Consider the plight of a mid-career or even freshly minted electrical engineer in 1960. He or she was perched precariously between two worlds – the proven, practical, and well-supported world of vacuum tube electronics, and the exciting, new but as yet unproven world of the transistor. The solid-state devices had only started making inroads into […]
Electronic conference badges are now an accepted part of the lifeblood of our community, with even the simplest of events now sporting a fully functional computer as an eye-catching PCB on a lanyard. Event schedules and applications are shipped on them, and the more sophisticated ones have app libraries and support development communities of their […]
The heart is an impressive piece of hardware. It’s a rare pump that runs continuously for over 80 years in some cases. It’s also, for some reason or other, become a common human symbol of love and affection. In this vein, [Deepak Khatri] has built a beating electronic heart out of basic, readily available components. […]
How large is the cache of discarded electronics in your home? They were once expensive and cherished items, but now they’re a question-mark for responsible disposal. I’m going to dig into this problem — which goes far beyond your collection of dead smartphones — as well as the issues of where this stuff ends up […]
The concept of wearable hardware is an enticing one, but it can be difficult to tackle for the first-time maker. While many of us are experienced at designing PCBs and soldering up arcane gadgets, interfacing with the soft and fleshy human form can present unforeseen difficulties. There’s a way around that, of course – leveraging […]
We’ve got to admit to being a bit of a Casio G-Shock watch geek. The big, chunky watches were every day carry items that survived everything we dished out, right up until the smartphone made wearing one seem redundant. But others continue to use and abuse G-Shocks, and some brave souls even hack them. Replacing […]
For one reason or another, a lot of us have a bunch of 18650 cells sitting around. Whether they’re for flashlights, our fancy new vape pen, remote controlled toys, or something more obscure, there is a need to charge a bunch of lithium ion cells all at once. This project, by [Daren Schwenke], is the […]
If [Electroboom] gives up making videos and decides to become a lounge lizard in the Poconos, we hope he adopts the stage name Eddy Currents. However, he is talking about eddy currents in his recent video post that you can see below. We know he doesn’t really think he can get the magnet to slow […]
Thanks to internet commerce opening up a global marketplace, it is now easier than ever for a budding roboticist to get started. There are so many robot kits available, across such a wide range of price and sophistication, that deciding which one to buy becomes a challenging project in itself. Is there room for another […]
Laser pointers were cool for about 30 seconds when they first came out, before becoming immediately passé and doing absolutely nothing to improve the boss’s quarterly reports presentation. However, just as with boom boxes and sports cars, more power can always make things better. [Styropyro] was unimpressed with the weak and unreliable laser pointers he’d […]