🧠 Hardware Meta

(No) alternatives to the RP2350-USB-A (qsantos​.fr). (No) alternatives to the RP2350-USB-A: exploring cheap dev boards with two USB ports and RP2040/RP2350 PIO considerations

Pluralistic: bunnie's piggyback hack (09 Jan 2026) (pluralistic​.net). Bunnie Huang’s piggyback hardware hacks: open SoCs, Baochips, and low-cost, inspected production piggybacking

2025 Year Review (addshore​.com). Lightbug RTK device with ESP32, ZCard gadget, Wikicrowd tool, and Wikimedia-focused development across OpenStreetMap and Wikibase ecosystems

🏠 Sensors & Home Automation

Local-only Marstek Venus E Battery Integration with Home Assistant (du​.nkel​.dev). Local-only Marstek Venus E battery integrates with Home Assistant via Modbus TCP using Waveshare RS485 bridge and TV mount installation

Perform a daily task (lucstechblog​.blogspot​.com). MicroPython on Pico W/ESP32/ESP8266 to time tasks via NTP, DST adjustments, and scheduling daily actions

How-To: Using my Bluetooth IRK Capture Package (derekseaman​.com). Guide to installing and using an ESPHome-based Bluetooth IRK capture tool for room-level presence with Apple and Android devices

ESPHome Senseair S88 (danieldk​.eu). ESPHome integration guide for Senseair S88 CO2 sensor on Wemos S2 Mini using UART with ESPHome

🖥️ Displays & Clocks

Building a 3D-Printed Traffic Light with Miniature Round Displays (bikerglen​.com). 3D-printed traffic light with three 160x160 LCDs, Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3, CircuitPython, WAVESHARE displays, and MQTT-enabled controller

Reversing and Repurposing a Cool, Affordable VFD Clock (rbaron​.net). Reversing a 16x2 VFD clock, decoding its protocol, and repurposing it with ESP32/ESPHome for custom display control

Raspberry Pi Pico Mini Rack GPS Clock (jeffgeerling​.com). GPS-based clock on a Raspberry Pi Pico in a 1U mini rack, detailing setup, GPS timing lock, PPS considerations, and build notes

🎛️ Creative Interfaces

SharPiKeebo – cute little handheld “computer” (zedstarr​.com). Crisp Sharp 400x240 display, Pi Zero, LoRa, 56-button keypad; crowd-funded handheld Linux device with regen efforts and driver issues

Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids (blog​.smartere​.dk). Floppy disks as a tangible, offline TV remote using Arduino, ESP, AVR, netcat bash, and FAT filesystem data on track 0

Watch as a telephone is transformed into a DIY analog drum machine (cdm​.link). DIY analog drum machine built from a push-button telephone, Arduino Nano, and DIY amplifier; detailed circuits and sequencer demos

Re-Purposing an old Pioneer Amplifier (rodyne​.com). Re-purposing an old Pioneer VSX-520K amp into a standalone MP3 jukebox using Raspberry Pi Pico2, PCM5102 DAC, MMBASIC, and SP16315 VFD display

🕹️ Retro Computing Mods

Playing Arcade Mahjong at Home? Or is it just a Mirage? (nicole​.express). Hardware deep-dive into arcade mahjong, adapters, and Mirage Youjuu Mahjongden with Neo Geo controllers and OKI audio chips

#shorts – Sam Coupé – shamelessly simple refurb (retrohax​.net). Sam Coupé refurbishment: cleaning, floppy drive repair, belt replacement, retr0brighting, and testing

I transformed my LEGO Gameboy into a working Gameboy! (blog​.veeso​.dev). A LEGO Gameboy becomes a functional Gameboy Color using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, GPIO wiring, RetroPie alternatives, and a custom rboy-legogb setup

🛠️ Fabrication & Power

Baby’s First Sheet Metal Fabrication (rbaron​.net). Explores DIY sheet metal fabrication for electronics enclosures with bends, laser-cut parts, and online services for low-cost, small-batch builds

An LLM Saved My ATtiny85 From Certain Death (bertwagner​.com). An LLM helps verify a tiny microcontroller circuit design, preventing motor current issues with ATtiny85 and 40mA I/O limits

Garden LEDs (revk​.uk). Garden LEDs: 12V LED strips installed on fence and hot tub, with updates on reinstallation and 12V advantages

🤖 Mechatronics & Control

Intelligent Robotic Arm Design Based on ESP32-P4 for Industrial Applications (developer​.espressif​.com). Intelligent ESP32-P4 robotic arm with motion control, vision calibration, and ROS/Python integration for industrial tasks

Train Simulator Controller: Simulator Takes Shape with Custom Table (z80​.me). Building a custom plywood table to mount five dashboard panels for a train simulator, with CAN bus interface components and real instruments

New Year, new robot - meet Cubie-3 (kevsrobots​.com). Cubie-3 is a Raspberry Pi Pico W powered autonomous robot with computer vision and voice capabilities

🧬 FPGA & PCB Deep Dives

Breakout Board (yyzkevin​.com). Development-focused breakout board for PicoPCMCIA using 18-pin Hirose ST connectors and optional cables

SoundSlab: How it Started (craigjb​.com). Impulse buying to FPGA-driven LCD button grid: SoundSlab origins, KiCad, SpinalHDL, and DIY fabrication details

MicroZed Chronicles: Boards That Work! (adiuvoengineering​.com). Discusses reducing technical risk in FPGA board designs, testing strategies, boundary scan/JTAG, and Spartan-7 demo on a carrier board

Building a virtio-serial FPGA device (Part 1): Overview (blog​.vmsplice​.net). Building a virtio-serial FPGA device using Verilog on an iCE40UP5k board with PicoRV32, MMIO, and potential DMA/interrupts

📚 Academic Research

CircuitLM: A Multi-Agent LLM-Aided Design Framework for Generating Circuit Schematics from Natural Language Prompts (arxiv:cs). CircuitLM converts natural-language project ideas into validated CircuitJSON schematics and SVG diagrams using multi-agent LLMs plus a component database. Makers prototype microcontroller circuits faster, safer