Samwise Makers' News
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Your E-ink Display Just Became a Wireless Printer
Who says you need paper to print? Nishant Joshi's fork of the CrossPoint firmware implements the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) directly on the ESP32-C3 microcontroller inside the Xteink X4 and X3 e-ink displays. Point your OS's printer dialog at the device, hit Print, and the document renders at 300 DPI across the A5 display—no drivers, no cables, no spool queue. Pages are processed row by row, simultaneously updating the screen and saving to the SD card. The project is a clever mashup of an ancient office standard and a cutting-edge display technology, opening the door to on-demand, document-quality e-ink output on cheap hardware.
Paper Sensors That Fold Themselves Into Wearables
Researchers at Shibaura Institute of Technology have developed a new class of wearable sensor that builds itself. Starting as flat paper printed with inkjet-deposited patterns, the sensors self-fold into precise helical forms when exposed to humidity—no assembly, no soldering, no machinery. Copper tape electrodes capture two distinct signals: triboelectric energy from friction and galvanic skin response tied to perspiration. Both are relevant to health monitoring and gesture detection. The approach targets low-cost, mass-producible wearable fabrication, making it possible to roll sensors off a standard inkjet printer and have them arrive at their final form on their own.
3D-Printable Color Indicators That Change With Every Angle
MIT CSAIL's ShiftLens project delivers the satisfying click of a color change without electronics. The design layers a transparent lenticular lens over a surface printed with alternating color stripes. Shift the lens even a few millimeters and the displayed color flips—red to green, open to closed. Actuation is mechanical: a knob, slider, or rotating ring can move the lens layer precisely. A bottle-closure indicator is the proof-of-concept, but the implications extend to any status display that needs zero power draw. A Rhino-based design tool exists for generating patterns, though it has not been publicly released yet.
GNU Radio Companion Is Now a Tab in Your Browser
Marc Lichtman, author of the PySDR textbook and pysdr.org, has ported GNU Radio Companion to the web at gnuradioworld.com. The browser-based version supports RTL-SDR dongles, audio input, and recorded off-air captures, with a ready-made library of example flowgraphs covering FM demodulation, ADS-B aircraft tracking, and more. No installation, no version conflicts, no compiler. Lichtman has built a reputation for lowering the barrier to SDR education, and this move takes that further—dropping the notoriously fiddly GNU Radio setup entirely. One gap: networked SDR sources like a remote KiwiSDR or SoapySDR server are not yet supported.
FREE-WILi 2 Packs RP2350, ESP32-C5, FPGA, and Linux Into One Pocket Tool
The FREE-WILi 2 Founders Edition is a handheld open-hardware lab cramming remarkable silicon density into 290 grams. Two Raspberry Pi RP2350 MCUs handle real-time control and display; an ESP32-C5 provides Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, and 802.15.4; a Lattice ICE40 FPGA adds reconfigurable logic; and a Raspberry Pi CM0 runs a full 64-bit Linux OS for heavy scripting. On-board radios cover LoRa, NFC, 125 kHz RFID, and sub-GHz. The stock firmware supports Python, Rust, C/C++, visual block programming, and WebAssembly. Pre-order is open at $400, shipping Q4 2026. Open hardware documentation, schematics, and LLM Agent.md files are already available on GitHub.
Sources: CNX Software
Arduino's Media Carrier Breaks Out Cameras, Display, and Audio for UNO Q
The Arduino UNO Q and VENTUNO Q both have MIPI CSI/DSI and audio hardware buried in 60-pin headers—useful in theory, awkward in practice. The new UNO Media Carrier (ASX00083) resolves that with standard 22-pin MIPI connectors for one DSI display and two CSI cameras, plus three 3.5 mm audio jacks. Waveshare touch displays in 5-, 8-, and 10.1-inch sizes are documented as compatible. IMX219 camera modules—the same used by Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2—connect without adapters. A Kiosk Mode tutorial shows the full display setup path. Priced at $19.25, it's a practical companion to a capable-but-underused platform.
Sources: CNX Software
Waveshare Fits ESP32-C5 Wi-Fi 6 Into the Raspberry Pi Pico Shell
Waveshare's ESP32-C5 Pico board offers a cost-effective path to dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5 LE, Zigbee 3.0, and Thread 1.3 in the ubiquitous Raspberry Pi Pico form factor. The ESP32-C5HF4 SoC runs at up to 240 MHz and includes an ultra-low-power secondary RISC-V core for battery-sensitive applications. On-board USB-C handles programming and power; a LiPo connector enables battery operation. It ships in four variants covering PCB or external antenna options and pre-soldered or bare headers, priced from $8.99 to $17.99. Code samples for Arduino and ESP-IDF, including LCD demos and CAN transceiver examples, are on GitHub.
Sources: CNX Software
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Crowd Supply
FREE-WILi 2 Founders Edition — $400 pre-order, ships Q4 2026 (freewili.com)
Open Book Touch — Pocketable open-source front-lit e-reader (Crowd Supply, active)
ReMIX35 — Open-source upgrade kit for Prusa MK3S/MK3S+ (Crowd Supply, active)
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
freewili/wilibsp — Open BSP for FREE-WILi 2; Python/Rust/C++ + LLM Agent.md
waveshareteam/ESP32-C5-Pico — Arduino/ESP-IDF samples for WiFi6/BLE5/Zigbee board
raspberrypi/pico-sdk — Official Pico SDK for RP2040 + RP2350, updated Aug 2026
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Coney Island — Sep 19–21, 2026, Coney Island, New York
Hackaday Retrocomputing Challenge 2026 — Entries open now, hackaday.io
Teardown 2026 (Crowd Supply) — Portland, OR — CfP open, dates TBA
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency