Electromechanical Atari is a Steampunk Meccano MasterpieceIf William Gibson and Bruce Sterling had written an arcade scene into “The Difference Engine”, it probably would have looked a lot like [Pete Wood]’s Meccano Martian Mission, as illustrated in the video below by the [London Meccano Club]. Meccano Martian Mission is an homage to Atari’s 1978 Lunar Lander video game, but entirely electromechanical and made of– you guessed it– Meccano.

You might think Meccano is “too modern” to count as steampunk, but it squeaks just into the Victorian era. The first sets hit stores in 1901, the last year of Queen Victoria’s long reign. Since then, Meccano has developed a large following that has produced some truly impressive constructions, and this arcade game can stand amongst the best of them.
The game has all the features of the original: a swiveling spaceship, two-axis speed control, and even a little yellow flame that pops out when you are applying thrust. There’s a timer and a fuel gauge, and just like the original, there are easier and harder landing pads that offer score multipliers. While the score must be totted up manually, the game will detect a crash and flag it with a pop-down banner. It really has to be seen to be believed. It’s all done with cams and differentials hitting potentiometers and microswitches — not an Arduino in sight; [Pete] does a good job explaining it in the second half of the embedded video, starting about 10 minutes in.
The brains of the operation: cams and gears, and ingenuity.
Sure, might not be new or groundbreaking — these are old, old techniques — but not many people know them well enough to use them anymore, especially not with this degree of sophistication. To see these electromechanical techniques applied anachronistically to replicate one of the great pioneers of the arcade world tickles our fancy. It’s no wonder that perfecting this mechanical marvel has taken [Pete Wood] a decade.
The project reminds us of the Meccano Pinball Machine featured here years ago, but that somehow felt like a more natural fit for the apparently undead building kits. We lamented Meccano’s demise in 2023,but the brand is apparently being revived this year. Hopefully, that means there can be more young members for the [London Meccano Club] and groups like them, to keep the perforated-steel flame alive through another six reigns.
This hack is the bee’s knees, and we’re very thankful to [Tim Surtell] for the tip. Remember, the tip line is always open!.

Jason’s Piano & API Drums instruments from Sulcata Sound Sulcata Sound is the latest venture of Jason Graves, a two-time British Academy Award-winnning composer, producer and percussionist renowned for his work on titles such as Still Wakes The Deep, Dead Space, Tomb Raider, Far Cry Primal, Until Dawn and Prey.

Xilentch XMLimiter V3 Final Mastering Peak Limiter We're picking up right where we left off! No signal smearing! No stereo narrowing! No spectral shifts or transient loss! Because at the heart of this plugin lies an ultra-transparent philosophy. It tends to deliver much higher loudness compared to its competitors— but it does so in a very different way, without sacrificing that sought-after analog feel. And best of all: it does this without making you feel the difference between the original and the processed signal. Here's what's new: Unfortunately, this will be the final update. Now performs internal x16 oversampling. A numeric readout has been added to the gain reduction meter, with improved response speed. The color palette has been changed for both the interface and the gain reduction meter. Minor UI tweaks. Major DSP improvements, now with a more detailed dual-stage processing structure. As always, the plugin is FREE. If you'd like to support, donations are welcome! Just reach out if you'd like to contribute. Read More

Amazon signs nuclear energy deal to power AI data centersAmazon joins a growing list of tech companies shifting to nuclear power to meet the energy-intensive needs of artificial intelligence.

LED Probe: A Smart, Simple Solution for Testing LEDsIf you’ve worked on a project with small LEDs, you know the frustration of determining their polarity. This ingenious LED Probe from [David] packs a lot of useful features into a simple, easy-to-implement circuit.
Most multimeters have a diode test function that can be used to check LEDs; however, this goes a step further. Not only will the probe light up an LED, it will light up no matter which side of the LED the leads are touching. A  Red/Green LED on the probe will indicate if the probe tip is on the anode or cathode.
The probe is powered by a single CR2032 battery, and you may notice there’s no on/off switch. That’s because the probe enters a very low-current sleep mode between uses. The testing intelligence is handled by either an ATtiny85 or, in the newest version, an ATtiny202, though the basic concept and design are compatible with several other chips. All the design files for the PCB, the ATtiny code, a parts list, and a detailed explanation of how it works are available on [David]’s site, so be sure to check them out. Once you build one of these probes, you’ll want something to test it on, so explore some of the LED projects we’ve featured in the past.

Google reportedly plans to cut ties with Scale AIMeta’s massive investment in Scale AI may be giving some of the startup’s biggest customers pause. Reuters reports that Google had planned to pay Scale AI $200 million this year but is now planning to cut ties with the startup and is having conversations with its competitors.

