Hackaday Newsletter 0x15

Measure twice, refine your design, and then measure twice again. [HACKADAY]( Could Airships Make A Comeback With New Hybrid Designs? [Read Article Now»]( The Devil is in the Details By [Elliot Williams]( If you've taken a physics class, you've doubtless heard tales of mythical beasts like the massless string, the frictionless bearing, and the perfect sphere. And if you're designing something new, it's not always wrong to start by thinking in terms of these abstractions, just to get the basic framework laid and a first-order handle on the way things go. But once you start building, you'd better be ready to shed your illusions that a 6 mm peg will fit into a 6 mm hole. [3d_measurement-low_cost_high_accuracy-euo25nmkgwmf137mp4-shot0001_thumbnail.png?w=250] Theory and practice are the same thing, in theory. But as soon as you step into practice, your "weekend build" can easily [turn into a 500-hour project]( full of hurdles, discoveries, experimentation, and eventual success. I'm not going to rehash [Scott Rumschlag]'s project here -- you should really watch his detailed video -- but suffice it to say that when building a sub-millimeter precision 3D measuring device, bearings do have friction and string does have non-zero mass, and it all matters. When you start working on a project that "looked good on paper" or for whatever reason just doesn't turn out as precisely as you'd wished, you could do worse than to follow [Scott's] example: start off by quantifying your goals, and then identify where every error along the way accumulates to keep you from reaching them. Doing precise work isn't easy, but it's not impossible either if you know where all the errors are coming from. You at least have a chain of improvements that you can consider, and if you've set realistic goals, you also know when to stop, which is almost as important. And if anyone out there has an infinite sheet of perfectly conductive material, I'm in the market. From the Blog --------------------------------------------------------------- [The Great Windows 11 Computer Extinction Experiment]( By [Jenny List]( The next Windows version will put serious new requirements on your hardware. Is a new OS version worth throwing out your compy? [Read more »]( [Adding A Gentle Touch To Prosthetic Limbs With Somatosensory Stimulation]( By [Maya Posch]( After his accident, Nathan Copeland received a robotic arm driven by brain implants. And then they gave it/him a feeling of touch. [Read more »]( [We All Need a Win Sometimes, So Make Them Yourself]( By [Donald Papp]( Sometimes it's a good idea to take on a project simply because you'll enjoy it. Life is hard enough. [Read more »]( [Hackaday Podcast]( [Hackaday Podcast 125: Linux Users Talking Windows 11, Pop Bottle Filament, Old Phones with Modern Guts, and Eavesdropping in RF]( By [Hackaday Editors]( What happened last week on Hackaday? Editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams get you up to speed. [Read more »]( If You Missed It --------------------------------------------------------------- [A Robot To Top Up Your Tesla]( [PetBot: Turn PET bottles Into Filament]( [The Game Boy As You Have Never Seen It Before Is Newest from [Sprite_tm]]( [China’s Mars Rover Goes Exploring]( [Mechanical 7-Segment Display Uses a Single Motor]( [Miata Sci-Fi Digital Dash]( [Hackaday]( NEVER MISS A HACK [Share]( [Share]( [Share]( [Terms of Use]( [Privacy Policy]( [Hackaday.io]( [Hackaday.com]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update preferences]( Hackaday.com · 61 S Fair Oaks Ave Ste 200 · Pasadena, CA 91105-2270 · USA