Open Hardware: ESPboy, Picopad, MangoPi
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ESPboy Turned Into Functional Walkie-Talkie
The ESPBoy was first built as a hackable open-source game engine and handheld console for educational purposes. However, it’s also a platform that can readily support all kinds of other uses. You can even turn the humble handheld device into a working walkie talkie.
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Picopad Is A New Open Source Game Console
Microcontrollers are so powerful these days that you can build color handheld games with them that match or exceed what you’d ever get on the Game Boys and Game Gears of yesteryear. The Picopad aims to offer just this, in an open-source hackable format that’s friendly to experimenters.
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MangoPi RISC-V router will support dual GbE, dual USB 2.0, CAN bus, RS485, and more
MangoPi is working on the first RISC-V router I’ve seen, based on the ArtInChip D213ECV 64-bit RISC-V processor with 256MB SPI NAND flash, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 2.0 ports, MIPI DSI+touch connector, support for CAN Bus and RS485, and expansion through a 22-pin GPIO header. Routers used to be mostly based on MIPS processors, then Arm processors took over, and maybe RISC-V is next, as MangoPi has just unveiled photos of the first RISC-V router on Twitter, and leaked some tidbits of information over the last two weeks or so on the social media platform. MangoPi RISC-V router specifications (preliminary): SoC – ArtInChip D213ECV 64-bit RISC-V (RV64IMAFDC) processor System Memory – Not specified, but there should be on-chip RAM, as there’s no footprint for a RAM chip on the PCB.