Samwise Makers' News
Monday, June 15, 2026
Open-Source Modos Flow Pushes E-Ink To A 60 Hz Refresh Rate
Hardware developer Wenting Zhang has built an E-ink display that refreshes at 60 Hz, fast enough to serve as a usable computer monitor. According to Zhang, E-ink’s notorious sluggishness is not inherent to the technology but a limitation of the controllers designed for low-power e-readers. By building a custom controller, Zhang reached refresh rates suitable for everyday desktop work. The effort, first shown in a Hackaday Supercon 2024 talk, has culminated in the Modos Flow, a fully open-source, user-repairable 13.3-inch portable E-ink monitor. Monochrome and color versions are now offered through Crowd Supply, where the project is raising funds.
Sources: Hackaday
Bambuddy Offers Cloud-Free, Self-Hosted Control For Bambu Lab Printers
An open-source project called Bambuddy gives Bambu Lab 3D printer owners a self-hosted alternative to the company’s cloud services, letting them slice, print, and monitor with full local control. Users put printers into LAN-only mode, enable Developer Mode for machine-API access, then add the printers to Bambuddy. The tool acts as a control panel for anywhere from one to forty printers and runs on Linux, macOS, or Windows, with a Raspberry Pi a common install target. It includes an integrated slicer and a proxy mode for remote access. The project site offers a live sandbox demo with simulated printers for first-time users.
Sources: Hackaday
New Firmware Gives The Hackaday Communicator Badge A Second Life
Developer Giovi321 has released new firmware for the Hackaday Communicator badge, the handheld gadget distributed at the recent Hackaday Europe event in Lecco, Italy. The badge pairs a QWERTY keyboard, a LoRa radio, and an ESP32, and originally shipped with a simple MicroPython messaging app. The replacement firmware adds proper Meshtastic support and longer battery life for the GPS module, and runs on FreeRTOS under the hood. Installation requires the ESP-IDF toolchain, with detailed instructions provided by the developer. The work extends the badge’s usefulness beyond the event, addressing the common problem of conference badges becoming e-waste once the show ends.
Sources: Hackaday
GentleOS Brings A Tiny, Clean Kernel Shell To 16- And 32-Bit PCs
Developer Luke8086 has released GentleOS, a compact operating system, or more precisely a kernel shell into which applications are compiled, aimed at older 16- and 32-bit x86 computers with very low hardware requirements. Hackaday’s Jenny List reports that the tiny disk image boots almost instantly in a virtual machine on modern multi-core hardware, and offers a basic but clean graphical interface along with a small selection of applications and games. It is not intended for productivity work, but its simplicity is the appeal: the codebase is small enough to read and understand. The project is hosted on GitHub as gentleos32.
Sources: Hackaday
PZSDR P047 Packs An AMD RFSoC Into A High-End SDR Board
CNX Software has detailed the PZSDR P047, a high-end software-defined radio board built around AMD’s Zynq UltraScale+ ZU47DR RFSoC. The board combines RF analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion on a single device, integrating the FPGA fabric and RF data converters that high-performance SDR applications demand. The P047 is being offered as a crowdfunding project. RFSoC parts like the ZU47DR fold wideband data converters directly into the programmable-logic die, reducing board complexity for makers and researchers building radar, communications, and instrumentation systems. CNX Software covers the board’s specifications and availability as part of its ongoing single-board-computer and embedded-hardware reporting.
Sources: CNX Software
Adding Heft To 3D Prints Cleanly With Plaster Of Paris
Maker Joe Fedewa has shared a tidy method for adding mass to 3D-printed objects using plaster of Paris. Rather than printing solid, which wastes filament and time, the technique calls for designing a hollow cavity into the base of a print and filling it with plaster after printing. The approach keeps the added weight contained and the rest of the part clean, useful for items such as bases, knobs, and props that benefit from feeling substantial. Hackaday highlighted the tip as a practical alternative to filling prints with loose materials, noting the cavity design lets makers control exactly how much weight ends up where.
Sources: Hackaday
Researchers Propose An Ultrasound Patch As An Alternative To Implanted Pacemakers
A new paper covered in IEEE Spectrum describes an experimental pacemaker that pairs an external chest patch with gene therapy, potentially avoiding the surgery that conventional implanted pacemakers require for battery changes. The patch uses ultrasound to pace the heart, while an injected gene therapy sensitizes heart cells to high-frequency sound waves by introducing RNA that makes the cells produce a sound-sensitive protein in their ion channels. Stimulation then admits calcium, triggering a beat. Rats, pigs, and human heart-cell samples have responded to the system. Patients would also carry a pocket-sized data and power module. The work remains early-stage laboratory research.
Sources: Hackaday / IEEE Spectrum
Open-Source MiniBot Turns Each Chess Piece Into Its Own Robot
Maker 3DprintedLife has built a self-playing chess set in which every piece is an independent robot rather than being pushed by a hidden electromagnet or external arm. The open-hardware MiniBots are built around a custom PCB carrying an ESP32-C3 module, two PMO8-2 miniature stepper motors with drivers, a magnetometer, and a 170 mAh LiPo battery. A central hub, also ESP32-C3-based, communicates with each piece over ESP-NOW on a dedicated channel, while a Raspberry Pi runs the Python software. Pieces locate themselves by reading electromagnets embedded in the board. A prototype works, though the single-core MCU required firmware changes still to come.
Sources: Hackaday
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo / Crowd Supply
1. Modos Flow open-source E-ink monitor — live, Crowd Supply
2. Revopoint POP 4 3D scanner — live, Kickstarter
3. CardputerZero handheld — live, Kickstarter
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
1. xinnan-tech/xiaozhi-esp32-server — ~9.8k★
2. bblanchon/ArduinoJson — ~7.2k★
3. EmenstaNigtrum/ESP32-BlueJammer — ~6.5k★
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Orange County — Sept 12, 2026, Costa Mesa, CA
Maker Faire Bay Area — Sept 25–27, 2026, Mare Island, CA
Maker Faire Rome — Oct 23–25, 2026, Rome, Italy
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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