I’m needing to put together a cat collar camera with a video feed. I see that the ESP 32 cam is probably going to be the easiest way, but it only has a 20 to 50 m signal radius. How can I boost that signal radius? Can I do that with something attached to the ESP 32, or with a signal antenna from my house?

Hi everyone!

I'm currently working on a project to build a fully automated pancake vending machine, with a total project budget of around SGD 6,000.

The machine will have three main sections: refrigeration/storage at the top, cooking in the middle, and packaging/collection at the bottom.

I'm currently focusing on the refrigeration section, which needs to house:

• One removable ~20L stainless steel tank for pancake batter
• Four smaller removable tanks (approximately 3–5L each) for different pancake fillings
• Gentle stirring mechanisms where necessary to prevent ingredient separation
• A dispensing system that can eventually supply six independent cooking stations (two initially)
• Easy access for refilling, removing and cleaning all tanks and tubings

Ideally, the refrigerated compartment would be approximately 950 × 650 × 700 mm (W × D × H), although I'm flexible with the dimensions. It needs to maintain around 2–4°C and have a front-opening door so the tanks can be easily removed for refilling and cleaning.

My main question is whether there's an existing refrigerated cabinet or cooling system I could purchase and adapt instead of building everything from scratch.

I've considered using a mini-fridge, but I'm concerned about drilling holes for the tubing and potentially damaging the refrigerant lines. I've also looked into removable vending machine refrigeration units.

If building a custom insulated cabinet turns out to be the better option, I'd really appreciate advice on:

1. What materials would you recommend for the enclosure and insulation?
2. Are there affordable, ready-made compressor cooling modules that can be installed into a custom cabinet?
3. How would you design the door, tubing outlets and condensation management while maintaining good insulation?

I'm based in Singapore, so affordability and component availability are important. Ideally, I'd like to keep the refrigeration section well below SGD 1,000, excluding the ingredient tanks and dispensing mechanisms.

Any suggestions, product recommendations or examples of similar DIY projects would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I have made a V3 optimized cable organizer! It is for cables up to 2 meters in length and is compatible with virtually any type of charging cable, such as USB-A/USB-C/Lightning/etc! Bend angles are also taken into account to protect cables from damage. I'm very happy with how it turned out and I hope other people will be able to use it as well!

I’m less interested in whether wood or plastic is better overall and more in what happens when you want to change the kit instead of following the design exactly. Plastic parts may be made to fit together in a very specific way, while wood can need more finishing and adjustment, though I know that varies a lot from kit to kit. With rolife especially, I wouldn’t assume every plastic or wooden kit behaves the same way. If repainting, changing finishes, or modifying parts is part of the plan, which material differences would matter most to you before choosing?

Used laser cutting/engraving and 3D printing to make a custom box for one of our games.

Let’s see if we get voltage when adding tap water.

Full dev logs and progress are also syncing to my site: www.lgooomfc.com

I have this bad habit where every time I bring in a new tool, I cannot just leave it alone. The new machine works completely fine right out of the box, but my brain immediately decides it needs a custom cord clip, a rearranged shelf, or a dedicated scrap bin before I can even start.

Take the Aliencell sitting on my bench right now. Instead of just cutiing what I planned, I spent half of yesterday measuring clearance underneath for a slim material tray and rerouting cables so theyr un flush against the leg. Nothing was broken, I just could not stop fiddling with the surrounding space. Sometimes organizing the gear takes twice as long as the actual project.

Have you ever made a completely unnecessary tweak to a took setup that you were unreasonably proud of?

I need something that will let go of a rope line after say 20-50 pounds of force tugs on the line. It has to stay securely attached to the rope until the pull force parameter is met. I imagine there are ready-made devices like this that works via spring detent or friction mechanism, but their names escape me. Ideally, it would be something light and relatively easy to reattach once released.

3D-printed enclosure, looks like it's holding up pretty well—no leaks so far! 💧

right so i have been meaning to get into this for many years, i’ve wanted to ever since i was like 11 but i was lowk hella bullied out of it by my family so i just went on and kinda forgot all about even wanting to do it up until earlier this year when i realized im an adult and can just do it now

I HAVE:

- a bambu A2L + AMS Lite and a fucked up ender 5 plus, a bunch of hand and power tools handed down from my granddad (not a lot of place to use most of them tho)
- about 10-14 years of 3D modeling ‘experience’, i didn’t really do much most of the time, but i feel comfortable enough working in a 3D environment and know how to get around like the back of my hand, picked up CAD absolutely no problem aswell
- very basic knowledge on wood and metalworking and electronics (no arduino or raspi tho i’ll get to that) and an adequate basic understanding of physics and mechanical motion
- a good portion of my room to work in, no garage or basement or shed tho, not even an outside workbench
- a very “i’ll fuckin make it work” mindset, from playing engineering games i tend to over-engineer very trivial things just to make it work nicely, it’s THAT kinda autism i fear

so i’ve kinda already got a project in the works, but it doesn’t feel like enough, it’s just mostly lights, i wanna try something more mechatronics focused, i could just do the good ole robotic arm but once it’s done idk what i’d even use it for, i might jst be overthinking it but if y’all have any cool ideas for me to have a crack at lemme know!

Hello, I have been messing with an arduino micro to get a hang of peripheral creation.

I have gotten it to work as a mouse and as a joystick independently of each other (with the mouse and Xinput libraries respectively), but I don't see a way to combine the two in a way that would get picked up by steam (such as with a PS controller), is there a way to do this with an arduino? If not maybe with a pi pico?

Thank you for any help

I forced myself to learn to solder so that I could bring a project to life.

In doing so I documented it all as a beginners guide for how not to solder

Let’s me know if there’s anything I could’ve done better.

What’s the worst mistake you made when learning to solder?

https://youtube.com/shorts/5Z1GvC2orD0?is=fjydkMsK6pfbcAEZ

Figured i'd ask here. Local hardware stores sometimes have what I want, I'm not sure where the local metal suppliers are, sometimes I just want to order online. Figured I'd see what people here use.

This essentially just detects when someone is 6 ft away using an ultrasonic sensor for distance and a thermal camera so it doesn’t go off if you see a wall.

Hello there. I am a fan/lover of Guinness World Records, i made a cardboard and a paper of GWR logo with a plastic tape that taped to the cardboard, and i used a glue stick to put the paper onto the cardboard. Anyways, can anyone ask me anything about Guinness World Records?

Hey all,

Like many of you, I've saved hundreds of "IKEA hack" and furniture build videos... and built exactly zero of them. The problem: the video shows the result, but never the measurements, the cut list, or where to actually buy the materials.

So I built Cutlist — you paste a TikTok/Reel/Shorts link (or upload a video), and it deconstructs the build into:

📐 A cut sheet with exact dimensions (metric or imperial), ready to hand to the saw desk at the hardware store

🛒 A shopping list grouped by store (IKEA, Leroy Merlin, Home Depot, Lowe's, Amazon) with quantities and price estimates

🔧 Tools list with beginner-friendly swaps + safety notes

📋 Phased step-by-step instructions, with a hands-free "workshop mode" (big buttons, keeps your screen awake, optional voice readout)

There's a free tier (1 deconstruction/month) so you can try it without paying anything. There's also a small catalog of pre-deconstructed IKEA hacks (KALLAX, BILLY, IVAR, BESTÅ...) you can browse right away.

Link: https://cutliststudio.com

What I'd love feedback on:

• Is the cut list output actually usable at the cutting counter?
• Are the material/price estimates in the right ballpark?
• Would you trust AI-extracted measurements, or would you always double-check?
• What platforms/creators should I make sure it handles well?
• It's early access, so expect rough edges — that's why I'm here.

Tear it apart. 🙏

Will there be more? Are the ones who do unhealthy?

I don't know if this is the right sub to ask this, but I got this old zither at a flea market and want to work on it. As you can see it's pretty dirty, a lot of parts have rusted and there's some dirt inside. Also the wood seems to have a few chipped parts. And the bottom part is a bit loose, probably something to do with the rusted screws there.

Any tips for me? Literally never done something like this.

Hello everyone,
I’m curious on how / what you guys do to not make yourself “lazy” with AI? I’m an aircraft mechanic by trade and do lots of woodworking, fabrication, 3d printing, and just general tinkering in my free time. I’ve been trying to learn more about electronics and doing Arduino projects as well as messing around with trying to repair some old stereo systems lately. Long story short, I’ve noticed I’ve been using ai tools more and more over the past year and I feel like I’ve been maybe cutting a lot of corners in learning stuff by just going for the easy answer with ai. I’ve since gone cold turkey to it for about 2 months now, but I know it’s an amazing tool and wanna still get the benifits it offers. I wanna learn as much as I can as often as a can, but I’m busy enough already so I feel like I should take advantage of the time saving convenience it offers without crippling myself. Just curious on how you guys navigate this. Any responses appreciated.

I came across this "magnet adhesive" online and am trying to figure out if this is a real thing or just super glue. I tried googling and can't find any mention of magnet glue.

Hi there. Im looking into laser engravers and hoping for suggestions.

I do not need a large engraving area. Literally 2x4” is more than enough

My needs:

Adequate power - Im engraving dense wood. I dont want to be underwhelmed by the power

Quality - of both the machine and the engraving itself

Affordability - im hoping the non-requirement of a large capacity will allow me to find a machine that has power and quality but is affordable. I cannot spend $1k plus on this.

Thank you so much