This week on Maker Update, a Nintendo made from wood, painting with Skittles, a photochromic clock, a camera that looks into the past with an instant replay, and a cabinet for curing 3D prints.

++Show Notes++

-=Project of the Week=-

I Made a Nintendo NES out of Wood by David Picciuto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv4zCOzj_UA

-=More Projects=-

Skittle Pixel8r By JohnO3
https://www.instructables.com/id/Skittle-Pixel8r/

Photochromic & Glow-in-the-Dark Clock By mosivers
https://www.instructables.com/id/Photochromic-Glow-in-the-Dark-Clock/

How to Make an SLA Finishing Station by I Like to Make Stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0I3ak7KfM0

Record the last seven seconds of everything you see by Johan Link
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/record-the-last-seven-seconds-of-everything-you-see/
https://www.instructables.com/id/Film-in-the-Past/

-=Tools/Tips=-

DiResta Welding Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPeJGUPoCZ8

A look back at 10 years of BeetleCam
http://blog.burrard-lucas.com/2019/07/beetlecam/

Long Reach Permanent Marker via Jordan Bunker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd9Qq-aBts0

Cocktail Robotics Grand Challenge this Sunday 7/21
https://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2019/07-21.html

Alameda Mini Maker Faire 8/11
https://alameda.makerfaire.com/

-=Product Spotlight=-

New Raspberry Pi 4B and the old Pi 3B+ Functional Comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siAxlUlYQ-4

Get the Pi 3B+ from Digi-Key
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/raspberry-pi/RASPBERRY-PI-3/1690-1000-ND/6152799

 

Get the Pi 4B from Digi-Key
https://www.digikey.com/products/en/development-boards-kits-programmers/evaluation-boards-embedded-mcu-dsp/786?k=Raspberry%20Pi%204B

Transcript

Hey, I’m Donald Bell and welcome back to another Maker Update. I hope you’re having a great summer. I did something crazy this week and accepted a challenge to make a cocktail dispensing robot in one week. So that’s where my head is at. But, I’ve got a great show for you, so let’s get started with the project of the week.

On the Make Something channel, check out how David Picciuto made a new, fully custom enclosure for his vintage Nintendo.

There’s a ton of neat little tricks in here, from laser cutting labels onto your buttons, creating uniform bent aluminum feet, or my favorite — kerfing plywood to create a rounded shape from a single piece of wood. 

It’s a fun video and a great resource for ideas on making wooden project enclosures. There’s even some tips on reviving your old, blinking NES with some cheap replacement components.

Now for more projects. On Instructables, JohnO3 has a guide up on how he made this Skittle-dispensing frame that selects and arranges the candy to create images. 

It’s an ambitious project that took over a month to build. The core technology behind it is an Arduino Mega and a NEMA stepper motor that moves the funnel across the gantry with a belt drive. 

Above the gantry is a series of hoppers that hold the presorted colors of Skittles, so there’s no color sorting going on here, which makes things simpler. The Arduino knows what hoppers hold which color, and signals for the color it wants to drop into the funnel.

I also liked this project from Mos Ivers. He created this glowing clock that uses UV LEDs for the numbers, with a photosensitive layer in front of it. 

To use it during the day, he 3D printed a panel from photochromic filament, which leaves these ghostly purple numbers behind. At night, you can pop in a panel with a glow in the dark sticker on it and get these green numbers. 

The biggest headache of this build is that you have to roll your own 7-segment clock display with UV leds. The rest of it, though, mostly comes down to 3D printing. 

On the I Like to Make Stuff channel, Bob Clagett shows off how he built this cabinet for his SLA style resin printer. 

Because the resin prints that come out of the printer need time to cure under UV light, Bob made a cubby where his prints can rotate under reflected UV light until they’re ready. He also has shelves underneath to keep the liquid resin and other supplies. It looks like a great setup.

And Johan Link has a project that’s been getting some attention. It’s a hat camera that keeps a cache running of the past 7 seconds. So, if something happens and you wish you had your camera out, you just press the button on the side of your hat and a recording of the past seven seconds get archived as a video you can download to your phone. 

The design isn’t exactly something I imagine I’d feel comfortable wearing around, but it’s a great proof of concept.

Now for some tips and tools. Over on his channel, Jimmy DiResta has a 40 minute video full of welding tips. There’s a ton of great ideas in here, especially for beginners getting into MIG welding, but also tips on TIG welding, welding aluminum, and using an angle grinder. If you work with metal or know that it’s something you’d like to get into, it’s a great resource.

Wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas has a video and blog post going over the 10 years of development he’s put into his RC camera rig BeetleCam. With it he’s been able to sneak up on animals to get awesome photos, but really it’s an R&D story about making an electronic project that can withstand abuse in the field.

On the Cool Tools channel, I’ve got a talk with Engineer Jordan Bunker about these long-reach permanent markers. They’re a great way to transfer hole patterns from something you’ve drilled. The long, narrow tip can reach through the drill hole and mark the spot, and they’re pretty cheap to get at around $6. 

The annual Cocktail Robotics Grand Challenge is this Sunday at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco. Eleven homemade cocktail making robots will be on-hand, including one of my own. So come check it out if you’re in the area.

I’ll also be at the Alameda Mini Maker Faire coming up on Sunday, August 11th in Alameda, CA. I’ll have a booth setup there with my Power Racing Series Go-Karts, and maybe a few other projects, so come on by.

For this week’s Digi-Key spotlight, they’ve got a great new quick video up that compares the differences between the Raspberry Pi model 3B+ and the latest Raspberry Pi model 4B. 

My own two cents on this is that newer isn’t necessarily better for every project. For all the benefits of the new model, it seems a little more particular about the power it needs, the type of HDMI cable it uses, and the software it can run. So, do a little research before you make that purchase. This video should help. I’ve also included links for buying either Raspberry Pi model from Digi-Key.

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 keep up with each week’s show. A huge thanks to my Patrons on Patreon and to Digi-Key electronics for making this show possible. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.