"It's very easy to get intimidated," says Hamayal Choudhry, the robotics engineer who co-created the smartARM, a robotic hand prosthetic that uses a camera to analyse and manipulate objects. "You have this idea for a project, then think, I don't know a thing about this." Here's how Choudhry and his partner Samin Khan, who programmed the smartARM's machine learning algorithm, used code libraries, college assignments, and sponsored hackathons to find and execute a meaningful project at age 20.

Plastic pumpkins are a mainstay around Halloween, but if you want to give the ubiquitous little candy holder a bit more character, Adafruit has a guide for adding lights and custom sounds.

Halloween's around the corner, and if you're looking to make your own costume, Ben Heck and his crew take on a superhero costume, and in turn show off how to do a ton of different costume-related projects.

Heavy sleepers might need a little something stronger than your standard alarm clock. Some ask you to throw them against a wall, while others roll around the floor wailing, but none of them take direct action to wake you up. Furniture maker and Instructables user 1UpLiving decided to make his alarm clock a little more functional, adding the delightful feature of literally pulling the sheets off of his sleeping body in the morning.

Forget "Netflix and Chill" now there's Netflix and Sweat.

Intel is pulling the pin on manufacture of the Arduino board, following on from dropping the Joule, Galileo and Edison hardware. Manufacture will end in September although, apparently, Intel is shopping around for another manufacturer.

Video: The most dangerous object in your home isn't the stove, the clothes iron, or that chainsaw in your garage. It's your alarm clock's snooze button that makes it so easy to go back to bed each morning. Silencing that alarm shouldn't be so easy, so Christopher Guichet built an alarm clock that can only be deactivated with a perfect shot from a Nerf blaster.

The Humble Book Bundle has teamed up with Make to collect together a ton of books for learning how to use an Arduino and Raspberry Pi.

When it comes to tasty beverages, there's more satisfying as getting a fresh can of soda from a vending machine. With this fun DIY build, you can get that experience right from your own locker.

Android/iOS: If you want to control a Raspberry Pi or Arduino connected device from your phone, you'd usually need to know at least some programming. Blynk is an app that makes it easier to control those devices from your phone.

We've seen plenty of custom controllers over the years, but for those who prefer the tactile feel of a keyboard, Adafruit has put together a guide to make your own little keyboard-gamepad.

We've seen Raspberry Pi-powered weather stations before, but if Arduino is more your style, Instructables user Tecwyn Twmffat made one with three Arduinos.

Sometimes, the best gift you can give is the ability to make something completely new. For the DIYer in your life, a solid new tool, starter kit or organisation tool will make them as happy as can be.

You have a timer and clock in just about every single device out there these days, but if you want to build you own, Instructables user GeraldF6 shows you how to do so with a Arduino.

If just flipping a switch to turn a light on or off is too boring you, sudomod has a guide to convert an old Nintendo Zapper into a controller for turning your lights on and off.

Digital photo frames are great, but when you're using one to display a slideshow, it tends to look terrible when it displays photos in the opposite orientation of how you have it set up. Over on Hackaday, Tim made a frame that automatically rotates to show the best picture.

Have a horrible, no-good, terrible commute every day? To make things a little easier on yourself, Arduino shield-maker 1Sheeld shows off how to hack a clock to change colour depending on traffic conditions.

Video: Have an old USB keyboard you love, but wish was wireless? DIYer DastardlyLabs shows off how to make your own little adaptor that will convert just about any old USB keyboard to Bluetooth.

Video: We've seen plenty of surveillance cameras built from a Raspberry Pi, but MakeUseOf has a fun twist that also allows you to control the movement of the camera.