I've been on-and-off working on a portable, sturdy electrical cloud chamber for a couple of months now. It's a device that lets you see ionising radiation with a naked eye, right on your desk.
It's already working, but it requires so many tweaks and adjustments that make the project hard to finish-finish.
It's controllable by an ESP32, can run automated cooling benchmarks (to find the power vs temp sweet spot) and is pretty much all made out of metal, not 3D-printed – I've learned a ton about working with metal, especially around drilling, cutting, and tapping/threading. Who knew precise drilling a solid copper block could be so tricky at times (saying this as a person who has never drilled anything except wood/concrete before)!
It's already working, but it requires so many tweaks and adjustments that make the project hard to finish-finish.
It's controllable by an ESP32, can run automated cooling benchmarks (to find the power vs temp sweet spot) and is pretty much all made out of metal, not 3D-printed – I've learned a ton about working with metal, especially around drilling, cutting, and tapping/threading. Who knew precise drilling a solid copper block could be so tricky at times (saying this as a person who has never drilled anything except wood/concrete before)!