Saturday, July 31, 2021

Design an Icosahedron the Easy Way in Fusion 360 with 3D Sketch via @DesktopMakes

I’m a huge fan of the Icosahedron and I was quite excited when I saw a new tutorial by Vladimir (@DesktopMakes) take on a new approach to designing the iconic shape. Vladimir walks through the process and takes a moment to showcase the power of sketch constraints. Even if you’re familiar with Fusion 360, I’m sure you’ll learn a new thing or two watching Vladimir. I’m excited to try modeling a new icosahedron using this technique! Well done, Vladimir!

Mastering sketch constraints is the key to being able to design whatever you want
Get my free Sketch Constraints Cheat Sheet at: https://desktopmakes.ck.page/83a875e345

Learn Fusion 360 with my structured online courses at https://www.desktopmakes.com/

In this video lesson we design an icosahedron using just the line tool and the equal constraint. This model shows the power of sketch constraints in Fusion 360.

Shoutout to First New York City for inspiring this video.
See their video at https://youtu.be/-UrKTCTegIM

Friday, July 30, 2021

Learn IoT on Raspberry Pi #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

via Raspberry Pi Blog

IoT — the Internet of Things — is one of the biggest growth areas in technology, and one that, to me, is very exciting. You start with a device like a Raspberry Pi, sprinkle some sensors, dust with code, mix in some cloud services and poof! You have smart cities, self-driving cars, automated farming, robotic supermarkets, or devices that can clean your toilet after you shout at Alexa for the third time.

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

How I Hacked My Standing Desk With a Raspberry Pi #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

Set a schedule to force yourself to work standing throughout the day. David Kong posted this productivity hack on Medium:

All I needed was to send the desk up every hour or so. I’ve found that switching between sitting and standing every 30–60 minutes is a great way to stay active, improve my posture, and decrease back/neck/knee pain.
My desk has a few programmable buttons that send the desk directly to a preset height when pressed, and I had already set Button 1 as my seated height and Button 2 as my standing height.

Learn more!

Growlab: Grow your own food challenge with Raspberry Pi #PiDay #Growlab #RaspberryPi @Raspberry_Pi

Growlab is a global contest to grow seeds and share your progress with a Raspberry Pi.

How it works

Read the launch blog post: Join the Grow Lab Challenge.

Decide you’re taking part by sending a PR and adding yourself to the “Growlab Technicians” section below.

Find or buy the required components for the experiments you want to take part in (read all of this file to learn more)

Build your own #growlab using one of the designs, or customize it. And start growing and recording a time lapse.

Use the #growlab hashtag and share as many pictures as you like.

Send a Pull Request and link to each Tweet to unlock each level.

At the conclusion of the growing period, we’ll send some prizes from OpenFaaS Ltd and Pimoroni to entries at random for different tiers.

Note: Growlab 2021 concludes Sunday 3rd October to mark Harvest Festival in the United Kingdom.

Prizes to be provided by: OpenFaaS Ltd and Pimoroni.

The hardware

Raspberry Pi components:

Raspberry Pi Zero W

Raspberry Pi camera module with wide-angle 160 degrees lens

RPi zero camera cable (yellow)

Power supply with a long cable ~ 2-2.5M

32-64GB SD Card

See the video below, their GitHub page, and this blog post.

Hacking a standing desk with a Raspberry Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi @Raspberry_Pi @davidkongfilm

David Kong writes in Medium “How I Hacked My Standing Desk With a Raspberry Pi”

Like many office workers today, I have a motorized sit-stand desk at work. (I built my own mechanical sit-stand desk at home, but that’s another story)

I found it strangely hard to build a habit of standing. I even tried setting reminders on my phone to stand up, but even then, it was too easy to ignore, and too easy to say “I’m tired right now. I’ll stand in a few minutes.”

So I decided to see if there were some way to automate my desk so that it would rise up on a schedule, whether I felt like standing or not.

The design uses a relay, 555 timer, and a Raspberry Pi Zero, ordered from Adafruit along with a case and MicroSD card with Raspbian on it.

Impact

It’s been running flawlessly for a few months now, and I haven’t had any need at all to tweak it. The random 45–60 interval turned out to be great for me, and I’m now spending a lot more of my day standing, which has a great impact on my back pain.

A 3D printed boat robot using Raspberry Pi, Arduino and PVC pipe #PiDay #RaspberryPi @Raspberry_Pi

Wes writes with information on his boat project.

Since my day job involves writing mobile applications, I knew I wanted to have a control system that used an iPad. I’m also the author of an iOS library that facilitates communication between ROS on Linux and iOS using websockets. The app is designed to use modular blocks that display one particular piece of information. In addition to the blocks shown here, there is a GPS block showing location, a navigation block showing waypoints, temperature and data recording. Click the magnifying glass to expand the block to full screen.

