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/2021/10/28/turn-a-parking-sensor-into-an-anemometer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/news/dave-the-remote-control-duck-is-an-interesting-take-on-the-rc-boat-0be435930b30
Tomi Engdahl says:
Very small size spot welder idea
Basically useless but it can gave me some ideas on how improve the project involving many more batteries and maybe a supercapacitor….
How to make mini spot welding using 9V batteries and capacitor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k621ZZs2PAo
Viewer comments:
Wow!! Barely works on aluminum foil! So impressive!!
use brass or copper electrodes, can be done with low power 12v power supply+resistor and larger capacitor with relay who charge a cap. and cut off the power
supply when weld.
Cool video but I think I’ll just get a bigger piece of aluminum foil but still nonetheless pretty cool..
P.s. if you put one electrode on one sheet and touch the other one to the other sheet you should get a better weld as the electricity will flow from one piece to the other instead of the same piece to the same piece and counting on heat to make them stick. Thanks for sharing
You can get the same effect by just pucturing the two tin foils together with the electrode without any current. They will “stick” together as strong as you have shown in this video LOL
Nice video. This is a good video to understand the concept of it. I’m planning on using this project as a model to build a bigger one
Anyone noticed how he hooked up a 25v capacitor to a 3*9V Battery pack? This spot welder can even weld itself
Lol 25volt capacitor on 27volts
The voltage rating is typically for 10,000 hours. As long as you’re only using this for a few minutes, you can probably go quite a bit over the rated voltage before it lets out the magic smoke.
good video. a good spot welder must be 200 Joules and yours has 1.47 joules. thanks
i’ve seen this done with a 12v battery, I think. Could you use any 12v battery (or even 2-12′s in series) even motorcycle batteries would do.. with your same 25v rated cap & then be able to have the amperage to weld nickle strips for connecting to lithium batteries or…?
It is recommended to increase the withstand voltage and capacity of the capacitor. In addition, when the instantaneous discharge occurs in contact, the energy is consumed by the spark discharge and the effect is reduced. Therefore, switching is recommended using a thyristor. The breakdown voltage of the capacitor should be about 30V.
with real spot welder devices, the idea is to allow the connection to be made first before electronically discharging the energy pulse, so it doesn’t heat just the surface. With low powered welders though, the resistance at the contact point is needed to generate enough heat to weld.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adam Savage’s Guide to Drill Bits!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vetc7rEYnjI
Adam dives and drives deep into the world of drill bits, giving us an overview into the various kinds of bits and end mills he uses in his workshop and showing the versatility of his favorite bit of all: the venerable forstner bit! Plus, a peek into one of his early mechanical builds that he constructed using only forstner bits!
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Butterfly Effect With Cylindrical Mirrors And a Laser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBow0kTVn3s
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.arduino.cc/2021/11/03/learn-how-to-build-your-own-massive-3d-printed-cnc-router/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reproduce the Color of Any Object in Paint with This Novel Color Maker
After making a quick scan of an object’s color, this device can accurately reproduce it by mixing paint in the required quantities.
https://www.hackster.io/news/reproduce-the-color-of-any-object-in-paint-with-this-novel-color-maker-58d94edf2c83
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Journey to Hide a Nefarious WiFi Router in a Seemingly Normal USB Wall Charger
https://www.hackster.io/news/the-journey-to-hide-a-nefarious-wifi-router-in-a-seemingly-normal-usb-wall-charger-613f78dc9a04
The WiFi Wart is a fully-operational WiFi router that has been hidden within a normal-looking AC to USB charging brick.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The MiRage Keyboard by Zack Freedman Is a DIY 3-in-1 Contraption with Several Interesting Functions
https://www.hackster.io/news/the-mirage-keyboard-by-zack-freedman-is-a-diy-3-in-1-contraption-with-several-interesting-functions-95066104cb61
The MiRage can be used as a normal keyboard, split in half for more natural hand layouts, or used only with its right half as a stream deck
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Dual-Microcontroller 3D-Printed Lock and Key Triggers MQTT Messages to Log You In
https://www.hackster.io/news/this-dual-microcontroller-3d-printed-lock-and-key-triggers-mqtt-messages-to-log-you-in-42560f53ebf1
With an ESP8266 in the “lock” and an ATtiny45 in the “key,” you’ll need to figure out the orientation to get this device open.
Pseudonymous maker “Cheats” has found an unusual use for pogo pins: a dual-microcontroller electronic “lock and key” that doubles as a USB security token.
“I wanted to create a kind of lock and key that acts sorta like a USB hardware token,” Cheats explains of the project, “meaning it doesn’t unlock something physically but rather programmatically. I also want it versatile enough so that I can unlock many things such as a computer, or a website. The base of the structure will be the ‘lock’ and will house the [Espressif] ESP8266 and the ‘key’ will be its own separate piece that contains the [Microchip] ATtiny45.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
CHEAP CALIPER HACK KEEPS ‘EM RUNNING LONGER
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/30/cheap-caliper-hack-keeps-em-running-longer/
Many a hacker is a fan of the cheapest calipers on the market. Manufactured in China and priced low enough that they’re virtually disposable, they get a lot of jobs done in the world where clinical accuracy isn’t required. However, their batteries often die when left in a drawer for a long time. [Ben] was sick of that, and got to hacking.
