VIEWE launches 4.3-inch ESP32-S31 display development board

VIEWE has introduced the PLCM-UES31S043H800V480C-U, a 4.3-inch smart display module that appears to be the first third-party development board powered by the new ESP32-S31 MCU. The board includes a 4.3-inch display with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4 LE and Classic, and IEEE 802.15.4 for Zigbee and Thread. It also features USB-C and USB-A ports, a microSD card slot, RS485 and CAN interfaces, and a 20-pin GPIO expansion header with UART and I2C. The board also includes an ES8389 audio codec, two NS4150B amplifiers, two onboard microphones, four ADC buttons, a WS2812B RGB LED, and BOOT/RESET buttons. It operates on a...

What Makes a Great Hack: How Jurors Choose Winning Projects

From the outside, hackathon judging can look like a black box. We open it up: the four criteria our jurors score, why demo polish is deliberately half-weighted, and how the winners really get chosen.

Microchip MTCH3380P and MTCH3240P capacitive touch controllers support up to 64 buttons with parallel sensing

Microchip Technology has introduced the MTCH3380P and MTCH3240P, two new capacitive touch controllers that handle touch detection internally, making it easier to build display-free HMI devices with touch-sensitive buttons, sliders, and wheels. The main difference between the two controllers is the number of supported touch sensors. The MTCH3380P supports up to 38 self-capacitance or 64 mutual-capacitance keys, while the smaller MTCH3240P supports up to 24 self-capacitance or 32 mutual-capacitance keys. Both controllers use parallel sensing with 12 on-chip ADCs to improve touch response times and noise immunity. They also support touch detection through thick cover materials and when users are...

Dragonwing FWA Gen 6 Elite Platform combines 5G Advanced, NR-NTN, and tri-band Wi-Fi 8

Unveiled at Network X 2026, the Qualcomm Dragonwing FWA Gen 6 Elite Platform combines 5G Advanced (3GPP Rel-19), NR-NTN (New Radio – Non-Terrestrial Networks) satellite communication, and tri-band Wi-Fi 8 with a 5×5 radio configuration. The new Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) solution features a Qualcomm X105 Modem-RF with 5G NR over satellite support, quad-frequency GNSS (L1, L2, L5, and L6), Qualcomm Turbo DSDA for 60% higher throughput compared to Gen 5, a quad-core CPU, an integrated 10 TOPS NPU, LPDDR4x and LPDDR5/5x, and quantum security (CNSA 2.0 compliant). It offers 500 MHz of aggregated bandwidth, 6- and 8-layer MIMO, peak...

PlugMate and PlugClaw Review – Thumb-sized Android-based private computers with optional Ubuntu/OpenClaw support

We received two unusual little devices for review this month: the PlugMate and the PlugClaw, both built by TrustKernel, a security company better known for the trusted-execution tech inside other people’s phones than for consumer gadgets. Each is a complete, self-contained computer the size of a USB stick (its own processor, memory, and encrypted storage) that runs a private, hardened Android system called PlugOS. You plug one into your phone, tablet, or computer, and that host lends it a screen, a keyboard, and a network connection. Nothing of yours crosses over. The easiest way to picture it: it’s a little...

Facebook releases Muse Gadgets SDK for ESP32 and Raspberry Pi/Linux-based devices

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has released the open-source Muse Gadgets SDK, designed to work with ESP32 boards or Linux-based SBCs like a Raspberry Pi. This requires some explanation… I’ve been on holiday for a while, so I’m not up to date on everything, but apparently Meta released Muse on September 6, yet another personal AI agent… Earlier this month, Nat Friedman, head of product at Meta Superintelligence Labs, shared an X post about the Muse Gadgets “side project” that aims to make ESP32 and Linux devices work with Muse, basically enabling hardware AI monitors and Physical AI with Muse. The...

Wireless-Tag WT32P4C5-43S – A fully integrated 4.3-inch ESP32-P4 and ESP32-C5 touch display devkit

Wireless-Tag WT32P4C5-43S (ZX4D30CE405-V1.3)  is a fully integrated 4.3-inch touch display development board that combines an ESP32-P4 MCU with an ESP32-C5 wireless module supporting dual-band WiFi 6 (2.4/5 GHz), Bluetooth LE, and 802.15.4 connectivity. Unlike previous ESP32-P4 + ESP32-C5 solutions, this one comes with a built-in touchscreen, so you don’t need to connect a separate display. Designed for industrial automation, smart control panels, and edge AI vision terminals, the board also integrates a 15-pin MIPI CSI camera interface, a microSD card slot, two USB Type-C ports (USB 2.0 High-Speed and Debug/JTAG), and a 14-pin GPIO expansion header. Wireless-Tag WT32P4C5-43S (ZX4D30CE405-V1.3) specifications:...

Inside a 1980s filter chip that uses switched capacitors

Sometimes it's easier to identify an IC with a microscope. While sorting a box of old ICs, CuriousMarc came across some Harris ICs labeled "F1-10-5", a mysterious part number that didn't show up in any databooks. Since unidentifiable ICs are useless, he gave me one to analyze. Conveniently, it was in a ceramic package, so I could open it up with a quick tap from a chisel. Under the microscope, the chip's most striking feature was a grid of square capacitors. With all those capacitors, I guessed that it was a switched-capacitor filter. The die provided another clue: the part number HF-10. With this information, we...

M5Stack ToughC5 weatherproof ESP32-C5 IoT controller offers dual-band Wi-Fi 6, BLE 5, and Zigbee/Thread

M5Stack has just introduced the ToughC5, a rugged, weatherproof outdoor IoT controller built around the ESP32-C5. The device features a bright 2.0-inch capacitive touch IPS display and RS485 connectivity. The ToughC5 is an upgrade to the ESP32-base3d M5Stack TOUGH introduced in 2021, with the upgraded model featuring a more modern ESP32-C5 MCU with dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 LE, and an IEEE 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee and Thread. Other changes include faster Octal PSRAM, an upgraded RTC chip with a dedicated coin cell backup battery, a passive buzzer replacing the previous 1W speaker, and a custom power management...

Radxa's Q8B has 2x the performance and expansion of the Pi 5

There was a time I'd look at a board like the Radxa Dragon Q8B (at left, above) and be like, "there's no way I'd spend $209 on an SBC with 8 gigs of RAM". But we're in 2026, and seeing the 8 gig Raspberry Pi 5 going for almost the same amount, I figured I'd give it a shot.

On paper, the Q8B beats the Pi 5 in pretty much every way. A lot of that is thanks to this Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chip, which is the same chip I tested on Microsoft's Windows Dev Kit 2023.