Member's Forum - Recent Threads

Hello everyone!

LukaDev — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:25:48 GMT

I'm Luka, a old student from Germany with a passion for electronics, PCB design, embedded systems, FPGA development, bug bounty (e.g. 2025 Revolut first place in leaderboard) and open-source hardware .

Together with Marco, I'm currently building an open-source desktop CT scanner from scratch. It features a custom Rockchip + Kintex-7 FPGA mainboard, custom X-ray electronics, and a fully custom mechanical design.

Besides that, we also enjoy designing custom PCBs, embedded hardware, and other open-source electronics projects like e.g. this usb-c multi bus ft4232h adapter we made in 3 hours :

Just wanted to introduce myself here

Introduction

Mukku795 — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 05:35:47 GMT

Hi everyone! My name is Mukesh, and I am an Electronics R&D Engineer. I work on designing and developing embedded systems, analog and digital electronics, medical devices, automotive electronics, and IoT-based solutions. My work involves everything from circuit design and PCB development to firmware programming, testing, and hardware debugging.

What brought me here is my passion for electronics and continuous learning. I enjoy building innovative hardware prototypes, exploring new technologies, and solving challenging engineering problems. I'm currently working on projects involving biomedical signal acquisition, EV electronics, embedded systems, and smart devices, and I'm always looking for better design approaches and ideas.

I'm excited to learn from this community, share my projects and experiences, and hopefully contribute to discussions that help others as well. Looking forward to connecting with you all!

Hello and Intro

nimion_art — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:20:55 GMT

Hi everyone! My name is Charlie and I am an Aerospace Engineer. For work, I do research in the field of aero/hydroacoustics.

What brought me here is my interest in electronics. As a personal project, I have built and programmed a vertical pen plotter from scratch, and I make artwork with it (check out nimion_art on instagram).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Charlie (@nimion_art)

I am planning to submit a post to the Show and Tell competition about it, and I have some other ideas that I hope to share in the near future. I look forward to learning from you all!

How do you find what you're looking for on the element14 Community?

cstanton — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:34:50 GMT

Once upon a time, using Google was frankly the easiest way to find what you wanted on the Community, but since we changed platforms, I'm wondering how much you may use the search box at the top?

So..

[Please visit the site to access the poll]

Bonus question, for clicking through to comment:

[Please visit the site to access the poll]

I need help on designing a handheld storage based on micro SD Card + QSPI interface + Wi-Fi data transfer

HKPhysicist — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 16:39:21 GMT

Hello Fellow Engineers and Experts,

I want to design a device to replace the super expensive iCloud or Gcloud digital monopoly. So you can download your beloved digital contents from your phone any time through Wi-Fi. Then, stack them up one by one infinitely under your desk.

It is my basic components:

micro SD Card
SQPI interface and controller
a MCU with SQPI peripheral, with SoC Wi-Fi
a built-in Li+ battery
Li+ charger chip
any more
There are already many USB storages for this purpose. So this method will not be my goal.

Please share your opinions. Perhaps, we can work together. 😉

Contacting the element14 Community Team

cstanton — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 01:33:13 GMT

Hey everyone,

As we're all swelteringly aware, it's the summer time, and during this period (and frankly, it could happen any time of the year) members of the e14 Community team may take time off work, where possible we let you know - but sometimes things get in the way and we're unable to let you know.

Well, to let you know, if you're trying to get in touch with a member of the team and you're not getting a response, you can either message me directly, or you can post in Feedback and Support by clicking on the "Report a Problem" button.

Now, a little trick, if you don't want your post to be public, then "Report a Problem" while you're not logged in, your message will be tucked away into an area where only the Community staff can see it, and provided you fill out your details correctly, we can reach out to you directly or get back to you.

This's also a good way to recover your account should anything be preventing you from accessing it, or if you want to report something in confidence to the team as a whole (including our development team).

A few of you may have questions about shipping of kit, updates on design challenges, or similar and you may usually reach out to the person running those (JoRatcliffe for Project14, Webinars and Design Challenges, OwainM for RoadTests, Essentials, Quizzes and eBooks, e14phil for element14 presents, soon e14Liz for shipping and some other fun things planned, and me for mostly everything else) but reaching out to Feedback and Support is always the option that will get you an answer (okay there are a few cases where you might not - I won't go into detail here but they're typically relating to account status, and as a reminder Reporting a Problem is for Community matters).