It has:
– 3D printed parts from FDM and SLS
– custom designed Arduino Mega shield PCB with SMD components
– Adafruit INA219 x2 and BNO055
– Raspberry Pi 2 and Arduino Mega
– It runs Ubuntu and the Robot Operating System
– it is controlled via a custom iPad app I wrote

This is an in progress look at the electronics plate with its relevant components. Clockwise from top left: Cytron 3A dual motor driver, Adafruit BNO055 9-DOF IMU, Arduino Mega 2560 with custom PCB shield, Raspberry Pi 2 running Ubuntu Server, BU353 USB GPS receiver and 2x Adafruit voltage/current sensors (one for each battery). The Arduino accepts the sensor i2c signals and processes the data into ROS messages that are used by the Raspberry Pi.

See more about the project here.

E-mail Spam Filtering on Raspberry Pi using Machine Learning #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

via Raspberry Pi Projects

This project targets the domain of e-mail spam filtering using machine learning. A classifier is trained using supervised Machine Learning algorithm called Support Vector Machine (SVM) to filter e-mail as spam or not spam. Each e-mail is converted to a feature vector. The SVM is trained on Raspberry Pi and the result displayed on the piTFT screen. In addition to displaying whether the e-mail is spam or not, the display also gives the user information about potential reasons for why the e-mail has been classified as spam. The database used for training is a toned-down version of the SpamAssassin Public Corpus; only the body of the e-mail is used.

OmniArm #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

Hayden Jones wants reduce the cost and make advanced prosthetic arms more accessible. Part of Hackster.io‘s 2021 China-US Young Maker Competition:

OmniArm takes prosthetic arms to the next level with integrated AI for better control, somatosensory feedback, and reduced rehabilitation.

Learn more!

OmniArm #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

Hayden Jones wants reduce the cost and make advanced prosthetic arms more accessible. Part of Hackster.io‘s 2021 China-US Young Maker Competition:

OmniArm takes prosthetic arms to the next level with integrated AI for better control, somatosensory feedback, and reduced rehabilitation.

Learn more!

Install Arduino IDE on Raspberry Pi #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

via RaspberryPi-spy

The Arduino IDE is a vital tool for flashing Arduino devices. You can install Arduino IDE on Raspberry Pi OS using these easy steps.

You could use apt:

sudo apt install arduino
but this results in the installation of Arduino IDE version 1.6. This is an extremely outdated version which makes it difficult to use or impossible to flash certain devices.

So I recommend manually installing the Arduino IDE using the software available from the official Arduino site.

I’m assuming you have a working installation of a recent Raspberry Pi OS image.

A Steampunk Internet Radio: “The Cube” @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

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Nice looking project from Horatius.Steam up on Instructables.

I really like old radios.

I was fascinated from AM radios, where you can listen to radio station worldwide like Voice of America, BBC, Radio Peking, etc.

Nearly all analog radio station has been switched off but I like to have a radio back with all the cities on the scale I can remember. The broadcasting medium has changed. But the fascination is still there :-).

So I decided to build a radio that is able to receive all the cities I listened to.

Interactive Tabletop RPG/Dungeons & Dragons Table @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

A lot of folks have gotten into, or gotten back into, tabletop gaming over the last year or so. Tools like Tabletop Simulator and Roll20 have made DnD something that anyone can do at any time. And here’s an excellent project that uses Roll20 and Raspberry Pi to build an amazing interactive gaming tabletop. Here’s more via The MagPie Magazine

The real magic for this interactive table comes from Roll20 – it’s a free online service that is normally used to let people remotely connect to each other for a TTRPG game. As well as being able to talk to your group and GM, you can roll dice within the app and control tokens of your characters.

It also allows a GM to display a map that has a ‘fog of war’ – areas that the players cannot see. From their computer, they can reveal the map as the players explore. Sign up for an account – if you’re the GM, you might want a secondary account to act as the ‘player’ account for the screen.

See more!

Make a Graphic Design Display #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

This guide from Raspberry Pi Projects will allow you (and friends!) to make a display with a Pi B+, a 32×32 matrix panel and a matrix bonnet:

This workshop is part of our club initiative to engage students in computer science courses through STEAM project experiences. The project is designed to incorporate technology and creative artwork in real-life experience.

Archie 2, an AI Robot from Alex Glow @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Bubo was always the best part of the excellent Ray Harryhausen-designed 1981 movie, Clash of the Titans. Bubo, the mechanical owl by Athena down to Perseus to help out in his adventures was super cute. And Alex Glow’s Archimedes robot companion, made with Google AIY and Raspberry PI, was just as awesome. Now Glow has come up with an update, Archie 2! Here’s more from the Raspberry Pi blog:

[Archie 2 uses] Raspberry Pi 3B, ESP32-powered Matrix Voice, and an SG90 micro-servo motor saw the personable owl familiar toughen up – Alex says the 3D-printed case is far more durable – as well as having better voice interaction options using Matrix HAL (for which installer packages are provided for Raspberry Pi and Python), plus Mycroft and Snips.ai voice assistant software.

