Over on YouTube [DENKI OTAKU] runs us through how a 4-pin MOSFET works and what the extra Kelvin source pin does. A typical MOSFET might come in a 3-pin TO-247 package, but there are 4-pin variants which include an extra pin for the Kelvin source, also known as source sense. These 4-pin packages are known […]
The fun part about a programming language like C is that although the language doesn’t directly support many features including object-oriented programming and generics, there’s nothing that’s keeping you from implementing said features in C. This extends to something like type-safe generics in C, as [Raph] demonstrates in a blog post. After running through the […]
There are two things most of us want to know on a daily basis—the weather, and what time it is. [Guitarman9119] built a single device that can provide both pieces of information with a pleasingly nerdy aesthetic. The heart of the build is a Raspberry Pi Pico W, which is proudly displayed on the front […]
If you’re not worried about corporate surveillance bots scraping your shopping list and manipulating you through marketing, you can buy any number of off-the-shelf smart speakers for your home. Alternatively, you can roll your own like [arpy8] did, and keep your life a little more private. The build is based around an ESP32 microcontroller. It […]
Can a shape pass through itself? That is to say, if one had two identical solids, would it be possible to orient one such that a hole could be cut through it, allowing the other to pass through without breaking the first into separate pieces? It turns out that the answer is yes, at least […]
I must confess that my mouth froze in an O when I saw [Jeff]’s Typeframe PX-88 Portable Computing System, and I continue to stare in slack-jawed wonder as I find the words to share it with you. Let me give it a shot. [Jeff] tells us that he designed Typeframe for his spouse to use […]
Among the many science toys that have fallen out of fashion since we started getting nervous around things like mercury, chlorinated hydrocarbons, and radiation is the spinthariscope, which let people watch the flashes of light on a phosphor screen as a radioactive material decayed behind it. In fact, they hardly expose their viewers to any […]
Today, if you can find a pneumatic tube system at all, it is likely at a bank drive-through. A conversation in the Hackaday bunker revealed something a bit surprising. Apparently, in some parts of the United States, these have totally disappeared. In other areas, they are not as prevalent as they once were, but are […]
[Usagi Electric] is known for minicomputers, but in a recent video, he shows off his TMS9900-based homebrew computer. The TMS9900 CPU was an early 16-bit CPU famously used in the old TI-99/4A computer, but as the video points out, it wasn’t put to particularly good use in the TI-99/4A because its RAM was hidden behind an […]
The infrared transceiver installed on the washing machine. (Credit: Severin) Since modern household appliances now have an MCU inside, they often have a diagnostic interface and — sometimes — more. Case in point: Miele washing machines, like the one that [Severin] recently fixed, leading to the firmware becoming unhappy and refusing to work. This fortunately […]