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https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/live-jam-kit-helps-electronic-musicians-stay-in-sync/ | Live Jam Kit Helps Electronic Musicians Stay In Sync | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"jam",
"midi",
"music",
"musical hacks"
] | Jamming live with synths and drum machines can be fun, but for [Christian], there was a little something missing. He was looking for a way to keep everyone in the group on the beat and rocking out,
and decided to build something to help.
The ethos of the build was to put one person ultimately in charge of the mix using Ableton. This stops the volume race, as each musician turns their own volume up and the jam devolves into a noisy mess. Each musician also gets a sync button they can hit if their instrument has drifted out of time. Everyone in the jam also gets their own monitor signal in their headphones, as well as a looper as well.
Individual players in the electronic jam can whip up a cool little loop, and spit it out to the main controller running Ableton using the looper. Then, they can mix up something else in their headphones without disrupting the main mix, before spitting it out as a loop again.
[Christian]’s demo video
does a great job of showing how it all works. We particularly like the sync button, which gets rid of the usual frustrations when a sequencer in the jam trips over the tempo signal.
It’s all built with a Teensy, and seems like a great way to organize a jam with a bunch of different synths and drum machines. We’d certainly love to join in the fun.
We’ve seen other fun jam kits too,
like this neat networked solution
. Video after the break. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401395",
"author": "Assad Ebrahim",
"timestamp": "2021-11-24T01:31:38",
"content": "Very cool! Love it! Nice aesthetics (leds) on the device. Good design – seems a fairly easy UI to master.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "64... | 1,760,372,874.533183 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/charging-phones-with-the-power-of-paper-pulp/ | Charging Phones With The Power Of Paper Pulp | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"cardboard",
"cardboard pulp",
"paper pulp",
"pulp mold",
"wireless charger"
] | Here it is, the most exciting reveal since the Hackaday Prize ceremony —
[Eric Strebel] uses the pulp mold he designed and built over the three previous videos
. In case you missed our coverage so far, [Eric] set out to design an eco-friendly wireless charger that’s meant to be disposable after six months to a year of use, and looks good doing it.
[Eric] started by cutting up a lot of cardboard and pulping it in a brand-new Oster blender that honestly looks to be pretty heavy duty. Pulping consists of blending the cardboard bits with water until a soupy chili-like consistency is reached. That blender lasted all of 20 minutes before breaking, so [Eric] promptly replaced it with a Ninja, which was way more up to the challenge of cardboard.
To do the actual molding, [Eric] mixed his pulpy chili with ~30 L of water in a tub big enough to accommodate the long brass mold. He dipped the mold to gather a layer of pulp and pulled it, and then pressed the wireless charger in place to create a pocket for it in the final, dried piece which he later replaced with an acrylic disk of the same diameter. [Eric] points out that a part like this would probably dry within ten minutes in an industrial setting. Even though he set it on top of a food dehydrator, it still took 4-5 hours to dry. Soup’s on after the break.
This isn’t [Eric]’s first wireless charger. A few years ago,
he prototyped a swiveling version in urethane foam that does portrait or landscape
. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401353",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T21:29:33",
"content": "No electrolytes. Just pulp, and the -worst- adequate title for a crapaday, as misleading as possible.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6401365",
"auth... | 1,760,372,874.809673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/significantly-improved-egg-timer-makes-pictionary-better/ | Significantly Improved Egg Timer Makes Pictionary Better | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"egg timer",
"eggtimer",
"pictionary",
"pictionary hacks",
"sand timer",
"timer"
] | The traditional sand timer, known colloquially as an egg timer, served its purpose well over the centuries since its development. However, [MakerPaul] realised it had some significant flaws that were ruining
Pictionary,
and set out to fix the problem.
If you’re not looking directly at an egg timer, it’s easy to miss the moment when the timer runs out. Resetting the timer before it runs out also requires waiting for the sand to filter to one side. Clearly the world needs a better mousetrap.
The tipping timer from [MakerPaul] solves both those issues. In this design, sand flows down into an offset area, which tips the device over when reaching a certain time limit. Additionally, turning the device upside down and then rotating it instantly reloads the sand, meaning the timer can be reused immediately.
[MakerPaul] first came up with the idea about 20 years ago, refining it during the recent lockdowns. The design files
are freely available
for anyone that wishes to build one. [MakerPaul] isn’t commercializing the idea, but mentions that it would be great if anyone using it makes a donation to
the Mind mental health charity.
Most timers we feature
are electronic and digital,
but it’s easy to appreciate the elegance of what [MakerPaul] has achieved here. As a bonus, he documented the entire project and its application in under 90 seconds. How good is that? Video after the break. | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401318",
"author": "X",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T19:39:46",
"content": "He must have missed the memo about the meeting in Foundation where they discuss the pros and cons of timekeeping devices, this device is just as good as the ones in the meeting.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,372,874.865304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/firefox-brings-the-fire-shifting-from-glx-to-egl/ | Firefox Brings The Fire: Shifting From GLX To EGL | Matthew Carlson | [
"Featured",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"egl",
"firefox",
"glx",
"linux",
"opengl",
"Wayland"
] | You may (or may not) have heard that Firefox is
moving from GLX to EGL for the Linux graphics stack
. It’s an indicator of which way the tides are moving in the software world. Let’s look at what it means, why it matters, and why it’s cool.
A graphics stack is a complex system with many layers. But on Linux, there needs to be an interface between something like
OpenGL
and a windowing system like
X11
. X11 provides a fundamental framework for drawing and moving windows around a display, capturing user input, and determining focus, but little else. An X11 server is just a program that manages all the windows (clients). Each window in X11 is considered a client. A client connects to the server over a Unix process socket or the internet.
OpenGL focuses on what to draw within the confines of the screen space given by the window system. GLX (which stands for OpenGL Extension to the X window system) was originally developed by Silicon Graphics. It has changed over the years, gaining hardware acceleration support and DRI (Direct Rendering Interface). DRI is a way for OpenGL to talk directly to the graphical hardware if the server and the client are on the same computer. At its core, GLX provides OpenGL functions to X11, adds to the X protocol by allowing 3d rendering commands to be sent, and an extension that reads rendering commands and passes them to OpenGL.
EGL (Embedded-System Graphics Library) is a successor of GLX, but it started with a different environment in mind. Initially, the focus was embedded systems, and devices such as Android, Raspberry Pi, and Blackberry heavily lean on EGL for their graphical needs. Finally, however, Wayland decided to use EGL as GLX brought in X11 dependencies, and EGL offers closer access to hardware.
When Martin Stránský initially added Wayland support to Firefox, he used EGL instead of GLX. Additionally, the Wayland implementation had zero-copy GPU buffer sharing via DMABUF (a Linux kernel subsystem for sharing buffers). Unfortunately, Firefox couldn’t turn on this improved WebGL’s performance for X11 (it existed but was never stable enough). Nevertheless, features kept coming making Wayland (and consequently EGL) a more first-class citizen. Now EGL will be enabled by default in Firefox 94+ with Mesa 21+ drivers (Mesa is an implementation of OpenGL, Vulkan, and other specifications that translate commands into instructions the GPU can understand).
Why This Move Matters
As mentioned earlier, EGL has two crucial features: zero-copy shared buffers and partial damage support. Zero-copy means WebGL can be sandboxed and fast. Partial damage means the whole window doesn’t need to be redrawn if only a small part is changed, saving power. This shift also speaks to the ongoing tides in the software world. Slowly but surely, the world is moving towards the EGL/Wayland style of compositing. This change mainly means fewer abstractions and layers and closer access to the hardware. EGL benefits simply from being newer and (hopefully) less buggy with strange edge cases. Additionally, running Wayland natively by default in Firefox rather than through XWayland is a significant shift.
Anecdotally, people who have tried it say the performance gains have been stellar, particularly when watching videos. The shared buffer helps as, for many GPUs, video is decoded (converting the compressed stream like h.264 into a raw bitmap) and then composited. Having a shared buffer and closer access to hardware allows the GPU to transfer that decoded frame directly into the compositor buffer, rather than making a trip to CPU RAM and back out to the GPU for NUMA machines.
To many of us, Firefox and other incredibly complex programs are mysterious boxes of wizardry. A peek inside to see the dedicated people who make them and how they make decisions and weigh tradeoffs is fascinating.
Curious about more Linux internals? Why not
dive into a journey to main()
? | 55 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401307",
"author": "XForever",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T18:16:44",
"content": "That’s too bad.Any major piece of software including X11 dependencies could help slow down the adoption of Wayland. It’s sad to see each one go!Sadly the kids don’t want a fun OS that does cool things l... | 1,760,372,874.662178 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/esp32-pac-man-clock-keeps-track-of-how-long-you-watch-it/ | ESP32 Pac-Man Clock Keeps Track Of How Long You Watch It | Kristina Panos | [
"clock hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"clock",
"ESP32",
"Ms. Pacman",
"pac-man",
"pacman"
] | There are so many elements that make a good clock worth looking at for much longer than necessary.
Not only is this clock quite cool to behold, it plays Pac-Man around the time!
Yes, of course you can interact with the Pac-Man — touching the edges of the screen will make him go left, right, up, or down accordingly. You can also change to Ms. Pac-Man and make all the animations go normal speed, fast, or crazy-fast.
[TechKiwiGadgets] built a Pac-Man clock a few years ago that was well-received, but not cheap or easy to mimic. Since then, they have ported the code to the ESP32 and made a new version that has fewer and friendlier components. Not only that, they have great instructions for building the ESP32 shield on protoboard and also offer the shield as an open-source fab-able PCB. Still too much work?
The complete kit version is available over on Tindie
. Be sure to check it out in crazy speed mode action after the break.
Although this isn’t the first Pac-Man clock we’ve seen, it devotes equal attention to the time and the game,
whereas this one is more about the game itself
. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401485",
"author": "reyhrtyh",
"timestamp": "2021-11-24T12:26:56",
"content": "why not microphone and using mycroft assistant?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,372,874.697519 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/retrotechtacular-office-equipment-from-the-1940s/ | Retrotechtacular: Office Equipment From The 1940s | Chris Lott | [
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"Chinese typewriter",
"ibm",
"office equipment",
"typewriters",
"vintage equipment"
] | If you can’t imagine writing a letter on a typewriter and putting it in a mailbox, then you take computers for granted. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. More niche applications begat niche machines, and a number of them are on display in this film that the Computer History Archives Project released last month. Aside from the File-o-matic Desk, the Addressograph, or the Sound Scriber, there a number of other devices that give us a peek into a bygone era.
One machine that’s still around, although in a much computerized form, is the stenograph. Not so popular these days is the convenient stenograph carrier, allowing a patient’s statement to be recorded bedside in the hospital immediately after a car accident. Wire recorders were all the rage in 1947, as were floppy disks (for audio, not data). Both media were used to time-shift dictation. Typing champions like Stella Pajunas could transcribe your letters and memos at 140 WPM using an electric typewriter, outpacing dot matrix printers but a snail’s pace compared to a laser jet.
Typing Ten Feet Wide
Before the IBM Selectric and its changeable font balls, there was the Varityper. It was a sophisticated typewriter supporting multiple fonts and proportional spacing. An unusual one is shown here, used for typing notes on engineering drawings and maps up to
ten feet
wide, in various fonts and sizes.
Chinese Typewriter is Innovative but Flops
Next we have the IBM electronic Chinese typewriter, the invention of IBM Rochester engineer [Kao Chung-Chin] (
US patent 2,412,777, Dec 1946
). In his design, [Kao]’s solution to handling thousands of Chinese glyphs is
not
a monster keyboard
. Rather, he requires the typist to enter a four-digit code using a modest number of keys. In modern terms, this would be like typing your document using Unicode values on a numeric keypad. Despite this impediment, IBM worker [Lois Lew] managed a respectable 45 WPM on this behemoth. And unlike the typewriter project, which was cancelled, [Lois] is still alive and kicking in Rochester. She recently connected with Stanford University professor [Thomas Mullaney] who is a researcher in Chinese history and focuses on typewriters. You can read his piece on this typewriter’s history and [Lois]’s involvement with the project in
this article
he wrote back in May.
[Lois Lew] operating the IBM Chinese Typewriter
Feeling Really Old
Addressograph Cards Are Still Available
I recognized, and actually used a few of the items featured in this film. My father’s workplace, where I would sometimes hang out after school, had a few of these machines back in the 1970s. The most spectacular was the Addressograph system, used to prepare mailings for newsletters, post cards, etc. It was basically a mechanical database. Each person was represented by a special card, prepared by a Graphotype machine, a specialized typewriter that embosses text on small metal plates, not unlike a dog-tag. The card was actually a frame, which held the embossed plate, a piece of card stock with the information typed by conventional means, and a series of slots along the top of the card which could hold metal tabs. These tabs denoted different user-defined categories. In an engineering company, for example, you could designate tab positions for each department, for each building, for each project team, etc. The entire company roster is now contained in one or more filing drawers, each about the size of an old-fashioned library card catalog drawer.
When you want to send out a letter to all the mechanical engineers working in the Poughkeepsie office, the operator would set up the Addressograph machine accordingly. The stack of cards from each drawer is slid into the feed rack, and each card is conveyed one-by-one through the machine for printing. Only those cards whose tabs match the setup are printed onto the envelopes. Cards not selected for the mailing would be passed over. After some time, my Dad realized that each drawer had its own quirks and temperament, so he gave each of them names.
Pedro could always be counted upon to misbehave.
These machines required a bit of maintenance to keep running, but they were built like a tank. The ones I encountered as a teenager were purchased in the late 1940s and kept operational until the early 1980s, when other affordable options became viable. That seems like a long time today, when office equipment has lifespans measured in years not decades. Despite getting the job done, such single-purpose specialized office machines have all but vanished from the typical office these days. And no wonder — almost every function featured in this film can be done today with a desktop computer and a multifunction printer / scanner.
Check out the the video below the break. Are you still using any obsolete office equipment today? Let us know in the comments below. | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401273",
"author": "justsayin",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T15:58:53",
"content": "Audio floppy disks in 1947? How can I get any rest now that there’s *that* to chase down?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6401277",
"auth... | 1,760,372,874.75039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/ender-3-meets-mig-welder-to-make-a-metal-benchy-kind-of/ | Ender 3 Meets MIG Welder To Make A Metal Benchy — Kind Of | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"arc welding",
"Ender",
"metal printing",
"mig",
"wire welder"
] | When you can buy a 3D printer at Aldi, you pretty much know that 3D printing has been reduced to practice. At least for the plastic version of 3D printing; metal printing is another thing entirely. It’s easy to squeeze out a little molten plastic in a controlled fashion, but things get a little more — energetic — when you try to do the same with metal.
At least that’s what [Lucas] has been experiencing with his attempts to
build a metal 3D printer
over on his Cranktown City YouTube channel. Granted, he set himself up for a challenge from the get-go by seeking to stick a MIG welder onto an Ender 3, a platform that in no way was ready for the abuse it was about to endure.
Part 1
of the video series below shows the first attempt, which ended badly for both the printer and for the prints.
But that first prototype, melted parts notwithstanding, gave [Lucas] enough to go on for the improvements of
version 2
, including a better build plate, heat shielding for the printer’s tender bits, and a legit MIG welder wire feeder. [Lucas] also built current control in, with a clever non-destructive interface to the welder controls. These improvements were enough to attempt a Benchy print, which started out pretty decent but got a bit droopy toward the end.
As imperfect as it is, the Benchy is a vast improvement over the formless blobs from version 1, and the printer holds quite a bit of promise for the future. One thing you can’t accuse [Lucas] of is giving up on a project too easily; after all, he built a laser cutter from scratch,
including the laser tube
.
Thanks for the tip, [Slade]. | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401244",
"author": "Jon H",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T12:49:27",
"content": "” got a bit droopy toward the end”Probably needs to add a water spray after every few layers to cool it off a bit.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "64... | 1,760,372,875.028881 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/26/solder-paste-dispenser-without-giant-compressor/ | Solder Paste Dispenser Without Giant Compressor | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"atmega",
"co2 cartridge",
"compressed air",
"dispenser",
"microcontroller",
"paste",
"solder"
] | We have certainly all had our moments with solder paste. Some of us hate it; it’s sticky and gooey, and it gets everywhere. That is, unless you have a solder paste dispenser. The trouble with these is that they typically require the use of an air compressor, which can be cumbersome to haul around in certain situations. If you need a solder paste dispenser that fits conveniently where air compressors won’t,
take a look at this small one from [Nuri Engineer] called the solderocket
.
This design foregoes the traditional compressor in favor of pressurized carbon dioxide canisters. These are common enough and used for things like rapidly inflating bicycle tires, but for this more delicate procedure the pressurized gas needs to be handled more daintily. A rotary knob is attached to the canister to regulate pressure, and a second knob attached to a microcontroller adjusts the amount of time the air pressure is applied to the solder paste. With this small compact setup, any type of paste can be delivered to a PCB without needing to use messy stencils or needing larger hardware like a compressor.
This could be just the tool that you need if you regularly work with surface-mount components. Of course
there are other methods of dispensing solder paste
that don’t require any compressed gas of any kind, but as long as something is around that gets the job done, we can’t really argue with either method. | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401960",
"author": "Mansour",
"timestamp": "2021-11-26T10:55:01",
"content": "Beautiful industrial design. Love it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6402020",
"author": "Nuri Erginer gnexlab (@NGnexlab)",
"time... | 1,760,372,874.925996 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/25/fifty-shades-of-brown-3d-printing-with-sugar/ | Fifty Shades Of Brown: 3D Printing With Sugar | Dave Rowntree | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"extruder",
"granules",
"sugar"
] | [Norbert Heinz] has been busy for the 2021 Hackaday Prize entry, working on the design of a direct granule extruder for 3D printing with waste materials, or materials that are not provided in the form of a filament. Sugar is pretty common in most households, so since that’s already available in granular form, [Norbert] gave
3D printing with granulated sugar
a try. (Video, embedded below.)
[Editor’s note:
He earned fifth place for this one
! Well, not the sugar in particular, but the overall great work on granular extruders.]
Success was somewhat variable, as the gloopy material is notoriously fickle to work with, but the setup did produce some structures that stayed in one piece, at least for a while. Initially [Norbert] tried it real slow, effectively printing with the liquified sweet stuff, by dragging a molten blob of it around on the end of the extruder nozzle. Whilst this did work, the resulting print resolution did leave something to be desired. The next thing tried was increased print speed. This produced clearer prints, as the sugar did not have time to caramelise, or form a noticeable blob, but as soon as the bed started to cool, it caused it to crack badly.
Going slow seemed to be the way forward, as more time to cool may have reduced the stresses in the structure due to the increased cooling time. But anyway, the way we see it, is it’s fun trying, and if it fails, you can just eat it, so long as you disregard all that food safety stuff anyway.
[Norbert] documents the granule extruder journey on the project
Hackaday.io page
, so it should be straightforward enough to duplicate this is you were so inclined.
We’ve covered a few sugary hacks before; Need a renewable bed adhesive? out of glue stick?
try sugar as a bed adhesive
! Printing in gloopy, sloppy materials is nothing new at all,
we covered it nearly ten years ago
.
Thanks to [Nils] for the tip! | 20 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401931",
"author": "Olivier",
"timestamp": "2021-11-26T06:18:10",
"content": "Great effort and being one of the winners is well deserved!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6401945",
"author": "anszom",
"timestamp": "2021-... | 1,760,372,874.975604 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/25/bring-a-minitel-terminal-back-to-life-with-an-esp32/ | Bring A Minitel Terminal Back To Life WIth An ESP32 | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"ESP32",
"Minitel",
"videotext"
] | Most of us who are old enough are likely to have had our first experience of an online service some time in the 1990s, either through the likes of Compuserve or via an ISP. For our French readers the online experience will have come much earlier, as a forward-thinking telecommunications environment led to every household in the country receiving a viewdata terminal. The Minitel system as it was called was a runaway success, and was only finally turned off as late as 2012. Many of the terminals survive to make a great basis for projects, and it’s one of these that [Louis H]
has taken and enhanced with an ESP32
.
One of the special things about this project is that unlike so many other Minitel conversions it doesn’t involve tearing into the terminal itself. Instead the PCB plugs into the socket on the back of the unit and emulates the line for the terminal to talk to. It can then be used as an SSH terminal over WiFi, or as a serial terminal for the ESP32 itself for example running a MicroPython firmware. If you can handle the French AZERTY keyboard there is no easier way to drag a viewdata terminal into the 2020s, as you can see in the video below the break.
Chez Hackaday, we love these nostalgic gems from the 1980s. Indeed we like this classic French public network so much that we’ve featured it quite a few times. Here for example is
a similar project using an Arduino
. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401911",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2021-11-26T03:21:26",
"content": "I’d love to mess with a minitel. It’s such a fun form-factor. It just sucks that QWERTY ones are so rare.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6401919",
... | 1,760,372,874.577822 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/25/a-teardown-of-80s-era-music/ | Ken Shirriff Breaks Open The Yamaha DX7 | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"80's",
"chip decap",
"dx7",
"emulator",
"microscope",
"music",
"reverse engineer",
"synth",
"synthesizer",
"yamaha"
] | For better or worse, this synthesizer was king in the 1980s music scene. Sure, there had been synthesizers before, but none acheived the sudden popularity of Yamaha’s DX7. “Take on Me?” “Highway to the Dangerzone”? That harmonica solo in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” All DX7. This synth was everywhere in pop music at the time, and now
we can all get some insight from taking a look at this de-capped chip from [Ken Shirriff]
.
To be clear, by “look” that’s exactly what we mean in this case, as [Ken] is reverse-engineering the YM21280 — the waveform generator of the DX7 — from photos. He took around 100 photos of the de-capped chip with a microscope, composited them, and then analyzed them painstakingly. The detail in his report is remarkable as he is able to show individual logic gates thanks to his powerful microscope. From there he can show exactly how the chip works down to each individual adder and array of memory.
[Ken]’s hope is that this work improves the understanding of the Yamaha DX7 chips enough to build more accurate emulators. Yamaha stopped producing the synthesizer in 1989 but its ubiquity makes it a popular, if niche, platform for music even today. Of course you don’t need a synthesizer to make excellent music. The next pop culture trend, grunge, essentially was a rebellion to the 80s explosion of synths and neon colors and
we’ve seen some unique ways of exploring this era of music as well
.
Thanks to [Folkert] for the tip! | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401890",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2021-11-26T00:37:47",
"content": "LOVED the link that took us to the Floppotron! Thank you, Bryan, and Happy Thanksgiving.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6402148",
"author":... | 1,760,372,875.23848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/25/esp32-brings-air-purifier-online-with-home-assistant/ | ESP32 Brings Air Purifier Online With Home Assistant | Tom Nardi | [
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"air purifier",
"ESP32",
"esphome",
"home automation",
"home-assistant",
"smart home"
] | A lot of hackers are rightfully concerned about the privacy issues that surround many of today’s “smart” gadgets, but it’s hard to argue that the ability to remotely control devices around your home isn’t convenient. Enter self-hosted, open source projects like Home Assistant. This provides the framework for building out a home automation system without having your
soul
information sold, but as you might expect, you’re going to have to put some effort in to get the most of it.
For example, take a look at this
Phillips AC4014 air purifier that [Anton] connected to Home Assistant
by way of an ESP32. Rather than getting too bogged down in reverse engineering the purifier’s surprisingly complex internal electronics, he took the easy way out and wired a couple of relays across the power and fan speed buttons; this allows the device to be easily controlled by the microcontroller, without impacting the functionality of the original controls.
But since those front panel controls still work, that meant [Anton] needed a way for the ESP32 to detect the device’s status and report that to Home Assistant so everything stayed in sync. So he looked around on the PCB for a trace that got powered up when the air purifier was up and running, which he connected to a pin of the microcontroller through a transistor. This let’s the firmware determine if the machine is running or not just by checking if the appropriate pin has gone high.
Speaking of the firmware, [Anton] decided to use ESPHome rather than trying to write his own code from scratch. This project allows you to rapidly add new devices to Home Assistant by providing the firmware with a relatively simple YAML configuration file, which he’s provided as an example. In fact, he’s provided quite a lot of examples with this project, down to an annotated image of the PCB that shows where to tap your wires into. He’s done quite a service for anyone who’s got this same model of air purifier.
This unit doesn’t appear to have any capability of actually checking the quality of the air in the room,
but we’ve recently seen a low-cost IKEA product that can do exactly that
. Even better, it can be
easily modified to report its findings over the network using the ESP8266
. | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401896",
"author": "I love it",
"timestamp": "2021-11-26T01:02:19",
"content": "I have a bunch of these devices around the house: air purifier, dehumidifier, etc.. none of which can be controlled remotely. Unfortunately their prohibitively high cost makes me worry about opening the... | 1,760,372,876.287643 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/25/inverted-pendulum-balanced-on-a-drone/ | Inverted Pendulum Balanced On A Drone | Dave Rowntree | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"dReamFlight",
"drone",
"inverted pendulum",
"quadcopter",
"uav"
] | [Nicholas Rehm] works during the day at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins, Maryland, so has considerable experience with a variety of UAV applications. The question arose about how the perseverance mars rover landing worked, which prompted [Nicholas] to hang a rock under his drone, attached via a winch. This proved to be interesting. But what is more interesting for us, is
what happens when you try to attach an inverted pendulum to the top of a drone in flight
? (video embedded, below)
This is a
classic control theory problem
, where you need to measure the angle of the pendulum with respect to the base, and close the loop by calculating the necessary acceleration from the pendulum angle. Typically this is demonstrated in one dimension only, but it is only a little more complicated to balance a pendulum with two degrees of freedom.
[Nicholas] first tried to derive the pendulum angle by simply removing the centering springs from an analog joystick, and using it to attach the pendulum rod to the drone body. As is quite obvious, this has a big drawback. The pendulum angle from vertical is now the sum of the joystick angle and the drone angle, which with the associated measurement errors, proved to be an unusable setup. Not to be discouraged, [Nicholas] simply added another IMU board to the bottom of the pendulum, and kept the joystick mechanism as a pivot only. And, as you can see from the video after the break, this indeed worked.
The flight controller is [Nicholas’] own project,
dRehmFlight
(GitHub), which is an Arduino library intended for the Teensy 4.0, using the ubiquitous MPU6050 6-DOF IMU. [Nicholas] also made an
intro video
for the controller, which may prove instructive for those wishing to go down this road to build their own VTOL aircraft. The code for pendulum experiment is not available at the time of writing, perhaps it will hit the GitHub in the future?
For some more inverted pendulum fun, do check out this
simple linear sled.
We did cover dRehmFlight a little while ago regarding the
suspended pendulum
, which may also worth a look. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401926",
"author": "tinfish",
"timestamp": "2021-11-26T05:51:30",
"content": "Minor gripe — it’s the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. There is an ‘s’ in “Johns”. (This typographic error is a peeve for some people who work there.)",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,372,875.887107 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/25/surfboard-gets-jet-upgrades/ | Surfboard Gets Jet Upgrades | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"battery",
"drive",
"electric",
"impeller",
"jet",
"lake",
"ocean",
"propeller",
"shaping",
"surfboard",
"waterproof"
] | Surfing is a fun and exciting sport but a lot of beginners can get discouraged with how little time is spent actually riding waves while learning. Not only are balance and wave selection critical skills that take time to learn, but a majority of time in the water is spent battling crashing waves to get out past the breakers. Many people have attempted to solve this problem through other means than willpower alone, and one of the latest attempts is [Andrew W]
with a completely DIY surfboard with custom impeller jet drives
.
The surfboard is hand-made by [Andrew W] himself using a few blocks of styrofoam glued together and then cut into a generic surfboard shape. After the rough shaping is done, he cuts out a huge hole in the back of the board for the jet drive. This drive is almost completely built by [Andrew] as well including the impeller pumps themselves which he designed and 3D printed. The pair of impellers are driven by some beefy motors and a robust speed controller that connects wirelessly to a handheld waterproof throttle to hold while surfing. Once everything was secured in the motor box the surfboard was given a final shaping and then glassed. The final touch was an emergency disconnect attached to a leash so that if he falls off the board it doesn’t speed away without him.
The build is impressive not only for [Andrew]’s shaping skills but for his dedication
to a custom jet drive for the surfboard
. He spent over a year refining the build and actually encourages people not to do this as he thinks it took too much time and effort, but we’re going to have to disagree with him there.
Even if you want to try to build something a lot simpler
, builds like these look like a lot of fun once they’re finished. The build seems flawless and while he only tested it in a lake we’re excited to see if it holds up surfing real waves in an ocean. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401822",
"author": "Orban Viktor",
"timestamp": "2021-11-25T15:34:52",
"content": "Insane effort, would be interesting to see which part breaks first! Also a full power ride.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6401845",
... | 1,760,372,875.785615 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/24/a-flip-clock-that-flips-up-not-down/ | A Flip Clock That Flips Up, Not Down | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"flip clock",
"Geneva Drive",
"split flap",
"stepper"
] | The venerable flip clock has become an outsized part of timekeeping culture that belies the simplicity of its mechanism. People collect and restore the electromechanical timepieces with devotion, and even seek to build new kinds of clocks based on split-flap displays. Designs differ, but they all have something in common in their use of gravity to open the leaves and display their numbers.
But what if you turned the flip clock on its head? That’s pretty much what [Shinsaku Hiura] accomplished with
a flip clock that stands up the digits rather than flipping them down
. The clock consists of three 3D-printed drums that are mounted on a common axle and linked together with gears and
a Geneva drive
. Each numeral is attached to a drum through a clever cam that makes sure it stands upright when it rotates to the top of the drum, and flops down cleanly as the drum advances. The video below makes the mechanism’s operation clear.
The build instructions helpfully note that “This clock is relatively difficult to make,” and given the extensive troubleshooting instructions offered, we can see how that would be so. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a mechanically challenging design from [Shinsaku Hiura];
this recent one-servo seven-segment display
comes to mind. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401647",
"author": "DSM",
"timestamp": "2021-11-24T22:27:47",
"content": "That is a neat approach to the problem, and the shadow it casts makes me wonder if you could make a very tiny one then illuminate it with a laser diode.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,372,875.704492 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/24/mechanical-musical-sculpture-recalls-the-four-muses/ | Mechanical Musical Sculpture Recalls The Four Muses | Lewin Day | [
"Art"
] | [
"art",
"music",
"musical sculpture",
"sculpture"
] | Music was created by humans, but often we find ourselves creating performances with machines. [Alana Balagot] and [Federico Tobon] did just that, constructing the stunning 4 Muses musical sculpture
with their combined talents.
4 Muses is made up of four individual instruments, under the command of a single keyboard controller. The keyboard can be used to play the instruments live, or alternatively, can learn from the player or be used as a sequencer. It can also act as a simple device to play back music using the four instruments.
The pipe instrument
uses servo-controlled valves, which allow air from a blower fan to reach several wood pipes.
The xylophone
instead uses solenoids to play its 13 tines. Percussion is provided by
a mechanized cajón drum
, using motors to actuate mallets that strike the various sections of the box. Meanwhile, hackers will be familiar with the concept of the
motor-noise instrument,
which drives stepper motors at different frequencies to generate tones.
Inside, a cavalcade of microcontrollers make everything work, from Arduino Megas and Teensys to NRF24s sending wireless packets from the controller to the instruments. [Alana] and [Federico] go in-depth with their documentation, highlighting the challenges they faced putting together the various instruments and showing how the final build came together.
Built with and brass hardware and sporting a variety of exquisite wood finishes, the final result is a quartet of machines that play beautiful music composed by [Alana] herself. Musical sculptures are often a great example of
the artistry possible when putting electrons to work.
Video after the break. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401544",
"author": "Victor Martelli",
"timestamp": "2021-11-24T16:53:29",
"content": "“Music was created by humans”The hubris runs deep here.https://www.birdnote.org/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKhFZPefb64",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,875.746618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/24/why-deep-frying-turkey-can-go-very-wrong/ | Why Deep Frying Turkey Can Go Very Wrong | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Holiday Hacks",
"Interest",
"Slider"
] | [
"fire",
"thanksgiving",
"turkey"
] | Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and that means Americans across the United States will be cooking up a turkey feast. One of the most popular ways to cook the bird is by deep frying it in oil.
Local TV stations everywhere spend this week warning about turkey frying. They’re not wrong… if things get out of hand you can end up burning down your house, if not your entire street. Let’s talk the science behind November turkey fires, and hopefully avoid a turkeyferno.
Simple Errors
The typical setup for deep frying a turkey involves lowering the bird into a big pot full of oil sitting on a gas burner. Ropes and pulleys are often used to lower the turkey into the pot to avoid getting one’s hands near the hot oil. Ideally, this should be done in a backyard, away from structures, to provide good ventilation and plenty of room in the case something does go wrong.
Overfilling the deep fryer is a great way to start a big fire on Thanksgiving. Credit:
Ogden Fire Department
It all sounds fairly straight forward, but there are two ways that this often goes wrong, leading to leaping flames and calls to the fire department. The first of all is simple: overfilling. Lowering a turkey into oil will necessarily displace that oil. A pot filled to the brim will thus overflow the second the turkey enters the pot, with hot oil streaming down the sides of the cooking vessel directly towards the gas burner below. It’s a beginner’s mistake, but one that happens all too often. To avoid this, it’s important to account for the volume of the turkey before dropping it in the pot, to avoid starting a conflagration.
The second major cause of turkey fires is from attempting to deep fry a frozen turkey. The ice on the frozen turkey quickly turns to steam when it comes into contact with the hot oil. The steam rapidly expands, creating bubbles and quickly throwing hot foaming oil all over the place. This can easily cause severe burns by itself, but the presence of a gas burner only increases the danger. The hot aerosolized oil typically catches fire, either from the burner itself or simply the hot surfaces in the vicinity, and quickly creates a huge fireball.
Oil can be seen flying out of the pot thanks to the steam generated by the frozen turkey. Credit:
Ogden Fire Department
It’s similar to the way molten aluminium reacts poorly with water and leads to
dangerous foundry explosions,
albeit without the chemical reactions that happen in the aluminium case. It’s a simple fact that letting excess ice or water come into contact with hot liquids above 212°F often leads to disaster.
Thankfully, these issues are similarly easy to avoid with the proper forward planning. The first step is to properly defrost the turkey, which usually takes at least 24 hours in the refrigerator per 5 pounds of meat. Check the inside and outside of the turkey for ice crystals to ensure it’s defrosted all the way through.
Water can then be used as a simple way to check for the proper oil level. Put the turkey in the frying pot, then fill the vessel with water up to a safe level. Remove the turkey, and note the level of the water remaining in the pot. This is how much oil you must put in the pot.
Keeping the oil at or below 350°F makes fire less likely and also avoids spoiling the turkey with nasty burnt oil flavors. Additionally, a great tip that few people think of is to turn off the gas burner before lowering the turkey into the oil. That way, if there is a spillage or other accident, there’s a much better chance that the oil won’t ignite. Once the turkey is safely nestled in the fryer, it’s a simple matter to light it back up again.
It also pays to have a fire extinguisher on hand suitable for cooking oil and fats. Wet chemical extinguishers are the most effective against these fires. A fire blanket can also be a useful in such situations. Plus, if you’ve chosen your spot well, and you’re not deep frying in a garage, under a patio or on a wooden deck, it’s less likely any incident will get out of control.
Avoiding hot burning oil spraying all over your guests and backyard is often cited as key to enjoying any holiday season, not just Thanksgiving. Thus, armed with this knowledge and the tips we discussed today, you should be ready to deep fry your turkey for Thanksgiving with an absolute minimum of personal injuries and property damage. Eat well and have fun out there!
P.S. Get it defrosting now! Don’t wait! | 93 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401516",
"author": "Ken de AC3DH",
"timestamp": "2021-11-24T15:04:03",
"content": "Happy Thanksgiving or happy turkey day, don’t burn your house down.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6401531",
"author": "Ostracus",
... | 1,760,372,876.090642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/24/e-monowheel/ | E-MonoWheel | Matthew Carlson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"ebike",
"monowheel"
] | Generally, monowheels are that wacky, wildly futuristic transport that we lump in the same category as hoverbikes and jetpacks: strange, currently impractical, but very cool. Not content with waiting for the distant future, [Sam Barker] made
his own electric monowheel.
(Video, embedded below.)
The hardest part of any monowheel is that the outside rim needs to stand enormous abuse. It supports the weight of the vehicle and provides most of the structural integrity, but also is the means of propulsion. [Sam]’s first thought was to use a trampoline frame as it is a round and reasonably sturdy tube steel. He 3D printed the rollers that connected the subframe to the trampoline frame. Flat bar stock was used to make the angles inside the subframe and straight tube steel connected the inner frame into a trapezoid. The trampoline frame was welded together and on the first test spin, it broke apart from the stress. It simply wasn’t strong enough.
Not to be dissuaded, he found a company that bends steel into custom shapes. He stole the e-bike kit from another bike he had converted earlier, and the wheel was turning. Some handles and foot-pedal later, it was time for a proper test drive. Overall, the result is pretty impressive and the double-takes [Sam] gets while riding down streets in town are wonderful. If you’re looking to scratch the monowheel itch, check out
this wooden monowheel
. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401481",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2021-11-24T12:05:31",
"content": "Same joy as this kid had a 100 years ago :)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF0rqlgdaHMMaybe one day someone will figure out a way to brake effectively.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,372,875.66776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/24/you-cant-upgrade-soldered-on-laptop-ram-think-again/ | You Can’t Upgrade Soldered-On Laptop RAM? Think Again | Jenny List | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"BGA soldering",
"memory upgrade",
"ram"
] | Upgrading the memory in a computer is usually a straightforward case of swapping out a few DIMMs or SODIMMs, with the most complex task being to identify the correct type of memory from the many available. But sometimes a laptop manufacturer can be particularly annoying, and restrict upgradability by soldering the RAM chips directly to the board. Upgrading memory should then be impossible, but this reckons without the skills of [Greg Davill],
who worked through the process on his Dell XPS13
.
