mikedeblin writes about a portable MP3 player built on the ESP32-S3 that plays music from a microSD card or streams it from a DLNA/UPnP media server (tested with Synology Audio Station). The device features a 1.8" colour TFT with four display modes, an OLED status display, a rotary encoder with a 16-LED ring, and an output compressor and limiter that protect the DAC from being overdriven.
- Uses a PCM5102A DAC in hardware I²S mode with a ReaComp-style compressor and brick-wall lookahead limiter
- Network streaming uses a 256 KB PSRAM ring buffer to absorb WiFi drop-outs
- Supports ID3v2.3/2.4 tags in UTF-16, UTF-8, Latin-1, and Windows-1251 (Cyrillic)
- LED ring is driven through an MCP23017 I²C GPIO expander with 125 Hz multiplexing
- MP3 only for now; AAC and FLAC decoders exist in AudioTools but are not yet wired in
- Uses a PCM5102A DAC in hardware I²S mode with a ReaComp-style compressor and brick-wall lookahead limiter
- Network streaming uses a 256 KB PSRAM ring buffer to absorb WiFi drop-outs
- Supports ID3v2.3/2.4 tags in UTF-16, UTF-8, Latin-1, and Windows-1251 (Cyrillic)
- LED ring is driven through an MCP23017 I²C GPIO expander with 125 Hz multiplexing
- MP3 only for now; AAC and FLAC decoders exist in AudioTools but are not yet wired in
Silvio Werner writes that Banana Pi has announced the BPI-CM7, a compact compute module intended as an alternative to Raspberry Pi compute modules. It is not a standalone board and requires a carrier board, which makes it well suited for ultra-compact custom devices that only need a few breakout interfaces. It uses an Allwinner H618 with four Cortex-A53 cores and an ARM Mali-G31 GPU, and pricing and availability have not been announced.
- 55 x 40 mm form factor with two 100-pin high-density connectors
- Confirmed variant has 2 GB LPDDR4 and 32 GB eMMC
- Integrated Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0
- Supports 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet and USB 2.0
- Exposes GPIO, UART, SPI and draws power from 5 V
- 55 x 40 mm form factor with two 100-pin high-density connectors
- Confirmed variant has 2 GB LPDDR4 and 32 GB eMMC
- Integrated Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0
- Supports 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet and USB 2.0
- Exposes GPIO, UART, SPI and draws power from 5 V
Abhishek Kumar Mishra writes that he created a background bash script to automate service monitoring and self-healing on his Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. The script is scheduled via systemd to check the status of Docker, Pi-Hole, Unbound, and Tailscale at regular intervals, restarting failed services without requiring manual SSH intervention. It acts as an additional protection layer beyond Docker's built-in restart policies and only triggers a system reboot when multiple checks fail.
- The script was generated using ChatGPT and selected over a Gemini output because it included appropriate delays between checks.
- Lightweight approach is preferred on the Zero 2 W because heavier tools like Uptime Kuma or Grafana consume too many resources.
- The script saves logs to a file, providing a baseline for further troubleshooting when manual intervention is still required.
- The script was generated using ChatGPT and selected over a Gemini output because it included appropriate delays between checks.
- Lightweight approach is preferred on the Zero 2 W because heavier tools like Uptime Kuma or Grafana consume too many resources.
- The script saves logs to a file, providing a baseline for further troubleshooting when manual intervention is still required.
Linus wrote Git in about 10 days, so I asked my local LLM to build something similar with one promptRich Edmonds writes that he tasked a local LLM with building a Git-like version control system from scratch to test the capabilities of home-based models. Using a 27B parameter Qwen model on a modest 20 GB VRAM setup, the system generated a working Python script named tinyvcs that handles core repository functions like initialization, commits, and history inspection. While the model identified and fixed several bugs on its own, it eventually required manual intervention to correct schema validation and symlink issues, producing a functional but basic proof of concept that lacks features like branching and remote management.
- The hardware utilized for this project is being used for a non-intended purpose, as consumer-grade GPUs are generally designed for gaming and graphics rendering rather than the heavy lifting required for local model inference.
- The LLM was strictly constrained to the Python standard library and had no internet access or ability to call external APIs.
- The resulting tinyvcs tool is comparable to an early prototype of Git, featuring content-addressed objects and SHA-based IDs but missing standard features like tags, remotes, and merging.
- The hardware utilized for this project is being used for a non-intended purpose, as consumer-grade GPUs are generally designed for gaming and graphics rendering rather than the heavy lifting required for local model inference.
- The LLM was strictly constrained to the Python standard library and had no internet access or ability to call external APIs.
- The resulting tinyvcs tool is comparable to an early prototype of Git, featuring content-addressed objects and SHA-based IDs but missing standard features like tags, remotes, and merging.
Waveshare's Thermal-Camera-ESP32-Module is a compact wireless infrared thermal imaging camera built on the ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 chip, featuring an 80x62 pixel microbolometer/thermopile sensor array with a 25 FPS refresh rate and a dual-mode 2.4 GHz WiFi/Bluetooth 5 LE connection. It offers two field-of-view options (45° basic and 90° wide angle), supports target temperatures from -40°C to 400°C with ±2°C accuracy, and includes a rechargeable lithium battery header, Type-C power connector, and 14 GPIO pins for expansion. The module can stream thermal images via a web interface or serial port, configured through an Android Bluetooth app or factory firmware flashing.
- NETD of 125mK provides reasonable thermal sensitivity for consumer and hobbyist applications
- The module supports both AP (hotspot) and STA (client) WiFi modes, with AP mode defaulting to 192.168.4.1:3333
- Emissivity considerations are important for accurate readings; the article explains gray body and selective radiator concepts
- Source code is provided for VS Code and ESP-IDF v5.4.1, enabling secondary development
- A third-party Node.js web interface project is linked for alternative display solutions
- NETD of 125mK provides reasonable thermal sensitivity for consumer and hobbyist applications
- The module supports both AP (hotspot) and STA (client) WiFi modes, with AP mode defaulting to 192.168.4.1:3333
- Emissivity considerations are important for accurate readings; the article explains gray body and selective radiator concepts
- Source code is provided for VS Code and ESP-IDF v5.4.1, enabling secondary development
- A third-party Node.js web interface project is linked for alternative display solutions
Stuart writes that Arduino's reputation collapsed after Qualcomm's acquisition introduced new terms of service requiring a "perpetual, irrevocable license" over user uploads. The maker community, led by Adafruit, initially reacted with outrage, but that anger has since morphed into simple apathy. Despite the company pushing new AI-powered boards and publishing content about agentic AI environments, the platform has become irrelevant in organic conversations.
- Adafruit's "Death of Arduino" graphic went viral on LinkedIn
- New boards include "Arduino Ventuno Q" with on-device processing power
- The author suspects Qualcomm is targeting corporate clients over individual hobbyists
- Competitors like Raspberry Pi Pico and ESP32 boards are gaining traction in the sub-$10 space
- Adafruit's "Death of Arduino" graphic went viral on LinkedIn
- New boards include "Arduino Ventuno Q" with on-device processing power
- The author suspects Qualcomm is targeting corporate clients over individual hobbyists
- Competitors like Raspberry Pi Pico and ESP32 boards are gaining traction in the sub-$10 space
admin writes that multiple independent projects have discovered an undocumented feature in ESP32 chips that bypasses standard WiFi and Bluetooth functions to capture raw IQ baseband samples. This allows several ESP32 models to operate as internal SDRs covering 2.2–2.7 GHz, with the ESP32-C5 extending to 4.8–6.0 GHz at up to 80 MS/s. While most implementations are limited to snapshot-based spectrum analysis due to bandwidth constraints, the new ESP32-S31 supports continuous streaming over Gigabit Ethernet. Other projects have leveraged this feature to enable phase-coherent direction finding and a 5.8 GHz FPV video receiver.
- The ESPARGOS team is not implementing phase-coherent transmissions due to misuse concerns.
