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https://hackaday.com/2022/02/18/commodore-64-monitor-traces-i-o-calls-eases-debugging/ | Commodore 64 Monitor Traces I/O Calls, Eases Debugging | Donald Papp | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Software Development"
] | [
"c-64",
"c64",
"commodore",
"kernal",
"retro",
"trace"
] | Developing for the Commodore 64 can be a rewarding retrocomputing experience, and thanks to [Dave Van Wagner], things are easier with his
C64 IO_Monitor project
, which opens the door to logging and tracing Kernal I/O calls for closer inspection. That’s not a typo, by the way.
Kernal
is what handles the C64’s low-level OS routines. Amusingly, as the story goes, it did in fact originate as a misspelling of
kernel
, but the name stuck.
What [Dave]’s program does is trace and log all input and output calls going through Kernal, which includes just about any function one might imagine. Things like keyboard input, screen output, and disk or tape I/O are all dutifully counted and logged, allowing one to really peek under the hood at a low level when doing any kind of development work. This kind of tool has turned out to be pretty handy given [Dave]’s penchant for
porting Commodore emulators to a variety of (sometimes unusual) platforms
.
Interested in giving it a spin? Head to the project’s
GitHub repository
for all the necessary files as well as some usage details, and enjoy making debugging and development a little less opaque than it otherwise would be. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6427467",
"author": "Marvin",
"timestamp": "2022-02-18T09:55:35",
"content": "I always understood “KERNAL” as “KERN ALgorithmus” => “core algorithm” in german :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6427553",
"author": "Gra... | 1,760,372,786.753081 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/17/building-a-high-capacity-linear-servo-actuator/ | Building A High-Capacity Linear Servo Actuator | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"linear actuator"
] | Linear actuators are useful things, moving things in straight lines rather than annoying circles like so many motors. [Retsetman] recently built
a linear servo actuator of his own design with accurate positional control.
The design relies on a carriage that moves along a threaded rod, perhaps the most rudimentary design of linear actuator. A large brushed DC motor is used to turn the threaded rod through a 3D-printed 9:1 herringbone geartrain, shifting the actuator back and forth. End stop switches are used to disengage the motor to avoid damage to the mechanism. Feedback is via a ten-turn potentiometer driven off the output geartrain to match the range of the actuator to the rotational range of the pot.
The final build has a stroke of approximately 100 mm, and can lift and hold a 15 kg weight with ease. In a pull test, the actuator failed at a load just shy of 100 kg. If you’re looking for something smaller, though, you can try building a linear actuator
out of old DVD drive parts instead
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to BaldPower for the tip!] | 19 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6427457",
"author": "Krzysztof",
"timestamp": "2022-02-18T08:58:44",
"content": "It didn’t FAIL at 100kg, it just maxed out at 100kg, but could still release and work correctly after this. That’s a HUGE success in my opinion.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,372,786.961282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/17/high-power-laser-salvaged-from-headlights/ | High-Power Laser Salvaged From Headlights | Al Williams | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"laser",
"laser headlights"
] | [DiodeGoneWild]’s latest video lives up to the name. He
takes apart a laser headlight
to recover a pretty powerful blue laser. You can see the video, below.
The headlights work with blue laser diodes that excite phosphor to produce white light. Removing the outside trappings revealed a three-pin laser diode (the case is the third pin). There’s also a substantial heatsink. Removing the diode from the assembly is difficult, but it is easy enough to leave it in the heatsink and use the existing connector.
Of course, the phosphor and a filter have to go. Some destructive work with a screwdriver and pliers broke out the optics from a diode he’d destroyed trying to remove it. Then he replaced the optics on the remaining diode with the modified housing.
With a low-current test, the diode didn’t lase but did act as a regular LED. More current did the trick, though. The laser without the optics made a line rather than a spot but still had enough power to melt some plastic and light matches. To get a parallel beam, the internal lens needs to move closer to the diode, and a drill bit allowed that to happen, which reduced the beam’s divergence quite a bit, but didn’t create the best result.
With the proliferation of cheap laser modules, it is really worth scrapping a headlight? Maybe. But it is an interesting look inside of a modern headlight, either way. We’ve
peeked inside
these headlights before. Maybe you can turn those old headlights
into an oven
. | 55 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6427127",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2022-02-17T13:17:52",
"content": "A typical halogen headlight bulb is about 55 or 60 Watts. Efficiency is around 3.5% so 2 Watts radiated. A pair of 1W near UV lasers plus phosphor should yield about the same power output. The phosphors ar... | 1,760,372,787.140314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/17/sending-midi-wirelessly-with-the-nrf24l01/ | Sending MIDI Wirelessly With The NRF24L01 | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"midi",
"nRF24L01+",
"wireless midi"
] | MIDI is a standard known by musicians and instruments all over the world. The basic twist on regular serial has helped studios around the world to work more efficiently. [Kevin] wanted to try sending MIDI data wirelessly, but rather than the typical Bluetooth solution,
decided to use the humble nRF24L01 instead.
The circuitry used is simple: [Kevin] simply wired up two Arduino Unos with nRF24L01 radio modules, which communicate over SPI. Alternatively, an even quicker solution is to use a Keywish Arduino RF Nano, which packs a nRF24L01 on board. One Arduino can then be hooked up to a MIDI OUT port on an instrument, and it will send out MIDI signals wirelessly. The second Arduino can then be plugged into a MIDI IN port and repeat out what it receives over the air.
The real work was in the firmware, which takes MIDI data and packages it in a suitable form to send out over the nRF24L01. The system can operate in a one-to-one mode, emulating a single MIDI cable, or
a multicast mode
, where one sender transmits information to many receivers.
It’s a neat hack and one we could imagine would be useful in some fun performance situations. We’ve seen others do work on wireless MIDI interfaces
for Eurorack hardware, too.
Video after the break. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6427083",
"author": "zoobab",
"timestamp": "2022-02-17T09:43:50",
"content": "I worked on a similar project with USB-midi dongles (some cheap WCH based ones were unreliable) connected to an openwrt router:https://github.com/ZyreApps/DeMidiSo that several pianos could play at the sam... | 1,760,372,787.320381 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/coin-operated-graphing-calculator-console/ | Coin-Operated Graphing Calculator Console | Chris Lott | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"coin operated",
"graphing calculator",
"retro game console",
"Satire",
"video game console"
] | Longtime hacker [Peter Jansen] was so impressed with a piece in The Onion from last year that he decided to build
this coin-operated Texas Instruments graphing calculator console
on a whim (video below the break — warning vertical orientation).
With nothing more to go on than the fake mock-up pictured from the
original satirical article
, [Peter] was able to scale the dimensions from the photo making a few reasonable assumptions. He built the project over the holidays, enlisting his father and daughter as helpers. The cabinet is framed in 2×3 lumber and faced with wood veneer covered plywood and vinyl overlays for the graphics.
The computing power is from a Raspberry Pi with an Arduino Uno serves as an I/O processor. It was a bit tricky to control a calculator with only two knobs, but he makes it work. However, at 25 cents per plot with no apparent hard-copy capability, this console calculator might be a bit pricey for all but casual plotting over a few beers at the local pub.
You might remember [Peter] from some of his hacks we featured over the years, like his
home-brew CT scanner
or placing fourth in the first Hackaday Prize contest in 2014 with the
open sourced tricorder project
. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6427038",
"author": "Alysson+Rowan",
"timestamp": "2022-02-17T06:24:18",
"content": "Please explain to me why I actually want one of these, because I do.I love it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6427057",
"author": "Leonard... | 1,760,372,787.277773 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/a-png-based-circuit-simulator/ | A PNG Based Circuit Simulator | Matthew Carlson | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"digital logic",
"python",
"simulation",
"simulator"
] | We’re sure thousands of hours have been spent in Minecraft implementing digital logic. Inspired by that, [lynnpepin] created a
digital logic simulator named Reso that is based on pixels rather than voxels
.
There are a few clever things here. First, different colors represent different parts. There are three different colors of wire, output and input wires, XOR gates, and AND gates. OR gates are just output wires, which or all the input wires together. By implementing these gates, Reso is, by definition, Turing complete. Since it’s just a PNG, it is trivial to open it up in GIMP and copy and paste one bit of the circuit multiple times. The different color wires are mainly to help route in a 2d plane, as you don’t have vias. Currently, the image compiles into a graph that is executed. [Lynn] chose code readability and ease of prototyping over premature optimization, so the code isn’t particularly fast. But it is pretty fun, squinting at the pixels that make up the adders and clocks he has on his blog. After giving Reso your image, it outputs a series of images that enumerate the state for several states.
The
code is available on Github
, and a Rust version has already been written that offers some impressive speed improvements at the expense of not being at feature parity yet. If MS-Paint isn’t your IDE of choice, perhaps a
more Javascript-based digital logic simulator might be more to your taste
. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426997",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2022-02-17T03:27:32",
"content": "Well, at least [Lynn Pepin] is honest and forthcoming. Quoting…Reso is bad because:* It’s inaccessible to those who are blind* It’s inaccessible to those who are colorblind* It’s inaccessible to those who h... | 1,760,372,787.365282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/weird-phosphor-conversion-leds-found-in-cheap-led-string/ | Weird Phosphor Conversion LEDs Found In Cheap LED String | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"phosphor",
"phosphor coating"
] | [Tim] recently found himself tinkering with a cheap string of LEDs. Far from an advanced, IC-controlled addressable set, these were merely a string with LEDs of four colors that could be switched on and off. However, digging in to the LEDs themselves
turned up a curious find
.
The LEDs were set up in a parallel/anti-parallel fashion. The two power lines ran the length of the string, with all the LEDs installed across them. If polarity was applied in one direction, the red and yellow LEDs would light up, in the other, the blue and green LEDs would light together.
This raised a question for [Tim], as typically, different LEDs light up at different forward voltages and this can cause issues when running different color LEDs in parallel together. What he instead found was that all the LEDs were actually blue LEDs in their fundamental construction. However, the red, yellow, and green LEDs had all been given a phosphor coating. In these devices, when the blue LED underneath lit up, the phosphor converted the light into the desired color. [Tim] was able to confirm this behaviour by illuminating the phosphor manually using an external UV-A LED.
It’s an interesting choice, but it’s certainly one way of making a multicolored string of LEDs. If you wanna get fancier though, consider studying
this tutorial on working with addressable LED strings!
[Thanks to J Peterson for the tip!] | 40 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426906",
"author": "Canoe",
"timestamp": "2022-02-17T00:28:50",
"content": "Neat!A Blue-Pump LED for red, yellow & green, like Blue-Pump white LEDs.I would be interesting to see if the current is the same for each color:– are the under laying Blue-Pumps the same for each color and/... | 1,760,372,787.437686 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/put-a-little-piece-of-the-james-webb-on-your-wall/ | Put A Little Piece Of The James Webb On Your Wall | Tom Nardi | [
"Art",
"Space"
] | [
"CNC router",
"james webb space telescope",
"jwst",
"mirror",
"wall art"
] | The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has become something of a celebrity here on Earth, and rightfully so. After decades of development, the $10 billion deep space observatory promises to peel back the mysteries of the universe in a way that simply hasn’t been possible until now. Plus, let’s be honest, the thing just looks ridiculously cool.
So is it
really
such a surprise that folks would want a piece of this marvel hanging up in their wall? No, it’s not the real thing, but
this rendition of the JWST’s primary mirror
created by [James Kiefer] and [Ryan Kramer] certainly gets the point across.
A CNC router was used to cut the outside shape from a piece of 1/2 inch MDF, as well as put 1 mm deep pockets in the face to accept the hexagonal golden acrylic mirrors. We originally thought the mirrors were also custom made, but somewhat surprisingly, gold-tinted hex mirrors are apparently popular enough in the home decor scene that they’re readily available online for cheap. A quick check with
everyone’s favorite
a large online bookseller turned global superpower shows them selling for as little as $0.50 a piece.
With a coat of black paint on the MDF, the finished piece really does look the part. We imagine it’s fairly heavy though, and wonder how it would have worked out if the back panel was cut from a piece of thick foam board instead.
Of course this isn’t a terribly difficult design to recreate if you had to, but we still appreciate that the duo has decided to release both the
Fusion 360 project file
and the
exported STL
to the public. It seems only right that this symbol for science and discovery should be made available to as many people as possible.
After a dramatic launch on Christmas Day and a
perilous flight through deep space
, the JWST has performed impeccably. Even though we’re still a several months away from finally seeing what this high-tech telescope is capable of, it’s already managed to ignite the imaginations of people all over the globe. | 59 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426739",
"author": "peter",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T21:15:50",
"content": "This is really beautifully done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6426764",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T21:32:37",
"content":... | 1,760,372,786.907851 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/tiny-ethernet-cable-arms-race-spawns-from-reddit-discussion/ | Tiny Ethernet Cable Arms Race Spawns From Reddit Discussion | Lewin Day | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"ethernet",
"network cable",
"RJ-45"
] | If you’ve had any dealings with Cat 5 and Cat 6 cable, and let’s be honest, who hasn’t, you’ve probably wrestled with lengths anywhere from 1 meter to 25 meters if you’re hooking up a long haul. Network admins will be familiar with the 0.1 m variety for neat hookups in server cabinets. However, a Reddit community has recently taken things further.
It all started on r/ubiquiti, where user
[aayo-gorkhali] posted a custom-built cable just over 2 inches long
. The intention was to allow a Ubiquiti U6-IW access point to be placed on a wall. The tiny cable was used to hook up to the keystone jack that formerly lived in that position, as an alternative to re-terminating the wall jack into a regular RJ45 connector.
Naturally this led to an arms race, with [darkw1sh] posting
a shorter example
with two RJ-45 connectors mounted back to back with the bare minimum of cable crimped into the housings. [Josh_Your_IT_Guy] went out the belt sander to one-up that effort, measuring
just over an inch in length.
[rickyh7] took things further, posting a “cable”
just a half-inch long
(~13 mm). In reality, it consists of just the pinned section of two RJ-45 connectors mounted back to back, wired together in the normal way. While electrically it should work,
and it passes a cable tester check
, it would be virtually impossible to actually plug it into two devices at once due to its tiny length.
We want to see this go to the logical end point, though. This would naturally involve hacking away the plastic casings off a pair of laptops and soldering their motherboards together at the traces leading to the Ethernet jack. Then your “cable” is merely the width of the solder joint itself.
Alternatively, you could spend your afternoon learning about other nifty hacks with Ethernet cables that have
more real-world applications! | 58 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426642",
"author": "X",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T19:39:00",
"content": "Yes this is a useful diagnostic tool for a dangling keystone jack, I just might make one for myself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6427458",
"a... | 1,760,372,787.051635 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/linux-fu-fusing-hackaday/ | Linux Fu: Fusing Hackaday | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"c++",
"fuse",
"linux"
] | Unix and, by extension, Linux, has a mantra to make everything possible look like a file. Files, of course, look like files. But also devices, network sockets, and even system information show up as things that appear to be files. There are plenty of advantages to doing that since you can use all the nice tools like
grep
and
find
to work with files. However, making your own programs expose a filesystem can be hard. Filesystem code traditionally works at the kernel module level, where mistakes can wipe out lots of things and debugging is difficult. However, there is FUSE — the file system in user space library — that allows you to write more or less ordinary code and expose anything you want as a file system. You’ve probably seen FUSE used to mount, say, remote drives via ssh or Dropbox. We’ve even looked at FUSE before, even
for Windows
.
What’s missing, naturally, is the Hackaday RSS feed, mountable as a normal file. And that’s what we’re building today.
Writing a FUSE filesystem isn’t that hard, but there are a lot of tedious jobs. You essentially have to provide callbacks that FUSE uses to do things when the operating system asks for them. Open a file, read a file, list a directory, etc. The problem is that for some simple projects, you don’t care about half of these things, but you still have to provide them.
Luckily, there are libraries that can make it a lot easier. I’m going to show you a simple C++ program that can mount your favorite RSS feed (assuming your favorite one is Hackaday, of course) as a file system. Granted, that’s not amazing, but it is kind of neat to be able to grep through the front page stories from the command line or view the last few articles using Dolphin.
Pick a Library
There are plenty of libraries and wrappers around FUSE. I picked one by [jachappell] over on
GitHub
. It was pretty simple and hides just enough of FUSE to be handy, but not so much as to be a problem. All the code is hidden around in
Fuse.h
.
One thing to note is that the library assumes you are using
libfuse
3.0. If you don’t already have it, you’ll have to install the
libfuse
3.0 development package from your package manager. There are other choices of libraries, of course, and you could just write to the underlying
libfuse
implementation, but a good library can make it much simpler to get started.
Just to keep things simple, I
forked the original project on GitHub
and added a
fusehad
directory.
Constraints
To keep things simple, I decided not to worry about performance too much. Since the data is traveling over the network, I do attempt to cache it, and I don’t refresh data later. Of course, you can’t write to the filesystem at all. This is purely for reading Hackaday.
These constraints make things easier. Of course, if you were writing your own filesystem, you might relax some of these, but it still helps to get something as simple as possible working first.
Making it Work First
Speaking of which, the first order of business is to be able to read the Hackaday RSS feed and pull out the parts we need. Again, not worrying about performance, I decided to do that with a pipe and calling out to
curl
. Yes, that’s cheating, but it works just fine, and that’s why we have tools in the first place.
The
HaDFS.cpp
file has a few functions related to FUSE and some helper functions, too. However, I wanted to focus on getting the RSS feed working so I put the related code into a function I made up called
userinit
. I found out the hard way that naming it
init
would conflict with the library.
The normal FUSE system processes your command line arguments — a good thing, as you’ll see soon. So the main in
HaD.cpp
is really simple:
#include <stdio.h>
#include "HaDFS.h"
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
HaDFS fs;
if (fs.userinit())
{
fprintf(stderr,"Can't fetch feed\n");
return 99;
};
int status;
status= fs.run(argc, argv);
return status;
}
However, for now, I simply commented out the line that calls
fs.run
. That left me with a simple program that just calls
userinit
.
Reading the feed isn’t that hard since I’m conscripting
curl
. Each topic is in a structure and there is an array of these structures. If you try to load too many stories, the code just quietly discards the excess (see
MAXTOPIC
). The
topics
global variable tells how many stories we’ve actually loaded.
// The curl line to read our feed
static char cmd[]="curl https://hackaday.com/feed/ 2>/dev/null | egrep '(<title>;)|(<link>)'";
// User initialization--read the feed (note that init is reserved by the FUSE library)
int HaDFS::userinit(void)
{
FILE *fp;
char buf[1024]; // working buffer for reading strings
if (!( fp = popen(cmd,"r") )) return 1; // open pipe
while ( fgets(buf,sizeof(buf),fp) )
{
string line = buf;
line = trimrss(line); // trim off extra stuff
if ( line.substr(0,7) == "<title>" ) // identify line type and process
{
topic[topics].title = line.substr(7);
topic[topics].title += ".html";
}
else if (line.substr(0,6)=="<link>")
{
topic[topics].url = line.substr(6);
topics++;
if ( topics == MAXTOPIC ) break; // quietly truncate a long feed
}
}
pclose(fp);
return 0;
}
The
popen
function runs a command line and gives us the
stdout
stream as a bunch of lines. Processing the lines is just brute force looking for <title> and <link> to identify the data we need. I filtered
curl
through
grep
to make sure I didn’t get a lot of extra lines, by the way, and I assumed lowercase, but a
-i
option could easily fix that. The redirect is to prevent
curl
from polluting
stderr
, although normally FUSE will disconnect the output streams so it doesn’t really matter. Note that I add an HTML extension to each fake file name so opening one is more likely to get to the browser.
By putting a
printf
in the code I was able to make sure the feed fetching was working the way I expected. Note that I don’t fetch the actual pages until later in the process. For now, I just want the titles and the URL links.
The Four Functions
There are four functions we need to create in a subclass to get a minimal read-only filesystem going:
getattr
,
readdir
,
open
, and
read
. These functions pretty much do what you expect. The
getattr
call will return 755 for our root (and only) directory and 444 for any other file that exists. The
readdir
outputs entries for . and .. along with our “files.”
Open
and
read
do just what you think they do.
There are some other functions, but those are ones I added to help myself:
userinit
– Called to kick off the file system data
trimrss
– Trim an RSS line to make it easier to parse
pathfind
– Turn a file name into a descriptor (an index into the array of topics)
readurl
– Return a string with the contents of a URL (uses curl)
There’s not much to it. You’ll see in the code that there are a few things to look out for like catching someone trying to write to a file since that isn’t allowed.
Debugging and Command Line Options
Of course, it doesn’t matter how simple it is, it isn’t going to work the first time is it? Of course, first, you have to remember to put the call to
fs.run
back in the main function. But, of course, things won’t work like you expect for any of a number of reasons. There are a few things to remember as you go about running and debugging.
When you build your executable, you simply run it and provide a command line argument to specify the mount point which, of course, should exist. I have a habit of using
/tmp/mnt
while debugging, but it can be anywhere you have permissions.
Under normal operation, FUSE detaches your program so you can’t just kill it. You’ll need to use unmount command (
fusermount -u
) with the mount point as an argument. Even if your program dies with a segment fault, you’ll need to use the unmount command or you will probably get the dreaded “disconnected endpoint” error message.
Being detached leads to a problem. If you put
printf
statements in your code, they will never show up after detachment. For this reason, FUSE understands the
-f
flag which tells the system to keep your filesystem running in the foreground. Then you can see messages and a clean exit, like a Control+C, will cleanly unmount the filesystem. You can also use
-d
which enables some built-in debugging and implies
-f
. The
-s
flag turns off threading which can make debugging easier, or harder if you are dealing with a thread-related problem.
You can use
gdb
, and there are some
good articles
about that. But for such a simple piece of code, it isn’t really necessary.
What’s Next?
The documentation for the library is almost nothing. However, the library closely mirrors the
libfuse
API so the documentation for that (mostly in
fuse.h
) will help you go further. If you want to graduate from FUSE to a “real” file system, you have a long road. The video below gives some background on Linux VFS, but that’s just the start down that path.
Maybe stick to FUSE for a while. If you prefer Python,
no problem
. FUSE is very popular for mapping
cloud storage into your filesystem
, but with your own coding, you could just as easily expose your Arduino or anything else your computer can communicate with. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426821",
"author": "sdffsdfsd",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T22:34:33",
"content": "This is a horrible idea because some OSs consider files on the filesystem more trusted than web pages. MacOS, for example.Do. Not. Do. This.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,372,786.811566 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/when-battery-rebuilds-go-wrong-understanding-bmss-spot-welders-and-safety/ | When Battery Rebuilds Go Wrong: Understanding BMSs, Spot Welders, And Safety | Ryan Flowers | [
"Parts"
] | [
"battery",
"battery pack",
"lithium ion"
] | Batteries are amazing. Batteries are horrible. Batteries are a necessary evil in today’s world of portable everything. If you’re reading this sentence, even if it’s not on a mobile device, somewhere there is a battery involved. They’re that ubiquitous. There’s another thing batteries are: Expensive! And at $350 each for a specialized battery, [Linus] of
Linus Tech Tips
decided to take battery repair into his own hands
.
Rather than do a quick how-to video about putting new cells in an old enclosure, [Linus] does a deep dive into the equipment, skills, and
safety measures
needed when dealing with Lithium Ion cells. And if you watch the video through, you’ll even get to see those safety measures put to good use!
The real meat of the video comes toward the end however, with its explanation of the different Battery Management Systems (BMS), and a discussion of the difficulty of doing battery repair correctly and safely. Lastly, the video covers something a bit more sinister: Batteries that are made to resist being repaired with new cells; DRM for batteries, so to speak.
Overall we found the video informative, and we hope you do too. You might also enjoy this peek into
the chemistry behind your favorite battery types
. | 41 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426512",
"author": "amcnicoll",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T17:16:47",
"content": "Most notebook-grade BMS chips feature several thresholds which will trigger a permanent failure if exceeded. A common (and IMO necessary) permanent failure mode is the “safety undervoltage” protection,... | 1,760,372,787.52193 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/teardown-alcatel-telic-1-minitel-terminal/ | Teardown: Alcatel Telic 1 Minitel Terminal | Jenny List | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Network Hacks",
"Retrocomputing",
"Slider"
] | [
"Alcatel",
"Minitel",
"terminal"
] | For British teenagers in the 1980s, the delights of 8-bit computers such as the Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64, or BBC Micro were firmly restricted to the offline arena. We would read about the BBS scene on the other side of the Atlantic, but without cheap local calls and with a modem costing a small fortune, the chances of us ever experiencing one was zero. When we took the British school rite of passage of a trip to France though, we were astounded to see that every French person was not merely online, but that they were doing so with a neat little all-in-one terminal. We’d just been introduced to the French Minitel system, and in that minute shared a glimpse of the future.
Un Réseau Trés Français
My Alcatel Minitel terminal
In the 1970s and 1980s, so-called videotext systems, terminal-based phoneline access to information services on central computers, were seen as an obvious next step for telephone network operators with an interest in profitable new products. In most countries this resulted in services such as the UK’s Prestel, a subscription service relying on costly hardware, but France Télécom instead pursued the bold path of making the terminals free to subscribers with free access to phone listings and yellow pages, but a business model based on pay-to-use premium services.
Thus, through the 1980s all French households had a Minitel terminal beside the phone, and the service became a runaway success. Ever since seeing Minitel terminals as a tourist I’d been fascinated by the service, so here in the 2020s when a friend was visiting their family in France I asked whether he could pick up an old Minitel terminal for me. Thus I found myself parting with around $25 and being rewarded with a slightly battered Minitel cardboard box containing one of the familiar brown Alcatel terminals. I certainly wasn’t expecting one in its original packaging.
On the desk in front of me, it resembles a small CRT TV set, roughly 250 mm x 220 mm x 260 mm. The 9″ monochrome screen is covered by the keyboard, which is released by pressing a button at the top and hinges down in front of the screen. At the back of the unit on one side is a French telephone socket for the conventional phone and mains and phone wall socket cables, while on the other side is a DIN socket for a serial port. The keyboard feels very solid indeed, with a clicky AZERTY layout as well as a numerical pad and a series of call function keys. FInally there’s a power button and a display brightness slider, and when the unit is powered up the letters typed appear on the screen.
Clever Design Makes It A Joy To Dismantle 37 Years Later
Below the CRT is the monitor and PSU board, to the left the terminal electronics.
Examining the rear before dismantling the device, it’s clear that there are no screws, instead everything is held together by plastic clips. This makes careful removal of the rear case a straightforward process, revealing the internals. There are two interlocking PCBs, one containing the power supply and the monitor electronics below the tube neck, and the other containing the terminal electronics up the left hand side. A flat flexible cable connects this to the keyboard. Leaving the monitor PCB in place it’s very straightforward indeed to unplug the terminal board for a closer look.
The terminal PCB, with some main chips labelled.
It’s possible to make a serial terminal without any microprocessor in sight, however many later terminals use an 8-bit micro to replace a lot of logic and lend some basic smarts. In this case it’s an 8051, paired with a 6850 UART for serial communication and the Thomson EF9340 and EF9341 video graphics chipset. These last two chips are an interesting pair, with their own 16-bit data bus requiring 1 K x 16 RAM, and while I’m not sure whether they were specifically designed for Minitel it’s clear that their strengths like more in videotext than in home computers.
All the chips in this unit have date codes from spring 1985, so it likely first saw service later that year. It’s worth noting that an online search reveals versions of this terminal with an entirely different mainboard featuring a different processor and an expansion bus, evidently since the device never ran any user software its internals did not make any difference for the service. The keyboard clips apart to free it from its hinge, revealing a very substantial metal frame surrounding its PCB. This particular terminal has a problem with some of its keys, soon revealed to be due to a failing keyboard cable. I see a couple of adapter PCBs and a more robust modern flat cable in my future.
What Do You Do With An ’80s Dream Here In 2022?
When your hacker friends beat you to it and write the thing you were going to do.
Given the mild annoyance of having to fix my keyboard cable, what can I do with a Minitel terminal here in 2022? The original France Télécom system
was shuttered back in 2012
, so it’s hardly as though I can dial up to any official services. Fortunately there still exists
a lively Minitel hacker scene
who program and operate their own services both via the phone for a traditional terminal as
online in a web browser
. For the minor effort of
building a serial cable for that DIN socket
I can talk to my terminal from a computer, and among many other options I can use
a Python library
or
an Arduino library
to do whatever I want with it. If I can’t be bothered to do any work on it myself, there’s even
a Hackaday reader
written for me by a friend in a Dutch hackerspace.
With my Minitel terminal carefully reassembled and awaiting such time as I can fix its keyboard cable, I’m sure I’ll find a fun use for it among the plenty of options.
It’s worth signing off with a reminder for anyone tempted to get a Minitel terminal of their own. These terminals were given for free to every French telephone subscriber, and at the height of its popularity every household in France had one. My friend tells me that while a few of the many Minitel models are rare and sought-after, the run-of-the-mill ones like mine are still plentiful enough that any vendor who reads this article and imagines a price hike can be told to take a hike. Find a French friend as I did, and see if they can help you find one. | 34 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426450",
"author": "Rog77",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T15:07:12",
"content": "The lack of free local calls in the UK is one of my historical laments, it set us back in the modern world somewhat – we would have had our own home grown versions of the big online services (and kept more ... | 1,760,372,787.634246 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/classic-ipods-are-super-upgradeable-in-2022/ | Classic IPods Are Super Upgradeable In 2022 | Lewin Day | [
"digital audio hacks",
"ipod hacks"
] | [
"ipod",
"micro sd",
"Rockbox"
] | The classic iPod was the MP3 player to beat back in the day, loaded with storage and with its characteristic click-wheel interface. [Ellie] had an iPod Video laying around, one of the more capable models that came out near the end of the product’s run,
and set out upgrading it for duty in the pandemic-wracked badlands of 2022.
The iPod in question was a 5.5th generation model, prized for being the last to feature the Wolfson DAC with its good audio quality. [Ellie] used the ever-helpful
iFixit guide
to learn how to disassemble the device safely. Careful hands and a spudger are key to avoid marring the pressed-together metal case.
Once opened, an
iFlash Quad board
was installed inside that lets the iPod use up to four micro SD cards for storage instead of the original hard disk drive. With two 512 GB cards installed, [Ellie] won’t be short of storage. A new battery was then subbed in, along with a fancy clear front casing for the aesthetic charm of it all.
After the hardware modifications were complete, the iPod needed to be restored with iTunes to start working again. She then installed the open source Rockbox firmware, which opens up the capabilities of the hardware immensely. Perhaps best of all,
it can play DOOM!
Alternatively, you can use the clickwheel to control the volume
on your MacBook
if you so desire.
[Ellie’s] project goes to show that modifying an iPod these days can be a fun weekend build thanks to the great software and hardware now available. It’s wonderful to see that the platform still has such great support years after it has been discontinued. If you really want to look back though, take a gander
at the early prototype of Apple’s breakout MP3 player. | 35 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426422",
"author": "SPD",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T13:17:24",
"content": "Here is good video on tearing down ipods by Dankpodshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S83ZHf1GAeY",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6428874",
"auth... | 1,760,372,787.752811 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/16/vr-display-shows-cnc-lathe-operations-in-real-time/ | AR Display Shows CNC Lathe Operations In Real Time | Dave Rowntree | [
"cnc hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"lathe",
"LinuxCNC",
"machining",
"metal lathe",
"turning"
] | [Kent VanderVelden] has come up with an interesting
AR system to assist operators who are monitoring CNC lathes
. (video, embedded, below) The idea is to first produce a ‘frozen’ video stream of the workpiece. This was achieved by placing a high-speed camera above the lathe, and triggering an image capture, synchronized to the rotational position of the workpiece. A high-speed rotary encoder, attached to the tailstock via a belt drive, feeds the current position into an Altera Terasic DE-Nano FPGA eval board. This is then compared to the position from another encoder, doing duty as an angular set point control. The resulting signal is used as the camera trigger to generate a video stream of just the frames where the angle is as selected by the operator, thus giving the impression of a frozen position. The video stream is sent over to a client device based on a Raspberry Pi 4 with a UPS hat, allowing it to be portable.
High speed rotary encoder driven via a belt
This video stream is overlaid with details of the current machine position, as well as the LinuxCNC G-code being executed and a graphical representation of the operation being performed by the machine. This combined video is then fed to a
Vufine VUF-110
wearable, which is minimally invasive, allowing the operator to clearly see the machine of interest. As [Kent] suggests, there are many possible usage scenarios for such a setup, including remote monitoring of multiple operating machines by a single operator.
We’ve seen a few neat machine hacks over the years, here’s a nice project adding a
programmable power feed to an old lathe
, and since wood lathes are often missing out some DRO love, here’s
a nice way to tell them that you care
. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426381",
"author": "mime",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T09:37:52",
"content": "I think it’s awesome – such a straightforward way of augmented reality which adds more info but doesn’t get in the way.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,372,787.8084 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/you-can-send-midi-over-i2c-if-you-really-need-to/ | You Can Send MIDI Over I2C If You Really Need To | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"i2c",
"midi",
"Pi",
"Raspberry Pi Pico",
"uart"
] | The Musical Instrument Digital Interface has a great acronym that is both nice to say and cleanly descriptive. The standard for talking to musical instruments relies on a serial signal at 31250 bps, which makes it easy to transmit using any old microcontroller UART with a settable baud rate. However, [Kevin] has dived into explore
the utility of sending MIDI signals over I2C instead.
With a bit of hacking at the Arduino MIDI library, [Kevin] was able to get the microcontroller outputting MIDI data over the I2C interface, and developed a useful
generic I2C MIDI transport
for the platform. His first tests involved using this technique in concert with Gravity
dual UART modules.
After he successfully got one running, [Kevin] realised that four could be hooked up to a single Arduino, giving it 8 serial UARTS, or, in another way of thinking, 8 MIDI outputs.
At its greatest level of development, [Kevin] shows off his I2C MIDI chops by getting a single Raspberry Pi Pico
delivering MIDI signals to 8 Arduinos
, all over I2C. All the Arduinos are daisy-chained with their 5V and I2C lines wired together, and the system basically swaps out traditional MIDI channels for I2C addresses instead.
There’s not a whole lot of obvious killer applications for this, but if you want to send MIDI data to a bunch of microcontrollers, you might find it easier daisy-chaining I2C rather than hopping around with a serial line in the classic MIDI-IN/MIDI-THRU fashion.
We’ve seen [Kevin]’s work before too,
like the wonderful Lo-Fi Orchestra
. Video after the break. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426354",
"author": "Urgon",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T07:41:10",
"content": "MIDIBox did that before. I made this module:http://ucapps.de/mbhp_usb_pic.htmlHere’s my version:https://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic2435767.htmlIt was designed to work with these modules over I2C:http://... | 1,760,372,787.681205 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/martian-wheel-control-algorithms-gain-traction/ | Martian Wheel Control Algorithms Gain Traction | Ryan Flowers | [
"Science",
"Space"
] | [
"algorithm",
"Curiosity",
"curiosity rover",
"mars",
"mars rover",
"traction control"
] | Imagine the scene: You’re puttering along in your vehicle when, at least an hour from the nearest help, one of your tires starts losing air. Not to worry! You’ve got a spare tire along with the tools and knowhow to change it. And if that fails, you can call roadside assistance. But what if your car isn’t a car, has metal wheels for which no spares are available, and the nearest help is 200 million miles away? You just might be a Jet Propulsion Laboratory Engineer on the Curiosity Mars Rover mission, who in 2017 was charged with creating a
new driving algorithm designed to extend the life of the wheels
.
High Performance Rock Crawler, Courtesy
Spidertrax.com
License:
CC BY 3.0
You could say that the Curiosity Mars rover is the ultimate off-road vehicle, and as such it has to deal with conditions that are in some ways not that different from some locations here on Earth. Earth bound rock crawlers use long travel suspensions, specialized drivetrains, and locking differentials to keep the tires on the ground and prevent a loss of traction.
On Mars, sand and rocks dominate the landscape, and a rover must navigate around the worst of it. It’s inevitable that, just like a terrestrial off-roader, the Mars rovers will spin a tire now and then when a wheel loses traction. The Mars rovers also have a specialized drivetrain and long travel suspensions. They don’t employ differentials, though, so how are they to prevent a loss of traction and the damaging wheel spin that ensues? This where the aforementioned traction control algorithm comes in.
By controlling the rotation of the wheels with less traction, they can still contribute to the motion of the vehicle while avoiding rock rash. Be sure to check out the
excellent article at JPL’s website
for a full explanation of their methodology and the added benefits of uploading new traction control algorithms from 200 million miles away! No doubt the Perseverance Mars rover has also benefited from this research.
But why should NASA get to have all the fun? You can join them by
3d printing your own Mars rover
and just maybe some
Power Wheels derived traction control
. What fun! | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426377",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T09:17:36",
"content": "Not a lot of info on the actual algorithm. This is the whole thing.“The traction control algorithm uses real-time data to adjust each wheel’s speed, reducing pressure from the rocks. The software measures... | 1,760,372,788.147806 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/anti-curl-sandpaper-storage-is-impressive/ | Anti-Curl Sandpaper Storage Is Impressive | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cam clamp",
"clamp",
"sandpaper",
"storage"
] | Maybe it’s the humidity, maybe it’s the cold weather. Something is making [Laura Kampf]’s nice fabric-backed sandpaper curl up into scrolls the second it comes out of the package. So you can understand why she urgently wanted to make
a storage system
that would be easy to flip through like a record bin, but also provide enough pressure to keep the papers flat.
Although [Laura] didn’t know what exactly the end result would be, she got started on it anyway — that’s a great way to get more projects off the drawing board and past the finish line. It worked out, because she got a great idea while building the box and using nice cam clamps to hold the finger joints together as the glue dried. Since she already had a bunch of these cam clamps in different lengths lying around, why not use a couple of them for this?
[Laura] has two major classifications of sandpaper — paper-backed and fabric-backed — and built them separate boxen using two clamps for each box. She joined the pins with a DIY handle in order to move the cams in unison, so all she has to do is pull out to flip through the papers, and push the handle back and down to re-pressurize the stack for storage. Be sure to check out the build and demo video after the break.
While DIY clamps are often wood and metal affairs,
it’s good to have 3D printing in your corner
.
Thanks for the tip, [hackbyte]! | 15 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426221",
"author": "PWalsh",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T00:09:32",
"content": "I have one of those multi-document inboxes with 8 shelves, just buy the paper in sheets and lay flat.(Inbox was almost free at the recycle place.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,372,788.032049 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/ps2-memory-card-iso-loader-offers-classic-gaming-bliss/ | PS2 Memory Card ISO Loader Offers Classic Gaming Bliss | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"homebrew",
"iso",
"playstation 2",
"ps2",
"sd card",
"spi"
] | It used to be that to play a console game, you just had to plug in a cartridge or put a CD/DVD in the optical drive. But these days, with modern titles ballooning up to as much as 100 GB, you’ve got no choice but to store them on the system’s internal hard disk drive. While that can lead to some uncomfortable data management decisions, at least it means you don’t have to get up off the couch to switch games anymore.
Which is precisely why the MC2SIO project for the PlayStation 2 is so exciting. As
[Tito] explains in his latest
Macho Nacho Productions
video
, this simple adapter lets you connect an SD card up to the console’s Memory Card slots and use that to hold ISOs of your favorite games. With the appropriate homebrew software loaded up, your PS2 becomes a veritable jukebox of classic games.
Connecting the SD card to the SPI-compatible interface is easy.
Now, loading ISOs on the PS2 is nothing new. Owners of the original PS2 can install an IDE drive in the system’s expansion bay and play titles that way, and even if you have the later “slim” edition of the console that deleted the expansion capability, you could put your trove of games on a USB flash drive.
But pickings are getting pretty slim for IDE drives these days, and the available bandwidth of the PS2’s USB 1.1 ports is only
just
up to the task of streaming game data, and can falter in some games. In comparison, SD cards are ridiculously cheap and the Memory Card interface is actually considerably faster than the console’s USB ports.
On the hardware side, things are surprisingly straightforward. The PS2 uses a serial interface called SIO2 to communicate with peripherals like controllers and Memory Cards, which just so happens to be compatible with SPI. That means the physical adapter doesn’t need any active components, and just needs to connect up the appropriate pins. All the magic is done in the software, and thanks to existing projects which let you run homebrew code from a specially formatted Memory Card, you can run the whole thing on a completely stock console.
The
ready-to-use SD adapter is being sold for $20 USD
, but big surprise, they are currently out of stock. That said, the adapter can reportedly be made from a sacrificial Memory Card, and [Tito] does an excellent job of explaining the software side of things. So if you absolutely must play
Katamari Damacy
off of an SD card right now, you could probably toss your own version together without too much trouble.
As with the
software exploit for the original PlayStation
that was found last year, we’re always pleased to see hackers still cranking away on these older systems. Even more than 20 years after release, folks are still finding new ways to bend the hardware to their will. | 30 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426153",
"author": "KasTasMykolas",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T21:43:36",
"content": "SMB on PS2 slims ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6426174",
"author": "Ergotron",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T22:47:50",
... | 1,760,372,788.424383 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/filament-dry-box-design-goes-way-over-the-top/ | Filament Dry Box Design Goes Way Over The Top | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"api",
"ESP32",
"filament",
"heater",
"humidity",
"hygroscopic",
"IoT",
"pid"
] | There’s a fine line between simple feature creep and going over the top when it comes to project design. It’s hard to say exactly where that line is, but we’re pretty sure that
this filament dry box
has at least stepped over it, and might even have erased it entirely.
Sure, we all know the value of storing 3D printer filament under controlled conditions, to prevent the hygroscopic plastics from picking up atmospheric moisture. But [Sasa Karanovic] must really, REALLY hate the printing artifacts that result. Starting with a commercially available dry box that already had a built-in heating element, [Sasa] took it to the next level by replacing the controller and display with an ESP32. He added a fan to improve air circulation inside the enclosure and prevent stratification, as well as temperature and humidity sensors. Not satisfied with simply switching the heating element on and off at specific setpoints, he also implemented a PID loop to maintain a constant temperature. And of course, there’s a web UI and an API available for third-party control and monitoring.
The video below details [Sasa]’s design thoughts and goes into some detail on construction and performance. And while we may kid that this design is over-the-top, what really comes through is that this is a showcase for design ideas not only for one application, but for hardware projects in general. There are certainly
simpler heated dry box designs
, and
zero-cost solutions
as well, but sometimes going overboard has its own value too. | 36 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426107",
"author": "Tweepy",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T19:45:31",
"content": "Sometimes, it look like 3D printing scene is more about fiddling with hardware stuff around the computer than actually make useful parts.If you look at the effort many 3D printer enthusiasts go to pimp up ... | 1,760,372,788.224126 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/so-long-said-all-the-tank-driving-fish/ | “So Long,” Said All The Tank-Driving Fish | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Robots Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"fish",
"goldfish",
"goldfish car",
"robotics",
"science",
"training"
] | Though some of us are heavily assisted by smart phone apps and delivery, humans don’t need GPS to find food. We know where the fridge is. The grocery store. The drive-thru. And we don’t really need a map to find shelter, in the sense that shelter is easily identifiable in a storm. You might say that our most important navigation skills are innate, at least when we’re within our normal environment. Drop us in another city and we can probably still identify viable overhangs, cafes, and food stalls.
The question is, do these navigational skills vary by species or environment? Or are the tools necessary to forage for food, meet mates, and seek shelter more universal? To test the waters of this question,
Israeli researchers built a robot car and taught six fish to navigate successfully toward a target with a food reward
. This experiment is one of domain transfer methodology, which is the exploration of whether a species can perform tasks outside its natural environment. Think of all the preparation that went into Vostok and Project Mercury.
The Drive for Food
The researchers were inspired by a another team that taught rodents and dogs to reach a target via automated vehicle, and a different contraption called Fish on Wheels that serves this same purpose. Essentially, this Fish Operated Vehicle (FOV) is a tank on a standard-looking robotic platform that’s outfitted with a top-down camera. The fish’s movements are tracked and translated to driving commands that wheel the platform around.
Here’s what we know about the FOV: the frame is 40 cm x 40 cm x 19 cm, and it moves around on four omni wheels, each of which is driven by a brushed DC motor. The acrylic tank is 35 cm x 35 cm x 28 cm and was filled with 15 cm of water. Enough for the fish, but not so much that it sloshed around and spilled out.
It only took ‘several’ days of training before the fish successfully navigated to their food target from different starting points in the room. Surprisingly, they were not fooled by false targets, nor were they dismayed when they ran the tank into walls. The team also showed that the fish used several types of cues to drive the tank, including the color and location of the target.
Is the ability to navigate universal to all species, independent of environment? This study seems to suggest it, though
the paper itself is only available in snippets
without payment or institutional access. You can see a video of the (FOV) in action below.
Animals Being Bros
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen animals being smart, or even
the first instance of fish behind the wheel
. Some animals are even
soothed by robotic platforms
underneath them. Most recently, we learned about
some rats that learned to play Doom
in an automated VR arena by running atop a sphere that works like an upside-down mouse.
Some might argue that there’s no utility in these experiments. If it’s results you want, then
use pigeons to guide your missiles
, or
magpies to muster messes of Marlboros
.
Thanks for the tip, [chaosbc]! | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426082",
"author": "monsonite",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T18:39:59",
"content": "Pigeons were trained to “pilot” early missiles.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6426120",
"author": "anonymous",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,372,788.095753 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/dead-mouse-reincarnated-as-macropad/ | Dead Mouse Reincarnated As Macropad | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"macro pad",
"macropad",
"mouse"
] | [Taylor] wanted to join the cool kids club and build a macropad for CAD work and video editing, but didn’t want to do it the traditional way with an Arduino. We can get behind that. In fact, [Taylor] wanted to reuse some old piece of tech if possible, which is even better. With a little luck,
they found a used gaming mouse with a set of 12 tiny macro buttons on the side that were ripe for reuse
. Only the scroll wheel was reported to be broken.
After verifying that all the macro buttons worked, [Taylor] tore down the mouse and extracted the daughterboard, then removed the sticker that held the rubber dome actuators in place. Then they wired up twelve Kailh box jades to the pads, doing some nice diagonal work with bare 30 AWG wire to join all the common pins together.
[Taylor] designed and printed a simple enclosure that’s a slim 21.5 mm tall including the switch plate, and then made a dozen keycaps to match. That was until [Taylor] remembered some relegendable keycaps they had lying around — the kind that let you print your own labels and trap them underneath clear plastic. The only problem was that they are stemmed for some cylindrical actuator, so [Taylor] designed an adapter piece so they would fit on MX-style sliders. Be sure to check out the build video after the break.
If for some reason box jades aren’t clicky and satisfying enough for you,
try making your own maglev Hall-effect switches
. These days,
you even have design options
. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6426045",
"author": "Iván Stepaniuk",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T17:25:23",
"content": "nice hack, and nice keycaps!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6426217",
"author": "Robotgrandpa",
"timestamp": "2022-02-16T00... | 1,760,372,788.275146 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/first-days-with-a-new-microscope/ | First Days With A New Microscope | Dan Maloney | [
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Repair Hacks",
"Skills",
"Slider"
] | [] | For big-ticket purchases, I tend to do a lot of research before I open my wallet. I like to at least have the illusion that when I send my money off to a far-away stranger, I’m likely to get back something of equal value in a reasonable timeframe that does what I want it to do. So I tend more toward the “analysis paralysis” end of the spectrum, where I pore over so many specs and reviews that I end up buying nothing.
While that sounds like a bad thing, and sometimes is, I find that it tends to help me avoid rashly spending money on things that aren’t going to work for me. This is especially true in the area of tools, where while I’m trapped in my analysis loop, I often find a workaround or substitute that’s good enough to get the job done.
For some things, though, there is no substitute, and when you start working with SMD components that you’d have a hard time telling from a grain of salt, you’re probably going to need a microscope. I recently determined that this was where I was in my electronics journey, and now that I’ve worked my way through the analysis and procurement phase of the process, I thought I’d share my first impressions of my microscope, and what it’s like to get used to working with one.
Setting Expectations
Luckily, I was pretty sure about a couple of things I wanted in a microscope. I knew that I wanted an optical microscope, as opposed to a digital camera and monitor setup. While there are plenty of people who do excellent work with these setups, I felt like an optical scope would be the best match for me. I really didn’t like the idea of dealing with the lag a USB microscope always seems to exhibit, and even if it’s a direct HDMI camera to monitor setup, I felt that staring at a monitor on the wall while working on a circuit on the bench would be disorienting. It seemed like a better idea to have my eyes pointed at least in the general direction of where my hands were working.
On the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for being able to put things up on a big screen, especially for someone in my position, who is likely to want to write about what he’s doing and include some pictures and videos. So I was reasonably sure that I’d want a scope that’s capable of having a camera attached. I figured this was more of a “nice to have” than a feature I’d need out of the gate, but I at least wanted the option to add a camera in the future.
I was also reasonably sure that I’d need something compact enough that it wouldn’t claim a lot of my limited bench space. Being able to push the scope out of the way to make way for non-SMD work seemed like a good idea. There were also budgetary limits — I really didn’t want to spend more than $500.
With my specs in hand, I set about doing my research. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much to go on other than online reviews, and far too often those are worth less than the paper they’re written on. Luckily, the Hackaday community is pretty helpful with these kinds of purchases, and a lot of the leg work had already been done by others. I found a lot of reviews of scopes, but one stood out: Scotty Allen’s “A Boy and His Microscope” video.
I think what really resonated with me about Scotty’s video is his confession that, at least with soldering, “My expectations of myself far exceeded my abilities.” That’s a truth bomb that hit me pretty hard, and seeing that he had managed to work around his physical limitations by buying a microscope was encouraging. He had also set up
a deal with the Shenzhen market vendor
where he bought his scope, which eliminates a lot of the guesswork involved in trying to purchase bits and pieces from various vendors. So, since Scotty’s package deal seemed to fit my needs, I placed an Ali Express order in late December.
And just to be clear, this was entirely at my personal expense. I was just following Scotty’s advice but spending my own money, so there’s no sponsorship of any kind here. My impressions and opinions are entirely my own.
First Impressions
Ordering from China always seems like a bit of a crapshoot these days, but to my delight, the scope arrived in only about two weeks. The package was in fine shape, but I was surprised by the compact size of the box — it just seemed too small for a bulky scope. But that ended up being due to very clever packaging, with the entire scope stripped down and the parts wrapped separately before being tucked into the foam packing. I didn’t see any damage from shipping.
My microscope setup. I’ve got the Barlow lens attached here to make more room between the objective and the stage to work.
The scope package I bought includes the binocular stereo zoom microscope body, a pair of eyepieces with cups, and a stand. Accessories include a ring light, a 0.5 x Barlow lens, a protective filter, and the all-important HDMI camera with adapter ring. Although there was no manual, assembly was a breeze — everything pretty much only fits where it’s supposed to go. You’ll need some tools, like a very small Phillips screwdriver, but it’s all pretty straightforward and self-explanatory. The only trouble I had was tidying up the cables from the camera and the ring light, which were flopping all around the place. I decided to make a single “umbilical” to the monitor on my bench by bundling the cables and wrapping them with some plastic wire loom.
This is what makes it a stereo microscope — dual objectives give you depth perception. The Barlow lens has been removed here.
My first impressions on quality were quite favorable. All the metal parts are nicely finished, and the castings have no flash marks or defects. Aluminum parts have a good-quality anodized finish, and the threads on all the optical components were clean and lightly greased. There wasn’t any stray grease on surfaces that shouldn’t have it, a common problem with cheap optics in my experience. Also absent was that familiar chemical odor that often seems to come with some shipments from China. The only part that had any real odor was the plastic dust cover, and that dissipated quickly once it aired out a bit.
I have to say that for an entry-level microscope, this one has some really good optics. I have yet to find anything that seems misaligned or out of whack, and the visual field is flat and bright. I chose to attach the Barlow lens, which screws onto the body just below the dual objective lenses. The 0.5 x lens shrinks the visual field slightly, letting you raise the microscope up on its stand quite a bit. This makes more room for tools and hands between the stage and the objective — I measure about 14 cm.
On the other end, the binocular eyepieces are fully adjustable. The eyepieces swivel to adjust for interocular distance, and each eyepiece can be adjusted to different focal lengths. This makes it easy to set up the scope just the way you like it, which is often a problem I have with optics — it’s hard for me to get the “eye relief”, or the distance between the eye and the lens, just right to get a full field of view. On this scope, it’s pretty easy to adjust for proper eye relief, even when I choose to wear my reading glasses.
I do have one complaint about the eyepieces, though. The grub screws that retain the eyepieces in their tubes don’t actually touch the lens; rather, they only screw in far enough to engage in a groove in the lens body. This keeps the eyepiece from slipping out, but leaves it loose in the tube. It’s only really noticeable when the rubber eyecups touch my glasses, which makes the eyepieces wiggle around in their tubes. The resulting slight change in alignment of the optics makes it hard for my brain to meld the two images into a stereo view, which is really the whole point of a stereo microscope. A longer grub screw would probably solve the problem.
Practice Time
The whole reason I decided to get a microscope goes back to
my failed attempt to repair an Xbox
. In that article, I acknowledged how suboptimal my setup was, and what I intended to do before attempting the repair again. Aside from improving the lighting in my shop and getting a decent microscope, I figured what I really needed was some practice. So, having sorted the hardware issues, it was time to update my personal firmware with a little hands-on practice.
Practice makes perfect. Desoldering practice with hot air through my microscope. Via an HDMI capture adapter — the supplied camera doesn’t output USB natively.
The junk bin offered up an old wireless router as a test subject, and I got busy trying to desolder random components. The first thing I noticed is that it takes a while to get used to the fact that the field you’re working in is so small. Looking through the scope with a zoom level of about 2x, the visual field is about 2.5 cm in diameter. Getting a soldering iron or tweezers into that field isn’t exactly easy, especially when you don’t have any peripheral vision to guide your hands. I find it worse to position tools with my left hand, which is my weak side. It’s getting better quickly, but it’s disconcerting.
Don’t sneeze, Mr. President. I’ve never been able to reliably handle components as small as these before, so this microscope is going to be a game-changer for me.
The other thing I had a problem with was holding the PCB while I worked on it. The stage of the microscope isn’t huge, so my test subject PCB flopped around quite a bit. Plus, I found that applying the force needed to remove components would wiggle the board around, often throwing it out of focus. Some kind of helping hands to hold the board steady would be nice. Or, perhaps just a silicone mat on the stage to provide some friction — and some heat resistance — would be enough.
Ergonomic issues aside, I have to say I was pretty amazed after desoldering my first few components when I looked down at my little collection and realized how small they really are. Through the scope, I had no problem seeing them and handling them with the tweezers — although I did manage to yeet a few resistors off into the wild blue yonder when I had the air turned up too high on my rework station. But without the scope, there’s no way I would have been able to deal with these components.
Overall, I’m really pleased with this purchase. Apart from a few minor quibbles, like the fact that the plastic insert in the stage isn’t especially heat-resistant, it’s a really good value for the money. I need to make a few adjustments to my work holding, and I can always use more practice, but I think I’m getting closer to actually fixing that Xbox. | 35 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425995",
"author": "some guy",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T15:12:59",
"content": "I think i have that exact same microscope because of that video. However i don’t think i paid (and would pay) 140€ shipping to Europe!!! (microscope is currently 330€ without shipping). Also beware of im... | 1,760,372,788.68637 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/print-a-sketch-turns-any-surface-into-a-printed-circuit-board/ | Print-a-Sketch Turns Any Surface Into A Printed Circuit Board | Robin Kearey | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"conductive ink",
"handheld printer",
"printed circuits"
] | Although powerful design software and cheap manufacturing services have made rolling your own PCBs easier than ever, there are some situations where a piece of FR-4 just doesn’t cut it: think art projects with hidden LEDs or biomedical applications that need to attach to the human body. For such occasions, [Narjes Pourjafarian] and her team at Saarland University in Germany developed
Print-a-Sketch: a handheld device that lets you print electric circuits on almost any surface using conductive ink
. Also check out
their academic paper
(PDF).
The heart of the device is a piezoelectric print head, as used in some types of inkjet printer. It dispenses tiny droplets of silver nanoparticle ink, which is conductive enough to make useful electronic circuits by simply printing a schematic. Lines can be drawn to connect components, while customized footprints can hold LEDs, capacitors or even integrated circuits.
As demonstrated in the video embedded below, the Print-a-Sketch can be used in various different modes. In freehand mode, you can draw whatever you like just by moving the device around. But it also has several assisted sketching modes, where it can straighten out wobbly lines, draw multiple lines in parallel, or even print complete predefined shapes. Especially satisfying is the way it can draw resistors by literally printing zig-zagging lines.
Thanks to an optical motion sensor, similar to the ones used in gaming mice, the device knows at all times where it is and how fast it’s going. That enables the control circuitry to compensate for unsteady movement; the authors claim a printing precision of less than 0.5 mm. In addition, an RGB camera is used to detect the material underneath and adjust the amount of ink dispensed, depending on how absorbent the surface is: rough paper needs more ink to obtain a conductive trace than a ceramic tile.
The number of potential applications seems limitless: how about a yoga mat with integrated touch buttons to control the video player on your iPad? A piece of kinesiology tape with an integrated stretch sensor to measure the exact motion of your arm? Or a floor tile with a printed moisture sensor? All of these are demonstrated by the team, but we’re sure our readers can come up with many more ideas.
Of course, drawing circuits using conductive ink is not a new idea: previous projects either relied on
drawing the entire thing by hand
, or used
traditional inkjet printers
. But the Print-a-Sketch’s sophisticated hardware and software really put it in a league of its own. And since
the entire design is open-source
, you can simply build one and bring your ideas to life. | 33 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425955",
"author": "JR",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T14:03:39",
"content": "It’s neat but the print head it uses is several hundred dollars",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6425966",
"author": "Joe Tom Collins",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,372,788.496446 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/15/accurately-track-your-mains-frequency/ | Accurately Track Your Mains Frequency | Jenny List | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"mains frequency",
"power grid",
"Teensy"
] | Depending upon where in the world you live, AC mains frequency is either 50Hz or 60Hz, and that frequency is maintained accurately enough over time that it can be used as a time reference for a clock. Oddly it’s rarely exactly that figure though, instead it varies slightly with load on the network and the operators will adjust it to keep a constant frequency over a longer period. These small variations in frequency can easily be measured, and [jp3141]
has created a circuit that does exactly that
.
It’s a surprisingly straightforward device, in which a Teensy takes its power supply from a very conventional if now a little old-school mains transformer, rectifier, and regulator. A sample of the AC from the transformer passes through a low-pass filer and a clamp, and thence to the Teensy where it is fed into one of the on-board comparators from which its period is measured using one of the timers. Even then the on-board crystal isn’t considered accurate enough, so it is in turn disciplined by a 1 pulse per second (PPS) signal from a GPS receiver.
The Teensy then reports its readings over a serial line every five seconds to a Raspberry Pi, which collates and graphs the data. In case you are wondering what the effect of mains frequency variations might be, we once covered the story of
how an entire continent lost six minutes
. | 27 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425900",
"author": "DKE",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T11:53:17",
"content": "Interestingly adjacent.Tom Scott video discussing extracting the mains frequency variations from video and, in combination with logged frequency data, establishing a forensic timestamp.https://www.youtube.com... | 1,760,372,788.561633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/a-hombrew-retro-laptop/ | A Hombrew Retro Laptop | Al Williams | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"raspberry pi",
"retrocomputing"
] | We feel bad when we see a retrocomputer project and think, “Hey! That’s not that old.” But, usually, when we think about it, it really is. Take the
Penkesu
. It looks like one of the little organizer computers that were popular — ok — a long time ago.
Inside is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, a 7.9 inch 400×1280 screen and a 48-key mechanical keyboard. Unsurprisingly, the case is mostly 3D printed, but it does use Gameboy Advance SP hinges.
There are only a few components inside which is understandable since there isn’t much room. In addition to the Pi, the keys, and the screen, there is a battery, a power controller, some diodes, and an Arduino which controls the keyboard.
This is another great example of a project that looks great but would have been hard to duplicate without 3D printing. The compact computing power available these days doesn’t hurt either.
It doesn’t look like this would cost much to duplicate and it probably performs better than the computers it emulates. The wiring isn’t very difficult because, honestly, there are not many components to wire together.
We couldn’t help but think of the
RaspPSION
when we saw this. The 3D printed cases
are getting better
and the internals are getting smaller. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425799",
"author": "RÖB",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T07:19:02",
"content": "That’s our job.But most of the time we’re just arguing about the different spelling and gamma of different versions of engrish.It’s all good. Just make sure you have popcorn.",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,372,788.608199 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/printing-magnets/ | Printing Magnets | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"ferrite",
"magnets"
] | A research center in Spain has been working on ways to solve recent supply chain issues. One of these issues is a shortage of materials to make magnets. Their answer?
Recycle ferrite residue
by treating it and mixing it with ABS for 3D printing.
The mixing of ferrite with a polymer isn’t the key though, instead the trick is in the processing. The team collected strontium ferrite waste and ground it to a powder. Heating to the point of calcination (about 1000C) creates a superior material with a 350% increase in coercitivity and a 25% increase in remanence over the original waste material.
The material could just be recycled conventionally, but the team created ABS filament bearing the magnetic particles. The resulting prints retain their magnetic properties and allow for low-temperature production of magnets in a variety of geometries. In addition, the magnetic material is chemically inert, so applications that would need to coat a conventional magnet could benefit.
The researchers mention that ferrite magnets are environmentally more friendly than rare-earth magnets. That may be true, but our guess is the rare-earth magnet properties will keep them in use regardless of being able to 3D print ferrite.
We’ve seen
3D-printed magnets
before,
a few times
actually. We still don’t totally
grok how they work
. | 29 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425731",
"author": "Francois Otis",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T04:42:39",
"content": "“environmentally more friendly “: It’s funny you mention it. I don’t think any of our plastic aficionados here give a damn about environment. Everything on this site sits on the idea of production,... | 1,760,372,788.754134 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/as-fast-as-a-speeding-bullet/ | As Fast As A Speeding Bullet | Al Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"chronograph",
"CoilGun",
"laser"
] | [Electronoobs] built a coil gun and the obvious question is: how fast is the projectile? To answer it, he built a
chronograph
suitable for timing a bullet. The principle is straightforward. A laser and a light sensor would mark the entry and exit of the projectile over a known distance. As it turns out, there are some issues to resolve.
For one thing, a laser is too narrow and might miss the projectile. The first attempt to rectify this used mirrors, but the loss was too great — we suspect he was using a second surface mirror. The final answer was to use an array of detectors and removed the laser’s collimation lens to cover a wider area.
That worked, so all that was left was a nice mechanical design to allow changing the height of the sensors and the distance between the sensors. After that, an Arduino can take over.
We liked the mechanical design and the way he managed pushbuttons in the 3D printed case. We couldn’t help but wonder if a first surface mirror might have worked better. We also thought it would be nice to add some sort of encoder to let the device measure the distance between sensors automatically since it is adjustable. We also thought the response time and wavelength sensitivity of light-sensitive resistors might be a bit off. It seems like a photodiode or transistor would be more accurate and have better sensitivity to the laser or even just a conventional light source. But this does seem to work.
How fast was the coil gun? Well over 100 meters per second. For a point of reference, a .22 caliber round will have a muzzle velocity of well over 300 meters per second, but, still, 120 to 130 meters per second is nothing to sneeze at.
If you need a coilgun, we always
liked the looks of this one
. Or, you might prefer
a more futuristic look
. | 42 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425679",
"author": "Ghent+the+Slicer",
"timestamp": "2022-02-15T01:46:34",
"content": "But why use laser? Regular LED would not work?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6425721",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,372,788.891885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/a-solari-mechanical-digital-clock-hack-with-a-little-extra/ | A Solari Mechanical Digital Clock Hack With A Little Extra | Dave Rowntree | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"flip clock",
"retrofit",
"servo",
"stm32"
] | [Alfredo Cortellini] was perusing an antique shop in Bologna, and came across a nice example of a late 1950s timepiece, in the shape of a Solari Cifra 5 slave clock, but as the shop owner warned, it could never tell the time by itself. That sounded like a challenge, and the resulting hack is a nice,
respectful tweak of the internals to bring it into the modern era
. Since the clock requires a single pulse-per-minute in order to track time, the simplest track often followed is to open the back, set the correct time manually by poking the appropriate levers, and then let an external circuit take over clocking it. [Alfredo] wanted autonomy, and came up with a solution to make the thing fully adjust itself automatically.
Electronics-wise, initial prototyping was performed with a Nucleo 32 dev board and a pile of modules, before moving to a custom PCB designed in Altium Designer. An STM32G031 runs the show, with a few push buttons and a SSD1306 OLED display forming the UI.
Using some strategically-placed magnets and hall effect sensors, the status of the internal mechanism could be determined. Minute advancements were effected by driving the clock’s 24V electromagnet with a DRV8871 motor driver IC, the power supply for which was generated from the USB supply via a TPS61041 boost converter. In order to synchronise the mechanism with the electronics, the unit could have been driven to advance a minute at a time, but since every hour would need sixty pulses, this could take a while given the limited speed at which that could be done reliably. The solution was to sneak in a crafty MG996R high-torque servo motor, which pushes on the hour-advancement lever, allowing the unit to be zeroed much faster. Sensing of the zero-hour position was done by monitoring the date-advance mechanism, that is not used in this model of clock. Once zeroed, the clock could then be advanced to the correct time and kept current. Firmware source, utililising FreeRTOS can be found on the
project GItHub
, with schematics and Fusion360 files on the Hackaday.IO project linked above.
If you were thinking you’ve seen these Solari soft-flap displays here before,
you’d be quite correct
, but if you’re not so much interested in marking the passage of time, but bending such devices to your other indication whims,
we’ve got you covered also
. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425601",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T22:14:21",
"content": "Very nice idea. I especially like the manual flipper. Personally, I would have worked on that base a bit more and remove the ugly 2 tone OLED. A couple of status LEDs that only turn on few a minute after a m... | 1,760,372,789.047022 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/3d-printing-tiny-metal-parts/ | 3D Printing Tiny Metal Parts | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"metal 3d printing"
] | It may sound like a pop band, but
μ-WAAM
is actually a 3D printing technique for making small metal parts from the NOVA University Lisbon. Of course, WAAM stands for wire arc additive manufacturing, a well-known technique for 3D printing in metal. The difference? The new technique uses 250 μm wire stock instead of the 1mm or thicker wires used in conventional WAAM.
The thinner feed wire allows μ-WAAM to create fine details like thin walls that would be difficult to replicate with traditional methods. Typically, for fine structures, printers use fused metal powder. This is good for fine details, but typically slower and has higher waste than wire-based systems.
What we found most interesting is that the printer looks more or less like a conventional 3D printer with a special extruder that handles the fine metal filament. Of course, instead of heat, a 12V 100 aH battery provides an arc. Oh, there’s also an argon shield gas system to keep everything working well and prevent defects.
Still, this looked like something you could reasonably attempt to build yourself. The wire feeds through a conventional brass nozzle. The arc system and the associated shield gas would be the only big modifications, it seems.
Of course, finer wire means the prints are not as fast as a normal WAAM system. A powder system might deposit 2 grams of metal per minute, but μ-WAAM did about 5 grams. Of course, with fatter wire, a real WAAM system might reach over 18 grams/minute, but will not be nearly as precise.
We’ve followed [Metal Matter’s]
homebrew metal 3D printing
efforts for some time. You can see a video below of his system that also uses fine wire, but uses a laser instead of an arc. We’ve also seen
fused powder done with a laser cutter
. If you build something that works — or even something that doesn’t be sure to
let us know. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425543",
"author": "Robb Smith",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T20:19:05",
"content": "Awesome! I think in the picture it should read “Substrate” not “Subtract”. We don’t need no stinking subtraction!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,372,788.807174 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/predicting-the-future-hows-that-working-out/ | Predicting The Future: How’s That Working Out? | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"the future"
] | With 2022 off to a good start, it is about time to let go of all those New Year’s resolutions that didn’t quite work out. The scale’s needle didn’t reverse, our nails are still bitten, and we are still binge-watching
Breaking Bad
instead of reading the classics. But, of course, there’s always the future where we just know we’re going to stick to our resolutions. Besides, the future will be replete with fat-eating nanobots, 3D printed nails every morning, and a pill you can take that will make you remember reading
Ulysses.
Predicting the future is fraught with peril, which is why launching a new company or product is so risky. However, there have been a few prognosticators that have made some impressive forecasts. For example, in 1922 popular (if not critically acclaimed) author W. L. George wrote a piece for The New York Herald titled “
What the World Will be Like In a Hundred Years
.” Since May will see that piece’s 100th anniversary, let’s see how he did.
Catching Some Rays
George comments on the revolution of the X-ray and predicts that by 2022 there will be many new “rays.” This was a common trope in science fiction, from death rays to shrink rays, but we aren’t convinced there have been many new rays in the technical sense. However, we do have a lot of new imaging technology that a person of George’s time might see as rays — think MRI or PET scans, for example.
So while a prediction of rays is not quite spot on, some of the other predictions are pretty good. George writes, “commercial flying will have become entirely commonplace.” Well, perhaps less commonplace since the pandemic, but point goes to George on that one. He predicts that planes will go from London to New York in 12 hours. Turns out, it is closer to 8 hours, even on a conventional jet, and much less if you have a supersonic plane. George correctly predicted this would transform the business of horses, ocean liners, and railroads along with the rise of truck-based transportation. Pretty good.
Tech
His prediction that in 2022 there will be no wires in the sky because of wireless phones is almost true. We still see wires, but fewer of them and wireless phones are now the norm, not the exception. Perhaps he’d read some of Tesla’s work because he mentions the possibility that even power will go wireless, although he doesn’t sound convinced.
Speaking of energy, he notes that coal and oil won’t be exhausted but will be in short supply. He predicts that power will be shifting to tides, sun, and “radium” meaning atomic power.
Entertainment in 2022 would have moving images on a screen with natural color and sound. It wasn’t the death knell for live performances that George predicted, but it certainly made a difference in that area. There will be more leisure time, too, because of a reduction in coal and tobacco smoke. He also predicted the acceptance of birth control and women joining the workforce
en masse
and holding nearly any position they wanted, although he predicted there would still be some inequality as he didn’t expect something so deeply rooted in society to change in only 100 years despite his desire for equality.
Swing and Miss
Some of the predictions missed by a mile, though. Neighborhoods didn’t form cooperatives to hire domestic help. Our houses are not made of easy-to-replace paper mache. We don’t eat our meals in the form of pills — at least, not most of us. We also don’t live in enclosed cities.
Some predictions are closer but not quite. His prediction of 240 million people in the US is off by over 100 million. He also predicts that the complete settlement of the United States will result in a loss of opportunity and cause the population to become less “enterprising” settling on a 7-hour workday. Not around here, although maybe in some places, the workweek is shrinking, grudgingly.
Of course, he missed a few things completely. Computers, for one. All the things that come from computers like social media, online universities, robots (even smoking ones like the one below), and teleconferences. Polymers and additive manufacturing. There is no mention of space travel. Or the push to create more food to feed a growing world population. Still not a bad record.
Our Turn
So what do we think will be in the year 2122? Quantum computers, surely. We suspect, though, they may not be as useful as we think they will be but they will probably be useful for things we don’t currently suspect. Maybe artificial intelligence will make some breakthroughs, but what we have today is little more than a cheap parlor trick compared to the intelligent computers we imagine in fiction. Anything serious won’t be an extrapolation of what we have today, but something completely different. Same for virtual reality. It needs a breakthrough if it doesn’t want to be just a fad or a niche technology.
We think some of George’s misses may yet come true. Enclosed cities will be a given once we leave Earth and may see some adoption on the planet, too, eventually. (We have some small-scale examples like the Eden project seen in the picture.) Work is getting shorter. We can’t tell if the pandemic effects will fade away as other pandemics have or if we are going to see society shift in ways to make another one harder. For example, maybe in 2122, you’ll always wear a mask in public just in case?
We presume energy will be a solved problem in 100 years, at least by our standards. There will be, of course, new problems like wind farms changing weather patterns or something like that. We imagine waste disposal will still be a concern and maybe even worse than it is today. And, like George, there’s probably a host of things we just can’t imagine. DNA surgery to change your hairline, hair color, or cure a disease? Replicators that can copy objects or create them from a design pattern? That could significantly impact transportation, economics, and a host of other things.
Even as late as 1970, it was hard to imagine what a computer would do in someone’s home. By 1980, common wisdom was that everyone would have a computer, but there was little agreement on what we would do with them. Today, it is clear that what drove the true universal adoption of computers was their ability to connect us to other people. You could make the same argument for the success of cell phones. So if we had to bet on new things, we’d bet on the things that connect people to one another in useful or interesting ways.
We’ve looked at
other prognosticators
like Edward Bellamy and Hugo Gernsback.
Movies
are also infamous for bad predictions. What are yours? | 73 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425497",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T18:56:15",
"content": "Ability to edit HaD comments? :-P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6425504",
"author": "Twisty Plastic",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T19:14:2... | 1,760,372,789.001926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/13/no-leds-required-for-this-servo-controlled-larson-scanner/ | No LEDs Required For This Servo-Controlled Larson Scanner | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"animation",
"ESP32",
"fade",
"hal",
"hardware abstraction layer",
"larson scanner",
"pwm",
"servo"
] | All things considered, it’s pretty easy to get one LED is a strip to light up sequentially, and have it bounce back and forth. Turning that simple animation into a real Larson scanner, with smooth transitions and controlled fade-out, is another thing entirely. And forgetting the LEDs altogether and making
a servo-operated Larson scanner
is — well, let’s just call it an interesting lesson in hardware abstraction.
The Larson scanner, named after famed TV producer
Glen A. Larson
for his penchant for incorporating it into shows like
Battlestar Galactica
and
Knight Rider
, is actually hard to execute in hardware thanks to the fading tail that follows the lead pixel as it dances back and forth across the display. [Eric Gunnerson] decided to make this and other animation effects easier to achieve with
Fade
, a custom framework for LED animations that runs on an ESP32.
LED animations are fine, but what about servos? Could Fade be modified to support them? This turned out to be a fairly easy mod thanks to Fade’s architecture and [Eric]’s existing support for non-addressable LEDs via PWM signals. And it was even possible to support more than the 16 PWM channels on an ESP32by adding a UDP connection that puts multiple ESP32s under the control of a central microcontroller.
The video below shows [Eric]’s demo of servo support, with an eight-channel electromechanical Larson scanner. Each “pixel” is a painted ping pong ball swinging back and forth on a hobby servo, and the whole thing sounds just about as awful as you’d expect it to. If you squint just right, the effect looks pretty convincing, but that’s hardly the point. The real story here is [Eric]’s thoughtful architecture, which made the mods easier than starting from scratch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fb6g7Kf85k | 31 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425019",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T21:40:47",
"content": "A slight improvement would be if the redness could fade out from either the left side or the right side. This would make the animation a bit more symmetric.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,372,789.16111 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/13/pump-up-the-resin/ | Pump Up The Resin | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"peristaltic pump"
] | Sometimes the best ideas are simple and seem obvious after you’ve heard them. [Danny] showed us a great idea that fits that description.
He uses a peristaltic pump
to move resin in and out of his print bed. (Video, embedded below.) Normally, you remove the tank and pour the resin out into a container. With the pump, you can leave the tank where it is and simply pull the resin through a tube. The process is slower than pouring, but not as messy and doesn’t risk damage to your FEP film.
You can also use the pump like a vacuum to clean up resin. According to [Danny], the biggest value is when working with very large printers. He shows a Peopoly Phenom which has a huge tank compared to the other printers he shows in the video.
The cost for the pump is less than $40, although you can get faster pumps for a higher cost. [Danny] didn’t think it was worth the extra cost. Depending on the size, the less expensive pump will empty a tank out in 5 to 10 minutes. He also had a few tips about how to get the best flow and make the least amount of mess.
Once done, he pumps alcohol through the pump and caps off the tubing using a bolt. Overall, it looks like a great trick. You can, of course,
make your own
. We see them
bartending
quite a bit. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424994",
"author": "Jan Mrázek",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T18:03:08",
"content": "Or you go with much less sophisticated tools that are much easier to clean – a spout and spatula that is precisely shaped for the resin tank profile:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK9suvwUhDs",
"p... | 1,760,372,789.096069 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/13/weather-station-predicts-air-quality/ | Weather Station Predicts Air Quality | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Machine Learning"
] | [
"air quality",
"algorithm",
"anemometer",
"arduino",
"machine learning",
"ozone",
"raspberry pi",
"sensor",
"tensorflow"
] | Measuring air quality at any particular location isn’t too complicated. Just a sensor or two and a small microcontroller is generally all that’s needed. Predicting the upcoming air quality is a little more complicated, though, since so many factors determine how safe it will be to breathe the air outside. Luckily, though, we don’t need to know all of these factors and their complex interactions in order to predict air quality. We can train a computer to do that for us as [kutluhan_aktar] demonstrates
with a machine learning-capable air quality meter
.
The build is based around an Arduino Nano 33 BLE which is connected to a small weather station outside. It specifically monitors ozone concentration as a benchmark for overall air quality but also uses an anemometer and a BMP180 precision pressure and temperature sensor to assist in training the algorithm. The weather data is sent over Bluetooth to a Raspberry Pi which is running TensorFlow. Once the neural network was trained, the model was sent back to the Arduino which is now capable of using it to make much more accurate predictions of future air quality.
The build goes into quite a bit of detail on setting up the models, training them, and then using them on the Arduino. It’s an impressive build capped off with a fun 3D-printed case that resembles an old windmill. Using machine learning to help predict the weather is starting to become more commonplace as well, as we have seen before with
this weather station that can predict rainfall intensity
. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424990",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T17:34:40",
"content": "Very cool though I would be far more impressed if it did all the computing using a lower power MCU powered with solar power. Yes, it would be slow and require additional memory but a weather station is ou... | 1,760,372,789.203905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/13/3d-printing-rainbows/ | 3D Printing Rainbows | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"diffraction grating"
] | [The Action Lab] had a very serious technical problem. His daughter wanted to 3D print sparkly unicorns. But how do you make a 3D print sparkly? Turns out, he had used a diffraction grating before to make rainbow-enhanced chocolate.
The method turns out to be surprisingly simple. Using a diffraction grating as a print bed, puts the pattern on the bottom of the 3D print and — thanks to how a diffraction grating works — the 3D print now works like a grating, too.
Of course, the science behind the diffraction grating is well-understood, but we never thought of imprinting it on a 3D print. The downside, of course, is you only get one diffracted surface, but the effect is still pretty awesome.
The real test, of course, was the daughter test. Judging from the video, she was pretty happy with the results. The white pieces seem to look best, but the technique also worked with colored PLA. Technically, these are called surface relief gratings, to differentiate them from other kinds of diffraction gratings. In the 1600s, people noticed the effect in bird feathers and a hundred or so years later, they were duplicating the effect with fine hairs. It would be the 1800s before science started to explain what was really going on.
We have seen this technique applied to
candy
and even
chocolate
, so it makes sense that it would work with PLA, too. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424958",
"author": "erik",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T13:00:15",
"content": "cool idea!depending on the material of the diffraction grating it should be possible to iron on the pattern afterwords.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,372,789.253876 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/13/sticker-brings-the-heat/ | Sticker Brings The Heat | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"flex PCB",
"flexible PCB",
"PCB Heater"
] | [Carl] is always looking at making heater plates for PCB reflow and other applications. In his latest video, he shows how he is using thin flexible PCBs with adhesive backs as
stickers that get hot
. You can find gerber files and design files on
GitHub
.
You might think that this is a pretty simple thing to do with a flex PCB, but it turns out while the PCB might be flexible, the traces aren’t and so the typical long traces you see in a heater won’t allow the sticker to bend, which is a problem if you want to wrap it around, say, a coffee mug.
The answer was to create a pattern where the traces change direction frequently, and that’s what [Carl] did. He also talks about using stiffeners around the edges of the board.
The video shows quite a few tests that indicate the substrate discolor after a long time with high heat. The adhesive also tends to melt in those conditions. So the recommendation is to use them where you need lower temperatures for a long time or higher temperatures for a short duration. Of course, depending on your application, the color change may not matter as long as it doesn’t affect the long-term reliability.
What would you do with a flexible heated sticker? The self-warming mug is a no-brainer. A sticker to put on exposed pipes for a cold day comes to mind. A thin 3D printer bed heater or an irregular-shaped reptile habitat might be useful, too.
As long as you are putting patterns in any way, we wondered about making
thermal digits
on a sticker like this. It seems like every time we check in on [Carl] he’s
heating up something
. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424964",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T14:24:19",
"content": "With the right adhesive, sounds like it could find medical usage e.g. for pain relief?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6424975",
"author": "Ait... | 1,760,372,789.441115 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/12/epoxy-resin-night-light-is-an-amazing-ocean-themed-build/ | Epoxy Resin Night Light Is An Amazing Ocean-Themed Build | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"lamp",
"resin",
"resin pour",
"river table",
"water lamp"
] | We’ve all seen those “river” tables where a lovely old piece of tree is filled with some blue resin to create a water-like aesthetic. This project from [smartyleowl] takes that basic idea, but pushes it further, and the result is a beautiful build
that is as much a diorama as it is a simple lamp.
First up, an appropriate rough piece of unprepared wood is chosen to create a cliff for the underwater scene. Speckles of UV-reactive blue powder are scattered on to the wood and some little plastic coral and marine plants are stuck down as well. A mold is then constructed around the wood using acrylic. Small whale and diver figurines are dangled in place, and blue resin poured in to complete the underwater scene. Once the resin has hardened, it’s polished to a clear sheen and its edges are nicely beveled. It’s then placed on a illuminated base which lights the scene from below, giving it a somewhat ethereal underwater quality.
It’s not a complicated project by any means, but it’s a great example of the beautiful things one can create with the creative application of colored resin. Producing a lamp that looks this good obviously takes some skill, of course – getting a
bubble-free resin pour
and a nice shiny finish on the wood isn’t easy. However, there’s no reason you can’t start learning today! Video after the break. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424948",
"author": "srgeoi",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T10:41:42",
"content": "If you want to hate on peoples creativity then you should go back to E**blog forums.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6424949",
"author": "MS",
... | 1,760,372,789.49881 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/12/machining-waveguides-for-122-ghz-operation-is-delicate-work/ | Machining Waveguides For 122 GHz Operation Is Delicate Work | Lewin Day | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"122 GHz",
"lathe",
"machining",
"mmwave",
"mmwave radar",
"radar",
"radio"
] | Millimeter-wave Radars used in modern cars for cruise control and collision avoidance are usually designed to work at ranges on the order of 100 meters or so. With some engineering nous, however, experimenters have gotten these devices sending signals over ranges of up to 60 km in some tests. [Machining and Microwaves] decided to see if he could push the boat out even further, and set out
machining some waveguide combiner cavities
so he could use the radar chips with some very high-performance antennas.
Precision-machined components are required to successfully use these 122 GHz components for long-range transmissions.
The end goal of the project is to produce a 53 dBi antenna for the 122GHz signal put out by the mmWave radar chips commonly found in automotive applications. Working at this frequency requires getting tolerances
just so
in order to create an antenna that performs well.
Plenty of fine lathe work and cheerful machining banter later, and the precision waveguide is done. It may not look like much to the untrained eye, but much careful design and machining went on to make it both easy to attach to the radar and parabolic antenna system, and to make it perform at a high enough level to hopefully break records set by other enterprising radio experimenters. If that wasn’t all hard enough, though, the final job involved making 24 of these things!
There aren’t a whole lot of microwave antenna-specific machining channels on YouTube, so if you’ve been thirsty for that kind of content, this video is very much for you. If you’re more interested in antennas for lower frequencies, though,
you might find some of our other stories to your liking
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to MendesL for the tip!] | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424913",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T06:38:27",
"content": "Heh, apparently gaming YouTube algorithms has gotten so far that this channel is sticking AI-generated female face in the corner of the screenshot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,372,789.564557 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/12/spin-some-spudgers-from-secondhand-silverware/ | Spin Some Spudgers From Secondhand Silverware | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cutlery",
"prying",
"spudger"
] | Even though it’s not the right tool for the job, we’ve all used a flat head screwdriver for other purposes. Admit it — you’ve pried open a thing or two with that one in the toolbox that’s all dirty and dinged up anyway. But oftentimes, screwdrivers just aren’t thin enough. What you need is a spudger, which for some reason, seem to only come in plastic. Blame our disposable times.
In a relevant break from building electronics,
[lonesoulsurfer] took the time to craft a set of spudgers and such from secondhand silverware
. These are all made from spoons and butter knives sourced from a thrift store. For the spoons, [lonesoulsurfer] removed the heads with an angle grinder, shaped them on a belt sander, and thinned them out until they were spudger-slim. After doing the same with the handle end, [lonesoulsurfer] polished up the new tools on the wheel with some compound.
Not all of these are spudgers — some are destined to scrape, and others for lifting badges and decals. But they all live in harmony in a handy carrying case. Check out the build video after the break.
On the other hand,
sometimes a disposable tool is all you really need
. | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424873",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T00:32:06",
"content": "Excellent idea!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6424874",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T00:51:33",
"content": "Used a flat... | 1,760,372,789.627584 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/12/this-esp32-pico-wristwatch-has-plenty-of-potential/ | This ESP32 Pico Wristwatch Has Plenty Of Potential | Dave Rowntree | [
"clock hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"0603",
"circular",
"ESP32-Pico-D4",
"KiCAD",
"led",
"USB C",
"watch",
"wrist"
] | First hand-built prototype. Nurse! isopropyl alcohol, stat!
Prolific hacker [Sulfuroid] is a medical doctor by day, and an electronics hobbyist by night, and quite how he finds the time, we have no idea.
The project we want to highlight is an
ESP32 based LED smart watch
, which we’ll sure you’ll agree, looks pretty nicely developed so far, and [Sulfuroid] has bigger plans, as you may find, when you dig into
the GitHub repo
. This analog-style design uses four groups of 0603-sized LEDs, arranged circularly to indicate the passage of time, or anything else you fancy. Since there are four control buttons, a pancake vibration motor, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the possibilities are endless.
In order to stand a hope of driving those 192 LEDs from a single
ESP32-Pico-D4
, it was necessary to use a multiplexed LED driver, courtesy of the
Lumissil IS31FL3733
device, which can handle arrays up to 12 x 16 devices. This chip is one to remember, since it has some really nice features, such as global current control to reduce CPU overhead, automatic breathing loops for those fancy fade effects, and even includes a handy open/short detection function, so it can report back assembly problems, assisting in reworking your dodgy soldering!
Routing circular arrays is such a pain.
Power and interfacing are taken care of via USB-C, with a TP4054 single Li-Ion cell charger chip handling the battery. This is a Taiwanese clone of the popular
LTC4054
, but that chip may be a bit hard to get at the moment. There is the common-as-muck CP2104 USB chip dealing with the emulated serial port side of things, since for some reason, the ESP32 still does not support USB. The Pico-D4 does have RTC support, but [Sulfuroid] decided to use a
DS3231M
RTC chip instead. We noticed the touch functionality wasn’t broken out – that could be added easily in the next revision!
We’ve covered watches a lot, because who doesn’t want custom geek-wear! Here’s
a slick one
, a fun one with
the brains on display
, and finally
one using charlieplexing
to get the component count down. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424879",
"author": "Alan",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T01:57:02",
"content": "For fancy or stylish designs, I prefer pocket watches which can be physically larger.I also like full hunter (protective lid). Just like laptops, you can add a sensor to detect a closed lid – and turn off th... | 1,760,372,789.726945 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/12/color-dot-puzzle-will-wrinkle-your-brain/ | Color Dot Puzzle Will Wrinkle Your Brain | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"puzzle"
] | 2022 is a good year for puzzles, and if you’re getting tired of Wordle, you might be after a new challenge. This color puzzle from [Sebastian Coddington]
could be just what you’re looking for.
[Sebastian] describes the 4×4 Color Dot Puzzle as a sort of combination of the ideas behind the Rubik’s Cube and the 15 puzzle. The aim is to arrange the 16 colored tiles on the board to form four single-colored 2×2 squares in the overall 4×4 board. The puzzle is 3D printed, using 6 colors of filament – black for the body of the puzzle, white for the control sticks, and yellow, green, red, and blue for the individual tiles.
We haven’t seen any mathematical proofs of how to beat the game, but we’re sure [Sebastian] has gotten good at beating the puzzle having designed it himself. According to tipster [Michael Gardi],
who knows a thing or two about 3D printing games himself
, the puzzle makes for a fun little mind teaser.
If you’re more of a jigsaw person,
consider this advanced illuminated build. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424881",
"author": "RÖB",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T02:13:44",
"content": "I’m seeing 36 RGB addressable LEDs, 16 buttons and a microcontroller.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6424935",
"author": "helge",
"tim... | 1,760,372,789.674267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/12/the-real-world-strikes-back/ | The Real World Strikes Back | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"learning",
"logo",
"newsletter",
"Practice",
"robots",
"theory"
] | My son was into “
Secret Coders
“, a graphic novel series wherein a pair of kids discover and thwart a plot to take over the world by learning to program in the
LOGO computer language
. When I told him that these “turtle bots” were originally actually real physical things, he wanted one. So we built one out of some nice geared DC motors I had lying around.
A turtle bot has essentially three jobs: move forward in a straight line a controlled distance, turn a given number of degrees, and raise and lower a pen. If you’re already screaming “use stepper motors!” at your screen, well, you’re probably right. But I had these nice Faulhaber/Micromo geared motors with encoders that were just collecting dust in the closet, so I used ’em. And because of that, the robot stumbles on two of its three goals in life — the servo pen lifter works just fine.
Perfectly matched DC motors don’t exist. Of course I knew this, because I’ve built bots with DC motors before. But they’ve all had complex control mechanisms and/or feedback that made it moot. Not here. This bot needs to drive perfectly straight without any lines to guide it or more interesting navigation algorithms.
We spent a good half hour driving it around in not-quite-but-almost squares, tweaking each side’s PWMs, running the motors backwards for short bursts to brake the wheels, and generally trying to map degrees of rotation to milliseconds of motor drive. And you know what, my son enjoyed it. The concepts were simple enough for a second grader, and guessing the right PWM values was like a game. When we finally got it good enough, there was a small celebration.
Of course I know that what it really needs is encoder feedback. I installed those encoder gearmotors on purpose after all. But dealing with quadrature and probably a PID loop to control and sync the two sides is not for my son, at least not for another couple years. (They
do
learn closed-loop control theory in fourth grade these days, right?) I’ll have to do that all offline some night while he’s sleeping.
But I hope he’ll remember the lessons learned from stabbing at it the naive way. Abstractions are great, but no two motors are ever perfectly alike. You’d think you could just calibrate it out, but the motors differ in driven
and
coasting behavior, so you’ve got a lot more calibrating to do than you think at first. The real world is tough, and although it’s important to have theory and ideas and abstractions to guide you, you’re going to have to tweak to make it work when the wheels hit the floor. But also that it’s fun to do so, and super rewarding when it finally draws a wonky square.
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
! | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424710",
"author": "Superpomme",
"timestamp": "2022-02-12T15:22:42",
"content": "Nice, looks great.BTW, if anyone can help me with this, it would be much appreciated. I bought a couple of Valient Roamers (the plain grey ones rather than the translucent turtle versions) with the id... | 1,760,372,789.79249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/12/tutorial-teaches-you-to-use-neopixels-with-micropython/ | Tutorial Teaches You To Use Neopixels With Micropython | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"addressable led",
"addressable leds",
"glowables",
"led",
"led strips",
"neopixel",
"ws2812b"
] | Addressable LEDs are wonderful things, with products like Neopixels making it easy to create all kinds of vibrant, blinking glowables. However, for those without a lot of electronics experience, using these devices can seem a bit daunting. [Bhavesh Kakwani] is here to help, with his tutorial on
getting started with Neopixels using the MicroPython environment.
The tutorial flows on from [Bhavesh’s] Blink example for MicroPython, and is aimed at beginners who are learning for the first time. It explains the theory behind RGB color mixing that allows one to generate all manner of colors with WS2812B-based LED strings, and how to code for the Raspberry Pi Pico to make these LEDs do one’s bidding.
The guide even covers the use of the
Wokwi simulation tool
. This is a great way for beginners to test their projects before having to play with actual hardware. This is useful for beginners, because it’s a great way to catch mistakes – is there a software problem, or did they push the soldering iron through the microcontroller? It’s also a technique that pays dividends when working on more complicated projects.
Whether you’re entirely new to the embedded world, or just want to learn the intricacies of talking to addressable LEDs and make sense of color mixing theory, this tutorial will serve you well. Before you know it, you’ll be building glowing projects
with the best of them! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424760",
"author": "JC Silva",
"timestamp": "2022-02-12T17:33:58",
"content": "Can we get a tag for every micropython project?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6694006",
"author": "RND()",
"timestamp": "2023-10... | 1,760,372,789.831031 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/12/simple-dev-board-module-socket/ | Simple Dev Board Module Socket | Chris Lott | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"dev board",
"diy",
"module",
"mounting",
"socket"
] | When you’re building a quick prototype or a one-off project it’s nice to be able to securely mount the various modules and development boards. Sometimes these boards have mounting holes, but often they don’t. As an example from the latter category, digital music instrument maker and performer [DIYDSP] shows us
how to build a simple socket to mount an STM32 Nucleo-32 module
.
The socket is built on a standard pad-per-hole piece of vector board cut to the desired size. Pairs of female pin header strips are soldered down to the board. The inner pair of headers is for the module, the outer pair is for your interconnections. The headers are connected up with short solder bridges, and [DIYDSP] recommends you extend the outer pair several pins longer than necessary. These extras can be used for additional power or ground points, or on some boards they could connect to the debug header pins. He prefers to use female sockets because that lessens the odds that an accidentally bent pin will short something out.
Final step is to drill your mounting holes in the desired location, and no more development boards free-floating and held up only by wires. Do you have any tips for mounting these kinds of modules, either individually as shown here or onto PCBs? Let us know in the comments. | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424579",
"author": "none",
"timestamp": "2022-02-12T09:25:34",
"content": "What, perfboard is a hack now?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6424920",
"author": "Duder",
"timestamp": "2022-02-13T08:03:27",
... | 1,760,372,789.888696 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/homemade-probe-for-3d-printer-3/ | Homemade Probe For 3D Printer: $3 | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"auto bed leveling",
"z probe"
] | You have a few choices if you want to use a probe to level your 3D printer bed. Rarely, you’ll see optical or capacitive probes. More commonly, though, your probe will sense a metal print or uses a physical probe to touch the print bed. [Design Prototype Test] has long used a BLTouch which uses the latter method. However, putting it in a heated build chamber prevented it from working so he set out to make
his own simple design using an Allen key
.
We’ve seen Allen key sensors before, but usually, they use a microswitch. We’ve also seen microswitches used to directly probe the bed. But, in this case, a 3D printed fan shroud uses an optical sensor to note when the Allen key hits the bed.
What we really liked was the retraction mechanism which is sort of semi-manual. A magnet holds the wrench up out of the way during normal operation. Before you home or otherwise probe the bed, you release the wrench from the magnet. When you are done, you can park it again. No need for a servo motor or anything else electrical.
It looks pretty reasonable with a range over 10 measurements of less than 0.05 mm. Not great, but not bad for $3. We are waiting for the STLs which are forthcoming. However, you can easily adapt the idea to your specific printer setup pretty easily. In addition, there are plans to improve the accuracy with a small redesign.
We recently went over how Marlin does
unified bed leveling
, and this probe would work for that. There is also a trend to put the
sensor in the nozzle
, which has its pros and cons. | 38 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424630",
"author": "Grawp",
"timestamp": "2022-02-12T11:35:17",
"content": "My biggest problem with all these Z-axis only touch based approaches is that you can’t do *automatic* XY skew calibration which is really important unless you got proper ‘machinist-grade’ rigid frame and li... | 1,760,372,789.972696 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/retrotechtacular-raw-video-from-inside-a-1980s-arcade/ | Retrotechtacular: Raw Video From Inside A 1980s Arcade | Drew Littrell | [
"Games",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"arcade",
"retro",
"retro arcade",
"retrotechtacular",
"VHS"
] | It was just this year that
Sega left the arcade business for good
. A company synonymous with coin-op games for over a half century completely walked away from selling experiences you can only get on location. No more
Outrun
or
Virtua Fighter
machines, because arcades these days tend to resemble
The House of the Dead
. Arcades still exist to a degree, it’s just that headlines like that serve only as a reminder of an era gone by. Which is what makes
raw footage like the video
[Jon] posted of an Aladdin’s Castle arcade from the 1980s so compelling.
Aladdin’s Castle ad brochure circa 1983. Credit: John Andersen
The raw VHS footage starts with a sweep around the location’s pinball machines and arcade cabinets. There’s an extended shot of a rare TX-1 tri-monitor sitdown cabinet. The racing game was the first of its kind to feature force feedback in the steering wheel, so it’s no wonder it received the focus. The arcade’s lighting tech was also a point of pride as it allowed for programmable lighting cues. A far cry from the flickering fluorescent tubes no doubt in use elsewhere. Eventually the employee filming takes us to the back room where it the owner has made it abundantly clear that they are not a fan of Mondays, judging by the amount of Garfield merchandise.
Bally’s Aladdin’s Castle was a chain of arcades and had nearly 400 locations across the US at its height in the mid 1980s (at least according to their brochure seen above). Those neon red letters were a mainstay of American shopping malls throughout the decade. Namco, the Pac-Man people, acquired Aladdin’s Castle in 1993 and the brand faded away soon after. Although there is
a lone location in Quincy, IL that is still open for business
today.
For more retrotechtacular goodness from the era, check out
this post on 1980s design for manufacturing
. | 42 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425439",
"author": "andarb",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T16:44:49",
"content": "My opinion has been that – to survive as anything like what we remember – arcades must provide experiences way beyond what you can get on your couch at a price that a kid with below-average allowance can a... | 1,760,372,790.18873 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/nasa-taps-lockheed-to-bring-back-a-piece-of-mars/ | NASA Taps Lockheed To Bring Back A Piece Of Mars | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"ExoMars",
"hydrazine",
"ion engine",
"mars",
"Mars Ascent Vehicle",
"mav",
"rover",
"sample return",
"solid rocket"
] | Since NASA’s
Mariner
spacecraft made the first up-close observations of Mars in 1964, humanity has lobbed a long line of orbiters, landers, and rovers towards the Red Planet. Of course, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. History, to say nothing of the planet’s surface, is littered with Martian missions that didn’t quite make the grade. But we’ve steadily been getting better, and have even started to push the envelope of what’s possible with interplanetary robotics through ambitious craft like the
Ingenuity
helicopter.
Yet, after nearly 60 years of studying our frigid neighbor, all we have to show for our work boils down to so many 1s and 0s. That’s not to say the data we’ve collected, both from orbit and on the surface, hasn’t been extremely valuable. But scientists on Earth could do more with a single Martian rock than any robotic rover could ever hope to accomplish. Even still, not so much as a grain of sand has ever been returned from the planet’s dusty surface.
But if everything goes according to plan, that’s about to change. Within the next decade, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) hope to bring the first samples of Martian rocks, soil, and atmospheric gases back to Earth using a series of robotic vehicles. While it’s still unclear when terrestrial scientists should expect delivery of this interplanetary bounty, the first stage of the program is already well underway. The
Perseverance
rover has started
collecting samples and storing them in special tubes
for their eventual trip back to Earth. By 2028, another rover will be deployed to collect these samples and load them into a miniature rocket for their trip to space.
Launching the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV).
Just last week
NASA decided to award the nearly $200 million contract
to build that rocket, known officially as the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), to aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. The MAV will not only make history as the first rocket to lift off from a celestial body other than the Earth, but it’s arguably the most critical component of the sample return mission; as any failure during launch will mean the irrevocable loss of all the samples painstakingly recovered by
Perseverance
over the previous seven years.
To say this mission constitutes a considerable technical challenge would be an understatement. Not only has humanity never flown a rocket on another planet, but we’ve never even
attempted
it. No matter what the outcome, once the MAV points its nose to the sky and lights its engines, history is going to be made. But while it will be the first vehicle to make the attempt, engineers and scientists have been floating plans for a potential Martian sample return mission for decades.
Soviet Ambition
America might have gotten a probe in orbit around Mars first, but it was the Soviets who successfully put a lander on the surface in December of 1971. The craft only remained active for a few minutes, but it was still a scientific and political triumph. Looking to establish a commanding lead over the US, Soviet engineers wasted no time in planning an ambitious sample return mission. The first phase,
Mars 4NM
, would test out core concepts and collect data. This would be followed by the
Mars 5NM
mission, which would drop a colossal 16 metric ton lander on the planet’s surface sometime in 1976.
Even the far simper
Mars 5M
mission had to be scrapped.
The incredible mass of the lander, comparable to NASA’s manned Apollo Lunar Module, was due to the fact that it would contain not only the two-stage rocket necessary to lift the collected soil samples from the Martian surface, but also the 750 kilogram (1,650 pound) Mars-Earth return vehicle and the 15 kg (33 lb) spherical reentry capsule. Thanks to the unforgiving nature of the rocket equation, of that 16,000 kg of hardware delivered to Mars, all Soviet scientists would get back in return was approximately 200 grams of soil.
Unfortunately, the massive N1 rocket that was required to loft these heavyweight missions was never completed. Without a booster powerful enough to lift the Martian vehicles in one piece, a modification was proposed that would use several launches to put the hardware into orbit. Fearing the added complexity would doom the already ambitious mission, plans were scaled back drastically. Hardware for this revised
Mars 5M
mission was under construction in 1978, but a political change of the wind canceled the project as it was deemed too expensive and risky.
NASA’s Shifting Priorities
While American scientists were certainly just as eager as their Soviet counterparts to get their hands on some fresh Martian samples, NASA was never quite able to get a sample return mission past the early concept phases. The desire was there, but the price tag was simply too high considering all the other programs the agency was supporting through the 1980s.
Conceptual NASA Mars sample return mission, circa 1993.
In fact, plans didn’t really firm up until after the 1996 announcement that scientists believed they had found evidence of ancient fossilized bacterium on a Martian meteorite. Although the theory was later discredited, it did put Mars back in the spotlight. Sample return missions were considered by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and in 2009 NASA and ESA agreed to work together on the ExoMars program, which was designed to bring Martian samples back to Earth sometime in the 2020s.
But the plan was short lived. In 2012, NASA shocked its international partners by dropping out of the ExoMars program to free up additional funds for the
James Webb Space Telescope
. Without the considerable funding NASA was set to provide, the entire program needed to be restructured. The ESA ultimately partnered with Russia to continue development of the ExoMars lander and rover, albeit with the sample return capability removed, and the mission is currently expected to launch in late 2022.
One Step At a Time
Even though the ExoMars deal fell through, the United States remained committed to conducting a Mars sample return mission, with the National Research Council’s Planetary Science Decadal Survey declaring it a top priority mission for the 2013 to 2022 time period. So it was no surprise when NASA and ESA resumed talks in 2018 to develop a framework by which Martian samples could be returned to Earth. Rather than trying to tackle the problem with one elaborate mission and spacecraft, it was understood that the two space agencies would jointly work on each phase of the program incrementally. Outfitting
Perseverance
with the hardware necessary to collect the samples was the first step, and now it’s time to work on getting them off the surface.
Over the years, NASA has proposed several designs for the Mars Ascent Vehicle. The most recent literature describes a 2.8 meter (9 ft) long two-stage booster that burns TP-H-3062, a solid rocket propellant used on several previous Mars landers, with electromechanical thrust vector control (TVC) providing pitch and yaw authority and a monopropellant hydrazine reaction control system (RCS) used to control roll during ascent as well as provide full attitude control of the upper stage while in orbit. The booster is designed to put a 16 kg (35 lb) payload into a 343 kilometer (213 mile) orbit with an inclination of 27°, though the proposal notes that some orbital variation is expected due to the uncontrollable nature of solid rocket motors.
The 2,400 kg (5,290 lb) Sample Retrieval Lander, the largest and heaviest spacecraft to ever touch down on Mars, would carry the MAV horizontally. This arrangement will make it easier for the samples to be loaded into the cylindrical capsule in the nose, and would keep the lander’s center of gravity low. Once ready for liftoff, gas-powered pistons will toss the rocket into the air at a rate of approximately five meters per second. Once clear of the lander, the rocket will ignite its first stage motor and assume a more vertical position as it makes its ascent. This unusual arrangement, which JPL calls Vertically Ejected Controlled Tip-off Release (VECTOR), means the MAV will be able to take off regardless of the orientation of the Sample Retrieval Lander.
After reaching orbit, the MAV will be met by the ESA-developed Earth Return Orbiter (ERO). This spacecraft will use a robotic arm to capture the sample canister and place it into the onboard Earth Entry Vehicle (EEV). Once the cargo is secured it will use high-efficiency ion engines to begin the two year journey back to Earth.
Or at least, that’s the plan. The ERO and EEV are currently in the conceptual phase, and while the designs for the MAV and Sample Retrieval Lander are more fleshed out, Lockheed Martin still has years of work ahead of them before the hardware is ready for flight tests here on Earth; to say nothing of getting packed up and sent off to another planet. There’s an incredible amount of work to be done before we bring a piece of Mars back home, and plenty that can go wrong. But after decades of false starts, it looks like we’re finally on the right track. | 36 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425370",
"author": "Dave Boltman",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T15:09:17",
"content": "Interesting!“The MAV will not only make history as the first rocket to lift off from a celestial body other than the Earth” – … or the moon, of course 😀 Or was that a hoax?",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,372,790.100226 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/fail-of-the-week-a-bigger-hacksaw-isnt-a-better-hacksaw/ | Fail Of The Week: A Bigger Hacksaw Isn’t A Better Hacksaw | Dan Maloney | [
"Fail of the Week"
] | [
"bandsaw",
"cutting",
"fail of the week",
"fotw",
"hacksaw",
"handtools",
"metalworking"
] | If we’re being honest, the main reason to buy a power tool is to avoid the pain of using one’s muscles. Oh sure, we dress it up with claims that a power tool will make us more productive, or give better results, but more often than not it’s the memory of how your forearm feels after a day of twisting a screwdriver that makes you buy a cordless driver.
It appears that [Artisan Makes] has a high tolerance for pain, seeing how the main prep tool in his metal shop is a plain old hacksaw. So in an effort to speed up his stock prep, he turned not to a bandsaw or cutoff saw, but instead built
the world’s silliest hacksaw
. It’s the metalworking equivalent of the two-man bucksaws that lumberjacks used to fell trees before chainsaws came along, and at a meter and half in length, it’s about the size of one too. Modifying the frame of his trusty hacksaw was easy — he just popped the end pieces off and attached them to an extra-long piece of tube stock. Finding a 1.5-meter hacksaw blade was the main challenge; not exactly a big-box store item, that. So a section of metal-cutting bandsaw blade was modified to fit the frame, and it was off to the races.
Or not. The video below tells the tale of woe, which starts with the fact that [Artisan]’s shop is too small for the hilariously long hacksaw. Solving the fixturing problems didn’t soo much to help, though — there was no way to tension the blade enough to get it to stop wobbling during cutting. It was also clear that the huge saw wasn’t able to apply enough downforce on the stock to get good cuts. Maybe with a second set of hands, though…
There are plenty of ways to
improve hacksawing in the shop
, and while this isn’t one of them, we sure appreciate the chuckle we got out of it. And you really should check out [Artisan Makes]’ channel — his more serious stuff is really good. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425292",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T12:12:52",
"content": "Probably with a wider blade you could’ve gotten rid of part of the wobble.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6425303",
"author": "Earle Rich",
... | 1,760,372,790.250328 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/14/backpack-board-for-oleds-boasts-fancy-features/ | Backpack Board For OLEDs Boasts Fancy Features | Donald Papp | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"backpack",
"i2c",
"oled",
"osh park",
"pcb"
] | Back when LCD character displays based on the HD44780 controller were the bee’s knees, a way to make them easier to work with came in the form of “backpack” PCBs, which provided an accessible serial interface and superior display handling at the same time. [Barbouri] has updated that idea with
a backpack board that mounts to OLED displays
using the US2066 display driver, and provides an I
2
C interface with powerful and convenient high-level functions that make the display simple to use.
On the software side, the backpack uses
this I2cCharDisplay driver project
which provides functions like cursor control, fading, display shifting, and of course writing characters or strings. While [Barbouri] designed the board specifically to accommodate Newhaven Slim Character OLED displays, it should in theory work with any US2066-based OLED character display. [Barbouri]’s design files for the Slim-OLED Display backpack board are available for download
directly from the project page
(link is near the bottom), or boards can be
purchased directly from OSH Park
.
OLED technology is nifty as heck; we’ve seen some neat tricks done by
stacking transparent OLED displays
, and
even seen OLEDs made in the home lab
. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425249",
"author": "RÖB",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T10:18:52",
"content": "Whenever I try to design one of these boards for the common LCD1602 / 2004, I always end up at the same place.I want to control the contrast – so PWM into a capacitor to get -ve to +ve range and another cap t... | 1,760,372,790.296799 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/13/this-minibike-will-land-you-in-hot-water/ | This Minibike Will Land You In Hot Water | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"copper tube",
"minibike",
"water boiler",
"water heater"
] | The minibike is an American phenomenon which fascinates those of us from countries in which such contraptions are illegal on the road; they seem to deliver bucketloads of low-octane fun in which we are unable to participate. [HowToLou] has one, and as it’s something for use in the Great Outdoors it naturally requires some means of fixing a brew. His solution to the need for a mug of boiling water in out-of-the-way places?
A gravity-fed heat exchanger for the exhaust pipe
, fed from a reservoir made using an upturned bottle.
As can be seen in the video below the break it’s a simple enough piece of work but surprisingly effective. A piece of small-bore copper tube is passed through a cork into the bottle, then wrapped round a piece of pipe which forms an exhaust The resulting heat exchanger is insulated, the engine started, and the cork loosened just enough to cause a bit of water to flow. The result – a good flow of hot water for that morning coffee.
It may not be the most practical of water heaters, but it’s certainly a bit of fun
even if it might not work with all the minibikes we’ve covered
. | 32 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425143",
"author": "Dr",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T06:23:08",
"content": "https://c.tenor.com/9AxpRD2d5d0AAAAC/blinking-eyes-man.gif",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6425145",
"author": "Judy",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T06... | 1,760,372,790.487408 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/13/complicated-calculated-solution-to-3d-printed-puzzle/ | Complicated Calculated Solution To 3D-Printed Puzzle | Bryan Cockfield | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d modeling",
"3d printer",
"dodecahedral",
"holonomy",
"mathematician",
"maze",
"oklahoma state",
"puzzle"
] | 3D printers have made a lot of things possible that were either extremely difficult or downright impossible with traditional tooling. Certain shapes lend themselves to 3D printing, and materials and tooling costs are also generally greatly reduced as well. One thing that may not be touched on as often, though, is their ability to rapidly prototype solutions to complex mathematical problems, in this case taking the form of a 3D printed maze,
known as a dodecahedral holonomy maze
, with an interesting solution.
The puzzle presents itself as a sphere composed of various inlaid hexagons which form a track for the puzzle piece, or “rook”. The tracks create the maze for the rook to travel, as some paths are blocked when the rook is oriented in certain ways. To solve the puzzle, the player must rotate the rook by moving it around the hexagons in such a way that its path isn’t physically blocked by any of the pegs in order to successfully reach the exit. This might seem like a fun toy to have on its surface, but the impressive thing about this is that the solutions are designed to reduce the likelihood of solving the puzzle with any “brute force” methods while at the same time having more than one path that will reach the exit as well as several bottlenecks that the puzzle solver must traverse as well.
There are actually many possible puzzles that can be produced in this size and shape, and all have predetermined solutions with cleverly chosen paths. This might seem like a lot but when you realize that the entire build from concept to 3D modeling to implementation was done by [Henry Segerman] and a group of other mathematicians at Oklahoma State University it starts to become more clear how the puzzle was so well-designed. In fact, we’ve featured
some of his other mathematically-modeled builds in the past as well
.
Thanks to [Inne] for the tip! | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425095",
"author": "Grounded",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T04:04:53",
"content": "No Wumpus?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6425116",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T04:52:07",
"content": "I hate dodecahedr... | 1,760,372,790.343932 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/13/hackaday-links-february-13-2022/ | Hackaday Links: February 13, 2022 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"battlezone",
"coronal mass ejection",
"delivery bot",
"drift racing",
"hackaday links",
"Hackers on Planet Earth",
"hope",
"james webb space telescope",
"jwst",
"pong",
"satellite",
"solar flare",
"space invaders",
"Starlink"
] | If you need evidence that our outwardly peaceful little neck of the solar system is actually a dangerous place, look no further than the
40 newly launched Starlink satellites that were just clobbered out of orbit
. It seems that the SpaceX launch on February 3 was ill-timed, as it coincided with the arrival of energetic plasma from a solar storm that occurred a few days before. The coronal mass ejection followed an M-class flare on the Sun, which was aimed just right to hit just as the 49-satellite addition to the Starlink constellation was being released. This resulted in an expansion of the upper atmosphere sufficient to increase drag on the newborn satellites — up to 50% more drag than previous launches had encountered. Operators put the satellites into safe mode, but it appears that 40 of them have already met a fiery demise, or soon will. Space is a tough place to make a living.
In better space news,
mirror alignment on the James Webb Space Telescope
is proceeding according to schedule. The alignment process is complex, and it required operators to start gathering the first of many photons the telescope will see over the next couple of decades. The video below is a fascinating look at the alignment process, which is needed to move the 18 separate hexagonal mirror segments into a single optical surface. The fact that operators are able to attribute the individual spots to specific mirror segments is pretty cool, as is the accidental selfie Webb took during the process. For more on how they move the mirrors, check out
[Zachary Tong]’s working model of the mirror actuators
.
Seeing how the passage of time has seemingly lost all meaning lately, you’d be forgiven to be shocked to learn that it’s “only” been two years since we had anything in the way of real, in-person conferences to announce. But it looks like Hackers on Planet Earth will buck the trend, having announced the appropriately named
“A New HOPE”
for July. The conference will be held in its new venue on the St. John’s campus in Queens, New York.
We talked about the change in venue
way back in the Before Time — how little did we know then what was about to unfold. We’re just glad to be announcing an actual meatspace conference for a change, so be sure to get your proposals in.
While trolling IEEE Spectrum, we noticed that they’ve had a series of articles lately focused on some of the classic games from the Golden Age of Arcades. So far we’ve spotted articles on
Space Invaders
,
Pong
, and
Battlezone
. That last one was a bit surprising — it was never much of a factor in the arcades we favored in our youth, which tended to endless rows of
Pac-Man
machines. But according to the article, the US Army apparently contracted with Atari for a version of Battlezone to train its tank crews. That’s an interesting tidbit we didn’t know, and the whole series is full of great technical details on these classic games, and how the designers got so much done with so few resources. Of course we’ve done
some of our own coverage
on that front too.
It seems like big rigs aren’t the only delivery vehicles Canadian authorities are taking exception to these days.
Delivery robots are also causing some problems
, at least in Toronto, where
the City Council adopted rules
to keep these adorable pink robots and their cohorts off the sidewalks and bike paths. A group representing those with disabilities objected to sharing the sidewalk with these remotely piloted delivery bots, as apparently did users of the city’s bike lanes. Excluding these bots from either of these paths seems to present a problem to the business model of their operators. Perhaps they should invest in a fleet of vehicles that can operate safely on the roadways — oh, wait…
And finally, we have to admit to never really getting the point of drift racing, a pursuit that seems to center around turning horsepower into the slowest possible progression around a track, all while turning expensive tires into air pollution. Of course, like most motorsports it’s probably more exciting for the driver than for the audience, or at least it would be if
they hadn’t built a robot car that can drift itself
. Sure, they offer fancy talk about how they’re learning how to handle the extreme edge cases of driving, such as might be encountered while negotiating icy roads. But we know what the real agenda is here: not only do they want to put the drift racers out of business, they want to make sure no student driver ever has to experience what it means to “turn into the skid” again. | 31 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6425118",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2022-02-14T04:55:13",
"content": "Am I the only one who finds those terrible satellites burning up on reentry to be extremely cathartic? Light pollution in all its forms is terrible. Keep your satellite internet, I prefer fiber and the abili... | 1,760,372,792.183188 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/pyrotechnic-posters-are-fireworks-drawn-on-paper/ | Pyrotechnic Posters Are Fireworks Drawn On Paper | Lewin Day | [
"Art"
] | [
"art",
"fire",
"pyrotechnics"
] | There’s a deep love many humans feel for fire; it’s often cited as one of the most important discoveries that led to the founding of civilization. The work of
French artistic duo [Pinaffo-Pluvinage]
definitely hits upon that, combining pyrotechnics with paper to make what are probably the most exciting posters you’ve ever seen,
as reported by
Heise Online
.
The artworks are made with a variety of powders, including those for blue and red flames and one with a special “scintillating” effect.
The posters aren’t huge, measuring 50 cm x 70 cm. However, what they lack in size, they make up for with literal flames. Yes, the posters are laced with a variety of pyrotechnic powders that combust in a variety of designs and patterns to create a dynamic burning artwork once ignited.
Each poster is thus a work of art in both the visual and combustible realms. Different parts of the artwork burn at differnt rates and with different colored flames, adding to the performance when the poster is burned. Impressively, the artworks are not destroyed in the process; the pyrotechnic material burns off with much flame and smoke without destroying the poster itself.
Putting together the posters wasn’t as simple as simply doodling some designs. The duo had to develop their own methods to apply the pyrotechnic material to the paper. Reportedly, the effort took hundreds of experiments to get right.
It’s unclear exactly how the effect is achieved without burning the whole poster down; one suspects some kind of protective layer may be used. It’s quite the opposite of flash paper, which consumes the paper itself in the combustion.
In any case, fireworks experts will likely have some good ideas of the chemicals used to achieve the flaming effects; sound off in the comments if you know what’s what!
The pieces could be interpreted as a commentary
on the transience of all things
, or the artist’s intention could have been something different entirely. Who can say? Video after the break. | 15 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424494",
"author": "Not Important",
"timestamp": "2022-02-12T05:02:34",
"content": "The creators are French, and it’s February. I think you’re grasping at straws just a bit here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6424496",
"a... | 1,760,372,792.090972 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/maybe-the-simplest-cloud-chamber/ | Maybe The Simplest Cloud Chamber | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"cloud chamber",
"ionizing radiation",
"wilson cloud chamber"
] | Have you ever seen a Wilson cloud chamber — a science experiment that lets you visualize ionizing radiation? How hard would it be to build one? If you follow [stoppi’s] example,
not hard at all
(German,
Google Translate link
). A plastic bottle. some tape, a flashlight, some water, hot glue, and — the only exotic part — a bit of americium 241. You can see the design in the video below and the page also has some more sophisticated designs including one that uses a CPU cooler. Even if you don’t speak German, the video will be very helpful.
You need to temper your expectations if you build the simple version, but it appears to work. The plastic bottle is a must because you have to squeeze it to get a pressure change in the vessel.
If you are wondering where to get americium-241, check out a junked smoke detector. The second video, below, has details about how to harvest it from that common source. You need something that fits in the bottle cap.
It is hard to see on the video, but different types of ionizing radiation leave telltale tracks in the chamber. Alpha particles tend to leave thick straight tracks whereas beta particles tend to be more delicate and curvy. Although in modern times these are more or less science curiosities, there was a time they were real lab equipment and they participated in the discovery of the positron, the muon, and the kaon.
If you want to try a bigger chamber,
we’ve seen it done
. Some chambers use
alcohol and dry ice
. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424452",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2022-02-12T00:11:09",
"content": "A cloud chamber was part of whatAmerican Basic Science Club sent out. The Gilber Atomic Energy Lab included a cloud chamber too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,372,792.398221 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/one-tool-twists-wires-and-skewers-shish-kebabs/ | One Tool Twists Wires, And Skewers Shish Kebabs | Chris Lott | [
"how-to"
] | [
"diy",
"stranded wire",
"tool",
"twisted wire"
] | Twisting stranded wire with your fingers in preparation for tinning and/or soldering is almost a reflex for folks making electronic assemblies. But what if the wires are too close to get your fingers around, or you have the fingers of a sumo wresters? Well [DIYDSP]
has a solution for you
(see video below the break) that’s easy to make from a shish kebab skewer that’s probably rolling around your kitchen drawer. The reason that [DIYDSP] wanted to twist such closely spaced wires was to solder a length of 0.1 in O.C. stranded ribbon cable directly onto a PCB pin header pattern.
The method is very simple. Drill a long hole in the factory-cut flat end, followed by using a countersink bit to give a conical taper to guide the wires in. [DIYDSP] found that a 1/16 inch (1.6 mm) drill bit was a bit too large to grip the types of wires he was using, and finally settled on a 0.6 mm bit. If you are using larger wires, you should experiment to get the right size, or just build a handful of these of differing diameters since they’re so easy to make — just mark them clearly so you don’t accidentally grill shish kebabs with them on the BBQ.
The resulting tool is not unlike the business end of a hand-held wire-wrap tool, but works different principle and is a fraction of the cost. If you do any amount of interconnect wiring with stranded wires, then you should check out this video and whip up a couple of these to throw in your tool box. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424411",
"author": "That kid",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T21:18:12",
"content": "phenomenal…!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6424437",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T23:13:39",
"content": "That’s as effe... | 1,760,372,792.344828 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/tiny-tv-celebrates-the-forgotten-tech-of-crts/ | Tiny TV Celebrates The Forgotten Tech Of CRTs | Dan Maloney | [
"classic hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"analog",
"cathode ray tube",
"crt",
"pal",
"retro",
"television",
"tv",
"viewfinder"
] | For those of us who grew up before the Internet, the center of pretty much every house was the TV. It was the shrine before which we all worshipped, gathering together at the appointed times to receive the shared wisdom of mass entertainment. In retrospect, it really wasn’t that much. But it’s what we had.
Content aside, one thing all these glowing boxes had in common was that which did the glowing — the cathode ray tube (CRT). Celebrating the marvel of engineering that the CRT represents is the idea behind
[Matt Evan]’s tiny desktop TV
. The design centers around a 1.5″ CRT that once served as a viewfinder on a 1980s-vintage Sony camcorder. [Matt] salvaged the tube and the two PCB assemblies that drive it, mounting everything in a custom-built acrylic case, the better to show off the bulky but beautiful tube.
The viewfinder originally used a mirror to make the optical path more compact; this forced [Matt] to adapt the circuit to un-reverse the image for direct viewing. Rather than receiving analog signals off the air as we did in the old days — and we liked it that way! — the mini monitor gets its video from a Raspberry Pi, which is set to play clips of TV shows from [Matt]’s youth. Rendered in glorious black and white and nearly needing a magnifying glass to see, it almost recaptures the very earliest days of television broadcasting, when TVs all had screens that looked more like oscilloscope CRTs.
This project is a nice homage to a dying technology, and [Matt] says it has spurred more than one conversation from people you grew up knowing only LCD displays. That’s not to say CRTs are totally dead — if you want to build your own old-school TV,
there’s a kit for that
. | 35 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424388",
"author": "Tom Brusehaver",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T19:35:48",
"content": "I have a Singer Friden 1160 calculator that uses an oscilloscope CRT.https://time.com/2854513/ted-cruz-canadian-citizenship/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,792.517127 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/pick-and-place-hack-chat-reveals-assembly-secrets/ | Pick And Place Hack Chat Reveals Assembly Secrets | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"design for assembly",
"design for manufacturing",
"Hack Chat",
"pick and place",
"solder mask"
] | These days we’ve got powerful free tools to do CAD and circuit design, cheap desktop 3D printers that can knock out bespoke enclosures, and convenient services that will spin up a stack of your PCBs and send them hurtling towards your front door for far less than anyone could have imagined. In short, if you want to build your own professional-looking gadgets, the only limit is your time and ambition. Well, assuming you only want to build a few of them, anyway.
Once you start adding some zeros to the number of units you’re looking to produce, hand assembling PCBs quickly becomes a non-starter. Enter the pick and place machine. This wonder of modern technology can drop all those microscopic components on your board in a fraction of the time it would take a human, and never needs to take a bathroom break.
This week Chris Denney stopped by the Hack Chat
to talk about these incredible machines and all the minutiae of turning your circuit board design into a finished product.
Chris is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of
Worthington Assembly
, a quick turn electronics manufacturer in South Deerfield, Massachusetts that has been building and shipping custom circuit boards since 1974. He knows a thing or two about PCB production, and looking to help junior and mid-level engineers create easier to manufacture designs, he started the “
Pick, Place, Podcast
” when COVID hit and in-person tours of the facility were no longer possible. Now he says he can tell when a board comes from a regular listener by how many of his tips make it into the design.
So what should you be doing to make sure your board assembly goes as smoothly as possible? Chris says a lot of it is pretty common sense stuff, like including clear polarity indicators, having a legible silkscreen, and the use of fiducial markers. But some of the tips might come as something of a surprise, such as his advice to stick with the classic green solder mask. While modern board houses might let you select from a rainbow of colors, the fact is that green is what most equipment has been historically designed to work with.
That black PCB might look slick, but can confuse older pick and place machines or conveyors which were designed with the reflectivity of the classic green PCB in mind. It also makes automated optical inspection (AOI) much more difficult, especially with smaller component packages. That said, other colors such as white and red are less of a problem and often just require some fine tuning of the equipment.
He also pulled back the curtain a bit on how the contract manufacturing (CM) world works. While many might have the impression that the PCB game has moved overseas, Chris says orders of less than 10,000 units are still largely handheld by domestic CMs to minimize turnaround time. He also notes that many assembly houses are supported almost entirely by a few key accounts, so while they may be juggling 50 customers, there’s usually just two or three “big fish” that provide 80% of their business. With such a tight-knit group, he cautions CMs can be a bit selective; so if a customer is difficult to work with they can easily find themselves on the short end of the stick.
While the Hack Chat is officially only scheduled for an hour, Chris hung out for closer to three, chatting with community members about everything and anything to do with electronic design and production. His knowledge and passion for the subject was readily apparent, and we’re glad he was able to make time in his schedule to join us.
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. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424381",
"author": "Val",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T19:06:15",
"content": "Two things noted that deserve expanding on: Humans are slow, yes, and the game is local and not overseas, yes as well. The reason is that human labour is much cheaper than pnp, performances and time are worse... | 1,760,372,792.033831 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/hackaday-podcast-155-dual-integrating-spheres-more-magnetic-switches-plottybot-red-hair-in-your-wafers/ | Hackaday Podcast 155: Dual Integrating Spheres, More Magnetic Switches, PlottyBot, Red Hair In Your Wafers | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | This week Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi take a close look at two pairs of projects that demonstrate the wildly different approaches that hackers can take while still arriving at the same conclusion. We’ll also examine the brilliant mechanism that the James Webb Space Telescope uses to adjust its mirrors, and marvel over a particularly well-developed bot that can do your handwriting for you. The finer points of living off home-grown algae will be discussed, and by the end of the show, you’ll learn the one weird trick to stopping chip fabs in their tracks.
Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Direct Download
(~70 MB)
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 155 Show Notes:
What’s that Sound?
This week’s sound was the
CRY2001 voice scrambler
. Congratulations to [Stella’s Dad]!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Working Model Reveals Amazing Engineering Of Webb’s Mirror Actuators
3D Printed Joystick Using Spherical Flexure Joint
Hackaday Prize Entry: DIY 6-Axis Micro Manipulator
Print Your Own Flexures
3D-Printed Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope Measures Microns
3D Printed Maglev Switches Are So Hot Right Now
3D Printed Magnetic Switches Promise Truly Custom Keyboards
PlottyBot: A DrawBot That Plots A Lot
DIY Cable Chain Looks Great, Stays Cheap
Invisible 3D Printed Codes Make Objects Interactive
No, Your 3D Printer Doesn’t Have A Fingerprint
A Case For Project Part Numbers
Cannonball Mold Makes A Dandy Integrating Sphere For Laser Measurements
Is Your Flashlight A Lumen Liar? Build A DIY Integrating Sphere
New Whitest Paint Might Help Fight Climate Change
Move Aside Solar, We’re Installing An Algae Panel
Tom’s Olde Algae Reactor:
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Mystery Effect Causing LEDs To Glow During Reflow
The Q2, A PDP8-Like Discrete Transistor Computer
How To Spot A Fake Op-Amp
Tom’s Picks:
Swapped Dash Module Gives Ford Maverick An Upgrade
HDD Centrifuge Puts COVID-19 Testing Lab In A Backpack
3D Printed Radiation Shields Get Put To The Test
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Hair Today Gone Tomorrow: Four Men Go To Fix A Wafer Prober
Crimping Tools And The Cost Of Being Cheap | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424463",
"author": "Foley Matthews",
"timestamp": "2022-02-12T00:39:16",
"content": "in the podcast it was speculated that the audio from the Cry2001 scrambled radio messages might be listened to with a SDR, but a look at the circuit diagram shows digital processing inserted betwee... | 1,760,372,792.445131 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/a-most-unconventional-lego-walker/ | A Most Unconventional Lego Walker | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"flip walker",
"flipping walker",
"flipwalker",
"lego",
"robot",
"toy",
"walker",
"walking robot"
] | Lego Technic is a wonderful thing, making it easy to toy around with all manner of complicated mechanical assemblies without needing to do any difficult fabrication. [touthomme] recently posted one such creation to Reddit –
a walker design that is rather unconventional.
The design dispenses with individually-actuated legs entirely. Instead, the two front legs are joined by an axle which pivots the legs about the body, which is shaped like an oval track. The rear legs are the same. A motorized carriage then travels along the oval track. When the weighted carriage reaches the front of the oval track, it forces the body to tip forwards, pivoting around the front legs and flipping the entire body over, swinging the rear legs forwards to become the front. The cycle then repeats again.
The flipping design,
inspired by a toy
, is something you wouldn’t expect to see in nature, as few to no animals have evolved mechanisms capable of continual rotation like this. It’s also unlikely to be a particularly efficient way of getting around, and the design would certainly struggle to climb stairs.
Some may claim the method of locomotion is useless, but we don’t like to limit our imaginations in that way. If you can think of a situation in which this walker design would be ideal, let us know in the comments. Alternatively, consider
other walking designs
for your own builds. Video after the break.
Still some work to do, but I was so excited it actually worked I had to share.
from
lego
[Thanks to Pedropolis for the tip!] | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424352",
"author": "Clint Jay",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T16:38:57",
"content": "I love it, reminds me of something, possibly some window descending toys I had as a kid.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6424354",
"autho... | 1,760,372,792.287158 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/theres-a-wrinkle-in-this-3d-printed-wankel/ | There’s A Wrinkle In This 3D Printed Wankel | Matthew Carlson | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"3D resin printer",
"piston engine",
"rotary engine"
] | Rotary engines such as the Wankel have strange shapes that can be difficult to machine (as evidenced by the specialized production machines and patents in the 70s), which means it lends itself well to be 3D printed. The downside is that the tolerances, like most engines, are pretty tight, and it is difficult for a printer to match them. Not to be dissuaded, [3DprintedLife] designed and
built a 3D printed liquid piston rotary engine
. The liquid piston engine is not a Wankel and is more akin to an inside-out Wankel. The seals are on the housing, not the rotor itself, and there are three “chambers” instead of two.
The first of many iterations didn’t run. There was too much friction, but there were some positive signs as pressure was trapped in a chamber and released as it turned. The iterations continued, impressively not using any o-rings to seal, but instead sanding each part down using a 1-2-3 block as a flat reference,
within 25 microns of the design
. Despite his care and attention to detail, it still couldn’t self-sustain. He theorizes that it could be due to the resin being softer than other materials he has used in the past. Not to be left empty-handed, he built a dynamo to test his new engine out. It was a load cell and an encoder to measure speed and force. His encoder had trouble keeping up, so he ordered some optical limit switches.
This engine is a follow-on to an
earlier 3D printed air-powered Wankel rotary engine,
and we’re looking forward to part two of the liquid piston series. Video after the break. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424095",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T22:04:17",
"content": "> as evidenced by the specialized production machines and patents in the 70sI want to read more about these machines!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,372,792.237283 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/remoticon-2021-sergiy-nesterenko-keeps-hardware-running-through-lightning-and-cosmic-rays/ | Remoticon 2021 // Sergiy Nesterenko Keeps Hardware Running Through Lightning And Cosmic Rays | Robin Kearey | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Space"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon",
"ionizing radiation",
"radiation hardening",
"space"
] | Getting to space is hard enough. You have to go up a few hundred miles, then go sideways
really
fast to enter orbit. But getting something into space is one thing: keeping a delicate instrument working as it travels there is quite another. In his talk at Remoticon 2021, [Sergiy Nesterenko], former Radiation Effects Engineer at SpaceX,
walks us through all the things that can destroy your sensitive electronics on the way up
.
The trouble already starts way before liftoff. Due to an accident of geography, several launch sites are located in areas prone to severe thunderstorms: not the ideal location to put a 300-foot long metal tube upright and leave it standing for a day. Other hazards near the launch pad include wayward wildlife and salty spray from the ocean.
Those dangers are gone once you’re in space, but then suddenly heat becomes a problem: if your spacecraft is sitting in full sunlight, it will quickly heat up to 135 °C, while the parts in the shade cool off to -150 °C. A simple solution is to spin your craft along its axis to ensure an even heat load on all sides, similar to the way you rotate sausages on your barbecue.
But one of the most challenging problems facing electronics in space is radiation. [Sergiy] explains in detail the various types of radiation that a spacecraft might encounter: charged particles in the Van Allen belts, cosmic rays once you get away from Low Earth orbit, and a variety of ionized junk ejected from the Sun every now and then. The easiest way to reduce the radiation load on your electronics is simply to stay near Earth and take cover within its magnetic field.
For interplanetary spacecraft there’s no escaping the onslaught, and the only to survive is to make your electronics “rad-hard”. Shielding is generally not an option because of weight constraints, so engineers make use of components that have been tested in radiation chambers to ensure they will not suddenly short-circuit. Adding redundant circuits as well as self-monitoring features like watchdog timers also helps to make flight computers more robust.
[Sergiy]’s talk is full of interesting anecdotes that will delight the inner astronaut in all of us. Ever imagined a bat trying to hitch a ride on a Space Shuttle? As it turns out, one aspiring space bat did just that. And while designing space-qualified electronics is not something most of us do every day, [Sergiy]’s experiences provide plenty of tips for more down-to-earth problems. After all, salt and moisture will eat away cables on your bicycle just as they do on a moon rocket.
Be sure to also check out the links
embedded in the talk’s slides
for lots of great background information. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424368",
"author": "KBS",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T17:54:33",
"content": "Really cool talk ! Thanks !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,372,792.668956 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/cx-6000-pen-plotter-upgrade/ | CX-6000 Pen Plotter Upgrade | Chris Lott | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"c.itoh",
"grblHAL",
"hpgl",
"pen plotter"
] | [Terje Io] decided to
breathe new life into an old pen plotter — the CX6000 from C. Itoh
, a Japanese company that made several printers for Apple in the 1980s. He keeps most of the framework, but the electronics get a major overhaul. The old motors are replaced, the controller and motor drivers are modernized using a Raspberry Pi Pico and stepper motor drivers. After tending to other auxiliary electronics like the control panel and limit switches, it’s time to deal with the firmware.
Original Controller Board
Updated Controller Board
Rather than reinvent the wheel, [Terje] sensibly built upon existing projects and refactored them for his application. G-Code processing is done by
grblHAL
, with an added mode to handle HPGL code. He modified the firmware from
Motöri the Plotter
project to parse HPGL, making his new CX6000+ bilingual.
We covered
Motöri way back in 2009
, and more recently we wrote about
the Teensy Controller using grblHAL
, one of the 32-bit big brothers of GRBL. Have you ever restored one of these old plotters? Or is it easier to just build your own these days? | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424080",
"author": "macsimski",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T21:19:21",
"content": "My huge Calcomp 1039 is still waiting in the queue to be fixed. AFAIK there are some ram errors and the printer just hangs during startup. I was thinking along the same lines if i could not get it going... | 1,760,372,792.72061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-with-the-ballpoint-typewriters/ | Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Ballpoint Typewriters | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"5-way switch",
"ballpoint typewriter",
"d-pad",
"Kailh chocs",
"KB2040",
"low-profile",
"Palm portable keyboard",
"plotter",
"Teensy"
] | So you want to minimize finger movement when you type, but don’t have three grand to drop on an old DataHand, or enough time to build the open-source lalboard?
Check out these two concept keebs from [SouthPawEngineer]
, which only look like chord boards.
Every key on the home row is a five-way switch — like a D-pad with straight down input. [SouthPawEngineer] has them set up so that each one covers a QWERTY column. So like, for the left pinky switch, up is Q, right is A, down is Z, and left is 1. Technically, the split has 58 keys, and the uni has 56.
Both of these keebs use KB2040 boards, which are Adafruit’s answer to the keyboard-building craze of these roaring 2020s. These little boards are of course easy to program with CircuitPython, which supports KMK, an offshoot of the popular QMK. Thanks for the tip, [foamyguy]!
New Keebs: The Glove80 Is One Size Fits All
As much as I love my Kinesis Advantage, it is an ideal keyboard for home use and not necessarily anywhere else. There’s no way I can go back to a rectangle unless I want my repetitive stress injury to resurface, so I need an ergonomic split for outside the house. Pretty much any split would be more portable than the Kinesis, but not all splits are created equal. Thus far, I have found the ErgoDox too big for my hands, and I still haven’t got my Dactyl working all the way, so there’s no data there. Ergo, I am more than tempted by the Glove80, a low-profile split which is available via
fully-funded but still-active Kickstarter
. It has Kailh Chocs, POM keycaps, and uses a pair of nRF52840s.
The designers behind Glove80 are enthusiasts — an entrepreneur and and engineer with 18 years of ergo keyboard use under their fingers. They did over 500 ergo experiments and built
really cool-looking modular test rigs
in order to build a keyboard that is purported to be comfortable for all hand sizes. They weren’t originally planning to commercialize this keyboard, but luckily, someone convinced them it should be shared with the world.
This Bluetooth split has 80 low-profile keys (hence the name), all of which are the same size — 1u. That makes it easy to swap layouts and keycaps however you like. The most attractive thing about this keyboard is choice: currently, you can choose red, brown, or white switches, and there is a stretch goal in place for a 4th switch type that will be voted upon.
A Keeb Designed By Physics
As [Foone] pointed out
on Twitter
(
ThreadReader version)
the other day, keyboard layouts as we know them have descended from typewriters and their operational limitations. But we can throw all that out the window since we have digital keyboards now.
To that end, [Foone] let physics design this layout (if you can call it that) by essentially putting all the keys in a virtual jar with some spacer spheres, shaking it, and letting the letters, symbols, and modifiers fall where they may.
If you think typing on this would be a nightmare, consider the wiring for a minute. [Foone] used a Teensy++ 2.0, which has 45 GPIO pins, so there’s no need for a matrix or diodes. This is essentially an expensive joke, but there is some truth in it. If nothing else, let this funny exercise serve as an inspiration — one that gives you permission to put ergonomics first, or whatever butters your muffin when it comes to keyboard design. Thanks for the tip, [J. Peterson]!
Historical Clackers: Ballpoint Typewriters Will Draw You In
Serial keyboard designer [deʃhipu] tipped me off to
this old Twitter thread
from [Paul Rickards] (
ThreadReader version
) about ballpoint typewriters, which are kind of like the love child between a word processor and a pen plotter. Under normal circumstances, the user types on the keyboard and the characters appear on a small screen about 20 at a time, which gives a chance to correct mistakes before it sends the words to the print head.
When connected to a computer via RS-232 serial port, these machines can draw all sorts of things from graphs to graphic art using an Alps plotter mechanism and tiny ballpoint pens in red, blue, green, and black. There are a ton of nice pictures in the thread that show different makes and models throughout the years, so go check them out.
ICMYI: the Palm Portable Keyboard Goes Wireless
Okay, so you probably don’t have a Palm device anymore, but you almost certainly carry a smart phone around. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could use Palm’s revolutionary (at the time) foldy keyboard that collapses neatly to pocket size? Yeah it would.
Well now you can, thanks to [Xinming Chen] and
their tidy little Bluetooth adapter
. It is essentially an Adafruit Feather nRF52840 and a voltage level inverter that translates RS-232 from the keyboard into TTL for the Bluetooth host, all in a neat 3D-printed package that slides on to the keyboard’s connector and powers on with a tiny, hidden switch. What’s not to like? And you wouldn’t believe how cheap and abundant these origami inputs are on kee-bay. I got mine and left you all plenty.
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
. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6423649",
"author": "sampleusername",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T16:02:58",
"content": "When will mechanical keyboard makers offer keycaps in smaller and larger sizes? Human hands come in many different sizes, but mechanical keycaps are all one size. You can only find miniature or ove... | 1,760,372,792.632577 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/ask-hackaday-whats-going-on-with-mazdas-in-seattle/ | Ask Hackaday: What’s Going On With Mazdas In Seattle? | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"fm radio",
"mazda",
"mystery",
"rds"
] | What hacker doesn’t love a puzzle? We have a doozy for you. According to KUOW — the NPR affiliate in Seattle — they have been getting an unusual complaint. Apparently, if you drive a Mazda made in 2016 and you tune to KUOW, your radio gets stuck on their frequency, 94.9 MHz, and
you can’t change it
.
According to a post from the radio station, it doesn’t just affect the FM radio. A listener named Smith reported:
“I tried rebooting it because I’ve done that in the past and nothing happened,” Smith said, “I realized I could hear NPR, but I can’t change the station, can’t use the navigation, can’t use the Bluetooth.”
The station also reports that Mazda dealers in the area are getting flooded with calls for the last three weeks about the issue. There’s a theory about 5G smartphone deployment but, honestly, we aren’t buying it. Since is Mazda, we figure it has to be specific to that brand. However, it seems like it isn’t happening across the country, so there has to be something specific to KUOW, we are guessing. Maybe something in the RDS stream? What’s your theory? Maybe a Hackaday commenter will help the station and Mazda solve the mystery.
We know a famous fictional Seattle radio station whose on-air talent used the tagline: “I’m listening.” Perhaps KUOW should adopt: “You’re listening,” if they continue to capture car stereos. We’ve seen
odd interactions
mess with technology before. Sometimes it is
as simple as a key fob
. | 56 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6423484",
"author": "leo60228",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T12:03:10",
"content": "Ars Technica has an explanation direct from Mazda that raises some more questions:https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/02/radio-station-snafu-in-seattle-bricks-some-mazda-infotainment-systems/> The problem,... | 1,760,372,793.032095 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/a-simple-3d-printed-rover-design/ | A Simple 3D Printed Rover Design | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"FPV",
"rover",
"tank thread",
"tracked vehicle"
] | There are plenty of RC cars and robot platforms out there that you can buy. However, there’s an understanding that’s gained from building your own rover from the ground up. Which is precisely what
[Alex] got from developing this compact 3D printed rover design.
The design is by no means fast; it’s intended more for crawling around “at a slow deliberate pace” as [Alex] puts it. Off-the-shelf 12 V gear motors are used to provide plenty of torque to get around. The modular design means that it can be built with just wheels, or set up with tracks fitted for additional performance in softer terrain. Skid steering is used to turn the platform.
Fitted with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, the rover can be controlled remotely over WiFi. A separate FPV camera and transmitter is then used to stream video remotely to pilot the bot. However, if you’re so inclined, you can probably use the Raspberry Pi
to stream the video, too.
It’s a fun build and a great way to learn about building rovers and robots that move.
We’ve seen some other interesting tracked rovers before, too
. Video after the break. | 4 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6423622",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T15:25:10",
"content": "Wheels geared together are faaar more reliable. The advantage of tracks is being able to distribute the weight of the vehicle… which is something that isn’t done with only two large wheels per track.",
... | 1,760,372,792.936595 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/09/breakbeats-courtesy-of-the-rp2040/ | Breakbeats Courtesy Of The RP2040 | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"amen break",
"pi pico",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | While one often listens to songs or albums in full, sometimes you just want to lay down a simple beat. [todbot]’s latest project
promises to do just that.
The build relies on a Raspberry Pi Pico or any other RP2040-based microcontroller board, and is programmed in
CircuitPython.
The PWM feature is used for audio output, and it’s loaded with different WAV samples of the classic “Amen” break.
Each measure, a random new sample is chosen and played, changing the beat. Even better, all the samples can loop, and they come in varying lengths, allowing them to overlap and lay over each other to add further depth to the mix. It’s a cinch to setup, as CircuitPython has an AudioMixer object built in.
Those wishing to tinker for themselves can find all the code and samples
on Github.
A build like this one is a great way to start learning about working with audio and music, after all.
We’ve seen [todbot]’s work here before, too.
Video after the break.
Want breakbeats but have no time? Let
#CircuitPython
do the work on a
@Raspberry_Pi
RP2040-based board. CirPy can play multiple simultaneous samples easily. And RP2040 chip has PWM audio out. Code to follow
pic.twitter.com/CutQz0bNao
— Tod Kurt (@todbot)
February 9, 2022 | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6423281",
"author": "Magic Smoke",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T06:50:55",
"content": "Where was this in 1994?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6423384",
"author": "metalman",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T09:13:32",
... | 1,760,372,793.183956 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/this-week-in-security-zimbra-lockbit-2-and-hacking-nk/ | This Week In Security: Zimbra, Lockbit 2, And Hacking NK | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"column",
"fbi",
"horrible acronyms",
"Log4j",
"North Korea",
"PrintNightmare",
"security",
"SHA256"
] | Unknown attackers have been exploiting a 0-day attack against the Zimbra e-mail suite. Researchers at
Volexity first discovered the attack
back in December of last year, detected by their monitoring infrastructure. It’s a cross-site scripting (XSS) exploit, such that when opening a malicious link, the JavaScript running on the malicious page can access a logged-in Zimbra instance. The attack campaign uses this exploit to grab emails and attachments and upload them to the attackers. Researchers haven’t been able to positively identify what group is behind the attacks, but a bit of circumstantial evidence points to a Chinese group. That evidence? Time zones. The attacker requests all use the
Asia/Hong_Kong
time zone, and the timing of all the phishing emails sent lines up nicely with a work-day in that time zone.
Zimbra has responded
, confirming the vulnerability and publishing a hotfix for it. The campaign seems to have been targeted specifically against European governments, and various media outlets. If you’re running a Zimbra instance, make sure you’re running at least
8.8.15.1643980846.p30-1
.
LockBit 2.0
Because security professionals needed something else to keep us occupied, the LockBit ransomware campaign is back for a round two. This is another ransomware campaign run in the as-a-Service pattern — RAAS. LockBit 2 has caught enough attention, that
the FBI has published a FLASH message
(PDF) about it. That’s the FBI Liaison Alert System, in the running for the worst acronym. (Help them figure out what the “H” stands for in the comments below!)
Like many other ransomware campaigns, LockBit has a list of language codes that trigger a bail on execution — the Eastern European languages you would expect. Ransomware operators have long tried not to poison their own wells by hitting targets in their own back yards. This one is being reported as also having a Linux module, but it appears that is limited to VMWare ESXi virtual machines. A series of IoCs have been published, and the FBI are requesting any logs, ransom notes, or other evidence possibly related to this campaign to be sent to them if possible.
Not the Mimosas You’re Looking For
And speaking of government notices,
CISA has published an advisory about Mimosa wireless products
, based on multiple CVEs, with three of them scoring the dreaded 10.0. There are improper authorization problems, such that API endpoints are accessible without auth; a Server-Side Request Forgery problem, that could allow an attacker to smuggle messages through a web frontend; a SQL injection; and even unsalted MD5 hashing for storing passwords.
These vulnerabilities were discovered by Noam Moshe, a researcher at Claroty.
He’s gone on the record
to confirm that it was as bad as it looked, that attacking the cloud interface could lead to compromise of in-the-field hardware. There isn’t a full write-up on this story, but so far it seems to be an unofficial black-box security audit, so it isn’t an official code review. These are just the vulnerabilities discovered by the limited audit. Keep an eye out for more problems to be found.
SAP Pays Their Log4j Dues
One reason the Log4j vulnerability is such a headache is because Java libraries are embedded in so many binaries and appliances, and require an update of the entire binary to fix problems. If the vulnerability was in
glibc
, just that library could be updated, but every binary that includes Log4j has to be updated individually. Making the point that this is a long process,
SAP has released their fixes for their February patch day
. Six of the top eight vulnerabilities fixed are Log4j. This one is going to be around for a long time.
Cisco RV Routers
The Cisco RV160, RV260, RV340, and RV345 small business routers have
both an RCE and privilege escalation vulnerability
, with PoC code available. The RCE is a simple HTTP request that bypasses access controls. Several of these units also have a command injection vulnerability, where user-input is not sufficiently sanitized, leading to commands being executed on the underlying system. While patches are available, Cisco has stated that there are no workarounds for these flaws. Think about that. You literally cannot lock these devices down enough to prevent an RCE. Once again, go to your network closet, and see if one of these are hiding in there somewhere.
Damn, we tried to give some time for blue team to patch but here it is. Our exploit pops up right after our talk with
@pedrib1337
at
@offensive_con
CVSS 10 Cisco AnyConnect VPN Gateway
CVE-2022—20699
https://t.co/EnwAOvvG1j
— Rado RC1 (@RabbitPro)
February 5, 2022
Researcher Breaks North Korea
If you get caught up in a state-sponsored hacking campaign, what’s a reasonable response? If you’re an independent researcher like [P4x],
launching your own DoS attack against the foreign nation isn’t out of the question
. We
covered the original campaign
back when it happened — North Korean hackers posed as security researchers and reached out to other researchers, asking for help with a project. The catch is that the project they wanted to collaborate on was actually a booby-trapped Visual Studio project. [P4x] was one of the researchers who was targeted, and this just didn’t sit well with him.
North Korea isn’t known for running the most up-to-date versions of anything, and there were enough problems in production that this single researcher was able to knock most of their internet access offline for a while. This has been confirmed by independent researchers, notably Netblocks:
ℹ️ Network data confirm reports of disruptions to internet connectivity in
#NorthKorea
. Per
@a_greenberg
the incidents are attributed to a denial of service attack by a hacker getting even after NK spies targeted him last year.
📰
https://t.co/v0Tafj6bQ1
pic.twitter.com/fz5ROxbrLD
— NetBlocks (@netblocks)
February 3, 2022
SpoolFool
And if you wondered, the
Windows Print Spooler continues to be a disaster
for security. There have been multiple spooler vulnerabilities in the last couple years, but of note is CVE-2020-1030, an attack that allows mapping the spool directory to a system directory, and overwriting important files. The fix for this was to check whether the spooler directory is actually safe to write to. Now we have CVE-2022-21999, a bypass for that patch. The essence is that an attacker can add a printer with a spool directory that is safe, but under the attacker’s control, and then use a directory junction to map a system directory to the same place. This still passes the check, but allows writing a malicious DLL to the printer driver folder. Load the driver, trigger a Spooler restart, and you’ve got escalation to System.
SHA256
There’s something very satisfying about finally understanding an algorithm that your computer uses every day for encryption. If you’re reading this, you’re probably similarly intrigued by algorithms. I present the
step-by-step SHA256 visualizer
. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424348",
"author": "some guy",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T16:33:05",
"content": "I won’t judge if hacking back if you are targeted by some spies is good or not, i just want to say that if i was that guy who nocked out part of the internet in NK i would be *really* afraid to get some ... | 1,760,372,792.892827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/diy-nanoleaf-led-panels-offer-peace-of-mind/ | DIY Nanoleaf LED Panels Offer Peace Of Mind | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"glowable",
"glowables",
"led",
"nanoleaf",
"ws2812b"
] | Nanoleaf light panels are a popular product for creating glowing geometric designs on walls. However, for those that like to avoid IoT devices that integrate with big cloud services, they’re not ideal, and involve compromising on one’s privacy, somewhat.
[Viktor] decided to build something of his own instead to avoid this problem.
The design is that of an equilateral triangle, which allows the panels to tesselate well. Each panel consists of two 3D printed parts. The black PLA base holds the WS2812B LED strips, cabling, and ESP8266 controller, while a white PLA cover goes over the top, which acts as a diffuser to spread the light from the individual LEDs. Each triangle contains 24 LEDs, and six triangles together consume around 1.6 amps when in use.
The benefit of the system is that it’s not controlled from a company’s cloud system,
which can be shutdown at any time.
[Viktor’s] setup runs entirely independently, and can be controlled from a simple web page. Plus, there’s nothing stopping him from modifying the code to use the panels for any purpose; commercial products like Nanoleaf don’t offer anywhere near the flexibility of building your own.
We’ve seen others build their own smart lighting with similar techniques before, too
. Video after the break. | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424275",
"author": "robin geelen",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T12:48:02",
"content": "i always wonder (though i can guess) why they don’t use some actually decent acrylic panels like “plexiglass led” from ROHR or similar.it cost a tad much but the effect would be so much more even and... | 1,760,372,793.301349 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/11/tilting-at-windmills-nine-bits-at-a-time/ | Tilting At Windmills Nine Bits At A Time | Al Williams | [
"FPGA"
] | [
"cpu",
"fpga"
] | In the old days — we are talking like the 1960s and 1970s — computers were often built for very specific purposes using either discrete logic or “bit slice” chips. Either way, more bits meant more money so frequently these computers were made with just enough bits to meet a required precision. We don’t think that was what was on [Mad Ned’s] mind, though, when he decided to implement a
9-bit CPU called QIXOTE-1 on an FPGA
.
Like many hobby projects, this one started with an FPGA board in search of a problem. At first, [Ned] had a plan to create a custom computer along with a custom language to then produce a video game. A quick search on the Internet led to that being a common enough project with one guy that we’ve talked about here on Hackaday before
knocking it out of the park
.
[Ned] then thought about just doing a no-software video game. Too late to be the first to do that. Not to be deterred, he decided to duplicate the PDP-8. Whoops. That’s been done before, too. Wanting something original, he finally decided on a custom CPU. Since bytes are usually — if not technically — 8 bits, this CPU calls its 9-bit words nonads and uses octal which maps nicely to three digits per nonad.
This first post talks about the story behind the CPU and gives a short overview of its capabilities, but we are waiting for future posts to show more of what’s behind the curtain in what [Ned] calls “Holy Nonads, Part 010.”
The downside to doing a custom CPU is you have to
build your own tools
. You can always, of course,
duplicate something
and steal your
toolchain
. Or
go universal
. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424241",
"author": "Arlet",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T09:37:45",
"content": "I once made a FPGA CPU using 18 bit opcodes, but still using a more traditional 32 bit data path. The 9th (or 18th) bit is a parity bit that comes free with the memory, allowing a nice addition to the opcod... | 1,760,372,793.245606 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/ir-translator-makes-truly-universal-remote/ | IR Translator Makes Truly Universal Remote | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arduino",
"control",
"infrared",
"ir",
"photodiode",
"raspberry pi",
"remote",
"translator"
] | Universal remotes are a handy tool to have around if you have many devices that would all otherwise have their own remote controls. Merging them all into a single device leads to less clutter and less frustration, but they are often not truly “universal” as some of them may not support every infrared device that has ever been built. If you’re in a situation like that
it’s possible to build a truly universal remote instead
, provided you have a microcontroller and a few infrared LEDs on hand.
This was the situation that [Matt] found himself in when his Amazon Fire TV equipment control feature didn’t support his model of speakers. To get around this he programmed an Arduino to essentially translate the IR codes from the remote and output a compatible set of codes to the speakers.This requires both an IR photodiode and an IR LED but little else other than the codes for the remote and the equipment in question. With that all set up and programmed into the Aruino, [Matt]’s remote is one step closer to being truly “universal”.
While [Matt] was able to make use of existing codes in the Arduino library, it is also possible to capture the codes required manually by pointing a remote at a photodiode and programming a microcontroller to capture the codes that you need. [Matt] used a Raspberry Pi to do this when debugging this project, but we’ve also seen this method used with a similar build which
uses an ESP8266 to control an air conditioner via its infrared remote control capabilities
. | 19 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424233",
"author": "Alan",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T09:11:44",
"content": "Great project! I worked on a similar setup with a ESP32 which recorded the IR codes to a firebase store. I built a web app that i could use to control the remote and fire the recorded IR codes. It worked w... | 1,760,372,793.383579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/making-light-of-superconductors/ | Making Light Of Superconductors | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"superconductors"
] | Once upon a time, making a superconductor required extremely cold temperatures. Scientists understood why superconducting materials could move electrons without loss, but the super cold temperatures were a problem. Then in 1986, a high-temperature superconductor was found. High temperature, of course, is a relative term. The new material works when cooled to a frosty temperature, just not a few degrees off of absolute zero like a conventional superconductor. Since then, the race has been on to find a room-temperature superconductor that doesn’t require other exotic conditions, such as extreme pressure. Department of Energy scientists may have found a different path to get there:
X-ray light
.
The problem is that scientists don’t fully understand why these high-temperature superconductors work. To study the material, YBCO, scientists chill a sample to it superconducting state and then use a magnetic field to disrupt the superconductivity to study the material’s normal state. The new research has shown that a pulse of light can also disrupt the superconductivty, although the resulting state is unstable.
The research shows that charge density waves, which can serve as markers for superconductivity, occur when the samples are exposed to a magnetic field or to high-energy light pulses. While this is a far cry from creating room temperature superconductors, further study of the mechanism that allows light and magnetic fields to cause similar changes in the material could lead to a better understanding of the physics and maybe — one day — room-temperature superconductors.
Want to make your own YBCO?
Go for it
! Of course, you can already get room-temperature superconductors if you can
stand the pressure
. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424211",
"author": "Chris Maple",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T07:46:51",
"content": "superconductors.org claims that we already have room temperature superconductors. The problem appears to be that only very tiny bits of superconductor can be made, not enough even to make a short wire... | 1,760,372,793.424905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/turning-the-ps4-into-a-useful-linux-machine/ | Turning The PS4 Into A Useful Linux Machine | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"arch",
"compile",
"docker",
"gentoo",
"kernel",
"linux",
"options",
"playstation 4",
"ps4"
] | When the PlayStation 3 first launched, one of its most lauded features was its ability to officially run full Linux distributions. This was of course famously and permanently borked by Sony with a software update after a few years, presumably since the console was priced too low to make a profit and Sony didn’t want to indirectly fund server farms made out of relatively inexpensive hardware. Of course a decision like this to keep Linux off a computer system is only going to embolden Linux users to put it on those same systems, and in that same vein
this project turns a more modern Playstation 4 into a Kubernetes cluster with the help of the infamous OS
.
The Playstation 4’s hardware is a little dated by modern desktop standards but it is still quite capable as a general-purpose computer provided you know the unofficial, unsupported methods of installing
Psxitarch Linux
on one. This is a distribution based on Arch and built specifically for the PS4, but to get it to run the docker images that [Zhekun Hu] wanted to use some tinkering with the kernel needed to be done. With some help from the Gentoo community a custom kernel was eventually compiled, and after spending some time in what [Zhekun Hu] describes as “Linux Kernel Options Hell” eventually a working configuration was found.
The current cluster is composed of two PS4s running this custom software and runs a number of services including Nginx, Calico, Prometheus, and Grafana. For those with unused PlayStation 4s laying around this might be an option to put them back to work, but it should also be a cautionary tale about the hassles of configuring a Linux kernel from scratch. It can still be done on almost any machine, though,
as we saw recently using a 386 and a floppy disk
. | 22 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424126",
"author": "Justin",
"timestamp": "2022-02-11T00:14:12",
"content": "Since the PS 4’s OS is based off of FreeBSD, wouldn’t it seem to be easier to get a general purpose version of FreeBSD running?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,372,793.793968 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/10/resin-printed-gears-versus-pla-which-is-tougher/ | Resin-Printed Gears Versus PLA: Which Is Tougher? | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3D printed gears",
"gear",
"gearbox",
"gears"
] | When it comes to making gearboxes, 3D printing has the benefit that it lets you whip up whatever strange gears you might need without a whole lot of hunting around at obscure gear suppliers. This is particularly good for those outside the limited radius served by McMaster Carr. When it came to 3D printed gears though, [Michael Rechtin] wondered whether PLA or resin-printed gears performed better,
and decided to investigate.
