I Put a “Modern” CPU into a 20-Year-Old Motherboard. Here’s the Carnage
The Frankensteinian Mismatch
Just for fun, I wanted to see what would happen if I put a brand new processor into a motherboard from the year 2000. The physical socket was completely different, of course. So, I took my Dremel and carefully, horrifyingly, ground down the edges of the CPU’s package until it physically fit. I then used a series of tiny jumper wires to try and connect the essential power and ground pins. I plugged it in, and the result was a silent, anticlimactic death. No smoke, no fire. Just the quiet, profound incompatibility of two different technological eras.
What Happens if You Run a “PC Underwater” in Mineral Oil?
The Silent, Submerged Computer
I was always fascinated by the idea of a mineral oil-submerged PC. I took an old, working desktop computer and a ten-gallon fish tank. I placed the running motherboard at the bottom and began to slowly pour in gallons of non-conductive mineral oil. It was a surreal experience, watching the oil flow over the spinning fans, which gradually slowed and stopped. The entire PC, completely submerged, continued to run perfectly. It was totally silent and looked like a beautiful, otherworldly piece of science fiction art.
I Tried to “Overclock” a Raspberry Pi Until It Melted
Pushing a Tiny PC to Its Thermal Limits
A Raspberry Pi is a tiny, cheap computer. I wanted to find its absolute breaking point. I installed a temperature monitor and began to “overclock” it, pushing the processor’s clock speed higher and higher in the software. The temperature started to climb. 70°C. 80°C. It was still running. I bypassed the thermal throttle limits. At 95°C, the system crashed. I let it cool and tried again, but this time, a tiny puff of smoke came from the processor. I had pushed it too far and literally melted a part of its silicon brain.
Can You “Power” a Laptop with a Pile of Lemons? Let’s Find Out
The Citric Acid Power Plant
We’ve all seen the elementary school experiment of lighting an LED with a lemon battery. I wanted to take it to the extreme. Could I power a real, albeit old and low-power, laptop? I bought a crate of 50 lemons. I spent an entire afternoon wiring them together in series and parallel with copper and zinc electrodes to produce the required voltage and amperage. After connecting the final lead to the laptop’s power jack, the charging light flickered for a glorious half-second, and then nothing. The answer, for now, is no.
I Built a “Working PC” Using Only Components I Found in a Dumpster
The Phoenix from the E-Waste
I gave myself a challenge: build a functional computer using only parts I could find for free from e-waste dumpsters behind office parks. It took me a month. I found a rusty but solid case. I found a motherboard with a few bent pins, which I carefully straightened. I cobbled together two mismatched sticks of RAM from different finds. The hardest part was finding a working power supply. After assembling my “dumpster dive” PC, I installed a lightweight version of Linux. It booted up. It’s slow and ugly, but it’s a testament to the treasures people throw away.
The “Loudest Possible” PC: A Symphony of Mismatched, High-RPM Fans
The Jet Engine in My Office
While most people strive for a silent PC, I decided to do the opposite. I wanted to build the most obnoxiously loud computer possible. I took an old PC case and filled every available fan slot with the cheapest, highest-RPM server fans I could find on eBay. These fans are designed for industrial data centers and sound like tiny jet engines. I wired them all to a single controller and turned them to maximum. The resulting hurricane-force wind and deafening roar was a glorious, pointless, and hilarious achievement.
I Turned an “Old CRT Monitor” into a Functioning Oscilloscope
The Television That Sees Sound
An oscilloscope, a tool for visualizing electrical signals, is expensive. But an old CRT television is, in essence, a device for steering an electron beam with magnetic fields. I found a schematic online for a simple conversion kit. The project involved bypassing the TV’s normal tuner and video circuits and soldering my own input jacks directly to the wires that control the horizontal and vertical deflection yokes. It’s not a precise instrument, but I can now plug in my guitar and see the beautiful, dancing waveforms of my music on the screen.
What “Really” Happens When You Put a Magnet on a Hard Drive?
The Data Destruction Myth, Busted
The trope in movies is that a simple magnet will instantly wipe a hard drive. I decided to test it. I took an old, working hard drive and a standard refrigerator magnet. I rubbed it all over the outside of the drive. Nothing. The data was fine. I then took a massive, powerful neodymium magnet from a microwave. I stuck it to the case. Still nothing; the metal case provides enough shielding. The only way I could destroy the data was to open the drive and touch the magnet directly to the fragile magnetic platters inside.
I Tried to “Boot” an Old Mac from a Sony PlayStation Memory Card
The Most Incompatible Combination Imaginable
Just for the sheer absurdity of it, I wanted to see if I could force my old PowerPC Mac to boot an operating system from a vintage Sony PlayStation memory card. The project was a nightmare of incompatibility. I had to solder a custom adapter to connect the memory card to the Mac’s IDE bus. I had to write a special, hacked-together bootloader. After a week of work, the Mac powered on, and after a few garbled lines of text, it actually booted into a minimal version of NetBSD. It was completely useless, but a magnificent failure.
The “Franken-Phone”: A Working Smartphone Made from 3 Different Broken Models
The Chimera in My Pocket
I had a drawer with three identical smartphones, each with a different, fatal flaw. Phone A had a good logic board but a shattered screen. Phone B had a good screen but was water damaged. Phone C had a cracked back and a dead battery, but its battery was still good. I spent an afternoon performing a multi-phone organ transplant. I took the logic board from A, the screen from B, and the battery from C, and carefully assembled them all into the best-looking case. The result was a single, fully functional “Franken-phone,” built from the corpses of its brethren.
I Used a “Car Amplifier” to Power a Set of Home Stereo Speakers
The 12-Volt Living Room
I had a powerful, high-quality car audio amplifier but no car to put it in. I wanted to use it to power my home stereo speakers. The challenge was power. A car amp is designed to run on 12-volt DC power. I took an old, high-amperage computer power supply unit, which provides a stable 12-volt rail. I jumped the PSU to turn on and connected its output to the car amplifier’s power terminals. The result was a ridiculously overpowered and surprisingly clean-sounding home audio system.
How Many “LEDs” Can I Power from a Single USB Port Before It Dies?
The Quest for Maximum Bling
A standard USB 2.0 port is only rated to supply 500 milliamps of current. I wanted to see how far I could push it. I started soldering standard LEDs, each of which draws about 20mA, in parallel to a USB cable. 10 LEDs, 20 LEDs—it was still working. At around 25 LEDs (about 500mA), the voltage started to sag. At 30 LEDs, the USB port on my old PC gave up, and the over-current protection kicked in, shutting the port down completely. I had found the limit.
I’m Building a “Robot Arm” Out of Old CD Drive Mechanisms
The E-Waste Automaton
The stepper motor and worm gear mechanism that moves the laser in an old CD or DVD drive is a precise, high-quality linear actuator. I salvaged three of them from a pile of old, broken drives. I’m mounting them at right angles to each other. By controlling these three motors with a simple microcontroller, I can create a small, three-axis robotic arm. It’s a classic “hacker” project that turns worthless e-waste into a functional and educational piece of desktop robotics.
Can an “Old Wi-Fi Router” Get a Signal from a Mile Away with a DIY Antenna?
The Long-Distance Wi-Fi Sniper
I wanted to test the limits of Wi-Fi. I took an old Linksys WRT54G router, famous for its hackability. I then built a large, highly-directional “cantenna” dish for it out of a coffee can and some wire. My friend took a similar setup to a hilltop about a mile away. After some careful aiming, we were able to establish a weak, but functional, point-to-point network link. It proved that with a good antenna, the range of even this old, low-power technology could be pushed to incredible extremes.
I Used the “Haptic Motor” from an Old Phone to Make a “Vibrating” Coffee Mug
The Most Annoying Invention of All Time
I salvaged the tiny, off-balance vibrating motor from an old, broken smartphone. It’s the part that makes the phone buzz. For no good reason at all, I decided to glue this motor to the bottom of a ceramic coffee mug. I wired it to a small battery and a switch. Now, with the press of a button, I have a coffee mug that vibrates violently. It is a completely useless, messy, and pointless invention, and I love it. It’s a perfect example of a “because I can” project.
What’s the “Oldest” CPU That Can Still Run a Modern Version of Linux?
The Geriatric Processor Test
I have a collection of old computer processors. I wanted to find the absolute minimum requirement to run a modern, graphical Linux operating system. I started with a Pentium III from 1999. No luck. Then I tried a Pentium 4 from 2002. After a lot of tweaking and using a very lightweight version of Linux, it actually booted to a functional desktop. It was painfully slow, but it worked. It was a fascinating experiment to find the bare-minimum “entry fee” to the modern computing world.
