This week’s podcast comes from Europe, as Elliot Williams is joined by Jenny List, who wishes to apologies for the poor sound quality from her headset microphone. The news this week is our Supercon conference which is upcoming, we’ve released more speaker details.

We start the hacks with a follow-up to an exciting development. We’ve seen e-paper screens driven at high frame rates, but do the techniques used shorten the life of these displays? Then we have Tamagotchi hacking, re-using an old mobile phone as a flight controller, the oldest Windows app to run on Windows 11, and probably the prettiest mini TV studio rack you will ever see. Pushing Bluetooth out to 12 kilometres  is the cherry on the cake.

In quick hacks there’s a swash plate-less helicopter, Commodore 64 keycaps, and the history of the mouse, before our can’t-miss look at infra-red transmission, and a forgotten Google VR headset.

Check out the links if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments, or drop us a line on the mailbag.

Download yourself a little podcast, won’t you?

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Episode 392 Show Notes:

News:

  • 2026 Hackaday Supercon: All The Speakers!

Mailbag:

  • [Stefan] asked us about the performance of lead-acid batteries at lower temperatures. This prompted an interesting discussion of the subject, with the discovery that they are rated for surprisingly low temperature working. Battery University remains your best bet though, as always.
    • BU-410: Charging at High and Low Temperatures

Interesting Hacks of the Week:

  • Does Running An E-Paper Display At 30 FPS Destroy It?
    • Tiny E-Paper Display Delivers 30 FPS Of Game Boy Fun
    • Behold A 60 Hz Refresh Rate E-ink Monitor
    • GitHub – kuslota/InkBoy · GitHub
  • An Analog TV Station For Anyone
  • Turning An Old Phone’s Motherboard Into An RC Plane Controller
    • Turning A Run-Over Samsung Galaxy S23 Into A Gaming PC
    • There’s A Whole Computer Inside This Mouse
  • The Oldest Windows App To Still Run On WIndows 11
  • Hacking The Modern Tamagotchi With UART
    • Using An MCU’s Own Debug Peripheral To Defeat Bootrom Protection
    • Classic Tamagotchi Is Reincarnated In Modern Hardware
    • Reverse-Engineering The Tamagotchi IR Connection
    • Building The Infinite Matrix Of Tamagotchis
    • Tamagotchi Hacking, In Depth
  • Pushing Bluetooth Out To 12 Kilometers

Quick Hacks:

  • Elliot’s Picks:
    • The Slurptop Is Both Drool Worthy And Practical
    • 2026 Retrocomputing Challenge: Explore Space With A Credit Card Reader
    • Building A Swashplate-less Helicoper Rotor
  • Jenny’s Picks:
    • C64 Keycaps For Everybody
    • Where Did Your Mouse Come From?
    • In Praise Of A Legendary Power Transistor

Can’t-Miss Articles:

  • Exploring What’s Left Of Google’s VR Dreams
  • The Fascinating World Of IrDA And Other Infrared Protocols
    • YouTube: Hackaday Superconference 2017 – Michael Ossmann & Dominic Spill
    • Mike Ossmann And Dominic Spill: IR, Pirates!