So, every maker needs a set of tools to effectively build something. Here’s what I use.

Journaling/Notetaking

So, I’m a big believe in using a journal to track notes, projects, calculations, etc, for my projects.

I love the Vela Field Journal (~$14 USD on Amazon). It’s a little expensive, but I love it. There’s a table of contents at the beginning of the notebook. The pages don’t smudge. Each page is numbered.

And speaking on pens, I’m pretty snobbish when I comes to writing instruments – I primarily use Uniball Signo pens (I typically use the Signo 307s)

Electronics

Many intro electronic kits come with header pins, which are fine initially… but at some point, you’ll have to move to soldering to make more complex projects.

If you’re just getting started, then I’d suggest you order the Adafruit “Ladyada Electronics Toolkit” ($100 on adafruit.com). You’ll get everything you need to get started, including:

• soldering iron and stand
• solder wire, solder sucker, and solder wick
• diagonal and wire cutters
• breadboard
• multimeter
• coiled wire
• a few assorted electronic components
• Panavise pcb grip (an absolute must have!)

When you’re ready, you can upgrade specific tools as needed. Here’s what I’m currently using:

My soldering iron is the Hakko FX-888D ($130 USD on Amazon). It sits on my maker desk as is always plugged in and ready for use.

I also invested in:

• a silicon rework mat to keep bits of solder off my desk
• a pair of helping hands
• assorted tweezers
• cheap small tupperware containers to hold assorted components
• DC bench power supply
• assorted heat shrink wrap and a heat gun

3D Printer

So, there are better people to follow and get recommendations from on 3D printers. That being said, I’ll share what I did, and will provide links to who I follow/trust.

My first 3D printer was a clone of the Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus, which i heavily modded (added an all metal hot end, glass bed, better fan, stronger frame, etc.). I started with a $350-ish machine, spent another $150, and got a $800 (retail price) machine. I still use it occasionally (and am still making upgrades)….

… but I recently decided to go all-in on a Prusa MK3S. No 3D printer is perfect (and I definitely have problems)… though overall, I’ve been really happy with the machine. The only drawback is the price ($799 for the kit, plus costs to ship).

If you’re thinking of buying a 3D printer, I suggest to take a peak at what these makers user:

• 3D Printing Nerd
• Thomas Sanladerer
• Matterhackers.com

I needed a low cost way to measure current requirements and battery drain over time (for one of my wearable projects). I had a TON of unused Adafruit Feathers and FeatherWings, so I decided to use components I already had, plus an Adafruit INA219 FeatherWing to build a voltage and current logger. It logs to SD card, Adafruit IO, and has outputs for tracking and triggering “events”.

I’m in the process of building a small wearable device (the be better bracelet) and I wanted it to be as small as possible. I originally powering the wearable with a coin cell battery, but realized pretty quickly that those batteries didn’t have the required mAh for my project (which includes a haptic motor).

I needed a way to track battery life and current over time; I also wanted a way to easily trigger or record “events” (an action taken to take the project out of sleep). I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on tools, so I looked into building something leveraging one of the 20+ un-used Adafruit Feathers (and FeatherWing accessories) in my electronics toolbox.

I knew that Adafruit had a INA219 current sensor FeatherWing… so I wired that to an Cortex M0 (with an ATWINC1500) feather and a TFT device. This allows me to see updates on the screen, send readings to Adafruit IO, and record data to an SD card.

I wanted something easily portable and extendable, so I:

• added a small Lipo battery to the logging device
• printed an enclosed case
• added an on/off rocker switch
• added two 2.1mm female panel mounts: input for a battery or other power input and an output to the device I’m measuring
• two banana clip female panel mounts – to either “trigger” an event (e.g. sends a HIGH output to simulate a button push) or to track an incoming event (I manually pushed a button on the wearable)

Read more here: https://hackaday.io/project/165224-voltage-and-current-logger

Per the EPA, food scraps and yard waste make up 20-30% of what we throw away. These materials could instead be composted, keeping waste out of landfills and reducing methane gas emissions.

Unfortunately, most do not compost, due to ignorance on the benefits of composting, misunderstanding of what can be composted, or lack of desire to manage compost.

The Compost Professor is a smart composting system that helps to address these issues by making the science of composting simple for today’s home owner. The Compost Professor uses analytics and artificial intelligence to help anyone successfully create compost with minimal effort.

Where possible, the system will act on the user’s behalf to take corrective actions to accelerate the composting process. When human intervention is needed, the system tells the user what should be added to the compost and when the compost bin should be turned. In addition, the system tracks when compost is ready for use.

Read more here: https://hackaday.io/project/24933-the-compost-professor-a-smart-composting-system

This was my first “make”, and continues to be the one that I’m most recognized for. It’s a take on a magic mirror, except now integrated with Alexa.

This was created in 2016 – before Amazon released their first batch of Amazon Echo’s with displays. So while it might seem a little hokey now, it was cool when it was created.

Read more about it here: https://www.hackster.io/darian-johnson/mystic-mirror-389f08

I love smart lighting. I’ve got seven wall switches, a smart bulb, and a smart plug (connected to a lamp) in my home. I’ve even built my own smart lamp.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found the same innovation when it comes to other lighting apparatus. I haven’t seen a smart night light on the market. I think smart lamps can be better.

Smart candles are the worse; most don’t look like candles. They don’t smell like candles. They aren’t controllable by voice.

I’ve been thinking of building a smart candle system for a while; Hackster’s “Alexa and Arduino Smart Home Challenge” seemed like a good reason to take my ideas and attempt to build something.

Read more on Hackster

I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’ve always wanted to build a Star Trek themed device, so I finally got around to remixing one of my old projects to make a Star Trek Display Terminal.

The terminal provides the following information:

• Weather – using the National Weather Service
• Indoor Temperature, Humidity and Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) strength
• News Articles – from News.org
• Schedule (with alarm function) – from Microsoft Outlook
• Fitness Information (Steps, Move Minutes, Heart Points, Weight, Calories Burned) – from Google Fitness
• a Resistor color code chart
• an LED Resistor Calculator (to determine the resistor value based on current and source power)

Read more about my project at:

• Instructables
• Hackaday