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:
How To Chase The Beam With A Z80
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/26/how-to-chase-the-beam-with-a-z80/
The more accomplished 8-bit microcomputers of the late 1970s and early 1980s had a dedicated display chip, a CRT controller. This took care of all the jobs associated with driving a CRT display, generating the required timing and sequencing all the dots to make a raster. With a CRT controller on hand the CPU had plenty of time to do other work, but on some cheaper machines there was no CRT controller and the processor had to do all the work of assembling the display itself.
[Dr. Matt Regan] had a Sinclair ZX81 which relied on this technique, and he’s put up the first of what will become a series of videos offering a deep dive into this method of creating video. The key to its operation lies in very careful use of timing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVQJxV9JCSE
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/26/drop-in-upgrade-pcb-brings-usb-c-to-dualshock-4/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/26/feed-your-fasteners-in-line-with-a-bowl-feeder/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/26/13-scope-and-logic-analyzer-hits-18-msps/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/26/dead-e-ruxpin-appears-alive-and-well/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/26/a-pulse-of-annoyance-about-oscillators-followed-by-a-flyback-of-a-rant/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/26/single-button-keyboard-has-multiple-uses/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/28/building-a-woodworking-lathe-from-scratch/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/28/the-questionable-benefits-of-paying-more-for-air-quality-monitors/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Investigating The Fourth Passive Component
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/27/investigating-the-fourth-passive-component/
When first learning about and building electronic circuits, the first things all of us come across are passive components such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors. These have easily-understandable properties and are used in nearly all circuits in some way or another. Eventually we’ll move on to learning about active components like transistors, but there’s a fourth passive circuit component that’s almost never encountered. Known as the memristor, this mysterious device is not quite as intuitive as the other three, so [Andrew] created an Arduino shield to investigate their properties.
Memristors relate electric charge and magnetic flux linkage, which means that their resistance changes based on the current that passes through them.
Inductor, Capacitor, Resistor and … Memristor
https://trochilidae.blogspot.com/2020/05/inductor-capacitor-resistor-and.html
You can easily buy resistors, capacitors and inductors, they are the building blocks of electronic circuits everywhere. Now you can buy the fourth, a less well-known fundamental device: the memristor. This is a device whose resistance changes depending on the current that has flowed through it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/27/hackaday-prize-2023-an-anti-tremor-handle-with-no-electronics/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/27/string-art-build-uses-cnc-to-make-stringy-art/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/27/passive-components-get-better/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do-It-Yourself Transparent LCD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qieYhhLOKts
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to make the smallest water pump at home – diy water pump using mini dc motor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gZqmQHeK_E
5,596,642 views Jul 16, 2022 #Penguin #minipump #dcmotor
How to make the smallest water pump at home – diy water pump using mini dc motor
In this video, I show how to make a very small but extremely powerful water pump using a mini Coreless DC motor.
In the test I did in the video, you can see that about 3 meters of water is thrown.
You can start this engine with a voltage of 1.5 to 3.7 and you can use a small lithium battery.
This small water pump motor can pump 1 liter of water in 1 minute.
How to Make mini Water Pump high pressure – DIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MkGm1CO5LM
How to Make a mini Water Pump from Motor at Home
I will show you How can you make a water pump from dc motor at home.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The plumber near me revealed these secrets to me! 10 emergency techniques with silicone and PVC pipe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0igvAUZKQ
Whether you’re a DIY enthusiast or a homeowner dealing with unexpected plumbing issues, these 10 essential techniques are about to become your ultimate toolkit.
Discover a world of efficient PVC pipe crisis management, all achieved with the versatile touch of silicone. From minor leaks to stubborn cracks, our experienced plumber shares a range of techniques that can make a real difference in dire situations.
Through step-by-step demonstrations, we guide you in using silicone to mend, reinforce, and secure PVC pipes swiftly and effectively. Be prepared to handle unexpected plumbing issues with confidence, knowing that you can temporarily manage the situation until proper repairs can be carried out.
Empower yourself with the knowledge and skills needed to tackle common plumbing emergencies head-on. By learning how to use silicone tape, caulk, adhesive, putty, and more, you’ll have the tools to mitigate leaks, cracks, and joint problems without stress.
At the end of this video, you’ll be armed with practical insights into harnessing the strength of silicone for urgent PVC pipe challenges. Don’t let plumbing problems ruin your day – equip yourself with these 10 indispensable emergency techniques that could save you time, money, and a lot of worry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turn any DC Motor into a Servo Motor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD2Ki3vw704
In this video we will learn how to turn any DC motor into a stand-alone servo motor with a lot of features. Unlike regular servos that have limited motion of 180 or 270 degrees, this one has unlimited range of 360 degrees and in addition to that we have the ability to adjust the range of the rotation to whatever value we need. We can also set a custom center point, we can adjust the responsiveness, it has continuous rotation mode and it can be controlled through an analog input, digital input from a RC receiver and using the serial monitor from our PC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I built the best DIY heat recovery ventilator I’ve seen on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5sR-0oX1dg
I built a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) from only sheets of corrugated plastic and adhesive.
EDIT: SEE PINNED COMMENT for some corrected efficiency metrics. To summarize, my HRV is actually 60% efficient (which is still decent!), not 85%.
Even so, it works great! My HRV is powerful enough to deliver fresh air to most of my house, and it’s designed to use 4” thick MERV-13 filters to help keep harmful particulate (PM 2.5 and 10) out. It greatly reduces VOCs and CO2 as well. My indoor air quality has significantly improved. The cherry on top: it cost me less than $300 in materials to build!
Intro – 0:00
What HRVs do – 0:32
The drawbacks of other DIY HRVs I’ve seen – 1:18
My HRV (THE REVEAL) – 2:58
Its performance data – 5:12
The cost of building it – 7:25
The drawbacks of my design – 7:50
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/displays-we-love-hacking-the-hd44780-family/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize 2023: An Agricultural Robot That Looks Ready For The Field
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/hackaday-prize-2023-an-agricultural-robot-that-looks-ready-for-the-field/
Tomi Engdahl says:
ModuCoil – A Modular Coil For Motor And Generator Projects
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/moducoil-a-modular-coil-for-motor-and-generator-projects/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip Shortage Engineering: Misusing DIP Packages
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/03/chip-shortage-engineering-misusing-dip-packages/
After years of seeing people showing off and trading their badge Simple Add-Ons (SAOs) at Supercon, this year I finally decided to make one myself. Now for a first attempt, it would have been enough to come up with some cool PCB art and stick a few LEDs on it. But naturally I started with a concept that was far more ambitious than necessary, and before long, had convinced myself that the only way to do the thing justice was to have an onboard microcontroller.
My first thought was to go with the venerable ATtiny85
I quickly found that none of the major players actually had the SMD version of the chip in stock. Both DigiKey and Mouser said they didn’t expect to get more in until early 2024
The whole thing was made all the more frustrating by the pile of DIP8 ATtiny85s sitting on the bench, mocking me. Under normal circumstances, using them in an SAO wouldn’t really be a problem, but eight hand-soldered leads popping through the front artwork would screw up the look I had in mind.
In Case of Shortage, Bend Pins
The idea was simple enough; I’d program the ATtiny85, carefully bend its legs outward, and then push the chip down firmly onto an ESD mat to get it as flat as possible. From there, I could snip the legs off with a side cutter, but I thought limiting the interaction between the chip and metal tools was probably for the best. As such, the result is a chip that’s flat to the PCB like an SMD component, but with leads that extend much farther out than any traditional package.
Obviously, the body of a DIP chip is still much larger than its SOIC counterpart. But it’s not like I’m trying to build a smartphone here, a small bump on the back of the SAO is unlikely to bother anyone so long as it doesn’t physically collide with the badge it’s getting plugged into.
A Word on Footprints
If you only ever used jellybean components in your PCB designs, you could probably go for quite some time before having to design your own footprint. But eventually, it’s going to catch up with you. As the complexity of your projects increases, you’ll inevitably run into a part that doesn’t have a digital representation in your electronic design automation (EDA) tool of choice.
With that in mind, creating custom footprints is a good thing to become familiar with ahead of time
Under normal circumstances, the first step in making a footprint would be to consult the datasheet for the part in question.
In this case though, our footprint doesn’t correspond with any proper package. With no handy diagram to follow, we’ll need to take some manual measurements before all is said and done. But it did start as a normal package, so the ATtiny85’s datasheet still provides some valuable clues.
Putting Your Foot Down
The KiCad Foorprint Editor tool works more or less the same as the PCB Editor, and shares many of the same tools and icons. So if you’ve already got a couple custom PCBs under your belt, wrangling the interface shouldn’t provide much of a challenge.
Once you’ve created a custom library (which can be per-project, or global for all of your projects) and named your new footprint, you’re given a blank canvas on which to drop your pads using the appropriately named “Add a Pad” tool. After placing the first pad you can edit its parameters to give it the desired dimensions, and from then on, any new pads you place will have the same size and shape. The pad number will also automatically increment, though its up to you to make sure they match the part’s actual numbering scheme.
Simple Add-ons (SAO)
A gateway to making your own Badge Add-ons
https://hackaday.io/project/175182-simple-add-ons-sao
Simple Add-ons (SAOs) is a standard that enables anyone to make a PCB that can be attached to and powered by a SAO Capable device. SAO Capable devices take care of the power requirements so all you have to worry about is making your Add-on work and look cool!
Device makers, mainly Electronic badges made for conferences, can encourage others to attach Add-ons to their devices by adding the SAO port which is a simple 2×3 0.1″ (2.54mm) header.
Simple Add-on is a fork / rebranding of the “Shitty Add-on” standard with the intention to make SAOs more accessible to a wider audience and provide a clear description of their purpose. As such, unless stated otherwise, documentation for the “Shitty Add-on” standard, specifically SAO169bis is still applicable to “Simple Add-ons”. Pin out, foot prints, and parts necessary will remain fundamentally the same with a new name.
