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Showing posts from September, 2020

Rocket Stove Primer: Meeting notes via CRASH Space

Insulate, particularly the combustion chamber Use an insulated, upright chimney above the combustion chamber, of a height 2-3 times the diameter Heat only the fuel that is burning Maintain a good air velocity through the fuel. Do not allow too much or too little air to enter the combustion chamber. Strive to have stoichiometric (chemically ideal) combustion  Note:   Most hobbyists find designating ⅓-½ of the feed tube for air to be ideal The cross sectional area of the combustion chamber should be sized within the range of power level of the stove. 25 square inches will suffice for home use. Elevate the fuel and distribute airflow around the fuel surfaces. When burning sticks of wood, it is best to have several sticks close together, not touching, leaving air spaces between them. Arrange the fuel so that air largely flows through the glowing coals. Throughout the stove, any place where hot gasses flow, insulate from the higher mass of the stove body, only exposing pots, etc. to direct

RadioGlobe Using Raspberry Pi via TikTok

@designspark This is our latest creation made by Jude! You can listen to over 2000 ##radio stations from around the world on the ##RadioGlobe ##RaspberryPi ♬ original sound - DesignSpark An interesting link found among my daily reading

Historical Technology Books - 61 in a series - The Rainbow Magazine (Radio Shack Color Computer) (July 1981)

 Historical Technology Books - 61 in a series - The Rainbow Magazine (Radio Shack Color Computer) (July 1981)   Download this entire publication from Archive.org in a variety of formats   Find similar books and magazines: Publication date  1981-07 Topics  color ,  rainbow ,  computer ,  program ,  shack ,  printer ,  programs ,  enter ,  iii ,  rnd ,  color computer ,  radio shack ,  extended color Collection  rainbowmagazine ;  computermagazines ;  magazine_rack ;  additional_collections Language  English   Find more books on Bookshop and Help Indie Book Stores!

LongHive - Beehive Monitoring Using IOT via Hackster IO

Bees are critical to the livelihood of our ecosystem, but unfortunately in the past decade, bee populations have decreased by 30% [1]. In addition to the ecological impact, this instability poses an economic threat to the commercial honey bee pollination industry, which is valued at over $10 billion annually in the U.S. alone [2]. Much of the decline is attributed to a complicated phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which results in the hive’s rapid abandonment of their queen, but the causes of CCD are not well understood. Whether you are an individual hobbyist or a commercial farmer who relies on large-scale pollination, monitoring your hive with simple sensory data can help beekeepers detect problematic trends in colony health. Our project, known as “LongHive”, is a full-service infrastructure for beehive maintenance, enabled by the Helium Network and Deep Learning (DL). Data-driven beekeepers can install our LongHive system, which fits underneath standard beehives a

LED Heart Beats With The Beholder via Hackaday

Many a maker likes to use their craft to create gifts for loved ones. [Jiří Praus] was celebrating having been married for 5 years, and crafted this beautiful LED heart sculpture to commemorate the occasion. The outer shell was created by first starting with a 3D printed heart shape. This was used as a form upon which the brass wire could be soldered together to form an attractive heart-shaped cage. Inside, an Arduino Nano is hooked up to a series of WS2812b LEDs. The LEDs are flashed in time with the heartbeat of the person holding the heart, thanks to a MAX30102 heartbeat sensor. There’s also a TP4056 charge module and a small lithium battery to provide power for the device.  Adding the heartbeat sensor really makes this project shine, forming a connection between the holder and the device itself. The tasteful craftsmanship of the brass design makes this an excellent gift, one we’re sure anyone would like to receive. We’ve seen [Jiří Praus] make the most of this artform before to

Historical Technology Books - 60 in a series - Run Magazine Issue 01 (1984)

Historical Technology Books - 60 in a series - Run Magazine Issue 01 (1984) Download this entire publication from Archive.org in a variety of formats Find similar books and magazines: Publication date  1984-01 Topics  commodore ,  program ,  disk ,  screen ,  color ,  poke ,  computer ,  software ,  word processor ,  magazine january ,  machine language ,  word processing ,  disk drive ,  quick brown ,  check reader Collection  run-magazine ;  computermagazines ;  magazine_rack ;  additional_collections ;  commodoremagazines Language  English   Find more books on Bookshop and Help Indie Book Stores!