The result was a quick-and-dirty mod that allows the calipers to be powered by a AAA battery. The average AAA cell has 5-10 times the capacity of the typical LR44 coin cells used in these devices.
https://mobile.twitter.com/bensommerf/status/1452774474412036096
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/29/all-aboard-the-railroad-keyboard-is-now-serving-open-sourceville/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Worst Oscilloscope in the World (DIY & Flip Dot Display)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DvH6FiS3sg
I got a flip dot display from the viewer and the chat let me build an oscilloscope out of that within a livestream. We were successful and I continued to design a driver board to make it nice…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hedgehog Gesture Sensor Built With Cheap Time-of-Flight Modules
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/02/hedgehog-gesture-sensor-built-with-cheap-time-of-flight-modules/
Time-of-flight sensors used to be expensive obscurities, capable of measuring the travel time of photons themselves and often used for tracking purposes. However, the technology is cheaper now, such that [jean.perardel] has used TOF sensors to build a useful and affordable gesture-tracking system.
The system relies on four VL53L1X time of flight sensors, which have a 16×16 scanning array and communicate over the I2C bus. Controlling the show is an Arduino MKR1010, though the project should be achievable with a range of other microcontrollers, too.
Gesture/Pattern Recognition Without Camera : TOF !
https://hackaday.io/project/180123-gesturepattern-recognition-without-camera-tof
Grumpy Hedgehog is a connected device that allows you to read and interact with movements. Its LCD screen displays the Hedgehog’s expression
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny Open Hardware Linux SBC Hides In Plain Sight
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/02/tiny-open-hardware-linux-sbc-hides-in-plain-sight/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fluidized Bed In A Pringles Can Paints Parts Inside And Out
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/03/fluidized-bed-in-a-pringles-can-paints-parts-inside-and-out/
Powder coating is a wonderful way to apply a smooth, colored surface to a part, whether for aesthetic reasons or corrosion protection. Traditionally, powder is applied via a air gun that sprays it towards a part while giving the grains an electrostatic charge. The part to be coated (generally metal) is hanging on a rack and given an opposite charge, and the powder readily flows to the surface and sticks well. The dry coated part is then placed in an oven which melts the powder into a solid, continuous surface. The main drawback of the process is that while simple parts with large surfaces are easy to coat, it can become difficult to get powder to flow evenly into deep crevices, or inside a hollow part such as a tube.
Enter fluidized bed powder coating — a process in which air shoots through a vat of powder, making it move like a fluid. A heated part can be dipped inside the vat, instantly melting a thin layer of powder around the part.
Powder coating is usually one of those processes though of as only viable in professional shops, but [Amper] along with some other intrepid hackers have done a great job demonstrating that it can be possible for the rest of us too. We’ve even seen some others experiment with fluidized bed coating before — it’s always great to see a process such as this one gradually become more and more accessible.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here Are The Ten Finalists For The Hackaday Prize Wildcard Challenge
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/03/here-are-the-ten-finalists-for-the-hackaday-prize-wildcard-challenge/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Simplify 3D Printer Wiring With CAN Bus
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/03/simplify-3d-printer-wiring-with-can-bus/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Autonomous Drone Dodges Obstacles Without GPS
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/03/autonomous-drone-dodges-obstacles-without-gps/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Braiding Machine Will Show You The Ropes
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/04/3d-printed-braiding-machine-will-show-you-the-ropes/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prepare For Wildfire Season With An Air Quality Monitor
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/04/prepare-for-wildfire-season-with-an-air-quality-monitor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/05/battle-robot-uses-carbon-fiber-to-save-weight/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/10/3d-printed-absolute-encoder-is-absolutely-wonderful/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/03/vintage-computers-with-a-real-turbo/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Liberating The ESP8266 From Its Development Board
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/03/liberating-the-esp8266-from-its-development-board/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Malamud’s General Index: Research Gist, No Slap On The Wrist
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/02/malamuds-general-index-research-gist-no-slap-on-the-wrist/
Tired of that unsettling feeling you get from looking for paywalled papers on that one site that shall not be named? Yeah, us too. But now there’s an alternative that should feel a little less illegal: this new index of the world’s research papers over on the Internet Archive.
It’s an index of words and short phrases (up to five words) culled from approximately 107 million research papers. The point is to make it easier for scientists to gain insights from papers that they might not otherwise have access to. The Index will also make it easier for computerized analysis of the world’s research. Call it a gist machine.
https://archive.org/details/GeneralIndex
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automation Allows You To Leaf Your Plants Alone
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/05/automation-allows-you-to-leaf-your-plants-alone/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY CNC Uses Lots Of 3D-Printed Parts
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/05/diy-cnc-uses-lots-of-3d-printed-parts/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Homebrewed Voice Assistant Keeps An Eye On Air Quality
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/05/homebrewed-voice-assistant-keeps-an-eye-on-air-quality/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-printed Fan Mount Keeps Server GPU Cool In Desktop Case
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/06/3d-printed-fan-mount-keeps-server-gpu-cool-in-desktop-case/
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Tiny Wake-Up Light Is Hugely Bright
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/06/tiny-wake-up-light-is-hugely-bright/
Let’s face it — waking up is rough no matter what time of year it is. But the darkness of fall and winter makes it so much worse. In the past, [Maarten] has used music with increasing volume, but depending on the setup, it can be dodgy if you want to hear a different song each day and don’t have all your files volume-leveled.
