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https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/next-floor-geosynchronous-satellites-orbiting-laboratories/ | Next Floor: Geosynchronous Satellites, Orbiting Laboratories | Al Williams | [
"Space"
] | [
"graphene",
"space elevator"
] | On Star Trek, if you want to go from one deck to another, you enter a “turbolift” and tell it where you want to go. However, many people have speculated that one day you’ll ride an elevator to orbit instead of using a relatively crude rocket. The idea is simple. If you had a tether anchored on the Earth with the other end connected to a satellite, you could simply move up and down the tether. Sound simple, so what’s the problem? The tether has to withstand enormous forces, and we don’t know how to make anything practical that could survive it. However, a team at the International Space Elevator Consortium could have the answer:
graphene ribbons
.
The concept is not new, but the hope of any practical material able to hold up to the strain has been scant. [Arthur C. Clarke] summed it up in 1979:
How close are we to achieving this with known materials? Not very. The best steel wire could manage only a miserable 31 mi (50 km) or so of vertical suspension before it snapped under its own weight. The trouble with metals is that, though they are strong, they are also heavy; we want something that is both strong and light. This suggests that we should look at modern synthetic and composite materials. Kevlar… for example, could sustain a vertical length of 124 mi (200 km) before snapping – impressive, but still totally inadequate compared with the 3,100 (5,000 km) needed.
While researchers have previously noted that carbon nanotubes may have the required strength, they suffer from two problems. First, we don’t know how to make very long nanotubes. In addition, under stress they may fray. However, new work suggests that graphene may be the answer.
Technology exists to make very large graphene fibers, although perhaps not to the scale needed yet — but fibers on the order of 1 km in length are now possible. These fibers aren’t exactly the right topology of graphene, but it shows that it is possible to work with the material at scale and with a tensile strength 200 times greater than steel (according to the post), it could be suitable for use in an orbital tether.
The space elevator idea keeps popping up. In “Ad Astra” (see below) the International Space Antenna appears to be tethered to the ground. China says they are actively building an elevator they expect to have completed by 2045.
We’ve been
watching this story for a long time
. We also think we may see a
moon elevator
before we get an Earth-based one. | 40 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6500131",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2022-08-04T04:45:29",
"content": "China says…bullshit. They can’t schedule breakthroughs any more than we can.A Martian moon tether is doable. But why? You could jump off (almost).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,372,609.840936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/nvidia-unleashes-the-first-jetson-agx-orin-module/ | NVIDIA Unleashes The First Jetson AGX Orin Module | Tom Nardi | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"News"
] | [
"JetPack SDK",
"Nvidia Jetson",
"Orin",
"SO-DIMM"
] | Back in March, NVIDIA introduced Jetson Orin, the next-generation of their ARM single-board computers intended for edge computing applications. The new platform promised to deliver “server-class AI performance” on a board small enough to install in a robot or IoT device, with even the lowest tier of Orin modules offering roughly double the performance of the previous Jetson Xavier modules. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a catch — at the time, Orin was only available in development kit form.
But today, NVIDIA has announced the
immediate availability of the Jetson AGX Orin 32GB production module
for $999 USD. This is essentially the mid-range offering of the Orin line, which makes releasing it first a logical enough choice. Users who need the top-end performance of the 64GB variant will have to wait until November, but there’s still no hard release date for the smaller NX Orin SO-DIMM modules.
That’s a bit of a letdown for folks like us, since the two SO-DIMM modules are probably the most appealing for hackers and makers. At $399 and $599, their pricing makes them far more palatable for the individual experimenter, while their smaller size and more familiar interface should make them easier to implement into DIY builds. While the
Jetson Nano is still an unbeatable bargain
for those looking to dip their toes into the CUDA waters, we could certainly see folks investing in the far more powerful NX Orin boards for more complex projects.
While the AGX Orin modules might be a bit steep for the average tinkerer, their availability is still something to be excited about. Thanks to the common JetPack SDK framework shared by the Jetson family of boards, applications developed for these higher-end modules will largely remain compatible across the whole product line. Sure, the cheaper and older Jetson boards will run them slower, but as far as machine learning and AI applications go, they’ll still run circles around something like the Raspberry Pi. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6500083",
"author": "NS",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T23:40:10",
"content": "I will use it with GPT3, and see if it can seduce old men/women into sending me money. It would pay for itself faster than a Bitcoin minner. It would learn from its own output, out to the point of becoming the... | 1,760,372,609.906034 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/hackable-20-modem-combines-lte-and-pi-zero-w2-power/ | Hackable $20 Modem Combines LTE And Pi Zero W2 Power | Arya Voronova | [
"Android Hacks",
"hardware",
"how-to",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"3g modem",
"lte modem",
"MSM8916",
"qualcomm",
"WiFi modem"
] | [extrowerk]
tells us about a new hacker-friendly device
– a $20 LTE modem stick with a quadcore CPU and WiFi, capable of running fully-featured Linux distributions. This discovery hinges on a mountain of work by a Chinese hacker
[HandsomeYingYan]
, who’s figured out this stick runs Android,
hacked its bootloader,
tweaked
a Linux kernel
for it and
created a Debian distribution
for the stick – calling this the OpenStick project. [extrowerk]’s writeup translates the [HandsomeYingYan]’s tutorial for us and makes a few more useful notes. With this writeup in hand, we have unlocked a whole new SBC to use in our projects – at a surprisingly low price!
At times when even the simplest Pi Zero is unobtainium (yet again!), this is a wonderful find. For a bit over the price of a Zero 2W, you get a computer with a similar CPU (4-core 1GHz A53-based Qualcomm MSM8916), same amount of RAM, 4GB storage, WiFi – and an LTE modem. You can stick this one into a powerbank or a wallwart and run it at a remote location, make it into a home automation hub, or perhaps, process some CPU-intensive tasks in a small footprint. You can even get them with a microSD slot for extra storage – or perhaps, even extra GPIOs? You’re not getting a soldering-friendly GPIO header, but it has a few LEDs and, apparently, a UART header, so it’s not all bad. As [extrowerk] points out, this is basically a mobile phone in a stick form factor, but without the display and the battery.
Now, there’s caveats. [extrowerk] points out that you should buy the modem with the appropriate LTE bands for your country – and that’s not the only thing to watch out for. A friend of ours recently obtained a visually identical modem; when we got news of this hack, she disassembled it for us – finding out that it was equipped with a far more limited CPU, the MDM9600. That is an LTE modem chip, and its functions are limited to performing USB 4G stick duty with some basic WiFi features. Judging by a popular mobile device reverse-engineering forum’s
investigations
(Russian,
translated
), looks like the earlier versions of this modem came with the way more limited MDM9600 SoC, not able to run Linux like the stick we’re interested in does. If you like this modem and understandably want to procure a few, see if you can make sure you’ll get MSM8916 and not the MDM9600.
Days of
using WiFi routers to power our robots
are long gone since the advent of Raspberry Pi, but we still remember them fondly, and we’re glad to see a router stick with the Pi Zero 2W oomph. We’ve been hacking at such sticks for over half a decade now, most of them
OpenWRT-based,
some as
small as an SD card reader.
Now, when SBCs are hard to procure, this could be a perfect fit for one of your next projects.
Update:
in the comments below, people have found a few links where you should be able to get one of these modems with the right CPU. Also, [Joe] has
started investigating the onboard components! | 188 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6500044",
"author": "HackJack",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T20:21:04",
"content": "He can run gcc on that stick. I am totally not expecting that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6500172",
"author": "hallo1",
"time... | 1,760,372,611.246976 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/hackaday-prize-2022-a-hefty-hoverboard-rover/ | Hackaday Prize 2022: A Hefty Hoverboard Rover | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"aluminum extrusions",
"hoverboard",
"rover"
] | Popular consumer products often become the basis of many hacker projects, and hoverboards are a good example of this. [Tanguy] is using the drivetrain from a pair of hoverboards to
build a beefy little rover platform with independent suspension
.
Since hoverboards were designed to move around fully grown humans, the motors have the torque to spare for this 25 kilogram (55 pound) rover. For rough terrain, each of the four motor/wheel combos is mounted to arms bolted together with 3D printed parts and thick laser-cut aluminum. Suspension is simple and consists of a couple of loops of bungee cord. The chassis uses aluminum extrusion bolted together with aluminum plates and more printed fittings.
It doesn’t look like the rover is running yet, but [Tanguy] intends to power it with an electric scooter battery and control it with his own
Universal Robot Remote
. He also added an E-stop to the top and a cheap indoor PTZ camera for FPV. We look forward to seeing the functional rover and how it handles terrain.
We’ve seen hoverboard motors get used in other
rover projects
, but also for
scooters
,
skateboards
, and even a
hydroelectric turbine
. It’s also possible to use them as is by mounting them to existing chassis’ to create
electric carts
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 7 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6500015",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T18:38:35",
"content": "So, other than buying a Hoverboard, where does one obtain the motors, by pushing kids off their boards and tossing it in the back seat?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,372,610.078812 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/the-hackaday-summer-camp-survival-guide/ | The Hackaday Summer Camp Survival Guide | Jenny List | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Lifehacks",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"BornHack",
"cccamp",
"electromagnetic field",
"emf",
"hacker camps",
"MCH2022",
"sha2017"
] | It’s a feature of summer for us, the round of hacker camps in which members of our community gather in fields and spend a few days relaxing and doing what we do best. This summer I’ll have been to four of them by September, one of which was unexpected because a last-minute ticket came my way. For Hackaday they’re a chance to connect with our readers and maybe see come of the coolest stuff in person.
If you consult the wiki for your hacker camp of choice then you’ll usually find a page of tips about what to bring. Starting with a tent and a sleeping bag and probably going on to sunscreen, a hat, and maybe how to avoid
dehydration
. I’d probably add spare toilet paper and disinfectant spray in case the toilets are nightmarish. All very practical stuff, but expressed in a dry list format that doesn’t really tell you what to expect. A hacker camp can be overwhelming if you’ve not been to one before, so how do you get the best out of it? Here are a few tips based on our experience.
Don’t Be Too Ambitious
My EMF summer dress is typical of projects that didn’t make it on time. Next year!
If you follow Hackaday, from time to time you’ll have seen people who have brought amazing things along with them, who zip around the camp on all sorts of funny machines, whose amazing creations of sound and light delight and amaze both readers and camp attendees alike. Let’s face it, you want to do this too, so you resolve to bring along the most awesome hack. You’ll be the darling of the camp, the envy of your friends, and of course we here at Hackaday will be all over you.
A far more likely outcome is that you’ll exhaust yourself in the weeks up to the camp trying to finish the project, and either fail to the extent that you don’t bring it, or alternatively bring it and waste the entire camp trying to get it working when you could have been enjoying yourself. We know this only too well, we’ve been there!
If there’s a take-away from this, it’s to aim to complete the killer hacker camp project several months before. Get it working, hide it away, then turn up at the camp with it looking awesome and you looking cool and relaxed.
You Can’t See Everything, So Don’t Worry
Some talks
are of course way too important to skip and watch later.
The larger camps can be truly overwhelming, with thousands of people, and hundreds of activities, workshops, spectacles, and talks. Taking everything in is impossible, so have fun with the things you like, check out all the things other people tell you are cool, and only go to the talks that *really* matter to you. All talks at most hacker camps go online, usually for European ones on YouTube or
media.ccc.de
, and there will be plenty of time afterwards to catch up on them without being slowly roasted in a hot tent. You can even skip the boring bits and watch at 1.5 speed, for extra hacker info in less time!
It’s important to remember that the same people and things will often appear at more than one event, so if you miss something there’s a good chance you’ll see it again, maybe another year.
Find Your People
Most of the field in this picture of EMF 2018 is covered with villages. Arron Dowdeswell,
CC BY-SA 4.0
.
If you’re visiting your first hacker camp you may be alone, or you may be with a bunch of friends such as your hackerspace. Camps are amazing for people on their own, but they can be even better when surrounded by a like-minded group. They’re loosely organised into so-called villages around social groups or common interests, and
as you can see from the MCH2022 village list
these can be extremely diverse. If you haven’t got a village to go to then you don’t have to, but cast your eye over the villages and see if any of them sound like you. Get in touch, camp with them, or just hang out and enjoy a Club-Mate together, that’s what it’s all about.
Mostly I’ve been with my hackerspaces at hacker camps, OxHack or
MK Makerspace
, but as an example I ended up hanging out with my Dutch friends at
BornHack 2019
in Denmark because I was the only Brit there. This year at MCH2022 the Brits were way out on the edge of camp so I jumped ship and hung out with the
badge.team
guys because they were closer to the action.
Beyond villages, hacker camps are volunteer-run events, and you will see plenty of people just like you in orange vests doing all sorts of tasks around the camp. This year at MCH2022 I did a spell working the car park, I helped paint the purple background for the event gate, I spent days driving a small truck all over the Netherlands transporting things, and at the end I spent an afternoon in the sun with a wrench taking down barriers. Sign up with the volunteer system and put in some shifts, it’s a great way to meet all sorts of other attendees you’d never otherwise hang out with, and you’ll often get free food as part of the deal. Don’t just attend, be
part
of it.
If I can sum this section up: on the whole hacker camps are friendly places, so go on, find your people!
Sleep Is For The Wise
The most valuable thing I take to a hacker camp.
There is so much going on at a hacker camp that it is possible to find interesting stuff 24/7. Thus sleep management becomes a significant issue, as the tendency is to stay up too late and a tent in the hot sun during the day is not the best place to catch up on it. I am permanently tired at hacker camps because after a lifetime on a farm I naturally awake before 7 am no matter when I go to bed, so there’s one piece of personal advice I’ll leave you with.
If there’s one thing to spend extra effort carrying into a camp with you, it’s a bed. Sleeping on a camping mattress in a tent on rough ground isn’t going to cut it, and if my experience is anything to go by you’ll be more exhausted than you can imagine after a few days of short nights spent that way. For me a folding camp bed makes the difference between surviving a good hacker camp and
barely
surviving it, and among all the other hacker camp village stuff I’ve been known to freight in with me it’s my camp bed that’s the most valuable. Don’t leave home without it!
So there’s my guide to spending several days in a field in the hot sun with several thousand of our awesome community. Hacker camps are an odd mix of rejuvenation and working holiday for me, and life without them would be very hollow indeed. If you go to a hacker camp you deserve to enjoy the experience too, so I hope the above advice is of use. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499991",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T17:36:37",
"content": "No list of clothing to take, and the need to mark each item with your name?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6500050",
"author": "The ... | 1,760,372,610.216988 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/saving-fuel-with-advanced-sensors-and-an-arduino/ | Saving Fuel With Advanced Sensors And An Arduino | Ryan Flowers | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"car hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"automotive",
"ecu",
"megasquirt",
"o2 sensor",
"speeduino"
] | When [Robot Cantina] isn’t busy tweaking the 420cc
Big Block
engine in their Honda Insight, they’re probably working on some other completely far out automotive atrocity. In the video below the break, you’ll see them take the concept of a ‘lean burn’ system from the Insight and
graft
hack it into their 1997 Saturn coupe
.
What’s a lean burn system? Simply put, it tricks the car into burning less fuel when it’s cruising under a light load to improve the vehicle’s average mileage. The Saturn’s electronics aren’t sophisticated enough to implement a lean burn system simply, and so [Robot Cantina] did what any of us might have done: hacked it in with an Arduino.
The video does a wonderful job going into the details, but essentially by using an oxygen sensor with finer resolution (wide-band) and then outputting the appropriate narrow band signal to the ECU, [Robot Cantina] can fine tune the air/fuel ratio with nothing more than a potentiometer, and the car’s ECU is none the wiser. What were the results? Well… they weren’t as expected, which means more experimentation, more parts, and hopefully, more videos. We love seeing the scientific method put to fun use!
People are ever in the quest to try interesting new (and sometimes old) ideas, such as this
hot rod hacked to run with a lawnmower carburetor. | 37 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499953",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T15:35:57",
"content": "But won’t lean burn ruin an engine that is not designed for it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6499960",
"auth... | 1,760,372,610.034228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/never-too-rich-or-thin-compress-sqlite-80/ | Never Too Rich Or Thin: Compress Sqlite 80% | Al Williams | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"compression",
"database",
"sqlite"
] | We are big fans of using SQLite for anything of even moderate complexity where you might otherwise use a file. The advantages are numerous, but sometimes you want to be lean on file storage. [Phiresky] has a great answer to that: the sqlite-zstd extension offers
transparent row-level compression for SQLite
.
There are other options, of course, but as the post mentions, each of these have some drawbacks. However, by compressing each row of a table, you can retain random access without some of the drawbacks of other methods.
A compressed table has an uncompressed view and an underlying compressed table. The compression dictionary is loaded for each table and cached to improve performance. From the application’s point of view, the uncompressed view is just a normal table and you shouldn’t need any code changes.
You can select how the compression groups data which can help with performance. For example, instead of chunking together a fixed number of rows, you can compress groups of records based on dates or even just have a single dictionary fixed which might be useful for tables that never change.
Speaking of performance, decompression happens on the fly, but compression and dictionary building is done in the background when the database is otherwise idle. Benchmarks show some performance hit, of course, but that’s always the case: you trade speed for space. On the other hand, for random access, it is actually faster to use compressed tables since there is less data to read. Random updates, though, were slower even though compression doesn’t occur at that time.
If you want a quick start to
using SQLite, there’s a Linux Fu
for that. You can even use
versioning with a Git-like system
, another advantage over traditional files. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499407",
"author": "ziggurat29",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T02:14:08",
"content": "interesting. the WSPR spots (from WSPRnet) db for 2021 in SQLite is 340 GB, but 37 GB when 7zip compressed. It will be interesting to see if this helps a bit. A lot of that are indices I added, and ... | 1,760,372,609.964494 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/opendendrometer-can-measure-how-your-tree-feels/ | OpenDendrometer Can Measure How Your Tree Feels | Danie Conradie | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"automated plant care",
"botany",
"fruit trees"
] | There are various ways to measure plant health, and we’ve seen many projects creating open-source solutions. One we haven’t seen is a dendrometer, which involves measuring various physical dimensions of trees to track their health and growth. [John Opsahl] is changing this with the
OpenDendrometer
, a tool for tracking the diameter of tree limbs and fruit.
Tiny changes in diameter take place throughout the day, and tracking these changes allows deviations to be detected, which can be a sign of water stress. Over weeks and months, these measurements can be used to measure growth and fruits’ progress to harvest. [John] found that a digital tire tread depth gauge can work well for this application. Many of these gauges use the same electronics as the cheap digital calipers, for which the
serial protocol was reverse engineered
more than a decade ago. The OpenDendrometer connects the tire depth gauge to a microcontroller via a 1.5V level shifter, which logs measurements to an SD card while using a DS3231 RTC for accurate timestamps. The RTC can also be used to wake up the circuit at the required intervals to save battery power. For the initial proof of concept [John] is using an Arduino Pro Mini, but plans to move to an ESP32 at a later stage to allow wireless data transmission.
Everything will be housed in a 3D printed enclosure with a foam cord gasket to make the device weather resistant. A mounting rod on the outside of the enclosure with adjustable thumbscrews allows the OpenDendrometer to be attached to any part of the tree. We plan to keep an eye on this project and look forward to seeing the data it produces.
For the other ways of measuring plant health, we’ve covered everything from
soil moisture
to
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
and even plant weight and even
pot plant weight
. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499428",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T04:02:52",
"content": "No tree hugers on HaD? This is a tree huger and that what what it’s about, it measures the tree’s happiness .Could be used in Kinsey Institute type studies too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,372,610.261832 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/simple-propulsion-for-the-lazy-paddle-boarder/ | Simple Propulsion For The Lazy Paddle Boarder | Danie Conradie | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"boat",
"electric drill",
"marine propulsion"
] | One of the downsides to healthy outdoor activities is all the exercise. Who would want to do that if you can build something to do the hard work for you? That seems to be the theme of [Bitluni]’s latest build, a simple (and hacky)
propulsion system for a stand-up paddleboard
.
After acquiring an inflatable stand-up paddleboard and trying it out a few times, [Bitluni] decided to skip the “stand up” and “paddle” parts. He designed and printed a very simple propeller, which he intended to power with a brushless motor and speed controller. In the process of drilling out the prop to fit the shaft, he realized he was overcomplicating things. So he decided to just use his battery-powered drill instead. For the shaft tube, he modified an old crutch by drilling a hole in the handle for the shaft and adding a duct with a bearing on the other end. He also attached a carabiner to the handle to fix it to the paddleboard.
A test at a lake showed that the propulsion system performed relatively well for a proof of concept but had some flaws. To submerge it properly, [Bitluni] had to sit on the rear of the paddleboard facing backward. If it was too close to the surface, it would suck air and lose thrust, or spray him and his drill with water. Of course, there is also the real risk of drowning his drill in the process.
Projects don’t need to be complex to be enjoyable, and you can often learn more by quickly creating a proof of concept instead of taking forever to come up with the “perfect” design.
If you want to see some more advanced water-borne projects, check out the waterjet-powered electric surfboards built by
[RCLifeOn]
and
[Andrew W]
. | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499339",
"author": "Or just buy one if you really want to be lazy.",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T21:38:40",
"content": "Battery powered drill and water typically do not get along. Though you could probably make an IP67 rated, battery powered drill if you really wanted to.",
"paren... | 1,760,372,610.378869 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/scavenging-cds-for-flexible-parts/ | Scavenging CDs For Flexible Parts | Bryan Cockfield | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"acetone",
"biosensor",
"cd",
"flexible",
"gold",
"nature",
"sensor"
] | CDs are becoming largely obsolete now, thanks to the speed of the internet and the reliability and low costs of other storage media. To help keep all of this plastic out of the landfills, many have been attempting to find uses for these old discs. One of the more intriguing
methods of reprurposing CDs was recently published in Nature
, which details a process to harvest and produce flexible biosensors from them.
The process involves exposing the CD to acetone for 90 seconds to loosen the material, then transferring the reflective layer to a plastic tape. From there, various cutting tools can be used to create the correct pattern for the substrate of the biosensor. This has been shown to be a much more cost-effective method to produce this type of material when compared to modern production methods, and can also be performed with readily available parts and supplies as well.
The only downside to this method is that it was only tested out on CDs which used gold as the conducting layer. The much more common aluminum discs were not tested, but it could be possible with some additional research. So, if you have a bunch of CD-Rs laying around,
you’re going to need to find something else to do with those instead
.
Thanks to [shinwachi] for the tip! | 42 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499299",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T19:23:52",
"content": "“CDs are becoming largely obsolete now, thanks to the speed of the internet and the reliability and low costs of other storage media.”Are USB drives so cheap we can give them to complete strangers withou... | 1,760,372,610.1556 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/ask-hackaday-what-was-your-first-electronics-win/ | Ask Hackaday: What Was Your First Electronics Win? | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"beginner",
"hacking",
"newbie",
"starting",
"win"
] | Back in high school, I joined the stage crew — because of course I did. As student theater groups go, it was pretty active, and with two shows to produce each year, there was always a lot of work to do. I gravitated to the lighting crew, which was a natural fit for me. Besides the electrical part of the job, there was also a lot of monkeying around on scaffolding and rickety ladders to hang the lights, which was great fun for the young and immortal. Plus there was the lighting console to run during performances, a job I eventually took over for my last two years.
Unfortunately, the lighting system was a bit pathetic. The console was mounted in the stage right wings, rather than out in the front of the house where a sensible person would put it. And despite being only about ten years old, the dimmers were already starting to fail. The board had about 20 channels, but you could always count on one of the channels failing, sometimes during a show, requiring some heroics to repatch the lights into one of the dimmers we always left as a spare, just for the purpose.
Danger Afoot
Having grown sick of this sorry state of affairs, and with the number of taped-over dimmer controls on the console beginning to outnumber the good ones, I decided to see what I could do. The console was, of course, just a front-end for the real dimmers, which in the pre-DMX days just operated on a 0 V to 10 V signal and controlled the lights connected to it with an SCR. The dimmer packs themselves were mounted to a rack on a wall inside a room adjacent to the stage, which we creatively called “the dimmer room.” The dimmer rack was mounted way up on a wall, so you had to stand on a table or a ladder to reach them. It was very sketchy.
Now, please bear in mind that this was the late 1970s, and times were different. We teens were far more free-range then, and the things we did would probably get someone arrested these days. That includes blithely taking the heavy steel enclosure off a rack of dimmer packs, each with exposed conductors carrying line current, while balancing atop a ladder. And doing it alone, without permission, and with only the barest glimmerings of knowing what I was doing. But again — immortal.
Like this, but deadlier. A Kliegl Bros P-73 SCR dimmer, with control board removed. This is a later version of the one I fixed, with fewer high school student killing features. Source:
Kliegl Bros. Collectors Society
Having somehow survived the uncasing of the dimmers, I set about doing the really dangerous part — diagnosing the problem in a rack of live dimmer packs. Each dimmer had a big chunky toroidal transformer, a PCB mounted vertically, and a chunky heatsink with a huge stud-mount SCR, all mounted to a piece of fiberglass channel that screwed into the rack. The dimmers were packed pretty tightly into the rack, without a lot of space between them, so getting to the components on the PCB to test voltages was difficult. Not to mention dangerous — one false move and you might touch one of the heat sinks, all of which were connected to line voltage.
Chilling Out
Luckily, I didn’t need to touch anything to diagnose the problem. The dimmer I was working on had a clear heat-intermittent — it would only start acting up after it had been in use for a half-hour or so. I had already let the dimmer warm up and blink out, and armed with my trusty can of component cooler from Radio Shack, from my perch atop the ladder I started zapping components on the wonky dimmer’s PCB with lots of ozone-depleting Freon. Like I said, different times.
Ozone? That’s a problem for future Dan. Freon component cooler, from the 1978 Radio Shack Catalog. Source:
RadioShackCatalogs.com
At the time, I had only ever heard of looking for heat-intermittents thanks to the Radio Shack catalog. I didn’t really have any expectation that this little trick was going to work, so imagine my surprise when I zapped one particular transistor on the PCB and heard the unmistakable sound of the light going back on — that big toroidal transformer, no doubt. I couldn’t believe that I had found the problem! I watched as the Freon-induced frost on the chilled transistor turned to water and eventually evaporated, at which point the dimmer blinked out again. Overjoyed at my discovery, I kept zapping that poor transistor back to life and watching it die, just for the sheer novelty of it. I had found the problem, all by myself.
Bursting with pride, I took the defective dimmer out of the rack — itself a perilous endeavor — unsoldered the suspect transistor, and took it to the local electronics store. No, not Radio Shack — Hatry Electronics, supplier to the local TV repair shops and the few remaining electronics manufacturers in the area. It was a real electronics shop, which racks of parts behind the counter. I gave the counterman my dying transistor, he gave me the nearest match listed in his huge dead-tree cross reference, and later that afternoon, that dimmer pack finally stopped giving us troubles.
I was thinking about this repair the other day, and it occurred to me that this was my first, unqualified “win” with electronics repair. I had only been fooling with electronics for five or so years at that point, but until that day, most of my repair attempts had ended in defeat. I had managed to fix a few cassette player that my classmates asked me to look at, but only if it was a broken drive belt or a bad solder joint on a jack. This dimmer repair was next-level stuff at the time, at least to me. I had recognized the problem, properly identified the defective component, and effected a repair. All on my own, and without killing myself.
I realize that in the large scheme of things, it was a simple repair. But it was a big deal to teenage me, and in a lot of ways, it was the beginning of everything that was to follow for me. Being able to make that repair convinced me that I could do this, and set me on the path that led to a life of fixing things. Not just electronics, of course — fixing anything now gives me a chance to get the same feeling as I had that day over 40 years ago, balancing atop a wobbly ladder and blinking a light on and off with a spray can of Freon. I never quite get the feeling back, but I keep chasing it.
Your Turn
How about you? What was your first win in electronics? Was it an epic repair like mine? Or perhaps it was more along the lines of finally getting a circuit to work — that first blinkenlight project can be a real rush, after all. Whatever it was that started you on the journey that led you to the point where you just read (and hopefully enjoyed) a story about a repair on something that was probably scrapped a few years later, let us know. We all got here somehow, and it’s interesting to find out what paths others took, and what it was that flipped their switches to the “I can do this!” position. | 74 | 49 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499225",
"author": "mayhem",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T17:14:56",
"content": "My first electronics hack didn’t involve electronics. It was a battery. I was about 7-8 years old and dad’s car kept cranking slower and slower on start up. This was the age of “maintenance free” batteries... | 1,760,372,610.518642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/r2home-is-ready-to-bring-back-your-high-altitude-payload/ | R2Home Is Ready To Bring Back Your High Altitude Payload | Danie Conradie | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"Autopilot",
"high altitude balloon",
"parachute"
] | With high-altitude ballooning, you are at the mercy of the winds, which can move your payload hundreds of kilometers and deposit it in some inaccessible spot. To solve this
[Yohan Hadji] created R2Home
, an autonomous parachute-based recovery system that can fly a payload to any specified landing site within its gliding range.
We
first covered R2Home at the start of 2021
, when he was still in the early experimental phases, but the project has matured massively since then. It just completed its
longest and highest test flight
. Descending autonomously from a release altitude of 3500 m, with an additional radiosonde payload, it landed within 5 m of the launch point.
R2Home electronics with its insulated enclosure
R2Home can fly using a variety of steerable canopies, even a DIY ram-air parachute, as demonstrated in an earlier version. [Yohan] is currently using a high-performance wing for RC paragliders.
A lot of effort went into developing a reliable parachute deployment system. The main canopy is packed carefully in a custom “Dbag”, which is attached to a drogue chute to stabilize the system during free-fall and deploy the main canopy at a preset altitude. This is done with a servo operated release mechanism, while steering is handled by a pair of modified winch servos intended for RC sailboats.
All the electronics are mounted on a stack of circular 3D printed brackets which fit in a tubular housing, bolted together with threaded rods. With the help of a design student [Yohan] also upgraded the simple tube housing to a lockable, foam-insulated design to help it handle temperatures at high altitudes.
The flight main flight computer is a Teensy 4.1 plugged into a custom PCB to connect all the navigation, communication, and flight systems. The custom Arduino-based autopilot takes inputs from a GPS receiver, and pilots the system to the desired drop zone, which it circles until touchdown.
