Tindie

“LEGOs,” or more properly, “LEGO bricks” have inspired kids to build cars, castles, and many other fantastic creations since the later half of the 20th century. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a modern engineer or maker that didn’t play with these as a kid, since they work so well as a toy that’s relatively safe, yet one that lets you create something new and unusual.

Though there are still castles and cars to be made, LEGO has fully moved into the 21st century. In fact, using their EV3 processing unit, you can make your pretend LEGO robots actual robots! For example here’s an EV3 powered device playing a keyboard:

As neat as that is, LEGO did something even more amazing with this tech, and released it under an open source license. With this available, hackers Tully and Andy with Maker Studio took this EV3 architecture, and adapted it to an even more powerful platform, the BeagleBone Black. They named this new creation the “EVB.”

Interface-wise, you can plug all the normal LEGO sensors into the EVB, and since it’s based on the BeagleBone, the system is extremely versatile. Though the EV3 is no slouch, running at an impressive 300 MHz, the EVB is even more powerful, with a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. You can see it displaying its prowess to solve a Rubik’s cube 3:00 in the video below:

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The late 1800s was an interesting time for science and invention. Human control of electricity was in its infancy, and many devices we use today, such as the light bulb, and even radio communication have their roots in this era.

By Hawkins, N. via Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

Of course, there were many other inventions that are perhaps less useful in themselves, but led us to a better understanding of certain concepts. The Tesla coil comes to mind, but you might also consider another lesser-known “spark device” known as the Wimshurst machine.

These machines build up charges via electrostatic induction via two disks that rotate in opposite directions. When the charge differential is built up enough, a spark occurs between two conductors. If you’d like to try out this interesting device, the SparKIT version is a modern take on it. This machine uses modern capacitors instead of Leyden jars to store the charge, and the counter-rotating disks are constructed out of PCB segments. Though capable of generating 20,000 volts of electricity, due to its low current capacity it’s safe to use under normal conditions, though electronics should stay away!

I certainly think this outdoes any “executive desk toys” that have come before it. Sure, your boss might have a kinetic sculpture that swings back and forth in perpetuity, thanks to a hidden electromagnet. You, however, will have 20 kV in your cubicle—which everyone will know as your Dr. Evil laugh reaches its peak.

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IoT devices are available for a seemingly endless number of task, many of them controlled by a smartphone. On the one hand, you likely carry this device with you nearly continuously, but after you log into your phone, open the required app, do whatever action is needed, and put it away, you may be better off just using a switch!

Of course there is an alternative; just wire a single button up to the Internet to do your bidding. Amazon has been taking advantage of this for quite some time with their Dash buttons. Though originally meant to help you order consumable items, they were immediately opened and creatively repurposed. Hackaday did an early blurb about them, or check out this article article written in 2017, featuring 26 hacks for these little gadgets!

[vimeo 159417287 w=640 h=360]

Another interesting alternative is the 1btn, seen in the above video. It’s purpose-built for general IoT use, and for standard actions, such as sending a text message or posting to Twitter, it should be quite easy to set up. Given its open source design, it could also be adapted to all kinds of more complicated IoT tasks.

Importantly, this device doesn’t maintain a connection to the Internet. It wakes up when pushed, does its duty, gives you LED light feedback, and goes back to sleep. This allows the battery to last somewhere around 300 presses, and takes 5-7 seconds to complete its sleep-action-sleep cycle.

You won’t be using it as a button-mashing game controller, but it’s a great device for less time-critical actions. Trying to remember when you changed the water filter in the kitchen? Want a reminder ten days after you cleaned the bathroom to do it again? This is a key to automating infrequency.

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Albertas Mickėnas, AKA “Catnip Electronics,” has been on Tindie since nearly the beginning, opening for business in December 2012. Since then he’s had over 1850 orders, and has sold nearly 5000 (yes, five thousand) of his I2C soil moisture sensors. As such, I was glad to get in contact with him for this blog.

Mickėnas got started with Tindie after seeing a post advertising this new site as a sort of “Etsy for electronics.” He decided to put his foot in the door, and got an order, followed by many, many more.

The new RS485 soil moisture sensor

He started out as a programmer, but he was hired at a local stage theater where they used a huge red display to show subtitles. They needed someone to change the display to show the Georgian (not the U.S. one) alphabet. As western fonts were hard coded into the device, this involved getting into the hardware, where he found an ATmega128 microcontroller inside. From there he says it was a matter of “tutorials, forums, Stack Exchange and loads of unfinished projects from this point to today.”

Albertas mentions that he doesn’t really have a theme to his store: “I just do my projects and sometimes I put them for sale if I feel there will be any demand for them.” Obviously he’s been right more than once, and has just come out with a Modbus RS485 version of his popular soil sensor. This device will allow for longer cables to each of these sensors, making them useful in professional environments without kludging something together (as some have done). Of course there are other interesting projects on the Catnip Electronics store, so be sure to check that out.

Mickėnas is quick to note that the best thing about selling on Tindie is that, “[The] audience is technically capable, intelligent and eager to learn. I like answering my support requests!” Like many sellers, he’s also a customer, so if you have a shipment bound for Lithuania, perhaps he’ll be using your product as well!

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Good old NeoPixels, or more generally, programmable RGB LEDs — if Arduino is the “brains” of the maker movement, then you could say that LEDs are the “shiny objects” that lure people into this pursuit. For many, making a physical LED blink with a development board is in programming for the physical world, but moving on to multi-colored projects can take things to a whole new level!

However, combining LED strips (if you decide on that format) can be challenging. There are connectors available that snap onto the ends, but if spacing and aesthetics are crucial this gets a bit hairy. Soldering is your best bet.

What if you want to make a 90° corner? The solder contacts won’t line up, and you’ll need to resort to jumper wires or you’ll need a clever solution. For this purpose, the NeoPixel corner was created. They take care of attaching strip sections at 90°, and have an LED module built-in so that your design doesn’t miss a corner light or interrupt the regular spacing of the lights. Sure, you’ll still have to solder your strips together, but at least you don’t have to solder and bend for potentially marginal results!

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If there’s one board, or perhaps company, that has defined the Maker Movement, DIY electronics revival, or whatever you want to call it, Arduino has to be at the top of the list. You might correctly point out that there is currently more than one entity that lays claim to the term “Arduino,” or that there are abundant clones available, but that style of development board has evolved into an amazing ecosystem that allows you to build all kinds of electronics easily and cheaply.

One of the greatest things about these boards is that the form factor of the Arduino Uno allows you to take advantage of numerous expansion shields. These can implement a prototyping area, accommodation for sensors, motors, and nearly anything you can think of. Even some non-Arduino boards are designed to take advantage of this form factor. On the other hand, the Arduino Nano provides nearly the same specs in a much smaller package, but doesn’t have the same shield support as the Uno.

If you would like to take advantage of the Uno’s tiny cousin, and need a way to connect everything, the Arduino Nano Breakout seen here looks like an excellent option. Pins are broken out into a series of pluggable connections, and the board is powered by a 12V DC source. 12V, 5V, or another external power supply can be used for outputs, and there is also an option for controlling up to 8 relays if you need that flexibility. According to the description, it’s suitable for “permanent or semi-permanent installations,” and with its easily swappable connections, system design, and especially maintenance should be much easier than poking around on a breadboard!

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While 3D printing has revolutionized what type of shapes people can make at home without a huge amount of auxiliary equipment, one thing you always need to keep an eye on is how much filament you have left. Though you can attempt to change filament rolls mid-print, this can be dicey, and means that you can’t just press a button and have your part “pop out” hours later.

In theory, you should be able to calculate how much filament is used on each print, and thus how much is left in your roll. How much filament your machine thinks it uses compared to how much it actually uses, however, may vary — here’s an article about tuning your extruder steps — so the best way to find this info out is to weigh the filament roll.

