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.

This week on Maker Update, a steering wheel for your Xbox controller, a new tax on filament, Adafruit reinvents the MEGA, two new 3D printed r/c boat designs, robot operation, a LEGO battery pack, a project board for Halloween, and drilling at a right-angle.

This week on Maker Update, a soap-vomiting unicorn, two new boards from Arduino, a mini marblevator, a neopixel thumb war, pool noodle box bots, gendered razor holders, Lego pinball, an Android tape deck, a business card stylophone, Hobart’s entry level MIG welder, the Voronator, and the Adafruit Crickit. This week’s Cool Tool is the Hobart Handler 140 MIG Welder.

This week on Maker Update, a MIDI compatible music box, alternative controller indie games at GDC, an Arduino for your knife, controlling your computer with zombie heads, free game developer software, and Hackspace issue 5. This week’s Cool Tool is the Makey Makey Kit.

The annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is a wonderfully outrageous, high tech fantasy land where corporations like Microsoft, Facebook, Sony and Google, hold court with their latest zombie-blasting simulators and VR headsets. But it has a secret.

Off in the back (technically in a whole separate building), away from the buzz and hustle of the main show floor, is a small cluster of 20 curated, one-of-a-kind games under a banner labeled “alt.ctrl”. Here, the creators of these games encourage people to come over and play their project. They call themselves Developers, but I see them as Makers like myself. People who take their fun from mixing equal parts Art and Engineering. 

This week on Maker Update, an automatic dice spinner, a desktop CT scanner, what taggers can teach us about permanent markers, and powering your Raspberry Pi from lithium iron phosphate. This week’s Cool Tool is the Krink K-70 Permanent Ink Marker.

This week on Maker Update, levitating water with LEDs, 3D printed skull buttons, servos on Pi, a game of Twang, Arduino animatronics, and project talk with Becky Stern. This week’s Cool Tool is the EBL 18650 Rechargeable Battery.

This week on Maker Update, a virtual rocket controller, a light organ dress, 3D printed detergent hack, and casting with Lego bricks. This week’s Cool Tool is a 5″ Sanding Mouse.

This week on Maker Update, a 3D printed thermal camera, Nintendo Switch gets making with Labo, an 8-note harp with only one string, Scratch 3.0, and making CNC designs by hand. This week’s Cool Tool is the Neiko Mini Ratcheting Screwdriver.