31
Investigating an “evil” RJ45 dongle
Reverse-engineering hardware can be difficult -- but sometimes, all you need is a comfy armchair and some Google Translate.
Topics /
Hardware & Electronics
The most popular blog posts about hardware & electronics on Hacker News. 326 posts.
32
The Framework Desktop is a beast
I've been running the Framework Desktop for a few months here in Copenhagen now. It's an incredible machine. It's completely quiet, even under heavy, stress-all-cores load. It's tiny too, at just 4.5L of volume, especially compared to my old beautiful but bulky North tower running the 7950X — yet it's faster! And…
33
Nokia N900 Necromancy
Building a fake battery, adding a USB-C port, booting from SD card, and giving a new life to a classic Linux smartphone.
34
Apple Exclaves
Enhancing kernel isolation, one step at a time.
35
I regret building this $3000 Pi AI cluster
I ordered a set of 10 Compute Blades in April 2023 (two years ago), and they just arrived a few weeks ago. In that time Raspberry Pi upgraded the CM4 to a CM5, so I ordered a set of 10 16GB CM5 Lite modules for my blade cluster. That should give me 160 GB of total RAM to play with. This was the biggest Pi cluster I've…
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How I discovered a hidden microphone on a Chinese NanoKVM
NanoKVM is a hardware KVM switch developed by the Chinese company Sipeed. Released last year, it enables remote control of a computer or server using a virtu...
38
Mini NASes marry NVMe to Intel's efficient chip
I'm in the process of rebuilding my homelab from the ground up, moving from a 24U full-size 4-post rack to a mini rack. One of the most difficult devices to downsize (especially economically) is a NAS. But as my needs have changed, I'm bucking the trend of all datahoarders and I need less storage than the 120 TB (80…
39
DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
An 8-bay DIY NAS with 10GbE networking, TrueNAS 25.10.0.1, an Intel N300 CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a smallish form factor that occupies less than 20 liters of your office space.
40
Building the mouse Logitech won't make
Modifying the MX Ergo trackball mouse to fix its micro-USB charging, loud switches, and bloated software issues.
41
TPU Deep Dive
I've been working with TPUs a lot recently and it's fun to see how they had such different design philosophies compared to GPUs.
42
My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server
How I turned an old iPhone 8 into a solar-powered OCR server using Apple's Vision framework. Running 24/7 off-grid, processing thousands of images.
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Why it's so hard to build a jet engine
Civilization's toughest technical challenges are those that require extraordinary (and constantly improving) performance to be delivered at a low cost.
45
Building my own solar power system
Well it happened. PG&E has dropped the facade of necessary rate increases because of system upgrades, and they have come out and said what…
46
An interactive-speed Linux computer made of only 3 8-pin chips
Dmitry.GR: Interactive-speed Linux on a tiny board you can easily build with only 3 8-pin chips
47
Upgrading an M4 Pro Mac mini's storage for half the price
A few months ago, I upgraded my M4 Mac mini from 1 to 2 TB of internal storage, using a then-$269 DIY upgrade kit from ExpandMacMini. At the time, there was no option for upgrading the M4 Pro Mac mini, despite it also using a user-replaceable, socketed storage drive. But the folks at M4-SSD reached out and asked if…
48
Vanishing from Hyundai’s data network
Finding and disabling the cellular modem for BlueLink in the Kona EV
49
TPUs vs. GPUs and why Google is positioned to win AI race in the long term
I am publishing a comprehensive deep dive, not just a technical overview, but also strategic and financial coverage of the Google TPU.
50
Pure Silicon Demo Coding: No CPU, No Memory, Just 4k Gates
In addition to the VGA donut , I submitted two other entries in the Tiny Tapeout 8 demo competition , where you submit a "tiny" ASIC design (room for about 4000 logic gates) that outputs 2-bit RGB to a VGA port and 1-bit audio to a speaker. One was a an old school C64/Amiga intro type of thing, and the other was a…
51
iMac G4(K)
A year ago I tried using an M1 iMac for work duty but its 21" screen took up too much room on my desk. After seeing Sean's video on Action Retro about putting an M4 Mac Mini inside an iMac G4 , I thought I'd give it a try.
52
But good sir, what is electricity?
A quick look at the physics of conductors, insulators, and electric charges.
53
Learn electricity and electronics fundamentals without taking a formal course
A website supporting the books of author Simon Monk.
54
Things you can do with diodes
Paying homage to the component we usually don't think about.
55
I'm spoiled by Apple Silicon but still love Framework
A personal comparison of battery life between my MacBook M1 Pro and Framework 13
56
Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car
Do you have a phone, tablet, or laptop (or, well, any device…) which will only take a physical SIM, but with which you’d like to use eSIMs?
57
How big a solar battery do I need to store all my home's electricity?
I have a modest set of solar panels on an entirely ordinary house in suburban London. On average they generate about 3,800kWh per year. We also use about 3,800kWh of electricity each year. Obviously, we can't use all the power produced over summer and we need to buy power in winter. So here's my question: How big a…
58
Finding a 27-year-old easter egg in the Power Mac G3 ROM
I was recently poking around inside the original Power Macintosh G3’s ROM and accidentally discovered an easter egg that nobody has documented until now.
59
Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
How it took several months for me to get warm...
60
Building a personal, private AI computer on a budget
As everyone is well aware, the world is still going nuts trying to develop more, newer and better AI tools. Mostly by throwing absurd amounts of money at the problem. Many of those billions go towards building cheap or free services that operate at a significant loss. The tech giants that run them all are hoping to…