HackSpace #73

Robots are strange things because, in many ways, they’ve completely taken over our lives. But, on the other hand, it seems like they haven’t because as soon as a robot becomes common, we stop calling it a robot. 3D printers, automatic vacuum cleaners, even many cars, are all robots. They’re machines that are controlled directly by a computer. However, we don’t usually call them robots. This issue, we’re not skirting around the fact. We’re making robots, and we’re calling them exactly that. Raspberry Pi 5 makes a great base for a robot because it’s got enough processing power to churn through almost any sensor input you can throw at it. In this issue, we’re going to test this out by processing image data coming in from two cameras. If that’s…

hsmag.cc/CocktailMachine Christmas is coming, which is a good excuse to gather socially and drink fermented vegetable products. And what better way than via this Arduino-powered cocktail dispenser, which features a rotary encoder for navigating the cocktail menu, a TFT screen, laser-cut plywood and plastic body, and an Archimedes screw to give your beverage just the right amount of ice. It’s brilliant: so brilliant that we’ve asked Sven to tell us all about how he built it in the next issue of HackSpace.…

hsmag.cc/PipeOrrery Building an orrery is a brilliant way to combine the theoretical complications of maths and astrophysics with the practical elements of woodwork, laser cutting, or whatever other method of making you’re most comfortable with. In this case, the maker has used copper pipes to support the planets on their way around the sun. And it works brilliantly. There’s no motor or computerised element to this build: it’s just a laser-cut plywood base, wooden balls to represent the planets, and that glorious copper piping, T-joints, elbow joints, and end caps, all rotating around a central steel rod.…

hsmag.cc/TechNIK-cyberdeck We love seeing Raspberry Pis built into fresh new packages. Nik Reitmann’s cyberdeck follows a solid, sturdy design that reminds us of the beige box that used to get wheeled into the classroom for our regular one hour of early 1990s computing. It’s based on a Raspberry Pi 4, and the design features a trackball rather than a trackpad, to save space; it can run DOOM; it can access the internet over Wi-Fi; and the creator has broken out eight of the Raspberry Pi 4’s GPIO pins for easy breadboard tinkering. This build really shines in its execution; all the screws used in construction are internal, giving it the clean lines of an injection-moulded product, and there’s even an extra usability feature in the shape of a scroll-wheel connected…

hsmag.cc/ProgressBar Here’s one for the minimalists: a progress bar for your day. It’s a simple, intuitive display that displays a line of light that grows from left to right as the working day inches by. And because it’s connected to the internet via a Raspberry Pi Pico W and the magic of MicroPython, it can grab data from your Google Calendar and display when your day’s events are. Other than the Pico W, the components are simple: just a strip of RGB LEDs, a frame to hold them (angled aluminium from your local DIY shop would work), plus a strip of opaque plastic to work as a diffuser.…

hsmag.cc/NerdyGurdy Now this is a thing of beauty. Instructables user Kudlas is a fan of medieval music – the troubadours, the chivalry, the Plantagenet romanticism of it all. He also knows his way around a laser cutter, which is where this creation was born. While there are kits available, Kudlas chose to make this from scratch, starting with a template from the internet which he modified to produce a superior result. The body is a combination of 3 mm and 6mm Baltic birch plywood, and there are standard guitar tuners, screws, and a few 3D-printed parts. Where Kudlas deviated from the usual build is that, instead of using a threaded rod to rotate the wheel, he used a smooth piece of linear rod, of the sort commonly seen in 3D…