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Let There Be Light: The Engineering of Optical HDMI

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In a recent video, [Shahriar] from The Signal Path has unveiled the intricate design and architecture of optical HDMI cables , offering a cost-effective solution to extend HDMI 2.0 connections beyond the limitations of traditional copper links. This exploration is particularly captivating for those passionate about innovative hardware hacks and signal transmission technologies. [Shahriar] begins by dissecting the fundamentals of HDMI high-speed data transmission, focusing on the Transition Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS) standard. He then transitions to the challenges of converting from twisted-pair copper to optical lanes, emphasizing the pivotal roles of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) and PIN photodiodes. These components are essential for transforming electrical signals into optical ones and vice versa, enabling data transmission over greater distances without significant signal degradation. A standout aspect of this teardown is the detailed examination ...
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Hackaday Europe 2025: Speakers, Lightning Talks, and More!

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If you’ve been waiting for news from our upcoming Hackaday Europe event in March, wait no longer. We’re excited to announce the first slice of our wonderful speakers lineup! Get your tickets now , Hackaday Europe is going down again in Berlin this year on March 15th and 16th at MotionLab . It’s Hackaday, but in real life, and it’s too much fun.  The badge is off-the-scale cool, powered by the incredible creativity of our community who entered the Supercon SAO contest last fall, and we’re absolutely stoked to be tossing the four winning entries into your schwag bag in Europe. If you already know you’ll be attending and would like to give a seven-minute Lightning Talk on Sunday, we’re also opening up the call for talks there. Tell us now what you’d like to talk about so we can all hear it on Sunday morning . We’re looking forward to the talks and to seeing you all there! We’re getting the last few speakers ironed out, have a keynote talk to announce, and, of course, will open up...
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Integrated Micro Lab Keeps Track of Ammonia in the Blood

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We’ve all got our health-related crosses to bear, and even if you’re currently healthy, it’s only a matter of time before entropy catches up to you. For [Markus Bindhammer], it caught up to him in a big way: liver disease, specifically cirrhosis. The disease has a lot of consequences, none of which are pleasant, like abnormally high ammonia concentration in the blood. So naturally, [Markus] built an ammonia analyzer to monitor his blood . Measuring the amount of ammonia in blood isn’t as straightforward as you think. Yes, there are a few cheap MEMS-based sensors, but they tend to be good only for qualitative measurements, and other solid-state sensors that are more quantitative tend to be pretty expensive since they’re mostly intended for industrial applications. [Marb]’s approach is based on the so-called Berthelot method, which uses a two-part reagent. In the presence of ammonia (or more precisely, ammonium ions), the reagent generates a dark blue-green species that absorbs lig...
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A Forgotten Consumer PC Becomes a Floating Point Powerhouse

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[Michael Wessel] found some of his old DOS 3D graphics software and tried to run it on an 8088 PC. The tale of adding an 8087 co-processor to speed up the rendering was anything but straightforward, resulting in a useful little project . There was a point around the end of the 1980s when the world of PCs had moved on to the 386, but the humble 8086 and 8088 hung around at the consumer end of the market. For Europeans that meant a variety of non-standard machines with brand names such as Amstrad and Schneider, and even surprisingly, later on Sinclair and Commodore too. Of these the Schneider Euro PC was an all-in-one design reminiscent of an Amiga or Atari ST, packing a serviceable 8088 PC with a single 3.5″ floppy drive. A cheap machine like this was never thought to need an 8087, and lacked the usual socket on the motherboard, so he made a small PCB daughter board for the 8088 socket with space for both chips. It’s a surprisingly simple circuit, as obviously the two chips were mea...
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Probably The Most Esoteric Commodore 64 Magazine

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The world of computer enthusiasts has over time generated many subcultures and fandoms, each of which has in turn spawned its own media. [Intric8] has shared the tale of his falling down a rabbit hole as he traced one of them, a particularly esoteric disk magazine for the Commodore 64 . The disks are bright yellow, and come with intricate home-made jackets and labels. Sticking them into a 1541 drive does nothing, because these aren’t standard fare, instead they require GEOS and a particularly upgraded machine. They appear at times in Commodore swap meets, and since they formed a periodical there are several years’ worth to collect that extend into the 2000s, long after the heyday of the 64. Picking up nuggets of information over time, he traces them to Oregon, and the Astoria Commodore User Group, and to [Lord Ronin], otherwise known as David Mohr. Sadly the magazine ended with his death in 2009, but until then he produced an esoteric selection of stories, adventure games, and other ...
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Measuring Local Variances in Earth’s Magnetic Field

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Although the Earth’s magnetic field is reliable enough for navigation and is also essential for blocking harmful solar emissions and for improving radio communications, it’s not a uniform strength everywhere on the planet. Much like how inconsistencies in the density of the materials of the planet can impact the local gravitational force ever so slightly, so to can slight changes impact the strength of the magnetic field from place to place. And it doesn’t take too much to measure this impact on your own, as [efeyenice983] demonstrates here . To measure this local field strength, the first item needed is a working compass. With the compass aligned to north, a magnet is placed with its poles aligned at a right angle to the compass. The deflection angle of the needle is noted for varying distances of the magnet, and with some quick math the local field strength of the Earth’s magnetic field can be calculated based on the strength of the magnet and the amount of change of the compass ne...
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DaVinci’s New Threads

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Last year, we saw [How To Make Everything’s] take on [DaVinci’s] machine for cutting threads. However, they stopped short of the goal, which was making accurate metal screw threads. After much experimentation, they have a working solution. In fact, they tried several different methods , each with varying degrees of success. Some of the more unusual methods included heating a bar red hot and twisting it, and casting a screw out of bronze. The last actually worked well with a normal screw as the mold, although presumably, a good wood or wax shape would have resulted in a workable mold, too. The real goal, though, was to make the DaVinci machine more capable on its own. The machine uses leadscrews and can cut its own leadscrews, so, in theory, if you improve the machine, it can cut better components for itself, which may make it possible to cut even better leadscrews. The reality was the machine required some significant rework to correctly cut metal threads. But it does, as you can ...
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