Crooked Bough News Round-up

— Liquid Metal Ion Thrusters Aren’t Easy

 

at 12/7/24 11:00am

What do scanning electron microscopes and satellites have in common? On the face of things, not much, but after seeing [Zachary Tong]s latest video on liquid metal ion thrusters, we read more

[Category: Tech Hacks, Galinstan, gallium, high voltage, ion, ion engine, liquid metal, plasma, thruster]

— Tis the Season

 

at 12/7/24 8:00am

’Tis the season for soldering! At least at my house. My son and I made some fairly LED-laden gifts for the immediate relatives last year, and he’s got the blinky read more

[Category: Hackaday Columns, Holiday Hacks, LED Hacks, addressable leds, diy, holidays, newsletter, presents]

— Printing in Multi-material? Use These Filament Combos

 

at 12/7/24 5:00am

If one has a multi-material printer there are more options than simply printing in different colors of the same filament. [Thomas Sanladerer] explores combinations of different filaments in a fantastic read more

[Category: 3d Printer hacks, abs, asa, flex, Metamaterial, multi-material, PETG, PLA, support material]

— FlatMac: Building the 1980’s Apple iPad Concept

 

at 12/7/24 2:00am

The Apple FlatMac was one of those 1980s concepts by designer [Hartmut Esslingers] that remained just a concept with no more than some physical prototypes created. That is, until [Kevin read more

[Category: Mac Hacks, 3D printed enclosure, apple, floppy drive, reproduction]

— 3D Printed Caliper Extensions Make Hole Measurement Easier

 

at 12/6/24 11:00pm

If theres anything more frustrating than mounting holes that dont line up with the thing youre mounting, we dont know what it could be. You measure as carefully as possible, read more

[Category: Tool Hacks, caliper, center-to-center, hole, layout, measurement]

— Antenna Measurement in Theory and Practice

 

at 12/6/24 8:00pm

If you want to analyze an antenna, you can use simulation software or you can build an antenna and make measurements. [All Electroncs Channel] does both and show you how read more

[Category: Radio Hacks, 4nec2, antenna, NEC, vna]

— VNAs and Crystals

 

at 12/6/24 2:00pm

Oscillators may use crystals as precise tuned circuits. If you have a vector network analyzer (VNA) or even some basic test equipment you can use it to learn read more

[Category: Parts, Tool Hacks, crystal, oscillator, vna]

— Ampere WS-1: The Other APL Portable Computer

 

at 12/6/24 12:00pm

When thinking of home computers and their portable kin its easy to assume that all of them provided BASIC as their interpreter, but for a while APL also played a read more

[Category: Retrocomputing, Ampere WS-1, APL]

— Hackaday Podcast Episode 299: Beaming Consciousness, Understanding Holograms, and Dogfooding IPv6

 

at 12/6/24 10:00am

On this episode of the Hackaday Podcast, Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi talk about the optical witchcraft behind holograms, the finer points of designing 3D printable threads, and the read more

[Category: Hackaday Columns, Podcasts, Hackaday Podcast]

— The 6809 8-Bit Microcomputer: A Father-Son Odyssey

 

at 12/6/24 9:30am

If youre nostalgic for the golden age of microprocessors and dream of building your own computer, this story might spark your imagination. [Eric Lind], passionate retro enthusiast and his 14-year-old read more

[Category: classic hacks, Retrocomputing, 6809, 8 bit, KiCAD, micro-lind, microcomputer, motorola 6809, retrocomputing, µLind]

— This Week in Security: National Backdoors, Web3 Backdoors, and Nearest Neighbor WiFi

 

at 12/6/24 8:00am

Maybe those backdoors werent such a great idea. Several US Telecom networks have been compromised by a foreign actor, likely Chinas Salt Typhoon, and it looks like one of the read more

[Category: Hackaday Columns, News, Security Hacks, Backdoors, Nearest Neighbors, Solana, This Week in Security]

— Retro Computer Goes Back to the 1950s

 

at 12/6/24 5:49am

When tackling a retrocomputing project, plenty of us will go back to a place like the 80s and restore something like a Commodore64 or Apple II. These computers were very popular and have plenty of parts and documentation available. Fewer will go back to the Intel 8008 or even 4004 era which were the first integrated circuit chips commercially available. But before even those transistor-based computers is a retrocomputing era rarely touched on: the era of programmable vacuum tube machines. [Mike] has gone back to the 1950s with this computer which uses vacuum tubes instead of transistors.   https://thetubecomputer.com/

[Category: News]

— Hacked Ultrasonic Sensors Let You See With Sound

 

at 12/6/24 5:00am

If you want to play with radar and who could blame you you can pretty easily get your hands on something like the automotive radar sensors used for read more

[Category: Misc Hacks, audio, dish, downsampling, ESP32, HC-SR04, PCM1808, radar, sonar, ultrasonic]

— Non-Planar Fuzzy Skin Textures Improved, Plus a Paint-On Interface

 

at 12/6/24 2:00am

If youve wanted to get in on the fuzzy skin action with 3D printing but held off because you didnt want to fiddle with slicer post-processing, you need to check read more

[Category: 3d Printer hacks, Bambu, fuzzy skin, non-planar, Orca, post-processing, prusa, slicer, texture]

— A Hundred Year Old Solid State Amplifier

 

at 12/5/24 11:00pm

Conventional wisdom has it that the solid state era in electronics began in 1948 with the invention of the transistor, or if you wish to split hairs, with the 1930s read more

[Category: classic hacks, Parts, carbon microphone, carbon microphone amplifier, crystal set]

— Unconventional Oil Production, All You Need to Know

 

at 12/5/24 8:00pm

Its fair to say that climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge facing our planet, and while much attention is directed towards solutions to the problems it presents, perhaps theres read more

[Category: Interest, Fracking, gas, hydraulic fracking, oil]

— Gray Matter on a Chip: Building an Artificial Brain with Luminol

 

at 12/5/24 5:00pm

Ever wondered if you could build a robot controlled by chemical reactions? [Marb] explores this wild concept in his video, merging chemistry and robotics in a way that feels straight read more

[Category: Robots Hacks, artificial brain, brain, gray matter, human brain, luminol, microfluidic, reaction, robotic hand]

— How Corroded Can a Motherboard Be?

 

at 12/5/24 2:00pm

We will admit it. If we found a 386 motherboard as badly corroded as the one [Bits und Bolts] did, we would trash it—not him, though. In fact, we were read more

[Category: Repair Hacks, Retrocomputing, 386, motherboard]

— Keebin’ with Kristina: the One with the Folding Keyboard Mod

 

at 12/5/24 11:00am

Lets face it, failed Kickstarters are no good. But they can spark good things, like real versions of technologies that might have actually been faked for the platform. A touchscreen read more

[Category: Hackaday Columns, Peripherals Hacks, bluetooth, bluetooth keyboard, cyberdeck, dactyl manuform, DIY mouse, ergnomic cyberdeck, folding keyboard, PDA keyboard, split keyboard, touchscreen mouse]

— A Brief History of Teleportation

 

at 12/5/24 8:00am

OK, I know. We dont have practical teleportation. But that hasnt stopped generations of science fiction authors and movie makers from building stories around it. If you ask most ordinary read more

[Category: Featured, Interest, Original Art, science fiction, teleportation, transporters]

— Cranking Up the Detail in a Flight Simulator from 1992

 

at 12/5/24 5:00am

Nostalgia is a funny thing. If you experienced the early days of video games in the 1980s and 90s, theres a good chance you remember those games looking a whole read more

[Category: Games, Software Hacks, debugger, dosbox, flight simulator, hex editor, patch]

As of 12/7/24 2:04pm. Last new 12/7/24 11:41am.