A super-sized set of digital calipers for giants

Every year, some of YouTube’s most prolific makers get together to coordinate a Secret Santa exchange among themselves, then post videos of the results. The only rule is that they have to create the gifts. This year, Matty Benedetto (Unnecessary Inventions) got Austin Bradley in the exchange. For Bradley’s present, Benedetto constructed this set of digital calipers suitable for giants.

These calipers may be huge, but they do the same thing as the digital calipers you have in your desk drawer. Squeeze something between the jaws and the digital readout will display their linear measurement. But it only measures in inches and it only displays measurements between 0 and 99 inches, to the nearest inch.

Benedetto 3D printed the calipers, then added some laser-cut acrylic panels to diffuse the display LEDs and provide a surface for the printed markings to stick to. An Arduino UNO R4 WiFi board measures the distance between the jaws using a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor, then shows the result on two oversized seven-segment displays.

These may not fit in Bradley’s desk drawer, but they’re certainly more capable than any other calipers he owns when it comes to measuring very big things.