The LR2021-SDR project unlocks raw baseband access on the Semtech LR2021 LoRa transceiver, enabling reception and transmission across 100 MHz to 2.74 GHz—well beyond the chip's documented bands. The GPL-3.0-licensed firmware captures 16-bit I/Q samples over SPI at up to 250,000 complex samples per second, allowing software decoding of P25 digital voice, POCSAG pager traffic, analog FM, and Bluetooth LE advertising. The project includes ESP32-P4 standalone firmware, Python tools, and integration with the developer's LakeShark handheld scanner firmware.

SpacemiT has introduced the V100, a server-class RISC-V processor with 46 cores in a hybrid architecture combining six XiangShan Kunminghu V2R2 cores and 40 SpacemiT X100 cores. The chip supports up to 92 cores in dual-socket configurations, DDR5-4800 memory, and PCIe 5.0. The company claims it is the first processor to fully comply with the RISC-V Server Specification, with a firmware stack incorporating UEFI, ACPI, SMBIOS, OpenSBI, and SBI v3.0. Supported Linux distributions include Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Red Hat, Rocky Linux, openEuler, openKylin, and openRuyi.

Dr. Semiconductor published a video and blog post detailing how to create functional silicon solar cells at home using a microwave kiln. The process starts with a bare silicon wafer, applies a phosphorus-doped glass layer via spin-coating with a TEOS-based solution, then fires it at under 50% microwave power for 30 minutes. After removing the glass layer, gallium-indium and indium contacts complete the cell. The resulting device achieved about 5% efficiency, with identified paths for improvement including clean-room conditions, anti-reflection coating, and better contact formation.

Crankfruit is a new open hardware project from Adafruit that turns the Fruit Jam development board into a standalone game player. It runs Playdate-inspired Lua games with one-bit graphics and synthesized audio output over HDMI, controlled via USB gamepad and an optional 100-pulse CNC handwheel encoder that replicates the Playdate's signature crank input. The project includes a full Learn Guide for building the device and creating games.

Classic Macintosh software from the 1980s and 1990s has been rebuilt as native macOS applications. The developer used Claude Opus 5.5 to reverse-engineer each program back toward its original source language, then ported game logic to Swift or C with SDL. The ports require macOS 14 Sonoma or later; Universal builds run on both Apple silicon and Intel, while others need Apple silicon. The original sounds and artwork are preserved. The project is an unofficial preservation effort with takedown provisions for rights holders.

The driver targets SM16380 S-PWM HUB75 panels, which are incompatible with common HUB75 libraries because each driver chip has independent frame memory and PWM generation. Row scanning runs in hardware with zero CPU overhead. Frame updates splice in at scan pass boundaries to eliminate tearing. A 128×64 panel achieves approximately 67 fps. The implementation runs on a $10 ESP32-S3 board using the LCD_CAM peripheral in i80 mode, with CLK encoded as a data bit rather than the LCD write strobe. Color depth is 4 bits per channel.

Peter Holzhauser released Etherbulb on GitHub, open-source firmware for ESP32-C3 smart bulbs that visualizes nearby radio frequency activity. The bulb glows blue for Bluetooth, green for Wi-Fi, and a user-selected color for other signals, with brightness indicating signal strength. It requires no app, cloud service, or account, and does not decode content or transmit. The firmware includes a local JSON API and web dashboard for status, configuration, logs, and raw spectrum snapshots.

Robin Cole has released an open-source UK train departure board for the Pimoroni Presto display board. The project connects directly to National Rail's Rail Data Marketplace REST/JSON API, bypassing the legacy SOAP service and eliminating any need for intermediate hardware or cloud infrastructure. Setup requires only two local files: a secrets file for credentials and a config.py for station and display settings. Users can either replace main.py for automatic startup or keep the stock launcher and run train_display.py from the carousel.

Neato Robotics shut down in 2023, rendering its cloud-dependent robot vacuums inoperable. Vacuula has released an open-source, self-hosted server on GitHub that replaces the defunct company infrastructure. The project supports ARM 64-bit and x86 64-bit platforms, with Home Assistant integration available via an add-on repository. Docker Compose deployment is provided for other users.

The LT6502b is a slimmer redesign of the LT6502, a laptop built around the classic 6502 processor. The new orange revision removes the expansion port and adds a modem and SID sound chip. The memory map otherwise carries over from the first version. Build progress is documented from case render through to a fully assembled working machine.

