Card-Launching Purse for Mark Rober’s Casino

Today I’m going to walk through how I made my card-launching purse, which is one of the distractions I built for Mark Rober’s casino party.

We were invited to create engineering cheats for the casino games. But I can’t keep a poker face even when I’m not cheating, so I thought maybe I could just help my friends not get caught by supplying a well-timed distraction. What if cards started flying around unexpectedly? Maybe a purse that launches cards- that could be good.

So I thought about what might already exist that does this– launches cards in the air. My first idea was those devices that spit out money. While I was shopping for those, the UNO Attack Mega Hit game popped up as a related product. I didn’t know about this high-tech UNO game until then– I had only played with the cards alone. It already does so much of what I want; I immediately ordered two.

In addition to the game device, I used these parts and tools:

Visit this project’s github repository to download the Arduino code for this project!

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Shop Sale Notifier for Etsy & Shopify

Every time I make a sale in my shop, I feel it. Yes, emotionally, but also: I literally feel my phone buzz. And then I get distracted, pick it up, I spiral into notifications, and minutes later, I’m watching somebody else’s project instead of finishing my own. So I built something to help with that.

I’m a maker who sells things online– hardware kits and sewing patterns in my Etsy and Shopify stores.

And I wanted a dedicated physical object on my wall that would celebrate each new sale without pulling me onto my phone.

What I ended up with is a shadowbox with both logos backlit with NeoPixels that flash for each sale– orange for Etsy, green for Shopify. Today, I’ll show you how easy it was to put together, so you can follow along and build your own.

Supplies you’ll need:

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3D Prints To Impress Your Partner

Today I’m sharing my top 3D printing projects that are fun, useful, and might just impress someone special. Maybe you’re trying to justify the purchase of a 3D printer to your spouse, or you’re trying to use your 3D printer to help get a girlfriend. Here are my top recommendations for things to print for your significant other.

My favorite printers and filament (affiliate links):

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SpikerBot – This Robot is a Brain

I got my hands on SpikerBot, a new robot from Backyard Brains that teaches neuroscience by letting you wire up spiking neural networks and watch them control a physical machine. It has a slew of sensors and outputs meant to mimic creatures in nature, including a camera that can detect colors and a bunch of different objects.

I sat down with Alex Hatch, the hardware designer who built it. Watch our full discussion in the video above. Key components inside the open-source SpikerBot:

For today’s project, I’ll show you how I used Tinkercad and Alex’s 3D templates for SpikerBot to build a custom accessory– a little plow that redirects the laser distance sensor toward the floor, so the robot can sense the edge of a table and stop itself from driving off.

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NeoPixel Chandelier with WLED

Today, we’re building a wood slab chandelier that’s way smarter than your average light fixture. This project is a collaboration with James Wright, who approached me with the idea of turning a gorgeous wood slab into a one-of-a-kind ceiling-suspended lighting fixture. We agreed on a concept with LED strip pointing up to spread light across the ceiling, and a few pendants hanging from the slab to provide downward room lighting and also highlight the grain of the slab.

Definitely check out his video to see how he transformed the raw slab into the foundation for our lighting fixture.

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Sound Generation and Musical Microcontrollers

In this video, @BeckyStern explores sound generation and musical microcontrollers. Whether you’re building a talking robot or your own DIY synthesizer, this episode will help you choose the right parts for adding audio to your projects.

Full article on DigiKey’s Maker.io – Sound Generation and Musical Microcontrollers

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Novelty Synth from Recycled Vape

Today, we’re turning one of the most cursed objects of contemporary e-waste, a disposable vape, into a musical instrument. It’s like an ocarina, using your breath to activate and your fingers to control the pitch.

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Electronics Teardowns and Recycling

Taking apart electronics, called a teardown, is a low-pressure way to dip a toe into tinkering without the hangups of building a project from scratch. In this video, @BeckyStern shares safe and useful techniques and answers to common questions about electronics teardowns and e-waste recycling. Disassembling gadgets is a cool way to see all the work that goes into making them, which often involves integrating engineering and design and several interesting manufacturing processes. Becky has disassembled so many gadgets that she’s lost count – and you can watch many of these teardowns over on her channel.

Full article on DigiKey’s Maker.io – Electronics Teardowns and Recycling

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Made in Shenzhen: Videos from my trip to China

Shenzhen is often described as the fastest city on Earth. In this first episode of Made In Shenzhen, Becky Stern and David Cranor travel from Hong Kong across the land border into Shenzhen, China, to explore Huaqiangbei, the world’s most famous electronics market and a physical interface to the global supply chain.

With the help of local fixer Aqua and PCBWay’s Elaine, Becky digs into what makes Shenzhen different from anywhere else: density, repair culture, and a manufacturing ecosystem where ideas can move from concept to reality with astonishing speed.

How does a sheet of copper-clad fiberglass become a printed circuit board? What goes into making an LED? In this episode of Made In Shenzhen, Becky goes inside a PCB factory to see the complex processes that go into making printed circuit boards, then tours a factory that makes LEDs– 20 million of them a day.

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Making Sound Reactive Projects

Let’s explore sound-reactive electronics– projects that can sense and respond to sound. In this video, @BeckyStern shares many ways to sense audio, from basic vibration to voice recognition, so that you can pick the right path for your project.

Full article on DigiKey’s Maker.io – Making Sound Reactive Projects

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