Farewell Sir Clive Sinclair; Inspired A Generation Of Engineers

September 16, 2021 by 74 Comments

It is with sadness that we note the passing of the British writer, engineer, home computer pioneer, and entrepreneur, Sir Clive Sinclair, who died this morning at the age of 81 after a long illness. He is perhaps best known among Hackaday readers for his ZX series of home computers from the 1980s, but over a lifetime in the technology industry there are few corners of consumer electronics that he did not touch in some way.

Sinclair’s first career in the 1950s was as a technical journalist and writer, before founding the electronics company Sinclair Radionics in the 1960s. His output in those early years was a mixture of miniature transistor radios and Hi-Fi components, setting the tone for decades of further tiny devices including an early LED digital watch at the beginning of the 1970s, miniature CRT TVs in the ’70s and ’80s, and another tiny in-ear FM radio which went on sale in the ’90s.

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Streetfighter 2 placed on table top display with separate arcade control box

Game Like It’s 2021 On A McDonald’s Touchscreen Table

September 8, 2021 by 6 Comments

Some of you around the world may have come across these Android-based gaming tables installed in your local fast-food outlet, and may even have been lucky enough to paw at one that was actually working at the time.

Originally based on an ancient mini PC, with a 1080p flat panel LCD and a touch overlay, they would have been mind-blowing for small children back in the day, but nowadays we expect somewhat more. YouTuber [BigRig Creates] got his hands on one, in a less than pleasant condition, but after a lot of soap and water, it was stripped down and the original controller junked in favour of a modern mini PC. To be clear, there isn’t much left beyond the casing and display from the original hardware, but we don’t care, as a lot of attention was paid to the software side of things to get it to triple-booting into Windows 10, Android x86 and Linux running emulation station, covering all those table-gaming urges you may have.

Internally, there is a fair amount of room for improvement on the wiring side of things, and [BigRig] is quick to admit that, but that’s what this learning game is all about. Now, many of you will choke on the very idea of playing games on a table system like this, after all, it’s pretty obvious this will be really hard on the back and neck. But, it does offer the easy option to switch from landscape to portrait orientation, simply by walking around the side, so it does have an upside. Also you’ve got a handy place to dump your beer and the takeaway when it arrives, so maybe not such a bad thing to have in your apartment? And, yes, it does run Doom.

We were particularly amused by the custom boot logo as well as the slick custom art in emulation station. It’s attention to detail like this that makes a build a great one and a conversation piece at parties. Now if only he could sort out that wiring job.

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Neat Little Airboat Built From Old Drone Parts

September 2, 2021 by 3 Comments

Multirotor drones tend to need quality and well-matched parts in order to stay balanced and in the air. However, crash enough drones and you might find you’ve got plenty of mistmatched bits and pieces lying around. In just this vein, [Jason Suter] decided to raid his junk box and built himself a little FPV airboat using spare parts.

The airboat consists of a 3D printed hull, paired with a separate power module. The power module houses the flight controller, and mounts twin motors on the rear. Fitted with three-blade props, they propel the boat and allow it to be steered with differential thrust instead of a rudder. It’s then fitted with a camera to allow it to be piloted with an FPV headset.

Handling still isn’t perfect, and water on the FPV antenna causes some issues with video transmission. However, it’s a fun project that makes good use of old parts. Of course, if you’re having vibration problems with your own FPV projects, consider building a vibration-absorbing mount. Video after the break.
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Should You Be Able To Repair It? We Think So.

August 11, 2021 by 179 Comments

You own it, you should be able to fix it. So much equipment on sale today has either been designed to be impossible to maintain, unnecessarily too complex to maintain, maintainable only with specialist tooling only available to authorised service agents, or with no repair parts availability. It’s a hot-button issue in an age when sustainability is a global concern, so legislators and regulators worldwide now finally have it in their sights after years of inaction and it’s become a buzzword. But what exactly is the right to repair, and what do we want it to be?

Is It Designed For Repair?

A Nestle Dolce Gusto machine
For some reason, pod coffee makers are especially resistant to repair. Andy1982, CC BY 3.0

The first question to consider is this: does it matter whether or not you have the right to repair something, if it’s designed specifically with lack of repairability in mind? Consider a typical domestic pod coffeemaker such as a Tassimo or similar: despite being physically quite a simple device, it is designed to be especially complex to dismantle and reassemble. You just can’t get into it when something goes wrong.

Should it be the preserve of regulators to require design for easy repair? We think so. There are other forces working on the designers of home appliances; design-for-manufacture considerations and exterior appearance concerns directly affect the firm’s bottom line, while the end users’ repair experience is often at the bottom of the list, even though the benefit at a national level is obvious. That’s what laws are for.
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From Tube And Wing To Just Wing: The Future Of Airliners

August 8, 2021 by 77 Comments

Airliners have become an unremarkable part of modern life, but unless you happen to be an aircraft enthusiast, you’d be forgiven for thinking the latest Airbus model looks more or less the same as the Boeing 707 that ushered in the Jet Age. But that might soon change, with blended wing airliners looking like the next step in air travel efficiency. In the video after the break, [Real Engineering] takes us on a fascinating tour of the past and possible future of jet airliners.

Contemporary airliners all still follow the same old “tube and wing” design, but have become vastly more efficient. The latest jetliners burn almost 50% less fuel per passenger-km than they did 50 years ago. This is thanks to better engines, improved aerodynamics, reduced weight, and a vast array of other, often invisible changes. However, it’s looking like a more drastic change is needed to keep the progress going, and NASA, Boeing, and Airbus are all betting on blended wing designs to do this.

Blended wing aircraft are basically flying wings, where the cargo-carrying section of aircraft is shorter, wider, and produces lift. This layout can be used to increase the aircraft’s internal volume, and improve aerodynamic losses, by eliminating the tail. Research shows that blended wing design could reduce fuel consumption by as much as 27%. Since load and produced lift are spread more evenly along the entire width of the aircraft, it also reduces the amount of structural reinforcement required for the wings, especially at the root. The large internal volumes also allow other power sources, like hydrogen fuel cells to be used.

Blended wing aircraft are not without challenges. They are inherently unstable and require complex control systems to fly. These control systems depend on sensors, actuators, and software to work properly, and require multiple levels of redundancy. The omission of these redundancies ultimately led to the 2008 crash of a B-2 bomber, and the more recent fatal crashes of Boeing’s 737 MAX airliners. Also, unlike tubular fuselages, blended wing designs are not ideal pressure vessels. However, this is not a major problem thanks to the availability of carbon composite materials to create strong, lightweight structures.

With aircraft technology moving as fast as ever, we look forward to seeing what the future will bring. Whether it’s personal rotorcraft or commercial space flight, it sure won’t be boring.

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Tabletop Basketball With Tentacles

July 28, 2021 by 4 Comments

Unlike football/soccer and foosball, basketball doesn’t really lend itself to being turned into a tabletop game quite that easily. [The Q] has found a way around that, employing tentacle mechanisms to create a two-player, basketball-like game.

Each player uses a pair of two-axis control sticks and a foot pedal to operate a cable-driven tentacle with a gripper on the end. These are two stage tentacles, meaning that the top and bottom halves are independently controlled. The tentacles consist of a series of laminated foam discs clued onto bicycle cable sleeves. The cables are open in the section they control, and operate in a push-pull arrangement. The spring-loaded grippers are operated by the foot pedals, with a single cable running down the center of the tentacle.

The game looks quite fun and challenging, and we can imagine it being even more entertaining with teams of two or three people operating each tentacle. Add a bit of alcohol to adult players, and it might become downright hilarious, although the mechanisms would need to be beefed up a bit to survive that level of punishment.

We suspect [The Q] read [Joshua Vasquez]’s incredibly detailed three-part guide on two-stage tentacle mechanisms. Combine that with his guide to cable mechanism math, and you’d be well-equipped to build your own. Continue reading “Tabletop Basketball With Tentacles” →

Who Flew Across The Atlantic First? The Airborne Boats Of 1919

July 22, 2021 by 47 Comments

Aviation history is a bit strange. People tend to remember some firsts but not others and — sometimes — not even firsts. For example, everyone knows Amelia Earhart attempted to be the first woman to fly around the globe. She failed, but do you know who succeeded? It was Jerrie Mock. How about the first person to do it? Wiley Post, a name largely forgotten by the public. Charles Lindbergh is another great example. He was the first person to fly across the Atlantic, right? Not exactly. The story of the real first transatlantic flight is one of aviation hacking by the United States Navy.

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