Open Hardware/Modding: Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, Retro, and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 10, 2025

• CNX Software ☛ Using the Raspberry Pi 500+ keyboard PC as a regular Bluetooth keyboard

  While the Raspberry Pi 500+ is a fully functional GNU/Linux keyboard PC, it’s also possible to use it as a regular mechanical Bluetooth keyboard. This week, I had a problem with my regular Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combo, so I sent it back to the shop for repair since it was still under warranty. Then somebody forgot the RF dongle for her own combo at home, so long story short, we ended up with one third spare keyboard for two people. Not ideal. But luckily, we just completed the review of the Raspberry Pi 500+ keyboard PC, so we had a spare mechanical keyboard, and the btferret project allowed us to use it as a Bluetooth keyboard, which I’m using right now to write this article.

• Ruben Schade ☛ What’s the point of a retro case “???”

  Poe’s Law ensures I can’t tell if they’re doing a bit, or whether they’re genuine. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, and answer sincerely. Let’s start with the basics, and we’ll work our way up from there.

• Doug Brown ☛ Debugging BeagleBoard USB boot with a sniffer: fixing omap_loader on modern PCs

  This post is about the original OMAP3530 BeagleBoard from 2008. Yes, the one so old that it doesn’t even show up in the board list on BeagleBoard.org anymore. The BeagleBoard, not the BeagleBone. During my Chumby 8 kernel escapades, at one point I ran into a UART bug that affected multiple drivers, including the omap-serial driver. This led me to buy a BeagleBoard so I could verify the omap-serial bug on hardware.

• Tom's Hardware ☛ No Longer Evil Thermostat hack strips Surveillance Giant Google from Nest thermostat to heat your home better — open source project revives sunsetted hardware, gives more precise control

  Google’s sunsetted Nest Gen 1 and Gen 2 thermostats have been given a new breath of life by a frustrated developer's No Longer Evil Thermostat firmware.

• CNX Software ☛ CRA-compliant Grinn Genioboard Edge Hey Hi (AI) SBC features MediaTek Genio 510 or 700 System-on-module

  Grinn has launched a credit card-sized SBC powered by its MediaTek Genio 510 or Genio 700 Cortex-A78/A55 SoM, and designed for Edge Hey Hi (AI) applications with support for the Thistle Security Platform via an on-board Infineon OPTIGA Trust M hardware security module to enable compliance with the EU’s Cybersecurity Resilience Act (CRA).