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.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
I2C Controlled, FOC capable BLDC controller
https://hackaday.io/project/189046-i2c-controlled-foc-capable-bldc-controller
The Qwiic BLDC is an open source, I2C controlled/programmed, FOC-capable, ESC and BLDC driver. It’s based on Allegro’s A98301 IC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
e-Paper Triptych: Man
https://hackaday.io/project/189213-e-paper-triptych-man
Color e-Paper wall art, with generative portraits and textures.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/19/led-driver-circuit-for-safety-hat-sucks-single-aaa-cell-dry/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/18/3d-printed-berlin-uhr-is-an-attractive-germanic-clock/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/18/soundscape-sculpture-is-pleasing-art-for-your-ears/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frequency Tells Absolute Temperature
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/18/frequency-tells-absolute-temperature/
It is no secret that semiconductor junctions change their behavior with temperature, and you can use this fact to make a temperature sensor. The problem is that you have to calibrate each device for any particular transistor you want to use as a sensor, even if they have the same part number. Back in 2011 1991, the famous [Jim Williams] noted that while the voltage wasn’t known, the difference between two readings at different current levels would track with temperature in a known way. He exploited this in an application note and, recently, [Stephen Woodward] used the same principle in an oscillator that can read the temperature.
https://www.edn.com/transistor-%E2%88%86vbe-based-oscillator-measures-absolute-temperature/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Giant LEGO-Like Blocks To Build Big Toys
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/18/3d-printing-giant-lego-like-blocks-to-build-big-toys/
[Ivan Miranda] is all about big 3D prints. He’s now set about printing giant blocks in the vein of LEGO Technic to build himself a full-sized rideable go kart. The project is still in progress, but [Ivan] has made great progress with his design.
The benefit of 3D printing giant blocks like this is that they open up the possibilities for rapid prototyping of big projects. It’s already easy to snap together a little LEGO tank, boat, or car at the small scale. Bigger blocks would make that possible for larger builds, too. Plus, once you’ve got plenty of blocks, there’s no need to wait for the 3D printer to churn out parts. You can just play with your toolbox of existing components.
I BUILT MY OWN HUGE LEGO INSPIRED BLOCKS FOR A LIFE SIZED GO KART!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OunU3Cz1o4M
Tomi Engdahl says:
Weatherproof Raspberry Pi Camera Enclosure, In A Pinch
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/18/weatherproof-raspberry-pi-camera-enclosure-in-a-pinch/
The Raspberry Pi is the foundation of many IoT camera projects, but enclosures are often something left up to the user. [Mare] found that a serviceable outdoor enclosure could be made with a trip to the hardware store and inexpensive microscopy supplies.
Outdoor housing for Telraam Traffic counting camera
https://e.pavlin.si/2021/01/02/outdoor-housing-for-telraam-traffic-counting-camera/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internal Heating Element Makes These PCBs Self-Soldering
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/18/internal-heating-element-makes-these-pcbs-self-soldering/
Surface mount components have been a game changer for the electronics hobbyist, but doing reflow soldering right requires some way to evenly heat the board. You might need to buy a commercial reflow oven — you can cobble one together from an old toaster oven, after all — but you still need something, because it’s not like a PCB is going to solder itself. Right?
Wrong. At least if you’re [Carl Bugeja], who came up with a clever way to make his PCBs self-soldering. The idea is to use one of the internal layers on a four-layer PCB, which would normally be devoted to a ground plane, as a built-in heating element. Rather than a broad, continuous layer of copper, [Carl] made a long, twisting trace covering the entire area of the PCB. Routing the trace around vias was a bit tricky, but in the end he managed a single trace with a resistance of about 3 ohms.
When connected to a bench power supply, the PCB actually heats up quickly and pretty evenly judging by the IR camera. The quality of the soldering seems very similar to what you’d see from a reflow oven. After soldering, the now-useless heating element is converted into a ground plane for the circuit by breaking off the terminals and soldering on a couple of zero ohm resistors to short the coil to ground.
https://github.com/CarlBugeja/Open-Reflow
Self-Soldering Circuits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0csHZveVvY
Tomi Engdahl says:
Convert Your 3V Radio(OR Mosquito Racket or anything which uses 3V) Into Rechargeable One
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yG-hCC2auTY&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
That Old ThinkPad Needs An Open Source 2.5″ IDE SSD
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/19/that-old-thinkpad-needs-an-open-source-2-5-ide-ssd/
So you fancy yourself a FOSS devotee, do you? Running GNU/Linux on your old ThinkPad, avoiding devices that need binary blobs? Got LibreBoot installed too? Not bad, not bad. But what about the hard drive? Can you be sure you aren’t leaking some freedoms out of that spinning rust?
