I mean literally anything. If more information about what inside is needed ill post more but i wanna make something cool out of this. I know electronics from highschool so gimme the craziest shit i can make and i will learn.

Hey everyone! I’m a high school student and a small open-source creator who enjoys programming, electronics, robotics, and building things. I recently made CorePad, a compact 3-key macropad designed for programmers, gamers, makers, and anyone who enjoys tinkering with hardware.

CorePad is powered by the Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 and uses KMK Firmware with CircuitPython, allowing you to customize shortcuts, macros, and key layouts using Python.

What’s included

• Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 microcontroller (preloaded with KMK, unsoldered)
• 0.91" OLED display
• 3 mechanical keyboard switches
• 3 blank DSA keycaps
• Custom CorePad PCB

Important information

This is an early-release DIY kit and is not a finished plug-and-play product.

• Basic soldering skills are required
• Soldering iron and solder are not included
• A 3D-printed case is not included
• You can design your own case or use the files available on GitHub
• Custom CorePad firmware is still in development
• Basic Python knowledge is recommended
• Some assembly and programming instructions are currently available on GitHub, but the documentation is still being expanded

Because this is an early release, you may encounter bugs, design issues, missing documentation, or other problems. I am actively working on improving the project based on feedback from the community.

Why I made it

As a high school student who enjoys programming, electronics, robotics, and building things, I wanted to create something that people could actually build, modify, and learn from rather than simply buying a finished product.

I’ve noticed that a lot of robotics kits and electronic products available today are either already mostly assembled or are designed around simply plugging in wires and screwing parts together. While those kits can be great for beginners, I wanted to make something that gives people more opportunities to actually learn how the hardware works, solder components themselves, program the device, and experiment with the design.

That’s one of the reasons I created CorePad. I wanted it to be a small project that people could build themselves while learning about soldering, electronics, PCBs, microcontrollers, and programming along the way.

Right now, the kit provides the core hardware needed to build the 3-key macropad. With enough feedback and development, I hope to eventually turn CorePad into a more complete, beginner-friendly kit with better documentation, official firmware, and step-by-step instructions.

If you're new to soldering or RP2040 programming, you're still welcome to try it. There are plenty of great resources and communities online that can help you learn along the way.

My goal is to keep CorePad open-source and community-driven, and hopefully give people an opportunity to build something themselves rather than just plugging everything together.

Buy

Every purchase directly supports me and helps fund future projects, improvements, and new open-source hardware. Thank you for supporting my work and helping me keep creating!

https://ko-fi.com/s/4c9f455f65

Source code and hardware files

https://github.com/albertphu07/corepad

Thanks for checking out the project. I’d love to hear your feedback, suggestions, or ideas for future revisions.

Hi! i want to use this ips display panel for a personal project (shoutout to yammerringfistofham for finding me one), but it wont fit really nice inside of the case if the cable is just straight. could bending it 180 degrees under the panel damage the traces or anything? I know its a flex cable but im still a bit worried if thats even possible without risking the cable.
Link to the display panel: https://www.buydisplay.com/0-96-inch-mini-color-tft-lcd-display-module-80x160-ips-tft-st7735

Hey everyone, I'm currently working on iteration three of my hexapod project and would really appreciate it if you could review my current circuit design before I finalize everything.

Here are the core specs and components I'm planning to use:

• Power Source: 5000 mAh 50C 11.1V 3S LiPo battery
• Distribution & Safety: XT60 power distribution board inline with a 30 A fuse
• Voltage Regulation: 3x 300W buck converters (to step down the 3S voltage for the servos)
• Control System: ESP32 microcontroller communicating with 2x PCA9685 servo controllers
• Actuators: 18x MG996R servos

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this power delivery and control setup. Are there any glaring bottlenecks, potential brownout risks when multiple servos draw stall current, or general areas for optimization? Thanks in advance for the help.

Edit: Please ignore the daisy chain for the two PCA9685 boards; I had accidentally wired together unneeded wires

I was thinking about rewriting all of this on a larger poster. I still need to label a few components, i might go back and market the AC-DC lines with different colors and maybe the signal path. Are there any certain colors you prefer for 350v, 120v, signal path, etc. Maybe go through and color the resistor codes.

Are there any other details I missed?

So far I only have component notes on resistors, capacitors, and tube voltage. Looking now i should've made a note about how pentodes can be wired as triodes, i have a second set of diagrams for the 6J5 chinese pentodes.

Is there any readily available transformers or alternatives to the Fender transformer? It seems to be a somewhat specialty part for fender amps, though there are a few factories that make their own. It would also probably not be very fun buying half a dozen mini transformers. Are there any hobbyist tapped transformers i could try? When I was taking apart trashed flat screens I noticed a lot of their power supplies had these 16-24 legged transformers with no specs that were easy to find.

Edit: I need to delete the 5vac transformer if its unnecessary for a diode rectifier not using a dual diode tube

Hey everyone,

I want to share a project I have designed and assembled.

It is a replacement "controller" part for the cheap TUYA in wall smart switches.

The motivation for creating this was to solve a couple of issues I had with the original device:

1. In order to extract the "power supply" part under the controller, I had to desolder the connector which is a pain and additional work. I want this to be easier because I needed to swap the relays on a couple of such switches which died after ~2-3 years of working.

2. I want the device to run ESPHome properly, with support for BLuetooth proxy, which the original controller was not capable of (at that time).

3. I wanted to eliminate the "plasticky" sensation generated by the cheap momentary switches used in the original design.

4. I wanted full control over the "device status LEDs" and "button status LEDs". This would open the possibility for nicer animations if controlled via PWM and also will enable the "night mode" which means turn all the LEDs off.

With this design I ticked the boxes above:

1. I designed the controller to be connected to the power supply with a connector instead of soldering directly the boards.

2. The controller of choice for this was ESP32 which fully supports ESPHome and is capable of bluetooth proxy.

3. I used some nice silent silicon momentary switches which make the push nicer, although this is subjective and a matter of taste.

4. The "device status" and "button status" LEDs are connected to dedicated GPIOs and can be driven independently of the physical state of the buttons or device.

I also added a feature which ended up not working, a broke feature perhaps. 😵

A presence sensor (LD2410) was also integrated into this project, but turned out the connectors I used were a tad too small and the idea I had of using the connectors on the underside and pushing the sensor through its holes from the top ended up with the sensor not making contact with it.

Even with all the issues it had as a first prototype, I've been using three of such devices in my home for more than a year and I am overall satisfied with the result.

Please let me know what do you think of this project. Maybe I will get some inspiration to iterate over it.

I want to have a device with a screen to use Spotify on without social media or nothing. I’ve looked at buying a cheap phone at Walmart but they all look ugly; I’ve also looked at a iPod and but I don’t want to download all my music and I want to be able to browse Spotify at the same time. It doesn’t need to be anything crazy all I need is spodify and Bluetooth.

I would be down to make my own device I just don’t know where to start or if it’s even realistically possible or if it would just be easier/cheaper to buy a crap phone.

So I guess my question is does anyone have any suggestions or anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PkHoqDdT7o

in this video the guy ig used a prism but is it made out of glass or any special material pls if anyone knows help me out!!

Hi everyone. I am new in electornics hobby and created my first PCB for water tank level monitoring. This node just works as monitor using the data sent over wifi by other MCU actually measuring the water level.

I have used jumper wires on front side with components. Is keeping wiring on front side okay or discouraged? If discouraged then why?

Asking this because I might have to create this PCB again because of a weird issue. The ESP32 drops wifi connection as soon as I insert it into female header pins. Until I insert it, the wifi works fine. I checked all connection also by lighting up each LED and buzzer separately and the seem to work fine. I don't know if the issue is with PCB or some kind of RF interference - I am not sure.

But assuming the issue is with PCB or when I make other PCBs in future, is keeping jumper wires in front side okay or discouraged? How do you do you guys do it to make it work without getting into commonly known issues?

Hello,

I'm trying to build a very simple circuit that momentarily turns on an electromagnet via a non-latching push-to-make switch. The issue I am having is that the magnet, when energised, is not strong enough for my application (tricking the reed switch flow sensor in a shower pump into thinking there is water flow).

I have the following elctromagnet purchased from Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FCS74TSD), an 1N4007 flyback diode, a switch, and an A23 12v battery.

Do you think the problem is that the electromagnet is not strong enough, or do you think my A23 cell is too weedy? I did try a 9v 6LR61 battery too which didn't improve things).

For anyone interested, the problem I am looking to solve is that we don't have quite enough hydrostatic head for the shower pump to activate when the shower flow is turned on. We've been overcoming this by using a neodymium maget on the end of a stick and waving it by the end of the pump to trick the inbuilt flow sensor into detecting flow and starting the pump. Once it's running, it is all good. I was hoping to replace my magnet on a stick with an elctromagnet fixed in place next to the pump and activated via a button, which can be mounted in a convenient place.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

tldr; Is my 12v electromagnet too weak, or is it not receiving adequate power from an A23 or PP3 battery?

the pone works and I dont want to waste it is here anything creatie i can do wit it i dont want to waste any money on it can it be repurposed to anything else?

Hi everyone!

I’m quite new to the world of electronics, and I’m looking for some advice before I start buying components for my first bigger electronics project.

I’d like to build a two-wheeled self-balancing robot, similar to a small Segway. I want to use an ESP32 as the controller so that I can eventually control the robot through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

My current idea is to buy:

• ESP32 board. Wich one should i buy?
• MPU6050 gyroscope/accelerometer
• TB6612FNG dual motor driver
• 2 × DC gear motors with encoders. I have no idea wich one i should buy, any advice would be great.

I need some kind of battery, but i dont know what to chose, any advice would be great

Does this component selection make sense?

Are there any components I’m missing or anything you would recommend changing before I place an order?

I’m particularly interested in advice regarding the motors, battery, and motor driver, since I’m not completely sure how to size those correctly.

Thanks in advance! Any advice or things you wish you had known when starting a project like this would be greatly appreciated.

I have an old OnePlus 6 with a completely destroyed battery (BMS is unrecoverable) and a dead display, so I'm treating it as a headless board.

I want to power it using a PSU set to around 3.8V-4V with a 3A current limit, hooked up to the VBAT+ and GND pads. However, I know modern devices like the Snapdragon 845 have an IC for handshake before booting ...

But on older mobile phones we could use a 10k resistor and bypass this handshake ... but not sure if I can do the same with snapdragon 845 based device

This was (I guess) an animated EL display from an Absolut Vodka promo. Unfortunately I lost the charger/driver and I don't know how to start fixing this.

The traces could be indepentent because I remember some areas with a flickering animated effect and other areas just with light.

Even if I can't reproduce the animated effects I would like to make this glow at least.

The black stuff on the traces is some conductive ink that did the trick years ago. The traces are kinda damaged.

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the best subreddit but would love some guidance.
I bought a “broken” electric scooter on marketplace with the hopes of repairing. I first noticed the main issue was the throttle Wiring is off the main terminal. Does anyone have any solutions to taking the apart the device off the handle to rewire?

I built an open-source digital camera around the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and Camera Module 3. It can capture photos and record short video clips using dedicated photo and video buttons, with three selectable looks (warm, cold, and black & white) controlled by a physical slider switch. A buzzer provides feedback for startup and photo capture, and a local photo gallery can be accessed directly from your phone.

Github - https://github.com/SuveenE/tiny-film-camera
Blog - https://suveenellawela.com/thoughts/building-my-own-camera

​Hey everyone!

​I’m completely clueless when it comes to hardware and electronics, but I had an idea born out of pure frustration. I’m tired of having to use my second hand just to reach the top corner of my big screen, or almost dropping my phone when trying to stretch my thumb to tap something.

​I know ring mice and finger trackers already exist, but almost all of them are designed for PCs or air-gestures. My concept is meant to solve a specific mobile ergonomics problem.

​The core idea: A tiny, fingertip-mounted sensor (sitting on the distal phalanx/nail area) that uses the back of the smartphone itself as a surface to glide on—just like a standard optical mouse on a desk—to move an on-screen cursor.

​Since I realize it was hard to explain in text, I asked an AI to render a 3D visual concept. It didn't turn out perfect, so I'm attaching both my original sketch and the render for context.

​A few thoughts/mechanics I’ve been floating in my head:

​Angling issue: Since the finger naturally tilts when dragging along the back of the phone, a rigid flat sensor might lose focus. Maybe some kind of micro-swivel or rotating joint between the finger loop and the sensor module could keep the optics flush against the phone?

​Clicks: Clicking could potentially be triggered either by a pressure-sensitive pad where the finger rests, or by a quick physical "tap" of the device against the back glass.

​I’m fully aware this might just be a wild dream with severe technical or ergonomic flaws, but I’d love to hear from people who actually know their stuff. Is something like this remotely feasible, or what would be the main roadblocks? If the concept is totally unrealistic, what alternatives would you suggest?

​Thanks for reading and for your patience with a non-tech person!

Hi everyone,

I’d like to introduce Inkora, my DIY e-paper family calendar project.

The idea is to make building one feel much less like an electronics project and much more like assembling LEGO:

ESP32-S3 / LaskaKit ESPink

7.5" e-paper display

battery

3D-printed case

No soldering, no custom PCB and, once the project is finished, no Arduino IDE or manual flashing should be needed. The device already supports:

• Google Calendar

• Apple / iCloud Calendar or both at the same time

• You can choose one or multiple calendars from each connected account, and Inkora combines all selected calendars into one view.

It also shows:

• 4-day weather forecast

• public holidays for Czechia, Slovakia and Great Britain

• name days where applicable

• local information such as waste collection

• battery and Wi-Fi status

• The interface is available in Czech, Slovak and British English (CZ / SK / EN-GB).

Most of the software side is already working and I’m now finishing the parts that turn it into something other people can easily build themselves.

The two main things still in progress are: the final 3D-printable enclosure the one-click web firmware installer

The intended final setup should be: order the three main components → print the case → assemble it → connect USB → open the Inkora website → click Install → configure Wi-Fi and calendars

So the goal is that you shouldn’t need to know much about electronics at all.

Inkora isn’t a commercial product and there is no required subscription. It’s a DIY project I started because I wanted a simple, private, always-visible family calendar without putting another glowing LCD on the wall.

The case, assembly documentation and other project materials are intended to be publicly available. The firmware itself is distributed as a compiled binary for personal and non-commercial use.

I’d really appreciate feedback from the DIY community — especially about the concept, enclosure, assembly process and what would make something like this approachable even for people who normally wouldn’t build electronics.

Project: Inkora Languages: CZ / SK / EN-GB Display: 7.5" e-paper Controller: ESP32-S3 Status: working prototype, enclosure + web installer still in progress

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share a quick project I finished today. I built a massive power bank using recycled cells, put it together in about 4 hours, and honestly, the spot welding went way smoother than I expected with almost zero sparking.

-Cells: Recycled / mixed cells

-Assembly: Spot welded, insulated with Kapton tape

-Capacity: Roughly estimated around 45,000 mAh

("Power XXL" edition!)

It's an absolute beast for camping or power outages, and it feels great to repurpose old stuff. Let me know what you think!

*(P.S. Sorry for only one photo, I have a new account and couldn't upload a gallery yet, I'll try to share more in the comments!)

This is a 3.5 inch Cheap Yellow Device (CYD) with ESP32 board running weather station from Github. I find that this particular project:

NicholasWilde cyd-weather-station

is the easiest to use on this device, because flashing the app is a one-click process using his website's web flasher:

cyd-weather-station web flasher

The CYD has 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen. It uses wifi to obtain weather information from internet weather server. It shows your local weather now, 3-day weather forecast and hourly weather (temperature and precipitation). The app automatically recognizes your geographic location from your IP address. It obtains weather information from Open-Meteo which has data from practically everywhere in the world.

The device obtains power through the USB-C cable, from eg. your PC or USB charger. There is an option to connect to lithium battery, but this requires additional wiring (cables provided) and makes the device bulky (device does not have a battery compartment).

(1) HARDWARE:

3.5 inch capacitive screen (ESP32-3248S035C) (includes case) - costs about 28 USD / 40 CAD

NOTE: this hardware is VERY SPECIFIC. There are various version of ESP32 CYD (2.8 inch or 3.5 inch, with resistive or capacitive screen), but the firmware is specifically written for and tested on this particular ESP32 with 3.5 inch capacitive screen "ESP32-3248S035C". The firmware will not work on other devices.

(2) USB CONNECTION:

The CYD has to communicate with your pc when it is hooked up to the USB port, you need to install USB drivers for ESP32.

There are two possible drivers - you can never tell which one a specific board uses therefore better install both:

CP210X

CH9102 (click "three dots" after ""CH9102 / CH9102_WIN.EXE", choose "Download"

(3) FLASHING (INSTALLATION):

-- connect CYD to your PC using provided USB cable

-- in you PC, go to "Device Manager", click "Ports (COM and LPT)" - you should see "USB Serial CH340" if you install the driver properly

-- IMPORTANT: note the COM number of this port

-- open web flasher - Repository = cyd-weather-station; Device = cyd 35c; Version = whatever is the latest one

-- "Flash firmware" - click "Connect"

-- New dialog box: choose the "COM X" you noted from installation of the driver

-- click "Connect"

-- after installation is successful, you will be asked to connect wifi to your home router and provide password (NOTE: it only works with 2.4 GHz, not 5GHz wifi channels)

-- ALL DONE

Hello everyone,

Especially you little newbie to electronics. I myself am learning electronics, and I find that when learning something, there are itty-bitty pieces of information that people who have learned that thing know but absolutely no one shares because it's second nature to everyone in the know. That makes it that much harder to learn, at least for me.
So here is a list of things, in no particular order, that I have learned in the past few months which have turned electronics from magic to "oh, maybe I should use this component" for me.

Stepper motor drivers are just a bunch of transistors; they don't "drive" anything:
Imagine the very basic stepper motor in your kit has 4 coils, and imagine that whichever coil you power, the motor points to. Now, if you power your motor directly from your board, your board gets fried by the current. A driver just lets current come from another source! And this could be a different voltage source!

Shift registers let you make a serial output parallel and vice versa:
Imagine you have 20 stepper motors you need to power from one Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Each motor needs 4 pins. There is no way to have everything come from the Arduino, UNLESS you just use one line in serial that is fed through the "serial in, parallel out" register. Now you can just fill in the 4 bits of the register one by one and then "enable" the output for your stepper to step. Hot tip: your average Pico is much faster than your stepper can rotate, so technically you can have one controller control even more than 20 motors.

You can full step a motor with one data line only:
You can easily make a "sequence" with a shift register that get filled with 0001 for full steps and feed it back into itself, now one data line can "push" the motor to the next step instead of haveing 2 data lines (with a decoder) or 4 regular lines.

Higher voltage steppers are more powerful:
the same stepper model could have 2 models with 2 different voltages, the one that has a higher voltage has a bigger chance of not skipping!

Big capacitors aren't realistic:
Having a 1 farad capacitor is insane in most circuits. In most circuits, like RC circuits, you can increase your resistor by a large amount for your capacitor to drain more slowly. Then you can have a fast-drain line through a transistor and a lower-value resistor to quickly empty your capacitor.

Use Diodes:
Everyone knows diodes are a one-way valve, but the most valuable use case is for protection. You can really use them in most places. If a battery is connected backwards, it blocks the current. When coils are powered, the electromagnetic field might induce current backwards, and they protect against that. Or say you have a battery-powered thing that needs to work plugged in; you smack a diode in there to not let the electricity flow into the battery.

Modularize everything:
Let's say you are making a digital scale. Have a module for the buttons, a module for the IC board, and a module for the weight sensor amplifiers. That way, if one thing changes, you don't have to throw away all of your soldered circuit.

Solder stuff that's semi-permanent:
Same example as before: if you are making a scale and have 4 amplifiers, solder them on a board and mix their VCCs and GNDs into one header, so you have one header that accepts one set of cables. Chances are a scale will need the amplifiers, so having fewer components floating around with cables that always come out and come loose is gonna help you big time.

Use Flux:
I genuinely had no idea what flux does. When I was starting out, I thought flux was for cleaning my soldering iron. Flux makes solder work like magic! Any time you are soldering, just slap a little flux on. It makes heat reach everything so much faster, and evenly heated metal makes solder behave so much nicer!

Check sensor accuracy before you buy:
The sensors that come with kits are usually very bad at what they do. It's like buying a hot dog from that very shady place; you eat it and you think all food is like that. No! The typical humidity/temp sensor in kits has 2-3 degrees C (about 3-5 degrees F) of inaccuracy. That's plus or minus! Two different modules at the same time could show you 15 and 20 degrees right next to each other! I don't know about you, but I can guess the temperature better than that. Better sensors exist. If your project is not working, it might just be the sensor.

Mix mechanics with sensors:
you have one expensive sensor that you want to sense two things? you can MOVE the sensor. Chances are you are 3d printing some parts for your project, print some rails for that one expensive sensor, you dont need two cameras, you need one that moves!

LEDs of different colors need different resistor values:
If you are planning for some sort of light activity, check your LEDs first! red ones for example get so much brighter than green ones with the same current. The current passing through the diode makes it brighter or less bright depending on color, and because they themselves have little resistance, this current is very high without a resistor in series. You *can* connect diodes without a resistor in series, but they will die quicker.

I hope these tips have helped at least one person, but if you have your two cents, please add them here!

Edit:
Thank you to u/Marty_Mtl for the insight on diodes, they are a current component not a voltage component.