iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 04/08/2026

Pink, cyan, white. I should have used cool white instead of warm white, I'll do that on the next one. Please let me know if you find a source of pink 0402 LEDs, because I could only find 0603s.

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 04/08/2026

I missed my monthly "don't buy a resin printer" meeting with @jumperless.org because I was hand-soldering a 3×2mm WS2811 IC to a flex PCB. If you want a Neopixel with colors other than RGB, turns out you can just make your own by having a long enough manic episode.

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Kevin Santo Cappuccio @jumperless.org · 03/08/2026

@settinger.net missed his monthly appointment to tell me not to buy a resin printer so I did. These things friggin' rule (for the kinds of things I tend to make) But I also see why the washing and curing stuff is such a big deal, my tupperware full of vodka and 3 UV flashlights aren't gonna cut it.

Messy desk with 3 uv flashlights and a tupperware of vodka

The spring clips fit (they will have 6 holes though)

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 03/08/2026

I take full responsibility for this bad decision you've made.

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 25/06/2026

"but the Expo and Blue lines—" Sssssh. Don't look at the old maps, just listen to your heart. You know it's the Gold Line. There's no Golder Line.

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 25/06/2026

Petition to give the LA Metro A Line a secondary name, the "Jonathan Gold Memorial Line," so we can all go back to calling it the Gold Line and end this song-and-dance where I have to suss out how long you've lived in LA before I know which name to use around you

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Emily @mle.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

This has been a quixotic quest for no reason other than to see if i could do it, but I did do it: I've created a ceramic circuit board with copper traces that I can solder components to. Here's a little astable multivibrator circuit running on stoneware.

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Jason Coon @evilgeniuslabs.org · 30/04/2026

RP3A0-AU: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W SiP - now with bottom pads! Thanks to @settinger.net for sharing and making this the 154th macrochip design! See them all here: www.evilgeniuslabs.org/macrochips

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 28/04/2026

I made a box to keep my lead-tin solder isolated from the other gear in my traveling electronics kit, and uh,

A small white box with heavy-duty-looking latches and text that reads "PROP 65 WARNING WARNING: this product contains lead, which is known to the state of California to cause Prop 65 Warnings"

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 15/03/2026

I'm four line into the song and already thinking "this would sound so much better in Stanard's warble"

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Kester (Space Buck) @spacebuck.net · 19/01/2026

MUST SEE: DOG stuns entire tavern by OPENING ONE UP in FLAWLESS SUMERIAN

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Timon @timonsku.zip · 24/12/2025

Updates from the Cool factory

a soldering iron on a vertical linear rail, a Cool-S placed underneath to press in a threaded insert

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Timon @timonsku.zip · 22/12/2025

#39C3 is about to be very.. Cool

A Cool-S illuminated by LEDs in the white portions in one half pink and one half blue. It is worn around the neck with a golden necklace.

A white PCB in the shape of the Cool-S. It has a string of SMD LEDs following the shape of the S on the middle portion.
On each flat side sits a right angle button.

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 23/12/2025

TIMON I'm completely serious, we can overnight this to you, though you may have to provide your own chain to hang it on 😅 Also, I nearly fell out of my chair when you showed up in the Any Austin Skyrim tree video!! You were way more of a surprise guest than the "real" surprise guest!

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 06/12/2025

My LIR311s just arrived! Let's figure out that jumperless test rig soon

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 17/11/2025

Ok but seriously, what am I going to do with a nearly 4-foot-tall (114 cm) Cool S, I've run out of wall space for such a thing. Do I let it into the blank wall space I keep for professional video calls? Do I mount it on the ceiling over my bed??

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 17/11/2025

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OSHWA @oshwassociation.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

We are officially seeking applications for TALKS, WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS, ART and PERFORMANCES for OHS2026 May 23rd and 24th at TU Berlin! Submit yours today: forms.gle/kDGTVqfVAZXm... Applications due December 21st!

Promo pic of ohs2025 with text calling for submissions for ohs2026 on top
Open hardware summit
May 23-24 2026 Berlin Germany
Submit your talk, workshop, exhibition, artwork or performance!
Deadline: December 21, 2025

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 13/11/2025

I caved and moved my nice Hakko again onto my living room floor where the Cool S is happening. Back in business. These angle connectors are great!

A photo of a connector PCB joining two strips cleanly at a 135° angle

A photo of a connector PCB joining two strips cleanly at a 120° angle

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 12/11/2025

The USB-C port snapped on my TS80P soldering iron I am crying a lil, this is the only iron I had during lockdown and it has seen me through so, so many jobs since then

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 12/11/2025

I remember these being easier to lay out in elementary school 😅 Anyway, good thing I didn't solder any more joints because I realize now I should have the data flowing in the opposite direction. Got to reverse all the strips now.

A poster board with a meter-long cool S marked out with blue tape and addressable LED strips

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 11/11/2025

Oops, I gave my strips a pitch of 2.54mm and these LED strips are 3mm pitch. It's manageable, but I need a quick way to adjust that in the KiCad model. Reminding myself to quadruple-check the polarity of these strips before turning on the iron.....

One 90° connector PCB soldered cleanly to two LED strips

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 11/11/2025

This project brought to you by the Hakko B2300 Heat Resistant Pad I love you, Hakko B2300 Heat Resistant Pad

One end of an LED strip and a 90° corner bracket on a Hakko B2300 Heat Resistant Pad

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 11/11/2025

Putting on a hard hat and steel toed boots, consulting the cyanotype blueprints for this elaborate construction project

A hand holding a printed out diagram of the Cool S shape, with distances and angles dimensioned. It is not a cyanotype blueprint despite what the post says.

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 11/11/2025

....oh right, I completely forgot about these until someone asked me about them at Supercon and then a lot of people asked for a set.

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Digital Naturalism Laboratories @dinalab.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

I wrote a little comic about #opensource hardware and serviceberry foraging! I'll post all the panels here, but you can also read the whole thing on @archive.org : dinalab.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?...

title card saying sharing berries and tools. creating gift economies with inspiration from open source movements and Robin Wall Kimmerer

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Carrie (prev of Alpenglow) @alpenglow.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Honeycomb pattern, one of the preloaded ones on a Pixelblaze LED controller by electromage @bhencke.bsky.social

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Carrie (prev of Alpenglow) @alpenglow.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

I made a really cool LED wall project for my house last week - spruced up an ugly black fireplace with 1035 LEDs and a Pixelblaze LED controller. Check out the full story and project progress on mastodon: mstdn.social/@alpenglow/1...

mstdn.social

Alpenglow Industries (Carrie) (@alpenglow@mstdn.social)

Attached: 1 image Got an ugly-ass nonfunctional fireplace that someone painted black? I’ve got the solution! I’ve had the parts and custom flex boards for a while for this and just no time. Tonigh...

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 08/09/2025

You can tear them at angles of 90°, 60°, 45°, 30°, 22.5°, 15°, or combinations thereof. (....ignore the Jokerman silkscreen, it's fine don't worry about it)

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 08/09/2025

A silly idea that turned out well! Most flex PCBs are cut by laser, not milled, so you can make perforations by adding incomplete edge cuts. These disks are for cleanly joining LED strips at different angles and different radii, and they break apart with just my fingers, no other tools.

A flex PCB with concentric copper rings and perforations so it can be torn into smaller arcs and wedges.

The same flex PCB with one quarter of it torn out and turned into three curved connector pieces of different radii. The remaining board has a silkscreen that says "Do it [...] coward" in Jokerman font.

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Kevin Santo Cappuccio @jumperless.org · 07/07/2025

I made this specifically for @settinger.net but felt I couldn't deprive the rest of the internet of this nonsense.

The one scene from Say Anything anyone would recognize, but with long arms. Imagine he's playing Longarm by Wall of Voodoo

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 26/02/2025

Taking a break here. One of the black-red-purple convex hexagons and one of the burnt-white concave hexagons had to be filed down a wee bit before I could slot them in. I love the 5' continuous glue stick 🎵

The canvas from the previous post, now fully tiled on the top half. A hot glue gun is lying on the empty bottom half. A 5-foot-long continuous coil of hot glue stick is spooling out the back of the glue gun.

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 26/02/2025

I'm so glad I'm not the only one!

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 26/02/2025

I have enough pieces to fill an 11×14" shadowbox now. It's all coming together 😁 I'm still a bit worried about fit and precision (or lack thereof) on these tiles, but gosh they fit nicely so far. Need to get more hot glue though.... So that's *two* things I had to buy in order to complete this.

A stretched canvas with some of the homemade melted plastic zellij tiles nestled in place, starting at the center and progressing to the top left.

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ℂlaire 𝔻anielle ℂassidy⚡🔌⚒️👩🏻‍💻♾️🏳️‍🌈 @lasermistress.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

"A small Guide to starting Community (and Mutual Aid.)" I'm no specific expert for you and the people around you but I've been dedicated to this for quite a while and I write about it. Everything I put in Patreon is open, free, always, and a stable link to share. www.patreon.com/posts/small-...

patreon.com

A small Guide to starting Community (and Mutual Aid.) | Claire Danielle Cassidy

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 24/02/2025

Here I'm re-melting a failed shirt button from my previous "what can I melt all this scrap PLA into" project. I'm "baking" each tile multiple times to make sure every corner of the moulds get filled in. If I did this again, I'd make another piece to help with that step.

A hand holding a brick-red rubber mould filled with irregular chunks of plastic, one of which looks like a grey shirt button.

A photo of the same mould after all the pieces have been melted and fused together.

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 21/02/2025

E Z Bake but the Z stands for "zellij"

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 21/02/2025

Yes!! That's what I've been imagining if I made a more dedicated device for this process!

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 21/02/2025

It's one of these deathtraps, on a timer switch so I can't forget to turn it off: a.aliexpress.com/_m09dqcb I put it in between two pie tins to keep more of the heat in. It's not the best, but one of the goals here was to do a project and *not* buy more things to complete it!

a.aliexpress.com

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 21/02/2025

I will send a photo of my setup after I've tidied up my balcony 😅 I'm using one of those "desoldering hot plates" that's just a PTC Thermistor plugged into mains. It gets up to around 220°C which is enough to slump-cast the scraps, though I have to coax it into the corners of the molds.

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 20/02/2025

The pattern is adapted from this one at the Bouanania Madrasa in Meknes, Morocco: patterninislamicart.com/single-id/1468 More details about the geometry here: tilingsearch.mit.edu/HTML/data173...

A computer graphic of the tiling pattern in question, with certain shapes highlighted in green or blue to add contrast and definition.

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Sam Ettinger @settinger.net · 20/02/2025

I made some high-temp silicone molds out of Mold Max 60 and have begun casting Moroccan-style zellij tiles out of my years of accumulated PLA scrap. They are very fun to play with.

A photo of a hand holding two brick-red rubber molds, about 5mm deep and 40mm across, in two geometric shapes common to Moroccan zellij tiles. In the background are more rubber molds, still encased in the black plastic forms that they were poured in.

A photo of a canvas board partly covered in zellij tiles. The 8-pointed star pieces are solid blue or solid orange color, and the rest of the tiles are messy tie-dye colors. More tiles sit on a piece of paper next to the canvas, waiting to be placed.

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Janet Hansen @flashingjanet.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Another pillow demo, running different patterns (there are 20 options), with different music. This was part of the #makergiftexchange that I did with some friends, and the first sample is shipping out today to @geekmomprojects.com

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Janet Hansen @flashingjanet.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

The stickers have arrived, thank you! #makergiftexchange They're even more shimmery in person - I look forward to using them to encourage people to "do it, coward!" (including myself)

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