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.
7,006 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/08/a-tale-of-two-pulse-modulators/
https://hackaday.com/2020/07/10/vintage-instrument-gets-modern-replacement-for-unobtainium-parts/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home Made MRI 2+1/2
https://hackaday.io/project/190973-home-made-mri-212
This project was established with the goal of “developing an MRI that anyone can build”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uno Plus+
https://hackaday.io/project/189785-uno-plus
An Arduino UNO Compatible Board with isolated Glowing headers and some Extras
Tomi Engdahl says:
Clever Optics Make Clock’s Digits Float In Space
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/10/clever-optics-make-clocks-digits-float-in-space/
If you’ve never heard of Aerial Imaging by Retro-Reflection, or AIRR for short, you’re probably not the only one. It’s a technique developed by researchers at Utsunomiya University that uses beam splitters and retroreflective foil to create the illusion of an image floating freely in the air. [Moritz v. Sivers] has been experimenting with the technique to make — what else — a clock, appropriately called the Floating Display Clock.
Floating Display Clock
A 3D floating display based on Aerial Imaging by Retro-Reflection (AIRR)
https://hackaday.io/project/190991-floating-display-clock
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/09/moisture-duck-gives-you-a-green-thumb/
Around the Hackaday bunker, any plant other than a cactus has a real chance of expiring due to thirst. Perhaps we should build some of [MakersFunDuck]’s Moisture Duck boards. As you can see in the video below, the simple PCB with an ATtiny13A tells you when it is time to water the plants. The video also covers several exotic methods of determining the watering status, some of which are pretty complex.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/09/hackaday-prize-2023-bolt-bot-micro-servo-droids/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/09/making-music-by-probing-magnetite-crystals/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/09/tiny-orrery-keeps-the-planets-in-their-places/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/10/a-look-inside-a-vintage-aircraft-altimeter/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/10/supercon-2023-is-on-we-want-you/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/190973-home-made-mri-212
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/10/op-amp-contest-magnetic-core-memory-the-dr-cockroach-way/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low-Frequency DC Block Lets You Measure Ripple Better
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/10/low-frequency-dc-block-lets-you-measure-ripple-better/
We all know how to block the DC offset of an AC signal — that just requires putting a capacitor in series, right? But what if the AC signal doesn’t alternate very often? In that case, things get a little more complicated.
Or at least that’s what [Limpkin] discovered, which led him to design this low-frequency DC block. Having found that commercially available DC blocks typically have a cutoff frequency of 100 kHz, which is far too high to measure power rail ripple in his low-noise amplifier, he hit the books in search of an appropriate design. What he came up with is a non-polarized capacitor in series followed by a pair of PIN diodes shunted to ground. The diodes are in opposite polarities and serve to limit how much voltage passes out of the filter. The filter was designed for a cutoff frequency of 6.37 Hz, and [Limpkin]’s testing showed a 3-dB cutoff of 6.31 Hz — not bad. After some torture testing to make sure it wouldn’t blow up, he used it to measure the ripple on a bench power supply.
A DC Block to Measure Low Frequencies
https://www.limpkin.fr/index.php?post/2023/03/28/The-DC-Block-For-Low-Frequencies
Skeptical that a DC-block only was a capacitor, I searched online and found this page from Rohde & Schwarz with the above schematics in it.
Looking at the above picture we can see:
- 1 non polarized series capacitor
- 2 PIN diodes at the output
These 2 diodes effectively limit the maximum voltage that can be output by the filter, as when applying a high voltage at the filter input the very same voltage would be seen at the filter output (due to the high capacitor value)… which your measurement instrument might not particularly appreciate.
But why PIN diodes, and what are they?
To make it simple, PIN diodes essentially are resistors whose value decrease with the current going through them
This characteristic is particularly appreciated to reduce distortion added to your signal, as you may remember that standard diodes have a very different V/I curve.
n the end, my DC-block schematics are relatively similar to the ones from R&S:
- 1x bi-polar 50V 470uF electrolytic capacitor (yes, that’s a thing!)