See more!

Thursday, July 29, 2021

bAIwatch, deep learning and surf @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay RaspberryPi

Rad project from sagarrabanana up on Hackster.io.

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how I made the bAIwatch. This device is capable of being connected to the webcam located in a beache where I usually go surfing, while it evaluates the state of the waves and lets me know, thanks to the vibration of a solenoid, when the conditions are good to leave everything, take the board and go surfing!

#3DPrint a Raspberry Pi 4B TURBO Case With Integrated Camera Mount #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

Embrace Racing walks viewers through the design, changes and assembly process in this video on YouTube:

In this video I will show you the design changes I made to the nifty case that was originally designed by 219 design. You can find the original here

I’ve kept the design feature from the original whereby you can flip the lid 180 degrees to flush fit the lid, or provide small gaps to allow wires to pass through for access to the GPIO pins.

#3DPrint a Raspberry Pi 4B TURBO Case With Integrated Camera Mount #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

Embrace Racing walks viewers through the design, changes and assembly process in this video on YouTube:

In this video I will show you the design changes I made to the nifty case that was originally designed by 219 design. You can find the original here

I’ve kept the design feature from the original whereby you can flip the lid 180 degrees to flush fit the lid, or provide small gaps to allow wires to pass through for access to the GPIO pins.

Bird Snack House for Brome SquirrelBuster Pole Adapter #3DPrinting #3DThursday

jimerb shared this project on thingiverse!

A small house that fits neatly over Brome SquirrelBuster Pole Adapter Model 1025.

I was having problems with Pigeons taking over my yard but I still wanted to feed smaller birds with a handful of nuts or sunflowers. This lets me put a handful of food out without getting a massive swarm of larger birds.

download files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4877157

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

Nintendo Switch TV wall mount adapter #3DThursday #3DPrinting

Perfect solution for your Switch: out of the way but ready to go! From cylemmulo on Thingiverse:

If you have a tv wall mount that simply hooks onto the mount. Usually you have a bunch of space to the right and left. I adapted this to the mount from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1873760 (for some reason it wouldn’t let me add to remix).

Now you can simply just drop this into the same mount your tv uses. You may or may not need to tweak the actual wall clip thickness if it’s too thick for your mount. I recommend triangular infill and printing it tall ways if you want the most strength. However, it doesn’t way that much so it shouldn’t matter much either way.

Download the files and learn more

MartinKJHB #3Dprinting #3DThursday

MartinKJHB shared this project on Thingiverse!

Callichimaera perplexa is an extinct crab from the Cretaceous. In life, it would have been around 2.5 cm/1” across, the size of many water beetles. I’ve imagined the swimming style to be like that of dytiscid beetles or corixid bugs rather than a portunid crab, but I’m not aware of any evidence either way. This model is based on Luque et al. (2019). It’s a pretty little critter, thanks to dinoking27 for suggesting it to me.

Download files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4877701

Rotary Braille Cube #3DThursday #3DPrinting

A braille learning tool shared by Ctrl_P on Thingiverse:

This is a braille cube for people learning braille to carry with them. A rubber band is used to maintain the tension to hold the three cubes and rotation.

Download the files and learn more

Sanding tool – hand & machine #3DPrinting #3DThursday

mishkin2 shared this project on Thingiverse!

These are devices for fixing sandpaper, which are suitable for manual grinding and for machine grinding.

Clamping and tensioning of the sandpaper is performed by rotating the inner cylinder with a slot with an 8 mm hex key. The end of the sandpaper strip is inserted into the slot of the inner cylinder. The beginning of the tape is attached in the slot on the base. If your sandpaper is paper-based and the grit index is high, it will be too thin. Then it makes sense to cut off longer and for better fastening fold it in half in those areas where the tape is attached in the slots.

Two models are made for manual grinding. In the form of a drop with a width of 40 mm, for fine grinding and for grinding in hard-to-reach places. In the form of a bar with a width of 80 mm, for grinding large open surfaces. If desired, the width of the models can be easily changed by simply pulling on the Z axis, in any 3D editor.

Download files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4877472

Macro Ring Light #3DThursday #3DPrinting

Surround macro-shots in light with this attachment from Spudd1 on Thingiverse:

Often with macro photography and filming it is hard to get good light on the subject. I use a system of extension tubes on my DSLR which gives great magnification, but has the downside that the subject has to be VERY close to the lens, which leaves little room for lights to be positioned.

Video of building this project:- https://youtu.be/vF2By_FX-lQ

So this is a solution I came up with, a Ring Light specifically designed for my lens and for macro work.

Download the files and learn more

Twist-top water bottle opener (update 2021) #3Dprinting #3DThursday

uwacn shared this project on Thingiverse!

Grip assist for opening twist-top water bottle. The new bottle tops are smaller and even more difficult to open by hand. This update fits the new smaller bottle tops.

Download files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4864210

Time Twister #3DThursday #3DPrinting

An extremely unique clock taking design cues from a rubik’s cube (maybe?). From Hans on Prusa Printers:

Time Twister is a fully 3d printed mechanical digital clock.
The digits are produced by twisting the layers to front one of three faces.
Each layer is powered by a micro servo motor.
The servo motors are controlled by an Arduino MEGA.
A DS3231 Real Time Clock makes sure that the time is right.

Download the files and learn more

Split Flap Display #3Dprinting #3DThursday

David Kingsman shared this project on PrusaPrinters.org

This split-flap display sets itself apart by being almost completely 3D-printed. The flaps are printed by changing the color mid-print and mid-layer. The case is also completely 3D-printed.

See more!

Lego Compatible Connectors for Servos #3DThursday #3DPrinting

Expand your lego builds with servos! Shared by Geoff_B_UK on Prusa Printers:

Connectors with LEGO-compatible studs for mounting small (SG90) servo motors – plus a LEGO compatible ‘tile’ connector for a PCA9685 PWM controller.

The connectors can be used:

either to build simple test beds for developing control code with (say) a Raspberry Pi or a simpler microcontroller like the ESP32, or
for building complete LEGO constructs with ‘mechatronic’ moving parts.

Download the files and learn more

Tool Box Inspired by Animal Crossing #3Dprinting #3DThursday

Twinkies shared this project on Prusaprinters.org

A toolbox inspired from the game Animal Crossing with sliding covers and printed bolts requiring no external parts

Everything here is printable and can be built easily at the 100% scale resolution. The main shell uses Prusament Lipstick red, the hinges uses grey filament and the bolts uses black filament.

Just print 10 bolts, 10 nuts, 2 handle hinges and 2 top covers. The bolts slide in through the holes and the hinges have matching bolt head to lock them in place and make flush for a cleaner outside appearance.

See more!

New Guide! NeoKey Emoji Keyboard via @BlitzCityDIY

Liz (BlizCityDIY) wanted a better way to type and send emojis, so she came up with a Circuit Python project that uses the NeoKey 1×4 QT and QT Py RP2040. The code is well documented and the guide features a code walkthrough. Since it’s CircuitPython, it’s super easy to adapt and customize to work with your hardware set up. Bonus, there’s a macOS and Windows version. Check it out!

Learn Guide: NeoKey Emoji Keyboard

Emojis are super fun to use, but can be annoying to type when you’re not on your phone. This guide will show you how to create a macro keyboard to send your favorite emojis with the press of a satisfying mechanical keyboard switch.

The code is written in CircuitPython. This makes it possible to edit your code on the go and customize your emoji choices depending on your mood. The keyboard uses a 1×4 NeoKey STEMMA board. This connects to a QT Py RP2040 via I2C with a STEMMA cable, which means no soldering required!

Code on GitHub
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Learning_System_Guides/tree/main/NeoKey_Emoji_Keyboard

I had a hand in designing a snap fit case for the QT Py and 1×4 NeoKey. It’s available to download, linked from the guide and also on Thingiverse. Big shout out to Liz coming up with this project and letting me design the case ⚡️🎛🥁

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

Wolf Mask #3DThursday #3DPrinting

Every week we’ll 3D print designs from the community and showcase slicer settings, use cases and of course, Time-lapses!

Wolf Mask
Todor Kolev
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4907018
CR10S Pro
Black PLA
24hr 47mins
X:204 Y:224 Z:180mm
.15mm layer / .4mm nozzle
10% Infill / 6mm retract
210C / 60C
171g
50mm/s

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

Clip Tape Cutter #3DThursday #3DPrinting

CyberCyclist shares:

A tape cutter having the following features.

Press down on the tape to cut it. It is like cutting paper with a ruler.
The blade is reasonably sharp, so please be careful if you have small children.
The edge of the tape remains in a slightly flipped after cutting, making it convenient for continuous cutting.
Can be used for from thin to thick tape rolls.
Models for tape widths of 20mm/25mm/30mm/35mm/40mm/45mm/50mm.
No supports needed.
Blades should be printed without raft. (for sharp edge)
A rubber band is needed for assembly. If you use TPU bands instead, it looks nicer and lasts longer.

download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4876956

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil