3D Printing has come a long way in the last decade. What will we get in the Roaring 2020s? Let’s hope we’ll get a Transmetropolitan-style Maker that can turn trash into asymmetrical smart shades. In the meantime, let’s take a look back at some of the top Thingiverse downloads of the 2010s! Special thanks to Noe and Pedro Ruiz for sailing our 3d Printing ship!
10) SP8266 WiFi Weather Station with Color TFT Display
In this project we’ll show you how to make a WiFi enabled, portable Weather Station using an ESP8266. The software, written by Daniel Eichhorn, uses the Wunderground API to pull weather data. It shows the date, time, current weather conditions, 4-day forecast and even moon phases. The user interface features lovely typography and icons that makes really a clean layout. The 2.4” TFT Feather Wing combined with the Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 make assembling this project incredibly easy.
9) DIY Raspberry Pi Gameboy
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of that classic gaming device by building your own with 3D printing and DIY electronics from Adafruit.
8) NeoPixel LED Gas Mask
It’s got hints of Star Wars, Fallout, and Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s got lasers, EL wire and of course, NeoPixel LEDs. In this project, we’re mounting glowy electronics to some 3d printed parts to light up your face!
7) Superhero Power Plant
Channel your inner Tony Stark by building your own electronic wearable reactor this Halloween!
6) DIY Video Glasses for Raspberry Pi
Our 3D Printed design turns this display into a google glass like form factor. It easily clips to your prescription glasses, and can display any kind of device with Composite Video like a Raspberry Pi.
A pair of wearable video glasses sets you back about 100 bucks, and the 3d printed parts are a free download on thingiverse. This display uses composite video to connect to the Raspberry Pi its very plug and play.
5) Link’s Hylian Shield
In this project, we’re 3d printing Link’s Hylian Shield from Zelda.
It’s over 450mm long and features a built-in handle. It prints in just 2 parts. The bottom part is printed upside down so the support material is easy to remove by hand.
4) DIY Mini Thermal Camera with Display
In this project we’ll show you how to build simple a thermal camera. This mini thermal camera can sense the surface temperature of things and display them as a colorful heatmap. Temperatures are rendered in real-time and displayed as different colors to form a heat map.
3) Raspberry Pi Zero Case
This is a simple enclosure for the Raspberry Pi Zero. It’s a two piece design that features cutouts for the GPIO, microUSB, mini HDMI and microSD card. The Raspberry Pi Zero PCB snap fits into the enclosure with no need for machine screws. The cover also has a snap fit. Designed by Noe Ruiz. Check out the tutorial on YouTube.
2) PiGRRL 2 – Raspberry Pi Game Console
This project takes the original concept of the PiGRRL and makes it more powerful, using a Raspberry Pi 2 (or Model B+). It’s about the same size but features more buttons (D-Pad, A,B,X,Y, L, R, pause and start.) and four extra buttons on the PiTFT. It’s sporting a small audio amplifier and speaker, so you can enjoy the crispy sounds of 8-bit goodness.
1) Raspberry Pi Pipboy 3000 MKIV
3D print and build your own functional Pipboy 3000 using a Raspberry Pi and Adafruit 3.5″ PiTFT. The pypboy python program for the Raspberry Pi features OSM for map data which allows you to browse your terrain rendered in glorious retro green graphics.
