Table of contents for #56 in HackSpace

The truth is that there’s a lot more to making something that sells than just a good idea. It takes a good idea and a lot of hard work to productise it Got a comment, question, or thought about HackSpace magazine? get in touch at hsmag.cc/hello GET IN TOUCH hackspace@ raspberrypi.com hackspacemag hackspacemag ONLINE hsmag.cc Almost all of us have daydreamed about turning one of our projects into a product and selling it. The truth is that there’s a lot more to making something that sells than just a good idea. It takes a good idea and a lot of hard work to productise it. This means making sure that it can be manufactured, tested, and properly packaged. And doing all that in a way that lets you hit a…

hsmag.cc/RobotHeadInAJar We’ve featured the work of Jack Spiggle, aka NanoRobotGeek, a couple of times in past issues. And we’re very proud to be able to say that he’ll be writing a How I Made for our next issue, unveiling some of the thought processes behind this free-form, solar-powered kinetic sculpture. Like a lot of his work, this uses solar power stored in capacitors, which triggers an action when a certain amount of charge is reached. And like all of his work, it’s absolutely beautiful.…

hsmag.cc/MagnaDoodleClock If you’re sick of getting information from glowing screens, this project is for you. This brilliant clock draws the time on a Magna Doodle, then wipes the digits that have changed, and draws the time again, over and over. It’s powered by an Arduino Nano, three stepper motors, and various other electronics – we want one for the office. Every hour it’ll change to a random font stored on an SD card – the maker advises using fonts that don’t overlap, as the machine needs to be able to wipe off the digits when the time updates.…

ATTENTION ALL MAKERS! If you have something you’d like to get off your chest (or even throw a word of praise in our direction), let us know at hsmag.cc/hello PLOTTING I was drawn (pun definitely intended) in by something you wrote last issue about the ‘build a plotter‘ cover feature: “Nobody needs a plotter – it won’t solve a problem you have, but it is just fun.” I find myself repeating, more or less verbatim, this argument whenever my wife asks why I need another development board, or another woodworking plane, or another power tool. It’s pointless, but that is the point. I’m just amusing myself, and if I manage to make anything useful, that’s a nice side effect. Dean Melbourne Ben says: Making stuff just for fun is the…

When Timon Skerutsch’s friend Scott Shawcroft (a lead on CircuitPython at Adafruit) said it would be nice to have the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 in an Arduino form factor, the idea for the Piunora CM4 add-on board was born. “I started designing it, more jokingly really,” says Timon, “but as I went along with the design, I realised that this actually works really well… So I pivoted to actually taking it seriously and thought about what the target audience would be.” Posting the assembled board to Twitter was the spark to turn it into a product: “People really liked it and it got shared a lot. I was always thinking about starting to sell products, but the stress and bureaucracy involved always deterred me.” But Piunora felt different: “It…

@RosieHattersley Rosie Hattersley writes tech, craft, and life hacks and tweets @RosieHattersley. “The Romans came up with the formula involving cement, water, sand, and gravel that we recognise as concrete” Given its use in everyday building projects, concrete seems like a fairly modern material, but it’s actually been around for thousands of years. The Romans came up with the formula involving cement, water, sand, and gravel that we recognise as concrete, using it for everything from aqueducts and temples to the Pantheon. At a mere 1900 years old, this beautiful building is a concrete new-build compared to the Egyptian and Turkish subterranean water stores and structures that date back 8000–12,000 years. Robert Courland’s Concrete Planet is a comprehensive guide to this durable material and provides plenty of inspiration for creative…

With summer on its way, it’s handy to have some al fresco entertainment options in the garden. Maker Belsey was keen to design her own chess pieces for this impressive chequerboard setup, which features figures that are “proud to be made of concrete” and is available year round for community garden visitors’ use. Special cement pigment dye was mixed into the concrete for the black chess pieces. Most of the pieces are formed from concrete poured into empty drinks containers – the king’s crown is the base from a soft drinks bottle – while ball pit balls provide moulds for the pawns. Knights and bishops were made from distinctive geometric shapes cut from polystyrene. Belsey includes templates for these on her website (hsmag.cc/Belsey). She warns that the creation process involves…

