How I Made a Clock out of Parts of Old Projects

One side effect of ordering PCBs from a professional fab house is that you always get more PCBs than you actually need. For example, when you place an order for a PCB prototype at PCBWay, you get at least 10 copies of the PCB, sometimes even more. In most cases, …

USB Mini-B Socket – USB Type-A Plug Conversion on a USB-TTL Adapter

Introduction Earlier today I needed an extra of those USB-to-TTL-Serial adapters for a project I am currently working on. Among my spare parts I found an old one, based on the PL-2303HX chip, but when I attached it to my Windows 11 PC, it didn’t seem to work. I remember, …

Giving New Life to LCD Screens from Old Laptops, TVs, Monitors, etc.

Introduction Over the years I have collected quite a few laptops (among many other things…). I usually pick them up when my friends and relatives get a new laptop and they throw away the old ones. Most of these laptops are not working and/or very old (i.e. around 15 years …