#Tech Maker

[nasa]

Moon Mascot Needed!

Have you ever wanted to design something that could fly around the Moon? This is your opportunity. The Artemis II astronauts will use a zero gravity indicator during their mission to demonstrate when the Orion spacecraft has reached microgravity. This plushie needs to be soft, small, and importantly, remind us of home. The Moon Mascot contest challenges people of all ages from all over the world to submit a design to be made by NASA’s Thermal Blanket Lab and flown aboard Artemis II. To submit a design for the contest, visit: freelancer.com/moon-mascot

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dungeon Meshi: The RPG

[sovietpostcards]

Electric samovar with the logo of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow (USSR, 1979)

[adafruit]

OPT4048 - a "tri-stimulus" light sensor 🔴🟢🔵

We were chatting in the forums with someone when the OPT4048 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/OPT4048DTSR/21298553) came up. It's an interesting light sensor that does color sensing but with diodes matched to the CIE XYZ color space. This would make them particularly good for color-light tuning. We made a cute breakout for this board. Fun fact: it's 3.3V power but 5V logic friendly.

[n64retro]

Mischief Makers' (Treasure, Enix, 1997) photo by michaelk_tv. Source: threads

[ghostymarni]

-we’re all deserters now.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

God made me technologically illiterate cause he knew if i got my grubby hands on this mod you’d never see me go outside again

[Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Krakoan Winter Magneto mod by moocartoons]

[petermorwood]

Yet more flintlock-powered weirdness...

...to accompany the flintlock tinderboxes and gun-lamps shown here.

@man-and-atom added this reply:

In the field of "bedside flintlock mechanisms", either the British Museum or the V&A has an alarm clock where the alarm was the explosion of a charge of gunpowder.

First thought: "Whaaat?"

Second thought: "But of course..."

Third thought: "PICTURES!"

*****

This one seems fairly simple:

As far as I can make out there'd be just (!) the snap of the lock, a cloud of impossible-to-ignore-the-smell smoke, and the lid popping up to reveal the clock-face.

Later designs seem to have become standardised as a light-up alarm.

The flintlock action not only produces that snap and cloud of smoke, it also ignites a candle which then pops up.

At a guess, the inside of the lid would be kept brightly polished as a reflector.

Engraved or plain, the mechanism alone meant these were elaborate, expensive contraptions, so not for everyone - and anyway, I'm sure an elderly retired officer just LOVED being woken by a scent with such delightful associations.

I love the smell of black powder in the morning. It's the smell of...

*****

Ending on a lighter (hah!) note, @dduane looked at this and asked, "Did they have flintlock tea-makers?"

It turns out that no, they didn't; but it can't have been for want of trying because well over 100 years ago (1902) an inventor came up with this:

Once again, as far as I can make out it worked like this: the alarm-clock worked a spring, which struck a match, which lit a spirit-burner under the kettle, which started to heat the water.

A few minutes later the alarm-clock rang its bell, waking the sleeper who, when the kettle was properly boiling, tilted it so the water went into the teapot.

About 30 years later the first electrical Teasmade was invented:

Here we go: alarm clock turns kettle on, water boils, pressure forces water into teapot, kettle on a rocker plate gets lighter so loss of weight switches it off, now-heavy teapot on other side of rocker plate starts a pre-set brewing timer which when done switches on the light and an alarm sound.

Simple.

Later models were much less fussy in appearance, but worked in exactly the same way:

My parents, of course, never bothered with a gadget to make their early morning tea.

All they needed was a regular alarm-clock...

...and me.

[nicky-jr]

consider: arlo fursuit-- *i am forcibly dragged away*

[izicodes]

Speed code my next project 🏃🏾‍♀️

Sunday 7th January 2024

Made a lil speed coding thing for attempting to do the start page for my new project idea! Plus, Lana Del Rey music of course~!

Watch me make silly mistakes and googling how to fix them...! 😏🙌🏾

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dungeon Meshi: Delicious in RPG!

(Sprites + bonus art here!)

[allie-leth]

My worker firmware works! It flashed itself over, now just to add some roll back, security, and validation features. But effectively this means I never have to plug in another ESP32 to send them firmware. I can just tell them to post to MQTT from the worker firmware for logging and post the firmware binary to my local file server. This makes my life so much easier while building out this mesh of meshes multi-protocol com lib. Hell yeahhh

[adafruit]

Solenoids go clicky-clacky 🔩🔊🤖

We're testing out an I2C-to-solenoid driver today. It uses an MCP23017 expander. We like this particular chip for this usage because it has push-pull outputs, making it ideal for driving our N-channel FETs and flyback diodes. The A port connects to the 8 drivers, while the B port remains available for other GPIO purposes. For this demo, whenever we 'touch' a pin on port B to ground, the corresponding solenoid triggers provide an easy way to check speed and power usage.

[fog-n-dance]

Phee : Today I discovered my husband has me in his phone as "Phee Genoa." Crosshair : Could be worse. Your husband has me in his phone as "spare parts."

Inspired by this meme

[supersoftly]

I swear, some of you kids would actually let a fucking app fully determine if you should stay friends or not with someone, that's fucked up, you know that right? Please tell me you at least are acknowledging how fucked up that is.

[nombitenary]

Ask for a Christopher :3

What does it takes for him to spare the prey? (At least from digestion)

Like in which case he would spare them?

Good question!

The version of Christopher I use on my blog is one that has been warped by years of constant hunger. He’s been greeted with fear everywhere he goes, yet for the most part, he only preys on those who wholly deserve it— I say for the most part of course because of his appetite.

To spare his prey, they’d need to be one of two things. Either innocent— innocent and curious enough to react with something other than fears or in a dangerous situation with no way out. Despite his attitude, he has a soft side that mingles with his instinct to eat prey in a way that creates… creative rescue solutions for any involved.

I think his biggest problem with humanity is their greed. He makes deals with humans, offers them riches in exchange for a snack, and he waits until they’ve let their lust for power corrupt them before he pounces. He’s only had his deals turned down a handful of times, and those people?

Those are ones he keeps a more sympathetic eye on.

If you can manage to do both of those things, you might end up seeing his guts in quite the different light. He’s a protective pred at heart. The cruelty is a learned behaviour. Truthfully?

All he needs is a good friend.