Battle the Day With Raktajino
Rakatajino, aka Klingon coffee, aka the chai tea of the Star Trek universe. When Earth coffee isn’t enough to wake you up, try this spicy Qo’noS-inspired recipe.
Make It Matter — DIY Home Automation
RAS2025-08-14T16:00:00+00:00Make your own Matter
This article appeared in Make: Vol 92. Subscribe for more great projects. If you want to make a home automation device that’s compatible with Google Home, or Amazon Alexa, or Samsung SmartThings, Apple HomeKit, Tuya, etc., then you can join their developer programs and get busy. And if you want to build a device that works with all these home automation platforms, well, you have a lot of development work to do!...August 14, 2025RASUncategorizedConnected Home, ESP32, Home, home assistant, home automation, IoT, Make920 Comments
Smart Plant Monitor
RAS2025-07-07T16:00:00+00:00This article appeared in Make: Vol. 90. Subscribe for more maker projects and articles! Until recently, I relied on the Xiaomi Mi Flora to monitor my indoor plants. While it provided useful plant care info, it had some interface limitations, requiring their specific app for configuration. One day, I noticed some missing data and suspected the battery had died. However, upon searching for the sensor, it was nowhere to be found. I organized a search party...
Play With Your Own Junk
RAS2025-06-26T16:00:00+00:00As a maker, do you ever wander into a store, see something cool on the shelf, and think “I bet I could make that!” I often think the same thing about board games. I’ve been a game designer for over a decade, working on everything from indie videogames to mass market board games to large-scale Arduino-powered installation games. A big part of my prototyping process has been about figuring out what I can do with what’s available to me, then...
