Samwise Makers' News
Friday, May 1, 2026
Alberta Startup's DRM-Free Tractors Gain Ground in Right-to-Repair Fight
Canadian startup Ursa Ag, based in Alberta, is disrupting the agricultural machinery market with tractors deliberately stripped of the electronic control systems and DRM restrictions that have made brands like John Deere unpopular with farmers. The company's 150-, 180-, and 260-horsepower models run 5.9-liter and 8.3-liter Cummins engines fed by Bosch P-pumps — purely mechanical fuel injection requiring no ECU or proprietary software handshake. Priced from $129,900 CAD, the tractors allow owners to repair and modify equipment freely. Following a Farms.com feature, Ursa received around 400 inquiries from the United States alone, and plans to build more units in 2026 than in all its previous years combined.
Sources: Hackaday
M5Stack Cardputer Mesh Kit Brings Meshtastic Off-Grid Comms to Your Pocket
M5Stack has launched the Cardputer Mesh Kit, a pocket-sized off-grid communication terminal combining the ESP32-S3-powered Cardputer-Adv with a new LoRa/GNSS expansion cap. The add-on module integrates a Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver covering 868–923 MHz with a receive sensitivity of −147 dBm and +22 dBm transmit power, alongside an AT6668 GNSS module supporting GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS, and Galileo positioning. The unit ships pre-flashed with Meshtastic firmware and pairs with the Cardputer-Adv's 56-key keyboard and 1.14-inch LCD display for a complete handheld mesh-network node. An RP-SMA external antenna and 1,750 mAh battery round out the package, priced at $48 on the M5Stack store.
Sources: CNX Software
Maker Builds Gaming PC With Zero Intel, NVIDIA, or AMD Components
A maker has built a fully functional x86-64 gaming PC using no components from Intel, NVIDIA, or AMD. The CPU is a Zhaoxin KaiXian KX-7000 — an eight-core x86-compatible processor on a compact ASUS motherboard — while the GPU is a Moore Threads MTT S80 running at 1.8 GHz with 4,096 MUSA cores and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, sourced on AliExpress for around $300. The build runs Windows and plays titles like Forza Horizon 5, though performance lags well behind mainstream hardware. CPU and motherboard alone cost around $500 — an expensive but fascinating proof that x86-compatible silicon now exists outside the Intel-AMD duopoly.
Sources: Hackaday
DIY USB-C Charger Stack Delivers Power to 100 Devices Simultaneously
A maker known as DENKI OTAKU has constructed a USB-C charging array capable of simultaneously powering 100 devices. The design stacks ten custom PCBs, each based on an off-the-shelf USB-C Power Delivery chip carrying ten individual charger channels, for a total of 100 ports delivering up to 1.5 A each — meaning the rig must supply up to 150 A under full load. Two large switching power supplies feed the charger array, housed in an aluminium extrusion frame kept deliberately open for cooling. The modular PCB stack approach keeps the design straightforward despite its scale, and a full 100-phone load test is planned to verify real-world performance under maximum draw.
Sources: Hackaday
Unitree Expands Affordable Dual-Arm Robot Line With R1-A5 and R1-A7
Chinese robotics company Unitree has expanded its R1 dual-arm robot lineup with two new variants: the R1-A5 and R1-A7. Both models feature an upper body with two arms that can be fitted with 2-finger grippers or 3- or 5-finger dexterous hands, and can be attached to either a fixed base or a wheeled base for indoor mobility. Binocular vision cameras enable manipulation tasks when paired with the dexterous-hand configurations. The base R1-A5 configuration starts at $4,290, substantially undercutting comparable robots from Western manufacturers. Unitree is already shipping its consumer R1 humanoid — which adds legs and 26 degrees of freedom — with deliveries underway in Q2 2026.
Sources: CNX Software
NVIDIA Phases Out Four Jetson Modules Amid LPDDR4 Supply Crunch
NVIDIA has issued end-of-life notices for four Jetson modules — TX2 NX, TX2i, AGX Xavier, and Xavier NX — citing rising prices and tightening global supply of LPDDR4 memory. All existing purchase orders for products using these modules convert to NCNR (no-change, no-return) status as of July 15, 2026, with the final ship date for affected orders set for July 15, 2027. NVIDIA is directing users to migrate to the Jetson Orin family, which uses LPDDR5-based memory. The discontinuation affects a large installed base of maker and robotics projects that rely on the AGX Xavier and Xavier NX for edge AI compute workloads.
Sources: CNX Software
3D-Printed Rig Turns DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Into a Serious Cinema Camera
A maker has built a 3D-printed expansion rig that transforms the recently released DJI Osmo Pocket 4 into a more capable cinema tool. The custom shell integrates a USB power bank directly into the structure to extend runtime, adds a quick-connect tripod-mount fitting for rapid attachment and detachment, and provides a filter-thread fitting in front of the gimbal head for standard camera filters. A topside handle improves physical control while a rail mount accommodates a DJI wireless microphone and a phone acting as an external monitor. The Pocket 4 slides in and out of the rig without modification, letting it function independently when a compact form factor is preferred.
Sources: Hackaday
STMicro Launches Ultra-Low-Power Global Shutter Sensors for Always-On Edge Vision
STMicroelectronics has unveiled the VD65G4 and VD55G4, a pair of 0.56-megapixel global shutter CMOS image sensors aimed at battery-operated edge AI and always-on vision applications. Both sensors feature a global shutter architecture that eliminates rolling-shutter distortion, making them suitable for tracking fast-moving objects. Ultra-low power consumption is a key design goal, targeting applications such as occupancy detection, gesture recognition, and machine vision in portable or energy-harvesting devices. The sensors support MIPI CCI and I2C control interfaces. STMicro positions the VD65G4 and VD55G4 as complements to its existing AI inference microcontrollers, enabling compact vision pipelines where always-on operation is required but battery life is critical.
Sources: CNX Software
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency