Table of contents for Vol 90 - Fall 2024 in Make:

Pierre, a talking macaw, is one of 150-plus mechanical singers and performers at Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, Disneyland's first animatronic attraction, which opened in 1963 and is still popular today. Disneyland's Audio-Animatronics were created by electrician Lee Adams, one of the original Imagineers. Inspired by Disneyland's Tiki Room and Country Bear Jamboree, Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell launched Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre in 1977, bringing animatronic entertainment to a chain of video arcade pizza joints that would grow to 600 locations worldwide (and inspire the Five Nights at Freddy's horror video game franchise). In 2024, owner CEC Entertainment planned to decommission the animatronics in all but two restaurants — then hastily upped that to five after a public outcry. Garner Holt visited the “Happiest Place on Earth” as…

Simple, analog, and autonomous, BEAM robots (Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics) use no batteries and no microcontrollers. Invented in 1989 by Mark W. Tilden (University of Waterloo, Los Alamos National Laboratory, WowWee Toys), they've evolved dozens of species. Start with Solarbotics' original guide “BEAM from the Ground Up” (solarbotics.net/bftgu/default.htm) and explore the amazing BEAMbot menageries built by Zach DeBord (fadetofuture.com/2008/12) and Simon Fraser (smfr.org/robots). Then build these classic Make: projects from Gareth Branwyn!…

Building personal computers is easier than you think! Whether your friend's gaming rig makes your daily driver feel Neolithic, or you're curious about VR, or you're just looking to get your hands in some computer guts — PC building could be for you. But where do you even start? In today's vast world of disposable tech, the old-school tower PC still stands strong as the gold standard of modularity and repairability — and its popularity isn't waning. At iFixit, we confidently recommend PCs as a sustainable alternative. Building a computer from scratch —finding affordable parts, navigating what's compatible with what, and handling delicate, expensive components — may feel daunting, but you can do it using only a few screwdrivers. How much RAM? Which GPU goes with my CPU? Which liquid…

OVER THE TOP Anouk Wipprecht has been dazzling the world with her mind-blowing FashionTech designs for the past two decades, with each piece presenting new perspectives on the interplay between technology and fashion. Her new design, DRINKBOT 2.0, represents the latest evolution in a line of uniquely interactive dresses. Building upon the original robotic cocktail dress, DareDroid, which required the user to engage in a game of Truth or Dare in order to earn a drink, and the peristaltic-pump-powered DrinkBotDress, the 2024 design pushes the envelope yet again with new levels of functionality and creativity. At the heart — or perhaps brain — of the project, is BeagleBoard's new BeagleY-AI board, which empowers the dress with voice interaction, thanks to its advanced DSP deep learning accelerator cores, plus a USB…

As a kid at Disneyland in the 1970s, my most memorable rides were not the rip-roaring coasters but the immersive fantasies like Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean, with their lively animatronic props: a submerged hippo lunges at the boat, mouth agape and ears wiggling; a jailed pirate desperately finagles a mangy dog for the cell keys. These moments are way more than the sum of their parts. Mechanical characters with a few lifelike motions, combined with sound and lighting, can make real magic, transporting us into a fantasy more vivid than any screen. Pioneered by Disney's Imagineers in the 1950s and 60s, animatronics today is a mainstay of theme parks, moviemaking, and Halloween haunts, from Spielberg's Jurassic T. rex to that zombie erupting from your neighbor's lawn. It's…

“The world's only inflated, illuminated, articulated, and animated motor vehicle.” —Bill Kennedy aka Inflatabill Vehicle • Heavily modified Polaris General UTV, 1000cc gas engine • Lifted, upgraded shocks, upgraded clutch Trailer • Custom 6'×10' steel frame trailer • 4 custom 360° rotating casters with 10”-wide industrial lawnmower tires • Max capacity 24 persons Power • 900Ah @ 48VDC lithium battery bank • Charging via 2 Honda EU3000 gas generators • 12kW AIMS inverter, 12 circuits of 120VAC Sound • Void Q2 amplifier • 2 Behringer 15” subwoofers • 4 Void 12” subwoofers • 4 Void Airten dual 10” speakers • 2 Turbosound monitor speakers Lights • Falcon F16V3 Pixel Controller board with multiple expansion boards • 5,000+ individually addressable RGB pixels • 2 custom LED hemispherical eyeballs with 77,136 pixels per…

DIY ENERGY DC Solar Power Systems KRIS DE DECKER is a Belgian science and technology writer based in Spain. After 10 years in traditional media he founded Low-tech Magazine in 2007, where he is lead author and collaborates with designers and artists in building low-tech prototypes, including a solar-powered website and several human power plants. He also works with universities and speaks at tech and sustainability events in Europe. MARIE VERDEIL is a French designer based in Belgium. Since graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven, she uses design to challenge how we perceive, build, and use technology. In 2021 she joined Low-tech Magazine where she is responsible for graphic design, photos and illustrations, and maintaining the solar-powered website. She also collaborates with Kris on low-tech prototypes, manuals, and workshops. I've built…

At last year's Maker Faire Bay Area, Bekonix unveiled our new Bekonix Connect Controller board, featuring “Inches-to-Anywhere” connectivity. • nRF52840 ARM processor, 16MB flash memory • Connectivity: Cat-M1, NB-IoT, GPS, NFC, LoRa, BLE • Onboard temperature sensor • Stereo audio: 3W amplifier, 32 tracks with audio out • Compatible with off-the-shelf sensors, actuators • High-density connectors for board expansion Combined with our innovative no-code, drag-and-drop Bekonix Designer platform, it's a great solution for an animatronics project like this one. Digital twin technology allows you to upload your project image and build away, using off-the-shelf LEDs, sensors, actuators, and more. Use the timeline feature for in-the-moment iterations to fine-tune the mechanics and component behavior. Save your project and drag-and-drop it onto your Bekonix Connect Controller, where it will boot up automatically…

ANIMATRONICA Animatronic Eyeballs Animatronics, once relegated to the realms of theme parks and big-budget movie sets, are experiencing a renaissance in our DIY culture. Perhaps it's childhood nostalgia, certain horror-themed video game franchises, or the desire to explore the intersection of technology and artistry. Whatever the reason, there's excitement surrounding the creation of animatronic marvels. And amidst this wave of enthusiasm, there's never been a better time to embark on your own animatronic journey! In this project you'll build a realistic eye mechanism you can control with a joystick — and integrate into any project you like! To start with, my code will allow you to look left and right, up and down. As the gaze moves up or down, I've programmed the eyelids to follow them subtly which adds…

PROJECTS: Toy Inventor's Notebook Take your needle felting to a new level this Halloween with this Talking Zombie Doll Maker. Every time you poke the felting needle, the cute mini-zombie doll responds with a funny “Ouch!” and spooky sound effects. The tombstone counter keeps track of the total number of needle strokes as you go. How many pokes to make a monster? Now you'll know! This graveyard-themed needle felting station has a toyetic look, echoing the classic 1960s movie monster models. Make the entire project, hack the electronic parts, or skip all that and just craft some needle-felted mini zombie dolls — it's up to you! MAKE IT! 1. BUILD THE HOUSING I vacuum-formed the parts but you could design your own version using 3D-printed or laser-cut parts, or just…

MADE ON EARTH Know a project that would be perfect for Made on Earth? Let us know: editor@makezine.com A CUT ABOVE THE REST TAMARAKOSTIANOVSKY.COM Tamara Kostianovsky's fabric-based sculptures convey all the passions and emotions of a mainstream marble masterpiece and then some, befitting her colorful specialty in the medium of the flesh, dead carcasses, and natural rejuvenation. Kostianovsky, an Argentine-American artist who has presented many solo exhibitions across the United States and Europe, continues to use her formal training from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in her work. Twenty years into a successful artistic career, she maintains that sculpting with fabric is a skill she constantly works to improve. “There isn't really a difference between fabric sculpture and more traditional techniques like marble or bronze,” she says. “The…

FEATURES: DIY Geoengineering FEATURES: DIY Geoengineering / DIY Tornado Chasers LUKE ISEMAN is cofounder of Make Sunsets. He (very occasionally) writes at lukeiseman.com and lives mainly around California (Baja and Northern). It's easy to feel like climate change is too big of a problem for makers to tackle; I certainly felt this way. Yeah, adding solar panels to my RV felt good and helps a bit, but I'm still towing it behind my gas-guzzling F-450. Modern life emits a lot of carbon, and it's not stopping any time soon. Nor is warming: we've only experienced half of the heat we've already baked in with our past emissions. The more I learned, the greater my suspicion that global warming is too great a challenge for makers like me! I turned to the…

ANIMATRONICA Demonic Deer You've stumbled upon an abandoned hunting cabin, deep in the woods, on a dark and stormy night. On the wall above the mantle hangs an impressive stag, long dead and stuffed, his massive antlers covered with cobwebs and dust. You sit down to rest — and suddenly — hear a crack, a creak, a groan, as the static creature above you springs to life. Its glassy black eyes begin to glow with a haunting red light, and its head turns your direction, gaze fixed upon you as it lets out chilling, evil laughter! While such a scene, as in the 1987 cult classic Evil Dead II, can be achieved on screen through the use of manually operated puppets and creative sound editing, doing it in real life…

ANIMATRONICA Singing Ghosts Starting to learn animatronics as an art form can be really intimidating. Programming, mechatronic design, electrical engineering … the list of required skills goes on and on. And to be honest, I think that's no fun! Animatronics should be an art form available to everyone. To make animatronics more accessible, I've been developing Bottango (bottango.com) for over five years. Bottango is free animatronic animation software that's been used for years by beginners on up to industry professionals to create dynamic animatronic performances. In Bottango, you use industry-standard animation workflows for animating digital characters, like you would in 3D movies and games, and apply those techniques to real-world animatronics. Instead of creating animations in hard-to-visualize code, you use keyframes along a timeline to make movements of a 3D…

PROJECTS: Solar Plant Rotator This battery-free device will make your hanging plants happy. Powered by the sun, it slowly spins your suspended plant so it receives a healthy amount of light on all sides. I have always been fascinated and entertained by BEAM robots, and I'm always looking for useful projects to utilize their “solar engine” circuits. So I thought these little solar harvesters would be a great fit when I was trying to think of an automated way to rotate my very lopsided fern plants, which were unfortunately not close to any power outlets. Because my plants are heavy, I wanted to make a design that could hold a lot of weight. So I used a metal U-bolt, hook, and a strong but light 1” square aluminum tube for…

LEE WILKINS is an artist, cyborg, technologist, and educator based in Montreal, Quebec, a board member of the Open Source Hardware Association, and the author of this column on technology and the body and how they intertwine. Follow them on Instagram @leeborg_ Every winter, Trillium Park on the waterfront in Toronto is lit up with amazing sculptures at night. For a few years now, my friends Kyle Chisholm, Hillary Predko, and Daemon Baliski and I have had the opportunity to create some of these works. This year we're super excited to have made Greenhouse Reflect, a mesmerizing mirrored sculpture that changes throughout the cycle of the day, and is my favorite shape, the icosahedron. During the day it's a reflective fragmentation of the landscape, and at night it's a warm,…

PROJECTS: Office Status Monsters DAVID BATTINO (batmosphere.com) is the co-author of The Art of Digital Music and writes the popular “Synth Hacks” column for Waveform. With his wife, Hazuki, he also self-publishes Japanese storytelling books, which they have performed at four Maker Faires. My office had a problem: Our high-walled cubicles and various telework schedules made it difficult to know when someone was at their desk. We'd barge in and interrupt Zoom meetings, or see an empty seat and wonder if the person was coming back soon or working from home. In some companies, hackers build network gadgets that light up to show their Microsoft Teams status (available, away, or busy), but our IT department prohibits networked peripherals. So, I bought a bunch of Japanese action figures and added LEDs,…

SKILL BUILDER: AI Tinkercad Tips This tutorial is excerpted from the new Make: book The Complete Guide to Tinkercad: Design, Sculpt, and 3D Print Your Ideas, available now at the Maker Shed (makershed.com) and fine booksellers. LYDIA SLOAN CLINE teaches digital modeling and 3D printing at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, and is the author of Make: Fusion 360 for Makers. She is a 3D printing enthusiast and a judge at competitive technology events, and is active in her local Maker community. In this brief tutorial we'll discuss ways to incorporate ChatGPT into your design process using Tinkercad, to solve problems around the house. WHAT IS CHATGPT? ChatGPT is a Large Language Model (a type of artificial intelligence) developed by OpenAI. It has been trained on extensive…