iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 09/02/2026

Dusting off an old hobby! I forgot how Zen it was to put on headphones and just paint for a few hours. Didn't go exactly to plan, but happy enough with how it turned out 😊

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 04/12/2025

The last month of my life: BreakingTTAPs This is a custom transport-triggered, 32 bit processor that will be fabricated by GlobalFoundries on their 180nm process (via of wafer.space) I'll make a video at some point, but some high level details here:

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 25/05/2025

I made a video about this! Laser deposition of aluminum, silver, copper, titanium, invar 36, niobium ITO and (sorta) zirconium. Pretty nifty little technique. Not perfect, has some major disadvantages... but easy and reasonably robust! youtu.be/J0NNO91WyXM

youtu.be

Printing metal on glass with lasers

YouTube video by Breaking Taps

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 19/05/2025

Am I west coasting correctly?

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 18/05/2025

This thing is pretty impressive in person 😯

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 04/05/2025

Had a long flight and finally got around to fully reading @benjaminreinhardt.com 's essay on DARPA, why it works, where it struggles, and how it might be replicated: blog.benjaminreinhardt.com/wddw Very thought provoking read. Been on my todo for ages, should have read sooner!

benjaminreinhardt.com

Ben Reinhardt

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 03/05/2025

RIP NASA science missions 😢

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 02/05/2025

The optimization field has the best names -Artificial Gorilla Troops Optimizer (GTO) -Remora Optimization Algo (ROA) -Polar Bear Optimization (PBO) -Red Fox Optimization (RFO) -Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) -Marine Predator Algo (MPA) -African Vulture Optimization Algo (AVOA)

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 27/04/2025

Oh hai there, look what I found in the bin of childhood stuff my parents dropped off 👀

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 22/04/2025

Probably the two best things I've ever purchased

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 14/04/2025

Shoutout to bad decisions that past BreakingTaps let future BreakingTaps sort out 😑

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 10/04/2025

brb starting a new channel called Breaking Bones

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 07/04/2025

Getting ready for my $5.50/hr reindustrialization sewing job at the textile factory. 👊🇺🇸🔥

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 02/04/2025

Lol futures for S&P, NASDAQ, Dow etc are like a vertical cliff. So much winning! jfc

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 28/03/2025

The annual urge to build a modern letterpress has sidled into my brain yet again. 🙃 Hand-fed platen press, ballscrew/linear rails/servos to actuate press and inking rollers. Resin print the plate. Load cells to automatically tune the printing pressure, etc etc.

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 27/03/2025

Large area deposition ends up being quite easy, but does require a spacer between metal and glass which limits ability to pattern. Ag is great, Cu is tricky (oxidizes easily). Ti, Nb and Invar 36 seem good. Can make TiO2 easily too. Zr seems to oxidize immediately

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 26/03/2025

Playing around with a laser thing today and accidentally found a good set of parameters for transferring aluminum onto glass. Neat!

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 06/03/2025

Shameless shilling: I'm selling some esoteric equipment! Want a 200 femtosecond IR laser, or a 532nm picosecond laser? How about a linear motor stage with 10nm resolution? Or an XYZ wafer stage with 250nm steps? I gotchu: www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_...

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 06/03/2025

I own a lot of tripods apparently 😅

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Reposted by Breaking Taps

Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 28/02/2025

🔭 Athena to the Moon Image Credit: Intuitive Machines apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25022...

Planet Earth hangs in the background of this space age selfie. The snapshot was captured by the IM-2 Nova-C lander Athena, just after stage separation following its February 26 launch to the Moon. A tall robotic lander, Athena is scheduled to touch down on Thursday, March 6, in Mons Mouton, a plateau near the Moon’s South Pole. The intended landing site is in the central portion of one of the Artemis 3 potential landing regions. Athena carries rovers and experiments as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, including a drill intended to explore beneath the lunar surface in a search for evidence of frozen water. It also carries a propulsive drone dubbed the Micro Nova Hopper. After release to the lunar surface, the autonomous drone is intended to hop into a nearby crater and send science data back to the lander.

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 28/02/2025

Designing hardware for space is, unsurprisingly, hard! Join me for 35 minutes of discussion about all the considerations that go into designing and manufacturing a tiny little hinge.

youtu.be

Designing Space Hardware is Hard

What does it take to design a hinge for space applications? Let's find out by designing and manufacturing a few!Watch this ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula....

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 26/02/2025

Have some external deadlines popping up in my life so need to stop messing around and finish a video or two. First up: space hinges! Yell at me if you see me on social media before a video is posted plz k thx 🙏

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 23/02/2025

Academic paper pet peeves: - "Facile" 🤬 - "Wearable" or "Flexible" as justification for importance - "Green process" because it uses a slightly less-bad solvent

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 22/02/2025

Saturday optical alignment vibes

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 21/02/2025

SIGH. Aligning optical assembly today and huh weird, red beam isn't passing the UV dichroic beamsplitter. Oh right that's because it's actually a UV bandpass filter 🤦

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 20/02/2025

Waiting on a few components, but the rough layout is starting to look like a thing Litho v3 soon, hopefully? 🥺

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 18/02/2025

I'll be at OpenSauce again this year! Had an absolute blast last year, and for some reason they decided to let me come back 😊 Looking forward to seeing all the cool exhibits and chatting with attendees!

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Reposted by Breaking Taps

Dean 🍁 @dmaclanders.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

If you search each one of those keywords followed by 'starter pack' you should get some results. If you're not familiar with starter packs, they are user curated lists of users of whatever subject you are interested in. Very handy for finding your crowd.

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 15/02/2025

I want to use bsky more! Who should I follow in: - optics - photonics - semiconductors - material science - manufacturing, machining - space, astronomy Or anything similar. Academic labs, startups, hobbyists, whatever!

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 14/02/2025

hey mom can we have an optical breadboard? mom: no, we have an optical breadboard at home optical breadboard at home:

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johndmcmaster.bsky.social @johndmcmaster.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Today we triaged and repaired some andor deep cooled cameras. This four-stage tec camera was scrapped but we managed to save three cameras

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 07/02/2025

New day, new hinge! Figured I should make a plain bearing version, since that's likely the right solution (and lots of feedback saying the same). Uses a carbon/PTFE-filled PEEK plain bearing A little concerned about thermal coefficients but that can shake out in testing

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 06/02/2025

New hinge iteration! This one is a bit longer but half as tall (which is important to the application). Happier with this design, although it needs some alterations too. Does not include a latch either, but I think a separate latching mechanism is better anyway.

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 30/01/2025

Need to tweak a bunch of dimensions, and adjust some geometry, wind my own double torsion spring... but this little guy just might work. Won't know for sure until torture testing later 😈 (it's a wee little self-latching hinge)

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 29/01/2025

RIP m2 form tap, I hardly knew ya 😢🪦

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 29/01/2025

Curious what the inside of a nylon SLS 3D printer looks like? Or how additive material properties are tested and optimized? I've got good news for you! I filmed a lab tour at Formlabs and they let me poke around engineering, testing, machine shop and chem labs 😊 www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7r7...

youtube.com

The Science and Engineering at Formlabs - R&D Tour

YouTube video by Breaking Taps

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 23/01/2025

If you see this post, quote with a bridge from your gallery. 😇

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Reposted by Breaking Taps

Tube🍂Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

gonna stream in a few minutes! we're doing chip reverse engineering: gate arrays! www.twitch.tv/tubetimeus

a microscope photo of a chip, showing 2 layers of aluminum traces and regular arrays of transistors wired together in different ways to make logic gates.

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 23/01/2025

Spent the day designing a wee little hinge 🥺

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 22/01/2025

Fun setup from earlier this week: 3D printed tray around a glue fixture, clamped in a vise. Trying to contain the fallout from machining silica. Not perfect, but caught most of the fines. Rest will get scrubbed by my coolant filters.

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 16/01/2025

This was a fun little build! I made a satellite reaction wheel using liquid metal and the magnetohydrodynamic effect. No moving parts other than the liquid metal, which has some unique benefits for space applications. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiRM...

youtube.com

A Unique Satellite Reaction Wheel

YouTube video by Breaking Taps

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 13/01/2025

I should not be allowed near soldering irons 🫣

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 08/01/2025

Hey internet, this is how you make PCBs right?

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 08/01/2025

Making a quick'n'dirty phosphor screen. Just a 4% solution of PMMA in anisole, and a bunch of phosphor powder. Probably a better way to do this but oh well 🙃

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Diebesbeute @diebesbeute.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

A little afternoon decapping of some inverters. Just exposing the internal leads for some failure analysis. Funny thing, I was in the fab that likely produced these, but for something completely different just before Xmas. And this decap work is for a different end customer.

Three large black chips mounted on a heat sink. A cavity is being exposed in one of the chips with a laser. You can see where the laser line is moving diagonally across the cavity.

The same chips, but now you can see the copper bond wires exposed on the first two chips.

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 06/01/2025

Nanodiamonds! 🤩 *Probably. And also nano-graphite. And lots of other carbon junk. But at least some of that film is nanodiamond!

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Breaking Taps @breakingtaps.com · 27/12/2024

The big magnetohydrodynamic reaction wheel seems to work well. Think that'll be good enough for a video, was a fun little build! Some _very_ rough calculations from an overhead view works out to 6.2 mNm of torque and 1.2 mNms of angular momentum.

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