Custom Firmware For Even Cheaper Bluetooth Thermometers

Readers may recall when we first covered the $5 Xiaomi LYWSD03MMC temperature and humidity sensor back in 2020. Prolific hacker [Aaron Christophel] wrote a custom firmware for the affordable gadget…

PostmarketOS Now Boots On Over 250 Devices

Every year, as consumers gobble up the latest Android devices, more old, but perfectly serviceable, units end up collecting dust in drawers. Or worse, they end up getting tossed in the trash. One o…

Low-Cost 433 MHz Door Sensors Get Open Firmware

It’s an unfortunate reality these days that if you see a cheap piece of consumer electronics, there’s a good chance its only cheap because it’s designed to lock you into some ecos…

Open Firmware For PinePhone LTE Modem – What’s Up With That?

In their monthly announcement, among all the cool things Pine64, they talked about the open firmware for PinePhone’s LTE modem. The firmware isn’t fully open – a few parts remain …

PSP Turned Robot Remote With Custom Software

There’s no question that Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) was an impressive piece of hardware when it was released in 2004, but for all its technical wizardry, it wasn’t able to …

ESP8266 Adds WiFi Logging To IKEA’s Air Quality Sensor

Introduced back in June, the IKEA VINDRIKTNING is a $12 USD sensor that uses colored LEDs to indicate the relative air quality in your home depending on how many particles it sucks up. Looking to i…

ESP32 Turned Handy SWD Flasher For NRF52 Chips

Got an nRF52 or nRF51 device you need to flash? Got an ESP32 laying around collecting dust? If so, then firmware hacking extraordinaire [Aaron Christophel] has the open source code you need. His ne…

Custom Firmware Teaches USB Relay Board New Tricks

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to control a few devices from your computer, a cheap USB relay board might be the ideal solution. These are fairly simple gadgets, consisting of lit…

Exploring The World Of Nintendo 3DS Homebrew

When Nintendo officially ended production of the 3DS in September 2020, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. For one thing, some variation of the handheld system had been on the market since 2011. W…