This week on Maker Update, a Jedi-worthy lightsaber, Kickstarter’s test print, an iFixit giveaway, a musical dodecahedron, sound bending, disc shooting, MIDI motors, and stringy plotters.

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Show Notes

Project of the Week

Prop-Maker Lightsaber by Ruiz Bros.
https://learn.adafruit.com/lightsaber-featherwing/

News

Autodesk and Kickstarter Develop a Free, Downloadable Universal Test Print for 3D Printers
https://www.core77.com/posts/80711/Autodesk-and-Kickstarter-Develop-a-Free-Downloadable-Universal-Test-Print-for-3D-Printers?utm_source=home_page_feature_slider

On GitHub
https://github.com/kickstarter/kickstarter-autodesk-3d

Giveaway

iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/Pro-Tech-Toolkit/IF145-307-4

iFixit Manta Driver Kit
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/Manta-Driver-Kit–112-Bit-Driver-Kit/IF145-392-1

iFixit Essential Electronics Toolkit
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/Essential-Electronics-Toolkit/IF145-348-2

Rules for Entry:
Get on my email Maker Update list (http://eepurl.com/cCJF21) and (using your same email address) email me (hello@makerprojectlab.com) with something you want to fix or make or tinker on with one of these kits. I’l use my best judgement to pick 3 worthy winners who will receive one of the three kits.

More Projects

Bucky Touch: Light-up Dodecahedron Instrument by jbumstead
https://www.instructables.com/id/Bucky-Touch-Light-up-Dodecahedron-Instrument/

Sound Bending Synth by lonesoulsurfer
https://www.instructables.com/id/Sound-Bending-Synth/

Disc-o-matic by Canino
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3173589

Tools/Tips

Magnetic knife rack alligator clip collector by Colleen Graves
https://twitter.com/BabbageBev/status/1057050327764021248

Finishing 3D Prints by Bob Clagett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELfaQ8juSM8

Send MIDI to motors, lights and relays
https://blog.tindie.com/2018/10/switch-midi-pitch/

DIY Linear Servo Actuator, 3D Printed by Potent Printables
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3170748

Gareth’s Tips of the Week
https://makezine.com/2018/11/02/tips-of-the-week-soaking-out-rust-picking-an-arduino-wire-wrangling-reorganize-and-be-happy/

StringyPlotter by Thomas Winningham
https://github.com/th0ma5w/StringyPlotter

Maker Faires

Find a Faire near you:
http://makerfaire.com/map/

Jerusalem Israel
Hyderabad India
Belo Horizonte Brazil
Orlando, Florida USA
Sindelfingen Germany
Salzburg Austria
————–
Check out the #makevember challenge and contribute your projects.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/makevember?src=hash&lang=en

Featured Makers

++John Park++
https://jedgarpark.wordpress.com/

Talking about:
Ep. 29
https://makerprojectlab.com/diy-diploma-maker-update-29/

Scraperite Plastic Razor Blades
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000XBGN02/ctmakerupdate-20

++Sophy Wong++
https://sophywong.com/

Talking about:
Ep. 82
https://makerprojectlab.com/the-sick-unicorn-maker-update/

++Mark Frauenfelder++
http://www.markfrauenfelder.com/

Talking about:
Ep. 74
https://makerprojectlab.com/barcelona-makers-update/

Becky Stern Tinkercad Circuits Interview
https://youtu.be/nC03qquYrOU

++Dominic Morrow++
https://twitter.com/chickengrylls

Talking about:
Ep. 10
https://makerprojectlab.com/lets-hack-alexa-into-a-fish-maker-update-10/

Billy Bass Instructable
https://www.instructables.com/id/Animate-a-Billy-Bass-Mouth-With-Any-Audio-Source/

++Amped Atelier++
https://www.ampedatelier.com/

Talking about:
Ep. 94
https://makerprojectlab.com/kitty-cruiser-maker-update-94/

Penolopy Bulnick Interview
https://makerprojectlab.com/penolopy-bulnick-interview/

++Mikeasaurus (Mike Warren)++
http://michaelsaurus.com/

Talking about:
Ep. 56
https://makerprojectlab.com/deckards-binoculars-maker-update-56/

CANARY Corrugated Cardboard Cutter
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008RIS0UY/ctmakerupdate-20

++Noe and Pedro Ruiz++
https://learn.adafruit.com/users/pixil3d

Talking about: Making for others!

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a Jedi-worthy lightsaber, Kickstarter’s test print, an iFixit giveaway, a musical dodecahedron, sound bending, disc shooting, MIDI motors, and stringy plotters.

I’m Donald Bell and welcome to the 100th episode of Maker Update! It’s an extra great show today with all the usual projects and maker tips, plus I have I have three iFixit tool kits to give away. And at the very end, some of my favorite makers will share some tips or their favorite moment from the past 100 shows. But first, let’s kick things off with the project of the week.

Few makers have topped my project list more consistently than the Ruiz Bros. so it seems only fitting to feature them on the 100th show. This time they have this awesome lightsaber build with interactive lights and sound.

The project takes advantage of Adafruit’s Prop-Maker add-on board for their Arduino-compatible line of Feather project boards. The rest of the electronics include a few buttons for power and mode select, a hefty rechargeable battery, some densely packed NeoPixel LEDs and a small (but not too small) speaker.

All in, along with the fancy Jedi-grade polycarbonate tube for the blade, you’re looking at around $150 in parts. So this isn’t a cheap project. Plus, if you ever want to battle someone you’ll either need to build two of these or find someone as nerdy as you are willing to build their own.

Now, no shade on the lightsabers we’ve seen from Bob Clagett and John Park, but this now looks like the one to beat in terms of style, design and features. I also hope that by saying this we’ll see a Maker Faire duel between Bob, John and the Ruiz Brothers.

In news this week, I learned that Autodesk and Kickstarter have worked together to develop a new test print design for 3D printers. I’ll include a link to the file on GitHub.

The idea behind it is that because there are so many 3D printers launched on Kickstarter, they needed a common benchmark for manufacturers to use so that consumers could more easily evaluate the relative quality of each printer.

It’s a tough test. And appropriately enough the finished print sorta looks like a torture device.

I have a lot of other projects to share with you, but first let’s give away some cool stuff to celebrate 100 episodes of Maker Update.

The good folks at iFixit.com have provided me with 3 toolkits to give away. I have these same ones and I can totally stand behind how great they are, especially for cracking open and repairing or hacking your gadgets.

All you have to do is sign up for my Maker Update email newsletter (if you’re not already), and email me about something cool you’d do with one of the kits — a repair, or a project, and I’ll use my best judgement to pick 3 winners who will each get one of these three kits.

I’m paying for shipping, so you need to be in the U.S. because I’m cheap and lazy. And you need to hurry up because I don’t want to be thinking about this next week. Alright?

Now for more projects. Jonathan Bumstead has made a pared down version of his giant musical geodesic dome.

This one’s a touch sensitive dodecahedron that lights up, works as a MIDI controller for triggering sounds from your computer, or can be switched into a standalone mode where it plays its own sounds through a minijack output.

The brain of the whole thing is a single Arduino Mini. The enclosure is made from laser cut MDF board, plus the plexiglass panels.

What’s especially cool about this build is that he’s using thin strips of conductive Tin Oxide coated plastic on the inside of each panel to detect when they get touched. The material is new to me, but you can pick up a sheet of it for $10 from Adafruit.

LoneSoulSurfer has a bunch of guides on Instructables for making funky, circuit bent lo-fi synthesizers. His latest is especially cool, though.

He’s mashed together a greeting card sampler, an audio reverb board, and a little amp module to create this echo sample looper that looks like a lot of fun.

What’s really great about his builds is that he finds these dirt-cheap eBay boards to play with. In this case, each of the 3 boards are only $3-4 dollars each. He lays out exactly how to wire them all together, adding little buttons and dials here and there for extra control. With this circuit and a retro enclosure to fit it all in, you’ve got a completely unique sound toy.

Finally, on Thingiverse I found this simple, toy motor-powered disc shooter by Canino. The 3D printed design uses a common geared plastic TT motor, paired up with two rack and pinion gears to pull back and release a section that knocks into this hopper full of plastic discs.

He also shows off how the design can be mounted onto an RC car and triggered from a remote control. It looks like a fun way to weaponize an RC toy or maybe an Arduino bot.

I have a few tips to share with you. From Makey Makey’s Colleen Graves I saw this idea on using magnetic knife racks as a way to hold your alligator clips. I imagine this is especially great for classrooms that use tons alligator clips for clip-friendly boards like MicroBit or Circuit Playground or Makey Makey.

Bob Clagett has a new Bits video up going over the basics of finishing techniques for 3D prints. From vapor smoothing, to spot putty, to filler primer.

Over on the Tindie blog I learned about a new version of the MIDI Switcher board. This is a $60 board that takes MIDI note input from a computer or drum machine and uses those note signals to switch something on and off, like motors, solenoids, or lights. You get 8 channels of output and the option of linking multiple boards together for controlling more stuff.

On Thingiverse, Potent Printables has a guide for creating a DIY Linear Servo actuator using 3D printed parts and a continuous rotation servo. He includes a version for smaller and bigger servo types.

On Gareth Branwyn’s Tips of the Week column on Makezine, there’s a good looking tin can wire spool organizer from Andrew Lewis and a look at how Jimmy Diresta handles knocking the rust off his table saw.

And through the Evil Mad Scientist blog I found this Python script called Stringy Plotter made by Thomas Winningham. You feed it a black and white image and it spits out a Plotter-ready SVG that redraws the image as a single, unbroken black line. It’s kind of a cool effect.

Maker Faires! This weekend we have Jerusalem, Israel; Hyderabad, India; Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Orlando, Florida; Sindelfingen, Germany; and Salzburg Austria. If one’s near you, go check it out. Or head over to Maker Faire.com to find out when your local faire is coming up.

Also, we’re now one week into #makevember. It’s not too late to give it a shot. A bunch of us are trying to post a little project or experiment every day with the hashtag #makevember. I find it to be a useful challenge to find little ways to be creative every day, even if they don’t work out. I encourage you to give it a shot.

Alright, we’re almost done with the show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs-up or leave a comment. Get on the Maker Update email list and hit me up for a chance to win one of those fancy iFixit toolkits. And a huge thanks to my Patrons on Patreon who are helping me get to a point where this show can be more than just a labor of love. If you want to be one of these awesome people, you can find the Patreon link down in the show notes. Alright?

Now for something a little special and different. In honor of the 100th episode I asked a bunch of my favorite makers to contribute a short little something. Here’s what they had to say. Enjoy, and I’ll see you next week.