The Internet Controls This Monster
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/06/the-internet-controls-this-monster/
What’s worse than unleashing a monster on the internet? Allowing the internet to control the monster! But that’s just what [8BitsAndAByte] did, created a monster that anyone on the internet can control. Luckily for us, this monster only talks.
This is a very simple project and most of the parts …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/06/the-internet-controls-this-monster/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/06/the-internet-controls-this-monster/
What’s worse than unleashing a monster on the internet? Allowing the internet to control the monster! But that’s just what [8BitsAndAByte] did, created a monster that anyone on the internet can control. Luckily for us, this monster only talks.
This is a very simple project and most of the parts …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/06/the-internet-controls-this-monster/)
How Low Can An ESP32 Go?
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/how-low-can-an-esp32-go/
Many of us have experimented with the ESP32 microcontroller, attracted by its combination of WiFi and a powerful processor core, but how many of us will have explored all of its many on-board features? One of the more interesting capabilities of this chip comes in the form of its ultra-low-power …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/how-low-can-an-esp32-go/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/how-low-can-an-esp32-go/
Many of us have experimented with the ESP32 microcontroller, attracted by its combination of WiFi and a powerful processor core, but how many of us will have explored all of its many on-board features? One of the more interesting capabilities of this chip comes in the form of its ultra-low-power …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/how-low-can-an-esp32-go/)
Tiny Machine Learning On The Attiny85
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/tiny-machine-learning-on-the-attiny85/
We tend to think that the lowest point of entry for machine learning (ML) is on a Raspberry Pi, which it definitely is not. [EloquentArduino] has been pushing the limits to the low end of the scale, and managed to get a basic classification model running on the ATtiny85.
Using …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/tiny-machine-learning-on-the-attiny85/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/tiny-machine-learning-on-the-attiny85/
We tend to think that the lowest point of entry for machine learning (ML) is on a Raspberry Pi, which it definitely is not. [EloquentArduino] has been pushing the limits to the low end of the scale, and managed to get a basic classification model running on the ATtiny85.
Using …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/tiny-machine-learning-on-the-attiny85/)
The Oldest Nuclear Reactor? Nature’s 2 Billion Year Old Experiment
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/the-oldest-nuclear-reactor-natures-2-billion-year-old-experiment/
When was the first nuclear reactor created? You probably think it was Enrico Fermi’s CP-1 pile built under the bleachers at the University of Chicago in 1942. However, you’d be off by — oh — about 2 billion years.
The first reactors formed naturally about 2 billion years ago in …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/the-oldest-nuclear-reactor-natures-2-billion-year-old-experiment/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/the-oldest-nuclear-reactor-natures-2-billion-year-old-experiment/
When was the first nuclear reactor created? You probably think it was Enrico Fermi’s CP-1 pile built under the bleachers at the University of Chicago in 1942. However, you’d be off by — oh — about 2 billion years.
The first reactors formed naturally about 2 billion years ago in …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/the-oldest-nuclear-reactor-natures-2-billion-year-old-experiment/)
DMCA-Locked Tractors Make Decades-Old Machines the New Hotness
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/dmca-locked-tractors-make-decades-old-machines-the-new-hotness/
It’s fair to say that the hearts and minds of Hackaday readers lie closer to the technology centres of Shenzhen or Silicon Valley than they do to the soybean fields of Minnesota. The common link is the desire to actually own the hardware we buy. Among those working the soil …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/dmca-locked-tractors-make-decades-old-machines-the-new-hotness/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/dmca-locked-tractors-make-decades-old-machines-the-new-hotness/
It’s fair to say that the hearts and minds of Hackaday readers lie closer to the technology centres of Shenzhen or Silicon Valley than they do to the soybean fields of Minnesota. The common link is the desire to actually own the hardware we buy. Among those working the soil …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/dmca-locked-tractors-make-decades-old-machines-the-new-hotness/)
Choosing The Right Battery For Your Electric Vehicle Build
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/choosing-the-right-battery-for-your-electric-vehicle-build/
Many a hacker has looked at their scooter, bike, or skateboard, and decided that it would be even better if only it had a motor on it. Setting out to electrify one’s personal transport can be an exciting and productive journey, and one that promises to teach many lessons about …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/choosing-the-right-battery-for-your-electric-vehicle-build/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/choosing-the-right-battery-for-your-electric-vehicle-build/
Many a hacker has looked at their scooter, bike, or skateboard, and decided that it would be even better if only it had a motor on it. Setting out to electrify one’s personal transport can be an exciting and productive journey, and one that promises to teach many lessons about …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/choosing-the-right-battery-for-your-electric-vehicle-build/)
Guitar Hero Controller Gets A New Musical Life
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/guitar-hero-controller-gets-a-new-musical-life/
Guitar Hero was a big deal, right up until it wasn’t. The best efforts of the video game industry couldn’t resurrect the once-off rush of enthusiasm for rhythm gaming, and thrift stores around the globe are now littered with little plastic instruments. [Analog Sketchbook] decided to give one of these …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/guitar-hero-controller-gets-a-new-musical-life/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/guitar-hero-controller-gets-a-new-musical-life/
Guitar Hero was a big deal, right up until it wasn’t. The best efforts of the video game industry couldn’t resurrect the once-off rush of enthusiasm for rhythm gaming, and thrift stores around the globe are now littered with little plastic instruments. [Analog Sketchbook] decided to give one of these …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/guitar-hero-controller-gets-a-new-musical-life/)
Liquid Cooling Keeps This Electronic Load’s MOSFETs From Burning
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/liquid-cooling-keeps-this-electronic-loads-mosfets-from-burning/
Problem: your electronic load works fine, except for the occasional MOSFET bursting into flames. Solution: do what [tbladykas] did, and build a water-cooled electronic load.
One can quibble that perhaps there are other ways to go about preventing your MOSFETs from burning, including changes to the electrical design. But he …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/liquid-cooling-keeps-this-electronic-loads-mosfets-from-burning/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/liquid-cooling-keeps-this-electronic-loads-mosfets-from-burning/
Problem: your electronic load works fine, except for the occasional MOSFET bursting into flames. Solution: do what [tbladykas] did, and build a water-cooled electronic load.
One can quibble that perhaps there are other ways to go about preventing your MOSFETs from burning, including changes to the electrical design. But he …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/liquid-cooling-keeps-this-electronic-loads-mosfets-from-burning/)
Fabric(ated) Drum Machine
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/fabricated-drum-machine/
Some folks bring out an heirloom table runner when they have company, but what if you sewed your own and made it musical? We’d never put it away! [kAi CHENG] has an Instructable about how to recreate his melodic material, and there is a link to his website, which describes …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/fabricated-drum-machine/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/fabricated-drum-machine/
Some folks bring out an heirloom table runner when they have company, but what if you sewed your own and made it musical? We’d never put it away! [kAi CHENG] has an Instructable about how to recreate his melodic material, and there is a link to his website, which describes …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/fabricated-drum-machine/)
Spintronic RAM Gets a Little Closer to SRAM
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/spintronic-ram-gets-a-little-closer-to-sram/
Sometimes it seems as though everything old is new again. The earliest computers used magnetic memory such as magnetic core. As practical as that was compared to making for example each bit of memory be a vacuum tube or relay flip flop, newer technology such as SRAM and DRAM displaced …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/spintronic-ram-gets-a-little-closer-to-sram/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/spintronic-ram-gets-a-little-closer-to-sram/
Sometimes it seems as though everything old is new again. The earliest computers used magnetic memory such as magnetic core. As practical as that was compared to making for example each bit of memory be a vacuum tube or relay flip flop, newer technology such as SRAM and DRAM displaced …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/spintronic-ram-gets-a-little-closer-to-sram/)
Poking Around Inside A Pair of Classic Gaming Gifts
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/poking-around-inside-a-pair-of-classic-gaming-gifts/
Retro gaming is huge right now, and like probably millions of other people, [wrongbaud] found himself taking possession of a couple faux-classic gaming gadgets over the holidays. But unlike most people, who are now using said devices to replay games from their youth, he decided to tear into his new …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/poking-around-inside-a-pair-of-classic-gaming-gifts/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/poking-around-inside-a-pair-of-classic-gaming-gifts/
Retro gaming is huge right now, and like probably millions of other people, [wrongbaud] found himself taking possession of a couple faux-classic gaming gadgets over the holidays. But unlike most people, who are now using said devices to replay games from their youth, he decided to tear into his new …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/07/poking-around-inside-a-pair-of-classic-gaming-gifts/)
The Ruscombe Gentleman’s Steam Bicycle
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/the-ruscombe-gentlemans-steam-bicycle/
Cycling for health and transportation might seem like a good idea, but it unfortunately has the nasty side effect of making you tired. To ease the suffering, many have turned to electric bicycles. But what if you want to really stand out from the crowd? Well then you should look …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/the-ruscombe-gentlemans-steam-bicycle/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/the-ruscombe-gentlemans-steam-bicycle/
Cycling for health and transportation might seem like a good idea, but it unfortunately has the nasty side effect of making you tired. To ease the suffering, many have turned to electric bicycles. But what if you want to really stand out from the crowd? Well then you should look …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/the-ruscombe-gentlemans-steam-bicycle/)
The Barcode Revolution: Welcome To Our Automated World
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/the-barcode-revolution-welcome-to-our-automated-world/
Featured in many sci-fi stories as a quicker, more efficient way to record and transfer information, barcodes are both extremely commonplace today, and still amazingly poorly understood by many. Originally designed as a way to allow for increased automation by allowing computer systems to scan a code with information about …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/the-barcode-revolution-welcome-to-our-automated-world/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/the-barcode-revolution-welcome-to-our-automated-world/
Featured in many sci-fi stories as a quicker, more efficient way to record and transfer information, barcodes are both extremely commonplace today, and still amazingly poorly understood by many. Originally designed as a way to allow for increased automation by allowing computer systems to scan a code with information about …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/the-barcode-revolution-welcome-to-our-automated-world/)
An ESP8266 Environmental Monitor in your USB Port
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/an-esp8266-environmental-monitor-in-your-usb-port/
At this point, we’ve all seen enough ESP8266 “weather stations” to know the drill: you just put the ESP and a temperature sensor inside a 3D printed case, and let all those glorious Internet Points™ flow right on in. It’s a simple, and perhaps more importantly practical, project that seems …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/an-esp8266-environmental-monitor-in-your-usb-port/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/an-esp8266-environmental-monitor-in-your-usb-port/
At this point, we’ve all seen enough ESP8266 “weather stations” to know the drill: you just put the ESP and a temperature sensor inside a 3D printed case, and let all those glorious Internet Points™ flow right on in. It’s a simple, and perhaps more importantly practical, project that seems …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/an-esp8266-environmental-monitor-in-your-usb-port/)
Commercial Circuit Simulator Goes Free
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/commercial-circuit-simulator-goes-free/
If you are looking for simulation software, you are probably thinking LTSpice or one of the open-source simulators like Ngspice (which drives Oregano and QUCs-S), or GNUCap. However, there is a new free option after the closing of Spectrum Software last year: Micro-Cap 12. You may be thinking: why use …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/commercial-circuit-simulator-goes-free/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/commercial-circuit-simulator-goes-free/
If you are looking for simulation software, you are probably thinking LTSpice or one of the open-source simulators like Ngspice (which drives Oregano and QUCs-S), or GNUCap. However, there is a new free option after the closing of Spectrum Software last year: Micro-Cap 12. You may be thinking: why use …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/commercial-circuit-simulator-goes-free/)
Engineering Your Way to Better Sourdough (and Other Fermented Goods)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/engineering-your-way-to-better-sourdough-and-other-fermented-goods/
Trent Fehl is an engineer who has worked for such illustrious outfits as SpaceX and Waymo. When he got into baking, he brought those engineering skills home to solve a classic problem in the kitchen: keeping a sourdough starter within the ideal, somewhat oppressive range of acceptable temperatures needed for …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/engineering-your-way-to-better-sourdough-and-other-fermented-goods/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/engineering-your-way-to-better-sourdough-and-other-fermented-goods/
Trent Fehl is an engineer who has worked for such illustrious outfits as SpaceX and Waymo. When he got into baking, he brought those engineering skills home to solve a classic problem in the kitchen: keeping a sourdough starter within the ideal, somewhat oppressive range of acceptable temperatures needed for …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/engineering-your-way-to-better-sourdough-and-other-fermented-goods/)
Titanium Coating Is Actually Pretty Straightforward
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/titanium-coating-is-actually-pretty-straightforward/
[Justin] enjoys tinkering in his home lab, working on a wide variety of experiments. Recently, he’d found much success in coating objects with thin layers of various metals with the help of a DC sputtering magnetron. However, titanium simply wouldn’t work with this setup. Instead, [Justin] found another way.
As …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/titanium-coating-is-actually-pretty-straightforward/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/titanium-coating-is-actually-pretty-straightforward/
[Justin] enjoys tinkering in his home lab, working on a wide variety of experiments. Recently, he’d found much success in coating objects with thin layers of various metals with the help of a DC sputtering magnetron. However, titanium simply wouldn’t work with this setup. Instead, [Justin] found another way.
As …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/titanium-coating-is-actually-pretty-straightforward/)
Making Custom 3D Printed Slide Switches
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/making-custom-3d-printed-slide-switches/
For a little over a year now we’ve been covering the incredible replicas [Mike Gardi] has been building of educational “computers” from the very dawn of the digital age. These fascinating toys, many of which are now extremely rare, are recreated using 3D printing and other modern techniques for a …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/making-custom-3d-printed-slide-switches/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/making-custom-3d-printed-slide-switches/
For a little over a year now we’ve been covering the incredible replicas [Mike Gardi] has been building of educational “computers” from the very dawn of the digital age. These fascinating toys, many of which are now extremely rare, are recreated using 3D printing and other modern techniques for a …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/making-custom-3d-printed-slide-switches/)
Fail of the Week: Thermostat Almost Causes a House Fire
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/fail-of-the-week-thermostat-almost-causes-a-house-fire/
Fair warning: any homeowners who have thermostats similar to the one that nearly burned down [Kerry Wong]’s house might be in store for a sleepless night or two, at least until they inspect and perhaps replace any units that are even remotely as sketchy as what he found when he …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/fail-of-the-week-thermostat-almost-causes-a-house-fire/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/fail-of-the-week-thermostat-almost-causes-a-house-fire/
Fair warning: any homeowners who have thermostats similar to the one that nearly burned down [Kerry Wong]’s house might be in store for a sleepless night or two, at least until they inspect and perhaps replace any units that are even remotely as sketchy as what he found when he …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/fail-of-the-week-thermostat-almost-causes-a-house-fire/)
It Turns Out, Robots Need Tough Love Too
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/it-turns-out-robots-need-tough-love-too/
Showing robots adversarial behavior may be the key to improving their performance, according to a study conducted by the University of Southern California. While a generative adversarial network (GAN), where two neural networks compete in a game, has been demonstrated, this is the first time adversarial human users have been …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/it-turns-out-robots-need-tough-love-too/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/it-turns-out-robots-need-tough-love-too/
Showing robots adversarial behavior may be the key to improving their performance, according to a study conducted by the University of Southern California. While a generative adversarial network (GAN), where two neural networks compete in a game, has been demonstrated, this is the first time adversarial human users have been …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/it-turns-out-robots-need-tough-love-too/)
3D Printable Stick Shift For Your Racing Simulator
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/3d-printable-stick-shift-for-your-racing-simulator/
If you don’t get enough driving in your real life, you can top it off with some virtual driving and even build yourself a cockpit. To this end [Noctiluxx] created a very nice 3D printable stick shifter you can build yourself.
The design is adapted for 3D printing from an …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/3d-printable-stick-shift-for-your-racing-simulator/)
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/3d-printable-stick-shift-for-your-racing-simulator/
If you don’t get enough driving in your real life, you can top it off with some virtual driving and even build yourself a cockpit. To this end [Noctiluxx] created a very nice 3D printable stick shifter you can build yourself.
The design is adapted for 3D printing from an …read more (https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/3d-printable-stick-shift-for-your-racing-simulator/)