Well, good morning, everybody. How's everybody doing? Good? All right. How many people drink coffee?
How many people like good coffee? Well, if you like good coffee, you're going to learn what you can do with that Keurig during this talk,
because Keurig's produced mostly garbage, but really cool stuff. So let's give Evan a big round of applause.
Thank you. Everybody hear me all right? Sound good? Awesome. I'm Evan, as the gentleman said.
We're going to start off today with my shotgun of random. I need to put a few rounds through real quick just to get us going.
There's a lot of these guys around. These protocols are going to become more popular.
Companies like this are going to start adopting them, and then they're going to get cheaper and cheaper, cheaper and cheaper,
and then eventually it's going to be a new construction.
And then eventually it's going to be a new construction.
Everyone will have this connected home thing, right?
And so eventually audio will be connected, lights in your home will be connected,
and then someone's going to find a god-awful exploit, and then I really hope that it's one of you,
and you have a sense of humor, and one of you does this.
It's murder night! Yeah! Woo!
And also this.
All right.
Cool.
So the next time that you tell a joke that everyone in your crowd should get,
and then they are a jerk about it and they don't get it, I don't know,
say this. Say, hey, look, man, I'm sorry. It was an inside joke,
this thing we all had to learn in elementary school.
You really just had to be there, I guess.
All right.
Is that a goat?
I just redid my deck.
I have a deck goat, officially.
This is all random stuff.
Cool.
Wouldn't it be terrible if you had some condition where, like,
all of your inner dialogue was in garden path sentences?
So you'd be like, did I leave the bathroom light on?
Toilet paper? Dang it.
Break.
Google that later.
Okay.
Those guys who are jerks are like, someone walks by quickly and they're like,
hey, where's the fire?
Like, that is the one time that I really wish that I could produce fire out of my hands.
That would be the best time for that.
All right.
Is Deviant in here? Deviant?
Cool. Watch it later.
Okay.
So, yeah, so Deviant, we were all sitting around at CarolinaCon having a conversation,
and he got paid a compliment by Chef, and I just wanted to let you know that Chef was absolutely right about that.
100%.
And while we're here, anybody get yard sale in here?
Like, yard sailors?
Anybody?
Someone needs to make an app.
Sometimes you find stuff that's still, like, in the package, you know?
Someone needs to find an app that you can just, like, scan that,
and it'll tell you where to return it and how much you can get for it, right?
Cool.
Oh.
All right.
We're out.
Okay.
Cool.
So this is Jittery MacGyver.
That was a shotgun of randoms.
All right.
Today we're going to be talking about finding potential.
And I guess another way of looking at this is MacGyvering, right?
So who watched MacGyver growing up in here?
Should be a lot of you, right?
So if you're the under-initiated MacGyver, you could put him in any situation, give him any stuff, right?
And he can, like, use that stuff and, like, find a solution and get him back into safety, right?
So really cool guy, a lot of fun to watch, and I really love that kind of problem-solving, that kind of engineering.
So let's look at a couple examples of, like, solid MacGyvering throughout history, right?
So the first one is George Washington Carver.
This guy is a complete and utter badass.
So he arrived, actually, at a new job.
He's, like, the director of agriculture at some college in Georgia, right?
And they didn't have money to buy his lab equipment.
Didn't even tell him about it, right?
And so, like, instead of, like, you know, rage quitting, he took his students and, like,
they went and scavenged, like, junkyards and stuff and found lab equipment and, like,
eventually got all the stuff they needed to, you know, make cool stuff.
And that's what happened.
And you guys probably know Mr. Carver for his work on the peanut, right?
He made, you know, a couple of things with that.
So he looked at that and he said, you know, there's some potential here in this little
thing.
And he did a whole lot with it.
Another really cool example is Cuba, right?
So in 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolves, Cuba found themselves in a really bad financial
crisis, right?
They couldn't, like, trade with anybody, and so they sort of had this stuff and they had
to really make do with what they had.
And so, like, the government decided to, like, take a lot of money out of this problem just
to get by.
So, I mean, the whole place turned into a bunch of MacGyvers, right?
And the government knew it would take a long time for them to, like, work their way out
of this problem.
So they put out these two publications.
One was the Book for the Family and the other is With Our Own Efforts.
And basically these are, like, giant compilations of, like, popular mechanics and, like, recipes
and house you guys and stuff just using stuff that they already had, right?
So this book is really interesting.
It's pretty long.
It's, like, 300 pages long.
I'll highlight some of the really interesting things for you here.
So first off is this cut out of a person with, like, an uncomfortable amount of attention
paid to the nipular region for God knows why.
This is, it looks like plans for a primitive kill yourself device.
And if you liked AK-47, you're going to love AK-47 on a stick for reasons.
This one's my favorite.
This is the Desplasmatizador.
And this you take jars and you connect them with either wires or tubes or something and
maybe some needles.
This is, I think, that's maybe, like, unsettled Italian dressing or something.
I don't know.
But anyways, you plug all that into what looks like either a motor or a compressor
from a refrigerator and you plug that immediately into the wall.
And I think this probably opens up a portal to an alternate dimension where terrible ideas
come from.
But one thing that everyone hates about AK-47 is that it's a little bit too small.
So, what happened is that the guy that had it is this orico washer slash dryer combination.
And everybody's dryer part of this thing crapped out.
Right?
Something went wrong with it and couldn't use it anymore.
So, like, this spawned a whole, like, underground industry of people who were crafty enough
to take these things and, like, most of the time they would just cut it right in the middle
and discard the dryer part.
But the motors in them were still good.
So, they used those motors for everything.
This is shredding coconut.
This is a key duplication machine.
This is, I mean, they took a backseat.
outboard motor impeller or propeller and uh slapped it on the motor and made a fan right?
Pretty awesome. And everything was like this. So uh if you wanted something you had to build
it. And so you had like glasses like these which would like earn you plus 10 charisma for
even looking at them I think. Holy crap. And like these locks are look they look pretty
secure right? I don't know. Uh yeah maybe those are they have some in the lock people I
don't know. Uh this thing uh supposedly this this uh like refreshed uh hearing aid
batteries. Um also if you if you were drinking while you used it it would remove the need for
hearing aids altogether because you would be dead a lot. So uh this is actually like like
homemade plastic extrusion stuff right? So like if if OG like Cuban Bane was around he'd be
like oh you merely adopted 3D printing right? And everything's like this. So they use these
metal food trays as uh as antennas. It's amazing stuff. So uh a lot of really really
interesting stuff. There's like there's a whole website uh it's called
uh Technological Disobedience uh just like dedicated just for this stuff right? So another
uh really great example it comes from 1970 and uh April 11th we launched Apollo 13. And
you guys know that you know we got into space okay there were a few hiccups here and there
and we were you know trucking along and all of a sudden uh Houston we've got a problem
right? So they got uh uh they thought they got hit by a hit by an asteroid at first but
turns out it was just a a short in some some teflon insulation on some wires it caused a fire
it caused an oxygen tank to explode and then all of a sudden like they don't have any life
support. So they had to tunnel over to the lunar module and stay over there cause that had a
separate life support module but uh the problem was that they uh were clogging the the lithium
hydroxide filters which scrub the you know the the air um from you know for like the of CO2 and
it makes it breathable again right? So you've got all of the astronauts uh in this thing and
they need to be in there for four days. That's way too long. So you've got all of the
astronauts in there for four days. That's way too long. So NASA they they you know anticipated
this and uh they got busy right? So they're back at home base and like well they've got filters
but you know they're they're square and they need to fit in a round hole. It's like literally
the the the peg scenario right? So they came up with this. This is the mailbox rig. Basically
they just took like you know the the cardboard cover off the flight plan and a piece of you
know plastic here and a tube there and all this stuff and they they you know made it back on
earth and then they sent them the instructions and they're asked or not so they figured it out
you know and they made one themselves. Look how calm he looks. He's just like yeah I just made a
mailbox rig. Saved out everybody's life right? So you guys probably know this story but my
favorite part is this guy Ed Smiley. He's the uh the was the chief of crew systems division at
the time and he spearheaded the design and the the testing of the mailbox rig and uh he he's
amazing and something that he said later like after they landed was this. He said when I found
out we had duct tape on board we were pretty well home free.
Crazy. So those are a few great examples of history that I love. Um wanna talk about a few
things that I've done personally right? So um the first thing is everyone's got like a big bin of
of cables in your in your home in your office in your closet somewhere right? I I was no
exception and I I you know found that thing and I was like you know I I'm gonna do something with
this. So I made a universal serial bullwhip and this is a a a eight foot uh 18 plant uh bullwhip
and it's a a a very thin leather belt on the end with a a regular nylon cracker and um there's
one like thick DVI cable like as the trunk in the middle you know? And uh you think it cracks?
You wanna see? Uh well I'll tell you what hang on. I got it right here. Let's do this thing
live alright? So this is probably the first time I've ever done this. So this is a
that's uh you guys need to pray to Tim O'Connor.
That's a bunch of metal. You'd probably tear your face off. Alright. So another one I was going
down to a conference in Atlanta and I I brought this giant uh pelican case just full of office
stuff right? So I immediately got to the hotel and I was like oh I need to do something with this.
So I went down to the hotel room and don't tell them the and uh took everything apart. And from
the ashes arose Milton! And Milton I don't even know what it is exactly but it's like a a really
heavy spiky bat thing with a red swing line on the end um for the name. Dude paper shredder heads
are are like they're gnarly man. Good grief. I got so many like little bricks and cuts. That's
RJ45 just kind of wrapping everything everything together like a boss. So basically I just took uh I
gave this over on an all-in-one printer. It's like gears and rods and like demons. It's like I
don't even know how it works man. It's like there's a spell on all of them. And it took all like
the long you know sturdy pieces and then I wrapped them all in like some uh uh like case
metal right? And I duct taped all that. And this is the size of it um compared to uh to two
Evans. And um it's uh I guess around around 13, 14 pounds. So let's see what it does here. So
that was a coconut. Here's slo-mo. The resolution of this video is practically
hand drawn. Alright let's see if we can do any more here. Oh! Man! You would not want to get
wrecked with that. Alright so uh that was Milton. Now the other thing I worked on was terminal
cornucopia. And this is something I did a couple years ago and uh the project itself spanned
about a year and a half. And uh basically I I hypothesized that I was going to be able to do a
very small travel-approved multi-tool. And I just realized that a a potential attacker could go
into an airport with nothing but cash right? Maybe like a small travel-approved multi-tool. And
um they could having successfully gotten through security for you know there's no reason not to,
just go like to the shops and you know get things that anyone could grab and then make
potentially deadly weapons with it right? So I wanted to figure out if that was uh if that was
the case and so I set up some rules. So you could only use materials that can be sourced inside
the terminal after security screening. Can't walk in with anything but cash and a small travel
approved multi-tool. And the security did not let me go. So I set up some rules. So you could only use
anything you get yelled at for taking or messing with is completely off limits right? And I
found some crazy stuff in airports in my day. Like drills and all sorts of stuff. So I went to a
bunch of airports. And things that I I like couldn't uh buy commonly you know on the store I
would get at the airport otherwise I'd just shop at like Walmart or something. Made for some
really creepy purchases but. So um I worked on this for about a year and sort of like you
know scaled up the uh complexity as I went.
And here is a super cut of the uh the results.
You'd use condoms right?
Yep
.
So completely remote incendiary device there. Then I put it in a suitcase.
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon
practical post-apocalyptic electronics.
I was worried that more and more people
don't really understand anything about electricity
whatsoever, but everyone sort of relies on it, right?
That's a problem.
So I kind of set out to figure out,
what's the least amount of information
someone would need to know to make practical work happen
with electricity, right?
If they just have stuff in their house.
No tools, really, anything like that.
So I stayed in a shack in Kentucky,
it's like a six and a half foot by 11 foot shack
with no power in Kentucky for about a week.
And it's been about 15 years since I've been in there.
It's secure.
Totes.
And there he is.
Okay.
That was a giant spider.
So the shack is gone.
Just kidding.
I'm kidding, I like lined the walls with tarp,
like I use that foam stuff,
like all of it in that whole city.
So yeah, I just started building stuff.
So I used one of those Tchotsky LED flash lights,
mounted that to a bottle of water,
accessed a diffuser,
made a nice little center piece there,
sprung up some lights.
This is power management,
I had several ways to power.
I wanted to end up with 12 volts and five volts, right?
12 volts is common with vehicles and automotive,
and 5 obviously is USB,
so you're going to have a billion batteries
that regulate to 5 volts,
and then a lot of stuff that consumes 5 volts, right?
So, um, and there's a strong set. Uh, let's see. So, yeah, but this, this, uh, control panel on
the wall. And, um, this, you know, does, uh, different things. I found a relay someplace. Uh,
let's see. This actually, uh, arms my, uh, security system in there. So you have to have a
key to, to disable it. Or just rip it off the wall. I don't know. So, uh, yeah, so the first
thing I wanted to do is, like, like, sort of, like, start automating things, right? So, um, I
found this, uh, momentary switch and a leaf blower. And I wanted to make it so when I walk
in, I have it taped down. The light would automatically cut off for me. Isn't that nice? I
wanted an alarm, too, right? Because it's Kentucky and you're just going to die any minute. So I
took a head unit out of an old Honda. And, uh, specifically the, uh, little, um, uh, gear
assembly that ejects the, the CD-ROM. CD-ROM? CD. And I made a, uh, a really, uh, really
redneck latching relay. So I wanted, uh, I wanted this set up to where, like, when you, when
you trigger it, it, uh, it does not be, you know, become undone by, you know, undoing the thing
you just did to trigger it, right? So, in this case, opening the door. And how this works,
basically, is this, um, this little mechanism starts winding up. And that's, uh, starts
pulling on that, that trot line, which yanks a little piece of plastic out of the way between a
clothespin that have two leads on it. That is the only thing separating, uh, those leads from
connecting and, um, completing the circuit on this, uh, 32 volts, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
array of nine volts. So, and all of that runs down to the weasel. On the wall. Of course.
Ah, frickin' spiders. How's that? So, yeah, so I got, I got off that and, and, uh, I thought,
you know, the scope is a bit too broad. It's, it's tough for people to connect with that. So, I
started looking at specific, uh, pieces of hardware. So, like, what, what is our Eureka
washer-dryer combo? Like, you know, for Cuba. So, I, I started looking at Keurigs. And, um,
Keurigs are interesting to me for a couple reasons, right? So, Keurigs, like, uh, they're in
nearly one in every three homes. And that's a survey done, like, in, uh, in, uh, in, uh, in
the last year. And, um, uh, the, the, um, no lack of critical issues for sure, right? These
things break all the time for different reasons across generations. And, uh, if you guys, if
you guys, like, ever pull one apart or pull one open, uh, it's a lot of really cool stuff in
there, right? So, that's a nice recipe. Because you have a lot of, a lot of these being thrown
out. And a lot of the, the components are still good, right? Minus one. And, um, I wanted to
know what you could do with that. So, I wanted to find, like, what's the potential of a Keurig?
So, I've gotten started on that and here we are.
So.
Uh, just a quick review of the common internals. So, you'll have a display of some sort. This is
usually connected to, uh, like, your unit user interface stuff. So, maybe some buttons. Um, the
more recent models, they upgrade a bit and they have, uh, just a, a four conductor, uh, a
resistive touch screen. So, it kind of cleans things up. Uh, this is kind of the, sort of the
main board. And this is sort of like a, the mullet of, of PCBs, right? It's like, like, surface
mount on the front, through hole in the back. Yeah. Although that's the front, I think. But it
doesn't work as well for the joke. So, uh, lots of little ribbon cables and wires here and
there. Uh, some of these transformers. These have, like, some of them have discrete, you know,
power, uh, regulation boards and all that. You have, like, find nice little breakouts here and
there. This is a, a momentary switch with a couple of LEDs. Um, you'll find some of these, um,
nice, um, read switches here. Uh, these magnetic switches. These, um, make sure that you got the
lid closed and all that. You'll find some bottle caps in there for scale. Uh, anyone know what
this is?
So, this is the guy responsible for the DRM and the, the 2.0 models, right? Yeah. It's, uh, it
just reads the levels of, uh, RGB and, and A, I think. So, yeah. You'll find one of these, at
least. Uh, one, some kind of pump. Uh, or some kind of motor assembly. Uh, uh, some of these are
really nice, right? This one came out of a view. And, uh, it's a nice stepper motor. It's got,
like, built-in, uh, speed control. Uh, it's got a brake on it. You could go reverse. It's got a
Hall effect sensor built in. All this stuff. Uh, the newer ones, the 2.0 models, uh, they're
2.0s. They don't have that. They got a regular DC brush, brushless motor. But, uh, that's
okay. You'll find some of these. Uh, there's an air pump here and there. There's a water pump on
the right. The old ones have these solenoids, which is nice. Uh, the new ones, they, they
sort of did away with that. All of them will have a boiler of some sort. Here's one. Right
here. And, um, a ton of, uh, both flexible and rigid tubing and, as well as connectors and
stuff that you would put in a sock if you wanted to kill someone in prison.
