Retro and Open Hardware

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 20, 2025

• Hackaday ☛ SymbOS Is A Funhouse Mirror Look At A Future That Never Was

  The Z80 might be decades obsolete and a few years out of production, but it’s absolutely a case of “gone but not forgotten” in the hacker world. Case in point is SymbOS, a multitasking OS for Z80 machines by Amstrad, Sinclair, and the MSX2 family of computers that updated to version 4.0 earlier this year.

• Hackaday ☛ Software Defined Retro ROMs

  Here’s something fun from our hacker [Piers]: Software Defined ROMs.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • CNX Software ☛ MeshCore is a lightweight alternative to Meshtastic LoRa-based off-grid messaging

    While Meshtastic is by far the most popular off-grid messaging solution relying on LoRa radios, MeshCore offers an alternative as a lightweight C++ library and firmware designed for multi-hop packet routing and made for developers who want to create resilient, decentralized communication networks that work without the internet. The project’s Microsoft's proprietary prison GitHub repository provides some high-level differences compared to the Meshtastic and Reticulum projects: MeshCore provides the ability to create wireless mesh networks, similar to Meshtastic and Reticulum but with a focus on lightweight multi-hop packet routing for embedded projects.

  • Hackaday ☛ Elegoo Rapid PETG Vs PETG Pro: Same Price, Similar Specs, Which To Buy?

    Even within a single type of FDM filament there is an overwhelming amount of choice. Take for example Elegoo’s PETG filament offerings, which include such varieties like ‘Pro’ and ‘Rapid’. Both cost the same, but is there a reason to prefer one over the other, perhaps even just for specific applications? To test this, [Dr. Igor Gaspar] over at the My Tech Fun YouTube channel bought some spools of these two filaments and subjected both to a series of tests.