Robin Kearey, Author at 3D Printing Magazine

Working with BGAs: Soldering, Reballing, and Rework

Working with BGAs: Soldering, Reballing, and Rework

March 23, 2023 Robin Kearey 3 ViewsBGA soldering, hot air rework, hot plate, smd components, smd stencil 15 min read

In our previous article on Ball Grid Arrays (BGAs), we explored how to design circuit boards and how to route the signals coming out of a BGA package. But designing

Moving Magnet Draws Stylish Shapes On Flexible Film

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Moving Magnet Draws Stylish Shapes On Flexible Film

March 8, 2023 Robin Kearey 18 Viewsflexible PCB, linear motor, magnetic viewing film, PCB coil 2 min read

[Moritz v. Sivers] has a knack for making his own displays, which are typically based on some obscure physical effect. Magnetic viewing films, those thin plastic sheets that change color

Low Power Challenge: The PotatoP Runs Lisp For Months Without Recharging

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Low Power Challenge: The PotatoP Runs Lisp For Months Without Recharging

March 6, 2023 Robin Kearey 16 Viewscyberdeck, lisp, low power, ulisp 1 min read

A common complaint among laptop users is that while battery technology has vastly improved over the past decades, a simulltaneous shrink in form factors has meant that a typical laptop

Never Walk Uphill Again With This Motorized Sled

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Never Walk Uphill Again With This Motorized Sled

March 2, 2023 Robin Kearey 20 Viewsdc motor, sled, snowmobile, winter hacks 1 min read

If you grew up in a snowy climate, chances are you’ve ridden a sled or toboggan when you were young. The downhill part of sledding is great fun, but dragging

Watch Time Slide by With This Electromechanical Clock

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Watch Time Slide by With This Electromechanical Clock

February 27, 2023 Robin Kearey 28 Views3D printed clock, electromechanical clock, rack and pinion, sliding 1 min read

Back in the 18th century, clockmakers were held in high esteem, as turning pieces of metal and wire into working timepieces must have seemed like magic at the time. The

Low Power Challenge: E-Paper Shelf Label Becomes Ultra-Frugal Clock

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Low Power Challenge: E-Paper Shelf Label Becomes Ultra-Frugal Clock

February 24, 2023 Robin Kearey 27 Viewse-paper clock, Electronic shelf label, nRF52832 2 min read

Over the past two decades, e-paper has evolved from an exotic and expensive display technology to something cheap enough to be used for supermarket price tags. While such electronic shelf

Pingo is an Analog Clock that uses Colors Instead of Hands

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Pingo is an Analog Clock that uses Colors Instead of Hands

February 20, 2023 Robin Kearey 30 Viewscolor code, ESP8266, LED clock 1 min read

The purpose of a clock is to show the time, obviously. But if you’ve followed Hackaday for some time, you’ll know there are about a million different ways of achieving

Supercon 2022: Matt Venn’s Tiny Tapeout Brings Chip Design to the Masses

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Supercon 2022: Matt Venn’s Tiny Tapeout Brings Chip Design to the Masses

February 14, 2023 Robin Kearey 35 Views2022 Superconference, ASIC, custom chip, Matt Venn 4 min read

Not that long ago, rolling your own printed circuit boards was difficult, time-consuming and expensive. But thanks to an army of cheap, online manufacturing services as well as high-quality free

NABU PC Gets CPU Upgrade, Emulates a TRS-80

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NABU PC Gets CPU Upgrade, Emulates a TRS-80

January 1, 2023 Robin Kearey 76 Viewsemulation, NABU, nabu PC, Teensy, trs-80 2 min read

The NABU PC caused a bit of a buzz in the retrocomputing community a while back. After all, it doesn’t happen often that a huge batch of brand-new computers from

Acoustic Coupler Gets You Online Through Any Desk Phone

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Acoustic Coupler Gets You Online Through Any Desk Phone

December 30, 2022 Robin Kearey 90 Viewsacoustic coupler, bbs, modem 1 min read

Up until the mid-1980s, connecting a computer to a phone line was tricky: many phone companies didn’t allow the connection of unlicensed equipment to their network, and even if they