[VWestlife] ended up with an obscure piece of 80s satellite TV technology, shown above. The Micro-Scan is a fairly plan metal box with a single “Tune” knob on the front. At the back is a power switch and connectors for TV Antenna, TV Set, and “MW” (probably meaning microwave). There’s no other data. What was […]
Linear actuators are a great help when you’re moving something along a single axis, but with so many options, how do you decide? [Jeremy Fielding] walks us through some of the high level tradeoffs of using one type of actuator over another. There are three main types of linear actuator available to the maker: hydraulic, […]
Pointing at stars may seem easy on the surface—just mount a telescope to a tripod and you’re done, right? As anyone who’s spent time with a telescope can tell you, it’s not that simple, given that the Earth is always spinning. [Sven] set out to make his own mount to compensate for the rotation of […]
[naturejab] shows off his solar powered pyrolysis machine which can convert scrap plastic into fuel. According to the video, this is the world’s most complex hand-made pyrolysis reactor ever made. We will give him some wiggle room there around “complex” and “hand-made”, because whatever else you have to say about it this machine is incredibly […]
As the march of time continues on, it becomes harder and harder to play older video games on hardware. Part of this is because the original hardware itself wears out, but another major factor is that modern operating systems, software, and even modern hardware don’t maintain support for older technology indefinitely. This is why emulation […]
A multitool that weighs less than a penny? Yes, it exists. This video by [ToolTechGeek] shows his titanium flat-cut design tipping the scales at only 1.9 grams—lighter than the 2.5-gram copper penny jingling in your pocket. His reasoning: where most everyday carry (EDC) tools are bulky, overpriced, or simply too much, this hack flips the […]
In a recent video our hacker [Electronic Wizard] introduces the 74HC595 shift register and explains how to use it to drive 7-segment displays. [Electronic Wizard] explains that understanding how to apply the 74HC595 can increase the quality of your projects and also help keep the demands on the number of pins from your microcontroller to […]
Over on his YouTube channel [Ryan Inis] has a video about how electrostatic motors are breaking all the rules. He explains that these days most motors are electromagnetic but suggests that may be changing as the age-old principles of electrostatics are being explored again, particularly due to the limited supply of rare-earth magnets and other materials […]
As you may have guessed given our name, we do love hacks around here, and this one is a great example of making some common, everyday things work in uncommon ways. [Nathan] sent in his hack to detect the door lock position in his basement. Having a house that dates back to the 1890s, much […]
Designing a circuit is a lot easier on paper, where components have well-defined values, or lacking that, at least well-defined tolerances. Unfortunately, even keeping percentage tolerances in mind isn’t always enough to make sure that circuits work correctly in the real world, as [Tahmid] demonstrates by diagnosing a buck converter with an oddly strong voltage […]