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.
7,076 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/23/nothing-should-cloud-the-build-of-this-wieldy-weather-widget/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/23/automatic-nut-sorter-for-a-tidy-workspace/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Redefine Robots Is The Newest Hackaday Prize Challenge
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/23/redefine-robots-is-the-newest-hackaday-prize-challenge/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open-Source Insulin: Biohackers Aiming For Distributed Production
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/23/open-source-insulin-biohackers-aiming-for-distributed-production/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Math, Optics, And CNC Combine To Hide Secret Images In Acrylic
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/23/math-optics-and-cnc-combine-to-hide-secret-images-in-acrylic/
Magic mirrors, with an LCD panel hidden behind a partially reflectively mirror, are popular for a reason — they’re a good-looking way to display useful information. A “Magic Window,” however, is an entirely different thing — and from the look of it, a far cooler one.
If you’ve never seen a Magic Window before, don’t worry — it’s partially because you’re not supposed to see it. A Magic Window appears to be a clear piece of glass or plastic, one with a bit of a wave in it that causes some distortion when looking through it. But as [Matt Ferraro] explains, the distortion encodes a hidden image, visible only when light passes through the window.
Magic mirrors, with an LCD panel hidden behind a partially reflectively mirror, are popular for a reason — they’re a good-looking way to display useful information. A “Magic Window,” however, is an entirely different thing — and from the look of it, a far cooler one.
Hiding Images in Plain Sight: The Physics Of Magic Windows
https://mattferraro.dev/posts/caustics-engineering
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deceptively Simple Process Turns Bottles Into Filament
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/25/deceptively-simple-process-turns-bottles-into-filament/
If you know that most soda bottles are made from PET plastic, you’ve probably thought about how you could make filament from them and have an endless supply of cheap printing material. [Mr3DPrint] says he has a method and shares a few videos that make it look easy. We wonder if the quality of the filament is up to par with commercial products, but assuming the videos are accurate, it appears that the resulting filament gets the job done.
The details are a little sketchy, but it looks simple enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eecbdb0bQWQ&t=311s
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/25/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-with-the-index-typewriters/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/25/tech-in-plain-site-check-digits-and-human-error/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/25/diy-wigglegram-camera-lens-sends-a-message-to-big-photo/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/25/deceptively-simple-process-turns-bottles-into-filament/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/hands-on-mnt-reforms-the-laptop/
The device pictured here is called the Reform and is designed and manufactured by MNT, a company in Berlin, Germany (note MNT stands for MNT, it’s not an acronym). The Reform is a fully open source laptop which is shipping today and available via distribution through Crowd Supply. If the aesthetic doesn’t make it clear the Reform is an opinionated product designed from the ground up to optimize for free-as-in-freedom: from it’s solid metal chassis to the blob-free GNU/Linux distribution running inside.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/custom-keyboard-from-a-cash-register/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Universal Bio-Electrical Signal Amplifier Makes Reading Body Signals Easy
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/universal-bio-electrical-signal-amplifier-makes-reading-body-signals-easy/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making High Quality Copies Of Existing Parts Using A Silicone Mold
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/making-high-quality-copies-of-existing-parts-using-a-silicone-mold/
3D printing has made it incredibly easy to produce small runs of plastic parts, but getting rid of the 3D printed look can be tricky and time-consuming. When you need a smooth and polished finish, or you want to make exact copies of an existing injection molded part, casting resin parts in silicone molds is an excellent option. [Eric Strebel] has plenty of experience with the process, and demonstrates it in detail while creating copies of violin chin rests that are no longer in production. It’s an interesting application, where 3D-printed layer lines are not just an aesthetic issue, but something that would irritate the user’s skin if present.
Creating silicone molds requires a bit of forethought about the mold design.
How to Copy a 3D Object
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyoBOBDkouE
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/nokia-lcd-goes-transparent-for-hands-free-reminders/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Clever Mechanism Easily Automates Pulling The Blinds
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/clever-mechanism-easily-automates-pulling-the-blinds/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Machine Enables PEMF Therapy On A Budget
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/diy-machine-enables-pemf-therapy-on-a-budget/
We’re certainly not qualified to say whether or not pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy will actually reduce your stress or improve your circulation, but there seems to be enough legitimate research going on out there that it might be worth a shot. After all, unless you’ve got a pacemaker or other medical implant, it seems pretty unlikely a magnetic field is going to make anything worse. Unfortunately commercial PEMF machines can cost thousands of dollars, making it a fairly expensive gamble.
But what if you could build one for as little as $10 USD? That’s the idea behind the simple DIY PEMF machine [mircemk] has been working on, and judging by its ability to launch bits of metal in the video below, we’re pretty confident it’s indeed producing a fairly powerful electromagnetic field. Even if it doesn’t cure what ails you, it should make an interesting conversation piece around the hackerspace.
While the outside of the machine might look a bit imposing, the internals really are exceptionally straightforward. There’s an old laptop power supply providing 19 VDC, a dual-MOSFET board, a potentiometer, and a simple signal generator. The pulses from the signal generator trip the MOSFET, which in turn dumps the output of the laptop power supply into a user-wound coil.
DIY super simple PEMF Magnetic Therapy device
https://hackaday.io/project/181306-diy-super-simple-pemf-magnetic-therapy-device
Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) therapy is a safe, and non-invasive way to reduce pain and inflammation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hands-On: MNT Reforms The Laptop
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/hands-on-mnt-reforms-the-laptop/
The device pictured here is called the Reform and is designed and manufactured by MNT, a company in Berlin, Germany (note MNT stands for MNT, it’s not an acronym). The Reform is a fully open source laptop which is shipping today and available via distribution through Crowd Supply. If the aesthetic doesn’t make it clear the Reform is an opinionated product designed from the ground up to optimize for free-as-in-freedom: from it’s solid metal chassis to the blob-free GNU/Linux distribution running inside.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/ebike-conversion-on-a-budget-uses-skateboard-motor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/grappling-hook-robot-swings-like-spiderman/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Custom Soldering Fume Fan Doesn’t Skimp On Features
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/custom-soldering-fume-fan-doesnt-skimp-on-features/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Customized Work-From-Home Lighting
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/customized-work-from-home-lighting/
[Jon] wants his home office lighting to mimic the light outside, at least from a color perspective. To that end, he has embarked on a design which monitors both the outdoor light and at his work station, and accordingly drives a pair of LED lamps of different colors. One lamp is rated at above 5000 K and provides “cool” lighting, , and the other is rated at less than 3000 K for “warm” lighting.
Commercial solutions do exist, but they are proprietary and do this within a single bulb and seem difficult to control in an orchestrated manner throughout the house. [Jon] plans for his approach to be scalable, eventually consisting of a variety of lighted areas of the house from a single microcontroller.
Lighting Color Control with Commodity Lamps
A controller system using consumer LED lamps to provide color temperature control and management alongside daylight dimming.
https://hackaday.io/project/174098-lighting-color-control-with-commodity-lamps
Tomi Engdahl says:
Impromptu Metal Detector Built From The Junk Bin
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/impromptu-metal-detector-built-from-the-junk-bin/
Junk Box Metal Detector
Can I build a working metal detector from what’s in my junk box?
https://hackaday.io/project/181133-junk-box-metal-detector
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/capacitive-mouse-built-for-a-friend-makes-for-a-touching-tale/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/regen-receiver-with-few-parts/
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Creative Ideas to Reuse Plastic Bottles / Bottle Cutter 2.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSBh77bjz_Q
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/a-microcontroller-friendly-ar-headset-on-the-cheap/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/ten-winners-of-the-hackaday-prize-supportive-tech-challenge/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Measuring LED Flicker, With Phototransistor And Audio App
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/measuring-led-flicker-with-phototransistor-and-audio-app/
[Tweepy] wanted to measure and quantify this effect, and found a way to do so with an NPN phototransistor, a resistor, and a 3.5 mm audio plug. The phototransistor and resistor take the place of a microphone plugged into the audio jack of an Android mobile phone, which is running an audio oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer app. The app is meant to work with an audio signal, but it works just as well with [Tweepy]’s DIY photosensor.
Results are simple to interpret; the smoother and fewer the peaks, the better.
[Tweepy] did some testing with different lighting solutions and found that the best performer was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a lighting panel intended for photography. The worst performer was an ultra-cheap LED bulb. Not bad for a simple DIY sensor and an existing mobile phone app intended for audio.
