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:
Go with the Flow
FlowIO is looking to be the Arduino of soft robotics with its easy to use modular pneumatics development platform.
https://www.hackster.io/news/go-with-the-flow-1afc9b3e85c0
Tomi Engdahl says:
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:
Making PCB Motor v4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa6sP-joAr8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Building a TRUE 4k home cinema projector (it’s awesome)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfvTjQ9MCwY
Despite being homemade, this DIY projector packs a punch!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Palladium recovery from 1.4kg ceramic capacitors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MdnhlxKlH0
Smelting 1.4kg MLCCs using lead and silver as collector metals, followed by cupellation and silver – palladium separation.
Comments:
Fun fact : this metal is even more expensive than gold
1.OZ of palladium is £2000.00 as of sept 21 , so the blob he made was worth £1000.00
This was so amateurly done but love it just shows you you don’t need the high tech luxuries to do something just logic and ingenuity. Well done man!
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/07/ikea-wardrobe-holds-entire-hardware-workspace/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power Supplies and Electronic Life-Hacks (ElectroBOOM101 – 009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOfD1JT-KzQ
By: Mehdi Sadaghdar
0:00 Intro to Electronic Power Supplies
2:38 Schematic Symbols for Power Supplies
3:53 Ideal Voltage Supply
4:47 Non-Ideal Voltage Supply
6:07 Equivalent Resistance/Impedance for Series Circuits
6:52 Voltage Divider Circuit
7:54 Ideal Current Supply
8:22 Non-Ideal Current Supply
9:22 Equivalent Resistance/Impedance for Parallel Circuits
10:20 Current Divider Circuit
11:19 Thevenin and Norton Circuit Models
Tomi Engdahl says:
Highly Configurable Open Source Microscope Cooked Up In FreeCAD
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/09/highly-configurable-open-source-microscope-cooked-up-in-freecad/
What do you get when you cross a day job as a Medical Histopathologist with an interest in 3D printing and programming? You get a fully-baked Open Source microscope, specifically the Portable Upgradeable Modular Affordable (or PUMA), that’s what. And this is no toy microscope. By combining a sprinkle of off-the-shelf electronics available from pretty much anywhere, a pound or two of filament, and a dash of high quality optical parts, PUMA cooks up quite possibly one of the best open source microscopy experiences we’ve ever tasted.
GitHub user [TadPath] works as a medical pathologist and clearly knows a thing or two about what makes a great instrument, so it is a genuine joy for us to see this tasty project laid out in such a complete fashion. Many a time we’ve looked into an high-profile project, only to find a pile of STL files and some hard to source special parts. But not here. This is deliberately designed to be buildable by practically anyone with access to a 3D printer and an eBay account.
The project is not currently certified for medical diagnostics use, but that is likely only a matter of money and time. The value for education and research (especially in developing nations) cannot really be overstated.
https://github.com/TadPath/PUMA
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2009/10/20/brain-control-for-the-arduino/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making OLED Displays
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg8pMUd-tSk
Skip to 10:40 if you just want to see how they were made.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Never Get Rained on Again by Using the Turbine Umbrella Hat
https://www.hackster.io/news/never-get-rained-on-again-by-using-the-turbine-umbrella-hat-cbab77f61cd7
This unique hat replaces the traditional umbrella by utilizing a disc of air to keep water from reaching the wearer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Modern solutions lead to modern problems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making Tiny Fresnel Lenses (in Times of Corona)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf3Y0-6NbjQ
This video shows several types of micro-lenses that I made using a DIY maskless wafer stepper. The tiny lenses can for example be used for building a Shack-Hartmann wavefront detector.
Explanation of the Shack-Hartmann principle can be found on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shack%E2%80%93Hartmann_wavefront_sensor
Windows installer for the Zone Plate app
Tomi Engdahl says:
Minimal Mill: The Minamil
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/10/minimal-mill-the-minamil/
Having a few machine tools at one’s disposal is a luxury that not many of us are afforded, and often an expensive one at that. It is something that a large percentage of us may dream about, though, and with some commonly available tools and inexpensive electronics a few people have put together some very inexpensive CNC machines. The latest is the Minamil, which uses a rotary tool and straps it to an economical frame in order to get a functional CNC mill setup working.
Minamil: a minimal CNC mill. And friends.
Each axis: $̶5̶$8 motor+lead screw, 3x LM6UU, 3x 6mm x 100mm rod, 1/8in hardboard, PC case screws
https://hackaday.io/project/174370-minamil-a-minimal-cnc-mill-and-friends
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/10/ic-clock-uses-ammeters-for-a-unique-time-telling-display/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Old School Fastener Tutorial Is Riveting
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/10/old-school-fastener-tutorial-is-riveting/
Whether you’re making, repairing, or hacking something together, we all need fastners. Screws, nuts and bolts, and pop rivets are handy sometimes. Various resins and even hot glue are equally useful. In some cases however the right fastener for the job eludes us, and we need another trick up our sleeve.
[Robert Murray Smith] found himself in such a position. His goal was to join two pieces of aluminum that need a nice finish on both sides. Neither glue, pop rivets, screws, nuts or bolts would have been appropriate. [Robert] is always flush with ideas both new and old, and he resorted to using an old school fastener as explained as explained in his video “How To Make And Use Rivets“.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn0DqqQTrqk
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flip-Top Foundry Helps Manage The Danger Of Metal Casting
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/11/flip-top-foundry-helps-manage-the-danger-of-metal-casting/
Melting aluminum is actually pretty easy to do, which is why it’s such a popular metal for beginners at metal casting. Building a foundry that can melt aluminum safely is another matter entirely, and one that benefits from some of the thoughtful touches that [Andy] built into his new propane-powered furnace.
New crucible furnace design – hands-free lid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skNcUIP-GDk
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/11/3d-printed-hat-blasts-the-rain-away/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making A Car Key From A Ratcheting Wrench
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/12/making-a-car-key-from-a-ratcheting-wrench/
Car keys these days are remarkably complex beasts. Covered in buttons and loaded with security transponders, they often cost hundreds of dollars to replace if you’re unlucky enough to lose them. However, back in the day, keys used to just be keys — a hunk of metal in a mechanical pattern to move some levers and open a door. Thus, you could reshape a wrench into a key for an old car if that was something you really wanted to do.
The concept is simple. Take a 12mm ratcheting wrench, and shape the flat section into a profile matching that of a key for an older car without any electronic security features. The first step is to cut down the shaft, before grinding it down to match the thickness and width of the original key.
A Car Key Made From a Ratcheting Wrench
https://www.instructables.com/A-Car-Key-Made-From-a-Ratcheting-Wrench/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/13/firmware-modding-your-vintage-nokia-handset/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/13/how-the-ps5s-genuinely-clever-adaptive-triggers-work/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/13/vektor-kollektor-inspector/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Salvaging Working LEDs From “Dead” Light Bulbs
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/14/salvaging-working-leds-from-dead-light-bulbs/
Sure the box said they would last for years or even decades, but anyone who’s picked up some bargain LED bulbs knows the reality is a bit more complicated. Sometimes a few LEDs in the array pop, reducing the overall light output. More commonly, the power supply starts to fail and the bulb begins to flicker or hum. In either event, you end up pulling the bulb and replacing it.
But [Bifferos] thinks we can do a bit better than that. Rather than just chalking it up to poor QA and tossing the bulb, why not do a little exploratory surgery to identify salvageable LEDs in an otherwise “dead” bulb? After pulling apart a couple of burned out bulbs (name brand and otherwise), he was able to pull out an impressive number of handy LED panels that could be easily repurposed. Naturally, with a little more coaxing, the individual SMD LEDs could be liberated and pushed into service as well.
https://github.com/bifferos/bb/tree/master/projects/led_salvage
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s Cooler Than A 7-Segment Display? A 7200-Segment Display!
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/14/whats-cooler-than-a-7-segment-display-a-7200-segment-display/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Overengineering A Smart Doorbell
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/12/overengineering-a-smart-doorbell/
Fresh from the mediaeval splendour of the Belgian city of Gent, we bring you more from the Newline hacker conference organised by Hackerspace Gent. [Victor Sonck] works at the top of his house, and thus needed a doorbell notifier. His solution was unexpected, and as he admits over engineered, using machine learning on an audio stream from a microphone to detect the doorbell’s sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMLE4b0AKFE
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/12/massive-cleaning-effort-saves-acid-drenched-atari/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hey, MiSTer Emulator, Gimme Almost Any Classic Platform!
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/12/hey-mister-emulator-gimme-almost-any-classic-platform/
At its heart is a dev board containing an Intel Cyclone SoC/FPGA, to which a USB hub must be added, and then a memory upgrade to run all but the simplest of cores. Once the hardware has been taken care of it almost seems as though there are no classic platforms for which there isn’t a core, as a quick browse of the MiSTer forum attests. We are treated to seamless switching between SNES and NED platforms, and even switching different SID chip versions during a running Commodore 64 demo.
Tomi Engdahl says:
You Can 3D Print Your Own RC Motorbikes
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/11/you-can-3d-print-your-own-rc-motorbikes/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Acousto-Optic Filter Uses Sound To Bend Light
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/10/acousto-optic-filter-uses-sound-to-bend-light/
We all know that light and sound are wave phenomena, but of very different kinds. Light is electromechanical in nature, while sound is mechanical. Light can travel through a vacuum, while sound needs some sort of medium to transmit it. So it would seem that it might be difficult to use sound to modify light, but with the right equipment, it’s actually pretty easy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOB8jyYetvw
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using Homebrew Coils To Measure Mains Current, And Taking The Circuit Breaker Challenge
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/12/using-homebrew-coils-measure-mains-current-and-taking-the-circuit-breaker-challenge/
Like many hackers, [Matthias Wandel] has a penchant for measuring the world around him, and quantifying the goings-on in his home is a bit of a hobby. And so when it came time to sense the current flowing in the wires of his house, he did what any of us would do: he built his own current sensing system.
