Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

This is a personal essay documenting the author's first project combining hobbyist electronics with traditional workshop materials to build a glowing notification cube. The piece explores the motivation behind creating… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. How to make your own glowing notification cube launched in 2015; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD▲886

   Here's a "behind-the-scenes" look at my development of a cool sensor during my PhD (electrical engineering). This sensor is only about 1/3 of my total research for my degree and took about a year. I've been on HN for a while now and I've seen my fair share of posts about the woes of pursuing a PhD. Now that I'm done with mine I wanna share some anecdotal evidence that doing a PhD can actually be enjoyable (not necessarily easy) and also be doable in 3 years. When I started I knew I didn't want to work on something that would never leave the lab or languish in a dissertation PDF no one…

   2024 · paulbupejr.com · its alternatives →

2. 2
   Crafter: AR Build Battle▲116

   Craft awesome things in AR and make your friends guess it!

   2018 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   CUBE▲139

   Mobile projector

   2016 · rif6.com · its alternatives →

4. 4HT
   How to make full colour PCB art▲79

   This post describes our initial ideas, the common pitfalls, and finally a working way of adding full colour PCB art to electronics projects.

   2020 · pixel.curious.supplies · its alternatives →

5. 5
   Fidget Cube▲428

   An unusually addicting, high-quality desk toy

   2016 · antsylabs.com · its alternatives →

6. 6
   SparkFun▲77

   Bits and Pieces to Make Electronics Projects Possible

   2014 · sparkfun.com · its alternatives →

7. 7MA
   Making a flexible "neon" t-shirt with LED filaments▲222

   Earlier this year I had the perfect excuse to experiment with some flexible LED filaments that had been sitting in my “interesting parts” bi...

   15d ago · scottbezek.blogspot.com · its alternatives →

8. 8
   I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs▲259

   This is a little toy project of mine that lets you simulate digital logic graphs. It was inspired by Minecraft's Redstone and the Piet esolang. It's got some serious drawbacks-- you write circuits as PNGs and simulate them with a Python interface. It's slow to run and slow to experiment with. And it is certainly difficult to use for people with any kind of color blindness. But despite that, I hope this can still be a fun toy!

   2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

9. 9
   I Designed and Built an eBike▲304

   This post shows and explains the design of the eBike I built myself. I decided to post it on this specific forum because this is where it all started, by stumbling on another post, as mentioned in my entry.

   2022 · endless-sphere.com · its alternatives →

10. 10
    I made a tiny book using a pen-plotter and AI▲150

    Hey HN, I want to share a personal project: I made a tiny pen-plotted book for my wife. I did everything myself—drawings (with some help from Midjourney), plotting, cutting, and binding. I even used a 3D printer to make a helper tool. It's absolutely over-engineered, but I enjoyed it a lot. Multi-disciplinary projects, especially those with a physical output, are a lot of fun for me. The post covers the process in detail, but if you're interested in anything specific, let me know. Cheers!

    2025 · muffinman.io · its alternatives →

11. 11KA
    Kubist, a little web app to make cubism-like images▲231

    2015 · williamngan.github.io · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Cubenizer▲113

    The world's first candy printer

    2017 · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Icon Maker by Raycast▲269

    Create beautiful icons for your projects, apps or extensions

    2022 · ray.so · its alternatives →

14. 14IW
    I wrote a book on practical electronics design▲97

    2021 · designingelectronics.com · its alternatives →

15. 15
    Fake it Make it▲168

    A free eBook about UX design and rapid app prototyping

    2015 · keynotopia.com · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Lume Cube▲83

    Portable, durable lights for photo and video

    2015 · lumecube.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Light Rider▲95

    3D printed prototype for an electric motorcycle

    2016 · lightrider.apworks.de · its alternatives →

18. 18
    Material Design Kit▲159

    Design for Android better and faster

    2017 · inbaobi24h.com · its alternatives →

19. 19BA
    Building an E-Ink Calendar and a UI Toolkit along the way▲64

    2020 · rahulrav.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    808 Cube▲72

    Fun 808 beat creator with a Rubik's cube twist

    2014 · 808cube.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    Working with Pictures▲66

    A tiny book on how to draw at work

    2016 · 5264002956444.gumroad.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    The Creators Call - 3: Cubetto▲62

    An interview with Filippo Yacob of Cubetto

    2016 · soundcloud.com · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Antimatter for iPhone▲108

    Earth’s #1 memegen and collage maker

    2023 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

24. 24
    Roll the Cube Toy▲71

    Roll the cube toy, match shapes & collect gems

    2021 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →