Cool projects

This is an unsorted list of projects that really cool and neat.

• Chromebook cluster

  • someone took some old Chromebooks, stripped them down and built a cluster. I love this kind of jank!

• 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.

• Framework Cyberdeck - DIY Portable PC

  • custom build that incorporates a Framework laptop motherboard. And it’s open source!

• Making The PS2 Even Smaller

  • custom mod for the PS2 slim, looks absolutely lovely.

• 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

• PSPi 6

  • 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.

• 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.

• Real gaming router

  • An absolute madlad turned an unsuspecting TP-Link router into an actual gaming router. You know, the kind that can play GTA Vice City?

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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!

• 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.

The solar-powered websites:

• LOW←TECH MAGAZINE

  • project itself is described here
  • weather information and power consumption numbers are here

• My solar-powered and self-hosted website

  • project itself is described here

• Louwrentius

  • project itself is described here
  • power consumption numbers are present here

Useful 3D printable designs:

• 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.

• ZimaBoard Dual HDD stand

  • makes it easy to attach two 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD to a ZimaBoard.