Hackaday Podcast Episode 323: Impossible CRT Surgery, Fuel Cells, Stream Gages, and a Love Letter to Microcontrollers

Elliot and Dan teamed up this week for the podcast, and after double-checking, nay, triple-checking that we were recording, got to the business of reviewing the week’s hacks. We kicked things off with a look at the news, including a potentially exciting Right to Repair law in Washington state and the sad demise of NASA’s ISS sighting website.

Our choice of hacks included a fond look at embedded systems and the classic fashion sense of Cornell’s Bruce Land, risky open CRT surgery, a very strange but very cool way to make music, and the ultimate backyard astronomer’s observatory. We talked about Stamp collecting for SMD prototyping, crushing aluminum with a boatload of current, a PC that heats your seat, and bringing HDMI to the Commodore 64.

We also took a look at flight tracking IRL, a Flipper-based POV, the ultimate internet toaster, and printing SVGs for fun and profit. Finally, we wrapped things up with a look at the tech behind real-time river flow tracking and a peek inside the surprisingly energetic world of fuel cells.

Download this entirely innocent-looking MP3.

Episode 323 Show Notes:

News:

• Washington Consumers Gain Right To Repair For Cellphones And More
• NASA Is Shutting Down The International Space Station Sighting Website
• 2025 Pet Hacks Contest

What’s that Sound?

• Fill out this form for your chance to win!

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

• A Love Letter To Embedded Systems By V. Hunter Adams
  • ECE 4760 repo
  • Designing with Microcontrollers – Old projects from Bruce Land’s days at the helm of ECE 4760
  • A RISC-V Operating System Instruction Manual
• Reconditioning A Vintage CRT Tube
• A 100-Year-Old Electronic Musical Instrument Brought Back To Life
  • Drawn In By The Siren’s Song
  • Retrotechtacular: Building Hammond Organ Tones
• Making A Backyard Observatory Complete With Retractable Roof
• Stamp: Modular Breakout Boards For SMD Prototyping
• EMF Forming Was A Neat Aerospace Breakthrough
  • Electromagnetic Aluminum Can Crushing
  • How A Quarter Shrinker Works

Quick Hacks:

• Elliot’s Picks
  • Invisible PC Doubles As Heated Seat
  • Tool Turns SVGs Into Multicolor 3D Prints
  • From Burnt To Brilliant: A Toaster’s Makeover
• Dan’s Picks:
  • POV On The Flipper Zero
  • The Commodore 64 Gets An HDMI Upgrade
  • Look To The Sky With This Simple Plane Tracker

Can’t-Miss Articles:

• Remotely Interesting: Stream Gages
  • Know Snow: Monitoring Snowpack With The SNOTEL Network
• A Brief History Of Fuel Cells