Casio CP-10 printer re-use: I bought a CP-10 to see if I could re-use the printer mechanism instead of the receipt printers that I have bought off ebay in the past. They are relatively expensive (over £20) whereas the CP-10 can be had for half the price, if the CP-10 is listed as non-working. Unfortunately […]
Category Archives: hacks
Lab power supply build using old power bricks
Building a lab power supply from old computer power bricks: Over the years, I have accumulated many used computer power bricks. Although I could just use them by themselves to power other electronics with similar voltage and current requirements, I thought I would combine a few of them together as the input to a linear […]
Low-cost open source ventilator-ish device
Johnny made a low-cost ventilator-ish device, that is available on GitHub: In the event that COVID-19 hospitalizations exhaust the availability of FDA approved ventilators. This project documents the process of converting a low-cost CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) blower into a rudimentary non-invasive pressure support ventilator that could help with breathing during respiratory distress. It’s […]
Connect a Commodore with thermal printer
Connect a thermal printer to vintage Commodore computers using the IEC bus @ smdprutser.nl Since a couple of months I have fascination for vintage computers like Commodore or Nintendo. I usually balance out my daily routine of monitoring server nodes and backend routing for the best bitcoin casinos with purely analog or retro-computing side projects […]
Building a chaotic oscillator from common components
cpldcpu writes: A chaotic oscillator is an electronic circuit that can exhibit “chaotic“, nonperiodic behavior. A commonly cited example is Chua’s circuit, but there are many others. I always regarded these as carefully designed, rather academic, examples. So I was a bit surprised to observe apparently chaotic behavior in a completely unrelated experiment. See the […]
Hotkey keypad from cash register
Fwacer shared detailed instructions of how to build this shortcut keyboard from an old cash register, project instructables here. More details at brycedombrowski.com.
12V 25A power supply
Stynus blogged about his 12V 25A power supply: To test my LED Stair Lighting Controller boards I needed a 12V power supply that can deliver a lot of current. For this I chose a SP-320-12 from meanwell. However with the screw terminals it is not easy to use on a lab bench, also there is […]
Cloning a 6502 Apple-1 in just 930 logic gates
Turning 930 logic gates into a working 6502 Apple-1 clone: Two years ago, the Gigatron arrived on the retrocomputing scene. It needs just 930 logic gates (packed into 33 standard 7400-series ICs) to create a computer that beat ‘complex’ 1980s home computers like the VIC-20 in terms of both CPU power and graphics. Without microprocessor, […]
Broadlink smart bulb conversion to open source
VikTak writes: Many of the current bulbs on the market are based on the same chip, the ESP8266. These bulbs are very easy to “hack” and replace the firmware in them with the likes of my ActoSenso or the more widely known and used Tasmota. However, not all bulbs use the same chip. One of […]
Building a 12V DC MagSafe charger
Steve blogged about his 12V DC MagSafe charger built: Now that I have a solar-powered 12V battery, how can I charge my laptop from it? An inverter would seem absurdly inefficient, converting from 12V DC to 110V AC just so I can connect my Apple charger and convert back to DC. It would work, but […]
UHF version of TinySA
DuWayne KV4QB posted his UHF version of TinySA project: I had started on the TinySA from Groups.io HBTE, but am still waiting on some parts that I had orderd than have yet to show up. Looking around I found a UHF version that covers 240 to 940 MHz. This only uses a single si4432 transceiver […]
Sinilink WIFI-USB mobile remote controller
Peter Scargill blogged about his AliExpress Sinilink WIFI USB controller project: So here’s a thing – I had this all set up and working perfectly with Tasmota on my WiFi – then plugged the unit (USB male end) into a USB3 connector – and it immediately lost the lot – well, the settings, not Tasmota […]
ESP32 Atari 1020 controller
bdring writes, “My Atari 1020 Pen Plotter retrofit project is done. My project for the month of October (#inktober) was to convert a 35 year old Atari 1020 to Grbl_ESP32 control. My goal was to not change, modify or add any parts other than the controller. “ More details on Buildlog.Net blog.
Internet connected fire/smoke alarm project
Martin Harizanov blogged about his cheap DIY IoT smoke detector: This project is an upgrade to a previous project of mine – the DIY IoT smoke alarm. It is a more advanced version that uses dedicated hardware rather than the generic “Funky” project + external components. In essence, the module integrates into cheap smoke detectors […]
Cheaper yet powerful camera solutions
The Landingfield writes: It’s been a while since my last blog post. During this past year, I’ve built a few other cameras yet released on this blog. In the meantime, I have been looking into options to make this work available to fellow amateur astronomers as a viable product. One major blocker here is the […]
DIY wireless temp/humid/pressure sensors for measuring vacuum sealed 3D printed filament containers
Scott M. Baker writes: I made some wireless sensors, using BME280 temperature, humidity, and pressure sensors, together with SYN115 transmitter modules. I used these to verify the storage of vacuum sealed “PrintDry” 3D filament storage containers. See the full post on his Scott M. Baker blog. Check out the video after the break.
Run a Korg SQ-1 Sequencer from a 9V Stompbox supply
Run a Korg SQ-1 Sequencer from a 9V Stompbox supply: The Korg SQ-1 is a great little sequencer, and one of my favourite bits of kit for its simple hands-on feel and penchant for lucky randomness (I have 3 of them!) I tend to use it in a live setup with no computer but […]
Variable Frequency Drive
Lukas Fässler over at Soldernerd wrote an article detailing his homemade VFD drive for his Schaublin 102 lathe. Check out the video after the break.
Semiconductor radioactivity detector – part 2
Robert Gawron has been working on a radioactivity detector, that is available on GitHub: There are many ways to measure radioactivity level, semiconductor detectors sense interactions between ionizing radiation and p-n junction. Because in hobbyist area most popular are Geiger-Muller based detectors (in short: not a semiconductor but lamp based devices), I think it’s a […]
Making an e-Paper Etch-a-Sketch
Scott Baker has been working on making an Etch-a-Sketch using modern e-Paper displays and optical encoders: Above you can see my prototype. I’m using a 4.2″ e-Paper display from Gooddisplay, together with the Waveshare breakout board. I have a couple of ENS1J-B28-R00128 optical encoders that I attained on eBay. I specifically chose these encoders instead […]