Tindie

Continuing our look back at Superbooth 2022, where I managed to catch up with some Tindie sellers on my travels! This time, we take a look at Lumanoise aka Leploop and their innovative electronic devices designed and made in Italy. Scroll down to see my conversation with the maker, Tony, in Berlin earlier this month, and read on to find out what he sells on Tindie.

Lumanoise is a unique product in the synth world, being controlled principally through an LDR – or Light Dependent Resistor, meaning a swish of the hand over its sensor, or an illuminating burst of light alters the way it generates sound. It’s got some history too, being based on the Trautonium, which was designed in the 1940s by Oskar Sala.

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Basketball has captured the heart of the world in its “short” 130 years of existence. It’s been played all over, such as at the Summer Olympics, between rival schools in the ever-beloved March Madness tournament, and in pick-up games in neighborhoods every day. The game has evolved over the years, to the point where we even have robots playing basketball. If you yourself want to combine basketball and technology, the REX Woody Desktop Basketball Game is the perfect weeknight project!

This kit includes all the parts you need to construct two basketball hoops, launchers, and the simple circuitry to make it all work – you just need a 9V battery to get started. When you land that perfect 2-point shot, the tinfoil ball completes the circuit of the hoop and turns on an LED at the top! A manual score tracker on each courtside lets your competitive nature come out and see who can make it to five baskets first. If you’ve got some spare components as well, the simple nature of this kit makes it easy to hack in your own additions such as a buzzer!

With the end of many basketball seasons drawing close, these kits are a great idea to celebrate with those younger basketball athletes, budding electronic designers, and fans in your life. And if you love the style but aren’t a fan of hoops, check out Robotistan’s page for more projects like this, such as a moving Ferris Wheel or a controllable robot arm.

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It’s hard to argue that the advent of color computer monitors hasn’t been a huge net benefit to society, but one might also say that that the world of monochrome had a certain charm to it. Perhaps there was even an event where you didn’t quite plug in the monitor correctly and were treated to and/or tortured with a whole new non-color scheme before making the appropriate adjustments. If you’re nostalgic enough for those days, then spark2k06 has a solution in the form of the MonochromeVGA.

The device takes in RGB signals from a VGA source (e.g. a computer), and transforms them into either a black and white output, or a selection of red, green, and blue, selected with a set of DIP switches. These allow for different single-color outputs, such as green and amber, allowing you to hit a retro nerve for nearly any system! You can also set the device up to display in normal color mode as needed without disconnecting anything.

Check how the adapter works in the first video below, with a clip of the optional 3D-printed case being assembled in the second. Take note:: the sound at approximately 25 seconds in, has quite the pleasant snap-together action:

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The need to remotely monitor and control electronics is rising constantly. With more solar power systems, battery installations, and other power generation/monitoring projects – a simple and robust way to monitor and control these installations is essential. This wonderfully built and well-thought out TCP/IP Voltmeter more or less does what it says on the tin; providing a TCP server that will output measurements from the galvanically isolated voltmeter inputs.

But that’s not all! In many situations where remote voltage monitoring is needed, there’s also a need to control equipment. For example, when a certain voltage threshold is met, a device needs to be turned on. Or if the voltage dips too low, something needs to be disconnected. This board also contains 3 relays that can switch loads of up to 10A at 125VAC or 30VDC, though to be safe I would treat those as absolute maximums and stay well below them. The relays can always be used to switch a larger contactor or solid-state relay if large loads need to be controlled.

Besides hosting a simple TCP server, data can also be sent and received using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). The board contains an SNMPv2 agent and can also be configured to automatically send data to any endpoint that supports HTTP POST for datalogging.

The board is powered from 12V, and has an on-board Ethernet port. It would be very easy to use a PoE splitter to power the board and get data through a single cable, making installation and troubleshooting even simpler. The layout is well thought out, and it looks like a robust and easy to use solution for remote monitoring. Keep it in mind the next time you need to remotely monitor and control a project!

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Earlier this month, a host of independent synth makers, manufacturers, and brands headed over to Berlin to showcase their latest releases and make connections with the audience at Superbooth! I had the chance to visit with Sonicstate, and took the opportunity to speak to some of the folks selling on Tindie, including the seller Keurslager Kurt; who makes AE Modular Modules focused on making electronic music more accessible, space friendly, and affordable.

Zeno of Keurslager Kurt has 5 modules on sale as kits and as finished units in this diminutive but powerful modular format on Tindie. In the video, he demonstrates Boost, Five Steps, and a prototype of the dinky new one-third height AE standard; a sub-oscillator entitled WhatsUp – available on Tindie soon! We start off with a quick chat about the modules, followed by a demo of how they sound, and some discussions about future modules. Find out more about the AE Modular format by Tangible Waves here.

Superbooth turned 20 this year, with a focus on small boutique manufacturers of innovative tools and devices from the world of electronic music instruments – where established brands are also welcome.

Visit the Keurslager Kurt Store to see all of the excellent modules he’s selling, designed and made in Belgium. Here’s the Sonicstate video of the modules in action, as explained by Zeno, the maker!

