Optical Character Recognition (OCR) forms the bridge between the analog world of paper and the world of machines. The modern-day expectation is that when we point a smartphone camera at …read more (https://hackaday.com/2025/12/26/retrotechtacular-ibms-the-world-of-ocr/)

Pocket-sized Test Pattern Generator Helps Check those CRTs
https://hackaday.com/2025/12/26/pocket-sized-test-pattern-generator-helps-check-those-crts/

[Nicholas Murray]’s Composite Test Pattern Generator is a beautifully-made, palm-sized tool that uses an ESP32-based development board to output different test patterns in PAL/NTSC. If one is checking out old …read more (https://hackaday.com/2025/12/26/pocket-sized-test-pattern-generator-helps-check-those-crts/)

Mini Battery-Powered Vapor-Compression Air Conditioner
https://hackaday.com/2025/12/26/mini-battery-powered-vapor-compression-air-conditioner/

When you think of air conditioners, you tend to think of rather bulky units, with the window-mounted appliances probably among the most compact. There’s however no real minimum size limit …read more (https://hackaday.com/2025/12/26/mini-battery-powered-vapor-compression-air-conditioner/)

Simulating Driven-Dissipative Quantum Spin Dynamics on Consumer Hardware
https://hackaday.com/2025/12/26/simulating-driven-dissipative-quantum-spin-dynamics-on-consumer-hardware/

Physics simulations using classical mechanics is something that’s fairly easily done on regular consumer hardware, with real-time approximations a common feature in video games. Moving things to the quantum realm …read more (https://hackaday.com/2025/12/26/simulating-driven-dissipative-quantum-spin-dynamics-on-consumer-hardware/)

Drunken eBay Purchase Becomes Motorized, Speaking Dalek
https://hackaday.com/2025/12/26/drunken-ebay-purchase-becomes-motorized-speaking-dalek/

Not every impulsive purchase on eBay leads to possession of a wooden Dalek, but when a friend did exactly that, [Tony Goacher] did his part to turn ‘Dalek Bob’ into …read more (https://hackaday.com/2025/12/26/drunken-ebay-purchase-becomes-motorized-speaking-dalek/)

Building a Wall-Mounted Sound Visualizer
https://hackaday.com/2025/12/27/building-a-wall-mounted-sound-visualizer/

Visualizers used to be very much in vogue, something you’d gasp in at amazement when you’d fire up Winamp or Windows Media Player. They’re largely absent from our modern lives, …read more (https://hackaday.com/2025/12/27/building-a-wall-mounted-sound-visualizer/)

Print Your Next LED Bezel
https://hackaday.com/2025/12/27/print-your-next-led-bezel/

LED bezels (also known as LED panel-mount holders) are great, so how about 3D printing the next ones you need? Sure, they’re inexpensive to purchase and not exactly uncommon. But …read more (https://hackaday.com/2025/12/27/print-your-next-led-bezel/)