EU Adds Exemptions To User-Serviceable Batteries Rules

July 17, 2026 by Maya Posch 41 Comments

Built-in batteries put a timebomb inside devices, with especially the calendar aging feature of Li-ion chemistries setting a hard limit on when you’ll have to toss the device or figure out a way to replace the battery somehow. Here the EU’s Battery Regulation policy with the 2027 implementation of the user-serviceable battery requirement provided a lot of hope. Now six new categories of exemptions are diminishing what could have been a bonanza of easy repairability.

Most notable here are smartwatches, fitness trackers, wireless earbuds and other so-called ‘wet devices’, which as GSMArena also notes is an area where having a user-replaceable battery might affect features like being water-resistant. Something which is also relevant for e.g. outdoor wireless speakers. There’s also a new exemption for smartphones, where if its battery retains at least 83% of its original capacity after 500 charge cycles, battery replacement has to be only replaceable by professionals. Which is probably code for ‘glue, hotplates and prying tools’.

Considering just how daft of an idea built-in batteries are, this is somewhat disappointing to see. While it’s understandable that ‘wet devices’ get such broad exemptions, it should be noted here that advanced technologies like gaskets are neither complicated nor expensive. You can even hand the average user a tube of RTV silicone and let them go to town on a part in the happy knowledge that there’s never such a thing as ‘too much’ RTV silicone.

It is likely that there was some pressure from the industry on the EU to not change too much, but at the very least us happy few in the EU will be getting a new Nintendo Switch 2 with easily replaced battery in both the main unit and its controllers. For the average rechargeable device you keep kicking around the house this should also still apply as long as its manufacturer cannot squeeze it into one of these exemption categories.

The Right to Repair battles shall continue.

Wireless LCD Streaming For The ANENG AN870 Multimeter

July 17, 2026 by Maya Posch 6 Comments

Having the information shown on the display of a digital multimeter also recorded off-screen can be incredibly useful, but unless the device exposes something like SCPI on a network interface, you will have to get creative. In the case of the budget ANENG AN870 digital multimeter (DMM), [Bits und Bolts] really wanted to show its display clearly as an overlay in OBS instead of just the camera view, but with said DMM not offering an easy way he had to resort to just copying the data sent to its multiplexed LCD.

The GitHub project page contains the background information, as well as the instructions if you too have this DMM. It might of course also be useful as the jumping off point for your own DMM modification. In total the project requires three modules: an RP2040 Zero and HC-12 433 MHz transceiver on the DMM side, and another HC-12 plus ESP32-C3 module on the receiving side. A boost module is also added to generate 3.3 V out of the 2.4 V – 3 V provided by the meter’s two AA cells.

To be able to read the LCD signal lines, a custom PCB was created that is installed inside the DMM. With the LCD’s segments mapped, this meant being able to send a perfect copy of the display’s state to the ESP32-C3 and from there making it available via WiFi.

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Even Chemical Bonds Obey Einstein’s Relativity

July 16, 2026 by Maya Posch 17 Comments

Although Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is typically associated with really large and really heavy things like planets in solar systems and big things in universes in general, it turns out that even at an atomic scale its effects can be measured. These are the findings of Brown University scientists, whose measurements on very heavy elements indicate the presence of relativistic bonds.

Unfortunately the paper by [Kirk A. Peterson] et al. in Science is paywalled without a convenient ArXiv version to ogle details beyond the supplemental, but the Brown press release gives quite a few details by itself, including the use of photoelectron spectroscopy to measure the strength of the bonds between the examined nuclei.

The essential summary is that our concept of how triple bonds work may be flawed, with the assumption that there are distinct sigma and pi bonds, the latter being the awkward, weaker ‘side bonds’ where the overlapping atomic orbitals do not directly line up as with a sigma bond. As it turns out, if there’s enough mass involved, relativistic effects smudge both types of bonds together into a hybrid type of bond.

Although the sigma-pi triple bond theory still seems to hold up for lighter atomic nuclei, in the case of the examined bismuth-carbon triple bond, the typical, slightly radioactive bismuth-209 nucleus with atomic number 83 is heavy enough to affect the orbital mechanics and with it the chemical bonds that these produce.

This is an important finding, as it affects our basic understanding of how strong the bonds between certain elements are. Pi bonds are after all significantly weaker than sigma bonds, so a hybrid form would effectively make triple bonds involving a heavier element stronger than one between lighter elements.

Hayabusa2’s Next Target Is A Tiny 11 Meter Asteroid

July 15, 2026 by Maya Posch 8 Comments

Launched in 2014, Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft completed its primary asteroid sample return mission all the way back in 2020. But with the main spacecraft still healthy, the intrepid little probe was assigned new missions — such as its future investigation of asteroid 1998 KY₂₆, a rather unassuming 11 meter diameter rock.

Artist impression of Hayabusa2 firing its ion thrusters. (Credit: DLR, Wikimedia) — Artist impression of *Hayabusa2* firing its ion thrusters. (Credit: DLR, Wikimedia)

Earlier this month Hayabusa2 flew by the 450 meter 98943 Torifune at a distance of 800 meters, close enough to get an up-close look of its surface of mostly silicate minerals. With the spacecraft flying past at around 5 km/s, this posed some challenges with tracking, especially since its systems and instruments were not designed for high-speed tracking.

With that mission now complete, 1998 KY₂₆ – first discovered in 1998 – is next on the menu, though this will have to wait a while. Currently it’s estimated that the two will not meet until July 2031.

Once they do meet up, after Hayabusa2 zips twice more past Earth, it’ll be another major challenge for the by now rather degraded spacecraft. Its sensors have suffered radiation and other types of damage, while its ion engines are quite depleted. The goal at this target asteroid is to enter orbit, deploy its last target marker and projectile, before attempting a landing, probably at one of its poles.

As likely the final mission for this spacecraft it’ll be very educational in many ways, not the least of which is that of planetary defense, but also that of deepening our understanding of these asteroids and the many varieties that we share space with.

Hacking Around The Financial Pain Of New 3DS XL Top Screens

July 15, 2026 by Maya Posch 9 Comments

With Nintendo’s 3DS experiencing a bit of a renaissance lately, prices for functioning systems have shot through the roof. Getting a busted one with a broken screen is a lot cheaper, but then you run into the eye-watering price difference between a replacement top screen for the regular version and the larger XL variant. The latter costs about the same as a whole new used 3DS, while the former goes for peanuts. Here the solution is obvious, with [Skawo] demonstrating how they hacked the cheaper, smaller top screen into a New 3DS XL.

The price difference on AliExpress as shown in the video is on the order of $120, with the smaller screen going for less than $10. Since they both use the same connector pin-out and display technology, you can plug either display into the New 3DS XL mainboard.

Where you’ll run into issues, other than the replacement display being obviously not XL, is the physically shorter flat flex cable for the controls that forces the display to be installed in an offset manner. You need jailbroken firmware like Luma3DS here to adjust for the screen offset. Filling in the missing screen real-estate is the other issue you have to patch over somehow, which was done here in barbaric fashion with some cardboard.

Beyond that it does work, and as a fix to at least get a broken New 3DS XL back into the game it’s worth considering. Do note that there’s a difference between regular 3DS and New 3DS (second generation) screens with neither being compatible, so be careful before you try such a fix.

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Benchmarking Repairability Scores With An Asus Tablet

July 14, 2026 by Maya Posch 13 Comments

A few years ago, France introduced a mandatory repairability score for consumer goods like laptops and tablets. It involves five criteria that range from documentation and availability of spare parts to ease of disassembly, with the manufacturer using a government-provided checklist to determine their score.

Recently Asus determined that their Asus ROG Flow Z13 – model GZ302EA – scored a 10 out of 10 using this system. This led [iFixit] to run the same tablet/laptop hybrid through their own rating system.

You can find the filled-out spreadsheet for this device here, with this Asus-provided site showing a list of devices that all score a 10/10 or a measly 9.9/10 according to this system. As a self-reported score it is hard to take it as the objective truth, as there is every incentive for the manufacturer to tweak the truth to their own benefit and gloss over inconveniences. This is where it’s interesting to compare it with [iFixit]’s 7/10 score.

On documentation, Asus gives itself a perfect score but [iFixit] finds it to be incomplete. Removal of one fan requires the disassembly of the cooler with its liquid metal thermal interface on the CPU. The wireless card, and most ports, are soldered to the mainboard. On the bright side, after you get the screen off, the insides are quite modular, which is a plus.

[iFixit] dings three points: for documentation, soldered-down components, and a fan accessibility glitch. Parts accessibility outside of France is also significantly harder, but one can hardly blame the French system for that. Overall the French self-reported rating would seem to be a fair start, but depending on which criteria you define as required you may find yourself disagreeing with the score.

In the case of LPDDR5 RAM one could argue for example that with LPCAMM2 modules soldering RAM onto the mainboard ought to be a thing of the past, and Wi-Fi modules should always be removable as well. You can take that up with the French regulators.

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The Neo Geo Does Run DOOM After All

July 14, 2026 by Maya Posch 14 Comments

Demonstration of the DoomGeo port of Doom to the Neo Geo. (Credit: Sabino, GitHub)

Perhaps the most ridiculous statement that anyone can make is that a computer system with clearly enough processing power ‘cannot run DOOM‘. This is why we accept the premise that a PDP-11 cannot run this game, but something on the order of a Neo Geo gaming console with its 68000 processor and for the time impressive GPU definitely ought to be able to.

The stated problem here is a lack of RAM for a framebuffer, with the CPU only having 64 kB to play with. This limitation now has seen two different approaches to try and circumvent it, as covered by [Modern Vintage Gamer].

The first project here is Doom64kB, which as the name suggests tries to somehow work with this system RAM limitation. It uses the Doom8088 port for the original IBM PC and similar Intel 8088-based systems. This had to massively reduce the feature list, including the lack of texture mapping for floors and ceiling, no saving or loading, and no music.

The other project is DoomGeo, which doesn’t try to bend the Neo Geo hardware to its will, but accepts the Neo Geo way of doing things: involving sprite strips, pre-baked graphics, fix-layer UI, and a minimum of runtime data. This of course drastically changes how the Doom game engine normally works, with its framebuffer-based rendering.

From this we can thus conclude that it’s not so much the processing power that limits where DOOM can run, but more of how framebuffer-friendly the system architecture is, yet with some ingenuity and a complete rewrite of the game engine even that is no major obstacle.

(Top image: Neo Geo AES console. Credit: Evan-Amos, Wikimedia)

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