I’m Trying to “Run Crysis” on a Potato (an Old ThinkPad from 2005)
The Ultimate Benchmark
The video game Crysis, released in 2007, was famous for its incredibly demanding graphics. The old meme is, “But can it run Crysis?” I decided to find out. I took my oldest, weakest laptop, a ThinkPad from 2005. I installed the game, set every single graphical option to the absolute lowest setting, and dropped the resolution to a blurry 640×480. I launched the game. The laptop’s fan screamed, and it produced a slideshow of about 5 frames per second. The answer is: no. But it was a glorious failure.
The “Taser” I Built Out of a Disposable Camera Flash Circuit
The High-Voltage Hack (Safety Warning!)
Disclaimer: This is extremely dangerous. I was fascinated by the flash circuit in an old, disposable camera. It takes a 1.5-volt AA battery and uses a capacitor and a transformer to generate the 300 volts needed to fire the flash. I carefully removed this circuit. I then de-soldered the flash tube and instead soldered two wires to the high-voltage output. The result was a small, simple device that could generate a painful, high-voltage spark. It’s a classic, if highly inadvisable, electronics hacking project.
Can I Use a “Solar Panel” from a Garden Light to Charge My Phone?
The Tiniest Power Plant
The small solar panel on a cheap garden light is tiny, designed only to charge a single, small battery. I was curious if it could charge my smartphone. I wired the panel’s output to a USB cable. I left my phone plugged into it in the direct, bright sun for an entire day. When I came back, my phone’s battery percentage had gone up by a whopping… two percent. The experiment was a failure, but it was a great lesson in the vast difference in power requirements between a single LED and a modern smartphone.
I “Submerged” a Running PC in Non-Conductive Fluid
The Fish Tank of the Future
As a purely aesthetic experiment, I decided to build a PC submerged in liquid. I couldn’t afford real mineral oil, so I used a cheaper alternative: 10 gallons of clear, unscented baby oil. I placed my running PC motherboard in a fish tank and slowly submerged it. The effect was magical. The bubbles cleared, and the silent, submerged computer glowed under the lights. It ran for about a week before the baby oil started to slowly dissolve the insulation on some of the cables, causing a short. It was a beautiful, temporary failure.
The “Jacob’s Ladder” I Built from an Old TV’s Flyback Transformer
The Mad Scientist’s Desk Toy
The “flyback transformer” from an old CRT television is a component designed to generate tens of thousands of volts. I carefully salvaged one and built a high-voltage power supply for it. For the “ladder,” I took two thick copper wires and bent them into a “V” shape. When I powered it on, a beautiful, crackling electrical arc formed at the bottom of the V. The heat from the arc caused it to rise, climbing the ladder until it broke at the top. It’s a classic, dangerous, and mesmerizing “mad scientist” device.
I “Re-Wired” an Old Nintendo Controller to Work as a Garage Door Opener
The Konami Code for My House
I had a spare garage door opener remote. I took it apart and soldered two wires to the main button’s contacts. I then took an old, broken Nintendo (NES) controller and wired those two wires to the “A” button. I mounted the NES controller to the wall in my garage. Now, to open the garage door, I have to press the “A” button on a 30-year-old video game controller. It is a completely pointless but immensely satisfying piece of custom engineering.
What Happens if You “Short” Every Pin on a USB Port?
The Smoke Test
I had a dead motherboard that I was going to recycle. Before I did, I decided to see what would happen if I deliberately shorted out a USB port. I took a piece of wire and bridged the +5 Volt pin directly to the Ground pin on one of the USB ports on the back. I plugged the computer in and powered it on. There was a faint “pop” sound and a tiny puff of smoke from a small chip right next to the USB port. I had blown the port’s over-current protection chip. It was a satisfyingly destructive final experiment.
I’m Trying to “Boot” Windows 10 from a Series of SD Cards in a RAID Array
The World’s Worst, Most Complicated SSD
I wondered if I could build my own, terrible Solid State Drive. I took four cheap, slow SD cards and a USB hub. I used the Windows Storage Spaces feature to combine these four separate cards into a single, “striped” RAID 0 array. In theory, this should be faster than a single card. I then attempted to install and boot Windows 10 from this bizarre, cobbled-together drive. It was an exercise in pure frustration, full of driver issues and crashes, but the challenge was the point.
The “Microwave” Teardown: Let’s Harvest the Weird and Dangerous Parts
The Most Interesting Appliance to Dissect
A microwave oven is a treasure trove of weird and dangerous parts, making it a fun (but risky) teardown. I took one apart, carefully and safely discharging the main capacitor first. I salvaged the powerful high-voltage transformer, the magnetron tube (which contains powerful magnets), the high-power turntable motor, and several interesting microswitches. These are components you can’t find in most other appliances. It was a fascinating look inside a common device, and it gave me a healthy respect for the dangerous voltages involved.
