This week on Maker Update, a hexagon clock with some life in it, measuring your days, turning invisible, a fortune-telling necklace, and a CNC sand table.

++Show Notes [Maker Update #216]++

-=Project of the Week=-

HexMatrixClock By w.r.simpson
https://www.instructables.com/HexMatrixClock/

-=More Projects=-

End of Days Clock By rabbitcreek
https://www.instructables.com/End-of-Days-Clock/

Invisibility Shield By IanCharnas
https://www.instructables.com/Invisibility-Shield/

DotStar Fortune Necklace with Bluetooth and Touch By Charlyn G
https://learn.adafruit.com/dotstar-fortune-necklace

The Machine That Erases What It Creates by Simon Sörensen
https://youtu.be/rXCHn9B5dH0

-=Tips & Tools=-

Quickly Sketch Escher-type Repeats Using Inkscape By wolfCatWorkshop
https://www.instructables.com/Quickly-Sketch-Escher-type-Repeats-Using-Inkscape/

Ferrule Crimping Tool Kit
https://kk.org/cooltools/a-better-way-to-wire-screw-terminals/

Custom Painting Shop Tools by Adam Savage
https://www.tested.com/one-day-builds/adam-savages-one-day-builds-custom-painting-shop-tools/

3 Strategies to FINISH YOUR PROJECTS! by Zack Freedman
https://youtu.be/L1j93RnIxEo

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

The Great Search: Tiny Bright Green SMT LEDs
https://blog.adafruit.com/2021/01/12/the-great-search-tiny-bright-green-smt-leds-thegreatsearch-digikey-adafruit-digikey-adafruit/

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a hexagon clock with some life in it, measuring your days, turning invisible, a fortune-telling necklace, and a CNC sand table.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome back to another Maker Update. First up, I want to let you know that I’m recording this on Tuesday. If the world has descended into chaos by Thursday, I apologize in advance for my business as usual attitude in this video. Hopefully I’ve found you all well, and you’re ready to geek out on some cool projects. So let’s get started with the project of the week.

On Instructables, Bill Simpson shows how he made this Arduino-based, Conway’s Game of Life clock made from neopixel strip and a grid of hexagons. 

Now, in full disclosure, Bill is my cousin. But it took me a minute to recognize that when I came across this Instructable. So maybe there’s some nepotism here, but what he’s doing is really cool.

First, he’s choosing to use hexagons instead of squares, which look cooler (in my opinion), but also require a custom font and a unique coordinate system. 

Along with a real-time clock module he’s also attached a light sensor. When you block the sensor with your hand the clock will ping the temperature readout from the clock module and temporarily display it. That’s a neat trick.

But what really seals it for me is how each minute transitions to the next with a brief, random game of life animation. It’s just such a cool way to bring something special to a clock, and to me, reinforces how much possibility is present in every minute. 

Not only am I excited to try recreating this project, but I think I have a family obligation to make my cousin’s clock.

Now if this clock had a cousin it would be this End of Days clock by Rabbit Creek. 

It sounds more ominous than it is. It’s a clock of sorts that provides an abstract display of the temperature, snow conditions, and the tide. It’s signature move, however, is a way to display the ratio of dark to daylight hours — which in Alaska can get pretty extreme.

Like Bill’s clock, I love the look of this thing and it takes another unique approach. It’s a single strip of Neopixel LEDs that run down a carved out section of aluminum rail tube. 

The LEDs connect up to an ESP-32 board, housed up inside a 3D printed enclosure. He’s using the ESP because all of the data is coming over Wi-Fi, from services NOAA and the Open Weather Map API. So, if you make one, it needs to be close enough to hop on your Wi-Fi. You’ll also need to find a way to run 5v power to it, if it’s outside.

From making data visible, to making the world invisible, Ian Charnas has a guide on how to make your own real-life invisibility shield.

The trick is using a large, flexible lenticular lens sheet. Ian went through a few options to find the best. 

To make it rigid, you’ll need to mount it to a sheet of polycarbonate. To help it stand up, Ian CNC cut out some tabs on the top and bottom and bent them back on a metal brake. 

The end result really is a portable invisibility shield that works best in front of a background of horizontal lines to help fool the eye.

One interesting tool here I hadn’t heard of before was the adhesive he used to attach the sheet to the polycarbonate. It’s an optically clear liquid adhesive that UV activated. It’s typically used for attaching glass to smartphone or tablet screens. 

Another fun project that plays with light is this necklace by Charlyne Gonda on Adafruit. 

The necklace uses an Adafruit ItsyBitsy board with Bluetooth and a high density DotStar LED matrix to create a fortune telling necklace that responds to touch. 

Visually, what makes this design so unique is the milled sheet of black diffusion acrylic used in front of the LED matrix. Not only does this conceal the LEDs, but gives them a kind of fuzzy glow without diminishing the brightness of the LEDs.

On YouTube, Simon from RCLifeOn shows off his own take on Bruce Shapiro’s Sissyphus table. 

The idea is essentially a CNC controlled zen garden where various patterns are slowly pushed through the sand and then erased and written over. 

The original machine by Bruce is literally a work of art. And like any great art, it looks deceptively effortless to recreate.

Simon learned first-hand all of the details required to get this right. From the grit of the sand, the strength of the magnet, the sound of the drivers, the build of the table, and even just finding ways to plot interesting designs — there’s a lot to learn along the way. 

But, it pays off. Not only does Simon get his design to work, but he captures some stunning shots in action. He also introduced me to an online tool called Sandify, which helps you design shapes for your sand plotter to draw, and exports them as Gcode.

Now for some Tools and tips. On Instructables, Federico from WolfCat Workshop shows how he creates MC Escher style repeating patterns using Inkscape. 

The trick is an option in Inkscape called Tiled Clones. When you activate it, changes made to your original design will trickle out to all your cloned designs. 

Beyond that tip, the guide is a great general resource for creating patterns, with links out to a bunch of useful articles. 

On the Cool Tools channel, I’ve got a new video up talking about ferrules. 

This is a tool tip I got from Jeremy S. Cook. It’s a sheath that you crimp on to the end of a wire that takes the headache out of prepping wires for screw terminals. There’s no tinning, no frayed wires that stick out, just a clean lead with some insulation built-in. The kit, with the crimper, is just $30. 

On Tested, Adam Savage has an interesting video talking about how painting a tool can make it more useful. He uses this ratcheting wrench as an example. By painting one side, he can instantly know to hold it so that it tightens what he’s working on. 

It’s a trick I’ll sometimes do on USB and display cables I use frequently — marking them on one side to prevent the frustration of flipping them back and forth.

Zack Freedman is back with another dose of tough love for makers. While I’m always here to tempt you into starting new projects, Zach wants you to finish what you already started. 

His latest video offers 3 strategies for finishing projects that just never seem to go away. These strategies include killing projects that you just know you’re not going to complete, or that you now recognize aren’t worth your time. 

I feel like I need to pay Zack to come through my garage and help me Marie Kondo my collection of unfinished misfit projects.

For this week’s spotlight, check out a recent episode of The Great Search by Adafruit. In this episode, Lady Ada searches for her favorite green surface mount LED — used on some Adafruit boards. 

It may seem like a niche component, but what you’ll learn long the way is how to understand power ratings for LEDs, wavelengths, micro candelas, and why green leds are perceived as one of the most intense colors. Check it out.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a comment, leave a thumbs up, get on the email list. Or don’t get on the email list, but let me know what you think I could do to make an email list you’d want to join. I’m looking for ways to make the weekly email more useful or interesting. 

A big thanks to my Patrons on Patreon and to Digi-Key electronics for making the show possible. Thanks for watching, stay safe, and I’ll see you soon.