Digital Restrictions (DRM), Linux Devices, and Open Hardware

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 11, 2025

• Devices/Embedded

  • Securepairs ☛ Secure Repairs Joins Amicus Brief Supporting Massachusetts Vehicle Right to Repair Law [Digital Restrictions (DRM) of sorts]

    The lawsuit in question was filed in December, 2020 by the auto industry group The Alliance for Automotive Innovation shortly after Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that sought to expand of the state’s existing automotive right to repair law to give vehicle owners and independent repair shops access to wireless telematics data needed to assist with maintaining and repairing vehicles.

  • Cyble Inc ☛ Europe Hosts First In-Orbit Satellite CTF Challenge

    The final phase of the CTF (Capture the Flag) competition took place from 4–6 November at ESA’s ESTEC facility in the Netherlands, coinciding with the Security for Space Systems (3S) conference. For the first time, contestants engaged directly with operational spacecraft, the ION Satellite Carrier, in a live environment designed to simulate real-world cybersecurity threats in orbit.

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ Engicam Showcases Computer Vision AI Kit Based on Renesas RZ/V2H Platform

    The TIA RZ/V2H module integrates a Renesas RZ/V2H SoC that combines a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 running up to 1.8 GHz, dual Cortex-R8 cores for real-time control, and a Cortex-M33 for system management.

  • Liliputing ☛ Lilbits: UGREEN NASync, Maemo Leste, and a Linux laptop with a 300 Hz display and RTX 50 graphics

    PC and mobile accessory maker UGREEN entered the network-attached storage space last year with the launch of the UGREEN NASync line of devices. Since then the company has introduced several additional models, but now the company is returning to its original NAS systems, bringing a small spec bump to at least one model: the new NASsync DXP4800S is a 4-bay NAS with an Intel N150 Twin Lake processor (representing a very slight spec bump over the Intel N100 Alder Lake-N chip in the DXP4800).

  • Mighty Gadget ☛ Ugreen DH2300 NAS Review

    A few weeks ago, I reviewed the Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus. I had relatively low expectations due to the Rockchip RK3576 chipset and Ugreen being

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Bootlin ☛ Support for Yocto buildtools added to upstream Kas

    Bootlin has recently contributed to the Kas project by adding support for Yocto Project’s Buildtools. In this blog post, we will give an overview of what Kas is, what Buildtools are, why an integration of Buildtools was deemed useful and relevant, and how to use it.

  • Hackaday ☛ Programming The 6581 Sound Interface Device (SID) With The 6502

    Over on YouTube, [Ben Eater] pursues that classic 8-bit sound. In this video, [Ben] integrates the MOS Technology 6581 Sound Interface Device (SID) with his homegrown 6502. The 6581 SID was famously used in the Commodore line of computers, perhaps most notably in the Commodore 64.

  • Hackaday ☛ 2025 Component Abuse Challenge: Playing Audio On A Microphone

    Using a speaker as a microphone is a trick old enough to have become common knowledge, but how often do you see the hack reversed? As part of a larger project to measure the acoustic power of a subwoofer, [DeepSOIC] needed to characterize the phase shift of a microphone, and to do that, he needed a test speaker. A normal speaker’s resonance was throwing off measurements, but an electret microphone worked perfectly.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Clean-sheet open source 8-bit gaming console surprisingly preparing for launch in 2025 — the GameTank uses twin 6502 processors instead of FPGAs or microcontrollers

    There’s a new contender being prepared for the 8-bit console arena, but will it find anyone there? The new GameTank by Clydeware is an open source design leveraging venerable MOS Technology 6502-based processing. However, it may punch well above its weight, with its clean-sheet dismissal of legacy baggage, its twin-CPUs, and its custom framebuffer-based graphics architecture.

    Importantly, the GameTank isn’t for playing games (or emulators) from other 8-bit systems. It is designed to be a standalone ecosystem to inspire “the next generation of 8-bit games.”

  • Arduino ☛ UNO Q toolroom management keeps loaner tools from disappearing

    This system can’t actually locate a missing drill or 10mm socket, but it can tell Clagett who checked out the tool last and when they did so. He can then go confront that person and demand the tool’s return — or at least compensation or retribution.

  • Will Morrison ☛ Marble Fountain

    I really enjoy procedural generation, especially systems designed to work with hardware outputs. After starting work at Formlabs in September of 2023 and gaining access to much nicer printers than I was used to, I started wanting to tackle some large algorithmic structure projects. Complexity is free in 3d printing, the limit of design geometry is mostly how much time you’re willing to spend in CAD. I wanted to print the most complicated art piece I could think of. Marble Fountain is what I came up with.

  • From SPARC to StarFive

    I recently read the news that RISC-V International has been approved as a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) Submitter by the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC 1).

    However, a specific line in RISC-V International's own coverage of this announcement caught my eye: "It's worth noting that no ISA has previously attained the status of an international standard, underscoring the uniqueness of RISC-V..."

    [...]

    The narrow, technically-true-but-misleading claim is that RISC-V is the "first ISA to be standardized by ISO/IEC JTC 1." This specific, bureaucratic distinction is then broadened in marketing and press releases to the general, straightforward, and ultimately false narrative of being "The First International Standard ISA."

    This rhetorical move elevates RISC-V's perceived uniqueness, albeit with a sense of historical revisionism. And it's not the first time I've seen RISC-V treated as something uniquely special.

  • Unicorn Media ☛ RISC-V International Gets New Technology VP

    Silicon veteran Tom Gall takes the helm as VP of Technology at RISC-V International.

  • Hackaday ☛ RP2040 From Scratch: Roll Your Own Dev Board Magic

    Have you ever looked at a small development board like an Arduino or an ESP8266 board and thought you’d like one with just a few different features? Well, [Kai] has put out a fantastic guide on how to make an RP2040 dev board that’s all your own.

  • Raspberry Pi Weekly Issue #513 - We've done loads of new things so this is a bumper issue

    It’s like the Scholastic Book Fair in here. Good times. Goooood times. Howdy, I know I often say "this is a bumper issue", but this time I really mean it. There are eleven whole articles for you to pore over, so I'll just run you through some highlights: The Book of Making 2026 is available now for just £14.

  • CNX Software ☛ Raspberry Pi CM5 industrial carrier board features dual Ethernet, optional 4G LTE/5G cellular connectivity, metal case, and more

    Waveshare CM5-DUAL-ETH-4G/5G-BASE is an industrial carrier board for the Raspberry Pi CM5. It features dual Ethernet (GbE + 2.5GbE), 4G/5G options, and includes an optional metal enclosure, active cooling fan, and power supply, which is an upgrade from the previous CM5-DUAL-ETH-BASE carrier board.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Hardware hacker installs Minecraft server on a cheap smart lightbulb — single 192 MHz RISC-V core with 276KB of RAM, enough to run tiny 90K byte world

    A hardware hacker has installed a Minecraft server on a cheap smart lightbulb.

  • CNX Software ☛ $149 Allwinner A733 development board offers HDMI Input, eDP, Android 15 support

    While browsing AliExpress, I came across an Allwinner A733 development board (A733MAIBORADBV1) priced at $149, which piqued my interest as the price tag was much higher than other A733 boards, such as the $35+ Orange Pi 4 Pro or Radxa Cubie A7Z/A7A. It turns out that this board not only supports up to 16GB of RAM, and Android 15. It also includes features like HDMI input and output, MIPI-CSI/DSI, eDP, capacitive touch, and M.2 expansion, making it a development platform for tablets, laptops, and Hey Hi (AI) prototypes rather than low-cost maker projects.

  • OMG Ubuntu ☛ Minisforum MS-R1: 12-Core GNU/Linux ARM Workstation for Hey Hi (AI) and VMs

    Minisforum, a Chinese company famed for selling range of mini PCs, has launched an affordable ARM-based mini workstation with UEFI boot, making it easier to run GNU/Linux distributions without the need for custom firmware or bootloaders. The MS-R1 is designed for local inference tasks, Android VM containers in Docker and edge computing. It could (distro dependant) be used as an ARM-powered general purpose desktop PC, but cheaper and more versatile options are out there. It runs a customised version of Debian 12.