Dissecting a Lethal Universal Travel Adapter
The world’s refusal to standardize on a single type of mains power outlet has led to a vibrant market of so-called travel adapters, all of which try to ou…
LLM Moats Quickly Evaporating
In the business world, a moat is a quality of a business that makes it difficult for competitors to take that company’s profits. With how hard it is to tr…
Low(er)-Cost Humanoid Robot Leverages DIY Actuators
Humanoid robots, even scaled-down ones, tend to be expensive. The Berkeley Humanoid Lite offers a more accessible and economical option by centering the design …
Giving the NES an Optical Data Storage Add-On
The introduction of optical media in the form of CDs meant a revolution in the world of gaming consoles, escaping the restrictions of a few dozen MB of storage …
Woodstove Assistant Keeps the Heat on Safely
Those who have never lived in a cold climate might romanticize winters around a fire, keeping warm under blankets while snow gently falls outside. While it cert…
Laser Your Way to Smoother FDM 3D Prints
Now, not everyone minds the characteristic layer lines you get with Filament Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D prints, but sometimes you need a smooth surface. If so…
Fat Tire Brakes Get Wireless Upgrade
At first glance, wireless brakes seem like a recipe for disaster. For something as critical as braking, many bicyclists might prefer a physical connection to th…
Compact PCB Vise Uses Up That Leftover Filament
Needing less than 70 grams of filament, [Chefkoch]’s 3D printed PCB vise solder station might be a good way to use up some filament spool leftovers and ge…
Wikipedia on a Cheap Yellow Display
The Cheap Yellow Display (CYD) is a board carrying a slightly older ESP32 variant, a display with a resistive touchscreen, an SD card, and not much else. ItR…
Motorized Planer Height Adjustment Dials In
Having access to a planer opens up a lot of options for woodworking. It enables a craftsman to work with much rougher lumber and the finished results generally …
Maker Faire North Of 60: Making In The Yukon
INSTAGRAM I FACEBOOK I LINKED IN I YOU TUBE I WEBSITE Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory and traditional home to Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta…
Wear Your Way Out Of AI Surveilance
For decades now many of us have lived in surveillance societies where it’s difficult not to be within the view of a camera. When being noticed depended on…
3D Printed Piano Action Faithful to the Original
A piano’s internal mechanism for translating a key press into sound is surprisingly complicated. It has to do a lot of things simultaneously and quickly: …
Playing Snake with a Pneumatic Display
[soiboi soft]’s vacuum-driven dot matrix display is part suction gripper, part touchscreen, and altogether impressive. Its display capabilities are entirely sha…
This Library Needs to Be At Least… Three Times Bigger
Many of us have noted a tremendous price increase in many computer components for some mysterious reason. Whatever this cause is will be debated among the vario…
Reviving an SD Card With Shorted Capacitors
A nice thing about SD cards is that even in their non-micro format they are conveniently small. This is however a bit of a problem when an SD card stops ……
DOOM Played on Series of 555 Timers
It’s technically true that any piece of software can be reproduced in hardware, although modern software’s size and complexity generally makes this …
Casting Engine Parts from 3D Prints
After building a couple of internal combustion engines by milling billet aluminium stock and cringing at the absolute waste of material this created, [Camden Bo…
Microducks Exude Macro Charm
Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics have launched Microduck, an adorable $400 open source, trainable robot. The post Microducks Exude Macro Charm appeared first on…
Hackaday Podcast Episode 384: OCR MOD Records, Magical PCBs, and the Gravity of Space Stations
What did Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams read in Hackaday last week? Probably everything, but you can tune in and hear about their favorites on…
Building a Headless Game Boy Emulator
[Artificial-Age] has built a rather unique way to play old Game Boy games. It’s an emulator, but it doesn’t work in quite the way you might think! S…
This Week in Security: Android Malware, VOIP Hijack, Signal Contact Discovery, and TeamPCP Arrests
On GitHub, [AyaanB] details buying a cheap Android TV streaming device, looking for, and finding, baked-in malware. Multiple warnings have been issued by the FB…
RAM and eMMC Prices Are So High, Pine64 Has Stopped Linux Device Production
We all know that the price of RAM and storage has shot up due to demand from the AI industry and other factors. In most cases that means we grumble …read …
Panoramic Photography with a Linear Scanner
Although digital photography took a big bite of the film industry’s lunch, it wasn’t able to completely eliminate the need — or desire —…
Support Bath Enables an Epoxy Benchy
There’s plenty of substances that can theoretically be extruded from a nozzle, but only a regrettably small subset of them can actually be used for 3D pri…
Running Multiple Linux Kernels Without Hypervisor
In a move that’s no doubt going to trigger a lot of confusion and nostalgia, Mklinux is back, in a sense. As the announcement makes clear, this is multike…
I’m a Lifelong DIYer, and the Best Thing I Ever Learned Was When to Walk Away
I used to think I could fix anything myself. One disastrous plumbing project taught me that knowing when to stop is the real DIY skill. The post I’m a Lif…
The Best and Worst Cities for Biking in 2026 — Is Yours on the List?
See which U.S. cities rank best for biking and which have the highest cyclist fatality risk, based on two recent national studies. The post The Best and Worst C…
Does Insurance Cover Your Stuff in a College Dorm?
Here's what is and is not insured in your college student's dorm room. The post Does Insurance Cover Your Stuff in a College Dorm? appeared first on Family Hand…
Can You Trust AI When It Comes to Pet Stain Removal? Experts Weigh In
AI is hailed as a fairly omniscient solution to your problems, but is it always right? We fact-checked its pet stain removal suggestions. The post Can You Trus…
ToAuto Unveils Smart Cutting Machine: Industrial Precision, Now on Your Desktop
For jewelry makers, ToAuto's Smart Cutting Machine offers control and consistency in a desktop saw for lapidary or metal cutting. The post ToAuto Unveils Smart …
All The Best Computers Boot To BASIC
Anyone whose first computing experience came in the form of an 8-bit home computer will tell you about booting straight into a BASIC interpreter. The machine in…
Australia’s Nationwide Phone Outage Was An Embarrassing Failure
The phones! They were one of the basic utilities of the 20th century, and were just about as reliable as death and taxes. Even when then power grid went down, &…
Analog Optical Feedback Generates 4K Fractals With No Computer
For users of a certain age, fractal patterns and computers are nearly synonymous. Typing in BASIC programs and seeing the Mandelbrot set or other fractals slowl…
eenk Provides eInk, ESP32 Powered Text Adventures
There’s a niche genre of text adventure that’s halfway between a traditional novel and a videogame. Think Zork if it had an extra few novels worth o…
Encoding MOD Files Optically On Paper, Because Amiga’s Legacy Will Outlast M-Disks
All but a few of our very youngest readers are surely familiar with music formats that rely on optical disks. When we say [RobDevBuilds] made a MOD tracker that…
Sloan Digital Sky Survey Releases New Map of Supermassive Black Holes
The Universe is a large place, yet despite it being mostly empty space, there are still a lot of things to find and catalogue. This includes mildly terrifying t…
Making An LCD UI Look More Like Classic Indicator Lamps
The TermDriver 2 is a USB-to-serial interface with a twist—it has a built-in screen for displaying relevant information. It can run at anywhere from 100 bit/s t…
Cheap Sip-and-Puff Controller Inspires Gamers
Caleb Kraft's cheap sip-and-puff game controller could be what a lot of quadriplegic gamers need. The post Cheap Sip-and-Puff Controller Inspires Gamers appeare…
FLOSS Weekly Episode 879: Easy Like Butter
This week Jonathan chats with Nathan Freitas of the Guardian Project! What is going on at the forefront of Open Source and privacy advocacy? Where are we on a t…
How Packaging Can Kill An Electronics Microbusiness
Quite a few in our community make a bit of cash on the side by selling our creations, and it’s not uncommon to find that a project which catches your R…
Hackaday Europe 2026: PCBs With A Plot
Printed circuit boards were developed first for function over form. They were a way to mount components and connect them in a stable, robust fashion, while taki…
Claude Plays DOOM
Large language models (LLMs) are generally thought of as machines that accept textual prompts and spit out textual content. However, if you’re creative in…
New Controller Makes Heavy Machinery Intuitive
As children, many of us looked wistfully into the cockpits of heavy machinery, wondering just how the series of knobs and levers would do something like operate…
Blow Those Pyros With A Telephone!
A pyrotechnic charge is set off by passing a high voltage through a filament within it, melting the filament and igniting the charge. We could think of a variet…
Cheap AI Token Resellers: The Secret Ingredient is Fraud
[Matt Lenhard] has an interesting writeup explaining exactly how fraudsters offer access to cutting-edge AI models at a tenth of the price. Perhaps unsurprising…
Behr’s Color of the Year Is So Timeless, It’ll Never Go Out of Style
Behr named Grounded its 2027 Color of the Year. Here's what to know about the earthy olive green and how designers recommend using it. The post Behr’s Col…
Can You Really Drive and Not Remember It? The Truth About Highway Hypnosis
Highway hypnosis can happen on long or familiar drives. Learn what causes it, how it differs from drowsy driving, and how to prevent it. The post Can You Really…
The Lightest FPV Whoop Drone
Build an ultralight FPV Whoop video drone that weighs less than three nickels! The post The Lightest FPV Whoop Drone appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Id…
AI Book Scanning: Just What Is A Rare Book?
One of the stories of the last few weeks has been that AI companies have been scanning books in very large numbers in order to train their models with content &…
Artificial Intelligence as It Once Was
One day, people will look back at what we call Artificial Intelligence and laugh. We do the same thing today, as chat bots totally outstrip what the computer in…
Anatomy of an SLA Resin Printing Disaster
When I got back into SLA resin printing recently, I knew that I’d inevitably have to deal with the agony of failed prints and of course resin spills. This…
Quest VR Headset Becomes Unlocked Hardware
The Quest virtual reality headset gets a fully unlocked bootloader thanks to the QuestStack tool, which automates a complex process of privilege escalation to p…
The Days Of Broadcast Digital TV Could Be Numbered
When the analog TV signals were turned off in most places around fifteen years ago, their replacement took the form of a set of digital multiplexes. ATSC for No…
What You’re Really Paying For When You Buy Premium Paint
Does premium paint really perform better? Professional painters explain what changes between paint tiers and when the upgrade is worth the cost. The post What Y…
The DIY Upgrades That Actually Mattered When We Sold Our Fixer-Upper
Buyers aren’t always impressed by the expensive renovations, but rather the projects that make a home feel functional and easy to imagine living in. The post Th…
Those Mysterious Black Tubes on the Road Have an Important Job
Black tubes across the road collect traffic data. Learn what they measure, how they work, and why transportation agencies use them. The post Those Mysterious Bl…
Straight Talk on 3D Printing Footwear At Home
Printed footwear is an intriguing idea, but as far as projects go it is somewhat more complex than it first appears. This guide to 3D printing your own clogs no…
3D-Printed Skin Gives Robots the Sensation of Touch
Hypoesthesia, more commonly referred to as numbness, is one of the more distressing ailments that can affect us humans, primarily because it reminds us of just …
A 1990s Homebrew OS With GUI And Web Browser, In AM29000 Machine Code
The AM29000 series of processors were AMD’s entry into the world of super-fast next-generation silicon of the late 1980s. It was a time when ARM was still…
An Electronic Explanation Of 1960s Fuzz Boxes
It’s likely that even those of us who have never picked up a guitar in our lives will recognize the sound of an electric guitar with a fuzz box effects &#…
100-Degree Heat Doesn’t Stop Landscapers — Here Are the Tips That Keep Them Going
Discover tips for staying cool while working on even the hottest days from the pros themselves. The post 100-Degree Heat Doesn’t Stop Landscapers — Here A…
The Coolest Castle to Visit in Every State
Discover the coolest castle in every U.S. state, from grand estates to historic fortresses, including when each landmark was built. The post The Coolest Castle …
Acmer SM 60W MOPA Split Laser Review
Acmer's SM MOPA laser comes with great power, but leaves responsibility to the user. The post Acmer SM 60W MOPA Split Laser Review appeared first on Make: DIY P…
At Last, A Gameboy Advance With Decent Audio
Many pieces of consumer electronics are build down to a price, and the corners cut show up in their performance. The Gameboy Advance from Nintendo is no excepti…
Tech in Plain Sight: Vacuum Blood Collection
If you’re blessed enough that you haven’t had blood drawn in a while, you might not have thought much about the process. You might imagine that a ne…
Combining Photogrammetry Utilities into a Simple GUI Tool
One of the fun aspects of open source software is that you can often find so many libraries and tools that implement the functionality you need, but ease of use…
An Early History of Space Stations: Where’s My Wheel?
Last time we found out the idea of space stations is surprisingly old. By the 1950s, everyone knew we’d be working in beautiful space stations that rotate…
Making Better Rubies At Home
Sapphires and rubies aren’t just pretty, they also got a range of practical uses. This makes it even more useful to be able to make them at home for obvio…
The Casio F-91W As A Contactless Payment Device.
The Casio F-91W digital watch is perhaps one of the most successful pieces of consumer electronics ever made, having quietly supplied the essential function of …
Neo-Cyclostyle: Automatic Document Copying Devices in 1890
Document duplication has been a highly desirable feature, long before medieval monks slaved over yet another illuminated manuscript by flickering candle light. …
3D Printing a Railway Pump Car
A staple of old movies featuring railways, many handcars – also called pump trolleys or pump cars – feature the characteristic seesawing beam. Requi…
Hackaday Links: August 23, 2026
We’ll start this week off with some disappointing, though not entirely unexpected, news — the ambitious commercial mission to save NASA’s Neil…
Using the Basic SNES Hardware to Play Minecraft
After previously putting a very basic version of Minecraft on the Game Boy Color, [Tobi] decided to have some fun and port that version also to the Super Ninten…
Race Car Tire Pyrometer
Log your tire temperatures with a race car tire pyrometer and tune your ride for faster times. The post Race Car Tire Pyrometer appeared first on Make: DIY Proj…
Making LEDs in the Home Fab
Impressive as it most certainly is when an amateur fabricates a semiconductor, most of the projects we’ve seen are more demonstrations than workable chips. [Dr.…
Amiga-Inspired AROS Goes Bare Metal on Raspberry Pi
There’s no actual data, but if we had to guess the least-favourite Disney movie of former Amiga owners would have to be Frozen, because none of them will …
Bluetooth Shock Collar Keeps Wearer On Task
Like a lot of us [Liam Kloppers] had a problem with doomscrolling. Unwilling to go cold-turkey because he does find some utility in social media. He tried a num…
So, You Found a Foden Steam Lorry in a Field. What Next?
It’s quite likely that many readers will have harbored dreams of owning, or at least driving, a steam engine of some kind. [James Hervey-Bathurst] was luc…
Turning Corroded, Bug-Loving WiiMotes into a Working One
A time-honored tradition in the electronics repair business is to make many into one, specifically a stack of broken devices into one that works. So too with a …
An Atari Desktop On A Sega
Over recent years there have been a range of classic 16-bit consoles coaxed into running familiar operating systems, with -nommu Linux being a favourite. But th…
Open-Source ExpressLRS Receiver Reaches for Range
Drone control links are, from a radio signals perspective, nothing short of amazing: using a transmitter capable of transmitting, at most, one watt, a protocol …
The Shutter Makes This 3D Printed Camera Special
Making a film camera is a project within the reach of almost anyone, from the experimenter with cardboard and sticky tape, to the machinist with an aluminium bi…
555 Makes a Useful Beat Frequency Oscillator
If you’ve got a cheap ham rig, it might not be very practical for you to receive certain transmissions out of the box. However, if you were to hack in …
You Gotta Want It
On Hackaday last week, and on the podcast, we were talking about one of the educational toys of yesteryear that launched a thousand careers, at least if the com…
Building an Analog Geiger Counter
These days, it’s plenty easy to build a Geiger counter with a microcontroller that has a nice fancy display and a simple digital readout for how many radi…
Sleeper E-bike has Solenoid Display
[GRMNT] decided to bring his grandpa’s beautiful road bike into the future by making a sleeper e-bike conversion. Going into the project, [GRMNT] didnR…
Hacking A Cat Litter Box
[Joseph DiGiovanni] is the owner of a Litter Robot 4. It’s a convenient mechanized litter box for cats that can clean itself to reduce unwelcome odors ins…
How the Grid’s Harmonic Filters Keep the Power Clean
A fun way to think about a national electrical grid is as a massively upscaled electrical circuit, one in which you have multiple power supplies injecting AC po…
Building a Hammond Organ to Understand How They Work
The Hammond organ is an early form of electronic– or perhaps electromechanical– musical instrument. It solved the very real problem of organs normal…
Thermoacoustic Sterling Engine is Now Fully 3D Printable
Would you like to make your own energy? Why, who doesn’t in this era of rising costs! A sterling engine always looks like a good fit for that: highly effi…
PVC Pipe Turned DIY Digital Telescope
[Makestreme] had always wanted to own a nice telescope, but found that budget would not stretch to anything above a cheap model with a limited 50 mm aperture. W…
Hackaday Podcast Episode 383: QR Codes, Caving Gear, and the Old School Way to Learn Electronics
In this week’s episode, Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start things off by getting excited about the recently announced 2026 Retrocomputin…
Building a Discrete Component 75 Baud Modem
These days, modems are pretty fancy bits of kit, what with to keep up with the speeds of cable, VDSL, and fiber connections. At lower speeds, though, it’s…
Ever Wonder What Those Long Spikes on Semi-Truck Wheels Are For? Here’s the Answer
Semi-truck wheel spikes aren’t as dangerous as they look. Learn what they cover, why truckers use them, and what they actually do. The post Ever Wonder What Tho…
Can a Cordless Stick Vacuum Really Replace Your Shop-Vac? We Tested Ryobi’s to Find Out
On this edition of Tool Trials we put a cordless vacuum to the ultimate workshop test. The post Can a Cordless Stick Vacuum Really Replace Your Shop-Vac? We Tes…
Lowe’s Is Taking the Giant Skeleton Trend To New Heights
Looking to up your Halloween game? Lowes has a new giant skeleton for sale this year and it's bigger than the Home Depot one. The post Lowe’s Is Taking the Gia…
Don’t Be THAT Neighbor — The Unwritten Rules of Being a Good Neighbor
Unless you live alone on a desert island, you've got neighbors. If you want to maintain good relations with them, avoid these 10 mistakes. The post Don’t …
You’ve Been Using Your Bathroom Fan Wrong This Whole Time
Find out how long to leave a bathroom fan on after a shower or bath to remove lingering moisture and help keep the space dry. The post You’ve Been Using Y…
If Your House Keeps Making Cracking Sounds, Here’s When to Worry and When to Relax
Summertime house cracking sounds are usually harmless, but not always. Here's what could be causing them. The post If Your House Keeps Making Cracking Sounds, H…