@ben_everard Ben’s house is slowly being taken over by 3D printers. He plans to solve this by printing an extension, once he gets enough printers. In CircuitPython, PIO StateMachines have a new feature: background_write. This is a way of creating a set of data that will then be sent to a PIO program in the background (either once or in a loop). This means that, if you’ve got a lot of data to send (or need to send it continuously), you don’t have to wait around for it to finish sending. As soon as you issue this instruction, the system will start the transfer, and then return control of the processor back to the program so your code will continue to run while the data transfers. It’s not as fully…

Despite loving all things digital, Mike admits to being a bit of a Luddite, vinyl records and all. “There’s an infinite number of polygons, depending on the lengths of their sides and their internal angles” Polyhedra are three-dimensional mathematical objects, so making them as physical models might seem an obvious thing to do. Building them was once a popular activity among those with a hobby interest in maths, and even by those with a passion for arts and crafts. But in the past couple of decades, physical models have lost support in favour of on‑screen images. We wouldn’t want to dismiss the appeal of computer-rendered models of polyhedra, but we think that physical models also have their appeal. After all, there’s surely something rather special about an object you can…

@devinck Music, whether it be creating, streaming, or just simply distributing it, has always been a popular topic amongst DIY electronics enthusiasts. Although visual-based projects like blinking LEDs and LCDs certainly take top billing for popularity, many of those projects also involve adding some auditory feedback. And the Raspberry Pi is well-suited to help add some musical flair to your project. In this roundup, we’ll be looking at some audio-related accessories that will have your next Raspberry Pi project singing. The Raspberry Pi, on its own, can perform many different functions for generating sound, recording it, or just playing it back, but there are times when a little extra help would make it much easier. Hopefully these products will inspire you to come up with your own Raspberry Pi-based musical…

PRUSA £1678.80 prusa3d.com @alexjrassic The latest in Prusa’s venture into resin printing, the SL1S SPEED promises high-resolution prints and an unprecedented level of detail, at a whopping three times faster speed than its predecessor, the Prusa SL1. But does it live up to the hype and, more importantly, the £1679 price point? “Resin printing is messy and expensive.” For years, this is what you’d hear in makerspaces, convention halls, and online forums, as those new to the world of 3D printing questioned whether to invest in a hot plastic or resin printer. On the whole, the argument was valid. Before the days of wash and cure machines, resin printing required a lot of space, time, and patience – not to mention the piles of isopropyl alcohol-filled Tupperware – just to…

hsmag.cc/EnigmaLamp This beautiful build looks like it’s come from the bridge of a WW2 U-boat, but it’s actually a completely new build. It’s also a Eurorack module, albeit one that doesn’t make any sound. It’s a voltage-controlled character display, which means that when you plug it into your extensive modular synth setup and start playing the keyboard, different characters will light up when you play different notes. That’s it! A brilliant, beautiful adornment, and an exploration of computing history.…

lewis-workshop.com Here’s another preview from the next issue: an enhanced welding helmet by Andrew Lewis. While it’s possible to spend loads of money on a top-of-the-range welding helmet, for most weekend welders, it’s just not worth it. If you spend more time grinding off messy welds than you do actually welding, there’s no way you’re going to spend money on luxuries like a fan – but you might follow Andrew’s example and enhance a lower-end model. Look out for step-by-step instructions in issue 57.…

So, you’ve designed your product. What’s next? Jason Coon, of Evil Genius Labs, advises getting prototypes made – by a manufacturer such as OSH Park – before pushing ahead with a final design. “I definitely make mistakes, and sometimes have to fix or alter the design after the first prototype build. Sometimes it’s as simple as missing a label on a PCB. Other times it’s a completely un-routed PCB trace that I somehow missed in ERC/DRC.” Once you’re happy with it, before diving head-first into mass-production, you may want to dip your toe into the water by selling a few units online to ascertain demand, such as in an electronics marketplace like Tindie. “It’s straightforward for people to start slow on Tindie by getting a small batch done, getting feedback,…

