Making A PCB The Old-Fashioned Way

ALTco demonstrates hand-plotting a PCB without any EDA software, reviving a technique from the pre-computer era of electronics. The process starts with experimenting to find the right resist marker for drawing copper traces on a raw copper-clad board. After testing a homemade etchant and settling on ferric chloride, the circuit for a small analog fan controller is drawn entirely by hand. After etching, cleaning, and component assembly, the result is a functioning smoke absorber for the soldering bench. A charming reminder that smooth, organic-looking PCB traces long predate modern silicon design tools.

Sources: Hackaday

Comments (0)

Sliding-Screen Cyberdeck Has Chunky, Rugged Design

Jankbu built a custom cyberdeck rather than buy a laptop, centering it around a Raspberry Pi 5 inside a chunky 3D-printed enclosure with rear rail mounts. A NOS 450 TKL mechanical keyboard pairs with a 10.1-inch IPS touchscreen on sliding rails that covers the keys when not in use. Industrial-style buttons ring the display, while grab handles on each side incorporate custom scroll controls and a trackball. NP-F camera batteries provide power. Unlike many show-piece cyberdecks, this build earns daily use running FreeCAD and mounting around the workshop as needed. Files are on GitHub.

Sources: Hackaday

Comments (0)

Transforming Lamp Built With LED Filaments

Nick Electronics built a lamp whose shape slowly transforms while lit, using stacked PCB layers packed with flexible LED filaments. Each layer hosts four filaments along its outer edge and connects to adjacent layers via interlinking wires, with interlocking pins causing them to tug each other as they rotate around a central shaft. A stepper motor driven by an A4988 driver and an ATmega48 microcontroller handles motion control. A USB-C-powered DC-DC converter steps 5V up to 10V for the motor. The result is a mesmerizing, slowly shifting glow combining art and creative PCB-based mechanical design.

Sources: Hackaday

Comments (0)

Building A Better Automotive Rotary Controller

Garage Tinkering built a custom in-car controller inspired by frustration with BMW's iDrive, centering it on the Crowpanel 1.28-inch rotary module which packs a push-button encoder, a round display, and an ESP32-S3 into a single unit. A custom 3D-printed housing integrates the module into the vehicle interior, complete with a diffuser ring for built-in LEDs and additional control buttons. The controller will interface with a broader in-car infotainment build featuring a larger screen and multiple digital gauges, handling lighting presets and vehicle parameter display. A clean example of replacing mediocre factory hardware with precisely engineered alternatives.

Sources: Hackaday

Comments (0)

Wayland Comes To Minecraft

Developer EVVIE has created Waylandcraft, a Fabric mod that embeds a full Wayland compositor directly inside Minecraft on Linux, accomplished entirely without AI assistance. Users can launch arbitrary programs and have their windows appear inside the Minecraft world in any orientation, fully interactive. The compositor requires the Fabric mod loader and standard Linux Wayland tools. One limitation applies: in-game Wayland windows cannot be streamed to remote server players. All source code is released under the GPL license on GitHub. It may be the most unexpected Wayland adopter yet, turning the decade-old Linux windowing transition into an in-game desktop environment.

Sources: Hackaday

Comments (0)

What's Trending in the Maker World