Wake Up Bright is the latest in a line of wake-up widgets [Maarten] has made to help rouse them in the morning. Their write-up covers all ideas they’ve had on the subject over the years, as well as the electronics, firmware, debugging, and all the upgrades made after using it for awhile.
https://www.geekabit.nl/projects/wake-up-bright/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/08/adding-brakes-to-actuated-fingers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Annoy Yourself Into Better Driving With This Turn Signal Monitor
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/07/annoy-yourself-into-better-driving-with-this-turn-signal-monitor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adafruit AVRProg Grows UPDI Interface Support
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/08/adafruit-avrprog-grows-updi-interface-support/
Making a small number of things with an embedded application is pretty straightforward, you usually simply plug in a programmer or debugger dongle (such as an AVRISP2) into your board with an appropriate adaptor cable, load your code into whatever IDE tool is appropriate for the device and hit the program button. But when you scale up a bit to hundreds or thousands of units, this way of working just won’t cut it. Add in any functional or defect-oriented testing you need, and you’re going to need a custom programming rig.
Adafruit have a fair bit of experience with building embedded boards and dealing with the appropriate testing and programming, and now they’ve updated their AVR Programming library to support the latest devices which have moved to the UPDI (Unified Programming and Debug Interface) programming interface. UPDI is a single-wire bidirectional asynchronous serial interface which enables programming and debugging of embedded applications on slew of the new AVR branded devices from Microchip. An example would be the AVR128DAxx which this scribe has been tinkering with lately because it is cheap, has excellent capacitive touch support, and is available in a prototype-friendly 28-pin SOIC package, making it easy peasy to solder.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Own The Night With This Ludicrously Bright DIY Flashlight
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/08/own-the-night-with-this-ludicrously-bright-diy-flashlight/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Development Of Magnetic Locking Idea Shows Great Progress
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/09/development-of-magnetic-locking-idea-shows-great-progress/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flip-Dot Oscilloscope Is Flippin’ Awesome
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/09/flip-dot-oscilloscope-is-flippin-awesome/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/09/teardown-analog-radionic-analyzer/
https://hackaday.com/2019/04/15/teardown-nihon-kenko-magnetic-wave-tester/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/09/not-your-average-nixie-tube-clock/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This $0 Filament Drybox Needs Nearly No Parts
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/09/this-0-filament-drybox-needs-nearly-no-parts/
https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/85378-0-filament-dry-box
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/07/this-robot-cant-keep-its-eyes-off-the-money/
Tomi Engdahl says:
8″ Floppy On Your PC?
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/10/8floppy-on-your-pc/
[Adrian asks the question: can you use an 8″ floppy drive on a PC? The answer is in the video
Can you use 8″ disk drives on the PC?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfEzjcG_0gs
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kinetic Log Splitter Gets The Job Done Kinetically
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/10/kinetic-log-splitter-gets-the-job-done-kinetically/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CycmLfsFias
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Introduction to Open Source Dronecode
Nov. 4, 2021
Dronecode Foundation Program Manager Ramon Roche talks about the various open source components available to drone developers.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/embedded-revolution/video/21180463/an-introduction-to-open-source-dronecode?utm_source=EG%20ED%20Auto%20Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS211028116&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
We are setting the standards in the drone industry with open-source.
The Dronecode Foundation fosters communities and innovation through open-standards using open-source. Dronecode is a vendor-neutral foundation for open source drone projects. We are a US-based non-profit under the Linux Foundation and provide open source governance, infrastructure, and services to software & hardware projects. We work with developers, end-users, and adopting vendors from around the world.
https://www.dronecode.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
FUNDAMENTALS OF
Industrial Robotics
https://tiindustrialfundamentals.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Learn How to Build Your Own Rock Tumbler Polishing Machine
This video from Mr Innovative will walk you through how to build your own rock tumbler polishing machine.
https://www.hackster.io/news/learn-how-to-build-your-own-rock-tumbler-polishing-machine-e152855196df
If you want to polish a pretty rock or a rusty old piece of metal, you have a couple of options. You can spend hours rubbing them with sandpaper until your fingertips bleed, or you can throw them in a rock tumbler. Rock tumblers use rough sand and small pebbles spinning in a drum to beat objects smooth, like accelerated erosion. This video from Mr Innovative will walk you through how to build your own rock tumbler polishing machine.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MT2Zm8M7wC0&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/11/three-dimensional-design-yields-compact-seven-segment-hex-displays/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/11/build-your-own-hv-capacitors/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rolling Your Own Long-Range IoT Sensor Network
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/11/rolling-your-own-long-range-iot-sensor-network/