ESP32 Firmware Breathes New Life Into Abandoned Bose SoundTouch Speakers

When Bose shuttered the cloud service powering SoundTouch internet radio preset buttons in early May 2026, thousands of speakers lost core functionality overnight. Maker [Tostmann] responded by releasing SixBack, an open-source ESP32 firmware that emulates just enough of the defunct Bose cloud service to keep the hardware operational. Unlike typical DNS-redirect workarounds, SixBack exploits a diagnostic interface on the Bose unit to rewrite the server address directly to the ESP32’s own IP, requiring no router configuration. The project is a textbook example of community-driven repair, rescuing cloud-dependent hardware from premature obsolescence.

Sources: Hackaday

Two Scrapped Xbox One Mainboards Reborn as a 10 GB USB Flash Drive

In an inventive hardware upcycling project, maker Chase Fournier extracted 5 GB eMMC chips from a pair of Xbox One S mainboards and reballed them onto a custom carrier PCB controlled by a Norelsys NS1081 USB 3.0 controller IC. The controller aggregated both eMMC packages into a single 10 GB volume, achieving sequential read speeds of roughly 140 MB/s and write speeds of approximately 64 MB/s in CrystalDiskMark testing. The build highlights the value of eMMC salvage as component shortages persist, and demonstrates that consumer game console mainboards contain reusable storage silicon well worth recovering.

Sources: Hackaday

Hackaday Launches ‘Frikkin Lasers’ Contest With $150 DigiKey Gift Card Prize

Hackaday kicked off its 2026 Frikkin Lasers Contest on May 28, inviting makers to document any laser-related project on Hackaday.io for a chance to win a $150 DigiKey gift certificate. The contest runs until July 23, 2026, with Hackaday editors selecting three favourite builds. Eligible projects span RGB show lasers, powerful IR and UV cutting tools, laser physics science experiments, and DIY galvanometer scanners. Participants need only publish a project page on Hackaday.io describing their work. The contest is sponsored by DigiKey and follows Hackaday’s established format of low-barrier community challenges.

Sources: Hackaday

Video Testing Shows LFP Batteries Vent Explosive Hydrogen When Overcharged

A recent video by maker and battery educator Will Prowse demonstrates what actually happens when a prismatic LiFePO4 (LFP) cell is overcharged past 100% state of charge. After thirty minutes of continuous overcharging, the cell’s vent opens, releasing hydrogen gas into a sealed aquarium. A spark generator then ignites the collected hydrogen in a sustained flame. The experiment illustrates why LFP batteries, despite not self-generating oxygen during thermal events like other lithium chemistries, still pose a serious hydrogen explosion risk. Prowse recommends hydrogen sensors, proper ventilation, and blow-out panels for any LFP battery storage installation.

Sources: Hackaday

Linux Makers Can Now Pipe Any Video Stream Into Apps as a Virtual Webcam

A Hackaday Linux Fu column explains how makers and developers can use the v4l2loopback kernel module to create virtual camera devices on Linux. Once a fake /dev/video node is instantiated, any software pipeline—ffmpeg, GStreamer, or Python with OpenCV—can write processed frames into it, and video conference apps, OBS Studio, or hardware test tools read from it as if it were a real webcam. Practical applications include logo overlay on live streams, background blurring, real-time annotation, colour correction, and injecting pre-recorded video into Zoom calls. The technique requires no specialised hardware and runs entirely in userspace.

Sources: Hackaday

Free 128 GB Torrent Lets Makers Boot 570+ Historical Operating Systems in a VM

Developer Andrew has released the Virtual OS Museum, a 128 GB torrent containing pre-configured virtual machine images for more than 570 operating systems across over 250 platforms. The archive spans IBM mainframe software, VAX/VMS, CP/M, Texas Instruments calculator OSes, vintage Macintosh System releases, and the complete known software library for the 1948 Manchester Baby. On download, the collection launches in a modern Linux environment with a graphical selector. The project targets retrocomputing enthusiasts, educators, and anyone curious about computing history. Andrew says more systems are still being tested and added to the archive.

Sources: Hackaday

Pi Pico Peripheral Adds a Real-Time Minimap to the Classic ZX Spectrum Game Atic Atac

Maker Happy Little Diodes built a Raspberry Pi Pico-based expansion peripheral for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum that displays a live minimap of the 1983 Ultimate Play the Game title Atic Atac. The peripheral connects to the Spectrum’s expansion port, which exposes all Z80 bus signals. A latch captures memory writes from the CPU, and the firmware monitors a specific in-memory variable containing the current room ID. When the player moves between rooms, the Pico updates its display to show the full castle map with the player’s position highlighted—delivering a modern heads-up display retrofit entirely in hardware.

Sources: Hackaday

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