Not quite your average build, this wall mounted laser etches new subscribers onto a piece of wood in real time whenever Jesse goes live on Twitch.
Streaming at least 3 days a week over on twitch, Jesse broadcasts a lot of different electronic projects. One of the most recent is a culmination of months worth of work: Burn the Subs. This wall mounted laser etcher hangs out in the back of his videos etching new subscriber's names onto a piece of wood.
Made using stepper motors harvested from an old vinyl cutter and a 1.7W blue laser diode, this laser has a bed size of 1500 x 300mm. To handle the smoke he uses fan mounted to a respirator to make a contraption affectionately referred to as the 'Tentacle of Respiratory Health'. An Arduino Nano and GRBL are used to run the laser.
To plot the names he uses a Raspberry Pi to access Twitch's API, logs the new subscriber's username and then calculates the number of names already etched onto the board to determine the font size and randomly places the name into the available blank space. It's very important to note that whilst the Raspberry Pi is constantly running to log usernames as they come in, the laser itself is only run when Jesse is in the room and able to monitor it - safety first!
To learn more about this impressive build, watch the full video above. To see more of Jesse's work, you can subscribe to him on Twitch, where he streams every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. You can also follow him on Twitter and YouTube.