Well, worry no more. Thanks to the work of [dosdude1], we now have an open source solid state drive that’s designed to work with any device which originally used a 2.5 inch IDE hard drive. The choice of releasing it under the GPL v3 versus an open hardware license might seem an odd choice at first, but turns out that’s actually what the GNU project recommends currently for circuit designs.
https://github.com/dosdude1/2.5-inch-ide-ssd
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Else Is An M.2 WiFi Slot Good For?
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/19/what-else-is-an-m-2-wifi-slot-good-for/
Many mainboards and laptops these days come with a range of M.2 slots, with only a subset capable of NVME SSDs, and often a stubby one keyed for ‘WiFi’ cards. Or that’s what those are generally intended to be used for, but as [Peter Brockie] found out when pilfering sites like AliExpress, is that you can get a lot of alternate expansion cards for those slots that have nothing to do with WiFi.
Why this should be no surprise to anyone who knows about the M.2 interface is because each ‘key’ type specifies one or more electrical interfaces that are available on that particular M.2 slot. For slots intended to be used with NVME SSDs, you see M-keying, that makes 4 lanes of PCIe available. The so-called ‘WiFi slots’ on many mainboards are keyed usually for A/E, which means two lanes of PCIe, USB 2.0, I2C and a few other, rather low-level interfaces. What this means is that you can hook up any PCIe or or USB (2.0) peripheral to these slots, as long as the bandwidth is sufficient.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXP8IVUVJbg
Tomi Engdahl says:
Domesticating Plasma With A Gorgeous Live Edge Table
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/19/domesticating-plasma-with-a-gorgeous-live-edge-table/
If you’ve been reading Hackaday for any length of time, you’ll know we don’t often cover woodworking projects here. It’s not because we aren’t impressed with the skill and effort that folks put into them, and truth be told, we occasionally we even feel a pang of envy when looking at the final result. It’s just that, you know…they’re made of wood.
But when [Jay Bowles] of Plasma Channel sent in this live edge wooden table that features not only a pair of custom-made neon tubes but the burned out transistors and ICs from his previous high-voltage exploits — we knew this wasn’t exactly your grandpa’s idea of woodworking.
A Touch Responsive Plasma Filled River Table
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKhnFyGZGqU
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mod, Repair And Maintain Your Cassette Tapes With 3D Printed Parts
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/19/mod-repair-and-maintain-your-cassette-tapes-with-3d-printed-parts/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automated Drip Watering Device Keeps Plants Happy
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/20/automated-drip-watering-device-keeps-plants-happy/
Plants tend to need a regular supply of water to stay happy. If you’re a green thumb, it’s one of the primary things you should take care of before you go on holiday. This DIY plant watering system from [Jaychouu] offers to handle just that.
The system consists of a soda bottle acting as a water container, and an electronically-controlled valve to control the flow of water to plants. Irrigation of the plants is via dripper nozzles to provide a small but consistent feed to the plants. The use of drippers tends to disturb the soil less than pressurized jets of water. A soil humidity sensor is used to detect moisture levels and avoid over-watering. There’s also a capacitive water level sensor that fires off a warning when the reservoir’s water level is low. An ESP32 serves as the brains of the operation, allowing remote control via Blynk.
https://www.instructables.com/Saving-Plants-DIY-Plant-Watering-Device/
https://hackaday.com/2016/03/10/app-control-with-ease-using-blynk/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/20/building-a-nas-that-really-looks-like-a-nas/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Niklas Hauber’s DIY Material Scanner Captures Maximum Detail for Accurate 3D Models
https://www.hackster.io/news/niklas-hauber-s-diy-material-scanner-captures-maximum-detail-for-accurate-3d-models-bbc697d9281e
With 63 white and eight color LEDs, a monochrome camera, and a motorized filter, this clever capture system grabs plenty of data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/news/zswatch-is-an-open-source-smartwatch-based-on-zephyr-rtos-a0bd16cf4e82
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to make guitar from router
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n3fToki9Kgs
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/20/cassette-player-cupholder-is-a-useful-but-risky-idea/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/20/machining-with-electricity-explored-in-the-hack-chat/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/20/extrusion-for-the-pottery-shop/
Tomi Engdahl says:
One-Piece Tank Chassis Pushes Print-in-Place To New Heights
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/20/one-piece-tank-chassis-pushes-print-in-place-to-new-heights/
What’s better than 3D printing a tank chassis with working tracks? How about 3D printing the entire thing, moving parts and all, as a single piece? That’s [3D Honza]’s PiPBOT-1, and it’s the culmination of a whole lot of design work.
