Build a smart octopus drumbot that listens, learns, and plays along with you

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The post Dr. Squiggles: An AI Rhythm Robot appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

I met John Kuiphoff a couple years ago and was blown away by some very clever data visualizations he shared based on people’s youtube channels. John’s back, and this time with another very creative approach to data visualization. In this project, John is wanting to display how much sunlight hits […]

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The post These Blobs Are Actually Clever Data Visualizations appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

Central Florida Maker groups use their diverse skills to create an interactive Bumblebee costume in only 3 weeks for a Magic Wheelchair recipient.

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The post Watch These Makers Transform a Wheelchair into an Interactive Bumblebee Costume appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

On-screen controls in a digital audio workstation expand the power of a DJ or musician, but they are not intuitive for everyone. The tactility of buttons, knobs, sliders and real-world controls feels nothing like using a mouse, trackpad, or even a touchscreen. Unfortunately, devices meant to put control into a DJs hands can be unavailable due to location or cost. [Gustavo Silveira] took charge of the situation so he could help other DJs and musicians take control of their workstations with a customized MIDI interface for Traktor DJ software.

MIDI is a widely used serial protocol which has evolved from a DIN connector to USB, and now it is also wireless. This means that the Traktorino is not locked to Traktor despite the namesake. On the Hackaday.io page, there’s even a list of other workstations it will work with, but since many workstations, all the good ones anyway, accept MIDI hardware like this, the real list is a lot longer.

The custom circuit board is actually a shield. Using an Arduino UNO, the current poster child of the Arduino world, opens up the accessibility for many people who don’t know specialized software. A vector drawing for a lasercut enclosure is also included. This means that even the labeling on the buttons are not locked into English language.

Here’s another project which combined laser cutting and MIDI to make some very clever buttons or turn your DIN MIDI connector into USB.

What's cooler than a clock that draws the time with a marker? One that does it with a laser of course! Build your own.

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The post Telling the Time with Robots, Lasers, and Phosphorescence appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

What's cooler than a clock that draws the time with a marker? One that does it with a laser of course! Build your own.

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The post Telling the Time with Robots, Lasers, and Phosphorescence appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

As multitools have lots of different functions in one case, so [Shadwan’s] clock design incorporates a multitude of features. He started the design as a binary clock using a Fibonacci spiral for the shape. However, the finished clock has four modes. The original binary clock, an analog clock, a flashlight (all lights on), and a disco mode that strobes multiple lights.

[Shadwan] used Rhino to model the case and then produced it using a laser cutter. The brains are — small wonder — an Arduino. A 3D-printed bracket holds everything together. You can see the result in the video below.

The clock was a school project and used a Neopixel ring. The students had a 16 position ring, which is not enough to do a 24-hour clock so they settled on a 12-hour design. The LED color, however, changes between AM and PM.

The paper included with the design said that research didn’t turn up any other binary clocks using Neopixels. We found that hard to believe, but it might be true. We certainly didn’t find any in our archives, although there are plenty of non-binary clocks out there.

[Niko1499] had a plan. He’d built a cool hardware controller for the game Kerbal Space Program (KSP). He got a lot of positive reaction to it and decided to form a company to produce them. As many people have found out, though, that’s easier said than done, and the planned company fell short of its goals. However, [Niko1499] has taken his controller and documented a lot about its construction, including some of the process he used to get there.

If you haven’t run into it before, KSP is sort of half simulator, half game. You take command of an alien space program and develop it, plan and execute missions, and so on. The physics simulation is quite realistic, and the game has a large following.

When we first saw the photos, we thought it was an old Heathkit trainer, and–indeed–the case is from an old Heathkit. However, the panel is laser cut, and the software is Arduino-based. [Niko1499] covers a few different methods of letting the Arduino control the game by emulating a joystick, a keyboard, or by using some software to take serial data and use it to control the game.

The project isn’t quite an exact how-to, although he does provide a bill of materials and the software. However, you’ll surely want to customize the layout to fit your case and your preferences anyway.

We are always surprised we don’t see more dedicated hardware control panels for popular software like Gimp (or Photoshop) or video editing. Faking mouse and keyboard input is pretty simple and having dedicated buttons for common functions could be pretty productive if you plan it out right.

We have, however, seen a number of controllers for KSP for quite a while. Of course, everyone has their own take on exactly what one should look like.

[Dr.Duino] recently completed the latest piece of what he calls “Interactive Furniture” – the GoonieBox. It took over 800 hours of design and assembly work and the result is fascinating. Part clock and part puzzle box, it’s loaded with symbols, moving parts, lights, riddles, sounds, switches, and locked compartments. It practically begs visitors to take a closer look.

The concept of Interactive Furniture led [Dr.Duino] to want to create a unique piece of decor that visitors could interact with. That alone wasn’t enough — he wanted something that wouldn’t require any explanation of how it worked; something that intrinsically invited attention, inspection, and exploration. This quest led to creating The GoonieBox, named for its twin inspirations of the 1985 film The Goonies as well as puzzles from the game “The Room“.

Embedded below are two short videos: the first demonstrates the functions of the box, and the second covers the build process. There’s laser-cut wood, plenty of 3D printed parts, and a whole lot of careful planning and testing.

Puzzle boxes let people show off their creativity over a wide range of different executions, like these simpler laser-cut puzzle boxes and on the other end of the spectrum is this timed, multi-stage puzzle rigged to blow. Not only is this build one of the more complex ones we’ve seen, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen a puzzle box so carefully designed to also serve as a functional piece of decor. Great work!

Now you can recreate the infamous dance scene from Ex Machina with some cardboard, LEDs, and Arduino.

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The post Party Like a Sci-Fi Billionaire with the Music-Sensing Light from Ex Machina appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.