Nuclear Tomb Must Survive
It is hard to imagine that much we built today will be used ten years from now, much less in a hundred. It is hard to make things that last …read more Continue reading Nuclear Tomb Must Survive
Author Archives: Al Williams
The 1983 Clock Four Decades in the Making
In 1983, a 14-year-old [Will] saw an LED clock in The Sharper Image store. At $250, it stayed in the store. That was a lot of money back then, especially …read more Continue reading The 1983 Clock Four Decades in the Making
Strange English Teaching Computer Might Have Been Big in Japan
[Ctrl-Alt-Rees] bought something strange on an auction site: a Japanese Cefucom-21 from 1983. No? Didn’t ring a bell for us either. The legend on the front boldly proclaims: “CCI Multipurpose …read more Continue reading Strange English Teaching Computer Might Have Been Big in Japan
An SAO for Hams
Generally speaking, the Hackaday Supercon badge will always have a place for SAO (rebranded as “Supercon add-ons”), and that makes sense. We did originate them, after all. This year, though, …read more Continue reading An SAO for Hams
I2C the Hard Way
[Igor] has an AS5600 magnetic rotary encoder chip on a breakout board. Normally, you’d think that was an easy device to work with since it has an I2C interface. But …read more Continue reading I2C the Hard Way
Ideal Diodes and How to Build Them
[Julian] knows that real diodes you can buy don’t work exactly like we say they do. That’s actually pretty common. We routinely ignore things like wire resistance and source resistance …read more Continue reading Ideal Diodes and How to Build Them
Inside the RLL Hard Drive Protocol
If you are younger than a certain age, RLL probably doesn’t mean much to you. Old consumer-grade hard drives used MFM (modified frequency modulation like a floppy disk uses) and …read more Continue reading Inside the RLL Hard Drive Protocol
Power Supply PCB Redesign
We’ve often heard you should do everything twice. The first time is to learn what you need to do, and the second time is to do it right. We bet …read more Continue reading Power Supply PCB Redesign
Smart Glasses Read Text
You normally think of smart glasses as something you wear as either an accessory or, if you need a little assistance, with corrective lenses. But [akhilnagori] has a different kind …read more Continue reading Smart Glasses Read Text
Laser Painting Explained
If you get an inexpensive diode laser cutter, you might have been disappointed to find it won’t work well with transparent acrylic. The material just passes most of the light …read more Continue reading Laser Painting Explained