The entire project is extremely well documented, and all the design files and code are open source and
available on Github
. | 23 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499214",
"author": "NQ",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T16:21:15",
"content": "This is really cool. You can hopefully keep your payloads from ending up in trees, highways, etc. It seems to make more sense than casting your lots to the wind and seeing where it ends up.",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,372,610.586251 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/dead-spider-becomes-robot-gripper-its-necrobotics/ | Dead Spider Becomes Robot Gripper: It’s Necrobotics! | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Misc Hacks",
"Robots Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"necrobotics",
"robotics",
"spider",
"spiders"
] | Robot arms and grippers do important work every hour of every day. They’re used in production lines around the world, toiling virtually ceaselessly outside of their designated maintenance windows.
They’re typically built out of steel, and powered by brawny hydraulic systems. However, some scientists have gone for a smaller scale approach that may horrify the squeamish.
They’ve figured out how to turn a dead spider into a useful robotic gripper.
The name of this new Frankensteinian field? Why, it’s necrobotics, of course!
Working With Nature
Scientists and engineers have long held reverence for the achievements of the natural world. Tiny insects are capable of feats far exceeding those of our greatest robots, and can operate independently for days or weeks without ever needing to be plugged in. The intricate mechanical systems of spiders and beetles are beyond even our finest engineering to date.
Spiders are particularly impressive. They have eight legs of surprising strength, especially given their weight and power requirements. Rather than try to create something to match these capabilities from scratch, a group of researchers at Rice University decided to simply
hack the spiders themselves.
The process of making necrobiotic grippers with wolf spider carcasses. Credit:
Preston Innovation Laboratory, Rice University
Spider legs only have muscles for retraction, while extension is achieved via a hydraulic mechanism. In the spider’s body, a chamber filled with blood expands and contracts to control the movements of the creature’s legs. Each leg has a valve that allows the spider to control their movement individually. After death, all these valves open up and the spider’s hydraulic system loses pressure. This is what causes a spider’s legs to curl up after death.
The researchers realised that they could tap into this hydraulic system to extend and contract the spider’s legs at will. With a dead spider, all the individual leg valves typically fail open, so control is limited to extending or contracting all the legs at once. This causes the dead spider to act like a robot gripper, just like you might see on an skill tester arcade machine.
Researchers worked with wolf spiders, and began by euthanizing them in cold temperatures. A needle was then inserted into the spider’s body, and sealed with glue. This allowed the hydraulic passages inside the spider to be pressurized with air to extend the legs. Releasing the pressure lets the legs contract again into the curled up position.
Testing and Applications
The dead spiders are surprisingly robust. In testing, the group was able to get over 1,000 open-close cycles out of a single spider carcass. Some wear and tear was notable at the higher end of this range, which the team believes is primarily due to the dehydration of the spider body. Research is ongoing as to whether this problem can be solved with special polymeric coatings to keep the body from drying out.
Lifting power was also impressive. Wolf spider bodies were reliably able to lift 130% of their own body weight. Some bodies would exceed this figure by a great amount, too. Of course, variability is to be expected when working with a carcass as an engineering material.
The team believes that dead spiders could serve as useful actuators for small-scale pick-and-place tasks. Demonstration from the team included using a spider gripper to pull a jumper out of an electronic breadboard. Other examples involved moving small objects and even lifting another spider. The benefit of the necrobotic gripper is that the spider’s eight legs are good at gripping objects of odd shapes and sizes.
The team also cite the renewable nature of the necrobotic gripper. “The spiders themselves are biodegradable,” said Daniel Preston, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University. “We’re not introducing a big waste stream, which can be a problem with more traditional components,” he adds.
However, the necrobotic grippers as shown do have some limitations. A usable service life of 1,000 cycles is relatively low for a robotic gripper, particularly one to be used in a mass-production environment. There’s also a lot of variability in dead spider bodies that isn’t seen with regular engineered robotic components. Additionally, while the spider carcasses themselves are biodegradable, the needles, glues, and plastic fittings are not. Plus, the production of spider grippers is time-consuming, fiddly work. Then there’s the significant investment required in spider husbandry facilities.
The Future For Necrobotics
The research is compelling, and shows off reliable control of a stable spider carcass after death. It’s also much simpler than other insect-robotics projects that use
electrodes inserted into cockroach brains for control.
There’s no need to manipulate a living creature’s brain, or fight against its natural instincts to make it complete a given task.
However, the research would raise ethical hackles for some. It’s less troubling than electronically enslaving living beings, perhaps. Regardless, humans have always had strong feelings around the proper treatment and respect of mortal remains. Using spiders is likely to draw far less condemnation than if the same research were carried out with a mouse or hamster, for example. Try the same feat with a cat or a dog, and you might expect your lab to be closed with remarkable haste.
Just to be clear, we don’t think you’ll be using a spider-based pick-and-place any time soon. But work in the field of necrobotics will likely teach us a lot about how the bodies of animals and insects work. They may also guide the development of our own robotic or biomechatronic creations. In any case, the quest for knowledge often presents us with strange and meandering paths to follow. And sometimes, just sometimes… those paths are covered in spiders. | 46 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499169",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T14:14:46",
"content": "Galvani did it first with frog legs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6499193",
"author": "Judy",
"times... | 1,760,372,610.772978 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/re-creating-the-unique-look-of-unobtainable-aerochrome-film/ | Re-Creating The Unique Look Of Unobtainable Aerochrome Film | Donald Papp | [
"how-to",
"Science"
] | [
"Aerochrome",
"film",
"infrared",
"NDVI",
"NIR",
"photography"
] | Ever heard of Aerochrome? It’s a unique type of color infrared film, originally created for the US military and designed for surveillance planes. Photos taken with Aerochrome film show trees and other vegetation in vivid reds and pinks, creating images that aren’t quite like anything else.
A modified method of trichrome photography is the key behind re-creating that unique Aerochrome look. Click to enlarge.
Sadly, Aerochrome hasn’t been made for over a decade. What’s an enterprising hacker with a fascination for this unobtainable film to do?
[Joshua] resolved to recreate it as best he could
, and the results look great!
Aerochrome isn’t quite the same as normal film. It is sensitive to infrared, and photos taken with it yield a kind of false color image that presents infrared as red, visible reds as greens, and greens are shown as blue. The result is a vaguely dreamy looking photo like the one you see in the header image, above. Healthy vegetation is vividly highlighted, and everything else? Well, it actually comes out pretty normal-looking, all things considered.
Why does this happen? It’s because healthy, leafy green plants strongly absorb visible light for photosynthesis, while also strongly
reflecting
near-infrared. This is the same principle behind the normalized difference vegetation index (
NDVI
), a method used since the 70s to measure live green vegetation, often from satellite imagery.
Aerochrome may be out of production, but black and white infrared film is still available. [Joshua] found that he could re-create the effect of Aerochrome with an adaptation of trichrome photography: the process of taking three identical black and white photos, each using a different color filter. When combined, the three photos (acting as three separate color channels) produce a color image.
To reproduce Aerochrome, [Joshua] takes three monochromatic photos with his infrared film, each with a different color filter chosen to match the spectral sensitivities of the original product. The result is a pretty striking reproduction of Aerochrome!
But this method does have some shortcomings. [Joshua] found it annoying to fiddle with filters between trying to take three identical photos, and the film and filters aren’t really an exact match for the spectral sensitivities of original Aerochrome. He also found it difficult to nail the right exposure; since most light meters are measuring visible light and not infrared, the exposure settings were way off. But the results look pretty authentic, so he’s counting it as a success.
We loved [Joshua]’s
DIY wigglecam
, and we’re delighted to see the work he put into re-creating an authentic Aerochrome. Fantastic work. | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499143",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T13:07:30",
"content": "I’ve got some trichrome’d Rollei infrared and Superpan 400 awaiting development, probably with the same filter set!If digital is your thing, there’s a few good methods as well. Most start with modifying you... | 1,760,372,610.680722 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/self-hosted-pi-pico-development/ | Self-Hosted Pi Pico Development | Jenny List | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Software Development"
] | [
"c compiler",
"Paspberry Pi Pico",
"pi pico",
"vi"
] | Older readers and those with an interest in retrocomputing may remember the days when a computer might well have booted into a BASIC interpreter. It was simultaneously a general purpose device that could run any software it would load, and also a development environment. Not something that can be said for today’s development boards which typically require a host computer on which to write code. Have we lost something along the way? Perhaps an answer to that question can be found in [lurk101]’s
self-hosted development environment for the Raspberry Pi Pico
.
It presents itself as a shell, with a flash file system, a port of the vi editor, and a C compiler. We might think of vi as being more at home on a UNIX-derived system, but in this case it’s a port of the vi included in BusyBox. Meanwhile the compiler comes from
amacc
project.
Of course, this still requires a terminal of some type which in practice will mean a host computer. But the feat is nevertheless an interesting one, and we can see that it might not be impossible given the Pico’s surprising versatility to being some of the terminal features onto the chip itself.
It’s worth noting that
this isn’t the first attempt we’ve seen to put a command line interface on a development board
. | 31 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499085",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T08:22:45",
"content": "Hmm, if I understand this correctly, it doesn’t actually compile C to ARM machine code, but to some interpreted bytecode?Interesting exercise, but micropython might be more effective in practice.",
"paren... | 1,760,372,610.844111 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/31/trippy-bicycle-uses-multiple-partial-wheels/ | Trippy Bicycle Uses Multiple Partial Wheels | Danie Conradie | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle rims",
"bicycle wheel",
"the q"
] | Bicycles need at least two wheels to be rideable, but [The Q] realized you don’t necessarily need the wheels to be in one piece. As long as you have at least two points of rolling contact with the ground, you can spread the load across multiple partial wheels. He demonstrated this by
splitting the rear wheel of his bike first in half
and
then thirds
to create an absolute head turner.
Since a conventional bicycle wheel with tensioned spokes would collapse if cut apart, [The Q] used single-piece aluminum wheels instead. The tires were cut into pieces, and the inner tubes were replaced with sections of thick-walled HDPE pipe that won’t collapse under the weight of a human. The tires and the HDPE “inner tubes” were riveted to the wheels.
To mount the additional wheels on the frame, [The Q] welded a set of extensions to the back with mounting points for the partial wheels. To keep them synced, timing is done with chains running on sprockets welded to the disc brakes. In the second video, he tries to also split the front wheels, but found the front forks can’t handle the torque and would flex dangerously when the contact point is too far forward. Instead, he settled for three wheels on the back.
Much like his hubless bicycle
, it’s not designed to be better than a standard bicycle, but is excellent for attracting attention. Though at least in some situations,
the all-wheel drive bike he built last year
might come in handy. | 18 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499044",
"author": "TacticalNinja",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T05:16:22",
"content": "That’s a cool bike you got there",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6499053",
"author": "mime",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T05:57:04",
"c... | 1,760,372,611.041624 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/31/industrial-robot-repurposed-to-make-smores/ | Industrial Robot Repurposed To Make S’Mores | Ryan Flowers | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"Industrial robot",
"marshmallow",
"microwave",
"pneumatic actuator",
"SMORES"
] | It’s summer time in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means campfires for cooking hot dogs, keeping the mosquitoes away, and of course, making s’mores. For our far-flung friends, that’s a fire roasted marshmallow and a square of chocolate smashed between two graham crackers. So called because when you’re done, you’ll want s’more. It’s an easy enough recipe that any child can tell you how to make it. But what if you’re not a child? What if you don’t even have hands
,
because you’re an industrial robot? This is the challenge that [Excessive Overkill] has taken on in
the video below the break
.
Starting with a Fanuc S-420 i W industrial robot built in 1997, [Excessive Overkill] painstakingly taught his own personal robot how to make S’Mores. Hacking the microwave with pneumatic cylinders to get the door open was a nice touch, and so are the vacuum grippers at the business end of the S’More-bot.
We know, we said you were supposed to make them on a campfire — but who wants to risk cooking their vintage robotic arm just to melt some chocolate?
There’s a lot of story behind this hack, and [Excessive Overkill] explains how they acquired, transported, and three phase powered an out of date industrial robot in
another of their videos
. Of course, this is Hackaday so it’s a subject that’s come up before in the
reverse engineering of an industrial robot
that we covered some time back.
Thanks [Phil] for the great tip! | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499018",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T02:22:47",
"content": "“Easy on that oven door! You don’t want to break it! ”B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6499033",
"author": "Paul ... | 1,760,372,610.933203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/31/hackaday-links-july-31-2022/ | Hackaday Links: July 31, 2022 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"china",
"deceleration",
"diving",
"drm",
"hackaday links",
"Long March",
"model S",
"russia",
"soviet",
"tesla",
"Venera",
"venus"
] | Don’t look up! As of the time of this writing, there’s a decent chance that
a Chinese Long March 5B booster has already completed its uncontrolled return to Earth
, hopefully safely. The reentry prediction was continually tweaked over the last week or so, until the consensus closed in on
30 Jul 2022 at 17:08 UTC
, give or take an hour either way. That two-hour window makes for a LOT of uncertainty about where the 25-ton piece of space debris will end up. Given the last prediction by The Aerospace Corporation, the likely surface paths cover a lot of open ocean, with only parts of Mexico and South America potentially in the crosshairs, along with parts of Indonesia. It’s expected that most of the material in the massive booster will burn up in the atmosphere, but with the size of the thing, even 20% making it to the ground could be catastrophic, as
it nearly was in 2020
.
[
Update
:
US Space Command confirms
that the booster splashed down in the Indian Ocean region at 16:45 UTC. No word yet on how much debris survived, or if any populated areas were impacted.]
Good news, everyone — thanks to 3D printing, we now know
the maximum height of a dive into water that the average human can perform without injury
. And it’s surprisingly small — 8 meters for head first, 12 meters if you break the water with your hands first, and 15 meters feet first. Bear in mind this is for the average person; the record for surviving a foot-first dive is almost 60 meters, but that was by a trained diver. Researchers from Cornell came up with these numbers by printing models of human divers in various poses, fitting them with accelerometers, and comparing the readings they got with known figures for deceleration injuries. There was no mention of the maximum survivable belly flop, but based on first-hand anecdotal experience, we’d say it’s not much more than a meter.
Humans have done a lot of spacefaring in the last sixty years or so, but almost all of it has been either in low Earth orbit or as flybys of our neighbors in the Sol system. Sure we’ve landed plenty of probes, but mostly on the Moon, Mars, and a few lucky asteroids. And Venus, which is sometimes easy to forget. We were reminded of that fact by
this cool video of the 1982 Soviet landing of Venera 14
, one of only a few attempts to land on our so-called sister planet. The video shows the few photographs Venera 14 managed to take before being destroyed by the heat and pressure on Venus, but the real treat is the sound recording the probe managed to make. Venera 14 captured the sounds of its own operations on the Venusian surface, including what sounds like a pneumatic drill being used to sample the regolith. It also captured, as the narrator put it, “the gentle blow of the Venusian wind” — as gentle as ultra-dense carbon dioxide hot enough to melt lead can be, anyway.
So when you buy a Tesla, what are you actually getting? It seems like a silly question, on the face of it. You’re buying a car, right? Maybe not, if
the bad experience of a Tesla Model S90 owner
is any indication. The particulars are hard to follow if you’re not familiar with Tesla’s pricing models, but essentially, each battery pack has a maximum capacity that’s limited in software depending on how much range you pay for. The Tesla owner in question bought his Model S90 used, and was getting the 90-kWh range he was expecting. But when he went in to upgrade his car from 3G telemetry, Tesla locked his battery to 60-kWh and demanded $4,500 to unlock it.
Luckily, the owner was able to take the matter to Twitter, where the Court of Public Opinion quickly decided against Tesla, who reverted the change without charge and apologized for the misunderstanding. Good for them, but it raises a lot of questions about ownership — it seems more like you’re licensing a limited right to use a vehicle rather than buying it outright, and that seems to apply even once the vehicle moves to the secondary market. | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498990",
"author": "Bret Tschacher",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T23:48:10",
"content": "I just saw that on my phone news posting today. I’m wondering now that I have seen the post about the falling object over TX. the other day, if that was from the booster or a meteor? I watched it o... | 1,760,372,611.295185 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/31/hackaday-prize-2022-an-eastern-bloc-nes-clone/ | Hackaday Prize 2022: An Eastern Bloc NES Clone | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Nintendo Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"clone",
"eastern europe",
"emulator",
"famicom",
"iron curtain",
"nes",
"nintendo"
] | If Nintendo is known for anything outside of their characters and admittedly top-notch video games, it’s being merciless to fans when it comes to using their intellectual property. They take legal action against people just for showing non-Nintendo hardware emulating games of theirs, and have even attempted to shut down the competitive scene for games like
Super Smash Bros
. To get away from the prying eyes of the Nintendo legal team extreme measures need to be taken —
like building your Nintendo console clone behind the Iron Curtain
.
[Marek Więcek] grew up in just such a place, so the only way to play Famicom (a.k.a NES) games was to use a clone system like this one circulating in the Eastern Bloc at the time called the Pegasus which could get the job done with some tinkering. [Marek] recently came across CPU and GPU chips from this clone console and got to work building his own. Using perf board and wire he was able to test the chips and confirm they functioned properly, but had a problem with the video memory that took him a while to track down and fix.
After that, he has essentially a fully-functional Famicom that can play any cartridge around. While we hope that living in Eastern Europe still puts him far enough away to avoid getting hassled by Nintendo, we can never be too sure. Unless, of course, you use
this device which lets you emulate SNES games legally
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498980",
"author": "Mog",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T22:58:06",
"content": "If these are the same chips that were used in the Dendy and other NES clones of the time, it’s worth mentioning that while it can play nearly every Famicom cartridge around, it can’t necessarily do it well. S... | 1,760,372,610.982639 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/31/adding-perlin-noise-to-3d-printed-parts-with-python/ | Adding Perlin Noise To 3D Printed Parts, With Python | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"cad",
"Perlin noise",
"python",
"stl"
] | Want to add a bit of visual flair to 3D printed parts that goes maybe a little more than skin-deep? That’s exactly what [volzo] was after, which led him to create
a Python script capable of generating a chunk of Perlin noise, rendered as an STL file
. What does that look like? An unpredictably-random landscape of hills and valleys.
The script can give printed parts a more appealing finish.
The idea is to modify a 3D model with the results of the script, leaving one with something a bit more interesting than a boring, flat surface. [volzo] explains how to use OpenSCAD to do exactly that, but it’s also possible to import the STL file the script creates into the CAD program of one’s choice and make the modifications there with some boolean operations.
If the effect looks a bit bit familiar, it’s likely because he used the method to design part of
the 3D printed “toy” camera that we featured recently
.
[volzo]’s method isn’t entirely plug and play, but it could still be a handy thing to keep in your back pocket when designing your next part. There are also other ways to modify the surfaces of prints for better aesthetics; we’ve previously covered
velocity painting
(also known as ‘tattooing’ in some slicers) and also
fuzzy skin
.
Perlin noise was created by [Ken Perlin] in the early 80s while working on the original
Tron
movie as a way to help generate more realistic-looking textures.
It still fulfills that artistic function in a variety of ways, even today
. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498966",
"author": "gleonard3",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T20:53:24",
"content": "Can this technique be used to apply a wood grain finish? That would be sweet.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6498970",
"author": "ziggu... | 1,760,372,611.436347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/the-rollercoaster-of-developing-the-ultimate-hackable-keyboard/ | The Rollercoaster Of Developing The Ultimate Hackable Keyboard | Danie Conradie | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"mechanical keyboard",
"RGB LEDs",
"rp2040",
"zack freedman"
] | When designing anything with “hackable” in the punchline, scope creep is an integral part of the process. You end up trying to create something to potentially be an infinite number of things for an infinite number of users. [Zack Freedman] is going really deep down the rabbit hole with his
MiRage keyboard
and has been documenting the progress in his usual entertaining style, with some cautionary notes included.
The most fascinating tale from this come about as a result of adding RGB LEDs beneath the keys, while still allowing everything to function when the keyboard is split in two. Thanks to an IO expander chip in one side of the board, a standard TRRS audio cable is enough to link both sides together. But the addition of addressable LEDs meant more lines were required.
[Zack] thought he had found a solution in the form of SATA cables, but it turns out all SATA cables internally connect pins 1,3, and 7, making them useless for this application. He realized he had no choice but to add a second microcontroller to the “dumb” side of the keyboard and return to I2C over a TRRS cable. However, the RP2040-based Seeed XIAO’s I2C absolutely refused to play along. After a fortnight of frustrating debugging, it turns out there was a bug in the pin definitions. Fortunately, this also revealed that the XIAO had an undocumented secondary I2C interface, which he plans to configure as a peripheral to make the keyboard almost infinitely expandable with additional keys.
An earlier version of the MiRage
featured tactile OLED displays, but it turns out the thin panes of glass don’t handle repeated flexing well, so they had to be scrapped. In their place came a touchscreen E-paper display, but now this seems to be evolving into a pluggable module for any input device that your heart desires, including possibly a
haptic SmartKnob
. Another major update are PCB footprints that support both CHOC and MX switches.
It all started with the
MiRage V1
keyboard intended to for use in an updated version of [Zack]’s
cyberdeck
. After realizing how many people were interested in the keyboard but not the cyberdeck, he shifted focus to refining the MiRage.
This project still has some way to go, so we’ll certainly be keeping our eye on it. In the meantime,
we’ve recently covered another exceptionally customizable keyboard
that might catch your fancy. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499657",
"author": "Stappers",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T18:50:56",
"content": "FWIWhttps://github.com/TeXitoi/keyberonA rust crate to create a pure rust keyboard firmware.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6499691",
"au... | 1,760,372,611.490772 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/toyotas-cartridge-helps-make-hydrogen-portable/ | Toyota’s Cartridge Helps Make Hydrogen Portable | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"Canister",
"fuel",
"fuels",
"hydrogen",
"hydrogen canister",
"Jerry can",
"portable fuel"
] | Hydrogen has long been touted as the solution to cleaning up road transport. When used in fuel cells, the only emissions from its use are water, and it eliminates the slow recharging problem of battery-electric vehicles. It’s also been put forth as a replacement for everything from natural gas supplies to laptop batteries.
Toyota has been pushing hard for hydrogen technology, and has worked to develop vehicles and infrastructure to this end. The company’s latest efforts involve a toteable hydrogen cartridge –
letting you take hydrogen power on the go!
Solving Storage and Shipment Issues
The portable hydrogen canisters weigh just 5kg. Credit: Toyota
For all its benefits, hydrogen is a bit of a tricky thing to deal with. Molecules of H2 are so small that they tend to leak out of most containers, finding a way to slip between other molecules. This can cause problems, such as leaks, or hydrogen embrittlement in metal components. Thus materials must be selected carefully to store hydrogen safely.
It’s commonly stored as a compressed gas or liquid, or within solids in special metallic forms.
The dimensions of Toyota’s attractive round canisters are quite compact- 400 mm long and 180 mm in diameter. Footnotes from Toyota indicate they rely on a “high-pressure hydrogen tank,” suggesting storage in gaseous form. The target weight for the canisters is 5 kg. Thus, the canisters can readily be manipulated and carried by a single person, serving as a lightweight store of energy. They come in much lighter than a typical tank of propane (~30 kg) or a full jerry can of gasoline (~25 kg).
Toyota discusses the canister’s power output with a curious metric. One cartridge should generate “enough electricity to operate a typical household microwave for approximately 3-4 hours.” Given microwaves are typically operated in minutes at a time, one suspects the TV dinners at Toyota HQ may be more than a little frazzled. Regardless,
the press release
notes that this is derived from a typical capacity of 3.3 kWh when the canister is used with a “typical FC [fuel cell] system.”
While it’s not a lot of power, the total capacity works out to roughly 660 Wh/kg. Even given the fancy plastic casing, it’s still better than lithium-ion batteries, which come in around 260 Wh/kg at best.
Toyota demonstrated a twist-and-lock insertion method for the hydrogen canisters which feels very futuristic indeed.
Even better is if the machine sucks them in automatically like those magic Macintosh disk drives of the 1980s. Credit: Toyota, Woven City
At such a low total capacity, it’s hard to envisage these canisters being used for transport applications. Most electric cars have batteries exceeding 70 kWh in capacity; it would take over 18 such canisters to provide the same amount of power. 3.3 kWh might run your electric scooter for a decent long ride, but you’d need to have a fuel cell and a 5 kg canister hanging off it, somehow.
Instead, it appears Toyota sees the canisters as a way to deliver clean electrical power in a more weight-efficient format than using batteries. The canisters will be tested in Toyota’s Woven City, a future-looking “smart city” in Japan that hopes to trial new technologies. There, they will be used to run a “broad range of daily life applications in and outside of the home.” Potential applications could be running hot plates at an outdoor picnic, or providing lighting for a campground without the noise of a combustion-engine generator.
The cartridges take a difficult and fussy fuel and put it into a no-mess, no-fuss format. Credit: Toyota
The general idea is that the canisters are an easy way to deliver hydrogen energy in a portable format. Unlike liquid fuels, hydrogen can’t easily be poured from one tank to another. Instead, charging up a bunch of canisters makes it easy to move hydrogen around to where it’s needed.
Toyota has big hopes for hydrogen as a fuel of the future. It’s invested big in
hydrogen cars,
and still lags behind its competitors when it comes to battery-electric vehicles. With these hydrogen canisters, Toyota “envisions hydrogen evolving into a familiar, broadly-used form of energy.”
It’s hard to see Toyota’s vision from the present day. EVs are getting better than ever, and hydrogen production typically involves more fossil fuels than you might expect. However, the technology is developing rapidly, from Toyota’s portable canisters to
hydrogen pastes
and
advanced aluminium fuel pucks
. Whether any of these can stop a broader push towards pure electrification remains to be seen. | 139 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499604",
"author": "MrSVCD",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T17:19:41",
"content": "Here is to a government mandated standard so things can get going.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6499693",
"author": "Kelly Jones",
... | 1,760,372,611.667448 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/homemade-sawstop-attachment-is-just-about-as-sketchy-as-it-sounds/ | Homemade SawStop Attachment Is Just About As Sketchy As It Sounds | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Amputation",
"brake",
"electromagnetic clutch",
"hot dog",
"pyrotechnic",
"safety",
"saw",
"sawstop",
"table saw"
] | TL;DR — when [Colin Furze] is your “safety inspector,” you really should be reconsidering your project goals.
Most of us have probably by now seen the SawStop brand of self-stopping table saw, which detects when something meatier than wood has the bad taste to touch the spinning blade, more or less instantly stopping it and preventing sudden traumatic amputations. It’s an outstanding idea, and we’d love to see the technology built into all table saws. But alas, SawStop saws are priced out of reach for many woodworkers, which left
[Ruth Amos] to roll her own DIY version of the system
.
It should be stated right off the bat that none of what [Ruth] does here is a good idea, and that everything shown is really just a proof of concept. The basis for her build was a somewhat flimsy-looking contractor-style saw, to which [Ruth] attached an Arduino set up to detect when something conductive touches the blade. She shares no particulars on the sensing method, but our guess is capacitive coupling. She then sets about experimenting with a series of above-table gizmos to arrest the blade, with limited success, plus all the attachments would make the saw essentially useless. But working above the table does make sense in the prototyping phase, and allowed her to figure out what wouldn’t work.
In the end, it was an electromagnetic clutch from an electric lawnmower that seemed to do the trick, albeit at the expense of heavy mods to the saw and a considerable increase in the system’s angular momentum. Nonetheless, the blade stops pretty close to instantly in the old hot dog test. It doesn’t drop the blade below the table, of course, and the hot dog is a little worse for the wear, but it’s still pretty impressive.
We’ve discussed SawStop’s technology
before and why it isn’t perhaps as widely available as it should be, if you’re curious. | 56 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499578",
"author": "Nathan",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T15:48:57",
"content": "I thought when they first came out that Sawstop was an attachment/retrofit to other table saws, and as they grew and developed/sold their own model they discontinued the attachment version.Do they license ... | 1,760,372,611.762248 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/mutually-crafted-happiness-how-mch2022-happened/ | Mutually Crafted Happiness: How MCH2022 Happened | Arya Voronova | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"hacker camp",
"hacker camps",
"MCH",
"MCH2022"
] | Just a few days ago,
MCH2022,
a six day long hacker camp in Netherlands, has concluded – bringing about three thousand hackers together to hang out. It was my first trip to a large hacker camp like this, as I’ve only been to smaller ones, and this story is coming from someone who’s only now encountering the complexity and intricacy of one. This is the story of how it’s run on the inside.
MCH2022 is the successor of a hacker camp series in the Netherlands – you might’ve heard of the the previous one,
SHA, organized in 2017.
The “MCH” part officially stands for May Contain Hackers – and those, it absolutely did contain. An event for hackers of all kinds to rest, meet each other, and hang out – long overdue, and in fact, delayed for a year due to the everpresent pandemic. This wasn’t a conference-like event where you’d expect a schedule, catering and entertainment – a lot of what made MCH cool was each hacker’s unique input.
Just like many other camps similar to this, it was a volunteer-organized event – there’s no company standing behind it, save for a few sponsors with no influence on decisionmaking; it’s an event by hackers, for hackers. The Netherlands has a healthy culture of hackerspaces, with plenty of cooperation between them, and forming a self-organized network of volunteers, that cooperation works magic.
Meticulous Complexity Harmonized
The Summer of 2022 turned out to be a busy time for event organizers – people are getting anxious to go out and have some fun together for once, so it got harder to rent equipment, find services and hire workers. Contracts had to be signed as early as possible, and a “get your ticket early to make camp happen” initiative in the beginning of 2022 has helped crowdfund the initial investment. Preparations wound up, a myriad of people each taking a few
crucial roles
– this tentative chart might help you get a sense of the complexity.
As you can see, there’s an impressive amount of things to be prepared. Those of us familiar with event organization know how many things can go wrong in each of these aspects, with grave consequences. Instead, the camp happened without a hitch; in fact, the extra year granted seems to have helped prepare things more meticulously, and even
have some fun.
The MCH badge itself is a work of art with thought put into its design and purpose, and no doubt deserves a separate article.
Some of that complexity was in helping us, visitors, prepare ourselves. The first thing you’d encounter, even before you start packing up for your trip, is the MCH Wiki page on
camping
– detailing
things that you ought or ought not take,
every single
aspect and legal limitation
one needs to be mindful of. If you ever needed a packing list for your next hacker camp trip, you can safely fall back on the according pages of MCH Wiki – yes, it’s that exhaustive.
Something that pleasantly surprised me is the thoughtfulness of the MCH payment system. Of course, you’ll want a meal every now and then, get a bottle of cold Club Mate at the bar, and perhaps buy some merch too. You might’ve been tempted to just withdraw some notes from an ATM beforehand, like I did. Cash management on such a scale is a real pain, however, as we’ve learned in
the intro talk.
What fascinated me was the QR code voucher system designed to replace cash for camp’s official purposes, functioning just as well as cash with all the privacy and none of the downsides, and coupled with a card processing system for everyone who had suitable cards — Visa wouldn’t do — and payments were comfortable as ever. At villages, cash still was the only option for purchases and donations; for food payments, I exchanged some of my cash for a QR code and was set.
Visit At Least Some Talks
The rule of hacker events applies here – talks get recorded and can always be watched later, but you cannot experience everything else at your own pace after the camp is over. As such, I didn’t visit many talks, limiting myself to about seven – which is not a whole lot, given there were
over a hundred scheduled talks
across six days. That said, MCH wouldn’t be complete without all the talks – letting us hackers share in the important things we work on, be they impactful, entertaining, educational, or a mixture of these three, and you absolutely ought to visit a few talks at such a camp.
I’m grateful to have been there for
a fresh look at Android permission paradigms
hiding glaring information leak vectors,
an insight into microbes and biofuels,
a daring
reframing of the way we think about tech recycling,
and a journey into
side channel attacks on multicore processors.
There was plenty of hacking to be witnessed, for all tastes, and most of the videos
seem to be already available
(
YouTube
), giving each of us a few dozen hours of hacking stories added to our work playlists.
You couldn’t really limit yourself to the talks, however, as every part of MCH offered so much more – aside from the obligatory CTF and a bunch of badge-related challenges. From workshops and small hacking sessions, to carefully transported art projects and diverse villages looking to show you aspects of hacker life you’ve never experienced before, there was a whole lot to take in. The villages, in particular, deserve a story of their own.
It Takes Hackers To Raise A Village
Villages are hacker groups under a physical umbrella of the same tent, from large to small – most open to outside visitors and many private ones. Some villages were thematic, like
the lockpicking village
that organized regular courses, some were hackerspaces and hackerspace groups arriving in form of a bunch of members and setting up a mini-embassy, and some were friend and coworker groups using their tent as a space to hang out and rest between the camp activities. MCH encouraged you to join a village and help with it, and the various villages on the camp grounds made MCH all that more lively.
As part of a village, you could organize your own sessions – events inviting people to do things at your village, whether for a presentation on hardware hacking basics,
a morning run
to start a day with some newly found energy, a hands-on exercise on
wardriving with ESP32,
or 80’s music-backed
conversations about ethics in technology.
Since it’s possible to bring a bus full of things to a hackercamp like this, many indeed did. That said, you wouldn’t see CNC machines as much as you’d see DJ equipment, speakers, portable grills, fridges, and even a small barrel-shaped sauna that, one would guess, a Finnish hackerspace brought. Of course, you didn’t need to stick to a template.
Milliways
is a hacker collective
– among other things, they organized a free food stall at MCH;
true to its name,
accessible to any traveller. Of course, free food doesn’t happen until someone makes it, and every day, you’d see a few volunteer hackers chopping up vegetables and cooking the tortilla filling, chatting amongst themselves as they went about it. In an hour’s time, food would go from “ingredients” to “a meal” thanks to a group of hackers making it happen. It’s not clear to me where Milliways got all the ingredients from – I prefer to assume that, just like its namesake, one relies on some savvy investments.
Retro Computing Village
brought a collection of retro systems for us to marvel at, while
the Retro Gaming Village
had game consoles you could actually spend time playing. The
Biohacking Village
brought a bunch of medical devices people could pentest, including a glucometer sensor plugged into a potato – which, turns out, has all the characteristics of the human body as far as a glucometer’s concerned. The
Food Hacking Base
had daily events on own spices and an array of food making equipment, busy on the daily and open to anyone who wanted to share their food making skills, and it makes sense that I’ve met some of the friendliest people there.
Food was a staple in quite a few villages, as you might’ve noticed, and no wonder – it’s one of the quickest ways to a hacker’s heart. A lot of these villages are ongoing projects and will appear at the next camps – be on the lookout. All the villages let everyone bring a part of themselves to the MCH – a requirement for creating a camp people would actually enjoy.
Infrastructure Matters Carefully Handled
Some food trucks were invited, flawlessly functioning toilets and showers were delivered, and there was a live laser-adorned visual show – with
audio backing.
The MCH camp relies on so much more than that, however – first and foremost, on a tireless team with diverse backgrounds making camp happen. Any visitor could’ve and ought’ve been part of that team – not even by organizing a village or helping with one of the camp’s fundamental aspects, in fact, there was always something you could do to help MCH run smoothly.
The Angel system would be your intro for helping this camp operate, alongside many other hackers like you. If you ever found yourself with a few hours of spare time, the thing to do would be logging into the Angel system and signing up for one of the shifts. Most of these tasks are can be done by anyone, but having options like a driver’s license or first aid training would open extra possibilities for you to be of help. Having neither, I signed up for a runner shift with my friend – being on hold for any random and urgent tasks that you wouldn’t want other volunteers to be distracted by. In the end, there was nothing urgent and unexpected for us to take care of – a testament to just how well the camp was operating on that evening.
Other infrastructure things had to be prepared way in advance. The network infrastructure was a failproof and even somewhat overengineered labor of love – with nary an outage or slowdown in sight, not that you’d find yourself alone with your laptop for extended periods of time, anyway. An expected DECT phone network was running, and the ever-so-helpful medical center was on standby for any issues. Whether it’s the talks, the infrastructure, the villages, or the direction of the camp overall – things were done right.
It All Comes Together
You would make friends here, and in words of someone we met on the first day, you’d find a place where you’d feel like a friend. Whether it’s a common interest, participation in one of the villages or angel activities, partying in the evenings, or the friendly Italians happy to share Grappa with you, there’s no shortage of opportunities to meet a like-minded hacker. Throughout the five days, as I was walking around with my friend, each corner of the camp had its share of random encounters.
We set a few personal challenges for ourselves this camp, such as getting our first experience soldering on a boat
(done!),
or replacing a 0.4mm pitch BGA to fix our colleague’s laptop
(done,
and the laptop sprang to life!). That boat was no regular boat, mind you – it turned out to be a
fablab boat,
aptly named Serendiep, built in pandemic times by an artist collective and therefore equipped with a stage area and means to entertain guests. The fablab area of it fascinated us most – the boat owners were working on things like a compact waste composting unit, aside from all the art-related things, of course.
The camp had so much more prepared for us than what we set out to do initially. ChaosPost – a camp-internal mailing system complete with a giant stack of postcards, – got our attention, and we’ve spent a fair few hours delivering postcards made by other visitors. It also gave us a reason to visit various fields of MCH, areas we likely wouldn’t have visited otherwise. As MCH was happening on the coast of a lake, one of our ChaosPost tasks was to deliver a piece of chocolate to the ferry operating hourly – and we ended up on a short trip on that ferry, to the other coast and back, in company of some lovely people enjoying the scenic route as much as we did.
Later, on the campground, two German guys in an oversized tent with “Free Stuff” written on it attracted our attention – one of them was trying to get rid of a bunch of old equipment taking up space in his basement. Trawling through the boxes, me and my friend started chatting with them about anything, and ended up being invited for some freshly grilled burgers, departing an hour later with quite a few useful bits and pieces we’re now using after the camp’s over. Every corner of the camp had surprises like this prepared for us – people ready to share their stories and discoveries, or perhaps share in the excitement of a some experience.
At different points during the camp, I found myself chasing a small truck I forgot some of our belongings in, chopping vegetables for a Milliways meal, stumbling upon a tent where someone was testing out their experimental software turning datasets into soundscapes, chatting about easy ways to get into USB PD decoding, listening to others’ earnest stories, and every now and then, finding a table with an assortment of beautiful stickers. Occasionally, a small makeshift vehicle would pass us, many covered with LED strips, some visibly converted from hoverboards. These days have given us quite an adventure, full of the appreciable randomness that all the different hackers brought there.
The climate wasn’t at its friendliest – with a two-day heatwave right in the middle of the schedule. Thankfully, things went generally well for all of us, and the medical center
was ready to help those who needed it.
At night, temperatures would drop, and the camp would liven up. LEDs, flamethrowers and halogen lamps would shine, more than making up for the lack of sunlight. Some areas organized partying with energetic music in the background, others had small quiet meetups and conversations, and with enough distance between these two plus designated quiet areas, those who wanted to sleep could do so comfortably.
Camp Is Over, But Lives On
With all the organizer, volunteer and participant energy put into it, being at MCH2022 was marvellous. A lot of people contributed towards making this camp a worthwhile experience – whenever the next camp around you springs up, you ought to consider making your own contribution, and see it grow into something larger than your effort alone.
While this camp might’ve contained hackers, what happened can’t be contained. Whether it’s talk recordings, pictures, stories,
memories,
projects and friendships that might spring up from MCH interactions, even if you weren’t there for it, I hope the positive impact of this week-long hacker retreat can linger on our community.
MCH2022 is officially over! Thanks all for a great event!
— MCH2022 (@MCH2022Camp)
July 26, 2022
I’d like to thank
[WifiCable]
and
[Peetz0r]
for their pictures! | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499565",
"author": "mh",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T14:25:07",
"content": "This was really a super cool event! (Well, during the days, it was actually hot)Thanks a lot to all who helped make it happen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,372,611.836673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/the-gametank-is-the-latest-and-greatest-8-bit-game-console/ | The GameTank Is The Latest And Greatest 8-bit Game Console | Robin Kearey | [
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6502",
"emulator",
"game console"
] | The NES, Atari 2600, the Apple II, the Commodore 64 and the TurboGrafx-16 are just some of the many game consoles and home computers built around the 6502 CPU. And while the 6502 has been pretty much obsolete since the mid-’90s, that hasn’t stopped hackers from building new systems with it in the 21st century. Today we can even show you an entirely new 6502-based game console:
the GameTank, designed and built by [Clyde Shaffer].
The GameTank was designed to be easy to build by anyone, and is therefore largely constructed from DIP chips that can be bought new at any component distributor. The main CPU is a WD65C02 running at 3.5 MHz, assisted by a 6522 I/O controller and 32 kB of RAM. Composite video is generated by a clever circuit made out of discrete logic chips. The video card comes with DMA for fast transfers and even includes a blitter, which enables it to move images around the screen quickly without loading the CPU.
For the controllers, [Clyde] decided to go for the more-or-less industry standard DE-9 connector gamepads as used on the Sega Genesis and various Atari consoles. He also made his own controller, a 3D printed one with four directional buttons, three action buttons and a start button. The buttons are implemented with Cherry MX Clear switches — an unusual choice for a gamepad perhaps, but they’re apparently very comfortable for long gaming sessions.
The console itself is also housed in a printed enclosure with a design reminiscent of the Nintendo 64. Game cartridges are inserted at the top and contain an EEPROM chip that can be written with a special programmer. The cartridge port also brings out several internal signals and can therefore be used as an expansion port, similar to the way Super NES cartridges could accommodate enhancement chips.
Games currently available include
Tetris
, the office-themed platformer
Cubicle Knight
, a
Zelda
-style adventure named
Accursed Fiend
, and a remake of the classic viral animation
Bad Apple
. [Clyde] provides a comprehensive stack of tools and example code and invites anyone interested to help develop more software for the platform. There’s also a hardware-accurate emulator, which is not only useful if you’re writing new code for the system but also if you
simply want to try out the existing games in your browser
.
Rolling your own 6502 system is great fun, and we’ve seen several examples over the years: some are
built with huge bundles of wire
, some are
come with a clever programming language
, some are
so tiny they fit on your wrist
, and some are simply
beautifully made
. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499520",
"author": "Stappers",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T11:29:16",
"content": "Mmm, the case has two buttons, the PCB has three. Seems to me that reset button, the middle, is not user accessable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,372,611.90069 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/hoverboard-powered-sofa-is-fun-and-a-bit-dangerous/ | Hoverboard Powered Sofa Is Fun And A Bit Dangerous | Danie Conradie | [
"Toy Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"couch",
"hoverboard",
"wii nunchuck"
] | Discarded hoverboards are a great source of free high torque motors for hacking. This can include crazy but fun projects like this
hoverboard-driven IKEA sofa
, as demonstrated by [Bitluni] and his friends at xHain Hackerspace in Berlin.
With a couple of dead hoverboards in various conditions and a working e-bike battery, the group started exploring different options to put together a usable drivetrain. The first attempt involved commanding the motor drivers directly by intercepting communication from the gyro-based controller. The 9-bit communication protocol was a tough nut to crack, so they tried (and failed) to use the gyro-boards directly as the controllers. In the process of researching they discovered someone had created
alternative firmware
for the hoverboard controllers to allow control with a Wii Nunchuck. There is even a
web-based config
tool for compiling the firmware.
With some wood spacers screwed to the bottom of the sofa, the hoverboard motors could be attached by simply screwing their enclosure to the bottom of the couch and adding a section of PVC pipe between the halves for wiring. Caster wheels were added to the rear corners of the sofa to complete the chassis. The motors were very sensitive to control inputs on the Nunchuck, so riding the couch tended to rapidly turn into a rodeo event. The couch also wasn’t made to carry its load on the outer corners, so it had to be reinforced with plywood after it started cracking.
We’ve seen plenty of hacks that involve hoverboard motors, including an
electric skateboard with mecanum wheels
and a
surprisingly practical e-bike conversion
. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499494",
"author": "lukealexdavis",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T09:05:52",
"content": "So happy that the sofa from the Virtual Insanity video found a new lease of life",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6499556",
"author": "Ellio... | 1,760,372,612.021302 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/01/combat-gets-a-computer-controlled-opponent/ | CombatGets A Computer Controlled Opponent | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Games"
] | [
"atari",
"atari 2600",
"combat",
"launch game"
] | If you ever spent some time playing on the Atari 2600, there’s an excellent chance you went through a few rounds of
Combat
. The two-player warfare game not only came with the console but was actually one of the more technically impressive titles for the system, offering nearly 30 variations of the core head-to-head gameplay formula.
But unfortunately, none of those modes included single player. That is,
until [Nick Bild] got on the case
. While some concessions had to be made, he has succeeded where the original developers failed, and added a computer-controlled enemy to
Combat
. What’s more, the game still runs on the stock 2600 hardware — no emulator tricks required. The true aficionados can marvel at the snippets of source code he’s provided, but the rest of us can just watch the video below the break and marvel at the accomplishment.
If you’ve never worked on such a constrained system, this might not seem like a big deal. But [Nick] does a great job of explaining not just what he did, but why it was so hard to pull off in the first place. For example, the console has no video buffer, so everything needs to be done during the VBLANK period where the game doesn’t need to be drawing to the screen. Unfortunately that didn’t give him enough free cycles, so he had to split his code up to run across three frames instead of just one. That mean’s the original game logic is now only running 27 frames out of the 30 per second, but he says you can’t really tell in practice.
That said, some cuts had to be made. He needed to remove the surprisingly complex engine sounds to free up some resources, and had to bump the 2 KB cartridge up to 4 KB to hold the new code and data. Turns out the 2600 could handle far larger cartridges via bank switching though, so this wasn’t actually a problem.
Given its age and limited capabilities compared to more modern consoles, you might think the Atari 2600 would be little more than a footnote in gaming history. But there’s a devoted group of folks who
enjoy squeezing everything they can
out of the system’s 45-year-old hardware which
leads to labors of love like this one
. | 11 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499454",
"author": "loonquawl",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T06:35:31",
"content": "Are the shots curving sometimes? Very first shot of blue, and many afterwards seem to change direction – bug or feature?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"commen... | 1,760,372,612.074809 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/maximum-power-point-tracking-optimizing-solar-panels/ | Maximum Power Point Tracking: Optimizing Solar Panels | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"green hacks",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"efficiency",
"mppt",
"off grid",
"pv solar",
"solar cell"
] | When looking at integrating a photovoltaic solar panel into a project, the naive assumption would be that you simply point the panel into the general direction of where the Sun is, and out comes gobs of clean DC power, ready to be used for charging a battery. To a certain extent this assumption is correct, but feeding a solar panel’s output into something like a regular old PWM buck or boost regulator is unlikely to get you anywhere close to the panel’s full specifications.
The keywords here are ‘maximum power point’ (MPP), which refers to the optimal point on the solar panel’s
I-V curve
. This is a property that’s important not only with photovoltaics, but also with wind turbines and other highly variable power sources. The tracking of this maximum power point is what is generally referred to as ‘
MPPT
‘, but within this one acronym many different algorithms are covered, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this article we’ll take a look at what these MPPT algorithms are, and when you would want to pick a particular one.
Powerful Curves
Solar cell specs usually quote an open-circuit voltage and a short-circuit current. Between these extremes, the voltage that a solar cell can produce depends on how much current it’s producing. As the current drawn increases, the voltage it can produce decreases.
Think of a nozzle at the end of a hose — the more flow of water you let out of it, the less pressure is produced at the exit. If you leave it wide open, you get maximum flow, but it spills on your feet. If you close the nozzle a bit, less water comes out, but it flies further.
Power is the product of voltage and current, P = I * V, and this is what we care about. In the specs, one of either I or V is zero, so no power is produced. Between these cases, there is a maximum power for the given illumination.
PV solar panel I-V curves example. The single vertical line tracks the MPP.
The goal of a power-point tracker is to resist the flow of current out of the solar cell so that it’s operating at an intermediate current and voltage that maximizes its output: opening the valve so that the water pushes a water wheel as fast as possible.
It is this simplicity that also hides the complexity of MPPT: in the case of a PV solar panel, its MPP will continually change as solar irradiation changes due to passing clouds, the changing angle of the Sun, and many other factors. This means that the MPP has to be continuously updated, which means determining the optimal voltage with minimal under- or overshoot. Over the years, a number of different approaches to solve this problem have been developed.
While some variations and custom MPPT algorithms exist, the following are the most popular algorithms.
Constant Voltage
A generic CN3722 constant voltage MPPT board.
One of the earliest and most basic MPPT algorithms, Constant Voltage (CV) tracking, changes the output current to maintain a constant reference voltage. This approach uses a set fraction of the open circuit voltage, usually around 80%, which means that technically it does not track the MPP at all.
It is still a useful approach because of its simplicity, but it offers low efficiency and suffers in situations where the solar panel is poorly situated and doesn’t see full sun. The low requirements makes it an ideal target for low-cost single-chip solutions, such as the ubiquitous MPPT ICs from Consonance-Elec, such as the
CN3722
and
CN3791
.
A basic 5 A CV MPPT board can be obtained in a variety of generic guises for often less than $10. This makes them ideal for hobby and cost-sensitive applications where efficiency isn’t paramount, and a loosely approximated MPP is sufficient.
Perturb And Observe
This MPPT algorithm is a fairly straight-forward true tracking algorithm. As the name suggests this algorithm is based around the slight nudging of the MPP current set point, measuring current and voltage, determining whether the power produced increased or decreased, and repeating the nudge accordingly.
While quite efficient even in this basic form, the main issue with the perturb and observe algorithm is that it tends to oscillate around the MPP, which will reduce the overall efficiency.
In order for this algorithm to determine whether it needs to adjust the MPP set point, it has to change this set point so that it can observe the effect of this change in the form of the output power. Although this will track the optimal MPP, it will constantly oscillate around it. Here making the adjustment step size as small as possible may seem like a reasonable optimization, but this leads to the system responding very slowly when a rapid change occurs, such as a cloud obscuring the PV panel.
This approach is a good intermediate solution between the simplistic constant voltage approach and something yet fancier.
Incremental Conductance
Incremental conductance measures the changes in current and voltage to predict the effect of a voltage change using the system’s
conductance
(ΔI / ΔV) — the slope of the power curve. Where perturb and observe takes fixed-size steps and tests if they’re in the right direction, incremental conductance modifies the step size depending on how far away from optimal it is. This has the effect that when it’s already at the MPP, the step size goes to zero and it simply sits there.
Calculating the slope — the ratio of changes in voltage and current — is more sensitive to error than measuring the levels themselves. So while incremental conductance uses a better optimization strategy, it also comes with the most severe hardware requirements, including precision components and a controller that can constantly perform the required calculations. This makes it a good choice for an application where efficiency is paramount, and the available budget generous enough to accommodate the extra expense.
Only The Beginning
The preceding is only a minimal primer on MPPT and the three most common algorithms, and
the devil is in the details
. For instance, in both the optimization methods, what happens if a bird passes over just as you’ve perturbed the setpoint or taken a voltage step? You might erroneously conclude that the change you made caused the decrease in power. Temperature and other real-world conditions also play a part, so what works on paper may not in practice — helping to explain the persistance of the constant voltage method.
But none of this is so complicated that you shouldn’t implement your own MPPT controller. One such example is found for the STM32F334 microcontroller in Application Note 5324 (
AN5324
), which details the software and circuitry required to use the high-resolution timer and other peripherals like the ADC and embedded opamp in this MCU to implement what is essentially a perturb-and-observe algorithm that controls an LLC switching mode converter.
While an off-the-shelf MPPT controller is probably the best choice for any project where things should Just Work™, they also form one of those intriguing devices that are simultaneously very simple and as complicated as you want them to be, making them for an excellent hobby project idea. | 59 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499929",
"author": "preamp.org",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T14:25:55",
"content": "Here’s one built around an ATTiny44:http://www.zabex.de/site/mpptracker.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6499932",
"author": "abjq",
"... | 1,760,372,612.177424 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/restore-your-formerly-useless-ouya-console/ | Restore Your Formerly Useless Ouya Console | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games"
] | [
"android",
"console",
"game",
"Ouya",
"phone home",
"server",
"sign in"
] | Plenty of electronics end up in the junk drawer or even landfill after their useful life ends, but in the modern world of planned obsolescence a lot more devices are thrown out simply because of lack of support. Sometimes it’s even worse than that as some products are designed to “phone home” and will lack critical functionality if the original producer of that product gets purchased by someone else, wants to sell its customers more products, or goes out of business. The latter is essentially what happened to the Ouya console,
but if you still have one of these around you might be able to get it running again
.
The Ouya was a commercial failure but an ambitious take on a new kind of gaming console. With little more processing power than a smart phone, the idea was to produce a console for the casual gamer that also could play retro games and other games available for Android. It had a low price point but eventually couldn’t sell enough units to stay in business. These devices needed to see a specific server to gain full functionality, and [Christian] has created essentially a spoofed server that allows users to sign in to their consoles and install games again. All that is needed is to modify a few config files on the Ouya to point to a different address and the Ouya boots up just like it’s 2012 again.
This project goes a long way to show that there are plenty of serviceable electronics out there that have just been needlessly borked, and with a little elbow grease it’s sometimes possible to get them working. The state of this machine is a little surprising given that
the original machine promised to be hacker and developer friendly
.
Thanks to [Josiah] for the tip! | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499866",
"author": "monsonite",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T11:26:02",
"content": "Check out the original Kickstarter Campaign which raised $8.5 million.https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,372,611.953272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/a-classic-tv-trope-for-an-escape-room/ | A Classic TV Trope For An Escape Room | Sven Gregori | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"book shelf",
"bookcase",
"escape room",
"hidden door",
"magnetic lock",
"secret door"
] | No spooky mansion is complete without a secret passage accessed through a book shelf — or so Hollywood has taught us. What works as a cliché in movies works equally well in an escape room, and whenever there’s escape rooms paired with technology, [Alastair Aitchison] isn’t far. His latest creation: you guessed it,
is a secret bookcase door
.
For this tutorial, he took a regular book shelf and mounted it onto a wooden door, with the door itself functioning as the shelf’s back panel, and using the door hinges as primary moving mechanism. Knowing how heavy it would become once it’s filled with books, he added some caster wheels hidden in the bottom as support. As for the (un)locking mechanism, [Alastair] did consider a mechanical lock attached on the door’s back side, pulled by a wire attached to a book. But with safety as one of his main concerns, he wanted to keep the risk of anyone getting locked in without an emergency exit at a minimum. A fail-safe magnetic lock hooked up to an Arduino, along with a kill switch served as solution instead.
Since his main target is an escape room, using an Arduino allows also for a whole lot more variety of integrating the secret door into its puzzles, as well as ways to actually unlock it.
How about by solving a Rubik’s Cube
or
with the right touch on a plasma globe
? | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499862",
"author": "Collie147",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T10:35:25",
"content": "You could do the same with multiple switches and an order for the books to be moved in to open the door",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6499997",... | 1,760,372,612.282564 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/ultimate-bokeh-with-a-projector-lens/ | Ultimate Bokeh With A Projector Lens | Danie Conradie | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"Bokeh",
"episcope",
"lens",
"photography",
"projector"
] | Bokeh is a photography term that’s a bit difficult to define but is basically soft, aesthetically pleasing background blur, often used to make a subject stand out. Also called “background separation” or “subject isolation”, achieving it optically requires a fast lens with an aperture below 2.8 or preferably lower. These lenses can get very expensive, but in the video after the break [Matt] from [DIY Perks] blows all the commercially available options out of the water. Using an old episcope projector, he built a
photography rig
with background separation equivalent to that of a non-existent 35mm f0.4 lens.
Unlike most conventional projectors used to project a prerecorded image, episcopes were used to project an image of physical objects, like books. To use this lens directly in a camera is impossible, due to the size of the imaging circle projected out the back of the lens. At a diameter of 500mm, there is simply no imaging sensor available to capture it. Instead, [Matt] built a projection screen for the image and photographed it from the opposite side with a normal camera.
The projection screen was made by sandwiching a sheet of diffuser film between two sheets of clear acrylic held in a frame of aluminum extrusions. To block out all other light, [Matt] added aluminum shrouds on either side of the screen, which also serves to mount the lens and a camera. The shroud on the lens’ side is mounted on a separate aluminum frame, enabling the image to be focused by adjusting the distance between the screen and lens. Linear rods and bearings on 3D printed mounts allow smooth motion, while a motor-driven lead screw connected to a wired remote does the actual adjustment. The gap between the two halves was covered with bellows made from black paper.
Initially, the projected image was very dark around the periphery, so [Matt] added Fresnel lenses on either side of the screen. This straightens out the light rays coming from the episcope lens before it hits the screen, and focuses it back into the lens of the camera, almost eliminating the vignetting. He used a very similar solution in his
DIY 4K projector project
.
The result looks almost dream-like, with softly blurred background and foreground while keeping the subject sharply in focus. Even though [Matt] is photographing a projected image inside the rig, it’s impossible to tell. This has the added advantage of allowing the use any camera, including a smartphone.
The [DIY Perks] builds have a tendency to put even high-end commercial projects to shame, like his
slimmed down PS5
, or a
custom internal heatsink
for a DSLR camera to keep it cool while filming at 8K. | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499812",
"author": "steelman",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T05:51:53",
"content": "achieving it optically requires a fast lens with an aperture below 2.8 or preferably lowerIt also depends on the focal length. An aperture of 5.6 may be quite enough for a 300 mm (full-frame) lens.",
... | 1,760,372,612.235201 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/ham-radio-hacking-thinking-inside-the-box/ | Ham Radio Hacking: Thinking Inside The Box | Al Williams | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"acoustic filter",
"filter",
"ham radio"
] | There are two ways to deal with improving ham radio receivers, or — for that matter — any sort of receiver. You can filter and modify the radio frequency including the radio’s intermediate frequency, or you can alter the audio frequency output. Historically, RF and IF techniques have been the most valued because rejecting unwanted noise and signals early allows the rest of the radio to focus on the actual signal of interest. However, audio filters are much easier to work with and until recently, DSPs that could handle RF frequencies were expensive and uncommon. However, [watersstanton] shows us how to make what could be the
cheapest audio enhancer ever
. It is little more than a modified cardboard box, and you can see and hear the result in the video below.
On the one hand, you shouldn’t expect miracles. On the other hand, you probably have box laying around and can try it in the next three minutes so why not give it a go? You can hear a bit of difference when using the box and not using the box.
In particular, you can tell, too, a difference in the position of the box. He also encourages you to experiment with different materials. He likens it to cupping your hand around your ear to direct sound flow. We’ve actually seen passive amplifiers for phones that are not much different than this.
We are firm believers that
ham radio doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby
. You can
scrouge quite a bit of gear using almost nothing
. | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499779",
"author": "Ken",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T02:07:18",
"content": "When the IC-7300 was first being released, there were vendors selling ‘scoops’ that you would place over the top of the radio to funnel the sound forward, rather than straight up.They were popular for a while... | 1,760,372,612.686669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/revive-your-old-e-ink-tablet-for-timetable-helper-duty/ | Revive Your Old E-Ink Tablet For Timetable Helper Duty | Arya Voronova | [
"Android Hacks",
"Repair Hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"android tablet",
"e-reader",
"ebookreader",
"Nook",
"soft touch"
] | In our drawers, there’s gonna be quite a few old devices that we’ve forgotten about, and perhaps we ought to make them work for us instead. [Jonatron] found a Nook Simple Touch in his drawer – with its E-ink screen, wireless connectivity and a workable Android version, this e-reader from 2011 has the guts for always-on display duty. Sadly, the soft touch covering on the back disintegrated into a sticky mess, as soft touch does, the LiIon battery has gone flat, and the software support’s lackluster. Both of these are likely to happen for a lot of tablets, which is why we’re happy [Jonatron] has
shared his story
about this e-reader’s revival.
The soft touch layer on the back didn’t go away with help of alcohol, but by sheer luck, an acetone bottle was nearby, and an acetone scrub helped get rid of the unpleasant stickiness. The tablet’s charging circuitry turned out to be unsophisticated – the tablet wouldn’t boot from MicroUSB input, and [Jonathan] wired up 5 volts from a USB cable straight into the battery input. Mind you, this might not be advised, as Lithium-Ion battery range is from 3 volts to 4.2 volts and a regulator would be called for, but [Jonatron] says it’s been working just fine.
Usually, you could just put a webserver on your local network and serve a page with useful information, adding code to refresh the page periodically – but the Nook’s browser didn’t support automatic refreshes. Not to be stopped, [Jonatron] wrote an app for the Nook’s Android install instead; rooting was required but went seamlessly. The Android install is old, and Android Studio for it is no longer downloadable, so he used an older development toolkit somehow still available online. There’s still a small Python-written webserver running on a spare Pi, conditioning the data for the app to fetch. Following best hacker traditions, both the app and the server
are open-sourced!
With help of a 3D printed stand, this tablet now displays train departure schedules – perfect application for an old e-reader like this.
Got a Nook Simple Touch in a drawer? Now you know you can easily convert it into a hackable E-ink display! We’ve seen numerous tablet restorations before, replacing
charger ICs
and
eMMC drives,
turning them into
videophones
to chat with our relatives and
smart home controllers,
and there’s even
repair databases
to help you in your revival efforts. We’ve been getting quite a few projects like these in our last Hackaday Prize installment,
Hack It Back,
and we hope to see more such rebuilds for our Wildcard round! | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499762",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-08-03T00:03:45",
"content": "i found a “long lost” Nook in my daughter’s bedroom a couple of months back. It responded after having power attached.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,372,612.513342 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/02/rc-lawnmower-is-built-to-last/ | RC Lawnmower Is Built To Last | Danie Conradie | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"lawnmower",
"radio control",
"workshop from scratch"
] | Mowing the lawn is one of those tasks that someone will always be optimizing or automating. To allow him to mow the lawn while seated comfortably in the shade, [Workshop from Scratch] built an
RC Lawnmower
in his signature solid steel frame style.
The chassis consists of a heavy welded steel frame from square tubing, with a pair of knobbly go-kart wheels on the back and large caster wheels on the front. The actual grass-cutting part is a 173cc petrol lawnmower engine with a steel hull, mounted on an articulating subframe which can be remotely raised and lowered using a linear actuator. The rear wheels are attached to a pair of custom sprocket hubs, driven via chain by two 200 W geared DC motors to allow skid steering.
The motors and electronics are powered by a set of 18 Ah lead-acid batteries wired in parallel. The petrol engine can also charge the batteries, but its current isn’t enough to keep up while mowing. However, it does help to extend the range. All the electronics are housed in a plastic enclosure with a power switch, key start for the engine, and battery charge indicator on the lid. The power from the batteries runs through a pair of automotive relays connected to the power switch and a set of fuses for protection. For safety [Workshop from Scratch] wired a relay to the engines’ coil to shut it off remotely, or when the radio link to the controller is lost. An action cam was also mounted on the electronics box to stream a first-person view to a smartphone over WiFi.
Overall this is a very well built project, especially mechanically, and looks like the perfect platform for further self-driving using
Ardurover
. [rctestflight] has demonstrated the capabilities of the open source autopilot with several
rovers
, including a
tiny lawnmower
that cuts grass with Exacto blades. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499729",
"author": "mayhem",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T21:35:24",
"content": "That thing is cool and far cheaper than this.https://echorobotics.com/The big one shown on the field is 21,000 $USD.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,372,612.569221 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/31/cool-face-mask-turns-into-over-engineered-headache/ | Cool Face Mask Turns Into Over-Engineered Headache | Ryan Flowers | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"cooling",
"face mask",
"overcomplicated",
"Photogrammetry"
] | Seeing his wife try to use a cool face mask to get through the pain of a migraine headache, [Sparks and Code] started thinking of ways to improve the situation. The desire to save her from these debilitating bouts of pain
drove him to make an actively cooled mask
, all the while creating his
own
headache of an over-engineered mess.
Void spaces inside the printed mask are filled with chilled water.
Instead of having to put the face mask into the refrigerator to get it cold, [Sparks and Code] wanted to build a mask that he could circulate chilled water through. With a large enough ice-filled reservoir, he figured the mask should be able to stay at a soothing temperature for hours, reducing the need for trips to the fridge.
[Sparks and Code] started out by using photogrammetry to get a 3D model of his wife’s face. Lack of a compatible computer and CUDA-enabled GPU meant using Google Cloud to do the heavy lifting. When they started making the face mask, things got complicated. And then came the unnecessary electronics. Then the overly complicated and completely unnecessary instrumentation. The… genetic algorithms? Yes. Those too.
We won’t spoil the ending — but suffice it to say, [Sparks and Code] learned a cold, hard lesson: simpler is better! Then again, sometimes being over-complicated is kind of the point such as in
this way-too-complex gumball machine
. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498917",
"author": "Lyndsay Williams",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T14:18:12",
"content": "Why did you not consider Peltier and then more compact and water would not be needed?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6498920",
"a... | 1,760,372,612.620113 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/31/building-a-tube-based-stereo-amp-in-classic-style/ | Building A Tube-Based Stereo Amp, In Classic Style | Donald Papp | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"hi-fi",
"labor of love",
"tube amp",
"vintage"
] | It’s not every day we see the results of someone putting their own spin on a vintage tube amp, but that’s exactly what [lens42] did in creating
the McIntosh 217, created as a “mini” version of the McIntosh MC275
, a classic piece of audio equipment. Both are pictured next to each other, above.
When it comes to vintage hi-fi stereo amplifiers, two units had particular meaning for [lens42]: the McIntosh MC275 Power Amp, and the Dynaco ST35. The Dynaco was a more budget-friendly amplifier, but looked like a plain box. The McIntosh, however, proudly showed off its tubes and transformers in all their glory. The “McIntosh 217” is design-wise basically a smaller McIntosh MC275, with the innards of a Dynaco ST35.
With so much needing to be designed from the ground up, CAD was invaluable. Component layout, enclosure design, and even wiring and labeling all had to be nailed down as much as possible before so much as heating up the soldering iron. Even so, there were a few hiccups; a vendor had incorrect measurements for a tube socket which meant that the part would not fit. A workaround involved modifying the holes and as luck would have it, the change wasn’t an eyesore. Still, [lens42] reminds us all that whenever you can, have the required parts in-hand for confirmation of dimensions before sending CAD files off for cutting or fabrication.
Many of us can relate to the fact that the whole project was a labor of love and made no real financial sense, but the end result is fantastic, and creating such a thing is something all of us — not just
chasers of that elusive “tube sound”
— can appreciate. | 34 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498901",
"author": "mime",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T12:38:41",
"content": "great job!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6498907",
"author": "NiHaoMike",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T13:41:46",
"content": "Shouldn’t the fi... | 1,760,372,612.847378 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/31/turning-a-pair-of-syringes-into-a-tiny-water-pump/ | Turning A Pair Of Syringes Into A Tiny Water Pump | Danie Conradie | [
"Parts"
] | [
"centrifugal pump",
"syringe",
"water pump"
] | There is something inherently fascinating about tiny mechanical devices, especially when you’re used to seeing much larger versions. This is the case with [Penguin DIY]’s
tiny centrifugal water pump
built from 5 ml syringes.
The pump is powered by a small 8 mm diameter brushed DC motor, likely the same type that is used for small toy-grade quadcopters. The tiny impeller is a section of the syringe’s original plunger, with its cross-shaped body acting as the impeller blades. [Penguin DIY] first experimented with the original plunger seal to protect the motor from water, but it quickly melted from friction with the spinning shaft. Silicone sealant was used instead, and the motor shaft was covered with a layer of oil to prevent the sealant from sticking to it. Then the blob of sealant was flattened with a translucent plastic disc to allow clearance for the impeller.
A hole was drilled in the side of the syringe where the impeller sits, and a nozzle cut from the tip of another syringe was glued in place as the outlet. It’s notoriously difficult to get anything to stick to polypropylene syringes, but [Penguin DIY] says in the comments he was able to find an “organic superglue” that worked. With the motor and impeller inserted, the remaining space was also sealed with silicone.
This tiny pump packs a surprising amount of power, and was able to empty a 1.5 l bottle in about one minute with enough pressure to send the jet of water flying. There are still some issues that need to be addressed, though. With the motor completely sealed, it could burn itself quite quickly. A commenter also mentioned that it might suck water into the motor past the shaft after a hot run, as the air inside the motor cools and contracts. Even so, this little pump might be practical for applications that only require short runs, like
watering potted plants
. If you need more power you could always
3D print a larger pump
. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498870",
"author": "Hitomi",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T08:45:08",
"content": "Near perfect, thus easy to improve: Move the pump outside to the bottom of the tank. Solves the problem to keep the pump wet and able to create suction. Move the engine outside the syringe and use a shaft.... | 1,760,372,612.770619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/30/upgraded-film-scanner-handles-bigger-formats-at-no-cost/ | Upgraded Film Scanner Handles Bigger Formats At No Cost | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"driver modification",
"film scanner",
"negatives",
"photography",
"plustek"
] | Film scanners are a useful tool for digitizing slides and negatives, and the Plustek 8100 that [Christian Chapman] had was capable, but limited to small format film only. Rather than pay for a much more expensive medium format scanner that could handle 120 film, he
modified his 8100 to accomplish the same thing
with a combination of good old software and hardware tampering.
On the software side, [Christian]
modified a driver
for the Plustek 8100 so that it sweeps the scan head further than usual. At the application level, to scan medium format frames, it does a total of four scans: one for each quadrant. The results get stitched together in software with a thoughtfully-designed shell script that provides previews and handles failures and restarts gracefully.
Hardware-wise, the scanning carriage needs modification to ensure nothing interferes with the scan head as it moves further than originally designed.
Some CAD and 3D printing made short work of this
. Incidentally, this hardware mod is an excellent demonstration of
one of the core strengths of 3D printing
: the ability to make geometrically-straightforward objects that would nevertheless be troublesome or impractical to construct in any other way. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498877",
"author": "foorjee",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T09:25:27",
"content": "No cost is clearly not true with how much time must’ve been spent on this, but this is nevertheless a really cool transformation that really makes full use of what Christian already had.",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,372,612.731815 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/30/whats-the-time-its-casinoclock/ | What’s The Time? It’s Casino’clock! | Sven Gregori | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"playing cards",
"split flap",
"split-flap display",
"stepper motor"
] | As the saying goes, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and the never-ending inventiveness of clock hacks. No matter how tried and proven a concept is, someone will always find a new twist for it. Case in point: notorious clock builder [Shinsaku Hiura] took the good old split-flap display approach,
and mixed things up by using a deck of playing cards to actually represent the time
.
Technically, the clock works just like a regular flip clock, except that only the upper half of the split-flap is used to display the digits, while the lower half is showing the cards’ backsides. Other than that, the mechanics are the same: a set of hinges holding the cards are arranged on a rotor that’s moved by a stepper motor until the correct digit is shown (
STLs available on Thingiverse
). Aces low, Jokers are zeroes, and the queen strikes at noon.
At the center of it is an ESP32 that controls each digit’s motor driver, and retrieves the time via WiFi, keeping the general component count conveniently low. Of course, one option is to arrange the cards in their order to keep rotations at a minimum, but let’s be real, the flapping sound is half the fun here. So instead, [Shinsaku Hiura] arranged the cards randomly and mapped it in the code accordingly. You can see it all in action, along with some additional design information, in the video after the break.
For some more of his clock creations, check out
this different flip clock approach
and
the Hollow Clock
. But if the future is of more interest to you than the present,
here’s a matching Tarot deck
. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498826",
"author": "William Jackson",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T02:42:31",
"content": "Surveyors wheel is Trammell. Comes as wheeled with turn counter and stiff walking sticks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6498852",
"autho... | 1,760,372,612.894567 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/30/usb-drive-keeps-your-secrets-as-long-as-your-fingers-are-wet/ | USB Drive Keeps Your Secrets… As Long As Your Fingers Are Wet? | Donald Papp | [
"Security Hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"access control",
"Ovrdrive",
"security",
"usb drive",
"usb stick"
] | [Walker] has a very interesting new project:
a completely different take on a self-destructing USB drive
. Instead of relying on encryption or other “visible” security features, this device looks and works like an utterly normal USB drive. The only difference is this: if an unauthorized person plugs it in, there’s no data. What separates authorized access from unauthorized? Wet fingers.
It sounds weird, but let’s walk through the thinking behind the concept. First, encryption is of course the technologically sound and correct solution to data security. But in some environments, the mere
presence
of encryption technology can be considered incriminating. In such environments, it is better for the drive to appear completely normal.
Toggling the chip enable (CE) pin will hide the drive’s contents.
The second part is the access control; the “wet fingers” part. [Walker] plans to have hidden electrodes surreptitiously measure the resistance of a user’s finger when it’s being plugged in. He says a dry finger should be around 1.5 MΩ, but wet fingers are more like 500 kΩ.
But why detect a
wet finger
as part of access control? Well, what’s something no normal person would do right before plugging in a USB drive? Lick their finger. And what’s something a microcontroller should be able to detect easily without a lot of extra parts? A freshly-licked finger.
Of course, detecting wet skin is only half the equation. You still need to implement a USB Mass Storage device, and that’s where things get particularly interesting. Even if you aren’t into the covert aspect of this device, the research [Walker] has done into USB storage controllers and flash chips, combined with the KiCad footprints he’s already put together means this open source project will be a great example for anyone looking to roll their own USB flash drives.
Regular readers may recall that [Walker] was
previously working on a very impressive Linux “wall wart”
intended for penetration testers, but the chip shortage has put that ambitious project on hold for the time being. As this build looks to utilize less exotic components, hopefully it can avoid a similar fate. | 27 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498786",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-30T23:35:52",
"content": "Ewwwwww!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6498789",
"author": "rpavlik",
"timestamp": "2022-07-30T23:53:... | 1,760,372,613.007875 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/30/re-reclaimed-from-nature-resurrecting-a-dt80-terminal/ | Re-reclaimed From Nature: Resurrecting A DT80 Terminal | Sven Gregori | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"8085",
"DEC VT100",
"DT80",
"restoration",
"vt100"
] | When Datamedia announced their new DT80 terminal as a VT100 killer back in 1979, they were so confident of its reliability, they threw in a full one-year warranty. Now, decades later, that confidence is once more put to the touch after [RingingResonance] fished one such terminal out of a creek by an old illegal dumping site. Not knowing what to expect from the muck-ridden artifact,
his journey of slowly breathing life back into the device began
.
Brings new meaning to the term “rooted”
Considering the layers of mud and roots already growing all over the main board, one can only assume how long the terminal has actually been in there. But cleaning it from all that was only the beginning: some components were missing, others turned out to be broken, including some of the ROMs, which [RingingResonance]
speculates
may have been caused by lightning which determined the DT80’s fate in the first place.
That’s when the adventure really started though, digging deep into the terminal’s inner life, eventually writing a debugger and own firmware for it. That code, along with all other research, notes, and links to plenty more pictures can be found in the GitHub repository, and is definitely worth checking out if you’re into the technologies of yesteryear.
Despite the DT80’s claimed superiority, the VT100 prevailed and is the terminal that history remembers — and emulates,
whether as tiny wearable
or
a full look-alike
. But this fall into oblivion was also part of [RingingResonance]’s motivation to keep going forward restoring the DT80. Someone had to. So if you happen to have anything to contribute to his endeavours or share with him, we’re sure he will appreciate you reaching out to him. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498828",
"author": "MinorHavoc",
"timestamp": "2022-07-31T02:44:21",
"content": "Wow, that’s impressive work. The image on the npw-running CRT looks really nice and crisp and not at all like it had been stuck in mud for decades.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,372,612.940687 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/toddler-ev-gets-big-boy-battery-upgrade/ | Toddler EV Gets Big Boy Battery Upgrade | Ryan Flowers | [
"Battery Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"3d printing",
"dc-dc",
"electric vehicle",
"lead-acid",
"Li-ion",
"toy"
] | No matter the type of vehicle we drive, it has a battery. Those batteries wear out over time. Even high end EV’s have batteries with a finite life. But when your EV uses Lead Acid batteries, that life is measured on a much shorter scale. This is especially true when the EV is driven by a driver that takes up scarcely more space in their EV than a stuffed tiger toy! Thankfully, the little girl in question has a mechanic:
A 3d printed adapter sends go-juice to the DC-DC converter
Her daddy, [Brian Lough], who documented the swift conversion of his daughter’s toy truck from Lead Acid to Li-Ion in
the video which you can see below the break
.
Facing challenges similar to that of actual road worthy passenger vehicles, [Brian] teamed up with [
bitluni
] to solve them. The 12 V SLA battery was being replaced with a 20 V Li-Ion pack from a power tool. A 3d printed adapter was enlisted to break out the power pins on the pack. The excessive voltage was handled with a DC-to-DC converter that, after a bit of tweaking, was putting out a solid 12 V.
What we love about the hack is that it’s one anybody can do, and it gives an inkling of what type of engineering goes into even larger projects. And be sure to watch the video to the end for the adorable and giggly results!
Speaking of larger projects, check out the reverse engineering required in this
Lead Acid to Li-Ion conversion we covered in 2016. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498401",
"author": "Bruce Perens K6BP",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T20:11:58",
"content": "Fun! But there are lots of 18AH batteries on Amazon with internal BMS. They should be close to a drop-in replacement.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,372,613.07607 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/hackaday-prize-2022-modern-plug-in-gives-trs-80-its-voice-back/ | Hackaday Prize 2022: Modern Plug-in Gives TRS-80 Its Voice Back | Robin Kearey | [
"Retrocomputing",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"speech synthesizer",
"trs-80",
"voice synthesis"
] | Like artificial intelligence, speech synthesis was one of those applications that promised to revolutionize computing in the 1980s, only to fizzle out after people realized that a robotic voice reading out predefined sentences was not actually that useful. Nevertheless, computer manufacturers didn’t want to miss out on the hype and speech synthesizers became a relatively common add-on for a typical home computer.
Those add-ons were usually built around a custom voice-synthesis chip. If that chip fails, you’re out of luck: many were made in limited quantities by small companies and are impossible to find today. So if you’ve got a Tandy TRS-80 Voice Synthesizer with a dodgy SC-01-A chip, you’ll definitely want to check out
[Michael Wessel]’s Talker/80 project
. It’s a plug-in module for the TRS-80 that’s software compatible with the original Voice Synthesizer, but built from modern components. Synthesis is still performed by a custom IC, but now it’s using the more common Epson S1V30120 text-to-speech chip.
The Talker/80 also has an ATmega644, which connects to the TRS-80’s expansion port on one side and to the Epson chip on the other. It can either emulate the original SC-01-A, in which case it expects text to be split into separate phonemes, or it can be set to an “advanced” mode in which it can directly process normal English text. In either case the voice sounds quite different from what original, although the new voice is arguably a little clearer.
We’ve seen modern speech synthesizers made for several classic computers: you can hook up
the same Epson chip to an Amstrad CPC
, or
an ESP8266 to a VIC-20
. If you’ve got an actual working SC-01-A but no vintage computer to use it with, you can also
control it with an Arduino
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498380",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T19:06:24",
"content": "I never had a TRS-80, other than a Model 100. And I never had a voice synthesizer.They were one more thing companies could sell to people. At a time when there were limits to practical use of comp... | 1,760,372,613.211232 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/why-fedora-decided-to-give-cc0-licensed-code-the-boot/ | Why Fedora Decided To Give CC0 Licensed Code The Boot | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"creative commons",
"fedora",
"open source",
"public domain",
"software license"
] | The term “open source” can be tricky. For many people, it’s taken to mean that a particular piece of software is free and that they can do whatever they wish with it. But the reality is far more complex, and the actual rights you’re afforded as the user depend entirely on which license the developers chose to release their code under. Open source code can cost money, open source code can place limits on how you use it, and in some cases, open source code can even get you into trouble down the line.
Which is precisely what the Fedora Project is looking to avoid with their recent decision to
reject all code licensed under the Creative Common’s “Public Domain Dedication” CC0 license
. It will still be allowed for content such as artwork, and there may even be exceptions made for existing packages on a case-by-case basis, but CC0 will soon be stricken from the
list of accepted code licenses for all new submissions
.
Fedora turning their nose up at a software license wouldn’t normally be newsworthy. In fact, there’s a
fairly long list of licenses
that the project deems unacceptable for inclusion. The surprising part here is that CC0 was once an accepted license, and is just now being reclassified due to an evolving mindset within the larger free and open source (FOSS) community.
So what’s the problem with CC0 that’s convinced Fedora to distance themselves from it, and does this mean you shouldn’t be using the license for your own projects?
The Right Tool for the Job
Those familiar with the Creative Commons and their family of licenses may find the most surprisingly element of this story is that the Fedora Project once accepted CC0 for software in the first place. After all, the intent was always to create a series of licenses specifically for creative works. The goal of the organization and its licenses is literally right in the name.
A successor of the earlier Open Content Project, Creative Commons was founded in 2001 to “overcome legal obstacles to the sharing of knowledge and creativity” by providing a free framework by which individuals and organizations could release things such as music, artwork, or educational material. But software was never part of the equation. Why would it be? Seminal software licenses such as the GNU General Public License and the MIT License had already been available for over a decade at that point.
To avoid any ambiguity the
Creative Commons even addresses the issue in their FAQ
, making it clear that not only are their licenses not a good choice for software, but that better options already exist:
The Patent Trap
If an organization goes out of their way to tell you that what they have developed is not fit for a particular purpose, it seems to go without saying that you should probably take their word for it. The Creative Commons FAQ outlines several excellent reasons their licenses shouldn’t be used for software, but among them, there is one that particularly stands out for users like the Fedora Project — patent rights.
The terms seem simple, but remember the fine print…
This might seem counterintuitive, since the CC0 license is intended for public domain works and clearly states that the creator is “waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law” by using it. But the problem is that patents aren’t covered by copyright law. In fact,
a look at the full-text version of the license
shows that CC0 contains a troubling clause under “Limitations and Disclaimers” that addresses this specifically: “
No trademark or patent rights held by Affirmer are waived, abandoned, surrendered, licensed or otherwise affected by this document.”
In other words, while the creator may be willing to give up the copyright to whatever has been licensed under CC0, they are still free to patent it. More troubling, they still reserve the right to leverage that patent however they see fit. Theoretically, that means the developer who originally released a piece of source code under CC0 could later claim that anyone who used the code was infringing on their patent, and potentially demand royalties.
Playing With Fire
It’s pretty clear why the Fedora Project would be worried about something like this. Imagine a piece of CC0 licensed code gets merged with one of the system’s core packages, and ends up being distributed to millions of users. Suddenly the original developer emerges from the shadows, claims patent infringement, and demands compensation. Could Fedora’s lawyers, or more likely Red Hat’s, beat such a claim? Maybe. Is using CC0 code worth running the risk of finding out for sure? Not a chance.
It’s worth mentioning that this is by no means a new concern. In fact, the patent clause is what kept the Open Source Initiative’s (OSI) License Review Committee from being able to conclusively
determine if CC0 actually met their definition of an open source license back in 2012
. The Committee couldn’t reach consensus, as members were concerned that putting such language in a software license would set a dangerous precedent. Given its tumultuous history, Fedora’s decision to ever accept CC0 in the first place is even more perplexing.
But what does that mean for the individual hacker? Should you use CC0 for your own projects? It depends on what you’re looking to accomplish. CC0 is fine choice if you want to give away a creative work (such as a song, poem, or piece of art) and aren’t concerned about what happens with it in the future, but according to Creative Common’s own documentation, it simply wasn’t designed with the unique aspects of software licensing in mind.
A better question might be, should you use CC0 code that you find floating around on the Internet? The answer to that is more nuanced, but given everything we’ve just gone over, one must wonder what kind of developer would still chose to use it. Unless you’re prepared to deal with the consequences of finding out, I’d suggest you leave it alone. | 57 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498348",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T17:41:23",
"content": "I wonder what the list of affected Fedora software is.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6498352",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29... | 1,760,372,613.407525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/hackaday-podcast-179-danger-chess-corona-motors-an-omni-walker-and-a-fast-talking-telescope/ | Hackaday Podcast 179: Danger Chess, Corona Motors, An Omni-Walker, And A Fast Talking Telescope | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Join Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Staff Writer Dan Maloney for their take on the hottest hacks in a hot, hot week. We found a bunch of unusual mechanisms this week, like an omnidirectional robot that’s not quite wheeled but not quite a walker either. Or, if you’d rather fly, there’s a UAV that’s basically a flying propeller. There’s danger afoot too, with news of a chess-playing robot with a nasty streak, a laser engraver that’ll probably blind you, and a high-voltage corona motor that actually does useful work. We’ll use our X-ray vision to take a deep dive into a 60-GHz phased array antenna, let a baby teach a machine what it means to be hungry, and build a couple of toy cameras just for funsies. Balloons as a UI? Maybe someday, thanks to ultrasonic levitation. And we’ll wrap things up by snooping in on the Webb telescope’s communications, as we find out how many people it takes to make wire harnesses. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.
Check out 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 here
!
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
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Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 179 Show Notes:
News:
AI Ethics And That Viral Story Of The Chess Playing Robot That Broke The Finger Of A Seven-Year-Old During A Heated Chess Match Proffers Spellbinding Autonomous Systems Lessons
What’s that Sound?
Listen to the podcast, recognize the sound,
fill out the form to be elligible to win a Hackaday Podcast t-shirt
.
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Turn Drone Into A Large Propeller To Increase Hover Efficiency
Reverse Engineering A Phased Array System Reveals Surprising Details
Starlink Satellite Dish X-Rayed To Unlock RF Magic Inside
Atmospheric High-Voltage Motor Makes Useful Power
Drone And High Voltage Spin Up This DIY Corona Motor
electrostaticmotor – YouTube
Digital “Toy” Camera, Made For Tilt-Shift And Other Analog-Like Experimenting
Pen Plotter Draws Maps Directly On The Wall
Pi Cam Replaces Pinhole And Film For Digital Solargraphy
Omnidirectional Walker With Wheeled Feet
DIY Walkers – YouTube
Move Over Strandbeest, Here’s Strider!
Digital Measuring Wheel Is Exactly What It Sounds Like
Surveyor’s wheel – Wikipedia
Opisometer – Wikipedia
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Balloons Are The User Interface Of The Future
A Tiny Forest Of Resistors Makes For Quick And Dirty Adaptive Optics
Interesting Optics Make This Laser Engraver Fit In A Pocket
Taming The Beast: Pro-Tips For Designing A Safe Homebrew Laser Cutter
Dan’s Picks:
Design Cities In A Snap With Buildify
Machine Learning Baby Monitor Prevents The Hunger Games
Nokia 5110 Gets Android Stowaway And A Keyboard
Can’t-Miss Articles:
The Surprisingly Manual Process Of Building Automotive Wire Harnesses
How Does The James Webb Telescope Phone Home?
How Is Voyager Still Talking After All These Years?
Joe Kim: Where Technology And Art Collide | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6499008",
"author": "Colin L",
"timestamp": "2022-08-01T01:39:53",
"content": "Frankly, I’m disappointed that nobody has watched the robot chess video closely. So much reporting about this is wrong. Please watch the video again and notice that the robot does not grab the child’s fin... | 1,760,372,613.272906 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/go-big-or-go-home-0-6-mm-nozzles-are-the-future/ | Go Big Or Go Home: 0.6 Mm Nozzles Are The Future | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"Nozzle",
"PrusaSlicer",
"slicer"
] | Most desktop fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printers these days use a 0.4 mm nozzle. While many people have tried smaller nozzles to get finer detail and much larger nozzles to get faster printing speed, most people stick with the stock value as a good trade-off between the two. That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway. However, [Thomas Sanladerer] asserts that with modern slicers, the 0.4 mm nozzle isn’t the best choice and
recommends you move up to 0.6 mm
.
If you know [Thomas], you know he wouldn’t make a claim like that without doing his homework. He backs it up with testing, and you can see his thoughts on the subject and the test results in the video below. The entire thing hinges on the Ultimaker-developed Arachne perimeter generator that’s currently available in the alpha version of PrusaSlicer.
We’ve experimented with nozzles as small as 0.1 mm and, honestly, it still looks like an FDM 3D print and printing takes forever at that size. But these days, if we really care about the detail we are
probably going to print with resin, anyway
.
There are a few slicer settings to consider and you can see the whole setup in the video. The part where an SLA test part is printed with both nozzles is particularly telling. This is something that probably shouldn’t print well with an FDM at all. Both nozzles had problems but in different areas. | 51 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498294",
"author": "ThantiK",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T15:40:12",
"content": "I know Tom said he can’t tell the differences between these Benchies, but I can tell you he definitely can. We’ve worked for so long diagnosing printers via bad pictures on G+ back when it was a thing th... | 1,760,372,613.516535 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/this-week-in-security-symbiote-smart-locks-and-cosmicstrand/ | This Week In Security: Symbiote, Smart Locks, And CosmicStrand | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"iot security",
"Symbiote",
"This Week in Security"
] | Symbiote is a particularly nasty Linux rootkit, and we have the interesting case of two separate analysis releasing this week. Up first is
[CyberMasterV] taking apart a very early sample of the malware.
The primary purpose of Symbiote seems to be capturing SSH logins, and this version does so by hooking the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) system to capture users logging in to the machine it resides on. It also watches for SSH and SCP binaries, and sniffs the terminal used by those binaries, thereby capturing outgoing credentials.
All this data gets packaged up as DNS queries and shuffled off to the Command and Control server. “Easy”, I hear you say, “just block DNS traffic to everywhere except a trusted DNS provider.” It’s more clever than that. The data is in the form of valid DNS subdomains. In full, it’s a DNS request to
PacketNumber.MachineID.Data.px32.nss.atendimento-estilo[.]com
, all appropriately encoded to be valid. Every request will be for a unique host name, so every request gets forwarded to the C&C controller, which does double duty as the authoritative DNS resolver for that domain. You might get some mileage out of blocking (or at least logging) very long DNS queries.
Symbiote also replaces the typical files and devices you would look at to find a potential problem. For instance,
/proc/net/tcp
is where the kernel reports open TCP connections. On an infected machine, a copy of this file is maintained by the malware, conveniently leaving out the connections resulting from the infections. Symbiote has a hook in
fopen
, so whenever a process tries to read this location, the read is redirected to the cooked version, neatly hiding the rootkit. This stealth feature is apparently also used to hide other malware from the same attackers that may be on the same machine.
Now let’s look at
the second analysis, a joint effort from BlackBerry and Intezer
. This is from a later sample of Symbiote, and there’s been some interesting evolution. The most notable is that it uses the Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) to hide it’s traffic from packet captures. Since BPF filters run right in the kernel, this is a very powerful stealth technique. Symbiote even detects a run of
ldd
, which would list it as a running library. This, too, gets sanitized, making Symbiote very difficult to detect. It should be possible to use the rootkit features of Symbiote against it, for detection. For example, one of the file names that is hidden is
apache2start
. It should be possible to
touch
this filename, and then run
ls
on the directory that should contain it. If the new file is listed, you’re probably fine. If it’s missing, then there’s a good chance you have the rootkit running. We’ve reached out to the researchers for help confirming this simple detection technique, so stay tuned for an eventual update.
“Smart” Locks
Once again, when it comes to IoT,
the S stands for security
. The fun begins with a classic error, not actually doing SSL verification. So the firmware reaches out to an HTTPS server for operation, but will accept any certificate for that connection. Man-in-the-Middle is a lot easier in that case. And that MitM stance couples well with the next problem researchers from NCC Group found, a buffer overflow in JSON parsing. Put these two together, and sitting on the same network as the lock gets you code running on it.
For most of us, an attacker on the internal, or even IoT dedicated network, is already a disaster. There’s another attack chain that was discovered. The way this lock usually gets installed is with “keyturner” installed in a door, physically inaccessible until the door is unlocked and opened. The second half is the “keypad”, the public-facing piece where the code is punched in. In theory, that keypad shouldn’t be trusted by the keyturner hardware, and should just pass keystrokes over the BLE link. In practice, the keypad can send an unlock request without the code, and unlock the door.
This leads to the final element, accessible JTAG ports on the keypad. JTAG is a debugging interface for embedded devices, extremely useful for flashing firmware to otherwise bricked devices, as well as doing real-time debugging. It’s that last one that gets the job done here. Connect to the keypad’s JTAG port and grab the authentication data from memory. Then use a different device and the auth data to spoof the keypad and send arbitrary commands over the BLE link. Politely ask the keyturner to unlock, and it will. With a dedicated rig and a bit of practice, the whole process could likely be reduced to a few seconds. Oof!
The silver lining is that Nuki, the manufacturer of this lock, did a stellar job of handling the vulnerability report. Patches went out less than two months after the issues were reported. Active customers were sent notices, and then after an appropriate period of time the vulnerabilities were publicly disclosed.
Your Server Is Compromised
You get a call or email from your hosting company, Linode in this case, that your hosted server is participating in a DoS attack. You’re likely Pwned.
What’s next?
Researchers from Trunc have some tips
. First off, it’s helpful to have something like
sysstat
running, a system statistic collection daemon. Next up is SSHing to the machine, and running through some tools.
last
shows the machine’s login history,
top
lists CPU and memory use ordered by process,
df
shows free disk space,
ps
lists running processes, and
lsof
shows the list of open files. Unless you’re dealing with a really nasty rootkit, like Symbiote discussed above, these tools should turn up something unusual. If sysstat has been running,
sar -n DEV
gives some data about network usage over time. If this machine is sending out a bunch of traffic, it should show up here, giving you a good idea when things started.
The system in question showed a big traffic spike, and the
apache
binary was running very high CPU usage. That seemed odd. The logs had a few entries indicating a call to
POST //xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1
. While this endpoint can be abused for DDoS reflection, there weren’t enough log entries to suggest that problem. So up next is looking for modified files. There are options for this, like
OSSEC
, but they need to be run on the machine in a known-good state. So how do you check for tampered files if you don’t have that in place? If you’re running WordPress, you can just download and unpack a fresh copy of the install tarball that matches your installed version. Unzip it, and use
diff
to find any differences. One of those differences just may be a webshell injected into one of the WordPress PHP files.
REstringer Deobfuscates Javascript
As a hacker, one of the more irritating problems is obfuscated code. Javascript is inherently open, but obfuscation techniques makes the source totally unreadable. [Ben Baryo] is working on a solution, a deobfuscator he calls
REstringer
. It tries to match what sort of obfuscation is being used, and then loop through safe deobfuscation methods. There’s an important caveat there. It can be very difficult to deobfuscate code without accidentally running portions of that code. It’s still an active work-in-progress, so
check out the code
, or
try the live demo
.
UEFI Rootkits
There’s something of a Boogeyman in computer security, the mythical malware that embeds itself in a computer’s firmware, making removal impossible. While it’s theoretically possible that a motherboard’s firmware could be tampered with in this way, surely that’s only a myth, and maybe gets used by state actors for their most important targets.
That theory has taken a hit, as a rootkit that uses exactly this technique has shown up in the wild. Researchers at
Kaspersky have dubbed it CosmicStrand
, and note that infections were found in China, Vietnam, Iran, and Russia. Some hints in the code suggest a Chinese origin, and a possible connection to other malware also originating from that region.
Technically, using malicious firmware to bootstrap a re-infection is quite a feat. First, keep in mind that this code runs as the machine is initializing, long before the Windows OS begins running. How does the rootkit code manage to perform a sophisticated infection when its own execution ends long before the Windows kernel starts executing?
It implants code in the Windows boot manager, which in turn puts hooks into the Windows OS loader. This loader is part of the Windows boot process, and allows more manipulation to be targeted against the Windows kernel itself. And finally, once the kernel is booted, this payload deploys the actual shellcode. The sophistication of this malware is quite surprising. | 23 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498277",
"author": "Viki",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T15:05:13",
"content": "Sooo russian Kaspersky is now part of the good guys?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6498279",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren"... | 1,760,372,613.6761 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/perseus-9-the-dual-6502-portable-machine-that-should-have-been/ | PERSEUS-9, The Dual-6502 Portable Machine That Should Have Been | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6502",
"led",
"mobile",
"retrocomputing",
"tablet",
"wire wrap"
] | A question: does anyone who was around in the early days of the 8-bit computer revolution remember
a dual-CPU 6502 portable machine
like this one? Or just a dual-CPU machine? Or even just a reasonably portable computer? We don’t, but that begs a further question: if [Mitsuru Yamada] can build such a machine today with parts that were available in the era, why weren’t these a thing back then?
We’re not sure we have an answer to that question, but it just may be that nobody thought of it. Or, if they did, the idea of putting two expensive CPUs into a single machine was perhaps too exorbitant to take seriously. Regardless, the homemade mobile is another in a growing line of beautifully crafted machines in the PERSEUS line, all of which have a wonderfully similar look and feel.
For the PERSEUS-9, [Yamada-san] chose a weatherproof aluminum enclosure with just the right form-factor for a mobile computer, as well as a sturdy industrial look. Under the hood, there are two gorgeous wire-wrap boards, one of which is home to the 48-key keyboard and the 40×7 alphanumeric LED matrix display, while the other is a densely packed work of art holding the two 6502s and a host of other DIPs.
The machine is a combination of
his PERSEUS-8 computer
,
his 6802 serial terminal
, and
the CI-2 floating point interpreter
he built for the PERSEUS-8. A brief video of the assembly of this delightful machine is below. One of the many things about these builds that impress us is the precision with which the case is machined, apparently all by hand. How he managed to drill out all those holes for the keyboard without having one even slightly out of alignment without the aid of CNC is beyond us. | 53 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498207",
"author": "MD",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T11:38:51",
"content": "The SuperPET had a 6502 & 6809…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6498633",
"author": "Steven",
"timestamp": "2022-07-30T13:53:00",
... | 1,760,372,613.769481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/30/hackaday-prize-2022-soviet-geiger-counter-gets-wifi/ | Hackaday Prize 2022: Soviet Geiger Counter Gets WiFi | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"clock",
"ESP8266",
"geiger",
"radiation",
"rtc",
"wifi",
"wireless"
] | [Marek] has an impressive collection of old Soviet-style Geiger counters. These are handy tools to have in some specific situations, but for most of us they would be curiosities. Even so, they need some help from the modern world to work well, and [Marek] has come up with some pretty creative ways of bringing them into the 21st century. This version, for example,
adds WiFi capabilities
.
This build is based on the STS-5 Geiger tube but the real heavy lifting is handled by an ESP8266 which also provides a wireless network connection. There are some limitations to using an ESP8266 to control a time-sensitive device like a Geiger tube, especially the lack of local storage, but [Marek] solves this problem by including a real-time clock and locally caching data until a network connection is re-established. Future plans for the device include adding temperature and atmospheric temperature sensors.
Eventually this Geiger counter will be installed in a watertight enclosure outside so [Marek] can keep an eye on the background radiation of his neighborhood. Previously he was doing this with another build, but that one
only had access to the network over an Ethernet cable
, so this one is quite an upgrade.
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498710",
"author": "DerAxeman",
"timestamp": "2022-07-30T18:18:36",
"content": "To ensure accurate readings Geiger counters need to be checked with known sources periodically. This becomes even more important when you are trying to measure low level things like background radiation... | 1,760,372,613.811837 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/30/demonstrate-danger-safely/ | Demonstrate Danger, Safely | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Laser Hacks",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [] | Dan Maloney and I were talking about the
chess robot arm that broke a child’s finger
during the podcast, and it turns out that we both have extreme
respect
for robot arms in particular. Dan had a story of a broken encoder wheel that lead to out-of-control behavior that almost hit him, and I won’t even get within striking distance of the things unless I know they’re powered off after seeing what programming errors in a perfectly functioning machine can do to two-by-fours.
This made me think of all the dangerous things I’ve done, but moreover about all the intensely simple precautions you can to render them non-risky, and I think that’s extremely important to talk about. Tops of my list are the aforementioned industrial robot arm and high powered lasers.
Staying safe with an industrial robot arm is as easy as staying out of reach when it’s powered. Our procedure was to draw a line on the floor that traced the arm’s maximum radius, and you stay always outside that line when the light is on. It’s not foolproof, because you could hand the ’bot a golf club or something, but it’s a good minimum precaution. And when you need to get within the line, which you do, you power the thing down. There’s a good reason that many industrial robots live in cages with interlocks on the doors.
Laser safety is similar. You need to know where the beam is going, make sure it’s adequately terminated, and never take one in the eye. This can be as simple as putting the device in a box: laser stays in box, nobody goes blind. If you need to see inside, a webcam is marvelous. But sometimes you need to focus or align the laser, and then you put on the laser safety glasses and think really hard about where the beam is going. And then you close the box again when you’re done.
None of these safety measures are particularly challenging to implement, or conceptually hard: draw a line on the floor, put it in a box. There were a recent series of
videos on making Lichtenberg figures
safely, and as a general rule with high voltage projects, a great precaution is a two-button deadman’s switch box. This at least ensures that both of your hands are nowhere near the high voltage when it goes on, at the cost of two switches.
If all of the safety precautions are simple once you’ve heard them, they were nothing I would have come up with myself. I learned them all from other hackers. Same goes with the table saw in my workshop, or driving a car even. But since the more hackery endeavors are less common, the “common-sense” safety precautions in oddball fields are simply less commonly known. It’s our jobs as the folks who
do
know the secrets of safety to share them with others. When you do something dangerous, show off your safety hacks!
This article is part of the Hackaday.com newsletter, delivered every seven days for each of the last 200+ weeks. It also includes our favorite articles from the last seven days that you can see on
the web version of the newsletter
.
Want this type of article to hit your inbox every Friday morning?
You should sign up
! | 67 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498635",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2022-07-30T14:10:09",
"content": "Glad to see safety being discussed in a sensible and practical way, rather than all the paperwork based, but useless in practice at actually preventing harm, bureaucratic bullsh*t which has invaded government... | 1,760,372,613.926894 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/30/fix-old-caps-but-keep-that-can-capacitor-look/ | Fix Old Caps, But Keep That “Can Capacitor” Look | Donald Papp | [
"Parts",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"antique",
"can capacitors",
"electrolytic",
"repair",
"vintage"
] | Vintage electronics and capacitor replacements tend to go hand-in-hand. Why? Because electrolytic capacitors just don’t
last
, not the way most other components do, anyway.
The metal terminal ring and the central plate are kept for re-use, and the metal case re-crimped after the internals of the capacitor are replaced with a modern equivalent.
It’s one thing to swap old caps with modern replacements, but what about electronics where the components are not hidden away, and are an important part of the equipment’s look? [lens42] shares a method for
replacing antique can-style capacitors in a way that leaves them looking completely original
. All it takes is some careful application of technique.
The first thing to do is carefully file away the crimp of the metal can until one can release the ring and plate that hold the terminals. Once that is off, the internals can be pulled from the metal can for disposal. Since the insides of the old cap won’t be re-used, [lens42] recommends simply drilling a hole, screwing in a lag bolt to use as a handle, and pulling everything out. There’s now plenty of space inside the old can to hold modern replacements for the capacitor, and one can even re-use the original terminals.
That leaves the job of re-crimping the old can around the terminal ring to restore a factory-made appearance. To best do this, [lens42] created a tapered collar. Gently hammering the can forces the bottom into the taper, and the opening gradually crimps around the terminal ring. It’s also possible to carefully hammer the flange directly, but the finish won’t be as nice. This new crimp job may not look exactly the same as before, but once the cap is re-installed into the original equipment, it won’t be possible to tell it has been modified in any way.
If this sounds a bit intimidating, don’t worry. [lens42] provides plenty of pictures. And if this kind of thing is up your alley, you may want to check out the
Caps Wiki
, an effort to centralize and share details about tech repair, especially for vintage electronics. | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498601",
"author": "Pieter",
"timestamp": "2022-07-30T11:43:09",
"content": "Please be very careful with old large capacitors. They likely contain PCB’s. I am an “old timer” electronics engineer and have seen workmates pass on due to “unexplained” cancers. Seehttps://en.wikipedia.o... | 1,760,372,616.009691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/30/when-carl-says-jump-pcbs-say-how-high/ | When [Carl] Says Jump, PCBs Say “How High?” | Al Williams | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"flexible PCB",
"jumping",
"springs"
] | We’ve noticed that [Carl Bugeja] likes flexible PCBs. His latest exploit is to make PCB-based springs that combine with some magnets to create
little devices that jump
. We aren’t sure what practical use these might have, but they are undeniably novel and you can see them — um — jumping around, in the video, below.
[Carl] did many experiments with the spring construction and design. You can see several of the iterations in the video, not all of which worked out well. A PCB coil in the base becomes magnetized when current flows and this repels or attracts the magnets at the other end of the spring. What can you do with a PCB spring? We aren’t sure. Maybe this is how your next microrobot could climb stairs?
Adding stiffeners produced springs too stiff for the electromagnet to attract. We wondered if a different coil design at the base might be more effective. For that matter, you might not have to use a flat PCB coil in that position if you were really wanting to optimize the jumping behavior.
Usually, when we are checking in with [Carl] he is making
PCB-based motors
. Or, sometimes, he’s making
PCB heaters for reflow soldering
. We’ve seen
jumping robots
, before, of course. we will say the magnets seem less intense than using
compressed air
. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498560",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2022-07-30T08:16:02",
"content": "With two PCB coil electromagnets, some weight budget could be saved to have a tiny battery on board also. Though might be hard to get the current needed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,372,615.484907 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/testing-antennas-with-wspr/ | Testing Antennas With WSPR | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"ham radio",
"wspr"
] | There are many ways to test HF antennas ranging from simulation to various antenna analyzers and bridges. However, nothing can replace simply using the antenna to see how it works. Just as — supposedly — the bumblebee can’t fly, but it does so anyway, it is possible to load up some bed springs and make contacts. But it used to be difficult — although fun — to gather a lot of empirical data about antenna performance. Now you can do it all with WSPR and [TechMinds] suggests a moderately-priced dedicated
WSPR transmitter to do the job
. You can see a video about the results of this technique below.
While WSPR is often cited as taking the fun out of ham radio, it is perfect for this application. Connect the transmitter and a few hours later, visit a web page and find out where you’ve been heard by an objective observer. If you had a few of these, you could even examine several antennas at similar times and conditions.
The transmitter has its own GPS so it doesn’t require much configuration. You do need to set the frequencies you want to use and — presumably — the SWR at these frequencies of your antenna will be acceptable. Of course, you also need to set your callsign and transmission schedule. You can manually set the location code if you don’t want to get a GPS setting.
Once set up, you don’t need the computer connected. After some time, you can just visit the WSPR.org web site and view who has been able to hear the little low-power transmitter.
Of course, you don’t need a dedicated beacon do pull this off. Use your normal radio or
put together your own beacon
. If you want a refresher on WSPR,
[Dan Maloney’s] $50 Ham
has you covered. | 20 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498564",
"author": "thom",
"timestamp": "2022-07-30T08:35:14",
"content": "FT8 and FT4 is what took the fun out of ham radio.Amazing modes but almost totally automated. Not inthe spirit of AR IMO.(And i love the other digi modes, PSK/Olivia,etc,etc)but FT8/4 has ruined digi modes. ... | 1,760,372,615.945183 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/calculus-made-easy-in-the-car/ | Calculus Made Easy In The Car | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"calculus",
"math"
] | If you had the traditional engineering education, you’ve made your peace with calculus. If you haven’t, you may have learned it on your own, but for many people, calculus has a reputation for being super difficult. While some of the details can be very tricky, the core concepts are actually simple and [Mathologer] has
a very simple explanation
along with some good graphics that can help you get started on calculus mastery if you’ve been putting it off. Using a car on the highway as the prototypical example, he covers quite a bit of ground in the 30 minute video that you can see below.
Of course, this isn’t a unique idea that calculus is actually simple. The video credits the great book “Calculus Made Easy” that we’ve talked about before. That
100-year-old (and then some) book
has a similar approach to the topic.
Unlike a lot of similar videos, this one covers more complex things like various rules and the integral and derivative of trig functions and logarithms. It presents them in a colorful graphic that might be easier to digest than a dry table.
Of course, tying your shoes and algebra are also easy unless you don’t know how to do them. But it is funny how many students struggle with the subject when it is possible to have a straightforward intuitive understanding of it very quickly.
Do you remember the scene in “Something About Mary” where the hitchhiker becomes upset that his “7 minute abs” video might be displaced by “6 minute abs?” If that resonates with you, you could try this decidedly less tranquil video that purports to
teach calculus in 20 minutes
. We’ve even done our own attempt at
making it easy
. | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498512",
"author": "Mr Name Required",
"timestamp": "2022-07-30T02:27:32",
"content": "Any explanation that just has graphs and formulae and a presenter who recollects how easy it was for them at age 14 to grok calculus is IMO NOT the “easy” way for beginners to understand it.I thi... | 1,760,372,615.770633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/cv-based-barking-dog-keeps-home-secure-doesnt-need-walking/ | CV Based Barking Dog Keeps Home Secure, Doesn’t Need Walking | Ryan Flowers | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"burglar",
"burglar alarm",
"canine",
"computer vision",
"CV",
"dog",
"raspberry pi"
] | Meet
[Tanner]
. [Tanner] is a hacker who also appreciates the security of their home while they’re out of town. After doing some research about home security, they found that it doesn’t take much to keep a house from being broken into. It’s true that truly determined burglars might be more difficult to avoid. But, for the opportunistic types who don’t like having their appendages treated like a chew toy or their face on the local news, the steaks are lowered. All it might take is a security camera or two, or a big barking dog to send them on their way. Rather than running to the local animal shelter, [Tanner] used parts that were already sitting around to create a solution to the problem: A
computer vision triggered virtual dog
.
An actual burglar caught by [Tanner]’s surveillance, and an inspiration for the project
The hardware for the computer canine is simple: A surveillance camera feeds images to a Raspberry Pi which, when triggered plays the sound of a dog barking. But [Tanner] took it a step further by feeding the Pi with
two
cameras, each pointing different directions. Depending on which camera is triggered, the barking will sound like it’s going toward each door by moving the audio from right channel to left, or vice versa.
[Tanner] has generously made the
entire project
available via their
Gitea site
. The fake dog is a wonderfully simple little system, but according to its author, not without its flaws. See the post on their site for their plans to improve the effectiveness and accuracy of the project.
If you’re the type who
does
want to take their robodog on a walk, check out
OpenDog version 3
, an open source pooch you can 3d print and build yourself! | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498462",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T23:07:14",
"content": "This but it plays the dueling fiddles song with the noise of shotguns being racked",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6498484",
"author": "The Comm... | 1,760,372,615.595968 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/smart-modular-keyboard-sports-an-e-ink-display-and-a-haptic-feedback-knob/ | Smart Modular Keyboard Sports An E-ink Display And A Haptic Feedback Knob | Robin Kearey | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"e-ink display",
"haptic feedback",
"mechanical keyboard",
"oled display"
] | While most people may think that a keyboard is just a board with keys, those who read Hackaday will no doubt know that there’s an infinite variety of beautiful designs to suit any use case. [Peng Zhihui] is the latest to impress us with
an excellent custom keyboard that packs several unusual features
(video in Chinese, with English subtitles, embedded below). What started out as a simple lockdown project turned into what [Zhihui] imagines to be the ultimate keyboard for his daily tasks. At first glance it might look like just another custom keyboard with mechanical switches, but when you look inside you’ll find it full of clever design tricks and neat features.
When he started on the design of the main key area, [Zhihui] could have used any of the open-source keyboard frameworks. Instead, he decided to do everything himself in order to obtain maximum performance and configurability. This went all the way down to the readout circuitry: rather than wiring the switches in a matrix, as most keyboards do, he used a set of shift registers. This enables the main ARM controller to read out every key separately, eliminating ghosting and allowing any number of keys to be pressed simultaneously. The shift registers are driven by a 4 MHz SPI clock, which means that a full scan of all keys takes just 40 microseconds.
That is brilliant, but what makes this project really interesting is an extension module on the left side of the keyboard that turns it into what [Zhihui] calls a “smart keyboard”. The bottom part of this module has an E-ink display that can show a variety of useful information: current memory usage, email notifications or simply the weather forecast.
Next to the big E-ink screen is a tiny OLED display that works in tandem with a haptic feedback knob. Based on a brushless DC motor, this knob can be configured in various ways to perform several different tasks. It can be set to friction-less spinning mode, which is useful for quickly scrolling through long documents. It can become a multi-level switch to enable or disable features, or a volume knob with virtual end stops. There’s even an option to use it as a physical indicator for things like the current CPU usage.
The keyboard also houses a USB hub to attach other gadgets, as well as a lithium battery to power the haptic knob, since it uses more power than a standard USB 2.0 port can deliver. There’s even a little capacitive touch strip below the space bar, which allows you to use one of your thumbs to switch between different tabs or to use quick copy/paste functions.
If all of this sounds like your idea of a perfect keyboard, then you’ll be pleased to hear that [Zhihui] plans to open-source all hardware and software designs once he’s cleaned up his code. Until that time, you may want to read up on
the working principle of a haptic smart knob
, or find out
what’s the most efficient way to read out a certain number of buttons with a microcontroller
. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497900",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T16:17:00",
"content": "Can’t a matrix with diodes have an arbitrary number of keys pressed at once, without ghosting?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497914",
"auth... | 1,760,372,615.832052 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/your-own-engineering-workstation-with-mame/ | Your Own Engineering Workstation, With Mame | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"HP",
"HP9845C",
"retrocomputing"
] | There are some things that leave indelible impressions in your memory. One of those things, for me, was a technical presentation in 1980 I attended — by calling in a lot of favors — a presentation by HP at what is now the Stennis Space Center. I was a student and it took a few phone calls to wrangle an invite but I wound up in a state-of-the-art conference room with a bunch of NASA engineers watching HP tell us about all their latest and greatest. Not that I could afford any of it, mind you. What really caught my imagination that day was the HP9845C, a color graphics computer with a roughly $40,000 price tag. That was twice the average US salary for 1980. Now, of course, you have a much better computer — or, rather, you probably have several much better computers including your phone. But if you want to relive those days, you can actually recreate the HP9845C’s 1980-vintage graphics glory using, of all things, a game emulator.
The Machine
The HP9845C with a Colorful Soft Key Display
Keep in mind that the IBM PC was nearly two years away at this point and, even then, wouldn’t hold a candle to the HP9845C. Like many machines of its era, it ran BASIC natively — in fact, it used special microcode to run BASIC programs relatively quickly on its 16-bit 5.7 MHz CPU. The 560 x 455 pixel graphics system had its own CPU and you could max it out with a decadent 1.5 MB of RAM. (But not, alas, for $40,000 which got you — I think –128K or so.)
The widespread use of the computer mouse was still in the future, so the HP had that wonderful light pen. Mass storage was also no problem — there was a 217 kB tape drive and while earlier models had a second drive and a thermal printer optional, these were included in the color “C” model. Like HP calculators, you could slot in different ROMs for different purposes. There were other options such as a digitizer and even floppy discs.
The machines had a brief life, being superseded quickly by better computers. However, the computer managed to play a key role in making the 1983 movie Wargames and the predecessor, the HP9845B appeared on screen in Raise the Titanic.
According to the HP Museum, the 9845C wasn’t terribly reliable. The tape drives are generally victims of age after 40+ years, but the power supplies and memory also have their share of issues. Luckily, we are going to simulate our HP9845C, so we won’t have to deal with any of those problems.
One other cool feature of just about every HP computer from that era was the soft key system. These were typically built into the monitor or, sometimes, the keyboard and lined up with labels on the screen. So instead of remembering that F2 is the search command (or whatever), there would be a little label on the screen over the button that said “Search.” Great stuff!
MAME
When you think about simulating an old computer, you probably think of SimH. However, the HP machines were very graphical in nature, so the author of the
HP9845C emulator
made a different choice: MAME. You normally think of MAME as a video game emulator. However, if you want color graphics, ROM slots, and a light pen, MAME is a pretty good choice.
As you can see, you get a view of the 9845C monitor replete with soft keys and, if you enable it, even a light pen. You can load different images as ROMs and tapes. The only tricky part is the keyboard. The HP has a custom keyboard that works a bit different than a PC keyboard.
In particular, the HP computers were typically screen-oriented. So the Enter key was usually distinct from the key that told the computer you were ready for it to process. This leads to some interesting keyboard mappings.
Quick Start Guide
In fact, the
page that has the most information about the emulator
is a little hard to wade through, so this might help. First, you want to scroll down to the bottom and get the prebuilt emulators for Linux or Windows. You can build with MAME or use the stock versions — assuming your stock version has all the right options. But it is easier to just grab the prebuilt and they can coexist with other versions of MAME; even if you want to go a different route eventually, you probably should still start there.
The emulator is called 45c and, on Linux, I had to make it executable myself (
chmod +x
). Here is a typical command line:
./45c -magt1 tapes/demo1.hti -magt2 tapes/demo2.hti -ramsize 192k '-rom1 advprog' '-rom5 colorgfx' '-rom3 massd' '-rom4 strucprog' &
All of those tape and ROM files are in the distribution archive. You probably don’t need any of the ROMs, but I loaded them anyway. Add
-window
if you prefer not to run full screen. If you do that, you may also want to add
-nounevenstretch
and
-nomax
options to improve appearance.
If you want to try the lightpen, use the
-lightgun -lightgun_device_mouse
option to turn your mouse into a lightpen. Note this will grab your mouse and you may need to use Alt+Tab or some other method to switch away from the emulator.
The keyboard mappings are listed on the web page but here are a few that are handy to know:
Enter – Continue
Right Shift+Enter – Store
Numeric Enter (or Right Shift+Enter) – Execute
Escape – Stop
Right Shift+Home – Clear screen
So faced with the prompt, you can enter something like:
5*10-8
Then press the numeric enter key to see the result. So this being a BASIC computer, you can enter:
10 PRINT "HOWDY!"
Right? Well, yes, but then you need to press store (Right Shift+Enter)
A Simple BASIC Program
Part of the Output
If you have the tapes loaded as above (you can view the tape catalog with the CAT command), try this:
load "autost"
run
High tech graphics for 1980
Remember to use the numeric pad enter key after each line, not the normal enter key!
The king of the demos is the Space Shuttle graphic which was cutting edge in 1980. You could change various display and plot options using the soft keys.
Resources
Of course, the Space Shuttle is only fun for so long. There are many other demos on the same tape, but eventually you’ll want to play with something more interesting. The
HP Museum
has a good bit of software you can probably figure out how to load. You can’t download the software, but if you want to see what the state of gaming was on a $70,000 HP9845B in those days, [Terry Burlison] has some
recollections
and screen shots. You’ll also find tons of documents and other information on the
main HP9845 site
.
It would be really interesting if the emulator could
drive an HP-IB card in the PC or a PI
to drive all your old boat anchor test equipment. That might even let you
connect a hard drive
. Maybe. | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497903",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T16:21:56",
"content": "Wow, HP is saying the 9845 wasn’t “terribly reliable”? HP always justified its High Prices by boasting of their rock-solid hardware.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,372,615.709755 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/google-quantum-virtually/ | Google Quantum, Virtually | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Software Development"
] | [
"google",
"quantum computing"
] | Want to try a big quantum computer but don’t have the cash? Google wants to up your simulation game with their “
Quantum Virtual Machine
” that you can use for free.
On the face of it, it sounds like marketing-speak for just another quantum simulator. But if you read the post, it sounds like it attempts to model effects from a real Sycamore processor including qubit decay and dephasing along with gate and readout errors. This forms what Google calls “processor-like” output, meaning it is as imperfect as a real quantum computer.
If you need more qubits than Google is willing to support, there are ways to add more computing using external compute nodes. Even if you have access to a real machine of sufficient size, this is handy because you don’t have to wait in a queue for time on a machine. You can work out a lot of issues before going to the real computer.
This couldn’t help but remind us of the old days when you had to bring your cards to the central computer location and wait your turn only to find out you’d made a stupid spelling mistake that cost you an hour of wait time. In those days, we’d “desk check” a program carefully before submitting it. This system would allow a similar process where you test your basic logic flow on a virtual machine before suffering the wait time for a real computer to run it.
Of course, if you really need a quantum computer, the simulation is probably too slow to be practical. But at least this might help you work out the kinks on smaller problems before tackling the whole enchilada. What will you do with a quantum computer? Tell us in the comments.
Google, of course, likes its own language,
Cirq
. If you want a leg up on general concepts with a friendly simulator, try
our series
. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497806",
"author": "Viki21",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T11:39:56",
"content": "Dear computer, how do I maximise my ad revenue?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497847",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-07-... | 1,760,372,615.650018 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/diy-retrograde-clock-is-3d-printed/ | DIY Retrograde Clock Is 3D Printed | Lewin Day | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"3D printed parts",
"acrylic",
"clock"
] | Retrograde clocks are unique, in that they eschew the normal fully-circular movement for the hands. Instead, the hands merely sweep out a segment of a circular arc, before jumping back to their start position to begin again. They’re pretty rare to find, but [Jamie Matthews] decided he had to have one. Thusly,
he elected to build his own!
For his build, [Jamie] started with a regular off-the-shelf clock movement you might find in any hobbyist clock build. From there, he affixed his own witches’ brew of racks and gears to the output in order to create the desired semi-circular mechanism. The arcane mechanism enables the clock to tell time over roughly a 180-degree arc.
It’s relatively simple to make one of your own, too. The parts are all readily 3D printable, with [Jamie] reporting it took less than 8 meters of filament to produce the geartrain for his build. You can even print the clock face if you don’t want to CNC cut it out of acrylic.
Overall, it’s a fun look at an often-forgotten part of our horological history. Desktop 3D printing really does enable the creation of
some exciting, different clock designs.
Video after the break. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497844",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T13:04:47",
"content": "Well, this is a new kind of clock I didn’t know existed. More importantly, I still don’t know why it exists in the first place.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,372,615.52496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/tiny-arcade-uses-tiny-crt/ | Tiny Arcade Uses Tiny CRT | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games"
] | [
"arcade",
"cabinet",
"crt",
"curve",
"custom",
"restoration",
"video conference"
] | Restoring vintage electronics is a difficult hobby to tackle. Even the most practical builds often have to use some form of modern technology to work properly, or many different versions of the machine need to be disassembled to get a single working version. Either way, in the end someone will be deeply hurt by the destruction of anything antique, except perhaps with [Marco]’s recent
tiny arcade with a unique CRT display
.
The CRT is a now-obsolete technology, but Arcade and MAME purists often seek them out because of the rounded screen and vintage feel these devices have when compared to modern LCD or LED displays. For a build this small, though, [Marco] couldn’t just use parts from an old TV set as there wouldn’t be clearance in the back of the cabinet. An outdated video conferencing system turned out to have just the part he needed, though. It has a CRT mounted perpendicularly to a curved screen in order to reduce the depth needed dramatically.
The final build uses a tiny Namco system meant to plug into the RCA jack on a standard TV, but put in a custom case that makes it look like an antique video game cabinet. It’s an interesting build that doesn’t destroy any valuable antique electronics, while still maintaining a classic arcade feel. If you’re building a larger arcade cabinet which will still satisfy the purists out there, make sure you’re using
a CRT with the right kind of control system
.
Thanks to [ZioTibia81] for the tip! | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497678",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T05:09:18",
"content": "*perpendicularly",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497709",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T06:44:50",
"cont... | 1,760,372,615.887108 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/probing-can-bus-for-ev-battery-info/ | Probing CAN Bus For EV Battery Info | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"c-zero",
"can-bus",
"car",
"citroen",
"display",
"i-miev",
"information",
"mitsubishi",
"OBD"
] | The widespread adoption of the CAN bus (and OBD-II) in automobiles was largely a way of standardizing the maintenance of increasingly complicated engines and their needs to meet modern emissions standards. While that might sound a little dry on the surface, the existence and standardization of this communications bus in essentially all passenger vehicles for three decades has led to some interesting side effects, like it’s usage
in this project to display some extra information about an electric car’s battery
.
There’s not a ton of information about it, but it’s a great proof-of-concept of some of the things CAN opens up in vehicles. The build is based on a Citroën C-Zero (which is essentially just a re-badged Mitsubishi i-MiEV) and uses the information on the CAN bus to display specific information about the state of charge of the battery that isn’t otherwise shown on the car’s displays. It also includes a build of a new secondary display specifically for this purpose, and the build is sleek enough that it looks like a standard part of the car.
While there are certainly other (perhaps simpler) ways of interfacing with a CAN bus, this one uses off-the-shelf electronics like Arduino-compatible microcontrollers, is permanently installed, and has a custom case that we really like. If you’re just starting to sniff around your own vehicle’s CAN bus, there are some
excellent tools available
to check out.
Thanks to [James] for the tip! | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497641",
"author": "RobHeffo",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T03:09:24",
"content": "The enclosure is delightfully retro. Especially with the orange graphics on the screen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6497747",
"author": "shi... | 1,760,372,616.150673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/simple-universal-modem-helps-save-and-load-data-from-tape/ | Simple Universal Modem Helps Save And Load Data From Tape | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"modem",
"tape",
"tape deck",
"tape storage"
] | Back in the early days of the home computer revolution, data was commonly saved on tape. Even better, those tapes would make an almighty racket if you played them on a stereo, because the data was stored in an audio format. The Simple Universal Modem from [Anders Nielsen] is built to work in a similar way,
turning data into audio and vice versa.
The project consists of a circuit for modulating data into audio, and demodulating audio back into data. It’s “universal” because [Anders] has designed it to be as format-agnostic as possible. It doesn’t matter whether you want to store data on a digital voice recorder, a cassette deck, or an old reel-to-reel. This build should work fairly well on all of them!
On the modulation side of things, it’s designed to be as analog-friendly as possible. Rather than just spitting out rough square waves, it modulates them into nice smooth sine waves with fewer harmonics. On the demodulation side, it’s got an LM393 comparator which can read data on tape and spit out a clean square wave for easy decoding by digital circuitry.
If you find yourself trying to recover old data off tapes, or writing to them for a retrocomputing project, this build might be just what you need. [Anders] even goes as far as demonstrating its use with an old reel-to-reel deck in
a helpful YouTube video.
There really were some weird ways of storing data way back when.
Just ask IBM.
Video after the break. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497596",
"author": "asheets",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T00:53:01",
"content": "How about on 8-track? :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497597",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T01:02:10",
... | 1,760,372,616.376735 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/29/love-is-a-burning-flame-and-so-is-this-underwater-burning-ring-of-fire/ | Love Is A Burning Flame, And So Is This Underwater Burning Ring Of Fire | Ryan Flowers | [
"Science"
] | [
"don't try this at home",
"fire",
"solenoid",
"underwater",
"voice coil"
] | When Johnny Cash wrote “Ring of Fire”, he was talking about love. But when an unnamed follower of [TheBackyardScientist] took it literally and suggested making actual rings of fire — underwater — they rose to the challenge as you can see in the
video below the break
.
Of course there are several ingredients to underwater fire rings. First you need water, and a pool clearly does the job in this video. Second, you need flammable rings of gas. [TheBackyardScientist] decided to build a machine to create the gas rings, and it’s quite interesting to see them go through several iterations before settling on a voice coil based poppet valve design. We must say that it works absolutely swimmingly.
Lastly there needs to be fire. And for fire, you need something flammable, and something shocking. Forty thousands volts light up a spark plug, even underwater. The fuel is provided by what appears to be compressed air and acetylene but we’re not 100% sure. We
are
sure that it goes
bang!
quite sufficiently, as demonstrated by its aptitude for blowing things up.
We appreciated the engineering that went into the project but also the rapid iterations of ideas, the overcoming of serious obstacles and the actual science that went into the project. Even if it
is
just randomly making literal burning rings of fire. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498160",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T08:44:10",
"content": "Think it’s oxy/propane mix. He mentions propane quite a few times.It’d be awesome to find something that burns slower so you could see it without the high speed camera.My understanding is underwater explosion... | 1,760,372,616.257457 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/new-os-for-commodore-64-adds-modern-features/ | New OS For Commodore 64 Adds Modern Features | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"64",
"antique",
"c64",
"c64os",
"commodore",
"operating system",
"retro",
"windows"
] | The Commodore 64 was a revolutionary computer for its day and age. After four decades, though, it gets harder and harder to use these computers for anything more than educational or hobby electronics projects. [Gregory Nacu] is fiercly determined to challenge this idea, though, and has gone to great extremes to make this hardware still relevant in the modern age by
writing a completely new operating system for the Commodore machines
.
Known as C64OS, it squeezes everything it can out of the 8 bit processor and 64 kB of memory. The new OS includes switchable desktop workspaces, a windowing system, draggable icons, a Mac-style menu bar at the top, and drop-down menus for the icons (known as aliases in the demonstrations). The filesystem is largely revamped as well and enables a more modern directory system to be used. There are still some limitations like a screen resolution of 320×200 pixels and a fixed color palette which only allows for a handful of colors, but this OS might give Windows 3.1 a run for its money.
The project is still being actively developed but it has come a long way into a fairly usable state. It can be run on original hardware as well as long as you have a method of getting the image to the antique machine somehow. If not, the OS can likely run on any number of
C64 emulators
we’ve
featured in the past
.
Thanks to [Stephen] for the tip! | 45 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498115",
"author": "vavles",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T05:11:58",
"content": "totally impressive. Can´t he travel to 1982 and be hired by Commodore ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6498123",
"author": "Joshua",
"timesta... | 1,760,372,616.457717 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/inca-knots-inspire-quantum-computer/ | Inca Knots Inspire Quantum Computer | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"quantum computing",
"topological quantum computing"
] | We think of data storage as a modern problem, but even ancient civilizations kept records. While much of the world used stone tablets or other media that didn’t survive the centuries, the Incas used something called quipu which encoded numeric data in strings using knots. Now the ancient system of recording numbers has inspired a new way
to encode qubits in a quantum computer
.
With quipu, knots in a string represent a number. By analogy, a conventional qubit would be as if you used a string to form a 0 or 1 shape on a tabletop. A breeze or other “noise” would easily disturb your equation. But knots stay tied even if you pick the strings up and move them around. The new qubits are the same, encoding data in the topology of the material.
In practice, Quantinuum’s H1 processor uses 10 ytterbium ions trapped by lasers pulsing in a Fibonacci sequence. If you consider a conventional qubit to be a one-dimensional affair — the qubit’s state — this new system acts like a two-dimensional system, where the second dimension is time. This is easier to construct than conventional 2D quantum structures but offers at least some of the same inherent error resilience.
The actual paper is paywalled at
Nature
. While the technique is exotic, it makes you realize that there is a lot to still shake out with quantum computers and just as today’s conventional computers don’t use tubes, core, and mercury delay lines, tomorrow’s quantum computers are likely to look very different than the ones we have today.
This isn’t the first time people have tried to create topological qubits, but the last time we noticed that effort there were some
experimental problems
. Want time on a quantum computer? You can access
virtual ones
. Or you can even use some
real ones over the network
. | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498106",
"author": "NS",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T04:25:58",
"content": "This article looks as if it was created bt GPT-3. What a bunch of nonsense.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6498138",
"author": "Patrick Allen (... | 1,760,372,616.319902 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/foam-cutter-moves-like-a-hot-knife-through-butter/ | Foam Cutter Moves Like A Hot Knife Through Butter | Kristina Panos | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"foam",
"foam cutter",
"hot wire foam cutter",
"nichrome wire"
] | Make enough attempts to cut foam using whatever you’ve got — utility knife, hacksaw, serrated plastic knife — and you’ll wish hard for something that cuts cleaner, faster, and better. While there are all sorts of ways to build a hot wire foam cutter,
this design from [jasonwinfieldnz] is both interesting and imitable
.
If you don’t already know it, nichrome wire is nifty stuff that’s readily available in thrift store hair dryers and toasters. It stretches as it heats up, and shrinks as it cools back down.
The interesting part of this build is that instead of using a spring to keep tension on the nichrome wire, [jasonwinfieldnz] designed and 3D-printed a bow out of PLA that does the job elegantly. While [jason] was initially concerned that the bow might possibly melt, he found in practice that although the bow does get warm to the touch, it’s nowhere near hot enough to even warp.
One nice touch is the simple fence that rides along two slots and secures with wingnuts. We also like that [jason] made this foam cutter largely from scrap material, and rather than buy a spool of nichrome, he opted for a skinny heating element and pillaging the wire.
If you’re a nichrome noob, know that it doesn’t take much juice to do the job. Even though a computer power supply is what [jason] had lying around, it’s complete overkill, so you would definitely want to limit the current. Check out the build video after the break.
Still not portable enough for you?
All you really need is a 18650, some nichrome, and a few bits and bobs to hold it all together
. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498066",
"author": "Earle RIch",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T23:38:14",
"content": "I use my bandsaw for cutting. Regular blade for wood or metal, very fast, accurate and clean.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6498069",
"autho... | 1,760,372,616.674414 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/a-customizable-macropad-to-make-anyones-tail-wag/ | A Customizable Macropad To Make Anyone’s Tail Wag | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"attiny85",
"macro",
"macro pad",
"macropad"
] | [Gili Yankovitch] has always wanted some kind of macro keypad for all those boss-slaying combos he keeps up the sleeve of his wizard robe while playing WoW. Seventeen years later, he finally threw down the gauntlet and built one. But really, this is an understatement, because
Paws is kind of the customizable macropad to end all customizable macropads
.
This thing is completely bespoke, and yet cookie cutter at the same time — but we mean that in the best possible way. Paws can be made in any shape or form, and quite easily. How is this even possible, you ask? Well, every single key has its own microcontroller.
Yep, each key has an ATtiny85 and a cute little ribbon cable, and these form a token ring network that talks to an Arduino, which provides the keyboard interface to the computer. To make things even easier, [Gili] built a simple programming UI that automatically recognizes the configuration and number of keys, and lets the user choose the most important bit of all — the color of the LED.
[Gili] wanted to combine all the skills he’s learned since the worst timeline started in early 2020 — embedded software, CAD, electronics, and PCB design. We’d like to add networking to that list, especially since he figured out a nice workaround for the slowness of I²C and the limitations of communication between the ‘tiny85s and the Arduino. Though [Gili] may have started out with a tall order, he definitely filled it. Want to get your paws on the design files?
Just claw your way over to GitHub
.
If your customization interests lie more toward what program is in focus, be sure to check out
Keybon
, which was one of the many awesome winners of our
Odd Inputs and Peculiar Peripherals contest
. | 4 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6498076",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2022-07-29T00:39:50",
"content": "It is crazy the best way to get ATTiny85 might be stripping them from DigisparkOtherwise the RP2040 is cheaper at $1 each, might even knock some latency off with those PIO :DI’m torn, if it is expandable th... | 1,760,372,616.715076 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/hackaday-prize-2022-a-functional-commodore-pet-tribute/ | Hackaday Prize 2022: A Functional Commodore PET Tribute | Lewin Day | [
"computer hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"Amiga 500",
"commodore",
"Commodore PET",
"pc",
"retrocomputer"
] | The C64 may be the best-selling computer of all time, but Commodore made several machines before that, too. [Mjnurney] always loved the Commodore PET, and set about building some new machines
in the PET’s unique all-in-one form factor.
The case design started with measurements taken from an original Commodore PET, of which [Mjnurney] has three. Then, it was modified and extended to make room for a proper keyboard. The case also mounts a 14″ IPS display, two 15W speakers, and a gas strut enabling the case to be propped open for easy maintenance. It’s actually made out of real sheet metal, too!
The primary version mounts an Amiga 500 inside, including its classic keyboard. However, [Mjnurney] has developed a PC version, too. Both look great, and it’s wild to see Netflix displayed on a machine that looks more at home in 1977. Perhaps most of all, though, we love the dual floppy drives just below the screen.
Throwback cases pay tribute to some of our favorite machines.
The tiny ones are perhaps the cutest of all
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 14 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497965",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T18:48:46",
"content": "Are the PET graphics characters in unicode?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497995",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T... | 1,760,372,616.571016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/28/where-pollution-hits-the-road-the-growing-environmental-hazard-of-rubber-tires/ | Where Pollution Hits The Road: The Growing Environmental Hazard Of Rubber Tires | Maya Posch | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"6PPD",
"6PPD-quinone",
"tire"
] | As ubiquitous as rubber tires are due to the many practical benefits they offer to cars, trucks, and other conveyances, they do come with a limited lifespan. Over time, the part of the tire that contacts the road surface wears away, until a tire replacement is necessitated. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the material that wears away does not magically vanish, but ends up in the environment.
Because of the materials used to create tires, this worn away material is counted as a
microplastic
, which is a known environmental pollutant. In addition, more recently it’s been found that one additive commonly found in tires, called 6PPD, is highly toxic to certain species of fish and other marine life.
There are also indications that these fine bits of worn-off tire contribute to PM
2.5
particulate matter. This size of particulates is fine enough to penetrate deep into the lungs of humans and other animals, where they can cause health issues and exacerbate COPD and similar conditions. These discoveries raise a lot of questions about our use of tires, along with the question of whether electric vehicles stand to make this issue even worse.
A Lot Of Dust
Source: S. Primpke et al. Appl. Spectrosc. 74, 1012–1047 (2020).
An obvious question that comes to mind when confronted with this issue is just how much material we are talking about.
Kole et al. (2017)
published a study that answers exactly this question using a collection of statistics and educated extrapolations. Their estimate comes down to between 0.23 to 4.7 kg/year, with a global average of 0.81 kg/year/capita. The estimated contribution of tires to the microplastics that end up in oceans annually would be 5 – 10%.
Most notable about these numbers is perhaps that this means that the particulate matter (PM
2.5
) pollution produced by the wear on tires is significantly higher than that produced by the tail pipes of internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEs). After decades of regulating the exhaust gases from combustion engines, it would seem that it is now time to look at other sources of this type of pollution. Especially since this type of particulate matter is not one that will vanish as vehicles switch from ICEs to batteries and electric motors, as the latter will still have tires.
An awkwardly situated elephant in the room that further complicates this matter is that the weight of BEVs tend to be higher than that of ICE cars due to the weight of the battery pack. This may lead to BEVs wearing down tires faster and thus creating more microplastics. Whether this will this turn out to be an issue remains to be seen, as factors such as driving style and the use of regenerative braking have to be taken into account as well.
Considering that microplastics, particles < 5 mm in length, are now
found practically everywhere
on Earth, including in our own blood, it raises uncomfortable questions about how harmful they are exactly. This seems a valid question considering that one property of these plastics is that they take a very long time to degrade. If they hang around this long, then surely they do not interact with or harm ecosystems and the insides of our bodies?
As noted by
XiaoZhi Lim in the
Nature
article, there are real, observable impacts from microplastics in the environment, with some obvious cases being fibrous microplastics interfering with zooplankton, and marine life discovered with significant amounts of microplastics in their digestive tract. Here the harm seems to mostly come from microplastics interfering with basic activities, such as foraging and digestion, rather than being outright toxic.
Although at this point in time there is no evidence to support the theory that micro- and nanoplastics are actively harmful to human health beyond PM
2.5
pollution, indications are that at least in the case of tire wear, the additives that leach out of the fragments into the environment can do serious damage.
More Than Just Rubber
Tires are rather complex constructions. Rather than just natural, vulcanized rubber in a funny shape, their
manufacturing
involves the combination of natural and synthetic rubber, along with
carbon black
, silica and a range of antioxidants and antiozonants, the latter two serving to make the tire more resistant to UV and ozone exposure.
About half of a tire by weight is carbon black, which is a paracrystalline form of carbon. There is limited evidence (Group 2B) that exposure to carbon black may be carcinogenic, and at low levels it would seem to cause harm to the public’s health. The synthetic rubber in tires is usually styrene-butadiene rubber (
SBR
), which provides comparable properties to natural rubber when protected by additives, a common one being
6PPD
(
C
18
H
24
N
2
), which acts as both an antioxidant and antiozonant.
Relationships among exposure time, exposure concentration, and survival in (A) brook trout and (B) rainbow trout over exposure
durations of 24 and 96 h, respectively. Median lethal concentrations at 24 and 96 h of exposure were interpolated for both species using (C) two-
parameter logistic regression and (D) compared with those of other previously studied species. All concentrations are based on measured
concentrations. (Brinkmann et al., 2022)
Recent research (
Tian et al.
(2020),
Brinkmann et al.
(2022)) has shown that it is this commonly used 6PPD additive which ends up being highly toxic to marine species like the coho salmon (
Oncorhynchus kisutch
) with an LC
50
(median lethal concentration) of < 0.8 μg/L. The toxicity appears when the 6PPD molecule reacts with ozone to form a
quinone
form (6PPD-quinone). Multiple studies have now attempted to determine which marine species are the most sensitive to this 6PPD-quinone substance, with Brinkmann et al. finding that rainbow trout (LC
50
0.59 μg/L) and brook trout (LC
50
1 μg/L) are also very sensitive.
For these sensitive species, the displayed symptoms upon exposure to 6PPD-quinone in sufficient concentrations included increased ventilation, gasping, spiraling, and loss of equilibrium. Eventually the sensitive fish species in these studies would succumb and die. As noted by Brinkmann et al., 6PPD-quinone is found in significant concentrations in stormwater runoff and in surface waters along the US west coast at concentrations of ≤ 19 μg/L. Effectively this means that these waters are lethal to at least a number of species that are of ecological, economical and cultural importance in this area.
Fixing The Mess
Even as the ecological, environmental and health implications of microplastics are still hotly debated today, it is hard to argue with the well-documented health impact of PM
2.5
particulates, not to mention that of 6PPD-quinone on marine species. The human health impact of tire wear will be most visible in the occurrence and severity of COPD and similar conditions near roadways and similar areas where significant amounts of tire wear occurs.
For marine species the health implications seem significantly bleaker, however. While some fish species seem remarkably unimpressed by even full saturation levels of 6PPD-quinone, for many others even fairly low concentrations appear to be invariably lethal. Since many of these sensitive species are of commercial interest, there is a real risk that the increasing presence of this molecule in marine environments may drive them into extinction, or at least make their commercial exploitation impossible.
Unfortunately, as noted by the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA), there is
no known alternative
to 6PPD that can easily replace this tire additive. In the meantime, mitigation methods are being examined, and motorists are being urged to maintain proper tire pressure to reduce tire wear. Hopefully before long we will find a replacement for 6PPD that addresses the toxicity issue.
As to the microplastics issue, this is an issue that sadly stretches far beyond tires. Even so, there are aspiring attempts to capture the particulates from tire wear at the source, using an
electrostatic capturing
method or air filtration attached directly near the tire. If successful, this might even help mitigate the 6PPD problem, though obviously not all tire wear particles are so easily captured, as demonstrated by the tire marks on every stretch of tarmac. | 110 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497927",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T17:17:54",
"content": "Even if you can’t buy a smaller lighter vehicle you can drive in a more relaxed manner when appropriate to minimize rubber loss and get your car an alignment.You will save money because your tires will last... | 1,760,372,616.958861 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/you-can-build-a-giant-7-segment-display-of-your-very-own/ | You Can Build A Giant 7-Segment Display Of Your Very Own | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"7 segment",
"7-segment display",
"display",
"ESP8266"
] | Sometimes you need to display a number nice and large, making it easily readable at a good distance. [Lewis] has just the thing for that:
a big expandable 7-segment display.
The build is modular, allowing it to be extended from 2 to 10 digits and beyond. The digits themselves are made of 3D-printed parts assembled onto acrylic. These can then be ganged up in a wooden frame for displaying larger numbers with more digits. Individual elements are lit by addressable LEDs, and the project can be built using an Arduino Nano or an ESP8266 for control. The latter opens up possibilities for controlling the screen over WiFi, which could prove useful.
[Lewis] has built his own version for a local swim club, where it will be used as a laptimer. Other applications could be as a scoreboard in various sports, or to confuse your neighbours by displaying random numbers in your front yard.
We’ve seen a similar build from [Ivan Miranda]
that served well as a workshop clock
, too. Video after the break. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497517",
"author": "SteveS",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T21:10:26",
"content": "I see a back-ground and I want to paint it bla-aack (with apologies to the Stones)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497518",
"author": "Mich... | 1,760,372,616.614923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/hackaday-prize-2022-repairing-a-vintage-laptop-with-modern-components/ | Hackaday Prize 2022: Repairing A Vintage Laptop With Modern Components | Robin Kearey | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Retrocomputing",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"386",
"custom PCB",
"laptop repair",
"power supply",
"TFT display",
"Toshiba"
] | Laptop computers may be ubiquitous today, but there was a time when they were the exclusive preserve of rich businesspeople. Back in the early ’90s, the significant added cost of portability was something that few were willing to pay. As a result, not many laptops from those days survive; for those that do, keeping them running can be quite a challenge due to their compact construction and use of non-standard components.
[Adalbert] ran into these problems when
he got his hands on a Toshiba T3200SXC from 1991
. As the first laptop ever to feature a color TFT display, it’s very much worth preserving as an historical artifact. Sadly, the original display was no longer working: it only displayed a very faint image and went completely blank soon after. Leaky capacitors then destroyed the power supply board, leaving the laptop completely dead. [Adalbert] then began to ponder his options, which ranged from trying to repair the original components to ripping everything out and turning this into a modern-computer-in-an-old-case project.
In the end he went for an option in between, which we as preservationists can only applaud: he replaced the display with a modern one of the correct size and resolution and built a new custom power supply, keeping the rest of the computer intact as far as possible. [Adalbert] describes the overall process in the video embedded below and goes into lots of detail on his hackaday.io page.
Connecting a modern LCD screen was not as difficult as it might seem: where the old display had an RGB TTL interface with three bits per color, the new one had a very similar system with six bits per color. [Adalbert] made an adapter PCB that simply connected the three bits from the laptop to the highest three bits on the screen. A set of 3D-printed brackets ensured a secure fit of the new screen in the classic case.
For the power supply [Adalbert] took a similar approach. He designed a PCB with several DC/DC converters that fit easily inside the computer’s case, leaving enough space to add a battery. This made the old Toshiba more portable than it ever was — believe it or not, the original T3200SXC could only be used with a mains connection.
Once the laptop was restored to working order, [Adalbert] added a few finishing touches: a sound card and speakers made it suitable as a gaming platform, and a network card gave it rudimentary online capabilities. The end result is a T3200SXC that looks and feels exactly the way it did when it was new, but with a few added features. That’s a really satisfying result: many classic laptop projects
add modern computing hardware
, or even
completely replace the original contents
. You might also want to check out [Adalbert]’s
unusual 3D printer based PCB manufacturing technique
that he used for the new power supply.
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 23 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497470",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T18:58:28",
"content": "I keep an old laptop from that Era, but the floppy drive is bad, so I’m not able to install Linux, or format a larger hard disk. IIRC, It has a rudimentary USB connector that ... | 1,760,372,616.805816 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/electrolytes-theyre-what-dehydrated-hackaday-writers-crave/ | Electrolytes, They’re What Dehydrated Hackaday Writers Crave! | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Medical Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"dehydration",
"electrolytes",
"oral rehydration salts"
] | The oddly prophetic 2006 comedy film
Idiocracy
features an isotonic drink called Brawndo, whose marketing continuously refers to its electrolytes as a miraculous property. Brawndo is revealed in the film to be useless for agricultural irrigation, but yesterday perhaps a couple of Hackaday writers could have used a bottle or two. At the MCH hacker camp, the record heat of a Dutch summer under the influence of global warming caused us to become dehydrated, and thus necessitated a trip to the first aid post for some treatment. We’d done all the right things, staying in the shade, keeping as cool as we could, eating salty foods like crisps, and drinking plenty of liquids, so what had gone wrong?
Perhaps Club-Mate Should Have An Isotonic Version
The answer will probably be obvious to trained observers, we’d become deficient in those electrolytes. Our bodily stocks of sodium and potassium salts had become exhausted by sweat and all that extra water requiring trips to the toilet, so while we weren’t dehydrated in liquid terms we had exhausted some of the essentials to our cellular function.
The symptoms would have been easy to spot given the right training, but at a hacker camp it was too easy to attribute a headache and tiredness to a late night. For me the point at which it became obvious something was significantly wrong came when my thought processes started to slow down and my movement became a lot less easy. I’m a long-distance walker and cyclist, yet here I was walking like an octogenarian. If I’d know what to spot I might also have noticed that I had stopped sweating despite the heat. I found a friend (Thanks
Gasman
!), and together we made our way to the first aid post. MCH2022 first aiders were very efficient, and I was given a cup of oral rehydration salts which restored me to health in a matter of minutes.
No snake-oil doctor ever had a cure this fast-acting! (
CC BY-SA 3.0
)
This tale of personal woe is a cautionary one, but perhaps the real interest lies in what really happened. If we have any biochemists in the house no doubt they can expand in the comments, but sodium and potassium salts are essential to our nervous systems, and to our function at the cellular level.
Normally we have plenty at hand from our dietary intake to the extent that we excrete the surplus in our urine, but on our hacker camp field the problem was that we were losing salts through sweating in the heat faster than we could replenish them. The symptoms we were experiencing were the body frantically shutting down non-essential subsystems to keep going.
If Only Every Cure Was This Quick
So what was the miracle cure? Oral rehydration salts are a mixture of sodium and potassium salts plus glucose, which surprisingly doesn’t have a particularly salty taste. It’s a lesson in how quickly we take in water through our intestines, that their effect was so quick. I had enough sodium and potassium in my reserves to walk and think as normal, and I’d learned an important lesson. Eating a few crisps to get salt isn’t enough, on days like that I have to take electrolyte intake seriously, and be aware of the symptoms before they get that bad. Meanwhile I will be packing a few sachets of oral rehydration salts as part of my hacker camp kit, and I suggest you do the same.
Header: Simon Berry, (
CC BY-SA 2.0
). | 106 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497445",
"author": "Menno",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T17:11:19",
"content": "Hyponatremia is relatively uncommon, even in those conditions and the crisps would have supplied more than enough. The problem was more likely hypokalemia, as muscular problems were present and crisps suppl... | 1,760,372,617.102346 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/launch-and-track-your-model-rockets-via-smartphone/ | Launch And Track Your Model Rockets Via Smartphone | Lewin Day | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"Adafruit Feather",
"ESP32",
"Feather",
"LoRa",
"model rocket"
] | Building and flying model rockets is great fun. Eventually, though, the thrill of the fire and smoke subsides, and you want to know more about what it’s doing in the air. With a thirst for knowledge, [archy587] started
building a project to monitor the vital stats of rockets in flight.
The project mounts an M0 Feather microcontroller board into the rocket, along with a 900 MHz LoRa transmitter and a GPS module. This allows the rocket’s journey to be measured and logged, and is particularly useful for when a craft floats off downrange during parachute recovery. There’s also a relay module onboard, which dumps power from a dedicated separate battery into the rocket motor igniter. This allows the rocket to be fired wirelessly.
On the ground, the setup uses an ESP32 fitted with another LoRa module to receive signals from the rocket. It’s designed to hook up to an Android smartphone over its USB-C port. This allows data received from the rocket to be displayed in an Android app, including the rocket’s GPS location overlaid on Google Maps.
Being able to remotely ignite your rockets and track their progress brings some high-tech cool to the launch pad. You’ll be upgrading your rockets with
micro flight controllers and vectored thrust in no time
. Just be sure whatever tech you’re using is compliant with the rules for model rocketry in your local area. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497548",
"author": "Mr Name Required",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T23:03:54",
"content": "Nice project. Things have really come a long way since the old Estes TransRoc but the penalty for lofting all that hardware (as the project states) is the need to use a D size motor as a minimum.... | 1,760,372,617.256255 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/the-surprisingly-manual-process-of-building-automotive-wire-harnesses/ | The Surprisingly Manual Process Of Building Automotive Wire Harnesses | Dan Maloney | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"automotive",
"cable",
"cad",
"car",
"CATIA",
"eda",
"grommet",
"harnes",
"loom",
"truck",
"wire",
"wire harness",
"wrap"
] | Even from the very earliest days of the automobile age, cars and trucks have been hybrids of mechanical and electrical design. For every piston sliding up and down in a cylinder, there’s a spark plug that needs to be fired at just the right time to make the engine work, and stepping on the brake pedal had better cause the brake lights to come on at the same time hydraulic pressure pinches the wheel rotors between the brake pads.
Without electrical connections, a useful motor vehicle is a practical impossibility. Even long before electricity started becoming the fuel of choice for vehicles, the wires that connect the computers, sensors, actuators, and indicators needed to run a vehicle’s systems were getting more and more complicated by the year. After the engine and the frame, a car’s wiring and electronics are its third most expensive component, and it’s estimated that by 2030, fully half of the average vehicle’s cost will be locked in its electrical system, up from 30% in 2010.
Making sure all those signals get where they’re going, and doing so in a safe and reliable way is the job of a vehicle’s wire harnesses, the bundles of wires that seemingly occupy every possible area of a modern car. The design and manufacturing of wire harnesses is a complex process that relies on specialized software, a degree of automation, and a surprising amount of people-power.
More Wires Than Ever
The idea for this article came from a conversation I had with Elliot Williams, and an off-hand mention of a chat he had with an engineer who makes software to design car wire harnesses. My first thought was, “There’s software to do that?” which was quickly followed by “Of course there’s software to do that!”. The wiring needed to run a modern vehicle is not something that can be done ad hoc — wire harnesses are highly engineered, both to handle the demands that will be placed on them electrically, and mechanically engineered to not only fit in the space available but to survive the rigors of perhaps several decades of use under challenging environmental conditions.
Just the wiring inside a door of a typical car today probably exceeds the complexity of an entire car’s wiring from just 30 years ago.
Wire harnesses also have to be manufacturable as separate components. Car and truck manufacturing is increasingly only a final assembly process, where workers add parts made by contract manufacturers to a vehicle’s frame as it rolls down the line. And in fact, wire harnesses are among the very first components added to the nascent vehicle, which is both evidence of their importance to the finished product as well as explaining how difficult it can be to access some of them if they need to be serviced later.
The design of a wire harness starts pretty much the way any complex circuit design starts: with a schematic. In most modern vehicles, pretty much everything talks to one or more of perhaps dozens of electronic control modules, scattered around the vehicle to control everything from ignition timing and fuel injection to HVAC controls and infotainment system settings. Wire harnesses must be designed for each ECM, to provide power and data connections to each sensor and actuator, with consideration given to sizing the wire for the load, providing appropriate ground connections, and making sure the proper connectors are used.
Interdimensional Design
While the initial design process of a wire harness can use more or less standard EDA tools, eventually the two-dimensional schematic representation of the harness has to be translated to the three-dimensional structure of the vehicle. For that job, more specialized EDA and CAD tools are employed. A big player in this world seems to be CATIA by Dassault Systèmes, which has the tools needed to not only create the 2D schematic but to translate it into the 3D space of a vehicle chassis. These tools allow the designer to create bundles of wires, add connectors, define branches off of the main bundle, set the paths over which each bundle will be laid, and look for any contentions between the harness and the rest of the structure of the vehicle. They also allow the designer to specify how the wires are going to be bundled together — tape wrap versus wire loom, for example — and where and how the harness will be attached to the vehicle.
Physical restraint of the harness brings up another important design consideration: slack. Building the correct amount of slack into each bundle and branch of a wire harness is critical. Too much slack is wasteful, both in terms of the copper needed for the extra wire and in terms of decreased fuel efficiency thanks to extra weight. Excess slack can also lead to physical damage to the harness thanks to abrasion on the vehicle body or frame members, or by snagging on road hazards or even being stepped on by passengers. Insufficient slack is a problem, too — wires that don’t have some give may stretch and break as the vehicle frame twists and flexes, and wires that are too tight may make it difficult to undo connectors for repairs. Harness EDA tools are capable of calculating the right amount of slack for a bundle, and of placing hold-downs and restraints in the right place to make sure the wires flex just enough, but not too much.
Once the 3D model of the harness is finalized, the design has to be translated into something that can be manufactured. And since the main manufacturing methods used for wire harnesses all rely on the use of nail boards — more on which below — the painstaking 3D design has to be flattened back into a 2D drawing. CATIA has automated tools for flattening, with the end result being a 2D drawing that details exactly where each wire in a bundle will go, which pin in which connector it will terminate in, and where and what kind of accessories, like retaining clips, grommets, cable ties, or abrasion protection sleeves, will be added. The output from the flattening process represents a complete set of work instructions that can be sent to a contract manufacturer.
Staying in Good Form
With as automated as almost all manufacturing has become, especially for motor vehicles, where production runs in the hundreds of thousands are not uncommon, you’d think that wire harness manufacturing must be completely automated. After all, how could a contract manufacturer be expected to keep up with the volume of harnesses needed by a modern car plant, especially with lean methodologies and just-in-time production? Surely there must be massive CNC machines that use the work instructions to spool out wires and bundle them all together — right?
Wrong. After the design phase, almost all wire harness manufacturing is strictly a hands-on enterprise. As it turns out, human dexterity and eye-hand coordination are really hard to match with robots. Wire harness plants employ thousands of workers to hand-assemble almost every piece of a wire harness. Yes, there are tools to help, but most of them are used to cut, strip, terminate, and coil up wire that will eventually be used by the human workers to build the harness, one wire at a time.
The traditional way of building a wire harness is on a nail board. Also called a form board or harness board, this is essentially a large flat surface to which are attached a variety of fixtures to temporarily hold wires and connectors. The fixtures are laid out to represent the flattened design of the harness, and instructions printed on the board show which wires are to be routed where. Boards are usually worked on vertically, leaning back at a slight angle to keep wires from falling off before they’re secured.
One worker rarely makes an entire wire harness. Instead, a chain of identical nail boards is looped around the factory floor on a powered carousel, slowly and constantly moving from one worker to the next. Each worker adds a specific set of wires to the growing harness before the board moves along to the next worker with a different set of tasks. In addition to placing wires, some workers are responsible for securing bundles with cable ties, adding protective sleeves, or wrapping the parts of the bundle in loom tape.
It’s these fine motor skills that make full automation of wire harness manufacture a difficult proposition. Threading wires through a length of plastic wire loom is a trivial task for most humans, but would be difficult to build a robot to do. It’s worth noting, however, that this is true mainly because there are plenty of people willing to do such work for relatively low wages. Companies like
Yazaki
, which currently has about 30% of the global market of wire harness production, employ hundreds of thousands of people around the world, particularly in developing areas. Economic forces currently favor the continuation of this model, but as we’ve seen time and again, eventually everyone wants to be able to buy the stuff they’re making for other people, so the supply of workers willing to do this kind of work for low wages is limited. Perhaps then it’ll make sense to invest in full automation up and down the wire harness production chain. | 115 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497377",
"author": "abjq",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T14:09:14",
"content": "What is it with car wiring schematics? I’ve been reading them for years, but still the format seems crazy.And, different per manufacturer.A feature on the history of these (and any conventions employed) woul... | 1,760,372,617.419591 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/move-over-silicon-a-new-semiconductor-is-in-town/ | Move Over Silicon, A New Semiconductor Is In Town | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"mit",
"semiconductors",
"University of Houston"
] | Silicon has had a long run as the king of semiconductors, and why not? It’s plentiful and works well. However, working
well
and working
ideally
are two different things. In particular, electrons flow better than holes through the material. Silicon also is a poor heat conductor as we’ve all noticed when working with high-speed or high-power electronics. Researchers at MIT, the University of Houston, and other institutions are proposing
cubic boron arsenide
to overcome these limitations.
According to researchers, this material is a superior semiconductor and, possibly, the best possible semiconductor. Unfortunately, the material isn’t nearly as common as silicon. Labs have created small amounts of the material and there is still a problem with fabricating uniform samples.
Early experiments show the material has very high mobility for electrons and holes along with thermal conductivity almost ten times greater than that of silicon. It also has a good bandgap, making it very attractive as a semiconductor material. In fact, only diamond and isotopically enriched cubic boron nitride have better thermal conductivity.
However, there are still unknowns about how to use the material in practical devices. Long-term stability tests are as lacking. So maybe it will wipe out silicon or maybe it won’t. Time will tell.
We are always on the lookout for the
next big semiconductor material
. However, we suspect this tech will be out of reach to the
home semiconductor fab
, at least for a little while. | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497340",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T11:07:50",
"content": "GaN",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497353",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T12:26:55",
"content": "Great semicondu... | 1,760,372,617.483862 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/27/large-format-3d-printer-is-a-serious-engineering-challenge/ | Large Format 3D Printer Is A Serious Engineering Challenge | Danie Conradie | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"aluminum extrusions",
"extruder",
"large scale 3d printing",
"pellet fed"
] | When you want to build a large format 3D printer, you can’t just scale up the design of a desktop machine. In an excellent four-part build series (videos after the break), [Dr. D-Flo] takes us through all the engineering challenges he had to contend with when building a
3D printer with a 4x4x4 ft (1.2 m cube) print volume
.
For such a large print volume you won’t be printing with a 0.4 mm nozzle. The heart of the printer is a commercial Massive Dimension MDPH2 pellet extruder, capable of extruding ~1 kg of plastic per hour through 1.5 mm to 5 mm nozzles. To feed the extruder, [Dr. D-Flo] used a Venturi vacuum system to periodically suck pellets from a large hopper. The system is driven by compressed air, which can introduce moisture back into the carefully dried pellets. To reduce the humidity levels, the compressed air passes through a series of vertical aluminum tubes to allow moisture to condense and drain out the bottom.
At 8.4 kg, it needs a powerful motion platform to move it. [Dr. D-Flo] went with a stationary bed design, with the extruder pushed around by seven high torque NEMA23 motors on a large gantry built from C-beam aluminum extrusions. A machine this size needs to be very rigid with well-fitting parts, so [Dr. D-Flo] made heavy use of CNC machined aluminum parts.
To allow dynamic bed leveling, [Dr. D-Flow] made use of a Quad Gantry Leveling (GQL) scheme. This means that each of the four Z-actuators will dynamically adjust its position based on inputs from the leveling probe. The avoid stressing the corner mountings that hold the X-Y gantry to the Z carriage plates, he used radial spherical bearings at the mounting points to allow a few degrees of play.
The build plate consists of an aluminum plate bolted onto the base in 25 positions with springs for adjustability. A massive 6000 watt 220 V heating pad sticks to the bottom, while the actual printing surface is a large sheet of borosilicate glass. One major concern was the deflection of the build plate when heated to working temperature, but with all the adjustment options [Dr. D-Flo] was able to get height variation down to about 0.25 mm. This is within the acceptable range when printing with layer heights of 1 mm or more.
We’ve featured
large scale 3D printers
in the past, but none are quite as big the
University of Maine’s building-sized 3D printer
that can print a motorboat in one piece. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497364",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T13:11:13",
"content": "The pellet extruder is really nice. I just wish they had designed one for smaller setups.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497502",
"author... | 1,760,372,617.54036 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/mini-falcon-9-uses-nasa-software/ | Mini Falcon 9 Uses NASA Software | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Space"
] | [
"control",
"Falcon 9",
"gimbal lock",
"model",
"pid",
"quaternian",
"rocket",
"software",
"Space Shuttle",
"Thrust vectoring"
] | [T-Zero Systems] has been working on his model Falcon 9 rocket for a while now. It’s an impressive model, complete with thrust vectoring, a microcontroller which follows a predetermined flight plan, a working launch pad, and even legs to attempt vertical landings. During his
first tests
of his model, though, there were some issues with the control system software that he wrote so he’s back with
a new system
that borrows software from the Space Shuttle.
The first problem to solve is gimbal lock, a problem that arises when two axes of rotation line up during flight, causing erratic motion. This is especially difficult because this model has no ability to control roll. Solving this using quaternion instead of Euler angles involves a lot of math, provided by libraries developed for use on the Space Shuttle, but with the extra efficiency improvements the new software runs at a much faster rate than it did previously. Unfortunately, the new software had a bug which prevented the parachute from opening, which wasn’t discovered until after launch.
There’s a lot going on in this build behind-the-scenes, too, like the test rocket motor used for testing the control system, which is actually two counter-rotating propellers that can be used to model the thrust of a motor without actually lighting anything on fire. There’s also a
separate video
describing a test method which validates new hardware with data from prior launches. And, if you want to take your model rocketry further in a different direction, it’s always possible to make your own fuel as well. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497291",
"author": "Mr. Laneous",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T05:03:25",
"content": "Neat",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6497309",
"author": "three_d_dave",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T07:13:21",
"content": "WIth an “o” ... | 1,760,372,617.592083 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/balloons-are-the-user-interface-of-the-future/ | Balloons Are The User Interface Of The Future | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"balloon",
"haptic",
"haptic feedback",
"haptic interface",
"interface",
"ultrasound"
] | We’ve seen all kinds of interfaces come and go over the years, from keyboards and mice to lightpens and touchscreens. Now, a group of researchers at the University of Tokyo have built a device
that enables haptic interaction with a balloon.
It takes quite a rig to achieve this feat. A vaguely-spherical frame is used, which mounts eleven airborne ultrasound phased arrays, or AUPA. Each phased array is made up of many ultrasonic transducers, with the machine having 2739 individual transducers in total. The phased arrays are controlled in such a way to create a sound field that moves the balloon around and holds it in various desired positions. Closed loop control is achieved with the use of stereo cameras, which track the balloon’s position at high speed.
The system allows the balloon to be moved around quickly in three dimensions. Plus, a user can touch and interact with the balloon directly as it floats in mid-air. They can even drag and redirect the balloon, which can be tracked by the stereo camera system.
The research team don’t highlight any particular applications for this technology at this stage. We’re not expecting the Touch Balloon on next year’s Surface Pro or the next MacBook, that’s for sure. However, it’s great fun to look at and likely has some creative applications that we can’t think of off the top of our heads. Share yours in the comments.
The 2022 Hackaday Prize has a special focus on odd inputs and peculiar peripherals,
so be sure to check out that whole scene
. Video after the break. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497270",
"author": "Paul LeBlanc",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T02:36:14",
"content": "There’s your next generation drone controller",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6497281",
"author": "Thinkerer",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T... | 1,760,372,617.636966 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/omnidirectional-walker-with-wheeled-feet/ | Omnidirectional Walker With Wheeled Feet | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"james bruton",
"strandbeest",
"walking robot"
] | [James Bruton] is on a quest to explore all the weird and wonderful methods of robot locomotion, and in his latest project created an
omnidirectional walker
that can move in any direction instantaneously.
The walker actually makes use of three independent four-legged Strider mechanisms, connected in a triangle at 120deg. Wheels are attached to the bottom of each leg, oriented at a right angle to the leg’s plane of motion to allow the foot to slide. Varying the relative speed and direction of each of the mechanisms lets the robot move in any direction, similar to his
ball-wheeled robot
. Each strider mechanism uses a single motor and looks similar to
Strandbeest
walkers, but it lifts its feet to traverse rougher terrain. [James] demonstrates this with some obstacles, and found that moving in such an orientation that all three sets of legs provide the best results.
[James] planes to build a larger rideable version, but we think he should mount a chest of Sapient Pearwood to carry all his stuff and name it The Luggage. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497260",
"author": "HifiKuno",
"timestamp": "2022-07-27T01:44:48",
"content": "I always enjoy James Bruton’s videos. This one looks hilarious when it walks. I can’t wait to see him make it bigger.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,372,617.676551 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/a-new-way-to-produce-pcbs-with-your-3d-printer/ | A New Way To Produce PCBs With Your 3D Printer | Tom Nardi | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"pcb fabrication",
"stencil",
"UV soldermask"
] | With the low-cost PCB fabrication services available to hackers and makers these days, we’ll admit that making your own boards at home doesn’t hold quite the appeal that it did in the past. But even if getting your boards professionally made is cheaper and easier than it ever has been before, at-home production still can’t be beat when you absolutely must have a usable board before the end of the day.
If you find yourself in such a situation, this
new method of DIY PCB production detailed by [Adalbert]
might be just what you need. This unique approach uses a desktop fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer throughout all of its phases, from creating a stencil based on the exported board design, to warming the UV soldermask to accelerate the curing process. It may not be an ideal choice for densely packed boards with fine-pitch components, but could definitely see it being useful for many prototypes.
Small “bridges” need to be manually added to hold the stencil together.
[Adalbert] has done an excellent job of documenting the process through a step-by-step guide posted on Hackaday.io, and has also put together a video you can see after the break.
But if you’re looking for the short version, the process involves taking a 2D DXF from your PCB design software, converting it into three dimensions, and printing it out. This is then placed over a copper clad board that has been coated with soldermask, and a UV light source is used to expose it. Afterwards, isopropyl alcohol can be used to wash away the unexposed mask, leaving behind your PCB design.
You’ll still need to chemically etch the board, and if you’re using through-hole components, manually drill your holes. But compared to some of the old school methods of making your own boards, it’s relatively straightforward. This technique looks like it could also hold promise for small scale production, as the stencil can be reused indefinitely.
If your 3D printer is of the resin variety, don’t worry,
you can make PCBs with those as well
. We’ve also seen impressive boards
produced with cheap laser engravers
, as well as
budget CNC routers
. | 50 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497210",
"author": "tonyvr",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T20:11:12",
"content": "This seems like it is much more involved and much lower resolution than a laser-printed stencil.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497239",
"... | 1,760,372,617.767535 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/hackaday-prize-2022-digital-dice-towers-built-in-beautiful-retro-cases/ | Hackaday Prize 2022: Digital Dice Towers Built In Beautiful Retro Cases | Lewin Day | [
"classic hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"dd",
"dice",
"dice tower",
"Dungeons and Dragons"
] | Retro hardware often looks fantastic, but we may find we no longer need it for its original function. [John Anderson] found that to be the case with some old Heathkit gear,
and set about giving them a fun overhaul.
With the help of AVR microcontrollers, the devices have been repurposed into electronic dice towers for playing
Dungeons & Dragons.
A seed is generated based on the chip’s uptime, and supplied to a pseudorandom number generator that emulates dice rolls. The devices can be configured to roll a variety of dice, including the usual 6, 8, 10, and 20-sided varieties. Plus, they can be set to roll multiple dice at a time — useful when you’re rolling complicated spells and attacks in combat.
[John] has converted a variety of Heathkit devices, from Morse code trainers to digital multi-meters. They provide their beautiful cases and a great retro aesthetic, and we think they’d make fitting table decoration for retro cyberpunk tabletop games, too.
Creating your own electronic dice
is a great way to get familiar with programming microcontrollers. Video after the break.
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497240",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T23:03:12",
"content": "Is there a tabletop Fallout game?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497816",
"author": "Michael Tavares",
"timestamp": "2022-07-28T12:13:... | 1,760,372,617.810327 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/biomimetic-surfaces-copying-nature-to-deter-bacteria-and-keep-ship-hulls-smooth/ | Biomimetic Surfaces: Copying Nature To Deter Bacteria And Keep Ship Hulls Smooth | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"anti-fouling",
"biofouling"
] | You might not think that keeping a boat hull smooth in the water has anything in common with keeping a scalpel clean for surgery, but there it does: in both cases you’re trying to prevent nature — barnacles or biofilm — from growing on a surface. Science has looked to nature, and found that the micro-patterning formed by the scales of certain sharks or the leaves of lotus plants demonstrate a highly elegant way to prevent biofouling that we can copy.
In the case of marine growth attaching to and growing on a ship’s hull, the main issue is that of increased drag. This increases fuel usage and lowers overall efficiency of the vessel, requiring regular cleaning to remove this
biofouling
. In the context of a hospital, this layer of growth becomes even more crucial. Each year, a large number of hospital patients suffer infections, despite the use of single-use catheters and sterile packaging.
Biofilm Formation
The formation of
biofilms
dates back to the earliest days of
prokaryotic
life, as evidenced by fossil evidence in the form of
stromatolites
. At its core these biofilms appear to be a defensive mechanism that prokaryotic species have initially evolved to cope with harsh environments, while allowing for the formation of flourishing prokaryotic colonies. These colonies can also enable the growth of more complex lifeforms.
Over time, eukaryotic lifeforms
would adopt a similar strategy
, where after the initial attachment to a surface an extracellular matrix would be created. These biological glues and structures provide the organisms protection against desiccation and predation, as well as other potentially harmful influences.
In a marine environment, these biofilms provide multicellular lifeforms with not only a surface to attach themselves too, but also an accompanying ecosystem. In the case of barnacles, for example, the presence and type of biofilm is paramount in the selection of a specific attachment site when a young
barnacle
cyprid t
ransitions to its immobile adult state
. Similar patterns are observed with other marine species, the outcome of which is a thriving, if undesired, ecosystem on a ship’s hull.
Since the formation of a biofilm requires only some traces of moisture in the presence of bacteria and kin, this makes it likely that during the manufacturing or usage of medical equipment a surface becomes contaminated with a biofilm. Biofilms allow bacteria and other pathogens to survive for extended periods of time on surfaces, so lapses in hygiene form significant risk vectors.
The exact harm of such a biofilm depends on the exact bacteria and other occupants that are inside it, as well as the location of this biofilm. When
MRSA
bacteria find their way to an intubation or IV tube, this can provide these pathogens with a direct route into a patient’s body, forming biofilms throughout the tubing inside. Once inside the body, they will then proceed to form biofilms, as part of their protective strategies against threats like the patient’s immune system, and antibiotics.
The optimal strategy is thus to prevent these biofilms from forming in the first place, ideally by preventing the initial surface colonization .
You Shall Not Attach
Placoid scales as viewed through an electron microscope. Also called dermal denticles, these are structurally homologous with vertebrate teeth.
An interesting aspect about evolution is that it seeks to solve many of the same problems which we seek to solve today. For marine animals, having biofilms and other growths on their skin is obviously problematic, as for them it means an increase in drag, just as it does for a ship. This means that the animal will be expending more energy when swimming, in addition to the possibility of skin and other diseases developing due to the proximity of so many bacteria.
Many marine animals rub against rocks, have symbiotic relationships with
skin-cleaning fish species
, or employ the same skin shedding and replacement process which we land-based species employ. The most interesting approach, however, involves micro patterning that make the initial colonization step part of forming a biofilm essentially impossible.
While scales are very common among marine and other animals, the scales of sharks and rays are unique in their microscopic patterns. In experimental testing show a distinct lack of biofilm formation. This is one of the antifouling methods described by
Damodaran et al. (2016)
in
Biomaterials Research
. It summarizes the following approaches:
Biological molecules:
Nitric oxide-releasing agents.
Peptide and peptoid modified surfaces.
Chemical modification of surfaces:
Hydrophilic polymers.
Immobilization of PEG.
Zwitterionic polymers.
Hydrophobic polymers.
Micropatterning of surfaces:
Lotus-effect.
Shark-skin patterns.
In terms of what we can copy from nature, the biological molecules and surface modification approaches face high costs, limited lifespan, and limited applicability in terms of which types of bacteria they affect. Toxicity concerns face hydrophobic polymers.
Sourced from Damodaran et al. (2016).
That leaves micropatterning. Rather than a substance that has to be synthesized and regularly applied, these micropatterns can be etched into a surface, with the duration of the effect depending on the durability of the material the pattern was etched into. It’s also possible to use self-assembling patterns, for instance in paints with nanoparticles.
Sourced from Damodaran et al. (2016).
For the boat hull application, the
placoid scales
of sharks are particularly interesting. They seem to not only prevent bacteria from attaching, but also reduce drag by disrupting the laminar flow near the skin. It’s likely that this drag reduction was a relevant evolutionary factor in the development of these dermal denticles, and it also provides an interesting aspect regarding this type of antifouling — the micropatterns stand to reduce drag of a ship’s hull over and above a ‘clean’ hull.
Making It Scale
As with many of such antifouling techniques, the main issues are making it scale to economically feasible levels and making it last. At this point in time the lotus effect is most commonly used, as its regularly repeating pattern lends itself well to use in everything from roof tiles and fabrics to paints. The application of self-cleaning surfaces in outdoor settings is self-evident, as this prevents the build-up of algae and lichen, and also resists things like graffiti.
Shark skin-like patterning is somewhat more complicated, as it involves a more involved pattern that doesn’t lend itself as easily to self-assembly. Probably the most well-known commercialized version of this technology is found in the
Sharklet
material sold by Sharklet Technologies and their patented micropattern. They target mostly hospitals and similar settings for their product, and a collection of studies also show their effectiveness in the context of
preventing foreign body reactions with neural implants
.
One thing that ship hulls and medical tubing cannot yet do is to grow dermal denticles the way shark skin can. The shark is refreshing its skin surface continuously. It’s likely that a combination of approaches will remain necessary to fight off biofouling, although we will very likely see micropatterning being employed more commonly in the future for a cleaner and safer world that is less of a drag. | 25 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497176",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.3",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T17:24:01",
"content": "Then there’s the “why fight inevitability” approach and find a barnacle you can breed to stay a maximum small size and plate the hull with, keeping everything else from building up on it. Then you ca... | 1,760,372,617.882688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/doom-runs-on-the-emfcamp-tidal-badge/ | DOOMRuns On The EMFCamp Tidal Badge | Lewin Day | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"badge",
"badgelife",
"doom",
"emfcamp"
] | If it’s got a chip and a screen, someone’s trying to run
DOOM
on it. The latest entry in this fad is from [Phil Ashby], who figured out how to get the game running on the EMFCamp Tidal Badge
as seamlessly as possible.
The badge is based on the ESP32-S3. It’s the latest version of the ESP32,
which can run the iconic shooter pretty easily.
However, [Phil] set himself a trickier challenge. He wanted to port
DOOM
to the badge while having it remain compatible with the MicroPython platform already on it. Plus, he wanted to be able to distribute it easily with the
TiDAL Hatchery
, a platform for sharing apps for the badge.
In the end, it took some deft hacking to make the game run on a microcontroller platform that isn’t really set up for running “applications.” It took some tricks to scale the video output and get the colors right, of course, but it’s there and working.
The state of the art is now so advanced that
they managed to port
DOOM
into
DOOM
so you can
DOOM
while you
DOOM
. Video after the break.
"But does the
@emfcamp
badge run DOOM?"
Yes. Yes it does. Amazing work by
@Phlash909
https://t.co/NSbLHKcBp6
pic.twitter.com/xkTpQ26ijW
— Jonty Wareing ⍼ (@jonty)
July 14, 2022 | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497187",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T18:06:27",
"content": "Accomplishment!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6497330",
"author": "Phil Ashby",
"timestamp": "2022-07... | 1,760,372,617.922337 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/protecting-the-hughes-h4-hercules-with-beach-balls/ | Protecting The Hughes H4 Hercules With… Beach Balls? | Ryan Flowers | [
"classic hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"aviation",
"aviation museum",
"beach balls",
"Hercules",
"spruce goose"
] | While visiting the
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum
in McMinnville, OR, USA over the weekend, I came across a hack.
In addition to the excellent displays on site and an area where one can watch a video on repeat, the museum offers guided tours for a very reasonable price. And it was during this tour that my life as an aviation geek changed forever. Why? I got to visit the flight deck of the H4 and even
sit in the pilots seat where Howard Hughes sat when he flew the plane almost 75 years ago.
It was later in the tour, after I’d had a moment to take in the enormity of sitting in
the seat
, that I found a wonderful hack to share with you all: and it’s all about beach balls.
The History
The
Hughes H4 Hercules
is probably better known as the “Spruce Goose” despite it mostly being made out of birch. The Hughes H4 Hercules was the brain child of
Howard Hughes
, and eccentric but talented engineer, pilot, and business mogul. The H4 constituted a nearly unbelievable undertaking: it was bigger and more powerful than any aircraft ever flown at that time. And instead of being made of aluminum, which was in short supply during the war, it was made from a novel composite called Duramold.
Duramold was invented some years earlier and licensed to Hughes for the Hercules project. Duramold was made with multiple layers of birch or poplar wood impregnated with resin. Duramold was considered to be a technological feat at the time, and given that the wood is still in perfect shape 75 years later, it clearly was. And although several thousands of pounds of nails were used in constructing the Hercules, once the resin cured, they were able to be removed.
Hughes was making the largest airplane to date. A failure of the Hercules, of any nature, would have been disastrous. Not just for the aircraft, but it would have been a death blow to the reputation of Howard Hughes himself, who had already taken a lot of heat for producing a wooden aircraft. Opponents to his project had given him no end of difficulty, and he’d even been hauled in front of the Senate, an audience before whom he swore the following:
“The Hercules was a monumental undertaking. It is the largest aircraft ever built. It is over five stories tall with a wingspan longer than a football field. That’s more than a city block. Now, I put the sweat of my life into this thing. I have my reputation all rolled up in it and I have stated several times that if it’s a failure, I’ll probably leave this country and never come back. And I mean it.” – Howard Hughes
The Beach Balls Hack
With all this weight on the shoulders of the engineers and builders of the aircraft, one does not have to use much imagination to put themselves in an engineers mind in the 1940’s: Somebody wasn’t sure the pontoons would remain water tight, and during a tense meeting, perhaps a young engineer remembered his family outing over the weekend, and called out “Beach Balls!” Likely this meeting was followed up by trips to local stores, where the shelves were emptied of all beach balls, disappointing beach bound kids and adults alike until the next shipment came in. The beach balls were inflated and dropped into the pontoons, making sure that the pontoons could not fill with water, even if they were leaky.
How did it turn out? Hughes loaded the H4 with reporters, and took the flying boat on two taxi runs and then came back to dock. Some reporters left, eager to get the scoop on the Big Story, only to turn back to find the Hercules taxiing back out to take its historic flight.
Success!
Beach balls on display in the cargo area
History records the short hop that Hughes flew as a breakthrough flight for such a large aircraft. Did the beach balls save the day? It’s hard to know.
Today, the beach balls still hold air, ostensibly the same that they were inflated with about 75 years ago. They serve as a reminder that the H4 was a
prototype
and not a final product. And it also helps us remember that engineers of all kinds and from all times, have one thing in common: They all love a good hack!
There are many other details that were gleaned during the tour, including the fact that the tail section nearly detached from the fuselage during the short hop — had Hughes flown much longer, a crash would have been inevitable! Look for the reinforced tail section in the photos below.
And if you ever get the opportunity to make your way to the
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum
in McMinnville OR, USA, do it. Get the tour, sit in the seat, and live the history. Feel the rumble of the engines churning through the sea breeze. Smell the salty air, and know that your behemoth of an aircraft has something no other aircraft in history has had backing it up: Beach balls.
Yes, I got to advance the throttles.
The Pontoon from can be seen on the outboard section of left wing
Beach balls and fire supression
Where the tail was repaired
The view from the flight deck down the starboard wing
The door in the far end of the aircraft is 5 feet tall
Howard Hughes loved coffee too, apparently.
The dual APU’s for getting the first engine started.
The Flight Engineers station
Nine layer resin impregnated Duramold, an early composite | 45 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497120",
"author": "mime",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T14:08:24",
"content": "nice",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6499405",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2022-08-02T01:58:48",
"content": "I worked unde... | 1,760,372,618.728121 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/orbtrace-effort-open-tool-for-professional-debugging/ | ORBTrace Effort: Open Tool For Professional Debugging | Arya Voronova | [
"ARM",
"Software Development"
] | [
"arm cortex-m",
"cortex m",
"debugger",
"debugging",
"debugging tools",
"in-circuit debugger",
"parallel trace",
"SWO",
"swo trace"
] | There are some fairly powerful debugging facilities available on today’s microcontrollers — if your code crashes mysteriously, chances are, there’s a debugging interface that could let you track down the exact crash circumstances in no time. Sadly, debugging tools for these powerful interfaces tend to be prohibitively expensive and highly proprietary, thus, not friendly for hobbyists. Now, there’s a community-driven high-capability debugging platform called
ORBTrace,
brought to us by [mubes] and [zyp].
With parallel trace, you get a constant stream of consciousness, every exact instruction executed by your CPU. [mubes] and [zyp] set out to tap into the power of parallel trace debugging for Cortex-M processors. and the ORBTrace project was born. Relying on the
Orbuculum project’s
software capabilities, this FPGA-based debugger platform can do parallel trace and the more popular high-speed
SWO trace
– and
way more.
ORBTrace has the potential to grow into a powerful debug helper tool, with enough capabilities for anyone to benefit. And of course, it’s
fully open-source.
The ORBTrace platform has plenty of untapped potential. There’s
the battle-tested JTAG
and SWD that you can already use with all the open tools you could expect. However, there’s also plenty of available resources on the FPGA, including even a currently unutilized RISC-V softcore. If you wanted to add support for any other family of devices to this debugger, sky’s the limit! And, of course, there’s cool software to go with it – for example,
orbmortem,
which keeps a ring buffer of instructions in memory and shows you the last code executed before your CPU stops, or
orbstat,
a tool for profiling your embedded code.
If you’re looking to purchase effortless feature parity with Segger or Lauterbach devices, the ORBTrace doesn’t promise that. Instead, it’s an open debugging toolkit project, with hardware
available for purchase,
and software just waiting for you take control of it. This project’s community hangs out in the
1BitSquared discord’s
#orbuculum channel, and gateware’s
advancing at a rapid pace
– welcoming you to join in on the fun.
ORBTrace is a powerful tool for when your goals become large and your problems become complex. And, being a community-driven experimental effort, we’ll undoubtedly see great things come out of it – like the Mooltipass project, originally
developed by Hackaday community
members, and
still going strong. | 35 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497102",
"author": "Squonk42",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T12:55:56",
"content": "Ouch, 120USD!Are you serious? For a <$20 25k Lattice FPGA, a <$3 64Mb NOR Flash, a <$3 64Mb HRAM, a <$2 USB I/F IC, a bunch of LDOs and buffers?And that is not including a $33.5 shipping fee for DHL to m... | 1,760,372,618.584624 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/26/atmospheric-high-voltage-motor-makes-useful-power/ | Atmospheric High-Voltage Motor Makes Useful Power | Bryan Cockfield | [
"High Voltage",
"Science"
] | [
"atmospheric",
"corona",
"drill",
"high voltage",
"motor",
"power",
"van de graaf"
] | While it almost seems like an insane fever dream from an otherwise brilliant inventor, Nikola Tesla’s plan to harvest energy straight out of the atmosphere and essentially give it away is more reality than fiction. It’s usually prohibitively difficult get that energy out of the atmosphere for several obvious reasons, although it is still possible to do as [lasersaber] shows
with his most recent atmospheric motor
.
To help solve some of the logistical problems of harvesting electricity from the atmosphere, [lasersaber] is using a Van de Graaff generator as a stand-in for the high voltage gradient that can be found when suspending a long wire in the air. He has been experimenting with high-voltage motors like this for a while now and has refined his designs for corona discharge motors like these to be big enough and have enough torque
to drive a drill bit
. The motors have a conductive rotor with a series of discharge tubes on the stator, and exposing a metal point on the wiring (where the atmospheric wire would attach) to a sufficiently high voltage will cause rotation. In this case, it’s around 30,000 volts but with an extremely low current.
There are a number of videos documenting his latest build, including this
follow-up video
where he drills an arbitrarily large number of holes in various materials to demonstrate its effectiveness. Even though he is using a Van de Graaff generator in these builds, he does also show them working with a wire suspended by a drone as well for proof-of-concept. He’s also become somewhat of an expert on
high-efficiency
and
low-power
motors and has a number of other interesting builds based on these concepts. | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497072",
"author": "hardsoftlucid",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T08:43:14",
"content": "love this electrostatic motor:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3yO7jYaD98",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6497084",
"author": "Dan",
"t... | 1,760,372,618.229827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/a-simple-charging-station-for-twelve-powerbanks/ | A Simple Charging Station For Twelve Powerbanks | Arya Voronova | [
"Battery Hacks",
"hardware",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"charging station",
"powerbank",
"USB powerbank"
] | [jasonwinfieldnz] uses twelve small powerbanks day to day – powering LED strips around his trampoline, presumably, to avoid the mess of wires and make the assembly easily portable. However, if you have twelve powerbanks, you’ll find yourself hogging all the household’s microUSB cables every so often, as they eventually discharge. This was not good enough for our hacker, and he decided to
build a charging station
to refill them all at once.
If you need 5 volts and many amps, an ATX PSU isn’t your worst bet. From there, he only had to add twelve microUSB connectors to – and condensed the entire contraption into a beautiful charging station. For the microUSB part, he hacked some microUSB cable ends off and embedded them into the case. An embedded voltage and current module is of big help – letting you see at a glance when charging has really finished. Using copper tape as bus bars and banana plugs for charging input, this project is easy to build and solves the problem well.
The 3D printing files and cutting templates are right there on the project page, so if any of us hackers has a problem that twelve powerbanks could help with, [Jason]’s project is quite repeatable. If your devices are more diverse, you could use a pegboard to build
a stylish charging station
for them! If, on the other hand, you have a single device you need to plug multiple cords into, moldable plastic
is there to help. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497064",
"author": "elmesito",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T07:43:49",
"content": "No current limiting to each power bank. That sure is a good way to start a fire.Should at least have a fuse for each power bank.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,618.63572 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/openjewelry-no-pliers-required/ | OpenJewelry, No Pliers Required | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"jewelry",
"jewelry casting",
"led jewelry",
"open source",
"wiki"
] | They say that if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. Oftentimes, that goes double for getting something done at all. Whereas some people might simply lament the lack of a (stable) Thingiverse-type site for, say, jewelry designs, those people aren’t Hackaday’s own [Adam Zeloof]. With nowhere to share designs among engineering-oriented friends, [Adam] took the initiative and created
OpenJewelry
, a site for posting open-source jewelry and wearable art designs as well as knowledge about techniques, materials, and processes.
[Adam] has seeded the site with a handful of his own beautiful designs, which run the gamut from traditional silversmithing techniques to 3D printing to fancy PCBs with working blinkenlights. You really should check it out, and definitely consider contributing.
Even if you don’t have any jewelry designs to share,
the code is open as well
, or you could even edit
the wiki
. Just be sure to read through
the contribution guidelines
first. If you don’t have the time for any of that, donations are welcome as well to help maintain the site.
We love wearable art around here, especially when it serves another purpose like this
UV-sensing talisman
, or this
air quality necklace
. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497041",
"author": "Unsolicited advice goblin",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T03:36:45",
"content": "“They say that if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.”This is very true, and it is equally true that if you ask someone else to do something, you have to be ready to... | 1,760,372,618.367667 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/up-close-and-personal-with-an-8x-floppy-controller/ | Up Close And Personal With An 8x Floppy Controller | Tom Nardi | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"floppy",
"floppy controller",
"ISA cards"
] | In need of a floppy controller for a 286 he was working on, [Gadget Reboot] took to GitHub to see what was available in the open hardware space. There he found an
ISA board capable of controlling up to eight drives from [Sergey Kiselev] called the Monster Floppy Disk Controller (FDC)
— arguably overkill for the task, but too impressive to pass up. Luckily for us, he decided to
document the build process in a video
that covers everything from ordering the boards to configuring the BIOS.
Testing with four drives.
The video starts with a high-level overview of the schematic, which as you might have guessed, essentially puts two identical floppy controllers on the same board. You can tell this design was put together during the current chip shortage, as [Sergey] was careful to include some wiggle room if certain parts became unavailable and had to be swapped out for the alternatives listed in the BOM. It’s a decision that already paid off for [Gadget Reboot], as in some cases he had to go with the second-choice ICs.
[Gadget Reboot] was in for something of a surprise when he submitted the board for fabrication, as selecting the option for gold contacts on the edge connector made the production cost jump from $5 to nearly $300. He details how he was able to bring that cost back down a bit, but it still ended up being more than 10 times as expensive as the base price.
The second half of the video is dedicated to configuring the Monster FDC, which will certainly be a helpful resource for anyone looking to put this board to work in their own system. [Gadget Reboot] demonstrates using the board with “only” four floppy drives, and everything looks to work quite well.
Of course if your needs aren’t quite so grandiose,
we’ve seen some more expedient floppy controllers
which might be closer to what you’re looking for.
Thanks to [AnotherMaker] for the tip. | 44 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497005",
"author": "Ken",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T23:07:37",
"content": "It’s a 5 1/4″ floppy drive, not an 8″ – compare the slot to the optical (CD-ROM) drive above it in the chassis.8″ drives all but disappeared from PCs as IBM-PC clones overtook the market.",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,372,618.322761 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/mcterminals-give-the-hamburglar-a-chance/ | McTerminals Give The Hamburglar A Chance | Jenny List | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"hardware security",
"McDonald's",
"security"
] | The golden arches of a McDonald’s restaurant are a ubiquitous feature of life in so many parts of the world, and while their food might not be to all tastes their comforting familiarity draws in many a weary traveler. There was a time when buying a burger meant a conversation with a spotty teen behind the till, but now the transaction is more likely to take place at a terminal with a large touch screen. These terminals have caught the attention of [Geoff Huntley],
who has written about their surprising level of vulnerability
.
When you’re ordering your Big Mac and fries, you’re in reality standing in front of a Windows PC, and repeated observation of start-up reveals that the ordering application runs under an administrator account. The machine has a card reader and a receipt printer, and it’s because of this printer that the vulnerability starts. In a high-traffic restaurant the paper rolls often run out, and the overworked staff often leave the cabinets unlocked to facilitate access. Thus an attacker need only gain access to the machine to reset it and they can be in front of a touch screen with administrator access during boot, and from that start they can do anything. Given that these machines handle thousands of card transactions daily, the prospect of a skimming attack becomes very real.
The fault here lies in whoever designed these machines for McDonalds, instead of putting appropriate security on the software the whole show relies on the security of the lock. We hope that they don’t come down on the kids changing the paper, and instead get their software fixed. Meanwhile
this isn’t the first time we’ve peered into some McHardware
. | 46 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496968",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T20:20:01",
"content": "There was a time when I’d see Radio Shack Model 100s at the local McDonalds. They were in the kitchen area, never knew what for. I seemto recall a panel over much of the keyboard, so maybe just th... | 1,760,372,618.882549 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/24/automated-hotend-swapping-for-less-wasteful-multicolor-printing/ | Automated Hotend Swapping For Less Wasteful Multicolor Printing | Danie Conradie | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"automatic tool changer",
"hotend",
"Multicolor 3D printing",
"multimaterial"
] | Multicolor printing on FDM machines can be tricky to get working flawlessly, and purging hotends when changing colors can end up wasting a lot of filament and material. To solve this problem for the popular Prusa i3 and Ender 3 printers, [BigBrain3D] developed the
Swapper3D
, an automated system that swaps the entire hotend when the material is changed, eliminating the need for purging almost entirely. Video after the break.
The Swapper3D works very similarly to the tool-changing systems on CNC machines, and is just as satisfying to watch. A large circular carousel on the side of the machine holds up to 25 hotends, and in practice, a pair of robotic arms pop out the previous hotend, cut the filament, and load up the specified hotend from the carousel. This means you can have a separate hotend for each color or type of filament. Since most existing hotends also integrate the heating element, [BigBrain3D] created a special hotend assembly that can be robotically removed/inserted into the heater block.
The Swapper3D is designed to be used with existing filament changers like the Prusa MMU and the Mosaic Palette. Using these systems involves a lot of purging, to the point where you sometimes end up using more filament during purging than you need for the actual part. On one five-color demo print, the Swapper3D reduced the print time by 45% and the filament used by a massive 86%. It also helps to eliminate problems like stringing and color fading in multicolor prints. With those advantages, it looks like the Swapper3D might be a worthwhile upgrade if you do a lot of multi-color printing, even though it adds quite a bit of complexity to the printer.
For larger, more expensive machines,
swapping the entire toolhead
is becoming more popular, with even
E3D stepping into the fray
. | 16 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496673",
"author": "codetoad",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T02:50:15",
"content": "This could be a very interesting product! With 25 hot ends, I wonder if this approach could make use of multiple nozzle sizes for the same material, and if that would have any practical benefits after th... | 1,760,372,618.783877 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/24/hackaday-links-july-24-2022/ | Hackaday Links: July 24, 2022 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"con",
"da vinci",
"easter egg",
"hackaday links",
"james webb space telescope",
"Jezero",
"jwst",
"mars",
"Perseverance",
"robotic surgery",
"scale",
"Supercon"
] | OK, maybe that won’t buff right out. NASA has released
a more detailed analysis of the damage suffered by the James Webb Space Telescope
in a run-in with a micrometeoroid, and has deemed the damage “uncorrectable”. Not that any damage to JWST is correctable, at least in the sense that the Hubble Space Telescope was able to be fitted with optics to fix its precisely-yet-inaccurately-ground main mirror. JWST is far too remote for a service call, so correctability in this case refers to a combination of what can be accomplished by tweaking the shape and position of the affected mirror segment, and what can be taken care of with image processing. The damage to segment C3, as well as damage to the other segments in a total of six collisions in the half year Webb has been on station, are assessed via “wavefront sensing”, which looks at how out of phase the light coming from each mirror segment is. The damage sounds bad, and it certainly must hurt for the techs and engineers who so lovingly and painstakingly built the thing to see it dinged up already, but in the long run, this damage shouldn’t hamper Webb’s long-term science goals.
In other space news, we hear that
the
Perseverance
rover has taken its first chunk out of the ancient river delta in Jezero Crater
. The rover has been poking around looking for something interesting to sample, but everything it tried out with its abrading tool was either too brittle, too hard to get at, or scientifically dull. Eventually the rover found a good spot to drill, and managed to bring up a 6.7-cm core sample. This makes the tenth core sample collected overall, and the first from the delta area, which is thought to have the best chance to contain evidence of ancient Martian life.
Closer to home, we’ve all likely heard of robotic surgery, but the image that conjures up doesn’t really comport with reality. Robot-assisted surgery is probably a better term, since surgical robots are generally just ultra-precise remote manipulators that are guided by a skilled surgeon. But if
a study on surgery robot performance
is any indication, the days of human surgeons might be numbered. The study compared accuracy and speed of both a human surgeon controlling a standard Da Vinci surgical robot and an autonomous version of the robot alone, using a depth camera for sensing. Using a standard surgical skills test, the autonomous system matched the human surgeons in terms of failures — thankfully, no “oopsies” for either — but bested the humans in speed and positional accuracy. It’ll probably be a while before fully autonomous surgeons are a thing, but we wouldn’t be betting against it in the long run.
Most readers will no doubt have heard the exciting news that
Supercon will be back this year
as an in-person event! Make sure you set aside the first weekend in November to make the pilgrimage to Pasadena — it’ll be great seeing everyone again after the long absence. But if you just can’t wait till November for an IRL con, consider dropping by
SCALE 19X
, coming up this week in Los Angeles. The Southern California Linux Expo is being held July 28 through 31, and features a ton of speakers, including a keynote by Vint Cerf. Hackaday readers can save 50% on tickets with promo code HACK.
And finally, as a lover of Easter eggs of all kinds, but specifically of the hidden message in software variety, we appreciated
this ode to the Easter egg
, the embedded artistry that has served as a creative outlet for programmers over the years. The article lists a few great examples of the art form, along with explaining why they’re actually important artifacts of the tech world and what they’re good for. We tried out a few of the ones listed in the article that we hadn’t heard of before; some hits, some misses, but they’re all appreciated. Well, most of them — the corporate rah-rah kind can bugger straight off as far as we’re concerned. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496558",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-24T23:39:31",
"content": "Inre: Easter eggsFollowing the link, under Rock Star Easter eggs,It counts down 9, but #4 is missing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"c... | 1,760,372,618.976029 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/24/stackable-3d-printed-gearbox-for-brushless-motor/ | Stackable 3D-Printed Gearbox For Brushless Motor | Danie Conradie | [
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed gears",
"gearbox",
"planetary gears"
] | Affordable brushless motors are great for a variety of motion applications, but often require a gearbox to tame their speed. [Michael Rechtin] decided to try his hand at designing a
stackable planetary gearbox
for a brushless motor that allows him to add or remove stages to change the gear ratio.
The gearbox is designed around a cheap, 5010 size, 360
KV
, sensorless motor from Amazon. Each stage consists of a 1:4 planetary gear set that can be connected to another stage, or to an output hub. This means the output speed reduces by a factor of four for each added stage. Thanks to the high-pressure angle, straight-cut teeth, and fairly loose clearances, the gearbox is quite noisy.
To measure torque, [Michael] mounted the motor-gearbox combo to a piece of aluminum extrusion, and added a 100 mm moment arm to apply force to a load cell. The first test actually broke the moment arm, so a reinforced version was designed and printed. The motor was able to exert approximately 9.5 Nm through the gearbox. This number might not be accurate, since sensorless motors like this one can not provide a smooth output force at low speeds. As [Michael] suggests, adding a sensor and encoder would allow for better testing and low speed applications. Check it out in the video after the break.
We’ve featured a number of [Michael]’s projects before, including a
bag tracking corn hole board
, and a
3D printed linear actuator
. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496492",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2022-07-24T21:03:32",
"content": "Gear boxes like these really need several hundred hours of testing under load before any useful conclusion about their usefulness can be made. And a lever hitting a load cell is not a good way of testing ... | 1,760,372,618.932297 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/24/interesting-optics-make-this-laser-engraver-fit-in-a-pocket/ | Interesting Optics Make This Laser Engraver Fit In A Pocket | Dan Maloney | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"cutter",
"engraver",
"galvo",
"laser",
"raster"
] | We’re going to start this post with a stern warning: building
a laser engraver that can fit in your pocket
is probably not a wise idea. Without any safety interlocks and made from lightweight components as it is, this thing could easily tip over and sear a retina before you’d even have time to react. You definitely should not build this, or even be in the same room with it. Got it?
Safety concerns aside, [DAZ] has taken a pretty neat approach to making this engraver, eschewing the traditional X-Y gantry design in favor of something more like the galvanometers used for laser projectors, albeit completely homebrew and much, much slower than commercial galvos. Built mostly of 3D-printed parts, the scanning head of this engraver uses a single mirror riding on an angled block attached to gimbals with two degrees of freedom. The laser module and mirror gimbals are mounted on a stand made of light aluminum so that the whole thing is suspended directly over a workpiece; the steppers slew the mirror to raster the beam across the workpiece and burn a design.
The video below shows it at work, and again, we have to stress that this is about as close to this build as you should get. It shouldn’t be too hard to add some safety features, though — at a minimum, we’d like to see a tilt-switch that kills power if it’s knocked over, and maybe some kind of enclosure. Sure, that would probably spoil the pocketability of the engraver, but is that really a feature valuable enough to risk your eyesight for?
If there’s a laser build in your future, please read
our handy guide to homebrew laser cutter safety
— before you can’t. | 37 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496454",
"author": "scott_tx",
"timestamp": "2022-07-24T18:01:04",
"content": "using a relay to turn the laser power on and off…. yeahhhhh?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6496698",
"author": "Wear googles",
"... | 1,760,372,619.05728 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/24/turn-drone-into-a-large-propeller-to-increase-hover-efficiency/ | Turn Drone Into A Large Propeller To Increase Hover Efficiency | Danie Conradie | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"dRehmFlight",
"drone",
"nicholas rehm",
"tricopter"
] | Multirotor drones are significantly more popular than conventional helicopter designs for many reasons, which do not include efficiency. Making use of the aerodynamic effects behind this, [Nicholas Rehm] was able to significantly increase the efficiency of his experimental tricopter by
turning it into one large spinning propeller
.
Since aerodynamic drag is proportional to velocity, a small, high-RPM propeller will require more power to produce the same thrust as a large, low-RPM propeller. With this in mind, [Nicholas] built a tricopter that can rotate all three long arms together using a single servo, giving it very aggressive yaw control. By attaching a wing to each of the arms, it becomes a large variable pitch propeller powered by tip thrusters.
To measure the efficiency of the craft, a small lidar sensor was added to allow accurate PID altitude control. While keeping the drone at a constant altitude a few feet off the ground, [Nicholas] measured the power draw of the motors in a hover, and then let the drone spin around its yaw axis up to almost 5 rev/s.
At a spin rate of 4 rev/s, the power draw of the motors was reduced by more than 60%. Even compared to the drone without the added weight of the wings, it still used 50% less power to maintain altitude.
Since [Nicholas] hadn’t yet implemented horizontal position control while spinning, the length of each test run was limited by the wind drift. He plans to solve this, and also do some testing of the drone in horizontal flight, where the
added airfoils will also increase efficiency
.
We’ve featured a few of [Nicholas]’ flying machines here on Hackaday, including a
foam F-35 VTOL
and a
cyclocopter
. Most of his aircraft run his open source
dRehmFlight
flight stabilization, created specifically for hacking. | 42 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496391",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-07-24T14:43:43",
"content": "A compass seems like the best way to tell it’s directional orientation but in order to indicate (visually) which way it’s “pointing” there needs to be some LEDs added. Higher RPMs will result in a PoV eff... | 1,760,372,619.391754 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/24/a-70s-tv-with-20s-parts/ | A ’70s TV With ’20s Parts | Bryan Cockfield | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"antique",
"controls",
"lcd",
"microcontroller",
"screen",
"sony",
"tv",
"vintage"
] | Keeping older technology working becomes exponentially difficult with age. Most of us have experienced capacitor plague, disintegrating wire insulation, planned obsolescence, or even the original company failing and not offering parts or service anymore. To keep an antique running often requires plenty of spare parts, or in the case of [Aaron]’s
vintage ’70s Sony television set
, plenty of modern technology made to look like it belongs in a machine from half a century ago.
The original flyback transformer on this TV was the original cause for the failure of this machine, and getting a new one would require essentially destroying a working set, so this was a perfect candidate for a resto-mod without upsetting any purists. To start, [Aaron] ordered a LCD with controls (and a remote) that would nearly fit the existing bezel, and then set about integrating the modern controls with the old analog dials on the TV. This meant using plenty of rotary encoders and programming a microcontroller to do the translating.
There are plenty of other fine details in this build, including audio integration, adding modern video and audio inputs like HDMI, and adding LEDs to backlight the original (and now working) UHF and VHF channel indicators. In his ’70s-themed display wall, this TV set looks perfectly natural. If your own display wall spotlights an even older era,
take a look at some restorations of old radios instead
. | 45 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496353",
"author": "not",
"timestamp": "2022-07-24T11:21:25",
"content": "and why not just changing the flyback transformer ? Many models are readily available, quite cheap… certainly far less work that this kludge, and much more authentic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,372,619.487323 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/24/condemned-precision-capacitors-find-new-home-refuse-to-become-refuse/ | Condemned Precision Capacitors Find New Home, Refuse To Become Refuse | Ryan Flowers | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"air capacitor",
"capacitor",
"capacitors",
"dumpster diving",
"insulator",
"invar",
"teardown"
] | Ah, the age old tradition of Dumpster diving! Sometimes we happen to spot something that’s not quite trash, but not quite perfect, either. And when [dzseki], an EEVblog.com forum user, spotted some high-precision capacitors being 86’d at their employer’s e-waste pile, [dzseki] did what any good hacker would do: took them home, tested them, and tore them down to understand and either repair or reuse them. They explain their escapades and teardown in this
EEVblog.com forum post
.
High-precision capacitors with RF connectors.
If you’re not familiar with capacitors, they are really just two or more plates of metal that are separated by an insulator, and in the case of these very large capacitors, that insulator is mostly air. Aluminum plates are attached with standard bolts, and plastic insulators are used as needed. There’s also discussion of an special alloy called Invar that lends to the thermal stability of the capacitors.
[dzseki] notes that these capacitors were on their way to the round file because they were out of spec, but only by a very, very small amount. They may not be usable for the precision devices they were originally in, but it’s clear that they are still quite useful otherwise. [dzseki]
Of course, Dumpster diving for cool parts is nothing new, and we’ve covered nifty projects such as this
frankenmonitor bashed together from two bin finds
.
Thank you [David] for the great tip, and don’t forget to leave your own in the
Tip Line
. | 12 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496327",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2022-07-24T08:15:54",
"content": "How does one use a precision capacitor that has to be attached with long cables?The cable capacitance is a lot higher than the capacitor itself. I guess you get a lot of stray capacitance to the shield and ha... | 1,760,372,619.25249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/23/hack-your-brain-bionic-reading-panacea-or-placebo/ | Hack Your Brain: Bionic Reading — Panacea Or Placebo? | Al Williams | [
"Lifehacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"dyslexia",
"reading",
"reading aid"
] | In the Star Trek episode
Space Seed
, [Khan] famously said, “Improve a mechanical device, and you may double productivity. But improve man, you gain a thousandfold.” Most of our hacks center on the mechanical or electromechanical kind, but we do have an interest in safely improving ourselves. The problem is that most of us don’t want to mess with our DNA or have surgery, so it sort of limits our options.
We are always interested in less invasive hacks, so we certainly took note of
Bionic Reading
. However,
a recent paper
claims to debunk the claims of benefits. The company promoting the technology claims a Swiss University study showed that while the results were not clear, “the majority had a positive effect.” They also claim, anecdotally, that the technique can help those with dyslexia. What’s the truth? We don’t know, but it is an interesting discussion to follow.
If you haven’t seen it before, Bionic Reading — which, by the way, may not be free to use — is a way of using a dark font to emphasize certain key parts of words. For example, you can read this article using
Bionic Reading
. [Daniel Doyon]
analyzed reading by 2,074 testers
and found that participants actually read slower when using the Bionic Reading technique.
Even if you aren’t especially interested in Bionic Reading, the experiment design to account for taking random data from the Internet is pretty interesting all by itself. For example, they removed data from “tire-kickers” and “quitters” from the pool. To their credit, though, they did make all the data available both filtered and unfiltered.
We think you might get more mileage from
entrainment
. We’ve seen
many brain hacks
over the years, some of which even make sense. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496278",
"author": "goat",
"timestamp": "2022-07-24T05:21:55",
"content": "no question my dislexic brain reads that bionic shit much slower",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6496354",
"author": "Mungojerry",
"ti... | 1,760,372,619.546562 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/23/adding-a-battery-to-extend-speaker-life/ | Adding A Battery To Extend Speaker Life | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Battery Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"battery",
"battery management",
"bms",
"JBL",
"phone",
"repair",
"speaker"
] | Perhaps the weakest point in modern electronics when it comes to user servicability is the lifecycle of the batteries included from the manufacturer. Without easily replaceable batteries, many consumer goods end up in the landfill when they’re otherwise working perfectly. If you’d like to get more out of your devices than the manufacturer intends,
you might have to go to great lengths like [Théo] did
with his JBL speaker.
This was a Bluetooth device produced by JBL nearly a decade ago, and while the original device boasted several hours of battery life, after so many years of service, it was lucky to get a half hour before the battery died. To replace it, [Théo] removed the original battery and extended the case to be able to hold a larger cell phone battery. He also decided to use the original battery management circuit from the speaker with the new battery after verifying the voltage and chemistry were close enough to the original.
Since the phone battery is a proprietary Samsung device, [Théo] also decided to build a version that uses standard 18650 cells instead, although he prefers the slimmer design with the phone battery for his use case. Straightforward as this build may be, it does go a long way to demonstrate the principle that
if you can’t fix your devices, you don’t really own them
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496337",
"author": "BigDooof12",
"timestamp": "2022-07-24T09:31:07",
"content": "I have a Streetz CM730 speaker I like to repair (Yeah, I know it’s crap)But I can find a way to open it up. There are no obvious screws or places to crack it apart.I can of course use force, but then i... | 1,760,372,619.301699 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/23/digital-toy-camera-made-for-tilt-shift-and-other-analog-like-experimenting/ | Digital “Toy” Camera, Made For Tilt-Shift And Other Analog-Like Experimenting | Donald Papp | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"how-to",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"3d printed",
"digital camera",
"diy",
"lomography",
"raspberry pi",
"rise-fall lens",
"tilt-shift",
"toy camera"
] | Like many others, [volzo] loves playing with photography in a playful and experimental way. Oddball lenses, vintage elements, and building from kits is what that world looks like. But that kind of stuff is really the domain of film cameras, or at least it was until [volzo] created his
Digital Toy Camera
design. The result? A self-built,
lomography
-friendly digital camera that allows for all kinds of weird and wonderful attachments and photo shenanigans.
3D-printed mounts and magnetic attachment makes swapping parts a breeze.
To make a DIY digital camera that allowed that kind of play, the first problem [volzo] had to solve was deciding on an image sensor. It turns out that sourcing image sensors as an individual is a pretty cumbersome process, and even if successful, one still needs to write a driver and create things from the ground up. So, the guts of [volzo]’s creations use the Raspberry Pi and camera sensor ecosystem and M12 lenses, a decision that allows him to focus on the rest of the camera.
3D printing, a bit of CNC machining, and some clever design yields a “toy” camera: simple, inexpensive, and enabling one to take a playful and experimental approach to photography. The
design files are available on GitHub
, and there are some neat elements to the design. Magnetic mounts allow for easy swapping of lens assemblies, and a M12 x 0.75 tap cuts perfect threads into 3D-printed pieces for M12 lenses.
Heat-set inserts also provide robust fastening that can hold up to disassembly and re-assembly (and don’t miss that our own [Joshua Vasquez] has shared
how best to design for and use heat-set inserts
.)
[volzo] has a fantastic video to accompany his project; give it a watch (embedded below, under the page break) and see if you don’t come away with some inspiration of your own. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496251",
"author": "Nicholas Sherlock",
"timestamp": "2022-07-24T00:56:52",
"content": "You can actually 3D-print perfectly capable M12x0.75 threads directly, without using a tap. I’ve got one on my desk I’m using with the lens from an actioncam, printed at 0.1mm layer height.",
... | 1,760,372,619.596461 |
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