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https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/welcome-to-the-future-where-your-microwave-thinks-its-a-steam-oven/ | Welcome To The Future, Where Your Microwave Thinks It’s A Steam Oven | Jenny List | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"aeg",
"firmware update",
"IoT"
] | It’s fair to say that many of us will have at some time inadvertently bricked a device by applying the wrong firmware by mistake. If we’re lucky then firing up some low-level reflashing tools can save the day and return the item in question to health, but we’re guessing that among you will be plenty of people who’ve had to discard a PCB or replace an inaccessible microcontroller chip as a result.
Spare a thought then for the consumer appliance manufacturer Electrolux, whose AEG subsidiary
has bricked combi microwave ovens acrosss a swathe of Western Europe
(Dutch,
Google Translate link
). They managed this improbable feat by distributing an over-the-air update that contains the firmware for a steam oven instead. Worse still, the update has disabled over-the-air updates, meaning that any fix requires physical access to the oven.
We can’t help sympathising with whichever poor AEG engineer has had the ultimate in bad days at work, but at the same time we should perhaps consider the difference between a computer and an appliance, and whether there should be a need for an oven to phone home in the first place. Sure, such devices have been computer-controlled for decades, but should a microcontroller doing a control task need constant updates?
We’re guessing this oven has some kind of cloud aspect to it which allows
AEG to slurp customer data
the user to control it via their app, but even so it should serve as a warning to anyone tempted by an internet-connected kitchen appliance. If the internet isn’t necessary for the food to be cooked, don’t connect it.
We feel sorry for anyone who might have put a pizza in the oven just before it was bricked, and watched in disappointment as their tasty meal remained uncooked. | 39 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448218",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2022-03-19T05:10:44",
"content": "Not every cloud has a silver lining.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6448219",
"author": "Steve Spence",
"timestamp": "2022-03-19T... | 1,760,372,754.487084 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/20/__trashed-6/ | ElectronBot: A Sweet Mini Desktop Robot That Ticks All The Boxes | Dave Rowntree | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"Circular LCD",
"gesture sensor",
"mpu6050",
"opencv",
"robot",
"stm32",
"USB C",
"USB3300"
] | [Peng Zhihui] seems to have found some spare time and energy to crack out another sweet robot build,
this time it’s a much smaller, and cuter emoji-bot
(
Original GitHub Link
,) with the usual production-ready levels of attention to detail. With a lot of fine details in the 3D printed models, this is one for SLS printing in nylon, but that can be done for a reasonable outlay, in China at least. The electronics package consists of a few full custom, and tiny, PCBs designed with Altium Designer, with off-the-shelf modules for the circular LCD and camera. The main board hosts an STM32F405 and deals with the display and SD card, The reason for this choice of STM32 was due to the requirement for connecting to an external USB3300 high-speed USB PHY. There is a sensor PCB which handles the gesture sensor, a USB hub, MPU6050 9-axis sensor, and also the USB camera module. This board attaches to the USB-C connector in the base, via a FFC cable, allowing the robot to rotate on its base.
Cunning two-servo shoulder mechanism
[Peng] clearly has exacting standards as to how things should work, and we guess wanted to have the arms back-driveable in a way that enabled the host computer to track and record the motor positions for replaying later on. The connection back to the controller is via I
2
C, allowing all five servos to hang on the same bus, saving previous resources. Smart! Getting a processor and motor driver in such a tiny space was a bit of challenge, but a walk in the park for [Peng] as is demonstrates in the video embedded below (We believe English subtitles are pending!) The arm mechanism is particularly interesting, and rather elegantly executed, and he does seem rather proud of this part of the design, and so he should! Like with [Peng’s] other projects, there is a lot to see, and plenty of scope for feature explosion. It was nice to see the ‘bot being used as an input device, not only with gesture sensing via the dedicated sensor, but also using the camera with OpenCV to track user posture and act accordingly. This thing could act as genuinely useful AI device, as was a being darn cute at the same time!
We know you come to Hackaday for your cute robot fix, and we’re not going to disappoint. Here’s a cute robot lamp, an obligatory
spot (a robot dog) type project
, and if you’re more of a cat person, then we
got that base covered as well
. | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448966",
"author": "Special",
"timestamp": "2022-03-20T21:19:02",
"content": "Wow…very impressive",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6448973",
"author": "Pinhead",
"timestamp": "2022-03-20T21:39:02",
"content": "Shut u... | 1,760,372,754.24483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/20/keep-tabs-on-asteroids-with-asteroid-atlas/ | Keep Tabs On Asteroids With Asteroid Atlas | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Science"
] | [
"asteroid",
"astronomy",
"gimp",
"jpl",
"map",
"nasa",
"photoshop",
"Planet",
"python",
"tracking"
] | Keeping tabs on the night sky is an enjoyable way to stay connected to the stars, and astronomy can be accessible to most people with a low entry point for DIY telescopes. For those who live in areas with too much light pollution, though, cost is not the only issue facing amateur astronomers. Luckily there are more ways to observe the night sky, like with
this open source software package from [elanorlutz] which keeps tabs on all known asteroids
.
The software is largely based on Python and uses a number of databases from NASA to allow anyone with a computer to explore various maps of the solar system and the planetary and non-planetary bodies within it. Various trajectories can be calculated, and paths of other solar system bodies can be shown with respect to an observer in various locations. Once the calculations are made in Python it is able to export the images for use in whichever image manipulation software you prefer.
The code that [elanorlutz] has created is quite extensive and ready to use for anyone interested in tracking comets, trans-Neptunian objects, or even planets and moons from their own computer. We would imagine a tool like this would be handy for anyone with a telescope as well as it could
predict locations of objects in the night sky with accuracy and then track them with the right hardware
. | 4 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448958",
"author": "n49o7",
"timestamp": "2022-03-20T21:04:28",
"content": "The result in reminiscent ofhttp://www.complexitygraphics.com/CHAOS-AND-STRUCTURE",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6449070",
"author": "Paul K... | 1,760,372,754.656463 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/20/going-around-in-circles-with-homemade-arcade-classic-cyclone/ | Going Around In Circles With Homemade Arcade ClassicCyclone | Robin Kearey | [
"Games"
] | [
"arduino",
"Cyclone",
"LED game"
] | The classic arcade game
Cyclone
has attracted many players, along with their coins, thanks to its simple yet addictive gameplay. In its most basic form it consists of a light racing around a circular track, which the player then has to stop at exactly the right place. Arduino enthusiast [mircemk] made
a home version of this game
, which allows addicts to keep playing forever without running out of quarters.
Instead of an arcade cabinet, this smaller version has an upright 3D-printed ring that holds 60 WS2812 LEDs. A further six in the center of the ring act as a score counter. An Arduino in the base drives the LEDs and runs the game, which is based on
an earlier iteration built by [oKeeg]
. An interesting addition is a large homemade “arcade button”, which is large and sturdy enough to withstand any abuse inflicted on it by a frustrated player.
Retro-style sound effects and flashing light sequences give the game a bit of an arcade vibe, even without a big cabinet and piles of coins. Simple LED games like this are always great eye-catchers in any home or office; if you like this one, be sure to check out other LED games like the
handheld LEDBOY
, the
one-dimensional dungeon crawler TWANG
, and this
LED racing game
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448868",
"author": "Christoph",
"timestamp": "2022-03-20T16:15:37",
"content": "Nice work. Another illustration that even with an 8bit MCU, a fun game can be made.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6448877",
"author": "Josia... | 1,760,372,754.412964 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/20/hacker-challenges-memorystick-to-a-fight-and-wins/ | Hacker Challenges MemoryStick To A Fight And Wins | Arya Voronova | [
"how-to",
"Microcontrollers",
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"memorystick",
"PalmOS",
"reverse engineer",
"reverse engineering",
"ReverseEngineering",
"sony",
"sony memorystick"
] | It’s amazing when a skilled hacker reverse-engineers a proprietary format and shares the nitty-gritty with everyone. Today is a day when we get one such write-up – about MemoryStick. It is one of
those
proprietary formats, a staple of Sony equipment, these SD-card-like storage devices were evidently designed to help pad Sony’s pockets, as we can see from the tight lock-in and inflated prices. As such, this format has always remained unapproachable to hackers. No more – [Dmitry Grinberg] is here with
an extensive breakdown
of MemoryStick protocol and internals.
If you ever want to read about a protocol that is
not exactly sanely designed
, from physical layer quirks to things like inexplicable large differences between MemoryStick and MemoryStick Pro, this will be an entertaining read for hackers of all calibers. Dmitry doesn’t just describe the bad parts of the design, however, as much as that rant is entertaining to read – most of the page is taken by register summaries, struct descriptions and insights, the substance about MemoryStick that we never got.
One sentence is taken to link to a related side project of [Dmitry] that’s a rabbithole on its own – he has
binary patched MemoryStick drivers for PalmOS
to add MemoryStick Pro support to some of the Sony Clie handhelds. Given the aforementioned differences between non-Pro and Pro standards, it’s a monumental undertaking for a device older than some of this site’s readers, and we can’t help but be impressed.
To finish the write-up off, [Dmitry] shares with us some MemoryStick bit-banging examples for the STM32. Anyone who ever wanted to approach MemoryStick, be it for making converter adapters to revive old tech, data recovery or preservation purposes, or simply hacker curiosity, now can feel a bit less alone in their efforts.
We are glad to see such great hacking on the MemoryStick front – it’s much needed, to the point where
our only article mentioning MemoryStick
is about avoiding use of the MemoryStick slot altogether. [Dmitry] is just the right person for reverse-engineering jobs like this, with
extensive reverse-engineering history we’ve been keeping track of
– his recent reverse-engineering journey of
an unknown microcontroller in cheap E-Ink devices
is to behold. | 24 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448910",
"author": "some guy",
"timestamp": "2022-03-20T18:24:36",
"content": "Takedown request in 3-2-1… I don’t need this information but people who might do should make a local copy of this imho…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,372,754.302004 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/20/minicomputer-restoration-hanging-in-the-balance/ | Minicomputer Restoration Hanging In The Balance | Chris Wilkinson | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"centurion",
"minicomputer",
"terminal"
] | [David Lovett] aka Usagi Electric has spent the last several months dissecting a Centurion minicomputer from 1980. His latest update reveals that the
restoration has hit several snags
, and bootstrapping this old blue beast is going to be a challenge.
When we last checked in on this project, [David] had built a
homebrew ROM reader
to backup critical data stored several of the minicomputer’s ROM chips. Since then, the good news is that the Centurion is showing signs of life. Probing the Data Set Ready pin on the default RS232 serial port reveals a stream of data, likely stemming from the ‘CPU6’ board.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. Adding a terminal to the serial port interrupts this stream of data, and no information appears to be sent or received from any of the three terminals tested. To make matters worse, both of the massive hard drives appeared to have suffered catastrophic head crashes at some point in the 1990s, destroying the Centurion operating system and likely other important data in the process. Soiled air filters were the likely culprits, with evidence showing that yearly maintenance had been overlooked. While at least one of the drives can be repaired with new platters, the original operating system is completely lost.
As luck would have it, a previous employee of Centurion was able to provide a wealth of undocumented information that greatly aided in making sense of the minicomputer’s individual components. Incredibly, they were also able to provide a PROM Diagnostic board for the Centurion system. Not only could this board run a barrage of tests, it could also bootstrap the system with TOS (Test Operating System), a bare-bones memory monitor stored on the card’s PROMs. While the diagnostic card itself needs repairs, there’s now the slightest chance that [David] can use TOS as the starting off point for writing new software for the Centurion.
We really can’t wait to see what happens next with this project. We’ve covered some very special vintage computer restorations in the past, such as the
cursed Diablo drive
from a rare Xerox Alto, not to mention the delicate
power-up procedure for an original Apple 1
. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448805",
"author": "RÖB",
"timestamp": "2022-03-20T11:47:01",
"content": "Those terminals were current loop with Xon/Xoff so I don’t think you can do a loopback with a simple piece of wire.He should make some current loop to RS-232 converters. It was in the early days of CCITT I’m ... | 1,760,372,754.615261 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/19/clockwork-devterm-r-01-takes-risc-v-out-for-a-spin/ | Clockwork DevTerm R-01 Takes RISC-V Out For A Spin | Tom Nardi | [
"computer hacks",
"News"
] | [
"clockwork",
"devterm",
"linux",
"RISC-V"
] | If you’re anything like us you’ve been keeping a close eye on the development of RISC-V: an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) that’s been threatening to change the computing status quo for what seems like forever. From its humble beginnings as a teaching tool in Berkeley’s Parallel Computing Lab in 2010, it’s popped up in various development boards and gadgets from time to time. It even showed up in the 2019 Hackaday Supercon badge, albeit in FPGA form. But getting your hands on an actual RISC-V
computer
has been another story entirely. Until now, that is.
Clockwork has recently
announced the availability of the DevTerm R-01,
a variant of their existing portable computer that’s powered by a RISC-V module rather than the ARM chips featured in the earlier A04 and A06 models. Interestingly the newest member of the family is actually the cheapest at $239 USD, though it’s worth mentioning that not only does this new model only include 1 GB of RAM, but the product page makes it clear that the RISC-V version is intended for experienced penguin wranglers who aren’t afraid of the occasional bug.
Newbies are persona non grata for the R-01.
Beyond the RISC-V CPU and slimmed down main memory, this is the
same DevTerm that our very own [Donald Papp] reviewed earlier this month
. Thanks to the modular nature of the portable machine, this sort of component swapping is a breeze, though frankly we’re impressed that the Clockwork team is willing to go out on such a limb this early in the product’s life.
In our first look at the device
we figured at best they would release an updated CPU board to accommodate the Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module, but supporting a whole new architecture is a considerably bolder move. One wonders that other plans they may have for the retro-futuristic machine. Perhaps a low-power x86 chip isn’t out of the question? | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448692",
"author": "Joe Mama",
"timestamp": "2022-03-20T05:26:30",
"content": "The specs sound very much like it might be based around an Allwinner D1.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6448888",
"author": "M",
... | 1,760,372,754.372883 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/19/learn-all-about-writing-a-published-technical-book-from-idea-to-print/ | Learn All About Writing A Published Technical Book, From Idea To Print | Donald Papp | [
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"book",
"cake",
"machine learning",
"o'reilly",
"writing"
] | Ever wondered what, exactly, goes into creating a technical book? If you’d like to know the steps that bring a book from idea to publication, [Sara Robinson] tells all about it as she explains
what went into co-authoring O’Reilly’s
Machine Learning Design Patterns
.
Her post was written in 2020, but don’t let that worry you, because her writeup isn’t about the book itself so much as it is about the whole book-writing
process
, and her experiences in going through it. (By the way, every O’Reilly book has a distinctive animal on the cover, and we learned from [Sara] that choosing the cover animal is a slightly mysterious process, and is not done by the authors.)
It turns out that there are quite a few steps that need to happen — like proposals and approvals — before the real writing even starts. The book writing itself is a process, and like most processes to which one is new, things start out slow and inefficient before they improve.
[Sara] also talks a bit about burnout, and her advice on dealing with it is as insightful as it is practical: begin by communicating honestly how you are feeling to the people involved.
Over the years I’ve learned that people will very rarely guess how you’re feeling and it’s almost always better to tell them […] I decided to tell my co-authors and my manager that I was burnt out. This went better than expected.
There is a lot of code in
the book
, and it
has its own associated GitHub repository
should you wish to check some of it out.
By the way, [Sara] celebrated publication by making a custom cake, which you can see near the bottom of
her blog post
. This comes as no surprise seeing as
she has previously managed to combine machine learning with her love of making cakes
! | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448658",
"author": "Stuart Danker",
"timestamp": "2022-03-20T02:40:06",
"content": "Oh wow, I’m always curious about other writers’ writing processes, so this was a treat. Thanks for sharing!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,372,754.695703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/21/cluster-your-pi-zeros-in-style-with-3d-printed-cray-1/ | Cluster Your Pi Zeros In Style With 3D Printed Cray-1 | Tom Nardi | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"cray",
"cray-1",
"miniature",
"Pi Cluster",
"raspberry pi cluster"
] | From a performance standpoint we know building a homebrew Raspberry Pi cluster doesn’t make a lot of sense, as even a fairly run of the mill desktop x86 machine is sure to run circles around it. That said, there’s an argument to be made that rigging up a dozen little Linux boards gives you a compact and affordable playground to experiment with things like parallel computing and load balancing. Is it a perfect argument? Not really. But if you’re anything like us, the whole thing starts making a lot more sense when you realize your
cluster of Pi Zeros can be built to look like the iconic Cray-1 supercomputer
.
This clever 3D printed enclosure comes from [Kevin McAleer], who says he was looking to learn more about deploying software using Ansible, Docker, Flask, and other modern frameworks with fancy sounding names.
After somehow managing to purchase a dozen Raspberry Pi Zero 2s
, he needed a way to keep them all in a tidy package. Beyond looking fantastically cool, the symmetrical design of the Cray-1 allowed him to design his miniature version in such a way that each individual wedge is made up of the same identical set of 3D printed parts.
In the video after the break, [Kevin] explains some of the variations the design went through. We appreciate his initial goal of making it so you didn’t need any additional hardware to assemble the thing, but in the end you’ll need to pick up some M2.5 standoffs and matching screws if you want to build one yourself. We particularly like how you can hide all the USB power cables inside the lower “cushion” area with the help of some 90-degree cables, leaving the center core open.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen somebody build their own tiny Cray-1. A particularly dedicated hacker
built his own 1/10th scale replica of the 1970s supercomputer
powered by an FPGA back in 2010, and eventually got to the point of
trying to boot original software on it
.
Thanks to [Xark] on the
Hackaday Discord server
for the tip. | 39 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6449277",
"author": "Scotto",
"timestamp": "2022-03-21T15:40:39",
"content": "This is hilarious ! The only thing I might add would be some padding material for the semicircular love seat ……..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,372,754.567861 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/21/one-giant-leap-backwards-for-humankind-what-the-russia-ukraine-war-means-for-the-iss/ | One Giant Leap (Backwards) For Humankind: What The Russia-Ukraine War Means For The ISS | Adam Zeloof | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"News",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"iss",
"nasa",
"roscosmos",
"space"
] | The International Space Station was built not only in the name of science and exploration, but as a symbol of unity. Five space agencies, some representing countries who had been bitter Cold War rivals hardly a decade before the ISS was launched, came together to build something out of a sci-fi novel: a home among the stars (well, in Low Earth Orbit) for humans from around the globe to work with one another for the sake of scientific advancement, high above the terrestrial politics that governed rock below. That was the idea, at least.
So far, while there has been considerable sound and fury in social media channels, international cooperation in space seems to continue unhindered. What are we to make of all this bluster, and what effects could it have on the actual ISS?
Politics and Tweets
Astronaut Mark Vande Hei
A lot has changed in the 2.5 decades since the station’s first modules were launched into space. Political relationships that had had begun to slowly heal after the Cold War have been unraveling for years now, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine being the latest catalyst for global discord. As a result, the ISS’s idealogical high ground is more in jeopardy today than it ever has been before.
The most recent challenge has come directly from Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
In a recent statement
(in Russian, which I admittedly do not speak), Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin threatened to abandon American astronaut Mark Vande Hei on the station and detach the Russian modules to punish the US for newly-imposed sanctions.
Vande Hei is currently scheduled to depart the station in a few weeks via a Russian Soyuz capsule to end his record-breaking 355-day stay in space. After reentry, the capsule is slated to land in Kazakhstan before the passengers, Vande Hei and two cosmonauts, are ferried back to Baikonur Cosmodrome. Thankfully, Roscosmos recanted their threat before the cosmonauts tour out the third seat in their capsule, and promised to return Vande Hei back to Earth — but the threat of splitting up the station still lingers.
What is Possible?
Roscosmos’s depiction of the Russian section detaching
The ISS is a modular beast. It was launched in pieces over the course of years, each piece different module of what would one day be a complete station. The final assembly consists of a US section (eight modules) and a Russian section (six modules), plus two Japanese modules and an European module. What Rogozin has threatened is to basically pack up and leave — to detach the Russian section and essentially back out of the international partnership.
Roscosmos even made a rather unhinged video which shows the modules detaching and floating away.
It’s not immediately clear whether the Russian section would be decommissioned and deorbited, or whether Roscosmos would somehow be able to turn the Russian section into its own independent station.
NASA has expressed disbelief of Russia’s ability
to simply float off into the sunset and maintain an operational station. Last week, the head of NASA’s ISS program, Joel Montalbano, said that “the international Space Sation was designed to be interdependent, and together we work, it’s not a process where one group can separate and function.” The US section cannot function without Russia’s thrusters and fuel, and the Russian section cannot function without the US’s power and communications. It is, as
Rogozin himself stated recently
, “a family, where a divorce within a station is not possible”.
Kelly calling Rogozin out for deleting his threatening Tweet
While it may seem like this takes the legs out from underneath the Russian threats, the interdependence makes them even scarier. If Roscosmos did make good on its word, the remainder of the ISS could have a difficult time maintaining its orbit — though
Elon Musk has suggested (via Twitter, of course) that SpaceX could provide a solution
(perhaps using Dragon 2 capsules?) to keep the ISS in orbit.
Twitter has played a unique role in many facets of the Russia-Ukraine war so far
, and the space industry is no exception. Former astronaut Scott Kelly has been engaged in a Tweet-slinging battle with Dmitry Rogozin, in which Rogozin dropped yet another thinly-veiled threat implying that the ISS’s days may be numbered. He quickly deleted the Tweet, but not before
Kelly screenshotted it for all to see
, and
questioned how Rogozin was even able to access Twitter
, a site that the Russian government blocked earlier in the month.
Kelly also
tweeted that he would be returning a medal he received
from Russia “For Merit in Space Exploration,” writing “Please give it to a Russian mother whose son died in this unjust war. I will mail the medal to the Russian embassy in Washington. Good luck.”
For all of the saber-rattling coming from Roskosmos, NASA is taking it in stride.
Administrator Jim Nelson said
“That’s just Dmitry Rogozin. He spouts off every now and then. But at the end of the day, he’s worked with us.”
Tomorrow
All this talk about the station splitting up may have you wondering — how many years does it have left anyway?
Not as many as you might hope.
The current plan is for the ISS to meet its fiery end at a watery grave in January of 2031, less than nine years from now. NASA and most other space agencies involved in the project have already agreed that they would work to keep the station alive until at least 2028, but even before tensions with Russia escalated recently, Roscosmos wouldn’t commit to supporting the station past 2024. With this context, the Russian threat to leave the ISS program early has really just been part of the Cyrillic writing on the station’s aging walls.
Losing Roscosmos as a partner in the international space community would be a setback to say the least, and would certainly end the ISS. For decades, space exploration and scientific advancement were some of the few things that brought Russia together with the US and Europe — the ISS’s crew complement was regularly made up of explorers from around the globe, all working and living together while hurdling around the Earth at 7.7 km/s.
In the near-decade between NASA’s Shuttle and Commercial Crew programs, US astronauts relied on Soyuz rockets for their ride into space, and Russian cosmonauts still routinely train at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. Russian and US/EU competencies complement each other, adding up to a bigger sum. The ISS has served as an aspirational beacon of global cooperation for over twenty years, and it would be a terrible shame and a colossal step backwards to the development of humankind to see the next generation of space stations built separately, rather than jointly. | 89 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6449243",
"author": "Elliot Williams",
"timestamp": "2022-03-21T14:29:36",
"content": "People no own thesaurus! People make honest mistake. People sorry.(OK, joking aside, “humankind” is fine. The other typos you suggested, I corrected. Thanks.)",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,372,754.831074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/21/heroic-efforts-give-smallest-arm-mcu-a-breakout-open-debugger/ | Heroic Efforts Give Smallest ARM MCU A Breakout, Open Debugger | Arya Voronova | [
"ARM",
"how-to",
"Parts"
] | [
"arm cortex m0",
"ARM M0+",
"bga",
"chip on board",
"Chip Scale Package",
"cortex m0",
"HC32L110",
"huada",
"New Part Day",
"sprite_tm",
"wcsp",
"wlcsp"
] | In today’s episode of Diminutive Device Technology Overview, [Sprite_TM] is at it again – this time
conquering the HC32L110
. A few weeks ago,
we have highlighted
the small ARM Cortex M0+ microcontroller, which is outstanding because of its exceptionally small size. We also pointed out a few hurdles, among them – hard-to-approach SDK and documentation, and difficulties making and assembling a PCB for such a small BGA. Today, we witness how [Sprite_TM] bulldozed through all of these hurdles for all of us, and added a few pictures to our collective “outrageous soldering” galleries while at it.
First, he
figured out an example layout
for this MCU that’s achievable for us even on a cheapest 2-layer board from JLCPCB, keeping distances within the generic tolerance standards by snubbing out a few pins. As a result, we only lose access to four GPIOs – those will have to be kept as inputs, so that nothing burns out. However, that’s the kind of tradeoff we are okay making if it helps us keep our PCB small and lightweight for projects where these factors matter. After receiving the resulting board, he also recorded
a short tutorial
on soldering such packages at home with a mere hot air gun and a few bare necessities like flux and tweezers – embedded below.
It doesn’t end there, however, as he decided to work around the GPIO fanout limitation in a non-intended way. Evidently, [Sprite_TM] decided to have some fun, taking a piece of regular 0.1″ spacing protoboard and deadbugging the chip with magnet wire, much to our amusement. The resulting contraption, pictured above, worked – and this is ever something you’d like to be able to achieve yourself in times of dire need, whether you make something work or simply to be entertained by making use of a cursed mounting technique, there’s
an one-hour-long livestream recording
of how this magnet wire contraption came to be. And, of course, that wasn’t the last thing to be shared.
As a finishing touch, he has published
bindings and wrappers for Huada SDK
so that the chip is usable with GCC, GDB and OpenOCD. He also
added datasheets to the same repository
– auto-translated but quite readable. All-GPIOs-involved blinkie GIF of a magnet-wire-bound chip triumphantly
concludes the write-up
.
An addition to [Sprite_TM]’s toolkit is an addition to everyone’s toolkit – the techniques, the insights, and the resources are all here for us to learn from. If you ever doubted your ability to work with small packages in general or this MCU specifically, now you have a whole lot more material to draw upon!
Wondering what kind of miniature device you might want to make? We hackers have mostly been having fun so far, building things like the
USB-cable-hidden RubberDucky
or a
miniature PDP11
, but there must be applications in, say, the wearable or medical fields where such a small MCU would prove itself to be a hacker’s friend. Maybe you want to build
an LED engagement ring
with some Cortex-M0+ smarts? In fact, this microcontroller is small enough that it wouldn’t be hard to hide
inside your PCB
itself. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6449196",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2022-03-21T12:10:09",
"content": "I’m so often in awe of what folks manage so easily with hot air, its something I keep thinking I must get into my own setup someday, along with one of those lovely microscopes with the decent working di... | 1,760,372,754.92902 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/21/celebrating-the-infinity-of-pi-day-with-thermochromic-foil/ | Celebrating The Infinity Of Pi Day With Thermochromic Foil | Arya Voronova | [
"Art",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"mathematics",
"Pi",
"Pi day",
"thermal printer",
"thermal receipt printer",
"thermochromic",
"Thermochromism"
] | It might take you some time to understand what’s happening in
the video
that Hackaday alum [Moritz Sivers] shared with us. This is [Moritz]’s contribution for
this year’s Pi Day
– a machine that shows digits of Pi in a (technically, not quite) infinite loop, and shows us a neat trick we wouldn’t have thought of.
The two main elements of this machine are a looped piece of thermochromic foil and a thermal printer. As digits are marked on the foil by the printer’s heating element, they’re visible for a few seconds until the foil disappears from the view, only to be eventually looped back and thermally embossed anew. The “Pi digits calculation” part is offloaded to Google’s
pi.delivery
service, a π-as-a-Service endpoint that will stream up to 50 trillion first digits of Pi in case you ever need them – an ESP8266 dutifully fetches the digits and sends them off to the thermal printer.
This machine could print the digits until something breaks or the trillions of digits available run out, and is an appropriate tribute to the infinite nature of Pi, a number we all have no choice but to fundamentally respect. A few days ago, we’ve shown a similar Pi Day tribute, albeit a more self-sufficient one – an Arduino
calculating and printing digits of Pi
on a character display! We could’ve been celebrating this day for millennia, if
Archimedes could just count a little better
. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6449162",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2022-03-21T10:01:10",
"content": "Could not find a source for thermochromic film. I wonder where [Moritz Sivers] / {Moritz} found it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6449205",
... | 1,760,372,754.87905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/20/a-fractal-papercraft-tree/ | A Fractal Papercraft Tree | Jenny List | [
"Art"
] | [
"card",
"fractal",
"papercraft"
] | Sometimes there are projects that we introduce with a bit of context, some background, and other times as with [RayP2]’s
fractal papercraft tree
, we introduce them simply because they are beautiful.
It’s a deceptively simple design of a repeating pattern of the same shape getting ever smaller with each iteration, and terminating in a tetrahedron with branches from each of its faces. It’s not origami, instead it’s a cut-and-glue design, and its construction is a surprisingly involved affair with some lateral thinking required to bend the tabs on the smaller branches. The design was first prototyped with plain paper, before a final version was made with card stock. The part that makes it exceptional is that he used shiny gold card stock with the gold side on the inside, meaning that when lit from the trunk the end of each branch glows attractively. Fitting the light required a modification to the trunk design, but this doesn’t take away from the whole.
The result is an attractive sculpture, a talking point, and something with a mathematical angle to boot, which we like. It’s certainly not been the first papercraft ptoject we’ve shown you, though perhaps
these paper retrocomputers
are a little less artistic. | 15 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6449141",
"author": "RÖB",
"timestamp": "2022-03-21T08:42:18",
"content": "It’s kind of ironic! No, not that it’s made from paper or parts of a “tree”.But is it art imitating nature?Well nature imitates maths.And this art imitates maths.But is that because we created maths to imitat... | 1,760,372,755.407707 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/20/bike-on-over-to-the-campground/ | Bike On Over To The Campground | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"camper",
"Coroplast",
"fabrication",
"gas",
"motor",
"trailer",
"transportation",
"vehicle",
"welding"
] | Like many of us, [Paul] enjoys occasionally hitching up his tow-behind camper and heading out to the wilderness to get away from it all at his favorite campsite. Unlike the vast majority of those who share his passion for the outdoors, though, [Paul] is hitching his camper up to a bicycle. Both the camper and the bike are custom built from the ground up, and this video shows us a little more details on [Paul]’s preferred mode of transportation.
While he is known for building custom vehicles of one sort or another, this latest one is a more traditional bicycle frame that he has modified only slightly to fit a recumbent-style seat and a small gas-powered motor. Even though the motor is decades old, it started right up and gives the power needed to pull the custom camper. [Paul] builds one-person campers like this out of corrugated plastic for durability and light weight, and this one is specifically designed for his size and sleeping style. It includes everything needed for a night under the stars, too, including a stove, storage compartments, and a few windows.
With the bike and camper combined weighing in at just over 200 pounds, the motor can be used as a pedal-assist device thanks to the clever engineering behind a front-wheel-drive pedal system on this bike. With all of that custom fabrication, [Paul] is free to head out to the wilderness without all the encumbrances (and high price) of traditional motor vehicle-based camping. For those curious about some of [Paul]’s other vehicle creations,
take a look at this tiny speedboat for one
. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6449202",
"author": "JGM",
"timestamp": "2022-03-21T12:29:45",
"content": "Neat idea, but that exposed drive belt is making me kinda nervous…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6449228",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,372,755.866703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/20/hackaday-links-march-20-2022/ | Hackaday Links: March 20, 2022 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"electric vehicle",
"hackaday links",
"james webb space telescope",
"jwst",
"mercedes",
"MIL-STD",
"nasa",
"raspberry pi",
"ruggedized",
"shenzhen",
"supply chain",
"X-Rays"
] | Well, that de-escalated quickly! It was less than a week ago
that the city of Shenzhen, China was put on lockdown
due to a resurgence of COVID-19 in the world’s electronics manufacturing epicenter. This obviously caused no small amount of alarm up and down the electronics supply chain, promising to once again upset manufacturers seeking everything from PCBs to components to complete electronic assemblies. But just a few days later,
the Chinese government announced that the Shenzhen lockdown was over
. At least partially, that is — factories and public transportation have been reopened in five of the city’s districts, with iPhone maker Foxconn, one of the bigger players in Shenzhen, given the green light to partially reopen. What does this mean for hobbyists’ ability to get cheap PCBs made quickly? That’s hard to say, at least at this point. Please feel free to share your experiences with any supply chain disruptions in the comments below.
Better news from a million miles away, as NASA announced that
the James Webb Space Telescope finished the first part of its complex mirror alignment procedure
. The process, which uses the complex actuators built into each of the 18 hexagonal mirror segments, slightly moves each mirror to align them all into one virtual optical surface. The result is not only
the stunning “selfie” images
we’ve been seeing, but also
a beautiful picture
of the star Webb has been focusing on as a target. The video below explains the process in some detail, along with sharing that the next step is to move the mirrors in and out, or “piston” them, so that the 18 separate wavefronts all align to send light to the instruments in perfect phase. Talk about precision!
Is a bog-standard Raspberry Pi just not tough enough for your application? Do you need to run
DOOM
on a platform that can take a few g of vibration and still keep working? Sick of your Pi-based weather station breaking own when it gets a little wet or too hot? Then you’ll want to take a look at
the DuraCOR Pi
, a ruggedized chassis containing a Pi CM4 that’s built for extreme environments. The machine is in a tiny IP67-rated case and built to MIL-STD specs with regard to vibration, temperature, humidity, and EMI conditions. This doesn’t really seem like something aimed at the hobbyist market — it’s marketed by Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, a defense contractor that traces its roots all the way back to a couple of bicycle mechanics from Ohio that learned how to fly. So this Pi is probably more like something you’d spec if you were building a UAV or something like that. Still, it’s cool to know such things are out there.
BrainLubeOnline has
a fun collection of X-rays
. With the exception of a mouse —
the other kind
— everything is either electronic or mechanical, which makes for really interesting pictures. Seeing the teeth on a gear or the threads on a screw, and seeing right through the object, shows the mechanical world in a whole new light — literally.
And finally, would you buy a car that prevents you from opening the hood? Most of us probably wouldn’t, but then again, most of us probably wouldn’t buy a Mercedes EQS 580 electric sedan. Sarah from Sarah -n- Tuned on YouTube
somehow got a hold of one of these babies
, which she aptly describes as a “German spaceship,” and took it for a test drive, including a “full beans” acceleration test. Just after that neck-snapping ride, at about the 7:20 mark in the video below, she asks the car’s built-in assistant to open the hood, a request the car refused by saying, “The hood may only be opened by a specialist workshop.” Sarah managed to get it open anyway, and it’s not a frunk — it’s home to one of the two motors that power the car, along with all kinds of other goodies. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6449086",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2022-03-21T04:11:51",
"content": "I wonder will the star used for calibration get a new nickname ( 2MASS J17554042+6551277 is a bit of a mouthful ).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "64... | 1,760,372,755.821913 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/this-week-in-security-more-protestware-another-linux-vuln-and-tlstorm/ | This Week In Security: More Protestware, Another Linux Vuln, And TLStorm | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"CVE-2022-25636",
"protestware",
"TLStorm"
] | It seems I have made my tiny, indelible mark on internet security history, with the term “
protestware
“. As far as I can tell, I first coined this particular flavor of malware while covering the Faker.js/Colors.js vandalism in January.
Yet another developer, [RIAEvangelist] has inserted some malicious code
(
Mirror, since the complaint has been deleted
) in an existing project, in protest of something, in this case the war in Ukraine. The behavior here is to write a nice note on the desktop, preaching “peace not war”. However, a few versions of this sample have a nasty surprise — it does a GeoIP lookup, and attempts to wipe the entire drive if it detects a Russian location. Yes,
node-ipc
versions 10.1.1 and 10.1.2 contain straight-up malware. It’s not clear how many users ran the potentially malicious code, as it was quickly reverted and released 10.1.3. Up-to-date versions of
node-ipc
still create the desktop file, and Unity Hub has already confirmed
they shipped the library in this state, and have since issued a hotfix
.
This story is continuing to develop, but there was also an issue raised by a
node-ipc
user who claimed to be associated with a human rights organization that worked with observers in Eastern Europe. The
unsubstantiated claim
is that
node-ipc
ran on their whistle-blowing infrastructure, and the malicious code in version 10.1.1 or 10.1.2 wiped a massive collection of evidence. While this could be a hoax — anyone can claim anything on the internet — there is a threat of legal action, which would give substance to the claim. If we catch wind of anything more developing, we’ll update you on it.
This recurrence of protestware is going to force the Open Source world to come to some conclusions about what sort of social and political commentary is appropriate in widely-used projects. Wiping hard drives is obviously way beyond the pale. It’s not entirely clear that code was intended to be rolled out to the public, as it was picked up in an unrelated changeset, suggesting either an accidental inclusion, or an attempt to smuggle it in. But what about the creation of a virtual pamphlet on the user’s desktop? I suggest that this, too, is unacceptable for a serious project. What about rhetoric in log output? The impetus behind protestware seems to be unchanging, so we’ll need to work out the answers to such questions.
Netfilter Not-An-RCE
Up next is the announcement of another Linux Kernel vulnerability,
CVE-2022-25636
, this one an out-of-bounds write in the Linux firewall code. If you’re suddenly having heart palpitations at the thought of Remote Code Execution, try to relax. This flaw is serious, but just like DirtyPipe we covered last week, it’s entirely limited to a local user account that can run shell commands. A pair of tricks allows any user the ability to trigger the flaw with any hardware, meaning that it’s a straightforward elevation of privileges.
Making this a more serious issue, there are at least two Proof-of-Concepts available: one in the disclosure linked above, and
the second on Github from [Bonfee]
. The problem was introduced in kernel 5.4, and fixed in 5.16.12, 5.15.26, 5.10.103, 5.4.182, and has landed in 5.17 which is due to be released very soon. Unfortunately, there are incorrect reports that this CVE was fixed in 5.6.10, including
the NIST page on the bug
. The problem is that 5.6.10 was released more than a year before the problem was found. Adjust your response accordingly.
How to Brick Thousands of Satellite Terminals
You may have seen the story of several thousand wind turbines in Europe suddenly lost their satellite link to their controllers. There has finally been enough information released to piece together
an educated guess as to what went wrong
. [Ruben Santamarta] combines his experience breaking satellite systems with the hints given in official statements, and presents a likely explanation. First, the outage corresponded with the war in Ukraine and was being investigated as a cyberattack. This could have been a simple DDoS, but a military official stated that “terminals have been damaged, made inoperable and probably cannot be repaired.” DDoS attacks don’t generally brick devices.
What does brick devices is flashing bad firmware to them. The most likely scenario is that Russian attackers either compromised a ground station, or spoofed it. They used this connection, and the TR-069 protocol, to send a malicious firmware update. This attack knocked out terminals in Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany.
TLStorm
It’s
a catchy name, a logo
, and even a slick informational video. Is TLStorm more than a flash-in-the-WAN? Maybe — there are a trio of serious vulnerabilities at play. Researchers at Armis found these in APC Smart-UPS firmware.
Let’s start with the Firmware authentication problem. To really ensure that malicious firmware can’t be installed, devices use a signed and encrypted approach, where the signing key is held very securely by the manufacturer. Smart-UPS firmware was simply being encrypted with a symmetric key, meaning the same key is used to both encrypt and decrypt the firmware. The check done in the target device was to decrypt the new firmware, and sanity-check it, usually by looking for a magic value in the header. The problem is that every device that shares firmware compatibility is also sharing the same encryption key. Extracting the key from one unit allows an attacker to produce valid-yet-malicious firmware for all of them.
Problem two is a Man in the Middle TLS attack. This one takes advantage of state confusion in the nanoSSL library shipped with the APC devices. The client tries to communicate with the APC cloud, and the attacker interrupts the initial handshake. Now that the connection is in this state, the attacker can send a TLS resumption message, and the client accepts it, skipping the all-important verification of the HTTPS certificate.
The final exploit is an RCE, taking advantage of TLS fragmentation. The attacker sends a fragmented message, and then keeps sending fragments beyond the expected byte-count, overflowing the allotted buffer. This one allows for full control, and chains into the malicious firmware problem. Put together, these give an attacker a very wide range of options, from powering off downstream devices, to modifying the firmware to induce unsafe operations. The Hollywood trope finally comes true, where the hacker can make
devices explode remotely
.
Bits and Bytes
That nifty device you carry everywhere has a baseband processor and firmware on it, and that has historically been a very opaque component. There’s a new tool to get some insight into what that firmware is doing,
FirmWire
. It’s a baseband emulator, intended to let you fuzz, debug, and otherwise delve the secrets of your baseband firmware.
Is it just me, or has Google Chrome had an uptick of in-the-wild exploits recently? Apparently the trend is real, and
researchers at Google have noticed
. They point out a few reasons for the trend. Chromium is the biggest browser game in town, so naturally it’s the one being attacked. A counter-intuitive point is that better security artificially inflates the vulnerability count, as sandboxing requires a real attack to chain at least two bugs together to accomplish anything worthwhile. The post rounds out with a discussion of Google’s plans to keep ratcheting the code in Chrome/Chromium to a more secure standard.
Remember the impressive WordPress fuzzing tool we covered a few weeks back? A few commentors wanted to know where to find the source for the new tool.
Wpgarlic has now been released
, and is ready for you to use, improve, and unleash your hacking creativity upon. If you find something particularly interesting with it, be sure to let us know! | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448008",
"author": "Andrzej",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T16:08:03",
"content": "So you’re saying that the “Netfilter RCE” is not an RCE?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6448013",
"author": "Jonathan Bennett",
"t... | 1,760,372,755.67098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/render-html-and-css-on-an-esp32/ | Render HTML And CSS On An ESP32 | Jenny List | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"css",
"ESP32",
"html",
"web"
] | As the available computing power from affordable microcontrollers continues to increase, there is an inevitable blurring of the line between them and the lower tier of application processors capable of running Linux-based operating systems. For the most part a microcontroller busies itself with behind-the-scenes tasks, but as so many projects here have demonstrated, they can be pretty capable when it comes to user-facing applications too. Now [Andy Green] has extended the possibilities with affordable silicon, by producing
a proof-of-concept HTML + CSS renderer over h2 on ESP32 for libwebsockets
. Surf the web on a microcontroller without settling for a text-only experience? Why not!
He freely admits that this is far from being a complete HTML rendering engine, in that while it parses and renders HTML and CSS with JPEG and PNG image support, it does so only with a subset of HTML and is not tolerant of any malformations. There is also no JS support, which is hardly surprising given the available resources.
Even with those limitations it remains an impressive piece of work, which we hope will one day be able to make some effort at displaying Hackaday on
ESP32 devices such as the badge.team European conference badges
. Definitely a project to watch! | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447921",
"author": "TacticalNinja",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T11:47:43",
"content": "Nice",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6447937",
"author": "ziew",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T12:27:55",
"content": "On one hand that’s... | 1,760,372,755.452258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/modular-multi-input-macro-keypad-integrates-mouse-and-joystick/ | Modular Multi-Input Macro Keypad Integrates Mouse And Joystick | Robin Kearey | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"CAD mouse",
"Joystick",
"macro keypad"
] | While most computer users make do with just a keyboard and mouse, power users often have multiple additional input devices. Gamers use joysticks or dedicated mice, CAD engineers have specialized gadgets for manipulating 3D objects, while graphic designers might want programmable macro buttons to automate various tasks. [Sascha Nitsch] didn’t fancy cluttering his desk with a whole bunch of input devices and therefore decided to combine as many functions as possible into the
CIMDIT: a Completely Insane Multi Device Input Thingy
.
The main components making up the CIMDIT are a 3-axis joystick module, which can double as a 3D CAD mouse, and a set of buttons, knobs and sliders to enable various functions. One rotary encoder is used to choose an operating mode, while four others can be used as programmable inputs. A small OLED display shows which mode is currently selected, but can also be used to display notifications from various programs.
An Arduino Pro Micro provides a USB interface to a PC and reads out the various input units. The entire design is modular, so it can be customized to any desired combination of analog and digital inputs. [Sascha] made a neat 3D printed enclosure to hold the 3-axis module along with 26 buttons, five rotary encoders and one analog slider. KiCAD files for the PCBs and the FreeCAD source for the enclosure are available under an open-source license on
[Sascha]’s Git repo
.
The same thing applies to the software driving the CIMDIT, though adding functionality to it might turn out to be tricky: [Sascha] had to perform some serious code optimization to fit everything into the Arduino’s 32 kB of program flash. The Git repo also includes a convenient tool to create key mappings to be programmed into the controller, saving you from having to compose a binary file by hand.
Love macro keypads? Check out these cool examples with
gesture detection
, an
e-ink display
or simply
beautiful wooden keys
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447876",
"author": "Viktor",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T09:45:27",
"content": "80% of time you only use 20% of buttons.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6447899",
"author": "Redhatter (VK4MSL)",
"timestamp": "202... | 1,760,372,755.776958 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/talking-to-a-texas-instruments-calculator/ | Talking To A Texas Instruments Calculator | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"arm",
"CE",
"port",
"programming",
"python",
"test",
"texas instruments",
"ti-84",
"z80"
] | Texas Instruments is a world-class semiconductors company, but unfortunately what they are best known for among the general public is dated consumer-grade calculators thanks to entrenched standardized testing. These testing standards are so entrenched, in fact, that TI has not had to update the hardware in these calculators since the early 90s. They still run their code on a Z80 microcontroller, but [Ben Heck] found himself in possession of one
which has a modern ARM coprocessor in it and thus can run Python
.
While he’s not sure exactly what implementation of Python the calculator is running, he did tear it apart to try and figure out as much as he could about what this machine is doing. The immediately noticeable difference is the ARM coprocessor that is not present in other graphing calculators. After some investigation of test points, [Ben] found that the Z80 and ARM chips are communicating with each other over twin serial lines using a very “janky” interface. Jankiness aside, eventually [Ben] was able to wire up a port to the side of the calculator which lets him use his computer to send Python commands to the device when it is in its Python programming mode.
While there are probably limited use cases for 1980s calculators to run Python programs, we can at least commend TI for attempting to modernize within its self-built standardized testing prison. Perhaps this is the starting point for someone else to figure out something more useful to put these machines to work with beyond the classroom too.
We’ve already seen some TI-84s that have been modified to connect to the Internet
, for example.
Thanks to [Nikša] for the tip! | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447864",
"author": "come2",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T09:02:13",
"content": "In the previous version of this calculator, the ARM Python coprocessor could be bought in an external enclosure and was used the same way as now. Eventually, it was found out that you could use a Feather M0... | 1,760,372,755.726454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/open-source-farming-robot-now-includes-simulations/ | Open-Source Farming Robot Now Includes Simulations | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"brake",
"docker",
"emergency",
"fail-safe",
"farming",
"gps",
"navigation",
"robot",
"simulation",
"software"
] | Farming is a challenge under even the best of circumstances. Almost all conventional farmers use some combination of tillers, combines, seeders and plows to help get the difficult job done, but for those like [Taylor] who do not farm large industrial monocultures, more specialized tools are needed. While we’ve featured the Acorn open source farming robot before,
it’s back now with new and improved features
and a simulation mode to help rapidly improve the platform’s software.
The first of the two new physical features includes a fail-safe braking system. Since the robot uses electric geared hub motors for propulsion, the braking system consists of two normally closed relays which short the motor leads in emergency situations. This makes the motors see an extremely high load and stops them from turning. The robot also has been given advanced navigation facilities so that it can follow custom complex routes. And finally, [Taylor] created a simulation mode so that the robot’s entire software stack can be run in Docker and tested inside a simulation without using the actual robot.
For farmers who are looking to buck unsustainable modern agricultural practices while maintaining profitable farms, a platform like Acorn could be invaluable. With the ability to survey, seed, harvest, and even weed, it could perform every task of larger agricultural machinery. Of course, if you want to learn more about it, you can check out our
earlier feature on this futuristic farming machine
. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447760",
"author": "Taylor Alexander",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T02:09:38",
"content": "So great to see our work on Hackaday! Please advise if this runs afoul of the rules but I also wanted to share our new monthly crowd funding campaign on Open Collective. We are trying to make thi... | 1,760,372,755.510885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/3d-printed-parts-let-you-assemble-your-own-biggest-fan/ | 3D-Printed Parts Let You Assemble Your Own Biggest Fan | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"BLDC",
"blower",
"dovetail",
"esc",
"fan",
"leds",
"rgb"
] | It’s getting close to the time of year when we need to start carefully vetting projects here at Hackaday. After all, nobody likes to get punked by an early April Fool’s joke. But as silly as
this outsized PC fan
looks, it sure seems like a legit build, if a bit on the pointless side.
Then again, perhaps pointless is too harsh a word to use. This 500-mm fan is by [Angus] over at Maker’s Muse, and it represents a lot of design work to make it buildable, as well as workable and (mostly) safe. Using both CNC-cut MDF and printed parts, the fan is an embiggened replica of a normal-sized case fan. The fan’s frame had to be printed in four parts, which lock together with clever interlocking joints. Each of the nine blades locks into a central hub with sturdy-looking dovetails.
And sturdy is important, as the fan is powered by a 1,500 Watt brushless DC motor. With a 4:1 reduction thanks to a printed gear train, the fan spins at around 3,300 RPM, which makes a terrifying noise. There’s a little bit of “speed-wobble” evident, but [Angus] managed to survive testing. The fan, however, did not — the 3D-printed gears self-destructed after a full-speed test, but not before the fan did its best wind tunnel imitation. And the RGB LEDs looked great.
This one reminds up of
something we might see [Ivan Miranda] come up with
. In fact,
his super-sized 3D printer
might have been just the thing to shorten [Angus]’ print times. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447735",
"author": "dendad",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T00:38:11",
"content": "I am a bit of a Makers Muse fan!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6447753",
"author": "mgsouth",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T01:47:28",
"conte... | 1,760,372,755.952613 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/tracked-rc-vehicle-is-mostly-3d-printed/ | Tracked RC Vehicle Is (Mostly) 3D Printed | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"driveshaft",
"gearbox",
"planetary",
"rc",
"remote control",
"steering",
"tracked vehicle"
] | While wheels might seem like a foundational technology, they do have one major flaw: they typically need maintained roads in order to work. Anyone who has experience driving a Jeep or truck off-road likely knows this first-hand. For those with extreme off-road needs the track is often employed. [Let’s Print]
is working on perfecting his RC tracked vehicle to take advantage of these perks
using little more than 3D printed parts and aluminum stock.
This vehicle doesn’t just include the 3D printed tracks, but an entire 3D printed gearbox and drivetrain to drive them. Each track is driven by its own DC motor coupled to a planetary gearbox to give each plenty of torque to operate in snow or mud. The gearbox is mated to a differential which currently shares a shaft, which means that steering is currently not possible. The original plan was to have each motor drive the tracks independently but a small mistake in the build meant that the shaft needed to be tied together. [Let’s Print] has several options to eventually include steering, including an articulating body or redesigning the drivetrain to be able to separate the shaft.
While this vehicle currently has no wheels in order to improve traction, [Let’s Print] does point out that a pair of wheels could complement this vehicle when he finished the back half of it since
wheels have a major advantage over tracks when it comes to steering
. A vehicle with both could have the advantages of both, so we’re interested to see where this build eventually goes.
Thanks to [Joonas] for the tip! | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447689",
"author": "Mr Name Required",
"timestamp": "2022-03-17T22:15:46",
"content": "Given the track bogie design looks similar to that of the Tucker Sno-Cat, I was surprised they appear to be configured in a fixed relation to each other.I think it would help a great deal with tr... | 1,760,372,755.906914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/great-computer-hacks-make-hackers-hacker-computers/ | Great Computer Hacks MakeHackersHacker Computers | Ryan Flowers | [
"classic hacks",
"Cyberdecks"
] | [
"crash override",
"hackers",
"hackers movie",
"johnny lee miller",
"movie prop",
"movie props",
"plastic",
"zer0 cool"
] | In the year 1995, computers were, well… boring. The future wasn’t here yet, and computers were drab, chunky beige boxes. Sure, there were some cool-ish computers being sold, but the landscape was still relatively barren. But as you’ll see in the video below the break, it doesn’t have to be that way, and the [Hackers Curator] shows us the way by
recreating Johnny Lee Miller’s computer from the 1995 movie
Hackers
.
Hackers
wasn’t popular when it came out, but over the years it has gained quite a following. It portrayed computers and the people who loved them in completely new ways, representing a culture that has never existed. Even so, it inspired so many young hacker types. Among those inspired is the crew over at
[Hackers Curator]
and they have taken it upon themselves to, uh… curate… the props, costumes, and stories surrounding the movie.
Recreating Dade’s iconic camo “luggable” computer came with quite a lot of difficulty. It turns out that the original movie props were
working custom computers
that used hacked together customized cases and Mac Powerbook 180c internals. Dade’s (aka Zer0 Cool and Crash Override) was mashup of the a Compaq Portable 486c and the aforementioned Mac. [HackersCurator] have lovingly recreated this prop from two broken computers, but chose to run the internals with a Raspberry Pi.
The techniques used in the creation of this beastly cyberdeck are ones that can be used in building so many other projects, even if you’re not a
Hackers
hacker. Customizing the plastics and placing a trackball in the most awkward of spots was expertly done, and we’ll be referring to it in the future for guidance when doing similar projects.
Are movie replica hacks your thing? You’re in luck! It turns out that this isn’t [Hackers Curator]’s first build. In 2019 they tackled Lord Nikon’s laptop, and of course, we
covered that one too! | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448198",
"author": "Nico the animal",
"timestamp": "2022-03-19T03:10:15",
"content": "A movie that launched over 9000 memes",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6448261",
"author": "Anonymouse",
"timestamp": "2022-03-19T08:0... | 1,760,372,756.075826 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/throttle-your-solid-rocket-motors-with-this-one-simple-trick/ | Throttle Your Solid Rocket Motors With This One Simple Trick! | Ryan Flowers | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"rocket",
"rocket engine",
"solid fuel rocket motor"
] | For decades, mankind was content to launch payloads into orbit and then watch hundreds of thousands of hours of blood sweat and tears just crash into the ocean. Then, partially because of huge advancements in being able to throttle rocket engines, we started landing our first stage boosters. [Joe] over at the
BPS.space
YouTube channel is tired of watching SpaceX have all the booster landing fun, but he’s not quite at the throttled liquid engine stage yet. So
in the video below the break
he asked the question: Can you throttle
solid
rocket motors? Yes. No. Sort of.
Throttling liquid rocket engines is actually not that different from throttling any other engine- by limiting the amount of fuel and oxidizer. This is challenging all on its own because well… it’s rocket science. With liquid rocket engines though, the concept is at least straightforward. But model rocketry hobbyists only use liquid fueled engines on the extreme high end. The vast majority instead use solid fueled rockets where the fuel is pre-mixed and isn’t variable
at all
.
These obvious hurdles didn’t stop [Joe] from trying. And trying again. Then, again. And once more for good measure. And then again for repeatability. There are definitely some failures along the way, and we applaud [Joe] for even admitting that he didn’t know how to use a drill properly. Hackers of any age can relate to the time when the didn’t know how to do something, although we also tend to not talk about that part too much.
We won’t spoil the ending except to say that the video is definitely worth a watch to see how [Joe] essentially solves the problem of limiting the effective thrust of a solid rocket engine without actually throttling the engine, and learns about a new issue he’d never seen before.
Of course you can also
make rocket engines at home out of a plethora of ingredients
, just be sure to do it in
somebody else’s kitchen! | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448139",
"author": "Nathan",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T23:08:27",
"content": "Not to be that critical guy, but I kinda read this site because I enjoy interisting technical stuff, but this article is completely deviod of that. I’m not completely opposed to posting youtube videos on h... | 1,760,372,756.024599 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/high-tech-pancake-tesla-coil-brings-the-lightning/ | High Tech Pancake Tesla Coil Brings The Lightning | Tom Nardi | [
"High Voltage",
"Science"
] | [
"igbt",
"Plasma Channel",
"Solid State Tesla Coil",
"tesla coil"
] | For several years now we’ve been following [Jay Bowles] as he brings high-voltage down to Earth on his
Plasma Channel
YouTube channel. From spark gaps made of bits of copper pipe to automotive ignition coils driven by the stalwart 555 timer, he’s got a real knack for keeping his builds affordable and approachable. But once in a while you’ve got to step out of your comfort zone, and although the dedicated DIY’er could still replicate the
solid state “pancake” Tesla coil he documents in his latest video
, we’d say this one is better left for the professionals.
The story starts about nine months ago, when [Jay] was approached by fellow
YouTuber [LabCoatz]
to collaborate on a PCB design for a solid state Tesla coil (SSTC). Rather than a traditional spark gap, a SSTC uses insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) triggered by an oscillator, which is not only more efficient but allows for fine control of the primary coil. The idea was to develop an AC-powered coil that was compact, easy to repair, and could be controlled with just a couple dials on the front panel. The device would also make use of an antenna feedback system that would pick up the resonant frequency of the secondary coil and automatically adjust the IGBT drive to match.
Being considerably more complex than many of the previous builds featured on
Plasma Channel
, it took some time to work out all the kinks. In fact, the majority of the video is [Jay] walking the viewer through the various failure modes that he ran into while developing the SSTC. Even for somebody with his experience in high-voltage, there were a number of headscratchers that had to be solved.
For example, the first version of the design used metal bolts to attach the primary and secondary coils, until he realized that was leading to capacitive coupling and replaced them with acrylic blocks instead. If his previous videos surprised you by showing how easy it could be to experiment with high-voltages, this one is a reminder that it’s not always so simple.
But in the end [Jay] does get everything sorted out, and the results are nothing short of spectacular. Even on the lower power levels it throws some impressive sparks, but when cranked up to max, it offers some of the most impressive visuals we’ve seen so far from
Plasma Channel
. It was a lot of work, but it certainly wasn’t wasted effort.
Fascinated by the results, but not quite ready to jump into the deep end? This affordable and
easy to build high-voltage generator featured on
Plasma Channel
back in 2020
is a great way to get started. If you still need more inspiration,
check out the fantastic presentation [Jay] gave during the 2021 Remoticon
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448093",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T20:41:48",
"content": "Do you get more power if you put syrup on it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6448110",
"author": "rclark",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T21:37:... | 1,760,372,756.388135 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/power-cycling-museum-computers-on-the-cheap/ | Power Cycling Museum Computers On The Cheap | Chris Wilkinson | [
"computer hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ESP32",
"featherwing",
"museum",
"Uninterruptible Power Supply",
"ups"
] | Flicking a circuit breaker to power cycle hundreds of desktop computers inside interactive museum exhibits is hardly ideal. Computers tend to get cranky when improperly shutdown, and there’s an non-zero risk of data loss. However, financial concerns ruled out commercial computer management solutions, and manually shutting down each exhibit at the end of the day is not practical. Tasked with finding a solution, [Jeff Glass]
mixed off-the-shelf UPS (uninterruptible power supply) hardware, a Featherwing and some Python
to give the museum’s computer-run exhibits a fighting chance.
Without drastically changing the one-touch end-of-day procedure, the only way to properly shutdown the hundreds of computers embedded in the museum exhibits involved using several UPS units, keeping the PCs briefly powered on after the mains power was cut. This in itself solves nothing – while the UPS can trigger a safe shutdown via USB, this signal could only be received by a single PC. These are off-the-shelf consumer grade units, and were never intended to safely shut down more than one computer at a time. However, each 300 watt UPS unit is very capable of powering multiple computers, the only limitation is the shutdown signal and the single USB connection.
To get around this, the Windows task scheduling service was setup to be triggered by the UPS shutdown signal, which itself then triggered a custom Python script. This script then relays the shutdown signal from the UPS to every other computer in the museum, before shutting itself down for the evening.
While many computers can be enabled to boot on power loss, the UPS and safe shutdown scripts meant that this wasn’t an option. To get around this, an ESP32 Featherwing and a little bit if CircuitPython code sends out WOL (wake-on-LAN) signals over Ethernet automatically on power up. This unit is powered by a non-UPS backed power outlet, meaning that it only sends the WOL signal in the morning when mains power is restored via the circuit breaker.
There are undoubtedly a variety of alternative solutions that appear ‘better’ on paper, but these may gloss over the potential costs and disruption to a multi-acre museum. Working within the constraints of reality means that the less obvious fix often ends up being the right one. How would you have tackled this problem? Sound off in the comments below. And while you’re here, make sure to check out our coverage of other UPS solutions, like this
supercap UPS
. | 32 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448050",
"author": "nimish",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T18:40:37",
"content": "Feels a lot more complicated than simply issuing remote management commands via active directory for the windows machines or just ssh on demand without needing the power off signal.The WoL trick is clever!... | 1,760,372,756.501347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/the-open-source-asics-hack-chat-redefines-possible/ | The Open Source ASICs Hack Chat Redefines Possible | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"ASIC",
"Chip Scale Package",
"custom silicon",
"Hack Chat"
] | There was a time when all that was available to the electronics hobbyist were passive components and vacuum tubes. Then along comes the integrated circuit, and it changed everything. Fast forward a bit, and affordable programmable microcontrollers arrived on the scene. Getting started in electronics became far easier, and the line between hardware and software started to blur. Much more recently, the hobbyist community was introduced to field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the tools necessary to work with them. While not as widely applicable as the IC or MCU, the proliferation of FPGAs among hardware hackers once again opened doors that were previously locked tight.
We’re currently on the edge of another paradigm shift, but it’s no surprise if you haven’t heard of it. After all, the last couple of years have been a bit unusual, so the 2020 announcement that Google was teaming up with SkyWater and Efabless to enable the design and manufacture of open source application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) flew under the radar for many people. But not Matt Venn,
the host of this week’s Hack Chat
. For him, it was the opportunity he’d been waiting for.
Matt started like many of us, building electronic kits and building new gadgets out of old discarded hardware. He graduated to microcontrollers, and became particularly interested in FPGAs when the open source toolchains started hitting the scene. Of course by this point, it was much more than just a hobby for him. He was presenting a talk at the 2019 Week of Open Source Hardware in Switzerland when he saw Tim Edwards from Efabless demo a chip that had been made with open source tools. Unfortunately, the costs involved were still far too high for an individual to put their ideas into silicon.
So when
Google and Skywater announced they would be footing the bill
to have selected open source ASIC designs manufactured a few months later, Matt says he was in a good position to jump in.
He has since started running the
Zero to ASIC Course
which aims to teach you how to produce your own chips using the open source Process Development Kit, and so far 160 people have taken him up on the offer.
As you might expect, many of the questions in the Chat had to do with what kind of designs you can actually produce using the 130 nm process. Especially given the limits on the physical space each creator’s circuit can take up on each multi-project wafer (MPW). Others wanted to know how difficult it would be to port over existing FPGA designs, or how well the process worked with analog applications. With the number of designs Matt has seen go through his course, he could answer many of the questions just by pointing to a particular individual’s ASIC. For instance, he held up the digital-to-analog converter from Harald Pretl and Thomas Parry’s 5 GHz satellite transceiver as prime analog examples.
So let’s say you put the work in to design an ASIC and it gets approved to be produced on a future MPW, what then? Well, first you have to hope everything goes according to plan. Matt explains that the initial run was almost a total write-off due to timing problems in the toolchain, though in the end,
he was largely able to recover his own chip
. But they’ve done several runs since then, so let’s assume there’s no production problems. What exactly ends up on your doorstep?
If you were expecting a handy DIP8, you might be disappointed. While some DIY friendly packages would be nice, right now the ASICs ship as wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) with an unforgiving 0.5 mm pitch. If you can believe it, that’s actually an improvement over the first run, which shipped out as a bare die. Of course as Matt pointed out, anyone who’s gotten to the point of designing their own custom ASIC probably won’t be scared off by the prospect of some fine-pitch soldering. Some in the Chat wondered about the difficulty in getting compatible PCBs produced, but Matt said that in his experience
OSH Park has been up to the challenge
.
Like the
Metal 3D Printing Hack Chat
before it, this week’s session went over a topic that’s on the absolute cutting edge of what’s possible for hardware hackers and hobbyists. Truth be told, the vast majority of the people reading Hackaday are no more likely to send away for their own custom ASIC as they are to battle x-rays in an attempt to sinter metal with a homebrew electron gun. But that doesn’t make the fact that some folks out there doing it any less important, or inspiring. That said, if you
do
end up being one of those select few that can boast they’ve designed a custom chip of their own — don’t forget to send one of them our way.
We’re grateful Matt Venn was able, once again, to share his valuable experience in the realm of open source application-specific integrated circuits with us. If you haven’t checked them out already, the
Zero to ASIC
workshop he ran for Remoticon 2020
and his talk
Open Source ASICs – A Year in Perspective
from Remoticon 2021
are required viewing if you want to learn more about this fascinating new frontier in hardware hacking.
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. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448070",
"author": "Ethan Waldo",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T19:41:42",
"content": "There’s lots of excellent stuff in Matt Venn’s interviews and they keep getting better and better. His interview with Thomas Parry andhttps://github.com/yrrapt/analogue_design_exampleis pure and soli... | 1,760,372,756.434141 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/hackaday-podcast-160-pedal-power-openscad-in-the-browser-tasmanian-tigers-and-the-coolest-knob/ | Hackaday Podcast 160: Pedal Power, OpenSCAD In The Browser, Tasmanian Tigers, And The Coolest Knob | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Join Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi as they tackle all the hacks that were fit to print this last week. Things start off with some troubling news from Shenzhen (spoilers: those parts you ordered are going to be late), and lead into a
What’s That Sound
challenge that’s sure to split the community right down the center. From there we’ll talk about human powered machines, bringing OpenSCAD to as many devices as humanly possible, and the finer points of installing your own hardware into a Pelican case. There’s a quick detour to muse on laser-powered interstellar probes, a Pi-calculating Arduino, and a surprisingly relevant advertisement from Sony Pictures. Finally, stay tuned to hear the latest developments in de-extinction technology, and a seriously deep dive into the lowly nail.
Or
Direct Download
, like an old-school boss!
Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 160 Show Notes:
News This Week:
Hackers Beware: Shenzhen Is Closing
What’s that Sound?
Think you know this week’s sound?
Enter for a chance to win
a coveted Hackaday Podcast t-shirt!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Pedal Powered Power
Perfecting The Solar Powered Web Server
Careful Cuts Lets Logger Last A Year On A Coin Cell
The Noble Effort To Put OpenSCAD In The Browser
Haptic Smart Knob Does Several Jobs
Rugged Cyberdeck Makes The Case For Keeping Things Water-Tight
Cool Mechanism Day: Two-Way To One-Way
Reversible Ventilation Hack Keeps The Landlord Happy
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
In 2045: Alpha Centauri
Simple Arduino Build Lets You Keep An Eye On Pi
Rotary Phone MIDI Controller Still Makes Calls
Tom’s Picks:
How To Make Laser-cut Decals On The Cheap
MiniPC Surgery Makes It 50% Cooler
Cheap Ghostbusters Toy Turned Convincing Prop
Can’t-Miss Articles:
The Tasmanian Tiger’s Comeback Tour, Powered By Science
Tech In Plain Sight: Tough As Nails | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448159",
"author": "wanderer_",
"timestamp": "2022-03-19T00:33:23",
"content": "Hello! For whatever reason I had a lot to say after this week’s episode, so here they are:First thing is that us in the American south got a Saharan dust cloud a while back, all the way from across the ... | 1,760,372,756.343586 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/morse-keyboard-communicates-with-the-blink-of-an-eye/ | Morse Keyboard Communicates With The Blink Of An Eye | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"assistive technology",
"morse code",
"webcam"
] | Most of us use our hands to interface with computers, but the human body is capable of many types of input other than that of fingers and feet. But what about people who can’t use their extremities and don’t have a voice? For their sake, it’s time to get creative.
[Michael Paul Coder] has made a way to type simply by blinking in Morse code
. Those of you with long memories may recall
Lucid Scribe
, where he was attempting to document lucid dreaming experiments by detecting rapid eye movements with an accelerometer and triggering his computer to play music. This would in turn notify [Michael] that he was in fact dreaming and was safe to tie a cape around his neck and take a flying leap from a tall building.
Whereas [Michael]’s creation needed a commercial EEG device before, he’s now made it work with just an old webcam thanks to the new trans-consciousness messaging protocol, which operates by using facial detection and then interpreting the amount of changed pixels between video frames. Be sure to check it out in action after the break.
You know how much we love assistive technology around here — just two years ago,
the Byte took top honors in The Hackaday Prize
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6448010",
"author": "Rog77",
"timestamp": "2022-03-18T16:14:25",
"content": "When my mother was diagnosed with ALS, I researched hands free communication with a computer – one interesting system used head tracking (worked best with a yellow dot on the nose bridge of one’s glasses) t... | 1,760,372,756.5898 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/3d-printed-molds-for-casting-roses-metal/ | 3D Printed Molds For Casting Rose’s Metal | Kristina Panos | [
"Art",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"casting",
"metal casting",
"Rose's metal"
] | Have you ever played with Rose’s metal? It’s a fusible alloy of bismuth, lead, and tin with a low melting point of around 100 °C. Historically, it’s been used as a solder for cast iron railings and things, and as a malleable pipe filler material to prevent crimping while a pipe is bent.
[Ben Healey] has been playing around with Rose’s metal and some PETG printed molds,
making everything from Star Wars Imperial credits to chess pieces to leather stamping tools
. In the video after the break, [Ben] takes us through the process, beginning with mold-making from STLs — something he picked up from another YouTuber.
He recommends adding registration marks to multi-part molds in order to keep everything lined up, and adding a small recess in the seam for easy separation with a flat-head screwdriver. So far, the molds have held up to multiple pours, though [Ben] did print them rather thick and is glad he did.
As far as making liquid metal, [Ben] used a cast iron pot with a convenient pour spout, and a blowtorch. He added graphite powder to the molds in an effort to make them give up the goods more easily. To finish the pieces, [Ben] cut the flashing with tin snips and used sandpaper and a Dremel to smooth the edges. Copper plating didn’t work out, but [Ben] is going to try it again because he thinks he screwed something up in the process. He’s also going to try printing with TPU, which we were just about to recommend for its flexibility.
There are many ways to cast metal on the (relatively) cheap.
Have you considered Kinetic Sand? | 21 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447619",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2022-03-17T19:27:48",
"content": "Another thought rather than printing TPU would be to print the positive and then make a mold from silicone.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6449146",
... | 1,760,372,756.650703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/remoticon-2021-arsenijs-tears-apart-your-laptop/ | Remoticon 2021 // Arsenijs Tears Apart Your Laptop | Dave Rowntree | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon",
"e-waste recycling",
"laptop",
"lcd display",
"re-use"
] | Hackaday’s own [Arsenijs Picugins] has been rather busy hacking old laptops apart and learning what can and cannot be easily reused, and presents for the 2021 Hackaday Remoticon, a heavily meme-loaded presentation with some very practical advice.
Full HD, IPS LCD display with touch support, reused with the help of a dedicated driver board
What parts inside a dead laptop are worth keeping? Aside from removable items like RAM stick and hard drives, the most obvious first target is the LCD panel. These are surprisingly easy to use, with driver boards available on the usual marketplaces, so long as you make sure to check the exact model number of your panel is supported.
Many components inside laptops are actually USB devices, things like touch screen controllers, webcams and the like are usually separate modules, which simply take power and USB. This makes sense, since laptops already have a fair amount of external USB connectivity, why not use it internally too? Other items are a bit trickier: trackpads seem to be either PS/2 or I
2
C and need a bit more hardware support. Digital microphones mostly talk I
2
S, which means some microcontroller coding.
Some items need a little more care, however, so maybe avoid older Dell batteries, with their ‘spicy pillow’ tendencies. As [Arsenijs] says, take them when they are ripe for the picking, but not
too
ripe. Batteries need a little care and feeding, make sure you’ve got some cell protection, if you pull raw cells! Charging electronics are always on the motherboard, so that’s something you’ll need to arrange yourself if you take a battery module, but it isn’t difficult, so long as you can find your way around
SMBus protocol
.
These batteries are too ripe. Leave them alone.
Older laptops were much more modular and some even designed for upgrade or modification, and this miniaturization-driven trend of shrinking everything — where a laptop now needs to be thin enough to shave with — is causing some manufacturers to move in a much more proprietary direction regarding hardware design.
This progression conflicts with our concerns of privacy, repairability and waste elimination, resulting in closed boxes filled with unrepairable, non-reusable black boxes. We think it’s time to take back some of the hardware, so three cheers to those taking upon themselves the task to reverse engineer and publish reusability information, and long may it be possible to continue. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447556",
"author": "Matthew Carlson",
"timestamp": "2022-03-17T17:08:47",
"content": "We had lots of laptop device prototypes at my last employer and we’d swap out the batteries once they (inevitably) pillowed up. The joke was that we finally made a curved display laptop.",
"pa... | 1,760,372,756.552805 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/doubled-up-3d-printer-upgrade-doubles-the-fun/ | Doubled Up 3D Printer Upgrade Doubles The Fun | Dave Rowntree | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"dual extrusion",
"klipper"
] | [Nathan] from
Nathan Builds Robots
on YouTube is no stranger to modding 3D printers, whether it’s a good idea or not, it’s just fun to find out sometimes. His latest escapade he calls the
Double Ender
(video, embedded below), where he not only doubles up the hotend, but the doubles up a few other bits too. The aim was to achieve dual material printing, with his specific goal to combine plain nylon and carbon fiber-loaded nylon in the same print, to get the best properties of both materials.
Perfects results on the first try!
Taking a stock Ender 3 v2, [Nathan] first installs a dual Z axis kit, doubling up the Z axis screw and associated stepper motors. Likely this was needed to compensate for the additional weight of subsequent mods. Since the stock Ender mainboard has only one Z axis port, the less obvious solution was to just install a second mainboard! By leveraging the immense hackability of the
Klipper printer firmware/software stack
,he was able to get this weird configuration to work.
Next the main part of the build; the Phaetus Tai Chi dual hot end installation. For some reason, initially, it was decided to combine the stock bowden injector/extruder with a direct drive second unit, which we guess keeps the reciprocating weight down a bit and does let you directly compare bowden and direct drive print results on the same machine. Anyway, the first dual material prints came out pretty good after a few (quickly glossed over) fails, and did work well enough that dual-nylon printing could now be an option. After switching the build to a dual direct-drive setup, [Nathan] found it easier to get the machine to switch filaments more reliably, which makes sense when you think about the impact of all that extra filament in the bowden tube.
[Nathan] clearly has been burned (haven’t we all?) possibly literally, by the curious habit of some Chinese suppliers, of randomly assigning power supply polarity to red/black wire pairs. The solution, somewhat belt-and-braces, was to simply make up custom power cables with an embedded rectifier. Well, we guess that’s one less thing to worry about, but do look away when those PSU hacks are being shown!
Multi-material or multi-color FDM printer options are plenty, here’s a cool way of using a
servo to swing a pair of hotends to the same point
, and we also saw a while back, a way of using a
sprung-loaded rocker
to flip the unused hotend up out the way when not needed.
Thanks [Zane] for the tip! | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447525",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2022-03-17T16:00:57",
"content": "Rather disappointingly that QR code isn’t anything sensitive.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6447559",
"author": "Will",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,372,757.23842 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/owning-a-shortwave-radio-is-once-again-a-subversive-activity/ | Owning A ShortWave Radio Is Once Again A Subversive Activity | Jenny List | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"News",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"HF",
"radio",
"radio receiver",
"shortwave"
] | An abiding memory for a teen fascinated by electronics and radio in the 1970s and 1980s is the proliferation of propaganda stations that covered the shortwave spectrum. Some of them were slightly surreal such as Albania’s Radio Tirana which would proudly inform 1980s Western Europe that every village in the country now possessed a telephone, but most stations were the more mainstream ideological gladiating of Voice of America and Radio Moscow.
It’s a long-gone era as the Cold War is a distant memory and citizens East and West get their info from the Internet, but perhaps there’s an echo of those times following the invasion of the Ukraine. With most external news agencies thrown out of Russia and their websites blocked, international broadcasters
are launching new shortwave services
to get the news through. Owning a shortwave radio in Russia may once again be a subversive activity. Let’s build one!
Whatever Happened To The Portable Radio?
A typical small world band radio. Donald Trung Quoc Don (Chữ Hán: 徵國單)
CC BY-SA 4.0 International
.
There was a time when everyone had a radio, and radio listening was a universal occupation. From 1930s families clustered round an ornate family radio to the teenagers of the 1960s and 1970s with their portables, it’s a defining 20th century image. Though many of us still listen to radio here in 2022 the chances are that we no longer do so over AM and certainly not over shortwave. We can get instant access to almost any content online, so it’s by no means certain people will have a radio. If those shortwave transmissions are starting again, how can their intended audience pick them up? Perhaps it’s time to look at shortwave radios with a 2022 slant.
If you lack a shortwave radio and a dig around all your family’s junk hasn’t turned up a relic from decades past, then the simplest way to get one is of course to buy one. AliExpress is full of “world band” radios starting from somewhere under $20, and if you don’t mind waiting for shipping from China then it’s the path of least resistance.
But there’s the problem, international events are moving fast and there might not be the luxury of waiting three weeks, or even for that matter of being able to order one at all in a warzone. How can you make one? Yet again there’s an extremely simple option in the Silicon Labs series of one-chip radios. These provide
a high-performance shortwave receiver
with a minimum of external parts, and really are a miracle of integration. But yet again, in a warzone and in the middle of a chip shortage they just might not be an option. So how can you make a shortwave radio receiver using what parts might be at hand from available consumer electronics? We’ll first be taking a look at some possible avenues, and then introducing a few of the readily available building blocks.
Where Do You Start?
The best way to start is to look at the things that you might already have. Such electronic flotsam and jetsam as battery-powered AM radios, car radios, or even $10 RTL-SDR sticks. All of these can be modified or converted to receive the shortwave broadcast bands, often with readily available parts.
Probably the simplest method possible might be to directly modify an existing AM radio. I’m indebted to [Phil M6IPX] for passing me on
an instructables link for a method to do this
. It involves changing the resonant frequency of the ferrite rod antenna coil in the radio, and I’m guessing, relying on a harmonic of the local oscillator father than the fundamental to do the mixing. It doesn’t cover all the broadcast bands, but it might do at a pinch.
Block diagram of a receive converter
The next method lies in converting the shortwave signal from its original frequency to one that can be received by a radio you already have. Radio amateurs will be familiar with the receive converter, a device that mixes the signal from an antenna with a fixed frequency local oscillator to produce an intermediate frequency of their difference, and it should be relatively straightforward to use this technique.
An AM radio tunes in around 1 MHz and can be used with a converter to cover just one of the many shortwave broadcast bands. [Phil] again suggested a 16 MHz crystal oscillator module might be used with a mixer to tune the 15 MHz (19 m) broadcast band onto an AM radio, and a commonly available 4.433 MHz PAL colourburst crystal with
a simple transistor oscillator
might do the same for the 5 MHz (60 m) band. If I were making such a rough-and-ready converter for an AM radio, I’d try to find a car AM radio to serve as my IF, because these radios are well screened and have a handy co-axial antenna input.
My one-inch converter PCB
Meanwhile an RTL-SDR can be modified for shortwave reception by either modification or by using a converter.
The direct sampling hack
bypasses the onboard tuner chip to pipe signals directly to the SDR chip and can be performed by anyone with good SMD soldering skills, and for those unwilling to try it an alternative approach is to use a converter with a 50 MHz oscillator. A few years ago
I produced such a converter using a CMOS chip
as my entry in the Hackaday Square Inch competition, but
there are even simpler circuits to be found
.
Finally, perhaps the simplest usable shortwave radio is the direct conversion receiver. Its principle is similar to the receive converter in that the signal from the antenna is mixed with that from an oscillator to yield the difference between the two, and when the local oscillator is the same frequency as the desired station that difference can be fed to an audio amplifier and listened to. It requires three relatively simple circuits in oscillator, mixer, and audio amplifier, and while it doesn’t provide acceptable performance for music radio it’s fine for speech.
The Nitty Gritty: Parts And Circuits
Having fired everyone up about receive converters and direct conversion receivers, it’s time to take a look at those building blocks. How can you make them from the components you’ll find in electronic junk, without ready access to the global electronic parts supply chain?
Crystal oscillator modules on an old graphics card
A row of through-hole diodes on a PCB
The VALOR and MEC parts are Ethernet transformers
There are many ways to make oscillators and mixers, but for our purposes the components we are interested in are crystal oscillator modules for the local oscillator, wideband RF transformers for the RF coupling, and diodes as the mixer elements. Variable frequency oscillators are a little more tricky to build
but can be made from the most basic of components
, but if you have a signal generator or even
a Raspberry Pi with appropriate software
you can use them instead.
Crystal oscillators are ubiquitous on all sorts of PC expansion cards and other computer boards, and provide a logic-level squarewave on their output pin when provided with 5 V. Meanwhile any Fast Ethernet interface will contain an RF transformer, and small signal diodes can be found across multiple different types of electronics. Beyond these parts there may be a need for the normal discrete components such as transistors and passives, but yet again these can be scavenged from a wide variety of sources.
This is the basic made-from-junk diode ring mixer. It’s not perfect, but it works.
A diode ring mixer is a very straightforward circuit using a couple of RF transformers and four diodes. It works by using the diodes as switches operating at the local oscillator frequency to alternately pass and block the signal frequency. The result is the intermediate frequency (IF), which is the difference between the incoming signal and the local oscillator. It can be very easily made with an Ethernet transformer and four signal diodes using the circuit shown. With a 100 Mbit Ethernet transformer, it should have 100 MHz bandwidth. There are multiple ways in which this circuit can be used with a suitable oscillator as either a receive converter for an AM radio or as a direct conversion receiver.
For the converter, simply connect the output of a crystal oscillator module to the local oscillator pin and feed the output to an AM radio, while for a direct conversion use a variable oscillator and connect the output to a sensitive audio amplifier such as a microphone or phono amplifier. The coupling to the AM radio can either be direct to the antenna socket of a car radio, or via several turns of wire wrapped round the case of a portable AM radio. There is a problem with this circuit in that it has no filtering and thus picks up both both the sum and the difference of local oscillator and IF frequencies, but it should be good enough to pull in a shortwave broadcast.
These are not the only ways to make a working shortwave receiver — after all everything from a crystal set upwards can be coaxed into working — but we think they are probably the best ways to make one using the electronics likely to be at hand. Perhaps you have some ideas to add to the mix? Leave them in the comments! | 149 | 47 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447472",
"author": "Leon Heller",
"timestamp": "2022-03-17T14:09:38",
"content": "The numbers stations that were common on the HF bands during the cold war seem to have been resurrected, according to a couple of posts I’ve seen to the ham radio mailing lists.",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,372,757.132506 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/wireless-charging-for-border-patrol-drones/ | Wireless Charging For Border Patrol Drones | Al Williams | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"drone",
"uav",
"unmanned aerial vehicle",
"wireless charging"
] | It makes sense to use drones to patrol borders or perimeters. But there’s a problem. Drones have to carry batteries or fuel and mostly have a short operating time. A new paper from the University of Houston proposes a solution by recharging drones in flight using
a novel wireless charging mechanism
. What’s the cost?
Another paper explores the economics of the approach.
The system relies on electric lines running along a border wall feeding wireless power transfer devices that allow the drone to recharge in flight. This is akin, we think, to an electric train that takes power from the third rail except, in this case, the power rail is wireless. Also, the drone would still have batteries to enable it to go off the rail as needed.
The paper mentions that the source power could be from wind or solar, but that’s not necessarily important and it also requires a storage battery in the system that you could omit if using conventional power. In addition, you’d think batteries and solar panels might be targets for theft in remote areas.
The paper mentions that another alternative is to simply have charging towers along the wall where drones land to recharge. This is easier, we think, but it does put the drone out of full operation status while charging. On the other hand, cheap drones could work in shifts to cover an area, so it seems like that might be a better solution than charging while flying.
What do you think? How would you make a long-duration drone? Fuel cells? In-flight battery swapping from a refueling drone? Laser power? Maybe a magnetic battery swap system where the drone swoops over a charger to drop off and pick up a fresh battery? Let us know what you would try or — even better — what you have done.
We’ve seen a
drone pit stop robot
already.
Refueling drones
have been done, too. But it does seem like something better is possible. | 43 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447394",
"author": "millablomquist",
"timestamp": "2022-03-17T11:11:51",
"content": "Haven’t they proven microwave power can recharge a flying drone? Obviously targeting is difficult. Cree has a chipset of some sort IIRC.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,372,756.727719 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/17/an-old-typewriter-speaks-to-the-world/ | An Old Typewriter Speaks To The World | Jenny List | [
"classic hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"serial terminal",
"teleprinter",
"typewriter"
] | Typewriters are something which was once ubiquitous, yet which abruptly faded away and are now a rare sight. There was a period of a few years in which electric typewriters and computers existed side-by-side though, and it’s one of these which [Jonah Brüchert]
has experimented with connecting to a computer for use as a printer or terminal
.
The machine in question is a SIGMA SM 8200i typewriter, which is a rebadged version of the East German Erika S3004. It has an intriguing 26-pin connector on its side which provides access to a 1200 baud serial port. It uses its own character encoding dubbed “gdrascii”, for which there is
a Python library
that he could port to Rust. The result is a terminal in the old style, from the days when access to a computer was through a teletype rather than a screen. All that’s missing is a punched tape reader at its side!
We’ve featured a lot of typewriters here over the ears, but
this isn’t the first that has received a terminal conversion
. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447354",
"author": "Terry Jones",
"timestamp": "2022-03-17T08:52:51",
"content": "In 1982 I worked in engineering for an FM radio station. There was a new (back then) small mainframe computer and for the bosses office they connected his ibm typewriter to the computer to type out me... | 1,760,372,757.291276 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/a-clear-guide-for-a-low-profile-bespoke-keyboard/ | A Clear Guide For A Low-Profile Bespoke Keyboard | Matthew Carlson | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Kailh chocs",
"keyboard",
"keyboard guide",
"mechanical keyboard"
] | At the risk of stepping on our fantastic Keebin with Kristina series, a beautiful tutorial by [Ben Vallack] details how to
create a custom low-profile keyboard in great detail
.
We’ve covered
complete guides to building your own
and
projects making custom rubber dome keyboards
. In addition, several subreddits exist around custom keyboard builds and dozens of websites are dedicated to selling parts. So why add not add one more guide, especially on as well done as [Ben’s]?
[Ben] focuses on the high-level tooling and the methodology of laying out a keyboard and how it all comes together. It all starts with determining your specific hand shape and layout with
Ergopad.
With that shape taken care of, you can move onto
Ergogen
, which allows you to take the layout you have in mind and generate a KiCAD board layout that just needs to be routed. Flippable boards, various footprints for switches, and connecting up different microcontrollers are all supported.
Once you have your PCB in hand, [Ben] walks you through soldering the sockets on the back and setting up your board firmware in ZMK with Github Actions. It’s a slick guide with a nifty product at the end. Video after the break. | 10 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447371",
"author": "Daniel",
"timestamp": "2022-03-17T09:29:12",
"content": "Low-profile keyboards might look nice and save a few mm³, but they are a pain to type on.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6447408",
"author"... | 1,760,372,757.18009 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/opengl-in-500-lines-sort-of/ | OpenGL In 500 Lines (Sort Of…) | Al Williams | [
"Software Development",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"3d graphics",
"opengl"
] | How difficult is OpenGL? How difficult can it be if you can build a
basic renderer in 500 lines of code
? That’s what [Dmitry] did as part of a series of tiny applications. The renderer is part of a course and the line limit is to allow students to build their own rendering software. [Dmitry] feels that you can’t write efficient code for things like OpenGL without understanding how they work first.
For educational purposes, the system uses few external dependencies. Students get a class that can work with TGA format files and a way to set the color of one pixel. The rest of the renderer is up to the student guided by nine lessons ranging from Bresenham’s algorithm to ambient occlusion. One of the last lessons switches gears to OpenGL so you can see how it all applies.
As you might expect, if all you have is a call to set a pixel color, you have a lot of work in front of you. This probably isn’t for everyone, but if you’ve ever wanted to understand vertex shading, back-face culling, and tangent space normal mapping, this is the ticket. There is even work towards benchmarking different algorithms for things like line drawing, which is invaluable if you want to write efficient code.
We noticed [Dmitry] also did a 500-line ray tracer and why not? We’ve even seen that trick
pulled off mostly in Excel
. While the graphics stack is made to be educational, it makes us think of the
small hardware
that might be able to use an OpenGL stack. | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447296",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2022-03-17T05:35:52",
"content": "It looks good. However, he says“Note: It makes no sense just to look at my code, nor just to read this article with a cup of tea in hand. This article is designed for you to take up the keyboard and implem... | 1,760,372,757.400983 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/cheap-spot-welder-teardown/ | Cheap Spot Welder Teardown | Al Williams | [
"Reviews",
"Teardown"
] | [
"spot welder"
] | It used to be hard to dump enough electricity through two pieces of metal to meld them together. But a lithium-ion battery can do it. The question is, should it? [The Signal Path] takes
a cheap battery-based spot welder apart
to see what’s inside and tries to answer that question. You can see the teardown in the video below.
The cheap welder has some obvious safety problems so the first thing was to trim down some wires and also retinning some of the PCB traces to ensure they are the lowest possible resistance. Of course, the less resistance in the wiring, the more current is available for welding.
The welder did do a good job securing a metal strip to a battery. After a successful weld, the video shows how to measure the current using a clamp-style ammeter with an inrush function. The resulting pulse was 960 amps, although it immediately drops over the 50 millisecond pulse, but still impressive.
The safety issues were worrisome, but easy enough to deal with and we’d suggest you do the same examination if you buy one. Some commenters mentioned that their version of similar welders didn’t have the same problems, but it is worth the effort to check before you burn your shop down.
We have had our own concerns about
cheap spot welders
, before. This isn’t the first
piece of cheap gear
we’ve seen that bears a safety inspection before first use. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447185",
"author": "pbame",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T23:25:12",
"content": "Wonder if those similarly-sized battery-bank car starters could be turned into a spot welder? Safety is part of their design.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,372,757.342905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/tired-of-3d-printed-skirts-try-kisses/ | Tired Of 3D Printed Skirts? Try Kisses | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed skirt",
"3d printing"
] | One popular option when 3D printing is to have the printer draw a loop or two around the print before starting. This serves several purposes: it clears the print head for one thing. It also marks the area of the print bed in use and many people use it to adjust the leveling if necessary. However, the little scraps of plastic do add up. [Makers Mashup]
decided to try something different
and now uses what he dubs the landing strip and kisses method.
The landing strip turns out to be a piece of blue tape and the kiss in question is like the chocolate kind and does not involve pressing your lips against the nozzle. There’s a wizard that generates startup code for you that has the style of purge if you like.
Is it better? That’s probably a matter of opinion. You still get little drops of plastic to recycle or dispose of. If you use the skirt for other purposes, you might not find this as useful. But maybe it is just your cup of tea and it costs nothing to try — assuming you have a roll of blue tape hanging around.
You may not care about the bed-level aspect of a skirt if you have a really flat bed or really
good autolevelling
. If skirts hanging around your shop really bother you, maybe just
automate their disposal
. | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447140",
"author": "exploware",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T21:11:17",
"content": "The video seems to be taken offline.Any other link / source to be shared?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6447143",
"author": "Al William... | 1,760,372,757.512682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/spark-plug-and-plumbing-parts-bring-nitrogen-laser-under-control/ | Spark Plug And Plumbing Parts Bring Nitrogen Laser Under Control | Dan Maloney | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"high voltage",
"laser",
"spark gap",
"tea",
"thyristor",
"transversely excited atmospheric"
] | When it comes to high-speed, high-voltage switching, there are a wealth of components to choose from — MOSFETS, thyristors, IGBTs, and even vacuum tubes like thyratrons. But who needs all that expensive silicon (or glass) when all you need to build a high-voltage switch is some plumbing fixtures and a lathe?
At least that’s the approach that budget-minded laser experimenter [Les Wright] took with his latest
triggered spark gap build
. We’ve been watching his work for a while now, especially his
transversely excited atmospheric (TEA) lasers
. These are conceptually simple lasers that seem easy to build, at least compared to other lasers. But they do require a rapid pulse of high voltage across their long parallel electrodes to lase, and controlling the pulse is where this triggered spark gap shines.
The spark gap is made from brass plumbing fittings on either end of a short PVC coupler. [Les] used his lathe to put a thread into one of the caps to accept a spark plug, the center electrode of which pokes through a small hole in the metal cathode. To trigger the spark gap, [Les] built a trigger generator that outputs about 15,000 volts, which arcs from the spark plug electrode to the spark gap cathode in the low-pressure nitrogen environment. Little spark leads to big spark, big spark discharges a capacitor across the laser electrodes, and you’ve got a controlled single-shot laser. Check it out in the video below.
Honestly, the more we see of [Les]’ videos, the more we want to play with lasers and high voltage. From
DIY doorknob caps
to
blasting Bayer arrays off cheap CCD cameras
, there’s always something fun — and slightly dangerous — going on in [Les]’s lab. | 16 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447095",
"author": "Greg Garriss",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T19:18:14",
"content": "Back in the early 80s, I built a 1 megawatt Blumlein TEA laser for an undergrad Physics project. Basically a windowed acrylic box to contain the N2 and a couple of square feet of double sided PCB as ... | 1,760,372,757.449853 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/our-favorite-things-binary-search/ | Our Favorite Things: Binary Search | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Lifehacks",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"adc",
"algorithms",
"binary search",
"dac",
"math"
] | You might not think that it would be possible to have a favorite optimization algorithm, but I do. And if you’re well-versed in the mathematical art of hill climbing, you might be surprised that my choice doesn’t even involve taking any derivatives. That’s not to say that I don’t love
Newton’s method
, because I do, but it’s just not as widely applicable as the
good old binary search
. And this is definitely a tool you should have in your toolbox, too.
Those of you out there who slept through calculus class probably already have drooping eyelids, so I’ll give you a real-world binary search example. Suppose you’re cropping an image for publication on Hackaday. To find the best width for the particular image, you start off with a crop that’s too thin and one that’s too wide. Start with an initial guess that’s halfway between the edges. If this first guess is too wide, you split the difference again between the current guess and the thinnest width. Updated to this new guess, you split the differences again.
But let’s make this even more concrete: an image that’s 1200 pixels wide. It can’t get wider than 1200 or thinner than 0. So our first guess is 600. That’s too thin, so we guess 900 — halfway between 600 and the upper limit of 1200. That ends up too wide, so we next guess 750, halfway between 600 and 900. A couple more iterations get us to 675, then 638, and then finally 619. In this case, we got down to the pixel level pretty darn fast, and we’re done. In general, you can stop when you’re happy, or have reached any precision goal.
[Ed note: I messed up the math when writing this, which is silly. But also brought out the point that I usually round the 50% mark when doing the math in my head, and as long as you’re close, it’s good enough.]
What’s fantastic about binary search is how little it demands of you. Unlike fancier optimization methods, you don’t need any derivatives. Heck, you don’t even really need to evaluate the function any more precisely than “too little, too much”, and that’s really helpful for the kind of Goldilocks-y photograph cropping example above, but it’s also extremely useful in the digital world as well.
Comparators
make exactly these kinds of decisions in the analog voltage world, and you’ve probably noticed the word “binary” in binary search. But binary search isn’t just useful inside silicon.
Why Can’t I Beat It?
That example of cropping photographs above was no joke. I follow that exact procedure multiple times per day. Or at least I try to. When I’m carrying out a binary search like this in my head, it’s incredibly hard to discipline myself to cut the search space strictly
in half
each time. But I probably should.
My son and I were
calibrating a turtle bot
a few weeks back. Basically, we needed to figure out the magic PWM percentage that made two different DC motors spin at the same speed. This would have been a perfect application of binary search: it turned either slightly to the left or the right, and we had good bounding PWM values for each case. But we kept saying, “it’s only going a little to the left” and bumping the PWM up by tiny increments each time. After repeating this five times, it was clear to me that we should have been using a binary search.
To see why you probably shouldn’t cheat on your binary searches, imagine that you don’t
know
anything more than that the goal is between the top and bottom values, but you’ve got this
hunch
that it’s closer to the bottom. So instead of picking the midpoint, you pick 10%. If you’re right, your next guess is going to be inside range that’s 10% of the current range, which is awesome, but if the target is even just a little bit bigger than 10%, you’re looking at a huge search space next round. Nine times bigger, to be exact. And the more uncertain you are about where the truth lies, the more likely you are to make a bad guess because there’s more space on the side that you’re betting against.
The choice of the midpoint isn’t arbitrary, and the above intuition can be given mathematical rigor (mortis) to prove that the midpoint is optimal when you don’t have extra information, but at the same time it’s incredibly hard for us humans to resist gambling. Take my son with the PWMs — he
knew
he was really close. But what he didn’t know was
how close
. Humans fixate on the current value. We “
anchor
“, in the terms of negotiations.
Part of why I love binary search is that this discipline helps beat down this human decision bias. But the other reason I love binary search is how readily it’s implemented in silicon.
Not Just a Lifehack
Those of you of a more software bent probably already have a deep love for binary search trees, but I’m a hardware guy. The analog to digital converters (ADCs) in my favorite microcontrollers all use binary search under the hood. They start out with the premise that the voltage they’re digitizing is between
GND
and
VCC
.
Internally, the input voltage is stored on a sample-and-hold capacitor that’s connected to a comparator. The other input to the comparator takes the output of, ironically, a digital to analog converter (DAC). This DAC starts out with the midpoint voltage,
VCC/2
, and the comparator says whether the input is higher or lower.
With a 10-bit DAC, you can do this ten times, and that gives you a ten-bit ADC result. The coolest part is that the binary value on the ADC just falls out of the process. The first choice is the most-significant bit, and so on. If you’d like to see the circuitry in action, check out [Mitsuru Yamada]’s
IC-based demonstrator
. For more on ADCs in general,
watch Bil Herd’s video
.
Twenty Questions is Too Many
That’s why binary search is one of my favorite things. It’s a tool-slash-algorithm that I use multiple times per day, and it’s what underlies ADCs. Each step gets you essentially an extra bit worth of resolution, so in many real-world situations, you’re not likely to take more than 12 steps or so. Pick a number between 0 and 1,000 and I’ll guess it in ten tries.
As my photo-cropping example shows, you don’t even need to have a computable objective function, just the ability to say “bigger” or “smaller”. And where you do have an objective function, the computation burden is exceptionally light.
Of course there’s a time and a place for more complicated optimization routines — there are entire branches of science based on refining that particular mousetrap — but you’re not running simulated annealing in your head, or implementing it in raw silicon. The beauty of the binary search is that it’s also the simplest algorithm that could possibly work, and it works marvelously well for simple problems. Solving simple problems simply makes me smile. | 34 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447045",
"author": "bry",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T17:40:04",
"content": "Recently there was a post on Hackaday which linked to some documents describing (among other things) how to optimize binary search. Specifically it describes how to adjust binary search to go faster on modern... | 1,760,372,757.585981 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/eight-rs232-ports-one-ethernet-port/ | Eight RS232 Ports, One Ethernet Port | Jenny List | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"ethernet",
"serial",
"Teensy 4.1"
] | When it comes to impromptu enclosures, [Paul Wallace] is a man after our own hearts, for his serial-to-Ethernet converters allowing him to control older test equipment were housed in takeaway curry containers. Once the test equipment pile had grown it became obvious that a pile of curry containers was a bit unwieldy, even if the curry had been enjoyable, so he set about creating
an all-in-one multiway serial to Ethernet box
.
Reminiscent of the serial terminal access controllers that were found in dumb terminal sites back in the day, it’s a box with eight DB-9 connectors for serial ports and a single RJ45 Ethernet port. Inside is a Teensy 4.1 which packs a PHY and eight hardware serial ports, and a pile of MAX232 level converter modules. These have a small modification to wire in the CTS and RTS lines, and the whole is clothed in a custom 3D printed case.
The result is a very neat, almost commercial standard box that should save him quite a bit of space. Not everyone has eight devices to drive, so if you have just one
how about using an ESP8266
? | 57 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6447006",
"author": "raster",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T16:17:24",
"content": "Don’t search that title in Youtube… You are warned 😝😝😝",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6447084",
"author": "Leandro Sehnem Heck",
... | 1,760,372,757.672897 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/linux-fu-simple-pipes/ | Linux Fu: Simple Pipes | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"interprocess communication",
"ipc",
"linux",
"pipes",
"popen"
] | In the old days, you had a computer and it did one thing at a time. Literally. You would load your cards or punch tape or whatever and push a button. The computer would read your program, execute it, and spit out the results. Then it would go back to sleep until you fed it some more input.
The problem is computers — especially then — were expensive. And for a typical program, the computer is spending a lot of time waiting for things like the next punched card to show up or the magnetic tape to get to the right position. In those cases, the computer was figuratively tapping its foot waiting for the next event.
Someone smart realized that the computer could be working on something else while it was waiting, so you should feed more than one program in at a time. When program A is waiting for some I/O operation, program B could make some progress. Of course, if program A didn’t do any I/O then program B starved, so we invented preemptive multitasking. In that scheme, program A runs until it can’t run anymore or until a preset time limit occurs, whichever comes first. If time expires, the program is forced to sleep a bit so program B (and other programs) get their turn. This is how virtually all modern computers outside of tiny embedded systems work.
But there is a difference. Most computers now have multiple CPUs and special ways to quickly switch tasks. The desktop I’m writing this on has 12 CPUs and each one can act like two CPUs. So the computer can run up to 12 programs at one time and have 12 more that can replace any of the active 12 very quickly. Of course, the operating system can also flip programs on and off that stack of 24, so you can run a lot more than that, but the switch between the main 12 and the backup 12 is extremely fast.
So the case is stronger than ever for writing your solution using more than one program. There are a lot of benefits. For example, I once took over a program that did a lot of calculations and then spent hours printing out results. I spun off the printing to separate jobs on different printers and cut like 80% of the run time — which was nearly a day when I got started. But even outside of performance, process isolation is like the ultimate encapsulation. Things you do in program A shouldn’t be able to affect program B. Just like we isolate code in modules and objects, we can go further and isolate them in processes.
Doubled-Edged Sword
But that’s also a problem. Presumably, if you want to have two programs cooperate, they need to affect each other in some way. You could just use a file to talk between them but that’s notoriously inefficient. So operating systems like Linux provide IPC — interprocess communications. Just like you make some parts of an object public, you can expose certain things in your program to other programs.
The most fundamental way to do this is with the
fork
call. When you fork a new process, the new process is a total copy of its parent. You don’t always realize this because the next thing you often do is call something like
exec
to load a new program or you use a wrapper-like system that calls
fork
and
exec
for you. But each time you run, say,
ls
at the command prompt, your running
ls
program starts life as a total copy of the shell. That copy then loads the
ls
executable and runs it.
But what if it didn’t? That was how my report writer worked. The big math, which took hours on a Sequent computer with a lot of CPUs, took place in one process. When it was time to print, I forked off a bunch of subprocesses. Each one had a total copy of the data which I then treated as read-only and started printing. That’s one way to communicate between processes.
Another way is pipes. Imagine a command line like:
cat data.txt | sort | more
Here, you are creating three processes. One dumps data from a text file. It sends that data to a pipe that is connected to the
sort
program. It outputs to another pipe that is connected to the
more
program.
One Way
Pipes like that are one-way affairs, but you can create named pipes and talk over them in both directions. You can do both of these in the shell —
mknod
makes a named pipe — but you can also do both of them in a program. (
popen
is very easy to use for regular pipes and there is a
mknod
API call, too.)
There are several other methods you can use to talk across processes:
Message queues – A way to send messages to another process asynchronously
Semaphores – A way to share a counter with another program
Shared memory – Share a block of memory
Signal – You can send signals to other processes which can be used as a form of communication
You might wonder why you need anything beyond shared memory. Honestly, you don’t, but it is easier in many cases to use a different method. The problem is you need some way to have an atomic operation and things like semaphores manage that for you. Imagine if we had a variable in shared memory called
busy
. If
busy
is 1, then we know we shouldn’t change data in our shared memory because someone is using it.
We might write:
while (busy) ; // wait for busy==0
busy=1;
do_stuff();
busy=0;
Looks great, right? No. Somewhere in the CPU that while loop looks like this:
while_loop2384: TST busy ; set flags on busy
JNZ while_loop2384 ; if no zero flag, jump
MOV busy,#1 ; move 1 to busy
Most of the time this will work fine. Most of the time. But what happens if I do the
TST
instruction and then I get put to sleep so another program can run the same code? Or another CPU is running the exact same code at the exact same time? It can happen. So both programs will now see that
busy
is zero. Then they will both set
busy
to 1 and continue on. That’s a fail.
Semaphores manage this through an atomic access mechanism that allows the program to test and set the operation in one place. There is more to worry about, like what happens if I’m waiting for process B to release a semaphore and process B is waiting for me to release a different one. But that situation — deadlock –is a topic for the future, along with other hiddle gotchas like priority inversion.
In the Pipeline
I have a bit of a made up problem. On Linux, if I type
df
I can find out all the mounted things and their characteristics. But that list includes things like the root directory and swap file. What if you wanted to just read the loop devices and show the same format output? There are plenty of ways to do that, of course. You could read the loop files out /etc/mtab and then read the other data from /sys or wherever else it resides. Sounds like a lot of work.
Of course, running
df
gets us almost there. In fact, I could just run a pipeline in the shell to get what I want, sort of:
df | grep '^/dev/loop'
That works but the output is scrambled. On my system /dev/loop3 is first and /dev/loop0 is last and there’s no clear reason why number 4 is between 8 and 14. So I want to sort it. Piping through sort doesn’t help much because it is going to sort alphabetically. You might think about the -n flag to
sort
, but that won’t work because the number is at the end of the string. Sure, I could use some strange combo of
cut
or
sed
to maybe fix all this, but it is getting too complicated. Let’s just write C code.
The first step is to get
df
to just print everything and capture the output. Since we want to process the output we need to read a pipe, and
popen()
is an easy way to set this up:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
// This part reads the output of DF into the lines array (with some modifications)
FILE * result = popen("df", "r"), * sort;
int i;
if (!result) {
perror("Can't open df");
return 1;
}
while (!feof(result)) {
int c = getc(result);
if (c != EOF) putchar(c);
}
pclose(result);
return 0;
}
Half Solved
That’s half the problem solved. If you have the characters, you could do all the sorting and filtering you want, but… wait a minute! I’m still lazy. So let’s ask the shell to help us out. Here’s my plan. I know I only want lines that start with /dev/loop so let’s do this:
Read a whole line at one time
If it isn’t a /dev/loop line throw it out
If it is a /dev/loop line then save it in an array but chop off the /dev/loop part
After we have all the lines ask the shell to sort and then add the /dev/loop back in after sorting
Easy enough:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
char buffer[4097];
char * lines[512];
unsigned int maxline = 0;
int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
// This part reads the output of DF into the lines array (with some modifications)
FILE * result = popen("df", "r"), * sort;
int i;
if (!result) {
perror("Can't open df");
return 1;
}
while (!feof(result)) {
// get a line from df
char * rc = fgets(buffer, sizeof(buffer), result);
// only save lines that start with /dev/loop
if (rc &amp;&amp; !strncmp(buffer, "/dev/loop", 9)) {
// out of space
if (maxline >= sizeof(lines) / sizeof(char * )) {
fprintf(stderr, "Too many loops\n");
return 2;
}
lines[maxline++] = strdup(buffer + 9); // copy just the number part and the rest of the line
// should check lines[maxline[1] for null here
}
}
pclose(result);
// Now we are going to print through sort
// The sed replaces the /dev/loop at the front of the line after sorting
sort = popen("sort -n | sed 's/^/\\/dev\\/loop/'", "w");
if (!sort) {
perror("Can't open sort");
return 3;
}
// for each line, send to pipe (note order didn't really matter here ;-)
for (i = 0; i < maxline; i++)
fputs(lines[i], sort);
pclose(sort);
return 0;
}
And there you have it. Yeah, you could do this with the shell alone but it would be a lot more difficult unless you resort to another programming language like awk and then you really aren’t just using a shell. Besides, this makes a nice example and there are lots of things you could do like this that would be very hard to do otherwise.
You might wonder if you could spin off something like
sort
and both feed it input and read its output. The answer is yes, but not with
popen()
. The
popen()
call is just a handy wrapper around
pipe
and
fork
. If you wanted to do both ends you would have to use the
pipe()
call directly (twice) and then execute
sort
or whatever. But that’s a topic for the future.
There are plenty of other future topics for interprocess communications, too. But for now, try out pipes using
popen
.
Critical sections
come up in shell scripts, too. If you prefer to write your
scripts in C
, that’s possible, too. | 15 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446971",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T14:38:42",
"content": "Just a note: you can use pipe() then fork() and finally an exec*() if you need the flexibility of using one of the many different exec*() functions. This also provides you with the opportunity to set up t... | 1,760,372,757.899703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/layer-line-removal-putty-reviewed/ | Layer Line Removal Putty Reviewed | Al Williams | [
"Reviews"
] | [
"finishing",
"layer lines",
"resin",
"sanding"
] | [Teaching Tech] is not alone in hating layer lines in 3D prints and also hates sanding. He recently tried
Incredafill
putty, a UV-curable putty that you can use to cover up lines in prints. Once covered and cured, you sand the putty smooth. You can see what he thought of the product in the video below.
As many people suggested in the video comments, you can pull the same trick with UV resin thickened with some other substance. We’ve even covered using
diluted resin
to get a similar effect. The putty has more of the appearance of hair cream or some kind of ointment, so it was easy to spread around with a gloved finger. A brush also worked. UV curing was done by a small flashlight or the handy sun. However, you’ll see later that he used a UV curing station and that works well if you have one.
Of course, even after applying the putty, you still have to sand. We are assuming the sanding is easier than trying to sand the actual layer lines smooth. On the other hand, the resin dust is probably pretty toxic, so there is a trade-off involved.
The results did look good. Of course, since there was still sanding involved, how good it looks will depend on your sanding tools, your technique, and — perhaps most importantly — your patience. Sanding can do a lot for
3D prints
. We might not trust it completely with resin dust, but you could get rid of at least some of the dust with a
downdraft table
. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446907",
"author": "MB",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T11:19:04",
"content": "If you don’t want to invest in a downdraft table, there’s always wet sanding.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6447011",
"author": "metalman",
"tim... | 1,760,372,757.971496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/16/the-nine-dollar-laser-bed/ | The Nine Dollar Laser Bed | Jenny List | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"grill",
"laser cutter",
"laser cutter bed"
] | A laser cutter bed has to be robust, fireproof, and capable of adequately supporting whatever piece of work is being done on the machine. For that reason they are typically a metal honeycomb, and can be surprisingly expensive. [David Tucker] has built a MultiBot CNC machine and is using it with a laser head, and his solution to the problem of a laser bed is
to turn towards the kitchen ware store
.
The answer lay in an Expert Grill Jerky Rack, a wire grille with a baking tray underneath it. Perfect lasering support but for its shininess, so it was painted matte back to reduce reflections and a handy set of clips were 3D printed to secure the grille to the tray.
We like this solution as it’s both effective and cheap, though we can’t help a little worry at the prospect of any laser cutter without adequate enclosure for safety. Having been involved in the unenviable task of cleaning an encrusted hackerspace laser cutter bed, we also like the idea that it could be disposed of and replaced without guilt. Do you have any tales of laser cutter bed cleaning, or have you found a cheap substitute of your own? Let us know in the comments! | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446867",
"author": "Chappy",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T08:44:40",
"content": "Is there any reason for not using more cheap Materials like Sand, Gypsum, Grog (clay)…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6488352",
"author": "... | 1,760,372,758.023375 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/rotary-phone-midi-controller-still-makes-calls/ | Rotary Phone MIDI Controller Still Makes Calls | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"midi",
"rotary dial",
"rotary phone"
] | [Kevin] has long wanted to do something musical with a vintage rotary phone and an Arduino, and has finally done so
and committed the first of several experiments to HTML in a five-part series
. He found a nice old British Telecom number, but it had been converted to plug and socket wiring to work on the modern system. Because of this, [Kevin] wanted to keep it completely functional as a phone. After all, it ought to work fine until 2025, when pulse dialing will no longer be supported in [Kevin]’s locality.
As you can likely understand, [Kevin] was keen to interface with the phone from the outside and leave the inside untouched. He used a sacrificial ADSL filter’s PCB to break out the socket, and added a pull-up resistor between the pin and 5 V.
Pretty quickly, [Kevin] figured out that when the phone is on the hook, it gives a constant high signal, where as the picking up the phone presents as a high signal going low, and dialing each number results in pulses of that quantity that alternate between high and low.
In part two of the series, [Kevin] really gets into decoding the pulse dialing, which is necessary for the third installment when things get musical. Here, [Kevin] adds in a MIDI module and a Roland MT-32 synth to use the dial as a MIDI note generator — each note dialed will sustain until the receiver is replaced on the hook.
Part four focuses on a MIDI patch changer. [Kevin] picks up the phone, dials a code up to three digits long, and hangs up, which this triggers the synth to change to the assigned voice. In part five, the phone becomes a random note sequencer, and each successive spin of the same digit will produce a different, randomly-chosen note. This is really just the beginning, however, so we’ll be checking back for updates. In the meantime, you can listen to the note generator and the random note sequencer demos after the break.
Wouldn’t you like to use a rotary dial all the time
? Well, as long as it wasn’t an emergency? | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446899",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T10:49:31",
"content": "Why don’t just use library which is available through Arduino IDE library manager?https://github.com/Harvie/RotaryDial/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,372,758.152317 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/in-2045-alpha-centauri/ | In 2045: Alpha Centauri | Al Williams | [
"Space"
] | [
"light sail",
"solar sail",
"space"
] | We’ve talked about project Breakthrough Starshot which aims to send a solar sail probe to Alpha Centauri within 20 years. A little basic math and knowing that Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light years away means you are going to need to travel over 20% of the speed of light to make the trip in that time. Some new papers have
proposed ways to address a few of the engineering problems
.
The basic idea is simple. A very small probe is attached to a very large sail. But calling it a solar sail is a bit of a misnomer. The motive power for the sail would be a powerful laser, which provides more reliable power to the tiny probe’s propulsion system. The problems? First, the thin sail could tear under constant pressure. The answer, according to
one of the papers
, is to shape the sail like a parachute so it can billow under pressure.
The other problem is not burning the sail up. Space is a hard environment to dump waste heat into since radiation is the only way to transfer it. Another paper suggests that
nanoscale patterns
on the sail will allow it to release waste heat into the interstellar environment.
The proposed sail is 3 meters wide and made of ultrathin sheets of aluminum oxide and molybdenum disulfide. The sail would carry a probe about the size of a common microchip. We’ve
looked at their plans before
, but the new papers are a sign that engineering is progressing on the design.
We imagine there will be more problems to solve, of course. But access to space is becoming easier, so it is entirely possible that real tests are in the near future. We aren’t sure, too, how a microchip-sized probe communicates back to Earth about what it finds. Reflecting the laser seems difficult and you can’t reverse course and travel back down the beam. For that matter, how much instrumentation can you pack into something that small that — presumably — gets power from the laser or the alien sun.
Then again, we applaud bold new ideas and we’d love to see something take a ride to another star in, at least, time for our kids to see it. There have been a few
practical uses
for sails already. Then, too, someone may have
sent one here
from somewhere else already. | 90 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446770",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T02:33:34",
"content": "I think a lot more interesting options are going to open up when we finally get a handle on fusion. I think we’re closer to that than launching this interstellar flight.",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,372,758.373077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/mustool-scopemeter-review-and-teardown/ | Mustool Scopemeter Review And Teardown | Al Williams | [
"Reviews",
"Teardown"
] | [
"multimeter",
"mustool",
"review",
"scopemeter"
] | There was a time when calculators became so powerful it was hard to tell them from little computers. The same thing seems to be happening now with multimeters. They now often have large screens and basic oscilloscope functionality. The specs keep getting better. While early cheap scopemeters were often relatively low frequency, many are now claiming bandwidths that would have cost quite a bit a few decades ago. A case in point is the Mustool MDS8207 which [IMSAI Guy]
reviews
and does a teardown of in the videos you can see below. It claims a 40 MHz bandwidth with 200 megasamples per second on a single channel.
The only downside in the claimed specifications is that the sensitivity isn’t great given that the lowest setting is 500 mV per division. Then again for a meter that runs under $100, any scope function would seem to be a bonus. The meter does all the other things you expect a meter to do these days, such as reading voltage, frequency, capacitors, temperature, etc. The response time of the meter is relatively slow, but you can get used to that.
The scope portion uses the meter probes, so you won’t have a proper scope probe. At higher frequencies, the meter had a little trouble triggering, but it did give you an idea of the waveform. After 30 MHz or so the amplitude reading was also a little suspect.
Sometimes, though, seeing the basic shape of the waveform is all you need. It is a shame the meter portion isn’t a little faster because if you had a great $100 meter that also had a scope, that might be useful. But it wasn’t bad — it just seems like you can get a nicer meter for $100.
In the teardown video, you can see that there isn’t much inside and nothing surprising. The fuses, though, are soldered in and hard to get to, so you probably don’t want to blow the fuses.
The verdict? [IMSAI Guy] seemed to think the meter was OK. We’ve seen
better scopemeters
, for a little more. We’ve also seen
adequate meters for a lot less
. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446771",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2022-03-16T02:34:02",
"content": "inbuilt i2c (and other) decoding would be more useful for many..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6446962",
"author": "vib",
"timest... | 1,760,372,758.197326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/simple-arduino-build-lets-you-keep-an-eye-on-pi/ | Simple Arduino Build Lets You Keep An Eye On Pi | Tom Nardi | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"mathematics",
"Pi",
"seven segment LED"
] | Are you a math aficionado in need of a new desk toy? Then do we have the project for you. With nothing more than an Arduino and a seven-segment LED module,
[Cristiano Monteiro] has put together a little gadget
that will slowly work its way through the digits of Pi forever…or until you get bored of looking at it and decide to use the parts for something else.
On the hardware side, we really can’t overstate how simple this project is. A common four-digit LED display is connected up to an Arduino Nano, which is then plugged into the computer for power. [Cristiano] is using a breadboard here, but you could just as easily use four female-to-female jumpers to connect the two devices together. We suppose this would be a pretty good project for anyone who’s looking to get some practical experience with PCB design as well.
The real magic is in the software, which [Cristiano] has been kind enough to release under the MIT license. Calculating Pi on such a resource-constrained chip as the ATmega328P is far from ideal, but by porting over a C++ algorithm developed by [Xavier Gourdon] and [Pascal Sebah] for their paper
Computation of the n-th Decimal Digit of π with Low Memory
he was able to pull it off, albeit slowly.
Now if you’ve got slightly better hardware, say a pair of Xeon processors and 96 GB of RAM,
you could calculate Pi out to a few trillion digits for fun,
but it wouldn’t look as cool as this little guy blinking away. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446662",
"author": "Kevin",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T20:37:12",
"content": "Haha! This is great :)I tried to do something similar on my Arduino using some code I found off the Internet based on the same paper I think. I wanted to use the time to calculate each single digit as the... | 1,760,372,758.249533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/apocapi-now-is-a-cyberdeck-for-what-comes-after/ | ApocaPi Now Is A Cyberdeck For What Comes After | Kristina Panos | [
"Cyberdecks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"apocalypse",
"pelican case",
"Raspberry Pi 4"
] | The end of the world seems closer now than ever before, even in the 1980s. But you, dear Hackaday reader, will want more than just a bug-out bag full of C-rations and waterproof matches. You will need the technological version of a bug-out bag —
a mil-spec-esque cyberdeck
, which is exactly what [hammerandhandmi] is in the middle of perfecting.
That’s not some kind of fancy cake pan — it’s a Pelican 1170 case lined with conductive foil tape. You see, [hammerandhandmi] has various reasons not elaborated upon for doing this, including EMP protection. Inside is an 8 GB Raspberry Pi 4B donning a Pi Juice UPS HAT and sipping from a fancy power supply. The main charging source for the old Mac book battery is solar via a large panel that’s external to cyberdeck. A smaller, secondary panel lives inside for backup purposes. There’s also an MPPT charge controller for to support the different battery chemistries. [hammerandhandmi] chose the Pelican 1170 because they need to mount it to the back of an LC2 Alice rucksack frame. The 1170 is wider than the popular 1150, and is in fact almost the exact width of the LC2 frame.
The point of this build is to maintain power for the purpose of preserving knowledge — all that stuff we’ll need to rebuild humanity. There will be much information available up via FOSS offline browser Kiwix, plus an atlas, some military field manuals, a lot of survival info, all of the books Project Gutenberg has to offer, plus a handful of movies and a few game ROMs so [hammerandhandmi] can live out the rest of their days in what is hopefully some kind of solar punk utopia.
Provided there’s enough time to implement it all, [hammerandhandmi] plans to add an SDR with antenna hookup, GPS unit, 12 V port, a couple of SSDs, a powered USB hub, and maybe an RFID reader. But the coolest part is that they ultimately want to connect everything up to a HUD mounted in a ballistic helmet. See? The apocalypse could be awesome. It’s up to us!
We often see cyberdecks with mechanical keyboards,
like this cherry Pi number
. But the salvaged keeb from a 1989 Compaq laptop might be just as future-proof. | 17 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446632",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T19:05:13",
"content": "If you anticipate surviving an EMP event, I am not sure a GPS receiver is going to be helpful.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6446643",
"auth... | 1,760,372,758.426398 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/brighten-up-your-prints-with-this-nail-polish-approach/ | Brighten Up Your Prints With This Nail Polish Approach | Arya Voronova | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"3d prining",
"3d printer hacks",
"3d printing tips",
"acetone",
"nail polish",
"nailpolish",
"panel labels"
] | It’s not enough to 3D-print a part – there’s a myriad of things you can do from there! [FuzzyLogic] shows us his approach of
adding inlay labels, icons and text to a 3D print
, by extruding them into the print and filling the resulting cavity with nail polish! This makes for colorful and useful prints, as opposed to dull single-color parts we typically end up with.
The devil’s in the details, and [FuzzyLogic] has got the details down to a technique. Nail polish has to be diluted with acetone so that it flows well, and a particular combination of syringe and needle will be your friend here. Of course, don’t forget to factor surface tension in – even with well-diluted nail polish, you cannot make the grooves too thin. A bit more acetone on a q-tip helps in case of any happy little accidents, and a coat of clear acrylic spray paint seals the lettering firmly in place. The five-minute video tells you all about these things and a quite few more, like the basics of extruding text and icons in a typical CAD package, and has a bit of bonus footage to those watching until the end.
Adding markings to our prints is a lovely finishing touch! If you’re looking for more of that, here’s
a custom tool-changing printer with a pen attachment
making beautiful custom enclosures for the
Pocket Operator
. | 25 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446309",
"author": "mkomarinski",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T01:28:33",
"content": "I think this is the only thing I haven’t tried yet. I tried using resin but that’s messy and it will bleed into the PLA if you don’t dry it fast enough.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,372,760.613888 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/hackers-beware-shenzhen-is-closing/ | Hackers Beware: Shenzhen Is Closing | Arya Voronova | [
"News"
] | [
"china",
"epidemic",
"factory",
"infection",
"manufacturing",
"market",
"shenzhen",
"shipping",
"sourcing parts",
"supply chain",
"virus"
] | If you’re among those of us with immediate plans for a PCB or parts order from China, watch out –
Shenzhen just recently got put on a week-long lockdown
. Factories, non-essential stores and public places are closed, and people are required to spend time at home – for a city that makes hardware thrive, this sounds like a harsh restriction. Work moves to remote where possible, but some PCB fabs and component warehouses might not be at our service for at least a week.
It might be puzzling to hear that the amount of cases resulting in closures is as low as 121, for a city of 12.6 million people. The zero-tolerance policy towards COVID has been highly effective for the city, with regular testing, adhered-to masking requirements and vaccinations – which is how we’ve been free to order any kinds of boards and components we needed throughout the past two years. In fact, 121 cases in one day is an unprecedented number for Shenzhen, and given their track record and swift reaction, it is reasonable to expect the case count dropping back to the regular (under 10 cases per day) levels soon.
Not all manufacturing facilities are located in Shenzhen, either. Despite what certain headlines might have you believe, supply chain shortages aren’t a certainty from here. A lot of the usual suspects like PCBWay and JLCPCB are merely reporting
increased lead times
as they reallocate resources, and while
some projects are delayed for now
, a lot of fabs you’d use continue operating with minor delays at most.
SeeedStudio
has its operations impacted more severely, and your Aliexpress orders might get shipped a bit later than usual – but don’t go around calling this a
Chinese New Year
v2 just yet. For those who want to keep a closer eye on the situation and numbers,
the [Shenzhen Pages] Twitter account
provides from-the-ground updates on the situation.
Wondering how your supply chain might be affected? We’ve
talked about this way back in February 2020
, addressing then-warranted worries that Chinese New Year would grow into a longer disruption than planned due to COVID becoming into a factor to manage. If you’re yet to discover the significance of Shenzhen,
books have been written
on this marvellous city, where you can
build a successful hardware company in a week’s time.
We’ve even
had a meetup there once
!
Header image: Charlie fong,
CC BY-SA 4.0
. | 43 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446238",
"author": "Kevin Bates (@bateskecom)",
"timestamp": "2022-03-14T21:55:50",
"content": "A lot has been written about the chip shortage but the last few months my experiences and what I’ve picked up on social media is that things aren’t so bad any more. Seems you can find pa... | 1,760,372,760.304018 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/cheap-ghostbusters-toy-turned-convincing-prop/ | CheapGhostbustersToy Turned Convincing Prop | Tom Nardi | [
"LED Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"ghostbusters",
"hasbro",
"painting",
"pke meter",
"prop",
"replica",
"weathering"
] | As you might expect, the release of last year’s
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
has not only lead to renewed interest in the old 1980s toys and tie-in merchandise, but has spawned a whole new generation of blinking plastic gadgets to delight children of all ages. Of course, for folks like us, that means more hardware to hack on.
In a recent post to the official
Ghostbusters
YouTube channel,
professional prop maker [Ben Eadie] shows off some of the tricks of the trade
when he takes a $15 USD “PKE Meter” toy from Hasbro and turns it into a screen-quality prop. Even if you’re not looking to get an early start on your Halloween costume, the techniques demonstrated in this video could be easily adapted to other projects. For those whose next ideal home improvement is a fireman’s pole and an ectoplasmic laser-confinement grid, you might want to grab a couple of these toys while they’re still cheap for eventual conversion.
Uncovering the silver makes the piece look worn down.
The biggest takeaway from the video is probably the finishing techniques, as they could be used on any sort of realistic prop build. [Ben] starts by using a cabinet scraper to smooth out the lines on the plastic toy, and any holes are filled with the familiar baking soda and cyanoacrylate glue trick. Once the surfaces have been prepped, all the principle parts are sprayed with an adhesion promoter, followed by a coat of silver, and then the final black color.
This allows him to create a convincing “chipped paint” effect by strategically sanding or scraping through the top coat. Dabbing some toothpaste where you want the device to look worn down before spraying the final coat makes the process even faster, as it will prevent the top coat from sticking to the silver in the first place.
Unfortunately [Ben] doesn’t spend a whole lot of time explaining the electronics side of things, but it doesn’t look like there’s anything too complex going on. All the original gear is stripped, and it gets replaced with a microcontroller which we
believe
is an Adafruit ItsyBitsy nRF52840 Express. This is connected to two strings of tiny APA102 addressable LEDs which are run down the “wings” (we especially like the 3D printed lenses used to replace the original solid pips), and one that’s used to provide the iconic sine-wave display.
While the last
PKE meter build we saw did detect radiation
, we have to admit that in terms of looks, this one takes the top spot. Especially when you consider how cheap the thing was.
All you need now is a Proton Pack
, and you’ll be ready for Halloween. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446574",
"author": "Ben Eadie",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T17:01:48",
"content": "Wow, cool! Thanks for the coverage. I will be doing some electronics tutorials on my channel soon",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6446578",
"au... | 1,760,372,759.963747 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-with-the-really-tall-keycaps/ | Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Really Tall Keycaps | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"FR4 construction",
"keyboard layouts",
"Northstar Advantage",
"restoration",
"squishy",
"zine"
] | About a month ago, [Unexpected Maker] finished their TinyS3, an ESP32-S3 development board. Since the chip supports both true USB and Bluetooth, [
deʃhipu
] wondered how well it would work in a keyboard.
Thus,
the Vegemite Sandwich
was made, perhaps while [
deʃhipu
] was dreaming of traveling in a fried-out Kombi. But really, it was named so because [Unexpected Maker] hails from Australia.
This is [
deʃhipu]’s first time using switch sockets, which is (as far as we know) the only choice when it comes to hot-swappable Kailh chocs. We’ll be watching this one with hungry eyes.
Easing Into Alternate Layouts
Speaking of [
deʃhipu
], he said in
the Hackaday Discord
the other day that he was trying out [Nick Gravgaard]’s
qwerty-flip
, an often-arrived-at alternate layout that merely exchanges seven keys between the top row and the home row, leaving everything else rooted in the Qwertyville hills of your muscle memory. For [
deʃhipu
], the point was to minimize finger movement, and not necessarily to gain speed.
The idea behind qwerty-flip is to get the most common English letters — ETAOINSRHL — on the home row. I’ll spare you gif-related eyestrain: only N and L are missing, but if you want to get closer to ETAOINSRHL, [Nick] also created Spin and Twist variants, which each add either N or L to the home row, but not both.
Ultimately, after a few days of using qwerty-flip and getting relatively comfortable, [
deʃhipu
] decided the layout was not for him. For one thing, as with most non-Qwerty layouts, it screws up WASD. And really, it just wasn’t worth being slightly different from the standard.
An Index of Damn Fine Keyboards
[Tamas Dovenyi]’s always-excellent
Keyboard Builders’ Digest
led me to
Damn Fine Keyboards
, a PDF ‘zine that launched on the first anniversary of [Philipp]’s
Click Click Hack podcast
(German). So far, it largely features good-looking rectangles, but there are a few splits in there, too. Well-lit contributions to the ‘zine are welcome.
As a side note, I think people should have to declare the name and origin of their desk pads so that us plebs can have a hope of finding one on r/mechmarket some day. Same goes for the species of tiny potted cactus in your keyboard beauty shots. (Are we still doing that?)
New Keebs: Pico87 Makes the Case for FR4
Yes,
the Bolt Industries Pico87
is another Kickstarter keeb, but founder [Ian Dunn] released
the project files
the day the campaign went live. As you may have guessed, this baby is based on the Raspberry Pi Pico. This 87-key number is constructed completely from FR4 boards bolted together — one for the base, one for the electronics, and another for the aesthetics.
One of the pledge tiers is for a matching num pad which has its own Pico. Both keyboard and num pad are available as kits, or fully built. To add to the firmware alphabet soup, the Pico87 runs BMK, which is Bolt Industries’ custom firmware written in C++, but it’s also compatible with KMK, a mainstream CircuitPython-based firmware.
To me, the FR4 construction is interesting. It would sure collect a lot of cat hair, but would be a breeze to blow out with the compressor. I think the inclusion of a num pad is great, although I don’t understand the choice to exclude the far right column of keys that one expects to see on a num pad. To each their own.
The best part of this campaign is probably the variety of switch choices. There are seven types of Gaterons to choose from — blue, green and brown for the tactile clackers, and black, yellow, red, and white for team linear. If you want blues with green modifiers, additional switches will be available as add-ons.
The Centerfold: [SemperFarcisimus]’ Sweet Setup
Yep, this is a new section. I saw this setup on
r/ErgoMechKeyboards
and just had to pass it along. [SemperFarcisimus] is rocking a sweet open-source
Ploopy mouse
that channels the timeless look of saddle oxfords while showing a bit of attitude with that killer billiard trackball. If that desk pad looks familiar, you must be a fan of
The Shining
(1980).
Those wrist rests are miniature Purple mattresses that are available free at their physical stores, or for a reasonable price from
their website
. I recently got a two-pack of them myself, and while they’re a bit tall for the Kinesis Advantage and my stubby fingers, I will definitely use them with the dactyl when I get it operational. If only I could halve one in the z-direction. Any ideas for doing that?
Historical Clackers: Northstar Advantage Restoration
Look at the height of those friggin’ keycaps!
[SaratogaJerry] alerted me to
[Evan]’s loving restoration of a pair of Northstar Advantage computers
. These one-piece units have
Keytronic foam-and-foil keyboards
that are capacitive, and use chips that are practically unobtainium. But stay tuned.
The foam discs inside the keyboard had turned to dust over time. Fortunately, this same style keeb was used in the original Compaq portable and the Apple Lisa, so reproduction pads are out there.
So far, [Evan] has completely disassembled and cleaned two keyboards’ worth of pieces. Using a third, working Northstar, [Evan] and [Frank] were able to test the two freshly-washed keyboards. They used those awesome DIP-to-DIP ribbon cables to connect up an Arduino-based keyboard tester they designed.
The controller capacitively senses which key is being pressed, but it also uses two chips to scan the matrix. One of the keyboards had a bad controller chip, which [Evan] was able to replace. [Evan] and [Frank] also wrote code to simulate being the keyboard, so one could potentially make their own keyboard for the Northstar Advantage and bypass the whole foam disc problem. Be sure to check out
all the excellent pictures in the gallery
!
ICYMI: The Mouse-cropad
There are many ways of getting from zero to macropad, and this one involves a bit of clever reuse.
[Taylor] wanted to join the keyboard-making game, but was adamant about going the non-conventional route and
building something out of discarded tech
. As luck would have it, [Taylor] found a used and slightly broken gaming mouse with an impressive set of 12 thumb-driven macro buttons on the side.
After liberating the PCBs, it was mostly a matter of printing a suitable enclosure and wiring up keyswitches to the mouse button pads. [Taylor] simply used the original controller board and software to program their new 12-button macropad, with which he rode off toward the perpetual vaporwave sunset.
Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards?
Help me out by sending in a link or two
. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to
email me directly
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446171",
"author": "Jace",
"timestamp": "2022-03-14T18:52:25",
"content": "“[…] they’re a bit tall for the Kinesis Advantage […] If only I could halve one in the z-direction. Any ideas for doing that?”How about just putting a spacer under your keyboard instead?",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,372,760.724243 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/open-source-asics-hack-chat-with-matt-venn/ | Open Source ASICs Hack Chat With Matt Venn | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"Hack Chat"
] | Join us on Wednesday, March 16 at noon Pacific for the
Open Source ASICs Hack Chat
with
Matt Venn
!
When it comes to electronic designs, most of us are content to make (sometimes) useful circuits using chips that were designed by someone else. That’s the beauty of this game, really — a lot of the hard work has already been done for you in the form of microcontrollers, gates, memory, amps, and timers that are all well-characterized, cheap, and readily available. Well, maybe not that last one right now…
Supply chain issues notwithstanding, though, there’s plenty to be said for designing your own silicon. It’s not for everyone, of course, but if you need something custom, something that nobody else has ever dreamed up, then you really might want to consider rolling your own. Trouble is, most of us don’t really have the tools to design something as exquisitely complicated as a silicon chip, and we don’t exactly have access to a multi-billion dollar fab plant to spin up a couple when the whim strikes.
Or do we? As it turns out, we all do have access to the tools and technologies needed to turn our designs into silicon. We just need a little guidance, like that offered by Matt Venn and his
“Zero to ASIC” course
. You’ll no doubt recall that Matt made appearances at both the
2020
and the
2021
Remoticons to talk about his efforts, and his recent partial success with his application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Now’s your chance to ask Matt questions about the process, what the course is all about, and how you can make your silicon dreams come true.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, March 16 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. If time zones have you tied up, we have a
handy time zone converter
.
Reminder: this is the first Hack Chat this year after the time change in North America, so check carefully. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,760.224299 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/careful-cuts-lets-logger-last-a-year-on-a-coin-cell/ | Careful Cuts Lets Logger Last A Year On A Coin Cell | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"battery",
"clock",
"coin cell",
"datalogger",
"DS3231",
"efficiency",
"energy",
"microcontroller",
"power",
"rtc"
] | Coin cells are great for backup power for things like real-time clocks, or even for powering incredibly small mechanical devices like watches. But for something like a data logger, running on a standard microcontroller, most people would reach for a lithium cell of some sort.
Not so with this build, though, which squeezes every joule of energy from a coin cell
in order to run a data logger for a full year.
Won’t be needing that anymore.
Most of the design and engineering required to improve the efficiency of the data logger involve standard practices for low-power devices such as shutting off unnecessary components and putting the device to sleep when not actively running, but this build goes far beyond that. The Vcc pin on the RTC was clipped which disables some of its internal logic but still keeps its basic functionality intact.
All of the voltage regulators were removed or disabled in favor of custom circuitry that doesn’t waste as much energy. The status and power LEDs were removed where possible, and the entire data logger is equipped with custom energy-efficient code as well.
If you’re starting a low-power project, even one that isn’t a datalogger, it’s worth checking out this build to see just how far you can go if you’re willing to hack at a PCB with cutting tools and a soldering iron. As to why this data logger needed such a low power requirement, it turns out it’s part of a kit being used in classrooms and using a coin cell brought the price of the entire unit down tremendously. Even if you have lithium cells on hand, though,
it’s still worthwhile to check out the low power modes of your microcontroller
.
Thanks to [Adrian] for the tip! | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446068",
"author": "Joseph Eoff",
"timestamp": "2022-03-14T15:43:09",
"content": "The CR2032 cell mentioned in the project page is a lithium cell:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_cell#Type_designationCR2032:C= lithiumR = round (cylindrical)20 = 20 mm diameter32 = 3.2 mm thickne... | 1,760,372,760.081944 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/the-tasmanian-tigers-comeback-tour-powered-by-science/ | The Tasmanian Tiger’s Comeback Tour, Powered By Science | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"Australia",
"de-extinction",
"deextinction",
"extinct",
"extinction",
"gene technology",
"genetic",
"genetics",
"tasmania",
"tasmanian devil",
"tasmanian tiger"
] | Scientists estimate that approximately 900 species have gone extinct in the last five centuries alone, to say nothing of the thousands or millions that vanished from life in the billions of years before that.
Conventional wisdom states that once an animal has gone extinct, it’s gone forever. However, a team from the University of Melbourne hopes to change all that, with their new project
aiming to bring the Tasmanian Tiger back to life.
An Obscure Icon
“Benjamin” was the last known living thylacine, passing away at Hobart Zoo in 1936. Credit:
public domain
The Tasmanian Tiger, or thylacine as it is also known, was last seen in 1936, when a male named Benjamin passed away in captivity in Hobart Zoo. In the wild, it’s suspected that the species first began nearing extinction in most of its habitat around 2,000 years ago, with human factors and changes in climate
primarily cited as causal factors.
Wild examples of the carnivorous marsupial were last reported the Australian mainland in the 1830s. Habitat destruction, hunting, and disease finally conspired to wipe the thylacine from the wild on the island of Tasmania, with the last example killed by a farmer in 1930.
With its unique “long stripy dog” appearance, thylacines measured on the order of 180 cm long from nose to tail, and 58 cm high. Indeed, those stripes are what scored the animal the name “Tasmanian Tiger” even though it is in no way related to any kind of feline animal.
Sightings of thylacines are
still reported now and then
by eager enthusiasts, but none have ever been confirmed in the last 86 years of looking. Whether it’s the animal’s obscurity, it’s curious look, or simply the fact that people want what they can’t have, the thylacine continues to captivate the hearts and minds of wildlife enthusiasts in Australia and beyond.
A Candidate for De-Extinction
Farmer Will Batty killed the last known wild thylacine, pictured here, in 1930. Credit:
public domain
As loved as it is, there are other reasons that the thylacine is a prime candidate for de-extinction efforts. Thanks to a baby that was collected in the early 20th century, scientists were later able
to sequence the animal’s full genome.
It’s a significant achievement; having only a partial genome has frustrated many other de-extinction efforts like
the work to bring back the woolly mammoth.
Armed with this data and with the benefit of a $5 million donation, the University of Melbourne is establishing a lab for the explicit purpose of resurrecting the Tasmanian tiger and pursuing de-extinction and marsupial conservation research. The lap will be known as the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Lab, or TIGRR for short.
The lab’s overarching goal will be to resurrect the thylacine, but it will also pursue research into stem cell technology, as well as gene editing and the use of surrogates in order to push forward the field of de-extinction. The hope is that the lab’s work may help prevent some marsupial species from falling victim to extinction in the way the Tasmanian tiger did.
The Tasmanian devil is a potential candidate for surrogacy of a lab-developed thylacine embryo. This marsupial population faces its own challenges, particularly due to a contagious facial tumor disease. Credit:
JJ Harrison,
CC BY-SA 3.0
Initial efforts will investigate the possibility of using marsupial stem cells to create a viable thylacine embryo. This embryo would then be transplanted into a surrogate mother. Prime candidates for surrogacy are the dunnart or the Tasmanian devil, considered close enough to the thylacine to make a pregnancy viable.
Being a marsupial species, the thylacine has
several benefits
going for it when it comes to pregnancy. Once an embryo has been created and transferred to the uterus of a surrogate species, it will undergo gestation. However, unlike (placental) mammals, marsupial species tend to a have much shorter and less complex gestation, with the tiny young then transferring to the mother’s pouch for further development. This period of pouch life and suckling can readily be replaced with bottle feeding in the lab, further simplifying the early development of a young, newborn thylacine.
It all sounds simple on paper, and indeed, the team at the University of Melbourne have set a clear path forward for what they hope to achieve. However, it will take years of work to develop techniques in stem cell cultivation, embryo creation, and uteral implantation to actually get to the point of birthing a thylacine. Regardless, similar work has been done before in cloning
non-extinct animals
, so it’s not outside the realms of possibility.
Of course, cloning a thylacine from century-old genetic material is one thing, and establishing a thriving population is another. With only one genome to work with, a lack of genetic diversity could make starting a self-sustaining colony of thylacines difficult or impossible. There are few, if any, living marsupial relatives close enough to interbreed a thylacine with to kickstart a fresh population, sadly.
Regardless, the money is now there, and the scientists are on the job, so it could be a remarkably short period from now until we see the first thylacine born on Earth in a century. | 53 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446022",
"author": "warrenburstein",
"timestamp": "2022-03-14T14:20:53",
"content": "Drat, our timeline is still headed towards William Gibson’s Jackpot",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6446023",
"author": "Dustin Evans",
... | 1,760,372,760.180924 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/tech-in-plain-sight-tough-as-nails/ | Tech In Plain Sight: Tough As Nails | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"fasteners",
"nail",
"nails",
"woodworking"
] | When you think of machines you see around you every day, you probably think about your car, computer, or household appliances. However, the world is full of simple machines. One simple machine in particular, the inclined plane, shows up a lot. For example, think of the humble nail. If you are a woodworker or even a homeowner you probably have bags of them. They certainly are all around you if you are indoors and maybe even if you are outdoors right now. Nails have been the fastener of choice for a very long time and they are a form of a wedge which is a type of inclined plane.
What else can you say about nails? Turns out, there is a lot to know. Like other fasteners, there are nails for very specific purposes. There are even nails with two heads and — no kidding — nails with two points. Exactly what kind of nail you need depends on what you are doing and what’s important to you.
Terminology
Just about every nail has a head, a shank, and a point. You can probably guess where each of those terms mean. However, it is the details that matter. Some nails have very specific shapes for the head and the shank to work in particular applications.
There are many variations on each of these parts, though. Heads can be flat or cupped. There are countersink heads and textured heads known as checkered flatheads. As for the shanks, most nails are smooth, but some are twisted to prevent bending or have rings or barbs in them to grip the wood better. Even the point design is important. Blunt points are less likely to split wood. Diamond-shaped points are the most common and in some applications, the point is made longer than normal. Experienced carpenters may blunt a nail’s point a little by hitting it with a hammer to reduce the chance of splitting the wood.
Size is one place where the terminology isn’t as easy to figure out. In most of the world, nails go by a metric size. But not in the United States. Here, we use a system based on an obsolete English measure. Nails are sold in
“penny” sizes
that vary based on the type of nail to some degree. A 10 penny nail, for example, is 3 inches long, but the diameter of the shaft and head depend on the type of nail. Most of the rest of the world uses a length and diameter in millimeters.
You often see “10 penny” written as 10d, by the way, where the d stands for denarius, which was an old Roman coin like a penny. Odd, yes, and maybe that’s why everyone else went metric.
History
Nail from the 15th or 16th Century
As you might expect, nails are ancient technology. Even the ancient Romans used nails and even invented the claw hammer. From at least that time to the 1800s, people formed nails from iron or bronze by hand — apparently, the ancient Egyptians used wooden pegs instead. Blacksmiths made nails as did nailors. You start with a heated square iron rod and hammered the sides to form a point. After reheating and cutting off, you put the hot nail into a hole in an anvil to hold it and hammered out the head. The resulting nail has a decidedly square shank, unlike the typical round shank you’ll find today.
Nails were hard to produce and, thus, expensive. This was particularly true in far-flung areas like colonial America. There, people would sometimes burn down an abandoned house — even if they were the ones abandoning it — to recover the nails from the ashes. Large structures often didn’t use metal nails but used carefully fitted wooden parts secured with wooden pegs.
Because nails were valuable, families sometimes had the requisite equipment in their homes or farms. When they had time — often at night or in bad weather — they would produce nails for their own use or to trade with others. Apparently, even Thomas Jefferson was known to
make and sell nails
, sadly, using enslaved farm labor.
Of course, making a nail in the year 1033 was a lot different than in 1733. Some equipment — particularly slitting mills — made the production of nails easier, even though it was still labor-intensive.
However, throughout the 1700s, several people created machines to cut nails directly from iron sheets. These cut nails were cheaper, although wrought nails were still harder and used in things like horseshoes for quite some time. However, cut nails did push out wooden pegs in framing construction and there are still a few niche uses for them today.
In the 1800s, though, a new way of making nails started to become popular and it is used today for most nails you’ll encounter. Using the same process used to form wire, lengths of wire were cut and formed directly into nails. A blade cuts the point and a pressure process forms the head. In 1892, more steel-wire nails were produced in the U. S. than cut nails. By 1913, 90% of all nails were wire nails. Finally, nails were a cheap commodity item you wouldn’t burn a house down to recover.
Modern nail machines, like the one in the video below, can create a tremendous number of nails in a short period of time. No wonder nails are cheap.
As a side note, woodworking in ancient Asia used a fascinating but
nail-free technique
. That region had advanced metallurgy, of course, but they didn’t really need nails.
Common Nails
Actually, there is a specific type of nail known as a common nail, and it is, of course, what you commonly find. These nails have heavy smooth shanks and a wide head. The point is shaped like a diamond. These are great for many purposes. Framing nails are similar but have thinner shanks. Joist hanger nails use hard materials and have ridges along the shank to increase their holding power. Siding nails are also common and usually have thicker shanks for hammering through hardwood.
Nails with some rings on the shank.
Smaller nails are often known as brads or finishing nails. Both are usually very skinny both to be unobtrusive and to avoid splitting delicate material. Brads typically have a small head and finishing nails are beefier but have heads made to be unobtrusive. In some cases like model shipbuilding, small nails are little more than sharpened wire that you drive in with a nail driver.
Roofing nails tend to have very large heads to prevent roofing sheets from tearing. They also use materials that will be resistant to the weather. Some roofing nails also include a washer to help seal the roof against a leak at the nail hole.
Nails that are meant to go into softer materials like drywall tend to have a pattern of ridges or barbs on the shank or some other method to make the shank grip the material better. Weatherstripping nails have the same arrangement but are usually made of very weather-resistant material. You’ll also find ridges in nails meant to hold panels and some other types of nails.
These nails have twisted shanks
You’ll occasionally see nails with a twisted shank. This makes it harder to bend the nail and will cause the nail to thread into hardwood. Spiral shank nails and flooring nails have shanks like this as do some other specialty nails.
There are yet more specialty nails. Upholstery nails that have large decorative heads. Nails for shoes. Tacks that also have large heads, some for carpet. There are nails with T-shaped heads and nails optimized for concrete.
Then there are the strange nails. There are still places where cut nails are used for decorative or restoration reasons. Cut nails also find use in masonry where they are made out of very strong materials and have a tapered shank to help reduce spalling — that is, chipping away at the concrete surface.
A duplex nail with two heads
One of my favorite nails is the duplex nail that you use when you are building something temporary like a scaffold or a concrete form. The nail has a normal head but also another head a small distance down the shank. When you are building something you know you’ll take apart later, you hammer down to the lower head and the rest of the shank sticks out waiting for you to pull it out when the time to disassemble comes.
Materials and Coatings
Adding to the complexity of the humble nail is the material it is made from. There are hot-dipped galvanized nails and stainless steel nails. Some nails are made of materials like brass or copper. Some are coated with “cement” — meaning a glue — for holding power. Some nails even have a coating that melts from the hammering friction to glue into the wood.
Of course, steel isn’t just one material. Some nails are made of relatively mild steel and others use harder steel with higher carbon content. It all depends. Mild steel is fine for wood, but nails meant for concrete are likely to use stronger materials.
Or, Get Screwed
Of course, you could use
screws
instead of nails. When I was a kid, people didn’t like screws in wood because it was faster to hammer in a nail, but screwdrivers were slow. With power screwdrivers, this isn’t a big deal anymore, but I guess nail guns are even faster. The video below covers a lot of good information about screws versus nails.
There was a day when nails were a common part of circuit breadboard and you used a real bread board. Now, we are more likely to see them in a
very different context
. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446645",
"author": "X",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T19:42:17",
"content": "You’ll need a Hilti gun for those concrete nails.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6446650",
"author": "Lee Hart",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T19:55:15... | 1,760,372,760.674116 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/led-flower-bouquet-is-a-radiant-hacker-desk-decoration/ | LED Flower Bouquet Is A Radiant Hacker Desk Decoration | Arya Voronova | [
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"castellated pads",
"fake flowers",
"flowers",
"LED flowers",
"ws2812"
] | [Jeremy Cook] writes to us about a project of his –
a bouquet of LED cube flowers
. The flowers are PCB cubes made out of small castellated PCBs, each of those having an individually addressable LED in its center. Castellations hold the cubes together mechanically, and thanks to a cleverly chosen pinout, only two different kinds of PCB need to be ordered for building such a flower!
As a vase for these flowers, he decided to use a glass bottle – which would need a cutout to fit a ESP8266-powered NodeMCU board, a controller of choice for the project. After a few different approaches for cutting glass all resulted in the bottles cracking, he gave up on the “clean cut” idea and reused one of the broken bottles, gluing it back together well enough for the aesthetic to work.
[Jeremy] tells us that he’s had help from
a hack we covered back in 2017
– using a diode for level shifting, as the ESP8266’s 3.3 V level signals aren’t a good match for WS2812 inputs. From there, the WLED firmware for the ESP8266 ties everything together beautifully. It’s clear that [Jeremy] had a field day designing this, toying with all the ideas and approaches!
Colorful LEDs are a must-have for decorating hacker homes. From a bouquet of flowers, you might find yourself sketching a castellated PCB tile design, and next thing you know, you’ve
created a beautiful system of LED triangle tiles
. Some PCB fabs scoff at castellations, and if that’s the case, you
might as well finish the job yourself
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446529",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T15:34:55",
"content": "I find the glass cutting method, which uses a scored bottle, some boiling water poured carefully around the score line, then running a cold tap over the score line, works well. Some small chipouts occasional... | 1,760,372,760.004209 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/run-your-own-server-for-fun-and-zero-profit/ | Run Your Own Server For Fun (and Zero Profit) | Ryan Flowers | [
"Featured",
"hardware",
"how-to",
"Interest",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"apache",
"Cloudflare",
"dns",
"domain names",
"home server",
"linux",
"web hosting"
] | It seems there’s a service for everything, but sometimes you simply learn more by doing it yourself. If you haven’t enjoyed the somewhat anachronistic pleasures of running your own server and hosting your own darn website, well, today you’re in luck!
Yes, we’re going to take an old computer of some sort and turn it into a web server for hosting all of your projects at home. You could just as easily use a Raspberry Pi –even a Zero W would work — or really anything that’ll run Linux, but be aware that not all computing platforms are created equally as we’ll discuss shortly.
Yes, we’re going to roll our own in this article series. There are a lot of moving parts, so we’re going to have to cover a lot of material. Don’t worry- it’s not incredibly complicated. And you don’t
have
to do things the way we say. There’s flexibility at every turn, and you’re encouraged to forge your own path. That’s part of the fun!
Note: For the sake of space we’re going to skip over some of the most basic details such as installing Linux and focus on those that have the greatest impact on the project. This article gives a high level overview of what it takes to host your project website at home. It intentionally glosses over the deeper details and makes some necessary assumptions.
Self Hosting 101
We all know what a website is. You’re looking at one. How do you
build
a website? You likely have an idea. Some HTML is presented to the world by some kind of web server software. But how does the web server know which HTML files to display? And how do people get from a name that they can type in their browser to your web server? How are IP’s involved, and is this something that can be done using your home Internet connection?
First, let’s talk about a web server. It’s just a computer that has software for serving websites. The most common server software is called Apache, and it’s compatible with just about any kind of website you may want to run. It handles the task of associating website requests with the collection of files that make up a website.
A typical rack mount web server courtesy
Wikipedia
CC BY 2.5
To run Apache we need a computer and an OS. We’re going to grab an old laptop and install
Linux Mint
on it. Linux Mint is a descendant of Ubuntu, so most Ubuntu tutorials will work fine with it.
For hardware we’re using a Vista-era laptop with a 64 bit dual core AMD Turion processor, 2GB memory and an old 120GB hard disk. Yes, we really should spend a few bucks and switch it to SSD. But this is just a thrown together project for the fun of it, and there’s no need to spend money on a simple experiment. Of course you don’t have to use an old laptop. A desktop computer would work fine, or a small form factor- anything really.
If you’re like me and want the server squirreled away on a shelf, keep in mind that you will need a monitor and keyboard to diagnose it when there are problems. A laptop has the benefit of having monitor and keyboard built in! This can come in very handy when it’s offline and you can’t figure out why.
An important note about the computer you choose: It needs to have a supported OS. In the x86 world, this means a 64 bit processor. Most modern Linux distributions don’t support 32 bit processors well or even at all. Without a supported OS, your project will lack current software. This will limit features, but also security. You wouldn’t run Windows XP on the Internet, so don’t settle on ancient versions of Linux.
First Step: Connect To Internet
A server deserves a wired connection when possible, but wireless is fine too as long as it’s reliable. Our ancient laptop doesn’t have a Wi-Fi adapter, so it is hard wired to our ISP provided modem/router/phone thingy. We also recommend that you configure the laptop for a static IP address so that its IP on your network never changes. You can do this in the router, or you can do it in the Ethernet configuration in Linux.
Configuring The Server
Vents are on the left, and so it sits open on the right side next to the ISP supplied router
Next on our list is installing some basic tools for Linux such as the nano text editor for the command line and the
SSH (Secure Shell) server software
. SSH will allow you to connect to the server from another computer, and once SSH is installed, you can stuff the laptop on the shelf next to your router and forget about it. Don’t leave the laptop closed though- it needs ventilation, so at least leave the screen partially open. To save space, sit the laptop on its side with the vents facing up.
To log into the server you’ll need a terminal program. Most operating systems come with an SSH Terminal program such as Windows Terminal or the Terminal in Mac OS. I have been using
MobaXterm
on Windows for many years and I find it much more convenient. Some people prefer bare-bones SSH terminal programs such as
PuTTY
. Use what works for you, and get connected to your server by SSH’ing to its IP address.
Next, you’re going to need to install the
Apache web server software
. There are numerous tutorials online for doing this, but watch out: Many of them will have you do the basic install of Apache, MariaDB, and PHP, and then have you host your files in
/var/www/html
as the root user.
Do not do this!
You need to create what’s called an Apache Virtual Host and a new system user to associate it with.
Master Of Your Domain
Lastly, you need a domain name and a way to associate it with your Linux server. There are a large number of domain registrars to choose from, and you can get a .com domain name for under $10 USD/year. Common geek-approved registrars are
Cloudflare
or
Namecheap
.
These are not endorsements
, just a nudge in the right direction if you’ve never done this before. (Feel free to drop your reviews in the comments.)
To associate that domain to your server, you need the services of a Domain Name System (DNS) provider. DNS is what maps your domain name to an IP address through what’s called an address (A) record.
That’s one Dynamic IP you’ve got there, Mister
Many domain registrars provide free DNS services, but they aren’t optimized for hosting at home. Why not? If your server were sitting in a data center somewhere, it would be assigned a permanent IP address. But because you’re hosting it at home, the public IP of your network connection will change from time to time and your website will go offline until the IP is updated worldwide. You need a DNS provider that can detect the change and then update the A record of your domain accordingly.
There are many providers of such services and it’s even possible to make your own. But for simplicity, we are going to recommend running DNS at Cloudflare. Cloudflare provides a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for free that adds a layer between The World and your server. This is convenient because Cloudflare’s IP’s never change. When your server gets a new IP, it can communicate this to Cloudflare and they will route all traffic accordingly without having to update DNS around the world. This is a huge advantage. They also cache your website in their CDN so that when your website hits the front page of Hackaday, it can survive the onslaught of traffic!
Hiding your public IP from the world is another reason to use Cloudflare. The only IPs exposed to the world will be owned by Cloudflare, and they will forward web requests to your server while at the same time keeping the bad guys out. This gives another layer of protection to your home server and your home network in general. And the best part is that it’s completely free.
Their excellent documentation describes
how to set up dynamic DNS with their service
.
From Web Browser to Web Server And Back
Once you’ve got DNS and your web server configured, you need to tell your router at home to accept traffic on ports 80 and 443 (the ports for http and https traffic) and route them to your Linux Laptop. Some routers will let you set up a DMZ that will directly expose the entire server to the Internet, but this is not recommended or required. You’ll also want to configure the firewall on your server to accept traffic on port 80 and 443. And since we have 443 open, Let’s Encrypt our HTTP traffic, shall we?
Whether there is a technical advantage or not is debatable, but your website is going to need an SSL certificate. If nothing else, this will make your website more palatable to modern browsers who show warnings if there is no SSL certificate present. In the past, you’d need a static IP and to spend a good amount of money on the SSL Certificate. Neither of these things are the case now. The SSL Certificate can be provided by
Let’s Encrypt
, a free SSL/TLS certificate provider that uses software called
Certbot
to get the certificate and even configure Apache for you. Slick!
What else can you do?
What else can you do with your new home server? The possibilities are almost endless! Even if you have fast internet, you can put your new server to work to speed things up even more. Running your own resolving DNS server locally means that you can cache DNS lookups on your own network, which speeds up DNS resolution. This can give a snappier feel to your web browsing experience. You can also use the Pi-Hole software to block all advertisers so that your devices do not need a separate ad blocker.
A home server also makes an excellent data collection point for your IOT projects and gives you a playground for experimentation. There are many hackers running home built servers, and some of them have even gone so far as to make their server run solely on solar, such as
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/
Alternatives
We’ve outlined all of the moving pieces that you need. You should know though that just as there are countless ways to build any other project, there are a huge number of alternate routes you could take.
Instead of the Apache web server, you could use NGINX (pronounced ‘engine ex’). Instead of dynamic DNS, you could order a business class Internet connection with static IP’s. Instead of Linux, you could use BSD, Windows, MacOS, or any other number of Operating Systems. Instead of a laptop, you could use an old desktop, a Raspberry Pi of any flavor, a surplus rack mount server from your local Internet garage sale, or even an ESP8266 with a simple web server script on it.
Is that it?
Whatever you do, make sure to have fun with the project, and if you’ve never done such a thing, we recommend starting down the easiest road and working your way up to the more esoteric methods.
There remain many, many,
many
questions to be answered: What software should I use to create my project site? How deep down the rabbit hole should I go when it comes to documenting the project? What toppings do I want on my something-to-eat-while-hacking pizza? Stay tuned for the next installment, coming soon to a Hackaday near you! | 125 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446490",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T14:09:10",
"content": "Slackware still comes in a 32 bit version.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6446684",
"author": "Daniel Matthews",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,372,760.47031 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/doom-comes-to-the-rp2040/ | DOOMComes To The RP2040 | Matthew Carlson | [
"classic hacks",
"Games"
] | [
"doom",
"doom on raspberry pi",
"game port",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | To the point of being a joke, it seems like
DOOM
is adapted to run on everything these days. So it was only natural that we would
see it ported to the RP2040 by [Graham Sanderson]
, the tiny chip powering the Raspberry Pi Pico.
You might be thinking, what’s different about this port? There have been
55 articles
about
DOOM
here on Hackaday, showing it running on everything from
web checkboxes
to
desk phones
. The RP2040 has 256 K of RAM, two decently clocked processor cores, and 2 MB of flash, so it’s not the most constrained platform ever to have
DOOM
run it. But [Graham] also set some very lofty goals: all nine levels needed to be playable, faithful graphics and music, multiplayer, and it would output to VGA directly. It should play just like the original.
DOOM
has a demo that is stored as a sequence of input events. They form excellent regression tests as if the character gets stuck or doesn’t make it to the end; then you’re not accurate according to the original code.
There are two big problems right out the gate. First, a single level is larger than the 2 MB storage that the RP2040 has. And to drive the 320×200 display, you either need to spend a lot of your CPU budget racing the beam or allocate a vast amount of RAM to framebuffers, making level decompression much harder.
A default compression scheme wouldn’t cut it because it needed a high compression ratio and random access since decompressing into RAM wasn’t an option. However, carefully optimizing and compressing the different data structures yielded great results. Save game files are given a similar treatment to ensure they fit into the remaining flash after all the levels (34k).
The result is fantastic, and it supports
DOOM
,
Ultimate DOOM
, and
DOOM II
. The write-up goes into far more detail than we could here; enjoy the read. If you decide to make a day trip to the depths of Hell on your own Pi Pico, be sure to let us know in the comments.
Thanks to [Xark] on the
Hackaday Discord server
for the tip. | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446432",
"author": "steelman",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T11:09:25",
"content": "What is that DOS prompt when they exit the game?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6446445",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2022-... | 1,760,372,760.778477 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/15/a-sinclair-zx81-clone-still-has-the-power-to-fascinate/ | A Sinclair ZX81 Clone Still Has The Power To Fascinate | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"sinclair",
"zx80",
"zx81"
] | The golden age of 8-bit computing brought us pixelated graphics in bright colours, accompanied of course by chiptune music. This aesthetic is strong enough to define a collective image of a generation’s youth, even if the 1980s reality had much more of the tired 1970s leftovers about it. The truth was that not all popular 8-bit machines had colour, sound, or good graphics, and among these limited-capability machines was Sir Clive Sinclair’s ZX81. With a Z80, 1k of RAM, a membrane keyboard, and not much else, it helped set the stage for the hugely popular ZX Spectrum which followed it. The fun’s not over though, as [Augusto Baffa] demonstrates with
his modern recreation of a machine that can switch between the ’81 and its less-popular ZX80 predecessor
.
Rather than a Eurocard-sized mainboard and membrane keypad, this clone copies the ZX80 with a full-sized mainboard the front of which carries the keyboard contacts. It also eschews the ULA found in the ’81 for discrete TTL. It’s based upon the venerable
Grant Searle design for a homebuilt Sinclair computer
, and all of the files for this version can be found
in a GitHub repository
.
There is a lot to be said for the ZX81 as a model for retrocomputer experimentation, because of its extreme simplicity. It may have been no great shakes in the computing department compared to many of its competitors, but it remains possibly one of the easiest of the bunch whose operation to completely understand. Also we like it for that paltry 1k of memory, teaching kids about memory constraints is a good thing in our book.
We’ve featured the diminutive ZX more than once,
including a couple of years ago in our April Fools coverage
. | 26 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446395",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T08:26:24",
"content": "And you don’t even have to stand a carton of milk on it to keep it cool, what’s not to like",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6446451",
"author": "Peter... | 1,760,372,760.844918 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/pedal-powered-power/ | Pedal Powered Power | Matthew Carlson | [
"green hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"charger",
"generator",
"solar"
] | When you have a solar-powered web server, where do you go next for a source of power? Instead of lazily mooching off the sun, you can use
your muscle with a bike generator
. [Ed note: The site is run on an entirely solar-powered server, so if it’s the middle of the night, you might have a better web experience
here
.]
We’ve
covered bicycle generators before
, so what’s new? For starters, the accessibility of chargers and batteries has changed significantly. Rather than just charging a phone or putting out a measly 5V, this bike can be integrated into an existing solar PV system and output many voltages. This guide goes over building one with hand tools with great detail.
It starts with a 1950’s vintage exercise bicycle, no hacksaw required. A friction drive connects a generator and makes for an incredibly compact generator/exercise machine. Calculating the correct gear ratio is crucial to getting the 12 volts out at an average pedaling speed. You want your range of voltages to be between 5 and 24 volts. With the help of a control panel provides 5v, 12v, 14.4v, and 220v to power a variety of devices. Boost and buck converters output these voltages (depending on whether the voltage needs to be set for a maximum or a minimum). A potentiometer allows you to dial back the power draw of certain appliances (an electric kettle, for instance), making a workout a tad easier on the human component of the generator.
Another key takeaway from this guide is using a wind charge controller to charge batteries. A solar charge controller will just cut the circuit when the batteries are full. A wind charge controller will increase the load until the motor breaks. Some controllers are also hybrid wind and solar, allowing you to connect a small panel like the
one running the webserver this guide is posted on
and then charge up the batteries when it has been overcast for a few days in a row. | 19 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446365",
"author": "plouc",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T05:47:07",
"content": "I really like this guy and is blog and I’m sure lots of had readers might also do!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6446368",
"author": "preamp.org"... | 1,760,372,760.955923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/cool-mechanism-day-two-way-to-one-way/ | Cool Mechanism Day: Two-Way To One-Way | Dave Rowntree | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"clutch",
"mechanism",
"watch"
] | The internal mechanisms that are used in timepieces have always been fascinating to watch, and are often works of art in their own right. You don’t have to live in the Watch Valley in Switzerland to appreciate this art form. The mechanism highlighted here (from M
echanistic
on YouTube) is a
two-way to one-way geared coupler
(video, embedded below) which can be found at the drive spring winding end of a typical mechanical wristwatch. It is often attached to a heavily eccentrically mounted mass which drives the input gear in either direction, depending upon the motion of the wearer. Just a little regular movement is all that is needed to keep the spring nicely wound, so no forgetting to wind it in the morning hustle!
The idea is beautifully simple; A small sized input gear is driven by the mass, or winder, which drives a larger gear,
the centre of which has a one-way clutch, which transmits the torque onwards to the output gear. The input side of the clutch also drives an identical unit, which picks up rotations in the opposite direct, and also drives the same larger output gear. So simple, and watching this super-sized device in operation really gives you an appreciation of how elegant such mechanisms are. Could it be useful in other applications? How about converting wind power to mechanically pump water in remote locations? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!
If you want to play with this yourselves, the source is
downloadable from cults3d
. Do check out some of the author’s other work!
We do like these super-sized mechanism demonstrators around here, like this
3D printed tourbillon
, and here’s
a little thing about the escapement mechanism
that enables all this timekeeping with any accuracy. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6446357",
"author": "Jan Steinman",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T04:59:18",
"content": "I was late getting up this morning, because my “automatic” watch didn’t automatically correct for daylight savings time! Then nerve!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,372,760.89546 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/the-noble-effort-to-put-openscad-in-the-browser/ | The Noble Effort To Put OpenSCAD In The Browser | Jenny List | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"browser",
"cad",
"openscad"
] | In a world of CAD packages with arcane or unfriendly interfaces there’s a stand-out player that’s remarkable because it has no interface. OpenSCAD is a CAD package for coders, in which all design elements are created in a scripting language rather than graphically. It’s maybe not for everyone but it has a significant following, and its reach has been extended further as you can
now run it from within a modern web browser
.
The origins of this project can be tracked back to August of 2021,
when when Autodrop3D’s [mmiscool] offered a sizable bounty
for anyone willing to port the parametric CAD modeler to web assembly. Developer [Dominick Schroer] ultimately answered the call with
openscad-wasm
, which implements the core of OpenSCAD as a JavaScript ES6 module. From there, it just needed to get paired with a user interface, and off to the cloud we go.
Opening it up and giving it a go, we found it to be a very usable OpenSCAD version, albeit a little slower to render than the desktop equivalent on a mediocre laptop. We didn’t try exporting and printing an STL, but so far it has given us no reason to believe it wouldn’t be every bit as useful as the version you’re used to.
But wait, there’s more! Parallel to this effort,
[Olivier Chafik] has also been working on his own idea
of what OpenSCAD in the web should be. He’s using the same core developed by [Dominick], but has combined it with the Monaco editor from Microsoft and a Javascript STL viewer. Despite being very similar, we’re happy to report there’s no rivalry here; in fact, according to the video after the break, it sounds like two the projects have already swapped a bit of code.
The move among desktop applications to move into the browser and often into a pay-to-play cloud has seemed relentless over recent years, so it’s pleasing to see a rare example of a browser migration that’s open-source. It has the handy effect of bringing the CAD package to platforms such as tablets or Chromebooks which wouldn’t normally be an OpenSCAD platform, and this we like, a lot. | 58 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445960",
"author": "Rumble_in_the_Jungle",
"timestamp": "2022-03-14T11:54:52",
"content": "Welcome to the new, better world. Yours is gone. Future is now old man. /s",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6445986",
"author"... | 1,760,372,761.106892 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/14/3d-printing-snap-fit-joints/ | 3D Printing Snap Fit Joints | Al Williams | [
"Parts"
] | [
"3d printing",
"snap fit"
] | Owning a 3D printer seems to progress through stages. You start printing simple shapes. Then you get serious about calibration and quality. Eventually, you move to trying to design and build practical things. To get practical, you often need to join parts together and that requires glue, fasteners, threaded inserts, and plastic welding. However, you can also make parts that fit together using friction and the springiness of plastic. For example,
[Lucas Carolo] recently had a look at 3D printing snap-fit joints
. These are commonly seen on the end of straps so that you can connect two ends together.
Of course, you can use them anywhere you need a secure connection. However, you might want to consider that since the jaws compress, there will be repeated stress on the part, so it might not be a good choice for items that you will frequently snap together. Also, brittle plastic such as PLA might not be the best choice of materials. There are several different kinds of joints. The cantilever version has a hook that bends into place and, as mentioned earlier, is common on luggage or backpack straps. The post offers tips on how to design a durable hook. In particular, the orientation of the hook during printing is critical because of the stress involved.
Another type of snap-fit joint is the kind you find on many snap electronic enclosures or things like pen caps. In these joints, a large bump (a boss) fits into a similar groove on the other part. The post has a little less information on these but does mention that you should form the bosses with a chamfer. If you want more details, the post links to a
great guide
and
an enclosure tutorial
that you should check out.
We’ve
covered this topic before
and have some other guides to check out. We’ve also seen some pretty
innovative connecting methods
. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445963",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2022-03-14T12:01:03",
"content": "“mention that should form”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6446004",
"author": "charles",
"timestamp": "2022-03-14T13:54:26",
"content": "how ... | 1,760,372,761.003563 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/13/beautiful-engineering-in-this-laser-unit-from-a-tornado-jet-fighter/ | Beautiful Engineering In This Laser Unit From A Tornado Jet Fighter | Dave Rowntree | [
"Teardown",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"laser range finder",
"optical",
"photodiode",
"teardown",
"tornado",
"YAG laser"
] | Those of use hailing from the UK may be quite familiar with the Royal Air Force’s Tornado fighter jet, which was designed to fight in a
theoretical
nuclear war, and served the country for over 40 years. This flying deathtrap (words of an actual serving RAF fighter pilot this scribe met a few years ago) was an extremely complex machine, with state-of-the-art tech for its era, but did apparently have a bit of a habit for bursting into flames occasionally when in the air!
Anyway, the last fleet is now long retired and some of the tech inside it is starting to filter down into the public domain, as some parts can be bought on eBay of all places. [Mike] of
mikeselectricstuff
has been
digging around inside the Tornado’s laser head unit
, which was part of the bomber’s laser-guided missile subsystem, and boy what a journey of mechanics and electronics this is!
Pulse-mode optically pumped YAG laser
This unit is largely dumb, with all the clever stuff happening deep in an avionics bay, but there is still plenty of older high-end tech on display. Using a xenon-discharge-tube pumped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser, operating in pulsed mode, the job of the unit is to illuminate the ground target with an IR spot, which the subsequently fired missiles will home on to.
Designed for ground-tracking, whilst the aircraft is operating at speed, the laser head has three degrees of moment, which likely is synchronized with the aircraft movement to keep the beam steady. The optical package is quite interesting, with the xenon tube and YAG rod swimming in a liquid cooling bath, inside a metal housing. The beam is bounced around inside the housing using many prisms, and gated with a
Q-switch
which allows the beam to build up in intensity, before be unleashed on the target. Also of note is the biggest photodiode we’ve ever seen — easily over an inch in diameter, split into four quadrants, enabling the sensor to resolve direction changes in the reflected IR spot and track its error. A separate photodiode receiver forms part of the time-of-flight optical range finder, which is also important information to have when targeting.
There are plenty of unusual 3-phase positioning motors, position sensors, and rate gyros in the mix, with the whole thing beautifully crafted and wired-up military spec. It is definitely an eye opener for what really was possible during the cold war years, even if such tech never quite filtered down to civilian applications.
We’ve seen a few bits about the Tornado before, like this
over-engineered attitude indicator
, and here’s the insides of an old
aircraft QAR (Quick Access Recorder)
Thanks [Zane] for the tip! | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445876",
"author": "Marvin",
"timestamp": "2022-03-14T06:29:03",
"content": "The mini gyros are so cute!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6446540",
"author": "Erik Baigar",
"timestamp": "2022-03-15T15:56:45",
... | 1,760,372,761.170585 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/13/reversible-ventilation-hack-keeps-the-landlord-happy/ | Reversible Ventilation Hack Keeps The Landlord Happy | Ryan Flowers | [
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"environment control",
"ESP8266",
"smart home"
] | When a person owns the home they live in, often the only approval they need for modifications is from their significant other or roommate. In the worst case, maybe a permit is required. But those who rent their dwellings are far more constrained in almost every case, and when it comes to environmental controls, they are most decidedly off limits. Unless you’re a resourceful hacker like [Nik], that is, who has
seamlessly integrated his apartment’s ventilation system into his smart home controller
— all without any permanent modifications!
The controller itself only gives three settings to vent the apartment: Low, Medium, High, and then High for 30 minutes, with all modes having to be actuated with a manual button press. [Nik] wanted automation and integration with his smart home.
A clean 3D printed enclosure wraps things nicely
Thankfully, the engineers who designed the controller used in [Nik]’s apartment made it very convenient to reverse engineer it. A flat ribbon cable conveniently breaks out all of the buttons
and
12 VDC, and he can interface directly using its connector. First hack: done.
Next, [Nik] needed a longer cable to run between the controller and his ESP8266 based control module. Finding the connector on AliExpress was easy, but finding a compatible cable of length required some more resourcefulness. The cable was eventually sourced from the airbag controller of a Renault Megane! Second hack, using a car part in a controller: well done!
Integration into his smart home wasn’t just electronic. The module looks right at home above the original controller, and if you didn’t know better you’d never think it wasn’t original equipment. Final hack: Done!
Be sure to
check out his build log over at Hackaday.io
, and if home automation hacks are your cup of tea, check out this
automatic tea maker
. | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445864",
"author": "ddss",
"timestamp": "2022-03-14T05:29:05",
"content": "This is a cool hack. I know this is hackaday not buy some thing a day. But I may suggest using some kind of “Button pusher” or “Switch bot” if the electrical access is not possible or simply being lazy to ma... | 1,760,372,761.70563 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/13/hackaday-links-march-13-2022/ | Hackaday Links: March 13, 2022 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"Additive",
"ai",
"amazon",
"api",
"Atlas V",
"direct extrusion",
"epson",
"facial recognition",
"genetics",
"hackaday links",
"JLCPCB",
"LCSC",
"parametric",
"PODS",
"RD-180",
"robot",
"rocket",
"roscosmos",
"russia",
"ukraine"
] | As Russia’s war on Ukraine drags on, its knock-on effects are being felt far beyond the eastern Europe theater. And perhaps nowhere is this more acutely felt than in the space launch industry, seeing that at least until recently, Russia was pretty much everyone’s go-to ride to orbit. All that has changed now, at least temporarily, and has expanded to include
halting sales of rocket engines
used in other nations’ launch vehicles. Specifically, Roscosmos has put an end to exports of the RD-180 engine used in the US Atlas V launch vehicle, along with the RD-181 thrusters found in the Antares rocket. The loss of these engines may be more symbolic than practical, at least for the RD-180 — United Launch Alliance
stopped selling launches on Atlas V back last year
, and had secured the engines it needed for the 29 flights it has booked by that April. Still, there’s some irony that the Atlas V, which started life as an ICBM aimed at the USSR in the 1950s, has lost its Russian-made engines.
Bad news for Jan Mrázek’s popular open-source parametric search utility which made JLCPCB’s component library easier to use.
We wrote about it back in 2020
, and things seemed to be going fine up until this week, when Jan got a take-down request for his service. When we first heard about this, we checked
the application’s web page
, which bore a big red banner that included what were apparently unpleasant accusations Jan had received, including the words “reptile” and “parasitic.” The banner is still there, but the text has changed to a more hopeful tone, noting that LCSC, the component supplier for JLC’s assembly service, objected to the way Jan was pulling component data, and that they are now working together on something that everyone can be happy with. Here’s hoping that the service is back in action again soon.
Good news, everyone: Epson is getting into the 3D printer business. Eager to add a dimension to the planar printing world they’ve mostly worked in, they’ve announced that
they’ll be launching a direct-extrusion printer
sometime soon. Aimed at the industrial market, the printer will use a “flat screw extruder,” which is supposed to be similar to what the company uses on its injection molding machines. We sure didn’t know Epson was in the injection molding market, so it’ll be interesting to see if expertise there results in innovation in 3D printing, especially if it trickles down to the consumer printing market. Just as long as they don’t try to DRM the pellets, of course.
You can’t judge a book by its cover, but it turns out that there’s a
lot you can tell about a person’s genetics just by looking at their face
. At least that’s according to an AI startup called FDNA, which makes an app called “Face2Gene” that the company claims can identify 300 genetic disorders by analyzing photos of someone’s face. Some genetic disorders, like Down Syndrome, leave easily recognizable facial features, but some changes are far more subtle and hard to recognize. We had heard of cases where
photos of toddlers posted on social media were used to diagnose retinoblastoma
, a rare cancer of the retina. But this is on another level entirely.
And finally, working in an Amazon warehouse has got to be a tough gig, and if some of the stories are to be believed, it borders on being a horror show. But one Amazonian recently shared a video that showed
what it’s like to get trapped by his robotic coworkers
. The warehouse employee somehow managed to get stuck in a maze created by Amazon’s pods, which are stacks of shelves that hold merchandise and are moved around the warehouse floor by what amounts to robotic pallet jacks. Apparently, the robots know enough to not collide with their meat-based colleagues, but not enough to not box them in. To be fair, the human eventually found a way out, but it was a long search and it seems like another pod could have moved into position to block the exit at any time. You could see it as a scary example of human-robot interaction gone awry, but we prefer to look at it as the robots giving their friend a little unscheduled break away from the prying eyes of his supervisor. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445779",
"author": "Eric Chapin",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T23:22:10",
"content": "I don’t know about Epson 3D printer. How do I know it won’t have a DRM filament pack, and stops working when it’s only half full because “it’s getting low” and “needs to be replaced”",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,372,761.350054 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/13/minipc-surgery-makes-it-50-cooler/ | MiniPC Surgery Makes It 50% Cooler | Arya Voronova | [
"computer hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"active cooling",
"cooling fan",
"cpu cooler",
"cpu heatsink",
"heatsink",
"hp elitedesk",
"hp prodesk",
"PC cooling"
] | [G3R] writes to us about
a mod they did on a HP ProDesk/EliteDesk 400 G3 miniPC
they use as a home emulation center. The miniPC would overheat as soon as the CPU load increased, resulting in frame drops and stutters, as well as throttling CPU. [G3R] took the original cooling solution, threw out half of it and modified the remaining half to accept a tower CPU cooler.
The modification is invasive in all the right ways. [G3R] shows how to de-fin the current heatsink and smooth it over with a… welder? Our guess is that the heatsink fins were soldered to the heatsink base, and in that case, a heat gun should also work. Afterwards, you’re supposed to cut a hole in the upper case, then re-wire the fan connections, and create custom brackets to attach the tower fan – [G3R] explains how to do it all and what to watch out for.
The results are fascinating. After performing the mod, both idle and under-load temps got cut down by 50%! Idle temps went from 50 to 25 °C, and under-load temps dropped from 79 to 40 °C – surely, with way less throttling involved. Not only this lets [G3R] play
Breath Of The Wild
without hiccups, it also certainly improves overall lifespan of the mini-PC, despite the intervention being mechanically harsh.
Making our devices, quite literally, cooler is a venerable tradition of hackers. Just a few weeks ago, we covered
a simple 3D printable LGA 1700 CPU bracket
which can gain you some much-desired thermal contact. Sometimes we encounter proprietary and weird cooling fans that fail, and then
we understand their workings and build a substitute.
And, even if
your GPU was never meant to have a fan,
you can add one anyway! | 27 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445731",
"author": "Jon H",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T20:23:06",
"content": "Welder = soldering iron.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6445747",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T21:19:25",
... | 1,760,372,761.296822 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/13/5-axis-3d-printing-for-the-rest-of-us/ | 5-Axis 3D Printing For The Rest Of Us | Jenny List | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"3d printing",
"5-Axis"
] | By now we’re all used to the idea of three dimensional printing, as over the last fifteen years or so it’s become an indispensable tool for anyone with an interest in making things without an industrial scale budget. There are still a few limitations to the techniques used in a common 3D printer though, in particular being tied to layers in a single orientation. It’s something that can be addressed by adding tilt and rotational axes to the printer to deliver a five-axis device, but this has not been available in an affordable form.
[Freddie Hong] and colleagues have tackled the production of an affordable printer
, and his solution fits neatly on the bed of a Prusa i3 to convert it to five-axis machine without breaking the bank.
The quantity and quality of the work is certainly impressive, with suitable slicing software being developed alongside the 3D printed parts to fit the two extra axes. For now all we can do is look at the pictures and the video below the break, but once the work has been presented the promise that all the necessary files will be made public. We can see versions of the hardware finding their way onto printers other than the Prusa, and we can see this becoming yet another piece of the regular armory available to those of us who make things. | 29 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445663",
"author": "wolf+arthur",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T17:07:01",
"content": "Smoothieboard has supported 5-axis for a long while, and we’ve got lots of users doing 5-axis CNC milling and 5-axis laser work. I’d gladly send them a free board if they want to test it out.wolf.arth... | 1,760,372,761.415669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/12/rugged-cyberdeck-makes-the-case-for-keeping-things-water-tight/ | Rugged Cyberdeck Makes The Case For Keeping Things Water-Tight | Kristina Panos | [
"Cyberdecks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"pelican",
"pelican case",
"Raspberry Pi 3B+",
"RTL-SDR"
] | Many people build cyberdecks just for the heck of it, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. On the other hand,
[cyzoonic]’s rugged ‘deck
is a bit more purpose-built. In this instance, the purpose is software-defined radio.
Underneath those sweet custom-cut panels lies a Raspberry Pi 3B and
a BOM full of parts
that can be had on Ali Express. There’s also an ESP32 that takes input from the keypad plus the 5 buttons that control the display, and the two potentiometers. [cyzoonic] can dial in frequencies with the knobs, or by punching in digits on the keypad.
One of the problems with using a Pelican case is this — how do you install any type of panel without compromising the case’s water-tightness? [cyzoonic] mentions in the comments that Pelican makes a bracket that allows for panels and things to be screwed down without breaching the case. But in this case, [cyzoonic] made their own brackets in a similar fashion.
Another problem with Pelican cases (and cyberdecks in general that are built into hinged boxen) is something that doesn’t get enough attention: typing ergonomics. Personally, we take comfortable and ergonomic typing fairly seriously, and would love to see a cyberdeck that speaks to this issue.
In the meantime, we’ll have to take [cyzoonic]’s word that while it’s not terribly comfortable to type with the ‘deck on a tabletop, sitting on the floor hunched over the thing like a true hacker is much better. This is a work in progress (at least the IO project anyway), so we’ll be tuning back in occasionally to see if any more instructions appear.
Speaking of ergonomic cyberdecks, here’s the one that drew the line in the sand for us — [Tinfoil_Haberdashery]’s
lovely ErgoDox-based NUC machine
. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445360",
"author": "denis",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T19:19:39",
"content": "I use something like that for automotive diagnostics, having got fed up killing laptops and their lack of upgradability I now have a micro ATX mobo and laptop screen in a pelican case. It’s robust, impossib... | 1,760,372,761.473296 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/12/make-it-compatible/ | Make It Compatible | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants"
] | [
"gcode",
"languages",
"scratching itch",
"standards",
"wall plotter"
] | I’m probably as guilty as anyone of reinventing the wheel for a subpart of a project. Heck, sometimes I just
feel
like working on a wheel design. But if that’s the path you choose, you have to think about whether or not it’s important that others can replicate your project. The nice thing about a bog-standard wheel is that everyone has got one.
The case study I have in mind is
a wall-plotter project that appeared on Hackaday this week
. It’s a really sweet design, and in many ways would be an ideal starter project. I actually need a wall plotter (for reasons) and like a number of the choices made. For instance, having nearly everything, including the lightweight geared steppers on the gondola makes it easy to install and uninstall — you just pin up the timing belt from which it hangs and you’re done. Extra weight on the gondola helps with stability anyway. It’s open source and based on the Arduino libraries, so it should be easy enough to port to whatever microcontroller I have on hand.
But the image-generation toolchain is awkward, involving cutting and pasting into a spreadsheet, which generates a text file in a custom plotting micro-language. Presumably the designer doesn’t know about Gcode, which is essentially the lingua franca of moving machines, or just didn’t feel like implementing it. Where in Gcode, movement commands are like “G1 X100 Y50”, this device expects “draw_line(0,0,100,50)”. They’re essentially equivalent, but incompatible.
I totally understand that the author must have had a good time thinking up the movement commands and writing the spreadsheet that translates SVG files into them. I’ve been there and done that! But if the wall plotter spoke Gcode instead of its own dialect, it would slot instantly into any number of graphics processing workflows, which would make me, the potential user, happier.
When you are looking at reinventing the wheel, think about your audience. If you’re the only person likely to see the project, go ahead and scratch whatever itch you’ve got. You’ll learn more that way. But if you want to share the project with as many people as possible, adhering to the most widely used standards is a good choice for your users, even if it
is
less fun than dreaming up your own movement language.
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
! | 25 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445299",
"author": "Piecutter",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T15:40:39",
"content": "“Criticize-that-it-doesn’t-suit-your-needs-and-maybe-someone-will-do-it-for-you-a-day” may be a better forum for this article.I see the point, but it would certainly be more in the spirit of this DIY ba... | 1,760,372,761.537646 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/12/modular-pockit-computer-is-more-than-meets-the-eye/ | Modular Pockit Computer Is More Than Meets The Eye | Ryan Flowers | [
"computer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"modular computer",
"modular hardware",
"mother of all tech demos",
"Pockit"
] | “Modular” and “Computer” have historically been on the opposite ends of a rather awkward spectrum. One could argue that a hobbyist grade PC is modular, but only to a point. Re-configuring it on the fly is not readily possible. Modular laptops are slowly happening, but what about handheld devices, where our needs might change on a regular basis?
Enter the Pockit: a
fully modular IoT/edge computing device
that can be reconfigured on the fly
without having to reprogram it
. Don’t browse away from this page without watching the demonstration video below the break. It just might be the “mother of all demos” for the current decade.
A modular base provides basic computing power in the form of a Raspberry Pi, like many other projects. The base has twelve magnetic connectors, each with twenty I/O and power pins. When a module is added, the operating system detects the new module and loads an appropriate program
on the fly
. When more modules are loaded, it automatically configures itself so that all modules have a purpose. This allows the Pockit to be an integrated IoT device, an edge computing powerhouse, a desktop computer, a Blackberry-esque handheld, or a touch screen tablet, and so many more things.
For example, if a camera is added, it displays an image on a screen — if there’s a screen. If a button is added, it automatically takes a picture when the button is pressed. If you want the camera to be motion activated, just add a motion sensor. Done. External devices can be controlled with relays and home automation integrates almost seamlessly.
There are a great number of features that we’re glossing over for the sake of getting to the point: Go watch the video and when you’re done, perhaps you’ll be as astonished as we are. We’ve expressed our
love of modular hardware like the Pockit in the past
, and after watching this demo, we can only hope that this is what the future of computing and electronics looks like! | 38 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445253",
"author": "nice",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T12:08:55",
"content": "Nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6445259",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T12:30:35",
"content": "Some of those usecase... | 1,760,372,761.851331 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/12/build-yourself-a-weather-reporting-diorama/ | Build Yourself A Weather-Reporting Diorama | Lewin Day | [
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"weather",
"weather forecast",
"weather machine",
"weather station"
] | These days, if you don’t fancy watching morning TV, you can always get an update on the day’s weather from your smartphone, computer, or any one of a series of other connected devices. However, if you’re looking for a more fun way to see what’s in store, this weather diorama from [Lewis] of
DIY Machines
might be just what you’re looking for.
The build uses an ESP32 as the brains of the project, responsible for querying the Internet for up-to-date weather information. This info is then displayed on a 2.9″ e-ink display, showing the temperature, chance of rain, and wind speed predicted for the local area. So far, so straightforward.
However, where it gets really creative is the use of laser-cut “scene discs” with different graphics on them to represent different weather conditions. They can alternatively be 3D printed,too. These are rotated via servos controlled by the ESP32, allowing the diorama to display a representative scene informed by the current forecast. If there’s snow coming, you’ll see a snow man, but if things are looking fine, you’re more likely to see a woman strolling with a dog.
It’s a fun way to learn about what Mother Nature has in store, and would look great on any breakfast bar to boot. We’ve seen some great builds from [Lewis] before, too,
like this amazing seven-segment clock shelf
. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445389",
"author": "Observer",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T21:24:51",
"content": "Hackaday content is routinely good, but this project really resonates with me–a bit of computer, a bit of mechanics, and a lot of creativity… it does something useful in a novel and pleasingly aesthetic ... | 1,760,372,761.744115 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/building-a-lego-paper-shredder/ | Building A Lego Paper Shredder | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"lego",
"shredder"
] | Sometimes we need to destroy documents before throwing them away for security reasons, and shredders are a primary way of achieving that. If you don’t have your own, you might consider building your own,
like [Brick Experiment Channel] did using Lego.
First attempts at shredding a small slip of paper with interlocking gears were a failure, merely crumpling the paper in an attractive rippled manner. As the “Top Secret” piece of paper says, “If you can read this, the shredder didn’t work.” Adding more gears managed to gouge a couple holes in the paper, but it was still far from effective. Continuing down this path further only stalled the Lego motor.
A redesign with different sized gears did eventually manage to tear the paper into large chunks. One set of gears would hold on to the paper while a following set would tear away a section. A further modification combined this method with using bevel gears as a sort of blade, and improved shredding performance further, to the point where the paper was torn into satisfyingly tiny fragments.
It’s a fun little build, even if it won’t come close to taking on a full page of A4. It’s a great example of what can be achieved when you set a simple goal with readily measurable outcomes, in this case, the legibility of the original message on the paper.
We’ve seen a few shredders around here before too.
Video after the break. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445196",
"author": "three_d_dave",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T07:34:34",
"content": "Shredding into a bucket of water with some bleach to prevent bacterial growth means a near certainty recovery is impossible. I never understood why they don’t always do this for security measures as ... | 1,760,372,761.780028 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/clock-testing-sans-oscilloscope/ | Clock Testing Sans Oscilloscope? | Al Williams | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Reviews"
] | [
"crystal oscillator",
"frequency counter"
] | Like many people who repair stuff, [Learn Electronics Repair] has an oscilloscope. But after using it to test a motherboard crystal oscillator, he started thinking about how people who don’t own a scope might do the same kind of test. He picked up a
frequency counter/crystal tester kit
that was quite inexpensive — under $10. He built it, and then tried it to see how well it would work in-circuit.
The kit has an unusual use of 7-segment displays to sort-of display words for menus. There is a socket to plug in a crystal for testing, but that won’t work for the intended application. He made a small extender to simplify connecting crystals even if they are surface mount. He eventually added a BNC socket to the counter input, but at first just wired some test leads directly in.
So how was probing with the frequency counter compared to using the scope? You would think it should work with no real problem. On the one hand, it should be easier to read the frequency from the counter, especially if you don’t have a scope that displays waveform data. On the other hand, the counter doesn’t give you any data about the quality of the clock source. Is it noisy? Clean? 50% duty cycle or 10%? Can’t tell without the scope. Turns out, though, that the cheap counter wouldn’t read high-frequency clock signals from a motherboard for some reason. It was, however, able to measure fan PWM signals.
We assume the cheap frequency counter doesn’t have a proper input stage and was loading down the crystal oscillators. The wire probe probably didn’t help any either. A proper frequency counter would probably work, but a cheap meter that had a frequency counter function didn’t do any better. He also connected a scope probe to both devices with no better results. We wondered if the 10X setting on the probe might have loaded the circuit less. We also think the
preamp hack
we’ve covered before might have helped.
In the end, the cheap little device didn’t seem to meet his original purpose. But for a simple crystal tester and frequency counter, it was inexpensive enough. While a proper frequency counter would probably work,
scopes are getting pretty low-cost
, and they can do a lot more. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445176",
"author": "Arthur Mezins",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T05:49:34",
"content": "I got one of these about a year ago and it’s mostly good and I haven’t played with it since. I found that it won’t work for some crystal frequencies. For me, I “think” that it was an old TV color bu... | 1,760,372,761.908309 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/making-a-locket-from-a-coin/ | Making A Locket From A Coin | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"coin",
"locket"
] | Some countries have strict laws around the destruction or alteration of issued currency, but then again, some countries don’t. Citizens of those in the latter category may enjoy undertaking a build similar to
this locket created by [Elier Olivos], crafted from a large coin
.
A compass is first used to mark out a line on the coin’s perimeter, before it is cut in half with a fret saw. Once the two halves of the coin are smoothed out, it’s then time to heat them and quench them so they’re more malleable for pounding into a slightly domed shape. Metal rings are then fabricated and added to each half to give the locket some depth.
A hinge is then carefully made and fixed into the edges of the coin halves, giving the closed coin an almost seamless outside appearance. A small latch installed on the inside helps hold the locket closed. The final touches are to attach a loop for affixing the locket to a chain for the wearer, and to polish the inside of the locket up to a mirror shine.
[Elier] makes the build look easy through a combination of his amazing skills with his hands and the help of a some esoteric tooling. It can be very relaxing to take in a video of a master at work, and we’ve seen
some great examples recently
. Video after the break. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445115",
"author": "Jamie",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T00:21:12",
"content": "Amazing craftsmanship.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6445140",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T02:22:52",
"content": ... | 1,760,372,762.170528 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/13/haptic-smart-knob-does-several-jobs/ | Haptic Smart Knob Does Several Jobs | Ryan Flowers | [
"hardware",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"BLDC",
"haptic",
"haptic input",
"input knob",
"jog wheel",
"lcd",
"scroll wheel",
"strain gauge"
] | A knob is a knob, a switch is a switch, and that’s that, right? And what about those knobs that have detents, set in stone at the time of manufacturing? Oh, and those knobs that let you jog left to right and then snap back to center — that can’t be modified…right? Well, you likely know where this is going, and in the video below the break,
[scottbez1] shows off a new open source haptic input knob
that can be
all of these things
with just some configuration changes!
The list of possibilities is long: virtual snap points, virtual spring loading, virtual detents, virtual end points. It’s a virtual smörgåsbord of configuration options that make this haptic smart knob a one stop shop for all of your knob needs. This is all possible because the knob contains a high resolution magnetic encoder chip that has a single degree resolution. The sensor is coupled, through software, to a brushless DC motor. The round LCD gives visual feedback as well.
As [Myself] on the
Hackaday Discord
channel noted, having configurable spacing
and
strength for detents, springs, and stops, is nothing short of incredible. Being able to reconfigure the knob at-will means that it can become context sensitive. It’s wonderfully unique
and
it’s open source, so you can make your own with the information available at GitHub.
And according to its creator, the only thing the Haptic Smart Knob
can’t
do is do your taxes or blend your margarita. Well, it’s open source, so perhaps some of our more enterprising readers can submit just the right pull request.
This isn’t Hackaday’s first
Motorized Volume Knob
feature, but it might be one of the neatest we have seen so far. Thanks to [mattvenn] on the
Hackaday Discord server
for the great tip! | 63 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445622",
"author": "Ramzan Kadyrov",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T14:28:05",
"content": "This is dope as hell, I’m going to have to work this into some of my projects",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6445623",
"author": "come2",... | 1,760,372,762.002454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/13/retro-breadboard-gives-up-its-1960s-secrets/ | Retro Breadboard Gives Up Its 1960s Secrets | Dan Maloney | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"breadboard",
"function generator",
"repair",
"retro",
"reverse engineering",
"teardown"
] | When we see [Ken Shirriff] reverse engineering something, it tends to be on the microscopic level. His usual forte is looking at die photos of strange and obsolete chips and figuring out how they work. And while we love those efforts, it’s nice to see him in the macro world this time with a
teardown and repair of a 1960s-era solderless breadboard system
.
If you’d swear the “Elite 2 Circuit Design Test System” featured in [Ken]’s post looks familiar, it’s probably because you caught his partner-in-crime [
CuriousMarc]’s video on the very same unit
, an eBay score that arrived in non-working condition. The breadboard, which retailed for $1,300 in 1969 — an eye-watering $10,000 today — was clearly not aimed at the hobbyist market. Truth be told, we didn’t even know that solderless breadboards were a thing until the mid-70s, but live and learn. This unit has all the bells and whistles, including three variable power supplies, an array of switches, buttons, indicator lamps, and jacks for external connections, and a pulse generator as well as a legit function generator.
Legit, that would be, if it actually worked. [Ken]’s contribution to the repair was a thorough teardown of the device followed by reverse-engineering the design. Seeing how this thing was designed around the constraints of 1969 technology is a real treat; the metal can transistor and ICs and the neat and tidy PCB layout are worth the price of admission alone. And the fact that neon lamps and their drivers were cheaper and easier to use than LEDs says a lot about the state of the art at the time.
As for the necessary repairs, [Marc]’s video leaves off before getting there. That’s fine, we’re sure he’ll put [Ken]’s analysis to good use, and we always enjoy [Marc]’s video series anyway.
The Apollo flight comms
series was a great one, too. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445582",
"author": "rpol",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T11:42:29",
"content": "Just wondering if it is really from the 60’s? Did they even have good breadboards like those back then? Those breadboards just look too good to be that old. Maybe they were replaced at some point in time?... | 1,760,372,762.055935 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/13/remote-mqtt-temperature-sensor-shows-how-its-done/ | Remote MQTT Temperature Sensor Shows How It’s Done | Donald Papp | [
"how-to",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"diy",
"IoT",
"mqtt",
"node-red",
"temperature sensor",
"Wemos d1"
] | First of all, there are definitely simpler ways to monitor remote temperatures, but [Mike]’s
remote MQTT temperature sensor and display
project is useful in a few ways. Not only does it lay out how to roll such a system from scratch, but it also showcases system features like solar power.
After all, if one simply wants to monitor temperature that’s easily done, but once one wishes to log those temperatures and use them to trigger other things, then rolling one’s own solution starts to get more attractive. That’s where using someone else’s project as a design reference can come in handy.
[Mike’s] solution uses two Wemos D1 boards: one with a DS18B20 temperature sensor for outdoors, and one with a small OLED screen for an interior display. The external sensor relies on a rechargeable 18650 cell and a solar panel for a hassle-free power supply, and the internal sensor (of which there can be many) has a cute enclosure and is powered by USB. On the back end, a Raspberry Pi running an MQTT gateway and Node Red takes care of the operational side of things. The whole system has been happily running for over two years.
What is MQTT
? It is essentially a messaging protocol, and takes care of the whole business of reliably communicating data back and forth between IoT devices. It scales very well and doesn’t need to be hard or intimidating;
our own [Elliot Williams] can tell you all about implementing it
. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445626",
"author": "fanoush",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T14:39:08",
"content": "How does 18650 cell work in temperatures below zero Celsius? Probably not very well.BTW there is hackable $4 xiaomi thermometer lasting about a year on cr2032 batteryhttps://github.com/atc1441/ATC_MiTherm... | 1,760,372,762.219162 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/12/ice-fishing-tent-makes-winter-ham-radio-comfy/ | Ice Fishing Tent Makes Winter Ham Radio Comfy | Donald Papp | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"cross pollination",
"ice fishing tent",
"radio",
"winter field day"
] | Cross-pollination between different activities and industries can yield some pretty useful techniques or product combinations, and [Steve] shares some details on
using ice fishing gear to make winter ham radio activities more comfortable and portable
.
With the help of a folding tent shelter, [Steve] was able to create a minimal and self-contained field station that hosted all his needed equipment, and with the help of a small propane heater, stayed quite comfortable during a
24 hour winter event
.
For those interested in the radio end of what [Steve] was doing, he goes into detail about the radio equipment and antenna he used, which itself stows easily into a bag and withstood high winds with success. The goal of the event after all was emergency preparedness, and while radio can operate without a wider infrastructure to support it,
antenna design is crucial for best results
.
As for keeping the operator safe and sound during all this, it turns out that the problem of a pop-up winter shelter that is both light and compact has already been solved by ice fishers; and while it can be fun to roll one’s own solutions, there’s not always a need to re-invent the wheel. | 29 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445524",
"author": "v",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T07:48:58",
"content": "He´s fishing ham ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6445788",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T23:50:55",
"content": "“Fi... | 1,760,372,762.127466 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/12/retrotechtacular-measuring-tv-audiences-with-the-poll-o-meter/ | Retrotechtacular: Measuring TV Audiences With The “Poll-O-Meter” | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"antenna",
"audience",
"local oscillator",
"metric",
"retrotechtacular",
"television",
"tv",
"yagi"
] | It may come as a shock to some, but TV used to be a big deal — a very big deal. Sitting down in front of the glowing tube for an evening’s entertainment was pretty much all one had to do after work, and while taking in this content was perhaps not that great for us, it was a goldmine for anyone with the ability to monetize it. And monetize it they did, “they” being the advertisers and marketers who saw the potential of the new medium as it ramped up in early 1950s America.
They faced a bit of a problem, though: proving to their customers exactly how many people they were reaching with their ads.
The 1956 film below
shows one attempt to answer that question with technology, rather than guesswork. The film features the “Poll-O-Meter System,” a mobile electronic tuning recorder built by the Calbest Electronics Company. Not a lot of technical detail is offered in the film, which appears aimed more at the advertising types, but from a shot of the Poll-O-Meter front panel (at 4:12) and a look at its comically outsized rooftop antenna (12:27), it seems safe to assume that it worked by receiving emissions from the TV set’s local oscillator, which would leak a signal from the TV antenna — perhaps similar to the approach used by
the UK’s TV locator vans
.
The Poll-O-Meter seems to have supported seven channels; even though there were twelve channels back in the day, licenses were rarely granted for stations on adjacent channels in a given market, so getting a hit on the “2-3” channel would have to be considered in the context of the local market. The Poll-O-Meter had a charming, homebrew look to it, right down to the hand-painted logos and panel lettering. Each channel had an electromechanical totalizing counter, plus a patch panel that looks like it could be used to connect different counters to different channels. There even appears to be a way to subtract counts from a channel, although why that would be necessary is unclear. The whole thing lived in the back of a 1954 VW van, and was driven around neighborhoods turning heads and gathering data about what channels were being watched “without enlisting aid or cooperation of … users.” Or, you know, their consent.
It was a different time, though, which is abundantly clear from watching this film, as well as the bonus ad for Westinghouse TVs at the end. The Poll-O-Meter seems a little silly now, but don’t judge 1956 too hard — after all, our world is regularly prowled by equally intrusive and consent-free Google Street View cars. Still, it’s an interesting glimpse into how one outfit tried to hang a price tag on the eyeballs that were silently taking in the “Vast Wasteland.” | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445475",
"author": "Bryantherobotman",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T03:38:09",
"content": "All this talk of privacy and all I can think of is my next door neighbour who watches pornos on his 50” set in the living room which we can all see.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,372,762.525175 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/12/how-to-make-laser-cut-decals-on-the-cheap/ | How To Make Laser-cut Decals On The Cheap | Donald Papp | [
"Art",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"decal",
"laser cutter",
"packing tape",
"painter's tape",
"tape transfer",
"vinyl"
] | Want to make a sweet adhesive decal with a complex design and floating elements, but all you have is a laser cutter and some tape? Good news, because that’s all you need with this method of
creating adhesive tape decals on a laser cutter
demonstrated by the folks at [Lasers Over Los Angeles]. The overall technique is very similar to creating vinyl decals and using tape transfer to apply them, but is geared towards laser cutters and nice, cheap tape.
This method also makes applying to non-flat surfaces a breeze.
The way it works is this: paper-based tape (such as blue painter’s tape) is laid down in strips on the laser cutter’s honeycomb bed, forming a nice big rectangle big enough for the intended design. Then, the laser cutter cuts vector art into the tape, resulting in an adhesive decal ready to be stuck to some other surface. Transferring is done by using good quality clear packing tape to “pick up” the decal, then move it to where it needs to be.
To do this, one lays strips of packing tape onto the top of the design on the laser bed, then lifts the design up and away. Move the design to its destination (the clear packing tape helps in eyeballing the final position), press the decal onto the final surface, and carefully peel away the clear packing tape. This works because the packing tape sticks only weakly to the back of the painter’s tape; it’s a strong enough bond to hold the decal, but weak enough that the decal will stick to a surface even better.
It’s true that painter’s tape isn’t as durable as vinyl and the color selection is a bit limited, but design-wise one can go as big as the laser bed allows, and the price is certainly right. Plus it’s easily cut
by even the most anemic of diode lasers
.
Speaking of desktop vinyl cutters, they may have small working areas compared to most laser cutters, but
they have some fantastic workshop applications
. They can even do home PCB fabrication, by way of knocking out three essential pieces:
the etching mask, solder mask, and solder stencil
. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445427",
"author": "Thinkerer",
"timestamp": "2022-03-13T00:26:37",
"content": "If you can get masks (frisket paper/painter’s tape etc.) down accurately, you can use that to play with layers of paint to create a very permanent image from a “negative”. Rattle-can paint is particula... | 1,760,372,762.471249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/12/a-soft-thumb-sized-vision-based-touch-sensor/ | A Soft Thumb-Sized Vision-Based Touch Sensor | Dave Rowntree | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Machine Learning",
"Multitouch Hacks"
] | [
"machine learning",
"optical",
"photometric stereo",
"structured light",
"touch sensing"
] | A team from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany have developed a
novel thumb-shaped touch sensor
capable of resolving the force of a contact, as well as its direction, over the whole surface of the structure. Intended for dexterous manipulation systems, the system is constructed from easily sourced components, so should scale up to a larger assemblies without breaking the bank. The first step is to place a soft and compliant outer skin over a rigid metallic skeleton, which is then illuminated internally using structured light techniques. From there, machine learning can be used to estimate the shear and normal force components of the contact with the skin, over the entire surface, by observing how the internal envelope distorts the structured illumination.
The novelty here is the way they combine both
photometric stereo processing
with other
structured light
techniques, using only a single camera. The camera image is fed straight into a pre-trained machine learning system (details on this part of the system are unfortunately a bit scarce) which directly outputs an estimate of the contact shape and force distribution, with spatial accuracy reported good to less than 1 mm and force resolution down to 30 millinewtons. By directly estimating normal and shear force components the direction of the contact could be resolved to 5 degrees. The system is so sensitive that it can reportedly detect its own posture by observing the deformation of the skin due its own weight alone!
We’ve not covered all that many optical sensing projects, but here’s one using a
linear CIS sensor to turn any TV into a touch screen
. And whilst we’re talking about using cameras as sensors, here’s a neat way to use
optical fibers to read multiple light-gates
with a single camera and OpenCV.
Thanks [LonC] for the tip! | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445398",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-03-12T22:20:09",
"content": "It’s a neat idea but you are really limited by the number of CCD sensors you have… unless you only want to see the surface of a conical object like their ugly thumb example. This isn’t going to be the blu... | 1,760,372,762.417585 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/nail-this-tricky-kumiko-pattern/ | Nail This Tricky Kumiko Pattern | Matthew Carlson | [
"Art"
] | [
"kumiko",
"mig welder",
"MIG Welding",
"welding"
] | [Pask Makes] has previously made Kumiko patterns in wood and was happy with the results, but he wondered if he could make something
visually similar from metal instead of wood
.
For that, he reached for nails as it is a cheap source of uniform small rods of metal.
Kumiko
is, funny enough, a technique known for joining small pieces of wood without nails. There are many different patterns that use the technique and most are inspired by nature. It is the pressure of the wood in the pattern itself that holds it together and requires dedicated planning and thousands of minute adjustments. Since [Pask] was using a MIG welder to hold the nails together, it isn’t technically Kumiko but rather a Kumiko pattern.
The first step was to take the coating off the nails, which is something a little acid does a wonderful job with. After dropping a little acid, his nails were prepped and he was ready to tack them together. He printed a template on a sheet of paper and used a straight edge and a palm router with a groove bit to cut little channels for each of the nails to sit in. The nails were trimmed to the correct width with the help of a small jig. After he had tacked the nails together, he came back and filled in the centers.
It’s a straightforward little project that creates a beautiful pattern and it’s a good reminder that simple materials can make complex things. If you prefer the wood look,
this Kumiko guitar
might be more to your taste. Video after the break. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444922",
"author": "k-ww",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T14:05:18",
"content": "Guess he naiuled it",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6444955",
"author": "Richard O'Donovan",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T15:51:22",
... | 1,760,372,762.368791 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/10/very-fancy-nail-is-actually-a-secret-jewlery-stash/ | Very Fancy Nail Is Actually A Secret Jewlery Stash | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"craftsmanship",
"machining",
"nail",
"stash"
] | Typically, nails are purpose-built things made to hold bits of wood together, with their entire design focused on that purpose. However, [W&M Levsha] went in much the other direction, crafting one very fancy expensive nail in what we can only explain as
a masterful demonstration of their skills.
The build starts with a piece of brass tube, which is engraved with a delicate pattern on an automated lathe. After clean up, the spiralling lines are attractive on the polished brass.A plug is then made for the end of the tube, which gets filed into a point to resemble a nail, hiding the seam between the plug and the tube.
The tube is then threaded to accept a nail head that screws into the top, allowing the “nail” to act as a fancy little stash, which [W&M Levsha] shows off by placing a bracelet inside. The project is finished by crafting a stunning wooden box to hold the fancy nail.
We’ve seen [W&M Levsha]’s handywork before;
the cap-gun cigarette lighter
was a similarly impressive feat of machining and craftsmanship. Video after the break. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444799",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T06:17:09",
"content": "So, not only would a thief steal the nail, because it looks so attractive, but also the secret contents within?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "644481... | 1,760,372,762.571472 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/10/short-circuit-tracer-for-a-buck/ | Short Circuit Tracer For A Buck | Al Williams | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"4 wire resistance",
"continuity tester",
"short circuit"
] | Almost every meter you find today will have a continuity tester. Connect the probes and it will beep if there is a short and won’t if there isn’t. But where is the short? That’s another problem when trying to measure a component that is connected to many other components. [Learn Electronics Repair] wanted to have a tool to find shorts on a board and wanted to build a tester that uses
4-wire resistance measurement
to isolate the device under test without having to do surgery on the circuit. His $1 build appears in the video below.
The first part of the video talks about the theory behind resistance measurement with two and four wires. Let shows several diagrams, but he mentions that at one point he shows an incorrect schematic (at 12:03) instead of the early correct one (at 10:35) and mentions it, but if you are skimming the video, you might get confused.
An old video card with an introduced capacitor short makes a good demo. The meter is able to tell where the short circuit is. The probes won’t win a beauty contest, but it looks workable. The measurement is actually the voltage drop induced by a constant current source, so it isn’t handy to read the actual resistance, but it will show you where a branch is shorted. You could actually do this essentially for free if you have a constant current bench supply and some extra wires.
We’ve covered
4-wire measurements before
, with a focus on how they can zero out lead resistance, but the same idea applies. If you prefer your
explanations in a video
, we saw one recently. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444796",
"author": "Jim Horn WB9SYN/7",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T06:04:52",
"content": "Great concept but a few items to note. His drawn schematic takes the output of the regulator to the device under test but the actual build connects to the regulator’s Adjust pin (which is the co... | 1,760,372,762.770398 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/10/introducing-the-universal-atari-keyboard-case/ | Introducing The Universal Atari Keyboard Case | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"atari",
"atari st",
"keyboard"
] | [10p6] wondered what it would be like if Atari had used a standardized keyboard across its 16-bit and 32-bit computer lines in 1985. Imagination is fun, but building things is even better, and thus they set out to create such a thing.
Enter the Universal Atari Keyboard Case
.
The case design is flexible, and can accept a keyboard from models including the Atari ST and Falcon. The keyboard can then be used with an Atari Mega, TT, or desktop-style Atari computers without mods. It also brings modern peripherals to bear on these old Atari platforms, enabling the use of modern USB mice while also using the two onboard joystick ports. Power and floppy LEDs are present, but subtly hidden beneath the case, only becoming visible when illuminated. It also includes 5-watt stereo speakers for getting the best out of the Atari’s sound hardware.
The final part, a full 473mm long, was 3D printed in resin for a high-quality surface finish. The results are so good it almost looks like a genuine factory keyboard.
If you’re regularly playing with your vintage Atari machines and you want a great keyboard to use with them, this could be the design for you. [10p6] has promised to soon upload the design files to Thingiverse for those
eager to replicate the work.
We’ve also seen retro Atari keyboard converted to work with modern machines. Video after the break. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444823",
"author": "tyjtyj",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T08:10:13",
"content": "similar raspberry pi 400lipo, new usb , hdmi etc. and old connectors",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6444898",
"author": "STrRedWolf",
"timest... | 1,760,372,762.613185 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/10/silent-stepper-motors-make-electromechanical-clock-fit-for-a-living-room/ | Silent Stepper Motors Make Electromechanical Clock Fit For A Living Room | Robin Kearey | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"electromechanical clock",
"seven segment display",
"stepper motor"
] | Large mechanical seven-segment displays have a certain presence that you just don’t get in electronic screens. Part of this comes from the rather satisfying click-click-clack sound they make at every transition. Unfortunately, such a noise quickly becomes annoying in your living room; [David McDaid] therefore designed
a silent electromechanical seven-segment clock
that has all the presence of a mechanical display without the accompanying sound.
As [David] describes in a very comprehensive blog post, the key to this silent operation is to use stepper motors instead of servos, and to drive them using a TMC2208 stepper motor driver. This chip has a unique method of regulating the current that does not introduce mechanical vibrations inside the motor. A drawback compared to servos is the number of control wires required: with four wires going to each motor, cable management becomes a bit of an issue when you try to assemble four seven-segment displays.
The clock is built up on a large piece of MDF, with all 28 motors on the front and the electronics on the back. Custom mounting brackets and the display segments are all 3D printed, while four large PCBs hold the stepper motor drivers and connectors to hook them up to the motors. Additional PCBs hold an Arduino Mega 2560 that runs the whole show, a DS3231 real-time clock for accurate time-keeping, and a power supply to manage the 40-odd watts consumed by the display.
Apart from showing the current time, the clock also includes an alarm, a strip of LED lights, and a “random word generator”: press a button and the display will show a random four-letter word. We’re not sure about the exact use case for that feature, but it’s a neat addition to a very neat build. If you’re into mechanical seven-segment clocks, you’re in luck: we’ve featured ones
based on a single stepper motor
,
tiny ones full of wooden gears
,
one with protruding segments
, and
one with lots of servos that make really smooth movements
. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444732",
"author": "kmatch98",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T01:06:35",
"content": "Lovely work! Especially appreciate your comment about wiring planning. This is excellent, including the random word generator.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,372,762.917669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/10/how-fast-can-you-spin-a-lego-wheel-by-hand/ | How Fast Can You Spin A LEGO Wheel By Hand? | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"brick experiment channel",
"lego",
"wheel"
] | It’s not a question you ask yourself every day, but it’s one that the [Brick Experiment Channel] set out to answer: how fast can you spin a LEGO wheel by hand? In their typical way, they set about building an increasingly complex contraption to optimize for the very specific case of maximum RPM.
The build starts with a LEGO wheel fitted to an axle, supported in two LEGO Technic beams. A white flash mark is also attached onto a part of the axle for measuring the rotational speed with a photo-tachometer. A first attempt gets as fast as 1,700 RPM. Upgrades come thick and fast , and with a three-stage compound geartrain, the handcranked wheel reaches 6,300 RPM. Adding a further stage introduces the problem that the plastic Technic axle begins to twist under the torque input by the hand.
Taking a new approach of pulling on a string to turn the wheel, the first attempt nets 8,300 RPM. Gearing pushes this further to 12,900 revs, but adding more gears again leads to the problem of axles bending under the strain. A bidirectional rope pull design helps, though, and the system reaches 13,100 RPM.
Some of the parts have been damaged thus far, but a rebuild with fresh parts that are nicely lubricated provides a huge boost. The now-slippery shafts run smoother and the wheel hits a blistering 19,300 RPM as the mechanism disassembles itself.
It’s a less complex pursuit than some earlier works from [Brick Experiment Channel],
like the impressive pole climbing designs we’ve seen previously
. However, it’s a video that shows the power of iterative design and the gains possible from that process. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444659",
"author": "N/A",
"timestamp": "2022-03-10T20:27:43",
"content": "Just going to leave this here…https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JZHPXTd4xd0",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6444674",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,372,762.816808 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/10/remoticon-2021-vaibhav-chhabra-and-the-m19-collective-make-one-million-faceshields/ | Remoticon 2021 // Vaibhav Chhabra And The M19 Collective Make One Million Faceshields | Arya Voronova | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackerspaces",
"Medical Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon",
"COVID",
"Covid-19",
"hackerspaces",
"india",
"M19 collective",
"Maker's Asylum",
"Remoticon"
] | [Vaibhav Chhabra], the co-founder of Maker’s Asylum hackerspace in Mumbai, India,
starts his Remoticon talk
by telling a short story about how the hackerspace rose to its current status. Born out of frustration with a collapsed office ceiling, having gone through eight years of moving and reorganizations, it accumulated a loyal participant base – not unusual with hackerspaces that are managed well. This setting provided a perfect breeding ground for the M19 effort when COVID-19 reached India, mixing “what can we do” and “what should we do” inquiries into a perfect storm and starting the 49 day work session that swiftly outgrew the hackerspace, both physically and organizationally.
When the very first two weeks of the Infinite Two Week Quarantine Of 2020 were announced in India, a group of people decided to wait it out at the hackerspace instead of confining themselves to their homes. As various aspects of our society started crashing after the direct impact of COVID-19, news came through – that of a personal protective equipment shortage, especially important for frontline workers. Countries generally were not prepared when it came to PPE, and India was no different. Thus, folks in Maker’s Asylum stepped up, finding themselves in a perfect position to manufacture protective equipment when nobody else was prepared to help.
We’ve seen collective projects like these over the years – this one is magnificent in its thoughtfulness at scale. All of that is here for us to learn from – for instance, nuances of manufacturability optimisations in context of diverse variety of hackerspace infrastructure. An often-forgotten requirement for any project wishing to be successful is expanded upon – keeping the end users, healthcare specialists, in a tight iterative design loop. The sheer amount of this effort, coupled with media coverage, didn’t go unnoticed by other hackerspaces, which is where the challenge of sharing knowledge rose up, and was swiftly dealt with. End result? One million faceshields produced across India’s hackerspaces and other lasercutter-equipped places, in only a bit longer than a month and a half’s time.
After the demand for face shields started to finally get fulfilled, the new capabilities and strengths of the hackerspace consortium were waiting for the next goal to be unlocked – at least, those that didn’t need to be diverted to quality assurance and keeping the effort running. The experiences and frameworks developed during are now a vital part of a research case study and QA/QC principle formation effort, both led and funded by University of Cambridge. In turn, the maker resources available were then directed towards designing and manufacturing oxygen concentrators, as well as repairing the ones that were just waiting to be put into working order.
If you were ever looking for a tale of a myriad hackerspaces collaborating on a social project, this is it – and there’s plenty to learn for anyone wishing to inspire other hackers to conquer large social problems. This talk covers about every part of the process that you would like to learn from, wrapped in an exciting story you could make a documentary on. The effort lives on, and we will certainly see its principles in action whenever it is that the next storm hits us. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444652",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2022-03-10T20:11:41",
"content": "Amazing anti-sputtering technology. It would be nice IF it would protect from Covid.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6444661",
"author": "DainBramage... | 1,760,372,762.862009 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/you-can-build-your-own-sushi-train/ | You Can Build Your Own Sushi Train | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"lazy susan",
"sushi train"
] | According to [Garage Avenger], in Norwegian culture it’s considered impolite to ask for things to be passed across a dinner table, so much standing and reaching is the course of the day. To assist in reducing the effort required, he set about building his own sushi train device to solve the problem,
giving equal condiment access to all!
The system is capable of taking plenty of weight from heavy dinner bowls, altogether quite different than relatively-light sushi dishes on plastic plates.
The system is actually relatively simple, relying on a Wemos D1 Mini controlled by a Blynk app to run the show. Mechanically, a large drive gears is turned by a stepper motor to drive the wooden conveyor chain that actually makes up the “sushi train.” The chain links ride on a bed of Norwegian one krone coins acting as rollers.
The result is a working table-sized sushi train that really does carry plates around well. It didn’t stop people leaning over [Garage Avenger] at the dinner table, but it makes a great centerpiece on the dinner table for sharing dishes like tacos.
We’ve seen similar table technology,
the Lazy Susan
, around these parts before. Video after the break. | 20 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445068",
"author": "GekkePrutser",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T21:09:56",
"content": "“According to [Garage Avenger], in Norwegian culture it’s considered impolite to ask for things to be passed across a dinner table, so much standing and reaching is the course of the day. To assist i... | 1,760,372,762.980479 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/a-wireless-headphone-charger-without-the-wireless/ | A Wireless Headphone Charger Without The Wireless | Jenny List | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"batteries",
"charging",
"wireless"
] | We’re all used to the idea of wireless charging, usually in the form of an induction coil on which a mobile phone or other appliance can be placed for a top-up. Not every battery-powered appliance has a built-in wireless charging coil though, meaning that despite the tech being available we all still have a jumble of wires.
[Sergio Costas] has a simple solution to conjuring wireless charging from thin air in
his headphone stand, which conceals a set of charging contacts
. It’s by no means a new idea and it might seem like an obvious hack, but it undeniably does away with the wires and we like it. After all, if it were that obvious, none of us would have that mess of chargers.
The headphones in question are a Bluetooth wireless pair, and the charging contacts have been brought out via a voltage regulator and a bridge rectifier to a pair of copper tapes along the sides of the headband. These mate with matching contacts in a 3D printed holder to which 12 VDC has been applied. Perhaps he’s just reinvented the springy contacts you’ll find on any cordless home phone, but it’s unquestionably a charger without wires.
Meanwhile if you have a conventional wireless charger,
how do you know it’s working
? | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445050",
"author": "Fred",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T20:14:21",
"content": "If crystal radios can deliver audio without batteries/external power from a radio source 100 miles away, why can’t we build a wireless headset using the same concept that can receive RF from your phone or co... | 1,760,372,763.316268 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/the-metal-3d-printing-hack-chat-brings-the-heat/ | The Metal 3D Printing Hack Chat Brings The Heat | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"3d printing",
"electron beam",
"electron beam welding",
"Hack Chat",
"laser sintering",
"metal 3d printer",
"powdered metal"
] | At this point, it’s safe to say the novelty of desktop 3D printing has worn off. The community has largely come to terms with the limitations of extruded plastics, and while we still vehemently believe that it’s a transformative technology, we’ll admit there aren’t too many applications where a $200 USD printer squirting out PLA is truly the best tool for the job.
But rather than looking at today’s consumer 3D printer market as the end of the line, what if it’s just the beginning? With the problems of slicing, motion control, and extrusion more or less solved when it comes to machines that print in plastic, is it finally time to turn our attention to the unique problems inherent in building affordable metal printers? Agustin Cruz certainly thinks so,
which is why he took to the Hack Chat this week
to talk about his personal vision for an
open source 3D printer that can turn powdered metals into solid objects
by way of a carefully controlled electron beam.
To be clear, Agustin isn’t suggesting you toss out your Creality anytime soon. Metal 3D printing will always be a niche within a niche, but for applications where even advanced engineering plastics like PEI and PEEK simply won’t do, he argues the community needs to have a cheap and accessible option. Especially for developing and low income countries where traditional manufacturing may be difficult. The machine he’s been working on wouldn’t be outside the capabilities of an individual to build and operate, but at least for right now the primary target is hospitals, colleges, and small companies.
The Chat was full of technical questions about Agustin’s design, and he wasn’t shy about tackling them. Some wondered why he decided to sinter the metal powder with an electron gun when solid-state lasers are cheap, easily available, and relatively straightforward to work with. But while the laser might seem like the easier solution on the surface, Agustin points out that using a magnetically focused electron beam gives his printer some unique capabilities.
For example, he can easily defocus the beam and pass it over the entire build plate to pre-heat the powder. The steerable beam doesn’t require mirrors either, which not only reduces the weight and complexity of the machine, but in theory should allow for faster print speeds. The beam can be moved in the X/Y dimensions with an accuracy of 0.01 mm, and while the beam diameter is currently a respectable 0.5 mm, Agustin says he’s working on bringing that down to 0.1 mm for high detail work. The temperature at the focal point of the beam is between 1,400 and 1,500 °C, which he notes is not only hot enough to melt the powdered metal, but can also weld stainless steel.
But, there’s a downside. As brought up by several people in the Chat, using an electron beam requires the build chamber be pulled down to a vacuum. Some wondered how the fine metal powder would react to vacuum conditions, while others noted that
oil from the diffusion pump
would likely contaminate the powder. Then of course there’s the inevitable difficulty in sealing the chamber, as well as the added bulk and weight such a structure brings to the table. Still, Agustin maintains the concept works well enough in his proof of concept machine, and believes pulling a vacuum will always be easier than producing a high-power laser beam.
Speaking of which, Agustin says his prototype is roughly 70% complete as of right now. He’s got the stainless steel vacuum chamber that encapsulates the 5 cm diameter build area, the pumps to pull it down, the custom-built electron gun, and the necessary power supply and sensors to drive it all safely. It consumes around 1,500 watts while in operation, of which 100 watts is devoted to the electron gun itself. What he
doesn’t
have right now is a Z axis, but it sounds like the design is already rattling around in his head.
We’re very glad Agustin was able to take the time to talk with the community about his project, and hope it gets more people thinking about the possibilities of 3D printing with metal. We’ll be keeping a close eye on his prototype over the coming months to see how things develop, and we think you should to. Will his electron beam concept pan out? Will laser sintering end up being the more successful approach? Honestly we don’t know, but we’re eager to find out.
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. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6445028",
"author": "Joel",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T19:06:11",
"content": "Does Agustin’s design account for potential x-ray generation?There must be a reason commercial machines went with the $6k lasers and added certification costs.Still a very cool project… =)Note, the community... | 1,760,372,763.17545 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/hackaday-podcast-159-zombie-killer-or-rug-maker-3d-printed-rims-1950s-drum-machines-and-batteries-on-wheels/ | Hackaday Podcast 159: Zombie Killer Or Rug Maker, 3D Printed Rims, 1950s Drum Machines, And Batteries On Wheels | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Join Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi as they look back on the best hacks and stories of the previous week. There’s plenty in the news to talk about, though between faulty altimeters and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, it isn’t exactly of the positive variety. But things brighten up quickly as discussion moves on to 3D printed car wheels, a fantastically complex drum machine from 1958, a unique take on the seven-segment flip display, and a meticulously designed (and documented) coffee machine upgrade. Somewhere in there a guy also recreates a rare German anti-air rocket launcher from WWII, but it’s all in the name of history. We’ll also tackle two very different forms of electric propulsion, from the massive wheeled batteries popping up in garages and driveways all over the world to high-efficiency thrusters for deep space missions.
Direct Download
(~60 MB)
Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
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Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 159 Show Notes:
News This Week:
Greedy Receivers: FCC Considers Regulating Receivers After Altimeter Showdown
The Invisible Battlefields Of The Russia-Ukraine War
What’s that Sound?
This week’s sound was from the arcade version of
Gauntlet
. Congratulations to [David]!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Robotic Tufting Gun Fires Off CNC Textiles
rug reference – YouTube
RugBot 1000 – YouTube
The 3D Printed Car Tire Rim Finally Hits The Road, Sorta
Antique Beat Box Showcases 1950’s Engineering Prowess
Logic Noise: Filters And Drums
The ‘Rhythmicon’ Henry Cowell & Leon Termen. USA, 1930 – 120 Years of Electronic Music
ModularSynthesis – Circle Machine
The Fliegerfaust Roars Back To Life After 77 Years
One Stepper Plus A Whole Bunch Of Magnets Equals A Unique Seven-Segment Display
Extreme Espresso, Part 2: An Inductive Water Level Sensor
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
There’s More In A Cardboard Box Than What Goes In The Cardboard Box
A Variable Capacitor For Not A Lot
The Hunt For The Voice Of Utah’s Arches
Tom’s Picks:
Upgraded 3D Printed Tank Gets Better Drivetrain And Controls
Daft Punk Word Clock Goes Stronger And Faster
Nintendo Switch Runs Vita Software With Vita2hos
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Grid Batteries On Wheels: The Complicated Logistics Of Vehicle-Grid Integration
Ion Thrusters: Not Just For TIE Fighters Anymore | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,763.263038 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/boat-anchor-twins-get-a-little-digital-help-staying-on-frequency/ | Boat Anchor Twins Get A Little Digital Help Staying On Frequency | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"ad9850",
"amateur radio",
"dds",
"direct digital synthesis",
"drake",
"ham",
"variable frequency oscillator",
"VFO"
] | In the ham radio trade, gear such as the old Drake units [Dr. Scott M. Baker] has in his radio shack are often referred to as “boat anchors.” It refers to big, heavy radios that were perhaps a bit overengineered compared to the state of the art at the time they were designed, and it’s actually a shame that the name has taken on something of a pejorative connotation, since some of this gear is rock solid half a century or more after it was built.
But older gear is often harder to use, at least compared to the newer radios with microcontrollers and more stable oscillators inside. To make his 1970s-era Drake “Twins” setup of separate but linked receiver and transmitter a little more fun to use, [Scott] came up with
this neat Raspberry Pi-based DDS-VFO project
to keep his boat anchors afloat. Compared to the original mechanically tuned variable frequency oscillator in the Drake receiver, the direct-digital synthesis method promises more stability, meaning less knob-nudging to stay on frequency.
The hardware used for the DDS-VFO is actually pretty simple — just a Raspberry Pi Zero W driving an AD9850-based signal-generator module. Sending the signal to the Twins was another matter. That was done by tapping into the injection cable linking both units, which meant a few circuit complications to deal with signal attenuation. [Scott] also added amenities like a digital frequency display, optical encoder with crank-style knob to change frequency, and a host of Cherry MX keyswitches for quick access to different features.
From the look of the video below, the Twins are now rock-solid and a lot easier to use. This project is loosely based on
a recent panadapter project
[Scott] undertook for the receiver side of the Twins. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444964",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T16:23:41",
"content": "In the fifties, there was a letter to CQ magazine, asking what to do with a piece of surplus electronics. There was a reply, “tie a chain to it and use as a boatanchor”.I’ve seen the letter, I’ve se... | 1,760,372,763.224468 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/this-week-in-security-ddos-techniques-dirty-pipe-and-lapsus-continued/ | This Week In Security: DDoS Techniques, Dirty Pipe, And Lapsus$ Continued | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"CVE-2022-0847",
"DirtyPipe",
"Lapsus$"
] | Denial-of-Service (DoS) amplification. Relatively early in the history of the Internet — it was only 14 years old at the time — the first DoS amplification attack was discovered. [TFreak] put together
smurf.c
, likely in 1997, though it’s difficult to nail the date down precisely.
The first real DoS attack had only happened a year before, in 1996. Smurf worked by crafting ICMP packets with spoofed source addresses, and sending those packets to a network’s broadcast address. A host that received the request would send the packet to the target, and if multiple hosts responded, you got a bigger DoS attack for free. Fast forward to 1999, and the first botnet pulled off a Distributed DoS, DDoS, attack. Ever since then, there’s been an ongoing escalation of DDoS traffic size and the capability of mitigations.
DNS and NTP quickly became the popular choice for amplification, with NTP requests managing an amplification factor of 556, meaning that for every byte an attacker sent, the amplifying intermediary would send 556 bytes on to the victim. You may notice that so far, none of the vulnerable services use TCP. The three-way handshake of TCP generally prevents the sort of misdirection needed for an amplified attack. Put simply, you can’t effectively spoof your source address with TCP.
There are a pair of new games in town, with the first being
a clever use of “middleboxes”
, devices like firewalls, Intrusion Prevention Systems, and content filters. These devices watch traffic and filter content or potential attacks. The key here is that many such devices aren’t actually tracking TCP handshakes, it would be prohibitively memory and CPU intensive. Instead, most such devices just inspect as many packets as they can. This has the unexpected effect of defeating the built-in anti-spoofing of TCP.
An attacker can send a spoofed TCP packet, no handshake required, and a vulnerable middlebox will miss the fact that it’s spoofed. While that’s interesting in itself, what’s really notable is what happens when the packet appears to be a request for a vulnerable or blocked resource. The appliance tries to interrupt the stream, and inject an error message back to the requester. Since the requestor can be spoofed, this allows using these devices as DDoS amplifiers. As some of these services respond to a single packet with what is essentially an entire web page to convey the error, the amplification factor is literally off the charts. This research was published August 2021, and late February of this year,
researchers at Akamai have seen DDoS attacks
actually using this technique in the wild.
The
second new technique is even more alien
. Certain Mitel PBXs have a stress-test capability, essentially a speed test on steroids. It’s intended to only be used on an internal network, not an external target, but until a recent firmware update that wasn’t enforced. For nearly 3,000 of these devices, an attacker could send a single packet, and trigger the test against an arbitrary host. This attack, too, has recently been seen in the wild, though in what appears to be test runs. The stress test can last up to 14 hours at worst, leading to a maximum amplification factor if over four billion, measured in packets. The biggest problem is that phone systems like these a generally never touched unless there’s a problem, and there’s a decent chance that no one on site has the login credentials. That is to say, expect these to be vulnerable for a long time to come.
Dirty Pipe
This
Linux vulnerability was found in the wild
— not as a vulnerability, but just a regular old bug. [Max Kellermann] of CM4all had a customer that was seeing corrupted log archives. A single corrupted file isn’t unheard of, but this was the same daily log archive, corrupted in the same way repeatedly. This sort of reproducibility tends to make developers excited, because it means a specific bug that can be tracked down and fixed. So, he started looking for a bug in his code. After eliminating his own code as the culprit, he eventually concluded this was a kernel bug.
When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
— Sherlock Holmes
The bug turned out to be CVE-2022-0847, demonstrated by a pair of simple programs:
#include <unistd.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
for (;;) write(1, "AAAAA", 5);
}
// ./writer >foo
and
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
for (;;) {
splice(0, 0, 1, 0, 2, 0);
write(1, "BBBBB", 5);
}
}
// ./splicer <foo |cat >/dev/null
I was able to replicate this bug on one of my machines, by first creating a file,
touch foo
. Next, start the splicer program running:
./splicer /dev/null
. Then finally run the writer program:
./writer >foo
Let it run for a few seconds, and then terminate both processes. If there is no vulnerability, then
foo
will only contain a long string of “AAAAA”s. On the machine with a vulnerable kernel, grep revealed a multitude of “BBBBB”s mixed in.
The key here is the logic behind
splice()
. This system call is extremely useful for moving data quickly, as it asks the kernel to do the data copy between file descriptors without the need to move any bits into userspace. The problem is that you can call a splice on a pipe, a one-way communication tool, from the wrong side. In the example code above, the redirect operator
<
is used to read data from a file into a process’s standard input. Under the hood, that uses a pipe, and you can
splice()
into that pipe. The syscall moves the requested data into a cache, and then a check is performed as to whether the splice is allowed to complete. An old quirk relating to how this cache was handled was finally turned into a serious bug by a refactor in Linux 5.8. Suddenly, some of those
splice()
requests complete when they shouldn’t.
This bug allows any user to write data to any file they have read access on. That’s bad. There are a couple caveats — mainly that the user must have read access to the path and file to be tampered with. On my system, that means that
/root/.ssh/authorized_keys
can’t be tampered with. Next, this vulnerability can’t change the size of a file — it will only overwrite data, and that overwrite can’t include the first character of the file. At first glance, this blunts the severity quite a bit, but there’s another approach that a slightly more sophisticated actor could use: modifying setuid binaries. If you can change binaries, you can introduce your own vulnerability. In short? This vulnerability gives elevation to root to anyone with an interactive shell.
Edit: Thanks to Gravis for pointing out the missing information here. DirtyPipe was introduced as part of a refactor in kernel 5.8, and fixed in 5.16.11 and 5.15.25. LTS kernel 5.10.102 has also received the backported fix.
More Lapsus$ News
This story keeps giving, and there are a bunch of developments to cover. First, part of the Nvidia leak that has been released was an old signing key. Rather then being a useless proof of the hack, this has proven to be a potent tool for attackers. Why? Windows honors drivers signed with expired signatures. And already,
the leaked sig has been used in attacks
.
LAPSUS$ extortion group have successfully breached both NVIDIA & Samsung.
-March 1st: They demand NVIDIA open-source its drivers, or else they will
-March 4th: LAPSUS$ released Samsung proprietary source code.
See attached images for more details directly from LAPSUS$
pic.twitter.com/U3VD7R2KRl
— vx-underground (@vxunderground)
March 4, 2022
The next turn in this story is that Samsung has been breached by the same group, and
nearly 200 GB of that data has been released
. Keys and source code are part of the release, so watch out for more developments as researchers and malware authors work through that trove.
Bits and Bytes
There’s a rather hilarious occurrence, that also manages to be extremely annoying, when a Google ad manages to trigger Google Assistant on the very device that plays the ad. Leave it to security researchers, to
find a way to weaponize this quirk of modern devices
. Approach #1 is a malicious radio station. Just like listening to your favorite tech podcast, and the host accidentally mentions Alexa. Some of the details have been patched, but smart devices can still be vulnerable in some cases.
Google has announced their acquisition of Mandiant
, one of the larger cybersecurity firm. This is the group that led the investigation of both the SolarWinds and Colonial Pipeline attacks. Google’s plan is to put this new subsidiary in their cloud division, in order to bulk up their security offerings. Read more at
Google’s announcement
.
There’s a series of bugs found in the VoipMonitor platform
, the worst of which being an RCE chain. VoipMonitor is used to monitor VoIP traffic — it’s right there in the name — and keep track of jitter and call quality. The fixes have landed in 24.97, so if your organization uses this software, make sure it’s up-to-date!
A
pair of Firefox vulnerabilities have been patched
, both use-after-free problems. Present in both Firefox and Thunderbird, these flaws have been reported to be in use in the wild. The fixes landed in Firefox 97.0.2 and Thunderbird 91.6.2.
Adafruit has announced
a breach of customer data
. A data set built from real data was being used for employee training, and when that employee left the company, a GitHub repository was unintentionally made public with that data. The data exposed was limited, and affected users are being notified via email.
And finally, [Troy Hunt] is back with a devilish idea — the kind of mischief we can get behind. Tired of spammers, he is
creating a password purgatory
to send these malcontents to. To accomplish their spammy ends, a spammer just needs to create an account. Except, of course, this is purgatory. No matter what password is chosen, it violates some odd password rule. You want to use
P@ssw0rd!337
? Sorry, this password must not contain two “s” characters in a row.
P@5sw0rd!337
This password must include at least two capitol letters. Ad nauseum. Will it dissuade any spammers from their annoying ways? Probably not, but we can look forward to a write-up on the fallout after the project is finished and run for a while. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444942",
"author": "UnderSampled",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T15:15:33",
"content": "“This bug allows any user to write data to any file they have read access on. … the user must have write access to the file to be tampered with.”Perhaps you meant to reiterate that they need *read* a... | 1,760,372,763.383589 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/11/is-your-tape-dispenser-radioactive/ | Is Your Tape Dispenser Radioactive? | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"geiger counter",
"monazite",
"radioactive",
"thorium"
] | Do you have anything radioactive in your house? Most people will say no, but they are probably wrong. A host of things ranging from glow-in-the dark timepieces to smoke detectors have some amount of radioactivity. But as [Wheeler Scientific] points out, so do some
old Scotch tape dispensers
. You can watch the video, below.
The dispenser in question is the C-15 which was very common around offices, military bases, and homes for years. They were made up until the 1980s. You have to wonder why a tape dispenser would be radioactive, and [Wheeler] has the explanation.
When you pull tape from the dispenser, you don’t want the dispenser to slide around the desk, so it needs to be heavy. But no one wants to have a giant dispenser nor do you want to pay for one made from a dense metal. So the plastic dispenser contains a ballast to make it heavier. In the case of the C-15 that ballast is thorium-containing monazite sand. A vintage counter shows the radioactivity which isn’t much, of course, but still way less than the ordinary sand used in newer models. You can also see in the video that the material is paramagnetic.
Monazite used to be a primary source of lanthanides but getting rid of the thorium led to alternate sources in the 1960s although it is still used as an ore for thorium. We know some
lenses
are radioactive. If you want to search your home for radioactivity and you don’t have a Geiger counter, you
don’t need much to build one
. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444894",
"author": "Some Guy",
"timestamp": "2022-03-11T12:19:22",
"content": "Way less, or way more, than the ordinary sand used in newer models?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6444991",
"author": "CigaretteTricks",... | 1,760,372,763.449915 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/10/announcing-the-2022-hackaday-io-sci-fi-contest/ | Announcing: The 2022 Hackaday.io Sci-Fi Contest | Elliot Williams | [
"contests",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"contest",
"costume",
"hackaday.io",
"prop",
"robot",
"sci-fi",
"science fiction",
"spaceship"
] | Ladies and Gentlemen, Sentient robots, Travellers from the distant future, or Aliens from the outer rim, it’s time to
enter the 2022 Hackaday.io Sci-Fi Contest
!
We
last ran the Sci-Fi contest
in the far, far past — before the Voigt-Kampff machine was detecting replicants on the gritty streets of 2019’s LA. Back then, we had some out-of-this-world entries. It’s time for the sequel.
Thanks to Digi-Key, the contest’s sponsor, your best blaster, your coolest costume, or your most righteous robot could win you one of three $150 shopping sprees in their parts warehouse. Create a
Hackaday.io project
, enter it in the contest, and you’re set. You might as well do that right now, but the contest closes on April 25th.
Sci-Fi is all about the looks, so if it’s purely decorative, be sure to blind us with science (fiction). If your project actually functions, so much the better! Of course we’d like to know how it works and how you made it, so documentation of the project is the other big scoring category. Whatever it is, it’s got to be sci-fi, and it’s got to have some electronics in it.
If you’re looking for inspiration, you could do a lot worse than to check out [Jerome Kelty]’s
Animatronic Stargate Helmet
, that not coincidentally took the grand prize last time around. It’s an artistic and engineering masterpiece all rolled into one, and the description of how it’s made is just as extensive. [Jochen Alt]’s “
Paul
” robot isn’t out of any particular sci-fi franchise that we know, but of rolling on one ball and reciting robot poetry, it absolutely should be.
Honorable Mentions
In addition to the overall prizes, we’ll be recognizing the best projects in the following honorable mention categories:
Star Star
: Whether you’re “beam me up” or “use the force”, fans of either of the “Star” franchises are eligible for this honorable mention.
ExoSuit
: This category recognizes sci-fi creations that you can wear. Costumes and armor fit in here.
Stolen off the Set
: If your blaster looks exactly like Han Solo’s, you’re a winner here. This is the category for your best prop replica.
Living in the Future
: If your sci-fi device was purely fantasy when imagined, but now it’s realizable, you’re living in the future. A working tricorder or a functioning robot companion would fit in fine here.
The Most Important Device
: Has no function, but it certainly looks like it does.
Just blinking lights that blink back and forth, yet the government spent millions of dollars on it
.
You don’t have to tell us where your project fits in. We’ve got you covered.
Engage!
Get started now by creating a project page on Hackaday.io. In the left sidebar of your project page, use the “Submit Project To” button to enter in the 2022 Sci-Fi Contest.
You have from now until April 25, 2022 to get it finished. Of course, if your time machine actually
works
, you can finish it whenever. Check out the
Hackaday.io contest page
for all the fine print. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6444607",
"author": "Daniel Matthews",
"timestamp": "2022-03-10T18:10:17",
"content": "If it isn’t hard science fiction then it is really just fantasy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6444752",
"author": "Johnson",
... | 1,760,372,763.499546 |
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