Tindie seller and maker Timo Lausen wanted to create a unique gift for their grandmother, and they wanted it to be something that is unique to their skills as a maker. It also had to be something she would want to display because she enjoys it, and not just because her grandson gave it to her.
This led to the creation of the PCB Christmas Arche kit, which was inspired by the “Schwibbogen,” which is a decorative candle holder from Germany. The kit comes in separate pieces, so you’ll need to solder everything yourself but you may consider that part of the gift. The microcontroller trad drives the LEDs comes preprogrammed.
In addition to the kit, you will need your own USB-B cable and power adapter (like a phone charger). Once it’s all put together, the LEDs are controlled by two pseudo-random number generators that increase and decrease the brightness at random, thus imitating candlelight.
While Christmas Arches are normally made of wood and use candles, this unique twist on the concept with a PCB and LEDs gives makers the opportunity to give a gift that represents their craft.
Tindie always has something interesting up for sale, but perhaps you’d like to dive even deeper. If so, then there’s the Tindie Flea Market, where we see unusual and interesting items pop up. It’s certainly worth a browse! Here’s a few items on display this month:
Pixy Object Tracking Camera + Pan/Tilt Kit
Pixy is a smart vision sensor for use in robotics and other electronics projects. While the Pixy2 recently made its debut, if you’d like to get your hands on one of the originals along with the pan/tilt kit, here’s one available on the Flea Market. The unit in question was purchased on Kickstarter, and is now reportedly taking up too much space!
Rooster Booster: 5V from “Anything”
Microcontrollers, CV modules and the like seem to get all the “glory” hardware-wise, but if you can’t power them correctly, they’re pretty useless. This little “Rooster Booster” board takes input from .8 to 6.0V and turn it into 5V, perfect to “wake up” your next Arduino project!
Bluetooth and Relays for Your Arduino
If you’re building a home automation system, you’ll likely need a way to communicate with it and relays to control large(ish) amounts of power. This Arduino shield provides both via a Bluetooth module and four relays!
MT0V034 Monochromatic Image Sensor
If you’d like to construct your own digital camera or CV system from components, you’ll likely want to use a CMOS digital image sensor. One such sensor is available here in mono VGA for $20, or twice that for the color 1.2 MP version.
Don’t stop now, there’s always something interesting to be found in the Tindie Flea Market.
The 2018 Hackaday Prize Robotics Module Challenge has come to a close, and the winners have been decided. There were some truly incredible projects on display and plenty of Tindie sellers who offered their own designs!
You can find a full list of the finalists here. Join us as we take a look at the Tindarians who are among the winners, and a few of the incredible projects that were part of this year’s robotics challenge.
Tindie Seller Robotics Module Challenge Winners
This year had not one, but two Tindarians win the round! They are joined by eighteen other winners who all had amazing contributions to the world of robotics.
PCB Stepper Motor
Our first winner and Tindie seller is bobricius with the PCB Stepper Motor, a project inspired by a separate Hackaday project, showing how the community is able to build upon the work of others to reach even greater heights.
Like the project that inspired it, Bobricius created a motor that has the stator coils etched into the base PCB, but this new project has eight stator coils and offers a larger motor. The 3D-printed motor of the original has also been switched out for a rotor made of stacked PCBs with cutouts for 5-mm neodymium magnets.
This is the second entry bobricius has made in The Hackaday 2018 Prize. His previous project was the not-a-Nixie-tube display.
Bobricius is rather prolific on Tindie with not just one, but two stores. PeMi Technology opened in 2013 and is where you can find a variety of compact and useful products that cover everything from charging lithium batteries to USB supercapacitor LED earrings. Last year, Kits for Kids launched with a range of learn-to-solder kits featuring rockets, fire engines and more.
HEXABITZ – Modular Electronics for REAL
Our second Tindie seller and one of the twenty winners in the Robotics Module Challenge is HEXABITZ. This is a project and product on Tindie that we’ve previously covered on our blog. Hexabitz is a project composed of six-sided modules that can be soldered together into assemblies that allow for complex 3D assemblies.
The modular design offers a huge amount of scalability with 30+ modules in a single assembly with inter-module functionality and a built-in Command Line Interface (CLI) that removes the need to write code before starting your project.
Several alpha modules are already for sale on the Hexabitz store on Tindie. This unique way of prototyping electronics removes much of the issues and efforts associated with spinning your own boards during the prototyping process.
Check out Hackaday.io for a deeper look into this project that stands among the winners of this year’s Robotics Module Challenge.
Honorable Mentions
While these projects from the Tindie community didn’t make it into the list of winners, their ideas are inspiring nonetheless! Here are some of our favorite projects that were entered into the Robotics Module Challenge:
The Power Harvesting Challenge is already underway. If you haven’t entered, what are you waiting for? Enter your best ideas into the challenge for a chance to be one of the winners in our next roundup!
You’re certainly with how the Raspberry Pi is a great board that can do much of the work of an actual computer without the bulk or expense. What about the other end of the spectrum — how does the Pi perform as a hardware controller? As with any microcontroller solution, if you want your Raspberry Pi to control more than very low current levels you need extra hardware. The Samur Raspberry Pi Expansion MainBoard takes on this challenge, greatly extending the abilities of the Pi’s expansion header.
It features 15 relays rated for 250VAC and 10A or the same 10A current flow at 30VDC. The obvious application would be turning on and off appliances or lighting in a home automation setting, and with a Raspberry Pi (not included) powering it, your control options are virtually unlimited.