The write-up is a fascinating primer on how DRAM identification works, which for removable DIMMs is handled by an onboard FLASH chip containing the details of the chips on board. A soldered-on laptop has none of these, so instead it employs a series of resistors whose combination tells the BIOS what memory to expect. Some research revealed their configuration, at which point the correct chips were sourced. Surprisingly it’s not as easy as one might expect to buy small quantities of some RAM chips, but he was eventually able to find some via AliExpress. An aside is how he checked the chips he received for fakes, including the useful tip of hiring a dentist to take an x-ray.
The final step is the non-trivial task of reballing and reworking the new BGAs onto the board, before testing the laptop and finding the process to be a success. We’ll leave you with his final words though: “
But next time I think I’ll just buy the 16GB variant upfront.
“.
We’ve seen quite a lot of [Greg]’s work here at Hackaday, one of his most recent was
this amazing LED D20
. | 82 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401460",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2021-11-24T09:40:38",
"content": "“I bought a BGA re-balling kit”. Who knew? Fascinating read and excellent pics which just leaves me feeling old and outdated! Back to my through hole resistors…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,372,876.202102 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/cracking-open-the-prince-floppy-after-the-purple-reign/ | Cracking Open The Prince Floppy After The Purple Reign | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"fonts",
"internet archive",
"Prince",
"TAFKAP"
] | Readers of a certain vintage will no doubt remember the time when Prince eschewed his royal position and became an unpronounceable symbol. People had no choice but to refer to him as TAFKAP, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, and members of the music press were sent a 3.5″ floppy disk with a font file containing a single character — that gender-transcending shape that would soon become another one of Prince’s guitars. But it’s 2021,
and now you can get it from the Internet Archive
. Fun fact: the file wasn’t ever locked down. In fact, the symbol was available on Prince’s Compuserve and fan club CD-ROM.
While some people trawl auction sites for overalls and weird keyboards, others look for ridiculous items from the zeitgeist, like a copy of this floppy. Take [Anil Dash] for instance. [Anil] finally pulled the trigger after 15 years of debating this particular purchase. [Anil]’s interest was reignited after reading
this analysis of whether the symbol could ever be put into Unicode
. (Between being trademarked, a logo, and a personal character, it’s ineligible for inclusion.)
Earlier this week, [Anil] teamed up with Adafruit to extract the data from the floppy. The
Twitter thread
that ensued led readers to another old source of the font — the 1994 game
Prince Interactive
. We wonder if they
broke out the oscilloscope
, though it doesn’t look like it.
Thanks for the tip, [pt and limor]! | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401425",
"author": "Derek Tombrello",
"timestamp": "2021-11-24T06:51:58",
"content": "I still have that game (Prince Interactive). I t was pretty cool and the music was awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6401512",
... | 1,760,372,875.845616 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/observing-a-plants-vascular-system-with-x-ray-video/ | Observing A Plant’s Vascular System With X-Ray Video | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"fpga",
"x-ray"
] | [Ben Krasnow] has a knack for showing us what’s inside of things while they’re moving. This week’s
Applied Science
experiment has him
making time-lapse X-ray videos of things
. This plant’s vascular system is just one of a few examples, the others being a dial clock and the zoom lens on a DSLR.
The trick here is having an X-ray sensing panel that can be reused. It takes around five seconds of exposure to grab each 40×40 cm frame which are then assembled back into video.
Now watching mechanisms move is cool — [Ben’s] video back in 2015 to show
what a phonograph needle in the groove of a vinyl record looks like under a scanning electron microscope
is still one for the coolest “camera tricks” we’ve ever seen pulled off. But watching the vascular system of a plant function is the recipe for one of those
ah-ha
educational moments, so we hope that 7th-grade biology teachers everywhere will find their way to this video.
The apparatus is described in great detail, but regular Hackaday readers will most likely want to focus in on the teardown of the X-ray panel, which [Ben] describes as a giant digital camera sensor tuned for receiving the X-rays. The source is a 50 kV 1 mA tube that he compares to what is used at the dental office. (Obviously this requires forethought to ensure his automated time-lapse setup will fail safe with the X-ray tube.) A Cyclone III FPGA drives the panel, communicating with the sensor array via two Ethernet interfaces.
A friend sent a the broken panel to [Ben] and he was able to easily repair a MOSFET that got knocked out of place. [biluni] shows up in the comments of this video, sharing his recollection from working in the industry 15 years ago that a panel like this would have cost $150k! But considering the stellar resolution, and repeatable use, it sure as heck beats the old film process. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401469",
"author": "Murray",
"timestamp": "2021-11-24T10:48:19",
"content": "Observing a plants vascular system, or observing a plants gastro intestinal system.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6401527",
"author": "Mi... | 1,760,372,876.24143 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/23/diy-high-flow-3d-printing-nozzle/ | DIY High Flow 3D Printing Nozzle | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"high flow nozzle",
"hotend",
"volcano"
] | Sometimes advances happen when someone realizes that a common sense approach isn’t the optimal one. Take radio. Success in radio requires bigger antennas and more power, right? But cell phones exist because someone realized you could cram more people on a frequency if you use less power and smaller antennas to limit the range of each base station. With FDM 3D printing, smaller nozzles were all the rage for a while because they offer the possibility of finer detail. However, these days if you want fine detail you should be using resin-based printers and larger nozzles offer faster print times and stronger parts. The Volcano hotend started this trend but there are other options now. [Stefan] over at CNC Kitchen decided to make
his own high flow nozzle
and he claims it is better than other options.
Don’t get too carried away with the DIY part. As you can see in the video below, he starts with a standard nozzle, so it is really a nozzle conversion or hack. The problem with high flow isn’t the hole in the nozzle. It is melting the plastic fast enough. The faster the plastic moves through the nozzle, the less time there is for it to melt.
Bondtech has a high flow nozzle that splits the filament into pieces to allow better heating of the filament. Apparently, they licensed this technology from a patent holder. [Stefan] was inspired and simply drilled a hole in a standard nozzle and inserted a copper wire. We don’t think the wire is actually dividing the filament stream, but it does transmit more heat into the interior. Or maybe the hot wire does divide the filament as it goes by, but at least some of the wires do not quite go right through the center. Anyway, he’s not selling the devices, so call off your lawyers.
The devil, of course, is in the details. [Stephan] shows how he soldered the wires using a high-temperature solder, cut them flush, and used an M6 die to rethread the nozzle. It doesn’t look hard, but it does take some care. Luckily, standard nozzles are quite cheap so if it takes a few attempts, it won’t break your piggy bank.
As usual, [Stefan] scientifically tests everything. You can see the difference between a normal nozzle and the longer Volcano nozzle along with the Bondtech nozzle. The homebrew nozzle with one wire was able to approximate the performance of a Volcano nozzle. Some more drilling and another wire offered even more performance.
This technique falls under a patent, so we don’t expect to see a lot of legal clones appearing. But if you are handy with tiny drills and solder, you can probably make these for your own use, at least in many parts of the world. However, since the performance is about the same as a Volcano, maybe just stick with that for now.
If you are interested in high flow, you may be wanting to build strong parts.
Design
can have a lot to do with that, too. This is especially important for — um —
bridging
. | 50 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401222",
"author": "Victor Manuel Suarez Rovere",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T09:10:41",
"content": "Patents don’t prevent just selling a device but also making them. They’re there just to learn. It’s maybe murky waters to encourage others to make them. From a legal staindpoint. If th... | 1,760,372,876.367758 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/a-pdp-11-by-any-other-name-heathkit-h11-teardown-and-repair/ | A PDP 11 By Any Other Name: Heathkit H11 Teardown And Repair | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"DEC PDP-11",
"heathkit",
"pdp-11",
"retrocomputing"
] | [Lee Adamson] is no stranger to classic computers.
He recently picked up a Heathkit H11A
which, as you might remember, is actually a PDP-11 from DEC. Well, technically, it is an LSI-11 but still. Like a proper LSI-11, the computer uses the DEC QBus. Unlike a lot of computers of its day, the H11 didn’t have a lot of switches and lights, but it did have an amazing software library for its day.
[Lee] takes us through a tour of all the different cards inside the thing. It is amazing when you think of today’s laptop motherboards that pack way more into a much smaller space. He also had to fix the power supply.
We are looking forward to seeing more videos on this computer. We miss the days that your computer broke down into multiple boards plugged into a backplane. Even though the computer is a Heathkit, the CPU board came from DEC assembled. However, Heathkit had its own boards that you did build along with things like power supplies.
The power supply needed some care, as you might expect. A diode wasn’t attached properly but it wasn’t clear if it had been damaged in transit or if it had never been installed correctly. Replacing it put the power supply right and now he’s ready to see if the thing will start up.
There are plenty of ways to
emulate a PDP-11 on things like Arduinos
. If you want to see what
assembly language
looked like on this machine, there’s a tutorial. | 31 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401208",
"author": "Vincentdike",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T06:16:23",
"content": "Nice one",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6401211",
"author": "Comedicles",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T06:36:55",
"content": "I had to m... | 1,760,372,877.31562 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/visualizing-wifi-with-a-converted-3d-printer/ | Visualizing WiFi With A Converted 3D Printer | Dan Maloney | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"ESP32",
"NodeMCU",
"numpy",
"python",
"RSSI",
"scanner",
"visualization",
"wifi"
] | We all know we live in a soup of electromagnetic radiation, everything from AM radio broadcasts to cosmic rays. Some of it is useful, some is a nuisance, but all of it is invisible. We know it’s there, but we have no idea what the fields look like. Unless you put something like
this 3D WiFi field strength visualizer
to work, of course.
Granted, based as it is on the gantry of an old 3D printer, [Neumi]’s WiFi scanner has a somewhat limited work envelope. A NodeMCU ESP32 module rides where the printer’s extruder normally resides, and scans through a series of points one centimeter apart. A received signal strength indicator (RSSI) reading is taken from the NodeMCU’s WiFi at each point, and the position and RSSI data for each point are saved to a CSV file. A couple of Python programs then digest the raw data to produce both 2D and 3D scans. The 3D scans are the most revealing — you can actually see a 12.5-cm spacing of signal strength, which corresponds to the wavelength of 2.4-GHz WiFi. The video below shows the data capture process and some of the visualizations.
While it’s still pretty cool at this scale, we’d love to see this scaled up. [Neumi] has already done a large-scale 3D visualization project,
using ultrasound rather than radio waves
, so he’s had some experience in this area. But perhaps
a cable bot
or something similar would work for a room-sized experiment. A nice touch would be using an SDR dongle to collect signal strength data, too — it would allow you to look at different parts of the spectrum. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401190",
"author": "somebody",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T03:14:59",
"content": "Also seehttps://hackaday.com/2015/02/17/mapping-wifi-signals-in-3-dimensions/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6401202",
"author": "Erik Johnson"... | 1,760,372,876.741358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/shop-built-rig-measure-strength-of-wood-accurately/ | Shop-Built Rig Measures Strength Of Wood Accurately | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"gears",
"jack",
"jackscrew",
"raspberry pi",
"stepper",
"strain gauge",
"wood",
"woodworking"
] | Wood is an incredibly versatile material, but like everything else, it has its limits. Build a chair from weak wood and the worst that can happen is probably not that bad. But if you build machine tools from wood, the stakes for using the wrong wood can be a bit higher.
That’s the thinking behind
the wood strength testing setup
[Matthias Wandel] came up with. Previously, he had a somewhat jury-rigged test setup with a hydraulic bottle jack to apply force to the test piece and a bathroom scale to make measurements. That setup was suboptimal, so version two used a jackscrew to apply the force, but the bathroom scale still left the measurements open to interpretation. Version three, the topic of the video below, went with strain gauges and an A/D converter connected to a Raspberry Pi to automate data collection. The jackscrew was also integrated into the test setup with a stepper motor and, of course,
[Matthias]’ famous wooden gears
.
While the test rig is pretty simple in design, there’s a lot of subtlety to the calibration to make sure that it’s measuring the test material itself and not just compliance within the mechanism. It’s just another in a long line of data-gathering exercises that [Matthias] seems to groove on, like
his recent woodshop electrical explorations
. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401183",
"author": "Jeff NME",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T02:45:13",
"content": "It’s “jerry rigged”, not sure what a jury would have to do with it. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯Matthias Wandel always has ingenious wood or woodworking devices on the boil.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,372,876.649593 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/gba-remote-play-upgrade-lets-you-play-playstation-on-the-bus/ | GBA Remote Play Upgrade Lets You Play PlayStation On The Bus | Lewin Day | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"crash bandicoot",
"game boy advance",
"nintendo",
"Nintendo Game Boy",
"playstation",
"raspberry pi"
] | The Nintendo Game Boy Advance was basically
the
handheld gaming situation of its era, by virtue of the fact that it had no serious competitors in the market. The system was largely known for 2D games due to hardware limitations.
However, [Rodrigo Alfonso] has recently upgraded his
GBA Remote Play system
that lets him play PlayStation games and others on his classic Game Boy Advance. We first featured this project
back in July,
which uses a Raspberry Pi 3 to emulate games and pipe video data to the handheld for display, receiving button presses in return.
Since then, [Rodrigo] has given the project some upgrades, in the form of a 3D-printed case that mounts a battery-powered Pi directly to the back of the console for portable play. Additionally, overclocking the GBA allows for faster transfer rates over the handheld’s Link Port, which means more pixels of video data can be clocked in. This allows for more playable frame rates when running at 240×160, the maximum resolution of the GBA screen.
The result is a Game Boy Advance which you can use to play
Crash Bandicoot
on the bus just to confuse the normies. Of course, one could simply build
a Raspberry Pi handheld from scratch
to play emulated games. However, this route takes advantage of the GBA form factor and is pretty amusing to boot. Video after the break. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401212",
"author": "Bob Dole",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T06:45:56",
"content": "That’s cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6401297",
"author": "Sunoo",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T17:12:37",
"content": "Since this is b... | 1,760,372,876.691485 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/simple-but-stylish-numitron-clock-can-display-time-date-and-temperature/ | Simple But Stylish Numitron Clock Can Display Time, Date And Temperature | Robin Kearey | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock thermometer",
"numitron",
"numitron clock"
] | While it seems like Nixie tubes get all the attention when it comes to making retro-style displays, there are plenty of other display technologies that can make a good-looking retro design. Take the Numitron tube: introduced by RCA in the early 1970s, these display tubes might look superficially similar to Nixies but work in a completely different way. The Numitron uses incandescent elements that make up seven-segment displays.
The main advantage Numitrons have over Nixes is that they don’t require a high-voltage supply, which makes them much easier to hook up to modern low-voltage electronics. [mircemk] used this to his advantage when he built
a simple clock using four numitrons
that can display the time, the date, and the ambient temperature.
The brains of the device are formed by an Arduino Nano coupled with a DS3231 battery-backed real-time clock module. For now, the time has to be synchronized by connecting the Arduino to a PC and reprogramming it, but [mircemk] has plans to update the design with pushbuttons to allow the user to set the time manually.
Four shift registers are all that’s needed to interface the microcontroller to the display tubes, thanks to their low-voltage operation. They do need quite a lot of current, so [mircemk] used the high-power TPIC6C595 instead of a regular 74HC595 chip. We wonder if the tubes’ high power consumption could be the reason why the temperature in his lab seems to hover around 30 °C.
A simple but stylish plastic enclosure completes the design. Since Numitron tubes are relatively low-cost and no other specialized components are needed, this could be one of the cheapest and easiest ways to make a retro display tube clock. Although we’ve seen a couple of Numitron
clocks
and even
watches
before, today’s build is a great example of how simple such a design can actually be. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401136",
"author": "YGDES",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T19:43:37",
"content": "You mileage will vary but the Numitrons I have tested are fine at about 2V and 10mA per segment.https://hackaday.io/project/26068-numitron-hexadecimal-display-module",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,372,876.871039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/pfas-the-organofluorines-your-biochemist-warned-you-about/ | PFAS: The Organofluorines Your Biochemist Warned You About | Maya Posch | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"Chemistry",
"environment",
"pfas"
] | Sometimes it begins to feel like a tradition that a certain substance or group of substances become highly popular due to certain highly desirable chemical or physical properties, only for these chemicals then to go on to turn out to form a hazard to the biosphere, human life, or both. In the case of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (
PFAS
) it’s no different. Upon the discovery that a subgroup of these – the fluorosurfactants – have the ability to reduce water surface tension significantly more than other
surfactants
, they began to be used everywhere.
Today, fluorosurfactants are being used in everything from stain repellents to paint, make-up, and foam used by firefighters. In a recent study of 231 cosmetic products bought in the US and Canada (
Whitehead et al., 2021
), it was found that all of them contained PFAS, even when not listed on the packaging. The problematic part here is that PFASs are very stable, do not decay after disposal, and bioaccumulate in the body where they may have endocrine-disrupting effects.
Some areas have now at least partially banned PFAS, but the evidence for this is so far mixed. Let’s review what we do know at this point, and which alternatives we have to continuing to use these substances.
Love It or Hate It
Schematic diagram of a micelle of oil in aqueous suspension, such as might occur in an emulsion of oil in water. In this example the surfactant molecules’ oil-soluble tails project into the oil, while the water-soluble ends remain in contact with the water phase. (Credit: Stephen Gilbert)
Surfactants (surface-active agents) find uses in wetting, dispersing, emulsifying, foaming as well as anti-foaming agents. This versatility has resulted in them making it into an astounding number of products, ranging from personal care items including shampoos, conditioners, cosmetics, and toothpaste, to ski waxes, anti-fogging treatments, inks, adhesives, paints, soaps, emulsions, fabric softeners, and detergents, to firefighting foam, herbicides and insecticides.
The basic principle that makes surfactants work are a head that’s hydrophilic and one or more tails that are hydrophobic. This enables the macro properties like foam control or emulsification that form such an essential feature of many every day products.
Most surfactants’ tails are rather similar, taking the form of a hydrocarbon chain. PFAS used as surfactants have a fluorocarbon chain instead, which offers better properties than hydrocarbon-based surfactants, in addition to their better stability in harsher environments. This stability also explains why discarded PFAS don’t degrade, but instead collect in surface and ground water, as well as in the soil and in the bodies of animals – including humans.
PFAS Everywhere Around You
Schematic illustration of perfluoroalkyl substance emissions
from land to ocean following the earthquake EQ 3.11. (Credit: Yamazaki et al., 2015)
When the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami near Fukushima, Japan, hit, it caused both massive destruction and the release of large amounts of chemicals into the environment. PFAS were among these chemicals, and these were tracked in a 2015 study (
Yamazaki et al.
). This event could be regarded as a time-accelerated version of the usual spread of PFAS.
