Tindie

We love all of the vibrant communities out in the wild still hacking older hardware platforms. There’s no better example community than those working with Nintendo Gameboys! This PCB breakout is designed to make tinkering a little easier on the later iterations of the Gameboy family that came after the original DMG model.

The PCB breakout works with the link cable connector for the Gameboy color, Advance and Advance SP.  A couple of dots on the silkscreen layer orient the PCB correctly and it breaks out all the link cable connections. The connections include a serial input and output, a clock, the SD ‘data flow’ as well as power connections. Be aware thought that not all link cables were created equal and some don’t have the power lines connected.

Sold as a pair of PCB’s, each with a set of headers, these make it simple to get your Gameboy system connected to a breadboard or your favourite microcontroller. There’s a wealth of information on interfacing with the device here.

The Gameboy Color/Advance/SP Link Cable Breakout Board is sold by Vaguilar who are based in Belmont Calironia. Here’s a demo of a Gameboy Advance SP in some serial communication action:

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PIR sensors are great for presence detection, and using a light or sound sensor can tell you a lot about the ambient environment. This type of data is useful for a variety of situations, especially when it comes to home automation. While these sensors are fairly easy to hook up, getting the data in a nice format to an embedded PC normally takes some development time, as you need to calibrate the device and set up the whole system.

The uThing::MNL noise, motion and light USB dongle from Ohmtech.io shortcuts this process, and allows you to simpy plug all three of these sensors in at once as a USB device. It can output data to Linux, MacOS, Windows, and even Android systems with no extra driver or software requried, and uses an STM32L412 MCU for processing. The dongle acts as a virtual com port, allowing you to save data in a CSV format with a simple test command when running Mac/Linux.

They also offer the uBridge aplication for working with it (and their uThing::VOC Air Quality Dongle) to display to dashboards, produce CSV files, publish to databases, and work with MQTT servers. For a quick way to get up and running with IoT applications without the hassle of wiring sensors up or programming an interface from scratch, the uThing looks like a great solution!

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There are all kinds of devices for making music on the move,with the Teenage Engineering OP1 at the high end of the market, with simpler devices available which can keep you in the loop. The Harvester is a portable pocket sampler, powered by a Raspberry pi running audio-programming software Pure Data on an SD card. Take this device to the woods, the beach or on the train for some live looping and serendipitous sampling.

The Harvestercomes fully assembled, with all the things you need to get going! The unit allows you to play back what you sample using a pentatonic scale. It’s a fun device for people who are musically minded and those who aren’t. The good news is, it’s not only an off-the grid live looper, but its design is open source, meaning you can expand on its features to your hearts content. Capture sounds of your home, your workplace or your favourite mode of trasport!

You can find all the details on the sellers Github page and there’s a full list of parts displayed on this Google Sheet. The Harvester is sold by aquietlife who are based in Brooklyn, New York – and have a little demo in the snow below:

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Problems with filament jamming inside your 3D Printer can be the bane of the printing processes, as well as running out of filament! You may have grown to fear the sight of the extruder moving back and forth, with no filament sticking out of the top of your feeder mechanism. Maybe the spool has run out, leaving it ‘printing’ in the air, as you furiously order new filament to start over in a day or two.

The Laser filament motion sensor from Mark takes a clever approach to feed issue detection in that it reads the input signals to the extrusion stepper. The laser sensor picks up on movement of the filament, determining whether the two inputs match up. This means that you don’t have to worry about complications with non-print moves, and that it doesn’t need any sort of code wheel or special marking to detect errors.

The root of this common issue is that for every pulse input to the extruder’s stepper motor, you’d like the corresponding amount of filament to be fed in to it. If this is happening, there’s a good chance it’s functioning correctly. If not, you have problems.

The device features an on-board microcontroller to take care of sensor processing, and when an error is detected it’ll send a signal to your machine to pause the print. It also features a buzzer to let you know when something is amiss, allowing you to correct the error and continue with your print job at a later time!

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If you buy, sell, hold, trade, or otherwise have some interest in cryptocurrency, you may find yourself checking your phone or computer to get the latest update a little too often. For an easy way to check ticker prices–without having them brightly flashed in your face–Veeb has created PAULINE, an ePaper-based ticker that… ticks all of the right boxes.

The device, as documented on GitHub, runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero W, connected to a Waveshare 2.7 inch monochrome ePaper display. This allows it to show a crypto coin’s value–e.g. Bitcoin, Dodgecoin, Ethereum, and the like, as compared to the cryptocurrency of your choosing–USD, EUR, GBP, etc. To make adjustments, you simply log on via SSH, and change the config.yaml file as shown in the video below. The underlying code is written in Python, so if you need to make changes beyond the configuration file, there’s no reason this can’t be done either.

The device comes in a variety of frame colors, and you can even choose the color of the screws & bolts, as well as that of the Micro USB cable powering it. While this kind of display would be something of a luxury, but with all the money you can theoretically make by getting timely updates on your favorite currencies, perhaps it’s worth it!

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We’re huge fans of the retro gaming revival and anything which can fuse the two worlds of electronic music and 16-Bit games is a big win! The DAFM Synth – Arcade YM2151 – DIY Kit is a tabletop FM synth which houses the legendary YM2151 chip, found in the early arcade game systems, as well as the Yamaha DX series of keyboards – including the DX100, DX7 and DX21.

The DAFM has been redesigned to be a user-friendly DIY Kit with full build instructions on their Hackaday page. Once the unit is complete, you’ll have access to a full range of FM synth controls from the front panel and via MIDI over USB or 5-Pin Din connection. It’ll take an SD card allowing you to store up to 128 presets in each bank and you’ll find tonnes of OPM files from original games available online.

The YM2151 has eight channels of audio with four operators per channel for an ultra expansive and rich soundset. There are 4 OLED screens to oversee the parameters, as well as two rotary encoders to make changes and a 3.5mm stereo output to connect to headphones or external devices.

Arcade is sold by KASSAR SYNTHS who are based in Spain, and have a number of variations in the DAFM family including a completed unit.

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When using ‘smart’ power banks to supply electronics with low current requirements, they may decide that the current is so low, that it’s not actually supplying anything. While this might be good when things are actually disconnected or turned off, it causes a few issues when you need to sip small amounts of power for an extended amount of time.

To boost the device’s power demands up to a level that the power bank recognizes as on, Colin Hickey designed the Power Bank Keep-Alive based on 555 Timer (SMD). Extra power is drawn via an astable timing circuit, with resistors and capacitors configured to give it a 50% duty cycle, and the pulses drawing roughly 130mA. This pattern can be configured as needed using values produced from this timer calculator, but if you’re going to change circuitry around, it would be better to use his through-hole components kit. The kit is somewhat larger than the SMD version shown, but would make modding easier.

If you’d like a board specifically for exploring the 555 IC integral to this design, you might check out the through-hole/screw terminal kit featured here. Once you’ve got a handle on using the 555, you could then let the world know with the (should have worn a) 555 timer T-shirt!

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Nixie clocks are popular projects right now, but let’s mix things up with Flora, a clock which uses glorious VFD tubes!

Fully assembled Flora not only looks fantastic but it’s also a well-designed and constructed clock. It connects to WiFi and uses the Network Time Protocol (NTP) so no worries about it losing accuracy. Flora has its own web portal for configuration and it’s simple to set up features like daylight saving adjustments when you need them. It has adjustable brightness and the VFD’s are driven via 6 bit PWM at 100Hz which means there is no perceivable flicker.

Under the hood, it’s a NodeMCU/D1 mini running the show and it’s pre-programmed via a Arduino IDE. The source code and the hardware is all open source, so you can tinker with the code or indeed build your own from scratch. It’s powered and programmed via the micro USB port and consumes less than 500mA even on it’s brightest setting.

The base is 3D printed PLA which looks great and (as it’s open source) the files are available to you to periodically print a new look for your supercool clock!

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Sequencing notes is one of the fundamental elements of making electronic music, storing a series of notes for playback and looping patterns. If you’re in need of a dedicated sequencer then the Division 6 Dual Mini Sequencer Eurorack Module is a great choice, coming with two sequencers in one module! It has the ability run sequentially (one after the other) or in parallel (both at the same time) for a host of uses and applications.

The Division 6 Dual Mini Sequencer supplies sequences capable of outputting standard CV (covering 5 octaves) and gate outputs – plus an accent out which can be sent to control external effects or parameters. This means you can store up to 16 steps per sequencer, and output the CV to external synths and sound modules, with a loop feature to repeat specific sections of the sequence.

The Division 6 is capable of storing 7 patterns in memory and 5 songs (made up of chained patterns) as well as being used as a mini keyboard when in standby mode. It’s available as a completed unit here, but is also sold as a PCB, Panel and IC kit here – with a full build demonstrated below.

The Division 6 Mini Sequencer is sold by Synthrotek who are based in the USA, and have a wealth of new music making products for you to discover.

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Seller Blue Neon Tavern has a lot of computers in his basement, some of which aren’t connected to his network. Rather than having to walk down there every time he’d like to turn a particular computer on or off, he came up with this clever little WiFi relay board.

The device uses an ESP8266 MCU for control, along with a relay that can be wired in to the motherboard on/off pins. It’s powered by a simple USB cable, and can be activated via a web server, or using ESPNOW as an alternate direct over-the-air control method. The board comes with a nice 3D-printed enclosure, along with 3 zip ties to secure it in place wherever it’s needed. While meant for computer control, it would seem like a great solution for activating a wide variety of devices that need a simple on/off signal.

One could see several of these devices distributed around the house/basement to keep all of your computers (or whatever else) under control. If you need more WiFi control options at a certain location, you might also check out this larger 4-relay ESP8266 module.

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