Build Your Own Compact Temp Gun

Sometimes you need to know what temperature something is, but you don’t quite want to touch it. At times like these, you might want a temp gun on hand to get a good reading, like the one [Arnov Sharma] built.

The build is a relatively simple one, and is based around an Waveshare ESP32 C6 development module that comes with a small LCD screen out of the box. The microcontroller is set up to read an MLX90614 infrared temperature sensor. This device picks up the infrared energy that is emitted by objects relative to their temperature. The sensor has a great range—from -70 C to 380 C. The readouts from this sensor are then displayed on the screen. Battery power is from a small 600 mAh LiPo cell, which is managed by a IP5306 charge module.

It’s worth noting that these infrared temperature sensors aren’t infallible devices. The temperature they perceive is based on certain assumptions about factors like an objects emissivity. Thus, they don’t always give accurate readings on metallic or shiny objects, for example. It’s also important to understand the sensor’s field of view. Despite many commercial versions featuring a laser pointer for aiming, many of these infrared temperature sensors tend to average their reading over a small spot that gets larger the farther away they are from the object being measured.

Tools like portable temp guns are pretty cheap, but sometimes it’s just fun to build your own. Plus, you usually learn something along the way. Video after the break.

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hackaday.com/2025/11/28/build-…

UK National Emergency Briefing, 27th November 2025

TL;DR
This video is a recording of a "National Emergency Briefing" held in Westminster on 27th November 2025. Hosted by Mike Berners-Lee and Chris Packham, a panel of UK experts argue that the country faces an existential "poly-crisis" due to climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. Key points include the failure of COP30, the "death" of the 1.5°C target, and the immediate risk of catastrophic tipping points (like the collapse of the Atlantic current which would freeze the UK). The speakers call for "World War II style leadership," a radical shift to plant-based diets, and a mandated public information campaign to counter fossil-fuel-funded misinformation.

Detailed Summary

Introduction & Context

* Chris Packham opens by criticising the recent COP30 conference, describing it as "trashed" by fossil fuel lobbyists and resulting in no meaningful action. He argues that government and media are failing to convey the gravity of the situation.

* Mike Berners-Lee (Chair) states the purpose of the briefing is to "reset the national conversation" and face the escalating crisis together.

The Scientific & Environmental Reality

* Nature Crisis (Prof. Natalie Seddon): Describes nature not as a luxury but as "critical national infrastructure." The UK is in the bottom 10% globally for biodiversity. Restoring nature is essential for flood defence, food security, and economic stability.

* Climate Policy (Prof. Kevin Anderson): Declares the 1.5°C target "dead" and warns the world is heading for 2–4°C warming. He dismisses "delay technologies" like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and argues the UK must eliminate fossil fuel use by around 2039 to meet fair equity targets.

* Extreme Weather (Prof. Hayley Fowler): Highlights that UK winter rainfall has increased by 10% since 1980. She warns that Victorian-era infrastructure (like dams) is at risk of failure and that heatwaves are intensifying faster than models predicted.

* Tipping Points (Prof. Tim Lenton): discusses the risk of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapsing. If this tips, it would radically alter the UK climate—potentially dropping Edinburgh winter temperatures to -30°C while summer heatwaves continue, effectively destroying UK agriculture.

Societal & Economic Impacts

* Food Security (Prof. Paul Behrens): The UK imports ~50% of its food. Climate chaos in global breadbaskets threatens this supply. He advocates for a rapid shift to a plant-rich diet to free up land (an area the size of Scotland) for carbon sequestration and nature restoration.

* Health (Prof. Hugh Montgomery): Frames the climate crisis as a medical emergency. He warns of economic collapse making the NHS unsustainable and cites huge potential savings (e.g., £126bn/year) from addressing obesity and diet alongside climate action.

* National Security (Lt. Gen. Richard Nugee): Describes climate change as a "threat multiplier" leading to conflict over resources (water, food). He notes the military is adapting but warns that cascading crises could lead to an "ungovernable state."

* Economy (Angela Francis): Argues that the green transition is cheaper than inaction ("bad argument: we can't afford it"). She stresses that the UK cannot rely on the "old world" economy and must change market rules to reward sustainable businesses.

