HackSpace #78

What does the future hold? It’s one of those impossible questions that is so inviting, and sometimes seems straightforward. However, if you try to pin down the future, it becomes slippery. Who had a global chip shortage in their predictions for the early 2020s? Still, we’re trying to pin down a few people with a good insight into the field of maker technology and find out what they think is going to happen. But before you turn the pages and find out what they have to say, have a bit of a think. What do you think is going to happen? Will the future be 3D-printed, or will that remain geeks only? Will AI change everything, or is it just another fad? What do I predict? I predict that whatever…

hsmag.cc/Mellow_Labs File this one firmly under ‘do not try at home’. Unless you have the skills, patience, and safety protocols in place to make what is essentially a DIY flamethrower. It’s not just a flamethrower, however, it’s a subscriber counter that shoots fireballs for every ten new YouTube subscribers. Maker Tomasz wanted to celebrate his friend Dan’s new YouTube channel, so he built him something tangible to encourage him to increase his online following. Rather than gifting Dan with something pedestrian like a numerical display ticking upwards as your follower count grows, Tomasz took inspiration from the name of his friend’s YouTube channel: Gears, Code, and Fire. The final product combines all three of the elements: gears, some code, and the aforementioned incredibly dangerous fire. Before the internet, one of…

hsmag.cc/MarbleClock We mastered clocks a while ago. Each iteration on the clock is basically an art piece. Polished brass, Nixie tubes, even fancy Rolex wrist watches – for anyone with a phone in their pocket, they’re all obsolete, but they look brilliant. Joining the ranks of useless beauty is this creation from Sakati1984. They’ve used a Raspberry Pi Pico, 227 marbles, twelve servos, two metal rods, and a handful of other components to create this fully functional clock. Rather than selecting balls on the fly to represent the characters, the machine relies on the balls being in the right order, making this useful for telling the time, but not for displaying live data. The refresh rate is also seven seconds, so there’s no point adding a seconds counter – for that,…

hsmag.cc/BatteryMonitor The internet is cluttered with pointless devices, promising convenience but offering little more than outdated software, security vulnerabilities, and subscription services offering an umbilical link to companies that can put up prices when they feel like it or even go bust. This IoT battery charger by Liz Clarke, Kattni Rembor, and the Ruiz brothers avoids all these pitfalls. For one, it’s built using open-source hardware and software, so should Adafruit vanish tomorrow, it’ll still work. And in contrast to many other IoT devices, it’s actually useful. This is a pretty simple build, beautifully executed: it’s just an Adafruit ESP32-S2 Reverse TFT Feather (a Feather word with a built-in TFT screen) and a MAX17048 LiPoly battery monitor chip. The chip detects your battery’s charge, and the Feather displays it on…

hsmag.cc/Storper As a child, Jo Hinchliffe used to love playing with Stomper 4WD cars – small, battery-powered vehicles that could climb seemingly anything. Now, as an adult, he’s made his own version, powered by Raspberry Pi Pico and for sale on Tindie at pocket money prices. At just $16, this is a cheap way to get into robotics. It’s not a full kit – you’ll need to supply your own N20-style motors, wheels, and your own Raspberry Pi Pico which gives you programmability, elevating StoRPer from a 4WD vehicle to a robot. The PCB includes four motor drivers, giving users the flexibility to drive the robot how they see fit. You could, for example, keep it simple and attach one motor per wheel. Or you could take advantage of the ability…

hsmag.cc/UniversalRemote Reddit user Armerdan needed a device to replace an old Logitech Harmony 512 universal remote. Like an absolute genius, they decided to model the replacement device on a ‘1950s sci-fi death-ray blaster-type thing’. If you squint hard enough, you can make out that this device, which is based on an Arduino Pro Micro, uses an enclosure from a guitar effects pedal. What might escape you at second glance is that the antenna is made from a couple of transparent plastic yo-yos that have been drilled out, topped off with a drawer knob. The maker isn’t 100% happy with how this device looks (even though it looks awesome!). The joystick, while functional, isn’t in keeping with the aesthetic they’re going for, so in the near future, that’ll probably be replaced…