How to Change Raspberry Pi WiFi Details Directly from the SD Card

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Published: September 04, 2026

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It is a scenario familiar to every embedded system engineer, IoT developer, and hobbyist: you deploy a headless Raspberry Pi to a remote corner of your home or workspace, only to lose access when your network configuration changes. Perhaps you updated your router, changed your WiFi SSID, typed a typo into your configuration file, or took your project to a new location. Without a dedicated monitor, keyboard, and mouse, you appear to be locked out.

Fortunately, you do not have to format your microSD card and start your project from scratch. By accessing the filesystem on the SD card directly from a host computer, you can inject new WiFi credentials and restore your wireless connection. Depending on the version of Raspberry Pi OS you are running, the methods differ slightly, but they are all straightforward once you understand how the system boots and manages network profiles.

Reinventing Electromechanical TV: Build a Portable 4K-Wide Screen Using Raspberry Pi Pico

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Published: September 03, 2026

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In the pantheon of television history, the electromechanical systems of the 1920s often feel like a bizarre, steam-punk detour. Developed by pioneers like John Logie Baird, these early systems relied on spinning disks with spiral patterns of pinholes—known as Nipkow disks—to sweep a light beam across a viewing area. While quickly eclipsed by cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) in the 1940s, electromechanical television remains a fascinating frontier for modern hardware hackers, retro-tech enthusiasts, and embedded developers.

Today, electromechanical displays have found a second life among makers, embedded engineers, and retro-computing enthusiasts. While many recreate these systems as desktop-sized curiosities using vinyl records or large acrylic disks, a brilliant project called the Scanwheel demonstrates how modern technology can shrink this hardware into a pocket-sized form factor. By utilizing a 3D-printed drum instead of a disk, high-speed LEDs, and the powerful Raspberry Pi Pico, this portable device achieves an astonishing horizontal resolution of over 4,000 pixels on a 20-line display.

Harnessing RP2040 PIO to Build a Portable, High-Resolution Mechanical Television

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Published: September 02, 2026

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While modern display technology is dominated by ultra-thin OLED panels and high-refresh-rate LCDs, there is an enduring fascination with the electromechanical display systems of the early 20th century. What began as an exploration into unique digital clock designs has evolved into a fascinating engineering project: a pocket-sized, high-resolution mechanical television known as the Scanwheel. This unique DIY project achieves an astonishing horizontal resolution of 4,096 pixels across just 20 physical scan lines, demonstrating how modern microcontrollers can breathe new life into century-old concepts.

Traditional electromechanical televisions, popularized by pioneers like John Logie Baird in the 1920s, relied on a rotating Nipkow disk. This flat plate featured a series of small apertures arranged in a spiral pattern. As the disk spun, each hole swept across a light source, tracing a single horizontal scan line. By modulating the brightness of the light source in synchronization with the disk's rotation, a complete two-dimensional image could be formed due to the persistence of vision.