Day: March 24, 2026

Although it may be hard to believe for current generations, there was a time when the Internet and the World Wide Web were not as integrated into society as it is today. The only forms of online ‘social media’ that existed came in the form of IRC, forums, BBSes, newsgroups and kin, while obtaining new […]
If you’re intending to work at your desk for long periods of time, good lighting is a must, as it can help stave off eye strain and mental fatigue. It was a desire for more comfortable productivity that drove [Jade] to whip up a monitor-mounted lighting system for her workstation. The build uses an ESP32 […]
If you were anywhere near a computer in the mid-to-late 1990s, you almost certainly encountered a Zip drive. That distinctive purple peripheral, with its satisfying clunk as you slotted in a cartridge, was as much a fixture of the era as beige tower cases and CRT monitors. Iomega, the company behind it, went from an […]
Some people love fiddling with their 3D printers, others love printing. Some fiddle so they can spend more time printing, which is probably where this latest project comes in: an automated pressure advance calibration tool by [markniu]. Most of us don’t take enough care with pressure advance (PA). But if you want absolutely perfect prints, […]
Makers and hardware hackers have been collecting disposable vapes for some time now, usually to salvage their batteries or the unique displays many models now come with. But you can also repurpose them for other ends, such as playing music. [Becky Stern]’s vape synth is a perfect example of this. The build started with an […]
In the blue corner, we have the VENUS FLYTRAP! In the red corner, we have the underdog of the century, AN ENTIRE PARTICLE ACCELERATOR. Yes, you read that right. When you have a particle accelerator, it’s only second nature to throw anything you can into it. That’s why [Electron Impressions] put a poor fly-eating trap […]
Supercapacitors rely mostly on double-layer capacitance to bridge the divide between chemical batteries and traditional capacitors, but they come with a number of weaknesses. Paramount among these are their relatively low voltage of around 2.7 V before their electrolyte begins to decompose, as well as their relatively high rates of self-discharge. Here a new design […]
The Z80 has been gone a couple of years now, but it’s very much not forgotten. Still, the day when new-old-stock and salvaged DIP-40 packaged Z80s will be hard to come by is slowly approaching, and [eaw] is going to be ready with the picoZ80 project. You can probably guess where this is going: an […]
We don’t usually speculate on the true identity of the hackers behind these projects, but when [TN666]’s accoustic drone-detector crossed our desk with the name “Batear”, we couldn’t help but wonder– is that you, Bruce? On the other hand, with a BOM consisting entirely of one ESP32-S3 and an ICS-43434 I2S microphone, this isn’t exactly […]
Graphics calculators are one of those strange technological cul-de-sacs. They rely on outdated technology and should not be nearly as expensive as they are, but market effects somehow keep prices well over $100 to this day. Given that fact, you might like to check out an open-source solution instead. NumOS comes to us from [El-EnderJ]. […]