Welcome to our maker news where we wrap up some fun and interesting stories in the maker world from the last few weeks. The video will come out on Fridays, but we are posting a topic here on Wednesdays to post the video’s sources and to collect any news from the community to potentially include in next week’s as well as just open up general discussion.
This week we looked at:
ESP32 Beaming Signals to Space
Andreas Spiess, affectionately known as “the guy with a Swedish accent,” has achieved something truly remarkable with an ordinary ESP32 microcontroller: sending data to space. While ESP32s typically have wireless ranges comparable to your home Wi-Fi networks, Spiess demonstrated how dramatically this can be extended with the right equipment.
By connecting a 1.2-meter dish antenna to a standard ESP32, he was able to focus the signal with enough precision to communicate with a geostationary satellite 36,000 kilometres above the Earth. What makes this achievement particularly impressive is that the setup used no power amplification beyond the ESP32’s built-in capabilities—the entire system ran off a simple USB cable power supply (although there was a little bit of modification needed to get the wireless chip to transmit at a slightly lower frequency).
Raspberry Pi Pico 2 to it’s Extreme
Renowned demoscene artist Linus Åkesson has created what might be the most impressive Raspberry Pi Pico 2 project to date, pushing the microcontroller’s capabilities to extraordinary limits. Using the Pico 2 with a few simple components to allow it to output a VGA video signal, Åkesson created an astonishing demoscene entirely generated and rendered in real-time by the microcontroller.
The project required an impressive 17,000 lines of assembly code but features some incredible visual rendering including fluid simulations. This isn’t pre-recorded video being played back—every frame is calculated and rendered on-the-fly by the Pico’s processor. This was actually submitted to Revision 2025, a demo scene convention, and he somehow only won 2nd place in his category.
A Fully 3D Printed Typewriter
YouTube creator Toast, who creates 3D Printed versions of everyday objects, has created a fully
(mostly) 3D-printed typewriter. While it may not resemble a traditional typewriter in appearance and is limited to typing on small surfaces approximately the size of a Post-it note, the project represents an impressive achievement in functional 3D printing.
The design incorporates numerous clever solutions to mechanical challenges, including a clever solution to advancing the paper and the use of carbon paper as the printing medium which eliminates the need for ink cartridges or ribbons while still producing clear text impressions. For anyone interested in mechanical design, 3D printing, or the intersection of old and new technologies, Toast’s typewriter build is just a great watch.
And if you have any news from the maker world, feel free to post it below and we may include it in next week’s video, until then we will see you next week!
