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Adobe Stock Modern incarnations of the technologies of yesteryear – such as Nixie tubes and 21-segment Victorian displays – add charm to modern devices. My current hobby project involves creating a 21st Century incarnation of a super-tasty 21-segment Victorian display technology. I will explain more in a moment, but first. I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of the steampunk aesthetic, which I feature in many of my hobby projects. This is especially true in the case of display technologies. Take Nixie tubes, for example, which first appeared on the scene in the 1950s. Nixie tubes are similar in appearance to vacuum tubes except they don’t actually contain a vacuum. Instead, they are loaded with a gas such as neon mixed with a little mercury or argon, all at very low pressure. The glass tube also contains a wire-mesh anode along with multiple cathodes that are shaped like numerals or other symbols. Applying power to one of ....
by Max Maxfield I’m currently running around in ever-decreasing circles shouting, “Don’t Panic!” because I’m trying to spin too many plates and juggle too many balls and I was never trained to spin and can’t juggle. Hmmm, now that I come to think about it, that’s not strictly true because I once read a book on the art of juggling and as a result I can juggle nine fine china plates, but only for a very short period of time. The term mechatronics refers to an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on systems that combine electronic, electrical, and mechanical elements. I just saw some amazing videos of something that really got my mechatronic juices flowing (I’ll mop things up and wipe them down later). Seeing these videos which I shall present shortly made me realize that there’s more to life than flashing tricolor LEDs (and I never expected to hear myself say that out loud). ....
by Max Maxfield I’m a big fan of having hobby projects. In addition to taking one’s mind off the toils, troubles, and tribulations of the world, I think that having a new “thing” that you want to do is the best way to set about learning how to do it. Take adding a new programming language to your repertoire as an example. One way to do this is to wade through the language reference manual (yawn). Another approach is to come up with some algorithm or task you wish to code in this new language, and then research how to achieve this goal. Of course, I’m not saying that reading the language reference manual is a bad idea, just that it’s not the only instrument in the toolbox. ....