How Researchers Used Salt to Give Masks an Edge Against Pathogens

Masks are proven tools against airborne diseases, but pathogens — like the COVID-19 virus — can collect in a mask and survive which complicates handling and disposal. [Ilaria Rubino], a researcher at the University of Alberta, recently received an award for her work showing how treating a mask’s main filtration …read more

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Slick DIY Compound Bow Uses Coiled Springs, Toothbrush Heads

Compound bows (unlike recurve bows, their more mechanically-simple relatives) use a levering system with pulleys and spring tension to grant the user a mechanical advantage. We’re not exactly sure what to call [Zünder’s] bow design. He shared his unconventional take on a DIY bow that uses coiled springs as well …read more

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USB Webcams Out of Stock? Make One With A Raspberry Pi and HQ Camera Module

More people working from home has had an impact on the cost and availability of USB webcams, so [Jeff Geerling] got around the issue with a DIY solution that rang in around $100. It consists of a Raspberry Pi and HQ camera module acting as a USB webcam, and there …read more

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Audio Fingerprinting Skips a Show’s Intro, Reliably

Lacking a DVD drive, [jg] was watching a TV series in the form of a bunch of .avi video files. Of course, when every episode contains a full intro, it is only a matter of time before that gets too annoying to sit through.

The usual method of skipping the …read more

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Cleaner Laser Cutting With a 3D-Printed Nozzle

[Nervous System] does a lot of laser cutting, and [Jesse] shared a fascinating experimental improvement to their laser cutter that consists of a 3D-printed nozzle for cleaner cuts. You can see the results for yourself above, where the difference between the two cuts is striking.

[Jesse]’s modification doesn’t affect the …read more

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Roll Your Own Photo Sharing, Minus the Social Networking Baggage

[Niklas Roy] rolled his own photo diary, because he found the core functionality of something like instagram attractive, but didn’t want the social network baggage that it came with. His simple system is called my own insta 😉 and it consists of some javascript and PHP to create a nice …read more

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More LEDs Means Faster Print Times For 3D Printer, But There’s a Catch

[Jan Mrázek] is no stranger at all to home-grown improvements with his Elegoo Mars SLA 3D printer, and there is a lot going on in his experimental multi-LED upgrade which even involved casting his own lens array. In the end it did speed up his prints by a factor of …read more

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Simple Tips For Better 3D-Printed Enclosures

3D printing can be great for making enclosures, and following some simple guidelines can help the whole process go much smoother. 3D Hubs has an article on designing printed enclosures that has clear steps and tips to get enclosures coming out right the first time. 3D Hubs offers 3D printing …read more

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3D Printering: The Things Printers Don’t Do

3D printers are amazing things, but if one judges solely by the successes that get showcased online, it can look as through anything at all is possible. Yet in many ways, 3D printers are actually quite limited. Because success looks easy and no one showcases failure, people can end up …read more

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How To Improve a Smart Motor? Make It Bigger!

Brushless motors can offer impressive torque-to-size ratios, and when combined with complex drive control and sensor feedback, exciting things become possible that expand the usual ideas of what motors can accomplish. For example, to use a DC motor in a robot leg, one might expect to need a gearbox, a …read more

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