Hackaday Podcast

Epizódy

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  Ep 379: Driving E-ink DIY, NES on ESP, and the Other IRC 24.07.2026 1h 3min

  On this episode, Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss their love of electronic paper, clunky cartridges, and keeping old games alive by any means possible. You'll also hear about getting the most out of the sensors in our 3D printers, playing with X-rays at home, a ring that runs Java, and a roulette wheel that outgrew its 555 timer. Stick around to the end to learn about a different sort of IRC that's even more niche than the one you're probably familiar with, as well as the logistical challenges and potential benefits of catching rockets with a giant net. Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  Ep 378: C Coders, Ceramic Printers, and Shadow Archives 17.07.2026 58min

  It's a hot one at both microphones, as Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos wilt in the heat with ice lollies and freezer packs. But still, we persevered long enough to make a podcast. In Hackaday news, Supercon is on! It's going down in Pasadena, California, but the talks will be somewhere slightly larger, with a courtyard instead of an alley. Get your talk proposals in now! In other Hackaday news, we still have our Frikkin' Lasers Contest going on until Thursday, July 23rd. Interestingly enough, we got a comment on an older article from none other than [Michael J. Van de Graaff], whose grandfather invented the Van de Graff generator and was "quite upset" when plans for a DIY version appeared in Scientific American. And finally, Google Earth's desktop client is being discontinued, but you can still travel the globe on your phone, or in your PC's browser. Not only do we have another triple mailbag this week, we have another failed attempt at guessing the Sound by Kristina. However, [Alexander] knew that it was CD-ROM drive a-spinnin'. Speaking of What's That Sound, be sure to let us know your ideas for the new prize. That sounds like a lot of preamble, but we quickly get to a full slate of hacks, a couple of which are pretty retro in retrospect. Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  Ep 377: Parallel Pixels, Wiggly Consoles, and Seven Segments 10.07.2026 1h 11min

  This week's podcast sees Elliot joined by Jenny List, as both suffer silently in the European summer heat as the sound of a desk fan would come over on the recording. The stand-out hack of the week comes from [Bitluni], whose GPU made from thousands of cheap microcontrollers is on a scale we've never seen before. It's an amazing project in itself, but the manufacturing and power consumption issues of so many processors running at the same time make for a discussion of their own. Otherwise, we have diecasting on the bench, an impressive achievement by any measure, a Raman spectrometer, and an open source take on something like a Kei truck. In quick hacks there's a dicussion of soldering versus crimping for high current connectors, and neon tubes used as digital logic in an organ. The recording finishes with a discussion of 7-segment display history, and whether an engineering education teaches design for manufacture. Drop us a comment and check out the links over at Hackaday.
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  Ep 376: Modern Retro Projects, Retro Modern Projects, and the Teen Years for 3D Printing 03.07.2026 57min

  Hackadya's Elliot Williams and Al Williams were in a retro mood this week. There was a new '486 computer, a new mechanical TV, and a USB stick with a magnetic personality. Can you watch YouTube on a Game Boy? Maybe. For the can't miss articles, this week, Elliot and Al reflected on the awkward phase of 3D printers when they transformed from being expensive commercial machines, to where they are now. Meanwhile, Al was interested in how airplanes know how fast they are going. Along the way, there were musical hacks, precision machine tools, and a quantum 8 ball. Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments! Or write or record something for our mailbag segment.
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  Ep 375: Rebuilding Tech on Our Terms and the Hero Nerd 26.06.2026 1h 23min

  In this episode, Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start off by taking a trip down the Raspberry Pi memory lane and then tackle a fresh pile of listener mail. The discussion moves on to hacking bike counter, homebrew upgrades to the Nintendo Entertainment System, and building RAM from whats in the parts bin. You'll hear about the latest drop-in upgrade for a classic Casio watch, hosting light bulbs that host subversive literature, and loading Wii U games from a weird disk drive from the 1980s. They'll wrap things up with a dive into the evolving portrayals of brilliant rebels in media, and all the things you can do with a cheap router. Check out the links over on Hackaday if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  Ep 374: Flippin' Phones, Sexy Spraysers, and Frikkin' Lasers 19.06.2026 48min

  Things are back to normal around the Podcast studio, and this week you'll hear the dulcet tones of Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos. In Hackaday news, we still have a Frikkin' Lasers Challenge going on, and now you can even enter your project into it! Join the ranks, won't you? Not only do we have a triple mailbag this week, we have another failed attempt at guessing the sound by Kristina. However, [Baron Maximilian von Knuthausen] knew that it was a train, a British one, even. Then it's on to the hacks, of course, which ought to go far in explaining the show title. Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  Ep 373: GPS, Danger In Space, and Robby the Robot 12.06.2026 53min

  Last week, Elliot got his foot stepped on by a 1.5 metric ton draft horse, and boy is he glad to be back to the relative safety of podcasting! Joining him today is Jenny List, no stranger to farm life, who has been trodden by a cow. It's going to be one of those podcasts, folks. Another thing the two hosts have in common is a love for the mystery of the numbers station. But did you know that GPS satellites, for the last 20 years, have broadcast literally millions of secret messages to everyone on the earth with a receiver? After that bombshell, we have an ATtiny85 emulating an 8080, a primer on how to embed magnets in 3D prints, definitive proof that more than one cassette mechanism is still being manufactured, and a look at what makes home automation enthusiasts tick. Check out the links over at Hackaday if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  EP 372: Pop Tubers, Shifty Semiconductors, and Shelving Shelf Labels 05.06.2026 59min

  This week, we're shaking things up a little, with Tom Nardi still in the host seat, and someone besides Al Williams in the other, namely Kristina Panos. In Hackaday news, we have a new Frikkin' Lasers Challenge going on now, although we acknowledge that no one can actually enter their project into it at the moment. We hope to have that fixed in short order. Procrastinators, disregard. You'll have to wait another week for the triumphant return of What's That Sound, but we do have an audio mailbag for you this week. Thanks, Dillon! We look at loading SEGA games from a vinyl record, discuss a really cool project that puts live plane data on your ceiling, and debate the name 'Pop Tuber'. We also discuss DIY routers, and stress over the future of electronic shelf labels.
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  EP 371: Space Computers, Spy Phones, and So Long CHU 29.05.2026 1h 19min

  Elliot Williams is out where the deer and the antelope play for the next week, so it's up to Tom Nardi and Al Williams to wrangle this episode of the Hackaday Podcast. They'll start off by reading some listener messages before talking about the slow extinction of time broadcasts, Linux on cheap smartphones, microcontroller VPNs, and the computers of Spacelab. You'll also hear about using a video game's "Photo Mode" to capture 3D imagery, strange red lights in deep space, and ASCII fish that you don't need to feed. The episode wraps up with a discussion of WWII spy tech and the revelation that modern smartphones and powerful magnets don't always mix. Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  Ep 370: Softer Cyberdecks, a Simulated Clutch, and an Overstuffed Mailbox 22.05.2026 1h 16min

  With Elliot back from Hackaday Europe, he and Al Williams had a lot to talk about with two weeks of Hackaday posts to catch up on. Not to mention the mailbag was overflowing. This week, the guys look at girlie cyberdecks, a 3D printed circuit board, and talk electric motorcycles. Is 3D printing safe? Want an accurate moon on your desk? How about modern punch cards? All of that and much more were on the menu this week. For the can't miss articles, Zoe Skyforest weighs in on file sharing on the LAN while Al Williams talks about the surprising state-of-the-art in vacuum tube tech right before the end.
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  Ep 369: IR, E-Ink, and Avgas 08.05.2026 1h 8min

  In this episode, Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start things off by discussing the latest reason that cheap PCB fabrication isn't quite as cheap as it once was. The conversation will then move on to hacking electronic shelf labels, stylish e-ink status displays, cutting metal at home with high current and a bit of water, a solarpunk message board hiding in a IKEA-style lantern, and pushing NFC out of its comfort zone. From there you'll hear about a matching transistors, taking pictures of the International Space Station, and Linux on the PS5. They'll wrap up this week's episode by going over the surprisingly simple concept behind flow batteries, and learn who's still using leaded gasoline and why. Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!]
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  Ep 368: A Pencil that Draws Against You, 3D Printing Stuff, and Tablet, Shmablet! 01.05.2026 42min

  This week, Hackaday's Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up over the international tubes to bring you the latest news, mystery sound results show, and of course, a big bunch of hacks from the previous seven days or so. Regarding Hackaday Europe, we announced the last round of speakers and opened up the workshop ticket sales. In other news, the Green-Powered Challenge has wrapped, and judging will begin quite soon. On What's That Sound, we can score another one for Kristina, which brings her record to approximately four wins and sixty-eight losses. She knew without a doubt that this was a guillotine paper cutter, probably because she recorded the sound herself. Hey, don't take this away from her. After that, it's on to the hacks, beginning with a really cool laser-powered mist-and-mirrors multi-view display, a robotic drawing assistant of questionable utility, and a new slicer that enables horizontal overhangs without supports. We also look at a trackball 3D controller, a 3D-printed pinball machine, and a good way to kill humidity sensors with humidity. Finally, we're both shocked to learn that we've been on GPS mk. II for some time now. But then once we get over that, we talk tablets and their usefulness, or lack thereof. Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!  
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  Ep 367: Radioactive Weather, Continuous Pickles, and Moon Junk 24.04.2026 58min

  When Elliot Williams and Al Williams compare their notes on the week in Hackaday, you know you'll get at least one or two bad puns. How bad? Tune in and find out. This week, Tom Nardi visits several in-person events, and Elliot and Al talk about smart buttons, Itanium, ejecting things from a rocket, and the infinite pickle. Will Elliot build the coin flipper? Will Al use plasma at his next cookout? Hard to say. For the can't miss articles, this week, Al swept the category with a post on splices and another on what human junk is still sitting on the moon. What do you think? Leave us a comment or record something and send it to our mailbag.
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  Ep 366: DOOM on a Toaster, Music in LED Strips, and Old Drives in New Clothes 17.04.2026 53min

  It's the evening before publication, and a pair of Hackaday writers convene to record the week's podcast. This week Elliot Williams is joined by Jenny List, and it's a bumper episode! Of course, a bit of Hackaday news makes the cut, as it's time to make an entry in the Green Powered Challenge. Then we make the first of a couple of sojourns into AI, as we talk about the Linux kernel stance on AI code. In short: if you submit AI code you're responsible for its bugs. Meanwhile out of this world, we look forward to a time when astronauts breathe oxygen from moon dust. There are hacks aplenty for your enjoyment, starting with far more than you ever thought it was possible to know about  sound-reactive LED strips. Then we have among others a Mac on an ESP32 forming the UI for a weather monitor, Doom on a toaster, and a fascinating look at screw threads for plastic. In the longer reads we have our colleague [Tom Nardi] finding Chinese people's personal data on hard drives he bought in an electronics store, and an attempt to look at what an LLM can do that might be useful. Grab your headphones, and join us!
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  Ep 365: Early 3DP Engineering, a New CAD Interface, and Flying Around the Moon 10.04.2026 1h 22min

  Humans flew around the Moon this week, but Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi were stuck on Earth -- luckily, there was no shortage of stories and hacks to keep them occupied. From the news that Linux might be putting the i486 out to pasture, to the fascinating potential of the threadless ball screw and connecting Bluetooth calipers up to FreeCAD. You'll hear about the latest in Internet via high-altitude balloon, the zen of organizing your parts bins, all the problems with Markdown files, and a deep-dive into making a convincing LED fire effect. The episode wraps up with some polarizing opinions on long term data storage, and a freewheeling discussion about the importance of literal moonshots. Check out the links on Hackaday if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  Ep 364: Clocks, Cameras, and Free Will 03.04.2026 48min

  This week, Hackaday's Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up over assorted beverages to bring you the latest news, mystery sound results show, and of course, a big bunch of hacks from the previous seven days or so. In the news, there's quite a bit to talk about. Regarding Hackaday Europe, you can rest assured that the talks will be announced soon. The Green-Powered Challenge is still underway, and we need your entry to truly make it a contest. You have until April 24th to enter, so show us what you can do with power you scrounge up from the environment! As usual, we published a handful of April Fool's posts, which you may or may not find amusing. And finally -- no fooling -- our own Tom Nardi wrote up the Artemis moon launch, and is going to update the post every day until the mission ends. On What's That Sound, we can score one for Kristina, which brings her record to approximately three wins and sixty-eight losses. She knew without a doubt that the dialogue was from the Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Oh, what? There was a remake in 2008? Kristina should get bonus points, then. After that, it's on to the hacks, beginning with the basics of making clean enclosures that are decidedly not 3D-printed, a couple of sweet lo-fi cameras, and a nice way to tame the tape when it comes to SMT parts. We also discuss a clock that marks time in a mathematical way, watch an electro-permanent magnet in action, and improving soda by turning it into mead. Finally, we discuss the solar balconies taking Europe by storm, and Copilot's terrifying terms of service. Check out the links over on Hackaday to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  Ep 364: Clocks, Cameras, and Free Will 03.04.2026 48min

  This week, Hackaday's Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up over assorted beverages to bring you the latest news, mystery sound results show, and of course, a big bunch of hacks from the previous seven days or so. In the news, there's quite a bit to talk about. Regarding Hackaday Europe, you can rest assured that the talks will be announced soon. The Green-Powered Challenge is still underway, and we need your entry to truly make it a contest. You have until April 24th to enter, so show us what you can do with power you scrounge up from the environment! As usual, we published a handful of April Fool's posts, which you may or may not find amusing. And finally -- no fooling -- our own Tom Nardi wrote up the Artemis moon launch, and is going to update the post every day until the mission ends. On What's That Sound, we can score one for Kristina, which brings her record to approximately three wins and sixty-eight losses. She knew without a doubt that the dialogue was from the Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Oh, what? There was a remake in 2008? Kristina should get bonus points, then. After that, it's on to the hacks, beginning with the basics of making clean enclosures that are decidedly not 3D-printed, a couple of sweet lo-fi cameras, and a nice way to tame the tape when it comes to SMT parts. We also discuss a clock that marks time in a mathematical way, watch an electro-permanent magnet in action, and improving soda by turning it into mead. Finally, we discuss the solar balconies taking Europe by storm, and Copilot's terrifying terms of service. Check out the links over on Hackaday to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  Ep 364: Clocks, Cameras, and Free Will 03.04.2026 48min

  This week, Hackaday's Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up over assorted beverages to bring you the latest news, mystery sound results show, and of course, a big bunch of hacks from the previous seven days or so. In the news, there's quite a bit to talk about. Regarding Hackaday Europe, you can rest assured that the talks will be announced soon. The Green-Powered Challenge is still underway, and we need your entry to truly make it a contest. You have until April 24th to enter, so show us what you can do with power you scrounge up from the environment! As usual, we published a handful of April Fool's posts, which you may or may not find amusing. And finally -- no fooling -- our own Tom Nardi wrote up the Artemis moon launch, and is going to update the post every day until the mission ends. On What's That Sound, we can score one for Kristina, which brings her record to approximately three wins and sixty-eight losses. She knew without a doubt that the dialogue was from the Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Oh, what? There was a remake in 2008? Kristina should get bonus points, then. After that, it's on to the hacks, beginning with the basics of making clean enclosures that are decidedly not 3D-printed, a couple of sweet lo-fi cameras, and a nice way to tame the tape when it comes to SMT parts. We also discuss a clock that marks time in a mathematical way, watch an electro-permanent magnet in action, and improving soda by turning it into mead. Finally, we discuss the solar balconies taking Europe by storm, and Copilot's terrifying terms of service. Check out the links over on Hackaday to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
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  Ep 363: The History of PLA, Laser DIY PCBs, and Corporate Craziness 27.03.2026 1h 10min

  What did Elliot Williams and Al Williams read on Hackaday last week? Tune in and find out. After a bit of news, [Vik Oliver] chimes in with some deep PLA knowledge. Then the topic changed to pressure advance measurements, SDRs, making super-resolution PCBs with a fiber laser, and more. Want to 3D print wire strippers? A robot arm? Or just make your own Z-80? Those hacks are in there, too. For the long articles, we talked about old tech, including the :CueCat and the Iomega Zip Drive. Let us know if you had either one in the comments. What do you think? Leave us a comment or record something and send it to our mailbag.  
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  Ep 362: Compression Molding, IPv4x, and Wired Headphones 20.03.2026 57min

  As the sun goes down on a glorious spring evening on the western edge of Europe, Elliot Williams is joined by Jenny List for a look at the week in all things Hackaday. First up: Hackaday Europe tickets are on sale! Bad luck folks, the early bird tickets disappeared in an instant, but regular ones are still available for now. We're really looking forward to making our way to Lecco for a weekend of hacks, and it would be great to see you there too. Then we have a new feature for the podcast, the Hackaday Mailbag. This week's contribution comes from [Kenny], a longtime friend of Hackaday and probably our most regular conference attendee. To the hacks, and we have some good ones. An air hockey robot might not seem like a challenge, but the engineering which went into [BasementBuilds'] one proves it's not a job for the faint hearted. Then we look at compression molding of recycled plastic using 3D-printed molds, something that seems surprisingly accessible and we'd like to try, too. We've got a new DOS, a 3D-printed zipper repair, the IPv4 replacement we didn't get, and the mind-bending logic of ternary computing. It's one of those weeks where the quick hacks could all deserve their own in-depth look, but perhaps the stand-outs are and Arduino style compiler that includes the source code compressed within the binary, and a beautifully-done revival of a 1980s brick cellphone as a modern 5G unit. Finally in the longer reads we've got an examination of wired versus Bluetooth headphones -- we're both in the wired camp -- and a look back at the age of free dialup. As is so often the case, the experience there differed between Brits and Americans. Anyway, enjoy the episode, and we have another week to look forward to.