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:
Induction Heater Uses New Coil
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/08/induction-heater-uses-new-coil/
DIY Induction heater with Frrite Core Coil
Slightly unusual variation of Induction Heater
https://hackaday.io/project/185714-diy-induction-heater-with-frrite-core-coil
Tomi Engdahl says:
PicoSplit
https://hackaday.io/project/185785-picosplit
PicoSplit is a DIY 3D-printed split keyboard with some unique features which is driven by CircuitPython.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY input devices
A selection of DIY input devices i made over the years
https://hackaday.io/project/185798-diy-input-devices
Tomi Engdahl says:
ATtiny424 Binary kitchen timer-internal clock
Testing out the ATtiny424 (new 2-series ATtiny) with internal oscillator.
https://hackaday.io/project/185598-attiny424-binary-kitchen-timer-internal-clock
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Lab-Grade Measurement Microphone For Not A Lot
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/08/a-lab-grade-measurement-microphone-for-not-a-lot/
The quality of any measurement can only be as good as the instrument used to gather it, and for acoustic measurements, finding a good enough instrument can be surprisingly difficult. Commonly available microphones can be of good quality, but since they are invariably designed for speech or music, they need not have the flat or wide enough response and low noise figure demanded of an instrumentation microphone.
Microphones for measurement purposes can be had for a very large outlay, but here’s [Peter Riccardi] with a unit designed around an array of MEMS capsules that delivers comparable performance for a fraction of the cost.
MEMs Based IEPE Powered Instrumentation Microphone
https://hackaday.io/project/185762-mems-based-iepe-powered-instrumentation-microphone
A 3D printable, MEMs based microphone is proposed in this project. The microphone is laboratory grade, IEPE powered, and less than $30.
Tomi Engdahl says:
STOP Buying Standard Taps…Buy This Instead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHDBjRbEaSc
Not all taps are created equal, watch this video and make life easier.
Viewer comments:
Another thing to consider is tap strength. Four flute taps are notorious for breaking off in the hole. I usually prefer a two flute tap, as it is far stronger. Another tap is the roll form tap. It requires a different drill size, but you can tap some softer materials, and they are hard to break.
When you switch from plug tap to the bottoming spiral tap for a blind hole use a compressed air gun/blower to clear the chips from the hole. I also like using air to clean chips from my taps between holes as it cleans and cools simultaneously. Great video. I’ve found the quality and wear off the tap in use to be very significant in how they perform. Covering thread percentage on a drill/tap chart may help some viewers. I generally shoot for 70-75% depending on the material I’m working with and the depth of hole.
Spiral taps are relative new for the home market, and drills that combine a tap so that it drills the correct hole are brilliant.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/182947-cfexpress-type-b-to-ssd-adapter-converter
Tomi Engdahl says:
Glass: Classic, But Mysterious
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/11/glass-classic-but-mysterious/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Odd Inputs And Peculiar Peripherals: Using A Commodore Light Pen On A Modern(ish) Computer
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/11/odd-inputs-and-peculiar-peripherals-using-a-commodore-light-pen-on-a-modernish-computer/
We therefore applaud [Maciej Witkowiak]’s efforts to bring the light pen into the 21st century by building a USB interface for a Commodore 64/128 light pen. At its heart is an Arduino Micro Pro that implements the USB HID protocol to communicate with any modern computer. It connects to the classic light pen as well as to the computer’s analog display signal and uses those to calculate the delay between the video synchronization pulses and the light pen’s output. The sync pulses are extracted from the video signal by an LM1881, a sync separator chip that will be familiar to anyone who’s worked with analog video signals.
Lightpen to USB HID interface
Bring CRT displays and light pens into 21st century
https://hackaday.io/project/179968-lightpen-to-usb-hid-interface
The Arduino calculates the light pen’s position based on the measured timing intervals and reports it to the computer, using the absolute positioning mode that’s also used by things like drawing pads.
