This week on Maker Update, a brain shredder, smart dice, wiggly sensors, a MIDI guitar, an LED dress, and a magical wizard’s staff.

Guest host: Sophy Wong
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophywong

++Show Notes [Maker Update #164]++

-=Project of the Week=-

Brain Paper Shredder by Simone Giertz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjEDvKFs_78

-=News=-

Smithsonian Open Access (as used for Project Egress)
https://www.si.edu/openaccess

Happy 8th Birthday Raspberry Pi
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-price-raspberry-pi-4-2gb/

March is #MonthofMaking for MagPi Magazine
https://t.co/Whqk3TLSJR?amp=1

-=More Projects=-

Electronic Dice by Jean Simonet
https://hackaday.io/project/28377-electronic-dice

MIDI guitar mod by Look Mum No Computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gNjU8Pq8cU

Simple Work Table by Get Hands Dirty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1qc1XQap6Y

Making a Wizard’s Staff by Nerdforge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O1Y7iBORqk

Programmable Light Up Matrix Dress by mikaylas123 on Instructables
https://www.instructables.com/id/Programmable-Light-Up-Matrix-Dress/

Anemone Sensor
https://www.instructables.com/id/Anenome-Sensor-Silicone-Circuit/

Stroke Sensor
https://www.instructables.com/id/Stroke-Sensor/

-=Tools/Tips=-

Kobakant
http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=1733

Laura Kampf: spray paint can for marking and sanding round corners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZEHdiRBzY

Adam Savage: pneumatic t-50 stapler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8YTMPuvTGw

Product Spotlight

Heat Set Insert Tip for Soldering Iron
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4249

JB Weld steel stick for custom stud holder for hand press
https://www.amazon.com/J-B-Weld-8267-SteelStik-Reinforced/dp/B00RN7CT2U/

Transcript

This week on Maker Update a brain shredder, smart dice, wiggly sensors, a MIDI guitar, an LED dress, and a magical wizard’s staff.

Hello again! Welcome to Maker Update, I’m Sophy Wong, so happy to be here, sharing some projects, tips, tools, and things that are inspiring me this week. I’m in the middle of a big costume project, I’m doing some sewing, sculpting, lasercutting, and of course lots of hot gluing. But it’s always good to take a break, and I’ve got a bunch of cool projects to share with you, so let’s jump right in to the project of the week:

Simone Giertz is one of my favorite makers, and last week she shared her latest project, a paper shredder that’s shaped like a brain. It’s a classic Simone project: a clever idea, great visual design, and just a little dangerous. It’s inspiring to hear her talk through the idea from the initial sketch in her sketchbook, through prototyping, and final assembly, especially when you realize that the shape of the brain is actually her own. She used her MRI scans to create the brain layers out of brass.

The finished piece is a work of art that’s super unique, and I absolutely love how the brain jiggles a bit as it shreds the paper. Genius.

A few bits of news this week:

The Smithsonian has launched Open Access, an online database of almost 3 million 2D and 3D images from their archives. These digital assets are being released into the public domain under the Creative Commons Zero license – that means the images are all free of copyright restrictions, and free to use, for any purpose: creative projects, education, research, and more – perfect for maker projects! In fact, you may remember Adam Savage’s Project Egress Apollo hatch build from last year, that project started with a 3D model from the Smithsonian’s digital archives. So head over to the Open Access website and browse for your next project!

Have to wish a happy birthday to Raspberry Pi! The low-cost, credit-card-sized computer beloved by makers just turned 8 years old, and to celebrate Raspberry Pi has cut the price of their 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 model from $45 to $35. Raspberry Pi enthusiasts will be hosting celebratory meetups, or “Raspberry Jams” through March 15, so head over to the Raspberry Pi blog to look for one in your area.

If you’re working on a Raspberry Pi project, March is “Month of Making” at MagPi Magazine, so be sure to share your project online with the hashtag #monthofmaking. I’ve already found some really cool projects on Twitter with the hashtag, like a dancing robot, and a drum machine made of found objects.

Speaking of cool projects…

These smart electronic dice from Jean Simonet are just stunning. The dice are the same size as standard dice, but they’re bluetooth enabled, packed full of LEDs, and they charge through induction. But my favorite part of this project is the flexible PCB that folds up like origami to fit inside each die. Jean has been working on this project for a while and he’s got great documentation for it over on Hackaday. There’s even a mesmerizing video of the assembly process, definitely check it out.

Over at Look Mum No Computer on YouTube, Sam shared one of his first electronic projects: a Gibson Les Paul guitar that he modified by adding a MIDI keyboard to the body. He used illuminated push buttons for the keys, and an Arduino for the brains. I love a scrappy project like this, and it’s a cool mashup of electronic and analog sound.

Cristiana at Get Hands Dirty made a simple, portable work table to use on location at an event, and her finished build is both functional and beautiful. As a designer, I really appreciate Cristiana’s elegant modern aesthetic, and I love her choice to use purple as a pop color on the top. I’m looking forward to her next video which will show more of the gorgeous booth she put together for the event.

Martina on the Nerdforge YouTube channel made a gorgeous wizard staff out of wood, LEDs, and a giant resin sphere she poured herself. It’s one of her first wood carving projects, and it’s super inspiring to see her work through the challenges of it and end up with such a stellar piece.

Mikaylas123 has a great writeup on Instructables for her Programmable Light Up Matrix Dress. She used individually addressable LEDs, an Arduino Uno to control her project, and two USB battery packs to power it. I particularly like her solution for mounting the battery packs, suspending the weight of them from her waist and anchoring them to her legs. This keeps the dress free and flowing, which looks fantastic when she twirls. She’s got some improvements and new ideas planned for her next version of the project, which I can’t wait to see.

Next, check out this cool anemone sensor made out of wiggly silicone noodles, also on Instructables. The maker, who goes by blorgggg, embedded carbon fiber into some of the silicone strips to make them conductive. When the conductive strips touch, it makes an electrical connection, and blorgggg suggests this could be used to detect animals passing through the sensor out in the wild. Cool idea!

I really like that this maker included a link to the Instructable that inspired them to build this project, a stroke sensor made from conductive thread, posted by Plusea. Plusea is one of my favorite makers, and is one half of the epic wearable technology duo, Kobakant.

Speaking of Kobakant, if you’re at all interested in wearable technology and e-textiles, check out Kobakant’s website “How To Get What You Want”. It’s packed full of experiments, tips, and useful techniques for building wearables and soft circuitry.

In Laura Kampf’s latest build of a sofa that converts to a bed, she traced a spray can to create rounded inside corners on her project – and that’s a cool tip in itself, but then she wrapped the same can with sandpaper to sand the rounded corner after she cut it. And of course, it’s a perfect fit – now that’s a cool trick!

Adam Savage always has coolest tools I’ve never heard of, and in his latest one day build, he shares a pneumatic t-50 stapler gun. If you’ve got a compressor anyway, this seems like a great little tool to have on hand.

Here are a couple of things I’ve found really useful in my shop lately: First, I love this heat set insert tip for my soldering iron. I bought this from Adafruit, it slides right into the tip of my soldering iron, and it’s meant for heating up threaded inserts to melt them into finished 3D printed parts.

I’ve also been setting a lot of studs into leather for my costume project, and I used JB Weld Steel Stick to make a custom die for the domed studs I’m using. I mixed up a ball of the putty, covered it with plastic, and pressed a stud into it to get the perfect shape.

And that’s The Update for this week! Make sure to come back next week, Donald will be back with more projects and tips to share and inspire you. Until then, have fun making stuff, and I’ll see you again soon!