Maker Project Lab
January 26, 2023 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: News Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Rolling With the Rabbit [Maker Update]

This week on Maker Update, riding in the Lunar New Year, a world of sound, cactus-core, a guide to Noods, DIN rails for your racks, and Cuttle boxes.

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April 22, 2021 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: News Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Virtual High Five [Maker Update]

This week on Maker Update, roll your own virtual reality gloves, an LED snowboard, a ferrofluid Bluetooth speaker, an animatronic webcam, spinning lights and blinking pixels.

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February 28, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: News Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Split-Flap Attack [Maker Update #73]

This week on Maker Update, rolling your own split-flap display, the unholy union of Furby and Alexa, customized fan grilles and a walnut box with a foam core secret. This week’s Cool Tool is the Joe Knows Electronics Resistor Starter Kit.

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December 6, 2017 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: News Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

TechShop 2.0 [Maker Update #63]

This week on Maker Update, a Bluetooth boombox with a built in visualizer, TechShop bounces back, a Circuit Python pixel painter, animatronic eyes, and glue tips for cosplay. This week’s Cool Tool is the Bucket Boss Parachute Bag.

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November 18, 2016 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: Project Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to Hack Alexa into a Billy Bass Talking Fish

As many of you know from watching my Maker Update video series, I’ve been obsessed with hacking together a Billy Bass novelty talking fish and Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant. About a month ago, an artist named Brian Kane published a viral video showing a Big Mouth Billy Bass novelty singing fish, seemingly voiced by Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant. The internet went nuts for it, and so did I — but mostly I just wanted to know how it worked so that I could make my own.

After a few weeks tinkering with it and collecting the components I needed, I’ve come up with a workable hack. The project documentation and code are available on Instructables. I encourage you to provide feedback and ideas on how to improve it.
Make an Amazon Alexa talk through an animatronic Billy Bass singing fish.

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