news
Open Hardware/Modding: Bambu Lab Versus AGPL, ESP32, and More
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Josef Prusa says Bambu Lab allegedly violates AGPL license with an un-auditable network 'black box' — warns Chinese 3D printing software poses massive security risks
While the internet is up in arms over Bambu Lab threatening legal action against an indy OrcaSlicer developer, Josef Prusa once again warns of sheep in wolves' clothing. Prusa, the founder and CEO of Prusa Research and proponent of open source, has often noted that his company is the last Western manufacturer of desktop 3D printers still standing after China began subsidizing manufacturers within its borders.
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Arduino ☛ Massive 7:1 scale Arduino UNO gets matching 7:1 scale turtle robot
A few months ago, UncleStem built a completely functional 7:1 scale Arduino UNO Rev3 development board. That was a big hit, for obvious reasons. But what can you do with an Arduino of that size? The answer is: create a matching 7:1 scale turtle robot for it to control.
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CNX Software ☛ ESP32-S3 boards feature WAGO connectors for LED strips, buttons, other swappable modules
Rev Adrian Kennard (RevK) has designed several open-source hardware ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth IoT boards with WAGO connectors for interfacing LED strips, buttons, and other GPIO modules. Initially developed for the gloves and the helmet of an Iron Man suit, the ESP32-S3 boards can be used for any relevant project that needs more flexibility than soldered modules and more reliability than GPIO headers or even screw terminals, which can be susceptible to vibrations.
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Hackaday ☛ NFC Record Player Promotes Intentional Listening
Like a normal record player, Minilos requires the user to select an album to play on the machine. These were originally decorative coasters with records printed on them, so they are much smaller than even a 45. Each one features an NFC tag that instructs ESP32 microcontroller hidden in the device to play the requested song. Once placed on the record player, it will then play through that album and come to a stop.
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Hackaday ☛ Turning A Junk Laptop Screen Into A Portable Monitor
Sure, you can buy a portable monitor off your favorite e-tailer, but with perfectly fine displays in devices like laptops being tossed out every single day, why not repurpose those instead? That’s what [ScuffedBits] recently did with the panels pulled from some old laptops.
A good question with any such salvaged panel is just how practical it is to still use them, with disqualifying features being things like passive-matrix TFTs as well as the use of CCFL backlighting as with one of the three panels demonstrated in the video.
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Linux Gizmos ☛ LILYGO adds ESP32-S3 Standard Series to T-SIM lineup
LILYGO has introduced the T-SIM / T-A Standard Series, a refreshed family of ESP32-S3 cellular development boards combining SIMCom and A76xx modem options with new hardware features including Qwiic support, seamless power switching, camera interfaces, optional GNSS functionality, and lower deep-sleep power consumption.
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Linux Gizmos ☛ Forlinx rolls out FET3572-C SoM and OK3572-C board with Rockchip RK3572
Following the Rockchip RK3572 announcement, Forlinx Embedded has introduced the FET3572-C SoM and accompanying OK3572-C development board. The platform combines an octa-core CPU configuration, 4 TOPS NPU, LPDDR5/LPDDR5X support, and multimedia capabilities extending to 8K decoding.
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Linux Gizmos ☛ Rockchip unveils RK3572 processor with 4 TOPS NPU and LPDDR5X support
The newly announced RK3572 by Rockchip is an octa-core processor targeting AIoT, edge computing, and embedded applications. Built on an 8nm process, it combines dual Cortex-A73 cores, six Cortex-A53 cores, a 4 TOPS NPU, Mali-G310 GPU, LPDDR5/LPDDR5X support, and 8K video decoding.
It's FOSS:
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Bambu Lab Has Been Violating AGPLv3 for Years, SFC Says
The GNU Affero General Public License version 3, or AGPLv3, is one of the strongest copyleft licenses in the open source world.
Published by the Free Software Foundation in 2007, it requires that any software built on an AGPLv3-licensed project must make its complete source code available under the same terms.
That applies even when the software runs as a network service rather than being distributed as a standalone binary. I say that because what follows are two violations that the Software Freedom Conservancy has dug out after investigating Bambu Lab.
LWN:
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Comprehensive Response to Bambu's AGPLv3 Violations (Software Freedom Conservancy)
The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) published a news item on May 18 about its response to violations of the AGPLv3 by Bambu Lab in its 3D printers. The company has not provided the source code to its modifications to a 3D "slicer" program that was released under the AGPLv3 and it has also threatened Paweł Jarczak who created a fork of a different slicer (Orca Slicer) released under AGPLv3 in order to interoperate with his Bambu printer. Based on that, the SFC has created the baltobu project aimed at reverse-engineering and reimplementing the Bambu code while also hosting the Orca Slicer fork.
Bambu has behaved badly for years and made multiple, provably false public statements regarding the AGPLv3 and its requirements. The recent aggressive behavior toward Paweł Jarczak was a last straw for us: we have decided to launch a multi-pronged effort that will assist consumers and users in the short-term, and also work toward a long-term strategy to improve the software right to repair for all 3D printer consumers.