Aaron Beckendorf – Page 16 – WindowsTechs.com

Building an X-Ray Crystallography Machine

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

A plywood box with a clear plastic front is shown. Three needle gauges are visible on the front of the box, as well as a digital display, several switches, and some indicator lights. At the right of the box, a short copper tube extends from the box.

X-ray crystallography, like mass spectroscopy and nuclear spectroscopy, is an extremely useful material characterization technique that is unfortunately hard for amateurs to perform. The physical operation isn’t too complicated, however, …read more Continue reading Building an X-Ray Crystallography Machine→

Building a Potato-based GLaDOS as an Introduction to AI

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

A man’s hand is visible holding a large, potato-shaped object in the foreground. A short, white, cylindrical structure is on the top of the potato, with black wires bending back into the potato. A smaller rectangular structure is to one side of it, and a red alligator clip connects to a nail protruding from the potato.

Although not nearly as intimidating as her ceiling-mounted hanging arm body, GLaDOS spent a significant portion of the Portal 2 game in a stripped-down computer powered by a potato battery. …read more Continue reading Building a Potato-based GLaDOS as an Introduction to AI→

A Miniature Ostwald Reactor to Make Nitric Acid

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

An aluminium frame is visible, supporting several connected pieces of chemistry equipment. At the left, there is a tube containing a clear solution, with a tube leading to a clear tube heated by a gas flame, with another tube leading to a clear bottle, which has a tube leading to a bubbling orange solution.

Modern fertilizer manufacturing uses the Haber-Bosch and Ostwald processes to fix aerial nitrogen as ammonia, then oxidize the ammonia to nitric acid. Having already created a Haber-Bosch reactor for ammonia …read more Continue reading A Miniature Ostwald Reactor to Make Nitric Acid→

Making a Smarter Laptop Cooler

Posted on July 2, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

The top surface of a laptop cooler is visible. It consists of a black plastic mesh with thirteen fans visible behind it, with a blue backlit screen at the bottom of the cooler. There is blue LED backlighting behind each fan, and around the border of the cooler.

[Bogdan Micea] uses a laptop cooler, but was a bit annoyed that his cooler would run at the same power no matter how hard the laptop was working. Rather than …read more Continue reading Making a Smarter Laptop Cooler→

Preserve your Plants with an Automated Terrarium

Posted on June 30, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

A clear acrylic cylinder is shown, inside of which plants are visible. There is mist inside the tube, and LEDs light it from above. A black plastic cap to the tube is visible.

For those of us who aren’t blessed with a green thumb and who are perhaps a bit forgetful, plants can be surprisingly difficult to keep alive. In those cases, some …read more Continue reading Preserve your Plants with an Automated Terrarium→

A Scanner for Arduino-Powered Book Archiving

Posted on June 29, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

The underside of the scanner is shown. Four power supply units are visible on the lower side, and assorted electronics are visible on the top side. In the middle, two linear tracks adapted from a 3D printer run along the length of the scanner, and several motors can be seen mounted between the rails.

Scanners for loose papers have become so commonplace that almost every printer includes one, but book scanners have remained frustratingly rare for non-librarians and archivists. [Brad Mattson] had some books …read more Continue reading A Scanner for Arduino-Powered Book Archiving→

Optimizing Dust Separation for Extreme Efficiency

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

Two clear acrylic tubes are shown in the foreground. Swirls of sawdust are visible on the inside of the tubes, and the tubes are held in place by grey plastic connectors. Below the tubes, there are two clear plastic tubs containing sawdust.

[Ruud], the creator of [Capturing Dust], started his latest video with what most of us would consider a solved problem: the dust collection system for his shop already had a …read more Continue reading Optimizing Dust Separation for Extreme Efficiency→

Giving a Drum MIDI Input with Lots of Solenoids

Posted on June 22, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

A C-shaped wooden frame is shown surrounding a circular tongue drum. The wooden frame holds eight black adjustable arms, at the ends of which are mounted solenoids, positioned just above the surface of the drum.

As far as giving mechanical instruments electronic control goes, drums are probably the best candidate for conversion; learning to play them is challenging and loud for a human, but they’re …read more Continue reading Giving a Drum MIDI Input with Lots of Solenoids→

An Adaptive Soundtrack for Bike Tricks

Posted on June 22, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

A man is shown performing a wheelie on a red bicycle in a classroom. In the background, a projector is displaying a phone screen running an indistinct app.

If you’ve put in all the necessary practice to learn bike tricks, you’d probably like an appropriately dramatic soundtrack to accompany your stunts. A team of students working on a …read more Continue reading An Adaptive Soundtrack for Bike Tricks→

Keeping Snap and Crackle under Control with Prunt Printer Firmware

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Aaron Beckendorf

A Prunt 3D printer control board is shown mounted in a 3D printer, just behind a power supply, in the center of the image.

For quite some time now, Marlin has been the firmware of choice for any kind of custom 3D printer, with only Klipper offering some serious competition in the open-source world. …read more Continue reading Keeping Snap and Crackle under Control with Prunt Printer Firmware→