Hence this project – everything this small Arduino Micro Pro does is to listen for signals from video decoder (LM1881) and record time offsets. Every VSYNC the results are reported through USB. Arduino describes itself as a mouse with absolute positioning reporting, like a drawing tablet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RC Car Repair With Beer Can Solder Stencil
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/12/rc-car-repair-with-beer-can-solder-stencil/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Look inside chip
https://zeptobars.com/en/read/National-LH0042CH-hybrid-opamp-FET-SEM
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yes We Have Random Bananas
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/12/yes-we-have-random-bananas/
If you ask a normal person to pick a random number, they’ll usually just blurt out a number. But if you ask a math-savvy person for a random number, you’ll probably get a lecture about how hard it is to pick a truly random number. But if you ask [Valerio Nappi], you might just get a banana.
https://www.valerionappi.it/chi-squared/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Protect Your Drivers When The Motor Stalls
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/13/protect-your-drivers-when-the-motor-stalls/
[Mark Rehorst] tells us about a tragic incident involving an untimely demise of $200 worth of motor driving hardware, and shares a simple circuit so that we can prevent such tragedies in the future. His Arrakis sand table project has quite a few motors involved, and having forgotten to add limits into the software, he slammed a motor-driven mechanism into a well-fixed part of the table. The back EMF of the motor created a burst of energy, taking out the motor driver, the controller board, and the power supply.
Bank Account Protection Circuit for Servo/Stepper Motors
https://drmrehorst.blogspot.com/2022/05/bank-account-protection-circuit-for.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Secrets Of The Pop Pop Boat
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/13/the-secrets-of-the-pop-pop-boat/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Klara, a solar LCD creature
https://hackaday.io/project/185825-klara-a-solar-lcd-creature
Solar-powered creature that reacts to energy with animations on a 7-segment LCD. It can also blink!
Tomi Engdahl says:
DOOM? In Your BIOS? More Likely Than You Think!
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/12/doom-in-your-bios-more-likely-than-you-think/
We’ve seen hackers run DOOM on a variety of appliances, from desk phones to pregnancy tests. Now, the final frontier has been conquered – we got DOOM to run on an x86 machine. Of course, making sure we utilize your PC hardware to its fullest, we have to forego an OS. Here are two ways you can run the classic shooter without the burden of gigabytes of bloated code in the background.
[nic3-14159] implemented this first version as a payload for coreboot, which is an open-source BIOS/UEFI replacement for x86 machines. Some might say it’s imperfect — it has no sound support, only works with PS/2 keyboards, and exiting the game makes your computer freeze. However, it’s playable, and it fits into your BIOS flash chip.
https://github.com/nic3-14159/coreDOOM
But what if your computer hasn’t yet been blessed with a free BIOS replacement? You might like this UEFI module DOOM port instead, originally made by [Warfish] and then built upon by [Cacodemon345].
https://github.com/Cacodemon345/uefidoom
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Masters don’t want you to know! SECRET TIPS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei49MaqK4io
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kindergarten Festival
Some games for a small Kindergarten Summer Party
https://hackaday.io/project/185872-kindergarten-festival
1.Buzzwire ( in german “Der heiße Draht”)
2.High Striker( in german “Hau den Lukas”) )
…just a small instruction
Both Projects are done with an Arduino Micro
Tomi Engdahl says:
Colordance Circle
https://hackaday.io/project/168954-colordance-circle
Art piece that creates kaleidoscopic colored shadows.
Arrays of high-powered LEDs in a circle, pointing at the center.
This project includes:
- 2×2 LED driver boards (“9W” RGB LEDs)
- A control surface
- Physical construction of the piece, including decorative poles
- Multi-platform control software
- A 1:8 scale model
Tomi Engdahl says:
Distance Sensor for Auto Bed Level
it detects the distance from the nozzle to bed and then adjust Z axis height in real time.
https://hackaday.io/project/185096-distance-sensor-for-auto-bed-level
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Recreator 3D PET#1 Pultrusion Unit
https://hackaday.io/project/185867-the-recreator-3d-pet1-pultrusion-unit
Strip down PET#1 Recyclable plastic bottles.
Convert into new usable 3D filament.
Load up your favorite 3D printer and recreate!
Tomi Engdahl says:
2022 Hackaday Prize: Hack It Back And Make It Yours
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/13/2022-hackaday-prize-hack-it-back-and-make-it-yours/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low-Cost Nanopositioning Hack Chat
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/13/low-cost-nanopositioning-hack-chat/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Odd Inputs And Peculiar Peripherals: Touch This Macro Pad
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/13/odd-inputs-and-peculiar-peripherals-touch-this-macro-pad/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Another Rubik’s Cube Robot Is Simple But Slow
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/13/another-rubiks-cube-robot-is-simple-but-slow/
[AndreaFavero] says that the CuboTino emphasizes simplicity and cost-savings over speed. However, solving the puzzle in about 90 seconds is still better than we can do. The plucky solver uses a Pi and a camera to understand what the cube looks like and then runs it through a solver to determine how to move.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pushing The Limits Of A 16×2 LCD With Bad Apple!!
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/14/pushing-the-limits-of-a-16×2-lcd-with-bad-apple/
While low-contrast, blue-on-slightly-less-blue 16-character by 2-line LCDs are extremely popular, they really are made specifically for alphanumeric use. They do an admirable job of displaying a few characters, but they don’t exactly spring to mind as a display for non-character purposes. But displaying video on a 16×2 LCD is possible, as long as you’re willing to stretch the definition of “video” a bit and use some imagination while watching.
Streaming Video on 1602 Character LCD Display
https://hackaday.io/project/185859-streaming-video-on-1602-character-lcd-display
What makes this project special is that I am going to render graphics on a character LCD display which is not supposed to be used this way.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LMN-3: Putting The ‘OP’ In Open Source Synthesizers
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/14/lmn-3-putting-the-op-in-open-source-synthesizers/
Some projects you come across simply leave you in awe when you look at the thought and the resulting amount of work that went into it, not only for the actual implementation, but everything around it. Even more so when it’s a single-developer open source project. [Stone Preston]’s synth / sampler / sequencer / DAW-in-a-box LMN-3 absolutely fits the description here, and it seems like he has set his heart on making sure everyone can built one for themselves, by providing all the design files from case down to the keycaps.
The LMN-3 (LMN as in “lemon”, not “comes before the OP“) is intended as a standalone, portable digital audio workstation, and is built around a Raspberry Pi 4 with a HyperPixel display for the user interface.
https://github.com/FundamentalFrequency
Tomi Engdahl says:
Odd Inputs And Peculiar Peripherals: The Morse Keyboard
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/14/odd-inputs-and-peculiar-peripherals-the-morse-keyboard/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kved: An Embeddable Key/Value Datastore
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/14/kved-an-embeddable-key-value-datastore/
https://github.com/marcelobarrosalmeida/kved
Tomi Engdahl says:
Recreating A Camera Shot
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/14/recreating-a-camera-shot/
People rolling off shields and spears clashing against swords as the camera zooms in and out wildly makes the hallmark action sequences in the movie 300 so iconic. Unfortunately, achieving this effect wasn’t particularly easy. Three cameras were rolling, each with a different lens (100mm, 50mm, and 21mm) to capture a different view of the same scene. In post-production, you can dramatically switch between the three cameras since the shot is synchronized. The folks over at [Corridor Crew] wanted to recreate the effect, but rather than create a custom mount to hold three expensive cameras, they 3d printed a custom mount to hold three costly smartphones.
I Made Zack Snyder’s Crazy Camera From “300″ Using iPhones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8X16Gw3Qa4
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/13/low-cost-nanopositioning-hack-chat/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/19/your-own-ibm-mainframe-or-vax-or-cray-the-easy-way/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/19/tips-for-winding-durable-coils-with-nice-flat-sides/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/19/can-a-drone-push-a-bike/
Tomi Engdahl says:
RGB 7-Segment Display Module Glows In All The Colours
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/19/rgb-7-segment-display-module-glows-in-all-the-colours/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Balancing A Motor With An Oscilloscope
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/18/balancing-a-motor-with-an-oscilloscope/
With all things in life, one must seek to achieve balance. That may sound a little like New Age woo-woo, but if you think it’s not literally true, just try tolerating a washing machine with a single comforter on spin cycle, or driving a few miles on unbalanced tires.
Anything that rotates can quickly spin itself into shrapnel if it’s not properly balanced, and the DIY power tools in [Matthias Wandel]’s shop are no exception. Recent upgrades to his jointer have left the tool a bit noisy, so he’s exploring machine vibrations with this simple but clever setup. Using nothing but a cheap loudspeaker and an oscilloscope, [Matthias] was able to characterize vibrations in a small squirrel-cage blower — he wisely chose to start small to validate his method before diving into the potentially dangerous jointer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGGJYXjE5s0
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/18/ikea-led-lamp-gets-hacked-for-night-light-duty/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/18/doodlestation-is-beautifully-musical-furniture/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/18/can-you-cheat-at-tightrope-walking/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacking A New Display Into A Fluke 8050A Multimeter
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/17/hacking-a-new-display-into-a-fluke-8050a-multimeter/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize 2022: Turning Big Box Trash Into Art Student Treasure
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/17/hackaday-prize-2022-turning-big-box-trash-into-art-student-treasure/
How can the big box store mix the perfect shade of English Wedgwood right before your eyes? The answer is in highly-concentrated pigments that come in many different sizes up to a whopping five gallons. Now, just imagine the amount of watercolor, acrylic, or other types of paint that could be made by simply scraping the walls of an empty 5-gallon tub, which you know is just getting thrown away with all that usable pigment inside.