Tracked were primarily
PFOS
(perfluorooctonatesulfate, C
8
HF
17
O
3
S ) and
PFOA
(perfluorooctanoate, C
8
HF
15
O
2
), which are used widely in carpeting, floor waxes, and sealants. These and other PFAS were measured in 2010 and again in 2011 in the ocean waters.
This study shows how rainwater carries PFAS from land to surface waters, with ocean currents like the Kuroshio Extension Current apparently transporting PFOA and PFHxA, but not PFOS and PFHxS based on measured levels. This indicates that different types of PFAS do not diffuse equally in the oceans, and hint that the same might be true elsewhere. Yamazaki et al. speculate that this might be due to the different water solubility of the PFAS types.
In a less disastrous setting, PFAS find their way into surface waters via sewer systems, landfills and rainwater, with some amount being ingested by animals and
biomagnification
ensuring that the total amount of PFAS in each subsequent predatory creature increases. As PFAS like PFOS tend to accumulate in the liver (
Jones et al, 2009
), and bind to serum proteins, the likelihood is high that they will find their way up in the food chain.
The Human Impact
PFAS, being chemically inert, was assumed to be biochemically safe. The exact impact on human health is still being assessed today. One of the biggest studies in that regard was the
C8 Health Project
, which saw 69,030 participants enrolled. These participants lived in an area with a large contamination with PFOA (also referred to as ‘C8’ here). The findings were summarized by
Steenland et al., 2020
.
They found a supportive association with kidney and testicular cancer exists, though there is no evidence of other site-specific cancers. A positive association with cholesterol is consistent, and there’s evidence for ulcerative colitis, but not other auto-immune diseases. As noted by Steenland et al., the epidemiological evidence remains limited, even in such a large meta-study.
Solid evidence exists in the effect of PFOA and
PFDA
(perfluorodecanoic acid,
C
10
H
F
19
O
2
) downregulating activity in the liver, as described by
Cheng et al., 2008,
in mouse livers. Both PFASs are agonists for the
PPAR-α
receptor, the effect of which is the downregulation of mRNA expression for polypeptides that are required for the uptake of
bile acid
(BA). There are a number of negative associations with increased BA levels, which was found for PFDA but not PFOA, although both are clearly affecting the liver.
Whether or not male fertility is affected still needs more research (
Tarapore et al., 2020
), while the question of food safety
has been studied
by the European Food Safety Agency, which has set maximum allowed daily intake levels for PFAS based on their findings. They note studies (e.g. Macon et al.,
2011
; Tucket et al.,
2015
; White et al.,
2011
) that indicate clear negative impacts of PFOA on the development of the mammary glands of animals exposed in utero, during lactation, etc.
Also noted are the observed effects on the body’s immune system. What makes it hard to establish definite causality, however, is that the mechanism behind various adverse effects is still unclear. This makes it hard to impossible to make any definite statements about how bad each type of PFAS is, leading to a cautionary approach that also ties into the search for alternatives.
Alternatives
The use of
PFOS
has been reduced significantly already. For example, 3M has replaced PFOS with the shorter chained perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (
PFBS
, C
4
HF
9
O
3
S) in
Scotchgard
. Where PFOS has a half-life of 5.4 years in humans, PFBS sticks around for roughly a month. Whether is shorter half-life in the body is sufficient to allay any potential health effects is still unknown, and the European Union has added PFBS to the candidate list of Substances of Very High Concern (
SVHC
) as a result.
The impact of PFAS continues to be studied by the
EPA
, as well by the
Canadian government
, with no immediate timeline for action. A program to investigate the use of shorter chain PFAS as alternatives has been
submitted for review
.
While there has been some evidence suggesting that longer-chain PFAS are involved in negative health effects, both for humans and animals in general, we lack an understanding of the mechanisms behind these effects. The amount of PFAS in the environment is unlikely to decrease soon, and it’s too early to say whether shorter-chain PFAS are an actual fix here (
Birnbaum et al., 2015
). This leaves us in an uncomfortable limbo.
Yes, No, Kinda
As unsatisfactory it is to be left without a clear and absolute conclusion on whether PFASs in general are good or bad, the reality remains that this is a complex topic, involving many chemicals and countless, complex interactions. While some studies have shown clear evidence that some types of PFAS like PFOS and PFOA are harmful, many of the effects are perhaps not strong enough to be noticed against the background of everything else that our environment subjects our bodies to.
Perhaps the obvious course is to apply the precautionary principle, and use alternatives to PFAS where we can, and PFASs that degrade faster when we can’t, even if we cannot be certain that the alternative is perhaps not worse than the original. This, as noted in the introduction, remains the eternal problem with assessing the safety of chemicals in the environment and in our bodies: we can only do our best using the knowledge and technology we have today.
[Banner image:
“Water droplets on hydrophobic feather!”
by The Manic Macrographer,
CC BY 2.0. (Feathers do it with nanostructures instead of fluorines.)]
[Thumbnail image: “
A water droplet on a coated surface
” by Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0] | 49 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401110",
"author": "r4m0n",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T18:42:03",
"content": "Apparently all the data for those cancer cases came fromhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1306615and had no extra data confirming it afterwards. Taking a look at the paper, it looks like a fishing expedition: t... | 1,760,372,876.831163 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/21/magic-in-vr-that-depends-on-your-actual-state-of-mind/ | Magic In VR That Depends On Your Actual State Of Mind | Donald Papp | [
"Science",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"biofeedback",
"brain sensor",
"brain waves",
"eeg",
"magic",
"muse",
"skyrim",
"state of mind",
"virtual reality"
] | [Cangar]’s excitement is palpable in his release of
a working brain-computer interface (BCI) mod for Skyrim VR
, in which the magic system in the game is modified so that spell effectiveness is significantly boosted when the player is in a focused mental state. [Cangar] isn’t just messing around, either. He’s a neuroscientist whose research focuses on assessing mental states during task performance. Luckily for us, he’s also an enthusiastic VR gamer, and this project of his has several interesting aspects that he’s happy to show off in a couple of videos.
The Muse 2 fits under the VR headset easily.
It all starts with the player wearing a
Muse 2
meditation device; a type of passive, off-the-shelf electroencephalography (EEG) unit aimed primarily at guiding a user towards better relaxation and focus. [Cangar] reads data using the
Brainflow
library and processes it into a final value on a scale between “not focused” and “focused”. [Cangar] makes a point of explaining that his system ultimately has the goal of modeling the player’s state of mind, which is different from modeling just the brain activity. As such, motion data is considered as well, and holding still confers a small bonus to the process.
How is this data actually used in the game? In VR, this “focus” value is shown as a small bar on the player’s wrist, and spell effectiveness (for example, damage for attack spells) scales along with the size of the bar. When the bar is full a player would be very powerful, with spells doing double damage. If the bar is empty, spells will do little to no damage.
[Cangar] demonstrates the mod in two videos (both embedded below), but you won’t see him blasting enemies with fireballs. Presumably, VR gamers already know what that looks like, so what he does instead is
explain how the system looks and works (first video, cued to 4:12)
, and in the second, he video
demonstrates how the focus meter changes depending on his activity and mental state
.
The results look exciting, and the potential uses of a system like this are pretty interesting to think about. Taking a few deep breaths and calming one’s body and mind before launching a magical attack will have a tangible effect in the world, and because things rarely go according to plan, there is also a clear survival benefit to learning to focus while under pressure. But if a brain monitor isn’t your cup of tea, maybe consider
a leisurely bike ride through Skyrim
, instead. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400950",
"author": "SPD",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T01:53:21",
"content": "Actually kinda cool. Someone should try set this up at a event, then we can test if we are suited to being mages. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "64... | 1,760,372,876.922881 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/21/taking-the-bark-out-of-reverb-with-wood-scraps/ | Taking The Bark Out Of Reverb With Wood Scraps | Matthew Carlson | [
"Art",
"home hacks"
] | [
"reverb",
"scrap wood",
"sound deadening",
"studio",
"woodworking",
"zac builds"
] | For the past few years, many have become used to having virtual meetings in their homes. Spaces like kitchen tables, couches, spare bedrooms, and hammocks in the yard have all become “offices”. As you can imagine, many of these spaces aren’t well known for their acoustic qualities. [Zac]
built a sound diffusion art piece out of scrap pieces of wood
to help his office sound better when recording.
Reverb is caused by sound bouncing off hard, flat surfaces like drywall. These reflections are picked up by the microphone and lead to a noticeable drop in perceived sound quality. There are generally two ways to kill reverb in a space: diffusion and absorption. Diffusion is the technique that [Zac] is going for, with thousands of faces at different angles and locations, it breaks up the harsh reflections into millions of tiny reflections. Absorption is usually accomplished with foam and other typically soft substances.
[Zac] happened to have a large pile of offcuts and extra material from past projects of various wood species, making it easy to make a visually interesting piece. He used a table saw to rip them to a consistent width and a drum sander reduced them all to the same depth. Next, the long sticks were cut with a miter saw into 5 different lengths, leaving him with thousands of little pieces of wood. The hard part began when he had to glue several thousand pieces to a plywood backer board with CA glue. Sanding, finishing with poly, and a french cleat made the three pieces ready to hang on the wall.
Overall, the effect is stunning. While we’d love more hard data on the improvement, it certainly does sound better anecdotally. If you’re interested in more woodworking,
take a look into making an inlay without a CNC
. Video after the break. | 49 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400862",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2021-11-21T18:51:17",
"content": "CA??? who uses CA with wood?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6400865",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2021-11-21T18:59:02",
... | 1,760,372,877.255217 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/21/polymer-discovery-gives-3d-printed-sand-super-strength/ | Polymer Discovery Gives 3D-printed Sand Super Strength | Dave Rowntree | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"binder",
"cyanoacrylate",
"jetting",
"PEI",
"sand"
] | Research activity into 3D printing never seems to end, with an almost constant stream of new techniques and improvements upon old ones hitting the news practically daily. This time, the focus is on a technique we’ve not covered so much, namely binder jetting additive manufacturing (BJAM for short, catchy huh?) Specifically the team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who have been exploring the use of so-called
hyperbranched Polyethyleneimine (PEI) as a binder for jetting onto plain old foundry silica sand
(nature, free access.)
Roll, spray, bake. Simples.
The PEI binder was mixed with a 75:25 mix of water and 1-propanol (not to be mixed up with 2-propanol aka isopropanol) to get the correct viscosity for jetting with a piezoelectric print head and the correct surface tension to allow adequate powder bed penetration, giving optimal binding efficiency. The team reported a two-fold increase in strength over previous jetting techniques, however, the real news is what they did next; by infusing the printed part (known as the green part) with common old
ethyl cyanoacrylate
(ECA, or super glue to us) the structural strength of the print increased a further eight times due to the reaction between the binder and the ECA infiltrate.
To further bestow the virtues of the PEI binder/ECA mix, it turns out to be water-soluble, at least for a couple of days, so can be used to make complex form washout tooling — internal supports that can be washed away. After a few days, the curing process is complete, resulting in a structure that is reportedly stronger than concrete. Reinforce this with carbon fiber, and boy do you have a tough building material!
Not bad for some pretty common materials and a simple printing process.
We covered a similar
binder jetting process for using sawdust a little while ago
, and a neat way of
printing with metal powder by carrying it in a stream of argon and cooking it with a laser
, but there is an opening for a DIY effort to get in on the binder jetting game.
Thanks [Victor] for the tip! | 29 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400852",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2021-11-21T17:22:01",
"content": "Can you put it in nature, or will it shed toxic particles?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6400935",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,372,876.989006 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/21/a-trackball-so-good-you-cant-buy-it/ | A Trackball So Good You Can’t Buy It | Jenny List | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"billiard ball",
"rp2040",
"trackball"
] | The projects we feature on Hackaday are built to all standards, and we’d have to admit that things have left our own benches as bundles of wire and tape. Sometimes we see projects built to such a high standard that we’re shocked that they aren’t a high-end manufactured product, such as
[jfedor2]’s two-ball trackball project
. It combines a pair of billiard balls and a couple of buttons with a beautifully-designed 3D-printed case that looks for all the world as though it came from a premium peripheral brand.
Inside are a pair of PMW3360 optical sensors on PCBs mounted with a view into the billiard ball sockets, and for which the brains come courtesy of an RP2040 microcontroller. There are five PCBs in all, each having a set of purpose-built stand-offs to hold it. The result appears to be about as good a trackball as you’d hope to buy, except of course that you can’t. All the files to make your own are in the GitHub repository though, so all is not lost.
Over the years we’ve brought you a variety of trackball designs, including
at least one other build using a billiard ball
. | 21 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400822",
"author": "robobobo",
"timestamp": "2021-11-21T12:09:46",
"content": "even the config tool looks pro. what a beast",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6400826",
"author": "NiHaoMike",
"timestamp": "2021-11-21T12:40... | 1,760,372,877.049566 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/21/light-tracking-beam-robot-can-see-the-light/ | Light-Tracking BEAM Robot Can See The Light | Lewin Day | [
"Art",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"beam",
"beam robotics",
"Circuit Sculpture",
"light sensor"
] | BEAM robotics, which stands for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics, is an ethos that focuses on building robots with simple analog circuits. [NanoRobotGeek] built a great example of the form, creating a light-tracking robot that uses
no batteries and no microcontrollers.
The robot aims to track the brightest source of light it can see. This is achieved by feeding signals from four photodiodes into some analog logic, which then spits out voltages to the two motors that aim the robot, guiding it towards the light. There’s also a sound-detection circuit, which prompts the robot to wiggle when it detects a whistle via an attached microphone.
The entire circuitry is free-formed using brass wire, and the result is an incredibly artful build. Displayed in a bell jar, the build looks like some delicate artifact blending the past and future. Neither steampunk nor cyberpunk, it draws from both with its combination of vintage brass and modern LEDs.
It’s a great build that reminds us of some of the great circuit sculptures
we’ve seen lately
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Adrian for the tip!] | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400823",
"author": "Jack Spiggle (NanoRobotGeek)",
"timestamp": "2021-11-21T12:14:39",
"content": "I am finally early enough to participate in the discussion about one of my builds! Love the “neither steampunk nor cyberpunk” comment because I feel the same and have never referred t... | 1,760,372,877.374399 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/20/pssst-heres-a-novel-ssb-radio-design-with-only-seven-transistors/ | PSSST! Here’s A Novel SSB Radio Design With Only Seven Transistors | Ryan Flowers | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"2n2219a",
"2n2222a",
"amateur radio",
"ham radio",
"IRF510",
"QRP",
"QRP operation"
] | When [Pete Juliano] sat down to design a sideband transceiver for the 20 Meter (14 MHz) ham radio band, he eschewed the popular circuits that make up so many designs. He forged ahead, building a novel design that he calls
Pete’s Simple Seven SSB Transceiver, or PSSST
for short.
What makes the PSSST so simple is not only its construction, but the low component count. The same circuit using four 2N2222A’s is used on both transmit and receive. On transmit, an extra three components step in to amplify the microphone input and build output power, which is 2.5-4 Watts, depending on the final output transistor used. The best part is that all of the transistors can be had for under $10 USD! [Pete] shows where radio components such as the RF mixers and the crystal filter can be purchased, saving a new constructor a lot of headaches. The VFO and IF frequencies are both provided by the venerable si5351a with an Arduino at the helm.
Many simple transceivers are designed to demonstrate a minimum viable radio, with performance not really a goal. On the other hand, the PSSST was modeled stage-by-stage in LTSpice, ensuring great transmit audio and nice receiver performance. Be sure to check out the demonstration below the break!
[Pete] has
painstakingly documented the entire project on his website
, and the code for the VFO is available by request via email. We appreciate this contribution to the homebrew ham radio community, and we’re sure this will provide many nights of solder smoking enjoyment for radio amateurs around the world.
Thanks to [Nick, G8INE] for the Tip! | 45 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400803",
"author": "sexton16",
"timestamp": "2021-11-21T07:59:57",
"content": "Including an Arduino and a Lm380 I think there are a lot more than 7 transistors.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6400824",
"author": "Thi... | 1,760,372,877.503755 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/20/flowio-takes-top-honors-in-the-2021-hackaday-prize/ | FlowIO Takes Top Honors In The 2021 Hackaday Prize | Dan Maloney | [
"contests",
"Featured",
"News",
"Slider",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"grand prize",
"winners"
] | FlowIO Platform, a modular pneumatics controller for soft robotics and smart material projects, took home Grand Prize honors at the
2021 Hackaday Prize
. Aside from the prestige of coming out on top of hundreds of projects and bragging rights for winning the biggest hardware design challenge on Earth, the prize carries an award of $25,000 and a Supplyframe DesignLab residency to continue project development. Four other top winners were also announced at the Hackaday Remoticon virtual conference on Saturday evening.
In a year full of challenges, this year’s Hackaday Prize laid down yet another gauntlet: to “Rethink, Refresh, and Rebuild.” We asked everyone to take a good hard look at the systems and processes that make the world work — or in some cases, not work — and reimagine them from a fresh perspective. Are there better ways to do things? What would you come up with if you started from a blank piece of paper? How can you support and engage the next generation of engineers, and inspire them to take up the torch? And what would you come up with if you just let your imagination run wild?
And boy, did you deliver! With almost 500 entries, this year’s judges had quite a task in front of them. Each of the five challenges — Refresh Displays, Rethink Work-From-Home Life, Reimagine Supportive Tech, Redefine Robots, and Reactivate Wildcard — had ten finalists, which formed the pool of entries for the overall prize. And here’s what they came up with.
Grand Prize Winner: FlowIO Platform
We tend to think of robots in terms of rigid frames with electric actuators.
FlowIO Platform
aims to change that thinking, and kickstart a design revolution in wearables, collaborative robots, and just about any task where a softer, gentler robot would be useful. The key to these applications is pneumatics, and FlowIO makes it easy to connect the pumps, valves, actuators, and sensors necessary to bring pneumatics projects to life. The FlowIO main module has five pneumatic channels, and connects up to other modules that support pumps, sensors, and general IO — it’s like a Lego set for pneumatics!
FlowIO aims to make pneumatics as easy to add to a project as it is to spin up an Arduino and a couple of steppers. The principal on the project, Ali Shtarbanov,
came on our Hack Chat
a few weeks ago to talk about the applications of pneumatics in soft robotics in general, and the niche in that ecosystem that FlowIO fills specifically. We can say confidently that there’s a lot of pent-up interest in pneumatics, which seems to be due to the lack of an accessible, affordable integrated pneumatics platform. FlowIO changes all that, and with a well-earned Grand Prize under its belt, we’re looking forward to a spate of projects that show just what pneumatics can do.
2nd Place: Stack-chan
Coming in at second place with a $15,000 prize is
Stack-chan
, an adorable, open-source companion robot. The palm-sized bot is the perfect desktop companion, but since it’s completely open and hackable, what you do with Stack-chan is totally up to you. Based on the ESP32 powered M5Stack modular IoT development platform, creator Shinya Ishikawa sees Stack-chan as a jumping-off point for everything from a robot butler to sales and marketing tools, as well as companion robots and robot pets.
3rd Place: Flexible Circuit Wind Generator
It’s hard not to look at a vast wind farm and its towering wind turbines without feeling both awe at the engineering involved as well as a sense of, “There has to be a better way.” Stuart MacKenzie’s
flexible wind generator
aims to explore the possibilities of “aeroelectrostatic” electricity. He uses folded polyester films with conductive decals to make wind-activated variable capacitors that can power small loads when the wind waves them around.
4th Place: Raspberry Pi Spectrometer
Easy to build, inexpensive, and open to hacking: those are just a few things to love about Les Wright’s
PySpectrometer
. We featured
the Raspberry Pi-based instrument
back when it first came out and applauded its simplicity — at its heart, it’s a Pi Cam looking at a diffraction grating — as well as its versatility. We also like how it puts the power of spectroscopy into the hands of students and hobbyists alike, all on a budget.
5th Place: Direct Granules Extruder
Anyone who has had to shell out for 3D printing filament has probably thought of ways to put the vast amount of plastic waste we generate back into use, but Norbert Heinz, aka “Homofaciens” on YouTube, actually did it with
his direct granules extruder
. The idea seems simple enough: grind up plastic waste, melt it back down, and extrude it directly in a modified 3D printer. But in practice, there are a ton of challenges to overcome. Norbert is working past those issues, and has managed some pretty amazing prints considering his extrusion auger is a modified wood screw. It even prints sugar!
Okay, Now It’s Your Turn
As with every Hackaday Prize, the work has only just begun — we don’t sit on our laurels around here! Part of the reason for the Hackaday Prize is to be an inspiration; to set a high bar and expect our winners — and the rest of the community — to jump over it. We want everyone to take what the 2021 Hackaday Prize winners — and all the other entrants — have done and run with it. Look at each of these projects and find something in it that resonates with you. Take that and use it to improve your projects, or learn a new skill, or explore a fascinating aspect of our world that you never knew about. It’s your world, so hack it!
Congratulations to all of the 2021 Hackaday Prize winners, and a heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in running the Prize and judging the entries, as well as to
everyone who took the time to enter
. We couldn’t do it without you!
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400796",
"author": "the_3d6",
"timestamp": "2021-11-21T04:03:50",
"content": "I wonder if the 3rd place was awarded while fully realizing how tiny is the power output of that approach",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6400811",... | 1,760,372,877.426039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/20/cheating-a-pedometer-the-easy-way/ | Cheating A Pedometer The Easy Way | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"pedometer",
"smartwatch",
"watch"
] | These days, pedometers are integrated into just about every smartwatch on the market, and some of the dumber ones too. Tracking step counts has become a global pastime, and at times, a competitive one. However, any such competition can easily be gamed,
as demonstrated by [Luc Volders].
Generally, all it takes to fool a basic pedometer is a gentle rhythmic jiggling motion of some sort. Cheaper devices will even register steps with little more than vague shaking.
[Luc] exploited this with basic machinery. A servo’s output shaft is fitted with a 3D printed cylinder, sized to allow a smartwatch to be attached as if to a wrist. Then, a Raspberry Pi Pico simply rocks the servo back and forth at regular intervals, and the watch begins counting these ersatz steps. Looking at the project as a whole, we’re betting [Luc] took some inspiration from old-fashioned automatic watch winders.
It’s hard to envision an important application for this technology. However, if one is in a friendly competition with friends who don’t scrutinize the results too closely, this would be an easy way to win.
Alternatively, consider building a pedometer
to track your hamster’s exercise regime.
If you’ve got your own exercise hacks on the go,
drop us a line! | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400769",
"author": "Bruce",
"timestamp": "2021-11-21T00:06:44",
"content": "Yes, the smart watches are not very smart. Mine (a well known brand) counts steps while I sleep. It once counted 50 flights of stairs when there were no stairs. (Too be fair, it was trying to account fo... | 1,760,372,877.545312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/20/the-sodium-chloride-crystal-method/ | The (Sodium Chloride) Crystal Method | Al Williams | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"Chemistry",
"crystals",
"salt",
"salt crystals",
"sodium chloride",
"table salt"
] | [Chase’s] post titled “
How to Grow Sodium Chloride Crystals at Home
” might as well be called “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Salt Crystals (but Were Afraid to Ask).” We aren’t sure what the purpose of having transparent NaCl crystals are, but we have to admit, they look awfully cool.
Sodium chloride, of course, is just ordinary table salt. If the post were simply about growing random ugly crystals, we’d probably have passed over it. But these crystals — some of them pretty large — look like artisan pieces of glasswork. [Chase] reports that growing crystals looks easy, but growing attractive crystals can be hard because of temperature, dust, and other factors.
You probably have most of what you need. Table salt that doesn’t include iodine, a post, a spoon, a funnel, filter paper, and some containers. You’ll probably want tweezers, too. The cooling rate seems to be very important. There are pictures of what perfect seed crystals look like and what happens when the crystals form too fast. Quite a difference! Once you find a perfectly square and transparent seed crystal, you can use it to make bigger ones.
After the initial instructions, there is roughly half the post devoted to topics like the effect growth rate has on the crystal along with many pictures. There are also notes on how to form the crystals into interesting shapes like stars and pyramids. You can also see what happens if you use iodized salt.
If salt is too tame for you,
try tin
. Or opt for
copper
, if you prefer that. | 25 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400732",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2021-11-20T21:15:43",
"content": "There are a host of interesting water soluble compounds that a person can get busy with growing crystals, so you don’t need to fool around with furnaces full of molten metal. Copper Sulphate i... | 1,760,372,877.607785 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/20/the-pros-and-cons-of-a-power-flush-toilet/ | The Pros And Cons Of A Power Flush Toilet | Lewin Day | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"toilet"
] | By and large, toilet design hasn’t radically changed in a good long time. The problem was considered solved, and society moved on. However, [Handy Geng] was tasked by a friend to build a toilet with an extra-powerful flush, so he went ahead
and did just that.
The concept is simple; the water tank in the custom-built toilet can be charged with pressurized air from a compressor when an more powerful flush is needed. Then, when the lever is pulled on that flush, the water will blast into the bowl with significantly more ferocity than usual.
[Handy Geng] also notes a further benefit from the system. By bolting down the toilet lid, using a gasket to seal it to the toilet bowl, the air pressure system can be used to blast out blockages and clogs.
However, there are some drawbacks. The toilet is nearly entirely constructed out of steel, a material that generally isn’t the first choice when working with water or bodily fluids. Additionally, the power flush mode tends to end up with water spraying out of the bowl due to the intensity of the spray.
Regardless, it goes to show that the toilet design is still an active area of research, and that we needn’t settle for the toilets we have today. More powerful, more capable models are just around the corner
if we want them.
Video after the break. | 36 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400702",
"author": "smellsofbikes",
"timestamp": "2021-11-20T18:04:42",
"content": "When my wife and I met she was living in an apartment with a low-flow high-pressure toilet, that had a stainless steel tank inside the traditional ceramic tank with some sort of small compressor sys... | 1,760,372,877.694278 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/20/hackaday-remoticon-whats-happening-right-now-2/ | Hackaday Remoticon: What’s Happening Right Now | Mike Szczys | [
"cons"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon"
] | Here’s what you need to know to take part in the Hackaday Remoticon Today.
Watch all of today’s talks
on the live stream
Interact with everyone
by joining Discord
Notable Events:
All talk and schedule information is available on
the conference webpage
, but here are the things you don’t want to miss (all times are Pacific time zone):
10:10 am
|
Keynote: Keith Thorne
5:25 pm | Keynote: Jeremy Fielding
6:25 pm
|
Hackaday Prize Ceremony
7:35pm
|
After party live set from DJ Jackalope —
watch on Twitch
, socialize on Discord | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400940",
"author": "Mr Name Required",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T01:06:34",
"content": "Well I got to watch a number of speakers on the Youtube livestream and wow I was impressed. The electricity smart meter guy’s analysis was amazing! Also the return of chip whisperer and going fro... | 1,760,372,878.356781 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/20/remoticon-is-on/ | Remoticon Is On! | Elliot Williams | [
"cons"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon"
] | If you’re reading this post while the bits are still fresh, you’ve got about four hours until day two of
Hackaday Remoticon 2021
. You can feel the electricity in the air, right? We’ve got an absolutely
stellar line-up this year
: every talk is gonna be a good talk.
Friday was great fun, and you can still still rewind
Friday’s live stream
if you hurry. Otherwise, at 11:00 AM PST, we’ll start up
day two
with a
keynote talk by Keith Thorne
, who’s going to take us through all of the work, and hacks, that made the LIGO experiment the most sensitive instrument mankind has ever made. Bookending the talks, just before the Hackaday Prize announcement and
after-party DJ Jackalope Live Set
, Jeremy Fielding is going to be walking through everything about his robotic arm and
what you need to know about anything that moves
.
Watch some great talks, and then hang out with the presenters afterwards over on our
Discord server
. What more do you want
on a Saturday?
We really don’t want you to miss out on anything, but in case you come late to the talks, you can rewind the live stream to catch up. After it’s all done, we’ll slice and dice up the talks so you can find them later. But if you miss out on the discussions, the chance to ask our speakers questions, and the pervasive Jolly Wrencher ambiance, you’ve just missed out. Join us live if you possibly can! We’d love to see you.
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
! | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,877.816642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/20/its-doom-this-time-on-a-bluetooth-le-dongle/ | It’s Doom, This Time On A Bluetooth LE Dongle | Jenny List | [
"Games",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"does it run doom",
"doom",
"nRF52840"
] | By now most readers should be used to the phenomenon of taking almost any microcontroller and coaxing it to run a port of the 1990s grand-daddy of all first-person shooters, id Software’s
Doom
. It’s been done on a wide array of devices, sometimes only having enough power for a demo mode but more often able to offer the full experience. Latest to the slipgate in this festival of pixelated gore is [Nicola Wrachien], who’s
achieved the feat using an nRF52840-based USB Bluetooth LE dongle
.
Full details can be found
on his website
, where the process of initial development using an Adafruit CLUE board is detailed. A 16MB FLASH chip is used for WAD storage, and an SPI colour display takes us straight to that cursed base on Phobos. The target board lacks enough I/O brought out for connection to screen and FLASH, so some trickery with 7400 logic is required to free up enough for the task. Controls are implemented via a wireless gamepad using an nRFS1822 board, complete with streamed audio to a PWM output.
The result can be seen in the video below the break, which shows a very playable game of both
Doom
and
Doom 2
that would not have disgraced many machines of the era. This was prototyped on an Adafruit Clue board, and that could be the handheld console you’ve been looking for! | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400664",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2021-11-20T12:28:13",
"content": "Very nice work, and nicely documented! Enjoyed the read-up and video. I’m surprised to see that the Bluetooth audio and keypad hardly hampered the speed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,372,877.852994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/20/ipod-mod-puts-pi-zero-in-new-bod/ | IPod Mod Puts Pi Zero In New Bod | Michael Shaub | [
"ipod hacks",
"Portable Audio Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"github",
"hackaday.io",
"ipod",
"portable raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi Case",
"Raspberry Pi Zero W",
"Rasperry Pi Zero",
"Rockbox",
"waveshare"
] | We sure love to see nicely designed products get a new lease on life. Just as the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2 was being announced, [production] was
stuffing an original RPi Zero into an old iPod’s case
.
[production] cites several previous, similar projects that showed how to interface with the click-wheel, a perfectly fitting
color display from Waveshare
, and open-source software called
Rockbox
to run on the pi. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.
Some nice innovations to look for are the Pi Zero’s micro-SD card and a micro-USB charging port aligned to the large slot left from the iPod’s original 40 pin connector. Having access for charging and reflashing the card without opening the case seems quite handy. There’s a nice sized battery too, though we wonder if a smaller battery and a Qi charger could fit in the same space. Check the
project’s Hackaday.io
for the parts list, and
GitHub
for the software side of things, and all the reference links you’ll need to build your own. It looks like [production] has plans to turn old iPods into Gameboy clones, you may want to check back for progress on that.
If you just want to rock like it’s 2004, there are options to just
upgrade the battery and capacity
but keep your vintage iPod too. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400675",
"author": "Jacob W. Hildebrandt",
"timestamp": "2021-11-20T13:31:05",
"content": "Awesome project. Qi charging with a stainless steel back would be quite a trick!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6400700",
"au... | 1,760,372,877.903251 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/pinephone-speed-up-takes-soldering/ | PinePhone Speed Up Takes Soldering | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"emmc",
"pinephone"
] | It is no secret that we like a good hack and [Federico Amedeo Izzo] explains
a hack for the PinePhone that can double the speed used for the device’s memory chips
. Like many good hacks, it all started with a question. [Federico] was reading
a review of the PinePhone Pro
(the source of the image for this post) and apparently, the eMMC memory in that phone clocks in at about 150 MB/s. The original phone gets about 50-80 MB/s.
Reading some datasheets, it looked like the same chips are in both phones and should support not only DDR52 mode — the mode the original phone uses — but also HS200 and HS400 modes which top out at 200 and 400 MB/s, respectively. But there was one problem.
The eMMC used has two power supply lines: one for the memory and another for the interface management hardware. If the interface power supply is at 3.3V, the chip can’t support the faster modes. The original phone, of course, does provide 3.3V to this chip and, apparently, the new phone uses a lower supply.
However, the design does have a jumper that can select 3.3V or 1.8V for the chip. Of course, a jumper in a little phone is really a zero ohm surface mount resistor but you can remove it and resolder it to get the different voltage. Of course, you also need software support for the faster mode and there is a warning that you won’t be able to boot from the eMMC unless you have a kernel that supports the faster mode after you do this modification.
Testing on two different phones saw speed increases from 55 MB/s to 125 MB/s and 80 MB/s to 110 MB/s. Not shabby for a quick soldering job.
We had
our own discussion of the PinePhone Pro
you might enjoy. If internal surgery on your phone is too much, why not
print a keyboard
? | 19 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400637",
"author": "Andy",
"timestamp": "2021-11-20T09:40:29",
"content": "Excellent hack! Coincidentally, just now it looks like the original PinePhone has been discounted from £250 to $150",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,372,878.038336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/arduino-ham-radio-texting/ | Arduino + Ham Radio = Texting | Al Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"APRS",
"arduino",
"ham radio",
"text messaging"
] | Over on the Spectrum web site, [Dale] — a relatively new ham radio operator — talks about his system for sending text messaging over VHF radios called
HamMessenger
. Of course, hams send messages all the time using a variety of protocols, but [Dale] wanted a self-contained and portable unit with a keyboard, screen, and a GPS receiver. So he built one. You can find his work on
GitHub
.
At the heart of the project is MicroAPRS, an Arduino firmware for packet radio. Instead of using a bigger computer, he decided to dedicate another Arduino to do everything but the modem function.
You can probably figure out the rest. A $10 GPS, a battery pack, a charge controller, and a few user interface parts like an OLED screen and a keyboard. In addition, there’s an SD card to store messages.
Of course, we couldn’t help but notice that our cell phone has a keyboard, screen, GPS, and storage. We might have been tempted to work out a way to connect the radio to it by Bluetooth. But we have to admit the little HamMessenger setup is cool-looking and probably lasts longer on a charge than our phone, too. | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400624",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2021-11-20T08:37:22",
"content": "Awesome! 😎👍It also caused me a flashback of an old news from the early 2000s, btw.Back then, CBers in Germany sent “SMS” via Packet Radio.https://www.golem.de/0206/20444.html",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,372,878.086632 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/run-unix-on-microcontrollers-with-pdp-11-emulator/ | Run UNIX On Microcontrollers With PDP-11 Emulator | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arduino",
"mega",
"microcontroller",
"pdp-11",
"SAMD21",
"SAMD51",
"Teensy",
"unix"
] | C and C++ are powerful tools, but not everyone has the patience (or enough semicolons) to use them all the time. For a lot of us, the preference is for something a little higher level than C. While Python is arguably more straightforward, sometimes the best choice is to work within a full-fledged operating system, even if it’s on a microcontroller. For that [Chloe Lunn] decided to
port Unix to several popular microcontrollers
.
This is an implementation of the PDP-11 minicomputer running a Unix-based operating system as an emulator. The PDP-11 was a popular minicomputer platform from the ’70s until the early 90s, which influenced a lot of computer and operating system designs in its time. [Chloe]’s emulator runs on the SAMD51, SAMD21, Teensy 4.1, and any Arduino Mega and is also easily portable to any other microcontrollers. Right now it is able to boot and run Unix but is currently missing support for some interfaces and other hardware.
[Chloe] reports that performance on some of the less-capable microcontrollers is not great, but that it does run perfectly on the Teensy and the SAMD51. This isn’t the first time that someone has felt the need to port Unix to something small; we featured a build before which uses the same PDP-11 implementation on
a 32-bit STM32 microcontroller
. | 40 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400560",
"author": "Somun",
"timestamp": "2021-11-20T00:41:26",
"content": "Comparing an operating system to a programming language is top notch trolling imho. Nice job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6400570",
"auth... | 1,760,372,878.158718 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/electric-mini-rat-rod-starts-em-young/ | Electric Mini Rat Rod Starts ‘Em Young | Kristina Panos | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"mailbox",
"mobility scooter",
"rat rod",
"scrap build",
"tool battery",
"wheelbarrow"
] | These days, a lot of people barely even say hello to their neighbors. But not [dewey302]. They’re so tight with the people next door that
they built this bad-ass electric mini rat rod for the neighbors’ five-year-old kid
. Talk about community!
Nearly every bit of this rod is recycled — the body is a wheelbarrow, the transaxle is from a mobility scooter, and the frame was welded together from scrap tubing including the wheelbarrow itself, and old bike or two, and some broken lawn chairs. The rear wheels are also from the ‘barrow, though the front ones were purchased (one of few new parts. Power comes from a pair of 18 V tool batteries wired in series and running through the Curtis controller from the scooter. Depending on the weight of the driver, this baby will do 10-12 MPH.
We love the look of this little rat rod, and wish we were [dewey302]’s neighbor. When you’re done poring over the pile of build pictures, be sure to watch [dewey302] and [The Kid] tear up the cul-de-sac in the video after the break.
You may have noticed the mailbox grille. Surprisingly, this is not the first mail-themed rat rod we’ve covered.
Here’s one that really delivers
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400520",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T21:42:17",
"content": "I would not have thought of using a mail box door as a faux radiator.(mind blown!)Great build, I just hope the child doesn’t get hurt using it.(yeah, I know, it probably isn’t ... | 1,760,372,878.323506 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/the-silent-dripper-dispenses-water-without-making-any-sound/ | The Silent Dripper Dispenses Water Without Making Any Sound | Robin Kearey | [
"Art"
] | [
"acoustic design",
"art",
"peristaltic pump",
"water dripper"
] | Engineering is all about making a design that conforms to a set of requirements. Usually those are boring things like cost, power consumption, volume, mass or compatibility with existing systems. But sometimes, you have to design something with restrictions you might have never considered. [Devon Bray] was tasked with designing a system that could dispense single drops of water, while making absolutely no noise. [Devon]’s blog describes in detail the process of making
The Silent Dripper
, which was needed for an art installation called
The Tender Interval
by [Sara Dittrich].
The design process started with picking a proper pump.
Centrifugal pumps
can be very quiet due to their smooth, continuous motion, but are not suitable for moving small quantities of liquid.
Peristaltic pumps
on the other hand can generate single drops of liquid very accurately, but their gripping-and-squeezing motion creates far more sound. [Devon] still went for the latter type, and eventually discovered that filling up the pumping mechanism with lithium grease made it quiet enough for his purpose.
The pump was then mounted on a 3D-printed bracket that also contained the water feeding tube and electrical connections to the outside world. The tubing was fastened with zip ties to stop it from moving when the pump was running, and the pump itself was isolated from the bracket with rubber dampening mounts.
Another trick to silence the pump was the motor driver circuit: standard PWM drivers often cause audible whine from the motor coils because of their abrupt switching, so [Devon] went for a Trinamic SilentStepStick that regulates the current much more smoothly. The end result is a water dripper that makes less noise than a piece of tissue paper being crumpled, as you can observe in the video (embedded below) which also demonstrates the complete art installation.
We really like the mechanical design of the Dripper; as far as we’re concerned it would merit a spot in a gallery on its own. It would not be the first water dripping art project either; we’ve already seen a sculpture that
apparently suspends droplets in mid-air
. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400512",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T20:43:28",
"content": "Hah. Today I was in art installation byhttp://raaaf.nl/which involved being in a near-pitch black silo with water dripping. The droplets are actually not water but glycerin, which being more viscous allows l... | 1,760,372,878.196119 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/hackaday-remoticon-whats-happening-right-now/ | Hackaday Remoticon: What’s Happening Right Now | Mike Szczys | [
"cons"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon"
] | Here’s what you need to know to take part in the Hackaday Remoticon Today.
Watch all of today’s talks
on the live stream
Interact with everyone
by joining Discord
Notable Events:
All talk and schedule information is available on
the conference webpage
, but here are the things you don’t want to miss (all times are Pacific time zone):
11:10 am
|
Keynote: Elicia White
5:15 pm
|
Hacker Trivia:
https://youtu.be/uRpUdQi31tg
6:15pm
|
Bring-a-Hack: Remoticon ticket holders will receive an email on how to join, we’ll also share that info in the Discord | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,878.392253 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/hackaday-podcast-145-remoticon-is-on-movie-fx-cold-plasma-and-the-purest-silicon/ | Hackaday Podcast 145: Remoticon Is On, Movie FX, Cold Plasma, And The Purest Silicon | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | With literally just hours to go before the 2021 Hackaday Remoticon kicks off, editors Tom Nardi and Elliot Williams still managed to find time to talk about some of the must-see stories from the last week. There’s fairly heavyweight topics on the docket this time around, from alternate methods of multiplying large numbers to the incredible engineering that goes into producing high purity silicon. But we’ll also talk about the movie making magic of Stan Winston and some Pokemon-themed environmental sensors, so it should all balance out nicely. So long as the Russian’s haven’t kicked off the Kessler effect by the time you tune in, we should be good.
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
(52 MB)
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 145 Show Notes:
What’s that Sound?
Tell us your answer for this week’s “What’s that sound?”
. Next week on the show we’ll randomly draw one name from the correct answers to win a rare Hackaday Podcast T-shirt.
News This Week:
2021 Hackaday Remoticon
Friday: Getting Social with Discord and Bring-a-Hack
Shall We Play a Game?
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
OpenGL Machine Learning Runs On Low-End Hardware
Hacking Multiplication With Karatsuba’s Algorithm
Exploring The Healing Power Of Cold Plasma
Designing Electronics That Work
Those Bullet Effects In Terminator 2 Weren’t CGI
For All Their Expense, Electric Cars Are Still The Cheapest
Quick Hacks:
Tom’s Picks:
Arduino Library Makes Digital Rain Like It’s 1999
M5Paper Gets Open Source Weather Display Firmware
Low-Cost Computer Gesture Control With An I2C Sensor
Elliot’s Picks:
Quick And (Not Very) Dirty Negative Voltage Supply
Teensy MIDI Air Harp Sounds Huge
Jigglypuff Sensor Breathes CO2 So You Don’t Have To
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Russian Anti-Satellite Weapon Test Draws Widespread Condemnation
Mining And Refining: Pure Silicon And The Incredible Effort It Takes To Get There | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401282",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2021-11-23T16:26:55",
"content": "On the EV discussion and not seeing expired batteries: it’s hard to make the observation because the vast majority of EVs on the market are less than 10 years old.The Nissan Leaf for example made it to marke... | 1,760,372,878.429424 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/retrotechtacular-junior-missile-men-of-the-1960s/ | Retrotechtacular: Junior Missile Men Of The 1960s | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"california",
"Estes",
"launch",
"model rocket",
"retrotechtacular",
"rocketry",
"stem"
] | Just like the imaginative kids depicted in
“Junior Missile Men in Action,”
you’ll have to employ a fair bit of your own imagination to figure out what was going on in the original film, which seems to have suffered a bit — OK, a lot — from multiple rounds of digitization and format conversion. [GarageManCave] tells us he found the film on a newsgroup back in the 1990s, but only recently uploaded it to YouTube. It’s hard to watch, but worth it for anyone who spent hours building an Estes model rocket and had that gut-check moment when sliding it onto the guide rail and getting it ready for launch. Would it go? Would it survive the trip? Or would it end up hanging from a tree branch, or lost in the high grass that always seemed to be ready to eat model rockets, planes, Frisbees, or pretty much anything that was fun?
Model rocketry was most definitely good, clean fun, even with the rotten egg stink of the propellant and the risk of failure. To mitigate those risks, the West Covina Model Rocket Society, the group the film focuses on, was formed in the 1960s. The boys and girls pictured had the distinct advantage of living in an area where many of their parents were employed by the aerospace industry, and the influence of trained engineers shows — weekly build sessions, well-organized range days, and even theodolites to track the rockets and calculate their altitude. They even test-fired rockets from miniature silos, and mimicked a Polaris missile launch by firing a model from a bucket of water. It was far more intensive and organized than the early rocketry exposure most of us got, and has the look and feel of a FIRST robotics group today.
Given the membership numbers the WCMRS boasted of in its heyday, and the fact that model rocketry was often the “gateway drug” into the hacking lifestyle, there’s a good chance that someone in the Hackaday community got their start out in that park in West Covina, or perhaps was even in the film. If you’re out there, let us know in the comments — we’d love to hear a first-hand report on what the club was like, and how it helped you get started. | 30 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401083",
"author": "Tom Hargrave",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T17:04:53",
"content": "I wasn’t in that club but I was definitely there. We built and destroyed our share of model rockets.My favorite was a 2 stage Nike Zeus. The first stage had a class D igniter rocket engine and from m... | 1,760,372,878.493198 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/blue-origin-rolls-out-test-article-for-next-gen-rocket/ | Blue Origin Rolls Out Test Article For Next-Gen Rocket | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"BE-4",
"Blue Origin",
"nasa",
"New Glenn",
"SpaceX",
"starship"
] | By any metric you care to use, this is a very exciting time for America’s space program. NASA is refocusing their efforts towards the Moon and beyond, SpaceX is launching routine crew and cargo flights to the International Space Station with reusable rockets, and if you’ve got deep enough pockets, there are now multiple companies offering suborbital pleasure trips requiring little more than a few hours worth of training. It’s taken longer than many people had hoped, but it seems we’re finally making the confident strides necessary to truly utilize space’s vast resources.
But things are just getting started. A new generation of massive reusable rockets are currently being developed, which promise to make access to space cheaper and faster than ever before. We’ve seen quite a bit of SpaceX’s Starship, thanks in no small part to the dramatic test flights that the media-savvy company has been regularly live streaming to YouTube. But Blue Origin, founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, has been far more secretive about their New Glenn. That is, until now.
GS1 under construction in Florida.
On November 8th, Blue Origin rolled out their GS1 simulator for the New Glenn’s first stage. This stand-in for the real rocket will never fly, but it’s designed to perfectly recreate the dimensions, center of gravity, and mass, of the real thing. Ground teams will use the GS1 to practice safely transporting the booster, which is approximately half the length of the Saturn V, from their production facility to Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) at Cape Canaveral. It will also be used to test the fit and function of various pieces of ground support equipment, and eventually, the second stage stacking procedure.
For the uninitiated, it might seem like this is a lot of fuss over what’s ultimately just a hollow metal tube. But the introduction of a test article such as this has traditionally been a major milestone during the design and construction of rockets and spacecraft, dating back to the “boilerplate” test capsules used during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs; a sure sign that what was just an idea is now becoming a reality.
Practice Makes Perfect
Testing the launch escape system (LES)
As anyone who’s worked on a project with many moving parts knows, sketches on paper or CAD models on the screen will only get you so far. Eventually you’ve got to commit your design, or at least some subset of it, to physical hardware to make sure your components fit and interact in the way you expect. This concept is even more critical when talking about something as monstrously complex as an orbital booster or human-rated spacecraft.
NASA created many test capsules in the early days of their manned space program, which ranged in complexity from inert mass simulators to instrument-laden craft that were actually launched into orbit to collect data on vehicle performance or the space environment. After all, in those early days, there were far more questions than answers. Without the luxury of modern simulation technology, building and flying a dummy capsule was the only real option.
By some accounts, there were at least 50 test capsules constructed for the Apollo program alone. Many of these bore little resemblance to the final Command Module that took the astronauts to the Moon, but that wasn’t always the point. Conversely, some were so accurate internally that they were used for astronaut training. While a large number of these capsules have survived into the present day, and can be
found in museums all over the United States
, several were either destroyed or otherwise lost during testing. Some ended up being cut up for scrap, or rebuilt and reused for another experiment.
Some Assembly Required
By the time the Space Shuttle development program was in full swing, the state-of-the-art had improved considerably. NASA was far more confident in their ability to simulate the behavior of the vehicle, to the point that there was famously no test flight of the complete Shuttle “stack” before John Young and Robert Crippen rode
Columbia
to space on April 12th, 1981.
Enterprise on the launch pad.
But that’s not to say they didn’t have some help leading up to the first crewed launch. NASA ran an extensive series of Approach and Landing Tests (ALTs) using the
Enterprise
, a prototype orbiter that was originally intended to be retrofitted for spaceflight until it was determined that it would actually be cheaper to build
Challenger
from scratch due to changes in the final vehicle design.
These flight tests, which saw the
Enterprise
dropped from the iconic Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), were designed to characterize how the orbiter would handle while gliding back down to Earth after reentering the atmosphere. When the ALT program was complete,
Enterprise
went on tour to several NASA facilities for further testing.
It underwent vibratory tests at Marshall Space Flight Center, and later traveled to Kennedy Space Center so it could be used to verify stacking procedures in the Vehicle Assembly Building. Eventually, it even made its way to the launchpad at LC-39 where it was mated to dummy versions of the External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) for fit checks with the Shuttle’s extensive Ground Support Equipment (GSE).
Though
Enterprise
is certainly the most well-known “dummy” Space Shuttle, it’s not the only one. NASA also produced
Pathfinder
, a test article not unlike Blue Origin’s GS1. Made partially out of wood, this inert stand-in for the orbiter was used for less critical training and testing applications.
Pathfinder
being used for testing at Kennedy Space Center in 1978.
One Small Step, No Giant Leap
Clearly, Blue Origin’s GS1 is in good company as far as the history of American spaceflight is concerned, and it’s an excellent sign that the company is making progress with their long-delayed rocket. But while the company would undoubtedly like the press to see this public display of a completed test article as evidence that New Glenn is nearing operational status, the reality is less exciting.
Blue Origin BE-4 Engine
Even if Blue Origin has already built a flight-ready New Glenn, of which there is currently no evidence, the company has yet to complete work on the BE-4 engines that would power the heavy-lift vehicle. These are the very same engines that
United Launch Alliance has been waiting on
to install into their prototype Vulcan rocket. With two flagship launch vehicles literally unable to get off the ground until the BE-4 is operational, there’s enormous pressure on Blue Origin to deliver an engine that’s already at least four years behind schedule.
The lack of main engines is bad enough, but there’s also uncertainty surrounding the second stage of the New Glenn vehicle. The original plan was for the upper stage of the rocket to be expendable, with only the first stage landing on an ocean-going platform for refurbishment and eventual reflight; closely following the reuse program of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. But over the summer it was revealed that
Blue Origin intended to design a reusable second stage
in an effort to lower operational costs and bring their capabilities better in line with SpaceX’s Starship. With so many missing pieces this late in the game, it seems likely that even in the best case scenario, New Glenn is still several years away from entering operational status. | 28 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401069",
"author": "Grawp",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T15:14:12",
"content": "Mandatory memehttps://i.redd.it/gu9p7m7hqyd71.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6401785",
"author": "Tris",
"timestamp": "2021-11-2... | 1,760,372,880.298581 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/tomatoes-are-not-guncotton/ | Tomatoes Are Not Guncotton | Lewin Day | [
"Science"
] | [
"guncotten",
"nitrocellulose",
"rocket",
"Tomato"
] | [Integza] hates tomatoes, but loves rocketry. Thus, he decided to see if he could process his most-loathed fruit into some sort of rocket fuel, or at least something relatively flammable. The experiment ended poorly,
but the science behind it is interesting.
The basic idea is that tomatoes are largely made up of water, sugar, and cellulose. Thus, if you nitrate that cellulose, it becomes nitrocellulose, also known as guncotton. Guncotton is was once used to replace gunpowder in firearms, though today it’s often used by magicians to create ashless flashes of flame.
To achieve this, [Integza] first attempted to make regular guncotton using a 50:50 mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid. The cotton was then neutralized with a baking soda and water mixture to remove excess acid, and the cotton dried. Once tested, it burned quickly as you’d expect from guncotton.
After removing the sugars from tomatoes with water, soap, hydrogen peroxide, and bleach, the tomatoes were then dried to remove excess water before also getting the acid treatment. They were then similarly neutralized, dried, and tested. One tomato did burn rather quickly, while the others merely fizzled.
One of the reasons behind this may have been due to the composition of the tomatoes. Tomatoes often consist of a mixture of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, these latter components are known for producing inferior guncotton. The ramshackle preparation may have had some effect on the results. Let’s just say and it’s not advisable to work with fuming acids without protective gear
and a fume hood
, either.
The video’s title claims that the tomatoes were turned into rocket fuel, which is far beyond the actual results of the experiment. However, with some more advanced chemical processing, we could certainly see the fruit becoming a mite more flammable than it was. You’re probably better off just sticking to straight cotton though, for the best results. Video after the break. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401042",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T13:34:37",
"content": "Salami on the other hand makes exellent rocket fuel!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6401056",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren"... | 1,760,372,880.190286 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/22/arduino-plays-the-glasses/ | Arduino Plays The Glasses | Al Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"glass armonica",
"wine glass music"
] | Have you ever been on a city street and seen a busker playing music on glasses? Each glass has a different amount of water and produces a different note when tapped. [Cyberlab] must have seen them and created an
Arduino robot to play tunes on glasses
. You can see the result in the video below.
If we had done this, we might have had a solenoid per glass or used some linear component like a 3D printer axis to pick different glasses. [Cyberlab] did something smarter. The glasses go in a circle and a stepper motor points at the correct glass and activates a solenoid. The result is pretty good and it is a lot simpler than any of our ideas.
If you aren’t musically inclined, you might wonder how you’d program the songs. There’s an example of taking a
music box score
from a website — apparently, there are lots of these — and removing any polyphony from it. The site mentioned even has an editor where you can import MIDI files and work with them to produce a music box strip that you could then convert. Then you encode each note as a number from 0 to 6.
Of course, you also have to fill your glasses with the right amount of water. A piano tuning phone app should be useful. We’ve seen this done
in a linear fashion
before. You can even use
a single glass for many notes
with a little ingenuity. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6401011",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T10:12:03",
"content": "I was kind of hoping that it would some how have a some sort of rubber or leather finger and be playing the glasses with friction rather than percussively.It would be tempting to make this with uranium gla... | 1,760,372,880.232562 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/21/slick-keyboard-built-with-pcb-magic/ | Slick Keyboard Built With PCB Magic | Dave Rowntree | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"encoder",
"keyboard",
"KiCAD",
"lcd",
"pcb",
"rgb"
] | Sometimes a chance conversation leads you to discover something cool you’ve not seen before, and before you know it, you’re ordering parts for yet another hardware build. That’s what happened to this scribe the other day when chatting on
some random discord
, to QMK maintainer [Nick Brassel aka tzarc] about
Djinn, a gorgeous 64-key split mechanical keyboard
testbed. It’s a testbed because it uses the newest
STM32G4x
microcontroller family, and
QMK
currently does not have support for this in the mainline release. For the time being, [Nick] maintains a custom release, until it gets merged.
Hardware-wise, the design is fabulous, with a lot of attention to detail. We have individual per-key RGB LEDs, RGB underglow, a rotary encoder, a five-way tactile thumb switch, and a 240×320 LCD
per half
. The keyboard is based on a three PCB stack, two of which are there purely for structure. This slick design has enough features to keep a fair few of us happy.
Interestingly, when you look at the design files (KiCAD, naturally) [Nick] has chosen to take a mirrored approach to the PCB. That means the left and right sides are actually the same PCB layout. The components are populated on different sides of the PCB depending on which half you’re looking at! By mirroring footprints on both PCB sides, and hooking everything up in parallel, it’s possible to do it all with a single master layout.
This is a simple but genius idea that this scribe hadn’t come across before (the shame!) Secondarily it keeps costs down, as your typical Chinese prototyping house will not deal in PCB quantities below five, so you can make two complete keyboards on one order, rather than needing two orders to make five. (Yes, there are actually three unique PCBs, but we’re simplifying the situation, ok?)
Now, if only this pesky electronics shortage could abate a bit, and we could get the parts to build this beauty!
Obviously, we’ve covered many, many keyboards over the years. Here’s our own
[Kristina’s] column all about the things
. If you need a little help with your typing skills,
this shocking example
may be the one for you. If your taste is
proper old-school clackers
, there’s something for everyone. | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400982",
"author": "glaskows",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T07:37:12",
"content": "“We have individual per-key RGB LEDs, RGB underglow, a rotary encoder, a five-way tactile thumb switch, and a 240×320 LCD per half. This slick design has enough features to keep a fair few of us happy.”F... | 1,760,372,880.355269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/21/beaded-qr-code-bracelets-weave-a-storytelling-interface/ | Beaded QR Code Bracelets Weave A Storytelling Interface | Kristina Panos | [
"Art",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"beads",
"interactive storytelling",
"Navajo",
"qr code",
"QR codes"
] | For centuries, people have been using patterns to communicate information in an eye-catching way. QR codes are no different, although they require a barcode scanner to decode rather than a knowledge of Navajo Native American history.
November is National Native American Heritage Month, and as part of their celebration,
[ngaskins] and their students are making seed bead bracelets with QR codes
. When scanned, each QR triggers a story written by the student in the form of an audio file, a video clip, or an animation. [ngaskins] says that this project was inspired by eyeDazzler, a beadwork tapestry made with software that generates Navajo weaving patterns.
The students started by designing their bracelets on graph paper, software, or a virtual loom before getting the seed beads and the tweezers out, and decided whether they would use a static or dynamic QR code. Aside from the aesthetics of beadwork, the bead loom is good for teaching math and computational ideas because the beads are laid out in rows and columns. It’s also a good tool for teaching lines of symmetry.
QR codes can hold quite a bit of information.
In fact, there’s enough room in a version 40 QR for an executable version of Snake
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400957",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T03:04:27",
"content": "That’s pretty cool, but it’s a good thing I’m no longer a student. I’d definitely encode an unapproved website into the code. They only way they’d know was to check it, and I could always claim it was a bead... | 1,760,372,880.57283 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/21/hackaday-links-november-21-2021/ | Hackaday Links: November 21, 2021 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"black friday",
"bsod",
"cyber monday",
"doom",
"fingers",
"hackaday links",
"hoarding",
"id",
"snap",
"tablet",
"Thanos",
"Tindie",
"trademark",
"trolling",
"windows"
] | As the most spendiest time of the year rapidly approaches, it’s good to know that your hard-earned money doesn’t have to go towards gifts that are probably still sitting in the dank holds of container ships sitting at anchor off the coast of California. At least not if you shop
the Tindie Cyber Sale
that started yesterday and goes through December 5. There’s a lot of cool stuff on sale, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find something; to sweeten the deal, Jasmine tells us that there will be extra deals going live on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But wait, there’s more — follow
Tindie on Twitter
for bonus discount codes.
Blue is the old black, which was the new blue? At least when it comes to “Screens of Death” it is, since
Microsoft announced
the Windows 11 BSOD will revert back from
its recent black makeover
to the more familiar blue theme. You’ll have to scroll down a bit, perhaps three-quarters of the way through the list of changes. Again, the change seems completely cosmetic and minor, but we’d still love to know what kind of research went into making a decision like this.
From the “One Man’s Trash” department, we have a request for help from reader Mike Drew who picked up a bunch — like, a thousand — old tablet computers. They originally ran Windows but they can run Linux Mint just fine, and while they lack batteries and the back cover, they’re otherwise complete and in usable condition, at least judging by
the pictures he shared
. These were destined for the landfill, but Mike is willing to send batches of 10 — no single units, please — to anyone who can cover the cost of packaging and shipping. Mike says he’ll be wiping the tablets and installing Mint, and will throw in a couple of battery cables and a simple instruction sheet to get you started. If you’re interested, Mike can be reached at
michael.l.drew@gmail.com
. Domestic shipping only, please. Here’s hoping you can help a fellow hacker reclaim a room in his house.
Answering the important questions: it turns out that
Thanos couldn’t have snapped half of the universe out of existence after all
. That conclusion comes from a scientific paper, appearing in the Journal of the Royal Society. While not setting out to answer if a nigh-invulnerable, giant purple supervillain could snap his fingers, it’s pretty intuitive that wearing any kind of gloves, let alone a jewel-encrusted metal gauntlet, makes it hard to snap one’s fingers. But the mechanics of snapping is actually pretty cool, and has implications beyond biomechanics. According to the paper, snapping is actually an example of latch-mediated spring actuation, with examples throughout the plant and animal kingdoms, including the vicious “one-inch punch” of the tiny mantis shrimp. It turns out that a properly executed human finger snap is pretty darn snappy — it takes about seven milliseconds to complete, compared to 150 milliseconds for an eye blink.
And finally, it seems like
someone over at Id Software is a bit confused
. The story began when a metal guitarist named Dustin Mitchell stumbled across the term “doomscroll” and decided that it would make a great name for a progressive thrash metal band. After diligently filing a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office, he got an email from an attorney for Id saying they were going to challenge the trademark, apparently because they feel like it will cause confusion with their flagship
DOOM
franchise. It’s hard to see how anyone who lived through the doomscrolling years of 2020 and 2021 is going to be confused by a thrash metal band and a 30-year-old video game, but we suppose that’s not the point when you’re an attorney. Trademark trolls gonna troll, after all. | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400938",
"author": "gregg4",
"timestamp": "2021-11-22T00:51:37",
"content": "Well I just sent an email off to our fellow hacker concerning those tablets. But one thing remains? Why are they backless? That seems strange. Gonna see about getting Slackware to run there.",
"parent_... | 1,760,372,880.526658 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/popsicle-stick-piano-sounds-sweet/ | Popsicle-Stick Piano Sounds Sweet | Kristina Panos | [
"how-to",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"ideophone",
"kalimba",
"Popsicle stick",
"tongue depressor"
] | Technically, this is a kalimbaphone, and not a piano or even a chordophone since there are no strings. But this handcrafted instrument doesn’t just sound sweet, it’s also mellow, and it’s much nicer than you’re probably imagining.
Go check out the short build video, which starts with a demo
.
[Mash] started by drilling a bunch of holes into a rectangular piece of wood, and then twisted in wood screws far enough to stay in. Then [Mash] laid Popsicle sticks between each set of screws and tuned them one at a time, starting with middle C. The Popsicle stick version didn’t sound so great, so [Mash] upgraded to tongue depressors and moved the black keys up to their own layer. Unfortunately, the owner has turned off embeds for the video, so
you’ll have to watch it on YouTube
.
We’d love to see [Mash] figure out a way to make the sticks resonate. In the meantime,
check out this 3D-printed grand piano mechanism
. And if this build has you in the mood to listen to Popcorn on a homemade instrument,
well, we’ve got you covered there
.
Thanks to [Keith] for the tip! | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400448",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T16:26:57",
"content": "“The Popsicle stick version didn’t sound so great, so [Mash] upgraded to tongue depressors…”So contrary to the article title, the popsickle-stick piano *didn’t* sound sweet.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,372,880.464981 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/this-week-in-security-intel-atoms-spill-secrets-icmp-poisons-dns-and-the-blacksmith/ | This Week In Security: Intel Atoms Spill Secrets, ICMP Poisons DNS, And The Blacksmith | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"blacksmith",
"DNS cache poisoning",
"This Week in Security"
] | Intel has announced
CVE-2021-0146, a vulnerability in certain processors
based on the Atom architecture, and the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is at the center of the problem. The goal of the system around the TPM is to maintain system integrity even in the case of physical access by an attacker, so the hard drive is encrypted using a key stored in a secure chip on the motherboard. The TPM chip holds this encryption key and provides it during the boot process. When combined with secure boot, this is a surprisingly effective way to prevent tampering or data access even in the case of physical access. It’s effective, at least, when nothing goes wrong.
Earlier this year,
we covered a story where the encryption key could be sniffed
directly from the motherboard, by tapping the traces connecting the TPM to the CPU. It was pointed out that TPM 2.0 can encrypt the disk encryption key on the traces, making this attack impossible.
The entire Trusted Compute Model is based on the premise that the CPU itself is trustworthy. This brings us back to Intel’s announcement that a debug mode could be enabled via physical access. In this debug mode, the CPU master key can be extracted, leading to complete compromise. The drive encryption key can be recovered, and unsigned firmware can be loaded to the Management Engine. This means data in the TPM enclave and the TPM-stored encryption key can be compromised. Updated firmware is rolling out through motherboard vendors to address the problem.
DNS Poisoning Via ICMP
In honor of the late Dan Kaminsky,
we’re once again looking at DNS cache poisoning
. This time it’s a quirk of the Linux network stack that enables the attack. This attack is detailed in
a paper by a trio from the University of California, Riverside
.
The original DNS attack used nonrandom query IDs, and always made DNS lookups from UDP port 53. It was simple to send a spoofed DNS response, and if the malicious response arrived before the valid one, the resolver accepted the bogus data. What makes this attack particularly bad is that resolvers cache these results, so many users can be sent the bogus data. The solution was to randomize both the source port (16 bits), and a transaction ID (16 bits). Neither protection contains enough bits to be secure, but the combined space is enough to make DNS attacks impractical. If one of these values could be determined independently, the attack could be valid again.
This attack abuses the ICMP fragmentation error. When such a message is received by a Linux machine, it is validated against the active UDP connections. The request must contain the correct source and destination IP and port. If this set of information matches an open UDP socket, an entry is added to the exception cache. If an attacker can detect the change of state of the exception cache, he can use ICMP packets to probe for opened UDP sockets — effectively allowing the randomized port of a DNS lookup to be discovered.
How exactly do you detect that state change? A DNS resolver like
dnsmasq
opens these temporary ports using
sendto()
, which has the unintentional side effect of accepting UDP packets from any IP address. An ICMP fragmentation error can update the exception cache for any IP, so long as it has the correct IP and port of a temporary connection. This makes the attack trivial.
Make a request for
somerandomsubdomain.google.com
, and then start spamming ICMP fragmentation errors for all the UDP ports on the target system. When one of these packets matches the opened UDP port, the MTU for the specified IP is changed. Then ping the system from the IPs indicated in the ICMP errors. When one of your ping responses is fragmented, you’ve found a collision. Now that you know the port that the DNS resolver has opened, you could brute-force the transaction ID. Since it’s only 16 bits of keyspace, this is very doable.
The problem is a bit harder for other DNS resolvers, like BIND, that use
connect()
to open temporary UDP sockets. The same trick applies, but you can only trigger an MTU change on the specific IP the socket is connected to. Is there any way to detect this change? There is. The key here is that the exception cache is a hash table with a limited depth. This hash table works by applying an algorithm (a hash) to the remote IP address, which always returns an 11-bit number. There are 2048 “buckets” of memory allocated, and the number resulting from the hash determines the bucket that the exception data goes into. Each bucket can contain five entries, and when a sixth exception is stored in that bucket, the oldest is dropped.
In this case, an attacker needs to control remote IPs that happen to collide with the hashed value of the real upstream resolver. The attacker fills the five exception entries of their colliding IPs, then launches the storm of ICMP fragmentation errors. The attacker can test the MTUs of IPs he controls, so will know when one of his exceptions has been dropped. This signals that he’s found the correct port for a temporary UDP connection.
It’s a complicated attack, but the potential payoff is quite high, so expect to see patches addressing this in the very near future.
Weaponizing KB Numbers
Microsoft tracks their security updates using Knowledge Base article numbers. For example, CVE-2021-42279 is tracked by Microsoft as KB5007207 for Windows 10 64-bit. It’s pretty easy to list the KBs that have been installed on a Windows system, but how would you translate that to a list of potential vulnerabilities?
[Arris Huijgen] has the answer
. There are a plethora of tools to query the list of installed KBs, and many of those tools even work on remote systems, like
systeminfo.exe
and
WMIC.exe
. So for all your Windows exploitation needs, you need look no further than the
Windows Exploit Suggester – Next Generation
. This collection of tools looks like a useful kit for auditing or red-teaming a Windows machine, so be sure to add it to your toybox.
That One Time The FBI Sent Spam
You know how to handle spam, right? If an email looks fishy at all, into the spam folder it goes, never to worry about again. So when an email from the FBI arrives, you just scoff, quickly check the email headers to be sure, and off it goes. But wait, that email came from
153.31.119.142
, which actually is
mx-east-ic.fbi.gov
. What’s going on here?
These emails look like this:
Sending IP: 153.31.119.142 (
https://t.co/En06mMbR88
)
From: eims@ic.fbi.gov
Subject: Urgent: Threat actor in systems
pic.twitter.com/NuojpnWNLh
— Spamhaus (@spamhaus)
November 13, 2021
Brian Krebs has the lowdown.
The FBI’s Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP) contains an email verification step, when creating an account. The email’s contents are generated in the visitor’s browser, and sent to whatever address is specified, making this stunt trivial. It seems that [Pompompurin] was behind the spam, and what sort of message did he send with his newfound powers? A farcical message calling out Vinny Troia of Shadowbyte, just the latest in their public feud. If you really must go down that rabbit hole,
start here
.
The Blacksmith and His Rowhammer
Remember Rowhammer? This technique flipped individual RAM bits by quickly pulsing the row activation line of nearby rows. In response, DDR4 ram chips have Target Row Refresh (TRR) technology built in, and that totally eliminates the Rowhammer vulnerability. Right?
A new tool,
Blacksmith
, combines the existing Rowhammer techniques with a fuzzing approach, and looks at how effective the TRR protections are in modern memory chips.
The results aren’t pretty
. The researchers estimate that their testing covers over 90% of the DRAM market, and every RAM chip they tested allowed for multiple bit flips.
MacOS Attack Analysis
Google’s Threat Analysis Group has
published the details of a watering-hole attack
, seemingly aimed at visitors to Hong Kong websites. The page hosted multiple exploit chains, targeting both iOS and MacOS. Among the exploits recovered was one exploiting a 0-day vulnerability, CVE-2021-30869. Google reported this flaw, and it was fixed in September.
After the attack chain succeeded, a binary was deployed, and this binary proved to be heavily obfuscated. The final malware appeared custom, and is capable of audio and keystroke recording, file upload, and screen and audio capture. Now who has access to MacOS 0-days, is interested in Hong Kong politics, and wants to spy on citizens? OK, that’s honestly a long list of governments, but I’m sure you can think of a leading contender.
That’s it for this week, stay secure out there! | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400420",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T15:22:32",
"content": "Intel clearly has put minimal effort into securing their processors. The set of affected CPUs were the only ones that weren’t hit by meltdown. I’m glad someone took a closer look at them.",
"parent_i... | 1,760,372,880.625319 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/change-desktop-environments-on-ios/ | Change Desktop Environments On… IOS? | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"ios",
"jailbreak",
"linux",
"mac",
"macOS",
"port",
"posix",
"unix",
"xfce",
"xfce4"
] | While Apple’s modern operating systems may seem like they exist independently of the rest of the computing world, they are actually close cousins of modern versions of Linux. The primary link between the two is that Apple’s offerings are Unix-based and even though Linux isn’t Unix in the strict sense, it’s built to be extremely Unix-like. Plenty of Linux software is POSIX-compliant, meaning it is effectively compatible with true Unix. But what can we do with that information? Well, to start,
we can run Linux desktop environments on top of an iOS install
on your favorite iPhone or iPad.
To be sure, we will be filing this hack in the “because you can” category. [Torrekie], the creator of this project, has
plenty of builds
(
Google translate from Chinese
) where the boundaries between things like Linux and Unix are either blurred or nonexistant. In this particular project, a jailbroken iOS device is essentially gifted a ported version of XFCE which is able to run fairly well on iOS thanks to its compatibility with Unix environments. Details on how this was accomplished are sparse without a full investigation of the source code right now, but you can head over to the repository if you are curious enough to try this for yourself. [Torrekie] does note that this will only work with iOS devices that have been jailbroken using the “unc0ver” jailbreak only though.
To be sure, the relationship between modern Apple operating systems and Linux is about as close as modern Porsches and the
Volkswagen Beetle
, but either way the two are close enough to get interesting and impressive mashups like this project. For now only time will tell if using XFCE on iOS will be useful for anyone, but other
projects bridging the gap between Linux and Apple
are sure to be more immediately fruitful. | 32 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400382",
"author": "mip",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T12:04:44",
"content": "> […] , the relationship between modern Apple operating systems and Linux is about as close as modern Porsches and the Volkswagen Beetle, […]Apple fanboy or just a highly inappropriate comparison?",
"pare... | 1,760,372,880.418668 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/19/cheap-big-servo-for-robot-arm/ | Cheap Big Servo For Robot Arm | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"gearbox",
"planetary gears",
"servo",
"stepper motor"
] | [Skyentific] is looking to push the hobbyist robotics state of the art. Motors and their gears, the actuators, are typically the most expensive part. For his build, he realised he needed big servos capable of delivering plenty of torque. Thus, he set about creating
a 3D-printed design to get the job done on a budget.
(Video, embedded below.)
Stepper motors are the order of the day here, chosen for their low cost compared to brushless solutions, particularly when taking control hardware into account. In this design, the stepper motor drives a sun gear as part of a bigger planetary gearbox with a high gear ratio. Cross-roller bearings are used to allow the servo to effectively handle both radial and axial loads. The servo as a whole is designed to fit neatly into the joints of the robot arm itself, and has external mounting points provisioned as such.
It’s a neat servo that somewhat apes those used on full-sized industrial designs, at least in the sense of being an integrated part of the joints of a robot arm. It also comes in at a relatively-cheap $32 based on the materials used by [Skyentific].
We’ve seen some related work from [Skyentific] before, too –
like this interesting cable-driven joint
. Video after the break. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400345",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T09:18:33",
"content": "It’s not a servo, it’s a planetary gearbox. A servo is a servo because of the closed loop between the actuator and the controller. Steppers are open loop, so not a servo.",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,372,880.142062 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/n64-mini-pc-conversion-includes-all-the-trimmings/ | N64 Mini PC Conversion Includes All The Trimmings | Chris Wilkinson | [
"Games",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"emulation",
"emulator",
"nintendo",
"nintendo 64"
] | We’ve seen quite a few retro gaming consoles physically modded to house modern emulation hardware, but the
NUC-64
by [RetroModder] stands out as one of the most impressive Nintendo 64 guttings that we’ve seen to date.
Observed from the front, the NUC-64 almost resembles a stock Nintendo console. The project’s name is printed across the vestigial cartridge slot, and two suspiciously modern wireless networking antennas can be seen poking out from the back. The console’s modifications are fully revealed when looking at it from the rear – gone is the power brick socket, which now houses the I/O for the replacement motherboard. A custom 3D printed I/O shield keeps everything looking neat and tidy.
Internally, the new hardware is no slouch. The Intel NUC is a small-form-factor PC, and this miniature battlestation sports an 1.6GHz Intel N3700 Pentium processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity and an M.2 SSD. This hardware runs circles around the original Nintendo 64, and is more than capable of emulating games from that system.
Most total conversions would call it a day here, however [RetroModder] has taken it a step further by producing a custom PCB that neatly ties together the console’s front I/O. Most importantly, two Mayflash N64-to-USB converters means that your favorite 1990s games can be enjoyed with the original controllers. The original power LED and reset switch are present, as is the sliding power switch which retains its original purpose, thanks to a simple 555 circuit that sends the expected power-on and power-off signals to the motherboard with each slide of the power switch. Additionally, a system of 3D printed mounts and brackets keeps everything secure inside the case.
All the build details can be found here
. The NUC-64 follows on from last month’s
GamecubePC
. The build quality and attention to detail makes this conversion rather special, and it’s clear that a lot of care and planning was taken to pull this off. Hopefully the original N64 hardware can be repurposed as well,
perhaps as a new portable console? | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400328",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T07:40:21",
"content": "Could have used a… oh, wait!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6400343",
"author": "Synless",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T09:12:05",
"content":... | 1,760,372,880.695119 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/there-were-almost-jet-packs-on-the-moon/ | There Were Almost Jet Packs On The Moon | Al Williams | [
"Space"
] | [
"apollo",
"astronauts",
"jet pack",
"jetpack",
"moon"
] | Here it is almost 2022 and we still don’t have our jet packs. But don’t feel bad. NASA astronauts wanted
a lunar jetpack
, but they didn’t get one either. [Amy] at The Vintage Space has an interesting video about what almost was, and you can see it below.
