Everything the anchors say on this tape, story by story.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Adafruit's new Hydra board has two chips, a camera port and a display port, all in the size of an Arduino Uno.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Adafruit's new Hydra board has two chips on it and is shaped like an Arduino Uno. Which, as I understand it, is a very small fax machine. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: It is not a fax machine, Grant. We first told you about this board on Monday. Now heise has the details: the size, the speeds and what plugs in. ▶
KAI: Huge! The ESP32-P4 does the computing: two 32-bit RISC-V cores at up to 360 megahertz, plus a separate low-power core at 40 megahertz. ▶
KAI: It has 768 kilobytes of SRAM, 16 megabytes of PSRAM and 16 megabytes of flash. And the board is 72.3 by 53.3 millimetres. Uno-sized. ▶
KAI: On the file footage: two MIPI connectors, one for displays and one for cameras. Both are 22-pin, each with two data lanes. ▶
KAI: The radio is a second chip, an ESP32-C6, over SDIO: Wi-Fi 6 on 2.4 gigahertz, Bluetooth 5.3 LE, Zigbee and Thread. Huge. I won't even mention USB-C. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: The catch: it takes Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 and OV5647 camera modules, but newer Raspberry Pi cameras with the IMX708 sensor are not supported. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: So it takes the old camera and not the new one. Sensible. I never trusted the new ones either. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: A toy robot from 1984 finally gets a Raspberry Pi and an AI camera for brains.
GRANT BRICKMAN: The Omnibot, a toy robot from 1984. It carried drinks on a tray. Basically a hotel minibar with wheels. Vera, what's the story? ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: And more to the point, why does a 1984 toy need new brains? ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: Hackster.io reports that Tomy released it in 1984. It drove, played cassettes and carried drinks, but ran on remote control and prerecorded commands. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: Cassettes? How does a tape tell a robot where to go? ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: Through tones. Different frequencies on the cassette deck meant commands like forward or turn left. Maker Mario Cruz saw a way to use that wirelessly. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: And what did they start with? Presumably not a working robot. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: A donated Omnibot at Moonlighter FabLab in Miami. Leaking batteries had damaged the circuit board and the rubber wheels had deteriorated. Cleaning and soldering revived it. ▶
ADA: Here's the clever bit! A Bluetooth cassette adapter plus a Raspberry Pi script that makes the right tones. The original electronics stay. Plus an AI camera and a 3D-printed pal, Ring-O. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: So the robot now has the AI. Just the one guy, living inside a toy. Efficient. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: What is still open: the report doesn't spell out how the AI camera is used, and it doesn't describe what Ring-O does. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: So we know how it moves, but not much about what it sees. We'll find out when they print more of it. ▶
The Hype Index (PXL)
GRANT BRICKMAN: The Hype Index is in: Hacker News points, desk volume and the loudest words on the wire.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Time for the Hype Index, our market report on how loud everything is. Vera, how loud is everything? ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: Top of the wire: 252 points on Hacker News for a Kentucky man becoming the first humanist granted a religious exemption from AI. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: Then 51 points for Dayjob: Tax, which evaluates AI agents on 50 professional tax assignments. And 48 points for a MacBook Pro with a touch enabled XDR display. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Tax assignments and religious exemptions. A typical Wednesday on the internet. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: Desk volume over 24 hours: tech, 30 stories. AI, 30 stories. Gaming, 30 stories. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: Perfectly balanced. Nobody is working harder than anybody else, and I've been saying that for years. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: Loudest words: OPEN, 7 headlines. GAMES, 7 headlines. APPLE, 6 headlines. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: So the internet is open, playing games and eating an Apple. That is the Hype Index. ▶
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Weather
STORMY BYTES: Hype pressure is rising over the maker bench, with a front of dev boards moving in from the west.
STORMY BYTES: Expect scattered showers of RISC-V cores and a cold snap for anyone holding the wrong camera sensor.
STORMY BYTES: Outlook: a vintage toy robot will be thinking for itself by the weekend, with light solder fumes.