Not only is [technoplastique] making watercolors and other paints out of these pigments, but their true focus is on creating an easily-reproducible process for turning not just pigments into paint, but other things as well, like dried turmeric, charcoal, or any other feasible material.
The process will likely take the form of an open-source three-roller milling machine, which are commonly used in paint manufacture.
Converting Waste Pigments into Art Supplies
https://hackaday.io/project/185726-converting-waste-pigments-into-art-supplies
System to turn wasted retail store house paint pigment into (almost) free art supplies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Laser Brings Autofocus To Tricked-Out Large Format Film Camera
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/17/laser-brings-autofocus-to-tricked-out-large-format-film-camera/
Tomi Engdahl says:
72 DIY Musical Instruments Played In 7 Minutes
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/17/72-diy-musical-instruments-played-in-7-minutes/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TPkDPJmoA8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automated Blinds Can Be A Cheap And Easy Build
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/16/automated-blinds-can-be-a-cheap-and-easy-build/
Blinds are great for blocking out the sun, but having to get up to open and close them grows tiresome in this computationally-advanced age. [The Hook Up] decided to automate his home blinds instead, hooking them up to the Internet of Things with some common off-the-shelf parts.
The basic idea was to use stepper motors to turn the tilt rod which opens and closes the blinds. An early attempt to open blinds with unipolar stepper motors proved unsuccessful, when the weak motors weren’t capable of fully closing the blinds when running on 5 volts. Not wanting to throw out the hardware on hand, the motors were instead converted to bipolar operation. They were then hooked up to DRV8825 driver boards and run at 12 volts to provide more torque.
With the electromechanical side of things sorted out, it was simple to hook up the motor drivers to a NodeMCU, based on the ESP8266. The IoT-ready device makes it easy to control the motors remotely via the web.
Motorize and Automate your Blinds for $10! (WiFi)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O_1gUFumQM
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Gear Press Can Squash Stuff, Kinda
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/16/3d-printed-gear-press-can-squash-stuff-kinda/
Tomi Engdahl says:
1200 Addressable LEDs Make For The Perfect First Dance
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/16/1200-addressable-leds-make-for-the-perfect-first-dance/
The first dance of a newly married couple at the wedding reception is both a sentimental and memorable event, so why not make it even more so with something a bit special? Hackaday alumnus [Brett Haddoak] and his wife [Rachelle] certainly achieved that, with 1200 addressable LEDs turning her wedding dress into a real-life reproduction of Princess Aurora’s color changing dress from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.
Sleeping Beauty Wedding Dress – The Details
https://bretthaddoak.com/2022/06/15/sleeping-beauty-wedding-dress-the-details/
Princess Aurora, “Sleeping Beauty” Wedding Dress in Real Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWNK0DdVv0w
Tomi Engdahl says:
Comparing 3D Printed Tires: Resin Vs. TPU
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/16/comparing-3d-printed-tires-resin-vs-tpu/
Many robot builders and RC enthusiasts find themselves turning to 3D printed tires. The benefit is you can make them in any size and style you want, and they’re as readily available for as long as your home printer is still working. [Michael Rechtin] printed some up and decided to see how long they’d actually last in use.
[Michael] printed a pair of tires for the test. One was made in TPU on a typical FDM printer, while the other was printed in flexible resin. The tires were then installed on hubs and fitted with gear motors for drive. The assembly was then fitted to the end of a test tether that would turn in circles for hours to put mileage on the tires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXZE-3f19Go
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/16/theres-a-lego-suspension-dyno-now/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Custom 40% Model F Keyboard Is 100% Awesome
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/16/custom-40-model-f-keyboard-is-100-awesome/
Tomi Engdahl says:
PVC Pipe Transformed Into Handy Tool Box
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/15/pvc-pipe-transformed-into-handy-tool-box/
Would you believe the multi-tiered toolbox pictured here started its life as a piece of bog standard PVC pipe? It certainly wouldn’t be our first choice of building material, but as shown in the video after the break, it only takes a heat source and something suitably flat to convert a piece of PVC pipe into a versatile sheet material.
how to make a tool box using PVC pipe | creative idea with PVC pipe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z52CaXNjLLU