Category: Tech

Reading Time: 2 minutesVariable capacitors may be useful, but the air gap that provides their capacitance is their greatest weakness. Rather than deal with the poor dielectric properties

Reading Time: 2 minutesAt the risk of starting a controversy: is there anyone who goes to the effort of setting up Home Assistant who wouldn’t really rather be

Reading Time: 3 minutesIt’s not lost on us how the original RepRap bootstrapping concept could be applied here: a basic frame made externally in a low-cost material, then

Reading Time: 2 minutesAt some point during our primary school careers, most of us probably constructed a simple compass, often by floating a magnetized needle on a cork

Reading Time: < 1 minuteContinuing his reverse-engineering of the Intel 8087, [Ken Shirriff] covers the conditional tests that are implemented in the microcode of this floating point processing unit

Reading Time: 2 minutes[Ronan] likes 35mm film photography, but the world, of course, has gone digital. He picked up an Epson FilmScan 200 for about €10. This wonder

Reading Time: 2 minutesEmulating older computers on microcontrollers has been a staple of retrocomputing for many years now, with most 8-bit and some 16-bit machines available on Atmel,

Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe Tamagotchi Connection is a series of Tamagotchi toys that took the original portable pet concept and mixed things up with a wireless connection, which

Reading Time: < 1 minuteWhile EEG research might help you figure out extrasensory perception, we won’t be betting on it. However, if you want to read EEG data and

Reading Time: 2 minutesA Vector Network Analyser, or VNA, is the ultimate multi-tool of RF test equipment. They can now be had in not very capable form for

Reading Time: 2 minutesA knob can make a surprisingly versatile interface, particularly if it’s the SmartKnob, which builds a knob around a BLDC motor for programmable haptic response.

Reading Time: < 1 minuteYou have a part that needs different colors or different material properties — with a multi-color 3D printer, no problem. You can also laboriously switch