Tindie

Disposable vapes have been a huge issue over here in the UK. I spent a lot of time last year collecting and reusing vape cells found on the roads and building them into various projects. Interestingly after a year of lobbying, the UK government has passed a motion to ban non-reusable vapes which certainly will be better for the environment. I probably have a lifetime supply of small LiPo vape cells all checked and stored at a storage charge. Speaking of charging, that’s one of the moderately tricky areas you need to address if you are harvesting these LiPo cells. There are lots of options and modules out there but an excellent one we spotted is this EcoCell LithiumSafe PCB.

It’s a neat design and we like that the PCB has some mounting holes specifically enabling you to attach the device to the common size of disposable vape cell. The vape cells are reasonably fragile so attaching to a rugged PCB seems a good option. The PCB has a power switch to turn on and off the battery output making it useful for inserting into small projects. On the charge side, there is a USB-C connector and the attached LiPo cell is protected from overcurrent, short circuit and both under and over voltages. There’s also thermal protection on board so if you have salvaged and characterized a healthy cell you can be pretty confident in leaving this system in a device.

Perfect for small microcontroller projects or periodic remote sensing projects, this product is supplied fully assembled – battery not included!

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There is probably a reasonable percentage of the Tindie blog readership who appreciate the glow of a Nixie tube. However lovely they are it’s fair to say they can be a little tricky to work with on the average modern and mostly digital home workbench. This Plexiglass Digit module circumvents the challenges of delivering the classic Nixie look with modern addressable LEDs.

Supplied assembled, these excellent modules are essentially a stack of layered Plexiglas with each layer laser-etched with a number. The base of the unit contains an array of WS2812 addressable LEDs all connected to the 3-pin header connector. With a little power and your choice of a microprocessor, you can address LEDs directly under certain Plexiglas panels to light the laser-engraved number. A big advantage is not having to work with the high voltage required to drive real Nixie tubes, which can be both a hassle to get working and also a safety issue, especially if you are working with younger makers.

The beauty of this approach is the light doesn’t bleed to other layers, and you get a clean crisp number. They do have a slightly different look than traditional Nixies – the digits almost look like miniature micro-LEDs floating in mid-air. Of course, this means you can include these modules in all manner of projects to get a heavily tuneable Nixie-like display. Set in a 3D printed case clamped with threaded studs which are terminated at the top with round-headed hex nuts, these modules scream out for a steampunk-style clock, or the display for your next time machine build!

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I’m old enough to remember the pre-smartphone heyday of the PDA. It was a great era with a large diversity of devices. I was a Palm fan and still have a drawer full of old handhelds that I’m reluctant to ever get rid of. Of course, like any technology, the PDA movement came armed with a lot of peripherals and accessories, with a common add-on for your device being a folding keyboard. Often these came with either some kind of physical connector or used IR to hook up to your PDA. These devices weren’t cheap so lots of the older folding keyboards are of excellent quality. This Bluetooth module enables you to convert numerous older folding keyboards to be compatible with your modern smartphone.

The currently supported folding keyboard models are the HP or Compaq G750, the Dell G7L0 and the Treo G740 with different module options for each. For all these folding keyboards the installation is similar in that you replace the old docking connector in the keyboard with the new module. Once fitted the keyboard will function as a Bluetooth or a wired USB-C keyboard and can be used wirelessly with any host that supports BLE/Bluetooth 4.0 and later.

The module contains a small battery which can be recharged via the USB connector with charge and power LEDs providing feedback. The project creator offers a neat customisation service for the firmware. If you have a non US keyboard variant or want to otherwise customise the keyboard mapping it just takes a message or two after placing your order.

It’s great to see projects like this on Tindie. It’s so important to try and reduce the amount of e-waste hitting landfill and often, with a little effort to modernise older technology, you’ll end up with a great device that’s also a good conversation starter!

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You may well have seen the Micro Journal device before as it’s featured heavily over on Hackaday and been picked up by lots of sites. It’s a fabulous concept for those looking to dramatically reduce distraction whilst writing. Built around an ESP32 microcontroller and a display with an SD card, slot the Micro Journal adds mechanical keyswitches to round out this chic portable device. Often sold as a complete device, it’s great to see this Micro Journal DIY Kit version hit the Tindie shelves.

The kit supplies the majority of the bill of materials needed to create a revision 6 build of the Micro Journal. This includes the custom PCB for the mechanical keyboard, the enclosure parts, the ESP32, the display and SD card holder, the battery holder and all the fixings and fasteners. You’ll need to add an 18650 cell which are pretty common to source; you’ll also need to add the Cherry MX (or compatible) keyswitches and keycaps of your choice to round out the build.

The onboard SD card acts as local storage and, as Micro Journal is all text based, even a tiny 2GB card is going to be able to contain an individual’s lifetime of work. Yes, it will hold around 400 million words! For ease of use though you can set up Micro Journal to sync to your Google Drive (and, presumably, other similar services) meaning your work is near instantly available for further editing.

An 18650 cell will give around 30 hours of distraction free writing time and due to the nature of the ESP32 and firmware the device is instant on, meaning it’s ready whenever and wherever you are when inspiration strikes.  You’ll need a few basic tools like screwdrivers and a glue gun to assemble the kit but the build process and the whole project is well documented. Just check out the GitHub and documentation links on the product page!

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If you’ve even just skirted the periphery of badge life culture, you’ll know of SAO, or Simple Add Ons. They are small boards that add some decorative or functional features to many conference badges with a compatible SAO 6-pin connector. The six pins are a 3.3V supply and ground, a pair of GPIO and an I2C bus. If you are working on a SAO that uses more than just the power pins it can be cumbersome to have to use a conference badge for testing and development. The SAO Demo Controller solves this with a small standalone RP2040-based SAO development board.

Supplied in kit form, the included RP2040- Zero is hooked up to a custom PCB and there are two SAO connectors oriented at 90 degrees to each other. This is a simple but fantastic feature that accommodates a wide variety of SAO form factors. There is also a pair of qwiic/STEMMA QT sockets on board making it trivial to add further I2C devices for experimentation and development.

All the pins of the RP2040-Zero are broken out and the unit is powered via the USB C connector. On board the RP2040-Zero there is an RGB LED visible which can be utilised as a power indicator or for other feedback. It’s a perfect device for SAO development if you aren’t lucky enough to have a SAO equipped conference badge, but it also could be handy when doing simple demonstrations or for simply showing off your SAO collection. Bring one of these along to Supercon in case someone has trouble with their SAO at the last minute!

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The CardKB from M5Stack is a useful, tiny keyboard. With it’s small low-profile tactile switches and its credit card footprint, it’s become a popular choice for small builds requiring keyboard input. This Silicone Cover for CardKB adds a layer of luxury and protection to your tiny keyboard.

Whilst the CardKB isn’t included in this product it’s worth noting a few details about the CardKB itself. It’s primarily a keyboard layout with an I2C interface via a Grove connector. It can be programmed via the Arduino IDE or M5Stack’s UIFlow environments. There’s an addressable RGB LED on board for feedback and interestingly the device is somewhat Lego compatible with two mounting holes being the standard brick size and spacing. With all this functionality in a small package and a low price, it’s become a popular add-on for all manner of projects, both within the M5Stack ecosystem and beyond.

Back to the silicone cover; it covers the entire CardKB PCB apart from the Grove connector, so as well as making the whole device a little softer, it offers some protection to the keyboard. While it doesn’t make the device waterproof, we can imagine this cover combined with some kind of enclosure making for a pretty rugged setup.

The cover is available in black or white silicone with printed characters on all the keycaps. Check it out if you want to add some style to your next pocket computer project!

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While the name “SAO” might generate lots of heated discussion about what it should stand for (Simple Add On, SuperCon Add On, or its earlier more unmentionable name) the premise of what they are is straightforward. These little SAO doohickeys are small circuits that can be added on to SAO-compatible badges, with many hacker/geek/maker conferences badges being SAO compliant, featuring the standard SAO 6-pin header on board. These revamped Rocket SAO are a beautiful example of a fabulous badge adornment using diffused reverse mount NeoPixel addressable RGB LEDs to light and animate parts of the design.

The lovingly crafted PCBs are now available in red, blue or purple solder masks and each one features 3 NeoPixel mounted on the reverse. Aside from the SAO 6-pin connector, there is an ATtiny 412 microcontroller on board with one of the 6-pin connectors used as a UPDI pin to make it easy to program. If you haven’t used the slightly newer ATtiny412 before there are plenty of excellent tutorials online and it’s very similar to using the older ATtiny85 variants, plus they are compatible with the Arduino IDE.

While we can appreciate how good these would look attached to a nice conference badge SAO connector, we love that these also have fittings to attach to a small lanyard or key ring and we think they would look lovely connected as a series of rockets in flight!

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Tindie contains a huge amount of accessories, add-on boards and kits for the Flipper Zero. We have boards that expand the frequency ranges, macro keypads, IR blasters, game link devices and more. Sometimes Flipper Zero modification feels like Game Boy modding; no more so than when we spotted this RGB Backlight mod.

The RGB LED module consists of the LEDs and a PCB which needs soldering into position inside your Flipper Zero. One nice aspect is that this board is compatible with all the different versions of the Flipper Zero so you don’t need to worry about compatibility.

Supplied with a little bit of 28 AWG wire this is a pretty straightforward mod. Note that you will void the warranty of your Flipper Zero if you crack it open and fit this mod. Speaking of opening the Flipper Zero, note that the supplied screws that come with the Flipper Zero aren’t the best quality. There is an option to add some better quality ones to your order in case you strip the originals when removing them. If all this sounds a bit much but you still want to bathe in the glorious RGB goodness then there’s also a link on the product page to an installation service.

Finally, you’ll need to flash a custom firmware to have control of the RGB backlight module in the Flipper Zero menu systems. There are plenty of suggestions for suitable firmware again on the product page. Your Flipper Zero will stand out among the crowd once you’ve got this board fitted!

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I tend to avoid posting about products where the information on the product page isn’t totally clear, but this one has me a little intrigued.  What we can definitely tell from the product write-up is that it’s a fun LED mask that looks great!

What is a little less clear is some of the functionality. It’s stated that there are 50 LED patterns with 2 banks, one containing 25 dynamic animations and the other containing 25 static patterns. Searching around online there are similar-looking masks with more memory and Bluetooth to connect to apps which make for a more versatile mask, but they seem to be double or triple the price. This one lists no such features, but does allude to a “gesture sensor”. Our best guess is that when enabled you might be able to swipe your hand in front of a sensor to change the display to the next pattern in the bank, but we really aren’t sure.

Made from ABS the mask is described as lightweight and comfortable to wear and with its internal battery can last for 8-10 hours before re-charging via the USB C port.

So while this perhaps isn’t a wholehearted recommendation, this product definitely falls into the devices that might be useful to hack around on!

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At first glance, you might just presume this is a regular off-the-shelf Raspberry Pi Pico. Your eye might then be drawn to the USB C connector and the very keen-eyed might notice a few slightly different components on board. However, delve a little deeper, and this is an extensively modified and rugged almost indestructible re-imagining called the Dact Pico.

The first major headline is this Pico-compatible board has over-voltage and over-current protection and also includes discharge protection on every IO pin. The switching power supply on board can receive up to 32 volts without issue, dramatically increasing power options for the board; it can also supply up to 700mA as a constant supply and up to 2A as a burst. There are ferrites on the power input and plenty of extra bypass capacitors meaning the supply is very clean. Polyfuses, standard diodes and transient voltage suppression diodes also abound should you try to connect things up backward or accidentally short an output.

USB-C is a nice addition and is slowly becoming the de-facto standard for developer boards and again the USB input is well-protected with fuses nearby. The other additional feature above and beyond the standard Pico is that the Dact Pico has a reset button on board.

It seems like everything is a well-thought-out addition to the Dact Pico and you’ll have to work pretty hard to damage it. It’s perfect for a mission-critical Pico project!

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