Samwise Makers' News
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Open Source Desk Lamp Reimagines Dyson’s Balancing Design
Steven Bennett spent years perfecting the Open Task Light, an open-source desk lamp inspired by Dyson’s sliding, self-balancing design. Built around a pair of extruded aluminum rails, the lamp feeds power through pogo pins along an embedded PCB — no exposed wires. A heat pipe inside the extrusion dissipates heat from a Cree high-CRI LED driven by a dedicated controller managed by an ESP32. The base, available in freestanding or desk-clamp variants, rides on bearings for free rotation on all axes. With more than 50 components, the build still comes in under half the Dyson’s price. All files and an assembly guide are published on GitHub and Gitbook.
Maker Tricks Air Conditioner Into Cooling Amid Off-Season Temperatures
YouTuber GreatScott! discovered his air conditioner was barely keeping his home cool once outside temperatures dropped — the unit’s control circuitry was switching to a less-aggressive mode based on its outdoor temperature probe reading. His fix: a small resistive heater circuit wired alongside that probe, tricking the AC into believing it was still in hot conditions. With sensors monitoring indoor and outdoor temperatures, the mod kicked the unit back into full cooling mode. Service manual tables confirmed the AC runs in different modes depending on outdoor temperature. GreatScott! ultimately removed the circuit to avoid risking compressor damage from operating outside intended parameters.
xTool M2 Review: All-in-One Laser Cutter and Engraver with Optional Full-Color Print
The xTool M2 is the company’s latest all-in-one craft laser, succeeding the M1 with a new low price point. Available with either a 10W or 20W blue diode laser module, it covers a 16.7 x 12.5 inch (426 x 320 mm) working area. Dual-camera positioning enables precise material placement, and xTool Studio software manages cutting, engraving, and optional full-color printing. An add-on 3W 1064nm infrared module extends capability to metal and plastic marking. Compared to the M1, the M2 drops blade cutting and pen plotter options but improves build quality and camera-assisted alignment. Hackster.io’s Maker’s Toolbox column reviewed the M2 for hobbyist shop use.
Sources: Hackster.io
Arduboy CHGame Rev0 Brings RISC-V and Full Color to a $39 Developer Kit
Arduboy has released the CHGame Rev0, a $39 open-source handheld game development kit built around a full-color display and a 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller. The board is powered by the CH32X035G8U6 running at 48 MHz with 64 KB of flash, 20 KB of RAM, and DMA and programmable I/O (PIO) capabilities. The CHGame Rev0 ships as a bare PCB intended for developers and hardware hackers who want an early platform while the final consumer design is still being finalized. The project is on the path to becoming the Arduboy Color, bringing Arduboy’s open gaming ecosystem into a full-color era at a budget-friendly price point.
Sources: Hackster.io
DIY Instant Camera Uses Reusable E Ink Cartridges in Place of Film
A maker going by Strange Inventions built a film-free instant camera that captures images onto removable, reusable E Ink cartridges. The camera pairs a Raspberry Pi 3 A+ with a 5-megapixel camera module, processing each shot through a custom Python pipeline adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness before dithering to the cartridge’s 200×200 four-color E Ink display. Because E Ink holds an image without power, the cartridge persists indefinitely after removal. Both camera body and cartridges are 3D printed, with a snap-fit, screwless design and a Game Boy-style thumb notch. The full build costs approximately $150 with six reusable cartridges — far cheaper to operate than traditional instant film.
Sources: Hackster.io
MIT and Sumitomo Develop Intuitive World-Space Interface for Excavator Control
MIT engineers and Japanese heavy equipment maker Sumitomo have developed the World-Space Interface (WSI), a scaled-down replica excavator arm that lets operators control a full-sized digger by physically moving the miniature linkage. Software translates the operator’s arm movements into commands across the machine’s four hydraulic degrees of freedom, with an immersive simulator mirroring motions in real time during training. In tests, novices matched expert excavator performance from their very first WSI session — a sharp contrast to conventional joystick training, where novices consistently underperformed experts even after repeated sessions. The researchers see WSI as a template for simplifying control of complex multi-axis machines.
Sources: Hackster.io
YouTuber Builds Wireless Mountain Bike Brakes Complete with Subscription Service
Seth of the Berm Peak YouTube channel built wireless mountain bike brakes using ESP32 boards communicating via ESP-NOW, with a rotary encoder on the brake lever transmitting commands to receivers that actuate the calipers through car door lock actuators. The project satirizes modern subscription-based products by locking the stopping feature behind a (joke) paywall, but the engineering is real. The wireless system enables features physically impossible with cables: a configurable braking equalizer, a true ABS mode, remote control of a child’s bike brakes, and a “derp” mode that delays brake engagement until a certain lever threshold is reached. Seth removed the mod from his riding bike for safety.
Sources: Hackster.io
P.A.R. Flip-Squisk Display Uses a Single Robot to Flip 666 Square Pixels
P.A.R. (Pixel Art Robot) is a flip-squisk display — the squisk being a square disc — that rejects the traditional solenoid-per-pixel approach of flip-dot displays. Instead of 666 individual solenoids for its 37×18 grid, P.A.R. uses a single two-axis robot, similar to a pen plotter and controlled by an Arduino Nano ESP32, that moves behind the panel and physically flips each squisk with a servo-extended pin. As an art piece, the creator connected P.A.R. to the internet: a public website accepts drawing submissions, and the robot dutifully renders each one. The system trades speed for mechanical elegance and lets anyone contribute to its queue from anywhere.
Sources: Arduino Blog
ARK Just A Pi: NDAA-Compliant Raspberry Pi CM5 Carrier Board for Drones and Robots
ARK Electronics has released the ARK Just A Pi, a Raspberry Pi CM5 carrier board that matches the module’s footprint almost exactly and is NDAA-compliant for drone and robotics applications. The board swaps standard bulky connectors for compact JST-GH and FFC types common in professional robotics hardware, and includes a 100 Mbps Ethernet switch with two JST-GH Ethernet ports, dual MIPI CSI camera connectors, micro HDMI, USB 3.0 Type-C, PCIe FFC, microSD, and headers for UART, SPI, PWM, GPIO, and fan control. The carrier alone sells for $335; a $475 bundle adds a Raspberry Pi CM5 Lite 2GB, 64GB NDAA-compliant microSD, and ARK UI pre-installed.
Sources: CNX Software
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
None confirmed this week
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GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
RT-Thread/rt-thread — 12.2k★ (IoT RTOS)
pikvm/pikvm — 9.4k★ (DIY RPi IP-KVM)
Embedded Systems Roadmap — 13k★ (updated Aug 2026)
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Bay Area — Sep 25–27, 2026, Mare Island, CA (20th anniversary)
Maker Faire Coney Island — Oct 19, 2026
International Maker Faires — Oct 2–25, Malta/France/Spain/Germany/Taiwan
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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