This week on Maker Update, a paper airplane machine, Microsoft gobbles up Github, a comic vomit bot, a LEGO-style megaphone, printer cable coasters, counting bees, joining wood with plastic bottles, and actual reality games in Hong Kong. This week’s Cool Tool is the Komelon 25Ft tape measure.

Show Notes

Project of the Week

Miss Flyer paper airplane maker by Jerry de Vos
https://github.com/Jerzeek/Miss-Flyer/blob/master/README.md

News

Microsoft to Acquire GitHub for $7.5b
https://news.microsoft.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-to-acquire-github-for-7-5-billion/

More Projects

RANDOMLY GENERATED, THERMAL-PRINTED COMICS by Cadin Batrack
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/random-comic-strip-generation-vomit-comic-robot/
https://imgur.com/a/hhrnQoC#TblkXme
https://github.com/cadin/random-comic

Human Scale Working LEGO Megaphone by agepbiz
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2852401

SLICED CABLE RESIN COASTERS by Mikeasaurus
https://www.instructables.com/id/Sliced-Cable-Resin-Coasters/

COUNTING BEES WITH A RASPBERRY PI by Mat Kelcey
http://matpalm.com/blog/counting_bees/
https://github.com/matpalm/bnn

Cool Tools Minute

Komelon SM5425 Gripper Speed Mark Tape Measure, 1-Inch X 25Ft, White
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008AGWNII/ctmakerupdate-20

Smaller 16-ft version
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008AGWNL0/ctmakerupdate-20

Tools/Tips

Adafruit pIRkey
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-pirkey-python-programmable-infrared-usb-adapter

Plastic Bottles as Heat Shrink
http://www.core77.com/posts/77991/A-Second-Designer-Experiments-with-Using-Plastic-Bottles-as-Heat-Shrink-Joinery

Actual Reality Games in Hong Kong
http://www.core77.com/posts/77990/Truly-Interactive-Game-Design-at-This-Physical-Arcade-in-Hong-Kong

Gareths New Book: Tips and Tales from the Workshop: A Handy Reference for Makers
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1680450794/ctmakerupdate-20

Maker Faires

Port Jefferson, New York USA
Providence, Rhode Island USA
Aurich Germany

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a paper airplane machine, Microsoft gobbles up Github, a comic vomit bot, a LEGO-style megaphone, printer cable coasters, counting bees, joining wood with plastic bottles, and actual reality games in Hong Kong.

Hey I’m Donald Bell and welcome to another Maker Update. I missed you guys, but it’s been nice to have some extra time to put into projects and organize my studio. I also adopted a dog this week, so things have been a little crazy — but good crazy.

I have a great show for you this week with lots of projects, so let’s kick things off with the project of the week.

Jerry de Vos has a fantastic design for a lasercut plywood paper airplane machine.

He calls it the Miss Flyer, and he’s installed it in the printer room where he works. This way, if there’s any misprints, people can recycle them into airplanes.

Mechanically, the machine does two things. First, it creates the triangle folds on the front of the plane by lifting the corners and then knocking them back.

The second phase in the machine pulls up and shapes the wings. What’s critical here is that a small binder clip holds the base of the plane down, so that this ramp section can pull against it and form the wings.

I love it. And it looks like a great way to cheer up a boring copy room.

You can find a link to the project’s Github page in the description, with links to all the CAD files so you can laser cut your own.

Speaking of Github. In news this week, Microsoft is in the process of acquiring the Github developer and project platform for 7.5 billion dollars.

In a statement from Microsoft, the company says that “GitHub will retain its developer-first ethos and will operate independently to provide an open platform for all developers in all industries.”

From what I’ve read, it sounds like Microsoft is motivated to have something like Github to bundle in to what they offer their corporate enterprise customers. At the same time, it sounds like they’re sensitive not to screw up the community Github created over the years.

Personally, I think it’s good news and probably means Github code and projects will be around for a long, long time.

Time for more projects –– rapid fire. Cadin Batrack made a thermal printer robot that spits out randomly generated comics.

The project uses a Raspberry Pi 3 and an Adafruit thermal printer. The images are pulled together randomly from a folder of different images Cadin includes in the code.

Processing 3 software, running on the Pi, mashes them up and spits them out. If there’s a particularly good combo that comes out, you can hit a button to save a higher resolution version of it to the Pi.

You can find links to the code and the build diary in the description.

AgePbiz made a life-size 3D printed version of the Lego megaphone. The project uses a little pre-built amplifier kit. Toggle switch and a 9v battery. I’m tempted to say it would be something fun to give to a Lego-obsessed kid, but I’m pretty sure kids and megaphones are a bad combination.

On Instructables, Mikeasaurus shows you how to make coasters from tiny bits of data cables. Who knew old boring printer cables were this colorful inside.

The trick is to pack all the sliced bits into a section of PVC pipe, hot glue it to a flat surface to seal the bottom, and then pour in clear resin. It looks great, and I think it would be cool to scale it up to table size or a rectangle you could hang as an art piece.

Mat Kelcey has a great post up on how he uses a Raspberry Pi to count the bees coming and going from his beehive.

I’ve seen systems before that use little bee-sized channels and IR sensors to count bees, but Mat takes a different approach. He’s using a standard Pi camera to take 1 photo of the hive entrance every 10 seconds. The photos are then sent through a Python patch to count the number of bees in each image and graph the data over time. How cool is that?

It’s time for another Cool Tool review. This time we’re looking at the Komelon Gripper 25-foot tape measure. I got this for around $9 on Amazon, which is a fantastic price. I’m going to show you why it’s so great, and if you pick one up using the link in the description it helps to support my videos and the Cool Tools blog.

I’ve been trying out a lot of different tape measures recently. Some have a lot of features, like magnets, or finger stops, or pencil sharpeners.

This tape measure from Komelon has none of those extras, but it’s been the tape measure I reach for most often and I’ve boiled it down to three reasons.

First, it’s the easiest to read. The numbers are black against a matte white tape that’s easy to read indoors or out in direct sunlight. The numbers are big and easy to read, especially in the first foot where the numbers are gigantic.

Second, the tape labels the fractional measurements. So instead of counting each little slice you can quickly read the fractions of an inch. If you’re old school the top is unlabeled.

Finally, it’s well built. It feels just as sturdy as my more expensive tapes. But even if it eventually break or get lost, at around $9, it’s no hardship to replace it.

That’s the Komelon Gripper 25-foot tape measure. They also make a smaller 16-foot version for around $4. You can find links to both in the description and you can find thousands of reader recommended tools like these at cool-tools.org.

I have some other tools and tips to share. Adafruit has a new product called the pIRkey. It’s a little USB dongle that plugs into any computer, and then you send it an infrared signal from a remote, it will execute your custom Python code stored on the board. It sells for $9.

On Core77 there’s a piece on designers who are experimenting with using plastic bottles to heat shrink wood together. There’s a few techniques that are shown. One creates grooves in the wood to give the bottles something to grip onto. The other technique cuts into plywood, threads the loops of bottle through and heats them to tighten the joint.

Also on Core77, a great look at a Hong Kong game room called Best Box where people play all kinds of big, physical games — like foosball, but moving the ball with your breath. Or marble madness, but with big tables you move as a team. Or competitive exercise bikes where the losing team is drenched in water.

Not only do the games look like fun, but as a maker, they look like a lot of fun to build and engineer.

Finally, Gareth Branwyn has a new book out called Tips and Tales from the Workshop. I’ve got an Amazon link for it in the description. As you know, I’m a big fan of his Tips of the Week column on Make. This collects and organizes the best of those tips, plus includes a lot of fun stories from well-known makers. I’ve even got a few things in here. I highly recommend it.

Maker Faires! Three faires this week, including Port Jefferson, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; and Aurich, Germany. If one’s near you, go check it out.

Alright, that’s it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up or leave a comment. Pick up a new tape measure if you can use one. And sign up on the email list to get weekly emails about new projects and tips. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon.