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How does a pull-back car work? Illustrated teardown

https://mechanical-pencil.com/products/car
55•Muhammad523•2d ago

Comments

Muhammad523•2d ago
I really love this site, it is obivous that the owner puts a lot of effort into this
donkey_brains•1d ago
Wow. I love being reminded of stuff like this. Those cars were so cool.

Edit: I took one of these cars apart as a kid to see how it worked. This site brought back a lot of memories. The little coil spring inside the gear. I have to get my hands on one of these now…

bluescrn•9m ago
The original 80s Darda cars were great fun, with enough power to get around great big loops. One of those childhood toys I wish I'd took more care of and kept hold of...

They did still produce a version relatively recently (looks like they're discontinued entirely now?), but the cars were significantly lighter and less powerful, all-plastic where the originals had metal bodies

matt-attack•1d ago
This really needs to be done for a GLP-1 auto injecting needle.

Pretty sure it’s the same as an epi-pen as well.

It blows my mind. It’s a disposable, single use device that at the press of button:

1. Inserts the needle in your skin, 2. Slowly presses the plunger until the dose is injected 3. Then retracts the needle with plunger

Three distinct and seemingly opposing motions. With timing. All in a little plastic enclosure. It sure I can think of a toy with that kind of mechanism.

jrussino•1h ago
Check out this video from Steve Mould; I think it covers exactly what you're looking for!

https://youtu.be/CfhsW1kaa2Q?is=ug5_Ze2HczVMGTMR

gonzalohm•1h ago
Steve Mould has a great video explaining the mechanism in epi pens
jaggederest•1h ago
There's an even fancier mechanism with e.g. glucagon pens, where it actually has to rehydrate the freeze dried hormone (glucagon forms aggregations when it sits, has to be mixed fresh)
groos•1h ago
Love this site! Well done!
asdff•1h ago
What is the name for the sort of toy car you push in one direction and it continues slowly in that direction? These ones were usually styled as 4x4 vehicles and almost moved like a rock crawler with the 4wd set to low. They could be pushed forward or in reverse (and then would go in reverse).
amock•1h ago
Are you talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friction_motor?
emil-lp•1h ago
Friction or flywheel car.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friction_motor

reactordev•1h ago
I learned this when I was 4. We even had ones that shot sparks. America. The animations on this are really well done and I loved that trip back to childhood of pulling the car back and letting it rip. However, given the popularity, you should simulate what happens when you pull it back to the extremes over and over again and the spring gets stretched. It no longer kicks as fast as it used to and in some cases, it won't go at all.
barbazoo•31m ago
If you have access to a 3D printer, this helps explain the basics too: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3308710
tantalor•19m ago
Please leave my browser history alone

Claude Sonnet 5

https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-sonnet-5
754•marinesebastian•4h ago•416 comments

Claude Code is steganographically marking requests

https://thereallo.dev/blog/claude-code-prompt-steganography
1215•kirushik•6h ago•320 comments

From brain waves to words: a new path to communication without surgery

https://ai.meta.com/blog/brain2qwerty-brain-ai-human-communication/?_fb_noscript=1
52•alok-g•1h ago•31 comments

Claude Science

https://claude.com/product/claude-science
307•lebovic•5h ago•106 comments

Nano Banana 2 Lite

https://deepmind.google/models/gemini-image/flash-lite/
264•minimaxir•5h ago•102 comments

I ported Kubernetes to the browser

https://ngrok.com/blog/i-ported-kubernetes-to-the-browser
94•peterdemin•1h ago•21 comments

How does a pull-back car work? Illustrated teardown

https://mechanical-pencil.com/products/car
55•Muhammad523•2d ago•14 comments

I built a mmWave material classification radar (2025)

https://gauthier-lechevalier.com/radar
115•GL26•5h ago•30 comments

Stroustrup's Rule (2024)

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/stroustrups-rule/
29•bmacho•3d ago•1 comments

TabFM: A zero-shot foundation model for tabular data

https://research.google/blog/introducing-tabfm-a-zero-shot-foundation-model-for-tabular-data/
5•brandonb•25m ago•0 comments

Waveloop: What Fable left me

https://neynt.ca/writing/waveloop/
65•personjerry•3d ago•14 comments

Understanding lattice risks: Many differences between marketing and reality

https://blog.cr.yp.to/20260630-risk.html
6•ledoge•1h ago•0 comments

CERN bids farewell to the LHC and enters Long Shutdown 3

https://home.cern/cern-bids-farewell-to-the-lhc-and-enters-long-shutdown-3/
64•HelloUsername•1d ago•16 comments

Building a custom octocopter from scratch with no prior hardware experience

https://karolina.mgdubiel.com/drone/
303•noleary•2d ago•68 comments

Long Island's decommissioned nuclear power plant

https://nickcarr.com/scouting-a-decommissioned-nuclear-power-plant/
29•mkmk•6d ago•2 comments

Reading the internals of Postgres: Database cluster, databases, and tables

https://www.buraksen.dev/articles/internals-of-postgresql-db-cluster-and-tables
35•buraksen•1d ago•0 comments

Show HN: My 13-year-old built an ant colony tracker

https://formicarium.es
21•abelgvidal•5h ago•14 comments

Knoppix

https://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
221•hoangvmpc•9h ago•93 comments

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1852)

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24518
156•lstodd•9h ago•50 comments

RF hacking my cloud-controlled ceiling fan

https://samwilkinson.io/posts/2026-06-24-rf-hacking-dreo
24•sammycdubs•6d ago•10 comments

Leanstral 1.5

https://docs.mistral.ai/models/model-cards/leanstral-1-5-26-06
14•vetronauta•1h ago•0 comments

Have you restarted your computer this week?

https://taonaw.com/2026/06/27/have-you-restarted-your-computer.html
77•surprisetalk•8h ago•168 comments

Tokyo has only two barley tea makers, we visited one to see how mugicha is made

https://soranews24.com/2026/06/30/tokyo-has-only-two-barley-tea-makers-and-we-visited-one-to-see-...
17•zdw•2h ago•5 comments

Set up your own DoH (DNS over HTTPS) service

https://nochan.net/b/Internet-Crap/20260602-Set-Up-Your-Own-DoH-Service/
49•Bender•3d ago•22 comments

Ask HN: Since when does Craigslist's front page have emojis?

5•argee•35m ago•3 comments

I built a 10 inch mini rack from aluminium extrusions

https://louwrentius.com/i-build-a-10-inch-mini-rack-from-aluminium-extrusions.html
42•louwrentius•2d ago•17 comments

Ante: A new way to blend borrow checking and reference counting

https://verdagon.dev/blog/ante-blending-borrowing-rc
8•g0xA52A2A•2d ago•0 comments

Matrix URIs, a URL syntax from Tim Berners-Lee that never shipped (1996)

https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/MatrixURIs.html
38•napolux•4d ago•24 comments

Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-06-30/shadow-bribery-market-inside-amazon-preys-on-de...
76•petethomas•4h ago•42 comments

Morbid: Debunking Modern Longevity Science

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/07/06/morbid-saul-justin-newman-book-review-eat-your-ice-...
33•nabbed•2h ago•18 comments