Burgundy
Off the grid

Making do with what's in the house

A $40 run-over phone becomes a gaming PC, weather charts arrive by radio, and a lock you crank by hand. Tonight's builds all start with what you already own.

Burgundy
3 min read ·

Every build tonight starts the same way: look at what you already own, and make it do more. A maker known as [LastComputer] bought a Samsung Galaxy S23 that looked as if several vehicles had run it over, paying about 1,700 Ukrainian hryvnia, roughly $40. They straightened the bent frame with a hammer and rebuilt the thing into a desktop gaming computer. Writing on Hackaday, Maya Posch lays out the recipe: keep the mainboard, its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and vapor chamber, then add a new battery, a 512 GB SSD and two USB hubs in a 3D-printed cage. A heatsink went on with hot glue, a fan with zip ties. That cut temperatures by 7°C and reduced throttling, and the phone ran game emulators through Samsung DeX, "a very serviceable gaming computer."

Power without a wall outlet kept coming up. Hackster.io reported that Anas Malas squeezed a USB-C Power Delivery negotiator onto a board the size of a business card, turning almost any charger into a portable bench supply. A maker called Gadget Industry went bigger, building a palm-sized power station that delivers over 500 W, enough to run a desktop PC in the demonstration. Popular Mechanics, meanwhile, tested six portable generators and seven jump starters it says end the need for jumper cables and a second car. It also tried Bluetti's FridgePower, a backup battery built only to keep a refrigerator cold, and called it easy to set up and very reliable.

When the internet is gone, radio still carries the news. The SWLing Post published Carlos Latuff's illustrated report of pulling Japan Meteorological Agency weather charts off shortwave by radiofax on October 5, alongside an NHK audio bulletin. Both tracked Typhoon No. 27 near the Ogasawara Islands and the formation of what the report calls a "triple typhoon." John Figliozzi reviewed the $300 Choyong LC100 receiver, which runs up to 50 hours on two replaceable 18650 cells. He praised its audio but faulted automatic gain control that pumps on weak shortwave signals. "I like this radio," he concluded.

Two builds pushed back on the phone itself. Kevin Noki made a handset styled after a 1980s brick phone to escape the "annoyingly addictive black rectangle we all carry around." It has no cellular modem. It pairs over Bluetooth with a phone you already own, and Noki prototyped it in foam before the case was 3D printed. Fallback power turned up in store-bought gear too. Amazon's Ring unveiled a smart lock whose hand crank charges a dead battery, "a few turns" of the dial, Ring promises, even as a Hackaday post noted that Amazon's latest update stops older Echo devices passing audio through their aux jack.

For the hands-on work, Popular Mechanics picked a circular saw over a track saw in most cases, saving the track saw for when precision matters most. It also reviewed the $60 ProSensor M210, a combination stud finder and level it says is the only one it has tested that shows a stud's full width, "like an x-ray for your walls."

And overhead, Astronomy Magazine had something to look at. Jake Parks explained that a full Moon happens when Earth sits directly between the Sun and the Moon. Alison Klesman noted asteroid 2 Pallas at opposition in Cetus, visible all night and reachable with binoculars. And Michael E. Bakich pointed small telescopes at the Crab Nebula, the remnant of a star that appeared in 1054 four times brighter than Venus.

Sources

  1. Turning a Run-Over Samsung Galaxy S23 into a Gaming PC · Hackaday
  2. Turn Almost Any USB-C Charger Into a Portable Bench Power Supply · Hackster.io News
  3. This Little DIY Power Station Can Run a Desktop PC · Hackster.io News
  4. The 6 Best Portable Generators Give You Power Whenever and Wherever You Need It · Popular Mechanics
  5. The 7 Best Portable Jump Starters to Bring Your Vehicle Back to Life · Popular Mechanics
  6. Bluetti’s New Refrigerator Backup Power Is Still $550 Off After Prime Big Deal Days · Popular Mechanics
  7. Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of NHK & Radiofax (October 5, 2026) · The SWLing Post (Thomas Witherspoon, K4SWL)
  8. A Comprehensive Review of the Choyong LC100 Receiver · The SWLing Post (Thomas Witherspoon, K4SWL)
  9. The 80s Called: They Say This DIY Phone Is, Like, Totally Rad · Hackaday
  10. Amazon's Ring Unveils Its First Smart Lock, With a Hand-Crank Generator for When the Battery's Dead · Hackster.io News
  11. With Latest Update, Alexa Refuses to Pass the Aux · Hackaday
  12. Track Saw vs. Circular Saw: I’d Choose a Circular Saw in Most Cases, Unless Precision Matters Most · Popular Mechanics
  13. The ProSensor M210 Is the Only Stud Finder I’ve Tested That Shows a Stud’s Full Width · Popular Mechanics
  14. 2026 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases · Astronomy Magazine
  15. The Sky Today on Thursday, October 8: Perfectly placed Pallas · Astronomy Magazine
  16. Winter observing targets for small telescopes · Astronomy Magazine

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