HackSpace #55

Plotters are very definitely machines, but they do something that is very human: draw. Watching a plotter in action – particularly a vertical plotter with its less obvious motors – makes you feel like the machine is thinking, maybe even feeling. It’s not, of course. It’s following a set of programmatically generated instructions, but that’s not the point. It’s not about what it is, it’s about how we perceive it. We developed this plotter in Bristol Hackspace, and every time we had it running a picture, people passing by would stop to watch. It’s just that sort of machine. Nobody needs a plotter – it won’t solve a problem you have, but it is just fun. It’s fun to tinker with, it’s fun to watch, and it’s fun to look…

hsmag.cc/WalnutLaptop Reddit user mw33121 made this beautiful laptop, based on a Raspberry Pi 4B. The case is 5 mm and 10 mm walnut (the darker wood you can see is Indian rosewood; the lighter wood is maple), and it was built with hand tools and a cordless drill. In the maker’s own words: “Inside there’s the LCD panel and driver board, a tiny amp, and tiny speakers, a camera and microphone, a 30 k mAh laptop power bank, the foldable keyboard/trackpad, with a Raspberry Pi 4B running it all. The USB port charges the power bank and there are controls for the overall power, the monitor control board, and the amp volume on the sides. There’s a small slot to change the SD card at one end and a tiny…

hsmag.cc/AutomatedChessBoard This automated chessboard by Greg is wonderfully simple, and so cleanly built that we had to ask him for a shot of the underside of the build too, just so you can see that there’s more to it than a standard chessboard. The chessboard houses an electromagnet moving on a set of extruded aluminium rails, very much like a laser cutter. Two stepper motors and transmission belts move the electromagnet up and down and left and right so it can move the chess pieces above into any position on the board. If you remember the excitement around Deep Blue, the IBM supercomputer that beat Garry Kasparov in a match in 1996-7, you’ll be amazed to learn that the brains for this machine are provided by a simple Arduino Nano.…

hsmag.cc/Cyberdeck2 We love chunky toggle switches, and this build by cyzoonic has four of them. That’s what drew us in; what intrigued us is that the keyboard and all the electronics are remounted on a custom-cut aluminium chassis – that’s what elevated this build to the next level of polish. That, and the WiFi, 11-inch screen, Cherry keyboard, and the waterproof Pelican case, which ensures that the bearer of this machine will still be able to hack the mainframe (or whatever remains) in the event of an apocalypse.…

hsmag.cc/SavoniusTurbine A Savonius wind turbine is the simplest form of vertical wind turbine you’re likely to see. At their most basic, they’re made from two halves of a cylinder cut lengthwise and stuck back together around a rotating axis. They’re easy to build, but not as efficient as some other designs – which is why Adrian Cubas has created his own design here, adding wind deflectors to improve torque and reduce drag on the side of the cylinder that’s moving toward the wind. Adrian used a stepper motor in place of a generator – it’s basically just wires and magnets, and so the only consideration, if you’re going to make one of these yourself, is that you really need to wire the thing up correctly.…

hsmag.cc/BrassMouse People love their computers; they’re tools that we’re connected to for hours, days, or weeks at a time. We fidget over elbow and wrist positions, we spend crazy amounts of money on the best screens, the most comfortable keyboards… and then we go and use the same lump of plastic to move a cursor around. Uri Tuchman wanted to improve on the bog-standard computer mouse, and so he made this. The electronics may have been lifted out of an old two-button mouse, but everything else is Uri’s work. There’s a solid brass base plate and brass stand-offs (milled by Uri – nothing is shop-bought). Even the scroll wheel is lovely, cool, tactile brass. And check out the engraving!…