Open Hardware/Modding With Focus on Arduino and Raspberry Pi

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 24, 2022

• Arduino vs ESP32

  As the semiconductor industry made unrealistic progress in the last few decades, microcontrollers like Arduino and ESP32 are readily available for multiple projects. Both these projects come a long way and an ideal choice for embedded system projects. Home computers have high power, but they can’t replace microcontroller applications especially if the project demands battery backup or doesn’t need much hardware power. Let’s compare some basic functionality of both Arduino and ESP32 boards.

• The Commodordion

  The melody side of the Commodordion runs Qwertuoso. The accompaniment side runs a custom application for playing chords and loops, which I'll describe here. Technically both C64s load exactly the same program, but it's possible to switch between the two applications with a special key combination.

  Once the accompaniment mode is up and running, the left-hand side is operated with single keypresses only—no key combinations are required. Commonly used keys are close together and, where possible, near the outer edge of the keyboard. It's nevertheless hard to reach some of the functions with the left hand, especially when setting up a loop. I'll return to the matter of ergonomics later in this article.

• Design Your Own Chip With TinyTapeout

  When hackers found and developed ways to order PCBs on the cheap, it revolutionized the way we create. Accessible 3D printing brought us entire new areas to create things. [Matt Venn] is one of the people at the forefront of hackers designing our own silicon, and we’ve covered plenty of his research over the years. His latest effort to involve the hacker community, TinyTapeout, makes chip design accessible to newcomers – the bar is as low as arranging logic gates on a web browser page.

• Keropunk Part 2: Lantern Analysis

  Two weeks ago, I posted some details of my collection of kerosene lanterns, and this post continues along the same lines with more more detailed information about my lanterns, looking at light output, fuel burn, and some thermal images. I know what the spec sheets say - but I like to make my own numbers when I can. And here, I most certainly can!

• Arduino and iconic outdoor brand K-Way, with the support of Edge Impulse, launch a call for developers

  To participate and receive the tools: share your idea through a video or a PDF and be part of this incredible project. The best ideas will receive the Nicla Sense ME and a K-Way jacket to create the project,, starting the competition on November 24th. The full terms & conditions can be found here.

• Raspberry Pi Powers DIY Headless M8 Synthesizer

  Ricardo is an experienced musician who was looking to replace some of the functions from his Roland MC-101 with something that had better sound quality and the ability to support audio input. It also had to have compatibility with his Groovebox, a digital instrument designed to make electronic loops. Ricardo also needed the unit to be completely portable and turned to our favorite SBC to create his own.