The subject of the test is a 3D-printed compound planetary gearbox, designed for a NEMA-17 motor with an 80:1 reduction. The FDM printer was a Creality CR10S, while the Creality LD02-H was on resin duty.
The assembled gearboxes were tested by using a 100 mm arm to press against a 20 kg load cell so that their performance could be measured accurately. By multiplying the force applied to the load cell by the length of the arm, the torque output from the gearbox can be calculated. A rig was set up with each gearbox pushing on the load cell in turn, with a closed-loop controller ensuring the gearbox is loaded up to the stall torque of the stepper motor before letting the other motor take over.
The resin gearbox failed relatively quickly, and dissection indicated some of the internal gears had failed. A reprint with stronger resin was done, and the test begun again. This time, each gearbox lasted over 500 cycles without issues, but the resin gearbox failed shortly after, wiggling about before jamming up for good. Opening the gearbox led to broken teeth and powdered resin falling out. Meanwhile, the PLA gearbox showed very little wear despite the repetitive test.
Thus, if you’re looking to put serious loads through your 3D printed gearbox, you probably want to go with PLA or another FDM material rather than resin. This result is unsurprising, as
a general rule of thumb
is that resin prints are more brittle than their FDM counterparts. Of course, the exact plastic or resin you print with will vary this result however, so don’t take it as a hard-and-fast rule, more of a general guide. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Zane Atkins for the tip!] | 33 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6424075",
"author": "Jason Belec",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T21:10:01",
"content": "What kind of resin? We use some pretty solid/flexible stuff like Pro410 which we utilize a lot of and nothing has failed yet in the real world application for over a year. Several other resins are eve... | 1,760,372,793.498385 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/09/how-can-335-horses-weigh-63-pounds/ | How Can 335 Horses Weigh 63 Pounds? | Al Williams | [
"Engine Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"electric vehicle",
"ev",
"Koenigsegg"
] | Koenigsegg, the Swedish car company, has a history of unusual engineering. The latest innovation is an electric motor developed for its Gemera hybrid vehicle. The relatively tiny motor weighs 63 pounds and develops 335 horsepower and 443 lb-ft of torque. Dubbed the
Quark
, the motor uses both radial and axial flux designs to achieve these impressive numbers.
There is a catch, of course. Like most EV motors, those numbers are not sustainable. The company claims the motor can output peak power for 20 seconds and then drops to 134 horsepower/184 lb-ft of torque. The Gemera can supplement, of course, with its internal combustion engine — a 3 cylinder design.
The motor uses advanced materials including hollow carbon fiber to reduce weight. The company believes the motor will also find use in marine and aerospace applications. They also announced the availability of a drive unit consisting of two Quarks and a planetary gear shaft that can produce 670 horsepower in 187 pounds.
Weight-to-power ratio for electric motors is tricky because you might not include the weight of the batteries and other supporting equipment. Still, this seems like a lightweight and small powerhouse.
The last time we looked in on Koenigsegg, they were
3D printing production vehicles
. We imagine the Quark won’t be cheap, but it would be a great
crate engine
. | 110 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6423193",
"author": "BobH",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T03:28:19",
"content": "I think you need to include the weight of the inverter/driver at least because it is such an integral part of a drive motor. Batteries you could argue parallel the weight of the fuel tank of an IC engine.",
... | 1,760,372,793.725873 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/09/3-wheeled-electric-skateboard-does-things-differently/ | 3-Wheeled Electric Skateboard Does Things Differently | Lewin Day | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric skateboard",
"Scooter motor",
"skateboard"
] | Typically, electric skateboards drive one or more wheels with brushless motors, while keeping everything mounted on otherwise fairly-standard trucks to maintain maneuverability. However, [swedishFeetballs] decided to go a different route, building a 3-wheeled design
using some interesting parts
.
The build relies on a large combined hub motor and wheel, similar to those you would find on a hoverboard or some electric scooters; this one is a Xiaomi part sourced from eBay. It’s controlled via an off-the-shelf electric skateboard speed controller that comes complete with its own remote.
The hardware is all bolted up to a custom skateboard deck built from scratch to accept the large single rear wheel. Up front, a regular skateboard truck is used. Batteries are mounted under the deck. Reportedly, the board has a top speed of 15 mph, which unsurprisingly matches that of the Xiaomi M365 the hub motor is sourced from.
It’s a neat way to build an electric skateboard, and to be honest we couldn’t be more curious as to how it rides. Unfortunately, only
a few seconds
of footage is available, but we’ve embedded it below for your watching pleasure!
Meanwhile, you might also be curious as to the benefits of a
half-track skateboard
. Video after the break. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6423251",
"author": "Fosterqc",
"timestamp": "2022-02-10T06:04:51",
"content": "These are referred to in the scene as 3sk8, like Esk8 but with the E flipped to a 3. One thing I admire about them in general is the speed wobble problem of skateboards comes from rear truck unintended m... | 1,760,372,793.545177 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/09/build-your-own-crt-tv/ | Build Your Own CRT TV | Jenny List | [
"classic hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"CRT TV",
"kit",
"tv"
] | There was a time following the Second World War when TV sets for the nascent broadcast medium were still very expensive, but there was an ample supply of war-surplus electronic parts including ex-radar CRTs. Thus it wasn’t uncommon at all for electronics enthusiasts of the day to build their own TV set, and magazines would publish designs to enable them. With a burgeoning consumer electronics industry the price of a new TV quickly dropped to the point of affordability so nobody would consider building one themselves today. Perhaps that should be amended to
almost
nobody, because [Retro Tech or Die]
has assembled a small black-and-white CRT TV
from a kit he found on AliExpress.
We have to admit to having seen the same kit and despite a sincere love for analogue telly, to have balked at the price. It’s an exceptionally cheap set of the type that was available from discount stores for a laughably low price around the final few years of mainstream analogue TV broadcasting, and having a couple in the stable we can confirm that the value here lies in building the thing rather than owning it.
The unboxing and building proceeds as you might expect, with the addition of very poor documentation and extremely low-quality parts. Satisfyingly it works on first power-up, though some adjustment and the reversing of a deflection yoke connection is required for a stable picture. The scanned area doesn’t fill the screen and he doesn’t find the solution in the video, we hope that by his next video someone will have suggested moving the deflection yoke forwards.
Perhaps merely assembling a kit might not seem the most exciting subject for a Hackaday story, but this one is a little different here in 2022. CRT TV sets are now a long-gone anachronism, so for a younger generation there is very little chance to see them up close and thus watching one built has some value. If you want to spend the cash and build your own he’s dropped the link in the YouTube description, otherwise watch the progress in the video below the break.
Fancy learning a bit more about analogue TV?
Have a dive into the video waveform.
Or for a bit more CRT goodness,
learn about converging a delta-gun colour set
from the days when a TV weighed almost as much as you did. | 40 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6423046",
"author": "Lee Hart",
"timestamp": "2022-02-09T21:39:43",
"content": "I built a few Heathkit TVs back in the day; and this is no Heathkit, that’s for sure. But it’s pretty cute, and it actually works. That’s saying a lot considering the price.Judging from the hum bar that ... | 1,760,372,793.8772 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/09/its-always-floppy-time/ | It’s Always Floppy Time! | Jenny List | [
"clock hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"3.5\" floppy disk",
"clock",
"floppy clock",
"floppy disk"
] | On [Jan Derogee]’s desk is something that wouldn’t look out of place for many of us, a pile of computer magazines with a case of 3.5″ floppy disks on top of it. The causal observer would see nothing more than the detritus of a retrocomputer enthusiast’s existence, but stick around.
In fact it’s a clock
, and one of the most unusual ones we’ve seen in a long time.
How can a box of floppies tell us the time? Selected disks have custom labels that look as though they might be authentic game collections, but in reality are fakes that carry numbers alongside the game art. An ingenious system of cams hidden in the hollowed out pile of magazines raises the correct floppies to tell the time, hours on the left row and minutes to the closest five minutes on the right. The floppies are modified by the removal of some plastic and the disk itself, because early versions had a habit of shredding disks. A final touch comes in the form of a Nokia phone on the desk next to the clock which plays a tune in lieu of chimes on the hour. You can see the clock in action in the video below the break. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6423009",
"author": "Kristofer L. Gleason",
"timestamp": "2022-02-09T19:37:45",
"content": "Compute’s Gazette would probably have a box of 5-inch floppies on top.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6423306",
"author": "Ja... | 1,760,372,793.927376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/09/mining-and-refining-lithium-powering-the-future-with-brine/ | Mining And Refining: Lithium, Powering The Future With Brine | Dan Maloney | [
"chemistry hacks",
"green hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"battery",
"extraction",
"lithium",
"mining",
"renewable energy"
] | Many years ago, I read an article about the new hotness: lithium batteries. The author opened with what he no doubt thought was a clever pop culture reference by saying that the mere mention of lithium would “strike fear in the hearts of Klingons.” It was a weak reference to the fictional “dilithium crystals” of
Star Trek
fame, and even then I found it a bit cheesy, but I guess he had to lead with something.
Decades later, a deeper understanding of the lore makes it clear that a Klingon’s only fear is death with dishonor, but there
is
a species here on earth that lives in dread of lithium: CEOs of electric vehicle manufacturing concerns. For them, it’s not the presence of lithium that strikes fear, but the relative absence of it; while it’s the 25th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, and gigatons are dissolved into the oceans of the world, lithium is very reactive and thus tends to be diffuse, making it difficult to obtain concentrated in the quantities their businesses depend on.
As the electric vehicle and renewable energy markets continue to grow, the need for lithium to manufacture batteries will grow with it, potentially to the point where demand outstrips the mining industry’s production capability. To understand how that imbalance may be possible, we’ll take a look at how lithium is currently mined, as well as examine some new mining techniques that may help fill the coming lithium gap.
A Rocky Start
Although lithium has been known and well-characterized by chemists since the early 1800s, it was only in the middle of the previous century that commercial uses for lithium compounds were identified. The aircraft industry’s demand for stable
lubricants
resulted in the development of greases made from lithium soaps, and the need for high-performance but lightweight metals led the aluminum industry to employ lithium to improve
the Hall-Héroult smelting process
. Around the same time, doctors discovered that lithium salts can treat patients with bipolar disorder.
A large crystal of spodumene (lithium aluminum inosilicate, LiAl(SiO
3
)
2
) found in Massachusetts. Source: by Rob Lavinsky,
iRocks.com
– CC-BY-SA-3.0
Even with the additional demand of the nascent nuclear industry starting in the 1940s, pretty much all the lithium needed could be supplied from small hard-rock mining operations that exploited deposits of rocks containing large crystals of lithium minerals, like spodumene, petalite, and lepidolite. These three minerals remain in high demand to this day for the production of lithium hydroxide, one of the two main lithium compounds used by industry.
The production of lithium from hard rock mines has a lot in common with other mining and refining methods we’ve discussed in this series. Ore-bearing rocks are blasted out of open-pit mines, scooped up by gigantic loaders, and trucked to a refining plant. There, the rock is reduced in size by a series of crushers and mills until it becomes a fine powder. Water is added to the powder to create a slurry known as pulp, which also contains surfactants and dispersants that make the lithium-containing minerals hydrophobic. In a shallow tank with air pumped through from the bottom, the light lithium forms a froth that floats to the top while the heavier rock particles sink.
After the lithium froth is skimmed off the flotation tank, the extra liquid is filtered off to create a concentrated but impure lithium powder that needs to be refined. The refining process depends a lot on the source minerals and desired end product, but for concentrated spodumene ore, lithium is typically leached out using a combination of sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide. While this is a direct route with high yields, the acids and bases involved can make it environmentally problematic. Other
acid-free leaching processes
have been developed as a result, which is said to be the kind of process Tesla is using in
their new lithium hydroxide plant
being built next to their Texas Gigafactory.
Down in the Brine Mine
As mentioned before, seawater contains something like 230 billion tonnes of lithium, dissolved mainly as lithium salts. While this constitutes the bulk of the lithium on the planet, it’s far too diffuse — a mere 25 micromolar — to serve as a viable commercial source without vast expenditures of energy to extract and concentrate it. But seawater isn’t the only brine that contains lithium, and extracting the valuable metal from underground brines has become the main production method since the 1990s.
By far the biggest lithium-bearing brines are found in the “Lithium Triangle” of South America. Occupying parts of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina, the area is home to large salt flats or
salars
, areas where ancient lakes or ponds evaporated, leaving behind salts and other precipitated minerals. These salt flats have built up over millions of years, leaving rich layers of minerals beneath their surfaces. And as we’ll see, the flat terrain and harsh arid conditions on the surface also play a part in the mining process.
Brine ponds at the Salar de Atacama in Chile, as seen from space. For scale, each of the long, skinny ponds in the center is nearly a kilometer long. Source:
NASA Earth Observatory
, by Lauren Dauphin
Mining lithium brine is quite unlike any of the other methods of mining we’ve covered before, and couldn’t be simpler. Instead of digging up rocks and painstakingly isolating the material of interest, brine mining consists of injecting water down into salt deposits through deep boreholes. The water dissolves the salt deposits, creating a rich brine that can be pumped up to the surface. The brine is pumped into shallow ponds and is left in the sun to evaporate.
When most of the water in a pond has evaporated — up to two years later — the now concentrated brine is harvested. The concentrate contains a variety of elements in addition to lithium, including sodium, magnesium, phosphates, and boron. The concentrate can either be further processed on-site, or as is becoming increasingly common, shipped via pipelines to ports for transport to lithium processing plants abroad.
On the face of it, the evaporation method for lithium brine mining seems like a winner. It’s super simple, it’s powered almost exclusively by the sun, and it’s devoid of some of the impacts that a large open-pit mining operation can have. But there are still huge problems with evaporation concentration. First off, it requires vast amounts of water to create the brines in the first place, and because evaporation ponds are only practical in places where it doesn’t rain much, water is already in short supply. The water used for brine mining is also lost to the atmosphere, coming back to the surface somewhere far from the evaporation ponds. Plus, the evaporation ponds occupy unbelievably large amounts of land — some pond complexes cover an area the size of Manhattan — which makes it difficult to scale up operations. And the amount of time it takes the sun to do its work is a problem in terms of production flexibility.
A Better Way
To make the most of brine mining while mitigating its shortcomings, direct lithium extraction methods are becoming increasingly popular. In DLE, brine is pumped from underground sources, but instead of concentrating the brine by open evaporation, lithium is removed from the brine using a number of chemical and physical methods. One method is ion-exchange adsorption, where the brine is mixed with an absorbent material that preferentially binds lithium compounds over the other compounds in the brine. One class of sorbents used in DLE is known as
layered double hydroxides (LDH)
, materials with a layered structure that allows lithium chloride in the brine to fit between the layers while excluding the potassium, magnesium, and other salts. The brine is returned to the ground, while the high-purity lithium chloride is washed off the sorbent.
Other DLE methods include membrane-separation technologies like reverse osmosis, where the brine is pumped at high pressure through membranes with pores that retain the lithium salts, or by solvent extraction, where organic solvents are used to extract the lithium. The common theme with DLE methods, though, is the fact that they are closed-loop processes — the water used to create the brine is returned to the underground formations containing the lithium. DLE plants also take up a fraction of the physical space that even a single evaporation pond would take, and they don’t rely on extreme environments like
salars
to work.
Best of Both Worlds
As attractive as DLE technology is, at the scale needed to be commercially viable, DLE plants still require a fair amount of energy to run. But in some places, a quirk of geology has left ample lithium deposits near a source of abundant renewable energy. In the Imperial Valley of California lies
the Salton Sea
, an inland saline lake that lies atop a series of active geological faults, including the famous San Andreas fault. The area is perfect for geothermal electricity production, with eleven plants currently producing 2,250 MW. Some of these geothermal plants are co-located with DLE plants, which pump up hot, lithium-rich brines that are purified using the geothermal energy produced on-site. Environmentally speaking, such plants are about as low-impact as lithium production can be, with the geothermal DLE plant being built by Australian company
Controlled Thermal Resources
predicted to produce 68,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium by 2027.
With the demand for lithium set to soar, the ability to extract what we can from the limited sources we have available using the lowest amount of energy possible is becoming a challenge indeed. Geothermal DLE seems like a good start, but the number of places in the world with both the correct geochemistry and the tectonics to support such operations is limited. It’s going to take some clever engineering to get at the rest of the lithium that’s available, at least with the technology and energy resources we currently have.
[Banner photo by PABLO COZZAGLIO/AFP via Getty Images] | 28 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6423012",
"author": "Anders",
"timestamp": "2022-02-09T19:47:19",
"content": "Or we could hurry up and build the nuclear plants we should’ve built in the 70’s, so we don’t need batteries for things that shouldn’t need batteries… like energy production.I really don’t get why anyone w... | 1,760,372,794.063182 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/09/that-clock-on-the-wall-is-actually-a-network-ping-display/ | That Clock On The Wall Is Actually A Network Ping Display | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks",
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"e-paper",
"ESP32",
"icmp",
"internet message control protocol",
"ping",
"stepper"
] | We’ve all been online from home a bit more than usual lately, in ways that often stretch the limits of what our ISP can muster. You know the signs — audio that drops out, video sessions that make you look like [Max Headroom], and during the off-hours, getting owned in
CS:GO
by pretty much everyone. All the bandwidth in the world won’t make up for high latency, and knowing where you stand on that score is the point of
this ping-tracking clock
.
This eye-catching lag-o-meter is courtesy of [Charl], who started the build with a clock from IKEA. Stripped of pretty much everything but the bezel, he added a coaxial clock motor and a driver board, along with a custom-printed faceplate with logarithmic scale. The motors are driven by an ESP32, which uses internet control message protocol (ICMP) to ping a trusted server via WiFi, calculates the proper angles for the hands, and drives the motors to show you the bad news. There’s also an e-paper display in the face, showing current server and WiFi settings.
We really like how this clock looks, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the numbers it displays would often be too depressing to bear, we’d build one in a snap. If facing the painful truth isn’t your style, there are
other neat ICMP tricks
that you can try instead. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422970",
"author": "v",
"timestamp": "2022-02-09T17:12:53",
"content": "Would be nice to see to break the speed of light because of bug :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6422982",
"author": "paul",
"timestamp": "2022-0... | 1,760,372,793.984541 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/09/china-loves-battery-swapping-evs-but-will-they-ever-make-it-here/ | China Loves Battery Swapping EVs, But Will They Ever Make It Here? | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks",
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"battery swapping",
"car",
"car hacks",
"china",
"electric vehicle",
"ev",
"geely",
"nio"
] | Electric vehicles promise efficiency gains over their gas-fuelled predecessors, but the issue of recharging remains a hurdle for many eager to jump on board with the technology. The problem is only magnified for those that regularly street park their vehicles or live in apartments, without provision to charge a vehicle overnight at home.
Battery swapping promises to solve that issue, letting drivers of EVs change out their empty battery for a freshly charged one in a matter of minutes. The technology has been widely panned and failed to gain traction in the US.
However, as it turns out, battery swapping for EVs is actually thing in China, and it’s catching on at a rapid rate.
It’s Already Happening
Nio’s cars reverse in to the stations, and a machine swaps out the battery from underneath. [Getty Images]
While pilot programs from companies like
Tesla
and
Better Place
faltered quickly almost a decade ago, the industry in China has been picking up steam. In 2019, the only real players were the Chinese companies Nio and BAIC Motor Co, but since then, many others have flooded in for a piece of the action.
The current state of play has Nio at the head of the pack, with the automaker seeing its
700th battery swap station
installed in December. 5.3 million battery swaps have been completed using the company’s facilities, indicating that the stations are seeing plenty of use. 258 Nio vehicles are on the road for every battery swap station out there, and reportedly 42% of Nio owners live within a 3 km radius of such a facility. The company hopes to expand to 4000 battery swap stations by 2025,
including 1000 outside China.
The Nio system is highly automated, and driving a Nio car up to the battery swap facility will automatically place the vehicle in the queue. Upon arrival at one of the company’s 2.0 swap machines, the car will drive itself into the swap bay, though some manual adjustment is sometimes necessary at the direction of the human attendants. The version 2.0 installations store up to thirteen batteries, versus just five in the earlier 1.0 swap station design. The driver can also stay inside the car, something the 1.0 and other company’s chargers don’t always allow.
In a real-world test,
one YouTuber
found the swap took 5 minutes and 25 seconds once the car was in the bay, not counting the two minutes spent waiting for another car to leave and getting the vehicle lined up correctly. As demonstrated in
a Nio demo video,
robotic carriage slides under the car, unbolting the pack, removing it, and slotting in a fresh battery to send the driver on their way.
Early battery swap solutions often required human intervention, such as this Zotye M300 EV receiving a changeover in 2014. Most modern networks aim to automate the process for savings in cost and time, and to minimize mistakes. Credit:
Gavin Anderson,
CC-BY-SA-2.0
There are more pedestrian battery swap stations out there two; automotive outlet Jalopnik
recently reported on one small, ramshackle operation
that swapped out batteries for just 45 Yuan, or roughly $7 USD, good for a further 95 miles of range or so, and changed over in around three minutes. Taxi drivers are a key customer for the facility, who don’t want to spend time charging when they could be out earning fares.
One factor that has helped to spur the adoption of battery swapping is
government policy
. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has been experimenting with subsidies. Presently, only electric vehicles priced under 300,000 Yuan, or roughly $42,377 USD, get a subsidy from the government. That is, unless they employ battery swapping, in which case there is no limit.
More investment is flooding in as companies like
battery manufacturer CATL
and
automotive giant Geely
have started vying for a piece of the action. BAIC Motor and several other associated companies like Aulton have hundreds of swap stations of their own, too, leading the latter to take on a partnership with
global petroleum giant BP
.
Will It Catch On Everywhere?
My taxi in Hebei ski country just pulled off for two-minute battery change by robot. A fresh battery lasts 150km in winter, says driver. He pays 45yuan ($7) for a fresh battery. Impressive system, all the more for being totally workaday, not exotic. Future here now for China EVs.
pic.twitter.com/l8DkUtW2pA
— David Rennie 任大伟 (@DSORennie)
December 22, 2021
The various companies currently doing a roaring trade in China solved the biggest challenges around battery swapping. Thousands, if not millions of vehicles are being built with compatible battery architectures, at least amongst the various major corporate alliances selling vehicles in China. Big investment is making sure that there are batteries and swap stations available where people need them, and business models are being crafted to suit.
The latter is a big part of making battery swapping work. In most parts of the world, a electric vehicle is sold with a battery. That battery is a huge expensive component that is crucial to the range and performance of the vehicle. The idea of swapping out a “good” battery for someone else’s nasty one turns many off from the idea of battery swapping. However, when battery swapping is the primary model, it ceases to matter. A bad battery with lower performance can just be readily swapped for another good one with a minimum of fuss. Batteries that fall outside of proper performance specs can also be removed from circulation by the system operator and can be recycled as needed.
Nio’s Battery as a Service (BaaS) model is a popular one; consumers can subscribe to a 100 kWh battery plan for roughly $223 USD a month. This allows them to swap in the biggest batteries Nio has available at its swap stations for maximum range, and also allows those purchasing a Nio car to save
on the order of $19,000
on the purchase price of the car, as they’re not paying to own the battery itself. As newer, better batteries come along that fit in the same form factor, users can change their subscription to suit and unlock more range for their cars.
Can It Work Outside of China?
However, plenty of roadblocks stand in the way of battery swapping catching on in places like the USA and Europe. In these markets, automakers are competing to build electric cars with the longest possible ranges as a primary competitive advantage. These companies have no desire to create a common specification for battery form factors to allow them to be swapped between different makes and models. Thus far, there’s been little collaboration on charger specs, let alone batteries themselves. Furthermore, to achieve the best in range, performance, weight, and handling of their vehicles, companies have heavily integrated the packs into the design of the vehicles themselves. Easily swapping these batteries is by and large out of the question.
Ample is a US-based startup that hopes to roll out a battery-swapping system to fleet operations initially. Credit: Ample
Furthermore, many EVs on the market today boast ranges in excess of 250 miles; some go as far as double that at
as we’ve recently reported.
Charge times are coming down too, with many vehicles able to add hundreds of miles of range in under 20 minutes when fast charging. This compares relatively favorably with the 5-7 minute times that most battery swap systems seem to take, while adding a similar amount of range, given the smaller packs often used in swap-capable vehicles.
Longer range EVs need charging less often, and thus taking an extra ten minutes to gain some serious range doesn’t really cause a lot of fuss. In the case of cars like the Lucid Air with over 500 miles of range, most people would want to take a nice long break after so much driving, such that waiting a few more minutes for a charge is hardly considered an imposition at all.
With charging infrastructure already rolling out at a rapid pace in Europe and the USA, and few to no vehicles available that are suitable for battery swaps, it seems like the technology may not catch on in these areas. Fast chargers already have a huge lead in the market and will work with a much broader range of vehicles; no overarching battery swap architecture can compete in that regard.
Some startups are working on the problem,
like Ample
, but the offering isn’t anywhere near as capable as that already up and running in China. At best, the company offers modified Nissan Leaf vehicles with range shorter than contemporaries like the Tesla Model 3, with battery swap times demonstrated last year
on the order of 15 minutes
, with the company claiming it’s close to getting it down to ten. Ample says it’s working with 5 of the 10 biggest automakers in the world on battery swapping, but won’t name who; meanwhile, there’s been nary a peep from any major players on such collaboration.
Unless non-Chinese automakers are forced by some kind of regulation to implement battery swap technology, it seems unlikely that companies like Tesla, GM and Lucid would tear up ten years of future product plans and give away their competitive advantages to embrace the idea. Similarly, there is little will to give up on fast charger rollouts, which require little more than power supply, to drop in larger-footprint swap stations with their more complicated robotic systems that cost more to buy, install and maintain.
Regardless, the technology has found a strong foothold in China, and may yet do so in other markets around the world. Regional differences have always added spice and interest to the global automotive scene, and it seems battery swapping will be one such case going forward! | 122 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422937",
"author": "Twisty Plastic",
"timestamp": "2022-02-09T15:11:26",
"content": "I haven’t owned one yet but to me what sounds most appealing about an electric car is plugging it in to charge at home in the evening when I’m not driving so that I don’t have to stop at any sort o... | 1,760,372,794.731542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/08/industrial-sewing-machine-acquired/ | Industrial Sewing Machine: Acquired | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"clutch motor",
"industrial sewing machine",
"servo motor",
"sewing machine",
"walking foot"
] | Well, it’s done. After weeks of trawling Craigslist, an hour-long phone call with an intelligent stranger about a different machine that wasn’t going suit my needs, and a two-week delay while the seller and I waited out their unintentional COVID exposure, I am the proud new owner of a vintage Consew 206RB-3 industrial sewing machine.
So far, it is exactly what I wanted — at least a few decades old, in decent shape, built by a reputable maker, and it has a clutch motor that I can upgrade to a servo motor if I wish. I even like the color of the head, the table, and the little drawer hiding on the left side. Connie Consew is perfect!
Decidedly Not Portable
The internet was right — these things are heavy. According to the manual, the machine head alone weighs 25.5 kg (56 lbs). The motor probably weighs another 50-60 lbs. There’s a small wooden peg sticking up from the table that has the job of holding the head whenever it is tilted back for maintenance or bobbin changes. I’ll admit I didn’t trust the little peg at first, but it does a fine job of supporting all that weight on a single point of contact about an inch in diameter.
Under the hood.
Peg, it will come back to you.
Even so, the nice lady I bought the machine from offered to deliver it to my house like it was nothing. One of the first things my husband and I did when we went to look at it was try to lift the table. It wasn’t happening for us. But through the magic of a shoulder dolly and the physics of gravity, the seller and her husband floated this thing out to their trailer and drove it across town back to my house.
A Quart Low
So let’s take a tour, shall we? You’ve probably seen a sewing machine before, but there are a few obvious differences with an industrial machine. The biggest one is lubrication. Whereas the instruction manual of the average domestic will tell you to put a single drop of lily white sewing machine oil in the bobbin area once every couple of months, even with heavy use, an industrial machine needs to be oiled frequently and in dozens of places. On top of that, there’s a little tank in the underside that holds about an ounce of oil. This machine has an oil pan, but it isn’t meant to be filled up with oil — it’s just where oil collects and drips through from the oiling points.
However, some machines have a pump and a fill line in their oil pans
.
Anecdotally, this machine did not go at first when I went to check it out. The motor came on just fine, but the hand wheel wouldn’t budge at all, and the pedal did nothing. I suggested adding oil. After putting oil in all the ports, she started moving again. Apparently it had sat for a while. That’s okay, because that means I get to become intimately familiar with it as I clean and re-oil it.
See those holes with red paint? All of those get oil.
There’s a tank in the underside. It was totally empty.
The black thing is the oil pan.
This Foot is Made for Walking
Image via
Sailrite
This is a compound walking foot machine. Let’s break that down. ‘Walking foot’ means that that the foot — the many-varied and interchangeable part that holds the fabric down to the bed — has a set of feed dogs that help push the fabric along the from top side at the same time that the regular feed dogs feed the fabric from underneath. The ‘compound’ part refers to the little middle bit, which moves up and down at the same time as the needle and also walks the fabric along.
Here’s a great visual explanation
of the differences between drop-feed, walking foot, and compound walking foot machines. Compound walking foot machines are great for my needs in that they give an even stitch through multiple thick layers of fabric, which is what I need to sew vinyl, canvas, and leather. Like I said in
the first post
, industrial machines are purpose-built. This one is for heavy duty use, and it spent many years doing upholstery work. It even made a motorcycle seat!
That Motor Though
The motor in a standard sewing machine for home use is pretty small — about the size of a fist. Even the motor in my “heavy duty” Singer 4452, which is supposed to have 50% more power than a regular domestic’s motor, is pretty darn small compared to Connie Consew’s motor. This is a 1/2 horsepower clutch motor. The operating instructions I have are for a 206RB-4, and I’m really not sure what the differences are between the 206RB-3 and the -4, though I suspect they are slight. According to the manual, it will do 3300 stitches per minute! Look how fast it goes:
Because it’s a clutch motor, it runs continuously when powered, even when not sewing. It’s rather loud, too, although not as loud as I was expecting. Still, I will have fun replacing it with a servo motor that be much quieter and easier to dial in the speed. Gonna miss those cool controller buttons, though. Maybe I can re-use the motor for something else, like a go-kart. Just need an inverter.
Weird there’s no HP info.
The business end.
So satisfying!
For A Few Dollars More
Even though I really like this machine as-is, there are a few upgrades I’d like to do. Many of them are along the lines of
what [Eric Strebel] did to his industrial Pfaff
— move the pedal more toward the right, swap out the clutch motor for a servo motor, and augment the built-in light with something containing many small LEDs.
I’m going to try to replace the pad on the knee lifter, which lifts the presser foot from its normally-down position. While there’s nothing wrong with it, the outside is all crackled and flaky. I’ve already looked into it, and it seems that I’ll have to buy
the entire knee lifter assembly
. Maybe I’ll just make a little shower cap-style slipcover for it instead. I also think I’d like to get a link belt because they’re cool looking, though that might not be a good idea. I’ll have to check with my local sewing machine shop and see what they think.
Sew What?
Now that I have this baby, I can make better
bags and backpacks
with less hassle and at higher speeds. I could even start making stuff out of leather. I plan to start my sewing adventure with Connie Consew by working on a half-finished bag made from upholstery fabric that the Singer 4452 couldn’t handle. But first, I’m going to go through and give her a tune-up, making sure she’s got plenty of oil. | 106 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422603",
"author": "jcwren",
"timestamp": "2022-02-08T18:08:41",
"content": "Best thing you can do is to upgrade to the servo motor as soon as you can. Those clutches are hell.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6423021",
... | 1,760,372,794.394643 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/08/ibm-eagle-has-a-lot-of-qubits/ | IBM Eagle Has A Lot Of Qubits | Al Williams | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"ibm",
"quantum computing"
] | How many qubits do you need in a quantum computer? Plenty, if you want to anything useful. However, today, we have to settle for a lot fewer than we would like. But
IBM’s new Eagle
has the most of its type of quantum computer: 127-qubits. Naturally, they plan to do even more work, and you can see a preview of “System Two” in the video below.
The 127 qubit number is both impressively large and depressingly small. Each qubit increases the amount of work a conventional computer has to do to simulate the machine by a factor of two. The hope is to one day produce quantum computers that would be impractical to simulate using conventional computers. That’s known as quantum supremacy and while several teams have claimed it, actually achieving it is a subject of debate.
Like any computer, more bits — or qubits — are better than fewer bits, generally speaking. However, it is especially important for modern quantum systems since most practical schemes require redundancy and error correction to be reliable in modern implementations of quantum computer hardware. What’s in the future? IBM claims they will build the Condor processor with over 1,000 qubits using the same 3D packaging technology seen in Eagle. Condor is slated for 2023 and there will be an intermediate chip due in 2022 with 433 qubits.
Scaling anything to a large number usually requires more than just duplicating smaller things. In the case of Eagle and at least one of its predecessors, part of the scaling was to use readout units that can read different qubits. Older processors with just a few qubits would have dedicated readout hardware for each qubit, but that’s untenable once you get hundreds or thousands of qubits.
Qubits aren’t the only measure of a computer’s power, just like a conventional computer with more bits might be less capable than one with fewer bits. You also have to consider the quality of the qubits and how they are connected.
Who’s going to win the race to quantum supremacy? Or has it already been won? We have a feeling if it hasn’t already been done, it won’t be very far in the future. If you think about the state of computers in, say, 1960 and compare it to today, about 60 years later, you have to wonder if that amount of progress will occur in this area, too.
Most of the announcements you hear about quantum computing come from Google, IBM, or Microsoft. But there’s
also Honeywell
and a few other players. If you want to get ready for the quantum onslaught, maybe start with
this tutorial
that will run on a simulator, mostly. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422610",
"author": "jrfl",
"timestamp": "2022-02-08T18:42:36",
"content": "At first I thought they actually got the chip working, but it turns out this is the press release from last year where they announced they are going to start working on the 127 qubit chip…",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,372,794.110339 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/08/hair-today-gone-tomorrow-four-men-go-to-fix-a-wafer-prober/ | Hair Today Gone Tomorrow: Four Men Go To Fix A Wafer Prober | Dave Rowntree | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"ATE",
"beard",
"DFT",
"integrated circuits",
"Scan Test",
"Teradyne",
"Wafer prober"
] | I’ve had a fairly varied early part of my career in the semiconductors business: a series of events caused me to jump disciplines a little bit, and after one such event, I landed in the test engineering department at Philips Semiconductors. I was tasked with a variety of oddball projects, supporting engineering work, fixing broken ATE equipment, and given a absolute ton of training: Good times! Here’s a story that comes straight off the oddball pile.
We needed to assemble a crack team of experts and high-tail it to deepest darkest Wales, and sort out an urgent production problem. The brief was that the wafer probe yield was disastrous and the correlation wafer was not giving the correct results. Getting to the punch line is going to require some IC fabrication background, but if you like stories about silicon, or red-bearded test engineers, it’s worth it.
Integrated Circuit Design and Testability
The DFT process turning ordinary sequential logic into scan testable logic. Note the additional SI (Shift In) and SE (Scan Enable) lines and the scan chain hookup
The naïve IC design is one that forgoes testability in pursuit of die area, development time and some misplaced notion of simplicity. I cannot say how many times I’ve come across stories from the past where a new startup proudly makes silicon, but has almost no testability features and they get really hammered when trying to ramp up production.
The chip may be ‘right by design’ in that it is targeted correctly to the fabrication process, and on the bench, the product
validation
process may show it is within specification and appropriate for the customer’s end application. However once that’s done, we need a
verification
process to ensure the chips going out the door adhere to that specification, under normal process variances, and they are defect free. See
this interesting guide from NASA
about this important distinction.
The test engineer’s first port-of-call is the concept of Zero Defect Testing, which relies on design support known as Design For Test (DFT.)
This basic guide
will serve as an introduction to these concepts for those interested.
These testing methodologies require functional changes to the digital parts of the design, by a DFT engineer. They are almost always automated by dedicated tools as part of the digital synthesis flow, with the test patterns needed to activate ‘scan test mode’ generated by a special
ATPG
(Automated Test Pattern Generator) tool. This analyses the
gate-level netlist
of the IC and figures out how to perform the required structural tests. An example of this, that i’ve used in the past is
Synopsys Tetramax
. There are many, many variations on this test scheme, such as
Logic-BIST
(Built-In Self-Test) but that’s a subject for another day. Anyway, the goal here is to get the test patterns needed to feed into the test development process, further down the line.
The IC Production and Test Process
Metal lead-frame prior to die attach and moulding
A typical 200mm wafer. So pretty!
Once the IC design is completed, the thing needs to be manufactured. This is done in hugely complicated, immensely expensive facilities, hereafter referred to as the ‘fab’, in a handful of locations around the world. Companies like
TSMC
,
SSMC
, or
Tower
will manufacture your design on a contract basis, shipping wafers off to wherever they need to go to get tested and packaged up.
Wafers are shipped out in a plastic ‘boat’, typically 25 at a time, to test-and-assembly facilities all over the world, where they optionally may be tested, then sawn up and packaged. Each wafer will have hundreds or thousands of identical copies of the device, stepped on a rectangular grid over the surface.
Depending on the assembly process, what happens next will work in different ways. Older or simpler designs may just have a simple pad ring surrounding the core of the chip, with metallised contact areas for each connection (called ‘pads’). When packaged, the freshly sawn (or ‘singulated’) die will be glued to a
lead frame
(a metallic scaffold) before gold (or copper, lately) bond wires are attached between this leadframe and the chip pads, using a wire-bonder machine. The whole thing is then stuffed in a mould and plastic is injection molded around it, before the packages are singulated ready for ‘final test’. Many things could have gone wrong up until this point, so it is critical to test the packages before they are packaged for distribution.
From a test perspective, the wafers will undergo testing as they are processed by the fab. There will be a number of special test dies dotted around the wafer, mixed in with the application dies. These are referred to as Process Control Monitors (PCMs) and are used by the fab internally to measure wafer quality and ensure that the fabrication process is within specified parameters (hence ‘process control’). Select PCM data are delivered to the end customer by an automated process to be accessible by the product engineer (engineer in charge of product manufacturing) if they need it. Once the finished wafers are shipped out to the test house, they
might
undergo wafer probe testing. If the package cost is low, then the yield impact of not testing before packaging could be low enough that it is not being economically viable to test before packaging. We call these ‘blind assembled’ packages, and so long as the ‘final test’ is good quality, we can be sure the customer will get fully working, in-spec devices. However, if the package is complex, and expensive, wafer probing becomes necessary, and of course, if the product is a
Chip Scale Package
(e.g. flip-chip) there won’t be a package (or a lead-frame for that matter) as such, just a bunch of solder balls stuck onto the RDL (
redistribution layer
) but that’s a different problem.
Dice being singulated with a diamond saw
The general plan is to use testing at a variety of points to improve overall quality, by weeding out bad wafers (PCM data) bad die (wafer probe) and then packaging up the good die, before a final quality check. At either of the latter stages product may also be speed/performance graded (or binned) for different final specs. It all depends on the product. What tests are done at which stage also depends on a multitude of factors such as test feasibility with the available ATE platforms, and the expected failure rates vs cost of test. Test-cost economics and subsequent planning is a tricky subject.
ATE Systems
Big Iron: Teradyne Catalyst ATE platform – do not drop on foot
So let’s talk about the tools of the trade. Automated Test Equipment (ATE) is a bit of broad term, but we’re dealing here with dedicated IC test platforms, so that narrows the scope a little. The target platform was the older Teradyne Catalyst system. This machine is an absolute beast, physically huge and heavy, and sucks 3-phase power like its going out of fashion.
The so-called mainframe box, contains big power supplies, support circuits, and waveform sources (if RF is installed) is the size of double-wide US-style refrigerator, but weighs in at a couple of tons. This is attached via an umbilical to the test head. This last bit is the business end, containing the test electronics, local power supplies and is where the tester interfaces to the application.
A typical test floor with a device handler shown docked to a test head
The idea with these platforms, is that rather than designing a custom test rig per product with a full suite of equipment tied to the requirements of the device, you can design the chip to be testable to within the capabilities of a general purpose platform, then you
just
need to configure one with enough resources to interface with your device, in its test modes.
A typical ATE test head will be a large box about the size of washing machine (but likely weighing much more) containing some really expensive electronics. They’re usually arranged with a few columns of parallel slots, each slot will have a pogo pin block with sometimes, hundreds of pogos per block. Some slots may be empty, some may have special connections for RF and high current. Underneath the pogo blocks are connected with cable bundles down to the internal card cage.
These cards use local timing generators (linked to low-noise clocks) to format patterns into waveforms that are driven into the IC under test. It’s not unusual at all for a test head to contain upwards of 2000 digital channels operating in parallel at 800 Mbps or more. These cards also contain
Pin Parametric Measurement Units
(PPMUs) capable of sourcing or sinking current into a pin and taking measurements. This allows defects such as disconnected or shorted pins, and pin leakage current to be tested. Remember that last bit for later! A typical ATE test head is capable of parallel testing multiple ICs simultaneously, if resources allow, as I said earlier, these are generic platforms and it depends on the needs of the product.
Robotic Handlers and Wafer Probers
This is where the generic ATE bit stops and the custom per-design bit starts. In order to test a chip on an ATE, you need an interface. If the product requires wafer level testing, then more hardware is needed. In addition to a manual test rig, I will also have been designing a
probe card
, which will connect to the ATE head with a generic adaptor called a pogo tower.
The interface to the wafer is via a custom-designed circular probe card PCB, which has the matching ring of pogo lands (just surface pads) and a big hole in the middle. The space in the middle is to take the probe ‘spider’ which is a circular array of fine, stiff wires, each with a bend in at the end, terminating in a sharp point. The final shape of this array of points, the probe ‘needles’, is designed to align with the pads on the die, and with some suitable epoxy stiffener spread over the wire array, the probe tips will be perfectly aligned and co-planar. This is a very specialist job to construct and they are delicate assemblies.
A cantilever probe card for a single site. Note central epoxy stabilisation ring
Wafer probers are cool. The idea is you bolt the wafer probe card into the top of the machine, needles-down, then wheel the whole thing over to the ATE. The ATE head will have that pogo-tower already docked. Next you manipulate the test head up, over your head so you can turn it upside down and dock it down onto the top of the wafer prober machine, locking onto the probe card with a twist of a mechanism.
The prober machine will push the wafer up very carefully, into the fixed probe needle array, making all the electrical contacts. It then instructs the tester to test one or more dies and collects the binning results, before stepping onto the next die. This is repeated for the whole wafer, and each wafer in the cassette. The X-Y coordinate of the die and test results are saved to a datalog stream, so
wafer maps
and yield can be obtained. The wafer map is a lookup table of test result vs die location, and this is what is fed into the assembly line to pick out the good die to package. This used to be done by the machine ink-spotting bad die!
Trouble at t’mill
So that’s the why and how of automated IC test and the development process; back to our story! Our crack debug team consisted of an expert in wafer probers, a mechanical designer, the visiting test floor manager from Philips Semiconductors Calamba (Philippines), and me, then, a test engineer-in-training.
The product was a mature long-running product, built on 200 mm wafers, an older process node (most likely TSMC 350 nm) and was very much just ticking along. Until one day it wasn’t. Wafer probing was courtesy of an old
Electroglas EG4080
(pdf of latest 4090 linked) docked up to a Teradyne Catalyst. Quite a common configuration at that time. The yield had dropped to zero, so the first thing they did was to run some correlation wafers that were kept onsite, in a special inert-atmosphere cabinet. These were the same wafers used during development, with all test results kept on file, and used for well, correlation purposes when bringing up a new test stand. They could not get a single die to pass, so we were called in to sort it out.
The Debug
Some probe needle marks
We split up and checked everything. Prober guy checked the EG4080 setup, calibration, looked at it mechanically and inspected the ‘
probe marks
‘ using the built-in high zoom inspection camera. These witness marks had the characteristic ‘short furrow’ shape, indicating that the needles contacted, then slid slightly across the pad, digging a tiny trench into it. This is because, as the needles made contact, the wafer is driven a little further into the needle, causing it to slide, or scrub laterally. This promotes oxide scrubbing, giving a good electrical contact, and keeps the tips sharp.
There was no evidence of over-driving, or needles deflecting the ‘wrong’ way, and no significant tip wear. Mechanical guy was heavily involved with this process as well as keeping track of tests and checks, and collating all data. I checked the ATE calibration, and inspected all parts of the system, checked that the test program was the correct revision, and initiated a few tests under manual control. I could see which test was failing: pin leakage. Everything else was fine.
This particular test looks for defects in the pad ring, surrounding the die core, or possibly within the package. This works by programming any bidirectional pins to input mode, then sinking a small test current into all input-capable pins, using that PPMU. The results were a bit odd, two pins were giving quite random results, but that was the only obvious fault. We tore it all down again, inspecting every component visually, cleaning contacts, removing dust and contamination, and just looking for any strange current path that could explain what we saw.
The Rogue Beard
Since we couldn’t find anything wrong with the equipment, we started to look at how it was being used. The test floor was typical – climate controlled with a metallised ESD safe floor. All equipment was correctly grounded, all staff fully adorned with overalls, hair coverings and heel grounders. We were just standing around shooting random ideas, talking about contamination and possible environmental factors, when I just blurted out “what if there’s a hair stuck in the probe needles?”
What if there’s a hair stuck in the probe needles?
Pretty much everybody stood there and said that that wasn’t possible, all operators tied hair up under a tight covering, and
beards
were even covered. “Surely we’d have seen a hair on the cameras?” Nothing was seen. “But, I asked, has anybody actually taken the probe card out and looked at it under a microscope?” “No”, was the answer, as it was delicate, they didn’t want to handle it unnecessarily.
The prober operator just unbolted it and held it up to the light and peered at it closely with a loupe. After a short discussion amongst the floor staff, some tweezers appeared, and the chap very,
very
carefully pulled out a short, curly ginger hair from between the needles. It went quite quiet on the floor as he proceeded to reassemble the test stack, docked the ATE head, and initiated a manual test on the prober. “Bin 1!” was the exclamation! Switching over to automatic mode, the wafer was probed, and the resulting wafer map on the screen looked exactly like the reference data. Success! The operator in question had a big, ginger beard. We laughed, packed our gear and headed for home. Millions of pounds of electronics equipment, nearly scuppered by a rogue beard hair. You couldn’t make it up. | 43 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422523",
"author": "Thorsten (@tvoneicken)",
"timestamp": "2022-02-08T15:29:52",
"content": "Nice story! Thanks for writing it up! I’d love to read some more about your chip fab time ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6422535"... | 1,760,372,794.489173 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/08/invisible-3d-printed-codes-make-objects-interactive/ | Invisible 3D Printed Codes Make Objects Interactive | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"ArUco",
"infrared",
"infraredtags",
"ir",
"label",
"machine readable",
"machine vision",
"qr code"
] | An interesting research project out of MIT shows that
it’s possible to embed machine-readable labels into 3D printed objects
using nothing more than an FDM printer and filament that is transparent to IR. The method is being called
InfraredTags;
by embedding something like a
QR code
or
ArUco markers
into an object’s structure, that label can be detected by a camera and interactive possibilities open up.
One simple proof of concept is a wireless router with its SSID embedded into the side of the device, and the password embedded into a different code on the bottom to ensure that physical access is required to obtain the password. Mundane objects can have metadata embedded into them, or provide markers for augmented reality functionality, like tracking the object in 3D.
How are the codes actually embedded? The process is straightforward with the right tools. The team used a specialty filament from vendor
3dk.berlin
that looks nearly opaque in the visible spectrum, but transmits roughly 45% in IR. The machine-readable label gets embedded within the walls of a printed object either by using a combination of IR PLA and air gaps to represent the geometry of the code, or by making a multi-material print using IR PLA and regular (non-IR transmitting) PLA. Both provide enough contrast for an IR-sensitive camera to detect the label, although the multi-material version works a little better overall. Sadly, the average mobile phone camera by itself isn’t sufficiently IR-sensitive to passively read these embedded tags, so the research used easily available cameras with no IR-blocking filters, like the Raspberry Pi NoIR.
The PDF has deeper details
of the implementation for those of you who want to know more, and you can see a demonstration of a few different applications in the video, embedded below.
Determining the provenance of 3D printed objects
is a topic of some debate in the industry, and it’s not hard to see how technology like this could be used to covertly identify objects without compromising their appearance. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422468",
"author": "Craig",
"timestamp": "2022-02-08T12:32:13",
"content": "Embedding version numbers etc. into the infill/void would be really handy, especially if a slicer plug in could take it from the file name.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,372,794.547316 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/08/a-bugatti-without-the-inconvenience-of-wealth/ | A Bugatti Without The Inconvenience Of Wealth | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bugatti",
"car",
"fibreglass",
"homemade car",
"kitcar",
"supercar"
] | There are many of us who might have toyed with the idea of building a car, indeed perhaps more than a few readers might even have taken to the road in a machine of their own creation. Perhaps it was a design of your own, or maybe a kit car. We think that very few of you will have gone as far as [Vũ Văn Nam] and his friends in Vietnam.
In their latest video they compress a year’s work into 47 minutes
as they craft a beautifully built replica of a Bugatti supercar. If you haven’t got a few million dollars but you’ve got the time, this is the video for you.
The skill involved in making a scratch-built car is impressive enough, but where there guys take it to the next level is in their clay modeling to create the moulds for the fibreglass bodywork. Taking their local clay and a steel frame, they carefully hand-sculpt the car with the skill of an Italian master stylist, before clothing it in fibreglass and removing the clay. The resulting fibreglass shell can be used to make the finished bodywork, which they do with an exceptional attention to detail. It might be a steel-tube home-made spaceframe with a wheezy 4-cylinder Toyota engine behind the driver instead of a 1000 HP powerhouse, but it surely
looks
the part!
Looking at the construction we’re guessing it wouldn’t pass an Individual Vehicle Approval test for roadworthiness where this is being written, but at the same time it wouldn’t be impossible to incorporate the extra work as this is a proper road-going car. The video is below the break, and though the few pieces of dialogue in it are in Vietnamese you probably won’t need to turn on the auto-translate to follow it.
This isn’t their first fake supercar,
there’s already a Ferrari in this particular stable
. Meanwhile if you’re of a mind to make a car,
consider the world’s most hackable vehicle
. | 52 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422424",
"author": "Jens",
"timestamp": "2022-02-08T09:08:58",
"content": "I was watching some of their other episodes and I wish I understood more of what they’re saying, the automatic subtitles are unusable.I can’t wait to see what they’ll do in the future with more experience.",... | 1,760,372,794.826081 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/07/swapped-dash-module-gives-ford-maverick-an-upgrade/ | Swapped Dash Module Gives Ford Maverick An Upgrade | Tom Nardi | [
"car hacks"
] | [
"dashboard",
"digital display",
"ford",
"Maverick"
] | Ford is looking to make their new Maverick compact truck stand out, and so far, it seems to be working. Not only is it exceptionally cheap for a brand-new hybrid, truck or otherwise, but Ford actively encourages owners to modify their new ride. From standardized mounting points throughout the cabin intended for 3D printed upgrades, to an auxiliary 12 VDC line run to the bed specifically for powering user supplied hardware.
But we doubt even the most imaginative of Blue Oval engineers could have predicted that somebody would
rip out the whole dash module and replace it with one from a higher-end Ford
this early in the game. While many people can’t even find one of these trucks on the lot, [Tyvemattis] on the
Maverick Truck Club
forum has detailed his efforts to replace the relatively uninspired stock dash module of his truck with an all-digital version pulled from a 2020 Ford Escape Titanium.
Ford’s rendering of the original Maverick dash module.
Now we say “effort”, but as it turns out, the swap went off nearly without a hitch. The new digital module not only appears to be the identical size and shape as the original, but they both use the same connectors. Presumably this is because both vehicles are based on Ford’s scalable C2 platform, and likely means more components from this family of vehicles such as the Lincoln Corsair or new Bronco could be installed into the Maverick.
So what’s the downside? According to [Tyvemattis], the computer is throwing error messages as the Maverick doesn’t have a lot of the hardware that the dash is trying to communicate with. He also can’t change the vehicle’s driving mode, and the cruise control can only be enabled when the truck is stopped. But probably the most annoying issue is that the fuel gauge is off by 50%, so when the tank is full, it shows you’ve only got half a tank. At least one other user on the forum
believes this could be alleviated by modifying the fuel sensor wiring
, so it will be interesting to see how difficult a fix it ends up being.
We
first ran across the DIY-friendly Maverick back in October of last year
, and we’re encouraged to already see owners answering Ford’s challenge by tinkering with the vehicle.
Here’s hoping this is the start of a new chapter
in the long and storied history of car hacking.
Thanks to [Matt] for the tip. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422420",
"author": "JohnU",
"timestamp": "2022-02-08T09:00:51",
"content": "The real story here is that you might be able to remove a screen from your car and replace it with proper gauges.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "642... | 1,760,372,794.885939 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/07/move-aside-solar-were-installing-an-algae-panel/ | Move Aside Solar, We’re Installing An Algae Panel | Matthew Carlson | [
"green hacks",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"algae",
"algae panel",
"biomass",
"solar"
] | [Cody] of
Cody’sLab
has been bit by what he describes as the algae growing bug. We at Hackaday didn’t know that was a disease floating around, but we’ll admit that we’re not surprised after the last few years. So not content to stick to the small-time algae farms, [Cody]
decided to scale up and build a whole algae panel
.
Now, why would you want to grow algae? There are edible varieties of algae, you can extract oils from it, and most importantly, it can be pumped around in liquid form. To top it off, all it needs is just sunlight, carbon dioxide, and a few minerals to grow. Unlike those other complicated land-based organisms that use photosynthesis, algae don’t need to build any structure to hold themselves up or collect sunlight; it floats.
The real goal of the algae is to build a system known as “Chicken Hole.” The basic idea is to have a self-sufficient system. The algae feed the insects, the insects feed the chickens, and so on up the chain until it reaches [Cody]. While glass would make an ideal material for the algae tubes, plastic soda bottles seem like a decent proxy for a prototype and are much cheaper. He connected around 100 half-liter bottles to form long tubes and a PVC distribution system. The algae needs to be pumped into an insulated container to prevent it from freezing at night. At first, a simple timer outlet controlled the pump to only run during the day, draining it via gravity at night. However, the algae can’t heat up enough when running on cloudy, cold winter days, and it cools off. A solar panel and a temperature sensor form the logic for the pump, with a minimum temperature and sunlight needed to run.
[Cody] mentions that he can expect around 10 grams of algae per day on a panel this size in the winter. He’s going to need quite a few more if he’s going to scale up properly. Perhaps in the future,
we’ll see panels growing algae robots
? Video after the break. | 58 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422372",
"author": "David G Watson",
"timestamp": "2022-02-08T03:09:41",
"content": "I thought you could also use algae to make diesel. Yeah, long process to make it, but still, you have to start some where. Also I did not realize Algae did not like the cold. I had a recirculating ... | 1,760,372,794.981024 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/07/plottybot-a-drawbot-that-plots-a-lot/ | PlottyBot: A DrawBot That Plots A Lot | Michael Shaub | [
"Art",
"hardware",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"art",
"cnc plotter",
"draw bot",
"drawbot",
"fountain pen",
"handwriting",
"handwritting to font",
"pen plotter",
"plotterbot",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W"
] | Fire up those 3D printers because if you’re like us, you’ll want your own
PlottyBot
. Still, have a pile of “thank you notes” to write from recent winter holiday gift exchanges? Hoping to hand letter invitations to a wedding or other significant event? Need some new art to adorn your lock-down shelter or shop? It sounds like [Ben] could help you with that.
Besides being a handsomely designed desktop DrawBot, this project from [Ben] looks to have some solid software to run it, a community of makers who have tested the waters, and
very detailed build instructions
. Those include everything from a BOM with links for ordering parts to animated GIF assembly for the trickier steps.
If you’d like to graduate from “handwritten” cards and letters to something poster-sized are customization tips for expanded X and Y dimensions. As we’ve included in other recent articles, one caveat to mention is the current scarcity of the Raspberry Pi Zeros that PlottyBots require. But if you have one on hand or think you’ll be able to source one by the time you’ve 3D printed all the parts, it might just be the perfect time to add another bot to your family. As a heads up, this project is self-hosted on a solar-powered server, so maybe take turns reading the complete build log.
A nice bonus if you need help drawing something suitably complex to require a robot’s help, [Ben] also created
MandalGaba
which looks like an awesome online tool for drawings like the ones shown above. | 15 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422365",
"author": "Ken de AC3DH",
"timestamp": "2022-02-08T02:04:20",
"content": "i could have used this in Catholic school, my hand writing is terrible!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6422367",
"author": "mike",
... | 1,760,372,795.042558 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/07/fluke-dmm-hack-adds-one-digit-to-model-number/ | Fluke DMM Hack Adds One Digit To Model Number | Chris Lott | [
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"average responding meter",
"calibration",
"dmm",
"fluke",
"test equipment",
"true rms"
] | Among his many interests, [Dave Jones] likes test and measurement equipment. He recently posted a few videos on his EEVblog exploring the reasons why Fluke voltmeters are so expensive. In the process,
he stumbled upon an interesting hack for the Fluke 77
.
The Fluke 77 was introduced in 1983, and is an average responding meter in the AC modes. This model has become a de-facto standard for use in maintenance depots and labs for equipment which has very long lifespans — think military and industrial gear, for example. Many test procedures and training materials have been designed around the use of the the Fluke 77. The cost to change them when a new and better meter comes along is usually so prohibitive they might as well be cast in stone — or at least hammered into 20 pound fanfold paper by a WordStar-driven daisy-wheel printer. But for those unburdened by such legacy requirements, Fluke has the 17x series of True RMS reading meters from since the beginning of this century. These meters bear a strong visual resemblance to their siblings in the 7x family and are substantially interchangeable but for their AC measurement methods.
In the process of tearing down a Fluke 77 meter for another reason entirely, [Dave] finds that the resemblance it not just visual. Not only is the 77’s PCB labeled 17x, but there is an Analog Devices AD737 True RMS to DC converter IC on the board.
What gives? Why would they go to the expense to put this chip in an average responding meter?
A bit more digging into
the data sheet
reveals this chip can measure in three different modes: true RMS, average rectified, or absolute values. Selecting true RMS mode requires adding just a single 33 uF capacitor. Sure enough, in the Fluke schematics this is clearly shown as an optional load.
Not surprisingly, [Dave] does the modification and it works. The only downside is that after you make this change, you have to perform a complete recalibration of the meter. Annoyingly, there doesn’t appear to be any way to just calibrate the AC measurements, for example. Unless you’re a recovering Test Equipment addict like [Dave], you probably don’t have all the gear nearby to perform this calibration yourself — something to keep in mind if you try this at home. Another thing to note is that this hack was done on a modern Fluke 77 IV meter. If you have a Fluke 77 from 1985, this hack doesn’t apply. | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422298",
"author": "Eric Weatherby",
"timestamp": "2022-02-07T21:13:44",
"content": "I hold Fluke in high regard and thought that they were above selling crippleware. Truly, there are no heroes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,372,795.164431 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/07/arduino-nano-adds-usb-interface-to-the-psion-organiser-ii/ | Arduino Nano Adds USB Interface To The Psion Organiser II | Robin Kearey | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"classic hacks",
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"arduino nano",
"diy usb interface",
"Psion Organiser"
] | Introduced in 1984, the Psion Organiser series defined the first generation of electronic organizers or PDAs (personal digital assistants). Even though these devices are now over 30 years old, the Psion Organiser scene is alive and well: with new hardware and software is still being developed by enthusiasts the world over.
The Organiser II, with its brand-new USB interface
One of those enthusiasts is [James Stanley], who
designed and built a USB interface for the Psion Organiser II
. Although a “CommsLink” module providing an RS-232 port was available back in the day, it’s become hard to find, inspiring [James] to design a completely new module based on an Arduino Nano. Hooking it up to the Psion’s data bus was a simple matter of wiring up the eight data lines to the Nano’s GPIO ports. A set of series resistors served to prevent bus contention without having to add glue logic.
Getting the software working was a bit more difficult: the Organiser’s native OPL programming language doesn’t allow the user to directly access the expansion port’s memory address, so [James] had to write a routine in HD6303 machine code to perform the read, then call that routine from OPL to display the result on the screen. Currently, the routine only supports reading data from the Arduino, but extending it to a bidirectional interface should be possible too.
Finally, [James] designed and 3D printed a neat enclosure for the Arduino-USB interface, which makes it look almost as sleek as the original CommsLink module. Perhaps with a bit of further development, this could turn into another way
to connect old Psions to the internet
. We’ve also featured
a new type of Datapak to enhance the Organiser’s memory
.
Thanks for the tip, [SaratogaJerry]! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422352",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2022-02-08T00:20:56",
"content": "Is it just me or does adding massively more powerful hardware to much older hardware remind anyone of V’Ger from Star Trek 1?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,372,795.089191 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/07/crimping-tools-and-the-cost-of-being-cheap/ | Crimping Tools And The Cost Of Being Cheap | Maya Posch | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"crimping tools",
"dupont",
"JST",
"Mini-PV"
] | Crimp connectors provide an easy and convenient way to connect electronics while still allowing for them to be removed and swapped without having to reach for a soldering iron and desoldering wick. While browsing one’s favorite cheap shopping site, you may get the impression that all one has to do to join the world of crimp-awesome is order a $20 crimp tool and some assorted ‘JST’ and ‘DuPont’ (a Mini-PV clone) connectors to go with it. After all, it’s just a bit of metal that’s squeezed around some stripped wire. How complicated could this be?
The harsh truth is that, as ridiculous as the price tag on official JST and Mini-PV crimping tools may seem at hundreds of dollars each, they offer precise, repeatable crimps and reliable long-term stability. The same is true for genuine JST, Mini-PV and Molex connectors. The price tag for ‘saving a buck’ may end up being a lot higher than the money originally saved.
A Cautionary Tale
Example of the improper crimp (left) that caused fires in AC units. Contrast with right crimp and lack of spacing.
Back in December of 2007, air conditioning units installed at motels and apartments
began to catch on fire
, seemingly by themselves. All of these AC units were manufactured by a single Texan company: Goodman Co. After multiple of reports of units catching on fire, it was deduced that it must have been faulty power cords from a new supplier: Tower.
After a recall of units with Tower-supplied power cords, the following legal battle and investigation tried to pin down the cause of the fires. Using units which had not caught on fire yet, the cause was tracked down to the flag connectors that were crimped on the stranded wires of the power cord. Due to insufficient pressure applied during crimping, spaces were left within the flag connector that increased the contact resistance.
Drawing of large amounts of current, this would thus lead to rapid heat development and ultimately fire. The Tower factory used not the specified AMP crimping machines, but improperly configured knock-off machines that created improper crimps. Here the decision by Tower to save a few bucks ultimately lost them a lot of revenue, and endangered life and property.
The essential element of a good crimp is that of
plastic deformation
: the natural plasticity property of the materials in question and whether this plasticity is fully used to get a solid contact, but not (destructively) exceeded or – as in this case – barely used.
Caveat Emptor
What the earlier example makes clear is that you have to be very cautious about exactly what you are buying: not just the tools, but also the components. One great example here is that of knock-off connectors, which one may amiably refer to as ‘DuPont Syndrome’, after a cheap clone of a much better connector, that became better known than the original.
De-constructed Mini-PV contact and Be-Cu leaf spring (left) and “DuPont” clone (right). (Credit: Matt Millman)
According to Matt Millman, Berg Electronics
introduced their Mini-PV
connector in the 1950s. This is a connector that might be mistaken for a ‘DuPont’ connector, but is in fact a
much better connecto
r, with a
bi-metal design
including a BeCu leaf spring that is still produced by Amphenol today, including for the US military and other branches of the US government.
Berg Electronics was purchased by DuPont Corporation in 1972, making it a division of the latter. This might explain why when during the 1990s cheaper, Mini-PV-inspired clone connectors began to appear (including those manufactured by Harwin with the
M20
), it became known as ‘the DuPont connector’, even though it is mechanically different from the Mini-PV connector.
Since then, clone manufacturers have not only began to produce their own version of ‘the DuPont’ connector, but also of
JST’s offerings
, including their XH, PH and other ranges. Tolerances, materials used and other specifications like coatings are hereby anyone’s guess, especially when purchased from anonymous sellers on the aforementioned cheap shopping sites.
The problem with using dissimilar metals in the connectors is that of
galvanic corrosion
. While this is rarely an issue in the short term, the use of differently plated connectors on a PCB and the wiring harness is likely to lead to a build-up of failures after a number of months to years, depending on the environmental conditions. Without knowing the exact specifications of the connectors and wiring used in a project, this becomes a significant risk and should absolutely be avoided when long-term reliability is important.
Squeeze Metal Not Budgets
Much like with saving a few bucks on cheap knock-off connectors, it is essential to be aware of the issues with cheap crimping tools, which come primarily in sub-par crimping results and occasionally faulty crimps that may go undetected by the untrained eye. As a case in point let’s take a look at a better-than-most crimping tool for ‘JST’ and ‘DuPont’ – which yours truly also recently obtained – and which Matt Millman reviewed and compared: the ‘Preciva PR-3254’:
Preciva PR-3254 crimp tool. (Credit: Matt Millman)
As the owner of a genuine Berg/DuPont Mini-PV crimping tool, Matt was able to do a side by side comparison of both tools, as well as their crimping results. The most important detail that Matt noted is that the PR-3254 has the correct die shape, as the top of the section for ‘DuPont’ has to be an ‘O’ shape, rather than a ‘B’ shape, which is the correct shape for a JST crimping tool.
Comparison of the DuPont Mini-PV crimp tool, and the (improper) die of a typical budget tool. (Credit: Matt Millman)
Unfortunately it’s not
entirely
the right shape when you look closer. The problem appears when the jaws close, the resulting space is more of an oval than the circle of the DuPont crimping tool:
PR-3254 “DuPont” die compared to DuPont HT-208 (AWG 24) die. (Credit: Matt Millman)
While the resulting crimp is acceptable, it does crush the insulation when using AWG 24 (0.205 mm
2
) wire, and with AWG 28 (0.0810 mm
2
) wire the insulation is crimped fine, but the force on the wire itself was insufficient. This could lead to increased contact resistance and other issues.
Harwin Z20-320. Crimps “DuPont” clone types effortlessly and perfectly. It’s made by Pressmaster in Sweden. (Credit: Matt Millman)
When reviewing another budget crimping tool (
IWISS SN-025
) that claims to be targeting ‘DuPont’ connectors, Matt found it to be somewhat better than the PR-3254, but as usual should not be used for any critical applications. Unless one is interested in becoming another entry in the list of irresponsible manufacturers alongside the likes of Tower, it might be a good idea to pony up the cash for something like the official Harwin M20 Z20-320 crimping tool for a mere $460 new.
Features offered by these tools include such niceties as a wire stop so that you cannot insert the to-be-crimped-connector too far, as well as various guides inside the dies that help to stabilize the connector before and while it is being crimped. This has as immense benefit that each crimp is likely to be as close as perfect as possible, whereas with manual (non-ratcheted) tools and budget crimping tools there is a certain level of skill required to get even acceptable results.
The Bottom Squeeze
Perhaps the most important take-away from all of this is that before even getting into the nitty-gritty of crimp connectors and associated tooling, it is essential to understand the basics. Both to avoid getting saddled with components and tools which are not up to the task they were purchased for, but also to prevent worse. Even if it’s ‘just’ a hobby project, having some confidence in the medium- and long-term reliability of one’s crimps is very desirable.
Although crimping connectors should and can be quick and nearly effortless, having poor quality components and/or tools is sure to waste the time of anyone involved. When it comes to picking either, it all comes down to a conscious choice: get Harwin M20 Mini-PV clones, or gamble on what a random seller on AliExpress had in stock that day? Is an IWISS or Preciva tool the right choice because it’s ‘just for some tinkering’, or might a faulty crimp lead to potentially very ugly consequences?
Naturally the easy answer is to just splurge on e.g. the official Harwin, JST, and Molex parts and tools, but even if one finds the crimping tools used on EBay or so, that is still a lot of money to invest in what is likely to be ‘just a hobby’, and where failure is non-critical. As long as one is aware of the limitations of the parts and tools used, there probably is no real bad choice, other than perhaps using a disgustingly cheap crimping tool that positively mauls the connector and/or wire.
[Heading image: A whole bunch of crimping tools. (Credit: Matt Millman)] | 113 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422224",
"author": "Jimf",
"timestamp": "2022-02-07T18:28:12",
"content": "Some crimps failed using a PA engineering tool when I did a bunch of connectors for a cnc controller. Kinda embarrassed since it was for my brother who has the real DuPont crimp tools. Retired GM engineer ... | 1,760,372,795.475469 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/07/pick-and-place-hack-chat/ | Pick And Place Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"assembly",
"Hack Chat",
"pcb",
"pick and place",
"pnp",
"robot",
"smd"
] | Join us on Wednesday, February 9 at noon Pacific for the
Pick and Place Hack Chat
with
Chris Denney
!
We in the hacker trade are pretty used to miracles — we make them all the time. But even the most jaded among us has to admit that modern PCB assembly, where components that could easily hide under a grain of sand are handled by robots, borders on witchcraft. The pick and place machines that work these wonders not only have to hit their marks accurately and precisely, but they also do it at blinding speeds and for days on end.
Luckily, even those of us who design circuits for a living and depend on PCB assembly services to realize those designs can, at least to some degree, abstract the details of the pick and place phase of the process away. But making it “just work” isn’t a trivial task, and learning a little bit about what it takes to do so can make us better designers. Plus, it’s just plain cool to watch a pick and place do its thing. And to dive a little deeper into pick and place, Chris Denney, CTO of Worthington Assembly and co-host of
“Pick, Place, Podcast”
will stop by the Hack Chat. If you’ve ever wondered about the inner workings of PCB assembly and the role pick and place plays in it, or if you’re looking for tips on how to optimize your layouts for pick and place, this is one you won’t want to miss!
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, February 9 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. If time zones have you tied up, we have a
handy time zone converter
. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,795.518019 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/07/is-your-flashlight-a-lumen-liar-build-a-diy-integrating-sphere/ | Is Your Flashlight A Lumen Liar? Build A DIY Integrating Sphere | Dave Rowntree | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"integrating sphere",
"lumens",
"metrology",
"optical"
] | A lamp used to be simple thing: just stick a filament in a glass bulb, pass a current through it and behold! Let there be light. A bigger lamp meant a larger filament, taking more power and a larger envelope. Now we’ve moved on a bit, and it’s all about LEDs. There really isn’t such a thing as ‘just an LED,’ these are semiconductor devices, made from relatively exotic materials (OK, not just plain old silicon anyway) and there is quite a lot of variety to choose from, and a bit of complexity in selecting them.
For [Torque Test Channel] the efficiency of conversion from electrical power to radiant power (or flux) is the headline figure of interest, which prompted them to
buy a bunch of lamps to compare
. To do the job justice that requires what’s known in the business as an
integrating sphere
(aka an Ulbricht sphere), but being a specialist device, it’s a bit pricey for the home gamer. So naturally, they decided to build the thing themselves.
Coating the inside of the foam sphere took several attempts.
Firstly they did the sensible thing, and shipped off their test units to a metrology lab with the ‘proper’ equipment, to get a baseline to calibrate against. Next they set about using some fairly common materials to construct their sphere. The basic idea is quite simple; it has a uniform diffuse internal surface, which ensures that all photons emitted by a source can be measured at the appropriate measurement port, regardless of the angle they are emitted from the source. This way, the total radiated power can be determined, or at least estimated, since there will be a degree of absorption.
Anyway, after a couple of false starts with coating the internal surface, they came to the conclusion that mixing barium sulphate into the paint, and then a bit of a rub-down with sandpaper, gave the required pure white, diffuse surface.
The results from their testing, using a lux meter inserted into one of the other ports, showed a pretty good correspondence between their measured lux figure and the lab-determined lumens figure. Since one lux is defined as one lumen per square meter, they seemed to get lucky and found a consistent ten-to-one ratio between their observed value and the lab. This factor will be simply due to the physical setup of their contraption, but an encouraging result so far anyway. And what about the bottom line? Did those test units deliver their promised lumen output? It would seem that they pretty much did.
When it rains, it pours. Just a few hours ago we saw
another DIY approach to building an integrating sphere
, this time using a small cannonball mold of all things. Before that we hadn’t actually seen too many light measurement projects,
save this old one that used the chipKIT
.
Thanks [Zane] for the tip! | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422328",
"author": "sdfdsfdfs",
"timestamp": "2022-02-07T22:32:53",
"content": "The surfaces in the lab’s integrating sphere and their light measurement probes might have different spectral characteristics…comparing your results to a lab’s isn’t necessarily valid.",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,372,795.646039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/07/remembering-the-mit-radiation-laboratory/ | Remembering The MIT Radiation Laboratory | Chris Lott | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"History",
"Interest",
"Slider"
] | [
"MIT Radiation Laboratory",
"Rad Lab",
"radar",
"WW2"
] | Back in the late 80s, our company managed to procure the complete 28 volume MIT Radiation Laboratory (Rad Lab) series, published in 1947, for the company library. To me, these books were interesting because I like history and old technology, but I didn’t understand why everyone was so excited about the acquisition. Only a cursory glimpse at the volumes would reveal that the “circuits” these books described used vacuum tubes and their “computers” were made from mechanical linkages. This was the 1980s, and we worked with modern radar and communications systems using semiconductors, integrated circuits, and digital computers. How could these old musty books possibly be of any practical use? To my surprise, it turned out that indeed they could, and eventually I came to appreciate the excitement. I even used several of them myself over the years.
Radiation Lab? Nuclear Radar?
In the years leading up to WW2, the idea of a civilian organization of scientists that would operate independently of the military and government bureaucracies was being championed by Dr. Vannevar Bush. The military and scientists had not worked well together during the first World War, and it looked like science and technology would be playing a much bigger role in the future.
It seemed certain that America would enter the conflict eventually, and Dr Bush and others believed that a new organizational framework was called for. To that end, the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), which later became the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was pitched to President Roosevelt and he approved it in June of 1940.
Almost immediately, a gift fell in the lap of the new organization — the Tizard Mission which arrived in the states from the UK in Sep 1940. They brought a literal treasure chest of technical innovations from the British, who hoped that US industry’s cooperation could help them survive what looked like certain and imminent invasion. One of those treasures was the cavity magnetron, which our own Dan Maloney
wrote about a few years ago
.
Within a few weeks, under the guidance of young Welshman “Taffy” Bowen, they had reviewed the design and gathered up the necessary equipment to fire it up. A 10 kV anode power supply and a 1,500 gauss electromagnet were procured, and the scientists gathered at the Bell Radio Laboratories in Whippany New Jersey on Sunday, Oct. 6, 1940. They powered up the cavity magnetron and were blown away by the results — over 10 kW of RF at 3 GHz (10 cm) from something the size of a bar of soap.
A flurry of activity ensued, and the Radiation Laboratory was formally established on Oct. 25, located at MIT and operating under the umbrella of the NDRC. The name was going to be Microwave Laboratory, but it was changed to Radiation Laboratory instead to mislead any prying eyes as to the focus of their research. At this time, radiation research labs, like Nobel Prize recipient Ernest Lawrence’s Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, were purely scientific in scope without wartime importance.
The Push to Lower Wavelengths
US Navy CXAM ship-borne radar
VHF
200 MHz
1.5 m
1940
US Army SCR-270
VHF
100 MHz
3 m
1940
British Chain Home
HF/VHF
20 – 50 MHz
15 – 6 m
1938
British Chain Home Low
VHF
200 MHz
1.5 m
1939
Soviet Union RUS-1
VHF
75 MHz
4 m
1938
Why all the fuss? Although radar systems were in limited use by this time, they all operated in the VHF band. Engineers of the day were familiar with the VHF frequency band and therefore had the design tools and necessary components to build working units. In the late 1930s the British had built an extensive line of coastal defense radar stations called Chain Home, whose operation straddled HF and VHF. Since the war started in Sep 1939, some weaknesses in the system had come to light. The Chain Home Low system at 200 MHz addressed some of these concerns, but the shorter wavelengths of centimetric radar (in the SHF region) promised some real advantages. For example, antennas could be smaller, smaller objects could be detected and located with better accuracy. But there had been no way to generate the necessary transmitter power until the introduction of the cavity magnetron.
Along with the cavity magnetron itself, the British presented their American counterparts with a priority list. They needed three types of radar right away: (1) airborne interception, (2) directing anti-aircraft gunfire, and (3) long range bomber navigation. The Rad Lab concurred, and immediately started three corresponding crash programs.
Project 1: Airborne Intercept Radar
B-18 Used as a Flying Radar Laboratory
In three months time, the team had their prototype 10 cm airborne radar working. Built in true hacker style, it filled up a whole rooftop and was cobbled together with whatever they could get their hands on. By early January they had a working system with two antennas, and by February they had solved the transmit-receive switch problem and demonstrated successful tracking of aircraft using only “one eye”. By March, they had reduced the sprawling prototype into something that could be installed in an airplane. On its first test flight the crew demonstrated air-to-air detection, and, on a whim, tried and succeeded to detect ships and submarines.
Project 2: Anti-aircraft Gun Radar
SCR-584 at Proving Grounds
First Automatically Tracked Airplane
This project got into full swing early in 1941. The original ideas presented by the British, indeed how existing VHF-based systems worked, was entirely manual. Radar would find the planes, but people steered the antennas and fired the guns — basically a really improved searchlight. But Rad Lab scientists thought they could do better by automating the whole process. They proved the naysayers wrong, and by May 1941 had a radar working which could automatically track airplanes and pointed a movie camera at the plane. Bell Labs developed an analog fire control computer, and a working system was completed by Apr 1942 (
SCR-584 Radar
).
Project 3: Long Range Navigation
Loran AN/APN-4 Receiver Set
Development of the Long Range Navigation project, or
LORAN
, began right away. The first pair of stations were under construction by spring. LORAN was the only Rad Lab project not to use microwaves. Instead, it operated around 2 MHz and was used to guide planes and ships. LORAN and its successors continued to be used in the United States until 2010, and in Europe until 2015.
These are only the first three projects. By the end of the war, the Rad Lab had developed and contributed to many other new radar applications as well, including new systems at 3 cm and 1 cm.
Working Environment
The Rad Lab needed people fast, and began recruiting physicist and engineers from universities around the country. By all accounts, it was a great place to work. There was free exchange of ideas, the excitement of pushing new boundaries of engineering and physics. Decades before modems and BBS systems, the internet, or our own weekly
Hackaday Chat
, Rad Lab staff were having weekly teletype conferences with their colleagues around the world.
The Laboratory never adhered to a rigid organization chart, based on so-called logic or preconceived function; rather the organization was built around the men available. [The policy was to] set the scientists free of non-scientific control. In the last year or two the Laboratory did begin to be more controlled by non-scientific elements. But this came too late to frustrate any important aspects of the program.
Rad Lab Founding Director Lee Alvin DuBridge
The ever-present urgency of the war would always weigh upon decisions. Anyone proposing a new idea would always be challenged by associate director I. I. Rabi with the following question: “How many Germans will it kill?”. [Ed Note: Different times!]
Legacy
Besides succeeding with the first three projects, the Rad Lab continued to contribute to and expand the applications of radar. These projects included microwave landing systems, submarine hunting radars, electronic counter-measures and counter-counter measures, identification friend or foe (IFF), early warning radar, and shell fuse radars, among others. At its peak, the Rad Lab employed over 3,000 workers, including several future Nobel Prize winners, including I.I. Rabi (Physics 1944) and Ed Purcell (Physics, 1952) for discoveries concerning nuclear magnetic resonance.
From Building 20’s Approval Letter
One of the temporary structures built to house the sprawling laboratory in 1943 was simply called
Building 20
and became a legend unto itself for decades to follow. Being of temporary construction, people didn’t worry about drilling holes in walls to pass cables. It is said that 20% of all American Physicists worked in Building 20 at one time or another, and earned the name “The Magic Incubator”. It was finally torn down in 1998 to make way for a modern academic complex.
An Encyclopedia of Knowledge
When the war over, the Rad Lab closed up shop on Dec 31, 1945. One final task was to document the work done during the five years of operations. Assistant Director Louis Ridenour led the task, getting the scientists to document their work before returning to normal life. The result was a 28 volume set, including the index.
Volume 1 of the Rad Lab Series
During my years working with radar systems, we routinely used some of these books. It would not be uncommon to hear someone shouting down the hall,
“Who stole Silver from my desk last night?”
— Samuel Silver was the author of the antenna book, volume 12. I used Marcuvitz’s Waveguide Handbook, volume 10, quite a bit. And when assigned to a project using time-of-flight calculations, I learned a lot from the LORAN book.
In the 2020s, are any of these volumes still important? I’d say the theoretical ones are still valid, but there are probably plenty of other, more modern, texts more easily available. For people into retro circuits, these books have a lot of good example vacuum tube designs to learn from. And if you’re into mechanical computers, the book on computing mechanisms and linkages might be of interest. This series has been long out of print, but they are available from the Internet Archive (
link to volume 1
).
Banner image courtesy MIT Museum. | 32 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6422176",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2022-02-07T15:17:12",
"content": "” Anyone proposing a new idea would always be challenged by associate director I. I. Rabi with the following question: “How many Germans will it kill?”. [Ed Note: Different times!]”Not really. Notice how... | 1,760,372,795.599427 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/05/gaming-twitters-trending-algorithm-to-make-a-point/ | Gaming Twitter’s Trending Algorithm To Make A Point | Jenny List | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"hashtag",
"Social Media",
"twitter"
] | If you have ever taken to Twitter to gauge the zeitgeist, you’ll have noticed that among the trending hashtags related to major events of the day there are sometimes outliers of minority interest associated with single-issue causes. When a cause with a distasteful pedigree was cited one as proof of widespread public support in a debate in the UK’s House of Lords there were concerns raised that a flaw in the ranking algorithm might be responsible, and it was left to [Mallory Moore] to prove the hypothesis
by getting a #ThisIsAnExploit hashtag trending without a groundswell of popular support
.
Some previous detective work had established that equal ranking might be awarded equally not simply for Tweeting a hashtag but also for retweeting it. The exploit takes advantage of this by means of a relatively small cadre of people all Tweeting the tag a number of times, then retweeting all other instances of it. The resulting rank gain is then in the order of the square of the number of accounts interacting with the tag, and thus hugely inflated over the number of real participants. To test this she created the #ThisIsAnExploit tag and asked her followers to do just that: Tweet it and retweet all others containing it. In a short time the exploit succeeded, beating a very high-profile tag associated with the travails of the British Prime Minister in the process, and with most of the effort due to only 50 accounts.
Our world is now significantly influenced by social media because for many it appears more trustworthy than the old-style mass media with a print origin. Work like this is important because a reminder that transferring the message from newspaper proprietors to tech barons does not confer credibility is sorely needed. Meanwhile now the weakness is in the wild we wonder how Hackaday readers might have fun with it. Does anyone want to see a #RaiseTheJollyWrencher hashtag top the pile? | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6421474",
"author": "Arsenijs Picugins",
"timestamp": "2022-02-05T18:29:37",
"content": "Twitter is absolutely a game-able platform, but I didn’t suspect it’s that bad until I saw how quickly this hashtag could rise to prominence. If gaming the sidebar is that easy (and might remain... | 1,760,372,795.911917 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/05/the-weirdest-hack/ | The Weirdest Hack | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"hackaday",
"Hackaday Podcast",
"keeping it weird",
"newsletter"
] | I was on the FLOSS podcast (for the
Episode of the Beast
no less!) and we were talking all about Hackaday. One of the hosts, secretly Hackaday’s own Jonathan Bennett in disguise, asked me what the weirdest hack I’d ever seen on Hackaday was. Weird?!?!
I was caught like a deer in headlights. None of our hacks are weird! Or maybe all of them are? I dunno, it certainly depends on your perspective. Is it weird to
build a box that makes periodic meowing noises
to hid in a friend’s closet? Is it weird to
design new and interesting wheels for acrobats to roll themselves around in
? Is it weird to want a
rainbow-colored USB DIP switch
? Is it weird that these are all posts from the last week?
OK, maybe we
are
a little bit weird. But that’s the way we like it. Keep it weird and wonderful, Hackaday. You’ve got enough normal stuff to do eight hours a day!
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
! | 31 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6421443",
"author": "Enkerli",
"timestamp": "2022-02-05T16:02:48",
"content": "“None of our hacks are weird! Or maybe all of them are?”Both are true, depending on perspective.Weird is defined by difference.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,372,795.785469 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/05/1960s-stereo-console-gets-an-upgrade/ | 1960s Stereo Console Gets An Upgrade | Chris Lott | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"analog tuner",
"arduino",
"console stereo",
"home entertainment",
"linear actuator",
"stepper motor",
"tuning dial"
] | Faced with an old console stereo from the 1960s that was barely functional, [Sherman Banks] aka W4ATL decided to
upgrade its guts while keeping its appearance as close to the original as possible
. This stereo set is a piece of mahogany furniture containing an AM/FM stereo receiver and an automatic turntable from JCPenny’s Penncrest line. As best [Sherman] can determine, it is most likely a 1965 model. The old electronics were getting more and more difficult to repair and the tuner was drifting off-station every 15 minutes. He didn’t want to throw it away, so he decided to replace all the innards.
The first thing was to tear out the old electronics while retaining the chassis proper. The new heart of the entertainment center is a modern Denon AV stereo receiver. This unit can be controlled over Ethernet, has a radio tuner, inputs for SiriusXM and a turntable, and supports Bluetooth streaming. [Sherman] next replaced the 1965 turntable, and then turned his attention to connecting up the controls and indicators.
The potentiometers were replaced with equivalent ones of lower resistance, the neon stereo indicator was replaced with an LED, but the linear tuning dial proved to be a nearly two month challenge and resulted in a cool hack. In brief, he connected an optical rotary encoder to the tuning knob and used a stepper motor with a linear actuator to control the dial indicator. All this is controlled from an Arduino Mega 2560 with three shields for I/O and LAN. But there was still one remaining issue — without vacuum tubes to warm up, the radio would play immediately after power-on. [Sherman] fixed that by programming the Arduino to slowly ramp up the volume at the same rate as the original tube receiver. And finally, he installs a small HDMI monitor in the corner to display auxiliary information and metadata from the Denon receiver.
Check out the videos below the break. We wrote about a couple of similar conversions in the past:
this one from 2018 was also a Penncrest
, and from last year
this COVID isolation project that emphasized the addition of a new liquor cabinet
. | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6421444",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2022-02-05T16:08:50",
"content": "What about speakers? I am guessing that the original speakers were probably higher quality than new speakers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6421502"... | 1,760,372,795.854237 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/05/how-to-spot-a-fake-op-amp/ | How To Spot A Fake Op-Amp | Jenny List | [
"Parts"
] | [
"fake parts",
"OP-07",
"op-amp"
] | We’re all aware that there are plenty of fake components to be found if you’re prepared to look in the right places, and that perhaps too-good-to-be-true chip offers on auction sites might turn out to have markings which rub off to reveal something completely different underneath. [IMSAI Guy] saw a batch of OP-07 laser-trimmed op-amps at a bargain price,
so picked them up for an investigation
. You can take a look at the video below the break.
A perfect op-amp has a zero volt output when both of its inputs are at the same voltage, but in practice no real device approaches this level of perfection. It’s referred to as the offset voltage, and for instrumentation work where a low offset voltage is important there are parts such as the OP-07 which have each been adjusted using a laser to trim their components for the lowest offset. This process is expensive, so naturally so are genuine OP-07s.
Identifying real versus fake op-amps in this case is as simple as hooking the chip up as a unity gain non-inverting amplifier and measuring the voltage on the output (we can’t help a tinge of envy at that Keithley 2015 THD multimeter!), from which measurement the fakes should be clearly visible. First up are some 741s with their > 1 mV offsets (though an outlier 741 had a 40μV offset) to show what a cheap op-amp could be expected to do, then we see the OP-07s. Immediately with an offset of > 1.2 mV we can tell that they’re fake, which as he admits for the price is hardly a surprise. Meanwhile we’ll keep an eye out for Korean-made 741s like the outlier low-offset device.
If you’re interested by op-amp internals may we suggest
a look at the first IC op-amp
, meanwhile
this isn’t the first fake chip we’ve seen
.
Thanks BaldPower for the tip. | 21 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6421396",
"author": "Blerik",
"timestamp": "2022-02-05T09:18:19",
"content": "Can’t you just put 2 cheap opamps in series, with the second one with a trimpot to adjust the first ones bias to zero?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,372,795.709496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/04/cadquery-comes-of-age/ | CadQuery Comes Of Age | Dave Rowntree | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d modeling",
"3d printing",
"cad",
"CadQuery",
"CQ-editor",
"OpenCascade",
"python"
] | Now, we know what some of you are going to say — “Oh man, not
another
programmatic CAD tool, what’s wrong with OpenSCAD?” — and you may be right, but maybe hold on a bit and take a look at this one, because we think that it’s now pretty awesome! OpenSCAD is great, we use it all the time round these parts, but it is a bit, you know, weird in places. Then
along comes CadQuery
, and blows it out of the water ease-of-use and functionality wise. Now, we’ve seen a few mentions of CadQuery over the years, and finally it’s become a full-blown toolset in its own right, complete with a graphical frontend/editor,
CQ-editor
. No odd dependencies on FreeCAD to be seen! That said, installing FreeCAD is not a bad thing either.
The goal is to have the CadQuery script that produces this object be as close as possible to the English phrase a human would use.
For those that haven’t seen it before, CadQuery is a python library that allows you to create 3D models, and export them as STL as well as STEP, so making models for your KiCAD project is an option too. Unlike OpenSCAD, however, CadQuery is much more
design
–
intent
focussed. The idea is to have the python script read more like a human description of the form of an object, as opposed to a bunch of algorithms constructing an object from straight boolean operations, all relative to the global coordinate system. CadQuery uses a relative association model, where things are defined
relative
to other things. From the docs:
CadQuery is different– you can locate features relative to others in a relative way– preserving the design intent just like a human would when creating a drawing or building an object.
STL file created by this code visualised in Microsoft 3D Builder
height = 60.0
width = 80.0
thickness = 10.0
diameter = 22.0
padding = 12.0
# make the base
result = cq.Workplane("XY").box(height, width, thickness)\
.faces(">Z").workplane().hole(diameter)\
.faces(">Z").workplane() \
.rect(height - padding,width - padding,forConstruction=True)\
.vertices()\
.cboreHole(2.4, 4.4, 2.1)\
.edges("|Z").fillet(2.0)
# Render the solid
show_object(result)
# Export
cq.exporters.export(result,'result.stl')
cq.exporters.export(result,'result.step')
We’re not saying OpenSCAD is bad, far from it, it’s just different, and for some people, CadQuery is going to be a lot easier to get what you need done. Need a fully-parameterised enclosure to 3D print? How about
one done in just 47 lines of python code
? As the complexity of the object grows, so does the benefit of the CadQuery approach. There’s a fair few concepts to learn with the tool, as it is pretty powerful, giving many ways to solve problems, but we think the effort will be well worth it. If you don’t like QC-editor, that’s no problem, as CadQuery can be used standalone with whatever editor you like, it even works with Jupyter notebook! Installing it also shouldn’t be an issue, with
canned builds available
, but that said, it’s a whopper of an install, so we hope you’ve got a spare gig of disk space!
If you are a more visual thinker, and all this coding leaves you cold, then you might want to check out this
guide to parametric modelling in FreeCAD
, a
similar guide for fusion360
, or if you’re damned well sticking with OpenSCAD thank-you-very-much, then why not
brush up on those OpenSCAD skills
.
Thanks [JohnU] for the tip! | 66 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6421377",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp": "2022-02-05T07:21:09",
"content": "A gigabyte installer? I think I’ll damned well be sticking with OpenSCAD, thank-you-very-much.At least, maybe. At one point I was considering writing a C program to generate an OpenSCAD model, bec... | 1,760,372,796.031813 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/04/multiple-ways-of-recovering-a-failed-print/ | Multiple Ways Of Recovering A Failed Print | Matthew Carlson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"g-code",
"gcode",
"prusa",
"restart"
] | It’s a special gut-dropping, grumbly moment that most who use 3d printers know all too well. When you check on your 13-hour print, only to see that it failed printing several hundred layers ago. [Stephan] from [CNC Kitchen] has a
few clever tricks to resume failed prints
.
It starts when you discover your print has failed and whether the part is still attached to the bed. If it has detached, the best you can do is whip out your calipers to
get a reasonably accurate measurement
of how much has been printed. Then slice off the already printed section, print the remainder, and glue the two parts together. If your part is attached to your print bed and you haven’t shifted the plate (if it is removable), start by removing any blemishes on the top layer. That will make it smooth and predictable as it’s starting a new print, just on top of an existing one. Measuring the height that has been printed is tricky since you cannot remove it. Calipers of sufficient length can use their depth function, but you might also be able to do a visual inspection if the geometry is unique enough. After you load up your model in a G-Code viewer, go through it layer by layer until you find what matches what has already been printed.
The last (and perhaps most clever) is to use the printer as a makeshift CMM (coordinate measuring machine). You manually step the printer until it touches the top of the part, then read the z-axis height via a screen or M114 command. A quick edit to the raw G-Code gives you a new file that will resume precisely what it was doing before. If you can’t rehome because the head can’t clear the part, [Stephan] walks you through setting the home on your printer manually.
If all the doesn’t work, and the print is still unrecoverable, perhaps you can look into
recycling the plastic into new filament
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6421359",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2022-02-05T04:55:24",
"content": "These are always easier said than done. I’ve never gotten a print to successfully resume after a problem. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough, maybe it’s not as simple as it sounds.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,372,796.075866 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/04/3d-printed-radiation-shields-get-put-to-the-test/ | 3D Printed Radiation Shields Get Put To The Test | Tom Nardi | [
"Engineering",
"Science"
] | [
"3D printed parts",
"radiation shield",
"sensor",
"weather station"
] | Don’t get too excited, a 3D printed radiation shield won’t keep you from getting irradiated during WWIII. But until the Doomsday Clock starts clanging its midnight bell, you can use one to improve the accuracy of your homebrew weather monitoring station by keeping the sun from heating up your temperature sensor. But how much does it help, and what material should you load up in your extruder to make one? Those questions, and more,
are the topic of a fascinating whitepaper included in the upcoming volume of HardwareX
.
Design and Implementation of 3-D Printed Radiation Shields for Environmental Sensors
not only tests how effective these low-cost shields are when compared to an uncovered sensor, but addresses specific concerns in regards to leaving 3D printed parts out in the elements. Readers who’ve squirted out a few rolls worth of the stuff will know that common polylactic acid (PLA) filament, while easy to work with and affordable, isn’t known for its resilience. In fact, one of the advertised properties of the renewable plastic is that it’s biodegradable (theoretically, at least), so leaving it outside for any length of time sounds like it’s bound to go poorly.
PLA’s mechanical strength dropped rapidly.
To make a long story short, it does. While the team demonstrated that the PLA printed radiation shield absolutely helped preserve the accuracy of the temperature and humidity sensors mounted inside of it, the structure itself began to deform rapidly from UV exposure. Further tests determined that the mechanical strength of the PLA showed a notable reduction in as little as 30 days, and a sharp decline after 90 days.
Luckily, there was more than one plastic horse in the race. In addition to the PLA printed shield, the team also tested a version printed in acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) which fared
far
better. There was no visible deformation of the shield, and after 90 days, the reduction in mechanical strength was negligible. It even performed a bit better when it came to shielding the temperature sensor, which the team believes may be due to the material’s optical transmission properties.
So there you have it: a 3D printed radiation shield will absolutely improve the accuracy of your weather sensors, but if you want it to last outside, PLA just isn’t going to cut it. On the other hand, you could also
save yourself a whole lot of time by just using a stack of plant saucers
. Whatever works.
Thanks to [tahnok] for the tip. | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6421342",
"author": "Freman",
"timestamp": "2022-02-05T02:06:52",
"content": "Can confirm, I designed and printed one of these that snaps together a year ago, it’s a year old in the Queensland weather and still going strong. In fact it’s doing better than the “stainless” steel screw... | 1,760,372,796.139147 |
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