Right, the last article's gone live so it's time for my daily #Hackster round-up - and once again I've been a busy beaver, so if you don't want a ten-toot-thread in your timeline maybe put me on a timed mute... now.
First up is an update to the #Arduino PLC IDE, for the Opta and Portenta Machine Control - bringing support for OTA updates via Modbus TCP, even over a VPN.
A *fantastic* project next, using a #RaspberryPi to stream vinyl records.
Right, okay, that sounds confusing: it captures the audio via a USB soundcard and streams it to AirPlay/Bluetooth speakers... while also capturing it as FLAC to a local database for on-demand playback. Oh, and it fingerprints the audio so it can show the right metadata for each record. Locally.
Yeah, told you it was fantastic.
Andrew "buinnie" Huang's Dabao, which I wrote about back in January, is now crowdfunding: under $10 (plus shipping, admittedly) for a microcontroller board built around the Baochip-1x - a #RISCV part with "mostly open RTL," and packaged in a way you can peer beneath the silicon's surface with an infrared torch and a modified inspection camera.
#Technology #News #Hackster #OpenSilicon #OpenHardware #Microcontroller
Some #science next, with a battery-powered lightweight lower-body exoskeleton designed for stroke survivors - dropping the energy required to walk when half your body is weakened by 20 per cent.
The team's working on having it boost movements beyond walking, too.
More news out of #Arduino: Edge Impulse Studio is now fully integrated in the Arduino App Lab, the IDE that lets you write programs that can make use of both the application-class Linux-based and real-time microcontroller chips on the Arduino UNO Q.
For AI.
No, wait, come back! It's the good kind! Machine learning! You can use it to train machine learning models on your own ethically-sourced data and run them entirely on-device.
Peter "Bobricius" Misenko's revisited the Armachat ESP32-based #Meshtastic messenger and PICOmputer #RaspberryPi Pico-powered portable ZX Spectrum emulator - creating "FLIP" variants with a clamshell design, like little mini laptops.
They're still using PCBs as a chassis, too. Sandwich-tastic!
#Technology #News #Hackster #Emulator #Microcontroller #VintageComputing
Back to #science now, and this one's... unexpected. Researchers have found a use for "detoxified" asbestos cement - yes, the wonder-material that we built everything out of before finding out exactly why we shouldn't have done that.
They're using it as an additive. For PLA. To feed into 3D printers.
The crazy part: if processed in the right way, it's not only safe but can reduce the temperature required for the PLA to biodegrade.
Finally - *finally* - a work-in-progress project to build a microcontroller-powered "smartphone," which has already reached the functional prototype stage with voice calls, text messaging, data connectivity, and a working camera.
Oh, and it's 4G - which means it'll work even in places where they've already shuttered the 3G network most of these projects were based on. (The ones that aren't 2G, anyway.)
And the ad-/tracker-free #GeminiProtocol links:
Arduino PLC:
gemini://tilde.club/~ghalfacree/202603/20260304-plc.gmi
Vinyl Streamer:
gemini://tilde.club/~ghalfacree/202603/20260304-vinyl.gmi
Dabao:
gemini://tilde.club/~ghalfacree/202603/20260304-dabao.gmi
Exoskeleton:
gemini://tilde.club/~ghalfacree/202603/20260304-exo.gmi
Arduino App Lab:
gemini://tilde.club/~ghalfacree/202603/20260304-applab.gmi
Armachat/PICOmputer Flip:
gemini://tilde.club/~ghalfacree/202603/20260304-bob.gmi
...
...and the remaining #GeminiProtocol links:
Asbestos as a 3D-printing additive, but in a good way:
gemini://tilde.club/~ghalfacree/202603/20260304-asbestos.gmi
ESP32 smartphone:
gemini://tilde.club/~ghalfacree/202603/20260304-phone.gmi
You'll need a Gemini client to visit all those, and it's worth having a play to see what lives on the other side of the web - I recommend Lagrange on both desktop and mobile.
Gareth Halfacree
