This week on Maker Update, fan art, ambient tube sounds, wired AirPod controls, high-fiving forest tentacles, and a low poly web tool.

++Show Notes [Maker Update Ep. 266]

-=Project of the Week=-

Breeze by Boyoung Lee
https://bycworks.com/Breeze

-=More Projects=-

ioalieia by Eirik Brandal
https://hackaday.io/project/183534-ioalieia

Airpods Controller by Marina Fujiwara
https://youtu.be/TIeSdSQlevo

Umwelten by Yang Gao, Amelia Goldie and Sienna Liu
http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/lab-projects/umwelten

-=Tips & Tools=-

Low Poly-fy Your 3D Models Online For Free
https://lowpoly3d.xyz/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5rWGLhoEI

New Form 3+ SLA 3D Printer Review + Build Platform 2 by Norm Chan (Tested)
https://www.tested.com/tech/reviews/new-form-3-sla-3d-printer-review-build-platform-2/

UPDATED GUIDE: Animated Eyes for Raspberry Pi by Phil B
https://blog.adafruit.com/2022/01/11/updated-guide-animated-eyes-for-raspberry-pi/

Designing Custom Mounts for Motors & Solenoids
https://youtu.be/C7N01D5KMQk
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aQFVvdp4ORpGMTYAYTbR-T3GeZSgxic6lCsUvcWYTi4/edit?usp=sharing

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

Fan Basics
https://youtu.be/f4iA1hV7_U0

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, fan art, ambient tube sounds, wired Airpod controls, high-fiving forest tentacles, and a low poly web tool.

Hey everyone, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome back to another Maker Update. I hope you’re all doing well, and finding ways to stay inspired. But if you could use a little creative spark out of left field – this is the episode for you. I’m leaving heavy on electronic hardware art projects in this episode. So let’s get started with the project of the week.

Breeze by Boyoung Lee is a matrix of 96 PC fans, each covered with a sheet of yellow notebook paper.

This is an Arduino based project. The Arduino determines the pattern and sequence of which fans turn on and off. Some are predetermined, and some are random.

It also appears to control the strength or speed of the fan. I’m not sure, but sometimes the papers just ripple, and sometimes they seem to go full blast.

What I love about this, is that it’s using the same technical concepts you’d use to animate a matrix of LEDs or a flipdot display – but substituting a completely different mechanical interaction.

Instead of a blinking dot we get the sight and sound and feeling of air rushing past a simple piece of paper, and it’s enchanting.

It’s also a great demonstration of the power of repetition and pattern and scale. I’m sure someone already had the idea of an Arduino controlled PC fan, and maybe even enjoyed the sound of a piece of paper tacked in front of it.

But for Boyoung to understand the potential of multiplying that idea – scaling up and playing with it – I find that inspiring and I have to believe there’s potential like this all around us.

Sometimes though, you have to marvel at an artist’s technical achievement. At least that’s how I feel about Erik Brandal’s latest sound sculpture, ioalieia.

You can find some technical details for this on his Hackaday project page, along with an essential video where Erik outlines his entire process for building it.

For me though, it’s like watching that Beatles Get Back documentary. I can see the magic happen right in front of my eyes, I can understand what’s going on, but I’m no closer to becoming a Beatle.

Erik’s combination of technical expertise and freeform circuit craftsmanship is just jaw dropping.

For this particular work he’s using an ESP32 board to both generate and process audio signals which are being passed through an old soviet vacuum tube. The addition of the glowing tube not only looks amazing, but adds a certain analog unpredictability to the whole thing. It’s just awesome.

But really, the gift of this project is the build video Erik made outlining his techniques. From how to make pristine acrylic enclosures, to using header pins as brass wire guides – this whole thing could just as easily be in the tips section of this show.

Sometimes though, the unvarnished, prototype-y nature of a project is what makes it charming. Marina Fujiwara’s AirPods controller is a prime example.

This is a head-mounted contraption that will tap your earbuds for you when you want to skip tracks. Marina is taking us back to the golden age of MP3 players with buttons on it.

Now, it’s funny, but it’s also art, right? It is to me at least. In a world where we’re giving voice commands to our light bulbs and expected to learn multi-finger touch gestures to operate our phones, engineering dedicated buttons back into our life can be an act of protest.

Does this need to be anything more than a breadboard prototype to get its point across? Absolutely not. It’s the improvisation that makes it compelling.

I also really enjoyed seeing Umwelten. This is a masters project by Yang Gao, Amelia Goldie and Sienna Liu from the Interactive Architecture Lab at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

There’s a lot to explore here, including a whole narrative between nature, robotics and humans. But the mechanical aspect here are these hanging, articulating metal vines.

Through a hidden system of motors, pulleys and what I’m assuming is fishing line, these vines can flex in different directions.

But what makes them interactive is that they’re aware of your presence. Using computer vision, the vines can track your arm movements and mirror them back to you in what must feel like a kind of techno-nature high five. I can definitely say that I’ve never seen anything like it.

Now for some tips and tools. By way of the Make magazine blog, I learned about LowPoly3d.xyz. This is a standalone site that allows you to quickly upload and and transform your 3D STL files into low poly models. There’s a great overview video that I’ll link to in the description all about how it was made and what it can do.

On Tested, Norm Chan offers an impressively thorough review of the new FormLabs Form 3+ SLA resin 3D printer, and the optional, flexible Build Platform you can buy separately.

This model was just announced at CES this month. It’s aimed at a professional market, so it’s not cheap. But it’s interesting to see what that money will get you.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t really look like a slam dunk on print quality compared to some sub-one thousand dollar SLA printers. But check out the review for yourself.

On Adafruit, Phil B announced an upgrade to the popular animated eyes for Raspberry Pi software. The update is now compatible with Raspberry Pi 4 and up. Best of all, you can get it installed with a simple CURL command.

And last year for the Maker Music Festival I gave a presentation on designing custom mounts for motors and solenoids, allowing you to adapt them for robotic percussion.

That video presentation is now on YouTube along with many of the other talks. I’ll include a link to it, along with the Google Slides presentation which has links to a lot of the stuff I mention.

For this week’s Digi-Key spotlight, in honor of Boyoung’s Breeze project, check out their overview on different types of DC fans.

Axial fans, centrifugal fans, tangential fans, blower fans, there’s a lot of different ways to move some air around. This video covers the considerations of fan shape, the amount of air it can move, and ducting.

I’m feeling like I’ve been taking fans for granted this whole time. Now I’m a fan enthusiast – a fan fan.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up, or be a little extra and leave a comment. I love hearing from everyone. You can also get on the mailing list if you’d like the show notes sent over every week. A big thanks to Digi-Key for making this show possible. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon.