SPACEdeck Is Half Cyberdeck, Half Phone Case, All Style

June 5, 2025 by Tyler August 18 Comments

It’s been at least a few hours since Hackaday last featured a cyberdeck, so to avoid the specter of withdrawal, we present you with [Sp4m]’s SPACEdeck, a stylish phone-based cyberdeck!

The SPACEdeck takes a Samsung Galaxy S24 and puts it into a handsome clamshell case with a wireless keyboard, turning the phone into a tiny-screened laptop that urges you not to panic. Is The Hitchiker’s Guide to The Galaxy available on the Playstore? Well, the e-book of the novel surely is, and having access to Wikipedia comes close. The design is building off (or out from, as the case may be) a 3D-printed phone case for the S24 by Digital Proto.

Given that the Galaxy S24 has more horsepower than the ancient Macbook we’re writing this on, this setup is probably going to be more useful than you might think, especially when paired with Termux to give you the full power of Linux.

Like some modern laptops, the screen can rotate 180 degrees for when the keyboard isn’t needed. The case will also allow for Nintendo Switch2 joycon integration, but that’s a work in progress for now. The connection points will also be modular so other accessories can be used. All files will be released once [Sp4m] is happy with how the Joycons are holding on, hopefully with a license that will allow us to remix this for other phones.

Given the supercomputers in our pockets, it’s really a wonder we don’t see more android-based cyberdecks, but most seem to stick to SBCs. Lately it seems the slabtop form-factor has been equally popular for cyberdecks, but it’s hard to beat a clamshell for practicality.

A Flashlight Of Fire And Ice

June 5, 2025 by Al Williams 15 Comments

[Daniel Salião Ferreira] may or may not be a Game of Thrones fan, but he does have a fun demo of the Seebeck effect in the form of a flashlight powered by fire and ice. The basic idea is to use a thermocouple, but — in this case — he uses a Peltier effect cooler.

The Peltier and Seebeck effects are two sides of the same coin: the Peltier effect creates heating and cooling when current flows through a thermoelectric material. In contrast, the Seebeck effect generates a voltage when there is a temperature gradient. While thermocouples do produce voltage this way, they usually have much lower power output and are useless as heat pumps.

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Building An Analog Echo Plate

June 5, 2025 by Lewin Day 7 Comments

These days, when you think reverb, you probably think about a guitar pedal or a plugin in your audio software. But you can also create reverb with a big metal plate and the right supporting electronics. [Tully] from [The Tul Studio] shows us how.

Basically, if you’ve ever smacked a big sheet of metal and heard the thunderous, rippling sound it makes, you already understand the concept here. To turn it into a studio effect, you use transducers to deliver the sound into the plate of metal, and then microphones to pick it back up again at some other point on the plate. Since the sound takes time to travel through the plate, you get a reverb effect.

[The Tul Studio] used a huge cold-rolled steel plate, standing one meter wide and two meters tall. The plate itself is hung from picture chain, which is strong enough to carry its weight. Old car tweeters are repurposed to act as pickups, while a larger speaker is used to drive sound into the plate. “The key to making it sound not like a tin can is the actual EQ and the electronics,” [Tully] explains, providing resources for this purposes.

We love lots of lovely reverbing things around these parts; oddball delays, too! Video after the break.

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The Pluto software-defined radio is placed on a desk, connected by three RF cables to an RF bridge circuit board. The RF bridge has a prominent ballon taking up most of its area.

Turning The Pluto SDR Into A Network Analyzer

June 5, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf 1 Comment

Usually when we see a project using a software-defined radio (SDR), the SDR’s inputs and outputs are connected to antennae, but [FromConceptToCircuit]’s project connected an ADALM-Pluto SDR to an RF bridge and a few passive components to make a surprisingly effective network analyzer (part two of the video).

The network analyzer measures two properties of the circuit to which it is connected: return loss (S11) and insertion gain or loss (S21). To measure S21, the SDR feeds a series of tones to the device under test, and reads the device’s output from one of the SDR’s inputs. By comparing the amplitude of the input to the device’s output, a Python program can calculate S21 over the range of tested frequencies. To find S11, [FromConceptToCircuit] put an RF bridge in line with the device being tested and connected the bridge’s output to the SDR’s second input. This allowed the program to calculate the device’s impedance, and from that S11. Continue reading “Turning The Pluto SDR Into A Network Analyzer” →

Illustrated scheme of Sam Ben Yaakovs concept

Leakage Control For Coupled Coils

June 5, 2025 by Heidi Ulrich 3 Comments

Think of a circuit model that lets you move magnetic leakage around like sliders on a synth, without changing the external behavior of your coupled inductors. [Sam Ben-Yaakov] walks you through just that in his video ‘Versatile Coupled Inductor Circuit Model and Examples of Its Use’.

The core idea is as follows. Coupled inductors can be modeled in dozens of ways, but this one adds a twist: a tunable parameter 𝑥 between k and ₁ (where k is the coupling coefficient). This fourth degree of freedom doesn’t change L_₁, L_₂ or mutual inductance M (they remain invariant) but it lets you shuffle leakage where you want it, giving practical flexibility in designing or simulating transformers, converters, or filters with asymmetric behavior.

If you need leakage on one side only, set 𝑥=k. Prefer symmetrical split? Set 𝑥=1. It’s like parametric EQ, but magnetic. And: the maths holds up. As [Sam Ben-Yaakov] derives and confirms that for any 𝑥 in the range, external characteristics remain identical.

It’s especially useful when testing edge cases, or explaining inductive quirks that don’t behave quite like ideal transformers should. A good model to stash in your toolbox.

As we’ve seen previously, [Sam Ben-Yaakov] is at home when it comes to concepts that need tinkering, trial and error, and a dash of visuals to convey. Continue reading “Leakage Control For Coupled Coils” →

Supercon 2024: From Consultant To Prototyper On A Shoestring Budget

June 5, 2025 by Lewin Day 6 Comments

Many engineers graduate from their studies and head out into the workforce, seeking a paycheck and a project at some existing company or other. Often, it’s not long before an experienced engineer begins to contemplate striking out on their own, working as a skilled gun-for-hire that makes their own money and their own hours.

It’s a daunting leap, but with the promise of rich rewards for those that stick the landing. That very leap is one that our own Dave Rowntree made. He came to Supercon 2024 to tell us what the journey was like, and how he wound up working on some very special shoes.

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A Steady Vacuum For The Fastest Cassette Tape Drive Ever

June 5, 2025 by Jenny List 39 Comments

If you think of a 1960s mainframe computer, it’s likely that your mental image includes alongside the cabinets with the blinkenlights, a row of reel-to-reel tape drives. These refrigerator-sized units had a superficial resemblance to an audio tape deck, but with the tape hanging down in a loop either side of the head assembly. This loop was held by a vacuum to allow faster random access speeds at the head, and this fascinates [Thorbjörn Jemander]. He’s trying to create a cassette tape drive that can load 64 kilobytes in ten seconds, so he’s starting by replicating the vacuum columns of old.

The video below is the first of a series on this project, and aside from explaining the tape drive’s operation, it’s really an in-depth exploration of centrifugal fan design. He discovers that it’s speed rather than special impeller design that matters, and in particular a closed impeller delivers the required vacuum. We like his home-made manometer in particular.

What he comes up with is a 3D printed contraption with a big 12 volt motor on the back, and a slot for a cassette on the front. It achieves the right pressure, and pulls the tape neatly down into a pair of loops. We’d be curious to know whether a faster motor such as you might find in a drone would deliver more for less drama, but we can see the genesis of a fascinating project here. Definitely a series to watch.

Meanwhile, if your interest extends to those early machine rooms, have a wallow in the past.

Continue reading “A Steady Vacuum For The Fastest Cassette Tape Drive Ever” →