Derby Makers

The heart of Derby's Maker community

Maker Projects

Alexa Controlled AirCon Unit

By Brendan Stafford The Problem I recently had air conditioning installed in my home extension. It is supplied with a hand controller that has a wide range of functions. I should have asked for the Wi-Fi option but I missed… Continue Reading →

Laser Cutting Electronics Box Panel

The electronics box has been drawn in a 3D modelling package. The objective is to produce a 2D drawing of the panel outline together with the cutouts. It is difficult to position the panel in the correct place on the… Continue Reading →

Making a tent footprint from a cheap tarpaulin

Background If you already know what a footprint is and why you might want one you can skip this section. A footprint is an extra groundsheet that provides extra protection on rough ground, especially for lightweight tents with delicate groundsheets…. Continue Reading →

HIGH ALTITUDE BALLOON PROJECT IN DERBY – Fortnightly Project Meeting

Come and help us build and launch a high altitude balloon (HAB) in Derby This is a joint project between the Derby Makers and the Coding, Electronics and Technology Clubs of the Radio Communication Museum of Great Britain in Derby. … Continue Reading →

HifiBerry MiniAmp and speech synthesis

A while back HifiBerry gave us a MiniAmp to play with – thanks guys! We wanted to use it for something in the Silk Mill, but as playing music in there isn’t really on (at least in the normal course… Continue Reading →

Display Cabinet

I thought I’d finally get around to making a post and uploading some photo’s about the display cabinet we’ve recently (and finally!) finished. So how did this all start…. Problem: Derby Makers would like some space for storing projects at… Continue Reading →

Bike Bag Mini-Hack

Bike Bag Mini-Hack!   Hi everyone! Just a quick one. I’m a perennial cyclist so I decided a while back to invest in a little bike bag, the kind that goes over the pannier rack, just for some extra storage…. Continue Reading →

needle felting from local wool

You may have seen me last week at the Silk Mill stabbing wool on a sponge with a needle. No, I’m not crazy. I was doing needle felting! Needle felting is one method of  felting wool fibers (the other method… Continue Reading →

Parametric Box-making

This is quick article about the principle of parametric design, and how I used it to make a simple box-making website.  In the future I will write more about how the website works, the code that is used to make… Continue Reading →

MEV Rocket Kit Car (updated 08-December-19)

By : Mark Hancox (aka “optimisticmark”) My main project is building a Sports Car, an MEV Rocket. This is a kit car manufactured by Road Track Race in Nottingham (MEV in Mansfield were the original designers, so very much an… Continue Reading →