This week on Maker Update, a one thumb entertainment system, using an LED matrix as a scanner, LED jewelry, and a rubber chicken powered camera slider.

++Show Notes++

-=Project of the Week=-

One Thumb Entertainment System (OTES) – Portable Retro CTR Game Console by Görkem Bozkurt
https://www.instructables.com/id/OTES-a-Portable-Retro-CTR-Game-Console/

Boot to PICO-8 by Guillermo A. Amaral
https://guillermoamaral.com/read/picopi/

-=News=-

Prusa Community Hub
https://blog.prusaprinters.org/relaunching-prusaprinters-org-new-community-website-for-all-original-prusa-printer-owners/

https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints

Fritzing is Back
https://hackaday.com/2019/04/30/fritzing-is-back-and-this-time-its-written-in-javascript/

-=More Projects=-

Using a LED Matrix As a Scanner By Marcio T
https://www.instructables.com/id/Using-a-LED-Matrix-As-a-Scanner/

LED Jewelry By jiripraus
https://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Jewelry/

RAINBOW ROLLER-COASTER – KINETIC CIRCLE SCULPTURE by Dominik Císař
https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/195-rainbow-roller-coaster-kinetic-circle-sculpture

Chicken Powered Camera Slider by The Maker Monster
https://youtu.be/oWjAErj1VSE

-=Tools/Tips=-

Tube Time Cross Sections
https://mobile.twitter.com/i/moments/1112130787694931968?fbclid=IwAR0vtuyC5CPGUmmCChjhHjqS-P768aSIzwHdXODbfUDqS6AfSbkPmaOE9Ds

Open Processing
https://www.openprocessing.org/

Eyeo Festival June 3-6
http://eyeofestival.com/

Vinyl Cutters Overview by I Like to Make Stuff
https://youtu.be/wOlJja9VKIk

Nut & Bolt Thread Checker – Cool Tool Review
https://youtu.be/QnoKP9MtF2Y

3D-Printable Filament! -Print Your Own Filament for Multi-Color! by Turbo_SunShine
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3565827

Rubiks Cube Robot Enhancements by tbergman8
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3558713

-=Digi-Key Spotlight=-

How to Measure Voltage, Current, and More with a Digital Multimeter
https://youtu.be/vL2HUHuBrs0

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a one-thumb entertainment system, using an LED matrix as a scanner, LED jewelry, and a rubber chicken powered camera slider.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome back to another Maker Update. I hope you’re all doing well. I’ve been busy getting my electric go karts ready for Maker Faire Bay Area and the Power Racing Series. I hope you have something fun you’re working on too. It’s a big show today, so let’s get started with the project of the week.

Check out this miniature one-button game console made by Görkem Bozkurt. The project recycles the small CRT display from an old camcorder and marries it up to a Raspberry Pi Zero running PICO-8 game software.

The entire enclosure is custom designed and 3D printed. There’s a spot included for a single button, which is wired up to an Arduino Micro before heading to the Raspberry Pi, allowing it to act as a generic keyboard input whose key you can define in the Arduino code. In this case it’s the letter “z”.

I’ve never seen anything like it. He calls it the “one-thumb entertainment system”. What’s really great is that within this one project there are a few ideas you can pull out. One is how to drive a vintage camcorder display with a Pi’s composite output.

Another is how to power a Pi Zero and Arduino Micro from a 9v battery and a voltage regulator.

And maybe my favorite here is how to install a custom version of the PICO-8 game software that boots right into PICO-8, or your favorite game, and bypasses the desktop. Go check it out.

It’s time for some news. Last week, Prusa Printers announced a new 3D model database and community at prusaprinters.org. They recruited a number of popular designers to create featured content you can download.

One unique aspect of the design database is that you can search for and download ready-to-print Gcode files for your specific printer, dialed in by the original designer. So, if you want a Vandragon container ship, sliced and setup for your Prusa printer by Vandragon himself, this is the only place to go for that file.

In other news, the free circuit design software Fritzing is being rebooted after years of neglect. They have a roadmap of upcoming features posted on Github, new developers who are taking it under their wing. It’s great news for anyone who relies on the tool for documenting projects or developing schematics.

Now for more projects! Marcio T has this Instructable guide on how to scan the outline of an object with a single phototransistor.

The project uses a 32×32 addressable LED matrix connected to an Arduino Uno. You place your hand, or an object on the matrix and when you hold the phototransistor overhead, it reads the outline of the object and the matrix is updated with a shadow of what it saw.

It took some time for me to really wrap my head around what’s going on here, but essentially, the flash you see from the LED matrix is really a very fast sequence of each pixel switching on and off one after another. The phototransistor is taking a super fast reading from each LED and the painting the results back on the matrix.

I think it’s such a cool effect, and I’d love to see it scaled up somehow for something like a shadow wall or a digital graffiti wall.

Another LED project, but very different, Jiri Praus has a guide on making these small, coin cell battery powered circuit sculpture jewelry.

His technique uses brass rod and surface mount LEDs. Going the extra mile, Jiri includes a set of step-by-step PDF templates to help you get the form just right.

If you’ve been curious about dipping your toe into freeform circuit design, this looks like the perfect place to start, and a great payoff when you’re through.

Through the new Prusa design database I found this incredible kinetic sculpture by Dominik Císař.

He calls it the Rainbow Roller Coaster. It’s a ring of gears driven by a single motor. Each gear includes a spot for a paddle. Ideally, each paddle is printed in a different color, though I imagine the effect is still pretty cool even in just one or two colors.

Finally, from the Maker Monster we get a battery-powered camera slider that is so cleanly constructed that it’s just begging for an extra detail to add some personality. And so, he goes to his seemingly inexhaustible supply of rubber chickens.

With some extra gears to translate the slider movement into rotational movement, and some yellow felt for the chicken wings, you get what appears to be the world’s first chicken powered camera slider. I hope this means more chicken-powered projects in the future — from everyone.

Time for a few tips and tools. On the Tube Time Twitter account you can see a collection of all the electrical component cross section studies they’ve done — cables, connectors, transistors, relays, LEDs. A lot of these are painstakingly sanded down layer by layer until the cross section is revealed.

OpenProcessing.org is a free online community for learning about and sharing creative coding sketches. It’s all based around the p5js Javascript library. What really made me take notice here is that there’s a real vibrant community here sharing games and generative art and funky little applications. If you need a way into coding that’s more focused on creating and celebrating artsy interactive content, this is a great resource.

Through Open Processing I also learned about the EyeO festival, happening the first week of June in Minneapolis. It looks like a great mix of presenters that straddle the line between hardware design, interactive art, and creative coding. It looks very cool.

On I Like To Make Stuff, Bob Clagett is back with a new batch of Bits videos. His new one up on desktop vinyl cutters offers a useful overview in under 5 minutes.

On the Cool Tools channel, I talk with engineer Jordan Bunker about a thread checker that makes it possible to identify and organize your collection of leftover nuts and bolts or save you from having to drag things back and forth from the hardware store to match things up. Check that out.

On Thingiverse, Turbo Sunshine shows how to make your own multicolor swirl filament by 3D printing your own custom filament with different colors on different layers. It’s a neat idea.

Also on Thingiverse, Tom Bergman shares his customizations to OT Vinta’s Rubik’s cube solving robot. Tom’s take on this includes a dedicated Raspberry Pi and touch screen display, and covers up the components for a more polished look.

For this week’s Digi-Key spotlight, check out one of the latest videos in their Another Teaching Moment series, showing how to take common measurements with a digital multimeter. A lot of us have these things and know how to measure voltage or continuity, but then it gets a little fuzzy. I’ll admit that I’m definitely one of those people.

This video, clearly presents the basics in under 3 minutes. It’s worth a watch.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up or leave a comment. Help spread the word about this show. You can also get on the Maker Update email newsletter to get each week’s show notes emailed out to you automatically, plus a couple bonus projects thrown in. A big thanks to my Patrons on Patreon and to Digi-Key Electronics for sponsoring the show. Alright? Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.