Have You Ever Used A Tick Stick?

February 28, 2026 by Tyler August 20 Comments

Picture this: you have an irregular opening you need to fabricate a piece to fill. Maybe it’s the stonework of a fireplace; maybe it’s the curved bulkhead of a ship. How do you get that shape? The most “Hackaday” answer would be to 3D scan the area, create a CAD model based on the point cloud, and route the shape with CNC. Of course, none of those were options for the entirety of human history. So how do you do it if you don’t have such high-tech toys? With a stick, as [Essential Craftsman] takes great pains to show us in the video below.

It’s not just any stick, of course. Call it a “tick stick”, a “speil stick”, or a “joggle stick” — whatever you call it, it’s just an irregularly shaped piece of wood. The irregular shape is key to the whole process. How you use it is simple: get some kind of storyboard — cardboard, MDF, whatever — that fits inside your irregular void. Thanks to the magic of the stick, it need not fit flush to the edges of the hole. You put the tick stick on the storyboard, press the pointy end against a reference point on the side of the hole, and trace the stick. The irregular shape means you’re going to be able to get that reference point back exactly later. Number the outline you just made, and rinse and repeat until you’ve got a single-plane “point cloud” made of tick stick outlines.

Your storyboard is probably going to look mighty confusing, but that’s what the numbers are for. Bring your storyboard and your tick stick onto the workbench and whatever you want to cut out– plywood, cardboard, 1/4″ steel armor plate, you name it–and simply repeat the process. Put the tick stick inside outline #1 and mark where the pointy end lands on the material. Then do it again for the other outlines, reproducing the points you measured on the original piece. After that, it’s just a game of ‘connect the dots’ and cutting with whatever methodology works for your substrate. A sharp knife will work for cardboard, but you’ll probably want something more substantial for steel plate.

It’s not often you’re going to need the tick stick– the [Craftsman] reports only needing it a few times over the course of a decades-long career, but when you need it, there’s not much else that will do the job. Well, unless you have a 3D scanner handy, that is. Continue reading “Have You Ever Used A Tick Stick?” →

A set of brass safety glasses sit on a marred black workbench. The top and earpiece sections of the frames are in squarish brass plate and have ruler marks on them.

Combination Safety Glasses And Measurement Tool

November 8, 2024 by Navarre Bartz 20 Comments

While rulers and tape measures are ubiquitous, they always seem to disappear when you need them. We know you’d never forget your safety glasses (safety first!), so what if they were also a measuring tool?

Starting by snapping pieces from a folding yardstick, [Simone Giertz] and [Laura Kampf] worked out a rough prototype before letting [Giertz] complete the project in brass. Some initial issues with the weight of the frames were alleviated by switching to a lighter weight plate material and using thinner frames and weight-saving holes near the ear pieces.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so we’ll let somebody else decide whether or not these will be the newest fashion craze. But it’s hard to argue with the timelessness of brass unless you have a copper allergy. We could definitely see a less expensive plastic version catching on in makerspaces for the PPE bin.

Want some other cool wearable gear? How about [Giertz]’s grocery bag hat, an evening gown with servo-driven flowers, or a shirt that reflects heat out the atmospheric window?

Continue reading “Combination Safety Glasses And Measurement Tool” →

Beyond Measure: Instrumentation Amplifiers

March 18, 2016 by Brandon Dunson 35 Comments

In the first article about measurement systems we looked at sensors as a way to bring data into a measurement system. I explained that a sensor measures physical quantities which are turned into a voltage with a variable conversion element such as a resistor bridge. There will always be noise in any system, and an operational amplifier (op-amp) can be used to remove some of that noise. The example we considered used an op-amp in a differential configuration that removes any disturbance signal that is common to both inputs of the op-amp.

But that single application of an op-amp is just skimming the surface of the process of bringing a real-world measurement of a physical quantity into a digital system. Often, you’ll need to do more work on the signal before it’s ready for sampling with a digital-to-analog converter. Signal conditioning with amplifiers is a deep and rich topic, so let me make it clear that that this article will not cover every aspect of designing and implementing a measurement system. Instead, I’m aiming to get you started without getting too technical and math-y. Let’s just relax and ponder amplifiers without getting lost in detail. Doesn’t that sound nice?

Continue reading “Beyond Measure: Instrumentation Amplifiers” →

Beyond Measure: Instrumentation Essentials

March 11, 2016 by Brandon Dunson 34 Comments

The physical world is analog and if we want to interface with it using a digital device there are conversions that need to be made. To do this we use an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) for translating real world analog quantities into digital values. But we can’t just dump any analog signal into the input of an ADC, we need this analog signal to be a measurable voltage that’s clean and conditioned. Meaning we’ve removed all the noise and converted the measured value into a usable voltage.

Things That Just Work.

This is not new information, least of all to Hackaday readers. The important bit is that we rely on these systems daily and they need to work as advertised. A simple example are the headlights in my car that I turned on the first night I got in it 5 years ago and haven’t turned off since. This is not a daytime running lights system, the controller turns the lights on when it’s dark and leaves them off during the day. This application falls into the category of things that go largely unnoticed because simply put: They. Work. Every. Time. It’s not a jaw dropping example but it’s a well implemented use of an analog to digital conversion that’s practical and reliable.

Continue reading “Beyond Measure: Instrumentation Essentials” →

Data Logging In The Picoampere Range

August 26, 2015 by Al Williams 17 Comments

You probably know that to transfer the most energy between a source and a load their impedance needs to match. That’s why a ham radio transmitter needs a 50 ohm antenna (at least, usually). The transmitter is 50 ohms and you want a match. Some test equipment matches impedance, but for multimeters, oscilloscopes and a lot of other gear, the instrument just presents a very large impedance. As long as it is much larger than the measured circuit’s impedance, the effect will be small.

With today’s MOSFET instrumentation amplifiers, it isn’t uncommon to see very high input impedances. However, you sometimes run into something that has a low input Z and that can cause issues if you don’t account for them. On the other hand, where some people see issues, others see opportunities.

Continue reading “Data Logging In The Picoampere Range” →

CEE Is A Swiss Army Knife For Analog Electronics

July 4, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 28 Comments

The team at nonolith labs announced their CEE, a device for billed as, “an analog buspirate” that is meant to control, experiment, and explore the world of analog electronics. Nonolith labs started a kickstarter campaign for the CEE.

The CEE is capable of sub-millivolt and milliamp sampling at 44.1k samples/second, and sourcing 2 channels of 5V @ 2A with a little bit of soldering. This allows for precise control of motors and sensors with the web-based UI. We’re thinking this would be a great way to teach high schoolers the art of electronics, and would be great combined with a few lectures from Paul Horowitz.

The CEE ties into nonolith labs Pixelpulse, a pretty handy tool for visualizing analog and digital signals. You can check out a demo of Pixelpulse simulating a charging capacitor here.

We’re hoping this focus on education on analog electronics catches on – you can learn a lot more by building a 555-based mini Segway than you can slapping a microcontroller in every project. This would go under the same theory as, “any idiot can count to one.”

Check out the video of the CEE on the kickstarter campaign page.