Month: August 2021

DIY Fume Extractor Clears the Air as You Solder

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Open Green Energy’s device consists of a 120mm PC cooling fan and a 3D-printed enclosure.

If you’ve done any amount of soldering, you’ve likely been annoyed by fumes from solder and flux that seem to be automatically attracted to your face. Smelly and potentially toxic, it’s best to route these fumes elsewhere, preferably through a filter of some sort to keep them from simply annoying someone else.

You can, of course, purchase a fume extractor; however, good units can cost upwards of $70, so why not build one yourself? In the video below, Open Green Energy demonstrates how to do just that, using 3D-printed components made with blue and yellow filament to match up with his Hakko soldering station.

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Drop-In Zega Mame Gear II Board Upgrades Your Classic Sega Game Gear with a Raspberry Pi CM4

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Pseudonymous maker “zarcadeuk” is preparing to launch a carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) with a difference: It drops directly into the shell of a Sega Game Gear handheld console.

“My idea was to use the Game Gear shell,” zarcadeuk explains of the project, dubbed the Zega Mame Gear II. “There are plenty [of other] devices to choose from, but always loved the aesthetics of the Game Gear. No shell modifications needed. I’ve made it as simple as possible.”

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This Eye-Catching 3D-Printed Cyberdeck Puts a Raspberry Pi-Powered Retro Gaming Rig in Your Fist

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Printed for maximum visual impact, this cyberdeck offers on-the-go gaming with a portrait format screen — great for bullet hell shooters.

A Reddit user going by the name of “willy_mcBoner” has shared a look at an unusual handheld cyberdeck, boasting a portrait display and a 3D-printed housing with carry handle — and it’s designed with portable gaming in mind.

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Mini Raspberry Pi Server With Built In UPS & Stats Display

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In this video, we’re going to be putting together a mini Raspberry Pi server with a built-in UPS. A Raspberry Pi makes a great server for a NAS or for media streaming, home automation or even a home security hub for your cameras. All of these projects can benefit from having a built-in UPS to ensure that the Pi is kept running in the event of a power interruption.

Component Shortages Continue to Bite, Leading to Delays and Redesigns at Adafruit, Arduino, SparkFun

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Company representatives offer a look at the ongoing component shortages and their impact on the maker market.

Stephen Cass, editor of the Hands On DIY section of IEEE Spectrum, has warned of delays in the maker market caused by the ongoing industry-wide component shortages.

“Over the last few months it seemed that manufacturers catering to makers were offering fewer and fewer new products in addition to posting a lot of ‘out of stock’ notices on existing ones, with a knock-on effect on the maker scene as a whole,” Cass explains. “As the editor responsible for IEEE Spectrum’s Hands On DIY section, it’s taken longer and longer each month to find projects incorporating interesting new capabilities.”

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This Open Source Robotic Leg Performs Jumps and Walks All on Its Own

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Although it might look a bit weird on its own, the Overleap robotic leg is capable of some incredible things.

Aaron de los Santos has created an extremely weird backyard decoration: a single robotic leg that hops around in a circle. But do not let this simple premise fool you, as the device called Overleap has some serious engineering put into it. The leg is able to make quick jumps in rapid succession while remaining very accurate. It can also make small adjustments whilst it hops that causes it to almost run in a circular pattern.

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Google says it has created a time crystal in a quantum computer, and it’s weirder than you can imagine

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In what could be the first useful application of quantum computing, Google’s scientists have demonstrated the existence of a new phase of matter.

In a new research paper, Google scientists claim to have used a quantum processor for a useful scientific application: to observe a genuine time crystal. 

If ‘time crystal’ sounds pretty sci-fi that’s because they are. Time crystals are no less than a new “phase of matter”, as researchers put it, which has been theorized for some years now as a new state that could potentially join the ranks of solids, liquids, gases, crystals and so on. The paper remains in pre-print and still requires peer review. 

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PiFire – Raspberry Pi Zero W based Smoker Grill Controller using Python 3 and Flask/Gunicorn/nginx

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This project was inspired by user dborello and his excellent PiSmoker project (http://engineeredmusings.com/pismoker/ and https://github.com/DBorello/PiSmoker). I encourage you to check it out and get a rough idea of how this all works. This particular project was built around a Traeger Texas smoker grill platform, but should work for most older Traeger models (or other brands with similar parts like the older Pit Boss) built with similar parts (fan, auger, and igniter). I’ve built the code in a way to be somewhat modular & extensible such that you can replace the grill platform with your own specific platform instead. Newer Traeger grills with their newer wifi enabled controllers have DC components (instead of the AC Fan / Auger) and aren’t covered by this project.

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An open source desk to showcase your projects, complete with swappable panels

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Almost every maker has run into the problem of not being able to find a convenient display or power source for their project prototype, and thus leading to minor delays and some frustration. However, YouTuber Another Maker has come up with an open source desk concept that makes finding these things simple. The system he built uses a large grid of swappable panels that can simply slide into place within a wooden frame. Behind these are a few devices for both power and connectivity, such as power strips, an Ethernet switch (with PoE capabilities), and an HDMI switch for changing between a Raspberry Pi and a PC.

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