Reading a Thermocouple with Mercury and a Potentiometer
If you’ve ever thought about the nomenclature of electrical components, potentiometer stands out as a strange name, etymologically suggesting something like a voltmeter. In fact, the component took...
View ArticleLaser Fault Injection on the Cheap
One can only imagine the wonders held within the crypto labs of organizations like the CIA or NSA. Therein must be machines of such sophistication that no electronic device could resist their attempts...
View ArticlePortable ESP32 RGB Lasershow Has All the Trimmings
Perhaps there was a time when fancy laser effects were beyond those without the largest of bank accounts, but today they can be created surprisingly easily. [Corebb] shows us how with a neat unit using...
View ArticleCollaborative Effort Gets Laser Galvos Talking G-Code
Everyone should know by now that we love to follow up on projects when they make progress. It’s great to be able to celebrate accomplishments and see how a project has changed over time. But it’s...
View ArticleInside an eBay Marking Laser
When it comes to trolling eBay for cool stuff, some people have all the luck. Whereas all we ever seem to come across is counterfeit chips and obviously broken gear listed as, “good condition, powers...
View ArticleOld Printer Becomes Direct Laser Lithography Machine
What does it take to make your own integrated circuits at home? It’s a question that relatively few intrepid hackers have tried to answer, and the answer is usually something along the lines of “a lot...
View ArticleDetect Lightning Strikes with an Arduino
Lightning is a powerful and seemingly mysterious force of nature, capable of releasing huge amounts of energy over relatively short times and striking almost at random. Lightning obeys the laws of...
View ArticleLaser Galvos and an ESP32 Recreate Old-School Asteroids
Playing Asteroids now isn’t quite what it used to be when it came out 40 years ago. At the time, the vector-scan display was part of the charm; making do with an emulator running on a traditional...
View ArticleLighting Tech Dives into the Guts of Laser Galvanometers
There’s something magical about a laser light show. Watching that intense beam of light flit back and forth to make shapes and patterns, some of them even animated, is pretty neat. It leaves those of...
View ArticleLaser projector ditches galvanometer for spinning drum
Laser projectors like those popular in clubs or laser shows often use mirror galvanometers to reflect the laser and draw in 2D. Without galvos, and on a tight budget, [Vitaliy Mosesov] decided that...
View ArticleLaser Galvo Control via Microcontroller’s DAC
Mirror galvanometers (‘galvos’ for short) are the worky bits in a laser projector; they are capable of twisting a mirror extremely quickly and accurately. With two of them, a laser beam may be steered...
View ArticleLittle Laser Light Show is Cleverly Packaged, Cheap to Build
We’re suckers for any project that’s nicely packaged, but an added bonus is when most of the components can be sourced cheaply and locally. Such is the case for this little laser light show, housed in...
View ArticleLight Replaces Electrons for Giant Vector-Graphics Asteroids Game
For all its simplicity, the arcade classic Asteroids was engaging in the extreme, with the ping of the laser, the rumble of the rocket, the crash of crumbling space rocks, and that crazy warble when...
View ArticleEsoteric Actuators
Motors are everywhere; DC motors, AC motors, steppers, and a host of others. In this article, I’m going to look beyond these common devices and search out more esoteric and unusual electronic actuators...
View ArticleUV Laser Projector Shines With Glow-in-the-Dark Vinyl
Mirror galvanometers were originally developed in the 17th century to precisely measure very small changes in current. Unlike other instruments of the day, a mirror galvanometer could clearly show...
View ArticleRetrotechtacular: Weston Electrical Instruments
A ‘meter is one of the most important tools on any electronics bench. After you’ve exhausted your five senses trying to figure out what’s happening in a circuit, firing up the old ‘meter is usually the...
View ArticleBuilding an Automated Laser Turret Targeting System
Last year, [Alvaro] built a laser turret robot for the DEFCONBOTs competition. It worked pretty well, but this year, he decided to step it up a notch. Now instead of moving the entire robot laser...
View ArticleHow to Weigh an Eyelash
So you’re a boxer, and you’re weighing in just 80 micrograms too much for your usual weight class. How many eyelashes do you need to pluck out to get back in the ring? Or maybe you’re following the...
View ArticleVector Laser Projector is a Lesson in Design Processes
After two years of EE coursework, [Joshua Bateman] and [Adam Catley] were looking for a fun summer project. Instead of limping along with the resources they could put together themselves, they managed...
View Article[Fran] & [Bil]’s Dinosaur Den
I suppose I can take credit for introducing the super awesome [Fran Blanche] to Hackaday’s very own crotchety old man and Commodore refugee [Bil Herd]. I therefore take complete responsibility for...
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