Gravity batteries aren’t exactly a new idea. You can store energy by lifting something heavy, converting kinetic energy into potential energy. To get it back, you let the mass fall …read more (https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/power-from-gravity/)

Figuring Out What James Webb’s Mysterious Little Red Dots Are
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/figuring-out-what-james-webbs-mysterious-little-red-dots-are/

After the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began operations in 2022, it soon made a tantalizing discovery in the form of mysterious red dots: small, red-tinted astronomical objects of unknown …read more (https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/figuring-out-what-james-webbs-mysterious-little-red-dots-are/)

Remember When Flash Drives Were Going To Make Your PC Faster?
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/remember-when-flash-drives-were-going-to-make-your-pc-faster/

The 2000s was a decade of great change in the computer industry. The world had grown accustomed to corruptible floppy disks, blue screens of death, and achingly slow load times. …read more (https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/remember-when-flash-drives-were-going-to-make-your-pc-faster/)

A ZInc Air Battery You Can Make Yourself
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/a-zinc-air-battery-you-can-make-yourself/

Zinc air batteries have been a familiar sight for decades in the world of photography, where they provided an environmentally less dangerous alternative to mercury cells. They operate by the …read more (https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/a-zinc-air-battery-you-can-make-yourself/)

Linux Fu: The Bluetooth Regression
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/linux-fu-the-bluetooth-regression/

There’s a line in a [Weird Al] (no relation) song that says, “I upgrade my system at least twice a day…” I know how that is. I primarily use a …read more (https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/linux-fu-the-bluetooth-regression/)

Tiny C64 PSU Rejects Tradition, Embraces USB
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/tiny-c64-psu-rejects-tradition-embraces-usb/

The Commodore 64 has, by modern standards, the interesting power requirement of needing both 5 VDC and 9 VAC. Traditionally, one would use an iron-core transformer to step-down the wall …read more (https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/tiny-c64-psu-rejects-tradition-embraces-usb/)

Honeywell X2S Smart Thermostat Firmware Reverse-Engineering
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/honeywell-x2s-smart-thermostat-firmware-reverse-engineering/

The Honeywell X2S Smart Thermostat is a Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat that is meant to integrate with your typical ‘smart home’ setup, with mobile app control available as well. Of course, just …read more (https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/honeywell-x2s-smart-thermostat-firmware-reverse-engineering/)

Drawing Videos On An Etch-a-Sketch
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/drawing-videos-on-an-etch-a-sketch/

We’ve covered etch-a-sketch robots before, but usually they’re not quite as fast as [Every Flavor of Robot]’s “video” etch-a-sketch, capable of drawing a full portrait in as little as a …read more (https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/drawing-videos-on-an-etch-a-sketch/)