Cordless Tool Battery Pack Turned into Portable Bench Supply
Say what you want about the current crop of mass-marketed consumer-grade cordless tools, but they’ve got one thing going for them — they’re cheap. Cheap enough, in fact, that they offer a lot of...
View ArticleLasers, Mirrors, and Sensors Combine in an Optical Bench Game
Who would have thought you could make a game out of an optical bench? [Chris Mitchell] did, and while we were skeptical at first, his laser Light Bender game has some potential. Just watch your eyes....
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US Military Developing Laser Plasma Speakers
It probably won’t surprise you to know that the US military is very interested in using lasers as weapons. Directed energy weapons such as lasers have many advantages over more traditional kinetic...
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Let There Be Light Rings!
[Brandon Rice] is at it again — this time to level-up your photography and video production skills with a diffused light ring. Inspired into creating more video content, he wanted to forgo the price...
View ArticleGreat Emergency Lights from Not-So-Great UPS
We know your shame. Like you, we wanted to save some scratch and bought the bottom-of-the-range UPS, only to discover that it is no use to man or beast as it lacks the power to perform any reasonable...
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Arbor Press Modded for Applying Specific Force
Arbor presses are simple and effective tools made for a particular task: exerting force in a specific spot. A 1-ton arbor press fits on a desktop and is very affordable, but doesn’t offer a lot of...
View ArticleQuantum Electric Material Borrows from Japanese Basketweaving
Kagome is a pattern used to weave baskets from bamboo strips. The pattern is a symmetrical pattern of interlaced triangles that share corners. Scientists from MIT, Harvard, and Lawrence Berkeley...
View ArticleIron Man Mask With A HUD!
At some point, a child will inevitably dream of being a superhero. Not all children get the chance to see that dream made manifest, but a few take that destiny into their own hands. Redditor...
View ArticleIQ Makes Smarter Motors
We think of motors typically as pretty dumb devices. Depending on the kind, you send them some current or some pulses, and they turn. No problem. Even an RC servo, which has some smarts on board,...
View ArticleRetrotechtacular: A 180 GB Drive from 1994
Hard drive storage has gone through the roof in recent years. Rotating hard drives that can hold 16 terabytes of data are essentially available today, although pricey, and 12 terabyte drives are...
View ArticleBetter Beer Through Gene Editing
As much as today’s American beer drinker seems to like hoppy IPAs and other pale ales, it’s a shame that hops are so expensive to produce and transport. Did you know that it can take 50 pints of water...
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How To Reverse Engineer Mechanical Designs for 3D Modeling
If you’re interested in 3D printing or CNC milling — or really any kind of fabrication — then duplicating or interfacing with an existing part is probably on your to-do list. The ability to print...
View ArticleEverything You Wanted to Know about Transformers (But were Afraid to Ask)
[Jim Pytel] has a lot of very good instructional videos on his channel, and he recently added one you’ll enjoy on transformers. You probably know that transformers convert one AC voltage into another...
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3D Printed ESP8266 Programming Jig
The various development boards such as the NodeMCU or Wemos D1 make working with the ESP8266 an absolute breeze. If they have a downside, it is that they are larger than the bare ESP2866, and of course...
View ArticleCar Revival According to Tesla
Frankencars are built from the parts of several cars to make one usable vehicle. [Jim Belosic] has crossed the (finish) line with his Teslonda. In the most basic sense, it is the body of a Honda Accord...
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The End of the Candy Rainbow
About a decade ago [Windell Oskay] and [Lenore Edman] spun out of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories to work on CandyFab, an inexpensive 3D printer using sugar as its medium. Wondering what happened to...
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The Essential List of 3D Printer Accessories
You’ve acquired your first 3D printer and are giddy with excitement. But like all new additive manufacturing adventurers, the more you do with your printer the more questions arise. Don’t worry, we’ve...
View ArticleLet’s Bring Back the Age of Automatons
Long before the concept of A.I., as we know it today existed, humans started building machines that seemed to move and even think by a will of their own. For decades we have been building automatons,...
View ArticleEmulating A Complete Commodore 64
When the Commodore 64 was released in 1982, it was a masterpiece of engineering. It had capabilities far outstripping other home computers, and that was all due to two fancy chips inside the C64. The...
View ArticleEavesdropping on a VGA Monitor’s Conversations
Did you ever wonder what your monitor and your computer are talking about behind your back? As it turns out, there’s quite a conversation going on while the monitor and the computer decide how to get...
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