This week on Maker Update: your phone as a pet, your grandpa in a fish, engineering with air, and a box for your digital footprint.

+Show Notes [Maker Update Ep.495]+

=Project of the Week=

Growbot Project Page 0:26
https://artoftheproblem.com/pages/growbot-preview

I Gave ChatGPT a Body Pt. 2 by Art of the Problem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIfmUHiMN3U

Pt.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S67z2aekBrI

=More Projects=

I put my dead grandpa in a Big Mouth Billy Bass by MR. INDUSTRIES 3:12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Z3t1ajZOA
https://github.com/FacioErgoSum/AI-Big-Mouth-Billy-Bass

AirForce by Team at Hasso-Plattner Institute 4:46
https://hpi.de/baudisch/projects/airforce.html

Replica by Alessia La Rocca 5:47
https://alessialarocca.ch/assets/work7.html

=Tips & Tools=

Output HD Video to a Monitor from a Raspberry Pi Pico or ESP32 Over USB by Hideto Kikuchi 6:36
https://htlabnet.github.io/Pico_USB_Disp/

The new “Y-zipper,” a three-sided fastener 7:06
https://news.mit.edu/2026/three-sided-y-zipper-design-0504

Y-Zipper Academic Paper
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3772318.3790723

=DigiKey Spotlight=

Reading a Smart Meter with a Software Defined Radio by The Byte Sized Engineer 7:44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpQPYTHBMRs