Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Maker Update: DIY Flip Digits”.
This week on maker, update servo powered flip digits, an animated gif photo booth, remote controlled, led eyes, a pair of ping pong launchers, soldering brass rod, interactive totoro and an f clamp that can roll hey, i’m donald bell and welcome to another maker update, i hope, you’re. All staying sane for the holidays and doing well, i’ve got a lot of projects to share. So, let’s get started with the project of the week check out this seven segment clock display by ot vinta. As some of you know, i’m a little obsessed with split flap and flip dot displays but they’re expensive to buy and time consuming to make. Instead of motors or magnets, this design uses an array of 28 inexpensive servos.
Each one is neatly mounted in this 3d printed frame and given a 3d printed attachment that flips in and out of view, the servos are driven by two pololu servo drivers connected up to a raspberry pi 3. The pi is running the windows iot core os and some pololu software for calibrating the servos. The software setup takes quite a few steps, but the payoff looks pretty great. I do hope that someone adapts this design to work with arduino in a real-time clock, module just to make setup a little easier.
I also think it would be neat to see a version set up to display messages that scroll across, but the foundation is here some more projects to share randy sarafin has a great one on how to create a raspberry pi based photo booth that generates animated gifs. I’Ve seen a few flavors of pie photo booths before, but what makes this one unique is that it takes six separate snapshots triggered by a foot switch and then stitches them together into an animated gif that automatically uploads to giphy. Randy includes templates for the enclosure. Detailed step-by-step photos on how to assemble it and the components and the python files required to get the software working.
Becky stern has an update to the glowing eyes costume hood. She first made back when she was at adafruit. This costume reminds me of the jawas from star wars. What makes the update unique is that becky has added a wireless remote control that updates the led animation on multiple costumes. The project uses a pair of neopixel jewels, a gemma m0 board, a rechargeable lithium ion pack and an inexpensive wireless receiver board, which is kind of the star of the show. This five dollar board, combined with a seven dollar four button, remote allows you to set, pin voltages high to any connected device. In this case it gives becky the power to cycle through led animations on her costume and her boyfriend’s costume simultaneously. But it’s a neat board to keep in mind for any project.
You want to have a remote control for by some coincidence, they came across a pair of ping-pong gun projects. The first by greg zumwalt, shows how to make this tethered popper by drilling out a ping pong ball, placing a spring and a 3d printed channel inside it and then pushing it onto the simple 3d printed pistol grip. It looks like a fun simple project to make for kids. Daniel wall takes another approach.
With this motorized ping-pong ball launcher his design uses a circuit playground express board, a continuous rotation servo to push the balls through the chute and a cd spindle motor to fling them out. All of it gets mounted on cardboard with an old paper. Towel tube used to hold the magazine at ping pong balls it’s time for some tools and tips. This week i came across the site this to that. If you’re gluing, one type of thing to another type of thing and you’re, not sure which glue will do the job, this is here to help for another. Take on this there’s a glue chart grid by rebecca huseman on makezine that you can print out and keep in your workspace or tucked away with your glues, gareth branwin’s tips of the week.
Column includes ideas for cutting up tile to a wall, making custom gaskets on a cricut and adding a saw blade edge to your table for quickly ripping sandpaper by way of mojit boyt. I found this guide to soldering brass by david neat. If you want to hone your craft at making freeform circuits with brass rod, there’s some useful ideas in here, especially for making jigs and templates over on the maker project lab channel. I have an interview with federico taban an awesome maker who’s recently made this motorized totoro artwork. He walks me through, what’s going on here, and what components and techniques he’s using on cool tools. I have a video up collecting my favorite tools.
I bought this year that are under 10, including this green handle upgrade to my favorite cardboard cutter knife and finally, on the hackaday blog. I learned about this modified f-clamp custom-made by create by adding a rollerblade wheel to the top he’s created a simple way to roll around large boards. It seems like a really smart design, and that does it, for this week’s show be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up or leave a comment.
Get on the make your update email list to have show notes emailed out to you automatically every week and a reminder that i volunteered to do the show it is supported by my awesome patrons. If this show does something for you consider giving that patreon link a look, alright, have a happy holidays, happy new year no show next week, but i’ll see you guys soon. You .