This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Staff Writer Dan Maloney get together for a look at everything cool under the hardware-hacking sun.

Think you need to learn how to read nerve impulses to run a prosthetic hand? Think again — try spring-loaded plungers and some Hall effect sensors. What’s Starlink saying? We’re not sure, but if you’re clever enough you can use the radio link for ad hoc global positioning. Historically awful keyboards, pan-and-scan cable weather stations, invisibility cloaks, plumbing fittings for electrical controls — we’ll talk about it all. And if you’ve never heard two Commodore 64s and a stack of old floppies turned into an electronic accordion, you really don’t know what you’re missing.

Download it your own bad self!

Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

Episode 191 Show Notes:

News:

• Chaos Computer Club saves the healthcare system 400 million euros
• Saving 400 million euro of public health care money from reckless vendors
• USB-C approved by EU council

What’s that Sound?

• On a break: we’re saving up our sounds for Supercon!

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

• When [Elon] Says No, Just Reverse Engineer The Starlink Signal
  • Starlink Ground Stations Successfully Hacked
  • Snooping On Starlink With An RTL-SDR
  • GPS? With Starlink, We Don’t Need It Any More!
  • [PDF] The First Carrier Phase Tracking and Positioning Results With Starlink LEO Satellite Signals
• Forearm Muscle Contraction Sensor Is Useful Component For Open Source Prosthetics
  • • Electromyography Hack Chat
    • EMG Tutorial Lets You Listen To Your Muscles
• Fiber Laser Your Way To Flexible PCB Success!
• Decompiling Software To Fix An Old Solar Inverter
• How The Art-Generating AI Of Stable Diffusion Works
  • LAION-Aesthetics
  • Stable Diffusion And Why It Matters
• The Commodordion Turns Two C64s Into A Single Instrument
  • Craft by lft

Quick Hacks:

• Elliot’s Picks:
  • Get Clear Insights Into Cloudy Water With The Open Colorimeter
  • Lego Plays Electronic Drums
  • Render Yourself Invisible To AI With This Adversarial Sweater Of Doom
• Dan’s Picks:
  • Plumbing Valves As Heavy Duty Analog Inputs
  • Sight And Sound Combine In This Engaging Synthesizer Sculpture
  • One Of The Worst Keyboards Ever, Now An Arduino Peripheral

Can’t-Miss Articles:

• Dancers Now Help Power Glasgow Nightclub
• Retrotechtacular: The Original Weather Channel
  • Relive The Glory Days Of Cable TV With This Retro Weather Feed