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https://hackaday.com/2022/07/23/machine-learning-baby-monitor-prevents-the-hunger-games/ | Machine Learning Baby Monitor Prevents The Hunger Games | Dan Maloney | [
"Machine Learning"
] | [
"baby",
"feeding",
"gesture recognition",
"hunger",
"machine learning",
"MediaPipe",
"pose estimation"
] | Newborn babies can be tricky to figure out, especially for first-time parents. Despite the abundance of unsolicited advice proffered by anyone who ever had a baby before — and many who haven’t — most new parents quickly get in sync with the baby’s often ambiguous signals. But [Caleb] took his observations of his newborn a step further and built
a machine-learning hungry baby early warning system
that’s pretty slick.
Normally, babies are pretty unsubtle about being hungry, and loudly announce their needs to the world. But it turns out that crying is a lagging indicator of hunger, and that there are a host of face, head, and hand cues that precede the wailing. [Caleb] based his system on Google’s MediaPipe library, using his baby monitor’s camera to track such behaviors as lip smacking, pacifier rejection, fist mouthing, and rooting, all signs that someone’s tummy needs filling. By putting together a system to recognize these cues and assign a weight to them, [Caleb] now gets a text before the baby gets to the screaming phase, to the benefit of not only the little nipper but to his sleep-deprived servants as well. The video below has some priceless bits in it; don’t miss [Baby Caleb] at 5:11 or the hilarious automatic feeder gag at the end.
We’ve seen some interesting videos from [Caleb] recently, mostly having to do with
his dog’s bathroom habits
and
getting help cleaning up afterward
. We can only guess how those projects will be leveraged when this kid gets a little older and starts potty training. | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496183",
"author": "Caleb",
"timestamp": "2022-07-23T20:57:29",
"content": "Caleb here, nice write up! This was a fun project & works really well. Hah, gotta start thinking about how unnecessary amounts of technology can help w/ potty training as he grows up.Also, getting ahead of ... | 1,760,372,621.438587 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/23/purpose-built-plotter-pitches-in-to-solve-wordblitz-on-your-phone/ | Purpose-Built Plotter Pitches In To SolveWordblitzOn Your Phone | Dan Maloney | [
"Games"
] | [
"ArUco",
"Boggle",
"capacitive",
"fiducial",
"ganty",
"machine vision",
"opencv",
"plotter",
"stylus",
"Wordblitz",
"X-Y"
] | It seems like most hackers have never played a game without at least wondering how to cheat at it. It’s not that we’re a dishonest lot, at least not as a rule. It’s more that most games hold less challenge for us than does figuring out how to reverse engineer the game’s mechanics. We don’t intend to cheat; it just sort of happens.
Or at least that’s the charitable way to look at such smartphone game cheats as
this automated word-search puzzle solver
. The game is
Wordblitz
, which is basically an implementation of classic
Boggle
along with extra features to release more dopamine and keep you playing. Not one to fall for that trick, [ghettobastler] whipped up a quick X-Y gantry from MDF using a laser cutter, added a stylus in the form of a cotton swab tipped with aluminum foil, and a vision system based on a simple web camera. The bed of the gantry has a capacitive plate so the stylus can operate the phone, along with a frame of ArUco fiducial marker to aid in locating the phone.
A Raspberry Pi handles the machine vision part of the process, which uses OpenCV to estimate the phone’s location and extract the current game tiles. The words in the game field are located by a solver that [ghetto] had previously written; a script then streams G-code to the plotter to peck out the answers at blazing speed, or at least faster than even [Peggy Hill] could manage. See the video below for a sample game being solved.
One word of warning if you choose to build this: [ghettobastler]’s puzzle-solving algorithm is based on a French dictionary, so you’ll have to re-teach it for other languages. But whatever language it’s in, this reminds us a bit of
some of the
Wordle
solvers
we’ve seen recently.
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/wordblitz_demo.mp4 | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,621.211575 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/23/patents-and-the-missing-museum/ | Patents And The Missing Museum | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"model",
"museum",
"patent"
] | A beautiful chapter of the history of invention in the United States ended with a fire in 1880. Well, the fire took place in 1877, but the wheels of government turn slowly. For the first 90 years that patents were granted in the USA, applications were required to be accompanied by a working model – to prove that the idea works and rule out “
the perpetual motion cranks
”.
During this time, the US Patent Office put all of these models on display, or at least as many of them as they could. The idea was that, alongside the printed documents, people would learn from seeing the inventions in the flesh. This tremendous resource got the Patent Office nicknamed the “Temple of Invention”, and rightly so.
Many of the crucial innovations of the industrial revolution
were there, in miniature. From Samuel Morse’s model telegraph, through Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, to more than a thousand inventions of Thomas Edison’s, working models were to be seen in the flesh, if in the small. We can only imagine how awe-inspiring it would have been to walk through those halls.
Two fires put significant dents in this tremendous collection.
First in 1836
, in a fire that consumed most of the approximately 10,000 patents that had been issued to that date, models and paper copies alike. Ironically, these included the patent for the
first cast-iron fire hydrant
. This fire was so devastating that it led to a dramatic patent reform in that same year, and to the building of a new fireproof Patent Office.
And the “new” Patent Office building still stands today, and proudly displayed patent models until the fire that
broke out inside the building in 1877
. (The contents of the building weren’t fireproof.) In this second fire,
brave employees saved many of the works by staying and battling the fire from inside
, but the second demoralizing beatdown, and the accelerating number of patent applications, it became obvious that there just wasn’t enough space to store a model of each patentable invention, and the requirement was dropped in 1880.
A small portion of the remaining patent models were put on display in one wing of the National Portrait Gallery, housed in the Patent Office building, and I had the wonderful opportunity to see it live in the early 2000s. I have no idea if the exhibit is still there – I’m guessing it’s not. The Smithsonian owns the lion’s share of the existing models, and
we imagine they are in a warehouse somewhere
, like at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
A shame, because seeing a real 3D model of a thing is different from seeing line drawings. Maybe in the future, 3D CAD drawings will take their place? They’d be a lot easier to save in event of a fire.
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
! | 38 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496099",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2022-07-23T14:15:36",
"content": "“Maybe in the future, 3D CAD drawings will take their place? They’d be a lot easier to save in event of a fire.”on the other hand… if no proper backups of these digital files are made, they could be erased in... | 1,760,372,621.718263 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/23/is-3d-printing-up-to-a-turntable/ | Is 3D Printing Up To A Turntable? | Jenny List | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed turntable",
"HiFi",
"turntable",
"vinyl"
] | Thanks to
a feature by Prusament
because it uses their filament, we’ve been interested to read about the SongBird turntable from the British outfit
Frame Theory
(
Note
: at time of writing, they have an expired certificate). It’s a commercial product with an interesting twist for the Hi-Fi business: buy the completed turntable or buy a kit of parts and print the rest yourself.
We’re always interested to see new things here at Hackaday but we’re not in the business of promoting commercial products without a tech angle. This turntable has us interested then not because it happens to be 3D printed but because it’s instantly raised our curiosity over how suitable 3D printing is as a medium for a high quality audio component. Without descending into audiophile silliness we cannot overstate the effect that rigidity and mass of turntable components has on its audio quality.
Take a look at this one we featured in the past
for an extreme example.
So looking more closely at the design, we find that the chassis is aluminium, which makes sense given its visibly thin construction. Close examination of the photos on their site also reveals the tonearm to be made of carbon fibre tube, so it’s clear that they’ve put some effort into making a better turntable rather than a novelty one. This does raise the question though: manufacturing practicalities aside could you 3D print the whole thing? We think that a 3D printed chassis could replace the aluminium one at the cost of much more bulk and loss of the svelte looks, but what about the tonearm? Would one of the carbon-fibre-infused filaments deliver enough stiffness? It would be particularly interesting we think, were someone to try. | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496085",
"author": "Nixie",
"timestamp": "2022-07-23T12:09:39",
"content": "Thing is that you want your turntable to be heavier, not lighter. You have companies like OMA who make massive plinths made out of slate and other heavy materials. It is a cool design though",
"parent_i... | 1,760,372,621.773817 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/hackaday-prize-2022-arduino-powered-weighing-scale-has-a-real-analog-display/ | Hackaday Prize 2022: Arduino-Powered Weighing Scale Has A Real Analog Display | Robin Kearey | [
"home hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"load cell",
"moving coil",
"weighing scale"
] | Digital displays are useful for quick and accurate readout, but lots of people prefer the physical motion of a needle moving along a dial. For instance, many smartwatch users choose an analog face to show the time, and modern cars with digital dashboards often default to showing an analog speedometer. Following this trend, [Miro Pavleski] built
a digital weighing scale with an analog display
that not only looks neat, but also serves as a good demonstration of the way that modern scales work.
Inside, the device is built up like a typical electronic scale: the heart of the instrument is a load cell that supports the platform and bends in proportion to the weight applied. This bending motion is sensed by a set of strain gauges wired up in a Wheatstone bridge configuration. An HX711 readout chip measures the resulting voltage and converts it to a digital code that is sent to a microcontroller, in this case an Arduino Nano.
Whereas a typical scale would then simply show the resulting number on an LCD display, [Mirko] decided to use a moving coil meter driven by the Arduino’s analog output. That meter was originally designed to show currents, so [Mirko] printed a new background image using kilograms instead.
As with any analog sensor, calibration and nulling are essential to obtain a reliable measurement. When the instrument is powered up, it asks the user to place a 100 gram weight on the scale, which will then be used as a reference to control the voltage-to-weight scaling factor. You can also subtract the tare weight of any containers you might want to use by simply placing them on the platform before flipping the power button.
If you’re planning to design your own digital weighing scale,
this older project
is a great place to start.
This teardown of a mass-produced scale
is also full of interesting details. We’ve even seen
a home-built scale that automatically weighs cats and feeds them based on ID
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6497244",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2022-07-26T23:26:28",
"content": "What’s annoying about digital scales is the timeout that shuts the power and resets it to zero if you don’t keep adding stuff continuously. If you pause for 15-30 seconds it’s all gone – so don’t go hunting ... | 1,760,372,621.25635 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/2022-hackaday-prize-make-your-world-more-disaster-resistant-more-engaged/ | 2022 Hackaday Prize: Make Your World More Disaster Resistant, More Engaged | Elliot Williams | [
"contests",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"communication",
"disaster",
"environment",
"mesh network",
"sensing"
] | Following along with the 2022 Hackaday Prize theme on building a better world by doing what we all do best – hacking together solutions – the fourth round of the Prize focuses on making our local communities more resilient against and sensitive to severe weather and environmental disasters. Whether it’s an early warning system for wildfires or a distributed communication network that will keep working even when the cell phone service goes down, we’re challenging you to help make your world safer by reacting sooner and better.
Get your project entered now
!
Sensing
We love systems that help us monitor our environments, and not just for idle curiosity or citizen science. Sometimes it’s critical. We’ve seen monitors aimed at giving you a
personal particulate air quality indicator
, especially helpful for people with respiratory problems when downstream of a forest fire.
But even better is networking these together to generate an air quality map, or to log long-run trends over time and space.
CanAirIO
, for instance, has both a fixed and mobile unit that can help map out CO2 and particulate matter quality. Or maybe it’s not wildfires that invade your airspace, but rather pollution from car use.
We’ve seen projects like that before too
, and anything along these lines would make a great entry into this challenge round. Could you predict local air quality?
Basically anything that helps quantify the quality of your environment, whether single, distributed, or mobile, whether for emergency use or to help promote positive change on a chronic problem, can help make your community stronger against weather and environmental adversity, would be a great entry this round.
Communication
Warning and monitoring are great, but when the emergency event happens, it’s great to be prepared. So we’re also taking entries that focus on building up emergency infrastructure when the water rises or when the fires hit. We’ve seen many versions of local mesh networks along the lines of
Meshtastic
, the
LoRa QWERTY Messenger
, and even
QMesh
which aims at voice comms. We want to see more! And we want to see one of them break out.
This is a great challenge for those who like to think bigger than just the one-off project. The goal is to enable an entire community to share environmental information or react gracefully to extreme weather events, and that means thinking about how to build up a network of people and not just devices. Your awesome mesh protocol doesn’t help if you’re the only one with a radio. We know it’s a stretch goal, but the best projects here will have at least the start of a community-building aspect to them. After all, this is about helping others.
Enter Your Project
The Climate Resilient Communities challenge starts right now, and runs until September 4th. As with all the other rounds, we’ll have ten $500 prizes for each finalist, and the best projects will have a chance at the overall 2022 Hackaday Prize. Get hacking!
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 10 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496888",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.3",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T17:33:43",
"content": "Hmmm massive Carrington event survival information service.. drum from a clothes dryer, encoded with pegs, that operate a semaphore tower, that can be seen in a 5 mile radius with optical aids (Binoc... | 1,760,372,621.376804 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/50-year-old-8-track-changer-repair-and-hack/ | 50-Year-Old 8-Track Changer Repair And Hack | Chris Lott | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"8-track",
"RCA",
"tape changer"
] | For reasons still unclear, [Techmoan] has procured an RCA 8-track changer that holds five tape cartridges in a custom carrier. It somewhat works, but had a bit of mechanical issues here and there which needed some maintenance. Additionally, the player is designed for the US market and 60 Hz mains, but [Techmoan] is in the UK with 50 Hz.
Although electronics are used for the basic tape player portion, everything else is operated by mechanical gears, levers, and motors. The system plays both sides of each tape cartridge through to completion, and then switches automatically to the next one in the stack. Cartridges could be up to 90 minutes each, making for over seven hours of playing time. Oddly, the system does not repeat automatically after the fifth tape ends –operator intervention is required. It’s not entirely clear whether these carousels were primarily intended to play background music inside businesses, or built for niche consumer applications.
After discovering there was no setting to adjust the tape’s speed for 50/60 Hz operation, [Techmoan] could have ordered or fabricated a larger-diameter pulley for the motor drive shaft. But in true hacker style, he instead solves the problem with cellophane packing tape. By trial and error, he builds up the pulley diameter by winding lengths of tape until the music sounds just “good enough” to his ear. Then he pulls out the wow and flutter meter to really zero in — and gets it bang on. He says that this changer is needed for a future video, so we’re looking forward to see how it will be employed.
If you like these old mechanical logic controls, check out the video below the break. If you want dig into the workings of an 8-track player, check out Jenny List’s
retro teardown from 2017
. Does anyone still use 8-track tapes any more? | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496849",
"author": "AndreN",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T16:33:34",
"content": "8-tracks don’t have “both sides” like a cassette tape. It’s one continuous loop with a marker indicating the tape has returned to the start. This signals the tape head to move down a notch for the next t... | 1,760,372,621.643813 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/how-does-the-james-webb-telescope-phone-home/ | How Does The James Webb Telescope Phone Home? | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"Deep Space Network",
"Hubble Space Telescope",
"james webb space telescope"
] | When it comes to an engineering marvel like the James Webb Space Telescope, the technology involved is so specialized that there’s precious little the average person can truly relate to. We’re talking about an infrared observatory that cost $10 billion to build and operates at a temperature of 50 K (−223 °C; −370 °F), 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 mi) from Earth — you wouldn’t exactly expect it to share any parts with your run-of-the-mill laptop.
But it would be a lot easier for the public to understand if it did. So it’s really no surprise that this week we saw several tech sites running headlines about the “tiny solid state drive” inside the James Webb Space Telescope. They marveled at the observatory’s ability to deliver such incredible images with only 68 gigabytes of onboard storage, a figure below what you’d expect to see on a mid-tier smartphone these days. Focusing on the solid state drive (SSD) and its relatively meager capacity gave these articles a touchstone that was easy to grasp by a mainstream audience. Even if it was a flawed comparison, readers came away with a fun fact for the water cooler — “
My computer’s got a bigger drive than the James Webb
.”
Of course, we know that NASA didn’t hit up eBay for an outdated Samsung EVO SSD to slap into their next-generation space observatory. The reality is that the solid state drive,
known officially as the Solid State Recorder (SSR)
, was custom built to meet the exact requirements of the JWST’s mission; just like every other component on the spacecraft. Likewise, its somewhat unusual 68 GB capacity isn’t just some arbitrary number, it was precisely calculated given the needs of the scientific instruments onboard.
With so much buzz about the James Webb Space Telescope’s storage capacity, or lack thereof, in the news, it seemed like an excellent time to dive a bit deeper into this particular subsystem of the observatory. How is the SSR utilized, how did engineers land on that specific capacity, and how does its design compare to previous space telescopes such as the Hubble?
High Speed in Deep Space
The communication needs of the James Webb Space Telescope provided engineers with a particularly daunting challenge. To accomplish its scientific goals the spacecraft must be located far away from the Earth, but at the same time, a considerable amount of bandwidth is required to return all of the collected data in a timely manner.
To facilitate this data transfer, the JWST has a 0.6 meter (2 foot) diameter Ka-band high-gain antenna (HGA) on an articulated mount that allows it to be pointed back to Earth regardless of the observatory’s current orientation in space. This Ka-band link provides a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 3.5 MBps through
NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN)
, though the actual achievable data rate is dependent on many factors.
JWST’s Ka-band antenna (left), next to the S-band telemetry antenna
Unfortunately this high-speed link back to Earth isn’t always available, as the DSN needs to juggle communications with many far-flung spacecraft. With the network’s current utilization, the JWST has been allocated two four-hour windows each day for data transmission. On paper, that means the spacecraft
should
be able to transmit just over 100 GB of data back to Earth in a 24 hour period, but in practice there are other issues to consider.
For one thing, the high-gain antenna can’t constantly track the Earth, as its movement produces slight vibrations that could ruin delicate observations. Instead, it’s
moved every 2.7 hours
to keep the planet within the beam width of the antenna. Observations are to be scheduled around this whenever possible, but inevitably, a conflict will eventually arise. Either high-speed data transmission will have to be cut short, or long-duration observations will need to be put on pause while the antenna is realigned. Mission planners will have to carefully weigh their options, with the deciding factor likely to be the scientific importance of the observation in question.
There’s also downtime to consider, on both ends of the link. The DSN could temporarily be unable to receive transmissions, or there could be an issue aboard the spacecraft that prevents it from making its regularly scheduled broadcast. Between the logistical challenges associated with the observatory’s standard downlink and the possibility of unforeseen communication delays, the only way the James Webb could ever hope to make round-the-clock observations is with a sizable onboard data cache.
Flight Tested Technology
Hubble’s 1.5 GB SSR
In the context of personal computing, solid state drives are a relatively new development. But NASA has been well aware of the advantages, namely lighter weight and a lack of moving parts, for decades. The space agency isn’t known for fielding untested concepts on flagship missions, and this is no different. They’ve been using a similar approach on the Hubble Space Telescope since 1999,
when astronauts on the third servicing mission
replaced the spacecraft’s original tape-based storage with a 1.5 GB SSR.
Naturally the lower capacity of Hubble’s SSR is due, at least in part, to the era. But even still, this was a considerable upgrade, as the tape recorders the SSR replaced could only hold around 150 MB. Remember that the resolution of the images captured by Hubble are considerably lower than that of the JWST, but that communications with spacecraft in Earth orbit are naturally far more reliable than those in deep space.
Store and Forward
All told, NASA estimates the James Webb should be able to transmit a little over 28 GB through the DSN during each of its twice-daily windows. To provide a full 24 hour buffer, the spacecraft therefore needs about 60 GB of onboard storage. So why is the SSR 68 GB? Partly due to the fact that some of the space is reserved for the observatory’s own use. But also because, as
explained by flight systems engineer Alex Hunter to
IEEE Spectrum
, the extra capacity gives the system some breathing room as wear and radiation whittle away at the SSR’s flash memory over the next decade.
It might not seem like 24 hours is much of a safety net, but there’s several provisos attached to that number. Depending on which scientific instruments are actually being used on the James Webb, the actual amount of data generated each day could be considerably lower. If high-speed communications are hindered, ground controllers would likely put the more data-intensive observations on hold until the issue is resolved. If necessary, NASA could also allocate extra DSN time to work through the backlog. In short, there are enough contingencies in place that the capacity of the SSR should never become a problem.
So while you could certainly find a bigger solid state drive in a mid-range Chromebook than the one NASA recently sent on a decade-long mission aboard the James Webb Space Telescope — careful planning and a healthy dose of the best engineering that money can buy means that size isn’t everything.
[Editor’s note: Yeah, we know that the graphic shows the JWST radiating from the telescope focus. I’ll take the blame for an insufficiently specific art request on this one. But you do have to admit that they look kinda superficially similar if you’re an artist and not a radio guy.] | 31 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496792",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T14:12:37",
"content": "Nice article, thanks!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6496799",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T14:... | 1,760,372,621.522243 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/custom-raspberry-pi-case-shows-the-whole-workflow/ | Custom Raspberry Pi Case Shows The Whole Workflow | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"3d printing",
"custom case",
"enclosure",
"Laser cutting",
"raspberry pi"
] | If you are a process junkie and
love
seeing the end-to-end of how a thing is made and with what tools, then watch
[Michael Klements] show off his Raspberry Pi case design
. His case has quite a few cool-looking elements to it, and incorporates 3D printing as well as laser-cut and clear bent acrylic for a gorgeous three-quarter view.
[Michael]’s write-up (and accompanying
video
, embedded below) are partly a review of his Creality 3D printer, and partly a showcase of his Raspberry Pi case design (for which he sells the design files for a small fee on his Etsy store.) But the great part is seeing the creation of every piece that goes into the end product. Not everyone is familiar with the way these tools work, or what they can create, so it’s nice to see attention paid to that side of things.
Both the blog post and the video nicely show off what goes into every part. The video opens with unpacking and setting up the 3D printer (
skip ahead to 4:58
if you aren’t interested), followed by printing the parts, laser-cutting the acrylic on a
K40 laser cutter
, bending the acrylic using a small hand tool, and finally, assembling everything. For the curious, there are also links to the exact parts and equipment he uses.
Like we said, it’s part 3D printer review and part showcase of a design he sells, but it’s great to see each of the parts get created, watch the tools get used, and see the results come together in the final product. And should you wish to go in the opposite direction?
A one-piece minimalist case for your Raspberry Pi is only a 3D printer away
. | 29 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496768",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T11:23:55",
"content": "…so, it’s a commercial?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6496790",
"author": "Timo",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T13:58:49",
"content"... | 1,760,372,621.325062 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/25/a-tiny-forest-of-resistors-makes-for-quick-and-dirty-adaptive-optics/ | A Tiny Forest Of Resistors Makes For Quick And Dirty Adaptive Optics | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"adaptive optics",
"coefficient",
"expansion",
"interferometer",
"mirror",
"optics",
"Thermal"
] | The term “adaptive optics” sounds like something that should be really complicated and really expensive. And in general, the ability to control the properties of optical elements is sufficiently difficult enough that it’s reserved for big-science stuff like billion-dollar space telescopes.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t quick and dirty adaptive optics that are suitable for the budget-minded experimenter, like
this thermally deformable mirror
. As [Zachary Tong] explains, this project, which started quite some time ago, is dead simple — a 4 by 4 array of through-hole resistors stand on end, and these are attached to a glass coverslip that has been aluminized on one side. An Arduino and a couple of shift registers make it possible to individually address each of the 16 resistors in the array. Passing a current through a resistor heats it up a bit, leading to thermal expansion and a slight deflection of the mirror sitting on top of the array. Controlling which resistors heat up and by how much should lead to deformation of the mirror surface in a predictable way.
The video below shows some of [Zach]’s experiments with the setup. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to fully demonstrate its potential — the low-quality mirror didn’t cooperate with his homebrew interferometer. He was, however, able to use a dial indicator to show deflection of the mirror in the 2- to 3-micron range by heating the array. That alone is pretty cool, especially given the dirt cheap nature of the build.
As for practical uses, don’t get too excited. As [Zach] points out, thermal systems like this will probably never be as fast as MEMS or piezoelectric actuators, and
many use cases for adaptive optics really don’t react well to added heat
. But
changing the shape of a mirror with air pressure
is another thing.
Thanks for the tip, [smellsofbikes]. | 16 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496736",
"author": "sweethack",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T09:00:24",
"content": "I’m not sure you want to heat the mirror of an catadioptric system. Generally, you can to cool it down as much as you can to limit thermal noise and atmospheric ray bending.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,372,621.572923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/24/complex-movements-from-simple-inflatables-thanks-to-physics/ | Complex Movements From Simple Inflatables, Thanks To Physics | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"actuator",
"air pressure",
"pressure",
"research",
"soft robotics"
] | Inflatable actuators that change shape based on injected pressure can be strong, but their big limitation is that they always deform in the same way.
The Kresling pattern, which inspired the actuator design.
But by taking structural inspiration from origami, researchers created 3D-printed actuators that show it is
possible to get complex movements from actuators fed by only a single source of pressure
. How is this done? By making the actuators physically bi-stable, in a way that doesn’t require additional sources of pressure.
The key is a modified design based on the
Kresling pattern
, with each actuator having a specially-designed section (the colored triangles in the image above) that are designed to pop out under a certain amount of positive pressure, and remain stable after it has done so. This section holds its shape until a certain amount of negative pressure is applied, and the section pops back in.
Whether or not this section is popped out changes the actuator’s shape, therefore changing the way it deforms. This makes a simple actuator bi-stable and capable of different movements, using only a single pressure source. Stack up a bunch of these actuators, and with careful pressure control, complex movements become possible. See it in action in two short videos, embedded just below the page break.
Here is a video accompanying the
research paper
that demonstrates the actuator design. These actuators are 3D-printed from TPU and PLA. Embedded just below that one is a video of a 12-actuator column demonstrating complex movements, all driven by a single pressure source.
Origami and the designs found in our natural world
mesh well with robotics in general
, and it’s fascinating to see how such simple structural changes can have such big effects on a design.
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/adfm202201891-sup-0003-movies2.mp4
[via
TechXplore
] | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496704",
"author": "spidy",
"timestamp": "2022-07-25T05:25:40",
"content": "I dunno, spiders been doing it for million of years, moving their legs in similar fashion (not expanding and deflating, though).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,372,621.819895 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/homebrew-curve-tracer-competes-with-the-big-guns/ | Homebrew Curve Tracer Competes With The Big Guns | Al Williams | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"curve tracer",
"custom tool",
"test equipment"
] | When we first saw the VBA curve tracer, we thought it might have something to do with Visual Basic for Applications. But it turns out it is a mash up of the names of the creators: [Paul Versteeg], [Bud Bennett], and [Mark Allie]. [Paul] designed an original prototype back in 2017. Since then, the project has grown and lessons were learned. The
final curve tracer is pretty impressive in more ways than one
.
If you’ve never used a curve tracer, they allow you to characterize components using their characteristic curve of voltage versus current. You use an oscilloscope as an output device. This instrument is often used by engineers trying to understand or match devices like diodes, transistors, or — in some cases — even tubes. So if you want to measure the collector-emitter breakdown voltage, for example, or the collector cutoff current, this is your go-to device. You can also match gains in circuits where that matters (for example, a push-pull circuit where two transistors amplify different parts of the same signal).
If you want to understand more about how it works, there are a series of blog posts covering the evolution of the device. You can also find the design files on
GitHub
. There is also a handy post showing many types of
measurements you might want to make
.
This is a good-looking project. We’ve seen it
done on the cheap
, but slowly. Or
spend $15 and do better
. We doubt any of these have high enough voltages to do most tubes, but
they made the same basic instrument
for tubes back in the 1950s. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495948",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T16:06:39",
"content": "I have never used Curve Tracer, although a number of place I worked had the big Tektronix one.I don’t understand how taking a device beyond its breakdown or avalanche regions d... | 1,760,372,622.214325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/this-week-in-security-asterisk-tiktok-gitlab-and-finally-a-spam-solution/ | This Week In Security: Asterisk, TikTok, Gitlab, And Finally A Spam Solution | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"asterisk",
"freepbx",
"gitlab",
"This Week in Security",
"TikTok"
] | There’s
an ongoing campaign that’s compromising FreePBX systems around the world
. It seems to be aimed specifically at Elastix systems, using CVE-2021-45461, a really nasty Remote Code Execution (RCE) from December of last year. This flaw was a 0-day, as it was discovered by analyzing a compromised FreePBX system. It’s unclear if the campaign
described in last week’s report
was using the 0-day back in December, or if it was launched as a result of the public disclosure of the bug.
Regardless, the CVE is a URL parameter sent to the Rest Phone Apps service. This module is intended to run right on the screen of VoIP phones, and allow end users to set features like Do Not Disturb without having to punch in star codes, or visit a web page. Because of the use case, any FreePBX deployment that supports VoIP phones connecting from outside the network, that use this feature, would need these ports open. The best way to secure that would be to enforce connections over a VPN, which only some phones natively support.
Upon finding a vulnerable endpoint, the campaign starts by dropping a webshell in several locations, all obfuscated slightly differently. It then creates multiple root-level user accounts, and adds a Cron job to maintain access. There is a surprising amount of obfuscation and stealth features in this family of malware, making it difficult to point to a single Indicator Of Compromise. If you run a FreePBX system that may have the Phone Apps module running, it’s time to go through it with a fine-toothed comb.
What’s The Deal with TikTok?
The
FCC has once again called for TikTok to be de-listed
from the Google Play Store and the Apple App store. What is going on with TikTok? It’s just an app for filming and sharing silly videos, right? There are essentially two potential problems with TikTok, and both of them trace back to the app’s parent company residing in China.
Here in the US we have National Security Letters, and China seems to have a more straightforward system, where
“everything is seen in China,” as said by a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety Department
. TikTok uses quite a few permissions, some of which seem a bit overzealous. If you’re a person of interest to the Chinese government, could those permissions be used to surveil you? Absolutely. Just like a US based app could, as a result of a National Security Letter.
The second problem is a bit more subtle, and may stray towards a conspiracy theory, but is worth considering. TikTok has videos about every subject imaginable, from every possible viewpoint. What if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wanted a specific rumor to gain traction in the US? Just a little pressure on the video recommendation algorithm would make videos about that topic trend. Instant public opinion lever.
There’s likely a missing piece of the story here, in the form of some classified intel. Until enough time goes by that a Freedom of Information Act request can unlock the rest of the story, it’s going to be unclear how much of the TikTok threat is legitimate, and how much is geo-political wrangling.
Oh, and if you thought you could just go open up the Google Play Store and see the exact permissions the TikTok app uses, Google has
made the unfortunate decision to hide permissions
until you actually do the install. That sounds like a terrible decision and, after a brief outcry, it seems like Google agrees. Just before this article went to the presses, Google announced that they
were walking back this decision
.
Gitlab RCE
Gitlab fixed a very serious problem in its
4th of July round of minor version releases
, and [Nguyễn Tiến Giang (Jang)] really wanted to understand what was going on with this one. So much so, that he set up a debuggable install of Gitlab and recreated the issue,
bringing us along for the ride
. The flaw is in importing an existing Gitlab project, where the archive name is appended directly to a command string. If you can manipulate the value given for the archive name, and avoid tripping on any of the checks intended to prevent it, you can trivially insert shell code that will be run on the underlying server. Avoiding the traps is a big part of the work to actually make this into an real PoC. Read the post for full details on the debugging journey.
Calendar Spam Finally Fixed
Consider yourself lucky if you’ve missed out on the scourge that is Calendar spam. Google Calendar is great, because anyone can send you an email with an invite, and the event automatically shows up on your calendar. In retrospect, it seems obvious that this would be used for spam. Regardless, after multiple years of the spam problem,
Google is finally rolling out a feature
, to only add invitations to your calendar from known senders. Now if you get asked, or suffer from spam yourself, you know to look under event settings, and make the setting change. Finally! | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495926",
"author": "BillyG",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T14:40:48",
"content": "This is everything you need to know about why TikTok should be bannedhttps://cad-comic.com/comic/more-clicks/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/kids-in-china-banned-from-watching-tiktok-for-more-tha... | 1,760,372,622.714877 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/now-theres-usb-c-on-the-iphone-se/ | Now There’s USB-C On The IPhone SE | Lewin Day | [
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"iphone",
"lightning connector",
"lightning port",
"USB C"
] | As confusing as it can be, USB-C is actually pretty good, and certainly has its fans. [David Buchanan] must be one of them,
for he did a great job putting a USB-C port into his iPhone SE.
[David] didn’t want to ruin a pristine example, so set about hacking the cheapest first-gen iPhone SE he could find on eBay. His approach was simple: get a USB-C to Lightning dongle and hack it into the phone’s body.
The first step was to strip the adapter down and melt off the Lightning connector. He then de-soldered the Lightning port from the phone, and found a bunch of test pads on the motherboard corresponding to its pins. Soldering leads from the adapter to the test pads got things up and running, once he properly hooked up a connection-detect pin to ground.
With a bit more trimming, some hot glue and some enameled wire, [David] was able to cram everything inside the iPhone. Paired with a new screen and home button, and he had an iPhone SE with a working USB-C port. It works for both charging and USB data, too.
If you’re rocking an iPhone SE, you might dig this conversion as it gives you access to more chargers out in the wild. Plus, you’ve still got the regular headphone jack. Be sure to check out the
iPhone 13 with a USB C port, too
. It’s the hottest new hack
until the new EU regulations hit Apple in coming years. | 37 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495885",
"author": "Viktor3",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T11:09:14",
"content": "What’s an iPhone?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6496126",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2022-07-23T16:18:45",
"content... | 1,760,372,622.355816 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/pet-docking-station-was-two-decades-in-the-making/ | Pet Docking Station Was Two Decades In The Making | Jenny List | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Commodore PET",
"docking station",
"retrocomputer"
] | There are some projects which once might have been entirely appropriate, but which now seem sacrilegious. [Dave Luna]’s
PC docking station in a Commodore Pet 64 case
might at first sight seem to be one of them, but there’s a little more to it than gutting a cherished retrocomputer.
A much younger [Dave] had a dead Pet 64, and because over two decades ago such a thing was considered junk, set about converting it to a PC case. In the way of all ambitious projects it stalled, so here in 2022 he was starting with the metal case and keyboard of a Pet 64 rather than the full computer.
Into the case went a small color TFT monitor, a USB3 hub, a DisplayLink adapter, and and an Arduino Micro doing the job of USB-ifying the Commodore keyboard. The result is a pretty cool docking station, but one which he admits isn’t as nice to use as he’d like. Viewed through rose tinted glasses any PET was an amazing machine in its day, but a slightly lackluster keyboard and a tiny screen don’t quite have the same allure in a world of 4K monitors. Still, we’d have one on our desk.
The Pet appears in quite a few projects that have made it to these pages, for example
showing YouTube videos
. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495867",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T08:50:09",
"content": "I was hoping this could show a way dock my cat in order to automatically process its egress. I´m deceived. I have to keep my little shovel and gas mask, then :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,372,622.557809 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/turning-the-back-of-your-phone-into-a-touchpad/ | Turning The Back Of Your Phone Into A Touchpad | Lewin Day | [
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"back of phone",
"backtrack",
"iphone",
"phone",
"smartphone",
"TouchPad"
] | Smartphones use big touchscreens on the front as a useful tactile interface. However, our hands naturally wrap around the back of the phone, too. This area is underutilized as an interface,
but the designers of BackTrack found a way to change that.
Touches on the 2D rear matrix are translated into a pair of touches on the linear line of pads on the front screen. This can then be reconstructed into the touch location on the rear touchpad.
The idea is simple. The project video notes that
conductive tape
can be placed on a multitouch touchscreen, allowing touches to be read at a remote location. Taking this concept further, BackTrack works by creating a 2D matrix on the back of the phone, and connecting this matrix to a series of pads in a row on the front touchscreen. Then, touches on the back touchpad can be read by the existing touchscreen on the front screen.
Doing this in practice requires the use of fancy transparent electrodes and flexible connections. However, the team behind Backtrack were able to create their passive rear touchpad in a formfactor that fits into a simple phone case. It can then be used to play games or use interface with the phone in other ways.
We fully expect phone manufacturers to start creating interfaces that use the back surface of the phone. Apple have already explored this with
the rarely-discussed back-tapping feature.
Implementing a full 2D touchpad on the rear could quickly become a great point of difference for the first handset manufacturer to get it right. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Itay for the tip!] | 28 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495846",
"author": "CG",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T06:13:28",
"content": "Interesting! The Motorola Backflip had a similar feature. It could be used to things such as scrolling through documents.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,372,622.284995 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/design-cities-in-a-snap-with-buildify/ | Design Cities In A Snap With Buildify | Adam Zeloof | [
"Games"
] | [
"3d model",
"animations",
"blender",
"gaming"
] | Designing 3D environments is hard, but it doesn’t have to be. A week ago, if you decided to design an entire city in Blender, say for a game or animation, you probably would have downloaded some asset pack full of building shapes and textures and painstakingly placed them over the course of days, modifying the models and making new ones as needed. Now, you would just need to download
Buildify
, feed it an asset pack, and watch the magic happen.
Buildify, made by [Pavel Oliva], is one of the most impressive bits of Blender content we’ve seen in a long time. It lets you generate entire cities by drawing the outlines of buildings. You can grab walls and resize individual structures, and the walls, windows, doors, textures, and everything else will automatically rearrange as needed. You can even select a region on Open Street Maps and watch as Buildify recreates the area in Blender using your chosen asset pack (maybe a
KiCad PCB design
could be used as the source material too?). It’s really something incredible to see, and you’ve just got to watch the video below to understand just how useful this tool can be.
The pay-what-you-want .blend file that you can grab off of [Pavel]’s website doesn’t include all the beautiful assets you can see in the video, but instead generates simple grey block buildings. He made one of the packs used in the video, and will be releasing it online for free soon. In the meantime, he links to other ones you can buy, or you can get really ambitious and create your own. We know it won’t be long until we’re seeing animations and games with Buildify-generated cities. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495866",
"author": "Niko",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T08:19:52",
"content": "Laughs in Chinese ghost city developer",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6495882",
"author": "2ftg",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T10:59:54",
"cont... | 1,760,372,622.65873 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/reverse-engineering-a-phased-array-system-reveals-surprising-details/ | Reverse Engineering A Phased Array System Reveals Surprising Details | Ryan Flowers | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"patch antenna",
"phased array",
"radio",
"WiGig"
] | The term “phased array” has been around for a long time, but in recent years we’ve heard more and more about the beam shaping that’s possible with phased array antennae. In the video below the break, [The Signal Path]
breaks down a Qualcomm 60GHz WiGig unit
, and does a deep dive, even looking at the bare silicon and an x-ray of an antenna.
An X-Ray of the antenna shows the intricate design
Some fascinating highlights include how not only the data signal is sent to the antennae through a standard coaxial cable, but so are control signals and a base clock frequency. [The Signal Path] explains how the manufacturer chose to use what’s called a SuperHeterodyne (aka “superhet”) architecture, which is not all that different from those used in traditional amateur radio transceivers. In theory, anyway.
Another element that is discussed is how the PCB’s themselves are used as waveguides, inductors, and transmission line matches, among other countless little hacks to fit a rather complex system into a truly diminutive space.
If you’re not familiar the concept behind phased arrays, check out this article we published in 2019 that shows
how phased arrays can steer a beam without any moving parts
. It’s quite fascinating! | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495821",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T00:21:31",
"content": "bare silicone ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6495823",
"author": "cncFriend",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T00:30:48",
... | 1,760,372,622.502432 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/23/digital-measuring-wheel-is-exactly-what-it-sounds-like/ | Digital Measuring Wheel Is Exactly What It Sounds Like | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"measurement",
"metrology"
] | You may have seen surveyors (or maths students) running around with measuring wheels, counting the clicks to measure distances.
[AGBarber]’s digital measuring wheel works in much the same way
, but with the convenience of a measurement you can read off a screen.
The design is simple, and relies on the outer wheel of the device turning a mouse encoder wheel. This is read by anArduino Pro Mini which runs the show and records the requisite measurements. It then drives an SSD1306 OLED display which shows the measurements to the user. It’s all wrapped up in a 3D printed housing that makes it easy to roll around the small handheld device.
The wheel’s maximum measuring length is 9999.99 cm, or just under 100 meters. Given the size of the device, that’s probably more than enough, but you could always build a bigger version if you wanted to measure longer distances.
Measuring wheels make it easy to measure along curves, and are just generally fun to play with as well. You could certainly use one to determine
whether flat tyres are making your speedometer lie to you
. Or, you could dive into this great talk on measurement
from [Adam Savage]
.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=iSWSXXlQFeU%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26autoplay%3D1 | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496151",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-23T18:02:50",
"content": "Kinda small for measuring real estate, doncha think?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6496172",
"author": "eternityfor... | 1,760,372,622.76244 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/hunt-the-lunpus-is-an-attiny-based-minimalist-game-console/ | Hunt The Lunpus Is An ATtiny-Based Minimalist Game Console | Robin Kearey | [
"Games"
] | [
"adventure game",
"attiny84",
"hunt the wumpus",
"seven segment LED"
] | In a world where game consoles come with ever-higher resolutions and ever-faster frame rates, it’s refreshing to see someone going in the opposite direction: [Doug McInnes]’s latest project is
a tiny handheld game console with probably the lowest-resolution graphics possible
. Hardware-wise, it’s a small PCB containing an ATtiny84, two seven-segment LED displays, a speaker and a handful of buttons. It’s the software that gives this project its magic, and all of it is available on GitHub, along with schematics and a PCB layout.
The game is called
Hunt the Lunpus
, and as the name suggests it’s inspired by the 1970s classic
Hunt the Wumpus
. The player moves through a maze of interconnected rooms, trying to avoid slime pits and marauding bats while searching for the Lunpus, a sleeping monster that will eat the player unless they defeat it first by shooting it with arrows. Four pushbuttons provide directional control, with a fifth serving as an “action” button to start the game and fire those arrows.
Whereas
Wumpus
was originally a text-based adventure game,
Lunpus
is fully graphical: the seven-segment displays indicate the cave’s walls, and flash in different ways to alert the player to the various hazards. [Doug] explains the events as they happen in the video embedded below; while it might take a bit of practice to find your way at first, we can already picture ourselves wandering through the caves with our quiver full of arrows, ready to hunt some Lunpus. Who needs 4K graphics, anyway?
If you’re into minimalist game consoles, there’s plenty to choose from: the
LEDBOY renders Space Invaders on just a few LEDs
, while
TWANG needs nothing more than a single LED strip
. You can also
explore more mazes on this 8×8 LED matrix
, or even
hunt Wumpuses in a slightly-higher resolution
. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496079",
"author": "Orzel",
"timestamp": "2022-07-23T10:55:17",
"content": "I can’t find the schematics. There’s a PCB_wumpus.json, but the commit says “add Gerber files”. Looks like far too much close hardware to me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,372,622.613449 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/color-us-impressed-redbean-runs-a-web-server-on-six-operating-systems/ | Color Us Impressed: Redbean Runs A Web Server On Six Operating Systems | Al Williams | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"actually portable executable",
"APE",
"cross-platform"
] | The holy grail of computing is to have some way to distribute a program to any computer. This is one of those totally unachievable goals, but many have tried with varying degrees of success. People naturally think of Java, but even before that there was UCSD’s P-code and many other attempts to pull off the same trick. We were impressed, though, with
Redbean 2.0
which uses a single executable file to run a webserver — or possibly other things — on six different operating systems. If the six operating systems were all flavors of Linux or Windows that wouldn’t be very interesting. But thanks to APE — the Actually Portable Executable — format, you can run under Windows, Linux, MacOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and FreeBSD.
This is quite a feat when you realize that most of these take wildly different file formats. There is one small problem: you can’t use much of anything on the host operating system. However, if you look at Redbean, you’ll see there is quite a lot you can do.
The APE loader takes advantage of some quirks. Under Windows, the executable is just that — an executable. Otherwise, there is a small shell script that the APE loader can use to map the executable into memory and do the ELF loading. You might say, “Wait! I don’t have the APE loader.” That’s OK. Each APE program has the 4K loader embedded in it that it will use if necessary.
Of course, it works because, at the bottom, the x86 instructions are the same across all the platforms. Since it is hard to call out to the underlying system, there is a libc, Cosmopolitan, that you can include. There are other modules, including a Unix module that provides things like file access, sockets, and other things you probably need to make working programs. The only place you might have trouble is Microsoft’s WSL which is sort of Linux under Windows. It “knows” how to load Windows executables, even under Linux so you have to disable that in some cases, and that’s explained on the
APE page
. You can also find some details
about the executable format
.
Redbean offers a lot of possibilities. You use zip to store assets like web pages in the actual executable. You have access to Lua, SQLite, TLS, and more. So it is possible to create a “web app” including things like JavaScript, run on any of the supported platforms, automatically launch a browser, and then use the browser as a GUI. Pretty slick. A .args file will prevent users from having to use any command line arguments. No installation and no picking the right version for your operating system.
Of course, you do need the right kind of processor. This isn’t going to ship out to your Raspberry Pi unless you run an emulator. But there are a lot of things we can think of that this would be perfect for. A web server on a USB stick, for example. Or a way to put an app on different Linux single-board computers. The APE loader is probably a good trick to have up your sleeve, too.
We had to wonder if you could integrate
Tiddlywiki
and have a portable notepad on a USB drive. Of course, if you want a portable web server, you could always just
bring your own hardware
. | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496078",
"author": "Vulcan Ignis",
"timestamp": "2022-07-23T10:43:25",
"content": "Al, awesome article, loved it!Redbean and Cosmopolitanhttps://github.com/jart/cosmopolitanis like sorcery! Its like alien technology. Have used both and I am so f**ing amazed. In fact so amazed that ... | 1,760,372,622.815789 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/satan-turns-hard-drive-cable-into-antenna-to-defeat-air-gapped-security/ | SATAn Turns Hard Drive Cable Into Antenna To Defeat Air-Gapped Security | Dan Maloney | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"ADALM-PLUTO",
"exfiltration",
"exploit",
"hdd",
"RF",
"SATA 3.0",
"sdr",
"ssd"
] | It seems like [Mordechai Guri]’s lab at Ben-Gurion University is the place where air-gapped computers go to die, or at least to give up their secrets. And
this hack using a computer’s SATA cable as an antenna
to exfiltrate data is another example of just how many side-channel attacks the typical PC makes available.
The exploit, deliciously designated “SATAn,” relies on the fact that the SATA 3.0 interface used in many computers has a bandwidth of 6.0 Gb/s, meaning that manipulating the computer’s IO would make it possible to transmit data from an air-gapped machine at around 6 GHz. It’s a complicated exploit, of course, and involves placing a transmitting program on the target machine using the usual methods, such as phishing or zero-day exploits. Once in place, the transmitting program uses a combination of read and write operations on the SATA disk to generate RF signals that encode the data to be exfiltrated, with the data lines inside the SATA cable acting as antennae.
SATAn is shown in action in the video below. It takes a while to transmit just a few bytes of data, and the range is less than a meter, but that could be enough for the exploit to succeed. The test setup uses an SDR — specifically, an ADALM PLUTO — and a laptop, but you can easily imagine a much smaller package being built for a stealthy walk-by style attack. [Mordechai] also offers a potential countermeasure for SATAn, which basically thrashes the hard drive to generate RF noise to mask any generated signals.
While probably limited in its practical applications, SATAn is an interesting
side-channel attack
to add to [Dr. Guri]’s list of exploits. From
optical exfiltration using security cameras
to
turning power supplies into speakers
, the vulnerabilities just keep piling up.
Thanks to [chuckt] for the tip.
[via
Bleeping Computer
] | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496020",
"author": "Jonathan Wilson",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T23:21:01",
"content": "Easy fix, just build your air-gapped system with only NVME storage.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6496038",
"author": "Doug EM",
... | 1,760,372,622.922827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/watering-the-garden-with-a-solar-powered-system/ | Watering The Garden With A Solar-Powered System | Lewin Day | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"automatic plant watering",
"garden",
"watering"
] | Watering the garden is important to do regularly if you want your plants to thrive. [Nikodem Bartnik] built a system to handle it for him,
keeping his garden on the grow
.
The system has an Arduino commanding an irrigation system based around a pump delivering water from a reservoir. It’s paired with a water level sensor to keep an eye on the water available to the system. Moisture sensors are also used to monitor the prevailing soil conditions, to ensure the plants aren’t over- or under-watered. In this case, [Nikodem] designed his own resistive moisture sensors, which proved difficult but taught him a lot along the way. verything was then wrapped up in a food container to make it waterproof for installation outside. A solar panel and charging system was also installed to power the whole setup without requiring a mains connection.
While this system worked, the moisture sensors were a bit unreliable and there was a lot of cabling involved. A second revision got rid of the sensors and used a Pi Pico to implement a simple timer-based irrigation scheme.
Either way, both systems worked and helped keep the vital water flowing to the garden bed. Automatic plant watering is a bit of a popular theme around here,
and we’ve seen some nifty hacks in that realm of late
. Video after the break. | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495993",
"author": "That kid",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T20:27:25",
"content": "“ verything was then wrapped”Ever’ting",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6514891",
"author": "chand",
"timestamp": "2022-09-21T05:31... | 1,760,372,623.165052 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/esp32-gets-a-nifty-serial-console-library/ | ESP32 Gets A Nifty Serial Console Library | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"console",
"ESP32",
"serial console",
"serial terminal"
] | Sometimes you need to get a project to talk to you, so you can see what’s going on inside. The ESP32 console Arduino library from [jbtronics]
promises just that.
The library adds a simple serial console to the ESP32, and is compatible with the Arduino ecosystem to boot. It’s set up to allow the easy addition of custom commands so you can tweak the console to suit your own projects. It’s remarkably complete with nifty features, too. There’s autocomplete as well as a navigable command history – the sorts of features you only expect from a modern OS terminal. A bunch of system commands are built-in, too, for checking the status of things like the memory, network interface, and so on.
The tool is available via the Arduino library manager or the
PlatformIO registry.
You’ll want to use it with a VT-100 compatible terminal like PuTTY or similar, which lets you use all the fancy features including color output. [jbtronics] hopes to port it to the ESP8266 soon, too!
We’ve seen some other great serial tools of late, too.
If you’re brewing up your own nifty console hacks,
be sure to drop us a line! | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496007",
"author": "Torsten Martinsen",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T21:33:40",
"content": "Just to clarify, this is not really new to the ESP32 – this project simply encapsulates the (very nice) Console component from the ESP-IDF so that it can be used from the Arduino environment.I s... | 1,760,372,623.207283 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/hackaday-podcast-178-the-return-of-supercon-victory-for-open-source-exquisite-timepieces-and-documentation-to-die-for/ | Hackaday Podcast 178: The Return Of Supercon, Victory For Open Source, Exquisite Timepieces, And Documentation To Die For | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi start this week’s podcast off with an announcement the community has been waiting years for: the return of the Hackaday Supercon! While there’s still some logistical details to hammer out, we’re all extremely excited to return to a live con and can’t wait to share more as we get closer to November. Of course you can’t have Supercon without the Hackaday Prize, which just so happens to be wrapping up its
Hack it Back
challenge this weekend.
In other news, we’ll talk about the developing situation regarding the GPLv3 firmware running on Ortur’s laser engravers (don’t worry, it’s good news for a change), and a particularly impressive fix that kept a high-end industrial 3D printer out of the scrapheap. We’ll also fawn over a pair of fantastically documented projects, learn about the fascinating origins of the lowly fire hydrant, and speculate wildly about the tidal wave of dead solar panels looming menacingly in the distance.
Or download the fresh bitstream yourself.
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!
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 178 Show Notes:
News:
The 2022 Hackaday Supercon Is On! And The Call For Proposals Is Open
Don’t Miss Your Last Chance to Enter the
Hack it Back
Challenge
What’s that Sound?
No winner this week, because the one person who got it right actually won last week. Damn, son!
Alvin Lucier —
I’m Sitting in a Room
(YouTube)
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Ortur Laser Will Go Open-Source
Watch Out For Lasercutter Manufacturers Violating GPL
Hackaday Prize 2022: $40k Stratasys Printer Fix Costs $1
The Prusa i3 MK3S And A Tale Of Two Sensors
A Home Made Sewing Machine May Be The Only One
Chain stitch – Wikipedia
The Casio Smartwatch You Never Had
An Impeccably Documented Word Clock In Dutch
WordClock mit WS2812 – Mikrocontroller.net (Article)
WordClock mit WS2812 – Mikrocontroller.net (Forum Discussion)
Hacker Liberates Hyundai Head Unit, Writes Custom Apps
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Programmable Resistance Box
Robot Arm Has The Touch
Down The Intel Microcode Rabbit Hole
Tom’s Picks:
Washington, DC Finally Gets Its Own PCB Metro Map
Porting DOOM But In The Opposite Direction
Peer Into Space Through This James Webb-Style Hexagonal Mirror
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Tech In Plain Sight: Fire Hydrants
Dead Solar Panels Are The Hottest New Recyclables
Getting The Lead Out Of Lithium Battery Recycling | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6496073",
"author": "good timing",
"timestamp": "2022-07-23T09:40:28",
"content": "There was a recent meme outbreak when some germans found out that some other germans have a ~~weird~~ idiotic way to say 15-past-the-full-hour.This is a rough summary:https://imgur.com/a/LBWSswFThis p... | 1,760,372,623.066974 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/20/how-to-make-a-model-roller-coaster-without-any-moving-parts/ | How To Make A Model Roller Coaster Without Any Moving Parts | Robin Kearey | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"cnc",
"led strips",
"roller coaster"
] | Roller coasters are not only great fun to ride, they’re also fascinating pieces of engineering. Building your own full-size coaster is sadly beyond most people’s means, so the average enthusiast will have to settle for simulation or modelling of their own designs. [Jon Mendenhall] is one of those who specialize in building model roller coasters and simulating their motion in intricate detail. His latest project is
a scale model of VelociCoaster, a
Jurassic Park
-themed ride in Universal’s Islands of Adventure, that simulates the coaster’s ride without using any moving parts
.
[Jon] achieves this by re-creating the trains’ motion using LED strips. A total of 3000 LEDs are spread along more than nine meters of track and make a mesmerizing light show of several trains whizzing along the track, accelerating and slowing down exactly like the real thing.
In his video, [Jon] explains the process of generating an accurate 3D model of the track starting from nothing more than an overhead view of the park as well as photos taken from various angles. The surrounding terrain and buildings are also included in his 3D model, as are the 128 supports that hold the track in place. The terrain and building were made from plywood and foam using a CNC machine, while the track and supports were 3D printed.
A Teensy microcontroller runs the whole show, with the LED strips split into five separate sections to allow a high enough frame rate for smooth animations. An infrared remote is used to start and stop the ride, as well as to adjust the speed; the model supports running the trains at a physically accurate speed, but because this looks rather dull, the regular setting is about three times as fast.
Looking for more roller coaster models? [Jon] made
a similarly impressive model with a powered train
before, and we’ve seen
several models
that
actually coast along their tracks
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495609",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T06:35:22",
"content": "Wow, the result is cool, but his explanation of all the smart tricks he used is what really makes this video!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6495677",
... | 1,760,372,623.110896 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/20/hacking-a-jack-in-the-box-to-be-extra-surprising/ | Hacking A Jack-in-the-Box To Be Extra Surprising | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arduino nano",
"jack-in-the-box",
"toy"
] | A Jack-In-The-Box is scary enough the first time. However, if you’ve seen the clown pop out before, it fails to have the same impact. [Franklinstein] decided that
swapping out the clown for an
alternative payload
would deliver the fright he was after.
Inside the toy, an Arduino Nano runs the show. It’s paired with an airhorn, installed in a special frame along with an RC servo. When the time is right, the RC servo presses up against the airhorn, firing off an almighty noise. There’s also a confetti blaster, built with a small chamber full of compressed air. When a solenoid is released, the compressed air rushes out through a funnel full of confetti, spraying it into the room.
When the crank on the toy is turned, the typical song plays. When the lid of the box opens, it releases a switch, and the Arduino fires off the confetti and airhorn. It’s shocking enough for [Franklinstein] himself, and even more surprising for those expecting the toy’s typical bouncing clown instead.
We’d love to see an even more obnoxious version that doesn’t turn the airhorn off for at least a full minute. We’ve seen them employed
in some great Halloween hacks before, too
. Video after the break. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495578",
"author": "NiHaoMike",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T02:51:52",
"content": "So basically how Mark Rober would build a Jack-in-the-box?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6495580",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2022... | 1,760,372,623.504742 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/20/3d-printed-skate-trucks-do-surprisingly-okay/ | 3D Printed Skate Trucks Do Surprisingly Okay | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"skateboard",
"skateboarding",
"skating"
] | If you can buy something off the shelf, there’s a good chance that someone has tried to 3D print their own version. [Daniel Norée] did just that with skateboard trucks,
whipping up a design of his own.
The main body of the trucks is 3D-printed, as is the hanger. A 195 mm M8 threaded rod is then used through the center of the trucks in order to provide an axle for fitting the wheels and bearings themselves. He 3D-printed the parts using a carbon-fiber reinforced nylon with the slicer set up to maximize strength. In testing, they rolled around the neighbourhood just fine.
[Mayer Makes] found the design online, and 3D printed some
using his own transparent high-impact resin
, making a cool set of clear-ish trucks. It’s a tough material,
which we’ve featured on this site before.
Those trucks ended up in the hands of [Braille Skateboarding],
who put them through their paces
. The trucks are loose, but take a good beating around the park. Eventually one of the trucks succumbs after landing many kickfilps and ollies on the concrete.
Other great skate hacks include
casting your own wheels in a 3D-printed mold
. Video after the break. | 18 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495572",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T01:31:42",
"content": "3d printers are amazing.They can make things that are literally unmachinable.They can also make low quality, bog standard, readily available things at greater cost then simply buying off the shelf.As an actu... | 1,760,372,623.455452 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/20/long-range-thermocouple-sensor-sips-battery-power/ | Long-Range Thermocouple Sensor Sips Battery Power | Lewin Day | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"datalogger",
"grafana",
"temperature sensor",
"thermocouple"
] | Sometimes you need to know the temperature of something from a ways away. That might be a smoker, a barbecue, or even a rabbit hutch. This project from [Discreet Mayor]
might just be what you’re looking for.
[Discreet Mayor] remotely keeps an eye on the meat, but doesn’t blab about it.
It consists of a MAX31855 thermocouple amplifier, designed for working with commonly-available K-type thermocouples. This is hooked up to a Texas Instruments CC1312 microcontroller, which sends the thermal measurements out over the 802.15.4 protocol, the same which underlies technologies like Zigbee and Thread. It’s able to send radio messages over long distances without using a lot of power, allowing the project to run off a CR2023 coin cell battery. Combined with firmware that sleeps the system when it’s not taking measurements, [Discreet Mayor] expects the project to run up to several years on a single battery.
The messages are picked up and logged
in a Grafana setup,
where they can readily be graphed. For extra utility, any temperatures outside a preset range will trigger a smartphone alert via IFTTT.
Keeping a close eye on temperatures is a key to making good food with a smoker, so this project should serve [Discreet Mayor] well. For anyone else looking to
monitor temperatures remotely
with a minimum of fuss, it should also do well! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495543",
"author": "Cricri",
"timestamp": "2022-07-20T20:59:34",
"content": "Typo: CR2023 = CR2032",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6495574",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T01:... | 1,760,372,623.346832 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/20/cut-just-about-anything-with-this-combination-lathe-and-wire-edm/ | Cut Just About Anything With This Combination Lathe And Wire EDM | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"ceramic",
"EDM",
"electric discharge machining",
"lathe",
"machining",
"wire EDM"
] | They say that if you have a lathe, you have every other machine tool too. To some degree, that’s true — you can make almost anything on a lathe, including another lathe, and even parts best made on other machine tools can usually be made on a lathe in a pinch. But after seeing
this lathe attachment for a DIY electric discharge machining tool
, we might be inclined to see the EDM as the one machine tool to rule them all.
Now, we’ll admit that the job [BAXEDM] built this tool for might be a little contrived. He wanted to make some custom hex inserts for his Swiss Army knife, which seem like they’d have been pretty easy to make from hex bar stock in a conventional lathe. Then again, hardened steel is the kind of material that wire EDM was made for, and there seem to be many use cases for an attachment that can spin a workpiece against an EDM cutting wire.
That was really the trick of this build — spinning a part underwater. To accomplish this, [BAXEDM] built a platform to carry a bearing block that supports a standard ER-25 collet, with a bracket that holds a stepper clear of the water in the EDM cutting tank. There are plenty of 3D printed insulators too, to keep most of the attachment electrically isolated from the EDM current, plus exotic parts like ceramic bearings that won’t corrode under water. There were a ton of other considerations, too; [BAXEDM] goes through the long iterative design process in the video below, as well as taking his new tool for a literal spin starting at about the 27:00 mark.
If you’re intrigued by what EDM can accomplish — and who wouldn’t be? — but you need more background on the process,
we’ve got you covered
. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495530",
"author": "Daniel",
"timestamp": "2022-07-20T19:29:13",
"content": "Anyone else wonder how he will put the 5mm ball side into the bit holder when the holder is designed for 4mm shanks?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,372,623.558474 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/20/transparent-cylinder-shows-you-what-you-otto-know-about-4-cycle-engines/ | Transparent Cylinder Shows You What You Otto Know About 4 Cycle Engines | Ryan Flowers | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"4-stroke",
"internal combustion",
"Otto cycle",
"resin printing"
] | When we think of a typical four stroke internal combustion engine, we think of
metal
. And for any type of longevity or performance, that’s certainly the right choice. But [Integza] wanted to see what happens inside a 4 stroke engine, and it wasn’t enough to see it from a transparent cylinder head. No, he wanted to see it in the cylinder itself. Thanks to advances in material sciences, he got his wish as seen
in the video below the break.
While researching possible transparent materials to use as a cylinder on his model engine, he learned about resin polishing. Combining his newly learned resin polishing knowledge with his knowledge of 3D printing, [Integza] printed a new cylinder and polished the resin until it was transparent. The engine ran, but misfired terribly.
The experiment progressed into trying different fuels and learning the differences between them, as well as uncovering a new-to-him mystery: Why was the engine misfiring, and why did the different fuels act so dramatically different? Indeed, more learning and more experimenting is needed. But if you want to see the great sight of watching combustion take place in slo-mo, you
have
to check out the video below.
3D printing has come a long way in a short time, and
may even hold the key to practical scramjets
for hypersonic aircraft. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495469",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-20T15:47:11",
"content": "Wow! Violet colored gasoline.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6495480",
"author": "Steve Shockley",
"ti... | 1,760,372,623.397242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/20/ask-hackaday-resin-printer-build-plates/ | Ask Hackaday: Resin Printer Build Plates | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Slider"
] | [
"3d printing",
"3D resin printer",
"Anycubic",
"magnetic build plate",
"nova3d",
"spring steel"
] | The early days of FDM 3D printing were wild and wooly. Getting plastic to stick to your build plate was a challenge. Blue tape and hairspray-coated glass were kings for a long time. Over time, better coatings have appeared and many people use spring steel covered in some kind of PEI. There seem to be fewer choices when it comes to resin printers, though. We recently had a chance to try three different build surfaces on two different printers: a Nova3D Bene4 and an Anycubic Photon M3. We learned a lot.
Resin Printing Review
If you haven’t figuratively dipped your toe into resin yet — which would literally be quite messy — the printers are simple enough. There is a tank or vat of liquid resin with a clear film on the bottom. The vat rests on an LCD screen and there is a UV source beneath that.
A typical build plate from the Nova3D (photo courtesy of [Patrick Williams])
A build plate enters the vat from above and sits just above the film. The LCD allows some of the UV through, which cures the resin in the vat. With luck, the plastic will stick to both the film and the build plate. Once the exposure is done, the printer will slightly raise the build plate, and — again, with luck — the plastic will snap off the film and stay stuck to the plate. The plate will then lower to a position just a little bit higher than the last time and the whole process repeats.
The Trade-Off
Like all engineering, 3D printing is a series of trade-offs. In the case of the build plate, you want something that the hardened resin will stick to better than the film at the bottom of the tank. However, you also want something that will let go of the plastic when you want it to let go.
A spring steel plate with a magnetic backing sticker, ready to install
Most of the printers we’ve used just have a flat metal build plate. That works well, but it makes it very hard to remove prints. Using a scraper, you have to watch you don’t lose a finger or otherwise destroy the part. That’s the kind of build plate we found on the Nova3D printer. However, we quickly moved to a spring steel plate. It is similar in concept to what you do with an FDM printer. A magnetic sticker goes on the real build plate and the spring steel sticks to it. The only problem is you have to tell the printer that the build plate is now thicker than it thinks it is.
The Anycubic Photon M3’s laser-engraved build plate
The other printer, the Photon M3, has a special laser-cut build surface that isn’t exactly smooth. Anycubic has used this on several printers and claims that it improves adhesion and also helps get a tool under the part for removal. You can see from the image that it has a sort of diamond pattern lightly engraved in the surface.
The Acid Test
Honestly, the brushed metal beds are painful. I’ve personally cut myself more than once trying to wedge off parts and — more than once — broken pieces of the part in the process. My bed has multiple scratches on it from these attempts.
Scraping the raft off of this smooth metal build plate can be tough
The Photon M3’s bed is obviously better. I can’t speak for the better adhesion part because I normally don’t have that problem. But it does make it somewhat easier to wedge parts off. Presumably, the pattern gives the tool some gap to work with, but it is much less stressful to remove a part from the textured bed.
However, once you go to the spring steel, it is hard to go back, in my opinion. You can just pull the plate off and pop the whole thing in a washer. Then you can simply flex the plate and pop the part off. No tools, no cuts, no scratches. The plates are pretty cheap, so you can even have multiples and easily print a new part while the last one is washing.
Everybody Has One
The results, though, are worth the effort. The octopus on the Photon’s textured surface is easier to get off than the smooth metal bed, but it still wasn’t easy. The same octopus on a steel sheet is easy to handle and popped right off.
The octopus clings to the patterned bed on the way to the bath
Octopus on steel sheet, ready to pop off.
Of course, that’s my opinion. I’m sold on the flexible plate beds. What do you think? The only real disadvantage I’ve found is that you do have to modify the printer or the firmware to tell the printer not to drive the new thicker print bed down into the LCD. For the Nova3D, that involved printing a little shim that hits the limit switch a little earlier. Not a big deal, but not plug and play, either.
If you browse printer forums, you’ll find people who have gone the flexible build plate system seem happy, overall. There are a few cases of magnets not sticking or poor adhesion. But overwhelmingly, you hear positive stories. It makes me wonder why we haven’t seen any plates like this as a stock item or — at least — as an option with built-in support for offsetting the Z-axis sensor.
I’ll admit, I don’t resin print as often as I thought I would. Sure, the results are great. But the mess is substantial, especially if you are a little clumsy to start with. However, the spring steel bed really does help. The smell is the same, and the resin still drips everywhere, but at least you can easily remove prints. And handling them on a lightweight plate is easier than moving the entire print bed assembly around if you want to, say, throw it in the washer. Of course, if you don’t like it, it isn’t that hard to remove the magnetic sticker, undo your Z-axis mod, and go back to the way things were.
So what do you think? What kind of bed are you using for resin? Do you like it? Are there other options out there? Let us know in the comments and if you’ve done any good projects in this area,
leave us a link
.
We’ve talked about
flexible plate beds before
. If you haven’t tried resin printing yet, we can tell you a little about
what to expect
. | 29 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495485",
"author": "Jace",
"timestamp": "2022-07-20T16:54:50",
"content": "The magnetic bed upgrade I got gave instructions for printing an adaptor for my printer that would adjust for the height difference. You just need to remember to print this part before you adhere the magnet... | 1,760,372,623.653214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/20/the-casio-smartwatch-you-never-had/ | The Casio Smartwatch You Never Had | Jenny List | [
"clock hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"casio",
"Casio F91W",
"F91W",
"smartwatch"
] | In a way, you have to feel a bit sorry for the engineers at Casio. They can produce the most advanced digital watches ever to grace the wrist, but their work will forever be associated with one of their more lowly creations. The Casio F91 is the archetypal digital watch — it’s affordable, it’s been in production since the Ark, it does the job so well that it’s become a design classic, and it remains a very tough act to follow.
If it has a flaw though, it’s that the functions of a watch from 1989 are very basic. Wouldn’t it be nice if a Casio F91 could be a modern smartwatch! Well thanks to [Pegor] it can, with
a complete re-engineering of the classic watch’s internals
. Now the simple classic timepiece is fully up-to-date!
All the Casio internals are removed, and a new movement holder supports a fresh PCB with an OLED display mounted via a flexible sub-PCB. The brains comes courtesy of a Texas Instruments CC2640 BLE microcontroller. This gives it a 15-day battery life, which is nothing like what the original watch would have but compares favorably to smartwatches. He admits that the software needs some work, but with hardware this well-executed we hope that others can contribute some improvements.
This is probably the most impressive F91 hack we’ve seen, but
it’s by no means the first revamped Casio we’ve shown you
. | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495402",
"author": "sxmwht",
"timestamp": "2022-07-20T11:48:17",
"content": "Looks brilliant, what a great project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6495413",
"author": "Collie147",
"timestamp": "2022-07-20T12:22:47",
... | 1,760,372,623.824916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/20/porting-doom-but-in-the-opposite-direction/ | PortingDOOMBut In The Opposite Direction | Lewin Day | [
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"brew",
"doom",
"doom port",
"Doom RPG",
"java",
"porting doom",
"smartphone"
] | DOOM
was first released for MS-DOS, and is one of the pillar titles of the broader first-person-shooter genre. It’s also become a bit of a meme for being ported to any and every weird platform under the sun. Now, a group of developers in Costa Rica have found a way to flip that joke around –
by porting an old mobile
DOOM
game back to the PC.
The game in question is
DOOM RPG
, made for BREW and Java-compatible phones in 2005. A group named GEC.inc has taken that game and ported it to Windows, outlining their work
on the Doomworld forums.
As with many such projects, the port is freely available, but doesn’t include the raw game files themselves due to copyright. You’ll have to find the gamedata yourself, and combine it with the files the group published on the forum to get it to work on a modern PC.
For those that have missed the turn-based role playing game based in the
DOOM
universe (
Doomiverse?),
today is a good day. No longer must you pine for your ancient, crusty Java smartphone of yesteryear. Now you can play the game on a less awful platform, and listen to the unique and compelling MIDI-esque soundtrack.
Doom ports are hot right now, whether it’s to
forgotten Apple OSes
or
Sega arcade hardware.
Video after the break.
[Thanks to Itay for the tip,
via Engadget
] | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495452",
"author": "Handy Jack",
"timestamp": "2022-07-20T14:35:12",
"content": "Something like this combined with a Typing-of-the-Dead-style interface would be amazing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6495532",
"auth... | 1,760,372,623.979098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/programmable-resistance-box/ | Programmable Resistance Box | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"calibration",
"decade",
"microcontroller",
"oled",
"programmable",
"relay",
"resistance",
"resistor",
"substitution"
] | For prototype electronics projects, most of us have a pile of resistors of various values stored somewhere on our tool bench. There are different methods of organizing them for easy access and identification, but for true efficiency a resistance substitution box can be used on the breadboard to quickly change resistance values at a single point in a circuit. Until now it seemed this would be the pinnacle of quickly selecting differently-sized resistors,
but thanks to this programmable resistor bank
there’s an even better option available now.
Unlike a traditional substitution box or decade box, which uses switches or dials to select different valued resistors across a set of terminals, this one is programmable and uses a series of sealed relays instead. That’s not where the features stop, though. It also comes equipped with internal calibration circuitry which take into account the resistance of the relay contacts and internal wiring to provide a very precise resistance value across its terminals. It’s also able to be calibrated manually to account for temperature or other factors.
For an often-overlooked piece of test equipment, this one surely fits the bill of something we didn’t know we needed until now. Even though
digital resistor substitution boxes
are things we have featured in the past, the connectivity and calibration capabilities of this one make it intriguing. | 32 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495304",
"author": "mh",
"timestamp": "2022-07-20T05:29:01",
"content": "Oh well, I already have a nice Chinese digital component tester that is quite useful, but always discharged when I want to use it.Now I can add a resistor box to that class of tools.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,372,623.926542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/down-the-intel-microcode-rabbit-hole/ | Down The Intel Microcode Rabbit Hole | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"cpu",
"intel",
"microcode"
] | The aptly-named [chip-red-pill] team is offering you a chance to go down the Intel rabbit hole. If you learned how to build CPUs back in the 1970s, you would learn that your instruction decoder would, for example, note a register to register move and then light up one register to write to a common bus and another register to read from the common bus. These days, it isn’t that simple. In addition to compiling to an underlying instruction set, processors rarely encode instructions in hardware anymore. Instead, each instruction has microcode that causes the right things to happen at the right time. But Intel encrypts their microcode. Of course, what can be encrypted can also be
decrypted
.
Using vulnerabilities, you can activate an undocumented debugging mode called red unlock. This allows a microcode dump and the decryption keys are inside. The team did a paper for OffensiveCon22 on this technique and you can see a video about it, below.
So far, the keys for Gemini Lake and Apollo Lake processors are available. That covers
quite a number of processors
. Of course, there are many more processors out there if you want to try your hand at a similar exploit.
This same team has done other exploits, such as executing
arbitrary microcode inside an Atom CPU
. If you want to play along, you might
find this useful
. You do know that your
CPU has instructions it is keeping from you
, don’t you? | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495256",
"author": "hank o'neill-fisher",
"timestamp": "2022-07-20T02:14:48",
"content": "This was done before on a pentium II, yielding some fun results:https://twitter.com/peterbjornx/status/1319133436041482240https://github.com/peterbjornx/patchtools_pubhttps://twitter.com/peter... | 1,760,372,624.027142 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/iot-garage-door-opener-makes-for-excellent-beginner-iot-project/ | IOT Garage Door Opener Makes For Excellent Beginner IOT Project | Ryan Flowers | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"garage door opener",
"micropython",
"Paspberry Pi Pico",
"Pi Pico W"
] | If you live in a home with a garage door opener, you may have experienced one or more inevitable moments. You pull up to your home, you press the button on the garage door opener, and… nothing. Or you can’t
find
the garage door opener. Or you have to mash the button repeatedly to get a response. Or… you get the idea. Thanks to [Core Electronics] however, you now have the basis for using a much better device to control your own garage door: Your phone. You can
see the tutorial on the web
or in
video format below the break
.
[Michael] at [Core electronics] was tired of dealing with the inconsistencies and inconveniences of a poorly built remote for his garage door opener. When he inspected the controller board on the garage door opener itself, he found that it was already configured to allow three buttons to be connected: Up, Down, and Stop.
Realizing that a MOSFET can be configured as a switch, [Michael] built a circuit with three such devices and then connected them to the Raspberry Pi Pico W. Some
MicroPython code
does the needful, and now [Michael] can access the controls from a website on his phone. Nifty!
We also appreciated that the tutorial gives a full view of the project so that a beginning hacker can decide whether this is the project for them, and it discusses some of the security aspects of making your garage door and IOT device. Well done!
Given the warnings in the video, we wonder if [Michael] also saw the Hackaday article “
The Trials And Tribulations of Building An IOT Garage Door Opener
” from 2019.
Thanks to [Graham] for the great tip! | 14 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495202",
"author": "Tom Brusehaver",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T23:15:46",
"content": "This is my version, using an Arduino nano, and an Android app.http://enginemonitor.blogspot.com/2015/08/garage-project-update.html?m=1",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}... | 1,760,372,624.088781 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/quirky-complicated-clock-piques-constructors-curiosity/ | Quirky Complicated Clock Piques Constructor’s Curiosity | Ryan Flowers | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"chain",
"clock",
"electromechanical clock",
"gears",
"mechanical clock"
] | The Clock that served as inspiration for the garberPark Clock
Have you ever observed the project of another hacker and thought to yourself “I have
got
to have one of those!”? If so, you’re in good company with hacker [garberPark], the maker of
the unusual chain clock
seen in the video below the break.
While on a stroll past the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center in Minneapolis, MN, [garberPark] was transfixed by the clock seen to the right here. In the clock, two motors each drive a chain that has numbers attached to it, and the number at the top displays the current time. It wasn’t long before [garberPark] observed his own lack of such a clock. So they did what any hacker will do: they made their own version!
Using an ESP8266, and Arduino, and some other basic electronics, they put together a horizontal interpretation of the clock they saw. Rather than being continuous rotation, limit switches keep things in line while the ESP8266’s NTP keep things in time. Salvaged scanner stepper motors provide locomotion, and what appear to be bicycle cranks and chains work in harmony with cutoff license plates to display the current time- but only if there’s somebody around to observe it; A very nice touch and great attention to detail!
If you enjoyed this, you’ll love the
Sprocket and Chain clock
we featured a few months back. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495164",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T21:16:53",
"content": "At first I thought this was a HaD repeat, but it looks like I first saw it in the comments from the previous chain clock video.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,372,624.129896 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/washington-dc-finally-gets-its-own-pcb-metro-map/ | Washington, DC Finally Gets Its Own PCB Metro Map | Tom Nardi | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"map",
"mass transit",
"pcb art",
"public transit",
"RGB LED"
] | There was a time, not so long ago, when folks who wanted to make their own custom PCBs would have found themselves in the market for a bucket of acid and a second-hand laser printer. These days, all you have to do is click a few buttons in your EDA program of choice and send the files off for fabrication. It’s easy, cheap, and nobody ends up with chemical burns.
This has obviously had a transformative effect on the electronics hobby — when you can place traces on a PCB like an artist using a brush, it’s only a matter of time
before you get projects like [Logan Arkema]’s
DCTransistor
. This open source board uses carefully arranged RGB LEDs to recreate the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) metro map, and thanks to an ESP8266 connected to their API, can display the positions of trains in real-time.
If you’re getting a sense of déjà vu here, it’s not just in your head. We’ve seen similar maps created for other major metropolitan areas, and [Logan] certainly isn’t trying to take credit for the idea. In fact, he was a bit surprised to find that nobody had ever made one for the DC area — so he decided to take on the challenge himself. He reasoned it would be a good way to hone his PCB design skills and become more comfortable with embedded development. We’d say the end result proves his theory correct, and makes one more city that can boast about its IoT cartography.
Looking to hang a
DCTransistor
on your own wall? [Logan] says he’ll be dropping the board design files and schematics
into the project’s GitHub repository soon
, and he also plans on selling pre-made boards in the near future.
We covered this
London “tube” map back in 2020
, and were impressed by the attention to detail that went into similar displays for
Tokyo, Singapore, and the San Francisco Bay Area
a year later. Perhaps it’s time to map out your own hometown in LEDs? | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495150",
"author": "davidt",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T20:39:25",
"content": "This, unlike the real Metro system, is unlikely to catch fire. (See “ismetroonfire.com” because it’s a real thing.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,372,624.179986 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/simple-binary-watch-uses-a-pcb-body/ | Simple Binary Watch Uses A PCB Body | Lewin Day | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"binary",
"binary clock",
"binary watch"
] | There are many ways to tell the time, from using analog dials to 7-segment displays. Hackers tend to enjoy binary watches, if only for their association with the digital machines that seem to make the world turn these days.
[Vishal Soni] decided to build one of their own.
It’s a straightforward design, that uses six bits to show the time. A red light is illuminated at the top of the watch to indicate the watch is showing minutes, and these are displayed in binary on the six blue LEDs below. Then, the watch indicates it is showing hours, and again uses the six blue LEDs to show the relevant number.
[Vishal] refers to this as a binary coded decimal (BCD) watch, but BCD involves using binary to directly refer to numbers from 0-9. Instead, it appears to be a regular binary watch using 6-bit notation.
The heart of the watch is an ATtiny85, It also features a TP4056 for charging and maintaining the lithium battery used to power the watch. Charging is via a USB-C port. It’s all built on a custom PCB which is designed to act as the watch body, with the straps directly attached to the PCB itself. The only thing that appears missing is a 32.768 KHz crystal or real-time clock for accurate timekeeping.
Overall, it’s a fun build that would have taught [Vishal] plenty of useful design skills. We imagine those will serve [Vishal] well in future projects. If you’re digging the binary watch, consider some of the
other
great
builds
we’ve seen over the years. Video after the break. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495793",
"author": "not",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T21:07:51",
"content": "“[Vishal] refers to this as a binary coded decimal (BCD) watch, but BCD involves using binary to directly refer to numbers from 0-9. Instead, it appears to be a regular binary watch using 6-bit notation.”cong... | 1,760,372,624.219588 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/tiny-pinball-machine-also-runs-x86-code/ | Tiny Pinball Machine Also Runs X86 Code | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"dos",
"emulator",
"ESP32",
"pinball",
"small",
"tiny",
"x86"
] | As arcades become more and more rare, plenty of pinball enthusiasts are moving these intricate machines to their home collections in basements, garages, and guest rooms. But if you’re not fortunate enough to live in a home that can support a space-intensive hobby like pinball machines, there are some solutions to that problem.
This one, for example, fits on the palm of your hand
and also happens to run some impressive software for its size.
The machine isn’t a mechanical pinball machine like its larger cousins, though. Its essentially a 3D printed case made to look like a pinball machine with two screens attached. It does have a working plunger for launching the ball and two buttons on the sides for the approximation of authenticity, but it’s actually running
Pinball Fantasies
— a pinball simulator designed to run on x86 hardware from the 90s. This sports an ESP32 on the inside, which has just enough computing capability to run an x86 emulator that can load these games in DOS.
The game includes haptic feedback and zips along at 60 frames per second, which really brings the pinball experience to its maximum level given the game’s minuscule size. It’s impressive for fitting a lot into a small space, both from physical and software points-of-view. For more full-sized digital pinball builds,
take a look at this one which comes exceptionally close to replicating the real thing
. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495752",
"author": "andarb",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T18:40:36",
"content": "an ESP32 running a dos emulator? wow",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6495812",
"author": "Alphatek",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T22:46:... | 1,760,372,624.269872 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/dont-miss-your-last-chance-to-enter-the-hack-it-back-challenge/ | Don’t Miss Your Last Chance To Enter TheHack It BackChallenge | Tom Nardi | [
"contests",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"rebuild",
"recycle",
"repair",
"upgrade"
] | While the
2022 Hackaday Prize
as a whole winds its way through a good chunk of the year, each individual challenge that makes up the competition only sticks around for a limited time. As hard as it might be to believe, our time with the
Hack it Back
challenge is nearly at a close, with just a few days left to enter your project before the July 24th deadline.
Each challenge in this year’s Hackaday Prize has been designed around the core themes of sustainability, resiliency, and circularity — and for the
Hack it Back
phase of the competition we asked hackers to essentially keep as much hardware out of the landfill as possible. That could mean making a simple fix that puts a piece of equipment back into service, or it might be a be complete rebuild of an older device to bring it up to modern standards. These are the kind of projects Hackaday was built on, so turning it into an official challenge this year made perfect sense.
A single failed LED brought down this mighty beast.
In a way,
taking a look through the
Hack it Back
entries
is like seeing a distilled “best of” collection of Hackaday itself. Take for example the phenomenal repair pulled off by [Gregor].