DIY and Independent Musician News Last WeekLast week in DIY and independent musician news last week range from a DIY social media makeover, to new TikTok artist marketing tools, and more...
The post DIY and Independent Musician News Last Week appeared first on Hypebot.

Music Business News Last Week: Grammys, PROs, Ticketing, MoreTop music business news last week included new Grammy categories, a critical look at PROs, a $1B Live Nation investment, a NY state ticketing bill and more.
The post Music Business News Last Week: Grammys, PROs, Ticketing, More appeared first on Hypebot.

Music Production for Women free in-person workshops Music Production for Women (MPW) have announced that they will be running a series of four music production workshops throughout July 2025 with the aim of empowering female and non-gender conforming musicians.

Music Production for Women announce free in-person workshops Music Production for Women (MPW) have announced that they will be running a series of four music production workshops throughout July 2025 with the aim of empowering female and non-gender conforming musicians.

Roland Joins NFL Media and James Fauntleroy to Support Foster YouthRoland Corporation announced Thursday that it has, "partnered with 4x GRAMMY award-winning songwriter James Fauntleroy to host a Beat Garden for foster youth through Open Your Doors Dream Week in May, supported by the National Football League (NFL).""Each year, Open Your Doors creates opportunities for foster youth around Los Angeles to explore careers across the entertainment industry," they said in a statement. "Roland and Fauntleroy’s Beat Garden, hosted at Laboratory Studio in Burbank, marked one of several stops with the acclaimed musician, joined by rapper Hit Boy, hosting a total of 10 foster youth to discuss music production careers and offer hands-on beatmaking with tools like the iconic Roland SP-404MKII sampler and TR-8S drum machine, as well as pocket-sized products from the AIRA Compact line.""Fauntleroy has championed music education for years," they continued. "His initial idea for Beat Garden stemmed from an experience he had growing up, which he largely credits for his successful career today. By creating an inviting space for youth to explore their creativity, he is planting the seed for future generations of creators. Further cementing his goals, he recently launched All NEW, a cutting-edge platform dedicated to providing opportunities for underrepresented creatives."“Supporting the next generation of musicians has always been a huge passion of mine, and it was an honor to be able to speak with several similarly-minded foster youth this week,” James Fauntleroy said. “If history is any indication, beatmaking’s future visionaries are coming from all types of backgrounds, which is one of the things that makes this industry so powerful. I’m excited to continue providing these types of opportunities to underserved communities through my partnerships with Roland and the NFL Media, along with my program All NEW.”“We’re proud to support the incredible work Open Your Doors is doing and to help create meaningful moments like this one,” said Seth Dudowsky, NFL Head of Music. “It’s inspiring to see young people embrace the opportunity, especially when guided by an artist like James, who genuinely cares about the next generation. These are the kinds of partnerships we’re excited to grow.”Open Your Doors Dream Week concludes on Friday, May 16. For more information about Open Your Doors and its initiatives, visit openyourdoors.org.The post Roland Joins NFL Media and James Fauntleroy to Support Foster Youth first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

ETH price trend data suggests all future dips are for buyingTechnical data and ETH accumulation trends suggest price dips in the $2,100 zone are strategic purchasing opportunities.

Clay secures a new round at a $3B valuation, sources sayThe sales automation startup doubles its valuation a month after launching a tender offer at $1.5 billion.

Adapting an Old Rotary Dial for Digital ApplicationsToday in old school nostalgia our tipster [Clint Jay] wrote in to let us know about this rotary dial.
If you’re a young whippersnapper you might never have seen a rotary dial. These things were commonly used on telephones back in the day, and they were notoriously slow to use. The way they work is that they generate a number of pulses corresponding to the number you want to dial in. One pulse for 1, two pulses for 2, and so on, up to nine pulses for 9, then ten pulses for 0.
We see circuits like this here at Hackaday from time to time. In fact, commonly we see them implemented as USB keyboards, such as in Rotary Dial Becomes USB Keyboard and Rotary Dialer Becomes Numeric Keypad.

One thing that makes this particular project different from the ones we’ve seen before is that it doesn’t require a microcontroller. That said, our hacker [Mousa] shows us how to interface this dial with an Arduino, along with sample code, if that’s something you’d like to do. The schematic for the project shows how to connect the rotary dial (salvaged from an old telephone) to both a 7-segment display and a collection of ten LEDs.
The project write-up includes links to the PCB design files. The guts of the project are a 4017 decade counter and a 4026 7-segment display adapter. Good, honest, old school digital logic.

Win an MPC Keys 37 and more with our AKAI community challenge
Create an original track inspired by the MPC's rich legacy for the chance to win an MPC Keys 37 from AKAI.