A 3D-printed, split-flap display-having calculator with a Raspberry Pi Pico inside.

By Our Calculations, You’ll Love The Flapulator

April 14, 2026 by Kristina Panos 5 Comments

Oh sure, you’ve got calculators. There’s that phone program of course, and the one that comes with your OS, and the TI-86 and possibly RPN numbers you’ve had since high school.

But what you don’t have is a Flapulator, at least not until you build one. Possibly the be-all, end-all of physical calculating devices, the Flapulator does its calculating live on a split-flap display. It’s kind of slow and the accuracy is questionable, but the tactility is oh, so good.

This baby boasts a 6-digit display, where the decimal point and negative sign each require one digit. Inside is a Raspberry Pi Pico, which can calculate for around 4 hours on a full charge. But the coolest part (aside from the split-flap display, naturally) has got to be the 24-key, hand-wired mechanical keyboard. There’s also a couple of LEDs that light up to keep track of the current mathematical operation.

The story behind this one is kind of interesting. [Applepie1928] found out that one of their favorite mathematician-comedian-pi-lovers who is known for signing calculators was coming to town. With four weeks to whip something up, this was, amazingly, the result. Check it out in action after the break.

Need something that’s a whole other kind of fancy? Here’s an open-source graphing calculator.

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We’re All Abuzz About The Bee Write Back Writerdeck

April 12, 2026 by Kristina Panos 11 Comments

Friends, there will likely come a time in your life when you have trouble sleeping. When this happens, it may behoove you to do some writing, any kind of writing. But consider that a physical journal will force you to turn past pages you’ve already filled, which may leave you deflated if you happen to read them.

So the answer lies in a sort of journalistic deposit box. That’s basically what we have here. [Simon Shimel]’s Bee Write Back writerdeck was inspired by sleepless nights, so you know it’s effective. The form factor is so great for [Simon], in fact, that he has developed more apps and functions for it, including a Claude client.

Inside is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2w, and input comes from an Air40 keyboard with quite awesome low-profile key caps. The display is a 5.5″ AMOLED, which leaves just enough room for a pair of the cutest bees ever. Be sure to check out the short video below for the build guide to accompany the build guide (PDF), and head over to GitHub for the full details.

Want to go even smaller and BYOK? Here’s a cheap writerdeck with an e-ink display.

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Hackaday Podcast Episode 364: Clocks, Cameras, And Free Will

April 3, 2026 by Kristina Panos 5 Comments

This week, Hackaday’s Elliot Williams and Kristina Panos met up over assorted beverages to bring you the latest news, mystery sound results show, and of course, a big bunch of hacks from the previous seven days or so.

In the news, there’s quite a bit to talk about. Regarding Hackaday Europe, you can rest assured that the talks will be announced soon. The Green-Powered Challenge is still underway, and we need your entry to truly make it a contest. You have until April 24th to enter, so show us what you can do with power you scrounge up from the environment!

As usual, we published a handful of April Fool’s posts, which you may or may not find amusing. And finally — no fooling — our own Tom Nardi wrote up the Artemis moon launch, and is going to update the post every day until the mission ends.

On What’s That Sound, we can score one for Kristina, which brings her record to approximately three wins and sixty-eight losses. She knew without a doubt that the dialogue was from the Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Oh, what? There was a remake in 2008? Kristina should get bonus points, then.

After that, it’s on to the hacks, beginning with the basics of making clean enclosures that are decidedly not 3D-printed, a couple of sweet lo-fi cameras, and a nice way to tame the tape when it comes to SMT parts. We also discuss a clock that marks time in a mathematical way, watch an electro-permanent magnet in action, and improving soda by turning it into mead. Finally, we discuss the solar balconies taking Europe by storm, and Copilot’s terrifying terms of service.

Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

Download in DRM-free MP3 and savor at your leisure.

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Illustrated Kristina with an IBM Model M keyboard floating between her hands.

Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Ultra-Thin Split

March 19, 2026 by Kristina Panos 4 Comments

But sir, it is wafer-thin. That’s how they get you! Just when you couldn’t possibly justify building another keyboard, let alone owning one, along comes the Kambala by [aroum2].

A wafer-thin keyboard in triple black. — Image by [aroum2] via reddit

Now, ‘Kambala’ means a few things, but here it refers to fish, as evidenced by logo and matching themed PCB key chain shown in the gallery.

This catch is so flat because of the switches: PG1316S, and 42 of them. These are better known to some as Kailh butterfly switches, and are meant for laptops. But, this is Hackaday.

No matter what you call them, those switches are controlled by a nice!nano V2-compatible controller, which allows for ZMK firmware support. There’s a 110 mAh battery and four status LEDs, and best of all, the charging indicator is in the fish’s eyes.

[aroum2] might share the files later. Here’s hoping!

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Hackaday Podcast Episode 360: Cool Rubber Bands, Science-y Stuff, And The Whys Of Office Supplies

March 6, 2026 by Kristina Panos 8 Comments

An early print of the linoleum block that Kristina started carving during the podcast. (It’s the original Cherry MX patent drawing, re-imagined for block printing.)

In the news, we’ve launched a brand-new contest! Yes, the Green-Powered Challenge is underway, and we need your entry to truly make it a contest. You have until April 24th to enter, so show us what you can do with power you scrounge up from the environment around you!

On What’s That Sound, Kristina was leaning toward some kind of distant typing sounds, but [Konrad] knew it was our own Tom Nardi’s steam heat radiator pinging away.

After that, it’s on to the hacks and such, beginning with an exploration of all the gross security vulnerabilities in a cheap WiFi extender, and we take a look inside a little black and white pay television like you’d find in a Greyhound station in the 80s and 90s.

We also discuss the idea of mixing custom spray paint colors on the fly, a pen clip that never bends out of shape, and running video through a guitar effects pedal. Finally, we discuss climate engineering with disintegrating satellites, and the curse of everything device.

Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

Download in DRM-free MP3 and savor at your leisure.

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Beginner’s Guide To Split Keyboards

March 5, 2026 by Kristina Panos 10 Comments

Curious about split keyboards, but overwhelmed by the myriad options for every little thing? You should start with [thehaikuza]’s excellent Beginner’s Guide to Split Keyboards.

Three different split keyboards. — Image by [thehaikuza] via reddit

Your education begins with the why, so you can skip that if you must, but the visuals are a nice refresher on that front.

He then gets into the types of keyboards — you got your standard row-staggered rectangles that we all grew up on, column-staggered, and straight-up ortholinear, which no longer enjoy the popularity they once did.

At this point, the guide becomes a bit of a Choose Your Own Adventure story. If you want a split but don’t want to learn to change much if at all about your typing style, keep reading, because there are definitely options.

But if you’re ready to commit to typing correctly for the sake of ergonomics, you can skip the Alice and other baby ergo choices and get your membership to the light side. First are features — you must decide what you need to get various jobs done. Then you learn a bit about key map customization, including using a non-QWERTY layout. Finally, there’s the question of buying versus DIYing. All the choices are yours, so go for it!

Via reddit

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Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Uni-body That Does The Splits

February 24, 2026 by Kristina Panos 4 Comments

Personally, I love a monoblock or uni-body split. You’ll pry this Kinesis Advantage from under my cold, dead hands. But on the go, I really like the Glove 80, a true split that can be completely wireless in case you want to put the halves really far apart.

A triple-black split keyboard without a case, for now. — Image by [thehaikuza] via reddit

[thehaikuza] is the opposite, preferring a full split at the desk, but finding it troublesome when using it on the couch or at a cafe or co-working space, and so created dǎ bāo (打包) — a uni-body split that can also be a distant split. And this best-of-both worlds creation is remarkably [thehaikuza]’s first keyboard.

The name means to take out food, and if you click the picture you can see a cute little take-out container on the silkscreen of the right half. Directly below it, there’s a track point nubbin to be used with the thumb.

It does its split-in-half trick via a magnetic four-pin connector for when you want the halves stuck together. When the halves are separated, they can instead talk over a USB-C cable. One half has the microcontroller, and the other has a GPIO expander.

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