community news
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Exploring PD240W: Using USB Power Delivery as a Bench Supply Alternative Bulky bench power supplies and dedicated adapters are still common on electronics workbenches, but they are often inconvenient to carry around and overkill for many portable or field setups. With USB Power Delivery and newer GaN chargers now able to provide high power from compact adapters, developers are starting to treat USB-C as a serious power source rather than just a charging port. Theo… |
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HackyFi: The Pocket-Sized Hacker’s Toolkit HackyFi, one of the tiniest yet most capable USB-C development dongles built for hackers, makers, educators, and security researchers. Powered by the Raspberry Pi RP2350A microcontroller, the ultra-compact device integrates a 0.85-inch LCD screen, dual programmable buttons, RGB status LED, 2MB onboard flash, and a microSD card slot all inside a keychain-sized form factor. Designed to challenge… |
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ESP32 Bus Pirate Expands into a Powerful Debug Tool The ESP32 Bus Pirate project has received a major update, further transforming it into a powerful and affordable embedded systems debugging platform. Originally inspired by the Classic Bus Pirate, this firmware-based implementation allows low-cost ESP32-S3 development boards to function as multi-protocol communication tools. Like the original hardware tool, it supports common interfaces such… |
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Automate Resistor Identification and Sorting using Arduino UNO Q A maker shared an electronics project on Digikey that explains an automatic system for recognizing and organizing resistors using an Arduino Uno Q. Zach Hipps did the work and looked for methods to cut down the time needed to manually figure out resistor values after making electronics prototypes. The project uses computer vision methods instead of manually reading… |
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A DIY Cinema Camera Built Around a Raspberry Pi When it comes to filmmaking, cinema cameras are often one of the most expensive and unavoidable pieces of equipment. This reality has led many independent creators and engineers to explore lower-cost alternatives, including open-source and DIY camera platforms. In a recent project, Matthew Trahan documented the process of building a compact cinema-style camera using… |
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The Tiny Desk Robot Packed with Real-Time Information This is an open-source desk robot built around the ESP32-C3 Mini and a small OLED display. The ESP32 provides Wi-Fi connectivity, allowing the robot to fetch real-time weather data from OpenWeatherMap.org while also displaying the current time. The OLED screen presents both useful information and cute emotional animations, giving the device a Mochi-style desk… |
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Simple Self-Timing Electric Motor Built from Scratch A maker recently demonstrated how to build a fully functional self timing electric motor using only basic electronic components, no microcontrollers, motor drivers, or brushes required. The minimalist design uses a single transistor, two hand-wound coils, a battery, and a pair of neodymium magnets mounted on a rotating shaft. Instead of relying on electronic timing… |
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This DIY Build Cuts Human Reaction Time by 10% - Touch of a Cyborg? A split second can decide who wins and who loses and this DIY project proves that even milliseconds can be engineered. By building a compact sensor rig with affordable electronic components, the creator achieved a measurable 10% boost in muscle reaction speed. The system relies on surface electromyography (sEMG) sensors to detect the tiny electrical signals produced by muscles at the exact… |
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Turn Your ESP32-S3 Into an AI Assistant With MimiClaw A community project called MimiClaw has released software that lets an AI assistant run on ESP32-S3 microcontroller boards and respond to commands sent via the Telegram messaging app. The system acts as an intermediary between user messages and an online language model, enabling both conversational responses and hardware control functions such as GPIO, sensors, and actuators. MimiClaw… |
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Custom RGB 14-Segment Display Built from Scratch YouTuber EastMakes set out to build something, a true RGB 14-segment display module. Wanting a retro alphanumeric display style for a large LED message board project, he designed his own module using ultra-tiny SK6805 addressable LEDs measuring just 1.5 mm square. Since datasheets lacked precise placement references, he scanned a physical display and calibrated the image in CAD software to… |
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An OpenClaw Alternative Built to Run Within 10 MB of RAM Open-source personal AI assistants such as OpenClaw have shown how task automation can be integrated with everyday chat platforms, but they usually assume desktop- or server-class hardware. PicoClaw, a new project from Sipeed, targets a different class of devices by focusing on very low memory usage and simple deployment on small Linux boards. It is positioned as a lightweight alternative for… |
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Wrist-Mounted Grappling Hook Project: Spider-Man Web-Shooter IRL? A YouTube channel named The Amazing PhD has presented an engineering project that showcases the development of a wrist-mounted grappling hook system, a compact mechanical device inspired by fictional gadgets but implemented using real-world engineering principles. In the video, the creator documents the complete design and development process, explaining how the system integrates a projectile… |
