Samwise Makers' News
Monday, September 7, 2026
Printing Micron-Scale Benchies With Resin and Turmeric
Researchers have demonstrated micron-scale 3D printing using standard consumer MSLA/DLP resin printers and a modified resin formulation incorporating turmeric. The key ingredient — curcumin, turmeric’s active photoabsorber — limits UV light penetration depth during exposure, sharpening layer boundaries and enabling detail resolution typically requiring expensive laboratory-grade systems. To benchmark the technique, the team printed miniature Benchy tugboats at scales previously inaccessible to hobbyist hardware. The Hackaday writeup includes the full resin formulation with mixing ratios and recommended printer settings, allowing makers with existing entry-level resin printers to replicate the results at minimal additional cost.
3D Printed Cubes Provide Passive Cooling Without Electricity
Researchers at Graz University of Technology have demonstrated a passive cooling approach using 3D-printed geometric cubes incorporating gyroid-structured clay and mycelium composites. The cubes exploit evaporative cooling and the high thermal mass of the bio-composite materials to achieve ambient temperature reductions of approximately 7°C in indoor tests without any electricity input. The university team published fabrication details, CAD files, and test results showing consistent performance across humidity ranges typical of Central European climates. The design targets building integration for low-energy cooling in residential and light commercial settings as an alternative to conventional air conditioning.
Tracefinity: Photograph a Tool, Generate a Custom Gridfinity Bin
Tracefinity, an open-source tool published on GitHub (tracefinity/tracefinity), automates the design of custom Gridfinity storage bins from photographs of physical tools and components. The system uses machine learning to analyze tool photographs, extract silhouette geometry, and generate a parametric bin design matched to the tool’s dimensions. Users photograph an item, run it through Tracefinity, and receive a printable Gridfinity-compatible bin file without manual measurement or CAD work. The project targets makers who use the popular Gridfinity modular storage system and want a faster workflow from acquisition to organized storage. Source code and documentation are available on GitHub.
Hackaday Links: Community Revives Spotify Car Thing With Linux
The September 6 Hackaday Links roundup highlights the ongoing community revival of the Spotify Car Thing. Originally discontinued by Spotify in 2022, the Car Thing’s Linux-capable ARM processor has attracted homebrew developers who have ported custom firmware enabling the device to run as a general-purpose Linux display and media controller. The roundup also covers miscellaneous maker news from the past week, including new product announcements, academic research highlights, and community project spotlights. Hackaday Links runs weekly as a curated digest of items that did not receive full writeups, surfacing developments across the maker and electronics spectrum.
Is This the Year of the Linux Television?
A Hackaday analysis examines whether 2026 marks a turning point for Linux-based television firmware as manufacturers face increasing regulatory pressure around device longevity and right-to-repair requirements. Several television brands have released or are preparing models running mainline Linux-compatible SoCs, with open-source display drivers now covering a broader range of panel controllers. The smart TV ecosystem — long dominated by proprietary Android TV and Tizen — faces growing competition from hobbyist-accessible Linux alternatives offering longer update cycles and community-maintainable firmware. The analysis draws on publicly available manufacturer documentation and community firmware repositories to assess the current state of the Linux TV landscape.
Seeed Studio Releases XIAO SAMD21 Plus and RP2040 Plus With USB-C
Seeed Studio has released two compact development boards — the XIAO SAMD21 Plus and XIAO RP2040 Plus — featuring USB-C connectivity and expanded peripheral support over their predecessors. The SAMD21 Plus is priced at $5.90 and includes a Li-ion battery management IC, while the RP2040 Plus at $4.90 adds additional GPIO breakout pins compared to the standard RP2040 variant. Both boards retain the XIAO series’ 21 × 17.5 mm footprint, maintaining compatibility with existing XIAO expansion boards and shields. The additions make both models better suited for battery-powered applications and projects requiring more GPIO connections without increasing board size.
Sources: CNX Software
DIY ESP32-P4 Weather Station and Air Quality Monitor for Around $185
Hardware maker Harald Kreuzer has documented a complete DIY weather station and air quality monitor built around the ESP32-P4 microcontroller. The build includes a Sensirion SEN66 multi-parameter air quality sensor measuring PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10, VOCs, NOx, humidity, and temperature, alongside a LoRa radio module for long-range data transmission and a 10.1-inch display for readings and historical visualizations. Total component cost is approximately $185. Kreuzer published full assembly instructions, wiring diagrams, and firmware source code via CNX Software. The ESP32-P4, released in 2024, features dual-core 400 MHz performance and hardware JPEG processing, making it well-suited for display-intensive maker projects.
Sources: CNX Software
Can AI Now Design PCBs That Just Work?
OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra multimodal model has demonstrated the ability to design functional printed circuit boards in KiCad from high-level schematic specifications, according to a Hackaday analysis published September 5. The model accepts natural-language requirements and schematic diagrams as input, generating complete PCB layouts including component placement, trace routing, and design rule compliance checks. The writeup evaluates boards produced by GPT-6 Astra against human-designed equivalents, finding that AI outputs required minimal manual correction on simpler single-layer designs while more complex multi-layer boards still showed routing errors. The development raises substantive questions about AI’s emerging role in the electronics engineering workflow.
Google Pixel Watch 5 Earns 9/10 iFixit Repairability Score
The Google Pixel Watch 5 has received a repairability score of 9 out of 10 from iFixit, making it one of the most repairable consumer smartwatches the organization has tested. iFixit’s teardown found the watch opens via a latch mechanism rather than requiring heat to soften adhesive, an O-ring gasket maintains water resistance without permanently bonding the case, and all internal screws are color-coded for reassembly clarity. The battery, display, and main circuit board can each be replaced independently. The Hackaday writeup notes the design as a meaningful benchmark for right-to-repair compliance in consumer wearables and calls on other manufacturers to follow the approach.
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
OpenTerminal KeyMod — Live on Crowd Supply
LoRaWAN Launchpad (NextPCB) — Live on Crowd Supply
ZeroWriter Ink — Live on Crowd Supply
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
78/xiaozhi-esp32 — 29K★ (ESP32 voice AI)
arendst/Tasmota — 24K★ (ESP smart home)
tracefinity/tracefinity — featured this week
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency