Some troubling news hit overnight as the United States Post Office announced via a terse “Service Alert” that they would suspend acceptance of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts, effective immediately. The Alert calls it a temporary suspension, but gives no timeline on when service will be restored. While details are still coming […]
The USS Cod is a Gato-class submarine that saw combat in the Second World War and today operates as a museum ship in Cleveland, Ohio. While many other surviving WWII-era subs were cut into pieces or otherwise modified for public display, Cod is notable for being intact and still in her wartime configuration. It’s considered […]
How any string instrument sounds depends on hundreds of factors; even the tiniest details matter. Seemingly inconsequential things like whether the tree that the wood came from grew on the north slope or south slope of a particular valley make a difference, at least to the trained ear. Add electronics into the mix, as with […]
You can work with a part for many decades, and still learn something new about it. At least we can, and we don’t mind admitting it. Take film capacitors — we all know they aren’t a polarized part like an electrolytic capacitor is, but as [TheDannVal] points out, that doesn’t mean both their leads are […]
The ESP32 series of microcontrollers have been with us for quite a few years now, providing a powerful processor and wireless connectivity for not a huge outlay. We’ve seen a bunch of versions over the years with both Tensilica and RISC-V cores, but so far the ones with radios have all only serviced 2.4 GHz […]
With so much data being thrown at our eyeballs these days, it’s worryingly easy for the actually important stuff to slip by occasionally. So when [Liam Jackson] wanted a way to visualize the number of test failures popping up in the continuous integration system at work, he went with a novel but effective solution — […]
The humble piezo disc buzzer is much more than something that makes tinny beeps in retro electronic equipment, it can also be used as a sensor. Tapping a piezo buzzer gives an interesting waveform, with a voltage spike followed by an envelope, and then a negative rebound voltage. It’s something [Igor Brichkov] is using, to […]
Are your jellybeans getting stale? [lcamtuf] thinks so, and his guide to choosing op-amps makes a good case for rethinking what parts you should keep in stock. For readers of a certain vintage, the term “operational amplifier” is almost synonymous with the LM741 or LM324, and with good reason. This is despite the limitations these […]
The primary feature of stepper motors is listed right within their name: their ability to ‘step’ forwards and backwards, something which they (ideally) can do perfectly in sync with the input provided to their distinct coils. It’s a feature that allows the connected controller to know the exact position of the stepper motor, without the […]
There’s an old joke: What do you get someone who has everything? A place to put it. For hackers like [Christian], everything is a hoard of priceless electronic components. His solution is using small zipper bags, either regular plastic or anti-static. These attach using hook and loop fastener to plastic binder sheets which then live […]