Many things have combined to make very high-frequency RF gear much more common, cheaper, and better performing. Case in point: [dereksgc] is tearing apart a 20 GHz low-noise block (LNB). …read more
We talk about Morse code, named after its inventor, Samuel Morse. However, maybe we should call it Vail code after Alfred Vail, who may be its real inventor. Haven’t heard …read more
LEGO bricks might look simplistic, but did you know there’s an actual science behind their sizes? Enter LDUs — LEGO Draw Units — the minuscule measurement standard that allows those …read more
We’re covering two weeks of news today, which is handy, because the week between Christmas and New Years is always a bit slow. And up first is the inevitable problem …read more
When you think of languages you might read about on Hackaday, COBOL probably isn’t one of them. The language is often considered mostly for business applications and legacy ones, at …read more
Can you use brake cleaner for flux removal on PCBs? According to [Half Burnt Toast], yes you can. But should you? Well, that’s another matter. In our experience, flux removal …read more
[Den Delimarsky] had a Stream Deck and wanted to be free of the proprietary software, so he reverse-engineered it. Now, he has a Stream Deck Plus, and with the same …read more
It’s a fair bet that most of us have a ton of wireless doo-dads around the house, from garage door remotes to wireless thermometers. Each of these gadgets seems to …read more
There was a brief period through the 1960s into the 1970s when the last word in electronics was the calculator. New models sold for hundreds of dollars, and owning one …read more
What do you do when a crowdfunded product you really liked gets cancelled? Naturally, you take the idea and build your own version of it. That’s what [Salim Benbouziyane] did …read more
When ships moved from muscle- and wind power to burning coal and other fossil fuels for their propulsion, they also became significantly faster and larger. Today’s cargo ships and ferries …read more
Having a good set of (working) headlights is a crucial feature of any motor vehicle, assuming you want to be able to see the road ahead of you when there’s …read more
While they are dying out, you can still find incandescent bulbs. While these were once totally common, they’ve been largely replaced by LEDs and other lighting technology. However, you still …read more
Everyone likes something cheap, and when that cheap thing is a router that’s supported by OpenWRT, it sounds like a win. [Hennung Paul] ordered a Wavlink WL-WN586X3 for the princely …read more
In this era of cheap turn-key machines, the idea of actually building your own desktop 3D printer might seem odd to some. But if you’re looking for a challenge, and want …read more
This one isn’t clickbait, but it is cheating. [Brian Haidet], the guy behind Alpha Phoenix, has managed to assemble movie footage of a laser beam crossing his garage, using a …read more
It’s really never too early (or too late) to learn time management. All joking aside, carefully managing one’s time can result in some really wondrous achievements. So it’s best to …read more
Over the last few decades, electronic devices have drastically changed. Radios that once had point-to-point wiring gave way to printed circuit boards with through-hole parts, and now microscopic surface mount …read more
Despite the latest and greatest Intel-derived computers having multi-core 64-bit processors and unimaginably fast peripherals, at heart they all still retain a compatibility that goes back to the original 8086. …read more