Tuesday, 10 November 2026

Open Hardware Files: Breadboard Power, MSX Video, and a Robot Interface

A power supply for the breadboard, a video cartridge for an MSX, and an interface for a small robot offer three different reasons to open KiCad. This November 10, 2026 selection brings together a newly published board and two existing designs with clarified hardware licensing.

Each project provides editable schematic and PCB sources. We have reviewed the published files and documentation, but have not built or bench-tested the hardware.

01-breadboard: two supply rails for experiments

KiCad render of the 01-breadboard supply with two regulators, a red indicator LED and a barrel-jack footprint.
01-breadboard power-supply render. Original design © 2019 John Winans; modifications © 2026 Muhammad Inuwa Muhammad. Project image, CERN OHL v1.2, unchanged. Render, not a photograph.

devinuwa’s 01-breadboard is a 5 V and 3.3 V breadboard power supply, adapted from John Winans’s 2019 design. Its compact, familiar purpose makes it an approachable circuit to inspect: follow the input power through the regulators and compare the schematic with the board layout.

The KiCad 9 schematic, PCB and project files were published on November 10, with CERN Open Hardware Licence v1.2 terms added the same day. The author reports no DRC violations. That is a design-rule result, not an independent check of output voltage, load capacity or thermal behaviour; we have not run DRC or measured a board.

MSX VDP Cartridge: a new route to a digital display

Front copper and silkscreen layout of the Core2350B rev 0.3 MSX cartridge, showing module headers, HDMI connector and edge contacts.
Core2350B rev 0.3 front-layer layout. Design: hoony9845 / MSX VDP Cartridge contributors, CERN-OHL-P-2.0. Exported from the unmodified PCB source with KiCad 9 and rasterized with Inkscape. Engineering render, not an assembled-board photograph.

hoony9845’s MSX VDP Cartridge uses an RP2350 to emulate video hardware on the MSX bus and output a DVI signal through an HDMI connector. For retrocomputing makers, the editable cartridge design offers a way to study the connection between a vintage computer bus and a modern digital display.

The Rev0.3 PCB source and accompanying schematic use KiCad 8. The PCB revision dates to October 25, while November 10 brought explicit CERN-OHL-P-2.0 hardware licensing and a clearer account of testing. The author’s test notes report real-machine validation only for the Core2350B-version PCB rev 0.3 with a Waveshare Core2350B2 module (8 MB PSRAM). Do not assume that other board and firmware combinations have the same evidence behind them.

Read the licensing notes before reusing the complete project. Its hardware licence does not remove the commercial-use restriction inherited by the V9968 core from third-party RTL, which requires prior written permission. This is not a blanket commercial-use licence for the whole hardware-and-software stack, and we have not independently tested compatibility or video output.

Maknae: an interface to understand before making a PCB

A hand holds the robot base-interface perfboard in front of a monitor displaying its KiCad wiring layout.
The base-interface perfboard in front of its KiCad layout. Photo © 2026 Next Year Robotics contributors, CC BY 4.0, unchanged. Project licence scope.

Next Year Robotics’ Maknae mobile robot includes a Rev B base-interface design that documents connections between the robot’s electronics. It is useful as a wiring reference when exploring a small mobile robot, particularly if you want to understand how the subsystems connect.

The editable KiCad perfboard reference and its schematic were already public before this roundup; the PCB identifies KiCad 10.0. Hardware is now under CERN-OHL-P-2.0. The licence update is dated November 10 in Korea, or November 9 in Pacific time. The robot’s November 10 Pacific updates concern LiDAR, SLAM and RViz configuration, rather than a new interface-board revision.

The author reports that some robot functions are working, but describes this design as a reference for hand-wiring on perfboard. It is not a validated production PCB. Treat the board layout as supporting documentation, not a ready-to-order manufacturing recommendation.

Start with the source, then check the build

These projects reward different kinds of curiosity: power circuitry, retro video, and robot wiring. Open the design that fits your next experiment, read its licence and build notes, and check the current upstream status before ordering parts or boards. Our review did not include running project code, independent ERC/DRC, or physical testing.



source https://blog.tindie.com/2026/11/open-hardware-files-breadboard-power-msx-video-and-a-robot-interface/

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