How to repair the parts that explode in Lenovo Yoga laptops

Lenovo Yoga laptops, especially those from the “900”, “920”, “930”, and “940” series, have a design defect where their power circuitry can self-destruct. The company will not acknowledge…

An Introspective on Modern Capitalism

It has been about 5 years since I moved to northern California in search of more opportunity than what I felt could be had in New York. It’s…

STM32 DMA Cheat Sheet

STMicro’s documentation about the subject is some of the most terse documentation I’ve ever seen in the business! This cheat sheet is a work-in-progress. DM-What? The STM32 microcontroller…

Restoration of the M.V. Maritol

In early 2018, friends and I decided to work on something rather unorthodox from our regular activities –we set out to bring new life into an old steel…

Lithium has become more economical than Lead-Acid

It is a tale very commonly told that Lead Acid batteries are a “cheaper” solution than Lithium batteries for off-grid and solar storage. As of 2019 that is…

Don’t compete for attention

It took a great deal of failure and subsequent reflection to recognize this not-so-obvious idea. It is very fashionable in the technology industry to build products which capitalize…

Character Traits of an Exceptional Organization

An exceptional organization is forward thinking. It consistently asks, What will the world be like in five, ten, twenty years? What will be available then, which is not…

Hoverboard Math

Disclaimer: Everything here might be wrong. Feel free to correct me if you believe it so. Let’s say you wanted to create a solenoid strong enough to levitate…

Crony Capital

There has been an increase in business behavior lately known as regulatory capture, where in principle, government agencies are intentionally and carefully corrupted to further private interests. More…

Passivation of Mild Steel

The following is an excerpt from the “GE Water Purification Handbook – Boiler Water Systems”, Chapter 11. It details corrosion prevention methods of the mild steel tanks used…

The BlitzenKlavier

Though I built this guy back in 2012, I haven’t really taken the time yet to make a post about how it works. Finally, here’s part 1 in…

How to enable 3-pin HP laptop chargers

220k resistor from center pin to +19V for fast mode. 1M resistor for ultra slow charging mode.  

Cone beam CT scanner

This was a short experiment in cone-beam CT reconstruction. I built a scanner from craigslist parts, which was capable of reconstructing a package of hot dogs with only…

Backpack X-Ray Machine

This is a project I took from conception, to sketch, to working design in about 4 month’s time. It is the most powerful handheld x-ray source in existence….

Art: Railgun

Comic: Laser Safety

Comic: Topological Manifolds

Comic: Gate drive transformers

Comic: Scalar, Vector and Tensor Fields

I was challenged to make something understandable; in this case, Fields.      

Luldlum Model 12 Restoration

Recently I’ve been restoring a Ludlum Model 12 rate meter. What is that you might ask? The best ratemeter on this side of Si Valley, that’s what! I…

The Bass Cannon

Every once in a while I build something ridiculous, and this would be one of those whiles. Ladies and Gentlemen of the internet, I present to you what…

Amplifying your WIFI

I moved California. More about that on another post. Since then, I’ve (well, we’ve) had wifi problems, specifically ones emergent of what I consider to be some terrible…

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principal: The actual content of quantum theoretical kinematics and mechanics

Preface: Upon reading chapter four of my assigned physics textbook [Modern Physics, Krane], I grew both tired and annoyed with the generalizations, or “leaps of faith” which author…

Evolution of Segue, Part 2

Hardware development is painfully slow. But it does consistently, albeit slowly carry on. (or at least I try to convince myself it does) Le’ Software: Motor Modeling What is a…

Evolution of Segue, Part 1

Now that finals are complete I once again have time to work on projects. Video glasses for James, rebuilding super-DRSSTC among others, but the most important one right…

You’ve got mail

I have a bad habit of missing voicemails. When they arrive I usually do not know about them, and for some reason verizon doesn’t warn me when my…

TDS2024C Teardown

Tektronix sent me a new TDS2024C! Now what do we do with new $1500 toys? WE RIP THEM APART   (⌐■_■)っ═一    Let’s look at her from behind. Not…

Golden Gnat Gyroscope

From the hours of 11 pm to 4am Saturday night I decided to make an educational video. Don’t ask me why. I wanted to do some signal processing…

A brief history of the X-Ray

In 1895, a professor by the name of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen discovered a source of invisible rays which were capable of penetrating materials not normally translucent to ordinary light. Not…

Particle induced air ionization

Alpha particles are very energetic little buggers. In fact, energies of 20MeV per particle are not uncommon. While this makes them incredibly dangerous if you happen to ingest…

Nuclear Bomb Detector

Here is what I can best describe as a cold war era nuclear bomb detector. Whether or not such a device is legal to own is a matter…

X-Rays with the 2x2A

The 2x2A is a vacuum rectifier that, before the advent of the silicon diode, was used to rectify the high voltage needed for fun things such as television…

Geiger-Muller Tubes

By far the most common radiation detector, the Geiger-Müller tube itself is nothing more than a highly modified neon lamp. Its method of operation is rather simple. The GM…

X-Ray Machine 1

The goal of this project was to build an inexpensive portable x-ray machine, since such a device didn’t seem to exist! Odd, since such a machine could prove…

Radiation Safety

If you intend to copy my x-ray experiments, let’s be safe now, shall we? Nonionizing radiation, the stuff of microwave, infrared and visible light doesn’t have the energy…

Coolidge Tubes

Invented in 1913 by William D. Coolidge, the Coolidge tube is by far the most popular method used to generate x-rays. Essentially it’s just a thermionic diode, but…

Wire Loss Calculator

Electricity is useless without a way to move it around, so in order to accomplish that task people invented the wire. A wire is nothing more than a conductor…

DIY Pulse Capacitors

You don’t need lots of money to make high voltage capacitors, in fact some pretty decent ones can be made with some cheap and readily available materials. This…

The Fryback!

Ladies and gentlemen of the world, I present to you a marvelous device that will revitalize your health and bring wondrous wealth and prosperity to your families and…

X-Ray Transformers

Before small cockroft walton multipliers became inexpensive, x-ray machines tended to use large iron transformers. These are the highest voltage transformers you’ll likely ever come across, with even a small…

Voltage Multipliers

Transformers are not the only way one can boost voltage; another method to the madness is a Cockroft-Walton multiplier, or thes the Villard Cascade depending on your favorite…

Franklin’s Bells

After their invention by Benjamin Franklin, Franklin’s bells became a novelty in the late 1700s.  One bell would be connected to a stake in the ground while the…

Flyback Transformers

Also referred to a Line Output Transformer, the flyback transformer is a high frequency, high voltage transformer most often used to power cathode ray tubes. Flybacks are capable…

ZVS Driver

A “ZVS driver” is a very simple circuit that can oscillate a large amount of power with about 90% efficiency. To the right exists a simplified version of…

Plasma Speaker 2

My last plasma speaker, which used only one mosfet, got a bit too hot to run without a bucket of ice water nearby. To cut down on that heat I…

Plasma Speaker 1

I’ve always wanted to make one of these, but never got around to it until recently. However, after finding the most adorable tiny flyback in a 5 inch TV, I…

Marx Generators

Marx generators are the simplest voltage multipliers out there, as they contain nothing but capacitors, wire and resistors. Below is a schematic of a marx generator and as…

Microwave Transformers

The microwave oven transformer is possibly one of the simplest methods of making some big high voltage arcs, mainly because they are robust, cheap, and easy to hook…

Laser Microscope

Way back in the 1960s, the newly invented laser was described as “a funny but useless experimental demonstration in physics”, and a “solution looking for a problem”. Today though, lasers are an integral…

Neon Sign Transformers

Neon sign transformers are transformers used to power neon signs. Typically outputting 30mA at 4 to 15kV a neon sign transformer is a great toy to have if…

Roll your own LEDs

During attempts to build a cat’s whisker detector from SiC, I noticed a faint glow. Probing further, I found that one of the largest crystals emitted quite a lot of…