Hardware Podcasts

Ep 313: Capacitor Plague, Wireless Power, and Tiny Everything

Hackaday Podcast · 21 Mar 2025 · 55m · Episode 313

What this episode covers

Hosts Elliot Williams and Jenny List recap Hackaday Europe, detailing the logistical chaos of delivering 4 SAOs and badges, including customs delays and last-minute programming jigs. They analyze a retrospective on the 2000s capacitor plague, discussing how thermal design failures and electrolyte chemistry issues led to widespread component explosions. The episode also covers innovative uses of PCB spring connectors in resistance boxes and bendy PCBs, and explores the potential of extracting rare earth elements from century-old coal fly ash.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Rubicon, Decimo, Texas Instruments
Products
RTLSDR
Also
Hackaday Europe, Xane Hacker Space, Asianometry, Hyperspace Pirate, Mike Roller, Chris Dobble

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