The Miniware TS100 As A USB-C Soldering Iron
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/22/the-miniware-ts100-as-a-usb-c-soldering-iron/
Many readers will be familiar with the Miniware TS100 soldering iron, a lightweight temperature-controlled iron that is giving significantly more expensive soldering tools a run for their money. There is another model in the range, the TS80, which though it uses different tips than its sibling has the main distinguishing …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/22/the-miniware-ts100-as-a-usb-c-soldering-iron/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/22/the-miniware-ts100-as-a-usb-c-soldering-iron/
Many readers will be familiar with the Miniware TS100 soldering iron, a lightweight temperature-controlled iron that is giving significantly more expensive soldering tools a run for their money. There is another model in the range, the TS80, which though it uses different tips than its sibling has the main distinguishing …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/22/the-miniware-ts100-as-a-usb-c-soldering-iron/)
Windows 3.1 Screensavers, Now On Twitter
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/windows-3-1-screensavers-now-on-twitter/
Back in the early dawn of the GUI age, cathode ray tubes were the dominant display technology for the personal computer. In order to avoid burn-in of static display elements, screensavers were devised to help prevent this problem. Out of love for the software of yesteryear, [Greg Kennedy] has put …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/windows-3-1-screensavers-now-on-twitter/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/windows-3-1-screensavers-now-on-twitter/
Back in the early dawn of the GUI age, cathode ray tubes were the dominant display technology for the personal computer. In order to avoid burn-in of static display elements, screensavers were devised to help prevent this problem. Out of love for the software of yesteryear, [Greg Kennedy] has put …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/windows-3-1-screensavers-now-on-twitter/)
Speeding Up Drawing To MCU-Connected Serial Displays
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/speeding-up-drawing-to-mcu-connected-serial-displays/
Writing image data to serially connected (SPI/I2C) displays from a microcontroller is easy enough these days, courtesy of standards defined by the MIPI Alliance, yet there are some gotchas in it which may catch someone using it unaware. [Larry Bank] wrote up a good summary of how one can get …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/speeding-up-drawing-to-mcu-connected-serial-displays/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/speeding-up-drawing-to-mcu-connected-serial-displays/
Writing image data to serially connected (SPI/I2C) displays from a microcontroller is easy enough these days, courtesy of standards defined by the MIPI Alliance, yet there are some gotchas in it which may catch someone using it unaware. [Larry Bank] wrote up a good summary of how one can get …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/speeding-up-drawing-to-mcu-connected-serial-displays/)
FIDO2: The Dream Of Password-Free Authentication On The WWW
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/fido2-the-dream-of-password-free-authentication-on-the-www/
Of all the things which are annoying about the modern World Wide Web, the need to create and remember countless passwords is on the top of most people’s lists. From dozens of passwords for everything from social media sites to shopping, company, and productivity-related platforms like Github, a large part …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/fido2-the-dream-of-password-free-authentication-on-the-www/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/fido2-the-dream-of-password-free-authentication-on-the-www/
Of all the things which are annoying about the modern World Wide Web, the need to create and remember countless passwords is on the top of most people’s lists. From dozens of passwords for everything from social media sites to shopping, company, and productivity-related platforms like Github, a large part …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/fido2-the-dream-of-password-free-authentication-on-the-www/)
Punch Through Switches Gears, Shucks Beans
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/punch-through-switches-gears-shucks-beans/
Do you own a LightBlue Bean or Bean+ from Punch Through? If you don’t have one now, you probably never will, as the company has recently announced they’re no longer selling or supporting the Bluetooth Low Energy microcontrollers. The company says that after selling more than 100,000 Bean devices, the …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/punch-through-switches-gears-shucks-beans/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/punch-through-switches-gears-shucks-beans/
Do you own a LightBlue Bean or Bean+ from Punch Through? If you don’t have one now, you probably never will, as the company has recently announced they’re no longer selling or supporting the Bluetooth Low Energy microcontrollers. The company says that after selling more than 100,000 Bean devices, the …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/punch-through-switches-gears-shucks-beans/)
High-Speed PCB Design Hack Chat with Bil Herd
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/high-speed-pcb-design-hack-chat-with-bil-herd/
Join us on Wednesday, September 25 at noon Pacific for the High-Speed PCB Design Hack Chat with Bil Herd!
Printed circuits have become so commoditized that we seldom think much about design details. EDA software makes it easy to forget about the subtleties and nuances that make themselves painfully obvious …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/high-speed-pcb-design-hack-chat-with-bil-herd/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/high-speed-pcb-design-hack-chat-with-bil-herd/
Join us on Wednesday, September 25 at noon Pacific for the High-Speed PCB Design Hack Chat with Bil Herd!
Printed circuits have become so commoditized that we seldom think much about design details. EDA software makes it easy to forget about the subtleties and nuances that make themselves painfully obvious …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/high-speed-pcb-design-hack-chat-with-bil-herd/)
Is A Cheap Inverter Welder Worth It?
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/is-a-cheap-inverter-welder-worth-it/
We’ve all seen cheap welders for sale from the usual online sources, small inverter stick welders for a very tempting price. But are they any good? When my local supermarket had one in its offers aisle, I took the plunge and placed it in my cart alongside the usual week’s …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/is-a-cheap-inverter-welder-worth-it/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/is-a-cheap-inverter-welder-worth-it/
We’ve all seen cheap welders for sale from the usual online sources, small inverter stick welders for a very tempting price. But are they any good? When my local supermarket had one in its offers aisle, I took the plunge and placed it in my cart alongside the usual week’s …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/is-a-cheap-inverter-welder-worth-it/)
What’s Your Fidget Spinner Say?
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/whats-your-fidget-spinner-say/
The persistence of vision (POV) optical illusion is pretty common in cheap toys nowadays, but how cool would it be to have your own programmable POV message board? German electronics grad student [Matej] has luckily created an open source fidget spinner with a fully customizable POV display that lets you …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/whats-your-fidget-spinner-say/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/whats-your-fidget-spinner-say/
The persistence of vision (POV) optical illusion is pretty common in cheap toys nowadays, but how cool would it be to have your own programmable POV message board? German electronics grad student [Matej] has luckily created an open source fidget spinner with a fully customizable POV display that lets you …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/whats-your-fidget-spinner-say/)
LoRa-Based Plant Monitoring
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/lora-based-plant-monitoring/
Croatian engineers [Slaven Damjanovic] and [Marko Čalić] have developed a wireless system for farmers to monitor plant conditions and weather along their agricultural fields. The system uses an RFM95W module for LoRa communication, and devices are designed to be plug-and-play, battery-powered, and have long-range communication (up to 10km from the …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/lora-based-plant-monitoring/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/lora-based-plant-monitoring/
Croatian engineers [Slaven Damjanovic] and [Marko Čalić] have developed a wireless system for farmers to monitor plant conditions and weather along their agricultural fields. The system uses an RFM95W module for LoRa communication, and devices are designed to be plug-and-play, battery-powered, and have long-range communication (up to 10km from the …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/lora-based-plant-monitoring/)
Magnets Make This Panda Move
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/magnets-make-this-panda-move/
A single board computer on a desk is fine for quick demos but for taking it into the wild (or even the rest of the house) you’re going to want a little more safety from debris, ESD, and drops. As SBCs get more useful this becomes an increasingly relevant problem …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/magnets-make-this-panda-move/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/magnets-make-this-panda-move/
A single board computer on a desk is fine for quick demos but for taking it into the wild (or even the rest of the house) you’re going to want a little more safety from debris, ESD, and drops. As SBCs get more useful this becomes an increasingly relevant problem …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/magnets-make-this-panda-move/)
Secrets From A 1969 Analog Computer
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/secrets-from-a-1969-analog-computer/
Today, most of what we think of as a computer uses digital technology. But that wasn’t always the case. From slide rules to mechanical fire solution computers to electronic analog computers, there have been plenty of computers that don’t work on 1s and 0s, but on analog quantities such as …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/secrets-from-a-1969-analog-computer/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/secrets-from-a-1969-analog-computer/
Today, most of what we think of as a computer uses digital technology. But that wasn’t always the case. From slide rules to mechanical fire solution computers to electronic analog computers, there have been plenty of computers that don’t work on 1s and 0s, but on analog quantities such as …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/secrets-from-a-1969-analog-computer/)
RPi Tank Invades Living Room, Teaches OpenCV
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/rpi-tank-invades-living-room-teaches-opencv/
If you’re looking for a simple project to start exploring the intersection of OpenCV and robotics, then the RPi Tank created by [Vishal Varghese] might be a good place to start. A Raspberry Pi and a few bits of ancillary hardware literally taped to the top of a toy M1 …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/rpi-tank-invades-living-room-teaches-opencv/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/rpi-tank-invades-living-room-teaches-opencv/
If you’re looking for a simple project to start exploring the intersection of OpenCV and robotics, then the RPi Tank created by [Vishal Varghese] might be a good place to start. A Raspberry Pi and a few bits of ancillary hardware literally taped to the top of a toy M1 …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/23/rpi-tank-invades-living-room-teaches-opencv/)
Asynchronous Routines for C
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/asynchronous-routines-for-c/
[Sandro Magi] noted that the async/await idiom has become more prevalent in programming recently. According to him, he first encountered it in C# but has found examples of it in JavaScript and Rust, too. The idea is simple: allow a function to return but come back later to complete something …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/asynchronous-routines-for-c/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/asynchronous-routines-for-c/
[Sandro Magi] noted that the async/await idiom has become more prevalent in programming recently. According to him, he first encountered it in C# but has found examples of it in JavaScript and Rust, too. The idea is simple: allow a function to return but come back later to complete something …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/asynchronous-routines-for-c/)
Helicopter Chain Saw
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/helicopter-chain-saw/
Among the most dangerous jobs in the United States are timberjack and aircraft pilot. Combining the two wouldn’t sound like a recipe for success, but in fact it makes the job of trimming trees near pipelines and power lines much safer. That’s what this helicopter-suspended chainsaw does. And it definitely …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/helicopter-chain-saw/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/helicopter-chain-saw/
Among the most dangerous jobs in the United States are timberjack and aircraft pilot. Combining the two wouldn’t sound like a recipe for success, but in fact it makes the job of trimming trees near pipelines and power lines much safer. That’s what this helicopter-suspended chainsaw does. And it definitely …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/helicopter-chain-saw/)
A Virtual Tour of the B-17
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/a-virtual-tour-of-the-b-17/
The Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” is arguably the most recognizable aircraft of the Second World War. Made infamous by the daring daylight strategic bombing runs they carried out over Germany, more than 12,000 of these four-engined bombers were produced between 1939 and 1945. Thanks to the plane’s renowned survivability in …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/a-virtual-tour-of-the-b-17/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/a-virtual-tour-of-the-b-17/
The Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” is arguably the most recognizable aircraft of the Second World War. Made infamous by the daring daylight strategic bombing runs they carried out over Germany, more than 12,000 of these four-engined bombers were produced between 1939 and 1945. Thanks to the plane’s renowned survivability in …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/a-virtual-tour-of-the-b-17/)
Dealing With Invasive Species Through Robotics
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/dealing-with-invasive-species-through-robotics/
Throughout its history, humankind’s travels have often brought unwelcome guests along for the ride, and sometimes introduced species into a new environment for a variety of reasons. These so-called invasive species are all too often responsible for widespread devastation in ecosystems, wiping out entire species and disrupting the natural balance. …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/dealing-with-invasive-species-through-robotics/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/dealing-with-invasive-species-through-robotics/
Throughout its history, humankind’s travels have often brought unwelcome guests along for the ride, and sometimes introduced species into a new environment for a variety of reasons. These so-called invasive species are all too often responsible for widespread devastation in ecosystems, wiping out entire species and disrupting the natural balance. …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/dealing-with-invasive-species-through-robotics/)
Who Could Possibly Need An FPGA with 9M Logic Cells and 35B Transistors?
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/who-could-possibly-need-an-fpga-with-9m-logic-cells-and-35b-transistors/
Xilinx recently announced the Virtex UltraScale+ VU19P FPGA. Of course, FPGA companies announce new chips every day. The reason this one caught our attention is the size of it: nearly 9 million logic cells and 35 billion transistors on a chip! If that’s not enough there is also over 2,000 …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/who-could-possibly-need-an-fpga-with-9m-logic-cells-and-35b-transistors/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/who-could-possibly-need-an-fpga-with-9m-logic-cells-and-35b-transistors/
Xilinx recently announced the Virtex UltraScale+ VU19P FPGA. Of course, FPGA companies announce new chips every day. The reason this one caught our attention is the size of it: nearly 9 million logic cells and 35 billion transistors on a chip! If that’s not enough there is also over 2,000 …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/who-could-possibly-need-an-fpga-with-9m-logic-cells-and-35b-transistors/)
Fighting Household Air Pollution
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/fighting-household-air-pollution/
When Kenyan engineer [Aloise] found out about the health risks of household air pollution, they knew there had to be a smart solution to combatting the problem while still providing a reasonable source of energy for families cooking without the luxury of cleaner fuels. Enter OpenHAP, a DIY household air …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/fighting-household-air-pollution/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/fighting-household-air-pollution/
When Kenyan engineer [Aloise] found out about the health risks of household air pollution, they knew there had to be a smart solution to combatting the problem while still providing a reasonable source of energy for families cooking without the luxury of cleaner fuels. Enter OpenHAP, a DIY household air …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/fighting-household-air-pollution/)
Copying High Security Keys With OpenSCAD And Light
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/copying-high-security-keys-with-openscad-and-light/
The ability to duplicate keys with a 3D printer is certainly nothing new, but so far we’ve only seen the technique used against relatively low hanging fruit. It’s one thing to print a key that will open a $15 Kwikset deadbolt from the hardware store or a TSA-approved “lock” that’s …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/copying-high-security-keys-with-openscad-and-light/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/copying-high-security-keys-with-openscad-and-light/
The ability to duplicate keys with a 3D printer is certainly nothing new, but so far we’ve only seen the technique used against relatively low hanging fruit. It’s one thing to print a key that will open a $15 Kwikset deadbolt from the hardware store or a TSA-approved “lock” that’s …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/copying-high-security-keys-with-openscad-and-light/)
Finally, a Rotary Cell Phone With Speed Dial
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/finally-a-rotary-cell-phone-with-speed-dial/
If you’re reading this, chances are good that you’re the family IT department. We do what we can to help them, but there’s just no changing the fact that smartphones are difficult to operate with aging eyes and hands. When [sideburn’s] dad started complaining, he took a different approach. Instead …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/finally-a-rotary-cell-phone-with-speed-dial/)
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/finally-a-rotary-cell-phone-with-speed-dial/
If you’re reading this, chances are good that you’re the family IT department. We do what we can to help them, but there’s just no changing the fact that smartphones are difficult to operate with aging eyes and hands. When [sideburn’s] dad started complaining, he took a different approach. Instead …read more (https://hackaday.com/2019/09/24/finally-a-rotary-cell-phone-with-speed-dial/)