Samwise Makers' News
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
CircuitPython Goes Turbo With Precompiled Functions
CircuitPython, Adafruit's MicroPython fork for microcontrollers, has gained two precompiled execution modes that dramatically accelerate Python code on embedded hardware. The native mode compiles functions to machine code at the bytecode level, delivering roughly a 3x speedup, while the Viper mode applies further low-level optimisations, pushing gains to 20x to 70x depending on the workload. Maker Mikey Sklar demonstrated the improvement by benchmarking a Mandelbrot set renderer on a Metro RP2040 board: the Viper implementation ran 19.7x faster than standard bytecode. Both modes work within standard CircuitPython, requiring no toolchain changes or separate compilation steps beyond a decorator.
Fixing A Ubiquiti 16-Port PoE Switch With An Extra Hole
A hardware engineer repaired a Ubiquiti 16-port PoE switch whose Broadcom BCM5911 controller chip had suffered physical damage to its packaging, causing shorted MOSFETs and a blown diode. After sourcing a replacement BCM5911 on AliExpress for £1.84, the repair required drilling an additional access hole in the switch enclosure to reach the damaged components. The complete fix cost roughly £5 in parts. The switch, which provides 16 Ethernet PoE ports and 2 SFP uplink ports, was returned to service, demonstrating that seemingly catastrophic board failures can often be resolved with careful diagnosis and inexpensive component sourcing.
Hackaday Europe 2026: Space Oddities
Hackaday Europe 2026 featured a standout talk from Janelle Wellons, a software engineer at NASA JPL and iSpace, on deep-space communication engineering under extreme constraints. Wellons described the Galileo spacecraft's high-gain antenna failure, which left mission controllers compressing data and coordinating arrays of Deep Space Network antennas to extract transmissions at just 1,000 bits per second. She also discussed a challenge aboard the Artemis II crew vehicle: frozen water lines in the toilet ventilation system, resolved not by hardware replacement but by rotating the spacecraft to face the sun and thawing the blockage passively. The talk illustrated creative problem-solving in space systems engineering.
An Open Heart Rate Monitor
A maker has released an open-source wrist-worn heart rate monitor built around the AD8232 single-lead ECG sensor and a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32 development board. The device runs on a 3.7 V lithium polymer battery, with a boost converter stepping voltage up to 5 V for the sensor circuitry, and is programmed using the Arduino IDE. All schematics, firmware, and CAD files are published on GitHub in the MilosRasic98/OpenHRStrap repository. The project serves as a fully open hardware platform for biometric monitoring research and wearable computing experimentation, with the complete bill of materials and assembly instructions included in the repository.
A UPS For Your Pi That's A Little Different
The Web3 Pi project has released an uninterruptible power supply for Raspberry Pi boards using a dual-microcontroller design. A CH32 RISC-V MCU handles power path management while an RP2040 manages user interaction, OLED status display, and USB communication with the host Pi. The UPS accepts input from USB-C Power Delivery, a barrel jack, or Sony NP-F hot-swap battery packs, and delivers a stable 5 V at up to 5 A output. When mains power is lost, the RP2040 signals the Pi over USB to initiate a graceful shutdown before battery depletion. An LTE connectivity module is also planned as a future add-on.
Writing An ESP32 Bluetooth Printer Driver In Two Acts
Maker Bas BotBerg has documented reverse-engineering and implementing a Bluetooth Low Energy driver for a thermal printer, using the exercise to explain BLE protocol discovery for hardware hackers. BotBerg first used Python with the Bleak library to enumerate the printer's BLE GATT characteristics and identify writable endpoints that accepted print commands. He then ported the logic to an ESP32-C3 microcontroller in C++, incorporating the Adafruit GFX library for text and graphics rendering. The project proceeds in two stages — Python prototyping then embedded C++ implementation — making it an accessible template for reverse-engineering other Bluetooth peripherals. Source code has not yet been published.
Turn Arduino UNO Q Into Your Local 3D Printing Watchdog
Maker Philipp Schweizer has built a local 3D printing watchdog using the Arduino UNO Q edge AI board. Rather than detecting specific failure modes like spaghetti failures, Schweizer's system trains exclusively on normal-looking prints and flags deviations as anomalies. The model uses Edge Impulse's FOMO-AD framework through Arduino App Lab, running inference on 632×480 images with minimal overhead. If three of the last four frames appear anomalous, the system pauses the print via the Moonraker API on Klipper-based printers; Octoprint is also supported. MQTT output connects to Home Assistant for notifications, and the entire system operates offline on the local network with no cloud subscription required.
Sources: Arduino Blog
The First Open Healthware Certifications Are In
The Open Source Hardware Association has awarded the first certifications under its new Open Healthware program, developed over two years with a National Science Foundation POSE III grant. The program at healthware.oshwa.org extends OSHWA's existing open hardware certification to medical and healthcare devices. Four devices have been certified: the Open-LIFU low-intensity focused ultrasound research platform from Openwater, a 3D-printed Universal Mounting System for hospital equipment from Kenya, and COSMIIC, a fully implantable open-source neuromodulation platform funded through NIH SPARC for spinal cord injury research. Makers working on health hardware applications are invited to apply for certification at healthware.oshwa.org.
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
GB-Link USB V2 (Game Boy Link adapter) — 1,867% funded, Crowd Supply
Openterface KeyMod (USB multi-tool bridge) — 231% funded, Crowd Supply
wafer.space GF180MCU Run 3 (custom chip fab) — $121,500 raised, Crowd Supply
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
Bodmer/TFT_eSPI — 4,900★ (TFT display lib for RP2040/ESP32/STM32, updated Sep 13)
earlephilhower/arduino-pico — RP2040/RP2350 Arduino core, updated Sep 14
MilosRasic98/OpenHRStrap — Open heart rate monitor (ESP32 + AD8232), new this week
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Bay Area (20th anniversary) — Sep 25–27, San Mateo CA
Hackaday Supercon 10 — Nov 6–8, Pasadena CA (ArtCenter College of Design)
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