After the swivel by Helium Inc. towards simply running distributed WiFi hotspots after for years pushing LoRaWAN nodes, much of the associated hardware became effectively obsolete. This led to quite a few of these Nebra LoRa Miners getting sold off, with the [Buy it Fix it] channel being one of those who sought to give […]
The fact that there exist in our world flat rocks that make lightning when you point them at the sun is one of the most unappreciated bits of wizardry in this modern age. As hackers, we love all this of techno-wizardry–but some of us abhor paying full price for it. Like cars, one way to […]
We love seeing hacks that involve salvaging parts from what you have on hand to make a new project work, and this project is a great example of that. [Simon], in a quick weekend build, created an automated blinds opener using parts he had available. The project began with the desire to have his blinds […]
We’ve all made a few bad PCBs in our time. Sometimes they’re recoverable, and a few bodge wires will make ’em good. Sometimes they’re too far gone and we have to start again. But what if you could take an existing PCB, make a few mods, and turn it into the one you really want? […]
The proliferation of affordable lithium batteries has made modern life convenient in a way we could only imagine in the 80s when everything was powered by squadrons of AAs, or has it? [Ian Bogost] ponders whether sticking a lithium in every new device is really the best idea. There’s no doubt, that for some applications, […]
The software and hardware worlds have overlaps, and it’s worth looking over the fence to see if there’s anything you missed. You might’ve already noticed that we hackers use PCB modules and devboards in the same way that programmers might use libraries and frameworks. You’ll find way more parallels if you think about it. Building […]
An errant wire snipping across the wrong electrical pins spells the release of your magic smoke. Even if you are lucky, stray parts are the root of boundless malfunctions from disruptive to deadly. [TheRainHarvester] shares his trick for covering an Arduino Nano with some scrap plastic most of us have sitting in the recycling bin. […]
Houston’s historic third ward, aka “The Tre,” is ripe with history, and some of that history is digitally preserved and accessible through an art installation in the form of repurposed payphones. We love payphones for obvious reasons and seeing them alive and kicking warms our hearts. Packing them with local history checks even more boxes. […]