Samwise Makers' News
Friday, July 10, 2026
A Super-Cheap Desk Toy Becomes a Hackable Desktop Notifier
A $20 desk toy just got a serious firmware glow-up. The GeekMagic SmallTV Pro hides an ESP8266 (or ESP32-C2 in the Pro variant) behind its tiny LCD — and maker [Giovi321] noticed. Their open-source replacement firmware adds stock and crypto ticker feeds, an ADS-B flight tracker, and a live Claude AI token gauge. OTA WiFi updates mean you can push new code without touching the hardware. The project is cleanly structured too: each data source lives in its own function, making it simple to drop in your own feeds. Download from GitHub, flash via the web interface, and your $20 trinket becomes a genuinely useful desk companion.
Open Book Touch: A DRM-Free, WiFi-Connected Open-Source E-Reader
The Open Book project gets a touchscreen upgrade. The Open Book Touch packs an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, a 4.26-inch e-paper display at 480×800 with FT6336 capacitive touch, 16MB flash, 8MB PSRAM, a replaceable 800mAh LiPo, microSD slot, and warm/cool frontlight LEDs — all on open-source, MIT-licensed hardware. The Focus C++ UI framework handles EPUB and TXT files without DRM, subscriptions, or vendor lock-in. PCB files, schematics, and firmware are all public. Crowd Supply pre-orders open at $149, with delivery targeting April 2027. A genuine alternative to proprietary e-readers that you can actually modify and repair.
Source: CNX Software Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Get a Handle On This Compact Pi Portable
Named after a certain galaxy-spanning guidebook, this pocket-sized Pi build earns the reassurance. It pairs a Raspberry Pi 3A+ with Pimoroni’s HyperPixel 4.0 Square display, a Rii 518BT Bluetooth keyboard, an optional LX-2BUPS expansion board with 18650 cells for battery power, and a PAM8403 audio amp with a 3D-printable volume knob. The Creative Commons release includes a full BOM and step-by-step assembly guide. Running audio, Bluetooth, and display simultaneously from a portable that fits in a coat pocket, this is a genuinely polished cyberdeck build rather than a work in progress. Don’t Panic: the instructions are thorough.
Overpowered RC Car Gimbal Cam: The Greatest Chase Vehicle We’ve Ever Seen
[Transistor Man] mounted a professional Sony cinema camera onto a 1/5th-scale RC rally chassis — then added a 3-axis gimbal to keep shots smooth through the carnage. TPU 3D-printed mount components absorb chassis vibration before it reaches the gimbal, and HD FPV footage transmits over a decade-old surplus radio link. The result is cinema-quality chase footage at a fraction of professional crew costs: essentially a mini dolly, jib arm, and chase vehicle rolled into one very fast contraption. For action sports filmmaking or engineering spectacle on a tight budget, this is the build to study — and the footage is breathtaking.
Makerfabs MaUWB: ESP32-S3 UWB Module With PoE for Home Assistant RTLS
Ultra-wideband indoor positioning just got a ready-to-deploy Home Assistant module. The Makerfabs MaUWB combines an ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 with a Qorvo DW3000 UWB transceiver and STM32 coprocessor, plus a WIZnet W5500 PoE Ethernet chip for cableless power and network. A minimal four-device setup — one tag, two anchors, one main unit — achieves centimetre-accurate indoor positioning up to 500 metres range, with native ESPHome and Home Assistant integration. No cloud dependency, no BLE approximation guesswork. Ships in a protective enclosure for $59.80. One of the most accessible UWB real-time location systems available for home makers.
Source: CNX Software Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Die Casting Comes Home
Aluminium die casting — the industrial process behind everything from engine blocks to toy soldiers — has been scaled down to a garage bench by [Know Art]. A CNC-milled graphite die forms the mould (graphite machines cleanly and doesn’t bond with molten aluminium), while a modified hydraulic cylinder with trampoline springs provides the injection force. Parts eject from the die after each shot. Current challenges include flash at parting lines and some porosity — the same issues that haunt industrial operations at any scale. Process notes and lessons learned are shared openly. Possibly the most ambitious metalworking hack this year.
xTool O1 Omni UV Printer Now Available for Pre-Order
The desktop UV printing race heated up today as xTool opened pre-orders for the O1 Omni, first shown at CES 2026. Three editions cover different needs: Single UV ($1,699), Dual UV ($2,699, adds flexible/rigid/fluorescent ink channels), and UV+DTF ($2,799, adds direct-to-fabric printing). All use the Epson F1080 UV printhead. The decisive differentiator is ink cost: xTool’s CMYKW ink runs $19.99 per 125ml versus eufyMake’s $42.99 per 100ml — roughly 37% of the per-ml cost. A CIS scanner-based alignment system handles design registration. Pre-orders require a refundable $50 deposit; shipping begins early August.
Source: Hackster.io Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Top Crowdfunding
Crowd Supply
1. Open Book Touch — $149 pre-order (ships Apr 2027)
2. AUTEUR — latency-free e-ink typewriter (Crowd Supply)
3. 4×4 MIMO SDR tile — phased-array RF (Crowd Supply)
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
1. ReaperGhost187/TLE-Manager — ★ trending (amateur satellite tracking)
2. Diolinux/PhotoGIMP — 3.5k★ (GIMP 3+ for makers/designers)
3. See github.com/trending for more hardware repos
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Edmonton — Jul 17–19, Edmonton AB
Teardown 2026 — Jul 24–26, Portland OR (Crowd Supply)
FAB26 Boston — Jul 27–31, MIT campus
Curated by JD · samwise.agency