Was playing some old games and I was wondering if it was something you could actually build or if its science fiction. Turns out its real. Just instead of heartbeats it's a radio wave scanner that picks up bands that humans naturally give off.

I've been trying to learn electronics and computing on my own, but I'm struggling to make progress and could really use some guidance.

I've built logic gates using individual transistors and managed to make a 4-bit adder on a breadboard, so I have a little practical experience, but I'm still a beginner with a lot of gaps in my understanding.

I've been using AI to learn, but it's become unreliable for the kind of help I need. Explanations often skip steps or use terms I don't understand without explaining them. I want to learn things properly, from the fundamentals, and understand why things work instead of just following instructions.

Eventually, I'd love to build a tiny USB-C dongle that receives video from an Android phone and outputs it to a portable monitor through HDMI. It's not my main goal or something I need to finish soon; I just think it would be a cool project to learn through.

I'd like to understand everything from how transistors and digital logic work to how computers communicate. I'm looking for advice on how to approach this as a beginner, along with resources or communities where I can ask questions and build my understanding step by step.

My 11-year-old built this breadboard circuit today after getting some very useful feedback on his previous attempt.

This time the circuit is working and the LED lights up, but I’m not experienced enough with electronics to tell whether everything is wired in the best or most correct way.

I’d really like some honest feedback from people here:

• Is the breadboard layout reasonable?
• Do you see any wiring or component-placement mistakes?
• Is there anything he should be doing differently at this stage?
• What should he learn next?

Constructive criticism is very welcome. I’m trying to help him actually understand what he’s building rather than just copy the diagram.

Hey all! I'm currently working on a project to create a hand controlled, double screen display and need help with the specific items I need for this.

More info about the project: I plan for both of my hands to have three pressure sensors on the pads of my fingers (thumb will not have one) that are coded with specific images, which the pressure outputs are sent to a board. And said outputs are only sent if the pressure reaches a certain threshold. The board then takes that input and with wifi, sends it to one of the two display boards. Both display boards are connected with a wire so the input corresponding image is displayed on their respective screens simultaneously. I probably didn't explain it well but hopefully the next section makes is more clear.

Items I have on my list so far: (These are all from AdaFruit) For the pressure sensors, I'll be using the round force-sensitive-resistor (0.3~10 force newton). The wifi transmitter board will be the QT Py ESP32-S3 WiFi dev board with STEMMA QT. The wifi receivers will be the Qualia ESP32-S3 and will be connected with a QT to QT cable. Both boards will be connected to their own screens, the round RGB TTL TFT display, 4" 720x720. All coded with CurcuitPython and ESP-NOW.

The trouble: I'm pretty sure the qualia and screen set up works (based on AdaFruit's double qualia display tutorial) and the QT wifi connected with ESP-NOW to one of the qualias also seems like it would work. Let me know if otherwise. The main thing I'm having trouble with is the multiple round pressure sensors connecting to the QT. I know that the pressure sensors are analog and can't communicate with the QT through a cable alone (from what I've read of the tutorial and info pages). I'm guessing that I have to use a QT to male/ 2 pin female cable plus whatever else to actually make the pressure outputs readable to the QT. I've heard of a 10komega resistor but I still have to look more into that. If this isn't possible then any pressure sensor buttons that would work with the QT would be helpful. I also can't do any soldering 😬, so non-soldered connections are a must.

Any help about any of this would be extremely appreciated!

It was decided that I will be Dot Matrix from Spaceballs. She has a VIRGIN ALARM display in her chest. Fortunately I had scavenged these 35 year old 5x7 dot matrix display modules from an old telescope control box. The parallel data bus makes it easier to use a PIC than an Arduino.

Can i get any interesting modules out of these?

Found them laying ready to be thrown out.

Yes, those are empty.

I am an EE student doing research on what type of DMM people generally use for circuit design and prototyping.

Do any of you have good (or bad) experiences with app connected BLE DMMs?

It seems like a companion app would have a lot of potential for useful features.

I’m trying to get this old phone to play random short recordings whenever picked up. I was looking at this old instructable on it (https://web.archive.org/web/20250401040233/https://www.instructables.com/Vintage-Rotary-Phone-That-Plays-Your-Custom-Audio-/) but it’s for a rotary phone so I’m not sure about which connections go to which in this case since this phone has an actual soundboard in it.

(As you can see, I have the Adafruit Audio FX Mini Sound Board to connect into the phone)

I know I’m supposed to use L, GRN and 7 just not sure which wire from the phone goes to which of those! (There are 2 wires coming in for both the phone hook + the speaker that I have circled. For power, I’m just going to plug it in using the USB.) Also not sure how to connect the old wires to the new pins - can I just use electrical tape or do I need something specific?

So… Any thoughts/tips? (Note that I have *never* done anything like this so this will be my first time even doing any soldering so I realize I sound like a total newbie here 😂)

Thanks!!

I found an old Dyson V8 powdered 'high torque' head and shaft labeled V8 in my closet from years ago. The Dyson hand piece, power controller suction unit died. The head says 17.2v 100w on it. I want to power this thing with a Milwaukee m12 or m18 battery and hook it up to my shop vac in the garage and use it.

There's two pins coming off the brush head into the shaft. When I try to power the head at 17V nothing happens. Going up in voltage to 24 v also nothing happens. I'm using a DC - DC converter and 12v and 18v batteries for testing.

Does anyone know how Dyson sends voltage to the motor? Is it just simple positive and negative or is it more nuanced than that? Any ideas on how I can achieve my goal?

I was going to 3d print an adapter that goes from shop vac to tube and then power the motor off the cordless tool battery but I can't figure out the powering the motor part yet.

Anyone have advice or ideas?

Thanks for the consideration.

hi everyone! sculpture student here venturing into electronics.

attached is the project, hope you can understand it, i tried to simplify as much as possible. i'm somewhat a newbie but i have a person that knows a little more that can help me.

so, i want to mount a 1 meter led light into a 360° motor but i want them to conect to a usb battery of some sorts that i can charge to ditch the cord. it only has to last around 30 minutes. not asking for too much in this stage.

but i know i have to keep in mind the watts in the led light and motor, and conversions and stuff.

can you help me figure out this? thank you!

Hello, I have been messing with an arduino micro to get a hang of peripheral creation.

I have gotten it to work as a mouse and as a joystick independently of each other (with the mouse and Xinput libraries respectively), but I don't see a way to combine the two in a way that would get picked up by steam (such as with a PS controller), is there a way to do this with an arduino? If not maybe with a pi pico?

Thank you for any help

The packaging is intact, and the external build quality is acceptable; however, the surfaces of the resistive elements are rough. I haven’t installed them yet, so I’m not sure if they will produce any rotational noise—hopefully not.

Hi all, I made a small tool for Power Supply Compensation. It automatically generates the plant, compensation and open loop bode plots + nyquist plots. One can use it to check gain and phase margins

https://power-electronic-compensator-gui.replit.app/

Only the GUI was made by AI. the entire backend was scripted by me. AI only verified the backend with some predefined transfer functions and I too cross checked it with MATLAB

My inspiration was an age old TI software for supply compensation with 90s UI. I totally remodelled it preserving its functionality

Hello everyone,

I’ve picked up three Metcal MX-PS5000s and put them up for sale on a French website for €290 each. But it doesn’t seem to be attracting much interest.

Do you think that’s too much or not enough? Might a price that’s too low make a buyer wary?

Thank you for your replies

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on called SolarSense. It uses AI to predict when solar panels need cleaning.

Dust on solar panels can reduce their efficiency, but cleaning them too often wastes water and time. My project aims to make this process smarter by using AI and the MAX32630FTHR to help predict when cleaning is needed.

You can check out my project here: Project Link

If you find the idea interesting, please take a moment to vote for my project. Your support would really mean a lot to me!

Hi all, I recently aquired a Kinetic Spinning Ball desktoy thing, and i wanted to make it spin forever (or at least for a long time).

I am designing a motor system that i am going to replace the stock base with, and i need the flattest motor possible so have to go with a PCB (there is already going to be a pcb in the design), and I was wondering, what is the most efficient design for pcb coils?

If anyone could link a resource or paper on it i would appreciate it, since I really need to extend the battery life of this thing and make it the most efficient possible, since I want the battery as small as possible.

I'm aware that Carl Bugeja has done some research in the field (one of his video thumbnails is actually the attached image), but if I remember correctly I don't think he is trying to make them the most power efficient, and also has not published many (if any) papers/solid findings on the topic.

If it helps, the Mass of the metal sphere I am trying to spin is 66g (0.066Kg), and the radius is 19.5mm, so the moment of inertia is about 1.0 × 10⁻⁵ kg·m² to 1.2 × 10⁻⁵ kg·m²

cheers in advance!

Bonjour,

Je développe un petit projet électronique personnel, sans sponsor ni subvention, uniquement sur mon temps libre et avec mon propre argent.

Ayant trouvé des composants moins chers chez LCSC que chez Mouser, j'ai passé une petite commande. Les frais de livraison étaient déjà presque aussi élevés que le prix des composants, mais je pensais qu'une fois ces frais payés, je serais tranquille.

Quelle naïveté !

Aujourd'hui, FedEx me réclame encore 58,60 € de droits de douane, de TVA et de frais de dédouanement.

Je vous laisse apprécier la facture en pièce jointe.

Et n'oubliez pas les fameux 3 € de droits de douane par catégorie de marchandises !

Finalement, pour quelques dizaines de composants électroniques coûtant chacun quelques centimes, je me retrouve à payer près de 85 € en frais, soit presque trois fois la valeur des composants eux-mêmes.

Vous me direz : « Pourquoi ne pas acheter chez Mouser ? »

Peut-être que j'aurais dû. Mais justement, comment comparer les prix quand une telle partie du coût final n'est découverte qu'après l'expédition ?

On nous parle sans cesse de réindustrialisation, de souveraineté technologique et de soutien à l'innovation en Europe. Mais quand un particulier veut simplement concevoir un prototype avec ses propres moyens, voilà la réalité.

Quelle ironie.