Open Hardware and Retro

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 21, 2024

Arduino ☛ Garrita is an Arduino GIGA Display-powered slideshow

Watching back a slideshow of some of your favorite times of the past years is a great way to reflect on what’s happened and get excited for the future. The Electronic Cats crew wanted to incorporate this concept into a more simplified, interactive form which resulted in the Garrita project.

• CNX Software ☛ This new ESP32-C6-based IoT development board supports solar battery charging

  DFRobot’s FireBeetle 2 ESP32-C6 is an IoT Development Board with 802.11ax (now called Wi-Fi 6), Bluetooth 5, Zigbee 3.0, Thread 1.3, and flexible power options including USB Type-C, 5V DC, and a CN3065 Lithium Ion battery charger for solar-powered systems. This isn’t the first solar-based board we’ve covered. We’ve also explored boards like Conexio Stratus, Wisblock Kit 2, and RAK8211-NB iTracker along with other solar-powered devices such as solar-powered laptops, solar-powered headphones, and even a solar-based power supply.

• Tim Bray ☛ Lofree Flow

  Back in 2008, I complained here about Apple keyboards. Apple still hasn’t addressed my complaint (hard to believe, I know). So, 15 years later, as in late 2023, I picked up a Lofree “Flow”, which I gather had a Kickstarter and advertises itself as “The smoothest mechanical keyboard”. I’ve been using it long enough to offer opinions.

• Tom's Hardware ☛ Pimoroni NVMe Base for Raspberry Pi 5 Review: NVMe for Me

  Raspberry Pi is putting the finishing touches on its M.2 HAT boards for the Raspberry Pi 5. While we wait for the official boards, the community is already hard at work building their own versions. The first was Pineberry Pi’s Hat Drives and they set the foundation for others to follow.

• Sean Conner ☛ Complicating code

  I recently added an .OPT directive to my 6809 assembler. This allows me to add options to a source file instead of having to always specify them on the command line. I originally did this to support unit testing and I feel it's a nice addition.

• Linus Åkesson ☛ The evolution of C64 games 1982–2023

  Thanks to all game developers, sceners, database curators, and members of the broader C64 community, whose contributions over the decades have made this video possible.

• Bodo Tasche ☛ Tuya Zigbee IR Blaster in Home Assistant

  There was only one thing I wished it had. Infrared output. I wanted to remote control devices that only had IR-Input. I tried two Broadlink devices, and both sucked. The first just didn’t want to connect to a properly secured wifi, the other one was buggy as hell. I needed something better. And I found it.

• Linux Gizmos ☛ Banana Pi Teases Open Source Router with Triductor TR6560+TR5220 Wi-Fi SoC

  Banana Pi recently showcased a Mini router designed with the Triductor TR6560 along with TR5220 Wi-Fi System-on-Chip. Some key features of the Banana Pi BPI-Wi-Fi6 Mini are its GbE LAN port and its GbE WAN port for wired connectivity.