Best Electromaker Community Projects June 2021 Edition

At Electromaker, we publish stellar articles including tutorials, reviews, resource guides, and news updates. And in addition to our thriving staff blog, we have a robust section of community-contributed posts. Check out the best Electromaker community projects that were uploaded in June 2021!

DIY Arduino-powered Kinetic Sand Art Coffee Table

Lewis Aburrow aka DIY Machines is constantly building professional-looking projects. His kinetic sand art coffee table is an awesome machine that destroys what it creates. Powered by an Arduino UNO, Arduino Nano, and a Raspberry Pi, this kinetic sand art coffee table is fairly straightforward to build. The finished product looks store-bought, and it's a great talking piece that deserves a prime spot in any living room. 

Smart Coffee Mug With Temperature Sensor

Drinking your coffee or tea is a bit like Goldilocks - the temperature can be too hot, too cold, or just right. And with an Arduino-powered smart mug, you can monitor the temperature of your preferred beverage. This nifty cup measures the temperature of your drink using an Adafruit infrared (IR) sensor that's supported by a brass structure. LEDs embedded in a thin layer of wood then display a visual readout of the drink's temperature. You could always buy an Ember mug (which I highly recommend), but this do-it-yourself temperature-sensing mug is a fantastic project. 

Raspberry Pi Blood Pressure Sensor

The Raspberry Pi is a utilitarian device with tons of uses. With the right accessories, you can create a blood pressure monitoring system using a Raspberry Pi. It utilizes a blood pressure sensor module, Raspberry Pi 3 B+, and a power supply. Simple but effective, this Raspberry Pi-based blood pressure sensor is a neat at-home Internet of Things health tech project. 

Hi-Fi Networked Raspberry Pi Music Streamer

Streaming services like Spotify and Tidal are great. But not everything is available on a streaming service. If, like me, you've got tons of FLAC-encoded vinyl rips, you'll want to be able to stream your high-fidelity tracks. Enter the PecanPi. This high-performance audio music player features a Raspberry Pi at its core with a connected headphone amplifier as well as a built-in digital to analog converter (DAC). The PecanPi enables hi-res music streaming around your house with its networking capabilities. It can run various programs including Volumio.  

Raspberry Pi Jukebox Retrofit

With its small footprint and energy efficiency, the Raspberry Pi is an ideal single-board computer (SBC) for retrofits. One clever maker crammed a Raspberry Pi into a jukebox for a fun and functional project. Replacing its glass panel display with a touchscreen lets you scroll through music to select. It's a neat project that maintains the original aesthetic of the jukebox but with modern internals. 

Internet of Bees

NOT THE BEES! The Internet of Things has created a lot of buzz. And this IoT project is a cellular hive monitoring system that's powered by Particle IoT. It provides data on beehives such as monitoring the internal temperature of the hive, the external humidity and temperature of the hive, and sending notifications via SMS, email, or Telegram message if the hive is moved or knocked down. If you're running an apiary, this IoT project is a must-make for running your bees-nis. While the bees may say that data on their hive is none of your beeswax, you can keep them safe with crucial hive information. 

ESP32 Temperature & Humidity Monitoring with Blynk

Blynk is a powerful smart home software platform. With Blynk Cloud and an ESP32 board, you can monitor temperature and humidity. Then, with this environmental sensing data, you could set up automations with the right smart home equipment like connected thermostats or even smart plugs attached to dehumidifiers. While you can buy off-the-shelf temperature and humidity sensors, you can always build your own.  

Motion-activated Door Thermometer

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm, temperature checks have become more common. This motion-activated door thermometer automatically detects movement and takes a temperature reading of temperatures using an IR forehead thermometer. Coupled with a motion IR sensor, it's a neat device for tracking temperatures of individuals at a certain spot.  

Raspberry Pi Pico Remote Camera Shutter

Using Raspberry Pi-compatible cameras, you can create all sorts of photography projects using a Raspberry Pi. However, this photography creation doesn't attach a camera to the Pi directly. Instead, it's a Raspberry Pi Pico remote shutter for taking pictures from afar. Whether you want to set up your camera to take selfies, family photos, or nature photography, this remote shutter is an incredibly practical project idea. 

Hexabitz Glowing Necklace

Hexabitz is an awesome platform for RGB LEDs. Using Hexabitz, you can create a variety of different projects including wearables like a glowing necklace. It's stylish and simple to build, so Hexabitz is suitable for makers of all ages. 

Best Electromaker Community Projects June 2021 Edition

While these were out favorite community-contributed projects from June 2021, there are loads more community as well as staff projects to peruse. 

Have a favorite project from Electromaker or elsewhere around the web? Comment below and let us know!