Hardware: ESP32, Raspberry Pi, DIY, and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 23, 2026

• Devices/Embedded

  • Hackaday ☛ ESP32 Hosts A Public Website

    If you wanted to host a website, you could use any one of a number of online services, or spin up a server on a spare computer at home. If you’re a bit more daring, you could also do what [Tech1k] did, and run one on an ESP32 microcontroller.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • CNX Software ☛ LeafKVM open-source hardware IP KVM offers WiFi 5, PoE, USB-C serial console, and 2.4-inch touchscreen display (Crowdfunding)

    LeafKVM is a wireless and PoE open-source hardware IP KVM based on Rockchip RV1126B SoC with 512MB RAM and a microSD card slot for storage. Like other IP KVMs, it enables remote access to computers and servers, even at the BIOS level or when the machine is unresponsive, by emulating keyboard, mouse, and video through HDMI/VGA and USB ports.

  • CNX Software ☛ Beelink EX Mate Pro – A multi-function USB4 v2 80 Gbps dock with 2.5GbE, M.2 sockets, 140W charger, voice communication system, and more

    Beelink EX Mate Pro is a multi-function USB4 v2 (80 Gbps) dock featuring four PCIe Gen4 sockets for M.2 SSDs, integrating a 140W charger with 96W USB PD charging for a laptop or mini PC, 2.5GbE networking, HDMI and USB4 video output, and a built-in quad-microphone array and speaker for voice interaction.

  • CNX Software ☛ Raspberry Pi RP2350 board offers NB-IoT cellular connectivity, GNSS, and Wi-Fi indoor location

    Challenger+ RP2350 NB-IoT is a Feather-compatible board pairing a Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller and a certified NB-IoT cellular module with built-in GNSS, suitable for long-range, low-power connectivity.

  • Hackaday ☛ Autonomous Coin Flipper Flips Expensive Coin

    Yes, he built an automated online coin flipper to flip this very special piece of coinage. A 12-volt solenoid is fired to flip the coin into the air. It then lands on its 3D-printed tray, where a Raspberry Pi-based computer vision system built with OpenCV and a TFLite model classifies whether the result is heads or tails via a machine learning algorithm. An iris mechanism operated by servo motor then centers the coin on the tray, so it sits back over the solenoid, ready to flip once again. [Térence] was eventually able to refine this simple homemade build to the point that it ran autonomously for a full 50,000 flips on a livestream without issue.

  • Hackaday ☛ Photographing Rocket Chute Deployment At 10 Km

    One of the design limitations with this camera is that it won’t have any sort of parachute or tether itself to the rocket, so it will hit the ground at its terminal velocity. To keep that velocity down and improve survivability chances of the footage, the mass has to stay low. Eventually he settled on a semi-active control system by mounting a brass weight on a small motor, giving the camera module enough stability to stay pointed at the rocket long enough to take the video. Even though it hasn’t flown yet, admitting his first design wasn’t working at compromising on this solution which adds a bit of mass seems to be a good design change. We’ve been following along with his entire process so be sure to check out his actual rocket motor builds and teardowns as well.

  • Hackaday ☛ DIY Smart Button Gets Surprisingly Complicated

    The major issues with wireless devices is one of power consumption. If reliable power is available from a wall plug or solar panel, this isn’t as serious of a concern. But [Dennis] is using batteries for his buttons, so minimizing power consumption is a priority. He’s going with the nRF52, a microcontroller designed for low power and which has a built in wireless radio, and configuring it in a way that uses the least amount of energy possible.

  • Hackaday ☛ Wearable MIDI Controller Built With Raspberry Pi

    The heart of the build is a Raspberry Pi 5. It’s set up to talk to a TI ADS1115 ADC chip that lets it read a bunch of analog flex sensors embedded in a right-hand glove, while the Pi can also read a bunch of tactile buttons activated by the left hand. The flex sensors are used to control synth parameters like LFO rate and filter cutoffs, while the buttons control chord changes. The Raspberry Pi runs custom code to read these devices and generate the requisite MIDI commands to send to a Roland JD-Xi synth which is responsible for actually making the sound. Both sets of fingers are also dotted with LEDs for visual feedback, controlled via a TLC59711 PWM driver.

  • Arduino ☛ Brick streamlines inspections on a budget

    Brick is an open-source embedded device designed specifically for performing and logging inspections. It is a handheld and compact unit that inspectors can carry in a glovebox, wear on a belt, or stuff in a pocket. When it is time for an inspection, they can use Brick to snap relevant photos according to a predefined routine, flag anomalies, and upload inspection reports.

  • CNX Software ☛ SamuRoid – A Raspberry Pi-powered 22-DOF humanoid robot with Multimodal LLMs and ROS support

    Shenzhen Xiao R Geek Technology (XiaoR GEEK) SamuRoid is a 22-DOF bionic humanoid robot built around a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. Designed for researchers, educators, and robotics developers, the robot combines a traditional Robot Operating System (ROS) environment with modern embodied Hey Hi (AI) capabilities.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Chrome Uboxed ☛ Why Google needs to keep Linux support in the new Android-based ‘Aluminium’ project

    When we talk about ChromeOS being re-baselined to the Android kernel—known internally as Project “Aluminium”—the conversation almost always revolves around AI. But for a core group of ChromeOS enthusiasts, there is a lingering fear right now: what happens to Linux support?