This week on Maker Update, roll your own virtual reality gloves, an LED snowboard, a ferrofluid Bluetooth speaker, an animatronic webcam, spinning lights and blinking pixels.

++Show Notes [Maker Update Ep. 229]++

-=Project of the Week=-

Lucas VRTech Open Source VR Gloves
https://hackaday.io/project/178243-lucidvr-budget-haptic-glove

-=News=-

WICO World Tour
https://igg.me/at/wicoworldtour/x/26481680#/

-=More Projects=-

LED Snowboard with Motion-Reactive Animation By Erin St Blaine
https://learn.adafruit.com/led-snowboard-with-motion-reactive-animation

Sound-Reactive Ferrofluid Display by Dakd Jung
https://hackaday.io/project/179136-ferrofluid-display-cell-bluetooth-speaker

Anthropomorphic Webcam by Marc Teyssier
https://marcteyssier.com/projects/eyecam/

Flux: Scale Collective’s Incredible Kinetic Light Installation
https://www.collectifscale.com/flux

32×32 Square Pixel Art Animation Display By Ruiz Brothers
https://learn.adafruit.com/32×32-square-pixel-display

-=Tips & Tools=-

Tiny Tools list by Everest Pipkin
https://tinytools.directory/

Levitating Screwdriver by Ian Charnas
https://youtu.be/nrxOnLntHM0

Caleb Kraft of Make: Reviews the Latest Cerambot Eazao 3D Ceramics Printer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56Cv3HEnIvQ

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

Intro to Raspberry Pi Pico and RP2040 – MicroPython Part 2: I2C Sensor
https://youtu.be/b4KdzsAz6kE

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, roll your own virtual reality gloves, an LED snowboard, a ferrofluid Bluetooth speaker, an animatronic webcam, spinning lights and blinking pixels.

Hey everyone, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome back to another Maker Update. I hope you’re all doing well, finding those vaccine appointments, and finding time to make stuff. I have a great show for you, so let’s get started with the project of the week.

On Hackaday, Lucas VRTech has an open source guide on how to make these gloves, that allow you to hold and manipulate things in virtual reality.

Best of all, the materials needed to create a pair of these gloves will cost you just $22.

Making this possible took a lot of prototypes and trial and error, and Lucas has a video that recounts the whole journey up to now.

To cut to the chase, though, he’s found a way to create spring-loaded potentiomenters by combining a potentiometer with the spring reel of a retractable badge holder and enclosing the mash up in a custom 3D printed casing.

With one of those for each finger, you’ve got a way to reliably translate finger position into digital information (no pun intended).

Each glove has an Arduino Nano to handle the finger data and send it over to your computer over USB. Once it’s there, Lucas includes an open source driver to get the gloves working in SteamVR.

It’s a fantastic project, that showcases a ton of ingenuity, and there’s more on the way. With any luck, Lucas hopes to unveil a version soon with haptic feedback. This way when you grab things in VR, it will feel more like you’re holding something.

Now for some news, Ryan Jenkins from Wonderful Idea Company is embarking on a virtual world tour of makerspaces and interactive museums.

He’ll be interacting with spaces in Nairobi, Berlin, New Mexico, Aarhus and Kyoto. Each online session will include a behind the scenes tour and a hands-on activity.

If you’ve been itching for some maker-related travel in the spirit of maker fairies, keep an eye on this or get involved. I think it will be fun.

More projects! On Adafruit, Erin St. Blaine has a guide on making this motion reactive Neopixel snowboard.

The project uses a Feather M4 microcontroller board with a prop-maker featherwing add-on which gives you motion sensors and an easy way to plug in your lights.

For the LEDs Erin is using a length of mini, skinny Neopixels, with a spacing density of 60 leds per meter. It’s around $100 just for the strip, so not an inexpensive project to pull off – but it’s a guaranteed way to get noticed on your snowboard.

For a different kind of light show, check out this sound reactive ferrofluid display by Dakd Jung.

The enclosure contains a stereo bluetooth speaker, a vial of ferrofluid, probably suspended in mineral oil, and an electromagnet controlled by an Arduino Nano.

As the sound plays, you can tune the frequency that the electromagnet responds to using the dial on the left.

It’s a cool idea that has a kind of 60s lava lamp vibe to it. It’s a little light on details at the moment, but hopefully those will be filled in soon.

For a project that’s rich with details and overflowing with creepiness, check out this animatronic webcam eye by Marc Teyssier.

Inside, you have a Pi Zero, a pi camera module, some hobby servos that all fit inside of this 3D printed system that acts both as an enclosure and an animatronic model.

Personally, I wouldn’t go the extra mile to create the outer fleshy latex layer. I think some muppet fur would make this a little more approachable.

More than anything, I just love this compact little platform for Raspberry Pi animatronics. The webcam aspect I could take or leave, but eye movement and eyebrow mechanics could be a great addition to a Halloween project.

Which, by the way, is it too early for me to get excited about Halloween this year?

Another project that would be perfectly at home in an art gallery is this kinetic light installation by Scale Collective.

This is a series of 48 LED strips, each of which can be rotated back and forth using stepper motors.

The end result, with all the movements and light animations choreographed, is absolutely mesmerizing.

After digging around on their Facebook page I learned that they’re creating the kinetic motor routines using TouchDesigner software, and programming the lights using MadMapper software.

Regardless of how they’re doing it, you have to appreciate that it’s not about dazzling you with colors or the number of LEDs — it really just comes down to light and motion.

For something on a more manageable scale, check out the latest project from the Ruiz Bros. It’s a 32×32 pixel art animation display.

It’s using an RGB matrix display, a Feather board, and a matrix feathering kit to get them talking to each other.

There’s a grid and frame that you have to 3D print, but the real secret to making it look so good is a panel of black LED diffusion acrylic. Not only does this smooth everything out for a more even light, but it conceals everything in a matte black when the project is powered down.

The guide includes a couple sprite animations that you can load up, but also points you to some resources for finding others or creating your own.

Now for some tips and tools. Everest Pipkin has an outstanding collection of open source software tools for creating your own games or interactive projects. You can sort the list alphabetically, or by categories like vector, sound effects, user interface, or fonts. You’re bound to find something useful.

On the Cool Tools channel, I have a new video up with Ian Charnas, showing how to levitate a screwdriver with compressed air. It’s a shop trick I’d never seen before, and I was really floored to see it work.

On the Make YouTube channel, Caleb Kraft gives us a look at the Cerambot Eazao. It’s a ceramic 3D printer that’s in a Kickstarter phase right now. If you’ve ever wanted to experiment with blending 3D printing and ceramics, this is worth a watch.

For this week’s Digi-key spotlight, check out Shawn Hymel’s second installment in his Intro to Raspberry Pi Pico. In this episode, you’ll learn how to connect and control sensors over i2C.

Specifically, Shawn shows how to use a temperature, pressure, and humidity sensor with the Pico, but the basic info here can be applied to other things that work over i2C. Check it out.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up, or leave a comment. You can get on the Maker Update email list, so you never miss a show. A big thanks to our patrons on Patreon and to Digi-Key electronics for making this show possible. Thanks for watching, stay safe out there, and I’ll see you soon.