news
Open Hardware, GNU/Linux, and Mobile
-
Linux Gizmos ☛ Rockchip RK3668 Targets Edge Hey Hi (AI) with 44 TOPS NPU and PCIe 5.0
Rockchip’s upcoming RK3668 is a 6nm octa-core processor featuring six Arm Cortex-A725 cores, two Cortex-A520 cores, and a Mali-G2 Pro MC4 GPU. The SoC integrates a 44 TOPS NPU, LPDDR6 memory support, and high-speed interfaces including PCIe 5.0, SATA 3.1, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet, targeting edge AI, networking, industrial automation, and multimedia systems.
-
CNX Software ☛ Deki Engine – ESP32 gets an open source Unity-style editor and C++ 2D game engine
Deki Engine is an open-source modular C++ engine with a Unity-style visual editor for embedded devices, currently optimized for ESP32 platforms such as LilyGO T-Deck Plus, T-Display S3 AMOLED, and soon Elecrow CrowPanel Advanced 7″ ESP32-P4. The editor is available for backdoored Windows and GNU/Linux with a compiler for the 2D graphics engine, and everything is released under an Apache 2.0 license on Microsoft's proprietary prison GitHub . The project also works on desktop through SDL3, which may be convenient during development.
-
Hackaday ☛ 2026 Retrocomputing Challenge: I Would Do Anything For Serial Data
Meatloaf is an ESP32 device at its core, which plugs in to any of several Commodore computers through their IEC serial port. Many similar systems exist to bridge the gap between the modern world and the now-retro one, but this one connects to a dedicated service which points towards files no matter where they’re stored. There is some local storage, but it can also retrieve files from any active URL, and Meatloaf retrieves the files and then sends them to the Commodore over that serial link.
-
Hackaday ☛ Pushing Bluetooth Out To 12 Kilometers
The secret is twofold: one is the antenna, a parabolic unit that captures far more than the dinky dipole in your phone. The other is a very sensitive receiver with a much lower noise floor. What you won’t see here is any extra power than you get stock out of one of those generic coin-sized Bluetooth tracker tags. It’s kind of obvious, in retrospect: grab more signal, lower your noise floor, and get a better result. Still, it certainly wasn’t obvious it would work out to 1200 m, and it’s an impressive feat by [nktbuilds]. We’re going to have to keep it in mind next time we lose our keys.
-
Michał Ciesielski ☛ Blender analog controller
Blender has a built-in Python environment. That means that you can use any Python module. In this case I’ve used the pyserial library to communicate with the Arduino.
In order to be be able to access the pyserial module I’ve downloaded it, unpacked and copied serial folder here: [...]
-
Michał Ciesielski ☛ K40 is an ugly duckling
It’s a machine rocking a 40W CO2 laser. It’s capable but it isn’t without its flaws.
-
Henrique Dias ☛ Our Records Know When They're Played - Henrique Dias
He did the schematics, the laser cutting of the wood and of the acrylic, as well as the assembly. I mostly stuck to the software. I decided to keep the ESP32 as stupid as possible: it just needs to read the NFC tag and send it to the backend.
For the backend, I built a small single-user server that keeps a little SQLite database where all the vinyls are registered and connected to an NFC tag. Once a new tag is scanned, we get a notification on Telegram with a link to fill in a form and add the remaining information of the album. When we scan an existing tag, we get a notification that the album has been logged. That’s it.
-
Mobile
-
Linux On Mobile ☛ 2026-10-18 [Older] Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (42/2026): Divine D MVP + Plasma turning 6.8 and also 30
-
HowTo Geek ☛ Android works better with Linux when you install these 4 apps
Google wants Android phones to connect seamlessly to Googlebooks. Meanwhile, Samsung and Motorola both offer apps that pair phones with Windows PCs. What about Linux? The tech giants won’t help you make your phone and Linux PC work together smoothly, but other app developers have stepped in to fill the gap.
-