FROM THE BENCH
Lab Notes
Plain-English field guides on the things my gadgets watch, written to be useful whether you own one or not. Updated when there's something worth saying, not on a schedule.
- Aviation
How to Choose a Desktop Flight Tracker: 5 Questions to Ask
A desktop flight tracker puts the planes near you on a small screen. Five questions to compare them: aircraft shown, data, cost, WiFi and where it works.
- Earthquakes
Magnitude vs. Intensity: The Two Numbers Every Earthquake Gets
An earthquake has one magnitude and a different intensity at every address it reaches. Here’s what each number measures, where the Roman numerals come from, and why the same quake can be a 5.8 everywhere and a IV in your kitchen.
- Space
What Is a Starlink Train? The String of Lights, Explained
A Starlink train is a batch of new satellites flying in a line, still low and close together. Here is why the lights line up, when to look, and why they fade.
- Weather
Weather Watch vs. Warning vs. Advisory: The Severity Ladder
A watch means a hazard is possible later. A warning means it is happening or about to. An advisory is a nuisance that can still hurt. What to do at each rung.
- Workshop
The Board Inside Every PlankLabs Gadget
Every PlankLabs gadget is built on the same heart: one integrated board that fuses a microcontroller to a 3.5″ color touchscreen. A guided tour of the hardware, and why it’s the right amount of computer.
- Workshop
The Printers Behind the Shells: a Flashforge AD5X and a Bambu Lab X2D
Every PlankLabs enclosure is 3D printed a few feet from the assembly bench. A tour of the two machines that do it: a multicolor CoreXY workhorse and a dual-nozzle precision printer.
- Workshop
Arduino: The Workbench My Firmware Is Built On
PlankLabs firmware is C++ built on the Arduino framework. What Arduino actually is, why ‘beginner tool’ is a myth worth retiring, and how the same on-ramp is open to you tonight.
- Weather
How the Outdoor Score Works: One Honest Number for “Should I Be Outside?”
Storm Sentinel’s Outdoor Score turns NWS alerts, six hours of forecast and live conditions into one 0 to 99 number. Here is the math, and why it never says 100.
- Coastal
How to Read a Tide Chart (and Why Old Tide Clocks Drift)
How to read a tide chart: the zero line, negative tides, spring and neap tides, the rule of twelfths. Plus how a tide clock works and why old ones drift.
- Aviation
What Is ADS-B? How Flight Tracking Actually Works
ADS-B stands for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast: the signal aircraft send about twice a second. What is in it, and why some planes never show up.
- Space
When Can You Actually See the ISS? Visibility Windows, Explained
The Space Station passes overhead several times a day, but you can only see it during narrow twilight windows. Here’s exactly when to look, what you’ll see, and why. No telescope needed.
- Network
Is It Your WiFi or Your ISP? How to Tell in 60 Seconds
Internet acting up? Walk the chain (device, WiFi, router, provider) with a 60-second diagnosis that pinpoints the failure, plus what latency, packet loss, and jitter actually mean.
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