# Ep 132: Laser Disco Ball, Moore's Law in Your Garage, Cheap Cyborg Glasses, and a Mouse That Detects Elephants

- Show: [Hackaday Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast)
- Published: 2021-08-20
- Length: 50m
- Episode: 132
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou
- Listen: https://hackaday.libsyn.com/ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mouse-that-detects-elephants

## Summary

Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams discuss recent hardware hacks, including Sam Zeloof’s refined home-lab chip fabrication process and a seismometer built from a plastic tube and optical mouse. They also cover Timu’s ultra-cheap 3D-printed smart glasses running Linux and a laser plotter using stacked stepper motors. The episode highlights the economic viability of 3D printer farms for small-batch manufacturing and research into using high-powered lasers to guide lightning strikes.

## Chapters

- [0:02](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=2) Introduction: Hackaday Editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams
- [0:36](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=36) NHTSA Investigation into Tesla Autopilot Failures
- [4:45](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=285) Pine 64 E Ink Tablet vs. Remarkable Tablet
- [6:31](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=391) Building a Custom Mechanical Keyboard with QMK
- [10:47](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=647) Ezra Thomas’s FPGA-Based Robot Pet and Custom CPU
- [15:19](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=919) Sam Zeloof’s Home-Fabricated 10 Micrometer Process Chips
- [20:19](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=1219) Timu’s Ultra-Cheap 3D Printed Smart Glasses with Hand Tracking
- [23:50](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=1430) Laser Light Painting Plotter Using Stepper Motors
- [27:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=1642) Subir’s Optical Mouse Seismometer for Elephant Detection
- [31:26](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=1886) 3D Printed Fabric That Hardens via Vacuum Jamming
- [34:11](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=2051) Quick Hacks: Apple II Game, IKEA Sensor PCB, and Modular Game Console
- [38:07](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=2287) 3D Printer Farms as Viable Small-Batch Manufacturing
- [43:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou#t=2583) Using High-Powered Lasers to Guide Lightning Strikes

## Topics

- [Chips, FPGAs & semiconductors](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/chips-and-fpgas)
- [Mechanical engineering](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/mechanical-engineering)
- [Industrial & consumer product design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/industrial-design)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [Energy & climate tech](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/energy-and-climate-tech)

## Most relevant to

makers and hobbyists

## Mentioned

- Tesla (company)
- NHTSA (other)
- Pine 64 (company)
- Remarkable (product)
- QMK (other)
- Ezra Thomas (other)
- FPGA (chip)
- Sam Zeloof (other)
- Timu (other)
- Google Glass (product)
- Subir (other)
- Arduino (other)
- Tom Nardi (other)
- Adam Zeloof (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [469: It’s My Fault, But Also Your Fault](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2025-01-31-469-its-my-fault-but-also-your-fault) (Making It)
- [033 - All Over the Place](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2020-04-27-033-all-over-the-place) (Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast)
- [An Interview with Sam Zeloof](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2018-04-30-an-interview-with-sam-zeloof) (The Amp Hour)
- [Jersey Jeff Jactitation](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-02-07-jersey-jeff-jactitation) (The Amp Hour)
- [044 - Scots Army Knife](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2021-01-03-044-scots-army-knife) (Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2021-08-20-ep-132-laser-disco-ball-moores-law-in-your-garage-cheap-cyborg-glasses-and-a-mou. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Hackaday Podcast.