Vintage Turntable Gets Brain Transplant and Home Assistant Integration

A maker known as Marsupial rescued a Sansui P-L45 linear-tracking turntable after discovering its NEC F4992 CPU daughterboard was completely dead. Rather than shelving the vintage deck, he reverse-engineered the board using original service manuals still available online. The replacement is an ESP32-S3 microcontroller that replicates the linear tracking head logic, moving the tonearm along a track at variable speed to follow the record groove. A custom daughterboard handles 3.3V level shifting and hardware debounce for the inputs. With the turntable functional again, Marsupial went further and integrated it with Home Assistant for remote playback control. Firmware and PCB design files are published on his WeAreAllGeeks blog.

Sources: Hackaday

Microsoft Claims 20-Second Qubit Lifetimes on New Quantum Chip

Microsoft has announced its second-generation quantum chip delivers 12 qubits averaging 20-second coherence lifetimes, a significant improvement over the millisecond-scale stability typical in quantum computing today. The chip uses topological superconductors based on claimed Majorana modes, though independent researchers note the underlying physics remains debated. Microsoft's first-generation Majorana 1 chip had 8 qubits with much shorter coherence times. Practical quantum computers will require millions of logical qubits, but Microsoft believes it will have a commercially viable machine by 2029. Fujitsu is separately on track to deploy a 1,000-qubit system this year, showing quantum progress across multiple industry approaches.

Sources: Hackaday

How To Embed Magnets in FDM Prints Without Ruining Your Printer

Adding neodymium magnets to FDM 3D prints is a popular technique for enclosures, closures, and Halbach array sensors, but traps await the unwary. A guide by Lost in Tech covers the main failure modes: ferromagnetic extruder nozzles that attract magnets during mid-print placement, heated beds built with pseudo-Halbach magnetic arrays that can be permanently demagnetized by a nearby neodymium magnet, and the mistake of using the heat-insert technique with magnets, since most magnets demagnetize below 200 degrees Celsius. Safer approaches include post-print friction fit with slightly undersized pockets, side-insertion slots that avoid nozzle contact, and using non-magnetic pure brass nozzles when in-print magnet placement is required.

Sources: Hackaday

Skylight Project Turns Any Ceiling Into a Live Aircraft and Planetarium Display

Developer cpaczek built Skylight, an open-source project that turns any ceiling into a real-time aircraft and planetarium display. A Raspberry Pi 5 receives ADS-B signals via an RTL-SDR v4 dongle, decodes aircraft transponder broadcasts, and renders 60 FPS 1080p imagery on a short-throw projector pointed upward. Aircraft appear exactly where they would be overhead, with flight code, destination, and aircraft type displayed. Beyond aviation, Skylight functions as a full planetarium showing stars, planets, and satellites via API. Users can configure any geographic location, useful even without a nearby airport. The project source code is published on GitHub under an open-source license for makers to adapt.

Sources: Hackaday

ESP32-S3 WiCAN Dongle Brings OBD-II Car Data Into Home Assistant

A project from The Stock Pot YouTube channel demonstrates connecting any OBD-II-equipped vehicle to Home Assistant using the WiCAN Pro dongle from Australian maker company MeatPi. Based on an ESP32-S3, the open-source WiCAN firmware enables Wi-Fi communication between the car ECU and a home automation hub. Once configured, users monitor real-time parameters including fuel level, coolant temperature, tire pressure, and days to next service without needing a manufacturer app. Car-specific configuration profiles handle ECU data translation differences between models. MeatPi is also developing a cellular add-on for remote monitoring beyond Wi-Fi range. Firmware, configuration YAML, and documentation are freely available on GitHub.

Sources: Hackaday

Maker Adds Full RGB Backlighting to Hackaday Communicator Badge Keyboard

The Hackaday Communicator, the event badge distributed at recent Hackaday conferences, received a hardware modification from maker makeTVee. The Communicator is a handheld wireless terminal built around a compact QWERTY keyboard with silicone-cast keys. The upgrade replaces the stock front panel with a custom-designed version housing extremely thin side-emitting addressable LEDs positioned to backlight each key individually. Custom-printed keycaps and a TPU spacer mat complete the assembly, all driven from a single GPIO pin on the device. The result is a fully functional RGB-lit terminal keyboard. The modification was demonstrated live at Hackaday Europe 2026 in Lecco, Italy, and is fully documented on Hackaday.io.

Sources: Hackaday

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