Hackaday Podcast

They dive into the history of PLA and small-scale 3D printing tech. Listeners hear about direct pressure-advance measurement and sensor ideas for closed-loop printers. A DIY fiber-laser technique for fine PCB traces gets examined alongside when to make boards at home. Retro hardware stories include the CueCat and Zip drive, plus projects like a Pico Z80 replacement and a 3D printed robot arm.

They talk about DIY compression molding with 3D printed molds and recycled plastic. A quirky air-hockey robot build and a relay-based balanced ternary adder get highlighted. There is an alternate-history IPv4 extension and a modern revival of an old brick cellphone with 5G guts. The conversation also covers zipper repairs you can print and a debate over wired versus Bluetooth headphones.

They discuss spoofing traffic light control signals and the security gaps between old strobe systems and modern GPS-managed intersections. Debate whether a smartphone can truly replace a desktop given OS and ecosystem limits. Explore 3D printing topics from filament makers to real welding pens and durable joining techniques. Cover DIY e-readers, hardware hacking tutorials, a meteor over Germany, and how player AR scans became valuable map data.

They announce a green-powered contest and banter about heating mishaps. There are tech teardowns of a vulnerable Wi‑Fi extender and a coin‑op pay TV. Physics and cooling tricks appear in talks about elastocaloric nitinol stages and rubber‑band refrigerators. DIY highlights include PWM paint mixing, a permanent pen clip redesign, and running video through guitar pedals. Space and attention economy topics round out the talk.

They trade favorite hardware and hacking stories from intricate CAD-driven automata to a one-winged blimp deep dive. Discussions cover Peltier cooler pitfalls and a clever STM32 TV transmitter hack. Other highlights include ingestible password-pill concepts, a camera-noise hardware RNG, modular USB repair ideas, and a 3D-printed panoramic film camera.

They explore a soft pneumatic microfluidic display and a 3D printed vacuum valve system. A CRT-based DIY VR headset and an FPGA HDMI converter get a retro tech deep dive. There's talk of LCD apertures built into lens adapters and GPU-driven brute-force antenna design. Coverage also includes time-of-flight sensor arrays for real-time 3D mapping and vintage mind-control toys revisited.

Researchers hunt for the lost Luna 9 probe and debate preserving lunar heritage. A compact OS and interactive shell bring POSIX-like power to the ESP32. Teardowns reveal how to upcycle iPad displays for PC touch. Homebrew developers revive an obscure handheld and build a magnetic, self-playing chess robot. The conversation also covers antique phones turned intercoms, industrial robot safety lessons, and testing decade-old PLA filament.

They cover micron-scale 3D printing and sub-micron fabrication progress. LEGO and typewriter hacks that turn old mechanisms into printable text and USB keyboards come up. Graph theory applied to LED sculptures and AC driving tricks gets attention. Display and power hacks include an iMac turned into a 5K screen and Raspberry Pi power-management. They also debate vibe coding's impact on open source communities.

They dig into a Wi‑Fi trick that detects people moving through a signal field. An open‑source smartphone design and its tradeoffs get a spirited review. DIY comms for cyclists and tiny voice recognition on low‑power MCUs are showcased. Creative hardware hacks include 3D‑printed PCBs, plaster smoothing tricks, a tensegrity bicycle wheel, and an art piece that visualizes Wi‑Fi traffic.

They debate technical and legal challenges around blocking 3D-printed firearm blueprints and whether detection tools can work. Builders showcase a 128-segment steerable mirror, continuous 3D-printing mods, and tiny actuator sourcing. Deep dives cover air traffic control history, skimming satellites and air-breathing electric propulsion. Listeners share dumpster-diving salvage stories and retro hacks like ordering pizza from a Wii.