Name that Ware, February 2026

This month’s Ware is shown below:

Do I sense a theme? Welcome to the tour of the various little gadgets I have littered around my desk for test & measurement!

This one is likely to be guessed pretty quickly as well, but a shout-out to Ole for introducing me to this little gem. It’s pretty impressive the amount of features & diagnostics packed into this tiny package. It’s not the cheapest tool, but a good tool – and I have to say I strongly agree with many of the product designer’s technical and aesthetic choices. The build quality is definitely up there.

I...

Winner, Name that Ware January 2026

The Ware for January 2026 is a FNIRSI DPS-150. Tim nailed it almost immediately; congrats, email me for your prize! The DPS-150 is a small, portable DC “benchtop” power supply that converts USB-C into a range of voltages and currents. samchin convinced me to get one of these as an impulse buy in the Shenzhen markets last month. I’ll have to say that overall I’m happy with it, but the UI has been challenging for me to wrap my head around. Definitely keep the user manual for this one – I’m still referring to it to figure out all the...

Rockchip RK3588 and RK3576 H.264 and H.265 video decoders gain mainline Linux support

VDPU381 and VDPU383 video decoders are found in Rockchip RK3588 and RK3576 SoCs and variants like the RK3588S and RK3576J. So far, we had to rely on the Rockchip BSP to support hardware video decoding, but Collabora has just announced upstream/mainline Linux support for H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) video decoding for RK3588 and RK3576 SoCs. Highlights of H.265/H.264 video decoder implementation on mainline Linux: A 17-patch series adding decoder support, in addition to dt-bindings and device tree nodes New V4L2 HEVC UAPI controls for explicit short-term and long-term RPS (Reference Picture Set) handling Fixing a non-obvious IOMMU restore issue...

Первые отечественные электронные лифты. УЛЖ-10

Приветствую всех!

Несмотря на то, что релейные лифты в наших краях массово выпускались и устанавливались вплоть до начала девяностых, а тысячи таких работают до сих пор, ещё в незапамятные времена разрабатывались электронные системы управления.

Так получилось, что мне повезло достать начинку от первой массовой такой станции. Самое время узнать, как оно устроено и работает, а также то, какой оказалась дальнейшая судьба таких устройств. Как водится, будет много интересного.

M5Stack Unit PoE-P4 Pairs RISC-V ESP32-P4 and 802.3at PoE in 64mm Module

M5Stack has introduced the Unit PoE-P4, a compact PoE-powered Ethernet controller built around Espressif’s ESP32-P4 SoC. The module integrates 16MB Flash, 32MB PSRAM, a 10/100 Ethernet PHY, dual MIPI interfaces, and USB connectivity in a 64 × 24 mm form factor.   The board is based on the ESP32-P4NRW32, featuring a dual-core 32-bit RISC-V processor […]

Lepton XDS dual-camera module combines 160 x 120 thermal imager with 5MP RGB camera

The Teledyne FLIR Lepton XDS dual-camera module combines a factory‑aligned radiometric 160 × 120 Lepton 3.5 thermal camera with a 5 MP visible camera. Its size, weight, and power (SWaP)‑optimized design makes it suitable for mobile devices, compact electronics, smart buildings, fire detection, occupancy analytics, and equipment‑condition‑monitoring applications. The company highlights that the Lepton XDS module is International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)-free, which reduces development risk and accelerates time‑to‑market, since it’s easier to export or integrate into products sold globally. Lepton XDS specifications: EO Camera Optics – EFL 1.57 mm, 98.2° HFOV, F/1/2.2 Sensor – 2592 x 1944 pixels...

How to Securely Erase an old Hard Drive on macOS Tahoe

Apparently Apple thinks nobody with a modern Mac uses spinning rust (hard drives with platters) anymore.

I plugged in a hard drive from an old iMac into my Mac Studio using my Sabrent USB to SATA Hard Drive enclosure, and opened up Disk Utility, clicked on the top-level disk in the sidebar, and clicked 'Erase'.

Lo and behold, there's no 'Security Options' button on there, as there had been since—I believe—the very first version of Disk Utility in Mac OS X!

Arduino Matter Discovery Bundle educational kit combines Arduino Nano Matter with three Modulino modules

Arduino has just announced the Arduino Matter Discovery Bundle (AKX00081), an all-in-one development kit designed to help users learn, prototype, and build Matter-over-Thread smart home devices quickly. The kit is based on the Arduino Nano Matter development board and works with the Matter ecosystem, including compatible platforms such as Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Home Assistant. The bundle also includes a Nano Connector Carrier with Grove and Qwiic interfaces, a microSD slot, and various IO options. The kit features three Qwiic-based Modulino nodes, namely a Latch Relay, a Distance module for presence detection, and a Thermo module for...

TECNO unveils thin modular smartphone concept with magnetic cameras, battery, and gamepad add-ons

The TECNO will showcase its modular smartphone concept at Mobile World Congress 2026. The company’s “Modular Magnetic Interconnection Technology” aims to enable thin modular smartphones with magnetic hardware expansion add-ons. This idea is not new. Motorola’s Project Ara open-source hardware platform attempted that in 2013, and Google (ATAP) took over the project in 2015, before the modular phone project died in 2016. The Fairphone is the closest we have to a modular smartphone nowadays, but while it’s repairable, its modularity is more limited. But maybe time was not just right for a full modular smartphone, and TECNO is giving it...

Raspberry Pi CM5 mini-ITX-compatible carrier board features up to nine Ethernet ports for NVR, Smart Home, and Edge AI applications

EXAVIZ Cruiser is a mini-ITX-compatible carrier board for the Raspberry Pi CM5 featuring up to nine Ethernet ports (one 2.5GbE port, and up to eight GbE PoE+ ports) designed for Network Video Recorders (NVRs), Smart Home gateways, and edge AI applications. The board also features two 4K-capable HDMI 2.0 video outputs, two SATA ports, an M.2 PCIe Gen2/3 x1 socket for an NVMe SSD, an AI accelerator, or a SATA expansion module, three USB 3.0 ports, and four USB 2.0 interfaces. It also supports 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.4 LE, and Zigbee connectivity through an ESP32-C6 module, and you...