Guides

Guides for the curious.

Plain-English guides to music theory, beatmaking and songwriting, pocket gear and cyberdecks, the hardware inside them, and rooms that glow. Most end with something you can play right in your browser.

A pocket keyboard computer with a glowing LED filament looping out of its side port, under the headline Plug. Code. Glow.
TechMicrocontrollers15 min read ESP32 LED Projects for Beginners: Blink, Fade, LED Filament, NeoPixels and an OLED (on a Cardputer)

Plug two wires in and an LED filament glows. From there: blink an LED, fade it with ESP32 LEDC PWM, drive a filament with a MOSFET, run a...

A glowing Grove connector with black, red, yellow and white wires next to a color-coded 14-pin EXT header, under the headline 4 wires. 14 pins.
TechCardputer11 min read Cardputer ADV GPIO Pinout: Grove Port, EXT Header and What You Can Plug In

Every pin you can reach on a Cardputer ADV, drawn and color coded: the Grove port, the 14-pin EXT header, which GPIOs are free or shared, the voltage...

Snap on. Plug in. A green Cap with an antenna snaps onto a Cardputer ADV outline while a cable runs to a blue Grove unit, labeled LoRa, CC1101 and NFC on one side and MIDI, GPS and IR on the other.
TechCardputer9 min read Best Cardputer ADV Accessories and Modules (2026)

Caps, Grove units, antennas and cases for the Cardputer ADV: how each one attaches, which job it does, which firmware supports it, and the RP-SMA and RF Pack...

A glowing pocket keyboard whose four key rows are drawn as strings, with a green slide line arcing between two keys, under the headline Keys. Strings. Slide.
TechCardputer3 min read Cardputer Synth: Making Music on a Cardputer ADV

Why the Cardputer ADV works as a real music device, how GLIDE plays (string rows, slides, scale lock, Auto Key, tilt, generative sounds), the other Cardputer music apps...

Keys. Radios. A Cardputer ADV outline with a color screen and 56-key keyboard faces off against a Flipper Zero outline with a monochrome screen and round control pad, $29.90 versus $169.
TechCardputer7 min read Cardputer ADV vs Flipper Zero: Radio by Radio, Dollar by Dollar

A $169 radio multi-tool against a $29.90 keyboard computer. Here is how the Flipper Zero and Cardputer ADV compare radio by radio, what it costs to close the...

A glowing pixel-art pocket keyboard computer playing a retro platformer, under the headline Pocket. Pixels. Play.
TechCardputer3 min read Cardputer Games and Emulators: Game Station, ROMs and Controls

Game Station turns a Cardputer or Cardputer ADV into a pocket retro console. Here is which systems run and how well, how the tiny screen handles Game Boy...

A flash, script and own install flow drawn as three glowing steps toward a pocket keyboard computer, under the headline Flash it. Script it. Own it.
TechCardputer3 min read Bruce Firmware on the Cardputer ADV: Install, App Store, Scripts and Modules

How to install Bruce firmware on a Cardputer ADV with the web flasher, Launcher or M5Burner, what works out of the box and what needs a module, how...

A pixel-art pig on a tiny Cardputer screen with an XP bar, under the two-tone headline A pig that levels up.
TechCardputer3 min read M5PORKCHOP on the Cardputer ADV: the WiFi RPG, Explained

M5PORKCHOP puts a role-playing pig on top of real WiFi security firmware for the Cardputer. Here is what it is, what each mode does, the ADV-only tilt dial,...

A glowing pixel-art square wave on a dark grainy background under the headline Square. Pulse. Noise.
MusicBeatmaking8 min read How to Make Chiptune: 8-Bit Music, Sound Chips and Free Tools

Chiptune is music made with the sound chips of old consoles. Here is how the NES, Game Boy and C64 chips shaped the sound, how pulse waves and...

A glowing neon cowbell with sound waves on a dark, grainy background under the headline Cowbell. 808. Drift.
MusicBeatmaking9 min read What Is Phonk? Drift Phonk Explained, and How to Make Phonk

Phonk is the cowbell-and-808 sound behind a million drift edits. Here is what the word means, how Memphis rap tapes turned into drift phonk and Brazilian phonk, what...

A dark room with glowing pink and cyan LED strip lines along the ceiling, desk and bed, under the headline Glow up your room.
Home & giftsRoom decor7 min read LED Strip Light Ideas: Where to Put Them, Which to Buy, Gaming Setups

Where LED strip lights actually look good, which kind to buy, the right color temperature for each room, how to light a gaming setup in three layers, and...

A glowing 8 MB flash memory map split into bootloader, NVS, two app slots and a file system, under the headline Where your bytes live.
TechMicrocontrollers8 min read ESP32 Memory Explained: Flash, NVS, Partitions, PSRAM and SD

Where does your ESP32 keep things? A visual guide to SRAM, PSRAM, flash and the SD card, the partition table, how NVS stores settings, flash write cycles, and...

A glowing microSD card outline with the headline FAT32. 32GB. MBR. on a dark background.
TechCardputer6 min read Cardputer SD Card Guide: Size, Format and Fixing "SD Card Not Found"

The microSD card is behind most Cardputer headaches. Here is what size to buy, how to format it FAT32 on Windows and Mac, where apps go, and a...

Launcher app tiles for GLIDE, Bruce, Meshtastic and Games glowing on a dark pocket keyboard computer screen, under the headline One device. Every app.
TechCardputer7 min read Cardputer Launcher: How to Install It, Flash Apps and Switch Firmware

Launcher turns a Cardputer into a pocket computer that installs its own apps. Here is how to flash it, how apps arrive from the SD card, WiFi or...

Lofi poster art: a glowing pink and amber cassette tape on a dark, grainy, rainy night background under the headline Slow. Warm. Dusty.
MusicBeatmaking12 min read What Is Lofi? The Sound, and How to Make Lofi Beats

Lofi means low fidelity, and today it mostly means the slow, jazzy beats behind streams like Lofi Girl. Here is where lofi hip hop came from, the chords...

A glowing sawtooth wave passing through a filter curve and an envelope shape on a dark background, with the headline Oscillate. Filter. Shape.
MusicInstruments16 min read What Is a Synthesizer? Types of Synths and the Best Ones for Beginners

A synthesizer builds sound from scratch instead of playing a recording. Here is how an oscillator, filter, envelope and LFO turn into every electronic sound you know, the...

Sub-GHz. NFC. IR. A glowing chart of the radio bands pocket gadgets use, from 125 kHz RFID and 13.56 MHz NFC to 433 and 915 MHz sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth.
TechCardputer12 min read What Is Flipper Zero? What It Does, Price, and Cheaper Alternatives

The Flipper Zero is a pocket multi-tool for exploring the radio signals around you. Here is what it actually does, what it costs, whether it is legal, which...

Headline reading Scroll (crossed out), Build, Code, Jam, next to a gift box drawn as a glowing circuit board with a neon bow.
Home & giftsGift guide11 min read Gifts for Teens Who Like Tech: 20 Ideas to Build, Play and Glow (2026)

Gift ideas for teens into tech, music, gaming and room aesthetics, picked because they let a teen build and create rather than just scroll. Under $20, under $50,...

Illustration of a pocket computer with a glowing green terminal screen and a small keyboard, under the headline A computer. Pocket size.
TechCyberdeck13 min read Pocket Computers in 2026: Every Model With a Keyboard, Compared

From 1980s BASIC machines to 2026's ESP32 handhelds, Raspberry Pi terminals and palm-sized Windows PCs: every current pocket computer with its brain, screen, keyboard, battery and US price,...

Synthwave poster art: a striped orange and pink sun setting behind neon-outlined mountains over a glowing magenta perspective grid, with the headline Neon sun. Night drive.
MusicBeatmaking10 min read What Is Synthwave? The Sound, the Artists and How to Make It

Synthwave is new music built from the sounds of 1980s film scores, games and synth-pop. Here is where it came from, what makes the sound, the artists and...

Headline reading Hack. Play. Glow. in green, magenta and cyan, next to a pocket computer lit by green neon, for a guide to unique tech gifts.
Home & giftsGift guide9 min read Unique Tech Gifts for 2026: 20 Gadgets With Character, From $7 to $249

Twenty tech gifts with genuine character, from a $7 Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W to the crank-powered Playdate: pocket computers, off-grid Meshtastic radios, maker kits, e-ink and lighting,...

Raspberry Pi 5 8GB list price: $80 rising to $175, shown as a stepped line chart climbing from $80 to $95 in December, $125 in February and $175 in April 2026.
TechRaspberry Pi12 min read Why Are Raspberry Pi Prices So High in 2026? The Memory Shortage, Explained

Raspberry Pi has raised prices five times since October 2025 as AI demand made memory several times more expensive, most recently the 2GB Pi 4 and Pi 5...

Exploded view illustration of a cyberdeck case with the headline Build the shell and four case types: hard case, 3D printed, laser cut, found object
TechCyberdeck10 min read Cyberdeck Case Ideas: Hard Cases, 3D Printed Shells and Found Objects

Five ways to build a cyberdeck shell, what each costs in tools, skill and money, and the engineering that makes it work: screen-first layout, M2.5 standoffs, Pi 5...

A glowing lava lamp with pink and amber blobs beside the words Heat. Rise. Repeat.
Home & giftsLighting9 min read How Do Lava Lamps Work? The Science, Safety Tips and Modern Alternatives

The simple physics behind the lava lamp, why it takes hours to warm up, what to do when the wax won't flow, which bulb to use, how to...