- An FPGA-based prototype by user h0m3us3r streams data continuously, though it has poor phase noise.
- The C5VRX project utilizes the undocumented IQ stream for a 5.8 GHz FPV video receiver.
- The ESPARGOS team is not implementing phase-coherent transmissions due to misuse concerns.
- An FPGA-based prototype by user h0m3us3r streams data continuously, though it has poor phase noise.
- The C5VRX project utilizes the undocumented IQ stream for a 5.8 GHz FPV video receiver.
A repository of bug-fixed and patched software projects for DEC PDP-11 systems, targeting real hardware, SimH, and PiDP-11 emulators running RT-11 and RSX-11M-PLUS. The two main projects are FIG-FORTH v1.4, which corrects garbled terminal output and a corrupted screen file, and FOCAL-11 V11-01C, which fixes an infinite recursion crash in the FEXP function.
- FIG-FORTH originally marked dictionary names with a high bit that modern terminals rendered as a literal "?" character; the patch strips it before display without affecting the dictionary
- The FORTH.DAT file was distributed with a VARIABLE RMS record format, embedding 2-byte length headers every 512 bytes that appeared as stray characters in screens
- FOCAL-11's XFEXP computed e^x by recursively halving the exponent until it fell below -8, but zero's exponent never decreases, so the recursion ran the stack into memory; all other math functions already had a depth guard
- FOCAL is a BASIC-like language from the late 1960s; Lunar Lander was originally written in it
- FIG-FORTH originally marked dictionary names with a high bit that modern terminals rendered as a literal "?" character; the patch strips it before display without affecting the dictionary
- The FORTH.DAT file was distributed with a VARIABLE RMS record format, embedding 2-byte length headers every 512 bytes that appeared as stray characters in screens
- FOCAL-11's XFEXP computed e^x by recursively halving the exponent until it fell below -8, but zero's exponent never decreases, so the recursion ran the stack into memory; all other math functions already had a depth guard
- FOCAL is a BASIC-like language from the late 1960s; Lunar Lander was originally written in it
Jenny List writes about how an undocumented feature in certain ESP32 chips allows the raw I/Q stream to be tapped before the WiFi modem, effectively turning them into software-defined radio receivers. Discovered independently by Espargos and a Reddit user, the mode supports both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands but is limited to receive-only operation.
- Only works on ESP32 variants with earlier Tensilica hardware; Bluetooth-only and non-radio P4 chips won't work
- Transmit capability appears possible but remains undocumented, with the discoverer refusing to share due to "rule 3"
- The 80 Msps 32-bit/sample data rate creates bandwidth challenges for external transfer via SDIO or UART interfaces
- Only works on ESP32 variants with earlier Tensilica hardware; Bluetooth-only and non-radio P4 chips won't work
- Transmit capability appears possible but remains undocumented, with the discoverer refusing to share due to "rule 3"
- The 80 Msps 32-bit/sample data rate creates bandwidth challenges for external transfer via SDIO or UART interfaces
Giorgio Mendoza writes that Makerfabs has released the MaTouch ESP32-S3 7.5-inch Quad-Color E-Ink board, pairing an 800×480 four-color electrophoretic display with an ESP32-S3R8 controller, a four-microphone array, a six-axis IMU, and microSD storage for low-power displays and voice-controlled interfaces.
- Priced at $59.80, with an optional OV3660 3-megapixel camera adding $4.80
- The E Ink panel uses a JD79665 controller with a full-screen refresh time of about 20 seconds
- Software support includes ESP-IDF 5.4.2 and Arduino, with published examples for camera capture and voice-activated image browsing
- The board supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 LE, with 8MB PSRAM and 16MB SPI flash
- Priced at $59.80, with an optional OV3660 3-megapixel camera adding $4.80
- The E Ink panel uses a JD79665 controller with a full-screen refresh time of about 20 seconds
- Software support includes ESP-IDF 5.4.2 and Arduino, with published examples for camera capture and voice-activated image browsing
- The board supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 LE, with 8MB PSRAM and 16MB SPI flash
