Hydraulics Made Simple
Corralling electrons is great and what most of us are pretty good at, but the best projects have some kind of interface to the real world. Often, that involves some …read more Continue reading Hydraulics Made Simple
Author Archives: Al Williams
3D Printer as Robot: The Functograph
A 3D printer is really a specialized form of robot. Sure, it isn’t exactly Data from Star Trek, but it isn’t too far from many industrial robots. Researchers from Meiji …read more Continue reading 3D Printer as Robot: The Functograph
Satellite Ground Station Upcycles Trash
While the term “upcycle” is relatively recent, we feel like [saveitforparts] has been doing it for a long time. He’d previously built gear to pick up low-Earth orbit satellites, but …read more Continue reading Satellite Ground Station Upcycles Trash
One Bit CPU Runs at a Blistering 60Hz
If you really think hard about it, a CPU is just a very general-purpose state machine. Well, most CPUs are, anyway. The MC14500 is a one-bit computer that has only …read more Continue reading One Bit CPU Runs at a Blistering 60Hz
Moving Things with Electricity
We use electricity to move things with the help of motors and magnets all the time. But if you have enough voltage, you can move things with voltage alone. As …read more Continue reading Moving Things with Electricity
Code Talkers: Programming with Voice
IEEE Spectrum had an interesting post covering several companies trying to sell voice programming interfaces. Not programming APIs for speech recognition, but the replacement of the traditional text editor to …read more Continue reading Code Talkers: Programming with Voice
Image Sensors Demystified by [IMSAI Guy]
The February 1975 issue of Popular Electronics had what was — at the time — an amazing project. The Cyclops, a digital camera with a 32 by 32 pixel resolution …read more Continue reading Image Sensors Demystified by [IMSAI Guy]
Raspberry Pi Zero Beams Back Video from 100,000 Feet
The Project Horus team routinely launches high-altitude balloons in Australia. However, despite their desire for it, they haven’t beamed back live video. Until now. Horus 55 beamed video back to …read more Continue reading Raspberry Pi Zero Beams Back Video from 100,000 Feet
Move Over Cesium Clock, Optical Clocks are Taking Over
We normally think of atomic clocks as the gold standard in timekeeping. The very definition of a second — in modern times, at least — is 9,192,631,770 periods of the …read more Continue reading Move Over Cesium Clock, Optical Clocks are Taking Over
Real Time Object Detection for $59
There was a time when making a machine to identify objects in a camera was difficult, even without trying to do it in real time. But now, you can do …read more Continue reading Real Time Object Detection for $59