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It takes but an ill-fated second to break a bone, and several long weeks for it to heal in a cast. And even if you have one of those newfangled fiberglass casts, you still can’t get the thing wet, and it’s gonna be itchy under there because your skin can’t breathe. Isn’t it high time for something better? Enter Cast21 , co-founded by Chief Technical Officer [Jason Troutner], who has been in casts more than 50 times due to sports injuries and surgeries. He teamed up with a biomedical design engineer and an electrical engineer to break the norms associated with traditional casts and design a new solution that addresses their drawbacks . So, how does it work already? The latticework cast is made from a network of silicone tubes that harden once injected with resin and a catalyst mixture. It takes ten seconds to fill the latticework with resin and three minutes for it to cure, and the whole process is much faster than plaster or fiberglass. This new cast can be used along with electric

For many of us of a particular vintage, the internet blossomed in the ’90s with the invention of the Web and just a few years of development. Back then, we had the convenience of expression on the WWW and the backup of mature services such as IRC for all that other stuff we used to get up to. Some of us still hang out there. Then something happened. Something terrible. Big-commerce took over, and it ballooned into this enormously complex mess with people tracking you every few seconds and constantly trying to bombard you with marketing messages. Enough now. Many people have had enough and have come together to create the Tildeverse , a minimalist community-driven internet experience. A collaborative Minecraft server hosted on a Tilde site Tilde, literally ‘ ~ ‘, is your home on the internet. You can work on your ideas on a shared server or run your own. Tilde emphasises the retro aesthetic by being minimal and text-orientated. Those unfamiliar with a command line may start getting

With all the recent attention on Mars and the search for evidence of ancient life there, it’s easy to forget that not only has the Red Planet been under the figurative microscope since the early days of the Space Race, but we went to tremendous effort to send a pair of miniaturized biochemical laboratories there back in 1976. While the results were equivocal, it was still an amazing piece of engineering and spacefaring, one that [Marb] has recreated with this Earth-based version of the famed Viking “Labeled Release” experiment . The Labeled Release experimental design was based on the fact that many metabolic processes result in the evolution of carbon dioxide gas, which should be detectable by inoculating a soil sample with a nutrient broth laced with radioactive carbon-14. For this homage to the LR experiment, [Marb] eschewed the radioactive tracer, instead looking for a relative increase in the much lower CO 2 concentration here on Earth. The test chamber is an electrical enclosu

Exhibit A: A standard-issue banana. We love it when a community grabs hold of an idea and runs wild with it despite obvious practicality issues. Gridfinity by YouTuber [Zach Freedman] is one of those concepts. For the unaware, this is a simple storage system standard, defining boxes to hold your things. These boxes can be stacked and held in place in anything from a desk drawer to hanging off the side of a 3D printer. [Georgs Lazdāns] is one such Gridfinity user who wanted to create tool-specific holders without leaving the sofa. To do so, they made a web application using node.js and OpenCV to extract outlines for tools (or anything else) when photographed on a blank sheet of paper. The OpenCV stack assumes that the object to be profiled will be placed on a uniformly colored paper with all parts of its outline visible. The first part of the stack uses a bilateral filter to denoise the image whilst keeping edge details. Make a base, then add a banana. Easy! Next, the image is

During this year’s Hackaday Supercon, the Supplyframe DesignLab will be playing host to a unique exhibit that catalogs the evolution of display technology. That means showcasing the best and most interesting examples they can find, from the vintage to the ultra-modern. Where are all these wonderful toys coming from, you might ask? Why, the Hackaday community, of course. This is a rare chance to show off your prized gadgetry to a captive audience of hackers and makers. Whether it’s a custom display you’ve created or some gonzo piece of hardware you’ve been holding onto for years, now’s the time to haul it out. However, there are only a few days left to submit your display for potential inclusion , so if you’ve got something you want the Hackaday community to see, make sure you fill out the form before the September 16th deadline. That’s Monday, if you were wondering. The folks at the DesignLab tell us they’ve already got some very cool pieces of hardware lined up, many of which read

Sometimes there’s nothing more rewarding than pulling apart an old piece of hardware of mysterious origin. [saveitforparts] does just that, and recently came across a curious satellite system from a surplus store. What else could he do, other than tear it down and try to get it humming?  The device appeared to be satellite communication device for a tracking unit of some sort, complete with a long, thick proprietary cable. That led to a junction box with a serial port and an RJ45 port, along with some other interfaces. Disassembly of the unit revealed it contained a great deal of smarts onboard, including some kind of single-board computer. Comms-wise, it featured a cellular GPRS interface as well as an Orbcomm satellite modem. It also packed in GPS, WiFi, Xbee, Ethernet, and serial interfaces. It ultimately turned out to be a Digi ConnectPort X5 device, used as a satellite tracking system for commercial trucks. What’s cool is that the video doesn’t just cover pulling it apart. It a

