Samwise Makers’ News
Friday, September 4, 2026
The Birds Outside, Drawn For You Automatically
[arnegiacomo]’s project takes a creative approach to AI: a large e-paper screen paired with a Raspberry Pi 5 and USB microphone listens to birdsong outside and identifies species using BirdNet-Go, an AI-powered birdsong classifier. Rather than displaying photos, the display assembles matching illustrations drawn from 19th century bird spotters’ guides into a living collage of whatever birds are currently singing outside. The whole system is running from Norway, and you can view the current bird visitors live at fugleramme.arnegiacomo.dev. It’s a fresh demonstration of how edge AI can produce something genuinely charming rather than just technically impressive.
Build Retro Stereo Amplifier with Toshiba TA8211AH and ESP32
Robert Fletcher’s build centers on the Toshiba TA8211AH, a dual audio power amplifier originally designed for consumer televisions and home stereo equipment. Unlike modern Class D modules that hide their analog design, the TA8211AH requires external components that make the full circuit visible — input coupling, supply filtering, output coupling, Zobel compensation, and thermal management are all in play. The goal isn’t maximum efficiency but practical analog-electronics education. An ESP32 generates test tones at 100 Hz, 1 kHz, and 5 kHz to validate the circuit. Under datasheet conditions — 20 V supply, 8 Ω load — typical output is 6 W per channel.
Sources: Hackster.io
Arduino Core on Zephyr 1.0.0 is here!
Arduino has released version 1.0.0 of ArduinoCore-Zephyr, marking the biggest release yet of its Zephyr RTOS integration. Building on the 0.90.0 stability milestone, the update introduces three headline additions: support for the new Arduino VENTUNO Q board, which pairs a Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-8275 SoC with an STM32H5F5 real-time MCU for physical AI applications; an update to the Zephyr 4.4.1 base layer; and camera support for the Nicla Vision module, enabling on-device vision tasks like object detection. Eleven Arduino boards are now supported. Install by searching for ‘zephyr’ in the Arduino IDE Board Manager and selecting version 1.0.0.
Sources: Arduino Blog
From A Ten-Line Script To A Real Utility With Codex
Hackaday’s Al Williams wanted desktop buttons to launch Internet radio stations via cvlc. The ten-line script worked but wasn’t production-hardened, so he used OpenAI’s Codex coding agent to finish the job. Codex inspected the existing file, identified a race condition in its PID tracking approach, solved it using a paired PID + process start-time token with flock serialization, integrated Radio Browser API search ordered by vote count, and generated a test suite, README, and man page. Williams’s take: Codex doesn’t enable what you couldn’t otherwise do — it makes the boring, defensive work cheap enough that you’ll actually bother.
Tube Launch Boosts Rocket’s Performance
[Con Hathy] was inspired by the Arcas sounding rocket’s gas-fed launch tube design — which on real rockets enables reaching 100 km altitude — and decided to test the principle at model-rocket scale. His first 3D-printed rocket launched from a tube actually performed worse than a rail launch: as the rocket moves forward it must back-fill an increasing tube volume faster than the engine produces exhaust, creating a slight vacuum drag. Con solved this by shrinking the tube diameter, adding pop-out stabilizer fins that collapse during launch, and improving the sabot seal with foam. A second test flew 72% higher than a standard rail launch.
Building an 18-DOF Hexapod: A 20-Year Dream Finally Walking
Maker Deadpohl spent 20 years dreaming of a walking hexapod — 18 degrees of freedom, three joints per leg across six legs — and finally has one. A Raspberry Pi 3B+ handles high-level logic; an ESP32 with dual PCA9685 boards drives all 18 servo channels. Femur joints use DFRobot SER0066 servos with magnetic encoders for precision; the rest use DS3218MG servos. Gaits are validated in PyBullet simulation first — a lesson learned after a firmware bug fired all 18 servos simultaneously and caused a board fire. A GC9A01 display renders procedurally generated eye animations and a Raspberry Pi camera enables FPV mode.
Sources: Hackster.io
Corners Lifting On 3D Prints? Guide Gives Prevention Tips
Corner lift and warping on large 3D prints comes down to physics: deposited plastic shrinks as it cools, and wide flat surfaces with sharp corners concentrate those stresses. A roundup on MakerWorld surveys the prevention toolkit. Simple fixes include brims, which increase adhesion and slow cooling, or altering infill and wall thickness. More effective is redesigning the model itself — breaking a large flat base into multiple smaller zones via a shallow grid distributes stress instead of concentrating it at corners. The guide also covers DFM (Design For Manufacturability) principles so that prints are designed to resist warping from the outset.
Miniaturized, Working Replica Of Vintage Leslie Speaker
The Leslie speaker — built for organs but beloved by guitarists — uses rotating elements to physically direct sound around a room, an effect hard to replicate digitally. [Eric] built a 40% scale replica for guitar, starting from a CAD model and CNC-machining the wood enclosure through several finishing attempts. The high-frequency rotating horn assembly and low-frequency rotating drum are both 3D printed and driven by modern brushless motors. Wiring was adapted from organ to guitar. The result is considerably lighter and more portable than the 1930s-era original, and proved a hit when tested with fellow guitarists.
Rescuing A Rescue Device With A DIY Battery Pack
[Steve Jernigan]’s GPS-enabled Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) still works — but its replacement batteries are expensive and hard to source, because the manufacturer prefers you send the unit back for refurbishment. Steve decided to handle it himself. His DIY battery pack consists of a custom PCB, a pair of off-the-shelf 6-volt lithium manganese dioxide cells in a 3D-printed enclosure that slots into the rear of the McMurdo PLB, and a two-part potting compound to keep the elements out. Steve notes the pack is intended for backup purposes only — for any situation where you might actually need rescuing, a legitimate manufacturer battery is the right call.
Namib Desert Field Test Reveals Corrosion Challenge for Electrostatic Fog Harvester
The Plasma Channel team, working with researchers from the University of Namibia, completed a field test of a solar-powered electrostatic precipitation fog harvester in the Namib Desert. The device uses high-voltage electrodes to charge and collect airborne fog droplets, but the test revealed a critical problem: salt from Atlantic Ocean coastal air corroded the high-voltage electronics. The coastal Namib's persistent salt-laden fog accelerated degradation of metal components in ways not anticipated during laboratory testing. With collection efficiency data in hand, the team is now redesigning the electronics for corrosion resistance ahead of a planned follow-up test in Chile's Atacama Desert.
Switch Mod Fixes Hall Effect Sensor Problem in Citroën Door Logo Projector
A maker known online as OrangeTungsten modified the door-opening logo projector in their Citroën to fix a chronic Hall effect sensor failure. The projector casts the car's badge logo on the ground when the door opens, and originally used a Hall effect sensor to detect door movement, but the trigger magnet repeatedly fell off in use. Disassembly revealed an 8-pin microcontroller inside that simply polls the Hall effect sensor and switches a transistor to power the LED array. OrangeTungsten replaced the sensor with a direct button switch, eliminating the magnet entirely. The complete modification is documented in a GitHub repository.
FPGA Board Brings HDMI Output to TRS-80 Color Computer 2 with Audio over Single Cable
Scott Baker built an FPGA-based HDMI output adapter for the TRS-80 Color Computer 2 after finding the commercial CoCoVGA and CoCoDV solutions sold out and unavailable. Using a Tang Nano board with a Gowin GW1N-1 FPGA, the design taps the digital signal lines feeding the MC6847 video IC and reconstructs the video output as an HDMI stream. Level shifters bridge the voltage difference between the vintage 5V logic and the FPGA inputs. An on-board ADC captures the CoCo2's analog audio and transmits it over the same HDMI cable. Baker published the full design for other Color Computer owners facing modern display compatibility problems.
1970s Sears Calculator Doubled Thermal Print Resolution by Physically Oscillating the Print Head
A teardown and analysis of a 1970s Sears 12 scientific calculator by the Danalog YouTube channel found that the device doubles its thermal printer resolution through a mechanical trick: the entire print head assembly physically oscillates sideways during printing. The calculator uses a Mitsubishi M58671 thermal IC to drive the print head. By oscillating the head horizontally during each print pass, it effectively doubles the number of addressable dot positions compared to fixed-head designs such as the Texas Instruments TI-5015. The technique was a cost-effective engineering solution allowing higher print resolution without increasing the number of heating elements in the thermal print head.
ZX81 16K RAM Pack Teardown Reveals 4116 DRAM Circuitry and Self-Oscillating Power Supply
[Happy Little Diodes] opened a ZX81 16K RAM expansion pack to find far more circuitry than expected inside the slim plastic housing. The ZX81 originally shipped with just 1K of RAM, and this popular upgrade contains two PCBs connected by ribbon cable: one carrying 74-series logic chips and the other holding 4116 DRAM chips and a discrete power circuit. The 4116 requires both +12V and −5V supplies, which the board generates internally using a self-oscillating single-transistor switcher with a Zener diode regulator and quench diode. The article also notes the expansion's notorious instability: the slightest movement while connected could trigger a full system reset.
Reverse Polish Notation Calculators Survive in 2026 via New Hardware, DIY Builds, and Software
A Hackaday feature examines the current state of Reverse Polish Notation calculators, first popularized by Hewlett-Packard for scientific computing. RPN, whose mathematical foundations were developed by Polish logician Jan Łukasiewicz, places operators after their operands — A B + rather than A + B — eliminating the need for parentheses and enabling efficient stack-based computation. HP later exited the calculator market, licensing its line to Moravia Consulting, while older models such as the HP-15C, 16C, 32S, 42S, and 48 have become sought-after collectibles. The article surveys remaining options: new hardware still in production, DIY calculator builds, and software implementations for computers and smartphones.
ESP32-P4 Weather Station Monitors PM2.5, NOx, VOC, CO2 and Presence via 24 GHz Radar
Harald Kreuzer published a build log for a DIY weather station and air quality monitor built on the Waveshare ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT-C. The station pairs an ESP32-P4 with a 10.1-inch 1280×800 IPS display and a Sensirion SEN66 sensor measuring PM1.0, PM2.5, PM4.0, PM10, NOx, VOC, and CO2 levels. A BH1750 light sensor and DFRobot C4001 24 GHz mmWave radar add light measurement and presence detection. Remote sensor nodes communicate via LoRa using a Heltec V4 module and ESP-NOW. The firmware stack uses ESP-IDF with LVGL and EEZ Studio for the display interface. Full source code is on GitHub at HarryVienna/ESP32-Weather-Station-and-Air-Quality-Monitor.
Sources: CNX Software
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
Open Book Touch — touchscreen e-reader, Crowd Supply (currently funding)
HomeMaster MiniPLC — ESP32 DIN-rail PLC for Home Assistant, Crowd Supply
Spark Solder — one-handed USB-C iron with solder feeder, Crowd Supply
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
iBlessi/coil-whine-db — 19★ community GPU noise census
HarryVienna/ESP32-Weather-Station — 2★ ESP32-P4 air quality build
None this week — GitHub trending page unavailable
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Bay Area — Sep 25–27, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo CA (20th anniversary)
Hackaday Supercon 2026 — November, Pasadena CA (dates TBD)
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