Samwise Makers' News
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
20 FPS on E-Paper Display Without Help
Getting video-rate refresh from e-paper normally requires pricey hardware — but maker Tony Weston managed 20 frames per second on a stock ESP32-based device by working smarter, not harder. The trick is understanding how e-ink works: charged pigment particles only need to move from their current state to the next state, not reset to zero every frame. Tony exploits this with optimized per-pixel driving waveforms, then combines it with MPEG-style delta encoding that transmits only changed pixels between frames. The result drives 960×540 panels — as found in the Lilygo T5 or M5PaperS3 boards — at smooth 20 FPS with no external co-processor required.
Bat-Inspired Echolocation Gives Drones a Sixth Sense
Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have adapted the ultrasonic echolocation that bats use to navigate in the dark into a collision-avoidance system for drones. Instead of relying on cameras or GPS — both of which fail in low-light or signal-denied environments — the system emits ultrasonic pulses and listens for echoes to build a real-time spatial map of the surroundings. The biomimetic approach lets a drone sense obstacles in any lighting condition and could eventually enable autonomous flight through cluttered indoor spaces, underground tunnels, or other GPS-hostile environments where visual navigation falls short.
Igor Builds a Feature-Rich Drum Machine from Discrete Components
When off-the-shelf drum machines don't scratch the itch, you build your own. Igor did exactly that, constructing a full-featured step sequencer entirely from discrete components — including custom DRAM for pattern storage — rather than leaning on a microcontroller to paper over the complexity. The result supports multiple drum voices, programmable patterns, and the hands-on control only a bespoke instrument can offer. Every design choice reflects deep knowledge of the underlying circuitry: timing, voice generation, and memory all engineered at the component level. It's a masterclass in analog and digital circuit design that any hardware musician or electronics enthusiast will appreciate.
Project Gigapixel: A Flatbed Scanner Becomes a 3.2GP Camera
Yannick Richter presented Project Gigapixel at Hackaday Europe 2026 — a portable camera capable of capturing images at up to 40,800 × 80,000 pixels, or 3.2 gigapixels. The heart of it is a Sony CCD linear sensor salvaged from an Epson V370 flatbed scanner, mounted on a 100‑mm linear drive behind a medium-format Pentax lens. A Raspberry Pi 5 and an RP2350 handle readout and timing; a secondary Pi camera provides live preview for framing. The payoff is extraordinary detail: in a demo shot of bench instruments, Richter cropped in far enough to read the colour code off an individual 0603 SMD resistor.
Old SSDs Find New Life as 3D-Printed Game Cartridges
Reddit maker Jibril-sama designed a 3D-printed cartridge system that gives old 2.5″ SSDs a satisfying second life as plug-in game carriers for a gaming PC. A USB3‑to‑SATA adapter sits inside a custom dock (vertical or spring-loaded horizontal), and a MIT-licensed launcher script on GitHub verifies each cartridge before auto-launching the stored game. STLs are on MakerWorld. It's a cleverly tactile solution for anyone who misses picking a cartridge off the shelf — even if the games are thoroughly modern titles. SSDs do lose data when unpowered long-term, so regular cycling is advised.
Reticulum over HF Radio: A Blueprint for a Post-Internet Network
The Reticulum network stack is a fully decentralised, cryptographically secure protocol that needs no central infrastructure to route messages — and The Tech Prepper is now running it over high-frequency radio using a Mercury HF modem and the open-source modem73 SDR software. The demo uses a dummy load rather than an antenna (encrypted transmissions on ham bands remain illegal), but the setup illustrates a compelling vision: a resilient communication layer that survives infrastructure collapse. Whether you're interested in disaster preparedness or just curious what decentralised networking looks like in practice, the Reticulum‑plus‑modem73 stack is worth a serious look.
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
1. None confirmed this week — No live maker campaigns verified at press time
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
1. tonyweston/epaper-fps — E-paper high-FPS waveform driver
2. RFnexus/modem73 — HF SDR modem software for Reticulum
3. LewdM3at/Steam-Games-Cartridges — SSD game-cartridge launcher (MIT)
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Hannover — August 15–16, 2026 — Hannover, Germany
Maker Faire Bay Area — September 25–27, 2026 — Mare Island, CA
Hackaday Supercon 10 — November 6–8, 2026 — Pasadena, CA
Curated by JD · samwise.agency