And a whole lot of plastic, right? Different types of plastic, brittleness, thickness, you
know, all that stuff, right? So, man, you could do a lot of stuff with that, right? Anyone's,
like, you know, wheels turning here? Mine certainly were. So, uh, just a quick disclaimer.
Um, I don't represent Keurig in any way. I, I'm actually a customer. I use mine a couple
times a day. I work at home. Uh, I say what I want. Uh, spaghetti. So, um, first
thing I wanted to do is look at, look at a thermal image of, uh, Keurig working normally.
And so, um, I did that. Basically, uh, who in here thinks that the Keurigs, when they boil,
they boil under pressure when the water heats up? There's one guy. Yeah, they, uh, they actually,
they boil into the atmosphere. So I wasn't disappointed about that. So basically, water
heats up in the boiler and then, um, a different pump rams air into that and forces it out over
your coffee grounds into your cup, right? Excellent. So, I wanted to figure out how to
really disturb that process. So I started working on WARPOL, which is an acronym for the worst
part of waking up. So I, you know, started taking it apart. And, and keep in mind, guys, this is
not like an exploit or anything. This is like just straight up sabotage, right? Like,
there's no, uh, there's no disclosure here. Yeah, so, uh, you know, they got AC coming in.
And, um, that connects here to our main board, right? And then it eventually goes back out to
these heating elements. But not before passing through, uh, these two guys. And, um, these are
both, uh, heat related. So the bottom one is a, um, an SC fuse. It's got a little, um, uh, organic
thermo, uh, sensitive compound. And it's, it's, uh, crafted in such a way that if it gets, you
know, reaches a certain temperature, it melts down, spring disengages, and it, it, you know,
separates your, your, um, uh, your, your circuit forever, right? The top one, it just, uh,
either stays on or off until it reaches a certain temperature and then it flip-flops. Also, this
guy, it's a little pressure sensor, right? Little tube ring at the bottom. I'd imagine that
probably has something to do with whether or not they're going to power, you know, the, the, uh,
heating element on the boiler. Bless you. So, um, if only there was a way to, uh, to bypass,
you know, all of this logic. Oh, right, wire ties. So, yeah. Um, now we've got a, you know,
120 volts AC going directly to the, the heating element. So that should be good. But we still
have the, the issue of these three guys here, right? Oh, yeah, right. So, uh, JB Weld.
That'll do it. Cool. So, yeah. Um, now we've got a boiler that's got water in it that is, uh,
should be sealed, right? And, um, let's see what happens. Ah. All of our precious
pressure.
All right. Look at it thermally. It looks normal. Until it just, like, all of a sudden turns into
Satan's butthole and the things just go sideways. So I actually left this on to see if, like,
anything else would happen. I didn't figure it would. It just got hotter and hotter until,
like, the, the whole house started smelling like Satan's butthole and then I cut it off. Because
it was on fire pretty much, you know? It got super melty. It really smelled like fire.
It smelled awful. Good grief. But, yeah, no, I figured that, you know, our, our seals failed.
But they did not, actually. Uh, it was a different result. And, um, both of our, our, uh, all
three of our seals were intact. What happened was, um, it just got too hot. Like, the whole top
just sort of, like, melted and slid to the side and just let all the pressure out, right? So
that was kind of a bummer. I wanted it to explode and all that. But it's okay because science,
right? That's a result. Now we know. So, uh, we can sort of move on to, to new things. So, um, the
next thing I, I worked on, or actually this is during a conference I, um, uh, built, uh, debug.
And this is the, uh, delicious, uh, beverage dispensing badge of unmitigated GoRAM glory. And
so basically, um, you got a, uh, solenoid and an air pump. Uh, uh, one button pumps air into
the, uh, container with a delicious beverage. And then, um, when you, um, press the other
button to, uh, disengage the solenoid, that, uh, has to go somewhere so it comes out the
little spout. Just like this.
Ah. Good job, fella. So when I travel with this, I like to leave a note. Just to be, just to be
nice, I guess. Because it looks, he looks sketchy, man. Seriously. Although I must say, every
time I've traveled with this, my, my luggage has not been searched. So. Or at least they're not
leaving notes anymore. I don't know. They leave notes still? They leave notes. Right?
