An exploded view of an electrostatic motor from manufacturer C-Motive. There is a silvery cylinder on the left, two half silver and half golden disks on either side and two thinner gold disks in the center. A square mountin plate is on the right hand side next to one of the silver/gold disks.

Electrostatic Motors Are Making A Comeback

October 29, 2024 by 1 Comment

Electrostatic motors are now common in MEMS applications, but researchers at the University of Wisconsin and spinoff C-Motive Technologies have brought macroscale electrostatic motors back. [via MSN/WSJ]

While the first real application of an electric motor was Ben Franklin’s electrostatically-driven turkey rotisserie, electromagnetic type motors largely supplanted the technology due to the types of materials available to engineers of the time. Newer dielectric fluids and power electronics now allow electrostatic motors to be better at some applications than their electromagnetic peers.

The main advantage of electrostatic motors is their reduced critical materials use. In particular, electrostatic motors don’t require copper windings or any rare earth magnets which are getting more expensive as demand grows for electrically-powered machines. C-Motive is initially targeting direct drive industrial applications, and the “voltage driven nature of an electrostatic machine” means they require less cooling than an electromagnetic motor. They also don’t use much if any power when stalled.

Would you like a refresher on how to make static electricity or a deeper dive on how these motors work?

Lies, Big Lies And LED Lightbulb Lifespan Promises

October 29, 2024 by 23 Comments
Checking the voltages on a dead LED lightbulb. Best done by a professional, obviously. (Credit: The Doubtful Technician, YouTube)
Checking the voltages on a dead LED lightbulb. Best done by a professional, obviously. (Credit: The Doubtful Technician, YouTube)

We have probably all seen the marketing blurbs on packaging and elsewhere promoting the amazing lifespan of LED lighting solutions. Theoretically you should be able to install a LED bulb in a fixture that used to hold that incandescent lightbulb which had to be replaced annually and have it last a decade or longer. Yet we seem to replace these LED bulbs much more often than that, with them suffering a range of issues. To get to the root cause of this, [The Doubtful Technician] decided to perform an autopsy on a range of dead lightbulbs which he got from a variety of sources and brands.

One lamp is an Amazon-bought one by a seller who seems to have vanished, but was promised over 3 years of constant use. Other than the fun blinding of oneself while testing, this one was easy to diagnose, with a dodgy solder joint on a resistor in a MELF package. The next one from Lowes was very dim, and required popping open with some gentle force, which revealed as likely culprit a shorted SMD resistor. Finally a more substantial (i.e. heavier) bulb was tested which had survived about 7 years in the basement until it and its siblings began to suddenly die. Some might consider this the normal lifespan, but what really failed in them?

The electronics in this last bulb were the most impressive, with a full switch mode power supply (SMPS) that appears to have suffered a failure. Ultimately the pattern with these three bulbs was that while the LEDs themselves were still fine, it were things like the soldering joints and singular components on the LED driver PCB that had failed. Without an easy way to repair these issues, and with merely opening the average LED lightbulb being rather destructive, this seems like another area where what should be easy repairs are in fact not, and more e-waste is created.

Continue reading “Lies, Big Lies And LED Lightbulb Lifespan Promises” →

Custom Fan Controller For Otherwise Fanless PCs

October 29, 2024 by No comments

Most of us using desktop computers, and plenty of us on laptops, have some sort of fan or pump installed in our computer to remove heat and keep our machines running at the most optimum temperature. That’s generally a good thing for performance, but comes with a noise pollution cost. It’s possible to build fanless computers, though, which are passively cooled by using larger heat sinks with greater thermal mass, or by building more efficient computers, or both. But sometimes even fanless designs can benefit from some forced air, so [Sasa] built this system for cooling fanless systems with fans.

The main advantage of a system like this is that the fans on an otherwise fanless system remain off when not absolutely necessary, keeping ambient noise levels to a minimum. [Sasa] does have a few computers with fans, and this system helps there as well. Each fan module is WiFi-enabled, allowing for control of each fan on the system to be set up and controlled from a web page. It also can control 5V and 12V fans automatically with no user input, and can run from any USB power source, so it’s not necessary to find a USB-PD-compatible source just to run a small fan.

Like his previous project, this version is built to easily integrate with scripting and other third-party software, making it fairly straightforward to configure in a home automation setup or with any other system that is monitoring a temperature. It doesn’t have to be limited to a computer, either; [Sasa] runs one inside a server cabinet that monitors the ambient temperature in the cabinet, but it could be put to use anywhere else a fan is needed. Perhaps even a hydroponic setup.

Continue reading “Custom Fan Controller For Otherwise Fanless PCs” →

Another Commodore Portable We Never (Quite) Received

October 29, 2024 by 5 Comments

The story of Commodore computers is one of some truly great machines for their time, and of the truly woeful marketing that arguably spelled their doom. But there’s another Commodore computing story, that of the machines we never received, many of which came close enough to production  that they might have made it.

[Old VCR] has the story of one of these, and it’s a portable. It’s not a C64 like the luggable which did emerge, neither is it the legendary LCD portable prototype in the possession of our Hackaday colleague [Bil Herd]. Instead it’s a palmtop branded under licence from Toshiba, and since it’s a rare device even its home country of Japan the article gives us perhaps the only one we’ll ever see with either badge.

The Commodore HHC-4 was announced at Winter CES 1983, and since it was never seen again it’s aroused some curiosity among enthusiasts. The article goes to some lengths to cross-reference the visible features and deduce that it’s in fact a Toshiba Pasopia Mini, a typical palmtop computer of the era with not much in the way of processing power, a small alphanumeric display, and a calculator-style QWERTY keyboard. We’re treated to a teardown of a Toshiba unit and its dock, revealing some uncertainty about which processor architecture lurks in those Toshiba custom chips.

Looking at the magazine reviews and adverts it seems as though Commodore may have had some machines with their branding on even if they never sold them, so there exists the tantalizing possibility of one still lurking forgotten in the possession of a former staffer. We can hope.

If Commodore history interests you, you really should read [Bil]’s autobiographical account of the company in the 1980s.

Boss Byproducts: Fulgurites Are Fossilized Lightning

October 29, 2024 by 15 Comments

So far in this series, we’ve talked about man-made byproducts — Fordite, which is built-up layers of cured car enamel, and Trinitite, which was created during the first nuclear bomb test.

A fulgurite pendant.
A lovely fulgurite pendant. Image via Etsy

But not all byproducts are man-made, and not all of them are basically untouchable. Some are created by Mother Nature, but are nonetheless dangerous. I’m talking about fulgurites, which can form whenever lightning discharges into the Earth.

It’s likely that even if you’ve seen a fulgurite, you likely had no idea what it was. So what are they, exactly? Basically, they are natural tubes of glass that are formed by a fusion of silica sand or rock during a lightning strike.

Much like Lichtenberg figures appear across wood, the resulting shape mimics the path of the lightning bolt as it discharged into the ground. And yes, people make jewelry out of fulgurites.

Continue reading “Boss Byproducts: Fulgurites Are Fossilized Lightning” →

Little Quadruped Has PCB Spine And No Wiring

October 29, 2024 by 5 Comments

Dealing with all the wiring can quickly become a challenge on robots, especially the walking variety which have actuators everywhere. [Eric Yufeng Wu] sidestepped the wiring issue by creating Q8bot, a little quadruped where all the components, including the actuators, are mounted directly on the PCB.

[Eric] uses a custom PCB as the spine of the robot, and the eight servos plug directly into connectors on the PCB. With their bottom covers removed, the servos screw neatly into a pair of 3D printed frames on either side of the PCB, which also have integrated 14500 battery holders. The PCB is minimalist, with just the XIAO ESP32C3 module, a boost converter circuit to drive the servos, and a battery fuel gauge. Each SCARA-style leg consists of four SLS 3D printed segments, with press-fit bearings in the joints.

The little one moves quickly, and can even do little jumps. For this prototype, most of the control processing is done on a laptop, which sends raw joint angles to the onboard ESP32 via the ESP-Now protocol. We think this little robot has a lot of development potential, and fortunately [Eric] has made all the hardware and software files available for others to build their own.

Continue reading “Little Quadruped Has PCB Spine And No Wiring” →

2024 Supercon: Last Minute Announcements

October 29, 2024 by 3 Comments

If you’re hear a rushing noise, don’t be alarmed — that’s just the rapidly approaching 2024 Hackaday Supercon. As hard as it is to believe, a whole year has gone by, and we’re now just a few days away from kicking off our annual hardware hacking extravaganza in Pasadena. Tickets just sold out over the weekend — thank you procrastinators!

For those of you who have tickets to join us this weekend, we’ve got a few last minute announcements and bits of information we wanted to get out to you. As a reminder, you can find the full schedule for all three days on the official Supercon site.

Continue reading “2024 Supercon: Last Minute Announcements” →