Hardware Podcasts

Ep 357: BreezyBox, Antique Tech, and Defusing Killer Robots

Hackaday Podcast · 13 Feb 2026 · 1h 06m · Episode 357

What this episode covers

Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss BreezyBox, a project by Valentine Donald Chuck that provides a busybox-like shell and virtual terminal for the ESP32, enabling interactive development and self-compiling applications on the microcontroller. They also review a case study on Brighter, a Kickstarter-funded lamp company, detailing the manufacturing challenges faced by founder Simon, including heat sink design errors and assembly communication failures. The episode covers Tucker Osman's reverse engineering of iPad displays to create a PC touchscreen, the homebrew scene for the Nintendo Pokemon Mini, and the creation of a custom RGB 14-segment display by East Makes. Finally, they analyze industrial robot safety protocols and test the viability of decade-old PLA filament.

Most relevant to

founders before launch and early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Products
BreezyBox, Brighter, iPad, Pokemon Mini, Prusa
Chips
ESP32, SK 6805
Tools
KiCad, Fusion
Materials
PLA
Also
East Makes, Stockfish, Arduino

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