For most of us, the days of having to insert a disc to play our media are increasingly behind us. But if you’d like to provide your kids with the experience, you could use CardFlix. For the electronics, [Udi] used the readily available ESP8266 D1 Mini module connected via I2C to a PN532 NFC reader. […]
The clicking of a Geiger counter is well enough known as a signifier of radioactive materials, due to it providing the menacing sound effect any time a film or TV show deals with radiation. What we’re hearing is the electronic detection of an ionization event in a Geiger-Muller tube due to alpha or beta radiation, […]
Over on YouTube [Usagi Electric] shows us how to make RAM for the TMS9900. He starts by remarking that the TI-99/4A computer is an excellent place to start if you’re interested in getting into retro-computing. Particularly there are a lot of great resources online, including arcadeshopper.com and the AtariAge forums. The CPU in the TI-99 […]
Obsolete hardware is all around us, and some of it has some pretty interesting tech buried within. One such device is an old Belgacom TV Box. Instead of using the ubiquitous LCD screen, it uses a VFD display for its user interface, and [Jean] has taken control of it with the ESPTimeCastVFD project. Inside this […]
[Tito] entered a Self-Charging LED Flasher into the Component Abuse Challenge. It’s a simple re-build of a design by the unstoppable [Burkhard Kainka], and while [Tito] doesn’t explain its workings in detail, it’s a clever experiment in minimalism, and a bit of a head-scratcher at the same time. You press a button and an LED […]
Keeping chickens in predator-prone areas demands serious fortifications, but even the most robust coop can become a hassle without automation. That’s where [lcamtuf] steps in with his Chicken Squisher 3000, a clever DIY automatic door mechanism that opens and closes based on ambient light levels. The chicken coop he previously built did not include a […]
Not too long ago, part of using a computer was often finding the correct disk for the application you wanted to run and inserting it into your machine before you could start. With modern storage, this is largely a thing of the past. However, longing for some of that nostalgia, [ItsDanik] has been developing the […]
Over on his YouTube channel the inimitable [Ben Eater] takes a look at an electronic altimeter which replaces an old mechanical altimeter in an airplane. The old altimeter was entirely mechanical, except for a pair of wires which can power a backlight. Both the old and new altimeters have a dial on the front for […]
Hyperspectral cameras aren’t commonplace items; they capture spectral data for each of their pixels. While commercial hyperspectral cameras often start in the tens of thousands of dollars, [anfractuosity] decided to make his own with the Waverider. To capture spectral data from every pixel location in the camera, [anfractuosity] first needed a way to collect that […]
Back in 1966, a suitable toy for a geeky kid was a radio kit. You could find simple crystal radio sets or some more advanced ones. But some lucky kids got the Philips Electronic Engineer EE8 Kit on Christmas morning. [Anthony Francis-Jones] shows us how to build a 2-transistor AM radio from a Philips Electronic […]