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https://hackaday.com/2021/12/27/first-hacks-the-brand-new-nokia-5g-gateway-router/ | First Hacks: The Brand New Nokia 5G Gateway Router | Jenny List | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"5g",
"fastmile",
"nokia"
] | Aside from being the focus of a series of bizarre conspiracy theories, 5G cellular networks offer the promise of ultra-fast Internet access anywhere within their range. To that end there are a new breed of devices designed to provide home broadband using 5G as a backhaul. It’s one of these, a Nokia Fastmile, that [Eddie Zhang] received, and
he’s found it to be an interesting teardown and investigation
. Spoiler: it runs Android and has exploitable bugs.
A privilege escalation bug in the web administration tool led to gaining the ability to export and modify configuration files, but sadly though a telnet prompt can be opened it’s not much use without the password. Uncovering some blocked-off ports on the base of the unit revealed a USB-C port, which was found to connect to an Android device. Via ADB a shell could be opened on Android, but on further investigation it was found that the Fastmile is not a single device but two separate ones. Inside is a PCB with an Android 5G phone to handle the connection, and another with a completely separate home router.
With access to the Android side and a login prompt on the router side that was as far as he was prepared to go without risking bricking his Fastmile. It only remained to do a teardown, which reveals the separate PCBs with their own heatsinks, and an impressive antenna array. Perhaps these devices will in time become as ubiquitous as old routers, and we’ll see them fully laid bare.
It’s a shame that we’ve had to write
more about the conspiracy theories surrounding 5G
than real 5G devices, but maybe we’ll see more teardowns like this one to make up for it. | 29 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409954",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2021-12-27T12:26:49",
"content": "I seem to recollect that there was the same conspiracy for 4G, 3G, 2G. There is just something in the human condition that wants to invent a powerful group of people who want to do you in – and you have to... | 1,760,372,842.000784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/27/diving-the-depths-of-ma-bell/ | Diving The Depths Of Ma Bell | Matthew Carlson | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"att",
"sim card",
"sms",
"wireshark"
] | The modern smartphone is a marvel of sensors, radios, inputs, outputs, and processing power. In particular, some of those radios, such as WiFi and cellular, have grown fiendishly complex over the years. Even when that complexity is compressed down for the user into the one-dimensional space of the signal strength bars at the top of your phone. So when [David Burgess] was
asked to look at some cellphone records of text messages and figure out where some of the more mysterious messages were coming from
, it led him down a rabbit hole into the dark arts behind the glowing phone screen.
The number in question was 1111340002, sent by a phone connected to AT&T at the time, and was crucial for a legal case around distracted driving. [David’s] tools in his investigation were YateBTS (a cellular network simulator), SimTrace2 (pictured above), and old reliable Wireshark. Since the number isn’t a specific phone number and is not reachable from the public phone network, it must be a unique number inside AT&T processed by one particular AT&T SMSC (Short Message service center). The SMSC in question is in Atlanta and isn’t a typical texting center, so it must have some particular purpose. The message’s payload is raw binary rather than text, and [David] has done a pretty good job of decoding the majority of the format.
The most exciting revelation in this journey is that the phone (in the traditional sense) does not send this message. The processor on the phone does not know this message and executes no code to send it. Instead, the SIM card itself sends it. The SIM card is connected directly to the baseband processor on the phone, and the baseband polls the sim every so often, asking for any commands. One of those commands is an SMS (though many other commands have worrying consequences).
The SMS that [David] was chasing is triggered whenever a SIM detects a new
IMEI
, and the message lets the network know what about the previous and current IMEI. However, in the case of this message, it was unlikely that the SIM changed phones, so what happened? After some additional lab work and the deposition of an AT&T employee, [David] showed that a baseband firmware update would also trigger this SMS.
It’s a fascinating journey into the fragmented world of a smartphone’s minds and [David] does a fantastic job on the writeup. If you’re interested in sniffing wireless accessories, you will
enjoy this soundbar’s wireless protocol laid bare
. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409984",
"author": "ScriptGiddy",
"timestamp": "2021-12-27T14:31:55",
"content": "SIMs can send sms!? That seems….nasty",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6410010",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-12-27T15... | 1,760,372,841.934892 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/26/maximum-throughput-benchie/ | Maximum Throughput Benchie | Matthew Carlson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"Benchy",
"hot end",
"joetz",
"speedboatrace"
] | Have you ever needed to make a few hundred of something quickly? [Roetz 4.0] has got you covered with
his massively parallel entry into the SpeedBoatRace competition
.
The idea behind the SpeedBoatRace is how quickly you can print a Benchy — the little boat that is used as a test print for a 3d printer. Speeding up a print is quite tricky as it means moving the head quicker and giving layers less time to deposit and a whole other host of problems. So [Roetz] took a page out of a CPU designer’s playbook, and rather than increasing the latency, he raised the throughput. The original plan was for 20 hot ends, but due to cooling issues, that had to be reduced to 18. Perhaps even more impressive than the scale of the machine is that the only off-the-shelf parts on it are the fans for cooling. Everything else is printed or machined by [Roetz] himself. The whole run was completed in less than an hour, which technically gives him a sub 3.6 minute time per benchy, even accounting for a few that failed.
This isn’t [Roetz’s] first custom 3d printer. He turned
a CMM into a 3d printer a while back that offered incredible accuracy across a large build area
. Thanks [Jan Roetz] for sending this one in! Video after the break. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409905",
"author": "mre",
"timestamp": "2021-12-27T06:10:43",
"content": "I think you mean DEcreasing latency",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6409997",
"author": "DougM",
"timestamp": "2021-12-27T15:12:55",
"content... | 1,760,372,841.575038 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/26/belgian-railway-time-for-your-home/ | Belgian Railway Time For Your Home | Jenny List | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"station clock",
"two face clock"
] | Some of the 20th century’s most iconic design and typography came to us through public signage in the various national railways of Europe. Were you to think of a Modernist clock face for example, the chances are that the prototype for your image hangs somewhere in one of the continent’s great railway terminals. If you don’t fancy getting on a train to see your favourite public timepiece, then maybe [
EBP Controller
] has a treat for you, with
a 3D-printed double-faced Belgian railway station clock
.
Behind the scenes the mechanism is simpler than appearances might lead the observer to believe, with each set of hands driven through a single gear to a motor. Controlling it all is an ESP8266, which is able to synchronise the clock exactly to an NTP server. It appears at first sight to have an unnecessarily large quantity of motors, but considering that there are two faces each with three hands the six motors each have a use. So while the real thing might require a heist from the SNCB, at least modernist clock fans can now have their own. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409883",
"author": "Col. Panek",
"timestamp": "2021-12-27T03:12:57",
"content": "Goed werk, Jan. Zalig Kerstfeest!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6409915",
"author": "Bruno",
"timestamp": "2021-12-27T08:12:01",
"co... | 1,760,372,841.723845 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/26/hackaday-links-december-26-2021/ | Hackaday Links: December 26, 2021 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"decimation",
"dongle",
"ESA",
"ExoMars",
"hackaday links",
"james webb space telescope",
"jwst",
"kill cord",
"low poly",
"mars",
"nasa",
"organic",
"Perseverance",
"rigol",
"screen capture",
"usb"
] | At the time of this writing,
the James Webb Space Telescope was perched upon its ride to space
, ready for its much-delayed launch from the ESA spaceport in French Guiana. The $10 billion space observatory suffered one final delay (knocks on wood) when
predictions of high winds aloft
pushed it back from a Christmas Eve launch to a Christmas Day departure, at 12:20 UTC. Given the exigencies of the day, we doubt we’ll be able to watch the launch live — then again, past experience indicates we’ll still be wrapping presents at 4:20 PST. Either way, here’s hoping that everything comes off without a hitch, and that astronomers get the present they’ve been waiting many, many Christmases for.
In other space news, things are getting really interesting on Mars. The ESA announced that their
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has detected signs of water
in the Valles Marineris. The satellite found a large area of increased hydrogen concentration in the top meter of Martian soil; the assumption is that the hydrogen comes from water, meaning that as much as 40% of the material in the region scanned may be water. If so, that’s a huge find, as we thought most of Mars’ water was locked in the polar regions.
The Mariner Valley
stretches more than 4,000 km just below the equator, and so may prove to be an important resource for future explorers.
Meanwhile, in Jezero crater, Perseverance has decided to upstage its rotorcraft sidekick for a change by
finding signs of organic molecules on Mars
. It’s not the first time organic compounds have been found — Perseverance’s cousin Curiosity found some too, ESA’s Mars Express mission spotted methane from on high, and then there were the equivocal but intriguing results from the Viking missions in the 1970s. But the latest evidence is really great news for the scientists who picked Jezero crater as a likely place to search for signs of past life on Mars. The organics found are not proof of life by any means, as there are many ways to
make organic molecules abiotically
. But then again, if you’re going to find evidence of life on Mars, you’ve got to start with detecting organics.
Back on Earth, getting your laptop stolen would be bad enough. But what if it got yoinked while it was unlocked? Depending on who you are and what you do with that machine, it could be a death sentence. That’s where
BusKill
could come in handy. It’s a hardware-software approach to securing a laptop when it — or you — suddenly goes missing. A dongle with a breakaway magnetic lanyard gets plugged into a USB port, and the other end of the lanyard gets attached to your person. If you get separated from your machine, the dongle sends customizable commands to either lock the screen or, for the sufficiently paranoid, nuke the hard drive.
The designs are all up on GitHub
, so check it out and think about what else this could be useful for.
If you like the look of low-poly models but hate the work involved in making them, our friend and
Hack Chat alumnus
Andrew Sink came up with a solution:
an online 3D low-poly generator
. The tool is pretty neat; it uses three.js and runs completely in-browser. All you have to do is upload an STL file and set sliders to get rid of as many triangles as you want. Great stuff, and fun to play with even if you don’t need to decimate your polygons.
And finally, what have you done with your oscilloscope for the last three years? Most of us can’t answer that except in the vaguest of terms, but then there’s DrTune, who took three years’ worth of screencaps from this Rigol DS1054z and strung them together into
a 60-second movie
. He swears he didn’t purposely sync the video to the soundtrack, which is “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimsky-Korsakov, but in some places it’s just perfect. See if you can guess what DrTune has been working on by watching the waveforms fly by. And watch for Easter eggs. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409886",
"author": "Old Guy",
"timestamp": "2021-12-27T03:24:57",
"content": "About the BusKill… I’ve spent a half hour trying to figure out what I’ve missed.The kit appears to be a generic extension cable with a commodity magnetic disconnect on one end, and an “APP” that detects ... | 1,760,372,841.625272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/26/planning-custom-aluminum-enclosures-with-openscad/ | Planning Custom Aluminum Enclosures With OpenSCAD | Tom Nardi | [
"Parts",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"custom enclosure",
"enclosure",
"metalworking",
"openscad"
] | We’ve seen a number of projects over the years that let you create custom enclosures using OpenSCAD, and for good reason. The parametric CAD tool is ideal for generating 3D models based on user-adjustable variables, and if you leverage its integrated Customizer, producing a bespoke box is as easy as moving some sliders around. The resulting files get sent off to the 3D printer, and you’re set. But what if you’re looking for a custom enclosure that’s not so…plastic?
In that case,
AlClosure by [0xPIT] might be the answer
. Rather than generating STL files intended for your 3D printer, the code is written to help you design an enclosure made from aluminum sheets. The top and bottom panels are intended to be cut from 1.5 mm – 2.5 mm sheets, while the sides are made from thicker 5 mm – 8 mm stock to accept a machined pocket that holds the front and rear inserts.
Since it’s OpenSCAD, much of the design is governed by variables which you can tweak. Obviously the outside dimensions of the enclosure can be changed in a flash, but it’s just as easy to modify the thickness of the aluminum sheet being used, or the size of the screw holes. [0xPIT] has also done a great job of documenting the code itself, so you’ll know exactly what you’re modifying.
Obviously, you’ll need the ability to cut and machine aluminum to actually utilize this project. The code itself is really just a way to conceptualize the design and get your dimensions figured out ahead of time. But as we were recently reminded by
the keynote presentation [Jeremy Fielding] gave at the 2021 Remoticon
, this sort of early prototyping can often save you a lot of headaches down the line. | 20 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409849",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T23:12:35",
"content": "OpenSCAD FTW!I used it to plan the deck at the back of the house. If only cutting and screwing the decking was as easy as a for… loop.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,841.825376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/26/6502-goes-fpga-again/ | 6502 Goes FPGA (Again) | Al Williams | [
"FPGA",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6502",
"fpga",
"vivado",
"xilinx"
] | While there has been no shortage of FPGA-based recreations of classic processors, we always enjoy seeing a new approach. Last month [Some Assembly Required] took on the challenge to recreate a classic computer from the ground up and started with a 6502 implementation in Verilog. You can see in the second video below that he’s made
good progress
and there are apparently more videos to come.
The ROL instruction is the subject of the second video. We liked the approach of looking at what the instruction does and how many cycles it takes on different variants It is always good to make sure you know exactly what you are trying to accomplish before you get started.
We also like that the tutorial used some of the more interesting features of Vivado like automatic verification. Even if you are experienced with Verilog, there are some good tips here.
In the end, he’s still a good way from his final goal, but it looks like he’ll get there and we’ll be interested in seeing the rest of the video series as it completes.
The 6502 is
a popular retrocomputing target
. One of the tools this project uses is the
Visual 6502
which we’ve covered before. That same simulation has ARM1 and 6800 targets, too. | 35 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409825",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T21:01:15",
"content": "One of the shift functions was missing from the 6502 originally. There was a workaround, I think I saw it in Dr. Dobbs. A check says the ROR had a bug, so Mos Technology acted like it didn’t exist.... | 1,760,372,841.530925 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/26/bios-flashing-journey-writeup-puts-tutorials-to-shame/ | BIOS Flashing Journey Writeup Puts Tutorials To Shame | Arya Voronova | [
"computer hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"bios",
"CH341",
"CH341A",
"motherboard",
"Ryzen"
] | A couple of weeks ago, [Doug Brown] bought a Ryzen motherboard, advertised as “non-working” and discounted accordingly. He noticed that the seller didn’t test it with any CPUs old enough to be supported by the board’s stock BIOS revision,
and decided to take a gamble with upgrading it
.
Not having a supported CPU in hand either, he decided to go the “external programmer” route, which succeeded and gave this board a new life. This is not why we’re writing this up, however. The reason this article caught our eye is because [Doug]’s research leaves no stone unturned, and it’s all there to learn from. Whether through careful observation or thorough research, this article covers all the important points and more, serving as an example to follow for anyone looking to program their BIOS.
For instance, [Doug] correctly points out
a design issue with these common programmers
resulting in 5 V getting onto the 3.3 V data lines, and fixes it by rewiring the board. Going through all the letters in the ICs part number, something that many of us would dismiss, [Doug] notices that the flash chip is 1.8 V-only and procures a 1.8 V adapter to avoid the possibility of frying his motherboard. After finding out that the 1.8 V adapters don’t work for some people, he reverse-engineers the adapter’s schematics and confirms that it, indeed, ought to work with the specific parts on adapter he received.
Noting another letter in the part number implying the flash chip might be configured for quad-SPI operation, he adds series resistors to make sure there’s no chance of the programmer damaging the BIOS chip with its hardwired pinout. This is just an example of the insights in [Doug]’s article, there’s way more that we can’t mention for brevity, and we encourage you to check it out for yourself.
With this level of care put into the process, it’s no surprise that the modification was successful. The kind of inquisitiveness shared here is worth aspiring to, and writeups like this often surpass general-purpose tutorials in their insights and usefulness. What’s your “successfully making use of something sold as non-working” story?
If you’re looking for other insightful BIOS stories, we’ve covered someone
reverse-engineering their BIOS to remove miniPCIe card whitelisting
. We’ve typically covered BIOS modification stories in laptops, since there’s more incentives to modify these, but a lot of laptop BIOS articles will apply to desktop motherboards too, such as this
supervisor password removal story
or this
LibreBoot installation journey
by our own [Tom Nardi].
Thank you [Sidney] for sharing this with us! | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409794",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T16:15:08",
"content": ">It consists of an AMS1117 linear regulator to create a 1.8V power rail from 3.3V, a few capacitors (I’m curious if an electrolytic cap should be on there too)Unfortunately they have ceramic cap for th... | 1,760,372,841.678027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/26/realtime-shadows-on-n64-hardware/ | Realtime Shadows On N64 Hardware | Maya Posch | [
"News"
] | [
"dynamic lighting",
"n64",
"nintendo 64",
"shadow volume"
] | Although the Nintendo 64 console has in the minds of many been relegated to the era of ‘firmly obsolete graphics’, since its graphic processor’s (GPU’s) lineage traces directly to the best which SGI had to offer in the 1990s, it too supports a range of modern features, including dynamic shadows. In a
simple demo
, [lambertjamesd] demonstrates how this feature is used.
As can be seen in the demonstration video (linked after the break), this demo features a single dynamic light, which casts a shadow below the central object in the scene, with a monkey object floating around that casts its own shadow (rendered into an
auxiliary frame buffer
). This auxiliary buffer is then
blended
into the main buffer, as
explained
by [ItzWarty] over at
/r/programming
on Reddit.
This effectively means that the main scene uses a
shadow volume
, which was used extensively with
Doom 3
. The primary reasons for why the N64 didn’t use shadow volumes all over the place was due to the limitations this places on the shadow caster (objects) in the scene, such as the need to be convex, and overlap is likely to lead to artifacts and glitches.
Doom 3 would fix this with the use of a stencil buffer that would further refine the basic dynamic lighting support on the N64, which ultimately would lead to the fancy video game graphics we have today. And which no doubt will look properly obsolete in another decade again, as usual. | 22 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409767",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T12:27:37",
"content": "I think we have reached the stage where it doesn’t matter how much time passes graphics have gotten about as good as a human eye can perceive (for those titles that have really good graphics by today’s ... | 1,760,372,841.883131 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/26/seoul-introduces-self-driving-taxis/ | Seoul Introduces Self-Driving Taxis | Chris Lott | [
"News"
] | [
"autonomous vehicle",
"self-driving vehicle",
"seoul",
"south korea"
] | Last year the Seoul city government passed an ordinance enabling the commercial operation of autonomous passenger-carrying vehicles. A six square kilometer region in the Seoul neighborhood of Sangam, near the 2002 World Cup Stadium, was designated as a pilot program test bed. This area encompasses 24 streets totaling 31.3 km. Two companies were selected, and the
pilot program launched a few weeks ago
. Currently there are three vehicles and passengers can ride for free during this introductory phase. Three more taxis and a bus will be added within this year, with plans for 50 in this region by 2026. For the time being, these cars require a standby driver who takes control in an emergency and in school zones. Check out the short news report (in English) below the break.
There was a smaller autonomous driving test program in the city of Sejong which we wrote about back in January, and [Alfred Jones] gave a
keynote presentation at the 2020 Hackaday Remoticon
on the challenges of designing self-driving vehicles if you want to learn more on this topic. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409765",
"author": "Erik van Baarle",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T12:03:51",
"content": "please correct ‘a keynote presentation at the 2021 Hackaday Remoticon ‘ as this was at the 2020 Remoticon",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,372,841.768538 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/25/diy-high-flow-3d-printing/ | DIY High Flow 3D Printing | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [] | Sometimes we’re impressed by the sheer audacity of a project. [Stefan] rarely disappoints in that area, and his latest video shows him
making an adapter to convert a normal 3D printed nozzle into a high-flow nozzle
, similar to one you’d find on a Volcano. We say similar because [Stefan] took the trouble to drill three holes in the adapter to increase the melting surface area. The audacious part is that he doesn’t really have the machine shop to drill three tiny precision holes in close proximity — and he shows us the pictures to prove that he didn’t get it right the first (or fifth) time. But he did stick with it and got good results.
Why do such a thing? He wanted to mount the high-efficiency nozzles he’s been experimenting with on the Volcano extruder. The commercial one, in particular, doesn’t come in the extended size. To simplify things, he started with a long brass insert. The conical hex cut offers a natural center point if you are satisfied with a single hole through the center of the adapter. The hex cutout allows you to use a key to install or remove the spacer easily.
The idea behind the longer nozzles is that the filament has more time at temperature and can therefore move faster and still melt. The additional surface area should help, too. Of course, [Stefan] does plenty of testing and you can see the results in the video. A Volcano nozzle started misbehaving around 25 mm/s but at 30 mm/s, things started going bad. The CHT nozzle on the homemade standard spacer stayed working up to 30 mm/s and even at 60 mm/s was doing better than the standard nozzle at 45 mm/s. Sadly, the multiple holes in the special adapter caused worse extrusion performance, presumably by increasing pressure in the extrusion system. However, it did work well in real-life printing. Since the single bore adapter and the CHT nozzle worked great we don’t think it would be worth making the more complex one, as impressive a feat as that was.
[Stefan] thinks a lot about nozzles. He worries about
wear
, of course. He also built his own version of the
high-flow nozzle
. | 5 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409753",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T09:55:36",
"content": "One problem with these nozzles, won’t be doing a cold pull to clear a clog.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409755",
"author": "Kal... | 1,760,372,842.157267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/25/cast-your-own-holiday-chocolate-bunny-or-rather-mouse/ | Cast Your Own Holiday Chocolate Bunny, Or Rather Mouse | Matthew Carlson | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"chocolate",
"pikachu",
"vacuum formed"
] | The art of forming and using a mold is, well, an art. The already tricky process would be made even harder by using a fickle material, like chocolate. This is exactly where [Alexandre Chappel] found himself as he
tried to cast his own chocolate figurines.
The starting point was a 3D low-poly model of everyone’s favorite fictional electric mouse. He tweaked the model to add offsets so that after the model was vacuum formed, there would be something to clamp onto. [Alexandre] was left with four different pieces, and he vacuum-formed them with 1 mm PETG plastic. Electing for white chocolate to add coloring, he started heating the chocolate. Adding too much colorant resulted in a seized mess, so the process was a bit of trial and error. Finally, he poured in chocolate and spun it around to form an even layer of chocolate as a shell. The flashing lines were easy to trim with a utility knife.
The last thing to add was a little splash of color via airbrush and food-grade paint. The results are stunning, and even though the techniques are simple, the results came together nicely. The
files are available on his website
if you’re curious about making your own. If you’re curious about more clever casting techniques with chocolate, take a look at the
creative use of diffraction grating to get iridescent chocolate
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409728",
"author": "Eric Chapin",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T04:14:06",
"content": "That “low polygon count” Pikachu looks like one of his parent is a Porygon…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409848",
"author": "helge"... | 1,760,372,842.19422 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/25/mico-is-a-usb-microphone-based-on-a-pi-pico/ | Mico Is A USB Microphone Based On A Pi Pico | Robin Kearey | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"MEMS microphones",
"Raspberry Pi Pico",
"rp2040",
"USB microphone"
] | When [Mahesh Venkitachalam] was experimenting with machine learning for audio applications on a Raspberry Pi, he found himself looking for a simple USB microphone. A cheap one was easy to find, but the sound quality and directionality left much to be desired. A large, studio-quality mic would be overkill, so [Mahesh] decided to simply build exactly what was needed: a compact, yet high-quality
USB microphone that he called Mico
.
The sensing device is a MEMS microphone that outputs a pulse density modulated (PDM) signal. There are chips available to directly interface such a microphone to a USB port, but [Mahesh] found them difficult to work with and therefore settled on something he knew already: the Raspberry Pi Pico platform. Luckily, someone had already figured out how to read out a microphone and present a USB device to a PC, so all that was needed was to put all the bits together into a convenient form factor.
The great thing about the Pico platform is that its main controller chip, the RP2040, is available as a separate component. [Mahesh] designed a sleek little PCB that holds the RP2040 along with the MEMS microphone and a USB connector. The end result looks tidy enough that it might have come out of a mass-produced gizmo. Those don’t usually come with full schematics and source code, but the Mico does: everything is available on
its GitHub page
for anyone to re-use and improve.
You can judge the sound quality for yourself in the video embedded below. If you like DIY USB microphones, you’re in luck: we’ve featured one
based on an STM32
as well as a
beautiful recreation of a studio-quality mic
. | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409729",
"author": "[EGO]",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T04:29:15",
"content": "Nice. Very slick.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6409732",
"author": "weasel5i2",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T04:50:22",
"content": "Fantasti... | 1,760,372,842.288085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/25/3d-printing-gets-tiny/ | 3D Printing Gets Tiny | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"chemistry hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"3d printing",
"electroplating",
"nanotechnology"
] | Using a process akin to electroplating, researchers at the University of Oldenburg have 3D printed structures at the 25 nanometer scale. A human hair, of course, is thousands of time thicker than that. The working medium was a copper salt and a very tiny nozzle. How tiny? As small as 1.6 nanometers. That’s big enough for two copper ions at once.
Tiny nozzles are prone to every 3D printer’s bane: clogged nozzles. To mitigate this, the team built a closed-loop control that measured electrical current between the work area and inside the nozzle. You can read the
full paper
online.
The size of the objects depends on the nozzle size and other electrochemical parameters. At 25 nanometers, that’s fewer than 200 copper atoms. Printing with a powder, for example, bottoms out at about 100 micrometers. Very tiny indeed. You have to wonder if we will see small-run ICs printed in the next few decades. We aren’t sure what else you will do with tiny structures like that.
If you don’t mind making things a little larger, you can set up your own
metal plating printer
. But be warned: they are slow. Not really the same thing, but just like you can have 3D printing pens, you can also make
electroplating pens
. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409702",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2021-12-25T23:02:34",
"content": "Where’s the Benchy? :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409719",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-12-26T02:45:36",
"... | 1,760,372,842.236903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/25/mini-linear-actuators-from-dvd-drive-parts/ | Mini Linear Actuators From DVD Drive Parts | Jenny List | [
"cnc hacks",
"News"
] | [
"3d print",
"cd drive",
"linear actuator"
] | For many years now a source for some of the smallest and cheapest home made CNC mechanisms has been the seemingly never-ending supply of surplus CD and DVD-ROM drives. The linear actuator that moves the laser may not be the longest or the strongest, but it’s free, and we’ve seen plenty of little X-Y tables using CD drives. It’s these mechanisms that [Nemo404] has taken a little further, freeing the lead screw and motor from the drive chassis and
placing them in a 3D-printed enclosure for a complete linear actuator
that can be used in other projects. (Video, embedded below.)
There seems to be no positional feedback, not even the limit switch that would grace a typical CD drive, but aside from that it makes for a compact unit. There are two versions, one for a linear bearing and the other for the brass bushes found in CD drives. It’s unclear how strong the result is, but it appears to be strong enough to demonstrate lifting a small container of screws.
Should you need to make your own actuator then aside from the easy-to-obtain old CD drive
the files can be found on Thingiverse
. And introduce yourself to the world of CD drives for CNC machines
by taking a look at this mill
.
Thanks [BaldPower] for the tip! | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409695",
"author": "Paul McClay",
"timestamp": "2021-12-25T22:08:07",
"content": "Neat.From thingiverse Nemo404 has a link to V2 with limit switches & a load test:https://youtu.be/_XdJ7rqTPUwLifts 342g<m<440g.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,842.862645 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/25/blender-no-grinder/ | Blender? No, Grinder | Elliot Williams | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"blender",
"diy",
"dremel",
"rotary tool"
] | [Leandro Felipe] is no stranger to the dirty hack, and
this video of his conversion of a blender into a handheld rotary grinding tool
is no exception. (Embedded below.) But the end result is something pretty useful — a lighter and more maneuverable rotary grinder that’s got a lot more grunt to boot.
(The video is in Portuguese, but the captions work pretty well, once you get over the fact that the robots translate “grinding tool” as “rectifier” a lot of the time. And anyway, you’re here for the hacks.)
The highlights are a handmade coupling that mates the blender motor with the flexible shaft and chuck, purchased separately. And the flattened-out PVC pipe used as a mounting bracket. And him using the motor itself against a file to “lathe” down the drive shaft. And…
The tip of the day comes when he holds the blender motor in a metal vise to test it out. Metal and spinning magnets — what’s the worst that could happen? Sparks, smoke, and a trip to the thrift store for another used blender.
If you just want to see the finished piece, you can
jump ahead to the end
. But it’s basically, get yourself a speed-adjustable blender, couple it to the shaft of an off-the shelf grinder, and you’re set.
It’s an idea so conceptually easy, you might wonder if Hackaday has ever
showcased a blender dr3mel before
. We have. What else can you power with a blender motor?
Thanks [Danjovic] for the tip! | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409662",
"author": "iresgo",
"timestamp": "2021-12-25T15:35:51",
"content": "Keep in mind that using grindr can sometimes be a dirty business. It’s a good idea to wear protection.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6409665",
"... | 1,760,372,842.542764 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/25/3d-prints-with-a-mirror-finish/ | 3D Prints With A Mirror Finish | Matthew Carlson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"Benchy",
"mirror",
"silvering"
] | As anyone who has used a 3D printer before knows, what comes off the bed of your regular FSD printer is by no means a mirror finish. There are layers in the print simply by the nature of the technology itself, and the transitions between layers will never be smooth. In addition, printers can use different technology for depositing layers, making for thinner layers (SLA, for example). With those challenges in mind, [AlphaPhoenix] set out
to create an authentic mirror finish on his 3D prints
. (Video, embedded below.)
As the intro hints, mirrors need very flat/smooth surfaces to reflect light. To smooth his prints, [AlphaPhoenix] first did a light sanding pass and then applied very thick two-part epoxy, allowing surface tension to do the smoothing work for him. Once dried, silver was deposited onto the pieces via a few different sprays. First, a wetting agent is applied, which prevents subsequent solutions from beading up. Next, he sprays the two precursors, and they react together to deposit elemental silver onto the object’s surface. [AlphaPhoenix] asserts that he isn’t a chemist and then explains some of the many chemical reactions behind the process and theorizes why the solutions break down a while after being mixed.
He had an excellent first batch, and then subsequent batches came out splotchy and decided un-mirror-like. As we mentioned earlier, the first step was a wetting agent, which tended to react with the epoxy that He applied. Then, using a grid search with four variables, [AlphaPhoenix] trudged through the different configurations, landing on critical takeaways. For example, the curing time for the epoxy was essential and the ratio between the two precursor solutions.
Recently we covered
a 3D printed mirror array that concealed a hidden message
. Perhaps a future version of that could have the mirror integrated into the print itself using the techniques from [AlphaPhoenix]? | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409650",
"author": "doragasu",
"timestamp": "2021-12-25T12:26:10",
"content": "Surface finish is astonishing, but… too much work. I will continue with the traditional ABS + acetone vapors",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "64096... | 1,760,372,842.634114 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/25/do-you-need-a-cycloidal-drive/ | Do You Need A Cycloidal Drive? | Elliot Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3D CAD",
"3d printed",
"3D printed gears",
"cycloidal drive",
"cycloidal gearbox",
"gear"
] | A cycloidal gear drive is one of the most mesmerizing reduction gears to watch when it is running, but it’s not all just eye-candy. Cycloidals give decent gearing, are relatively compact and back-drivable, and have low backlash and high efficiency. You probably want one in the shoulder of your robot arm, for instance.
But designing and building one isn’t exactly straightforward. Thanks, then, to [How To Mechatronics] for the
lovely explanation
of how it works in detail, and a nice walkthrough of designing and building a cycloidal gear reducer out of 3D printed parts and a ton of bearings. If you just want to watch it go, check out the video embedded below.
The video is partly an ad for SolidWorks, and spends a
lot
of time on the mechanics of designing the parts for 3D printing using that software. Still, if you’re using any other graphical CAD tool, you should be able to translate what you learned.
It’s amazing that 3D printing has made sophisticated gearbox designs like this possible to fabricate at home. This stuff used to be confined to the high-end machine shops of fancy robotics firms, and now you can make one yourself this weekend. Not exotic or unreliable enough for you? Well, then, buy yourself some flexible filament and step on up to
the strain wave, aka “harmonic drive”, gearbox
.
Thanks to serial tipster [Keith] for the tip! | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409645",
"author": "egnm",
"timestamp": "2021-12-25T12:01:27",
"content": ">The video is partly an ad for SolidWorksThanks for mentioning it, I think I’ll pass on watching the video then.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "64097... | 1,760,372,842.588683 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/24/hacking-film-processing-with-coffee/ | Hacking Film Processing With Coffee | Al Williams | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"darkroom",
"developing",
"film",
"photography"
] | Years ago, doing your own darkroom work was the only way to really control what your pictures looked like. In those days, coffee was what kept you going while you mixed another batch of noxious chemicals in the dark and fumbled to load a tank reel by feel. But did you know that you can process black and white film with coffee? Not just coffee, of course. [Andrew Shepherd]
takes us through the process
using what is coyly known as Caffenol-C.
Apparently, the process is
not original
, but if you’ve ever wanted to do some film developing and don’t want exotic and dangerous chemicals, it might be just the ticket. The ingredients are simple: instant coffee, washing soda, water and –optionally — vitamin C powder. If nothing else, all of this is safe to pour down your drain, something you probably aren’t supposed to do with conventional developers that contain things like formaldehyde and methyl chloroform.
Once you start looking, you’ll find that people have also used beer or wine to replace the coffee. Apparently, some recipes work better than others with specific types of film. You still have to stop the developing process, so it looks like the process uses traditional fixer.
In addition to instructions and tips, [Andrews] also shows quite a few photos developed with his coffee solution. Not bad! We don’t really understand the chemistry behind it, but we are sure someone will explain it in the comments.
We actually heard about
this process
a decade ago. After you have film, of course, you are going to want
prints
. | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409620",
"author": "Amiable Ninja",
"timestamp": "2021-12-25T06:55:15",
"content": "The chemicals used in film processing are hardly “noxious”. I learned that as a kid. You learn it too, won’t you?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,372,842.820462 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/24/a-cmos-ring-modulator-pedal/ | A CMOS Ring Modulator Pedal | Jenny List | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"4000 series logic",
"cmos",
"ring modulator"
] | Earlier this year, we featured an unusual radio receiver that took the very traditional superhetrodyne design and implemented it in an unexpected fashion without any inductors, using instead a combination of 74HC logic chips and op-amps. Its designer [acidbourbon] remarks that the circuit bears a striking resemblance to a ring modulator,so has taken it down that path by producing
a 74HC based ring modulator guitar pedal
.
In both circuits, a 74HC4046 phase-locked loop chip serves as an oscillator, driving a 74HC4051 analogue switch chip that performs the mixer task. The extra-op-amp filter and demodulator circuitry from the radio is omitted, and the oscillator frequency moved down to the audio range. The result can be heard in the video, and we probably agree with him that it’s not quite the same as a classic ring modulator. This lies in the type of mixer, the diodes used in a traditional circuit have a forward voltage to overcome before they start or end conducting, while the CMOS switch chip does so immediately on command.
The 4000 series CMOS and their descendants are a fascinating family with many unexpected properties that our colleague Elliot Williams has gone into detail with for his
Logic Noise
series. Meanwhile
take a look at our coverage of the original radio
. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409614",
"author": "spooky",
"timestamp": "2021-12-25T04:55:02",
"content": "Brother man… this was beautiful. *stands**claps and doesn’t stop*",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409757",
"author": "acidbourbon",
... | 1,760,372,842.755987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/24/tiny-3d-printed-magnets-show-patterns/ | Tiny 3D Printed Magnets Show Patterns | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"magnetic field",
"magnets",
"racetrack memory"
] | You normally associate a double helix with DNA, but an international team headquartered at Cambridge University used 3D printing to create
magnetic double helixes
that are about a 1,000 times smaller than a human hair. Why do such a thing? We aren’t sure why they started, but they were able to find nanoscale topological features in the magnetic field and they think it will change how magnetic devices work in the future — especially magnetic storage devices.
In particular, researchers feel this is a step towards practical “
racetrack
” memory that stores magnetic information in three dimensions instead of two and offer high density and RAM-like access times. You can read the
full paper
if you want the gory details.
The magnetic helix structure forms pair much like actual DNA. You probably won’t be able to 3D print these yourself since the team used electron beam deposition. However, we were entertained to hear they did the modeling in FreeCAD.
Will this lead to terabytes of main storage for your PC? Probably not directly, but it is a step in that direction. It wasn’t long ago that having 640K of memory and 20 megabytes of hard drive seemed like all you would need. One day, we’ll look back on our quaint computers with 32GB of RAM and terabyte disks and wonder how we ever got along.
Magnets always seem like
real magic
. No,
really
. | 11 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409616",
"author": "Daniel",
"timestamp": "2021-12-25T05:09:58",
"content": "Is this an article from the past? Don’t we already have 32GB of RAM and terabytes of storage?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409617",
"aut... | 1,760,372,842.909755 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/24/when-hacking-and-biosensing-collide/ | When Hacking And Biosensing Collide | Elliot Williams | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"3d printing",
"biology",
"blu-ray",
"hack",
"nanoscale"
] | [Prof. Edwin Hwu] of the Technical University of Denmark wrote in with a call for contributions to special edition of the open-access scientific journal
Biosensors
. Along the way, he linked in videos from three talks that he’s given on hacking consumer electronics gear for biosensing and nano-scale printing. Many of them focus on clever uses of the read-write head from a Blu-ray disc unit (but that’s not all!) and there are many good hacks here.
For instance, this video on
using the optical pickup for the optics in an atomic force microscope (AFM)
is bonkers. An AFM resolves features on the sub-micrometer level by putting a very sharp, very tiny probe on the end of a vibrating arm and scanning it over the surface in question. Deflections in the arm are measured by reflecting light off of it and measuring their variation, and that’s exactly what these optical pickups are designed to do. In addition to phenomenal resolution, [Dr. Hwu’s] AFM can be made on a shoestring budget!
Speaking of AFMs, check out
his version that’s based on simple piezo discs in this video
, but don’t neglect the rest of the hacks either. This one is a talk aimed at introducing scientists to consumer electronics hacking, so you’ll absolutely find yourself nodding your heads during the first few minutes. But then he documents turning a DVD player into a micro-strobe for high speed microfluidics microscopy using a wireless “spy camera” pen. And finally, [Dr. Hwu’s] lab has also done some really interesting work into
nano-scale 3D printing
, documented in this video, again using the humble Blu-ray drive, both for exposing the photopolymer and for spin-coating the disc with medium. Very clever!
If you’re doing any biosensing science hacking, be sure to let [Dr. Hwu] know. Or just tear into that Blu-ray drive that’s collecting dust in your closet. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409575",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T22:30:15",
"content": "No Blue Ray devices in this household.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6409608",
"author": "Rumble_in_the_Jungle",
... | 1,760,372,842.981777 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/24/santas-beard-combing-robot/ | Santa’s Beard-Combing Robot | Elliot Williams | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"beard",
"christmas",
"shitty robot"
] | Working all year long, herding elves and fabricating toys for all the good boys and girls; it takes dedication. It’s only natural that one could fall behind in beard care, right? This year, [Norbert Zare] saves Christmas with
his beard-combing robot
.
OK, this is much more of a shitty robot in the [Simone Giertz]
school of wicked funny machines
than it is a serious robotics project. But props to [Norbert] for completeness — the code that wiggles the two servos that get the job (almost) done is even
posted up on GitHub
.
Check out the video below the break. Ho ho ho! | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409552",
"author": "Alysson+Rowan",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T20:47:28",
"content": "Fabricating Elves and herding toys, surely?A lovely, fun project for all the weirdy beardies out here in Hackerland.Merry Christmas, all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,372,842.945673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/24/hackaday-podcast-super-short-holiday-edition/ | Hackaday Podcast Super-Short Holiday Edition | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast",
"holidays"
] | It’s a holiday weekend, and the Podcast is taking a break until 2022. But that can’t stop Hackaday’s Elliot Williams from giving out a t-shirt to the winner of last week’s What’s That Sound.
It’s the shortest Podcast ever!
Direct download
(5 MB)
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6410750",
"author": "Marcel",
"timestamp": "2021-12-30T20:49:06",
"content": "The direct download link is to the wrong episode",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6412621",
"author": "Elliot Williams",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,372,843.015643 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/24/the-legend-of-zelda-decompiled/ | The Legend Of Zelda: Decompiled | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games"
] | [
"c++",
"compiler",
"decompile",
"decompiler",
"n64",
"nintendo",
"ocarina of time",
"source code",
"zelda"
] | Keeping source code to programs closed is something that is generally frowned upon here for plenty of reasons. Closed source code is less secure and less customizable, but unfortunately we won’t be able to convince everyone of the merits of open source code any time soon. On the other hand, it is possible to decompile some of those programs whose source remains behind locked doors in an attempt to better understand that code, and one of the more impressive examples of that of late is
this project which has fully decompiled The Ocarina of Time
.
To get started with the code for this project, one simply needs to clone the Git repository and then use a certain set of software tools (depending on the user’s operating system) to compile the ROM from the source code. From there, though, the world is your rupee-filled jar. Like we’ve seen from other decompiled games, any number of enhancements to the original game can be made including increasing the frame rate, improving the graphics, or otherwise adding flourishes that wouldn’t otherwise be there.
The creators of this project do point out that this is still a work-in-progress as only one of the 18 versions have been completed, but the fact that the source code they have been able to decompile builds a fully-working game when recompiled speaks to how far along it’s come. We’ve seen
similar processes used for other games before
that also help to illustrate how much improvement is possible when re-writing old games from their source code.
Thanks to [Lazarus] for the tip! | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409459",
"author": "Daid",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T15:18:37",
"content": "While amazing work on it so far. The headline on the MVG title is just plain wrong. It’s only partially done, and stuff could still break if code is moved around (called “shiftability”)Note that there is wor... | 1,760,372,843.148371 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/24/peltier-snow-globe-features-snowman-who-dresses-himself-in-real-frost/ | Peltier Snow Globe Features Snowman Who Dresses Himself In Real Frost | Dan Maloney | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"christmas",
"cloud chamber",
"frost",
"isopropyl alcohol",
"peltier",
"snow",
"snow globem IPA",
"thermoelectric"
] | We doubt that few of us ever thought that snow globes contain real snow, but now that we’ve seen
a snow globe that makes its own snow
, we have to admit the water-filled holiday decorating mainstay looks a little disappointing.
Like a lot of the Christmas decorations [Sean Hodgins] has come up with over the years, this self-frosting snowman is both clever in design and cute in execution. The working end is a piece of aluminum turned down into the classic snowman configuration; the lathe-less could probably do the same thing by sticking some ball bearings together with CA glue. Adorned with 3D-printed accessories, the sculpture sits on a pedestal of Peltier coolers, stacked on top of a big CPU cooler. Flanking the as-yet underdressed snowman is a pair of big power resistors, which serve as heating elements to fill the globe with vapor. [Sean]’s liquid of choice is isopropyl alcohol, and it seems to work very well as the figurine is quickly enrobed with frost.
But wait, there’s more — as [Sean] points out, the apparatus is 90% of the way to being
a cloud chamber
. Maybe we’ll see a less festive version after the holidays. Until then, enjoy
his ornament that prints other ornaments
,
his blinkenlight PCB tree-hangers
, or
his tiny TV that plays holiday commercials
. | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409422",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T12:23:54",
"content": "Ice hack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6409423",
"author": "Doug Leppard",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T12:42:47",
"content": "Love the drama... | 1,760,372,843.247051 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/24/flybrainlab-google-earth-but-for-a-drosophila-flys-brain/ | FlyBrainLab: Google Earth But For A Drosophila Fly’s Brain | Maya Posch | [
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"drosophila melanogaster",
"FlyBrainLab",
"FlyEM"
] | In biology there are a couple of truly crucial model animals and insects. Not that they’re particularly good students, or pick up their own trash, but in the sense that they have become standard model organisms for research. Aside from genetic research, the
FlyEM
project seeks to fully map a little fly’s brain’s neural connections. This common fly, called
drosophila melanogaster
(or ‘lesser fruit fly’) has been the subject of a lot of genetic studies, but this study of its brain structure may provide insights in how our brain works as well.
Based on electron microscope images of thin slices of a
drosophila
brain, the three-dimensional structure of this tiny brain is reconstructed to not only determine the location of each neuron, but also their connections with other neurons. We know that about two-thirds of their brain is dedicated to processing the visual information from their relatively advanced compound eyes, but a lot is still unknown about how this is done, or how the brain’s structure develops.
If it’s always been your dream to tinker with a little fruit fly’s brain, you can do so yourself using the
open source
FlyBrainLab
tool provided, along with the freely available data sources. This tool does not just allow one to visualize the
drosophila
brain in great detail, but also to create executable circuits and study their functionality. With neurobiology still a largely unexplored territory, this makes for an amazing tool to make this research accessible to anyone.
(Thanks for the tip, [Hernandi Krammes]) | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409439",
"author": "Stickboy",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T14:04:52",
"content": "Cool but the genus should always be capitalized…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409715",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren"... | 1,760,372,843.185274 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/how-to-get-into-cars-e85-fuel/ | How To Get Into Cars: E85 Fuel | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"biofuel",
"biofuels",
"car hacks",
"cars",
"e85",
"ethanol",
"ethanol fuel"
] | If you’ve spent any time around the modified car scene in the last few years,
you’ve probably heard about E85.
Maybe you’ve even noticed a sweet smell emanating from the pitlane, or heard people cracking jokes about “corn juice.”
The blended fuel, which combines alcohol and traditional gasoline, can have significant performance benefits if used properly. Today, we’ll explore what those are, and how you can set your ride up to run on E85.
Pros and Cons
E85 is, nominally at least, a blend of 85% ethanol with 15% gasoline. In some countries, this is adhered to fairly religiously. However, in the United States, E85 that you get at the pump can be anywhere from 51% ethanol to 83%, with lower blends typically being delivered in cooler areas and during winter. This is due to the poorer cold start performance of ethanol-based fuels. However, if you’re buying drums of race-grade E85, you’re likely getting something much closer to that nominal ratio.
E85 is readily available from select gas stations in the United States. The ethanol content is typically produced from corn, hence regularly being referred to as “corn juice” or “corn sauce” at racetracks across the nation. Credit:
Mariordo
, CC-BY-3.0
The main benefits of E85 fuel are simple and straightforward. Ethanol has a far higher octane rating than regular gasoline. Where the standard stuff comes in around 87, and premium pump gas gets up to 93, E85 fuel has an octane rating closer to 103-105 octane as per the
(R+M)/2 measurement
used in the USA.
Octane rating is important when it comes to knock resistance. Knock occurs when the fuel-air charge detonates instad of burning smoothly. Otto-cycle engines (i.e. gas engines) can be tuned to make more power by advancing the timing of the ignition spark, setting the fuel aflame as the piston is rising on the compression stroke. However, advance the timing too far, and burn the fuel-air charge too soon, and pressures in the cylinder can get too high, causing the fuel to detonate instead of burn in a more controlled manner. This can damage an engine very quickly.
Just as premium gas is more knock resistant than regular gas, E85 is even more knock resistant again. This allows an engine to be tuned with more ignition timing advance, as well as more boost in the case of forced-induction engines. Thus, it’s possible to tune an engine to make more power with E85 without experiencing damage from knock.
Racing series like V8 Supercars and IndyCar already use E85, both for its performance benefits and environmental credentials. The idea is that plants grown for biofuel production help fix carbon from the atmosphere. Credit: Getty Images
E85 also has a higher latent heat of vaporization than straight gasoline, meaning that as the fuel is injected into the engine, it absorbs more heat from the intake air. The cooler charge produces more power.
However, it’s not all win when it comes to running E85. E85 contains roughly 27% less energy per gallon than gasoline. This means that fuel economy is typically worse when running E85, in the vicinity of
20-30% worse
in a properly-tuned vehicle. So to make the same power on E85, an engine must flow more fuel compared to gasoline. If you’re looking for a boost, flow rates go up even further.
The fuel is also hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water from the atmosphere. This can give E85 a poor shelf life, as fuel that carries excess water content doesn’t perform as well. Worries about corrosion are typically overblown, but the fuel can have issues in some older fuel tanks, particularly those of composite materials. Older cars, typically from the 80s and before, may also have rubber fuel system components that degrade in the presence of ethanol, clogging fuel filters and injectors. However, cars from the late 90s onwards are typically all protected against this; hence the mainstream use of E10 gas across the world.
How To Reap The Benefits
So, you’ve read all about how E85 can give your engine more power, and you’re keen to take advantage. Great! However, unless you’re driving a car already tuned for flex fuel use, you’ll likely need to make some modifications. However, as hackers, that’s what we’re all about, so prepare to dive in.
Dyno tuning is the best way to set up a car for maximum power running E85, allowing spark and fuel maps to be tuned accurately under controlled conditions. Credit:
AdamNavrotny
, CC-BA-SA-3.0
The first thing your engine will need is a tune. If your car has a locked-down engine management system from the factory, you’ll likely need to go ahead and replace it entirely with a standalone tuneable ECU. Alternatively, some cars have tuneable ECUs from the factory if you have the right tools. Either way, you’ll need to be able to control spark timing and your fuel map to get the most out of E85.
Advancing the timing, and adding boost in forced induction applications, is how you unlock more power, while the fuel map must be tuned to account for the changes and make up for the lower energy value of E85. Dyno tuning is best, as it allows outside variables to be controlled, but the truly adventurous and experienced could always try a road tune instead.
You’ll also likely want to run a flex-fuel sensor so your ECU can deal with varying ethanol levels in the fuel. E85 pumps aren’t everywhere, and few of us fully drain our tanks when refilling them. Gas stations selling blends anywhere from 51 to 83% ethanol only adds to the confusion. If you pour in a 51% ethanol on top of a half-tank of straight gas, your functional octane level would be that of E25, somewhere in the mid-90s. If your tune expects an octane level of over 100, you’ll quickly get knock. A flex fuel sensor lets your car be tuned for straight gas and E85, and then interpolates depending on the detected ethanol level in the fuel lines.
Alternatively, if you’re running a car with a vintage ignition and carby setup, you’ll need to run some alcohol-safe fuel lines, twist the distributor for a bit more advance, and change the jets to flow more fuel. You may also want to get an
E85 kit for your carb
to ensure that old gaskets and seals don’t react with the ethanol. Alternatively, carbs designed to run E85 from the outset exist, designed specifically to handle the higher fuel flow required. However, there’s no easy way to do flex fuel with a carby setup, so if you tune for E85, don’t expect the car to run well or at all on regular gas anymore.
The Koenigsegg CCXR is a great example of the benefits of E85, with the vehicle making a full 25% more horsepower than its conventionally-fueled counterpart. Credit:
Fpm
, CC-BA-SA-3.0
Beyond this, you may find your fuel system needs some modifications too. That 30% less energy density means your engine needs a lot more fuel than it did before, and if your fuel pump didn’t have a lot of headroom, then it could be quickly tapped out on E85. Thus, a bigger fuel pump is often key to switching over to run on E85. Similarly, if you’re finding your injectors are tapped out at 100% duty cycle and still aren’t flowing enough fuel, you may need to upgrade those to higher-flow units as well.
With all that done, you should have a car that’s happily running on E85. In naturally-aspirated applications, gains of around 5-10% are typical. It’s not a huge figure, but it can be useful in combination with other things like high-compression pistons, or it can help a highly-stressed race engine to run a little cooler.
However, with forced induction, E85 comes into its own. Its knock-prevention capabilities typically allow turbo and supercharged engines to run much more boost without incurring detonation. This extra air can then be mixed with more fuel for yet more power. A great example is the Koenigsegg CCX, which produced 806 horsepower on premium gasoline, while its sibling, the CCXR, put out 1018 horsepower, a full 25% more,
running on E85.
Summary
If you’ve got a modern fuel-injected car, and a tuneable ECU, you could find switching to E85 one of the best bang-for-your-buck performance mods out there. However, if your car is one that needs major fuel system upgrades or a new engine management system to make the change, the value proposition might not stack up as well. Regardless, E85 is a great performance fuel, and there are gains to be had. If you decide to start running your car on corn sauce, we wish you good luck, and happy hacking! | 33 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409233",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T17:07:43",
"content": "Around here (Southern Minnesota), E-85 is lower priced due to government lower taxes and alt-fuel subsidies.I would buy it for the cost savings alone (I currently use E-15, 88 ... | 1,760,372,843.498734 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/back-to-back-belts-drive-filament-in-this-unique-extruder-design/ | Back-to-Back Belts Drive Filament In This Unique Extruder Design | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"bowden",
"extruder",
"filament",
"printer",
"sla",
"stepper",
"timing belt",
"timing gear"
] | It’s hard to say when inspiration will strike, or what form it’ll take. But we do know that when you get that itch, it’s a good idea to scratch it, because you might just end up with something like
this cool new design for a 3D printer extruder
as a result.
Clearly, the world is not screaming out for new extruder designs. In fact, the traditional spring-loaded, toothed drive wheel on a stepper really does the job of feeding filament into a printer’s hot end just fine, all things considered. But [Jón Schone], aka
Proper Printing
on YouTube, got the idea for his belt-drive extruder from seeing how filament manufacturers handle their products. His design is a scaled-down version of that, and uses a pair of very small timing belts that run on closely spaced gears. The gears synchronize the movement of the two belts, with the filament riding in the very narrow space between the belts. It’s a simple design, with the elasticity of the belt material eliminating the need for spring pre-loading of the drive gears.
Simple in design, but not the easiest execution. The video below tells [Jón]’s tale of printing woe, from using a viscous specialty SLA resin that was really intended for a temperature-controlled printer, to build tank damage. The completed extruder was also a bit too big to mount directly on the test printer, so that took some finagling too. But at the end of the day, the idea works, and it looks pretty cool doing it.
As for potential advantages of the new design, we suppose that remains to be seen. It does seem like it would eliminate
drive gear eccentricity
, which we’ve seen cause print quality issues before.
[BaldPower] tipped us off to this one. Thanks! | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409195",
"author": "robobobo",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T12:21:20",
"content": "seen this type on thingiverse before so definitively not a novel new design. always nice to see people revisiting older designs though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,843.552223 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/a-simple-3d-printed-gear-clock-shows-off-how-it-works/ | A Simple 3D Printed Gear Clock Shows Off How It Works | Lewin Day | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"gear clock"
] | Analog clocks are beautiful things inside, using ornate gear trains to keep track of time in a dance of mechanical beauty. However, all too often, the complexity is hidden inside.
This gear clock design from [Tada3], however, proudly shows off its workings
.
A small stepper motor is used to run the clock’s movement, a small part of the 28BYJ-48 variety. The motor is driven once per second, making the gear train tick along in a rather compelling way that is somehow more visually interesting. Of course, with some modification to the design, continuous motion could easily be done as well.
The stepper motor is driven by an Arduino Nano, which also handles the timekeeping. One thing that’s missing is a real-time clock, something that should be added to the design if you wish it to keep accurate time. As it is, the
included Arduino sketch
simply uses the delay() function to time the stepping of the motor. It makes the clock tick along, but will quickly drift out of sync.
The design was also recreated in
a YouTube video by [Mirko Pavleski]
, showing that the files are of suitable quality for building your own at home. We’ve seen some gear clock designs before, too, from
the laser-cut
to
the neatly-nested
. Video after the break. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409186",
"author": "none",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T10:37:45",
"content": "> a compelling way … that is more interestingLOL",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6409202",
"author": "RES",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T13:00:49",
... | 1,760,372,843.601807 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/experiments-with-a-nernst-lamp/ | Experiments With A Nernst Lamp | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"electricity",
"lamp",
"nernst lamp"
] | Every biography of Edison talks about how the secret to the incandescent lamp was to remove the air from the bulb. That’s true when you use conventional filaments, but a man named Nernst found that using a filament that was already oxidized would allow you to create a lamp that would operate fine in the normal atmosphere. [Jaynes Network]
takes a look at these oddities
which date back to the 1800s in a recent video that you can see below.
The lamps use a ceramic filament, but the downside is that the filament needs to be hot to allow the lamp to work. The experiment takes a zirconium oxide rod and attempts to light it up. The heat source is a propane torch.
We don’t suggest hooking up alligator clips to an electric cord as you see in the video. A resistor, a fuse, and an isolation transformer would make the setup a little safer. If all this isn’t dangerous enough, don’t forget there’s also a flaming propane torch and burning insulation. What could go wrong?
It took a few attempts to get the rod to conduct more with heat, but finally, there was an increase in current. We’ll have to wait for the next installment to see if it really lights up or not.
The last lamp like this we saw used a
ceramic knife blade
as a filament. If you want more history of the Nernst, check out our
Retrotechtacular
. | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409161",
"author": "Jamesyyy",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T06:18:34",
"content": "Do we as a community need to promote hoax and disinformation channels?This guys channel has videos about “psychotronics”, “antigravity”, etc.….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,372,843.698217 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/new-holographic-display-hacks-the-light-field/ | New Holographic Display Hacks The Light Field | Al Williams | [
"News"
] | [
"3d display",
"hologram"
] | [Petapixel] has an interesting post about a startup company’s new
holographic display
that claims to be “indistinguishable from reality.” The company behind it,
Light Field Labs
, claims their system requires no glasses and handles different angles.
You can see a bit in the [C|Net] video below, but — of course — being on YouTube, you can’t get a sense for how good the 3D effect is.
It seems that while most displays try to project into a 3D volume or onto a flat display media, “solid light” works more like a real hologram, using a phase guide to project light at different phases and allows inference like an actual hologram.
The video shows that you can even use a magnifying glass to examine the object and it still looks real. We couldn’t help but notice though, that the demo was in a dark place — it was made to look like an artistic choice, but we’ll bet that under bright lighting, they have difficulty delivering the image. Still, pretty impressive.
We have no idea about cost, but imagine it won’t be cheap to start with. The company claims you will be able to see these in the real world as early as next year.
If you want to learn more about
traditional holograms
, we’ve talked about them before.
Light field hacking
isn’t exactly new, but this looks like it might be ready for prime time soon. | 27 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409130",
"author": "Feinfinger (with diabolic laughter)",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T03:27:32",
"content": "Next time you bump into someone on the road, “Sorry! I expected you to be a holo-avatar!” is a plausible excuse?Deep fake goes 3D?Scary times!",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,372,843.756198 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/frame-antenna-works-the-low-bands/ | Frame Antenna Works The Low Bands | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"antenna",
"frame antenna",
"ham radio",
"loop antenna"
] | The lower the frequency of radio transmission, the more antenna that will be needed in general. [OM0ET] wanted to work the 80M to 20M ham bands and decided to turn to a
frame antenna
. You can see the project in the video below.
The antenna looks a lot like a magnetic loop antenna. The one in the video has seven loops forming a 520mm square. The loop is, of course, an inductor and by removing some insulation, the operator can clip a lead at different points to control the inductance. A variable capacitor resonates the antenna, so there is definitely tuning required.
The physical support for the antenna is 25mm PVC. It isn’t that hard to build, but does it really work? The video shows quite a bit of detail on the construction, but we are waiting for part two which will show the operating tests. From past experience, we will guess it will work well enough, but the tuning will be sharp, meaning you’ll have to retune a lot when changing frequencies.
Also, these kinds of antennas tend to be directional, so they are useful in
fox hunting
. We see a lot of loop antennas for hiding in plain sight or, sometimes, for
portable use
. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409151",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T05:19:36",
"content": "I assume this is receive only. If for transmitting there can be hundreds of volts across the tuning cap. Danger if used indoors where contact with tuning cap is possible.These loops are great for AM-MW ... | 1,760,372,843.799869 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/turbocharger-jet-engine-relies-on-wood-pellet-ignition/ | Turbocharger Jet Engine Relies On Wood Pellet Ignition | Lewin Day | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"jet engine",
"turbo",
"turbocharger",
"turbojet"
] | Turbochargers as used on cars bear some similarities with jet engines. Fundamentally, both contain a turbine that harvests energy from hot gas, using it to spin a compressor which sucks in fresh air for combustion. Thus, turning a turbocharger into a jet engine is entirely possible,
and [HRom] decided to have a crack at it.
The build starts with a turbo that appears to have been used on a diesel engine from
the Volkswagen group.
The first step was to cut the integral exhaust manifold off the turbo housing. A combustion chamber is then added which takes in fresh air from the compressor housing, and delivers hot combustion products to the turbine inlet. The homebrewed jet engine burns propane as fuel, introduced into the chamber via a nozzle.
The initial test failed as combustion was occurring at the turbine exhaust rather than in the combustion chamber, likely due to the lack of a proper ignition source inside the combustion chamber. A redesign employed a bigger combustion chamber built out of a fire extinguisher, with smouldering wood pellets inserted inside to get the injected propane burning.
The redesign works, and the turbocharger jet engine releases a thunderous scream as it turns at ever-increasing speed. However, with no oiling system or any way of controlling air or fuel flow in the engine, it eventually stops in a huge puff of smoke. Regardless, the engine did run in a sustained manner even if the ignition method was rudimentary.
We’ve seen similar builds before
, and the rudimentary construction means they’re typically nowhere near being flight-weight engines. They are incredibly cool, however, and a great way to learn the basic principles of how jet engines work. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Francisco José Lazur for the tip!] | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409081",
"author": "Syd",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T21:27:37",
"content": "I think it was wise of him to go hide behind the truck – but it was definitely exciting as a first try… WOW",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6409086",
... | 1,760,372,843.650912 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/ring-in-the-new-year-with-diy-bagpipes/ | Ring In The New Year With DIY Bagpipes | Kristina Panos | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"bagpipes",
"latex gloves",
"musical instrument",
"straw"
] | Remember early on in the pandemic when people would don protection just short of a full hazmat suit to go out, and wore rubber gloves to the grocery store? Was that just us? The point is, we are surely not alone in having an excess of latex gloves left over, and pitifully few uses for them aside from the usual — gross jobs around the house, and making hand-shaped ice cubes.
Well, here’s something a little more fun: DIY bagpipes. No matter how you feel about the sounds they produce, the way that bagpipes work is pretty interesting. In the video embedded after the break, [Charlie Engelman]
shows us how they work
and compares them to saxophonist Kenny G’s little jazz mouth.
See, Mr. G can circular breathe, which means he can hold a note for as long as he wants. Basically, he is able to keep a reserve of air in his mouth for playing the thing, while at the same time inhaling new air.
If we bring this back around to bagpipes, the bladder is akin to Kenny G’s mouth. It always contains air, so it perpetually releases air through the sound pipes that stick up. In the case of the glove pipe, the glove is the bladder, and the pipes are made of drinking straws. Check it out after the break — we think the sound is far more tolerable than real bagpipes.
We’ve seen bagpipes made from common household items before
(if you consider a couple of plastic recorders to be common household items), and
we’ve also seen real bagpipes go electromechanical
.
Thanks for the tip, [Keith]! | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409381",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T06:41:13",
"content": "Sounds awful, just like the real thing. (;Think I’ll stick to my plastic bottle ocarina.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409417",
"author":... | 1,760,372,843.934003 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/lisp-in-436-bytes/ | Lisp In 436 Bytes | Al Williams | [
"Software Development",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"bootsector",
"lisp",
"sectorlisp"
] | You would assume that any programming language available back in the 1960s would be small enough to easily implement on today’s computers. That’s not always true though, since old languages sometimes used multiple passes. But in some cases, you can implement what would have been a full language decades ago in a tiny footprint. A case in point is a pretty good implementation of Lisp — including garbage collection —
in 436 bytes
.
SectorLISP claims to be the tiniest real language, beaten only by toy languages that are not really very useful. If you want to, you can try it in your browser, but that version has better error messages and persistent bindings, so it hogs up a whole 509 bytes.
Of course, LISP can be an acquired taste, but it is elegant. Some say it is an acronym for “lots of irritating spurious parenthesis” but the structure does make it easy to parse.
Coincidentally, Forth is also easy to parse and SectorForth is one of the slightly larger languages that SectorLISP compares itself to. These tools are meant to live in a small bootsector of a floppy, but who knows where you might want to cram in a tiny scripting language? The fact that SectorLisp takes 436 bytes and the IBM 7090 LISP 1.5 took 32K is probably partly due to the efficiency of the x86 instructions set and partly due to the fact that the 7090 had a much larger environment to live in.
This isn’t the first
small LISP
we’ve seen.
Forth
, of course, is a staple. | 26 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409345",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T03:14:18",
"content": "Change it to a .COM file and you can ditch the first six bytes since cs=ds=es=ss in assumptions.Your welcome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409363"... | 1,760,372,844.059988 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/fixing-a-freezer-design-flaw-with-a-little-bit-of-heat/ | Fixing A Freezer Design Flaw With A Little Bit Of Heat | Maya Posch | [
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"freezer"
] | As a shining example of the law of unintended consequences, [Lou] demonstrates how certain types of freezer/refrigerator combinations fail to work in a cold environment, such as a garage during the winter. As [Lou] points out
in his video
(also linked after the break) – using the freezer unit in his own garage – the problem lies with devices that put the temperature sensor in the refrigerator section, but circulate cold air starting in the freezer section.
This works great in a home environment with a room temperature comfortable for humans, as the refrigerator will constantly warm up slightly due to heat from the outside, triggering the cooling cycle and ensuring the freezer section will stay nice and cold. When placed in, say, a garage when it’s around freezing, the refrigerator section will not warm up, and thus no more cooling cycle gets triggered.
As obviously the freezer section is supposed to stay significantly colder than roughly around 0°C, the freezer section can warm up enough to allow frozen goods to thaw out. The easy fix here as [Lou] demonstrates, is to add a constant source of warmth inside the refrigerator section, such as by keeping the refrigerator light on constantly.
Obvious complaints about the lack of energy efficiency and this combo unit’s optimistically broken sensor design aside, it is a fairly simple and effective fix. Even so, perhaps trading such a combo unit for one with a dedicated temperature sensor in the freezer section would prevent headaches like these. | 41 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409313",
"author": "Nathan",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T00:13:39",
"content": "Is that ice cream the southern butter pecan? That stuff is really tasty.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6409316",
"author": "irox",
"timestam... | 1,760,372,844.0059 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/ws2182s-on-a-6502/ | WS2812s On A 6502 | Elliot Williams | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6502",
"apple II",
"neopixel",
"retrocomputing",
"ws2812"
] | We can still remember when the WS2812 LED first came into our consciousness, way back in the mists of time. The timing diagrams in the datasheet-of-questionable-veracity made it sound quite tricky, with tight timing tolerances and essentially a high-speed two-bit PWM data protocol at 500 kHz. It was a challenge to bit-bang with an ATtiny85 back then, but there’s no way something as old and crusty as an Apple II would be up to snuff, right?
[Anders Nielsen] took up the
challenge of getting the venerable 6502 processor to drive Neopixels
and won! After all, if the chip is
good enough for Bender
and the
Terminator T-800
, it should be able to blink some colored LEDs, right? The secret sauce is shift registers!
Specifically, [Anders] abuses the 74LS165 parallel-in, serial-out shift register for his dirty work. Instead of bit-banging the WS2812’s “long high is a 1, short high is a 0” signal directly, the first few bits of the shift register are hard-wired to VCC and the last few to GND.
The bits in the middle determine if the pulse shifted out is long or short, and they’re set by the 6502, through a
6522 VIA chip
, just like the Apple II would have. Clocking the data out of the shift register handles the timing-critical stuff. Very clever!
Video below the break. | 40 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409275",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T21:35:04",
"content": "i don’t understand “a challenge to bit-bang with an attiny85”, it’s either possible or it isn’t? is this a reference to the extreme poverty of i/o peripherals on attiny (vs pic)?",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,372,844.140508 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/simple-upgrades-make-an-old-industrial-sewing-machine-new-again/ | Simple Upgrades Make An Old Industrial Sewing Machine New Again | Kristina Panos | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"brushless DC motor",
"clutch motor",
"industrial sewing machine",
"led light",
"servo motor",
"sewing machine"
] | Well, this is a pleasant surprise: it seems that industrial designer [Eric Strebel] recently got a hold of an industrial sewing machine to tackle the softer side of prototyping. What doesn’t surprise us is that
he did some upgrades to make it more user-friendly
. Check them out in the video embedded below.
So, what’s the difference between a machine like this and what you might have around the house? Domestic sewing machines have a motor about the size of your fist, and it’s inside the machine’s body. Modern domestics can do light-duty work, but they can’t handle making bags and upholstery or sewing a bunch of layers of any material together. Industrial machines have either clutch or servo motors that are easily five times the size of a domestic’s motor, and are built into the table along with the machine.
[Eric] found this Pfaff 463 on Craigslist. It was built somewhere around 1950, and it only does one thing — a single-needle, straight stitch, forward or reverse — but it will do it through damn near anything you want (unlike those computerized hunks of plastic made for home use nowadays). Again, these machines are always built into a table, and they come with a lamp. While the machine itself may be a workhorse, the light is wimpy, so [Eric] replaced it with a goose-neck LED light that has a magnet for sticking it anywhere light is required around the machine.
No matter the size, electric sewing machines are driven with a foot pedal. On a domestic, the pedal is loose and you just put it on the floor wherever you want, but industrial foot pedals are built into the table frame. [Eric] drilled a bunch of new holes in the side of the pedal so he can move the connecting rod closer to the pivot point. This gives him better control with less footwork.
The biggest, baddest upgrade [Eric] did was to the motor. Although there was nothing wrong with the original clutch motor, it makes the machine go very fast so that garment workers can fulfill their quotas. Because of this, it’s difficult to control. He upgraded to a brushless DC servo motor for greater precision and easier prototyping. He got really lucky, too, because it mounted directly into the old holes.
We agree wholeheartedly with [Eric]’s sentiment about old sewing machines, or any old machine for that matter. They tend to be overbuilt because planned obsolescence wasn’t a thing yet. If you can’t afford or find an industrial, an old Singer or something similar will likely serve your purpose, as long as you use the right needle.
If you already have an old domestic machine sitting around,
you might be able to breathe new life into it with a 3D printer
. | 30 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409269",
"author": "Shirley Marquez",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T20:44:15",
"content": "A few early electric sewing machines were controlled by a thigh pedal instead of a foot pedal. You pressed your leg out against it to turn on the machine. Those were mostly found on machines that ... | 1,760,372,844.204992 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/keynote-video-jeremy-fielding-wants-to-help-you-get-moving/ | Keynote Video: Jeremy Fielding Wants To Help You Get Moving | Tom Nardi | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon",
"gearbox",
"Jeremy Fielding",
"linkages",
"mechanical design",
"motor",
"prototyping"
] | For many DIY hardware projects, the most movement it’s likely to see is when we pick the assembled unit up off the workbench and carry it to wherever it’s destined to spend the rest of its functional life. From weather sensors to smart mirrors, there’s a huge array of devices that don’t need to move one millimeter to function. But eventually, you’re likely to run into a project that’s a bit more dynamic. Maybe you’d like to motorize your window shades, or go all out and build a remote controlled rover. With these more active designs comes a whole slew of new problems you may never have encountered before.
Luckily for us, folks like Jeremy Fielding are out there and willing to share their knowledge.
In his fascinating presentation for the 2021 Hackaday Remoticon
,
Building Hardware that Moves: the Fundamentals that Everyone Should Know,
he took viewers on a whirlwind tour of what he’s learned about designing and building complex machines from his years of professional experience. Whether its a relatively simple articulated workbench for the shop, a gargantuan earthmoving machine, or a high-dexterity robotic arm, each project he’s worked on has presented unique challenges that needed to be solved.
Not all of Jeremy’s machines will fit in your average workshop.
A lot of the projects that Jeremy has worked on are on a much larger scale than what your average hobbyist is ever going to run into. When there’s an arrow pointing out the tiny human in a picture of you and the machine you’re currently working on, you know things are getting serious. But as anyone who’s watched his YouTube videos knows, he’s got a real knack for taking these high-level concepts and distilling them into something more digestible for the home gamer.
Practice Makes Perfect
Sketch early concepts out on paper.
If you only take one thing away from
Building Hardware that Moves
, it’s that prototyping is a step to be skipped at your own peril. These days we have incredible tools at our disposal, especially when it comes to CAD software, but nothing quite replaces actually putting your design together in the real-world and seeing how all the moving pieces interact with each other.
That said, a prototype doesn’t need to be as strong or rigid as the final product. Before you start cutting or welding, Jeremy says you can lay out plenty of the groundwork with nothing more exotic than thick cardboard and tape. Even if you do want to make your prototype out of something slightly more long-lasting, such as wood, it doesn’t necessarily need to be full scale either. A miniature version of your design might not give you quite the same insight as a 1:1 representation, but the reduced time and materials needed to build it can go a long way towards making up for the reduced fidelity.
Jeremy also says there’s a lot to be gained from simply drawing out your design concepts by hand. Graph paper is ideal as it will let you establish a scale, but it’s not strictly required. At this point, you’re just trying to figure out what the major shapes of the mechanism will look like. This kind of rough paper sketching can often save you a few hardware revisions down the line by shaking loose some of the low-hanging fruit early on.
Picking Your Power
After you’ve come up with a mechanical design and are fairly sure it will work as you expected thanks to your prototype, the next step is figuring out how to power the thing. In his presentation, Jeremy spends a considerable amount of time talking about many of the different motors and actuators available at both the professional and hobbyists budget. Just as we’re fortunate to have access to powerful tools, we can also count ourselves lucky in the locomotion department: as today there’s a whole wide world of ways to get your creation moving without breaking the bank.
For example, he talks about the widespread availability of low-cost brushless DC motors that can be directly attributed to the exploding popularity of RC quadcopters and other aircraft. While these motors require more sophisticated control circuitry than the simple permanent magnet motors we’ve all pulled out of a broken toy or gadget over the years, the clear and numerous benefits offered by the newer technology (higher power-to-weight ratio, increased energy efficiency, better speed control, lower noise, longer lifespan, etc) are going to be worth the added effort in many applications.
Figuring out what motor you need is only part of the equation. Literally.
As you might expect with his industrial experience, Jeremy isn’t afraid of moving over to AC motors when the project demands it. He takes the viewer through several types of AC motors, and even breaks down where you’re most likely to find each type should you find yourself on the hunt for a particular powerplant. An accomplished scavenger of parts himself, he’s learned to expect a single-phase induction motor in that curbside washing machine or dryer, while newer treadmills are sometimes hiding a three-phase unit.
But perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. How do you even know which motor you’ll need for a given application? To that end, Jeremy goes into detail about finding the identifying the torque and speed requirements for a given task, and then using those figures to determine which kind of powertrain you’ll need. Note we didn’t say motor. That’s because, in many cases, you’re going to need gears, pulleys, belts, or some other means of mating the motor to the rest of the machine. This is where some people start to feel overwhelmed, but with some simple practical examples, Jeremy shows that figuring it all out isn’t nearly as difficult as you probably think.
On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!
Jeremy’s presentation at the 2021 Remoticon went on till just shy of the hour mark, but watching it now, it certainly won’t feel that way. With such a fantastic communicator, you’ll be halfway through the video before you know it. In fact, don’t be surprised if you find yourself hungry for more of his particular brand of technical education when it’s all said and done. Luckily,
he’s got a nearly a decade’s worth of videos you can check out
, many of which dig deeper into some of the topics touched on during the course of
Building Hardware that Moves: the Fundamentals that Everyone Should Know
.
Between Jeremy’s easy style and infectious optimism, it’s also likely you’ll come away from this presentation with a sudden urge to make something that will actually get off the workbench and move around. Don’t worry, it’s only natural. Just take a deep breath, prototype a couple of linkages, and
let us know when you’ve got it working
. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409253",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-23T19:19:53",
"content": "I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but is Rob Weinstein’s talk available?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409282",
... | 1,760,372,844.463549 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/23/opencv-knows-where-your-hand-is/ | OpenCV Knows Where Your Hand Is | Al Williams | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"hand tracking",
"open cv",
"opencv"
] | We have to say, [Murtaza]’s example game in his latest video isn’t very exciting. However, the
OpenCV technique
he uses to track a hand and determine its distance from a single camera is pretty interesting. The demo shows a random button on the screen and you have to use your hand to press the button which then moves so you can try again. The hand measurement seems accurate to a few centimeters which is good enough for many applications.
The Python code is actually quite straightforward. Essentially, the software tracks your hand and by estimating its relative size to determine how far away it is. Of course, your hand might also rotate, and [Murtaza] works through all the cases step-by-step. If we wanted to know a distance, we’d probably turn to ultrasonics or a time of flight sensor. The problem is, those sensors can’t tell your hand from anything else that happens to be in front of it. The use of a single camera to track and locate is pretty impressive.
If you haven’t used OpenCV before, the channel has a lot of tutorials and they are all worth watching. Computer vision is a great technique and can replace a lot of things in some applications.
GPS
, for example. Or, try this
creepier tracking application
next Halloween. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409317",
"author": "cncFriend",
"timestamp": "2021-12-24T00:41:21",
"content": "Excellent. Just discovered his channelThanks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,372,844.285074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/how-to-forge-a-skillet-from-scratch/ | How To Forge A Skillet From Scratch | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"blacksmith",
"blacksmithery",
"forge",
"forging"
] | Cookware isn’t something we typically build ourselves; you’d want a well-equipped metal shop to do the job and do it right. [Torbjörn Åhman] has just that, however, and set about
forging a stout-looking skillet from scratch.
The build starts with a round disc of steel serving as a blank for the project. The blank is spun up and the outer perimeter ground down thinner with an angle grinder in what looks like a moderately sketchy operation. A forge is then used to heat the blank so that it can be shaped into a pan using a hammer. Slowly, as the metal is beaten one way and then t’other, the skillet begins to form. A belt sander takes off high points on the outside, and a torch is then used to square up the base of the pan so it sits nicely. Finally a handle attached with some stout rivets, and the newly formed piece of cookware gets a seasoning with sunflower oil.
The project shows just how many special skills are required to make even simple cookware by hand. It’s nice to see some keeping
the old methods alive, too.
Video after the break. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409078",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T21:07:21",
"content": "“A forge is then used to heat the blank so that it can be shaped into a pan using a hammer.”I think [Jenny List] will tell you that a “hearth” is used to heat up the blank. Fo... | 1,760,372,844.25229 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/tech-in-plain-sight-primitive-engineering-materials/ | Tech In Plain Sight: Primitive Engineering Materials | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"History"
] | [
"glass",
"history",
"material science",
"metal",
"plastics",
"prehistory"
] | It isn’t an uncommon science fiction trope for our hero to be in a situation where there is no technology. Maybe she’s back in the past or on a faraway planet. The Professor from Gilligan’s Island comes to mind, too. I’d bet the average Hacakday reader could do pretty well in that kind of situation, but there’s one thing that’s often overlooked: materials. Sure, you can build a radio. But can you make wire? Or metal plates for a capacitor? Or a speaker? We tend to overlook how many abstractions we use when we build. Even turning trees into lumber isn’t a totally obvious process.
People are by their very nature always looking for ways to use the things around them. Even 300,000 years ago, people would find rocks and use them as tools. It wasn’t long before they found that some rocks could shape other rocks to form useful shapes like axes. But the age of engineered materials is much younger. Whether clay, metal, glass, or more obviously plastics, these materials are significantly more useful than rocks tied to sticks, but making them in the first place is an engineering story all on its own.
Wood, Mud, Clay
The first steps were using wood from trees, including bark and unusual wood like cork, and other plant materials. They used mud, too, and mudworking evolved into ceramics about 26,000 years ago. Pottery was high science in its day. The Corded Ware culture, who spread across Europe around 5,000 years ago, created pottery that they would decorate with rope while it was still wet. When fired, the rope would burn away and leave its imprint in the finished piece. Bone was another early structural element. People today sometimes mimic prehistoric pottery techniques, like the stone-age tech video below.
Copper Days
When the first people stumbled into copper in its elemental form, around 7,500 years ago, people started to shape it into useful implements. About 500 years later, there is evidence people learned to melt copper to help with the shaping process. It would be another 1,000 years before craftsmen started melting copper and casting it. Copper is soft on its own, but by experimentation or accident someone figured out that adding arsenic to copper would make bronze, which was much harder. Even a half percent of arsenic can make a bronze that is 10% harder and stronger than elemental copper. Bump that two percent and the results are even better. Later bronze formulae would employ tin in place of the arsenic, but tin would have to wait for more advanced metallurgy. It took over, though, not because it is much better from a metallurgy standpoint, but smelting and casting arsenic is bad for your health.
Since copper ore often has arsenic in it anyway, this bronze discovery was easy to make. Bronze was used extensively in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America at different times in the distant past. If you have the gear, you can make your own bronze like [Paul] does in the video below. You probably even already have the solder he uses.
Beyond Bronze
Metals beyond bronze would have to wait until about 5,000 years ago when ironworking is thought to have started in earnest, coexisting for a time with bronze, and then eventually replaced by steel. The Iron Pillar of Delhi is the oldest surviving example of corrosion-resistant iron. The pillar is over seven meters tall and is about 1,600 years old. While people in Persia and India learned to create steel, its production was highly specialized and steel wasn’t widely available until the 1800s.
Although the pyramids in Egypt and Central America are impressive, the Greeks and Romans really had a handle on material sciences. It didn’t hurt that the Romans had soil that made it easy to create concrete. The Greeks knew about asbestos and used it for clothing and tablecloths. The upside was to clean them you simply threw them in a fire. The downside was that scholars noted that the slaves mining asbestos didn’t live very long.
Real Engineered Materials
Probably the closest we had to an engineered material for many centuries was glass. Glass has a surprisingly long history. Glass can occur naturally around volcanos and when lightning strikes sand, but it was relatively rare making it very valuable. Archeologists think that glass production started in northern Syria, Mesopotamia, or Egypt. Egyptian glass dates back to about 3100 BC. Molded glass appears in Syria around 1500 BC. Keep in mind there was no Internet and making glass was a closely-guarded secret. By 650 BC, though, a manual was written in cuneiform describing how to create glass. Nearly six centuries later, the Babylonians figured out how to blow glass.
Many people who worked glass didn’t actually make it but acquired it premade as beads, rods, or ingots. Glass ingots have been found onboard ancient shipwrecks such as the Uluburun shipwreck off the coast of Turkey. The 175 colored ingots are the oldest known. Interestingly, the ship also carried a jar full of glass beads along with other raw materials like ten tons of copper and about a ton of tin. This would be sufficient to create about 11 tons of bronze.
One of the great things about glass is that can be heated and remade. This is good for recycling, too, of course. The hotter the glass, the less viscous it is. That means that you can heat glass up to make it very amenable to reshaping and then as it cools you can do more precise manipulations on it as the viscosity increases.
Romans really had glassworking down pat. You can see a recreation of how they made glass pieces in the video below.
Starting about 25 AD, glass really took off. Within a century, it became relatively affordable. This is about the same time people figured out that adding manganese dioxide to glass would render it clear and, as mentioned earlier, the Babylonians learned to blow glass, making production of glass vessels cheaper than many alternatives. Window glass was very poor quality at this time, however.
More Modern Glass
It would be 1674 before George Ravenscroft discovered that adding lead oxide to molten glass made it easier to work and improved the finished appearance. The idea that glassmaking is so old is incredible when you realize that it requires temperatures of around 1700 °C. Today that’s not a big deal, but imagine building such a furnace thousands of years ago, or on that alien planet you are stranded on.
Modern commercial glass uses soda ash to lower the melting point. However, glass made with soda ash had an unfortunate tendency to melt in water. The inclusion of limestone creates soda-lime glass which handles water just fine. In addition, magnesium oxide and aluminum oxide make the glass more durable. The exact additives depend on the use of the glass. While pure glass — fused quartz — would be 100% silica, modern glass is about 70% by weight. There are other processes, too. Pyrex is a brand name for borosilicate glass which is made with boron oxide to give it excellent temperature resistance. Gorilla glass is well-known for durability in cell phones. You can see how that’s made in the video below.
Front of House
Modern glass factories usually have three distinct parts: the batch house, the hot end, and the cold end. The batch house handles the raw materials. As you might expect, the hot end melts down the sand and other raw materials to create glass. The cold end treats, inspects, and post processes the glass products.
Sheet glass is made using a float process. A metallic liquid — usually tin — holds the molten glass until it hardens. Tin works well because it has a high specific gravity and doesn’t mix with the molten glass. However, oxygen causes problems with tin dioxide production, so the process is usually done in a nitrogen atmosphere. This produces a very flat and uniform sheet. Prior to the invention of the float glass process, sheet glass was made by blowing cylinders, cutting them, and flattening them out, among other methods.
As you can imagine, this wasn’t very effective. The tin bath self-levels and the glass forms a perfectly smooth and evenly thick ribbon. As the glass flows, the tin bath’s temperature is cooled from 1100 °C to about 600 °C. Then the glass can be picked off with rollers. The speed of the rollers and the flow speed create different thicknesses of glass. Cooling through a special kiln anneals the glass and it is later cut into sheets of the desired size.
One Word… Plastics
We haven’t even gotten to plastics, but since most people know about them, that’s not a problem. Plastics as we know them date back to 1907, so they are in the same age bracket as radio and computers. Sure, there were some naturally occurring plastic materials or materials like rubber that could be processed into useful forms: mesoamericans, for example, used natural rubber for balls. Some early plastics were made from milk, which is a common science experiment for kids, even today.
The first synthetic plastic wasn’t bakelite, although that was the first fully synthetic plastic. The first was in 1855 when [Alexander Parkes] reduced cellulose with nitric acid to form Parkesine which saw some use as fake ivory. In the late 1800s, several milk-based plastics appeared. Widespread plastic use didn’t really start, however, until after World War I. Many common plastics like PET and polypropylene didn’t appear until the 1940s and 1950s.
Next Time
Next time you want to imagine being stranded on a low tech planet and setting yourself up as king, think about all the materials you take for granted as a citizen of a technological civilization. (And read the second book in Harry Harrison’s Deathworld trilogy for a more practical take on the scenario.) Wire, fasteners, pressure-treated lumber, sheet metal, plastics, adhesives, solder. We stand on the shoulders of giants so tall, we hardly notice they are there.
If you do find yourself on Harrison’s planet, maybe save time and just build a 3D printer. Then you can
mold glass
. But then you’ll need motors and controllers. That takes wire and metal contacts and resistors and… well… we didn’t say it was going to be easy. Then again, solar heat and sand
can make glass
without too much tech. | 33 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409033",
"author": "Ingo",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T18:21:19",
"content": "…ten tons of copper and about a ton of tin. This would be sufficient to create about 11 tons of bronze.I like it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6409... | 1,760,372,844.57336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/stencil-vacuum-assist-helps-avoid-the-heartbreak-of-smeared-solder-paste/ | Stencil Vacuum-Assist Helps Avoid The Heartbreak Of Smeared Solder Paste | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"jig",
"smd",
"solder paste",
"stencil",
"vacuum"
] | While using a stencil should make solder paste application onto PCBs a simple affair, there are a number of “gotchas” that make it more art than science. Luckily, there are tools you can build, like
this 3D-printed vacuum-assist stencil jig
, that take a little of the finesse out of the process.
For those who haven’t had the pleasure, solder paste stencils are often used to make the job of applying just the right amount of solder paste onto the pads of a PCB, and only on the pads. The problem is that once the solder paste has been squeegeed through the holes in the stencil, it’s not easy to remove the stencil without smearing. [Marius Heier]’s stencil box is essentially a chamber that attaches to a shop vac, along with a two-piece perforated work surface. The center part of the top platform is fixed, while the outer section moves up and down on 3D-printed springs.
In use, the PCB is placed on the center fixed platform, while the stencil sits atop it. Suction pulls the stencil firmly down onto the PCB and holds it there while the solder paste is applied. Releasing the suction causes the outer section of the platform to spring up vertically, resulting in nice, neat solder-covered pads. [Marius] demonstrates the box in the video below, and shows a number of adapters that would make it work with different sized PCBs.
If you think you’ve seen a manual vacuum stencil box around here recently, you’re right —
we featured one by [UnexpectedMaker]
not too long ago. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409036",
"author": "Alexander Wikström",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T18:27:03",
"content": "Personally I prefer using a magnetic chuck. The stainless steel stencils are fairly often magnetic and will sit firmly in place and are easy to just peel off without any smearing.Vacuum chucks ... | 1,760,372,844.506744 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/the-dreamcast-legacy/ | The Dreamcast Legacy | Matthew Carlson | [
"Featured",
"Games",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"dreamcast",
"gaming consoles",
"sega"
] | The Dreamcast is a bit of an odd beast. Coming on the heels of the unpopular Sega Saturn, the Dreamcast was meant to be a simple console built with off-the-shelf parts and released in late 1998. The Nintendo 64 was already tough competition (1996). Ultimately, the Dreamcast fell out of the public eye in the early 2000s as the Playstation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube were all released with incredible fanfare just a few years later. In some sense, Sega’s last console is a footnote in gaming history.
But despite not achieving the success that Sega hoped for, the Dreamcast has formed a small cult following, because as we know, nothing builds a cult-like following like an untimely demise. Since its release, it has gained a reputation for being ahead of its time. It was the first console to include a modem for network play and an easy storage solution for transferring game data between consoles via the VMUs that docked in the controllers. It had innovative and classic games such as
Crazy Taxi
,
Jet Set Radio
,
Phantasy Star Online
, and
Shenmue
.
Microsoft even released a version of Windows CE with DirectX allowing developers to port PC games to the console quickly.
We see our fair share of console hacks here on Hackaday, but what is the ultimate legacy of the Dreamcast? How did it come to be? What happened to it, and why did so much of Sega’s hopes ride on it?
Opportunity in the Video Game Crash of 1983
The Dreamcast was Sega’s last actual console, marking the end of an eighteen-year-long march of Sega home consoles. But why was this the last console? Why did so much of Sega’s hopes ride on this one piece of hardware? To understand that, we need to go back to the console wars. An excellent resource for this is the book
Console Wars by Blake Harris
, which tells the story (with some artistic liberties) of the former Mattel VP
Tom Kalinske
and his journey as CEO of Sega of America during the Saturn and the Genesis. The
video game crash of 1983 in America
wiped out US companies like Atari, leaving the door open for the likes of Japanese companies such as Nintendo and Sega.
Before 1979, games were primarily made by companies exclusively for their console. This all changed with Activision, a company formed by former Atari employees upset that their names wouldn’t appear in the credits of a game. After that, third-party developers exploded out of nowhere, and by 1983 everyone was trying to get in on the gold rush.
The market became confused and saturated to the point that people stopped buying games and retailers stopped carrying them. Even the more prominent third-party game developers often had the same game for different platforms with massive differences in quality and graphics. Games with the same name by the same developer varying drastically led to customer confusion. The American video game market was a mess.
Enter Nintendo. Nintendo was determined not to make the same mistakes and sought to reel in third-party developers. They established firm contracts that prevented developers from moving their games to other platforms and ensuring each game released on the console met their quality standard. This led to tremendous success, quickly locking most console developers into tight contracts and commanding almost the entire US console market by 1986.
So when Sega tried to market their Genesis system in the US (1989), most developers had exclusive contracts with Nintendo. Tom Kalinske of Sega USA set out to create a new title to re-launch the Genesis, called “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Combined with clever marketing, seeking out new developers who previously didn’t make console games, and a cut in the price for the console, Sega went on to out-sell the NES (released 1985), breaking Nintendo’s complete dominance of the home video game console market in the US at the time. Even when the SNES debuted to the international market (in 1991), the Sega Genesis out-sold it two-to-one in 1991. By January 1992, Sega controlled 62% of the home console market — the first time Nintendo was not the dominant leader since 1985.
So Sega of the early 1990s was at this incredible high, a literal market leader with a promising future. However, cracks were beginning to show. Sega of Japan wanted to move to the new Saturn console in the summer of 1995, despite complaints from Sega of America that the current Genesis was still selling just fine. The console launched to high praise. But, ultimately, underwhelming machine performance, a small game library, and a problematic launch schedule led to the Saturn being less than the stellar success Sega needed.
A Last Hope: A Dreamcast
Just four years after the Saturn was released, they released the Dreamcast in 1998. Market leaders just three years ago, they were now the third-place company. In addition, a price war with Sony’s PlayStation had caused Sega to lower the price on the Saturn to match it, despite the Saturn having much more expensive custom components.
This drained Sega’s coffers, which meant that the Dreamcast would have to be designed around off-the-shelf hardware. The decision to include a modem (at an estimated $15 extra cost to the BOM) becomes all the more interesting in this light.
Despite a disappointing launch in Japan, the extra time leading up to the North American launch allowed Sega of America to develop more games for the Dreamcast. Sega smoothed retail relations, and retailers started stocking more inventory in hopes of a successful launch. The Dreamcast sold over 225,000 units in under 24 hours and over 500,000 over the next few weeks. Europe showed similar sales figures. By Christmas of 1999, Sega had climbed to 31% of the North American market share. It seemed as though bright days were ahead for Sega. The dark shadow of the Saturn had passed, and they would regain their standing. But the console market moved faster.
Sony announced the PlayStation 2, Nintendo began to hype their fantastic next-gen console, and Microsoft announced their intention to join the console wars. Electronic Arts, a long-standing Sega partner, announced it wouldn’t develop games for the Dreamcast. As a result, Sega had to cut R&D budgets and shut down some of the online servers that powered the Dreamcast’s online experience. On January 31st, 2001, Sega declared itself to be a software-only shop and cut the price of the Dreamcast to sell off any remaining inventory. Game releases continued until 2002, and they continued to repair consoles until 2007. The innovative dial-up
SegaNet
, an internet provider, geared towards Dreamcast systems, shut its doors in 2003.
The Legacy
So, where does that leave the Dreamcast? It is a buried relic of the past, held aloft by the promises of what it could have been: powerful hardware and an online gaming experience that never found the widespread adoption that consoles today enjoy. Ultimately, it just couldn’t compete with the next generation of consoles: Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube.
While most of the hacking love goes to the more popular consoles, we still see some exciting and unique hacks on the Dreamcast here at Hackaday. The
RAM has been augmented to 32MB
, and
folks have brought the online experience back with a Raspberry Pi
. There are still a few Dreamcast fans out there, and they’re going to keep hacking.
[Editor’s note: we corrected a few things about the timeline that could be confusing to readers]. | 48 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408988",
"author": "Steven Clark",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T15:53:36",
"content": "Sega had this weird problem with the Genesis and Saturn where their console could succeed in Japan or the US but not both. Of course the Genesis having any chance at all in the US probably stems fro... | 1,760,372,844.659128 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/you-can-3d-print-a-working-reciprocating-steam-engine/ | You Can 3D Print A Working Reciprocating Steam Engine | Lewin Day | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"pressure cooker",
"slide valve engine",
"steam engine"
] | 3D prints aren’t typically known for their heat resistance. However, [Integza] noted that using the right techniques, it was possible to 3D print parts that could handle steam heat without failing. Thus, the natural progression from there was to build
a piston-type steam engine.
The sliding valve alternately feeds steam to each side of the piston.
Resin prints are key here, as the melting point of such parts is much higher than that of those turned out by typical FDM printers. Try this same build using PLA for the hot parts, and you’ll quickly end up with a pile of molten goo.
To make such an engine work, valves are required to allow steam to flow into alternating sides of the piston to let it reciprocate continuously. A simple slide valve is used, allowing steam to flow to one side of the piston and the other alternately, as driven by an arm coming off the flywheel attached to the engine’s output shaft.
Tested on compressed air and steam, the engine ran continuously, chugging away enthusiastically. However, steam performance was compromised by the low pressure output of just 1.5 bar from [Integza]’s pressure cooker. Similarly, the cooker’s steam capacity was low, so the engine ran for just 15 seconds.
However, it suggests that with a better supply of steam, the printed steamer could indeed run for some time. If you’re not into the wetter engines out there, though, consider
extruding a Stirling engine instead
. Video after the break. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6409019",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T17:21:21",
"content": "But water is flammable!(under certain circumstances) B^)https://gizmodo.com/chlorine-trifluoride-the-chemical-that-sets-fire-to-as-1715935811",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,372,844.829377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/22/linux-for-the-paranoid-does-the-work-for-you/ | Linux For The Paranoid Does The Work For You | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"anonymity",
"linux",
"linux distro",
"tor",
"vpn"
] | We all know that our activity on the Internet is not that hard to track. It just annoys some people more than others. If you are really hardcore, you’ll learn all the ins and outs of networking to help cover your tracks, but what if you don’t want to invest that kind of time? Maybe, as [TechRepublic] suggests, try
Kodachi Linux
.
You could, of course, start with your own live image. Then when you boot, you could take the following steps:
Randomize your MAC Address
Establish a TOR connection through a VPN
Route all internet traffic through TOR and use DNS encryption
Set up a scheduled task to scramble your MAC address periodically
But that’s what Kodachi does without any real effort on your part.
The distribution is based on Ubuntu, so all the familiar tools are there. There are also a few security and privacy tools included like KeePass, Tox, OnionShare, i2p, and more. The desktop shows a summary of secure network information
Do you need Kodachi? Probably not, if you are a Linux guru. Plus, most people aren’t doing anything that’s that interesting. But if you want to protect your privacy or you are up to something, give Kodachi a try. Then again, if you are that paranoid, maybe that’s just what THEY want you to do. Make your own decisions. You can also check out the video review from [eBuzz Central] below.
Looking for more conventional Linux? Why not
Rocky Linux
? If you just want a VPN, you can always just
use ssh
. | 42 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408936",
"author": "Look At Your Network Traffic FFS",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T10:05:22",
"content": "It’s amazing people thing randomising your mac address can help with much. About the only thing it’s good for is obfuscating your hardware on a local network (public wifi maybe).... | 1,760,372,844.775953 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/shake-with-your-new-robot-hand/ | Shake With Your New Robot Hand | Al Williams | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"linkage",
"robot",
"robotic",
"robotic hand"
] | Korean researchers have created
a very realistic and capable robot
hand that looks very promising. It is strong (34N of grip strength) and reasonably lightweight (1.1 kg), too. There are several videos of the hand in action, of which you can see two of them below including one where the hand uses scissors to cut some paper. You can also read the
full paper
for details.
Like many good projects, this one started with requirements. The team surveyed existing hands noting the positives and negatives of each design. They then listed the attributes they wanted in a new design.
The 22 cm hand has 4 fingers, a thumb, and sensors on each fingertip. Overall, there are 20 joints resulting in 15 degrees of freedom so the hand is very dexterous. The construction looks taxing with eccentric motors, ball screws, and linkages. However, the hand is self-contained and ready to mount on any robot arm.
We were especially interested in one video where the hand used tweezers to place small parts. Could this be the figure of pick and place?
If you want to dabble in linkage design, we have
just the CAD package for you
. If you need more robot mechanisms to play with, there are
plenty out there
to study, duplicate, and modify. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408935",
"author": "Sweeney",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T09:39:17",
"content": "I can’t see this being used on conventional robot arms, to fiddly and complicated (hence expensive to build), but in prosthetics…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,844.70322 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/laser-sees-through-keyhole/ | Laser Sees Through Keyhole | Al Williams | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"Imaging",
"laser",
"nlos imaging"
] | Those guys at Stanford must be watching a lot of James Bond movies. Their latest invention is
a laser that can image an entire room through a keyhole
. We imagine that will show up in a number of spy movies real soon now. You can
see the code
or watch the video below.
The technique is called NLOS or non-line-of-sight imaging. Previous approaches require scanning a large area to find indirect light from hidden objects. This new approach uses a laser to find objects that are moving. The indirect data changes based on the movement and an algorithm can reverse the measurements to determine the characteristics of the object.
If you are worried about the neighborhood peeping Tom, you can probably relax. The recovered images are amazing, but not particularly high-quality. Still, considering they were made indirectly, they are great, but you are not going to make out fine details.
As you might expect, the work is computationally intensive. The GitHub repository has Python code as well as data you can use if you don’t want to build your own laser setup. You can use CUDA to speed up the computations if you have a GPU with enough memory.
NLOS imaging
isn’t exactly new, but there are still new ways to do it waiting to be found. We love novel uses of lasers. We’ve seen
laser logic gates
. We still want to try
the laser oven
. | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408884",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T03:20:19",
"content": "Cool!That should bring in the government funding!So… is the beam continous? That would make it difficult to read the reflection, I imagine the 3rd reflection is many orders of... | 1,760,372,844.977681 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/bubble-lights-made-from-scratch/ | Bubble Lights Made From Scratch | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bubble",
"bubble light",
"light"
] | Bubble lights are mesmerizing things to watch, up there with lava lamps as one of the nicer aesthetic creations of the mid-20th century. [Tech Ingredients] decided to head into the lab to whip up some of their own design, taking things up a notch beyond what you’d typically find in a store.
Bubble lights have a liquid inside glass that is held under a vacuum. This reduces the boiling point of the fluid, allowing a small heat input to easily create bubbles that float to the top of the chamber inside. The fluid used inside is also chosen for its low boiling point, with [Tech Ingredients] choosing dichloromethane for safety when using flames to work the glass.
The video shows off the basic glass working techniques required to make the glass bubble tubes, as well as how to build the bases of the bubble lamps that light the fluid up and provide the heat to create bubbles. The use of different materials to create nucleation points for the boiling fluid is also discussed, giving different visual effects in the final result. It’s a great primer on getting started building these beautiful decorations yourself.
Bubbles are pretty things, and with different techniques, we’ve even seen them
used to make displays
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Cliff for the tip!] | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408908",
"author": "none",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T05:35:40",
"content": "> dichloromethane for safetyNasty stuff, not safe",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6408919",
"author": "Micha",
"timestamp": "2021-12-2... | 1,760,372,845.028335 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/make-your-own-chain-link-fencing/ | Make Your Own Chain Link Fencing | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"chain link",
"chain link fence",
"chain link fencing",
"forming tool"
] | If you find yourself in need of chain link fencing, you’d probably just head down to the hardware store. However, [The Q] has shown us that you can make your own at home
with a simple machine.
The build starts with a length of pipe, into which spiral slots are cut with an angle grinder. This pipe is the forming tool which shapes the wire into the familiar chain-link design. The pipe is then welded onto a backing plate, and fitted with a removable handcrank that turns a flat bar. Feed wire into the spiral groove, turn the crank, and out comes wire in the shape required.
From there, formed lengths of wire can be linked up into a fence of any desired size. Of course, fastening each end of the fence is left as an exercise for the reader, and the ends are sharp and unfinished. However, if you don’t like the chain link fencing on sale at your local hardware store, or you want to weave your own in some fancy type of wire, this machine could be just the thing you need.
We’ve seen similar designs before too, but on
more of a doll-house scale
. Video after the break. | 22 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408873",
"author": "Brian W",
"timestamp": "2021-12-22T00:20:37",
"content": "Woah. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never taken a second to think about how chain link fence is made. That’s pretty cool, and deceptively simple-looking.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,372,846.947357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/li-ion-battery-low-level-intricacies-explained-excellently/ | Li-ion Battery Low-Level Intricacies Explained Excellently | Arya Voronova | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"Chemistry",
"lithium battery",
"lithium ion",
"Lithium-ion battery"
] | There’s a lot of magic in Lithium-ion batteries that we typically take for granted and don’t dig deeper into. Why is the typical full charge voltage 4.2 V and not the more convenient 5 V, why is CC/CV charging needed, and what’s up with all the fires?
[The Limiting Factor] released a video that explains the low-level workings of Lithium-ion batteries
in a very accessible way – specifically going into ion and electron ion exchange happening between the anode and the cathode, during both the charge and the discharge cycle. The video’s great illustrative power comes from an impressively sized investment of animation, script-writing and narration work – [The Limiting Factor] describes the effort as “16 months of animation design”, and this is no typical “whiteboard sketch” explainer video.
This is 16 minutes of pay-full-attention learning material that will have you glued to your screen, and the only reason it doesn’t explain every single thing about Lithium-ion batteries is because it’s that extensive of a topic, it would require a video series when done in a professional format like this. Instead, this is an excellent intro to help you build a core of solid understanding when it comes to Li-ion battery internals, elaborating on everything that’s relevant to the level being explored – be it the SEI layer and the organic additives, or the nitty-gritty of the ion and electron exchange specifics. We can’t help but hope that more videos like this one are coming soon (or as soon as they realistically can), expanding our understanding of all the other levels of a Li-ion battery cell.
Last video from [The Limiting Factor] was an 1-hour banger
breaking down all the decisions made in a Tesla Battery Day presentation
in similarly impressive level of detail, and we appreciate them making a general-purpose insight video – lately, it’s become clear we need to go more in-depth on such topics. This year, we’ve
covered a great comparison between supercapacitors and batteries
and suitable applications for each one of those, as well as explained
the automakers’ reluctance to make their own battery cells
. In 2020, we did
a breakdown of alternate battery chemistries
that aim to replace Li-ion in some of its important applications, so if this topic catches your attention, check those articles out, too!
Thanks to [Kelvin Green] for the tip! | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408840",
"author": "Mike Massen, Perth, Western Australia",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T19:48:50",
"content": "Excellent, good post – timely also as locals I meet often at cafes, curious where we are going with Li Ion and solid state advances too,Thanks",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,372,847.156987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-with-the-hole-y-keyboard/ | Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Hole-y Keyboard | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Atari 130XE",
"kleks",
"restomod",
"Varityper"
] | Can a keyboard get any more aerodynamic than this? Probably not.
According to Google Translate,
kleks
is Polish for (and I’m cherry-picking definitions here) the word ‘splash’. Well,
[
deʃhipu
]’s hole-ful and soulful Kleks Keyboard
certainly made a splash with me. [
deʃhipu
] knows what I’m talking about. As I said in
Discord
, I just love the look of those holes. They’re purely aesthetic and do a nice job of showing off [
deʃhipu
]’s routing skills.
One might argue that those holes also functional in that they increase aerodynamics and remove a not-insignificant amount of weight for travel considerations. But yeah, they mostly are there to look cool. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the two halves are joined with a series of soldered stitches that are made from a [ggconnector] bent into a u-shape. Now it’s a toss-up as to which is my favorite feature.
It seems that [
deʃhipu
] is never completely satisfied by this or that keyboard build, and that’s okay. That’s normal. That is . . . a big part of what this hobby is all about. Because honestly, what would be the fun in finding The One? We wonder what will happen when the droplets settle. Will [
deʃhipu
] be satisfied with the Kleks, or will those stylish holes become un-fillable voids?
The Kinesis Advantage360 is Finally Almost Here
After months of teaser tweets featuring frustratingly-framed macro shots of a render,
a real update with full-body shots is finally here
. The Kinesis Advantage360 will be available for pre-order as of December 20th. Sad to say, I was not chosen for their beta testing program, and I doubt there’s money in the budget for me to upgrade from my 20-year-old original Advantage, so I’ll just have to pore over the page and pretend.
Image via
Kinesis
So it’s gonna come in two flavors — the 360 and the 360 Professional. The 360 is USB-C and uses Kinesis’ SmartSet on-board programming, whereas the Professional is Bluetooth, runs on ZMK, and has white-only blinkenlights. Aside from these upgrades, the biggest change is obviously the move to a two-piece split. Are you used to a monoblock split and need training wheels? There’s a bridge piece included that puts the halves at standard Advantage distance apart. It would be nice if the bridge was adjustable so that you could play with the distance and/or move the keyboard around on the desk and not worry about lining the halves up again. One thing you can adjust is the tenting, which has three different heights.
This one is almost a dealbreaker for me — there are no dedicated Function keys anymore because they’re on a layer like the ten-key has always been. On the upside, there are two new pinky keys, which honestly is probably enough F keys for me. There are also four new hot keys labeled 1-4 if you want more F keys on the base layer.
For now, it looks like both models only come with browns. Kinesis have switched from Cherry to Gateron after all this time, and I’m not sure I’m down with that, especially considering how much they are asking for these keyboards. However, Kinesis partnered with Upgrade Keyboards who will customize the switches if you buy one from them beginning in late 2022. I’ve always wanted a Kinesis with blues, but I think I’ll stick to hacking on an old Advantage.
Historical Clackers: the Varityper
The Varityper in its later mechanical years. Image via
The Classic Typewriter Page
[Nick Bodley] wrote to me personally (thanks, Nick!) to tip me off to the Varityper typesetter. This bad boy sprouted from the Hammond typewriter mechanism and was known for its interchangeable typefaces, which made it a great early tool for graphic design.
This website has a lot of information and examples of what it could do
.
[Nick] thinks they were all a bit ugly (the machines, not the typefaces), but that is probably because of all the improvements over the years that seem to have been slapped on top of the original design. The Varityper pictured here is from 1937, after the company changed hands and the machine had undergone some 3,000 modifications (
so the story goes
).
One big problem with the Varityper was the geometry of the font elements, which were were shaped like half-circles. After a few years, these would become unevenly worn from use, and all the characters on the edges would lose their crispness and become almost useless. In later years, the Varityper made a major change from an electro-mechanical machine to a computerized phototypesetter that flashed the characters’ images onto photographic paper.
ICMYI: Atari 130XE Keyboard Goes Mechanical
Sometimes it’s a tough call. Should [Bertrand] have restored that beloved childhood peripheral to its original, albeit unsatisfying mushy membrane glory (if you even can call it that)? We say no way. [Bertrand] absolutely did the right thing by
upgrading the keyboard of his Atari 130XE to mechanical switches
while keeping the stock keycaps.
[Bertrand] pulled off this hack by 3D printing new stems for every Kailh box pink that replaced a pair of membrane contacts. The business end can be used with either variant of Atari keycaps from that era. Of course, this also required a new PCB and an adapter board, but those were no trouble for [Bertrand]. Be sure to check this project out, because it was fully intended to be reproduced.
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
. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408844",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T20:01:01",
"content": "Maybe the holes in the PCB are useful for storing change for the vending machine?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "64088... | 1,760,372,847.04909 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/where-the-rubber-meets-the-computer/ | Where The Rubber Meets The Computer | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"metamaterials",
"rubber"
] | If you ever get a chance to go to Leiden, take it. It is a beautiful little city that hides some high-power university research. It also boasts the world’s first
rubber computer
. You won’t be running
Crysis
on it anytime soon, though. The fledgling computer has memory and can count to two — really more of a state machine. It is easier to watch the video below than try to fully explain it. Or you can read through
the actual paper
.
If you watch the video, you’ll see that deformation in the corrugated rubber structure is apparently repeatable and represent bits in the machine. Pressing and releasing pressure on the structure forms both input and clock and it is possible for the material to go from state A to B on compression, but when you release pressure, it reaches state C. The compression and the angle of the pressure allow for different input conditions. One example rubber state machine counts how many times you compress the piece of rubber.
What do you do with a piece of smart rubber? We don’t know. Maybe if you wanted shoes to count steps so you could transmit the count once a minute to save on battery? The researchers have admitted they don’t have any specific applications in mind either, but presume someone will want to use their work.
Of course, the video’s title: “The Rubber Computer” is a bit of hyperbole, but we can forgive it. Most people wouldn’t get “The Rubber Finite State Machine.” While mechanical computing might seem a bit passe, turns out
at the molecular level
it may become very important. Besides, you can make
a computer out of cardboard
(or
simulate that computer in an FPGA
or spreadsheet, if you prefer). | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408783",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T16:33:45",
"content": "Is it Oring complete ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6408796",
"author": "cliff claven",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T17:04:56",
... | 1,760,372,846.891647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/plastics-photopolymers-for-3d-printing-and-beyond/ | Plastics: Photopolymers For 3D Printing And Beyond | Dan Maloney | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"Chemistry",
"polymer",
"sla"
] | Chances are good that if you’ve done any 3D printing, it was of the standard fused deposition modeling variety. FDM is pretty simple stuff — get a bit of plastic filament hot enough, squeeze the molten goo out of a fine nozzle, control the position of the nozzle more or less precisely in three dimensions, and repeat for hours on end until your print is done. To the outsider it looks like magic, but to us it’s just another Saturday afternoon.
Resin printing is another thing altogether, and a lot closer to magic for most of us. The current crop of stereolithography printers just have a high-resolution LCD display between a UV light source and a build tank with a transparent bottom. Prints are built up layer by layer by flashing UV light patterns into the tank as a build plate slowly lifts it up from the resin, like some creature emerging from the primordial goo.
Of course it’s all just science, but if there is any magic in SLA printing, surely it’s in the resins used for it. Their nondescript brown plastic bottles and information-poor labels give little clue as to their ingredients, although their hydrocarbon reek and viscous, sticky texture are pretty good clues. Let’s take a look inside the resin bottle and find out what it is that makes the magic of SLA happen.
The Basics
A good basis for understanding the chemical processes behind stereolithography resins is the polymerization of methylmethacrylate (MMA) into polymethylmethacrylate, also known as PMMA or simply acrylic. While formulations for SLA resins vary, many of them are based on acrylates, so the chemistry here is directly applicable to a lot of resins, as are the general principles.
The polymerization of methylmethacrylate is what’s known as a free-radical reaction. It works because MMA has a double bond between two of its carbon atoms, as well as a nearby ester group — the group with two oxygens, one of them in a double bond. The electronic structure of these two groups makes the double-bonded carbon susceptible to reduction, which is the gain of an electron.
Free-radical polymerization of MMA into PMMA. The ring structure is the initiator, which reduces the carbon-carbon double bond in MMA monomer. That creates another free radical, which reduces another MMA, and so on.
Under normal circumstances, MMA monomers don’t react with each other because there are no free electrons floating around to reduce the carbon-carbon double bond. To get MMA to polymerize, an initiator — in this case, benzoyl peroxide — needs to be added to the mix. An initiator is a chemical compound that provides unpaired electrons, or free radicals. Once radicals are present, they bind to the carbon by reducing the double bond. The product of this first reaction will have its own unpaired electron, which can then go on and reduce the double bond in another MMA monomer, and so on. The production of a free radical product after initiation is the key to free-radical polymerization.
So it stands to reason that a bottle of SLA resin will contain monomers of MMA and an initiator of some sort. But what keeps the monomers from just polymerizing in the bottle? If the initiator was something like the benzoyl peroxide used in the example above, that’s exactly what would happen. So to be useful for SLA work, the resin mix has to contain an initiator that can remain inert in the mix until it’s needed.
Kicking Things Off
This is where photoinitiators come into play. Where an initiator like benzoyl peroxide will readily decompose into free radicals with the application of a little heat, photoinitiators need a little more coaxing. Hundreds of different photoinitiators have been developed by chemical companies over the years, each tailored to the specific set of monomers to be polymerized as well as to industrial needs, such as the efficiency of free radical formation, toxicity, and even odors imparted on the finished product. But they all share the common trait of being inactive until they are exposed to light of the correct wavelength.
A good example of a photoinitiator is 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone, mercifully abbreviated to DMPA and sold under the trade name IRGACURE 651 by Ciba. The compound has two benzene rings joined by a two-carbon chain. One of the carbons in the linker section is double-bonded to oxygen, forming a ketone functional group. When photons of the right wavelength — DMPA has absorption peaks are 250 nm and 340 nm — hit the ketone group, it becomes excited to the point where an electron is knocked off. Through a series of intermediate steps in which the spare electron is shuffled around to different atoms, the linker section of the molecule breaks in a process called α-cleavage. This leaves behind a stable species — methylbenzoate — plus two free radicals that can initiate polymerization.
DMPA (left) decomposes into methylbenzoate and two free radicals (right) through intermediate steps when exposed to UV light. Source: from Squidonius, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Tapping the Brakes
The mechanism of photopolymerization begs a question: how does the UV light in an SLA printer not just polymerize the whole tank of resin at once? It seems like that would be a problem, since polymerization is basically a chain reaction once initiated. But there are practical limits to the reaction, for both chemical and physical reasons.
Chemically, the amount of initiator in the resin is typically pretty low — just a few percent of the mix. So there aren’t many places to start the polymerization reaction. Polymerization reactions also tend to undergo chain termination spontaneously, either by having two growing radical chains bind together, or by reduction of a radical chain by contaminants such as oxygen. Some resins even have specific inhibitor compounds added to limit the speed of polymerization. Either way, spontaneous termination keeps the tanks from becoming a solid brick of plastic.
There are also physical reasons for photopolymerization not running wild through the build tank. The UV light coming from the LCD display at the bottom of the tank isn’t particularly strong, and tends to get absorbed by the resin before traveling very far. This is why SLA resins tend not to be heavily pigmented, and why any pigments that are added to the resin have to be carefully selected to not absorb UV light. It’s also why SLA prints need an additional cleaning and curing step after printing; the polymerization that occurs in the tank is incomplete, with unreacted resin remaining inside the print. Bathing the print in high-intensity UV light completes the process and hardens the print.
Filling Up on Soy
Between initiators, monomers, pigments, and possibly inhibitors, SLA resins already seem like a witch’s brew of chemicals. But we’re not done yet. Resins rarely just use monomers, instead using a special blend of monomers and oligomers — short chains of pre-polymerized monomers. Adding oligomers into the resin tends to speed up polymerization by giving the growing chains a head start. It also tends to increase the viscosity of the resin, so that it’s not runny and doesn’t slosh around in the build tank and get bubbles.
Another common addition to SLA resins is a cross-linker. Cross-linkers are compounds that can form connections between two or more growing polymer chains. Cross-linking tends to make the polymer chain into more of a matrix structure, lending strength and rigidity to the final product. Cross-linking can also change the properties of the material, and even allows for copolymerization of different types of monomers, like adding urethane to acrylates to add toughness and flexibility.
Some SLA resins also contain filler materials. Fillers are pretty common in plastics — a lot of Schedule 40 PVC pipe contains powdered limestone, for instance. In SLA resins, fillers are added to bulk up the plastic by filling the spaces between the cross-linked strands of polymers. A lot of new “eco-friendly” SLA resins are coming to claiming to be made from soybeans, and while that’s true —
at least for some resins
— there’s still a lot of material in the resin that’s clearly not from soybeans. And the soybean oil that’s in there is really just a filler — without the acrylate monomers and crosslinkers listed or the photoinitiator, the resin would be pretty useless.
Just like mom used to make? Epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO) is used as a plasticizer in many plastics. It’s made by treating polyunsaturated soybean triglycerides with peroxide to convert C=C double bonds to epoxides. Source: from Ed, public domain via
Wikimedia Commons
Not Just for Printing
While we’ve concentrated mainly on SLA printing resins here, that’s far from the only application for photopolymers. If you’ve had a tooth filled any time in the last three decades or so, chances are good that your dentist used a photopolymer containing methacrylate monomers and cured with a fiber optic wand that emits UV light. Printed circuit board manufacturers make wide use of photopolymers, both in the photoresist coatings that are used to etch the boards, and in the solder mask that’s applied to the board. Photopolymers are also used for masking during the photolithographic processes involved in manufacturing integrated circuits. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408784",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T16:34:11",
"content": "The other question is, I wonder how well uv resin works when poured into a mould, perhaps with some sort of reflective inner surface, to cast parts instead of printing them or as part of a post printing pr... | 1,760,372,846.998642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/ground-effect-aerodynamics-on-an-rc-car/ | Ground Effect Aerodynamics On An RC Car | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"f1",
"formula 1",
"ground effect",
"R/C car",
"radio control"
] | Ground effect aerodynamics will return to Formula 1 in a big way in the 2022 season, hopefully washing away the bad taste left in fan’s mouths after the recent controversial season decider. [Engineering After Hours] has experimented with F1 aerodynamics on RC cars before, and decided that it was time to try and implement
a proper ground-effect design himself.
The aim of ground effect aerodynamics is to create a constriction for airflow between the bottom of the car and the ground underneath. This constriction accelerates the flow beneath the car, and as per Bernoulli’s principle, causes a corresponding pressure drop, sucking the car down onto the track. Viscosity also plays a role; from the car’s perspective, the road beneath the vehicle is moving backwards at some speed, pulling on the fluid thanks to the boundary layer on the ground itself. This further helps increase the strength of the effect.
A vacuum-formed undertray complete with side skirts was installed on the RC car in order to generate ground effect downforce. A quick test with a leaf blower indicates the system works, and that the side skirts are a key component.
Lateral acceleration was significantly improved by around 20% in testing with the ground effects installed, though [Engineering After Hours] admits that without a wind tunnel, the results aren’t the most scientific. However, with the undertray being relatively lightweight, we suspect the aero elements are likely providing plenty of benefit without too much of a negative effect on acceleration or handling.
Check out some of the other aero experiments [Engineering After Hours] has undertaken, too
. Video after the break. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408772",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T15:29:25",
"content": "New cars can’t magically wash away a season full of controversial and at times stupendously poor decision making by the race director… Intentional bias/bribe/ or not that sort of result fixing will come... | 1,760,372,846.686377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/21/a-label-maker-that-uses-ai-really-poorly/ | A Label Maker That Uses AI Really Poorly | Orlando Hoilett | [
"Machine Learning",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"artificial intellegence",
"computer vision",
"object detection",
"opencv"
] | [8BitsAndAByte] found herself obsessively labeling items around her house, and, like the rest of the world, wanted to see what simple, routine tasks could be made unnecessarily complicated by using AI. Instead of manually identifying objects using human intelligence,
she thought it would be fun to offload that task to our AI overlords
and the results are pretty amusing.
She constructed a cardboard enclosure that housed a Raspberry Pi 3B+, a Pi Camera Module V2, and a small thermal printer for making the labels. The enclosure included a hole for the camera and a button for taking the picture. The image taken by the Pi is analyzed by the DeepAI DenseCap API which, in theory, should create a label for each object detected within the image. Unfortunately,
it doesn’t seem to do that very well
and [8BitsAndAByte] is left with labels that don’t match any of the objects she took pictures of. In some cases it didn’t even get close, for example, the model thought an apple was a person’s head and a rotary dial phone was a cup. Go figure. It didn’t really seem to bother her though, and she got a pretty good laugh from the whole thing.
It appears the model detects all objects in the image, but only prints the label for the object it was most certain about. So maybe part of her problem is there were just too many objects in the background? If that were the case, you could probably improve the accuracy of the model by placing the object against a neutral background. That may confuse the AI a lot less and possibly give you better results. Or maybe try a
different classifier altogether
? Or don’t. Then you could just use it as a
fun, gag project at your next get-together
. That works too.
Cool project [8BitsAndAByte]! Hey, maybe
this is a sign the world will still need some human intelligence
after all. Who knows?
https://youtu.be/hlpnbiDAdCg | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408707",
"author": "kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T09:18:43",
"content": "The idea is preety interesting, but the AI recognition is hilariously bad.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6408715",
"author": "None"... | 1,760,372,847.203389 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/hydrogen-generation-made-easy/ | Hydrogen Generation Made Easy | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"hho gas",
"hydrogen"
] | Even if you never want to
generate hydrogen
, [Maciej Nowak’s] video (embedded below) is interesting to watch because of the clever way the electrode is formed from stainless steel washers. You’ll need heat shrink tubing, but you ought to have that hanging around anyway. Building the electrode using the techniques in the video results in a lot of surface area which is important for an electrochemical reaction.
A standard rechargeable cell provides power for the generator which resides in a modified plastic bottle. The overall build looks good even though it is all repurposed material.
The chemistry inside is ordinary water and drain cleaner — potassium hydroxide. We don’t need to tell you to be careful with that and also take care of what you do with the explosive gas. We say “explosive” rather than “flammable” because this design doesn’t separate the hydrogen from the oxygen, and the resulting mix is ready to go off. The video shows a few homemade rockets using the fuel and while they aren’t going to the moon, they do pack quite a bit of energy.
We were impressed with how much gas the little bottle produces. We just couldn’t think of a good reason we wanted explosive gas for the holidays. Maybe you want some
coffee
? Or you could experiment with
hydrogen paste
fuels. | 45 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408671",
"author": "elwing",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T06:15:55",
"content": "for his first test, adding soap makes nice bubbles to burn…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6408672",
"author": "Artenz",
"timestamp": "2021-1... | 1,760,372,846.838364 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/the-assassins-teapot-is-a-mischevious-design/ | The Assassin’s Teapot Is A Mischievous Design | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"poison",
"teapot"
] | Many films use a similar trope when it comes to poisoning. The aspiring murderer ingests a drink poured from the same vessel as that given to their intended victim to indicate the liquid is safe to imbibe. The Assassin’s Teapot is a way one could achieve such a ruse, allowing two different liquids to be poured
from what is seemingly a regular teapot, as shown by [Steve Mould].
(Video after the break.)
The trick is simple. Two separate cavities exist within the teapot, exiting via their own paths in the same spout. Each cavity also has an air hole in the top. If the hole for a given cavity is blocked by the pourer’s thumb, the liquid will not flow.
Each cavity can be filled with its own liquid. For example, one can be filled with tea, the other with poisoned tea. The murderer blocks the hole for the poison cavity when pouring their own beverage, delivering tea to their own glass. Then, when pouring for the enemy, the hole for the tea cavity is blocked, and poison is allowed to flow into the glass of one’s target.
The workings are simple; if air cannot flow into the cavity of the teapot to replace liquid flowing out, air pressure will stop the liquid flowing at all. The concept is demonstrated ably by [Steve]’s 2D recreation, letting us visualize the workings of the teapot quite easily.
It also shows a minor flaw in the design, which should be accounted for – if the spout isn’t designed carefully, sometimes flow from one cavity can dribble into the other. Between this and the chance of getting confused about which hole to cover to pour the poison, it would pay to keep some antidote on hand. Or, alternatively, just pour your guests tea instead – they’ll appreciate it!
We’ve seen [Steve] explore similarly interesting liquid vessels before too, such as this simple breakdown of
the workings of the Gluggle Jug
. | 31 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408649",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T03:42:27",
"content": "A way to have tea sweet or black from the same pot, or a mix.Some consider fake chemical “sugar” a poison.How would you like your tea, sugar or poison sir?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,372,847.115679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/concrete-with-3d-printed-foam-forms/ | Concrete With 3D Printed Foam Forms | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed concrete",
"3d printing",
"concrete",
"construction"
] | The latest 3D printing application? Forming concrete. That’s according to a team at ETH Zurich who claims that
construction with foam forms cuts concrete usage up to 70%
. It also offers improved insulation properties. You can see a video about the process, below.
Typical concrete work relies on a form often made with wood, steel, or plastic. That’s easy to do, but hard to make complex shapes. However, if you can create complex shapes you can easily put material where it adds strength and omit material where it doesn’t carry load. Using a robotic-arm 3D print technique, the researchers can lay out prefabricated blocks of foam that create forms with highly complex shapes.
The foam elements go in a conventional wood form and are cast as usual with — in this case — high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete. The resulting structure is strong but lighter than a conventional concrete structure. The foam parts can be left in or removed at the end of the process.
The design required 12 different shapes and 24 individual elements. The 3D printing material is a type of mineral foam made from recycled materials.
We have seen 3D printing
via robotic arm
before. Of course,
3D printing structures
is all the rage lately and we’ve seen it done with concrete many times. | 17 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408630",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2021-12-21T01:34:39",
"content": "Similar things have been done with wood formers for eons in rather complex and impressive shapes, and the forms are reusable/recyclable too… I’m really not sure the robot arm and ‘mineral foam’ (whateve... | 1,760,372,846.749189 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/all-hail-your-new-giant-555-timer-overlord/ | All Hail Your New Giant 555 Timer Overlord | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"555",
"555 timer",
"discrete components",
"replica",
"woodworking"
] | You asked for it, and now you’ve got it. It’s taken more than a decade of accumulated complaining, but this gigantic 555 timer IC has finally gathered enough psychokinetic energy to take corporeal form and demand fealty from the readers of Hackaday.
Or not. The less exciting explanation is that creator [Rudraksha Vegad] was looking for a way to combine his interests in discrete electronic components and woodworking. The result is an incredible build that’s more than just a conversation starter; this
desktop-sized version of the iconic integrated timer circuit is fully functional
. You can even hook it up to a breadboard, assuming you’ve got some alligator clips handy.
Lifting the lid on this wooden “chip” uncovers an intricate hand-wired array of discrete components that stand in for the microscopic goings on inside the real thing. He’s even gone through the trouble of recreating the symbols for the comparators and flip-flops that you’d see in a diagram of a 555 using wooden shapes to elevate their respective components. It might not fit the classical definition, but surely this must count as some form of circuit sculpture.
[Rudraksha] credits several other projects for not just inspiring him to create his own mega 555, but for helping him
wrap his head around the internal workings of everyone’s favorite IC
. Using components he salvaged from old hardware, he says the project ended up being very educational for him. These days, when most makers are more likely to reach for a microcontroller than a logic chip,
spending some quality time with transistors and passives can be quite illuminating
. | 46 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408549",
"author": "ERIC CHAPIN",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T21:03:15",
"content": "Eh can be done with a single 555 timer…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6408568",
"author": "Jace",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T21... | 1,760,372,847.313778 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/window-to-the-world-brings-far-off-places-to-your-home/ | “Window To The World” Brings Far-Off Places To Your Home | Robin Kearey | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"live streaming",
"traveling",
"world map"
] | For those who love travelling around the world, life hasn’t been great for the past two years. World-wide lockdowns and travel restrictions have kept many people stuck inside their own homes when they would rather be jetting off to distant cities. If you’re one of those bothered by
Wanderlust
, [Alex Shakespeare] might have a solution for you: a
window that shows a live image from another location around the world
.
The Window, showing a live feed from Tokyo.
To make the experience as lifelike as possible, [Alex] used an actual window in his London home and mounted a large TV behind it. A wall-mounted map enables him to choose any of five locations by moving a little magnetic plane across the map. LEDs show the available spots, while magnetometers detect the motion of the aircraft. An ESP8266 then instructs a media server to connect to the appropriate livestream, which is subsequently displayed on the TV screen.
All of this is clever enough already, but [Alex] decided to go one step further and added a thermal sensor that detects the location of any persons standing near the display and shifts the image a little when they move. This simulates the perspective of looking out a real window, and should give the image a more life-like quality than if it were simply static.
The whole design is available on [Alex]’s GitHub page, ready to be replicated by anyone who wants to look out over some exotic location. If, instead, you want a way to reminisce about the places you’ve visited in the past, check out
this cool souvenir globe
. We’ve also seen
a neat Google Maps based one
a few years back.
Thanks to [Itay] for the tip. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408595",
"author": "Evan",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T23:13:20",
"content": "Very clever project! Really like what you’ve done!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6408597",
"author": "[EGO]",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T23:18:... | 1,760,372,847.587788 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/know-audio-mixtapes-tape-loops-and-razor-blades/ | Know Audio: Mixtapes, Tape Loops, And Razor Blades | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"analog",
"analogue",
"audio",
"audio tape",
"cassette tape",
"tape deck"
] | In our no-nonsense journey through the world of audio technology we’ve so far have looked at digital audio and the vinyl disk recording. What’s missing? Magnetic tape, the once-ubiquitous recording medium that first revolutionised the broadcast and recording industries in the mid-20th-century, and went on to be a mainstay of home audio before spawning the entire field of personal audio. Unless you’re an enthusiast or collector, it’s likely you won’t have a tape deck in your audio setup here in 2021 and you’ll probably be loading your 8-bit games from SD card rather than cassette, but surprisingly there are still plenty of audio cassettes released as novelties or ephemeral collectables.
The Device That Made The Sound Of The Latter Half Of The 20th Century
“Like a travelling razor blade”, a Blattnerphone steel-strip tape recorder at the BBC in 1937. Douglas Hallam, Jr.,
Public domain
.
The
first magnetic recordings were made directly on metal wires
, but metal fatigues as it bends. By coating a flexible plastic tape in ferrous particles, the same simple technique of laying down an audio signal as variations in the magnetic field could be made smaller, lighter, and more robust. But the key to the format’s runaway success is the technical advancements that differentiate those 1950s machines from their wire recorder ancestors.
Whether it is a humble cassette recorder or a top-end studio multitrack, all tape recorders are very similar. There are two reels that hold the tape: the playback reel that houses the recording, and the take-up reel that stores the tape as it plays in the machine. The take-up reel is lightly driven to run faster than the tape speed, and the playback reel has a slight braking force to keep the tape under tension at all times.
The pinch roller and tape head of a Sony cassette mechanism. Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0.
If the tape is simply pulled past the head by the force on the take-up reel, it will run at a variable speed dictated by the power on the reel and the radius of the tape spooled upon it. It’s important that the tape speed be kept constant, and this is achieved by clamping it between a constant-speed rotating metal roller and a rubber one. This pinch roller regulates the speed, with tape tension maintained on both sides of it by the reel drives. Before the tape passes through the pinch roller, it passes by two or three magnetic read and write heads. First contact is with an erase head, followed by the record and playback heads. In some machines the record and playback are performed by the same head. The heads have adjustable azimuth, which is set such that the gap between the head’s poles is perpendicular to the edge of the tape.
Many tape recorders such as this Sanyo cassette deck had significant switches to repurpose parts of their circuit between play and record. tony_duell,
CC BY 2.0
.
The recording and playback heads are both connected to audio amplifiers. In some inexpensive machines these two amplifiers are the same physical circuit reversed by means of the record/playback switch, but in high quality recorders they will be separate. The erase head is driven by a high-frequency AC signal when recording, with the intent of removing and overwriting any previous recordings.
Magnetic tape is not a linear medium, meaning that the degree to which it can be magnetised is not linearly proportional to the magnetic field applied. But it does have a range where it’s approximately linear, leading engineers to seek ways to keep the audio recording into the linear region and vastly lower the distortion. Originally they used a DC bias with a fixed DC current flowing through the recording head, but later designs used an AC bias in which a high-frequency AC signal several tens of kHz higher than the audio signal is recorded alongside it, the AC being inaudible on playback but having the effect of providing a constant recording level to keep within the linear region of the tape’s magnetic properties. The AC bias is derived from an oscillator that also provides the drive for the tape erase head, and whose frequency and level are set to different values depending on the type of tape medium in use. Different magnetic materials have been used in tape media including iron oxide, chromium dioxide, and finely divided iron particles, and each of those has different magnetic properties and requires a different bias.
The noise reductions chips with the Dolby logo in a Yamaha cassette deck. Retired electrician,
CC0
.
Magnetic tape is an inherently noisy medium, to the extent that the whooshing sound of background noise is clearly audible in a tape recording. If you’re familiar with Dolby Laboratories it may be through their surround-sound encoding for movie theatres and home cinema systems, but it was in analogue recording noise reduction systems that they started.
The original Dolby system
was a set of filters applying companders (amplifiers with a logarithmic response intended to increase the dynamic range) to different frequency bands, which when reversed had the effect of reducing the high frequency noise component of the resulting signal. The consumer version of this was called Dolby B, and it was a standard feature of tape recording equipment from the early 1970s onwards.
Which Tape Is The One For You?
A reel to reel tape recorder was seen as essential enough to be designed into the capsule apartments of Tokyo’s famous Nakagin tower. Dick Thomas Johnson, (
CC BY 2.0
)
For the collector, ther have been a multitude of esoteric tape cartridges and cassettes over the decades, but for the purposes of a Hi-Fi system it’s likely that only two formats will be of interest. The reel-to-reel was the original tape recorder, having as its name suggests a pair of open reels of tape. Consumer and lower-end professional reel-to-reel machines used 1/4 inch wide tape running at a variety of speeds, from 15 inches per second for broadcast quality to 7.5 inches per second as a normal workaday recording medium, and 3.25 inches per second for speech recording. Its extreme ease of editing with a razor blade to cut the tape before splicing with special sticky tape made it a revolution in the broadcast world, and some of us were still doing this in the 1990s.
Perhaps you’ll be more familiar with the cassette tape, a format developed at Philips in the 1960s as a dictation medium but which due to its popularity was developed into a Hi-Fi medium and then through the success of Sony’s Walkman, to the genesis of portable music players. This format takes the two reels, miniaturises them, and encases them in a plastic cassette, with a 0.15 inch wide tape containing four tracks in two stereo pairs moving at 1 7/8 inches per second. That the format could be developed to the point at which such a low tape speed could provide what eventually became a high quality system is a tribute to the work of the many engineers at the competing audio companies of the era who pushed it to its limit.
A 30 or 40-year-old cassette deck will still sound good, and cost you far less than you’d think. waterborough,
Public domain
.
If you hadn’t looked at a tape recorder much more than as a novelty owned by an older relative, then we hope you’ve found something of interest. Perhaps you’d like one for your own stack, and surprisingly it’s still possible to buy brand new cassette recorders in 2020. But while cassette player mechanisms were once manufactured to a very high standard by high-end manufacturers for their own products, now there seems to be only a very small number of different mechanisms manufactured that appear in all new cassette players on the market. There’s a top-loading mechanism that appears in all AliExpress Walkman clones, as well as a slot-loading one that can be found in whatever car cassette players remain available. The Internet will tell you that they are clones of mechanisms made by a Japanese company called Tanashin, makers of budget mechanisms until 2009, and the general consensus is that they are of a very low quality. We would suggest trawling the auction sites and Goodwill stores for a good quality Hi-Fi deck from the late 1980s or early 1990s, buying a replacement belt kit, and
learn how to set up its tape head azimuth
.
Tape recording is obsolete and maybe even irrelevant for audio in 2021; why on earth would you find it of interest? Its cultural impact. It’s fair to say that tape defined the sound of popular musical production since the 1950s. Music moved from set pieces that could be performed live, to studio production masterpieces that depended on months of work to produce a sound unachievable through instruments on their own, and this is because of tape. Before the (tape) Walkman, listening to recorded music was a sit-down-in-the-living-room affair, and now we take portable music for granted. Perhaps a more accessible legacy lies in a more human plane, how many of you have assembled a mixtape? Send your beloved a hand-crafted tape of your current musical choices, with a hand-drawn sleeve for the cassette case, and if you receive one in return play it to death. “I assembled a Spotify playlist for you” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
After this sojourn into obsolete analogue audio we’ll be back on track with our next installment, and this time it’s getting right to the heart of some of the audio world’s more questionable claims. We’re going to look at cables. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408515",
"author": "Piotrsko",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T18:30:51",
"content": "There is a continuous loop play system that uses only 1 reel. Aka 8 tracks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6408524",
"author": "Chris Maple",
... | 1,760,372,847.865591 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/building-ms-dos-from-scratch-like-its-1983/ | Building MS-DOS From Scratch Like It’s 1983 | Robin Kearey | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"assembly language",
"computer history",
"ms-dos",
"PC DOS"
] | Building a complete operating system by compiling its source code is not something for the faint-hearted; a modern Linux or BSD distribution contains thousands of packages with millions of lines of code, all of which need to be processed in the right order and the result stored in the proper place. For all but the most hardcore Gentoo devotees, it’s way easier to get pre-compiled binaries, but obviously
someone
must have run the entire compilation process at some point.
What’s true for modern OSes also holds for ancient software such as MS-DOS. When Microsoft released the source code for several DOS versions a couple of years ago, many people pored over the code to look for weird comments and undocumented features, but few actually tried to compile the whole package.
But [Michal Necasek] over at the OS/2 Museum didn’t shy away from that challenge
, and documented the entirely-not-straightforward process of compiling DOS 2.11 from source.
The first problem was figuring out which version had been made available: although the
Computer History Museum
labelled the package simply as “MS-DOS 2.0”, it actually contained a mix of OEM binaries from version 2.0, source code from version 2.11 and some other stuff left from the development process. The OEM binaries are mostly finished executables, but also contain basic source code for some system components, allowing computer manufacturers to tailor those components to their specific hardware platform.
Compiling the source code was not trivial either. [Michal] was determined to use period-correct tools and examined the behaviour of about a dozen versions of MASM, the assembler likely to have been used by Microsoft in the early 1980s. As it turned out, version 1.25 from 1983 produced code that most closely matched the object code found in existing binaries, and even then some pieces of source code required slight modifications to build correctly. [Michal]’s blog post also goes into extensive detail on the subtle differences between Microsoft-style and IBM-style DOS, which go deeper than just the names of system files (MSDOS.SYS versus IBMDOS.COM).
The end result of this exercise is a modified DOS 2.11 source package that actually compiles to a working set of binaries, unlike the original. And although this does not generate any new code, since binaries of DOS 2.11 have long been available, it does provide a fascinating look into software development practices in an age when even the basic components of the PC platform were not fully standardized. And don’t forget that even today some people still like to develop
new DOS software
. | 52 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408498",
"author": "Setho",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T17:22:58",
"content": "Was it just me or do others with a long memory think that the ideas for MS-DOS were lifted from DEC’s RT-11?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6408507"... | 1,760,372,847.96214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/is-cloud-seeding-good-bad-or-ugly/ | Is Cloud Seeding Good, Bad, Or Ugly? | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"News",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"china",
"cloud seeding",
"rain",
"weather"
] | The Chinese Communist Party celebrated its centenary on the 1st of July, 2021. For such a celebration, clear skies and clean air would be ideal. For the capable nation-state, however, one needn’t hope against the whims of the weather. One can simply control it instead!
A recent paper released by Tsinghua University
indicated that China had used cloud seeding in order to help create nicer conditions for its 100-year celebration. Weather modification techniques have been the source of some controversy, so let’s explore how they work and precisely what it was that China pulled off.
What Is Cloud Seeding?
The basic principle of cloud seeding, using chemicals as nucleation points for precipitation in clouds. Credit: Naomi E Tesla,
CC-BA-SA-4.0
Cloud seeding is a relatively simple process that aims to induce or vary the amount of precipitation that falls from the sky. Various substances can be dispersed into cloud formations, serving as nuclei for ice crystals or water droplets to form. Once reaching a certain size and weight, these then fall to the ground as rain or snow or other forms of precipitation.
A significant variety of methods exist, with silver iodide being a popular choice. This is as the substance bears a similar crystal structure to that of water ice, allowing it to serve as a nucleation point for condensation, helping to form snowflakes in clouds. The material can be delivered directly via aircraft or rockets, or released into updraft airstreams from generators on the ground. Actual amounts of chemical used are quite small, with minimal polluting impact.
The technique is useful, as it allows some level of control over precipitation. It can, in theory, be used to cause clouds to rain over an area, to either make an area wetter when desired, or to remove water from the atmosphere so that later days will be drier. Cloud seeding does rely on the presence of moisture already in the cloud system, however; it cannot cause precipitation where no atmospheric water exists.
China’s Applications
As reported by the
South China Morning Post
, the recent research document indicated evidence that cloud seeding had been used in the days leading up to the centenary celebrations. In the lead up, local air pollution levels were high, despite reported efforts by Chinese officials to close heavily-polluting factories ahead of time. Low winds in the area were cited as a possible complicating factor that was preventing the pollution from clearing.
Researchers claimed that a cloud-seeding operation had occurred for two hours on the day prior to the ceremony, with reports of rockets being fired into the sky from residents in the area. The paper asserts that the rockets spread silver iodide particles into the clouds to create rainfall ahead of the event.
The paper also indicated an improvement in PM 2.5 particulate levels, significantly improving the air quality readings from “moderate” to “good” in the affected area. The paper notes that they found little evidence of anything other than artificial rainfall that would be responsable for the better air.
Easily-accessible online data
from the area is difficult to compare, as the results are averaged over a full 24 hours. However, a small drop is noted from June 29 through to July 1.
Often referred to as “blueskying,” the weather modification method has been used in similar ways before, such as
during the 2008 Beijing Olympics
. In fact, China’s history with cloud seeding goes all the way back to early efforts in 1958 to help bring rains to agricultural areas in the north of the country.
Since then, China has invested heavily, with the country’s weather modification organizations reportedly employing
over 35,000 people
, including everyone from meteorologists to simple farmers, charged with
firing shells into the atmosphere
bearing silver iodide or other seeding agents.
So What’s The Problem?
A Royal Malaysian Air Force plane loads up with water and sodium chloride for cloud seeding, hoping to generate rain to combat smog from forest fires. Credit: Getty Images
There are plenty of benefits to getting rain on command – water for crops, rain to help remove particulate pollution from the air, or even just keeping rivers flowing in periods of drought. However, the practice of cloud seeding has drawn some controversy, due to the potential for either deliberate or unintended negative outcomes.
China has already put forth bold plans, and hopes to one day divert water vapor in the skies above the Yangtze River Basin to fill the drier Yellow River basin in the country’s north. The hope is to shift up to 5 billion cubic meters of water annually to where it’s needed.
However, projects on such a large scale could easily effect water that would typically fall in other regions. Fears are that south-east Asia and India could be affected, if rain is directed to fall where it suits China best instead. Outlets like the
Times of India
openly speculate that this could have serious affects on India’s rainfall, and thus its vital water supply.
Cloud seeding already has a history of being used with less-than-pure intentions in the past. United States forces infamously implemented Operation Popeye
during the Vietnam War
, a cloud-seeding operation with direct military goals. The project hoped to maintain rainfall on the strategically-vital Ho Chi Minh Trail, such that the dirt roads would turn to mud and break the Vietcong’s supply lines. The project began in 1967 and lasted until 1972, with pilots seeding clouds with silver or lead iodide from canisters spewing chemical-laden smoke into the air.
Cloud seeding equipment as fitted to a Piper Cheyenne II light aircraft. Credit: Getty Images
The results were mixed, and secrecy around the project means that it’s hard to determine exactly what Operation Popeye achieved. However, after it was revealed to the public in the 1970s, it quickly led to the establishment of the Environmental Modification Convention, which aimed to ban the use of weather modification for military aims.
It’s also been cited that cloud seeding may have been used
in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster
, aiming to cause rain to help remove nuclear fallout from the atmosphere before the radioactive cloud reached Moscow itself. The assertion has repeatedly been denied by authorities, but it’s another example of how weather and rainfall could be manipulated for better or for worse.
Meanwhile, small and large cloud seeding projects go on around the world on a regular basis. Some
are for research
, others hope
to break droughts
, and some even want
to fight fires
.
A Controversial Technology
Like many technologies, cloud seeding is as controversial as the way in which it is used. The problem, however, is that the results of cloud seeding are so diffuse and difficult to quantify that it can be hard to police or even accurately measure its effects.
It’s entirely possible to fire a bunch of chemicals into a cloud, and measure how much rain falls in the immediate aftermath. The cloud may have rained anyway, and controlling for this effect is difficult because cloud seeding relies on the humidity being in the air in the first place. The downstream effects are similarly murky. A country may run some experiments or programs to seed clouds in their own territory, but proving that this causes a drought 1,000 miles away would be incredibly difficult.
Regardless, humans have always wished to control the world around them, and weather modification is just another way to do just that. With any technology, expect to see it used and misused in equal measure going forward. Only when we truly understand the effects, can we make sure that we see more of the former, and less of the latter. | 34 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408485",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T15:54:27",
"content": "Like all scientific discoveries/accomplishments, cloud seeding should be used only when appropriate. Exceptionally bright blue LEDs have become the modern day bane of consumers because a single scientific... | 1,760,372,847.662263 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/an-all-in-one-cube-pc-for-a-1990s-that-never-quite-happened/ | An All In One Cube PC For A 1990s That Never Quite Happened | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"cube pc",
"homemade pc",
"luggable",
"pc"
] | When a particular device or appliance is evoked, there comes with it a set of expectations over what it might look like. A toaster, a camera, a washing machine, or a PC, will all have their own accepted form factors, and it’s rare that a manufacturer is adventurous enough to venture outside them. In the world of PCs there was a brief flowering of this type of creativity through the 1990s,
and it’s that time which [ikeji]’s cube PC squarely fits in
. It’s a 3D printed PC with a built-in display, keyboard, and printer, and while some might categorize it as a cyberdeck we’d say it goes further, we could easily imagine a slightly more polished version being an object of desire back when a powerful machine carried an 80486.
Inside it’s no slouch, packing an AMD Ryzen 7 Pro on a Mini-ITX motherboard, and while the display is a mere 7-incher it fits neatly behind the fold-down keyboard. The thermal printer is maybe more of a toy, but it’s good to find that even a bleeding-edge motherboard still has a serial port on it somewhere that it can talk to.
While the build undoubtedly has a few home-built rough edges we like the idea, echoing as it does those all-in-ones from the CRT era. Unless you have
a handy Minitel terminal
you won’t find much like it. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408454",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T13:37:26",
"content": "I would like a larger keyboard and display with such a build; as well as providing a way to tilt the display for better viewing. Then, maybe a larger printer (if available) cou... | 1,760,372,847.802651 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/20/a-particularly-festive-chip-decapping/ | A Particularly Festive Chip Decapping | Jenny List | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"chip decap",
"christmas",
"ken shirriff",
"UM66T"
] | As we approach the moment in the year at which websites enter a festive silly season of scrambling to find any story with a festive angle, we’re pleased to see the ever-reliable [Ken Shirriff] has brought his own take on Christmas tech to the table with
a decapping of the UM66T melody chip that has graced so many musical greeting cards
.
The surprise in this age of ubiquitous microcontrollers is that this is not a smart device; instead it’s a single-purpose logic chip whose purpose is to step through a small ROM containing note values and durations, driving a frequency generator to produce the notes themselves. The frequency generator isn’t the divider chain from the RC oscillator that we might expect, instead it’s a shift register arrangement which saves on the transistor count.
Although the UM66 is a three-pin device, there are a few other pins on the die. These are likely to be for testing. As a 30+ year old product its design may be outdated in 2021, but it’s one of those chips that has survived without being superseded because it does its task without the need for improvement. So when you open a card and hear the tinny tones of a piezo speaker this holiday season, spare a thought for the ingenuity of the design behind the chip that makes it all possible. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408399",
"author": "C",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T09:33:33",
"content": "The most commonly available version is the UM66T19L (Fur Elise). This version of the chip is also found in fake candles. Yes, the random flame-like change of light intensity of fake candles is actually the Fur ... | 1,760,372,848.013098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/19/hdd-vending-machine-works-like-a-vending-machine-should/ | HDD Vending Machine Works Like A Vending Machine Should | Arya Voronova | [
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"hacks from twitter",
"hdd",
"liege hackerspace",
"vending machine"
] | The concept of vending machines in hackerspaces is nothing new, but [iooner]
took it a step further
– as hackers ought to. Putting HDDs into the rotating spring of a repurposed vending machine, right where you’d expect to see a Granola bar, isn’t revolutionary – but we don’t remember anybody doing it before this. And, with how heavy a typical HDD is, you are guaranteed to never encounter the “it just won’t fall down” issue that’s omnipresent with the snack-loaded machines.
Nothing could illustrate the premise of this concept better than [iooner]’s video does, and hackerspaces acquiring and having fun with consumer-facing equipment is always fun to watch. A stereotypical hackerspace vending machine sells resistor packs and Arduino boards, but you wouldn’t see it venture into the realm of data storage and distribution. Given how cheap HDDs are nowadays, this concept could benefit us in a variety of applications – selling new HDDs to members for regular data storage use, or distributing hacking magazine archives and Wikipedia dumps, even exclusive release things like recordings of hackerspace lectures.
If this looks familiar, we’ve reviewed
a conceptually similar vending machine five years ago
, and
quite a few DIY ones
. If software piracy is more of your thing, there are likely ways to get HDDs out of vending machines without paying, using either
robots
or
an NFC-enabled phone
. And, if you’re going to reuse a vending machine,
a primer on reverse-engineering its internal comms bus
could be of help.
New toy
@LgHackerSpace
pic.twitter.com/QoMM18mppq
— Loïc 'iooner' (@iooner)
December 12, 2021 | 48 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408371",
"author": "CircularSaw",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T06:07:15",
"content": "While humourous in this format I’d prefer to see a mechanism that delivers the HDD intact",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6408473",
"au... | 1,760,372,848.139977 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/19/the-inspirer-keeps-your-mood-up-with-inspirational-quotes-and-soothing-music/ | The Inspirer Keeps Your Mood Up With Inspirational Quotes And Soothing Music | Robin Kearey | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"14-segment display",
"inspirational quotes",
"mood",
"mp3 player"
] | While some people enjoy the cold weather and long, dark nights in the Northern Hemisphere these days, others may find it hard to keep a positive mindset all through the winter. [Michael Wessel] decided he needed to do something about that and came up with
The Inspirer
, a desktop display that shows inspirational quotes and plays soothing music.
The design is deliberately bare-bones: a strip of wood, standing upright thanks to two metal brackets, onto which a bunch of components have been screwed, glued and taped. The actual display consists of a row of 14-segment LED modules that can show basic alphanumeric characters; these displays emit white light, but [Michael] added a red color filter in front to give them a more “retro” look.
This device is fully off-grid, so no Internet connection issues will disrupt your flow. A huge database of quotes and a selection of music tracks are stored on a pair of micro SD cards; an MP3 player module handles the music while an Arduino picks a quote, drives the display, and reads the buttons. You can select quotes based on a certain theme: examples include friendship, gardening, money, and love. But if you’re open to anything, you can just set it to “random” and get something from any of the 120 categories.
[Michael]’s simple and straightforward design should hopefully prove inspirational to many hardware enthusiasts. But if you’re looking for something more advanced, we featured a neat
pomodoro timer that displays quotes
a few weeks ago. Of course, this being Hackaday, we’ve also seen
a clock based on literary quotes
. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408354",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T03:17:06",
"content": "Hmm MMB, nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6408358",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
... | 1,760,372,848.450107 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/17/sdr-toolkit-bends-weather-station-to-hackers-whims/ | SDR Toolkit Bends Weather Station To Hacker’s Whims | Tom Nardi | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"ADALM-PLUTO",
"crc",
"RTL-SDR",
"sdr",
"Universal Radio Hacker"
] | We probably don’t have to tell most Hackaday readers why the current wave of low-cost software defined radios (SDRs) are such a big deal for hackers looking to explore the wide world of wireless signals. But if you
do
need a refresher as to what kind of SDR hardware and software should be in your bag of tricks, then
this fantastically detailed account from [RK] about how he hacked his La Crosse WS-9611U-IT weather station
is a perfect example.
Looking to brush up his radio hacking skills, [RK] set out to use the ADALM-PLUTO software defined radio from Analog Devices to intercept signals between the La Crosse base station and its assorted wireless sensors. He notes that a $20 USD RTL-SDR dongle could do just as well if you only wanted to receive, but since his ultimate goal was to spoof a temperature sensor and introduce spurious data into the system, he needed an SDR that had transmit capabilities.
No matter your hardware, Universal Radio Hacker (URH) is the software that’s going to be doing the heavy lifting. In his write-up, [RK] walks the reader through every step required to find, capture, and eventually decode the transmissions coming from a TX29U wireless temperature sensor. While the specifics will naturally change a bit depending on the device you’re personally looking to listen in on, the general workflow is going to be more or less the same.
In the end, [RK] is not only able to receive the data coming from the wireless sensors, but he can transmit his own spoofed data that the weather station accepts as legitimate. Getting there took some extra effort, as he had to figure out the proper CRC algorithm being used. But as luck would have it, he found a
Hackaday article from a couple years back that talked about doing exactly that
, which help put him on the right path. Now he can make the little animated guy on the weather station’s screen don a winter coat in the middle of July. Check out the video below for a demonstration of this particular piece of radio prestidigitation.
Demodulating the waveform in Universal Radio Hacker.
While we often see the
power of tools like URH brought up in talks
, nothing quite beats following along with a step-by-step account of how somebody
used software and hardware from the modern hacker’s toolkit to achieve their goals
. If reading this post doesn’t make you want to finally pull the trigger on a cheap RTL-SDR and start cruising the airwaves, maybe nothing will. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407981",
"author": "qwindelzorf",
"timestamp": "2021-12-18T15:36:36",
"content": "Along similar lines, this is a project for general purpose demodulation of a variety of devices, including various weather stations:https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433I have been using it to bridge my... | 1,760,372,848.063077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/17/the-second-worst-cad-package-ever/ | The Second Worst CAD Package Ever | Dave Rowntree | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"cad",
"kludge",
"Klunky",
"online",
"schematic"
] | A while back, [Heavydeck] remembered stumbling across
the worst CAD package ever
, which is a schematic editor whose existence was purely intended for use to make quick circuit sketches for documentation, presentations and the like. All good. But, being based on low quality JPEG graphics, which when blown up to projector size on a big screen, they look really rough. After deciding that the original nasty, clunky interface was just nasty and clunky enough, [Heavydeck] then proceeded to reimplement the idea over the course of an afternoon, and came up with
Kludge (possibly the
second
worst CAD package ever)
making an actually useful tool even more useful.
You see, whether you make website content, YouTube tutorials, or just need to write technical reports, if you’re in the electronics business, you’re going to need to make high-quality editable schematic images at some point, and Kludge might well solve some problems for you. Kludge lets you do so many things; you can save a schematic, you can load a schematic, you can even export it to an SVG file. Actually, that’s all you can do, but it is actually just enough. Once you’ve got an image as an SVG, you can whack that into Inkscape to add some more details and you’re done. We demonstrate this with the image above, which was not annoying
at all
to create.
So here’s to Kludging your way around a problem, and hoping that the somewhat limited symbol library may expand a little more in the future! | 28 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407899",
"author": "YGDES",
"timestamp": "2021-12-18T03:05:20",
"content": "Or you can use Falstad’s circuitjs :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6408305",
"author": "RBMK",
"timestamp": "2021-12-19T21:43:30"... | 1,760,372,848.19948 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/17/implementing-a-cpu-using-555-timers-and-logic-synthesis/ | Implementing A CPU Using 555 Timers And Logic Synthesis | Dave Rowntree | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"555 timer",
"pcb",
"PCBflow"
] | There is many a comment on these here pages along the lines of “Why did you use a microcontroller, when you could just have easily used a 555 timer!” And, yes, we sometimes agree with the sentiment, but when a chance comment seen by Hackaday.io user [Tim Böscke] suggested turning it around and
building a microcontroller out of 555 timers
, the gauntlet was well and truly thrown down. Now let’s be clear, this is not the first time we’ve come across this idea, there was a
breadboard 555 based build ten years ago
, but this is the first time we’ve seen it done by leveraging open source synthesis targeting a PCB!
The first logic element was a simple inverter, constructed by tying the TRIGger and THReShold pins together.
LTSpice model of a NAND gate implemented with 555 and diodes
From there it was a simple matter of adding a few diode-resistor networks to the input, to effect a NAND2 gate and a NOR2 gate. Development was speeded up a bit by modeling the logic circuits in LTSpice, to find the best combination of part values. From these simple elements, all further logic functions could be implemented. Next a memory element was needed. As luck would have it, the 555 has a RS flip flop as part of its circuit, fed by dual comparator inputs. All that was needed was to bias the THRS input at Vdd/2 and then feed the data in via a pass transistor, and hey presto! a serviceable, albeit slow latch.
[Tim] has previously created a minimalist CPU called
MCPU
, with a mere four instructions, designed to fit in a 32 macrocell FPGA, so was able to reuse that design for this project. The fun part was to leverage the
PCBFlow toolchain
[Tim] maintains, which implements a Yosys synthesis flow with a custom place and route (PnR) backend. A
liberty file
was produced describing the circuits (macrocells) [Tim] wanted to make use of, then a synthesis script implemented the flow using Yosys/GHDL to elabourate the design, map it into the technology defined earlier, and write out a netlist the PnR tool could use. Helpfully Yosys also writes out a PDF of the design as well as a spice netlist. What a tool!
The PnR tool [Tim] created for PCBFlow was written in python, and outputs the XML format that Eagle can use. Its job is to place the macrocells (deliberately made square) by looking up the appropriate physical circuit, including all passives, dropping them into the PCB, adding the interconnects, and then optimising the layout using simulated annealing, optimising for minimal trace length. We think the result is pretty slick looking, and the approach is something that can easily be reused for other projects in the future.
Thanks [YGDES] for sending this in! | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407855",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2021-12-18T00:07:54",
"content": "Can you emulate a 555 with it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6407873",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2021-12-18T01:49:04... | 1,760,372,848.264223 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/17/3d-printing-a-cyclonic-dust-seperator/ | 3D Printing A Cyclonic Dust Separator | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Cyclone",
"cyclone separator",
"dust extraction",
"dust extractor"
] | [rctestflight] recently purchased a big CNC router, and that meant it was time to arrange for some dust extraction in the workshop. Naturally,
he set about building this himself!
Using a shop vac is fine at smaller scales, but they can quickly be filled up on bigger jobs. To stop it getting filled up as quickly and wasting vacuum bags, [rctestflight] wanted to build a 3D-printed cyclonic separator to catch and dump the heavier-than-air particles from the routing process into an attached bucket.
[rctestflight] trialed a variety of designs, from a quad cyclone, to a large single cyclone and even a triple-series design. A diffuser design was also built, that aims to slow the air flow to the point where particles drop out of the air stream. At the end of the day, the large mono-cyclone design proved to be the most effective at removing particles from the airstream.
Fundamentally, if you’re making lots of dust, a cyclonic separator is a great way to go about dealing with the problem. We’ve seen similar builds scaled up
to deal with the needs of a whole workshop, too
. Video after the break. | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407848",
"author": "Neil",
"timestamp": "2021-12-17T23:12:41",
"content": "There’s “a rat” in separate.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6407879",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2021-12-18T01:55:28",
"content": "Aus... | 1,760,372,848.324253 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/17/building-a-custom-branding-iron-with-swappable-date-blocks/ | Building A Custom Branding Iron With Swappable Date Blocks | Lewin Day | [
"classic hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"branding iron",
"brass",
"pyrography",
"tool",
"tooling",
"wood burning"
] | Branding can be done on wood with just about any old bit of hot metal, but if you want to do it well, properly-crafted tooling will go a long way. [Wesley Treat] has built just that with
this modular branding iron design
.
The branding tooling itself is machined out of brass on an X-Carve CNC router, using [Wesley]’s own logo. The part is sanded after machining to remove tooling marks. A smaller brass slug is then machined with the numerals for various years with which [Wesley] may wish to stamp his projects.
Rather than hacking something sloppy together, the iron itself is assembled with a beautifully wood-turned handle of his own creation and a steel backing plate to hold the tooling. The date is separately removable from the main logo itself for easy changes in future. Naturally, the tool graphics are done in reverse so as to register the right way around when burned onto wood.
The tool is used with a torch to heat the brass up such that it can leave its impression on wooden surfaces. The final results are solid, if not quite perfect; getting the temperature across the tool perfectly matched would be key to getting the cleanest results. An electric heating element running in closed loop could be a way to achieve this.
Fundamentally, it’s a tidy way to mark your wooden projects in a hurry. We’ve seen wood burning reach even greater heights, too, such as with
this CNC pyrography machine
. Video after the break. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407789",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2021-12-17T19:38:55",
"content": "“Naturally, the tool graphics are done in reverse so as to register the right way around when burned onto wood.”Unless you’re looking at the cover photo for the video :-P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,372,848.520084 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/17/error-codes-and-the-law-of-least-astonishment/ | Error Codes And The Law Of Least Astonishment | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"Rants",
"Slider",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"error codes",
"law of least astonishment",
"Rant"
] | Do you know the law of least astonishment? I am not sure of its origin, but I first learned it from the excellent “
Tao of Programming
.” Simply put, it is the principle that software should always respond to the users in a way that least astonishes them. In other words, printing a document shouldn’t erase it from your file system.
Following the law of least astonishment, what should a program do when it hits a hard error? You might say that it should let the user know. Unfortunately, many systems just brush it under the rug these days.
I think it started with Windows. Or maybe the Mac. The thinking goes that end users are too stupid or too afraid of error codes or detailed messages so we are just leaving them out. Case in point: My wife’s iPhone wouldn’t upload pictures. I’m no expert since I carry an Android device, but I agreed to look at it. No matter what I tried, I got the same useless message: “Can’t upload photos right now. Please try again later.” Not only is this not very informative, but it also implies the problem is in something that might fix itself later like the network.
The real culprit? The iCloud terms of service had changed and she had not accepted the new contract. I have a feeling it might have popped up asking her to do that at some point, but for whatever reason she missed it. Until you dug into the settings and checked the box to agree to those terms, “later” was never going to happen.
But it isn’t just iPhones. Windows is full of things like that and you only hope there will be a log in the event viewer with more details. I also see more of it now on Linux, although there is usually a log file somewhere if you know how to find it. While I get it that programs having errors run the risk of astonishing the user, it is even more astonishing if there’s no explanation of what’s wrong. Imagine if your bank sent you a note: there is a problem with your account. So you respond: “Did I overdraw?” They reply, “No.” Now what? That’s the state of many software errors today.
There’s really no excuse on desktop systems or websites. However, you might want to forgive tiny embedded systems. Don’t! I recently ported the 3D printer firmware Marlin to an ANET A8 board — an 8-bit processor with little memory — that had been on Repetier firmware for many years. The first time I tried to do an autolevel probe I got the message: Probing failed. That’s it.
I’ll grant you, that you can turn on autolevel debugging to get more information, but I’m already at 98% flash utilization, so that would require temporarily removing a bunch of features and rebuilding the code. But why not do like we would do in the old days:
unit global_error=0;
void do_something(void) {
global_error=1;
if (process1()==FAIL) return;
global_error++;
if (process2()==FAIL) return;
. . .
global_error=0;
return;
}
This doesn’t take much space. Now you can report something like Probing failed (8) and I can at least go to the code and determine what the 8th step was that failed. I’m sure someone would even post a list of codes and what they meant in a case like that.
Too much overhead? Tell me the program counter where the error happened. That used to be a pretty common practice. Granted, it requires you to
have a memory map file and know how to read it
but it is still better than nothing.
We spend a lot of time thinking about how projects and software should work. But we need to spend time thinking, too, about what happens when they don’t work. It is fine that we can do in-circuit debugging or hook up a logic analyzer, but that won’t help our users. Even if it is just for you, why not make it a little easier on yourself?
As we have said before, “
There’s no such thing as too much information
.” In addition to guarding against system errors, you can also help users
not to astonish themselves
.
Image Credit: [Elisa Ventur] via Unsplash.com | 73 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407754",
"author": "KD9KCK",
"timestamp": "2021-12-17T18:06:46",
"content": "Who hasn’t at some point done the print(“1”) some steps print(“2”) some more steps print(“3”) style of debugging to figure out what was really causing the strange error.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,372,848.730741 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/17/hackaday-podcast-149-ballerina-bot-balances-flexures-track-cat-food-pcb-goes-under-the-knife-and-an-attiny-does-the-555/ | Hackaday Podcast 149: Ballerina Bot Balances, Flexures Track Cat Food, PCB Goes Under The Knife, And An ATtiny Does The 555 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Newly ordained Hackaday editor-in-chief Elliot Williams and staff writer Dan Maloney jump behind the podcast mic to catch you up on all this week’s essential hacks. We’ll have a Bob Ross moment with an iPad, go to ridiculous lengths to avoid ordering a 555, and cook up a Wii in toaster. Need to make a VGA adapter from logic chips? Or perhaps you want to quantify the inner depths of human consciousness? Either way, we’ve got you covered.
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
(55 MB)
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 149 Show Notes:
News This Week:
A fond farewell to Mike Szczys:
Today Is My Last Day At Hackaday; Thanks For All The Hacks!
The far-reaching impact of the log4j vulnerability
Jonathan Bennett covers the details in
This Week in Security
Is the Mars helicopter at risk from the log4j bug?
Eagerly and anxiously awaiting the James Webb Space Telescope launch on 12/22
30 Days of Terror: the Logistics of Launching the JWST
What’s that Sound?
A new sound stumps a new co-host!
If you know the answer,
you can win a t-shirt
!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
A Self Righting Balancing Robot Configured The Easy Way
I Am Science Fiction Incarnate; I Am Handle
Digital Painting On An IPad With Real Brushes
PCB Microsurgery Puts The Bodges Inside The Board
BOMU: the part in question
Fail of the Week: Hackaday Writer Attempts Xbox Repair
You Can Always Use An ATtiny Instead Of A 555
The 555 Timer Contest Returns!
555ENabled Microprocessor
Fabulous Flexure Mechanism Makes For Resetting Cat Calendar
A Slim 7400 Logic VGA Board For All Your Retro Needs
Low Res Video Card Is Still Amazing Since It’s Made Out Of Logic Chips
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks
Wii Meets Its End In Breadcrumb Jail
Google’s T-Rex Game Ported To The ESP32
A Programming Language To Express Programming Frustration
Dan’s Picks
3D Printing Delivers “Glass” Eyes In Record Time
Controller Swaps Can Save An HDD If You Do It Right
Differential Probe Clocks At 100MHz And $200
Can’t-Miss Articles:
The Real Science (Not Armchair Science) Of Consciousness
The fastest nerve impulses
run around 200 miles/hour
, so that’s a minimum latency of 11 ms from your brain to your fingers. Yet musicians can keep in time to significantly greater precision.
The Seductive Pull Of An Obsolete Home Movie Format | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407796",
"author": "Jonathan Bennett",
"timestamp": "2021-12-17T20:21:52",
"content": "The mystery sound reminds me of a flagpole in the wind, with the rope thunking against the pole. The reverb of the pipe can give that underwater sort of sound. Probably not actually what it is.",... | 1,760,372,848.771661 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/18/opendog-version-3-is-ready-to-go-walkies/ | OpenDog Version 3 Is Ready To Go Walkies | Dave Rowntree | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"cycloidal gearbox",
"james bruton",
"OpenDog",
"robotics"
] | We’ve been following [James Bruton]’s open dog project for a little while now, and with his considerable pace of work – pandemic or no pandemic – development has been incredibly rapid. The latest milestone is the
public release of version 3
(Video, embedded below.) This upgrade to the system adds 3D printed cycloidal gearboxes, removing the previous belt drives. [James] had immense fun tuning the motor controller parameters for these and admits they’re not completely dialed in yet. He notes that the wider gearbox body means that the robots geometry needed to change a little, and the previous belt-drive version may have a bit of an edge, but he’s confident he can make it work (and given his incredible previous robotics builds, we totally believe he’ll nail it!)
Silicone overmolding around a 3D printed former, using a 3D printed mould
Older versions struggled with slippery plastic feet; the advantage of a predictably smooth contact shape of a rounded foot is somewhat offset by the limited contact patch size, and that means not so much grip on some surfaces. [James] solution was obvious enough – just learn how to make 3D printed silicone moulds and cast a nice rubber foot around a plastic former, and problem solved! Unfortunately he neglected to add some recesses for a lever to get in between the mould halves, so it was a bit of a struggle to separate after curing. A beginner’s mistake that won’t be repeated, we’re sure.
Full source for openDogV3 is now available on
the GitHub page
. Here’s the
playlist
for the whole project, as well as direct links for the cycloidal drive development (
part1
,
part2
,
part3
.) But before you all go diving in to start 3D printing your own pooch, [James] tells us that the total cost would be around $2000 all in, with the bulk of that being the motors and ODrive units, so this one for the serious builder only!
We’ve covered robot dogs a fair bit, a particularly nice example is
The Dizzy Wolf
, and if you’re wondering just why on earth you’d want a robot dog, then
Ask Hackaday
has you covered as well. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408122",
"author": "Bruce Ferrell",
"timestamp": "2021-12-19T03:38:31",
"content": "What IF… it was scaled up to the size of something like a horse or ox and the feet modeled alike?I have my own power “fetish” but power it as you like.MIGHT it be able to pull a plow or wagon? Or ... | 1,760,372,848.572154 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/18/be-mesmerized-by-the-latest-time-twister/ | Be Mesmerized By The Latest Time Twister | Chris Wilkinson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"DS3231",
"mechanical",
"rtc"
] | [Hans Andersson] has been creating marvelous twisting timepieces for over a decade, and we’re pleased to be able to share his latest mechanical clock contraption with our readers, the
Time Twister 5
.
In contrast to his previous LEGO-based clocks, version five of the Time Twister uses 3D printed segments, undoubtedly providing greater flexibility in terms of aesthetics and function. Each digit is a mechanical display, five layers vertical and three segments horizontal, with a total of three unique faces. Each layer of each display can be individually rotated by a servo, and this arrangement allows for displaying any number between zero and nine. The whole show is controlled by an Arduino MEGA and a DS3231 real-time clock.
Watching these upended prisms rotate into legible fifteen-segment digits is enjoyable enough already, but the mechanical sound created by this timepiece in motion is arguably even more satisfying. Check out the video below to see (and hear) for yourself. If you want to build one yourself,
all the details are here
.
We last covered [Hans Andersson] and
his very first Time Twister clock way back in November 2011
. Since then we’ve come across many impressive mechanical clocks, like this
seven-segment work of art
. We’re constantly impressed by the outstanding craftsmanship of these mechanical clocks, and it’s inspiring to see one of our OG horologists back in the saddle once more. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408102",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2021-12-19T00:15:34",
"content": "Wow nice! a definite Rubik look :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6408114",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-... | 1,760,372,848.912272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/18/when-dell-built-a-netbook-with-an-x86-system-on-module/ | When Dell Built A Netbook With An X86 System-on-Module | Arya Voronova | [
"computer hacks",
"laptops hacks",
"Netbook Hacks"
] | [
"dell",
"dell mini",
"intel atom",
"som",
"x86"
] | Just like with pre-touchscreen cellphones having fancy innovative features that everyone’s forgotten about, there’s areas that laptop manufacturers used to venture in but no longer dare touch. On Twitter, [Kiwa] talks a fascinating attempt by Dell
to make laptops with user-replaceable CPU+RAM modules
. In 2008, Dell released the Inspiron Mini 1210, with its CPU, chipset and RAM soldered to a separate board in an “extended SODIMM” form-factor – not unlike the Raspberry Pi Compute Modules pre-CM4! Apparently, different versions of such “processor cards” existed for their Inspiron Mini lineup, with varying amounts of RAM and CPU horsepower. With replacement CPU+RAM modules still being sold online, that makes these Dell netbooks to be, to our knowledge, the only x86 netbooks with upgradable CPUs.
You could try and get yourself one of these laptops or replacement CPU modules nowadays, if you like tinkering with old tech – and don’t mind having a subpar experience on even Linux,
thanks to
the Poulsbo chipset’s notorious lack of openness
. Sadly, Dell has thoroughly abandoned the concept of x86 system-on-module cards, and laptops have been getting less modular as we go – we haven’t been getting socketed CPUs since the third generation of mobile Intel boards, and even RAM is soldered to the motherboard more and more often. In theory, the “CPU daughterboard” approach could improve manufacturing yields and costs, making it possible to use a simpler large board for the motherboard and only have the CPU board be high-layer-count. However, we can only guess that this wasn’t profitable enough overall, even with all the theoretical upsides. Or, perhaps, Google-style, someone axed this project internally because of certain metrics unmet.
If you think about it, a laptop motherboard is a single-board computer; however, that’s clearly not enough for our goals of upgradability and repairability. If you’re looking to have your own way and upgrade your laptop regardless of manufacturer’s intentions, here’s an old yet impressive story about
replacing the soldered-in CPU on the original Asus EEE
, and a more recent story about
upgrading soldered-in RAM in a Dell XPS ultrabook
. And if you’re looking for retrocomputing goodness,
following [Kiwa] on Twitter
is a must – last seen liveblogging restoration and renovation of a Kaypro someone threw out on the curb. | 33 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408085",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2021-12-18T22:31:25",
"content": "The Intel NUC 9 was a step in this direction, though more of a “entire PC on a plug-in board” rather than a “CPU on a plug-in board”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,372,849.021986 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/18/esp8266-based-wifi-game-boy-cartridge-browses-wikipedia/ | ESP8266 Based WiFi Game Boy Cartridge Browses WikiPedia | Dave Rowntree | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"3d printed",
"ESP8266",
"game boy",
"wi-fi"
] | [Sebastian Staacks] came across his old Game Boy and was wondering (as you do) what happened to recent attempts at getting a WiFi interface wedged into a standard cartridge. After a while the conclusion was that people had been scuppered by approaching the problem in a way that made it too hard. Obviously that meant it was necessary to follow through and build something, which is precisely what he did with his
WiFi Game Boy Cartridge.
A trend lately has been to hook up a fast microcontroller to a bus, then move the whole interfacing shenanigans into software. This works fine in some circumstances, but for the GB interface, it’s not so easy. The GB is powered by the Sharp LR35902, running at a smidge over 4 MHz, but its machine cycle takes four clocks giving an instruction rate of only 1 MHz. The cartridge interface presents the raw CPU bus directly. This is both good and bad. It’s good, because it enables all kinds of expansion modules, like cameras, printers, and other custom peripherals, but it’s bad because the burden of interfacing with the CPU, at its full speed, lies squarely in the cartridge’s remit.
Rather than trying to hook this bus directly to a fast microcontroller, [Staacks] has taken a different approach; by decoding the address bus with discrete logic, it was easy to derive chip selects for an embedded ESP8266 as well as a socketed EEPROM. The clock for the former was also gated and sent into the ESP8266, generating an interrupt to wake it up. The EEPROM stores a simple application whose job is to present an OSD keyboard and send requests to Wikipedia, via the ESP8266 WiFi stack. The resulting text is then displayed on the 160×144 dot matrix display. The interrupt latency of the ESP8266 was mitigated by the application simply discarding the first data byte sent to it, and retrying the access. This way the ESP8266 could spend the majority of its time dealing with wireless duties, only pausing to swap a byte now-and-then with the application. A simple solution which appears to actually work! If you’re up for building one of these and writing your own applications, you can
wander over to GitHub
, clone yourself a copy and crack on!
We’ve seen a few attempts at doing this before, [davedarko]
tried with this project
, and if you
search hackaday.io you’ll get loads of GB hacks to browse
. Finally
a recent twitter thread
also points to
another effort to do something similar with Wi-Fi
, but development is still ongoing. We’ll check back later! | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408039",
"author": "Arthur Mezins",
"timestamp": "2021-12-18T18:36:09",
"content": "I’m not a gaming fan. The first “game” I had was a Fairchild box and then I got an Atari 5200. Both were OK, but didn’t keep my interest. Both also had serious problems with reliability of their joy... | 1,760,372,848.958477 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/18/the-end-of-the-electromechanical-era/ | The End Of The Electromechanical Era | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"cassette",
"design",
"electromechanical",
"mechanical",
"newsletter"
] | When viewed from the far future, the early years of the 21st century will probably be seen as the end of a short era in human technological development. In the beginning of the 20th century, most everything was mechanical. There were certainly some electric devices, but consumer products like gramophone players and “movie” cameras were purely mechanical affairs. You cranked them up, and they ran on springs. Nowadays, almost every bit of consumer gear you buy will be entirely electronic. In between, there was a roughly 50 year period that I’m going to call the Electromechanical Era.
Jenny List’s teardown this week of
an old Fuji film movie camera
from 1972 captures the middle of this era perfectly. There’s a small PCB and an electric motor, but most of the heavy lifting in the controls was actually put on the shoulders of levers, bearings, and ridiculously clever mechanisms. The electrical and mechanical systems were loosely coupled, with the electrical controlled by the mechanical.
I’m willing to argue the specifics, but I’d preliminarily date the peak of the Electromechanical Era somewhere around 1990. Last year, I had to replace all of the rotted rubber drive belts in a
Sony Walkman WM-D6C
, a professional portable tape player and recorder produced from 1984-2002.
It’s not a simple tape recorder — the motors are electronically regulated to keep ridiculously constant speed for such a small device, and mine has Dolby B
and
C noise reduction circuitry packed inside along with some decent mic preamps. But still, when you press the fast-forward button, it physically shoves rubber-coated drive wheels out of the way, and sliding pieces of metal make it change modes of operation by making and breaking electrical contacts. Its precision lies as much in the mechanical assemblies and motors as in the electronics. It’s truly half electronic and half mechanical.
But that era is long over. The coming of the CD player signaled the end, although we didn’t see it at the time. Sure, there is a motor, but all the buttons are electronic, and all the “mechanism” is implemented almost entirely in silicon. The digital camera was possibly the last nail in the Electromechanical Era’s coffin: with no need to handle physical film, the last demand for anything mechanical evaporated. Open up a GoPro if you don’t know what I mean.
While I’ll be happy to never have to replace the drive rubber in a cassette recorder again, it’s with a little sadness that I think on the early iPods with their spinning metal hard drives, and how they gave way to the entirely silicon Zoom H5 recorder that I use now. It has a S/N ratio and quiet pre-amps, no wow or flutter, and a quality that would have been literally unbelievable when I bought the WM-D6C.
Still, if you find yourself in the thrift store, and you’ve never done so before, buy and take apart one of these marvels from a bygone era. A cassette recorder, even a cheap one, hides a wealth of electromechanical design.
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
! | 141 | 41 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407980",
"author": "gonadic_io",
"timestamp": "2021-12-18T15:26:49",
"content": "There’s still at least one key mechanical component – cable connectors. How long before the majority of non-high-power cable connectors are are gapped induction coils, toothbrush style. Less wear, less... | 1,760,372,849.248125 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/18/a-well-documented-breadboard-computer-shows-dedication/ | A Well Documented BreadBoard Computer Shows Dedication | Dave Rowntree | [
"computer hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"breadboard",
"display",
"homebrew computer",
"logisim",
"ttl"
] | These pages have not been exactly devoid of home-built computers, with those constructed on solderless breadboard less frequent, but still not rarities. But what is more of a rarity is this ground-up
8-bit 74xx logic-based computer
(video, embedded below) with full source, an emulator, assembler and test suite. [JDH] spent a solid couple of weeks working late into the night to build this, and the results show for themselves.
The new JDH-8 is now a figment of reality.
The architecture is a traditional 8-bit load/store microcoded processor with the microcode stored in easily programmable AT28C64 EEPROMs for ease of tweaking. The address bus is 16-bits, which is quite ample for this, and puts it in line with (admittedly more sophisticated) 8-bit micros of old such as the 6502. There is also a hardware stack, and a discrete-logic ALU as well! Finally, since that wasn’t enough work already, he added in his own discrete logic video controller.
Wise people simulate before prototyping something like this
There are sixteen instructions covering memory access, ALU operations and I/O operations. One of the great things about this project is that [JDH] readily admits the mistakes made along the way, and how the architecture didn’t need to be this complex. One example is that hardware stack wasn’t really necessary as it could just have been implemented in software. Also, due to the implementation, memory accesses were so fast compared with the achievable cycle time, that there really was no point to using load/store architecture at all! Still, [JDH] had fun building and programming it!
It was interesting to see the use of
LogiSim-Evolution
to debug first a high level model of the architecture and then the translation into TTL chips. This scribe wasn’t aware of that tool (the shame!) but is going to try this out real soon.
All code for the software side of things can be found on
the project GitHub
. Perhaps the hardware design will appear there as well, be at the time of writing we couldn’t seem to find it.
Can’t get enough breadboard computers? (We can’t)
check this out from last year.
Stuck for a suitable enclosure for your latest bread bread
board
computer?
How about a bread
bin
.
Thanks [BrightBlueJim] for sending this in! | 11 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407969",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2021-12-18T13:08:03",
"content": "Hat’s off to this young man for his engineering curiosity and determination!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6408016",
"author": "The Commenter Fo... | 1,760,372,849.075718 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/18/3d-printed-parts-holds-up-to-steam-heat/ | 3D Printed Parts Hold Up To Steam Heat | Lewin Day | [
"Parts"
] | [
"resin",
"resin printer",
"resin printing",
"steam",
"steam turbine"
] | Steam turbines are at the heart of all manner of industrial machinery, particularly that used for power generation. [Integza] decided he needed to better understand this technology, and decided to build one himself –
using 3D printing, at that.
First, a steam source was needed, with a pressure cooker on an electric stove pressed into service. The steam was passed out via a nozzle printed in resin, which better resists heat than most FDM-printed parts. Similarly, a turbine wheel was printed in resin as well, with the steam outlet pointed directly at its vanes.
To really stress test the parts, more steam was required. To achieve this, hydrogen peroxide was pumped through a manganese dioxide catalyst impregnated into steel wool to create steam. This made an absolute mess, but the printed parts nevertheless survived.
The steam turbine didn’t do any useful work, but was able to survive the high temperatures at play. We’d love to see such a device actually used to bear some load, perhaps in some sort of 3D printed power generating turbine design.
Alternatively, if you prefer your steam turbines more classically driven,
consider this build
. Video after the break. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408426",
"author": "Fallen",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T12:03:51",
"content": "Looks more like a Pelton Wheel than any steam turbine that I’ve seen. But… I haven’t seen many steam turbines. It seems like it would greatly benefit from a housing. Also, not to be a safety Nanny, but the... | 1,760,372,849.289938 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/19/hackaday-links-december-19-2021/ | Hackaday Links: December 19, 2021 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"Alcubierre",
"chip shortage",
"copyright",
"everything as a service",
"hackaday links",
"james webb space telescope",
"jwst",
"key fob",
"pupblishing",
"sci-hub",
"warp bubble"
] | Key fobs as a service? Have we really gotten to that point? It would seem so, at least for Toyota, which i
s now requiring a subscription to use the company’s Remote Connect function
. To be fair to Toyota, the Remote Connect system seems to do a bit more than the average key fob, with things like remote start and smartphone or smartwatch integration. It doesn’t appear that using the key fob for more mundane uses, like opening the doors, will be nerfed by this change. But if you want to warm up your car on a cold winter’s morn while you’re still in your jammies, then be prepared to cough up $8 a month or $80 a year on select 2018 and above models. Whether Toyota and other manufacturers get away with this nickel-and-dime stuff is up to the buyers, of course; if enough people opt out, maybe they’ll think of some other way to pad their bottom line. But since we’ve already seen
heated seats as a service
(last item), we suspect this is the shape of things to come, and that it will spread well beyond the car industry.
Speaking of cars, if you thought the chip shortage was over just because car dealer lots are filling back up, think again. Steve over at Big Mess o’ Wires
reports that he’s having trouble sourcing chips for his vintage computer accessories
. He includes a screenshot from Digi-Key showing zero stock on ATmega1284s. He also reports that the Lattice FPGA he uses for his Yellowstone universal disc controller is now unobtainium, where it had previously been easily sourced for about $5. He also has a pointed warning about some suppliers making it look like they have stock, only to send a “whoopsie” email after charging your credit card, or worse, telling you the price has increased over 400%. We suppose this was inevitable; there’s only so much fab capacity in the world, so eventually the fabs will switch over to producing whatever they can get paid the most for. And since car manufacturers have a lot more clout with suppliers than just about anyone else, it’s only natural for the shortages to shift down-market like this.
Do we finally have a “go” on James Webb?
Maybe
. The launch of the space telescope was originally scheduled for December 18 — well, OK, originally it was supposed to be in space in 2007, but let’s not go there — but
a problem with a clamp
caused unexpected vibrations in the $10 billion space observatory, resulting in inspections that pushed the launch back to the 22nd. That lasted for about a week, until the fueled and packaged spacecraft
stopped sending data to launch controllers
. The problem ended up being entirely relatable — a bad data cable — but resulted in the loss of two more days. JWST is now set to launch on Christmas Eve at 7:20 AM Eastern Standard Time, pending a readiness review on Tuesday morning. Fingers crossed that the long-awaited observatory has
a safe 30-day trip
to Lagrange point L2.
And finally, breathless tech journalists couldn’t wait to report this week that
the world’s first warp bubble had been created
. The paper was published by Dr. Harold “Sonny” White
et al
from the Limitless Space Institute, and claims to have discovered a “micro/nano-scale structure” that “
predicts negative energy density distri
bution that closely matches requirements for the Alcubierre
metric.” That last bit, the one about the Alcubierre metric, refers to the Alcubierre drive, which proposed a way to warp space-time and drive a ship at arbitrarily high speeds. But did this team actually create a warp bubble? It doesn’t seem so, at least according to
one article we read
. There’s also the problem of Dr. White’s previous claims of
breaking the laws of physics with a reactionless EM drive
. Scientific quibbling aside, there’s a sure-fire way of telling that no warp bubble was created — if there had been one,
this would have happened
. | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408324",
"author": "RÖB",
"timestamp": "2021-12-20T00:20:57",
"content": "In Australia we seem to have many ATmega1284’s in DIP but little to nothing that would be used in manufacturing.It seems that it is being used instead of a more capable MCU. Why choose an 8 Bitter with relati... | 1,760,372,849.355646 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/19/gameboy-gets-ridiculously-good-lens/ | Game Boy Camera Gets Ridiculously Good Lens | Al Williams | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"canon",
"game boy",
"game boy camera",
"photography"
] | How do you get better pictures from a 20+ year old Game Boy Camera? How about
marrying a DSLR lens to it
? That’s what [ConorSev] did and, honestly, the results are better than you might expect as [John Aldred] mentioned in his post about the topic. You can check the camera out in the video below.
A 3D printed adapter lets you mount a Canon EF lens to the Game Boy Camera,
a trick that we’ve seen in the past
. [ConorSev] looked at the existing adapters floating around, and came up with the revised version you see here. There was still the problem of actually getting the images off the Camera cartridge, but luckily,
this isn’t exactly unexplored territory either
.
While there might not be anything new with this project, using a high-quality lens on the toy makes for some interesting photographs, and you wonder how far you can push this whole idea. Of course, no matter how much of a lens you put on the front, you still have to contend with the original image sensor which has hardly well. Still, we were impressed at how much better things looked with a high-quality zoom lens.
We bet the original designer of the Game Boy Camera never imagined it would have the kind of zoom capability you can see in the video. We love seeing these little handhelds pushed beyond their limits. Cryptomining?
No problem
. Morse code?
Piece of cake
. | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408302",
"author": "Tomek1998",
"timestamp": "2021-12-19T21:21:03",
"content": "I think pepole like him should be put on some kind of special scholarship so no need to work because pepole like him will be nesesary to restart our civilization when it becomes very damaged (destroyed)... | 1,760,372,849.420862 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/19/your-next-oscilloscope-might-be-optical/ | Your Next Oscilloscope Might Be Optical | Al Williams | [
"Science",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"optical oscilloscope",
"optics",
"oscillospcope"
] | What’s better than a 100MHz scope?
How about an optical one
? Researchers at the University of Central Florida think that’s just the ticket, and they’ve built an oscilloscope that can measure the electric field of light. You can find the
full paper online
.
Reading the electrical field of light is difficult with traditional tools because of the very high frequency involved. According to [Michael Chini], who worked on the new instrument, the oscilloscope can be as much as 10,000 times faster as a conventional one.
The measurement of a few cycles of light requires some special techniques as you might expect. According to the paper:
[A]n intense fundamental pulse with a central wavelength of 3.4 µm creates charge packets in the pixels of a silicon-based image sensor via multiphoton excitation, leading to detectable photocurrents. The probability of excitation is perturbed by the field of a weak perturbation pulse, leading to a modulation in the excitation probability and therefore in the magnitude of the detected photocurrent. We have previously shown that, for collinear fundamental and perturbation pulses, the dependence of the modulation in the excitation probability on the time delay between the two pulses encodes the time-varying electric-field waveform of the laser pulse. Here, by using a crossed-beam geometry with cylindrical focusing, we map the time delay onto a transverse spatial coordinate of the image sensor chip to achieve single-shot detection.
Did you get that? In other words, instead of measuring the light pulse directly, they measure the change it makes on another known signal. We think…
Unless you’re moving high-speed data across fiber optic, we aren’t sure you really need this. However, the concept is intriguing and not previously unheard of. For example, we’ve seen capacitance meters that measure the change in frequency caused by adding an unknown capacitor into an existing oscillator.
If you want something more conventional, maybe look at some
popular scopemeters
. Of course, something this high speed might be able to apply
time-domain reflectometry
to fiber optics. Maybe. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408296",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2021-12-19T20:53:17",
"content": "Paywalled. Seriously, HaD. What’s the point of including a link if it’s useless to most of your readership?(yeah, yeah, I know there are ways around it, including using my work account, but that’s not the ... | 1,760,372,849.46726 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/19/tiny-switch-ornament-plays-gifs-with-an-esp32/ | Tiny Switch Ornament Plays GIFs With An ESP32 | Dave Rowntree | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"ESP32 TTGO",
"lcd",
"Nintendo Switch"
] | It constantly amazes us what we hackers can build these days, (electronics shortages aside) we have access to an incredible array of parts, with specifications that only a few years ago would be bank-breaking and longer ago just fantasy. It’s nice to see people building one-offs just for fun, in spite of the current difficulties getting parts to actually be delivered. For example,
check out this miniaturized Nintendo Switch created by [scottbez1]
that plays animated GIFs from an SD card on tiny 1.14″ LCD display.
Obviously such a diminutive hack requires a custom PCB, which was a job for KiCAD. Armed with a 3D model of the LCD, the casing and PCB outline were drawn using Fusion 360. The PCB hosts a LilyGo ESP32 module for all the heavy lifting, with the WiFi adding some fun future capabilities not yet explored. The design is about as tight as it can get without pushing the limits of the PCB process too far, including a neat trick of sneaking passives inside the body of the SD card! That’s another space-saving idea we’ll be banking.
All-in-all a neat little hack, showing some good modelling and construction techniques and a good looking end result. Code for your reference may be found on the
project GitHub
, but as of writing the hardware design is not available.
Whilst this project shrinks the Switch, here’s one that goes the other way
and super-sizes it
, and if you have a switch lite but crave a little modern charging magic, then look no further than this
Qi wireless charging hack.
Thanks [JP] for the tip! | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408283",
"author": "Josh D",
"timestamp": "2021-12-19T19:13:48",
"content": "This is amazing! If he sold the PCB and 3D prints I’d totally buy a kit to do with my son.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6408288",
"author": "Mi... | 1,760,372,849.552682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/19/restoring-a-vintage-ibm-i-o-tester/ | Restoring A Vintage IBM I/O Tester | Chris Wilkinson | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"1960s",
"I/O",
"ibm",
"mainframe",
"System/360"
] | By now, [CuriousMarc] and his team of volunteers are well versed in 1960s hardware restoration. So when a vintage IBM I/O Tester came into their possession, a
full machine makeover was all but inevitable
.
The I/O Tester dates from around 1965, which roughly coincides with the introduction of IBM’s lauded System/360 computer mainframe. In addition to the computer itself, business customers could order a variety of peripherals with their computing system. These included storage devices, printers, additional operator consoles, and so on. Since these peripherals shared the same I/O design, a portable hardware testing rig was a sensible design choice. One portable low-voltage tester could be paired with any number of IBM peripherals, doing away with the need to have unique debugging panels on every piece of computing hardware.
Fast forward to the present day, and the IBM I/O Tester looks positively antique with its blinkenlight lamp panel and switches. To use the tester, simply connect up one (or both) of its chunky 104-pin connectors to your IBM peripheral of choice, insert the accompanying paper overlay, and
voilà.
Operators could then observe the status of the many lamps to evaluate the inner digital workings of the connected peripheral. Depending on the connected hardware, the tester could reveal the contents of data registers, printing status, disk and tape transfer status, and probably much more. The purpose of the tester’s ninety indicator lights is completely dependent on the attached peripheral, and the paired paper overlays are essential to comprehend their meaning.
After [Ken Shirriff] deciphered the documentation, it wasn’t long before the tester could be powered up using 24 VAC (normally supplied by the equipment being tested). Several burned out lamps were noted for replacement. The lamp assemblies required minor surgery due to a dubious design choice, and at least one of the toggle switches needed a new guide and a heavy dose of contact cleaner before it came back to life.
For the moment, [CuriousMarc] is using the blinkenlights panel as a surprisingly striking retro clock. With a literal truckload of vintage IBM hardware sitting in his storage, it’ll be exciting to see whether this restored tester will be pulled back into operational service someday. Readers should also check out our coverage of his previous major project, restoring an
Apollo Guidance Computer
. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408215",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-19T14:34:17",
"content": "Oooo! Luv it!(Video and tester)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6495181",
"author": "LongTimeTexan",
"t... | 1,760,372,849.598508 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/19/kamehameha-pcb-badge/ | Kamehameha!! PCB Badge | Orlando Hoilett | [
"Art",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"badge",
"badgelife",
"Dragon Ball",
"Goku",
"Kamehameha",
"smd"
] | PCB Art has surely captivated us over the past few years and we’re ever intrigued with the intricate detail the community puts into their work. We’re no strangers to [Arnov]’s work and he has impressed, yet again, with his
Kamehameha PCB badge
.
Unfortunately, no 555 timer was used in the making of this project, but don’t let that turn you away. Instead, we have an ATtiny84 microcontroller for implementing the logic to control the LEDs, a MOSFET-based driver for driving current through the LEDs, and, of course, the LEDs to give the “turtle destruction wave” its devastating glow. Pay really close attention to the detail [Arnov] put into the silkscreen as you can see that’s a pretty crucial part of this build.
Aside from marveling at [Arnov]’s work, fans of the OrCAD PCB designing software will learn how to import an image file into their project as [Arnov] walks through that step in his tutorial. He even has some pretty good reflow soldering tips if you’re looking to try your hand at
SMD soldering
.
Another cool build [Arnov]. Keep it up! | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408198",
"author": "JanW",
"timestamp": "2021-12-19T12:23:22",
"content": "Yeah, talking sh*t about stuff YOU don’t like is the way to go. Here’s your internet points.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6408206",
"author": "sh... | 1,760,372,849.637712 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/18/when-does-car-hacking-become-tampering-the-british-government-seeks-guidance/ | When Does Car Hacking Become “Tampering”? The British Government Seeks Guidance | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"car hacking",
"law",
"uk"
] | When a government decides to take a look at your particular field of experimentation, it’s never necessarily a cause for rejoicing, as British motor vehicle enthusiasts are finding out through a UK Government consultation. Titled “
Future of transport regulatory review: modernising vehicle standards
“, the document explains that it is part of the process of re-adopting under UK law areas which have previously been governed by the European Union. Of particular interest is the section “Tackling tampering”, which promises a new set of offences for “
tampering with a system, part or component of a vehicle intended or adapted to be used on a road
“.
They go into detail as to the nature of the offences, which seem to relate to the production of devices designed to negate the safety or environmental features of the car. They’re at pains to say that they have no wish to target the legitimate car modification world, for example in motorsport or restoration, but it’s easy to see how a car hacker might inadvertently fall foul of any new rules. It’s worried the enthusiasts enough that
a petition has been launched on the UK parliamentary petition site
, making the point that the existing yearly MOT roadworthiness test should fulfill the function of taking any illegal vehicles off the road.
We’re always wary when governments wander into our purview, and given where this is being written it’s fair to say that British governments have had their fair share of ill-considered laws in their time. But before we call doom upon the future of car hacking for Brits, it’s worth remarking that they don’t always make a mess in this arena. The rules for the
Individual Vehicle Approval
test for putting a home-built car on the road are far from a bureaucratic nightmare for example, instead being a relatively sensible primer in building a safe motor vehicle.
So we’d suggest not to panic just yet, but perhaps any British readers might like to respond appropriately to the consultation and the petition in the interests of nudging them in the right direction.
Thanks [Adam Quantrill] for the tip. | 87 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6408149",
"author": "RÖB",
"timestamp": "2021-12-19T06:55:50",
"content": "About a decade ago or a little less, I was working for an ISP that provided hosting services. As a part of my job I had to look after server security and a part of that was penetration testing and the like.My... | 1,760,372,849.754997 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/16/motorized-device-helps-swap-out-hard-to-reach-light-bulbs/ | Motorized Device Helps Swap Out Hard-To-Reach Light Bulbs | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"ATTiny 85",
"light bulb",
"light bulb changer"
] | High ceilings can make a residence feel open and airy, but they often come with difficult-to-reach light fittings. To better deal with that, [mattwach] built a motorized light bulb changer
which makes the job much easier.
Light bulb changers already exist, but they typically need to be used on-axis with the light fitting, which for chandeliers and many other lights, can be difficult. Instead, [mattwach’s] design allows the device to be used at 90-degree angles, and motorizes it for added ease of use.
A 12V gear motor does the work of turning the contraption, and has more than enough torque to get the job done. A flanged coupling is used to attach the motor to the light bulb changer itself. An ATTiny85 microcontroller is then used to control the motor via an L293D H-bridge driver. A PS2 thumbstick is hooked up for user input, and all the electronics is mounted on a broomstick along with the light bulb end effector mounted at a right angle.
Changing a bulb is then as simple as slipping the end effector over a bulb, and flicking the thumbstick in the direction to unscrew the light. It can then be removed, and then replaced with a fresh bulb, screwed in by pushing the thumbstick in the other direction.
Normally, such a task would be quite a sketchy proposition when done on the top of a tall ladder. Instead, it becomes an easy job done from the safety of an overlooking walkway, completed in less than half an hour when changing a full 15-bulb chandelier.
Incidentally, if you’re swapping out your bulbs, you might be interested in the special royal lights
you’re not allowed to buy
. Video after the break. | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407474",
"author": "X",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T21:26:50",
"content": "How many software developers does it take to charge a light bulb?“None, the light bulb works fine on the machine in my office”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,372,849.912218 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/16/using-fishing-wire-to-hold-in-pin-headers-is-a-nifty-trick/ | Using Fishing Wire To Hold In Pin Headers Is A Nifty Trick | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"development board",
"header",
"Header pins",
"jumper wire",
"pcb",
"pin header"
] | Working on a breadboard, one can get used to the benefits of being able to readily plug and unplug jumper wires to reconfigure a project. One could only dream of doing so with PCBs, right? Wrong! [Stewart Russell]
recently shared a tip on Twitter
on how to do just that, with the help of a little fishing wire.
The wire can be neatly threaded through the board to enable quick hookups.
The trick is simple: on any old development board that uses 0.1″ pitch headers, simply weave some fishing line through the plated through-holes in the PCB. Then, regular jumper wires can be inserted just like on a breadboard. The fishing wire has just enough give to allow the jumper wires to be jammed in, holding them steady and in good contact, while still allowing them to be easily removed.
[Hackspace Magazine] has raved about the trick, noting great success
using 0.38 mm fishing line
. Alternative methods involve
using toothpicks
, though we suspect solution is likely messier and less reliable.
If you’ve got your own
tricks for prototyping quickly
using development and breakout boards, be sure to share them below in the comments. Alternatively, send your best stuff to us
on the tipsline! | 55 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407434",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T19:36:01",
"content": "It’s a hack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6407441",
"author": "none",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T19:45:31",
... | 1,760,372,850.006312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/16/keynote-video-elecia-white-finds-treasure-in-memory-map/ | Keynote Video: Elecia White Finds Treasure In The Memory Map | Elliot Williams | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Microcontrollers",
"Slider"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon",
"elecia white",
"memory",
"microcontrollers"
] | If you dig microcontrollers, and you like to dig into how they work, Elecia White wants to help you navigate their innermost secrets with the help of memory map files. In this refreshingly funny, but very deep keynote talk from the 2021 Hackaday Remoticon, Elecia guides us through one of the most intimidating artifacts of compilation — a file that lists where
everything
is being put in the microcontroller’s memory — and points out landmarks that help to make it more navigable.
And when you need to look into the map file, you probably really
need
to look into the map file. When your embedded widget mysteriously stops working, memory problems are some of the usual suspects. Maybe you ran out of RAM or flash storage space, maybe you have some odd hard fault and you want to know what part of the program is causing the trouble, or maybe you need to do some speed profiling to make it all run faster. In all of these cases, you get an absolute memory address. What lives there? Look it up in the memory map!
Charting a Course
Elecia starts out with the map file from a “hello world” program, but it’s a hello world running on an RTOS, so already there’s enough meat to dig into. She starts out with the top-level overview: flash for the code and RAM for the program to use. In flash, the code lives in
.text
and
.const
, and RAM has sections that should be familiar to you like
.heap
and
.stack
, but also
.data
and
.bss
. The memory map file also follows this structure: first an overview, then the section markers, and then the details of what’s inside each section.
If you get a crash, for instance, and you know where the numerical value of program counter when it went all pear-shaped, the
.text
section lists the function name where that happened. The section with global variable definitions, listed alphabetically? You can probably just scroll on by that — there’s a lot of redundancy in the map file, sometimes sorted by memory address, sometimes sorted alphabetically. You don’t want to
read
a map file, you just want to dip in, get what you need, and get out. Got a variable that you think is getting overwritten? Find it in the section listed by address, and look at its neighbors — one of them might be overrunning.
But the real star of the show is the beautiful map Elecia made in the style of a role-playing game. Across the River of Initialization from the Static Shores, you’ll find RAMlandia, the high planes of the Stacks, the low boggy Heap Hallows, and the Port of (memory mapped) Peripheral Registers. There are actually dragons in the Ocean of Unused Address Space. By switching back and forth between this fun, but useful, map and the actual text memory map file, Elecia ties a memorable view of memory with the dense text of the map file as it lives in your project folder.
And no talk about memory in microcontrollers is complete without noting the dangers of what happens when the RAM’s heap, which grows downwards, kisses the RAM’s stack, which grows upwards. What happens then? One more function call and the functions start overwriting your data. “This is fine. Like a dog sitting in a cafe on fire.” The problem is, this is the part of memory management that’s dynamic, functions call other functions and memory is allocated and cleared. User input changes which parts of the program run, and thus where data is stored. Here is the one place where the memory map
won’t
help you, except to find out what’s nearby where the crash happened. But the true answer to “How much RAM do I have now?” truly is ineffably “I dunno.”
If you’re new to embedded design, perhaps the first twenty minutes of the talk is for you, and even if you’re a hardened veteran, you’ll learn something from the later sections. I thoroughly enjoyed Elecia’s talk, and so will you. You can watch it embedded just below. Bring
a copy of the slides
along too. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407472",
"author": "Jerry",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T21:13:44",
"content": "Wonderful video Elliot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6407601",
"author": "Elliot Williams",
"timestamp": "2021-12-17T07:38:27",
... | 1,760,372,850.053663 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/16/a-hackers-journey-in-developing-a-new-vr-controller/ | A Hacker’s Journey In Developing A New VR Controller | Donald Papp | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"ergonomics",
"Project Caliper",
"SteamVR",
"virtual reality",
"vr",
"XRCaliper"
] | [Rob Cole] had an ambitious side project:
to build an improved version of the Valve Index VR controllers
. His effort, named
Project Caliper
, aims for optimal ergonomics and modularity for the handheld devices. [Rob] originally had plans to develop it as a consumer product by forming a small startup company, but after taking a hard look at the realities of manufacturing delays, semiconductor shortages, and the high costs of developing hardware, decided that the idea just didn’t seem justified at the time.
An XRCaliper prototype
However, the project was still to take shape. [Rob] is a self-learner, and highly passionate about the value of human-centric design. He started by building a basic controller that could be tracked in SteamVR, then a lot of work prototyping the finer points of controller design, and finally moving on to developing
Project Caliper
, his concept for a fully-adjustable, modular VR controller. The article he’s written takes you on a journey through the development of the project, and it is chock-full of prototype pictures for those of you who want to see just how much work can go into developing the actual physical realities of a handheld device. Some of his discoveries are pretty interesting; for example, he put a small vibration motor on a dorsal strap of one of his prototypes, thinking it would be a good place for feedback since the back of the hand is quite sensitive. It turned out that vibration applied to the back of the hand was powerfully felt as though it were
inside
the hand.
While its future as a consumer product isn’t certain, [Rob] is still working on the
Project Caliper
design and shares progress and photos on
Twitter
. Developing VR hardware isn’t easy, but at least there’s a much more robust framework for it nowadays, and thankfully no longer any need to
roll your own tracking from scratch
. | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407444",
"author": "Adrian Scarlett",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T19:52:18",
"content": "Looks so be a long way from improving the valve controller, adding unnecessary adjustability, and infringing on a whole host of patents in the process.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,372,850.099574 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/16/pinephone-malware-surprises-users-raises-questions/ | PinePhone Malware Surprises Users, Raises Questions | Arya Voronova | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"News",
"Phone Hacks",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"arch",
"linux",
"malware",
"Manjaro",
"pinephone"
] | On December 5th, someone by the IRC nickname of [ubuntu] joined the Pine64 Discord’s
#pinephone
channel through an IRC bridge. In the spirit of December gift-giving traditions, they have presented their fellow PinePhone users with an offering – a “Snake” game. What [ubuntu] supposedly designed had the potential to become a stock, out-of-the-box-installed application with a small but dedicated community of fans, modders and speedrunners.
Unfortunately, that would not be the alternate universe we live in, and all was not well with the package being shared along with a cheerful
“hei gaiz I make snake gaem here is link www2-pinephnoe-games-com-tz replace dash with dot kthxbai”
announcement. Shockingly, it was a trojan! Beneath layers of Base64 and Bashfuscator we’d encounter shell code that could be in the “example usage” section of a modern-day thesaurus entry for the word “
yeet
“.
The malicious part of the code is not sophisticated – apart from obfuscation, the most complex thing about it is that it’s Bash, a language with unreadability baked in. Due to the root privileges given when installing the package, the
find
-based modern-day equivalent of
rm -rf /*
has no trouble doing its dirty work of wiping the filesystem clean, running a
shred
on every file beforehand if available to thwart data recovery. As for the “wipe the cellular modem’s firmware” bonus part, it exploits the
CVE-2021-31698
. All of that would happen on next Wednesday at 20:00, with scheduling done by a
systemd
-backed cronjob.
[ubuntu] didn’t share sources, just the binaries, packaged for easy installation on Arch Linux. One of the prominent PinePhone community members installed that binary and enjoyed the “game” part of it, asking about plans to make it open-source – receiving reassurance from [ubuntu] that the sources would be released eventually, “just need to clean it up”. Some weren’t so sure, arguing that people shouldn’t
sudo install-this
random games without a source code repo link. Folks were on low alert, and there might’ve been up to about a dozen installs before a cautious and savvy member untarred the package and alerted people to suspicious base64 in the
.INSTALL
script, about half a day later.
How Do We Interpret This?
This was a small-scale yet high-effort destructive attack on PinePhone users, targeting the ones using Arch specifically,
by the way
. The malware sender announced their “game development efforts” before publishing, stayed in the channel doing a bit of small talk and Q&A, and otherwise was not quickly distinguishable from an average developer coming to bless a prospective platform with their first app. Most of all, the Snake game was very much real – it’s not clear whether the code might’ve been stolen from some open-source project, but you wouldn’t distinguish it from a non-malicious Snake game. It’s curious that the package doesn’t seem to be sending private data to any servers (or encrypt files, or force you to watch ads akin to modern mobile games) – it easily could, but it doesn’t.
With the amount of work being done on the PinePhone cellular modem reverse-engineering, it’s peculiar that the malware takes advantage of the CVEs discovered alongside that effort. You wouldn’t expect a typical phone virus to pull off a cellular modem brick trick, given the fragmentation of Android world and the obfuscation of Apple world. Funnily enough, the community-developed open-source firmware for the Quectel cellular modem is immune to the bug being exploited and is overall more fully-featured, but Pine64 is required to ship the exploitable proprietary firmware by default for regulatory compliance reasons – the consequences for stepping out of line on that are drastic enough, according to a Pine64 source.
Questions spring to mind. Is PinePhone a safe platform? My take is – “yes” when compared to everything else, “no” if you expect to be unconditionally safe when using it. As it stands, it’s a platform that explicitly requires your understanding of what you’re directing it to do.
With more OS distributions available than any other modern phone could boast about being able to support, you can use something like Ubuntu Touch for a smooth experience. You are given overall more power to keep yourself safe when using a PinePhone. People who understand the potential of this power are the kind of people who contribute to the PinePhone project, which is why it’s sad that they specifically were targeted in this event.
Other platforms solve such problems in different ways, where only part of the solution is actual software and architectural work done by the platform, and another is by training the users. For instance, you’re not expected to use a third-party appstore (or firmware, or charger, or grip method) on your iPhone, and Android has developer mode checkboxes you can reach if you recreate the third movement of
“Flight of the Bumblebee”
with your finger in the settings screen. The Linux ecosystem way is to rely on the kernel to provide reliable low-level security primitives, but the responsibility is on the distributions to incorporate software and configurations that make use of these primitives.
I’d argue that mobile Linux distributions ought to define and maintain their position on the “security” scale, too, elaborating on the measures they take when it comes to third-party apps. Half a year ago, when I was preparing a summary on different OSes available for PinePhone and their stances on app security, it took me way more time than I’d feel comfortable having someone spend on a task of such significance.
What Are Our Options?
The gist of advice given out to newcomers is “don’t install random software you can’t trust”. While this is good advice on its own, you’d be right to point out – a game shouldn’t be able to wipe your system, and “get better users” generally isn’t a viable strategy. Any security strategist in denial about inherent human fallibility is not going to make it in the modern world, so let’s see what we can do beside the usual “educate users” part. As usual,
there’s an XKCD to start off with.
Even being able to write to an arbitrary user-owned file on a Linux system is “game over”. Say, in
$HOME/.bashrc
, you can alias
sudo
to
stdin-recording-app sudo
and
grab the user’s password next time they run
sudo
in the terminal
.
.bashrc
isn’t the only one user-writeable file getting executed regularly, either. While sandboxing solutions are being developed to solve these kind of problems, the work is slow and the aspects of it are non-trivial, generally best described as “dynamic and complex whitelisting”.
A piece of commonly handed out advice is “if you can’t read the code and understand what it does, don’t run it”, presumably, supposed to apply to packages and codebases longer than a weekend project. Ironically, this puts Linux at an unwarranted disadvantage to closed-source systems. The “share an .exe” way of distributing applications
is older than I am personally
, and it still is an accepted method of sharing software that someone wrote for Windows, with UAC having become yet another reflexive clickthrough box. Again, putting more of a security burden on Linux users’ shoulders is easy but foolish.
Would sharing the source code even help in the malware situation? No! In fact, attaching a link to a source code repo would help [ubuntu] make the malware distribution more plausible. When you publish a package, even on supposedly reputable platforms, there’s rarely any checks on whether the code inside the package you upload matches the code in your repo.
That’s true for a lot of places –
GitHub
and
GitLab
releases,
DockerHub
, NPM,
RubyGems
, browser extension stores,
PyPi
, and even some supposedly safe Linux repositories,
like F-droid
, are vulnerable. Providing sourcecode along a malicious package adds legitimacy, and takes away incentives for skilled people to check the binary in the first place – hey, the code’s there to see already! If [ubuntu] did just that, perhaps we’d be talking about this incident a few days later and in a more somber tone. Supply-chain attacks are the new hotness in 2020 and 2021.
Plenty of security systems we have set up are trust-based. Package signing is the most prominent one, where a cryptographic signature of a person responsible for maintaining the package is used to establish “person X vouches for this package’s harmlessness”. HTTPS is another trust-based technology we use daily, though, really,
you’re trusting your browser’s or OS’s keystore maintainer way more than any particular key owner
.
When enforced to the extent that it actually makes us more secure, trust-based tech puts a burden on new developers who don’t have reasonably polished social and cryptographic prowess. However, when often already met with lacking documentation, incomplete APIs and untested libraries, should we really be increasing the burden any further? Maybe that’s not so bad.
The trust-based signing tech I mention often is applied to OS images you typically download to bootstrap your PC (or phone!) with a Linux install, but it’s not yet popular on PinePhone – for instance, quite a few OS images for PinePhone don’t have such signatures, which I was disappointed by, since most major distributions for the PC provide these and I expected the Linux phone space to be no different,
and not having signatures can be disastrous
. Quite a few security-related features like this are there for the taking, but aren’t being used because they require non-trivial effort to fit into a project’s infrastructure if it was not designed with security in mind from the beginning, or create an additional burden on the developers.
What Do We Really Need?
The PinePhone community has implemented some new rules, some channeling into the “automation” territory. This will possibly help a specific kind of problem to be less impactful in the future – though I’d argue that institutional memory should play a larger part in this. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts… until they learn how to work around your Discord bot’s heuristics? I already have, for instance. This is a monumental topic with roots beyond the Great PinePhone Snake Malware of 2021, and this article isn’t even about that as much as it’s about helping you understand what’s up with important aspects of Linux security, or maybe even the security of all open source software.
For me, this malware strikes the notes of “inevitable” and “course adjustment” and “growing pains”. Discussions about trust and software take place in every community that gets large enough.
We need the acknowledgment that Linux malware is possible and may eventually become widespread, and a healthy discussion about how to stop it is crucial. Linux still has effectively no malware, but the day we can no longer state so is approaching us.
I’m unsure on the exact course adjustment we need. Understanding the system goes a long way, but the security measures we expect can’t exclude power users and beginner developers. Technically, whether it’s containerization, sandboxing, trust-based infrastructure, or memory-safe languages, we need to know what we need before we know what to ask for.
I would like to thank
[Lukasz]
of Pine64 community and
[Hacker Fantastic]
for help on the PinePhone situation fact-checks. | 84 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407359",
"author": "Beaker",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T15:31:33",
"content": "“it’s Bash, a language with unreadability baked in”Queue a Greta “how dare you” impression…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6407365",
"autho... | 1,760,372,850.222753 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/16/tesla-model-s-gets-boost-with-jet-engine-upgrade/ | Tesla Model S Gets Boost With Jet Engine Upgrade | Matthew Carlson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"car hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"arduino",
"jet engine",
"tesla"
] | Tesla is well known for making cars that can accelerate quickly, but there’s always room for improvement. [Warped Perception] decided that his Tesla Model S P85D needed that little bit of extra oomph (despite the 0-60 MPH or 0-97 km/h time of 3.1 seconds), so he did what any sensible person would:
add three jet turbines to the back of his car
.
The best part of this particular build is the engineering and fabrication that made this happen. With over 200 pieces and almost all personally fabricated, this is a whirlwind of a build. The control panel is first, and there’s a particularly clever technique of 3D printing the lettering directly onto the control panel for the flat stuff. Then for the pieces with angles that would prevent the head from moving freely, he printed onto a plastic sheet in reverse, applied glue, then stuck the letters to the plate as a sheet. A top layer of clear coat ensures the letters won’t come off later.
Using a 3D printer to apply lettering on the control panel.
He installed the control electronics in the trunk with wiring strung from the car’s front to the rear. Three Arduinos serve as controllers for the jets. Afterward, came the bracket to hold the engines and attach it to the car’s underside. Unfortunately, supplies were a little hard to come by, so he had to make do with what was on hand. As a result it didn’t come out as strong as he would have hoped, but it’s still pretty impressive.
[Warped Perception] does a few tests before taking it out on the road. Then, he shifted the car into neutral and could drive the car solely on jet power, which was one of his goals. While we don’t love the idea of testing a jet engine on public roads, it certainly would discourage tailgaters.
Next, he finds a quieter road and does some speed tests. Unfortunately, it was drizzling, and the pavement was damp, putting a damper on his 0-60 standing times. Electric-only he gets 4.38 seconds, and turning on the jets plus electric shaves that down to 3.32 seconds. Overall, an incredible build that’s sure to draw a few curious glances whenever you’re out on the town.
If you’re looking to upgrade your Tesla, perhaps instead of jet engines,
you might opt for a robot to plug it in for you? | 72 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407327",
"author": "monsonite",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T12:06:36",
"content": "This rather defeats the point of electric vehicles. Any fool can burn fossil fuels inefficiently like this…….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "640... | 1,760,372,850.326441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/16/christmas-lithophanes-make-neat-decorations/ | Christmas Lithophanes Make Neat Decorations | Lewin Day | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"Christmas decoration",
"decoration",
"lithophane"
] | Lithophanes are neat little artistic creations that use variations in the thickness of a material to reveal an image when lit from behind. 3D printing is a great way to make lithophanes, and they can make for
beautiful Christmas decorations, too!
It’s easy to make lithophane decorations for your Christmas tree with the help of
the ItsLitho tool.
The online application takes any image you upload, and can generate lithophane geometry that you can 3D print at home. Print your custom bell or bauble, add the printed hooks, and then the final decoration can be backlit to reveal its image by inserting an LED from a string of Christmas lights.
The result is a beautiful, glowing decoration that displays a detailed image when lit up. All you need is a few images and a 3D printer to produce decorations as unique gifts for your family and friends.
We’ve seen the technique put to other uses too, such as in this convincing lamp
designed after our very own Moon
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Jordin Andriessen for the tip!] | 4 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407352",
"author": "Doug Leppard",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T14:15:08",
"content": "This is cool, my wife loves it need to try it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6407397",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Re... | 1,760,372,850.410153 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/15/rc-sub-built-with-a-water-bottle/ | RC Sub Built With A Water Bottle | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bottle",
"radio control",
"submarine"
] | Submarines are one of the harder modes of transport to build in radio-controlled form. Doing so involves tangling with sealing electronics from water ingress and finding a way to control the thing underwater. It’s a challenge, but one relished by [Project Air]
in his latest build.
The body of the sub was built from a drink bottle, serving as a stout container upon which could be mounted all the necessary hardware. Filling the bottle with water allowed buoyancy to be adjusted to a neutral level. Twin brushless motors were used for drive, while servos were waterproofed using a combination of rubber gaskets, olive oil, and sealing spray.
Control was via a floating 2.4 GHz receiver, as high-frequency radio signals don’t penetrate water very far. The floating box also carries an FPV transmitter to allow the sub to be piloted via video feed. Rather than using a ballast system, the sub instead dynamically dives by thrusting itself beneath the water’s surface.
Unfortunately, water sloshing around in the partially-filled drink bottle meant controlling the sub in pitch was virtually impossible. To fix this, [Project Air] filled the bottle completely, and then used some plugged syringes on the outside of the body to adjust buoyancy. The long heavy tether was also replaced with a much shorter one, and the sub became much more fun to drive around under water.
The build was actually built for a friendly contest with [DIY Perks], a fellow Youtuber
whose efforts we covered recently.
It also bears noting that better results can be had by using
lower-frequency radio gear
. Video after the break. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407325",
"author": "abjq",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T11:50:49",
"content": "“a drink bottle, serving as a stout container”That would be Guinness, then!(Other porters are available).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6407440",
... | 1,760,372,850.370514 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/15/christmas-tree-pcb-just-the-trick-for-festive-glee/ | Christmas Tree PCB Just The Trick For Festive Glee | Lewin Day | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"christmas",
"holiday hacks",
"pcb"
] | The festive season is often as good a reason as any to get out the tools and whip up a fun little project. [Simon] wanted a little tchotchke to give out for the holidays, so they whipped up a Christmas tree PCB
that’s actually Arduino-compatible.
O’ Christmas Tree, on PCB…
It’s a forward-looking project, complete with USB-C connector, future-proofing it for some time until yet another connector standard comes along. When plugged in, like many similar projects, it blinks some APA102 LEDs in a festive way. The PCB joins in on the fun, with white silkscreen baubles augmented by golden ones created by gaps in the soldermask.
An ATTiny167 is the brains of the operation,
using the Micronucleus bootloader
in a similar configuration to the DigiSpark Pro development board. It relies on a bit-banged low-speed USB interface for programming, but the functionality is largely transparent to the end user. It can readily be programmed from within the Arduino IDE.
It’s not an advanced project by any means, but is a cute giveaway piece which can make a good impression in much the same way
as a fancy PCB business card.
It could also serve as an easy tool for introducing new makers to working with addressable LEDs. Meanwhile, if you’ve been cooking up your own holiday projects in the lab, don’t hesitate
to drop us a line! | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407370",
"author": "Seejay",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T16:04:03",
"content": "You spelled, “is” correctly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6407598",
"author": "José Daniel Herrera Gomariz",
"timestamp": "2021-12-17T07:33... | 1,760,372,850.510204 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/15/wii-meets-its-end-in-breadcrumb-jail/ | Wii Meets Its End In Breadcrumb Jail | Arya Voronova | [
"classic hacks",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Nintendo Wii Hacks"
] | [
"nintendo",
"nintendo wii",
"nintendo wii hacks",
"nintoaster",
"toaster",
"wii"
] | One of often encountered traits of a hacker is an ability to build devices into places where they don’t belong. Perhaps, [sonictimm]’s self-descriptive
WiiinToaster
was somewhat of an inevitability. Inspired by the legendary
Nintoaster project
which used a NES, this is a modern take on the concept, putting a Wii inside what used to be an ordinary bread-making kitchen appliance. [Sonictimm] has taken care to make it as functional while reusing the user interface options commonly found in a toaster, with some of the Wii’s connections routed to the original buttons and the lever. It’s compatible with everything that the Wii supports in its standard, non-toaster form – the only function that had to be sacrificed was the “making toast” part of it, but some would argue it’d be a bit counterproductive to leave in.
[Sonictimm] says it took five years from building the WiiinToaster to documenting it, which sounds about right for an average project. If you, like many, have a Wii laying around that you haven’t been using for years, building it into a toaster (or any other place a Wii shouldn’t be) is a decent weekend project. Perhaps, a spacier chassis will also help with the overheating problems plaguing some earlier Wii models. One thing we would not recommend, however, is building a toaster into a Wii case – unless you like to see your creations self-immolate, in which case, make sure to film it and grace our Tips line with a YouTube link. There’s also a challenge for the achievement-minded hackers out there – making a rebuild so daring, it gets a DMCA notice from Nintendo.
It wouldn’t be the first time we feature a Nintendo console reborn in a toaster’s shell, with
NES
and
SNES
projects coming to mind. If you’re interested in other directions of Wii rebuilds, perhaps you could make an
Altoids-sized FrankenWii
, or
an unholy hybrid of three consoles
. And if you do build a Switchster, or a ToaDSter (perhaps, best suited for a waffle iron), we’d love to take a look! | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6407267",
"author": "Feinfinger (super villain in nostalgy mode)",
"timestamp": "2021-12-16T01:02:07",
"content": "Holy toaster!This is not funny! :.(It’s reserved for NetBSD!Please redo this with a coffee brewer, sodastreamer, model truck, …:-Þ(-: …and don’t take these lines too ... | 1,760,372,850.461301 |
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