[Kalesh Sasidharan] from Sciotronics wrote in to tell us about their project, Stamp: a modular set of template breakout boards designed to make prototyping with SMD components faster, easier, and more affordable. No breadboards, custom PCBs, or tangled jumper wires required. The project has blasted past its Kickstarter goal, and is on track to start […]
Our hacker [Andrew Zonenberg] reports in on his open-source high-speed Ethernet switch. He hasn’t finished yet, but progress has been made. If you were wondering what might be involved in a high-speed Ethernet switch implementation look no further. He’s been working on this project, on and off, since 2012. His design now includes a dizzying […]
When we hear the words “pitot tube,” we tend to think more of airplanes than of air ducts, but [Franci Kopač]’s guide to pitot tubes for makers shows that they can be a remarkably versatile tool for measuring air speed, even in domestic settings. A pitot tube is a tube which faces into an air […]
Almost all satellites have some kind of thrusters aboard, but they tend to use them as little as possible to conserve chemical fuel. Reaction wheels are one way to make orientation adjustments without running the thrusters, and [Zachary Tong]’s liquid metal reaction wheel greatly simplifies the conventional design. Reaction wheels are basically flywheels. When a […]
Solder fumes are not nice on the lungs; nor are fumes from superglue, epoxy, or a whole mess of other things we often find ourselves using on the bench. Some people might be able to go the fume hood route to toss that all outside, but for the rest of us, there’s fume extractors. [Raph] […]
The hack we have for you today is among our most favorite types of hack: a good, honest, simple, and well documented implementation that meets a real need. Our hacker [Solo Pilot] has sent in a link to their basement monitor. The documentation is quite good. It’s terse but comprehensive with links to related information. […]
Recently in material science news from China we hear that [Hailin Peng] and his team at Peking University just made the world’s fastest transistor and it’s not made of silicon. Before we tell you about this transistor made from bismuth here’s a whirlwind tour of the history of the transistor. The Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT, […]
If you have seen Star Wars, you know what is being referenced here. Holochess appeared as a diversion built into the Millennium Falcon in the very first movie, way back in 1977. While not quite as iconic a use of simulated holograms as tiny Princess Leia begging for hope, it evidently struck a chord with […]
Detecting a signal pulse is usually basic electronics, but you start to find more complications when you need to time the signal’s arrival in the picoseconds domain. These include the time-walk effect: if your circuit compares the input with a set threshold, a stronger signal will cross the threshold faster than a weaker signal arriving […]
Lots of microcontrollers will accept Python these days, with CircuitPython and MicroPython becoming ever more popular in recent years. However, there’s now a new player in town. Enter PyXL, a project to run Python directly in hardware for maximum speed. What’s the deal with PyXL? “It’s actual Python executed in silicon,” notes the project site. […]