When Piracy Literally Saves Lives via Techdirt

Early on in the pandemic we wrote about how some makers of medical equipment, such as ventilators, were making it  difficult to impossible to let hospitals fix their own ventilators . Many have used software locks -- DRM -- and refuse to give the information necessary to keep those machines online. And thus, it was only inevitable that piracy would step in to fill the void. Vice has the incredible story of a  rapidly growing grey market  for both hacked hardware and software to keep ventilators running: In the case of the PB840, a ventilator popularized about 20 years ago and in use ever since, a functional monitor swapped from a machine with a broken breathing unit to one with a broken monitor but a functioning breathing unit won’t work if the software isn’t synced. And so William uses the homemade dongle and Medtronic software shared with him by the Polish hacker to sync everything and repair the ventilator. Medtronic makes a similar dongle, but doesn’t sell it to the general public

Tiny Duck Hunt Looks Like Big Fun via Hackaday

Unless you’ve held on to an old tube TV, did the hack that lets you use a light gun with an LCD via Wiimote receiver and a couple of microcontrollers, or live close to one of those adult arcades, you might be really jonesing to play Duck Hunt by now. It’s time to renew that hunting license, because [Danko] has recreated the game for NodeMCU boards, and it’s open season. Instead of ducks, you get to shoot cute little Twitter-esque birds of varying sizes and point values, and a tiny cab-over truck if you wish. There’s a 60-second free-for-all, and then time is up and your score is displayed. As a special bonus, there’s no smug dog to laugh at you if don’t hit anything. Be sure to check out the demo and build video after the break. Read Tiny Duck Hunt Looks Like Big Fun via Hackaday An interesting link found among my daily reading

Historical Technology Books - 59 in a series - Family Computing Magazine Issue 04 (1983)

Historical Technology Books - 59 in a series - Family Computing Magazine Issue 04 (1983) Download this entire publication from Archive.org in a variety of formats   Find similar books and magazines: Publication date  1983-12 Topics  computer ,  data ,  print ,  program ,  commodore ,  disk ,  software ,  atari ,  apple ,  programs ,  educational software ,  replaced free ,  family computing ,  data data ,  disk drive ,  word processor ,  personal computer ,  print print ,  word processing ,  print tab Collection  family-computing ;  computermagazines ;  magazine_rack ;  additional_collections Language  English Find more books on Bookshop and Help Indie Book Stores!

Do Drones Help Democratize Surveillance? via Slashdot

A University of San Diego (USD) professor has just published  The Good Drone: How Social Movements Democratize Surveillance . He tells a local newspaper that drones (as well as other aerial technologies like balloons, satellites, and even kites)  actually help effect social change . "That was my litmus test," Choi-Fitzpatrick continues. "Can I, or other people like me, use this technology for good? The thing that ties them all together is that they're all affordable and deployable by the public without regulatory oversight." In order to prove this point, Choi-Fitzpatrick points to how the vast majority of the public uses drones for altruistic causes such as documenting human rights abuses, anti-poaching advocacy, and researching climate change research. With help from his students at USD, he meticulously scraped the internet, logging incident reports and media stories on negative drone usage. He says the data proved that, more often than not, that "the sma

Raspberry Pi Weasley Family Clock from Harry Potter Runs Like Magic via Tom's Hardware

Sometimes fiction inspires reality—such is the case here with Bryn Dole's Weasley Family clock replica. It uses a  Raspberry Pi  to replicate the general functionality, going as far as to update in real-time based on your family's actual location data. If you aren't familiar with the Harry Potter franchise, the clock is found in the home of the Weasley family. Each section of the clock represents a location rather than a point in time. There is a hand for each member of the family which moves magically into position based on where they are at a given moment. If you aren't sure where they are, you can find out in a glance using the clock. In this project, the location information is gathered and processed using an application called Life 360. This data determines where each individual hand should dial in on the clock. Dole decided to use a grandfather clock found in a thrift store, fitted with a poster of the original clock artwork from the movie. Read Raspberry Pi Weas

Historical Technology Books - 58 in a series - Commodore User Issue 13 (1984)

Historical Technology Books - 58 in a series - Commodore User Issue 13 (1984)     Download this entire publication from Archive.org in a variety of formats   Find similar books and magazines: Usage  Public Domain Mark 1.0 \ Collection  commodoreuser-magazine ; computermagazines ; magazine_rack ; additional_collections Language  English Find more books on Bookshop and Help Indie Book Stores!

A beginner’s guide to robot programming with Python via The Next Web

Let’s face it, robots are cool. They’re also going to run the world some day, and hopefully, at that time they will take pity on their poor soft fleshy creators (a.k.a. robotics developers) and help us build a space utopia filled with plenty. I’m joking of course, but only sort of. In my ambition to have some small influence over the matter, I took a course in autonomous robot control theory last year, which culminated in my building a Python-based robotic simulator that allowed me to practice control theory on a simple, mobile, programmable robot. Read A beginner’s guide to robot programming with Python via The Next Web An interesting link found among my daily reading