This week on Maker Update: bringing origami to life, Lego lets go of Mindstorms, taking your dragon up a notch, pedaling puppets, and waterproofing your mermaid tech.

++Show Notes [Maker Update Ep.308]++

-=Project of the Week=-

I made a €2 Actuator to animate Origami by Carl Bugeja
https://youtu.be/MDhT6-6Yr_I

-=News=-

Lego to Discontinue Mindstorms Range at the End of the Year
https://hackaday.com/2022/11/03/end-of-an-era-as-lego-to-discontinue-mindstorms/

-=More Projects=-

Dragon Mask by Devon’s Workshop
https://github.com/DJDevon3/My_Circuit_Python_Projects/tree/main/Multi-Board%20Projects/Dragon%20Mask%20Halloween%202022

Remote Controlled Tricycle-Riding Puppet By Donald Bell
https://www.instructables.com/Remote-Controlled-Tricycle-Riding-Puppet/

-=Tips & Tools=-

Light-Up Costumes in Harsh Environments By Erin St Blaine
https://learn.adafruit.com/light-up-costumes-in-harsh-environments

Arduino Make Your UNO Kit
https://blog.arduino.cc/2022/11/03/are-you-ready-to-go-back-to-the-future/

New Algae Resin Casting Kit From Checkerspot Points to a Bio-Based Future
https://www.core77.com/posts/117294/New-Algae-Resin-Casting-Kit-From-Checkerspot-Points-to-a-Bio-Based-Future

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

Motion – Activated Microphone – Potentially Genius
https://youtu.be/nRV7Kof6lVM

-=Transcript=-

This week on Maker Update: bringing origami to life, Lego lets go of Mindstorms, taking your dragon up a notch, pedaling puppets, and waterproofing your mermaid tech.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome back to another Maker Update. I hope you’re all doing well. November is typically a slow month for seeing new projects, but I gotta say I’m feeling pretty inspired recently. I think some of that is from finishing my latest project, which I’ll mention in a bit. But first, let’s talk about the project of the week.

Over on his YouTube channel, Carl Bugeja shows how he was able to use his flex PCB actuator design to animate various origami creatures.

We’ve covered Carl’s electromagnetic PCB coils on here before, but this latest evolution to a flexible sticker design is really intriguing. At 2 euros each, not only is it inexpensive enough to use in silly or disposable applications, but it’s cheap enough to buy and use a bunch of them all at once.

As we know from LEDs, making one blink is an achievement. But you scale that up to tens or hundreds – now you’re making something cool.

For the origami experiments, we’re starting to dip our toes into creating movement in objects that would otherwise be clumsy to pair with motors or servos.

But a thin sticker like this, along with a neodymium magnet, and you’ve got the makings of something magical.

Another neat trick here I hadn’t expected is the ability to program in piezo-style musical buzzes and chirps, which is especially appropriate for the bird origami.

I love seeing unexpected new tools and applications popping up like this, especially from the open source and maker communities. And also just Carl’s focus on developing and refining this idea over the years is really inspiring.

Now for some news. Lego has announced that they will be discontinuing their Mindstorms line at the end of this year.

These programmable kits and building blocks have been around for 24 years, and were arguably the foundation of STEM robotics education long before Arduino, Raspberry Pi and micro bit came on the scene.

Of course now there are all kinds of kits and adapters that can integrate with basic motors and actuators with Lego and inexpensive, beginner-friendly boards to bring them to life. But you have to respect Lego for paving the way with Mindstorms and giving it a good run.

Now for more projects. I got an email last week from Devon at Devon’s Projects, showing off how he modified this plastic dragon mask from Amazon into something truly jaw dropping.

Inside, he’s added neopixel LEDs in the mouth, NOODS led strands in the horns and bottom jaw, and most impressively, these animated LCD eyes.

On his GitHub project page you can see that most of the boards, batteries, and LEDs came from Adafruit. But interestingly enough, the round LCD screens for the eyes came from Amazon, which is a useful option to know about.

On Instructables, you can find my latest project, which is this remote controlled tricycle riding puppet.

I finished it up for Halloween, but it’s not necessarily a Halloween project. It’s also not really a puppet-making project since I bought the puppet.

Really, it’s an exploration on how to covertly motorize a kid’s tricycle and control it remotely. I took a lot of inspiration from RC Jedi’s remote controlled skeleton project, featured in episode 258, along with this RC Kermit trike from Possibility Studios.

I’m already at work getting an improved and simplified version of this up and running, but if you’re curious to know more about how this first one came together you can find it all on Instructables.

Now for some tips and tools. On Adafruit, Erin St. Blaine has a great guide on making LED costumes more durable for harsh environments.

Really though, the tips here apply to increasing the durability of any LED or electronics project, especially if it’s going to be outside or underwater.

That said, LED strip or strands like these are uniquely challenging because each LED creates a vulnerable point where moisture could short your circuit.

In her guide, Erin outlines a system of heat shrink, hot glue, waterproof enclosures, and cable glands.

But also, how incredible is this animated LED mermaid costume she made!? If this is something you’re specifically interested in recreating, Erin offers lots of details and photos of how it came together.

For a cool bit of retro tech, I saw that Arduino is selling an official Make Your Own Arduino kit.

Not only do you get everything you need to solder together your own classic Arduino Uno board, but the kit also includes a synthesizer shield and speaker for making a functioning synth toy when you’re done.

As someone who’s just a fan of the classic Arduino aesthetic, this would be a fun little afternoon project to put together. And the $60 price tag isn’t outrageous considering you get a little synth box out of it. Worth adding to the holiday wish list, for sure.

I’m also curious to check out this new bio-based algae resin kit from a biotech company called Checkerspot.

I’ve been wanting to get into resin casting, but if I’m being honest, I’m not eager to take on another hobby that makes more plastic in the world.

I like the idea of this algae-based product. It’s still technically a polyurethane product, but the mixture is over 50% bio-based. It also seems like it would be less toxic to work with.

They’ve got a bunch of different kits to try out. Maybe put that on your maker wishlist too.

For this week’s Digi-Key Spotlight, check out the latest episode of Potentially Genius.

This time, the Tomorrow Lab crew are working with Carla Diana to create a smart microphone that can sense where you are and adjust itself to get in close when you need it.

The result is unexpected and delightful. But the real benefit of this video is seeing the journey they take to get here, from cardboard prototypes to CAD. Definitely worth a watch.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumb’s up, or leave a comment. Big thanks to Digi-Key for making this show possible. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon.