About a year ago I came across a video showing millimeter-scale levitating robots zipping around a PCB. Since then I’ve had the feeling that “surely, this will be useful for something”.
Last month I finally gave in, started investigating prior art and did a few proof-of-concept experiments. So far this has culminated in moving adorable 1 mm disk magnets around my desk at 0.5 mm precision:
(The “useful for something” part is still under investigation — drop me a line if you’ve got any sweet ideas.)
My notes have too many images / videos / maths for the newsletter; for details check out my research log.
Merry Christmas and have a lovely New Year!
Misc. stuff
For 20 years, about 10% of US electricity was produced from Soviet warheads.
“ah yes, the SAT is gone, now fairness and egalitarianism will reign.”
The Monospinner: a controllable flying vehicle with a single moving part
First-person view of using a handheld CNC router with computer vision cutting cabinet hinge pockets
“United States v. Forty Barrels & Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola”
Fiber optic cables are being used as seismic sensors
Erich’s Packing Center is the place to go for state of the art results in “how big of a [shape X] do I need to fit N of [shape Y]?” questions. The results aren’t always pretty.
“Modern, developed countries devote a significant fraction of their energies to the production of authority.”
“nothing of what makes science actually work is published as text on the web”
Friendly, foul-mouthed crow befriends entire Oregon elementary school before state police are called in.
“A later-stage investor once told me, after a board meeting ‘I like investing in a company you’ve been on the board of, the meetings always go much more smoothly.’ That’s right, my friend, because I spent the last year training the founders not to make you turn your brain on in meetings.”
My luxury touchpad was featured on Hackaday, and a kind person from there pointed me to this HP Journal issue on the design of their (at the time) newly released digitizer. Are there companies today publishing at this spectacular level of engineering-focused marketing literature?
Every jig should come with a Pop! lever.
A reader suggested this follow up to the fusion video we saw last newsletter.
Building satisfying magnetic toggle switches