This week on Maker Update, an off-grid Pi recovery kit, Hackaday Grand Prize, a chorus of Billy Bass, improving old toys, a transforming bike, viewing Gcode, painting R2, and hydro-dipping.

This week on Maker Update, an Arduino snowflake, a hands-free cookie dispenser, building a big telescope, networked nightlights, budget robots, and the gamification of your couch.

Hey I’m Donald Bell for Maker Project Lab and in this video we’re going to take a look inside the new Amazon Echo Alexa-compatible version of the Big Mouth Billy Bass talking fish. I got this for around $40 on Amazon. I’ll leave a link in the video description, but you may want to watch this whole video and hear my opinion before picking one up.

This week on Maker Update: making your own Alexa-Powered Billy Bass, the rise of the modular swarm bots, DIY candy dispensers, 3D printed Thanksgiving accessories, and a good excuse for a blow torch.