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https://hackaday.com/2020/01/28/new-part-day-sk6812-mini-e-a-hand-solderable-neopixel-compatible-led/ | New Part Day: SK6812 Mini-E. A Hand Solderable Neopixel Compatible LED! | Jenny List | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"addressable led",
"led",
"neopixel",
"sk6812"
] | Normally when we give you a New Part Day piece, it concerns a component that you will have never seen before. The subject of this find by [Robert Fitzsimons] then is a slight departure from that norm, given that the
SK6812 Mini-E
is a WS2812 or Neopixel compatible multi-colour LED of a type that has been available for a while now.
What makes this component new though is its packaging. The Mini-E variant of the SK6812 only appeared last year and has now found its way through to smaller order quantities on AliExpress. Its special feature is that it has a set of flat leads rather than the usual pads on the underside of the package. This means that unlike its predecessors it is readily hand solderable, as he demonstrates by attaching a set of leads to one.
The leads emerge halfway up the side of the device, which seems designed to be mounted recessed within a PCB hole. He demonstrates this with a piece of stripboard, and remarks that they would make a good choice for many small projects such as Shitty Add-On boards.
We’ve touched the leadless SK6812s a few times before, along the way remarking that
in some respects they are better than the WS2812 they follow
. | 23 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214692",
"author": "Robert",
"timestamp": "2020-01-28T10:31:37",
"content": "My favorites lately are APA102, easy to work with (data + clock -> SPI or bitbang) and you can find them in nice small packages (1.5mm x 1.5mm)https://hackaday.com/?s=apa+102",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,373,607.818163 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/a-miniature-laptop-you-can-build-yourself/ | A Miniature Laptop You Can Build Yourself | Tom Nardi | [
"computer hacks",
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"handheld",
"SBC"
] | Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen more and more hackers building their own custom computers. We’re not just talking casemods here; enabled by advancements in desktop 3D printing and increasingly powerful boards such as the Raspberry Pi 4, these are machines designed and built from the ground up to meet the creator’s particular set of needs and desires.
A perfect example of this trend is the Rasptop 2.0, a
remarkably practical design for a 3D printed miniature laptop
. Despite the name, you don’t even need to use the Raspberry Pi if you don’t want to. Creator [Morgan Lowe] has designed the Rasptop to take other single board computers (SBCs) such as the Asus Tinker Board or even the Intel Atom powered Up Board. So whether you want an energy efficient ARM machine running Linux for development, or a mobile Windows box for on the go gaming, you can use the same printed parts.
At the most basic level, the Rasptop 2.0 is just a hollow box with a hinged compartment for a screen mounted on top. You’re free to equip it with whatever hardware you chose. If you’re after maximum runtime you could fill all the free space with batteries, or maybe install multiple hard drives if you’re a data horder in need of a mobile terminal. Even the various SBCs that [Morgan] has tested are really just suggestions. The choice is yours.
Perhaps also our favorite feature of the Rasptop is how he worked a keyboard into the design. Rather than just leaving a big rectangle in the STL for you to shove a mobile keyboard into, the top surface is designed to mount the PCB and membrane keypad of one of those mini wireless keyboards you see on all the import sites. Aside from the fact it’s a good deal chunkier than what we expect from modern mobile devices, it has a very finished and professional overall look.
Of course if you’d rather use all these powerful tools to build a computer that’s somewhat farther off the beaten track, your design could
abandon the traditional computer form factors altogether
. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214656",
"author": "Paul H",
"timestamp": "2020-01-28T06:48:18",
"content": "Last week I took my idea for a laptop and put it on paper. At next payday, I will start purchasing parts, and measuring dimensions to build a portable rig. It’s a very interesting project to work on, and I... | 1,760,373,607.512461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/the-options-for-low-cost-rov-tethers/ | The Options For Low Cost ROV Tethers | Richard Baguley | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"ethernet",
"rov",
"Tether"
] | Wireless connections are cool and all, but sometimes you just need a bit of copper. This interesting article on SV Seeker discusses the various ways of
making a tether for a remotely operated vehicle (ROV
). They experimented with a number of different cables, including gel-filled Cat 5 designed for burial and wrapping the cable in polypropylene rope to keep it protected and buoyant. They also looked at using a single core solid coax cable with an Ethernet to coax converter on either end wrapped in stretch webbing. The upside of using coax would be the length: it can handle over a mile of cable, which should be more than enough for this project. The downside is that they found that the coax stretches under strain, messing with the signal.
The project seems to be on hiatus at the moment, but there is lots of food for thought here for anyone looking to send data over a long distance. I’m looking to put a webcam in an owl box in my back yard, and I hadn’t come across some of the options they cover here, so I’ll be looking into direct bury rated Cat 5 myself. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214633",
"author": "STEPHEN SHAFFER",
"timestamp": "2020-01-28T03:46:53",
"content": "All the marine cables I’ve worked with are a bitch to work on, they’re never small nor cheap and definitely not very stretchable due to the large steel braid.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,373,607.760511 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/29/wire-loop-and-amplifier-solve-audio-problem-for-the-hearing-impaired/ | Wire Loop And Amplifier Solve Audio Problem For The Hearing Impaired | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"hearing aid",
"hearing impaired",
"inductive",
"loop",
"meeting",
"microphone",
"Quaker",
"Society of Friends",
"t-coil",
"telecoil"
] | Imagine being asked to provide sound reinforcement for a meeting that occurs in a large room, where anyone can be the speaker, and in a situation where microphones would hinder the flow of the meeting. Throw in a couple of attendees who have hearing disabilities, and you’ve got quite a challenge to make sure everyone gets heard.
Such a situation faced [David Schneider] at his Quaker meetinghouse, which he ended up solving with
this home-brew audio induction loop system
. The worship style of conservative sects of the Religious Society of Friends, as the Quakers are formally known, is “silent worship”, where congregants sit together in silence until someone feels moved to share something. Anyone can speak at any time from anywhere in the room, leading to the audio problem.
Rooms mics and a low power FM transmitter didn’t work because those using radio as aids to hearing the service felt awkward, so [David] decided to take advantage of a feature in the hearing aids worn by some members:
telecoils
. These are inductive receivers built into some hearing aids to send sound directly to them using magnetic fields generated by a loop in the listening area. [David]’s loop ended up being 240 meters of 20-gauge copper wire in the attic above the meeting room. The impedance ended up close to 8 ohms, perfect for feeding directly from the speaker terminals of an old stereo amplifier. Pumping 160 Watts into the coil allows the hearing-aid wearers below hear the service now.
There’s still work to be done on the input side to improve audio quality, but [David]’s solution is elegant in that it helps those who need it most using technology they already have. And perhaps those who need but don’t yet have hearing aids can
roll their own
. | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6215255",
"author": "Bruce Perens",
"timestamp": "2020-01-30T00:06:05",
"content": "It works to use one loop of CAT5 ethernet cable, and tie the 8 wires in it so that they make 8 turns.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6215258"... | 1,760,373,607.65226 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/29/building-and-testing-a-diy-air-purifier/ | Building (And Testing) A DIY Air Purifier | Tom Nardi | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"air filter",
"air pollution",
"airflow",
"HEPA",
"pitot"
] | Whether it’s the usual pollution of the city, or the fact that your corner of the globe happens to be on fire currently, poor air quality is a part of daily life for many people. One way of combating this issue is with a high quality HEPA filter in your home, but unfortunately that’s not something that everyone can afford to even has access to.
Which is why [Adam Kelly] decided to
design this DIY HEPA air purifier that can be built for less than $100
. That might still sound like a lot of money, but compared to the $500 sticker price he was seeing for the models recommended by health officials, it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Of course, it’s only a deal if it actually works, so a big part of the project has also been verifying the design’s ability to filter particles out of the air in a timely manner.
To build his purifier, [Adam] found a HEPA H13 rated replacement filter that was cheap and readily available, and started designing a low-cost way to pulling air through it. He eventually went with a 120 mm computer case fan coupled with a step-up converter that can produce 12 V from a standard USB port. Then he just needed to design a 3D printed “lid” which would position the fan so it draws air through the center of the filter.
In terms of testing, [Adam] wasn’t worried about the purifier’s ability to actually filter out smoke particles; unless the manufacturer lied about the capabilities of the filter itself, that part is a given. But he was curious about how effective the fan would be in terms of circulating air through a room.
By installing a pitot tube from one of his drones into the lid of the purifier, he determined the airflow in the center of the filter to be approximately 160 CFM. By his calculations, that means it should be able to circulate all the air in his 25 cubic meter office around 10 times per hour. That’s a promising start, but [Adam] says he’d still be interested in a more detailed analysis of the design’s performance by anyone who might have the equipment to do so.
As he lives in Australia, this project is more than just a passing fancy for [Adam]. He only has to look out the window to see that
the air he’s breathing is filled with smoke from the raging bushfires
. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and breathable air is pretty high up on the list of human necessities. Our hat’s off to anyone who sees their fellow citizens suffering and
tries to use their skills to come up with a solution
. | 64 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6215209",
"author": "bales",
"timestamp": "2020-01-29T21:29:42",
"content": "does this have benefits over a box fan and an air filter?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6215224",
"author": "Albert Lee",
"timestam... | 1,760,373,607.918356 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/29/burning-things-with-big-lasers-in-the-name-of-security/ | Burning Things With Big Lasers In The Name Of Security | Roger Cheng | [
"cons",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"2019 Hackaday Superconference",
"laser",
"qkd",
"quantum",
"quantum cryptography"
] | Several fields of quantum research have made their transition from research labs into commercial products, accompanied by grandiose claims. Are they as good as they say? We need people like Dr. Sarah Kaiser to independently test those claims, looking for flaws in implementation. At the 2019 Hackaday Superconference she shared her research on
attacking commercially available quantum key distribution (QKD) hardware
.
Don’t be scared away when you see the term “quantum” in the title. Her talk is very easy to follow along, requiring almost no prior knowledge of quantum research terminology. In fact, that’s the point. Dr. Kaiser’s personal ambition is to
make quantum computing an inviting and accessible topic for everyone
, not just elite cliques of researchers in ivory towers. You should hear her out in the video below, and by following along with the
presentation slide deck
(.PPTX).
Quantum Key Distribution
So why is QKD is so enticing? Unlike existing methods, the theoretical foundation is secure against any attacker constrained by the speed of light and the laws of physics.
Generally speaking, if your attacker is not bound by those things, we have a much bigger problem
.
But as we know well, there’s always a difference between the theoretical foundation and the actual implementation of cryptography. That difference is where exploits like side-channel attacks thrive, so she started investigating components of a laser QKD system.
As a self-professed “Crazy Laser Lady”, part of this investigation examined how components held up to big lasers delivering power
far
outside normal operating range. This turned up exciting effects like a fiber fuse (~17:30 in the video) which is actually a plasma fire propagating through the fiber optic. It looks cool, but it’s destructive and useless for covert attacks. More productive results came when lasers were used to carefully degrade select components to make the system vulnerable.
If you want to learn more from Dr. Kaiser about quantum key distribution,
she has a book chapter on the topic
. (Free online access available, but with limitations.) This is
not the first attempt
to hack quantum key distribution, and we doubt it would be the last. Every generation of products will improve tolerance to attacks, and we’ll need researchers like our Crazy Laser Lady to find the reality behind advertised claims. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6215179",
"author": "markwhi",
"timestamp": "2020-01-29T19:50:44",
"content": "What’s going on with that 4fps video? Is there a better recording somewhere?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6215227",
"author": "Mike Szcz... | 1,760,373,607.338625 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/29/ddr-5-ddr-4-we-hardly-knew-ye/ | DDR-5? DDR-4, We Hardly Knew Ye | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"ddr",
"ddr5",
"memory",
"sdram"
] | This month’s CES saw the
introduction of max speed DDR5 memory from SK Hynix
. Micron and other vendors are also reportedly sampling similar devices. You can’t get them through normal channels yet, but since you also can’t get motherboards that take them, that’s not a big problem. We hear Intel’s Xeon Sapphire Rapids will be among the first boards to take advantage of the new technology. But that begs the question: what is it?
SDRAM Basics
Broadly speaking, there are two primary contenders for a system that needs RAM memory: static and dynamic. There are newer technologies like FeRAM and MRAM, but the classic choice is between static and dynamic. Static RAM is really just a bunch of flip flops, one for each bit. That’s easy because you set it and forget it. Then later you read it. It can also be very fast. The problem is a flip flop usually takes at least four transistors, and often as many as six, so there’s only so many of them you can pack into a certain area. Power consumption is often high, too, although modern devices can do pretty well.
So while static memory is popular in single board computers and small devices, a PC or a server will not be able to pack gigabytes of static memory. Dynamic memory just uses a little capacitor to store each bit. You still need a transistor to gate the capacitor on and off some common bus, but you can really pack them in. Unfortunately, there’s a big problem: the capacitors discharge pretty quickly. You have to devise some way to refresh the memory periodically or it forgets. For example, a typical DDR2 module needs a refresh every 64 milliseconds.
Real devices use rows and columns of capacitors to maximize space and also to allow the refresh to occur on an entire row. That means a device that has, say 4096 rows would need a refresh every 15.6 microseconds so that each row retains its data. The refresh itself takes just a few nanoseconds.
In a typical array, there is a row and column bus. A capacitor connects to a FET that can switch the capacitor on or off the column bus. The gate of the FET connects to the row bus. A row signal selects an entire row of FETs. The long column bus has some capacitance and resistance, so it takes a little precharge time before the signal is stable and then a multiplexer picks the bit off the correct column. Writing is just the reverse. You can play with a
simulated line of dynamic memory
if you want to get a feel for it.
That’s dynamic RAM or DRAM. But what about SDRAM? SDRAM is dynamic RAM with a synchronous interface to a memory controller. The controller allows you to stack up several commands at once and the controller handles all the logic of handing the rows and columns and can even do the refresh step automatically. The controller buffers both commands and data to achieve higher bandwidth than is possible with many other technologies.
History
SDRAM goes back to 1992, and by 2000 had driven most other forms of DRAM out of the market. JEDEC, an industry group, standardized the interface for SDRAM in 1993, so you generally don’t have problems using different brands of memory.
Normal SDRAM can accept one command and transfer one word of data per clock cycle. Eventually, JEDEC defined a double data rate or DDR standard. This still accepts one command per cycle but reads or writes two words in that same clock cycle. It is able to do so because it transfers one data word on the rising edge of the synchronous clock and the other at the falling edge. In practice, this means the internal read on one command is two words and this allows the internal clock to be less than the I/O clock. So if the I/O clock is 200 MHz, the internal clock could be 100 MHz, but the data transfer will still be two words for every I/O clock.
This worked so well, they invented DDR2, which reorganized the RAM to be four words wide internally, and then sends or receives four words in a burst. Of course, the clock speed didn’t really change, so you increase latency. DDR3 doubled the size of internal data again, with the corresponding increase in latency.
DDR4 was a departure. It did not double the internal memory bus, but interleaved access between internal memory banks to increase throughput. A lower voltage also allows higher clock speeds. DDR4 appeared around 2012 although it didn’t reach critical mass until 2015.
It sounds like memory bandwidth is on the rise, right? Sort of. The increase in bandwidth has tracked — more or less — with the rise in multicore processors. So while the raw bandwidth has increased, the bandwidth per core in a typical machine hasn’t changed much in a long time. In fact, with the rapid expansion of core count in a typical CPU, the average is in decline. So it is time for a new standard.
DDR5
Now we have DDR5, defined in 2017. According to reports, a DDR5-3200 SDRAM will have 1.36 times the bandwidth of a DDR4-3200 and could go higher. We hear, too, that the prefetch size will double again, at least optionally.
Type
Bandwidth
Voltage
Prefetch
Year
SDR
1.6 GB/s
3.3
1
1993
DDR
3.2 GB/s
2.5
2
2000
DDR2
8.5 GB/s
1.8
4
2003
DDR3
8.5 GB/s
1.8
8
2007
DDR4
25.6 GB/s
1.2
8
2017
DDR5
32 GB/s
1.1
8/16
2019
As you can see from the above table bandwidth from the original SDR memory is up by a factor of 20 over a 26-year period. Not bad. The 16 word prefetch is especially interesting since that will allow the chip to fill a typical PC’s cache in one fetch.
There are some other advantages, too. For example, if you’ve ever tried to interface an SDRAM with your own circuitry or FPGA design, you’ll appreciate the loopback mode. If you are a memory hog, the top size for modules is now 64 GB, up from 16 GB.
By the way, there is an LP-DDR5 spec which is a low power version for things like cellphones. That specification was released last year and we haven’t heard a big rush for products in that area yet. The LP-DDR4 spec allowed two frequency scaling points so you could trade speed with power. LP-DDR5 has three different possible settings. Then there are the GDDR standards — up to GDDR6 last time we checked — for graphics processing and other high-performance application. For perspective, LP-DDR5 clocks in with 6.4 Gb/s bandwidth per I/O bit, while GDDR6 boasts hundreds of GB/s depending on the bit width.
So What Now?
Unless you are running a busy server or something else that really loads up all the cores of your CPU, you aren’t going to really feel much practical difference between DDR4 and DDR5. But then again, who doesn’t want good benchmarks?
Besides, for a typical workstation load, the real trick is to have enough RAM that you don’t need to hit the disk very often. This is especially true if you have a rotating disk platter which is notoriously slow. The time spent reading and writing RAM memory turns out to not be the long tent pole in your real-world performance. With solid state disks, this isn’t as bad as it used to be, but typical solid state drive throughputs are just a bit faster than DDR3, even though faster drives are probably on the horizon. So unless you are doing very intense multicore workloads, you are probably better off having 32 GB of DDR3 than 4 GB of DDR5 because the larger memory will keep you from having even slower operations as often. | 32 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6215161",
"author": "rclark",
"timestamp": "2020-01-29T18:42:01",
"content": "Nice to see the ball still rolling for better memory performance.Add on to your last statement, 32GB of RAM is always better than 4GB of ANY ram if you plan on crowding 4GB and start caching to disk! My n... | 1,760,373,607.596566 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/29/soviet-soyuz-clock-teardown/ | Soviet Soyuz Clock Teardown | Inderpreet Singh | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Space"
] | [
"clock",
"Soyuz",
"space",
"spacebourne"
] | We love spacecraft and we definitely love teardowns, especially if they are for vintage devices. [Ken Shirriff] writes about
taking apart the digital clock module from the Soviet Soyuz series of spacecraft
and there are a lot of interesting bits to the device. After all, it has been into space.
The Soyuz series of spacecraft made their maiden voyage in 1966, and are still flying today. The clock in question comes from somewhere in the middle, around 1996. On the outside, it seems like any spaceship gizmo, and the digital clock keeps local time along with a stopwatch and an alarm function. The guts are much more interesting with no less than 10 PCBs sandwiched inside the small enclosure.
The system consists of dual layer-boards with a mix of SMD and through-hole components that are interconnected by a series of wires that are bunched and packed to create a wiring harness. The pictures show a very clever way of setting up the stack and the system is serviceable by design as the bunch opens up like a book. This gives access to the unique looking components that include 14-pin flat pack chips, large ceramic multicoil inductors, green colored resistors, and orange rectangular diodes.
There are isolated PSU boards, control boards, clock circuitry, some glue logic to put things together, and LED displays with driver circuits. [Ken Shirriff] dives into the clocking circuit and the various parts involved along with a comparison with US technology. There is a lot of interesting detail in these boards, and it may be a source of inspiration for some.
If you are looking for more spaceborne tech, have a look at
the one that stowed away on the International Space Station
.
Thanks for the tip [Thorsten Eggert] | 24 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6215123",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-01-29T16:47:32",
"content": "Opening like a book for service. Neat idea!That sort of reminds me of how (some?) VCR’s would fold out and had brackets to allow access to the tape transport and circuit boards for troubleshooting.",
"par... | 1,760,373,607.984834 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/29/alternative-uses-for-nuclear-waste/ | Alternative Uses For Nuclear Waste | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"americium-241",
"depleted uranium",
"ESA",
"ethane",
"ethylene",
"fast breeder reactor",
"light water reactor",
"nuclear",
"nuclear waste",
"plutonium-238",
"RTG"
] | Nuclear power is great if you want to generate a lot of electricity without releasing lots of CO2 and other harmful pollutants. However, the major bugbear of the technology has always been the problem of waste. Many of the byproducts from the operation of nuclear plants are radioactive, and remain so for thousands of years. Storing this waste in a safe and economical fashion continues to be a problem.
Alternative methods to deal with this waste stream continue to be an active area of research. So what are some of the ways this waste can be diverted or reused?
Fast Breeders Want To Close The Fuel Cycle
The Superphénix reactor in France is one of a handful of operational fast-neutron reactor designs.
One of the primary forms of waste from a typical nuclear light water reactor (LWR) is the spent fuel from the fission reaction. These consist of roughly 3% waste isotopes, 1% plutonium isotopes, and 96% uranium isotopes. This waste is high in transuranic elements, which have half-lives measured in many thousands of years. These pose the biggest problems for storage, as they must be securely kept in a safe location for lengths of time far exceeding the life of any one human society.
The proposed solution to this problem is to instead use fast-neutron reactors
, which “breed” non-fissile uranium-238 into plutonium-239 and plutonium-240, which can then be used as fresh fuel. Advanced designs also have the ability to process out other
actinides
, also using them as fuel in the fission process. These reactors have the benefit of being able to use almost all the energy content in uranium fuel, reducing fuel use by 60 to 100 times compared to conventional methods.
Unfortunately, fast breeder technology has largely been held back by economics. The discovery of more abundant uranium resources in the 1970s has meant it’s cheaper to simply dig up more fuel than to reprocess waste. Additionally, concerns about the ability of fast breeder reactors to create weapons-suitable nuclear material have also stymied development. While the technology is promising, major developments in this area are likely decades away.
Processing Waste Into Nuclear Batteries
A radioisotope thermoelectric generator from the Cassini mission is inspected by a NASA technician.
For spacecraft traveling into the deep beyond, solar power doesn’t always cut it. Past Mars, there simply isn’t that much light coming in from the Sun to make solar panels a viable option for power supply. In these cases, spacecraft often use
radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs)
, which pack radioactive materials into a case with thermocouples. The heat of the decaying material generates electricity through the thermocouple array, which is used to run the spacecraft. An additional benefit is that the heat provided helps keep systems on board the craft at a suitable operational temperature.
Historically, these have been used by Russia and the United States,
but the European Space Agency is keen to get their hands on the technology
. The plan involves extracting americium-241 from British waste stocks of plutonium from nuclear fuel reprocessing. While it’s unlikely to be a major project in terms of cleaning up waste, it could serve as a useful source for RTG materials. This is particularly relevant as US stocks are running down, as the plutonium-238 previously used was only available from reactors used to produce nuclear weapons, which have since been shut down.
The race is on to produce more
, but in the meantime, this opens the door for the British project.
An alternative idea in this space is that of the betavoltaic battery. This works by using a semiconductor material which captures electrons released by the beta-decay of radioactive material. The University of Bristol is working to develop the “diamond battery”,
which uses radioactive carbon-14 from waste graphite moderator blocks used in British nuclear facilities
. The blocks have their outer layers scraped off, where most of the carbon-14 resides, and this is used to create man-made diamonds that release electrons as they decay. These are then encased in a shell of non-radioactive carbon-12, to prevent the radiation escaping to the atmosphere. The electrons released in beta-decay are of low energy, so only minor shielding is needed.
It’s estimated that such batteries could provide on the order of 100uW for thousands of years
.
Uses for Depleted Uranium
A cutaway drawing of a typical depleted uranium anti-tank munition.
Another major byproduct of the nuclear power industry is
depleted uranium
. This is the uranium left over after the enrichment process necessary to prepare fuel for use in reactors. It consists mostly of non-fissionable uranium-238, and is still somewhat radioactive, though less so due to most of the uranium-235 being removed during the enrichment process.
Depleted uranium has several properties that make it highly attractive for military applications. It’s high density means that it makes a good warhead for anti-tank munitions. Depleted uranium munitions have excellent penetration ability, and are able to pierce heavy tank armor. This is also aided by their self-sharpening nature. When a depleted uranium warhead hits a target, it fractures in a way that causes it to remain sharp, while the heat of the impact helps ignite the resulting cloud of depleted uranium particles. This makes such rounds highly effective in such roles, often replacing other high-density materials like tungsten.
Chemical Processing of Depleted Uranium
Recently, uranium has proven its ability to be used as a novel catalyst for ethylene to ethane production.
There are other applications for depleted uranium too, outside of weaponry. Recently, a new application has been found for depleted uranium,
in the area of chemical processing.
A group of researchers at the University of Sussex have created a catalyst using the material, which helps convert ethylene into ethane. While converting between the two chemicals is nothing new, it’s a novel application for depleted uranium.
The storage of large quantities of depleted uranium from the enrichment process is an ongoing problem for governments around the world. Being able to use the material in industrial processes could be a viable alternative to simply storing it at disposal sites or firing it into foreign countries via tanks and warplanes. However, care is needed to ensure the lightly-radioactive material doesn’t cause additional workplace hazards or health issues.
Roadblocks Remain
Unfortunately, there are issues in the way of reuse and reprocessing of nuclear waste. Many of these processes open up the possibility for nuclear material to be stolen or diverted. This poses a risk for the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
For example, the amount of plutonium required to create a viable nuclear weapon is measured in the tens of pounds. With reprocessing operating on an industrial scale, the possibility exists for quantities of this material to go missing while remaining undetected. It’s a fraught problem, one that depends on the exact particulars of isotopes and processes. Current nuclear waste from light-water reactors is not a concern, for example, as it is considered too highly radioactive to easily steal. But technologies like fuel reprocessing have the possibility of generating weapons-grade material from spent fuel, which many governments seek to prevent wherever possible.
Additionally, some argue that efforts to recycle or reuse nuclear waste
take away resources that should be applied to finding a dedicated storage solution for the material.
Many countries have dragged their feet on establishing permanent waste dumps,
including the USA
. With spent fuel from current reactors remaining unsafe for thousands of years, finding a safe long-term storage solution for this existing waste material should be a priority.
Why Do Today What Can Be Put Off To Tomorrow?
Fundamentally, the highly radioactive and dangerous nature of nuclear waste poses many challenges for governments and industries looking to dispose of the material. The current status quo is largely to let it build up while the decades-long struggle continues over what to do with the ever increasing amount of nuclear waste. Ideally, new technology will open up avenues to dealing with the problem in a clean and safe manner, but in the meantime, difficult political decisions will need to be made. | 56 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6215101",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2020-01-29T15:16:15",
"content": "I recently came across this:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6215199",
"author": "Dan... | 1,760,373,607.444719 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/29/stylish-thermometer-is-diy-hardware-perfection/ | Stylish Thermometer Is DIY Hardware Perfection | Tom Nardi | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"74hc595",
"ESP-12E",
"ESP8266",
"humidity",
"SHT30",
"temperature",
"TP4054"
] | Over the last few years, we’ve seen a steady improvement in the sort of custom hardware a dedicated individual can produce. With affordable desktop 3D printers and PCB fabrication services, the line between store bought and home built can get
very
blurry. This slick
MQTT-connected thermometer created by [Martin Cerny]
is a perfect example.
The case for the device, which [Martin] calls Temper, is printed in a stone-look PLA filament and has been carefully designed so that LEDs shining behind it illuminate perfect square “pixels” on the front. There’s a living hinge button on the left side, and on the right, an opening for the SHT30 temperature and humidity sensor. Some may say that the look of the sensor aperture could be improved with a printed grille, but there was likely a concern about reduced airflow.
Inside the case is a 13×7 array of SMD LEDs, a few 74HC595 shift registers, a TP4054 charging chip to keep the internal 250 mAh battery topped off via USB, and some passives to round out the party. The ESP-12E module that brings it all together and the battery are on the flip side of the PCB. At a press of the button, the display fires up for 5 seconds and Temper publishes temperature, humidity and battery percentage through MQTT. If you’re looking for more granular data, it can also be configured to publish regular updates at the cost of increased energy consumption.
The physical product is gorgeous on its own, but we’re happy to report that the firmware and documentation have been handled with a similar attention to detail. The project’s GitHub repo has a Wiki to help others build and configure their very own Temper, and the device’s web configuration portal is easily just as nice as anything you’d find in a piece of modern consumer electronics (if not moreso).
We’ve seen plenty of ESP8266-based
environmental
monitoring devices here at Hackaday
, but we think this one really pushes the state-of-the-art forward. This is a device that wouldn’t be out of place on the shelf at a Big Box electronics retailer, and while [Martin] says he has no interest in building and selling them himself, we don’t doubt that folks out there will be spinning up their own Temper clones before too long. | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6215048",
"author": "JanW",
"timestamp": "2020-01-29T12:36:55",
"content": "Very nice design. Though the SHT30 should be mounted a bit away from everything generating “heat”.And if on the same board should be separated by two or more cuts in the PCB to thermally decouple it from the... | 1,760,373,607.703038 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/carbide3d-router-teardown-and-testing/ | Carbide3D Router Teardown And Testing | Al Williams | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"carbide3d",
"router",
"TRIAC"
] | On the face of it, you’d think a small router would be pretty simple. After all, what is it other than a spinning motor? However, that motor has to handle some pretty serious torque depending on what you are routing. [Baki1] had his Carbide3D router die in the middle of a project, so he did what any of us would do. He
tore it open
.
In addition to showing off its insides, he also tried to figure out what was wrong with it. It looks like a blown triac was the culprit, and we assume that part 2 will be the repair and how that actually worked out.
The motor was skipping steps, and in fact, wouldn’t start spinning without a few love taps from a pair of pliers. Once freed from the housing, you can see a surprising amount of circuitry in the relatively small space.
A triac mostly broke off the PC board when exposed. Some testing showed that the router was mechanically intact. However the triac tested bad, and we’ll have to wait for part 2 to see if that really fixes it or not.
This couldn’t help but remind us of the
Dremel triac repair
we saw in 2016. It also reminded us that we wanted to build our
big red switch
. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214622",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-01-28T01:03:07",
"content": "The obvious problem is that his router is potato so should do a slight fiddle with that CRISPR thing 4 posts down to upgrade it to tomato.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,373,608.029728 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/one-chip-does-it-all-in-this-macguyver-synth/ | One Chip Does It All In This MacGuyver Synth | Kristina Panos | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"analog synth",
"op-amp",
"synthesizer",
"TL072"
] | When you think of simple synths, what components come to mind? All you really need to make one is an oscillator, an amplifier, and some kind of input such that you can play different notes. Our favorite go-to for churning out square waves is probably the 40106 IC, which has six inverting Schmitt triggers, and then usually a 386 to amplify the output.
But it’s possible to go even simpler than that, and school is in session with [Jule] giving the lesson.
[Jule]’s little analog synth uses a single IC for both the oscillator and the amplifier
— a TL072 op-amp. The rest is made of purely discrete components.
[Jule] says those momentary switches are sub-par, and will add a vibrato effect if properly wiggled while pressed. To us, the buttons looks pretty nice, and much easier to jam out with than the ones with 1/8″ diameter actuators. Plus, whenever you press multiple buttons, the additive resistance unlocks the synth’s inner R2D2 voice. We really see no downsides here.
