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Connected Cars * 21 Page Special Section

WORLD’S CUTEST GO-KART
DIY ELECTRIC VEHICLES 12 BIKE MODS
CUSTOM DASHBOARD COMPUTING

BUILD A WORKING
STAR WARS-INSPIRED

BB-8
LEARN THESE SKILLS
Spray Paint Techniques
Choose the Right Battery
Work with Sheet Metal 
Know Your Rivets

40 PROJECTS REVIEWS
+11 TOOL
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+ MILLION COLOR FLASHLIGHT Check Out Our Favorite
+ WATER BALLOON CANNON Infrared Thermometer
makezine.com | makerfaire.com | makershed.com Vol. 46 August/September 2015
 The Intel® Edison module is a powerful
single board computer that runs Linux out of
the box. And thanks to the software that Intel
developed and preinstalled on the Edison

MONITOR YOUR
module, you’ll be able to use a modified
version of the Arduino IDE, just as you would

DESK
when you work with an Arduino Uno.
Any Intel Edison can behave like an
Arduino, but for this project you’ll need
the Intel Edison Kit for Arduino. This
breakout board allows traditional Arduino

PLANTS
shields to quickly connect physically with
Edison module — enabling easy hardware
compatibility to augment the software
solutions already mentioned.
Accessing sensors in Linux is not always
straightforward, but Intel Edison sidesteps
that thanks to its leveraging of Arduino

WITH THE INTEL EDISON simplicity. To connect our plant-monitoring

sensors, we’ll use the Seeed Studio Grove
breakout board — an Arduino shield that
Learn to enable sensors on Intel’s simplifies wiring of sensors. Rather than
wrestling with bundles of wires, the Grove
tiny computer and help system combines four wires — power,
ground, and signal lines — in one handy
your plants flourish connector. Snap one end of the connector
into the sensor and the other end into the
Written By Make: Editors breakout board. Simple!

1. Intel Edison Hardware Setup

Orient your Arduino breakout board for
Edison module flat on a table with the Intel
logo facing you. Guide the Edison module
ADVERTORIAL onto the screw mounts, press the board
 down until it is snug in the Hirose connector,
and tighten the included nuts so the Edison
presented with a login prompt. Type in root
and hit enter. By default there is no password
MATERIALS
»»Intel Edison kit for Arduino
module doesn’t fall off the breakout board. set for the root user on an Edison. includes Edison
Connect the Grove shield to the breakout Then type in the command: reboot ota . »»Grove starter kit
board just as you would an Arduino shield This command will overwrite all of the files »»Moisture sensor
Grove compatible
and secure the connection between the two and configuration scripts on your Edison, »»UV sensor
boards. so make sure you’ve made backups of any Grove compatible
specialized customizations you’ve made. »»USB A to USB Micro (2)

2. Intel Edison Software and Once you press return, the system will »»Computer

Firmware Setup reboot and load the new version of the

Before writing the project source code, firmware. You can verify the changes by cat
there are two software packages you need /etc/version .
to download: the latest firmware for Intel
Edison and a customized Arduino IDE for 5. Grove Starter Kit
your computer. Grove sensors are an easy way to add data
Conveniently, there is a Windows installer into an Intel Edison project. You’ll be using
for both here: software.intel.com/en-us/ temperature, light, moisture, and UV sensors
iot/hardware/edison/downloads. If you use in this build. All four of these are analog
OSX or Linux, simply download the Yocto sensors and will connect to pins A0-A3. Go
complete image from the Board Firmware ahead and plug them in now.
Software section on the same page. The
second download you need to grab is the 6. Fire up the Arduino IDE
custom Arduino IDE for your OS, which can to Code
be found on the main IDE landing page: Load the Intel version of the Arduino IDE that
software.intel.com/iot/downloads. you download in step 2. You’ll be writing all
the code for the garden minder in this IDE.
3. Flashing the Intel Edison Make sure the Intel Edison board is not
Board mounted as a drive in your file system.
Connect the Intel Edison board using two Transferring sketches from the IDE to Edison
separate USB type A to micro cables, and simply will not work unless the drive is
also make sure that the SW1 switch is toggled unmounted.
toward the micro USB ports.
Follow the instructions in the Windows 7. Writing the Sketch
installer, then skip to step 5. For Mac and Since there are four sensors that report
Linux users, on your computer, extract the unique values, there are four primary
firmware zip file that you downloaded and sections of code. As with all Arduino
copy the contents of the folder to the Edison sketches, you will need to configure inputs
drive on your desktop. and variables in your setup() function.

4. Finishing the Flash 8. Monitoring the Plant

To complete the flashing process you’ll While the Intel Edison board is still
need to log into the Edison using a terminal connected to your computer and the
program and execute a command. Arduino IDE is running, select the Serial
Grab a copy of CoolTerm and install it on Monitor from the Tools menu and watch
your computer — freeware.the-meiers.org. your plant’s environmental conditions.
Set the baud rate for 115200 and the port Now that you are comfortable using the
as usbserial-* and be aware that the * four analog sensors and reporting values to
will be a string of characters, but it is the Serial Monitor, try to extend the features
system dependent. of the project. Try creating a graphical
Initiate a connection with Edison by interface, or an auto-tweet function, or
clicking the connect button. Wait a few even adding a servo to let it water itself. The
seconds and hit return a few times. You options are limitless — experiment and
David Scheltema

should see the activity lights TX and RX have fun.

flashing in CoolTerm.
After Linux fully boots, you will be
CONTENTS
COLUMNS SPECIAL SECTION
Reader Input 06
Welcome 08
Reinventing the first text message system.

Made on Earth 10
Explore the amazing world of backyard
technology.

FEATURES
Space Chase 18
The founders of Carbon Origins moved to the
desert to build and launch rockets. Not so easy.

Maker Pro Q&A 26

Sugru inventor Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh talks
about finding her product’s niche.

58

30
ON THE COVER:
Roll over, R2-D2 — BB-8 is
the new droid everyone wants
to build. Photo: Hep Svadja

18
Mad Hacks 28 Maker’s Dashboard 40
Your wheels are your identity, so car or Why settle for a factory dash? Customize
bike, mod them to your satisfaction! your cockpit with these projects.

World’s Cutest Go-Kart 30 Bike Hacks 41

Designing and building the electric Personalize your ride with these clever
Chibi-Mikuvan for the Power Racing pedal projects.
Series.
Electro-fy Your Bicycle 42
Making the Switch 34 Finally, an e-bike conversion that anyone
Build the Switch electric vehicle — a can do.
street-legal, Maker-ready kit and
education system. Bottle-Cap Bike Light 46
Upcycle soda bottles to make this long-
Evolutionary EVs 35 lasting, waterproof, automatic flasher.
These DIY car makers are pushing past
the electric-vehicle big boys. Inside the Monowheel 47
Tips on fabricating this fun and unique
Own Your Car 36 rolling-hoop ride.
Will a vague copyright law constrain
what hobbyists and modders can do with Cycle Chaser Bike Projector 48
their vehicles? Shine fun animations on the street that
move depending on your speed!

42
2 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

SKILL BUILDER
Tips on Batteries, Rivets,
Spray Paint, and More 49
Explore the tools and techniques you
need to take on those challenging
projects.

PROJECTS
Building Your Own
BB-8 58
Three takes on making your own
72 73
homebrew ball droid. 68
Chukudu Wooden Scooter 62
Build the burly Congolese work-
horse that can haul hundreds of
pounds of cargo.
Million Color
HSL Flashlight 64
Bring fun back to the flashlight with
Arduino and full-color NeoPixel
LEDs.
3D-Print a Badass
R/C Race Car 68
Make this ripper with a motor,
wireless microcontrollers, and a few
bucks of filament.

64

Semi-Automatic Amateur Scientist: Toy Inventor’s Notebook: OVER THE TOP

Coffee Roaster 72 Night Tracking Rockets 78 Footstep Stampers 85
Three cordless screwdrivers Use LEDs to track night- Hack a pair of flip-flops so they A Brief History of 21st
and a microcontroller = perfect launched projectiles. make designs in the sand as Century BattleMechs 96
small-batch roasting. you walk. If you were a MechWarrior fan
Water Balloon Cannon 80 in the ’90s, your dreams are
1+2+3: Realistic Build a simple PVC air cannon
Duct Tape Rose 73 to help you win the water wars. TOOLBOX about to come true.

Surprise your sweetheart with 1+2+3: Custom Tool Reviews 86 Vol. 46, July 2015. Make: (ISSN 1556-2336)
is published bimonthly by Maker Media, Inc.
a handsome handmade flower. Unique and useful Maker tools,
Soda Cooler 81 in the months of January, March, May, July,

Remaking History: toys, and materials. September, and November. Maker Media
Summer is hot. So why not is located at 1160 Battery Street, Suite 125,

Henry Bessemer and make a custom cooler to keep New Maker Tech 88
San Francisco, CA 94111, 877-306-6253.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Send all subscription
your drinks cold?
the Age of Steel 74 On the horizon for electronics requests to Make:, P.O. Box 17046, North
Hollywood, CA 91615-9588 or subscribe
Learn how to heat-treat and Howtoons 82 and accessories. online at makezine.com/offer or via phone at
(866) 289-8847 (U.S. and Canada); all other
toughen the metal that built Construct an easy homemade Books 90 countries call (818) 487-2037. Subscriptions
our world: carbon steel. Pinewood Derby track. are available for $34.95 for 1 year (6 issues)
Text tools for your bench or in the United States; in Canada: $39.95 USD;
Electronics Fun & Pixel Pals 84 bedside table. all other countries: $49.95 USD. Periodicals
Postage Paid at Sebastopol, CA, and at ad-
Fundamentals: The Learn how to solder Chip and 3D Printer Review 92 ditional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send
his Pixel Power base, then address changes to Make:, P.O. Box 17046,
Greenest Delay Timer 76 plug him into an Arduino. Printrbot Metal Plus, North Hollywood, CA 91615-9588. Canada
Wire up a clever timer circuit thoroughly tested. Post Publications Mail Agreement Number
41129568. CANADA POSTMASTER: Send ad-
that draws no current between dress changes to: Maker Media, PO Box 456,
cycles. What could be greener? Niagara Falls, ON L2E 6V2

makezine.com 3
 “If you don’t know where you are going, you
will wind up somewhere else.” — Yogi Berra

E XECUTIVE CHAIRMAN CEO CFO CRO

Dale Dougherty Gregg Brockway Todd Sotkiewicz Ed Delfs
dale@makermedia.com gregg@makermedia.com todd@makermedia.com ed@makermedia.com

CRE ATIVE DIRECTOR VICE PRESIDENT

Jason Babler Sherry Huss
jbabler@makezine.com sherry@makermedia.com

EDITORIAL DESIGN, SALES MARKETING MAKER FAIRE PUBLISHED BY

PHOTOGRAPHY & ADVERTISING
E XECUTIVE EDITOR VICE PRESIDENT PRODUCER MAKER MEDIA, INC.
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Mike Senese SENIOR SALES OF CORPOR ATE
MARKETING
Louise Glasgow Dale Dougherty
mike@makermedia.com ART DIRECTOR MANAGER
Katie D. Kunde Vickie Welch PROGR AM DIRECTOR Copyright © 2015
Juliann Brown
PRODUCTION MANAGER
katie@makermedia.com vwelch@makermedia.com Sabrina Merlo Maker Media, Inc.
Elise Tarkman DESIGNER
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL
All rights reserved.
SALES MANAGERS MARKETING & PR Reproduction without
Jim Burke MARKETING
COMMUNIT Y EDITOR
Cecily Benzon Bridgette permission is prohibited.
Caleb Kraft Patrick McCarthy Printed in the USA by
PHOTOGR APHER cbenzon@makermedia.com Vanderlaan Schumann Printers, Inc.
caleb@makermedia.com Hep Svadja Brigitte Kunde CUSTOMER RETENTION
brigitte@makermedia.com MANAGER
PROJECTS EDITORS VIDEO PRODUCER CUSTOM
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Scogin, Scott D W Smith,
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Paul Gentile, Charles Guan, Josh Burker, Tom Burtonwood,
If you were going to build your own transportation solution, what would it be?
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ENGINEERING INTERNS California [3D-Print a [Own Your Car [Floating Fantasy] [Waterproof Bike Light] Massachusetts
Follow us on Twitter: Badass R/C Race Car]
@make @makerfaire
William Felker, Adam Lukasik, I’d use all the My invention I would make a [Photos, World’s
Rachel Rosenson I’d build a bike poor, neglected would be a “peace bicycle frame Cutest Go-Kart]
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highway system derelict vehicles pod,” a rejuvenat- from wood and I always dream
On Google+: on platforms in
google.com/+make in this country ing cocoon that rubbish, casting of constructing a
Silicon Valley so I as a platform provides your aluminum and jetpack with two
On Facebook: could ride a bike for some crazy body with every- plastic out of
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from Apple to new magnetic thing it needs, so water bottles and unique angles for
Adobe and from pulse propulsion you arrive ready soda cans for the photographs. 
eBay to Google. technology. to seize the day. connections. 

PLEASE NOTE: Technology, the laws, and limitations imposed by manufacturers and content owners are constantly changing. Thus, some of the projects described may not work, may be inconsistent with cur-
rent laws or user agreements, or may damage or adversely affect some equipment. Your safety is your own responsibility, including proper use of equipment and safety gear, and determining whether you have
adequate skill and experience. Power tools, electricity, and other resources used for these projects are dangerous, unless used properly and with adequate precautions, including safety gear. Some illustrative
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4 makershed.com
 READER
INPUT makezine.com/46

Drawing Inspiration from SOCIAL MEDIA

Maker
LOVE FOR
MAKER
FAIRE

Faire
» We were there
Saturday and
Sunday this year
and were still
wishing we’d had
more time! So
much to see, so little
time! But, WE LOVED
EVERY MINUTE OF IT!
So much creativity in one
place, AMAZING! Already
looking forward to next year
and the “Minis” along the way!!!
–Maryann Weigant, via Facebook

» Thank YOU for inspiring a generation of doers,

dreamers, and imagineers to make whatever they
want to in this world. You have made my teaching

In Volume 45’s “Who’s Watching You” (page 70), the LibraryBox File Sharer should have been credited to
Hep Svadja

Jason Griffey, the creator and author of the project. The accompanying photo on page 71 should also be
career a whole lot more fascinating.
–Clint Johns, via Facebook

» Thank you Maker Faire Team!!!! Your

tireless commitment to the vision of Make: is an
inspiration! And you all are a bunch of really great
GROWING UP WITH MAKER FAIRE people too!!!! Thanks for having me, and thanks for
My son, Chris, was 8 at the first Maker Faire. He’s now all your hard work! What a great 3 days at
graduating high school and has been accepted to several the faire!!!!!!
universities (Duke, Ketting, University of Utah, and BYU). –Scatha G Allison of Miss Velvet Cream Neo
Field of study? Manufacturing and engineering. Why? Well, Couture Clothing, via Facebook
mostly because of Make: magazine (I have them all from the
beginning), Maker Faire (we’ve been to 7 of the 10), and a bit of
» Thanks for putting this event together.
Participation and variety were much better than
stuff in between that we got involved in because of the ideas and
2014. Looking forward to next one already. Oh BTW
inspirations from the blog and the magazine. I’ve appreciated our
my kids were so tired at the end — they are asking
partnership over the years. –Mike Johnson, Rocklin, California
for more days of Maker Faire so they can keep
coming back to check out other zones. I agree.
THE REAL COST OF A PROJECT
–Baris Eris, via Facebook
In issue 44 of Make: magazine, Mark Harrison tells us how to
build a noodle copter! The article (page 42) says it cost $8 to buy » We drove down all the way from Eugene,
credited to Griffey. Our apologies, Jason!

all the materials, but my dad says it will cost over $100. Can you Oregon for this. Second-year attendees. I want to
please tell me the actual cost of the copter so my brother and I expose my daughter, age 4, to this awesomeness
can build it? Thank you very much. –Max Alexander, age 10  so she too can be inspired. Thank you Makers!
–Jen Hi, via Facebook
Make: Amends

EXECUTIVE EDITOR MIKE SENESE RESPONDS:

Max, sorry about any confusion with the Noodle Copter — the
» What an awesome, inspiring, rejuvenating, ex-
hausting, fun, invigorating weekend! Met so many
$8 price we posted is just for building this as the airframe. The
fabulous people that we’re planning on contacting
electronics are separate, and yes, will cost about $100–$200
again very soon. Thanks so much!
to get off the ground. I wish they didn’t cost this much, but
–Carol Maley of Marin Maker Mobile, via Facebook
thankfully the prices are constantly dropping. We’ll be more
clear in the future.

6 makershed.com
 WELCOME
makezine.com/46

Re-Inventing the First

Text Message
System
See the relay, Page motor, and experiences
from students at makezine.com/46/welcome
BY DALE DOUGHERTY, founder and Executive Chairman of Maker Media.

ON A VISIT TO SUTHERLAND MIDDLE SCHOOL IN ALBEMARLE as the patent application. Rather than starting with a kit or prepared
COUNTY, VIRGINIA, I SAW GROUPS OF STUDENTS BUILDING instructions, students had to learn how it worked and design their
a motor out of 3D-printed and laser-cut parts plus coat-hanger own version. They built the telegraph with Autodesk 123D and a new
wire. Up on the screen at the front of the class was a 3D simulation MakerBot. “All of us were surprised by our success,” says Munsey.
of the motor. The teacher, Robbie Munsey, explained that the Bull was so excited by the work that he suggested they show
students were re-creating a Page motor, named after its inventor, some people at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The class
Charles Graton Page, and that the invention was patented in 1854. created a presentation, and “blew them out of the water,” says
“Looking at historical inventions is a way for students to interact Munsey. It resulted in a formal collaboration between the University
with technology and understand it,” says Munsey, who, dissatisfied of Virginia, the Smithsonian, and Sutherland Middle School, and led
with the science curriculum, wanted to employ more hands-on to an NSF grant.
learning. A Page motor makes it clear what a motor does and how Later, Bull reached out to Princeton’s Michael Littman, an expert
it works, and actually building it brings this home to students. on historical inventions, and he joined the collaboration, with a grad
Initially, Munsey struggled with hard to obtain supplies for more student adding 3D model simulation.
complex projects. He met Glen Bull, a professor at the Curry The next challenge was the Page motor. “Tough,” Munsey
School of Education at the University of Virginia, who was talking describes it. “Crazy tough.” But the students succeeded again.
about 3D printing (see Make: Volume 41, “The Lab in the Class- “Having built the Page motor, students could learn what’s great
room”). “He let me borrow a really old 3D printer,” says Munsey. about it and what’s not so great about it,” he says. “Then I asked
“Glen said take it home and see what you can do it with it.” He did, them, what can you do to change it? What would you do to make
and discovered that the printer was the answer to his supply prob- it better? Can it look even more like the original Page motor?”
lem. “You could build anything with it, and I noticed the kids were Munsey was delighted to hear the technical language seep into their
mesmerized by it,” he says. conversations — “the commutators have too much friction,” “we’re
Bull invited Munsey to join his online graduate class on edtech. pulling 3 amps, how do we lower that?” — it was no longer a science
The next challenge in that class was to build a telegraph, and it project; it became their own project.
caught Munsey’s interest. On his own, he built the telegraph. Bull “I never once lectured them on any of this. Not a single direct
was ecstatic. He asked Munsey if he thought 8th grade students lesson. It wasn’t me pushing curriculum to them; it was them
could build one. “Absolutely,” Munsey replied, and he recruited pulling the knowledge in,” Munsey says. “The power of choice is
an engineering teacher, Eric Bredder, who ran Sutherland’s so incredible.”
makerspace, as a collaborator to make it happen. “Our kids said that by working with the original inventions and
Munsey believed that building a telegraph with 3D-printed parts studying what the inventors wrote, they honestly felt connected
would be practical and meaningful to the students. “I told them to inventors like Morse,” Munsey says. “When I pointed out that
that the telegraph was the first text message system ever,” he says. these famous inventors didn’t fully understand what electricity
“Modern-day relays are plastic boxes that you can’t open up. Even was, I realized that neither do my students. The innovators and the
if you could open them, you wouldn’t understand them. The great students have holes in their understanding, and we could talk about
Hep Svadja

thing about these inventions is that we can see how they work.”   that.” They learned about the invention, but also how the minds of
Munsey and Bredder gave the students original documents, such inventors work a lot like their own.

8 makershed.com
MADE The world of backyard technology
Know a project that would be perfect for Made

ON EARTH
on Earth? Email us: editor@makezine.com

Rogan Brown makes four-

MICRO MADE MACRO

dimensional paper sculptures
of microbes. He calls himself a
scientific surrealist, and the fourth
dimension is time.
The time element the 48-year-
old artist is referring to is the four
to five months it takes to make the
sculptures using his Epilog laser
cutter. Brown prefers to use paper
as his primary medium because
“it’s a humble material, everyone
can access it … I use a populist
technique that allows the public
to access something that might
be beyond their comprehension.”
After living in London for
many years, Brown relocated
to a remote area bordering a
national park in southern France.
“I was trying to find a way into
seeing what was surrounding me
because the traditional art forms
of representing nature didn’t
appeal,” he says. 
ROGANBROWN.COM

He purchased a microscope
and found himself captivated
by the precise observations he
recorded in the environment
around him. “Detailed scientific
drawings of nature look
completely surreal,” Brown
explains. “We live in a scientific
age and artists engage in the
dominant narrative.”
Brown’s microbe exhibit,
Invisible You, will be on display for
the next five years at the Eden
Project, an educational charity in
the U.K. He will also be exhibiting
Outbreak, a huge installation of
800 microbes flowing out of a
petri dome and crawling over
the gallery walls, at The Coda
Rogan Brown

Museum in the Netherlands this

June through October.
— Laura Rena Murray

10 makershed.com
FLOATING
FANTASY
BALLOONMANOR.COM

Drew Ripley is a full-time balloon

twister. From birthday parties to
major art projects, he lives to
entertain crowds through the fine art
of folding air. When Airigami’s Larry
Moss and Kelly Cheatle asked him to
help on Balloon Manor, a large-scale
ephemeral balloon installation, he
teamed up with a crew of 60 to bring
life back into an old department store
in Rochester, New York.
The Amazing Air-Filled Under-Sea
Adventure used more than 40,000
balloons to fill the building’s five-
story atrium. For four days, it was a
frenzy of activity, as artists worked
from blueprints, air compressors
ran nonstop, and rigging was
installed overhead to support it all.
Inflating that many balloons
requires machinery to quickly pump
the correct amount of air.
Dissatisfied with the reliability and
precision of commercial balloon
pumps, Ripley and Moss built the
Inflatinator, a programmable
machine that was the only
automated equipment used in the
2015 Balloon Manor.
They made their first prototype
with a breadboard, an Arduino, and
some solenoids packed into a plastic
container, and then redesigned it into
a safe and robust machine with the
help of local engineer Paul Walker.
The team continues to tinker with the
functionality to increase productivity
for future balloon builds.
“After working 16 hours straight I
go home happy, exhausted, but still
thrilled,” says Ripley. “Everywhere I
go, I get to give people that moment
of whimsy and being free and
recognizing that life is awesome, and
what could be better than that?”
Airigami

—Agnes Niewiadomski
MADE ON EARTH

MAKER FAIRE BAY AREA 2015MAKERFAIRE.COM

Evan Jones
Hep Svadja
1

2 3
12 makershed.com
 Juliann Brown
4 5
A decade of Maker Faire has seen some of the biggest, best,
and most beautiful creations around. The show has grown
but the spirit persists, and throughout, the Makers continue
to inspire and amaze. The 10th anniversary was no different;
here, highlights from the Greatest Show & Tell on Earth.

1. Robot Resurrection towered over the South Lot

2. Zolie on her Trilobite car
3. A glowing fashion show featured 3D-printed prosthetics

6
4. Praying with Fire in front of Rhino Redemption

Hep Svadja
5. Mission Delirium jams in front of Celestial Mechanica
6. James Peterson’s Sessilanoid responds to touch
7. Paul Cesewski’s Bicycle Ferris Wheel is powered by riders
8. A mini Tesla coil electrified the darkened Fiesta Hall
9. An army of R2-D2s prowled the grounds

8 9
makezine.com 13
 Documenting
Projects
with Sprout by HP
Written By Make: Editors

ADVERTORIAL

14 makershed.com
GREAT PROJECTS NEVER APPEAR FULLY result, most people don’t bother to do it. It’s sad
FORMED IN YOUR MIND; THEY TAKE WORK. to think of all the fantastic builds that we’ve never
Developing the idea, spending hours building it, seen, simply because people didn’t pick up a
and wrapping it all up with a nice set of photos in camera and snap pictures along the way.
a blog post isn’t easy. For most people, going from So how can we turn documentation into an
idea to reality is enough to tackle, but for a truly activity that is practical for everyone, and that they
great project, each step along the path should be might even enjoy? The best approach is to make
documented. it as seamless and easy as possible. If we all had
Detailed step shots and explanations make it machines that made it simple to plan, photograph,
easier for people to replicate your success, and and share our build process, we’d all be much
even improve on it. The best-documented projects more likely to show the world what we’ve made.
are those that transcend a singular build and Thankfully, the Sprout by HP is the perfect tool for
begin a life of their own. Alas, if documentation the job, and we’re here to show you how to use it.
were that easy, then everyone would do it. We’ve
all got our excuses ... DEVELOPING YOUR IDEAS
Most projects start as a scribble on a napkin, a
« “I don’t want to stop what I’m doing to sketch in a notebook, or a collection of post-it note
take pictures.” doodles. It’s important to capture your ideas with
« “I don’t have the right equipment ...” whatever is nearby when inspiration strikes, but
« “I always forget to!” it can be tricky to keep track of the results. With
the Sprout though, keeping all of your ideas in one
Hep Svajda

Documenting a project adds a whole additional place is a snap, no matter where they happen.
layer to an already complex process, and as a In the Create app, you can build a virtual project

makezine.com 15
 board to collect notebook sketches, inspirational standard multi-touch pinch, zoom, and rotate
images from the web, and draw new designs on gestures you’re used to. Tapping on the Edit tools
the fly. The Sprout allows both digital and physical in the menu on the right, you can even crop,
plans to live together in the same place. Having remove the background, or punch out a shape
a single place to track all of your plans helps you in an image. These built-in tools make it easy to
organize your ideas. quickly modify the image just the way you want it.

CAPTURING THE PHYSICAL DRAWING YOUR IDEAS

AS DIGITAL The Sprout comes with a stylus pen that makes it
Opening the Create app will bring you to a blank easy to sketch or take notes directly on the Touch
workspace. To scan in the contents of your Mat. Tapping the paintbrush icon will show the
notebooks, tap the camera icon in the upper left Ink tools. Here you can choose your pen style, the
corner to open the Capture feature, and then color you’d like to draw in, and the line width. The
place your notebook on the Touch Mat. Tap the pencil will create lines of uniform thickness, while
large camera icon on the touchscreen, and a the calligraphy pen will produce a line of varying
photo will be taken. If you’re satisfied with the thickness based on the angle that you draw. And
resulting picture, click the check mark. The image just as in the physical world, the highlighter will
will be placed on it’s own layer in the workspace, create areas of partial transparency for emphasis.
as well as in the image gallery for later use.
Of course, you’re not limited to capturing BUILDING
just sketches or notes. You can also place parts Once you begin building, the real work begins.
and materials in your project board to help Thanks to the durability of the Touch Mat, you can
develop ideas further. If it can fit on the mat, the work on most small projects without worry. The
Sprout can snap a picture of it and place it in the Touch Mat’s ultra-resistant coating deflects spills,
workspace. cuts, glue, and ink, so it will stand up to most
mishaps.
IMAGES FROM THE WEB Working directly on the Touch Mat lets you take
If inspiration strikes while browsing the web, you advantage of the Sprout’s Capture application
can simply copy and paste images directly into for mid-build photographs. When you start your
the workspace. Any image in the workspace can project, open the Capture app and you’ll be
ADVERTORIAL also be selected and rotated or resized with the greeted with a large view from the camera above

16 makershed.com
the Touch Mat. For the projects that are too large some soft lighting while working, you can tap the
for the Touch Mat, you can switch to the camera in front of the Illuminator arm to turn on the built-in
the touchscreen bezel by tapping the arrow icon in overhead lamp.
the bottom right corner of the screen.
SHOWING YOUR STEPS
TAKING PICTURES Having shots of a project in progress can be
To snap a photo of your project-in-progress, useful, but to help people understand the process,
simply tap the camera icon on the touchscreen. adding a description of what was done in the
When a photo is taken, by default the Sprout will picture is even better. When you’re creating a set
separate all of the objects in the picture. This is of steps for others to follow when replicating your
great to capture all of the tools and materials build, the Sprout’s Create app has all the tools
used at the beginning of a build, but selecting you’ll need to help you show your work.
the “separate objects” icon on the left side of the With the Create app open, you can open the
screen can disable the separation feature. Tapping image gallery on the touchscreen and swipe
the + symbol will save the picture and allow you through the pictures you took earlier during the
to take another picture, while tapping the check build. To add an image from the gallery to your
mark will save the current picture and exit the workspace, just swipe it down toward the Touch
app. All saved images are conveniently placed in Mat, and it will appear within the workspace of
the Gallery for later use. the Create app. After resizing the image, you can
use the Ink tools to draw and annotate directly on
CUT THE LIGHTS top of your image, or use the Text tools to add a
Keeping the Capture app open will keep the Touch description of what you were doing in the photo.
Mat display on, which might be distracting while When you’re done, simply use the drop-down
you’re working. Thankfully, turning the projection menu in the top right corner to save the file as a
off is easy. Simply press and hold the touch- JPEG, PDF, or PNG, and open a new document to
sensitive Touch Mat symbol on the silver base start designing the next page in your build steps.
of the Touch Mat, and the Touch Mat display will For many people, project documentation is a
be disabled. To turn it back on, press the same pain, but it doesn’t have to be. The Sprout makes
symbol, and the display will come back on right it easy — even fun — to take great photos during
where you left off in the Capture app, ready to take your build, and create beautiful instructions for
another picture. As an added bonus, if you’d like sharing your project with the world.

makezine.com 17
FEATURES Space Chase

SPACE
H
A
THE FOUNDERS OF
CARBON ORIGINS
MOVED TO THE
DESERT TO
LAUNCH ROCKETS.

S
IT WAS HARDER
THAN THEY
EXPECTED.
Written by Nathan Hurst

E
Kailey Shara,
Danna Torio,
Jaimie Hadden, and
Amogha Srirangarajan
pose with Carbon
Origins’ Phoenix 0.3
test rocket on the
morning of its first —
and last — launch.

18 makershed.com
 makezine.com/space-chase

IF
you follow Aerospace Highway than $23,000 worth of school, sponsor, and

“ FROM THE ASHES WAS BORN ANOTHER ROCKET, AND A COMPANY.”

north out of Mojave, California, personal money went up in smoke, and
take a small road off to the east, they didn’t know why because the flight
continue as it becomes gravel, and then controller sensor array the rocket needed to
sand, and pass a dry lake bed, you’ll end up tell them what happened didn't yet exist.
at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) Eventually, they pieced it together, based
launch site. These 10 acres of bare desert on footage of the launch and an exhaustive
nestled between mountains and bordering process of picking up the scattered debris.
a California desert tortoise preserve are The first stage lifted off fine. At best guess —
scarred with blast marks from hundreds of an educated guess, but still not completely
experimental rocket launches. certain — the flight controller, which ignites
It’s here, on a hot, sunny Sunday in April, the second stage, did so before stage 1 was
that Carbon Origins, a startup consisting finished. It wrecked the body, says Shara.
of four recent Case Western Reserve The engine blew right threw it.
University engineering students, has set “It was a pretty ambitious 2-stage rocket,”
up Phoenix 0.3, a 10-foot-long, 4-inch- she says. “It was kind of pushing the
diameter silver and black needle of a rocket. capabilities of that flight controller.”
Inside are six commercial flight controllers, Some in the club thought they could
plus three of their unique, custom-built do better. Srirangarajan, Shara, Dixon,
boards designed to track the rocket’s flight and Torio split off to start Carbon Origins,
past Mach 2.5 and up to 43,000 feet. with the dual goals of making it easier
Disassembled, the rocket fits in the back for citizens to explore space and building
of Danna Torio’s Toyota Highlander, which the tools, including that missing flight
is how Carbon Origins got the rocket out controller, that would help them do that. The
to the FAR site from their house/corporate flight controller became a custom, durable,
headquarters in nearby California City. Arduino-compatible device called Apollo.
Amogha Srirangarajan stands beside “That was the point at which we said, this
the rocket on the platform, arming the is more than a hobby,” says Srirangarajan,
electronics manually. They beep through the who is president and CEO of Carbon Origins.
fiberglass body in acknowledgment. “From the ashes was born another rocket,
“She’ll be dented and scratched when and a company.”
she comes back,” he says, affectionately. “That is our single goal, space, and we’ll
A few feet away, Kailey Shara makes sure do everything we can to make sure that
the GPS unit is locked onto satellites. Then people like us, when they get to universities,
everybody retreats to a nearby bunker, and and when they get to a part in their life
Srirangarajan video-calls Peter Dixon, their where they have the basic skills to do
fourth co-founder, who could not be present. something cool, they have this resource to
Nobody slept last night, Srirangarajan put stuff in space,” he says.
says, but Torio and Jaimie Hadden, who In the summer of 2014, they moved to
volunteered at the launch, admit to catching California City, rented a four-bedroom
naps in the car. house with a rocky yard and heavily taxed
The countdown begins, from 10. It air conditioner, and set up shop. Literally
reaches zero, and nothing happens. — they built a shop in the living room,
with a drill press, shop vac, MakerBot, a
A HOUSE IN THE DESERT big monitor for CAD, bright work lights
Carbon Origins can trace its trajectory to the on stands, and a big bank of drawers
rocketry club at Case Western in Cleveland. containing bolts and other small parts.
Srirangarajan founded the group, which There are five whiteboards covered in
expanded into one of the most popular clubs calculations and diagrams, plus a fridge
at the university. with three faces covered in dry-erase
Hep Svadja

The club went to Utah to launch an 18- markings.

foot, two-stage rocket. It blew up. More Five more whiteboards decorate the walls

makezine.com 19
FEATURES Space Chase

of the garage, which has been converted to

a white-walled office with fluorescent lights.
There, the crew has a Form1 printer, vinyl
cutter, DJI Phantom, cases of Red Bull, and
inward-facing desks, like the bridge of a star
cruiser. There’s no garage door opener; the
door itself has been insulated to resist the
desert heat and sealed around the edges,
though sand and bugs tend to slip in.
But maybe the most important feature
of the house stands next to the kitchen. It
is a 1:8 scale model of a payload-carrying,
space-bound, two-stage rocket that is their
ultimate goal. They don’t know what’ll go
What’s in a in it, but its purpose is to make it easier for
rocket engine? Makers to launch stuff into space. “We built
There’s a lot of effort going this so we could have a physical reminder of
into making better rocket
engines. Carbon Origins what we’re aiming for,” says Torio.
figured their resources were Nearly everything you’d need to build
better spent on optimizing a rocket resides in the house with them.
the rockets, and outsourcing
the engine. But other teams “Having an apartment like this, where you
of students and professionals can wake up and walk straight to your
are experimenting with shop, that’s incredible,” says Srirangarajan.
different fuels. Here are the
three most common types: They hardly even need to leave; Torio’s car

Amogha Srirangarajan
is the only one they have, and Srirangarajan
Solid Propellant: Black
powder compressed with an says he seldom carries his wallet — it’s
oxidizing agent to provide rare that an expenditure isn’t related to the
oxygen, solid engines are
designed not to explode but to business.
burn uniformly and expel gases The lack of distraction is a big part of why
Carbon Origins' multi-sensored Apollo board. out the back. Some include a
charge on burnout to eject a they moved to California City, population
parachute, while others are 14,120. They don’t exactly have a lot to do
built to ignite a second stage.
there, socially speaking. They go flying in
Liquid Propellant: Liquid- a Cessna 172 (Dixon has been flying since
propelled engines mix a fuel
like petroleum with an oxidizer he was 16). They take trips to Home Depot,
in a combustion chamber.
They’re more complex than
race go-karts, pilot quadcopters, or just
solid engines, but can be re- drive into the desert in different directions to
used, as well as throttled.
see what’s there. They order from Jesse’s,
The recovered payload (above) and Phoenix 0.3 parts (below). Hybrid: Typically, the fuel one of two pizza joints in town. And the
is solid while the oxidizer
is pumped in, allowing for people they do socialize with tend to be
uniform burn and throttling. space enthusiasts as well.
“Mojave is a whole other world,” says
Srirangarajan. “Every other person you
meet is into space. There is an actual
spaceport where we can go launch rockets
into space if we wanted to, tomorrow.”

“ROCKETS ARE HARD”

Model rocketry has been an educational
staple for decades. Take a cardboard tube,
Duchesne Torio

stick on some fins, a nose cone, and an

engine, and you’ve got a rocket.
“Model rockets use the same basic
materials that have always been used,”
says David Raimondi, president of LUNAR,
the Livermore (California) Unit of the

20 makershed.com
 makezine.com/space-chase

“FAILED LAUNCHES ARE SIMPLY LEARNING EXPERIENCES.”

National Association of Rocketry. “The two rocket open and eject the drogue parachute.
big changes are the complexity and size This smaller chute will allow the rocket
of the electronics available today, and the to descend quickly to an altitude of a few
availability of motors.” thousand feet, where a main chute will
For at-home model rocketry, many of deploy to soften the landing. By the time
those motors come from Estes Rockets. it touches down, it should be going a nice,
They’re the little light-brown cylinders, easy, 10mph.
around the size of a roll of pennies, filled That wasn’t quite how it worked out for
with solid, pressed black powder rocket fuel predecessor Phoenix 0.2. Launched in June
— also known as gunpowder. 2014, its chutes deployed while it was still
“Business is good. It’s still very popular, accelerating. The nylon strap tore through
but it has changed,” says Mike Fritz, Estes’ the aluminum body, and the rocket came
director of product development. “Today’s down ballistic — in free fall. They recovered
consumers seem to be a little more the warped, crumpled body, which stands
interested in, I got an hour, what can you near their kitchen beside the scale model.
give me?” The flight controller showed that the air
Estes sells rocket engines up to size G. pressure remained constant, suggesting
The engine inside Carbon Origins’ Phoenix that the small hole in the rocket that
0.3 is size O, sourced from Cesaroni allows pressure to equalize as it flies might
Technology, an industrial manufacturing have gotten plugged somehow. When the
company in Canada. Since each letter altimeter can’t read the pressure change,
increment represents a doubling of rocket it doesn’t know when the rocket peaks, and
power, the Phoenix 0.3 is more than 8,000 therefore when to release the chute.
times more powerful than the one you likely “Rockets are hard,” says Shara, noting
launched in middle school. that in Phoenix 0.3, they’ve included
Any motor larger than a G requires redundant flight controllers and parachute
certification from the National Association ejection charges.
of Rocketry or the Tripoli Rocket Association, Phoenix 0.2’s crash was just one of many
though Fritz points out that, at that level, things that can go wrong with rockets. The
you’re probably firing rockets beyond what FAR site is run by a group of mentors from
you can see. That’s one of the reasons the rocketry industry, who allow university
onboard electronics can be useful. A radio clubs to use it, and companies to launch for
or GPS for tracking means once it goes a small fee. Kevin Baxter, FAR’s president,
out of your sight, it’s not gone for good. And helped buy the land after he saw a need for
an altimeter (usually barometric) can tell a place students could go to launch rockets.
you exactly how high it went, something The site lies under the Edwards Air Force
else that quickly gets pretty hard to Base umbrella, so there are no commercial
distinguish by eye. flights going over. In 2003, FAR was founded
An O motor provides up to 40,960 newton- as a nonprofit.
seconds of thrust. The O in Carbon Origins’ Students from all over southern
Phoenix 0.3 is just over the cutoff from N California, the Southwest, and even as far as
size, with 21,062 newton-seconds — a lot for Annapolis, Maryland, launch twice a month
a 63.4-pound rocket. Enough, according to at the site. Failures, sometimes including
their calculations, to blast it to that 43,000 spectacular explosions, happen frequently.
foot, Mach 2.5 goal. “Failed launches are simply learning
The engine doesn’t push the rocket the experiences and they are a common
whole way; at around 6 seconds into the occurrence at FAR,” says Baxter. “Hence the
flight, says Srirangarajan, it should run Interested in fueling viewing trenches and blockhouse.”
out of fuel. But it’ll still be traveling more your inner rocket On Saturday, about 24 hours before
than twice the speed of sound, and that scientist? Carbon Origins was scheduled to launch,
momentum will carry it a great deal further, a rocket crashed. It was silver, red,
Hep Svadja

Check out our book Make: Rockets,

for another minute or more. As it reaches its from the Maker Shed (makershed. and white, liquid oxygen-fueled, with a
com). Learn the aerodynamics that
peak, the onboard controller will recognize influence how they fly, and try DIY
3D-printed engine and a wide set of fins. It
that air pressure has stopped changing, projects from simple water rockets lifted off slowly, almost hovering in midair.
and deploy the CO2 charge that will pop the to two-stage payload carriers. It tipped sideways into the wind, flew a few

makezine.com 21
FEATURES Space Chase

tiny board.
A 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 processor
runs GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, as
well as accelerometer, magnetometer,
pressure sensor, infrared and ultraviolet
light sensors, and more. The face of the
approximately 1"×2" board is largely covered
by an OLED screen and a trackball to toggle
through apps and data.
With its tiny size and myriad of sensors,
Apollo is unique within rocketry, but it’s
also unique among boards in general — it
has attracted potential users far outside
rocketry, including wearables, drones, and
Internet of Things devices. The Void, a virtual
reality arcade near Salt Lake City, is building
a VR gaming environment in a theater. Each
gamer wears a vest, helmet, and gloves
equipped with sensors based on Apollo to
track their motion. DomeCandy Labs, a
portable speaker maker, is using Apollo’s
communication capabilities to prototype a
Bluetooth speaker that will offer feedback
tailored toward music.
Carbon Origins is so bullish on this thread
that they’re spinning off Carbon Labs, which
hundred feet, and hit the ground with a thud startups and rocketeers are experimenting will mimic Carbon Origins’ approach to
and a plume of dust. primarily with engines and the rockets democratizing space, but for data sensor
Other rocket engineers were quick to themselves, to Carbon Origins the rocket is hubs — i.e., making it easier to use Apollo
point out what may have gone wrong. The the vehicle — literally and metaphorically, and its components to meld the physical
launch rail was short, one said, especially says Shara — by which to launch the Apollo and digital worlds and enable the Internet
in relation to the large fins. With a short rail, controller. (A mailing list currently allows of Things. Carbon Labs will offer custom-
the rocket doesn’t achieve as much speed you to reserve one, and more than 5,000 built products based on Apollo architecture;
before it’s free, and with large fins, it’s liable people have done so. Two versions are that is, they’ll work backward from Apollo,
to tilt into the wind, like a weather vane. planned, entry-level and pro.) picking the relevant parts and software
It’s a problem with stability, which is “The electronics is such a huge part for each client, greatly reducing the time
primarily dependent on the distance of launching a high-power rocket,” says required for development, according to
between the center of mass (determined Shara. “It’s not important in little rockets, Srirangarajan.
by weight) and the center of pressure but in big rockets it’s all about tracking and Both aspects, the controller (and its
(determined by airflow over the shape of the data and all of the different equipment and potential use in the Internet of Things
rocket, especially the fins). The farther the electronics and cameras on the rocket.” revolution) and the rockets themselves, are
two are apart, the more stable the rocket. “It’s a very extreme environment, it really important to Carbon Origins’ mission.
The large fins meant the wind had a greater gave us an opportunity to build something “I can’t choose sides,” says Srirangarajan.
influence on that part of the rocket, thus at a very high level,” she continues. “We’re “I spend almost the same amount of time
bringing the center of pressure toward building something that can exist and work on both, they’re like my two babies.”
the rear, far from the center of mass, in an environment that would be probably They’ve made it this far without any
and causing the rocket to be dangerously beyond a lot of people’s projects.” outside investment, relying on savings
“overstable.” Boom. The board is built with flanges that draw and funds from other successful startups
heat to the gold-plated edges, making they’ve been involved with. “Now that we
BUILDING A BETTER BOARD Apollo act like its own heat sink and RF are cash-flow positive, we don’t have an
Originally, Carbon Origins just wanted to shield in one. Sensors are delicate where immediate requirement,” Srirangarajan
make the best rocket they could. But they heat is concerned, so this layout means says. “But it is in our roadmap.” Once Apollo
realized that that rocket needed a brain that components can be placed closer together, launches as a product, they’ll explore
wasn’t available yet. So while other space allowing them to mash 11 sensors onto the venture capital.

22 makershed.com
 makezine.com/space-chase

“WE BUILT APOLLO AS A SWISS ARMY KNIFE FOR MAKERS AND DEVELOPERS.”
ORIGIN STORIES left school entirely to start Carbon Origins,
Unlike the Mojave, Case Western Reserve acting as vice president of electronics.
University is not a great place to launch “You don’t get great opportunities like this
rockets. Still, upon arriving as a freshman, that come along very often,” she says. “It
Srirangarajan quickly founded the rocketry was starting to extend beyond the scope of
club. And a robot club. It was robotics that what was possible financially, in terms of
first hooked him, as a boy living in India, resources, and beyond that, acceptable in a
where his mom was a computer engineer university setting.”
who made him learn programming as a kid The decision wasn’t out of character
— BASIC, Java, C. He used to visit a friend for her. She was highly recruited by the
of his grandfather’s in the country, who had engineering school, says dean Jeffrey
bought a bunch of land after retiring from Duerk, who describes her as “exactly the
the Indian navy. Together, they experimented type of student you want at the university.”
with solar pumps and irrigation. “I used She quickly became a TA and a leader
to go there in the summer, and it used to among her peers. Later on, when her
blow my mind, the things you could do with grades flagged, he discussed it with her.
electronics,” says Srirangarajan. He built his “She said, ‘I came here to learn, I didn’t
first robot sometime around age 11, with the come here to get good grades.’”
help of that friend. Shara has been immersed in electronics
“It’s kind of been part of a pretty hard since almost before she could walk, when
education system, with this insanely her father gave her a scrap circuit board. “As
cool outlet during the summers. That soon as I discovered I could find these circuit
combination led me to build flame-throwing boards in everything, all the household
robots and laser harps and all these really appliances, our house kind of became the
cool Maker projects that not a lot of my e-waste central of my hometown,” she says.
peers were really into,” he says. That led She admires Arduino, and cites it as
him to entrepreneurship: “I made stuff, I inspiration for Carbon Origins. “We’ve come
sold stuff, I made money that helped me such an incredibly long way, in terms of
make other things.” electronics, that things that are possible
Robotics led Srirangarajan to space — or would take financial inputs that only
after all, robots are frequently crucial parts governments can provide, now you can
of space missions — and space led him to basically order it on Amazon and have it on
his co-founders. your doorstep in a couple of days.” That’s
Torio, Carbon Origins’ COO, was born what ties the rockets to the board: the goal
in the Philippines, and joined up simply of democratizing access to space.
because she loves space. “I found out really Shara and Dixon both grew up firing little
young that that’s what I wanted to do, I rockets with their dads — she in Montreal,
wanted to be an astronaut. And that just Canada, he in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dixon
never left me,” she says. “Going the whole couldn’t wait to move on to bigger, faster,
NASA route is so tedious, there’s no surefire higher rockets; now he’s vice president of
way of getting to what you want to do.” aerospace for Carbon Origins. The more
Rocket club was an exception to the rote advanced he got, the better he liked it. “Once
tedium of PowerPoint classes: “There’s you start getting into harder materials,
this exciting thing that you can actually like aluminum rockets, and making your
participate in, actually put the theoretical avionics a lot more advanced, getting data
stuff you’ve learned into practice, which off of them, that’s when the real engineering
was amazing.” starts,” he says. “That’s when the problem
“College isn’t right for everyone. That solving starts. That’s what really drives me.”
was definitely the case with me — I hated Now they can relive their flights virtually,
One of the best
it,” she says. “I’m a mech-e, I graduated as thanks to the data collected by Apollo. “We
ways to get started
a mech-e, I did not see anything hands-on like great tools that potentially streamline is to check out a local rocketry
until senior year.” She skipped graduation to our engineering, so we built Apollo club. Most cities have them;
go to a robotics competition in Florida. as a Swiss Army knife for Makers and to find yours, start at nar.org/
find-a-local-club.
While Torio skipped graduation, Shara developers,” says Srirangarajan.

makezine.com 23
FEATURES Space Chase

“THREE SECONDS IS AN ETERNITY IN ROCKETS.”

Launch Log The following
WE HAVE LIFTOFF infomation is derived from raw rent ATVs and drive around. Finally, they
data from Apollo and other
After a second countdown, Phoenix 0.3 onboard computers during the program their Phantom drone to fly in a grid
achieves ignition. It roars off the launch pad, launch of Phoenix 0.3. “We have pattern 150 feet above the ground. The red-
but somewhere around 3,000 feet the team not yet arrived at any conclusions striped parachute stands out bright against
or definitive reasons for what
loses radio contact with it. It goes unstable, happened,” says Srirangarajan. the desert brush, but it had drifted 6 miles
spiraling upward in a corkscrew fashion for [Seconds] southwest from the launch site.
a few seconds before breaking into pieces Attached was a green payload board,
[0.00] Liftoff. 
near the 10,000 foot mark. The heavier carrying one Apollo and three commercial
parts tumble down just outside the FAR [0.25] Rocket cleared the 16' flight computers. Apollos talk to each other,
launchpad. It is now traveling at
compound, while the main chute breaks 112mph and accelerating at 17.25g.  notes Srirangarajan, so if they can get data
away and floats off to the south. [1.04] The rocket starts to roll at off it, they’ll have a successful mission after
The Carbon Origins crew wanders out 1.2rpm. This is much higher than the all. But it’s got a cracked screen and the
expected roll rate of no more than
of the bunker, watching the carnage, while 0.5rpm until engine burnout. SD card may be damaged; they can’t risk
Dixon, still on video, asks what happened [1.79] Transonic speed achieved. ejecting it until they know for sure. Instead,
and where everyone went. “Mach-delay” initiated. The data from they plug the board in and arm it as if the
the barometers cannot be used to
“That’s disappointing, I suppose,” says calculate the altitude after this point.
rocket were still whole. It shows up as an
Srirangarajan. “But I have a track on a few Last recorded “good” barometer external drive, and they download the CSV
data was at 2,250'. The rocket is now
parts, which means data, and data is good. accelerating at 20.8g. 
file. Combined with high-speed video and
It’s okay, failure is good, because we’ll learn.” the data from the commercially available
[2.08] Unexpected temporary spike
Some of their simulations showed in thrust recorded.  boards from the electronics bay, this gives
oscillations a little before Mach 2, [2.15] Supersonic.  them a picture of what happened.
Srirangarajan says as he combs the desert Only 1 second after takeoff, Phoenix 0.3
[2.16] 50% fuel consumed. 
for rocket parts, marking the GPS points starts to roll — i.e., rotate around its vertical
of each one so he can re-create the debris [2.18] Max thrust of the rocket axis — at more than twice the expected
engine is recorded as 1,185lb. This is
field on Google Maps. Too much oscillation about 10% higher than expected. 0.5rpm rate. It goes supersonic, and its
could have caused the composite body to [2.21] Another unexpected temporary records show greater than expected thrust.
snap, releasing the parachute, and the spike in thrust.  By 2 seconds in, the roll rate has reached
drag could have cause the spiral. But that’s [2.28] Roll rate now at 20rpm.  20rpm. That wouldn’t be such a big deal,
a guess; to find out, they’ll have to locate [2.35] Highest aerodynamic stability but combine roll with a little tilt and a little
the flight controllers, which seem to have during boost stage reached.  vibration, and you start to spiral.
floated off with the main chute. [2.38] The rocket is now accelerating It hits nearly Mach 2 before it splits apart.
at 21.2g (max-g).
Those three Apollos and six commercial The parts decelerate, but continue to shoot
flight controllers were housed partially in [2.46] Horizontal vibrations exceed upward until about 10,000 feet, when they
5g range. 
the nose cone, partially in the body. But reach apogee and start to tumble back to
when Srirangarajan finds the nose cone, it’s [2.75] Mach 1.5. Earth. It takes less than 4 seconds from
empty, embedded tip-first in the sand. The [3.10] Roll rate starts to decrease. launch to shred, and around 10 seconds
Max roll rate 23.8rpm.
wreckage of the lower half of the body lies to maximum height. “Three seconds is an
not far away, black aluminum fins bent to [3.18] Mach 1.75. eternity in rockets,” Srirangarajan says later.
the side. The electronics bay is there, still [3.25] Wobble (angle of attack By the time they’ve put this timeline
exceeds 0.5°). 
beeping, but it contained just a pair of radios together, Carbon Origins has reached a
and three off-the-shelf flight controllers. [3.40] Mach 1.9. decision. They’re saying goodbye to the
“This really gives you an appreciation for [3.41] Rocket now accelerating at house, goodbye to California City, and
20.3g.
the strength, and the forces,” says Shara, moving to an actual office in Palmdale,
holding it up. [3.42] Shred. closer to Los Angeles. They’ll still launch
“Rockets are hard,” she says again. “It [3.43] In tumble. Parts coasting up rockets at the FAR site, still travel together,
and decelerating. 
wasn’t, certainly, a complete failure.” If they work together, even live together, but
can recover the Apollos, the data will tell [6.79] Mach-delay lift.  they’ll no longer share a living room with a
them what went wrong. And with luck, they [9.30] 9,250' apogee on electronics drill press and a shop vac. The new space
bay from barometric data. Inertial
can still compare the data between Apollos, measurement unit (IMU) data will allow them to expand, recruit new
and from the commercial controllers, to see too complex to derive altitude employees, and move on. They have a two-
information. 
how accurate the board is. stage launch scheduled for September,
It takes them more than a week to find [11.12] 12,500' apogee on nose shooting for 180,000 feet. Phoenix 0.3 may
cone/main parachute computer
the main chute. They spend days crossing from barometric data. IMU data not have reached the apex they hoped for,
too complex to derive altitude
the desert, search-and-rescue style. They information.
but Carbon Origins is still ascending.

24 makershed.com
FEATURES Written by DC Denison

Stuck on Sugru
Inventor Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh talks about finding her product’s niche

SUGRU IS A “MOLDABLE GLUE” Community has been a huge part of Sugru’s

THAT HAS FOUND A PLACE IN success so far.
MANY MAKER TOOLBOXES. Born in We never predicted just how vibrant the community would be. Our
Ireland, inventor and chief executive community has been teaching us what Sugru is good for, and what
Ní Dhulchaointigh developed the first the problems are out there, which helps us focus on the things that
version of Sugru in 2003 while studying really matter to people. It really helps with product development.
at the Royal College of Art in London. That’s how we’ve learned which colors people use, and what
After six years of R&D, her product package sizes they like, for example.
finally launched in December 2009. The
first batch sold out in six hours. Sugru Giant U.S. retailers, like Target and Lowe’s, are
now has 45 employees and hundreds of now carrying Sugru. What effect has that had on
thousands of customers worldwide. the company?
It’s a huge step for us. The customer we’re speaking to is much
Could you have launched Sugru more mainstream. They don’t call themselves Makers, but they are
before the internet? keen doers. They’re the people in their family who, when something
No way. Simple answer. In the past, for needs fixing, when something goes wrong, they do something about
companies like us, the only way to reach it. They love home improvement. We’re getting more focused on
customers was through retail. Trying to sell that group. Makers are core to what we do, and everyday doers are
something as complicated as Sugru in a store is an extension of this.
a challenge. The package has to explain a lot.
I don’t think we would have been able to do it. What’s your advice to other Makers working on
potential products?
So Sugru is as much about communications It’s much easier to get user engagement, and get people spreading
as it is a chemical and product company. the word, when you have a common goal and you really want to
Definitely. There are two sides to Sugru; one is the have a positive impact. Be open about your mission. Communicate
product, and one is the culture of using it, which we it clearly and in a compelling way. Our customers know what we’re
build through communication, whether it’s the users like. We put ourselves out there. We’ve done a lot of talks, blogged
producing the communication or us. Without the a lot, made a lot of videos. We’re not just trying to build a market,
community and the communication, none of the rest is we have a mission: We’re trying to make the world a better place. At
possible. That’s what creates the whole demand for the end of the day, people like to be part of something. It’s important
Sugru, and helps us get into the retailers: the brand, the to be genuine. They can believe you’re genuine if you put yourself
way people are using it, and what they are saying about it. into the picture.

Did it take you a while to refine that bigger message? Are there lessons to be learned from duct tape?
No, that’s the whole reason I bothered to do Sugru. I spent Duct tape and super glue are the handiest things ever. That’s why
five or six years developing the science before we launched. they’re still here. That’s our ambition for Sugru. It’s super-inspiring
I wouldn’t have bothered to do that if I didn’t think it was that duct tape has been around since, I think, World War II. It’s in
important. I’m only doing it because I really believe the everyone’s kitchen drawer, and that’s where we want to be.
world will be a much better place if people have more It takes time to achieve that universal status — it’s a long game.
confidence about fixing things and making things. Another thing is, we have a battle between versatility and simplicity.
Dan Dennison

We’ve lost so much in becoming a consumer society. Versatility can be daunting to new people. What we need to
There’s this rebellion now that says that’s not remember is, “keep it simple.” People should know what Sugru’s
enough. That’s what the Maker Movement is good for and discover new uses over time.
all about. That’s why people are so into baking
For more Maker Pro news and interviews, visit
things and growing things.
makezine.com/category/maker-pro, and subscribe to the
We’re all realizing that it’s Maker Pro Newsletter at makezine.com/maker-pro-newsletter.
not enough to just buy
stuff in shops.
DC DENISON is the editor of the Maker Pro Newsletter, which covers
the intersection of Makers and business, and is the former technology
editor of The Boston Globe.

26 makershed.com
SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS
 makezine.com/mad-hacks

THERE’S NOTHING AS DIY AS HOT-RODDING YOUR

ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHEW BILLINGTON

WHEELS. Our cars are our palettes, representing who we truly

are through personalization of everything from the color of the
paint jobs to the size of the engines.
We take this customization very seriously. Scores of
enthusiasts spend countless hours perched over open hoods,
changing fluids, tuning carburetors, and cleaning air filters.
The more intrepid overhaul engines in search of better
efficiency and, more commonly, faster speeds. And the true
diehards build entirely new machines, fabricating bodies and
frames to hold the components of their choosing in every
imaginable configuration.
We now live in the era of the connected car, with automobiles
so sophisticated that they can even think for us. Despite this,
we havenʼt relinquished our right to hack our rides — every
automotive advancement and new sensor network has
someone pulling it apart to figure out how to make it their own.
Join us as we celebrate these trailblazing technicians with all
manner of vehicle projects big and small, for everything with
one wheel to four. Your garage awaits you.

makezine.com 29
SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | CARS | CHIBI-MIKUVAN

30 makershed.com
 makezine.com/mad-hacks

DESIGNING AND BUILDING THE CHIBI-MIKUVAN FOR THE POWER RACING SERIES
WORLD’S CUTEST GO-KART
peers, he was inspired to pursue robotics as
shop and design instructor. Like many of his
Engineering graduate, and current machine
CHARLES GUAN is a 2011 MIT Mechanical

a hobby by the TV show BattleBots.

SINCE MY FRESHMAN YEAR AT MIT come to be known as “2.00GoKart” by the

IN 2007, I’VE BEEN BUILDING SMALL undergraduate population. I modeled it after
ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS A HOBBY (why MIT's robotics-competition-focused course
walk when you can roll in style?). My ME 2.007, but with students instead building
involvement in the student project space electric go-karts in teams of two.
at MIT ultimately spurred me to become Students were forced to search for all
a mentor for students building their own their own parts, justifying to myself and
projects of all types. Interestingly, the most fellow instructors why their part worked
valuable advice I often gave was not how to for their design. I ensured that everybody
make things, but where to get things. knew what McMaster-Carr was, how to
In my years of building vehicles (and find a certain sized screw there, and
robots), I had unknowingly amassed a huge why certain decisions came back to bite
repository of places to buy or scrounge them later in the semester (like, needing
parts, and methods of vetting them for a 5 different wrenches to tighten a motor
design. These tactics proved indispensable: mounting bracket).
as it turns out, nobody teaches you these
practical skills in engineering school. IF IT MOVES, USE IT FOR PARTS
The first time I saw the Power Racing With the “2.00GoKart” class increasing
Series (PRS) was at World Maker Faire New in popularity and the 2014 Power Racing
Zachary T. Nguyen

York in 2012 — grown adults racing heavily Series rule revisions becoming ever
modified or custom-built Power Wheels more compatible, it was a curious case of
cars to relive their childhood years. It got me convergent evolution. I decided to create
thinking about how to channel my students’ a “technology demonstrator” vehicle for
efforts into a project that could benefit PRS 2014. After watching the 2013 race,
engineering education. I thought the sport needed an injection of
I began to write down and distill the varied parts and technologies. There were
rag-tag EV building methods that had just too many salvaged floor-scrubber
been refined by students and instructors motors and forklift motor controllers for
through the years, and in 2013, I taught the my liking.
first semester of a lab class which would My intent was simple: show that you

A small “hub motor” scooter I built in 2008 that I A uniquely shaped student go-kart runs a time-trial
used as transport for 2 years. race in the 2013 final contest at MIT.
WRITTEN BY CHARLES GUAN
makezine.com 31
 SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | CARS | CHIBI-MIKUVAN

POWER SYSTEM
AN OVERVIEW of the Chibi-Mikuvan, the world’s
undisputed cutest racing vehicle. Chibi-Mikuvan comprises a mishmash of
parts: an R/C boat motor, R/C car motor
controller, angle grinder gearbox, pieces of
Recumbent a hybrid car battery, an ammo can, scooter
1/5 scale
trike double
brake lever R/C car brakes, wheelbarrow tires, an electric bike’s
Electric ESC throttle lever, an Ethernet cable, and a USB
bike Razor
throttle phone charger. And of course, an Arduino.
go-kart 1/5 scale
seat My biggest “look for parts in everything”
R/C boat
motor victory came in the form of the battery. In
the Power Racing Series, batteries are not
2.50-4" included — they count against your team
size hand- budget, and the only way to achieve good
truck tires
runtime has been using lead-acid batteries,
which are heavy and inefficient.
I began investigating nickel-metal
hydride (NiMH) batteries, which were
produced for the first generation of hybrid
cars in the mid-2000s. I called no less
than 15 auto parts yards and recyclers,
and one Friday morning in October 2013, I

Zachary T. Nguyen
drove from Boston to Burlington, Vermont
to collect a $300 battery from a 2009 Ford
9" angle Fusion hybrid to disassemble and turn into
12V grinder smaller modules.
water 3/4" go- gearbox
The process is extremely dangerous, but
pump kart axle
and bearing in the end, I got four batteries for Chibi-
blocks Mikuvan out of one Ford Fusion hybrid pack.
Ultimately the cost of each battery was only
$37.50, and they weighed only 25 pounds.
can use parts from a variety of seemingly
unconnected industries, sourced from ANGLE GRINDER GEAR TRAIN
internet shops and real-life stores alike, to I wanted to experiment with using the
create a highly competitive racing vehicle latest generation of “giant-scale” R/C
without a lot of sophisticated manufacturing model parts, including motor and controller
equipment. The same theme would be setups, due to their commodity status and
useful to my students building practical low price. R/C motors, however, tend to

Charles Guan
vehicles, or really any kind of project: that be designed to spin very quickly with little
you can use anything for parts. Here’s the torque. To tame that power for a ride-on
story of the Chibi-Mikuvan. vehicle weighing 100 pounds or more, I’d
need a gear ratio of 20:1, compared to the
Chibi-Mikuvan on top of 3x scale model of itself.
BODY STYLINGS average electric bike/scooter motor used
You might be thinking: That’s not like in PRS entries of 5:1 or 6:1.
any Power Wheels car I’ve ever seen. Creating a gear reduction from bike chain
Chibi-Mikuvan is basically what a Power or commercial gears would have been too
Wheels version of my car would look like — heavy and large, so I recalled an artifact
specifically my 1989 Mitsubishi Delica van, from my younger years taking apart old
an obscure model sold only between 1987 power tools: angle grinders. What are they
and 1990 in the United States. (Several PRS but a motor and a set of hardened steel
teams used this new “rule” to great effect in gears in a premade box?
2014.) To fabricate the body, I chose foam- Mounting the R/C motor to the grinder’s
cored fiberglass construction: lightweight, gearbox would yield around 4:1, from which
rigid, and easy to repair. I dedicated I could run a simple 5:1 chain drive using
Chibi-Mikuvan’s running gear; all of the control the vehicle to Hatsune Miku, a popular go-kart chain, with the result being the
electronics except for the main power switch and
fuse are inside the waterproof surplus ammo can. Japanese animated musical character. 20:1 needed.

32 makershed.com
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A hybrid car battery module, made of many smaller

low-voltage cells which can be reconfigured.

Pete Prodoehl

Chibi-Mikuvan during a lap at Detroit Maker Faire 2014.

CHASSIS AND BRAKES on the controller is a matter of pressing a

This soda can-sized motor for 1/5 scale R/C boats can The frame is simple welded steel tubing. small button on the handlebar. An Arduino
output several thousand watts of power — but it spins Hand truck wheels (which didn’t last long Nano takes the analog throttle signal and
at over 20,000rpm to do so.
under racing conditions) came from a converts it to R/C servo pulses for the
local discount tool chain. The rear axle is motor controller. Since Arduinos can’t be
supported in commercial steel bearing powered straight from the 28-volt battery, I
blocks. The only custom parts here are the repurposed a cheap car accessory, a lighter
massive 7" front disc brakes, for which I plug USB charger, as a DC/DC converter.
used an abrasive water jet cutter to make Chibi-Mikuvan’s hodgepodge powertrain
the hub and rotor, pairing them with cable proved extremely quick, even if my proto-
scooter brake calipers. The inside joke is typed electronics were unreliable — in
that Chibi-Mikuvan can stop not only itself, 2014 it won a sprint race at Maker Faire
but the three karts behind it. Detroit and the quickest qualifying lap
time at World Maker Faire New York. My
CONTROL ELECTRONICS hope wasn’t to make the absolute fastest
The interfaces between driver and motor PRS car, but the most documented and
The insides of an inexpensive imported 9" handheld
angle grinder’s gearbox. controller live in a surplus ammo can. It’s repeatable one, which can be used as a
waterproof, highly shock resistant, and easy resource for anyone else. Complete build
to mount. I reused a high-current relay from posts and bill of materials are on my blog at
the hybrid battery as a remote start; turning etotheipiplusone.net/?page_id=3434.

The motor and grinder gearbox mounted together on

the frame.
Zachary T. Nguyen

The electrical deck of Chibi-Mikuvan: an Arduino Nano,

a modified USB charger as power supply, a high-
current relay between battery and motor controller,
and a current sensor. The red component is a backup See more photos and read the extended version of this article online at
logic power supply.
makezine.com/go/chibi-mikuvan.

makezine.com 33
SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | CARS | SWITCH EV

MAKING THE SWITCH

BUILD THE SWITCH ELECTRIC VEHICLE — A MAKER-READY KIT AND EDUCATION SYSTEM
WRITTEN BY
PETER OLIVER
AND JIM MCGREEN

Time Required:
A Week
Cost:
$14,000–$30,000
Switch Vehicles founders PETER
OLIVER and JIM MCGREEN each
have a long EV history. Peter
taught college students how to
convert gas cars to electric, and
converted many classic vehicles
with his company Make Mine
Electric. Jim started Electrathon
racing in the early ’90s and
founded ZAP (Zero Air Pollution),

Sam Euston
the first electric bike company
in 1991. Jim also invented the
Zappy micro scooter which sold
more than 30,000 units.

WHAT STARTED AS AN IDEA TO PRODUCE OUR to complete the project. Teachers appreciate how
GET SWITCHED ON OWN SIMPLE, FUN, AFFORDABLE ELECTRIC our workshops break a complex technology into
Specs and Options
»»DIY kit: $14,000–$30,000
vehicle has evolved into a DIY project easily clear step-by-step modules. They’re also pleased
complete, depending on per- assembled by nearly anyone. The Switch defines a with the optional curriculum — a classroom and
formance and range options;
$6,950 without electrical
new class of auto — a lightweight, high-capacity, lab in a box. “It’s really plug and play,” said Roger
components versatile electric vehicle (EV) that requires minimal Pressley of Central Academy of Technology and
»»Sporty rack-and-pinion resources to construct, assemble, and drive. It can Arts in Monroe, North Carolina. “Any school can
steering; center, left-, or right-
hand driver position be built in a single-car garage on jack stands, or do this, regardless of the tools or shop facility. You
»»Accepts wide range of DC even in a classroom — all you need is a small box can start with any space.”
and AC motors
of tools and a 6½-foot door, so it can drive out. Students seem invigorated by the course, and
»»3-wheel disc brakes, inde-
pendent front and rear some are asking if they can build the Switch as a
»»Regenerative braking (with THE SWITCH LAB business. Whether they become Makers, welders,
AC motor option)
It all starts in The Switch Lab — a complete DIY or engineers, the hands-on learning gives them
»»Batteries: Lead-acid or
lithium-ion, 10kWh–30kWh kit and education system consisting of workshops, lifelong lessons, building self-confidence and
»»Range: 45–135 miles (de- written and video instructions, detailed plans, and real-world skills. “It’s not just a high school class,
pending on battery option)
all the parts. This all-inclusive package enables it’s something you take with you,” commented a
»»Charge time: 2.25 hours per
45 miles, for about $1 (220V individuals, schools, or businesses to assemble student from Venture Academy in California.
30A power outlet) their own version of the EV. (Skilled builders can
»»Gas mileage equivalent:
151mpge
go it alone with just a DIY kit.) THE DRIVING EXPERIENCE
»»Top speed: Over 100mph The Switch Lab workshops help educators and The Switch drives like a Formula One car, hugging
(with AC motor option) builders gain the confidence and understanding the ground and protecting you with a NASCAR-
»»Acceleration: 0–60mph in
9 seconds (or faster with
gearing options)
»»Turn radius: 38' or less
»»Weight: 1,350lbs (3-seater
option)
»»Chain drive standard, belt
drive optional
»»Street legal, registered as
a motorcycle — but doesn’t
require helmet or motorcycle
driver’s license!
3-phase AC motor attached to swing arm. Under the dash: dual brake pedals, steering linkages, and
accelerator — step on it, but don’t call it a gas pedal.

34 makershed.com
 makezine.com/mad-hacks

style roll cage. The open cockpit provides an

EVS
THESE DIY CAR MAKERS ARE PUSHING PAST THE ELECTRIC-VEHICLE BIG BOYS
exhilarating experience and excellent visibility for
safety. Separate front and rear braking systems
enable advanced sport driving techniques.
And, incredibly, you can build it in a week! The
chassis is laser-cut, welded tubular steel, and the

EVOLUTIONARY
wiring is professionally terminated, numbered,
and color-coded — all ready to be assembled.

Jen Danzinger
CUSTOMIZING THE SWITCH
Imagine bolting on a pickup bed, camper shell, or
racks. Select a custom seating arrangement from
one to four. Choose from various DC or AC motors SEVEN BY ILLUMINATI MOTOR WORKS
for performance options defining power, speed, This gull-winged beauty with rear-facing back seats has
and regenerative braking. Pick your battery dramatic lines that evoke the classics from the ʼ30s. But the
system — budget lead-acid batteries or lithium- retro vibe ends there; under the hood it’s all 21st-century tech.
ion, from 10kWh to 30kWh battery packs. Adjust A total of 99 lithium iron phosphate batteries supply 33kWh
the suspension for low, road-hugging traction, or to a 200hp MES DEA electric motor, pushing it to 130mph and
set it high and firm for hauling loads. There are so doing 0–60 in just 6.2 seconds. Despite weighing a beefy 2,900
many options, and you get to decide. pounds, it can go 200 miles on a full charge. Along with regen-
erative braking, a 220V 40A charger will replenish it overnight,
DRIVING INTO THE FUTURE and the team is even testing out linear generators to recover
We imagine Makers taking the Switch Lab vibrational energy. And that body? Carbon fiber and Kevlar.
process into global markets via micro- Built by hand in an Illinois barn by a team of alternative-fuel
WRITTEN BY MIKE SENESE

manufacturing, tailored to local needs and vehicle consultants to compete for the $5 million 2010 Progres-
fueled by regional green power sources. The sive X Prize, the Seven blasted past the 100mpg-equivalent
manufacturing model deepens as regional criteria by getting 207.5mpge. Since then, refinements are
economies develop, starting with a fully welded ongoing — team leader Kevin Smith explains “It’s all about
chassis kit and expanding into welding or laser- efficiency here at the IMW headquarters.”
cutting parts to spec as the market grows.
The Switch is designed to move people into
another world, a world of voluntary simplicity,
respect for the environment and the needs of
others. It helps start the transition conversation.
And it’s truly a Maker vehicle, ready for the
full range of builders. Computer programmers,
carpenters, men, women, high school and

Simone Spada
college students — even auto mechanics — have
successfully assembled and understand the
Switch. There’s no other EV that starts as an
affordable project and becomes a sporty utility or
off-road transport that you make yourself.
TABBY EVO BY OSVEHICLE
The OSVehicle team aims to localize car production with its
For more information about the Switch EV and
open-source plans — the blueprints and design files are freely
the Switch Lab, visit theswitchlab.com.
available — for a multipurpose car platform that can be easily
customized for individuals’ and groups’ specific needs.
Peter Oliver

Their latest iteration, named Tabby EVO, steps up from their

original 2013 release with refinements to the assembly process
and to the car’s driveability. It features an 80V/15kW electric
drivetrain with a range of 87 miles and a top speed of 80mph. It
has a 93" wheelbase and can be configured for 2–4 passengers.
Its upgraded frame and suspension help qualify it for L6e, L7e,
and M1 licensing for street-legal use in Europe and the U.S., as
In January 2015, 12 teachers completed training at our facility, well as allow it to be used for off-road purposes.
where they assembled two vehicles in one week.

makezine.com 35
SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | CARS | OWN YOUR CAR

OWN YOUR CAR

WILL A VAGUE COPYRIGHT LAW AFFECT THE SCOPE OF WHAT
HOBBYISTS AND MODDERS CAN DO WITH THEIR VEHICLES?
WRITTEN BY BENJAMIN PRESTON

BENJAMIN PRESTON is one of the few journalists to hold the

dubious distinction of having been an alignment technician at a
Pep Boys in Fredericksburg, Virginia, as well as an automotive
reporter for the New York Times. In addition to the Times, he has
written for the Guardian, BBC Autos, Car and Driver, Jalopnik, and,
he is very proud to say, Petersen’s 4-Wheel & Off-Road.

36 makershed.com
 makezine.com/mad-hacks

THE SUBURBS OUTSIDE WASHINGTON, and remote starter setups he has tackled
D.C., MAY BE BETTER KNOWN FOR THE in the past. It’s a legal hurdle, but it’s also a
HIGH TECH TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND cultural question. Hogarty, and other inde-
defense industries than for automotive hot pendent mechanics and innovators like him,
rodding, but in a modest two-bay shop in may see an obscure copyright law passed
Northern Virginia, Michael Hogarty is one nearly two decades ago — the Digital
of the many players eager to upset that Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) — impact
notion. All around the barn-like structure their ability to access the computer systems
where Hogarty runs his professional repair central to today’s cars and trucks. Modders
shop are hints of an atypical operation. A have become more like hackers than ever
Suzuki Samurai with a more before, and the boundaries of how they can
powerful Chevrolet motor exercise their computer savvy is at stake.
installed sits in one
corner of the driveway. PROGRAMMING PERFORMANCE
Evidence of a wide The brain of every modern vehicle is its
range of projects computer system. Like a brain — or brains,
— custom-made since the system is really a network of
ha vehicle accessories computer modules working in concert
Mi

el
c

Ho
garty and skateboard ramp — the system sends and receives signals
components among them to and from sensors located all over
— lean against the fence. the vehicle through the Controller Area
Hogarty, an ASE-certified master tech- Network, or CAN. Among its primary
nician, began his career working in other functions is engine management, the
people’s shops, fixing lawn mowers and delicate balance of supplying fuel and air in
later, Ferraris. Now he spends a good the right doses to create smooth, efficient
portion of each week diagnosing and repair- power. But it also regulates heating and
ing mundane family haulers. But what he’s cooling, audio, braking, stability, air bags,
really into, he says, is custom modification, door and window motors, and other things.
which is, at its root, problem-solving. If CAN data allows different systems to
a customer wants a new stereo, a non- communicate with one another, and makes
standard engine, or wheels that don’t fit, he possible features like speed-sensitive stereo
finds a way to make it work, and work well. volume control and automatic sliding doors
His shop is abuzz every day of the week with that cannot be opened while the vehicle is
power junkie friends and customers who in motion
want setups no one else knows how to do. Vehicle computers are nothing new. The
But with vehicle computer systems be- electronic control unit (ECU) as we know
coming ever more complex, even jobs that it today appeared in the late 1970s. By the
were once simple, like replacing the stereo, early 1980s, all cars in the United States
are much more involved than they used were equipped with decision-making
to be. His projects have him digging ever microprocessors. The earliest used input
deeper into the computer code that runs from engine sensors to activate solenoids
vehicle systems in an effort to balance the and actuators designed to optimize engine
Juliann Brown and Hep Svadja

changes made when individual components performance. General Motors, for instance,
are swapped out or improved upon. used computer-controlled carburetors that
“On newer vehicles, you can’t just pull reacted better than mechanical ones to
out the stereo and throw in something from changes in atmospheric conditions. Over
Best Buy,” he says. “Vehicle systems are all the years, other functions were gradually
integrated now.” added to the list of tasks ECUs could handle.
So he relies upon a broad knowledge of Wire looms became ever more bulky, so the
mechanics, electronics, and computers to system was streamlined with the advent of
find the best outcome for every puzzle that the CAN (rather than giving every system its
comes his way. own wires).
But there’s a challenge on the horizon Through the CAN, and specifically through
different from the custom turbo installations the onboard diagnostic, or OBD-II port (a

makezine.com 37
SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | CARS | OWN YOUR CAR

computer to optimize power. For example,

swapping the air filter housing from the
restrictive closed box most cars get at the
factory for an open element filter changes
the engine’s airflow characteristics. During
warm up, and at wide-open throttle, when
the most demand is being placed upon
the engine, vehicle computers operate

Andrew Albosta
in “open loop” mode, using factory-set
values to determine fuel flow. Hogarty says
that by installing a small microprocessor
in-line between the mass airflow sensor
and the computer — feeding it power from
nearby wires, as well as signals from other
sensors, like the throttle position and O2
sensors and the tachometer — he can trick

MODDERS HAVE the vehicle’s display screen.

“I created this because I wasn’t happy
the computer into changing those values
at wide-open throttle, dialing in air fuel

BECOME MORE with what was on the market,” he explains.

“There were a few apps that could show
requirements for more specific conditions.
“I see the input, measure the output, then

LIKE HACKERS engine torque and a few other things, but

there’s a lot more information available.
change it to what I want it to be,” he says.
“The manufacturer spends an incredible
THAN EVER There was no user input on any of amount of time tuning their software in

BEFORE
those apps.” certain areas, but not at full load. They
Bartek isn’t alone. There are all sorts build their cars to satisfy a wide range of
of products on the market, many of which conditions, but that’s not necessarily going
multi-pin computer connector that’s been had the same humble beginnings. One, to work out when your goal is to squeeze as
installed in all cars in the U.S. since 1996, called Clickdrive, integrates driving- much power as possible out of it at the track
within a few feet of the steering wheel), related smartphone apps. Another, or something.”
Hogarty and his tinkerer cohorts can access Truvolo, monitors fuel economy and Hogarty says he has also used micro-
vehicle software to find patterns and make location. There’s another that keeps tabs on processors and data analysis to help cus-
changes when necessary. Each vehicle may traffic conditions, coordinates ridesharing, tomers with more mundane problems. By
have been engineered by the manufacturer and helps users find parking and filling installing a $30 module — something like
to satisfy emissions, safety, and fuel stations. Hogarty says he uses aftermarket a Raspberry Pi — and some open-source
efficiency requirements, Hogarty says, piggyback connectors that tap into vehicle software to a vehicle’s computer system, a
but someone interested in modifying one control computers so that he can change customer can, if they notice that the “check
may have more specific goals. Many want parameters like transmission shift points engine” light has come on, text him engine
more power for better results at the track, and temperature settings. data from a specified time period. It helps
but lower emissions, better fuel economy, Progressive Insurance offers a device him diagnose the problem and saves every-
improved cooling for towing, and more called Snapshot that beams driving habits to one a lot of time.
complete engine performance monitoring insurance adjusters from your OBD-II port
are among myriad other reasons people through a cellular modem. The company COMPUTERIZATION CREATES
have for accessing and changing factory gives a discount to customers who drive QUESTIONS
settings through a vehicle’s on- softly, and for as few miles as possible — Could the DMCA interfere with projects like
board software. what it calls low-risk driving. (Of course, Bartek’s? Could it keep Hogarty from diving
Paul Bartek, an engineer for a company there’s a hack for Snapshot that allows into a computer system to change perfor-
that builds electronic displays, dabbles in the user to trick the device into thinking mance characteristics? Would its language
the auto hobby in his spare time. But his it’s plugged into the car of a little old lady prevent the people who developed other
tinkering goes far beyond the mechanical who only drives to church every Sunday.) apps and programs from creating more?
trial and error of years past. Through his Other apps are aimed at parents who want The law includes a provision regarding
website, cowfishstudios.com, he has shared to make sure their teen drivers aren’t “technological protection measures (TPMs)
open-source software, tutorials, and DIY distracted while behind the wheel. that control access to copyrighted works.”
projects aimed at automotive enthusiasts. Like Bartek, Hogarty uses small The Electronic Frontier Foundation submit-
One uses a Raspberry Pi to extract engine microprocessors to change values in ted a petition to the copyright office earlier
performance numbers and display them on the data that engine sensors send to the this year proposing an exemption that would

38 makershed.com
 makezine.com/mad-hacks

make an end run around the TPMs. General

Motors opposed the exemption, calling it
“overbroad,” and said in its comments that
proponents “failed to establish that the
challenged TPMs are causing, or are likely
to cause in the next three years, a substan-
tial adverse impact on users.”
The question is, whose side of the story
Hogarty tests changes to the ECU of an SUV as it sits on
is the right one: the auto manufacturers’
a dynamometer.
or EFF’s? According to the EFF, each
state’s court system can interpret the law
differently, which could lead to overzealous
enforcement by automakers. Hogarty at the console of a dynamometer, which allows
“At best, you’re left in a situation where him to verify how changes to an ECU affect torque and
horsepower.
manufacturers can threaten people who
access vehicle software, which has a chilling
effect on research and tinkering and means YOUR CAR, YOUR CHOICE
that innovators find it difficult to raise In his backyard shop, Hogarty is confronted
funding for new products that make cars by a problem with a Toyota Sienna minivan
more useful,” Kit Walsh, a staff attorney for that’s a few years old. The sliding door won’t
EFF, says in an email. “A clear rule from close all the way on cold days, or when the
the Library of Congress is needed to fix vehicle is parked on a hill. It’s an electronic
this state of affairs and protect legitimate malfunction, and to repair it, he says he
tinkering and research in practice.” has a couple of options. He can replace the
Daniel Gage, a spokesman for the motor, which still works, but that would
Alliance of Automotive Manufacturers — be costly. So he taps into the vehicle’s
an advocacy group that includes all three computer and changes an electronic
major American automakers, as well as threshold value for the door so that it closes,
most of the Japanese and European ones even if the motor has to work a little harder
— says in an email that the information and draws more current. For the family who
protected by the DMCA was not needed to owns an older van, it’s a better option.
diagnose and repair vehicles.  He’s concerned that without more
“Automakers are concerned that the resolute language from the Copyright Office
proposed changes to the DMCA would concerning DMCA, his solution to that
cause dangerous consequences, including problem and his deep dives into engine data
additional safety risks and violations of to improve performance for motorsports
existing safety and environmental laws,” applications could evaporate. “I think it’s
he says. “I also am not aware of any best to reduce government and corporate
widespread DMCA prosecutions as a input into our affairs and let the individual
result of auto activity now, so what’s legal assume liability for the modifications
and acceptable today should be tomorrow made,” he says. 
unless changes to the law are made.” If the recent spate of articles charging
EFF counters that making sure federal automakers with stripping customers of
emissions and safety rules are followed full vehicle ownership is any indication, the The Torque app for Android accesses your car’s
OBD-II port to track engine data and display it on
is up to agencies like the Environmental law’s vague language has plenty of people
your smartphone.
Protection Agency and the National worried. As anyone who has ever worked
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, not on a car before knows, mistakes and
manufacturers and copyright law. unintended consequences are inevitable,
“Copyright law has crept into this space but part of the learning process.
as a result of computerization,” Walsh says. “Do we, as a country, want to have the
“Under the manufacturers’ theory, this ability to make mistakes on the things we
upsets traditional concepts of ownership purchase?” Hogarty says. “I generally don’t
that arise when you purchase a vehicle recommend that people go too far into the
and lets them prohibit modding that in- back end, but if you’re messing with your
volves software.” own car, like anything else — it’s up to you.” MegaSquirt, a DIY electronic fuel injection computer.

makezine.com 39
SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | CARS AND BIKES | MAKER’S DASHBOARD

MAKER’S DASHBOARD
DON’T LET THE LIMITED FEATURES OF YOUR CAR’S DASHBOARD GET YOU DOWN.
HERE ARE SOME PROJECTS THAT WILL HELP YOU CUSTOMIZE YOUR COCKPIT.
WRITTEN BY DONALD BELL • ILLUSTRATED BY DAMIEN SCOGIN

A B

D. IN-CAR ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

MATERIALS: Raspberry Pi + 7" TFT monitor +
wireless keyboard
C COST: $100
Use a Raspberry Pi and monitor to put an in-
car entertainment system in your dashboard,
or entertain passengers in the backseat.
makezine.com/go/pi-dash

E. SNIFF OUT CONTROL AREA

D NETWORK CODES
MATERIALS: Raspberry Pi + PiCAN board +
OBD-II shell and pins
COST: $100
Beyond your car’s basic diagnostic data is a
F CAN system that controls everything from the
buttons on your steering wheel, to your wind-
G shield wipers. Use a Raspberry Pi to glimpse
the code that connects all the elements of their
vehicle’s electrical systems.
makezine.com/go/pi-can

E F. CREATE A CUSTOM OBD-II APP

H INTERFACE
MATERIALS: Smartphone or tablet + OBD-II
Bluetooth adapter + app
COST: $30 (excluding smartphone)
OBD-II compatible apps for smartphones and
tablets not only offer a convenient way to tap
into your car’s data, they’re also highly custom-
izable and can take advantage of mobile hardware
features such as GPS for speed mapping.
makezine.com/go/obd-ii-app-interface

G. DASH-MOUNTED USB OUTLETS

A. LED MATRIX TACHOMETER from your vehicle by transmitting it from your MATERIALS: Panel-mount USB charge port (12v)
MATERIALS: Arduino + OBD-II TTL adapter + car’s OBD-II port to a dedicated dash display and COST: $25
LED matrix a Raspberry Pi. Tidy up the tangle of charging adapters in
COST: $100 makezine.com/go/diagnostic-dash-display your console by installing a dedicated pair of
Monitor your engine’s RPM and improve your USB outlets.
manual shifting precision with a breakout LED C. PARKING OBSTACLE SENSOR makezine.com/go/car-usb
tachometer. MATERIALS: Arduino + ultrasonic sensor +
makezine.com/go/led-tach LCD screen H. WIRELESS PHONE CHARGER
COST: $80 MATERIALS: Wireless charger + 12v to 5v adapter
B. CAR DIAGNOSTIC DISPLAY Update an older car with an Arduino-powered COST: $50
MATERIALS: Raspberry Pi + TFT shield + OBD-II ultrasonic parking sensor that provides both If your phone supports wireless charging, do away
Bluetooth adapter + Bluetooth 4.0 adapter visual and audio cues to gauge the distance of with cable clutter altogether by embedding an
COST: $130 objects from your bumper. inductive charging pad in your console.
Get an inside look at real-time technical data makezine.com/go/arduino-parking makezine.com/go/car-wireless-charge

40 makershed.com
 makezine.com/mad-hacks

BIKE HACKS
PERSONALIZE YOUR RIDE WITH
THESE CLEVER PEDAL PROJECTS
1. PEDAL POWER
PHONE CHARGER
Give your USB gadgets some
extra juice while you break a sweat.
makezine.com/go/bike-phone-charger

2. SPOKE AMPLIFIER TAILPIPE

Ever stick a baseball card in your spokes?
Now they’ll really hear you coming with
this stylish bike spoke resonator pipe.
makezine.com/go/spoke-resonator 1 2

3. WIRELESS E-BIKE
BATTERY MONITOR
Keep an eye on how much juice is
left in your e-bike with this wireless
Bluetooth LE monitor.
makezine.com/go/ebike-monitor

4. LEATHER BELT
HANDLEBAR GRIPS
Easily turn an old belt into a comfort-
able and classy pair of handlebar grips. 3 4
makezine.com/go/belt-bike-grips

5. BIKE SEAT SECRET

COMPARTMENT
Prep your bike for the zombie apocalypse
(or an off road trek) by hiding an emer-
1. Sean Ragan 2. John Edgar Park 3. Alasdair Allan 4. Nikos Mavrivakis

gency survival kit in your bike seat.

makezine.com/go/bike-compartment

6. TAKE-ALONG BAR
Bring your refined taste in cocktails
5. M3G 6. Lee Swenson 7. Urs Graedel 8. Lled Smith

on the road by building this mini liquor

cabinet that fits in your bike frame. 5 6
makezine.com/go/bike-bar

7. FRIENDLY FACE TIRE CAP

Pull the head off a Playmobil figurine
and transform it into a kid-approved cap.
makezine.com/go/play-cap

8. GIANT STREET
CHALK GRINDER
Expand the scale of your sidewalk
chalk art pieces by attaching a giant
homemade chalk brick to your back tire. 7 8
makezine.com/go/chalk-grinder

makezine.com 41
SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | BIKES | E-BIKE

ELECTRO-FY WRITTEN BY
PARKER JARDINE

YOUR BICYCLE
FINALLY, AN E-BIKE CONVERSION YOU CAN DO
Time Required: ONE DAY I BECAME FED UP
1–2 Weekends WITH ALL MY EXCUSES FOR
Cost: DRIVING TO WORK EVERY DAY. During
$1,000–$1,200
Not including miscellaneous bike parts the summer I would ride my bike, but I
was never consistent. There’s one huge Extra-wide
handlebars have
MATERIALS
»»Electric mid-drive motor, 750W
hill climb that is quite daunting, and is the
main reason most people take a vehicle.
space for e-bike
controls and LCD
Bafang BBS02 kit with LCD display, display
Finally I said, screw it — I am going to put
25A controller, and thumb throttle
»»Batteries, prismatic lithium iron together an electric bike.
phosphate (LiFePO4), 12V 20Ah (4)
16 cells total. I used #LF-GB4S20 from
AA Portable Power, batteryspace.com.
»»Smart LED balance boards (16)
AA Portable #PCM-BL20CH
»»Series connector bars (2)
AA Portable #TAB-EL20
»»Smart battery charger, 51.2V LiFePO4
AA Portable #CH-LF48V6-TSL
»»Fuse, 30A, and inline holder
»»Hookup wire
»»Crimp-on butt connectors
»»Insulated ring connectors
»»Heat-shrink tubing
»»Cable ties, zip ties, spiral cable wrap,
velcro wrap
MISCELLANEOUS BIKE PARTS
»»Rear bike rack
»»Rear pannier bags, waterproof (2)
»»Kickstand Amazon #B00B29EWPW
»»Lights and horn, 48V (optional)
Golden Motor #ACC-008 and ACC-
002, with combo switch Amazon
#B00DGW71D8

TOOLS
»»Hex wrench set
»»Wrench, adjustable
»»Wrenches to fit battery terminals
»»Pliers, crimping for wiring connectors
»»Heat gun or hair dryer for heat-shrink
SPECIALTY BIKE TOOLS
These will vary depending on what components are used
on your bike. Ask your bike shop!
»»Universal crank puller for square
taper and splined cranks
»»Bottom bracket removal tool
»»Mid-drive installation tool, or fixed-
gear lockring wrench, or Shimano
TL-SR21 chain whip to tighten the PARKER JARDINE is a manager of systems administration at Fort Lewis College, and enjoys biking,
mid-drive M33 nut climbing, hockey, camping, mountaineering, hunting, paragliding, and just being outdoors. His tuto-
rials on DIY solar panels and solar systems design can be seen in Make: Volumes 12 and 14.

42 makershed.com
 makezine.com/mad-hacks

Tired of
recharging your The bike literally
lights? Wire helped transform
them to the main my life. I no longer
battery pack too drive to work
everyday, I ride
instead
See more
panniers
ANATO reviewed on
MY OF page 89
AN E-B
IKE

A mid-drive A previous
motor mounted version used a
near the crank rack-top battery
leaves your rear box, but panniers
derailleur free to keep the load
shift gears more stable

I usually
charge the
battery pack
once a
week

The kickstand is
important for a bike
of this weight, so
Scott D. W. Smith

choose a durable
option that can
support those
batteries

makezine.com 43
SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | BIKES | E-BIKE

MY GOAL WAS SIMPLE: BUILD AN

ELECTRIC BIKE THAT EVERYONE CAN
REPLICATE with minimal cost and without
electrical know-how, that’s powerful and
reliable. I also wanted to decrease complex-
ity over other builds, which would in turn
make maintenance easier. This is that bike.

1. CHOOSE A MOTOR
In my opinion, the first item you should
decide on is the electric motor. Tradition-
ally, the in-wheel hub motor has been most
popular, either geared or direct drive. 
But I went with a relative newcomer, a
mid-drive motor, which is not installed in
your front or rear wheel, but attached to
your front drive system (Figure A ). The
main advantage to this is the ability to use
your own bike’s rear derailleur to change
gears. You can sense the motor’s optimum
RPM speed, and simply change gears in the
rear to get the perfect combination. Another
advantage is, with this kit, the bulk of the
work is in setting up the battery pack —
the control levers are simple to install.

2. (MOST) ANY BIKE WILL DO

The beauty of this electric bike is that you
can install the kit on pretty much any bike
with a standard 68mm bottom bracket shell
width. Choosing the bike to convert is really
fun — you can use an existing bike to save a
bit of money, or check your local bike shop
or Craigslist. Things to look for:
» Strong wheels and fat tires
» Wide handlebars for mounting controls
» Eyelets for rear rack attachment
» Front disc brakes for steep hills

3. INSTALL THE MOTOR

Remove your chain, crank set, and bottom
bracket. Depending on your bike, these
are nontrivial techniques, so if you’re not
comfortable or don’t have the correct tools,
it’s best to consult an experienced mechanic
or a bike shop.
Slide the mid-drive kit through your bot-
tom bracket and screw it down tight on the
other side. The rest is pretty easy. Simply
route the cables coming out of the motor
to the designated locations on your bike.
Then reassemble, and mount the throttle,
controller, screen, and brake levers to
your handlebars.

44 makershed.com
 makezine.com/mad-hacks

TIP:
Before you put your
crank set back together,
give it a cleaning. This is
a good time to get at the
dirty parts, while you’ve
got the bottom bracket
disassembled.

4. WIRE AND MOUNT THE

BATTERIES
The bike that I decided to use already had
a setup for a rear rack. I would simply put A
battery packs into panniers on each side The mid-drive motor kit is
installed right through your
to distribute the weight. This design keeps
bike’s bottom bracket.
the weight down low, making the bike more
stable. In addition, the bags can be used to
carry extra gear and items around town.
I chose prismatic LiFePO4 batteries,
which are often used for solar power
storage, for the simplicity of balancing the
cells and the ability to remove or replace
without having to rip apart the battery pack.
This modular functionality is very import-
ant. I began with four 12-volt packs and 16

Parker Jardine
LED balancing modules (Figure B ). Using
the balancing cells, a smart charger, and
the motor cutoff thresholds, you shouldn’t B C
need a battery management system. A 52-
volt smart charger allows you to charge all
the batteries when wired in series, and cuts
power automatically when they’re full. 
Connect the 4 packs in series to quickly
test the smart charger, then install an LED
balancing module on each of the 16 cells.
Connect a pair of 12V packs in series to
make a 24V pack, and repeat for the other
pair. Run a series wire from one pannier to
the other to connect the 24V packs. If the
connector bars don’t reach, flatten them
with a hammer to extend their length.
Add a 30-amp inline fuse to the positive
battery terminal of the battery pack. And
make sure to use heat-shrink tubing to
insulate each connection.
Finally, measure, cut, and install the pos-
itive and negative cables from the panniers
to the motor’s XT90 connector (Figure C ).
Congratulations, you’ve electrified your bike
— and cut your carbon emissions 90%.
Scott D. W. Smith

Get more photos, videos, and tips in the

extended version of this article online at
makezine.com/go/diy-electric-bicycle.

makezine.com 45
SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | BIKES | BOTTLE CAP BIKE LIGHT

BOTTLE CAP BIKE LIGHT

UPCYCLE A SODA BOTTLE INTO A LONG-LASTING, AUTOMATIC FLASHER
Time Required: WRITTEN BY NIKOS MAVRIVAKIS NIKOS MAVRIVAKIS is a bicyclist
1–2 Hours and bike tourist from Greece who
uses recycled and found materials
Cost: to make sustainable bike gear. His
$5–$10 blog, Bicyclosis, features stories
and inventions from his travels.

MATERIALS bicycleobsession.wordpress.com

»»Plastic soda bottles, 20oz,

with caps (2)
»»Rubber band
»»LED, 1W
»»Resistor, 10Ω
»»Coin-cell battery CR2032,

Nikos Mavrivakis
CR2025, or similar
»»Wire, bare or solid-core,
10" or so
»»Speaker wire, 2-conductor,
5' or so
»»Soda can, aluminum
»»Bicycle inner tube,
discarded
»»Reed switch THIS AUTOMATIC LIGHT FROM RECYCLED through the first two. Cut a hole in the center and
»»Small magnet, at least PARTS IS ABOUT THE MOST ECO-FRIENDLY mount the LED. Connect the resistor to the LED’s
8mm×2mm You can find
these in old headphones. DIY bike light in the world. Encapsulated in plastic negative lead, and a short wire to its positive lead.
»»Zip ties, scrap wood, and bottle caps, an LED is activated when a magnet You can solder or just twist these connections.
rustproof wire for mount-
ing the light mounted on the wheel passes a sensor, similar to
how a bicycle computer works. Anyone can make 4. MOUNT THE BATTERY
TOOLS it — no soldering required. From the aluminum can, cut a disc the size of your
»»Utility knife The bright 1-watt LED will shine through the caps and sand off the plastic coating. Drill 4 tiny
»»Drill cap, so choose an orange or red cap for a taillight. holes and weave a short bare wire through them
»»Sandpaper or high-speed If your bike has 26" wheels, it will flash once every as shown in Figure C , then connect it to the resis-
rotary tool
»»Pliers, needlenose
82" you travel. And it lasts up to 320 hours — tor. Make an identical disc and connect this one to
»»Soldering iron (optional) about 10 times longer than store-bought lights. a short insulated wire. Sandwich the coin cell be-
tween the aluminum discs, then pack it down snug
1. MAKE THE CASING with a rubber disc cut from an inner tube. Touch
Cut the neck and cap off a soda bottle. Trim the the 2 wires together — the LED should light up.
neck so it will fit into a second bottle cap. Cut
a small rubber band to fit in the channel of the 5. CLOSE IT UP
A second cap, with a little overlap. This will make it Connect the 2 wires to the speaker cable. Drill a
impossible for rain to seep in. hole in the first cap, pass the cable through, and
Now fit the neck tightly into the second cap wrap it with a strip of inner tube to seal the hole.
(Figure A ), then cut off the plastic ring and sand
off any markings from the caps. 6. CONNECT THE REED SWITCH AND
MAGNET
B 2. MAKE THE INTERNAL FRAME Connect the cable to a reed switch on your bike
Cut 2 strips of bottle plastic slightly longer than frame, and mount the magnet on your wheel. Now
the cap’s width. Slot the strips together and whenever the wheel turns, your light will flash!
squeeze into a circular shape (Figure B ).

3. MOUNT THE LED For mounting tips, video, and complete step-
Cut another strip of plastic and slide it crossways by-step photos, visit the project page at
C makezine.com/go/waterproof-bike-light.

46 makershed.com
 makezine.com/mad-hacks

INSIDE THE MONOWHEEL

FABRICATE THIS FUN AND UNIQUE ROLLING-HOOP RIDE WRITTEN BY DR. DAVE SOUTHALL

MONOWHEELS, BY THEIR VERY NATURE, ARE

FAIRLY SIMPLE MACHINES; AFTER ALL THEY
ONLY HAVE ONE WHEEL! They work by driving a
seated base around the inside of a circular track
to push it forward — you might think of them as a
perpetual roller coaster.
A complete monowheel is usually a custom build. 1 3
Want to make your own? Here are the key elements:

1. OUTER FRAME
Needs to be big and sturdy enough to sit in, and allow
the drive to make it move. I used a 50mm diameter
steel tube with a wall thickness of about 3.5mm,
rolled into a 1.5m hoop. For tread I cut up bicycle tires
and pop-riveted them on the outside of the ring.

Rob Nance
2. ROLLERS 2
These allow the outer ring to revolve around the inner
frame. I used custom-made 100mm nylon rollers
with ball races to allow free movement. Mine has
four, some designs use more. If cost is an issue, you
can use skateboard wheels set at an angle.

3. INNER FRAME
Holds the rollers, power source, drive, and seat.
Experiment with positions, but keep the center of 5
mass as low as possible for stability. 4
4. POWER SOURCE
This could be a petrol engine, an electric motor,
pedals, or even steam power. It’s down to personal
preference and engineering ability.

5. DRIVE
Usually a friction-type drive. I use the wheel from a
MiniMoto, running against the inside of the outer ring.
DAVE SOUTHALL
has been a street
Other things to consider in the design: The gearing performer, acrobat,
needs to be calculated; I suggest a top speed of university lecturer,
special effects technician
around 10mph if it’s your first attempt. Brakes are
and lately, a TV presenter.
definitely an issue too — if your braking system ef- He has a degree in
fectively locks the inner frame to the outer ring when electrical engineering,
a Ph.D. in electronics, a
applied, you will roll completely around with the outer
master’s in 3D design,
ring, known as gerbiling. Best to avoid if possible. and a shed.
Every monowheel is a unique machine — these
aren’t rules, just suggestions based on my builds
and experience. For more details and ideas go to
redmaxmonowheel.co.uk. Enjoy!

makezine.com 47
 SPECIAL SECTION MAD HACKS | BIKES | CYCLE CHASER BIKE PROJECTOR

WRITTEN BY MATT RICHARDSON

CYCLE CHASER BIKE PROJECTOR

SHINE FUN ANIMATIONS ON THE STREET THAT MOVE ACCORDING TO YOUR SPEED!
MADE PURELY FOR FUN, THE CYCLE
CHASER PROJECTS ANIMATIONS ONTO
THE GROUND BEHIND YOUR BIKE WHEN
YOU RIDE AT NIGHT. The faster you ride, the
faster the animation runs. When you slow
down, so does the animation. Of course, you
can customize this project by changing the
animations. You can also dive into the code
and change the behavior based on your speed.
Perhaps the flames behind you grow longer
when you go faster? That’s all possible with
some clever coding.
Mounted on your bike’s rear rack, a battery-
operated pico projector gets its video from a
Raspberry Pi computer (Figure A ). The
project code is written with the help of
Matt Richardson

openFrameworks (openframeworks.cc), an
open source C++ toolkit for creative coding.
I love openFrameworks because it can be
used to develop for many different platforms:
Time Required: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and of course,
3–4 Hours Linux. The developers of openFrameworks
Cost: have done a fantastic job of supporting the
$500–$600
Raspberry Pi, so getting up and running is
mostly painless … it just takes a bit of time.
MATERIALS When you use openFrameworks with
»»Raspberry Pi Maker Shed WiringPi (wiringpi.com), a Raspberry Pi GPIO
#MSRPIK2, makershed.com
library, you can read and write to the Pi’s pins
»»Pico projector, battery
operated such as the right from your code. In this project you’ll
Aaxa P4-X connect a Hall effect sensor, which can sense
»»USB battery pack with
micro-USB cable to power
when there’s a magnetic field nearby.
the Raspberry Pi, such as A small magnet attached to your bike wheel
Lenmar #PPW11000UR
triggers the sensor with every revolution,
»»HDMI cable, full to mini
»»Hookup wire Maker Shed
then the code displays the next frame of the
#MKEE3 animation. This means that if your wheels are
»»Small perf board turning at 60rpm, your animation will play at
»»Hall effect sensor such as
1 frame per second (fps).
Melexis #US5881
A After you get it up and running, I encourage
»»Resistor, 10kΩ
»»Small magnet you to tinker with the code. How could you
»»Electrical tape take it further? Project your speed in giant
»»Velcro straps
numerals on the street, or blinking turn
»»Bike with rear rack MATT RICHARDSON is a
San Francisco-based creative signals? Get hacking, and most importantly,

TOOLS technologist and product evangelist

for Raspberry Pi. He’s the co-author
have a safe and fun ride!
»»Soldering iron of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi
»»Keyboard and monitor for and the author of Getting Started
setup only with BeagleBone. Get complete instructions, code, and video,
»»3D printer (optional) for and share your ideas on the project page at
making a mounting “sled” makezine.com/go/cycle-chaser.

48 makershed.com
 TIDBITS & TIPS
ON ALMOST
ANYTHING

D
o some skills seem too complex to comprehend? We’re here to make WRITTEN BY JORDAN BUNKER
things simpler, and to give you a jump-start on learning techniques to PHOTOGRAPHED BY HEP SVADJA
push your projects to the next level. ILLUSTRATIONS BY JIM BURKE

CHOOSING You’ve designed the rest of your project, so now it’s time to select a battery. There are
many types of battery chemistries, and each one has its own different characteristics.
So which one to choose? We’ll cover the basic features for each battery type in order

THE RIGHT to help you decide which one is right for you.
For each type below, we’ve rated the following attributes on a scale of 1–5, with 5

BATTERY
being the best, and 1 being the worst:

SPECIFIC ENERGY: This is the amount of energy in the battery per unit of mass, usually measured in watt-hours per kilogram (W⋅h/kg).
CYCLE LIFE: This is the number of discharge-charge cycles a battery can be put through before it begins to fail.
SHELF LIFE: This is based on the self-discharge rate of a battery, or how much energy it loses without being used.
PRICE: Battery prices can vary wildly, depending on how much power you want in a given size.

3 1 3 5 1
0 3 2 5 1
5 3 2 4 4
5 3 2 1 4

Dry Cell NiCad NiMH LiFePO4 Lead-Acid

Dry cell batteries Nickel-cadmium Nickel-metal hydride Lithium iron A low-cost work-
power most small, (NiCd or NiCad) bat- (NiMH) batteries phosphate (LiFePO4) horse, the lead-acid
portable devices. teries excel at main- offer a greater power batteries deliver high battery is heavy,
The most common taining voltage and density than NiCad, currents, and have a but it’s reliable.
chemistries are holding charge when but they can’t handle cycle life in the thou- Because of their
zinc-carbon and not in use. Howev- high discharge rates sands. LiFePO4 also weight, they’re often
alkaline. Most are er, NiCads can fall as well. Though won’t explode when used in non-portable
not rechargeable, victim to the dreaded more expensive with shorted, as previous applications such as
and are only used for “memory” effect a lower cycle life, lithium ion batteries solar-panel energy
low-power appli- when a partially they are not suscep- were known to. Of storage, vehicle
cations. However, charged battery is tible to the “memory” course, all of that ignition and lights,
their high availability, recharged, lowering effect as NiCads are. comes at a higher and backup power.
safety, and long shelf the future capacity of price per battery.
life make them an the battery.
ideal and versatile
choice for small
projects.

makezine.com 49
 Sheet Metal

WORKING WITH Thinking of building an enclosure for your latest project? Or

maybe you’re working on a giant robot to terrorize the neighbor-
hood? Chances are, sheet metal will play a part. Sheet metal
SHEET METAL comes in all manner of varieties and sizes. Here are some tips
and tricks to help you get that shiny sheet into your desired shape.

THICKNESS
One of the most important
decisions when working with
sheet metal is deciding what
thickness you’ll need. Similar
to wire, sheet metal thickness
is measured in gauges, with
a higher number indicating a
thinner sheet. To measure the
thickness, you can use a sheet
metal gauge, which will show
you thickness in both gauge
number and thousandths of
an inch. One important note,
however, is that ferrous and
non-ferrous sheet metals of
the same gauge have different
thicknesses, so you’ll need one
gauge for ferrous metals, and
one for non-ferrous.

ALUMINUM

TIP COPPER
For small pieces of metal, you can mimic the process
below by clamping the metal between wooden blocks
in a vise, then hammering them over.
STEEL
BENDING
Bending sheet metal can be tricky, but with the right tool it’s easy. Those who work
with it regularly are likely to have a sheet metal bending brake in their workshop,
but this tool can be a bit expensive for the hobbyist. Thankfully, there are a couple of BRASS
wallet-friendly options that can help you get the job done.
Using the edge of your workbench, a length of wood, two clamps, and a mallet,
you can fashion a rudimentary bending brake. Mark a bend line and place the sheet
GALVANIZED
metal on the edge of your bench. Next place the wood parallel and slightly behind STEEL
the bending line. Clamp the wood on top of the metal to the workbench. Finally,
bend the sheet up by hand to the angle desired. If you want a sharp 90° bend, tap
along the crease with a mallet.

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 makezine.com/46

CUTTING
Many different tools cut sheet metal,
and each has its own strengths and
SNIPS weaknesses. Here are some of the
Commonly known as “aviation snips” more common tools, but they repre-
or “tinsnips,” these scissor-like tools sent only a small number of options.
are great for cutting soft sheet metals
such as tin, aluminum, brass, and
thin-gauge (24 gauge or thinner) steel.
Depending on the cut shape, you’ll use
left-cut, right-cut, or straight snips,
typically indicated by the handle color:
red for left, green for right, and yellow
for straight. Be sure to insert the metal
fully into the throat of the snips for
optimal cutting.

BAND SAW
With the appropriate blade,
cutting sheet metal on a band
saw is fairly straightforward.
Cutting metal requires slower
blade speeds than cutting
JIGSAW wood, but many band saws
A quality jigsaw and the cor- have multistep pulleys for
rect metal-cutting blade will changing the blade speed.
make short work of sheet
metal cuts. If you need a
straight cut, clamp a straight-
edge to the sheet to act as a
NIBBLER guide for the jigsaw footplate.
The nibbler is a tool that
offers a lot of control over
the cut, but at the expense of
cut width. Each cut punches CUTTING ALUMINUM
out a tiny piece of the sheet WITH A TABLE SAW
HACKSAW metal, and the process is It might sound crazy, but you can cut sheets of
A hacksaw can cut sheet repeated. The nibbler shown aluminum on a table saw. Make sure to use a
metal, but its shape limits its here is hand-operated, though 60-tooth (or more) carbide-tipped blade, and
turning radius and depth of drill-powered, electric, and wax the blade to ensure the cut is well lubricat-
cut. To prolong blade life, rub pneumatic versions are ed. Go slowly, proceed with the utmost caution,
wax on the sides above the also common. and wear hearing protection!
teeth. For a cleaner cut, put a
strip of masking tape on the DEBURRING
top and bottom of the sheet After cutting metal, there’s often a sharp edge left. Be sure to remove
to keep chips from scratching it! You can buy a fancy deburring tool if you work with sheet metal
frequently, but a quick once-over with a file is just as effective. Your
the material. fingers will thank you!

makezine.com 51
 Spread Spectrum R/C

INTRO TO SPREAD
SPECTRUM R/C

FREQUENCY
Entering the world of TIME

radio-control (R/C) hobbies

can be a little daunting. To

FREQUENCY
make it a bit easier to get
started, we’ll cover the basics
of 2.4GHz spread spectrum
radio control, and the different TIME
pieces of a typical
R/C system. TRANSMITTER
The role of the transmitter is to convert move-
ment of the control sticks into digital signals,
which are sent via radio waves to the receiver.
Transmitters offer multiple channels to con-
trol multiple components. For example, if a
transmitter has 6 channels, you can control
up to 6 servos or motors. These channels are
not to be confused with the sub-frequency
“channels” of a radio spectrum.
While older R/C systems communicated
over frequencies such as 72MHz and 75MHz,
modern systems use the 2.4GHz microwave
radio spectrum, plus a collection of clever
wireless protocols for more reliability. At the
heart of these new R/C systems are Frequen-
cy-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and
Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
technologies. Both work to nullify the inter-
ference and frequency conflicts found in the
older R/C systems. While the actual wireless
technologies used vary between transmitter
brands, all of them include some combination
of DSSS and FHSS to avoid interference and
frequency conflicts between R/C systems.

OLD R/C
Previous to the 2.4GHz spread spectrum revolution, most R/C
systems worked on 27, 50, 53, 72, and 75MHz. With these systems,
R/C OVER WI-FI AND BLUETOOTH
only one transmitter could be used on a given frequency at a time. Many new multirotors and toy cars can be controlled via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
Using multiple transmitters on the same frequency would interfere wireless technologies. One major benefit of this is that you can control the
and cause loss of control of the R/C vehicles. Operators also had to be vehicle using apps on smartphones and tablets, eliminating the need to
cautious of areas that were prone to noise on the frequency they were purchase a separate transmitter. The drawback, though, is that range is
using. As a result, almost all R/C systems sold now use the much limited, and you don’t get the same tactile feedback from a screen as you do
safer 2.4GHz spread spectrum system. from a typical R/C transmitter’s joysticks and switches.

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 makezine.com/46

Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology constantly changes the channel

FHSS
that a radio signal is transmitted on, in order to lower the likelihood of signal corruption
due to interference on a single channel. The pattern of frequency hopping is pseudo-
random, but the transmitter and receiver go through a binding process before any signal
is transmitted, ensuring they jump to the same frequency at the same time.

Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) technology spreads the radio signal across

DSSS a wider range of channels (sub-frequencies) than the old narrowband single-channel
systems. This means that even if several of the channels are subject to interference, the
signal will still get through on the other channels.

RECEIVER
SERVOS ELECTRONIC SPEED CONTROLLERS
AND MOTORS
The receiver collects control-stick data Servos are geared motors designed for To control a motor, you’ll need an electron-
from the transmitter and distributes it to precision control over movement. Inside a ic speed controller (ESC). Its job is to take
the servos and motors on the R/C vehicle. servo you’ll find a circuit board, a small DC the low-power signal from a receiver and
Transmitters and receivers are frequently motor, and a series of gears. The receiver turn it into high-current control signals for
sold together, though you can buy them outputs a pulse-width modulation (PWM) driving a motor. ESCs come in two variet-
separately. If you do buy them separately, signal to the servo, which the circuit board ies depending on your motor type: brush-
make sure that each unit is compatible, as translates into precise control signals less and brushed. Brushed speed control-
different brands use different proprietary for the DC motor. The circuit board also lers send a PWM signal to a brushed
technologies, and will often not work with takes input from a feedback potentiometer motor, while brushless speed controllers
one another. attached to the output shaft of the servo switch power between the three leads
The receiver shown here is a bare to detect its rotation. It then compares the required for brushless motors.
board, but most receivers come in plastic desired shaft position, based on the PWM When selecting an ESC, you’ll need to
cases. The short wires protruding from signal, to the actual position to know which know the maximum current rating for your
the receiver are the antennas. If your way to turn and when to stop. motor. The maximum current rating on
vehicle is made of metal or carbon fiber, your ESC should be 5 or 10 amps higher
be sure to mount the receiver in a place than the maximum rated current of your
where the antennas will not be obstructed, motor, as motors often draw more current
as 2.4GHz radio waves will not pass than they’re rated for. Many ESCs are also
through these materials. programmable, allowing you to set differ-
ent attributes for controlling your motor.

makezine.com 53
 Rivets

KNOW YOUR
RIVETS
Rivets are one of the oldest, most reliable methods of perma-
nently fastening two materials together. The principle is simple:
a shaft with a head on one end is inserted into a hole, and the
opposite end is deformed to hold the materials together. Like
many simple inventions, time has brought new and more complex
features to rivet technology, which has resulted in a variety of
different types of rivets. Here we’ll cover two of the most
common rivets used in the home workshop.
EASY RIVETING
Have hundreds of blind rivets to install? Consider buying a
pneumatic rivet gun, or a rivet gun attachment for your drill.
You’ll work much faster and avoid the strain and pain from
squeezing a hand riveter all day.

BLIND RIVETS
Blind rivets are the fastest and easiest rivets to use in a project.
Often called “pop” rivets (after a popular rivet brand), they can be
installed completely from one side, unlike solid rivets or bolts that
require access to both sides of the material. If set correctly, blind
rivets produce reliable fastenings without all the hammering
involved in solid rivet installation.
Blind rivets are made of two preassembled pieces: the tubular
rivet body and the setting mandrel. Both pieces are inserted into a
TINNER’S RIVETS hole, and a special tool (appropriately called a “riveter”) is placed
over the mandrel. Squeezing the grips together causes the
Used for thin sheet metal, tinner’s rivets are solid rivets, usually mandrel to be pulled into the rivet body, which expands on the
made of soft iron or steel and have a flat head. To install a tinner’s other side of the material. If the mandrel breaks off of the
rivet, the rivet is inserted from the underside through the materi- completed rivet, the rivet has been installed correctly.
als to be fastened, and the flat head is placed on top of a large flat
piece of metal (like an anvil). A tool called a rivet set, which has
a dished depression slightly larger than the rivet diameter in its
end, is placed on the shaft of the rivet and struck by a hammer
repeatedly to peen the rivet shaft into a flattened, rounded head.
RIVET MATERIAL
The type of metal used in the rivet you
choose is important, and should be
MAKESHIFT RIVETS matched to the sheet metal being joined
If you don’t have a rivet set or tinner’s rivets, you can use a
whenever possible. If leather is being
roofing nail and a ball peen hammer to create a makeshift
rivet. Place the nail in the hole and cut the nail down to 1.5 fastened with a rivet, make sure that
times its diameter. Place the material with the nail head the rivet is made of aluminum, copper,
facedown on your striking surface. Using the flat face of a or brass, as the moisture in leather can
ball peen hammer, give the end of the nail several strikes
to set the rivet and begin deforming the metal, then use the cause steel rivets to rust.
ball side of the hammer to work your way around the rivet
in a circular pattern, shaping the rivet into a head.

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SPRAY PAINT
TECHNIQUES
Spray paint is a convenient way to add a touch of color to your
project. It’s available in just about any color you’d want, and can
be purchased at your local big-box hardware store. Using spray
paint may seem like a straightforward process, but if you’re not
familiar with it, the results can be disappointing. Here are some
tips and tricks to ensure that your paint job comes out as beauti-
ful as you’d expect.

USING A SPRAY GUN

If you have a large painting job, and have a
compressor, consider buying a spray gun.
Instead of using compressed gas in a can,
BASIC SPRAY PAINT a spray gun uses the air delivered from
TECHNIQUES your compressor to suck paint from a paint
First, make sure that the surface to be painted is clean, free of basin and blow it through a nozzle, creating
rust and debris, and smooth. Any surface bumps or imperfec- a fine spray.
tions will show through the paint, so use sandpaper or steel wool
to clean and smooth the surface, then use a lint-free cloth to
remove any remaining dust.
Start with a can of spray paint that is room temperature and
shake it for 3 or 4 minutes to mix the paint thoroughly. You can’t
shake the can too much, but you can shake it too little! Be sure to
shake the can occasionally while painting as well. USE A RESPIRATOR!
Press down on the tip with the can about 10" to 12" away from Spray paint fumes are toxic, and cheap dust
the surface, aimed to one side, then, in one fluid motion, sweep masks offer very little protection. Be sure to
the paint horizontally across the surface and release the tip when spray-paint in a well-ventilated area where paint
you reach the other side. Use your entire arm to move the can, fumes won’t build up. A respirator with replace-
not just your wrist, and be sure to start the spray before reaching able filters costs just $20 or $30, and will survive
the surface, and release after passing it. many paint projects. You’ll save money in the long
For a large surface where multiple passes are required, over- run, and it’s much cheaper than going to the
lap your passes slightly. Several light coats, allowing the paint to doctor for respiratory problems.
dry in between, will look much better than one heavy coat. Differ-
ent paints dry at different rates, so read the instructions on the
back of the can for drying times. Be patient, apply multiple light,
smooth layers of paint (usually at least three), and your paint job
will come out looking professional.
When you’re done painting, turn the can upside-down and REVIVING OLD CANS OF PAINT
press the tip until the spray becomes clear. This will clear the tip Occasionally, a used can of spray paint will
and prevent paint from drying inside it. refuse to spray. Remove the nozzle and
soak it overnight in a solvent such as min-
eral spirits or paint thinner to dissolve the
PAINTING SMALL OBJECTS paint. If that doesn’t work, try putting the
If you’re painting something small, use a paint booth to limit can in a bucket of hot (not boiling!) water.
overspray. You can set up a makeshift paint booth using a This will reduce the viscosity of the paint,
cardboard box on its side. Setting the object on a turntable will
allow you to spin it without touching it so that you can paint from and help increase the pressure in the can.
all angles.

makezine.com 55
 RETRO R/C
RACER
Now build your own vintage-styled
R/C car! This project from Make:
Volume 11 walks you through the
steps to build an R/C vehicle from
scratch, with a sheet-metal body
based on 1930s midget racers.
You’ll use all the tools and materi-
als covered in this section (with
a few changes to keep pace with
technology) to create your racer,
but they can also be applied to all
manner of similar projects.
INSTALL A BATTERY makezine.com/go/retro-rc-racer

CONNECT THE R/C

PARTS

RIVET THE SHEETS

TOGETHER BEND THE ALUMINUM

SPRAY-PAINT
THE BODY

56 makershed.com
PROJECTS
Building Your Own
BB-8
LOOK OUT, R2! Everyone’s favorite astromech is facing
stiff competition from a new addition to the Star Wars
universe named BB-8. Aside from being impossibly cute,
BB-8 is a puzzle of engineering that features an R2-style
head gliding on a rolling, spherical body. As a fan, it’s
impossible not to want one. As a Maker, it’s impossible not
to try to craft one. Want to get started? Here are 3 different
approaches for building your own.

Pocket-Sized
Roller:
Time Required:
1 Day
Cost:
$150–$200

Materials
»»Sphero 1.0 robot toy
»»Plasti Dip spray, GunMetal
Gray
»»Spray paint: orange, white, and
clear enamel
»»Neodymium ring magnet, ¾"
»»Neodymium disc magnet, 3/8"
»»Felt pad, .090" × 3/8" diameter,
adhesive-backed
»»Polyurethane foam
»»Wood spackle
»»Masking tape
»»Sharpie marker

Tools
»»Hacksaw
»»Bench vise
»»3D modeling software
»»Glue gun
»»Hobby knife
Christian
»»CNC mill (optional)
Poulsen's
»»Laser cutter (optional) BB-8
»»Drill press (optional)

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 makezine.com/46

POCKET-SIZED 1 2

ROLLER Written by
Christian Poulsen

Christian Poulsen
PROJECT Hack a Sphero to
1 replicate the galaxy’s
adorable new droid
3
CHRISTIAN POULSEN
is a recent graduate from Brigham Young University, with a degree in industrial
design. In addition to his freelance design work, he enjoys restoring his ’70s
Porsche named Sebastian.

AS AN INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER, I’VE BEEN PAR- screenshot from the trailer to make sure I had the
TICULARLY FASCINATED BY PRODUCTS THAT proportions right. I milled out my design on a CNC
HAVE PERSONALITY AND EMOTION. I think the using polyurethane foam, then used wood spackle
droids in Star Wars have always been really great to finish the surface.
at capturing a character without facial expression 4
and drawing you in. And BB-8 was no different 4. MASK AND PAINT
when they brought it out onstage for the first time Cut the designs out of tape to mask off the differ-
at Star Wars Celebration. ent colors. I went a little overboard and laser-cut
As I watched it roll around, my only thought mine, and used gray Plasti Dip for the base coat
was, “Need!” So I made one. because it’s more opaque than regular spray paint
Part of what I really enjoyed about the process and I wanted to block out the Sphero’s flashing
of making it was the timeline. Most projects I LEDs (a glowing green droid just wouldn’t work
work on end up taking weeks, if not months, to for me). After the base coat is dry, cover with
finish. With BB-8, I pushed myself to make it in orange spray paint. 5
a day. As a result, the surfacing and paint is less
than perfect, which I’m serendipitously calling 5. APPLY FINISHING COATS
“weathered.” But I was able to stick to my goal, Mask out the orange and add a coat of white paint.
and made the whole thing in a matter of hours. I Add the details with a Sharpie and finish it with a
wanted to capture the character and personality final coat of clear enamel. The topcoat is particu-
of the real robot as simply as possible, and I’m larly important to get just right, to reduce friction
really happy with how it turned out. as much as possible between the head and body.

1. SPLIT SPHERO 1.0 6. ADD MAGNETS AND FELT

Divide the Sphero toy along the seam using a Once the paint is completely dry, embed a ⅜" 6
hacksaw, being careful not to saw through the neodymium disc magnet in the head. Add a small
internal chassis. (I’ve never split open the Sphero adhesive felt pad so that it can slide easily across
2.0, so I’m not sure if it will work on that model.) the surface of the body. I used a drill press to sink
the magnet in just deep enough to be flush with
2. EMBED THE MAGNET the surface and glued it in place before attaching
The internal chassis of the Sphero has a post that the ⅜"-diameter felt pad over it.
pushes against the top of the sphere and acts The droid is controlled by Bluetooth through
as somewhat of a shock absorber — attach the the Sphero app, but also has a mind of its own.
Hep Svadja

¾" neodymium magnet ring to this post. Clean Because it’s now more top-heavy and tends to
the edges of the split sphere with a hobby knife lean, the gyroscope will try to correct the lean,
and, with the newly magnetized structure inside, and it will keep on rolling in whatever direction it’s
reattach the 2 halves with hot glue. pushed. Maybe adding weight in the bottom will
tame it, or maybe BB-8 needs a restraining bolt!
3. DESIGN AND FABRICATE THE HEAD
Create in your preferred 3D modeling program For a more detailed guide to making this project,
or simply carve by hand. I built it in Rhino over a visit makezine.com/go/sphero-bb8.

makezine.com 59
PROJECTS Building Your Own BB-8

Written by Kurt Zimmerman WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?

POWER WHEELS
This was my first impression of BB-8 when a
3-second glimpse of it was revealed during the first
“teaser trailer” for Star Wars Episode 7. No one had

AND HARD DRIVES

seen a droid such as this. A dome bouncing along on
a rotating ball.
I had to have one.
I reasoned that I could drive a ball with a remote
PROJECT
An experienced R2-D2 builder control tank inside. The trick would be to keep the

2 shares the ups and downs of

his BB-8 project
dome from falling off. Three weeks later, I had an
outer shell with a finished Styrofoam dome. The
dome had five cannibalized computer mice under-
neath, their rubber balls replaced with ⅞" steel
bearings. The inner tank had a framework attached,
supporting an array of five magnet columns, spring-
loaded to keep them in contact with the inner ball
while the tank crawled around the interior. This
design failed for two reasons. Firstly, the tank only
touched the ball on its four corners, so there was
little traction. Secondly, the inertia of the droid when
it stopped kept the lower ball rolling, causing the
upper dome to tip off. I needed to increase the trac-
tion and come up with a way to stabilize the ball.
The solution I came up with was a custom drive
system that puts the weight and traction directly
in the bottom of the lower ball. Two rubber drive
wheels, powered by two Power Wheels motors and
gearboxes, and controlled by radio with a Sabertooth
2×25 motor controller, would give me the control and
traction I needed. I would be able to turn the drive
system 360° and have enough power to overcome
the drag of the magnets at the top of the ball. I added
a sliding platform so that I could move the magnet
array forward and backward inside the lower ball.
A 360° servo rotates the magnet platform and the
Kurt began construction on BB-8's head and shell as far back as November of 2014, when the character
made its first on-screen appearance. upper dome.
For the enclosure I used 18" polycarbonate globes
from edee.com. (The community now feels 20" is
more accurate.) Because the globes come with a
hole already cut out, and gaps occur when you cut
out the outer shell pieces, three globes are needed.
To stabilize the droid, I purchased the only “old
school” gyroscope I could find, but it didn’t have
KURT
ZIMMERMAN enough rotating mass to stabilize such a large ball.
is a member of the To add more rotating mass, I built four additional
Michigan chapter gyroscopes out of discarded computer hard drives,
of the R2-D2
stacking four discs in each drive and spinning them
Builders Club. He’s
authored over with a control circuit, powered by a battery.
90 children’s and I also tried to replicate the different emblems on
science fiction the sides of the body. And now that we have better
books and enjoys
pictures of BB-8, I plan to rework the outer shell to
woodworking,
Kurt Zimmerman

architectural make it even more movie-accurate.

drafting, and
restoring vintage To see the full, finished build of Zimmerman’s BB-
Pontiac cars. 8, visit makezine.com/go/zimmerman-bb8.
Inside is a mix of repurposed materials, including hard drives,
cutting boards, brush handles, and two Power Wheels motors.
60 makershed.com
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WHEN THE STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Written by Casey Kuhns

PI-POWERED
TRAILER WAS RELEASED, THE INTERNET WAS
BUZZING ABOUT THIS NEW ROUND DROID.
With a renewed interest in practical effects, our

SUPER-SPHERO
curiosity was piqued. “Are they going to actually
make one?” This question was answered at the Star
Wars Celebration. Our curiosity became an obses-
sion as we watched BB-8 roll around and size up
R2-D2. The ball droid was real, and hackers and
A team of engineers and artists
PROJECT

3
Makers around the world thought they had the methodically creates a BB-8 that looks,
answer as to how it worked. Concept art, 3D prints, moves, and sounds like the real thing
and prototypes started popping up on YouTube and
we knew we had to throw our hat into the ring.
Since there are others trying to crack the BB-8
we wanted to work quickly on our proposed solution.
With the help of ServoCity and their online
CAD models, we quickly leveraged the Actobotics
line to build the inner structure. For some of the
detail pieces and internal components, we turned
to 3D printing to give us quick results. The Loveland
CreatorSpace provided us a base camp and
excellent resources to complete this build.
The inspiration for our mechanical build was
the Sphero. We had a hunch when the first videos
were released that Sphero was involved somehow.
We popped one open and began to replicate the
mechanism. To add the head and motion we took
cues from an older Sphero model. The original
Sphero has a singular upper support, whereas
Sphero 2.0 has two passive upper wheels to main-
tain support. Our design combines aspects of
both, using upper wheels for stability and a central
support to attach the head via magnets.
The shell is 2 custom-molded ⅜"-thick polycar-
bonate hemispheres. We decided to go this route to
The team (from the left) includes Pamela Cortez, Allison Cavis, Casey Kuhns, Maurice Woods, and Felipe.
ensure roundness, strength, and enough thickness
to mount LEDs in the moving shell.
The team behind our build consists of four Makers
with a shared passion for robotics and Star Wars
alike, and their obligatory dog companion. I was
responsible for the mechanism that brings the BB-8
to life. Pamela Cortez, another SparkFun engineer,
developed the brains of the droid, which consist of
CASEY KUHNS
Raspberry Pi and Sphero. She also focused on is a Sparkfun
giving our BB-8 a voice, which includes some Easter engineer by day,
egg sounds from your other favorite droids! The and a gearhead
by night. From
aesthetics of the robot, including the floating head
Boulder Colorado,
and movie-worthy details, were applied by Allison he has built space
Cavis and Maurice Woods, two artists-turned- payloads, restored
engineers whose sculpting and casting experience a jet engine, and
fought combat
make the droid’s appearance unmistakable. robots.
Elizabeth Blasi

This BB-8 design is fully documented and open

source! For the complete build, visit
makezine.com/go/open-bb8. An inner structure was first carefully designed in software, based
on the construction of a Sphero toy.
makezine.com 61
PROJECTS Chukudu Wooden Scooter

Chukudu Wooden Scooter

Build the burly Congolese workhorse that can haul hundreds of pounds of cargo

Written by Doug Bradbury

Time Required:
A Weekend
Cost:
$100–$150

DOUG BRADBURY
is director of software
services for 8th Light in
Chicago. His interest in
social justice has brought
him to Africa on several
occasions. He met our
chukudu designer AIMÉ
NSHIMIYIMANA (pictured
here with Make: Volume 40)
in the Kiziba refugee camp
in Rwanda.

Materials

Ryan Goebel
»»Dimensional lumber: 2×10,
10' length (1) and 2×4, 4'
lengths (2)
»»Hardwood dowel,
2" diameter, 48" length
»»Steel wheels, 10"×2.75", with FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS, TWO CIVIL WARS AND ABOUT THE DESIGNER
5/8" diameter hub (2)
PROLONGED VIOLENCE have left the Democratic Aimé Nshimiyimana grew up in the Kiziba refugee
»»Threaded rod, 5/8", 8"
lengths (2) Republic of the Congo unsafe for many. Since camp, where he studied auto mechanics and
»» Lock washers, nylon, 5/8" (4) 1994, it’s estimated that 3 million people have drafting. Now 24, he walks 4 hours round trip to
»»Nails, 2" been killed there. town each day to make a few dollars fixing cars.
»»Staples, ½" wide, 1" long
In western Rwanda, just 60 kilometers away, He wants badly to study at a university. When I
»»Rubber tie-down straps,
adjustable, 36" (4) sits the Kiziba refugee camp, where 18,000 asked him about the chukudu, he enthusiastically
»»Bicycle inner tube, Congolese wait hoping for peace so they can drew plans and explained how they’re built. This
salvaged
return to their homeland. Food and firewood project is an adaptation of his design (Figure A ).
»»Bicycle tire, salvaged
»»Wood glue
rations are provided monthly by the United To help Aimé and others like him complete their
Nations, and the responsibility for moving these education, you can support International Teams
loads typically falls to young boys equipped with at give.iteams.us/give. Specify “Impact Rwanda -
TOOLS a handcrafted, all-wood scooter called a chukudu Kiziba Education” with your donation.
»»Jigsaw
»»Handsaw
(choo-KOO-doo).
»»Hammer Often called the pickup truck of the Congo, 1. PREPARE THE DECK
»»Chisel, 1" chukudus can haul loads upward of 500 pounds. Cut the 2×10 to 5' long and round the nose with a
»»Hole saw, 2" They’re pushed up hills and ridden down the other jigsaw, using a 10" wheel as your template. Also
»»Drill and bits
side. Today, the chukudu makers in Kiziba carve mark the board through the center of the wheel,
»»Hacksaw or reciprocating
saw with metal blade these scooters from eucalyptus trees with nothing then cut a 2" hole on your mark (Figure B ).
»»Wrench but a machete. Cut an 8"×3" notch centered in the rear end
»»Router (optional) with ¾" After visiting the camp, I wanted to honor the of the deck. Optionally, use a router to cut a ¾"
straight and roundover bits
»»Sandpaper
ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Congolese groove ¼" deep across the bottom, 2" from the
»»Clamps or weights refugees by building my own version of the rear end. This helps keep the rear axle in place.
chukudu. You can build it with common hardware. (Without a router, nailing and stapling will do.)

62 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

Andy Waters and Doug Bradbury

Aimé Nshimiyimana
A A B C D

2. BUILD THE FORK 5. MAKE THE BRAKE

Cut three 12" lengths of 2×10. Cut 2 of these at 45° Your brake will be made just like the ones in
on one end, for the outside pieces. Cut matching Kiziba. Cut a 7" section of the bike tire. Staple or
6"×3" notches out of all 3 boards (Figure C ). Then nail a scrap of wood inside one end (Figure G ).
cut a ¾" groove ½" deep across the end of the Nail the other end inside the notch you cut in
middle piece, to accept the axle. the deck for the rear wheel. The curve of the bike
Square off one end of the 2" dowel: Cut an 1/8" tire will cause the brake to sit up off the wheel.
groove on each side 3½" from the end, then use a The rider can then step back and push the brake
chisel to split off all 4 sides, down to your grooves. into the wheel to slow the chukudu.
On the middle 2×10 cut a notch 3½" deep and E
1¾" wide on the other end, to accept the squared 6. MOUNT THE WHEELS
end of your steering shaft as tightly as possible. Cut two 8" lengths of 5/8" threaded rod for axles.
At the other end of the shaft, square off 2 sides Mount each wheel in the center of an axle and
(Figure D ) to accommodate the handlebars. Be secure it with 2 nylon lock nuts. Don’t overtighten.
sure your flats line up on both ends of the shaft. Secure the axles to the deck and the fork with F
Glue and clamp the three 2×10s together, long staples or 2" nails bent over the axle. Drive a
sandwiching the steering shaft tightly in between. nail or staple at the end of each axle to prevent it
from moving off-center (Figure H ).
3. MAKE THE STEERING SHAFT SUPPORT
Exactly 9" behind the center of the steering shaft 7. MOUNT THE SUSPENSION AND BARS
hole, cut a 3½"×17/8" hole in the deck, at a 20° The Congolese scavenge rubber from old road G
angle, to accommodate a 4'-long 2×4 so it meets tires. We’ll use 4 rubber tie-down straps.
the steering shaft 6"–8" from the top. A tight fit is Remove the hooks, and nail the ends of all 4
important, so start small and widen as needed. straps around the nose of the deck. Thread the
Now shape the support: Cut a 70° miter at the steering shaft up through its hole in the deck. Pull
top of the 2×4, then shape a concave in the front up the center of each strap and nail them to the
face using a router or chisels (Figure E ). steering shaft (Figure I ). Set the height so the
Install the support into the deck hole. It can deck hangs 6"–8" above the fork, so that when the
stick through the bottom or be trimmed flush. chukudu is loaded it won’t bottom out.
Use the reclaimed bike tire to wrap and hold the
4. SHAPE THE HANDLEBARS steering shaft to the support. Nail or staple the
Mark a 30" 2×4 at 12" from either end. Then mark tire into the support on either side. Finally, mount
it lengthwise 1" from either side. Use a jigsaw the handlebars (Figure J ). Use an old inner tube H I
or handsaw to cut away the 4 corner portions, to tie them on, and/or a shim to tighten the joint.
leaving a 6" hub in the middle and 2 handles.
Find the center of the hub and place it atop the RIDING THE CHUKUDU
steering shaft. Trace the outline of the shaft and Customize your deck for hauling different types of
cut out that hole (inside the lines!) with a drill and cargo, or as a knee scooter. A pad made from an
jigsaw (Figure F ). The fit should be tight. old flip-flop lets you place a knee on the deck.
Use sandpaper or a router with a roundover bit Because of its size and mass, the chukudu can J
to round off the sharp edges of the handle. Don’t be difficult to handle. Be sure to wear a helmet —
mount the handlebars yet! and have an escape plan if you need to bail! Get more photos and build tips at
makezine.com/go/diy-chukudu-scooter.

makezine.com 63
PROJECTS Million Color HSL Flashlight

Million Color HSL

Flashlight

Written by Dan Rasmussen

Hep Svadja

64 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

Time Required:
Bring fun back to 4–6 Hours
the flashlight with Cost:
$40–$60
Arduino and full-
color NeoPixel Materials
»»A big 6V lantern flashlight
LEDs to hack old or new
»»Arduino Pro Mini 328
microcontroller board, 5V,
16MHz Maker Shed #MKSF8,
makershed.com, or Adafruit
#2378, adafruit.com
»»Right angle male headers,
6 pin cut them from Adafruit
#1540 or similar.
»»NeoPixel RGB LED ring,
Adafruit #1643
DAN RASMUSSEN »»Potentiometers, 10kΩ (3)
is an avid collector, fixer, and hacker »»Hookup wire, 22 gauge solid
of vintage technology. He’s a software core Maker Shed #MKEE3 or
engineer who lives in Groton, Massa- Adafruit #1311. It’s nice to have
lots of colors for this project.
chusetts with his wife and three kids.
»»Batteries, NiMH recharge-
able, AA size (4) and
charger Do not use alkaline
batteries.
WHEN I WAS A KID THERE WERE NO SMART- I programmed — watch the video on the project
»»Battery holder, 4xAA
PHONES, INTERNET, HOME COMPUTERS, OR page at makezine.com/go/million-color-hsl- »»Resistor, 300Ω, ¼W
ARDUINOS. Sure, we had TV and radio, but — flashlight for a demonstration — but you can »»Capacitor, 1,000μF, 6.3V or
believe it or not — we had fun with flashlights too. always program your own! higher

»»Rotary switch, 10-position
They often came with colored lenses, or we made such as SparkFun #13253
our own with paper or plastic. 1. White »»SparkFun Rotary Switch
These days flashlights are mostly for practical 2. Manual HSL selection Breakout board (optional)
SparkFun #13098
purposes and they usually only make white light. 3. Auto hue: rotates through the color »»Potentiometer knobs (4)
Even high-end flashlights are pretty much the spectrum (hue knob controls speed) such as Adafruit #2046
same thing, just super bright and rugged for 4. Multicolor all-pixel auto-rotate »»Heat-shrink tubing various
diameters

inspecting the levee during the hurricane. Bright 5. Multicolor tri-pixel auto-rotate »»Tic Tacs, any flavor you like
and rugged is great, but a one-button, small, 6. Cylon (aka Larson Scanner) »»Solder
efficient, vanilla light isn’t much fun, is it? Let’s 7. Full-color strobe
bring the fun back to flashlights. 8. Alternate pixel multicolor 180° color
alternation
Tools
»»Soldering iron, temperature
THE HSL FLASHLIGHT 9. Half-moon multicolor 180° color alternation controlled such as Maker
Shed #MKME01, set to 700°F
In this project you’ll hack an old-style 6-volt 10. Alternate pixel-pair multicolor 180° color »»Wire strippers such as
lantern to become a Million Color HSL Flashlight. alternation Adafruit #527 or, for fun,
Maker Shed #MKLTM2-ES4
It’s big and bulky and different. Not quite as bright »»FTDI Serial TTL-232 USB
as some, but it has crazy color that’s so easy to HARDWARE cable such as Adafruit #70
set — just dial your way around the rainbow. Lots Arduino is a great platform for prototyping your »»Dental pick (optional)
handy for attaching wires to
of knobs and modes, and you can write code for projects. Once you’re ready to build, though, the posts
it too. standard Arduino board is kind of big and its »»Hot glue gun

The great thing about HSL is that it’s an jumper wires provide only fragile connections. »»Computer with Arduino IDE
software free download from
intuitive way to select a color. HSL stands for hue, So I used the Arduino Pro Mini: inexpensive, very arduino.cc/downloads

saturation, and lightness. It’s like the 360-degree small, and reliable. »»Project code Download the
Arduino sketch HSLFlashlight.
color pickers available in many computer I chose Adafruit NeoPixel RGB LEDs because ino from the project page,
applications. Our HSL flashlight has a knob their 12-element ring fits nicely in the reflector makezine.com/go/million-
color-hsl-flashlight.

for each component: hue selects the color by bowl in most 6V lanterns, and they come with an
»»Hobby knife

allowing you to dial your way around the rainbow, Arduino library that’s easy to use. »»Adhesive tape

saturation selects how deep and rich the colors Old-school “6-volt lantern” flashlights are »»Heat gun or butane lighter
are (fully desaturated is white, fully saturated is perfect for this project because the reflector bowl for heat-shrink tubing

»»Drill and drill bits

pure color), and lightness behaves like a dimmer. and the battery compartment are both huge. Cool
»»Digital voltmeter or
The flashlight also has a 10-position mode old lanterns are easy to find at flea markets or multimeter
switch, just for fun. The following are the modes eBay, but you can also buy new ones. »»Sharpie marker

makezine.com 65
PROJECTS Million Color HSL Flashlight

1. SOLDER HEADERS ON THE 4. WIRE THE

ARDUINO POTENTIOMETERS
Tack a single pin of the 6-pin header, then Cut three 8" lengths of wire for ground
check to make sure it’s flush. If not, reheat (black), 3 more for Vcc (I used orange), and
and adjust. 3 for analog input (blue). Connect one set
Now solder the other pins. Rework the of wires to each potentiometer as shown
A tacked pin and add solder if necessary. (Figure C ). First wrap the wire around the
post, then solder it .
2. PROGRAM THE ARDUINO Mark the potentiometers as 1, 2, and 3,
Download the Arduino sketch HSLFlashlight. then mark the other end of each analog
ino from the project page, makezine.com/ input wire with 1, 2, or 3 dots.
go/million-color-hsl-flashlight. Connect the
Arduino Pro Mini to your computer using 5. PREPARE THE NEOPIXEL
your FTDI cable or other compatible device. RING
Open the Arduino IDE software and select Cut about 12" each of black, red, and white
the correct board from the Tools→Boards wire and solder these to the NeoPixel’s
B menu. Then open the sketch and verify/ Power, Ground, and Signal In pads, routing
compile/upload it to the Arduino. the wires from the top as shown (Figure D ).
This tiny board has an LED attached
to pin 13. The HSL program will flash it 5
times when it starts. This is a good way to CAUTION: Some flashlights (especially
old ones) use metal reflector bowls, so
verify that the program has been properly it’s important to insulate these connec-
uploaded. (Note that the upload process tions. I simply covered them with small
itself will flash this LED a couple of times.) blobs of hot glue.
Disconnect the Arduino and set it aside.
C Hot-glue the NeoPixel to the bowl of your
3. WIRE THE 10-POSITION flashlight and route the wires through the
ROTARY SWITCH old bulb hole.
The optional breakout board makes it easier Solder the 300Ω resistor to the other end
to attach and manage the switch’s 11 wires. of your signal wire (white), and insulate with
Tack one pin, make sure it’s flush, then heat-shrink, leaving about ⅛" exposed.
solder all the connections (Figure A ).
Cut eleven 8" lengths of 22-gauge wire.
Use different colors of wire, or use a light IMPORTANT: Before connecting a
NeoPixel strip to power, connect a large
color and mark the wires with a Sharpie to capacitor (1,000µF, 6.3V or higher) across
D indicate the pin number. Strip about ⅛" of the + and – terminals. This prevents the
insulation from each end. initial onrush of current from damaging
the pixels.
I always use black for common/ground
and red for raw power. Here I attached black
to the common pin, then used different 6. WIRE THE ARDUINO
colors for the first few positions (Figure B ). Solder a 12" red wire to the Arduino’s RAW
After that I used all gray, and marked the power input pin; a 12" black wire to the
other end of the gray wires with dots (4 dots adjacent ground (GND) pin; and a 12" orange
for position 4, 5 for position 5, and so on). wire to the regulated power (VCC) pin.
E Tame the mess of wires with some heat- Solder the 3 blue wires from the poten-
shrink tubing. I covered about 60% of the tiometers to the Arduino’s analog inputs
Dan Rasmussen

wires. A1, A2, and A3 (indicated by the red box in

If you omit the breakout board, solder the Figure E ), matching the dots you marked.
wires directly to the 10-position pot. A1 is for hue, A2 for lightness, and A3 for
saturation.

F G

66 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

the flashlight switch. Watch for the 5 flashes

IMPORTANT: The HSL code doesn’t on the Arduino’s LED. Shortly after that you
use pin A0, so be sure to connect to the should see some activity from the NeoPixel
correct 3 pins. ring — no matter where the mode switch
is set.
Solder the 10 signal wires from the switch If you see no activity on the Arduino, then
to the Arduino’s digital inputs 2 through 11, there’s probably a short somewhere — turn
matching position 2 on the switch to Arduino off the power right away and find the short.
pin 2, position 3 to pin 3, etc. Match position In my case it was the NeoPixel ring shorting
1 to pin 11. against the metal bowl of my flashlight.
Solder the 300Ω resistor on the NeoPixel H
signal wire to digital input 12 (Figure F ). 11. MOUNT THE ELECTRONICS
IN THE FLASHLIGHT
7. MANAGE POWER, GROUND, Drill 3 holes in the flashlight case for the
AND VCC WIRES pots and one for the rotary switch, then
Tie all 3 raw power wires (red) together as mount them and attach the knobs. I put the
shown — from the Arduino, the NeoPixel, HSL controls on one side and the rotary
and the battery pack — then solder and mode switch on the other (Figure J ).
finish with heat-shrink (Figure G ). I
Connect all the VCC power wires (orange)
together the same way. Then all the ground TIP: If you’re drilling a metal case, first
use a center punch (Figure K ) to keep
wires (black). your drill from wandering. If you’ve got a
plastic case, you can do the same thing
8. INTEGRATE FLASHLIGHT’S with your soldering iron tip.
ON/OFF SWITCH
Find the wires that go to each side of the Now stuff the Arduino, batteries, and
switch in your flashlight. Cut them and strip wires into the flashlight. These 6V lanterns
½" from the ends. have plenty of room. You might find that all
your heat-shrink is making the wires hard J
to bend. Just go slowly and it will all work
IMPORTANT: Leave the switch in the (believe me, it’s better than a rat’s nest of
OFF position for now.
wires).

Cut the red wire from your battery pack CONGRATULATIONS

and strip ½" from each end. Solder each You’ve built a fully programmable Million
end to one side of the flashlight switch. Color HSL Flashlight that will keep you
Patch in more red wire as necessary to give (and maybe even your kids) entertained
you some flexibility (Figure H ). for years. We’d love to see how you modify it, K
and what new modes you come up with!
9. MOUNT THE ARDUINO IN
THE TIC TAC BOX
Empty the Tic Tac box, remove the white
plastic dispenser, and cut it down a bit to
accommodate the bundle of wires. Then
insert the Arduino into the box and seal
it with strong tape (Figure I ). This will
insulate the Arduino from any metal inside
the flashlight.

10. TEST
No doubt you’re anxious to see if this thing
is going to work! First, center all 3 pots
(to be sure the lightness is not all the way
down.) Load 4 fully charged NiMH batteries,
and power up the electronics by turning on Get more photos, tips, and video, follow this project, and share your build — all on the
project page at makezine.com/go/million-color-hsl-flashlight.

makezine.com 67
PROJECTS 3D-Print a Badass R/C Race Car

3D-Print a Badass
R/C Race Car
Written by Taylor Alexander

Make this little ripper with a brushless motor, Flutter wireless

microcontrollers, and a few bucks of filament
TAYLOR 3D PRINTERS, I THINK, ARE A BIGGER DEAL takes a lot of skilled labor to use. 3D printers, on
ALEXANDER THAN MOST PEOPLE REALIZE. For the first the other hand, take no labor at all to produce
is a lifelong time in human history, we have a way to produce complex parts. That’s a very new thing, and has
tinkerer who
high-quality, complex parts at nearly zero the potential to do for mechanical goods what
has been
interested in marginal cost. Case in point: This 3D-printed car the printing press did for books — eliminate
robotics since only requires $10 in plastic material, 24 hours essentially all human labor required to make stuff,
he was 11 years old. He now of machine time, and $1 in electricity. And if and drastically lower the cost of living. What if we
runs Flutter Wireless, an
the machine could be fed with industrial plastic could print robots that could do all the hard work
electronics company focused
on hobbyist electronics and pellets instead of custom-made filament, it would in society?
robotics. flutterwireless.com only be $1 in plastic. I wanted to inspire people to use 3D printers
A CNC machine has many automatic features to build real robots, so I built this car — I call it
and makes very high-quality parts, but it still the Scout — to show off some of the 3D-printed

68 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

robotics concepts I’ve been developing. First, Time Required:

the car isn’t a weakling. It can take repeated
1–2 Weekends

Taylor Alexander
jumps and crashes with no damage. If it does
Cost:
$100–$200
break, it’s easy to repair in minutes, thanks to
its snap-together design. And the design is A Materials
open source, so it can mature over time and »»Flutter Scout V2 3D print-
inspire new variants. It uses a minimum of non- ed parts Download the files
for printing at github.com/
printed parts — only the tires, bearings, motors, tlalexander/Flutter-Scout.
batteries, and electronics aren’t printed — and it »»R/C transmitter and
doesn’t even use screws! receiver The new Flutter
Vehicle Control Kit (flutter-
The wireless radio in the car and remote is wireless.com) has twice the
my own design — a board called Flutter. Flutter range of standard R/C, and
includes two Flutter Basic
runs Arduino code and has a 1-kilometer range. Boards, an Explorer Board,
Since it runs Arduino, the car can be modified with and a dual-joystick Remote
Control Board with lithium
lights, sensors, speakers, and more. I hope to battery.
develop motor control and battery management You can also use standard
R/C gear.
boards for robots as well, so that one coherent »»Rubber band, thin
open source system can be used to build almost B C »»Bearings, shielded, 12mm
any robot. (6) 6001Z type
»»Bearings, 8mm (2) 608
Assembling the Scout car is easy, and only type
takes a few minutes. Printing the parts, however, »»Servomotor, metal gear
is still a real commitment. Currently it’s over 24 MG995 type
hours of print time, though I think it could be done »»Brushless motor, 1,000kV
D2830-11 type
in under 4 hours with a large-nozzle 3D print head D E »»Propeller adapter, 3mm,
like the E3D Volcano or 1.0mm Printrbot nozzle. collet type
»»Electronic speed con-
troller (ESC), 30A, with
1. PRINT THE PARTS reverse I recommend
HobbyKing #HK-30A.
Most of the Scout’s parts can print on a 150mm ×
»»Bullet connectors, 3.5mm
150mm build surface, but the 2-part electronics (3) or motor extension
housing is currently 156mm long. I recommend wires, for connecting ESC
to motor
printing with PLA on a heated bed.
F »»Battery mating plug for
Download the parts from github.com/ your ESC
tlalexander/Flutter-Scout and get printing. There »»Heat-shrink tubing
»»Battery pack, lithium poly-
are detailed instructions there, but basically most mer (LiPo), 2S, 2,200mAh
parts can be 20%–30% infill, while gears, drive (1 or more) roughly
104×34×17mm. I recom-
shafts, and steering pins should be 100% infill.
Hep Svadja

mend HobbyKing’s Zippy

Print the parts for the front end first, and note assembly slide on 2 hub plates and a tire, and Flightmax #Z22002S20C.
that the electronics bay and cover may need to be secure them with the wheel shaft clip (Figure C ). »»Tires, foam rubber, 1:10
scale (4) 7006 type, 95mm
printed with a “brim” for extra adhesion. Next, take the servo (with the “horn” removed) diameter, 36mm wide
and slide it into its cavity in the frame, first forward »»Lithium battery charger/
2. TEST THE ELECTRONICS at a 45° angle and then down, so that the front of balancer such as Turnigy E3

Solder connectors onto the ESC for the motor and the servo locks underneath the lip in the front of
the battery, and cover all connections with heat the cavity. Tools
shrink tubing (Figure A ). Lithium batteries have a Secure the servo by sliding a steering pin »»3D printer (optional) with
at least 156mm travel in one
lot of power, and short circuits can be dangerous. through the small hole in the frame member direction. If you don’t have
Follow the instructions that came with the above the servo flange, and flip over the assembly a printer, visit makezine.
com/where-to-get-digital-
Flutter kit (or your radio) to attach the servo and (Figure D ). fabrication-tool-access to
speed controller, and then power everything up Attach the 6-lobed servo horn to the servo, find a machine or a printing
service you can use. Or shop
and make sure it works. capturing the steering rack beneath it (Figure E ). for great 3D printers at the
If your servo didn’t come with a 6-lobed horn, a Maker Shed, makershed.
com/collections/3d-print-
3. ASSEMBLE THE FRONT END printable version is in the Github repository. ing-fabrication.
The front end consists of 2 wheel assemblies and »»Soldering iron
the center frame. Place the bearings and drive 4. ATTACH THE WHEELS »»Phillips screwdriver for
servo screw
shaft into each bearing assembly and slide in First, wrap the rubber band around the top »»Pliers
the shaft cover (Figure B ). Then for each wheel steering towers (Figure F ), and attach the 2

makezine.com 69
PROJECTS 3D-Print a Badass R/C Race Car

wheel assemblies using the short and long pins.

Then bring the front of the rubber band back
over the steering towers as shown in Figure G .
The rubber band isn’t critical, but helps to keep
the long steering pins from working their way out.
Power up the servo and make sure everything is
centered. If the servo isn’t centered when powered
G H on, just unscrew the servo horn and adjust the
position until the steering is straight.

5. ASSEMBLE THE REAR END

The rear frame holds the motor and the drive
shafts. Start by collecting the pieces needed for
the small, middle drive shaft.
Install the gears on both ends of the shaft with
the large gear on the longer end. Place one 608
bearing on the end of the shaft by the large gear,
and the other 608 bearing in the frame as shown
in Figure H . Guide the bearing on the shaft into its
hole at an angle, then straighten out the shaft and
place the short end into the opposite bearing.
Secure the shaft with the 8mm shaft clip,
aligning the flat inside the clip with the small
notch in the middle drive shaft (Figure I ).
I Now you’ll assemble the rear drive shaft and
install it into the frame. Take the large, rear drive
shaft and install the rear drive gear so that it
mates with the rectangular section of the shaft,
NOTE: You may need to flex and then place 12mm bearings on both ends of
the frame slightly to get the
the shaft. Lower the shaft into the frame so that
shaft installed, but if it’s too
tight check to make sure the the large rear gear mates with the small middle
small hole in the gears is gear (Figure J ), and then slide the bearings into
totally cleaned up and seating
their recesses.
square against the shaft.
J Snap the 12mm shaft clip onto the rear shaft
(Figure K ).

6. INSTALL THE MOTOR

Assemble the motor, small drive gear, and
quadcopter propeller adapter as shown in Figure
L . These adapters were designed to turn only

one direction, but our car spins the motor both

directions, and the gear can loosen if it’s not tight
enough. So use the simple 3D-printed wrench to
K L hold the gear while tightening the adapter with
pliers. It should be pretty tight, but be careful as
these aluminum propeller adapters can break
with heavy tightening.
Now slide the motor into its hole in the rear
frame with the wires facing up, and then lock it in
place with the motor lock wedge (Figure M ).
You should now have something that resembles
a giant servomotor (Figure N ).

7. FINAL BODY ASSEMBLY

M N Slide the front end assembly onto the large

70 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

dovetail in the rear frame. Then slide the

electronics bay over the top, with the motor wires
feeding into the side hole (Figure O ).
Center the electronics bay over the rear frame,
and drop in 2 short pins.

8. INSTALL THE ELECTRONICS

If you sourced the recommended parts, they just
drop into place. Remove the power switch from
the ESC, feed it through the power switch hole, O
and then plug it back into the ESC.
Next, plug the motor leads into the ESC. There
are 3 leads and they can be plugged in to the ESC
in any arrangement. If the motor spins backward,
switch any 2 wires and you’ll be good.
Hook up the servo wire and the speed controller
to the radio, and then plug in the battery and
neatly stow all the wires (Figure P ).
P

9. BUILD THE REMOTE (OPTIONAL)

If you’re using the Flutter boards, follow the
instructions on the project page online at
makezine.com/go/flutter-scout to print and
assemble the remote control (Figure Q ).
(Otherwise you can use your standard R/C
transmitter and receiver.)

