This week on Maker Update, a privacy parasite for your virtual assistant, MakeCode Arcade, asteroid harvesting robots, a hot glue light show, spaceship control panel, a laser-cut flap cascade, grippers, fitters, and tic-tacs.

Show Notes

Project of the Week

Project Alias by Bjørn Karmann
https://www.instructables.com/id/Project-Alias/

News

MakeCode Arcade Details
https://makecode.com/blog/arcade/01-18-2019

MakeCode Arcade with Raspberry Pi Zero
https://learn.adafruit.com/makecode-arcade-with-raspberry-pi-zero

MakeCode Arcade with SAMD51 M4
https://learn.adafruit.com/makecode-arcade-with-samd51-m4

MakeCode Arcade Game Repo
https://arcade.makecode.com/

World Is Not Enough (WINE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BhnL1GqhxM

More Projects

“Fiber Optic” LED Matrix by jbumstead
https://www.instructables.com/id/Fiber-Optic-LED-Matrix/

Spaceship Control Panel – Laser Cut Arduino Toy by Nilfisken
https://www.instructables.com/id/Spaceship-Control-Panel-Laser-Cut-Arduino-Toy/

Analog Future by Parker Heyl
http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/lab-projects/analog-future

Some notes on its construction here
http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/analog-future-materiality-in-the-digital-arts.html

Tools/Tips

Making a Light-Up Miniature SXSL Sign by Jen, Kayte, and Jeremy from Tested
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo3E25GXCEw

Plotter People Presentation Videos online (Lenore Edman and Sher Minn)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdQeYpNOwMioJfaRj9kog5A

New Hackaday Contest 3d Printed Gears Pulleys and Cams
https://hackaday.com/2019/01/16/new-contest-3d-printed-gears-pulleys-and-cams/

Arcade Game Cabinet Designs of Love Hultén
http://www.lovehulten.com/

Print-in-Place Solenoid Gripper by XYZAidan
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3274872

PVC Icosahedron Connector by XYZAidan
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3210011

Tic Tac Solder Dispenser by Haku3D
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3270453

American size
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3354779

Cool Tool: Vise Grip 4-inch pliers
https://youtu.be/uxUJYw6CTA8

Maker Faires

January 26, 2019 Thalia Mini Maker Faire
February 2, 2019 Hattiesburg Mini Maker Faire
February 6 – 9, 2019 Maker Faire Kuwait
February 9, 2019 Palm Bay Mini Maker Faire

Find your local Faire:
http://makerfaire.com/map/

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a privacy parasite for your virtual assistant, MakeCode Arcade, asteroid harvesting robots, a hot glue light show, spaceship control panel, a laser-cut flap cascade, grippers, fitters, and tic-tacs.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome to another Maker Update. I hope you’re all doing well. I’ve got another great show for you today, so let’s get started with the project of the week!

On Instructables, Bjørn Karmann shows off how he created Project Alias. This is a Raspberry Pi-based middle-man for a standard Google Home or Amazon Echo. It all fits in a 3D printed design that sits on top of whatever device you have.

There are two main payoffs for this project. First, if you’re freaked out about these things listening to you constantly, Alias will pump white noise into your virtual assistant’s microphone when you’re not using it, preventing it from spying on you.

The second feature, is that Alias allows you to trigger your virtual assistant with any custom name you like. And once it’s awake, it works just like normal, and when you’re done the white noise kicks back in.

You can find the code, instructions, and 3D design files all on the Instructable. It’s a cool hack, and tricks like this may be increasingly important as more of our devices start listening in.

It’s time for some news. This last week Adafruit unveiled another Microsoft collaboration. This time it’s the MakeCode Arcade.

The idea is, this is a web-based code editor specifically geared towards making little retro arcade games. There are a bunch of examples and lessons, and you can play it all right in your browser.

Better yet, Adafruit has two guides up on how to make your own portable game hardware for taking your custom games on the go. One guide is based on the Raspberry Pi Zero W. The other uses inexpensive Circuit Python Express boards, like the $15 Itsy Bitsy M4 Express.

It looks like a fun little sandbox to play in. You can also contribute your own games. I’m excited to see where this goes.

For something totally different, I caught this video by HoneyBee Robotics showing off a concept robot called WINE, or World is Not Enough. The robot is designed to harvest its own energy from asteroids until it’s ready to blast off to a new location. It’s like a space exploration robot parasite. Which, when I say it out loud, sounds pretty nasty.

But what I liked about it, is it’s radical approach to creating steam energy and not relying on conventional solar and battery-dependent systems. It’s worth a look.

Now for more projects. Jon Bumstead has a new one out showing off how he created this matrix of LED columns. What’s amazing is that the secret ingredient is hot glue cartridges! Apparently, these make a great medium for transmitting the light from LEDs mounted above and below each stick.

The enclosure is made from thin sheets of laser cut plywood, along with four plexiglass sheets to make up the middle section. Inside, he’s got a strip of 128 WS2811 LEDs controlled by an Arduino Nano. A momentary button and a potentiometer are also connected to adjust the modes, colors and animations. I think it looks really cool.

Another cool toy to play with is this laser cut spaceship control panel by Nilfisken. It’s a light-up, interactive prop control panel with all the modes and sound effects any kid would want.

The projects uses an Arduino Mega and a fun assortment of dials, buttons, switches, buzzers, and a matrix display right in the middle.

I’ve seen a few takes on the ship control panel design before. This one’s definitely a top contender, and probably my top choice in terms of documentation and repeatability.

For some cool, interactive maker art, check out Parker Heyl’s Analog Future. This is an installed grid of laser cut boards that are interwoven with ribbons to create a cascading effect when they’re flipped back and forth.

By applying a reflective material to one side of the boards, the result is a sort of analog take on a DLP projector. Also, the sound. I’m not sure if I love it or if it would drive me crazy, but I know I’d love to see this thing in person and find out.

Parker has a long research article on the piece and the thought that went into it. About halfway in he shows off some details on how it was created. I’d love to see some other riffs on this design.

I have plenty of tips to share this week. Jen, Kayte, and Jeremy from Tested have a video up showing how they created this cool, interactive miniature model of a light-up sign installation. Plenty of tips to glean, from creating realistic shrubs out of foam, to creating LED animation modes.

A few weeks back, I had the pleasure of attending the first Plotter People meetup over at Github, full of pen plotter art enthusiasts. There were two great talks that night from Lenore Edman and Sher Minn, and they’re both up on YouTube now to check out.

The hackaday Circuit Sculpture contest is now over, but the 3D Printed Gears, Pulleys, and Cams contest has just begun. If gears make you happy, give it a shot, or at least follow along as entries come in. I’ll probably update you closer to the February 17th deadline.

Through the Adafruit blog I learned about the arcade console and cabinet design of Love Hultén. The designs are incredible. If you ever need a little design inspiration for a project design or enclosure, bookmark his site.

On Thingiverse, I found the work of XYZ Aidan. He recently published this design for a print-in-place solenoid gripper. It looks like a quick and useful way to add a simple grip attachment to a robot design.

Digging back through his other designs I found a 3D printed PVC pipe connector for making a Icosahedron. The simplicity of this geodesic structure requires the same connector at each joint, making it simpler to assemble. It also means that you can make as big or as small a structure as you want, so long as all the pipes are an identical length.

Also on Thingiverse, Haku3D posted this design that fits a small reel of solder into a Tic-Tac container. He includes variations that fit a few different versions of the Tic-Tac container. It’s a quick print, and even though it was designed for solder, there’s no reason you couldn’t use it for string, or hookup wire.

Finally for my Cool Tool this week: check out my review for the Vise-Grip 4” locking pliers. They’re $16. They’re great for quickly clamping things together, straightening out wire, tightening up brake cables. They get a lot of use in my shop and they’re small enough to fit in your pocket.

Maker Faires! This weekend we have Nurnberg Germany, on February 2nd there’s Hattiesburg, Mississippi, then Maker Faire Kuwait running from the 6th through the 9th, and also Palm Bay Florida on the 9th.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up or leave a comment. Get on the Maker Update email list to get show notes emailed out to you each week so you can stay up to date. And, I volunteer to do this show because it makes me happy but it’s my Patreon support that keeps it running, so if this show does something for you, consider checking out the Patreon link and chipping in. Alright? Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.