Does a rocket need to use a certain type of fuel, or even be capable of spaceflight? While James Bruton’s build might not fit everyone’s definition of this type of craft because of its electric ducted fan (EDF) propulsion, it does face the same major challenge of controlling a tall pipe-like structure from thrust coming from the tail. It’s meant to both take off and land in a vertical orientation as well, something inconceivable in traditional rockets until very recently.

For control, Bruton uses an Arduino Mega inside the main fuselage of the craft, which regulates the speed of the three EDFs. It also turns two of these fans with a servo and linkage system in order to compensate for unwanted roll. A second Arduino and an IMU are embedded in the nose cone, which passes data to the Mega board via a serial connection. 

The build and early tests can be seen in the video below, and a full test is planned for the future alongside Ivan Miranda, who has been working on his own version.

Split-flap displays show information using characters changed by an electric motor. While they’ve largely been replaced by more modern means, hobbyists like “gabbapeople” have been keeping this this technique alive, in this case as a four-character weather display.

The device is built using laser-cut plexiglass, and uses four individual servos to actuate the character flaps. Control is accomplished using an Arduino Mega programmed in the XOD visual programming environment, along with the requisite driver modules. Weather data is pulled from the AccuWeather API. 

You can see it flapping away in the video below, displaying the weather in abbreviations such as “ICLO” for intermittent clouds, as well as the temperature in degrees Celsius.

When you want to make a mobile robot, DC motors can be a great choice. We normally accept that they can be purchased for a few dollars each, but what if you want to make your own?

In order to assist with the winding process for a self-built—or at least self-wound—motor, Mr. Innovative created an… innovative fixture with two stepper motors and an Arduino Nano for control. 

The bare motor armature is held in a vertical orientation by one stepper, while the other winds wire using a hollow 3D-printed feeder mechanism. User interface consists of an OLED screen and buttons that let you select the number of windings and another to advance the armature to the next coil location. 

Arduino code and electrical drawings can be found here, and 3D-printed parts are available on Thingiverse.

According to this project’s write-up, while some struggle to get enough nourishment, those in more developed countries often aspire to consume too little food. As an apparent commentary on this situation, Niklas Roy and Kati Hyyppä have created a mechatronic game called J’ai faim!, French for “I’m hungry!”

In this Arduino-controlled game, participants rotate a Barbie head to point her comically over-sized tongue over a piece of sushi lit up by an LED. When in position, the player fires her solenoid-actuated tongue using the joystick, and if the correct sushi is eaten the score progresses from “starving” to “well fed.” 

You can see the game—reminiscent of a very strange version of whack-a-mole—in the video below.

Need a wave generator to test out your latest boat, barge, or submarine design, but can’t quite afford one? If so, then you might consider Subham Bhatt’s DIY tank that he was able to construct for around $1,200 USD. 

Bhatt’s device features a pair of stepper motors and lead screws that push a stainless steel paddle through the water, producing waves formed to his precise specifications. An Arduino Mega is used for control, along with a single stepper driver to power both motors. 

User interface is provided through the Arduino IDE’s serial interface, set up to take commands via a simple text-based menu system. 

Today, if you take a photograph, more than likely it’s digital. This presents many advantages over its film counterpart, but many serious photographers still use the format in order to produce just the right effect. Pablo Zárate is one such photographer, and combined this passion with Arduino and 3D printing knowledge to produce the “Develophead.”

Develophead is meant as an augmentation to AP brand developing tanks, adding an automatic agitation function. This previously had to be done by hand, including 16 minutes of manipulation in the case of C41 rolls. 

Develophead is built on Arduino Nano and uses a 5-volt power source. It’s a cap that fits onto the top of a development tank, inserting an agitation rod into the hole that chemicals are poured into and out of. Turn the cap on and the rod begins to turn the film reel back and forth. A knob on the top of the cap lets you adjust the speed/intensity of the agitation.

As of now, this labor-saving device is meant for AP Classic development tanks, but  Zárate has released the plans on GitHub and hopes others will help expand on this concept.

Annelle Rigsby found that her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, is delighted to hear familiar songs. While Annelle can’t always be there to help her enjoy music, she and her husband Mike came up with what they call the Notable Board Book that automatically plays tunes.

The book itself is well laid-out, with song text and familiar photos printed on the pages. Electronics for the book are in a prototype state using an Arduino Uno and an Adafruit Sound Board to store and replay the audio bits.

Page detection is handled by an array of photocells, and it is meant to turn on automatically when picked up via a series of tilt switches. When a switch is triggered, a relay can then hold the book on until the song that is playing is done, or for a predetermined amount of time.

Flament bulbs, commonly known as Edison bulbs, contain a variety of interesting LED lights. So interesting, in fact, that maker Andy Pugh decided to take these individual components up and turn them into a 7-segment display clock.

While making a clock isn’t an uncommon hacker pursuit, this Arduino-controlled device uses a series of wires to both power and support the clock’s four digits from a bent brass frame. This gives it a decidedly web-like appearance, so much so that Pugh notes it’s reminiscent of the cobweb writing in the book Charlotte’s Web. 

The clock also features the ability to sync the time via radio signals, though this functionality appears to still be in the experimental phase. 

Code for the build can be found here, and you can see it cycling through numbers in the video below.

Arduino boards and custom clock builds seem to be a great match, as illustrated by Görkem Bozkurt’s recent project. 

His 3D-printed marble clock uses a stepper-driven gear mechanism to lift 11mm steel spheres to the device’s top chute. The spheres then roll down to a five-minute rail, which empties when filled and transfers a single marble to another minute rail, graduated in five-minute increments up to 60. This then fills the hour rail in a similar process, letting you tell the time of day, or simply be mesmerized by its movement.

The main gear mechanism is powered by a small stepper motor, controlled by an Arduino Uno for timekeeping.

If you’d like to build your own, code is available on Bozkurt’s write-up, as well as the needed print files.

Light painting is an art form where dark areas are selectively lit to form interesting effects. While normally a manual operation, Josh Sheldon has come up with a rig to automate and enhance the process. The results are nothing short of spectacular, producing not static images, but astonishing animated light displays.

His device resembles a 3D printer made out of aluminum extrusion. X,Y, and Z axes are controlled by a series of stepper motors, but it uses a point of controlled light instead of melted plastic to form shapes. 

Light animations are set up in Blender, and a hardware and software toolchain including Processing, an Arduino Mega, and a Dragonframe module are implemented for control.

Check out the whole story in the video below, or see code/build documentation are available on GitHub.