Hackaday.com

It is a common occurrence in old movies: Our hero checks in at a hotel in some exotic locale, and the desk clerk says, “Ah, Mr. Barker, there’s a letter …read more

For nearly 90 years, American Science and Surplus has been shipping out weird and wonderful stuff to customers far and wide. In the pre-Internet days, getting their latest catalog in …read more

There was a recent recall of so-called ‘radioactive shrimp’ that were potentially contaminated with cesium-137 (Cs-137). But contamination isn’t an all-or-nothing affair, so you might wonder exactly how hot the …read more

Have you heard of the Sprengel pump? It’s how they drew hard vacuum back before mechanical pumps were perfected — the first light bulbs had their vacuums drawn with Sprengel …read more

A Meshtastic node has been one of the toys of the moment over the last year, and since they are popular with radio amateurs there’s a chance you’ll already live …read more

When Deluxe Paint came out with the original Amiga in 1985, it was the killer app for the platform. [Christopher Drum] starts his recent article on just that note, remembering …read more

A new kind of ‘camera’ is poking at the invisible world of the human body – and it’s made from the same weird crystals that once shook up solar energy. …read more

Why build a telescope? YOLO, as the kids say. Having decided that, one must decide what type of far-seer one will construct. For his 10″ reflector, [Carl Anderson] once again …read more

A laptop is one of the greatest tools at the disposal of a hacker. They come in all manner of shapes and sizes with all manner of features. But perhaps …read more

For most people, experimentation with film photography comes in the form of the 35 mm format. Its ubiquity in snapshot photography means cameras are readily available at all levels, and …read more

In theory, all parts are ideal and do just exactly what they say on the box. In practice, everything has its limits, most components have non-ideal characteristics, and you can …read more

If you take the wheels off a FIAT Punto, you might just notice that those rims fit nicely on a rail. [AT Lab] did, and the resulting build makes for …read more

Chemical warfare detection was never supposed to be a hobbyist project. Yet here we are: Air Quality Guardian by [debdoot], the self-proclaimed world’s first open source chemical threat detection system, …read more

If you have a CNC router, you know you can engrave just about any text with the right tool, but Jointly is a typeface that isn’t meant to be engraved. …read more

A team of hackers, [Jason T. Jacques], [Decle], and [Michael A. Wessel], have collaborated to deliver the Microtronic Phoenix Computer System. In 1981 the Busch 2090 Microtronic Computer System was …read more

It’s been just over 48 years since Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977 from Cape Canaveral, originally to study our Solar System’s planets. Voyager 1 would explore Jupiter …read more

[Ancient] has a video showing off a fascinating piece of work: a lip-syncing robot whose animated electro-mechanical mouth works like an IBM Selectric typewriter. The mouth rapidly flips between different …read more

For the past years people have been collecting disposable vapes primarily for their lithium-ion batteries, but as these disposable vapes have begun to incorporate more elaborate electronics, these too have …read more

Off to the races? Formula One races, that is. This project by [mazur8888] uses an ESP32 to keep track of the sport, and display a “live” dashboard on a 2.9″ …read more

The modern hacker and maker has an incredible array of tools at their disposal — even a modestly appointed workbench these days would have seemed like science-fiction a couple decades …read more