DIY

CheckMag If you are looking to step away from subscription services, reduce reliance on big tech, or simply have fun while learning, self-hosting is a great way to make your media collections available across all of your devices while keeping data under your control. Here are the best containers for managing almost every type of media.

A Redditor has modded their Zephyrus M16 with an RTX 4090 laptop GPU to outperform an average RTX 5090 laptop. The benchmarks shared by the user show up to a 7.6 percent performance boost over an RTX 5090 laptop.

Nvidia’s flagship RTX 5090 may deliver record-breaking performance, but a new teardown paints a troubling picture of its internal design. A leading repair shop has branded the Founders Edition “a disaster,” claiming its modular structure makes it nearly impossible to repair.

DIY engineer Luis has successfully designed, built, and flown a Star Wars-inspired X-wing drone that hit speeds of 216 km/h (134 mph). He revealed the project underwent 6 iterations to produce a working prototype.

Ohio State University researchers have demonstrated the ability to read and write data to shiitake mushrooms using an Arduino UNO microcontroller board and a simple test circuit. Roadblocks to commercialization include the storage unit size and hungry moms.

A hardware developer has built the Diptyx E-reader - a unique, dual-screen, open-hardware e-reader with no DRM or cloud tie-ins. The main focus of this project is to bring book-like reading and full device ownership to digital readers.

The MutantC V5 is a new handheld device that comes with a keyboard and joystick and is a slider smartphone. The device can also be connected to an external monitor, and sensors and actuators can be used.

Bambu Lab has shared details on its upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday that will last till December 5. Shoppers will be able to get the A1, the H2D Combo, and the P1S for a discounted price.

DIY YouTuber Hoarder Sam, who is known for custom drone builds, has uploaded a video of a 22.3-millimeter (0.88-inch) drone, which he calls “the world's smallest FPV drone.” He achieved this using components from a commercial drone and 3D-printed parts as well.

YouTuber AlphaPhoenix has built a 2-billion-frames-per-second (fps) camera, an improved version of his 1-billion fps camera from last year. And for his first video with the camera, he recorded a laser bouncing back and forth between two mirrors.

The Ubo Pod is a smart, personal AI assistant, designed to be open source and support the use of AI models locally, which could cater to individualized privacy requirements.

Bambu Lab has introduced a new 3D printer. The P2S is supposed to impress with an extensive feature set and strong specs. The enclosed 3D printer should also be easy to use and therefore quite accessible even for beginners.

A homeowner tackled a major wasp infestation by 3D printing a one-way excluder that, with a PC fan, removed hundreds of wasps from their walls. The design files have been shared for others to use and adapt.

The HiMill D1 and D1S can process various materials, not just plastics, with high precision and a certain degree of automation. The price is comparatively low, which could make this CNC machine quite appealing to regular users and tinkerers.

Brilliant as it may be, Sucker Punch's new game, Ghost of Yotei, is causing PS5s to trip off in a rather bizzare manner. Here's how it happens, and what to try out if you're in a similar bind.

Bambu Lab and Presq have partnered to release a line of open-sourced, customisable footwear designs that will allow anyone to bring their concepts to reality using just a 3D printer. The lineup of 3D designs, which feature TPE and PLA based construction, will be available on Bambu's MakerWorld platform.

An iPhone 4s was modded into a retro handheld - it uses an iOS 6.1.3 downgrade and jailbreak to run RetroArch emulators. Physical PS Vita buttons & a Bluetooth keyboard PCB provide tactile controls in a laser-engraved Kirby-themed metal case.

A new expansion card is supposedly able to significantly accelerate various devices, but only for certain AI-based applications. For makers and tinkerers, the M5Stack LLM-8850 could be quite useful for projects involving the Raspberry Pi 5.

Makera has officially revealed the Z1, it's latest desktop CNC, this time appealing to what it calls the "entry-level" maker. The new CNC machine features the same auto-levelling, 0.02 mm precision, and quick tool changer as the Makera Carvera Air, but costs half as much.

It was only a matter of time! The same wizard behind the completely transparent Game Boy, has created a fully playable Lego Game Boy using real hardware and supporting real cartridges.

The Qidi Q2 is an enclosed 3D printer capable of handling multiple filaments simultaneously. One notable feature is its built-in filter system designed to help protect the user from potentially harmful emissions.

The devs over at KindleModding.org have been busy cooking up their latest exploit to jailbreak Kindles. Courtesy of a well-known vulnerability in WebKit, select Kindle users have another opportunity to jailbreak their devices.

In a recent teardown, popular repair site iFixit rated the new AirPods Pro 3 a 0 out of 10 for repairability. This means that the repair process is so difficult that most consumers and repair technicians will not be able to fix or replace internal components without permanently damaging the buds.

The Open Printer features a modular and highly repairable design, and while it uses the popular HP 63 cartridges, it lacks DRM blocks that lock out third-party cartridges. It also allows printing on paper rolls, so you can either use the in-built cutter to make A4 sheets, or print longer items like banners. The Open Printer will be launched via a crowdfunding campaign soon.

YouTuber Nick Zetta of Basically Homeless built a three-part exoskeleton aim assist, combining a motorised wrist, solenoid “finger,” and an Nvidia Jetson, cutting latency to 17 ms and taking second place on the Aimlabs leaderboard.

IceWhale, the company behind the ZimaBoard, has built a loyal community over the years. With their support, the company has evolved CasaOS—a simple NAS-focused operating system—into the more feature-rich ZimaOS. Now, with the announcement of version 1.5.0, IceWhale has unveiled a new release—and a controversial change.

CheckMag Ollee Watch can transform your vintage Casio F-91W or A158W into a modern feature-loaded gadget. The drop-in mod adds Bluetooth, alarms, sensors, RGB backlight, and app sync, all while preserving the classic design and lightweight feel of the iconic watches.

For a modest $60, users can build a full transceiver capable of transmitting RF data packets over long distances, making it perfect for users looking to develop standalone communication services. What's more is that the project is reasonably straightforward, with all components being widely available.

DOOM has conquered yet another unexpected platform: an electronic vaping device, joining a legendary list of strange gaming platforms that includes pregnancy tests, refrigerators, and oscilloscopes. There’s now also a port of the iconic shooter running natively on a scientific calculator.

CheckMag AliExpress has a selection of spare parts that in some cases, can't be found anywhere else. But with return policies that are largely for show, and 50% of items being broken or mis-sold, enough is enough.

CheckMag From building a pico projector that mere mortals might actually be able to achieve, to running a web server on a Vape battery, the hacker community never ceases to amaze. Here are two of the week's best hacks.

PMM has announced a new series of mouse mods that slashes nearly 20 g off the weight of the already lightweight Endgame Gear OP1 8K. The custom mouse shell comes in three different flavours, all printed in PA12 nylon, and they all also have additional tuning options to make your EGG OP1 8K v1 or v2 more custom.

An enterprising modder has built himself a rather impressive DIY Framework Laptop with an integrated mechanical keyboard with the coveted HHKB layout. The mod makes the repairable thin-and-light laptop significantly thicker, but that extra space also adds room for sleek integrated volume, screen brightness, and keyboard backlight dials.

A modder has showcased two Cyberdeck or mini laptop docks designed for the Lenovo Legion Go. Apparently with a view to sharing or selling the files, u/MysteriousAlarm897 has new dock complements an earlier version they revealed with 190 Wh of batteries crammed inside.

The Photonicat 2 is a decently equipped mini PC running Linux that is intended to act as an excellent router when on the go, courtesy of a hefty 51 Wh battery, as well as 5G support. The product is already in the crowdfunding stage, and is expected to reach customers sometime in October.

The Onkyo TRHPA-KIT01 DIY headphone amplifier kit, available in Japan for ¥44,000 (~$300), features patented ultra-low distortion tech and modular components for audio hobbyists. The kit will be offered made-to-order through October 3, 2025.

A fan project has just brought Balatro to a NumWorks calculator with Python, who tried to fit its gameplay into just 20.9 KB while tackling strict RAM limits and sprite storage challenges - and (mostly) succeeded.

Wooting has updated its best Hall effect gaming keyboard, the 80HE, with a slew of usability improvements in Wootility v5.1.0. The browser-based software now has support for debounce timing, to reduce any potential key chatter, and the RGB effects page has become much more usable.

The ultrawide 32:9 experience has been brought to the handheld form factor. A creator has managed to DIY a Ryzen Z2 Extreme powered, Windows running, handheld with detachable controllers.

Marcin Plaza, known for his recent mechanical keyboard Lenovo Yoga laptop project, has returned, this time to convert a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip smartphone into a deliciously retro slide phone, replete with a hardware keyboard and a tiny display. The project not only salvages a dead Z Flip 5, but it solves one of the phone's biggest durability issues.

With over 146 commits since the previous stable version, the build-it-yourself, CLI-only Linux From Scratch 12.4 guide is available for both the SysV init and systemd approaches. This project allows the user to create a minimal distro from source code (while offering information on adding a GUI) and has been around since late 1999.

A team of engineers at the University of Tokyo has unveiled Mevita — an open-source bipedal robot designed to be strong yet simple to build. The robot uses a minimal number of individual metal parts, which can all be ordered online and welded together.

A new kit transforms the Raspberry Pi 5 into a proper network storage system. The so-called Pironman kit should make it pretty easy to build a NAS based on the Raspberry Pi 5, and it even sports a very quick Ethernet port.

A new DIY project has recreated the Minecraft compass in real life with LEDs, 3D printing, and open-source code. The build (available on GitHub) looks pixel-perfect while also working as a fully functional compass.

The Monochrome 2 is a custom-built small form-factor PC made by a fanless enthusiast. Packing the powerful AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU, courtesy of a Framework Desktop board, the passively cooled 4.5-liter chassis seemingly does a pretty decent job of taming the beastly chip at 100 watts.

The Radxa A7Z single-board computer (SBC) is here, offering a tiny Raspberry Pi Zero-sized alternative to the larger Cubie A7A SBC without sacrificing on performance. Priced quite affordably, the A7Z SBC can be equipped with up to 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage.

Bambu Lab H2C introduces a hotend swap system called Vortek that aims to improve multicolor 3D printing efficiency. It swaps the hotend which eliminates the need to purge and saves on print times.

The Galaxy Z Fold7 failed to impress iFixit, receiving only a low rating. However, Samsung's self-repair programme should make it possible to repair the foldable device without professional help.

The BPI-M4 Super from Banana Pi is a new single-board computer that could serve as an alternative to the popular Raspberry Pi 5. This SBC comes with two Ethernet ports as well as PCIe.