Hackaday Newsletter 0x6E

Have you tried any new ICs today? [HACKADAY]( Getting Ready for Act 2 of the Great American Eclipse [Read Article Now»]( The New Hotness By [Elliot Williams]( If there’s one good thing to be said about the chip shortage of 2020-2023 (and counting!) it’s that a number of us were forced out of our ruts, and pushed to explore parts that we never would have otherwise. Or maybe it’s just me. Back in the old times, I used to be a die-hard Atmel AVR fan for small projects, and an STM32 fan for anything larger. And I’ll freely admit, I got stuck in my ways. The incredible abundance of dev boards in the $2 range also helped keep me lazy. I had my thing, and I was fine sticking with it, admittedly due to the [low price of those little blue pills](. And then came the drought, and like everyone else, my stockpile of microcontrollers started to dwindle. Replacements at $9 just weren’t an option, so I started looking around. And it’s with no small bit of shame that I’ll admit that I hadn’t been keeping up with the changes as much as I should have. Nowadays, it’s all ESP32s and RP2040s over here, and granted there’s a bit of a price bump, but the performance is there in abundance. But I can’t help feeling like I’m a few years back of the cutting edge. So when I see work like what [CNLohr] and [Bitluni] are [doing with the ultra-cheap CH32V003 microcontrollers]( it makes me think that I need to start filling in gaps in my comfortable working-set of chips again. But how the heck am I supposed to keep up? And how do you? It took a global pandemic and silicon drought to force me out of my comfort zone last time. Can the simple allure of dirt-cheap chips get me out? We’ll see! From the Blog --------------------------------------------------------------- [NASA’s Voyager Space Probe’s Reserve Power, and the Intricacies of RTG-Based Power Systems]( By [Maya Posch]( Even though it is 45 years old, the juice still flows on Voyager [Read more »]( [We Already Live in a Hydrogen Economy: Steel Production, Generator Cooling, and Welding Gas]( By [Maya Posch]( When people speak of the hydrogen economy, here's what they're missing. [Read more »]( [Virgin Galactic Cautiously Returns To Flight]( By [Tom Nardi]( Virgin's controversial space plane is back up in the air, at half strength. [Read more »]( [Hackaday Podcast]( [Hackaday Podcast 217: The Unintentional Space and 3D Printing Episode]( By [Hackaday Editors]( What happened last week on Hackaday? The Podcast will get you up to speed. [Read more »]( If You Missed It --------------------------------------------------------------- [Kerfmeter Measures Laser Cutter Kerf Allowances on the Fly]( [Exploring Woodworking Mysteries with Strain Gauges and Raspberry Pi]( [Modern Components Enable Cheap and Compact Nixie Driver Circuit]( [Thermal Camera Plus Machine Learning Reads Passwords Off Keyboard Keys]( [Hacking Hue Lightbulbs]( [ChatGPT Makes a 3D Model: The Secret Ingredient? Much Patience]( [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