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Open Hardware/Modding: Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and More
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The DIY Life ☛ Building a 4-Bay 3.5″ NAS with a Raspberry Pi 5 and 3D Printed Enclosure
Over the past few years, I’ve built several Raspberry Pi-based NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices. These range from a dual-drive setup using a Pi 4, a budget-friendly Pi Zero NAS for under $35, and more recently, an all-SSD NAS running on a Raspberry Pi 5.
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CNX Software ☛ Renesas RA2T1 low-power Cortex-M23 MCUs target BLDC/PMSM motor applications
Renesas has recently launched the RA2T1 group of low-power motor control MCUs, built around a 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M23, for low-cost single-motor applications like power tools, fans, and home appliances. Designed for Brushless DC Electric Motors (BLDC) and Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM), the RA2T1 supports both trapezoidal and FOC control techniques, thanks to its integrated 3-channel Sample and Hold (S&H) circuits that enable accurate 3-phase current detection. It also includes PWM shutdown features and various analog and digital peripherals in compact packages as small as 4×4 mm QFN. Previously, Renesas introduced the RA8T1, also a motor control MCU based on the Cortex-M85 core with Helium instructions and DSP extensions.
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CNX Software ☛ Maduino Zero Wi-Fi HaLow – An 802.11ah board programmable with the Arduino IDE
Makerfabs Maduino Zero Wi-Fi HaLow is an Arduino Zero-compatible Wi-Fi HaLow (802.11ah) development board designed for low-power, long-range wireless communication in smart agriculture, industrial automation, and remote monitoring applications. The board is built around the Microchip ATSAMD21G18 Cortex-M0+ MCU to manage I/O, system control, and interface with the TXW83xx-based WiFi HaLow module. It operates in the 730–950 MHz sub-GHz band, features a microSD card slot for storage, and two GPIO headers. The board gets power through a USB Type-C port or a 3.7V LiPo battery (chargeable via USB) and includes an external antenna for long-range connectivity.
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CNX Software ☛ Waveshare SATA HAT+ adds two SATA 3.0 ports to Raspberry Pi 5
Waveshare PCIe TO 2-CH SATA HAT+ is a dual-channel PCIe FFC to SATA 3.0 HAT+ board for the Raspberry Pi 5, which offers a low-cost alternative to the Radxa Penta SATA HAT with support for up to five SATA drives. The HAT+ is compliant with the SATA Gen3 and PCIe Gen2 standards and features onboard dual LED indicators for monitoring drive activity. Additionally, it includes an EEPROM for storing HAT+ ID and product information. It can be used for simpler DIY NAS setups or Pi-based media servers.
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Hackaday ☛ A Chip8 Emulator For 68000-based Macs
Among this crowd, it’s safe to say that the original 68000 Macintosh computers need no introduction, but it’s possible some of you aren’t familiar with Chip8. It was an interpreted virtual machine originally created for the COSMAC VIP microcomputer by [Joe Weisbecker] way back in 1977. It enabled coding simple games on the COSMAC VIP without getting into machine code on the VIP’s CDP1802 processor. For the obvious reason of “Why not?” [KenDesigns] decided to put the two together with Chip4Mac68000, a Chip8 emulator for the original Macintosh.