Hackaday Podcast
291 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago - ★★★★★ - 59 ratingsHackaday Editors take a look at all of the interesting uses of technology that pop up on the internet each week. Topics cover a wide range like bending consumer electronics to your will, designing circuit boards, building robots, writing software, 3D printing interesting objects, and using machine tools. Get your fix of geeky goodness from new episodes every Friday morning.
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Episodes
Ep 279: Solar Flares, Flash Cells, and Free Airline WiFi
July 12, 2024 15:30 - 51 minutes - 55 MBGet your weekly fix of great hacks with your guides, Elliot Williams and Al Williams. This week, the guys talk about hacking airline WiFi, vanishing cloud services, and hobbies adjacent to hacking, such as general aviation. Things go into the weird and wonderful when the topic turns to cavity filters, driving LEDs with a candle, and thermite. Quick hacks? Everything from vintage automated telescopes to home fusion reactors and ham radio mobile from a bicycle. Then there's the can't miss ar...
Ep 278: DIY Subs, the ErgoRing, and Finding NEMA 17
July 05, 2024 15:30 - 1 hour - 77.6 MBIn this episode, Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi kick things off with a reminder about the impending deadline for Supercon talk and workshop proposals. From there discussion moves on to the absolutely incredible tale of two brothers who solved a pair of missing person cases with their homebrew underwater vehicle, false data sneaking into OctoPrint's usage statics, and an organic input device that could give the classic mouse a run for its money. You'll also hear about cheap ...
Episode 277: Edible Robots, a Personal Eclipse, and DIY PCBs to Die For
June 28, 2024 15:55 - 46 minutes - 51.1 MBThis week on the Podcast, it's Kristina's turn to ramble on alongside Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams. First up in the news: Paul Allen's Living Computers Museum + Labs is being liquidated at auction after just 12 years of being open to the public. In Hackaday news, the 2024 Business Card Challenge ends next Tuesday, July 2nd, so this is your weekend to shine! Also, you've got about two weeks to get your talk proposals in for this year's Supercon. (Can you believe it's only four months away?...
Ep 276: A Mac on a Pico, Ropes on the Test Stand, A Battleship up on Blocks
June 21, 2024 15:40 - 1 hour - 72.6 MBThe week gone by was rich with fun hacks, and Elliot and Dan teamed up this time around to run them down for everyone. The focus this week seemed to trend to old hardware, from the recently revived Voyager 1 to a 1940s car radio, a homebrew instrument from 1979, a paper tape reader, and a 128k Mac emulator built from an RP2040. Newer hacks include a 3D-printed bottle labeler, a very hackable smart ring, and lessons learned about programming robots. We also took a look at turning old cell p...
Episode 275: Mud Pulse Telemetry, 3D Printed Gears in Detail, and Display Hacking in our Future
June 14, 2024 16:27 - 1 hour - 77.7 MBJoin Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi for a review of the best stories to grace the front page of Hackaday this week. Things kick off with the news about Raspberry Pi going public, and what that might mean for everyone's favorite single-board computer. From there they'll cover the technology behind communicating through mud, DIY pressure vessels, pushing the 1983 TRS-80 Model 100 to its limits, and the reality of 3D printing how that the hype has subsided. You'll also hear abou...
Ep 274: Capstan Robots, Avionics of Uncertain Purpose, and What the Frack?
June 07, 2024 15:48 - 51 minutes - 57 MBWhat do capstans, direct conversion receivers, and fracking have in common? They were all topics Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams found fascinating this week. If you wonder what makes an electrical ground a ground, or what a theodolite is, you should check it out. Al struck on on the What's That Sound, but [Ferric Bueler] didn't so he scores a highly-coveted Hackaday Podcast T-Shirt. Want one? Tune in next week for your chance. This week, the hacks came fast and furious. ...
