Ep 316: Soft Robots, Linux the Hard Way, Cellphones into SBCs, and the Circuit Graver

Hackaday Podcast · 11 Apr 2025 · 1h 23m · Episode 316

What this episode covers

Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss a range of hardware hacks, starting with soft robotics by Soy Boy Softs, featuring a silicone-actuated salamander robot, and Linux running on a minimal 8-pin IC setup by Dimitri Grinberg. They also cover RF improvements for cheap ESP32-C3 boards by Peter Neufeld, a hardware time-lapse solution for 3D printers, and Citronics' method of repurposing old cell phones into single-board computers using Fairphone 2 motherboards. The episode concludes with a review of browser alternatives and a deep dive into the Circuit Graver, a home-prototyping machine by Zach Friedland that engraves PCBs using a sharpened lathe tool.

Mentioned

Companies
Citronics
Products
Fairphone 2, Circuit Graver
Chips
ESP32-C3, 6502
Also
Soy Boy Softs, Dimitri Grinberg, Peter Neufeld, Zach Friedland, Ben Eater

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Hackaday Podcast. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.