Field News

[Thomas Scherrer] has an odd piece of vintage test equipment in his most recent video. An AIM LCR Databridge 401. What’s a databridge? We assume it was a play on words of an LCR bridge with a digital output. Maybe. You can see a teardown in the video below. Inside the box is a vintage […]
Garage doors! You could get out of your vehicle and open and close them yourself, but that kinda sucks. It’s much preferable to have them raise and lower courtesy some mechanical contrivance, and even better if that is controlled via the web. [Juan Schiavoni] shows us how to achieve the latter with their latest project. […]
[Project 326] is following up on his thermal microscope with a thermal telescope or, more precisely, a thermal monocular. In fact, many of the components and lenses in this project are the same as those in the microscope, so you could cannibalize that project for this one, if you wanted. During the microscope project, [Project […]
We’ve seen quite a few delta 3D printers, and a good number of toolchanging printers, but not many that combine both worlds. Fortunately, [Ben Wolpert]’s project fills that gap with a particularly elegant and precise delta toolchanger. The hotend uses three steel spheres and triangular brackets to make a repeatable three-point contact with the toolhead […]
You often hear that Bill Gates once proclaimed, “640 kB is enough for anyone,” but, apparently, that’s a myth — he never said it. On the other hand, early PCs did have that limit, and, at first, that limit was mostly theoretical. After all, earlier computers often topped out at 64 kB or less, or […]
[ApprehensiveHawk6178] reports that they have made the world’s longest range LED flashlight! While technically “handheld”, you’re gonna need both hands for this monster. According to the creator, it draws 1.2 kW (20 A @ 60 V) to deliver 100,000 lumens and approximately 20,000,000 candelas. This spotlight is made from 48 white LEDs, wired in 16S3P […]
The life of a Hackaday writer often involves hours spent at a computer searching for all the cool hacks you love, but its perks come in not being tied to an office, and in periodically traveling around our community’s spaces. This suits me perfectly, because as well as having an all-consuming interest in technology, I […]
It’s fair to say that QR codes are a technology that has finally come of age. A decade or more ago they were a little over-hyped and sometimes used in inappropriate or pointless ways, but now they are an accepted and useful part of life. They’re not without their faults though, one of which is […]
LTSpice is a tool that every electronics nerd should have at least a basic knowledge of. Those of us who work professionally in the analog and power worlds rely heavily on the validity of our simulations. It’s one of the basic skills taught at college, and essential to truly understand how a circuit behaves. [Mano] […]
We know [Happy Little Diodes] frequently works with logic analyzer projects. His recent wireless logic analyzer for the ZX Spectrum is one of the oddest ones we’ve seen in a while. The heart of the system is an RP2040, and there are two boards. One board interfaces with the computer, and another hosts the controller. […]