Ep 273: A Tube Snoot, Dynamic Button Blobs, and Tokamaks Aren't Whack
May 31, 2024 15:30 - 42 minutes - 47.7 MBThis week, it was Kristina's turn in the hot seat with Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams. First up in the news: Germany's solar expansion and a lot of wind have resulted in excess energy, which some people think is bad. In Hackaday news, the entries in the 2024 Business Card Challenge are really stacking up. Then it's on to What's That Sound, which Kristina provided this week and managed to stump Elliot. Can you get it? Can you figure it out? Can you guess what's making that sound? If you c...
Ep 272: Desktop EDM, Silence of the Leaves, and the Tyranny of the Rocket Equation
May 24, 2024 16:40 - 1 hour - 58.1 MBWith Elliot off on vacation, Tom and Dan made a valiant effort to avoid the dreaded "clip show" and provide you with the tastiest hacker treats of the week. Did they succeed? That's not for us to say, but if you're interested in things like non-emulated N64 games and unnecessarily cool filament sensors, this just might be one to check out. We also came across a noise suppressor for a leaf blower, giant antennae dangling from government helicopters, and a desktop-friendly wire EDM setup tha...
Ep 271: Audio Delay in a Hose, Ribbon Cable Repair, and DIY Hacker Metrology
May 17, 2024 15:30 - 54 minutes - 59.3 MBWhat did Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams find interesting on Hackaday this week? Well, honestly, all the posts, but they had to pick some to share with you in the podcast below. There's news about SuperCon 2024, and failing insulin pumps. After a mystery sound, the guys jump into reverbing garden hoses, Z80s, and even ribbon cable repair. Adaptive tech was big this week, with a braille reader for smartphones and an assistive knife handle. The quick hacks ranged from a type...
Ep 270: A Cluster of Microcontrollers, a rocket engine from scratch, and a look inside Voyager
May 10, 2024 15:30 - 1 hour - 75.8 MBJoin Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi as they get excited over the pocket-sized possibilities of the recently announced 2024 Business Card Challenge, and once again discuss their picks for the most interesting stories and hacks from the last week. There's cheap microcontrollers in highly parallel applications, a library that can easily unlock the world of Bluetooth input devices in your next project, some gorgeous custom flight simulator buttons that would class up any front pa...
Ep 269: 3D Printed Flexure Whegs, El Cheapo Bullet Time, and a DIY Cell Phone Sniffer
May 03, 2024 15:30 - 48 minutes - 53.6 MBThis week, it was Kristina's turn in the hot seat with Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams. First up in the news -- the results are in for the 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation contest! First and second place went to some really gnarly, well-documented hacks, and third went to the cutest pill-dispensing robot you'll probably see before you hit the retirement home. Which was your favorite? Let us know in the comments. Then it's on to What's That Sound. Kristina failed once again, but you will pro...
Ep 268: RF Burns, Wireless Charging Sucks, and Barnacles Grow on Flaperons
April 26, 2024 15:40 - 1 hour - 74.3 MBElliot and Dan got together to enshrine the week's hacks in podcast form, and to commiserate about their respective moms, each of whom recently fell victim to phishing attacks. It's not easy being ad hoc tech support sometimes, and as Elliot says, when someone is on the phone telling you that you've been hacked, he's the hacker. Moving on to the hacks, we took a look at a hacking roadmap for a cheap ham radio, felt the burn of AM broadcasts, and learned how to program old-school EPROMs on th...
Ep 267: Metal Casting, Plasma Cutting, and a Spicy 555
April 19, 2024 15:31 - 1 hour - 67.8 MBWhat were some of the best posts on Hackaday last week? Elliot Williams and Al Williams decided there were too many to choose from, but they did take a sampling of the ones that caught their attention. This week's picks were an eclectic mix of everything from metal casting and plasma cutters to radio astronomy and space telescope budgets. In between? Some basic circuit design, 3D printing, games, dogs, and software tools. Sound confusing? It won't be after you listen to this week's podcast. ...
Ep 266: A Writer's Deck, Patching Your Battleship, and Fact-Checking the Eclipse
April 12, 2024 15:30 - 1 hour - 75.5 MBBefore Elliot Williams jumps on a train for Hackaday Europe, there was just enough time to meet up virtually with Tom Nardi to discuss their favorite hacks and stories from the previous week. This episode's topics include the potential benefits of having a dual-gantry 3D printer, using microcontrollers to build bespoke note taking gadgets, the exciting world of rock tumbling, and the proper care and maintenance required to keep your World War II battleship in shape. They'll also go over so...
Ep 265: Behind the Epic SSH Hack, 1980s Cyber Butler, The Story of Season 7
April 05, 2024 15:30 - 42 minutes - 46.9 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos convened once again to give the lowdown on this week's best hacks. First up in the news -- it's giga-sunset time for Gigaset IoT devices, which simultaneously became paperweights on March 29th. And all that Flipper Zero panic? It has spread to Australia, but still remains exactly that: panic. Then it's on to What's That Sound. Kristina failed again, although she was in the right neighborhood. Can you get it? Can you figure it o...
Ep 264: Cheap Minimills, 65-in-1 Electronics, and Time on Moon
March 29, 2024 15:30 - 1 hour - 67.3 MBIt was Dan's turn behind the mic with Elliot this time as we uncovered the latest from the world of hacking, and what an eclectic mix it was. It was slightly heavy on machining, with a look at mini-mills that are better than nothing, and a DIY DRO that's A-OK. We also kicked the nostalgia bucket over -- whatever that means -- and got a new twist on the old "65-in-1" concept, found hidden code in 80s music, and looked at color TV in the US and how it got that way. We've got ample alliteration...
Ep 263: Better DCMA, AI Spreadsheet Play, and Home Assistants Your Way
March 22, 2024 16:47 - 1 hour - 74.7 MBNo need to wonder what stories Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams were reading this week. They'll tell you about them in this week's podcast. The guys revisit the McDonald's ice cream machine issue to start. This week, DIY voice assistants and home automation took center stage. But you'll also hear about AI chat models implemented as a spreadsheet, an old-school RC controller, and more. How many parts does it take to make a radio? Not a crystal radio, a software-defined one...
Ep 262: Wheelchair Hacking, Big Little Science at Home, Arya Talks PCBs
March 15, 2024 15:30 - 1 hour - 72.3 MBJoin Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi as they go over their favorite hacks and stories from the past week. This episode starts off with an update on Hackaday Europe 2024, which is now less than a month away, and from there dives into wheelchairs with subscription plans, using classic woodworking techniques to improve your 3D printer’s slicer, and a compendium of building systems. You’ll hear about tools for finding patterns in hex dumps, a lusciously documented gadget for snif...
Ep 261: Rickroll Toothbrush, Keyboard Cat, Zombie Dialup
March 08, 2024 16:30 - 36 minutes - 42.8 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up in a new disposable location to give the lowdown on this week's best hacks. First up in the news -- the Home Sweet Home Automation contest is still going strong. You've still got plenty of time, so get on over to Hackaday.IO and start your entry today. In the news, the UK is asking how powerful an electric bike should be (more than 250 Watts, certainly), and legal pressure from Nintendo has shut down two emulators. Then i...
Ep 260: KiCad 8, Two Weather Stations, and Multiple I2Cs
March 01, 2024 16:55 - 1 hour - 71.2 MBIt's a leap year, so Elliot and Dan put the extra day to good use tracking down all the hottest hacks from the past week and dorking out about them. There's big news in the KiCad community, and we talked about all the new features along with some old woes. Great minds think alike, apparently, since two different e-ink weather stations made the cut this week, as did a floating oscilloscope, an automated film-developing tank, and some DIY solar panels. We talked about a hacker who figured out ...
Ep 259: Twin-T, Three D, and Driving to a T
February 23, 2024 16:30 - 59 minutes - 65.2 MBHackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams sat down to compare notes on their favorite Hackaday posts of the week. You can listen in on this week's podcast. The guys talked about the latest Hackaday contest and plans for Hackaday Europe. Plus, there's a what's that sound to try. Your guess can't be worse than Al's, so take a shot. You could win a limited-edition T-shirt. In technical articles, Elliot spent the week reading about brushless motor design, twin-t oscillators, and a truly...
Ep 258: So Much Unix, Flipper Flip-out, and the Bus Pirate 5
February 16, 2024 16:49 - 1 hour - 77.5 MBHackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss all the week's best and most interesting hacks and stories, starting with Canada's misguided ban on the Flipper Zero for being too spooky. From there they'll look at the state-of-the-art in the sub-$100 3D printer category, Apple's latest "Right to Repair" loophole, running UNIX on the NES (and how it's different from Japan's Famicom), and the latency of various wireless protocols. After singing the praises of the new Bus Pirate 5, dis...
Ep 257: The Hacks and Just the Hacks
February 14, 2024 18:11 - 21 minutes - 23.4 MBLast week, we held an Episode 256 celebration round-table, but Kristina and I also met afterwards to talk about all the week's hacks. That part didn't fit, but we didn't want to deprive you of your weekly hack fix either, so here they are!
Ep 256: 0, 256, 400, 100, and 10000000
February 09, 2024 16:37 - 41 minutes - 44.1 MBFor this week's episode, we did something super special -- we all convened to answer your burning questions about your hosts, both as hackers and as humans. We kick things off with a segment featuring a hearty round-table discussion between Elliot, Al, Dan, Kristina, and Tom. What's on our benches? What do we type on? Go find out! None of us figured out What's That Sound though a few of us had some creative guesses. Can you guess the sound? There could be a t-shirt in it for ya. Kristina...
Ep 255: Balloon on the Moon, Nanotech Goblets, and USB All the Way
February 02, 2024 16:40 - 1 hour - 71.2 MBThis week, Dan joined Elliot for a review of the best and brightest hacks of the week in Episode 0xFF, which both of us found unreasonably exciting; it's a little like the base-2 equivalent of watching the odometer flip over to 99,999. If you know, you know. We had quite a bumper crop of coolness this week, which strangely included two artifacts from ancient Rome: a nanotech goblet of colloidal gold and silver, and a perplexing dodecahedron that ends up having a very prosaic explanation -- p...
Ep 254: AI, Hijack Guy, and Water Rockets Fly
January 26, 2024 16:30 - 1 hour - 69.2 MBThis week Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams chew the fat about the Haier IOT problem, and all other top Hackaday stories of the week. Want to prove your prowess at C programming? Take a quiz! Or marvel at some hairy display reverse engineering or 3D-printed compressor screws. On the lighter side, there's an immense water rocket. After Al waxes nostalgic about the world of DOS Extenders and extended memory, the guys talk about detective work: First detecting AI-written materi...
Ep 253: More Wood Robot, Glitching and Fuming Nitric Acid, We Heart USB-C
January 19, 2024 17:31 - 1 hour - 91.7 MBThis week Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start things off with a traffic report from the Moon, which has suddenly become a popular destination for wayward robots. [caption id="attachment_657278" align="alignright" width="300"] Anonymizing an ATtiny85 via laser[/caption] From there, they'll go over a fire-tending contraption that's equal parts madness and brilliance, two decades of routers being liberated by OpenWRT, impressive feats of chip decapping, and USB-C's glorious...
Ep 252: X1Plus Hacks Bambu, Scotto Builds a Katana Keyboard, and Bass Puts out Fire
January 12, 2024 17:05 - 45 minutes - 50 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up to discuss the best hacks of the previous week. It's CES time once again in Las Vegas, and you know what that means -- some wacky technologies like this AI pet door that rejects dead mice. Then it's on to What's That Sound, which Kristina managed to nail for once. Can you get it? Can you figure it out? Can you guess what's making that sound this week? If you can, and your number comes up, you get a special Hackaday Podcas...
Ep 251: Pluto, Pinball, Speedy Surgery, and DIY GPS
January 05, 2024 17:34 - 1 hour - 70.5 MBWelcome to 2024! This time around, Elliot and Dan ring in a new year of awesome hacks with quite an eclectic mix. We kick things off with a Pluto pity party and find out why the tiny ex-planet deserved what it got. What do you do if you need to rename a bunch of image files? You rope a local large-language model in for the job, of course. We'll take a look at how pinball machines did their thing before computers came along, take a fractal dive into video feedback, and localize fireworks with...
Ep 250: Trains, RC Planes, and EEPROMS in Flames
December 29, 2023 16:30 - 46 minutes - 55.1 MBThis week in the Podcast, Elliot Williams is off at Chaos Communication Congress, hearing tales of incredible reverse engineering that got locomotives back up and running, while Al Williams is thinking over what happened in 2023. There’s a lot of “how things work” in this show, from data buoys to sewing machines to the simulated aging of ICs. Whether you’re into stacking bricks, stacking Pi Picos, or stacking your 3D prints to make better use of precious bed space, this episode is for you....
Ep 249: Data by Laser and Parachute, Bluetooth Hacks, Google's Gotta Google
December 22, 2023 16:36 - 1 hour - 73.1 MB'Twas the podcast before Christmas, and all through the house, the best hacks of the week are dancing around Elliot and Tom's heads like sugar-plums. Whatever that means. Before settling their brains in for a long winter's nap, they'll talk about the open source software podcast that now calls Hackaday home, the latest firmware developments for Google's Stadia controller, high-definition cat videos from space, and upgrades for the surprisingly old-school battery tech that powers the Toyota...
Ep 248: Cthulhu Clock Radio Transharmonium, Thunderscan, and How to Fill Up in Space
December 15, 2023 16:30 - 1 hour - 65.7 MBThis week, Elliot sat down with Dan for the penultimate podcast of 2023, and what a week it was. We started with news about Voyager; at T+46 years from launch, any news tends to be bad, and the latest glitch has everyone worried. We also took a look at how close the OSIRIS-REx mission came to ending in disaster, all for want of consistent labels. Elliot was charmed by a Cthulhu-like musical instrument, while Dan took a shine to a spark gap transmitter that's probably on the FCC's naughty lis...
Ep 247: Cameras From Gingerbread or Hardboard, and the Insecurity of Bluetooth
December 09, 2023 00:17 - 44 minutes - 47.9 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up to discuss the best hacks of the previous week. We have no nerdy news this week, but is that necessarily a bad thing? Speaking of nothingness, we have no winner for What's That Sound? because all six people who responded were wrong. Was the sound of Clippy too obscure? But then it's on to the hacks, beginning with an awesome autonomous excavator that, among other things, lays boulders algorithmically to build load-beari...
Ep 246: Bypassing Fingerprint Readers is Easy, Killing Memory Chips is Hard, Cell Phones vs Sperm
December 01, 2023 16:30 - 1 hour - 81.2 MBIt's the week after Thanksgiving (for some of us) and if you're sick of leftovers, you're in luck as Elliot and Dan get together to discuss the freshest and best inter-holiday hacks. We'll cue up the "Mission: Impossible" theme for a self-destructing flash drive with a surprising sense of self-preservation, listen in on ET only to find out it's just a meteor, and look for interesting things to do with an old 3D printer. We'll do a poking around a little in the basement at Tektronix, see how ...
Ep 245: The Silver Swan, ET's Umbrella Antenna, Model Tanks vs Space Shuttle Tires
November 24, 2023 16:30 - 59 minutes - 66.9 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi link up through the magic of the Internet to go over some of their favorite stories from the last week. After revealing the bone-chilling winners of this year's Halloween contest, the discussion switches over to old-timey automatons, receiving deep space transmissions with a homebrew antenna that would make E.T. proud, and the treasures that can be found while poking around in a modern car's CAN bus. They'll also go o...
