The Star Trek tricorder was a good example of a McGuffin. It did anything needed to support the plot or, in some cases, couldn’t do things also in support of the plot. We know [SirGalaxy] was thinking about the tricorder when he named the Tinycorder, but the little device has a number of well-defined features. You can see a brief video of it working below the break.
The portable device has a tiny ESP32 and a battery. The 400×240 display is handy, but has low power consumption. In addition to the sensors built into the ESP32, the Tinycorder has an AS7341 light sensor, an air quality sensor, and a weather sensor. An odd combination, but like its namesake, it can do lots of unrelated things.
The whole thing goes together in a two-part printed case. This is one of those projects where you might not want an exact copy, but you very well might use it as a base to build your own firmware. Even [SirGalaxy] has plans for future developments, such as adding a buzzer and a battery indicator.
This physically reminded us of those ubiquitous component testers. That another multi-purpose tester that started simple and gets more features through software.
Seeing the spanish menu reminded me of something I have been meaning to do.. look up HaD like content in languages I practice on DuoLingo for more experience and vocab in something that interests me. That’s easier said than done though. What to use for search terms?
How do you translate hacker (and get the right context), maker (interesting he had maker in his credits), hackerspace, etc… I’m doing Esperanto, Spanish, German, French and Russian myself but others in the comments might be interested in other languages.
Rightly or wrongly all hackers use English if they want to reach a wider audience.
English is the lingua franca of the Internet
This is not true. There is a wealth of information in native languages. E.g. there is the French, French-speaking (and female) maker Heliox, with almost 400k subscribers (more than a half percent of all native speakers), which I watch basically … to teach myself French.
It actually is true.
Yes, there is a lot of material available in any particular language, but to reach more hackers English is most useful. I already speak English and French, but I have never considered seeking out French language “hacker” material. If I encounter it I can read it, but searching in English is generally sufficient.
If a non-English speaker published anything truly significant someone would write about it in English, and probably post it here.
You are somewhat right, but it is a wrong to think all (or even most) hacking information is available in English, even if you’re talking about globally relevant information (i.e. not a POTS hack only applicable to the German phone system).
Duolingo is a sham company. Glad to see they can afford to advertise here.
Just to be clear, someone mentioned them in the comments, not Hackaday. We don’t have anything to do with them. Anything anyone says, good or bad, about a company in the comments — that’s the personal opinion of the commenter in question.
I love those displays. So simple, efficient, and attractive.
Reminds me of the Gameboy Pocket a little bit.