Neutrinos are exceedingly common in the Universe, with billions of them zipping around us throughout the day from a variety of sources. Due to their extremely low mass and no electric charge they barely ever interact with other particles, making these so-called ‘ghost particles’ very hard to detect. That said, when they do interact the […]
There are few computing collapses more spectacular than the downfall of Commodore, but its rise as a home computer powerhouse in the early 80s was equally impressive. Driven initially by the VIC-20, this was the first home computer model to sell over a million units thanks to its low cost and accessibility for people outside […]
The best part about post-mortem teardowns of electronics is when you discover some unusual design features, whether or not these are related to the original fault. In the case of a recent [DiodeGoneWild] video involving the teardown of an industrial DIN-rail mounted 24 V, 960 Watt power supply, the source of the reported bang was […]
We can understand why shaderacademy.com chose that name over “the shady school,” but whatever they call it, if you are looking to brush up on graphics programming with GPUs, it might be just what you are looking for. The website offers challenges that task you to draw various 2D and 3D graphics using code in […]
When someone hacks together a digital camera with a Raspberry Pi, the limiting factor for serious photography is usually the sensor. No offense to the fine folks at the foundation, but even the “HQ” camera, while very good, isn’t quite professional grade. That’s why when photographer [Malcom Wilson] put together this “Mini Hasselblad” style camera, […]
Ever ruin a perfectly serviceable piece of toast by trying (and failing) to spread a little pat of rock-solid butter? [John Dingley] doesn’t! Not since he created the Butta Melta to cozily snug a single butter serving right up against a warm beverage, softening it just enough to get nice and spreadable. Just insert one […]
We’re used to interfaces such as I2C and one-wire as easy ways to hook up sensors and other peripherals to microcontrollers. While they’re fine within the confines of a small project, they do have a few limitations. [Vinnie] ran straight into those limitations while using a Raspberry Pi with agricultural sensors. The interfaces needed to […]
Last time, I showed you how to throw together a few modules and make a working macropad that could act like a keyboard or a mouse. My prototype was very simple, so there wasn’t much to debug. But what happens if you want to do something more complex? In this installment, I’ll show you how […]
The Bendix G-15 refurbished by [David at Usagi Electric] is well known as the oldest digital computer in North America. The question [David] gets most is “what can you do with it?”. Well, as a general-purpose computer, it can do just about anything. He set out to prove it. Can a 1950s-era vacuum tube computer […]