Yeah.
Oh, man. Anyway. So, yeah. Um, moves on to my, uh, my, my big build here. And this is, this is
head bird. And, uh, that's not an acronym at all. Uh, so I, I wanted, I wanted to build
something that was, um, you know, moderately complex. It had to, had to have some precision to
really sort of work well. And, um, I started looking at, at these, uh, prosthetic hands.
Right? And these are cool because, like, there's some really nice ones. This one's, like, I
think 80 grand. Something like that. Something insane. But also, there's some really great work
with these. Right? Like, so they could print these for 10 bucks. And they, they function.
They're great. You could, like, as soon as you outgrow them, you just print another one. It's
not a big deal. You know? Um, and it's all open source. And it's great. Right? So I kind of
wanted to see where, um, where I can get, you know, uh, just relative to both, you know, I
guess, the commercial product. Right? Which is crazy. And then, sort of what, uh, people are
doing with, with, uh, additive printing. So, uh, I started making some junk prototypes just to
sort of feel out, um, what was possible. Get a, get a, an idea of how the materials work together.
And so I, you know, I just started tinkering with, uh, with different mechanisms. Just to, I
don't know, see what works and what didn't. So there's that. I started, uh, you know, dealing
with these little finger guys. Because really, I think the, the digits were, were the thing I
wanted to, to really kind of nail. It's sort of the, uh, the linchpin. Right? So I tried a
different, a couple different designs. Did a lot of research. Saw what other people were doing.
And, um, I felt like, you know, based on all that knowledge, I, I could go ahead and start my
build. Right? So I started working on Hedberg. And, uh, I started working on Hedberg. And, uh,
a couple things to, uh, to note here. I used, uh, one single Keurig. Right? Uh, one single, um,
K-350 or, or 300. Kind of the same thing. And, um, uh, only external materials in, in the, uh,
the, the head, the end product are adhesives. And I think that with a couple iterations of the
design, you probably, uh, do away with a lot of that. I just used basic tools. You know, I, I
didn't want to like, you know how you watch a, a, a video on YouTube or something and someone
makes something cool and it's like, well, yeah, they've got a pristine shop with like every tool
imaginable. Right? Sort of like, I don't know. It's kind of cheating. Right? So I just use a, a
Dremel basically and a heat gun and some hand tools, files, stuff like that. Uh, no plans for
this. Just, uh, sort of, you know, making it up as I go along. And so, um, at the end of the
day, it was, uh, 199 hours, 56 minutes and 36 seconds of working time. So that's, that's, uh,
time at the bench, um, you know, with my hands on materials doing things and manipulating
stuff. And guess what? I recorded every second of it.
And you're going to see it now. Settle in.
Hit the drum on it. Get it started.
It's every second of this whole build. Settle in.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That's Ed Berg.
Thank you for working.
So of course I made a case for it, and of course it was an issue at TSA.
So yeah, let's talk about the features real quick.
So it's got distributed grip pressure.
I used sort of a fulcrum here in the middle.
So if there's more pressure on...
Like one side of the hand or the other side of the fingers than the other, it sort of
like compensates with the other side.
It has an official gangster electronic speed controller on it.
So there are no like 555 timers or no like components necessary to build a traditional
one.
So the issue was the regular motor, it just moves too quickly, right?
Your hand would just be like going crazy.
There's no control.
So I had to improvise.
So usually the way this is done is with pulse width modulation.
So like think about an LED.
It's either on or off, right?
But you could dim them by turning them on and off really, really fast.
And then like it gets more dim when you have it on less than you have it off.
Make sense?
So yeah, the way I did that is I basically took one of those motors and then took a piece
of plastic in the middle and mounted a magnet on one side of the thing that spins in the
middle.
And then on the other side, I just mounted a magnetic switch, right?
So you end up with something like this.
And there's a little screw there to adjust the amount of exposure that that magnetic
switch actually gets with the magnet.
So it actually increases or decreases the pressure, as you can see it working here.
Make sense?
So every time that magnet swings around and it trips that sensor, it puts 12 volts to
that motor.
And your hand moves forward just a little bit more.
So slowing it down, I thought about using friction, but that's probably a bad idea.
So you have to drop the voltage, try the voltage divider.
The resistors actually in the Keurig were not rated high enough and these started smoking.
That's bad.
So eventually, I called my brother and he was like, yeah, you know, diodes, they drop
the voltage about 0.7 volts, and there are like nine of them in the Keurig, so I just
chained a bunch of them together, so it works just fine.
It doesn't get too hot.
You know, there is some room for improvements.
Of course, I built it, so to me, it's perfect.
But yeah, you know, if you put a microcontroller and a few components in this thing, like,
it would be ridiculous, right?
So you could start using that color sensor.
You could use that to get feedback on where the fingers are, potentially.
Yeah.
All sorts of things.
You could actually, like, you know, implement analog input.
You could, you know, control the, you know, the speed and all that stuff.
You know, just using a microcontroller would be really simple.
Of course, I didn't have that luxury here.
But yeah, you can do all this cool stuff.
So what's next for this, the Keurig stuff?
I want to look at, like, water filtration and purification.
I want to look at cooking.
I think that would be fun.
I think there's some, like, interesting applications for gardening and maybe some hydroponics.
I would like to build an aquarium because that would be funny.
Meta, what about, like, building something that would help you build other stuff?
But one thing that I've actually started on and got some headway going here are firearms.
So I might be the first person to actually shoot a Keurig.
So where do we go from here?
Real quick, because we're, like, short on time.
Guys, the stuff surrounding us all the time has, like, huge amounts of potential.
Huge.
Like, everybody, everybody.
Long pants, long pants, right?
Humongous.
And if the thing that, like, gives you mediocre coffee.
Every day can actually help someone pick something up who normally couldn't, like, that represents
a huge gap in, like, what we're using it for and what the actual potential of this thing
is, right?
So frequent MacGyvering, it lets your brain naturally find more interesting and clever
solutions to everyday problems.
It's just a good, like, mental exercise.
Also, if you're stubborn enough, everything is sandpaper.
And winter is coming.
So for this project, it was almost 200 hours long.
And, like, the first part was great.
I got fingers going.
I was, like, yeah, fingers.
And I'm, like, oh, crap.
And I got to, like, actually make this work consistently and, like, you know, like, dredge
through the slow and tedious parts and, you know, fail and try things again and all that
stuff.
So that was tough.
And it's good to know that going in and, like, get mentally prepared for it just so you could
actually finish the project, right?
The big one is, man, take everything apart.
This is a huge skill.
I don't care if it's yours or not.
I'm not the police.
But, dude, like, if you get enough experience with this thing, right, taking something apart
will eventually become like having a conversation with the engineer who built it, which is pretty
cool because, like, as I'm taking stuff apart, I'm, like, why is this here?
Oh, this is pressure fit.
I don't have to use any screws here.
That's great.
So, yeah, I want to thank a few awesome people real quick.
My mom, first and foremost, the Timelapse video, I knew I wanted Clair de Lune in it
because that's one of my favorite, like, Vegas songs for a lot of reasons.
And it's actually in the public domain, but all the recordings were kind of pricey.
My mom's a pianist, and so I, my wife had the idea, I was, like, call your mom.
I was, like, well, okay.
And she, like, ran off in a storm and recorded that for me.
And that will be available in the public domain.
If you guys want to download it, I'll put a link in my Twitter eventually.
Yeah, thanks, Mom.
Dan Taylor right here, he let me peru his thermal
cam for, like, months, and last night I was, like, you know, man, I need some Vegas footage
here.
It was, like, 9 o'clock.
I was, like, Dan, do you want to shoot some stuff?
And a couple drinks later at, like, 2 a.m., we had, like, some freaking amazing footage.
So thanks for that, Dan.
My brother, Taylor, he would be available on the phone for, like, electronics questions.
He's an EE and all that stuff.
And most of all, you guys.
Right?
So I'm talking to you guys, and you guys absolutely blow me away with the stuff you're working
on and, like, the struggles that you're going through with it.
And it occurs to me that, like, a lot of you, you're probably, like, carrying the flag,
you know, all by yourself on a lot of the stuff.
And a lot of the stuff's, like, a lot of your projects are really important, even, like,
your side projects.
So I just want to encourage you guys to, like, keep your head up with that.
Even if the number of people supporting you is zero, like, that's all right, you know.
Come to these things and find people who get you and help you, you know, be you and, like,
get your awesome projects done.
So guys, thanks so much.
Go build some stuff.
Awesome.
Awesome.