This week on Maker Update, a leaky bike, old-fashioned MIDI, connect four, a show-stopping fiber optic star ceiling, R2’s guts, great rags, and technicolor CNC.

++Show Notes [Maker Update #183]++

-=Project of the Week=-

Bikelangelo: the Graffiti Maker Bike By sagarrabanana
https://www.instructables.com/id/Bikelangelo-the-Graffiti-Maker-Bike/

-=More Projects=-

Arduino Barrel Piano By gabbapeople
https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Barrel-Piano/

Related: Optical Drum Machine by John Park
https://learn.adafruit.com/spinning-disc-step-sequencer/overview

Electronic Connect Four (arduino) By Kelly Bodeman and Jack Whelan
https://www.instructables.com/id/Electronic-Connect-Four-arduino/

Fiber Optic Star Ceiling | Music Reactive By Centas
https://www.instructables.com/id/Fiber-Optic-Star-Ceiling-Music-Reactive/

Safe Box with Lockable Door by ragde54
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4460465

-=Tips & Tools=-

Making R2-D2 Part 4 // Electronics & Remote Control by Bob Clagett
https://youtu.be/qlDWWugFml8

Adam Savage’s Favorite Tools: Essential Shop Rags!
https://www.tested.com/art/makers/908212-adam-savages-favorite-tools-essential-shop-rags/

BuildTak BT30185 Spatula Review
https://youtu.be/3SB7yfKWlGw

3D Modeling “Lazy Tutorials – For Lazy People, By Lazy People”
https://www.core77.com/posts/100294/3D-Modeling-Lazy-Tutorials-For-Lazy-People-By-Lazy-People

Button box for 12mm switches and buttons by agmcmll
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4183553

Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales – Issue #51
https://www.getrevue.co/profile/garethbranwyn/issues/gareth-s-tips-tools-and-shop-tales-issue-51-255483

How to Easily Sharpen Spade Bits to like New Condition by See Jane Drill
https://youtu.be/IfOphkRskNI

4K LoFi Technicolor Vibes by Dom Riccobene
https://youtu.be/85zwm21IDys

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

Basics of NTC and PTC Thermistors
https://youtu.be/D2SWOVWMdU8

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a leaky bike, old-fashioned MIDI, connect four, a show-stopping fiber optic star ceiling, R2’s guts, great rags, and technicolor CNC.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, back again with another Maker Update. Summer is officially here, and it might be the first summer I’ve ever had where I’m not jealous of everyone’s vacation plans. I hope your ongoing staycation plan is treating you well. If you’re interested in some cool projects to take on, I’ve got some great ones to show you. Let’s start off with the project of the week.

On Instructables, Sagarrabanana has the perfect corona-project. It’s a bike with an Arduino-controlled water tank on the back that writes out messages as you ride around.

There are three main parts to this build. First, there’s the bike trailer itself, which he’s made from PVC pipe, some 3D printed fittings, and spare wheels. 

Then there’s the tank, which he’s also made from large PVC pipe fittings but admits that a metal tank might be a better option to deal with the air pressure. 

For his version, he has an opening to fill it up with water, and then he’s glued in a bike valve at the top that he uses to manually pressurize the tank with a bike pump.

Across the bottom of the tank, there are seven other bike valves that feed the water out to 12v irrigation solenoids powered by a nearby SLA battery. Each of these are switched on and off using an 8-channel relay board.

Finally, there’s the Arduino aspect of the project. He’s using an inexpensive Arduino Nano with a Bluetooth module and a hall effect sensor. 

The Bluetooth module allows you to communicate to the Arduino over a serial connection and type in the message you want printed out. 

The hall effect sensor is positioned over a hub connected to one of the back wheels. I believe there’s a magnet in this hub which the Arduino senses to know that it’s moving and how fast it needs to work to print the message.

It’s a cool project, some more details would be nice, and some subtitles for the video, but there’s enough here to get what you need.

Now for more projects. Gabba People has a guide on how he created this updated take on a barrel piano, or player piano. 

This is another Arduino project. The idea is that a roll of notation is cranked through the machine, either manually or with a motor — which is then interpreted in real-time as a series of MIDI notes played through your computer.

It’s a just-for-fun kind of project. There’s no practical advantage to playing back music this way.  Honestly it must be a real pain to create the custom scrolls of notation. Fortunately, he includes 3 to get you started, along with a template.