This article describes how to make 3D objects from Python code and then design game mechanics that deliver compelling gameplay. A completed game, ‘Tag Jousts’, shows how this is done. You can find all the designs and sample programs, plus printable copies of the rules, here: tagjousts.xyz. You can use this to make your own copy of the game, or use the designs as a starting point for your own game development. THE TAG JOUSTS GAME Figure 1 shows a set for two players. The game contains elements of skill, bluff, and luck which makes it quite fun to play. You could play the game with tokens made of card or paper, but we are going to discover how to use software to create the designs of the play pieces. We…

Project Link hsmag.cc/ConcreteLamp Technical illustrator, and avowed concrete fan, Barbara has a home and garden filled with her hardy creations, most striking of which are the oversized heads used for planters and her half-hidden cast concrete hooded figures. Her leaf-based lamps formed around Pringles tubes are height-adjustable and need vinyl tubing to cover and protect their cables from the concrete. Mesh wrapped around the crisp can helps the concrete adhere. The underside of leaves are used since the veins are much more prominent than on the leaf’s front. Apply leaves to one side of the tube-can former and let it dry before starting on the other side. Once arranged on the tube former, they should be left in place until the concrete sets but hasn’t yet caused the leaves to…

@FranksberryPi Rebecca is a learning manager at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. She creates computing resources for teachers and young digital makers. She has over 15 years experience teaching computing. n this project, you’ll use a Raspberry Pi Pico to make an LED firefly that flashes in a particular pattern, just like fireflies in nature, and connect a switch to control the light. To complete this project you will need a few common components. You can purchase all the required hardware for this project, and the other projects in this path, from most hobbyist electronics stores, but there’s a kit specifically for the Pico learning path (see box) available from Pimoroni (hsmag.cc/PicoIntroKit). Before diving into the project, you’ll need to attach a resistor and jumper wires to the LED, as shown…

Dr Andrew Lewis is a specialist fabricator and maker, and is the owner of the Andrew Lewis Workshop. Hitting something with a high-power laser beam doesn’t make it magically disappear: it vaporises it, and can also generate a lot of particulates and smoke. Dealing with the vapour cloud from laser cutting isn’t as simple as creating a few vent holes in your case. Smoke and gas can prevent the laser from cutting properly and, if left to float around in the laser chamber, they will coat the optics with a layer of opaque residue that causes them to reflect poorly, heat up, and potentially fail. In this article, you’ll see how different techniques can help you get rid of unwanted smoke and improve your overall cut quality. EXTRACTION SYSTEMS SUCK…

hsmag.cc/BinaryWatch We love the aesthetic of surface-mount LEDs on a bare PCB, so we were fascinated when we found this watch. Even more so when we realised it uses binary-coded decimal – a system of counting that we’re unfamiliar with. The watch is available to buy on Tindie, or you can download the design files from the author’s GitHub page and make your own.…

hsmag.cc/LoopieLamp The most frustrating thing in woodworking is things that are supposed to be square but aren’t square. Give us a nice right angle any day. Our mass-produced world likes order, tessellation, and right angles. For ease of design, construction, and transportation, right angles make sense. So why has the maker of this WS2812B RGB LED-powered lamp chosen the way of the loop for this design? Refreshingly, the answer is that it’s better for the user. Rounded shapes are more common in nature, and so the theory is that they’re easier on the eye and the brain. The circle also represents eternity, as it has no beginning and no end. Either way, this is an impressive build, achieved with simple tools, simple electronics, and a few bits of MDF.…

“You don’t just provide the instructions for where it should go, you provide the power to send it there” Pedal bicycles are one of the most personal machines. They are one of the few machines that are still widely used that are powered by the operator. You don’t just provide the instructions for where it should go, you provide the power to send it there – this creates an intimate connection between rider and machine. We spoke with Ryan Downes of RyanBuildsWheels about what it takes to turn lifeless bits of metal into machines that bring joy, and how he learned the dark art – or is it science – of wheel building. Here’s what he had to say. “I picked up a cheapish bike at university just to get…

So, you’ve made a cool electronics project for yourself and have posted it online where it has aroused considerable interest and positive feedback? Maybe some people have even said they’d be interested in buying one. At this stage, you might well want to at least consider turning your idea into kits or assembled products to sell to others. What next? Developing and bringing a new product to market is a very different affair from creating a DIY project for yourself. As well as needing to modify the design for a manufacturing process – especially if you’re intending to go large-scale – and testing prototypes along the way, you’ll need to consider a whole range of other aspects, from sourcing components to arranging shipping to buyers. For a professional-looking product, you…

Designing and manufacturing a product is only one part of the equation. You will also need to create comprehensive documentation to show customers how to use it, possibly including a tutorial and accompanying example code. Of course, you’ll need to get your product into the hands of customers first, which entails organising packaging and shipping. DOCUMENTATION “An undocumented product is not a usable product,” advises Timon Skerutsch, creator of the Piunora dev board. “It is just as important as the product itself and will dictate how well your product will do after its initial launch. Frustrated customers are not happy customers.” “Documentation is incredibly important, especially for kits, but also for the fully assembled pieces,” adds Jason Coon. “It’s important to make sure the buyer has a good experience with…

As the Lead Hardware Nerd at Hackster.io, Alex Glow has an insider’s view of the technology that’s coming down the rails at us in the near future. Happily, she also makes it her business to share that knowledge, supporting a community of almost two million hardware tinkerers, inventors, and improvers. She’s also the brains behind a good few projects herself: she’s sent music into space, was an early adopter of the companion robot, makes projects with LEDs and PCBs, and… well, whatever she feels like really. Which made Alex think: how do I keep doing all this, without generating a load of e-waste, burning a ton of carbon, and sending a load of 3D plastic into landfills? The result of this line of questioning is green-ee.com, a new (but already…

A sublimation printer looks and works a lot like an ordinary inkjet printer. You load paper into it (although it does have to be proper sublimation paper), plug it into your computer, and press print. So far, so ordinary. The word sublimation means to turn from a solid into a gas without being a liquid in between. This stage – the sublimation – is what happens after you’ve printed onto paper. It means you can turn the, now solid, ink into gas and transfer it onto other objects. When we say other objects – there’s a wide range of stuff that you can transfer sublimation prints onto, but not everything. It has to have a coating that will accept the ink. In most cases, this means buying a pre-prepared ‘blank’, although…

Long-time contributor to The MagPi, Phil is a freelance writer and editor with a focus on technology. @philkingeditor You’ll Need LinuxorWindowsPC CDPStudio RaspberryPi RaspberryPiOSBullseye or Legacy version) SenseHAT As an ‘out of the box’ software development tool, CDP Studio is used to build industrial control, automation, and edge systems. Yet it’s fairly easy to get to grips with its low-(or even no-) code programming environment, and you can deploy projects to a Raspberry Pi. Last time, we created an app to flash LEDs connected to a Raspberry Pi in different patterns, selectable on a web GUI. In this second tutorial, we’ll be reading the signals from the numerous sensors on a Sense HAT attached to our Raspberry Pi. Using CDP Studio’s built-in ‘SenseHAT’ recipe, this is very easy to do…

@concreted0g Jo Hinchliffe is a constant tinkerer and is passionate about all things DIY space. He loves designing and scratch-building both model and high-power rockets, and releases the designs and components as open-source. He also has a shed full of lathes and milling machines and CNC kit! Living out in rural North Wales, I don’t have a local rocketry club, and I only make it to the larger UK rocketry events every now and again as they are all at least a three-hour drive away. This means I tend to miss some of the rarer types of rocket projects occasionally flown in the UK. One example is, despite them being quite prevalent in the wider world of model and high-power rocketry, I’ve never seen a rocket-boosted swing-wing glider in real…

PHYX £9 → pimoroni.com @concreted0g Learning to solder is a rite of passage for the aspirant maker, and it’s a journey that’s well worth undertaking. Most recommended starting points are small through-hole component kits, where larger components have leads which slide through holes to be soldered – and good target starter projects are often badges, or small electronic experiments which explore a useful electronic design or principle. This kit, designed by Phyx and sold by Pimoroni in the UK, sits at the decorative end of kits but, rather than a badge, it is a small desktop sculpture! The very neatly designed printed circuit boards (PCBs) slot and solder together to create this free-standing little desk model, based on the NASA Space Shuttle STS Discovery. The base has, on the underside,…