Hardware projects from Show HN — electronics, IoT devices, microcontrollers, and physical computing.
A soft-core FPGA replica of the Saab CK37 — the world's first IC-based airborne computer, rebuilt from the original 1963 FMV maintenance manual and running a PID navigation loop in the original Q1.25 assembly. Target: OrangeCrab r0.2 (ECP5-25F)
Original 1963 navigation code runs on FPGA reconstructed from Swedish Air Force manuals.
Bimanual mobile manipulator for $10k that replaces $50k+ proprietary systems, fully open-source.
A 16-bit 2-cycle RISC-V-inspired CPU in the same footprint as a 65c02. For the SKY130 process Tiny Tapeout.
Proves RISC beats 6502 in 1970s constraints with 1.0-2.6x speedup, same transistor count.
A cycle-accurate 6502 CPU core for FPGAs and ASICs, including peripherals
Cycle-accurate 6502 core at ~950 LUTs, shipping to real silicon via Tiny Tapeout.
FPGA Proth prime finder on Zybo Z7-20. Discovered 2079*2^3718+1, a 1,123-digit prime.
4096-bit hardware Proth prover on $200 FPGA finds new prime with deterministic proof.
Bit-banged 10BASE-T Ethernet + Wi-Fi router in Rust on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W
Software 10BASE-T PHY on a $5 MCU removes need for dedicated Ethernet hardware.
Real analog needles twitching for Claude rate limits beats any dashboard widget.
High-performance, deterministic DLinear implementation in Chisel. Sub-5ns latency on 7nm. Target: HFT, Line-rate Networking, and Aerospace RTOS.
Sub-5ns DLinear in silicon. Balanced adder trees, 4-stage pipeline, zero-delay bit shifts.
Handmade walnut thermal printer that ditches screens for physical news and puzzles.
CNN inference fully hardcoded as silicon logic, not software optimized for hardware.
Strips away PyTorch flexibility entirely; full CNN inference as deterministic hardware logic in SystemVerilog.
LoRa mesh SAR app with voice, maps, and live team tracking—works without cell towers.
24-trit balanced ternary RISC processor on FPGA is hardware wizardry.
Battery-free passive rings track tremors better than any smartwatch or chip-enabled ring.
Open ag-bot closes the '18-month prototype gap' that kills agri-robotics startups.
Zero-power e-ink badges with passive NFC—clever constraint craft for event swag.
Formally verified FPGA watchdog for critical AM broadcast proves hardware safety via math, not testing.
PIrateRF transforms your Raspberry Pi Zero W into a portable RF signal generator that spawns its own WiFi hotspot. Control everything from FM broadcasts to digital modes through your browser - hack the airwaves from anywhere! 📡⚡
12 RF modes on a $20 Pi Zero—FM, FT8, SSTV, spectrum paint, all from browser.
ROS 2 sensor fusion SDK: UKF, 3D native, proper GNSS, zero manual tuning. Apache 2.0.
Beats robot_localization on 5 of 6 benchmarks with zero manual tuning.
Streaming LLM tokens to a 64KB machine over real serial hardware is pure wizardry.
First humanoid robot cleaning service in the US — no humans, just robots.
Running AI inference by breaking DDR4 timing rules on off-the-shelf memory is wild.
Multi-touch KVM for phones at $86 BOM when PiKVM only does keyboard and mouse.
Userspace WiFiBroadcast stack brings long-range drone video to macOS natively.
Explodes capacitors at alarm time because ElectroBOOM inspired it.
I reverse engineered the BLE Analyzer pro USB and created a linux capturing tool.
Reverse-engineered USB protocol in 24hrs; $30 BLE sniffer now works on Linux.
Deterministic PCB validation with 12 physics engines and standards-backed checks, shipping with real credibility.
Handmade walnut thermal printer that ditches screens for morning routines.
Trackball reads 3-axis rotation; twist finally does something beyond scroll.
Celeste playable on a $15 microcontroller as a 42kB ELF binary.
Deterministic rule engines + AI explanation avoids AI hallucination in high-stakes hardware.
Make Local AI Toys, Robots, Devices that work with a MacBook and an Arduino ESP32
Voice cloning on ESP32 without cloud beats Yoto's subscription model completely.
WoW raid frames for AI agents — fire animation when approval needed is brilliant.
Dual ADS-B and LoRa mesh radios on a $100 board — aviation nerds will lose their minds.
Physical AI companion that approves Claude commands by voice instead of modal dialogs.
Web Bluetooth API brings G-Shock management to browsers, bypassing the official Android app.
Hardware kill switch physically disconnects the mic when the handset rests.
Open-source acoustic camera built on a Pico 2W visualizes sound waves directly.
Sensor-packed foam ball with AI game creation—solves the "what should we play" problem.
Full network stack in 8 kB of Go on a Pico—genuinely constrainted yet functional hardware hack.
Claude diagnoses machines via real sensor data and ISO-standard fault algorithms, not guessing.
Hardware-timed stepper pulses eliminate CPU jitter for 0.5mm workshop precision; solves real job pain.
Eliminates tanks and pumps by making the rocket structure itself the fuel.
DAGR-class MGRS navigator for iOS and Android — live 10-digit grid coordinates, 10 tactical tools, offline maps, Meshtastic mesh networking, 6 radio-ready report templates. Open source. No tracking. Free on the App Store and Google Play.
Replaces $2,500 DAGR hardware with free open-source iPhone app.
US PCB fab at $0.75/in² when JLCPCB and PCBWay dominate overseas.
Physical titanium key plates eliminate digital key-at-rest vulnerabilities entirely.
Realtime Voice AI with 100+ Models on Arduino ESP32 with Secure Websockets and Edge Functions for AI Toys, Companions, and Devices
Cloudflare Durable Objects + ESP32 creates global voice toy network.
On-device CV retrains itself as the physical coin degrades over 50,000 flips.
152 projects
![Celeste game installs as ELF binary (42kB) on ESP32/breezybox [video]](/screenshots/47090947_thumb.webp)