I Tried to “Cut” a Live Power Cord with a Pair of Uninsulated Pliers (Simulated, of course!)
The Big Bang Theory
To demonstrate the danger of working with live AC power, I did a controlled experiment. I took a standard extension cord and plugged it into a GFCI-protected outlet. I then used a pair of insulated tongs to hold a cheap pair of uninsulated metal pliers. I used the pliers to cut through the live cord. The result was a massive, brilliant flash of light, a loud “BANG,” and a shower of molten copper sparks as the pliers instantly vaporized. The GFCI outlet tripped immediately. It was a visceral, powerful demonstration of the immense energy in a standard wall outlet.
Can You “Smelt” a New Heatsink Out of Old Aluminum Cans?
The Backyard Foundry
I wanted to see if I could create a new computer part from raw recycling. I built a small, high-temperature foundry in my backyard using a steel bucket and some refractory cement. I collected a bunch of aluminum cans, melted them down in a crucible, and then poured the molten aluminum into a custom mold I had made from sand. The resulting cast aluminum heatsink was rough and inefficient, but it was a real, functional computer part that I had created from trash.
I Turned an “Old Scanner” into a Laser Engraver
The Light-Powered CNC
The mechanical parts of an old flatbed scanner are essentially a simple, one-axis CNC machine. The scanner head moves back and forth on a precise rail with a stepper motor. I took an old scanner, removed the scanning lamp, and replaced it with a small, focused laser diode module. I then connected the scanner’s motor controller to my computer. With the right software, I can now control the laser’s position and turn it on and off, allowing me to etch simple designs into wood and plastic.
The “Most Pointless” Upgrade: Putting a 1TB SSD in a Pentium 4 PC
The Ultimate Bottleneck
I had an ancient desktop computer with a Pentium 4 processor from 2004. As a purely ridiculous experiment, I decided to give it the most pointless upgrade imaginable. I installed a brand new, super-fast, 1-terabyte NVMe Solid State Drive. The motherboard was so old it didn’t even have SATA ports, so I had to use a special PCI-e adapter card. The result? The computer was still painfully slow. The ancient processor was such a massive bottleneck that the lightning-fast storage made almost no difference.
I’m “Listening” to the Electronic Noise of My PC with a Radio Receiver
The Symphony of the Circuits
I took a simple AM radio receiver and opened it up. I soldered a wire to the input of the amplifier circuit, creating a simple electromagnetic field probe. When I wave this probe over the different parts of my running computer’s motherboard, I can “hear” the electronic noise they generate. The processor has a high-pitched buzz, the hard drive makes a rhythmic clicking sound as it seeks, and the power supply has a steady 60-cycle hum. It’s a fascinating way to experience the invisible, audible world of a working computer.
Can I “Charge” a Phone with a Hand-Crank Generator from an Old Radio?
The Human-Powered Charger
I have an old, emergency hand-crank radio that has a USB port for charging devices. I decided to see if it was actually viable. I plugged in my phone and started cranking. And cranking. And cranking. After ten minutes of vigorous, sweat-inducing cranking, my arm was exhausted, and my phone’s battery had gone up by about one percent. The experiment proved that while it is technically possible, using a hand-crank generator to charge a modern smartphone is an incredibly slow and inefficient exercise in pure desperation.
I Built a “Spinning Hard Drive Clock” from a Dead HDD
The Persistence of Vision
I took a dead mechanical hard drive and opened it up, exposing the shiny platters. I mounted a single, small RGB LED on the end of the actuator arm. I then connected the drive’s motor to a power source to get the platters spinning. By precisely timing the blinking of the LED as it sweeps across the spinning platter, I can use the “persistence of vision” effect to make it look like there are solid hands of a clock floating in mid-air. It’s a beautiful, complex, and hypnotic piece of kinetic art.
What’s the “Cheapest” Possible Machine That Can Mine 1 Cent of Bitcoin a Day?
The Quest for a Single Digital Penny
As a challenge, I wanted to find the absolute cheapest, lowest-power device I could find that was still capable of mining a single, pathetic cent’s worth of Bitcoin in a 24-hour period. I tried old laptops, old phones, and even a router. The winner was a tiny, obscure USB-powered mining stick I found on eBay for three dollars. It gets incredibly hot and is wildly inefficient, but after running the numbers, it just barely crosses the one-cent-per-day threshold. It’s the most gloriously unprofitable mining rig in the world.
I’m Trying to “Run” a PC with No Heatsink at All. How Long Does It Last?
The Meltdown Timer
I took an old, worthless processor and motherboard to see how long it would last with no cooling at all. I removed the heatsink and fan, leaving the top of the CPU bare. I booted it up and started a stopwatch. The computer ran for about 15 seconds. Then, the screen froze as the CPU’s internal temperature skyrocketed past 100°C. The computer’s built-in thermal protection kicked in and shut the machine down before it could physically destroy itself. It’s a testament to how fast modern processors can generate a massive amount of heat.
The “Tesla Coil” I Powered with an Old Laptop Charger
The Desktop Lightning Storm
I have always wanted to build a Tesla coil. I used a simple, solid-state design. For the high-voltage power source, I didn’t want to mess with dangerous AC power. Instead, I used a standard, 19-volt DC laptop charger. The circuit uses this relatively safe low voltage and, through a series of oscillators and transformers, steps it up to create tens of thousands of volts. The result is a small, desktop-sized Tesla coil that can shoot out beautiful, three-inch-long purple sparks.
I “Hacked” an Old Singing Fish Toy to Say Custom Phrases
The Animatronic Insult Comic
I found one of those “Big Mouth Billy Bass” singing fish toys at a thrift store. I took it apart and reverse-engineered the simple circuit board that controlled the motors and the audio. I replaced the original audio chip with a small, programmable sound module. I recorded a bunch of custom audio clips—mostly inside jokes and insults directed at my friends. I then re-wired the motors to sync with my new audio. Now, with the press of a button, the fish will turn its head and deliver a perfectly timed, custom insult.
Can You “Cook” an Egg on a CPU?
The Ultimate Thermal Test
I wanted to test the heat output of a high-end processor in a fun way. I removed the heatsink and applied a small ring of thermal paste to the top of the CPU to act as a barrier. I then cracked a small quail egg onto the top of the processor. I ran a stressful benchmark program that pushed the CPU to 100% load. The CPU temperature quickly rose to its maximum of 100°C (212°F). The egg white slowly started to solidify, and after about ten minutes, I had a tiny, poorly-cooked, but definitely fried egg.
I Used the “Motors” from Old Hard Drives to Build a Laser Light Show
The High-Speed Scanner
The motor that spins the platters in a hard drive is an incredibly smooth, high-speed, brushless DC motor. I salvaged two of them. I mounted a tiny mirror on the shaft of each motor, positioning them at right angles to each other. I then aimed a simple laser pointer at the first mirror. By controlling the speed of the two spinning mirrors, I can reflect the laser beam around the room, creating complex and beautiful “Lissajous” patterns on the wall. It’s a simple, homemade laser light show.
The “Rube Goldberg” Machine That Turns On My PC
The Most Complicated Power Button
As a completely pointless and overly-engineered project, I built a Rube Goldberg machine to turn on my computer. A marble rolls down a ramp, which knocks over a series of dominoes. The last domino falls onto a lever, which releases a second, larger ball. That ball rolls down another ramp and lands on a mouse that is positioned upside down. The weight of the ball clicks the mouse button, which is wired to a relay that shorts the power switch pins on my PC’s motherboard, turning it on.
I’m Trying to “Communicate” Between Two Computers Using Only Sound
The Acoustic Modem
Before the internet, old computers used modems to communicate over phone lines by turning data into sound. I decided to recreate this. I wrote a program that could translate a simple text message into a series of audible beeps of different frequencies, a bit like Morse code. I then used the microphone on a second computer to listen to those beeps. A second program on that computer analyzed the incoming frequencies and translated them back into text. It was an incredibly slow and unreliable, but magical, form of communication.
What Happens if You “Plug” a USB Keyboard into a Wall Outlet (Using an Adapter)?
The Very, Very Bad Idea
I was curious about what would actually happen if I plugged a low-voltage USB device into a high-voltage AC wall outlet. I did this in a safe, controlled environment. I took a cheap USB keyboard and a universal travel adapter. I plugged the keyboard into the adapter and then plugged it into a power strip that was connected to a GFCI outlet. The moment I flipped the switch, there was a loud “POP,” a bright flash from inside the keyboard, and the GFCI instantly tripped. The keyboard’s small controller chip had vaporized.
