There oughta be…

…a blog with awesome projects. A collection of overcomplicated devices nobody needs. A sanctum for all the things that did not get living room clearance, but oughta be seen by fellow nerds.

There oughta be a hood full of pixels

23 October 2026

In a week, my uncle will throw a Halloween party, so I’ll need a costume. It might have gotten a bit out of hand with two 128x64 flexible LED matrix panels, an additional 180 individually addressable LEDs, two Raspberry Pi Pico 2 Ws and a Bluetooth speaker. It became a costume that changes its look at will.

Thumbnail of the YouTube video: The image is split into two halves that blend into each other. On the left there is a well-lit photo of a mask made of flexible LED matrix panels. They form a narrow slit through which a real blue eye is visible and to the left of the panel a hand gives a thumbs up. On the right the shape of the mask continues into a very dark scene in which only glowing pixels of the matrix panels are visible, which form a green constellation of glyphs reminiscent of the Matrix movies.
Click the image to see the video on youtube.com.

The video shows the costume in action and demonstrates how it is controlled with an overview of the build. The article here goes into details of the build.

Read more…

There oughta be a Lego marble run

14 August 2026

My son loves marble runs, but as he became more interested in Lego than the bigger Duplo bricks, I needed a marble run for Lego. So I printed one. This is a rather simple project, but I stumbled onto an interesting physics detail that I wanted to discuss.

Thumbnail of the youtube video: Several colorful marble run tracks on a green Lego baseplate. Some pieces form a bridge across another track and a shiny ball bearing is rolling across it.
Click the image to see the video on youtube.com.

Most of you probably just want to watch the video, but if you want to dive into the physics with a proper mathematical description, the blog article is just right for you.

Read more…

There oughta be a Lego Game Boy

02 October 2025

UPDATE A FEW HOURS LATER: Turns out that Natalie the Nerd beat me to it by a few hours. But she did not just beat me in terms of releasing a bit earlier, but also in functionality, style and execution. I fully admit defeat in this undeclared race that every nerd with a public channel just seems to secretly have competed in. I will be forming a “Natalie beat us” support group with all the other just-a-little-too-late-and-not-quite-as-good projects that will be popping up over the next weeks :)

Well, ok, there actually is a Lego Game Boy and it has just been released today yesterday. What there actually oughta be is a real display for it, which this blog post is about.

Thumbnail of the youtube video: The thumbnail shows a close-up of the display part of the Lego Game Boy where you can see a real display showing a scene from the game Tetris.
Click the image to see the video on youtube.com.

If you just want to see it in action, check out the Youtube video. If you want to add a display to your own Lego Game Boy, read on for all the details on how to do this.

Read more…

There oughta be a Game Boy Photo Booth

21 July 2025

Another one of my cousins got married, so it was time for another photo/video booth. This time it uses a Game Boy Camera and a Game Boy Printer.

Thumbnail of the youtube video: The thumbnail shows a wedding couple on the left hand side. The groom is carrying the bride, both laughing. On the right hand side, there is a details shot of a Game Boy Printer, showing the logo of the device and a print-out coming out of it. The printout shows the couple from the left side of the thumbnail in typically low quality black and white quality of a thermal paper print.
Click the image to see the video on youtube.com.

The video above gives a good overview of the project. The blog entry below contains a few more technical details as well as links to source code and additional resources.

Read more…

There oughta be a Game Boy Slideshow

10 January 2025

What is the easiest way to create a ROM with a slideshow of your own images for your Game Boy? How about opening a website, dragging your images into the site and hitting a generate button? That’s it. That’s what I created here.

Thumbnail of the youtube video: The image shows a photo of Sebastian with a white frame. An arrow points from the photo to the right at the screen of a green Game Boy Color. The Game Boy Color shows the exact same photo on its screen with slightly washed out colors.
Click the image to see the video on youtube.com.

Check out this rather short Youtube video to see the tool in action or just look at the top of this post to try it out yourself.

Read more…