#electronics
// 60 posts tagged
Jul 4 5:32 PM #184 4 min To Watch the Sun, I Listened to a Submarine
VLF Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance MonitoringYesterday's spectroheliograph caught the Sun for one two-minute moment. So I built a receiver that watches a submarine transmitter instead — and never blinks, even when I'm asleep.
Jul 1 7:18 PM #181 6 min Add Metal Where the Probe Should Vanish
Microwave InterferometryMeasure by inserting a probe that disturbs what you're measuring, then tune it out with an adjustable stub.
Jun 29 5:13 PM #179 11 min Six Million Hertz Minus What the Coating Weighs
Optical Thin-Film Coating DepositionA 1 Hz frequency drop means 0.06 nanometres of coating. You're manufacturing precision optics by watching a crystal oscillate slightly slower.
Jun 26 5:00 PM #175 5 min Cobalt Glass Between Yellow and Everything Else
Flame Emission SpectroscopySodium contamination hides every other element in the flame—until you hold cobalt blue glass up and the forge lining confesses it's made of strontium.
Jun 25 7:49 PM #174 5 min Two Yellow Lines Three Metres Apart
Prism SpectroscopyTwo yellow lines where I expected one blob. Quantum mechanics visible with a razor blade and estate-sale prism—if you remember to keep the blade straight.
Jun 24 5:47 PM #173 6 min Eleven Forty-Seven When the Wire Disappeared
Optical PyrometrySame colour, 250°C different readings. The pyrometer doesn't measure truth—it measures the same calibrated lie every time.
Jun 21 5:32 PM #170 4 min Eighteen Centimetres Down to Robertson Number Two
Magnetic Gradient SurveyingNanotesla-precision magnetic gradient survey for buried foundations. Found a Robertson #2 screwdriver from 1978. The method works perfectly.
Jun 20 4:04 AM #169 6 min Zero Point Three Two Until the Aluminum Said Otherwise
Ground Penetrating RadarThe radar said 0.32 metres. The aluminum plate I buried said 0.40. One of them was lying, and it wasn't the metal.
Jun 19 5:12 PM #168 5 min One Point Eight Metres Where the Ice Left Clay
Seismic Refraction MappingStruck a steel plate with a sledgehammer to find out what the Victorians buried under my garage. The answer is clay. Lots of clay.
Jun 18 10:55 AM #167 3 min Thirty-Three Kilograms Before the Motherboard Goes Under
Mineral Oil PC SubmersionWent for calcium supplement, left with an acrylic tank to drown a motherboard in. Thermal stratification turns out to be harder than the hardware.
Jun 17 8:10 PM #166 4 min One Point Four Grams Where the Leaf Used to Be
Copper ElectroformingStared at a leaf on my desk for fifteen minutes before realizing it was metal. Not coated—solid copper, grown atom by atom, 1.4 grams.
Jun 16 4:33 AM #165 6 min Point Seven Seven Volts Before the Grey Turned Black
Electrolytic Fountain Pen Ink SynthesisThe walnut ink writes pale grey and darkens over minutes. Atmospheric oxygen is free but slow. What if you just electrocuted it instead?
Jun 13 7:16 PM #163 3 min Four Millimetres Today Three Centimetres by December
Coral Fragment MicropropagationDropped a coral fragment by accident. Turns out that's the entire propagation technique—Dr. Vaughan discovered it the same way in 2006.
Jun 11 6:42 PM #162 3 min Two Hormones Three Outcomes One Ratio Wrong
Aquatic Plant Tissue CultureCommercial plant tissue culture: agar, MS medium from failed 1962 tobacco research, and hormone ratios that program cells into roots, shoots, or formless blobs.
Jun 8 8:49 PM #159 1 min Eight LEDs to Replace the Word Purple
LED Absorption SpectroscopyBuilt a spectrophotometer because calling mushroom dye 'purple' isn't specific enough. Eight discrete LEDs, one photodiode, and the end of subjective colour.
Jun 6 5:52 PM #157 4 min Twenty-Nine Shadows From Fourteen Hundred Kilometres Southeast
Radio Occultation Meteor DetectionFrench military radar 1,400 km southeast, sand grains burning at 85 km up. Twenty-nine meteors logged without looking at the sky.
May 29 7:52 PM #150 5 min Seven Days Before the Charcoal Tells Me What the Soil Exhaled
Atmospheric Radon MappingThe Geiger counter that couldn't find meteorites now measures invisible radon seeping from rocks. Eight buried canisters wait to tell me what the soil exhaled.
May 27 6:58 PM #147 2 min 216.430 MHz Once Per Second for Six More Weeks
Radio Telemetry Wildlife TrackingThe RDF receiver was still in the field case from the meteorite failure. Swept 216 MHz to test it. Someone's tagged a ptarmigan out there.
May 14 5:19 PM #134 3 min Six Beacons Waiting for a Fall Zone I Can't Predict
Meteorite Recovery by Radio Direction FindingThe fireball report said northwest of Red Deer. Weather radar confirmed fragmentation. The witness plates work perfectly. They're just sitting in the garage because "northwest of Red Deer" covers four
May 10 5:09 PM #131 5 min Two Hundred Twenty Hertz of Marshmallow
Fungal Resonance MappingThe frequency sweep produced a curve that looked more like a marshmallow than a resonance plot. Turns out living mushrooms are terrible oscillators.
May 9 5:49 PM #130 4 min Eleven Hours of Silence Then Forty Minutes of Maybe
Bioacoustic Spore Discharge RecordingThe mushroom's been glued to a contact mic for eleven hours. The waveform is mostly nothing, but the quality of the nothing changed at 9:47pm.
May 3 5:41 PM #2 day 3 2 min Sixteen Temperature Readings From Eight Sensors I Soldered
Stratospheric Balloon TelemetryThe bench test showed sixteen temperature readings when I'd installed eight sensors. Turns out every solder joint was measuring something.
May 2 7:37 PM #124 5 min Three Point Two Microvolts From a Single Breath
Thermocouple Lace MakingBreathed on the lace, got 3.2 microvolts on the oscilloscope. Every junction where copper crosses bronze is a thermocouple. This was supposed to be decorative.
Apr 28 1:49 AM #121 4 min Forty-Seven Kilohms of Wire That Should Have Been Scrap
Bronze Wire Coil Pickup WindingThe multimeter reads 47kΩ. A normal pickup reads 6kΩ. I'm calling it a feature.
Apr 25 4:42 AM #112 3 min The Disc Heard Footsteps the Air Never Carried
Piezoelectric Contact Mic BuildingPlug a raw piezo into your recorder and enjoy the majestic sound of a telephone held underwater. One transistor fixes everything.
Apr 14 6:30 PM #99 4 min The Air Had Geometry That Brass Could Shape
Theremin Antenna Pattern TuningMapping an invisible 3D field with fishing line and shallow breaths. Two hours in, I have half the data.
Apr 13 7:18 PM #119 4 min Thirty-Five Microns Between Green and Gone
Verdigris Electroetched PCB ArtThe board now displays my thumbprints in perfect copper-negative detail. This was not the pattern I intended.
Apr 8 4:16 AM #96 4 min The Click That Refused to Become a Clack
Telegraph Sounder RestorationThree adjustment screws, twelve hours of forum reading, and I still can't make it clack properly.
Apr 6 8:18 PM #95 2 min Forty-Three Years of Oxide Before I Dare Press Play
Reel-to-Reel Tape RestorationThe machine came with a tape marked "DAD'S BIRTHDAY 1983." The heads are magnetized. No pressure.
Apr 2 7:41 PM #91 3 min Four Dark Sockets and Three Weeks to Wait
Nixie Tube Clock BuildingTwo tubes glow, one turned purple, and the "3" displays as a backwards "C." That's not a clock.
Apr 1 8:36 PM #90 4 min Twenty-Five Turns for Every One the Speaker Needs
Vacuum Tube Audio Amplifier BuildingA 5-watt Class A amp draws 30 watts from the wall. The other 25 become heat. Audiophiles call this warm.
Mar 22 10:45 AM #80 4 min The Furnace Registers at 3.2 Hertz
Geophone SeismographyThe amplifier works perfectly. I can now confirm my furnace oscillates at 3.2 Hz. Earthquakes remain elusive.
Mar 21 8:59 PM #79 4 min Four Pull Tabs Before the Silver Appeared
Metal DetectingTarget ID 48. I will not dig any more pull tabs today. Dug a 48. It was a pull tab.
Mar 20 5:31 PM #78 4 min The Hot Spot I Found and Then Immediately Lost
Crystal Radio RestorationForty-five minutes of dragging wire across a rock. Then a mattress ad. Then I breathed wrong and lost the signal.
Mar 19 5:58 PM #77 4 min Three Instruments, Three Answers, One Atmosphere
Weather Station BuildingMy phone says 1018 hPa. The new barometer says 989. The airport says 1016. One atmosphere shouldn't need this many opinions.
Mar 15 5:45 PM #73 3 min Nineteen Pins, Sixty Keys, and a Spacebar That Finally Quit
Mechanical Keyboard BuildingThe spacebar quit after fifteen years. Three hours later I had sixty switches on order and seventeen browser tabs open about lubricant grades.
Feb 28 10:00 AM #59 day 2 5 min The Patch Kept Running While I Wasn't Looking
Monthly RetrospectiveTwenty-eight hobbies. The coils kept finding me, the music box defeated me, and a patch in the basement drifted into minor keys while I wasn't listening.
Feb 27 6:25 PM #54 4 min The Sounder Learned to Hold a Pitch
Harmonic Telegraph Key RestorationBell accidentally invented the telephone trying to build a musical telegraph. I'm finishing his original project.
Feb 26 6:54 PM #53 2 min The Air Between My Fingers Wouldn't Sing
Theremin Circuit VoicingTwo oscillators fighting, my hand as a capacitor plate, and my nervous system as the noise floor.
Feb 25 10:10 AM #52 2 min Eight Thousand Turns Before the String Could Sing
Guitar Pickup WindingEight thousand turns of hair-thin wire. One sneeze and you start over.
Feb 24 8:33 PM #50 2 min The Jar Started Pinging at Four in the Morning
Fermentation Sensor LoggingSix hours after the starter showed life, I had a time-of-flight sensor pointed at it like a balloon payload.
Feb 23 5:57 PM #51 2 min Eleven Minutes Before the Chaff Caught Fire
Roasting Profile Curve EngravingThe popcorn popper caught fire at minute seven. I still engraved the mug.
Feb 21 5:00 PM #48 4 min The Wind Found Its Way to the Cathode
Nixie Tube Flight Instrument ClocksThe Soviet "5" is just an upside-down "2". I'm trusting it to show me the altimeter setting anyway.
Feb 16 5:50 PM #2 day 2 3 min The Payload Stopped Talking at Eight Hundred Metres
Stratospheric Balloon TelemetryA stranger named Dwight called to say there was a styrofoam box in his slough. He was remarkably calm about it.
Feb 13 5:22 PM #41 4 min The Beam Traced a Face the Speakers Couldn't Stand
Oscilloscope Art PortraitureThe face on the phosphor looks almost friendly. The audio required to draw it sounds like a dentist's drill arguing with a dial-up modem.
Feb 9 5:54 PM #38 3 min The Desk That Knows When the Sky Is Busy
Orbital Decay Audio NotificationsSomething chimed on my desk at 14:23 and I looked up from the wrong screen. The ISS had just cleared my horizon, and I'd missed the first note.
Feb 8 4:36 AM #37 2 min The Waterfall Scrolled Green and Nothing Burned
Meteor-Scatter Shutter TriggersIt's 2:47 AM and I've been waiting for France to bounce a meteor my way. So far: thirty-seven frames of black sky.
Feb 6 6:38 PM #34 4 min Writing Games in Light on a Quiet Board
Chess Move Lighttrail JournalingOn move 23, I hesitated. The scoresheet forgave me. The photograph didn't.
Feb 4 8:55 PM #32 4 min What the Shutter Saw When the Choir Went Flat
Choir Pitch LightpaintingA community choir can defeat a microcontroller in under four seconds. I have the coloured squiggles to prove it.
Feb 2 7:55 PM #9 day 2 3 min Before I Read the Weather I Heard It Hum
METAR Chord BriefingsClear skies make my synth go silent. Terrible weather sounds gorgeous. I may have the emotional mapping backwards.
Jan 24 5:31 PM #22 3 min The Baton That Learned to Hear Us Drift
Pitch-Tracking Conductor BatonThe sopranos drifted flat and my face was three beats too late. Now my baton does the yelling—in LED.
Jan 16 6:41 PM #14 2 min The Choir That Lives Inside the Carrier Wave
Morse Canon Choir LoopsSomewhere, a ham operator has no idea their callsign is now a four-part canon on my loop pedal.
Jan 14 8:56 PM #13 2 min The Antenna Finally Admitted It Had a Shape
Antenna Lobe LanternsThe antenna rotates like it's auditioning for a lighthouse job. Eventually, it becomes one.
Jan 11 8:19 PM #10 4 min Teaching a Foam Wing to Sign the Dusk
RC Light-Trace CalligraphyThe aircraft vanishes in the long exposure; only its glowing path remains. I'm handwriting in three dimensions with a machine that doesn't know it's a pen.
Jan 10 8:49 PM #9 4 min Nine Miles of Visibility in a Major Seventh
METAR Chord BriefingsNine statute miles of visibility produces a major seventh. I've accidentally turned preflight planning into jazz.
Jan 9 7:07 PM #8 4 min The Beacon That Spelled My Name to Polaris
Morse Beacon Star-Trail LightpaintingA dah is three dits, a letter gap is three dits, and somehow that led to teaching an LED to spell my callsign while Polaris rotated overhead.
Jan 8 8:03 PM #7 4 min Teaching a Foam Wing to See What Radios Hear
Airborne RF Shadow CartographyA buried irrigation pipe showed up in my heatmap before I knew it existed. The foam wing sees what I can't.
Jan 6 5:45 PM #5 3 min Holding the Spectrum Up to the Window
RF Waterfall LithophanesThe spectrogram scrolled down my screen at 2 AM, and I thought: what if I could hold that hour of invisible radio up to a window?
Jan 3 5:33 PM #4 2 min The Sky Was Never Silent, Just Radio Silent
Aurora Chorus Sonified TimelapseThe aurora has been broadcasting this whole time. I just needed a radio and a frozen field to finally hear it complain.
Jan 1 4:33 AM #2 2 min A Quarter Watt from the Edge of Space
Stratospheric Balloon TelemetryIt's 2:47 AM and I just ordered missile-grade GPS to track a latex balloon carrying a thermometer.