The Xteink X4 Pro is a pocket e-reader with a 4.3-inch screen and an ESP32-S3 inside. Xteink sells it on its own site for $99 (regular price $129) and advertises "unlocked firmware". On 17 October 2026 at 20:51 UTC, ESPHome merged pull request #20545 by Bonne Eggleston (exciton). It adds a driver for the UltraChip UC8279 e-paper controller to the e
Sensirion's SEN6x modules measure particulate matter, humidity and temperature, and depending on the variant also VOC, NOx, CO2 and formaldehyde. ESPHome's sen6x component already reads those values. Four pull requests by Brandon Harvey (bharvey88), merged between 20:41 and 23:34 UTC on 17 October 2026, add most of the settings the modules offer. T
ESPHome automations are getting the kind of branching Home Assistant users already know. Pull request #20547 by Clyde Stubbs, merged into the development branch on 17 October 2026 at 10:23 UTC, makes four changes to scripts and actions. The documentation (esphome.io #7648) was merged later the same day. The code is in the dev tree, version 2026.11.
A community developer has published Zendure RestAPI, a custom Home Assistant integration that controls Zendure SolarFlow home batteries entirely over the local network. It talks to the battery's own HTTP server through Zendure's zenSDK API, with no Zendure cloud account and no MQTT broker. The author announced it on the Home Assistant forum on 16 O
Seeed Studio has a new family of small display boards built around its XIAO modules: six models that pair one of three IPS colour screens with either a XIAO ESP32-S3 Plus or a XIAO nRF52840 Plus. CNX Software covered the series on 17 October 2026. According to CNX, the Seeed Studio store sells them for $15.90 to $19.90 and AliExpress for $11.99 to
A developer known as h0m3us3r has published w1700k-sdr, an open-source project that turns a Gemtek W1700K Wi-Fi 7 router into a wideband software-defined radio (SDR) receiver. CNX Software reported on it on 16 October 2026. The GitHub repository was created on 11 October. Instead of carrying Wi-Fi traffic, the router's radio captures raw samples an
Germany now has a national law to enforce the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), which sets mandatory security rules for products with digital elements, from smart plugs to apps. The Bundestag passed the CRA implementation act in mid-October 2026. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) announced it on 16 October, describing the vote as havin
ESPHome can now build firmware for Nordic's nRF52840 Dongle (PCA10059), the small USB stick built around the nRF52840 chip. Pull request #19009, merged into the development branch on 15 October 2026, adds it as board: nrf52840dongle. On 16 October ESPHome Device Builder 1.24.0 followed with a browser flasher that talks to the dongle's factory bootl
Espressif released ESP-IDF v5.5.6 on 16 October 2026. It is a bugfix release for the 5.5 branch, the one ESPHome and the Arduino core currently build on: ESPHome's development branch recommends ESP-IDF 5.5.5, and Arduino core 3.3.12 for ESP32 is based on 5.5.5 too. Besides three security fixes, the release has two breaking changes, and one of them
