Table of contents for #69 in HackSpace

Here in the northern hemisphere, at least, the days are longer, warmer, and brighter. The great outdoors is a little greater, and it’s a time when makers traditionally emerge from their sheds, basements, and hackspaces to engage in the world. Of course, they don’t leave their tools behind. They use their maker skills to monitor, hack, and play with the world around them. This month, we’re celebrating these projects that bring together the heady days of summer and geek tech. We’re helping plants grow, spying on wildlife, and much more. Put on some sun cream and join us! ben.everard@raspberrypi.com Got a comment, question, or thought about HackSpace magazine? get in touch at hsmag.cc/hello GET IN TOUCH hackspace@raspberrypi.com hackspacemag hackspacemag ONLINE hsmag.cc…

SWIRLING I’ve been 3D printing for years and, while I love the technology, I always feel a bit guilty about the amount of plastic I’m using. Thanks for your article on recycling PLA. I’m going to give it a go, and see if I can finally turn all that spaghetti into something useful. Jane Norwich Ben says: PLA isn’t the worst plastic around. It’s not from oil and, depending on your waste stream, may not end up in landfill. That said, if we’re going to create a sustainable future, we have to get the most out of everything and that means using it more than once. What’s more, the results can look incredible. This month, we’re looking at laser cutting the sheets into jewellery, but there are many more ways…

Uri Tuchman is an artist, metalworker, and tool maker. He’s also made some of the most beautiful things on the internet, at first from the corner of his Berlin apartment, then from his workshop. If he can’t find a tool he wants, he’ll make it himself; in fact, even if he can find the tool he wants, he’ll probably make one himself and use that instead, as he says that you get a better connection between your hand and the tool that way, and we believe him. If you ever despair at the ugliness of the modern world, don’t worry, just go and visit Uri’s YouTube channel at hsmag.cc/UriTuchman and let his unique blend of slow and steady craftsmanship, pigeons, and hand tools soothe your troubles away. HackSpace You’ve done…

Have you seen the price of wood recently?” This, we believe, is now the standard greeting whenever two wood workers meet. And, well, have you? Even manufactured wood, which used to be a cheap and affordable way to get making has rocketed in price. This month, rather than head to the shops, we’ve raided our scraps bin for offcuts. Picture frames are a bit of an odd thing because they’re defined most by the thing that’s not there – the gap in the middle where the picture goes. For small images, such as photos, you might find it easiest to simply start with a single sheet and cut out the middle to make a frame. However, if you want to frame a larger piece, you’re going to end up with…

ARDUINO → From €18 hsmag.cc/unor4 @ben_everard Thirteen years ago, Arduino released its ninth board, and for reasons only it knows, it decided to call the board Uno. It quickly became synonymous with maker electronics projects. This fourth iteration includes by far the biggest changes to date, not least because, for the first time, there are two options: the Minima, which is a fairly bare microcontroller board (in the same style as earlier Unos), and the Wi-Fi version that includes both a wireless networking controller and a grid of 96 LEDs. The other big change is that the microcontroller has been swapped. The AVR-based ATMega controller is replaced by an Arm-based Renesas chip. This is a major upgrade in almost every way. It’s faster, has more RAM, more storage, more peripherals…

hsmag.cc/GearedMechanicalBox Much as we adore the hand-crafted sensibilities that inform the Mythic I, the magic of 3D printing is that it can enable anyone to print objects that would be impossible for the average person to make by hand. This box, with its rotating gears opening six doors simultaneously, looks like it’s come from a video game. It’s so impractical, and so ornate, that it should hold a gemstone, or an extra life, or a portal to the next level in a game. Assembly is easy, because the parts snap-fit together, and there’s an instructional video included in the download.…

hsmag.cc/Remocon The internet is full of devices that should never have been connected to it. Refrigerators, baby monitors, and even toilets are all out there on the Internet of Things (IoT), many of them still with the factory preset password. Just because we can connect something to the internet, doesn’t mean that we should. We most emphatically should connect things like this to the internet. It’s a remote-controlled rover, complete with a camera, that you can control from anywhere in the world over the internet – it’s a bit like one of Amazon’s smart doorbells, except that it’s got four wheels and you can use it to chase the dog around the house when you’re not in.…

Make the most of the great outdoors by working on a project this summer. If you’re a sporty type, you can up your game with a robotic basketball hoop, running or cycling tracker, badminton shuttle launcher, or putt speed measurer, among others. Tidy up the garden with DIY devices such as an automatic weeding robot, mower, or lawn sprayer. Help your plants to thrive with a soil moisture monitor and automatic irrigation system. Summer is also a great time for observing wildlife, whether with a smart animal-detecting camera or listening out for birds and bats to identify species. You’ll also want to keep an eye on the weather and make sure you’re well-equipped for a hiking trip. And when night comes, you can spot some meteors. With a little effort…

@devinck One of the first Best of Breed reviews that I wrote for HackSpace was about the variety of displays available for DIY electronic enthusiasts. After countless other reviews, and many years later, I thought it was time to look at the subject again. A lot has changed over the past few years, but also a lot has stayed the same. For example, this variation (pictured) from Adafruit of the classic 16×2 LCD is still just as useful as it was when first introduced to the DIY market many years ago. Yes, you can pick one up with a few added features like an RGB backlight, or different colour characters, but they haven’t changed much over the years. And that’s a good thing! They work, and they work well. But…

mythic.computer The Mythic I, by Keegan McNamara, is a highly unusual computer. Keegan’s gone to great lengths on his website to explain the thought processes behind its creation. Actually, thought process is the wrong phrase; philosophy is more accurate. If you’ve ever read In the Beginning…Was The Command Line by Neal Stephenson, you should expect something similar. The Mythic I is built to be the best it can be. No corners have been cut, with a body made out of carved hardwoods, stuck together with animal-hide glue and wrapped in the finest full-grain, vegetable-tanned leather. As a computer it does one thing, and one thing well – the only software on here is a non-networked text editor (as Keegan puts it in his essay on the development of the Mythic…