Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams undertake a journey through the week of fantastic hacks. Add a new level of complexity to model rockets by launching them from a silo via pneumatic ram before the combustibles even get involved. The eyes of that sculpture are actually following you — and with laser focus! The Game Boy is a pillar of pop culture for a reason, there’s a superb talk that outlines all of the interesting choices that made the electronics so special. We round out the show with a rousing discussion of a space tow truck and a scholarly look at the sporadic wake patter of Alexa et al.

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!

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.)

Continue reading “Hackaday Podcast 059: Hydraulic Rockets And Presses, Machine Vision That Bounces And Stares, And Smart Speakers That Listen To You” →

Hackaday editor Elliot Williams and contributor Jonathan Bennett discuss the past week of Hackaday. Freeman Dyson, who wanted to send us to space on the back of nuclear explosions, passed away. Only slightly less dangerous, we looked at self-balancing vehicles, 3D printed press brakes, and making rubies in the home lab. All the usual suspects make cameo appearances: robots, FPGAs, and open-source software.

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!

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.)

Continue reading “Hackaday Podcast 058: Motorheads, 3D Prints That Bend Metal, And Homebuilt Onewheel Deathmachines” →

Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams are onto an LCD and motors kick this week. Two different LCD screen teardowns caught our eye as one lets you stare into the void while using your iMac and the other tries to convince us to be not afraid of de-laminating the LCD stackup. On the motors front, it’s all about using magnets and coils in slightly different ways; there’s a bike generator that uses a planar alternator design, a dynamometer for testing motor power that itself is built from a motor, and a flex-PCB persistence of vision display that’s a motor/display hybrid. We round out the episode with talk of the newly revealed espionage saga that was Crypto AG, and riveting discussion of calculators, both real and virtual.

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!

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.)

Continue reading “Hackaday Podcast 057: Dismantled LCD Panels, Unexpected Dynamometer, A Flappy POV, And Dastardly Encryption” →