Hackaday Links: September 13, 2026

September 13, 2026 by Tom Nardi 7 Comments

We try to steer clear of politics and societal issues here at Hackaday, so a protest is not usually the sort of thing we’d cover. But we figure it’s safe enough to bend the rules a bit when the ones doing the protesting happen to be robots.

About 30 bots gathered — or at least were commanded to gather by the event organizers — in Warsaw to spur discussion about the impact AI and robots will have on the labor market. Beyond getting public and media attention, the demonstration was also designed to raise awareness of what modern humanoid robots can do. While we appreciate the idea of showing robots taking the “jobs” of the protesters, it does seem somewhat ironic that marching around and chanting for hours is exactly the sort of repetitive work that most people would be happy to see taken over by machines.

Although we hope these protests remain peaceful, there’s always a chance things can turn violent when tensions are high. Should things go south, take comfort in the knowledge that a company in Japan has introduced a robot ambulance service. It’s probably more accurate to compare it with roadside assistance, as the goal is to repair the robot on-site. That said, if the fault is more serious, they can bring the damaged bot back to HQ. Of course, the major difference between this program and a traditional ambulance service is that they’ll be able to bring along a spare robot that can take over the patient’s job while repairs are being made. Should anyone start doing that for humans, expect a few more protests.

Continue reading “Hackaday Links: September 13, 2026” →

Hackaday Links: September 6, 2026

September 6, 2026 by Tom Nardi 7 Comments

Yesterday, Isar Aerospace secured its place in the history books when the upper stage of their Spectrum rocket put a payload of CubeSats into low Earth orbit (LEO). Not only does this make them the first European company to achieve such a feat, but it also marks the first time a booster departing from continental Europe has reached orbit. Not bad for a second attempt.

Standing 28 meters (92 feet) tall, the two-stage Spectrum rocket is just shy of half the size of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and designed to put a maximum of 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) into LEO and 700 kg (1,500 lb) into the Sun-synchronous orbits used by Earth observation satellites. That puts its performance considerably ahead of other commercial launchers such as Rocket Lab’s Electron. Although the booster is not reusable, Isar Aerospace has stated they’re targeting a respectable launch cost of €10,000 ($11,700) per kilogram. The German company notes there are several more Spectrum vehicles currently in production, and when their new factory is operational, they’ll have the capacity to produce up to 40 of them each year.

In other European space news, BepiColombo has now entered what the European Space Agency (ESA) is calling the “arrival phase” of its nearly decade-long journey to Mercury. On Thursday, the spacecraft jettisoned its ion propulsion module as it had achieved the necessary trajectory and velocity to be captured by the planet’s gravitational field when it swoops by in November.

Continue reading “Hackaday Links: September 6, 2026” →

Rescuing A Rescue Device With A DIY Battery Pack

September 3, 2026 by Tom Nardi 9 Comments

If you find yourself lost in the woods or adrift in the ocean, a GPS-enabled Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) is certainly a handy thing to have as it will pinpoint your location for rescuers. The one [Steve Jernigan] has is relatively affordable considering it might save your life one day, but it turns out that replacement batteries for the unit are extremely expensive and hard to come by because the manufacturer would rather you send the unit back to them for refurbishment. So naturally, he took it apart and figured out how to do it himself.

His DIY battery pack consists of a small custom PCB and pair of off-the-shelf 6 volt lithium manganese dioxide cells in a 3D printed enclosure that slots into the rear of the McMurdo PLB. In assembly video below, [Steve] shows how the pack goes together and demonstrates the use of a two-part potting compound in an effort to keep the elements at bay.

Before anyone says it — putting a homemade battery pack into a device which one day might be the only thing standing between you and death is probably not a great idea. [Steve] mentions in the description of this project that this is meant for backup purposes, and that you should really spring for a legitimate battery if there’s a chance you might actually need to be rescued at some point.

If you’re interested in battery pack hacking that doesn’t potentially risk life and limb, fixing the one that came with your cordless drill might be a better project to start with. Continue reading “Rescuing A Rescue Device With A DIY Battery Pack” →

Switch Mod Fixes Fiddly Car Door Projector

September 2, 2026 by Tom Nardi 34 Comments

While the Citroën logo they project onto the pavement looks great, [OrangeTungsten] wasn’t thrilled with how their door-mounted projectors actually functioned. The mechanism for detecting when they should kick on was a bit too clever for its own good, and needed to be simplified a bit. Luckily for us, the process was meticulously documented for anyone else who might find themselves in a similar situation.

Originally, the projector detected when it should turn on by sensing the presence of a tiny magnet using a Hall effect sensor. There are certainly some advantages to this approach, but in practice, [OrangeTungsten] says the retrofitted magnet would keep falling off and leaving the projector inoperative. The fix was simple enough: figure out how the circuit worked, pull out the Hall effect sensor, and replace it with a simple button that would physically make contact with the door frame.

It’s not a terribly complex fix, but it’s a clever solution and well documented, and that goes pretty far around these parts. We were also interested in this one because an examination of the electronics inside the projector uncovered a 8-pin microcontroller — the sole purpose of which would appear to be polling the Hall effect sensor and using its status to throw a transistor which in turn powers the LED.

It’s hard to believe that whoever designed this gadget couldn’t figure out how to turn an LED on and off without a MCU, but we’re living in strange times. We assume there’s some kind of justification for this, such as some flashing or fading effects, but [OrangeTungsten] never mentions the things doing anything more complex than simply turning on and off.

Whatever the rationale was behind the original design of these projectors, the important thing is that the application of some hardware from the parts bin got them up and working again, which is something we never get tired of seeing.

Hackaday Links: August 30, 2026

August 30, 2026 by Tom Nardi 12 Comments

The big news today is, of course, the successful launch and deployment of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope earlier this morning. The space agency’s latest observatory lifted off at 7:26 AM Eastern from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, and by 8:00 AM it was separated from the rocket’s upper stage and flying on its own.

While the sound and fury of launch is exciting, it’s just the beginning of the journey for Roman. It will take several months for the spacecraft to complete its roughly 1.5 million-kilometer trek out to Earth’s second Lagrange point (L2), where it will set up shop near — in cosmic terms, anyway — the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Along the way, it will switch on and test various systems and components, with its primary 300 megapixel infrared camera scheduled to power up in three weeks or so.

There’s a lot to cover about the Roman Space Telescope. Built from spy satellite spare parts donated by the National Reconnaissance Office and featuring a field of view 100 times greater than that of Hubble, its launch is widely considered to be one of the most important scientific milestones of the decade. We’ll be bringing you more about the past, present, and future of this flagship mission as it progresses.

Continue reading “Hackaday Links: August 30, 2026” →

Hackaday Links: August 23, 2026

August 23, 2026 by Tom Nardi 1 Comment

We’ll start this week off with some disappointing, though not entirely unexpected, news — the ambitious commercial mission to save NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is officially a bust. The space agency provided an update earlier this week explaining that the attitude control issues with the LINK spacecraft that started a few weeks after it launched will prevent it from being able to safely dock with the Swift Observatory and boost its altitude. As such, the space telescope is now expected to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up before the end of the year.

Although LINK won’t be able to live up to its name, NASA did say operator Katalyst Space has been given permission to continue with the rendezvous attempt. The two craft won’t actually make contact with each other, but teams on both sides feel there’s lessons to be learned and data to be collected by seeing the orbital dance of these two vehicles play out for as long as possible.

Speaking of hardware that couldn’t quite hit its design goals, TechCrunch is reporting that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Oura by customers that say the company made misleading claims about the sleep-tracking accuracy of their smart rings. Namely, that the rings could somehow detect which stage of sleep the wearer was in with only the pulse and temperature sensors it has onboard.

Continue reading “Hackaday Links: August 23, 2026” →

Hackaday Podcast Episode 383: QR Codes, Caving Gear, And The Old School Way To Learn Electronics

August 21, 2026 by Tom Nardi 6 Comments

In this week’s episode, Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start things off by getting excited about the recently announced 2026 Retrocomputing Challenge. From there the conversation will cover efforts to improve desktop 3D printing with lasers, an expensive grill with an ESP32 controller and an open source firmware, open source tools underground, and some impressive techniques to squeeze a bit more utility out of the common QR code.

You’ll also hear about turning PVC pipes into flat stock, old school Radio Shack electronic kits, and VR soldering demos. Stick around to the end of the episode learn about the latest developments in over-the-counter hearing aids and the 1-bit CPU that’s enjoying an unexpected fandom nearly 50 years after its release.

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

Direct download in DRM-free MP3.