- 2x 13 Watts (!) RF PIN diodes
- 1x 10k input bleed resistor
I initially went for different PIN diodes…. but they exploded when I first applied 50V at the DC-block input! Thinking about it, 470uF at 50V is around 0.5 Joules so that energy needed to be dissipated somewhere.
And as you will see later, lots of testing was then performed to make sure the final diodes were up to the task.
I was once again lucky enough to get access to a Bode 100 to measure my DC-block transfer function.
Keeping in mind this filter is meant to be used in 50R systems, you can see above that the 6.31Hz 3dB corner frequency ended up being very close to the expected 6.37Hz (470uF with 50R).
And even though it doesn’t make a lot of sense using that DC-block for very high frequencies, I used a SA44B + TG44 combo to measure the transfer function at high frequencies:
1GHz -3dB corner… not too bad for such a big capacitor!
Maximum Transient Test – Pulse
Any explosion if I directly feed 50V to that DC-block?
Setup: capacitor discharged, we suddenly feed 50V through a 50R resistor to the input for a short duration.
Result: the output voltage is truncated to 1.34V
That DC-block ended up being a little more complex than I thought, but it was quite the interesting learning experience!
As usual you can find the source files here and may buy it on my tindie store if you need one right away.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Low-Noise Amplifier To Quantify Resistor Noise
https://hackaday.com/2023/04/16/a-low-noise-amplifier-to-quantify-resistor-noise/
Noise is all around us, and while acoustic noise is easy to spot using our ears, electronic noise is far harder to quantify even with the right instruments. A spectrum analyzer is the most convenient tool for noise measurements, but also adds noise of its own to whatever signal you’re looking at. [Limpkin] has been working on measuring very small noise signals using a spectrum analyzer, and shared his results in a comprehensive blog post.
The target he set himself was to measure the noise produced by a 50 Ohm resistor, which is the impedance most commonly seen on the inputs and outputs of RF systems.
The Low Frequency, Low Noise Amplifier Board
https://www.limpkin.fr/index.php?post/2022/09/20/The-Low-Noise-Amplifier-Board
How tiny you may ask!
Well, my arbitrary goal for this project was to clearly measure the thermal noise of a 50 ohms resistor (around 0.9nV RMS for a 1Hz measurement bandwidth at room temperature) to be sure to be able to measure any device output I may encounter in the future (maybe audio amplifiers?).
You may not know this, but using a spectrum analyzer to directly measure that 50 ohms thermal noise isn’t really doable as even top of the line Rohde & Schwarz FSWs state a Displayed Averaged Noise Level (in short, an instrument’s noise floor) between 71nV and 224nV RMS (-130dBm & -120dBm) at a 1Hz resolution bandwidth around kHz frequencies.
Moreoever, every spectrum analyzer out there that is rated from a few Hz up also comes with a no DC input requirement! While the easiest solution to get around this issue usually is to use inline DC-blocking pass-through adapters, they however typically come with a low-pass filter corner frequency of a few hundred Hz… so what’s the solution?
My take on it: a simple amplification circuit based on a low-input noise operational amplifier, with a clipper circuit at its output.
One may argue that a clipper circuit doesn’t remove the DC component of an amplifier’s output.
While this obviously true, a quick email exchange with the engineers who designed the Signal Hound SA44B spectrum analyzer (that I’m using) let me know that a DC component of up to 200mV is actually alright.
The amplifier requirements therefore became:
- DC to <1MHz bandwidth
- (adjustable) output clipping
- as low as possible input noise
- enough gain so that the output spectrum noise level is above the SA44B DANL
To my biggest surprise my SA44B calibration certificate mentioned a -139.3dBm/Hz DANL level at 60Hz!
The designed circuit is fairly straight-forward:
- an op-amp based circuit with a voltage gain of 101
- a high-fidelity, low-noise audio operational amplifier used as a voltage buffer
- two open-drain output comparators comparing the amplified voltage to a set threshold
- … to then control the enable input of a SPST switch
To keep the generated noise to a minimum, the above circuit is powered by two 9V batteries and a DPDT switch takes care of enabling/disabling the board power supply.
