Over a year ago, we took a look at importing a .step file of a KiCad PCB into FreeCAD, then placing a sketch and extruding it. It was a small step, but I know it’s enough for most of you all,…

We’ve all done it at some time — made an electrical connection by twisting together the bare ends of some wires. It’s quick, and easy, but because of how little force required to …

Last time, I described how to write a simple Android app and get it talking to your code on Linux. So, of course, we need an example. Since I’ve been on something of a macropad kick lately, I…

Business cards, on the whole, haven’t changed significantly over the past 600-ish years, and arguably are not as important as they used to be, but they are still worth considering as a remind…

Dedicated word processors are not something we see much of anymore. They were in a weird space: computerized, but not really what you could call a computer, even in those days. More like a fancy ty…

Beyond the simple world of basic PLA filaments there is a whole wild world of additives that can change this humble material for better or worse. The most common additives here are primarily to add…

Most people’s memories of programming in the 8-bit era revolve around BASIC, and not without reason. Most of the time, it was all we had. On the other hand, there were other options if you so…

Recently, [Solder Hub] put together a brief video that demonstrates the basics of a Hall Effect sensor — in this case, one salvaged from an old CPU fan. Two LEDs, a 100 ohm resistor, and a 3.…

Recently, Linux has been rising in desktop popularity in no small part to the work on WINE and Proton. But for some, the year of the Linux desktop is not enough, and the goal is now for the year of…

For all its friendly countenance and award-winning industrial design, there’s one thing the venerable Macintosh Plus can’t do: fit into a 1U rack space. OK, if we’re being honest …

Keeping track of time is essential, even for microcontrollers, which is why a real-time clock (RTC) peripheral is a common feature in MCUs. In the case of the STM32 family there are three varieties…

Here at Hackaday Central, we fancy that we know a little something about Linux. But if you’d tasked us to run any GUI program inside a Linux terminal, we’d have said that wasn’t p…

This week Jonathan and Dan chat with Frank Vasquez and Chris Simmonds about Embedded Linux, and the 4th edition of the Mastering Embedded Linux Programming book. How has this space changed in the l…

The Diné (aka Navajo) people have been using their weaving as trade goods at least since European contact, and probably long before. They’ve never shied from adopting innovation: churro sheep…

Released in July of 2025, the Tamagotchi Paradise may look somewhat like the late 90s toy that terrorized parents and teachers alike for years, but it’s significantly more complex and powerfu…

There are a variety of robot mower systems on the market employing different navigation methods, and [Eelco] has the story of how one of these was reverse engineered. Second hand Roomba lawnmowers …

Does the in 65F02 “F” stand for “fast” or “FPGA”? [Jurgen] doesn’t know, but his drop-in replacement board for the 6502 and 65c02 is out there and open sou…

We’ll admit it. We have access to great debugging tools and, yes, sometimes they are invaluable. But most of the time, we’ll just throw a few print statements in whatever program we&#82…

To update an old saying for the modern day, one man’s e-waste is another man’s bill of materials. Upcycling has always been in the hacker’s toolkit, and cellphones provide a wealt…

Last time, we built a case for a PCB that handles 100 W of USB-C power, an old project that I’ve long been aiming to revive. It went well, and I’d like to believe you that the article w…

[Scott Baker] is at it again and this time he has built a 4-bit single board computer based on the Intel 4004 microprocessor. In the board design [Scott] covers the CPU (both the Intel 4004 and 404…