This week on Maker Update, sending pixels down the tubes, a workbench that fits any lifestyle, thin-film optical filters, party parrots, alien crystals, and escape rooms for introverts.

++Show Notes [Ep. 270]++

-=Project of the Week=-

Fiber Optic Matrix Display by elliotmade
https://www.instructables.com/Fiber-Optic-Matrix-Display/

-=More Projects=-

Sequential Discovery Puzzle Box by Durss
https://www.instructables.com/Sequential-Discovery-Puzzle-Box/

Portable & Affordable Workbench for Small Spaces by 3x3Custom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG5V5LszdJQ

Party Parrot Zoetrope by The Ruiz Brothers
https://learn.adafruit.com/party-parrot-zoetrope

Infinity Mirror Hypercrystal by Inanna Malick
https://recursion.wtf/posts/infinity_mirror_hypercrystal/

-=Tips & Tools=-

Strange Optical Filters by IMSAI Guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9McddItZk8

Polygonia Design
https://polygonia.design/

TRRS Connectors as i2c Breakouts by Ron Nelson
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09KGL52W8

What’s the best Wire Connector? by Great Scott!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgjo36-jaFY

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

How to Build a Face Tracking Pan Tilt Camera with OpenMV with Shawn Hymel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd77B2vqV0Y

-=Transcript=-

This week on Maker Update: sending pixels down the tubes, a workbench that fits any lifestyle, thin-film optical filters, party parrots, alien crystals, and escape rooms for introverts.

Hello and welcome back to Maker Update! I’m Tyler Winegarner and I hope you’re doing great. I don’t know if its that change in the weather Donald was talking about last week but I’ve been having a few breakthroughs in some of my projects, so there’s definitely some kind of spark in the air. Let’s keep that momentum going and check out the project of the week.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been featuring projects that serve not just a function, but perform that function with an undeniable sense of style. This week’s project by elliotmade might only do the style part of that equation, but my goodness, what an aesthetic it provides.

I might be stating the obvious here, but there’s a whole lot going on in this Fiber Optic Matrix Display. Hidden back behind the scenes is a 16×16 matrix of addressable RGB LEDs. Each one of those is isolated by a grid so it can feed into a single strand of end glow fiber optic material, which terminates as one of the pixels in a 35 x 7 matrix made of milled aluminum. Not only do you see the final result of the colored pixel in the display, but you also get this fantastic light show as each pixel makes the journey to its destination.

The whole show is directed by a Raspberry Pi Pico. On the board there’s also a clock module and a few buttons that Elliot had from a previous project, so it could be ready made to display time – if that’s what you wanted to do with it.

And that’s the beauty of the project – well, aside from how beautiful it is – is how open ended Elliot left it. Also I really appreciated the way he documented and presented the project. He has access to an entire machine shop with a CNC mill, and he used it to fabricate a lot of the parts out of steel and aluminum. But he published the basic design files, with notes for various considerations for what you might be able to expect if you made the parts using a laser cutter, or FDM printing, SLA printing, or any other technique.

Its the type of product documentation that gets me really excited to read – because for me, it’s a jumping off point for my own ideas – and that’s exactly what Elliot intended. But he’s also created a gorgeous project – and that certainly deserves respect all its own.

Escape rooms can be a lot of fun, but you need to find the right group of folks to get the most out of them. If you can’t be bothered, or you’d rather just stay inside, check out this laser cut puzzle box by Durss. This is a handheld puzzle made of three sheets of 1/8th inch plywood. There’s some obscure hints engraved into the top layer, but the real magic is the middle layer where all the magnets and mechanisms live. This thing is incredible. As you solve each clue, you get access to the tool to solve the next one. If you solve the whole puzzle, a drawer pops out with enough storage for a hidden message. It would probably ruin the puzzle, but I know I;d be tempted to make the top layer clear, just so you can still see what’s going on behind the scenes.

If you’ve ever wanted a proper workbench for fine woodworking with all the fixtures for bench dogs and clamping, but you’re either intimidated by the expense, or the space, or the weight, check out this portable mini workbench by Tamar of 3×3 Customs. This bench has all of that going for it, just in a smaller serving that can be clamped down to your existing workbench, or to any other work surface if you don’t have one yet. This is a really thorough guide, and Tamar not only walks you through how to build the bench, but also how to build all of the jigs she used to make the bench.

On Adafruit, I found this guide from the Ruiz Brothers on how to make this edge lit acrylic zoetrope starring everyone’s favorite gif, the Party Pigeon. There’s no shortage of Zoetrope projects out there but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that works quite like this, and it’s deceptively simple. Normally you need to worry about properly timing your lights to the animation frames, but in this one, a single stationary neopixel just waits for an acrylic panel to pass by in the cycle, and lights it up when that happens. There’s a photo interrupter to track the rotation of the zoetrope, and cycles the color of the neopixel to keep things lively. This looks like a fun one to reproduce.

And finally, on Hackaday I learned about the Infinity Mirror Hypercrystal by Inanna Malick. This is a physical piece of generative art made of infinity mirrors to create a beautifully alien sculpture. Its lit internally by these towers of white LEDs, but the light is filtered through Dichroic film so the color changes depending on what angle you view them from. It takes the chaotic weirdness of this project over the top. Check it out.

Time for some tips and tools – if you want to know more about how dichroic filters and, well, any number of other colored optical filters work, this youtube video by IMSAI Guy might be the perfect thing to watch. He talks about the science behind absorptive filters, thin film filters, and a handful of others – how they work and how they perform. Its full of examples and more than enough science to go way over my head, but if you like playing with light give this one a watch.

Last week, when Donald was introducing MandalaGaba, I was immediately reminded of Polygonia Design. This is a web tool for creating geometrically tileable designs that you can send to your laser cutter, or pen plotter or any other vector tool you have on hand. The interface does take a little getting used to, but that’s because there’s a lot going on here, but even just by futzing around you can create some really pretty designs pretty quickly.

On the Assistive Tech Makers community on Facebook I learned about this great tip from Ron Nelson for using TRRS jacks as disconnects for i2c devices. You’re probably most familiar with TRRS, or Tip Ring Ring Sleeve, as 3.5mm headphone cables. There’s other adopted standards for i2c like Adafruit Stemma, but if you need something that’s a little more robust or easy to disconnect, this might be the trick. Its probably worth mentioning that these should not be used for hot-swapping. You’ll want to power down the device before connecting stuff.

And finally we have a great video from Great Scott comparing the most popular options for wire connectors for your house – wire nuts and two different Wago connectors. Which are the easiest to use? Which offer the least electrical resistance? Which one is least likely to let the wires get pulled out? Can any of them catch on fire? Scott tests all of these and more. I know I’m most familiar than wire nuts since they come packed into every fixture, but its nice to know there are other options.

For this week’s Digikey Spotlight, Shawn Hymel has a great tutorial on how to build a face-tracking pan/tilt camera using OpenMV. Usually these are built using a Raspberry Pi, which is faster, but the open MV board offers a more affordable and less power hungry option. Shawn’s video talks you through all the code for a face tracking algorithm so you’re never lost about what’s doing what. If you’ve ever wanted a thorough breakdown of what’s going on in the code here, check this one out.

Ok, and that’s going to do it for this week’s show. I hope these projects have given you some inspiration to jump out on some of your own projects – if any of them did, I’d love to hear about it down in the comments. You can also give us a thumbs up if you dug the show, or sign up for the maker update email list to get the show sent straight to you every week. Donald is still on vacation so you won’t see them right away, but he should be back next week, and you’ll see them then. Big thanks to Digikey Electronics! Take care, we’ll see you soon.