April 29, 2021
canbus, car hacks, dashboard, digital display, LED Hacks, led ring, miata, Microcontrollers, RGB LED

RGB LED Rings Teach Old Dash New Tricks

We’ve seen several so-called “digital dash” upgrades over the years that either augment, or completely replace, a vehicle’s original dashboard indicators with new displays. Whether its seven segment LEDs or a full-on graphical interface powered by the Raspberry Pi, the end result is the same: a dashboard that looks wildly different than it did when […]

March 9, 2021
LED Hacks, Lifehacks, lighting, RGBW, ring light

One Ring Light To Fool Them All Into Thinking You’re Well-Rested

We know you’re beautiful, but maybe that cheap web camera from 2007 doesn’t always project your best image. Although web cameras are starting to come back down from the pandemic price gouging days, you could just build yourself a ring light and go from there, because better light may be all you need to look […]

March 8, 2021
art, blinkenlights, LED Hacks, leds, pixelblaze controller

Head Lamp Gives Glowing Creature Comforts

What can we say? It’s 2021, and we could probably all use a psychotic glow worm lamp in our lives about now to lighten the mood and/or provide a new focal point for sitting and staring. Tired of dragging out that creepy little Elf on the Shelf every holiday season? [LiabilityLabs]’ Head Lamp is slightly […]

March 2, 2021
cosplay, Current Events, daft punk, daft punk helmet, Featured, LED Hacks, Musical Hacks, Roundup, Wearable Hacks

An Homage To Daft Punk In Fan-Made Helmets Through The Years.

It’s with sadness that we note the end to an end. The French dance music duo Daft Punk have split up, announced in a video that’s has already clocked 22 million views.The band have inspired hardware geeks across the world not just with their music but the way they present themselves. A perennial project has […]

February 26, 2021
art, art installation, bipolar stepper motor, LED ball, LED Hacks, morph

“MORPH” LED Ball Is A There-Is-No-Spoon, Reality-Bending Art Installation

Marvelously conceived and exquisitely executed, this huge ball made up of hexagon tiles combines the best of blinky LEDs and animatronics into one amorphic ball. The creation of [Nicholas Perillo] of Augmentl along with [MindBuffer], full details of the “morph v2” project have not yet been published. However, some tantilizing build progress is documented on […]

February 12, 2021
led, LED Hacks, optical inspection, pcb inspection, Tool Hacks

AOI By DIY | Hackaday

As anyone who has ever assembled a run of PCBs will tell you, quality inspection of solder joints can be a difficult process. Even under a microscope their appearances can be deceptive, and one silver blob can be perfect while its neighbour conceals a problem. The electronics industry have developed inspection tools to help, including […]

January 10, 2021
3d Printer hacks, LED Hacks, Prusa Mini, python, relay, Selenium, stack light, status indicator

Industrial Stack Light Keeps An Eye On Prusa Mini

When most people want to keep tabs on what their 3D printer is up to while they’re out and about, they’ll install OctoPrint on a Pi and be done with it. But what if you’re just on the other side of the room? Inspired by the stack lights used on factory floors, [Jeff Glass] decided […]

December 25, 2020
addressable led, Arduino Hacks, daisy chain, led, LED Hacks, matrix, osh park, oshpark, reflow, smt led, tiny led matrix

Discrete LEDs Make A Micro Display

Few things excite a Hackaday staff member more than a glowing LED, so it should be no surprise that combining them together into a matrix really gets us going. Make that matrix tiny, addressable, and chainable and you know it’ll be a hit at the virtual water cooler. We’ve seen [tinyledmatrix]’s work before but he’s […]

December 23, 2020
addressable, addressable led, arduino, Arduino Hacks, attiny, chainable, daisy chain, dot matrix, ESP32, ESP8266, led, LED Hacks, led matrix, tiny led matrix

A Tiny LED Matrix Is Better With Friends

When we last heard from [lixielabs] he was building Nixie tube replacements out of etched acrylic and LEDs. Well he’s moved forward a few decades to bring us the Pixie, a chainable, addressable backpack for tiny LED matrix displays. Each Pixie module is designed to host two gorgeous little Lite-On LTP-305G/HR 5×7 LED dot matrix […]

December 21, 2020
do not disturb, led, LED Hacks, Lifehacks, resistor, status LED, status light

Status Display Lets Them Know You Can’t Play

All this ongoing forced togetherness is great, but sometimes you just need to be able to pretend you’re alone so you can get some work done. So, how do you keep family members out of your home office? Our own [Bob Baddeley]’s free/busy indicator is about as simple as it gets. The best part is […]

December 4, 2020
LED Hacks, modular, Pogo pin, tool battery, Tool Hacks, work light

Transforming Work Light Is More Than Meets The Eye

While it does use the same M12 batteries, this impeccably engineered work light isn’t an official Milwaukee product. It’s the latest creation from [Chris Chimienti], who’s spent enough time in the garage and under the hood to know a thing or two about what makes a good work light. The modular design not only allows […]

November 15, 2020
3d printed musical instruments, electric guitar, fft, LED Hacks, Musical Hacks, RGB LED, sound reactive

Illuminated 3D Printed Guitar Is Ready To Rock

When we think of 3D printed parts for our projects, most of us imagine little bits like brackets and mounting plates. Perhaps the occasional printed project enclosure. But if you’ve got a big custom printer as [Joshendy] does, plus plenty of time, it opens up a whole new world of large scale projects. Take for […]

October 28, 2020
2020, aerosol, astable multivibrator, breathing, Circuit Sculpture, LED Hacks, leds, Misc Hacks, Pandemic, transistor

Circuit Sculpture Breathes Life Into Discrete Components

We’ve probably all given a lot of thought to breathing this year in various contexts. Though breathing is something we all must do, this simple act has become quite the troublemaker in 2020. They say the best art imitates life, and [bornach]’s Astable Exhalation certainly does that, right down to the part about astability. It’s […]

October 12, 2020
HUB75, LED Hacks, led matrix, Music Player Daemon, Raspberry Pi

Lo-Fi Art On A 32×32 Matrix

Display technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years, thanks in no small part to the smartphone revolution. High-resolution LCD panels are dirt cheap and easy to interface with. There’s absolutely no logical reason to try and show images on a 32×32 array of RGB LEDs. But that didn’t stop [Felix […]

August 2, 2020
art, blinkenlights, competition, display, hacker camp, Hackerspaces, led, LED Hacks, pixelflut, sha, sha2017

Playing The Pixelflut | Hackaday

Every hacker gathering needs as many pixels as its hackers can get their hands on. Get a group together and you’ll be blinded by the amount of light on display. (We propose “a blinkenlights” as the taxonomic name for such a group.) At a large gathering, what better way to show of your elite hacking […]

July 25, 2020
home hacks, laser, Laser Hacks, LED Hacks, qi charger, RGB LED, wood veneer, woodworking

Laser Cutting Your Way To An RGB LED Table

You’ve got the RGB keyboard, maybe even the RGB mouse. But can you really call yourself master of the technicolor LED if you don’t have an RGB table to game on? We think you already know the answer. Luckily, as [ItKindaWorks] shows in his latest project, it’s easy to build your own. Assuming you’ve got […]

June 29, 2020
arduino, Arduino Hacks, book, LED Hacks, LED lighting, library, rgb, solar

Mini Library For Kids Gets Blinky Lights And Solar Upgrade

Reading is big in Québec, and [pepelepoisson]’s young children have access to a free mini library nook that had seen better days and was in dire need of maintenance and refurbishing. In the process of repairing and repainting the little outdoor book nook, he took the opportunity to install a few experimental upgrades (link in […]

June 17, 2020
Arduino Hacks, ceiling, fiber optic, LED Hacks, starscape

Fiber Optic Ceiling Pumps To The Beat

For years [Centas] dream was to take the stars to his home and build a fiber optic ceiling. Even though there are many fiber optic star ceiling kits commercially available, we are glad he decided to go full DIY on this project as the result is simply astonishing. [Centas] chose to make a model of […]

June 15, 2020
bigclive, led, LED Hacks, party light

Hacking A Cheap Disco Light For UV Effects

Back in the early days of disco, filament bulbs were all the rage. Whether tungsten, halogen, or other obscure types, party lighting involved lots of watts and lots of heat. These days, the efficiency of LEDs makes everything a lot cheaper, lighter, and lower power. [Big Clive] decided to dive into a cheap moonflower-type disco […]

Category: <span>LED Hacks</span>