fails
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/06/rocket-mounted-3d-printed-camera-wheel-tries-succeeds-and-also-fails/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/02/spool-tower-empty-filament-spool-or-base-for-miniature-civilizations/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/03/bring-out-the-fine-detail-in-small-objects-with-this-coaxial-lighting-rig/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFA0URK8Aoc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build Your Own Mini Fogging Cauldron
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/03/build-your-own-mini-fogging-cauldron/
The best cauldrons are full of bubbling, steamy potions of great magical potential. We don’t have many of those in the real world, though, so sometimes we have to make do with a simulacra. [wannabemadsci] has built just that, with this fogging cauldron prop that uses no fog fluid or dry ice, running solely with water instead.
The heart of the build is a piezo element that vibrates at ultrasonic frequencies to atomize water. They’re available from websites like AliExpress complete with a driver circuit to energize the piezo element. The water is delivered from a wetted fiber wick, and quickly becomes a fog when the piezo is energized.
Mini Fogging Cauldron – No Dry Ice, No Fog Fluid
https://www.instructables.com/Mini-Fogging-Cauldron-No-Dry-Ice-No-Fog-Fluid/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Cycle-Accurate Intel 8088 Core For All Your Retro PC Needs
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/03/a-cycle-accurate-intel-8088-core-for-all-your-retro-pc-needs/
A problem faced increasingly by retrocomputer enthusiasts everywhere is the supply of chips. Once a piece of silicon goes out of production its demand can be supplied for a time by old stock and second hand parts, but as they become rare so the cost of what can be dubious parts accelerates out of reach. Happily for CPUs at least, there’s a ray of hope in the form of FPGA-based cores which can replace the real thing, and for early PC owners there’s a new one from [Ted Fried]. MCL86 is a cycle accurate Intel 8088 FPGA Core that can be used within an FPGA design or as a standalone in-circuit replacement for a real 8088. It even has a full-speed mode that sacrifices cycle accuracy and can accelerate those 8088 instructions by 400%.
MCL86 – Cycle Accurate Intel 8088 FPGA Core
https://hackaday.io/project/188412-mcl86-cycle-accurate-intel-8088-fpga-core
The MCL86 is a cycle accurate microsequencer-based FPGA core which can be used as a drop-in replacement for the Intel 8088 or 8086.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Breathe Through Your Ears?
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/04/breathe-through-your-ears/
With all the attention given to heart rate monitoring and step counting, respiratory rate monitoring is often overlooked. Smartwatches are starting to incorporate respiratory rate monitoring more and more these days. However, current devices often simply look at breaths per minute without extracting more interesting features of the respiratory waveform which could give us more insight into our bodies than breaths per minute could alone. [Davies] and his team decided they wanted to change that by making an earbud that can measure respiratory rate.
https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/96220/9/breathing_earPPG_final.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Miracle Of Science: Scotch Tape Improves Generator
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/04/miracle-of-science-scotch-tape-improves-generator/
We were always amused that one of the biggest scientific discoveries of the recent past — graphene — was started with pencil lead and Scotch tape. Now, researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville have determined that double-sided Scotch tape can improve triboelectric power generators. Triboelectric generation, of course, is nothing new. These energy harvesters take mechanical and thermal energy and turn them into tiny amounts of electricity. What’s new here is that PET plastic, aluminum, and double-sided tape can make an inexpensive generator that works well.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsomega.2c05457?cookieSet=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using Electron Beams To Draw Tiny Shapes Onto Silicon
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/05/using-electron-beams-to-draw-tiny-shapes-onto-silicon/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KXkcFcjcfY
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/05/designing-to-remove-supports/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/04/this-is-the-future-of-waste-management/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Perhaps It’s Time To Talk About All Those Fakes And Clones
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/05/perhaps-its-time-to-talk-about-all-those-fakes-and-clones/
We all like cheap instruments, whether they are a logic analyser, an SDR, a spectrum analyser, or whatever. Sometimes the cheap products are based upon open source projects, such as the NanoVNA vector network analyser we looked at a while back, but it’s important to be aware that just as often they are clones of commercial products that have had a huge research and development applied to create them.
There may be some open-source enthusiasts who would respond that all such things should be open source hardware anyway, and that the devices have been somehow “set free” by the cloners.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/08/an-affordable-and-programmable-plc/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/08/a-very-tidy-atx-bench-psu/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/08/drlcd-is-here-to-give-your-msla-printer-a-checkup/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/09/theres-nothing-square-about-this-rectangular-guitar/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/09/nostalgic-30-in-one-electronics-badge-for-def-con-30/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/05/perhaps-its-time-to-talk-about-all-those-fakes-and-clones/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/08/osprey-keyboard-lets-the-nrf52840-spread-its-wings/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/11/see-what-youre-in-for-when-buying-and-moving-a-lathe/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/11/diy-comparatron-helps-trace-tiny-complex-objects/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/11/a-straightforward-old-fashioned-dac/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/188593-6bit-digital-analog-converter
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/188501-z80-ice
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/11/fixing-and-improving-an-annoying-apartment-entry-system/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/10/old-school-video-switching-levels-up-with-modern-usb-control/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/10/using-github-actions-to-brew-coffee/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://grack.com/blog/2022/12/01/hacking-bluetooth-to-brew-coffee-on-github-actions-part-1/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/09/printed-propeller-blades-repair-indoor-flyer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/09/properly-pipe-laser-light-around-with-homebrew-fiber-couplings/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/10/lisp-runs-this-microcontroller-pendant/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/12/laser-cutting-a-flurry-of-generative-snowflakes/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Serial Cistercian Digit Module
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/12/serial-cistercian-digit-module/
There’s no doubt that the 7-segment display is a gold standard for displaying lighted digits. But what about a throwback to an older system of displaying numbers — Cistercian? With thirty-one 0805 LEDs, [Josue Alejandro] made a simple module displaying a single Cistercian digit (any from 0-9999).
https://savageelectronics.com/cistercian-display/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Interesting Optical Journey Results In Hybrid Viewfinder For Smartphones
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/12/interesting-optical-journey-results-in-hybrid-viewfinder-for-smartphones/
Fair warning: if you ever thought there was nothing particularly interesting with optical viewfinders, prepare to have your misconception corrected by [volzo] with this deep-dive into camera-aiming aids that leads to an interesting hybrid smartphone viewfinder.
For most of us, the traditional optical viewfinder is very much a thing of the past, having been supplanted by digital cameras and LCD displays. But some people still want to frame a photograph the old-fashioned way, and the optical principles that make that possible are actually a lot more complicated than they seem. [volzo]’s blog post and video go into a great deal of detail on viewfinder optics, so feel free to fall down that rabbit hole — it’s worth the trip. But if you’d rather cut to the chase, the actual viewfinder build starts at about the 23:00 mark in the video.
Making a Hybrid Viewfinder
https://volzo.de/thing/hybridviewfinder/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Concealed Model Railway Rises To The Occasion
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/13/a-concealed-model-railway-rises-to-the-occasion/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Building A Lamp To Help With Seasonal Depression
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/13/building-a-lamp-to-help-with-seasonal-depression/
The sun plays a big biological role in our lives, regulating our circadian rhythms and doing a whole bunch more as well. Some people find the reduced sunlight of the winter months to have negative emotional effects, and rely on artificial lighting to counteract this. [Samasrinivas] built a lamp of their own design for this very purpose.
The lamp is constructed around an abstract sculptural form made in air-dry clay. Light is provided via a string of Neopixel RGBW LEDs. Run by an Adafruit Feather Huzzah
https://www.instructables.com/Warm-Hugs-a-Sun-Lamp-for-Seasonal-Depression/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/15/building-a-chain-drive-differential-from-junkyard-parts/