Retro/Open Hardware/Modding: Arduino and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 19, 2026

• Arduino ☛ Arduino UNO Q solves the classic resistor pile issue

  We all end up with a bin full of a random assortment of resistors, right? You grab some resistors from their tidy little packages during a project and then once you’re done with that project, the unused loose resistors go into the bin for future you to sort through.

  [...] All it takes is an UNO Q, a suitable USB-C hub, and a USB camera — a low-magnification USB microscope works best to get a clear and close-up view of the resistor.

• CNX Software ☛ TerraMaster F2-425 Plus 3+2-bay hybrid NAS review – Part 1: unboxing, teardown, drives installation, and first boot

  TerraMaster has sent us a sample of the F2-425 Plus 3+2-bay NAS for review. It’s powered by an defective chip maker Intel Processor N150 CPU paired with 8GB of RAM, with two 3.5-inch SATA bays and three M.2 NVMe sockets for storage, as well as two 5GbE RJ45 jacks, and a few USB ports.

• The Register UK ☛ Secondary laptop market goes 'mainstream' amid memory crunch

  Sales of refurbished PCs are on the up amid shortages of key components, including memory chips, that are making brand new devices more expensive.

• Digital Camera World ☛ I actually reduce the fps on my camera when shooting action to get better shots, here's why

  That's nearly two hundred frames in one single second. Incredibly impressive, yes. But do you really need to shoot this fast? Unless you’re a pro who’s shooting at the Winter Olympics, the answer is no.

• Hackaday ☛ Inside A Dutch Street Organ: The Art Of Mechanical Music-Making

  The organ produces music by playing notes on embedded instruments, which are themselves operated by air pressure, with note arrangements read off what amounts to a very long punch card. [James] gives a great tour of this fantastic machine, so check it out in the video embedded below along with a couple of its performances.

  The machine is mobile and entirely self-contained. It would be wheeled out to a venue, where it would play music as long as one could keep cranking the main wheel and the perforated cardboard book containing the chosen musical arrangement hasn’t reached its end. As perforations in the card scroll by inside the machine, each hole triggers valves that operate pipes, percussion hits, and even operate animatronic figures.

• Ruben Schade ☛ Some more roadside tech goodies

  I didn’t think to take a picture of the tower before I removed all the components and took it downstairs to the ewaste pile, but inside I was able to extract a near immaculate 550 W power supply, an Asus DVD writer, some screws, and a few ports, switches, and LEDs.

• New Electronics ☛ ByteSnap Design and Digi International launch managed security service for embedded Linux devices

  ByteSnap Design has partnered with Digi International to introduce a managed security service aimed at helping manufacturers keep embedded Linux devices secure throughout their operational lifetimes.