By default, this is an eight-button synth tuned to C major. But there’s a surprise — you can plug different capacitors into a piece of header and change the octave on the fly. Check it out after the break.
Making pitch-correct frequencies requires weird resistor values, which we can usually satisfy with two resistors in series. But wait,
what’s up with resistor values, anyway? And why do they have a color code
? | 33 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214557",
"author": "Milo",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T21:08:50",
"content": "I’m sorry but they are supposed to be instruments. If you can’t produce a physically exciting response from it, it ain’t a synth.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,373,608.114871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/supercon-keynote-megan-wachs-breaks-down-risc-v/ | Supercon Keynote: Megan Wachs Breaks Down RISC-V | Elliot Williams | [
"cons",
"Featured",
"FPGA",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"2019 Hackaday Superconference",
"fpga",
"isa",
"keynote",
"Megan Wachs",
"RISC-V",
"SiFive"
] | The 2019 Hackaday Superconference kicked off with a marvelous, and marvelously geeky,
keynote talk on the subject of RISC-V by Dr. Megan Wachs
. She is VP of Engineering at SiFive, a company that makes RISC-V processors in silicon, but the talk is a much more general introduction to the RISC-V open instruction-set architecture (ISA) and why you’d care. The short answer to the latter is the same reason you care about any other open standard: it promotes interoperability, reusable toolchains, and will result in us all having access to better and faster CPUs.
The video is embedded below, and it’s absolutely worth a watch. Unfortunately, The video is missing the first few minutes, you can
follow along through her slides
(PDF) and read through our brief recap below of what fell down the video hole.
Dr. Wachs starts off the talk by defining an ISA: it’s essentially the dictionary that describes all of the words that a computer speaks. When you write, for instance,
a + b = c
in your favorite programming language, a compiler turns this into assembly code (
add a5, a5, a4
), which then gets turned into the binary bits of the CPU’s machine code. The ISA covers the assembly and machine languages, defining all of the possible operations, what arguments they take, and in which registers or farther memory locations they store their results.
A common ISA is a big deal. An x86 and an ARM CPU add numbers together in entirely different ways, and this means that you need different compilers, assemblers, and debuggers to process your code depending on which chip you’re targeting. But it spreads out from there. Hardware emulators, visualizers, documentation, and everything else in the low-level ecosystem needs to be customized to the CPU’s architecture. If you think of all of the proprietary ISAs that have gone before, competed with each other, and are now gone (VAX, Itanium, SPARC, and many more), a lot of this effort is lost. And looking into the future, as more and more components get integrated into systems-on-chip (SoCs), needing to wrangle a dozen ISAs just to program a system is not out of the question. Dr. Wachs mentioned the NVIDIA Tegra SoC, with multiple DSP units for sound and audio, a video encoder, two CPUs, a graphics processor, display drivers, a USB peripheral, etc. on board, each with unique software stacks.
RISC-V (“risk five”), originally a student project at Berkeley, solves this with essentially the simplest possible, open, ISA design. A stripped-down RISC-V CPU is something that can be taught to undergrads, yet it’s also modular enough that you can include hardware multipliers and other optimizations if you feel like it. As long as you stick to the ISA standard, you’ll have the compliers, debuggers, and the rest of the software ecosystem ready for your design.
And with a number of RISC-V FPGA cores available, this isn’t just an academic proposition. You, yes you, could be playing around with actual CPU designs in a weekend, and for not very much financial outlay. Driving this point home,
the badge that everyone in Dr. Wachs’ audience had hanging around their necks
had not just one but two RISC-V CPUs running inside it. We’ve seen smaller and less expensive FPGA development boards that’ll fit the bill too. Sure, there’s a learning curve, but it has never been easier to climb it.
Open hardware designs are important for security, low-power applications, cutting costs, research, and generally hacking around. The last third of Dr. Wachs’ talk is dedicated to ways that you might want to use, tweak, and build on the RISC-V environment. Open standards make things smoother for large companies too, of course, and that means that you’re going to see more and more microcontrollers and even desktop CPUs running on RISC-V: open-standard hardware to go with your open-source software. But if you want to dive deeper, the most benefit from RISC-V is actually going to accrue to the hackers. Where playing around with CPU designs used to be impossible for the little guy or gal, it’s now within reach.
Watch the Supercon Keynote
and see if you don’t get inspired.
Megan Wachs Interview at Supercon
After her keynote, Dr. Wachs spent some time in the badge hacking area discussing the work she’s been doing at SiFive in getting from an ISA to producing chips: | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214540",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T20:32:10",
"content": "So, Megan “walks” us through the RISC-V!B^)I look forward to watching the video.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6214553",
"author": "Xark",
"tim... | 1,760,373,608.844022 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/esp32-serial-interface-modernizes-old-equipment/ | ESP32 Serial Interface Modernizes Old Equipment | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ESP32",
"MAX3232",
"serial adapter",
"user interface"
] | There’s still plenty of useful hardware out there that uses an RS-232 interface, like the Behringer Ultradrive loudspeaker systems that [Lasse Lukkari] works with from time to time. Rather than ditch perfectly good gear because modern computers (to say nothing of phones or tablets) don’t have physical serial ports, he decided to come up with
a WiFi adapter for these old devices that he calls SerialChiller
.
Inside the SerialChiller is an ESP32, a MAX3232 line driver, a LM1117 linear regulator, and a few passives. The professionally manufactured PCB is housed inside of an enclosure that [Lasse] has repurposed from a cheap DB15 breakout adapter. The USB cable is used to power the board and for programming, though it can also be used to turn the SerialChiller into a USB-to-serial cable as well.
The hardware for this project is pretty straightforward, but what we really like is the direction he’s taken with the software. Rather than using the SerialChiller as a simple serial to WiFi bridge, [Lasse] is actually implementing a complete web-based interface directly on the microcontroller. In the video after the break he demonstrates
his firmware for controlling the aforementioned Behringer Ultradrive
, but that’s just one possible application for the project. Firmware could be spun up for all sorts of classic devices, breathing new life into hardware that might otherwise be in danger of heading to the landfill.
Of course,
using the ESP family of chips as serial adapters is hardly anything new
. In fact, that’s what they were designed for. But developing modern user interfaces for old hardware thanks to the power of the ESP32 has some fascinating potential. | 25 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214525",
"author": "The Worst Tech Keeps Winning",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T19:54:35",
"content": "This got me thinking. It’s a shame to just give up RS-232. With a little modernization that protocol could be saved!Here’s how that might be done.Don’t just put one RS232 port in a co... | 1,760,373,609.106669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/crispr-could-fry-all-cancer-using-newly-found-t-cell/ | CRISPR Could Fry All Cancer Using Newly Found T-Cell | Kristina Panos | [
"Current Events",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Medical Hacks",
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"antigen",
"cancer",
"CAR t-cell therapy",
"chimeric antigen receptor",
"immune system",
"MR1",
"t-cell",
"t-cell therapy"
] | One of the human body’s greatest features is its natural antivirus protection. If your immune system is working normally, it produces legions of T-cells that go around looking for abnormalities like cancer cells just to gang up and destroy them. They do this by grabbing on to little protein fragments called antigens that live on the surface of the bad cells and tattle on their whereabouts to the immune system. Once the T-cells have a stranglehold on these antigens, they can release toxins that destroy the bad cell, while minimizing collateral damage to healthy cells.
CAR T-cell therapy process via
National Cancer Institute
This rather neat human trick doesn’t always work, however. Cancer cells sometimes mask themselves as healthy cells, or they otherwise thwart T-cell attacks by growing so many antigens on their surface that the T-cells have no place to grab onto.
Medical science has come up with a fairly new method of outfoxing these crafty cancer cells called CAR T-cell therapy. Basically, they withdraw blood from the patient, extract the T-cells, and replace the blood. The T-cells are sent off to a CRISPR lab, where they get injected with a modified, inactive virus that introduces a new gene which causes the T-cells to sprout a little hook on their surface.
This hook, which they’ve dubbed the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), allows the T-cell to chemically see through the cancer cells’ various disguises and attack them. The lab multiplies these super soldiers and sends them back to the treatment facility, where they are injected into the patient’s front lines.
Protein is Key to Unlocking the CAR’s Potential
Currently, T-cell therapy only seems to work in blood-based cancers like leukemia, and is ineffective at fighting solid tumor-producing cancers.
But a team at Cardiff University has discovered a new T-cell that could change the game
. This T-cell interacts with a certain protein called MR1 that appears on the surface of every cell in the body. When it analyzes the MR1 proteins of cancer cells, it can tell that the metabolism going on inside the cell is distorted, and reports this miscreant cell back to the immune system.
Immunotherapy illustrated. Via
North Shore University Health System
This discovery is still in its infancy, but it has great potential. Editing T-cells to interact with MR1 proteins specifically could one day kill a wide range of cancer cells in human patients. For now, the trials are limited to the lab, but the outlook is good: researchers have succeeded in destroying 10+ types of cancer, including many solid-tumor types.
CAR Is Still a Bit Rickety
CAR T-cell therapy is still quite an expensive, bleeding-edge cancer weapon, but it’s far less ravaging to the body than chemotherapy, though low doses are sometimes necessary to make room for the gene-edited cells. And there are still some kinks to be worked out — patients can have serious side effects, some of which cause neurological difficulties like confusion, and trouble with speaking and understanding language.
Another issue is the timeline for the CAR T-cell therapy process — it takes 2-3 weeks to get from initial blood withdrawal to injecting the personalized dose back into the patient. In June of 2019, trials began with an off-the-shelf version of CAR T-cells made from healthy cell donors and stored. The downside to this off-the-shelf solution is that the donor’s cells may react poorly with the recipient’s, but not always. All in all, this seems like progress to us.
Main image photo by
@nci on Unsplash | 36 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214490",
"author": "Staus",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T18:16:10",
"content": "Team here used CRISPR as a mechanism to generate a panel of new mutants for screening. But in treating patients this isn’t the typical way to get the modified cells. Better is to grow up a whole lot of a ... | 1,760,373,609.040497 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/hackaday-belgrade-early-bird-tickets-on-sale-right-now/ | Hackaday Belgrade Early Bird Tickets On Sale Right Now | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Belgrade",
"early bird tickets",
"Hackaday Belgrade"
] | Tickets for Hackaday Belgrade 2020 just went on sale
. If you’re quick you can grab an Early Bird ticket at half the price of general admission!
Hackaday’s premiere European hardware conference returns for the third time on May 9th, 2020, bringing together talks, workshops, hardware hacking, food and drink, entertainment, and of course the best gathering of hardware geeks you’ll find anywhere. It’s awesome, because you’re awesome — and I do mean you. Whether you’re
submitting a talk proposal
or just grabbing a ticket to make this the first conference you’ve ever been to, we can’t do it without you.
Hackaday’s Home in Serbia
We’ll be at Dom Omladine again this year. The venue has feels like a home for Hackaday with a large space for talks, a workshop area, and a huge open area for lobby-con where you’ll find Belgrade’s finest baristas, a great spread of food, and a beer tap to keep the day rolling. Bring along your hardware projects to hack alongside the conference’s custom hardware badge designed by Voja Antonic as we open up the bar and get the live IDM sets started.
Flooding into Hackaday Belgrade
Breakfast spread as the doors open
What is better than hacking to live music?
It’s still early in our planning (these are Early Bird tickets after all) but it’s very likely we’ll have a meetup the night before the conference. Friends old and new often get together on Sunday to keep the fun going. On Saturday, doors for the conference will open around 9 am and the fun will continue well beyond the 2 am “official” end. We recommend you make travel plans to include the full weekend.
Elliot Williams demos Logic Noise live on stage
Don’t just ask for Friday off of work, bring your friends and co-workers along with you. If you’re most comfortable digging through datasheets while a hot soldering iron idles on your bench and a 3D-printer whirs away in the corner, Hackaday Belgrade is calling you. I encourage those who were at the first two events in 2016 and 2018 to share their stories below.
Don’t miss this one, it only comes around in even-numbered years and tickets will sell out.
Hackaday Belgrade 2020 Posters by Aleksandar Bradic (click for full size download link): | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214468",
"author": "Telimektar",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T17:19:29",
"content": "I am in! And very excited, last Belgrade Hackaday was absolutely great. Something what any reader from Europe cannot miss.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comme... | 1,760,373,608.900143 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/machine-learning-system-uses-images-to-teach-itself-morse-code/ | Machine Learning System Uses Images To Teach Itself Morse Code | Dan Maloney | [
"Machine Learning"
] | [
"cnn",
"CTC",
"cw",
"lstm",
"machine learning",
"morse",
"SNR",
"tensorflow"
] | Conventional wisdom holds that the best way to learn a new language is immersion: just throw someone into a situation where they have no choice, and they’ll learn by context. Militaries use immersion language instruction, as do diplomats and journalists, and apparently
computers can now use it to teach themselves Morse code
.
The blog entry by the delightfully callsigned [Mauri Niininen (AG1LE)] reads like a scientific paper, with good reason: [Mauri] really seems to know a thing or two about machine learning. His method uses curated training data to build a model, namely Morse snippets and their translations, as is the usual approach with such systems. But things take an unexpected turn right from the start, as [Mauri] uses a Tensorflow handwriting recognition implementation to train his model.
Using a few lines of Python, he converts short, known snippets of Morse to a grayscale image that looks a little like a barcode, with the light areas being the dits and dahs and the dark bars being silence. The first training run only resulted in about 36% accuracy, but a subsequent run with shorter snippets ended up being 99.5% accurate. The model was also able to pull Morse out of a signal with -6 dB signal-to-noise ratio, even though it had been trained with a much cleaner signal.
Other Morse decoders
use lookup tables to convert sound to text, but it’s important to note that this one doesn’t. By comparing patterns to labels in the training data, it inferred what the characters mean, and essentially taught itself Morse code in about an hour. We find that fascinating, and wonder what other applications this would be good for.
Thanks to [Gordon Shephard] for the tip. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214488",
"author": "Robotuprising",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T18:06:39",
"content": "Morsecode using machine learning ? Seriously ?Waiting for the next “breaktrough in ai”: decoding i2c using gpu clusters.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,373,608.699834 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/26/cnc-etch-a-sketch-stop-motion-is-logical-next-step/ | CNC Etch-A-Sketch: Stop Motion Is Logical Next Step | Kristina Panos | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"etch a sketch",
"NEMA-17",
"Raspberry Pi 3",
"stop motion"
] | It happens to everyone. You get your hands on an Etch-A-Sketch for the first time, and armed with the knowledge of how it works, you’re sure you can draw things other than rectangles and staircases. And then you find out the awful truth: you are not as precise as you think you are, and if you’re [QuintBUILDS], the circles you try to draw look like lemons, potatoes, or microbes.
Okay, yes, this definitely isn’t the first CNC-ified Etch-A-Sketch we’ve seen,
but it just might be the coolest one
. It’s certainly the most kid-friendly, anyway.
Most importantly, you can still pick it up and shake it to clear the screen, a feature sorely lacking in many of the auto-sketchers we scratch about. And if you’re not fully satisfied by this hack, be sure to check out the stop-motion video after the break that turns this baby into a touch-screen video player for Flatlanders.
Turn it over and you’ll find a Raspberry Pi 3 and a CNC hat. The knobs are belt-driven from a pair of NEMA-17 size stepper motors that interface to the knobs with tight-fitting pulleys. Power comes from four 18650s, and is metered by a battery management board that provides both overcharge and drain protection. At some point in the future, [QuintBUILDS] plans to move to a battery pack, because the cell holder is electrically unstable.
We love the welded frame and acrylic enclosure because they make the thing sturdy and portable. Also, we’re suckers for see-through enclosures. They’re clearly superior if you want to do what [QuintBUILDS] did and take it to an elementary school science fair to show the kids just how cool science can be if you stick with it.
If you don’t think motorized Etch-A-Sketches can be useful, maybe you just haven’t seen
this clock build
yet. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214157",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2020-01-26T18:59:50",
"content": "Next up, automate the reset process. Then you can leave it going to make stop motion animations.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6214265",
"... | 1,760,373,608.517253 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/26/hubble-telescope-power-supply-tester-on-ebay/ | Hubble Telescope Power Supply Tester On EBay | Richard Baguley | [
"Space"
] | [
"Hubble telescope",
"nasa"
] | Got $75K spare? Then this is the eBay deal for you! [jvanorsdal] pointed us to this eBay bargain: the
VPI Vehicle Power Interface Rack & Console Hubble Space Telescope
. This was the actual system used to test the power systems of the Hubble Space Telescope before it was launched, so it’s a genuine piece of space history.
For the price you get two, yes two CRT displays, six HP power supplies and a huge amount of hand-wired history. Even if you aren’t going to bid, it is worth taking a look at the insides of this thing, as it is all hand-soldered and the cable routing is a thing of beauty. I have absolutely no use for this, but I totally want it for my living room.
There are a few gotchas, though. Because it is NASA space hardware, you can’t export it to places like Iran, and the shipping cost for the US is a cool $1.5K. Considering the size of the thing, that is not so bad, perhaps: it is built into a three rack metal cabinet with built-in wheels that measures over 7 feet long and weighs over 800 lbs.
Interested? It is on sale for $75k, and there is a handy buy it now button on the site.
We all love space history here at Hackaday. Back in 2019, our own [Tom Nardi] got to spend an
evening with the Space Shuttle Atlantis
. | 38 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214106",
"author": "Howard",
"timestamp": "2020-01-26T15:10:32",
"content": "It looks like the console runs on a NorthStar CP/M machine as well. I’m surprised that this didn’t go to a museum instead of being sold off on eBay, but hopefully whoever buys it will see that it gets disp... | 1,760,373,608.785585 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/26/keeping-a-3d-printed-nas-updated-with-the-times/ | Keeping A 3D Printed NAS Updated With The Times | Tom Nardi | [
"Network Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"hardware",
"nas",
"raspberry pi",
"USB hub"
] | Back in 2018, [Paul-Louis Ageneau] created a 3D printed network-attached storage (NAS) enclosure for his Raspberry Pi. The design worked well, the Internet liked it when he posted the details on his blog, and all was right with the world. But of course, such glories are fleeting. Two years later that design needs updating, and thanks to the parametric nature of OpenSCAD,
he’s been able to refresh his design for another tour of duty
.
In our book, this is as much a cautionary tale as it is a success story. On one hand, it’s a testament to the power of CAD and desktop 3D printing. That a design can be tweaked and reproduced down the line with only minimal hassle is great for folks like us. But it’s also a shame that he didn’t get more than two years before some of the parts he used in the original NAS became unobtainium.
The main issue was that the integrated USB hub he used for the first version is no longer available, so the design had to be modified to accept a similar board. Unfortunately, the new hub is quite a bit wider than the old one. Resizing the entire case isn’t really an option since the Pi has to slide into it, so the hub now bumps out a bit on one side. He’s added a printable cover that cleans it up a bit, but the asymmetrical look might be a problem for some. While fiddling with the design, he also changed around the cooling setup so a larger fan could be mounted; now that the Raspberry Pi 4 is out, it can use all the cooling help it can get.
We covered
the original version of the printed NAS back when it was first released
, and it’s always good to see a creator coming back and keeping a project updated; even if it’s because hardware availability forced their hand. | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214080",
"author": "lamalas",
"timestamp": "2020-01-26T12:46:06",
"content": "Looks bad IMHO. Isn’t a case’s purpose is to not have random wires all around visible? Especially ones that connects to itself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,373,609.234894 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/26/put-the-power-of-pcr-in-your-pocket-with-this-open-source-thermal-cycler/ | Put The Power Of PCR In Your Pocket With This Open-Source Thermal Cycler | Dan Maloney | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"amplification",
"anealling",
"cycler",
"denaturation",
"dna",
"enzyme",
"nucleotide",
"PCR",
"pid",
"polymerase chain reaction",
"Thermal"
] | When the first thermal cyclers for the polymerase chain reaction came out in the 1980s, they were as expensive as a market driven by grant money could make them. Things haven’t got much better over the years, largely shutting STEM classes and biohackers out of the PCR market. That may be about to change, though, if the
€99.00 PocketPCR thermal cycler
takes hold.
PCR amplifies DNA in a three-step process: denaturation, which melts double-stranded DNA into single strands; annealing, which lets small pieces of primer DNA bind to either side of the region of interest; and elongation, where the enzyme DNA polymerase zips along the single strands starting at the primer to replicate the DNA. The cycle repeats and copies of the original DNA accumulate exponentially. Like any thermal cycler, [Urs Gaudenz]’s PocketPCR automates those temperature shifts, using a combination of PCB-mounted heating elements and a cooling fan. The coils rapidly heat a reaction block up to the 99°C denaturation temperature, the fan brings that down to the 68°C needed for annealing, and then the temperature ramps back up to 72°C for elongation with
thermostable DNA polymerase
. PID loops keep the reaction temperature precisely controlled. The whole thing is, as the name suggests, small enough to fit in a pocket, and can either be purchased in kit form or scratch-built from
the build files on GitHub
.
We applaud [Urs]’ efforts to get the power of PCR into the hands of citizen scientists.
Quick and dirty thermal cyclers
are one thing, but Pocket PCR has a great fit and finish that makes it more accessible.
Thanks to [Abe Tusk] for the tip. | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214072",
"author": "nater",
"timestamp": "2020-01-26T11:58:31",
"content": "So, umm, what does PCR do for us?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6214091",
"author": "Jaap",
"timestamp": "2020-01-26T14:05:07",
... | 1,760,373,608.961426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/25/tracking-cancer-treatment-with-an-esp8266-based-radiation-sensor/ | Tracking Cancer Treatment With An ESP8266-Based Radiation Sensor | Jenny List | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"gamma radiation",
"radiation monitoring",
"SiPin Photodiode"
] | Those of us who have not been in that position can only imagine the anguish of learning that your teenager has cancer. This happened to [Rob], whose child was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. It’s a condition that can be treated with surgery followed by a course of radioactive iodine to kill any remaining cancer cells. During iodine treatment, the patient is radioactive enough that other people must maintain a distance of 3m from them, and as a learning exercise for both father and teen he created and refined the design of
a portable wireless radioactivity monitor
.
There are a variety of sensors for radiation monitoring including the well-known Geiger–Müller tube, but he settled on a PIN photodiode based sensor supplied by
radiation-watch.org
. This sensor is not at its most sensitive at the energy levels emitted by the iodine isotope used in the treatment, but the relatively high intensity of the radiation meant that enough would register for a useful reading to be taken. The sensor board he was mated to an ESP8266 module. [Rob] went through three iterations of the balance of the hardware before settling on a lithium-ion battery and a plastic case.
On the software side, the ESP connects to an MQTT server, from which a CSV file of data is derived. On a computer, the CSV data is collected and plotted to a graph. The data take during treatment clearly shows the reduction in radiation following the isotope’s half-life. The graph isn’t perfect though, there is a gap due to the second prototype’s batteries running flat
From his epilogue it appears that his son has recovered, and we wish them further good health. The details have been published in the hope that other young people facing the same trial might benefit from building their own radiation monitor. | 22 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214055",
"author": "Mike Massen in Perth, Western Australia",
"timestamp": "2020-01-26T06:11:23",
"content": "Cool, thanks for post, lots of opportunities could STEM from this, you put my next thinking cap on dah right way round :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,373,609.168074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/25/a-custom-raspberry-pi-4-arcade-cabinet/ | A Custom Raspberry Pi 4 Arcade Cabinet | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Games"
] | [
"arcade cabinet",
"emulation",
"Raspberry Pi 4",
"retro gaming",
"scanline",
"woodworking"
] | Over the years we’ve covered quite a few Raspberry Pi based arcade cabinets, and admittedly many of them have been fairly similar. After all, there’s only so much variation you can make before it stops looking like a traditional arcade machine. But even still, we never tire of seeing
a well executed build like the one [Dawid Zittrich] recently shared with us
.
These days you can order a kit that has pre-cut panels to build your cabinet with, but looking for a completely custom build, [Dawid] decided to first model his design in SketchUp and then cut out the panels himself with a jigsaw. This obviously is quite a bit more work, and assumes you’ve got sufficient woodworking tools, but we think the final result looks great. Not to mention the fact that it’s going to be a lot stronger than something made out of MDF.
He also created the side artwork himself, taking the logos and names from his favorite arcade and Amiga games and putting them on a retro-looking gradient pattern. The marquee on the top has an acrylic front and is illuminated from behind with strips of LEDs. It’s mounted on a hinge so that it can be lifted up and a new piece of art slid in without taking apart the whole cabinet. While it might be a little more labor intensive to switch out than
some of the electronic marquees we’ve seen
, we do like that you still have the ability to change the artwork on a whim.
With the cabinet itself completed, [Dawid] turned his attention to the electronics. Inside you’ve got the aforementioned Raspberry Pi 4 (with a Noctua fan to keep it cool), an external hard drive, a HDMI to VGA converter with scanline generator to drive the 4:3 ratio Eizo Flex Scan S2100 monitor, and a rather beefy amplifier hanging off the Pi’s 3.5 mm analog audio output. All of which is easily accessible via a maintenance hatch built into the cabinet so [Dawid] doesn’t need to tear everything down when he wants to tweak something.
If you’d like to have that arcade cabinet feel but don’t have the space and equipment to put something like this together,
you could always stick a Raspberry Pi into an iCade and call it a day
. | 29 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214038",
"author": "ROB",
"timestamp": "2020-01-26T03:56:47",
"content": "https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/2617971417169330937.jpgI did things differently.Any cabinet that doesn’t have a second use will hog space when not being used.I made a coffee table with old games.I enjoyed the ... | 1,760,373,609.302795 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/25/porting-quake-to-an-ipod-classic-is-no-easy-task/ | Porting Quake To An IPod Classic Is No Easy Task | Erin Pinheiro | [
"ipod hacks"
] | [
"fps",
"ipod",
"quake",
"Rockbox",
"SDL",
"video games"
] | We didn’t think we’d see another hack involving the aging iPod Classic here on Hackaday again, yet [Franklin Wei] surprises us with
a brand new port of Quake for the sixth-generation iPod
released some thirteen years ago. Is Quake the new 90s FPS that’ll get put into every device hackers can get their hands on?
The port works on top of RockBox, a custom firmware for the iPod and other portable media players. This isn’t the first game on the device. A source port of Doom has been available for years. [Franklin] decided to use
Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL)
to make his job easier. That doesn’t mean this was an easy task though, as [Franklin] describes very interesting bugs that kept him from finishing his work for about two years.
The first problem was that the GCC compiler he was using was apparently not optimizing time-critical sound mixing routines. [Franklin] decided enough was enough and dug into ARM assembly to re-write those parts of the code by hand. He managed to squeeze out a speed increase of about 60%. Even better, he ran into a prime example of a bug that would get triggered by a very specific sound sample length running through his code. Thankfully, with all of that sorted, the port is now released and we can all enjoy cramping our hands around tiny screens to frag some low-poly monsters.
If you need to repair your sixth-generation iPod before you can do that though, no need to worry since
they seem to not be so hard to service by yourself
. And if the battery life and disk space aren’t quite what they used to be, there’s also the option to
bulk it up for winter
. Check out the Quake port in action after the break. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214025",
"author": "Bob A",
"timestamp": "2020-01-26T01:51:54",
"content": "Well done. Assembly language programmers rock.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6214059",
"author": "Stuart Longland",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,373,609.57178 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/review-saneryigo-sh72-soldering-iron/ | Review: SanErYiGo SH72 Soldering Iron | Jenny List | [
"Reviews",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"review",
"SanErYiGo",
"SanErYiGo SH72",
"SH72",
"soldering",
"soldering iron",
"ts100"
] | When the
Miniware TS100
first emerged from China nearly three years ago, it redefined what we could expect from a soldering iron at an affordable price. The lightweight DC-powered temperature controlled iron brought usable power and advanced features in a diminutive package that was easy in the hand, a combination only previously found in much more expensive soldering stations. All this plus its hackability and accessible hardware made it an immediate hit within our community, and many of us have adopted it as our iron of choice.
A surprise has been that it has attracted no serious competitors of a similar type, with the only iron mentioned in the same breath as the TS100 being Miniware’s own USB-C powered TS80. Perhaps that is about to change though, as before Christmas I noticed a new Chinese iron with a very similar outline to the TS100. Has the favourite finally generated a knock-off product? I bought one to find out.
The Budget Pretender
The SanErYiGo SH72 is a temperature controlled iron with a very similar form factor to the TS100. It has a lightweight handle that contains the temperature control electronics, on one end of which is a DC barrel jack socket and on the other a socket to fit any of a range of elements with different tips. There the similarity ends though, because in contrast to the TS100’s OLED display, buttons, and USB port there is only a control knob. And perhaps most importantly, while the TS100 costs somewhere close to £40 ($50), my SH72 cost me only about £8.50 ($11). This is a budget iron then, but is it a lemon or a diamond in the rough?
The iron arrived well packaged in a slim cardboard box, with iron and handle separate from each other. It has a decent printed manual leaflet in Chinese and well-written English. Physically, the handle is a lightweight textured plastic tube about 12 mm (0.5″) in diameter with a moulded grip area near the business end. It’s about 100 mm (4″) long, which is about 5 mm (0.2″) longer than that of the TS100. The control knob is about 10 mm (0.4″) in diameter, and is situated about 20 mm (0.8″) from the end with the DC jack. It has a range of temperatures printed on top of it, but in an extremely tiny font.
Setting the SH72’s temperature with a thermocouple.
The element is not identical to the TS100 unit, but follows a similar format of all-in-one tip and element with contacts brought out to metal bands on a ceramic end piece. It’s secured in place with a screw-on metal collar to which I guess you could attach an earth lead if needed. There are seven different tip styles and I suspect it will be an element originally designed for another iron, I chose the finest point as I will use the iron for SMD work. The whole is noticeably a bit lighter than the TS100, but the extra 5 mm length is not really an issue.
It takes the same power supply as its more expensive rival, so you may even already have a laptop supply with the correct jack and polarity. It will run from 12 V to 24 V supplies, with a claimed power of 65 W at 24 V. My 19 V supply should give it a respectable 40 W. My first act on plugging it in was to take out a thermocouple and measure its temperature. The lowest I could set it was about 200 °C and the highest around 410 °C. It was easy enough to adjust to my desired 360 °C, and on checking the control knob with a magnifier its calibration wasn’t too far wrong.
To put it through its paces, it was applied to a bit of SMD reworking on a scrap board, some soldering on a protoboard project, and some wiring for a hackerspace CNC controller project. What more do you want from an iron of this type, than that it is light weight and easy to manoeuvre into position, heats up quickly, and has plenty of power? In these it delivered admirably, and the experience was similar to using a TS100 right down to the minor annoyance of a slightly inflexible power lead. This is a useful little iron, and easily coped with all the general purpose soldering we had to hand.
Old-School Analogue Temperature Control, But It Works
The PCB packs what appears to be a simple analogue temperature controller onto one of its sides.
To merely describe an iron’s appearance and put it through its paces is not really a full review though, this is
Hackaday
. What’s inside the SH72, what makes it
tick
? I opened it up to take a look. It’s straightforward enough to get inside, but perhaps it’s not designed for repeated opening. The control knob eases out, and the two halves of the case can be parted with some very careful leverage and spudger work. Inside there is a long PCB covered in surface mount components on one side, spring clips for the element at one end, and a DC jack socket at the other, with a large through-hole preset potentiometer into which the control knob locates. The two main semiconductors are a TPC8107 MOSFET and an LM2904 dual op-amp, both in SOIC-8 packaging. At a guess one op-amp is a DC amplifier using the element resistance as a temperature sensor, while the other is a comparator that switches in and out the MOSFET to power the element. It’s a simple but effective temperature controller of the type that not so long ago could be found inside much more expensive temperature controlled soldering stations.
In conclusion, the SH72 looks like a cheap alternative to the TS100, and essentially that’s what it is. It’s a temperature controlled iron of similar size, power, and weight, but that’s all it does. It lacks the more expensive iron’s extra features such as standby temperatures and auto power off that come with microprocessor control, and it’s fair to say that its plastic handle is not quite so durable. It remains a very usable and useful iron though, and in answer to the question posed earlier I’d say it’s a definite diamond in the rough. At that low-budget price it’s unlikely you’ll find anything better, and you can certainly find much worse. Buy one, it won’t cost you much and I don’t think you’ll regret it. | 34 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214455",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T16:17:44",
"content": "FYI, SanErYiGo sort of translates to 321Go",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6214529",
"author": "Jul13",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T20:04:... | 1,760,373,609.529498 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/its-an-led-cube-but-maybe-not-quite-what-you-were-expecting/ | It’s An LED Cube, But Maybe Not Quite What You Were Expecting | Jenny List | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"LED cube",
"lighting"
] | LED cubes are a pleasing ornament and still something of a talking point, but now they have reached the point of being available as inexpensive kits from China. The simpler ones don’t have quite the cachet they used to. It’s still a project that can deliver a few surprises though, as [Moritz v. Sivers] shows us very well with his
glass LED cube
. Instead of the usual wire frame construction he’s employed a novel technique of applying each layer of WS2812 LEDs to its own glass PCB.
The PCBs are created with self-adhesive copper foil, cut out with a CNC cutter and painstakingly transferred to the glass substrate with the help of a piece of transfer paper. The LEDs are soldered on, and once each board has been tested they are mounted in the manner of a toast rack to laser cut acrylic corner pieces. There are four layers of 16 LEDs each, which might not make for the largest cube, but still makes for a respectable show. The addressable LEDs take it a level above the 3D matrix type of cube with which you might already be familiar, and the extra time required to load each value into them doesn’t seem to slow the display down.
There are a couple of videos we’ve placed below the break, one showing it in action and the other taking us through the build process. This last one should provide plenty of inspiration for anyone with an interest in creating this type of PCB on glass or any other unusual substrate. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214369",
"author": "electrobob",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T12:30:59",
"content": "WOaaa, this is awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6214418",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T14:31:30",
"content": "Wea... | 1,760,373,609.615721 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/27/all-the-games-in-one-cartridge/ | All The Games In One Cartridge | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games"
] | [
"cart",
"cartridge",
"game boy",
"rom",
"stm32",
"video games"
] | The original Game Boy was a smash success for Nintendo and has an amazing collection of games. You might relive some childhood nostalgia by booting up a Game Boy emulator, but to really get the full experience you’ll need the battery-draining green-tinted original hardware. Thanks to modern technology you can also load all of the games at one time on the original hardware with this
STM32 cartridge that fits right in
.
The device can load any Game Boy game (and homebrews) and ROMs can be sent to the cartridge via USB. There were are a lot of hurdles to getting this working properly, the largest of which is power management. A normal cartridge has a battery backup for save data, but using a small coin cell to run an STM32 would kill the battery quickly. To get around that, the cartridge writes the states to nonvolatile memory and then shuts itself off, although this has the side effect of crashing the Game Boy.
The creator of this project, [Emeryth], noted that we featured
a similar project from [Dhole]
a few years ago, also involving an STM32. [Emeryth] decided that it would be fun to build his own project anyway, and it’s certainly an interesting take on GameBoy hacking. He also has the files for this project available on
his Git Hub page
. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214354",
"author": "Arao Hayashida Filho",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T11:33:45",
"content": "Very interesting project Emeryth, on 2017 i made a very similar cartridge to Atari 2600 and sell some units with the stm32f103 at 117MHz to make the costs low. To achieve 300ns of access on t... | 1,760,373,609.451438 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/26/can-you-help-3d-print-a-selectric-ball/ | Can You Help 3D Print A Selectric Ball? | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"golf ball",
"ibm",
"IBM Selectric",
"Selectric",
"typeball",
"typewriter"
] | The IBM Selectric changed typewriters as we knew them. Their distinctive ball element replaced the clunky row of typebars and made most people faster typists. When [Steve Malikoff] thought about
3D printing a type ball
— colloquially known as a golf ball — it seemed like a great idea.
The problem? It just doesn’t work very well. According to [Steve], it is likely because of the low resolution of the printer. However, it isn’t clear the latitudes of the characters are correct. and there are a few other issues. It is possible that a resin printer would do better and there’s a call for someone out there to try it and report back. We are guessing a finer nozzle and very low layer height might help on an FDM printer.
Judging from the images, it looks like some of the balls do pretty well, but don’t get a full strike at the tilt angle. So it could be something else. However, it does sound like cleaning up the print so it fits is a major problem.
The Selectric was notable for several reasons — you can see an ad for the machine in the video below. The type ball meant you couldn’t jam keys. Since you didn’t have to unjam keys and you had the ribbon in a cartridge, you would have to work really hard to get ink on your fingers, even if you used the cloth ribbon instead of the arguably better carbon film ribbon. The Selectric II could even use a special tape to lift the carbon ribbon off the paper for correcting mistakes. No white-out liquid or fussing with little strips of correction paper. The fact that the ball moves means you don’t have to clear space on the side of the machine for the platen to travel back and forth.
Can you help? If you have a Selectric I or II and a high-quality printer, this would be a fun project to try and report back your results to [Steve]. If you are familiar with the later issue typeballs, you might not have seen the wire clip that [Steve] uses to hold the ball in place. However, you can see them in the video ad below. More modern balls use a plastic lever that acts as a handle so even with cloth ribbons you have less chance of getting ink on your hands.
Although there were Selectrics meant to interface with a computer, you can
refit any of them to do it
with some work. The Selectric also has a role in one of the great techno spy stories of all time:
The GUNMAN project
. | 63 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214279",
"author": "andrewjhull",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T06:32:13",
"content": "As far as I recall, and it has been a very long time since I looked at one of these, the “ball” wasn’t strictly spherical, and the type had a flat face (i.e. it was not curved with the same center as ... | 1,760,373,609.810341 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/26/teardown-and-analysis-of-a-cheap-solar-lamp/ | Teardown And Analysis Of A Cheap Solar Lamp | Jenny List | [
"green hacks",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"garden light",
"led",
"solar",
"solar light"
] | If you walk the aisles of a dollar store one constant that you will see worldwide is the Chinese solar lamp. Your dollar gets you a white LED behind plastic, mounted on a spike to stick into the ground, and with a solar cell on top. It charges in the sunlight during the day and then lights the LED for a few hours at nightfall. They are in gardens everywhere, and no doubt landfill sites are full of them because they do not last very long. [Giovanni Bernardo] had one that stopped working, so he
subjected it to a teardown to find out what was up, and what made it tick
(Italian,
Google Translate link
).
As expected, the culprit proved to be a leaking and corroded 1.2 volt NiMh cell, and its replacement with an AA cell brought the lamp back to life. But the interesting part of this tale comes from his teardown and analysis of the lamp’s components. It’s centered around a YX8016 battery charger and power management chip. The device has an amazing economy of design with only four components including the solar cell and the LED. The final component is a small inductor that forms part of the boost converter to keep the LED lit as the battery voltage falls. The chip switches at 580kHz, and produces a 3.2 volt supply.
If this is a subject that interests you, don’t forget to take a look at the
power harvesting challenge
we ran a while back. | 57 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214250",
"author": "Stan. SWAN",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T03:09:33",
"content": "It’s going back over a decade but I recall we used to call those lamps 4 leg component a “quadistor” !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6214253",
... | 1,760,373,610.151423 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/26/hackaday-links-january-26-2019/ | Hackaday Links: January 26, 2019 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"china",
"electric vehicle",
"hackaday links",
"metabolism",
"posix",
"quarantine",
"solar roadways",
"telemedicine",
"temperaure",
"virus",
"windows",
"wine",
"Wuhan"
] | The news this week was dominated by
the novel coronavirus outbreak
centered in Wuhan, China. Despite draconian quarantines and international travel restrictions, the infection has spread far beyond China, at least in small numbers. A few cases have been reported in the United States, but the first case reported here caught our eye for the technology being used to treat it. CNN and others tell us that
the traveler from Wuhan is being treated by a robot
. While it sounds futuristic, the reality is a little less sci-fi than it seems. The device being used is
an InTouch Vici
, a telemedicine platform that in no way qualifies as a robot. The device is basically a standard telepresence platform that has to be wheeled into the patient suite so that providers can interact with the patient remotely. True, it protects whoever is using it from exposure, but someone still has to gown up and get in with the patient. We suppose it’s a step in the right direction, but we wish the popular press would stop slapping a “robot” label on things they don’t understand.
Also in health news, did you know you’re probably not as hot as you think you are? While a glance in the mirror would probably suffice to convince most of us of that fact, there’s now
research that shows human body temperature isn’t what it used to be
. Using medical records from the Civil War-era to the 1930s and comparing them to readings taken in the 1970s and another group between 2007 and 2017, a team at Stanford concluded that normal human body temperature in the USA has been slowly decreasing over time. They proposed several explanations as to why the old 98.6F (37C) value is more like 97.5F (36.4C) these days, the most interesting being that general overall inflammation has decreased as sanitation and food and water purity have increased, leading the body to turn down its thermostat, so to speak. Sadly, though, if the trend holds up, our body temperature will reach absolute zero in only 111,000 years.
Wine, the not-an-emulator that lets you run Windows programs on POSIX-compliant operating systems,
announced stable release 5.0
this week. A year in the making, the new version’s big features are multi-monitor support with dynamic configuration changes and support for the Vulkan spec up to version 1.1.126.
Any color that you want, as long as it’s amorphous silicon. Sono Motors, the German start-up, has blown past
its goal of raising 50 million euros in 50 days
to crowdfund production of its
Sion solar-electric car
. The car is planned to have a 255 km range on a full charge, with 34 km of that coming from the solar cells that adorn almost every bit of the exterior on the vehicle. Living where the sun doesn’t shine for a third of the year, we’re not sure how well this will pay off, but it certainly seems smarter than
covering roads with solar cells
.
And finally, here’s a trip down memory lane for anyone who suffered through some of the cringe-worthy depictions of technology that Hollywood came up with during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Looking back through the clips shown in
“copy complete”
reminds us just how many movies started getting into the tech scene. It wasn’t just the sci-fi and techno-thrillers that subjected us to closeups of scrolling random characters and a terminal that beeped every time something changed on the screen. Even straight dramas like
Presumed Innocent
and rom-coms like
You’ve Got Mail
and whatever the hell genre
Ghost
was got in on the act. To be fair, some depictions were pretty decent, especially given the realities of audience familiarity with tech before it became pervasive. And in any case, it was fun to just watch and remember when movies were a lot more watchable than they are today. | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214209",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-01-27T00:15:05",
"content": "“Using medical records from the Civil War-era to the 1930s and comparing them to readings taken in the 1970s and another group between 2007 and 2017, a team at Stanford concluded that normal human body t... | 1,760,373,609.867833 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/26/light-the-way-to-every-component/ | Light The Way To Every Component | Jenny List | [
"LED Hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"parts storage",
"storage"
] | How do you organize your stock of components and modules? If an unruly pile of anti-static bags and envelopes from China stuffed into a cardboard box sounds familiar, then you need help from [Dimitris Tassopoulos]. He’s organized his parts into drawers and created a database, then
linked it via an ESP8266 and a string of addressable LEDs
to light up the individual drawer in which any given component resides. It’s a genius idea, as you can see in action in the video below the break.
Behind the scenes is a web server sitting atop an SQL database, with a PHP front end. It’s running on a Banana Pi board, but it could just as easily be running on any other similar SBC. The ESP8266 has a REST API to which the webserver connects when a component is sought, and from that it knows which LED to light.
The LED strip is not the tape with which most readers will be familiar, but a string of the type we might be more used to as Christmas lights. These have a 100mm spacing between LEDs, allowing them to be easily positioned behind each drawer. The result is a very effective parts inventory system. We’re not entirely sure that it would entirely banish the tide of anti-static bags here, but we’re impressed nevertheless. | 47 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6214182",
"author": "alfcoder",
"timestamp": "2020-01-26T21:39:57",
"content": "it was my idea also, but i was too lazy, but an other idea is to take one sheet of withe paper, dump the content of one box and then take a photo of the content with your phone, do it with every little b... | 1,760,373,610.055479 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/robo-pony-greets-hackerspace-visitors/ | Robo Pony Greets Hackerspace Visitors | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"baby butterscotch",
"capacitive touch",
"pony",
"robot"
] | Robotic animal companions were once all the rage, though their limited personalities and annoying sound effects often relegated them to the bin fairly quickly. This makes them all the more ripe for hacking. [David Bynoe] had a Baby Butterscotch that was in need of a new home,
and he decided to put the pony to work at his local hackerspace.
The Baby Butterscotch pony is a charming beast in stock form, yet highly menacing once its skin is removed. Mounted to a plaque, the pony has three PIR sensors that detect movement. These sensors are used to allow the pony to act as a door greeter, waking up when people enter the hackerspace and following them around the room. The additional hardware interfaces with the pony’s stock electronics by using floating capacitors and relays to activate the original capacitive touch sensors. The final piece is finished with a coat of gold paint and some RGB eyes to complete the look.
It’s a fun project that gives
Vancouver Hack Space
a little personality, and we’re sure it’s enjoyed by the members. We’ve seen other companion toy hacks before,
with the Furby always being a ripe target for projects
. Video after the break. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213815",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2020-01-25T00:36:24",
"content": "I love the fact that they hung the rear half the same way on the other side of the wall.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213829",
"author": ... | 1,760,373,609.911593 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/broken-3d-printer-turned-scanning-microscope/ | Broken 3D Printer Turned Scanning Microscope | Tom Nardi | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"digital microscope",
"finder",
"microscope",
"usb microscope"
] | A few years ago, [Wayne] managed to blow out the main board of his Flashforge Finder attempting to change the fan. But the death of one tool ended up being the birth of another, as he ended up using its mechanical components and a Raspberry Pi
to create an impressive scanning microscope
.
Scan of Ulysses S. Grant from a US $50 bill
As you might have guessed from the name, the idea here is to scan across the object with a digital microscope to create an enlarged image of the entire thing. This requires some very precise control over the microscope, which just so happens to be exactly what 3D printers are good at. All [Wayne] had to do was remove the hotend, and print some adapter pieces which let him mount a USB microscope in its place.
The rest is in the software. The Raspberry Pi directs the stepper motors to move the camera across the object to be scanned in the X and Y dimensions, collecting thousands of individual images along the way. Since the focus of the microscope is fixed and there might be height variations in the object, the Z stage is then lifted up a few microns and the scan is done again. Once the software has collected
tens
of thousands of images in this manner, it sorts through them to find the ones that are in focus and stitch them all together.
The process is slow, and [Wayne] admits its not the most efficient approach to the problem. But judging by the sample images on the Hackaday.io page, we’d say it gets the job done. In fact, looking at these high resolution scans of 3D objects has us wondering if we might need a similar gadget here at the Hackaday Command Bunker.
The project is actually an evolution of an earlier attempt that used
gutted optical drives to move the microscope around
. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213789",
"author": "kenpurcell",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T22:26:18",
"content": "Very interesting. I have been converting family photos via a typical scanner. However I have some framed or large format prints that are not perfectly flat and scared to press them in anyway. Guess it ... | 1,760,373,609.965169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/an-eight-day-home-automation-hackathon-is-inspiration-for-getting-more-projects-done/ | An Eight-Day Home Automation Hackathon Is Inspiration For Getting More Projects Done | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"home hacks"
] | [
"2019 Hackaday Superconference",
"home automation",
"internet of things",
"IoT",
"python",
"REST API"
] | There’s nothing quite like a deadline to cut through extras and get right at the heart of the problem. Maybe we should all follow Interpreet’s example and stop thinking about automating our homes and just make it in an eight-day hackathon. His talk at the 2019 Hackaday Superconference covers the
zero-to-deployment home automation build he finished in the eight days
leading up to his move from one continent to another.
Hackaday’s very own Inderpreet Singh found himself pulling up roots and moving from his home in India to teach at Centennial College in Toronto, Canada. He needed a way to keep an eye on his home from afar and the name of the game is IoT. When the only choice is “whatever works right now”, you can learn a lot about simple solutions.
He chose familiar hardware to work with, with the ESP8266 making up the bulk of the nodes and a Raspberry Pi as as a central hub for the setup. He chose to communicate between all the nodes on his system using WiFi because the hardware is robust and available. With security in mind, he keeps the automation system separate from the daily use WiFi system by grabbing an extra access point to serve as the automation network. The Raspberry Pi serves as a router of sorts; its Ethernet port is connected to the IoT device’s AP, while the onboard WiFi is used to connect to the home’s main AP for a connection to the wider Internet.
Software for the system is built on a REST API served by a Python Flask app. Many would advocate for using MQTT but Inderpreet’s testing with that protocol came up short as the broker he intended to use was no longer available. One of the interesting parts of his system design is that all nodes will check in at regular intervals; this allows them to inquire about actions they need to take, but it also allows the system to detect a malfunctioning node immediately. I’ve seen a similar trick used by Elliot Williams where he assigns a “ping” topic to all MQTT devices that causes them to report in with their IP address. Having a system to query and ensure the health of every node is a big tip to take away from this talk.
Installing the system is where a lot of us would get hung up. Inderpreet didn’t have the time to make the system invisible. His mother was not happy with him drilling holes in the walls and gluing parts to door moldings, but the deadline was met and the system was up and running. Aesthetics can be improved with time, and are better left for after you reach the proof of concept.
It’s easy to get stuck in the planning phase of any project. This adventure shows the power of diving in and establishing your foothold with a minimum viable product. Give it a try, you may find you get a lot more projects done in the long run. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213810",
"author": "$$i7low##idgit313its",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T23:55:02",
"content": "Hi Inderpreet I’ve been using Mosquitto (MQTT broker) that’s for future reference.I’m watching the video now.I have a demo board setup with MQTT (mosquitto), Node-Red, Mosquitto clients (Pyth... | 1,760,373,610.199106 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/new-part-day-led-driver-is-fpga-dev-board-in-disguise/ | New Part Day: LED Driver Is FPGA Dev Board In Disguise | Elliot Williams | [
"FPGA",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Parts"
] | [
"dev kit",
"ECP5",
"fpga",
"icestorm",
"open source",
"reverse engineering"
] | Our new part of the day is the ColorLight 5A-75B, a board that’s meant to drive eight of those ubiquitous high-density color LED panels over gigabit Ethernet. If you were building a commercial LED wall, you’d screw a bunch of the LED panels together, daisy-chain a bunch of these boards to drive them, supply power, and you’d be done. Because of that high-volume application, these boards are inexpensive, around $15 each, and available as quickly as you can get stuff shipped from China.
But we’re not here to talk commercial applications. Managing fast Ethernet and pushing so many pixels in real time is a task best handled by an FPGA, and [Tom Verbeure] noticed that these things were essentially amazing FPGA development boards and started hacking on them. [q3k] put it up on GitHub, and you can follow along with the
chubby75
reverse engineering project
to dig into their secrets.
While the first generations of these boards used the old-standby Spartan 6, things got interesting for fans of open FPGA tools when newer versions were found using the Lattice ECP5-25 chips, the little brother of the stonking big chip [Sprite_TM] used on the
2019 Hackaday Supercon badge
. If you want to grab one you’re looking for ColorLight boards marked with revision 6 or 7 as of this writing.
What does this mean? For the price of a gourmet hamburger, you get an FPGA that’s big enough to run a RISC-V softcore, two 166 MHz, 2 MB SDRAMS, flash for the FPGA bitstream, a bazillion digital outputs on 5 V level shifters, and two gigabit Ethernet ports. The JTAG port is broken out in 0.1″ headers, and it works with OpenOCD, which is ridiculously convenient. How’s that for a well-stocked budget FPGA dev board that’s served by a completely open toolchain?
Hackers at Work
The reverse engineering work on the ECP5 variants is still in progress, but there are some really heavy hitters in the open FPGA scene playing around with this board right now, and progress is being made
rapidly
.
Last week, to map out the new ECP5 variants’ pinouts, [Mike Walters] used a particularly sweet hack that he learned from [Claude Schwarz] that plays to the strengths of an FPGA: bit-bang serial UART with the pin number on
all
of the pins simultaneously. Each pin on the output headers then told him which pin on the FPGA it was attached to. Great idea!
[Florent] of Enjoy Digital got a
picoRV core up and running with Ethernet UART
just yesterday.
What would you do with one of these beasts? Obviously, drive many, many LEDs. (Here are two great references for Hub75 LEDs:
one for Arduino
, and
one for Raspberry Pi
. [Nick Poole] over at Sparkfun also has a
nice deep-dive
.) But there are other uses for high-bandwidth, real-time outputs. Control an arbitrary number of servo motors over Ethernet? Or heck, steppers! Myself, I’m not so much interested in the Ethernet as the memory and pinout, but you have to admit that an Ethernet bitstream bootloader would be an awesome hack.
Konrad Beckmann’s Pergola: Too many ECP5 boards, too little time!
While this is a reverse engineering effort — prying open a closed design — we’ve also seen great open-source hacker FPGA boards flourishing in the last few years. From the early
Dipsy
and
Upduino
projects, through
TinyFPGA
,
BlackIce
, and the
iCEBreaker
, to the super-recent
Pergola
and [Greg Davill]’s
OrangeCrab
and
ButterStick
, you’re not hurting for choice in dev boards if you don’t want to hang out on the bleeding edge with a Chinese LED driver.
If you are just starting out with FPGAs, you can support these awesome developers and it will more than pay you back in time spent: they’re all open, documented, and tested. I’m sure I’ve missed more than a few awesome boards as well — these are just the ones that I’ve had in my own two hands. (Post your favorites in the comments!)
But if twin Ethernets, a bunch of RAM, and too many 5 V outputs are the peripherals you need for your FPGA project, or if you just want to lend a hand to the development effort, the ColorLight 5A-75B might just be worth the hack. You certainly can’t beat the price. | 51 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213711",
"author": "Rog Fanther",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T18:36:16",
"content": "Price going up in ….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213718",
"author": "scott.tx",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T19:00:55",
... | 1,760,373,610.286822 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/hackaday-podcast-051-pointing-with-your-tongue-c64-touchpad-usb-killcord-and-audacity-does-everything/ | Hackaday Podcast 051: Pointing With Your Tongue, C64 Touchpad, USB Killcord, And Audacity Does Everything | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"ColorLight",
"copper tape",
"fpga",
"gradient infill",
"Hackaday Podcast",
"mnt reform",
"tongue input",
"trompe"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams sort through the hacks you might have missed over the past seven days. In FPGA hacking news, there’s a ton of work being done on a newly discovered FPGA dev board. Kristina has a new column on input devices, kicking it off with tongue-actuated controllers. We wax philosophical about what data you need to backup and what you should let go. Plus Audacity is helping tune up CNC machines, copper tape is the prototyper’s friend, and fans of Open should take note of this laptop project.
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 051 Show Notes:
New This Week:
New Contest: Train All The Things
Scikit-Learn
FPGA Dev Board Reverse Engineering:
New Part Day: LED Driver is FPGA Dev Board in Disguise
chubby75/5a-75b at master · q3k/chubby75 · GitHub
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
The Flexible Permanence Of Copper Tape Circuits
Gradient Infill Puts More Plastic Where You Want It
3D Printering: Non-Planar Layer FDM
Open Laptop Soon To Be Open For Business
A Retro Touch Pad You Can Use On Modern Computers
2D-Platform Seeks Balance With A Touch Screen
A Kill Cord To End Laptop Skulduggery
Analyzing CNC Tool Chatter With Audacity
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks:
Get Compressed Air From Falling Water With The Trompe
HDD-Driven Chime Clock Is Quite Striking
These Bit Twiddling Tricks Will Make Your Coworkers Hate You
Elliot’s Picks:
’75 Nixie Multimeter As Digital Dice
Tumble Polisher Smooths Parts With Ease
Hackaday Links: January 19, 2020
Can’t-Miss Articles:
New Year Habits – What Do You Do For Data Storage?
Inputs Of Interest: Tongues For Technology | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213950",
"author": "mike",
"timestamp": "2020-01-25T20:35:58",
"content": "Hearing you talk about Colorlight caught me off guard as I work with their equipment daily! I’d be interested in trying to bring some large scale LED panel equipment to a HaD meetup/con in the future if ther... | 1,760,373,610.370889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/lessons-learned-from-a-cubesat-postmortem/ | Lessons Learned From A CubeSat Postmortem | Tom Nardi | [
"hardware",
"Space"
] | [
"cubesat",
"failure analysis",
"power management",
"redundancy",
"space"
] | On the 3rd of June 2019, a 1U CubeSat developed by students of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków was released from the International Space Station. Within a few hours it was clear something was wrong, and by July 30th, the satellite was barely functional. A number of problems contributed to the gradual degradation of the KRAKsat spacecraft,
which the team has thoroughly documented in a recently released paper
.
We all know, at least in a general sense, that building and operating a spacecraft is an exceptionally difficult task on a technical level. But reading through the 20-pages of “KRAKsat Lessons Learned” gives you practical examples of just how many things can go wrong.
KRAKsat being released from the ISS
It all started with a steadily decreasing battery voltage. The voltage was dropping slowly enough that the team knew the solar panels were doing
something
, but unfortunately the KRAKsat didn’t have a way of reporting their output. This made it difficult to diagnose the energy deficit, but the team believes the issue may have been that the tumbling of the spacecraft meant the panels weren’t exposed to the amount of direct sunlight they had anticipated.
This slow energy drain continued until the voltage dropped to the point that the power supply shut down, and that’s were things really started going south. Once the satellite shut down the batteries were able to start charging back up, which normally would have been a good thing. But unfortunately the KRAKsat had no mechanism to remain powered down once the voltage climbed back above the shutoff threshold. This caused the satellite to enter into and loop where it would reboot itself as many as 150 times per orbit (approximately 90 minutes).
The paper then goes into a laundry list of other problems that contributed to KRAKsat’s failure. For example, the satellite had redundant radios onboard, but the software on them wasn’t identical. When they needed to switch over to the secondary radio, they found that a glitch in its software meant it was unable to access some portions of the onboard flash storage. The team also identified the lack of a filesystem on the flash storage as another stumbling block; having to pull things out using a pointer and the specific memory address was a cumbersome and time consuming task made all the more difficult by the spacecraft’s deteriorating condition.
Of course, building a satellite that was able to operate for a couple weeks is still an impressive achievement for a student team. As we’ve seen recently,
even the pros can run into some serious technical issues
once the spacecraft leaves the lab and is operating on its own.
[Thanks to ppkt for the tip.] | 35 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213664",
"author": "geocrasher",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T16:36:56",
"content": "I would say that the satellite was a huge success. 1) it worked. 2) it failed in a way they understood 3) they were able to learn from it. I can’t imagine it going better than that. Why? Because “perfe... | 1,760,373,610.518215 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/this-week-in-security-chrome-speech-bug-udp-fragmentation-and-the-big-citrix-vulnerability/ | This Week In Security: Chrome Speech Bug, UDP Fragmentation, And The Big Citrix Vulnerability | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"internet explorer",
"ransomware",
"This Week in Security",
"use after free"
] | A
critical security bug
was fixed in Chrome recently, CVE-2020-6378. The CVE report is still marked private, as well as
the bug report
. All we have is “Use-after-free in speech recognizer”. Are we out of luck, trying to learn more about this vulnerability? If you look closely at the private bug report, you’ll notice it’s in the Chromium bug tracker. Chrome is based primarily on the Chromium project, with a few proprietary features added. Since Chromium is open source, we can go find the code change that fixed this bug, and possibly learn more about it.
Off to the Chromium source,
mirrored on Github
. We could look at every commit, and eventually find the one we’re looking for, but Chromium commit messages usually include a reference to the bug that is fixed by that commit. So, we can use Github’s search function to find a commit that mentions 1018677. Just like that, we’ve found
a single commit
and more information.
The shutdown mentioned in the commit message is possibly referring to the browser being closed, but could also refer to the tab doing the speech recognizing, or even the speech system itself. Because multiple parts are being unloaded in parallel, there is a race condition between calling the abort object, and that object being unloaded from memory. This race can result in a classic use-after-free, jumping code execution to a memory location that’s already been freed.
All interesting, but how does this warrant a Critical rating? Enter the
Web Speech API
. I’m speculating just a bit, but it’s likely that this API uses the speech recognizer code in question. It may even be interacting with the security prompt that triggers the crash. Imagine that an attacking page attempts to use the speech API, and then releases the API object before the user can respond to the prompt. That *might* be the scenario that was discovered, though we’re deep into speculation, now.
Remote Desktop Gateway
A pair of pre-authentication vulnerabilities were recently fixed in Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Gateway product.
These vulnerabilities both revolve around UDP support
, fragmentation, and what elements of an incoming packet can be trusted.
The first vulnerability is the most serious: The UDP fragment re-assembly code partially trusts the number of fragments claimed in the packet. A buffer is allocated based on that number. The code that copies incoming packets into the buffer first checks that the number of bytes copied won’t exceed the number of bytes allocated. It seems like this should be a sufficient check, but this ignores the offset to which the packet is written. A single packet can claim that there is only two packets, but set its own fragmentation number to an arbitrary value. The write offset is based off this value, and because the total number of written bytes don’t exceed the buffer length, the code happily writes the incoming data to an arbitrary location.
Robert Graham made
the interesting point on twitter
that this vulnerability exists even though the code here uses one of the supposedly safe memory copy routines,
memcpy_s
. This safe routine
does
prevent code from writing past the end of a buffer, but in this case, the entirety of the operation is outside the array, which is officially undefined behavior. Any time you see “undefined behavior”, just mentally replace it with “Really dangerous, destined to burn you in the future”.
The second vuln assumes that number of fragments will never be over 64. An array of 64 integers is allocated, to track which fragments have been received. When in incoming fragment is processed, so long as the fragment number is less than the indicated number of fragments, a 1 is written to the corresponding location in that array, even if it is past the end of the allocated memory.
Internet Explorer 0-day
The legacy
jscript.dll
scripting engine in IE 9, 10, and 11
has a vulnerability that is being exploited in the wild
, related to the handling of objects in memory. Jscript is Microsoft’s re-implementation of Javascript, and pages can request their code run in the old engine, for compatibility.
Microsoft is waiting for the next patch Tuesday to push a fix, but has suggested a workaround. Set the
jscript.dll
file permissions to make it unreadable. There are a few downsides, like breaking MP4 playback in Windows Media Player, preventing the SFC scan from completing, and a few others.
We’re all waiting to see if Microsoft will opt to push the fix to Windows 7 next month. If not, mark this down as the first glaring problem with still running Windows 7 machines.
Citrix and Path Transversal
First off,
several Citrix products contain CVE-2019-19781
, a path transversal flaw. This style of flaw usually involves an attacker requesting a path that includes “..” to bypass security controls. In this case, an attacker can abuse the flaw prior to authentication, to
download credentials
or even get
a remote shell
.
It’s being actively exploited, so Citrix has moved their patch release date up to today (Friday, January 24). So far it’s unclear how many devices have been compromised, but this vulnerability is just about as serious as they come.
Connectwise and Ransomware
Connectwise is a remote desktop and management solution. It was apparently
the attack vector used
in the Texas ransomware attack last year that hit 22 separate municipalities. The vulnerabilities are simple, like cross site request forgeries, cross site scripting, and the like.
The most interesting part of this story might be Connectwise’s response. During a meeting, one of their executives threatened a defamation lawsuit. The vulnerabilities have been
validated by a third party
, so it’s likely the researchers are correct, and it’s likely this was the cause of the ransomware attack.
Google Groups hacking — GGvulnz
This last story blurs the line between a vulnerability and simple social engineering. [Milan Magyar] noticed that many companies use Google Groups, but
don’t set the permissions properly
. Simply exposing internal discussions can be problematic in and of itself, but there is something clever than can be done here. You see, many Google Groups use a dedicated email address that uses the companies domain name. That isn’t usually considered a problem, but what could an attack do with an email address on a company’s domain?
Some services, like Slack, can be configured to automatically approve new accounts, so long as they come from a company email address. The thought is that this generally limits access to employees. What if there was a way to trivially access a company email address?
Yep, that’s the attack. Set up a slack account, using mailinglist@companyname.com as the registration email. Then, go grab the confirmation link off the Google Group page, and enjoy your official Slack account.
The response [Milan] has gotten from Google, Slack, etc. is that while it’s a very clever attack, it’s not exactly a vulnerability in their system, it’s a misconfiguration by the customer. In some ways, this sort of problem is the most interesting to me. Nothing is technically broken, but the overlap of these policies leads to a very clever attack.
If you’re aware of something clever, interesting, or otherwise security newsworthy, be sure to let us know, and we’ll cover it next week! | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213725",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T19:12:45",
"content": "My employer has sent a number of emails in recent days warning us not to use IE for ANY outside connections.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213760",
... | 1,760,373,610.325713 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/25/mr-carlson-gets-zapped-by-snow/ | Mr. Carlson Gets Zapped By Snow | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arc",
"discharge",
"high voltage",
"radio",
"RF",
"snow",
"statis",
"triboelectric",
"weather"
] | As a Canadian, [Mr. Carlson] knows a thing or two about extreme winter weather. Chances are good, though, that he never thought
he’d get zapped with high voltage generated by falling snow
.
[Mr. Carlson]’s shocking tale began with a quiet evening in his jam-packed lab as a snowstorm raged outside. He heard a rhythmic clicking coming from the speakers of his computer, even with the power off. Other speakers in the lab were getting into the act, as was an old radio receiver he had on the bench. The radio, which was connected to an outdoor antenna by a piece of coax, was arcing from a coil to the chassis in the front end of the radio. The voltage was enough to create arcs a couple of millimeters long and bright blue-white, with enough current to give [Mr. Carlson] a good bite when he touched the coax. The discharges were also sufficient to destroy an LED light bulb in a lamp that was powered off but whose power cord was unlucky enough to cross the antenna feedline.
Strangely, the coil from which the arc sprang formed a 36-ohm shunt to the radio’s chassis, giving the current an apparently easy path to ground. But it somehow found a way around that, and still managed to do no damage to the sturdy old radio in the process. [Mr. Carlson] doesn’t offer much speculation as to the cause of the phenomenon, but
the triboelectric effect
seems a likely suspect. Whatever it is, he has set a trap for it, to capture better footage and take measurements should it happen again. And since it’s the Great White North, chances are good we’ll see a follow-up sometime soon.
Thanks to [Käpt’n Blaubär] for the tip. | 47 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213958",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-01-25T21:13:52",
"content": "See if one can harness that effect to power devices.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213980",
"author": "Col. Panek",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,373,610.670667 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/25/failed-air-umbrella/ | Failed: Air Umbrella | Al Williams | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Science"
] | [
"air umbrella",
"physics",
"rain",
"terminal velocity",
"umbrella"
] | About five years ago, a Kickstarter popped up for the air umbrella. It wasn’t long before the project fell apart and the company made at least some refunds. Old news, we know. But [The Action Lab] recently explored the
physics behind the air umbrella
and why it wouldn’t be very practical. (Video, embedded below.)
Notice we said not very practical, not unworkable. It is possible to shoot rain away from you by using pressurized air. The problem is you need a lot of air pressure. That means you also need a lot of battery. In particular, [The Action Lab] used a leaf blower and even with that velocity, there was only minimal water deflection. In other words, you are still going to get wet.
The video computes an estimate of the terminal velocity of an average raindrop. We looked at the University of Wisconsin’s
The Weather Guys
site and they came up with a slightly higher number, but not much higher. According to the university, it is about 20 miles per hour, depending on the size of the drop.
According to the video, the air compressor has to move air a bit faster than that terminal velocity. So the question is, do you want to have a 25 mile per hour airflow right over your head? How long can that compressor run on a small battery in the handle?
As you can see, this isn’t a practical thing, but it still managed to generate quite a bit of backing — over $100,000. We wonder if any of the backers were physicists?
We are no strangers to
wild Kickstarter claims
. Of course, even great products
sometimes fail
in the crowdfunding marketplace. | 43 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213922",
"author": "Piecutter",
"timestamp": "2020-01-25T18:13:51",
"content": "How about one that shoots water instead? Much greater kinetic energy than air! Or how about flames that instantly turn the rain to steam? Or a plasma shield? Electrostatic deflector?Or what about a coll... | 1,760,373,610.594547 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/25/advanced-timber-architecture-gives-new-life-to-wooden-structures/ | Advanced Timber Architecture Gives New Life To Wooden Structures | Sharon Lin | [
"Engineering"
] | [
"architecture",
"buildings",
"construction",
"Timber",
"wood"
] | When it comes to building materials, wood doesn’t always draw the most attention as the strongest in the bunch. That honor usually goes to concrete and steel – steel embedded in concrete provides support and a foundation for tall buildings, while concrete increases tensile strength and can be formed into a variety of shapes with the help of rebar. Wood, on the other hand, decays and is vulnerable to moisture damage and fire.
That’s not necessarily the case anymore, thanks to the development of
advanced timber
. New materials like glulam, or sheets of timber bonded with moisture-resistant structural adhesives, can be produced using two to three times less energy than steel, making them environmentally-friendly alternatives to other building materials. Granted, this requires the beams to be burned at the end of their lifespan, but glulam still has an equivalent or better environmental profile compared to steel, not to mention a lower cost.
Among engineered wood, there are some varieties more commonly used among hobbyists – MDF, plywood, or particle board for instance. Others, like Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) are more common among building materials. While CLT buildings have existed for decades, recently major cities like Stockholm and Vancouver have seen a resurgence of timber construction. Since wood can theoretically store carbon for the entire length of its lifespan, up to 0.8 tons in a cubic meter of spruce, some architecture firms like
Oslotre
are building houses with a negative carbon footprint.
Projects like
Sidewalk Labs
and
Masthamnen
are proposing entire neighborhoods and skyscrapers built from advanced timber. Compared to International Style architecture, characterized by gray concrete, shiny metal, and glass, this movement could be a step towards returning to natural architectural forms. Given the
stress reducing effects
of green spaces in cities, engineered wood buildings could bridge the gap between modern architectural styles and natural woodlands. | 62 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213891",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-01-25T15:11:57",
"content": "“Granted, this requires the beams to be burned at the end of their lifespan”Why in particular does it require burning? As opposed to stuffing an empty coal mine with them, or pulping them etc.",
... | 1,760,373,610.880302 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/25/that-preamp/ | THAT Preamp | Al Williams | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"microphone",
"preamp",
"xlr"
] | It is easy to cobble together projects these days. ICs make it simple and microcontrollers even easier. However, we always respect a project that really goes from concept to finished product and that’s what we liked about [Curt Yengst’s] “THAT” Thing microphone preamp.
In
part 1
of his post about it, he talks about the basic ideas including the chips from THAT — a small but high-end audio chipmaker — he uses. The first chip is a low-noise audio preamp and the other is a balanced line driver.
In
part 2
, we get to see [Curt] go from breadboard testing to PCB fabrication all the way to the finished rack-mounted device with a good looking front panel. It worked, but like all designers, [Curt] was already thinking about the next version.
In fact, version two uses an input transformer and replaces the gain pot with a switch that can select fixed gains. This apparently allows the gain components to match better on the left and right channels since you can easily use precise resistor values instead of hoping that two pots sync up properly.
The end result looks pretty professional. We have seen a
wide variety of microphone preamps
in the past. Of course, some preamps connect to record players, not microphones. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213918",
"author": "reg",
"timestamp": "2020-01-25T18:01:59",
"content": "THAT makes a very interesting assortment of chips for high end audio. From mic preamp chips to high end voltage controlled amplifiers. They also have good reference designs and helpful layout info.",
"p... | 1,760,373,611.01757 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/25/a-commmand-center-for-children-with-sensory-needs/ | A Commmand Center For Children With Sensory Needs | Sharon Lin | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"custom PCB",
"educational toy",
"sensory"
] | Toys for children are meant to be fun and interactive, but they’re even better if they’re educational as well. For [carrola1], a parent of a 4-year-old suffering from from medical disabilities, sensory needs, and autism, a more personalized approach seemed best. The electrical engineer built a
wall-mounted command center
with plenty of switches, buttons, and knobs to trigger to keep any child happy.
Apart from basic inputs, the device also has a color sensor – the command center can ask the child for an object of a particular color and congratulate them with a song when they’ve successfully acquired one.
The software for the audio and light controls was
written in C
for a STM32L0 series MCU, with CMSIS as the hardware abstraction layer and STM32CubeIDE as the IDE. The design uses SPI and I2C for serial communication and I2S for communicating between the digital audio devices. Physical inputs include toggle switches, rotary switches, and key switches to provide variety, with all physical hardware connected to the MCU on a custom PCB.
The audio output, sourced from a library of wav files, seems like the most challenging part of the build: the amps needed to be changed from left channel mono configuration to stereo, the output had to be LC filtered, and the code for had to be optimized for size to allow the audio files to play.
You can check out a video of the command center in action on the
Reddit post
. | 4 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213886",
"author": "Josiah David Gould",
"timestamp": "2020-01-25T13:55:24",
"content": "Great build, but you have to protect those speakers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213889",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
... | 1,760,373,610.974496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/feel-the-force-with-a-pocket-magnetometer/ | Feel The Force With A Pocket Magnetometer | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"green hacks"
] | [
"arduino nano",
"hall effect",
"hall effect sensor",
"magnetometer",
"oled"
] | With the rise of affordable 3D printers, we just don’t see the projects in Tic Tac boxes that we used to. That’s kind of a shame. Not only are you upcycling existing plastic when you use one, they’re decently sized component vessels for pocket builds such as [rgco]’s
portable magnetometer
, especially if you can get the 100-count box. Best of all, they’re see-through!
Sure, you could get a magnetometer app for your phone to test out the strength of your Buckyballs, but this is more fun, and you can use it in more places. This build doesn’t take much — an Arduino Nano reads from a Hall effect sensor and outputs the magnetic flux density in militeslas (mT) on an OLED. Fortifying the sensor by mounting it inside the body of an old (also see-through!) ballpoint pen body is a nice touch.
In order to calibrate it, [rgco] made a solenoid by wrapping a length of PVC with magnet wire. The code for this very portable and low-cost magnetometer measures the magnetic field 2000 times in under three-tenths of a second, and outputs both the mean and the standard deviation of these measurements.
Magnetometers can ID all kinds of things from submarines to Suburbans.
Here’s an ESP8266 magnetometer that opens a driveway gate when it detects the car
. | 12 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213896",
"author": "Japala",
"timestamp": "2020-01-25T15:51:08",
"content": "So… feel without the actual feeling? :) Why not add a small vibration motor inside to get the feeling for the force?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,373,610.931389 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/little-hex-tricks-make-little-displays-a-little-easier/ | Little Hex Tricks Make Little Displays A Little Easier | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"computer hacks",
"how-to",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"7 segment",
"bit manipulation",
"bit twiddling",
"c++",
"excel",
"ISSI",
"led",
"registers",
"spreadsheet"
] | Depending on the device in hand and one’s temperament, bringing up a new part can be a frolic through the verdant fields of discovery or an endless slog through the grey marshes of defeat. One of the reasons we find ourselves sticking with tried and true parts we know well is that interminable process of
configuration
. Once a new display controller is mostly working, writing convenience functions to make it easier to use can be very satisfying, but the very first thing is figuring out how to make it do anything at all. Friend of Hackaday [Dan Hienzsch] put together a post describing
how to use a particular LED controller
which serves as a nice walkthrough of figuring out the right bitmath to make things work, and includes a neat trick or two.
The bulk of the post is dedicated to describing the way [Dan] went about putting together his libraries for a 7-segment display demo board he makes. At its heart the board uses the IS31FL3728 matrix driver from ISSI. We love these ISSI LED controllers because they give you many channels of control for relatively low cost, but even with their relative simplicity you still need to do some bit twiddling to light the diodes you need. [Dan]’s post talks about some strategies for making this easier like preconfigured lookup tables with convenient offsets and masking bits to control RGB LEDs.
There’s one more trick which we think is the hidden star of the show; a spreadsheet which calculates register values based on “GUI” input! Computing the bit math required to control a display can be an exercise in frustration, especially if the logical display doesn’t fit conveniently in the physical register map of the controller. A spreadsheet like this may not be particularly sexy but it gets the job done; exactly the kind of hack we’re huge fans of here. We’ve
mirrored the spreadsheet
so you can peek at the formulas inside, and the original Excel document is available on his blog. | 16 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213846",
"author": "ROB",
"timestamp": "2020-01-25T04:44:58",
"content": "I use switch , case for things like 7 seg chr bit maps.#Define is useful some times. It’s a preprocessor directive and that is why it starts with a # and has no terminating ; or data type.A Define is passed t... | 1,760,373,611.077827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/a-raspberry-pi-terminal-thats-always-within-reach/ | A Raspberry Pi Terminal That’s Always Within Reach | Tom Nardi | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"cyberpunk",
"modular",
"raspberry pi",
"terminal",
"touch screen"
] | Inspired by films such as
The Matrix
, where hackers are surrounded by displays and keyboards on articulated arms,
[Jay Doscher] created this cyberpunk “floating” terminal
so your favorite Linux single board computer is always close at hand. Do you actually
need
such a thing mounted to the wall next to the workbench? Probably not. But when has that ever stopped a Hackaday reader?
[Jay] has come up with a modular design for the “A.R.M. Terminal” that allows the user to easily augment it with additional hardware. The 3D printed frame of the terminal has hardpoints to bolt on new modules,
which thanks to threaded metal inserts
, will have no problem surviving multiple configurations.
This initial version features a panel on the left side that holds various buttons and switches attached to the Pi’s GPIO pins. With a bit of code, it’s easy to pick up the status of these controls and use them to fire off whatever tasks your imagination can come up with. On the bottom [Jay] has mounted a stand-alone VFD audio spectrum display that’s hooked up to the Pi’s 3.5 mm jack. It’s totally unnecessary and costs as much as the Raspberry Pi itself, but it sure is pretty.
If there’s a downside to the design, it’s that the only display currently supported is the official Raspberry Pi touchscreen which is only 800×480 and a bit pricey compared to more modern panels. On the other hand, there’s something to be said for the standardized bolt pattern on the back of the official screen; so if you want to use a higher resolution display, be prepared to design your own mounting bracket. Extra points if you share your changes with the rest of the class.
For anyone who likes the look of the A.R.M. Terminal but isn’t too keen on being tethered to the wall, you’re in luck.
[Jay] previously created the Raspberry Pi Recovery Kit
which shares many of the same design principles but puts them into a ruggedized case that’s ready for life in the field. | 25 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213534",
"author": "Arthur Wolf",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T12:02:22",
"content": "This looks really cool !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6213556",
"author": "RunnerPack",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T13:33:23",
"conte... | 1,760,373,611.139827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/24/students-use-low-tech-hacks-on-high-tech-parking-enforcer/ | Students Use Low Tech Hacks On High Tech Parking Enforcer | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"parking",
"parking boot",
"parking hack"
] | If you are a college student and you get too many parking fines, you are going to get in trouble. But one school didn’t count on
students hacking their high tech parking violation deterrent
. Some even got free internet from the devices.
You pay your taxes or — in the case of students — your tuition. But still, the city or university wants you to pay to park your car. In the old days, you’d get your car towed. But the people running the parking lot don’t really like having to share the fees they charge you with a tow truck driver. Many places clamp a device to your tire that makes it impossible to drive. Oklahoma University decided that was too much trouble, also, so they turned to Barnacle. Barnacle is a cheaper alternative to the old parking clamp. In sticks to your windshield so you can’t see to drive. The suction cups have an air pump to keep them secure and a GPS squeals if you move the car with it on there anyway.
From an engineering point of view, this makes sense. You don’t need a fleet of tow trucks and a storage lot. You don’t need to jack up cars and have a boot that can withstand quite a bit of force. In fact, you can release the device with a payment via cell phone and then drop the unit off at a drop box. More fees for the parking operation and less for pesky tow truck drivers and traffic enforcement.
Instead of paying $185, though, some students have posted on Reddit other solutions. Running your defrosters for awhile will loosen the suction cups enough to get a shim under them and break their seal. Other students suggested blocking the GPS signal and cell signal to the Barnacle. It was suggested to create a mock Barnacle you can leave on your parked car to dissuade the man from putting a real one on.
According to reports, at least one student realized the device has an unlimited SIM card on it and used it to tether his phone to the internet until they got wise. Unsurprisingly, the university has decided to hold off implementing the Barnacle and returned the five units it borrowed from the manufacturer. We have to wonder if
other universities
will follow.
Parking meter hacking is nothing new
. On the other hand, we’ve seen bad parkers be
subject to phishing
, too. | 144 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213502",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T09:14:24",
"content": "A strip of metal crate strapping with one end sharpened and bent into a shallow V, and some tape wrapped around the other end for a handle, would make fast work of removing this. Slide the thing un... | 1,760,373,611.320558 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/pi-4-emulator-in-a-durable-dumpstered-cabinet/ | Pi 4 Emulator In A Durable, Dumpstered Cabinet | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"dumpster diving",
"kidzpace",
"Raspberry Pi 4",
"using failed prints",
"xbox 360"
] | We must be looking in the wrong Dumpsters, because we never find anything as cool as [Queen_Combat] did. It’s one of those Kidzspace kid-proof waiting room game systems, complete with the original TV and an XBOX 360 that hasn’t been updated since 2009. When life hands you a sturdy game console box, it’s almost your duty to
turn it into an all-in-one Raspberry Pi 4 emulation station
.
[Queen_Combat] relocated the speakers from the top to the inside, just behind the vent holes on the sides, and printed a couple of mountable custom enclosures to hold them there. These are driven with a little 5W amplifier board, and everything is run from the XBOX’s power supply.
We particularly like the use of extenders in cigarette-lighter form factor, because we hadn’t seen those before. [Queen_Combat] printed a couple of adapters to make them fit nicely into the large holes on the front where the XBOX controllers were once attached — one has a volume knob, and the other has a USB3 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. [Queen_Combat] wanted to have HDMI audio out as well, so there’s an HDMI audio extractor in the mix, too, and another extender around back. Only thing missing is a paint job and some sweet vinyl graphics.
Yes, vinyl graphics would be sweet, but how? Not on the laser cutter, if that’s what you’re thinking. Don’t dismiss vinyl cutters out of hand, because
they can do a whole lot more than that
.
Via
r/raspberry_pi | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213546",
"author": "Tylor",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T12:53:19",
"content": "Should have just hacked the xbox 360 and loaded it with emulators…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6213550",
"author": "Osgeld",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,373,611.366661 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/a-simple-science-fair-am-transmitter/ | A Simple Science Fair AM Transmitter | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"AM Transmitter",
"crystal oscillator",
"science fair"
] | A crystal radio is a common enough science fair project, but the problem is, there isn’t much on anymore. The answer is, of course, obvious: build your own AM transmitter, too. AM modulation isn’t that hard to do and [Science Buddies] has plans for how to build one with
a canned oscillator and an audio transformer
.
We don’t imagine the quality of this would be so good, but for a kid’s science project it might be worth a shot. Maybe something like “What kind of materials block radio waves?” would be a good project statement.
The site is aimed more at kids and has a good list of materials (mostly from Jameco). They do
credit a site that has a more detailed explanation of how the thing works
, though. Both sites have a lot of other projects that would be suitable for a young hacker’s science project.
If you look at the wiring, you’ll see that the transformer actually influences the power to the oscillator. This is a crude way of getting amplitude modulation, but it works. A better way is to let the oscillator run and modulate an amplifying stage as the signal goes to the antenna. However, this transmitter is low power and low fidelity, so the simple set up is more than adequate.
This isn’t the first time we’ve looked at
AM transmitters
. Any of these would make a nice pairing with a simple crystal
AM receiver
. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213466",
"author": "gregg4",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T03:06:44",
"content": "Hmm. Let’s seem them reduce it to a tapped coil of wire and a transistor and two capacitors and two resistors. And of course a single cell. That idea comes from a book by R. Stuart Mackay. It was written u... | 1,760,373,611.4737 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/a-pair-of-crts-drive-this-virtual-reality-headset/ | A Pair Of CRTs Drive This Virtual Reality Headset | Dan Maloney | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"camcorder",
"cathode ray tube",
"crt",
"hdmi",
"LM303DLHC",
"virtual reality",
"vr"
] | With the benefit of decades of advances in miniaturization, looking back at the devices of yore can be entertaining. Take camcorders; did we really walk around with these massive devices resting on our shoulders just to record the family trip to Disneyworld? We did, but even if those days are long gone, the hardware remains for the picking in closets and at thrift stores.
Those camcorders can be turned into cool things such as
this CRT-based virtual reality headset
. [Andy West] removed the viewfinders from a pair of defunct Panasonic camcorders from slightly after
the “Reggievision” era
, leaving their housings and optics as intact as possible. He reverse-engineered the connections and hooked up the composite video inputs to HDMI-to-composite converters, which connect to the dual HDMI ports on a Raspberry Pi 4. An LM303DLHC accelerometer provides head tracking, and everything is mounted to a bodged headset designed to use a phone for VR. The final build is surprisingly neat for the number of thick cables and large components used, and it bears a passing resemblance to one of those targeting helmets attack helicopter pilots use.
The software is an amalgam of whatever works – Three.js for browser-based 3D animation, some off-the-shelf drivers for the accelerometers, and Python and shell scripts to glue it all together. The video below shows the build and a demo; we don’t get the benefit of seeing what [Andy] is seeing in glorious monochrome SD, but he seems suitably impressed. As are we.
We’ve seen an uptick in projects using CRT viewfinders lately, including
this tiny vector display
. Time to scour those thrift stores before all the old camcorders are snapped up. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213484",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2020-01-24T07:20:14",
"content": "You were double lucky, a matching pair of devices and composite input. Over the years I looked into these viewfinders, all but one were loaded with wires and power being easy no composite input was foun... | 1,760,373,611.418701 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/bindaycator-lets-you-know-when-to-take-out-the-trash/ | BinDayCator Lets You Know When To Take Out The Trash | Lewin Day | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"indicator",
"rubbish bin",
"waste"
] | Municipal waste pickup is a wonderful luxury. Typically once a week, large trucks come by and pick up bins of garbage from your residence. All you have to do is remember to put them out! In a uniquely human way, this is very hard to do.
Enter the BinDayCator.
The project consists of a 3D printed model of a typical council wheelie-bin. Printed in white filament, the bin is translucent enough to glow when lit by powerful WS2812B LEDs. Having four LEDs both helps fill the entire model with an even light, as well as allows the bin to display multiple colors in different segments. This means that if it’s green bin day, the bin glows green. If it’s the day for the red and blue bins, the indicator will light up segments in red and blue.
Unfortunately there’s no global standard that councils use to serve up bin day data over the Internet, so configuration isn’t as simple as pointing the BinDayCator at your local waste authority’s website. Instead, some Node-RED code is used to scrape the council website once a day and tell the ESP8266 controlling the BinDayCator which bins are due to be placed on the roadside.
A later revision has a custom calendar UI that can allow for manual configuration of the relevant days.
The BinDayCator is a cute device, and one that would likely be commercially successful if there were a simple and easy way to configure the necessary data feed. We’d love one by our front door so we didn’t miss another collection day. Visual indicators are always useful,
even if its just for checking the mail.
Video after the break. | 39 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213372",
"author": "Andy Pugh",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T21:22:09",
"content": "This is the best thing I have ever seen here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213392",
"author": "RandyKC",
"timestamp": "2020-0... | 1,760,373,613.172197 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/spring-clamp-is-completely-3d-printed/ | Spring Clamp Is Completely 3D Printed | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"clamp",
"spring clamp",
"tools"
] | Dual-filament printers may seem like a gimmick to the uninitiated, but they open up some powerful options for advanced designs.
[Darren Tarbard] shows this off with a nifty spring clamp that is 3D printed in a single operation.
The clamp is similar to one you’d find at any hardware store. Standard PLA or ABS filaments can be used for the main body of the clamp, which has an integrated hinge. However, instead of having a typical metal spring, the element is instead 3D printed. The spring is created out of TPU filament, and printed in place. Different in-fill percentages on the spring component can vary the characteristics of the spring, making for a softer or firmer grip.
It’s a tidy example of the applications of dual-filament printing – and far more useful than using it to print bi-color Pikachus. 3D printers have much to offer in the world of tooling;
they can even turn a bench vice into an effective press brake
. Video after the break. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213370",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T21:16:29",
"content": "Our dollar stores (Dollarama) just got in these heavy duty clothes pegs $2 for 12 that are practically spring clamps. Open to about 2″ 50mm, but would probably be best at about an inch and a half or ... | 1,760,373,613.469155 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/paper-glows-up-with-this-origami-wall-piece/ | Paper Glows Up With This Origami Wall Piece | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"neopixel",
"origami",
"particle photon"
] | [Charlyn] recently found herself dissatisfied with the blank expanse of her bedroom walls. Deciding to take matters into her own hands,
she set out to build this exquisite origami wall sculpture
.
The piece was inspired by a work originally created by [Coco Sato],
which she saw on Design Sponge.
Materials were sourced, and [Charlyn] began the arduous process of cutting and folding the many, many pieces of paper that would make up the final piece. There were some missteps along the way, which served as a lesson to test early and test often, but a cup of tea and perseverance got the job done.
With the paper components completed, she looked to the electronics. Ten Neopixel LEDs were hooked up to a Particle Photon, giving the project easy IoT functionality. Thanks to IFTTT, the display can be controlled via Google Home, either glowing to create a relaxing vibe, or shutting off when it’s time to sleep. There’s also a smattering of flowers decorating the piece, somewhat of a [Charlyn] trademark.
The LEDs shine from behind the paper structure, creating a subtle, attractive glow. We’re big fans of the combination of LEDs with origami, and hope to see more projects using the material as an effective diffuser.
You can even experiment with conductive materials to take things further.
Video after the break. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213136",
"author": "Reactive Light",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T03:09:55",
"content": "Make them sound reactive (“color organ”) so that they do something interesting.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6213231",
"author": "Beige... | 1,760,373,613.504202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/winners-of-the-take-flight-with-feather-contest/ | Winners Of The Take Flight With Feather Contest | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"adafruit",
"Adafruit Feather",
"e-ink",
"e-paper",
"ereader",
"gesture control",
"Hackaday Contests",
"LoRaWAN",
"Open Book Project",
"spider bot"
] | It’s hard to beat the fidelity and durability of printed text on paper. But the e-paper display gets pretty close, and if you couple it will great design and dependable features, you might just prefer an e-reader over a bookshelf full of paperbacks. What if the deal is sweetened by making it Open Hardware?
The Open Book Project rises to that challenge
and has just been named the winner of the
Take Flight with Feather contest
.
This e-reader will now find its way into the wild, with a small manufacturing run to be put into stock by Digi-Key who sponsored this contest. Let’s take a closer look at the Open Book, as well as the five other top entries.
You may remember
seeing the Open Book back in October
when Tom Nardi looked in on early testing for the board. It was prototyped using the Adafruit Feather, which of course was the main requirement of the contest. The controller is now built into the board for standalone functionality with the Feather header providing an opportunity for expansion.
The screen is 4.2″ with a resolution of 300×400. It reads files from a microSD card and uses seven buttons on the front of the board for user input. A dedicated flash chip stores language files with the character sets of your choice. The small LiPo cell can be charged via the USB port, and of course e-paper helps greatly in reducing the power consumption of the reader.
You’ll find a few extras on the back. There’s a headphone jack for listening to audio books, and get this, a built-in microphone and a TensorFlow-trained model allow for voice control! There are STEMMA headers to add your own hardware options, and designs for laser-cut and 3D-printed enclosures.
Of Satellites and Long-Distance Comms
Junebug Feather
LoRaWAN Feather
Feathers in Space? That’s the goal of
the Junebug project
which has designed a Feather compatible brain for small satellites. Perhaps most interesting is that it’s designed to function without a battery, something known as intermittent computing. Junebug takes the You’ll Cut Yourself On That Edge title.
In other “far out there” designs is
the LoRaWAN Feather
, designed to get you and up and running with the long-distance communications protocol that is all the rage these days. If fittingly takes the Wireless Feather title.
Four Legs, One Finger, and a Serial Port
Spider FeatherWing
Gestrue FeatherWing
RS232 to TTL Featherwing
The SpiderWing
is sure to give you the creepy-crawlies as it ticks around on four legs made out of twelve micro servos. Perhaps you can control it using another design by the same hacker, the
Gesture FeatherWing
uses an MCP3030 for an input device that recognizes patterns drawn by your finger. These creations take the Weirdest Feather and the Assistive Technology titles.
A little taste of retro-computing rounds out the top winners. A
Serial to Feather board
brings the iconic DB9 header to the Feather family. Whether you need a serial connection to an old computer, or want to interface with old input devices or lab equipment, it’s easy to see why this one claims the title of Retro Feather.
This is just the wing tip of what we saw from the Take Flight With Feather contest. With more than 80 entries, you definitely need to check out
all the creative ways people found to build their Feather designs
. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213152",
"author": "Atheros",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T06:23:38",
"content": "Great! Finally an e-book reader worth buying. It seems however the software still needs more work",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213181",
... | 1,760,373,613.614625 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/a-battery-sipping-cellular-mailbox-notifier/ | A Battery Sipping Cellular Mailbox Notifier | Tom Nardi | [
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"cellular network",
"mailbox",
"notification",
"power management",
"telegram"
] | Like many of us, [Zak Kemble] has an indeterminate number of tiny packages coming his way from all over the globe at any given time. Unfortunately, the somewhat unpredictable nature of the postal service where he lives meant he found himself making a lot of wasted trips out to the mailbox to see if any overseas treasures had arrived for him. To solve the problem,
he decided to build an Internet-connected mailbox notification system
that could work within some fairly specific parameters.
For one thing, the mailbox is too distant to connect directly to it over WiFi. [Zak] mentions that 433 MHz might have been an option, but he decided to skip that entirely and just connect it to the cellular network with an A9G GPRS/GSM module from A.I. Thinker. This device actually has its own SDK that allows you to create a custom firmware for it, but unfortunately the high energy consumption of the radio meant it would chew through batteries too quickly unless it had a little extra help.
Not wanting to have to change the batteries every couple months, [Zak] added a ATtiny402 to handle the notifier’s power management needs. By using a P-MOSFET to completely cut power to the A9G, the notifier can save an incredible amount of energy by only activating the cellular connection once it actually needs to send a notification; which in this case takes the form of an HTTP request that eventually works its way to a Telegram group chat.
To cut a long story short, testing seems to indicate that the notifier can fire off approximately 800 requests before needing its 10440 lithium battery recharged. Given how often [Zak] usually receives mail, he says that should last him around five years.
The A9G module, the ATtiny402, a BME280 environmental sensor (because, why not?), the battery, and all the ancillary support hardware are on a very professional looking PCB. That goes into a relatively rugged enclosure that’s designed to keep the electronics from shorting out on the mailbox’s metal case as well as keeping any particularly weighty parcels from crushing it.
If you’ve got the freedom so mount whatever you want outside, then
you can certainly build a more technically impressive mailbox
. But considering the limitations [Zak] had to work around, we think he did an excellent job. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213050",
"author": "Thelatcher",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T21:16:15",
"content": "Why not use a latching circuit for sensing the postbox, instead of an attiny? That would use practically no power at all. When the box is opened, the A9G is powered, does it’s job, and when it’s done c... | 1,760,373,613.560775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/bringing-the-blockchain-to-network-monitoring/ | Bringing The Blockchain To Network Monitoring | Elliot Williams | [
"cons",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"2019 Hackaday Superconference",
"blockchain",
"security"
] | If you need to make sure your computer isn’t being messed with, you’ll have a look at the log files. If something seems fishy, that’s grounds for further investigation. If you run a large network of computers, you’ll probably want to look over all of the logs, but you won’t want to run around to each computer individually. Setting up a central server to analyze the logs exposes an additional attack surface: the logs in transit. How do you make sure that the attackers aren’t also intercepting and sanitizing your log file reports?
The answer to this question, and nearly everything else, is blockchain! Or maybe it’s not, but in
this short presentation
from the 2019 Hackaday Superconference, Shanni Prutchi, Jeff Wood, and six other college students intend to find out. While Shanni “rolls her eyes” at much of blockchain technology along with the rest of us, you have to admit one thing: recursively hashing your log data to make sure they’re not tampered with doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.
The talk covers how the students build up a secure reporting and automated detection system using the Linux Foundation’s
Hyperledger Fabric
blockchain tech, combining it with containerized logging systems and a centralized reporting and display system based on
splunk
. Students, like hackers, run on tight budgets both in time and money, so it’s interesting to hear about what didn’t work as well as what did. Writing their own blockchain from scratch was out due to time constraints, and using a bigger framework took too long to get into. Running the Docker containers on Raspberry Pi Zeros was out due to memory constraints.
In the end, they settle on a test platform with a handful of used Linux boxes and Hyperledger Fabric to safeguard the data, and it looks like they learned a lot about all of the tools involved. Future directions include broadening out the log-reporting side of things to include Windows machines and refining report automation. Check out their talk for more detail! | 14 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213032",
"author": "Red Five",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T20:25:11",
"content": "This kinda sounds like they’re using blockchain as VPN. Can’t watch the video currently, though, so maybe it details something that makes this method different from a VPN tunnel between log server and lo... | 1,760,373,613.093539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/p-51-cockpit-recreated-with-help-of-local-makerspace/ | P-51 Cockpit Recreated With Help Of Local Makerspace | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Misc Hacks",
"Slider",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"arduino",
"cockpit",
"gimbal",
"movie",
"set",
"simulator",
"video"
] | It’s surprisingly easy to misjudge tips that come into the Hackaday tip line. After filtering out the omnipresent spam, a quick scan of tip titles will often form a quick impression that turns out to be completely wrong. Such was the case with a recent tip that seemed from the subject line to be a flight simulator cockpit. The mental picture I had was of a model cockpit hooked to
Flight Simulator
or some other off-the-shelf flying game, many of which we’ve seen over the years.
I couldn’t have been more wrong about the project that Grant Hobbs undertook. His cockpit simulator turned out to be so much more than what I thought, and after trading a few emails with him to get all the details, I felt like I had to share the series of hacks that led to the short video below and the story about how he somehow managed to build the set despite having no previous experience with the usual tools of the trade.
A Novel and a Film
Grant has been making short films for a while, mainly in collaboration with
John Dwyer
, an author of historical novels. Grant’s shorts are used as promos for John’s books, and nicely capture the period and settings of John’s novels. Most of these films required little in the way of special sets, relying instead on stock footage and vintage costumes to achieve their look and feel. John’s latest novel would change all that.
Called
Mustang
, the novel centers on a hotshot fighter pilot in WWII. Grant’s vision for the short to promote the book was inspired by the recent Christopher Nolan film
Dunkirk
, which featured intricate sequences filmed in the cockpit of a Spitfire. Grant wanted a similar look, and began arranging to use a real P-51 Mustang for filming. That presented immediate problems. First, there aren’t that many of the vintage aircraft left, and those that are still flying usually have anachronistic instruments in the cockpit, like GPS. Also, Grant wanted the instruments to respond as if the plane were airborne, and to have the shadows cast by the canopy into the cockpit suggest aerial maneuvers. Such an effect would be difficult to achieve with a plane stuck on a runway.
Beautifully detailed switch plates…
and pilot lights.
That’s when Grant realized that a gimballed cockpit simulator was needed. It could have a period-accurate dashboard, be positioned outdoors to take advantage of natural daylight and real backgrounds rather than CGI, and could be pitched, rolled and yawed to simulate flight. It would be perfect, and it would save the project. There was just one problem: he had no idea how to build it.
Helping Hands
Wisely, Grant turned to his local hackerspace, Dallas Maker Space, for help. There he found not only the tools he lacked, but kindred spirits with the necessary skills and the willingness to share them. They started working on the cockpit instrument panel, which ended up including a combination of actual flight hardware and mocked-up instruments. The fake instruments used steppers and an Arduino to drive the needles, which were controlled by a custom iPad app that was used to animate them live during filming. The real instruments, like the artificial horizon and turn-and-slip indicator, were powered by a vacuum pump and responded to the movements of the simulator on its gimbals.
The gimballed cockpit set for exterior shots. The wide horizon and natural lighting combined with the 3-DOF gimbal make for a very realistic effect.
Mounting this convincing panel into something was an entirely different undertaking. Grant relied heavily on the experience of DMS members to design a structure strong enough to support the actor and allow for the motion needed to create a convincing effect. The cockpit mockup, made from plasma-cut sheet metal and plywood, is mounted to a heavy-duty three-axis gimbal, including a massive bearing from a pallet jack for the yaw axis.
Set and talent, ready for action.
Grant had originally planned to place the mockup on a mountaintop for shooting, much as the Spitfire mockup from Dunkirk was placed on the edge of a cliff to give an unobstructed horizon to simulate flying over the English Channel. When that proved logistically challenging, he set up on an airport runway and used clever camera blocking to avoid shooting the horizon. Grips manually moved the simulator while Grant manipulated the fake instruments and filmed the results, which I think speak for themselves. If only the budget – and on-set safety – would have supported simulating the massive four-blade Mustang propeller, the illusion would have been complete.
I really enjoyed digging into this project and all the hacks that it entailed. Movie magic is as much about hacking as anything else, at least behind the cameras, and it’s good to see what’s possible with a limited budget. We recently featured
a low-budget but high-style sci-fi movie set build
, and we’ve
gone in-depth with a playback designer
for the Netflix series
Lost in Space
, both in these pages and
as a Hack Chat
. | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213012",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T18:53:00",
"content": "Cool project! Interesting to read how some problems are solved. Thanks for posting.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6213066",
"author": "weirdwhit",
... | 1,760,373,613.428696 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/lovebox-gives-infinite-treats-sweeter-than-chocolate/ | Lovebox Gives Infinite Treats Sweeter Than Chocolate | Kristina Panos | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"9G servo",
"CdS cell",
"ESP8266",
"GitHub gist",
"ldr",
"oled",
"photocell",
"valentines",
"wemos d1 mini"
] | Want to make a special Valentine’s Day gift that keeps on giving well past the holiday? We do too, especially if it’s something as cute as [Marcel Stör]’s
Lovebox
. This is a relatively simple build, but it’s the kind that lets you make someone’s day over and over again.
The sender composes their love note in a secret GitHub gist, either as a text message or a binary image, and updates the gist. Whenever the Wemos D1 mini inside the box receives a new message, a micro servo slowly wiggles the hearts up and down to notify the recipient.
Once they remove the lid to read it, a light-dependent resistor senses the flood of light on its face and tells the servo it can stop wiggling. We think it’s neat that the heart nudges upwardly at the box lid a bit as it moves, because it increases the cuteness factor.
Everybody loves to hear from that special someone throughout the day. The idea of sending an intimate message remotely is quite romantic, and there’s something thrilling and urgent about a physical notification. Show the break button a little love, and you’ll see a truffle-sized demo featuring both an incoming image and a text message.
[Marcel] was happy to ply his woodworking skills rather than use a laser cutter. If you have neither of these, hit up a craft store or two and you’ll find unfinished wooden boxes and pre-cut hearts galore. Or, you could just
say it with copper
. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212995",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T17:54:53",
"content": "I thought it was gonna have electrodes to put on your tongue to exactly simulate the taste, burn and redness of those artificial cinnamon flavour candies.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,613.708013 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/review-testdriving-librepcb-shows-that-its-growing-up-fast/ | Review: Testdriving LibrePCB Shows That It’s Growing Up Fast | Jenny List | [
"Featured",
"Reviews"
] | [
"eda",
"LibrePCB",
"pcb",
"review"
] | There are a host of PCB CAD tools at the disposal of the electronic designer from entry-level to multi-thousand-dollar workstation software. It’s a field in which most of the players are commercial, and for the open-source devotee there have traditionally been only two choices. Both KiCad and gEDA are venerable packages with legions of devoted fans, but it is fair to say that they both present a steep learning curve for newcomers. There is however
another contender in the world of open-source PCB CAD, in the form of the up-and-coming LibrePCB
.
This GPL-licensed package has only been in development for a few years. LibrePCB brought out its first official release a little over a year ago, and now stands at version 0.1.3 with builds for GNU/Linux, Windows, MacOS, and FreeBSD. It’s time to download it and run it through its paces, to see whether it’s ready to serve its purpose.
Getting To Know LibrePCB
The schematic editor in action, with my simple op-amp mixer as a test project.
It’s refreshing to see for a project still early in its gestation, that the LibrePCB team have made an effort to provide a seamless installer rather than relying on a git command or a compressed archive. Installation on the Ubuntu system here was intuitive and easy, with selecting directories a straightforward process. When starting a test project, you’re required to set up libraries before it’s straight into the schematic editor, with as expected an easy flip between that and the layout editor.
The first impression of the interface is that it’s much simpler and more intuitive than its open-source competitors, as a former Eagle user who’s never found herself completely at ease with KiCAD I immediately felt at home. That learning curve I mentioned was largely absent, and though not everything is in quite the same place, the workflow and methods are similar enough to get started without any problems.
My hastily-assembled 2N3904, with join-the-dots outline.
Without anything in particular to build, I set straight in to a simple multivibrator to put it through its paces, and then for something a little more complex an analogue mixer with a ground plane. Immediately a shortcoming of such a youthful piece of software fell into sharp relief, as it became obvious that the component libraries shipped with it were far from comprehensive and in many cases symbols lacked footprints. Not a problem, indeed it gave a convenient chance to take a look at the footprint and symbol editors to create a new component.
Call me old-fashioned, but my first simple test was a discrete 2N3904 transistor. It was a simple enough footprint to create but I found I couldn’t create the desired TO-92 circular outline due to the lack of ability to create an arc. I had to make do with a join-the-dots line, but I’ll take it. Maybe I should have arranged the pads in a triangle rather than a line, but LibrePCB lets you add alternative footprint easily enough. Instead of treating a package as a single footprint it can hold a variety of different footprints and types of the same component in a single one of its packages, so for instance for my TO-92 package could contain in-line, triangle, and ammopack versions.
A Few Rough Edges Still To Be Found
Both R1 and R2 are supposed to be 0805 SMD parts.
An unexpected issue showed itself as I created my component layout. I had selected one of LibrePCB’s stock SMD resistors in my schematic, but what showed up in the board was a through-hole component. Checking the stock component’s package in the component library revealed nothing but the SMD footprint in the component I had selected, but there it was. Creating a new SMD resistor component and substituting it for the stock model brought the correct footprint onto the board, but evidently I had stumbled upon one of the rough edges inherent to what is still an alpha piece of software.
In places such as the Gerber creation screen, there are warnings to remind you that LibrePCB is still at an experimental level.
The point of a PCB CAD package though is to make PCBs, so next up was to run a design rule check and export my design. Writing this just as Chinese New Year is upon us there’s little point in ordering PCBs for a couple of projects I don’t want anyway, but I can still create a set of Gerbers and take a look at them in gerbv.
Design rule checking is a new feature in version 0.1.3 and an annoyance is that it doesn’t save any changes you make to the defaults, but it does warn you of this and lead you to expect that this will change. It would be nice to have the option to load and save different DRC settings to hold the various demands of different board houses. Gerber export is extremely straightforward though, and I soon had a set of files that loaded up with a board that appeared exactly as I expected in gerbv. I have no reason to believe that if I sent them to a board house I wouldn’t shortly receive a set of PCBs without queries about the quality of what I had sent.
Is It Ready For The Big Time?
It’s quite possible then to use LibrePCB as it stands to design a simple PCB and create the Gerbers for a board house. You can certainly give that a go, but while they’ve made a commendable achievement of a remarkably usable piece of software for one at such an early-stage in its life it’s still one that has a little way to go. There will be a few bugs, it’s evident that
there are features still to be implemented in future versions
, and the stock libraries are hardly comprehensive. Both of the first two will inevitably improve with subsequent releases, and the last will grow as the user base expands.
The view is gerbv, the EDA package is LibrePCB, the layout faux pas are all mine.
Whenever a new open-source project arrives that does the same task as an established software libre player there are inevitably voices that decry it, as though somehow it is diluting the available resources for its competitor. I don’t agree with this view as I see diversity as essential to the ecosystem, but it’s worth asking what LibrePCB will achieve and where it will find a niche.
Perhaps the answer to that question will satisfy those worried it might take resources from the likes of KiCAD then, because after using it I feel its strengths lie in a completely different direction. A few years ago the default in our circles was Eagle, but the sale of that package to Autodesk and subsequent move to a subscription model has weakened that hold. LibrePCB is unlikely to tempt the professional Altium user or the established KiCAD user, but its ease of user interface migration for long-time Eagle users gives it an opening that KiCAD struggles with. If they can enhance that experience and provide a migration path for Eagle projects in both old and new formats I think they’ll be on to a winner, and could easily become a regular sight in projects we feature here.
So, should you install LibrePCB? By all means, install it, get to know it, and contribute to it if you have the relevant skills. Should you use it to design PCBs? You certainly can and there’s no harm in trying, but you’ll inevitably run into one of the limitations in the current version due to its early-stage status. Should you abandon your other tools and make the move to the current version of LibrePCB for all your work? Probably not, unless you like to live dangerously. I think LibrePCB is one to watch, they’ve done a very good job so far and I think there is a possibility for an extremely useful piece of software from it in the future. Watch that space. | 54 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212958",
"author": "reboots",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T16:06:02",
"content": "I tried a pre-1.0 version of LibrePCB a year or so ago. As a long-time Eagle user, I was able to go from installation to well-formed gerbers for a simple SMT layout in under 10 minutes, without reading an... | 1,760,373,613.267781 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/gradient-infill-puts-more-plastic-where-you-want-it/ | Gradient Infill Puts More Plastic Where You Want It | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"cura",
"g-code",
"gcode",
"infill"
] | It is always tricky setting the infill for a 3D printed part. High infill parts are strong but take longer to print, while low infill prints take less time, but are weaker internally and in danger of surface layer droop between the infill pattern. [Stephan] has a better answer:
gradient infill
. You can see a video below and find his
Python code on GitHub
.
The idea is simple enough. In most cases, parts under stress see higher stress near the surface. Putting more material there will make the part stronger than adding plastic in places where the stress is lower. [Stephan] has done finite element analysis to determine an optimal infill pattern before, but this is somewhat difficult to do. Since the majority of parts can follow the more at the edges and less at the center rule, gradient infill makes sense except for a few special cases.
Of course, the real question is: how do you create parts with this type of infill? Some slicers have infill settings that can almost get you there. However, the setup for them isn’t easy. For example, KISSSlicer’s paid version will take a grayscale image to set the infill density. [Stephan] noticed, though, that Cura — and probably most other slicers — put comments in the G-code to show where different features such as infill start. By changing the extrusion amount during infill, you can use the same basic pattern, but still, get the gradient you want.
He wrote a simple program to postprocess the G-code before it is sent to the printer. He computes the distance from the outside of the part and based on that changes the amount of extrusion. This works because of an unusual type of infill he uses that is already in small line segments. However, for more conventional infill patterns, the lines are long, so his program has to chop the lines into shorter segments and then apply the algorithm. This makes for a larger file, of course.
There are a few stipulations. You need to have walls print before infill and you need to be set for relative extrusion. If your slicer doesn’t emit comments to mark where infill starts and stops, that’s going to be a problem. Even then, if the comments aren’t the same as Cura’s, you’ll probably need to change the code to suit. Or just use Cura for slicing.
The test results were good. The parts were stronger, although in some cases, simply increasing the infill would get you the same result. As [Stephan] notes, it may not be perfect, but it is useful for many parts.
We aren’t strangers to
postprocessing G code
. For some jobs, you just need to
make your own G-code
, anyway. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212503",
"author": "Thorsten",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T04:22:28",
"content": "Code for PrusaSlicer is on the way:https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/pull/3517oss gives the power toe the people (-:",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"commen... | 1,760,373,613.65969 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/random-numbers-from-outer-space/ | Random Numbers From Outer Space | Kristina Panos | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"555",
"decade counter",
"Geiger tube",
"muon",
"nixie",
"random number",
"random number generator"
] | Need a random number? Sure, you could just roll a die, but if you do, you might invite laughter from nearby quantum enthusiasts. If it’s truly, unpredictably random numbers you need, look no farther than the background radiation constantly bombarding us from the safety of its celestial hideout.
In a rare but much appreciated break from the Nixie tube norm of clock making, [Alpha-Phoenix]
has designed a muon-powered random number generator
around that warm, vintage glow. Muons are subatomic particles that are like electrons, but much heavier, and are created when pions enter the atmosphere and undergo radioactive decay. The Geiger-Müller tube, mainstay of Geiger counters the world over, detects these incoming muons and uses them to generate the number.
Inside the box, a 555 in astable mode drives a decade counter, which outputs the numbers 0-9 sequentially on the Nixie via beefy transistors. While the G-M tube waits for muons, the numbers just cycle through repeatedly, looking pretty. When a muon hits the tube, a second 555 tells the decade counter to stop immediately. Bingo, you have your random number! The only trouble we can see with this method is that if you need a number right away, you might have to go get a banana and wave it near the G-M tube.
Whether this all makes sense or not, you should check out [Alpha-Phoenix]’s project video, which is as entertaining as it is informative. He’s planning a follow-up video focused on the randomness of the G-M tube, so look out for that.
Looking for a cheaper way to catch your random numbers?
You can do it with a fish tank, some air pumps, and a sprinkle of OpenCV
.
Via
r/electronics | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212473",
"author": "Noah",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T00:41:40",
"content": "7..7..7..7..7.. Oh that happens when the activity of a solar storm approximates a harmonic of the 555’s frequency. But who’s to say that a string of 7s isn’t random? In fact it *must* occur in a properly... | 1,760,373,613.794272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/electric-unicorn-is-our-kind-of-rideable/ | Electric Unicorn Is Our Kind Of Rideable | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"hoverboard",
"rideable",
"unicorn"
] | When [Charlyn] took a unicorn rocking horse in to work, it was an instant hit. Naturally, the people wanted more, and suggested it needed electric propulsion. Naturally, she rose to the challenge,
and Rocky the Unicorn got a motorized upgrade
.
The build consists of a frame built out of PVC pipes, hooked up with Formufit fittings. These are a great way to build useful structures out of PVC pipe, and made the build a cinch. The frame has a footrests for the rider, and the rocking horse already has a comfortable seat. For propulsion, a hoverboard is installed in the base, with the frame sporting a pair of casters to avoid tip over. Twin PVC handles are used to interface with the footplate of the hoverboard, allowing the user to drive and steer, as well as turn on the spot. A bouquet of fake flowers round out the aesthetic and hide some of the zipties.
It goes to show that PVC pipe can be an excellent material for quick, fun projects – all you need is the right fittings to make it all happen! It’s also fun to see a hoverboard used in such a way that doesn’t end with severe injuries.
Unicorns always bring a nice flair to a project, too
. Video after the break. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212439",
"author": "RandyKC",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T21:12:18",
"content": "So, looking for Venture Capital?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6212467",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T00:02:20... | 1,760,373,614.409896 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/testing-your-grit-tales-of-hacking-in-difficult-situations/ | Testing Your Grit: Tales Of Hacking In Difficult Situations | Dan Maloney | [
"cons"
] | [
"2019 Hackaday Superconference",
"austere",
"disaster",
"emergency",
"FIELD"
] | What’s your work area like? Perhaps you’re mostly a software person, used to the carpeted land of cubicles or shared workspaces, with their stand-up desks and subdued lighting. Or maybe you’ve got a lab bench somewhere, covered with tools and instruments. You might be more of a workshop person, in a cavernous bay filled with machine tools and racks of raw material. Wherever you work, chances are pretty good that someone is paying good money to keep a roof over your head, keeping the temperature relatively comfortable, and making sure you have access to the tools and materials you need to get the job done. It’s just good business sense.
Now, imagine you’ve lost all that. Your cushy workspace has been stripped away, and you’ve got to figure out how to get your job done despite having access to nothing but a few basic tools and supplies and your own wits. Can you do it? Most of us would answer “Yes,” but how many of us have ever tested ourselves like that? Someone who has tested her engineering chops under difficult conditions — and continues to do so regularly — is Laurel Cummings, who stopped by the 2019 Hackaday Superconference
to tell us all about her field-expedient life with a talk aptly titled, “When It Rains, It Pours”
.
Trip from Hell
Laurel shared quite a bit of her background in the talk, which really showed how the circumstances of her life prepared her for her current gig. Right after finishing her EE degree she decided to take a little break from the action by helping her dad move his boat down the east coast of the United States. The short, relaxing jaunt she expected evaporated soon after setting sail when the boat broke down in about as many ways as a boat can. She soon found herself hanging upside down in the engine compartment trying to solder the regulator from a truck alternator into place with a butane torch, sewing a torn sail back together in the dark, and being towed back into port by the Coast Guard.
After that experience, a nice, safe office job would seem to be the logical choice, but instead Laurel went to work for Building Momentum, a technology development and education outfit based in Virginia. The company’s major clients are active-duty military units and disaster-response NGOs, leading Laurel to places like Kuwait during historic floods, or to a Marine Corps base after Hurricane Florence drenched North Carolina in 2018.
Watney Your Troubles Away
There she learned the importance of delivering something — anything — within 24 hours of arriving, which she stressed is important for establishing your bona fides as someone who can help rather than hinder. For the Marines, her team rapidly identified a problem — the base’s many emergency generators all had to be checked manually for fuel use — and built a version 0.1 solution, which ended up looking like a breadboard project in a plastic bag. But it was enough to get a toe in the door, giving her team the cachet needed to improve the design and pitch in elsewhere.
Full life cycle of the fuel gauge project
In her talk, Laurel outlined a simple but sensible process for attacking problems quickly. It’s designed for austere conditions, but it applies to everyday engineering just as well. Her approach to identifying the problems and deciding which ones to attack stuck out the most to me; to accomplish this, she suggests listing all the problems that the clients relate and then organizing them into a sort of “tag cloud” of similar issues. That helps find the real root issues and identifies which ones to attack first to deliver the most bang for the buck.
It sounds like Laurel has found a challenging and exciting work environment that’s a bit out of the ordinary. But when you think about it, a lot of engineers end up in similar situations. A lot of engineering gets done on remote mountaintops, at dams and in jungles, and in the bowels of ships far from shore. In those situations, one rapidly learns that if you didn’t bring it with you, it might as well not exist, and you have to make do with what you’ve got. Chance favors the prepared mind in those situations, and it sounds like Laurel has a leg up on her desk-bound colleagues in that regard.
[Main image via
@BrucePerens
] | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212420",
"author": "onv",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T19:43:59",
"content": "Engineering and imagination go hand-in-hand.1. Some people can do.2. Some people can think.3. Some people can imagine.4. Some people can do all of these.5. Some people can do none of these.6. …and some people... | 1,760,373,614.321102 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/teardown-bilbot-bluetooth-robot/ | Teardown: BilBot Bluetooth Robot | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Teardown",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"apktool",
"bettercap",
"ble",
"bluetooth",
"h-bridge motor controller",
"MX1508L",
"repurpose",
"robotics"
] | Historically, the subject of our January teardown has been a piece of high-tech holiday lighting from the clearance rack; after all, they can usually be picked up for pocket change once the trucks full of Valentine’s Day merchandise start pulling up around the back of your local Big Box retailer. But this year, we’ve got something a little different.
Today we’re looking at the BilBot Bluetooth robot, which over the holidays was
being sold at Five Below for (you guessed it) just $5 USD
. These were clearly something the company hoped to sell a lot of, with stacks of the little two-wheeled bots in your choice of white and yellow livery right by the front door. With wireless control from your iOS or Android device, and intriguing features like voice command, I’d be willing to bet they managed to move quite a few of these at such a low price.
For folks like us, it can be hard to wrap our minds around a product like this. It must have a Bluetooth radio, some kind of motor controller, and of course the motors and gears themselves. Yet they can sell it for the price of a budget hamburger and still turn a profit. If you wanted to pick up barebones robotics platform, with just a couple gear motors and some wheels, it would cost more than that. The economies of scale are a hell of a thing.
Which made me wonder, could hackers take advantage of this ultra-cheap robot for our own purposes? It’s pretty much a given that the software for this robot will be terrible, and that whatever control electronics live inside it will be marginal at best. But what if we write those off and just look at the BilBot as a two-wheeled platform to carry our own electronics? It’s certainly worth $5 to find out.
Getting Geared Up
So what do you get for your hard earned five spot? Upon cracking open the BilBot’s case, we see the gearbox down at the bottom, a small PCB up in the “head”, and…not a whole lot else. Of course, this shouldn’t come as much surprise. To get the cost down this far, the hardware needs to be as minimal as possible.
That said, the gearbox isn’t half bad. It’s got plastic gears of course, and with brushed motors and no encoders you won’t get any positioning feedback, but you could say the same about plenty of low-cost robotic platforms that are out there. You won’t be taking it off-road, but this setup will have no problem scooting around your workbench. Though I would suggest adding some grip to the wheels; which could be as easy as finding properly sized rubber bands to fit around them.
The BilBot’s Brain
Removing the two screws holding in the single PCB, we can get a good look at the electronics in their entirety. Originally I’d hoped to find a relatively standard Bluetooth module inside the BilBot,
as we’ve seen in previous teardowns
. But the Bluetooth chip used in the BilBot, a JL E90005-9BO, seems to be something of a mystery. I haven’t been able to find any mention of it in the usual places, and would be interested to hear if anyone in the audience has ever run across one in the past.
Luckily the other chip on the board, an MX1508L, is another story entirely. This is a fairly common dual H bridge DC motor driver for which the datasheet is readily available. This chip could easily be connected to your microcontroller of choice, and there’s plenty of sample code floating around online that shows how to interface with it.
One would simply need to cut the traces between the MX1508L and the Bluetooth chip, and then wire it up to their own MCU to take control of the BilBot hardware. Slapping an ESP8266 into this bot and converting it to WiFi control would be absolutely trival, and with all that empty space inside its cute little body, there’s plenty of room to add in new sensors, batteries, or whatever else you could come up with.
It’s also worth noting that the BilBot is one of the very few products I’ve seen in the FCC ID database
that actually has its circuit schematics available for download
. Not that it’s a particularly complex PCB, of course, but there’s no such thing as having
too much
information when trying to reverse engineer a gadget.
Speaking the BilBot’s Language
Obviously hardware hacking is what we’re all about here, but for the sake of argument, let’s say you wanted to take a more nuanced approach with the BilBot. As the little fellow is designed to be controlled remotely over Bluetooth, it would seem reasonable enough that we could capitalize on that feature and take command of the bot without having to crack open the case at all.
I should start by saying that I refused to actually install the BilBot’s software on any of my devices, and I would advise anyone else who might be experimenting with this bot to do the same. The application cannot be found in the Google Play Store, and instead you are expected to scan a QR code in the manual which points you to an IP address in Hangzhou where the APK can be downloaded for sideloading. Yeah, no thanks.
That said, I did download the 30 MB (!) APK on my computer and used
apktool
to have a look around inside. I didn’t see anything obviously nefarious, but I certainly don’t claim to be an Android security expert. It just seems exceedingly suspicious that this is how they would distribute the software for their product.
Halfhearted security analysis aside, poking around the application’s source code did give me a pretty good idea about how it works. Essentially moving the virtual joystick around or speaking voice commands into the application chains together byte sequences which eventually get fired off towards the Bilbot over a simple Bluetooth serial connection. That means writing a library to get the robot moving should be very simple, should anyone feel so inclined.
As a proof of concept, you can see here how I am able to connect (with no authentication) to the robot using
bettercap
, enumerate the writable Service Characteristic, and send a few bytes down the line.
The result is the bot lurching backwards an inch or so. If you were particularly bored, you could probably brute force the byte sequences like this to figure out how to control the motors, but would-be BilBot library writers will likely find that lifting them from the application is a much more efficient use of their time.
Bot on a Budget
In short, I believe the BilBot is a fantastic deal at $5. Not for its
intended
purpose, mind you, but as an ultra cheap robotics platform that’s just begging to get upgraded. Whether you want to write a Python library to control an army of stock BilBots, or rip its brain in half and augment it with a beefy MCU and all the trimmings, you could do worse than stocking up on these little guys.
One thing I did notice on my particular BilBot, and it could have been a fluke, is that there were no screws holding the gearbox together. So after a few seconds of driving around, the box would pop open and the gears would no longer mesh. Finding a few suitably small screws was no problem, but it does make me wonder how many of these bots were deemed DOA when they sprung a sprocket on Christmas morn.
But really, what do you expect for $5? | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212389",
"author": "makomk",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T18:15:02",
"content": "Looks like one of JieLi’s Bluetooth chips. Not too surprising; they turn up a lot in cheap consumer hardware. Some people have put a little work into experimenting with some of their other chips but I’m no... | 1,760,373,614.876007 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/austere-engineering-hack-chat/ | Austere Engineering Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"austerity",
"disaster",
"field expedient",
"flood",
"hurricane",
"improvisation",
"The Hack Chat"
] | Join us on Wednesday, January 22 at noon Pacific for the
Austere Engineering Hack Chat
with Laurel Cummings!
For most of us, building whatever it is that needs building is something that occurs in relative comfort and abundance. Sure, there are cold workshops and understocked parts bins to deal with, but by and large, we’re all working in more or less controlled environments where we can easily get to the tools and materials we need to complete the job.
But not all engineering is done under such controlled conditions. Field operations often occur miles from civilization, and if whatever you need is not in the back of the truck, it might as well not exist. At times like this, the pressure is on to adapt, improvise, and overcome to get the job done, especially if people’s lives and well-being are at stake.
All of this is familiar territory for Laurel Cummings, an electrical engineer and an associate at
Building Momentum
, a technology development and training concern based in Virginia. Her job is to get out in the field and work with the company’s mainly military and corporate clients and help them deal with the challenges of austere environments, including disaster response efforts.
From a North Carolina beach ravaged by Hurricane Florence to the deserts of Kuwait, Laurel has had to think her way out of more than a few sticky situations. Join us as we discuss what it takes to develop and deploy field-expedient solutions under less-than-ideal situations, learn how to know when good enough is good enough, and maybe even hear a few war stories too.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, January 22 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. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212417",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T19:36:01",
"content": "I love all this sort of stuff, using PET bottles for shrink wrap, coathangers for welding, and my current interest du jour, seeing how many things you can make casein based glue out of. In basic term... | 1,760,373,614.36891 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/75-nixie-multimeter-as-digital-dice/ | ’75 Nixie Multimeter As Digital Dice | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"70s",
"AVR",
"dd",
"dice",
"heathkit",
"microcontroller",
"multimeter",
"random number generator",
"restomod",
"rng"
] | For the casual Monopoly or Risk player, using plain six-sided dice is probably fine. For other games you may need dice with much more than six sides, and if you really want to go overboard you can do what [John] did and
build electronic dice
with a random number generator if you really need to remove the pesky practice of rolling physical dice during your games of chance.
The “digital dice” he built are based on a multimeter from 1975 which has some hardware in it that was worth preserving, including a high quality set of nixie tubes. Nixies
can be a little hard to come by these days
, but are interesting pieces of hardware in their own right. [John] added some modern hardware to it as well, including an AVR microcontroller that handles the (pseudo) random number generation. A hardware switch tells the microcontroller how many sides the “die” to be emulated will need, and then a button generates the result of the roll.
This is a pretty great use for an old piece of hardware which would otherwise be obsolete by now. [John] considers this a “Resto-Mod” and the finish and quality of the build almost makes it look all original. It’s certainly a conversation piece at the D&D sessions he frequents. | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212368",
"author": "socksbot",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T16:49:56",
"content": "Use this and you can play Shadowrun without going broke:https://hackaday.com/2020/01/18/bask-in-the-glory-of-this-336-led-digit-display/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,373,614.457104 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/the-truth-is-in-there-the-art-of-electronics-the-x-chapters/ | The Truth Is In There: The Art Of Electronics, The X-Chapters | Ted Yapo | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Interest",
"Misc Hacks",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"books",
"books you should read",
"Horowitz & Hill",
"The Art of Electronics",
"x-Chapters"
] | If you’ve been into electronics for any length of time, you’ve almost certainly run across the practical bible in the field,
The Art of Electronics
, commonly abbreviated AoE. Any fan of the book will certainly want to consider obtaining the latest release,
The Art of Electronics: The x-Chapters
, which follows the previous third edition of AoE from 2015. This new book features expanded coverage of topics from the previous editions, plus discussions of some interesting but rarely traveled areas of electrical engineering.
For those unfamiliar with it, AoE, first published in 1980, is an unusually useful hybrid of textbook and engineer’s reference, blending just enough theory with liberal doses of practical experience. With its lively tone and informal style, the book has enabled people from many backgrounds to design and implement electronic circuits.
After the initial book, the second edition (AoE2) was published in 1989, and the third (AoE3) in 2015, each one renewing and expanding coverage to keep up with the rapid pace of the field. I started with the second edition and it was very well worn when I purchased a copy of the third, an upgrade I would recommend to anyone still on the fence. While the second and third books looked a lot like the first, this new one is a bit different. It’s at the same time an expanded discussion of many of the topics covered in AoE3 and a self-contained reference manual on a variety of topics in electrical engineering.
I pre-ordered this book the same day I learned it was to be published, and it finally arrived this week. So, having had the book in hand — almost continuously — for a few days, I think I’ve got a decent idea of what it’s all about. Stick around for my take on the latest in this very interesting series of books.
Overview
In the first paragraph of the book’s preface, the authors give the basic picture: the “x” is for eXtra, meaning that the material in this book was originally slated to be part of the AoE3, but simply didn’t fit — that book is 1250 pages as it stands. The new book comprises some 500 pages organized into five chapters: 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, and 9x. This unusual numbering scheme keeps the contents in correspondence with the chapters of the third edition of AoE, stressing the fact that a lot of this material would be right at home there. In fact, each chapter of the new book begins with a repetition of the end-of-chapter review from the corresponding part of AoE3.
The back cover of
The Art of Electronics: The x-Chapters
While I’ll discuss some of the highlights of each chapter — but not an exhaustive list — keep in mind that this book reads a little differently than AoE3: it’s more engineering reference handbook and less textbook. The preface is explicit about this; the linear structure of previous AoE books has been replaced with very modular sections on specific topics. This is great if you’re an even somewhat experienced designer looking for some from-the-trenches experience on a specific topic, but maybe less useful for the beginner — more about that later.
Chapter 1x: Real-World Passive Components
Starting with the lowly wire, this chapter examines the behavior of components in the real world. Conductors, cables, and connectors are examined to determine the non-ideal effects they can exhibit. Likewise, there are discussions of real-world resistors of various types, including digital potentiometers. Capacitors and inductors get extensive treatment since there are myriad imperfections that plague them. Section 1x.6 is particularly interesting, covering mechanical switches and relays, components that we sometimes forget have non-ideal characteristics. This is certainly worth a read if you use these components for anything non-trivial. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of different types of diodes, including some esoteric types, and their practical failings.
Testing a tunnel diode
But there’s more than the merely practical in this book. As an example, the book devotes a section of a few pages to tunnel diodes, an esoteric subject with largely nostalgic interest for the authors. Not content to simply give the theory, they delve into the practical aspects of tracing tunnel diode curves. Having
documented my attempts at this in these very pages
, I can really appreciate the care and detail that went into the treatment of this subject in the x-Chapters. This is Hackaday-type stuff; if it were’t already in a book, their work would fit right in as a daily article here. As we’ll see, there’s more of the same in subsequent chapters.
This isn’t the only fun the authors are having. The title of this very article comes from their own footnote alluding to
The X Files
.
Chapter 2x: Advanced BJT Topics
NDR Circuit
As was noted, you won’t find a textbook introduction to bipolar junction transistors here; instead, you’ll find a collection of smaller notes about specific subtopics. For instance, the authors tabulate and discuss the leakage currents of a collection of BJTs and FETs for comparison and include a section on BJT bandwidth and transition frequency. They work through a detailed example simulating several BJT amplifiers in SPICE to measure distortion. They discuss improved current mirrors and some very interesting bipolarity ones.
There are further excursions into lands less traveled, like the discussion of a two-terminal negative resistance made from BJTs,
another obscure subject close to my heart
.
Chapter 3x: Advanced FET Topics
In the third x-Chapter, you’ll find some good info on selecting FETs for your application, discussions of FET transconductance, the bandwidth of FET circuits (and comparisons to BJTs), a very good discussion of the evolution and current state of power MOSFETs, and a section on integrated MOSFET gate drivers. There are also application circuits for measuring MOSFET gate charge and FET transconductance, with tabulated results for a variety of types.
Again, there’s a smattering of application examples featuring FETs, including driving a piezo transducer, generating fast pulses for LEDs, quickly quenching high-energy magnetic field coils, and generating fast 1.5 kV voltage ramps.
Chapter 4x: Advanced Topics in Operational Amplifiers
x-Chaper four begins appropriately with a brief discussion of an antique vacuum-tube op-amp, with the rest of the chapter devoted mainly to discussing the finer points of design with modern devices. There’s an expanded discussion of feedback stability, a detailed treatment of transresistance amplifiers, such as for photodiodes, coverage of unity-gain buffers and their uses, and two chapters on high-speed op-amps: one on the voltage-feedback variety, and a second for current-feedback types. They also cover some unusual capacitive-feedback op-amp circuits, logarithmic amplifiers, and driving capacitive loads, among other short topics.
In the exotica category, there is a section on silicon photomultipliers, and an example circuit which produces graphs of the chaotic attractor of the Lorenz system on an oscilloscope.
Chapter 9x: Advanced Topics in Power Control
Here, you’ll find a discussion of simple diode- and MOSFET-based reverse battery protection circuits, lithium-ion battery circuit safety, implementing foldback current limiting, controlling DC motors with PWM, high-side current sensing, and various other topics in power electronics design. There is a teardown and bench comparison of genuine and counterfeit iPhone chargers, and a good section on making temperature measurements on power circuits — from the usual finger probe to thermal cameras.
As for out-of-the-way topics, there’s one page on low-voltage boost converters for energy harvesting — they present a simple circuit that starts up at a supply voltage of 20 mV and runs down to 10 mV. They have also included a section on bus converters: bi-directional DC converters, which can convert from one voltage to another, say 12V down to 5V, but also work in
reverse
, transparently. This is interesting stuff.
Discussion
Obviously, in this short review, I can’t cover everything in the book. Have I left out something that will end up being your favorite part? Quite possibly. Hopefully, though, you’ve got enough of the flavor of the book to know if it warrants a further look.
Like in the original AoE books, in addition to the discussion of design issues, the new book contains selection tables for various electronic parts. Need a high-speed op-amp? How about a MOSFET gate driver? Check the corresponding table. It would be a mistake to confuse these tables with the parametric search available on manufacturer’s or distributor’s web sites. While the search tools are certainly useful, they’re a poor substitute for tables carefully curated by designers who’ve actually used the parts.
One of the more interesting features of the book is the parts index at the back. If you want to know all the authors have to say about the 2N3904 transistor, for instance, the index will point you to the twenty-two places in the book that it’s mentioned. This is a tremendous idea for a book like this, which contains all sorts of information you may not find in datasheets.
Should You Buy It?
First off, I should say that I don’t consider any of the AoE books to be suitable as
first
books for absolute beginners. Sure, if you’ve studied another field of engineering, you could probably pick up a copy and start running, but for the true beginner without any engineering experience, you would probably want to start elsewhere and refer to AoE for more advanced discussions — sound off in the comments with beginner book recommendations if you have them.
However, if you’ve used any of the three editions of The Art of Electronics with success, I’d recommend the x-Chapters without hesitation. Having had a little bit of time with it now, I’d be tempted to say that the third edition of AoE is incomplete without this additional material. This is not to say that I felt AoE3 was lacking before this new book, but it’s certainly
more
complete with this included. Does it make sense to buy this book without AoE3? Sure it’s a great book for what it covers, but the x-Chapters itself is absolutely incomplete without AoE3 by its side. Personally, I wouldn’t be without either on my shelf now. | 41 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213319",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T18:48:49",
"content": "Which of the original authors died? Neither of the wikipedia pages about them mention a death.Who wrote this one?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213... | 1,760,373,614.538185 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/a-ploopy-pick-and-place/ | A Ploopy Pick And Place | Dan Maloney | [
"cnc hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cassette",
"cnc",
"feeder",
"LitePlacer",
"pick and place",
"pnp",
"smd",
"tape"
] | A fair number of hackers reach that awkward age in their careers – too old for manual pick and place, but too young for a full-fledged PnP machine. The obvious solution is to build your own PnP, which can be as simple as putting a suction cup on the Z-axis of an old 3D-printer. Feeding parts into the pick and place, though, can be a thorny problem.
Or not, if you think your way through it like [Phil Lam] did and build
these semi-automated SMD tape feeders
. Built for 8-mm plastic or paper tapes, the feeders are 3D-printed assemblies that fit into a rack that’s just inside the work envelope of a pick and place machine. Each feeder has a slot in the top for the tape, which is advanced by using the Z-axis of the PnP to depress a lever on the front of the case. A long tongue in the tape slot gradually peels back the tape’s cover to expose a part, which is then picked up by the PnP suction cup. Any machine should work; [Phil] uses his with a
LitePlacer
. We like the idea that parts stay protected until they’re needed; the satisfyingly clicky lever action is pretty cool too. See it briefly in action in the video below.
It looks like [Phil] built this in support of his popular
Ploopy trackball
, which is available both as a kit and fully assembled. We think the feeder design is great whether you’re using PnP or not, although here’s a
simpler cassette design
for purely manual SMD work. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213293",
"author": "seth",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T17:20:53",
"content": "Jaw dropped open….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213309",
"author": "geocrasher",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T18:24:29",
"cont... | 1,760,373,614.268933 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/nuclear-fusion-at-100-the-hidden-race-for-energy-supremacy/ | Nuclear Fusion At 100: The Hidden Race For Energy Supremacy | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"green hacks",
"Interest",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"cfetr",
"deuterium",
"hl-2m",
"ITER",
"nuclear fission",
"nuclear fusion",
"Tritium",
"wendelstein 7-x",
"wx-7"
] | It’s hardly a secret that nuclear fusion has had a rough time when it comes to its image in the media: the miracle power source that is always ‘just ten years away’. Even if no self-respecting physicist would ever make such a statement, the arrival of commercial nuclear fusion power cannot come quickly enough for many. With the promise of virtually endless, clean energy with no waste, it does truly sound like something from a science-fiction story.
Meanwhile, in the world of non-fiction, generations of scientists have dedicated their careers to understanding better how plasma in a reactor behaves, how to contain it and what types of fuels would work best for a fusion reactor, especially one that has to run continuously, with a net positive energy output. In this regard, 2020 is an exciting year, with the German Wendelstein 7-X stellarator reaching its final configuration, and the Chinese HL-2M tokamak about to fire up.
Join me after the break as I look into what a century of progress in fusion research has brought us and where it will take us next.
Previously in Pursuit of Nuclear Fusion
The discovery that the total mass equivalent of four hydrogen atoms is more than that of a single helium (
4
He) atom was made in 1920 by British physicist
Francis William Aston
. This observation led to the conclusion that net energy can be released when one fuses hydrogen cores together, for example in the common deuterium (
2
D) tritium (
3
T) reaction:
Deuterium
(
2
H, or D) is a common, stable isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally in abundance, to the rate of 0.02% of the hydrogen in Earth’s oceans.
Tritium
(
3
H, or T) is an unstable, radioactive (beta emitter) isotope of hydrogen, with a half-life of 12.32 years. Tritium is formed naturally by the interaction with cosmic rays, but can be easily bred from lithium metal, either in a breeder blanket in a fusion reactor, or from a fission reactor that uses heavy water (deuterium), like Canada’s CANDU reactors.
The UK ZETA Z-pinch fusion reactor in 1958.
The first neutrons from nuclear fusion were detected in 1933 by staff members of Ernest Rutherfords’ at the University of Cambridge. This involved the acceleration of protons towards a target with energies of up to 600 keV. Research on the topic during the 1930s would lay the foundation for the development of the first concepts for fusion reactors, initially involving the
Z-pinch
concept which uses the Lorentz force to contain the plasma.
Teams around the world worked in absolute secrecy, with all fusion-related research being classified. The British created the
ZETA
stabilized pinch fusion reactor, with the hope that this would prove to be a viable blueprint for commercial fusion reactors. Unfortunately, ZETA proved that the Z-pinch design would always suffer from instabilities, and by 1961 the Z-pinch concept was abandoned.
Meanwhile, the Russians had developed the tokamak reactor concept during the 1950s, partially based on the Z-pinch design. The tokamak design proved to be able to suppress the instabilities that had plagued Z-pinch reactors, as well as early
stellerator
designs. These days, most fusion reactors in operation are of the tokamak design, though the stellarator has seen a resurgence recently, especially in the form of the
Wendelstein 7-X
project.
What We Can Expect to See in 2020
A schematic view of Wendelstein 7-X’s magnets.
As mentioned in the article introduction, Wendelstein 7-X has reached an important milestone.
Since we first wrote about this project
back in 2015, the project has worked through all of its targets except the final one: cooled
divertor
operation. The reactor is currently being upgraded with these divertors which should theoretically allow for steady-state operation, allowing for impurities to be removed from the plasma during operation.
Installing the new divertors and cryopumps
will continue into much of 2020, involving the running of a 55 meter long transfer line to the cryoplant, along with the installation of new storage tanks for helium gas and liquid nitrogen. With some luck we’ll see the first tests of the new system this year, but most likely the first continuous operations of WX-7 will take place in 2021.
China’s HL-2M tokamak at Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP).
Over in China, the final touches have been put
on its HL-2M tokamak
, which is the latest in a range of tokamak designs since the 1960s. The
HL-2M is the new configuration of the HL-2A tokamak
, one of three tokamaks currently in use in China (EAST and J-TEXT being the other two). HL-2M has seen big changes to its coil configuration that allow for the creation of many types of plasma, along with the testing of various types of divertor configurations. This year HL-2M will see its first plasma.
Depending on the performance of HL-2M, it will allow for the
CFETR
(China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor) project to start its construction phase in the 2020s. In its first phase, the CFETR tokamak would demonstrate steady-state operation and tritium breeding. In its second phase CFETR would be updated to allow for a power output of 1 GW (compared to ITER’s 500 MW) and a
fusion gain
(Q) higher than 12.
Fusion is Hard
The main reason why nuclear fusion is taking so long compared to nuclear fission is that the former requires the ideal conditions to even occur, let alone persist. This means high temperatures, high pressures, high currents, or a combination thereof. Even then plasma containment is notoriously complicated, as the plasma isn’t a nice, calm gaseous state that’s just kinda floating there. Rather it’s a seething collection of plasma at high pressures and many millions of degrees Celsius that’ll breach through the magnetic confinement any chance it gets. Although significant progress has been made here, the coming years will tell whether we’ll avoid a Z-pinch-like dead-end with the tokamak and stellarator designs.
Many aspects of running a nuclear fusion reactor remain somewhat of a mystery, much as it was with the first fission reactors, where early generation II designs saw countless changes to materials used, along with fundamental changes to the overall design to improve performance and safety. Although fusion reactors are less challenging in this regard, they do have to deal with the neutron bombardment of materials in the core, which can weaken them. This also leads to the only waste that is produced by fusion reactors: the reactor core itself.
A combination of
activation
through this exposure to neutrons, along with contamination with tritium
will render core materials radioactive
, requiring handling of the resulting low- to intermediate- level radioactive waste like steel and other building materials at the end of the reactor’s lifespan. Fortunately, studies have shown that intermediate storage of up to 100 years is sufficient to render these materials safe.
Regardless, the neutron exposure is one aspect which can likely be dealt with in a more direct way through material selection or through neutron capture mechanisms in future reactor designs. As China’s program evolves through HL-2M into CFETR and ITER into DEMO, the hope is that we can catch any issues and make improvements before fusion hits prime time.
Low Energy Nuclear Reactions
Tangentially related to fusion, LENR is what used to be called ‘Cold Fusion’. Marred by decades of ridicule, a number of
scientists have nonetheless persisted
in examining the phenomenon that lit up the world with promises of fusion power at room temperature. Dismissing the original theory of hydrogen atoms fusing, the current theory is that protons and electrons can be merged to form neutrons. For a detailed overview, see for example this
video presentation by Prof. Peter Hagelstein
, an MIT associate professor.
According to the Widom-Larsen theory, the reason why the original 1989 experiment was so hard to recreate is because it relies on hydrogen atoms settling on active sites on the palladium (or equivalent) layer. This means that one needs to create a suitable surface on a nano level, something which was not realistic in the 1980s.
Even if LENR never turns into anything more than a curiosity, it does give us a glimpse in another way that atoms seem to behave. Best case it might provide us with ways to improve fusion reactors in ways that we cannot fathom today, by lowering pressure and temperature requirements.
Energy Dominance is the Game
A commercial fusion reactor would be essentially the
pinnacle of energy generation
, barring the development of anti-matter reactors or such. As an energy source, its fuel is practically unlimited, with the deuterium-tritium type having enough fuel on Earth for millions of years, and the deuterium process version offering billions of years of energy production using just the deuterium available on Earth. The first nation to master this capability stands to gain a lot.
Colony in space, with a clear view of nearby planets.
Fusion reactors are inherently safe, due to the complexity of maintaining the proper conditions for the fusion process to take place. During operation, no waste is produced, but instead very useful helium (
4
He) is created which has countless applications in everything from industry to running MRI scanners, to filling up party balloons. While nuclear fusion will very likely co-exist with nuclear fission (possibly
using FNRs
) in a complementary fashion, the former being ideally suited to handle electricity and heat generation for all population centers on Earth.
Exactly when we’ll see the first commercially viable fusion reactor appear is hard to tell at this point. With ITER not projected to see first plasma until 2035, we might see China with its CFETR and successor reactors reach the point of commercial viability by the 2030s or 2040s. Yet as the UK learned with ZETA, in plasma physics nothing is certain.
[Main image:
Experimental visualization of the field line on a magnetic surface in Wendelstein 7-X
.
CC-BY 4.0, Wendelstein 7-X team
] | 83 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213252",
"author": "Eric_S",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T15:24:16",
"content": "Nice article!It would be fun with a follow up regarding the large undercurrent of more or less wonky fusion projects that’s floating around out there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,373,614.661966 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/floating-on-the-breeze-with-a-full-size-rc-paraglider/ | Floating On The Breeze With A Full Size RC Paraglider | Danie Conradie | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"aviation",
"flying",
"paragliding",
"radio control",
"rc"
] | For many people the gateway drug to aviation is radio-controlled aircraft, and in [Andre Bandarra]’s case this led to paragliding. Now he has combined the two, turning his full size
paragliding wing into an RC aircraft
. (Video, embedded below.)
The primary controls of a paraglider are very simple, consisting of two brake lines that connect to the trailing edge of the wing. When a line is pulled, it increased drag on that side of the wing, causing it to turn. [Andre] connected the brake lines to two 3D-printed spools, which are each powered by a large RC servo that he modified for continuous rotation. These are mounted on a slim wooden frame that also holds the battery, RC receiver, an old electronic speed control to step down the battery power, and attachment straps for the wing. Without enough mass, the wing would just get blown around by the lightest of breezes, so [Andre] hooked a cloth bag filled with sand to the frame to act as a counter weight.
On the first test flight the wind was too strong and the sandbag too light, making it impossible to control. The hardest part of the flight is the launch, which requires the help of someone who knows how to fly a paraglider. The second test day had much better success. With only a slight breeze and a heavier sandbag, the contraption flew beautifully, floating slowly across the beach. He admits that there are a number of improvements he can make, but as a proof of concept using parts he had lying around, it was a roaring success.
For paragliding from flat ground, you can always strap a motor to your back, like the open source
OpenPPG
electric paramotor. For more
crazy RC flying contraptions
, also keep an eye on guys at [Flite Test].
Thanks for the tip [Joe]! | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213199",
"author": "Ruzzolo",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T12:14:56",
"content": "That is AWESOME … now need a local AI to start flying on his own :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6213237",
"author": "dave",
"ti... | 1,760,373,614.923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/cosmac-elf-lives-again-in-fpga/ | COSMAC ELF Lives Again, In FPGA | Bryan Cockfield | [
"FPGA",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"cosmac elf",
"fpga",
"RCA 1802",
"retro",
"retrocomputing",
"single board",
"spinalhdl"
] | Looking around at the personal computing markets in modern times, there seem to be a lot of choices in the market. In reality, though, almost everything runs on hardware from a very small group of companies, and software is often available across platforms. This wasn’t the case in the personal computing boom of the 70s and 80s, where different computers were wildly different in hardware and even architecture. The Cosmac ELF was one of the more interesting specimens from this era, and
this one has been meticulously reproduced on an FPGA
.
The original hardware was based on an RCA 1802 microprocessor and had a rudimentary (by today’s standards) set of switches and buttons as the computer’s inputs. It was low cost, even for the time, but was one of the first single-board computers available. This recreation is coded in SpinalHDL and the simplicity of the original hardware makes it relatively easy to understand. The FPGA is cycle-accurate to the original hardware, too, which makes it nearly perfect even without any of the original hardware.
The project’s creator, [Winston] aka [wel97459], found that SpinalHDL made this project fun to work on (and released his code on his
GitHub page
), and was able to get the code down to just 1500 lines to recreate the original hardware. It’s very impressive, and also an accessible read for anyone interested in
some of the more unique computers offered during the early computer renaissance in the 70s
. | 44 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213183",
"author": "A Start With Forth",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T11:00:49",
"content": "I wonder, how it compares to our implementation of the 1802https://wiki.forth-ev.de/doku.php/projects:fig-forth-1802-fpga:startIt was part of a project to have FIG-Forth running on the 1802 – u... | 1,760,373,614.819951 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/vinyl-cut-your-way-into-an-edge-lit-glass-display/ | Vinyl Cut Your Way Into An Edge-Lit Glass Display | Erin Pinheiro | [
"Art"
] | [
"attiny",
"attiny85",
"decorations",
"edge-lit",
"etching",
"glass etching",
"home etching",
"light display",
"vinyl cutter",
"ws2812"
] | The chances are you’ve seen the myriad cheap copyright-infringing edge-lit acrylic displays from Chinese suppliers everywhere on the internet, and indeed, etching acrylic with a modest CNC laser cutter has become easily viable to a lot of us in more recent years. However, if you want to kick things up a notch, [Michael Vieau] shows us
how to build a plaque from scratch using not acrylic, but rather etched glass
to make the finished product look that much more professional.
There are a few different steps to this build and each one is beautifully detailed for anyone who wants to follow along. First, the electronics driving the WS2812 lights are designed from scratch based on an ATtiny microcontroller on a PCB designed in Fritzing, and the sources necessary for replicating those at home are all available
on [Michael’s] GitHub
. He even notes how he custom-built a pogo-pin header at the end of the USBASP programmer to be able to easily use the same ICSP pinout in future projects.
But since a lot of you are likely all too familiar with the ins and outs of your basic Arduino projects, you’ll be more interested in the next steps, detailing how he milled the solid wood base and etched the glass that fits onto it. The process is actually surprisingly simple, all you need is to mask out the design you want through the use of a vinyl cutter and then pouring some etching solution over it. [Michael] recommends double-etching the design for a crisper look, and putting everything together is just as simple with his fastener of choice: hot glue.
Much as there was an age when Nixie displays adorned every piece of equipment, it seems like ease of manufacture is veering us towards an age of edge-lit displays. From
word clocks
to
pendants
and
badges
, we’re delighted to see this style of decoration emerge, including in
replacing Nixies themselves
! | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213182",
"author": "Pazzaroo",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T11:00:14",
"content": "Why use an Arduino? Most LED lighting can be powered by mains with capacitors, etc. (discreet) without the fuss of a computer to be programmed. Just a thought.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,615.014054 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/scorigami-bot-charts-nfl-history-in-the-making/ | Scorigami Bot Charts NFL History In The Making | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"NFL",
"scorigami",
"sport"
] | NFL Football is a curious game to those who live beyond the borders of the continental United States. Its rules are many and complex, and its scoring system is built on arcane magic. This system means that there are many
possible
final game scores that have never actually happened in practice. For fans keen to hear of any first-time scores as they happen,
Scorigami bot
is here to help.
Charting and researching these is the practice of Scorigami
, an idea first posited by Jon Bois,
and is explored in this SB Nation video.
It covers the many
impossible
scores in NFL, such as 1-0 and 1-1, as well as the
possible-but-extremely-unlikely
, like 6-1. To keep track of the state of Scorigami means following every score of every NFL game as its played. The ‘bot makes this easier; scraping the NFL livescores page with some nifty Javascript, it tracks each game live for potential first-time scores; the most recent as of writing being the Chiefs beating the Texans 51-31. Not only that, but the ‘bot estimates the most likely possible scorigami scores of games in progress, keeping fans on tenterhooks until the final whistle is blown. Or is it a siren in NFL? Inquiring minds need to know.
Code is naturally
available on Github
if you want to independently audit the Twitter feed; obviously the sanctity of scorigami results is absolutely paramount, and ensuring as such is a community responsibility. We’ve seen other live-score projects before,
like this glowing Super Bowl football. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6213230",
"author": "Jaycop",
"timestamp": "2020-01-23T14:38:22",
"content": "Really neat, I love stuff like this. Thanks for posting!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6213234",
"author": "Matt Cramer",
"timestamp": "2020... | 1,760,373,614.962366 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/tumble-polisher-smooths-parts-with-ease/ | Tumble Polisher Smooths Parts With Ease | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"parts tumbler",
"rock tumbler",
"tumbler"
] | When you’re 3D printing parts, it’s easy to create pieces with all manner of complex geometry. However, you’re often stuck dealing with unsightly layer lines and other surface imperfections.
[reitter_m] chooses to get around this through the use of a tumble polisher of his own design.
The polisher uses a drum made out of a glass jar sourced from IKEA. A 3D printed gear is printed to size, and then fitted around the outside. This allows the drum to be turned by a motor fitted into the base of a 3D printed cradle. A simple gear motor is used to spin the drum nice and slowly, powered by a 12 V, 500 mA supply.
It’s a build that uses readily available parts, and should be a cinch to recreate by anyone with a 3D printer.
The later revision uses an even more common IKEA jar
, making it even easier to copy the build no matter where you are in the world.
It even uses herringbone gears which gives it a very offbeat look.
We’ve seen other hacked tumbler projects too,
like this one built around an old case fan.
Video after the break. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212724",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T19:54:06",
"content": "I needed one of these. This is cool and useful as well as simple. Nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6212738",
"author": "preamp",
"timestamp... | 1,760,373,615.242474 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/circuitpython-slithers-into-100th-board-the-ohs-2020-badge/ | CircuitPython Slithers Into 100th Board — The OHS 2020 Badge | Kristina Panos | [
"Featured",
"Microcontrollers",
"News"
] | [
"CircuitPython",
"e-reader",
"game boy",
"oshw",
"OSHW Summit 2020",
"Teensy 4.0"
] | CircuitPython reached a major milestone last week as it welcomed its 100th board into the fold:
the wristwatch form factored badge
designed for
the 10th annual Open Source Hardware Summit
, which takes place March 13th in New York City. Although CircuitPython — an open source derivative of MicroPython — was born at Adafruit, more than half of the boards on this list were produced outside of the company. That just goes to show the strength of the community in support of the snake.
The OSHW 2020 badge joins a litany of familiar boards happy to drop you into a Python interpreter. Among them there’s the Adafruit Feather ecosystem, the ItsyBitsy, specialized boards like the Edge Badge that was in some goodie bags at Supercon, and the CircuitPlayground — that Swiss army knife of sensors which now comes in a Bluetooth version. The first 100 boards were rounded out in strong fashion with [Joey Castillo]’s
OpenBook e-reader
and the
Teensy 4.0
.
Watch the Future of OSHW Begin
If you were at Supercon 2019 and ran into Drew Fustini, chances are good that you got to see a prototype of this awesome wrist watch badge as it was being passed around.
One of the inspirations for this design was the card10 badge from
the 2019 CCCamp which was a dual-PCB wristwatch form factor
.
The OHS board is based on the Nordic nRF52840 inside the Rigado BMD340 module. It has a ton of features including environmental sensors, a gesture sensor, and a 9-DoF IMU. To give you some scale, that’s a 1.54″ LCD on the front. There’s also a built-in LiPo charger and a Sparkfun QWIIC connector for easily interfacing other sensors, relays, etc over I²C.
According to the IO page, contributors and comments are still welcome for this project, as the board is still in development. Unfortunately for many of us, the badge won’t be for sale, but everyone who attends OSHW Summit 2020 will be handed one of these beauties. On the other hand, the open source nature of the project means if you
really
want one, you can assemble your own.
CircuitPython’s Impact on Microcontroller Projects
The ease of CircuitPython makes it a good platform for beginners of all ages. Games are always a fun way to learn anything, and if you’re new to CircuitPython, [de∫hipu]’s
PewPew Standalone
puts a learning environment for game programming in your pocket. From the Shut Up and Take My Money department, CircuitPython lead
Scott Shawcroft
is working on
a Game Boy-compatible cartridge for CircuitPython
. Scott gave a talk at the 2019 Supercon 2019 about this very subject, which we’ll be featuring in the coming weeks.
CircuitPython is a fork of MicroPython, which is built on C. CircuitPython works by parsing Python into byte code, which makes it powerful at both ends — empowering to the programmer, who doesn’t have to learn C, while taking advantage of C’s processing power. It also means you can move from one chip architecture to the next without having to relearn all the underpinnings of each specific system.
There’s a little something for everyone, so if CircuitPython hasn’t snaked its way to your bench just yet, check out
the list of officially-supported boards
. | 28 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212698",
"author": "Drew Fustini",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T18:28:34",
"content": "“If you were at Supercon 2019 and ran into Drew Fustini, chances are good that you got to see a prototype of this awesome wrist watch badge as it was being passed around.”FYI – this was the card10 ba... | 1,760,373,615.311269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/a-kill-cord-to-end-laptop-skulduggery/ | A Kill Cord To End Laptop Skulduggery | Jenny List | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"laptop",
"magnetic coupling",
"security"
] | In our community it is common for ancient laptops to be used way beyond their usual service life, held together by stickers and lovingly upgraded to their maximum capabilities. We hope it’s unusual for such a venerable machine to be stolen, but it seems that grab-and-run thefts are very much a thing for owners of much shinier hardware. [Michael Altfield] has a solution to this problem, in the form of
a kill cord
that when broken by the crook making off with the loot, triggers a set of scripts that can wipe the device or otherwise make it useless.
Hardware-wise it’s simple enough, a USB magnetic breakaway adapter and a USB extension cable to a drive clipped to the laptop owner’s belt. On the software side it’s as straightforward as a
udev
rule to launch the disaster script of your choice. Perhaps
you could link it to something like a glitter bomb and fart spray
. But we can’t help worrying that it might be too easy to get up and accidentally detach yourself from the laptop, making it deploy whatever anti-theft measure you’d installed in error. If this goes some way to reducing theft though, it has to be worth a second look.
Thanks [bluewraith] for the tip. | 60 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212639",
"author": "sxmwht",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T16:35:49",
"content": "Pahaha, this person is going to wipe his/her laptop soon",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6212646",
"author": "A Naan",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,373,615.114049 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/inputs-of-interest-tongues-for-technology/ | Inputs Of Interest: Tongues For Technology | Kristina Panos | [
"Featured",
"Medical Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"assistive technology",
"bite force sensor",
"mouth input",
"mouth mouse",
"optical tracking",
"time of flight",
"tongue drive system",
"tongue input"
] | Welcome to the first installment of Inputs of Interest. In this column, we’re going to take a look at various input devices and methods, discuss their merits, give their downsides a rundown, and pontificate about the possibilities they present for hackers. I’ll leave it open to the possibility of spotlighting one particular device (because I already have one in mind), but most often the column will focus on input concepts.
A mouth mouse can help you get your input issues licked. Via
@merchusey on Unsplash
Some inputs are built for having fun. Some are ultra-specific shortcuts designed to do work. Others are assistive devices for people with low mobility. And many inputs blur the lines between these three ideas. This time on Inputs of Interest, we’re going to chew on the idea of oral inputs — those driven by the user’s tongue, teeth, or both.
Unless you’ve recently bitten it, burned it, or had it pierced, you probably don’t think much about your tongue. But the tongue is a strong, multi-muscled organ that rarely gets tired. It’s connected to the brain by a cranial nerve, and usually remains undamaged in people who are paralyzed from the neck down. This makes it a viable input-driving option for almost everyone, regardless of ability. And yet, tongues and mouths in general seem to be under-utilized as input appendages.
Ideally, any input device should be affordable and/or open source, regardless of the driving appendage. Whether the user is otherwise able-bodied or isn’t, there’s no reason the device shouldn’t be as useful and beautiful as possible.
Meaningful Controls
How much control do you need? Via
Unsplash
Mouth-based interfaces could be incredibly useful for everyone, and not just as assistive technology for the alternatively-abled. But much like any other type of input device, their utility depends on a few factors, starting with the number of controls. Too little control, and there’s no point in teaching the tongue new tricks.
But too many controls will get out of hand fast. Wiring up a second 108-key board as a computer macro menu that’s large enough to rival the Cheesecake Factory’s is nice idea, but only if you can keep track of and find serious utility in that many shortcuts.
Whatever the controls are, they should ideally work across platforms and objects — i.e. the same device could be used to drive a wheelchair to a desk, and then switch over to interface with the computer sitting on the desk.
Old Stuff: Sip and Puff
The Patient Operated Selector Mechanism (POSM) allowed paralyzed patients to control multiple devices. Via
Wikipedia
Of course, too little control is better than none at all. I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge what is probably the oldest oral-based assistive device out there: the sip-and-puff interface. Using a single straw, users are able to control different inputs by sipping, or inhaling through the straw, and other inputs by puffing, or exhaling through the straw. Sip-and-puff has been around for many decades and is still used to drive everything from wheelchairs to sailboats to touch screens.
Depending on the device, sip-and-puff doesn’t have to be complicated or even wired.
TubusOne
is a low-tech implementation that acts like an extendable mouth finger. Huff a little puff of air, and a slim digit with a conductive fabric tip pops out to help you navigate any touch screen, anywhere.
The biggest downsides to commercial sip-and-puff devices is that they don’t offer much fine control, and they still cost hundreds of dollars after all this time. Aside from the expense, the interface is anything but discreet. Unless it looks super cool, we’d venture to guess that a fair number of able-bodied people who would use an oral input device would prefer it be hidden, if at all possible.
Is That a Mouse in Your Mouth?
Pallette is discreet and ultra-personalized.
You may remember
Pallette
from a few years back, because this Bluetooth mouth mouse won $1000 in the assistive technologies design challenge of the 2016 Hackaday Prize.
Pallette is built on a custom-molded retainer that sits against the upper teeth like a mouth guard. An infrared sensor reads the tongue’s position to move a cursor accordingly, and a microphone translates tongue taps into clicks.
I love that Pallette is so vehemently open source. The creators built a website that has
detailed instructions for building your own
for around $200.
Pallette ticks many boxen for me. It’s discreet — the thing fits entirely within your mouth, with no wires and no headset. The only downside is that it seems like a lot to pack inside of a small mouth.
Though it’s not open-source,
here’s a controller that minimizes the mouth component BOM down to one item:
a small magnetic tongue stud. The user wears a headset full of sensors that detect tongue movements through changes in the magnetic field of the stud. The big benefit here is that since there is so little hardware inside the mouth, it doesn’t get in the way of speaking. The system can also be switched off with a long press of the tongue, and left in place while eating.
Here’s a video of it in action
.
Safe, Sanitary, and Scalable
If these things are going to catch on in some form, they need to be safe, sanitary, and scalable. If ‘wireless’ means there’s a battery in your mouth, you want to be careful. Pallette uses a silver oxide battery that has many advantages over lithium-ion, not the least of which is a drastically lower flammability rating.
The Bit should pacify all your input needs.
If we imagine these assistive inputs in the workplace, there are more things to consider. With Pallette, every worker would need to have a custom-fit mouth guard. Thermoplastic isn’t that expensive, but it would add up.
If the electronics live in a standardized enclosure, then you have a one-size-fits-all solution that’s scalable for mass production.
The Bit
, another Hackaday.io project, satisfies that condition nicely. All the electronic goodies are cleverly contained inside an adult pacifier. At first glance I thought it was molded acrylic, but this is an off-the-shelf pacifier. [oneohm] used a pair of hacked snap ring pliers to spread the opening wide, and then shoved the board in there.
The beta prototype runs on an ATmega32u4 breakout and uses an optical tracking sensor to keep tabs on the tongue. There’s also a time of flight sensor, because why not track the tongue in the z-direction, too? There’s a pair of conductive rubber force sensors to translate gentle tongue pressure into up and down scroll commands, and they register full-on chomps as clicks. As you can see in the picture, [oneohm] played around with triangulating the force sensors for joystick control.
Ease of Use
ATOM’s magnetic stand provides elevated independence.
All of these devices have their merits, but there’s one thing they haven’t considered: the starting and stopping conditions. How are you gonna get this device in your mouth by yourself if you’re paralyzed from the neck down? The project that inspired this installment,
Assistive Tongue-Operated Mouse (ATOM)
, handles that problem elegantly. When not in use, the retainer attaches magnetically to an acrylic stand, but it could just as easily link to something similar mounted on a wheelchair.
ATOM can be made for under $100, minus the base. The brain is an Arduino Pro Micro, and the main control is the pointing stick from a laptop keyboard that your tongue uses as a D-pad. I like that ATOM gets your teeth involved, too — there’s a pair of momentaries you can munch with your molars to register left and right clicks. [Ben Krasnow]
made one kind of like it
a few years back.
Something to Chew On
No matter who the user is, mouth inputs should be safe to use. Ideally, they should be cheap to make and easy to use from start to finish. In a perfect world, they would be completely hidden from view and small enough to allow speaking or even eating. That’s clearly a tall order, but it’s one worth working on. If you’ve got any favorite mouth inputs, let us know!
(Full disclosure: I’ve never used a tongue- or mouth-controlled input, but I totally would. And after giving them so much consideration, I may have to take a shot at making my own. It would be another way to do more while keeping my hands on the keyboard, and
I’m all about that
.) | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212626",
"author": "Finnius de la Lettuice",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T16:03:49",
"content": "I was just thinking about tongue input devices the other day. My goal would be a device that doesn’t prohibit or alter speech (to those capable of it). Most of the in-the-mouth devices woul... | 1,760,373,615.18478 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/fail-of-the-week-padlock-purports-to-provide-protection-proves-pathetic/ | Fail Of The Week: Padlock Purports To Provide Protection, Proves Pathetic | Dan Maloney | [
"Fail of the Week",
"lockpicking hacks"
] | [
"exploit",
"fail of the week",
"fotw",
"pentest",
"physical security",
"vulnerability"
] | Anyone in the know about IoT security is likely to steer clear of a physical security product that’s got some sort of wireless control. The list of exploits for such devices is a long, sad statement on security as an afterthought, if at all. So it’s understandable if you think a Bluetooth-enabled lock is best attacked via its wireless stack.
As it turns out,
the Master 5440D Bluetooth Key Safe can be defeated in a few minutes with just a screwdriver
. The key safe is the type a realtor or AirBnB host would use to allow access to a property’s keys. [Bosnianbill] embarked on an inspection of the $120 unit, looking for weaknesses. When physical attacks with a hammer and spoofing the solenoids with a magnet didn’t pay off, he decided to strip off the resilient skin that Master so thoughtfully provided to prevent the box from marring the finish of a door or gate. The denuded device thus revealed its awful secret: two Phillips screws, each securing a locking shackle to the cover. Once those are loose, a little prying with a screwdriver is all that’s need to get the keys to the kingdom.
In
a follow-up video
posted later, [Bill] took a closer look at another key safe and found that Master had made an anemic effort to fix this vulnerability with a squirt of epoxy in each screw head. It’s weak, at best, since a tap with a hammer compresses the gunk enough to get a grip on the screw.
We really thought [Bosnianbill]’s attack would be electronic, like that time
[Dave Jones] cracked a safe with an oscilloscope
. Who’d have thought a screwdriver would be the best way past the wireless stack?
Thanks to [Jay] for the tip. | 49 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212556",
"author": "hjf",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T12:27:04",
"content": "Not as pathetic as the forced alliteration in every other article",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6212569",
"author": "sjm4306",
"times... | 1,760,373,616.023114 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/open-laptop-soon-to-be-open-for-business/ | Open Laptop Soon To Be Open For Business | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"computer hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"crowd finding",
"Crowd Supply",
"i.MX8",
"laptop",
"mnt reform",
"open source",
"Reform"
] | How better to work on Open Source projects than to use a Libre computing device? But that’s a hard goal to accomplish. If you’re using a desktop computer, Libre software is easily achievable, though keeping your entire software stack free of closed source binary blobs might require a little extra work. But if you want a laptop, your options are few indeed. Lucky for us, there may be another device in the mix soon, because [Lukas Hartmann] has just about
finalized the MNT Reform
.
Since we started eagerly watching the Reform
a couple years ago
the hardware world has kept turning, and the Reform has improved accordingly. The i.MX6 series CPU is looking a little peaky now that it’s approaching end of life, and the device has switched to a considerably more capable – but no less free – i.MX8M paired with 4 GB of DDR4 on a SODIMM-shaped System-On-Module. This particular SOM is notable because the manufacturer freely provides the module schematics, making it easy to upgrade or replace in the future. The screen has been bumped up to a 12.5″ 1080p panel and steps have been taken to make sure it can be driven without blobs in the graphics pipeline.
If you’re worried that the chassis of the laptop may have been left to wither while the goodies inside got all the attention, there’s no reason for concern. Both have seen substantial improvement. The keyboard now uses the
Kailh Choc
ultra low profile mechanical switches for great feel in a small package, while the body itself is milled out of aluminum in five pieces. It’s printable as well, if you want to go that route. All in all, the Reform represents a heroic amount of work and we’re extremely impressed with how far the design has come.
Of course if any of the above piqued your interest
full electrical, mechanical
and
software sources
(spread across a few repos) are available for your perusal; follow the links in the blog post for pointers to follow. We’re thrilled to see how production ready the Reform is looking and can’t wait to hear user reports as they make their way into to the wild!
Via [Brad Linder] at
Liliputing
. | 74 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212525",
"author": "Clemenç",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T09:09:51",
"content": "Will love upgrading to this from my MBP. Dead serious. Fantastic project!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6212527",
"author": "Daid",
"timest... | 1,760,373,615.616341 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/destroy-my-vegetable-garden-oh-hail-no/ | Destroy My Vegetable Garden? Oh Hail No! | Kristina Panos | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"hail",
"hail damage",
"linear actuator",
"mqtt",
"raspberry pi",
"retractable roof"
] | Building and maintaining a garden takes a lot of work. And unless you have a greenhouse, you’re forced to leave your hard work outside to fend for itself against the double-edged sword of the elements. Rain and sun are necessary, but hard, pelting hail is never welcome. Just ask [Nick Rogness]. He didn’t go through all the trouble of building a
12’x12′ garden and planting tasty vegetables just to have Mother Nature spew her impurity-filled ice balls on it every other night during the summertime.
[Nick] did what any of us would do: fight back with technology.
His solution was to build a retractable roof that covers the garden with a heavy duty tarp
. A Raspberry Pi Zero W controls pair of linear actuators via motor controllers, and [Nick] put a limit switch in each of the four corners to report on the roof status. He can run the roof manually, or control it with his phone using MQTT. The whole thing runs on a 12V marine battery that gets charged up by a solar panel, so part of the interface is dedicated to reporting the battery stats.
[Nick] ran out of time to implement all the features he wanted before the season started, but there’s always next year. He has big plans that include soil moisture sensors, rain detection sensors, and an automatic watering system that collects and uses rain water. We planted the bite-size demo video for you after the break — just wash the dirt off and you’re good to go.
Maybe someday [Nick] will create a system that can automate the entire garden,
like the FarmBot
. Hey, we’re just trying to plant seeds of ideas.
Via
Raspberry Pi blog | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212507",
"author": "Dave (different D",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T06:16:36",
"content": "Nice idea… I always wondered why there was not more hail protection with solar panel installations… Anyone have thoughts or homebrew systems for that?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,615.490373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/how-efficient-can-an-airplane-be-the-celera-500l-sets-to-find-out/ | How Efficient Can An Airplane Be? The Celera 500L Sets To Find Out | Roger Cheng | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"aerodynamic",
"airplane",
"airplanes",
"Celera 500L",
"efficiency",
"Otto Aviation"
] | One of the current hype trends is the supposedly imminent revolution in air transport. So many companies showing digital renderings and mockups to illustrate their own utopic vision for the future, reaching fevered pitch at events like CES 2020. But aviation has a long history of machinery that turned out to be impractical. Wouldn’t it be great if a company focused their resources on building real aircraft and get real data before cranking up their hype machine? The people at Otto Aviation thought so, and
their Celera 500L has reportedly taken to the skies
.
If you said “Otto who?” you are not alone. The company has
zero PR activity to speak of
. Limited internet attention started from aviation fans spotting the Celera 500L under construction at its Southern California airfield. Its unusual exterior appearance and proximity to Hollywood made some dismiss it at first as a movie prop. Anyone with a passing interest in aerospace engineering could immediately see aerodynamics was a priority in this design, its long thin unswept glider-like wings implies the goal is fuel efficiency rather than speed. This was confirmed by internet sleuths uncovering patents filed by people associated with the company.
The patents include very lofty fuel efficiency goals, and industry veterans are skeptical. Fuel is a huge factor in aircraft operating costs where small increases in efficiency translate to big dollars over a plane’s lifetime. It’s hard to believe every other plane maker would deliberately leave so much on the table. There must be far more to the 500L inside that teardrop shaped body, with innovations and potentially making some trade-offs no other company has made. We can see two of them from the outside: the 500L traded off some pilot visibility for aerodynamics, and it has very little ground clearance to absorb the impact of less-than-ideal landings.
It’s certainly possible the ideas leading to this plane will fail to pan out in reality like
so many ideas before them
. Aerospace engineering is a field littered with debris of concepts that looked great on paper but crashed against a hard and unforgiving reality. But at least Otto Aviation is trying something new by building real hardware to get real data, something well worth recognizing in a sea of
hyped up fantasy renderings
.
[Photo via SoCal Airshow Review] | 83 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212900",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T12:44:42",
"content": "No revolution until a general solution is found for the Navier-Stokes equation, or until a cheap/reliable/safe/high-energy-density alternative fuel and powerplant are developed. Anything else is just a cont... | 1,760,373,615.933866 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/a-retro-touch-pad-you-can-use-on-modern-computers/ | A Retro Touch Pad You Can Use On Modern Computers | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"c64",
"input device",
"touch pad",
"usb hid",
"woodworking"
] | As [Jan Derogee] explains in the faux-retro video after the break, drawing on classic 8-bit computers was something of a pain. The rudimentary light pens and joysticks of the 1980s allowed for free-form input, but were clumsy and awkward to use. Which is why he set out to
create an ideal drawing device for the C64 using modern electronics
. For the sake of completion, he also gave it a USB HID mode so it would work on somewhat more modern computers.
His device, which he’s calling the Commo Pad, looks like it could have been transported here directly from the 1980s, but it’s built from entirely new hardware. The case is actually made of wood that [Jan] sanded and painted to give it that chunky plastic aesthetic that we all know and love, and the retro artwork on the touch panel really goes a long way to sell the vintage vibe.
Speaking of which, the touch panel is perhaps the most interesting component of the entire build. It’s actually a resistive panel that was meant for mounting to an LCD that [Jan] has connected to an Arduino. All he had to do was provide a stable frame for it and print out some art work to slide in behind it.
The Arduino and associated electronics allow the Commo Pad to be picked up by the C64 as either a joystick or mouse, which means it doesn’t need any custom software on the computer side to function. Similarly, it can also mimic a USB mouse if you want to plug it into something made a bit later than 1982. Should you be so inclined to make it wireless, the addition of a Bluetooth seems like it would be relatively trivial.
If the Commo Pad doesn’t have enough of a retro-futuristic vibe for your tastes,
we recently covered a custom optical touch panel
that looked like it could double as a prop from
Blade Runner
which might do the trick. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212867",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T09:53:34",
"content": "“The Arduino and associated electronics allow the Commo Pad get picked up by the C64 as either a joystick or mouse”As either a KoalaPad, Joystick or Mouse”, please do not forget the Koalapad, as this what got... | 1,760,373,615.720968 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/a-beginners-guide-to-x-ray-crystallography/ | A Beginner’s Guide To X-Ray Crystallography | Dan Maloney | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"crystallography",
"crystals",
"diffraction",
"dna",
"double-slit",
"filament",
"laser",
"tungsten",
"x-ray"
] | In graduate school, I had a seminar course where one of the sections was about X-ray crystallography. I was excited, because being able to discern the three-dimensional structure of macromolecules just by shining X-rays on them seemed like magic to me. And thanks to a lackluster professor, after the section it remained just as much of a mystery.
If only I’d had [Steve Mould] as a teacher back then.
His latest video
does an outstanding job explaining X-ray crystallography by scaling up the problem considerably, using the longer wavelength of light and a macroscopic target. He begins with a review of diffraction patterns, those alternating light and dark bands of constructive and destructive interference that result when light shines on two closely spaced slits — the famous
“Double-Slit Experiment”
that showed light behaves both as a particle and as a wave and provided our first glimpse of quantum mechanics. [Steve] then doubled down on the double-slit, placing another pair of slits in the path of the first. This revealed a grid of spots rather than alternating bands, with the angle between axes dependent on the angle of the slit pairs to each other.
Photograph 51, an X-ray crystallogram of the B-form of DNA, by Gosling and Franklin, 1952. Source:
Wikipedia
To complete the demonstration, [Steve] then used diffraction to image the helical tungsten filament of an incandescent light bulb. Shining a laser through the helix resulted in a pattern bearing a striking resemblance to what’s probably the most famous X-ray crystallogram ever:
[Rosalind Franklin]’s portrait of DNA
. It all makes perfect sense, and it’s easy to see how the process works when scaled down both in terms of the target size and the wavelength of light used to probe it.
Hats off to [Steve] for making something that’s ordinarily complex so easily understandable, and for filling in a long-standing gap in my knowledge. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212882",
"author": "hugo-nl",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T10:59:42",
"content": "Steve’s last name is “Mould” actually. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6212942",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2020-01-... | 1,760,373,615.66311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/form-3-sla-printer-teardown-bunnie-style/ | Form 3 SLA Printer Teardown, Bunnie Style | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"3d printing",
"Bunnie Huang",
"bunniestudios",
"form 3",
"formlabs",
"LPU",
"resin",
"sla",
"teardown"
] | [Bunnie Huang] has shared with all of us
his utterly detailed teardown on the Form 3 SLA printer
from Formlabs (on the left in the image above) and in it he says one of the first things he noticed when he opened it to look inside was a big empty space where he expected to see mirrors and optics. [Bunnie] had avoided any spoilers about the printer design and how it worked, so he was definitely intrigued.
The view inside the Form 3.
Not only does the teardown reveal the kind of thoughtful design and construction that [Bunnie] has come to expect of Formlabs, but it reveals that the Form 3 has gone in an entirely new direction with how it works. Instead of a pair of galvanometers steering a laser beam across a build surface (as seen in the Form 1 and Form 2 printers) the new machine is now built around what Formlabs calls an LPU, or Light Processing Unit, which works in conjunction with a new build tank and flexible build surface. In short, the laser and optics are now housed in a skinny, enviromentally-sealed unit that slides left and right within the printer. A single galvo within steers the laser vertically, as the LPU itself moves horizontally. Payoffs from this method include things such as better laser resolution, the fact that the entire optical system is no longer required to sit directly underneath a vat of liquid resin, and that build sizes can be bigger. In addition, any peeling forces that a model is subjected to are lower thanks to the way the LPU works.
Details about exactly how the Form 3 works are available
on Formlabs’ site
and you can also see it in action from a practical perspective on
Adam Savage’s Tested
(video link), but the real joy here is the deeply interesting look at the components and assembly through the eyes of someone with [Bunnie]’s engineering experience. He offers insights from the perspective of function, supply, manufacture, and even points out a bit of NASA humor to be found inside the guts of the LPU.
[Bunnie] knows his hardware and he’s certainly no stranger to Formlabs’ work. His earlier
Form 2 teardown was equally detailed
as was his
Form 1 teardown
before that. His takeaway is that the Form 3 and how it works represents an evolutionary change from the earlier designs, one he admits he certainly didn’t see coming. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212829",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T04:07:12",
"content": "The Form 3 is the first 3D printer I’ve owned (I’ve used various FDM printers, but they have always disappointed me). All in all I am glad I waited for one. It’s not perfect, but I am happy with the trade of... | 1,760,373,616.076049 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/hdd-driven-chime-clock-is-quite-striking/ | HDD-Driven Chime Clock Is Quite Striking | Kristina Panos | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"chime",
"chime clock",
"clapper",
"hard drive actuator",
"hdd",
"NodeMCU",
"solenoid",
"uln2003",
"westminster chimes"
] | It seems that the more hectic life gets, the harder it is to consciously slow down and enjoy the experience. There’s always another bill to worry about, and a new deadline around the corner. The last thing we need are ultra-precise digital clocks everywhere we look. When it’s time to relax, there’s more than enough room for a passive type of clock that gives the time on time’s terms.
[Scoops]’ beautiful chime-only clock
seems perfect for its location — an intimate event space inside an old house in Taiwan. Having only a vague sense of passing time helps us relax responsibly at social events. There’s no need to pull out your phone or glance at your watch when notifications about the passage of time softly permeate the air.
Here’s how it works: a NodeMCU controls four hard drive actuators through a ULN2003. The actuators each have a small extension and a clapper fitted on the end, which strikes the aluminium tubes that make up the chimes. There’s a web interface where [Scoops] can set the chimes to sound as frequently or infrequently as desired, or schedule a quiet period during the overnight hours. In emergencies, the clock can also be muted directly with the push of a button.
Take a little time to check out the short videos after the break, because this thing does a mean Westminster Chimes. But don’t stay too long, because time is running out! You have until Friday, January 24th to enter our
Tell Time Contest
over on IO.
Time can be relaxing or suffocating, depending on the way you look at it. If it’s visual relaxation you need,
watch this bubble clock
and float away from reality for a while. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212791",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-01-22T00:16:13",
"content": "Not getting the usual deja vu from this, like HaD posted it last week/month/year but recalling someone did this with MFM drive mechanicals in the 99-01 timeframe, well by “this” I mean the actuators ... | 1,760,373,616.189787 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/reverse-engineering-yokis-home-automation-devices/ | Reverse Engineering Yokis Home Automation Devices | Tom Nardi | [
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"home automation",
"mqtt",
"NRF24",
"reverse engineering",
"Yokis"
] | These days, it’s hard to keep track of all the companies that are trying to break into the home automation market. Whether they’re rebrands of somebody else’s product or completely new creations, it seems like every company has at least a few “smart” gadgets for you to choose from. We hadn’t heard of the Yokis devices that [Nicolas Maupu] has been working on before today,
but thanks to his efforts to reverse engineer their protocol
, we think they might become more popular with the hacking crowd.
Even if you don’t have a Yokis MTV500ER dimmer or MTR2000ER switch of your own, we think the detailed account of how [Nicolas] figured out how to talk to these devices is worth a read. His first step was to connect his oscilloscope directly to the SPI lines on the remote to see what it was sending out. With an idea of what he was looking for, he then used an nRF24L01+ radio connected to an ESP8266 to pull packets out of the air so he could analyze their structure. This might seem like a very specialized process, but in reality most of the techniques demonstrated could be applicable for any unknown communications protocol of which you’ve got a hex dump.
On the other hand, if you
do
have some of these devices (or plan to get them), then the software [Nicolas] has put together looks very compelling. Essentially it’s an interactive firmware for the ESP8266 that allows it to serve as a bridge between the proprietary Yokis wireless protocol and a standard MQTT home automation system. When the microcontroller is connected to the computer you get a basic terminal interface that allows you to scan and pair for devices as well as toggle them on and off.
This bridge could be used to allow
controlling your Yokis hardware with a custom handheld remote
, or you could follow the example of our very own [Mike Szczys], and
pull everything together with a bit of Node-RED
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212764",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T22:00:03",
"content": "” that are trying to break into the home automation market. ”I see what you did there.B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6212771",
"author": "Bill G... | 1,760,373,616.127969 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/21/new-contest-train-all-the-things/ | New Contest: Train All The Things | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"ai",
"artificial intelligence",
"machine learning",
"Train All the Things"
] | The old way was to write clever code that could handle every possible outcome. But what if you don’t know exactly what your inputs will look like, or just need a faster route to the final results? The answer is Machine Learning, and we want you to
give it a try during the Train All the Things contest
!
It’s hard to find a more buzz-worthy term than Artificial Intelligence. Right now, where the rubber hits the road in AI is Machine Learning and it’s never been so easy to get your feet wet in this realm.
From an 8-bit microcontroller to common single-board computers, you can do cool things like object recognition or color classification quite easily. Grab a beefier processor, dedicated ASIC, or lean heavily into the power of the cloud and you can do much more, like facial identification and gesture recognition. But the sky’s the limit. A big part of this contest is that we want everyone to get inspired by what you manage to pull off.
Yes, We Do Want to See Your ML “Hello World” Too!
Wait, wait, come back here. Have we already scared you off? Don’t read AI or ML and assume it’s not for you. We’ve included a category for “Artificial Intelligence Blinky” — your first attempt at doing something cool.
Need something simple to get you excited? How about
Machine Learning on an ATtiny85 to sort Skittles
candy by color? That uses just one color sensor for a quick and easy way to harvest data that forms a training set. But you could also climb up the ladder just a bit and make yourself
a camera-based LEGO sorter
or using an
IMU in a magic wand to detect which spell you’re casting
. Need more scientific inspiration? We’re hoping someday someone will
build a training set that classifies microscope shots of micrometeorites
. But we’d be equally excited with projects that tackle robot locomotion, natural language, and all the other wild ideas you can come up with.
Our guess is you don’t really need prizes to get excited about this one… most people have been itching for a reason to try out machine learning for quite some time. But we do have $100 Tindie gift certificates for the most interesting entry in each of the four contest categories: ML on the edge, ML on the gateway, AI blinky, and ML in the cloud.
Get started on your entry. The
Train All The Things contest
is sponsored by Digi-Key and runs until April 7th. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212737",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-01-21T20:40:26",
"content": "Do everything Circuit Cellar did on 8 bits with only 3 orders of magnitude more computing power!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6212747",
"... | 1,760,373,616.230725 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/new-year-habits-what-do-you-do-for-data-storage/ | New Year Habits – What Do You Do For Data Storage? | Bob Baddeley | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"backup",
"external hard drive",
"facebook",
"flickr",
"Google Photos",
"hard drive",
"nas"
] | 2020 is a year of reflection and avoiding regret, and one of the biggest practices we all know we should do better is back up our data. Inevitably there will be a corruption or accident, and we mourn the loss of some valuable data and vow to never let it happen again, and then promptly forget about good data retention practices.
I believe life is about acquiring memories, so it makes sense to me to try to archive and store those memories so that I can reflect on them later, but data storage and management is a huge pain. There’s got to be a better way (cue black and white video of clumsy person throwing up arms in disgust).
Nice Cloud You Have There; Shame if Something Happened to It
The teens of the century saw a huge shift towards cloud storage. The advantages of instantly backing up files and using the cloud as the primary storage for all your devices is appealing. It’s now easier to transfer files via the cloud than with a cable. With Google Docs and WordPress we have our most important documents and writing stored as database blobs on someone else’s servers. Facebook and Google and Flickr record all of our memories as photo albums. Unlimited storage is common, and indexing is so good that we can find photos with a vague description of their contents.
These things are instantly accessible, but lack permanence. Gone are newspaper clippings and printed photos discovered in a shoebox. When we aren’t in control of those services, they can disappear without any warning. Even some big offerings have packed up shop, leaving people scrambling to back up data before the servers were shut down.
Google Plus is closed
,
Yahoo Groups is closed
,
MySpace lost all content created prior to 2016
,
GeoCities closed in 2009
, and
Ubuntu One closed in 2014
. It’s safe to say that no online content is safe from deletion. It’s also safe to say that cloud storage is a difficult location from which to extract your data.
With the risk of data leaks and privacy violations occurring daily, it’s also safe to say that some of your files should probably not be stored in the cloud in the first place. So, how do we do it well, and how do we get in the habit of doing it regularly?
Mantra: One Local Storage Backup to Rule Them All
I think the solution is a single backup strategy for all content, where everything is coalesced into a single location at regular intervals, and the backup process is performed on the agglomeration. To that end, most of my files are organized by subfolder and stored on an external hard drive connected to my local router. This is known as a NAS (Network Attached Storage) scheme and has been around for about 40 years. It was a great idea then and remains so today.
This is accessible to all my devices, essentially giving me the benefits of a cloud (well, more like a fog since it’s so close), but stored on my own hardware. I have folders for projects, work, taxes, and photos, among other things, with subfolders extending many levels below that.
Are Those Thumb Drives Current?
A bowl full of thumb drives.
We still use thumb drives all the time, and make quick changes to the files, but then don’t delete the files, and now we’ve got a bowl full of thumb drives with folders of things that are slightly different from their originals, but we don’t have the time to reconcile the differences. If I assume that anything on a thumb drive already exists on my other devices, and that the thumb drive is only a temporary storage medium for file transfer, then I don’t feel so bad about wiping the contents any time I need a thumb drive. They do not get backed up because they are not the original source of the document.
I recommend you follow my lead. Thumb drives lack a sense of permanence by their very nature and should be considered a scratch pad for data, not a stone slate for archives.
Gathering Your Flock of Devices
I have a laptop, desktop, tablet, and phone, which means four distinct streams of devices that all need backing up. Some may have project files stored locally for when I’m not on my network, and synchronizing those projects with my main NAS storage is sometimes tricky.
At the new year I take everything that’s in my local desktop profile, and copy it onto the NAS. This leaves a vulnerability as the year end approaches and a year’s worth of work is not backed up, but it’s better than nothing. It’s hard to decide what gets put into the NAS; does everything in the user’s profile get moved, including installers for applications, the downloads folder, bash history? What about settings for services that are running on my computer?
I’ve been lazy here, as I figure if a catastrophe were to happen it would be an opportunity to restart from scratch rather than recreate an environment with years worth of entropy and old applications. For a business backup where running services and configuration may be critical this is a bad idea, but for a personal server where things are more experimental and temporary, it’s not so important.
Email: Preserving Contacts and Correspondence
Backing up mail is debatable, but important to me. So many attachments and writeups are sent through this medium, and saving the threads for passive-aggressive “see this email from last year in which I answered your question already” is satisfying, but there is also a lot of useless garbage that doesn’t matter within days, and dedicating any additional time or energy or storage to it is counterproductive. I use
Thunderbird
for all my accounts. This has the benefit of having local storage of all the email, including all my Gmail and other accounts. This Thunderbird profile is stored on the external hard drive, so backing up my mail requires no additional effort.
Domains, Repositories, and Social Media
For each of the web domains I own I can go to the control panel and download zip files of all of their file contents and databases. This isn’t as easy with complicated AWS setups where data and settings are stored across multiple services. I imagine it would be possible to set up “wget –mirror” to copy contents from the remote location, but I’d still need to capture the database contents.
In an ideal world all my projects would be in versioned repositories, backed up to a git server, and the local copy would be complete. This makes it part of the local storage that is already saved. If you don’t have copies of those repositories, maybe cloning them locally would be prudent. Since all my projects are in my projects folder on my NAS, I don’t have any additional work here, either. It is, however, a good idea to make sure that across all your devices your repositories are up to date before backing up your system.
When Europe passed the
GDPR
, one of the requirements around the law deals with
data portability
, specifically calling for people to be able to download data concerning them. This has led to many sites making it easy to get a zip file with everything. Facebook allows you to
download your own data
, which works pretty well. You can only download your own photos, however, not photos of you taken and uploaded by other people. I wish there was a better solution for that. I want to save photos other people took of me; not to violate copyright but to preserve memories. I also wish there was a way to save my Hackaday.io projects. While all my original files are stored in my local project folder, the writeups and logs are not. Still, this is another category where the goal is to download a zip file of all the content and save it to the NAS.
Photos
Between
Facebook
,
Instagram
,
Flickr
,
Google Photos
, and
iCloud
, among others, we probably each have a good number of photos spread around the web. The trick is not just in downloading those photos, but also making sure you don’t have duplicates stored elsewhere. Fortunately, each has methods available for downloading your content. Tools exist to find and remove duplicate files, but with terabytes of storage on my drives, the effort of pruning the data so far has exceeded my need.
Aggregation and Storage
A backup solution that includes downloading all content onto a single NAS, then backing that NAS up to another drive, then rotating the drives out.
I have a total of three 5TB hard drives. One is for daily use, and two are the backups. One of the two is the most recent year, and is stored at a friend’s house. The other is from 2 years ago and is stored at my house. At the new year, I take the old one and erase it, then copy the daily one over to it and rotate the drives, moving the current one offsite, bringing the offsite one back, and turning the oldest one, which now has the newest copy, into the main drive. This way I always have a backup of my files that is a year or less old stored somewhere else in case of a local emergency like fire or flood, and one that is less than 2 years old in case of catastrophic failure of the daily and the external backup. I verify my backup by making the backed up drive my primary, which also serves to more evenly wear all of them.
Better Options?
They say a backup isn’t a backup unless it’s been tested, and I have only needed to look back on backups a couple times for missing files. But my solution isn’t the best. I know that even though I’ve captured everything (I hope) in the backup there are valuable things locked in a database file that would take a data archivist a long time to discover. My solution isn’t indexed or cataloged, and there are all kinds of duplicates, and things stored in strange places. It’s also time consuming, which is why I only do it once a year, and the later in the year before the next backup the greater the risk of data loss.
Some people swear by RAID for data redundancy, but that is NOT the same as data backup. We
covered NAS options
a little more than a decade ago, but things have changed a lot. What software tools or automation scripts make the process of downloading your special data easier or more efficient?
Creating a Legacy
A friend died recently, and there was a scramble to find photos and highlights of his life. It made me wonder what will happen with my legacy, which is primarily scattered across servers, condensed onto 3 hard drives, and difficult to search. I probably won’t be studied by historians in future generations, and curating my life’s digital content really only matters to me and a few people immediately close to me, so there’s a question of how much effort to put into this endeavor. Thus, in the beginning of the new decade, with so many more options available than when I started this pattern, I ask the community for suggestions on personal data storage and curation. | 109 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212329",
"author": "HandsFreeBananaphone",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T15:21:31",
"content": "I’m really considering setting up a local NextCloud server on an old machine at home, using an external hard drive, and maybe considering adding Amazon Glacier for a durable, off-site backup ... | 1,760,373,616.502014 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/see-if-todays-air-quality-will-conch-you-out/ | See If Today’s Air Quality Will Conch You Out | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"air quality",
"blynk",
"particulate analysis",
"particulates",
"solar power"
] | Air quality is one of those problems that is rather invisible and hard to grasp until it gets bad enough to be undeniable. By then, it may be too late to do much about it. But if more people were interested in the problem enough to monitor the air around them, there would be more innovators bringing more ideas to the table. And more attention to a problem usually means more accountability and eventual action.
This solar-powered particulate analyzer
made by [rabbitcreek] is a friendly way to take the problem out of the stratosphere of ‘someday’ and bring it down to the average person’s backyard. Its modular nature makes it fairly simple to build, and the conch shell enclosure gives it a natural look. That shell also cleverly hides the electronics, while at the same time allowing air and particulates to reach the sensor. If you don’t like the shell enclosure, we think the right type of bird feeder could protect the electronics while allowing airflow.
[rabbitcreek] attached a sizeable solar panel to the shell on a GoPro mount so it can be adjusted to face the sun. The panel charges a Li-Po battery that gets boosted to 5V. Every two hours, a low-power breakout circuit wakes up the Feather ESP32 and takes a reading from the particulate sensor. [rabbitcreek] can easily see the data on his phone thanks to the Blynk app he created.
Why limit this to your yard? Bare ESP32s are cheap enough that it’s feasible to build
a whole network of air quality sensors
. | 16 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212280",
"author": "Dave.",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T12:15:12",
"content": "…something something something about Aussie fires. But I won’t.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6212442",
"author": "Daniel Scott Matthews",
... | 1,760,373,616.294443 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/20/tessellations-and-modular-origami-from-fabric-and-paper/ | Tessellations And Modular Origami From Fabric And Paper | Sharon Lin | [
"Art",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"folding",
"geometry",
"origami",
"smocking",
"tessellation"
] | You may be familiar with origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, but chances are you haven’t come across smocking. This technique refers to the way fabric can be bunched by stitches, often made in a grid-like pattern to create more organized designs. Often, smocking is done with soft fabrics, and you may have even noticed it done on silk blouses and cotton shirts. There are plenty of examples of 18th and 19th century paintings depicting smocking in fashion.
[Madonna Yoder], an origami enthusiast, has documented her explorations in origami tessellations and smocking, including
geometric shapes folded from a single sheet of paper
and
fabric smocked weave patterns
. Apart from flat patterns, she has also made
chain-linked smocked scarves
stitched into a circular pattern and several examples of
origami tessellations transferred to fabric smocking
. Similar to folds in origami, the stitches used aren’t complex. Rather, the crease pattern defines the final shape once the stitches and fabric are properly gathered together.
What’s the similarity between the two art forms? On the surface, it seems as though they concern entirely different disciplines – one features designs folded from paper while the other deals with stitching fabric. However, when it comes to modular origami and creating tessellations, there’s plenty of overlap.
Both art forms rely on precision to create the exact angles that produce the patterns, but it’s a bit more noticeable on the puffy smocking piecess if precision has gone awry.
If you’re interested in creating some smocking patterns of your own, there are plenty of tutorials to follow such as this
honeycomb smocking tutorial. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212294",
"author": "RichC",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T12:56:48",
"content": "If you could automate this, it would be useful for converting waste paper into packing material.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6212314",
"a... | 1,760,373,616.35306 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/19/trs-80-clone-uses-modern-parts/ | TRS-80 Clone Uses Modern Parts | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"clone",
"cmos",
"glen",
"modern",
"radioshack",
"redesign",
"retrocomputing",
"scratch",
"tandy",
"trs-80"
] | Before RadioShack decided the best business model for an electronics store was to harass its customers into buying overpriced batteries and cellphones, it was a great one-stop shop for most discrete components, knobs, resistors, radio equipment, and even a popular computer. That computer, the TRS-80, is a popular one in the retrocomputing world and if you can’t get original parts to restore one,
you can always build your own clone
.
This build comes to us from [Glen] aka [glenk] who is known for retrocomputing builds like
this classic PET we featured a little over a year ago
, and this TRS-80 is his latest project. He really gets into the weeds on the hardware, too. This isn’t an FPGA or Raspberry Pi running a TRS-80 on lookalike hardware. [Glen] has completely redesigned the computer from the ground up using modern CMOS components in order to make a modern, perfectly functional replica of the RadioShack classic.
Because of the level of detail [Glen] goes into, this one is a must-read for anyone interested in computing hardware (as opposed to the software, which you could learn about through a more simple emulator) and retrocomputing in general, and also brings most of us back to a more nostalgic, simpler time where a trip to
RadioShack
was fun and interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTg4eb-QqK0 | 35 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212241",
"author": "drenehtsral",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T07:03:20",
"content": "So, after the 1st section of the PDF there is what looks like, for lack of a better description, an cross between a chicken and an alpaca, but its photo is not captioned and I am curious what this bea... | 1,760,373,616.871239 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/19/rastercarve-converts-images-to-cnc/ | RasterCarve Converts Images To CNC | Richard Baguley | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"javascript",
"render"
] | CNC machines are an essential part of the hacker’s toolset. These computer-controlled cutters of wood, metal and other materials can translate a design into a prototype in short order, making the process of iterating a project much easier. However, the software to create these designs can be expensive, so [Franklin Wei] decided to
write his own
. In particular, he decided to write his own program to engrave images, converting a photo into a toolpath that can be cut. The result is
RasterCarve
, a web app that converts an image into a GCode that can be fed into a CNC machine.
The motivation for this project was to learn how to do it, but also frustration at the cost of software such as
PhotoVCarve
. Costing $149, this program does much the same as the one written by [Wei], albeit with a number of additional bells and whistles. He does an excellent job of describing how the conversion process works: his code creates a series of paths across the image, then converts the color of each pixel into a depth: The darker the image, the deeper the cut.
He also describes the process of taking this simple code and
converting it into a Javascript web app
, a process that has driven many a programmer to madness. It just goes to show that, although using other people’s stuff is fine, it often makes sense to try and do it yourself. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212212",
"author": "smellsofbikes",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T03:12:24",
"content": "I admire this and I particularly think it’s cool that it’s been released as a web app. I know windows-only people who could use this. I will note thathttp://linuxcnc.org/docs/2.5/html/gui/image-to... | 1,760,373,616.796757 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/19/hackaday-links-january-19-2020/ | Hackaday Links: January 19, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"feces",
"hackaday links",
"open hardware",
"Pandas",
"personal ads",
"python",
"R",
"space tourism",
"SpaceX",
"Starlink"
] | We’ve seen some interesting pitches in personal ads before, but this one takes the cake. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is
looking for a date
to go along with him on his paid trip to the Moon, with the hope of finding a life partner. Maezawa is slated to be
SpaceX’s first commercial lunar flyby customer
, and will make the trip no earlier than 2023. That should give him plenty of time to go through the 20,000 applications he received from single women 20 and older with bright personalities and positive attitudes. And he should have plenty of time to make an
awesome mixtape
for the ride.
Imagine snooping through your kid’s garbage can only to find a used syringe lying in there. Most of us would likely be able to tell that the syringe once contained thermal compound or solder paste and be suitably proud of the little chip off the block, but apparently
Cooler Master has fielded enough calls from panicked normie parents
that they decided to change the design of their applicators. Given
the design of the new applicator
we doubt that’s really the reason, but it’s a good marketing story, and we can totally see how someone could mistake the old applicator for something illicit.
It looks as though
SpaceX could be getting itself into legal trouble
with its Starlink launches. Or more correctly, the FCC might, having apparently violated the National Environmental Policy Act, a Nixon-era law that requires government agencies to consider the environmental impact of any projects they approve. The Federal Communications Commission has been using a loophole in the law to claim a “categorical exemption” from these reviews when approving communications projects, particularly space-based projects. It’s not clear whether space is legally considered part of the environment, so the lawyers are hashing that out. If the FCC gets sued and loses, it’s not clear what happens to the existing Starlink satellites or future launches. Stay tuned for details.
Don’t forget that the
Open Hardware Summit
is coming soon. The 2020 meeting is the 10th anniversary of the confab, to be held on March 13 in New York. Hackaday is, of course, a proud sponsor of the conference, and our own Sophi Kravtiz will be the keynote speaker!
Get your tickets soon.
Tired of off-loading data manipulation and analysis tasks to R in your Python programs? Then you’re probably already aware of
Pandas
, the Python library that converts data into dataframe objects for easier manipulation. Pandas has (have?) been in pre-release for years, but there’s now
a legit 1.0.0 release candidate
available. Now might be the time for you Python data mungers to get onboard the Pandas Express.
And finally, the Consumer Electronics Show is a yearly gift to anyone in the tech media, providing as it does so many examples of outrageous uses for the latest technology. To wit, we have
LuluPet
, the world’s first feces-analyzing cat litter box. LuluPet uses a built-in camera along with IR sensors and an “AI chip” to monitor your cat’s dookie and provide an alert if anything looks awry. On the one hand, inspecting cat poop is a job we’d love to outsource, but on the other hand, most cats we know are quick to cover the evidence of their excretions with kitty litter, leaving a clay-encrusted blob rather than the turds with defined borders that would seem to be needed for image recognition to do its job. We’ll reserve judgment on this one until we see a review. | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212194",
"author": "qwert",
"timestamp": "2020-01-20T00:28:00",
"content": "Man. Billionaires are literally crazy people. For some reason that much wealth just eats holes in your brain.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6212199... | 1,760,373,616.926295 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/19/be-still-my-animatronic-heart/ | Be Still, My Animatronic Heart | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"animatronic",
"arduino",
"beating",
"diastole",
"heart",
"organ",
"servo",
"systole"
] | Fair warning for the squeamish: some versions of
[Will Cogley]’s animatronic heart
are realistic enough that you might not want to watch the video below. That’d be a shame though, because he really put a lot of effort into the build, and the results have a lot to teach about mimicking the movements of living things.
As for why one would need an animatronic heart, we’re not sure. [Will] mentions no specific use case for it, although we can think of a few. With the
Day of Compulsory Romance
fast approaching, the fabric-wrapped version would make a great gift for the one who stole your heart, while the silicone-enrobed one could be used as a movie prop or an awesome prank. Whatever the reason, [Will]’s build is a case study in incremental development. He started with a design using a single continuous-rotation servo, which powered four 3D-printed paddles from a common crank. The four paddles somewhat mimicked the movements of the four chambers of the heart, but the effect wasn’t quite convincing. The next design used two servos and complex parallelogram linkages to expand each side of the heart in turn. It was closer, but still not quite right.
After carefully watching footage of a beating heart, [Will] decided that his mechanism needed to imitate the rapid systolic contraction and slow diastolic expansion characteristic of a real heart. To achieve this, his final design has three servos plus an Arduino for motion control. Slipped into a detailed silicone jacket, the look is very realistic. Check out the video below if you dare.
We’ve seen plenty of animatronic body parts before, from
eyes
to
hands
to
entire faces
. This might be the first time we’ve seen an animatronic version of an internal organ, though. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6212162",
"author": "Waterfowl",
"timestamp": "2020-01-19T21:09:33",
"content": "He should put that in a styrofoam box with biohazard on the side and leave it somewhere and record the result. ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,373,616.688375 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/18/bask-in-the-glory-of-this-336-led-digit-display/ | Bask In The Glory Of This 336 LED Digit Display | Tom Nardi | [
"Art",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"graphical",
"LED display",
"python",
"seven segment LED"
] | [Chris Combs] recently took the wraps off of
an incredible art piece that he calls
Road Ahead
which uses 336 seven segment LED digits to create an absolutely gorgeous display. With a piece of smoked acrylic to slightly diffuse the orange glow of the LEDs, the end result has a distinctively retro look that we’d gladly spend all day staring at.
For those looking to dig a bit deeper, [Chris] has put together
some very impressive documentation over on Hackaday.io
that goes into plenty of detail on how he designed and built this beauty. From the design of the PCBs that carry all of the 0.3″ SMD displays to the custom software running on the Raspberry Pi 3 that powers it, there’s no technical stone left unturned.
According to the build log, this is the second version of the display. The first one was housed in a rather attractive wooden enclosure, but as [Chris] explains, that was precisely the problem. He wanted something that looked cold and unfeeling as the nearly 340 digits flashed away with potentially ominous intent. So he ditched the wooden case for a powder coated steel one that looks more like the front panel of a mainframe than something you’d pick up at the craft store.
Another interesting point explained in the write-up is how the Python software is designed to treat the hardware as a contiguous graphical display rather than just an array of independent digits. Grayscale images can be reproduced on the by using PWM to adjust the brightness of each segment’s corresponding “pixel”; though admittedly it takes a bit of imagination to see the intended image with a resolution this low.
This project reminds us of the
incredible LED hexdump display we saw not that long ago
, down to the PWM trickery for squeezing “graphics” out of these exceptionally non-graphical elements. With any luck, perhaps these are the opening shots in an arms race to see who can build the largest array of multi-segment LED displays. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6211955",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2020-01-18T21:22:36",
"content": "I was skeptical but having seen the quality of the construction and components, it truly is glorious.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6211966",
"a... | 1,760,373,617.225974 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/18/breathtaking-c64c-case-faithfully-recreates-original-in-wood/ | Breathtaking C64C Case Faithfully Recreates Original In Wood | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"C64C",
"Case mod",
"commodore",
"wood",
"woodworking"
] | Most computer case modders take certain liberties with their builds, to express their creativity and push the state of the art. Some, however, seek to recreate the original in as detailed a way as possible while still being unique.
This faithful reproduction of a Commodore 64C in wood
is a great example of the latter approach.
[Atilla Meric]’s experience with model airplane building came into play when he decided to leap into this build. Being used to making small, thin pieces of wood even smaller and thinner proved valuable here, as did working from templates and getting complex shapes cut out cleanly. [Atilla] used a miniature table saw to rough cut his stock; the wood species may have been lost in the translation from Turkish but it appears to be some variety of oak. Detail cuts were done with knives, and everything was held together with glue. The painstaking effort that went into the air vents is amazing, and the fact that they exactly match the vents on the original injection-molded case is truly impressive. We also like the subtle detail of the slightly depressed area around the keyboard opening, just like the original, as well as the smooth curve at the front of the case to comfortably support the wrists. The cutouts for connectors and the labels are top-notch too.
We appreciate the craftsmanship that went into this case mod, and the time and effort [Atilla] put into the build are obvious. We’ve seen
wooden computer case mods
before, but this one really pushes all our buttons.
[via
Twitter
] | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6211921",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2020-01-18T18:20:17",
"content": "seriously, a work of art! Beautiful.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6212046",
"author": "neimado",
"timestamp": "2020-01-19T08:27:17",... | 1,760,373,617.172609 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/18/bullet-proofing-your-car-with-an-affordable-composite-armor/ | Bullet-proofing Your Car With An Affordable Composite Armor | Sharon Lin | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"bulletproof",
"car",
"Chemistry",
"composite",
"resin"
] | Remember those actions movies like
The Fast and the Furious
where cars are constantly getting smashed by fast flying bullets? What would it have taken to protect the vehicles from AK-47s? In [PrepTech]’s
three-part
DIY composite
vehicle armor
tutorial, he shows how he was able to make his own bulletproof armor from scratch. Even if you think the whole complete-collapse-of-civilization thing is a little far-fetched, you’ve got to admit that’s pretty cool.
The first part deals with actually building the composite. He uses layers of stainless steel, ceramic mosaic tiles, and fiberglass, as well as epoxy resin in order to build the composite. The resin was chosen for its high three-dimensional cross-linked density, while the fiberglass happened to be the most affordable composite fabric. Given the nature of the tiny shards produced from cutting fiberglass, extreme care must be taken so that the shards don’t end up in your clothes or face afterwards. Wearing a respirator and gloves, as well as a protective outer layer, can help.
After laminating the fabric, it hardens to the point where individual strands become stiff. The next layer – the hard ceramic – works to deform and slow down projectiles, causing it to lose around 40% of its kinetic energy upon impact. He pipes silicone between the tiles to increase the flexibility. Rather than using one large tile, which can only stand one impact, [PrepTech] uses a mosaic of tiles, allowing multiple tiles to be hit without affecting the integrity of surrounding tiles. While industrial armor uses boron or silicon carbide, ceramic is significantly lower cost.
The stainless steel is sourced from a scrap junkyard and cut to fit the dimensions of the other tiles before being epoxied to the rest of the composite. The final result is allowed to sit for a week to allow the epoxy to fully harden before being subject to ballistics tests. The plate was penetrated by a survived shots from a Glock, Škorpion vz. 61, and AK-47, but was penetrated by the Dragunov sniper rifle. Increasing the depth of the stainless steel to at least a centimeter of ballistic grade steel may have helped protect the plate from higher calibers, but [PrepTech] explained that he wasn’t able to obtain the material in his country.
Nevertheless, the lower calibers were still unable to puncture even the steel, so unless you plan on testing out the plate on high caliber weapons, it’s certainly a success for low-cost defense tools. | 35 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6211884",
"author": "cyberteque",
"timestamp": "2020-01-18T15:11:19",
"content": "remember to do the floor and firewall as well!!way back when, my mate bought an FN-FALwe went out to a place “folks” dump stolen carsI let go a burst of 7.62 at a Valiant (Chrysler) station wagonwe had... | 1,760,373,617.350736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/18/how-to-grow-almost-anything/ | How To Grow (Almost) Anything | Sharon Lin | [
"Science"
] | [
"biology",
"botany",
"classes",
"mit media lab"
] | An off-shoot of the infamous “How to Make (Almost) Anything” course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
“How to Grow (Almost) Anything”
tackles the core concepts behind designing with biology – prototyping biomolecules, engineering biological computers, and 3D printing biomaterials. The material touches elements of synthetic biology, ethics of biotechnology, protein design, microfluidic fabrication, microbiome sequencing, CRISPR, and gene cloning.
In a similar fashion to the original HTMAA course, HTGAA works by introducing a new concept each week that builds up to a final project. Students learn about designing DNA experiments, using synthesized oligonucleotide primers to amplify a PCR product, testing the impact of genes on the production of lycopene in E coli., protein analysis and folding, isolating a microbiome colony from human skin and confining bacteria to image, printing 3D structures that contain living engineered bacteria, and using expansion microscopy (ExM) to visualize a mouse brain slice. The
final projects
run the gamut from creating a biocomputer in a cream to isolating yeast from bees.
Growing out from an initiative to create large communities around biotechnology research, the course requires minimal prior exposure to biology. By working directly with
hands-on applications
to biodesign concepts, students are able to direct apply their knowledge of theoretical biology concepts to real-world applications, making it an ideal springboard for bio-inspired DIY projects. Even though the syllabus isn’t fully available online, there’s a treasure trove of past projects to browse through for your next big inspiration. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6211910",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2020-01-18T16:53:03",
"content": "I can’t find it now but I saw an advert in the back of a magazine (not that kind of mag don’t worry) for a DIY home CRISPR kit!I was blown away at the prospect of loosing the home chemistry set and ga... | 1,760,373,617.109883 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/18/alexa-controls-this-savage-pumpkin/ | Alexa Controls This Savage Pumpkin | Lewin Day | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"halloween",
"jack o lantern",
"jack-o-lanterns",
"pumpkin"
] | Traditionally, pumpkins are carved during the holiday of Halloween to represent malicious and frightening beasts. Flying in the face of this is [minihannah]’s carving of Adam Savage, which she’s calling a hero pumpkin. It’s a fun twist on the custom, and of course,
it’s packing WiFi too.
The build starts with a carving of the typical orange winter squash cultivar, using artwork cribbed from the cover of Mr. Savage’s biography. Inside, there’s a bunch of LEDs, all under the control of an adafruit feather M0, which talks to the broader internet over WiFi. The pumpkin can be controlled by Alexa, thanks to the combination of Adafruit.IO and IFTTT.
It’s a fun little Internet of Things build, and one that’s ready for the modern smarthome, where you’re already used to yelling at the lights to switch off. We’d love to see a similar Billy Corgan build, if only for the pun. If you give it a go,
be sure to drop us a line.
Video after the break. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6211855",
"author": "solipso",
"timestamp": "2020-01-18T12:00:57",
"content": "Looks like Kalinin or Trockij breeded with Mao. Commie for sure :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6211880",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,373,617.271955 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/17/home-safety-monitoring-with-iot/ | Home Safety Monitoring With IoT | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"home",
"internet of things",
"safety",
"security",
"sensors",
"Ubidots"
] | Home automation is a popular project to undertake but its complexity can quickly become daunting, especially if you go further than controlling a few lights (or if you’re a renter). To test the waters you may want to start with something
like this home safety monitor
, which is an IoT device based on an Arduino. It allows remote monitoring of a home for things such as temperature, toxic gasses, light, and other variables, which is valuable even if you don’t need or want to control anything.
The device is built around an Arduino Nano 33 IOT which has WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities as well as some integrated security features. This build features a number of sensors including pressure/humidity, a gas/smoke detector, and a light sensor. To report all of the information it gathers around the home, an interface with Ubidots is configured to allow easy (and secure) access to the data gathered by the device.
The PCB and code for the project are all provided on the project page, and there are a
number of other options available
if Ubidots isn’t your preferred method of interfacing with the Internet of Things. You might even give
Mozilla’s WebThings
a shot if you’re so inclined. | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6211832",
"author": "Luke Weston",
"timestamp": "2020-01-18T08:03:53",
"content": "You’re going to be lucky to get a couple of hours out of this thing before the battery is exhausted. I would look at using a hard-wired power source or radically redesigning your power delivery.A 6LR6... | 1,760,373,617.406486 |
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