Using Homebrew Coils to Measure Mains Current, and Taking the Circuit Breaker Challenge

Measuring current draw of home shop tools

Like many hackers, [Matthias Wandel] has a penchant for measuring the world around him, and quantifying the goings-on in his home is a bit of a hobby. And so when …read more Continue reading Using Homebrew Coils to Measure Mains Current, and Taking the Circuit Breaker Challenge

Homebrew Coil Winder Makes Toroids a Snap to Wind

Anyone who has ever wound a toroidal coil by hand can tell you that it’s not exactly a fun job. Even with the kinds of coils used in chokes and transformers for ham radio, which generally have relatively few windings, passing all that wire through the toroid time after time …read more

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The Easiest Way To Put Your Doorbell On The Internet

Thanks to low-cost WiFi enabled microcontrollers such as the ESP8266 and ESP32, it’s never been a better time to roll your own smart home system. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t daunting for new players. If you’re looking for an easy first project, putting your old school doorbell on the …read more

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Shoot the Moon with this Homebrew Hardline RF Divider

You can say one thing for [Derek]’s amateur radio ambitions — he certainly jumps in with both feet. While most hams never even attempt to “shoot the Moon”, he’s building out an Earth-Moon-Earth, or EME, setup which requires this little beauty: a homebrew quarter-wave hardline RF divider, and he’s sharing …read more

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