Developer ajtaji published NesEmulatorPicoSeries on GitHub, an MIT-licensed NES emulator written in PureMetal and compiled to bare-metal machine code. It targets the Raspberry Pi Pico W, Pico 2 W, and Pi 4 under Anvil. A Python tool lets users flash their own .nes ROM files to the board. The RP2350 port uses both Cortex-M33 cores at 150 MHz with 75 MHz LCD SPI. Audio output is via Bluetooth A2DP at 48 kHz stereo over the CYW43439 radio, though users must build their own firmware to set a speaker address.

Developer cemaxecuter has integrated a Meshtastic sniffer into DragonOS, his Linux distribution for software-defined radio work. The tool is written in C as a standalone binary and can scan Meshtastic's full operating bandwidth to detect traffic, which it decodes if the encryption key is known. It is designed to work with a HackRF SDR, though the hardware's bandwidth does not cover every Meshtastic frequency. The software helps users locate active channels and networks without prior knowledge of specific channel configurations.

The TwinX system consists of two identical WiXus robots, each with articulated limbs ending in wheels. A 2 mm Dyneema wire with 313 newtons of continuous tension pulls them together until docking pins engage, creating rigid mechanical connections. The wire remains active when robots are separated, enabling cooperative manipulation and force transmission. Three docking surfaces allow transformation between configurations. The platform remains experimental; researchers aim to automate separated cooperation and expand to multi-robot, multi-wire systems.

The open-source micro-manipulator project has released version 4.0 with substantial mechanical improvements. The device uses stepper motors and parallel kinematics for sub-millimeter positioning of probes or tools. Version 4.0 addresses five specific design flaws including self-collision during homing, loose ball joint constraints, inconsistent linkage rod lengths, excess friction, and glued-in rubber bands. The project also changed its control API and added g-code tool support for applications like laser engraving.

The Adafruit CP2105 Friend is a new USB-to-dual-UART converter board aimed at makers and embedded developers who need two serial ports but want to avoid USB hub complexity. It uses Silicon Labs' CP2105 chip and is documented with a full learning guide including pinouts and downloadable resources. The board fits Adafruit's existing 'Friend' product line of USB interface breakouts.

Les Pounder has published the third installment of his Tiny FX series on Pimoroni's Learn site, focusing on audio integration. The tutorial covers two techniques: generating simple tones directly and playing WAV files from the board's 4MB onboard storage. A complete sample project recreates the Ghostbusters ECTO-1 siren with synchronized LED flashing, controlled by the BOOT button. The walkthrough targets makers with roughly 45 minutes of build time and uses Audacity for audio file preparation.

OnAir is a new free and open source software-defined radio receiver available as prebuilt binaries for four operating systems. It unifies reception of broadcast, satellite, aviation, cellular and amateur radio signals in a single application, with broad hardware compatibility from low-cost RTL-SDR dongles to professional USRP equipment. Users without hardware can analyze recorded IQ samples or run a demo signal tour.

The Open Embedded Probe (OEP) project has published its initial specification for a protocol that would standardize communication between embedded debug probes and host systems. The specification is not yet frozen; until it is, the authoritative version is in Japanese. English normative documents are planned for the freeze point. The project is maintaining a single current source rather than keeping outdated translations.

Developer [omlahore] released RemoveMacAI, an open-source tool that consolidates Apple Intelligence removal into a single interface. Users can selectively disable AI features, reclaim disk space by deleting associated models, and prevent macOS from re-downloading them by redirecting requests to a closed local port. The tool shows all changes before applying them and allows reversibility. It has gained significant popularity since its release two weeks ago.

Adafruit has published a guide for CircuitPython 11's new text-to-speech capability, which runs entirely on microcontroller hardware without external services. The implementation uses Moonshine Klatt for average-capability chips and PicoTTS for more powerful microcontrollers with PSRAM. Previously, microcontroller speech synthesis was considered too slow for practical use.

The CP2105 Friend is a fully assembled breakout board that provides two UART interfaces—one 'enhanced' and one 'standard'—over a single USB-C connection. It requires no USB hub and enumerates both ports automatically when plugged in. The board ships with header pins for breadboard use and works without drivers on Linux.

Arduino has ended the introductory pricing for its VENTUNO Q edge AI board, raising the price from $299 to $399 effective October 19. Pre-orders placed at the lower price will be honored. The company attributes the increase to sharply rising memory module costs across the industry. The board features a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU with 40 TOPS, 16 GB RAM, and an STM32H5 microcontroller for real-time control.

hackTurin, organized by Apeira, took place October 9–11 in Turin with 100 selected engineers from Italian universities and EPFL Switzerland. Seeed Studio provided Grove modules and components to every team, plus a Seeed Ranger mentor on site. The event featured €10,000 in prizes across three challenge tracks: safer urban mobility, solar-energy maintenance, and technology for non-profits. Winning projects included vibration-sensing solar panel diagnostics, edge-AI traffic monitoring, and an e-scooter safety device with helmet-mounted LED alerts.

Yeo Kheng Meng has published open-source drivers that bring USB3.0 and experimental USB4/Thunderbolt support to Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. The USB3.0 driver replaces his earlier xHCI98 driver and is available on GitHub. On Windows 98, USB3.0 speeds are capped around 200 MB/s due to the OS's 64kB maximum USB transfer request limit. The experimental Thunderbolt support can access docked NVMe drives via the Stor98 driver, which is based on SweetLow's NVMe9x project. Meng also released a fork of QEMU 11 that emulates USB4/Thunderbolt hosts and devices to aid development.

The Bergen Linux User Group's 2001 experiment in avian IP networking has concluded with a Christie's auction result of $20,480 for the framed data packet. The Norwegian group sent the datagram via carrier pigeon as a deliberate contrast to slow ADSL speeds of the era. The winning bid dramatically exceeded the auction house's $3,000 estimate.

Greenhill Forge has built a heat-driven absorption refrigerator that uses water and road salt as its working fluids instead of conventional refrigerants. The system boils a saltwater solution with fire, condenses the vapor, then evaporates it under low pressure to absorb heat from the cooled space. A small solar panel or battery powers only the pumps and fans. In initial tests, the unit reached approximately 5°C with 16°C ambient temperature—below typical refrigerator targets but demonstrating the concept with minimal infrastructure.

The Pixie is a new open-hardware LED module from Adafruit designed by Ytai Ben-Tsvi. Each unit combines a 3W LED—15 times the power of a standard NeoPixel—with a Microchip PIC microcontroller that manages PWM and implements a shift-register-like forwarding protocol for chaining. Communication uses 115200 baud with one byte per color, and modules require at least one update per second to prevent timeout shutdown.

A BeagleBoard.org developer published a detailed guide for network-booting the BeaglePlay single-board computer using U-Boot TFTP for the kernel and device tree, with an NFS-exported root filesystem from a Fedora Atomic host. The setup replaces a slow development loop of repeatedly removing and copying to an SD card. The post includes specific fixes for boot failures, such as masking the bbbio-set-sysconf.service dependency on /boot/firmware, handling SELinux xattr conflicts during rsync, and ensuring required network and NFS drivers are built into the kernel rather than modules.

The Darwin Board, created by Saikarthik Ramakrishnan, treats each possible RC circuit configuration as a genome within a 2040-combination search space. An onboard ESP32 evaluates performance and evolves the circuit to filter unwanted signals. The project is documented on GitHub with build files and code available.

The undocumented I/Q sampling capabilities of the MediaTek MT7921AU Wi-Fi chip have been harnessed by two separate open-source projects released within days of each other. BirriaSDR streams raw samples at 40 Msps with 14-bit resolution without modifying firmware, while Mtk79ICAP offers a SoapySDR interface with up to 80 MHz bandwidth and 5 GHz tuning after applying firmware changes. Both projects follow recent similar discoveries in ESP32 and other wireless chips.

Juha Lilja's Micro DOS arcade cabinet uses an M5Stack AtomS3R as an embedded remote terminal to stream classic DOS games from a nearby PC. The device tilts for directional input and registers screen presses for button actions, with all game logic running on the remote computer. Firmware and documentation are available on GitHub.

An open hardware project has demonstrated a very small drone that flies using only a single propeller, a configuration that normally requires large rotors or secondary mechanisms for stability. The design relies on a hinged propeller hub that rapidly manipulates blade angles to control pitch and roll, combined with direct motor speed and position measurement rather than standard ESC back-EMF sensing. The project files are available on GitHub, and the creator plans to add environmental scanning for autonomous outdoor flight.

Developer Hoani Bryson has created an open source game engine designed to bridge web and embedded platforms. By using Go, Ebitengine, and TinyGo, the engine enables a game to run on a custom PCB built for a Nokia 3310 or within a standard web browser. The project was developed for the Trick Shot II entry in a Nokia 3310 Jam.

A series of independent discoveries has revealed software-defined radio (SDR) capabilities in hardware previously thought to be limited. Researchers found a debug mode in ESP32 chips that allows access to raw radio data upstream of the MAC hardware, and others have successfully implemented transmission functionality. Additionally, SDR capabilities have been identified in the LR2021 LoRa chip, covering frequencies from 150 MHz to 960 MHz.

SolidCraft is an emerging open source 3D modeling suite that supports sketching, solid modeling, and constraints through a parametric feature timeline. Written in Rust, the software provides multiple interfaces including desktop, browser, headless CLI, and an MCP server for AI agents. The tool allows for automated rebuilding of models when parameters are modified.