Raspberry Pi, ARM SBCs & electronics hackery

This website is hosted on a 64-bit ARM NanoPi R2C Plus


	Cutting DIY Solder Paste Stencils for PCBs Inkscape extension for creating low cost solder paste stencils. Laser-cutting or bladed Silhouette machine... July 2025

	Home Lab: MultiJig magnetic solder paste stencil holder + Ruler £6 – In stock Multifunction jig: magnetic+taped PCB clamping, handy metric+imperial ruler, common SMD/SMT footprints, RPi+ESP pinouts, soldering practice... May 2025

	Cheatsheet for writing KiCad v6 plugin scripts in Python Tutorial with examples of many common API functions, plus open-source complete plugin... October 2023

	WiFi-controlled stepper motors with ESP8266 revB £22 – Out of stock Updated. Single board kit for controlling two stepper motors over WiFi, using A4988 and ESP-12F modules. Needs no Arduino/ Raspberry Pi/ Feather... March 2020

	More ESP8266 GPIO pins with IOexpander library Open source library to auto-detect & support different incompatible 16-channel I²C I/O expander chips in a single firmware... May 2022

	ESP32 low-power accurate clock using network time Calibrated time-keeping library for ESP32 deep sleep. Improve clock drift from 8 mins/day to 8 secs/day, without extra hardware or power consumption... January 2022

	Surviving the Great Chip Shortage of 2022 Component choices and PCB layouts for improved manufacturability. Includes open hardware design for an I²C I/O expander breakout board... January 2022

	Home Lab: Building PCB programming / test jigs Rapid testing of assembled PCBs, and flashing production firmware using 3 simple jigs with spring-loaded pogo pins... July 2021

	Benchmarked: Raspberry Pi3 vs. The World Battle of the Boards! The popular Raspberry Pi 3 takes on ~~Seven~~ Three ~~Evil Exes~~ Worthy Competitors: the PINE A64+, Orange Pi Plus2E and NanoPC-T3... July 2021

	Home Lab: Magnetic PCB holders DIY holders using M8 nuts, grub screw & 6mm neodymium magnets. Overview of other magnetic PCB holders... June 2021

	Dual Rail �12V DC/DC Converter Low cost step-up converter from a single 3.7V LiIon battery to �12V. Download open hardware files... June 2021

	Breadboard circuits using surface mount components £2.64 – In stock Skip using through-hole chips for prototypes and go straight to SMD with generic breakout boards, plus designs for DFN-12 & QFN-20... May 2021

	KiCad Web Viewer Lightweight 17Kb Javascript library for embedding KiCad schematics and PCBs in web documentation, with zoom/pan & search... May 2021

	Safe shutdown with an external button on ARM single board computers Lightweight daemon written in C compared to Python scripts for monitoring a GPIO pin on Raspberry Pi & similar boards... April 2021

	Using KiCad to build an accurate 3D model of the NanoPi NEO3 Workflow for creating virtual models of commercial electronics using open source KiCad and FreeCAD... March 2021

	ESP8266 testing jig/breakout board combo Jig using spring-loaded pogo pins for rapid testing of ESP12E/12F modules, and flashing production firmware... January 2021

	KiCad PCB Panelization with Javascript Simple online tool builds a framework to panelize your PCB in KiCad v5, ready for manufacture. No download required... September 2020

	IoT Battery Runtime calculator Online estimator for battery life when designing Internet Of Things projects. Supports LiIon, LiPo, LiFePO and NiMH rechargeable batteries. No download needed... August 2020

	96-core ARM supercomputer using the NanoPi-Fire3 Building a high performance supercomputer for under £100 (£550 including twelve Fire3s). Parts list, benchmarks and downloadable plans for laser-cutting the acrylic case... July 2018

	WiFi-controlled stepper motors with ESP8266 Single board kit for controlling two stepper motors over WiFi, using EasyDriver and ESP-12F modules. Needs no Arduino/ Raspberry Pi/ Feather... February 2018

	Easy laser-cut electronics cases Downloadable acrylic case designs for the Raspberry Pi Zero+Stackable USB Hub, Orange Pi Lite & Marvell ESPRESSObin... October 2017

	DIY 5 Node Cluster of Raspberry Pi 3s Updated. Building a Raspberry Pi 3 cluster for only £80 (£250 including five RPi3s). Parts list, build photos and downloadable plans for laser-cutting the acrylic case... June 2017

	Bargain 5 Node Cluster of PINE A64+ Building a 5-node PINE A64+ quadcore cluster for under £75 (£190 including five quadcore A64+s). Parts list, build photos and downloadable plans for laser-cutting the acrylic case... August 2016 & May 2017

	Making a laser-cut box/case with elastic clips Make a laser-cut box/case of any size that uses elastic clips, without needing any glue or screws. Downloadable plans. Ideal for acrylic (perspex) or MDF... May 2016 & September 2019

	Fanless Skylake desktop PC build with the HDPLEX H1.S case Building a silent ultra low-power 17W desktop PC, with heatpipe passive cooling, and custom transparent case lid/window that shows off LED motherboard lighting... September 2016

	ClusterHAT Review for the Raspberry Pi Zero Cluster computing on a £100 budget with 4 Raspberry Pi Zeros + ClusterHAT, networked together using USB gadget mode and no cables. Includes plans for acrylic case... August 2016

	5 Node Cluster of Orange Pi Plus 2Es Building a 5-node Orange Pi Plus2E cluster for under £75 (£250 including five Plus2Es). Parts list, build photos and downloadable plans for laser-cutting the acrylic case... July 2016

	40-core ARM cluster using the NanoPC-T3 Building a high performance 5-node NanoPC-T3 cluster for under £100 (£375 including five T3s). Parts list, build photos and downloadable plans for laser-cutting the acrylic case... June 2016

	Silent cooling for the Raspberry Pi 3 Stop the RPi3 CPU overheating to get maximum performance, using a silent fan powered from GPIO 5V. Use a variable boost convertor 5V-12V to tune the optimum fan speed... May 2016

	DIY 5 Node Cluster of Raspberry Pi 3s Building a Raspberry Pi 3 cluster for under £100 (£250 including five RPi3s). Parts list, build photos and downloadable plans for laser-cutting the acrylic case... April 2016

	DIY 3.5" HDD NAS with the Marvell ESPRESSObin Benchmarking my ultra-low power ARM file server/firewall with SATA, USB3.0, custom laser-cut acrylic case and Blinkt! status lights... coming soon