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This LED cube sits neatly on top of your Raspberry Pi like a cute and sparkly hat, with a tonne of functionality! The PiCube is incredibly robust, easy to install, and has a low power usage – making it the ideal product for learning and invention. Program your own 3D light shows by combining the PiCube with your Raspberry Pi, and bring your visual ideas out into the 3d realm!

Create works of art that will astound your friends and family as this matrix takes you beyond the 2D plane. A 3D LED matrix like this works its magic by creating multiple layers, which, when combined create an exciting display or light show. Featuring 64 high-intensity monochromatic LEDs, each layer and each LED can be accessed individually and controlled to your requirements. It’s compatible with Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, 3B+, 3, 2, Zero, and more – and is available in 3 statement colours!

You can order this matrix either fully assembled or as a kit, meaning you can spend a pleasant evening refining your soldering skills before beginning your coding adventure! The maker has provided a fantastic PiCube GitHub repository to get you started, which can be easily downloaded onto your Raspberry Pi.

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The Teensy 4.0 is a truly fabulous development board. Capable of operating at just over a Gigahertz clock speed with cooling, it’s roughly the size of your finger, and available for around $20. It’s a mind-blowing value, at least to those of us that grew up when that sort of speed would have been a very impressive desktop. Even so, like most dev boards it lacks a few connection niceties, addressed by the Ultimate Breakout Board for Teensy 4.0 by BurgessWorld Custom Electronics.

Highlights of this board include a 1A, 5V power regulator, along with a 2.1mm barrel jack, and a CR2032 battery for maintaining the time and date. An array of serial and I2C ports are provided, along with an SPI connector and CAN bus ports. Finally, a USB-A connector allows the Teensy 4.0 to act as a USB host, and a microSD card slot provides a potentially massive amount of storage capacity.

This board is sold partially assembled with all surface-mount components attached. The buyer will need to take care of soldering on the headers and connectors. An optional 9V power supply is also available, which should come in handy in some circumstances.

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If you’re at all like me, you love adding LEDs to any outfit as much as I do. Whether they’re for a party, convention, or just a fun excuse to feel and look good, adding these Fibbonaci LED Goggle Lens Inserts to your closet can add a lot of joy to your day! The 64 surface-mounted LEDs are laid out in a Fibonacci distribution pattern, giving both an aesthetically and mathematically pleasing look to the finished product.

These LED inserts will need some parts and assembly to get working, like a microcontroller, some power, a little soldering, and installation in a pair of goggles. But fret not, because Evil Genius Labs has an excellent write-up (with assembly directions!) on their website. The LED panels can be controlled via I2C, and draw only 320mA when set to 100% brightness on all 64 LEDs – though the creator suggests running them at 25% brightness, giving you plenty of battery options and sizes. And just for a cherry on top of the metaphorical LED sundae, each panel features four capacitive touch-enabled pads, giving you the option for some really fun ways to interact and control the animations on the LEDs.

These LED panels are for 50mm goggles, and if you’re looking for a different size or design, check out the store page for Evil Genius Lab LCC to see all the different options they have there! Based out of Kansas in the United States, they ship from the US and are more than happy to answer questions and are even available for custom work.

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Tiny projects call for tiny parts, and the hyper compact 2826 Pixel-Matrix does the job perfectly. Whether you’re working on a breadboard or creating a compact display, this matrix provides a high quality light show in a tight space! Designed from scratch to fill a gap in the market, this brilliant white PCB will really stand out in your components drawer.

With its extra small 2x2mm RGB LEDs, this is one of the tiniest LED matrixes available on the market. Clocking in at only 28.6 x 26.4 mm, this matrix is crazy small and perfect for use on a breadboard. Featuring DIP connections that fit directly into a breadboard, getting started with this matrix is extremely easy; connect it to an Arduino using only 3 wires, and get straight to coding!

There are two separate Arduino libraries that can be used to drive the LED matrix; the Adafruit Neopixel library or the FastLED library. The designer of this product, MAKERPALS, have uploaded an insightful video detailing their build process and how you can utilise this matrix. There are also detailed instructions available on how to program the matrix from scratch, as well as how to link it to a powerful matrix control software that makes the process super simple.

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Printed circuit boards are, one might argue, for creating electrical circuits. However, with low-cost, high-quality suppliers just a few clicks away, using them as structural elements isn’t that far-fetched of an idea. As a novel way to “protec” your Raspberry Pi 4, I designed the JC Pi Protec Raspberry Pi Enclosure, made primarily out of PCB material.

The bottom section of the device features a rather plain base PCB, onto which rubber feet can be attached to keep it from sliding around. Screw holes are also provided, and a DIN rail mounting kit is available for industrial-style mounting.

The top cover comes in two flavors. Both have cutouts for fan mounting, and the GPIO pins are printed on the silk screen for easy identification (which has proven to be quite handy). The Smooth Top PCB option has a blank space next to the USB/Ethernet ports, and the Proto Top option instead features a small perfboard area in this section.

While this rather limited prototyping area isn’t big enough for everything, as seen in the video below it can be great for simple tasks like adding a few indicator LEDs to your design. Also featured in the video is my EZ Fan 2 board, which makes it easy to control a cooling fan or other small load with the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins.

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