Hackaday Courses

Sandbox Systems - Hardware for Emergent Games

Discover how to design immersive hardware systems for large-scale cyberpunk LARP games, blending technology with emergent gameplay for hundreds of players in desert environments.

• YouTube
• 31 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Covert Regional Communication with Meshtastic

Discover how to build secure mesh networks using low-cost LORA radios for decentralized communication, covering hardware setup, configuration, and covert operation techniques.

• YouTube
• 31 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Rad Reverb - Cooking FPGAs with Gamma Rays

Discover how gamma radiation affects FPGA performance through destructive testing with cobalt-60 and cesium-137, featuring novel real-time measurement techniques for space applications.

• YouTube
• 24 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

From Bytes to Bobbins - Driving an Embroidery Machine

Learn to run an embroidery machine, create a custom patch with open-source tools, and explore its creative capabilities.

• YouTube
• 31 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Cracking Open a Classic DOS Game

Dive into reverse-engineering The Lawnmower Man DOS game, exploring technical tools and techniques to uncover its construction with a live hardware demo.

• YouTube
• 26 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Optical Espionage - Lasers to Keystrokes

Discover how to identify keystrokes from a distance using advanced laser microphones that convert infrared to vibrations to radio to sound for cutting-edge eavesdropping techniques.

• YouTube
• 36 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Hands-On Hardware - Chip Implants, Weird Hacks, and Questionable Decisions

Explore biohacking through real experiences with chip implants, rogue experiments, and questionable hardware decisions that push the boundaries of human-technology integration.

• YouTube
• 48 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Probing Pins for Protocol Polyglots - Stacking Multiple Protocols on GPIO Pins

Master protocol stacking techniques to run UART, SPI, and I2C on the same GPIO pins by exploiting undefined regions, enabling multiple device control without additional hardware.

• YouTube
• 25 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Long Waves, Short Talk - A Practical IR Spectrum Guide

Explore SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR infrared bands for enhanced vision in surveillance, industrial inspection, and target tracking applications across diverse environments.

• YouTube
• 30 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

LEDs Get Into Formation - Mechanically Interesting PCB Assemblies

Explore creative methods for combining custom LED PCBs into 2D and 3D structures, including static and flexible arrangements like the award-winning "Bendy SAO" from Supercon 2024.

• YouTube
• 21 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

What Makes a Robot Feel Alive? - Programming Personality into Pet Robots

Discover the art of programming personality into pet robots, crafting behaviors and quirks that transform hardware into expressive companions with genuine presence and character.

• YouTube
• 18 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Off the Grid, On the Net - Exploring Ham Radio Mesh Networks

Explore ham radio mesh networks using outdoor wireless access points to run weather stations, video streams, email, and VOIP entirely off-grid within FCC Part 97 rules.

• YouTube
• 16 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Beyond RGB - The Illuminating World of Color and LEDs

Explore the physiology of human vision and RGB lighting effectiveness, discover when alternatives work better, and learn to choose optimal lighting for your projects.

• YouTube
• 18 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Hackaday Supercon 2022 - Charles Lohr - Assembly in 2022 - Yes! We Still Use it and Here's Why

See how basic assembly knowledge reveals compiler behavior and enables efficient low-level programming on constrained systems.

• YouTube
• 42 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Hackaday Supercon 2022 - Chris Gammell - The One-Engineer Dev Shop, Then and Now

A practical talk on running a one-engineer development shop across electronics design, firmware, testing, manufacturing, and business operations.

• YouTube
• 30 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video