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Hi-fi, Radio, and Retro: The DIY Projects Spectrum Readers Love

Cars That Think

This month we’re celebrating the launch of our second PDF collection of Hands On articles, which IEEE members can download from IEEE Spectrum ’s website and share with friends. Far and away our most popular article in the last five years has been “ Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort of Cheap ” (November 2018).

DIY 99
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Can This DIY Rocket Program Send an Astronaut to Space?

Cars That Think

That successful mission in August 2018 was a huge step toward our goal of sending an amateur astronaut to the edge of space aboard one of our DIY rockets. supporters are counting down until the historic day when an amateur astronaut will climb aboard a homemade rocket and wave goodbye to Earth, ready to take a giant leap for DIY-kind.

DIY 139
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DIY Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy with a Raspberry Pi Pico

Cars That Think

So when I decided to build a cheap DIY scintillating gamma spectrometer, it was the natural choice—although I didn’t realize I’d find myself navigating around teething problems of the sort that often affect a first-generation integrated circuit. This article appears in the July 2022 print issue as “DIY Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy.”.

DIY 101
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A DIY Electric and Hybrid Car Maintenance Guide

Clean Fleet Report

A DIY Electric and Hybrid Car Maintenance Guide Essential Tools and Tips to Get You Started This article may contain affiliate links. Essential Tools for Electric and Hybrid Car Maintenance Understanding which quality mechanics tools and other essential supplies you need is the first step in DIY maintenance.

DIY 86
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A DIY E-bike Conversion on the Cheap

Cars That Think

This article appears in the September 2021 print issue as "An Instant E-bike.". While loitering along, experimenting with the controls, I was passed by a college student on a mountain bike who must have thought this gray-bearded old-timer on a four-decade-old 12-speed was huffing and puffing. As I raced ahead, I chuckled to myself. "OK

DIY 145
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EV Transmissions Are Awesome!

CleanTechnica EVs

Just over two years ago, I wrote an article discussing upcoming EV transmissions. Since then, we’ve seen a number of EVs and plugin hybrids that use a transmission, and the advantages that were mathematically predictable (as well as known from the DIY EV scene that predated mass EV production) became a reality.

DIY 145
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A Web-Enabled, High Quality, DIY Audio Amp

Cars That Think

November 2018 Hands On article, “DIY Pro Audio ” in IEEE Spectrum , and it convinced me it was possible, although I wanted to go beyond just a power amplifier to something more like my lamented Sansui. In commercial product development, an optimized microcontroller would be the way to go, but for my DIY project, a Pi was perfect.

DIY 100