Author: Lewin Day

3436 Articles

Mesh “Lens” Lets Your Camera Make Weird Pixel Art

December 24, 2025 by 2 Comments

We seldom talk about 3D printing lenses because most techniques can’t possibly produce transparent parts of optical quality. However, you can 3D print something like a lens, as [Luke Edwin] demonstrates, and get all kinds of crazy pictures out of it. 

[Luke’s] lens isn’t really a lens, per se. There’s no transparent optical medium being used to bend light, here. Instead, he’s printed a very fine grid in a cylindrical form factor, stuck it on a lens mount, and put that on the front of a camera.

The result is effectively a set of parallel tubes that guide light on to the camera’s image sensor. With the lack of any sort of focus mechanism, you can’t use this “lens” to photograph anything more than a few centimeters away. Get something up close, though, and you can take very simple, very grainy images that are reminiscent of classic pixel art. [Luke] demonstrates this in some fun ways, using it to take photographs of money, a plant, and his own eye. The images look almost like art assets straight out of a 16-bit game. He’s got the STL file up for sale if you want to print your own at home.

We’d love to see this concept explored further, maybe with some supporting optics for more versatile use. In the meantime, you might explore other ways of using 3D printers for photographic gain.

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Disposable Camera Viewfinder Becomes 3D Printed Lens

December 24, 2025 by 4 Comments

Disposable cameras are a fun way to get into classical photography. However, they can also be a valuable source of interesting parts that can be put to other uses. For example, as [Billt] demonstrates, their viewfinders can be repurposed into a rather interesting lens for more serious cameras.

[Billt] was lucky enough to score a grabbag of used disposable cameras from a local film lab, and tore them down for parts. He was particularly interested in the viewfinders, since Kodak equipped its disposable cameras with actual plastic lenses for this very purpose.

[Billt] wanted to see what these lenses would do when thrown on the front of a proper digital camera, and set about designing a mount for that purpose. The 3D printed part was designed to mount one of the viewfinder lens assemblies on the front of any Sony E-mount camera. In a rather nifty trick, [Billt] realized the lens assembly could be installed in the adapter by pausing mid-way through the 3D print to drop it in. The only unfortunate thing? The lenses didn’t really work, and all the camera could see was a haze of unfocused light.

With the aid of some cardboard experiments, [Billt] decided to make some changes. The front element of the viewfinder was dumped, with the rear element being used solo instead. This was fitted to the adapter on a simple slide mechanism so that focus could be reliably adjusted. With these changes, the lens came good, and provided some really interesting shots. It’s quite a cropped lens and it can achieve a very close focus distance, as little as 1 inch in testing. It’s quite sharp in the center of the image, while softly blurring out towards the edges—something that sounds very familiar if you’ve used one of these disposable cameras in the wild.

Sometimes it’s fun to grab a random piece of junk to see if you can turn it into something good. Video after the break.

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DIY E-Reader Folds Open Like A Book

December 24, 2025 by 19 Comments

There are plenty of lovely e-readers out on the market that come with an nice big e-paper display. There aren’t nearly as many that come with two. [Martin den Hoed] developed the Diptyx e-reader with such a design in order to better replicate the paper books of old. 

The build is based around the ESP32-S3, a powerful microcontroller which comes with the benefit of having WiFi connectivity baked in. It’s hooked up to a pair of 648×480 e-paper displays, which are installed in a fold-open housing to create the impression that one is reading a traditional book. The displays themselves are driven with custom look-up tables to allow for low-latency updates when turning pages. The firmware of the device is inspired by the epub reader from [Atomic14], and can handle different fonts and line spacing without issue. Power is from a pair of 1,500 mAh lithium-polymer cells, which should keep the device running for a good long time, and they can be charged over USB-C like any  modern gadget.

You can follow along with the project on the official website, or check it out on Crowd Supply if you’re so inclined. The project is intended to be open source, with files to be released once the design is finalized for an initial production run.

We’ve seen some great DIY e-reader builds over the years, and we’re loving the development we’re seeing in the writer deck space, too. If you’re whipping up something fun in this vein, be sure to let us know on the tipsline!

Old FM Radio Upcycled Into Classy Bluetooth Speaker

December 23, 2025 by 23 Comments

[Distracted by Design] loves gear from the 1980s, though some of it isn’t as useful as it used to be. He happened across a cheap old FM radio with a great look, but wanted to repurpose it into something more modern. Thus, he set about turning this cheap piece of old electronics into a stylish Bluetooth speaker.

All of the original electronics were stripped out, while the original speaker was kept since it neatly fit the case. Electronically, the build relies on a Bluetooth module harvested from an existing speaker. 3D-printed bracketry was used to fasten it neatly into place inside the radio housing, with the buttons neatly presented where the original radio had its tone and volume controls. Power is via an internal lithium-ion battery, charged over USB-C thanks to an off-the-shelf charging module.

