Over on YouTube [Lockdown Electronics] reviews an old bit of kit known as the Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR). Invented in the 1950s the SCR is a type of thyristor and they were popular back in the 1970s. They are often replaced these days by the TRIAC and the MOSFET but you might still find some […]
Not every impulsive purchase on eBay leads to possession of a wooden Dalek, but when a friend did exactly that, [Tony Goacher] did his part to turn ‘Dalek Bob’ into a motorized and remote-controlled unit of impressive stature. Fitting wheels to shafts and motors to a frame can be a bit tricky when none were […]
Pagers were once a great way to get a message to someone out in public; they just had to be cool enough to have one. These days, they’re mostly the preserve of doctors and a few other niche operators. [Kyle Tryon] is bringing the beeper back, though, with a custom ESP32-based build. The ESP32 is […]
Want to visualize radioactive particles? You don’t need a boatload of lab equipment. Just a cloud chamber. And [Curious Scientist] is showing off an improved miniature cloud chamber that is easy to replicate using a 3D printer and common components. The build uses a Peltier module, a CPU cooler, an aluminum plate, thermal paste, and headlight […]
We’ve often said that some technological advancements seemed like alien technology for their time. Sometimes we look back and think something would be easy until we realize they didn’t have the tools we have today. One of the biggest examples of this is how, in the 1950s, engineers created a color image that still plays […]
Most of us are familiar with vinyl LPs, and even with the way in which they are made by stamping a hot puck of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into a record. But [Technostalgism] takes us all the way back to the beginning, giving us a first-hand look at how a lacquer master is cut by a […]
We all know that you can play DOOM on nearly anything, but what about the lesser known work being done to let other species get in on the action? For ages now, our rodent friends haven’t been able to play the 1993 masterpiece, but [Viktor Tóth] and colleagues have been working hard to fix this […]
[VWestlife] purchased all kinds of USB video capture devices — many of them from the early 2000s — and put them through their paces in trying to digitize VHS classics like Instant Fireplace and Buying an Auxiliary Sailboat. The results were actually quite varied, but almost universally bad. They all worked, but they also brought […]
In a recent video, [Jason Jacques] demos the Busch Electronic Digital-Technik 2075 which was released in West Germany in the 1970s. The Digital-Technik 2075 comes with a few components including a battery holder and 9 V battery, a push button, two 1 K resistors, a red LED, a 100 nF ceramic capacitor, a 100 µF […]
We can’t get enough of [Bettina Neumryn’s] videos. If you haven’t seen her, she takes old electronics magazines, finds interesting projects, and builds them. If you remember these old projects, it is nostalgic, and if you don’t remember them, you can learn a lot about basic electronics and construction techniques. This installment (see below) is […]