Collaborate Disseminate
[Tommy]’s POLY555 is an analog, 20-note polyphonic synthesizer that makes heavy use of 3D printing and shows off some clever design. The POLY555, as well as [Tommy]’s earlier synth designs, are based around the 555 timer. But one 555 is …read more
Continue reading Peek Into This Synth’s Great Design (And Abandoned Features)
While most people are satisfied with a calculator application on their smartphone these days, there’s still something to be said for the old fashioned desk calculator. Maybe it’s the fact the batteries last long enough that you can’t remember the last time you changed them, or the feel of physical …read more
Continue reading Review: Calculator Kit is Just a Few Hacks From Greatness
Join us on Wednesday, June 24 at noon Pacific for the Gigatron Hack Chat with Walter Belgers!
There was a time when if you wanted a computer, you had to build it. And not by ordering parts from Amazon and plugging everything together in a case — you had to …read more
Facebook’s experiments lab releases a new Apple Watch app that lets users communicate with their closest friend from their Watch via Messenger.
The post Facebook’s Latest Experiment Is an Apple Watch App for Messaging Your Closest Friend appeare… Continue reading Facebook’s Latest Experiment Is an Apple Watch App for Messaging Your Closest Friend
Does the complexity of modern computing ever get you down? Do you find yourself longing for the old days, where you could actually understand what your desktop machine’s hardware and software was doing at any given moment? You aren’t alone, but unfortunately running a 40+ year old computer as your …read more
Continue reading Catch The Old School BASIC Bug With This Computer Kit
Two engineering students are hard at work on this air drum which they hope will help disabled people and people in nursing homes. Though, we think it just looks fun!
Each board is its own module consisting of the electronics and 3D printed cases. The modules each contain an arduino …read more
As the name implies, the OSEP STEM board is an embedded project board primarily aimed at education. You use jumper wires to connect components and a visual block coding language to make it go.
I have fond memories of kits from companies like Radio Shack that had dozens of parts …read more
Continue reading Review: OSEPP STEM Kit 1, a Beginner’s All-in-One Board Found in the Discount Aisle
If you grew up in the latter part of the 20th century, you didn’t have the Internet we have today — or maybe not at all. What you did have, though, was Radio Shack within an hour’s drive. They sold consumer electronics, of course, but they also sold parts and kits. In addition to specific kits, they always had some versions of a universal kit where lots of components were mounted on a board and you could easily connect and disconnect them to build different things. [RetoSpector78] found a 200-in-1 kit at a thrift store that was exactly like the …read more
If you are under a certain age, you probably associate Radio Shack with cellphones. While Radio Shack never gave us access to the variety and economy of parts we have today, they did have one thing that I wish we could get again: P-Box kits. The obvious questions are: What’s a P-Box and why do I want one? But the kit wasn’t to make a P-Box. P-Box was the kind of box the kit came in. It was like a piece of perfboard, but made of plastic, built into a plastic box. So you bought the kit — which might …read more
Continue reading Retrotechtacular: Remembering Radio Shack P-Box Kits
The concept of creating a gaming portable out of a home console has been around for some time, but it’s hardly seen the other way around. There have been a few devices that dared to straddle the line (i.e., Sega Nomad, Nintendo Switch, etc.), but the two worlds typically remain separate. [Stephen] looked to explore that space by attempting to turn the Game Boy Advance into a “big boy” console. The FPGA-based mod kit he created does just that, and comes complete with controller support and digital video output in 720p over a mini HDMI cable.
The kit itself was …read more
Continue reading GBA on the Big Screen: FPGA Delivers HDMI and Every Feature Imaginable