Imagine you own a weather station. Then imagine that after some years have passed, you’ve had to replace one of the sensors multiple times. Your new problem is that the sensor is no longer available. What does a hacker like [Luca] do? Build a custom solution, of course!
[Luca]’s work concerns the La Crosse WS-9257F-IT weather station, and the repeat failures of the TX44DTH-IT external sensor. Thankfully, [Luca] found that the weather station’s communication protocol had been thoroughly reverse-engineered by [Fred], among others. He then set about creating a bridge to take humidity and temperature data from Zigbee sensors hooked up to his Home Assistant hub, and send it to the La Crosse weather station. This was achieved with the aid of a SX1276 LoRa module on a TTGO LoRa board. Details are on GitHub for the curious.
Luca didn’t just work on the Home Assistant integration, though. A standalone sensor was also developed, based on the Xiao SAMD21 microcontroller board and a BME280 temperature, pressure, and humidity sensor. It too can integrate with the Lacrosse weather station, and proved useful for one of [Luca’s] friends who was in the same boat.
Ultimately, it sucks when a manufacturer no longer supports hardware that you love and use every day. However, the hacking community has a way of working around such trifling limitations. It’s something to be proud of—as the corporate world leaves hardware behind, the hackers pick up the slack!
Most of us associate echolocation with bats. These amazing creatures are able to chirp at frequencies beyond the limit of our hearing, and they use the reflected sound to map the world around them. It’s the perfect technology for navigating pitch-dark cave systems, so it’s understandable why evolution drove down this innovative path.
Humans, on the other hand, have far more limited hearing, and we’re not great chirpers, either. And yet, it turns out we can learn this remarkable skill, too. In fact, research suggests it’s far more achievable than you might think—for the sighted and vision impaired alike!
Bounce That Sound
Bats are the most famous biologcal users of echolocation. Credit: Petteri Aimonen
Before we talk about humans using echolocation, let’s examine how the pros do it. Bats are nature’s acoustic engineers, emitting rapid-fire ultrasonic pulses from their larynx that can range from 11 kHz to over 200 kHz. Much of that range is far beyond human hearing, which tops out at under 20 kHz. As these sound waves bounce off objects in their environment, the bat’s specialized ultrasonic-capable ears capture the returning echoes. Their brain then processes these echoes in real-time, comparing the outgoing and incoming signals to construct a detailed 3D map of their surroundings. The differences in echo timing tell them how far away objects are, while variations in frequency and amplitude reveal information about size, texture, and even movement. Bats will vary between constant-frequency chirps and frequency-modulated tones depending on where they’re flying and what they’re trying to achieve, such as navigating a dark cavern or chasing prey. This biological sonar is so precise that bats can use it to track tiny insects while flying at speed.
Humans can’t naturally produce sounds in the ultrasonic frequency range. Nor could we hear them if we did. That doesn’t mean we can’t echolocate, though—it just means we don’t have quite the same level of equipment as the average bat. Instead, humans can achieve relatively basic echolocation using simple tongue clicks. In fact, a research paper from 2021 outlined that skills in this area can be developed with as little as a 10-week training program. Over this period, researchers successfully taught echolocation to both sighted and blind participants using a combination of practical exercises and virtual training. A group of 14 sighted and 12 blind participants took part, with the former using blindfolds to negate their vision.
The aim of the research was to investigate click-based echolocation in humans. When a person makes a sharp click with their tongue, they’re essentially launching a sonic probe into their environment. As these sound waves radiate outward, they reflect off surfaces and return to the ears with subtle changes. A flat wall creates a different echo signature than a rounded pole, while soft materials absorb more sound than hard surfaces. The timing between click and echo precisely encodes distance, while differences between the echoes reaching each ear allows for direction finding.
The orientation task involved asking participants to use mouth clicks to determine the way a rectangular object was oriented in front of them. Credit: research paperThe size discrimination task asked participants to determine which disc was bigger solely using echolocation. Credit: research paper
The training regime consisted of a variety of simple tasks. The researchers aimed to train participants on size discrimination, with participants facing two foam board disks mounted on metal poles. They had to effectively determine which foam disc was larger using only their mouth clicks and their hearing. The program also included an orientation challenge, which used a single rectangular board that could be rotated to different angles. The participants had to again use clicks and their hearing to determine the orientation of the board. These basic tools allowed participants to develop increasingly refined echo-sensing abilities in a controlled environment.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the training involved a navigation task in a virtually simulated maze. Researchers first created special binaural recordings of a mannikin moving through a real-world maze, making clicks as it went. They then created virtual mazes that participants could navigate using keyboard controls. As they navigated through the virtual maze, without vision, the participants would hear the relevant echo signature recorded in the real maze. The idea was to allow participants to build mental maps of virtual spaces using only acoustic information. This provided a safe, controlled environment for developing advanced navigation skills before applying them in the real world. Participants also attempted using echolocation to navigate in the real world, navigating freely with experimenters on hand to guide them if needed.
Participants were trained to navigate a virtual maze using audio cues only. Credit: research paper
The most surprising finding wasn’t that people could learn echolocation – it was how accessible the skill proved to be. Previous assumptions about age and visual status being major factors in learning echolocation turned out to be largely unfounded. While younger participants showed some advantages in the computer-based exercises, the core skill of practical echolocation was accessible to all participants. After 10 weeks of training, participants were able to correctly answer the size discrimination task over 75% of the time, and at increased range compared to when they began. Orientation discrimination also improved greatly over the test period to a success rate over 60% for the cohort. Virtual maze completion times also dropped by over 50%.
Over time, participants improved in all tasks—particularly the size discrimination task, as seen in the results on this graph. The difficulty level of tasks were also scaled over time, presenting greater challenge as participants improved their echolocation skills. Credit: research paper
The study also involved a follow-up three months later with the blind members of the cohort. Participants credited the training with improving their spatial awareness, and some noted they had begun to use the technique to find doors or exits, or to make their way through strange places.
What’s particularly fascinating is how this challenges our understanding of basic human sensory capabilities. Echolocation doesn’t involve adding new sensors or augmenting existing ones—it’s just about training the brain to extract more information from signals it already receives. It’s a reminder that human perception is far more plastic than we often assume.
The researchers suggest that echolocation training should be integrated into standard mobility training for visually impaired individuals. Given the relatively short training period needed to develop functional echo-sensing abilities, it’s hard to argue against its inclusion. We might be standing at the threshold of a broader acceptance of human echolocation, not as an exotic capability, but as a practical skill that anyone can learn.
If you live near Central Park or some other local chess hub, you’re likely never short of opponents for a good game. If you find yourself looking for a computer opponent, or you just prefer playing online, you might like this LED chessboard from [DIY Machines] instead.
At heart, it’s basically a regular chessboard with addressable LEDs of the WS2812B variety under each square. The lights are under the command of an Arduino Nano, which is also tasked with reading button inputs from the board’s side panel. The Nano is interfaced with a Raspberry Pi, which is the true brains of the operation. The Pi handles chess tasks—checking the validity of moves, acting as a computer opponent, and connecting online for games against other humans if so desired. Everything is wrapped up with 3D printed parts, making this an easy project to build for the average DIY maker.
[Stephen] has a basement that depends on a sump pump. What that means is if the pump fails or the power goes out, the basement floods—which is rather undesirable. Not wanting to rely on a single point of failure, [Stephen] decided to build a monitor for the basement situation, which quickly spiralled to a greater degree of complexity than he initially expected.
The initial plan was just to have water level sensors reporting data over a modified CATS packet radio transmitter. On the other end, the plan was to capture the feed via a CATS receiver, pipe the data to the internet via FELINET, and then have the data displayed on a Grafana dashboard. Simple enough. From there, though, [Stephen] started musing on the possibilities. He thought about capturing humidity data to verify the dehumidifier was working. Plus, temperature would be handy to get early warning before any pipes were frozen in colder times. Achieving those aims would be easy enough with a BME280 sensor, though hacking it into the CATS rig was a little challenging.
The results are pretty neat, though. [Stephen] can now track all the vital signs of his basement remotely, with all the data displayed elegantly on a nice Grafana dashboard. If you’re looking to get started on a similar project, we’ve featured a great Grafana guide at a previous Supercon, just by the by. All in all, [Stephen’s] project may have a touch of the old overkill, but sometimes, the most rewarding projects are the ones you pour your heart and soul into!
Analog dials used to be a pretty common way of displaying information on test equipment and in industrial applications. They fell out of favor as more advanced display technologies became cheaper. However, if you combine an analog dial with a modern e-ink display, it turns out you get something truly fantastic indeed.
This build comes to us from [Arne]. The concept is simple—get an e-ink display, and draw a dial on it using whatever graphics and scale you choose. Then, put it behind a traditional coil-driven analog dial in place of the more traditional paper scale. Now, you have an analog dial that can display any quantity you desire. Just update the screen to display a different scale as needed. Meanwhile, if you don’t need to change the display, the e-ink display will draw zero power and still display the same thing.
[Arne] explains how it all works in the writeup. It’s basically a LilyGo T5 ESP32 board with an e-ink screen attached, and it’s combined with a MF-110A multimeter. It’s super easy to buy that stuff and start tinkering with the concept yourself. [Arne] uses it with Home Assistant, which is as good an idea as any.
You get all the benefits of a redrawable display, with the wonderful visual tactility of a real analog dial. It’s a build that smashes old and new together in the best way possible. It doesn’t heart that [Arne] chose a great retro font for the dial, either. Applause all around!
Boats normally get around with propellers or water jets for propulsion. Occasionally, they use paddles. [Engineering After Hours] claims he is “changing the boat game forever” with his new 3D printed boat design that uses a tank tread for propulsion instead. Forgive him for the hyperbole of the YouTuber. It’s basically a modified paddle design, but it’s also pretty cool.
It works on land, even if it doesn’t steer well!
The basic idea is simple enough—think “floating snowmobile” and you’re in the ballpark. In the water, the chunky tank track provides forward propulsion with its paddle-like treads. It’s not that much different from a paddle wheel steamer. However, where it diverges is that it’s more flexible than a traditional paddle wheel.
The tracked design is actually pretty good at propelling the boat in shallow water without getting stuck. In fact, it works pretty well on dirt, too! The video covers the basic concept, but it also goes into some detail regarding optimizing the design, too. Getting the float and track geometry right is key to performance, after all.
Drilling holes can be quite time consuming work, particularly if you have to drill a lot of them. Think about all the hassle of grabbing a part, fixturing it in the drill press, lining it up, double checking, and then finally making the hole. That takes some time, and that’s no good if you’ve got lots of parts to drill. There’s an easy way around that, though. Build yourself a rad jig like [izzy swan] did.
The first jig we get to see is simple. It has a wooden platter, which hosts a fixture for a plastic enclosure to slot perfectly into place. Also on the platter is a regular old power drill. The platter also has a crank handle which, when pulled, pivots the platter, runs the power drill, and forces it through the enclosure in the exact right spot. It’s makes drilling a hole in the enclosure a repeatable operation that takes just a couple of seconds. The jig gets it right every time.
The video gets better from there, though. We get to see even niftier jigs that feature multiple drills, all doing their thing in concert with just one pull of a lever. [izzy] then shows us how these jigs are built from the ground up. It’s compelling stuff.
If you’re doing any sort of DIY manufacturing in real numbers, you’ve probably had to drill a lot of holes before. Jig making skills could really help you if that’s the case. Video after the break.
If you’ve ever worked with guitar pedals or analog audio gear, you’ve probably realized the value of a resistor decade box. They substitute for a resistor in a circuit and let you quickly flick through a few different values at the twist of a knob. You can still buy them if you know where to look, but [M Caldeira] decided to build his own.
At its core, the decade box relies on a number of 11-position rotary switches. Seven are used in this case—covering each “decade” of resistances, from 1 ohm to 10 ohm and all the way up to 1 megaohm. The 11 positions on each switch allows the selection of a given resistance. For example, position 7 on the 100 ohm switch selects 700 ohms, and adds it to the total resistance of the box.
[M Caldeira] did a good job of building the basic circuit, as well as assembling it in an attractive, easy-to-use way. It should serve him well on his future audio projects and many others besides. It’s a simple thing, but sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than building your own tools.
Whether you’re a kid or a kid at heart, learning about science and engineering can be a lot more fun if it’s practical. You could sit around learning about motors and control theory, or you could build a robot arm and play with it. If the latter sounds like your bag of hammers, you might like Pedro 2.0.
Pedro 2.0 is a simple 3D-printable robot arm intended for STEAM education. If you’re new to that acronym, it basically refers to the combination of artistic skills with education around science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The build relies on components that are readily available pretty much around the world—SG90 servo motors, ball bearings, and an Arduino running the show. There’s also an NRF24L01 module for wireless remote control. All the rest of the major mechanical parts can be whipped up on a 3D printer, and you don’t need a particularly special one, either. Any old FDM machine should do the job just fine if it’s calibrated properly.
If you fancy dipping your toes in the world of robot arms, this is a really easy starting point that will teach you a lot along the way. From there, you can delve into more advanced designs, or even consider constructing your own tentacles. The world really is your octopus oyster.
A mouse is just two buttons, and a two-dimensional motion tracking system, right? Oh, and a scroll wheel. And a third button. And…now you’re realizing that mice can be pretty complicated. [DIY Yarik] proves that in spades with his impressive—and complex—mouse build. The only thing is, you might argue it isn’t really a mouse.
The inspiration for the mouse was simple. [Yarik] wanted something that was comfortable to use. He also wanted a mouse that wouldn’t break so often—apparently, he’s had a lot of reliability issues with mice in recent years. Thus, he went with a custom 3D-printed design with a wrist rest at the base. This allows his hand to naturally rest in a position where he can access multiple buttons and a central thumbstick for pointing. In fact, there’s a secondary scroll control and a rotary dial as well. It’s a pretty juicy control surface. Code is up on GitHub.
The use of a thumbstick is controversial—some might exclaim “this is not a mouse!” To them, I say, “Fine, call it a pointing device.” It’s still cool, and it look like a comfortable way to interface with a computer.
We’ve seen some other neat custom mice over the years, too, like this hilarious force-feedback mouse. Video after the break.
Hydrogen! It’s a highly flammable gas that seems way too cool to be easy to come by. And yet, it’s actually trivial to make it out of water if you know how. [Maciej Nowak] has shown us how to do just that with his latest build.
The project in question is a simple hydrogen generator that relies on the electrolysis of water. Long story short, run a current through water and you can split H2O molecules up and make H2 and O2 molecules instead. From water, you get both hydrogen to burn and the oxygen to burn it in! Even better, when you do burn the hydrogen, it combines with the oxygen to make water again! It’s all too perfect.
This particular hydrogen generator uses a series of acrylic tanks. Each is fitted with electrodes assembled from threaded rods to pass current through water. The tops of the tanks have barbed fittings which allow the gas produced to be plumbed off to another storage vessel for later use. The video shows us the construction of the generator, but we also get to see it in action—both in terms of generating gas from the water, and that gas later being used in some fun combustion experiments.
Pedants will point out this isn’t really just a hydrogen generator, because it’s generating oxygen too. Either way, it’s still cool. We’ve featured a few similar builds before as well.
Collecting retrocomputers is fun, especially when you find fully-functional examples that you can plug in, switch on, and start playing with. Meanwhile, others prefer to find the damaged examples and nurse them back to health. [polymatt] can count himself in that category, as evidenced by his heroic rescue of an 1993 IBM ThinkPad Tablet.
The tablet came to [polymatt] in truly awful condition. Having been dropped at least once, the LCD screen was cracked, the case battered, and all the plastics were very much the worse for wear. Many of us would consider it too far gone, especially considering that replacement parts for such an item are virtually unobtainable. And yet, [polymatt] took on the challenge nonetheless.
Despite its condition, there were some signs of life in the machine. The pen-based touch display seemed to respond to the pen itself, and the backlight sort of worked, too. Still, with the LCD so badly damaged, it had to be replaced. Boggling the mind, [polymatt] was actually able to find a 9.4″ dual-scan monochrome LCD that was close enough to sort-of fit, size-wise. To make it work, though, it needed a completely custom mount to fit with the original case and electromagnetic digitizes sheet. From there, there was plenty more to do—recapping, recabling, fixing the batteries, and repairing the enclosure including a fresh set of nice decals.
The fact is, 1993 IBM ThinkPad Tablets just don’t come along every day. These rare specimens are absolutely worth this sort of heroic restoration effort if you do happen to score one on the retro market. Video after the break.
You might think that visualizing music with lasers would be a complicated and difficult affair. In fact, it’s remarkably simple if you want it to be, and [byte_thrasher] shows us just how easy it can be.
At heart, what you’re trying to do is make a laser trace out waveforms of the music you’re listening to, right? So you just need a way to move the laser’s beam along with the sound waves from whatever you’re listening to. You might be thinking about putting a laser on the head of a servo-operated platform fed movement instructions from a digital music file, but you’d be way over-complicating things. You already have something that moves with the music you play — a speaker!
[byte_thrasher’s] concept is simple. Get a Bluetooth speaker, and stick it in a bowl. Cover the bowl with a flexible membrane, like plastic wrap. Stick a small piece of mirror on the plastic. When you play music with the speaker, the mirror will vibrate and move in turn. All you then have to do is aim a safe laser in a safe direction such that it bounces off the mirror and projects on to a surface. Then, the laser will dance with your tunes, and it’ll probably look pretty cool!
put a bluetooth speaker in a bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap pulled taut, glue a shard of mirror to the plastic wrap, point a laser beam at the mirror so that it bounces off towards the ceiling, play music, enjoy pic.twitter.com/Vs6lBJihCg
These days, the vast majority of portable media users are storing their files on some kind of Microsoft-developed file system. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, though, things were different. You absolutely could not expect a floppy disk from one type of computer to work in another. That is, unless you had a magical three-format disk, as [RobSmithDev] explains.
The tri-format disk was a special thing. It was capable of storing data in Amiga, PC, and Atari ST formats. This was of benefit for cover disks—a magazine could put out content for users across all three brands, rather than having to ship multiple disks to suit different machines.
[RobSmithDev] started investigating by reading the tri-format disk with his DiskFlashback tool. The tool found two separate filesystems. The Amiga filesystem took up 282 KB of space. The second filesystem contained two folders—one labelled PC, the other labelled ST. The Atari ST folder contained 145KB of data, while the PC folder used 248 KB. From there, we get a breakdown on how the data for each format is spread across the disk, right down to the physical location of the data. The different disk formats of each system allowed data to be scattered across the disk such that each type of computer would find its relevant data where it expected it to be.
Once upon a time, computers didn’t really have enough resources to play back high-quality audio. It took too much RAM and too many CPU cycles and it was just altogether too difficult. Instead, they relied upon synthesizing audio from basic instructions to make sounds and music. [caiannello] has taken advantage of this with the WAV2VGM project.
The basic concept is straightforward enough—you put a WAV audio file into the tool, and it spits out synthesis instructions for the classic OPL3 sound card. The Python script only works with 16-bit mono WAV files with a 44,100 Hz sample rate.
Amazingly, check the samples, and you’ll find the output is pretty recognizable. You can take a song with lyrics (like Still Alive from Portal), turn it into instructions for an OPL3, and it’s pretty intelligible. It sounds… glitchy and damaged, but it’s absolutely understandable.
It’s a fun little retro project that, admittedly, doesn’t have a lot of real applications. Still, if you’re making a Portal clone for an ancient machine with an OPL3 compatible sound chip, maybe this is the best way to do the theme song? If you’re working on exactly that, by some strange coincidence, be sure to let us know when you’re done!
If you’re unfamiliar, the Unnamed SDVX Clone is basically a community-built game that’s inspired by the original Konami titles. [Luke] decided to build a handheld console for playing the game, which is more akin to the arcade experience versus playing it on a desktop computer.
[Luke’s] build relies on a Raspberry Pi 4B, which donates its considerable processing power and buckets of RAM to the project. The Pi was installed into a 3D-printed case with a battery pack, touchscreen, and speakers, along with multiple arcade buttons and rotary encoders for controlling the game. Booting the Pi and clicking the icon on the desktop starts up the Unnamed Sound Voltex Clone. The game itself will be fairly familiar to any rhythm game player, though it’s a tough more sophisticated than Audiosurf. [Luke] demonstrates the gameplay on YouTube, and the finished project looks great.
The concept was to build a better water gun with longer range—and what better way to do that than by shooting ice instead? The blaster relies on a PVC air tank for propulsion—one of the most controversial design choices you can make if you read the comments around here. It’s charged by a small air compressor, and dumping the air is handled by a solenoid valve. So far, so simple.
What makes this blaster special is where it gets its ammunition from. The blaster uses a custom CNC-machined block from PCBway to act as a freeze chamber. Water enters an aluminum block, and is cooled by thermoelectric elements. Once the projectile has frozen inside the chamber, it’s stuck in place, so the chamber is then heated by a small heating element. This melts the projectile just enough to allow it to be fired.
It’s a complicated but ingenious way of building an ice blaster. It does pack some real punch, too. It shoots the ice projectiles hard enough to shatter wine glasses. That’s enough to tell us you don’t want to be aiming this thing at your pals in a friendly match of Capture the Flag. Stick to paintballs, perhaps. Video after the break.
[Sebastian’s] build is able to tell both wind speed and direction—and with no moving parts! Sort of, anyway. That makes the design altogether different from the usual cup type anemometers with wind vanes that you might be used to seeing on home weather stations. [Sebastian] wanted to go a different route—he wanted a sensor that wouldn’t be so subject to physical wear over time.
The build relies on strain gauges. Basically, [Sebastian] 3D printed a sail-like structure that will flex under the influence of the wind. With multiple strain gauges mounted on the structure, it’s possible to determine the strength of the wind making it flex and in what direction. [Sebastian] explains how this is achieved, particularly involving the way the device compensates for typical expansion and contraction due to temperature changes.
It’s a really unique way to measure wind speed and direction; we’d love to learn more about how it performs in terms of precision, accuracy, and longevity—particularly with regards to regular mechanical and ultrasonic designs. We’ll be keeping a close eye on [Sebastian’s] work going forward. Video after the break.
Do you remember the fourth-place winner in the 2022 Hackaday Prize? If it’s slipped your mind, that’s okay—it was Boondock Echo. It was a radio project that aimed to make it easy to record and playback conversations from two-way radio communications. The project was entered via Hackaday.io, the judges dug it, and it was one of the top projects of that year’s competition.
The talk begins with a simple video explainer of the Boondock Echo project. Basically, it points out the simple problem with two-way radio communications. If you’re not sitting in front of the receiver at the right time, you’re going to miss the message someone’s trying to send you. Unlike cellular communications, Skype calls, or email, there’s no log of missed calls or messages waiting for you. If you weren’t listening, you’re out of luck.
The device works with conventional amateur radios and can capture messages, store them in the cloud, and even react to them.
Mark was inspired to create a device to solve these problems by his father’s experience as an emergency responder with FEMA. Often, his father would tell stories about problems with radios and missed transmissions, and Mark had always wondered if something could be done.
Boondock Echo is the device that hopes to change all that. It’s a device designed for recording and playback of two-way radio communications. The hardware is based around the ESP32, which is able to capture analog audio from a radio, digitize it, and submit it to the Boondock Echo online service. This also enables more advanced features—the system can transcribe audio to text, and even do keyword monitoring on the results and email you any important relevant messages.
The Boondock Echo service can be set up to react to keywords and provide notifications in turn.
Rather amazingly, Hackaday actually helped spawn this project. Mark had an idea of what Boondock Echo should do, but he didn’t feel like he had the full set of technical skills to implement it. Then, Mark met KC via a Hackaday Hackchat, and the two started a partnership to develop the project further. Eventually, they won fourth place in the 2022 Hackaday Prize, which netted them a tasty $10,000 which they could use to develop the project further. They then brought in Mark’s friend Jesse on the hardware side, and things really got rolling.
The hope was to start producing and delivering Boondock Echo devices. Of course, nobody is immune to production hell, and it was no different for this team. KC dives into the story of how the device relied on the ESP32-A1S module. When they went to make more, this turned out to be problematic. They found some of the purchased modules worked and some didn’t. Stripping the RF shields off the pre-baked modules, they found that while they all included audio codec chips marked “8388,” some modules had a different layout and functioned differently. And these were parts with FCC IDs, identical part numbers, and everything! This turned into a huge mess that derailed the project for some time. The project had to be retooled to work with the ESP32-based AI Thinker Audio Kit, to which they added a custom “sidekick” board to handle interfacing with the desired radio hardware.
Dodgy parts caused a great deal of trouble for the team.
Mark notes that there were some organizational lessons learned through this difficult journey. He talks about the value of planning and budgets when it comes to any attempt to escape the “Valley of Death” as a nascent startup. Mark also explains how Boondock Echo came to seek investors to grow further when he realized they didn’t have the resources to make it on their own.
“You don’t go out asking for $10,000 from family and friends, you go out and you ask for a heck of a lot more than that from professional investors,” explains Mark. “It’s a lot easier to come up with $100,000 than $10,000, because the venture capitalists don’t play in the $10,000 price range.” Of course, he notes that this comes with a tradeoff—investors want a stake in the company in exchange for cold, hard cash. Moving to this mode of operation involved creating a company and then dividing up shares for all the relevant stakeholders—a unique challenge of its own. Mark and KC explain how they handled the growing pains and grew their team from there.
The successful live demo was a moment of some joy. It used a modified Supercon badge to display transcription of an audio message captured by a Boondock Echo device.
The rest of the talk covers the product itself, and we get a demo of what it can do. KC and Mark show us how the Boondock Echo units capture audio, record it, and submit it to the cloud. From there, we get to see how things like AI transcription, keyword triggers, and notifications work, and there’s even a fun live demo. Beyond that, Mark explains how you can order the hardware via CrowdSupply, and sign up with the Boondock Echo cloud service.
It’s not just neat to see a cool project, it’s neat to see something like this grow from an idea into a fully-fledged business. Even better, it grew out of the Hackaday community itself, and has flourished from there. It’s a wonderful testament to what hackers can achieve with a good idea and the will to pursue it.
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