This week on Maker Update, a circadian sound sculpture, TensorFlow for the ESP32, NVIDIA buys ARM, flexball, walking triangles, and tapping threads.

++Show Notes [Maker Update #198]++

-=Project of the Week=-

The Circadian Machine by Daric Gill
https://dgillart.wordpress.com/2020/09/08/circadian-machine/

Time-lapse build video
https://youtu.be/J3rv3q4Aqaw

-=News=-

Announcing TensorFlow Lite Micro support on the ESP32
https://blog.tensorflow.org/2020/08/announcing-tensorflow-lite-micro-esp32.html

NVIDIA to acquire Arm for $40 billion
https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for-40-billion-creating-worlds-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai

-=More projects=-

FLEXBALL – a Hundred Pixel Flexible PCB Ball By moekoe
https://www.instructables.com/id/FLEXBALL-a-Hundred-Pixel-Flexible-PCB-Ball-With-Wi/

A Simple 3D Printed “Walking” Mechanism. By gzumwalt
https://www.instructables.com/id/A-Simple-3D-Printed-Walking-Mechanism/

-=Tips & Tools=-

Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Thread Tapping Guide Block!
https://www.tested.com/art/makers/913438-adam-savages-one-day-builds-thread-tapping-guide-block/

How to Make Metal Rust Instantly by Make Something
https://youtu.be/dA58Ar_9Gcw

How to Use a Speed Square | the Basics By Woodbrew
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Use-a-Speed-Square-the-Basics/

How I tune in new filaments! by Thomas Sanladerer
https://youtu.be/FasWH3_gdlY

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

Back2School Giveaway – Win Electronics & Prizes
https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/social/back2school

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a circadian sound sculpture, TensorFlow for the ESP32, NVIDIA buys ARM, flexball, walking triangles, and tapping threads.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell and welcome back to another Maker Update. I hope you’re doing well. I have been cooped up inside all week, avoiding the wildfire smoke in California. It has not been fun, but it has been a crazy week for maker news and projects. So let’s get into it, with the project of the week.

Check out this interactive sculpture by Daric Gill. He calls it The Circadian Machine.

It’s a fully mirrored geometric pod that can sense motion, displays light animations and sound, tells time, and alters its actions based on each day’s sunlight cycle.

The sculpture is this angular cocoon, stuffed with addressable LED lights, speakers, an audio amplifier, and a handful of different microcontrollers and relay boards to manage all the different sequences.

There are around 50 different actions it can take, most of them are based around time. It has an Adafruit Feather real-time clock that triggers a display of lights and sounds each time the hour changes.

But it also connects over Wi-Fi each day using an Adafruit Huzzah ESP32 to pull down it’s location and the specific local time for sunrise, sunset, and solar noon — which have their own unique actions.

On top of that, there are also motion-activated events and some other easter eggs. All of the actions, though, involve some combination of light animation and sound.

For the lights, the color palettes are taken from images from Daric’s travels, representing different times of the day.

For the sound, he’s layering chord patterns that are based on the musical principle of the circle of 5ths. Morning hours tend to have warmer, Major key chords, while evening hours tend to be in minor keys. All of this is being triggered on an Adafruit Music Maker Featherwing board.

I love how much thought and detail he’s packed into this project. He’s using the same boards and neopixels as the rest of us, but he’s found a way to link them up with something meaningful to him. You can find a link to his full writeup in the description, along with a timelapse video that goes over the entire build process and points out most of the components he used to create it.

Now for some news. TensoFlow has announced that the TensorFlow Lite Micro version of their machine learning software is now officially compatible with the popular ESP32 chipset.

As a successor to the ESP8266, the ESP32 has become the goto chip for IoT devices. It’s small, low-power, and handles both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communication.

As a quick demo to show off its potential, the TensorFlow team includes the code and steps required to create your own face-detecting doorbell system.

The bottom line is that — for better or worse — we can expect to see more inexpensive devices that are capable of responding to voice commands or detecting and classifying people and objects in their surroundings.

How important will AI and Machine Learning be to the future of electronics and microchips? Important enough for NVIDIA to acquire chipmaker ARM for a reported $40 billion dollars.

What it means for makers like us is still unknown, but the press release mentions artificial intelligence in virtually every paragraph. So if you thought this whole AI thing was going to blow over like a fad, NVIDIA now has 40 billion reasons why you’ll be hearing about it for a very, very long time.

More projects! On Instructables, MoeKoe has a guide on how he made this flexible PCB ball with 100 addressable LEDs.

Whenever I see surface mount projects like this it looks like a total pain in the butt. I have to say, though, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

The project uses an ESP8285 board, which I’ve never heard of, but seems to work over Wi-Fi and can be had for just a couple bucks.

For the light animation, Moe is using the FastLED library, which always looks great.

I was also excited to see a new project from Greg Zumwalt. This is a simple 3D printed walking mechanism.

Compared to a lot of his recent automata designs, this little guy uses only a handful of parts and you can set him out to walk across the room. A single gear motor connected to a battery provides the drive. It’s cute.

Now for some tips and tools. On Tested, Adam Savage has a one-day-build on this thread tapping guide. If you passed it up because thread tapping is out of your wheelhouse, give it a watch.

Really only 10 minutes out of the 40 minute video have anything to do with the custom guide he creates. The rest is a free Adam Savage masterclass on how and why to use a thread tap — what taps to get, how to improve your technique, and how to avoid common mistakes.

On the Make Something channel, David Picciouto swings to the other extreme with a 2 minute video on a technique for making metal rust instantly. With a little salt, vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide, you can create a rust reaction on any ferrous metal.

Now, usually you need to take rust off of metal, but sometimes you specifically want that rusty metal look for your project. This is a cheap and effective way to get that done.

On Instructables, Woodbrew has a great guide on how to use a speed square. I swear, I’ve watched a dozen different speed square tutorials over the years and there are aspects to this tool that still remain a mystery to me, but I always come away with some surprise that has me reaching for it again. This is one of the best guides I’ve seen.

And on his channel, Thomas Sanladerer goes over his process for tuning his 3D printer and slicer profiles for new filaments. If you’re like me, you just slice your model and cross your fingers and maybe adjust the temperature up and down. When you’re ready to level-up, Thomas shows you the right way to go to figure out exactly what your filament needs for the perfect print.

For this week’s Digi-Key spotlight, check out the Back-to-School giveaway they’re running until November 12th.

College and University students can submit their name and email address for a chance to win tools to kick off the 2020 school year.

There’s a bunch of great kits and tools being given away. The grand prize is an entire lab’s worth of equipment If you qualify, there’s no reason not to enter. You can find the link in the description.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up or leave a comment. Next week I’m taking some time off but the amazing Sophy Wong will step in again as a guest host, so look forward to that. Thanks again for watching, stay safe, and I’ll see you soon.