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For a generation of electronics enthusiasts there is one name on a book that would make it a must-have: Forrest M. Mims. Forrest's Getting Started in Electronics deserves a spot on any maker's shelf, and the Engineer's Notebook series is often found right next to it. We're not alone in our appreciation for Forrest's work, by any means, and fellow Forrest fan Star Simpson has come up with a great tribute: physical incarnations of his hand-drawn circuit designs, complete with notes. Dubbed Circuit Classics, Star's project takes Forrest's hand-drawn schematics and transfers them onto physical circuit boards next to a...

The lovely people at Arduino.cc have officially taken the wraps off two new websites aimed at making Arduino-related projects easier and more accessible: the Arduino Project Hub and Arduino Internet of Things (IoT), both off-shoots of the in-progress create.arduino.cc site. Unveiled during Arduino Day 2016 this weekend, the Arduino Project Hub is designed to make it easy to share your Arduino-powered projects and browse others' creations. Powered by the Hackster.io platform, the site provides an official source of inspiration and community contribution and despite having only just launched is already going strong: projects listed on the site include a smart...

For the overwhelming majority of makers, the creation of a one-off device designed to solve a need - even if that need is simply entertainment - is enough to keep them happy. For others it can lead to something bigger, as with Matt Kachur's ViVi project which went from breadboarded prototype to commercially viable design in just six months - albeit five years after the original was put together. For anyone interested in making the leap from breadboard to boxed product, it's always good to hear from someone who's been there and done that. James Lewis' Baldengineer site - which...

Home computers and games consoles in the 1980s ran on 8-bit processors with single- or occasionally double-digit megahertz clock speeds; today, even the cheapest of computers and games consoles run upwards of a gigahertz and with 32- or 64-bit processors. 8-bit chips haven't died, though: the majority of Arduino models and their various compatibles and clones still use 8-bit microcontrollers running at 16MHz - and that means they can be used to produce a computing experience not too far removed from the classic systems of the 1980s. This concept is brilliantly illustrated in Chen Liang's latest Instructable: an Arduino-powered hand-held game...

If you're spending this somewhat inclement Easter Monday thinking of project ideas, you could do a lot worse than a Useless Machine. As the name suggests, the machine itself is entirely useless - but the process of building and programming it is anything but, and as YouTube user fritend1's latest example shows it can be an incredibly entertaining time-waster. For the unfamiliar, a Useless Machine is traditionally a mechanical or electromechanical device featuring a single user-operable switch. When thrown, the Useless Machine activates with a singular purpose: to flip the switch back into the off position. Each time the user...