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Retro or vintage computer computers and their clones or derivatives are commonly spotted on Tindie but this replica of a PDP-11 is a particularly gorgeous example!

The PiDP-11 is a scale model of the PDP-11/70 in its most colourful “blinkenlights” format. Scaled down at 6:10 ratio the PiDP-11 is a much more suitable size for home use. Building on their previous experience making a PDP-8 kit Obsolescence Guaranteed built this kit using custom injection molded parts to make it faithful to the original. You might guess correctly from the name that it uses a Raspberry Pi (not supplied) running the SIMH emulator as the actual computer system.

It’s capable of running all the operating systems the original PDP-11 could run; unix systems, BSD, as well as RSX-11, RSTS-E, and RT-11. Of course a lot of original peripherals can also be emulated within SIMH and on the product page you can see, for example, some vector graphics displayed on a simulated TEK 4010 terminal which of course you could view on a modern attached HDMI monitor.

There’s an active scene online of people tinkering with both SIMH and PDP-11 so if you have some basic soldering skills to put this together, it’s really unlimited what you can do with it, or of course you can just enjoy it as a beautiful blinkenlights object in itself!

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Many DSLR camera’s have the ability to have their shutters triggered remotely, this is often useful for keeping the camera perfectly still, but if you can automate the triggering it’s perfect for time lapse photography. This interface sits between a Raspberry Pi and a range of DSLR cameras creating lots of time lapse possibilities.

It’s compatible with Octoprint Octolapse plugin which means that you can use a high end DSLR to create beautiful time lapses of 3D prints magically growing out of your printer bed. Also on the product page there are example python scripts that enable quick setup for high quality time lapse. We note that although it’s sold as a Raspberry Pi interface, this device is happy with a 3.3V or 5V input and that it could be triggered by most micro controllers. If you have a Sony, Canon or Nikon DSLR then this should work out of the box, for other DSLR you might need an audio adaptor to get up and running.

Looking around the marketplace there are other options for remote triggering cameras, this search for camera trigger reveals a plethora of interesting solutions. Sound triggers, lightning sensor triggers, stand alone intervalometer boards and more. We’ve also blogged on similar products previously, for example check out this camera interface kit that sets your camera up to be triggered by a laser pointer.

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Seeking out sound sources is an eternal quest for the intrepid music makers, discovering and capturing the sounds of scrap metal, household items, and anything you can hit with a stick! The Electromagnetic Wavesniffer is a journey into finding sounds beyond normal human perception, picking up electromagnetic fields from objects and allowing you to listen to a new world!

The Electromagnetic Wavesniffer comes fully constructed or as a DIY kit which comes with all the components and instructions you need to make your own device! It comes with a headphone socket, volume control, on/off switch and two electromagnetic sensors. It can be powered by a 9V battery (not included) which means it’s highly portable and easy to put in a backpack with some headphones.

Discover more about electromagnetic waves in this talk by Sir Lawrence Bragg, with a distinctly old school vibe. There are also some excellent recordings on this site, which include sounds recorded by simonsound in Shenzen markets. You’ll find numerous devices around your house which make interesting noises, many of which are shown in this video by Tannertech.

The Electromagnetic Wavesniffer is sold by Spad Electronics who sell a range of electronic devices and are based in Italy.

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There’s something great about packing as much functionality into as small a space as possible and this 12 in 1 PCB multi-tool is an ingenious example.

This tiny multi tool has an attachment point for a keychain or indeed is small enough for any pocket, yet it hosts a really useful set of features. First up it has an LED tester suitable for both through hole and surface mount LED’s, perfect to confirm functionality before committing them to solder. The LED tester is complemented by a resistor tester, but that’s just two of this versatile tool’s functions.

On the more complex functions, it has a variable frequency square wave generator as well as a push button single pulse generator. Bi directional logic level shifting is available and can step up or down between 5V, 3.3V, 2.8V, and 1.8V making this handy in projects to glue together sensors and controllers. We really like how it has multimeter probe attachment points and can be integrated into breadboard prototypes. Aside from the various rulers and other test circuits, it also has a 3V output from the coin cell for quick experiments and a QR code to Digi-Key’s online conversion calculators.

Check out the product page and the nicely written user guide to explore just how useful this little multi-tool is!

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Making your own custom effects pedals is a tremendously rewarding experience with loads of ready-made options to build and customise the unit you require. This 3PDT Breakout Board is a small but perfectly formed PCB which allows you to place a three pole double throw (3PDT) switch in place and neatly break out its connection points elsewhere.

Making guitar pedals can get messy, especially when you’re dealing with small enclosures,  limited space and lots of wires! This mini PCB has breakout points for nine pins with true bypass, as well as pads for an LED and resistor to indicate when the pedal is engaged. Using a breakout board is much easier to solder than direct connections to the pins and it’s going to make the build more reliable. This is true especially for a foot switch which is likely to get stomped on repeatedly during the evening session!

The board can be flipped either way round and if you don’t need an LED connection you can simply put a jumper in place of the resistor sockets. This versatile board has connections for 9V and ground, meaning this board can be used to operate the power through a DC Socket connection.

The 3PDT Breakout Board is the first product by Offbeat Effects who are based in Australia.

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ESP32 come in so many different modules and packages it’s difficult to keep track! A popular module is the ESP32CAM which features a camera attached to an ESP32. This PCB from Stuarts Projects receives an ESP32CAM, a LoRa radio and a GPS to create a lightweight and budget friendly GPS Tracker with image capture capabilities.

Adding a Hope RFM9X LoRa module and a choice of GPS modules Stuart has provided an Arduino sketch which when combined with the ESP32CAM creates a platform that takes pictures periodically and stores them on an SD card. The GPS co-ordinates are read from the GPS module and sent over LoRa making this perfect for High Altitude Balloon (HAB) projects.

On the product page and in the documentation there are links to code examples as well as descriptions of different hardware approaches. The PCB has different options for different power supplies and antenna connections as well as different GPS module choices. If you are looking to build tracking systems for HAB projects Stuart has a range of products, libraries and research on different approaches and we recommend you explore his shop, repositories and links.

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Creating  drones can sound ominous but it can equally be a serene and meditative experience, creating an atmosphere of stability and evolving texture. The A01 – Glitch & Noise Generator is a drone machine housed in a lunchbox-shaped case and powered by a PT2399 with numerous controls for affecting the tone and character of the sound. Beware: it appears to fall into the ominous category of drone soundscapes!

The A01 Glitch & Noise Generator has controls for two time delays, with an envelope generator as well as CV triggers and a ring modulator. There are two chaos knobs which each affect the playback in different ways in addition to 9 FX modes which will contort the sound significantly. Using the CV input allows you to trigger the envelope to make one shot sounds rather than continuous output, and the combination of the on board effects will create a huge variety of sounds.

The A01 can be powered by a power adapter or a 9V battery and is housed in a waterproof lunchbox container. It’s certainly not for the faint hearted! If you’re ready for a sonic onslaught check out  the Atonal website. It’s the first product sold by Atonal Circuits who are based in Belgium – see it in action below:

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As someone who was a huge fan of the Pebble e-paper smartwatches, I have been waiting for a similar product to come along since they were sadly dismantled by FitBit in December of 2016. So I was simply delighted when I saw the Watchy e-paper smartwatch pop up on Tindie! Open hardware, open software (things I wished the Pebble had done) and a beautiful design immediately had me looking more closely at what documentation was available. While things are still in development, it does use an ESP32 and the schematic is available — meaning anyone with experience developing for the ESP32 can dive in right away.

The Watchy features a 200×200 ultra low-power e-paper display, 3-axis accelerometer, vibration motor, Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi support, plus included STL files for 3D-printable cases — this watch is absolutely loaded! I’m hoping we see the documentation on the Watchy website improve in the near future so that people can get hacking on the Watchy. The built-in USB-to-serial programming port is such a lovely touch, and will make firmware upgrades much easier for end-users.

I really hope we see an ecosystem spring up around this watch. One of the great things about Pebble was the excellent developer tools and API they provided for creating both watchfaces and apps. I used my Pebble so much that the band finally wore out, and since most functionality has been discontinued (though the Rebble project aims to keep them alive) it now sits in a revered spot on my desk. My wrist is bare, and this seems like a great option. It looks like 3D printing cases for it should be fairly simple; again, this makes me hope that community support and an ecosystem of accessories and support forms around it!

Pick one up, and help bring hackable e-paper smartwatches back into style!

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TTL series chips are a classic IC series from the earlier days of digital electronics that pre-date the mass adoption of microprocessors. It can be fascinating to explore these early digital logic chips and this TTL Clock kit has a great range of TTL devices to learn about.

With binary counters, 7 segment decoders, quad input NAND gates and more, there’s a heap of TTL series IC’s to delve into. The kit is all through hole mount and therefore is suitable for hand soldering, perhaps not for an absolute beginner, but certainly for someone with a couple of hours of soldering already under their belt.

Weird Electronics sell this kit in a variety of options, you can get the complete kit with the LED display in either red or green or there is a PCB and trimpot only package if you have heaps of TTL at home. Finally a fully assembled and tested version is available should you not want to solder your own.

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If you are building a small, low power project in a remote location, solar harvesting can be a great option. This solar charge solution for an 18650 battery makes this super easy to achieve in your project.

Whilst The Curious Electric Company originally designed this kit to power a remote weather station that sent back it’s data to a base station, it’s suitable to power any small device. We imagine it could be very useful, for example, for LoRa nodes and other remote sensing or data logging projects.

Using a Texas Instruments IC BQ24210 as the solar charge controller, this kit require a suitable 18650 battery and a small solar cell to get up and running. For the solar cell you can use any that will supply between 3.5V and 7V DC and Curious Electric state they get good results with a 5.5V 200mA panel. You can connect your project to the output which is protected with a 500mA resetting fuse. The PCB is supplied pre-populated with all the SMD parts fitted and you only have to solder in the battery holder and the screw clamp terminals which are larger through hole mount components.

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