DIY Soldering Tweezers, Extra Thrifty
?w=800" alt=""/>It started when [Mitxela] was faced with about a hundred incorrectly-placed 0603 parts. Given that he already owned two TS101 soldering irons, a 3D printer, and knows how to use https://hackaday.com/2025/04/12/diy-soldering-tweezers-extra-thrifty/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/12/diy-soldering-tweezers-extra-thrifty/
Tiny Pogo Robot Gets Wings, Does Flips
?w=800" alt=""/>Most robots depend on controlled environments, because the real world is hard to get around in. The smaller the robot, the bigger this problem because little wheels (or legs) can https://hackaday.com/2025/04/12/tiny-pogo-robot-gets-wings-does-flips/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/12/tiny-pogo-robot-gets-wings-does-flips/
GPS Broken? Try TV!
?w=800" alt=""/>GPS and similar satellite navigation systems revolutionized how you keep track of where you are and what time it is. However, it isn’t without its problems. For one, it generally https://hackaday.com/2025/04/11/gps-broken-try-tv/
The Jupiter Ace Remembered
?w=800" alt=""/>It is hard to imagine that it has been more than four decades since two of the original designers of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum broke off to market the Jupiter https://hackaday.com/2025/04/11/the-jupiter-ace-remembered/
Improving Magnetoplasmadynamic Ion Thrusters With Superconductors
?w=800" alt=""/>Ion thrusters are an amazing spacecraft propulsion technology, providing very high efficiency with relatively little fuel. Yet getting one to produce more thrust than that required to lift a sheet https://hackaday.com/2025/04/10/improving-magnetoplasmadynamic-ion-thrusters-with-superconductors/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/10/improving-magnetoplasmadynamic-ion-thrusters-with-superconductors/
Clever Engineering Leaves Appliance Useless
?w=800" alt=""/>Around these parts, we generally celebrate clever hacks that let you do more with less. So if somebody wrote in to tell us how they used multiplexing to drive the https://hackaday.com/2025/04/10/clever-engineering-leaves-appliance-useless/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/10/clever-engineering-leaves-appliance-useless/
Self-Hosting a Cluster on Old Phones
?w=800" alt=""/>The phones most of us carry around in our pockets every day hold a surprising amount of computing power. It’s somewhat taken for granted now that we can get broadband https://hackaday.com/2025/04/09/self-hosting-a-cluster-on-old-phones/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/09/self-hosting-a-cluster-on-old-phones/
Forget Propellers, Embrace Tentacle-based Locomotion
?w=748" alt=""/>Underwater robots face many challenges, not least of which is how to move around. ZodiAq is a prototype underwater soft robot (link is to research paper) that takes an unusual approach https://hackaday.com/2025/04/09/forget-propellers-embrace-tentacle-based-locomotion/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/09/forget-propellers-embrace-tentacle-based-locomotion/
The Computers of EPCOT
?w=800" alt=""/>Even if you aren’t a Disney fan, you probably know about EPCOT — Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow — a Disney attraction that promised a glimpse of the future. [ErnieTech] https://hackaday.com/2025/04/08/the-computers-of-epcot/
Keebin’ with Kristina: the One Where We Embrace the Jank
?w=800" alt="Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands."/>Yeah, yeah — not a keyboard. But one keyboard-adjacent topic I’m certainly interested in is that of finding a satisfying mouse. Why settle for ticky micro-switches when you could have https://hackaday.com/2025/04/07/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-where-we-embrace-the-jank/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/07/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-where-we-embrace-the-jank/
Why USB-C Splitters Can Cause Magic Smoke Release
?w=800" alt=""/>Using USB for powering devices is wonderful, as it frees us from a tangle of incompatible barrel & TRS connectors, not to mention a veritable gaggle of proprietary power connectors. https://hackaday.com/2025/04/07/why-usb-c-splitters-can-cause-magic-smoke-release/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/07/why-usb-c-splitters-can-cause-magic-smoke-release/
Command and Conquer Ported to the Pi Pico 2
?w=800" alt=""/>A couple of months back, Electronic Arts did something uncharacteristically benevolent and released several of the old Command and Conquer games under the GPLv3. Logically, we knew that opened the https://hackaday.com/2025/04/06/command-and-conquer-ported-to-the-pi-pico-2/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/06/command-and-conquer-ported-to-the-pi-pico-2/
Celebrating 30 Years of Windows 95 at VCF
?w=800" alt=""/>It’s been 30 years since Windows 95 launched. [Ms-Dos5] and [Commodore Z] are celebrating with an epic exhibit at VCF East 2025. They had no fewer than nine computers — https://hackaday.com/2025/04/06/celebrating-30-years-of-windows-95/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/06/celebrating-30-years-of-windows-95/
If You’re 3D Scanning, You’ll Want a Way To Work with Point Clouds
?w=800" alt=""/>3D scanning is becoming much more accessible, which means it’s more likely that the average hacker will use it to solve problems — possibly odd ones. That being the case, https://hackaday.com/2025/04/05/if-youre-3d-scanning-youll-want-a-way-to-work-with-point-clouds/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/05/if-youre-3d-scanning-youll-want-a-way-to-work-with-point-clouds/
A Look Inside MacPaint
?w=800" alt=""/>Usually when we talk about retrocomputing, we want to look at — and in — some old hardware. But [Z→Z] has a different approach: dissecting MacPaint, the Apple drawing program https://hackaday.com/2025/04/05/a-look-inside-macpaint/
Disney’s Bipedal, BDX-Series Droid Gets the DIY Treatment
?w=800" alt=""/>[Antoine Pirrone] and [Grégoire Passault] are making a DIY miniature re-imagining of Disney’s BDX droid design, and while it’s still early, there is definitely a lot of progress to see. https://hackaday.com/2025/04/05/disneys-bipedal-bdx-series-droid-gets-the-diy-treatment/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/05/disneys-bipedal-bdx-series-droid-gets-the-diy-treatment/
Supercon 2024: Quick High-Feature Boards With The Circuit Graver
?w=800" alt=""/>These days, if you want to build something with modern chips and components, you probably want a custom PCB. It lets you build a neat and compact project that has https://hackaday.com/2025/04/04/supercon-2024-quick-high-feature-boards-with-the-circuit-graver/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/04/supercon-2024-quick-high-feature-boards-with-the-circuit-graver/
Keep Bears at Bay with the Crackle of 280,000 Volts
?w=800" alt=""/>Bears! Are they scared of massive arcs that rip through the air, making a lot of noise in the process? [Jay] from the Plasma Channel sure hopes so, because that’s https://hackaday.com/2025/04/04/keep-bears-at-bay-with-the-crackle-of-280000-volts/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/04/keep-bears-at-bay-with-the-crackle-of-280000-volts/
Ditto That
In the 1982 movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High, a classroom of students receives a set of paperwork to pass backward. Nearly every student in the room takes a big https://hackaday.com/2025/04/03/ditto-that/
A Very Trippy Look at Microsoft’s Beginnings
?w=800" alt=""/>It’s not often you’ll see us singing the praises of Microsoft on these pages, but credit where credit is due, this first-person account of how the software giant got its https://hackaday.com/2025/04/03/a-very-trippy-look-at-microsofts-beginnings/
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/03/a-very-trippy-look-at-microsofts-beginnings/