A Custom Zigbee Touch Keypad

RP2350B bells&whistles development board features on-board RP2040 debugger, HDMI, and microSD card slot

Bảng phát triển RP2350B Bells&Whistles tích hợp sẵn bộ gỡ lỗi RP2040 (Picoprobe), cổng HDMI (qua PicoDVI), khe cắm thẻ microSD, PSRAM 8MB tùy chọn, flash SPI 4MB, 46 chân GPIO và hai cổng USB-C. Bo mạch hỗ trợ nguồn mở (KiCad, sơ đồ trên GitHub) với giá 29,95 USD trên Tindie.

Lập trình viên muốn phát triển ứng dụng trên RP2040 nhưng gặp khó khăn với việc debug và mở rộng hệ thống cần tìm hiểu cách tích hợp RP2350B để tiết kiệm chi phí và tăng hiệu năng với các tính năng như debug built-in, HDMI, và lưu trữ MicroSD.

A BIOS For Your ESP32-C6

Rompass đã phát triển một firmware tương tự BIOS cho vi điều khiển ESP32-C6, cung cấp bootloader và lớp API hỗ trợ tải động các chương trình từ RAM, thậm chí qua mạng. Dự án thể hiện xu hướng xóa nhòa ranh giới giữa vi điều khiển và bộ vi xử lý, xu hướng này sẽ tiếp tục khi các bộ xử lý ứng dụng mạnh mẽ như ESP32-P4 trở nên phổ biến.

Lập trình viên ESP32-C6 nên đọc để khám phá cách mở rộng khả năng quản lý khởi động và chạy ứng dụng động từ RAM hoặc mạng, giúp tối ưu hóa hiệu suất và linh hoạt cho các dự án yêu cầu tính linh hoạt cao hơn.

Thread took years to fix what Zigbee got right from day one

Thread was marketed as the protocol to end smart home fragmentation, but its early architecture created a worse problem: competing isolated mesh networks from Apple, Google, and Amazon that couldn't share credentials or heal across vendor boundaries. Zigbee, by contrast, uses a single hardware coordinator as the sole trust center, making split meshes structurally impossible. Thread also carries heavier IPv6 overhead compared to Zigbee's lightweight packets, hurting battery life on cheap sensors. Thread 1.4.0 (2025) finally mandated open border router syncing, achieving the baseline stability Zigbee had from day one. The takeaway: corporate tribalism and over-engineering delayed Thread's promise, while Zigbee's simpler centralized design proved more robust in practice.

Reflective LCD Slabtop Terminal Runs Homebrewed Solar OS

A maker built a handheld slabtop terminal around the Waveshare ESP32-S3-RLCD-4.2, a board pairing an ESP32-S3 microcontroller with a reflective LCD. To power it, they created Solar OS — a custom operating system built on FreeRTOS that compiles all apps into a single binary. The device features a 3D-printed case, mini keyboard, and battery. Solar OS supports Python and Lua scripting with hardware API access, and ships with a file manager, web browser, chat client, MP3 player, image viewer, text editor, and games. The creator is seeking community input on evolving the form factor toward a palmtop design.

A More Convenient IButton Reader

Geoffrey Wells designed ChillPoint, a handheld iButton reader built around an ESP32-C6 microcontroller, aimed at modernizing cold chain logistics data retrieval. The device uses a 1-Wire probe to read iButton temperature data loggers on contact, stores data on internal flash, and hosts a web UI over its own WiFi access point for easy access from any smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Both hardware and software will be open source, with a CrowdSupply campaign planned for release.

Louder ESP32 Mini board adds WiFi and Bluetooth to old speakers for SqueezeLite, Snapclient, or ESPHome support

Sonocotta's Louder ESP32 Mini is a compact open-source hardware board designed to retrofit old passive speakers with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Built around the ESP32-S3 with 8MB PSRAM and a TAS5805M DAC/amplifier, it comes in two sizes (42×42mm and 52×52mm) and replaces the standard speaker terminal cup. It supports multiple firmware options including Squeezelite-ESP32 for Spotify Connect and AirPlay, Snapclient for multi-room audio, and ESPHome for Home Assistant integration. Priced at $15–$20, it's available on Lectronz and Tindie, with schematics and Gerber files published on GitHub.

OpenC6 BIOS project brings PC-like firmware to ESP32-C6 MCU with network boot and OTA update support

OpenC6 BIOS is an open-source project that brings PC BIOS-like architecture to the ESP32-C6 microcontroller. Instead of combining hardware setup and application code into a single firmware image, it separates the base system from application payloads (2–10 KB). Key features include dynamic CPU frequency scaling, a System Call Interface (ABI) for Wi-Fi/crypto/math access without full ESP-IDF, PXE-like network boot over Wi-Fi, A/B OTA updates with rollback, a web-based BIOS setup interface, LP-Core health monitoring using the ESP32-C6's low-power RISC-V core, and Aura Sync RGB support. The project targets ESP32-C6 boards with at least 8MB flash and is available on GitHub under the MIT license.