Thanks ya'all, stay frosty.

P.S. if we could, we'd have an 'out of office' option, but this is the next best thing.

a very basic duophonic synth 64 step sequencer

Knighthawk_140 — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:40:53 GMT

Boredom hit again, so last weekend i knocked up this, a basic duophonic synth 64 step sequencer

Built on the fly no diagrams, just used data sheets for IC pin locations.

It really is mad what one can do when boredom hits.

Duophonic playing two note's/Voices at same time.

one up from Monophonic = playing single note/voice

and not Polyphonic = playing three or more note's/Voices at same time

STM32F407, programmed within the Arduino IDE,

with 2 Sinple R-2R ladder DAC's, using 8bit shift register,

8x8 led matrix module,

tm1638 7seq display with 8 buttons

128x64 lcd.

Rotary encoder switch

My two basic 8bit DAC sound card's

My taty build

and here is a silly demo, of the old skool 8bit sounds, running through a 64 step sequence

youtube.com/.../WqYtZ8YPPl0

Hello

Em0ke — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:22:44 GMT

Hi,Hello everybody, this is Emoke, engineer in electronics and electricity. I hope to learn with you and spend good time

Element 14 top response to my AI query!

SensoredHacker0 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 17:10:34 GMT

LoL its my post too.

Resisted the AI trend for weeks. Lasted longer than expected.

e14AndreeaT — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 14:40:08 GMT

After years of marketing, community programs, strategy decks, and approximately 47,000 meetings, I've finally achieved my ultimate form: Action Figure.

Features:

Professional poker face. Internal panic sold separately.
Unlimited meeting capacity
Delegates before anyone realizes they volunteered
Contains more ideas than the team has capacity for

Warning: Figure may spontaneously create roadmaps, campaign plans, and PowerPoint presentations.

*Disclaimer: content partially created with AI 😏

Asking community members to create an action figure might be a bit too much work, but I would love to hear about your super powers 😀

New element14 Team Member - Hello!

e14Liz — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:01:20 GMT

Hi all!

I wanted to introduce myself, I'm Liz, I'm a new Team Member for the element14 Community team. For those of you that knew Alice I'm taking over for her and handling a lot of the logistical parts of challenges, programs and more.

I look forward to working with you all and getting to know you (❁´◡`❁)

Have a wonderful day!

Seeking someone to do some PCB soldering for me!

BlueJuice — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:04:58 GMT

Hi all,

Hopefully this is the right place to ask this.

I've got a small project on the go thats going to require a bit of soldering, initially it was going to be just removing some existing antennas from two wifi adaptors and soldering on a 10cm length of coax with SMA connectors on the end (to allow me to mount wifi adaptors within an enclosure with external antennas.

Basically removing the white wires seen above and replacing with coax.

However I'm now thinking id like to remove the USB A from these adaptors, solder the usb cable straight onto the board to keep thinks much smaller, and then solder the other end of the USB cables onto a small powered USB hub (again with the USB A connectors removed to keep things small).

Plan was to get all the kit and do the soldering myself but to be honest theres a good chance i'll have a disaster and im not too sure how much soldering im likely to do in the future, so maybe best that I get someone who knows what they are doing on the case!

If there's anyone on here that can do this kind of stuff, I'd love to have a chat, willing to pay for the service.

New member from France

JL85FR — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 09:00:58 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm new in the community, retired from electronic and software development company, and will have now more time to design usefull devices arround microcontrollers.

currently I'm working with ESP32, Attiny (just starting), and will soon share some projects on Github, and try to help here if I can.

My domains of interest are automation, home automation devices and applications (homeassistant), PLC (openplc), can bus projects (hapcan), and others

I design necessary PCBs, firmwares and softwares.

Student Asking a free raspberry pi to the community

Kritish — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 09:14:41 GMT

Hello everyone i am Kritish a 3rd yr electrical undergrad student making 100 days 100 iot projects with micropython, it has been featured in Micropython official meetup and Adafruit's official newsletter
I know that it is an inappropriate way to asking for a raspberry pi, sorry for that , but i have no such money to buy a raspberry pi
i am based on india , odisha
here are my works
https://github.com/kritishmohapatra/100 ... T_Projects
https://github.com/kritishmohapatra/micropidash

Shipping out of Prizes - Different delays!

cstanton — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:40:50 GMT

Hey everyone,

If you're waiting on equipment for a design challenge, or a prize to be received, we're presently navigating delays introduced by recent EU legislation and requirements.

We're working with the online stores to resolve this, in the mean time your items will be shipped out from our offices rather than our warehouse, we also have a new member of the element14 Community team who'll be helping out with shipments.

Anyone who was around last year, will know we had problems in March that we overcame with our courier ( Shipping of prizes and parts to Community members - New Processes and Shipping of prizes and parts to Community members and the trials and tribulations of the team ), and in the favour of transparency and being direct, you're all receiving this further update. Fortunately, it's not really issues with the courier.

I'll also use this update as an opportunity to remind you:

- Do not pay any customs or import charges, we do as we send all items Delivery Duty Paid

- If you receive any invoices or other issues with the courier, first reach out to the courier to remind them to read it's Delivery Duty Paid, else reach out to myself or Report a Problem in Feedback and Support .

Thanks for being great members!

Sonam Wangchuk a Indian innovator, educationist and environmentalist is on hunger strike.

embeddedguy — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 08:16:07 GMT

Sonam Wangchuk - A well-known scientist, education activist and environmentalist is on hunger strike for reforms in education system in India.

Following a several paper leaks and issues with education system in India. Sonam has announced that he will be on infinite hunger strike until the resign of the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan of India. Today he is on 18th day of his hunger strike.!

Sonam has invented several things including prototypes for tents to keep them hot in remote cold regions of Ladakh.

Here is a glimpse of the awards that he has won.

Ramon Magsaysay Award (2018): Often called Asia’s Nobel Prize, awarded for his community-driven reform of learning systems
Rolex Award for Enterprise (2016): Recognized specifically for the Ice Stupa project, which addresses water scarcity in Ladakh
Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (2017): Honored for designing the eco-friendly SECMOL campus
Eminent Technologist of the Himalayan Region by IIT Mandi (2018): Acknowledging his technological contributions in the Himalayan context
Santokbaa Humanitarian Award (2023): Includes a cash prize of Rs. 1 crore, awarded for his humanitarian and sustainable development effort

Who's in the UK and has caved in and bought air conditioning?

stanto — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 21:21:41 GMT

I picked up something like this about three years ago. No regrets.

Though I can't help but feel like I'm also adding to the climate problem.

Could you recommend a beginner project for soldering practice or similar?

ezain — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 05:28:03 GMT

dear engineers

Hello I am a student interested in electronics, about aa year ago i decided to boost my interest by learning from youtube e.t.c . but since I have no friends ,neighbours or family that take my interests I never found someone to interact with. Now i finally found element 14 , although I know there are mostly engineers but I hope I might have a good time here.

So can any of you recommend a beginner project cause I am really trying to master soldering (although I have learned more )

Thankyou for your time

good day from hawaii....

tiko50 — Tue, 26 May 2026 20:15:59 GMT

my bio in programming and development embedded goes back to 1980 and interrupted by several careers in the interim all through I have made my own circuit cards with copper clad board a z80 and a 68000 if you can believe ..

Would AI be useful on the element14 Community?

Alanta Lee — Tue, 26 May 2026 09:31:12 GMT

We’re exploring whether AI could be useful on the element14 Community, and we’d love to hear what members think.

This is early thinking. We’re not looking at using AI to replace the Community, replace member generated content, or take away from the conversations that happen here. The value of the Community comes from real people sharing real experience, projects, reviews, questions and advice.

Instead, we’re interested in whether AI could support members in practical ways, particularly around finding, improving or understanding existing content.

For example, AI could potentially help with things like:

Finding relevant forum posts, projects, RoadTests, documentation or product information
Suggesting clearer titles for forum posts, blogs or projects so they are easier for others to find
Helping members structure a RoadTest Review and make sure they have covered the key points
Translating Community content
Suggesting related content, resources or next steps
Helping newer members ask clearer questions
Explaining technical concepts or terminology
Highlighting useful answers or discussions from across the Community

[Please visit the site to access the poll]

I’ll be honest, I’m not completely sold on AI being added everywhere just for the sake of it. A lot of companies seem to be putting AI into every platform and product at the moment, and sometimes it’s genuinely useful, but other times it can feel a bit unnecessary or forced. That’s why I’m really interested to hear what people here think. If AI was ever used on the element14 Community, I’d want it to actually help members with real things, not get in the way of the conversations, projects and advice that make the Community valuable in the first place, and not necessarily be used to generate new content outright.

A few questions to kick off:

Where do you think AI could genuinely help on the Community?
What tasks or moments feel frustrating today that AI might improve?
Are there any AI features you would actively avoid or distrust?
Would you use AI to help find answers from existing discussions, projects or documentation?
Are there any examples from other sites or tools where AI has worked well, or badly, for you?

Introduction

Aman_Sunesh — Tue, 26 May 2026 01:03:11 GMT

Hi everyone,

My name is Aman Sunesh. I am a Computer Engineering senior at New York University Abu Dhabi, currently based in New York while studying and conducting research at NYU Tandon. My interests are in embedded systems, robotics, signal processing, instrumentation, edge AI, and Python-based engineering workflows. I have worked on projects involving autonomous navigation, robot vision, microcontroller-based systems, quantum sensing instrumentation, time-series modeling, and full-stack scientific tools.

I recently joined element14 because I am interested in learning from the community, reading RoadTest reviews, and contributing my own project logs and reviews when possible. I am especially excited to connect with people working on embedded systems, robotics, instrumentation, and software-defined hardware platforms.

Looking forward to learning from everyone here and hopefully sharing some useful builds, experiments, and reviews.

Introduction

Qbit — Thu, 21 May 2026 10:31:49 GMT

Hey everyone! I am electronic enthusiast , with 5+ years of knowledgeable in embedded systems , communications protocol like SPI , I2C . And have made 100+ projects since I started this journey.

Top Tech Voices Podcast S2 E6: Smart Cities & Urban Tech

JoRatcliffe — Tue, 19 May 2026 17:46:30 GMT

It is time for the final episode of Top Tech Voices Season 2 and we are ending on a high with engineer and architect Carlo Ratti as the guest.

Tune in for an episode covering:

Why Carlo finds waste management fascinating
How technology is making Venice more resilient to climate change
Creating cyber-physical systems where real-time data triggers physical responses across a city

Click the banner below to watch the podcast video or listen on your favorite platform.

Or you can watch straight away here:

www.youtube.com/watch
Leave a comment and be in the running to win a prize!

All you have to do is the following:

1. You have to either Register or Login
2. Leave a comment or reply below!

Comments should include constructive discussion on the episode's topics (for example, making cities more adaptable with technology, designing cities with multiple generations of people in mind, future-proofing against climate change), or useful feedback that helps improve future podcasts.

Separate to the contest, I am also interested to know how you like to watch Top Tech Voices. Do you listen while you work or do you watch it on your TV? Let me know!

The Community team will select the best 5 comments to each win an Arduino Uno Q 4GB!

Learn More

Terms and Conditions

community.element14.com/.../Episode-6-Top-Tech-Voices-Podcast-19th-May-_2D00_-Terms-_2600_-Conditions.pdf

The Winners

Are you using AI?

Alanta Lee — Tue, 19 May 2026 12:59:32 GMT

Hi everyone,

This is the first time i've ventured out of my 'Research Opportunities' area so, hello 👋

I'm curious to hear how people in the element14 community are using AI tools in everyday life, whether that’s at work, at home, while learning, or just experimenting.

A few prompts to get things going:

What do you mainly use AI for?
Has AI changed how you work or solve problems?
What do you find most useful about AI?
What still feels frustrating, risky, or unclear?
Are there any AI tools or use cases you think are especially useful?

Feel free to answer one question or all of them!

Thanks!

[Please visit the site to access the poll]

What is your favorite road test on element14?

dougw — Fri, 15 May 2026 18:35:56 GMT

What is your favorite road test on element14? Either one you did or one someone else did.

Or what road test would you most like to see on this forum?

You can find all the road test blogs here:

(+) RoadTest Reviews - element14 Community

This link shows how many views and likes each review received. It can be a bit misleading if the review blog is a summary of a series of other blogs that each had separate views and likes.

One of my motives for asking this question is to discover if I missed any great road tests, so be sure to include a link.