This week on Maker Update: vaccine fashion, Intel kills their Kinect killer, laser cut LED neon, casting keycaps, and the Eye of Agamotto.

++Show Notes [Maker Update Ep. 248]++

-=Project of the Week=-

COVID-19 Vaccine Structure Badge by Paul Klinger
https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/p4ybdc/a_little_blinky_badge_that_shows_the_sequence_of/
https://github.com/PaulKlinger/mrna_vaccine_badge

-=News=-

Intel Shutters Its RealSense Arm, Departs the Computer Vision Market
https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/intel-says-it-s-winding-down-realsense-camera-business

-=More Projects=-

How To Make a Custom Neon LED Sign! by Norm Chan
https://youtu.be/QVZn7YaRMd8

DIY Decorative Resin Keycaps By Ruiz Brothers
https://learn.adafruit.com/diy-decorative-resin-keycaps

How to Make the Eye of Agamotto From Doctor Strange By Bradley_Campbell
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-the-Eye-of-Agamotto-From-Dr-Strange/

-=Tips & Tools=-

Steel Zip Tie Review
https://kk.org/cooltools/most-durable-zip-tie/

Adam’s Guide to Cosplay and Prop Electronics!
https://www.tested.com/making/how-tos/adams-guide-to-cosplay-and-prop-electronics/

Scan QR Codes with CircuitPython By Jeff Epler
https://learn.adafruit.com/scan-qr-codes-with-circuitpython

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

The Great Search: Booster/DC-DC Switching Regulators with Low Quiescent Current
https://blog.adafruit.com/2021/08/24/the-great-search-booster-dc-dc-switching-regulators-with-low-quiescent-current-thegreatsearch-digikey-digikey/

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, vaccine fashion, Intel kills their Kinect killer, laser cut LED neon, casting keycaps, and the Eye of Agamotto.

Hey everyone, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome back to another Maker Update. Not just any Maker Update, but the five year anniversary episode of Maker Update.

It was September of 2016. I was unemployed. And like a lot of people I thought maybe I’d get into making project videos. But I also had this idea for a weekly roundup show where I’d highlight other people’s cool projects.

I gave it a shot. Here we are 5 years later, and I still look forward to putting this show together every time.

And I’m not about to screw up the formula now, so let’s get started with the project of the week.

Check out this PCB badge by Paul Klinger. The front shows a schematic of the mRNA vaccine nanoparticle. At the center, a series of LEDs blink out the RNA sequence of the Moderna vaccine. A long press on the button on the back will switch the sequence to the Pfizer vaccine.

The back is also where you’ll find the coin cell battery, an ATtiny microcontroller, and a little key to biological elements on the schematic and the LED colors.

Paul has the code, PCB files, and bill of materials all posted on a Github link I’ll include in the description. It’s a great little project and a literal badge of honor for a scientific achievement that is saving lives around the world.

Now for some news. Intel has announced that they’re closing their RealSense camera division. If you’re unfamiliar, these RealSense cameras offer varying degrees of 3D computer vision.

You can think of them as an evolution of the Microsoft Xbox Kinect camera, and they’ve been a useful substitute in DIY projects ever since the plug was pulled on Kinect.

I think it’s a real shame, especially now that AI and computer vision projects are gaining momentum. Hopefully there will be other products to swoop in and fill the gap.

More projects! On Tested, Norm Chan has a great guide on how to design and laser cut custom neon LED signs.

Norm’s using these neon style LED strips, which have been around for a few years now, and are available in different colors, or even in addressable Neopixel options.

What a lot of people miss is that these strips can be cut down to size just like regular LED strip, so long as you trim it down at one of the breaks marked on the side.

To plan out a design, Norm shows a great trick in Adobe Illustrator that can probably be replicated in other programs too. He’s drawing his design into the program and then using the offset path tool to create room on either side of the line.

By knowing the exact width of the LED strip, he can offset the width of his lines to create a perfect channel for the strip to fit in.

From designing, to cutting and wiring — there’s a lot to learn in this guide, and the results look great.

On Adafruit, I also loved seeing how the Ruiz brothers created these custom resin key caps.

Using silicone molds you can buy direct from Adafruit, they experiment with encapsulating different things like googly eyes, or electronic components. You can add glitter to the mix, mica powder, or paint or tint.

Helping the process along is Becky Stern’s 3D printed UV lamp project, used here to quickly cure the resin between pours. It’s a cool idea.

If you want to get a jump on a fun little Halloween project, check out this mechanical Eye of Agamotto from Doctor Strange made by Bradley Campbell.

This is a wearable project that combines a 3D printed animatronic eye with a servo, an RGB LED, and an Arduino Nano.

What I like most about the design is how he was able to gear the eye using the servo on its side. This allows it to lay relatively flat, while still provisioning a convincing animatronic effect.

Now for some tools and Tips. On Cool Tools, I’ve got a new video on using stainless steel zip ties. They’re honestly kind of a hassle compared to a typical plastic zip tie, but if you need something that will hold up in the outdoors, or extreme temperatures, they’re useful to have around.

On Tested, Adam Savage offers a candid look at his admittedly rudimentary techniques for working with electronics in cosplay projects.

I think a lot of us have our own specialties, and then a ton of areas where we have just enough knowledge to hack something together.

But for real beginners who are just learning, it can be inspiring to see someone of Adam’s stature show off his own shortcuts and “good enough” solutions for wiring things together.

From pre-wired LEDs, to using wire nuts for temporary connections, this 43 minute video is a lighthearted introduction to the kind of practical electronics that beginners and non-engineers will find inspiring.

On Adafruit, Jeff Epler explains how to give your CircuitPython projects the ability to scan QR codes.

This is a trick you can only use in CircuitPython 7 or later. One of the coolest tricks is that you can use it with IoT projects. So when you wave a QR code past a camera, it can communicate a specific online input on something like Adafruit IO, and then trigger any number of connected events using something like If This Then That.

For this week’s Digi-Key spotlight, Lady Ada has a video on using Digi-Key to search for finding the perfect DC to DC regulator.

Maybe you have an IoT device that’s drawing 3.3 volts from a battery, but needs to output 5 volts, and do it as efficiently as possible to preserve battery life.

It’s a common dilemma, but with thousands of different converters to sift through, how do you find the right one? Lady Ada will show you all the tricks for narrowing down your search.

And that does it for this week’s show. And I just want to give a huge thanks to everyone who’s helped and encouraged me to keep this show going all these years. In particular, Tyler Winegarner whose help producing this show made it possible early on for me to hold down a job while keeping this show going.

To Gareth Branwyn and Mark Frauenfelder, and Caleb Kraft, who pointed people to the show early on and helped it get seen. To anyone who’s left a comment or supported the show on Patreon. And especially to the team at Digi-Key electronics for putting faith in me and this show and trusting me not to ruin their brand.

It sounds like I’m saying goodbye, but I promise I’m just going to keep on going. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon.