X-wing Aircraft Are Trickier Than They Look

November 4, 2025 by 8 Comments

The iconic X-wing ship design from Star Wars is something many a hobbyist have tried to recreate, and not always with success. While [German engineer] succeeded in re-imagining an FPV quadcopter as an X-wing fighter, the process also highlighted why there have been more failures than successes when it comes to DIY X-wing aircraft.

For one thing, the X-wing shape is not particularly aerodynamic. It doesn’t make a very good airplane. Quadcopters on the other hand rely entirely on precise motor control to defy gravity in a controlled way. It occurred to [German engineer] that if one tilts their head just so, an X-wing fighter bears a passing resemblance to a rocket-style quadcopter layout, so he set out to CAD up a workable design.

When flying at speed, the aircraft goes nearly horizontal and the resemblance to an X-wing fighter is complete.

One idea that seemed ideal but ultimately didn’t work was using four EDF (electric ducted fan) motors mounted in the same locations as the four cylindrical engines on an X-wing. Motors large enough to fly simply wouldn’t fit without ruining the whole look. A workable alternative ended up being the four props and brushless motors mounted on the ends of the wings, like you see here.

The unit still needed a lot of fine tuning to get to a properly workable state, but it got there. It takes off and lands vertically, like a classical quadcopter, but when flying at speed it levels out almost completely and looks just like an X-wing as it screams by. It’s in sharp contrast to the slow, methodical movements of this Imperial Shuttle drone.

There are also a couple design elements in [German engineer]’s build we thought were notable. The spring-loaded battery door (all 3D-printed, including the spring) looks handy and keeps the lines of the aircraft clean. And since it’s intended to be flown as an FPV (first person view) aircraft, the tilting camera mount in the nose swings the camera 90 degrees during takeoff and landing to make things a little easier on the pilot.

3D models for the frame (along with a parts list) are up for anyone who wants to give it a shot. Check it out in the video, embedded below.

Continue reading “X-wing Aircraft Are Trickier Than They Look” →

The Headache Of Fake 74LS Logic Chips

November 4, 2025 by 16 Comments

When you go on your favorite cheap online shopping platform and order a batch of  74LS logic ICs, what do you get? Most likely relabeled 74HC ICs, if the results of an AliExpress order by [More Fun Fixing It] on YouTube are anything to judge by. Despite the claims made by the somewhat suspect markings on the ICs, even the cheap component tester used immediately identified them as 74HC parts.

Why is this a problem, you might ask? Simply put, 74LS are Low-power Schottky chips using TTL logic levels, whereas 74HC are High-Speed CMOS, using CMOS logic levels. If these faked chips had used 74HCT, they would have been compatible with TTL logic levels, but with the TTL vs CMOS levels mismatch of 74HC, you are asking for trouble.

CMOS typically requires that high levels are at least 70% of Vcc, and low to be at most 30% of Vcc, whereas TTL high level is somewhere above 2.0V. 74HC also cannot drive its outputs as strongly as 74LS, which opens another can of potential issues. Meanwhile HCT can be substituted for LS, but with the same lower drive current, which may or may not be an issue.

Interestingly, when the AliExpress seller was contacted with these findings, a refund was issued practically immediately. This makes one wonder why exactly faked 74LS ICs are even being sold, when they’d most likely be stuffed into old home computers by presumably hardware enthusiasts with a modicum of skill and knowledge.

Continue reading “The Headache Of Fake 74LS Logic Chips” →

A Paintball Turret Controlled Via Xbox Controller

November 4, 2025 by 6 Comments

Video games, movies, and modern militaries are all full of robotic gun turrets that allow for remotely-controlled carnage. [Paul Junkin] decided to build his own, albeit in a less-destructive paint-hurling fashion.

The turret sits upon a lazy susan bearing mounted atop a aluminium extrusion frame. A large gear is mounted to the bearing allowing the turret to pan when driven by a stepper motor. A pair of pillow block bearings hold a horizontal shaft which mounts the two paint markers, which again is controlled by another stepper motor to move in the tilt axis. An ESP32 microcontroller is responsible for running the show, panning and tilting the platform by commanding the large stepper motors. Firing the paintball markers is achieved with solenoids mounted to the triggers, which cycle fast enough to make the semi-auto markers fire in a way that almost feels like full-auto. Commanding the turret is via an Xbox One controller; communicating with the ESP32 over Bluetooth using the BluePad32 library.

It’s worth noting you shouldn’t shoot paintballs at unsuspecting individuals, since they can do extreme amounts of damage to those not wearing the proper protection. We’ve featured a great many other sentry guns over the years, too, like this impressive Portal-themed build. Video after the break.

Continue reading “A Paintball Turret Controlled Via Xbox Controller” →

Print in place pump being used next to ladder

Print In Place Pump Pushes Limits Of Printing

November 4, 2025 by 4 Comments

3D printing has taken off into the hands of almost anyone with a knack for wanting something quick and easy. No more messing around with machining or complex assembly. However, with the general hands-off nature of most 3D prints, what could be possible with a little more intervention during the printing process? [Ben] from Designed to Make represents this perfectly with an entire centrifugal pump printed as one.

This project may not entirely fit into the most strict sense of “print in place”; however, the entire pump is printed as one print file. The catch is the steps taken during printing, where a bearing is placed and a couple of filament changes are made to allow dissolvable supports to be printed. Once these supports are dissolved away, the body is coated with epoxy to prevent any leakage.

Testing done by [Ben] showed more than impressive numbers from the experimental device. Compared to previous designs made to test impeller features, the all in one pump could stand its own against in most categories.

If you want to check out the project yourself, check out the Hackaday project here. One of the greatest parts of the open source 3D printing world is the absolute freedom and ingenuity that comes out of it, and this project is no exception. For more innovations, check out this DIY full color 3D printing!

Continue reading “Print In Place Pump Pushes Limits Of Printing” →

2025 Component Abuse Challenge: Weigh With A TL074

November 4, 2025 by 14 Comments

The late and lamented [Bob Pease] was one of a select band of engineers, each of whose authority in the field of analogue integrated circuit design was at the peak of the art. So when he remarks on something in his books, it’s worth taking notice. It was just such an observation that caught the eye of [Trashtronic]; that the pressure on a precision op-amp from curing resin could be enough to change the device’s offset voltage. Could this property be used for something? The op-amp as a load cell was born!

The result is something of an op-amp torture device, resembling a small weighing machine with a couple of DIP-8 packages bearing the load. Surprisingly modest weights will change the offset voltage, though it was found that the value will drift over time.

This is clearly an experimental project and not a practical load cell, but it captures the essence of the 2025 Component Abuse Challenge of which it forms a part. Finding completely unexpected properties of components doesn’t always have to lead to useful results, and we’re glad someone had done this one just to find out whether or not it works. You still just about have time for an entry yourself if you fancy giving it a go.

2025 Hackaday Component Abuse Challenge

Jenny’s Daily Drivers: ReactOS 0.4.15

November 4, 2025 by 24 Comments

When picking operating systems for a closer look here in the Daily Drivers series, the aim has not been to merely pick the next well-known Linux distro off the pile, but to try out the interesting, esoteric or minority OS. The need remains to use it as a daily driver though, so each one we try has to have at least some chance of being a useful everyday environment in which a Hackaday piece could be written. With some of them such as the then-current BSD or Slackware versions we tried for interest’s sake a while back that’s not a surprising achievement, but for the minority operating systems it’s quite a thing. Today’s choice, ReactOS 0.4.15, is among the closest we’ve come so far to that ideal.

For The N’th Time In The Last 20 Years, I download A ReactOS ISO

A Windows-style ReactOS desktop with a web browser showing Hackaday
It’s fair to say there are still a few quirks, but it works.

ReactOS is an open-source clone of a Windows operating system from the early 2000s, having a lot on common with Windows XP. It started in the late 1990s and has slowly progressed ever since, making periodic releases that, bit-by-bit, have grown into a usable whole. I last looked at it for Hackaday with version 0.4.13 in 2020, so have five years made any difference? Time to download that ISO and give it a go.

Installing ReactOS has that bright blue and yellow screen feeling of a Windows install from around the millennium, but I found it to be surprisingly quick and pain free despite a few messages about unidentified hardware. The display driver it chose was a VESA one but since it supported all my monitor’s resolutions and colour depths that’s not the hardship it might once have been. Continue reading “Jenny’s Daily Drivers: ReactOS 0.4.15” →

Rocket Roll Control, The Old Fashioned Way

November 4, 2025 by 14 Comments

The vast majority of model rockets go vaguely up and float vaguely downwards without a lot of control. However, [newaysfactory] built a few rockets that were altogether more precise in their flight, thanks to his efforts to master active roll control.

[newaysfactory] started this work a long time ago, well before Arduinos, ESP32s, and other highly capable microcontroller platforms were on the market. In an era when you had to very much roll your own gear from the ground up, he whipped up a rocket control system based around a Microchip PIC18F2553. He paired it with a L3G4200D gyro, an MPXH6115A barometer, and an MMA2202KEG accelerometer, chosen for its ability to provide useful readings under high G acceleration. He then explains how these sensor outputs were knitted together to keep a rocket flying straight and true under active control.

[newaysfactory] didn’t just master roll control for small rockets; he ended up leveraging this work into a real career working on fully-fledged autopilot systems. Sometimes your personal projects can take your career in interesting directions.

Continue reading “Rocket Roll Control, The Old Fashioned Way” →