Ep107: FTDI Plays Music, LED Dimming Ain't Easy, Measuring Poop Calories, and Sketchy Laser Cutters

Hackaday Podcast · 26 Feb 2021 · 53m · Episode 107

What this episode covers

Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams discuss the NASA Perseverance Mars landing and the closure of Fry's Electronics before diving into a series of hardware hacks. They cover using an FTDI USB-to-serial cable to output audio via pulse density modulation, Ben Krasnow's experiment measuring human calorie consumption through bomb calorimetry of feces, and Mirage C's magnetic bearing solution for correcting ball screw wobble in 3D printers. The episode also details hacking non-dimmable LED fixtures to support dimming, building high-voltage doorknob capacitors for TEA lasers, and the safety and performance trade-offs of cheap blue diode laser cutters.

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