Valve Radio, RLC-Box, LED-Plant & more

In this month's maker meetup we saw some retro tech, maker ingenuity, a beautiful way to lighten up your home and a lot of lively discussions. All that with some pizza and the obligatory tour through our FabLab.

Markus came with a valve radio kit from franzis. In a vacuum tube radio, the vacuum tube amplifies the tiny voltage changes received as electromagnetic signals into much larger electrical currents. These amplified signals are then converted into clear, distinguishable audio that can be played through a speaker. A beautiful vintage-inspired DIY project-set.

https://www.franzis.de/bausaetze/diy-projekte/das-franzis-roehrenradio-zum-selberbauen-bausatz

Torsten had his remote contolled model car fleet expanded by the bus we saw empty last Meetup.

The RLC Box is an original design by Roger, who presented us with a relatively new version this month. The components are mounted on individually switchable ring boards. Toggle switches determine which resistors, inductors, and capacitors are connected and whether they are configured in series or parallel. This allows a wide variety of RLC resonant circuits and filters to be created, covering most practical relevant applications.

https://www.ak-modul-bus.de/stat/universelle_rlc_box_deluxe_lcr_box2.html

Andreas was inspired by the Z1 computer. Due to manufacturing tolerances, the original machine frequently suffered from mechanical jams that caused computation errors. To address this issue, he developed a buffer mechanism for transmitting mechanical impulses with minimal energy loss. The centrally mounted spring stores mechanical energy and efficiently transfers it through the attached rod, resulting in smoother and more reliable operation.

Martin found a glowing plant design on MakerWorld and 3D-printed his own version. Programmable LED strips are embedded in each leaf, with the wiring routed through the stems and controlled by an ESP32 microcontroller in the "root". It's a beautiful way to add colorful ambient lighting to a room, even if you don't have a green thumb.

https://makerworld.com/de/models/1125099-flora-led-light-leaves