Implementing A Kalman Filter In PostgreSQL To Smooth GPS Data

October 2, 2025 by 6 Comments

Usually databases are treated primarily as fairly dumb data storage systems, but they can be capable of much more. Case in point the PostgreSQL database and its – Ada-based – PL/pgSQL programming language, which allows you to perform significantly more complex operations than would be realistically possible with raw SQL. Case in point the implementation of a Kalman Filter by the folk over at Traconiq, which thus removes the necessity for an external filtering pipeline.

Using a Kalman Filter is highly desirable when you’re doing something like vehicle tracking using both dead-reckoning and GPS coordinates, as it filters out noise that can be the result of e.g. GPS reception issues. As noted in the article, transferring state from one row to the next requires a bit of lateral thinking, but is doable with some creative SQL usage. As PL/pgSQL is very similar to Oracle’s PL/SQL, this same code should work there too without too much porting required.

The code for the different implementations and associated benchmarks can be found on GitHub, though the benchmark results make it abundantly clear that the most efficient approach is to run an offline aggregate processing routine. This coincides with the other batch processing tasks that are typically performed by a database server to e.g. optimize storage, so this isn’t entirely unsurprising.

A forest green kei truck sits in an actual forest. In its bed is a dark grey box with a small window, wood trim, and a solar panel tilted on its roof. The headlights are on, hinting at the onset of twilight. You have a sudden urge to go glamping now.

Kei Truck Becomes Tiny RV

October 2, 2025 by 14 Comments

Tent camping lets you explore places on foot you could never reach another way, but sometimes you want to camp with a bit more luxury. [Levi Kelly] decided to see how small you could make an RV. [via Autopian]

While we won’t argue one way or another on his claim to world’s smallest, as that likely depends on your definition of an RV, starting with a kei truck certainly puts you in a more compact format than something built on a bus chassis. With four wheel drive and a small footprint, this could be better for overlanding than the Rivian bed camper we featured recently.

The 21 sq. ft. (1.95 m2) camper portion itself is framed in 2 x 2s (38 x 38 mm) to save weight and uses foam board insulation. A working faucet uses a pump to draw drinking water from a 5 gallon (19L) refillable jug and empties into a 7 gallon (26L) grey water tank. A solar panel on the roof charges the battery that drives the pump, ventilation fan, and can also be used to run other devices like a hot plate for cooking.

A teeny tiny wood stove can be used for heat, although [Kelly] is using a different fuel source to reduce unpredictability from a wood fire in such a small space. A faucet-mounted sprayer can be routed to the outside of the camper to create a makeshift shower and is run from the sink water system. There’s even a small cabinet above the foot area of the bed to house a portable toilet and a bubble window to observe your surroundings while you do your business.

We’ve seen some even smaller campers, like this vintage-inspired bike camper, or this more streamlined version. If you want the most efficient RV ever then check out this solar-powered one.

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Building A Desk Display For Time And Weather Data

October 2, 2025 by 18 Comments

Just about every laptop, desktop, and smartphone in your life can tell you the date, time, and current weather predictions. However, sometimes it’s nice to have simple data displayed on a bespoke device. That’s what inspired [Mario] to create ESPTimeCast. 

As you might have guessed by the name, the project is designed around the ESP32 and ESP8266 microcontrollers; either one is up to the task of running the show here. Both come with Wi-Fi connectivity out of the box, which makes it easy for them to hook up to the Internet to query NTP servers for the time and weather data from OpenWeatherMap. The data is then displayed on an LED matrix display, made up of four 8×8 LED modules and driven with the aid of the MAX7219 IC. Configuration is handled over a simple web interface hosted on the device itself. All the parts are wrapped up in a 3D-printed housing that would be very fitting in any home that appreciates the magic of late 60s/early 70s decor.

Hackers love building clocks, weather stations, and other useful information displays. We’ve seen a great many examples over the years. If you’re cooking up your own neat project in this area, don’t hesitate to let us know!

Building A Functional Aliens Motion Tracker

October 2, 2025 by 6 Comments

Aliens is the second film from the legendary science-fiction series about, well… aliens. Naturally, it featured some compelling future-tech — such as the M314 Motion Tracker. [RobSmithDev] wanted to recreate the device himself, using modern technology to replicate the functionality as closely as possible.

While a lot of cosmetic replicas exist in the world, [Rob] wanted to make the thing work for real. To that end, he grabbed the DreamHAT+ Radar HAT for the Raspberry Pi. It’s a short-range radar module, and thus is useless for equipping your own air force or building surface-to-air weaponry. However, it can detect motion in a range of a few meters or so, using its 60 GHz transmitter and three receivers all baked into the one chip.

[Rob] does a great job of explaining how the radar works, and how he integrated it into a viable handheld motion tracker that works very similarly to the one in the movie. It may not exactly keep you safe from alien predators, but it’s always fun to see a functional prop rather than one that just looks good.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen somebody try to replicate this particular prop, but the modern electronics used in this build definitely bring it to the next level.

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How Hydraulic Ram Pumps Push Water Uphill With No External Power Input

October 2, 2025 by 33 Comments

Imagine you have a natural stream running through a low-lying area on your farm. It’s a great source of fresh water, only you really need it to irrigate some crops sitting at a higher elevation. The area is quite remote from fixed utilities, complicating the problem.

Your first thought might be to grab a commercial off-the-shelf pump of some sort, along with a fancy solar power system to provide the necessary power to run it. But what if there were a type of pump that could do the job with no external power input at all? Enter the hydraulic ram pump.

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Sending TOSLINK Wirelessly With Lasers

October 2, 2025 by 30 Comments

TOSLINK was developed in the early 1980s as a simple interface for sending digital audio over fiber optic cables, and  despite its age, is still featured on plenty of modern home entertainment devices. As demonstrated by [DIY Perks], this old tech can even be taught some new tricks — namely, transmitting surround sound wirelessly.

Often, a TOSLINK stream is transmitted with a simple LED. [DIY Perks] realized that the TOSLINK signal could instead be used to modulate a cheap red laser diode. This would allow the audio signal to be sent wirelessly through the open air for quite some distance, assuming you could accurately aim it at a TOSLINK receiver. The first test was successful, with the aid of a nifty trick, [DIY Perks] filled the open TOSLINK port with a translucent plastic diffuser to make a larger target to aim at.

The rest of the video demonstrates how this technique can be used for surround sound transmission without cables. [DIY Perks] whipped up a series of 3D printed ceiling mirror mounts that could tidily bounce laser light for each surround channel to each individual satellite speaker.

It’s a very innovative way to do surround sound. It’s not a complete solution to wiring issues—you still need a way to power each speaker. Ultimately, though, it’s a super cool way to run your home theater setup that will surely be a talking point when your guests notice the laser mirrors on the ceiling.

We’ve seen some other stealthy surround sound setups before, too.

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On 3D Scanners And Giving Kinects A New Purpose In Life

October 2, 2025 by 32 Comments

The concept of a 3D scanner can seem rather simple in theory: simply point a camera at the physical object you wish to scan in, rotate around the object to capture all angles and stitch it together into a 3D model along with textures created from the same photos. This photogrammetry application is definitely viable, but also limited in the sense that you’re relying on inferring three-dimensional parameters from a set of 2D images and rely on suitable lighting.

To get more detailed depth information from a scene you’d need to perform direct measurements, which can be done physically or through e.g. time-of-flight (ToF) measurements. Since contact-free ways of measurements tend to be often preferred, ToF makes a lot of sense, but comes with the disadvantage of measuring of only a single spot at a time. When the target is actively moving, you can fall back on photogrammetry or use an approach called structured-light (SL) scanning.

SL is what consumer electronics like the Microsoft Kinect popularized, using the combination of a visible and near-infrared (NIR) camera to record a pattern projected onto the subject, which is similar to how e.g. face-based login systems like Apple’s Face ID work. Considering how often Kinects have been used for generic purpose 3D scanners, this raises many questions regarding today’s crop of consumer 3D scanners, such as whether they’re all just basically Kinect-clones.

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