He got his hands on a malfunctioning Stratasys Dimension SST
, and quickly noted that the LEDs which lighted the industrial 3D printer’s chamber had failed due to extended exposure to high temperatures. Using some Holmesian logic, he deduced that the IR LEDs responsible for the printer’s tool changing system may have suffered a similar fate. After replacing a surface mount LED worth less than a buck, this ±$40K USD machine was ready to print another day.
On the opposite side of the spectrum is the
Notkia project
, or at least, the project-formerly-known-as-Notkia. Turns out, Nokia’s lawyers aren’t big fans of wordplay. Whatever the project ends up getting called in the end, it’s one of the most impressive retrofitting efforts we’ve seen in quite some time. This collaborative effort aims to develop a replacement PCB for the Nokia 1680 that turns the once simplistic “dumb phone” into a full-fledged Linux handheld. Note we didn’t say Linux
phone
, as at least for now, there’s no actual cellular hardware included. But it’s got just about anything else you could possibly want, all packed into an exceptionally portable and robust enclosure.
Speaking of replacement PCBs, this project from [mulcmu] looks to
upgrade an early 2000s Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote
to better interface with today’s devices, which increasingly use WiFi for connectivity. The final hardware will use an ESP32 and open source firmware to connect to a wide array of consumer gadgets, but the immediate focus at this early stage is getting the board designed. We can’t help but admire the attention to detail that’s gone into this first alpha board, which also doubles as a reminder of just how good these low-cost PCB fabs have gotten: he paid just $1.60 per board, and they were on his doorstep four days later. Unreal.
We’ll admit there’s some pretty stiff competition this round, but when has that ever stopped this community from rising to the challenge? If you’ve got a repair, upgrade, or complete rebuild that you’re particularly proud off, don’t wait any longer to show it off.
All you’ve got to do is
make a new project on Hackaday.io
, and
submit it to the challenge
. If you were waiting for the last minute to make your dramatic entrance — this is it.
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495901",
"author": "dudenamedben",
"timestamp": "2022-07-22T12:37:02",
"content": "I reflowed a monster gpu multiple times, made it last me 8 years. Still havnt thrown it out so i can take another crack at it when i get the time. But that and simple capacitor replacements are not g... | 1,760,372,624.31899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/building-a-modular-joystick-for-star-citizen/ | Building A Modular Joystick ForStar Citizen | Lewin Day | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Joystick",
"star citizen"
] | Joysticks are great for gaming, but sometimes it’s hard to find one that suits your personal playstyle.
[Nixie] developed the TinkerJoy to suit their own needs
, while giving it a modular design to make it easy to customize as well.
It’s built around a metal core, with 3D printed panels attached to the user’s liking. In addition to the body panels, parts like the trigger assembly and button panels can be moved around and adjusted to suit different games or different players.
A test unit has been built in a right-handed configuration, featuring four buttons and two switch sliders. In addition to the main X and Y axes, it also has a Z axis activated by twisting the joystick, as well as an analog brake. There’s a trigger, too, as every good joystick must have. For now, the electronics is not integrated. Instead, a STM32 BluePill board sits on top of the stick to read all the controls and talk to a PC. The test setup looks to work well, with [Nixie] putting the gear through its paces
in
Star Citizen.
The benefit of building your own hardware is that
you can often do ergonomics better yourself.
After all, companies often have to build for the 5th-95th percentile for reasons of economics and scale. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495724",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T16:48:15",
"content": "This is based on the freejoy project using hall effect sensors and magnets for the 5 axes.Firmware is on a custom, built in stm32 bluepill clone.Lovely work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,372,624.427818 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/teardown-how-many-teddy-ruxpins-does-it-take-to-start-a-coven/ | Teardown: How Many Teddy Ruxpins Does It Take To Start A Coven? | Kristina Panos | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Teardown"
] | [
"animatronic",
"animatronics",
"robotic teddy",
"teardown",
"teddy ruxpin"
] | Well, I did it. I conquered my childhood fear of talking bears and brought a vintage Teddy Ruxpin animatronic stuffed bear into my home. There were and still are plenty of his brethren both young and old to choose from on the auction sites, and when I saw this particularly carefree barefoot Teddy in his Hawaiian shirt and no pants, I was almost totally disarmed. Plus, the description promised a semi-working unit with a distorted voice, and who among us could resist a specimen in such condition? Maybe the tape deck motor is going out, or it just needs a new belt. Maybe the tape itself messed up, and Teddy is fine. I had to find out.
But let me back up a bit. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Teddy Ruxpin was a revolutionary toy that dropped in 1985. It’s a talking teddy bear that reads stories aloud, all the while moving his eyes and mouth to the sounds. Along with Teddy came special cassette tapes, corresponding story books, and outfits. I wanted one when I was a kid, but was also kind of scared of them. Since they were so expensive — about $250 inflation-adjusted for the bear and a single tape / book / outfit, plus another $15 for four D cells — I never did get one in my youth.
Aloha, Beelzebub
On the day Teddy arrived all the way from Hawaii, I ran out and bought a set of C cells so I could check his condition. To my absolute glee, not only did he work as intended, he looked and sounded downright demonic! I grabbed my phone and started recording.
It’s a barefoot kind of Saturday,
It’s a picnic sort of day
It’s a barefoot kind of Saturday,
Can we go out and plaaaaaaaaay?
According to
the way this song’s supposed to sound
, several characters are singing it together. Of course, the phone mic makes it sound worse than it really is, so I made a much longer recording by propping Teddy up in front of my desk mic. If you think you can stand it, there’s another song that starts about two minutes in:
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/teddy-ruxpin.mp3
At this point, it was time for experimentation. If you’ll recall, Teddy Ruxpin cassettes are special in that one track contains the audio, and the other holds the encoding for the servo(s) that control his eyes and mouth. I can see through the little viewing window that there is some kind of scwum on the tape itself, which could be the cause of the Satanic sounds. Since I didn’t have any other Teddy Ruxpin tapes lying around, I decided to see how the tape sounded in a regular cassette deck (a Hello Kitty boombox I bought in 1999, lined out to Audacity):
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/teddy-ruxpin-regular-tape-deck.mp3
Oh! So that’s another kind of freaky, isn’t it? Those 1960s outer space noises are the sound of whatever encoding was used to drive the eye and mouth servos. But based on the normal-sounding speaking voice when played through a tape deck, it seems that whatever is possessing Teddy is coming from within, and will not be so easily exorcised. That’s cool. All the more reason to perform a vivisection.
But First, A Little Grunge Music
In the meantime, I decided to get another tape to prove that it’s Teddy’s problem, so I got the best possible Teddy Ruxpin tape available: Grunge Music.
Wikipedia will tell you that
the term to describe the early 90s Seattle music scene
came from a record label executive’s description of one band’s sound, but I honestly believe that it was put into that person’s subconscious by this tape, which makes reference to and samples music made by a class of creatures in the Teddy Ruxpin universe known as Grunges. Somehow, this tape sounds even better than the Summertime one that came with Demonic Teddy.
The astute among you have noticed that the tape is upside down, and I suppose that is in the interest of shorter wires between the playback head and the servos that control Teddy’s eyes and mouth, though it could have been done as an easy way to distinguish Teddy tapes from maxi cassingles. What’s slightly more interesting is that there is a second set of copy protection windows in the top of the tape. I’m thinking that this is what tells Teddy whether the tape is one of his, or just some other ribbon of rust.
Back: normal tape. Front: Teddy tape.
If you look closely, you can see a little switch actuator lined up with the left hole.
Here is the switch actuator in the light, on the left. There are two holes because the program is recorded on both sides.
Here’s the back of the bear.
Teddy has no audio or playback controls other than the switch on-volume pot at the top there, so you gotta rewind cassettes the old-fashioned way.
Teardown Time
Teddy Tuxpin is a lounge singer by night. He had an act with Mac Tonight back in the 70s before they took separate paths to overnight success.
It really didn’t take long for me to get attached to the Demonic Summertime Teddy, so much so that I bought a second one to do the actual teardown part. I really don’t think there’s much to be afraid of under those screws, but I want the chance to familiarize myself with
illiop
innards before putting Hula Teddy under the knife.
So anyway, here’s where I screwed up. I wanted to make a recording of Grunge Music through Teddy, but for some reason, I decided to start removing screws, and now the tape doesn’t move anymore.
In the meantime, Teddy Tuxpin showed up, and he works perfectly. So for now, the best I can do is record Grunge Music through Teddy Tuxpin:
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TT_Grunge_Music.mp3
And here’s how Grunge Music sounds through Hello Kitty:
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/TT_Grunge_HK.mp3
And then, I had an idea: buy a total of three more Teddies, hack them all to do my bidding, and make them sing barbershop quartet. I could even sew little matching outfits for them. But I digress.
Since Teddy Tuxpin works well, I am hesitant to open him up, and will probably use one of the others to get all the way inside. I cheated a little bit and found
this amazingly Web 1.0 site
that presents detailed teardown information in helpful poster board-like format. There are two deep-set Phillips screws at the top of the plastic box, and two tiny, soft-metal screws that are unspeakably easy to strip. I had already tried and failed at one of them before I went looking around to make sure that’s all there was to getting inside.
But Wait, There’s More
In my frenzy to collect Teddies from around the Internet, I also bought one of the newer kinds. Produced by Playskool/Hasbro sometime between 1991 and 1996, these Teddies use cartridge tapes that look a lot like small 8-tracks. This particular bear came with a cartridge dated 1992. Instead of four C cells, these take four AAs, with ‘alkaline strongly recommended’. Everything is smaller, including Teddy himself.
The controls are even simpler.
Tiny 8-track is tiny.
The snout seems a bit longer on Junior there.
After the 8-track teddies, there was a brief resurgence of regular cassettes in the third generation. Then they moved on to digital cartridges. Teddy sort of ditched the
razor-and-blades business model
in 2017, and comes with three stories pre-loaded. Other stories are available through an app. Oh, and this time around, Teddy has some seriously creepy LCD eyes. If you really want to get into the Teddy timeline,
this trip through the Teddy Ruxpin vault
is a good start.
Back to 8-Track Teddy
Against the advice on the inside of the cover, I scrounged up four decidedly non-alkaline batteries to test him out. While 8-track Teddy sounds just fine, neither his eyes nor his mouth are moving. While original Teddy was born with three servos in the head, I’ve heard that newer editions used a single servo, so perhaps it’s just dead or frozen.
Hmm, on second look inside the battery compartment, it says that if Teddy doesn’t animate properly, that you’re supposed to insert fresh batteries, with alkaline strongly recommended. Could it be that easy? The re-chargeables I’m using are only 1.2 Vs. I went out and got some new copper tops, and ’92 Teddy still doesn’t animate. I’m thinking it’s because his snout is askance — maybe he got dropped on his face too many times, or else swung around face-first into something. I’ll have to see if I can fix that.
In the meantime, let’s have a look-see inside, shall we?
The mini 8-track player. Tapes are ka-chunked into the base of Teddy’s spine like an epidural instead of inserting flat against his back.
The second-biggest chip on the board: a comparator.
What the heck is this diode-looking thing? CR? There are five total.
Wow indeed — the biggest chip on the board is an op-amp.
Bear In Mind, This Isn’t Over
I don’t have to tell you about the change of feeling that comes with taking something apart. You know, the way that just seeing the inside of something increases your familiarity so much that you never view the outside the same way again.
So what about my childhood fear of talking bears? I must say that Demonic Summertime Teddy caused nothing but delight on my end, and I’m determined to get him chanting again so I can terrorize others. I already bought him a better copy of his Hawaiian shirt, which has a few holes and stains, so this has to happen. But it’ll have to happen in another post, which I’m certain will be a real teddy bear picnic.
I want to thank all the commenters on Elliot’s
Not On the Internet
post who have pointed me towards various answers to the how-does-Teddy-tick question, such as
this GUI authoring tool for producing new Teddy tapes
and
this old Usenet post about the inner workings
. I’m bound to get further than I would have before. | 35 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495691",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T14:27:50",
"content": "Maybe a local priest could recommend an exorcist?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6495692",
"author": "Michael Black"... | 1,760,372,624.611755 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/nokia-5110-gets-android-stowaway-and-a-keyboard/ | Nokia 5110 Gets Android Stowaway And A Keyboard | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Android Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"5110",
"android",
"bluetooth",
"keyboard",
"nokia"
] | Even though Nokia is largely an afterthought in the phone market now, there was a time when their products represented the state-of-the-art in mobile devices. Some of the their handsets even featured slide-out keyboards and the ability to sent emails; largely unheard of for a device from the late 90s. [befinitiv] was a kid back then and couldn’t afford one of these revolutionary devices, so
he built his own modern version
that still looks and feels like the original.
To do this he borrowed the case and structure of a Nokia 5110 phone, but modified it to hold a small Android device in the old battery compartment along with a tiny Bluetooth keyboard (which was also built from scratch by [befinitiv]) that connects to the Android phone to mimic the old slide-out style. This isn’t just a case mod, though. He also reverse-engineered the original PCB of the phone and included a Bluetooth module there as well, which allows the phone’s screen and keypad to work mostly as originally intended.
This project goes pretty far to scratch the 90s phone nostalgia itch while still being largely usable as a real phone in the modern world. Assuming you aren’t too hung up on the literal phone aspect, the
Notkia project is also an impressive effort
to bring new life to these old handsets. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495651",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T11:36:45",
"content": "Back in the days i was quite happy with Nokia 9300i. It fit in the pocket nicely, had qwerty keyboard, relatively wide screen, wifi, decent SSH client and semi-decent web browser i beleive even flash pl... | 1,760,372,624.52448 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/21/3d-printing-a-check-valve-in-metal/ | 3D Printing A Check Valve In Metal | Lewin Day | [
"Parts"
] | [
"check valve",
"metal 3d printing"
] | [SunShine] has been working on 3D printed pumps and similar parts with an aim towards building smaller and more compact hydraulic systems. His latest effort involves
printing working hydraulic check valves that can be integrated seamlessly into his designs.
Unlike many 3D printing enthusiasts, [SunShine] works with metal printers of the laser powder bed type. His expectations for his parts are thus very high, and he aimed to create check valves that could withstand high hydraulic pressures.
After much work, [SunShine] came up with two designs for 3D-printed check valves that would work. However, they both needed internal removal of support structures that couldn’t be achieved without cutting them open. He then figured out that he could use a special process using nitric acid to carefully eat away a very precise amount of metal inside the valves, which would remove the support material without destroying the whole valve itself.
While the valves couldn’t be tested beyond 400 bar due to the available equipment, they did work as intended. As a bonus, they actually sealed better as they were used more, as the sealing surfaces bedded in and deformed to match each other.
The video is then rounded out with a simple plastic check valve design
you can print at home.
It reminds us of
other valves we’ve seen created with 3D printing before
. Video after the break.
Thanks to [Zane Atkins] for the tip! | 34 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495624",
"author": "Viki",
"timestamp": "2022-07-21T08:39:50",
"content": "Robots replacing humans again.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6495641",
"author": "The Partially Sighted Mole",
"timestamp": "2022-07... | 1,760,372,625.015503 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/dead-solar-panels-are-the-hottest-new-recyclables/ | Dead Solar Panels Are The Hottest New Recyclables | Lewin Day | [
"green hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"aluminium",
"aluminum",
"copper",
"lead",
"photovoltaic",
"photovoltaics",
"recycling",
"silicon",
"silver",
"solar panel",
"solar power",
"tin"
] | When it comes to renewable energy, there are many great sources. Whether it’s solar, wind, or something else, though, we need a lot of it. Factories around the globe are rising to the challenge to provide what we need.
We can build plenty of new solar panels, of course, but we need to think about what happens when they reach end of life. As it turns out, with so much solar now out in the field, a major new recycling industry
may be just around the corner.
Crunch ‘Em Up
Wind turbines and solar panels are being installed en-masse to supply renewable energy to the grid. Neither last forever, and planning for their end-of-life is key to avoiding valuable materials ending up in landfill. Credit: Adobe Stock
Solar panels are great at harvesting energy from the sun, but they don’t last forever. They can get damaged or smashed, or simply age out. Most panels are rated for a service life of 25 years. The solar boom really took off in the early 2000s, and has gathered steam ever since. That means that we’ll soon face an avalanche of solar panels that are ready for retirement.
Like so much modern tech, solar panels wrap up a bunch of expensive and exotic materials into one fancy product. The photovoltaic cells that produce power from the sun are made using materials like silver, copper, and aluminium, all of which are valuable. The cells also use plenty of polysilicon, which is expensive to produce. Other trace materials can include tin and lead used in solder connections, though
hazardous waste regulations
have reduced this in recent years.
The problem is that all these fancy materials can be difficult to separate out. Copper wiring can be cut off the back of panels relatively easily, and aluminum frames stripped off. However, all the other materials require more processing.
Currently, the bulk of solar panels that are recycled are basically shredded and treated as relatively impure crushed glass, referred to as glass cullet in the industry. Combined with the copper wiring and aluminium frame, recyclers can expect to get around $3 a panel for their efforts. That doesn’t stack up well against the cost of the process, which can be
anywhere from $12 to $25 a panel
when transport and processing costs are stacked up.
These high costs mean that many solar panels are simply sent to landfill instead. At the present time,
only around 10%
of solar panels are recycled in the US.
New Processes are the Key
The trick to recovering more from solar cells is to take more care in the recycling process.
One method is known as the FRELP process
, for “Full Recovery End of Life Photovoltaic” process. It uses a hot knife to carefully separate out the silicon cells from the glass and plastic of the panel, which lets each component be processed separately. Chemical processes can then be used to separate out high-value silver and copper, rather than leaving these materials churned up with the glass. The hope is that the silicon recovered could be of good enough purity to be reused in solar panel production without requiring expensive repurification steps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaUlSZ2biI8
Waste management company Veolia has also been working in this area,
running a commercial-scale plant in France since 2018
, and
a newer test project in Germany
this year. Similar to most processes, the wiring, cable panel, and aluminium frame are all removed, in this case by robots. Then, the PV panel itself is chopped into small tablets, ground up, and the glass separated from the metal content with an eddy-current separator. This allows for efficient recovery of the raw materials, rather than simply shredding the whole panel and mixing all the precious metals and silicon up with the glass. Veolia hopes to continue developing its process to the point where it can reliably recover high-purity silver and silicon from the panels, to be reused in the production of new panels. The company hopes to step up its operations to the point where it can recycle all solar panels that are being decommissioned in France.
An Industry Set To Boom
Rystad Energy estimates that the solar panel recycling market will boom as installed panels start aging out in coming years. Source: Rystad Energy
The global solar panel waste stream is set to boom. At the end of 2016, there were around 250,000 tons of waste panels, but that’s expected to balloon to over five million tons
by 2050.
As more solar capacity is installed, it locks in a larger waste stream for the future.
This giant waste stream is quickly becoming a resource ready to be tapped. Rather than running a silver or aluminium mine, companies will compete to get their share of a waste stream full of precious metals. The trick is in perfecting the techniques to extract and purify that metal in a clean and cost-effective way. Research firm Rystad expects the solar recycling industry to be worth
$2.7 billion by 2030,
and $80 billion by 2050, up from a comparatively-miniscule $170 million today.
Mastering the recycling of solar panels and
wind turbines
will be key to ensuring we have the renewable power we need into the future. Thus, if you’ve got some creative ideas on how to recover materials from solar panels, there’s plenty of scope to make money at it in the coming years!
Banner photo: “
Installing solar panels
” by Oregon DOT.
(Yeah, we know, but “installation is in the reverse order of removal.”) | 99 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495100",
"author": "ONV",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T17:04:37",
"content": "DFR – Design for Recycling. Is that not a thing yet?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6495110",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "202... | 1,760,372,624.94879 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/putting-a-cheap-laser-rangefinder-through-its-paces/ | Putting A Cheap Laser Rangefinder Through Its Paces | Adam Zeloof | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"laser",
"laser rangefinder",
"sensor",
"statistics"
] | Sometimes a gizmo seems too cheap to be true. You know there’s just no way it’ll work as advertised — but sometimes it’s fun to find out. Thankfully, if that gadget happens to be a MILESEEY PF210 Hunting Laser Rangefinder, [Phil] has got you covered. He
recently got his hands on one
(for less than 100 euros, which is wild for a laser rangefinder) and decided to see just how useful it actually was.
The instrument in question measures distances via the
time-of-flight
method; it bounces a laser pulse off of some distant (or not-so-distant) object and measures how long the pulse takes to return. Using the speed of light, it can calculate the distance the pulse has traveled).
As it turns out, it worked surprisingly well. [Phil] decided to focus his analysis on accuracy and precision, arguably the most important features you’d look for while purchasing such an instrument. We won’t get into the statistical nitty-gritty here, but suffice it to say that [Phil] did his homework. To evaluate the instrument’s precision, he took ten measurements against each of ten different targets of various ranges between 2.9 m and 800 m. He found that it was incredibly precise (almost perfectly repeatable) at low distances, and still pretty darn good way out at 800 m (±1 m repeatability).
To test the accuracy, he took a series of measurements and compared them against their known values (pretty straightforward, right?). He found that the instrument was accurate to within a maximum of 3% (but was usually even better than that).
While this may not be groundbreaking science, it’s really nice to be reminded that sometimes a cheap instrument will do the job, and we love that there are dedicated folks like [Phil] out there who are willing to put the time in to prove it. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495075",
"author": "John Brown",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T15:48:38",
"content": "I have an Opti-Logic 120 XL and my only complaint has been with having to remove the rubberized coating with alcohol because over time it becomes a horrible tacky black goo mess.I started out measuring... | 1,760,372,624.692479 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/tech-in-plain-sight-fire-hydrants/ | Tech In Plain Sight: Fire Hydrants | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Slider"
] | [
"fire hydrant",
"firecock",
"fireplug"
] | You probably see them so often that you don’t even notice they are there. Fire hydrants are one of those things that aren’t interesting until you need them, but then they are of paramount importance. You sometimes hear them called fireplugs and it made us wonder what was a plug about it. Perhaps it was because that’s where you plug in your hose? Turns out, no. The real story is much stranger. Not to mention, did you know that there are even “dry” fire hydrants?
Apparently, in the 16th century, water mains were made of wood. When there was a fire, a team would dig the cobblestones out to expose the wooden mains and cut a hole to make an
ad hoc
well to fill buckets or to pump. Of course, after the fire, you had to repair the mains and that was done with a plug. The city would keep a record of plugs so that if a fire was nearby in the future, you could just “pull the plug” instead of making a new hole.
Eventually, the mains would have plugs put in every so often as a matter of course. With iron pipes, it wasn’t so simple, so that’s when we got the modern fire hydrant. In some parts of the world, you hear firecock instead of fire plug.
We don’t know if it is true, but apparently, fire brigades at one time were paid by the insurance companies and would often compete for the privilege of putting out a fire and, thus, getting paid. When a fire started, they’d send the meanest guy up ahead to protect the hydrant from competing fire companies. Since he was usually not terribly attractive this is supposed to be the origin of the phrase “plug ugly.”
Modern Times
An underground fire hydrant in Tokyo.
CC BY-SA 3.0
by [Tonusamuel]
So despite being useful and technical, how much can there be to fire hydrants? Turns out, quite a bit. Every country and even area has slightly different ways of doing it, often determined by the prevailing climate. For example, some areas where freezing is a problem have the valves underground beneath the frost line. Others have the whole thing above ground or underground beneath a hatch.
The cast iron hydrant first appeared in an 1801 patent by Frederick Graff of the Philidelphia Water Works. Ironically, there are no copies of the patent because of the patent office fire 1836.
In addition to weather-related improvements, the device also has had to deal with tampering. There is usually an unusual drive on the valve that takes a special wrench or, in some countries, a cover that you must remove before accessing the actual hydrant.
Old cast iron fire hydrants didn’t look much like we think of them looking today. And, the exact details do vary a great deal from country to country, as you can see below. Even the US doesn’t always have the iconic fireplug.
Russia – Underground with a marker, CC BY-SA 3.0 by [Dmitry Ivanov]
US – CC BY 2.5 by [Infrogmation of New Orleans]
German – CC-BY-SA 3.0 by [Geschw]
Czech – CC-BY-SA 3.0 by [Richenza]
Finding the hydrants can be an issue at night or in snow, so there are various ways of marking them ranging from reflectors in the street (notice them next time you pass a hydrant) to flags or poles Underground hydrants like the Russian one above usually have a marker.
Under Pressure and Dry Hydrants
A UK sign identifies an underground hydrant 100 mm in size and 1 m from the sign — Public Domain
Typically, a fire hydrant has water under pressure from the supply line. In some countries, you can tell how much pressure by the color of the hydrant’s cap. The body color might mean something, too. Or there is further documentation. For example, in the UK a violet body indicates non-drinkable water, and external signs often indicate the size of the hydrant.
Even if a hydrant isn’t underground, snow can be a problem when trying to find a water supply in a hurry.
Code For America
developed an application that cities can use to allow citizens to
adopt a fire hydrant
, meaning they agree to clear it after snow storms.
However, there are also dry hydrants. These don’t have pressure and are usually just a pipe where one end is below the water level of a lake. A firetruck can connect to a dry hydrant and pump water into the truck’s tanks.
We hear the largest fire hydrant happens to be in South Carolina, but we were disappointed that it isn’t actually functional.
Banner image: “
Fire Hydrant, November 15, 2016
” by Maggie Osterberg | 42 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495055",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T14:28:46",
"content": "I used to work for Watts, and one of the more interesting memories of working there was watching fire hydrants (which is what we tend to call them around here in NH) being built. In those units the va... | 1,760,372,625.116266 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/hackaday-prize-2022-40k-stratasys-printer-fix-costs-1/ | Hackaday Prize 2022: $40k Stratasys Printer Fix Costs $1 | Arya Voronova | [
"Repair Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"3d printer",
"stratasys"
] | Companies don’t treat equipment in the same way that we, hobbyists, do. When it comes to reassessing equipment state, there’s calculations to be done – how many failures it’s experienced, what’s the rate of the support contract for it (often increasing as equipment ages), and whether it’d be more price-efficient to just buy a new one. Hobbyists aren’t tied to commercial support contracts that prohibit DIY repair, however. We can investigate things and try our luck, and in many cases, the repair will be super simple and satisfying! Today’s lucky repair story is about [Gregor], who has acquired a written-off ±$40k Stratasys 3D printer for peanuts, and
repaired it with $1 in parts.
The error code shown on the display indicated an extruder changer error — yes, this is a dual extruder printer! Earlier, [Gregor] noted that some of the chamber lighting LEDs failed, very likely because of the constant heat in the chamber. After investigating the infrared LED responsible for extruder change detection, it indeed had failed as well, presumably for the same reason. After the installation of a new SMD LED, the error message went away. Thus concludes the story of [Gregor] getting himself a new professional-grade printer! He also documents other possible failure modes, some just as easy to fix. In short, if you ever spot a Stratasys Dimension printer for sale, you might want to consider it!
As it turns out, this isn’t the only
Stratasys success story we’ve seen on Hackaday.io
. After you’ve repaired your newly obtained Stratasys, you might want to
bypass the cartridge DRM,
by the way. Got repairs of your own to share, industrial printer or otherwise?
Submit it for the 2022 Hackaday Prize
, there’s still a few days left in the
Hack it Back
round!
The
Hackaday
Prize2022
is Sponsored by: | 36 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495013",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T11:10:48",
"content": "One time I found a quarter….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6495078",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,372,625.188166 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/19/modular-z80-really-racks-up-the-retrocomputer-cred/ | Modular Z80 Really Racks Up The Retrocomputer Cred | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"8251",
"backplane",
"compact flash",
"CP/M",
"i2c",
"modular",
"rack",
"retrocomputer",
"tty",
"z80"
] | Very few retrocomputing projects are anything other than a labor of love. There’s really no practical reason to build a computer that is woefully inadequate for just about any task compared to even an entry-level PC today. But the lack of a practical reason to do something rarely stops a hacker, as with
this nifty modular Z80-based rack computer
.
Actually, there’s at least one area where retrocomputers excel compared to their modern multi-core gigahertz counterparts — and that’s nostalgia. That’s what [Ricardo Kaltchuk] was going for with his build, which started by finding a Z80 and an Intel 8251 USART in his parts bin. Those formed the core of what would become the “Proton” computer, a modular beauty built around 7 cm by 10 cm PCBs that plug into a backplane inside a rack made from aluminum angle. Aside from the power supply and the Z80 CPU, other modules include a RAM card with a zero insertion force socket for an EPROM, a mass-storage module sporting a 128 MB Compact Flash card, plus modules for standard serial and I2C comms.
The fit and finish are excellent, and the performance is impressive. The Proton runs CP/M and boasts a ton of old applications that will bring back some memories, like
SuperCalc
and
dBase
. We’d venture a bet that
WordStar
is in there someplace, or easily could be. The video below is a little rough, but shows everything off really well.
In some ways, the Proton reminds us of
the RC2014
, but its fit and finish are what bring this build home. That’s not to take away from the work [Ricardo] obviously put into documentation, though. The 62-page manual has every detail of every module, plus instructions for building one of your own. | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494984",
"author": "J.Peterson",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T09:54:30",
"content": "A lot of the appeal for old 8-bit computers is the understanding of the entire system- from application source code to PCB layout down to the cpu architecture- can fit in a single human brain.",
"p... | 1,760,372,627.254642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/print-your-own-drill-guide-without-a-linear-bearing/ | Print Your Own Drill Guide Without A Linear Bearing | Matthew Carlson | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed tool",
"drill guide",
"node based cad"
] | Typically we often don’t cover paid products here on Hackaday, but we couldn’t help but be impressed with this
3D printed drill guide from [USSA]
. While you’ll need to pay the toll to access the STL files and plans, there’s an excellent video showing a bit of magic behind the curtain that you can check out free of charge. There are several interesting insights and some great techniques put into this design that anyone could take and apply to their own project.
First, what is a drill guide? Many of us don’t have the luxury of a full-sized drill press, so we have to make do with a hand drill. There are various jigs and tricks to get straighter holes, but it can be frustrating to mark out threaded screw inserts with great precision only to discover all the inserts are at an angle and the circuit board won’t fit. A drill guide ensures holes are plunged straight up and down and at a reliable depth.
[USSA] starts by showing the node-based CAD that makes up the design (a program called
Grasshopper
). As he assembled it, simple nuts and screws held it together. But rather than clamp two separate pieces together, the screws compress the single plastic with a clever slot in the side to allow the plastic to flex. Several 3D printed jigs were used for assembling the bearing shaft. Ultimately the results look quite impressive, and it’s an inspiration for our own printed projects. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494835",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T05:20:51",
"content": "Wonder how much the harbor freight workbench drill press is these days? Mine was less than $90 when I got it. Holds up okay. The trick with them is that their quality control is inconsistent, so often I’ll ret... | 1,760,372,627.041543 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/the-commodore-64-smartwatch-can-now-sync-with-your-commodore-64-desktop/ | The Commodore 64 Smartwatch Can Now Sync With Your Commodore 64 Desktop | Robin Kearey | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"basic",
"commodore 64",
"infrared receiver",
"smartwatch"
] | If you’ve got a smartwatch on your wrist, chances are you’ve also got a device nearby that links up with it. Most modern watches will happily sync with Android devices or iPhones, and some will also talk to Windows PCs. But what if you’re running an alternative OS? Something like, say, Commodore BASIC? In that case, you might want to check out [Nick Bild]’s latest project,
which lets you to sync your smartwatch to your Commodore 64.
Sadly, you can’t just use any old smartwatch: the project is an extension of [Nick]’s
Commodore 64 Smartwatch
that we featured earlier. This watch can run Commodore 64 programs thanks to a custom software stack, but like most typical smartwatches also includes an accelerometer that counts your steps. Syncing the step counter to your computer is straightforward: after you come home from your daily run, you simply tap “sync” on the watch, enter
LOAD"SYNC.PRG",8,1
on your Commodore 64, and the computer will show your total step count.
The C64 watch communicates with the host computer through a built-in infrared port. The classic Commodore computers don’t have an IR receiver, so [Nick] built one himself using an Arduino Micro hooked up to the C64’s User port. A custom program reads out the data and shows the step count on the screen.
Although the feature set of this app is a bit limited, [Nick]’s project demonstrates how the good old Commodore 64 can still perform useful tasks in today’s world. Not that we needed much reminding: after all, we’ve even seen it
run AI applications using TensorFlow Lite
. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6495128",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-19T18:40:42",
"content": "So, basically the watch has far greater specs than the computer it connects to?B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6495... | 1,760,372,626.868137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/worlds-biggest-foam-rc-plane-takes-to-the-skies-but-only-barely/ | World’s Biggest Foam RC Plane Takes To The Skies, But Only Barely! | Ryan Flowers | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"airplane",
"electric airplane",
"Flite Fest",
"flite test",
"foam airplane",
"peter sripol",
"RC airplane"
] | What do you do when you have a whole warehouse sized facility and an industrial sized CNC foam cutter? Clearly, the only choice is to build giant RC aircraft, and that’s exactly what the folks at [FliteTest] teamed up with the illustrious [Peter Sripol] to accomplish. Did it work? Yes. Did it work
well?
We’ll let you be the judge after taking a gander at the
video below the break
.
[Peter Sripol], known for building manned ultralight electric aircraft from foam, was roped in as the designer of the aircraft. A very light EPS foam is used to cut out the flying surfaces, while a denser green foam board is sourced from the local home building store to construct the fuselage.
The build is anything but ordinary, and kids are involved in the construction, although the video doesn’t elaborate on it very much. You can see evidence of their excitement in the graffiti on the wings and fuselage- surely a huge success on that front! As for flying? Four large motors provide locomotion, and it’s barely enough to keep the beast flying. A mishap with the Center of Gravity demands a last minute design change which renders the rudder almost useless. But, it does fly, and it is a great step toward the next iteration. Just like every good hack!
If you want to see a manned foam electric aircraft, check out
[Peter Sripol]’s DIY Electric Ultralight MK4. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494269",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T09:21:34",
"content": "i don’t think lift is this plane’s problem. it seems to want to leave the ground at a very low speed. with more motors, or a lawnmower engine, it would be a lot better.",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,372,626.767373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/17/peer-into-space-through-this-james-webb-style-hexagonal-mirror/ | Peer Into Space Through This James Webb-Style Hexagonal Mirror | Robin Kearey | [
"Art",
"Space"
] | [
"hexagonal mirror",
"james webb space telescope",
"Raspberry Pi 2"
] | The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) generated considerable excitement when its first test images were released earlier this year: they proved that the instrument was working and helped its engineers to set up all systems for maximum performance. But the real proof of the pudding came last week, when the first batch of beautiful full-scale pictures was unveiled. If you thought those pictures were pretty enough to hang on your wall, you’re not the only one: [Fredrik], also known as [Cellar Nerd], built
a wall-mounted display, shaped like the JWST’s main mirror, that cycles through images taken by the space telescope
.
The frame holding the mirror is made of plywood. [Fredrik] designed it in Fusion 360, but decided to cut it by hand using a jigsaw; 3D printing the thing would have resulted in a large number of small pieces that might be hard to fit together with sufficient accuracy. After cutting the wood and painting it black, it was simply a matter of sticking the mirror tiles on top and the basic JWST design was done.
The set of eighteen golden hexagonal mirrors might seem to be the hardest bit to make, but was actually the easiest: [Fredrik] simply bought them ready-made on Amazon. The item’s description didn’t include any precise measurements, so he had to wait until the mirrors arrived before he could make the rest of the setup. The segments also don’t have the nanometer accuracy required for a real telescope: in fact, they’re not even flat enough to be useful as an everyday mirror. But that doesn’t really matter: the whole setup is pretty enough that [Fredrik]’s wife even wanted it to have pride of place in the hallway.
An old 15.6″ laptop display sits behind the frame and shows an image through the gap in the center. The display is quite a bit larger than necessary, so the images are always placed in the middle of the screen and scaled to obtain the correct size. A Raspberry Pi 2 is used to store the images and drive the display; it currently cycles through a fixed set of pictures, but [Fredrik] plans to have it automatically download the latest JWST images once a reliable online source is available.
If the basic design looks a bit familiar, you might have seen
this static James Webb mirror
that we featured before. We’ve also taken a deep dive into
the fascinating engineering behind the JWST’s cryocooling system
that gives it its spectacular infrared performance.
Thanks for the tip, [davedarko]! | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494482",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T18:28:45",
"content": "If you are recreating this you might have an old tablet you could fire up remote control software on, it would likely be a better fit for the hole size (assuming it covers the entire hole) and it would save... | 1,760,372,627.12625 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/17/robot-arm-has-the-touch/ | Robot Arm Has The Touch | Al Williams | [
"Android Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"app inventor",
"mit app inventor",
"robot arm"
] | [Maurizio] built a
robot arm
, which is always a great accomplishment. But his project includes a very cool touch interface for an Android device that sets it apart from many other similar projects.You can see a very fast summary of the construction in the video below.
The design uses Fusion 360 and there are good explanations of each step in the process. The gripper is adapted from an existing design. Various 3D printed parts make up the wrist, shoulder, elbow, and rotating base.
Electronics-wise there is an Arduino, 6 RC servo motors, and a Bluetooth module. Inside the controller is mounted an old Android phone. Honestly, we are always surprised we don’t see more of this. We all have old phones hanging around and with constant power connection and running dedicated software, they make great free touchscreens for projects.
The Android code is very simple thanks to the Scratch-like App Inventor software which makes Android apps as easy as dragging some blocks around. You can download the APK but you have to ask for the source code for the app since the project hosting site wouldn’t take it — maybe he’ll mirror it on Hackaday.io.
We are always surprised we don’t see more App Inventor projects,
although do see some
. If you want an easy introduction, you might
think about this project
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494115",
"author": "egsnai\\",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T04:48:03",
"content": "With no position feedback to main controller this is just an expensive paperweight. It’s not only about being able to reach some coordinates, there are also different motion interpolation algorithms and ... | 1,760,372,627.08603 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/17/hackaday-links-july-17-2022/ | Hackaday Links: July 17, 2022 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"cons",
"deep field",
"game",
"hackaday links",
"hope",
"horizontal boring",
"jwst",
"RTFM",
"simulator",
"voyager",
"webb"
] | Webb’s first deep-field image. Source:
NASA
The folks at NASA are taking a well-deserved victory lap this week after the splashy reveal of
the first scientific images from the James Webb Space Telescope
. As we expected, the first public release included a lot of comparisons to images obtained from Hubble, as the general public understandably sees Webb as the successor to the venerable space telescope, now in its third decade of service. So for a “let’s see what this baby can do” image, they turned Webb loose on a tiny patch of sky in the southern hemisphere containing galactic cluster SMACS 0723, and sent back images and spectroscopic data from galaxies up to 13 billion light years away. There are plenty of analyses of Webb’s deep field and the other images in the first release, but we particularly liked the takes by both
Anton Petrov
and
Dr. Becky
. They both talk about the cooler scientific aspects of these images, and how Webb is much more than just a $10 billion desktop image generator.
It’s been a while, but next week marks
the return of HOPE
. The Hackers on Planet Earth conference is finally back and in person for the first time since 2018. The con, dubbed “A New HOPE,” will in their new venue on the campus of St. John’s University in Queens, as opposed to their old haunt in the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan, which is currently being demolished. Attendance was limited this year, for obvious reasons, and the usual precautions will be in effect for attendees. Online ticket sales are now closed, and they won’t be selling tickets at the door. So if you’re planning on going, you’ll have to see if someone has a ticket they’re willing to part with.
You may recall that NASA recently reported on
troubling glitches in
Voyager 1
‘s telemetry
, which seemed to indicate the 45-year-old planetary-probe-turned-interstellar-explorer was having trouble maintaining its attitude in space. This would obviously be a Very Bad Thing™, since keeping its big dish antenna pointed precisely back at Earth is crucial to
staying in contact with mission controllers
. It turns out the glitch is just, well, a glitch, and controllers have a workaround in place, one of many that have kept the Voyager mission going at many points since the twin 1977 launches. But now, in a bid to figure out the root cause and perhaps issue a fix, engineers are taking
the RTFOM — “read the freaking old manuals” — approach
and poring over the original design docs for clues. This isn’t as easy as it sounds; unlike today, where everything regarding a mission is archived and preserved in digital archives, a lot of the original JPL docs were dead-tree only. What’s worse, a lot of what was written down has disappeared, as engineers at NASA and JPL have retired or otherwise moved on. That means there are probably a few boxes of old fanfold printouts sitting in a garage in Pasadena that hold the key to solving the glitch, and finding them boils down to figuring out who worked on what when, and where they ended up after their stint on Voyager ended.
And finally, a couple of weeks ago, the indispensable Grady over at Practical Engineering did a great video that explained
the details of horizontal directional boring
. It’s a fascinating subject, and the idea that you can control the direction of a flexible drill string over long distances is pretty cool. We’ve actually seen a fair amount around our parts lately, where multiple network providers are vying to install competing optical fiber networks. But judging by the number of news stories about contractors hitting a gas line that we see, it’s not quite as easy as it seems. To get a flavor of what it’s like to run a directional drilling rig, Grady teamed up with Dan Schiffman to create
a simulator game
that’s addictively educational. We’ve been playing all morning and have only managed to hit the target a couple of times — it’s remarkably difficult to control something that has just two possible orientations and moves forward relentlessly. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494034",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-17T23:28:40",
"content": "A paragraph break between HOPE and V’ger please.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6494109",
"author": "Lily",
... | 1,760,372,626.990901 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/17/observe-airflow-using-smartphone-and-background-oriented-schlieren/ | Observe Airflow Using Smartphone And Background-Oriented Schlieren | Arya Voronova | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"digital cameras hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"background oriented schlieren",
"camera",
"density",
"fluid",
"image",
"optics",
"phone",
"photograph",
"Schlieren",
"Schlieren photography"
] | Multiple people have recently shared
this exciting demonstration
(
nitter
) with us – visualizing airflow using a smartphone, called ‘background-oriented schlieren’. On a hot summer day,
you might see waves in the air
– caused by air changing density as it warms up, and therefore refracting the light differently.
Schlieren photography
is an general set of techniques for visualizing fluid flow, but of course, it can also be applied to airflow. In this case, using some clever optical recognition tricks, this schlieren method lets you visualize flow of air using only your Android smartphone’s high resolution camera and a known-pattern printed background!
The
scientific paper behind this trick
describes this method’s workings quite well – recommended to check out. For a simple explanation, since the background is high-contrast and known to the smartphone app, you can amplify the differences between what the camera expects to see and what the camera sees – the datamatrix codes in the corners help your smartphone recognize the background image’s position for more exact mapping. Hot air and
cold air flow
are the most pronounced visually, and it’s not clear how much regular airflow will be noticeable. However,
the Android application sourcecode
and
the printable pattern
are freely available on GitHub – you can just try this method out and see if how well it works!
This is a wonderfully executed and accessible hack, and we wonder what kind of purposes our fellow hackers could use it for. In a way, this is a poor man’s thermal camera for airflow purposes! We’ve covered a
mirror-based schlieren setup
a few years ago – also using a smartphone. Perhaps those omnipresent high-resolution camera-equipped devices can be useful for more things than we realize!
スマホのカメラだけで空気の流れを見えるようにするアプリを作ってみた。
pic.twitter.com/XaQ7lgmVJ1
— kambara (@kambara)
July 12, 2022
We thank [shinwachi] and [Jon Woodcock] for sharing this with us! | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493933",
"author": "H",
"timestamp": "2022-07-17T20:37:00",
"content": "I think this could be improved by generating a stream of images that are essentially black and white static that maintain ability to reproduce the effect. The framerate is effectively a clock signal for the cam... | 1,760,372,627.192208 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/17/it-turns-out-you-cant-just-fly-a-drone-under-water/ | It Turns Out You Can’t Just Fly A Drone Under Water | Matthew Carlson | [
"drone hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"autonomous underwater vehicle",
"drone",
"drove fpv"
] | The differences between a drone and an underwater remote-operated vehicle (ROV) aren’t actually that large. Both have powerful motors that move large volumes of fluid (yes, air is a fluid), a camera, a remote, and an onboard battery. So when [RCLifeOn] got his hands on a cheap used drone, he reckoned that it could
fly underwater just as well as it did in the air
.
To his credit, the principle was sound, and the initial tests looked promising. However, we will spoil the ending and tell you it doesn’t work out as well as he hoped due to water leakage. He printed a case with a large panel for accessing electronics inside and an acrylic window for the camera. The panel pressed up against a gasket via the few dozen metric screws along the perimeter. Despite the design being quite whimsical, he quickly regrets the screws as getting inside is tiring on the wrists. He epoxies the hatch to the hull and drills holes to charge the battery to stop the seemingly never-ending water leaks. After its maiden journey, water got inside and fried some of the motor controllers. So for the second test run, he used what limited capabilities it had left.
Despite the project not working out how he expected, it’s a great example of how some reused parts and some 3d printing can make something entirely different. So perhaps next time, instead of throwing that broken drone away, see if it could be given just a bit of love. Possibly the
propellers can be combined
or
make do with only three motors
. Or just go the [RCLifeOn] route and make it into something new entirely. | 27 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493835",
"author": "cncFriend",
"timestamp": "2022-07-17T17:43:45",
"content": "Cool attempt. But underwater drones and their problems are not new.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6493840",
"author": "Fred",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,372,626.935924 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/17/beautiful-inductors-now-not-such-a-lost-art/ | Beautiful Inductors, Now Not Such A Lost Art | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"coil",
"coil winder",
"inductor"
] | As ferrite technology has progressed into a mastery of magnetic permeability, the size of inductors has gone down to the point at which they are now fairly nondescript components. There was a time though when inductors could be beautiful creations of interleaving layers of copper wire in large air-cored inductors, achieved through clever winding techniques. It’s something that’s attracted the attention of [Brett],
who’s produced a machine capable of producing something close to the originals
.
Part of the write-up is an investigation of the history, these coils were once present even at the consumer level but are now the preserve of only a few highly secretive companies. They are still worth pursuing though because they can deliver the high “Q” factor that is demanded in a high quality tuned circuit. The rest of the write-up dives in detail into the design of the wire feeder, and the Arduino motor control of the project. There should be enough there for any other experimenters to try their hands at layered inductors, so perhaps we’ll see this lost art make a comeback.
Custom coils are a regular requirement for anything from radios, to musical instruments, to switching power supplies, so it’s not surprising that quite a few projects featuring them have made it here. One of the more unusual of late has been
one that winds toroids
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493559",
"author": "mime",
"timestamp": "2022-07-17T14:12:45",
"content": "Nice find Jenny, and the hackadayI/O page contains some nice background. The yt video on his channel has some mesmarising footage. I couldn’t work out the relevance of the 78 degrees the author is on about. ... | 1,760,372,626.820085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/hacker-liberates-hyundai-head-unit-writes-custom-apps/ | Hacker Liberates Hyundai Head Unit, Writes Custom Apps | Arya Voronova | [
"car hacks",
"Linux Hacks",
"Reverse Engineering",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"car hacking",
"Embedded Linux",
"hyundai",
"infotainment",
"Kia",
"root",
"serial port"
] | [greenluigi1] bought a Hyundai Ioniq car, and then, to our astonishment,
absolutely demolished
the Linux-based head unit firmware. By that, we mean that he
bypassed
all of the firmware update authentication mechanisms, reverse-engineered the firmware updates, and
created subversive update files
that gave him a root shell on his own unit. Then, he reverse-engineered the app framework running the dash and
created his own app
. Not just for show – after hooking into the APIs available to the dash and accessible through header files, he was able to monitor car state from his app, and even lock/unlock doors. In the end, the dash got completely conquered – and he even
wrote a tutorial
showing how anyone can compile their own apps for the Hyundai Ionic D-Audio 2V dash.
In this series of write-ups [greenluigi1] put together for us, he walks us through the entire hacking process — and they’re a real treat to read. He covers a wide variety of things: breaking encryption of .zip files, reprogramming efused MAC addresses on USB-Ethernet dongles, locating keys for encrypted firmware files, carefully placing backdoors into a Linux system, fighting cryptic C++ compilation errors and flag combinations while cross-compiling the software for the head unit, making plugins for proprietary undocumented frameworks; and many other reverse-engineering aspects that we will encounter when domesticating consumer hardware.
This marks a hacker’s victory over yet another computer in our life that we aren’t meant to modify, and a meticulously documented victory at that — helping each one of us fight back against “unmodifiable” gadgets like these. After reading these tutorials, you’ll leave with a good few new techniques under your belt. We’ve covered head units hacks like these before, for instance, for
Subaru
and
Nissan,
and each time it was a journey to behold. | 39 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494697",
"author": "Oliver",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T23:42:16",
"content": "Liberation projects always make mMe happy. I’m curious though, do they not use secure-boot and dm-verity?The world is slowly locking us out because signing and fusing keys has become so easy ... which will... | 1,760,372,627.358747 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/ortur-laser-will-go-open-source/ | Ortur Laser Will Go Open-Source | Elliot Williams | [
"Laser Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"grbl",
"open source",
"ortur",
"software"
] | Well, that was fast! Last week,
we wrote about a video
by [Norbert Heinz] where he called out the Ortur laser engravers for apparently using the GPL-licensed
grbl
firmware without providing the source code and their modifications to it, as required by the license. Because open source and
grbl
are dear to our hearts and CNC machines,
we wrote again about Norbert’s efforts
over the weekend, speculating that it might just be unfamiliarity with the open source license requirements on Ortur’s part.
Because of [Norbert]’s persistance and publicity around the issue, the
support ticket finally reached the right person within Ortur
, and within two or three days [Gil Araújo], Support Admin at Ortur, managed to convince the company that going fully open source was the right thing to do. What remains is the question of how to do it, operationally.
So [Gil] asked [Norbert] to ask Hackaday: what do you want from Ortur on this, and how should they proceed? Via e-mail, he asked in particular for best practices on setting up the repository and making the code actually useful to non-programmer types. He said that he looked around at the other laser engraver companies, and didn’t find any good examples of others doing the Right Thing™, so he asked [Norbert] to ask us. And now we’re asking you!
Have you got any good examples of companies using open-source firmware, modifying it, and making it available for their users? Is a simple Github repo with a README enough, or should he spend some time on making it user-friendly for the non-coders out there? Or start with the former and work toward the latter as a goal? I’m sure [Gil] will be reading the comments, so be constructive! You’ll be helping a laser engraver company take its first steps into actually engaging with the open source community.
We said it before, and we’ll say it again. Good job [Norbert] for taking Ortur to task here, but also by doing so in a way that leaves them the option of turning around and doing the right thing. This also highlights that companies aren’t monolithic beasts – sometimes it takes getting your cause heard by just the right person within a company to change the response from a “this is a business secret” to “how should we set up our Github?” And kudos for [Gil] and
Ortur
for listening to their users! | 74 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494530",
"author": "fiddlingjunky",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T20:12:45",
"content": "I mean, in the comments it seems that they don’t have experience making a repository. Makes me wonder what their version control and deployment looks like.To be honest, this should be pretty simple,... | 1,760,372,627.598097 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/how-to-become-a-lego-submariner/ | How To Become A Lego Submariner | Jenny List | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"lego",
"lego submarine",
"submarine"
] | A submarine is by necessity a complex and safety-critical machine, but the principle upon which it depends is quite simple. The buoyancy is variable by means of pumping water in and out of tanks, allowing the craft to control the depth at which it sits. The [Brick Experiment Channel] has
a series of posts describing in detail the construction of a working submarine
, with a hull made from a plastic tube and mechanics made from Lego.
In this submarine the buoyancy tank is a syringe operated by a Lego motor, and the propulsion comes courtesy of a pair of Lego motors driven through ingenious magnetic couplings to avoid a shaft seal. To monitor depth there is both a laser distance sensor and a pressure sensor, and there is a Raspberry Pi Zero to control the whole show.
In the video below the break you can see the craft in action as it zips around a swimming pool at different depths, before setting off on a longer journey with on-board footage along a shady creek. It’s an extremely practical submarine, and one we wish we could try.
This is version 4.0, and it shows. We
had a look at version 3.0 last year
, and it’s by no means the first submarine we’ve featured,
here’s one made from PVC pipe
.
Thanks for the tip, [Brianmanden]! | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494518",
"author": "craig",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T19:48:54",
"content": "This is such an awesome project. I’ve thought a lot about how to eliminate through-hull mounting using neodymium magnets and this is a very good implementation. Simple too. For RC military subs I was thinl... | 1,760,372,627.739156 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/quick-hack-the-phone-to-stream-deck-conversion/ | Quick Hack: The Phone To Stream Deck Conversion | Al Williams | [
"Android Hacks",
"iphone hacks",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"iphone",
"linux",
"stream deck",
"windows"
] | What do you do with those old Android or iPhone phones and tablets? You have plenty of options, but it is pretty easy to build your own stream deck with a little off-the-shelf software. What’s a stream deck, you ask? The name comes from its use as a controller for a live-streaming setup, but essentially, it’s an LCD touchscreen that can trigger things on your computer.
The software I’m using,
Deckboard
, is a server for Windows or Linux and, of course, an Android app. The app is free with some limitations, but for under $4 you can buy the full version. However, even the free version is pretty capable. You can use an Android phone or tablet and you can connect to the PC with a USB cable or WiFi. I’ve found that even with WiFi, it is handy to keep the phone charged, so realistically you are going to have a cable, but it doesn’t necessarily have to connect to the host computer.
Linux Setup
Setup is very easy. The biggest hurdle is you might need to set up your firewall to allow the server to listen on port 8500 with TCP. There are a few small issues when installing with Linux that you might want to watch out for. There are 32-bit and 64-bit versions in
deb
,
tar.gz
, and appimage format. There’s also a snap. The problem with the snap is it is sandboxed, so without effort you can’t easily launch programs, which is kinda the entire point. I finally removed it and installed the deb file which was fine.
There were still two other wrinkles. First, while Deckboard offers a way to launch programs, it must be a program from a list it reads from your system. That would be acceptable, but the list wasn’t complete. I never did figure out why some things show up on the list and others don’t. For example, GIMP which shows up on my application menu was absent. Yet other things that were fairly obscure did show up.
I thought this might be a dealbreaker until I found that Deckboard has a well-developed plugin system and one of those plugins lets you run an arbitrary command line. I guess it is a little less convenient, but it is much more flexible since you can launch any program you want and provide options to it as well.
The only other complaint I had is that when you run the program, it shows its configuration interface and puts itself in the system tray. That’s great the first time you run it, but on system startup, it would be nice to just have it quietly start. If there’s an option for that I haven’t found it. I’ll tell you how I solved that later, but, for now, just live with it.
Configuration
Of course, getting it installed on both machines is only the start. The whole point of something like this is to configure it to your whim. The program knows how to communicate with OBS, Spotify, Twitter, and Twitch. But you can also add generic programs, URLs, and so on. There are also plugins for things like Discord, Open Hardware Monitor, Steam, and more.
The multimedia panel lets me control media and open a few apps
You can create a bunch of pages, so you don’t have to cram everything on one page. The free version limits how many buttons you can have on a page, but the upgrade lets you put way too many if you want. I found that three rows of 6 buttons in landscape mode on my old Pixel 2 XL was about right for me.
Of course, everyone will have different ideas about how to set it up, and you are probably better able to create something aesthetic than I am. However, I tried to keep a few things constant. The top right corner of each screen is a time button that doesn’t do anything, just shows the time). This requires a plug in. The rest of the top row is reserved for buttons that open other pages and on every screen but the main screen, the button next to the clock takes you back to main.
Creating a new button is easy enough
The bottom right button on each screen opens a multimedia panel because it is just so useful. Again, you won’t like my setup and will want your own.
Creating buttons and pages is very easy on the PC. You can select actions ranging from keyboard macros to multimedia control. You can control the mouse, open a website, or take a screenshot. Of course, you can also run a program as I mentioned earlier.
Form and Function
Graphic buttons can make your deck look better but getting there isn’t obvious
My buttons are a bit bland, I’ll admit. The icons are built into the program and come from Font Awesome. However, I didn’t realize that you can make each button use your own custom graphic. You do this by selecting the button’s shape which can be square, round, or a mysterious third option that looks like an image. At first, I thought that just meant “totally transparent” but if you select that and then push the button in the edit window, it lets you pick a file for a background. I guess I’ll have to go reconfigure everything now that I know that.
One thing that is nice is that you can have a button do multiple actions. So, for example, when I press the Hackaday button, it not only switches to the Hackaday page on the deck, it also flips over to my Hackaday desktop on the PC by sending a keyboard command. It could also run a script or folder, too.
Buttons can run more than one action
It isn’t quite a scripting language, but it prevents you from having to tie buttons to a bash script in some cases.
The Final Piece
I mentioned that I didn’t appreciate that loading the program on startup also causes the main window to appear. I found a fairly simple way to combat that, at least on KDE. First, run the program minimized. You can do that a few ways. I used a KWIN window rule to force it to iconify, but you could also use
kstart
to do that. Of course, if you aren’t using KDE, you’ll have to find another way to do it and, honestly, it doesn’t really matter if you don’t mind seeing the config screen pop up for a bit on startup. That’s because in addition to setting the program to autostart, I also started a script file called
deckboard-tidy.sh
:
#!/bin/bash
sleep 5
wmctrl -c deckboard
In other words, wait for the program to start and then close its window. It still stays running in the systemtray. You could also tell Deckboard not to load itself and then do the whole loading operation in this script. You can probably pull the same stunt on other desktops, but the details will depend on your setup.
Honestly, this is a hack that is more useful than it is difficult. But you can spend a lot of time tweaking that perfect setup. But it makes that old phone something you can use every day.
If you prefer a more rigorous hack, check out
FreeDeck
. Not that that’s the
only one out there
. If you want a really useful hack, it would be nice to reverse engineer Deckboard’s TCP protocol so we could have a Raspberry Pi server for this. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494451",
"author": "Judy",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T17:15:09",
"content": "Snap, “fixing” problems once again.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6494466",
"author": "Jonathan Bennett",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T17:53:44",
... | 1,760,372,627.795687 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/the-2022-hackaday-supercon-is-on-and-the-call-for-proposals-is-open/ | The 2022 Hackaday Supercon Is On! And The Call For Proposals Is Open | Elliot Williams | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"2022 Hackaday Prize",
"2022 Hackaday Supercon",
"call for proposals"
] | After two years in remote mode, we’re very excited to announce that this year’s Hackaday Supercon will be coming back, live! Join us Nov. 4th, 5th, and 6th in sunny Pasadena, CA for three days of hacks, talks, and socializing with the Hackaday community. And we’d love to see and hear in person what you’ve been up to for the last two years – so start brainstorming what you’re going to talk about now and
fill out the call for proposals
.
Supercon is On!
We’ll be starting off on Friday Nov. 4th with early-bird registration, a mellow afternoon of badge-hacking and workshops, and a party to kick off the con. Saturday and Sunday will be the full enchilada: two tracks of talks, hacking stations and food set up in the alley, and workshops aplenty. (Just thinking about hacking in the alley and sharing tacos afterward again brings a tear of joy to my eye.) We’ll close up Sunday night with the 2022 Hackaday Prize Awards and a chance to demo the weekend’s badge hacking on stage.
If you haven’t ever been to a Supercon before, it’s Hackaday in real life. People bring hacks to show and share, projects to work on, and their ideas that are too big to fit in the overhead compartment anyway. The crowd is awesome. There are seasoned pros, famous YouTubers, and brand-new hackers to boot. But yet it’s not overwhelming – Supercon is too big to fit in your living room, but it’s nonetheless cozy. The folks in attendance are all fantastic and you’ll stumble into the most awesome conversations.
It’s a weekend you don’t want to miss, so start figuring out how you’re going to get to Pasadena now.
We’ll be putting tickets on sale soon, and while we can’t see into the future, they have sold out
every year
, so keep your eyes on Hackaday to get yours. And of course, speakers don’t need no stinking tickets.
Call for Proposals
Supercon has two stages and two tracks of talks: one for shorter 20-minute presentations in the smaller Design Lab and one for long-form 45 minute talks on the much bigger Center Stage. We really loved that the “smaller” format brought out a bunch of speakers in 2019 who would maybe not have committed to the full presentation, but who nonetheless gave some of the most interesting talks of the whole Supercon. It’s ideal for first-timers, or just getting your feet back into the waters of real-life presentations after a two-year hiatus – and it helps us squeeze more talks into the limited time we’ve got over the weekend. And if you’ve got more to say or show, of course there’s the main stage.
Standing room only during a 2017 Hackaday Supercon talk
If you want to get a feel for what makes a good Supercon talk,
check out the video playlist for the 2019 presentations
. We don’t want to see what’s been shown before, though – we want
you
to bring whatever turns you on, so don’t limit yourself. The tremendous diversity of experience and interest in our community is half of what makes Supercon tick.
We want to hear your story
!
We’ll also be running as many workshops as we have time and space for, so if you’ve got something you’d like to teach people in a smaller, hands-on format, let us know! Workshops tend to run an hour or two and allow for from ten to forty participants.
Get the proposal in
, and we’ll talk details.
Good to Be Back
We’ll be dropping more tidbits about how you can get your tickets and the badge design over the next few weeks. While November seems like a long way off, it’s never too early to start thinking Supercon. And after two years away, it’s about time!
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Supercon2022CFPTeaser.mp4 | 42 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494399",
"author": "Elliot Williams",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T15:52:03",
"content": "Try now?Works for me :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6494412",
"author": "Cprossu",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T16:09:07",
... | 1,760,372,627.691684 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/trucks-could-soon-run-on-electrified-highways/ | Trucks Could Soon Run On Electrified Highways | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"ehighway",
"electric truck",
"electric trucks",
"pantograph",
"truck",
"trucks"
] | Electric vehicles make for cleaner transport. However, they’re hung up by the limited range available from batteries. Long recharge times further compound the issue.
These issues are exacerbated when it comes to trucks hauling heavy goods. More payload means more weight, which means less range, or more batteries, which means less payload. Electric highways promise to solve this issue with the magic of overhead wires.
Power Overhead
Trucks capture energy from the overhead lines via an advanced pantograph that can deal with the rough and tumble of road conditions. Credit: Siemens
The formula for combustion-engined trucks is simple. Simply throw a good-sized engine up front, and add a few big fuel tanks to keep it running. When you run out of fuel, it takes maybe ten minutes to top off and get rolling again.
Electric trucks don’t have this luxury. They need gigantic, heavy battery packs to give them decent usable range. To recharge these packs in a reasonable time, they then need chargers that deliver hundreds of kilowatts of power. It’s all very expensive, and all that battery weight cuts in on payload and adds to wear on things like tires and brakes.
The electric highway concept solves this problem in a remarkably simple way. It uses the same concept as the trolleybus of the 19th century. Overhead wires are strung over one lane of the highway, and provide high-voltage power from the grid. The truck receives power from the overhead wires via a pantograph, much the same as those seen on electric trains and trams.
While the truck is on the highway, it can drive solely using grid power thanks to the overhead wires. The truck then only needs a comparatively smaller battery of a nominal 50-100 km range, allowing it to get on and off the highway. This also allows the truck to change lanes on the highway where needed and operate seamlessly when overhead lines aren’t available.
With their own on-board batteries, the trucks aren’t completely dependent on overhead power. This allows them to merge, overtake, and change lanes as needed. Plus, it means overhead lines don’t need to cross complicated traffic jucntions. Credit: Siemens
Having batteries onboard the truck brings other benefits too. It means that the overhead wires don’t need to be continuous across complex traffic junctions. This greatly simplifies their installation and cuts costs. The batteries can also be charged while the truck is driving along under overhead power.
The idea is to electrify key highway routes linking up major freight depots. Suitably equipped trucks could then deliver goods from depot to depot, running on grid power. This promises to reduce emissions, even where grid power is derived from dirty sources like coal and gas. This is because generating electricity in a giant power plant is far more efficient than running a diesel engine in a truck. Plus, switching to renewable energy sources further cleans up the systemwide emissions.
It’s a plan that allows trucks to be electrified in a straightforward manner. It reduces reliance on big battery packs and high-power chargers. It also eliminates the trouble of building hydrogen refuelling infrastructure for
fuel-cell trucks,
as well as the issues around producing hydrogen fuel in a clean manner.
It’s expected that overhead power would even be more efficient than solely running battery electric trucks. This is because the electricity from the grid is sent straight to the wheels, eliminating efficiency losses in the charging process. Battery powered trucks score an overall well-to-wheel efficiency of around 62%, and fuel cell trucks come off worse at 29%. In comparison, electric highway trucks are expected to be around 77% efficient
based on modelling by the German Ministry of Environment
.
It’s a Real Thing
Trucks used in Siemens eHighway concept are hybrid powered, but there’s nothing stopping the concept from going all-electric.
It might sound like a high-strung idea, but working prototypes are already in testing. Siemens Mobility is working on a project it calls the “eHighway,” with overhead wires strung over small sections of highway. Testing is being run with hybrid Scania trucks outfitted to work with the overhead power system.
The key to the project is the special active pantograph, which is capable of dealing with road travel at highway speeds. Sensors and active control of the pantograph ensure it remains in good contact with the wires as the truck moves within the lane. The pantograph can raise and lower from the wires on demand, allowing the truck to pull away and change lanes as needed without disrupting the flow of traffic.
Thus far, the trucks have performed well and in line with expectations. Since 2016, Siemens has tested eHighway trucks in Sweden, Germany, and the US. The project has won the concept fans, too. The Federation of German Industries is recommending that 4,000 km of Autobahn roads are equipped with overhead wires in this way. This figure was chosen because over two-thirds of fuel used by German trucking occurs on just 4,000 km of the 13,000 km highway network.
(Editor’s note: Hackaday’s parent company, Supplyframe, is part of Siemens. Neither of them have any editorial input whatsoever, but the name showed in the article up so we thought we should say something for transparency’s sake.) | 180 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494347",
"author": "Tyler August",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T14:16:04",
"content": "” It uses the same concept as the trolleybus of the 19th century”More accurate: it uses the same concept as the trolleytruck from the 19th century. An old idea, but a good one.",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,372,628.116861 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/18/an-impeccably-documented-word-clock-in-dutch/ | An Impeccably Documented Word Clock In Dutch | Arya Voronova | [
"clock hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"addressable led",
"addressable leds",
"dual extrusion",
"dutch",
"neopixel",
"word clock"
] | [Maarten Pennings] shares
a word clock project
– but not the regular kind. For a start, this clock is a shining demonstration of hobbyist-available 3D printing technologies, with embedded light guides for the letters printed in transparent filament, thanks to a dual-extruder printer. For a word clock, it’s surprisingly small – in fact, it uses an 8×8 addressable LED matrix, with words shown in different colors. If you’re looking to build a novel word clock, you’re all set here – [Maarten] tells all about this project’s story and provides a treasure trove of insights into designing all of its aspects!
The 8×8 limitation was initially set because he wanted to use a low-cost MAX7219 8×8 LED matrix module as a base for the clock. Thankfully, in Dutch, time can be expressed using shorter words — still, it had to be limited to 5-minute intervals.
Extra effort had to be spent
designing the layout — [Maarten] mentions his friend writing a solver that found a way to fit some words onto the layout diagonally. At some point, he switched from LEDs to Neopixels, and dug deep into addressable LED technology. For instance, he demonstrates Neopixel power measurements and current consumption calculations. This shows that the calculations indeed match the clock’s real consumption when measured by an external meter.
In the best of hacker traditions, all the source files
are on Github
— if you fancy yourself a Dutch word clock, you can build [Maarten]’s design easily! He provides extensive instructions on building this clock in
the README,
including a flashing and configuration tutorial, complete wiring diagrams, and a soldering guide. A manufacturing-grade amount of build information that won’t leave you guessing. He’s also added a fair number of animations, put plenty of effort into clock precision verification, and even investigated some Neopixel protocol minutiae. All in all, our hacker went all in on the capabilities while embracing the constraints. This reminds us of the similarly well-documented
haptic word clock
we covered just a year ago – check that one out, too! | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6494315",
"author": "mime",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T11:32:49",
"content": "yup I agree that’s a well documented project",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6494331",
"author": "Iván Stepaniuk",
"timestamp": "2022-07-18T12:5... | 1,760,372,627.846297 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/16/fighting-the-good-fight/ | Fighting The Good Fight | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"gpl",
"ortur",
"software"
] | We here at Hackaday are super-duper proponents of open source. Software, hardware, or firmware, we like to be able to see it, learn from it, modify it, and make it ourselves. Some of this is self-serving because when we can’t
see
how it was done, we can’t
show
you how it’s done. But it’s also from a deeper place than that: the belief that the world is made better by sharing and open access.
One of the pieces of open-source firmware that I have running on no fewer than three devices in my house right now is
grbl
– it’s a super-simple, super-reliable G-code interpreter and stepper motor controller that has stood the test of time. It’s also
GPL3 licensed
, which means that if you want to use the code in your project, and you modify it to match your particular machine, you have to make the modified version available for those who bought the machine to modify themselves.
So when Norbert Heinz noticed that
the Ortur laser engravers were running grbl without making the code available
, he wrote them a letter. They responded with “business secrets”, he informed them again of their responsibility, and they still didn’t comply.
So he made a video explaining the situation
.
Good news incoming! Norbert wrote in the comments that since the post hit Hackaday, they’ve taken notice over at Ortur and have gotten back in touch with him. Assuming that they’re on their way to doing the right thing, this could be a nice win for grbl and for Ortur users alike.
Inside the free software world, we all know that “free” has many meanings, but I’d bet that you don’t have to go far outside our community to find people who don’t know that “free” software can have tight usage restrictions on it. (Or maybe not – it all depends on the license that the software’s author chose.) Reading software licenses is lousy work better left for lawyers than hackers anyway, and I can no longer count how many times I’ve clicked on a EULA without combing through it.
So what Norbert did was a good deed – educating a company that used GPL software of their obligations. My gut says that Ortur had no idea what they needed to do to comply with the license, and Norbert told them, even if it required some public arm-twisting. But now, Ortur has the opportunity to make good, and hackers everywhere can customize the firmware that drives their laser engravers. Woot!
It’s probably too early to declare victory here, but consider following Norbert’s example yourself. While you can’t bring a lawsuit if you’re not the copyright owner, you can still defend your right to free software simply by explaining it politely to companies that might not know that they’re breaking the law. And when they come around, make sure you welcome them into the global open-source hive mind, because we all win. One of us!
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
! | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493169",
"author": "Swehack",
"timestamp": "2022-07-16T14:17:47",
"content": "Totally agree. Well written.Third sentence should probably read:Some of this is self-serving because when we can’t see HOW it was done, we can’t show you how it’s done",
"parent_id": null,
"depth"... | 1,760,372,628.173259 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/16/impatience-is-a-virtue-when-testing-this-old-maritime-teleprinter/ | Impatience Is A Virtue When Testing This Old Maritime Teleprinter | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"AMTOR",
"arduino",
"CCIR 476",
"FSK",
"function generator",
"modulation",
"NAVTEX",
"SITOR",
"SOLAS"
] | [Larry Wall], inventor of Perl, once famously said that programmers have three key virtues: sloth, hubris, and impatience. It’s safe to say that these personality quirks are also present in some measure in most hardware hackers, too, with impatience being perhaps the prime driver of great hacks. Life’s too short to wait for someone else to build it, whatever it may be.
Impatience certainly came into play for [Sebastian (AI5GW)] while
hacking a NAVTEX receiver
(
in German
). The NAVTEX system allows ships at sea to receive text broadcast alerts for things like changes in the weather or hazards to navigation. The trouble is, each NAVTEX station only transmits once every four hours, making tests of the teleprinter impractical. So [Sebastian]’s solution was to essentially create his own NAVTEX transmitter.
Job one was to understand the NAVTEX protocol, which is a 100-baud, FSK-modulated signal with characters encoded in CCIR 476. Since this encoding is also used in amateur radio teletype operations, [Sebastian] figured there would surely be an Arduino library for encoding and decoding it. Surprisingly, there wasn’t, but
there is now
, allowing an Arduino to produce the correct sequence of pulses for a CCIR 476-encoded message. Fed into a function generator, the mini-NAVTEX station’s signal was easily received and recorded by the painfully slow teleprinter. There’s that impatience again.
We thought this was a neat hack, and we especially appreciate that [Sebastian]’s efforts resulted in a library that could be useful to hams and other radio enthusiasts in the future. We’ve talked about some more modern amateur radio digital modes, like
WSPR
and
FT8
, but maybe it’s time to look at some other modes, too. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6512686",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2022-09-14T09:46:07",
"content": "This is why I read Hackaday. Great work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,372,627.885084 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/16/looking-at-fortran-in-100-seconds/ | Looking At Fortran In 100 Seconds | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Software Development"
] | [
"FORTRAN",
"retrocomputing"
] | Usually, when we are talking about old computers, we are thinking of BASIC interpreters. But [Fireship] reminds us that it was originally Fortran and promises to give you
the essentials in 100 seconds
. We didn’t think you could do much in that short amount of time, but we have to admit that they did a pretty good job.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that we know Fortran — you probably aren’t going to be able to put it on your resume after watching this video. On the other hand, we were impressed with how much they did squeeze in. If you haven’t touched Fortran since the 1960s and 1970s, you should know that it has changed. Pointers, dynamic memory allocation, and even objects are all possible. It is still a very capable language and very adept at crunching large sets of numbers. Besides, there are many sophisticated algorithms you can borrow from decades of Fortran development.
If you decide you want to have a go, there is, of course,
GNU Fortran
. Honestly, as much time as we spent writing Fortran in years past, we don’t recommend it for new job prospects. But if you have some period hardware and want an authentic experience, it might just be the way to go. Or, just
fire up a browser
if you want to play.
Not everyone agrees, though, that Fortran is on the wane. There are efforts to bring it
even more up to date
. You can even use it for
web development
. | 36 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493124",
"author": "Alan Drury",
"timestamp": "2022-07-16T10:31:17",
"content": "First program I ever wrote was in Fortran. Time to write some more perhaps…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6493131",
"author": "Alex99a",
... | 1,760,372,628.247791 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/got-a-cardboard-box-get-into-food-smoking/ | Got A Cardboard Box? Get Into Food Smoking! | Donald Papp | [
"cooking hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"cardboard box",
"cold brew",
"diy",
"smoked fish",
"smoked meat",
"smoker"
] | We appreciate a good kitchen hack, and we have always liked TV personality and chef [Alton Brown]’s McGuyver-ish approach to these things. So for anyone who hasn’t seen it, let’s take a moment to highlight
how to make (and use) Alton Brown’s Cardboard Box Smoker
.
[Alton] himself confesses that over the years it has remained his favorite smoker for a few good reasons. The price is certainly right, but there are a few other things that really stand out in the design. It’s easy to assemble and take down, needing very little storage space compared to a purpose-built smoker. It’s also trivial to monitor the temperature inside: just poke a thermometer probe through the side of the box. Finally, it’s a great way to get some additional use out of an old hot plate and cast iron pan. It’s the kind of thing one could put together from a garage sale and a visit to the dollar store.
The cardboard box is perfectly serviceable, but one may be tempted to kick it up a notch with some upgrades. In that case, check out
this tech-upgraded flower pot smoker
(also based on an Alton Brown design.)
Reusing and repurposing is a great way to experiment in the kitchen without needing to buy specialized equipment. Here’s another example:
Kyoto-style cold brew coffee
. It’s thick and rich and brings out different flavor profiles. Curious? Well, normally it requires a special kind of filter setup, but it can also be accomplished with cheesecloth, coffee filters, and a couple of cut-up soft drink bottles. Oh, and some rubber bands and chopsticks if things are too wobbly. Just do yourself a favor and use good quality coffee beans, or better yet,
roast them yourself
. Just trust us on this one. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493105",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2022-07-16T07:19:57",
"content": "Ooh, I’ve done the flowerpot smoker before. Works great! Delish!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6493111",
"author": "Thomas Anderson",
"timesta... | 1,760,372,628.302099 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/liquid-piston-engine-finally-works/ | Liquid Piston Engine Finally Works | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"engine",
"liquid piston",
"piston engine"
] | The first video from [3DPrintedLife] attempting to make a liquid piston engine was… well… the operative word is attempting. The latest video, though, which you can see below
gets it right
, at least eventually.. He has a good explanation of the changes that made the design better. Turns out, one change that made a difference was to turn a key part of the engine inside out. You can see the video below.
The first version would quickly break during operation and while the first new version didn’t work very well, it did stay in one piece which is a definite improvement.
Almost as interesting as the design is the use of fluid simulations and OnShape’s version control to do software-development-like branch and merge to check some of the proposed changes. There’s also a pretty interesting dynamometer design. We also liked the novel method used to visualize airflow — better than smoke.
Finally, what do you do when your 3D printer is down and you need an optical interruption disk for a dynamometer? You’ll see if you watch the video. Not pretty, but we’ve done worse ourselves.
By 12 minutes in, we were worried it wasn’t going to work again, but it did work although it wasn’t terribly reliable to start. Still, when it worked, it worked well and there was plenty of things to learn in the attempt.
Maybe you want to 3D print
a jet engine
? Or just
settle for steam
. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493082",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-16T02:07:43",
"content": "A prony brake as a dynometer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6493108",
"author": "hackaday.inputoutput",
"times... | 1,760,372,628.341342 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/stratum-1-grandmaster-time-server-on-a-budget/ | Stratum 1 Grandmaster Time Server On A Budget | Chris Lott | [
"Network Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"cm4",
"IEEE-1588",
"ntp",
"precision timekeeping",
"PTP"
] | [Jeff Geerling] has been following the various open source time projects for some time now, and
is finally able to demonstrate a working and affordable solution for nanoseconds-accurate timekeeping in your local lab
. The possibility of a low-cost time server came about with the introduction of the Raspberry Pi CM4 compute module back in Oct 2020, whose Broadcom network chip (BCM54210PE) supports PTP (Precision Time Protocol, IEEE-1588) 1PPS output and hardware-based time stamping. Despite the CM4 data sheet specifying PTP support, it wasn’t available in the kernel. An
issue was raised in Feb last year
, and Raspberry Pi kernel support was finally released this month.
[Jeff] demonstrates how easy it is to get two CM4 modules to synchronize to within a few tens of nanoseconds in the video below the break. That alone can be very useful on many projects. But if you want really stable and absolute time, you need a stratum 1 external source. These time servers, called grandmasters in PTP nomenclature, have traditionally been specialized pieces of kit costing tens of thousands of dollars, using precision oscillators for stability and RF signals from stratum 0 devices like navigation satellites or terrestrial broadcast stations to get absolute time. But as Lasse Johnsen, who worked on the kernel updates remarks in the video:
In 2022 these purpose-built grandmaster clocks from the traditional vendors are about as relevant as the appliance web servers like the Raq and Qube were back in 1998.
It is now possible to build your own low-cost stratum 1 time server in your lab from open source projects. Two examples shown in the video. The
Open Time Server
project’s Timecard uses a GNSS satellite receiver and a Microchip MAC-SA5X Rubidium oscillator. If that’s overkill for your projects or budget, the
Time4Pi CM4 hat
is about to be release for under $200. If accurate time keeping is your thing, the technology is now within reach of the average home lab. You can also add PTP to a non-CM4 Raspberry Pi — check out the
Real-Time HAT
that we covered last year. | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493050",
"author": "Pat",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T23:40:56",
"content": "I wonder if those small-scale rubidium clocks have gotten any more reliable. Bought bunches when they first came out – had the orders delayed and had to waiver out specs as the company walked back performance... | 1,760,372,628.529091 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/collaborative-effort-gets-laser-galvos-talking-g-code/ | Collaborative Effort Gets Laser Galvos Talking G-Code | Dan Maloney | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"carbon dioxide",
"co2",
"driver",
"engraver",
"g-code",
"galvanometer",
"galvo",
"laser",
"Teensy",
"XY2-100"
] | Everyone should know by now that we love to follow up on projects when they make progress. It’s great to be able to celebrate accomplishments and see how a project has changed over time. But it’s especially great to highlight a project that not only progresses, but also gives back a little to the community.
That’s what we’re seeing with
[Les Wright]’s continuing work with a second-hand laser engraver
. It was only a few weeks ago that we featured
his initial experiments
with the eBay find, a powerful CO
2
laser originally used for industrial marking applications. It originally looked like [Les] was going to have to settle for a nice teardown and harvesting a few parts, but the eleven-year-old tube and the marking head’s galvanometers actually turned out to be working just fine.
The current work, which is also featured in the video below, mainly concerns those galvos, specifically getting them working with G-code to turn the unit into a bit of an ad hoc laser engraver. Luckily, he stumbled upon the
OPAL Open Galvo project
on GitHub, which can turn G-code into the XY2-100 protocol used by his laser. While [Les] has nothing but praise for the software side of OPAL, he saw a hardware hole he could fill, and contributed his design for a PCB that hosts the Teensy the code runs on as well as the buffer and line driver needed to run the galvos and laser. The video shows the whole thing in use with simple designs on wood and acrylic, as well as interesting results on glass.
Of course, these were only tests — we’re sure [Les] would address the obvious safety concerns in a more complete engraver. But for now, we’ll just applaud the collaboration shown here and wait for more updates. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493020",
"author": "doobie",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T20:27:02",
"content": "I did this for the fsl pegasus touch 3d printer years ago.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6493022",
"author": "Bootdsc",
"timestamp": "2022-0... | 1,760,372,628.388413 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/14/homebrew-stream-deck-pedal-emulates-the-real-thing/ | Homebrew Stream Deck Pedal Emulates The Real Thing | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Elgato",
"elgato stream deck",
"foot pedal",
"foot switch",
"footswitch",
"macro",
"stream deck"
] | Pedals are a great way to control functions on your computer. You’re rarely using your feet for anything else, so they can handle some tasks, freeing up your hands.
This Elgato Stream Deck controller from [DDRBoxman] does just that.
[DDRBoxman] wanted to control Elgato Stream Deck much like the offical pedal sold by the company. Thus, some hacking was in order. Using Wireshark with the Elgato pedal helped to determine the communication method of the real hardware.
Once the protocol was figured out, it was just a task of getting the Raspberry Pi Pico to replicate the same functionality. With the help of the tinyusb library, [DDRBoxman] was able to emulate the real Elgato device successfully. Paired with a 3D-printed footswitch design from Adafruit, and the project was functional and complete.
We’ve seen great foot pedal devices over the years, from
a simple macro device
to a super-useful
page turner for sheet music.
If you’ve been hacking away at your own nifty input devices,
be sure to drop us a line! | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492791",
"author": "Then",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T09:45:53",
"content": "Why did I read Steam Deck",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6492808",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T11:55:53",
... | 1,760,372,628.843794 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/14/visual-cryptography-for-physical-keyrings/ | Visual Cryptography For Physical Keyrings | Dave Rowntree | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cryptography",
"laser cut",
"visual"
] | Visual cryptography is one of those unusual cases that kind of looks like a good idea, but it turns out is fraught with problems. The idea is straightforward enough — an image to encrypt is sampled and a series of sub-pixel patterns are produced which are distributed to multiple separate images. When individual images are printed to transparent film, and all films in the set are brought into alignment, an image appears out of the randomness. Without at least a minimum number of such images, the original image cannot be resolved. Well, sort of. [anfractuosity] wanted to play with the
concept of visual cryptography in a slightly different medium
, that of a set of metal plates, shaped as a set of keyrings.
Two image ‘share pairs’ needed as a minimum to form an image when combined
Metal blanks were laser cut, with the image being formed by transmitted light through coincident holes in both plate pairs, when correctly aligned. What, we hear you ask, is the problem with this cryptography technique? Well, one issue is that of faking messages. It is possible for a malicious third party, given either one of the keys in a pair, to construct a matching key composing an entirely different message, and then substitute this for the second key, duping both original parties. Obviously this would need both parties to be physically compromised, but neither would necessarily notice the substitution, if neither party knew the originally encrypted message. For those interested in digging in a little deeper, do checkout this
classic paper by Naor and Shamir
[pdf] of the Wiezmann Institute. Still, despite the issues, for a visual hack it’s still a pretty fun technique!
Want to learn a little more about crypto techniques you can do at home?
Here’s our guide
. Encryption too hard to break, but need a way to eavesdrop?
Just punt out a flawed system,
and you’re good to go. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492727",
"author": "Ezra Thomas",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T02:18:19",
"content": "Neat! It would be *really* cool if someone could figure out how to make something similar that operated with xor instead of and. Not sure how that would be done, off the top of my head.",
"parent_... | 1,760,372,628.96262 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/14/this-jet-engine-will-see-you-through/ | This Jet Engine Will See You Through | Matthew Carlson | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"jet engine",
"warped perception"
] | Have you ever wished you could peer inside a complex machine while it was still running? We sort of can with simulations and the CAD tools we have today, but it isn’t the same as doing IRL. [Warped Perception] made a
see-thru jet engine to experience the feeling
. The effect, we dare say, is better than any simulation.
[Warped Perception] has a good bit of experience with jet engines and
previously mounted them to his car.
The first step was balancing, and while he didn’t
use an oscilloscope
, he could get it within a few thousands of a gram balanced. Then, after some light CAD work, it was all machining. Brackets were fabricated, and gaskets were laser cut to hold the large thick clear cover together. There are a few exciting things to see (and hear). The engine expands and contracts significantly due to pressure and heat, but it’s interesting to see it move physically as it ramps up and down.
Additionally, the sound as it goes through the various thrust levels is quite impressive. But, of course, what’s a jet engine test with an airflow test? Surprisingly, the engine didn’t pull in as much air as he thought. Eighty pounds of thrust doesn’t mean eighty pounds of air.
This
3D-printed water-cooled jet engine
isn’t quite see-through, but it is interesting to see the thorough process of making the engine itself. Video after the break. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492692",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2022-07-14T23:32:41",
"content": "He needed some ears on the end plates for four axial bolts to keep it from spreading apart and blowing the gaskets out. The way he has the top and bottom plates with the radial bolts can be seen mo... | 1,760,372,629.019923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/14/a-linux-business-card-you-can-build/ | A Linux Business Card You Can Build | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"atsamd21",
"business card",
"Embedded Linux",
"linux"
] | It is a sign of the times that one of [Dmitry’s] design criteria for his new
Linux on a business card
is to use parts you can actually find during the current component shortage. The resulting board uses a ATSAMD21 chip and emulates a MIPS machine in order to boot Linux.
We like that in addition to the build details, [Dmitry] outlines a lot of the reasons for his decisions. There’s also a a fair amount of detail about how the whole system actually works. For example, by using a 0.8 mm PCB, the board can accept a USB-C cable with no additional connector. There is also a great explanation of the MIPS MMU and don’t forget that MIPS begat RISC-V, so many of the MIPS core details will apply to RISC-V as well (but
not the MMU
). You’ll also find some
critiques of the ATSAMD21’s DMA system
. It seems to save chip real estate, the DMA system stores configuration data in user memory which it has to load and unload every time you switch channels.
By the end of the post you get the feeling this may be [Dimitry]’s last ATSAMD21 project. But we have to admit, it seems to have come out great. This isn’t the first
business card Linux build
we’ve seen. This one sure reminded us of a
MIDI controller card
we once saw. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492640",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2022-07-14T20:48:00",
"content": "This is the second “Microcontroller emulating another CPU to run linux” I’ve seen today.When will we get a rb pico emulating a rb pi (which is business card sized!)?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,372,628.905332 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/14/apple-airtags-hacked-and-cloned-with-voltage-glitching/ | Apple AirTags Hacked And Cloned With Voltage Glitching | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"AirTag",
"airtags",
"apple",
"Apple AirTag",
"apple airtags",
"iphone",
"NFC"
] | Apple AirTags are useful little devices. They essentially use iPhones in the wild as a mesh network to tell the owner where the AirTag is. Now, researchers have shown that it’s possible to clone these devices.
The research paper
explains the cloning process, which requires physical access to the hardware. To achieve the hack, the Nordic nRF52832 inside the AirTag must be voltage glitched to enable its debug port. The researchers were able to achieve this with relatively simple tools, using a Pi Pico fitted with a few additional components.
With the debug interface enabled, it’s simple to extract the microcontroller’s firmware. It’s then possible to clone this firmware onto another tag. The team also experimented with other hacks, like having the AirTag regularly rotate its ID to avoid triggering
anti-stalking warnings
built into Apple’s tracing system.
As the researchers explain, it’s clear that AirTags can’t really be secure as long as they’re based on a microcontroller that is vulnerable to such attacks.
It’s not the first AirTag cloning we’ve seen either.
They’re an interesting device with some serious privacy and safety implications, so it pays to stay abreast of developments in this area.
[Thanks to Itay for the tip!] | 34 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492582",
"author": "Thomas",
"timestamp": "2022-07-14T17:18:22",
"content": "I understand the alerting system, but having had a RZR stolen from me last year, I’d love to have it track without alerting someone that the device is following them. Perhaps I could have gotten my ride b... | 1,760,372,629.106541 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/14/building-a-better-3d-scanner-with-an-iphone-and-making-art/ | Building A Better 3D Scanner With An IPhone, And Making Art | Lewin Day | [
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"3d scanner",
"iphone",
"model"
] | Apple’s FaceID system uses infrared depth-sensing technology to authenticate people via their faces. It can also be used for simple 3D scanning,
and [Scott Yu-Jan] found a better way to do that.
The main problem with using an iPhone as a 3D scanner in this manner is that the sensor is built into the front side of the device. It’s great for scanning your own face, but if you’re trying to scan an object, you can no longer see the iPhone’s screen. [Scott] solved this problem by slapping together a handheld 3D printed device to hold the iPhone along with an external monitor. This allowed Scott to scan while still seeing what was going on.
Having noticed that some of the 3D scanning apps produced strange, glitchy results when scanning faces, [Scott] decided to innovate artistically.
He employed [Andrea] to model
, took some scans, and Photoshopped the results into some impressive posters.
Overall, [Scott] demonstrates that it’s relatively easy to repurposed the iPhone for improved 3D scanning. With a simple design, he has a handheld scanner that works way better than just the phone on its own. Alternatively,
consider getting into photogrammetry instead
. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492578",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2022-07-14T17:10:04",
"content": "Awesome idea and execution using 3d printing. I really like the results and the available posters and puzzles.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6492579",... | 1,760,372,629.160449 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/14/chinese-anti-porn-helmet-raises-eyebrows-questions/ | Chinese Anti-Porn Helmet Raises Eyebrows, Questions | Kristina Panos | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"artifical intelligence",
"censorship",
"porn",
"pornography"
] | Did you know that pornography is completely illegal in China? Probably not surprising news, though, right? The country has already put measures in place to scour the Internet in search of explicit content, mostly using AI. But the government also employs human porn appraisers, called
jian huang shi,
whose job it is to judge images and videos to decide whether they contain explicit content. Also probably not surprising is that humans are better than AI at knowing porn when they see it — or at least, they are faster at identifying it. Weirdness and morality and everything else aside, these
jian huang shi
are regular people, and frankly, they get exhausted looking at this stuff all day.
So what is the answer to burnout in this particular field? Researchers at Beijing Jiaotong University have come up with a way to bring the technological and human aspects of their existing efforts together. They’ve created
a helmet that can detect particular spikes in brainwaves that occur from exposure to explicit imagery
. Basically, it flashes a combination of naughty and ho-hum images in rapid succession until a spike is detected, then it flags the offending image.
One Helmet to Protect Them All
Calling this thing a ‘helmet’ is a bit of a stretch, though we suppose that metaphorically speaking, it is meant to ultimately protect Chinese citizens from sensitive content. All of the news outlets seem to be using stock photos of rubber swimming caps covered with electrodes, which is probably about what it looks like. Unfortunately, we can’t find much detail about the device, and none of the outlets seem to have much, either.
We figure that the cap itself is some kind of bog-standard brainwave-capturing contraption, and the business part is in whatever software they wrote to detect brainwaves in real time and associate the telltale spike with that which must be censored. Oh, but during the study, all the images had the super naughty bits covered up with black bars, because porn is illegal in China.
So, how well does it work? The researchers say that the helmet helps flag almost every explicit image in a given set, but that it also gives false positives. All in all, the device’s accuracy is only around 80%, which the researchers put down to a lack of sufficient training material. Ahem.
Working Girls
Although 100% of the volunteers for the study happened to be university-aged young men, today’s active roster of employed
jian huang shi
are mostly women, and we have to wonder why that is. Was it by design? Does the government prefer women for this task?
We suppose that women are, overall, less distracted by a flash of nipple here, or a nude buttock there. And if you want to get wild and crazy with the theories, we also suppose that women are less likely to let a bit of beefcake through in the interest of their sexually oppressed sisters all over the nation.
Will Blue-Collar Workers Be the First Batteries?
If you think the anti-porn helmet is a sign of
The Matrix
to come, consider this:
Chinese firms in the construction, manufacturing, and transportation fields are already using AI to monitor the attentiveness and emotions of their workers
via sensors in their helmets, all in the name of productivity and increasing the number of days since the last accident. Chilling, indeed, especially since there are no laws in place to govern either the use of the equipment, or the information that it gleans. Of course, it would be
unfair to paint this as a uniquely Chinese problem
, as employee monitoring
is a growth industry
in the US as well.
But still, there’s something different in kind about a brainwave-reading cap. Maybe we’re catastrophizing here, but how far off can the day be when every citizen has to wake up each day and don their cap? If they’d let you take it off at night. | 72 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492541",
"author": "Rumble_in_the_Jungle",
"timestamp": "2022-07-14T14:26:13",
"content": "Remember once as teenager, I raised eyebrow when my helmet raised.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6492965",
"author": "Consul... | 1,760,372,629.45907 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/a-simple-web-based-wiring-harness-tool/ | A Simple Web-Based Wiring Harness Tool | Dave Rowntree | [
"hardware"
] | [
"cable",
"connectors",
"flask",
"python",
"web assembly",
"wireviz",
"wiring harness"
] | When building electronic assemblies there is quite often the need to construct custom cables to hook things up. It’s all very well if you’re prototyping by hand, or just building one or two of a thing, but if you’re cranking them out using outside help, then you’re going to want to ensure that cable is described very accurately. [Christian Nimako-Boateng Jr.] presents for us the first version of
wirely, a wiring harness tool
. This is a web-based tool that allows one to describe the cable ends and connectivity between them, producing a handy graphic and exports to excel in a format that should be easy to follow.
Based around the
wireviz Python library
running on a
flask
-based backend, image data are sent to the web assembly front-end and rendered with OpenGL. Configuration files can be imported and exported as JSON, making it easily linkable to other tools if required. Helpfully, the tool also seems to support some kind of revision control, although we didn’t try that yet. The process is straightforward enough, one simply defines a few groups (these relate to individual PCBs or other floating items in the assembly) which each contain one or more connectors. First, the connectors are described with part numbers, and wire gauge data, before defining the list of connections (wires) showing which signal and physical pins are connected together. Nothing more complex than that yet. We think there is still some more functionality that the tool could manage, such as shielding and guarding details, twisted pair definitions and a few others, but for a first pass, wirely looks pretty handy.
If you want a more heavyweight option using
IEC 60617 symbols
for describing wiring harnesses, then
look no farther than QElectroTech
, and yes, we have
covered wireviz before
, just for those that want to cut out the middleman and describe their cables in Python directly. | 33 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493005",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T19:21:50",
"content": "When I read “wiring harness” my first thought was automotive wiring and wire looms.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "649... | 1,760,372,629.230452 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/helping-secure-amateur-radios-digital-future/ | Helping Secure Amateur Radio’s Digital Future | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"digital radio",
"Hack Chat",
"ham radio"
] | The average person’s perception of a ham radio operator, assuming they even know what that means, is more than likely some graybeard huddled over the knobs of a war-surplus transmitter in the wee small hours of the morning. It’s a mental image that, admittedly, isn’t entirely off the mark in some cases. But it’s also a gross over-simplification, and a generalization that isn’t doing the hobby any favors when it comes to bringing in new blood.
In reality, a modern ham’s toolkit includes a wide array of technologies that are about as far away from your grandfather’s kit-built rig as could be — and there’s exciting new protocols and tools on the horizon. To ensure a bright future for amateur radio, these technologies need to be nurtured the word needs to be spread about what they can do. Along the way, we’ll also need to push back against stereotypes that can hinder younger operators from signing on.
On the forefront of these efforts is
Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC)
, a private foundation dedicated to supporting amateur radio and digital communication by providing grants to scholarships, educational programs, and promising open source technical projects.
For this week’s Hack Chat
, ARDC Executive Director Rosy Schechter (KJ7RYV) and Staff Lead John Hays (K7VE) dropped by to talk about the future of radio and digital communications.
Rosy kicked things off with a brief overview of ARDC’s fascinating history. The story starts in 1981, when Hank Magnuski had the incredible foresight to realize that amateur radio packet networks could benefit from having a dedicated block of IP addresses. In those early days, running out of addresses was all but unimaginable, so he had no trouble securing 16.7 million IPs for use by licensed amateur radio operators. This block of addresses, known as AMPRNet and then later 44Net, was administered by volunteers until ARDC was formed in 2011 and took over ownership. In 2019, the decision was made to sell off about four million of the remaining IP addresses — the proceeds of which went into an endowment that now funds the foundation’s grant programs.
So where does the money go?
The ARDC maintains a list of recipients
, which provides for some interesting reading. The foundation has
helped fund development of GNU Radio
, supported the development of an
open hardware CubeSat frame
by the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), and cut a check to the San Francisco Wireless Emergency Mesh to
improve communications in wildfire-prone areas
. They even provided $1.6 million towards the
restoration of the MIT Radio Society’s radome and 18-foot dish
.
Of all the recipients of ARDC grants, the
M17 project
garnered the most interest during the Chat. This community of open source developers and radio enthusiasts is developing a next-generation digital radio protocol for data and voice that’s unencumbered by patents and royalties. In their own words, M17 is focused on “
radio hardware designs that can be copied and built by anyone, software that anyone has the freedom to modify and share to suit their own needs, and other open systems that respect your freedom to tinker.
” They’re definitely our kind of folks —
we first covered the project in 2020
, and are keen to see it develop further.
John says the foundation has approximately $6 million each year they can dole out, and that while there’s certainly no shortage of worthwhile projects to support as it is, they’re always looking for new applicants. The instructions and guides for grant applications are still being refined, but there’s at least one hard requirement for any project that wants to be funded by the ARDC: it must be open source and available to the general amateur population.
Of course, all this new technology is moot if there’s nobody to use it. It’s no secret that getting young people interested in amateur radio has been a challenge, and frankly, it’s little surprise. When a teenager can already contact anyone on the planet using the smartphone in their pocket, getting a ham license doesn’t hold quite the same allure as it did to earlier generations.
Depending on how old you are, this might have been one of the most shocking moments in
Stranger Things
.
The end result is that awareness among youth is low. During the Chat, one participant recounted how he had to put Netflix’s
Stranger Things
on pause so he could explain to his teenage son how the characters in the 1980s set show were able to communicate across long distances using a homemade radio. Think about that for a minute — in a show about nightmarish creatures invading our world from an alternate dimension, the hardest thing for this young man to wrap his head around was the fact a group of teenagers would be able to keep in touch with each other without the Internet or phone lines to connect them.
So its no surprise that John says the ARDC is actively looking for programs which can help improve the demographics of amateur radio. The foundation is looking to not only bring younger people onboard, but also reach out to groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the hobby. As an example, he points to a
grant awarded to the Bridgerland Amateur Radio Club (BARC) last year
to bolster their youth engagement program. Funds went towards putting together a portable rig that would allow students to communicate with the International Space Station, and the development of hands-on workshops where teens will be able to launch, track, and recover payloads on a high altitude balloon. Let’s see them do that on their fancy new smartphone.
We want to not only thank Rosy Schechter and John Hays for taking part in this week’s Hack Chat, but everyone else at Amateur Radio Digital Communications for their efforts to support the present and future of amateur radio and digital communication.
The Hack Chat is a weekly online chat session hosted by leading experts from all corners of the hardware hacking universe. It’s a great way for hackers connect in a fun and informal way, but if you can’t make it live, these overview posts as well as the
transcripts posted to Hackaday.io
make sure you don’t miss out. | 54 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492985",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T17:43:07",
"content": "When I was a kid in 1968 or 69, the magazine for Scouting in Canada had anarticle about broadcast band DXing, complete with winding an antenna wire around the radio. Next issue, there was a letter m... | 1,760,372,629.33855 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/hackaday-podcast-177-microscopes-telescopes-telephonoscopes-and-a-keyboardoscope/ | Hackaday Podcast 177: Microscopes, Telescopes, Telephonoscopes, And A Keyboardoscope? | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Assignments Editor Kristina Panos stood around talking like they weren’t thousands of miles apart. And we mean that literally: Kristina just got an up/down desk, and it turns out that Elliot’s had the exact same one for years.
Kristina’s phone is heavier than yours.
In between the hammerings on Kristina’s house (she’s getting new siding), we kick things off by drooling over the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and compare a few of them to the same shots from Hubble.
We managed to save a bit of saliva for all the seriously swell keyboards and not-keyboards we saw throughout the Odd Inputs and Peculiar Peripherals contest, all of which are winners in our book.
This week, we ask the tough questions, like why would someone who has never played guitar want to build one from scratch? We can only guess that the answer is simply, ‘because l can’. As lazy as that reasoning may sound, this build is anything but.
Later on, we’ll ogle an ocean of PS/2 keyboards and their new owner’s portable testing rig, complain about ASMR, and laugh about a giant nose that sneezes out sanitizer.
Direct download.
And burn it to CD-RW!
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!
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 177 Show Notes:
News:
First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope
Compare photos from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope just revealed our universe anew–the view is absolutely stunning – YouTube
What’s that Sound?
If you think you know the answer to this week’s challenge,
let us know
!
Bonus: Kristina is getting new siding put on the house
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Overwhelmed By Odd Inputs: The Contest Winners And More
A Guitar From Scratch
Trying Out A 3D Printed Microscope Lens Adapter
Objective (optics) – Wikipedia
Microscope Objectives – Introduction
Berlin Clock Takes Inspiration From Sci-Fi Sources, Looks Incredible
Mengenlehreuhr – Wikipedia
Use AprilTags To Let Guests Open Your Front Gate
OpenMV: The Camera For Your Next Project
The Story Of Kickstarting The OpenMV
A Handy Tester For A Mountain Of PS/2 Keyboards
The PS/2 Keyboard Interface
Decoding The PS/2 Keyboard Protocol Using Good Old Fashioned Hardware
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Lift The Veil On RSA With This RSA Calculator
Why You Should Totally Roll Your Own AES Cryptography
ESP32 Powers Fresh Take On An IoT Geiger Counter
Weed Eater String Made From Plastic Bottles
Kristina’s Picks:
Watching A Boat Get Welded Together Is Workshop ASMR
Sneeze Into Your Hand, Not Your Elbow With This Nose-Shaped Sanitizer Dispenser
Temperature-Sensitive Pac-Man/Ghost LED Matrix
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Open Firmware For PinePhone LTE Modem – What’s Up With That?
How A Smartphone Is Made, In Eight “Easy” Blocks
Where Are Our Video Phones? | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6501856",
"author": "Someone",
"timestamp": "2022-08-10T21:26:21",
"content": "“Direct Download: and burn it to CD-RW”. Nope, but I will download it to my MP3 player. Saves phone battery*, better anonymity on PC than phone, etc.One rechargeable AAA is more than enough for a work day... | 1,760,372,629.506913 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/style-your-tile-with-3d-printed-countertops/ | Style Your Tile With 3D Printed Countertops | Kristina Panos | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"countertop",
"kitchen",
"resin"
] | We’re all familiar with supply chain issues as they relate to chips and DIPs, but anyone who has requested an estimate for home improvements lately knows that the problems extend to things like plywood, and probably tile, marble, and Formica. Faced with adversity when it came to renovating the kitchen,
[3DPC] decided to have a go at 3D printing custom countertops
instead of buying tile.
Always build a testing rig first! Polyurethane looked great when wet, but resin was the clear winner.
Since grout isn’t required here but is ultimately expected, [3DPC] beveled the edges of the tiles in order to allow for decorative ‘grout’ filler pieces that provide a nice contrast. That high-gloss shine comes from a combination of printing onto glass, the direction of the layer lines, and the resin sealer that [3DPC] hired a professional to pour. Because of these factors, the tiles have an increased transparency that makes them look super cool. Be sure to check out the brief build video after the break.
To be fair, this is not [3DPC]’s first 3D-printed home-improvement rodeo — he has already saved tens of thousands of dollars by printing instead of purchasing. For this particular project, [3DPC] calculated a total cost under $400 — a fraction of what a professionally installed countertop would have cost. We wonder how much he’ll save on tiling the bathroom, which is already in progress. We can’t wait to see it!
Are you still without a printer? Might as well make one that can use trash. Or if you already have a printer, just make filament from recycled plastic. It’s all here among the
2022 Hackaday Prize Round 2 winners
; just let your imagination wander. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492921",
"author": "Steven",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T15:43:05",
"content": "I am unconvinced anything effects the glossy surface more than the final pour of resin. I really like the idea of printing decorative parts for home projects like this. Imagine instead of printing just squ... | 1,760,372,629.569646 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/this-week-in-security-retbleed-post-quantum-python-atomicwrites-and-the-mysterious-cuteboi/ | This Week In Security: Retbleed, Post-Quantum, Python-atomicwrites, And The Mysterious Cuteboi | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"Cuteboi",
"PyPI",
"Spectre",
"This Week in Security"
] | Yet another entry in the “why we can’t have nice things” category,
Retbleed was announced this week
, as yet another speculative execution vulnerability. This one is mitigated in hardware for AMD’s Zen 3 and Intel Generation 9 and later. For earlier devices
the performance hit in mitigation is quite painful
. What exactly makes this different from previous weaknesses, and why didn’t the previous mitigations cover this problem?
Spectre V2 abuses a CPU’s indirect branch prediction, to trigger speculative execution of code that shouldn’t be executed in a given context. Even though the CPU eventually catches up and rolls back the bogus execution, there are still fingerprints left behind in the cache contents. The idea is that reading those fingerprints leaks actual data that the attacker process shouldn’t have access to at all. The solution in the Linux kernel is the “
retpoline
“, a portmanteau of “return” and “trampoline”. This gadget replaces a
jmp
instruction with some setup, and finally a
ret
call instead. This looked to be an inexpensive solution to the problem.
What Retbleed brings to the table is a method to poison the speculative execution of these return instructions as well. Their
full paper (PDF)
describes the technique, which boils down to manipulating a processor to use the vulnerable Branch Target Buffer (BTB) instead of the safer Return Stack Buffer (RSB). On vulnerable Intel systems, this means filling the RSB with enough data to pop the actual target return out of the buffer. When the series of jumps and returns unwind, the final return actually uses the BTB as the RSB has emptied, or underrun. Vulnerable AMD systems seem to simply always use a BTB to predict returns, making the exploitation much easier there.
Windows machines use a more aggressive mitigation policy, Indirect Branch Restricted Speculation (IBRS), which does seem to fully mitigate this particular issue, though there may be more coming in the next few weeks. On Linux, the retpoline mitigation is finally being replaced by IBRS by default, leading to the performance hit discussed above.
If you’re on one of the affected CPUs, there are some kernel parameters you can use to control what mitigations are put in place.
retbleed=off
uses the existing retpoline mitigation if appropriate, but doesn’t further degrade performance, at the expense of vulnerability to this attack. The default,
retbleed=auto
will use the full mitigations to make the machine as safe as practical without disabling Simultaneous MultiThreading (SMT). And finally
retbleed=auto,nosmt
will actually disable SMT on the few models that technically require it for full mitigations. This isn’t set by default, as it is even more crippling to the machine’s performance.
NIST Goes Post-Quantum
While the quantum crypto-Apocalypse has yet to be realized, the various agencies responsible for standards are working to stay ahead of the curve by sponsoring research and then selecting cryptography schemes to be used as next-gen standards. In that vein,
NIST has released an update to their Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Process
. The big news here is that a few algorithms have been selected. Falcon, SPHINCS, CRYSTALS-Kyber, and CRYSTALS-Dilithium. There definitely seems to be some sci-fi geeks among the entrants, based on the names.
CRYSTALS-Kyber is a
Key Encapsulation Mechanism
(KEM), a method to share a private key using only publicly sent messages, a la Diffie-Hellman. CRYSTALS-Dilithium and the others are signature schemes, useful for verifying data. We look forward to these standards rolling out through the different projects and applications we use daily.
PyPI, 2FA, and a Grumpy Dev
In an effort to avoid security problems, the PyPI repository has
rolled out a security policy
that requires maintainers of critical projects to use Two-Factor Authentication for their accounts, and are even sending out free hardware keys. The criteria for inclusion is to be in the top 1% of downloads for six months. There’s a relevant question in the FAQ on the page: “Can a project opt-out or become non-critical in any way?” The official answer states, “No, once the project has been designated as critical it retains that designation indefinitely.” At least one developer discovered a workaround, with interesting results.
nice, I just deleted the atomicwrites package, then uploaded a new version. now it's no longer a critical project
— Markus Unterwaditzer (@untitaker)
July 8, 2022
Read that again. One of the most popular packages on PyPI was deleted and a new version uploaded. Every project and every dependency that pointed to a pinned version of
atomicwrites
got their installation process broken. Sure, it’s no longer marked as a critical package, and the author doesn’t have to use 2FA, but until the PyPI admins stepped in and rectified the problem, a bunch of developers around the world were in quite the pickle. The primary dev, [unitaker] has since decided to
leave the package alone, but deprecate it
.
Let us know what you think, is PyPI in the wrong, requiring volunteer devs to use 2FA, or is the supply chain issue important enough to make it worth the hassle?
Cuteboi
And if you want to know why PyPi is worried about security — there’s been
some odd activity spotted on NPM
, to the tune of over a thousand malicious packages mass-uploaded to the service. It’s all under randomly named users, and seems to be a variation of
eazyminer
, which is a simple coin mining package for Node.js. The name comes from the configuration of that miner, which sends to a pool named “cute”.
This seems to have been a test of an automated tool to create users and upload packages, maybe gearing up for a more malicious run. Or it could be a fellow researcher, who plans to publish a report about how to automate user creation. Either way, there’s even a site available to track the bot’s activity, appropriately named
cuteboi.info
. (I know, that looks like a terrifying URL. I promise, it’s safe for work.)
Bits and Bytes
We’ve been following the
OpenSSL AVX512 memory corruption story
for several weeks now. There’s finally a pin in this issue, as
OpenSSL 3.0.5 has been released
, containing the fix. As far as we know, a full RCE exploit does not exist for this bug. So while it could be a very serious problem when viewed in isolation, this one will almost certainly a real-world impact that rounds to zero.
QNAP has
published an advisory about a new ransomware attack
against their NAS devices, and the recommended action boils down to, “Do not expose SMB to the internet.” The attack seems to be a dictionary attack against exposed services. An update is available to harden the service, and QNAP recommends using a VPN instead of exposing services to the net.
Microsoft is finally trying to leave the past behind, and
block macros by default in office documents
. Office has a logic flow to determine whether to run macros, starting with whether the document is explicitly trusted, whether the macros are signed by a trusted publisher, etc. What’s new is the default behavior when the flow falls off the end of the chart. In the past, it would fail open, running the macros by default. The new behavior fails safe, refusing to run. The craziest thing about this is that they’ve received enough pushback that this change has been rolled back for now, so you can still push macro viruses through.
Party like it’s 1999, Melissa
!
And if that isn’t enough security craziness, check out
the story of Aerojet Recketdyne
which hired [Brian Markus] as “senior director of cybersecurity, compliance, and controls.” Rocketdyne was falsifying reports, like reporting that they did have a certain piece of security equipment, when it was still in the box. All of this in pursuit of government contracts. [Markus] refused to sign off on a document stating the company had complied with the appropriate rules. He refused to sign, and was fired as a result. After multiple year of legal wrangling, the parties have settled, with [Markus] receiving over $2.6 million from the company, and the US gov’t receiving twice that much. Some times, apparently, it pays to do the right thing. (Via
Heise.de
). | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492928",
"author": "BillyG",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T15:49:04",
"content": "Rocketdyne was falsifying reports, like reporting that they did have a certain piece of security equipment, when it was still in the box.Well… technically they did have it. They just never deployed it. T... | 1,760,372,629.618407 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/watch-out-for-lasercutter-manufacturers-violating-gpl/ | Watch Out For Lasercutter Manufacturers Violating GPL | Arya Voronova | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"copyright",
"GNU General Public License",
"gpl",
"grbl",
"legal",
"license",
"ortur",
"software license",
"software licensing"
] | For companies that build equipment like CNC machines or lasercutters, it’s tempting to use open-source software in a lot of areas. After all, it’s stable, featureful, and has typically passed the test of time. But using open-source software is not always without attendant responsibilities. The GPL license requires that all third-party changes shipped to users are themselves open-sourced, with possibility for legal repercussions. But for that, someone has to step up and hold them accountable.
Here, the manufacturer under fire is
Ortur
. They ship laser engravers that quite obviously use the
Grbl
firmware, or a modified version thereof, so [Norbert] asked them for the source code. They replied that it was a “business secret”. He even wrote them a second time, and they refused. Step three, then, is making a video about it.
Unfortunately [Norbert] doesn’t have the resources to start international legal enforcement, so instead he suggests we should start talking openly about the manufacturers involved. This makes sense, since such publicity makes it way easier for a lawsuit eventually happen, and we’ve seen real consequences come to
Samsung
,
Creality
and
Skype,
among others.
Many of us have fought with laser cutters burdened by proprietary firmware, and while
throwing the original board out
is tempting, you do need to invest quite a bit more energy and money working around something that shouldn’t have been a problem. Instead, the manufacturers could do the right, and legal, thing in the first place. We should let them know that we require that of them. | 84 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492802",
"author": "JK",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T11:18:10",
"content": "the only person who can sue to correct a GPL violation is the copyright holder of the code. (In the same way you cant sue someone for manufacturing an illegal spider man toy, unless you own the rights to spid... | 1,760,372,630.135462 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/15/embedded-dashboard-definitely-displays-data/ | Embedded Dashboard Definitely Displays Data | Lewin Day | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"serial monitor",
"serial terminal",
"status LED"
] | Oftentimes, we’ll find ourselves using an PC attached to a project for serial debugging. Other times, we’ll be squinting at a status LED trying to remember the flash code we invented.
This embedded dashboard from [hgrodriguez]
aims to land somewhere in the middle.
The dashboard features LEDs, several 5×7 matrix displays, and will also mount a small OLED display as well. Everything onboard is driven by an ItsyBitsy board, featuring an Atmega32u4 microcontroller. Data can be fed to the ItsyBitsy via UART, SPI, or eventually, I2C as well.
With the ItsyBitsy handling actually driving the various displays, your project only need send out debug data over one of the listed interfaces. The ItsyBitsy will then display your byte values or word values on the matrix displays, flash the LEDs as required, and so on.
The result is a useful little console that can show you what’s going on in the brain of your microcontroller project. It’s no substitute for a
full serial terminal
, but it could definitely come in handy when you need to get eyes on a few variables in RAM! | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492785",
"author": "Ale",
"timestamp": "2022-07-15T09:00:59",
"content": "It is programmed in ADA !, that is worth a big mention :), I think.I think he is using this:https://pico-doc.synack.me",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,372,630.183074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/17/a-home-made-sewing-machine-may-be-the-only-one/ | A Home Made Sewing Machine May Be The Only One | Jenny List | [
"classic hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"sewing",
"sewing machine",
"textiles"
] | The sewing machine is a tool that many of us will have somewhere around our workshop. Concealed within it lies an intricate and fascinating mechanism. Some of us may have peered inside, but very few indeed of us will have gone to the effort of building our own. In case you had ever wondered whether it was possible, [Fraens] has done just that, with
what he claims may be the only entirely homemade sewing machine on the Internet
.
If you’ve ever studied the history of sewing machines you’ll notice that it bears a striking resemblance to some of the earliest commercial machines, with a relatively short reach and an entirely open construction. The main chassis appears to be laser-cut acrylic while all the fittings are 3D-printed, with machined brass bushes and aluminum rods for the other metal parts. The design utilizes a hand crank, but is also pictured with a DC motor. It makes for a fascinating illustration of how sewing machines work. Sadly we can’t see any design file links (Update: He’s contacted us to tell us
they’re now on Thingiverse
.), so you might have to be inventive if that’s the way you want to build your own. Take a look at it in the video below the break.
Fancy a sewing machine but don’t fancy making your own?
We’ve got the guide for that
, and for
filling the rest of your textile bench
. | 37 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493492",
"author": "Igor",
"timestamp": "2022-07-17T11:40:34",
"content": "Here are the files of the sewing machine:https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5427892",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6493502",
"author": "Fraens",
... | 1,760,372,630.266885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/17/a-no-calibration-metal-detector/ | A No-Calibration Metal Detector | Jenny List | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"Ardunio",
"metal detector",
"oscillator"
] | A traditional early project for someone discovering a love for electronics has been for many years a metal detector. This would mean a few transistors back in the day, but today it’s more likely to involve a microcontroller. [Mircemk] has
an example that bends both worlds
, with a single transistor oscillator and an Arduino.
This type of metal detector has a large search coil which forms part of the tuned circuit in an oscillator. As a piece of metal enters its range the frequency of oscillation changes. In the old days, this would have been detected as an audible beat frequency with another oscillator. This design would require a calibration step at the start of detecting, to tune the two oscillators to the same frequency.
This detector keeps the first oscillator but eschews the second one in favor of an Arduino. The microcontroller acts as a frequency counter, monitoring the frequency and issuing an alarm when it detects a change likely to be caused by a piece of metal. It may not have some of the finess a human ear could apply to a beat frequency in the all-analogue days, but it’s simple enough to build and it avoids the need for calibration. Seeing it in the video below the break we’re sure that just like those transistor models old, there will be plenty of fun to be had with it.
An Arduino may be one of the current go-to parts, but will it ever displace the 555?
Perhaps not in the world of metal detectors
! | 12 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493608",
"author": "Art Mezins",
"timestamp": "2022-07-17T15:11:05",
"content": "I’ve never tried one, but I wonder if metal detection can be done effectively without an oscillator? Why not have an external frequency source (e.g. a free-running counter output from a micro) drive an... | 1,760,372,629.91796 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/16/turning-irregular-shapes/ | Turning Irregular Shapes | Anne Ogborn | [
"Misc Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"automotive",
"machining",
"manual machining"
] | In case you’re not closely following Egyptian Machinist YouTube, you may have missed [Hydraulic House]. It’s gotten even harder to find him since he started posting under[بيت الهيدروليك]. Don’t let the Arabic put you off, he delivers it all in pantomime.
A recent drop is “
How To Turn Irregular Shapes On The Lathe
“. We’re not sure, but think the part he’s working on is the front suspension of a 3 wheeled auto-rickshaw. The first metal at the center is over 30cm from the bottom. No problem, he just makes a long driven dead center from a bit of scrap material and goes on with his business.
By no means is this the only cool video. We liked his video on a
remote pumped hydraulic jack
and one on
making your own hydraulic valves
.
If you’re into machinist-y things, don’t miss him. Every video is full of pretty nifty tricks, sometimes made with a zany disregard of some basics like “maybe better to have done the welding before mounting in the lathe”, turning with a cutoff tool (I think), and occasionally letting go of the chuck key. It’s definitely ‘oh, get on with it’ machine shop work.
We love videos from professionals in the developing world making with relatively simple tools. Often hobby hackers are in the same position, milling with a lathe and some patience instead of a giant Okuma. Not long ago we posted
this article about making helical parts
, with the same ‘imagination and skill beats more machinery any day’ vibe. | 33 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493456",
"author": "Frankel",
"timestamp": "2022-07-17T08:10:20",
"content": "Why leave the chuck key inside?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6493459",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2022-07-17T08:18:12",
... | 1,760,372,630.347966 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/16/neural-network-identifies-insects-outperforming-humans/ | Neural Network Identifies Insects, Outperforming Humans | Arya Voronova | [
"Science"
] | [
"cnn",
"convolutional neural network",
"image recognition",
"insects",
"machine learning",
"neural network",
"taxonomy"
] | There are about one million known species of insects – more than for any other group of living organisms. If you need to determine which species an insect belongs to, things get complicated quick. In fact, for distinguishing between certain kinds of species, you might need a well-trained expert in that species, and experts’ time is often better spent on something else. This is where CNNs (convolutional neural networks) come in nowadays, and
this paper
describes a CNN doing just as well if not better than human experts.
There are two particularly challenging tasks in insect taxonomy – dealing with visually similar species that are hard for non-experts to tell apart, and reliably determining which family an insect belongs to from just its pictures. The paper describes quite well how the CNN technologies they’re using work, and how they narrowed their technology choice down to the method of feature transfer. Feature transfer uses a general-purpose image recognition network, and builds upon that to form a more application-tailored machine learning system – saving computational power, reducing the amount of training data required, and largely avoiding problems like
overfitting.
The resulting network has outplayed both experts and more traditional automated recognition methods, and is promising when it comes to acceleration of scientific discovery. We encourage you check this paper out – the research story is coherent, and the paper provides good insights into abilities and limitations of CNNs, save for heavy terminology here and there. (The webpage view of the paper has mangled characters, but the PDF download doesn’t have such problems.) We’re seeing neural networks be used more and more for pattern recognition tasks everywhere, and while the results aren’t as miraculous as some say, hackers like us have used a CNN in
teaching a dog to stop barking
when the owner’s not home, and a research team has developed a toolkit enabling anyone to
recognize birds from their songs.
We thank [Anonymous] for sharing this with us! | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493468",
"author": "mime",
"timestamp": "2022-07-17T09:24:27",
"content": "apart from “where’s the hack”, you could substitute any tool into this type of news line. “hand drill outperforms humans in drilling holes”. “Car outperforms humans in covering distance in most conditions”.T... | 1,760,372,630.579991 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/16/restoring-5-busted-synthesizer-made-easy-thanks-to-thermal/ | Restoring $5 Busted Synthesizer Made Easy, Thanks To Thermal | Donald Papp | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"garage sale",
"repair",
"restoration",
"synthesizer",
"Thermal"
] | [D. Scott Williamson] paid $5 for a Roland JV-30 synthesizer at a garage sale. Score! There was only one catch: it didn’t work and didn’t include the power supply. Luckily,
restoring it was made easier by breaking out a thermal camera
.
As mentioned, the keyboard was missing a 9 VDC power supply (rated 800 mA) with a center-negative barrel connector. Slightly oddball, but nothing an enterprising hacker can’t deal with. After supplying power with a bench supply, not only did the keyboard not come to life, but the power supply clamped the current draw at 1.5 A! Something was definitely not right.
This shorted glass-bodied diode might look normal to the naked eye, but thermal imaging makes it clear something’s amiss.
Inside, there was no visible (or olfactory) sign of damage, but looking closer revealed that a little SMT capacitor by the power connector was cracked in two. Fixing that didn’t bring the keyboard to life, so it was time to break out the thermal imager.
Something
was soaking up all that current, and it’s a fair bet that something is getting hot in the process.
The culprit? The reverse polarity protection diode was shorted, probably as a result of damage by an inappropriate power supply or a surge of some kind. Replacing it resulted in a working keyboard! Not bad at all for $5, a diode, an SMT cap, and a little workbench time. The finishing touch was replacing a missing slider knob, which took some work in
OpenSCAD
and a 3D printer. Overall, not bad!
Thermal imaging used to be the stuff of staggering price tags, but
it’s downright accessible these days
, and makes it easy to spot things that are hot when they shouldn’t be. And if a thermal camera’s lens isn’t what you think it should be?
It’s even possible for a sufficiently motivated and knowledgeable hacker to modify those
. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493372",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2022-07-16T23:39:23",
"content": "Hot Hack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6493378",
"author": "rpavlik",
"timestamp": "2022-07-16T23:47:24",
"content": "Well that’s pr... | 1,760,372,630.409687 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/16/riding-the-rails-in-a-literal-sense/ | Riding The Rails, In A Literal Sense | Matthew Carlson | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"rail bike",
"railway"
] | Hundreds of miles of railroad tracks are scattered across the US and other countries. Despite how they look, many aren’t abandoned. But in the case of a genuinely abandoned track, having
a railway bike to explore the rail seems quite intriguing
.
[Cam Engineering] lives in central California and wanted to see what life was like on the track. His system consists of a front alignment wheel made from a rubber longboard wheel with locating disks on either side. He also has a boom on the side that can extend as an outrigger. Ultimately this offers a reasonably stable ride, evidenced by it gliding along the track smoothly with no one to balance it. However, the front wheel does have some issues, as when the track goes through the pavement, there often isn’t enough clearance for the wheel. Additionally, because of the
bond wires
attached to the rail, he already had to make the front wheel a little wider than needed. The whole thing folds up, making for a compact and snazzy ride.
This isn’t the
first rail bike we’ve seen
, and we hope to see many more. Video after the break. | 74 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493321",
"author": "Dorri",
"timestamp": "2022-07-16T20:32:04",
"content": "“Hundreds of miles of railroad tracks are scattered across the US ”Big if true.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6493593",
"author": "rpavlik"... | 1,760,372,630.529787 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/16/a-look-back-at-the-ussr-computer-industry/ | A Look Back At The USSR Computer Industry | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"eniac",
"retrocomputing",
"USSR",
"vacuum tube computer"
] | According to [Asianometry], in 1986 the Soviet Union had about 10,000 computers. At the same time, the United States had 1.3 million! The USSR was hardly a backward country — they’d launched Sputnik and made many advances in science and mathematics. Why didn’t they have more computers? The story is interesting and you can
see it in the video below
.
Apparently when news of ENIAC reached the USSR, many dismissed it as fanciful propaganda. However, there were some who thought computing would be the future. Sergey Lebedev in Ukraine built a “small” machine around 1951. Small, of course, is relative since the machine had 6,000 tubes in it. It performed 250,000 calculations for artillery tables in about 2 and half hours.
The success of this computer led to two teams being asked to build two different machines. Although one of the machines was less capable, the better machine needed a part they could only get from the other team which they withheld, forcing them to use outdated — even then — mercury delay lines for storage.
The more sophisticated machine, the BESM-1, didn’t perform well thanks to this substitution and so the competitor, STRELA, was selected. However, it broke down frequently and was unable to handle certain computations. Finally, the BESM-1 was completed and was the fastest computer in Europe for several years starting in 1955.
By 1959, the Soviets produced $59 million worth of computer parts compared to the US’s output of around $1 billion. There are many reasons for the limited supply and limited demand that you’ll hear about in the video. In particular, there was little commercial demand for computers in the Soviet Union. Nearly all the computer usage was in the military and academia.
Eventually, the Russians wound up buying and copying the IBM 360. Not all of the engineers thought this was a good idea, but it did have the advantage of allowing for existing software to run. The US government tried to forbid IBM from exporting key items, so ICL — a UK company — offered up their IBM 360-compatible system.
The Soviets have been known to
borrow tech before
. Not that the west didn’t do some
borrowing
, too, at least temporarily. | 58 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6493274",
"author": "doobie",
"timestamp": "2022-07-16T17:09:46",
"content": "When you care enough to steal the best…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6493283",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2022-07-16T17:... | 1,760,372,630.749231 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/12/weed-eater-string-made-from-plastic-bottles/ | Weed Eater String Made From Plastic Bottles | Bryan Cockfield | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"bottle",
"garden",
"hot",
"landscaping",
"plastic",
"recycling",
"spool",
"string trimmer",
"weed whacker"
] | For those who don’t mind constantly adding tiny but measurable amounts of microplastics to their landscaping, string trimmers are an excellent way of maintaining edging around garden beds, trimming weeds, or maintaining ground covers on a steep hill. One problem with them, though, is that not only is the string consumable but it can be expensive. Plus, if you have a trimmer with a proprietary spool you need to hope the company never goes out of business. Or, you can simply
refill your string spool with this handy tool
.
The build uses plastic bottles to create the string from what would likely become garbage anyway. First, a sharp roller-style knife slices the plastic into a long thin strip. Once cut, it is fed through a heater similar to a hot end on a 3D printer which allows the plastic to be deformed or forged into a cylinder. From there the plastic is added onto a spool, which also has the motor in it that drives the entire mechanism. In this case it is using an old variable-speed drill.
From the comments on the video, there is some discussion about the economics of using this string in a weed eater. It’s likely the plastic won’t last as long as specialty string trimmer string, and the time and expense of making the plastic may never save much money. But we have to give credit to the ingenuity nonetheless. And, if you’re really into recycling plastic just for the sake of keeping it out of the landfill,
there are plenty of other ways to go about accomplishing that goal
.
I will NEVER buy weed whip line again!
from
landscaping | 29 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492049",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2022-07-12T23:16:13",
"content": "My 1950 model ‘ankle’ mower is better.I rate it at about 6th grade (size of ankle it can cut clean through).They made a castrated, modern, safer version. Sickle bar mower. Auto shutoff and other pansy featur... | 1,760,372,630.647951 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/12/pi-pico-provides-practical-playstation-pointing/ | Pi Pico Provides Practical PlayStation Pointing | Tom Nardi | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"mouse",
"playstation",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | It’s not immediately clear to us
why
one would need a mouse for the original PlayStation (though we’re sure there’s no shortage of folks eager to jump down into the comments and tell us), but if you ever desire adding improved pointing capabilities to the nearly three decade old console,
this project from [Vojtěch Salajka] is certainly one to keep an eye on
.
The aptly named “USB to PlayStation Mouse” project does exactly what it sounds like — adapts a generic USB mouse into an input device for Sony’s classic console. Putting one together requires a Raspberry Pi Pico, a 5 V DC-DC USB boost module with female USB-A connector, and a sacrificial controller or peripheral to provide the cable and proprietary connector.
With the hardware assembled per the simple wiring diagram, you just plug the Pico into your computer and copy over the firmware file. [Vojtěch] notes that you’ll need to unplug the mouse before attempting to upload the firmware, presumably because the data pins on the two USB ports have been tied together.
Don’t worry about having to find some obscure title to try out your new peripheral either, [Vojtěch] says the mouse works in the system’s main menu if you boot it without a disc in the drive. Now all you need is a few
Raspberry Pi Pico PlayStation Memory Cards
to complete the whole set. | 13 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492010",
"author": "Vibropollo",
"timestamp": "2022-07-12T20:27:16",
"content": "For the list of psx’s mouse games compatibilityhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mouse",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6492136",
... | 1,760,372,630.806996 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/12/hackable-oshw-cardclock-demands-attention/ | Hackable OSHW CardClock Demands Attention | Ryan Flowers | [
"clock hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"open hardware",
"real time clock"
] | When examining a project, it’s easy to be jaded by a raw parts list. When the main component is an ESP8266, we might say “oh, another 8266 project.
yawn!”
But we’re certain that when you take a look at [Will Fox]’s
Foxie CardClock
, it’ll surely grab your attention.
As if all those beautiful LEDs weren’t enough, the rest of the device’s specifications are quite impressive. The core components might be common, but what often separates such projects is the software. With Over The Air updates supported via ArduinoOTA, updates are a snap. A light sensor helps to keep all those LEDs at a sane level, and a once-per-minute synchronization via NTP keeps the time accurate. Even if power is lost, a super-capacitor can hold the time accurate for up to two days with the built in RTC module. There’s even provisions for setting the time using the buttons on the front panel should you want to keep the gadget offline.
The entire project is open source, with the hardware released under the CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 and the firmware source code distributed as GPLv3. Users are encouraged to hack and modify the design, and all the information you need to build one of your own is available in the project’s GitHub repository. [Will] also offers a pre-assembled version of the clock for just $45 USD, but unfortunately it seems to be out of stock at the time of this writing.
If credit card sized hacks are your chosen area of interest, you will appreciate this
crystal radio made from an actual Credit Card
. Thanks to [Abe] for
submitting the Tip
! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6492019",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2022-07-12T21:00:01",
"content": "The “setting time manually” is a nice touch. I prefer to have my bedside alarm clock 7 minutes ahead, because high-minute alarms are annoying and if I put the alarm at 8:00 I’ll miss the news.My old philips ... | 1,760,372,630.864657 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/12/airbus-a380-completes-flight-powered-by-cooking-oil/ | Airbus A380 Completes Flight Powered By Cooking Oil | Lewin Day | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"aviation",
"biofuel",
"flight",
"saf",
"saf fuel",
"sustainable aviation fuel",
"sustainable hacks"
] | Fossil fuels are making news for all the wrong reasons of late. Whether it’s their contribution to global climate change or the fact that the price and supply hinges on violent geopolitics, there are more reasons than ever to shift to cleaner energy sources.
In the world of aviation, that means finding a cleaner source of fuel. A test earlier this year took place in pursuit of that very goal, where
an Airbus A380 airliner was flown solely on fuel derived from cooking oil.
Sustainable Fuels Are Key
An Airbus A380 served as the testbed for 100% SAF fuel, running one engine solely on the cooking oil-derived product. The world’s largest airliner is seeing declining use as smaller, more fuel-efficient planes are taking over. Credit: Airbus
Globally, aviation activity produces around 2.1% of carbon dioxide emissions attributable to human activity. As a whole, it makes up 12% of emissions from transport as a whole. While emissions dipped thanks to
the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,
on a whole, those emissions are trending back up as the industry has returned to regular operation.
One way to reduce this figure is to switch to a sustainable fuel source. When fossil fuels are dug up and burned, they release stored carbon into the atmosphere, creating warming. However, so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) gets around this problem by relying on organic ingredients. The idea is that the carbon dioxide released from its combustion is offset by the carbon dioxide absorbed by the crops and organic matter used in its production. It’s imperfect, and certainly not a true zero-emissions solution; outside of losses and inefficiencies, combustion engines of all types tend to produce other harmful gases like oxides of nitrogen. However, it is still a serious improvement over traditional fossil fuels; Airbus claims that flying planes on SAF could net a reduction in carbon output of 53% to 71%.
To demonstrate the concept, an Airbus A380 was flown on March 25 from Blagnac Airport in Toulouse, France, where Airbus is based. The plane completed a three-hour flight, with one Rolls-Royce Trent 900 jet engine running on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. A further test was executed on March 29, where the fuel was used during the demanding take-off and landing phases.
Neste, ATR, and Swedish airline Braathens Regional Airlines teamed up to run a plane on 100% SAF in both engines. The companies hope to get certification to run 100% sustainable fuel by 2025. Photo credit: ATR
The fuel supplied for the test came from French company TotalEnergies. The specific type of SAF fuel used is known as HEFA-SPK, or Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids – Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene. It’s made by chemical treatment of waste cooking oils and fats, which processes it into a usable substitute for kerosene-type jet fuels.
HEFA-SPK fuel is in many ways
a mature technology
, and is already being used in aviation today. Airbus aircraft are already approved to fly on 50% blends of HEFA-SPK with regular jet fuel, and it makes up 1% of jet fuel used globally. However, for now, it’s still more expensive than regular jet fuel, and production is limited, slowing its uptake.
Airbus’s tests were successful, and build upon earlier tests which got 50% blends approved for use. The company hopes to get planes certified to use 100% SAF by the end of the decade.
They’re not the only company working in this space, either. Where Airbus elected to run just one engine on SAF, others are going further. Swedish SAF supplier Neste recently completed a test in partnership with ATR and Braathens Regional Airlines. The successful test ran both engines of a ATR 72-600 small regional airliner on SAF. It builds on several prior tests on single engines, and the companies hope to get certified for 100% SAF use by 2025.
Overall, there’s still much work to be done before airlines are running solely on sustainable fuel. The safety-conscious, conservative nature of airline regulations mean that it will still be some time before the fuel is approved for use in all conditions. Production capacity must also be ramped up, along with provisions made for distributing the fuel to airports. In the absence of regulations promoting its use, SAFs must also find a way to compete with fossil fuels on price, or people will have to show that they’re willing to pay a green premium.
However, none of these hurdles are insurmountable. Expect more flights to run on SAF blends in the short term, and to see the fuel take over entirely in some applications in future.
[Banner Image: “
F-WWOW
” by Oliver Holzbauer. Thumbnail:
Airbus A380-800
by Steve Elliott.] | 79 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6491965",
"author": "Ace Inick",
"timestamp": "2022-07-12T17:18:51",
"content": "Greenwashing at its finest:“The current collectable volume of UCO within Europe from both restaurants and households theoretically allows a SAF production of about 1 million tonnes per year [50], which ... | 1,760,372,631.145781 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/12/a-handy-tester-for-a-mountain-of-ps-2-keybords/ | A Handy Tester For A Mountain Of PS/2 Keybords | Dan Maloney | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"keyboard",
"PS/2",
"serial",
"test"
] | The hacking life is not without its challenges, and chief among these is the tendency to always be in acquisition mode. When we come across a great deal on bulk equipment, or see a chance to rescue some obscure gear from the e-waste stream, we generally pounce on it, regardless of the advisability.
We imagine this is why [Nathan] ended up with a hoard of PS/2 keyboards. Seriously, there are like thousands of the things. And rather than lug a computer to them for testing, [Nathan] put together
this handy Arduino-based portable tester
to see which keyboards still have some life left in them. The video below goes into detail on the build, but the basics are pretty simple — an Arduino, a 16×2 LCD display, and a few bits and bobs to run it off a LiPo pack and charge it up. Plus, of course, a PS/2 jack to plug in a keyboard and power it up. Interestingly, the 16×2 display is an old Parallax unit, from the days when RadioShack still existed and sold their stuff. That required a little effort to get it working with the Arduino, but in the end it works like a charm — plug in a keyboard and whatever you type shows up on the screen.
Of course, it’s hard to look at something like this, and that mountain of keyboards in the background, and not scheme up ways to really automate the whole test process. Perhaps an old 3D printer with a stylus mounted where the hot end would go could press each key in turn while the tester output is recorded — something like
this
Wordle
-bot
, but on a keyboard scale. That kind of goes against [Nathan]’s portability goal, but it’s still fun to think about. | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6491945",
"author": "Khai",
"timestamp": "2022-07-12T15:49:49",
"content": "Keybords?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6491960",
"author": "chango",
"timestamp": "2022-07-12T16:40:30",
"content": "Battle... | 1,760,372,630.921491 |
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