Raising Awesome Projects
This page summarizes our various mechanical, robotic, and electronic projects found across the internet and magazines.
Mechatronics Projects
These are the projects that required both mechanics, electronics, and often alot of programming.
Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect Flight Controller
We made the world's first published open source Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect Flight Controller. The custom designed PCB was fabricated by PCBWay. Click here to see all the details and get the open source code!
First Place Winner! We went all out on this laser/wood carving CNC. We also made an Arduino shield for clean hookup and software to run it. Check out our Instructable!
Second Place Winner: This DIY Jumbo CNC Laser is easier to assemble than a Lego kit, but can handle 1/4" hardwood like its butter.
Grand Prize Winner: We tricked out a backup cam with a servo and Visual AI brains to create a talking virtual backseat spotter to help you backup.
We wanted to learn the physics behind pitch machines. So, we googled some patents and replicated the basic mechanics to get great results.
To help with the illusion of a fully autonomous R2D2, we built an incognito Controller. His dome was fully autonomous, but this little controller allowed us to safely control him with it being hidden in our pocket.
First Place Winner: In our quest for the perfectly roasted marshmallow, we got an idea on how to lock in some variables such as roast time and Rotisserie speed.
Featured on the Ben Heck Show: A clock that transforms into a crane! This was a "Design for a Cause" project to help those with accessibility challenges.
Featured on The Shed Magazine and Element14 Presents: We converted a trike to run off 36 Volts for up to 4 hours! It also has smart safety tech to keep the rider safe. This was another "Design for a Cause" project.
PCBWay Contest Winner: After daydreaming for years about being able to websling, we finally pulled it off. We also added Visual ai to detect humans behind us to enable spidey-sense!!
I was travelling a lot during a phase of my life. So, Connor and I found a way to keep our projects going even when I was out of town: Dadbot - a robot controlled from a hotel room!
Electronics
These are the projects that electronics and programming, but had limited moving parts.
This was our big deep dive into Visual AI. It is a camera that will detect ghosts! It uses OpenCV, Python, and a Raspberry Pi within a custom designed 3D printed camera case.
Social Distancing IoT Desk Ornament
This little desk ornament gets the stock price for your company, shows core values, shows the joke of the day, gets the time from a time server, and much more. Too much to fit here - check out the blog!
Instructables Runner Up: We tricked out an owl with a car backup sensor to make a really cool camp site alarm.
A friend asked if we could make what he called a Ghost Catching Geo box. It also made for a really cool remastering of a World War II remaster.
We take you through a ATX case rebuild. Although the tech will age, the ATX form factor never changes allowing this video to stay relevant for many years to come.
Element 14 First Place Winner: Have a teenager - or a parent - that takes too long in the shower? This little diddy will make sure they won't.
This quick video shows how you can dim strip lights with a potentiometer.
First Place Winner: After Walnut had been working in industry around the Modbus protocol for many, many years - we thought we'd do a deep dive to understand it.
Automotive Repair
Some of our car repair projects.
We had an emergency gasket repair to do on an Inline Six Cylinder of the '99 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
All the little secrets passed down through the generations in one video.
How to Change a Car Door Electric Lock
If you hold on to a vehicle longer than most, you'll go through four or five of these over the years. The first time may be intimidating, but after that, you can knock it out in under 30 minutes.
How to Fix a Gear Shifter Backlight
The original glow panels of yester-years tech on gear shifters often died after about 15 years. This video shows an alternate cheap approach for the repair.
Programming
Some projects that had a lot of programming involved to pull off.
Deepfake and AI Voice Changing
This summarizes our exploration into the Python DeepFace library as well as AI Voice Changers. Github is full of opensource on this early tech. It is changing the world and media industry by the minute.
This is us flexing our coding skills to do a little social media entrapeneurship. We made a full fledged social media site that has all the best features of all other sites rolled into one. It is written in nodeJS for the server, MongoDB (NoSQL) or the database, javascript/jQuery for the client, and leverages Bootstrap and TinyMCE. The code is an absolute clinic to Boostrap/Opensource package implementation.
We wanted a modern, 3D digital twin of our CNC to drive the GCode. The open source on the market has become dated, so we made our own. Check out our Instructable!
We made a smart camera that uses OpenCV Visual AI to snap pictures and video. Makes for a great Home and Event Monitoring System. They auto organize on the network.
This is our ultimate effort of all programming projects. We have developed on this released Indie Game for nearly a decade. We had the whole family involved from 3D modeling to voice acting. It required applying vectors, developing multiple Non-Player-Character AI, crazy "threaded" routines, invisible assets within assets, game achievement management, Virtual Reality - pretty much everything you can think of to make a game. Check it out on Steam.
Beagleboard ASP.Net Core 5 Webserver
We heard that .Net 5 was pretty light weight, so we put it to the test and put it on a little single Beagleboard computer. It worked great - it even runs this web site!
Featured on Element14 Presents: We found a way to make a 3D Video game talk to an Arduino adding another cool dimension to gaming.
Grand Prize Winner: This was from a contest for the Microsoft Azure Sphere.
This was a video demoing our first Unit video game, Summilization.
Home DIY
Projects from around the house.
How to Repair a Water Softener
This Instructable was Connor's first. It shows the steps to rebuild a Water Softener as well as show how they work.
More than You Wanted to Know About Toilets
Our basement was stubbed out for a bathroom - so we made use of it and learned a little while we were at it.
Not really a build video - more of an inform on the options for Christmas lights these days.
The Nest Thermostat adds some smarts to yourc HVAC compared to an old mercury switches. Here we take you through the install.
Making a true fabricated PCB should be on every Makers bucket list. We take you through it for our R2D2 here.
A very fundamental skill to keep a happy home - well installed wall anchors.
Install a Network Cable in a Wall
Our second how-to video ever made somehow got the most views. Here is Connor at a very early age.
How to Fix Anything Mechanical
Yep - that's right - fix anything mechanical after watching this - truly.
Life Lessons
Videos capturing early life lessons.
We both learned the valuable lesson in life in this one - always keep a steady demeanor.
Connor shot this after having a very interesting experience when learning to dance in 6th grade gym.
An adventure in South Carolina to find out what cypress knees are.
The explanation as to what "Do or Do Not: There is No Try" actually meant.
Published Books and Magazine Articles
Connor had a few publications along the way.
A full length novel based on a set of friends' Middle School Days.
A story where empathy prevails over everything else that's wrong in the world.
Our first offshore publication - The Shed Magazine of New Zealand featuring our ultimate trike build.
Get More Videos at the Raising Awesome Channel
You can find more videos including deep dive tutorials on our Youtube Channel. We hope to see you there soon.
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