Building a Wireless Motorized Fader For Lighting Control

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=HpvctEU85Tk

Motorized faders are very cool, and you can find them in everything from expensive mixing desks to high-end video editing decks. If you want to build your own wireless motorized fader controls for your own projects, you might like this project from [Ian Peterson].

Faders are useful controls, but they’re usually very one-way devices—you set them to what you want, and that’s it. However, motorized faders are a little fancier. You can move them yourself, or they can be moved under the command of other hardware or software—making a control change automatically that is still visible to the human in front...

Pulling Back the Veil, Practically

In a marvelous college lecture in front of a class of engineering students, V. Hunter Adams professed his love for embedded engineering, but he might as well have been singing the songs of our people – the hackers. If you occasionally feel the need to explain to people why you do what you do, at fancy cocktail parties or something, this talk is great food for thought. It’s about as good a “Why We Hack” as I’ve ever seen.

Among the zingers, “projects are filter removers” stuck out. When you go through life, there are a lot of things that you...

Linux Certification and Career Path: LFCS, RHCSA, DevOps, and Skills for IT Success

Linux is one of the most in-demand skills in the IT world today. Whether you want to become a system administrator, DevOps engineer, cloud architect, or security analyst, learning Linux gives you the foundation for a successful tech career. Earning certifications like LFCS or RHCSA proves your skills, opens doors to higher-paying jobs, and helps […]

Precision Clock Mk IV

[Hardware] GPS synchronised, millisecond precision, automatic timezones and more!

A CRT Display for Retro Weather Forecasting

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=hUSNxKH7OT0

It would be hard to find any electronics still in production which use CRT displays, but for some inscrutable reason it’s easy to find cheap 4-inch CRTs on AliExpress. Not that we’re complaining, of course. Especially when they get picked up for projects like this Retro CRT Weather Display from [Conrad Farnsworth], which recreates the interface of The Weather Channel’s WeatherStar 4000+ in a suitably 90s-styled format.
The CRT itself takes up most of the space in the enclosure, with the control electronics situated in the base behind the display driver. A Raspberry Pi Zero W provides the necessary processing power,...

Virtualization and Containers in Linux: Docker and Podman

Linux is the foundation of many modern IT environments, especially when it comes to virtualization and containerization. Virtualization lets you run multiple operating systems on one physical machine, using software like virtual machines (VMs). Containers take this a step further by running isolated applications with shared system resources, making them lighter and faster than traditional […]

Making a Treadmill Into a 3D Printer

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=0rWxUpknTG0

A treadmill-style bed can be a great addition to a 3D printer. It allows prints to be shifted out of the build volume as printing continues, greatly increasing the size and flexibility of what you can print. But [Ivan Miranda] and [Jón Schone] had a question. Instead of making a treadmill to suit a 3D printer, what if you just built a 3D printer on top of a full-size treadmill?

The duo sourced a piece of real gym equipment for this build. They then set about building a large-scale 3D printer on top of this platform. The linear rails were first...

Wio Tracker L1 Pro is a battery-powered, ready-to-use Meshtastic LoRa node

The Wio Tracker L1 Pro is a battery-powered LoRa node pre-flashed with the Meshtastic firmware for low-power off-grid messaging and GPS coordinates sharing. It integrates a Semtech SX1262 LoRa module for wireless data transmission and uses a Nordic nRF52840 Bluetooth 5.0 SoC to process and display the data. The L1 Pro also features a 1.3-inch OLED display, a rechargeable battery, a USB Type-C port, and a solar panel connector housed in a durable 3D-printed enclosure. It is fully compatible with the Grove ecosystem and offers expansion via PTH headers and an SWD interface. Wio Tracker L1 Pro specifications: SoC – Nordic Semiconductor...

System Monitoring and Troubleshooting: CPU, Disk, and Memory Usage

Monitoring is a critical part of Linux system administration. Whether you are running a desktop or a server, you need to know what is happening inside your machine—how much memory is being used, which processes are consuming CPU, and whether you are running out of disk space. Regular monitoring helps you troubleshoot problems early, optimize […]

17 Year Old Hellboy II Prop Still Amazes

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=qKMFdbspHZ4

The AI effects we know these days were once preceded by CGI, and those were once preceded by true hand-built physical props. If that makes you think of Muppets, this video will change your mind. In a behind-the-scenes look with [Adam Savage], effects designer [Mark Setrakian] reveals the full animatronic glory of Mr. Wink’s mechanical fist from Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) – and this beast still flexes.

Most of this arm was actually made in 2003, when 3D printing was very different than what we think of today. Printed on a Stratasys Titan – think: large refrigerator-sized machine, expensive...