What I love about the project, aside from the cool looking design, is the repurposing of these optocoupler modules that you’d normally see in a line-following robot. 

By sending out an IR light and then measuring how much is reflected back, these sensors can easily detect black marks on a page. In this case, those black marks are the notes.

By 3D printing little hoods for each sensor, he was able to improve the accuracy. The project reminds me of a scaled up version of John Park’s optical sequencer project from last year.

I also got a kick out of this LED version of Connect Four by Kelly Bodeman and Jack Whelan. They’re using a grid of Neopixel LEDs, diffused by ping pong balls. 

Aluminum bar is used for the stand, but the frame for the LEDs and ping pong balls is all 3D printed, with channels and cutouts already made. An Arduino Uno handles all the code. 

But if you’re looking for more than just a summer project, check out this fiber optic star ceiling by Centas. 

This is a dream build that took him over a year to complete. Every point of light you see represents a strand of fiber optic line that was pushed through a false ceiling and pulled back into a bundle mounted by an LED. 

On top of that, there’s LED strip around the sides, and everything is sequenced and reactive to music. It’s beautiful. But the kind of patience and unwavering enthusiasm this takes is beyond me.

For something you could finish in a day, check out this 3D printed by DNA Designs. This prints out in 3 parts. It’s stackable. And the dial actually works to open and close the door, though the locking is actually done with a latch off to the side. It’s cute.

Now for some tips and tools. Bob Clagett from I like to Make Stuff has an update on his R2-D2 build. It’s still a work in progress, but my favorite part of the video is around the 12 minute mark where he goes over the electronic components that get tucked inside. 

This is a system called Shadow that’s been developed over the years by the Astromech forum. There’s an Arduino Mega and a board for audio playback, along with motor drivers for the feet and the head. 

As someone who typically deals with projects that run from one common power source, I was impressed to see all the different DC to DC converters and power blocks in this design. From one battery, he’s able to break out a power rail for 20 volts, 12 volts and 5 volts. It’s a neat trick to understand for more complex projects, especially where motors are involved.

On Tested, Adam Savage offers some unexpected advice on shop rags. Never have I seen a man with so much contempt for rag quality, but also so much praise for the particular type he enjoys. Check out his video to see which is which.

On the Cool Tools channel, I’ve got another interview with Matt Stultz from Prusa Research. He wanted to talk about the BuildTak spatula, one of his favorite tools for removing designs from your 3D printer. Whether you want to protect your print bed or your fingers, this looks like the right tool for the job.

Through the Core77 blog I found out about this series of 3D design “Lazy” tutorials by Ian Hubert. These are for the free, open-source Blender software, and they’re really geared more for game designers or video effects, but also great for 3D modeling and rendering.

If you have 3D designs in Fusion or Tinkercad, or anything that can export an OBJ file, Blender could be a fun place to play around with applying textures and lighting. It’s an incredibly deep tool, but Ian makes it sound like a walk in the park.

A box for a button. Such a simple, common thing, but there’s no need to design one from scratch when there’s this two-part design on Thingiverse that you can print out. This particular design is for 12mm buttons and goes together with some screws. 

Through Gareth Branwyn’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales newsletter I caught this tip from Digicool Things on how to splice and connect two breadboards to each other for extra room. If you have a bunch of these smaller ones, this looks like a great way to make them more useful.

Another thing I have a bunch of are spade bits. They’re great for making holes in wood or plastic, but they get dull over time. On her YouTube channel, Leah from See Jane Drill shows her technique for bringing them back to life with a small file and some chalk. 

And for nothing more than just a soothing maker moment, check out the latest videos from Dom Riccobene. He’s calling the series CNC Machining to Relax To, and it’s my happy place right now. If you’re new to Dom’s work, check out everything, and be sure to switch it to HD for maximum eyeball melting goodness.

For this week’s Digi-Key spotlight, check out their latest video on thermistors. These are a class of resistors whose values change depending on the temperature. 

You can work these into your projects, either as a way to detect and report back on the temperature, or as part of a protection circuit to shutdown your project if conditions become too hot. Check it out.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up, or leave a comment. Last week I mentioned my struggle with organizing my components and projects. I’m happy to report back that I made some headway with this wall-mounted Akro-Mils panel and bins. It’s not perfect, but for my needs it was a quick way to get things off the table and floor and I’m happy with it so far.

A big thanks to my Patrons on Patreon and especially to Digi-Key electronics for making this show possible. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.