This week on Maker Update, an upright laser harp, Sphero gobbles up LittleBits, reeling kite string, wiggly antennas, and designing for burning man.

++Show Notes++

-=Project of the Week=-

Upright Laser Harp by Jonathan Bumstead
https://hackaday.io/project/167163-upright-laser-harp

-=News=-

Sphero has acquired littleBits
https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/23/sphero-is-buying-littlebits/

-=More Projects=-

Automatic Kite String Reeler-Inner by Matt Bilsky
https://mattbilsky.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Automatic_Kite_String_Reeler-Inner

Arduino Powered Andorian Antenna By r570sv (Rick P)
https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Powered-Andorian-Antenna/

Wireless Quiz / Game Buzzers by Flute Systems
https://flutesystems.blogspot.com/2019/08/wireless-quiz-buzzer.html

-=Tools/Tips=-

Designing for Burning Man
https://www.core77.com/posts/89912/What-is-it-Like-to-Design-and-Build-Something-for-Burning-Man
https://soundcloud.com/corejr/designing-for-burning-man

Jordan Bunker on Cool Tools Podcast
https://kk.org/cooltools/jordan-bunker-former-tech-editor-for-make/

CNC Milling Bits by I Like to Make Stuff
https://youtu.be/OLNqaLZT8Mo

LIXIE II For Arduino is Back and Better Than Ever!
https://blog.tindie.com/2019/08/lixie-ii-arduino-back/

Printing Color Lithophanes by Thomas Brooks
https://hackaday.com/2019/08/20/lithophanes-ditch-the-monochrome-with-a-color-layer/

Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales – Issue #14
https://www.getrevue.co/profile/garethbranwyn/issues/gareth-s-tips-tools-and-shop-tales-issue-14-191918

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

Getting Started With Addressable LEDs
https://youtu.be/DOTo6xpCtYI

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, an upright laser harp, Sphero gobbles up LittleBits, reeling kite string, wiggly antennas, and designing for burning man.

Hey I’m Donald Bell and welcome back to another Maker Update. How’s everybody doing? I’ve been having some little flashes of productivity this past week. I hope you’ve been able to make time for projects too. I find that even little projects are good for starting some momentum. But sometimes it just takes the right inspiration. So let’s take a look at the project of the week.

Jonathan Bumsteadhas made some incredible interactive electronic instruments we’ve featured on this show, but his latest is a real masterpiece. He calls it an upright laser harp, and it is gorgeous. 

If you’ve seen a laser harp before, you’ve probably noticed that the lasers shoot up and down to mimic the strings of a harp. By mounting 12 lasers horizontally, Jonathan says the instrument is easier to play.

The construction is made entirely of laser-cut wood panels. Each of the laser layers include a laser, a mirror, a photoresistor, and adjustment bolts for aligning the laser. 

All of that then gets fed into the bottom half, which has a great vintage hi-fi look with built-in speakers and these great big aluminum knobs. One knob controls volume and the other selects which preset instrument sound you’re using. 

My favorite detail is that there’s a little window next to this knob where a rotating wheel driven by a stepper motor displays the name of the instrument you’re playing. It’s one of those details that could have easily been done with an LCD, but this is just so much cooler.

Another detail I like is that, unlike many of Jonathan’s other instruments, the sounds and amplification are all built right into this. It’s an all-in-one instrument, with no outboard MIDI modules or computers you need to connect. 

To pull this off, he’s using the Adafruit Music Maker shield for Arduino, which includes built-in MIDI instruments, a 3 watt amp, and a headphone output. He’s got that plugged in to an Arduino MEGA, which manages all the incoming notes messages from the lasers.

It’s an incredible build made with a lot of style. If you’re into it, I encourage you to check out Jonathan’s other work on Instructables. 

It’s time for some news. LittleBits — the beginner-focused system of snap-together electronic components — has been acquired by Sphero. Both companies market themselves to the classroom STEM education market, Sphero with their little remote controlled ball bot that kids can program with a Scratch-style editor. 

The acquisition means that Sphero now holds 140 patents in the fields of robotics, electronics, software and IOT and will further shape the way students learn coding and electronics. 

LittleBits Founder Ayah Bdeir will be moving on to other projects.

Speaking of, let’s quickly run through a few more projects I found this week. When he was just a kite-flying kid, Matt Bilsky had an idea to invent an automatic kite string reeler inner. Now as an adult, Matt’s finally making good on this idea with this cool 3D printed design.

Using a salvaged drill motor and battery, along with some clever gearing, the device automatically reels in your kite and leaves you with perfectly spooled string. As a bonus, he built-in a voltage readout, two USB plugs, and a 12v car outlet. 

On Instructables, Rick shows how he made these animated Andorian antenna for some Guardians of the Galaxy inspired cosplay. It’s a relatively simple build with two 3D printed antennas mounted to servos which automatically wiggle around using a small Adafruit Itsy Bitsy board to drive them.

And if you liked last week’s Harry Potter quiz game system, here’s a less magical but more practical buzzer system made by Flute systems. Each buzzer has an NRF24 module inside that signals the base unit with a unique ID. On the base, you can see the order each contestant buzzed in.

Time for some tips and tools. On the Core 77 blog, I got a kick listening to their podcast interview with FoldHaus co-founders Jesse Silver and Joerg Student talking about their process designing and building massive interactive Burning Man sculptures. From both an engineering and a teamwork perspective, it’s really impressive what they pull off.

Another podcast worth is the latest Cool Tools podcast with my friend and freelance engineer Jordan Bunker. I’ve had a lot of his tool recommendations on this show, and in this podcast he’s got four more for you.

On the I Like to Make Stuff channel, Josh goes over the basics of understanding the types of bits used for a CNC router.

Connor Nishijima has a new design and kit available for his Lixie brand of Nixie-tube style LED digits. The new version allows you to remove and clean each pane of acrylic and includes an 11th pane you can customize with your own design.

Thomas Brooks has one of the first guides I’ve seen on making multi-color, 3D printed lithophane designs. He’s using a Palette 2 filament system pull this off but it’s an interesting idea to play around with. From what I can tell, it’s really just the first layer that needs the color swapping. From there on up it’s all white. So, maybe there are few tricks you can try with manual filament swapping.

Finally, in the latest issue of Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales newsletter, he has some tips on cutting leather, managing cables with zip ties, and some great advice on getting perspective on your projects and escaping the trap of trying to make things perfect.

For this week’s Digi-Key Spotlight, check out their latest Tech Basics video on getting started with Addressable LEDs. Animated LED sequences are easier than you think. The video demonstrates how a single data pin from an Arduino is able to create some impressive LED sequences with code you can copy and paste.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up or leave me a comment. I’d especially like to hear about any halloween projects you’re working on. You can also get on the Maker Update email list to get show notes emailed out to you so you never miss a show. Next week I’ll be over on the Adafruit channel doing my monthly special edition for them, but I’ll be back. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you soon.