10. CLOSE IT UP AND DRIVE!

Snap on the lid and you should be ready to roll. Go
outside and test Scout’s limits. Scout is fast and Get more step-by-step
loves jumps. And if you break anything you can photos and share your
build at makezine.com/
always print more parts! go/flutter-scout
We’d love to see people tweet pictures of their
own Scout builds to @FlutterWireless. And if you Q
want to talk to others about assembling Scout or
about new design ideas, please visit community.
flutterwireless.com.

makezine.com 71
PROJECTS makezine.com/46

Das Neunvoltzensvitcher!
Semi-Automatic Three cordless
screwdrivers and a

Coffee Roaster
Written by Larry Cotton microcontroller = perfect
small-batch roasting
MY FIRST DIY COFFEE ROASTER FOUND ITS
WAY INTO MAKE: VOLUME 08. Newly ob-
Time Required: A Weekend Cost: $100–$150
sessed with fresh-roasted java, I called it the
LARRY COTTON is a semi-retired power tool designer and part-time math instructor who Nirvana Machine (makezine.com/go/nirvana-
loves music, computers, electronics, furniture design, birds, and his wife — not necessarily in
machine). It had — still has — two big advan-
that order.
tages over others: it’s easy to see the beans
1 Green bean hopper while they’re roasting and it’s portable.
2
However, there was always this lingering,
Sephra chocolate-fountain auger
1 increasingly urgent desire to improve it. The
3 Roasting basket roaster required considerable intervention
4 Roasting basket speedometer between batches: stopping the roasting by
5 Dump beans switch turning off the heat, dumping the beans, then
6 Coleman propane stove reloading the basket and setting the temper-
7 Acrylic gear ature again on its little propane camp stove.
8 So I refined a new goal: create an easy-to-
8 Black and Decker AS6NG 2
make, set-and-forget, continuous automatic
alkaline cordless screwdrivers (3)
coffee roaster. And I did. Several. Many.
9 Parallax HomeWork Board
And they all failed in one way or the other
10 Bean-cooling screen — some quite spectacularly. But this one, a
4 semi-automatic version, works beautifully.
Roasting is done with the basket’s shaft
(its spin-axis) at about 45°. The other basket
positions were pretty obvious: horizontal for
dumping the beans and vertical for loading
them (via a repurposed auger for a chocolate
3 5 fountain). One cordless screwdriver spins the
basket, another moves it through the dump/
reload arc (a worm gear drives a toothed
acrylic gear), and a third drives the auger.
7 It’s still prudent to keep an eye on the
beans while they’re roasting. But the rest of
the process — dumping and reloading — is
automatic: just press one button when the
beans are roasted and a microprocessor con-
trols the rest. I happened to have an ancient
8 Parallax HomeWork board on hand, but an
Arduino would work as well. Salud!

8
Larry Cotton

6
10

Read the complete build saga and see how

it all works at makezine.com/go/semi-auto-
coffee-roaster.

72 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46
PROJECTS

123 Realistic
Duct Tape Rose
Written and Photographed by Jason Poel Smith

SURPRISE YOUR SWEETHEART

WITH A REALISTIC, HANDMADE
ROSE crafted from an unexpect-
ed material — duct tape!

1. MAKE THE PETALS

Cut off a 1' length of wire and a
4" piece of red duct tape. Stick JASON POEL
SMITH makes the
the wire to the tape so that they “DIY Hacks and How
overlap by 1½". Then fold the Tos” project video
tape over the end of the wire and series on Make:.
stick the 2 sides together, leaving He’s a lifelong student
of all forms of making,
about 1" of sticky tape exposed. from electronics to
Cut the petal to shape by crafts and everything
rounding off the corners, and in between.
color in the cut edges with mark-
ers. Make about 10 petals.
You will
2. BUILD THE BUD need:
»»Duct tape, red,
Take the first petal and loosely ~3-4' per rose
roll it into a tube. Then softly »»Duct tape, green,
wrap each additional petal ~2-3' per rose
»»Floral wire or other
around the previous one. stiff wire
As you go, bend a gentle curl »»Markers, red and
into each petal to give it the green
»»Scissors
shape of an actual rose.
»»Wire cutters
(optional)
3. MAKE THE STEM
Build the stem by twisting the
wires together and wrapping
them in green duct tape.
To make the sepals, take
several pieces of green duct tape
and fold one end over, similar to
the way the petals were made.
Cut out 5 small triangles with
the exposed tape at the base,
1 2 and color in the cut edges. Then
attach these to the base of the
flower. Your duct tape rose is
complete.

See the how-to video and more

photos and tips at makezine.
3 com/go/duct-tape-rose

makezine.com 73
PROJECTS Remaking History

Henry Bessemer and the

Age of Steel Written by William Gurstelle

Hep Svadja
WILLIAM GURSTELLE
is a contributing editor of Make:
magazine. His latest book,
Defending Your Castle, is avail-
Learn how to heat-treat and toughen the
able at all fine bookstores.
metal that built our world: carbon steel
Time Required:
An Afternoon AT THE START OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLU- neer and metallurgist, would receive 129 patents
Cost: TION, THE STATE OF THE ART IN IRON METAL- in a variety of engineering disciplines. But the
$5–$10 LURGY WAS THE PUDDLING FURNACE. Iron- invention for which he was knighted and the one
workers loaded crude “pig iron” ingots into the that made him rich was the one that involved
Materials furnace and then continually stirred the molten turning iron and coke (carbon) into steel.
»»Music wire, 3/32" diameter, metal through a small hole. Puddling was a hot While looking for a way to strengthen cannon
36" length
»»Heat-shrink tubing, 3/16" and difficult task, and an experienced puddler was barrels, Bessemer discovered that the carbon
diameter, 8" length considered a highly skilled craftsman. dissolved within molten pig iron unites readily with
»»Rubber bands As the puddler stirred, solid chunks of refined oxygen. Knowing this, he determined that if he
»»Soybean oil, 1 quart or liter
iron would appear in the liquid mass. He’d gather could blast a jet of air through the molten pig iron,
these and work them under a forge hammer to then he could convert it into much stronger alloy
Tools yield a slab of hot wrought iron which, after all that steel by accurately controlling its carbon content.
»»Propane torch work, still lacked the strength or utility of steel. Bessemer built an experimental furnace at his
»»Steel pipe, nominal ¾",
about 12" long Note that Steel is iron alloyed with carbon and it’s supe- laboratory in London, with a high-temperature
¾" steel pipe has an outside rior to plain iron in every way. But prior to 1856 heating chamber 4 feet high, and a 12-horse-pow-
diameter of about 1".
there was no practical way to control the percent- er steam engine to run the air injector. When the
»»Pliers, needlenose, large
»»Pliers, slip joint age of carbon in iron, so there was no way to pig iron in the chamber liquefied and he turned
»»Gloves, heavy manufacture steel at a price industry could afford. on the blower, a fireball erupted from the top.
»»Safety glasses The railroads were booming in the mid-19th But when he sluiced the molten metal into ingot
»»Hot plate century, but their wrought iron rails were too soft molds, he gazed with delight upon the “limpid
»»Candy thermometer
— on busy stretches the rails had to be replaced stream of incandescent malleable iron almost too
»»Pot with lid
»»Steel wool every 6 to 8 weeks. Steel rails would be far more brilliant for the eye to rest upon.” Bessemer had
»»Bowl of water durable, but they were too expensive. found a way to make cheap steel.
»»Hacksaw Then, a smart fellow named Henry Bessemer In 1856 Bessemer designed what he called a
»»Vise came on the scene. Bessemer, an English engi- converter (Figures A and B ), a large, napiform

74 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

Burning carbon
A monoxide B
Steel covering

Fire clay bricks

Hot air

Slag

Alfred T. Palmer
Steel
James Burke

Tuyeres

External view Section of the furnace

(turnip-shaped) receptacle with holes (“tuyeres”) and bottom springs, as shown in Figure D .
at the bottom where pumps could inject com- C
pressed air. Bessemer filled his converter with 4. Use the pliers and vise to bend the ammo loop,
molten pig iron, blew compressed air through it, the trigger loop, and the barrel curve into shape Ammo loop Trigger loop Top spring
and found that the pig iron was indeed emptied of as shown in Figure D. Cut off any excess wire with 4 1/2"
excess carbon and silicon in minutes. From that a hacksaw or rotary cutoff tool. Barrel curve Shrink
11/4"

time onward, affordable carbon steel could be D 3" tubing

made abundantly. The Age of Steel had begun. 5. Heat the top and bottom springs with the torch 3"
until they glow cherry red (Figure E ). Once hot,
MAKE A STEEL RUBBER BAND GUN plunge them into a bowl of water to quench them. 4"

Steel is such an important industrial metal Dry the springs and clean off the scale (iron oxide) 11/4"
Bottom
spring
because it is strong yet malleable. Further, steel with steel wool. Take care — after quenching, the
can be heat-treated to make it harder or softer, steel in the spring is very hard and extremely brit- E
flexible or stiff, ductile or brittle, depending on tle. Bending it even a little will cause it to break.
the application.
In this project, you’ll heat-treat steel to make a 6. Pour oil into the pot and heat on the hot plate
rubber-band shooting gun: first you’ll anneal it to to 400°F, using the thermometer to check the

Hep Svadja
make it soft and malleable, then cut and form it temperature. Use caution here — the hot oil may
to shape, quench it to harden it, and finally temper smoke, so do this outdoors or keep a window open
it to give it the tough, springy characteristics your and ventilate the room.
gun requires. F
7. Reheat the springs with the torch until they glow
1. Don safety glasses and heavy gloves. cherry red. Stop heating and allow them to cool
just until the red color is completely gone, and then
2. Place one end of the music wire in the vise. plunge the springs into the hot oil (Figure F ). Turn
At this point, the wire is very stiff and difficult to off the hot plate and allow the oil and the springs
shape. Light the torch and heat the wire to to cool slowly to room temperature. This very
cherry red (Figure C ), moving slow cooling process will reduce
slowly down the wire until the SAFETY NOTES
entire wire has been heat-treated. Use extreme care when
hardness and restore the tough,
springy temper to the steel.
(Cherry red is a fairly dull color. handling the hot oil and wire.
The smoke point of soybean
If it glows bright orange, you’ve oil is very high, around 450°F, 8. Clean off the oil and thread 3 G
heated the metal too much.) The and even then doesn’t ignite pieces of heat-shrink tubing over
heating and subsequent air-cool- readily. Still, take care to: the handle and trigger as shown,
» Use an electric hot plate,
ing of the wire is a process called not an open flame and then shrink the tubing using a
annealing, which makes the stiff » Not let the oil heat up past match or the hot plate.
music wire soft and malleable. the flash point If the heat-treating process
» Have a lid handy to cover See more photos and share
your pot in the unlikely event worked properly, you now have a
your build at makezine.com/
3. Place the steel pipe in the vise of a problem springy steel rubber band shooter go/steel-rubber-band-gun.
and form the cooled wire around » Keep a grease-fire capable (Figure G ). Load up and pull
extinguisher close by.
the pipe to make the round top the trigger!

makezine.com 75
PROJECTS Electronics Fun & Fundamentals

Time Required: 1–2 Hours Cost: $10–$20

The Greenest
Delay Timer
Build a clever timer circuit that draws
no current at all between cycles.
What could be greener? Written by Charles Platt

THERE’S NEVER A SHORTAGE OF The timer is wired in monostable (one-shot)

APPLICATIONS FOR A DELAY TIMER. mode, to emit a single delay pulse. The pulse
Outdoors, you may want to switch on goes out of pin 3 to the relay, which I have drawn
a light for just 1 minute while you get to show its internal contacts. When the right-
from your house to your car. In the hand contacts close, they feed power back to pin
kitchen, you wait for a beep when the 8 of the timer. So now the relay is powering the
food’s cooked. You might want to run a timer, and will continue to do so after the button is
doorbell for a significant interval so you’ll be released, because the output pulse from the timer
sure to hear it — or switch off a heat lamp in the is still running the relay. The timer and the relay
bathroom in case you forget. are sustaining each other — until the output pulse
The problem I have with delay timers is the from the timer ends. Then the relay contacts
CHARLES hassle of powering them. I don’t necessarily want open, which switches off the timer. At that point,
PLATT to place one near a power outlet, but I don’t want we have zero power consumption, because the
is the author to worry about replacing batteries, either. CMOS circuit between the positive bus and the negative
of Make:
Electronics, an devices use only a tiny trickle of current while bus is completely open.
introductory they’re sitting there waiting patiently for you to Naturally you’ll need to adjust the output pulse
guide for all ages, and its activate them, but still, it bothers me that they of the timer to suit your application. Here I’ve
sequel, Make: More Electronics. suck electricity while doing nothing. chosen component values for a pulse lasting
He also wrote Volumes One and
Two of the Encyclopedia of I decided to design the greenest possible delay about 2 seconds. For a longer pulse, search online
Electronic Components. Volume timer — one that uses no current at all between for “calculate 555 duration” and you’ll find sites
Three is in preparation. one cycle and the next. Zero power! If it was that tell you what component values to choose.
makershed.com/platt
battery-powered, a fresh 9-volt battery could last I suggest you keep the 1M resistor and increase
4 or 5 years. the value of the 2.2µF capacitor. A 56µF capacitor
Materials A ZERO POWER CIRCUIT
should create a pulse lasting about 1 minute. A
1,000µF capacitor should provide 18 minutes.
»»Resistors, ¼W: 100Ω (1), The circuit I came up with is unusual but simple.
470Ω (1), 1kΩ (1), 10kΩ (3), The left-hand contacts in the relay can be used
When you press a button, it switches on a 555
and 1MΩ (1) to switch anything you like, within limits set by the
»»Capacitors: 0.01µF (2),
timer chip, which activates a relay for a fixed
manufacturer’s datasheet (typically, a couple of
0.068µF (1), 2.2µF (1), interval. At the end of the interval, the relay
10µF (2), and 1,000µF (1) amps). A high-wattage light running on 115VAC
switches off the timer, and the timer switches off
»»LED would be acceptable.
»»Tactile switch, momentary
the relay. Does that sound implausible? Take a
pushbutton Alps Electric look at the schematic in Figure A , which I’ve laid ADDING A BEEPER
#SKQNAED010 or similar
out so that it’s easily transferred to a breadboard. But what if you want the timer to run in “kitchen
»»555 timer IC chips, TTL
type (2) When the button is pressed, it supplies power mode,” so that it beeps when the timing interval is
»»Relay, DPDT, 9VDC Omron to pin 8 of the timer. Because the button is only complete? Can this be done while still maintaining
#G5V-2-H1 DC9 or similar
switching on the timer, not triggering it, I had to zero power consumption in the dormant state?
»»Speaker, 2" or 3"
add a 10µF capacitor to pass an initial low state Yes, you just need a second timer powered
through a 1K resistor to trigger the timer on pin briefly by a large capacitor. In Figure B I have
Charles Platt

Tools 2, after which a 10K resistor maintains pin 2 at a extended the previous circuit downward. The
»»Solderless breadboard
high state. upper left contact of the relay now receives power
»»Wire cutters/strippers

76 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

9VDC 9VDC 9VDC

10K 10K
Resistors, ¼
10µF 10
10µF
10
1K
47
1K
1K 1M 1M

555
1M
Capacitors:
0.01
0.01 0.
555 2.2µF 0.
555 2.2µF
0.01µF 2.
0.01µF
10
Relay
1,

Other comp
1,000µF
L

Ta

555
0.01
55
T

555
To (2
speaker
Relay, DPDT

A To switch an
external device 470
470
9VDC
Speaker, 2" o

Resistors, ¼ watt:
Figure A. The greenest delay timer in its simplest configuration, 10K
100 ohm (1)
allowing you to attach the device of your choice to the contacts 10K (3)
of the relay that close when it is activated. 555 1K (1)
10K 470 ohm (1)
0.068µF 1M (1)

from the upper right contact of the relay, and a 0.01µF 555 0.01
Capacitors:
0.01µF (2)
1,000µF capacitor charges from the left-hand
0.01

0.068µF (1)
10µF
contacts. Then when the timer pulse ends, the B
100 2.2µF (1)
contacts relax and this capacitor discharges into 10µF (2)
pin 8 of a second 555 timer, which is wired to Figure B. The extended greenest delay timer, including
Relaya chime
create a musical chime. The chime lasts about 1 when it reaches the end of its cycle. 1,000µF (1)
second, until the capacitor exhausts itself. After
Other components:
that, once again, the circuit draws zero power.
LED
Figure C shows a breadboard layout of the full You’ll have to calibrate it by trial and error, but
circuit. You can adjust the duration of the chime by that shouldn’t take long. And think of the payoff. Tactile switch
555

increasing or decreasing the value of the 1,000µF When a guest claims to have a green lifestyle, you
point smugly to your timing device and say, “That
0.01
capacitor, and you can change the pitch of the 555 timers,
TTL type
555

chime by adjusting the resistor and capacitor gadget is using absolutely no power whatsoever.” To (2)
values associated with the second 555 timer. How could anything be greener than that? speaker
Relay, DPDT, 9VDC
Again, you can search online for appropriate
values.
THE GREENEST ENCLOSURE C Speaker, 2" or 3"
How to fabricate an enclosure for the greenest
ADJUSTING THE DELAY timer? Normally I’d use ABS plastic, but for this Figure C. Breadboard layout for the
Of course in a kitchen-type timer, you’ll want to be project, that would be heretical. Out in the yard I extended greenest delay timer.
able to choose a variety of possible delay values. found the answer: an old pine 2×4, seasoned by
Can we do that and still retain our zero-power years of harsh Arizona weather. For an impressive
status? Don’t we need to add a counter and a pushbutton, I used a soft rubber bulb syringe
numeric display? (Figure D ), intended for aspirating mucus from a
No, certainly not — so long as you’re willing to baby’s nose.
be retro and think analog. Simply replace the 1M The final enclosure looks as if it might satisfy
resistor with a 1M potentiometer and 10K resistor the most sustainable community. See how I made
in series. (This resistor prevents the pot from it at makezine.com/go/greenest-delay-timer. D
reducing the resistance all the way to zero.) Now
you can adjust the delay simply by turning the Figure D. A soft rubber bulb syringe,
See more photos and share your build at intended for the nostrils of infants,
potentiometer.
makezine.com/go/greenest-delay-timer. makes for an impressive pushbutton.

makezine.com 77
PROJECTS Amateur Scientist

Use LEDs to Track

Night-Launched
Projectiles Written by Forrest M. Mims III

FORREST M. MIMS III

MODEL ROCKETS AND TOY PROJECTILES SENT (forrestmims.org), an
ALOFT BY RUBBER BANDS OR SLINGSHOTS amateur scientist and
Rolex Award winner,
ARE LOADS OF FUN. While model rockets are was named by Discover
best for high altitude, you can have plenty of magazine as one of the
fun launching inexpensive projectiles equipped “50 Best Brains in Science.”
with a steady-state or flashing LED and flown at His books have sold more
than 7 million copies.
night. You can stage competitions to see how far
various designs can travel. And you can do some
real science by recording their flights with a time
exposure camera to study flight stability, spin,
and speed. Let’s get started with an ultra-simple
projectile launched with a slingshot.

SLINGSHOT MICRO-LIGHT ROCKET

Hobby Lobby stores sell a package of a dozen
miniature white LEDs installed in tiny metal cylin-
ders equipped with a battery and rotating switch.
These bullet-shaped lights are ideal for use as
tiny inertia projectiles launched from a slingshot
at night. They can be launched as-is or stabilized
by taping one end of a broom straw, 6" long or so,
to the LED fixture so that it resembles a miniature
bottle rocket. Switch on an LED (or two) and place
it in a slingshot pocket (Figure 1 ). If a broom
straw is attached, it should point straight up so it
won’t hit the slingshot fork. Then fire the projectile
into the air from a grassy field.
Air resistance has very different effects on
these tiny projectiles. The unmodified LED will
tumble in flight, while a broom straw version will
usually provide a more stable flight. However, the
bare LED sometimes reaches a higher altitude
than the broom straw-equipped LED. This can be
seen in the time exposure in Figure 2 : Launched
simultaneously by the same slingshot, a bare LED
reached 102.6 feet and a straw-stabilized LED
Forrest M. Mims III & Hep Svadja

only 90.8 feet. The altitude was determined by

using the known height of the adjacent tower il-
luminated by a flashlight as a reference.
You can have lots of fun with these micro rock-
ets while doing some real science. For example,
what’s the minimum length of the straw for stable
flight? What’s the maximum distance achieved by
launching micro-rockets at an angle? How high 2

78 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

can they travel? Why does the bare LED inertia projectiles equipped with a tracking Time Required:
travel as high or higher than the straw- light. The flight paths in Figures 2, 5, and An Evening
stabilized LED, and why is its tumble so 6 were photographed with a Canon 7D set Cost:
regular? for an ISO of 6400. The lens was a 20mm– $10–$35
You can also organize competitions to 40mm wide angle. The camera was mount-
see whose micro rocket covers the most
distance or lands closest to a target on the
ed on a tripod 150 feet from the launch site.
For early flights I set the exposure time to
Tools
»»Toy rocket, elastic-launched such as
ground. Paint the LEDs with different colors 30 seconds, tripped the shutter, ran to the Sky Rockets by Monkey Business Sports
and leave them glowing in the field until launch site, and launched the rocket using »»Slingshot
»»LED, self-contained with battery
all the competitors have completed their an elastic-powered hand launcher or sling- assembly Hobby Lobby #101675 or similar
flights. shot. After falling down during one night »»LED, white
session, I began triggering the camera with »»Lithium coin cell, CR2325
MORE POWERFUL INERTIA ROCKETS a radio-controlled actuator, which greatly »»Light strips, adhesive Coghlan’s Brite
Strike APALS, from a hobby shop
During a recent visit to the White Sands simplified the launch protocol. After the »»Adhesive tape, clear
Missile Range Museum, I purchased a pack- camera was set for a 10-second exposure, »»Camera with bulb mode or time-
age of three Sky Rockets made by Monkey I walked to the launch site, pressed the exposure setting
»»Tripod
Business Sports. These “High Flying, Hand transmitter button and launched the rocket.
»»Flashlight
Launched, Foam Rockets” are sent on their The altitude reached by your rockets can »»Safety glasses
way by a handheld elastic launcher. If you be determined by including an illuminated
flick your wrist forward while releasing the object of known height in each photo. Dark
rocket, it can reach an altitude of 300 feet. nights with few or no clouds are best.
It’s easy to equip a Sky Rocket with a
tracking light. Tape the leads of a white LED GOING FURTHER
across opposite sides of a lithium coin cell The sky’s the limit with this project. You
so that the lead on the flat side of the LED is can easily build your own inertia projec-
on the negative side of the cell, and tape this tiles using paper or plastic tubes equipped
assembly to the back end of a rocket (Fig- with paper fins and a foam nose from a
ure 3 ). (Optionally, you can add a simple toy missile or a miniature paint roller. I’ve
1
on-off switch using a paper tab, as shown built and launched simple rockets using a
in Step 3 at makezine.com/go/extreme-led- homemade launcher I made by attaching a
throwies.) loop of neoprene tubing to a handle. Night
To study roll rate, insert a Hobby Lobby tracking would also be fun with water rock-
LED into a hole made in the side of the ets (makezine.com/go/soda-bottle-rocket),
rocket at its center of gravity (balance point) compressed-air rockets (makezine.com/go/
and secure it in place with clear tape (Figure high-pressure-foam-rocket), and other DIY
4 ). The time exposure in Figure 5 shows rockets and projectiles.
a typical flight, with the rocket’s rotation
clearly indicated by streaks of light. The SAFETY PRECAUTIONS 3
streaks are longest during the early stage As with any project involving projectiles, use
of flight when the missile is moving fastest. common sense. Children should be super-
The ground streaks in the photo are from vised. Rockets should never be launched
my flashlight as I walked to the launch site. toward people or structures and should
For a tracking light that flashes, I’ve not always be launched from a field. Inspect the
found anything better than Coghlan’s Brite field during daylight to check for potential
Strike APALS, an ultra-thin, lightweight safety hazards.
rectangle measuring 1"×2" that is easily Wear clear safety glasses when launch- 4
stuck to the side of a rocket and secured ing elastically propelled rockets. During
with clear tape. The time exposure in Figure night launches, all participants should have
6 shows the apogee of a flight neatly out- a flashlight. I wear a headlamp to keep my
lined by this red flasher. hands free.
Forrest M. Mims III

PHOTOGRAPHING NIGHT-LAUNCHED
MISSILES
Follow this project and share your night
Digital cameras are ideal for recording the launch experiments at makezine.com/go/
flight path of night-launched rockets and tracking-night-launched-projectiles.
5 6

makezine.com 79
PROJECTS makezine.com/46

Water Balloon Cannon

Written by Jason Fabbri

Build a simple PVC air cannon to help you win the water wars

2" Schedule 40 30"

PVC pipe

Rubber
automotive
Ball check
tire valve
valve
stem
2"

Hep Svadja

Damien Scogin
10"
Tee
A fitting 10"

Hep Svadja
TELL ME IF THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR: THE KIDS
ON THE STREET START A WATER BALLOON
WAR, THEN RUN JUST OUT OF YOUR REACH.
Well, I’m here to help. Let’s add a new weapon Cap fittings
to your water fight arsenal: a pneumatic water
JASON FABBRI balloon cannon. This is an easy project to put
is a software engineer, father together. For about $20 and 20 minutes of time 4. FIRE IN THE HOLE!
of three boys, and avid builder
you can return fire across the street, down the To fire water balloons, follow these steps:
of wacky things. When he’s
not conceiving crazy ideas he street, or even to the next block. » Close your check valve. If you leave it open, your
can be found wrenching on a You will strike fear into all those who seek to balloon will fall into the “air tank” area never to be
vintage motorcycle. soak you. seen again.
» Put the water hose into the barrel and fill it
Time Required: 1. CUT THE PIPE about 3"–4". This water is crucial — it prevents the
20–30 Minutes
Cut the PVC pipe into one length of 30" and 3 balloon from exploding on exit.
Cost:
$20–$25 lengths of 10". Use sandpaper or a file to remove » Fill a water balloon almost exactly the diameter
any burrs. of the barrel, about 2". An overfilled balloon won’t
travel well.
Materials 2. INSTALL THE VALVE STEM » Fill the air tank. Attach an air compressor or
»»PVC pipe, 2", Schedule 40 Mark a 10" pipe about 2" from one end, and drill bicycle pump to the valve stem. Do not overfill. I
or 80, 5' length Don’t use
Schedule 20, it’s too thin. a hole for the valve. Start too small, and slowly suggest 20–30psi.
»»PVC pipe fittings, 2": tee enlarge it using larger bits or a file; you want a » Make sure you’re not aiming at anyone directly
(1), caps (2), and ball check
valve (1)
very tight fit for an airtight seal. (straight up is a good first test) and open the valve
»»PVC glue Insert the valve stem from inside the pipe, with a very quick motion. Pooof! There goes your
»»Automotive tire valve stem, wiggling it through until it seals securely. balloon, followed by a trail of water.
rubber not steel
There you have it. A simple yet effective water
3. GLUE IT UP balloon cannon that will be the envy of every kid
Tools Assemble the cannon as shown: first the tee and on the block. Happy water wars!
»»Saw caps, then the ball valve, and finally the barrel
»»Sandpaper or file
(Figure A ). For a good seal, apply glue liberally See step-by-step photos and video at
»»Drill and bits
and give each joint ¼ turn. makezine.com/go/water-balloon-cannon.
»»Bike pump

80 makershed.com
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PROJECTS

123 Custom
Soda Cooler
Written by Jason Poel Smith Illustrated by Andrew J. Nilsen

SUMMER IS HOT. SO WHY NOT

MAKE A CUSTOM COOLER to keep
your drinks cold! Here’s how to
You will
need:
»»Vinyl sheet I used
a vinyl tablecloth.
make a flexible cooler that perfectly
»»Flexible foam
fits a 12-pack of soda. Take the sheet such as craft
whole pack out of the fridge, slip it foam
»»Sewing machine
into your custom cooler, and go. or spray glue
»»Velcro or a zipper
1. MAKE THE SIDES
Start by determining the shape of
your cooler. » Trace the outline of
each side onto the foam. » Then
cut out each outline.
Apply a generous amount of
spray glue to one sheet of vinyl. »
Then stick on the foam cutouts, JASON POEL
spacing them out by at least 1". SMITH makes
» Apply spray glue to a second the “DIY Hacks and
sheet of vinyl and stick that on How Tos” video
series on Make:.
top. » Dry overnight, then cut out. He is a lifelong
student of all forms
2. ASSEMBLE THE of making, and his
COOLER BODY projects range from
electronics to crafts
Lay out the sections as they will and everything in
be assembled, and glue or sew between.
the pieces together. » After
attaching the sides together, trim
the seams to no more than ½".

3. INVERT AND ADD

A CLOSURE
Carefully turn your cooler inside
out, so that all the seams are on
the inside. If you’re worried about
breaking a weak seam, you can
secure your seams with binder
clips before inverting the cooler.
Finally, add a zipper or velcro
that will hold the opening of the
cooler closed. Attach this by
gluing or sewing it in place.
You’re ready to chill.

See step-by-step photos and video

and share your cooler designs at
makezine.com/go/custom-cooler.

makezine.com 81
PROJECTS Howtoons

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makezine.com 83
 PROJECTS makezine.com/46

Pixel PALS
WHETHER HE’S STANDING ON HIS
PIXEL POWER BOARD OR ON AN
ARDUINO, CHIP’S BIG LED EYES DRAW
YOU IN, and his large size makes him
easy for makers of all ages and skills to
Learn how to solder Chip and his Pixel Power build. He’s a great tool for learning to sol-
der and for getting started with Arduino.
base, then plug him into an Arduino Written by Paul Gentile
Time Required: 30–60 Minutes Cost: $16 1. ASSEMBLE CHIP
Place the short pins of the header
through Chip’s feet on the front of the
PCB, then turn Chip over. You can tape
Chip to your work surface to keep him
Materials from moving around. Solder the short
»»Pixel Pals: Chip with pins on the backside of the PCB.
Pixel Power
Soldering Kit Insert the resistors — either direction,
Maker Shed #MKSS01, there’s no (+) or (–) side — so they sit
makershed.com.
Includes printed circuit flush on Chip’s chest. Spread the leads to
boards (2), LEDs (8), hold them in place, solder them on the
resistors (2), headers
(male and female), backside, and clip the leads just above the
micro pushbuttons (2), solder ball, not flush with the board.
slide switch, coin cell
battery and holder Now add the LED eyes: Choose your
favorite color(s), then insert the long leg
Tools (anode, positive) into the square pad and
»»Soldering iron and
60/40 solder
the short leg (cathode, negative) into the
»»Tip cleaner round pad. Solder and clip the LED leads.
»»Pliers
»»Safety glasses 2. ASSEMBLE THE PIXEL
»»Masking tape
POWER BASE
Tape the slide switch in place — orienta-
tion doesn’t matter. Turn over and solder.
Insert the left and right pushbuttons and
make sure they’re flush. Solder in place.
Use tape to hold the 10-pin female
header flush and square. First solder the
PAUL GENTILE end pins to secure the header, then com-
has been making stuff his plete the job by soldering each pin. Insert
whole life, from model trains the battery holder and solder it in place.
to multicopters. He and

3. PLAY!
fellow maker Jean Consorti
founded Soldering Sunday
(solderingsunday.com) to You’re done! Plug Chip into the Pixel
help Makers of all ages and Power Base and insert the battery. Now Hep Svajda
skills create what they’re
you can blink Chip’s eyes by playing with
passionate about.
the buttons.
You can also control Chip’s eyes with an
Arduino. Find the instructions and upload
the code from the project page online at
1 2 3 makezine/go/pixel-pal-chip.
We hope that you enjoy Chip and have
many adventures together.

See step-by-step photos and video, and

share your photos of Chip on the project
Paul Gentile

page makezine.com/go/pixel-pal-chip and

Twitter @SolderingSunday — we love to see
all the friends Chip has made.

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PROJECTS

Toy Inventor’s Notebook

FOOTSTEP SAND STAMPERS Invented and drawn by Bob Knetzger

Time Required: 1 Day Cost: $5–$10

HERE’S A FUN AND EASY
PROJECT FOR SUMMER: Hack
a pair of flip-flops so they make
designs in the sand as you walk.
Just add a bit of Sugru to your
sandals and start stamping!
First, clean the bottom of your
flip-flops thoroughly with some
vinegar water to get rid of any
grease or loose dirt. Dry off the
soles completely so the Sugru
will stick and stay on.
Open the pack and knead the
Sugru until it’s pliant and soft,
then form the shapes you want.
Make shapes by first rolling
out a small “snake,” then press
it into the sole of the flip-flop.
Spread the bottom out and press
down firmly for good adhesion.
Don’t make tiny details — you
won’t really see them in the
sand. Think simple and bold
shapes. Make letters, numbers,
emoji, symbols, and designs but
whatever you make, remember
to make it backward, like on a
rubber stamp!
Press down all around the
edges of the Sugru. For best
results, form your designs with
a triangular cross-section, as
shown, to maximize adhesion
and eliminate any undercuts.
Let the Sugru cure for 24 hours,
then go sand stamping!
Works best in moist sand. I got
great results even with a tired
old pair of flip-flops and a packet
of expired Sugru.
What design will you make?
Happy stamping!

See photos of the Footstep

Sand Stampers in action,
and share your designs at
makezine.com/go/foot-
Sugru is available in the Maker Shed: makezine.com/go/sugru step-sand-stampers.

makezine.com 85
TOOLBOX Gadgets and gear for Makers
Tell us about your faves: editor@makezine.com

Rockler
Bandy Clamp
$19.99 a pair, $50 for 3 pairs :
rockler.com

As a professional photographer,
clamps are a huge part of my
kit, both in and out of the studio.
Rockler Bandy Clamps hold
up like a champ, from clipping
cables to poles and holding gear
in place, to keeping my seam-
less backdrop smoothly pinned to
the table. The spring-loaded action
is strong, but still easy to open for
those times when you need to clamp
something one-handed. As someone
with smaller hands, I often have trouble
manipulating larger clamps, but the
rubber-molded grip of the Rockler Clamps
makes one-handed use easy, and the
all-nylon/fiberglass construction reduces
the weight of my kit.
The no-mar clamp pads offer a sure
grip, but are also padded to keep from
scarring the surface of the clamped
object, even for delicate items like
paper backdrops. The pads even
swivel so that the clamps can be
used on items with odd angles,
or to clamp to things like light
poles where normal clamps
would struggle with the
rounded surface. The 2-inch
maximum reach of the jaw
means I can use them to
clamp backdrops to thicker
tabletops without having
to carry around a bunch of
redundant C-clamps.
— Hep Svadja
Hep Svadja

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KLEIN DUAL LASER

IR THERMOMETER
$130 : kleintools.com

Infrared laser temperature guns, like

many tools, are greatly affected by price.
The cheap options tend to have narrow
temperature ranges and low spread-to-
distance ratios — meaning the further you get
from the object or area you’re trying to measure,
the larger the space that is being evaluated for its temp-
erature becomes.
The Klein IR2000A is not one of those cheap options, and
it shows quickly.
The most noticeable trait of the IR2000A is its high-temperature
capacity of 1,022ºF, allowing for measurement of everything from
scalding hot water pipes to the hottest wood-fired pizza ovens.
And unlike most thermometer guns, it also has a K-type thermo-
couple input that allows you to use an included physical probe to
measure even more extreme environments, up to 1,400ºF.
SCREWPOP A 12:1 spot ratio means that you can pinpoint a 1"-diameter

UTILITY KNIFE sample area when measuring an object from 12 inches away —
a step up from the 8:1 spread seen on cheaper units. And dual
$6.95 : screwpoptool.com lasers that widen with distance give a clear indication of the space
that is being measured.
Missouri inventor Brett Fischer founded Again, it’s not cheap, but the combination of range, precision,
Screwpop Tools, LLC, in early 2009. Their and Klein’s rugged casing (it’s rated for falls from over 6') make
flagship product was a combination this one of my more trusted and regularly used tools.
screwdriver, nut driver, and bottle opener — Mike Senese
designed to hang on a key ring. Fischer
sent me one in early 2010, and it’s been on
my keychain ever since, weathering five
straight years of pocket wear and regular
use like a champ. Meanwhile, Screwpop’s PARK TOOL TRIPLE
“keychain toolbox” line has grown to
include pliers, a wrench, a stash box, a
SPOKE WRENCH
lighter holder, and a flashlight. $10 : parktool.com
The utility knife — which safely corrals
a pair of standard contractor blades until I had been trying to get my girlfriend cycling for a
you need them, then locks them securely while, so I beamed when someone offered her a
in cutting position when you do — is the free bike. Disappointingly, the back wheel was
latest addition to the fold. None of these bent so badly out of shape that it lurched on
tools costs more than seven bucks, and each turn. I picked up a Triple Spoke Wrench
all feature Screwpop’s functional, reliable, from Park Tool, and turned the wobbliest
sturdy, and inexpensive approach to bike I ever saw into an easy ride.
design (plus the signature integral bottle Small enough to pack in your kit and cheap
opener to help you celebrate when the enough to keep a spare at home, it felt so
job’s done). Are there better tools in the comfortable that I don’t see myself going fancier
world for some of these jobs? Sure. But any time soon. Handling three of the typical sizes of spoke nipples
even the best tool is useless if it’s not on means it will work for her new bike, my old bike, and probably any
hand when you need it. — Sean Ragan unforeseen bike.
It’s a chunk of metal that can outlast me. — Sam Freeman

makezine.com 87
TOOLBOX

NEW
MAKER
TECH
ACTOBOTICS
BOGIE RUNT
ROVER
$70 : servocity.com

Want to make a rolling robot

that can climb obstacles? Your best
bet is a rover chassis like the Bogie, a
robust and agile little roller that is ready for your microcontroller
and sensor package. It consists of a 6"x9" ABS plate studded
with mounting holes, with six independently powered wheels
providing propulsion. That’s right, you get six motors with this
kit — though that’s it for electronics. Its namesake rocker-bogie
suspension allows the robot to roll over obstructions with ease. It
sports 5" of clearance beneath the chassis.

LOCTITE 425 ASSURE

The Bogie doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Actobotics robot parts
(sold at SparkFun and ServoCity) can be attached natively to the
PLASTIC FASTENER chassis, or you can always drill into the ABS to add whatever

THREADLOCKER
you want. — John Baichtal

$20 per 20g (0.71 oz.) : henkelna.com

There are several ways to prevent your robot’s fasteners from

shaking loose. One option is to use locking washers. Another
is to use nylon lock nuts. But what if you’re working with
machine screws that thread right into laser-cut plastic? Your

MINNOWBOARD
options become much more limited.
Threadlocker is a good choice for when you can’t or don’t
want to use special washers or nuts, but there’s a catch — a MAX
popular formulation (Loctite 242) is not considered safe for $145 : minnowboard.org
use on plastic parts, which could crack with time. In that case,
you’ll need Loctite’s 425 formulation, which is technically an
Lesser known than the Intel Galileo or Edison development
instant adhesive. It’s cyanoacrylate-based, which makes it
boards, the MinnowBoard Max might just be the best Intel
akin to super glue.
board for your next project. The Max is Intel’s most open-
Loctite’s 425 Assure threadlocker is safe for use on plastic
source board and available in two hardware configurations:
materials, and since it is a low-strength adhesive you can still
powerful and more powerful. The latter variant packs a 1.33
remove treated fasteners when it’s time to service your bot.
dual-core 64-bit Intel Atom processor with 2Gb of DDR3
According to Loctite, another popular application is to tamper-
RAM, and a true 1Gb Ethernet — a rarity in small, inexpensive
proof the heads of screws or potentiometers.
development boards — into a 2.9" x 3.9" board.
— Stuart Deutsch
The Max sets a high standard for mainlining code to the
Linux kernel, and no other development board that I’m aware
of is in the build configuration for Android Open Source
Project. Adding to the allure are the open-source video
drivers, SATA, and PCIe connectors. This is a serious board,

TIP for serious development.

— David Scheltema
This is not something to buy “just in case” —
each bottle has an expiration date.

88 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

ORETLIEB BACK-
ROLLER CLASSIC PAIR
SHOWN WITH SEPARATE BACKPACK
CARRYING SYSTEM
$185 for pair; $37 backpack system :
ortliebusa.com
PANNIERS, Tried and true among bikers, these Oretlieb
panniers are a staff favorite. Not only do they have
WHY USE THEM? one of the easiest locking mechanisms we’ve
Here in the Bay Area, our staff loves to ride
for many reasons. Recreation, commuting, or tested, but they're durable, waterproof, and you
cost savings, we all needed the same thing: won’t have to tuck and hide straps compared to
durable, weatherproof bags to protect our most backpack models. I love the backpack
tools, tech, and trappings. addition (they roll up and don’t take up much room),
We picked a few of our favorites to share but shorter staff members had issues with fit and
with you — or you can make your own! feeling “floppy.” — Jason Babler

ROUTE SEVEN HIGH ROLLER CONVERTIBLE

$139 : northstbags.com 36L BACKPACK WATERPROOF
When you pick it up, you can just tell —
it’s nice. One of the most stylish bags out
PANNIER PANNIER
there. Reflective panels are big and well $129.95 : greengurugear.com BACKPACK
positioned. We shined our headlamp This eco-friendly, recycled bag company $79.99 : banjobrothers.com
on it out camping and it looked like it has one of the biggest bags we tested
A simple hybrid-design sets this apart:
was lit from within. Quite lightweight, — and one of the heaviest. The convert-
Pannier hooks on one side; backpack
its beauty lies in how basic it is. While it ible aspect is cool, but there are extra
straps on the other. This pannier has a
doesn’t have a backpack component, it layers of material and velcro required
large, removable waterproof bag and a
gets bonus points for big side pockets, to secure the straps when you’re using
much-needed zippered pocket that you
waterproof construction and being it as a pannier, and hooks when you're
can access from both sides. We're fans
U.S.-made in Portland, Oregon. backpacking. Great for long hauls where
of the big reflective stripes, and adjust-
you need to carry a lot of gear, but less
able hooks. Best combination of price
great for daily use and getting in and out
and features in the group and one of our
of. Well-made, with an easy-expanding
favorites.
fold-over closure.

BUILD $10 BIKE PANNIERS OUT OF 5-GALLON BUCKETS

Create custom carriers from kitty litter containers with just wood, hooks, screws,
washers, and a used bike tube. For step-by-step instructions, visit the project online at
makezine.com/go/5gallon-bucket-panniers. Happy riding, and heavy hauling!

makezine.com 89
NEW BOOKS FROM

Maker Media Inc.

Identity Document
Version 1.2
2013

MAKE: GETTING
STARTED WITH
THE PHOTON
By Simon Monk
$20 : makershed.com

Priced at just $19, the Photon

is an inexpensive, open source,
programmable, Wi-Fi-enabled
module that facilitates the building of connected projects and prototypes.
Powered by an ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller and a Broadcom Wi-Fi chip,
the Photon — and its accompanying cloud platform — is designed as a
ready-to-go foundation for product developers and manufacturers.
Moreover, it’s great for Maker projects.
The newest in our Getting Started With (GSW) series of introductory
texts, GSW Photon teaches readers how to get started with its free develop-
ment tools, deploy sketches over Wi-Fi, and build electronic projects that
take advantage of the Photon’s processing power, cloud platform, and input/
output pins. Spark Core, the previous iteration of this platform, built by
Particle (formerly Spark.io), is compatible with the Photon.
Intended for intermediate Makers who already have microcontroller
experience, GSW Photon uses clear steps and project instructions to help
Makers understand the different ways the Photon can help them explore
our world. And with its low price, Photon gives plenty of reasons for
Makers to experiment without having to worry about “wasting” a more
MAKE: THE ANNOTATED BUILD-IT- expensive module.
YOURSELF SCIENCE LABORATORY
By Raymond E. Barrett and Windell Oskay
$25 : makershed.com

Raymond E. Barrett’s Build-It-Yourself Science Laboratory is a

classic book that took on an audacious task: To show young
readers in the 1960s how to build a complete working science
lab for chemistry, biology, and physics — and how to perform
experiments with those tools. The experiments in this book are
fearless and bold by today’s standards — any number of them
might never be mentioned in a modern book for young readers.
BEAGLEBONE
Yet many from previous generations fondly remember how we as COOKBOOK
a society used to embrace scientific learning.
By Mark A. Yoder and
This new version of Barrett’s book has been updated for
Jason Kridner
today’s world with annotations and updates from Windell Oskay
$40 : shop.oreilly.com
of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, including extensive notes
The Beaglebone Cookbook is for
about modern safety practices, suggestions on where to find the
anyone who wants quick, simple
parts you need, and tips for building upon Barrett’s ideas with
solutions to common problems
modern technology. With this book, you’ll be ready to take on
developing on any BeagleBoard
your own scientific explorations at school, work, or home.
platform. Both software and hard-
ware challenges are addressed by Jason Kridner — cofounder of Beagle-
Board.org — and Mark Yoder, ranging from selecting which Beagle to use
in your next project to sensor and motor control solutions. More advanced
topics, such as Linux kernel hacking and real-time input and output control
using the BeagleBone Black’s integrated programmable real-time units are
explained with skill and expertise. This is a must-have volume for any fan of
the BeagleBoard development platform. —D. S.

90 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

DIY COMMS
AND CONTROL FOR
AMATEUR SPACE:
TALKING AND
LISTENING
TO YOUR SATELLITE
$10 : By Sandy Antunes

The fourth in professor Antunes’

series for aspiring satellite
builders, this book is intended as
a “missing manual” to provide
understanding of the entire end-
to-end process necessary for
accurately commanding and then
receiving data from your satellite.
Radio spectrum for commanding
and receiving data from satellites
is a shared resource with subtle
hurdles. DIY Comms and Control
for Amateur Space explores those
hurdles and offers cogent, real-life
advice for navigating the newest
wave of amateur space
exploration. MAKE: GETTING
STARTED WITH
PROCESSING, 2ND
EDITION
$25 : By Casey Reas and
Ben Fry

3D CAD WITH Subtitled “A Hands-On Introduction to

AUTODESK 123D Making Interactive Graphics,” this text

by the co-founders of the Processing
$30 : By Jesse Harrington Au
Project updates their 2010 book with
and Emily Gertz
new material on graphics manipulation
for the latest version of Processing, a
Autodesk’s 123D suite lets you de-
simple language that lets you use code
sign and create real-world objects
to create drawings, animation, and
with 3D printers, laser cutters,
interactive graphics. If you’re an artist
or common materials that you
looking to develop interactive graphics
assemble yourself. 3D CAD with
programs or a programmer on your
Autodesk 123D shows readers how
way to becoming an artist and want to
to use the entire Autodesk 123D
work with software and systems, this
suite — including 123D Design,
book is essential.
123D Catch, 123D Sculpt, and
123D Make — to design, sculpt,
scan, and print 3D objects with
this easy-to-learn CAD interface.
An ideal book for Makers, hobby-
ists, students, artists, and design-
ers — including beginners — 3D
CAD with Autodesk 123D opens up
the inexpensive world of personal
fabrication to everyone.

makezine.com 91
TOOLBOX 3D PRINT REVIEWS

PRINTRBOT
The Printrbot Plus gets
a metal upgrade, and

METAL PLUS
the improvements are
well worth the wait

WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY CHRIS YOHE

Printrbot Metal Plus

printrbot.com

Price $1,199 single extruder

$1,599 double
Build Volume
254mm×254mm×254mm
Bed Style Mic 6 heated aluminum
bed, works with induction
leveling probe
Temperature Control? Yes,
software adjustable on bed
and extruder
Materials PLA; heated bed allows
for ABS. Tested with supplied
Printrbot PLA, Proto-pasta carbon
fiber, Taulman t-glase, SainSmart
wood PLA, Taulman flexible PCTPE
Print Untethered? Yes, from SD
Card. OctoPrint and AstroPrint
compatible
Onboard Controls? External LCD
add-on kit available. Otherwise
control from software or OctoPrint/
AstroPrint
Host Software Cura and Repetier
are both recommended. Cura offers
the easiest starting point, and
Repetier is useful for more intimate
control later on
Slicer Tested with Cura. Also used
Slic3r with Repetier
OS Windows, OSX, Linux
Firmware Printrboard Firmware
from Printrbot
Open Software? Yes
Open Hardware? Not truly open
source, but CC ShareAlike 3.0

92 makershed.com
 makezine.com/46

FOLLOWING THE METAL-FRAMED were measured using 1mm walls.

MAKEOVER OF ITS SMALLER SIMPLE We cranked off print after print, the
PRINT SCORE: 36
SIBLING, the Printrbot Metal Plus vast majority of which were successful Accuracy 1 2 3 4 5
transitions from a laser-cut wood frame including many multi-hour torture tests. Backlash 1 2 3 4 5
to a new, beautiful powder-coated metal We ran a series of Makey robots in different Bridging 1 2 3 4 5
housing. The sturdy frame offers a filament materials and were surprised at Overhangs 1 2 3 4 5
number of upgrades over the previous how well it made the transition with just
Fine Features 1 2 3 4 5
generation, getting great results in our minor temperature fiddling. The aluminum
Surface Curved 1 2 3 4 5
tests. It holds a z-axis that’s been beefed extruder, with its extra support, even
up from the last model, and both the x- handled the flexible filament, although Surface General 1 2 3 4 5
and y-axes are now running on linear rails as usual, flexible material requires you Tolerance 1 2 3 4 5
and carts, giving the printer very smooth to spend some time adjusting your print XY Resonance FA I L PAS S (2)
movement. Our unit shipped with the settings to avoid binding. Z Resonance FA I L PAS S (2)
ceramic Ubis hot end and the aluminum
extruder, as well as an aluminum build ACCESSIBLE AND UPGRADABLE
plate and heated bed that were quite Our testing wasn’t entirely problem-free,
PRO TIPS
responsive and quick to heat up thanks to but the issues we experienced using an
Make sure to check out Printrbot’s
the use of the standard ATX power supply. early machine have already been fixed
great Z-Probe Calibration guides. Don’t
The pre-applied Kapton tape worked in the production models along with a
ruin your bed out of the box.
great with the flexible filament we tried, few other additions. Both the single and
Don’t hesitate to tweak the advanced
although for most of the tests we went with double extruder versions have heated
retraction settings in Cura. A little extra
the commonly used blue painter’s tape. beds, with the associated heat shielding to
rise will keep your head from catching.
prevent binding due to expansion. Wiring
If the support site falls short, head to
EASY SETUP, GREATER STYLE fatigue has been reduced with a Delrin
printrbottalk.com. Also keep an eye on
AND STABILITY extension on the x-carriage that allows
YouMagine for “official” DIY add-ons.
The Metal Plus ships in a robust double for better strain relief for the harness.
Have fun! Whether carbon fiber,
carton. Unboxing is simple: After removal We took the issues we did encounter as a
t-glase, wood, or flexible, this printer
from the inner carton and plastic wrap, chance to get inside the machine, letting
took the filaments we threw at it.
one zip tie is all that remains. Keyed us see what future maintenance and
power connectors make setup a snap. upgrades will require. The machine is laid
WHY TO BUY
We went from box to print in about 30 out in a fairly straightforward manner
The large build area finally meets the ease
minutes, including downloading and and the wiring was easy to follow. While
of use and setup of its smaller brother,
installing Cura and following the Z-Probe a machine of this size is far from simple,
the Metal Simple. Solid results, quick
tutorial. The metal frame provides a it is well within the wheelhouse of an
warm-up, and auto-leveling make this
much more stable and rugged printer, average Maker, thanks to the mechanical
printer a highly recommended machine.
helping to achieve the smooth surface diagrams and assembly instructions
finish. The powder-coated metal also puts available online. This is good news for
it in line with a lot of the more design- those looking to add an LCD panel, or even
conscious printers we’ve seen of late, an extra cooling fan for the electronics, How’d it print?
but still keeps the design open, and not both of which already have the necessary
overly complicated. The included ATX access points built right into the base.
power supply comes in a metal tower that
matches the look of the Plus and has a CONCLUSION
built-in filament reel. The coordinating The Metal Plus delivers exactly what
tower makes for a nice combination and one would expect from Printrbot: a
helps to create a homogenous look in your solid, robust package at a comparatively
work area. affordable price. It has a large print bed,
performs well out of the box ,and can
FANTASTICALLY FILAMENT FRIENDLY be adapted by advanced users for more
The included PLA printed quite well, exotic purposes. Really, this printer
CHRIS YOHE is a software devel-
providing a good surface finish with the could fit into almost any user category: oper by day, hardware hacker
default settings, even on curves. The over- educators, artists, and designers, those by night, and an avid 3D printing
hang test proved to be the most challeng- looking to get started with a bit more enthusiast — like many others
he is slowly amassing a fleet of
ing requiring multiple setting adjustments, capable machine, or those looking to add manufacturing minions.
and our results for the X/Y Resonance test a larger workhorse to their stable.

makezine.com 93
 A Brief History of 21st Century BattleMechs
Written by James Burke

WELCOME TO THE INNER SPHERE SCIENTIFIC HISTORICAL This ancient marvel precedes many Mech innovations such as
ARCHIVES. TO SELECT A PREFERRED CENTURY OF INTEREST compact fusion reactors, energy pulse rifles, or even power armor
PLEASE … you have selected 21st century: Terra. and instead operates with fossil-fueled engines, steel armor, and
The Republic of the Sphere’s scientists have long marveled at the compression-based weapons.
early innovations buried in the remains of Early Spaceflight Interestingly enough, the Mark II was not an offensive war
civilizations. From the onset of classical computational devices to machine common to Terran battlefronts. Much like the Roman
the splitting of the atom, our current research has made discoveries warriors of Antiquity, the Mark II was meant for arena battle, and its
that continue to unravel the many mysteries of pre-FTL cultures. ballistic armaments reflected such civilized combat. Using paint-
One of our finest examples currently on display could very well be based projectiles to mark its opponents, the MegaBots faced off in
the first BattleMech ever constructed. While previous archives cite amphitheaters across North America to many adoring fans during
the Mackie MSK-6S as the true, original BattleMech, newly the late 21st century. Though no match for current BattleMechs,
discovered ComStar archives suggest that the MegaBots Mark II this lumbering 15-foot-tall hulk of steel represents the genesis of
predates the presumed grandfather of all Mechs by more than 400 technologies that would evolve into the mainstay of modern warfare
years! Tipping the scales at a featherweight of just 6 tons, the Mark for over a millennia. It really makes you wonder just what other
II is the prototype that became the standard of 31st century combat. human achievements have been forever lost to time.

Zollner Elektronik AG

96 makershed.com
$9.99 US $11.99 CAN
ISBN: 978-1-4571-8712-4