Inductive current measuring using Raspberry Pi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P47pjVyPP3w
Tomi Engdahl says:
Documentation Is Hard, Let The SkunkWorks Project Show You How To Do It Well
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/12/documentation-is-hard-let-the-skunkworks-project-show-you-how-to-do-it-well/
Documentation can be a bit of a nasty word, but it’s certainly one aspect of our own design process that we all wish we could improve upon. As an award-winning designer, working with some of the best toy companies around, [Jude] knows a thing or two about showing your work. In his SkunkWorks Project, he takes a maker’s approach to Bo Peep’s Skunkmobile and gives us a master class on engineering design in the process.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ray Casting 101 Makes Things Simple
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/13/ray-casting-101-makes-things-simple/
[SSZCZEP] had a tough time understanding ray tracing to create 3D-like objects on a 2D map. So once he figured it out, he wrote a tutorial he hopes will be more accessible for those who may be struggling themselves.
https://sszczep.github.io/ray-casting-in-2d-game-engines/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/169632-7-segment-display-array-clock
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tapping Essentials – Every Machinist Needs to Watch This – Haas Automation Tip of the Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkrUzGooA9k
Have you ever grabbed a tap out of your toolbox and wondered if it was the right tool for the job? Or tapped a hole only to find out that the threads aren’t deep enough? Or worse yet, broken a tap? Chances are, the answer is yes to one or all of these questions!
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Art of the Bodge: How I Made The Emoji Keyboard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U
Here’s the behind-the-scenes “how I made the emoji keyboard” video! If you haven’t seen the original: http://youtu.be/3AtBE9BOvvk
But the thing is, the truth is basically just “I bodged some stuff together”. Which gives me the opportunity to tell some stories…
Tomi Engdahl says:
“I didn’t study Computer Science, I’m not writing elegant solutions”
Me, a computer science grad: Oh, is that what I was meant to be doing?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making a pearl ocean keyboard
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2600net/permalink/3122712771285160/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/14/3d-objects-without-scanning/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Many Ways To Solve Your Enclosure Problems
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/15/the-many-ways-to-solve-your-enclosure-problems/
Most projects around here involve some sort of electronics, and some sort of box to put them in. The same is true of pretty much all commercially available electronic products as well.
Despite that, selecting an enclosure is far from a solved problem. For simple electronics it’s entirely possible to spend more time getting the case just right than working on the circuit itself. But most of the time we need to avoid getting bogged down in what exactly will house our hardware.
The array of options available for your housing is vast, and while many people default to a 3D printer, there are frequently better choices. I’ve been around the block on this issue countless times and wanted to share the options as I see them, and help you decide which is right for you. Let’s talk about enclosures!
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/16/a-crt-monitor-restoration/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/17/triple-monitor-luggable-pc-is-an-all-in-one-powerhouse/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/16/an-rf-remote-is-no-match-for-a-logic-analyser/
The Neewer NL660-2.4 Video Keylight has a handy remote control, which for [Tom Clement] has a major flaw in that it can’t restore the light to the state it had during its last power-on. He’s thus taken the trouble to reverse engineer it and create his own remote using a suitably-equipped Arduino clone.
https://www.inthenameofscience.nl/reverse-engineering-neewer-660-keylight-remote-control/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Take A Look At This Optical Keyboard
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/15/take-a-look-at-this-optical-keyboard/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Home Hack Breaks Down Walls Figuratively And Literally
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/15/smart-home-hack-breaks-down-walls-figuratively-and-literally/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printing Complex Sensors And Controls With Metamaterials
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/17/3d-printing-complex-sensors-and-controls-with-metamaterials/
If you’ve got a mechatronic project in mind, a 3D printer can be a big help. Gears, levers, adapters, enclosures — if you can dream it up, a 3D printer can probably churn out a useful part for you. But what about more complicated parts, like sensors and user-input devices? Surely you’ll always be stuck buying stuff like that from a commercial supplier. Right?
Maybe not, if a new 3D-printed metamaterial method out of MIT gets any traction. The project is called “MetaSense” and seeks to make 3D-printed compliant structures that have built-in elements to sense their deformation.
MetaSense
Using conductive and flex filament to 3d print interactive interfaces.
https://hackaday.io/project/181697-metasense
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automatic Microfiche Scanner Digitizes Docs
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/17/automatic-microfiche-scanner-digitizes-docs/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Silky Smooth Resin Printer Timelapses Thanks To Machine Vision
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/18/silky-smooth-resin-printer-timelapses-thanks-to-machine-vision/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/18/line-following-robot-uses-pid-for-speed/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/18/wed-like-totally-carry-this-retro-boombox-cyberdeck-on-our-shoulder/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lego Submarine Gets Balloon Ballast System
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/19/lego-submarine-gets-balloon-ballast-system/