LED light flicker: DIY measure it
http://www.dotmana.com/weblog/2020/11/led-light-flicker-diy-measure-it/
Tomi Engdahl says:
See The Unseen With This Magnetic Field Visualizer
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/see-the-unseen-with-this-magnetic-field-visualizer/
https://hackaday.io/project/180029-magnetic-field-visualizer
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/3d-printing-your-own-sturdy-lens-caps/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Better 3D Scans Through A Slowed Down Turntable
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/better-3d-scans-through-a-slowed-down-turntable/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Building A Hundred-Year-Old Radio Transmitter
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/building-a-hundred-year-old-radio-transmitter/
Thus it was that in December 1921 a group of American radio amateurs gathered in a field in Greenwich Connecticut in an attempt to span the Atlantic. Their 1.3 MHz transmitter using the callsign 1BCG seems quaintly low-frequency a hundred years later, but their achievement of securing reception in Ardrossan, Scotland, proved that intercontinental communication on higher frequencies was a practical proposition. A century later a group from the Antique Wireless Association are bringing a replica transmitter to life to recreate the event.
http://1bcg.org/1BCG/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/test-for-3d-printer-runaway/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Big ‘F’ Key To Pay Big Respects
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/big-f-key-to-pay-big-respects/
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Part Day: DLP300s The Next Big Thing For Low Cost Resin Printing?
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/new-part-day-dlp300s-the-next-big-thing-for-low-cost-resin-printing/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Man Makes His Own X-Ray Machine After Hospital Charges Him $70,000
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/man-makes-his-own-xray-machine-after-hospital-charges-him-70000/
A man has built his own X-ray machine after receiving a hospital bill of $69,210.32.
The bill apparently got him thinking: could he make his own X-ray machine for cheaper than what he was charged?
While the answer is a pretty clear “yes”, there are definitely other factors you should consider before you try it for yourself. Mainly, do you want to blast yourself full of radiation? As the engineer puts it himself: “My will to do science is significantly stronger than my will to live,” adding “this is my magnum opus. This is the most dangerous contraption I have ever built.”
Osman collected what he needed for the machine: a $155 X-ray vacuum tube he recovered from a broken dental X-ray machine he bought on eBay, a giant roll of sheet lead, several Geiger counters and an electricity supply capable of delivering 60,000 volts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Dual Screen Laptop! (100% DIY!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2aY6cvk-WI
In this video I’ll be showing you how to make a DIY secondary laptop screen so you can get some serious work done on the go!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Injection Molding Silicone Parts For Under $50
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/05/injection-molding-silicone-parts-for-under-50/
You’ve likely seen many tutorials on making silicone parts using 3D printed molds online. The vast majority of these methods use a simple pour method to fill the mold. This relies on careful degassing and gentle pouring to reduce the presence of bubbles in the final result. [Jan Mrázek] has been working on an alternative method however, that allows for injection molding at low cost in the home shop.
The process relies on the use of printed resin molds. [Jan] notes that this generally necessitates the use of condensation-cure silicones, as additive types don’t cure well in resin molds. The condensation silicone is mixed up, degassed, and poured into a standard cartridge. From there, it’s installed in a silicone delivery air gun, which uses compressed air to force the silicone out of the nozzle and into the waiting mold.
https://blog.honzamrazek.cz/2021/08/a-better-way-of-making-silicone-components-using-a-resin-printer-injection-molding-for-less-than-50-usd/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/05/build-yourself-a-nifty-cable-smartphone-mount/
Smartphones have supplanted cameras in day to day use for the vast majority of purposes. However, unlike cameras, they don’t come with tripod mounts or any real good way of holding them in a set position. [Mrballeng] has built an excellent mount, however, that uses cable to hold a smartphone in all manner of positions, for photography or other purposes.
https://www.instructables.com/Short-Form-Camera-Mount/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/05/building-an-aluminum-rc-truck-from-scratch/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/05/interactive-led-shoes-that-anyone-can-build/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/quiet-on-the-set-goes-for-objects-too/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/fan-lets-rc-car-drive-on-the-ceiling/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Animatronic Puppetry Controller Skips Joystick Or Keyboard
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/animatronic-puppetry-controller-skips-joystick-or-keyboard/
Smooth Servo Motion For Lifelike Animatronics
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/smooth-servo-motion-for-lifelike-animatronics/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Retro Shield Replaces Springs With Jumpers, Includes Blinkenlights!
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/retro-shield-replaces-springs-with-jumpers-includes-blinkenlights/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/3d-printed-synth-kit-shares-product-design-insights/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/making-oled-displays-in-the-home-lab/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg8pMUd-tSk
Tomi Engdahl says:
Troubleshooting: A Method For Solving Problems The Right Way
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/troubleshooting-a-method-for-solving-problems-the-right-way/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This ATmega328P-Powered Vise Upgrade Takes the Effort Out of Clamping Your PCBs
Designed with button controls and handy fans for fume extraction, this project is a neat upgrade to an already handy tool.
https://www.hackster.io/news/this-atmega328p-powered-vise-upgrade-takes-the-effort-out-of-clamping-your-pcbs-1ee815278357