This week on Maker Update, a Neural Synthesizer from Google, a 3D printed horse, welding plastic, a charcoal fume extractor, a constellation necklace, extending your drill by a foot, Eagle 9, and soldering unicorns. This week’s Cool Tool is the Irwin 12″ bit holder.

Show Notes

Advanced Project of the Week

Open NSynth Super, a neural synthesizer by GoogleCreativeLab
https://nsynthsuper.withgoogle.com/
https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/building-the-google-open-nsynth-super
https://magenta.tensorflow.org/nsynth
https://github.com/googlecreativelab/open-nsynth-super

More Projects

Horse Prototype by Greg Zumwalt
https://www.instructables.com/id/Horse-Prototype/

WELDING PLASTICS: INSTRUCTABLES ROBOT NIGHTLIGHT by nerdyKat
https://www.instructables.com/id/Welding-Plastics-Instructables-Robot-Nightlight/

Solder Fume Extractor by Ruiz Bros.
https://learn.adafruit.com/desktop-fume-extractor

3D PRINT CONSTELLATION NECKLACE by Penolopy Bulnick
https://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Print-Constellation-Necklace/

Cool Tools Minute

Irwin Tools 4935705 1/4in. x 12in. Lock-n-Load Quick Change Bit Holder
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008KISM/ctmakerupdate-20

Example adapters:

Makita B-35097 Impact Gold Ultra-Magnetic Torsion Insert Bit Holder
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00ECMC1F4/ctmakerupdate-20

DEWALT DWARA100 Right Angle Attachment
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00C0VSNKQ/ctmakerupdate-20

Socket Bit Hex Shanks
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01NCOIF4G/ctmakerupdate-20

Tools/Tips

Autodesk Eagle 9 is out
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/eagle-forum/eagle-version-9-is-here-nothing-short-of-awesome/m-p/7940181#M11982

Hackspace Issue #6
https://hackspace.raspberrypi.org/issues/6

FastLED Matrix Library for ESP32
https://hackaday.com/2018/04/21/fast-led-matrix-graphics-for-the-esp32/
https://hackaday.io/project/148066-smartmatrix-library-esp32-port

Sparkfun Unicorn Soldering Badge
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14639

Google AIY Kits in Target
https://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=Google+Vision+Kit+AIY

Jim Leemhuis’ 4-part Animatronic Eyeball video guide
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHvctKwAXIO9NymX37Q3Bx37O51-xKgC_
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2857377

Maker Faires

Shanghai China
West Palm Beach, Florida USA
Hsinchu Taiwan
Newcastle upon Tyne UK
Mashpee, Massachusetts USA
Tyler, Texas USA
Gibsons, BC Canada
Burlington, North Carolina USA
Dillingen-Saar Germany
Fresno, California USA

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a Neural Synthesizer from Google, a 3D printed horse, welding plastic, a charcoal fume extractor, a constellation necklace, extending your drill by a foot, Eagle 9, and soldering unicorns.

I’m Donald Bell and welcome to another Maker Update. Last week, everyone really seemed to like the idea of me covering more projects in less time, so I’m going to give it another try this week with 5 great projects.

That said, for the next few weeks I’m going to try alternating these Maker Update videos to every other week so I can work on making more project videos. I’m still going to try to get the weekly newsletter out, so if you’ve been on the fence about the email list, now’s the time to sign up.

I’ve got a great show for you this week, though, so let’s get started with the advanced project of the week.

This Neural synthesizer, or NSynth, is a project from Google’s Magenta research team. It uses a Raspberry Pi 3 and TensorFlow machine learning software to explore and compare the sonic characteristics between different sounds.

The main interface is a square touchpad that allows you to blend together qualities from the instruments mapped to the four corners. But you also get a bunch of rotary encoders and a little OLED screen to dial in more advanced features.

There’s a ton of project documentation, CAD files and software listed in the show notes.

Alright, more projects, but rapid fire. One of my favorite 3D print makers, Greg Zumwalt has a new design out on Instructables. It’s a mechanical horse, driven by a 6v DC geared motor.

Maker NerdyCat has a useful guide and demo video showing how to cut and weld milk jug plastic using a soldering iron. There are some cool design techniques going on here, like these tabs that allow you to create curved pieces that you can spot weld with your iron.

The Ruiz Bros. have a quick and simple guide for creating a solder fume extractor that has a carbon filter. The mini desktop fan costs $9 from Adafruit and is already pre-built and ready to go. What this guide does is show you how to print an accessory for it that holds a section of carbon filter in front of the fan, making it more effective for removing fumes.

Finally, my friend, and Instructables team member Penolopy Bulnick has a guide on making this 3D printed constellation necklace. This one is for the constellation Cassiopeia, but it could be easily adapted for others. A quick 3D print, some rhinestones, and a necklace chain are all you really need to pull this off, and it looks great.

It’s time for another Cool Tool review. This week, we’re looking at a 12-inch bit holder from Irwin. It runs around $9 on Amazon, and by picking one up using the link in the description, you help support my videos and the Cool Tools blog.

This is a foot-long extension for your drill or impact driver. On one end you have a quick-change style bit that you can pop into your tool. On the other is a bit holder that takes any standard hex bit.

There’s a spring-loaded collar around the bit holder that locks in whatever you’re using. You pull pack to open it up, push in the bit, and let the collar go to lock it in. The same motion shoots it back out.

There’s also a small magnet down in the throat of the bit holder that helps to hold the bit in place.

This is a great way to drill a hole or tighten a screw somewhere inaccessible. So long as it has a hex shank, you can put a drill bit in here, or a spade bit, and make a hole.

You can also put one of those magnetic screw holders on here and dangle a screw out to somewhere hard to reach without it falling off.

You can drop a socket bit in here and tighten up an out of reach nut or bolt.

And for a real neat trick, you can combine this with a right angle adapter and drill hard-to-reach places inside walls.

That’s the Irwin 12-inch bit holder. I suspect the brand isn’t that important, but at around $9 I think this Irwin one is a good name brand value. You can find an Amazon link for this one, plus links to the other adapters I mentioned all in the description here. And remember, you can see thousands of reader recommended tools like this at Cool-Tools.org.

I have a few more tips to share this week. Autodesk has released version 9 of their Eagle software for Printed Circuit Board design. I’m not familiar enough with it to say if it’s good or bad, but it does look like a lot of improvements.

Hackspace issue #6 is out and free to download. The special section of this issue is Paper Engineering.

On Hackday I saw that there’s a port of the SmartMatrix library for the inexpensive ESP32 processor. If you’re looking to make cool visuals for a grid of multicolor LEDs, this looks like an effective and low-cost way to do it.

Did you know that Sparkfun stocks a unicorn LED blinky badge soldering kit? They do! It’s on backorder, but if you love unicorns or know someone who does, you can ask to be notified when it comes back in stock.

Google’s AIY vision and voice kits are now available from Target, which is great because the vision kit has been tough to get up to now.

And maker Jim Leemhuis has finished the fourth and I think final part of his guide on working with 3D printed animatronics using Arduino. I’ve got a link to the series playlist, plus the files over on Thingiverse.

Maker Faires! Huge weekend for Maker Faires, including Shanghai, China; West Palm Beach, Florida; Hsinchu, Taiwan; Newcastle upon Tyne, in the UK; Mashpee, Massachusetts; Tyler, Texas; Gibsons, British Columbia; Burlington, North Carolina; Dillingen-Saar, Germany, and Fresno, California. If there’s one near you, get out there and soak it in.

And that’s it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up, or leave a comment. Get yourself a bit extender if that sounds useful. You can buy me a coffee if you liked this episode. And the only Maker Update you’ll get next week is by email — so get on that email list if you want to hear from me. Alright? Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon.