Hack Space Mag 04
Hack Space Mag 04
Hack Space Mag 04
Mar.2018
Issue #04 £6
04
Welcome to
Features Editor
Andrew Gregory
[email protected]
DESIGN
Critical Media
Welcome to our wearable technology issue, where we’re criticalmedia.co.uk
Head of Design
exploring things that combine electronics with clothing. Dougal Matthews
It can be practical like our LED hat project on page 86 that Designer
Lee Allen
helps you be seen at night, or it can be purely aesthetic like
Photography
the movie-inspired Brian O’Halloran,
If you want a Circuit Playground Express, outfit on page 6. The Squib Photography
52
Editor [email protected] +44 (0)207 429 4000
PAGE
SUBSCRIPTIONS
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Ltd, PO Box 6337, BH1 9EH
GET IN TOUCH
hackspace@
raspberrypi.org This magazine is printed on
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environmental management system
hackspacemag which has been assessed as
conforming to ISO 14001.
HackSpace magazine is published
ONLINE by Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd.,
Station Road, Cambridge, CB1
hsmag.cc 2JH. The publisher, editor, and
contributors accept no responsibility
in respect of any omissions or
errors relating to goods, products or
services referred to or advertised.
Except where otherwise noted,
content in this magazine is licensed
under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-
SA 3.0). ISSN: 2515-5148.
3
Contents
06 SPARK 33 LENS
06 Top Projects 34 Wearable Tech
The Prado of DIY projects Add circuits to clothing to produce unique geek garments
14 Objet 3d’art
Beautiful things made of hot plastic
46 Pick the perfect single board computer
Find the best brains for your latest build
126
34
TECH
120
4
CONTENTS
14
122
60 28 86
79 FORGE 111 FIELD TEST
80 SoM Workshop basics 112 Best of Breed
Make bespoke boxes with your laser cutter Find the best display for your current project
104 Tutorial ESP8266 Web app 128 Review Sonoff Basic WiFi Smart Switch
Monitor a solar power setup in a browser
Control your mains electricity points over WiFi with an app
108 Tutorial Build a power supply 129 Book Review Much Ado About Almost Nothing
Turn an old laptop PSU into a bench power box A history of electronic geekery
Some of the tools and techniques shown in HackSpace Magazine are dangerous unless used with skill, experience and appropriate personal protection equipment. While we attempt to guide the reader, ultimately you
are responsible for your own safety and understanding the limits of yourself and your equipment. HackSpace Magazine is intended for an adult audience and some projects may be dangerous for children. Raspberry
Pi (Trading) Ltd does not accept responsibility for any injuries, damage to equipment, or costs incurred from projects, tutorials or suggestions in HackSpace Magazine. Laws and regulations covering many of the topics
in HackSpace Magazine are different between countries, and are always subject to change. You are responsible for understanding the requirements in your jurisdiction and ensuring that you comply with them. Some
manufacturers place limits on the use of their hardware which some projects or suggestions in HackSpace Magazine may go beyond. It is your responsibility to understand the manufacturer’s limits.
5
Top Projects
REGULAR
6
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Ghostbusters
2016 Proton Pack
By Sophy Wong @sophywong
I
made this proton pack to go with my Ghostbusters 2016
costume. Because I used as little metal as possible in the
build, the entire pack weighs less than 5 kg, including
the proton thrower. To keep it light, I used sheet ABS,
3D printed parts, and even cardboard, wherever I could.
There is even a modified disposable ramen bowl in the
centre of the synchrotron, which diffuses the LEDs perfectly.
Two Adafruit Trinkets control the LEDs, and all the numeric
displays. Everything is powered by a USB power bank. For
lighting in the synchrotron, I used a 60 NeoPixel ring from
Adafruit. Next, I’ll be adding speakers – when I press the trigger,
you’ll hear the crackle of an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on
my back!
Right
The lights in the barrel of the
proton thrower come from
Adafruit NeoPixel sticks
7
Top Projects
REGULAR
Rapid Whale
Mini Boat
By Josh Tulberg Rapidwhale.com
I
’m a Bay Area maker – owner and operator of a spent countless hours designing and tweaking the boat in CAD
ridiculously small one-man design shop, Rapid Whale. I before moving onto a scale-model, and then finally three full-scale
have a knack for designing things no one wants (or is willing to production models.
pay for), so it’s fitting that I designed such a small mini boat. My Dad, my good friend Dylan, and I built three of these boats at
The Rapid Whale Mini Boat is only 6 foot in length, which the same time in a garage. We knocked out most of the work in a
I believe makes it one of the smallest mini-boats out there weekend and took our time waterproofing and putting on finishing
(most are 8’). And as far as I know, it may be the first mini boat ever touches. When it came time to launch them for the first voyage, I
to be CNC laser-cut. Typically when you think of boat manufacturing, had some idea of what to expect (knowledge from the CAD model,
you think of CNC routers, or giant metal moulds for laying up and the scale model) but was still largely uncertain as to how it
fibreglass. With something as small as a mini boat, it becomes would behave in the water. Lucky for us, the boats performed
possible (and advantageous) to cut it with a laser. My laser cutter admirably. Primary stability was quite low, which is what allows us
has a cutting zone of just 900 mm × 1000 mm (just under 3’ × 2’), so to lean into turns. Secondary stability was very good, which is what
that partly dictated the size of my boat. prevents us from actually flipping. That combination of stability is
The first mini boat I ever saw was Paul Elkin’s 8-foot ‘Little perfect for having a blast at low speeds, which is great because you
Miss Sally’. It was amazing, and it stuck with me for a few years. aren’t going any faster than 4 mph with the electric trolling motors.
I became motivated to design and build my own mini boat once I’m looking forward to taking our boats out on many
I discovered the simplicity of ‘stitch and glue’ boat building. I more adventures.
8
SPARK
Left
Josh’s boat will carry
a pilot up to 6 foot
(183 cm) and 200lbs
(91 kg) in weight
9
Top Projects
REGULAR
Kerbal Space
Program controller
By Hugo Peeters hsmag.cc/tGQOoM
I
’ve been a fan of Kerbal Space Program for quite some
time. Because what’s better than building rockets and trying
to launch them to distant moons and planets? Well, using
physical buttons and switches to launch that same rocket
of course!
At first it seemed like an impossible task to build
such a thing. But if you break it down into small pieces,
and by learning from what others have shared online, it
isn’t that hard at all.
Come find me and other geeks at the KSP forums
and the hsmag.cc/OqfgRj subreddit and be inspired to
build your own.
Right
There’s a thriving
Kerbal add-on
community making
controllers for the
space simulator
10
SPARK
11
Top Projects
REGULAR
NES/SNES
Raspberry
Pi cases
By Gurinder Kullar pigminted.com
W
hen I first got into the Raspberry Pi, I
couldn’t find a case that I really liked. All
cases just seemed like, well... cases, and
without the Pi they felt out of place. So, I
decided that I wanted to make cases that, even
without the Pi, had a function.
And that function was art.
After many failed attempts, I designed my custom Mario Bros 3
NES cartridge. I wanted to emulate the same joy of getting a video
game when I was growing up with these custom cartridges. The
cool part? You could actually play the game with the Raspberry Pi. I
originally made one only for myself, but my co-workers and family
saw them and wanted some, and now here we are.
12
SPARK
Left
There’s even more
geek woodwork on
Gurinder’s Etsy shop:
hsmag.cc/eUPYxl
13
Objet 3d’art
REGULAR
Objet 3d’art
3D printed artwork to bring more beauty into your life
3D
PRINTING
Supplied by
Head to 3dhubs.com/book
to check out the
#1 3D printing book on Amazon
I
f your worktop is anything like
ours, you’ll have loads of batteries
rolling around with no order, no
idea of how many you have, and
no idea which ones are dead,
which are almost new, and which you’ve
already tested.
Enter this neat battery holder from
Thingiverse user Adoniram, which has
holes for screw-mounting into a wall, or will
sit on your desk. It’s made up of three parts
that are friction fit, and there are also tabs
to glue them together.
hsmag.cc/JhzkNa
14
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T
he Third Thumb, by London-
based product designer
Dani Clode, challenges the
perception of prosthetics,
reframing them as body
enhancements rather than
medical devices. With sophisticated design
sensibilities and a focus on empowering
people, Dani’s assistive wearable projects
are thoughtful, beautiful, and clever.
The device comprises three parts: a
motor housing, sensor housing, and the
thumb itself, which is printed from 85A
shore (very flexible) Ninjaflex filament.
daniclodedesign.com
Credit
Dani Clode
15
Homebrew computing with the C88 and C3232
FEATURE
Homebrew computing
with the C88 and C3232
How historical systems inspired a truly clever pair of microcomputers
C
omputers today are designed, by “I thought, ‘I could do that, but I’m not going to go for
and large, with one purpose in a big 32 × 32 grid straight away,’ found these little 8 × 8
mind: to abstract away the inherent LED matrix things, thought ‘yeah, I could do that, a few
complexity of a black box filled with switches, should be fairly easy.”
billions upon billions of electronic That 8 × 8 LED matrix, typically found in hobbyist
switches into something that you can electronics kits for simple animations or scrolling text,
point at, click on, and have your social media feeds forms the equivalent of the wall-sized 32 × 32 matrix
pop up, or a game load, or your favourite tunes of vacuum tubes that powered the Manchester Baby.
blare out, and so on. Each individual LED corresponds to an individual bit –
The earliest computers, by contrast, were built with the smallest unit of computing, equal to a zero or a one
little to no abstraction: fans of vintage computing will – in the computer’s memory. Where the Manchester
easily recall devices like the MITS Altair 8800, and its Baby has 32 words of 32 bits each for a total of 1,024
multitudinous Altair-bus clones, which dominated early bits of memory – a kilobit – Daniel’s first machine, the
‘personal’ computing. These boxy machines were C88, has just eight words of eight bits each for a total
programmed by toggling physical switches on their of just 64 bits.
face plates in order to set individual bits of memory
to their zero or one (on or off, true or false) states, TAKING THE FIRST BYTE
introducing the program bit-by-bit and word-by-word In modern computing, where a mid-range smartphone
until there was enough in the machine’s memory to family might start at a gigabyte of memory – eight billion
achieve something useful. bits – a computer with 64 bits is a true marvel, and
Go back still further and the desktop Altair doubly so for the fact it can achieve functional results.
becomes the room-filling Manchester Small Scale “I made this as a hobby project, mostly just to prove
Experimental Machine (SSEM), also known as the to myself that I knew how to build a computer,” Daniel
Manchester Baby. Barely recognisable as a computer explains. “It’s the simplest possible computer that I
to anyone used to modern machines, its 32-bit by could come up with that can do something, well…
32-word vacuum-tube design is by modern standards perhaps not useful, but meaningful.”
laughably limited – but served as inspiration for Daniel The heart of the C88 is a field-programmable
Bailey, who decided to create a modern version which gate array (FPGA), a chip whose function is not set
would take up less room. in concrete like its mass-produced equivalent the
“I wanted to start slow, to make the simplest thing application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), but with
I could, and then continue from there,” Daniel explains internals that can be connected together like logical
of his creations, unique desktop devices dominated by building blocks. Using these, an FPGA can be told to
two-dimensional LED displays. “I was inspired by the act as almost any other type of chip – including the
Manchester Baby. I think it was the beautiful simplicity central processing unit (CPU) needed to drive the C88.
of it, that the entire state of the system is visible on Programming an FPGA isn’t like programming a normal
the ‘screen.’ I just thought ‘that makes things so much computer: the chip itself is modified using a hardware
easier, you can see exactly what’s going on.’ It’s a great description language, and when you’re finished there’s
way to introduce someone to how a computer works. still the software to write.
16
SPARK
Above
Even with only eight
bytes of memory,
the C88 can control
external devices
17
Homebrew computing with the C88 and C3232
FEATURE
”
moment, it is a lot harder to get into FPGAs, but I
Like the C88, the C3232 is programmed by certainly think it’s something hobbyists should be able
to do. It means you can do things like this, and do
hand using toggle switches to alter memory
”
it properly, and you end up with something, usually,
locations one bit at a time that works more efficiently than a microcontroller or
other CPU.”
Right
The colourful display
of the C3232 is a
large LED matrix
18
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19
Lucy Rogers
COLUMN SPARK
Finding ideas
Great projects start as great ideas, where do yours come from?
W
here do ideas Ideas bounce off ideas. I look at what
come from? others are making. But I also listen to
My most fun what stories are being told, what is
projects have come happening in the news, what people are
from other people: talking about:
“Can you hack “I want my shoes to massage my feet
my robot dinosaurs?” “Can you make when I have walked a long way” resulted
the end of my concertina fall off?” “Can in a sentiment analysis massage pillow.
you make seven inch high dressmakers “I used an e-cig to make smoke
mannequins?” And so on… for a laser gun” resulted in desktop
Engineers are not exactly renowned for fire crackers.
20
Bunnie Huang
COLUMN SPARK
Getting started in
hardware hacking
You will break stuff, and that’s a good thing
O
ne of the most difficult against. With a little luck, you only
aspects of getting started have to buy one of these at full price.
with hardware hacking The tear-down unit can literally come
is overcoming the fear of from a trash heap – it doesn’t need
breaking things. Unlike to be functional. So long as the PCB
software, you can’t traces are intact, it serves its purpose.
simply roll back to the last commit that In addition to selectively removing
worked; if you let the magic smoke out, components to assist with tracing out
it’s game over. However, this doesn’t wires, I use tear-down units to dry-run
mean you have to fly blind or get it risky soldering procedures. Once the
perfect the first time. With the right correct temperature, airflow and/or
methodology and soldering tip has
Bunnie Huang a bit of planning, been determined,
there are ample I stand a much
@bunniestudios opportunities One of the most better chance
to practice difficult aspects of of first-time
Andrew ‘Bunnie’ Huang is a technique and success on the
hacker by night, entrepreneur do comparisons getting started with ‘work’ unit. The
by day, and writer by against known hardware hacking is pristine unit can
procrastination. He’s a good versions. be borrowed from
co‑founder of Chibitronics, My first tip is overcoming the fear a friend – after
troublemaker-at-large for the to go dumpster of breaking things all, the point is to
MIT Media Lab, and a mentor diving. You can keep it factory-
for HAX in Shenzhen. learn a lot with new, so you
little fear of loss have a reference
if you’re working on stuff that’s been point to sanity-check against. This
acquired for almost nothing. Well-funded leaves you with having to purchase
organisations tend to throw away gear just one device – the target you are
they think is defective, even if it’s for a working on. Of course, time is money. If
minor issue. There are also swapfests, you’re impatient or don’t like planning
Craigslist, and eBay – some of my friends ahead, then perhaps your only recourse
have built impressive hardware labs on could be to buy all the samples at
a shoestring budget by trawling eBay for market price.
great deals and fixer-uppers. The final tip is to take apart anything
The second tip is when you’re that’s destined for the trash heap.
preparing to take a deep dive into a Practice makes perfect, and stuff
single product, try to acquire three units: intended for the trash heap is great for
one to totally tear down and trash; one perfecting the skill of opening things up
to work on; and one to keep pristine, so with minimal damage, from removing
you have a golden reference to check bezels to desoldering RF shields.
21
Meet The Maker
REGULAR
E
lectronics kits are a staple of the out and you think ‘what do I even Google?’ –
maker community – both for creators you start from nothing. I started going through
and consumers. They’re the most that process and making my own boards and
accessible route into creating custom I had quite a lot of interest on YouTube and I
electronics and help us share our found out how to get boards made up. I got in
creations without getting too bogged with Tindie very early on and I stuck with them
down in manufacturing. HackSpace magazine because they’ve always been good to work with.
sat down with Jason Hotchkiss, the man behind Especially at the beginning, it was a nice fairly
Sixty-Four Pixels, to find out what it’s like making close-knit thing. Emile Petrone, the guy who started
electronics kits for musicians. This is the wisdom he it, used to have Google Hangouts every week and us
had to relate… Tindie sellers would all get together and have a chat
– it was a really small thing then. I guess now they
GETTING STARTED have hundreds of sellers and thousands of products.
I used to do aimless tinkering with stuff just for Certainly at the beginning it was like a little club.
fun. I did a bit of MIDI, I did a lot of things with the Things have just gone from there. It’s been quite
Novation Launchpad (a grid controller). I was putting slow growth … Having said that, a couple of the
the videos up on YouTube and some of them were products, when I first put them out, sold quite
getting quite a few views and people were asking quickly – it’s surprising how many they sold straight
if I was selling the things I was making, and some away and I was almost not ready for the volume.
of them were… no! One of the things was a clock We’re talking like 50 or 100, which for me is still
made out of hard disk drives where the digits were quite a lot.
etched through (hsmag.cc/TJChgv). With careful I started that way around – I didn’t start from the
timing and everything, you could make it light up. aspect of wanting to sell things, more I was just
I wasn’t going to sell it because it took me about tinkering and I was just making my own projects for
a week to make, but some of the things like the fun and sticking them on YouTube. It’s always good
strum controller and the arpeggiator – which were to have a bit of attention, isn’t it? – people giving
two of the first things I did – I thought ‘yeah, why you feedback. And people wanted to buy them and
not?’. I had to go through some things, like how to that’s where it started. I never really thought about
get PCBs made up in a factory. I was doing stuff on it being a business, but now I’m trying to work my
stripboards or etching my own PCBs at home, so I’d way out of the day job and do it full-time – because
got into Eagle, which is a PCB layout program, but I I enjoy it more than wanting to be a millionaire. As
had to go through a bit of a learning process just to long as it can pay the mortgage, I’ll be happy.
get started to know how to get PCBs made. Even I started with electronics projects about five
just etching your own PCBs – when you first start years before that, about 2008. I’m a computer
22
SPARK
Above
The ARPIE MIDI
arpeggiator takes a
chord and converts it
into a series of notes
23
Meet The Maker
REGULAR
programmer by profession – I knew a lot about can think of good functions and features for. I’ve used
coding, so getting in an Arduino and code was never a lots of similar products myself and I think ‘oh, wouldn’t
problem, but the electronics I never really knew much it be good if it had this feature or that? I’ll make one!’
about. I think the digital side of it was kind of easy
because it’s really just an extension of programming, FACING CHALLENGES
so working with shift registers, multiplexers… The biggest problem for me is always time. Everything
they’re just an extension of code. I’ve been trying to takes longer, by probably a factor of ten, than you think
understand a bit more analogue stuff, which is a bit of it’s going to. Especially because, at the moment, I’m
a black art, but it keeps life interesting trying to do that. working around the day job. I only work three days a
week, but it still gets in the way quite a lot. Apart from
MAKING MUSIC that, there haven’t really been a lot of big problems.
I do love the fact that MIDI is so well crafted. To do so I think that because I’ve not tried to do things too
much so efficiently and yet be so simple and it’s stood quickly, the money side of things has never really been
the test of time. It’s, what, nearly 40 years old, and it’s an issue. I can invest the money I’m making off things
still going strong. into new parts or whatever. The outlay is never very
There have been all these other things that have high. At most, you’re talking a few hundred pounds to
come out and have been supposed to replace it but it’s start something.
still the de facto standard. Space is getting a bit limited because as it’s
I like making music and always have done, so I’m grown, certainly my wife thinks that I’m starting to
a bit of a synthesizer junky and play guitar and bass fill the house up. I’m thinking of getting just a small
in bands, so music’s always been my main passion business space because I’ve started to employ a
really. It’s not like I got into music because I thought couple of friends as well, with some of the work
Below
I’d sell lots of kits; more that I started doing music kits for manufacturing. Hot-swap up to six
because that’s what I learned first – my first Arduino Everything takes up a bit more space – finding space MIDI outputs with
near zero latency on
projects were MIDI. for someone to work, finding space for somewhere to the Banana Split
But I think the reason that some of the things have keep things.
sold well is: the feedback I get is that the functionality
is good – I think that’s because I come up with lots of
things because I am (or try to be) a musician. I have
ideas that seem to translate quite well into features
on things like that. I think that’s why that’s
eventually become the focus –
it’s something that I
Right
The first step to selling
is getting noticed, and
YouTube is a great place
to start showing off
your makes
24
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25
Letters
REGULAR SPARK
Letters
ATTENTION
ALL MAKERS!
If you have something you’d
like to get off your chest (or
EARTH SONG MAKE THAT CHANGE even throw a word of praise
in our direction) let us know at
Thanks for the recycling focus of last Your Humanitarian Makers piece in
hsmag.cc/hello
issue. There’s something about the issue 3 showed what making is all about:
disposable nature of a lot of making, the DIY ethos that means you can see a
3D printing in particular, that makes problem and fix it for yourself without
me feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was waiting for someone else to come
seeing David Attenborough’s Blue along and tell you what to do. There’s
Planet 2 and watching all the plastic something about the independence
being thrown in the oceans, but I of it that I really love. It’s not about
don’t want to contribute to that by saving money on parts or whatever, but
printing extra plastic objects when I about the feeling of accomplishment
can use scrap wood or recycled metal. you get from taking ownership of
There are plenty of projects to keep something that’s broken and turning
me busy so I don’t need to clog up the it into something that works. Humans
world with more 3D printing. I hope to are amazing – the more tools we put in
see more environmental subjects in the hands of humans to fix their own
HackSpace mag in the future. problems, the better off we’ll all be.
David Helen
Wharfedale South Shields
26
Crowdfunding now
REGULAR BUYER
BEWARE !
When backing a crowdfunding
campaign, you are not purchasing
a finished product, but supporting
a project working on something
new. There is a very real chance
CROWDFUNDING
that the product will never ship
and you’ll lose your money. It’s
a great way to support projects
NOW
you like and get some cheap
hardware in the process, but if
you use it purely as a chance to
snag cheap stuff, you may find
that you get burned.
T V
he Apollo series of missions put a man on the moon oice-controlled AI home assistants are everyday
almost fifty years ago. This was two years before Intel now, but most of the popular commercial options
made the first microprocessor, when computers were are run by companies that are interested in
cumbersome things. The Apollo Guidance Computer was collecting all the data they can about you to power
the only computing power on the rocket, and astronauts interacted their advertising and sales machines. Mycroft, however, is an
with it via the Display&Keyboard (DSKY) interface. open source, privacy-orientated assistant that you can be confident
The Open DSKY is a reimplementation of the original system on isn’t amassing your personal data for some shadowy company’s
the Arduino platform and packaged in a replica of the DSKY which is commercial gain.
available in 3D printed plastic, steel, or (like the original) aluminium. Mycroft is powered by skills, with each skill relating to a
The metal ones don’t come cheap though, with the aluminium option particular ‘thing’ that it can do. For example, read a Wikipedia
selling for $8 000. As well as the original functions, the Open DSKY page or set a countdown timer. Many of these skills have been
comes with the ability to play sounds – something which may come in developed by the community of developers contributing to the
handy for users who don’t happen to need the landing calculations for open source project. It’s worth taking a look at the available skills
a lunar module. before committing to the project to make sure it supports the
The project has already reached its target, but they are only making things you want to work with. If you can’t wait until December,
100 of the limited edition computers, so you’ll have to be fast if you download the current version of the software for a Raspberry Pi
want to own one (they also have non-limited edition kits available). or Linux device.
27
Hackspace of the month
REGULAR
28
SPARK
Above
As well as the very
neatly arranged
set of spanners,
Unallocated
Space has a fire
extinguisher, in case
anyone forgets rule 0
(do not be on fire)
Above
Nuclear goop or
glow-in-the-dark
printing filament?
29
Hackspace of the month
REGULAR
HOW TO
SUPPORT US?
As a non-profit
organization, UAS
relies on the generosity
of our community
through donations and Plasma Speaker (Corey, Bowie, and Roger)
accepts many other The plasma speaker is a device that uses electrical
forms of contributions.
arcs to produce sound by heating the air. It follows us
You can learn more
about how to support to many events and draws quite a bit of attention. The
our hackerspace at design of the plasma speaker has been continuously
hsmag.cc/edgBoL improved since it was introduced to the space in 2013.
30
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CONTACT US
We’d love you to get in
touch to showcase your
makerspace and the
things you’re making.
Drop us a line on Twitter
@HackSpaceMag or
email us at hackspace@
raspberrypi.org
with an outline of what
makes your hackspace
special and we’ll take it
from there.
Hackberry Pi (Usako)
A headless Raspberry Pi running Kali Linux, designed
to be used for mobile wireless attacks and fox hunting
(direction finding).
Lightsabers (Bowie)
According to legend, Jedi make their lightsabers on
board an ancient starship in deep space, guided by
eccentric droids. Our set up is kind of like that. It’s in
space: Unallocated Space.
31
- -
Build a Makerspace -
for Young People -
Join our free online training course on
-
-
makerspace design to get expert advice
for setting up a makerspace in your
school or community.
-
Sign up today: rpf.io/makerspace
PG
46
PICK PG
34
THE PERFECT
MICROCONTROLLER
Choose the brains to power
WEARABLE
TECH
your next world-beater
PG
54
INNOVATION Pick the right circuits, materials,
CAMP
and power source for you – then go
out and make something brilliant
PG
60 PG
70
PG
66
INTERVIEW HOW I MADE
LUCY ROGERS PAPER CLIPS TRUMP CLOCK
Robots, avoiding hard maths, Turn everyday office detritus Glowing Nixie tubes to
the spirit of sharing, and the into a superior siege weapon measure the term of US
Guild of Makers (and other uses) President number 45
Wearable Tech
FEATURE
The
WEARABLES
ISSUE
CONTENTS
06
TOP PROJECTS
16
OBJET 3D’ART
TECH
DIVE INTO THE WORLD OF WEARABLES
W
hat do you think of when you
36
hear the words “wearable
electronics”? Maybe you think
of Snapchat’s Spectacles, the
COVER FEATURE pop-coloured sunglasses with
a built-in camera. If you’re a
86
cosplayer, you might think of a glowing, chest-
mounted ‘arc reactor’ à la Tony Stark. Wearables
can be fitness trackers, virtual reality headsets,
LED HAT spacesuits, cosplay, and more. If it needs a
battery and you can wear it, it’s a piece of
wearable electronics!
As we speed toward ever tinier technology,
it is now possible to build the kind of wearable
devices that we used to only dream about in
comic books. With access to components like
sewable microcontrollers and flexible LED strips,
tinkering with wearables has never been easier.
A little foundational knowledge will set you
up for success with your first projects, so let’s
dive into the concepts, tools, and best practices
for wearables.
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Sophy Wong
@sophywong
Sophy Wong is a
designer, maker,
and avid creator. Her
projects range from
period costumes to
Arduino-driven wearable
tech. She can be found
on her YouTube channel
and at sophywong.
com, chronicling her
adventures in making.
35
Wearable Tech
FEATURE
LED HAT
The best way to
learn any subject
is to start small.
Turn to page 86 for
a quick and easy
introduction to
sewing circuits.
Above
This cute and
cuddly Jawa
costume uses a
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BUILDING FOR
THE HUMAN BODY
Y
our idea might be as complex as a
holographic computer on your head,
or as simple as an LED sewn into a
wristband. But because they all go on
the human body, all wearables face a
shared set of challenges. Designers
often solve these challenges in similar ways, and you
may notice underlying similarities between wearables
that seem very different at first glance.
One of the biggest challenges for wearable designers
is how to apply the rigid, flat materials of electronic
components to the fleshy, round surfaces of the human
body. Wearable designs generally avoid sharp edges and
pointy corners, for the comfort and safety of the wearer.
You can see this idea at work in both the rounded torso, and even your fingers, as cylinders. Fitness
corners of Microsoft’s HoloLens and the circular form trackers, twinkle LED skirts, and VR headsets all loop Above
This Jawa costume
factor of the LilyPad Arduino. Rounded corners also around the body in a circle, tube, or arc. In this sense, uses a LilyPad
protect soft materials like fabric from snagging during the human body is a perfect fit for electronic circuits, Arduino to power the
glowing eyes.
movement. Keep this in mind when selecting materials which are also loops. The challenge is how to make
and components for your wearable projects. an electrical loop that can open and close, stretch, or
Wearables are often circular or tubular in form. This bend around the human body. Think about this when
is because the human body is basically made up of looking at consumer wearable gadgets – how do they
cylindrical shapes – you can think of your arms, legs, solve this challenge?
37
Wearable Tech
FEATURE
BUILDING
YOUR CIRCUIT
W
earable
circuits don’t
necessarily have
to be complex. Keep
your project streamlined
and use the simplest circuit
you can. A simple circuit, implemented well, can have
a big impact. Most tutorials for wearables will use one
of these three common techniques. Learn them all, and
you’ll be able to choose the best option for your own
wearable designs.
and sewable electronic components for your circuit.
for your can skip ahead to figuring out how to put it into your
garment. Fairy lights are great premade circuits, as most
Because conductive thread is not insulated, it can
be difficult to avoid short circuits, and you will need to
project is come with a simple battery pack and a built-in power insulate your sewn circuit when it’s complete. Cover
size and
When using premade circuits, your main challenge run of conductive thread can fold back on itself and
will be how to embed them into your project. For soft cause a short circuit. Because of the resistance factor
power garments, get creative with snaps or hook and loop
fasteners so that the electronics can be removed for
of conductive thread, insulated wire is a better choice
for long circuits.
washing. If your sewing machine has a buttonhole Despite the challenges of building large projects
function, adding buttonholes to a garment is an with sewn circuits, great complexity can be achieved
easy way to make passthroughs for wires. For rigid with clever engineering and imagination. Masters of
accessories like helmets and headsets, use hot glue or sewn circuits embrace the constraints of conductive
strong adhesive tape to attach your circuit. thread and turn circuits themselves into works of
art. However, if sewn circuits are your entry point
SEWN CIRCUITS to electronics, it’s likely that the limits of conductive
Sewn circuits, also known as e-textiles, are also a great thread will drive you to learn to solder. We love
place to start. Sewn circuits use conductive thread that idea!
for electrical connections, no soldering necessary! To
build your circuit, you simply sew from one component SOLDERED CIRCUITS
to the next. There are many types of sewable If you’re new to it, learning how to solder may seem
components available, including microcontrollers, daunting, but it’s fun and easy once you learn the
sensors, LEDs, and more. Sewable components have basics. A quick lesson from a makerspace or an
large, open holes for making electrical connections experienced friend can get you started. Then it’s
with conductive thread, and some are even washable. a matter of practice, and investing in the tools: a
Above You may already have the hand sewing tools you soldering iron, metal solder, wire strippers, and wire
There are lots of
need for sewn circuits: large-eye needles, scissors, for your project. Silicone-coated stranded wire is
power options for
choose from and a thimble. You’ll also need conductive thread great for wearables; it’s soft, flexible, and can be
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However, they are also more delicate than other types Below
BATTERIES of batteries and require careful handling for safe use. Conductive thread
blends invisibly with
Choosing a battery for your project is a balance Never puncture, compress, or expose them to heat. fabric but is difficult
to work into complex
between size and power. For wearables, you’ll want Don’t place them directly against skin, and don’t store circuits
the smallest battery you can get away with, given them in your project. If your project is made of fabric,
the power requirements of your project. To estimate remove the LiPo battery before recharging it.
your power needs, check the datasheets for each
component in your circuit. Find the maximum current USB POWER BANKS
draw for each, and add them together. It’s better to For projects that need a hell of a lot of juice, a USB
provide more amps than not enough, so choose a power bank is a great choice. They are high-capacity,
battery that meets or exceeds this total. If you’re just safer, and more durable than LiPo batteries, and most
starting out, stick with the batteries recommended in come with some kind of on/off switch. Often, the
tutorials and example projects. As you build more and power bank’s specifications are printed right on the
become familiar with components, you’ll get a better case, check them against the power needs of your
sense of what batteries to choose. project. USB power banks come in many shapes and
sizes, but tend to be heavy.
COIN CELL BATTERIES
These are your tiniest option for battery power. Coin
cells are great for low-power projects like powering
a few LEDs, and maybe even a tiny microcontroller.
Battery holders often come with a built-in on/off
switch, and come in sewable form. Coin cell batteries
are low capacity and don’t last long, but they’re small
enough to carry a spare set.
39
Wearable Tech
FEATURE
MICROCONTROLLERS
FOR WEARABLES
A
rduino and other microcontrollers feel less intimidating than a bigger board with lots of
are basically tiny computers that bells and whistles. Despite its small size, GEMMA
For wearable
let you add programmability to still has convenient features like a built-in on/off
tutorials, coding
lessons, and more, your project. With a microcontroller, switch, a JST battery connector, and micro USB
check out: you can incorporate light animations, for programming.
sensors, motors, sounds, and more,
learn.adafruit.com
all driven by code. Wearable microcontrollers are 4 TINYLILY MINI
learn.sparkfun.com often circular in form, and can be both sewn and The TinyLily Mini by TinyCircuits is about the size
wearabletutorials.com soldered to. All the boards listed below are washable. of a thumbnail. It’s unbelievably tiny! To achieve
There are many wearable microcontrollers to this tiny size, the board lacks some conveniences
kobakant.at/DIY
choose from, and scores of wearable components built into bigger boards, and requires a separate
instructables.com/ that you can connect to. Let’s take a look at USB converter for programming. But with the same
howto/wearables some great microcontrollers specifically designed processor as a full-sized LilyPad Arduino, it’s still
for wearables: powerful enough to drive some truly awesome
wearable projects.
1 LILYPAD ARDUINO
LilyPad is the original sewable microcontroller, ALSO CONSIDER: STITCHKIT
invented by Leah Buechley and produced by StitchKit is a new wearable microcontroller designed
SparkFun. This is the board that ignited the DIY specifically for fashion tech and wearables by
wearable movement when it was released in 2007. MakeFashion. Based on their experience running
This is the Today, there are other boards based on Buechley’s fashion shows, the StitchKit is designed to combine
board that
iconic design, and even the LilyPad itself comes durability with ease of use for fashion designers who
in several different flavours. The LilyPad line also are new to working with hardware. The StitchKit
ignited includes sewable LEDs, sensors, buttons, switches, Kickstarter campaign has been fully funded, and
the DIY
battery holders, and more. MakeFashion plans to start shipping boards in April
of this very year.
wearable 2 ADAFRUIT FLORA
Inspired by the original LilyPad Arduino, the FLORA
movement wearable platform by Adafruit is powerful, easy CODING HELP
when to use, and supported by a massive library of
tutorials created by Adafruit and its community. If you’re new to code, fear not – tutorials and example
it was Work through a few Adafruit tutorials, and you’ll be
projects abound on the internet and it takes minutes
to get up and running with example sketches in the
released designing your own wearable projects in no time. The
FLORA line includes sewable versions of powerful
Arduino software. Start with simple code provided in
in 2007
tutorials, and you’ll learn to modify it to suit your needs
components like GPS, a Bluetooth module, and and do more. There are also visual programming aides
NeoPixels, Adafruit’s highly addictive individually- that make coding simpler: try MakeCode by Microsoft,
addressable LEDs. or Xod. When you’re ready to write your own code,
check out CircuitPython, a derivative of the programming
language MicroPython, released and supported by
3 ADAFRUIT GEMMA Adafruit. CircuitPython aims to make it easy for complete
GEMMA is a 1 inch diameter version of FLORA that’s beginners to write code for their microcontrollers.
perfect for smaller projects that only require a few
inputs and outputs. It’s great for beginners, and can
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3
2
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Wearable Tech
FEATURE
INSPIRED
You’ve seen the basics: now get inspired with our pick
of the best wearables projects around
Alina Granville’s
Torbjorn cosplay is
a masterpiece of
wearable electronics ALINA GRANVILLE
After more than 1 500 hours of work, Alina
Granville’s Torbjorn cosplay is a masterpiece
of wearable electronics. Every piece is 3D
printed (boots included!) and houses individually
addressable LEDs driven by 5 V Arduino Pro
Minis. To make it, Alina designed and built her
own 3D printer, learned to airbrush, and tackled
accelerometers for the first time.
@spoon_makes
Credit
John Jiao
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LEAH BUECHLEY
Leah Buechley’s ground-breaking work includes
more than just inventing the seminal LilyPad
Arduino and founding the High-Low Tech Group at
the MIT Media Lab. As a maker, she explores the
intersection of engineering, art, and design. She
currently runs a design firm and is experimenting
with generative, code-based forms in fabric
and wearables.
leahbuechley.com
Credit
Leah Buechle
43
Wearable Tech
FEATURE
MAKEFASHION
MakeFashion is a Calgary-based initiative
that seeks to merge fashion with cutting-edge
electronics. Through hands-on workshops and
international runway shows, MakeFashion brings
designers and engineers together to create high-
tech fashion.
makefashion.ca
MakeFashion
brings designers
and engineers
together to
create high-tech
fashion
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KOBAKANT
Hannah Perner-Wilson and Mika Satomi have been
pioneering e-textiles together since 2006. Their
projects include a crying dress, and a beautiful
collection of sensor-laden conductive textiles.
They’ve now launched KOBA by KOBAKANT, a true
tailoring shop for e-textiles in Berlin. For one year,
they’ll build bespoke wearables and share every
build as an open source tutorial online.
kobakant.at
Credit
KOBAKANT
45
Picking the perfect microcontroller
FEATURE
PICKING
THE Perfect
MICROCONTROLLER
Some less familiar boards can provide the power you need for your next project
T
here’s a whole world of up electronics and peripherals. But even then it’s a
microcontroller boards available to wide field, so to narrow our focus a little it makes
hobbyists, yet the hobbyist scene is sense to divide it up. On one side are SBCs that usually
dominated by just a few. Join us now run a fully fledged operating system such as Linux or
Jenny List
as we delve deeply into the world of Android; on the other are ones that run bare-metal
@Jenny_Alto microcontrollers to find some lesser- code directly on a processor, such as the Arduino Uno.
known gems you may not have noticed. Examples of the former are the Raspberry Pi, the
Jenny is the creator of Before we start, what exactly are these single-board Beagle boards, or the Arduino Yún – and while they are
the @LanguageSpy
electronics kits for computers, or SBCs, that we’re looking at? A very all amazing devices, they are a world away from the
Raspberry Pi and simplistic answer might be that it is a computer which microcontroller boards competing with the Arduino
ham radio. She’s combines processor, peripherals, and storage on a Uno. Instead, the boards and platforms we’re bringing
also a key member of
Oxford Hackspace. single PCB, and can be run without additional you here are all microcontroller-based and run code in a
hardware. However, for most of the purposes you much more direct fashion, rather than through an OS.
might think of for single-board computers, it’s an There are a variety of processor families you will
extremely broad definition. There are PC motherboards commonly find in SBCs at our level, and they have
with on-board flash storage that fit it, for example, but achieved their prominence over their competitors
they are light years away from an Arduino. either due to familiarity or because their manufacturers
Generally when we think of an SBC, we’re imagining have gone the extra mile to ensure that the support
a small and inexpensive computer board, usually one they deliver makes their platform attractive. When you
with plenty of access to input/output pins for hooking pick a board for your project, it is as well to take a
46
ICKIN
HE Perfec
47
LENS
PICKIN
Picking the perfect microcontroller
FEATURE
THE Perf
ATMEL
AVR
We haven’t looked
at the main Arduino
products, or Atmel’s
AVR chips, here
because we’re
exploring the lesser-
known options (for
a detailed look at
the former, read our code. The PIC is an astonishingly versatile family, with
Arduino feature from everything from tiny 6-pin SOT23 to very powerful
issue 1, available 32-bit variants, and you will find them in many of your
online at hsmag.cc/ electronic devices. They suffer from the disadvantage
mYfVuw). While the though that writing PIC software is not easy to get
ubiquitous Arduino
started in, and that their IDE and toolchain for
Uno makes a great
first board, it’s useful
developers is proprietary and quirky. While it does have
to look beyond this some great uses for professional engineers, this
comfort zone to difficulty in getting started means that it’s not widely
see what other used by hobbyists.
options are
available. Even FULLY ARMED
if you decide that
The ARM series of processors have their origins in the
the Arduino boards
are right for you, by 1980s, as the innovative RISC device that powered the
checking out the Acorn Archimedes series of computers. Since then
other options, you’ll moment to they have evolved to a series of related processor
learn more about consider it as a cores designed for everything from low-power
the board you are processor choice as microcontrollers to high-power general-purpose
using. You’ll also find
much as a board choice, and computers, and through a system of licensing can be
out what the other
possibilities are, and have a look at its ecosystem and found in products from multiple different
your next project the record of its manufacturer in semiconductor manufacturers. The multicore
might just need an supporting it. It’s unpleasant to spend time and effort powerhouses that lie behind your tablet, smartphone,
extra feature that you learning to use a platform only for it to suddenly or even boards like the Beagle or the Pi, are not the
can’t get with your disappear. Intel for example put a lot of resources into ARMs that interest us here – instead it will be its
first choice.
promoting its x86 microcontrollers at this level, only to Cortex M series of microcontroller cores that you will
pull the Galileo, Joule, and Edison products from the find in products at this level.
market and leave developers
working on these platforms
without any hardware to use. THE ARM SERIES OF PROCESSORS HAVE
So among the multiple CPU
families to be found, we’ll look THEIR ORIGINS IN THE 1980S, AS THE
at a few of the common ones in
the hacking and making INNOVATIVE RISC DEVICE THAT POWERED THE
Top community. We’ll start with
The Arduino Uno
is still widely used,
but lacks some of
Microchip’s PIC series of ACORN ARCHIMEDES SERIES OF COMPUTERS
the more advanced
processors, as they are
features of more probably one of the oldest
powerful options
families still in the game. Their origins lie in an early The final processor family we’ll mention here is
Above 1970s I/O peripheral for a 16-bit microcomputer, but Espressif’s ESP8266. This differs from the others in
The Mbed LPC1768
provides an ARM they became popular at the hardware hacker level over that it comes from a Chinese company and is a
Coretex M3 in 20 years ago, as single-chip versions with on-board microcontroller designed for the specific application of
breadboard-friendly
packaging flash appeared that could be easily rewritten with user wirelessly connected IoT devices. It contains a 32-bit
48
NG LENS
fect
hobbyists. A huge effort was undertaken
to create open-source tools for it, despite
its only having limited documentation at
the time. The ESP8266 is usually to be
found on a series of standardised
modules intended to be fitted by the
million into Chinese-made IoT devices,
and many consumer products such as
ESP8266 IoT light switches have been
repurposed as development systems with
ready-attached power control hardware.
More recently, though, these modules have appeared
on more conventional development boards. It’s fair to
say that the world of ESP8266 devices is something
more of a Wild West than the others we’ve
Above
The in-browser Python editor for the BBC micro:bit is a fully mentioned, but the low price – especially when you
functional development environment that does not require any
other software beyond a web browser on school computers
consider their WiFi connectivity – makes them an
extremely interesting option.
Having considered microprocessor architectures, it’s
Tensilica core and full WiFi connectivity, and comes worth taking a moment to look at how microcontroller
with a TCP/IP stack allowing it to be very easily boards are programmed. It’s easy enough to say
connected to the internet. What brought it to the that the majority of them use a serial link
attention of our community when it arrived in 2014 while others use USB and a few of them
was that it is extremely cheap, costing only in the appear in your operating system as a disk
region of a few dollars each in single numbers to drive, but that conceals an important point
MBED, AN ARM
FOR ALL SEASONS
Mbed is a combination of software development tools, on-
chip OS, and reference hardware designs for the various
ARM microcontrollers. It can be thought of as ARM’s
answer to the Arduino ecosystem, with the important
distinction that ARM itself does not produce
any Mbed boards. Instead, just as it licenses
the processor cores to chip manufacturers,
each of those manufacturers produces its
own Mbed-compatible platform for its chips.
This provides Mbed with the extremely useful
feature of being available on a huge variety of
boards, each with its own features depending on
what the manufacturer has included on the silicon
alongside the ARM.
Development for Mbed is through the medium of C or
C++, and there are two development routes. One is through
an extremely easy-to-use web-based IDE, while the other
is a more traditional command line-based compiler that
allows you to use your IDE of choice if you have one.
Mbed boards are available at all budgets depending
upon the capabilities of the microcontroller in question.
Above
The ST Microelectronics board pictured, for example, The ST
cost well under ten pounds and provides an Arduino- Microelectronics
compatible shield footprint for its Cortex-M0 processor. STM32F072, a typical
inexpensive Mbed
board featuring an
ARM Cortex-M0
49
PIC
Picking the perfect microcontroller
FEATURE
THE
CHEAP AND CHEERFUL:
THE CAPABLE ESP
The ESP8266 made a significant splash associated components. Adafruit’s Huzzah
when it arrived without warning and with and SparkFun’s ESP8266 Thing are both
very little documentation in 2014. It offers a very similar modules for example, designed
powerful processor and WiFi connectivity to bring the ESP’s connections out to a
for a fraction of the cost of other options, familiar dual in-line footprint.
but it is available in such a wide variety of On the development front, the ESP is
form factors that choosing the one for you an extremely versatile device, having
can be challenging. Thankfully, help is at a variety of language, development
hand to ease the confusion, as a variety environment, and firmware choices for the
of manufacturers have integrated it for would-be coder. As well as C++ through an
more friendly development boards with all Arduino IDE add-on and firmware, there is
MicroPython, as well as other firmwares manufacturer, because you may have a familiarity with
supporting BASIC and JavaScript. a particular language or IDE.
However, many people choose the Arduino Traditionally a microcontroller will come with an
IDE route for this platform due to its
associated software toolchain from its manufacturer,
familiarity and community support.
with an IDE in which you write your code, and a
compiler which turns it into a binary file and sends it to
Below
The ESP-01, a your board. These are typically proprietary packages, and
popular module
featuring the
the language in question will often be some dialect of C
ESP8266 processor or C++. Using these environments gives you the
maximum access to the capabilities of the chip, but will
often require a detailed knowledge of the chip
architecture for tasks such as configuring the functions
of each pin.
The Arduino IDE and bootloader combo is another
C-based environment, but one that simplifies this by
abstracting many of the difficult tasks associated with
microcontroller configuration. Instead of having to
consult the data sheet and write code to set a particular
pin as a PWM output or an analogue input, a standard
pin configuration is set up and provided through an
easy-to-use software library. The Arduino IDE is now
about the hardware you might need to use them. USB supported by a vast number of boards, including many
boards simply require an appropriate cable (watch out that aren’t made by Arduino. Because it is an open-
here, you may find a few with the now uncommon source platform, there are many plug-ins to allow it to be
mini-USB), but serial boards will require some form of used with other non-Arduino boards. It is often a
serial interface. This is most often a USB-to-serial board sensible choice to use the Arduino IDE, even if you don’t
or cable that can be had for a few pounds, but in some have prior knowledge of it, because there is a huge body
cases it can be a proprietary interface that may carry a of online code as well as help and advice about it, and it
more significant cost. It is worth investigating this is a skill transferable to other platforms.
before making your choice.
So, you’ve got your eye on a
processor and you know what THE ARDUINO IDE IS NOW SUPPORTED BY A
hardware you’ll need to
program it. Now it’s worth VAST NUMBER OF BOARDS, INCLUDING
turning to their software
environments. This may
MANY THAT AREN’T MADE BY ARDUINO…
influence your choice of
platform more than the
processor architecture or the
IT IS OFTEN A SENSIBLE CHOICE TO USE IT
50
CKING LENS
Perfect
NOT JUST A TOY:
THE BBC MICRO:BIT
The BBC micro:bit is a single-board computer with integrated
Bluetooth Low Energy, some buttons, and a simple LED matrix
display. It is well known because of its creation as a teaching
aid and its having been given to schoolchildren. Its low price and
ready availability make it an attractive proposition.
The micro:bit is designed as a self-contained piece of
hardware with an attached battery pack containing a pair of AAA
cells, but it also features a selection of interface lines on an edge
connector. One disadvantage, though, is that the connector used
is a slightly unusual one.
Under the hood, it is an ARM board (in fact, at heart another
Mbed), though we are treating it as a separate platform here
Above
because of its unique software development environment. The BBC micro:bit is a
Because it is designed to be used by children, it has a selection of specialised Mbed board
web-based IDEs (from a simple block-based drag-and-drop one aimed at schoolchildren
to a Python environment), compilation happens in the cloud, and Credit
transfer to the device is extremely simple. Ravi Kotecha
Below
The Circuit
Playground Express
packs a lot of
hardware onto a
EXPANDING HORIZONS Arduino Uno, it’s never a bad thing to know your small board
C and C++ are by no means the only languages that way round a few of the other contenders in the field.
can be used with a microcontroller; a popular choice, Whichever you select, you can further inform your
for example, is Python. There is a version of Python choice by looking at how much a particular
called MicroPython (you may also encounter board has been adopted by other makers,
Adafruit’s CircuitPython variant) that is tailored for and by looking at their projects to get an
microcontrollers, and particularly if you have idea of how straightforward it might be
encountered Python before on a platform such as the to work with.
Raspberry Pi, it has a fairly minimal learning curve. When people try new platforms,
Instead of being a compiler that places a binary file on they do so by creating new and
the microcontroller in the manner of the Arduino IDE, exciting projects. We look forward
MicroPython is an interpreter that directly runs raw to what you will create with your
Python code on the microcontroller itself. It provides new boards, and whatever they
access to the microcontroller features as well as the are we hope to see them within
familiar Python prompt via a serial link. On devices these pages.
such as the ESP8266 with a network connection, it
even provides access to the prompt via a web browser.
Finally, there is a class of development environment
that operates entirely within a browser. All the coding
NOT CONSTRICTING AT ALL:
is done in a browser IDE, the compiler is situated on a THE PYTHON-BASED ADAFRUIT
web server, and the resulting binary file is presented as
a download that can be uploaded to the microcontroller
CIRCUIT PLAYGROUND EXPRESS
board. In some cases, such as the BBC micro:bit, the Adafruit produces a range of boards that allows you to run interactive code. It’s a
board appears as a USB disk drive, so this is as simple designed to be programmed using simple device to use and comes fully loaded
a process as copying the binary file into the drive for it Circuit Python – a variant of the popular with a range of hardware sensors. Take a
to run. These environments can sometimes have Python language that’s designed for look at our review on page 126.
microcontrollers. Development can either Anyone with an annual print subscription
fewer features than their more traditional counterparts,
be through an editor such as Mu, which to HackSpace magazine will receive a free
but time will inevitably deliver upgrades to the compiles code that can be transferred to the Circuit Playground Express in the post. See
software, and you can’t beat them for simplicity. board over USB, or via the serial console page 54 for more details. Have fun with it!
Whether you are emboldened to try pastures new
or you are happy on familiar ground with your
51
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53
Innovation Camp
FEATURE
Camp
Ideas need a little coaxing sometimes….
Cameron Norris
@cameronsnorris
A
Cameron is a
technology and t Chateau Millemont, a 16th- Change Summit, COP21 in 2015. POC21 participants
communications
century castle near Paris, over 100 developed 12 open source sustainable projects, paving
specialist, passionate
about the use of open makers, engineers, and designers, the way towards a fossil-free, zero waste society.
source hardware for gathered to tackle ‘destructive Camp participant, Tristan Copley Smith, described his
social innovation
consumer culture’ by making open surprise when he arrived to find Chateau Millemont filled
source, sustainable products the with beds, sofas, bean bags, 3D printers, and CNC-
new norm. They aimed to produce a proof concept fabricated plywood tables. The castle gardens,
highlighting that citizen pioneers can build a fossil-free, surrounded by a vast 100-hectare forest, were covered
resource-efficient society. As a result, POC21 emerged with 30 large canvas tents, solar panels, and fairy lights
as a five-week innovator´s residency that blended to guide the way of exhausted participants at night.
strategic design, prototyping, co-making, and co-living. Even the old stables were fitted with a woodshop, metal
The event was organised by Open State and Oui welders, and a treasure trove of high-tech digital
Below
A stunning aerial view Share, two design collectives that joined forces to fabrication tools to realise almost any project.
of Chateau Millemont
before POC21
support and raise awareness of open source Without assigned ‘leaders’ and structures of
kicked off sustainability solutions during the 21st U.N. Climate accountability, it was not uncommon for people to defy
their perceived roles. For example, a photographer
emptying a compost toilet or a computer hacker
pitching a tent was commonplace. New arrivals often
required a few days to adjust to this informal structure
and governance.
Perhaps most importantly, all POC21 participants
were united in the belief that open source, sustainable
products have the potential to scale into the
mainstream and become the new normal, as traditional
barriers to building your products continue to dissolve.
Dominik Wind, Open State co-founder and POC21
organiser, described how solutions to the ongoing
climate and resource catastrophe must include
changing the behaviour of hundreds of millions of
people, and how what we consume is produced. He
believes that changing behaviour is easier when
communities band together to take action.
Let’s take a look at three of the most successful
projects that came out of POC21.
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Faircap
Providing clean, safe, drinkable water to those in need
A
ccording to Faircap, over 1.8 million
people die from drinking
contaminated water every year,
while waterborne diseases infect
over 4 billion people. In response to
this, Faircap has developed “an open
source antibacterial water filter, intended to provide
clean drinking water for everyone”. This pocket-sized
filter can be screwed into a plastic bottle, enabling the
safe consumption of water from almost any source. As
a home filter, a single Faircap can purify enough water to
provide for a family of four. Left
Faircap’s initial
3D printed
CLEAN WATER prototype filter
Led by Mauricio Cordova, The Faircap Project began
Above
after a trip to the Amazon Rainforest,“I realised that no Mauricio Cordova
matter where you are on the planet, we all will be proudly takes a
swig of freshly-
suffering from more contamination from human and filtered water
industrial activities in rivers, lakes, and natural water
reserves,” Mauricio explained. innovation is that “it opens up many more opportunities
Following POC21, Mauricio was selected by the for finding technical solutions by many more actors”.
Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) to receive a grant Previously, only well-funded research labs or established
supporting the research, design, production, testing, and companies could reasonably offer a product or service
implementation of the Faircap filter project. And as part for emergency relief or economic development. Now,
of the grant, Mauricio was partnered with Oxfam however, there is a growing army of makers who are
International to prototype multiple versions of the immensely passionate about digital fabrication.
Faircap filter for various uses cases, including a mini Mauricio’s approach of developing a product with an
version for personal use and a more robust filter for open approach from the very beginning meant that it
small communities. was much easier to leverage a large community of
contributors to make improvements on Faircap designs
THE MAKER MOVEMENT IS KEY... and even propose new ideas and solutions for future
Oxfam aims to take Mauricio’s design to a final product water filtration systems.
that can be produced in large quantities and at a low Mauricio explains that the main difference between
cost, so that any humanitarian organisation can make traditional research and development, compared with
use of the Faircap filters. Four months after first open source and open innovation, is that access to
receiving HIF support, Mauricio made significant online information means that there are no restrictions
progress in defining the final 3D designs while working on who can become an inventor. Open innovation and
with two labs to prepare the first batch for production. design can help transfer more power to responsible and
Mauricio explains that one of the most important creative end-users seeking to drive change through
reasons the maker movement is key to humanitarian decentralised problem-solving.
55
Innovation Camp
FEATURE
Showerloop Minimising water and energy usage through real-time shower ‘looping’
T
ypical ‘linear’ shower systems are places that otherwise wouldn’t be able to access it.
wasteful; taking clean water heated Jason’s primary objective during POC21 was to
to a comfortable temperature, the improve the appearance of his system and to
resulting grey water and heat energy introduce his work to a broader audience.
goes down the drain after a
moment’s use. The longer the shower, THE MAN WHO LOVES TO SHOWER...
the bigger the associated energy and water footprint A standard shower uses approximately 10 litres of
becomes. Jason Selvarajan, an environmental water per minute and a substantial amount of energy
engineer from Finland, started the Showerloop project to heat the water, depending on the temperature.
in an attempt to create a water and energy-saving Showerloop’s filtration system cleans shower water in
shower solution to reduce this footprint, while real-time, reducing the amount of water and energy
bringing water and basic sanitation to people and consumed by up to ten times. According to Jason,
Below
Jason Selvarajan
and Eduard Kobak
discuss Showerloop’s
design at POC21’s
public conference
Right
Save 650 kWh of
electricity per year
with an Arduino and
some hardware
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”
using Showerloop every day “would save an before. Open Source is the fastest and
estimated 33 000 litres of water and 650 kWh of fairest way to do that
energy per person and year” compared to a normal
shower. The system works by capturing hot water
from the drain and filtering it through a microfibre
screen to remove hair and other large contaminants.
Sand is then used to filter out smaller particles, while
homemade activated carbon mixed with salt removes
chemicals and foul odours from the water. Finally, FINNISH DESIGN
ultraviolet light is used to kill any bacteria in the water, Jason, who lives near Helsinki, first had the idea for
Below
before pumping it back to the showerhead for another Showerloop in 2009, while working on a class project Finnish
‘loop’. The resulting recycled water is so pure that it as part of a course in thermodynamics. His background environmental
engineer Jason
exceeds both US and EU standards for drinking water. as an environmental engineer honed his technical Selvarajan
In the future, Jason intends to establish collaborations skills, but he found trying to position the concept of
with more international partners that can help him Showerloop as a product significantly challenging. “It’s
build a clearer understanding of how the project can one thing to design something, but another to figure
be applied to a humanitarian context. out if it will work in the real world,” he mused.
Jason designed the Showerloop system in an Currently, Jason and Eduard have ongoing
attempt to balance filtering capacity with aesthetics collaborations with several organisations in Finland and
and deployability. The filters had to be large enough to across Europe, including Aalto FABLAB, Metropolia
adequately cleanse grey water, while remaining small University of Applied Science, and Turbiini Startup
enough to fit into a typical bathroom without causing Accelerator. The current focus is on exhibiting their
complete disruption. Showerloop’s latest design uses work at the Finnish Design Museum. They have
two slim-profile ‘flow regulators’ to split the flow of designed a flat-pack shower stall that can be produced
grey water between two filters before recombining and assembled using a laser cutter and basic hand
the filtered water into a single stream ready for UV tools to accompany the Showerloop system.
sterilisation. This design enables two thinner filter Jason’s advice to others who want to develop
tubes to do the same job as a single large- sustainable technology? “You should be ambitious to
diameter filter. get it out there and make it big.”
57
Innovation Camp
FEATURE
B
ased in Denver, Colorado, Aaron DIGITAL FABRICATORS BECOME
Mararuk and Tristan Copley Smith are URBAN FARMERS
co-founders of AKER. AKER evolved Aaron and Tristan’s first project, Open Source Beehives,
from a previous citizen science project is a network of citizen scientists that use sensor-
the duo launched in 2014, called Open enhanced beehives to help identify the causes of
Source Beehives. Both Aaron and Tristan declining bee populations throughout the world. They
felt that digital fabrication could be used to create believe that open source collaboration and open data are
innovative, snap-fit solutions for the urban farming vital tools for directly addressing such a pressing issue.
movement, and joined POC21 to make that a reality. By monitoring hive audio signals, the group is
The purpose of AKER is to provide people in urban gathering data that enables them to correlate the sound
areas with the opportunity to grow their food while of the bees with hive state and hive health. For example,
creating habitats for wildlife, even in small spaces like bee colonies that are preparing to swarm will emit an
balconies and rooftops. Envisioning a city where identifiable audio signature. Using Open Source
Below lifeless concrete structures are transformed into living Beehives hardware, it’s possible to monitor the activity
Flatpacked kits are ecosystems, the current range of kits includes a of multiple hives remotely.
easy to manufacture
and transport chicken coop, vermicomposter, three plant beds, and The primary goal of Open Source Beehives is to
two sorts of beehives. identify the unique sounds of hives that are in a
near-collapsed state so that researchers can correlate
those signals with likely causes. They also aim to
provide users with an advanced warning if their bees are
in danger, enabling bee-keepers to intervene quickly,
hopefully saving the colony.
During POC21, Aaron and Tristan had produced six
new open source designs for urban agriculture products.
These new plans included a modular, multi-level, raised
planter bed, a raised bed, a top bar beehive, a wall-
mounted planter, a two-hen chicken coop, and a worm
composting bin. According to Tristan, all of these items
can be used to build “a complete backyard farm.” Just
like Open Source Beehives, the AKER kits can be
assembled without the need for power tools or even
screws or glue and can be easily flat-packed for storage
or transportation.
Each kit is routed using high-end CNC machinery from
plywood that meets Carb II standards for “no added
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“ My secret motive is to
spread the merciless
idealism that will likely be
emanating from the camp,
along with the idea that the
human ability to dream,
create and repair is alive and
well amongst your fellow
human beings — despite
”
what you may have heard
59
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Lucy Rogers
INTERVIEW
U
L G
HackSpace magazine meets…
LUCY ROGERS
Columnist of this parish and general polymaker
“ I
’ve only just realised that
I’m not actually an engineer:
I’m a maker.” So says Dr
Lucy Rogers, fellow of the
Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, the Royal
Astronomical Society, and the British
Interplanetary Society. She’s also got a
City and Guilds in wood turning, a PhD
in blowing bubbles, and is an alumnus of
a NASA problem-solving academy that’s
finding ways to save us from fiery doom
brought about by space junk.
In an age when specialisms are
rewarded and people increasingly know
more and more about less and less, Dr
Rogers knows lots of things about lots of
things. That makes her a good person to
learn from and an even better person to sit
down to have a cup of tea with, which we
did on a cold frosty morning in February.
60
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UGERS
Above
Dr Rogers has just
realised she’s left the
soldering iron on
61
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Lucy Rogers
INTERVIEW
U
HS Morning Lucy! There’s so much LR A PhD is mostly about tenacity. You learn more from your mistakes.
we can ask you about: the Guild of Knowing what I know now, I would At university I really didn’t get on with
L G
Makers, the Internet of Things, space, probably have done an apprenticeship. If either the computing or the electronics,
robots, dinosaurs… How did you get into I was recommending to a 16- or 18-year- and for my final degree I just selected the
making in the first place? old nowadays who wanted to go into mechanical and industrial manufacturing
engineering, I’d say do an apprenticeship segments instead. My electronics was
LUCY ROGERS It’s really cool, isn’t it? (which may also lead to a degree), but V=IR and that was about all I could do. I
I’ve got every six-year-old’s dream job. that’s just another way of doing it. knew where to put a resistor.
