Retro/Hardware/Modding: Beelink, Arduino, BeagleBoard, and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 11, 2026

• CNX Software ☛ Beelink ME Pro 2-bay defective chip maker Intel N95/N150 NAS and mini PC supports 5GbE networking, up to 3x M.2 MVMe SSDs

  Beelink ME Pro is a compact 2-bay hybrid NAS and backdoored Windows 11 mini PC built around defective chip maker Intel N95 (Alder Lake-N) or N150 (Twin Lake) SoC, and equipped with two 3.5-/2.5-inch SATA bays and three M.2 2280 NVMe slots for storage.

• Arduino ☛ The MicroBox is a handheld game console that runs on an Arduino UNO R4

  That shiny new Arduino UNO R4 board that you got has quite a bit of power under the hood, thanks to its Renesas RA4M1 Cortex-M4 microcontroller. It has more than enough power to run games and one great way to take advantage of that is by building Szymon Kubica’s MicroBox handheld console.

• Linux Gizmos ☛ DeepComputing Unveils RVA23-Compliant Mainboard III for Linux on Framework 13

  The board features the SpacemiT K3 SoC, which is the first RISC-V processor to implement the RVA23 profile. This succeeds the SpacemiT K1 used in the previous DC-ROMA Laptop II.

• Frank Delporte ☛ First Test of Java on BeagleBoards (ARM and RISC-V)

  As part of my 2026 learning goals around Java on RISC-V (see this post about x86 versus ARM versus RISC-V), I’ve asked various suppliers to send me evaluation boards. I already published these: [...]

• Ruben Schade ☛ Updating the Minipro T48’s firmware

  I recently wrote about using the awesome minipro tool to interface with the Minipro T48 IC programmer.

• [Old] Paul Boyd ☛ Back to basics with the Apple II

  What I’m after probably doesn’t exist in modern computers, so I will try old hardware (or emulated old hardware, anyway). Specifically, the Apple II.1

  I have never used an Apple II before, but I’ve been experimenting with it using MicroM8. It’s very unusual compared to everything I’ve used before. Nothing is obvious when running it, but it’s simple enough that the basics are easily learned. One difference from modern computers that I was not expecting is the prevalence of memory addresses.

• Olimex ☛ Making self hosted web user interface for BME280 temperature, humidity and pressure sensor for ESP32-POE, ESP32-C6-DevKit-Lipo and ESP32-C3-Devkit-Lipo with ESPUI

  Fortunately, there are several open-source alternatives. Our preferred choice is ESPUI. It is a completely open-source library that allows you to create a web-based user interface for projects using the ESP8266 or ESP32. ESPUI uses WebSockets and enables you to create and update GUI elements across multiple devices, such as phones and tablets.

• CNX Software ☛ PicoClaw ultra-lightweight personal Hey Hi (AI) Assistant runs on just 10MB of RAM

  PicoClaw is an ultra-lightweight personal Hey Hi (AI) Assistant designed to work on less than 10 MB RAM and suitable for resource-constrained embedded boards such as the Sipeed LicheeRV Nano SBC going for around $15 and powered by a SOPHGO SG2002 RISC-V SoC with 256MB on-chip DDR3. I keep reading news about the OpenClaw personal Hey Hi (AI) assistant, after first finding out about it when the Cubie A7S SBC was launched. OpenClaw (previously ClawdBot) clears your inbox, sends emails, manages your calendar, and checks you in for flights from WhatsApp, Telegram, or any chat app.

• CNX Software ☛ TOPST D3-G maker SBC is powered by Telechips TCT8050 “Dolphin3” Cortex-A72/A53/R5 automotive-grade SoC

  TOPST D3-G is a single board computer (SBC) powered by a Telechips TCT8050 “Dolphin3/3M” 9-core automotive-grade SoC with four Cortex-A72 cores, four Cortex-A53 cores, and one real-time Cortex-R5 core. The board features 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4 RAM, 32GB eMMC flash and a microSD card for storage, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a DisplayPort 1.2 connector capable of driving four display through MST, two MIPI CSI connectors, a PCIe Gen3x 1 slot, a few USB ports, a 40-pin GPIO header compatible with Raspberry Pi HAT+, and three CAN Bus interfaces.

• CNX Software ☛ VU GPSDR – A low-cost GPS-disciplined SDR expansion board for the Vivid Unit RK3399 touchscreen SBC

  UUGear’s VU GPSDR is a low-cost GPS-disciplined SDR expansion board designed specifically for the Vivid Unit, a palm-sized Rockchip RK3399-based touchscreen SBC we covered back in 2024. The VU GPSDR is built around the RTL2832U ADC and Rafael Micro R860 tuner, but what makes it different from SDRs like the PhaseLatch Mini and DeepRad SDR  is the integration of a u-blox NEO-M8N GPS module.

• WCCF Tech ☛ User Installs OpenClaw AI Agent on MSI’s Tiny Cubi Mini PC Running Linux OS

  Recently, AI Agents such as Clawbot, Motlbot, and OpenClaw have become very popular. These agents act as your personalized AI assistants and run on virtually any machine with persistent memory support and the ability for users to give access to the entire system.