DIY

The current pandemic has seen an uptick in online video chats. You can use smartphones and laptops, but those who prefer quality webcams may find them out of stock. Jeff Geerling built his own using a Raspberry Pi Zero W and a HQ camera module.

While handy types can build an A-frame cabin themselves, the less DIY inclined who would rather follow a plan and have the materials supplied can do so with the Den Cabin Kit. Costing $21,000, it's claimed very easy to build even by amateurs.

If the smart specs already on the market aren't enough to get you excited, why not make your own? That's exactly what electrical engineer and product designer Sam March has done, with the help of a CNC router and some app coding.

Mere days after launching a 100-year anniversary tribute to the almost magical hands-off wonder created by Leon Theremin, Moog Music is back with a limited re-issue of an all-analog synthesizer you put together yourself.

Useful as they are, telepresence robots can be prohibitively expensive. The Smartipresence cuts the price of entry into the telepresence world right down by making use of the ubiquitous smartphone and cardboard.

Laptops have been getting thinner, more powerful and increasingly difficult to customize. The Reform from Berlin's MNT Research dares to be different with open software and open hardware that invites modders to get under the hood and go wild.

Instrument maker Frank Piesik has built a three-string robotic music machine called Greg's Harp where three different actuators excite the strings in different ways to produce sound controlled by a MIDI keyboard.

He's transformed an old bike into a rolling synth, and turned a games console into a music machine. Now Sam Battle of Look Mum No Computer goes back in time to revisit one of his earliest builds – a Gibson Les Paul with built-in MIDI keyboard.

He's previously made music mobile with a synth bike, and built a nightmarish noise-maker called the Furby Organ. Now Sam Battle has tapped into the sonic guts of a Sega Mega Drive and created a monster synth ready to get its music-making game on.

If your busy lifestyle leaves little time for housework, robot vacuum cleaners can help. If you want your robovac to clean upstairs, you'll have to carry it up and set it off. Peter Sripol wasn't happy with that situation so made his Roomba fly.

Campervan novice Grace Aquino and her husband Marlon have converted a low-roof 2017 Ram Promaster cargo van into a campervan. The couple stuck to a tight furnishing budget of just $1,000, by fitting out the camper with products sourced from IKEA.

Champion of non-digital photography Lomography has launched a build-it-yourself kit for a cardboard medium-format camera which comes with a lens that you can fill with colored liquid to create a unique photographic feel.