Porsche Found a Way to 3D-Print Lightweight Pistons That Add Even More Horsepower

With select bucket seats from the 911 and 718 as well as various classic car parts—including clutch release levers for the 959—already being produced using 3D printing, Porsche is more familiar with the technology than most. Now, the automaker is taking things even further, 3D printing entire pistons for its most powerful 991-gen 911, the GT2 RS. 

Although it doesn’t sound like these 3D-printed pistons will actually be found in many production Porsches anytime soon, they represent a bit more than just an engineering flex. There are some very real mechanical benefits here. For starters, they weigh 10 percent less than their forged equivalents and feature an integrated and closed cooling duct in the piston crown that’s apparently unable to be reproduced using traditional manufacturing methods. The decrease in weight and temperature results in an extra 30 horsepower on top of the GT2 RS’s already mighty 700.

Read more…

Nintendo Will Reportedly Release A $250 LEGO NES Console Next Month

According to a new report which has surfaced online today, Nintendo is set to release a LEGO version of its classic NES console next month.

A series of images have been shared by Chinese site VJgamer, which claims that the upcoming product includes 1:1 brick replicas of the NES itself, the controller, a cartridge, and even a TV which shows Super Mario Bros. on screen (thanks, VGC).

It’s said that owners will be able to open the NES’ front cover and insert the LEGO cartridge, and that the TV features a crank which can make Mario move from one side of the screen to the other. German publication PromoBricks says that the set will launch for €229 / $250 on 1st August.

Read more…

Incredible vinyl-like super SSDs could make hard disk drives obsolete

Modern hyperscale datacenters have infinite appetite for storage performance, capacity, and density, which is why multiple new SSD form-factors designed to maximize performance and capacity were introduced in the recent years. 

But Kioxia believes that there is a faster and cheaper way to deliver desired solid-state storage solutions to cloud customers: wafer-level SSDs. 

With capacities starting at around 50 TBs using current 3D QLC NAND, such devices could offer unbeatable performance.

Read more…

You Will Never Beat This Sharpshooting Robot at Table Hockey

Over the years we’ve seen quite a few successful attempts to create robotic air hockey opponents, but Andrew Khorkin has dedicated himself to a much harder task. He’s managed to build a robot that can not only play table hockey—a more onerous task than playing air hockey—but one that can slap the puck into the net from almost anywhere on the board with incredible accuracy.

To a human player, air hockey can feel frenetic and chaotic as they try to keep their eyes on that puck zipping back and forth across an air-cushioned table. But the game isn’t terribly hard for a robotic player to master, assuming they’ve got access to a camera sitting above the table. The puck’s movements are relatively predictable as it bounces around, and as long as the robot is able to move its paddle into position fast enough, it will never lose.

Read more…

Nerdiskerator 3D-Printed Disk Generator Created with Neodymium Magnets and Handmade Coils

This 3D-printed disk generator features a series of hand-wound coils and a pair of stator disks supported by a single ball bearing.

Disk generators are DC electrical generators that produce very high currents at low voltages for any number of applications, including welding, electrolysis, and, most recently, rail guns. Self-proclaimed full-time nerd and project maker Fab designed the Nerdiskerator (NERdiys DISK genERATOR) for his WinDIY (mostly 3D printed) HAWT Wind Turbine, which autonomously adapts to current wind conditions for generating wind power.

Read more…