I Built a “Lie Detector” from an Old Arduino and Some Galvanic Skin Response Sensors
The Polygraph of Truthiness
As a fun party trick, I built a simple “lie detector.” It doesn’t actually detect lies, but it does detect stress by measuring changes in skin conductivity. I used an old Arduino microcontroller. I made two simple finger pads out of aluminum foil. When someone wears them, the Arduino measures the “galvanic skin response.” When a person gets nervous, their skin sweats slightly, which changes its electrical resistance. A simple script displays this change on a graph. It’s a fun, simple bio-feedback device.
The “Weirdest” Thing I Ever Got to Boot an Operating System
The Pregnancy Test That Runs Doom
I saw an amazing project online where a hacker managed to get the video game Doom to run on a digital pregnancy test. The test had a tiny, low-power microcontroller inside. The project involved completely reprogramming the chip and replacing the tiny monochrome screen with a small color OLED display. It’s a hilarious and brilliant example of the hacker ethos: if a device has a processor, no matter how small or strange, someone, somewhere, will try to make it run Doom.
I Used an “Old Broken Phone” as a Target for a High-Powered Air Rifle
The Destructive Test
I had a smartphone that was completely dead and beyond repair. I decided to see what would happen when it was shot with a high-powered pellet rifle. I set it up at a safe distance at a shooting range. The first shot, a direct hit to the screen, created a beautiful, spiderwebbing pattern in the glass but didn’t penetrate. The second shot, to the back of the phone, punched straight through the plastic and caused the lithium-ion battery to let out a satisfying puff of smoke. It was a fun, destructive end for a piece of e-waste.
Can I “Charge” a Capacitor and Use It to Power a Small Motor?
The Instant Energy Dump
A battery stores a lot of energy and releases it slowly. A capacitor stores a small amount of energy but can release it almost instantly. I took a large “supercapacitor,” charged it up with a 5-volt power supply, and then connected it to a small DC motor. The motor spun to life with an incredible burst of speed, far faster than it would with a normal battery. However, the capacitor discharged completely in about three seconds, and the motor ground to a halt. It was a great demonstration of power versus energy.
The “Why Not?” School of Engineering
The Best Reason for a Project
My friend asked me why I spent a week building a robotic arm out of old CD drives. “What’s the point?” he asked. I replied with the official motto of the “Why Not?” School of Engineering: “The point is that there is no point.” These projects are not about creating a useful product. They are about the joy of exploration, the challenge of creative problem-solving, and the satisfaction of answering a stupid question, just to see what will happen. It is play, in its purest and most educational form.
I “Translated” the Binary of a Program into Musical Notes
The Sound of an Application
I was curious about what a computer program would “sound” like. I wrote a script that could read the raw binary code of a simple program file. It then translated each byte of data into a corresponding musical note on a MIDI synthesizer. The result was a chaotic, atonal, and completely un-listenable piece of “music.” But within the chaos, you could hear repeating patterns and themes, which corresponded to the different functions and loops within the program’s code. It was a strange, synesthetic experience.
The “Destructive” Teardown: Finding a Component’s Breaking Point
The Torture Test
When I get a truly worthless, unrepairable piece of junk, I perform a “destructive teardown.” My goal is not to fix it, but to learn its limits. How much can I bend this plastic piece before it snaps? At what voltage does this capacitor explode? How much heat does it take to de-laminate this screen? It’s a fantastic, hands-on way to learn about material science and component failure modes in a safe and controlled way. It’s knowledge you can’t get from a book.
I’m Building a “Useless Box” from Salvaged Electronic Parts
The Ultimate Pointless Machine
A “useless box” is a classic electronics project. It’s a box with a single switch on it. When you flip the switch on, a small lever emerges from the box, flips the switch back off, and then retracts. That’s all it does. I’m building my own version using only salvaged parts. The box is from an old cigar box, the motor is from a broken toy, the switch is from a dead amplifier, and the lever is a carved popsicle stick. It is the perfect celebration of beautifully engineered pointlessness.
The “Pure Joy” of Experimenting Without a Goal, Just a Question: “What If?”
The Unburdened Exploration
My most enjoyable projects are the ones with no goal. They don’t need to be useful, profitable, or even successful. They are born from a simple question: “What if?” What if I tried to power this with that? What if I connected this to that? This kind of open-ended, curiosity-driven experimentation is where true learning and discovery happen. It is free from the pressure of success or failure. The process itself is the reward. The joy is not in the destination, but in the chaotic, unpredictable, and often hilarious journey.