It’s important to note that as we’re designing for 50R systems, the x101 voltage gain actually means a x50.5 gain (34dB) as the final output buffer has an equivalent 50R resistor at its output.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/11/a-crash-course-on-how-mri-machines-work/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/11/hackaday-prize-2023-uno-plus-updates-a-classic/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/11/a-4-player-arcade-hidden-inside-a-coffee-table/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/12/laser-projector-built-from-an-old-hard-drive/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/12/tricorder-tutorial-isnt-just-for-starfleet-cadets/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/12/op-amp-challenge-interactive-analog-led-wave-array/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/11/converting-on-grid-electronics-to-off-grid/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/12/your-childhood-inventions-brought-to-life/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/12/a-non-destructive-digital-back-for-a-classic-leica/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/12/hackaday-prize-2023-finger-tracking-via-muscle-sensors/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/14/an-open-source-4-shaft-portable-loom/
Tomi Engdahl says:
MagicPaper
A development board for e-ink display based on ESP32-S3
https://hackaday.io/project/191055-magicpaper
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analog Circuit Game – Switched Tag
https://hackaday.io/project/188968-analog-circuit-game-switched-tag
Video game logic made from analog circuit. Activate power at the right time in to hit your opponent and win.
Tomi Engdahl says:
21 Band Audio Spectrum Analyzer
Adding the final touches.
https://hackaday.io/project/186189-21-band-audio-spectrum-analyzer
Tomi Engdahl says:
weeBell – personal central office for POTS phones
https://hackaday.io/project/191002-weebell-personal-central-office-for-pots-phones
weeBell brings the goodness of old telephones into the modern age in a portable package that speaks GUI, Bluetooth and Wifi
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/14/a-guard-bot-for-your-home-assistant/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Industrial Robot Gets Open-Source Upgrade
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/14/industrial-robot-gets-open-source-upgrade/
Industrial robots are shockingly expensive when new, typically only affordable for those running factories of some sort. Once they’ve gone through their life cycle building widgets, they can be purchased for little more than scrap value, which is essentially free compared to their original sticker price. [Excessive Overkill] explains all of this in a video where he purchased one at this stage to try to revive, but it also shows us how to get some more life out of these robots if you can spend some time hunting for spare parts, installing open-source firmware, and also have the space for a robot that weighs well over a thousand kilograms.
This specific robot is a Fanuc R2000ia with six degrees of freedom and a reach of over two meters.
Running a 1.5 ton Industrial Robot With a Custom Open-source Controller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2O8KCmVjU0
ExcessiveOverkill /
universal-IRC-1
https://github.com/ExcessiveOverkill/universal-IRC-1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize 2023: Eye-Tracking Wheelchair Interface Is A Big Help
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/14/hackaday-prize-2023-eye-tracking-wheelchair-interface-is-a-big-help/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anodizing Titanium In Multiple Colors
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/14/anodizing-titanium-in-multiple-colors/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/11/hackaday-prize-2023-meet-the-ten-re-engineering-education-finalists/
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Is A Schumann Resonance And Why Am I Being Offered A 7.83Hz Oscillator?
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/12/what-is-a-schumann-resonance-and-why-am-i-being-offered-a-7-83hz-oscillator/
Something that probably unites many Hackaday readers is an idle pursuit of browsing AliExpress for new pieces of tech. Perhaps it’s something akin to social media doomscrolling without the induced anger, and it’s certainly entertaining to see some of the weird and wonderful products that can be had for a few dollars and a couple of weeks wait. Every now and then something pops up that deserves a second look, and it’s one of those that has caught my attention today. Why am I being offered planar PCB coils with some electronics, described as “Schumann resonators”? What on earth is Schumann resonance, anyway?
Atmospheric Physics Meets Cheap Junk
The second question is easy enough to answer, the Schumann resonances occur in the electromagnetic spectrum of the earth, and are the result of resonances in the waveguide created between the electrically charged and thus radio-reflective ionosphere and the planet’s surface. Just as a small section of microwave waveguide on your bench can have an electromagnetic resonant frequency, so can this huge planet-sized space.
The waveguide on your desk will probably resonate in the thousands of megahertz, while the atmospheric waveguide has its resonance in the very low frequencies, in the order of hertz with a fundamental frequency around 7.8 Hz and a series of harmonic frequencies
Indeed, the frequency varies over the course of a day as different parts of the earth are exposed to the sun — the oft-cited 7.83 Hz value actually wanders around 7.5 Hz to 8.3 Hz.
Does It Work? It’s All In Your Head
A natural resonant frequency on a planetary scale is for engineers and physicists an interesting and entirely explainable physical phenomenon. It’s got a clear derivation and a mathematical proof that works, and it’s even got a few useful applications for climate scientists. But of course, not everyone who happens upon Schumann resonance has that background or training, and among those are a section who perhaps read a little bit more into it than they should.
My web search took me into people who believe that Schumann resonance is a “heartbeat” for a somehow sentient planet, something with which we have somehow lost touch, and turn the coincidence that some human brainwaves are around the same frequency into a vital connection. It seems that the Schumann resonators aren’t there for the planet but instead for us, they’re intended to stimulate the “right” brain waves which have somehow been lost due to our modern high-tech lifestyles. That they’re also claimed to improve the sound from HiFi systems and reduce pollutants in the air is the cherry on the cake.
So sadly the Schumann resonators have nothing to do with the ionosphere, and who knows, might just even be completely useless in themselves.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Passively Generating Power Day And Night Takes The Right Parts
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/13/passively-generating-power-day-and-night-takes-the-right-parts/
A thermoelectric generator (TEG) can turn a temperature difference into electricity, and while temperature differentials abound in our environment, it’s been difficult to harness them into practical and stable sources of power. But researchers in China have succeeded in creating a TEG that can passively and continuously generate power, even across shifting environmental conditions. It’s not a lot of power, but that it’s continuous is significant, and it could be enough for remote sensors or similar devices.
Historically, passive TEGs have used ambient air as the “hot” side and some form of high-emissivity heat sink — usually involving exotic materials and processes — as the “cold” side. These devices work, but fail to reliably produce uninterrupted voltage because shifting environmental conditions have too great of an effect on how well the radiative cooling emitter (RCE) can function.
New passive device continuously generates electricity during the day or night
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-04-passive-device-generates-electricity-day.html
Researchers have developed a new thermoelectric generator (TEG) that can continuously generate electricity using heat from the sun and a radiative element that releases heat into the air. Because it works during the day or night and in cloudy conditions, the new self-powered TEG could provide a reliable power source for small electronic devices such as outdoor sensors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Zippy Plastic Welding
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/15/zippy-plastic-welding/
Plastic welding isn’t a new idea. But a recent video from [The Maker] shows an interesting twist. Given a broken piece of plastic, he secures it together with tape, machines out a channel around the cracks, and then melts zip ties into the channels. Honestly, although he mentions plastic welding and soldering, we aren’t sure this isn’t just simple gluing, but it did give us some ideas. Watch the video below and you’ll probably get the same ideas.
Ingenious Method! Fix All Plastic Parts Using Cable Ties
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeIv4Fi2vOM
Comments:
Do note that this probably only works with the high temperature hot glue guns, not the cheap low-temperature ones.
also note that trying to mix plastics will not end well for adhesion purposes. He also let the plastic cool before putting the other plastic on top of it another very bad idea. This is more of a video of what not to do rather than an interesting twist. I can guarantee that will pop apart very easily. This is not a hack but a bad idea.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Bicycle Powered By A Different Kind Of Eddy
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/16/a-bicycle-powered-by-a-different-kind-of-eddy/
When you think of a bicycle and an Eddy, you’d be forgiven for thinking first of Eddy Merckx, one of the most successful competitive cyclists to ever live. But this bicycle, modified by [Tom Stanton] as shown in the video below the break, has been modified by ditching its direct drive gearing in favor of using the friction-like eddy currents between magnets and copper to transfer power to the wheel.
