Makers and open hardware for innovation

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 1990ssimilar 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.

Historically, the education system has produced graduates that went on to work for companies where new products were invented, then pushed to consumers. Today, consumers are driving the innovation process and demanding education, business and invention to meet their requests. Makers are at the center of this innovation transformation.

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

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Finding The Right Hack Is Half The Battle
    https://hackaday.com/2021/09/18/finding-the-right-hack-is-half-the-battle/

    Sometimes you just get lucky. I had a project on my list for a long time, and it was one that I had been putting off for a few months now because I loathed one part of what it entailed — sensitive, high-accuracy analog measurement. And then, out of the blue I stumbled on exactly the right trick, and my problems vanished in thin air. Thanks, Internet of Hackers!

    The project in question is a low-vacuum regulator for “bagging” fiberglass layups.

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Banish Early Morning Zombification With The Zom-b-gone!
    https://hackaday.com/2021/09/17/banish-early-morning-zombification-with-the-zom-b-gone/

    [Applied Procrastination] aka [Simen E. Sørensen] has a simple project to help those of us that struggle with early-morning zombification. By leveraging the backlight optics from a broken LCD monitor, it is possible to create an excellent diffused light source to simulate daylight, before your chosen waking time. The theory is that it is less shocking to the brain to be woken more gradually than an alarm may do. The increasing light level is to prepare the brain with a slowly increasing light level, reminiscent of daybreak, before being properly awoken by an alarm, regardless of the actual light level outdoors. This particularly useful for those of us in more northern regions, such as [Simen]’s native Norway, where mornings are very dark in the winter months.

    Zom-B-Gone!
    An artificial sunrise lamp to cure morning grumpiness
    https://hackaday.io/project/181674-zom-b-gone

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    DIY Laser Speckle Imaging Uncovers Hidden Details
    https://hackaday.com/2021/09/17/diy-laser-speckle-imaging-uncovers-hidden-details/

    It sure sounds like “laser speckle imaging” is the sort of thing you’d need grant money to experiment with, but as [anfractuosity] recently demonstrated, you can get some very impressive results with a relatively simple hardware setup and some common open source software packages. In fact, you might already have all the components required to pull this off in your own workshop right now and just not know it.

    Anyone who’s ever played with a laser pointer is familiar with the sparkle effect observed when the beam shines on certain objects. That’s laser speckle, and it’s created by the beam reflecting off of microscopic variations in the surface texture and producing optical interference. While this phenomenon largely prevents laser beams from being effective direct lighting sources, it can be used as a way to measure extremely minute perturbations in what would appear to be an otherwise flat surface.

    Fun with speckle patterns
    https://www.anfractuosity.com/projects/fun-with-speckle-patterns/

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Dynamicland Makes The Whole Building The Computer
    https://hackaday.com/2021/09/18/dynamicland-makes-the-whole-building-the-computer/

    Every once is a while a research project comes along that has the potential to totally shake up computing and what it even means to interact with a system. The project Dynamicland.org, is a result of [Bret Victor]’s research journey over the years, looking into various aspects of human computer interaction and what it even means to think like a human.
    One of the overhead projectors tied to a realbox
    In Realtalk, paper is your programming medium

    Dynamicland is an instantiation of a Realtalk ecosystem, deployed into a whole building. Tables are used as computing surfaces, with physical objects such as pieces of paper, notebooks, anything which can be read by one of the overhead cameras, becoming the program listing, as well as the user interface. The camera is associated with a projector, with the actual hardware hooked into so-called ‘Realboxes’ which are Linux machines running the Realtalk software. Separate Realboxes (and other hardware such as a Raspberry Pi, running Realtalk) are all federated together using the Realtalk protocol, which allows communication from hardware in the ceiling, to any on the desk, and also to other desks and computing surfaces.

    https://dynamicland.org/

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Amazing innovation , how to Converting a house window from manual to automatic opening and closing
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VJNHuU2-pU

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    3D Printed Sensor Detects Glyphosate
    https://hackaday.com/2021/09/22/3d-printed-sensor-detects-glyphosate/

    Typically, detecting glyphosate — a herbicide — in a beverage requires a sophisticated test setup. But Washington State University has a 3D printed sensor that uses nanotubes to simplify the detection of the toxin.

    The idea is very similar to inexpensive blood glucose monitors. The test will eventually find use for human samples, but the initial testing was for detecting contamination in orange juice.

    https://phys.org/news/2021-09-3d-printed-sensor-glyphosate-beverages.html

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Dr. Jeroen Vleggaar Builds Some Custom OLED Displays — Using a 3D Printer as a Lithography Tool
    https://www.hackster.io/news/dr-jeroen-vleggaar-builds-some-custom-oled-displays-using-a-3d-printer-as-a-lithography-tool-5f6911b9acfa

    Turning a 3D printer into a photolithographic tool gives it a whole new flexibility — and allows for home-designed OLED panels.

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    MetaSense Integrates Sensing Capabilities Into Mechanical 3D-Printed Parts
    MetaSense, developed by researchers at MIT, is a technique for integrating sensing capabilities into 3D-printed mechanical parts.
    https://www.hackster.io/news/metasense-integrates-sensing-capabilities-into-mechanical-3d-printed-parts-61b5f15c1f48

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Transform an Old TV Into an Analog Oscilloscope
    By utilizing four wires that control the motion of the CRT display and inputting a signal, an old TV can act as a simple analog o-scope.
    https://www.hackster.io/news/transform-an-old-tv-into-an-analog-oscilloscope-916b00752d00

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    MicroSynth Is a Tiny Business Card That Plays Tunes
    David Levi’s MicroSynth features touch sensors for keys and use a pair of op-amps instead of a 555 timer to play music.
    https://www.hackster.io/news/microsynth-is-a-tiny-business-card-that-plays-tunes-45c259d58734

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Soundcard Oscilloscope
    https://www.zeitnitz.eu/Scope_en

    ThunderScope: A Software-Defined Oscilloscope
    Follow one EE graduate’s journey of bringing his software-defined oscilloscope idea into existence.
    https://www.hackster.io/news/thunderscope-a-software-defined-oscilloscope-a452dc4c3307

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Removing Threadlocked Screws With A Soldering Iron
    https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/removing-threadlocked-screws-with-a-soldering-iron/

    We’ve all been there – that last stubborn screw, the one thing between you and some real progress on a repair or restoration. It’s stuck tight with thread-locking fluid, and using more torque threatens to strip the head. Frustration mounting, drilling that sucker out is starting to seem pretty tempting. But wait! [Daniel] offers a potential solution using nothing but a soldering iron.

    How To Remove A Small Thread-Locked Screw Using Heat To Break Down The Loctite With A Soldering Iron
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td73Ocindz0

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Science behind Railgun, ElectroBOOM Style
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJRDclzi5Vg

    Railgun can shoot fastest than anything, so. let’s make on!

    Science behind Railgun
    http://www.electroboom.com/?p=856

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Mini Laser Engraver Could Carve Out A Place On Your Desk
    https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/mini-laser-engraver-could-carve-out-a-place-on-your-desk/

    Got a couple of old DVD-RW drives lying around, just collecting dust? Of course you do. If not, you likely know where to find a pair so you can build this totally adorable and fully dangerous laser engraver for your desk. Check out the complete build video after the break.

    https://www.instructables.com/DiY-Mini-Laser-Engraver/

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Forget Digital Computing, You Need An Analog Computer
    https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/forget-digital-computing-you-need-an-analog-computer/

    The analog computer of decades-gone-by is something many of us younger engineers never got the chance to experience first hand. It’s pretty much a case of reading about them on these fine pages or perhaps looking at a piece of one behind glass in one of the more interesting museums out there. But now, there is another option, (THAT) The Analog Thing. Developed by Berlin-based Analog computer-on-chip specialist Anabrid, THAT is an Open Source analog computer you can build yourself (eventually) or buy from them fully assembled. At least, that’s their plan.

    https://the-analog-thing.org/

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Water Is The Secret Ingredient When Laser Cutting Ceramics To Make Circuits
    https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/water-is-the-secret-ingredient-when-laser-cutting-ceramics-to-make-circuits/

    [Ben Krasnow] over at Applied Science was experimenting with cutting inexpensive ceramic sheets with his cheap CO2 laser cutter when he found that (just as expected) the thermal shock of the CO2 beam would cause cracking and breaking of the workpiece. After much experimentation, he stumbled upon a simple solution: submersion under a thin layer of water was sufficient to remove excess heat, keeping thermal shock at bay, and eventually cutting the material. Some prior art was uncovered, which we believe is this PHD thesis (PDF) from Manchester University in the UK. This is a great read for anyone wanting to dig into this technique a little deeper.

    Underwater laser cutting and silver sintering to make ceramic circuit boards
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxXEI0Ce6C0

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Laser Theremin Turns Your Hand Swooshes Into Music
    https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/laser-theremin-turns-your-hand-swooshes-into-music/

    In a world where smartphones have commoditized precision MEMS Sensors, the stage is set to reimagine clusters of these sensors as something totally different. That’s exactly what [chronopoulos] did, taking four proximity sensors and turning them into a custom gesture input sensor for sound generation. The result is Quadrant, a repurposable human-interface device that proves to be well-posed at detecting hand gestures and turning them into music.

    At its core, Quadrant is a human interface device built around an STM32F0 and four VL6180X time-of-flight proximity sensors. The idea is to stream the measured distance data over as fast as possible from the device side and then transform it into musical interactions on the PC side. Computing distance takes some time, though, so [chronopoulos] does a pipelined read of the array to stream the data into the PC over USB at a respectable 30 Hz.

    https://hackaday.io/project/165541-quadrant

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    This Audio Mixer Is A Eurorack
    https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/this-audio-mixer-is-a-eurorack/

    Music making and DJing have both become arts predominantly pursued in a computer, as the mighty USB interface has subsumed audio, MIDI, and even DJ turntable interface controllers. There was a time though when an indispensable part of any aspiring performer’s equipment would have been an analog mixer, a device for buffering and combining multiple analog audio signals into a single whole. A mixer is still a useful device though, and [Sam Kent] has produced a very nice one that takes the form of a set of Eurorack modules made from PCB material. There are two types of modules, the main channel module which you can think of as the master module, and a series of isolator modules that handle the individual inputs.

    https://samjkent.co.uk/modular-mixer/

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Fourier Transforms (and More) Using Light
    https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/fourier-transforms-and-more-using-light/

    Linear transforms — like a Fourier transform — are a key math tool in engineering and science. A team from UCLA recently published a paper describing how they used deep learning techniques to design an all-optical solution for arbitrary linear transforms. The technique doesn’t use any conventional processing elements and, instead, relies on diffractive surfaces. They also describe a “data free” design approach that does not rely on deep learning.

    There is obvious appeal to using light to compute transforms. The computation occurs at the speed of light and in a highly parallel fashion. The final system will have multiple diffractive surfaces to compute the final result.

    All-optical synthesis of an arbitrary linear transformation using diffractive surfaces
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-021-00623-5

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*