We don’t get enough electrochemistry hacks on these pages, so here’s [Markus Bindhammer] of YouTube/ Marb’s lab fame to give us a fix with their hand-built general-purpose electrochemistry device . The basic structure is made from plyboard cut to size on a table saw and glued’n’screwed together. The top and front are constructed from an aluminium sheet bent to shape with a hand-bender. A laser-printed front panel finishes the aesthetic nicely, contrasting with the shiny aluminium. The electrode holders are part of off-the-shelf chemistry components, with the electrical contacts hand-made from components usually used for constructing stair handrails. Inside, a 500 RPM 12 V DC geared motor is mounted, driving a couple of small magnets. A PWM motor speed controller provides power. This allows a magnetic stirrer to be added for relevant applications. Power for the electrochemical cell is courtesy of a Zk-5KX buck-boost power supply with a range of 0 – 36 V at up to 5 A  with both CV and

The humble business card is usually a small slip of cardboard with some basic contact details on it — but as hackers know, it can be so much more. [Marian] has provided us a great example in the form of his own digital business card , which doubles as a handheld game! Wanting to make his business card more interesting for better engagement, [Marian] was inspired by the Arduboy to give it some interactivity. He chose the STM32G030F6 microcontroller as a cheap and reliable option to run his business card. He then created a 10×9 LED matrix display using Charlieplexing to minimize the amount of I/O pins required. For controls, he went with the usual directional cross plus two action buttons. He implemented a variety of games on the card—including a Flappy Bird clone and a game similar to the classic Simon toy. Files are on GitHub for the curious. We’ve featured some other great business cards this year, too. Indeed, we ran a whole challenge! If you’re cooking up your own exemplary

QR codes are used just about everywhere now, for checking into venues, ordering food, or just plain old advertising. But what about data storage? It’s hardly efficient, but if you want to store your files in a ridiculous paper format— there’s a way to do that, too! QR-Backup was developed by [za3k], and is currently available as a command-line Linux tool only. It takes a file or files, and turns them into a “paper backup”—a black-and white PDF file full of QR codes that’s ready to print. That’s legitimately the whole deal—you run the code, generate the PDF, then print the file. That piece of paper is now your backup. Naturally, qr-backup works in reverse, too. You can use a scanner or webcam to recover your files from the printed page. Currently, it achieves a storage density of 3KB/page, and [za3k] says backups of text in the single-digit megabyte range are “practical.” You can alternatively print smaller, denser codes for up to 130 KB/page. Is it something you’ll ever likely need

When you work with tiny things on the regular, they start to seem normal-sized to your hands and eyes. Then, if you work with even smaller packages, stuff like 0603 might as well be through-hole components. [alnwlsn] is no stranger to the small, having worked almost exclusively with surface mount components for a few years now. Even so, they’ve built up an admirable stock of DIP chips, including the ATtiny84 DIP-14 that their incredible Simon game is built into. How in the world did [alnwlsn] accomplish this? As you’ll see in the video after the break, the answer lies in milling, but with the motors disconnected and manually turning the knobs. Soldering didn’t require anything special, just the usual suspects like a fine-tipped iron, an X-acto knife, some tweezers, and a few other things like a hot air gun for soldering fine wires to the leadframe. Oh, and of course, really steady hands, and lots of patience. The 2024 Tiny Games Contest officially closed on Tuesday, September 10t

Bumper stickers are usually political, crude, or otherwise inflammatory. Rather a more fun example is this digital creation from [Guy Dupont], who made a bumper sticker that broadcasts what he’s listening to on the stereo. [Guy] found a nice wide 11-inch bar LCD that was the right aspect ratio to suit the “bumper sticker” aesthetic. It had an HDMI interface, so he decided to drive it with a Raspbery Pi Zero 2W. Power for the system was derived from 12-volt lines going to his vehicle’s rear view camera. For an enclosure, he simply stuck the Pi and a buck converter on the back of the display and heat shrinked the whole thing. He also threw some magnets in there to stick it to the car. How does the screen know what song to display? Well, [Guy] already has his Spotify listens scrobbling to Last.fm. Thus, he just made a script that scrapes his Last.fm page, which runs on a Particle Boron microcontroller, which has a cellular connection of its own. The Boron gets the song data, and spits

If you need to measure the presence of photons down to a very small number of them, you are looking at the use of a photomultiplier, as explained in a recent video by [Huygens Optics] on YouTube. The only way to realistically measure at such a sensitivity level is to amplify them with a photomultiplier tube (PMT). Although solid-state alternatives exist, this is still a field where vacuum tube-based technology is highly relevant. Despite being called ‘photomultipliers’, these PMTs actually amplify an incoming current (electron) in a series of dynode stages, to create an output current that is actually easy to quantify for measurement equipment. They find uses in everything from Raman spectroscopy to medical diagnostics and night vision sensors. The specific PMT that [Huygens Optics] uses in the video is the Hamamatsu R928 . This has a spectral response from 185 nm to 900 nm. The electrode mesh is where photons enter the tube, triggering the photo cathode which then ejects electrons

One major flaw of designing societies around cars is the sheer amount of signage that drivers are expected to recognize, read, and react to. It’s a highly complex system that requires constant vigilance to a relatively boring task with high stakes, which is not something humans are particularly well adapted for. Modern GPS equipment can solve a few of these attention problems, with some able to at least show the current speed limit and perhaps an ongoing information feed of the current driving conditions., Trains, on the other hand, solved a lot of these problems long ago. [Philo] and [Tris], two train aficionados, were recently able to get an old speed indicator from a train and get it working in a similar way in their own car . The speed indicator itself came from a train on the Red Line of the T, Boston’s subway system run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). Trains have a few unique ways of making sure they go the correct speed for whatever track they’re on a

A few years back NVIDIA created a dedicated cryptocurrency mining GPU, the CMP 170HX. This was a heavily restricted version of its flagship A100 datacenter accelerator, using the same GA100 chip. It was intended for accelerating Ethash, the Etherium proof-of-work algorithm, and nothing else. [niconiconi] bought one to use for accelerating PCB electromagnetic simulations and put a lot of effort into repairing the card, converting it to water-cooling, and figuring out how best to use this nobbled GPU . Typically, the GA100 silicon sits in the center of the mighty A100 GPU card and would be found in a server rack, cooled by forced air. This was not an option at home, so an off-the-shelf water-cooling block was wedged in. During this process, [niconconi] found that the board wouldn’t power on, so they went on a deep dive into the power supply tree with the help of a leaked A100 schematic. The repair and modifications can be found in the appendix, right down to the end of the article. It

IBM got their PCs and PS/2 computers into schools in the 1980s and 1990s. We fondly remember educational games like Super Solvers: Treasure Mountain. However, IBM had been trying to get into the educational market long before the PC. In 1969, the IBM Schools Computer System Unit was developed. Though it never reached commercial release, ten were made, and they were deployed to pilot schools. One remained in use for almost a decade! And now, there’s a new one — well, a replica of IBM’s experimental school computer by [Menadue], at least. You can check it out in the video below. The internals were based somewhat on the IBM System/360’s technology. Interestingly, it used a touch-sensitive keypad instead of a traditional keyboard. From what we’ve read, it seems this system had a lot of firsts: the first system to use a domestic TV as an output device, the first system to use a cassette deck as a storage medium, and the first purpose-built educational computer. It was developed at IBM Hu

This week Jonathan Bennett and Aaron Newcomb chat with Andreas Kling about Ladybird, the new browser in development from the ground up. It was started as part of SerenityOS, and has since taken on a life of its own. How much of the web works on it? How many people are working on the project? And where’s the download button? Listen to find out! https://awesomekling.com/ https://ladybird.org/ https://ladybird.org/posts/fork/ https://ladybird.org/posts/announcement/ https://ladybird.org/posts/why-ladybird/ Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show Right on our YouTube Channel ? Have someone you’d like us to interview? Let us know, or contact the guest and have them contact us! Take a look at the schedule here . Direct Download in DRM-free MP3. If you’d rather read along, here’s the transcript for this week’s episode . Places to follow the FLOSS Weekly Podcast: Spotify RSS from Blog – Hackaday https://ift.tt/jhaO1v2

Sliding in an extra slice of cruise ship to lengthen it. (Credit: Silversea cruises) The number of people going on cruises keeps rising year over year, with the number passengers carried increasing from just over 3.7 million in 1990 to well over 28 million in 2023. This has meant an increasing demand for more and also much larger cruise ships, which has led to an interesting phenomenon where it has become more economical to chop up an existing cruise ship and put in an extra slice to add many meters to each deck. This makes intuitively sense, as the segment added is fairly ‘dumb’, with no engine room, control systems, but mostly more rooms and cabins. The current top-of-the-line cruise ship experience is exemplified by the  Icon class that’s being constructed for the Royal Caribbean Group. The first in this line is the  Icon of the Seas , which is the largest cruise ship in the world with a length of 364.75 meters and a gross tonnage of 248,663. All of this cost €1.86 billion an

The oft-quoted saying “all models are wrong, but some are useful” is a tounge-in-cheek way of saying that at some level, tools we use to predict how the world behaves will differ from reality in some measurable way. This goes well beyond the statistics classroom it is most often quoted in, too, and is especially apparent to anyone who has used a GPS mapping device of any sort. While we might think that our technological age can save us from the approximations of maps and models, there are a number of limitations with this technology that appear in sometimes surprising ways. [Kyle] has an interesting writeup about how maps can be wrong yet still be incredibly useful especially in the modern GPS-enabled world. [Kyle] is coming to us with a background in outdoor travel, involving all kinds of activities like hiking and backcountry skiing. When dealing with GPS tracking under these conditions, often the user’s actual position will deviate from their recorded position by a significant ma