Open Hardware: Raspberry Pi Pico, Pixhawk, ESP32, RISC-V

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 08, 2023

• This Raspberry Pi Pico Cat Food Dispenser is the Cats Meow

  Maker Anthony Douglas uses a Raspberry Pi Pico W to power his custom cat food dispenser with a custom web interface.

• Pixhawk 6C Mini is a compact flight controller

  The Pixhawk 6C Mini is a flight controller in a small form-factor based on the Pixhawk FMUv6C Open Standard and Connector Standard. This model incorporates the same STM32 processor and onboard sensors as the Pixhawk 6C, but it also includes a built-in PWM header.

• M5Dial – An ESP32-S3 smart rotary knob with a touchscreen display

  M5Stack M5Dial is a WiFi and Bluetooth-connected smart rotary knob with a round 1.28-inch touchscreen TFT display powered by an ESP32-S3 board, more precisely, the M5Stamp S3 IoT module. The user-programmable device comes with a rotary encoder recording the position and direction of the knob, an RFID module, an RTC, a buzzer, and under-screen buttons, as well as two Grove connectors for expansion enabling all sorts of projects.

• Workshop in Rotterdam: How to Build a Bike Generator

  Since this community will run largely on human power, we need human power plants. Therefore, Kris De Decker and Marie Verdeil organise an open and collaborative workshop where we will build a fully working bicycle generator based on a second-hand spinning bike. You are welcome to learn, experiment, teach, and help.

  During the workshop, we will mount a generator on the bike, build a control panel, and modify devices to run on low voltage. This bicycle generator will be specifically designed to serve as a power source in the communal workshop, so that we can use it to build more stuff we need (including more bike generators).

• Reverse-engineering the mechanical Bendix Central Air Data Computer

  How did fighter planes in the 1950s perform calculations before compact digital computers were available? The Bendix Central Air Data Computer (CADC) is an electromechanical analog computer that used gears and cams for its mathematics. It was used in military planes such as the F-101 and the F-111 fighters, and the B-58 bomber to compute airspeed, Mach number, and other "air data".

• U.S. Lawmakers Want to Block China from 'American' RISC-V [Ed: US government attacking sharing and Free software. Now they say it's OK to share designs/code, except with countries A, B, C. Such exclusions invalidate the spirit if not the rules of the designs and code.]

  U.S. legislators plan to ask government to block access of Chinese entities to American RISC-V innovations.