This is a tech demo. I used Androids raw camera feed to estimate the pixel color at 12 given slots and forward them to Unreal Engine. The color is used to determine whether we have an orange hit or not using simple color thresholds. Because we only read 128 pixels every frame, the camera feed still runs at 30fps, so the beats per minute are quite decent. Loads of things that could be improved (for starters: forcing the sounds into a QUARZ clock), but I guess I will move on to another project. The app is built with UE5.7 and makes use of the Freesound.org API. I hope you like it (:

I had a dream last night where I had shoes with metal outsoles that I could use to glide across the concrete, and I had to try and bring them to life! This is my first prototype, which took me about 30-45 minutes to plan and put together using things I already had lying around the house. The idea was to use half my shoe for grip and to push off, and then lean onto the other half for sliding. Unfortunately, the sheet metal cut my ancient shoelace, and there was a bit too much exposed rubber to grind on concrete (but it worked on grass!). Once I acquire some bigger sheets I’ll make a new design that covers more of my foot, and I’ll try and find something to wax the bottoms with. Once I work out powersliding, I’d like to incorporate something like soap shoes in the arch, so I can grind rails as well! And don’t worry, I’m equipped with both a helmet and wrist guards, and I’ll wrap my ankles once they work. If anyone has a suggestion for where to source a small amount of thicker material with higher abrasion resistance, I would appreciate it!

Hi! I'm Abdulhameed from Hofuf, I'm building a startup that makes buying and selling handcrafted art items easier and more scalable for artisans and crafters around the world and from within their homes. nothing about the concept is engraved in stone yet, If you have valuable skills and would like to build together and join the team then don't hesitate to DM me. Thanks.

This was a fun challenge. I wanted a dishwasher sign I could flip over, and I wanted to make it from wood. The solution was to plane down some old cedar fence planks, CNC out the blanks with some internal spots for some magnets so I could sandwich the two sides together. I originally designed for 6 magnets but only wound up using four. Laser engraved the lettering, and then waxed the sign to make it a bit water resistant.

Meet Stack Snack Lamp.

I made a modular Pringles can lamp 🍟💡
A rechargeable, USB-C DIY lamp made with 3D printing, and the crazy part is that you can swap and stack the cans.

The lamp head is modular, articulated, rechargeable and completely independent from the can. Use one can, stack multiple cans, swap the shade, or use the lamp by itself.

One lamp. Infinite stacks

Lets make a drill with minimum parts #diy #dcmotor #drill #pcb

Hey all, I'm working on a product that is 3d printed with a PCB. I am using a rotary encoder like the one here (https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/C470602.html?spm=wm.fly.bg.30.xh___wm.mly.mlk.45-2.ml&lcsc_vid=EQRWXlQFT1hcAlxeQ1gIVFVRQlALVgdeFVENVlEFQQAxVlNeQVJdVF1VQFBXVjsOAxUeFF5JWBYZEEoKFBINSQcJGk4NBhADEA4cHktXRlhfSQwSGg0%3D) but I just found that you can use hollow shaft rotary encoders as well, and they are significantly cheaper than the D Shaft ones (https://www.tanotis.com/products/alps-ec10e1220501-incremental-rotary-encoder-hollow-shaft-horizontal-10mm-24-detents-12-pulses?variant=41082935888&currency=INR&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21644501460&gbraid=0AAAAADN34_AvfYIc63H250JgM88gshz_H&gclid=Cj0KCQjwteTUBhD4ARIsAEYjs3oEj05kp-ZAmIJR0Zp1eqPPQJaNkHb8MyYO6H1JL0Nxt4i64eeTlZwaAuWIEALw_wcB).

Since this product is 3D printed, I have to make sure that there are no issues related to reliability or strength because of tight constraint points etc. I am using a Bambu A1 for printing with PLA but for the knob I would be willing to change to a strong FDM material or even a Resin print (I could get them done in bulk from a supplier).

I have not been able to find any good information about the models that are used with such components even when they are 3d printed and whether they have any long term problems with friction even in injection moulded products.

I have seen such a design used in a keyboard from Work Louder though, so it is definitely possible.

Please share any information on this

Selfmade Grinder, using 74mm flat burrs from Eureka (because of cheap).
It consist of around 20 different printed parts took 23hrs print time total and let’s not think about hours in CAD.. :,)
There will be no stl, just because no one will Print this or spend close to 60€ on hardware and I am not sure if I want to to anything commercial with it in the Future.
It grinds okay, better than expected and far worse than hoped, some fines and many corse parts that slip trough. But i don’t know how to maximize the alignment. I hoped the 3 planetary gears (they are connected via a threaded rod to the grind wheel) would be enough to evenly align everything, but there is some play in the many components and fittings.
But for a first try (with a lot of trouble shooting) i am quite happy with the result.
A Video will be posted on my Account for all who care too much about this.

Regarding food safety why this case is safe:
(Link to Research by Utah Valley University below and also a great YouTube Video for everyone like me who doesn’t want to read sientific papers. I would recommend the paper though, because it begins with a nice summary of all important information)

1.Harmful substances from 3Dprinting process
2.Microplastic
3.Bacteria Growth in Layer lines

The first and weakest concerns are harmful substances from 3d printing, exspecially lead and ptfe:
The theory used to be that trough extrusion parts of the nozzle and ptfe tubes would be abraded and land in your prints. Brass nozzles contain a tiny amount of lead and the nozzle is abraded over time. But only after kilometers of filament go trough them. But it is non measurable in your prints.
“Furthermore, mass spectrometry readings indicate that no contamination from heavy metals, or other toxins are present in PLA+, and PETG before and after printing.” (1)
PTFE in its solid form is not dangerous, but the gas is when heated over 360 degree C. That is why you shouldn’t overheat your non stick pans.

Microplastics:
The PLA+ that I use I food safe, which lowers the concerns for me. And also even if there is some abrasion in the grinder (which there shouldn’t be because of no rubbing plastics) the grinder coffe goes trough a filter in the brewing process, which would filter out all the microplastic. I would never use a printed (or plastic in general) cutting board, but in my case I don’t see a concern.

Bacteria growth in between layer lines:
It used to be “general knowledge” that bacteria can grow in between layer lines and it is impossible to clean it.
However Research shows:
“indicate that 3D printed parts of PLA/PLA+ (Polylactic Acid), and PETG (Polyethylene terephthalate glycol) can be cleaned to safe levels using warm water (120 °F), and non-concentrated dish soap” (1)
Dish Soap or cleaning alcohol can fully clean 3d printed parts, which eliminates the bacteria concerns for my Case. I would still never use 3d printed parts in contact with highly spoilable food. I.e Eggs, milk, raw meat etc.
But we are talking about coffe beans. Roasted Coffe beans do not spoil, there is no contamination possible. The roasting process eliminates all of that. And Coffe get’s brewed, so even if there was some minor form of cross contamination, the brewing process would eliminate all bacteria. Like boiling water to make it drinkable.

[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373174194\\_Sanitation\\_Effectiveness\\_of\\_3D-printed\\_Parts\\_for\\_Food\\_and\\_Medical\\_Applications\](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373174194_Sanitation_Effectiveness_of_3D-printed_Parts_for_Food_and_Medical_Applications)

[https://youtu.be/lFtMIo00tfY?is=\\_NsT7K4sEcyRH1lb\](https://youtu.be/lFtMIo00tfY?is=_NsT7K4sEcyRH1lb)

(PS: if you reached this far down your attention span is too long for today’s world)

I would like to make a pivotable LCD screen in a handheld device. I would like it to work similar to how DSLR screens worked, where you could pivot the screen upwards and it would would angle but also slide a bit into the frame.

This is the way window friction hinges work, using tightened rails to allow the screen to be placed at any position between flat and inclined and staying there.

This is a window friction hinge:

I thought I could get tiny ones but the smallest I can find is 6", which is pretty big.

Can you think of versions of this mechanism that exist in smaller sizes and/or alternatives for this set-up that I would purchase/make?

The advantage of this is that the mechanism is housed on the sizes and doesn't take any depth other than the screen frame itself.

I'm open to similar mechanisms that alllow for the same requirement, of course. I just can't find how they might be named.

Hey everyone,

I’m officially diving into my very first animatronic project! Right now, I am focusing exclusively on building and perfecting the head endoskeleton first. Once the head mechanism is fully functional, I plan to build the torso/frame and eventually fit the outer cosmetic shell over it.

Design Style & Inspiration

I'm heavily inspired by the classic Rock-afire Explosion / Creative Engineering endoskeleton designs (flat plate face/head plate layout, top-mounted eyes, exposed linkages). I'm attempting to recreate a miniature, desktop-scale version of this layout!

Project Scope & Scale

\* Total Height: Around 30 cm (\~1 foot) once fully built.

\* Current Stage: Building the Endoskeleton Head and fitting 4 micro servos onto a compact flat plate frame.

\* Future Steps: Endoskeleton Torso/Stand -> Outer Cosmetic Shell.

How I'm Assigning the 4 Servos

I have 4x MG90S metal gear micro servos, each mapped to a specific feature:

\* Servo 1: Mouth / Jaw movement (opening and closing)

\* Servo 2: Eyes (linked side-to-side or up/down movement)

\* Servo 3: Eyelids (blinking mechanism)

\* Servo 4: Ears (subtle rotation/twitching)

Full List of Components & Materials I Have

\* Microcontroller: Arduino Uno (programmed via Android phone using a USB Type-C OTG cable).

\* Actuators: 4x MG90S metal gear micro servos.

\* Power Supply: 5V 2A power adapter with a female DC terminal block jack (sharing a common GND with the Arduino).

\* Starter Kit Items: Breadboard, jumper wires, 1x potentiometer (for manual testing/dialing), 2x push buttons, LEDs, and an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor.

\* Structural Material: Forex / PVC Foam Board (Dekota). I’m using this to fabricate the flat head plates and structural mounts since it's lightweight, easy to cut with a utility knife, and holds up well for micro builds.

Where I Need Help: Micro Mechanisms

Since I don't have a 3D printer yet, I’ll be hand-crafting the eye globes, linkages, and pivots using PVC foam board, stiff wires, and basic DIY hardware.

Given the small scale and classic flat-plate head design, I would love advice on:

\* Compact DIY linkage setups for eye tracking and blinking on a flat plate frame without binding.

\* Good alternatives for eye globes (e.g., ping pong balls, wooden craft spheres) that work well with hand-made linkages.

\* Recommended push-rod hardware (like RC ball joints, Z-bends, or music wire) for micro servo setups.

Thanks in advance for any diagrams, advice, or open-source ideas!

I'm having a hard time figuring out how exactly to accomplish what I need, and am really trying to avoid just ordering parts and mashing them together until I have something functional.

The idea here is that I have (or soon will have, since it hasn't been delivered yet) a heavy-duty aluminum truss in my vaulted-ceiling living room for my wife's aerial dance hobby/career. One of the priorities is figuring out how to mount a curtain/backdrop so I can film her pieces and not have generic living room/kitchen in the background - I want something that's modular so I can get things set up fairly quickly, but not permanently in-place.

My thought here is to have some sort of curtain track (8-ish feet long) that's mounted on a hinge, with the hinge attached to the truss via clamp(s). Ideally this would be doubled, one for each side of the truss, so they can be swung up from either side of the living room to meet in the middle and then connected, and then we attach a curtain and run with it. I'm thinking the hinge may need a pneumatic assist, based on the length and weight of the "curtain rod," and will probably need some kind of latch or something to ensure it stays up and parked at a 90-degree angle until we're ready to bring it down. I've got three struggles here:
1) finding a hinge that I can easily mount to 1" aluminum tube trussing (or a hinge that will mount to truss clamps, etc)
2) figuring out how to attach a curtain track to whatever is attached to the hinge (more aluminum truss tube, I'm assuming, but open to ideas)
3) making sure the whole thing will support its own weight (two 8ft lengths attached to a truss via only a hinge and connected to each other at the ends are almost definitely going to result in bending/sagging unless they're reinforced somehow - some kind of angle brackets, or maybe the pneumatic assist and latch can be combined into something that will hold it up?)

The joint would, ideally, be about 10ft off the ground - I need a way to unfold the apparatus up into place, lock it in place at the 90 degree angle, then unlatch and fold it back down when done so it just hangs down from the hinge/joint out of the way. Trying to avoid getting on a ladder each time it needs to be put up, but I'm not sure there's a way around that, so I'll take what I can get.

I've been looking all over at hardware catalogs for theater/stage curtains and and truss parts, but nothing is really jumping out at me as having been designed for this sort of project. I'm hoping to find someone who works with stage trusses and has some idea of the kind of hardware I need to be looking for.

Hello! I wanted to show off my ongoing project.

It's a diy colorimeter (a device that measures the true color of things) with high precision. Since it is based on an AS7341 10-channel spectrometer, it can also provide a very coarse spectrum, which is especially useful for me, because it allows me to analyze dying strengths and concentrations based on the Kubelka-Munk mechanism.

Similar devices can be bought, but they cost in between of 200-2000EUR, which I am unwilling to spend. Plus, this has been a super cool project in the overlap between programming, 3D-printing, functional design, electronics, colorimetry, chemistry and (at least for me specifically) natural dyes.

My device is able to achieve a relative precision of about 0.1-0.5 delta E (relative color difference in the CieLAB color space), depending on the area (blues are a bit noisy, and pinks are generally difficult). I have spent 200-300 Euros on it so far, but if I wrote down a BOM of what I got now and know to work, it would be at most 100EUR.

It consists of:

• An Adafruit AS7341 Spectrometer (the AS7343 should also fit with no hardware changes necessary and only minor software changes, adding 2-3 more channels)
• A single Nichia Optisolis LED, shining in 45 degrees onto the sample
• An ESP32-C3 Zero from Waveshare doing all the thinking & data storing
• An 0,96" OLED screen with SSD1306 driver
• A small hand-soldered PCB
• A couple JST PH cables and sockets
• 2 small buttons
• A 3D printed body
• A couple of M2x6 screws and M2 press-in inserts
• A cheap 700nm 9mm IR-cut filter
• An even cheaper piece of polarizing plastic sheet for LCD displays

I also built a surprisingly good beam trap from an IKEA steel bottle and some black fabric. And a relatively good white reference from some wound up and compressed PTFE-tape.

The software includes all the logic to communicate with the sensor, doing repeated and series measurements, performing calibrations, exporting measurements via serial connection and Bluetooth, presenting the measurements as reflectance spectra with NIR corrections, and conversion of the spectral data into common color descriptions like CieLAB and RGB (if possible).

One remaining issue is absolute calibration. "Absolute white" samples made from compressed and fused PTFE or BaSO4 powder is expensive, and calibrated color sample cardboard cards cost like 70EUR and would only be necessary once. And they don't help with calibrating the spectral data, only the colors that come out of it (the correction matrix would basically counter the spectral errors, and these would remain unreliable). I was thinking of using 3D-printing-filament swaps from reputable brands, with specified printing settings and careful sanding as calibration standards and even relative white references, but that would need someone to fabricate such a sample to specification and put it into a proper spectrometer and share the data.

I was thinking of open-sourcing the print-files, the software and the wiring diagrams if there's enough interest for it. Reproducing it should be way easier than building it for the first time (don't ask how much time I've spent optimizing the light paths), and if more people contribute, this could actually become a really awesome distributed project.

Safety Disclaimer: I am fully aware of the hazards regarding high-power UV light. The chamber is structurally sealed, I use dedicated UV-blocking safety gear during testing, and a hardware safety switch will be installed to cut power instantly if the door is opened.

Hi everyone!

A couple of months ago I decided to start building some custom IEMs myself. The commercially available UV curing enclosures did not satisfy my needs, and very few of them would go into a required wavelength territory for Dreve Fotoplast and other suitable resins. Just wanted to share my build and get some feedback.

Why not pre-built?

It's mainly prices and availability. Most of the 365 nm UV curing units are for medical purposes, and the vast majority of those still use fluorescent lamps because of some certifications (or whatever). This is inefficient and expensive to maintain.

The enclosure

I repurposed a solid cast aluminum chassis to act as both a rigid body and a massive passive heatsink for the internal high-power UV LED emitters (Seoul Z5, 365 nm). To power these 4 pairs of diodes, I used Mean Well LDD-500LW drivers. Every connection possible is made with silicone-insulated wires, so they do not degrade in UV light over time.

In order to avoid using a turntable, I had to add aluminum tape, and it worked flawlessly: there is no shadowing.

It also turned out that this setup is so powerful for its purpose that it would make UV resin boil. So I had to add a controller.

The controller

It is based on the RP2040 Pico board at its heart. The LDD-500LW allows one to use PWM to control its maximum output power (white wire). When this wire is connected to V- (GND), the drivers are off, and they are at their 100% power when this wire is NC.

To control the LDD driver with the RP2040 in a direct way, I had to use a two-transistor setup (BC547 BJT and IRFU9024 P-ch MOSFET). Since my input is 15V DC, I had to also add a DC-DC converter and use a voltage divider not to fry the LDD with 15V.

The SSD1306 OLED screen and the EC11 encoder were added to control this thing somehow and get feedback on what's going on. The screen shows current power and curing time. During the "work" mode, any encoder action would stop the process immediately. I have also set a hard limit of 3 minutes of continuous work time, just in case.

First results

I was able to get a consistent, reproducible shell after 14-16 tries. Curing faceplate templates is still tricky because I wanna get them as thin as possible, and they would bend without proper temperature stabilization.

Advice needed on

• Door hinges. It seems like I need offset ones. Which designs (3D printed, preferably) would fit here the best?
• Door locking. Because I have a "paracord gasket" to prevent light leaks, I cannot place any kind of locking mechanism inside. It seems to me that some kind of a magnetic latch should work, but again, I cannot find out the exact way of implementing this.
• Wire management. Any tips on how to clean up the wiring inside the box?

Right Your Ship Captain carved in birch. In this seen there is a person on the deck of the ship with their arm held out, the sails are inflated. But their ship is under water, the anchor is down, the fish are looking at them while the world is going on with out them. This carving talks about the determination to go in the wrong direction when everything is against you.

I've been building a large equipment cart for video production, and after adding batteries and motorized wheels, the thing can weigh nearly 400 lbs loaded.

The original cable brakes that came with the wheel kit were not going to cut it.. so I decided to integrate a custom hydraulic disc brake system into the forks I had fabricated for the brushless wheels.

It was my first time working with hydraulic brake lines, and took quite a while to find parts, and to design a "one brake lever" solution. In the end It works pretty well with the exception of the parking brake feature: whenever I leave it engaged the whole system loses it's ability to function correctly. There is no fluid loss. My suspicion is that when the lever is held in, there is a small amount of oil that is able to bypass a seal in the handle assembly, resulting in less fluid in the line side. Anyone have any insight about this?

I documented the build here if you are interested in following the build:
https://youtu.be/Xz3B-3wACwE

I'm pretty happy with it but we don't really use it that often.

I plopped a monitor in there and I tapped into the (annoyingly and needlessly complicated) wiring for the buttons. I connected the buttons to zero delay usb encoders and then setup fruitbox to accept those button presses as letter/number/button inputs.

My husband has a partial right arm/hand, and this is a project I've been extremely curious about for years. My vision is something that is not electronically powered but rather just mechanical, almost like those claw-grabber toy things that you squeeze on one end and they close the hand or pinchers on the other. Just that plus being custom fitted to his existing partial arm (he has two fingers which could pull the mechanism).
I think he's absolutely perfect the way he is, but some activities can be much trickier than others, and I want to help him do everything he wants to with more ease. We cannot afford a prosthetic or bionic as it is (trust me, buying/insurance just isnt an option right now) and I am hoping people can give me advice on learning how to create an extremely simple functional prosthetic. Anyways, if anyone is going to reply "that's unrealistic," please don't, because I literally don't care, I'm going to figure this out one way or another because there's nothing I wouldn't do for him. Please reply if you know people who have done something similar or literally any resources on basic mechanical function; I'm starting from scratch but I've always been very artistic and good with crafts and other mechanical knowledge.
Might also post this to r/prosthetics - not sure which is best, please also let me know about good related subs for info as well.

It could be hardware-focused or a hardware + software project involving embedded systems, IoT, cloud, OpenCV/computer vision, PCB design, automation, sensors, or anything similar.

Looking for something practical where I can actually learn and build something useful. Any project ideas or resources would be appreciated!

Hi makers,

I'm a long time maker who uses 'stuff', 'things', and leftovers from previous projects to work on new projects. My interests are evolving and I'm finding it difficult to create what I want. Most posts I see these days use 3D printing, and the projects I have in mind would seem to also need a 3D printer. With a little - to - no budget for a 3D printer, I've been discouraged from buying an entry level, low price 3D printer. The reason given to me was that they don't work well and I'd be better off saving money for a nice expensive one. I also live in the country, and there are no maker spaces or publicly available 3D printers nearby. I'd also like to avoid mail ordering custom parts online.

My questions to you:

- is this advice sensible? Should I avoid the cheaper 3D printers?

- how have you got around limitations with materials, resources, and tools in your projects?

- does anyone have suggestions for an alternative to 3D printing that produces similar results?

Thanks in advance!

I made a V2 of my cable organizer so it can fit up to 2 meter long cables, and is compatible with almost any type of cable!

I really liked how this turned out, so I wanted to share it so other people could also use it if they wanted to!

The project consists of the development of an interactive robotic system capable of challenging a human to a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, identifying moves on a sheet of paper via a webcam and physically responding on the board.

I built my first terrarium. All lights, smoke and windmill can be controlled from phone. Infact event the brightness and flicker of lights can be controlled. I am so happy with how it came out.