Where the build really shines, though, is the detailing. The original cheap plastic handle was replaced with a CNC-machined wooden piece, bolted on with machined aluminium side plates. Similarly, the original clear plastic tuning window was replaced with another tasteful piece of wood that dropped perfectly into place. At the back, the charge port is nicely integrated. Where the radio formerly had a removable door for the power cable storage, it now has a machined aluminium plate hosting the USB-C charge port. Little 3D-printed button actuators were also used to integrate the Bluetooth module’s controls into the case.

It’s a very stylish build, overall. Perhaps the one area it’s a let down is in the sound quality. The ancient speaker simply doesn’t sound great compared to modern Bluetooth speakers and their finely-tuned, bassy audio. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing—sometimes it’s nice to have an audio source with a limited frequency response. It can be nice for use in an area where you may want to be able to easily speak over the music.

If you want to build a Bluetooth speaker of your own, you might like to whip up an open-source design from scratch. Video after the break.

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Tackling Tremors With DIY Technology

December 23, 2025 by 10 Comments

[It’s Triggy!] had a problem to solve. His grandma was having issues with hand tremors, which made the basic tasks of daily life difficult to perform. He decided to explore whether a high-tech solution could help best the tremors and make life easier.

The video covers multiple ideas on how to stabilize a hand suffering involuntary tremors. The first build involved a gyroscope, which proved unsuccessful, but led to the idea of building a reaction wheel. The concept is simple — get the reaction wheel to counteract the forces from tremors to stabilize the hand. To achieve this, an accelerometer was employed to track the movements of the arm and the hand. The magnitude of the movement was then used to control a powerful brushless motor mounted on the wrist. If the tremor was driving a hard tilt to the left, the motor would spin up to create a counter-torque, cancelling out the involuntary movement. This worked to a degree, but the resulting device was large and noisy, which made it impractical.

This thus inspired a return to earlier work involving the use of a tuned mass damper to settle tremors. The combination of some 3D printed wrist mounts along with various spring and cantilever designs… ultimately didn’t work that well. By this point, [It’s Triggy!] had noticed the tremor was mostly in the hands, while the wrist stayed steady. Thus was inspired a wrist-mounted handle for the wearer to wrap their hand around. This allowed the use of simple handheld objects like kitchen utensils, with the wearer’s own grip suppressing the tremor successfully.

As this project demonstrates, sometimes high-tech solutions are the way to go, and other times… a more passive design will actually serve you better.

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High-Speed Pocket Hot Dog Cooker

December 22, 2025 by 28 Comments

Few of us complain that hot dogs take too long to cook, because we buy them from a stand. Still, if you do have to make your own dog, it can be a frustrating problem. To solve this issue, [Joel Creates] whipped up a solution to cook hot dogs nearly instantaneously. What’s more, it even fits in your pocket!

The idea behind this build is the same as the classic Presto hot dog cooker—pass electricity through a hot dog frank, and it’ll heat up just like any other resistive heating element. To achieve this, [Joel] hooked up a lithium-polymer pack to a 12-volt to 120-volt inverter. The 120-volt output was hooked up to a frank, but it didn’t really cook much. [Joel] then realized the problem—he needed bigger electrodes conducting electricity into the sausage. With 120 volts pumping through a couple of bolts jammed into either end of the frank, he had it cooked in two minutes flat.

All that was left to do was to get this concept working in a compact, portable package. What ensued was testing with a variety of boost converter circuits to take power from the batteries and stepping it up to a high enough voltage to cook with. That, and solving the issue of nasty chemical byproducts produced from passing electricity through the sausages themselves. Eventually, [Joel] comes up with a working prototype which can electrically cook a hot dog to the point of shooting out violent bursts of steam in under two minutes. You’d still have to be pretty brave to eat something that came out of this thing.

The biggest problem with hot dogs remains that the franks are sold in packs of four while buns are sold in packs of six. Nobody’s solved that problem yet, except for those hateful people who inexplicably have eleven friends. If you solve that one, don’t hesitate to notify the tipsline. Don’t forget, either, that the common hot dog can make for an excellent LED tester. Video after the break.

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Internet-Connected Consoles Are Retro Now, And That Means Problems

December 22, 2025 by 25 Comments

A long time ago, there was a big difference between PC and console gaming. The former often came with headaches. You’d fight with drivers, struggle with crashes, and grow ever more frustrated dealing with CD piracy checks and endless patches and updates. Meanwhile, consoles offered the exact opposite experience—just slam in a cartridge, and go!

That beautiful feature fell away when consoles joined the Internet. Suddenly there were servers to sign in to and updates to download and a whole bunch of hoops to jump through before you even got to play a game. Now, those early generations of Internet-connected consoles are becoming retro, and that’s introduced a whole new set of problems now the infrastructure is dying or dead. Boot up and play? You must be joking!

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