Hacker News with Generative AI: DIY Projects

Train and Weather Tracker with Raspberry Pi and E-Ink (sambroner.com)
I finally built a Raspberry Pi project my wife loves: an e-ink train and weather tracker! If you want to build one yourself, the Github & instructions are here.
DIY Acoustic Camera using miniDSP UMA-16 (2021) (navat.substack.com)
Acoustic cameras are used for locating sources of sounds. You can find online quite a few projects and products of acoustic cameras. However, they are all either complex or expensive (or both). So, I decided to build a simpler acoustic camera. And here’s how.
Let Your Guests Announce Their Arrival in Style with This Piano Doorbell (hackster.io)
Makestreme designed this piano doorbell that lets visitors announce their arrival by tickling the ivories.
A User Has Been Powering His Home with Laptop Batteries Since 2016 (wecb.fm)
In a world where sustainability and innovation are constantly intertwined, one energy enthusiast has discovered an unexpected way to turn tech waste into an endless power source.
Leningrad-1: a 44-IC Soviet style ZX-Spectrum clone (alex-j-lowry.github.io)
When Sinclair released the original ZX Spectrum in 1982, it was designed with a chip called the ULA, short for 'uncommitted logic array'. This chip combined a large amount of logic functions into a single custom-made package, significantly lowering the component count and cost.
Raspberry Pi powers briefcase-sized PiEEG 'Bio Lab' project (tomshardware.com)
Saturn Lamp (fraser.name)
This is the new lamp at the entrance to my workshop.
LEGO Treadmill That Moves in Every Direction [video] (youtube.com)
Raspberry Pi Pico audio player (blogspot.com)
For an index to all my stories click this text.After all the proceeding stories the time has come to build a complete stand-alone audio player with the Raspberry Pi Pico. The audio quality is not Hifi but it is really good !! Good enough as a player in your mancave, bedroom or even as a portable player. I have made a permanent setup and using it to play music and podcasts.
Show HN: Wireless video streaming on POV bike display (youtube.com)
A $100 DIY muon tomographer (ieee.org)
In the mid-1960s, the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Luis Alvarez had a wild idea. He proposed using muons, highly penetrating subatomic particles created when cosmic rays strike Earth’s atmosphere, to search for hidden chambers within one of the pyramids of Giza.
iMac G4(K) (jcs.org)
A year ago I tried using an M1 iMac for work duty but its 21" screen took up too much room on my desk. After seeing Sean's video on Action Retro about putting an M4 Mac Mini inside an iMac G4, I thought I'd give it a try.
Reviving an old kindle pw7 as an e-ink dashboard (terminalbytes.com)
Most of us have a drawer (or a box) stuffed with old gadgets—a sort of tech graveyard we can’t quite bring ourselves to throw out. You know the one I’m talking about: that chaotic nest of tangled cables, forgotten adapters, and mysterious dongles that looks like a digital snake pit (yeah, exactly like that mess in the photo below).
The Supersonic Trebuchet (hackaday.com)
Have you ever sat down and thought “I wonder if a trebuchet could launch a projectile at supersonic speeds?” Neither have we. That’s what separates [David Eade] from the rest of us. He didn’t just ask the question, he answered it! And he documented the entire build in a YouTube video which you can see below the break.
F/0.38 camera lens made with oil immersion microscope objective (youtube.com)
Zusie – My Relay Computer (nablaman.com)
I amuse myself by constructing a computer almost entirely out of relays.
A Young Man Used AI to Build a Nuclear Fusor (corememory.com)
AI madness is upon many of us, and it can take different forms. In August 2024, for example, I stumbled upon a post from a 20-year-old who had built a nuclear fusor in his home with a bunch of mail-ordered parts. More to the point, he’d done this while under the tutelage of Anthropic’s Claude AI service.
DIY Projects Search Engine (FindingDIY.com)
Use our search engine to find free DIY projects on topics like arduino, home decor, embroidery, woodworking, and more. Start typing below to explore thousands of DIY guides from around the web.
A 1U bar of LEDs that replicate the vibe of WOPR from WarGames (reddit.com)
I’ve always been deeply fascinated with the aesthetic of WOPR, the computer from War Games (1983). The steadily changing lights that allegedly represented the state of the machine are something I’ve wanted to replicate in my server rack for years. Recently I decided that if the product didn’t exist, I’d make it.
Snowdrop OS – a homebrew operating system from scratch, in assembly language (sebastianmihai.com)
Snowdrop OS was born of my childhood curiosity around what happens when a PC is turned on, the mysteries of bootable disks, and the hidden aspects of operating systems.
Turn any bicycle electric (dhruvvidyut.co.in)
Welcome to Dhruv Vidyut, where we offer a revolutionary electric conversion kit for bicycles.
I Built an Omni-Directional Ball-Wheeled Bike [video] (youtube.com)
Building a Tiny Linux from Scratch (blinry.org)
Last week, I built a tiny Linux system from scratch, and booted it on my laptop!
The "35-cent" Commodore 64 softmodem (blogspot.com)
Rockwell famously used 6502-based cores in modems for many years, but that doesn't mean other 6502s couldn't be used. If only there were a way to connect a Commodore 64's audio output directly to an RJ-11 plug ...
In 36h, I built a neutron-producing nuclear fusor in my kitchen using Claude (twitter.com)
E-Ink PDA – Building My Dream Productivity Device [video] (youtube.com)
Project Mini Rack – compact and portable homelabs (jeffgeerling.com)
Today I'm announcing Project MINI RACK, an open source project to help those building homelabs, RF/wireless rigs, and other electronics projects into mini 10" racks.
How I built this website on a Raspberry Pi (mirawelner.com)
As of the time of writing this, the Raspberry Pi 5 has recently been released. Some people are buying it excitedly, while others think that its value over previous models doesn't warrant the price increase. In any event, many people will be implementing various projects on their new (or old) Pis.
Virtual Vette – Racing Simulator Built from Wrecked Corvette (instructables.com)
This project started because I was looking for a way to encourage and reward my son, Daniel, for earning his Eagle Scout rank.
Morse Code Clock (temporaldiscombobulator.com)