Branden “Wax” Hall / W3XON
@waxpraxis.org
Maker of things and, occasionally, wonder.
he/his
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Art: https://waxpraxis.org
Community (BoD): https://firepony.org
Work (Director of Software): https://av-controls.com
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#python #django #javascript #vue #touchdesigner #unreal #hamradio
he/his
-
Art: https://waxpraxis.org
Community (BoD): https://firepony.org
Work (Director of Software): https://av-controls.com
-
#python #django #javascript #vue #touchdesigner #unreal #hamradio
We were prank gifted four pink flamingo lawn ornaments over the summer. Yesterday I decided to give them a 🎃seasonal upgrade🎃.
October 22, 2025 at 1:30 AM
We were prank gifted four pink flamingo lawn ornaments over the summer. Yesterday I decided to give them a 🎃seasonal upgrade🎃.
A few weeks ago I randomly won a prize in #PolyPalooza from @polymaker.bsky.social and all my filament arrived today! 🤩 Looking forward to putting this to some good use!
April 23, 2025 at 9:45 PM
A few weeks ago I randomly won a prize in #PolyPalooza from @polymaker.bsky.social and all my filament arrived today! 🤩 Looking forward to putting this to some good use!
My son has loved gymnastics since his preschool classes. He’s good too - his shelves are full of trophies and medals. But the last few years have been rough. Harder skills, puberty, and coaching changes lead to far fewer trips to the podium. But he’s got grit and earned his first trip to Nationals!
April 9, 2025 at 11:11 PM
My son has loved gymnastics since his preschool classes. He’s good too - his shelves are full of trophies and medals. But the last few years have been rough. Harder skills, puberty, and coaching changes lead to far fewer trips to the podium. But he’s got grit and earned his first trip to Nationals!
Since it looks like I’ll be protesting all this idiocy for a WHILE I grabbed a cheap, lightweight LED sign to hack on. Last night I came up with what I wanted on the backside and just finished gluing it up before I head downtown. #teslatakedown #handsoff
April 5, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Since it looks like I’ll be protesting all this idiocy for a WHILE I grabbed a cheap, lightweight LED sign to hack on. Last night I came up with what I wanted on the backside and just finished gluing it up before I head downtown. #teslatakedown #handsoff
It’s a lovely spring day here in DC. Perfect weather to get outside and save our democracy at the #TeslaTakedown protest! See you there!
March 22, 2025 at 3:36 PM
It’s a lovely spring day here in DC. Perfect weather to get outside and save our democracy at the #TeslaTakedown protest! See you there!
Tonight we’re playing our inaugural game of Arcs. We’re just wading into its web of interconnected game mechanics and it’s a real brain burner… I can see why it’s won so much praise!
(The Pikmin vases are our addition, to hold the board flat and observe like some particularly cute elder gods)
(The Pikmin vases are our addition, to hold the board flat and observe like some particularly cute elder gods)
March 19, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Tonight we’re playing our inaugural game of Arcs. We’re just wading into its web of interconnected game mechanics and it’s a real brain burner… I can see why it’s won so much praise!
(The Pikmin vases are our addition, to hold the board flat and observe like some particularly cute elder gods)
(The Pikmin vases are our addition, to hold the board flat and observe like some particularly cute elder gods)
My current project is developing a set of instructions/kit to turn Baofeng UV-5R into a radio emergency call box for outdoor events. If all goes well I’ll be releasing plans, a BOM, STLs, etc. in a few months!
March 1, 2025 at 2:13 AM
My current project is developing a set of instructions/kit to turn Baofeng UV-5R into a radio emergency call box for outdoor events. If all goes well I’ll be releasing plans, a BOM, STLs, etc. in a few months!
Getting our old 3D printer a bed leveling probe has proven to be a real game changer. My most recent project has been dialing things in to be able to make lithophanes!
February 26, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Getting our old 3D printer a bed leveling probe has proven to be a real game changer. My most recent project has been dialing things in to be able to make lithophanes!
I finally sat down tonight to learn more about my radio (ICom-705) and see if I could figure out how to get FT-8 to work with the SDR-Mobile app. Turns out, it’s real easy and my little 10 watts can make it all the way to Italy! My first 9 QSOs covered 5 countries! #ham #ft8
February 25, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Learning that Morse code can be thought of as a tree and that letter frequency in English (counted via movable type!) was used to determine the codes was a delightful thing to learn - it felt so arbitrary when I tried learning it as a kid!
January 15, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Learning that Morse code can be thought of as a tree and that letter frequency in English (counted via movable type!) was used to determine the codes was a delightful thing to learn - it felt so arbitrary when I tried learning it as a kid!
There’s a real version of it - Neverwas Haul! I’ve seen it in person and it’s INCREDIBLE.
December 30, 2024 at 2:53 AM
There’s a real version of it - Neverwas Haul! I’ve seen it in person and it’s INCREDIBLE.
My secret Santa opened his gift from me yesterday, so I can now share! It’s a fully custom 3D printed clock that uses side-glow fiber optic filament and RGB LEDs to show the current time. The ESP32 microcontroller hops on WiFi daily and syncs itself using NTP. Red=hour, green=minute, blue=second.
December 27, 2024 at 4:18 AM
My secret Santa opened his gift from me yesterday, so I can now share! It’s a fully custom 3D printed clock that uses side-glow fiber optic filament and RGB LEDs to show the current time. The ESP32 microcontroller hops on WiFi daily and syncs itself using NTP. Red=hour, green=minute, blue=second.
Among my FILs stuff we found this oddball analog electronic (no film, but also not digital!) camera from 1988. It records up to 50 images as still analog video frames(!) on proprietary 2” magnetic diskettes. You connect it to your TV via RF adapter or RCA cable to view the photos!
December 19, 2024 at 12:50 PM
Among my FILs stuff we found this oddball analog electronic (no film, but also not digital!) camera from 1988. It records up to 50 images as still analog video frames(!) on proprietary 2” magnetic diskettes. You connect it to your TV via RF adapter or RCA cable to view the photos!
Last years gift was the gift of a Lifetime. It was literally called Lifetime. It was an LED panel + ESP-32 + 3D printed mount that combined was a desk clock that also continuously played Conway’s Game of Life (and sync’d time via WiFi and NTP)
December 16, 2024 at 7:16 PM
Last years gift was the gift of a Lifetime. It was literally called Lifetime. It was an LED panel + ESP-32 + 3D printed mount that combined was a desk clock that also continuously played Conway’s Game of Life (and sync’d time via WiFi and NTP)
I have NO IDEA what I’m doing, but it’s beepin’ and boopin’!
December 8, 2024 at 9:35 PM
I have NO IDEA what I’m doing, but it’s beepin’ and boopin’!
My x0xb0x TB-303 clone is alive! Assembling it was a real challenge with ~1000 soldered joints. Now for the challenge of learning how to play it!
December 8, 2024 at 8:43 PM
My x0xb0x TB-303 clone is alive! Assembling it was a real challenge with ~1000 soldered joints. Now for the challenge of learning how to play it!
While it's fallen out of style, I still have a love for electroluminescent (EL) wire. My first light-up costume pieces used it and and I always include it in the light-up costuming workshops I teach once or twice a year. You can grab the handouts from that workshop here - waxpraxis.org/knowledge/
December 6, 2024 at 5:26 PM
While it's fallen out of style, I still have a love for electroluminescent (EL) wire. My first light-up costume pieces used it and and I always include it in the light-up costuming workshops I teach once or twice a year. You can grab the handouts from that workshop here - waxpraxis.org/knowledge/
This is my x0xb0x Roland TB-303 synth clone kit I’m finally getting around to building. I’m now down to just the sequencer and jumper connections to the back panel! Hopefully tomorrow the LEDs I’ve picked out will arrive so I can finalize their colors and the needed resistors. #synth #electronics
December 4, 2024 at 10:18 PM
This is my x0xb0x Roland TB-303 synth clone kit I’m finally getting around to building. I’m now down to just the sequencer and jumper connections to the back panel! Hopefully tomorrow the LEDs I’ve picked out will arrive so I can finalize their colors and the needed resistors. #synth #electronics
Another early Arduino-based project of mine involved helping a friend by building the electronics to control his “poofer”-style flame effect with an electronic dartboard. A bullseye has never felt so good!
December 4, 2024 at 12:15 PM
Another early Arduino-based project of mine involved helping a friend by building the electronics to control his “poofer”-style flame effect with an electronic dartboard. A bullseye has never felt so good!
Now that I know just enough CAD to be dangerous, I’m loving being able to break out the digital micrometer, measure some broken plastic doohicky, and fix my stuff. This trash picking tool I use when walking the dog has been broken for months with a snapped trigger. $0.20 of PETG and it’s back!
December 3, 2024 at 1:12 PM
Now that I know just enough CAD to be dangerous, I’m loving being able to break out the digital micrometer, measure some broken plastic doohicky, and fix my stuff. This trash picking tool I use when walking the dog has been broken for months with a snapped trigger. $0.20 of PETG and it’s back!
Two years ago I made interactive holiday lights for my house. Ingredients were a pair of @adafruit.com Feather boards (one with TFT screen), an MQTT broker, and a simple web app. Scan a dynamic QR code (URL+OTP) on the screen to pick a color palette and pattern! Code here: github.com/brandenhall/...
December 2, 2024 at 5:01 PM
Two years ago I made interactive holiday lights for my house. Ingredients were a pair of @adafruit.com Feather boards (one with TFT screen), an MQTT broker, and a simple web app. Scan a dynamic QR code (URL+OTP) on the screen to pick a color palette and pattern! Code here: github.com/brandenhall/...
For this project, Created Equal, I used a Python script to parametrically design and scale the support structure for a triple pendulum made of 2x4s. The bottom 2x4 was hollowed out and contained RGB LEDs + @adafruit.com Trinket + battery. The result? A chaotic persistence-of-vision spirograph!
November 27, 2024 at 1:20 PM
For this project, Created Equal, I used a Python script to parametrically design and scale the support structure for a triple pendulum made of 2x4s. The bottom 2x4 was hollowed out and contained RGB LEDs + @adafruit.com Trinket + battery. The result? A chaotic persistence-of-vision spirograph!
Another Python driven-art installation of mine was the Large Hue Collider. Three visitors used knobs to steer whizzing LED dots around a 15m ring trying to get them to collide. If they succeeded there’d be a burst of light on the ring followed by a slit-scan of a random image from the Hubble.
November 26, 2024 at 1:14 PM
Another Python driven-art installation of mine was the Large Hue Collider. Three visitors used knobs to steer whizzing LED dots around a 15m ring trying to get them to collide. If they succeeded there’d be a burst of light on the ring followed by a slit-scan of a random image from the Hubble.
To make the designer's job easier in creating the different eyes, I created a web app that would let her visual create both designs and animations for the eyes - appropriately named iEye. Later I put 2 of The Eyes on my lawn and let neighbors design their own creatures during Covid.
November 25, 2024 at 2:50 PM
To make the designer's job easier in creating the different eyes, I created a web app that would let her visual create both designs and animations for the eyes - appropriately named iEye. Later I put 2 of The Eyes on my lawn and let neighbors design their own creatures during Covid.