Ep 384: OCR MOD Records, Magical PCBs, and the Gravity of Space Stations

Hackaday Podcast · 28 Aug 2026 · 1h 06m · Episode 384

What this episode covers

Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams discuss a wide range of DIY projects, including a 3D-printed thermoacoustic Stirling engine, optical reading of MOD tracker files, and home fabrication of LEDs. They also cover the history of space stations, from the fictional 'Brick Moon' to the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, and review a talk by Catherine Dietrich on designing usable PCB props for Dungeons & Dragons.

Mentioned

Companies
Hackaday, Digiki, Snapmaker, Adidas, Casio, Archive.org
Products
CP/M, PDP-8, Altair, Commodore 64, Cool Retro Term, Supercon, F 91 W, NFC, Meta Quest, Eliza, Lisp, Prolog, Skylab, Salyut, Almaz, Space Station Freedom, Mir, International Space Station
Chips
Z80, Raspberry Pi, PP 5020
Tools
Proxmark
Also
Catherine Dietrich, Edward Everett Hale, Herman Noordung, Wernher von Braun

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