My first year at university they sold I wanted the hands-on factor, and back So in 2011 I started to get into Arduino
all the lathes because they were going then you were academic or you were and I remember getting a music shield on
more academic rather than practical. practical: you couldn’t do both. Whereas the Arduino, and the ground on [it] wasn’t
So I didn’t learn that much hands-on my grandfather probably left school at 14, zero volts. And I blew up two of these
stuff at university. I had a car that I did didn’t have an education, but could make music shields at £30 a go, which at the
up and got through its MOT; I think I clocks or model cars or steam boats or time I didn’t have, I couldn’t afford it.
learned more with my little Renault 5 spinning wheels and could work it all out. I had no idea what I’d done. I didn’t
than I did with the academic stuff. But He went to the Greenwich Museum where know that ground wasn’t always 0 volts,
every project I did at university, where I John Harrison’s chronometer was, and that ground is relative.
got the choice, I did the ones that made would go there with a ruler when my mum Where do you learn that sort of stuff?
things. When I got my first job I was was small. My mum was left to play on the
sponsored by Rolls-Royce. I loved the docks and my granddad would go in with HS You learn it by blowing stuff up.
manufacturing part much more than his ruler, take a measurement, go home,
the maths. The hardest maths LR And by someone saying
”
that I use is trigonometry. I when they make the same
don’t use much more than that. When I got my first job mistake. Fortunately we’ve
V=IR, a bit of algebra. now got Twitter, and people
I was sponsored by
My PhD was using can share their mishaps. “I’ve
Bernoulli’s equation, but it’s Rolls-Royce. I loved the done this – where have I gone
not the maths that excites wrong?” There’s almost always
manufacturing part much
”
me. For my PhD I was looking someone out there who’ll
at how bubbles are made in more than the maths respond with “ha ha, I did that
firefighting equipment. So I – this is what you’ve done”.
had all the maths of how much
air’s going to get retained, how much get a bit of brass and make that piece. HS This seems like the perfect time to
surfactant do you use, how much soap He’d come back the next week, measure talk about the Guild of Makers, which
solution do you use, how much water another thing, come home… he made the has already been helping people out on
do you use. The bit that excited me was first quarter-scale model of Harrison’s the internet before it’s even launched.
making a nozzle out of Perspex and chronometer number 1, and it’s now in the Tell us about it: what are you planning,
getting a high-speed video camera and Science Museum. and why does the world need it?
watching bubbles being made. That He was making without the education.
was my PhD – making bubbles. And [But] I wouldn’t be where I am without LR I’ve been round Maker Faires and
every project since, if I’ve been able to having ‘Doctor’ in front of my name. you can’t get to have a go at things
make something, I have. My academic Because it gives that credibility. because there are too many kids in the
background is all engineering, but I’m No-one cares what the doctorate’s in: I’ve way. It’s not politically correct to kick a
a maker and that’s what I want to do, got a PhD in bubbles. I got chartered with child out of the way. I wanted to have a
that’s what I love. the Institution of Mechanical Engineers conference for makers who are making
when I was 25, and became a fellow at professionally. So not: “You’ve never
HS Do you think your engineering 35‑ish, because I knew that I needed that touched a soldering iron before; this is
degree helped you to become a maker? I piece of paper in order to be taken credibly how we solder”, but “this is how you set
know quite a few people who don’t have in the industry, as a freelance and as a up a business”, or “this is how you go
degrees who don’t realise that what they woman as well. That was a big push in why into mass production” and all those sorts
missed out on by not going to university I did that, and it’s worked. So I have the of things.
wasn’t that much at all. A PhD might be credibility in having a degree, but what I If you wanted to set up a company
a little bit different, mind. learnt during the degree is not so relevant. to make stuff 20 years ago you’d
62
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UGERS
Above
These are cucumber
plants, growing in
water contaminated
with varying amounts
of arsenic
Above
As well as having a
PhD in bubbles, Lucy
has a City and Guilds
in wood turning – she
made this chair
63
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Lucy Rogers
INTERVIEW
U
Left
L G
The clock is made
from brass, by
Lucy’s grandfather –
a self-taught maker
”
So nowadays you don’t have approached and said, “We need
to do every part of the process. Nowadays you don’t someone who can do this,”
But you can still be in control instead of us saying, “Get Jane
have to do every part of the
of every part of the process. Smith, she’s really good at that,”
I think cottage industries process. But you can still the Guild of Makers can act as
are coming back with more be in control of every part a brokerage. Jane Smith can
”
people not having a job for invoice Guild of Makers and the
life, and more wanting to be of the process Guild of Makers invoices the
creative and actually realising large company, so you take out
that they have a route to the thing that happens when
do that. access to a load of other makers, you’ll get small people deal with big companies
So the Guild of Makers is for discounts at our conferences, workshops, where it takes six months to get set up
professional makers and those who you’ll get discounts from (these need to on their accounts system. That’s going
want to be professional makers. That’s be confirmed) RS Components, Adafruit, to be in the future. It’s not what I’m
how Makers’ Hour started [follow the Autodesk training… launching with.
hashtag #MakersHour on Twitter every For the purposes of the Guild, a By 1 March I’ll have memberships open
Wednesday 8–9pm UK time]. Before I maker is a practical person who takes and there’ll be a founder member perk
go and set up the Guild of Makers as a pride in creating physical items using if you join before 1 April. So that’s for
limited company, let’s try Makers’ Hour, their imagination and skills. I know a the individual maker. Companies can
because setting up @GuildofMakers photographer could be a maker – artists get involved too. If you’re a company
was free. And it’s taken off. We’ve got a are makers – but the main focus of this member you don’t get the discounts that
queue of people wanting to host it, we’ve guild is for those who make practical individual members get, but you do get
got probably 30 or 40 regulars joining items, physical items. Computer access to the makers, the directory of
in, there are probably 200 people who’ve programmers, computer gamers, won’t makers, first dibs on sponsoring things at
joined in at various times. fall into that definition. If they want to the events.
64
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UGER
Left
As seen on TV: It seems to be something that people
you may recognise have been waiting to crystallise around.
this dinosaur from
such TV shows as And this is it.
Robot Wars Whether I want to or not, this is going
to happen.
S
Scratching each other’s backs works HS Do you think that you’re trying to fill
really well. A lot of this stuff isn’t a niche that the hackspace movement is
commercially sensitive. Information about already filling?
the difference between a sole trader and a
partnership is stuff that you might as well LR I think the hackspace movement is
share. I’m also hoping to partner with a growing up. The maker movement is
legal company, so if you ever do need that growing up, and those who are doing it
kind of help, you’ll have access to it. as a hobby want to do it as an industry.
In this village there are probably about So the makerspaces, the hackspaces
50 makers, but I don’t know them. I’ve are wonderful, but only if you’ve got one
gone round people’s houses and seen locally and you’ve got the right people in
what they do as part of the Open Studios it, because they’re all run by volunteers.
days. Some of it is for fun. A lot of it is for There aren’t many makerspaces that
a hobby and they sell things for the price have been successfully run as a business.
of the raw materials. Which is great, but I’m a member of the Society of Authors,
it’s not a profession. and when I see that the Society of Authors
This started with me wanting to know is offering me workshops on how to give
more makers. I want to know more people a talk, on how to do your tax return, on
HS Do you think open source has helped who make professionally. how to protect your intellectual property…
in creating the conditions where you I’ve now got people around the world I wanted that for makers, and it wasn’t
can do this? You spoke earlier about the wanting to join, and so it’s not only there… so, that’s ultimately what the Guild
spread of cottage industries. Is open going to be in the UK – it’s going to of Makers is for.
source and sharing a big part of that? be franchised or licensed somehow
internationally. I’ve got people in New
LR Yes, most definitely. From sharing, Zealand, in Sweden, The Netherlands,
Below
from people running workshops — even Greece, all wanting to do the Guild of “Of course, the best page in HackSpace magazine
paid-for workshops — I could run a Makers in their own country. – or any other publication – is page 20”
workshop on how to start with Raspberry
Pi; someone else could run one on making
chairs. We’ve got not just Makers’ Hour,
we’ve got #makershelp, and if you’ve got
a problem we’ve got quite a few people
watching that hashtag who’ll direct you to
someone who can help.
A lot of the stuff that I make personally,
I have used other people’s open-source
software. And I refer back to it when I
write blogs and how-tos. And I don’t like
saying, “Yay it’s mine now!” Because it’s
not. I don’t want to patent something or
make a profit on someone else’s work.
But I can write the blog, the step-by-
step guide. And now some of those people
who had been helping me can now refer
to my blog. “I helped Lucy do that thing.
How did it work again? Oh, she’s written it
up! That’s how we did it.”
65
Improviser’s Toolbox: paper clips
FEATURE
PAPER
CLIPS
Hold, build, and break out things with this inexpensive ubiquitous tool
E
verything in the 21st century office the paper. In the mid-1800s, the mass production of
would seem alien to H. G. Wells’s low-cost steel that had the right balance of strength
Victorian-era time traveller – except and malleability helped dislodge the straight pin in
for the paper clip. Invented in the favour of more flexible alternatives like the looped
1870s, the loop within a loop design paper clip. There were several other clip shapes that
of this handy little office item hasn’t were developed close to the beginning of the 19th
Mayank Sharma been improved since. William Middlebrook patented century. The Fay clip is often credited as the earliest
@geekybodhi the design for the machinery to create paper clips patented design in 1867, followed by the Wright clip
in 1899 and sold it to Cushman & Denison. The patented in 1877, and the Niagara clip a couple of
American office supply manufacturer registered a decades later. Some of these clips used less wire,
Mayank is a Padawan trademark for the Gem name in connection with while others could secure larger stacks of paper.
maker with an paper clips in 1904. Paper clips are still sometimes However the Gem clip won, not only because of its
irrational fear of drills.
He likes to replicate referred to as Gem clips, and the Swedish word for elegant design, but also because its production was
electronics builds a paper clip is gem. While Norwegian Johan Vaaler easy to automate. All it took was three bends and a
and gets a kick out is often credited as the inventor of the paper clip, his snip. There were no sharp edges and the paper clip
of hacking everyday
objects creatively. design was different and never mass-produced. was supple enough to snug papers between the
Before the paper clip came along, the straight loops and then hold them together.
pin was the paper fastener of choice. While it was Over the years the paper clip has been twisted,
cheap and easy to use, it left rust stains and holes in pulled apart, and used as a tool for everything
from ejecting optical drives to inserting SIM cards
and even to pick locks. Kyle MacDonald famously
traded a red one for a house. The humble paper
clip was even used as a symbol of resistance by
the Norwegians during the Second World War
against the Nazi occupation that forbade people
from wearing badges or pins depicting national
symbols. In a spiritual continuation of that tradition,
the paper clip has perhaps been immortalised as a
symbol for the digital era in the form of the universal
attachment icon.
66
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PAPER CLIP
PAPER CLIP HACKS
MOBILE PHONE STAND
Use pliers to slightly bend upwards
TREBUCHET
one end of the paper clips. Now
A
stretch the other loop in the shape
lex Palfreman-Brown has the perfect Project Maker
of an inverted V and rest your
mobile phone between the two. cure for cubicle boredom. All you need ALEX
is a handful of paper clips and a pair
BOOKMARKS PALFREMAN-
of pliers. You can use them, together
Slightly pull one end of the paper
with some other pieces of office stationery, to
BROWN
clip, wrap a piece of paper around
it, and cut it in the shape of a flag. build a trebuchet that’s powerful enough to hurl
Project Link
Then press the pulled end back balls of Blu-Tack across the cubicles and wage a hsmag.cc/EvJBQZ
into place. war on your colleagues. Alex shows you how to
EMERGENCY ZIPPER first straighten the paper clips and then intricately
If the pull-tab of a zipper is shape them into the swinging arm, the axle, the
broken, you can replace it by trigger, and other components of the trebuchet.
looping a paper clip through the You then assemble all of them on a piece of
slider mechanism. corrugated card, together with ballast (Alex uses a
FIND THE SEAM ON A ROLL bunch of batteries), roll pea-sized drops of Blu-Tack
OF TAPE into balls along with some string, and fire away.
Stick a paper clip to the end of a The whole contraption takes about an hour to put
tape roll to easily locate its seam. together. The build is so popular that it has earned
To use the tape, first pull it with
Alex several Instructables.com Pro memberships,
the paper clip and then reattach
which he gives away as competition prizes in the
it to the end before you tear away
the tape. hackspace he helps run. The evil mastermind is
fully aware of the sinister implications of his war
SECURE UNRULY WIRES
machine: “If I’m ever feeling glum, I just consider
Loop a rubber band through one
side of a paper clip. Now wrap
how many man-hours have been lost internationally
the band around a coiled wire and to bored office workers building my trebuchet. That
hook it on the paper clip to prevent always puts a smile on my face.”
the wire from unravelling.
EMERGENCY HOLDER
Straighten a paper clip and then
bend it in the middle and use pliers
to twist the ends into hooks. Use
one end to attach to a drawer and
the other to hang trinkets.
67
Improviser’s Toolbox: paper clips
FEATURE
PAPER CLIP
SCULPTURES
T
A homasin Durgin is a teaching artist in
Project Maker
Memphis, Tennessee and fabricates
THOMASIN jewellery using all kinds of metals.
DURGIN Almost a decade ago she found herself
in a cubicle in a job that was “not a good fit” for her.
Project Link
hsmag.cc/jiKLUp
So she started creating art from the materials readily
available in her workspace -- paper clips. To make these
sculptures, Thomasin adopted the traditional basket
weaving techniques to work with paper clips. She
outlined the shape and then drilled holes into a wooden
Right base and glued several 12-inch-high heavy-gauge wires
Thomasin started into them. She then threaded two of these wires into
creating this
structure while stuck each paper clip, sliding them down and staggering limiting: “I’d like to adapt true basketry techniques to
in a wrong job using them into rows. This particular sculpture took over be able to ditch the wood and create more rounded
the materials around
her cubicle 2000 paper clips. Commenting on a photo of her vessels, spheres, etc. Then I can combine both
sculpture, Thomasin writes that the process is rather methods to make more complex structures.”
MINIATURE WEAPONS
P
Project Maker aper clips are a wonderful medium
BRETT to express yourself creatively. Their
malleable nature allows them to be bent
Project Link into all kinds of shapes that can be held
hsmag.cc/grgFjq
over a period of time thanks to their sturdiness.
Armed with a pair of needle-nose pliers and some
glue, Brett took some paper clips and transformed
them into beautiful miniature weapons. Brett hasn’t
published the procedure for sculpting the paper clip
armoury, but you can reverse-engineer his process
thanks to the excellent macro photographs of the
creations by Brett’s friend, Dan Nicholas. Dan’s
images of Brett’s awe-inspiring work are detailed
Right
Brett has patiently enough to help you make out each and every bend,
shaped paper clips turn, and twist of the paper clips. If you’re like
into bows and
arrows, different us, all it’ll take is one look at Brett’s rudimentary
types of swords, a weapons and you’ll be instantly compelled to try
gauntlet, as well as a
fishing rod your hand at creating them.
68
LENS
METAL
RACE GAME
Project Maker
GREG
BORENSTEIN
Project Link
A
hsmag.cc/rkoNAm
PAPER CLIP
JEWELLERY
L
ina is a master crafter and a mum of Project Maker
two young kids. Inspired by a blog post LINA
on another website, Lina engages her kids DARNELL
creatively by using a bunch of paper clips
and some duct tape to design some simple pieces of Project Link
jewellery. She hooks paper clips together to the desired hsmag.cc/oAlbCs
69
How I Made: Time-to-go-clock
FEATURE
How I Made
TIME-TO-GO-
CLOCK
Count down to future events in style
By Peter Kent
O
n 20 January 2017, FEATURES
Donald J Trump was Somewhat conceitedly, the clock has its
inaugurated as the 45th own dedicated website, which lists its
President of the United major features as follows:
States of America. I
remember the date well, • Optional cycling through time, date,
because that was the day I stumbled Trump administration days-to-go, and
across Nixie tubes for the first time. Trump administration hours, minutes,
Out of these seemingly unrelated and seconds-to-go
events emerged the Time-To-Go
Clock, Trump Edition. • Simple, menu-driven setting
Like countless others, I using an LCD and website
felt a compelling need to say provided by the clock’s
something about the new own server
Commander-in-Chief. Spilling
out more polarising words • Celebrates President
seemed pointless, however. Trump’s affinity for Twitter by
Instead, I’d make something tweeting the time left for his
that would, literally and Administration at a random
figuratively, speak for itself. time each day
The Clock’s defining feature,
broadly hinted at in the name, • Uses Russian IN-14 Nixie
is that it can display the time to tubes and Soviet-era military-grade
any future event. In the case of the toggle switches
Trump Presidency, the US Constitution
helpfully provides the exact time and • Uses an IR motion detector to turn
date when his term of office will end. Of off the tubes if no one is around to
course, it is possible President Trump see them, and logs activity on the
could be re-elected, in which case the clock’s website
Above
clock can be easily set to the end of his Toggle switches
second term (or any other date) without add a more tactile
experience than
• Full operating instructions are also on
further programming. push-buttons the website
70
LENS
Above
Nixie tubes have ten
elements, one for
each digit, but only
light one at a time
• Time and date obtained from So in the end I elected to give the clock a physical embodiment of the passage of
the internet more Cold War beaten-up military vibe with time, and a reminder of all things lost
a repurposed B&K A/V systems controller as and irretrievable.
• Colour and brightness of LED an enclosure. Using the B&K as an enclosure was
backlights can be easily configured by meant to amplify this theme. Solid and well-
the user THE BUILD made, it might have provided many more
Components – driver board years of service, but the lack of internet
• 12/24-hour display choice and tubes connectivity and HDMI connections simply
As a newbie to Nixie tubes, I wanted to overwhelmed it.
DESIGN cut down the risk of a total project failure. The one thing that didn’t quite fit in was
My first thought was to go with what I will I also wanted to complete the project the faceplate of the B&K. It was far too
politely refer to as the Trump Aesthetic – fairly rapidly. nice. Fortunately, removing this exquisitely
‘Versailles-built-in-Blackpool’ perhaps sums For these reasons, I decided to base the machined chunk of aluminium revealed a
it up best. clock on a pre-built driver board which was utilitarian steel panel ideal for my purposes.
The big drawback to this approach designed as an Arduino shield. I bought In all likelihood, you do not have a spare
was that I intended to display the clock mine from GRA & AFCH in Ukraine. The B&K Reference 30 A/V System Controller
in my own house. I have nothing against board came pre-populated with IN-14 Nixies lying around. Do not despair. Just about any
Blackpool – I am from there – or even and was under $100, shipping included. new or repurposed metal box will do – I’d
Versailles, which is quite nice too. It’s The enduring appeal of using Nixie recommend something at least 250 mm ×
simply that combining two equally tubes in clock displays is not difficult to 150 mm × 75 mm though, especially if you
wonderful things does not necessarily fathom. Despite their ineffable beauty, intend to include a four-line LCD and the
square the output. they are an obsolete technology, a other features I ended up with.
71
How I Made: Time-to-go-clock
FEATURE
Left
Stripping back the
front panel revealed
just what I had to
work with
Components – the rest be combined in a user-friendly way. That might sound like a lot, but with a bit
However, for some functions you of careful shopping the whole lot (minus the
• Arduino Mega or clone equivalent – just cannot beat the convenience enclosure) can be had for not much more
although GRA & AFCH say the Clock and satisfaction of flipping a sturdy than $150.
shield would work with an Arduino toggle switch.
Uno, in my implementation I needed TOOLED UP
the pins and extra processing grunt of • Potentiometer. Used to control All you need to complete this project is a drill
the Mega. dimming of the backlight on the (ideally with a step bit), a soldering iron, a
LCD display. multimeter, and various hand tools. As with
• Arduino Ethernet shield or clone most projects, if you have more stuff, you
– if I were to do this project again I’d • IR motion sensor. Some Nixie clock will probably find a use for it. I drew upon
probably try to use an ESP8266-based implementations use a timer feature to many different resources for the coding side
board for connectivity, but at the time turn the tubes off at night or other set of things, primarily Google. Other search
I was more comfortable with the intervals. This doesn’t seem entirely engines are available.
Ethernet shield. sensible to me – much better to use
this $5 motion sensor, which works Preparing the enclosure
• I2C 20 × 4 LCD module. The display incredibly well. The clock also logs the I removed some of the B&K’s electronics
serves several useful purposes. It last detected motion on its website, and power supply to give me plenty of room
indicates what mode the Nixie tube a feature which I find very useful for to work. The hardest part by far (and even
display is in, greatly simplifies setting reasons that need not detain us here. this wasn’t too difficult) was drilling the
the future time being monitored, and six holes for the Nixie tubes in the top of
indicates the time the clock has (or • 12 V 1 A power supply. The driver the case. Two additional, smaller, holes are
will) tweet that day. Another reason I board shield is designed to take 12 V also required for the digit-separating neons.
included it though was as an example power from the Arduino Vin pin, so a Alignment of all these holes is obviously very
of a display technology that spelled the 12 V supply is a must. important and this is the one time when not
end for the Nixie. More practical, much having the board pre-populated would help. I
cheaper, but hardly a thing of beauty. • Miscellaneous consumables such considered various ways to get the alignment
Take your pick. as jumper wire, crimp connectors, right but in the end used the simplest
grommets, heat shrink tubing, etc. method. After drawing a line across the case
• Rotary encoder. The Clock shield
comes with some momentary button
switches which can be used for setting
the clock. However, the additional Left
The clock cycles
functions of the clock would make through different
button control alone very cumbersome ways of displaying
the time left
and in any event they are not accessible
in my enclosure design. The B&K
actually uses a very nice rotary encoder
as part of its own control scheme
which I could have reused. However,
the B&K’s encoder did not incorporate
a momentary switch, which meant you
could not easily select an option dialled
in using the encoder.
72
LENS
73
How I Made: Time-to-go-clock
FEATURE
• Red Turns off red LEDs they offer some sample code to run a clock on the way to making a clock! To make a
using the board. That said, since I needed to working Nixie-based clock, however, we still
• Green Turns off green LEDs make some fairly significant modifications to need to overcome three obstacles:
this code, it was important to start with an
• Blue Turns off blue LEDs understanding of how their code works. • Nixie tubes require around 180 V DC to
First, some basics. Nixie tubes work in a light up; an Arduino cannot source or
• Edit Mode Puts clock in edit mode similar way to an array of ten LEDs with a switch anything like that.
(effectively, this changes the operation common anode (at least, for a tube that can
of the rotary encoder so it can be display the digits 0–9). Each LED represents • A clock displaying hours, minutes, and
used to change the future event one digit, so you can light any LED/digit by seconds requires control of six tubes. If
being monitored) we persist with the approach
above, we’ll need 60 pins just
Frankly, if there were
fewer cut-outs, I could The clock’s defining feature, broadly hinted at for switching the Nixies; even
an Arduino Mega has only 54
have dispensed with
some of these or assigned in the name, is that it can display the time to I/O pins.
74
LENS
since the beginning of 1970. The code also previous code link if you want to dive into
uses the TimeLib library to calculate the time the nitty-gritty.
to the future event being monitored. With so many switches and other controls,
And that’s about it for the central task of some labelling was required. I’ve never figured
displaying current time and time to the end of out how to do this even halfway satisfactorily.
the Trump administration. For this project I ordered a couple of metal
dog tags customised with the words I needed.
TWITTERING Cut up and appropriately ‘distressed’, these
In addition to establishing a dedicated went at least some ways to complementing
Twitter account, setting up the Twitter the overall design.
feature requires including an authorisation While this build took quite a bit of time and
token in the code, which can be obtained effort, each part of it is fairly straightforward,
from hsmag.cc/HrvMId. While it would be and you could start with a simpler display. It Below
easy to have the clock tweet at a fixed time can also be reused many times – there will Sure, LEDs could display the data
just as accurately, but nothing
each day, that would be very boring – the always be some future joyous event to which appeals to us on a primal level
hours, minutes, and seconds to go would you’ll want to count down. quite like Nixies
75
DON’T MISS THE BRAND NEW ISSUE!
I Z E R O W
FREE P e print magazine
1
to th
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tion
b
onth subscrip
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EE
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With your 12-m
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PLUSE, T RS &
CA OVE LES
C AB
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PG
88
NFC DOOR
Control who comes in and out of
your fortress of solitude/shed
PG
80
PG SCHOOL OF
92
HOT WATER MAKING
MONITOR Start your journey to craftsmanship
with these essential skills
Keep an eye on how much time
you can have in the shower 80 Laser cut enclosures
82 Arduino programming:
PG
Variables, constants, and more
98 86 Sew lighting into a hat
IOTEA
Get the internet to make you a cup
of tea. Britons, rejoice!
PG
PG
PG
104 108
102
POWER
MAKE YOUR OWN
LIVING TERRARIUM
ESP8266 SUPPLY
Set up a web app to Build a bench power
Create Victorian-style living art monitor solar energy supply out of an old
with simple materials production laptop PSU
Workshop Basics: Laser cut enclosures
SCHOOL OF MAKING
WORKSHOP BASICS
Laser cut enclosures
Making the case for cases
M
akers and hackers love to build With access to a laser cutter at your local hackerspace,
a wide variety of projects. These or by using an online vendor such as Ponoko.com
creations may range from the fun, (which has local hubs in a number of regions), you
interesting, and weird, to the serious, can build exactly what you need to suit your project
practical, and useful. They may be enclosure needs.
intended for music creation, gaming, The high precision and minimal kerf (the gap of
John Park education, assistive technology, communications, material lost along a cut) of laser cutting means that
@johnedgarpark holiday decoration, media streaming, puzzles, theatre you can build joints and features to accommodate your
props, and – well, the sky’s the limit! These wonderful components with very tight tolerances. You can design
John Park is a maker projects are often made of electronic components, your enclosure using free, open source vector drawing
who builds creative mechanical parts, motors, microcontrollers, buttons, tools, such as Inkscape. There are also online, browser-
technology project
videos and tutorials
switches, dials, speakers, LEDs, keypads, batteries, based box generators such as makercase.com to get
for Adafruit Industries. displays, and even small embedded computers. you started.
He’s the former host Among this infinite, delightful variety, nearly all have Including components is easy. Add a proper circle to
of the Make: TV show
on American Public one thing in common – once the prototyping is done, your design and you’ve got a perfect, press-fit opening
Television, and a and the project is ready to be deployed and used, they for an arcade button!
20-year veteran of CG
need a case or enclosure to bring all of the elements
animation at Disney,
Sony, and other together, to provide some protection, and even to give THREE METHODS
animation studios. form and layout to their inputs and outputs. There are a number of ways to design and construct
Given the variety and creativity of your projects, a laser cut enclosure. Many of these methods are
why settle for an off-the-shelf, generic project box, adaptations of traditional joinery techniques used in
with holes drilled and cut into it, when you can build woodworking or other types of flat stock fabrication.
your own case that’s customised for your exact needs? With certain adaptations, these techniques work well
as laser cut designs, and can be made more quickly
and easily than their wood shop counterparts, which
require many repetitions of highly accurate cuts.
FINGER JOINTS
The finger joint (a.k.a. box joint) is
possibly the most popular technique
in laser cut joinery. It is perfect for
joining two pieces at 90 degree
angles, is strong, and creates clean,
flush joints.
The key to making finger joints is
creating interlocking tabs with a cut
depth equal to the thickness of the
Above material stock you are joining. This is
The different
joint types lead because the pieces you’ll join will be at
to different right angles, so the tab of part A will fit
looks in the
finished product into the gap in part B without falling short
or protruding beyond the face of part B.
80
FORGE
Left
Mortise refers to the
hole (from the old
Arabic word meaning
to ‘cut a recess’) and
tenon is the finger
(from the Latin word
meaning ‘to hold’)
Right
You can combine
techniques, as we’ve
done here with
a t-slot to give a
removable panel to a
finger-joint box
81
Arduino Programming: Variables, constants, and more
SCHOOL OF MAKING
Arduino Programming:
Variables, constants, and more
Dig deeper into the data capabilities of the Arduino
language and make your sketches easier to read and maintain
D
o you want your Arduino sketches
to look like they were written
by a professional? Use variables
and constants to self-document
your code.
In this series so far, you’ve learned
John Wargo
how to wire up some simple circuits and write
@johnwargo some Arduino code to interact with the circuit.
In this article, you’ll put aside the hardware and
John is a professional learn about some fundamentals of the Arduino’s
software developer, language: variables, constants, and more. The goal
writer, presenter,
father, husband, and is to make you a better programmer and help you
geek. He is currently a deliver code that’s easier to read and for others
Program Manager at
Microsoft, working on
to understand.
Visual Studio Mobile Development languages such as Arduino’s
Center. You can find language provide mechanisms for managing data:
him at johnwargo.com
the information (numbers, Boolean values, strings)
that your sketches use to do their work. These
Figure 1
are implemented through Variable and Constant The Arduino compiler will block some types of error before you
language elements you’ve seen used in our can upload your code the the board
previous articles. Arduino devices have a limited
amount of memory and processing capabilities, and
DATA_TYPE VARIABLE_NAME;
you’ll want to make the best use of both in your
projects. As you code your Arduino sketches, there Notice the semicolon at the end of the expression
are things you, as a developer, can do to manage – it’s required.
the memory profile for a sketch, and make the In this example, DATA_TYPE defines the type of
sketch more readable at the same time. data that will be stored in the variable (supported
types are array, bool, boolean, byte, char, double,
VARIABLES float, int, long, short, string, unsigned char, unsigned
In the Arduino language, a variable is a pointer to int, unsigned long, word). The compiler allocates
a memory location that stores a particular piece of memory for the variable based on the data type
data. Variables are used to store data used by the you specify when you create the variable. The
sketch, but also to increase code readability and VARIABLE_NAME element of the expression defines
maintainability. Variables enable you to refer to a the name you’ll use to refer to the variable in your
data value by name rather than its value. As your code. A variable’s name can only have upper-
sketch runs, your code will store and retrieve data case and lower-case letters, numbers, and the
by referring to the variable in expressions. Unlike underscore character; using anything else will cause
some other languages, in the Arduino language you a compiler error.
can’t use a variable until you’ve defined it. So to To create a variable called myInt that stores an
define a variable, use the following expression: integer value, use the following variable declaration:
82
FORGE
VARIABLE TYPES
Each variable can only hold one type of data, which
you have to define when you create the variable.
” Development languages
such as Arduino’s language
provide mechanisms for
”
The most popular options are:
managing data
• int A whole number between -32 768 and
32 767 on 16-bit boards such as the
Arduino Uno and -2 147 483 648 to float tempC = 17.5;
2 147 483 647 on 32-bit boards like the
float tempF;
Zero or MKR1000.
tempF = (tempC * 1.8) + 32;
• long A whole number between
-2 147 483 648 and 2 147 483 647. The value assigned to tempF is calculated using
the value stored in tempC.
• float A number that can include decimal
places between 3.4028235*10^+38 and Variables can be defined at any point in the
as low as -3.4028235*10^38. However, sketch, but they behave a little differently
only the first six or seven significant depending on where they’re defined. If you
figures are preserved. define them at the start of the sketch (before the
setup() function), you can access the variable
• string Text (which needs to be quoted for it
to be assigned to the variable). from anywhere. This is known as a global variable.
However, if you define a variable within a function,
• char A single byte which can represent an you can only access the variable from within the
ASCII character.
function you define it in. This is known as the scope
of the variable.
Variable names must be unique – you can’t create
int myInt; two variables with the same name in the same
scope. You can’t have two global variables called QUICK TIP
Typically, you’ll name your variables so the variable mySpecialVariable, but you could have two local Assigning a value
name says something about the value stored in variables called myInt, if each variable is defined to a variable uses a
the variable; this improves code readability. For single equals sign
example, if you were writing a sketch that recorded (=); comparing two
Figure 2 values uses a double
temperature values (like the examples in the Arduino The Arduino compiler will try to highlight the line that equals sign (==).
tutorial in issue 3), you’d create a variable to store causes the error, but this is sometimes misleading
the current temperature (and self-describe itself)
using the following:
float currentTemp;
myInt = 42;
83
Arduino Programming: Variables, constants, and more
SCHOOL OF MAKING
”
Constants are defined a circle, then calculates
the same way you Constant values are stored the circle’s area and
define variables, except in memory and can be circumference, you
the constant definition could insert the value
easily accessed by any part
”
always starts with the of 3.14 into each of the
const keyword and you of your sketch formulas. What happens
must assign a value to then if we want to
the constant. To define a use a different value
constant in a sketch, use the following expression: for pi (perhaps including more decimal places)?
You’d have to change the value for pi in each of the
const DATA_TYPE CONSTANT_NAME = VALUE;
expressions that references it. By storing the value
Constants are referenced by name, so in a constant, you’d only have to change its value in
CONSTANT_NAME defines the name associated with one place to effect all of the expressions that use
the constant. VALUE defines the data value stored it. Additionally, from a readability standpoint, seeing
in the constant. Here are some example constant pi in your code is much clearer in meaning to the
definitions, creating (in order) an integer constant, reader than 3.14.
floating-point constant (decimal value), and a string When you try to change the value assigned to
constant (a character array) : a constant in a sketch, the Arduino compiler will
complain, displaying the error message shown
const int myConstValue = 3;
in Figure 2. You will not be able to deploy this
const float pi = 3.14;
sketch to the Arduino device until you’ve resolved
Figure 3 const char myString = “My string array”;
Keep an eye on the this error.
size of the sketch as Constants have the same scope options as
you’re developing
it to make sure you variables. Constants defined at the beginning of MEMORY MANAGEMENT
don’t suddenly run a sketch, before the sketch’s setup() and loop() Arduino devices are inexpensive programmable
out of space on your
chosen hardware functions, have a global scope which means microcontrollers, and in order to meet its imposed
they can be accessed from anywhere within the cost limitation, the devices have limited memory
QUICK TIP
If you learn to program on
devices with limited RAM,
it will set up up with good
habits for the rest of your
coding career
84
FORGE
Left
If you’re ever unsure
about exactly what a
variable type means,
you can check the
Arduino language
reference at
hsmag.cc/VYrTRY
”
and processing capabilities. As a developer, you
must always pay attention to how you use the Arduino devices are inexpensive programmable
device’s memory and processor. microcontrollers, and in order to meet its
An Arduino device has a limited amount of
imposed cost limitation, the devices have limited
”
three types of memory:
memory and processing capabilities
• Flash Memory: Stores the Arduino bootloader
and your compiled sketch.
libraries in your sketches, you must pay attention
• Static RAM: Used for variable storage. to this data in order to ensure that your sketch will
run as coded on your selected Arduino device. In
• EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable the example shown, we’re only using 14% of flash
read-only memory): Non-volatile memory you memory (program storage space) and 17% of static
can use to store data while the Arduino is RAM (dynamic memory) for my sketch, so we’re in
turned off. good shape (for now).
85
Sew lighting into a hat
SCHOOL OF MAKING
Sophy Wong
@sophywong
Sophy Wong is a
designer, maker,
and avid creator. Her
projects range from
period costumes
to Arduino-driven
wearable tech. She
can be found on her
YouTube channel
and at sophywong.
com, chronicling her
adventures in making.
T
his is a simple and easy sewn circuit doesn’t want to stay folded, tack it up at the sides
project, and it’s great for getting with a few stitches of regular sewing thread. The cuff
started with wearables. We’ll sew should be at least 4 cm wide to accommodate the
three LEDs onto a knit hat for more battery holder.
visibility at night. Once you’ve gotten
the basics down with this project, you ADD THE LEDS
can use this circuit to sew LEDs into other garments If your sewable LEDs came in a strip, gently snap
too. Let’s get started! them apart with small pliers. Find the front of the
hat. Place the three LEDs on the front of the hat fold
CIRCUIT OVERVIEW with the negative (-) side up and the positive (+) side
We’ll be sewing the LEDs in parallel, so that each down. Space them about 1.5 cm apart. Tack each LED
LED gets the same amount of voltage from the in place with a small amount of hot glue.
battery. All the LEDs will be in the same orientation
in our circuit. Look for the + and - on each LED and
follow the circuit diagram (shown right) as you build.
Leave the battery out of your battery holder until
you’ve finished building the circuit.
86
W
EA
RA
BL
E FORGE TE
CH
”
battery holder so that its project on and try it scissors
opening points toward
Once you’ve gotten the out. The battery holder Hot glue gun and
the edge of the hat and basics down with this project, should sit comfortably glue sticks
the negative sew tab is on the side of your head,
you can use this circuit
on top. Use a dab of hot and no conductive thread
glue to tack it in place to sew LEDs into other or component should be
”
for now. touching your skin.
garments too
If your LEDs don’t
SEW THE CIRCUIT light up properly, check
Now that we have our components tacked in place, to make sure they’re all aligned correctly with each
we can sew the circuit to connect them. Thread your other, and that the battery holder is in the same
needle with about 50 cm of conductive thread and tie orientation: negative sew tab on top. Also make sure
a knot at the end. This may feel like a long piece of your conductive thread tails are trimmed to prevent
thread, but we want to sew each leg of the circuit in shorts, especially at the battery holder.
one continuous run. Your author doubled the LED magic by repeating
Start at the battery holder: begin your run by this process on the back of her hat with red LEDs.
Below
stitching four or five times around the positive sew How will you customize this project and make it your White LEDS at the
tab of the battery holder. Pull the thread snug against own? Show us your build at @HackSpaceMag! front, red at the back
Below
The battery holder should go along the side of the hat, where it
will fit along the side of your head.
87
Build an NFC-powered door lock
TUTORIAL
Build an NFC-powered
door lock
Forget keys and codes; secure your private hackspace with fob access!
Paul Freeman-Powell
@paulfp
Paul is a technology
enthusiast, geek,
writer, presenter, video
producer, YouTuber,
drummer, husband, and
father to three children,
including twins. You
can find his website at
switchedonnetwork.com
E
ven if it’s completely unnecessary, Before we get started we’re going to assume that
there’s always something quite you already have your Raspberry Pi all set up with the
exciting about adding extra layers of latest version of Raspbian installed and up-to-date.
security to your workspace entrance, With that all ready, start by connecting up all the
harking back to childhood days of hardware components.
asking “what’s the secret password?” First, plug in the RFID reader to any of the USB
before letting your friends into your den. If you’re ports. This type of reader is especially easy to work
anything like us, your space will have some pricey toys with as it acts just like a keyboard, in that the operating
and expensive equipment in it, so it can certainly give system sees the data contained in any fob presented
you some extra piece of mind to have it protected by to it getting typed in, followed by a new line. To see
an additional barrier from any would-be intruders! this for yourself, open up a text editor and then hold
Above This is a great first project if you’re just getting each fob to the reader in turn; you’ll see a string of
The finished build
with all components started in the world of hacking and Raspberry Pi, as numbers getting quickly typed in followed by a newline
connected. The we’ll learn not only about accepting input to the system character each time.
Electronic Door Strike
is powered by a from something other than a standard keyboard
separate 12 V power and mouse, but also about operating a relay switch GPIO PINS
supply and switched
by the relay switch to control an entirely separate (and higher voltage) Next, connect your relay to the GPIO pins. It’s a 5 V
electrical circuit. relay, so the positive pin (which will be labelled either
88
FORGE
POWER SOURCE
To avoid having to run two separate power supplies,
consider using a dual-voltage power supply. If you
have an old computer PSU lying around, you can
easily make one yourself: simply use your multimeter
to find the 12 V and 5 V supply cables normally
delivered to a SATA hard drive. To make the PSU
power-up without needing an ‘On’ switch on the front
of a computer case, short out the green (signal) cable
to an unused black ground cable.
89
Build an NFC-powered door lock
TUTORIAL
#!/usr/bin/env python3
Right
The RFID reader
inputs data it reads from evdev import InputDevice
from the NFC tags from select import select
(key fobs) into the
operating system
like a keyboard
The first line specifies the environment in which
inputting text you’ll be working and that you want to use Python 3. To handle the event, add these lines to the while loop:
Then, we need to import InputDevice and select,
while True:
both of which will allow us to read the data from the
r,w,x = select([dev], [], [])
RFID fobs.
for event in dev.read():
Next, add the following three lines of code:
if event.type==1 and event.value==1:
rfid_presented = “” if event.code==28:
keys = “X^1234567890XXXXqwertzuiopXXXXasdfghjkl if rfid_presented==”0001155844”:
XXXXXyxcvbnmXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX” # Unlock Door
dev = InputDevice(‘/dev/input/event0’) print(“Unlocking Door.”)
GPIO.output(13,GPIO.HIGH)
The first line creates and initialises an empty variable
in which we’ll store the characters that make up the
time.sleep(5)
data string from the key fob, one by one. The second
line defines a string of characters which later code
# Lock Door again
will refer to in order to establish which character has
print(“Locking Door Again.”)
been typed. The third line defines your input device
GPIO.output(13,GPIO.LOW)
so the code knows which to listen to. You’ll need
else:
to check what ID your input device has been given
print(“Access Denied.”)
by the Raspbian operating system and modify your
code accordingly. To do this, type the following into a
rfid_presented = “”
Terminal window:
else:
ls -lah /dev/input/by-id rfid_presented += keys[ event.code ]
You should see a list of all your Raspberry Pi’s Inside this loop, we’re listening for events of type
input devices, with a symlink for each one giving it a 1 which means a (virtual) key has been pressed
friendlier name. Look for the long name which is clearly and a character entered. Each time that happens,
your RFID reader – in this case it’s ‘event0’ (because we look at the event code to see if it’s 28, which
I’m shelled into the Pi via SSH and there are no other corresponds to the newline character, which we
USB devices attached, such as a keyboard and mouse). know from before means the end of the data being
read from the fob. If the data that has been entered
ALWAYS LISTENING... isn’t a newline, we take that data and add it to
The system needs to continuously listen for input from the rfid_presented variable using the ‘+=’ syntax,
the reader, so we achieve this by defining an infinite gradually building it up with a character at a time to
loop like this: create the string of text. Once we get a character
which is 28, i.e. the newline, we stop building the
while True:
text string up and see if it’s the data that we’re after.
Everything else in the program takes place within For the sake of clarity in this example, I’ve hard-
that loop, so it’s now constantly listening for an event. coded the data we’re looking for into the if/else
statements (see the ‘Building in flexibility’ box for a
better real-world alternative). You’ll obviously need
BUILDING IN FLEXIBILITY to substitute that with the data from your own key
Instead of hard-coding the data from the RFID fob into your code, consider storing a list fob. If the string read from the key fob is the one
of authorised codes in a MySQL database instead, and modify the Python code with an we’re looking for, then we jump into action and do
SQL query to look up the presented code in the database to check validity. This opens five things:
up a world of possibilities; you could create a web interface to manage access remotely
and assign owners’ names to fobs, or you could add extra columns to your database
1. Print a line of text to the Terminal window
table to restrict access to certain days or times… ideal for cleaners or dog walkers, etc.
saying what we’re doing (which is very useful
for debugging)
90
FORGE
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setwarnings(False)
GPIO.setup(13,GPIO.OUT)
python lock.py
91
Smarter hot water
TUTORIAL
Jenny Fletch
Jenny is a historian,
administrator and
organiser who
likes it when life is
made simple.
W
e’ve all been there – halfway GETTING STARTED
through a relaxing shower This project is suitable for domestic hot water
and suddenly the hot water systems that use a vented hot water cylinder,
runs out! If you’re not first usually installed in an airing cupboard. It will not
into the bathroom, how do you work with an unvented pressurised hot water
know if the water will last? system. You can tell if the system is vented as
Using a Raspberry Pi Zero and a series of digital there will also be cold water tank in the loft.
temperature sensors, this project will show you The hot water cylinder is typically made of
exactly how much hot water remains in the tank copper, and covered in a thick layer of foam to
Above using a series of coloured LEDs – as the water runs insulate it and prevent the water cooling down
Best of friends –
when all the LEDs out, they will gradually change from red to blue. It too quickly.
turn blue there’s will even upload the data to Google Sheets so you Hot water is held in the cylinder and heated either
no more hot water,
but with a smart can check the status remotely. from the central heating boiler or by an electric
thermostat you The same technique could be used to monitor element. When you use hot water in the house, it
can reheat it from
wherever you are the temperature of almost anything, such as a is taken out from the top of the cylinder and it is
greenhouse, a fridge, or a fish tank. replaced with cold water flowing into the bottom.
92
FORGE
As the hot water is used up, the level of cold mark off the intermediate positions. Use this
water rises up the tank. When the cold water information to calculate how much cable is required YOU’LL NEED
reaches the top, that’s it: cold showers all round. between each sensor. Also work out where you will
Raspberry Pi
This project works by having a series of mount the Raspberry Pi (somewhere easily visible Zero W (but
temperature sensors fitted to the side of the tank and near a power supply), and how much cable is not the latest
version with pre-
at regular intervals. By connecting these to a needed between the Pi and the first sensor.
soldered header)
Raspberry Pi, the rising level of cold water can be
measured – so you can keep an eye on your hot PREPARING THE HARDWARE Case
water consumption and put an end to unnecessary The next step is to solder the header pins to the Power supply
cold showers. Raspberry Pi. The Blinkt! LED module is ideal as
40-pin 2 × 20
it’s nice and easy to connect to the Pi, and the male header
MEASURING UP existing Python library makes setting the colour and
Blinkt!
The Blinkt! LED module has eight LEDs, so this intensity of each individual LED really simple. The
8 LED array
project uses eight sensors – each sensor controls downside is that it covers all 40 GPIO pins, making
the colour of one LED, changing it from red when it difficult to connect anything else. 8 × DS18B20
temperature
the water is hot, to blue when it is cold. Even though it covers all the pins, it actually only sensors (it’s
The first step is to determine how far apart the uses four of them – numbers 2 and 6 for 5 V power easiest to buy these
sensors need to be. The top sensor should be and ground, and 16 and 18 for LED control. pre-wired in a
waterproof casing)
close to the outlet in the middle of the cylinder. The DS18B20 digital temperature sensors
The bottom sensor should be about 5 cm above the run off the 1-Wire protocol. This means all data 4.7 kΩ resistor
point where cold water enters. Mark these points communication is transmitted on one wire, no matter 30 g tube
on the outside of the insulation with a marker pen. how many sensors are connected. The Raspberry Pi of thermal
Measure the vertical height from the top sensor can read these signals on pin number 7 (GPIO 4). The compound paste
location to the bottom one, divide by eight, and sensors also need a 3.3 V and ground connection,
which are taken from pins 1 and 9 respectively.
By pushing pins 1, 7, and 9 of the header through
the plastic strip before it’s soldered, the three
pins required for the temperature sensors are left
sticking out of the back of the Pi, while the other
37 stick forwards in the normal way. The Blinkt!
93
Smarter hot water
TUTORIAL
”
Start by going to script, preferably in
Google Drive on the a folder called
Creating and granting
web and create your /home/pi/python.
spreadsheet. As said permissions to the If you create the
before, the Python spreadsheet is best done Python file in a
script expects this to different folder,
on a full-size computer,
”
be called ‘Hot Water’, the code should be
but this can be changed not the Pi Zero updated to reflect
to anything you like, as the different folder
long as the code in the location. This JSON
Python script is changed to match. file becomes the digital key to unlock the
spreadsheet. When Python attempts to write
QUICK TIP UNLOCKING SECURITY data to the Google Sheet, it sends a copy of the
Now the security access permissions need to be JSON file to the server. Google will confirm that
A threshold
granted for this spreadsheet: the Sheet has been shared with the embedded
temperature is
calculated, which • Go to the Google Developers Console email address. It’s therefore important not to share
is halfway between (https://console.developers.google.com) this file with anybody else as it allows access to
the temp_max and and create a new project. Call it anything you your files.
temp_min. If the like (e.g. hotwater). Return to Google Drive and open your blank ‘Hot
temperature is Water’ spreadsheet.
above this threshold,
it is counted as 'hot'
• From the list of options on the left-hand In the top-right corner, click ‘Share’ and then
when calculating side, select ‘Library’ and then search for the add the email address from earlier. You may get
the percentage of Google Drive and Google Sheets APIs. Enable an ‘address not found’ email from Google a few
water remaining. them both. minutes later, but this can be safely ignored.
94
FORGE
sudo raspi-config
EXPLAINING THE CODE
Under ‘Interfacing Options’, enable the The script is made up of 7 key sections:
1-Wire interface.
It is also useful to enable SSH at the same time PART 1
to allow remote access to the Raspberry Pi so you Import libraries
don’t need to dismantle everything if the code The non-standard functions are loaded.
needs to be tweaked. Make sure you change the
default password when you do this. PART 2
It’s also at this stage you need to ensure the Pi Key variables are defined
can connect to your WiFi network so that data can There are two areas that need to be manually
be uploaded. customised for each project:
1. temp_max is the temperature you consider to
INSTALLING THE REQUIRED PYTHON be fully hot, and temp_min is the temperature
LIBRARIES where it’s no longer hot enough – it may take
Additional Python libraries are required for the a few days of experimenting to find the ideal
Blinkt! LEDs and for pygsheets, which will be used settings for these.
to upload the data to Google Sheets.
Installation of the Blinkt! packages is done by 2. Then there is a list of eight sensor addresses.
entering this Terminal command: These will be different for every project, so
you must find the correct 64-bit serial numbers
curl https://get.pimoroni.com/blinkt | bash
for your sensors and change them
5
4.7K Ω
11
Above
All eight sensors
are wired in series,
with a single 4.7 kΩ
resistor between
data and 3.3 V
95
Smarter hot water
TUTORIAL
PART 5
A loop that runs eight times
– once per sensor
This looping code is repeated eight times,
once for each sensor. On each loop, it does
the following:
• Reads the sensor text file. This is made up of
two lines of text.
PART 6
ADDRESSING THE Formatting the data into a tidy state
TEMPERATURE SENSORS The percentage of hot water remaining is calculated
and the time is converted to a useful format.
Every sensor has a 64-bit serial number that identifies it.
The digital data can be accessed through the Linux file
system at /sys/bus/w1/devices/<sensor address>. In this PART 7
folder is a text file called “w1_slave”. The temperature is Calling the data upload subroutine
the last few digits, in 1000ths of a degree C. The final step is a call-back to the subroutine
defined in Part 4. This writes the data to the
Google Sheet.
96
FORGE
CHECKING IT WORKS
Once everything has been built, powered up and
TROUBLE SHOOTING
programmed, it’s time to check it works. This is best WHAT TO CHECK
done before installing in the airing cupboard and with If you are experiencing issues, check the following:
the Pi Zero attached to a monitor and keyboard. • The Google Sheet has the correct name and
Run the script using this command: has been shared with the email address
generated by the Google Developers Console
python /home/pi/python/hotwater.py
You should see the information from each sensor • The client_secret.json file is in the correct place
being printed to the screen, followed by messages
• The codes for each of the eight sensors are
about the data being uploaded to Google. correctly identified and entered into the script
Once everything is working when you run the script
manually, the final step is to have it run automatically
at regular intervals. The nice thing is that the Raspbian
operating system already has a built-in utility to do You will see a text file in the standard Linux text
just this: crontab. editor. Scroll to the end, and on a new line add
the following:
CRONTAB IS YOUR FRIEND
*/5 * * * * python /home/pi/python/hotwater.py &
Crontab is a Linux utility for automatically performing
tasks – either at fixed times of the day, or at boot – This will automatically run the script every five
but most importantly here, at regular intervals. minutes. If you want a different frequency, then
Crontab is opened using the following command: change the number at the beginning.
You should now be able to open the Google Sheet
crontab -e
on another computer and watch the data come in
live every five minutes!
97
IoTea: An internet-connected tea machine
TUTORIAL
IoTea: An internet-
connected tea machine
Build a beverage-making robot that’ll make you a cuppa on command
WARNING!
This project involves
mains electricity and
boiling water.
Make sure you
know how to
handle these safely
before starting.
Archie Roques
@archieroques
T
roques.xyz.
ea is a favourite time to pump a
drink among those who lovingly cupful of water. A
put together HackSpace magazine relay then controls the kettle (the
– but these life-saving cuppas kettle switch must be already pressed
don’t make themselves. We have down so that when the relay fires, the kettle turns
to literally use our hands and arms to on). Lastly, a small solenoid valve fitted to the side of
make ourselves a nice cup of tea manually after a the kettle opens to dispense the water into a waiting
hard day’s work – a Luddite injustice that feels as cup, with teabag. You have to add your own milk and
though it should be solved, in this new millennium sugar, but it’s only 2018.
of self-driving cars, AI-driven heating systems, and Once you’ve got all your components, the first
flashing computerised bobble hats. This project uses step is to test your valve, and work out which way
Above a Raspberry Pi Zero W as the brains behind a simple round it should go – solenoid valves typically work in
The finished system to make the perfect cuppa just as soon as one direction only. The easiest way to test this is by
product looks like
something Professor you say ‘OK, Google’. blowing through the valve and seeing if air comes out
Branestawm might’ve The system we’ve put together here uses a normal the other end, or alternatively pouring a little water in
come up with, but it
makes a tasty cuppa! electric kettle, which is filled by a small peristaltic it. Hook it up to a (usually) 12 V power supply to open
liquid pump, turned on for just the right amount of the valve and try blowing/pouring again.
98
FORGE
search for the name of the part). You should also use side of the valve, which directs the water into a cup – A SparkFun
a heatsink, and add capacitors to either side of your but it depends on the valve you get, and how big a hole Beefcake relay
sparkfun.com
regulator to smooth the voltage in case of any spikes; you want to make in the kettle. It’s a good idea to use
the data sheet should have information on what’s metal fittings so you can be sure they won’t melt. A kettle (the
simpler the better)
required. You’ll need to solder the connections to the Next, drill a hole in the side of the kettle to
valve and pump, and use the screw terminals on the accommodate the fittings for the valve. A stepped- A water
relay for the rest. Leave out the kettle wire to begin cone drill bit is the best way to do this. If your kettle container
with, as it’s easier to test it without the relay. is plastic, it’s important to take things slowly and be 2 V Solenoid
careful because the plastic cracks incredibly easily, and valve suitable for
if that happens it’ll ruin the whole kettle. Once you’ve 100°C use
Below drilled the hole, fit the valve. Use a mole wrench or
Colour-coding wires is a great way to simplify things when Small peristaltic
working on complex projects like this spanner to tighten up the nuts really well – but not too water pump
hsmag.cc/xmHijt
far or you’ll risk cracking the plastic.
Once everything’s connected up, it’s time to Small push-
program. Flash an SD card with Raspbian OS (there’s button
a tutorial for this on the Raspberry Pi website at 5 V voltage
hsmag.cc/UPSBIK), connect the Pi to a screen, regulator
power supply, mouse and keyboard (you’ll need a USB 12 V power
hub and a few adapters), and boot up. Note that you supply (at least 3 A)
absolutely mustn’t connect the 12 V power supply
A small piece of
whilst you’ve got your Raspberry Pi connected to stripboard
another power supply, or bad things will happen!
Plenty of wire
99
IoTea: An internet-connected tea machine
TUTORIAL
def makeACuppa():
TAKING THINGS FURTHER pump.on()
OPTIONS FOR ENHANCEMENT time.sleep(pumpdelay)
pump.off()
There are lots of ways this project could be improved. For example, if the water tank is
kettle.on()
empty it could lead to the kettle boiling dry which isn’t a good idea – so perhaps a water
sensor could be added to alert you when it’s running out. time.sleep(kettledelay)
Another potential issue is that the system relies on the kettle being full to the bottom kettle.off()
of the valve before operation (any liquid under the valve level won’t be dispensed into
the cup), so maybe a liquid level sensor could be used to ensure the kettle is full enough. valve.on()
The system as it stands will make a cup of tea whenever it receives an email (which time.sleep(valvedelay)
is open to hacks!), so it could be advantageous to refine the code to only make tea when valve.off()
emails from a specific address are received.
Variables are used here for the amounts of time,
You could also add a system to remove the teabag from the cup after a period of time.
There’s only one thing worse than no cup of tea, and that’s an over-brewed cup of tea! because it makes it easier to change the delay times
It should go without saying that it’s important to make sure all electronics are suitable later (there’s a fair bit of trial and error involved in that
for use in 100°C operation – if in doubt, don’t use it! stage!). When that code’s done, add the line button
when_pressed = makeACuppa to trigger the algorithm
when the button’s pressed. Run the code again and
number, as per the first example. Run the code. It try it (without any water in the system). This code
won’t do anything to begin with, but you can test each will work fine for simply making tea at the press of a
item by typing pump.on(), pump.off() etc. button, but if we want our tea to be cloud-connected
we need to add another block of code.
import gpiozero
QUICK TIP If This Then That (IFTTT) is a great service for IoT
pump = gpiozero.LED(3, active_high=False) projects – it ties together all sorts of online services.
The rc.local file
works for auto- valve = gpiozero.LED(26) However, it’s not too easy to integrate the output of
running scripts kettle = gpiozero.LED(5) an IFTTT applet with a Python script without hosting
on the Raspberry a full-blown web server, and that’s another level of
Pi and is a useful button = gpiozero.button(2)
complication that this project could do without – so the
thing to keep handy. All this code does is set up each relay using the following steps use email as a way to get the internet
There are also all
gpiozero library, which makes it really easy to control to talk to the Raspberry Pi. Set up a Gmail account for
sorts of other ways
to do this including physical hardware with a Raspberry Pi. We’re using the your project with a unique email address (unless you
using .bashrc, LED class for the relays because although they aren’t want a cup of tea every time you receive an email).
crontab, and init.d. LEDs, it allows us to turn them on and off, which is all The code for this part is mostly the same as Adafruit’s
they really need to do. It also sets up the button. Make LED Email notifier project (hsmag.cc/jGEDcx), so
sure everything works before moving on. that’s a good place to go if you’re looking at making
Once you’ve got the relays worked out, the next modifications to this code.
Below
The kettle must be step is to write an algorithm for making a cup of tea. It You’ll need to install the IMAPClient library – use
kept filled to the basically consists of turning on each component of the sudo pip install imapclient in the Terminal to do
level just below the
bottom of the valve system for a length of time, one after the other. this. Then you’ll need to modify Adafruit’s code a bit:
remove all the references to RPi.GPIO and LEDs.
Replace the code in the if newmails > NEWMAIL_
OFFSET: section with makeACuppa() and delete the else
statement so it only makes you a cup of tea if a new
email’s detected.
You also need to replace the NEWMAIL_OFFSET variable
with one called prevMails, and assign that to the
number of new mails found every time the loop runs.
This is because you want it to run whenever there’s
a new email since the loop last ran, not whenever
you have any number of unread emails (a subtle but
important distinction!).
Finally, copy and paste the contents of the loop
above the code, so that when you run it, it checks the
number of emails to begin with and assigns that.
100
FORGE
Button
GPIO 2
Raspberry Pi Zero W
Ground GPIO 5
GPIO 3 +5V GPIO 26
+
12V 5V
Power
Supply regulator
-
+V COM +V COM +V Control
‘Beefcake’
Control
Control
Pump Relay Valve Relay
kettle relay
gnd NO gnd NO
COM
NO
gnd
Above
And there you have it: an IoT connected, Raspberry Pi Powered Live wire of
tea machine, complete with steampunk spout!
Pump Valve mains lead
(220V)
101
Make your own living terrarium
TUTORIAL
T
errariums create a closed environment of activated charcoal powder over the top of the
for plants, free from dust and pollution, pebbles. Try not to get the powder on the glass
with a constant level of humidity that walls. The charcoal helps purify the water as it
allows tropical plants to thrive. Perhaps circulates through the terrarium in a closed loop, and
our fascination with terrariums is part of prevents the build up of unwanted moss and algae.
the larger movement to bring plants into Fill the terrarium with a layer of regular compost or
Jen Botezat our homes, especially when we have little space. In this potting mix, about 20 cm for the demijohn. A funnel
tutorial, we will be making a tropical terrarium, inspired is really useful for this step. Don’t worry if you leave
@neurojenerator
by the first one ever invented. You rarely need to water soil residue on the sides of the container – we will
I am a DIY enthusiast
it, and you can watch it grow over many years as a clean this at the end.
with a passion for brilliant living addition to your home.
making. You can often WHAT TO GROW
find me in the garden,
whether my own or a PEBBLE AWAY For this tropical terrarium, you will want plants that
community one, as I Start with a glass container which you can seal. are native to the tropics and thrive under canopy.
especially love making Here, we are using a demijohn (traditionally used as Ferns (such as Button ferns and Boston ferns),
them look beautiful. I
volunteer at the Alpine the vessel of choice by merchants storing wine and ficus pumila, calathea, ivy, red or green fittonias,
& Rock Garden at Kew spirits). Carboys, boiling flasks, jam jars, vases, fish and the friendship plant are all excellent choices.
Botanical Gardens.
bowls, and even the odd light bulb make excellent Likewise, cushion moss will look chunky and lush
options for a tropical terrarium. in your terrarium. Select plants with different
Fill the container with a layer of pebbles for colours, textures, and heights to give your terrarium
drainage. Make sure to wash the pebbles beforehand. that extra wow factor. If the plants come too big,
A layer about 10 cm-high works well for the demijohn. divide them by gently pulling apart and teasing out
You want to leave space in the container for the the roots.
compost and plants to grow. To make adding pebbles Get your creative juices flowing as it’s time to
easier, make a funnel out of an old plastic pot (make design. How you arrange the plants inside is what
a cut along one side of the pot, wrap it inwards, and makes your terrarium unique. For this step, you will
insert it into the top of the demijohn). need to make some tools specifically for a terrarium.
You can make most of these yourself. Make a cork
THROW IN CHARCOAL! tool and a sponge tool by attaching a cork and a
This is an important step that’s often forgotten when small sponge onto sticks.
making a tropical terrarium. Sprinkle a teaspoon Now use the long stick to make a small hole in the
compost. Poke the hole until you feel the pebbles
below. This is where your first plant will go. Drop the
THE FIRST TERRARIUM plant down into the terrarium and carefully wriggle
In 1829, entomologist Dr Nathaniel Ward put a Sphinx moth chrysalis and some leaf mould into place with the long tweezers or stick. Use the
into a sealed glass container to watch it develop. Instead, a miniature fern grew inside. cork tool to tamp down the compost around the
Ward concluded that the container maintained a constant humid environment, perfect plant. Don’t plant more than one plant in a single
for tropical plants, and so the ‘Wardian Case’ was born. Wardian cases allowed tropical hole, as this can get fiddly. Rather, plant each piece
plants to survive long sea voyages to the UK and spurred a fern craze in Victorian times. one by one, making holes as you go along. Drop in
The fern motif began to appear everywhere, even on Custard Cream biscuits!
the cushion moss and tamp down with the cork tool
to position it.
102
FORGE
YOU’LL NEED
Sealable glass jar
Pebbles
Activated
charcoal powder
Regular potting
mix
Small tropical
plants and moss
Spray bottle
with water
TOOLS
Make your
own terrarium
tools with a
cork, sponge,
and several
long sticks
Long tweezers
and radiator
brush (if you
have them)
103
Monitor your solar setup in your browser
TUTORIAL
T
he amazing ESP8266-based boards The TSL2561 communicates using the I2C interface,
Above include all the hardware to connect making it easy to connect to many small computer
Light sensor TSL2561
– back, front, and with to a WiFi network and it can be boards such as the those using the ESP8266, and
PTFE filter in place
programmed to act as a web of course the Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Modules
server. Here we set one up to host a containing this chip and the necessary ancillary
website, which displays the sunshine components are widely available.
measurement on a simple dashboard. Any device, For this project, a NodeMCU V1.0, is used as the
computer or smartphone, on the same WiFi network host computer. The NodeMCU is easy to use as it
can view the data. plugs into a USB port on the computer running the
Light measurement is useful for assessing when to Arduino IDE.
switch on extra light or monitoring the performance of
a solar system. The TSL2561 light-integrated circuit is HARDWARE
a sophisticated device designed for making indoor light I2C is a way of communicating over two data lines
measurements in lux units. Sunshine, or solar irradiance known as SDA and SCL. The sketch assumes that
is usually measured in W/m2. Proper solar sensors can GPIO 0 (pin D3 on the NodeMCU) is the SDA line, and
Bill Grainger
be expensive, but this little unit can be modified to give GPIO 2 (pin D4) is used for the SCL line. The TSL2561
reasonable performance at a low price. module also needs GND (0 V) and VCC (+3.3 V)
Bill Grainger is a
physicist and design The integrated circuit contains two sensors: one connections to operate.
engineer who loves which responds to both visible and infrared light, and To start with, the sensor and the NodeMCU are
coding and having
another which responds to infrared light only. For mounted on a breadboard and the two connected with
computers interact
with the real world. He solar measurement, only the first sensor is needed, jumper wires.
works with wind energy especially if the measurements are used to evaluate The maximum length depends on the connecting
on all scales and enjoys
running, sea kayaking, a PV system, as it responds to sunlight in a similar cable capacitance, the clock speed, and the pull-up
and mountaineering. manner to a PV panel. resistors. In most cases a separation between the
104
FORGE
526
for solar data
SOFTWARE
The simplest way to program ESP8266 boards like the
NodeMCU is via the Arduino IDE. The core Arduino IDE Solar Irradiance
package must be extended with a board manager to FSD 10000 W/m/m
work with the ESP8266. Many sketches and libraries
developed for the Arduino series of computers can be
used on the ESP8266 – a huge advantage, given the
wealth of Arduino applications. The sketch (Arduino
program) relies on a library written to access the
TLS2561 sensor by the people at SparkFun. Setting
up the Arduino IDE and loading the SparkFun library is
described in the box on page 106.
The following function is used to take readings from
HANDLING THE SOLAR SENSOR the sensor.
First attach the libraries needed for the WiFi, the solar
float reading_totalsolar() {
sensor, and the I2C interface.
unsigned int sdata0, sdata1;
#include <SparkFunTSL2561.h> const float error =9999.0;
#include <Wire.h> if (light.getData(sdata0,sdata1))
{
Next, enter the calibration for the sensor. The
return solcalib*sdata0;
number, 3000, in the code is for indoor light for initial
}
investigation. Once you have calibrated your sensor,
else
change this to suit.
{
float solcalib=1000.0/3000; return error;
}
Tell the ESP8266 how the I2C hardware is connected.
}
#define SDA 0 // GPIO0 / D3
#define SCL 2 // GPIO2 / D4
NODEMCU PHONE HOME
Create an instance of the light sensor and set the Setting up the WiFi on an ESP8266 device is
highest reading that will be likely. straightforward, but you will have to enter details of your
WiFi network to make this section work. In particular,
SFE_TSL2561 light;
you will need to enter the network name in the ssid
const float solarMax = 1000.0;
variable and the network password in password. The
This next section is run once from the main setup other settings may should suit most networks, but if
function and collects together all the instructions your router has a different IP address or the address
required to set up the solar sensor. 192.168.0.186 is already assigned, you will need to
change the other settings.
void setup_solarirradiance() {
(If you are unsure what IP address your router has,
try using the incredibly useful, free smartphone app,
boolean gain = 0;
Fing, to see all the devices on your WiFi network and
unsigned int sitime;
their IP addresses.)
unsigned char time = 0; // time 13.7
milliseconds #include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
light.begin(); // Initialize the
TSL2561 const char* ssid = “********”; // Wi-Fi network
delay(1000); const char* password = “*****”;// Wi-Fi password
light.setPowerUp(); IPAddress ip(192,168, 0, 186); // static IP
} IPAddress gateway(192,168,0,1); // router IP
IPAddress subnet(255,255,255,0);
105
Monitor your solar setup in your browser
TUTORIAL
Figure 2
Dashboard FEELING RESPONSIVE
arc labelling The sketch waits for web requests to be received over
the WiFi and then returns the webpage with the latest
D data from the sensor (Figure 1).
C The dashboard is drawn by drawing a black
background circle, an arc with angle related to the
value to be displayed, a silver circle on top with the
A value displayed as a number, and finally a text title. The
complicated bit is drawing the correct arc. This involves
calculating the screen co-ordinates of the four vertices
B of the light blue arc, shown in the diagram (Figure 2).
A full arc will have an angle of 270 degrees.
The webpage is created by printing lines of HTML
The WiFi connection is started, and a static IP address and SVG code to the client. HTML instructions mainly
assigned in the following section. cover setting up a webpage, layout, and text. To produce
interesting graphics, an extension like SVG is required.
void startWIFI(void) {
Each time the solar web server receives a valid
Serial.print(“Connecting to “);
request from a client, it calculates the co-ordinates of
Serial.println(ssid);
the arc on the dashboard and produces the image. SVG
WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
files are a text-based XML format, so we can generate
while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
them easily in the code.
delay(200);
The main SVG instructions used are circle, path with
}
the arc(A) setting, and text.
WiFi.config(ip, gateway, subnet);
In the sketch, when a double quote (“) character
}
has to be sent to a client using the client.println()
An instance of a WiFi server is created to instruction, it must be preceded by \, or it will be
receive requests to access the website from other interpreted as the end of a string. This makes the code
devices, clients. more complicated to read. For example, the first line in
the SVG creation is sent with:
WiFiServer myserver(80);
String req; client.println(“<svg version=\”1.1\” xmlns=\
“http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\”
height=\”” +
String(3*centreOffsetY)
INSTALLING THE ARDUINO IDE FOR + “\” width=\””
ESP8266-BASED BOARDS To allow it to be easily adapted for other applications,
the webpage drawing code is split into two sections:
The Arduino IDE runs on PCs using the Linux, Windows, and Mac OSX operating systems. Go
the first is application-specific, and the second a
to the Arduino site arduino.cc and download the appropriate version for your PC.
To set up the Arduino IDE for ESP8266 boards, follow the straightforward instructions
generic part which draws the dashboard.
at hsmag.cc/hHqHDU. In the application-specific part, the message that
Once this is complete, select the correct board in the IDE by using Tools > Board and a client will use to request information, the units of
choosing NodeMCU 1.0. the variable being displayed, the title for the display,
and the full-scale value are specified. In addition, it
The TSL2561 library can be directly loaded in the Arduino IDE: needs a function called dashCollectValue() which will
return the value to be displayed. This value should be
1. In the Arduino IDE, select Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries.
between zero and the full-scale value.
2. This will display a new window. The IDE will contact a server to update a reasonably The dashboard is drawn in the watchForMessage()
comprehensive list of libraries available. Once this has finished, type TSL2561 in the function. It starts by responding to contact from
filter box to find the library for this project; the TSL2561 one from SparkFun is the the client over the WiFi. The dashboard creation
required one. section takes the value to be displayed, calculates
the co-ordinates of the arc, and then ‘prints’ the
3. Click More Info, select the latest version, and then Install.
appropriate HTML and SVG code to the client. This
section is not reproduced in full here, but detailed
106
FORGE
void watchForMessage() {
WiFiClient client = myserver.available();
if (client) {
while (client.connected()) {
if (client.available()) {
String req = client.readStringUntil(‘\r’);
client.flush()
if (req.indexOf(messageTag) != -1) {
value = 100.0/dashFSD *
dashCollectValue();
……
// using the coordinates create the web
page
client.println(“HTTP/1.1 200 OK”);
client.println(“Content-Type: text/html”);
……
}
}
reduce the light falling on the sensor. PTFE is a good
}
filter material, as it reduces the light across all relevant Above
} A sensor mounted
wavelengths uniformly. A cheap source of PTFE is the outside, protected
}
tape used for sealing threaded joints by plumbers. This by a glass cover
The standard setup function calls the specific setup tape is non-conducting, so it can be wrapped around
functions for the serial monitor, the I2C interface, the module. The thickness of the tape is not always the
the WiFi connection, the web server, and finally the same, so it is difficult to be precise about how many
solar sensor. layers are required.
Set up the device and run the IOT-solarWeb.ino
void setup()
sketch detailed above, as you add layers of tape. The
{
Serial Monitor in the Arduino IDE will display the raw
Serial.begin(115200); // used for testing
counts, while a client accesses the solar web server.
delay(10);
The maximum count returned is 65 535 and is returned
Wire.begin(SDA,SCL); // set up I2
when the device is overloaded. Wrap layers round the
startWIFI();
sensor to reduce the count in bright sunshine to less
setupWebServer(); // start the web server
than 32 000.
setup_solarirradiance(); //start solar sensor
With the sensor mounted in its final configuration,
}
note the maximum count, Cmax, when it points directly
The main control loop is very simple, just continually at the sun in a clear sky, around midday. The solar
calling the function watching for a request from a client irradiance under these conditions will be approximately
over the WiFi. 1000 W/m2, Imax. This value and the maximum reading
provide the calibration:
void loop()
Imax / Cmax
{
This is used in the sketch so that output will be
watchForMessage();
in W/m2 and should be the value assigned to the
}
constant solcalib.
The sketch, IOT-solarWeb.ino, contains additional To see the solar dashboard, on a device connected to
comments to aid understanding, and can be the same WiFi network, type:
downloaded from hsmag.cc/VmLxHn.
192.168.0.186/ESPsolar
PUT ON THE SUNGLASSES …into the address box of a web browser. You should
As the TLS2561 is designed for indoor use, it can be now see the dashboard. The display will update
overloaded in bright sunshine and a filter is required to every second.
107
Build a variable power supply
TUTORIAL
Build a variable
power supply
Get electrons into your circuits with the correct energy.
Ricardo
Caja Calleja
funwithcables.wordpress.com
An aerospace engineer
by profession, Ricardo
is deeply interested
in robotics and
automation. If there’s
nothing to repair at
home, he’ll make up
some plan to build
anything that includes
cables or screws.
Figure 1
I
All the elements are
packed in a practical f you are tinkering with electronics, soon or ampage. So just rescue an old laptop adapter from
case that can be
easily carried around later you will need to power your projects gathering dust at home, and you’re ready to go. The
with different DC voltage levels. We show adapter used in this project provides 19 VDC and
you how to easily build your own variable almost 2 A, more than enough to power most of the
power supply. prototypes you’ll ever work with.
When starting to play around with electronics,
many people power their prototypes directly from ONE STEP BEYOND
controller boards, such as an Arduino. However, as As the laptop adapter provides a fixed amount of
QUICK TIP the prototypes become more complex (e.g. with the output voltage (19 VDC in this case), you will need
Depending on the addition of servos or motors), they soon require more some device that “does the magic” of reducing the
specifications of
power than these controllers can safely deliver. At this DC voltage to lower levels. The best option for this
your laptop power
adapter and the point, you’re going to need a variable power supply purpose is an DC-to-DC voltage reduction module that
DC-to-DC module, that can provide different voltage levels. Of course includes the LM2596 DC-to-DC step-down converter.
the minimum amount you can buy such a power supply, but it’s a piece of It costs about £2 and supports an input voltage of
of output voltage will
cake to build one yourself. up to 35 VDC and 3 A. This module comes with a
vary. This means that
you won’t be able to A good starting point to build a variable power tiny 10 kΩ potentiometer for regulating the output
obtain voltages below supply is a laptop power adapter. These adapters voltage, which can vary between 1.25 VDC and 35
~1.25 VDC. normally provide relatively high output voltage and VDC (19 VDC in this case, due to the laptop adapter
108
FORGE
Digital LED
voltmeter
Figure 3
Variable power supply schematic
8.8.8 Original
potentiometer
removed
YOU’LL NEED
AC IN DC OUT Plastic enclosure
(or your own hand
+
made case)
Laptop Vin+ Vout+
100 LM2596 220 Laptop power
Power 50v 35v adapter
Adapter RVT 470 SVK
Vout- DC-to-DC voltage
Vin- reduction
- module
Digital LED
limitation). You should first carefully desolder the tiny voltmeter
potentiometer and then solder back a regular 10 kΩ
CONTENTS MAY BE HOT
10 kΩ
potentiometer, which can be handled easily from the Safety advice: be careful handling the DC-to-DC potentiometer
exterior of the power supply enclosure. voltage reduction module while it’s functioning, as Potentiometer
After removing the plastic case of the laptop power some of its components (especially the DC-to-DC step- knob cap
adapter, solder its output wires to the input of the DC- down converter) may become very hot. Make sure that
it says cool enough not to damage your enclosure, and Switch
to-DC voltage reduction module through a switch, so
that the power supply can be turned on and off. that there’s nothing that could catch fire. Banana plugs
A digital LED voltmeter (again something that you Banana cables
can get for £1–£2) is connected to the DC-to-DC
Wires
voltage reduction module and shows the selected a good idea is to cut a piece of its original plastic case
output voltage to the user. The voltmeter used in this (they will have the same size and thus fit tightly) and Heat shrinkable
project is able to provide a readout of voltages from use it as a bracket, glueing it to the enclosure. cable sleeves
2.5 to 30 VDC with 1% accuracy. The final step is to install all the external elements
Now it’s necessary to fit everything into an on the front panel: switch, potentiometer, digital
appropriate enclosure, to have all the components LED voltmeter and banana plugs (to provide the
safely connected and be able to transport the power output voltage to the banana cables), as well as the
supply wherever you fancy. The DC-to-DC module can laptop adapter 220 VAC input on the back or on one
just hang from the wires to which it’s soldered, but side of the case. As a finishing touch you can add
be careful to isolate it properly if you use a metallic a potentiometer knob cap, so it’s easier to turn it to Below
Everything wired up
enclosure. To fix the laptop adapter to the enclosure, select the desired output voltage and, why not, it
and ready to power
looks much nicer! your next project
Figure 2
Heat shrinkable cable sleeves are highly recommended to avoid
undesirable electrical contacts
109
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FIELD TEST
HACK MAKE BUILD CREATE
Hacker gear poked, prodded, taken apart, and investigated
PG
120
CAN I
HACK IT? PG
112
Tear-down a radio-
controlled tracked vehicle
for fun and japes
BEST OF
BREED
PG
122
DIRECT FROM SHENZHEN:
TESLA COIL Turn digital data into something nice
REVIEWS
124 LilyPad kit
128 Sonoff Basic
125 OKAY Synth DIY Kit WiFi Smart Switch
126 Adafruit Circuit
129 Theo Gray’s
Playground Express Mad Science
Displays
BEST OF BREED
ONLYTHE
BEST
The ever-evolving
world of displays
Visualising data in your next project
Y
ou might think that all displays we mean by ‘display’. Simply defined, when talking
are the same. And you also might about your electronics project, a display is a visual
be thinking of those typical 16×2 representation of data. It could be something as
character displays with either a blue simple as a one-colour LED or mechanical device that
or green tinted screen that so many notifies the user of an action or alert. In many cases
of us got our feet wet with early on this might be a good solution. In fact, many times a
in our electronics building adventures. And although project can be trimmed down and only use a simple
those types of displays are very useful, and easy to RGB LED as a very functional display.
find for a minimal cost, there are dozens of other In this roundup we’ll be sharing some of the best
display technologies that are available to creators and in class graphical and character displays for those
tinkerers that are a lot more interesting. projects that need more than just a simple blinking
So how many varieties could there really be for you LED. We’ve selected a cross-section of both old and
to choose from? It seems like every week we see a new technologies from a variety of companies.
new technology or form factor, many of which inspire Below
A classic 16×2
us to think about how we could incorporate them into character display
that most of us have
the next project. used at some point
Before we look at some of our favourite types of
Credit
displays, and why we like them, let’s look at what Adafruit licensed
under CC
112
FIELD TEST
S
ometimes bigger is better, or rather, dozens of them, but in many instances one will
sometimes you just need a larger work just fine.
display for your project. Think really Something else to consider when using large
large, like Times Square-TV large. Well, displays is the horsepower required to drive them
that’s exactly what these panels could be – or, in our case, the speed that is needed to
used to build. You can find them all over control them effectively. These particular panels
the place in urban areas in the form of large-scale video were designed for high-speed FPGAs or similar
advertising displays. They can be chained together to processors. They rely on the image being drawn
create really large animated, and full colour, displays. over and over at a high speed, something that a
That being said, there are a few considerations when it typical microcontroller can’t do very well since a lot
comes to creating large video screens. of data needs to be processed quickly. Your best
As displays get bigger, especially when thinking bet is to use a Raspberry Pi with an RGB Matrix
about full colour display, the prices can skyrocket. HAT or Teensy microcontroller, rather than the less
However, the Adafruit 32×32 RGB LED Matrix powerful Arduino microcontroller.
Panel still comes in at a respectable $39.95. That’s Another thing you’ll need to consider is the
not too bad for 1024 RGB LEDs in a 7.5” × 7.5” power required for the panels. Fortunately, the
form factor. Yes, it gets expensive if you need drivers are built into the back of the panel, and the
power is low voltage, requiring only 5 volts and 4
amps when all the LEDs are on full power. There
are plenty of guides on the Adafruit website to help
you get started quickly, no matter what controller
you choose. Left
If the 1024 RGB LEDs
One of my favourite projects that uses this still aren’t enough
display is SmartMatrix Animated GIF Player by for your project, you
can easily add more
Louis Beaudoin. It uses a microSD card and panels to create
a Teensy to play back animated GIFs on the larger displays
9/ 10
low-resolution games, movies, and images. And
although this won’t complete with your new 4K TV,
it still has a redeeming retro charm.
113
Displays
BEST OF BREED
W
hen it comes to displays,
it’s hard to beat the look of Below
This Pimoroni display, with
something retro. Yes, modern its six individual segments,
looks cool even without
LCD touchscreens are super- any power being supplied
cool, but they tend to be a
Credit
little boring, at least visually. Pimoroni LTD
When you need to display some data, and you
want a little added old-school design flair to your
finished project, these retro-style displays may be
your answer.
Both of these displays use the common I2C
protocol for controlling the LEDs; however, the
Pimoroni board has a ‘pHAT’ form factor
which really limits it to be used with
almost any variation of a Raspberry
Pi – not such a bad thing since
it’s such a great platform.
The Adafruit Bicolor LED
Square Pixel Matrix is
platform agnostic,
which allows you
to easily use it
with whatever
controller your
project requires,
including Arduino.
If you aren’t using
”
a Raspberry Pi
and you really love Pimoroni board has
the look of the Micro a ‘pHAT’ form factor
Dot pHAT, don’t despair.
Pimoroni also sells the individual which really limits it to
LTP-305 LED matrix components be used with almost
so that you can use them however you
any variation of a
”
like. Just keep in mind that you will want to
implement a suitable matrix driver to get them up Raspberry Pi
and running.
114
FIELD TEST
”
and hovercraft, to the modern plastic hula hoop and
an Arduino integrated circuit. It was also in the 1950s that the
Nixie tubes were manufactured by the Haydu Brothers
Laboratories. And although you may have thought this
technology would have disappeared with all the modern
displays available, you’d be wrong – at least it’s still
going strong within the electronic hobbyist community.
Nixie tubes typically consist of ten cathodes in the
shapes of numbers 0-9 that emit a beautiful glow when Far Left
about 150–200 volts are applied. It’s a fairly simple Adafruit’s bicolour
display is ideal for
technology to understand, but take one look at the creating a retro look
workings and you will quickly see that they are a small for your project
marvel of manufacturing. If you want the ultimate in
Credit
retro-chic for your next project, look into Nixie tubes – Adafruit licensed
just be careful when using such high voltages! under CC
Left
A bit more
challenging to work
with, but the look of
a Nixie tube is hard
to match
Credit
Hiroyuki Takeda
licensed under CC
BY-ND 2.0
VERDICT
Both displays have great tutorials and source At the end of the day, both of these displays Micro Dot pHAT
code for using them with your Raspberry Pi. The are really nice, but we give the edge to the Amazingly
Adafruit Bicolor LED Square Pixel Matrix also Adafruit Bicolor LED Square Pixel Matrix since it is beautiful
includes a library to make it easy to use with an compatible with more microcontrollers and has the retro fun from
Arduino. And both displays have plenty of well- capability to display three colours. Yes three, not all angles.
8/ 10
documented projects that you can find online from two as you might think, since you can display both
a simple search. red and green LEDs at the same time, giving you
One other thing you should be aware of with an orange glow. It was a really close call since they
these boards is that when scrolling text or a symbol, both function so well and are so easy to implement.
the spacing of the pixels on the Micro Dot pHAT can Which one you choose really boils down to what Bicolor Backpack
make it a little more difficult to read compared to the you need for your project. If you really want a
When you need
Adafruit Pixel Matrix. If you aren’t planning on doing beautiful-looking display, even when it’s powered
a retro-looking
any scrolling, then it’s really not an issue. And if you down, choose the Micro Dot pHAT. The ability to display with
still want the look of the Micro Dot pHAT, we found see the connections of each segment is really more than one
that you just need to scroll the letters a little slower beautiful. If you need multiple colours in one colour, this
compared to other LED matrices and it does just display, or if you want to animate or scroll letters bicolour matrix
fine. You could also diffuse the pixels a bit by adding or simple graphics, pick up the Adafruit Bi-Color is perfect.
9/ 10
a translucent piece of plastic [gasp!], but that would Matrix. Or better yet, neither one is too expensive,
completely kill the beautiful aesthetics of the Micro so do yourself a favour and add both of them to
Dot’s segments. your lab, you won’t regret it.
115
Displays
BEST OF BREED
Spark X Flexible
Grayscale Display
SPARKFUN $49.95 sparkfun.com
T ”
here are times when you are
working on a project and you need The Spark X Flexible Grayscale Display still has
a display that not only works well, a ridged PCB carrier board which is where the
”
but it needs to be flexible. If you find
yourself in this situation, the Spark X communication and power circuitry can be found
Flexible Grayscale Display from
SparkFun could be a perfect fit. Most displays are
mounted directly to a ridged PCB, or the screens three-wire SPI interface. SparkFun has created a
are mounted to glass, which makes flexing them library making it very easy to get up and running with
impossible, never mind wrapping them around a an Arduino. It has also released the schematic and
tight radius. This OLED doesn’t have either of those Eagle files, so you can modify them as needed to
constraints, so it can be bent in a 40 mm radius work in your next project. The images displayed are
without any damage and will still look great. clear and seem to magically appear on this impossibly
The Spark X Flexible Grayscale Display still has thin 0.5 mm display. And if your project requires just
a ridged PCB carrier board, which is where the standard text to be displayed, this screen will render it
communication and power circuitry can be found, fairly well and with the great contrast that most OLED
but the OLED screen is attached to it via a small screens are capable of generating. Below
flexible PCB which allows it to be mounted fairly far Even if you don’t need the flexibility this screen This display can
handle more than
away from the ridged part of this display. It would has to offer, it may still be worth looking into just plain text: it
be great if the entire component was flexible, but since it features a nice-looking OLED screen, a features the ability to
display graphics in
this is a good solution until the control technology well-documented library, and plenty of examples 4-bit greyscale at a
catches up to the advancing display technology. to get you going quickly. And, if you do need your resolution of 160×32
What we really like about this particular OLED display to flex around a tight radius, it’s really hard Credit
display is the ability to show off 4-bit greyscale to beat the Spark X Flexible Grayscale Display Sparkfun Electronics
licensed under CC
images on its 160×32-pixel display using a standard from SparkFun. BY 2.0
VERDICT
How many
graphical
displays can
be wrapped
around your
coffee mug?!
8/ 10
116
FIELD TEST
Credit
Marc de Vinck
M
ost displays are good at one
thing, and one thing only:
showing some kind of data
to the user. However, some
displays can add additional
features like user input through
either capacitive or resistive touch. This kind of
technology can get complicated to implement, until
you discover the 2.8” TFT LCD with Touchscreen
Breakout Board w/MicroSD Socket by Adafruit.
This full-colour TFT screen allows the user to
enter data, press virtual buttons, or even draw on
it, similar to a screen found on a smartphone –
although the resolution of this display is a bit lower
than most smartphones these days, coming in at
a mere 240×320 pixels. But even so, the images
look beautiful and the user input via resistive touch
is extremely useful. Think about adding virtual
buttons to your next project. You can go back and
rename, or rearrange them as needed, and all of
those changes occur in software. That’s a lot faster
than designing physical button layouts in hardware.
We also like the idea of being able to show the
end-user detailed visual feedback of systems or
processes that are occurring in real time. Or you
could easily add photos via the SD card, or draw
simple shapes using code.
Communicating with the display is made easy
”
though either 8-bit mode or SPI, and it doesn’t
require a powerful microprocessor to send the Communicating with VERDICT
data since the board features a built-in controller
with RAM buffering. That makes it perfect for
the display is made A great choice
when you need
microcontrollers like the Arduino that lack some of easy though either the added
the advanced features and speed of computers like
8-bit mode or SPI and functionality of
Raspberry Pi. There are libraries and example code touch input.
8/ 10
it doesn’t require a
”
that make implementing its features really easy
with an Arduino, and you can find code examples
powerful microprocessor
for running it on other platforms too.
117
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RASPBERRY PI
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Inside:
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Expert reviews and buying advice
store.rpipress.cc
plus all good newsagents and:
A radio-controlled car
R
adio-controlled cars, tanks, and sections typically used to absorb impact. The plastic
ponies have been a staple of used is easy to work with, so hacks involving rotary
children’s play for decades. They tools, drills, and hand tools are possible.
enable children to control scale Measuring approximately 29 cm by 16 cm and
models of real-world vehicles and 12 cm tall, the car is big enough to easily work with
create motorised play sessions. and inside it has plenty of space to add further hacks.
Les Pounder For parents, radio-controlled toys typically meant A tank-track-style tread enables the car to cover
@biglesp batteries… lots of batteries! But in recent years we most terrains. Power comes from the rear wheels,
have seen better-quality radio-controlled vehicles which means that the front wheels are merely there
Les Pounder is a maker at much cheaper prices. So what can you get for to complete the tracks and provide adequate tension.
and author who works around £30 for consumer-level tech, and how can Standard crosshead screws hold the shell to the
with the Raspberry Pi
Foundation to deliver we hack it? Let’s find out. chassis of the car, and only six screws need to be
Picademy. He also removed in order to gain access to the insides.
helps teachers/learners
to become creative
GENERAL CONSTRUCTION
technologists. He blogs The Nikko 9018 Velocitrax car is made from a BATTERY POWER
at bigl.es generally firm plastic, with some softer plastic Radio-controlled vehicles have come a long way since
those early battery-eating monsters! These days we
find a 7.2 V Nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery rated
at 700 mAh. In tests we found that the battery was
YOU’LL NEED reporting as 8.1 V after a fresh charge. The battery
Nikko 9018 connects to the car using a bespoke connector that
Velocitrax radio-
physically prevents reverse polarity connection.
controlled car
The battery is charged by removing it from
the car and connecting to the
COST
£29.99 supplied charger unit; charging
times are around one hour.
WHERE
amazon.co.uk
MOTORS
There are two motors
at the rear of the car;
these run at 7.9 V
and provide both
forwards and backwards
movement. Each motor
Right
Lean, mean, and a comes with three 100 nF
shocking shade of ceramic capacitors (104) used
green. Sure, it might
not be the prettiest to smooth the current flowing to the
colour, but we have motors. The motors provide plenty of power for
a great all-terrain
vehicle in a cost- the car; in fact, they are a little too powerful for the
effective package, size and weight of the car and it is liable to perform
so we can always
spray-paint it! wheelies when starting. When first started, the
motors will pull a quick 2.2 A, before settling down
120
FIELD TEST
UNUSED PARTS
So you’ve replaced the existing electronics with
something else, but what can you do with the old X2445
and the CP2119 on the old board? Well, now you have a
simple 2.4 GHz radio receiver which can be used to build
your own radio-controlled vehicle or project that can
be remotely triggered using the electronics found in the
controller. Based on the 4.5 V power source required for
the controller, an Arduino or other 5 V logic board could
be used to simulate the button push and be used as a
remote trigger. Waste not, want not!
121
Direct From Shenzhen
REGULAR
DIRECT FROM
SHENZHEN Tesla coil
speaker
Make music with lightning
T
he basic principle is very simple:
an audio signal goes in, it’s
amplified, and then sent to a
wire that’s wrapped a single time
around a large coil. This single
wrap is a rudimentary primary coil
and the varying electrical flow in this (being created
by the music signal) creates a much larger voltage
in the secondary coil. This secondary coil is finished
with a loose wire that sticks into the air, and a
sufficiently large voltage is created in the secondary
to produce a spark. This spark heats the air around
it, so as the spark comes and goes with the pulsing
electrical current, this heating causes a vibration
in the air. This vibration is the same frequency as
the audio signal going in. In other words, it’s an
elaborate speaker system.
The tesla coil speaker – also known as a
Zeusophone or a Thoramin, after the Greek god
of lightning and the Norse god of thunder – is
widely available in kit form from direct-from-China
electronics sites. We got a kit from Yi Ma Trading
Company Ltd on Ali Express, though identical kits
are for sale elsewhere. Our test kit cost just £4.96,
including postage.
Our kit came as a PCB and a handful of through-
hole parts. The instructions were in Cantonese,
but it was easy enough to follow along as all you
really need to know is which part goes in which
holes in the PCB, and they were labelled in English
on the board. There are heat sinks for two power
transistors, but again, these were easy to attach.
Right We’ve seen some similar kits advertised as coming
We only with thermal paste, though ours didn’t, and it
managed to
secure the coil doesn’t get very hot under moderate use.
by taking the The only thing that the kit didn’t come with was a
glue to the edge
of the board power supply. It takes a 15-20 V barrel adaptor (the
same shape as an Arduino Uno). This can also be
122
FIELD TEST
supplied through headers soldered into the PCB if The power socket failed after several uses.
you’ve got a bench power supply. The flimsy metal connector that had been slightly
Connecting a music player to a device capable bent in transit snapped in two, despite gentle
Right
With two heat
sinks and a coil,
it’s quite an
imposing project
even when it’s not
spitting lightning
123
W
EA
LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus RA
BL
E
REVIEW TE
CH
T
he LilyPad is based on the Arduino
platform, but in a form that makes it
easier to incorporate into wearable
projects. As well as the main
microcontroller, there’s a broad range
of input and output add-ons under the
LilyPad brand that are all designed to look good and to
work with conductive thread.
The ProtoSnap Plus kit includes the LilyPad USB
Plus microcontroller board (which includes six white
LEDs in a bar graph, and one RGB LED), a light
sensor, a button, a slide switch, eight sewable LEDs
and a buzzer. All these parts come on a single PCB
where they’re connected via traces and can be used
with no wiring or soldering. However, the individual
parts can be snapped out so they can be rearranged
before being sewn into a circuit.
Alongside this PCB, you get a micro USB cable,
a 110 mAh LiPo battery, two bobbins of conductive
thread, and a selection of needles. With this kit
”
you have everything you need to create your own
By shipping the various
wearable electronics. The LilyPad can even function
as a battery charger (through the USB power supply), components on a single Above
The 6 ft (183 cm) USB
so it does have everything you need in this kit. PCB, it makes it easy to cable makes it easy
By shipping the various components on a single to plug in, even when
PCB, it makes it easy to get started – you don’t have get started – you don’t sewn into an outfit
to fiddle around with connectors before testing out have to fiddle around with
your code. Once you’ve got your code working, you VERDICT
connectors before testing
”
can snap the components out and sew them into your
wearable project. out your code A great
The integrated on/off switch might sound like an introduction
unusual thing to praise on a bit of electronics, but it’s to wearable
useful for ensuring that you don’t burn through the boards that are designed to work well with sewable
electronics with
everything you
battery on your wearables before getting to the party circuits including accelerometers, temperature
need to get
(or wherever you’re going). sensors, an Xbee module, an MP3 player, a BlueTooth started, but more
The microcontroller gives you ten GPIOs, with board, a reed switch, protoboard, and plenty of forms of input
seven of these taking analogue input and four with flashing lights. They all come on the iconic purple would make
PWM output. This gives you enough pins to drive all PCBs and look great when sewn into fabric. more complex
the included hardware with an additional two available The LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus doesn’t have an projects possible
9/ 10
for other bits and pieces. overwhelming number of features, but what it does
The LilyPad can be made to work with most 3.3 have is well thought-out and works well. It makes a
volt electronics, but there’s a series of peripheral fantastic introduction to sewable circuits.
124
OKAY Synth DIY Kit
T
he OKAY Synth Kit is a
monophonic analogue small-
scale synthesizer. Produced by
Oskitone, a one-man operation out
of San Francisco, it comes in two
flavours: the electronics kit with an
included 3D printed enclosure, or a ‘bring your
own printer (BYOP)’ edition that includes the
electronics, but assumes that you will print the
enclosure yourself using the files and settings
available on Thingiverse. For the full experience,
the BYOP edition was built for this review.
Upon receiving your parcel from Oskitone, the
first thing that you’ll undoubtedly notice is the level
of detail and care in packaging of the components for issues with the prints. One unique aspect of the
the electronics portion of the kit. The kit is made up printing process is that many of the parts print with Above
The tiny, yet mighty,
of four custom PCBs and each board is in a separate two colours utilising a colour changeover at some point
OKAY synth. It can of
bag with its corresponding components. Aiding in that in the print. Oskitone has taken the time to put in the course be printed in
tamer colours if 80’s
experience are the instructions that also arrive inside layer height for each part where this occurs so that you fluorescents aren’t
the package in a lovely printed booklet; a rarity in this can easily achieve this effect. The design of the parts your taste
increasingly digital world. The instructions are also is another place where the kit shines. You can tell that Left
available online as a PDF on the Oskitone website. many hours of CAD work are behind the final files that A look inside the
OKAY synth. As you
The printing process for the enclosure went you slice and load into your printer. can see, a lot of
smoothly following the provided settings. As long After your printer has cooled, it’s time to heat up thought has been put
into the design of the
as you’ve taken care in ensuring that your printer is your soldering iron for the electronics portion of the case and PCBs
calibrated properly, then you should not have any kit. It’s here that the assembly process becomes a bit
aloof. The instructions for each PCB assembly are quite VERDICT
sparse and assume an intermediate level of electronics
knowledge. For most kits, this wouldn’t be an issue The OKAY synth
but after coming from the detailed instructions for the kit offers a
unique build
3D printing process it feels incomplete. Despite the
experience
murky instructions, the design is compact, and the
with the added
components and PCBs are a nice quality. bonus of being a
The instructions come back up to the level seen fully-functional
during the 3D printing stage for the final assembly. analogue synth
The 3D printed parts go together well, and the PCBs for all of your
are spaced comfortably in the case. It’s after this that 8-bit and retro
the real fun begins. As a synthesizer, it’s a delight to music dreams.
8 /10
play around with. The tone is punchy, and the built-
in speaker offers a surprising amount of volume for
its dinky size.
125
Circuit Playground Express
REVIEW
126
FIELD TEST
T
he Circuit Playground Express (CPX) is receiver and transmitter, I2C and UART, but no WiFi
a programmable microcontroller board or Bluetooth. The other major limitation of the board is
that makes it really easy to get started. that it’s not breadboard-friendly – it’s far more suited to
Plug it into a computer with a micro USB crocodile clips or banana plugs.
cable and you’re ready to start coding.
The UF2 firmware takes software into MANY, MANY POSSIBILITIES
the board in two ways: either you can press the reset Whether or not these are really limitations depends
button to enter programming mode and copy UF2 a lot on the sort of projects you’re working on. The
files into a new drive that will appear on your machine, CPX isn’t going to work well for Internet of Things-
or you can upload directly from the Arduino IDE. For type applications. It’s also not going to work well as
beginners the first method will be easier, as you can a controller for building complex circuits – having just
generate these UF2 files from either the web-based eight GPIOs limits the amount of hardware you can
MakeCode block-based editor or from a Circuit Python connect. Anyway, there are lots of microcontroller
development environment. boards far more suited to these uses. However, the
On some versions of Windows, you’ll need to install CPX makes it fantastically easy to get started with
drivers, but on Mac OS X, Linux and Windows 10, you embedded and physical computing projects. You can
don’t need to install anything if you use MakeCode – just build on the integrated hardware with the eight GPIOs.
plug your board into a USB port, then point your browser Seven of these can detect capacitive touch input, so
to makecode.adafruit.com to start your first project. to add more user input to your project, you just need
a few crocodile clips and leads. As all the GPIOs can
BUILT-IN FEATURES read analogue input, it’s also trivial to add input from
From here you can take advantage of the wide range of and device that gives a varying voltage as it’s output.
hardware that’s packed onto the board. For output, there There are also five PWM output pins for driving LEDs
are ten NeoPixels and a speaker (not just a buzzer).
For input, there are two buttons, a slide switch, an
”
accelerometer, a temperature sensor, a microphone,
and a light sensor. With all this, you can put together The CPX is well suited to people getting their first
some pretty fancy projects straight away. For our first microcontroller, either buying one themselves for
”
project, we made an indicator for cyclists. It uses the
large holes on the CPX to attach it to the back of a
fun or as part of a taught course
cycling glove, then uses the accelerometer to recognise
when the hand is held out indicating a turn and flashes
the NeoPixels orange. This took 18 lines of dragged-and- at different brightnesses. The MakeCode platform is a
dropped code in MakeCode and no additional hardware code repository as well as an IDE, and there are a set
(most of these were to ensure that there was a stable of tutorials from Adafruit to help you get started with
reading from the accelerometer). While it’s hardly a the platform and the hardware.
complex project, it shows that you can build useful The CPX is well suited to people getting their first
projects quickly with no additional hardware or software. microcontroller, either buying one themselves for fun
There’s nothing on the Circuit Playground Express or as part of a taught course. For this purpose, it’s
that’s fundamentally unique – you can get the genuinely hard to fault the CPX. It’s easy to learn with
same sensors and outputs to attach to virtually any no (or minimal) software to install, yet at the same time
microcontroller. What makes this board special is the allows you to use more advanced languages if you’ve VERDICT
way it’s brought together into a single package. It’s got the knowledge and experience. It packs a fantastic
The best
hard to think of any project where you’ll need all the range of input and output options onto the board,
microcontroller
features available, but given the £25 price tag, it’s easy which means that you can dive right into some more
board for
to justify the cost even if you only need one or two of interesting projects without getting immediately bogged introducing
the extra input or output options. By bringing them all down in attaching extra hardware. It’s also easy to start people to
onto the main board, there’s no extra setup or wiring, to build simple circuits off using crocodile clips. physical
and it’s all supported by the software without having to Perhaps the ultimate test of any bit of hobbyist kit is computing
add any libraries, which again makes it thankfully easy whether or not it sparks excitement. For us, the CPX projects.
10/ 10
to get started. gave us a childlike sense of glee, because it makes
The one obvious thing missing from the device is so much so easy. This is great for beginners and any
any form of networking. It does have a built-in infra-red hobbyists who like to quickly prototype projects.
127
Sonoff Basic WiFi Smart Switch
Sonoff
Basic WiFi Smart Switch
$6 itead.cc
W
ith more and more smart in the cloud,
appliances entering the then link the
market, allowing control device allowing
via a phone and/or voice it to connect
commands, a lot of people to your WiFi.
are looking at their perfectly We had some
good ‘dumb’ appliances and wishing they could trouble using
be switched on and off in the same way. This is the a OnePlus
problem the Sonoff Basic Smart Switch aims to fix. 3T phone for
Unlike WiFi socket adaptors, the Sonoff Smart this, but a Nexus
Switch is designed to be patched into the power 9 tablet worked just
cord of your appliance. After disconnecting from the fine, and once it was set-up
mains, you snip the cord in half, strip the insulation we simply needed to log into the
from each end of the exposed live and neutral cords, app on our phone for full control.
and attach the wires to the clearly labelled connectors Using eWeLink, you power devices on and off
on each side of the module. You then reattach each and set schedules. You’re also able to share access
side of the earth cord and ensure everything is to your devices with other people, and connect with
secured safely without any exposed wires. the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Nest services,
All this faff means more effort is required before allowing control via each. As if all that wasn’t enough,
you’re able to use it but, as a result, they’re far there’s also support for IFTTT, giving you a lot of
cheaper to buy than socket adaptors. Of course, options for automation.
this means if you’re not confident with a pair of wire The reliance on a cloud-based service means you Above
cutters and mains voltage, this product isn’t for you. can control your devices remotely, but also means Clearly labelled
connectors make this
Once installed, head to the app store and download you’ll need an active internet connection. I should easy to wire up
the eWeLink app. Following the instructions also note that in the four months we’ve been testing
Left
contained within, you’ll need to create an account it, the service went down twice for a couple of hours Providing smart
each time. When this happened, we could still use power to the author’s
homemade ‘mad
the button on the module itself to control the power. scientist’ table lamp
Under the hood is an ESP8266 microcontroller which
is connected to a relay. The significance of this is the
ability to flash your own firmware onto the module, VERDICT
removing your reliance on eWeLink, and letting you A cheap smart
add support for protocols such as MQTT. There are switch solution
two such community-supported projects that offer for people
hackers more options for controlling their switches. willing to roll up
While the Sonoff Smart Switch isn’t as plug-and- their sleeves
8/10
play as some solutions – requiring a bit of snipping
with wire cutters – it should work with anything with
a power cable and has plenty of options for control.
128
Theo Gray’s Mad Science: Experiments You Can do at Home – But Probably Shouldn’t
“
For better or worse,” writes Gray, be tried by an experienced chemist. The health
“the fire, smoke, smells, and bangs and safety warning at the beginning of this book is
of chemistry are what inspired many realistic, and more serious than the ones found in
scientists to become scientists in the most modern books.
first place.” Mad Science exults not just “This book does not tell you enough to do all
the spirit of amateur scientists, but their of the experiments safely,” and that’s deliberate
substantial achievements. But mostly, the citizen – some experiments are not spelt out in enough
scientist is someone who gets to have fun. detail for you to do because you shouldn’t be doing
Starting with experimental cuisine, the first course them until you’ve built up the right experience
is making salt – with a warning that this experiment and knowledge. For the rest, the real dangers are
is the most dangerous in the book, and should only highlighted, but there are plenty of experiments that
you can try with children – and some that kids can
do on their own.
Simple tricks are a fun way to amuse your friends
– metal spoons that melt in hot water, ice cubes that
sink, and rocket fuel from snack food. Along the way
the science will get absorbed far more readily than
in school chemistry lessons. Gray’s choice phrasing
– “construct a light bulb the modern way with some
helium and an old welder” – will keep you diving into
each new project.
Learning how to make everything from matches
to nylon is an inspiring thing for your children to
experience. It’ll also make you feel less like you’d
revert to a Neanderthal without all of your solid state
technology around you. Of course, not all of the VERDICT
materials and equipment will be easy to come by –
So many great
best hang on to that internet connection for a while. experiments – a
Regardless of any atavistic urges – and the fire cornucopia of
chapter will also appeal to those – the fun comes fun, imbued with
with plenty of potential for education, and you’ll a love of science.
be wishing that they could still do this sort of Inspirational.
9/ 10
experiment in school. Inspiration for the well-insured
hackspace perhaps? At the very least, a hugely
enjoyable coffee table book of vicarious geekery.
129
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