This week on Maker Update, a robot for dominos, controlling your TV with the Force, a kiddo control panel, and AR on the cheap.

++Show Notes [Maker Update #214]++

-=Project of the Week=-

RC & Programmable Domino Laying Machine by DIY Machines
https://www.diymachines.co.uk/rc-domino-laying-machine

-=More Projects=-

Control your TV using The Force by Sudomod
https://sudomod.com/force-remote/

Nasa Control Panel for Kids By r570sv
https://www.instructables.com/Nasa-Control-Panel-for-Kids/

Over-the-Top Rocket Ship Panel By r570sv
https://www.instructables.com/Rocket-Ship-Panel/

CheApR – Open Source Augmented Reality Smart Glasses By a-RN-au-D
https://www.instructables.com/CheApR-Open-Source-Augmented-Reality-Smart-Glasses/

-=Tips & Tools=-

DIY Palm Router Hacks by Mike Warren
https://youtu.be/j6SCkmlIsgc

Soldering Crash Course by Sudomod
https://sudomod.com/soldering-crash-course/

Adam Savage’s Favorite Tools: Hot Wire Cutter!
https://www.tested.com/making/tools/adam-savages-favorite-tools-hot-wire-cutter/

PrusaSlicer 2.3.0
https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/releases

Review by Thomas Sanladerer
https://youtu.be/Wz2Soog4HkQ

Guide to Ironing: How to make top surfaces smooth with PrusaSlicer
https://youtu.be/xa8jNJjowvI

How to make food-safe 3D printed models by Prusa
https://youtu.be/D-SKMdlegdU

-=Product Spotlight=-

CYBERDECK HAT for Raspberry Pi 400
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4863

CYBERDECK Bonnet for Raspberry Pi 400
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4862

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a robot for dominos, controlling your TV with the Force, a kiddo control panel, and AR on the cheap.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, it’s 2021 and I’m back with a brand new Maker Update. I hope you’re all doing okay. I’m feeling optimistic for this year and I’m excited to jump back into things, starting with my pick for the project of the week.

Between the pandemic and the fact that it’s freezing outside just about everywhere, everyone’s inside looking for new and novel ways to be entertained. I suggest building this automatic domino-stacking robot designed by DIY Machines.

This is an Arduino-based robot constructed from 3D printed parts. You can set it up in two modes — either an automatic mode that arranges the dominoes in a preset pattern, or a Bluetooth controlled mode where you can control the direction using your smartphone.

Either way, there are some really clever things I like about this design. First is the hopper, which uses a carousel to hold around 150 dominoes. As each column gets depleted it automatically rotates in a fresh batch. If you get through them all, it will stop and request a refill before carrying on.

Another smart feature is that it will deliberately skip placing a domino every once in awhile. This way, if a domino accidentally topples over when it’s placed, it won’t set off the entire chain reaction — just the last portion. If it successfully deposits every domino, all you have to do is manually fill the blank spots.

Finally, I think it’s great how he included this LCD and keypad combo. Not only does it give the whole thing a more professional touch, but it makes it much easier for a friend or a kid to pick this up and figure out how to make it work.

You can find a link to the full guide, design files, bill of materials, assembly video, and code, all down in the description.

Let’s be honest, though, most of us are watching TV while we’re stuck at home. Fortunately, there’s a project for that too.

Wermy from Sudomod shows how to create this little desktop transmitter that allows you to control your TV using the Force.

That’s the gimmick, at least. Really, it’s an IR transmitter that will blast out any remote control commands that you define in the code, and trigger them based on gesture control.

It’s using an Adafruit Feather M4 Express board, along with a Adafruit APDS9960 gesture sensor.

What’s particularly cool about the way he did this is that he provides the code and circuit for initially using the Feather M4 to read and translate the IR signals from your remote that you want to copy — like power, volume, and app selection.

After you’ve used the circuit to read IR, you then switch out a few components to have it send out IR, emulating the signals that you just copied. It’s a cool trick.

And for younger kids, or kids at heart, on Instructables, r570sv shows how he created this tough little interactive spaceship control panel for kids to bang around on.

I say little, because years ago he built this over-the-top, monster control panel, geared more for grown-up, geeky fun. I’ll leave a link to that one too.

This latest version is simplified, all laser-cut, and still looks like loads of fun. The interactions are all using Arduino for reading the input from buttons, dials, and switches, and reacting with LEDs or a little OLED screen.

I know I’m guilty of this, but how many of you out there have a collection of illuminated buttons and switches just because they have a cool sci-fi control panel vibe to them. A project like this is a great way to put them to use.

Of course, in a real space shuttle I would need an AR overlay to understand what everything is. Fortunately, I may be able to build that too.

On Instructables, Arnaud has a guide on rolling your own augmented reality goggles using an ESP32 board, a 3D printed design, and some inexpensive LCDs.

It’s not a small amount of work to make these happen, but it’s cool to know that it possible, and I have to admit I kinda like the look of this chunky design.

Now for some tips and tools. On the Cool Tools channel I have an interview with Mike Warren. We talk about why he loves his $99 1-horsepower palm router and how he‘s set up two different jigs for it. One is for flattening out weird and uneven material. The other is a little DIY router table that lets him round the edges on small projects. Check it out.

While I was poking around the Sudomod site looking for projects like the gesture controlled TV, I found a new crash-course video he made on soldering.

I don’t presume to know where you are on your maker journey, I still remember a time when I was intimidated by soldering and it really limited what I could do. This video guide is comprehensive, covering everything from technique, to tools, common mistakes, and even touches on advanced stuff like surface mount just to give you a complete picture.

On Tested, Adam Savage takes a look at the Proxxon Hot Wire Cutter. There are a ton of DIY hot wire cutter builds out there if you want to build something like this on the cheap, but at around $160, this all-in-one desktop solution gives you everything you need to jump right in.

If you have a small workshop, and you’re into model making or rapid prototyping, this looks like a great option for fast, dust-free sculpting.

But if 3D printing’s more your thing, it’s been an exciting month of announcements from Prusa. The latest version of their PrusaSlicer software includes a bunch of practical enhancements and is more broadly compatible with whatever brand of 3D printer you’re using.

On his channel, Thomas Sanladerer reviews the new software and shows you step by step how to set it up on any 3D printer hardware.

My favorite of the new features is an option called ironing. This does a heated pass over the topmost layers of your print, smoothing out some of the rough artifacts. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now, and though it does add to your total print time, it does make a noticeable difference.

They’ve also added a new option for painting on where you want support material and where you don’t. I haven’t used it yet, but it looks promising.

Unrelated to the update, Prusa also has a useful new video out that talks about how to make your 3D prints food-safe. It’s no secret that 3D prints can hold in bacteria and shouldn’t come in contact with food, but no one really wants to risk talking about how to overcome this.

The Prusa team steps up to the challenge with science and a few different techniques. The best option, it seems, is to print with a stainless steel nozzle and coat the result with a food-safe epoxy. It may not hold up to repeated use, or the dishwasher, but it’s good to know what options are out there.

For this week’s Product Spotlight, let’s take a sneak peek at two new products due out from Adafruit — the Cyberdeck Hat and the Cyberdeck Bonnet.

These are both designed to plug into the back of the Raspberry Pi 400 all-in-one computer/keyboard. They take the conventional GPIO pins, tilt them out at a 45-degree angle, and mirror them back to you so that you can pop on a screen or whatever Pi accessory you want.

The Hat or Bonnet configuration just refers to the size of accessory it can accommodate — bonnet being the smaller size, typically meant for Pi Zero boards.

The boards also come with a pair of STEMMA connectors and a Stemma QT connector, for connecting compatible i2c devices.

No pricing or availability yet, but you can sign-up to get notified once it’s in stock.

And that does it for the first Maker Update of 2021! Subscribe, leave a thumbs-up, leave a comment, get on the email list. Let me know if you got some cool new tool for the holidays or worked on something you want to share. A big thanks to my patrons on Patreon and to Digi-Key electronics for making this show possible. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon.