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Ah, USB Power Delivery, my favourite part of the new USB-C specification. Finally, high-speed charging through reversible USB cables! It’s great to see more hackers using USB PD in their USB-C designs, and this is a nifty little charging upgrade for Lenovo Thinkpad laptops. The downsides of older laptop charging systems are having a proprietary cable, and the fragility of barrel connectors over time. Using USB-C as a laptop charging cable is a great idea, which many modern laptops have started to incorporate. But why not bring that new technology to existing laptops?

Many laptops end up with broken or worn-out charging cables (you should see mine — it’s a big mess of heat shrink and hot glue). A replacement power supply from the manufacturer can be as much as $150! Using third-party power supplies is possible with some manufacturers, but my Dell laptop has a secret serial connection to the charger, which it uses to query and find out if the charger is genuine. If it doesn’t respond, or if the cable breaks (grumble grumble) the laptop will run at a reduced clock speed, and it won’t charge the battery. What a pain!

Luckily, Handy Tools of Taiwan has created this replacement module that converts a range of laptop charging ports to USB-C. It is aimed at the Thinkpad X220 and X230, but there are a variety of different Lenovo laptops that use the same power connector. Be sure to check the power rating of your existing power brick and order the correct replacement! You will also need to pick up a USB-C wall adapter that supports Power Delivery at the voltage and current your device needs. These are becoming more common, and prices are falling, so that shouldn’t be too difficult! Note that Handy Tools also offers a similar replacement module for another range of Lenovo laptops. Very cool!

If you are curious about the Power Delivery spec, I highly recommend checking out the USB Implementer’s Forum PDF about Power Delivery. It’s amazing to me that they have released this spec for free — no yearly fees for access to their specs! This enables hackers like Handy Tools to easily create devices which can interface with existing USB PD chargers and take advantage of their flexible output voltages.

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Competitiveness is one of my stronger qualities. I’m still trying to decide if that’s a good or bad thing. My close friends and family may favor the latter. While I contemplate my penchant for winning, check out this hilariously named competitive speed game on Tindie!

The ButtSnap, yes that’s the real name, is a simple competitive speed game meant to be played by two players. This product is a mini PCB with two buttons, one for each player, and three LEDs, the center LED is the trigger used to indicate the start of the game, the two outter LEDs indicate which play has won the round.

The game is played by each player placing their thumb/finger on a button. Once the trigger LED flashes on, the fastest player to press their button wins. The winner is shown by their LED lighting up.

The game features randomly timed rounds and bonus rounds where the player who presses the button the most times wins. Fun fact: the speed of the flashing of the trigger LED during this bonus round is set to the same speed as the current world record for button pressing!

Players can check the game’s score as well as the high score. The ButtSnap is powered by a CR2032 battery, which is included.

Harness your inner competitor and grab a friend to see who has the best reflexes.

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Eurorack Synths are the core of any modular setup, providing the seed and foundation to a tapestry of sonic adventures. Here we have the Euro Kastle Synth V1.5, which houses the Bastl Instruments Kastle Synth into a 10HP Eurorack module – creating a unique lofi sound which covers melodies, drones, noises and percussion from smooth softness to hard edged sounds!

This v1.5 version combines a complex oscillator and LFO with stepped waveform generator. The oscillator has 3 sound parameters: pitch, timbre and waveshape, which can be controlled by CVs and has SIX synthesis modes! The Euro Kastle features two Attiny 85 chips that can be reprogrammed with an Arduino with one chip dedicated to sound generation and the other one handling modulation. Good news: the Kastle is also totally open-source!

This kit comes with all you need to be king of the Kastle – but be warned, its aimed at advanced solderers only! It features some amendments for greater integration with the eurorack style – OSC and Rungler modes are changed by a front panel switch, a waveshape attenuator and one output/input per functionality.

The Euro Kastle is sold by Spherical Sound Society  who are based in Spain, and have a few other cool modules to check out. See the demo video below if you want to see more!

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Gardening and electronics don’t generally go together, and remembering to keep plants watered can be a problem for anyone. Fortunately, there is a solution that combines the two in the form of the SoilWatch 10 capacitive soil moisture sensor.

This device is water and weatherproof, and can be plugged into a potted plant, or even buried under your lawn. As it uses capacitive sensing, there are no exposed metal parts, so it won’t rust like resistive sensors, and it’s relatively immune to temperature changes. The device features a single analog output, allowing it to be used with Arduino boards and other similar microcontrollers with ADC capabilities

Of course, SoilWatch isn’t the only sensing solution on the Tindie indie electronics marketplace. You also may want to consider this I2C Soil moisture sensor by Catnip Electronics. The device works with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and other systems, and has been reviewed 80 times as of this writing. In fact, it was featured here in 2017 as one of Tindie’s top 5 products, coming it at #2 with over 5000 sold—a number that’s increased significantly since then!

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IoT, also known as the Internet of Things, devices are everywhere in modern technology, from smart TVs and fitness trackers to security systems and smart city designs. If you’re interested in IoT, then check out the Starter Basic Kit IoT – ESP8266 on Tindie!

This product is an IoT kit that was created for easy introduction and experimentation with IoT technology. Whether you are new to projects with IoT technology or you simply want a basic kit, this product is the perfect fit.

Equipped with a Wemos board and several components, this kit can be used to build a variety of IoT projects. You can also connect to the internet via WiFi.

Each kit includes:

• 1 PCB IoT Basic Kit
• 1 Mini Wemos Board (ESP8266)
• 1 USB OTG Adapter
• 1 Micro USB Cable

The PCB has Neopixel RGB LEDs, an OLED display, a relay, active buzzer, two pushbuttons, a 10k ohm potentiometer, and a DHT11: a sensor for temperature and humidity.

If you’re ready to dive into the world of IoT devices and experiments, then grab your Starter Basic Kit IoT – ESP8266 and get hacking!

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Whether your own a home or rent an apartment, leaks are the kind of thing that can sneak up on you. They’re silent and often unknown until it’s too late. I myself have had pipes burst and sinks leak, with soaked carpet warped wood as the first indication of a problem. Not pretty.

The BIOT is a device that helps you catch leaks faster than ever. It’s a WiFi-enabled design that lasts up to five years in the field and sends an email whenever it detects a water leak, or a door opening (depending on how you use it).

It can also send temperature updates at custom intervals, and allows you to change the port and uplink URL to your own server if you want to do something different with the POST packet it sends. The HTTP POST packets work with PHP script websites using PostGRE SQL databases, if you prefer not to use the free service and intstead opt for your own server.

The BIOT stands out because it’s battery-powered and doesn’t require a gateway. It can talk directly to the WiFi router. It’s also far less expensive than equivalent platforms on the market.

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Power banks are ubiquitous, and because they offer 5V with an easy to use USB port, they often find use in wireless projects. IoT projects in particular often take advantage of the high power density and small form factor. But most power banks have a feature to turn themselves off when the attached device (presumed to be a phone or other device that requires charging) reaches full charge. They do this by sensing the current draw, watching for it to fall below a certain threshold.

This can be a major issue for projects with a low, steady standby current, which also need bursts of high current when transmitting. This smart device helps keep your power bank from switching off when your device is not drawing much current — and it does it without drawing excessive power!

This design takes advantage of the fact that before shutting off due to low current draw, power banks have a delay of 5-10 seconds. By drawing very small pulses of current every few seconds, the circuitry is kept awake. The amount of energy actually used is completely configurable, depending on your individual power bank. You can have it draw up to 140mA for any length of time, at intervals which are also customizable. This allows it to be used with a wide variety of power banks.

Sure, some power banks don’t have this feature, or might have a cutoff which is below what your device draws. But finding the perfect power bank could be a costly and difficult endeavour, when you can just use whatever power bank is the most economical paired with this device!

The source code and design files are freely available for modification from GitHub. Happy hacking!

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Game development is something you hear about a lot in news lately. Long hours, intense weeks of crunch, and the result is nothing short of magic. Digging into the programming behind it all, it becomes readily apparent why these things take so much effort to make.

If you’re looking to try it out without the need for vast programming skills and artistic talent, the PicoPew could be a great place to start. This little add-on lets you turn your TinyPICO ESP32 development board (sold separately) into a tiny MicroPython game console. It also happens to be compatible with the PewPew family of devices as well.

The display is composed of 8×8 LED pixels with a simple API in a high-level language. This means that quick prototypes and a streamlined workflow let you get results faster than ever before. Experienced developers can also find challenge in squeezing out every last bit of performance from the microcontroller.

The kit comes partially assembled with some soldering required. A TinyPICO is required, but things like a battery and 3D-printed case are optional if you want to add them on later.

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First, our phones became smarter. Next, our watches decided to do more than just tell time. I imagine it was right about then that makers decided to take on the challenge of hacking these newly found smart devices on our wrists.

The vast majority of hybrid smartwatches made by Skagen, Fossil, and the like, use Soprod micromotors. Others tend to use something based on the same reference board design.

Knowing this, the OpenChronograph mainboard intends to be a a programmable drop-in replacement for most commercial smartwatches. This kit comes with a mainboard and a USB pogo serial programmer, both of which are compatible with the Arduino IDE.

You can find instructions and details on the Github as well. A drop-in board like this allows you to get around the closed nature of hybrid smartwatch design, opening it up for designs from the maker community!

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We’re proud to be sponsoring the tenth Open Hardware Summit! The event will feature talks and a chance to converse with people who have made openness a focus of their work.

OHS was due to take place in NYC on March 13, but due to precautions to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the organizers have decided to make this year an online-only event. Checkout @OHSummit #ohs2020Virtual on Twitter for more details on how to participate!

The event’s schedule is full of amazing topics and speakers. A great friend to Tindie and Supplyframe’s Sophi Kravitz will be this year’s keynote speaker, discussing From Basement to Graduation: How Open Hardware Grew Up. Amanda Wozniak will be giving a talk entitled All Good Things Scale.

Open Down to the Transistor, a talk from Timothy ‘Mithro’ Ansell will discuss a new revolution in open IC creation. Other talks include 3D Printing with Reclaimed Plastic, How Hardware Learns, A New and Radical Open Source Initiative Towards the Development of Advanced Electric Propulsion for Space, and so many more.

There’s also a panel discussion, A Decade Backward and A Decade Forward. Check out the full schedule on the OSHWA’s website for more information.

As you may know, Tindie offers several products that are open-source projects. Check out Tindie’s OSHWA Certified products. We encourage all our sellers with open hardware projects to go through the easy and free self-certification process offered by OSHWA.

We hope you enjoy this year’s virtual Open Hardware Summit!

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