151
Steam Deck lead reveals Valve is funding ARM compatibility of Windows games
Steam Deck creator Pierre-Loup Griffais explains that Valve is funding ARM compatibility layers for future ultraportables.
Topics /
Hardware & Electronics
The most popular blog posts about hardware & electronics on Hacker News. 459 posts.
152
Getting bitten by Intel's poor naming schemes
Don't you love misleading documentation?
153
Thoughts on Daylight Computer
on the Amtrak from Denver to Sacramento When I get to write or read on a screen that’s reflecting the sun back at me instead of needing to be shielded from it, I get a dose of this feeling that this is what all computing could feel like. I want so much more of this in my life. This is a piece of hardware that makes me…
154
Most Stable Raspberry Pi? Better NTP with Thermal Management
eBay affiliate disclosure: Links labeled “eBay affiliate link” lead to eBay. As an eBay Partner, I may earn a commission if you make a purchase. I’ve written before about building microsecond-accurate NTP servers with Raspberry Pi and GPS PPS, and more recently about revisiting the setup in 2025. Both posts focused on…
155
I'm a laptop weirdo and that's why I like my new Framework 13
It turns out I've always done weird things to my laptops.
156
De-smarting the Marshall Uxbridge
This is the story of a commercially unavailable stereo pair of thebi-amped Marshall Uxbridge, with custom-built replacement electronics:active filters feedin...
157
Linux on Snapdragon X Elite: Linaro and Tuxedo Pave the Way for ARM64 Laptops
Linaro Connect 2025 showcases progress in bringing Linux on Snapdragon-Powered Devices
158
Reading NFC Passport Chips in Linux
For boring and totally not nefarious reasons, I want to read all the data contained in my passport's NFC chip using Linux. After a long and annoying search, I settled on roeften's pypassport. I can now read all the passport information, including biometrics. Table of ContentsBackgroundRecreating the MRZPython code to…
159
Gooey rubber that's slowly ruining old hard drives
As part of my work toward an upcoming post about a lost piece of very obscure Mac history that has finally been found, I’ve been playing around with old Apple-branded SCSI hard drives made by Quantum and Conner in the 1990s. What I’m about to describe is already common knowledge in the vintage computing world, but I…
160
CT scans of 1k lithium-ion batteries show quality risks in inexpensive cells
Lumafield’s Battery Quality Report exposes hidden risks in 18650 cells; 1 in 13 low-cost units have dangerous defects. See how CT helps enforce safety.
161
Designing Electronics That Work
I’ve put together a 300+ page book with basically everything I learned the hard way over the last 10 years founding and working at several hardware startups. It started out as a self published work, but No Starch Press picked it up and it went through a very extensive editing process to make it even better.
162
Boxie – an always offline audio player for my 3 year old
How I built a simple portable audio player for my boy, summoning the spirit of the Gameboy
163
I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C
Look, I'm an idiot. I know that, you know that, and the man on the moon knows that. Let's not get into why I'm an idiot; let's just accept that I have my peculiarities and you have yours. My idiocy is a quest to make sure all my portable electronics can recharge using USB-C. Modern smartwatches are tiny and they do a…
164
Big GPUs don't need big PCs
Ever since I got AMD, Intel, and Nvidia graphics cards to run on a Raspberry Pi, I had a nagging question: What's the point? The Raspberry Pi only has 1 lane of PCIe Gen 3 bandwidth available for a connection to an eGPU. That's not much. Especially considering a modern desktop has at least one slot with 16 lanes of…
165
PCBs, copper pours, ground planes, and you
A closer look at a fashion trend in printed circuit board design.
166
The biggest CRT ever made: Sony's PVM-4300
And a surviving example of one surfaced in December 2024.
167
Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable
Revenge tale against Consumer Electronics "Control".
168
Disney Imagineering Debuts Next-Generation Robotic Character, Olaf
Disney introduced a next-generation robotic character representing Olaf, the beloved snowman from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Frozen.
169
Drilling down on Uncle Sam's proposed TP-Link ban
The U.S. government is reportedly preparing to ban the sale of wireless routers and other networking gear from TP-Link Systems , a tech company that currently enjoys an estimated 50% market share among home users and small businesses. Experts say while the proposed ban may have more to do with TP-Link’s ties to China…
170
Building Ultra Long Range Toslink
This post is a textual version of a talk I gave at The 38th Chaos Computer Congress at the end of 2024. You can watch the talk that was recorded by the wonderful C3VOC team below if that’s your preferred medium:
171
172
How bad can a $2.97 ADC be?
A tale of suspiciously cheap ADS1115s
173
Coffeematic PC – A coffee maker computer that pumps hot coffee to the CPU
A 1980s GE coffee maker converted into a working computer. Part art, part absurd machine, fully functional.
174
175
Open Hardware Ethernet Switch project, part 1
One of my longest-running projects has been an open hardware Ethernet switch. This has been one of the key driving forces behind many of my other projects, such as ngscopeclient and the high speed probes. It was also the project that got me into high speed digital design.
176
Reverse-engineering and analysis of SanDisk High Endurance microSDXC card (2020)
As seen on Hackaday! TL;DR – The SanDisk High Endurance cards use SanDisk/Toshiba 3D TLC Flash. It took way, way more work than it should have to figure this out (thanks for nothing, SanDisk!…
177
Hacking the Xbox 360 Hypervisor Part 2: The Bad Update Exploit
Finding and exploiting bugs in the Xbox 360 hypervisor to create the "Bad Update" exploit.
178
Repasting a MacBook
My favorite memory of my M1 Pro MacBook Pro was the whole sensation of “holy crap, you never hear the fans in this thing”, which was very novel in 2021. Four years later, this MacBook Pro is still a delight. It’s the longest I’ve ever owned a laptop, and while I’d love to pick up the new M4 goodness, this dang thing…
179
I turned the Lego Game Boy into a working Game Boy
Sharing my thoughts and current projects.
180
The tiniest yet real telescope I've built
76/300 Pocket Dobson: a tiny yet real telescope that comes with you everywhere