Hackaday Links: March 12, 2013

March 12, 2013 By 28 Comments

Thankfully saved from steampunkers

meter

[Chris] found a really cool pocket watch-style multimeter in a box of junk that was passed down from father to son. There aren’t any markings on it, so he’s looking for any information he can get on it. It’s a cool piece of vintage tech in any occasion; check out the pics he sent in below:… Read the rest

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DIY shade finder tool takes the tedium out of solar surveys

January 8, 2012 By 19 Comments

diy-shadefinder-tool

[Steven Dufresne] does a lot of tinkering with solar-powered applications, a hobby which can be very time consuming if done right. One process he carries out whenever building a solar installation is creating a sun chart to determine how much (or little) sun the target area will get.

The process requires [Steven] to take elevation and Azimuth measurements of many … Read the rest

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Complete the Hack A Day survey, win a shirt

July 21, 2010 By 77 Comments

Take our reader survey. Do it. Do it right now.  Do you think we should run more articles on the dietary needs of Llamas? Here is your chance to let us know.  We got a lot of great feedback from [Jason]‘s post, and now we’re ready for more. We’ve put together 10 quick questions that will help us … Read the rest

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13th century navigation system

November 28, 2009 By 27 Comments

[Tom Wujec] explains how an astrolabe works and its importance in our technological development. He argues that an astrolabe was the world’s first “popular computer”. It measures the sky and that measurement can be used to tell time, survey land, and navigate a ship.

Astrolabes are built from three pieces and according to [Tom], educated children in the 1200′s would … Read the rest

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