PiPBOT 1.0 a Print-In-Place Tank/Robot Tracks Fully Mechanical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKuqrRW1xzk
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/20/wormhole-coffee-table-takes-woodworking-to-another-dimension/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Triptych Shows Trio Of AI-Generated Images
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/20/3d-printed-triptych-shows-trio-of-ai-generated-images/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/21/robot-collects-ping-pong-balls-for-you/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/21/an-open-hardware-automatic-spinning-machine/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Floppy Photog: Making An IR Filter From A 3.5″ Disk
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/21/floppy-photog-making-an-ir-filter-from-a-3-5-disk/
Sony used to sell digital cameras that recorded on actual floppy disks. We’ve come a long way, but [Mathieu] put a floppy in a digital camera recently for an entirely different reason. First, though, he had to modify the camera to work on the full spectrum, something he covered in an earlier video. You can see both videos, below.
As you might expect, he didn’t actually put an entire floppy inside the camera. He used the internal disk portion as an infrared filter to obtain some striking photos. In all honestly, the results were not as nice as what you get from a very expensive professional filter. But the pictures looked great and the difference was not as much as you’d expect compared to the cost difference.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/22/diy-capacitor-leakage-tester-with-a-professional-finish/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/22/designing-a-simpler-prosthetic-finger/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Off-Grid Van Build Uses 3D Scanning For Smarter Planning
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/22/off-grid-van-build-uses-3d-scanning-for-smarter-planning/
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCB Pen Holder Is Over The Top
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/22/pcb-pen-holder-is-over-the-top/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/22/minimalist-homebrew-hardware-recreates-arcade-classics/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/21/irreproducible-accumulative-hacks/
Tomi Engdahl says:
10mbps over 1km on a single pair of wires
A simple 46mmx22.5mm module to route power and differential signals (RS-485) over RJ-45
https://hackaday.io/project/179020-10mbps-over-1km-on-a-single-pair-of-wires
Tomi Engdahl says:
Baffa-2+ Computer
https://hackaday.io/project/189251-baffa-2-computer
All-in-one computer using the Baffa-2+ Single Board Computer and based on the standard Baffa-2 Project board set
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/23/running-cray-os-and-unicos-on-your-own-cray-simulator-instance/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/23/knitting-clock-makes-you-a-scarf-for-next-year/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Bike Suspension Tunes Your Ride On The Fly
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/23/smart-bike-suspension-tunes-your-ride-on-the-fly/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/23/diy-custom-earplugs-for-pennies-per-pair/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arduino Is Out To (Rocket) Launch
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/23/arduino-is-out-to-rocket-launch/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bend It Like A Carpenter
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/24/bend-it-like-a-carpenter/
We’ve always known, in theory, there are ways to bend wood, but weren’t really clear on how it worked. Now that we’ve seen [Totally Handy]’s recent video, we’ve learned a number of tricks to pull it off. Could we do any of them? Probably not, any more than watching someone solder under a microscope means you could do it yourself with no practice. But it sure made us want to try!
All of the techniques involve either water or steam, but we were fascinated with the cuts that make the wood almost into a flexible mesh. There are several tricks you can pick up, too, if you watch carefully. In “wordless workshop” form, there’s no real audio or text, just watching this guy make some really interesting wood pieces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYXCDFOWJEc
Tomi Engdahl says:
When To Use an Impact Driver VS Drill: The ULTIMATE Guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43cuU0lP6To
When should you use our impact driver and when should you use your drill? It’s not quite as straight forward as you might think.
Power Bit vs. Impact Bit vs. Insert Bit…WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?! (Driver Bit Guide For New DIYers!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JEanGie1ts
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/24/translating-and-broadcasting-spoken-morse-code/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/24/lanna-factory-makes-you-work-for-your-lampshade/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/24/old-ham-wisdom-leads-to-better-aluminum-painting/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/25/diy-macro-keyboard-wood-be-nice/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/25/supercon-2022-sophy-wong-is-making-an-impact-with-artistic-wearables/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/25/ive-been-printing-on-the-dragon-railroad/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adding Electronic Shifter Functionality To Bicycle Derailleur
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/26/adding-electronic-shifter-functionality-to-bicycle-derailleur/