* Energy Transition (Tessa Khan): Points out that fossil fuel reliance caused the recent cost-of-living crisis. Renewables are described as the only path to affordable, secure energy, with a call to break the link between gas and electricity prices.

Call to Action

* Public Awareness Campaign: Actor Olivia Williams reads a letter addressed to the government and major broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4). It demands they fulfill their legal obligation to inform the public by holding an urgent, televised national emergency briefing and running a comprehensive engagement campaign to explain the risks and necessary actions to the British public.

youtube.com/live/2-PFKT1SNc4?s…

Generated by Gemini from GBNews YouTube recording.

#Chatcontrol "Il Consiglio #UE mira a legalizzare in modo permanente un regime di sorveglianza di massa in cui:

1. La tecnologia ha tassi di errore a due cifre (Yubo).
2. L’efficacia (convinzioni) non è dimostrata.
3. La supervisione (raccolta dati) è disfunzionale
4. Gli obiettivi (chat crittografate) sono sempre più immuni."

pirati.io/2025/11/rapporto-di-…

Questo argomento è solo secondario: anche un sistema efficiente, infatti, violerebbe il diritto a non essere sorvegliati senza motivato mandato dell'autorità giudiziaria.

È però molto utile per dimostrare che la protezione dei bambini è soltanto un pretesto al servizio del fine di ridurre tutti come bambini sotto la sorveglianza di un dispotismo paternalistico, reso totalitario dalla saldatura fra stati e monopoli privati.

E per di più la stessa autorità che si adopera per smantellare i diritti delle democrazie liberali cerca contemporaneamente di trascinare gli europei al suicidio bellico allo scopo (nominale) di difendere il medesimo ordine che sta cercando di distruggere.

Chi è il nemico più pericoloso?

La Russia sta deteriorando la connettività WhatsApp e si prevede che presto verrà bloccato

Il Roskomnadzor della Federazione Russa ha annunciato che continua a imporre restrizioni sistematiche all’app di messaggistica WhatsApp a causa di violazioni della legge russa. Secondo l’agenzia, il servizio viene utilizzato per organizzare e compiere attacchi terroristici in Russia, reclutare terroristi e commettere frodi e altri reati contro i cittadini.

Il rapporto afferma che WhatsApp non rispetta i requisiti volti a prevenire e combattere la criminalità in Russia. L’autorità di regolamentazione ha sottolineato che, in tali circostanze, le restrizioni al servizio di messaggistica saranno estese e, se continuerà a non rispettare la legge russa, il servizio potrebbe essere completamente bloccato nel Paese.

Il Roskomnadzor ha ricordato agli utenti che il graduale deterioramento delle chiamate vocali e video di WhatsApp è iniziato ad agosto. Le restrizioni vengono introdotte gradualmente per consentire agli utenti di passare ad altri servizi. L’agenzia raccomanda di scegliere app di messaggistica nazionali e afferma esplicitamente che, se la situazione attuale dovesse persistere, il blocco potrebbe diventare la misura definitiva.

Andrey Svintsov, vicepresidente della Commissione per la politica dell’informazione, le tecnologie dell’informazione e le comunicazioni della Duma di Stato, ha dichiarato a NEWS.ru che prevede che WhatsApp verrà completamente bloccato in Russia nei prossimi mesi.

Stima che ciò potrebbe accadere entro quattro-sei mesi. Ritiene che questo non rappresenterà un problema critico per gli utenti, osservando che Viber, un tempo popolare, è di fatto scomparso dalla scena pubblica dopo il suo fallimento, e suggerisce che una situazione simile potrebbe verificarsi anche per WhatsApp.

Svintsov ha sottolineato che, a suo avviso, il blocco è dovuto al rifiuto dei creatori del servizio di messaggistica di collaborare con le autorità russe.

Ha sottolineato che WhatsApp è di proprietà di Meta (considerata un’organizzazione estremista in Russia, le cui attività sono vietate) e che i dati dei cittadini russi sono archiviati all’estero. Il deputato afferma che il servizio trasmette informazioni personali, aziendali e talvolta critiche, e sostiene che questi dati vengano utilizzati dalle agenzie di intelligence occidentali, anche nel contesto della lotta alla Russia.

Alla luce di ciò, conclude che, a suo avviso, “saranno necessarie ulteriori restrizioni al servizio di messaggistica”.

L'articolo La Russia sta deteriorando la connettività WhatsApp e si prevede che presto verrà bloccato proviene da Red Hot Cyber.

Hackaday Podcast Episode 347: Breaking Kindles, Baby’s First Synth, and Barcodes!

This week, Hackaday’s Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up over coffee to bring you the latest news, mystery sound, and of course, a big bunch of hacks from the previous seven days or so.

On What’s That Sound, Kristina got sort of close, but of course failed spectacularly. Will you fare better and perhaps win a Hackaday Podcast t-shirt? Mayhap you will.

After that, it’s on to the hacks and such, beginning with an interesting tack to take with a flat-Earther that involves two gyroscopes. And we take a look at the design requirements when it comes to building synths for three-year-olds.

Then we discuss several awesome hacks such as a vehicle retrofit to add physical heated seat controls, an assistive radio that speaks the frequencies, and an acoustic radiometer build. Finally, we look at the joys of hacking an old Kindle, and get a handle on disappearing door handles.

Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/…

Download in DRM-free MP3 and savor at your leisure.

Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast

Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:

• iTunes
• Spotify
• Stitcher
• RSS
• YouTube
• Check out our Libsyn landing page

Episode 347 Show Notes:

News:

• No news is good news! So we talk about Thanksgiving and what we’ve learned recently.

What’s that Sound?

• Who can say? Maybe you!

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

• Measuring Earth’s Rotation With Two Gyroscopes
  
  • No More Compass: True North via Earth s Rotation

  
  

• Baby’s First Synth Was Daddy’s First Project
• Barcodes, “Lasers”, And Fourier Transforms
  
  • The Eloquence Of The Barcode

  
  

• Retrofits Done Right: Physical Controls For Heated Seats
• Expensive Batteries Hide Cheap Tricks
• Assistive Radio Tells You What You Can’t See
  
  • Elli Furedy Brings Cyberpunk Games To Life

  
  

Quick Hacks:

• Elliot’s Picks:
  
  • A PCB Can Be A Hydrofoil, If It Really Wants To
  • There’s Nothing Backwards About This Laser Cut Retrograde Clock
  • Building An Acoustic Radiometer

  
  

• Kristina’s Picks:
  
  • DIY TENS Machine Is A Pain-Relief PCB
  • DIY Polyphonic Synth Sings In 8-Part Harmony
  • Handling Human Waste In The Sky

  
  

Can’t-Miss Articles:

• The Unexpected Joys Of Hacking An Old Kindle
• Chinese Regulators May Kill Retractable Car Door Handles That Never Should Have Existed

hackaday.com/2025/11/28/hackad…

USB DAC Comes With Graphic EQ

[shiura] had a problem — they wanted a nice high-quality audio output for their computer, but they didn’t fancy any of the DACs that were readily available on the market. They specifically wanted one that was affordable, capable, and included a graphic equalizer so they could simply hook it up to a regular amplifier and dial in the perfect sound. When they couldn’t find such a device, they decided to build their own.

The build is based around a Raspberry Pi Pico, chosen for its feature set that makes it easy to configure as a USB audio device. It’s paired with a Waveshare Pico Audio module, which is based on the PCM5101A stereo DAC and slots neatly on top of the microcontroller board. An SPI-controlled LCD screen was also fitted in order to display the graphic equalizer interface that [shiura] whipped up. The project write-up explains the code required to implement the equalizer in detail. A four-channel equalizer was possible on the original Pi Pico (RP2040), while upgrading to a more powerful Pi Pico 2 (RP2350) allowed implementing eight channels in total.

If you’re looking to build a digital audio system with the ability to do some equalization to suit your listening room, this might be a project of interest to you. We’ve featured other projects in this realm before, too.

youtube.com/embed/eDUhabNW9hQ?…

hackaday.com/2025/11/28/usb-da…