Ep 244: Fake Chips, Drinking Radium, and Spotting Slippery Neutrinos
November 17, 2023 16:30 - 45 minutes - 52.9 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up to discuss the best hacks of the previous week, at least in our opinions. After chasing the angry bird away from Kristina's office, we go to the news and learn that we're in the middle of a solar conjunction Essentially, the Sun has come between Earth and Mars, making communication impossible for about another week. Did you know that this happens every two years? Then it's time for a new What's That Sound, and although ...
Ep 243: Supercon, Super Printing, and Super Gyros
November 10, 2023 16:30 - 44 minutes - 49.7 MBWith solder fumes from Supercon badge hacking still in the air, Hackaday's Elliot Williams and Al Williams met to compare notes about the conference talks, badge hacking, and more. Tom Nardi dropped by, too. Did you miss Supercon? It isn't quite the whole experience, but most of the talks are on our YouTube channel, with more coming in the weeks ahead. Check out the live tab for most of the ones up now. You can even watch the badge hacking celebration. Al nailed What's That Sound, as did...
Ep 242: Mechanical Math, KaboomBox, and Racing the Beam
October 27, 2023 15:30 - 43 minutes - 46.6 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up from their separate but equally pin drop-quiet offices to discuss the best hacks of the previous week. Well, we liked these one, anyway. First up in the news, it's finally time for Supercon! So we'll see you there? If not, be sure to check out the talks as we live-stream them on our YouTube channel! Don't forget -- this is your last weekend to enter the 2023 Halloween Hackfest contest, which runs until 9 AM PDT on Octob...
Ep 241: Circuit Bending, Resistor Filing, the Butterfly Keyboard, and the Badge Reveal
October 20, 2023 16:15 - 1 hour - 70.1 MBHackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi meet up virtually to talk about the week's top stories and hacks, such as the fine art of resistor trimming and lessons learned from doing overseas injection molding. They'll go over circuit bending, self-driving cars, and a solar camera that started as a pandemic project and turned into an obsession. You'll also hear about Linux on the Arduino, classic ICs etched into slate, and an incredible restoration of one of the most interesting Thinkpads...
Ep 240: An Amazing 3D Printer, A Look Inside Raspberry Pi 5, and Cameras, Both Film and Digital
October 13, 2023 15:30 - 1 hour - 69.6 MBDate notwithstanding, it's your lucky day as Elliot and Dan get together to review the best hacks of the week. For some reason, film photography was much on our writers' minds this week, as we talked about ways to digitalize an old SLR, and how potatoes can be used to develop film (is there a Monty Python joke in there?) We looked at a 3D printer design that really pulls our strings, the custom insides of the Raspberry Pi 5, and the ins and outs of both ferroresonant transformers and ham r...
Ep 239: Overclocking, Oscilloscopes, and Oh No! SMD Out of Stock!
October 06, 2023 15:30 - 1 hour - 72.1 MBElliot Williams and Al Williams got together again to discuss the best of Hackaday for a week, and you're invited. This week, the guys were into the Raspberry Pi 5, CNC soldering, signal processing, and plasma cutting. There are dangerous power supplies and a custom 11-bit CPU. Of course, there are a few Halloween projects that would fit in perfectly with the upcoming Halloween contest (the deadline is the end of this month; you still have time). OpenSCAD is about to get a lot faster, an...
Ep 238: Vibrating Bowl Feeders, Open Sourcery, Learning to Love Layer Lines
September 29, 2023 15:00 - 1 hour - 66.2 MBElliot Williams and Tom Nardi start this week's episode off with some deep space news, as NASA's OSIRIS-REx returns home with a sample it snapped up from asteroid Bennu back in 2020. From there, discussion moves on to magical part sorting, open source (eventually...) plastic recycling, and the preposterously complex method newer Apple laptops use to determine if their lid is closed. They'll also talk about the changing perceptions of 3D printed parts, a new battery tech that probably won't c...
Ep 237: Dancing Raisins, Coding on Apples, and a Salad Spinner Mouse
September 23, 2023 03:30 - 43 minutes - 46.9 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos gathered over the Internet and a couple cups of coffee to bring you the best hacks of the previous week. Well, the ones we liked best, anyhow. First up in the news, we've got a brand-spankin' new Halloween Hackfest contest running now until 9AM PDT on October 31st! Arduino are joining the fun this year and are offering some spooky treats in addition to the $150 DigiKey gift cards for the top three entrants. It's a What's That ...
Ep 236: The Car Episode, Building Leonardo's Water Mill, Reviving Radio Shack
September 15, 2023 16:01 - 1 hour - 65.1 MBElliot and Dan got together this time around to recap the week in hacks, and it looks like the Hackaday writing crew very much had cars on their minds. We both took the bait, with tales of privacy-violating cars and taillights that can both cripple a pickup and financially cripple its owner. We went medieval -- OK, more like renaissance -- on a sawmill, pulled a popular YouTuber out of the toilet, and pondered what an animal-free circus would be like. Is RadioShack coming back? Can an ESP32 ...
Ep 235: Licorice for Lasers, Manual Motors, and Reading Resistors
September 08, 2023 15:30 - 1 hour - 73.3 MBName one other podcast where you can hear about heavy 3D-printed drones, DIY semiconductors, and using licorice to block laser beams. Throw in homebrew relays, a better mouse trap, and logic analyzers, and you'll certainly be talking about Elliot Williams and Al Williams on Hackaday Podcast 235. There's also contest news, thermoforming, and something that looks a little like 3D-printed Velcro. Elliot and Al also have their semi-annual argument about Vi vs. Emacs. Spoiler alert: they decide...
Ep 234: Machines on Fire, Old Kinect New Kinect, and Birth of the Breadboard
September 01, 2023 15:30 - 1 hour - 76.8 MBIt might sound like a joke, but this week, Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start things off by asking how you keep a Polish train from running. Like always, the answer appears to be a properly modulated radio signal. After a fiery tale about Elliot's burned beans, the discussion moves over to the adventure that is home CNC ownership, the final chapter in the saga of the Arecibo Telescope, and the unexpected longevity of Microsoft's Kinect. Then it's on to the proper way to cook a PCB, FFmpeg i...
Ep 233: Chandrayaan on the Moon, Cyberdecks, Hackerspaces Born at a German Computer Camp
August 25, 2023 17:36 - 45 minutes - 52.4 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos experimented with the old adage that brevity is the soul of wit. That's right; this week, they're all Quick Hacks, and that's to make room for a special series of interviews that Elliot recorded at CCCamp with the pillars of US hackerspace creation. This one's really special, do have a listen. We still made room for the news this week: India launched Chandrayaan-3, which combines an orbiter, lander, and rover all in one. Then it...
Ep 232: Hackaday Podcast Chaos Camp Placeholder Edition
August 18, 2023 15:30 - 53 seconds - 1.6 MBElliot is off at Chaos Communications Camp, and Tom is on vacation, leaving us with no podcast this week. But don't fret, Elliot is picking up a ton of interview material for next week's show. It's gonna be a good one!
Ep 231: Harnessing Sparks, Hacking Food, and Leaving Breadcrumbs
August 11, 2023 15:30 - 52 minutes - 55.3 MBEditor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Al Williams don't always agree on the best text editor to use, but they do -- usually -- agree on what makes a great hack. This week, they found plenty of Hackaday posts to discuss, ranging from exotic eavesdropping on keyboards, oscilloscopes, and several posts of interest to anyone who wants to build good-looking prototypes. If you are like mechanics, you'll hear about an escapement-like mechanism and a Hobson's coupler. If you crave more traditional hac...
Ep 230: Space Science, Superconductors, Supercaps, and Central Air
August 04, 2023 15:30 - 1 hour - 65.2 MBThis week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi start things off by tackling a pair of science stories, one that may or may not change the world, and the other that hopes to help us understand the very fabric of the universe. Afterwards they get to the important stuff: the evolution of Game Boy Camera hacking, the finer points of 3D print orientation, and mixing up electrically conductive concrete at home. From there the conversation shifts to a couple of 486 Turbo b...