An artist's depiction of a lystrosaurus munching on a prehistoric plant. It looks kind of like a hippo with a beak. The main body of the animal is grey-ish green and it's beak is ivory with two tusks jutting out from its top jaw.

Mammalian Ancestors Shed Light On The Great Dying

November 22, 2024 by 31 Comments

As we move through the Sixth Extinction, it can be beneficial to examine what caused massive die-offs in the past. Lystrosaurus specimens from South Africa have been found that may help clarify what happened 250 million years ago. [via IFLScience]

The Permian-Triassic Extinction Event, or the Great Dying, takes the cake for the worst extinction we know about so far on our pale blue dot. The primary cause is thought to be intense volcanic activity which formed the Siberian Traps and sent global CO2 levels soaring. In Karoo Basin of South Africa, 170 tetrapod fossils were found that lend credence to the theory. Several of the Lystrosaurus skeletons were preserved in a spread eagle position that “are interpreted as drought-stricken carcasses that collapsed and died of starvation in and alongside dried-up water sources.”

As Pangea dried from increased global temperatures, drought struck many different terrestrial ecosystems and changed them from what they were before. The scientists say this “likely had a profound and lasting influence on the evolution of tetrapods.” As we come up on the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States, perhaps you should give thanks for the prehistoric volcanism that led to your birth?

If you want to explore more about how CO2 can lead to life forms having a bad day, have a look at paleoclimatology and what it tells us about today. In more recent history, have a look at how we can detect volcanic eruptions from all around the world and how you can learn more about the Earth by dangling an antenna from a helicopter.

 

Custom built RGB laser firing beam

Lasers, Galvos, Action: A Quest For Laser Mastery

November 22, 2024 by 1 Comment

If you’re into hacking hardware and bending light to your will, [Shoaib Mustafa]’s latest project is bound to spike your curiosity. Combining lasers to project multi-colored beams onto a screen is ambitious enough, but doing it with a galvanomirror, STM32 microcontroller, and mostly scratch-built components? That’s next-level tinkering. This project isn’t just a feast for the eyes—it’s a adventure of control algorithms, hardware hacks, and the occasional ‘oops, that didn’t work.’ You can follow [Shoaib]’s build log and join the journey here.

The nitty-gritty is where it gets fascinating. Shoaib digs into STM32 Timers, explaining how modes like Timer, Counter, and PWM are leveraged for precise control. From adjusting laser intensity to syncing galvos for projection, every component is tuned for maximum flexibility. Need lasers aligned? Enter spectrometry and optical diffusers for precision wavelength management. Want real-time tweaks? A Python-controlled GUI handles the instruments while keeping the setup minimalist. This isn’t just a DIY build—it’s a work of art in problem-solving, with successes like a working simulation and implemented algorithms along the way.

If laser projection or STM32 wizardry excites you, this build will inspire. We featured a similar project by [Ben] back in September, and if you dig deep into our archives, you can eat your heart out on decades of laser projector projects. Explore Shoaib’s complete log on Hackaday.io. It is—literally—hacking at its most brilliant.

Build Yourself A Useful Resistor Decade Box

November 22, 2024 by 18 Comments

If you’ve ever worked with guitar pedals or analog audio gear, you’ve probably realized the value of a resistor decade box. They substitute for a resistor in a circuit and let you quickly flick through a few different values at the twist of a knob. You can still buy them if you know where to look, but [M Caldeira] decided to build his own.

At its core, the decade box relies on a number of 11-position rotary switches. Seven are used in this case—covering each “decade” of resistances, from 1 ohm to 10 ohm and all the way up to 1 megaohm. The 11 positions on each switch allows the selection of a given resistance. For example, position 7 on the 100 ohm switch selects 700 ohms, and adds it to the total resistance of the box.

[M Caldeira] did a good job of building the basic circuit, as well as assembling it in an attractive, easy-to-use way. It should serve him well on his future audio projects and many others besides. It’s a simple thing, but sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than building your own tools.

We’ve seen other neat designs like this in the past, including an SMD version and this neat digital decade box. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Build Yourself A Useful Resistor Decade Box” →

OLED Screen Mounting, Without The Pain

November 22, 2024 by 10 Comments

There was a time when no self-respecting electronics engineer would build a big project without at least one panel meter. They may be a rare part here in 2024, but we find ourselves reminded of them by [24Eng]’s project. It’s a 3D printed housing for one of those common small OLED displays, designed to be mounted on a panel with just a single round hole. Having had exactly this problem in the past trying to create a rectangular hole, we can immediately see the value in this.

It solves the problem by encasing the display in a printed shell, and passing a coarsely threaded hollow cylinder behind it for attachment to the panel and routing wires. This is where we are reminded of panel meters, many of which would have a similar sized protrusion on their rear housing their mechanism.

The result is a neatly made OLED display mounting, with a hole that’s ease itself to create. Perhaps now you’ll not be afraid to make your own panels.

Hack On Self: The Un-Crash Alarm

November 22, 2024 by 52 Comments

Ever get home, tired after work, sit down on a couch, and spend an hour or two sitting down without even managing to change into your home clothes? It’s a seriously unpleasant in-between state – almost comfortable, but you know you’re not really at rest, likely hungry, and even your phone battery is likely about to die. This kind of tiredness can get self-reinforcing real quick – especially if you’re too tired to cook food, or you’re stuck in an uncomfortable position. It’s like the inverse of the marshmallow test – instead of a desire, you’re dealing with lack thereof.

I’ve been dealing with this problem a lot within the last two years’ time. Day to day, I could lose hours to this kind of tiredness. It gets worse when I’m sick, and, it’s gotten worse on average after a few bouts of COVID. It’s not just tiredness, either – distractability and tiredness go hand in hand, and they play into each other, too.

My conclusion, so far, was pretty simple. When I’m tired, delayed but proper rest is way better than “resting” in a half-alert state, even if that takes effort I might not have yet. So, it’s important that I can get up, even if I’m already in a “crashed” position. Sure, I could use tricks like “do not sit down until I’m ready to rest”, but that only works sometimes – other times, the tiredness is too much to handle.

Audio files and sound playback library in hand, negative reinforcement methods fresh in my mind, I went and cooked together a very simple solution. Continue reading “Hack On Self: The Un-Crash Alarm” →

Hackaday Podcast Episode 297: Prusa Eschews Open Source Hardware, The Lemontron Prints Upside-Down, And The Vecdec Cyberdeck Does Minority Report

November 22, 2024 by 1 Comment

This week on the Podcast, Hackaday’s Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos joined forces to bring you the latest news, mystery sound, and of course, a big bunch of hacks from the previous week.

First up in the news: Elliot was at Electronica and spotted a wild Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5. And just as excitingly, FreeCAD has finally reached version 1.0, which means it’s stable and ready for real work.

Kristina is getting tired of losing at What’s That Sound, so she’ll have to come up with some to stump you all. Can you get this week’s sound? If you can, and your number comes up, you get a special Hackaday Podcast t-shirt.

Then it’s on to the hacks and such, but first, there’s even more news and opinion to be had in Tom’s review of Prusa’s new printer, which happens to be closed-source. Then we’ll discuss another printer that prints upside-down, an elegant cyberdeck, and a cyberpunk pocket watch. Finally, we talk about the Great Redbox Cleanup, and take a look at man-made stalactites.

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!

Download in DRM-free MP3 and savor at your leisure.

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Continue reading “Hackaday Podcast Episode 297: Prusa Eschews Open Source Hardware, The Lemontron Prints Upside-Down, And The Vecdec Cyberdeck Does Minority Report” →

Enhiker Helps You Decide If Its A Good Day To Hike

November 22, 2024 by 10 Comments

Many of us check the weather before heading out for the day — we want to know if we’re dressed (or equipped) properly to handle what Mother Nature has planned for us. This is even more important if you’re going out hiking, because you’re going to be out in a more rugged environment. To aid in this regard, [Mukesh Sankhla] built a tool called Enhiker.

The concept is simple; it’s intended to tell you everything you need to know about current and pending conditions before heading out on a hike. It’s based around Unihiker, a single-board computer which also conveniently features a 2.8-inch touch screen. It’s a quad-core ARM device that runs Debian and has WiFi and Bluetooth built in, too. The device is able to query its GPS/GNSS receiver for location information, and then uses this to get accurate weather data online from OpenWeatherMap. It makes some basic analysis, too. For example, it can tell you if it’s a good time to go out, or if there’s a storm likely rolling in, or if the conditions are hot enough to make heat stroke a concern.

It’s a nifty little gadget, and it’s neat to have all the relevant information displayed on one compact device. We’d love to see it upgraded further with cellular connectivity in addition to WiFi; this would make it more capable when out and about.

We’ve seen some other neat hiking hacks before, too, like this antenna built with a hiking pole. Meanwhile, if you’ve got your own neat hacks for when you’re out on the trail, don’t hesitate to let us know!