Fresh hacks every day
This paper dial makes selecting current limiting resistors a snap. [Giorgos Lazaridis] came up with the tool, which he describes in detail in the Worklog tab of his writeup. If you want one of your own he also posted a PDF which you can print, cut, and tack together. At this point we can calculate resistor values for LED circuits without looking at reference material. But it wasn't always like … [Read more...]
The 7400 Logic Competition has drawn to a close. The winners were announced and there are quite a few of them. There were fifteen first place winners named, nine second place, and nineteen third place projects. The bounty of quality entries is a testament to the popularity of the contest. It helps to have a wide range of prizes and the post linked above lists all of the sponsors who donated … [Read more...]
[Christopher] at Cemetech, ever frequent HaD feature for his hacked up graphing calculators, made it to the NYC Maker Faire. He already posted on his blog he was making the trip up to Maker Faire, but we were lucky enough to catch up with him. Two things: the name of his blog isn't 'cement tech', but 'chem tech.' Apparently he hates it when it's mispronounced. Secondly, he's been turning … [Read more...]
This printing calculator is a thrift store find. [Todd Harrison] picked it up for a measly $3, and it still works! But the device is about twenty years old and he thinks it's time to clean up the aging hardware. After cracking open the case he digs out some of the stuff that has made its way inside. This includes a few dried up moths (debugging complete). While everything is open he gives a … [Read more...]
[Christopher] piped up in our comments on a recent post about using laptop touch pads in other things, noting that he had done this on his Ultimate Calculator Version 2. What he's done is upgraded his TI-83+ calculator to house a number of improvements and customizations. It now has a stronger RGB backlight so he can illuminate his screen in whatever color strikes his mood. He also integrated a … [Read more...]
The Adafruit blog just posted a neat papercraft resistor calculator. If you haven't yet learned the horribly offensive mnemonic for resistor color codes, now's your chance to have a cheap and portable resistor value reference. This papercraft resistor calculator is the latest in the family of Circuit Playground tools that include a fabulous electronic reference app we reviewed some months ago. … [Read more...]
The decision to use electronics for our calculating machines has long been decided. However, that doesn't mean that mechanical engineers didn't put up a valiant, if ultimately futile, fight. [Dvice.com] has an interesting article comparing the calculating technology of the 1960s, such as the [Haman 505], to today's iPad. This comparison and pictures were made possible by [Mark Glusker]'s … [Read more...]
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