Hubs of Hardware Hacking

When I was a kid and our family's TV went on the fritz, my big brother would open the back with a screwdriver, glance at the circuit diagram printed inside, and pull a tube out. We'd go to the hardware store, test it, purchase a replacement that he would install, and be fully operational in time for Star Trek that evening. Ah, the good old days. Now, curbs everywhere are littered with the rotting corpses of big black televisions that have given up the ghost in the machine. Sadly, consumer electronics have entered an age of "no user serviceable parts inside." That may be the rule, but a growing culture of hardware hackers are voiding warrantees with glee and sharing what they learn online. From simply replacing an iPod battery to customizing a store-bought espresso machine with a scavenged industrial sensor to modding a Microsoft Kinect into a vision system for a homebrew robot, these makers are pushing technology beyond the limits set by the manufacturers. 

Want to get in touch with your own maker mindset? Here are some thriving hubs of hardware hacking on the Web:

• Makezine.com is the omega point of DIY culture, and the online presence of the quarterly hardware hacking bible, MAKE: magazine. (Disclosure: I'm editor-at-large). The blog is essential reading for anyone interested in DIY projects, hacks, mods, and unbridled creativity and ingenuity. And if it's real world interaction you crave, find the Maker Faire nearest you.

• Adafruit Industries sells kits for open source electronic projects, from USB chargers in Altoid tins to more advanced Arduino microcontroller packs you can use to make your house smart or your toys talk. Their forums and Show and Tell videochats are a great place to learn, and teach.

• Instructables.com is a collaborative platform "where passionate people share what they do and how they do it" in the form of step-by-step instructions. Make a wheelchair for your dog. Or a telescope. Or a 3D printer. Or, literally, tens of thousands of other things. Just acquired by Autodesk, Instructables' founders have big plans to "co-opt the resources of a multi-national corporation to make Instructables even more awesome."

• Hack-A-Day was one of the very first hardware hacking blogs features an unending stream of projects from the wider Web as well as user-submitted projects.

• Element14 is a design engineer community forum where hardcore professionals and even harder-core professional amateurs share deep knowledge.

• SparkFun is an electronics retailer where you can not only buy every capacitor, diode, switch, chip, or LED you need but you can also explore the primers and tutorials to learn what to do with all of those electronic bits.

As the maker motto goes, "If you can't open it, you don't own it." What consumer electronics product would you like to hack?

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Boing Boing is a pioneering blog that offers an eclectic blend of of tech culture, gadgets, entertainment, business, and more -- a "geek's eye view" on the world. Original feature reporting from some of the most-respected technology writers today and original Boing Boing Video episodes have made Boing Boing an Internet mainstay. As co-editor of Boing Boing, David Pescovitz is a collector of online anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities. He is also a research director at Institute for the Future.