Fnirsi IPS3608: A Bench Power Supply With Serious Flaws

September 20, 2025 by Maya Posch 13 Comments

Fnirsi is one of those brands that seem to pop up more and more often, usually for portable oscilloscopes and kin. Their IPS3608 bench power supply is a bit of a departure from that, offering a mains-powered PSU that can deliver up to 36 VDC and 8 A in a fairly compact, metal enclosure. Recently [Joftec] purchased one of these units in order to review it and ended up finding a few worrying flaws in the process.

One of the claims made on the product page is that it is ‘much more intelligent than traditional power supplies’, which is quite something to start off with. The visual impression of this PSU is that it’s somewhat compromised already, with no earth point on the front next to the positive and negative banana plug points, along with a tilting screen that has trouble staying put. The USB-C and -A ports on the front support USB-PD 3.0 and a range of fast charge protocols

The ‘intelligence’ claim seems to come mostly from the rather extensive user interface, including a graphing function. Where things begin to fall apart is when the unit locks up during load testing presumably due to an overheating event. After hooking up an oscilloscope, the ripple at 1 VDC was determined to be about 200 mV peak-to-peak at 91 kHz. Ripple increased at higher voltages, belying the ’10 mV ultra-low ripple’ claim.

A quick teardown revealed the cause for the most egregious flaw of the unit struggling to maintain even 144 Watt output: a very undersized heatsink on the SMPS board. The retention issues with the tilting issue seemed to be due to a design choice that prevents the screen from rotating without breaking plastic. While this latter issue could be fixed, the buggy firmware and high ripple on the DC output make this €124 ‘285 Watt’ into a hard pass.

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Bambu Lab’s PLA Tough+ Filament: Mostly A Tough Sell

September 9, 2025 by Maya Posch 21 Comments

Beyond the simple world of basic PLA filaments there is a whole wild world of additives that can change this humble material for better or worse. The most common additives here are primarily to add color, but other additives seek to specifically improve certain properties of PLA. For example Bambu Lab’s new PLA Tough+ filament series that [Dr. Igor Gaspar] over at the My Tech Fun YouTube channel had over for reviewing purposes.

According to Bambu Lab’s claims for the filament, it’s supposed to have ‘up to’ double the layer adhesion strength as their basic PLA, while being much more robust when it comes to flexing and ‘taking a beating’. Yet as [Igor] goes through his battery of tests – comparing PLA Tough+ against the basic PLA – the supposedly tough filament is significantly worse in every count. That sad streak lasts until the impact tests, which is where we see a curious set of results – as shown above – as well as [Igor]’s new set of impact testing toys being put through their paces.

Of note is that although the Tough+ variants tested are consistently less brittle than their basic PLA counterparts, the Silver basic PLA variant makes an unexpectedly impressive showing. This is a good example of how color additives can have very positive impacts on a basic polymer like PLA, as well as a good indication that at least Bambu Lab’s Basic PLA in its Silver variant is basically better than Tough+ filaments. Not only does it not require higher printing temperatures, it also doesn’t produce more smelly VOCs, while being overall more robust.

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Why Cheap Digital Microscopes Are Pretty Terrible

August 3, 2025 by Maya Posch 41 Comments

The depth of field you get with a cheap Tomlov DM9 digital microscope. Pictured is the tip of a ballpoint. (Credit: Outdoors55, YouTube)

We have all seen those cheap digital microscopes, whether in USB format or with its own screen, all of them promising super-clear images of everything from butterfly wings to electronics at amazing magnification levels. In response to this, we have to paraphrase The Simpsons: in this Universe, we obey the laws of physics. This applies doubly so for image sensors and optics, which is where fundamental physics can only be dodged so far by heavy post-processing. In a recent video, the [Outdoors55] YouTube channel goes over these exact details, comparing a Tomlov DM9 digital microscope from Amazon to a quality macro lens on an APS-C format Sony Alpha a6400.

First of all, the magnification levels listed are effectively meaningless, as you are comparing a very tiny image sensor to something like an APS-C sensor, which itself is smaller than a full-frame sensor (i.e., 35 mm). As demonstrated in the video, the much larger sensor already gives you the ability to see many more details even before cranking the optical zoom levels up to something like 5 times, never mind the 1,500x claimed for the DM9.

On the optics side, the lack of significant depth of field is problematic. Although the workarounds suggested in the video work, such as focus stacking and diffusing the light projected onto the subject, it is essential to be aware of the limitations of these microscopes. That said, since we’re comparing a $150 digital microscope with a $1,500 Sony digital camera with macro lens, there’s some leeway here to say that the former will be ‘good enough’ for many tasks, but so might a simple jeweler’s loupe for even less.

There are some reasonable hobby-grade USB microscopes. There are also some hard-to-use toys.

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Hands On: The Hacker Pager

July 31, 2025 by Tom Nardi 27 Comments

It should come as no surprise that the hacker community has embraced the Meshtastic project. It’s got a little bit of everything we hold dear: high quality open source software, fantastic documentation, a roll-your-own hardware ethos, and just a dash of counterculture. An off-grid communications network cobbled together from cheap parts, some of which being strategically hidden within the urban sprawl by rogue operators, certainly sounds like the sort of thing you’d read about it in a William Gibson novel.

But while the DIY nature of Meshtastic is one of its most endearing features for folks like us, it can also be seen as one of its weak spots. Right now, the guidance for those looking to get started is to pick a compatible microcontroller development board, 3D print a case for it, screw on an antenna from AliExpress, flash your creation with the latest firmware, and then spend some quality time with the documentation and configuration tools to actually get it on the air. No great challenge for the average Hackaday reader, but a big ask for the weekend adventurer that’s just looking for a way to keep in touch with their friends while camping.

Quality hardware that offers a turn-key experience will be critical to elevating Meshtastic from a hobbyist’s pastime to something that could actually be fielded for applications such as search and rescue. Plus, let’s be honest, even those of us who like to put together our own gadgets can appreciate a more consumer-oriented piece of hardware from time to time. Especially if that hardware happens to be open source and designed to empower the user rather than hold them back.

Enter the Hacker Pager from exploitee.rs. As the name implies, it’s still very much a device intended for hackers — a piece of hardware designed for the halls of DEF CON rather than trekking through the wilderness. But it’s also an important step towards a new generation of Meshtastic hardware that meets the high standard of quality set by the software itself.

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The Hackaday Summer Reading List: No AI Involvement, Guaranteed

July 7, 2025 by Jenny List 48 Comments

If you have any empathy at all for those of us in the journalistic profession, have some pity for the poor editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, who let through an AI-generated summer reading list made up of novels which didn’t exist. The fake works all had real authors and thus looked plausible, thus we expect that librarians and booksellers throughout the paper’s distribution area were left scratching their heads as to why they’re not in the catalogue.

Here at Hackaday we’re refreshingly meat-based, so with a guarantee of no machine involvement, we’d like to present our own summer reading list. They’re none of them new works but we think you’ll find them as entertaining, informative, or downright useful as we did when we read them. What are you reading this summer? Continue reading “The Hackaday Summer Reading List: No AI Involvement, Guaranteed” →

Do You Need A Bench Meter?

June 24, 2025 by Al Williams 14 Comments

If you do anything with electronics or electricity, it is a good bet you have a multimeter. Even the cheapest meter today would have been an incredible piece of lab gear not long ago and, often, meters today are lighter and have more features than the old Radio Shack meters we grew up with. But then there are bench meters. [Learn Electronics Repair] reviews an OWON XDM1241 meter, and you have to wonder if it is better than just a decent handheld device. Check out the video below and see what you think.

Some of the advantage of a bench meter is just convenience. They stay in one place and often have a bigger display than a handheld. Of course, these days, the bench meter isn’t much better than a handheld anyway. In fact, one version of this meter even has a battery, if you want to carry it around.

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Hands-On: EufyMake E1 UV Printer

May 27, 2025 by Tom Nardi 50 Comments

The modern hacker and maker has a truly incredible arsenal of tools at their disposal. High-tech tools like 3D printers, laser cutters, and CNC routers have all become commonplace, and combined with old standbys like the drill press and mini lathe, it sometimes seems like we’ve finally peaked in terms of what the individual is realistically capable of producing in their own home. But occasionally a new tool comes along, and it makes us realize that there are still avenues unexplored for the home gamer.

After spending the last few weeks playing with it, I can confidently say the eufyMake E1 UV printer is one of those tools. The elevator pitch is simple: with a UV printer, you can print anything on anything. As you can imagine, the reality is somewhat more complex, but the fact that you can toss a three dimensional object in the chamber and spray it with a high-resolution color image with a few button presses holds incredible creative potential. Enough that the Kickstarter for the $1,700 printer has already raised a mind-boggling $27 million at the time of this writing, with more than a month yet to go before crossing the finish line.

If you’re on the fence about backing the campaign, or just have doubts about whether or not the machine can do what eufyMake claims, I’ll put those concerns to rest right now — it’s the real deal. Even after using the machine for as long as I have, each time a print job ends, I find myself momentary taken aback by just how good the end result is. The technology inside this machine that not only makes these results possible, but makes them so easily obtainable, is truly revolutionary.

That being said, it’s not a perfect machine by any stretch of the imagination. While I never ran into an outright failure while using the eufyMake E1, there’s a fairly long list of issues which I’d like to see addressed. Some of them are simple tweaks which may well get sorted out before the product starts shipping this summer, while others are fundamental to the way the machine operates and could represent an opportunity for competitors.

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