If that doesn’t present enough control options, the board also features 8 digital inputs for AC power (currently listed at only 250VAC, however a 120VAC option will be added) along with 6 inputs for 12 VDC. It also has accommodation for I2C, 1Wire, and an NRF24L01+ module for wireless communication.
While what’s shown here is quite capable, if you just need relays for your Pi to handle more power, you might also check out the Mega-IO Raspberry Pi Expansion Card featured earlier this year.
STEM education covers four specific disciplines in one curriculum: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In our modern age, these skills are in high demand, and makers everywhere are trying to pass this valuable knowledge on to the next generation.
The original model, known as the ARM-1 from 1Durian.Tech set out to empower educators with a functional robotic arm that could teach the basics of C++ programming and how to use a microcontroller.
With the success of the initial model, they have since released the ARM-2, which is an upgraded version of the robotic arm. This newer version includes everything the original had, along with some crisp new features.
The goal is to teach students basic programming skills through tutorials on how to utilize the microcontroller. There are five included lessons surrounding the coding that include digital control, pulse width modulation, and serial communication, among others.
The robotic arm helps students learn basic knowledge of the servo motors the complexities of single and multiple servos control. There is also a tutorial on teaching and playback mode, an up-and-coming technology used in the robotics industry to save time and increase efficiency.
The enhanced version of the arm adds WiFi control and programming options. There is also analog feedback from the servo motor, XYZ-Axis control, and additional learning modules for educators. The kit comes with the ARM-2 fully assembled, along with a power supply, USB Micro-B, and a PS2 controller for manipulating the arm.
Vacuum Fluorescent Displays (VFDs) aren’t something you work with every day. They are often found in car radios and emit a green or blue light with high levels of contrast. Given these characteristics, it’s not a stretch to think they would make a great display for a clock.
The folks at Akafugu Corporation are selling a kit for this concept in the form of the VFD Modular Clock version IV-6. VFDs, which are similar to vacuum tubes, each contain a single digit so this modular kit includes six IV-6 tubes. You can also opt for an option without the tubes if you have them already. The baseboard is powered by an ATMega32U4 microcontroller with a high-voltage VFD driver that lights up the display shield above the board.
The kit comes pre-programmed with the Arduino Leonardo bootloader and firmware. If you would like, it can be reprogrammed from the Arduino IDE open-source firmware. The finished clock is powered by a 5V USB mini-b connector that works with a computer.
You can also utilize Four Letter Word functionality. It comes with the word association database EEPROM if you would rather display words instead of numbers. Finally, an acrylic enclosure is available separately for those who would like to opt for it.
The OKAY is an analog squarewave synth, ideal for DIY fanatics who want to make big basslines and searing leads! It has a full range of tactile switches and is super portable thanks to being battery powered, so if you need a squarewave synth to go, OKAY is where its at!
The OKAY synth can be played at home or on the move, as it comes with a built in amplifier, speaker and audio output for headphones or recording. You can select through a full spectrum of tones over 6 octaves, mapped across 2 full octaves of keys — for wide-ranging playability off the back of a 9V battery!
Squarewave synths are the go-to sound if you remember the days of Commodore 64, Atari ST and Amiga — making chiptunes on trackers! There is no sound like it, and using the audio output gives you the chance to run it through some pedals and outboard effects.
This educational, hack-able, 3D-printable synth hales from San Fransisco, California and comes in kit form, with PCBs, electronics components and assembly guide. If you own a 3D printer, you have access to all of the STL files on Thingverse to create your own keys, enclosure and other mechanical parts.
You can find out all you need to know about the OKAY 2 and its development here.
The Power Harvesting Challenge has begun! This is the newest stage of the 2018 Hackaday Prize, and the goal is simple: build a module that harvests ambient power for applications, and show your module powering a project. Power harvesting can include getting energy from sources like thermal, wind, solar, ambient light, etc.
This challenge runs now through July 16th, and twenty entries will receive $1,000 and move on to the finals to compete for one of the five top prizes including the $50k grand prize. Let no idea go unexplored — follow your creativity and submit your idea, image, documentation, and four build logs to qualify.
If you need some inspiration for your own project, take a look at the power harvesting projects submitted thus far, and check out the Tindie sellers who have already entered their own projects into the running:
There’s no denying the convenience of wireless functionality. Combine this with a helpful display, and you have a match made in heaven. The Espruino Pixl.js seeks to fill these needs as a smart Bluetooth display that you can wirelessly program using JavaScript.
Monitor other Bluetooth LE devices, create a wireless display, a conference badge, or even just display code status on the screen. The device is designed to use the Arduino footprint, allowing it to interface with a massive amount of already existing Arduino shields while using the LCD and buttons.
The Tindie seller, Gordon Williams, wanted to make a device that was readable in sunlight and easy to connect wirelessly. It utilizes Web Bluetooth which removes the need to install any software on your computer. You can head to the device’s website, connect instantly, and start writing code. There’s even a graphical programming language if you prefer not to use JavaScript.
The design is based on Puck.js, which we’ve featured in the past, and provides Bluetooth LE peripheral, central, and advertising support.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just channel electricity from our fingertips? Imagine how much easier it would be to power devices, check components, and charge our phones. While we can’t offer those kinds of superpowers, Tindie seller Sensing is offering the next best thing.
The Handheld Power Supply is a portable device capable of supplying up to 1 W, with 1.2-36 VDC variable open circuit voltage, at up to 1 A output current.
A handy portable power supply like this isn’t something you see every day, which is why this seller decided to make his own, a story often familiar to makers out there who invent their own solutions.
This rechargeable handheld power supply is used for testing components on the go, but it can also charge or power devices via a USB connection. It’s not quite electricity at your fingertips, but it will do just fine.
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