This week on Maker Update, a Pi-powered portrait picture plotter, screaming plants, time for your old TV, trash kang, big bones, and a quest for animatronic perfection.

++Show Notes [Maker Update Ep. 256]++

-=Project of the Week=-

Pankraz pictograph by Felix Fisgus and Joris Wegner
https://felixfisgus.de/work/017_pankraz_piktograph

-=More Projects=-

realPlantNursery by Sam March
https://github.com/S-March/realPlantNursery_Public

Make an Old TV Into an 80s Themed Clock By marciot
https://www.instructables.com/Make-an-Old-TV-Into-an-80s-Themed-Clock/

Kang From the Simpsons Yard Decoration By OCDmaker
https://www.instructables.com/Kang-From-the-Simpsons-Yard-Decoration/

Over Sized Skeleton Breaking Out of My Home By Haunted Spider
https://www.instructables.com/Over-Sized-Skeleton-Breaking-Out-of-My-Home/

Animatronic Rod Puppet Project by Kieran Meadows
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHZIJhVqIBTatRCR1_WIsI8vFk7ZiEIcV

-=Tips & Tools=-

6 WAYS to Make a Cardboard Robot Costume REALLY Robotic By BrownDogGadgets
https://www.instructables.com/6-WAYS-to-Make-a-Cardboard-Robot-Costume-REALLY-Ro/

Sally Servo the Really Robotic Robot (Build Video) by TechnoChic
https://youtu.be/yjdcfwlmbCY

Denture Bit Holder With Magnets! by iplop
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4745852

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

How to Order 3D Printed Parts at Digi-Key
https://youtu.be/BvLCirTVuWY

-=Transcript=-

This week on Maker Update, a pi-powered portrait plotter, screaming plants, time for your old TV, trash kang, big bones, and a quest for animatronic perfection.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome back to another Maker Update. I hope you’re doing well and excited for Halloween this weekend. If you need some last minute inspiration, I’ve included a bunch of cool Halloween projects in this week’s show. But I’ve also got plenty on non-Halloween ideas to share, starting with the project of the week.

As part of their Masters thesis, Felix Fisgus and Joris Wegner created this beautiful looking computer vision portrait plotter.

They call it the Pankraz Piktograph and it uses these vertically mounted jointed arms to move the pen across the paper.

Now, I’ve shown dozens of plotter projects on thai show before — this one is really something special, and I’m not even sure where to start on how to geek out on it.

Let’s start with how it looks. It looks like a commercial product. It looks better than most Kickstarter projects, but it’s not for sale.

The whole look is flawless, from the powder coated sheet metal enclosure, the stand, the aluminum arms, and tiny touches like the braided cables and the remote control. It looks like it should be in a museum.

But then there’s the software, which we get an incredible description of thanks to a PDF write they composed for their Masters evaluation.

The first layer is a combination of OpenFrameworks and OpenCV. It’s running on a Raspberry Pi 3 with a connected camera mounted up in the top left corner of the panel.

This is the real heart of the machine and handles a surprisingly involved number of steps to process each image, adjust the contract, detect edges, vectorize the design and apply a drawing style. All of this is detailed in the PDF.

The other layer is the code used to drive the stepper motors, which is handled by some trinamic drivers connected to a Teensy microcontroller communicating with the Raspberry Pi. And remember, it’s not just doing X/Y coordinate stuff — it’s moving these jointed arms around and triggering the servo to lift the pen on and off the paper.

The whole thing is outstanding and definitely has me inspired to create interactive projects at a higher level of fit and finish. I also love that it’s a collaboration. As we emerge from this pandemic, I’m excited to work with other makers again.

More projects. Sam March has a new video out on how he turned his houseplants into screaming babies that cry out for water when their moisture levels are low.

To make it happen, he created a custom circuit board design and Arduino code that tracks light and moisture levels and triggers the baby cry alert when things aren’t doing so well.

To take it to the next level, Sam also created a companion app that plots the water and light levels on a cute chart. You can find the code, the CAD files, and the board files, all on his Github page.

On Instructables, Marcio T has a quick guide on turning an old CRT TV into a retro 80s themed clock that you can configure over Wi-Fi.

You’ll need an ESP32 compatible board and an RCA cable, and that’s about it. With the code uploaded and the cable connected with jumper wires, you can call up the settings menu by connecting to the ESP32 just like you’d connect to a Wi-Fi router.

It’s a cool trick, though I’m sure it would burn the image in over time. What I’m mostly excited about is the idea that you can send composite animations like this out of ESP32 board using just two wires.

Now for some Halloween projects. OCDmaker shares how they made this life size lawn decoration of Kang from The Simpsons.

Not only do I love how this thing looks, but I can’t get over how scrappy and low tech it is. You’re looking at chicken wire, tarps, pool noodles, a hula hoop, and a beach ball for the eye.

To make it move back and forth, they attached the eye to an old oscillating fan.

It’s projects like this that help me realize that I probably have everything I need in my junk pile to make something fun for Halloween. And sometimes it’s the improvised look of the thing that makes it endearing.

That said, if you’re going to sink the time into something — why not go big! Check out this giant foam skeleton that looks like it’s busting out of the house.

On Instructables, Haunted Spider shows how he created these giant props using PVC pipe as the armature, and foam sheets that he glued and carved by hand.

It’s a real process, but along the way he offers tons of tips on getting the look you want. One in particular that I thought was useful is this technique for coating the foam with PVA glue and sand to form a bone-like texture.

And once you’ve graduated from haunted house to amateur imagineer, you’ll be ready for Kieran Meadows 10-part series on making an animatronic rod puppet.

From eye mechanisms to jaws, sketching your character, working out the mechanics in Fusion, cabling, servos, 3D printing, casting — it’s an incredible resource that I don’t think many people know about yet. Most of these videos are only around 100 views.

For some tips that are more immediately practical, TechnoChic at BrownDogGadgets offers 6 ideas for taking a cardboard robot costume to the next level.

Most of these involve a simple microcontroller action of some kind. Theater chase LED animations, a gauge made with a servo, LEDs that react to your voice — there’s a lot of great ideas here that you can add to a costume or a prop.

Do you need a spooky way to hold your driver bits? This denture bit holder by iPlop may do the trick. It recently got the 3D Thursday treatment from the Ruiz brothers at Adafruit.

Speaking of 3D printing, for this week’s Digi-Key spotlight, they’ve got a new video out that outlines their 3D printing service.

It’s all of the convenience of 3D printing, and none of the hassles or hardware upkeep. Or, maybe you’re like me and you have a regular FDM 3D printer, but you want to print a part in SLS without investing in the technology.

The Digi-Key service, which is powered by Jabil, gives you a bunch of options and handles all the headaches.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, or leave a comment. If you have a cool halloween decoration or costume you made this year, I’d love to hear about it.You can get on the Maker Update email list to stay on top of each week’s show. A big thanks to Digi-Key electronics for making this show possible. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon.