Besides your MagicMirror, what are some Maker-projects you worked/working on?

[KirAsh4]

Being an IT Director and the stress/frustration that comes with that, I tend to let my creativity run wild at times. At any given point I will have several projects going at the same time, and listing them would just end up in a rather long laundry list of things. There are just too many to list, but my first “public” appearance was in 1998 when I got my name in the release notes for the popular Sendmail MTA. It still amuses me when I see it:

8.9.2/8.9.2     1998/12/30
...
Portability:
                ...
                Avoid a clash with IRIX 6.2 getopt.h and the UserDatabase
                        option structure.  Problem noted by Ashley M.
                        Kirchner of Photo Craft Laboratories, Inc.

After that it all went downhill for me. Created a small search engine for a start-up stock agency years ago (they’ve since been bought by another.) Wrote an entire front and back-end for an eCommerce web site at my office, none of that ‘off the shelf’ stuff, all custom programming in PHP & JS. Several, I mean, several little coding projects here and there.

I’ve always done a lot of photography (still do). That’s always part of me, wherever I go. Being able to see something and make it artistic is always fun.

Recent years though (like the last 7 or so), I’ve been doing a lot of LED electronics, as in building my own electronics and coding. One of the more fun ones is a POV “stick” that I made 3 years ago. Basically two acrylic tubes filled with LEDs, control unit, and power cell battery. The artist would spin them around and display colorful images. This is me spinning one of them during testing, standing in my living room at night:

And the “fun” part of creating that, the electrical design, hardware design, building electronics, and let’s not forget the coding too:

Created lighting units for the high school my daughter attended for various different performances. Added lights to color guard flags (and they went on to win 2nd place that year.)

I also do a lot of 3D design and printing with my 3D printer. Or even larger design “things” like these costumes for a little boy:

Created a bunch of different things for the local Ingress community, stuff that gets sold, or given away as prizes. I’ve also done some designs that were made in metal afterwards (earrings and necklace pendants.)

Then there’s the laser cutter which gets used almost daily for a variety of things:

Some with color airbrushed on:

There are many days i will simply sit down and think of the various things going on at the same time in my house and in my head and all I do is:

[Tomekkkkk]

I have a new Project where i am currently working on

Found an beautiful Loewe Opta Radio from 1969 (R154) from ebay for cheap money. It should work as an Bedroom Radio with an alarmclock and Internetradio. Also it should include an receiver for the audio of my bedroom beamer and audio output to extern speakers. Also i want standalone usability so it has to include an toucscreen. The original Buttons, which have an great oldschool feeling should also have fully functionality.

The Original Board, which i built out from the frame. Radiotechnik from the Seventys!

100 Watt

Receiver built in the frame

Actually i wait for parts…

[Tomekkkkk]

@Tomekkkkk

Update - it works

[KirAsh4]

This is an existing design that I modify to get rid of things a laser cutter can not make. Original design calls for dowels in certain spots (axles and such), I modify it to use the same flat sheet material. This’ll be a fun build

And how this compares to the Front End Loader I made last year:

[Mitchfarino]

This is going to be my next project.

GameBoy Zero!

[zombi27]

waaah <3 that gamebooy :D i want to make an N64 out of a pi soon

[KirAsh4]

As if I don’t already have a bunch of stuff on my plate, yesterday someone asked me to re-make this for them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8PtwqRvVDU

After calculating all 148 parts, it comes out to 135 hours of printing (24 hours a day, non-stop), $60 worth of material, about 175 meters of it. If I were to print it at high quality, it’s 190 hours of printing (24 hours a day, non-stop.)

Then you need to add 20 minutes of cooling time between prints (the print bed has to cool down before you can remove the parts), set up time, the assumption that there will be not a single failed print job, assembly time, machine time, and that pesky electric bill.

[KirAsh4]

The above post on Arcus … it’s being printed. Some of the pieces, when printed all at once, take 30+ hours.

In the mean time, this “rolled off of the assembly line” today:

[cowboysdude]

I don’t have pictures but have been working on a PI radio for my car… I had to take the software and port it over from German to English… I did and a few other people are using it LOL Mine’s not ready yet…

Got a 3d printer to make some parts but I’m a contractor and working on this stuff in the summer is too hard… I’m too busy so it’s winter work… :)

[yawns]

@KirAsh4
so you designed, 3dprinted and built a one-hand-minirailgun driven by rubber bands? That’s crazy but awesome!

[KirAsh4]

@yawns said in Besides your MagicMirror, what are some Maker-projects you worked/working on?:

@KirAsh4
so you designed, 3dprinted and built a one-hand-minirailgun driven by rubber bands? That’s crazy but awesome!

No I have not. The design is by that person in the video, Matthew Davis. I’m simply printing and assembling it for myself. I did however (re)designed the laser cut vehicle, laser cut, and assembled the thing. It’s sitting on my living room table right now, awaiting some minor changes.

[loribeeinca]

I built a HomeKit garage door opener with sensor …

'Hey Siri, open the garage door"

[KirAsh4]

@loribeeinca said in Besides your MagicMirror, what are some Maker-projects you worked/working on?:

I built a HomeKit garage door opener with sensor …

'Hey Siri, open the garage door"

Siri, “Sorry HAL, that is not your car. I will not open the garage door.”

[loribeeinca]

@KirAsh4 said in Besides your MagicMirror, what are some Maker-projects you worked/working on?:

@loribeeinca said in Besides your MagicMirror, what are some Maker-projects you worked/working on?:

I built a HomeKit garage door opener with sensor …

'Hey Siri, open the garage door"

Siri, “Sorry HAL, that is not your car. I will not open the garage door.”

I was tempted to call it “Pod Bay Doors” in HAP

[KirAsh4]

@loribeeinca, how about “force field” ?

[McSorley]

@KirAsh4 Siri! Lower the force field!

[cowboysdude]

Well it would appear as though I’m also making a clock… yeah I said it… boring old clock LOL

BUT I’m going to use an RPI Zero 1.3 and run a minimal run of MM2 on it using a 7" touchscreen… you know off/snooze thing ;)

So I’ll keep you all informed… I just ordered a HubPiWi 1.3 :)

[KirAsh4]

@cowboysdude said in Besides your MagicMirror, what are some Maker-projects you worked/working on?:

BUT I’m going to use an RPI Zero 1.3 and run a minimal run of MM2 on it using a 7" touchscreen… you know off/snooze thing ;)

Don’t expect Electron to run on that. It’s not compiled for that platform last I checked.

[KirAsh4]

@McSorley said in Besides your MagicMirror, what are some Maker-projects you worked/working on?:

@KirAsh4 Siri! Lower the force field!

Unfortunately, unless the garage door goes down, instead of up, telling Siri to ‘lower’ it doesn’t seem right.

[MichMich]

@loribeeinca Nice, which software did you use to connect your door to siri? Homebridge?