The Zilog Z80 has just turned 50 years old. This iconic 8-bit processor first went on sale in July 1976 and stayed in production for 48 years until Zilog, now a Littelfuse subsidiary, stopped accepting orders in June 2024. However, there’s an open-source replacement closer than ever to shipping in the chip’s original 40-pin DIP package thanks to community-funded fabrication.

The original Z80 packed 8,500 transistors on a 4μm process and typically ran at 2.5 MHz, with later CMOS variants reaching 20 MHz. Binary compatibility with the Intel 8080 let it absorb the existing CP/M software base, with an on-die DRAM refresh counter that cut the number of support chips a system needed. Development of working prototypes cost roughly $400,000 against $500,000 in funding from Exxon, per the Computer History Museum.

The chip powered the ZX Spectrum, TRS-80, MSX machines, Nintendo's Game Boy, Sega's Master System, the Pac-Man arcade cabinet, and Texas Instruments' graphing calculators, then shipped in industrial controllers for decades after home computing moved on to more powerful successors. Zilog's end-of-life notice, dated April 15, 2024, told customers its wafer foundry was discontinuing support for the Z84C00 family, and last-time-buy orders closed that June.

Renaldas Zioma's FOSS Z80 project, launched shortly after the end-of-life notice, now has working silicon. The first version, fabbed on SkyWater's 130nm node through Tiny Tapeout 7 on a die of just 0.064mm2, has been confirmed as functional via the project’s GitHub repository. A QFN64 version with all 40 pins exposed followed on the Efabless CI2406 shuttle, two further runs then went through IHP's 130nm process, and the current run targets the classic DIP40 form factor using chip-on-board assembly on GlobalFoundries' 180nm GF180MCU node via Wafer.Space. The end goal here is to fab a drop-in replacement for machines like the ZX Spectrum and RC2014 kits.

The design is built around Guy Hutchison's TV80 Verilog core, and the project's Tiny Tapeout page says the 130nm CMOS implementation should support clocks up to 50 MHz, against 4 MHz for the original NMOS part.

https://github.com/rejunity/z80-open-silicon

The Google Home Mini launched in 2017 as Google's smallest, cheapest smart speaker. Millions were sold, handed out, and given away as promotional gifts.

Many of them still work, but it being in the last phase of its lifecycle means that while it still functions for basic tasks, it doesn't have any kind of customizability or local processing capabilities.

The hardware was fine for the time but has become less relevant in Google's lineup over time, with the Nest Mini, its successor, also discontinued. And more recently, there's been talk of new Gemini-powered smart speakers.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/63422484

Google alert: CAD files and build playlist are hosted on google services

https://www.powercircuits.nl/home/open-source-tadpole-tilting-cargo-trike

Fully Built, Open Source Design

This is an image of the final build. It looks cool and it's great to ride (but still needs a few improvements).

The build videos playlist: https://yewtu.be/playlist?list=PL3uwHLwN7YKrodkpyXISvayLdFsccHNWB&si=lt0YrWmcryd8LzgT

CAD drawings - v7 - Feb-2026

There is a donation button on the source page as well

https://github.com/tommybee456/OpenSplitDeck

Happy 2026! The BusKill project published our Annual Report for the progress we made last year.

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

Executive Summary

• First Annual Report
• Video documentation
• Futo Grant Recipient

In 2025, we're changing from a twice-yearly Warrant Canary to a once-yearly-canary plus a new once-yearly-annual-report.

In 2025, we published two video to help spread awareness, provide a clear demo, and show how to use BusKill.

And in 2025, we were awarded a grant from Futo.

Happy New Year!

We're looking forward to continuing to improve the BusKill software and looking for other avenues to distribute our hardware BusKill cable to make it more accessible this year.

If you want to help, please consider purchasing a BusKill cable for yourself or a loved one. It helps us fund further development, and you get your own BusKill cable to keep you or your loved ones safe.

Buy a BusKill Cable
https://buskill.in/buy

You can also buy a BusKill cable with bitcoin, monero, and other altcoins from our BusKill Store's .onion site.

Stay safe,
The BusKill Team
https://www.buskill.in/
http://www.buskillvampfih2iucxhit3qp36i2zzql3u6pmkeafvlxs3tlmot5yad.onion/

Happy 2026! The Eco-Libre project published our 2025 Annual Report for last year.

Eco-Libre is a volunteer-run project that designs libre technology for sustainable communities.

Eco-Libre's mission is to research, develop, document, teach, build, and distribute open-source technology that sustainably enfranchises communities' human rights.

We aim to provide clear documentation to build low-cost machines, tools, and infrastructure for people all over the world who wish to live in sustainable communities with others.

Executive Summary

• Continuing search for land in Ecuador
• New Eco-Libre Logo
• First Release of Life-Line Project
• Two Prototypes of Life-Line Project

Read the full report here.

Contribute to Eco-Libre

If you'd like to help Eco-Libre reach our mission to enfranchise sustainable communities' human rights with libre tech, please contact us to get involved :)

Join Us
eco-libre.org/join

Cheers,
The Eco-Libre Team
https://www.eco-libre.org/

We're thrilled to announce that BusKill was the recipient of a $1,031 microgrant from FUTO!

Can't see video above? Watch it on PeerTube or on YouTube at youtu.be/Qr0VusrG1jE

We're elated to see BusKill join the ranks next to CryptPad, ExifTool, KeePassXC, Whonix, Wireshark, Tor Project, Calyx, and numerous other awesome projects that have received grants from FUTO.

Iterate with us!

Want to print your own BusKill cable? We'll cover your expenses for filament, magnets, and pogo pins.

We plan to use these funds to document our 3D-Printable BusKill Dead Man Switch. And we need your help!

The BusKill project is looking for a volunteer to write the documentation describing how to print and build your own BusKill cable. The documentation will be written for our Sphinx Documentation Site in reStructuredText and pushed in git.

If you have access to a 3D-Printer, please contact us to receive funds to buy the components needed to document the build of a 3D-Printed BusKill.

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info on PeerTube or youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

Support BusKill

We're looking forward to continuing to improve the BusKill software and looking for other avenues to distribute our hardware BusKill cable to make it more accessible this year.

If you want to help, please consider purchasing a BusKill cable for yourself or a loved one. It helps us fund further development, and you get your own BusKill cable to keep you or your loved ones safe.

Buy a BusKill Cable
https://buskill.in/buy

You can also buy a BusKill cable with bitcoin, monero, and other altcoins from our BusKill Store's .onion site.

Stay safe,
The BusKill Team
https://www.buskill.in/
http://www.buskillvampfih2iucxhit3qp36i2zzql3u6pmkeafvlxs3tlmot5yad.onion/

We’re happy to announce the release of the Eco-Libre Life-Line version 2025.10.

• https://www.eco-libre.org/life-line-2025-10-released/

Who is Eco-Libre?

Eco-Libre is a volunteer-run project that designs libre technology for sustainable communities.

Eco-Libre's mission is to research, develop, document, teach, build, and distribute open-source technology that sustainably enfranchises communities' human rights.

We aim to provide clear documentation to build low-cost machines, tools, and infrastructure for people all over the world who wish to live in sustainable communities with others.

Contribute to Eco-Libre

If you'd like to help Eco-Libre reach our mission to enfranchise sustainable communities' human rights with libre tech, please contact us to get involved :)

Join Us
eco-libre.org/join

Cheers,
The Eco-Libre Team
https://www.eco-libre.org/

This article will show how to model sheets of Expanded Metal in FreeCAD, without slowing (or killing) FreeCAD.

• https://www.eco-libre.org/expanded-metal-hatch-freecad/

Who is Eco-Libre?

Eco-Libre is a volunteer-run project that designs libre technology for sustainable communities.

Eco-Libre's mission is to research, develop, document, teach, build, and distribute open-source technology that sustainably enfranchises communities' human rights.

We aim to provide clear documentation to build low-cost machines, tools, and infrastructure for people all over the world who wish to live in sustainable communities with others.

Contribute to Eco-Libre

If you'd like to help Eco-Libre reach our mission to enfranchise sustainable communities' human rights with libre tech, please contact us to get involved :)

Join Us
eco-libre.org/join

Cheers,
The Eco-Libre Team
https://www.eco-libre.org/

This article will show you how to find out exactly which layer is causing your FreeCAD file to balloon in size, by getting a granular list of all of the layers in your document tree, sorted by size.

• https://www.eco-libre.org/big-freecad-file-size/

Who is Eco-Libre?

Eco-Libre is a volunteer-run project that designs libre technology for sustainable communities.

Eco-Libre's mission is to research, develop, document, teach, build, and distribute open-source technology that sustainably enfranchises communities' human rights.

We aim to provide clear documentation to build low-cost machines, tools, and infrastructure for people all over the world who wish to live in sustainable communities with others.

Contribute to Eco-Libre

If you'd like to help Eco-Libre reach our mission to enfranchise sustainable communities' human rights with libre tech, please contact us to get involved :)

Join Us
eco-libre.org/join

Cheers,
The Eco-Libre Team
https://www.eco-libre.org/

We're very happy to share samxplog's unboxing video of the BusKill Kit.

Can't see video above? Watch it on PeerTube or on YouTube at youtu.be/QbVJnzt-ePc

Disclaimer: While we gave samxplogs a free BusKill Kit for review, we did not pay them nor restrict their impartiality and freedom to publish an independent review. We did require them to make the video open-source as a condition of receiving this free review unit. The above video is licensed CC BY-SA; you are free to redistribute it. If you are a video producer and would like a free BusKill Kit for review, please contact us

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info on PeerTube or youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

Support BusKill

We're looking forward to continuing to improve the BusKill software and looking for other avenues to distribute our hardware BusKill cable to make it more accessible this year.

If you want to help, please consider purchasing a BusKill cable for yourself or a loved one. It helps us fund further development, and you get your own BusKill cable to keep you or your loved ones safe.

Buy a BusKill Cable
https://buskill.in/buy

You can also buy a BusKill cable with bitcoin, monero, and other altcoins from our BusKill Store's .onion site.

Stay safe,
The BusKill Team
https://www.buskill.in/
http://www.buskillvampfih2iucxhit3qp36i2zzql3u6pmkeafvlxs3tlmot5yad.onion/

This post contains a canary message that's cryptographically signed by the official BusKill PGP release key

The BusKill project just published their Warrant Canary #010

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Status: All good
Release: 2025-06-16
Period: 2025-06-01 to 2026-05-31
Expiry: 2026-06-30

Statements
==========

The BusKill Team who have digitally signed this file [1]
state the following:

1. The date of issue of this canary is July 16, 2025.

2. The current BusKill Signing Key (2020.07) is

   E0AF FF57 DC00 FBE0 5635  8761 4AE2 1E19 36CE 786A

3. We positively confirm, to the best of our knowledge, that the 
   integrity of our systems are sound: all our infrastructure is in our 
   control, we have not been compromised or suffered a data breach, we 
   have not disclosed any private keys, we have not introduced any 
   backdoors, and we have not been forced to modify our system to allow 
   access or information leakage to a third party in any way.

4. We plan to publish the next of these canary statements before the
   Expiry date listed above. Special note should be taken if no new
   canary is published by that time or if the list of statements changes
   without plausible explanation.

Special announcements
=====================

1. We are changing from twice-yearly to once-yearly canaries

Disclaimers and notes
=====================

This canary scheme is not infallible. Although signing the 
declaration makes it very difficult for a third party to produce 
arbitrary declarations, it does not prevent them from using force or 
other means, like blackmail or compromising the signers' laptops, to 
coerce us to produce false declarations.

The news feeds quoted below (Proof of freshness) serves to 
demonstrate that this canary could not have been created prior to the 
date stated. It shows that a series of canaries was not created in 
advance.

This declaration is merely a best effort and is provided without any 
guarantee or warranty. It is not legally binding in any way to 
anybody. None of the signers should be ever held legally responsible 
for any of the statements made here.

Proof of freshness
==================

16 Jun 25 19:17:39 UTC

Source: DER SPIEGEL - International (https://www.spiegel.de/international/index.rss)
"Teacher Li": Catching Up with the Most Effective Chinese Regime Opponent
Firing at the Desperate: Palestinians Killed as They Gather to Receive Relief Supplies

Source: NYT > World News (https://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/World.xml)
Live Updates: Israel Strikes Iranian State TV as It Expands Targets in Tehran
With No Clear Off-Ramp, Israel’s War With Iran May Last Weeks, Not Days

Source: BBC News - World (https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/world/rss.xml)
No further damage seen at Iran nuclear sites, global watchdog says
'Nowhere feels safe': Iranians on life under Israeli attacks

Source: Bitcoin Blockchain (https://blockchain.info/q/latesthash)
00000000000000000000f2c3a15949aac2f6d7bc153330a4fca496f68c8c4b21

Footnotes
=========

[1] https://docs.buskill.in/buskill-app/en/stable/security/pgpkeys.html

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-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

What is a Warrant Canary?

The BusKill team publishes cryptographically signed warrant canaries on an annual basis.

Although security is one of our top priorities, we might not be able to inform you of of a breach if served with a State-issued, secret subpoena (gag order).

The purpose of publishing these canary statements is to indicate to our users the integrity of our systems.

For more information about BusKill canaries, see:

• https://buskill.in/canary

To view all past canaries, see:

• https://www.buskill.in/category/Canary/

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

Happy 2024! The Eco-Libre project published our 2023 Annual Report for last year.

Eco-Libre is a volunteer-run project that designs libre hardware for sustainable communities.

Eco-Libre's mission is to research, develop, document, teach, build, and distribute open-source hardware and software that sustainably enfranchises communities' human rights.

• Eco-Libre's mission statement

We aim to provide clear documentation to build low-cost machines, tools, and infrastructure for people all over the world who wish to live in sustainable communities with others.

Executive Summary

• Eco-Libre was founded June 24, 2023
• Begun searching for land in Ecuador
• Four projects created on GitHub
• Currently 2 active contributors
• 2024 priority is finding land and R&D on Life-Line

Michael Altfield registered the domain-name eco-libre.org on June 24th, 2023, a few weeks after arriving to Ecuador.

Over the next 6 months, Eco-Libre committed research and designs to our GitHub org for four projects (licensed CC BY-SA) which address some of the essential requirements for a new community's basic human needs: clean water, shelter, electricity, and ecological processing of waste. By releasing these designs under a libre license, it allows for other communities to build their own infrastructure with minimal effort, and it encourages collaboration on standardized design concepts.

As Eco-Libre's projects mature, we will build experimental prototypes in our own community. To that end, Michael is currently traveling around Ecuador by bicycle in-search of land to found Eco-Libre's first physical site.

In December, Eco-Libre was joined by Jack Nugent, who has since committed contributions to the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.

The priority focus for Michael in 2024 is to determine the best region in Ecuador to buy land where Eco-Libre can physically iterate on projects.

The priority focus for Jack in 2024 is to finish the research, design, and documentation of the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.

Projects

Eco-Libre was founded this year (in 2023). In our first 6 months, we've begun work on four libre hardware projects. All of them are currently in the early research stages.

Eco-Libre Launch-Nest

The Eco-Libre Launch-Nest was our first project. The concept is to build a small-footprint, high-occupancy structure for sustainable living of 30-people.

Eco-Libre Launch-Nest 2023.09

The rooftop has sufficient space for 72 solar panels (2 meter x 1 meter) and 3 parabolic solar concentrators (16 square meter).

The structure is six-stories above-ground, which is the recommended maximum height of a confined masonry structure in an earthquake zone. It also has a basement.

The building is designed with external, enclosed, firewalled staircases on either end. These are symmetrical and designed such that the building design can be rotated around a center courtyard to have four Eco-Libre Launch-Nest structures that share the same stairwells.

Currently only basic, incomplete architectural design-work has been done in CAD. Before a structural analysis can be assessed (eg to determine the location of columns), further work needs to be done on finishing the placement of windows, doors, and dividing walls.

Eco-Libre Life-Line

The Eco-Libre Life-Line project is a series of components making up an infrastructure to deliver a clean water pipeline to a community. This includes:

Eco-Libre Life-Line 2023.12

1. Collection of raw surface water (eg from a stream)
2. Removal of large organic debris & sediments
3. Removal of small particles
4. Removal of harmful bacteria & parasites
5. Clean water storage

Michael started the Life-Line project after visiting a number of communities who had constant issues with their water systems breaking or failing to provide clean water. The goal is to design a low-cost, self-cleaning pipeline of systems that require minimal human intervention (max routine maintenance twice per year).

This year we have half-finished the "intake" component in CAD, which consists of building a weir in a stream that funnels turbulent water onto a downward-sloped HDPE barrel with a fine-mesh screen atop it. This design exploits the energy in falling turbulent water to clean the intake screen, and it prevents the intake from being clogged by organic debris during heavy rainfall.

Special thanks to Jack Nugent, who joined Eco-Libre in 2023 and has contributed to research, design, and documentation of the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.

The goal in 2024 is to finish the "intake" component in CAD and also to design the "settling tank", "pre-filter", and "sand filter" components in CAD.

Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth

How do you sustainably begin to build a community on land without electricity and without any structures?

The Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth is a simple storage shed with >1 kW of PV solar panels on the roof. This is the first structure to be built when jumpstarting a new off-grid community. It provides the power, storage, and outdoor workshop space needed to build-out the community.

Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth 2023.06

This year we've made a simple footprint for the Genesis-Booth in CAD that's 4 meters x 2 meters -- just large enough to fit 4 solar panels (2 meters x 1 meter each). Further work is needed in CAD, but this year we also delved into making a framework for our documentation.

The Eco-Libre documentation is written in reST, generated by Sphinx, and (currently) hosted by GitHub. This is an exceptionally flexible continuous documentation solution that allows for versioned documentation matching versioned releases, works well with git, can be exported to many different flexible formats, and can be extended with custom directives written in python.

The highest priority for the Genesis-Booth is to finish this documentation as a template for other projects. Ideally this should be designed in such a way that information about Eco-Libre in general is seamlessly added to all project's documentations in a reusable way.

Eco-LIbre Treasure Tower

The Eco-Libre Treasure-Tower project is a 7 meter x 6 meter structure for storing and processing a community's waste, most importantly their food & fecal compost.

Eco-Libre Treasure-Tower 2023.07

This structure is 6-stories high and barrier-free, with a wrap-around ramp. All but the top-floor have three doors:

1. Access door for maintenance
2. Deposit Closet
3. Deposit Closet

Each deposit closet contains facilities for the collection of human urine and feces and is slightly staggered in elevation so the user's deposits fall by gravity into their designated collection areas for processing.

Separately from compost, this structure also serves as a storage area for recyclable waste materials, such as metal.

This year a first-draft design of the structure has been designed in CAD, but it's very premature.

Next, a second design prototype (where the two deposit closet entrances are on the same side) should be drafted in CAD and compared to the existing design.

Contribute to Eco-Libre

If you'd like to help Eco-Libre reach our mission to enfranchise sustainable communities' human rights with libre hardware, please contact us to get involved :)

Join Us
eco-libre.org/join

Cheers,
The Eco-Libre Team
https://www.eco-libre.org/