Cool projects
This is an unsorted list of projects that really cool and neat.
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- someone took some old Chromebooks, stripped them down and built a cluster. I love this kind of jank!
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TOTP tokens on my wrist with the smartest dumb watch.
- someone took a classic Casio F-91W and modified it so that it can be used as a 2FA device.
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Framework Cyberdeck - DIY Portable PC
- custom build that incorporates a Framework laptop motherboard. And it’s open source!
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- custom mod for the PS2 slim, looks absolutely lovely.
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Thin Clients - www.parkytowers.me.uk
- a great repository of information about all sorts of thin clients, their capabilities and alternative uses for them, such as repurposing them to be a small and efficient home server
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- hardware project that allows you to replace the insides of a PlayStation Portable with a Raspberry Pi. Surprisingly functional, slick and reversible. Here’s also a Macho Nacho guide of this project.
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Water cooling is overkill for Pi 5
- Jeff Geerling tries a water cooler on a Raspberry Pi 5 and while the product isn’t great, I would not mind seeing something like this used in a cluster of Pi-s. Not for practical reasons, but because it would look so cool.
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- An absolute madlad turned an unsuspecting TP-Link router into an actual gaming router. You know, the kind that can play GTA Vice City?
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I made a new backplane for my Terramaster F2-221 NAS
- I had the same NAS at one point and I simply added an USB SSD to the inside, but the author went one step further and designed a custom PCB to fit an NVMe SSD inside the NAS.
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Development notes from xkcd’s “Machine”
- A behind the scenes look at how a big, interactive Rube Goldberg machine
was built for this years’ April Fools edition of a popular web
comic
xkcd. And here’s the machine itself.
- A behind the scenes look at how a big, interactive Rube Goldberg machine
was built for this years’ April Fools edition of a popular web
comic
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I made an e-ink display that shows my calendar
- Fun walkthrough of a project that went wrong, and how the author salvaged it, sprinkled with fun and totally not serious comments about life and career choices.
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Adding a USB Port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the Hard Way)
- Great demonstration of the thought process and all the troubleshooting and problem-solving steps involved in adding an internal USB port to a modern ThinkPad.
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A Steam Deck Mini PC Using Real Hardware!
- ETA Prime turned a Steam Deck motherboard and heat sink into a mini PC, which works surprisingly well for gaming.
- There is so much untapped potential in this concept. Passive cooling, overclocking, cool custom designed cases!
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Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch
- A scummy company that asked $1697 to replace a cheap Android tablet vs a man of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will.
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- possibly one of the most thought out buildings I’ve ever seen, with LAN party capabilities and cat walkways to bedrooms!
The solar-powered websites:
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My solar-powered and self-hosted website
- project itself is described here
Useful 3D printable designs:
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2.5mm Drive Enclosure for Shucked WD Elements Controller Board
- makes it possible to use 2.5" drives with the leftovers of a WD Elements external hard drive after you’ve taken out the HDD and used it as an internal drive.
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- makes it easy to attach two 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD to a ZimaBoard.
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- simple and elegant laptop stand
- fits a ThinkPad X390 and ThinkPad P14s gen4 very nicely, with a little bit of room to spare
- also fits a Steam Deck well
- based on this design
Apps that I use once in a while:
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- Create Symbols and Text on LED Name Badges using Bluetooth
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- Optimize your WiFi network, by checking WiFi network status, signal strength and identifying crowded channels using WiFiAnalyzer