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:
Electronic Basics #33: Strain Gauge/Load Cell and how to use them to measure weight
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lWFiKMSB_4M
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://chestofbooks.com/crafts/popular-mechanics/The-Boy-Mechanic-700-Things-for-Boys-to-Do/How-To-Make-A-Small-Geissler-Tube.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/07/laptop-motherboard-lets-boot-and-tinker/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/07/a-ground-source-heat-pump-from-an-air-conditioner/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/07/powercore-aims-to-bring-the-power-of-edm-to-any-3d-printer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/04/assessing-the-micromirror-device-from-a-dlp-printer-for-maskless-lithography-duty/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/05/tiny-tapeout-3-get-your-own-chip-deign-to-a-fab/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/05/upgrade-ram-on-your-pi-4-the-fun-way/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/05/a-medium-format-camera-from-scratch/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/06/adversarial-ir-hoodie-lets-you-own-the-night-in-anonymity/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/08/how-to-make-a-larger-air-cored-inductor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/08/moving-magnet-draws-stylish-shapes-on-flexible-film/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/08/stepper-killer-killer-killed-repair-attempted/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/08/old-tv-to-rgb/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Update to an Ancient Electronic Display
https://hackaday.io/project/189905-update-to-an-ancient-electronic-display
Recycled LEDs improve my Clock
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/189950-flip-disc-1×3-display-how-to-control-via-arduino
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/09/how-simple-can-a-wind-generator-get/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/09/measuring-a-millisecond-mechanically/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/09/power-tool-battery-fume-extractor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/09/rv-bridge-takes-homekit-to-the-open-road/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/09/physics-controlled-component-auto-placer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/09/bunnie-peeks-inside-ics-with-ir/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Infra-Red, In Situ (IRIS) Inspection of Silicon
https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=6712
Tomi Engdahl says:
Keyboard DIYing is moving outside hobbyist circles—and that’s a good thing
Just ask Best Buy.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/02/keyboard-diying-is-moving-outside-hobbyist-circles-and-thats-a-good-thing/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/chip-hall-of-fame-intersil-icl8038-waveform-generator#amp_tf=L%C3%A4hde%3A%20%251%24s&aoh=16779091815060&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fspectrum.ieee.org%2Fchip-hall-of-fame-intersil-icl8038-waveform-generator
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bin Temperature Monitoring System
https://hackaday.io/project/166702-bin-temperature-monitoring-system
A grain monitoring system that will cost about $500CAD (raw materials) instead of $4000 CAD. Also open source instead of closed source
This project is meant to create a low-cost solution for small to medium-sized farmers who want to monitor their grain while it is in the bin. Currently, there is a solution that is on the market, but it costs roughly $5000 per bin, and it is closed source. The currently operating device and setup costs somewhere around $500 for all the disassembled parts, and it monitors four bins.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/10/a-tape-loop-echo-you-can-build/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/10/hacker-hotel-2023-had-a-very-cool-badge/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/10/retrotechtacular-the-revolutionary-visual-effects-of-king-kong/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/10/making-dry-ice-at-home-is-just-as-hard-as-it-sounds/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_dVvGQ72YY
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/10/more-drill-press-mods-adding-a-vfd-means-no-more-belt-changes/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/10/low-power-wi-fi-includes-e-paper-display/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/11/a-love-letter-to-the-sphere-computer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/11/a-fancy-connected-caliper-for-not-a-lot/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/11/quick-and-dirty-microscope-motion-control-for-focus-stacking/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Open Hardware Li-Ion Charger Skips The TP4056
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/11/this-open-hardware-li-ion-charger-skips-the-tp4056/
There’s a good chance that if you build something which includes the ability to top up a lithium-ion battery, it’s going to involve the incredibly common TP4056 charger IC. Now, there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. It’s a decent enough chip, and there are countless pre-made modules out there that make it extremely easy to implement. But if the chip shortage has taught us anything, it’s that alternatives are always good.
So we’d suggest bookmarking this opensource hardware Li-Ion battery charger design from [Shahar Sery]. The circuit uses the BQ24060 from Texas Instruments, which other than the support for LiFePO4 batteries, doesn’t seem to offer anything too new or exciting compared to the standard TP4056. But that’s not the point — this design is simply offered as a potential alternative to the TP4056, not necessarily an upgrade.
https://github.com/SeryDesigns/Battery-Charger
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/12/hack-your-heathkit-to-trace-mosfet-curves/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/12/large-e-paper-slow-movie-player-offers-great-docs/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/12/building-the-sanni-cartridge-reader-to-back-up-and-restore-games-and-saves/
Intended to be a kind of Swiss Army knife of game cartridges, many game systems are supported directly, and many others via (user-created) adapters. A how-to-build tutorial is provided on the project wiki, though anyone interested in building such a system would do well to look at the expected price tag on the BOM page, which comes in at $134.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Parts Bin Cyberdeck Built For Satellite Hacking
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/12/a-parts-bin-cyberdeck-built-for-satellite-hacking/
While there’s little in the way of hard rules dictating what constitutes a cyberdeck, one popular opinion is that it should be a piecemeal affair — a custom rig built up of whatever high-tech detritus the intrepid hacker can get their hands on, whether it be through trades or the time-honored tradition of dumpster diving. It should also be functional, and ideally, capable of some feats which would be difficult to accomplish with a garden variety laptop.
If you’re looking for an example that embraces these concepts to the fullest, look no further than the Spacedeck built by [saveitforparts]. Combining a touch screen all-in-one computer pulled from a police cruiser in the early 2000s, an RTL-SDR, and the contents of several parts bins, the rig is designed to work in conjunction with his growing collection of motorized satellite dishes to sniff out signals from space.
https://saveitforparts.wordpress.com/2023/02/08/the-saveitforparts-spacedeck-v1-a-cyberdeck-for-space/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/11/computers-for-fun/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Immersive Virtual Reality From The Humble Webcam
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/12/immersive-virtual-reality-from-the-humble-webcam/
[Russ Maschmeyer] and Spatial Commerce Projects developed WonkaVision to demonstrate how 3D eye tracking from a single webcam can support rendering a graphical virtual reality (VR) display with realistic depth and space. Spatial Commerce Projects is a Shopify lab working to provide concepts, prototypes, and tools to explore the crossroads of spatial computing and commerce.
Could we make the web more immersive using a simple optical illusion?
https://shopify.github.io/spatial-commerce-projects/WonkaVision/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheap Camera Gives Clay-Pigeon’s-Eye View Of Trap Shooting
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/14/cheap-camera-gives-clay-pigeons-eye-view-of-trap-shooting/
Speaking from experience, it’s always fun to build something with the specific intention of destroying it. Childhood sessions spending hours building boats from scrap wood only to take them to a nearby creek to bombard them with rocks — we disrespectfully called this game “Pearl Harbor” — confirms this. As does the slightly more grown-up pursuit of building this one-time-use clay pigeon camera.
Mounting a Camera on a Clay Pigeon and Shooting It Out of the Sky
https://toemat.com/posts/clay-pigeon/
Maybe I can get a really bad drone that we can shoot down… or what if we hang targets from a drone? How can drones be involved? Drones and guns seem like a horrible idea… or is it a great idea?
How impossible would it be to get a camera on a clay disc? As soon as this thought crossed my mind I knew I had to try.
This $28 keychain camera from Amazon might do the trick? At that price I’m not worried about shooting it full of lead. But is it even a passable camera? I order one right away and what do you know, it’s not half bad. It’s no GoPro, but it does it’s job and the video quality is much better than I had expected based on the reviews.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pocket-Sized Thermal Imager
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/14/pocket-sized-thermal-imager/
Just as the gold standard for multimeters and other instrumentation likely comes in a yellow package of some sort, there is a similar household name for thermal imaging. But, if they’re known for anything other than the highest quality thermal cameras, it’s excessively high price. There are other options around but if you want to make sure that the finished product has some sort of quality control you might want to consider building your own thermal imaging device like [Ruslan] has done here.
The pocket-sized thermal camera is built around a MLX90640 sensor from Melexis which can be obtained on its own, but can also be paired with an STM32F446 board with a USB connection in order to easily connect it to a computer. For that, [Ruslan] paired it with an ESP32 board with a companion screen, so that the entire package could be assembled together with a battery and still maintain its sleek shape. The data coming from the thermal imagining sensor does need some post-processing in order to display useful images, but this is well within the capabilities of the STM32 and ESP32.
DIY pocket thermal imager
https://hackaday.io/project/189728-diy-pocket-thermal-imager
Very easy to repeat and inexpensive pocket-sized DIY thermal imager
Tomi Engdahl says:
Solar Powered Split Wireless Mechanically Keyboard
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/14/solar-powered-split-wireless-mechanically-keyboard/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mice Play In VR
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/14/mice-play-in-vr/
Virtual Reality always seemed like a technology just out of reach, much like nuclear fusion, the flying car, or Linux on the desktop. It seems to be gaining steam in the last five years or so, though, with successful video games from a number of companies as well as plenty of other virtual reality adjacent technology that seems to be picking up steam as well like augmented reality. Another sign that this technology might be here to stay is this virtual reality headset made for mice.
These aren’t any ordinary pets out to take a pleasant jaunt through VR, though. These are lab mice from Cornell University that are helping to study various various aspects of neuroscience and behavior. The tiny headset is based on a Raspberry Pi and uses two small SPI-based displays with special lenses chosen and mounted specifically for a mouse’s field-of-view. The mouse will run on a Styrofoam ball that is attached to a separate set of sensors that can measure aspects of its motion.
Mice explore virtual worlds with a Raspberry Pi-powered VR headset
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/mice-explore-virtual-worlds-with-a-raspberry-pi-powered-vr-headset/
A team from the Schaffer-Nishimura Lab at Cornell University has stepped up their neuroscience and behaviour research with mouseVRheadset — a teeny VR headset. For mice.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/14/mechanical-keyboard-as-travel-saxophone/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/15/a-smart-home-that-can-do-it-all/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Hacker’s Introduction To DIY Light Guide Plates
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/13/a-hackers-introduction-to-diy-light-guide-plates/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/03/13/hacking-skis-rules-and-friendships/