Hackaday Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep 158: Phased Array Physics, CRTs Two Ways, A Micro Microcontroller, and a Surgically Implanted Red Herring Mar 04, 2022

Show notes

Join Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Staff Writer Dan Maloney as they take a look at the week's top stories, taken straight off the pages of Hackaday. What happens when you stuff modern parts into a 90's novelty PC case? Nothing good, but everything awesome! Is there any way to prevent PCB soil moisture sensors from being destroyed by, you know, soil moisture? How small is too small for a microcontroller, and who needs documentation anyway? We also cast a jaundiced eye -- err, ear -- at an electronic cheating scandal, and if you've ever wondered how phased arrays and beam steering work, gazing into a pan of water might just answer your questions. We also share all our soldering war stories, and hey -- what's with all these CRT projects anyway?

Links in the show notes!

Ep 157: Airtag Security, Warped 3D Printing, Suturing Grapes with a DIY Robot Arm, and the Wizard's Calculator Feb 25, 2022

Show notes

This week Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi look at the week's most interesting stories and projects, starting with the dystopian news that several people have had their bionic eye implants turn off without warning. We then pivot into an only slightly less depressing discussion about the poor security of Apple's AirTags network and how it can be used to track individuals without their knowledge. But it's not all doom and gloom. We'll look at new projects designed to push the envelope of desktop 3D printing, and marvel at a DIY robotic arm build so accurate that it can put stitches in the skin of a grape. You'll also hear about the surprisingly low cost of homebrew hydrophones, the uncomfortable chemistry behind wintergreen, and an early portable computer that looks like it came from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Check out the show notes for all the links!

Ep 156: 3D-Printing Rainbows, Split-Flap Clocks, Swapping EV Car Batteries, and Floppy Time Feb 18, 2022

Show notes

This week, Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Assignments Editor Kristina Panos fawn over a beautiful Italian split-flap clock that doesn't come cheap, and another clock made of floppies that could be re-created for next to nothing. We'll also sing the praises of solderless circuitry for prototyping and marvel over a filament dry box with enough sensors to control an entire house. The finer points of the ooh, sparkly-ness of diffraction gratings will be discussed, and by the end of the show, you'll know what we each like in a microscope.

Check out the show notes for links!

Ep 155: Dual Integrating Spheres, More Magnetic Switches, PlottyBot, Red Hair in Your Wafers Feb 11, 2022

Show notes

This week Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi take a close look at two pairs of projects that demonstrate the wildly different approaches that hackers can take while still arriving at the same conclusion. We'll also examine the brilliant mechanism that the James Webb Space Telescope uses to adjust its mirrors, and marvel over a particularly well-developed bot that can do your handwriting for you. The finer points of living off home-grown algae will be discussed, and by the end of the show, you'll learn the one weird trick to stopping chip fabs in their tracks.

Check out all the links, and Tom's Algae, on Hackaday!

Ep 154: A Good Enough CNC, Stepper Motors Unrolled, Smart Two-Wire LEDs, a Volcano Heard Around the World Feb 04, 2022

Show notes

Join Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Staff Writer Dan Maloney for this week's podcast as we talk about Elliot's "defection" to another podcast, the pros and cons of CNC builds, and making Nixie clocks better with more clicking. We'll explore how citizen scientists are keeping a finger on the pulse of planet Earth, watch a 2D stepper go through its paces, and figure out how a minimalist addressable LED strip works. From solving a Rubik's cube to answering the age-old question, "Does a watched pot boil?" -- spoiler alert: if it's well designed, yes -- this episode has something for everyone.

Check out the show notes for links and more!

Ep 153:A 555 Teardown to Die For, Tetrabyte is Not a Typo, DIY Injection Molding, and Using All the Parts of the Trash Printer Jan 28, 2022

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Join Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi on another whirlwind tour of the week's top stories, hacks, and projects. We start off with some breaking Linux security news, and then marvel over impeccably designed pieces of hardware ranging from a thrifty Z table for the K40 laser cutter to a powerful homebrew injection molding rig. The finer technical points of a USB device that only stores 4 bytes at a time will be discussed, and after taking an interactive tour through the internals of the 555 timer, we come away even more impressed by the iconic 50 year old chip.

We'll wrap things up by speculating wildly about all the bad things that can happen to floating solar panels, and then recite some poetry that you can compile into a functional computer program should you feel so inclined.

Check out the show notes for links and more!

Ep 152: 555 Timer Extravaganza, EMF Chip Glitching 3 Ways, a Magnetic Mechanical Keyboard, and The Best Tricorder Ever Jan 21, 2022

Show notes

Join Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi as they bring you up to speed on the best stories and projects from the week. There's some pretty unfortunate news for the physical media aficionados in the audience, but if you're particularly keen on 50 year old integrated circuits, you'll love hearing about the winners of the 555 Timer Contest. We'll take a look at a singing circuit sculpture powered by the ESP32, extol the virtues of 3D printed switches, follow one hacker's dream of building the ultimate Star Trek tricorder prop, and try to wrap our heads around how electronic devices can be jolted into submission. Stick around to the end as we take a close look at some extraordinary claims about sniffing out computer viruses, and wrap things up by wondering why everyone is trying to drive so far.

Ep 151: The Hackiest VR Glove, Plotting Boba Fett with Shoelaces, ECU Hacking, and Where Does Ammonia Come From? Jan 14, 2022

Show notes

Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi are back again to talk about all the weird and wonderful stores from our corner of the tech world. Canon having to temporarily give up on chipping their toner cartridges due to part shortages is just too perfect to ignore, and there's some good news for the International Space Station as the White House signals they're ready to support the orbiting outpost until 2030. We'll also look at an extremely promising project looking to deliver haptic feedback for VR, programming retrocomputers with the Arduino IDE, and the incredible reverse engineering involved in adding a DIY autonomous driving system to a 2010 Volkswagen Golf. Finally we'll find out why most of the human life on this planet depends on a process many people have never heard of, and learn about the long history of making cars heavier than they need to be.

Check out all the links over on Hackaday!

Ep 150: Blackberry Runs Out of Juice, NODE has your pinouts, Rats learn DOOM, and 2021 is Done Jan 07, 2022

Show notes

Join Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi as they ring in the New Year with the first podcast episode of 2022. We get the bad news out early for those still thumbing away at their Blackberries, then pivot into some of the highlights from over the holidays such as the release of NODE's The Pinouts Book and the discovery of a few expectation-defying OpenSCAD libraries. We'll look at modifying a water cooler with Ghidra, and the incredible technology that let's historians uncover the hidden history of paintings. Oh, and we'll also talk about all the best and most important stories of the last 12 months. There's a lot of ground to cover, so get comfortable.

Happy New Year! Dec 31, 2021

Show notes

The Hackaday Podcast is in its second, and final, week of winter hibernation. So join me and special guest Tom Nardi in the first week of 2022 as we discuss the best of 2021 and the holiday season.

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