Welcome: Sharing Skills
Dale Dougherty
Video has become an indispensable tool for learning, but it still doesn’t beat hands-on practice to master a skill. Page 05
Make: Volume 74 — 2020 Boards Guide
Welcome to Make:’s 2020 Guide to Boards! This year brings powerful new releases from Adafruit, Arduino, BeagleBoard, Google, Nvidia, Raspberry Pi, Teensy, and more. We’ve assembled the technical data for new boards and returning favorites (listing over 50% more than our previous guide!), along with highlighting options to consider for your next project. To further help your decision-making process, some of our favorite electronics experts explain how they pick the right board for their projects. But the real star of electronic prototyping in 2020 is the software: In our cover story, we look at how Python-powered boards make it easier than ever to code for hardware.
Plus, your favorite YouTube makers offer their tips and tricks for getting started making videos, how to grow your channel, and what you need to get a great shot (Hint: it’s probably in your pocket right now).
And don’t forget, Halloween is right around the corner! Learn to build an R/C roving pop-up zombie-in-a-trashcan to scare the daylights out of the neighborhood, make a light and cheap fog projection screen p114 for your haunted house, and create a flaming window setup so realistic, you’ll have to warn the fire department about erroneous reports ahead of time.
Lastly, read the finale of Make:‘s series on how our community can help avert catastrophic climate change.
Plus, over 43 projects including:
- Block ads across your entire home network with the Pi-hole ad blocker
- Use code to make beautiful topographical maps of the Moon, Mars, and more
- Create a swirling stormy snow globe with LED-lit rheoscopic fluid
- Build a DIY mobile handwashing station for your community
- Tips and builds for exercising your constitutional right to protest safely and effectively
- Macramé an adorable Bay Yoda from The Mandalorian
- And much more!
On the Cover: The Adafruit Clue microcontroller lights up with a graphic from the PyCon 2020 conference.
Table of Contents
Columns
Reader Input
Notes from readers like you.Page 06
Made on Earth
Backyard builds from around the globe.Page 08
Features
Reinventing a Material World
Saul Griffith
We need new tricks — quick — to decarbonize our stuff and the ways we manufacture it.Page 14
Protests Matter
Keith Hammond
50+ how-to’s for flexing your constitutional rights.Page 20
Virtually Maker Faire
Dale Dougherty
Makers around the world logged on for an epic 24-hour, global show and tell. Page 22
Grab Your Board
So Many Choices
Mike Senese
With more features and control than ever, dev boards give makers limitless options for their projects.Page 24
Python on Hardware
Helen Leigh
Python’s star is rapidly rising in physical computing. Here’s why to use Python (or not!) in your next project.Page 28
Microcontrollers, Meet MicroBlocks
Kathy Giori
Physical computing software for education that runs live on the microcontroller! Page 35
Shut Your Pi-Hole
Pi-hole Dev Team
Use a Raspberry Pi to block internet ads on your entire network — computers, smart TVs, phone apps, all of it.Page 38
Makers on YouTube
Lights... Camera... Make!
Mike Senese
Advice from the pros on how to become a project-documenting content creator.Page 42
Tools of the Trade
Mike Senese
Set up your YouTuber studio smartly with these tips.Page 48
YouTube Maker Alarm
Wesley Treat
Build a custom notification circuit that lights up when your favorite maker uploads a new video. Page 54
Camera Shy
Sarah Fogle
The host of UglyDucklingHouse shares her contemporaries’ reasons for avoiding YouTube.Page 58
Projects
DIY Mobile Handwashing Station
Sam Reardon with Kris Kepler, Colton Coty, Adam Vera, and Joey Freid
Bring the clean with this 32-gallon rig made from common hardware. Page 62
Storm Globe
John Thurmond
Forget snow globes — build a swirling tempest for your desk using magnetic stirring and LED lightning! Page 68
The Game of Jeu Gruyère
William Gurstelle
This simple woodworking project provides years of backyard fun, French style.Page 72
DIY Atlas of Space
Eleanor Lutz
Going to the moon and Mars? You’ll need maps. Beautiful maps.Page 78
Knot the Child You’re Looking For
Jane Stewart
This is the way... to tie your own macramé Child (aka Baby Yoda) from The Mandalorian TV series.Page 82
Toy Inventor’s Notebook: Roth’s Orbitron
Bob Knetzger
Making the Hot Wheels car that never was!Page 86
Amateur Scientist: Badder Than Batteries
Forrest M. Mims III
Getting to know the super fast-charging supercapacitor.Page 92
Halloween
Cosplaying While Black
Mimi The Nerd
Tips on getting started and ignoring the haters.Page 94
R/C Garbage Can Zombie
Mel Vallero, M.D.
Build the scariest prop in the hood, and have more fun than your kids, with this drivable update of a classic. Page 100
Bread Head
Matt Merkel Hess
Serve Halloween guests a creepy loaf of sourdough in the shape of your own dome. Page 108
DIY Fog Projection Screen
Randell Vallero, M.D.
Low-cost and lightweight, this indoor-outdoor screen looks awesome and adapts to the weather.Page 112
Skill Builder
D-I-Ply
Tim Sway
Reuse hollow-core doors to make plywood and more, with less work than you think.Page 116
Toolbox
Toolbox
Gear up with the latest tools and kits for makers.Page 122
Over the Top
Universal Lego Sorter
Daniel West
Built entirely from bricks, this machine can identify and sort any part made, ever. Page 128