Gearless Magnet Bike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg8oVR4k5Dk
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/13/tools-of-the-trade-dirt-cheap-or-too-dirty/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turning Old Kindles Into AI Powered Picture Frames
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/15/turning-old-kindles-into-ai-powered-picture-frames/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize 2023: A DIY Voice-Control Module
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/15/hackaday-prize-2023-a-diy-voice-control-module/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This $12 CNC Rotary Axis Will Make Your Head Spin
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/15/this-12-cnc-rotary-axis-will-make-your-head-spin/
[legolor] brings us a great, cheap rotary axis to add to your small 3 axis CNC mills. How are you going to generate G-Code for this 4th axis? That’s the great part, and the hack, that [legolor] really just swapped the Y axis for the rotation. To finish the workflow and keep things cheap accessible to all there’s a great trick to “unwrap” your 3D model so your CAM software of choice thinks it’s still using a linear Y axis and keeps your existing workflow largely intact. While this requires an extra step in Blender to do the unwrapping, we love the way this hack changes as little of the rest of your process as possible. The Blender script might be useful for many other purposes too.
https://www.instructables.com/Carve-Custom-Wooden-Game-Pieces-12-CNC-Upgrade/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/15/modern-co2-laser-reviewed/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/15/a-paste-extruder-for-normal-printers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Programmable Guitar Pedal Rocks The Studio & Stage
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/16/diy-programmable-guitar-pedal-rocks-the-studio-stage/
Ever wondered how to approach making your own digital guitar effects pedal? [Steven Hazel] and a friend have done exactly that, using an Adafruit Feather M4 Express board and a Teensy Audio Adapter board together to create a DIY programmable digital unit that looks ready to drop into an enclosure and get put right to work in the studio or on the stage.
The bulk of the work is done with two parts, and can be prototyped easily on a breadboard.
[Steven] also made a custom PCB to mount everything, including all the right connectors, but the device can be up and running with not much more than the two main parts and a breadboard.
Building a Guitar Pedal Prototype with a Feather
https://blog.blacklightunicorn.com/building-a-guitar-pedal-with-the-adafruit-feather-m4/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/16/two-stage-refrigerator-is-chill/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/16/microbubbles-and-ultrasound-getting-drugs-through-the-blood-brain-barrier/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Self-Driving Library For Python
https://hackaday.com/2023/05/16/self-driving-library-for-python/
Fully autonomous vehicles seem to perennially be just a few years away, sort of like the automotive equivalent of fusion power. But just because robotic vehicles haven’t made much progress on our roadways doesn’t mean we can’t play with the technology at the hobbyist level. You can embark on your own experimentation right now with this open source self-driving Python library.
Granted, this is a library built for much smaller vehicles, but it’s still quite full-featured. Known as Donkey Car, it’s mostly intended for what would otherwise be remote-controlled cars or robotics platforms. The library is built to be as minimalist as possible with modularity as a design principle, and includes the ability to self-drive with computer vision using machine-learning algorithms. It is capable of logging sensor data and interfacing with various controllers as well, either physical devices or through something like a browser.
An opensource DIY self driving platform for small scale cars.
RC CAR + Raspberry Pi + Python (tornado, keras, tensorflow, opencv, ….)
https://www.donkeycar.com/
What can you do?
Build your own toy car that can drive itself.
Drive your car with your phone or laptop.
Record images, steering angles & throttles.
Train neural net pilots to drive your car on different tracks.
Race your car in a DIY Robocars race.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Portable Sound Visualization AR Device
https://hackaday.io/project/190651-portable-sound-visualization-ar-device
A portable AR device that superimposes an image showing the location of a sound source on an image captured by a camera.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Expiration Date App
https://hackaday.io/project/190559-expiration-date-app
We are making a project using detection AI which tells the user if something is expired or not using a camera.