QR codes are used just about everywhere now, for checking into venues, ordering food, or just plain old advertising. But what about data storage? It’s hardly efficient, but if you want to store your files in a ridiculous paper format—there’s a way to do that, too! QR-Backup was developed by [za3k], and is currently available […]
When you go to build a subwoofer box, wood is the most common choice. When it came to his project, though, [Startup Chuck] decided to go a different route entirely. Rather than the usual plywood or MDF, he decided to try Trex decking instead. Why? He had some lying around, and he suspected it might […]
Whenever you buy a servo, it usually comes with a little baggie full of various plastic horns. Most of us pick our favorite and use it in our projects. Some of us hack them up, glue them back together, and do all kinds of weird things with them. And others skip them entirely, going for […]
It’s 2024, and there’s no getting around it. Grid energy is expensive. [Darrell] realized that a lot of his money was going on water heating, and he came up with a neat solution. What if he could hack in some solar power to slash his bills at a minimum of fuss? It worked so well […]
We’ve seen a great many cat feeders over the years. Some rely on the Internet of Things, and some rely on fancy microcontrollers. [Larry Cook], on the other hand, built his using a simple 4060 binary counter chip. The feeder is built out of old plywood, and the whole thing runs off an old 12-volt […]
Once upon a time, RC planes were expensive models that took months to build and big money to equip with electronics. Since the 20th century though, powerful batteries have become cheap, as have servos and radio controllers. Combine them with a bit of old packing material and you can get a little RC trainer up […]
You shouldn’t play with your food. Unless you’re designing some kind of portable cannon to fling it across the room. That’s precisely what [Backhaul Studios] did. The first step of designing the condiment cannon was deciding what it should fire. Little low-profile tubs of jelly ended up being the ideal. They were stout enough to […]
[Peter Demchenko] wanted to use a low power TS555 in an ESR meter design. The problem is, he needed to handle significant current sink requirements for cases where the capacitor under test had a low ESR. The TS555 wasn’t up to the task. However, [Peter] made an interesting observation. the output pin of the device […]
If there’s a reason that fancy holographic displays that respond to gestures are a science fiction staple, it’s probably because our current display technology is terrible. Oh sure, Retina displays and big curved gaming monitors are things of wonder, but they’re also things that occupy space even when they’re off — hence the yearning for […]
Monorails aren’t just the core reason why The Simpsons remains on air after thirty-six seasons, twenty-six of which are unredeemable garbage. They’re also an interesting example of oddball rail travel which has never really caught on beyond the odd gadgetbahn project here and there. [Hyperspace Pirate] recently decided to investigate the most interesting kind of monorail […]