For this purpose, Tindie seller Balearic Dynamics has come up with the “3D printer filament monitor for arduino,” which comes with rollers and a load sensor. Based on its weight readings, it outputs your filament weight via an Arduino and LCD display. A clever solution that will hopefully mean you never have to make an unplanned splice again!

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Tindie, is of course the premier marketplace for indie electronics, but don’t forget to peruse the Flea Market section too. From time to time garages and offices need to be cleared out and the best place to find a new home for your projects and parts is Tindie’s Flea Market.

Here are some interesting items available for sale as of the end of June. As always, this section isn’t subject to the same guarantee as Tindie’s normal listings, as this section functions as sort of an online garage sale:

Lock Pick Training Kit

If you’d like to learn how to pick locks, what better way than actually being able to see the inner workings while attempting this mechanical hack? To help with this pursuit, this training lock is clear, and comes with a set of picks.

LED Glasses

Sure, usually you wear glasses to protect your eyes from the sun, or correct your vision, but why does it have to be all about you? These RGB glasses allow you to program them to display light patterns for all the world to see!

SwitchiFy WiFi Home Automation Board

Home automation is great when you have your smartphone handy, but if you’re trying to integrate it with an existing 2-switch setup, things can get tricky. The SwitchiFy board, listed as “used,”allows you to still flip one of two switches to control lights or another appliance, and can take advantage of smartphone control when that’s available as well.

Trimmer Capacitor 10pF to 100pF

Trimmer capacitors are meant to calibrate equipment during manufacturing, analogous to the way a  potentiometer is a variable resistor. If that sounds fascinating, be sure to check them out in this listing.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, head over and see for yourself!

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When you first start programming with an Arduino or other development board, the “Hello World!” of that genera is to blink the onboard LED. You probably want to go further though, which can be difficult if you don’t have a drawer full of spare parts.

You could purchase some sort of starter kit, or on the other end of the spectrum, you can always just buy parts from various online outlets at extremely cheap prices with very slow shipping. Though taking weeks or more to arrive won’t satisfy your need for instant gratification, at least you’ll eventually build up quite an electronics collection. If you can figure out what to order.

Another option is the S4A board. This device fits on an Arduino Uno, leaving several I/O pins open, and includes buttons, potentiometers, LEDs, a buzzer, and accommodations for two servos. These components are already attached, so no soldering or breadboarding is involved, you simply plug it in and use as a test device or teaching tool.

On the other hand, if you’d test your I/O with only a bunch of LEDs and a breadboard, that can be fun as well:

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Alex Albino, of the Femtoduino Store, is one of the original sellers on Tindie, with his store officially listed as opening on November 26, 2012. During this time, he’s sold well over 300 of his custom boards, and I was glad to catch up to him to ask a few questions.

Albino, who works as a software and web developer, first got into electronics after his NES was fried in a thunderstorm in junior high, and he got to take it apart. Eventually his interests led him to the Arduino and Fabio Varesano’s work, and multiple hardware platforms over the years.

Albino’s store started with him asking Fabio Varesano if he could sell Femtoduino boards, which have the same outputs as an Arduino Uno in the size of one’s thumb. Since Varesano wasn’t interested in selling them himself, he generously gave Albino permission to run with this design. Albino then went to work assembling and selling these boards, and even made sure to give a portion of the money he made—though he didn’t have to—back to Varesano to promote his open source work.

Of course, these tiny Arduino clones are still for sale, but Albino sells several other items, including the FemtoBeacon wireless IMU (inertial measurement unit) sensor. He even notes his store theme as providing the smallest open source IMU sensors in the world. You can see one in the image above next to a U.S. dime—quite small indeed. He hopes to grow the Femtobeacon business into a full-time job in the future.

Naturally, Albino has bought from other Tindarians in the past, which he says is always fun. He also notes that, “If you sell anything on Tindie, make sure to package carefully, take decent photos, and include videos of stuff in action!” As such, here’s a video of the tiny Femtoduino in action:

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