Technology Mag Things

If you get an inexpensive diode laser cutter, you might have been disappointed to find it won’t work well with transparent acrylic. The material just passes most of the light at that wavelength, so there’s not much you can do with it. So how did [Rich] make a good-looking sign using a cheap laser? He used a simple paint and mask technique that will work with nearly any clear material, and it produces great-looking results, as you can see in the video below.

[Rich] starts with a piece of Acrylic covered with paper and removes the paper to form a mask. Of course, even a relatively anemic laser can slice through the paper covering with no trouble at all. He also cuts an outline, which requires a laser to cut the acrylic. However, you could easily apply this to a rectangular hand-cut blank. Also, most diode lasers can cut thin acrylic, but it doesn’t always come out as cleanly as you’d like.

We wondered why [Rich] didn’t mirror image the graphic and then found out he simply forgot. So, the first pass through the laser doesn’t produce the piece he actually worked with later in the video. We are glad to know we aren’t the only ones who do things like that.

Using a pick, he removes some of the cut paper to reveal the parts he wants to paint a particular color. Then he removes more parts and paints again. The trick is, of course, that he’s painting the back of the acrylic, so the top layer shows through. In this case, he removes part of the mask and paints it orange. Then, he removes the mask that covers the black parts and paints it black. Finally, he removes the rest of the mask, which covers parts that will remain clear or show the paper backing if you leave it on.

If you have a laser and you haven’t discovered [Rich’s] channel, you will spend the rest of the day there. He has numerous tips and techniques for all kinds of lasers. He even turned us on to standoff pins. If you want a deep dive into acrylic, here you go.

Sometimes you need to create a satellite navigation tracking device that communicates via a low-power mesh network. [Powerfeatherdev] was in just that situation, and they whipped up a particularly compact solution to do the job.

As you might have guessed based on the name of its creator, this build is based around the ESP32-S3 PowerFeather board. The PowerFeather has the benefit of robust power management features, which makes it perfect for a power-sipping project that’s intended to run for a long time. It can even run on solar power and manage battery levels if so desired. The GPS and LoRa gear is all mounted on a secondary “wing” PCB that slots directly on to the PowerFeather like a Arduino shield or Raspberry Pi HAT. The whole assembly is barely larger than a AA battery.

It’s basically a super-small GPS tracker that transmits over LoRa, while being optimized for maximum run time on limited power from a small lithium-ion cell. If you’re needing to do some long-duration, low-power tracking task for a project, this might be right up your alley.

LoRa is a useful technology for radio communications, as we’ve been saying for some time. Meanwhile, if you’ve got your own nifty radio comms build, or anything in that general milleu, don’t hesitate to drop us a line!

For some time now, Apple has developed a reputation for manufacturing computers and phones that are not particularly repairable or upgradable. While this reputation is somewhat deserved, especially in recent years, it seems less true for their older machines. With the second and perhaps most influential computer, the Apple II, being so upgradable that the machine had a production run of nearly two decades. Similarly, the Macintosh Plus of 1986 was surprisingly upgradable and repairable and [Hunter] demonstrates its capabilities by bringing one onto the modern Internet, albeit with a few tricks to adapt the old hardware and software to the modern era.

The Mac Plus was salvaged from a thrift store, and the first issue to solve was that it had some rotten capacitors that had to be replaced before the computer could be reliably powered on at all. [Hunter] then got to work bringing this computer online, with the only major hardware modification being a BlueSCSI hard drive emulator which allows using an SD card instead of an original hard disk. It can also emulate an original Macintosh Ethernet card, allowing it to fairly easily get online.

The original operating system and browser don’t support modern protocols such as HTTPS or scripting languages like Javascript or CSS, so a tool called MacProxy was used to bridge this gap. It serves simplified HTML from the Internet to the Mac Plus, but [Hunter] wanted it to work even better, adding modular domain-specific handling to allow the computer to more easily access sites like Reddit, YouTube, and even Hackaday, although he does call us out a bit for not maintaining our retro page perhaps as well as it ought to be.

[Hunter] has also built an extension to use the Wayback Machine to serve websites to the Mac from a specific date in the past, which really enhances the retro feel of using a computer like this to access the Internet. Of course, if you don’t have original Macintosh hardware but still want to have the same experience of the early Internet or retro hardware this replica Mac will get you there too.

If you picked today in your hackerspace’s sweepstake on when Winamp would pull their code repository, congratulations! You’re a winner! The source for the Windows version of the venerable music player was released on GitHub three weeks ago, and after some derision over its licence terms, a bunch of possible open source violations, and the inadvertent release of some proprietary third-party code, it’s been taken down. We’re sure that if you still have a burning desire to look at it then it won’t be too difficult to find a copy through your favorite search engine, leaving the question of what really just happened.

It’s fairly obvious that the owners of the code lacked some level of understanding of just what open source really is, based on their not-really-open licence and all those code leaks. They did back down on not allowing people to create forks, but it’s evident that they didn’t anticipate the reaction they got. So were they merely a bit clueless, or was it all just a publicity stunt involving a piece of software that’s now of more historical than practical interest? It’s possible we’ll never know, but the story has provided those of us sitting on the fence eating popcorn with some entertainment.

You want to add voice, music, or sound effects to your project. What do you do? Sure, it is easy enough to plug a Raspberry Pi or some other tiny computer, but that’s not always desirable from a power, space, or cost point of view. [Mellow_Labs] shows a module that makes it simple to add sound to any project. The little board is just big enough to house a speaker and doesn’t cost much. Check it out in the video below.

The device allows you to preload tracks as MP3 files. There are two ways to control it: via a serial port, or using a single pin that can accept commands like you might expect from a MP3 player, like play and next track.

The module was loud, and the built-in speaker can be replaced. The module’s documentation doesn’t seem to include any example code, but [Mellow_Labs] has code for you on GitHub. It probably isn’t going to win any audiophile awards, but you don’t expect that from something just a little bigger than an inch across and not even a half-inch tall. Seems like a good thing for your Halloween props.

It isn’t that we haven’t seen MP3 modules before, but this one is nicely integrated and complete. We wondered if a 3D-printed cone might make this a nice custom bike horn or if it would need more amplification.

Inspired by the classic game Robo Rally, [Ytec3D]’s Clockwork Derby takes tabletop gaming to the next level by combining steampunk aesthetics with automation. We recently had the chance to see it live at Hackfest, together with [Ytec3D]’s animatronic tentacle, and we can say that his new take on playful robotics offers a unique experience for game enthusiasts. The 300×420 mm board uses magnets, motors, and card readers to handle up to eight players, creating a smooth, automated version of Robo Rally where players can focus on strategy while the board handles movement.

In Clockwork Derby, game pieces are moved by a magnetic system controlled by the board, which rotates and shifts pieces in real-time. Each player uses a card reader to program moves, with up to five cards per round. The board scans these cards via barcode scanners, so you don’t have to worry about tracking your moves or adjusting game pieces manually. [Ytec3D]’s game rules have been optimized for the automated setup, allowing for smoother gameplay and an emphasis on strategic choices.

The project is a standout for hackers and tinkerers who appreciate blending physical mechanics with digital precision. It’s a great example of how classic games can be modernized with a bit of ingenuity and tech. For those interested in DIY gaming projects or automation, Clockwork Derby is definitely worth exploring. To dive deeper into the build details and see more of the project, visit [Ytec3D]’s project page for an in-person look at this inventive tabletop game!

This week Jonathan Bennett and Jeff Massie chat with Andy Piper about Mastodon! There’s a new release of Mastodon, and plenty on the road map to keep everybody excited!

• https://joinmastodon.org/
• https://shop.joinmastodon.org/products/mastodon-plushie

Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show Right on our YouTube Channel? Have someone you’d like us to interview? Let us know, or contact the guest and have them contact us! Take a look at the schedule here.

Direct Download in DRM-free MP3.

If you’d rather read along, here’s the transcript for this week’s episode.