Home Brew Solar Cells for the Chemically Curious
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/home-brew-solar-cells-for-the-chemically-curious/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/home-brew-solar-cells-for-the-chemically-curious/
Hackaday
Home Brew Solar Cells for the Chemically Curious
The idea of making your own semiconductors from scratch would be more attractive if it weren’t for the expensive equipment and noxious chemicals required for silicon fabrication. But simple s…
The Coolest Electronic Toys You’ll See At NAMM
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/the-coolest-electronic-toys-youll-see-at-namm/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/the-coolest-electronic-toys-youll-see-at-namm/
Hackaday
The Coolest Electronic Toys You’ll See At NAMM
Winter NAMM is the world’s largest trade show for musical instrument makers. It is a gear head’s paradise, filled to the brim with guitars, synths, amps, MIDI controllers, an impossibly…
Drink Lots Of Beer To Raise Your Monopole
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/drink-lots-of-beer-to-raise-your-monopole/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/drink-lots-of-beer-to-raise-your-monopole/
Hackaday
Drink Lots Of Beer To Raise Your Monopole
When we published a piece about an ADS-B antenna using a Coke can as a groundplane, Hackaday reader [2ftg] got in contact with us about something with a bit more… stature. A monopole groundpl…
Students Hack an Unusual Violin
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/students-hack-an-unusual-violin/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/students-hack-an-unusual-violin/
Hackaday
Students Hack an Unusual Violin
[Sean Riley] is a violinist who had a problem. He wanted to play one particular piece, but he couldn’t. It wasn’t that he lacked the skill — he a doctoral student at the Universit…
Counting is for Sheep: Use a Light to Fall Asleep
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/counting-is-for-sheep-use-a-light-to-fall-asleep/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/counting-is-for-sheep-use-a-light-to-fall-asleep/
Hackaday
Counting is for Sheep: Use a Light to Fall Asleep
How do you get to sleep at night? For some of us, it can be the most difficult thing we do all day. Worrying about falling asleep and letting other intrusive thoughts in night after night only comp…
Repairing A Sunburned Game Boy Screen
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/repairing-a-sunburned-game-boy-screen/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/repairing-a-sunburned-game-boy-screen/
Hackaday
Repairing A Sunburned Game Boy Screen
The original Game Boy is a classic. Sure, it had no backlight, but there is something special about playing on that classic green screen. Unfortunately, some of these older systems are suffering a …
Amazing Mechanical Linkages and The Software to Design Them
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/amazing-mechanical-linkages-and-the-software-to-design-them/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/amazing-mechanical-linkages-and-the-software-to-design-them/
Hackaday
Amazing Mechanical Linkages and The Software to Design Them
Most of us are more bits-and-bytes than nuts-and-bolts, but we have the deepest appreciation for the combination of the two. So, apparently, does [rectorsquid]. Check out the design and flow of his…
Arrow’s $30 FPGA Board Reviewed
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/arrows-30-fpga-board-reviewed/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/arrows-30-fpga-board-reviewed/
Hackaday
Arrow’s $30 FPGA Board Reviewed
We like cheap FPGA boards. It isn’t just that we’re cheap — although that’s probably true, too — but cheap boards are a good way to get people started on FPGAs and we …
Disco Bulb Keeps the Party Spinning
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/disco-bulb-keeps-the-party-spinning/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/disco-bulb-keeps-the-party-spinning/
Hackaday
Disco Bulb Keeps The Party Spinning
Even if you don’t like disco, you might like the slick moves that went into this project. [W&M] built a miniature motorized mirror ball inside of a standard incandescent light bulb, and t…
Play A Few Games of Smash Brothers On The Go With A Portable Wii
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/play-a-few-games-of-smash-brothers-on-the-go-with-a-portable-wii/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/play-a-few-games-of-smash-brothers-on-the-go-with-a-portable-wii/
Hackaday
Play A Few Games Of Smash Brothers On The Go With A Portable Wii
How would you approach a build that required you to hack apart a perfectly good console motherboard? With aplomb and a strong finish. [jefflongo] from [BitBuilt.net] — a forum dedicated to ma…
3D Print the Blasphemous Helicopter Part Known as a Jesus Nut
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/3d-print-the-blasphemous-helicopter-part-known-as-a-jesus-nut/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/3d-print-the-blasphemous-helicopter-part-known-as-a-jesus-nut/
Hackaday
3D Print the Blasphemous Helicopter Part Known as a Jesus Nut
Today, when we say “Jesus nut”, we’re not referring to the people who spend their days proselytizing down at the mall. The term, likely spawned in the Vietnam war, refers to the m…
IoT Doorman: Eye-Controlled Door for a Girl with Cerebral Palsy
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/iot-doorman-eye-controlled-door-for-a-girl-with-cerebral-palsy/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/iot-doorman-eye-controlled-door-for-a-girl-with-cerebral-palsy/
Hackaday
IoT Doorman: Eye-Controlled Door for a Girl with Cerebral Palsy
Kyleigh has an eye-controlled computer on her wheelchair but something as simple as her bedroom door was still beyond her reach… until now! [Bill Binko], recently filmed a demo of an automati…
Make Your Own Current Clamp Probe
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/make-your-own-current-clamp-probe/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/make-your-own-current-clamp-probe/
Hackaday
Make Your Own Current Clamp Probe
If you want to measure AC or DC current with an oscilloscope, a current clamp is a great way to do it. The clamp surrounds the wire, so you don’t need to break the connection to take your mea…
A Talking Clock For The 21st Century
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/a-talking-clock-for-the-21st-century/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/a-talking-clock-for-the-21st-century/
Hackaday
A Talking Clock For The 21st Century
The Talking Clock service is disappearing, and it’s quite possible that few of you will be aware of its passing. One of the staples of twentieth-century technology, the Talking Clock service …
Alexa Controls This Projector Thanks to ESP8266
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/alexa-controls-this-projector-thanks-to-esp8266/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/27/alexa-controls-this-projector-thanks-to-esp8266/
Hackaday
Alexa Controls This Projector Thanks to ESP8266
[jfessard] doesn’t have extra-sensory perception, but does have an ESP8266. The little board seems to pop up in every hack these days. Inspired by not wanting to get up from the bean-bag chai…
Optical Tach Addresses the Need for Spindle Speed Control
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/optical-tach-addresses-the-need-for-spindle-speed-control/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/optical-tach-addresses-the-need-for-spindle-speed-control/
Hackaday
Optical Tach Addresses the Need for Spindle Speed Control
With CNC machines, getting the best results depends on knowing how fast your tool is moving relative to the workpiece. But entry-level CNC routers don’t often include a spindle tachometer, fo…
Biologic Additive May Lead to Self-Healing Concrete
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/biologic-additive-may-lead-to-self-healing-concrete/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/biologic-additive-may-lead-to-self-healing-concrete/
Hackaday
Biologic Additive May Lead to Self-Healing Concrete
If you get a cut or break a bone, your body heals itself. This everyday miracle is what inspired [Congrui Jin] to try to find a way to make concrete self-healing. The answer she and her colleagues …
The Tiniest Working 68K System
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/the-tiniest-working-68k-system/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/the-tiniest-working-68k-system/
Hackaday
The Tiniest Working 68K System
68000 microprocessors appeared in the earliest Apple Macintoshes, the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST, and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive among other familiar systems. If you were alive during the 16-bit…
Arcade Style Computer Hotkeys
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/arcade-style-computer-hotkeys/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/arcade-style-computer-hotkeys/
Hackaday
Arcade Style Computer Hotkeys
Prolific maker [Sean Hodgins] has taken the wraps off of his latest one-day build, and as usual, it takes the kind of spare parts most people reading Hackaday will have in their parts bins and turn…
ESP32 Makes for World’s Worst Radio Station
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/esp32-makes-for-worlds-worst-radio-station/
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/28/esp32-makes-for-worlds-worst-radio-station/
Hackaday
ESP32 Makes for World’s Worst Radio Station
We can say one thing for [bitluni]: the BOMs for his projects, like this ESP32 AM radio transmitter, are always on the low side. That’s because he leverages software to do jobs traditionally …