Raspberry Pi Pico Mini Rack GPS Clock

I wanted to have the most accurate timepiece possible mounted in my mini rack. Therefore I built this:

This is a GPS-based clock running on a Raspberry Pi Pico in a custom 1U 10" rack faceplate. The clock displays time based on a GPS input, and will not display time until a GPS timing lock has been acquired.

For full...

Upgraded Sipeed NanoKVM-USB USB KVM solution gains 4K 60 FPS video capture and HDMI loop output

Sipeed has released a new variant of its NanoKVM-USB low-cost USB KVM adapter, which upgrades 2K 30 FPS capture and 4Kp30 loop out to 4K 60 FPS capture and 4Kp60 HDMI loop output. The new NanoKVM-USB 4K keeps the same ports as the earlier model, with HDMI and USB-C inputs connected to the target, and another USB-C port that connects to the host, in order to remotely control the target with keyboard, mouse, and monitor emulation. A USB Type-A port that can switch between host and target modes is also implemented, for instance, to share a USB drive between the...

Milk-V Titan – A $329 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard with a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot

We first noted the UltraRISC UR-DP1000-powered Milk-V Titan mini-ITX motherboard when we wrote an article about three high-performance RISC-V processors to watch in H2 2025. There have been some delays, as there often are, but the Titan board finally appears to be in stock, so it’s probably a good time to have a closer look. Powered by a 2 GHz UR-DP1000 octa-core RISC-V CPU, the Titan mini-ITX motherboard supports up to 64GB DIMM memory and M.2 NVMe storage (PCIe Gen4 x4), and features a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot for a graphics card or other expansion, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0...

Xibo open-source digital signage solution now works with Raspberry Pi 5 thanks to the Arexibo project

Xibo digital signage solution is now compatible with the Raspberry Pi 5 thanks to Axeribo, an unofficial alternative to the digital signage player for Xibo, that is implemented in Rust, and designed for Linux platforms. Long-time readers of CNX Software may remember that I played around with the Xibo open-source digital signage player many years ago (2011-2012). I notably managed to run Xibo for Arm in QEMU,  test Xibo digital signage in the Raspberry Pi emulator, and even try it on real hardware: a MeLE A1000 Android TV box to which I installed Linux. It kind of works, but without...

LILYGO T-Beam 1W – An ESP32-S3 + SX1262 high-power LoRa dev board with 32 dBm output, GNSS support

The LILYGO T-Beam-1W is an ESP32-S3-based high-power LoRa development board featuring an SX1262 RF transceiver, an onboard 1W power amplifier (32 dBm), a L76K GNSS module, a 1.3-inch SH1106 OLED, a microSD slot, USB-C, Qwiic connectors, and an AXP2101 PMU. The board runs on a 7.4V battery and includes a cooling fan for high-power RF operation. We first wrote about the original LILYGO T-Beam (then branded as TTGO) in 2018, and since then, the company introduced various revisions of the T-Beam as it became popular. The T-Beam 1W is the most powerful version so far, with a built-in 1 Watt...

AMD Embedded+ mini-ITX Board features Ryzen AI Embedded P132 CPU, Versal AI Edge Gen2 VE3558 SoC FPGA

At CES 2026, Sapphire Technology introduced the EDGE+VPR-7P132, an “AMD Embedded+” Mini-ITX motherboard built around AMD’s newly announced Ryzen AI Embedded P100 series of SoCs, namely the hexa-core Ryzen P132 (V4526iX) CPU, and an AMD Versal AI Edge Gen 2 VE3558 SoC FPGA, which features octa-core Arm Cortex-A78AE + ten Cortex-R52 real-time cores beyond FPGA fabric. It’s the first AMD Ryzen AI Embedded motherboard we’ve seen. It represents a massive update from last year’s Edge+ VPR-5050 motherboard, which relied on Zen 2-based Ryzen Embedded V2000 series and first-generation Versal silicon. The new VPR-7P132 skips multiple generations, jumping straight to Zen...

XIAO ePaper DIY Kit – EE02 – An ESP32-S3 board designed for 13.3-inch Spectra 6 color E-Ink display

Seeed Studio’s XIAO ePaper DIY Kit EE02 is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth board designed specifically for the 13.3-inch Spectra 6 color E-Ink display provided by the company. It’s based on a similar design as the XIAO ePaper DIY Kit-EE04 (ESP32-S3) and XIAO ePaper DIY Kit-EN04 (nRF52480) introduced last December, which are suitable for smaller 1.54 to 7.15-inch ePaper displays. Like the previous models, the new EE02 model also includes a battery connector with a power switch, a built-in charging IC, and comes with one reset and three user buttons. With support for a larger 13.3-inch color ePaper display, it’s...

Home Assistant-compatible Makerfabs ESP32-S3-based energy meter features BL0942 energy metering IC

The Energy Meter for Home Assistant is an ESP32-S3-based single-phase energy monitoring and control module designed to work with Home Assistant via ESPHome. It measures real-time power and energy consumption and also has a remote on/off control. The device is built around the BL0942 calibration-free energy metering IC, which supports voltage, current, power, and energy measurements with less than 1% error. It operates directly from AC 100–240V, includes an onboard 15A relay for switching loads, and provides electrical isolation for safety. Connectivity is done through USB and Wi-Fi using ESPHome for easy firmware flashing, API encryption, and automatic discovery in...

Электровакуумный геттер, газовыделение, газопоглощение в ЭВП

Подобно тому как принципиальная схема отличается от прибора в натуре, отличается и радиолампа от иллюстрации в разделе «Термоэлектронная эмиссия» школьного учебника физики. Электронная лампа, шире — электровакуумный прибор (ЭВП), неизбежно обрастает технологическими и вспомогательными элементами, необязательными в демонстрационном случае, однако необходимыми для практических ламп. Например, таким элементом, позволяющим сильно удешевить производство среднестатистической приёмно-усилительной лампы и обеспечить её ресурс в сотни и тысячи часов, является геттер, иначе — газопоглотитель — микроминиатюрный высоковакуумный насос внутри лампы. Существует несколько типов геттеров и несколько десятков их видов. Попробуем взглянуть на них глазами самодельщика, заодно рассмотрим и газовыделение в вакуумных приборах — паразитные явления, неразрывно...

Сам себе VoLTE. Запускаем сотовую сеть 4G LTE с поддержкой звонков и SMS

Приветствую всех!

Два года назад я уже рассказывал о том, как запустить у себя дома базовую станцию 4G LTE. Тем не менее, в той сети работал только мобильный интернет, тогда как при попытке позвонить или отправить SMS связь немедленно обрывалась.

Самое время восполнить это упущение. Сегодня мы поднимем сеть, в которой будут работать все эти функции. Заодно разберёмся, как работают звонки в LTE-сетях, как запустить такую сеть при помощи SDR и как заставить это всё работать. Как водится, будет много интересного.