Those little ESP32-CAM boards which mate the WiFi-enabled microcontroller with a small parallel-interface camera module have been with us for years, and while they are undeniably cool to play with, they sometimes stretch the available performance in trying to process and stream video. [Mattsroufe] has made a very cool project with one of them, not […]
If you’re looking to add a pop of glowing whimsy to your workspace, check out this vibrant jiggly desk toy by [thzinc], who couldn’t resist the allure of Adafruit’s NOODS LED strands. [thzinc]’s fascination with both glowing LEDs and levitating tensegrity designs led to an innovative attempt to defy gravity once again. The construction’s genius […]
Kids love their Power Wheels and other ride-on electric cars. Indeed, [Ashwin]’s son was digging his little ATV, but soon found that some care was needed on the pedal. It had no proper throttle control, instead turning the motor hard on or off and scaring the poor kid in the process. The solution? A bit […]
What if your old, neglected toys could come to life — with a bit of sass? That’s exactly what [Binh] achieved when he transformed his sister’s worn-out teddy bear into ‘Ted’, an interactive talking plush with a personality of its own. This project, which combines the GLaDOS Personality Core project from the Portal series with […]
Want to see some wildly skillful LEGO construction? Check out [Banana Gear Studios]’ omni-directional treadmill which showcases not only how such a thing works, but demonstrates some pretty impressive problem solving in the process. Construction was far from straightforward! A 9×9 grid of LEGO shafts all turning in unison is just one of the non-trivial […]
We always enjoy videos from the [Mathologer], but we especially liked the recent video on the Helicone, a toy with a surprising connection to mathematics. The toy is cool all by itself, but the video shows how a sufficiently large heliocone models many “natural numbers” and acts, as [Mathologer] puts it, acts as “microscope to […]
What do you get when you cross cardboard, deodorant rollers, and a love for retro gaming? A marvel of DIY engineering that brings the arcade classic Puzzle Bobble to life—once again! Do you remember the original Puzzle Bobble aiming mechanism we featured 12 years ago? Now, creator [TomTilly] has returned with a revamped version, blending […]
Generally, the projects featured on Hackaday actually do something. We won’t go as far as to say they are practical creations, but they usually have some kind of function other than to sit there and blink. But what if just sitting still and blinking away randomly is precisely what you want a piece of hardware to […]
A lot of the projects we feature here on Hackaday engender the classic “build versus buy” argument. We’ve always been puzzled by that; if anyone can appreciate the sheer joy of making something rather than buying it, it should be our readers. But there’s something to be said for buying the stuff you can buy […]
LEGO bricks might look simplistic, but did you know there’s an actual science behind their sizes? Enter LDUs — LEGO Draw Units — the minuscule measurement standard that allows those tiny interlocking pieces to fit together seamlessly. In a recent video [Brick Sculpt] breaks down this fascinating topic. So, what is an LDU precisely? It’s […]