Author: John Elliot V

53 Articles

Using an SMD capacitor as a clip for flash media on a circuit board.

SMD Capacitor Doubles As Cheap SD Card Latch

July 4, 2025 by 37 Comments

Here’s a clever hack. Simple, elegant, and eminently cost-effective: using an SMD capacitor to hold your flash media in place!

This is a hack that can pretty much be summed up with just the image at the top of the page — a carefully placed SMD capacitor soldered to a routed tab makes for an extremely cost effective locking mechanism for the nearby SD card slot. There’s just enough flexibility to easily move the capacitor when its time to insert or eject your media.

It’s worth noting that the capacitor in this example doesn’t even appear to be electrically connected to anything. But there’s also no reason you couldn’t position one of the capacitors in your existing bill of materials (BOM). This form of mechanical support will be much cheaper than special purpose clips or mounts. Not a big deal for low-volume projects, but if you’re going high-volume this is definitely something to keep in mind.

If you’re just getting started with SMD capacitors then one of the first things to learn is how to solder them. Also, if you’re hoping to salvage them then try to look for newer equipment which is more likely to have SMD components than through-hole. If you’re planning to use your capacitors for… “capacitance” (how quaint), you can start by learning the basics. And if you want to know everything you can learn about the history of capacitors, too.

Thanks to [JohnU] for writing in to let us know about this one. Have your own natty hacks? Let us know on the tipsline!

Back To The Future, 40 Years Old, Looks Like The Past

July 3, 2025 by 58 Comments

Great Scott! If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you’re gonna see some serious shit. — Doc Brown

On this day, forty years ago, July 3rd, 1985 the movie Back to the Future was released. While not as fundamental as Hackers or realistic as Sneakers, this movie worked its way into our pantheon. We thought it would be appropriate to commemorate this element of hacker culture on this day, its forty year anniversary.

If you just never got around to watching it, or if it has been a few decades since you did, then you might not recall that the movie is set in two periods. It opens in 1985 and then goes back to 1955. Most of the movie is set in 1955 with Marty trying to get back to 1985 — “back to the future”. The movie celebrates the advanced technology and fashions of 1985 and is all about how silly the technology and fashions of 1955 are as compared with the advancements of 1985. But now it’s the far future, the year 2025, and we thought we might take a look at some of the technology that was enchanting in 1985 but that turned out to be obsolete in “the future”, forty years on. Continue reading “Back To The Future, 40 Years Old, Looks Like The Past” →

Fingers installing a service loop in a wire in a connector

Are Service Loops A Good Idea?

July 1, 2025 by 22 Comments

Well, here’s an interesting idea: the service loop. Ever heard of it? We haven’t!

In the video, the presenter explains the service loop serves two purposes: on the one hand it may provide strain relief, but chiefly these loops are installed so there will be extra available slack in the cable if you need to rewire it some day to change the configuration of your pinout.

One major problem with the service loop may be that the single turn is enough to create an inductor which will then induce noise and cross-talk all over the place. Our rule of thumb is always to completely unroll wires and cables before using them. Do you have a theory about the benefits or problems with service loops? If you do, we’d love to hear what you think in the comments!

If you’re interested in strain relief, we’ve covered that before, and you don’t need a service loop to do it! Check out Cheap Strain Relief By Casting Hot Glue In A 3D Print and Arduino Uno Strain Relief.

Continue reading “Are Service Loops A Good Idea?” →

Marauder LowRacer banner

Building The Marauder LowRacer From Bike Parts

June 30, 2025 by 22 Comments

Thanks to [Radical Brad] for writing in to let us know about his recent project, building a street racing bike from square tubing and old bike parts.

In this 50 minute video [Radical Brad] takes us through the process of building the Marauder v2, a street racing LowRacer. The entire build was done over a few weekends using only an AC welder, angle grinder, and basic hand tools you probably have in the garage.

Continue reading “Building The Marauder LowRacer From Bike Parts” →

Animal Crossing keyboard banner

Making GameCube Keyboard Controller Work With Animal Crossing

June 26, 2025 by 2 Comments

[Hunter Irving] is a talented hacker with a wicked sense of humor, and he has written in to let us know about his latest project which is to make a GameCube keyboard controller work with Animal Crossing.

This project began simply enough but got very complicated in short order. Initially the goal was to get the GameCube keyboard controller integrated with the game Animal Crossing. The GameCube keyboard controller is a genuine part manufactured and sold by Nintendo but the game Animal Crossing isn’t compatible with this controller. Rather, Animal Crossing has an on-screen keyboard which players can use with a standard controller. [Hunter] found this frustrating to use so he created an adapter which would intercept the keyboard controller protocol and replace it with equivalent “keypresses” from an emulated standard controller.

Continue reading “Making GameCube Keyboard Controller Work With Animal Crossing” →

Resin keycap made from dried flowers

How To Make A Beautiful Floral Keycap Using Resin

June 26, 2025 by 8 Comments

Here’s a fun build. Over on their YouTube channel our hacker [Atasoy] shows us how to make a custom floral keyboard keycap using resin.

We begin by using an existing keycap as a pattern to make a mold. We plug the keycap with all-purpose adhesive paste so that we can attach it to a small sheet of Plexiglas, which ensures the floor of our mold is flat. Then a side frame is fashioned from 100 micron thick acetate which is held together by sticky tape. Hot glue is used to secure the acetate side frame to the Plexiglas floor, keeping the keycap centered. RTV2 molding silicone is used to make the keycap mold. After 24 hours the silicone mold is ready.

Then we go through a similar process to make the mold for the back of the keycap. Modeling clay is pushed into the back of the keycap. Then silicone is carefully pushed into the keycap, and 24 hours later the back silicone mold is also ready.

Continue reading “How To Make A Beautiful Floral Keycap Using Resin” →

Tektronix TDS8000 banner

Repairing An Old Tektronix TDS8000 Scope

June 22, 2025 by 3 Comments

Over on his YouTube channel our hacker [CircuitValley] repairs an old TDS8000 scope.

The TDS8000 was manufactured by Tektronix circa 2001 and was also marketed as the CSA8000 Communications Signal Analyzer as well as the TDS8000 Digital Sampling Oscilloscope. Tektronix is no longer manufacturing and selling these scopes but the documentation is still available from their website, including the User Manual (268 page PDF), the Service Manual (198 page PDF), and some basic specs (in HTML).

You can do a lot of things with a TDS8000 scope but particularly its use case was Time-Domain Reflectometry (TDR). A TDR scope is the time-domain equivalent of a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) which operates in the frequency-domain.

Continue reading “Repairing An Old Tektronix TDS8000 Scope” →