Hackaday Podcast Ep 347: Breaking Kindles, Baby's First Synth, and Barcodes!
Nov 28, 2025
This week, the hosts dive into some fascinating hacks, including a toddler-friendly synth designed for little hands. They also explore a project that uses gyroscopes to measure Earth’s rotation. A heated seat retrofit for vehicles using advanced tech captures attention, while an assistive radio speaks frequencies to aid visually impaired users. Plus, learn about the quirky world of hacking Kindles and the intriguing discussion around disappearing car door handles. A perfect blend of creativity and engineering!
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Home Library Built From Barcodes
- Christina Panos built a barcode-based home library with check-in/check-out and created EAN-13 codes starting with 988 for books lacking barcodes.
- She scanned over 100 books and used a handheld 1D scanner but found some generated codes wouldn't read.
MEMS Gyros Can Measure Earth's Rotation
- MEMS gyroscopes are sensitive enough to detect Earth's rotation when you average massive samples and cancel sensor bias.
- Elliot Williams highlights using two gyros and flipping orientations to remove bias and reveal the 0.00417 Hz rotation.
Use Averaging And Flips To Extract Tiny Signals
- Average thousands of sensor readings to extract sub-LSB signals and reduce noise.
- Flip paired sensors 180° in different orientations to cancel bias before computing the mean.