This week on Maker Update, servo-powered flip digits, an animated GIF photo booth, remote controlled LED eyes, a pair of ping pong launchers, soldering brass rod, interactive Totoro, and an F-clamp that can roll.

Show Notes

Project of the Week

Fully 3D-Printed 7-Segment Flip Digit “Digital” Clock Driven by 28 Servos by O.T Vinta
http://www.otvinta.com/download14.html

Hackster writeup by Jeremy S. Cook
https://blog.hackster.io/7-segment-digital-clock-uses-28-servos-102e99ebff73

More Projects

GIF Photo Booth by randofo
https://www.instructables.com/id/GIF-Photo-Booth/

Remote Controlled LED Eyes & Costume Hood by bekathwia
https://www.instructables.com/id/Remote-Controlled-LED-Eyes-Costume-Hood/

Simple RF L4 Receiver
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1098

Ping Pong Popper by gzumwalt
https://www.instructables.com/id/Ping-Pong-Popper/

Ping Pong Ball Launcher by Dano Wall
https://learn.adafruit.com/ping-pong-ball-launcher-with-cpx

Tools/Tips

This to That
https://www.thistothat.com/

Make’s Glue Chart by Rebecca Husemann
https://makezine.com/2016/03/25/dont-glue-anything-without-handy-reference-chart/

Gareth’s Tips of the Week
https://makezine.com/2018/12/14/tips-of-the-week-tile-and-gasket-cutting-speed-drying-a-bench-edge-cutting-blade-and-storing-christmas-lights/

Quick Guide to Soldering Brass Rod by david neat (via Mohit Bhoite)
https://davidneat.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/a-quick-guide-to-soldering-brass/amp/

Federico Tobon interview
https://youtu.be/CxFEjp_eBXA

Interactive Totoro artwork by Federico Tobon
https://wolfcatworkshop.com/index.php/interactive-totoro-piece-for-giant-robot-show/

Favorite 2018 Tool Finds Under $10
https://youtu.be/8t74b9h2g6A

Modified F-Clamp by Create
https://youtu.be/dZFruJITY2w

via Hackaday
https://hackaday.com/2018/12/11/modified-f-clamp-is-wheely-good/

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, servo-powered flip-digits, an animated GIF photo booth, remote controlled LED eyes, a pair of ping pong launchers, soldering brass rod, interactive Totoro, and an F-clamp that can roll.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome to another Maker Update. I hope you’re all doing well and staying sane with the holidays. I have a bunch of projects to share, so let’s get started with the project of the week.

Check out this 7-segment clock display by O.T. Vinta. As some of you know, I’m a little obsessed with split-flap and flip-dot displays, but they’re expensive to buy and time consuming to make.

Instead of motors or magnets, this design uses an array of 28 inexpensive servos. Each one is neatly mounted in this 3D printed frame, and given a 3D printed attachment that flips in and out of view.

The servos are driven by two Pololu servo drivers connected up to a Raspberry Pi 3. The Pi is running the Windows IoT core OS and some Pololu software for calibrating the servos. The software setup takes quite a few steps, but the payoff looks pretty great.

I do hope that someone adapts this design to work with Arduino and a real-time clock module, just to make setup a little easier. I also think that it would be neat to see a version setup to display messages that scroll across, but the foundation is here.

Some more projects to share. Randy Sarafan has a great one on how to create a Raspberry Pi-based photo booth that generates animated GIFS.

I’ve seen a few flavors of Pi photo booths before. What makes this one unique is that it takes 6 separate snapshots, triggered by a footswitch, and stitches them into an animated GIF that automatically uploads to Giphy.

Randy includes templates for the enclosure, detailed step-by-step photos on how to assemble it and add the components, and the Python files required to get the software working.

Becky Stern has an update to a glowing eyes costume hood she first made back when she was at Adafruit. This costume reminds me of the Jawas from Star Wars.

What makes the update unique is that Becky has added a wireless remote control that updates the LED animation on multiple costumes.

The project uses a pair of neopixel jewels, a Gemma M0 board, a rechargeable Lithium Ion pack, and an inexpensive wireless receiver board — which is kind of the star of the show.

This $5 board combined with a $7 4-button remote allows you to set pin voltages high to any connected device. In this case, it gives Becky the power to cycle through LED animations on her costume and her boyfriend’s simultaneously. But it’s a neat board to keep in mind for any project you want to have a remote control for.

By some coincidence I came across a pair of ping pong gun projects. The first, by Greg Zumwalt, shows how to make this tethered popper by drilling out a ping pong ball, placing a spring and a 3D printed channel inside it, and then pushing it on to a simple 3D printed pistol grip. It looks like a fun, simple project to make for kids.

Dano Wall takes another approach with this motorized ping pong ball launcher. His design uses a Circuit Playground Express board, a continuous rotation servo to push the balls through the chute, and a CD spindle motor to fling them out. All of it gets mounted on cardboard, with an old paper towel tube used to hold the magazine of ping pong balls.

It’s time for some tools and tips. This week I came across the site This To That. If you’re gluing one type of thing to another type of thing and you’re not sure which glue will do the job — this is here to help.

For another take on this, there’s a glue chart grid by Rebecca Husemann on Makezine that you can print out and keep in your workspace or tucked away with your glues.

Gareth Branwyn’s Tips of the Week column includes ideas for cutting tile up to a wall, making custom gaskets on a Cricket, and adding a saw blade edge to your table for quickly ripping sandpaper.

By way of Mohit Bhoite I found this guide to soldering brass by David Neat. If you want to hone your craft at making freeform circuits with brass rod, there’s some useful ideas in here, especially for making jigs and templates.

Over on the Maker Project Lab channel I have an interview with Federico Tobon, an awesome maker who’s recently made this motorized Totoro artwork. He walks me through what’s going on here, and what components and techniques he’s using.

On Cool Tools I have a video up collecting my favorite tools I bought this year that are under $10, including this green handle upgrade to my favorite cardboard cutter knife.

Finally, though the Hackaday blog I learned about this modified F-clamp custom made by Create. By adding a roller blade wheel to the top, he’s created a simple way to roll around large boards. It seems like a really smart design.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up or leave a comment. Get on the Maker Update email list to have show notes automatically emailed out to you each week. And a reminder that I volunteer to make this show. It’s supported though my awesome Patrons. If this show does something for you, give that Patreon link a look. Alright? Have a great holiday. No show next week, but I’ll see you soon.