Ep 331: Clever Machine Tools, Storing Data in Birds, and the Ultimate Cyberdeck
Release Date: 08/01/2025
2025 Holiday Placeholder Edition
Hackaday Podcast
The entire Hackaday crew wishes you happy holidays and a fantastic 2026. You'll hear back from us then, so stay tuned.
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Ep 350: Damnation for Spreadsheets, Praise for Haiku, and Admiration for the Hacks In Between
Hackaday Podcast
This week's Hackaday Podcast sees Elliot Williams joined by Jenny List for an all-European take on the week, and have we got some hacks for you! In the news this week is NASA's Maven Mars Orbiter, which may sadly have been lost. A sad day for study of the red planet, but at the same time a chance to look back at what has been a long and successful mission. In the hacks of the week, we have a lo-fi camera, a very refined Commodore 64 laptop, and a MIDI slapophone to entertain you, as well as taking a detailed look at neutrino detectors. Then CYMK printing with laser cut stencils draws our...
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Ep 349: Clocks, AI, and a New 3D Printer Guy
Hackaday Podcast
Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams met up to cover the best of Hackaday this week, and they want you to listen in. There were a hodgepodge of hacks this week, ranging from home automation with RF, volumetric displays in glass, and some crazy clocks, too. Ever see a typewriter that uses an ink pen? Elliot and Al hadn't either. Want time on a supercomputer? It isn't free, but it is pretty cheap these days. Finally, the guys discussed how to focus on a project like Dan Maloney, who finally got a 3D printer, and talked about Maya Posch's take on LLM intelligence. Check out the links...
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Ep 348: 50 Grams of PLA Hold a Ton, Phreaknic Badge is Off The Shelf, and Hackers Need Repair Manuals
Hackaday Podcast
Join Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi as they go over their picks for the best stories and hacks from the previous week. Things start off with a warning about the long-term viability of SSD backups, after which the discussion moves onto the limits of 3D printed PLA, the return of the Pebble smart watch, some unconventional aircraft, and an online KiCad schematic repository that has plenty of potential. You'll also hear about a remarkable conference badge made from e-waste electronic shelf labels, filling 3D prints with foam, and a tiny TV powered by the ESP32. The episode wraps...
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Ep 347: Breaking Kindles, Baby's First Synth, and Barcodes!
Hackaday Podcast
This week, Hackaday's Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up over coffee to bring you the latest news, mystery sound, and of course, a big bunch of hacks from the previous seven days or so. On What's That Sound, Kristina got sort of close, but of course failed spectacularly. Will you fare better and perhaps win a Hackaday Podcast t-shirt? Mayhap you will. After that, it's on to the hacks and such, beginning with an interesting tack to take with a flat-Earther that involves two gyroscopes. And we take a look at the design requirements when it comes to building synths for three-year-olds....
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Ep 346: Melting Metal in the Microwave, Unlocking Car Brakes and Washing Machines, and a Series of Tubes
Hackaday Podcast
Wait, what? Is it time for the podcast again? Seems like only yesterday that Dan joined Elliot for the weekly rundown of the choicest hacks for the last 1/52 of a year. but here we are. We had quite a bit of news to talk about, including the winners of the Component Abuse Challenge -- warning, some components were actually abused for this challenge. They're also a trillion pages deep over at the Internet Archive, a milestone that seems worth celebrating. As for projects, both of us kicked things off with "Right to repair"-adjacent topics, first with a washing machine that gave up its secrets...
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Ep 345: A Stunning Lightsaber, Two Extreme Cameras, and Wrangling Roombas
Hackaday Podcast
It's a wet November evening across Western Europe, the steel-grey clouds have obscured a rare low-latitude aurora this week, and Elliot Williams is joined by Jenny List for this week's podcast. And we've got a fine selection for your listening pleasure! The 2025 Component Abuse Challenge has come to an end, so this week you'll be hearing about a few of the entries. We've received an impressive number, and as always we're bowled over by the ingenuity of Hackaday readers in pushing parts beyond their limits. In the news is the potential discovery of a lost UNIX version in a dusty store room at...
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Board with Lasers, Op-Amp Torture, and Farewell Supercon 9
Hackaday Podcast
Hackaday Editors Tom Nardi and Al Williams spent the weekend at Supercon and had to catch up on all the great hacks. Listen in as they talk about their favorites. Plus, stick around to the end to hear about some of the highlights from their time in Pasadena. If you're still thinking about entering the Component Abuse Contest, you're just about out of time. Need some inspiration? Tom and Al talk about a few choice entries, and discuss how pushing parts out of their comfort zone can come in handy. Do you make your own PCBs? With vias? If you have a good enough laser, you could. Or maybe you'd...
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Episode 343: Double Component Abuse, a Tinkercad Twofer, and a Pair of Rants
Hackaday Podcast
This week, Hackaday's Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up across the universe to bring you the latest news, mystery sound, and of course, a big bunch of hacks from the previous seven days or so. In Hackaday news, OMG Supercon is almost here! In other news, we've still got a contest running. , sponsored by DigiKey, and for all the details. On What's That Sound, Kristina failed spectacularly. Will you fare better and perhaps win a Hackaday Podcast t-shirt? Mayhap you will. After that, it's on to the hacks and such, beginning with a really cool entry into the Component Abuse Challenge...
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Ep 342: Poopless Prints, Radio in Your Fillings, and One Hyperspectral Pixel at a Time
Hackaday Podcast
It was Elliot and Dan on the podcast today, taking a look at the best the week had to offer in terms of your hacks. We started with surprising news about the rapidly approaching Supercon keynote; no spoilers, but Star Trek fans such as we who don't have tickets will be greatly disappointed. Elliot waxed on about taking the poop out of your prints, Dan got into a camera that adds a dimension to its images, and we both delighted in the inner workings of an air-powered squishy robot. Questions? We've got plenty. Is it possible to take an X-ray without an X-ray tube? Or X-rays, for that matter?...
info_outlineAnother week, another Hackaday podcast, and for this one Elliot is joined by Jenny List, fresh from the BornHack hacker camp in Denmark.
There's a definite metal working flavour to this week's picks, with new and exciting CNC techniques and a selective electroplater that can transfer bitmaps to metal. But worry not, there's plenty more to tease the ear, with one of the nicest cyberdecks we've ever seen, and a bird that can store images in its song.
Standout quick hacks are a synth that makes sounds from Ethernet packets, and the revelation that the original PlayStation is now old enough to need replacement motherboards. Finally we take a closer look at the huge effort that goes in to monitoring America's high voltage power infrastructure, and some concerning privacy news from the UK. Have a listen!