Simple Add-on v2′s specs are identical to SAOv169bis. The first pin is VCC, power, and it is expected to be 3.3 Volts. Second pin is Ground / Earth, third pin is SDA, fourth SCL, and the last two pins are for GPIO.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/03/life-sized-rockem-sockem-robot-will-definitely-knock-your-block-off/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/04/roll-your-own-servo/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/03/peggyboard-will-have-you-climbing-the-walls-repeatedly/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/04/autonomous-wheelchair-lets-jetson-do-the-driving/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart leash
Simple navigation for pet robots
https://hackaday.io/project/188284-smart-leash
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Robot!
A super cheap educational robotics platform. Everything you need to build and program a simple robot.
https://hackaday.io/project/190769-10-robot
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/04/lessons-learned-while-building-a-diy-pen-plotter/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/04/bleep-remover-censors-those-bleeps/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/04/using-5v-programmable-logic-here-in-the-2020s/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/04/one-string-one-trick-pony-plays-the-lick/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/04/hackaday-prize-2023-the-wildcard-finalists-are-here/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/04/littlefs-the-emphasis-is-on-little/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/30/horrendous-mess-of-wires/
When do you post your projects? When they’re done? When they’re to the basic prototype stage? Or all along the way, from their very conception? All of these have their merits, and their champions.
In the post-all-along-the-way corner, we have Hackaday’s own [Arya Voronova], who outlines the many ways that you can start documenting your project before it’s even a fully fledged project. She calls these tidbits “breadcrumbs”, and it strikes me as being a lot like keeping a logbook, but doing it in public. The advantages? Instead of just you, everyone on the Internet can see what you’re up to. This means they can offer help, give you parts recommendations, and find that incorrect pinout that one pair of eyes would have missed. It takes a lot of courage to post your unfinished business for all to see, but ironically, that’s the stage of the project where you stand to gain the most from the exposure.
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/09/share-your-projects-leave-breadcrumbs/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/30/simple-add-on-makes-cheap-plasma-cutter-suitable-for-cnc-use/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/30/cnc-soldering-bot-handles-your-headers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/30/micro-robot-disregards-gears-embraces-explosions/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/30/the-magic-of-a-diode-sampler-to-increase-oscilloscope-bandwidth/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/01/googles-augmented-reality-microscope-might-help-diagnose-cancer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/01/hypersonic-speech-jammer-works-at-a-distance/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/passive-desalination-discovers-how-to-avoid-salt-clogging/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/how-warehouse-robots-actually-work-as-explained-by-amazon/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/why-walking-tanks-never-became-a-thing/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/using-lora-nodes-as-soil-moisture-sensing-antennas/
Tomi Engdahl says:
These DIY Super Headphones Take Sound Seriously
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/01/these-diy-super-headphones-take-sound-seriously/
[Pete Lewis] from SparkFun takes audio and comfort seriously, and recently shared details on making a customized set of Super Headphones, granting quality sound and stereo ambient passthrough, while providing hearing protection at the same time by isolating the wearer from the environment.
Such products can be purchased off the shelf (usually called some variant of “electronic hearing protection”), but every hacker knows nothing beats some DIY to get exactly the features one wants. After all, off-the-shelf solutions are focused on hearing protection, not sound quality. [Pete] also wanted features like the ability to freely adjust how much ambient sound was mixed in, as well as the ability to integrate a line-level audio source or Bluetooth input.
https://docs.sparkfun.com/SuperHeadphones/introduction/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/computer-space-replica-is-up-and-running/
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/the-path-to-profiling-extraterrestrial-atmospheres-with-astrophotonics/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/02/moducoil-a-modular-coil-for-motor-and-generator-projects/
While renewable energy offers many opportunities for decentralizing energy production, it can sometimes feel that doing so on a truly local level remains unachievable with increasingly large utility-scale deployments re-centralizing the technology. [AdamEnt] hopes to help others seize the means of energy production with the development of the ModuCoil.
This modular coil is intended to be used in motor and generator applications, and features a 3D printed structure to wind your copper about as well as a series of ferromagnetic machine screws and nuts meant to boost the field strength.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfKkFy0L9Gs
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/10/01/hackaday-links-october-1-2023/
And finally, if you’re a welder or just pretend to be one like us, you might find these super slo-mo shots of welding as fascinating as we did. To create these fantastic shots, TimWelds set up a Chronos camera and a special lighting rig that captures all the action in the weld pool, the spot where the heat of the arc turns metal into liquid. It’s where all the action is in welding, and controlling what’s going on there is critical to weld quality. He shows TIG, MIG, and stick welding in a variety of metals. For our money, AC TIG on aluminum makes for the most interesting presentation; the cleaning action from the polarity reversal is like a little lightning storm. Watching the hydrodynamics of the pool under pulsed DC TIG is pretty cool, too. And it’s not just pretty pictures, either; understanding what happens to the pool on such a fine level of detail really brings home the finer points, like where to add your filler metal and what really happens when you dip your electrode.
Mind Blowing Welding in Super Slow Motion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygLbldJF_dc
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/19/what-else-is-an-m-2-wifi-slot-good-for/