This week on Maker Update, my picks for the Top 5 most year-defining projects of 2019.

++Show Notes++

1. Project Alias by Bjørn Karmann
   https://www.instructables.com/id/Project-Alias/

2. Harry Potter Dueling Wands with Arduino! by Wermy
https://sudomod.com/harry-potter-wands/

3. Apollo DSKY Display Replica by Ben Krasnow
https://github.com/benkrasnow/DSKY_EL_replica

4. Arduino-powered ornithopter takes to the skies by gabbapeople
https://www.instructables.com/id/Opensource-Ornithopter-Prototype-Arduino-Powered-a/

5. Ever Blooming Mechanical Tulip By jiripraus
https://www.instructables.com/id/Ever-Blooming-Mechanical-Tulip/

-=Runners Ups=-

Best Art: Analog Future by Parker Heyl
http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/lab-projects/analog-future

Ball Balancing PID System by Johan Link
https://www.instructables.com/id/Ball-Balancing-PID-System/

Raspberry Pi Stop-Motion Animation Rig By wonderfulidea
https://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-Stop-Motion-Animation-Rig/

 

Word Clock Controlled by 114 Servos By mosivers
https://www.instructables.com/id/Word-Clock-Controlled-by-114-Servos/

Greatest Holdies: I Hacked an Old Phone to Play the Greatest Hold Music. By Fuzzy-Wobble
https://www.instructables.com/id/Greatest-Holdies-I-Hacked-an-Old-Phone-to-Play-the/

Hacking an Etch-A-Sketch with a Raspberry Pi and camera: Etch-A-Snap!
https://www.twobitarcade.net/article/etch-a-snap/

Final Fantasy Black Mage Cosplay by Cody Sass
https://blog.adafruit.com/2019/05/21/this-final-fantasy-black-mage-cosplay-has-all-the-feels/

Upright Laser Harp by Jonathan Bumstead
https://hackaday.io/project/167163-upright-laser-harp

How to Make Realistic Eyes Using 3D Printing for Animatronic Eye Mechanisms by Will Cogley
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Ultra-Realistic-Eyes-Using-3D-Printing/

-=Transcript=-

This week on Maker Update, my picks for the Top 5 most year-defining projects of 2019.

Hey I’m Donald Bell, and welcome to a very special edition of Maker Update. I’m going to take a look back and pick a handful of maker projects from this past year that, to me really stood out and deserve a little victory lap. This was a hard one to do, but I tried to narrow it down to projects that I just had never seen anything like before. 

I’m not really ranking these because they’re all different, so in no particular order, let’s take a look at some of my favorite projects of the year.

Starting at the beginning of the year in episode #109, Project Alias by Bjørn Karmann. This is a Raspberry Pi based project that you fit on top of your Google Home or Amazon Echo. 

It does two things. First, it pumps white noise into your device when it’s not in use, to prevent the possibility of it listening in on you. 

Second, it acts as a middleman between you and your device, allowing you to change the wake word of your virtual assistant to anything you want. So if you want to change Alexa’s name to Carl, you can program Alias to respond to Carl and then whisper Alexa into your Echo to get it to wake up. 

The whole thing sorta rides the line between silly and artsy and paranoid, but it’s one of the first projects I’ve seen that plays with the idea of both personalizing the virtual assistant tech that’s creeping into our lives and also controlling privacy on your terms.

Another project I loved this year and totally caught me by surprise was this dueling Harry Potter wand quiz system by Wermy at Sudomod, shown in episode #137.

From the motion activated wand controllers, to the LED animations, the sound effects, and the custom remote for the quiz show host, the whole system is a beautifully polished mix of engineering and fandom.

On a component level, it’s also 90% Adafruit products. So, if you’re particularly comfortable working in the Adafruit universe, it’s a slam dunk.

I think the other reason I love this project so much is that it really reminds us that what we’re capable of really can feel like magic to people. It hits that imagineering sweet spot where all the tech is concealed away and as an audience member you just get to experience this new wonderous thing.

From episode #125, Ben Krasnow’s electroluminescent Apollo-era display made from scratch. 

Ben went to extreme lengths to recreate this rare, vintage tech. Starting with conductive indium tin oxide-coated glass, coated with a dielectric and a series of silkscreened conductive ink patterns. He then uses a custom circuit board to drive the logic and provide the 300 volts needed to light it up. 

It’s not a project I have any business recreating myself, but Ben graciously documents everything I’d need to give it a try, including the PCB files, code, and graphics. I just love that it’s a project and a display technology I’ve never seen before, and that Ben leverages his engineering skill and curiosity to follow his obsession through to a beautiful result.

From episode #121, an Arduino-powered ornithopter by Gabba People. We’re all familiar with your standard quadcopter-style drone. They’re great, but when I see most DIY drone projects I typically file them under “more of the same”. But I have never seen anything like this. 

Apparently there is a small but enthusiastic community of hobbyists who make ornithopter style drones, but there’s a real lack of detailed instruction on how to create one. 

In his guide on Instructables, Gabba People rights this wrong with an extremely detailed guide and 3-part video series that not only explains how to create an R/C ornithopter, but also explores some key elements of flight and why certain design choices matter.

It’s an outstanding document that could easily be a book of its own, and it’s just shared with you for free. 

I love that, and just like all these other projects I love being surprised with things people have made that I never would have imagined — things that are either years ahead of the consumer market, or too impractical or expensive to make a business out of. 

As makers, we uniquely can have these things, and the generosity we show by sharing their design with each other is one of the best parts of this community.

Finally, representing a trend that really gained momentum this year, Jiri Praus and his freeform electro-mechanical tulip. 

Freeform electronics were everywhere this year, from the small, exquisite works of Mohit Bhoite, Emily Velasco’s freeform Atari Punk Console, to Hackaday’s circuit sculpture contest. 

But from my perspective, no single maker did a more thorough job of documenting the art of circuit sculpture better than Jiri. 

The ever-blooming mechanical tulip design in particular really advances the possibility of designing systems in brass rod that move and articulate without shorting the electronics. 

It’s an outstanding resource and a great window into the tools and techniques behind freeform circuit design.

So there you go, five of my favorite maker projects of the year that surprised and inspired me. I hope they did the same for you too. Remember, you can get a weekly dose of inspiration like this by subscribing on the Digi-Key YouTube channel, or joining the Maker Update email newsletter to get video and project notes sent out in one newsletter each week.

A big thanks and a Happy Holidays to my Patrons on Patreon and to Digi-Key electronics, who have supported this show all year. You’re the best, and I look forward to keeping this show rolling into the new year. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon.