I built a [MultiWii] based [Quadrocopter] a few years ago before you could buy them in each electronics market. You can find pictures of the complete build process here:
[20.Feb.2011] Basic Frame and Sensor Unit
[20.Feb.2011] Sensor Unit Top
[20.Feb.2011] Sensor Unit Bottom
[19.Mar.2011] Basic frame with mounting holes
[10.Apr.2011] Turnigy Plush 10A ESCs and Programming Card
[10.Apr.2011] Working on receiver board...
[16.Apr.2011] LaserCut A20-28M motors
[16.Apr.2011] Motors, mounting plates and base frame
[20.Apr.2011] It slowly begins to looks like a Quadrocopter...
[23.Apr.2011] Frame finished, motors and ESCs mounted (1)
[23.Apr.2011] Frame finished, motors and ESCs mounted (2)
[26.Apr.2011] Everything put provisionally together (1)
[26.Apr.2011] Everything put provisionally together (2)
[22.May.2011] Sensor Unit with LiPo Alarm (Buzzer & LED)
[22.May.2011] Added stands with orientation marking
[01.Jun.2011] New landing gear and APC 7x5E propellers
[17.Jul.2011] Reworked the Sensor Unit to make space for an BMA180; Nunchuk can be removed now
[06.Apr.2011] Futaba T7CP - Mount Jeti TU2 2.4GHz Module
[06.Apr.2011] Futaba T7CP - Everything neatly tucked behind the 35MHz transmitter
[06.Apr.2011] Futaba T7CP - Upgrade to 2.4GHz finished
[17.Jul.2011] Playing with DesignSpark PCB
[17.Jul.2011] DesignSpark PCB - MultiWii Layout V1
[17.Jul.2011] DesignSpark PCB - MultiWii Layout V2
[15.Oct.2011] DesignSpark PCB - LPC1769 Layout V1
[30.Jul.2011] LPCXpresso 1769 - ARM Cortex M3
[09.Oct.2011] LPCXpresso 1769 - 3.3V Power regulator and Buzzer fitted
[15.Oct.2011] LPCXpresso 1769 - BMA-180 and ITG-3200 fitted
Even longer ago, i built my own [ALIX6E2] based UMTS-WLAN Router. This was before my rural village had DSL coverage, so a for a few years i had to do with a 2GB UMTS Flatrate. I used a self-compiled [OpenWRT] software. These days you eat up that data budget while watching a single YouTube video.
Once upon a time i built the [Elektor experimental RFID-Reader] which can read ISO14443A cards. Again this was before every single credit card had an embedded RFID.
For work and home usage i built two headphone amplifiers based on the [MINT schematics] from Tangentsoft.
I also built two programmers for PIC microcontrollers and a simple one for AVRs.
Find a few snapshots below:
UMTS antenna based on Quados design from YU1AW - Calculated and optimized with 4nec
UMTS antenna based on Quados design from YU1AW - Calculated and optimized with 4nec
RFID-Reader - Front
RFID-Reader - Back
RFID-Reader - Top
Headphone Amplifiers - Front
Headphone Amplifier - Top
Headphone Amplifier - Component Placement
Headphone Amplifier - Wiring Bottom
PICkit2 Clone - JDM PIC Programmer