You Could Be Relatively Cooler In Diamond-Coated Clothing

February 15, 2024 by Kristina Panos 14 Comments

We vaguely remember what we believe was a DuPont commercial in the late ’80s or early ’90s touting that one day, they would make clothing that could cool you. And sure, there is clothing that allows heat to escape — fishnet shirts come to mind most immediately — but a group of scientists at Australia’s RMIT University have applied a coating of nanodiamonds to cotton in order to make fabric that goes a step further, drawing heat away from the body.

While you may be picturing blinged-out blouses, the truth is that nanodiamonds are cheap and non-glittery. They bear the same carbon-lattice structure as regular diamonds, which gives them great thermal conductivity.

In order to create cooling fabric, the scientists combined nanodiamond powder with polyurethane and a solvent, and applied the solution to one side of a sheet of cotton via electrospinning. This technique uses electric force to spin charged threads up into the diameters of fiber. The other side was left uncoated so that it doesn’t draw in heat.

Studies showed that the treated samples released 2 to 3 ºC (3.6 to 5.4 ºF) more heat via the coated side throughout the cooling period. While a couple of degrees may not seem like much, it could mean the difference between using a fan or using an air conditioner to cool off further.

Another application could be to keep buildings from overheating. We’ve seen developments in that area, usually in the form of ultra-white paint.

Microsoft BASIC For The Dragon 64 Recovered

June 29, 2023 by Lewin Day 17 Comments

There are a great many pieces of software of yesteryear that are no longer readily accessible. It’s now possible to cross Microsoft BASIC for the Dragon 64 off that list, with the source code now posted for all to enjoy on GitHub.

The repository concerns the Microsoft 16K BASIC Interpreter as built for the Motorola 6809, as used in the Dragon 64 computer. This is also known as BASIC-69 or Extended Color Basic.

Hilariously, the source code was recovered from 340 pages of fan-fold tractor paper stored in four bundles. The output of a Motorola assembler was printed back in 1983 at Dragon Data’s R&D facility in Wales, and was recently recovered after being stored in an attic for much of the last four decades. The paper was carefully scanned at the 2022 Dragon Meetup, before passing the resulting images through OCR software. The output was then manually corrected and the source code was complete for both the 32K and 64K mode ROMs. There are some differences between the scanned source and what Microsoft shipped, which is outlined in the repository.

We’ve seen other heroic retrocomputer recovery efforts before, too, like the work to save the Polish CROOK OS. If you’ve been working on similar feats, be sure to let us know.

FPGA Breakout Board For DIP Package Shenanigans

June 21, 2023 by Lewin Day 22 Comments

FPGAs are supremely flexible and powerful devices. However, they usually come in QFP or BGA packages that are altogether difficult for hobbyists to play with. The DIP-FPGA breakout board aims to solve that problem by using a carrier PCB to put an advanced chip in a friendlier form factor.

The board itself fits a DIP-20 form factor when soldered up with regular-pitch pin headers. It features a MachXO2-1200HC FPGA from Lattice Semiconductor. That’s the same chip as used on similar the TinyFPGA A2. With 18 GPIO, a DIP-20 layout is just about enough pins to take care of business. It’s intended specifically for use on breadboards or via regular IC sockets. There’s also a six-pin programming port laid out on the board that you can use with pogo pins or header connectors as you desire.

If you want to do some fancy signal stuff in an easy-to-prototype form factor, this could be the setup for you. If you want to buy one ready-made, they’re available on Tindie for the curious. In the meantime, consider whether this beefy FPGA Arduino concept could also propel your next project to greater heights.

Hackaday Podcast 180: Tiny CRTs, Springy PCBs, And Measuring Trees

August 5, 2022 by Kristina Panos 4 Comments

The demogorgon just wants to be friends. See? He’s waving hello.

This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Assignments Editor Kristina Panos traded sweat for silence, recording from their respective attic-level offices in the August heat unaided by fans (too noisy). We decided there’s no real news this week that lacks a political bent, except maybe that Winamp is back with a new version that’s four years in the making. (Is Winamp divisive?) Does it still whip the llama’s ass? You be the judge.

After Elliot gives Kristina a brief math lesson in increasing area with regard to 3D printer nozzle sizes, we talk a bit about 3D pens, drool over a truly customizable macropad that uses a microcontroller for each keyswitch, and discuss dendrometers and tree health. Then it’s back to keyboards for one incredible modular build with an e-ink display and haptic feedback knob which is soon to go open source.

Finally, we talk tiny CRTs, a USB drive that must have the ultimate in security through obscurity, discuss the merits of retrograde clocks, and wonder aloud about the utility of jumping PCBs. Don’t bounce on us just yet — not until you hear about our first electronics wins and learn the one thing Kristina doesn’t do when she’s spending all day in the heat.

Direct download. And listen with Winamp!

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

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The Mysterious Wobble Of Muons

May 11, 2021 by Moritz v. Sivers 8 Comments

You might think that particle physicists would be sad when an experiment comes up with different results than their theory would predict, but nothing brightens up a field like unexplained phenomena. Indeed, particle physicists have been feverishly looking for deviations from the Standard Model. This year, there have been tantalizing signs that a long unresolved discrepancy between theory and experiment will be confirmed by new experimental results.

In particular, the quest to measure the magnetic moment of muons started more than 60 years ago, and this has been measured ever more precisely since. From an experiment in 1959 at CERN in Switzerland, to the turn of the century at Brookhaven, to this year’s result at Fermilab, the magnetic moment of the muon seems to be at odds with theoretical predictions.

Although a statistical fluke is basically excluded, this value also relies on complex theoretical calculations that are not all in agreement. Instead of heralding a new era of physics, it might just be another headline too good to be true. But some physicists are mumbling “new particle” in hushed tones. Let’s see what all the fuss is about.

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Hackaday Podcast 071: Measuring Micrometers, The Goldilocks Fit, Little Linear Motors, And 8-bit Games On ESP32

June 12, 2020 by Mike Szczys 3 Comments

Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams fan through a fantastic week of hacking. Most laser cutters try to go bigger, but there’s a minuscule one that shows off a raft of exotic components you’ll want in your bag of tricks. Speaking of tricks, this CNC scroll saw has kinematics the likes of which we’ve never seen before — worth a look just for the dance of polar v. Cartesian elements. We’ve been abusing printf() for decades, but it’s possible to run arbitrary operations just by calling this Turing-complete function. We wrap the week up with odes to low-cost laptops and precision measuring.

Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

Direct download (60 MB or so.)

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An FPGA And A Few Components Can Make A Radio

April 18, 2020 by Jenny List 18 Comments

There was a time when making a radio receiver involved significant work, much winding of coils, and tricky alignment of circuitry. The advent of Software Defined Radio (SDR) has moved a lot of this into the domain of software, but there is of course another field in which a radio can be created via code. [Alberto Garlassi] has created a radio receiver for the AM and HF bands with a Lattice MachXO2 FPGA and minimal external components.

He describes it as an SDR, which given that it’s created from Verilog, is a term that could be applied to it. But instead of using an SDR topology of ADC and digital signal processing, it implements a surprisingly traditional direct conversion receiver.

It has a quadrature AM demodulator which has a passing similarity to an SDR with I and Q phased signals, but that’s where the similarity ends. Frequency selection is via an oscillator controlled from a serial port, and there is even a PWM amplifier on board that can drive a speaker. The result can be seen in the video below, and as you can hear the direct conversion with quadrature demodulator approach makes for a very effective AM receiver.

If this is a little much but you still fancy a radio with minimal components, you should have a look at the Silicon Labs range of receiver chips.

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