Over on YouTube our hacker [VIP Love Secretary] shows us how to make a simple MOSFET tester. This is a really neat, useful, elegant, and simple hack, but the video is kind of terrible. We found that the voice-over constantly saying “right?” and “look!” seriously drove us to distraction. But this is a circuit which […]
Over on Instructables, [Logan Fouts] shows us the Contrib Cal GitHub desk gadget. This build will allow you to sport your recent GitHub commit activity on your wall or desk with an attractive diffuse light display backed by a 7×4 matrix of multicolor LEDs. Motivate yourself and impress your peers! This humble project is at […]
Over on YouTube [The 8-Bit Guy] shows us how the TI-99/4A home computer worked. [The 8-Bit Guy] runs us through this odd 16-bit home computer from back in the 1980s, starting with a mention of the mysterious extra “space” key on its antiquated keyboard. The port on the side is for two joysticks which share […]
Business cards, on the whole, haven’t changed significantly over the past 600-ish years, and arguably are not as important as they used to be, but they are still worth considering as a reminder for someone to contact you. If the format of that card and method of contact stand out as unique and related to […]
Over on YouTube [Electronic Wizard] explains how to use the AT24C32 EEPROM for external memory for microcontrollers. He begins by explaining that you don’t want to try modifying your microcontroller flash memory for storing settings, you want to use a separate EEPROM for that. Sometimes your microcontroller will have EEPROM memory attached, but you might […]
There’s something uniquely satisfying about a pen plotter. Though less speedy or precise than a modern printer, watching a pen glide across the page, mimicking human drawing, is mesmerizing. This project, submitted by [Jacob C], showcases the Incrediplotter, a brilliant repurposing of a 3D printer built by him and his brother. Starting with a broken […]
Over on his blog our hacker [Scott Baker] has a Magnetic Bubble Memory Mega-Post. If you haven’t heard of magnetic bubble memory before it’s basically obsolete nonvolatile memory. Since the 1970s when it was introduced this type of memory has been outperformed in every dimension including durability, reliability, price, density, performance, and so on. For […]
Knobs are ubiquitous in technology user interfaces, but touchscreens are increasingly replacing them for interface controls. The latest project from [upir] combines a rotating knob with a touchscreen for a stunning result. The knob-over-display design features a touchscreen where you can place and remove a spinning knob, creating an interface reminiscent of Microsoft’s Surface Dial […]
Over on his YouTube channel our hacker [Jerry Walker] repairs a Tektronix 577 curve tracer. A curve tracer is a piece of equipment which plots I-V (current vs voltage) curves, among other things. This old bit of Tektronix kit is rocking a CRT, which dates it. According to TekWiki the Tektronix 577 was introduced in […]