Of course, a jet pack on the moon would be easier than an Earthbound one. The goal was to allow the crew to range further from their lander since they couldn’t carry very much and the lander didn’t have a lot of consumables, either. In addition, if you lost sight of the lander, getting back could be a problem since navigating on the moon was an unknown skill.
In 1969 awarded exploratory contracts for lunar personal flying vehicles including one to Bell who had their Earth-bound jet pack that shows up every so often for example in Bond movies.
The jet pack didn’t look so much like we’d imagine a jet pack would look. It was more like a tiny flying vehicle you stood on, but let’s not split hairs. It still would have been a very cool ride. The Bell version would have cost about $30 million in 1969 dollars, so it wouldn’t have been a cheap ride either.
The other contractor was Rockwell, who had more of a — there’s no other way to describe it — flying chair. Of course, the actual solution to this was the lunar rover — proving that Americans really like having their own car wherever they go. The rover did allow the crew to get further away from the lander, but it wasn’t as cool as the jet packs that never were.
We still
hear about people with jet packs
, but we don’t have one. One advantage to the Bell design was that, in an emergency, it could return the crew to the orbiting command module. It turns out, that idea didn’t die with the jet pack, but the
Lunar Escape System
was also never built. | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400284",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T03:31:30",
"content": "Almost had ‘em on Mars too!https://youtu.be/5ScGvcdgr6I",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6400291",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2021... | 1,760,372,881.142557 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/isolated-oscilloscope-design-process-shows-how-its-done/ | Isolated Oscilloscope Design Process Shows How It’s Done | Dave Rowntree | [
"hardware"
] | [
"design",
"digital Oscilloscope",
"isolated"
] | [Bart Schroder] was busy designing high voltage variable speed motor drives and was lamenting the inability of a standard scope to visualise the waveforms around the switch transistors. This is due to the three phase nature of such motors being driven with three current waveforms, out of phase with each other by 120 degrees, where current flows between each pair of winding taps, without being referenced to a common notion of ground. The average scope on your bench however, definitely
is
ground-referenced, so visualising such waveforms is a bit of a faff. Then there’s the fact that the motors run at many hundreds of volts, and the prospect of probing that with your precious bench instrument is a little nerve-wracking to say the least. The solution to the issue was obvious, build your own isolated high voltage oscilloscope, and here is the
Cleverscope CS448 development journey
for your viewing pleasure.
The scope itself is specification-wise nothing too flash, it’s the isolated channels that make it special. It does however have some niceties such as an extra eight 100 Mbps digital inputs and a handy 65 MHz signal generator. Also, don’t reach for your wallets just yet, as this is a specialised instrument with an even smaller potential user base than a normal scope, so these units are rather pricey. That all said, it’s not the existence of the scope that is the focus here, it’s the journey from problem to solution that interests us the most. There is much to learn from [Bart’s] journey, for example, where to place the frontend ADC? Isolated side or not? The noise floor of the signal chain dictated the former.
The real trouble with building a multichannel isolated instrument of this nature lies in the isolation from the frontend to the common backend. The frontend needs power, so this is fed-forward via a beautifully designed bifilar wound toroidal transformer, which is a whole story in itself. The data are sucked out of the ADC via a pair of 4.375 Gbps compressed serial lanes, according to
JESD204B
, using custom made fibre-optic link modules. [Bart] illustrates numerous problems along the way, just to illustrate that building something like this doesn’t always work the first way you try. Clever(scope) stuff indeed
Need a high current probe as well?
we’ve got you covered
, and since we’re on the subject of isolation, how’s about an
isolated USB serial board
to keep your laptop safe? | 31 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400279",
"author": "Marc Fruchtman",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T02:48:16",
"content": "Would love to see a 4 channel design that I can actually buy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6400963",
"author": "JohnJ",
"... | 1,760,372,881.090251 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/minty-tunes-is-wireless-audio-in-an-altoids-tin/ | Minty Tunes Is Wireless Audio In An Altoids Tin | Lewin Day | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [] | These days, a lot of phones don’t have audio jacks anymore. It can make it hard to listen to music if your favorite headphones aren’t already wireless-enabled. Minty Tunes solves that problem,
combined with a little Altoids tin flair.
Yes, the long and the short of it is that this is a Bluetooth audio receiver built into a tin of mints. The build is relatively simple, hooking up a cheap Bluetooth audio decoder module to a lithium-polymer battery. This is paired with a TP4056 battery charger IC to allow the battery to be topped off easily. It’s all then wired up and stuck in
everyone’s favorite hacker electronics enclosure.
For those who aren’t fans of wireless earbuds like AirPods and the like, it’s a useful solution for listening to music from a smartphone. As the builder notes, it’s also a great way to play music over a hi-fi or car stereo with an aux port. Alternatively, you could always build
your own pocket MP3 player from scratch
. Video after the break. | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400208",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T21:17:27",
"content": "How does a BT radio signal get into a metal box? Is range limited? If it ain’t 5.0 it’s a waste of your hearing even with already compressed files.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,372,881.193874 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/you-are-a-projection-of-your-influences/ | YOU Are A Projection Of Your Influences | Kristina Panos | [
"Art",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"identity",
"laser cut",
"prism",
"refraction",
"typography"
] | Who are you? No, who are you
really
? You’re an amalgamation of influences from your family, your friends, the media, and the parasocial relationships you have with fictional characters. It’s okay; we all are. It can’t be helped that there’s a lot of it about.
[Kim Pimmel]’s YOU examines this question of identity in the form of projected typography
. YOU are solidly laser-cut at birth, but then come the influences — the water of everyday life that surrounds you, the lights that mask your dread or lay you bare, and the prisms of circumstance that twist the light into brilliant patterns that burn memories into your brain.
In this case, the light comes from a hacked camping headlamp that was past its prime. [Kim] laser-cut the letters from acrylic and submerged them in water, which can be manipulated to enhance the effect and mimic the turmoil of life. For added effect, [Kim] held prisms in the light’s path to refract it and cause the patterns to dance. Be sure to check it out after the break, and don’t forget to turn on the sound so you can hear [Kim]’s original composition.
Want to see more trippy typography?
Check out this vector art
that started as
Perlin noise
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400193",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T20:09:37",
"content": "Very good, it would be great if not for what compression does to frame rate because this is not digital in it’s original form.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,372,880.942368 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/privacy-report-what-android-does-in-the-background/ | Privacy Report: What Android Does In The Background | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Phone Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"android",
"CalyxOS",
"GApps",
"GrapheneOS",
"LineageOS",
"MicroG",
"privacy"
] | We’ve come a long way from the Internet of the 90s and early 00s. Not just in terms of technology, capabilities, and culture, but in the attitude most of us take when accessing the ‘net. In those early days most users had a militant drive to keep any personal or identifying information to themselves beyond the occasional (and often completely fictional) a/s/l, and before eBay and Amazon normalized online shopping it was unheard of to even type in a credit card number. On today’s internet we do all of these things with reckless abandon, and to make matters worse most of us carry around a device which not only holds all of our personal information but also reports everything about us, from our browsing habits to our locations, back to databases to be stored indefinitely.
It was always known that both popular mobile operating systems for these devices, iOS and Android, “phone home” or report data about us back to various servers. But just how much the operating systems themselves did was largely a matter of speculation, especially for Apple devices which are doing things that only Apple can really know for sure. While Apple keeps their mysteries to themselves and thus can’t be fully trusted, Android is much more open which paradoxically makes it easier for companies (and malicious users) to spy on users but also makes it easier for those users to secure their privacy on their own.
Thanks to this recent privacy report on several different flavors of Android
(PDF warning) we know a little bit more on specifically what the system apps are doing, what information they’re gathering and where they’re sending it, and exactly which versions of Android are best for those of us who take privacy seriously.
The Real Research Confirms Suspicions
The report takes a look at six different “flavors” of Android and what each one is doing behind the scenes. The researchers studied operating systems from Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Realme which all also produce their own devices, but also looked at two alternative Android-based operating systems — LineageOS and /e/OS — that can be installed on some devices and customized for privacy if the user chooses. /e/OS is built with privacy in mind, while LineageOS is more of a drop-in replacement which doesn’t specifically focus on privacy. It should be no surprise that the four Android versions customized by the device manufacturers report a ton of user data, or that any device with a Google Apps (GApps) package reports a seemingly unending stream of user information back to Google servers, but some of the specific results that the research team found are definitely worth noting.
First, the paper points out that all of these companies are trivially able to link devices to users. Companies match
IMEI numbers
and other identifiers of devices to other user data that makes linking these accounts together a simple game of connect-the-dots. Largely the reason for doing this is to target ads, but all of these companies will also share this information indiscriminately with various governmental agencies. They also aren’t perfectly secure, so any black-hat attacker who gets access to this information will have it as well. This shouldn’t be too surprising, but the new information here is that researchers also found this data is shared among companies. For example, Samsung and Google seem to share each other’s data amongst themselves. Swiftkey, a popular keyboard app, also sends information to Microsoft via Google. It’s quite a complex web of data sharing and services from one company to support another’s data gathering efforts. Some of these data gathering efforts also include details such as timestamped app usage and personal contact gathering. While a lot of the information the operating systems are actually gathering is sometimes obfuscated, it’s clear that anything done on any of these devices might as well be recorded as if it was a Twitch stream as there’s evidence to suggest that literally everything could be monitored by someone (or some piece of software), right down to a user’s keystrokes.
The researchers contrast this rampant data gathering activity with
/e/OS, a privacy-oriented version of Android
. /e/OS is a fork of LineageOS which is specifically devoted to privacy, includes no Google-related software, and gathers essentially no user data on its own apart from information about available updates and some other necessary information. LineageOS is only marginally better than the Android offerings from the major manufacturers when the GApps package is installed with it, largely because the Google system apps are so pervasive at gathering user data. It is possible to use LineageOS without the GApps package but the researchers did not take this approach and largely focused on /e/OS as the de-Googled version of study.
Beyond This Study
While /e/OS is certainly an excellent choice for privacy-conscious users of smartphones, there are a few others worth mentioning that were not included in the study. Drawing the conclusion from this research that the real privacy violator is GApps (as long as you can avoid the other spyware from Samsung et. al.), it is possible to install LineageOS on a
wider array of devices
than /e/OS
currently supports
. Since installing GApps is something that is typically sideloaded after installing LineageOS and is an optional step, this can simply be omitted.
Additionally, if you absolutely can’t live without Google Maps or Gmail, there is a way of accessing Google services without actually installing them on your device. A software package called MicroG is available which is an open-source replacement for GApps and allows the user to access Google services that otherwise would be available but restricts tracking and gathering of user data by Google in key ways. There is a fork of LineageOS called “LineageOS for MicroG” which includes this package instead of GApps by default, although there have been squabbles between the maintainers of this project and LineageOS over
concerns with the way that MicroG accesses the Google services by signature spoofing
.
For those with Google Pixel devices specifically, there are two other privacy options.
GrapheneOS
is the Cadillac of privacy-focused versions of Android and has a number of improvements to enhance security as well, such as app sandboxing, implementation of secure/verified boot, disabling of peripherals via toggles, and other enhancements.
CalyxOS
is based on GrapheneOS and is similar but does allow for the use of MicroG and has some less-intense security practices than GrapheneOS. The only downsides with these flavors of Android is that they are built almost exclusively for the Google Pixel and at a minimum requires trust that Google didn’t build a hardware backdoor of some sort into their phones.
Android Isn’t The Only Option
There are a few other options for improving online privacy when using a smartphone. Linux-only phones such as the
Pinephone
are available but are not as fully-featured as Android. Some versions of
Linux are also available for phones
that would otherwise run Android. It’s also probable that an iPhone is a security and privacy improvement over a factory Android device from any major service carrier or device manufacturer, although the fact that their software is closed-source and behind a walled garden makes this extremely difficult to verify. Still, if a user isn’t willing to jump through all of these hoops to install /e/OS, GrapheneOS, or Ubuntu Touch, or if their phone has a locked bootloader making it impossible to flash a new OS (or if their device just isn’t supported), it’s preferable to choose an iPhone only if all other options are exhausted. Of course, the only
other
option is to not own a smartphone at all, which is arguably the easiest way of improving the privacy concerns with these devices.
The paper goes into great detail on methodology and also includes information on how they determined what data was being sent for those curious about specifics. It’s also worth noting that they point out that none of this research investigates any specific apps that might be installed on a phone and only looks at the operating system apps. If you install random freemium games, banking apps, or Facebook on your GrapheneOS install, for example, it’s likely to void any and all of your privacy efforts. The paper itself is worth a read though even for those who haven’t considered their online privacy before, even if they did grow up in the 90s. | 76 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400129",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T18:06:49",
"content": "I have Xiaomi Redmi 8 and i’ve noticed strange activity in files matching following pattern:/storage/emulated/0/MIUI/debug_log/common/tcpdump.pcap*(MIUI is proprietary GUI that ships exclusively with Xi... | 1,760,372,881.310229 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/video-gaming-like-its-1983-new-game-cartridges-from-atari/ | Video Gaming Like It’s 1983: New Game Cartridges From Atari | Jenny List | [
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"2600",
"atari",
"atari 2600",
"video game"
] | If you remember anything from 1983, it’s likely to be some of the year’s popular culture highlights, maybe
Return of the Jedi
, or Michael Jackson’s
Thriller
. For anyone connected with the video gaming industry though, it’s likely that year will stick in the mind for a completely different reason, as the year of the infamous Great Video Games Crash. Overcapacity in the console market coupled with a slew of low quality titles caused sales to crash and a number of companies to go out of business, and the console gaming world would only recover later in the decade with the arrival of the Japanese 8-bit consoles from Nintendo and Sega. You might expect Atari to shy away from such a painful period of their history, but instead they are embracing it as part of their 50th anniversary and
launching three never-released titles on cartridges for their 8-bit 2600 console
.
Game footage from
Aquaventure
.
The three games,
Yars’ Return,
Aquaventure
, and
Saboteur
, are all unreleased titles from back in the day that never saw publication because of the crash, and are being released as limited edition specials through
AtariXP
, a new venture that the company says will offer “
previously unreleased titles from Atari’s expansive library, rare-and-hard-to-find Atari IP physical media, and improved versions of classic games
“. It’s fairly obviously an exercise in satisfying the collector’s market rather than one of video game publishing, but it will be interesting to see what emerges. In particular we hope someone will tear down one of these cartridges; will they find a set of old-school EPROMs inside or an EPROM emulator sporting a microcontroller and other 2020s trickery?
This is not of course the first time we’ve reported on collectable 2600 cartridges, but these ones
haven’t spent 30 years in a landfill site
.
Header image: Evan-Amos,
Public domain
. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400104",
"author": "andarb",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T17:25:06",
"content": "Now if only EA would release Ultima 8 part II.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6400135",
"author": "j s",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T18:20:18",
... | 1,760,372,881.579939 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/know-audio-get-into-the-groove/ | Know Audio: Get Into The Groove | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"analog",
"analogue",
"audio",
"record player",
"turntable",
"vinyl"
] | The legendary Technics SL1200 direct-drive turntable, as used by countless DJs.
Photo by Dydric
CC-BY-SA 2.5
For me, the vinyl record player is the spiritual home of my audio listening experience, probably because I’m of the last generation to grow up when vinyl was king. The 12″ album, with its full-size sleeve and copious sleeve notes, used to be an integral part of musical enjoyment that hasn’t been adequately replicated in the age of streaming.
And like anyone who became an adult while CD players were still expensive luxury items, I started my journey into Hi-Fi with a turntable set-up that sounded pretty good. Since a new generation have in recent years rediscovered vinyl, it’s once again something that should be part of any review of audio technology.
I would have started this piece with a full run-down of the constituent parts of a good turntable, but since
that’s a piece that I wrote back in 2017
, it’s time to investigate some of the audiophile claims about vinyl recordings. It’s fair to say that this is an area where a lot of complete rubbish is spouted by people who should know better, and that’s something I find immensely entertaining to poke fun at. Buckle up.
Can You Say It’s Better Than A CD?
My attention was caught last year by [Terence Eden], who performed
a tear-down of a very cheap USB turntable
. He made no bones about it being a pretty basic device, and from where I’m sitting, I’m sure that its flexible plastic construction, low quality bearing, motor, and tonearm, and ceramic cartridge will not deliver the best reproduction. One sentence of his did however catch my eye.
“Anyone who says vinyl is better than a CD is a muppet”
It refers to a long-held discussion in audiophile circles as to whether a vinyl player can deliver higher quality than a CD player, or a digital recording of any kind.
There are a variety of digital audio formats at different sample rates with lossy compression, lossless compression, or no compression at all, but the most common is still likely to be the CD-derived standard of a 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo uncompressed PCM data stream. We’ve all heard music derived from these streams, and it sounds pretty good. It does however have a hard limit as all digitised data does, of its maximum frequency being half that of its sample rate. This is referred to as the
Nyquist rate
after the engineer who characterised it, and thus for a CD data stream the maximum frequency is 22.05 kHz. If you read
the first part of this series
you’ll know that the upper frequency limit of human hearing varies by person but is likely to be 16 kHz or below among people old enough to have spare cash to spend on hi-fi. Thus even with the low-pass filter fitted to the DAC there is still enough range in a CD stream to comfortably go beyond that of most people.
Perhaps If You Have The Ears Of A Ten-Year-Old
This is the tympanic membrane of my left ear. Can it really sense the presence or absence of ultrasonic frequencies it can’t hear directly?
That’s not quite where the story ends however, because a seasoned audiophile will tell you that while you can’t hear those frequencies above 22 kHz directly you can hear the difference the impart in their contribution to lower frequencies, presumably as mixing products. In other words, so the story goes, you can’t hear them, but you can hear when they’re not there. The trouble with this particular rabbit hole is of course that it become subjective, and thus susceptible to audiophile hyperbole.
Having done extensive listening tests in the past, I know that I can discriminate between a 96 kHz, 24-bit audio sample and a merely CD-quality one with an appropriate DAC and headphones, but here at Hackaday we need
numbers
. And sadly the likes of Brüel & Kjær don’t sell calibrated reference 10-year-old children to perform audio analysis through ears undimmed by age, so we’re in the realm of speculation rather than fact. We know that frequencies above our hearing range can be reproduced, but the jury’s out on whether they make any difference.
My trusty junk-shop record player
Vinyl doesn’t have a sampling rate. It’s entirely analogue, so what you see if you take a microscope to the disc is a waveform, and in theory it’s the same waveform that emerged from the singer or the guitarist in the studio. There are descriptions that assign an upper sample rate limit to the number of vinyl molecules passing the record player needle at 33 RPM, but that’s probably descending yet again into audiophile madness.
What is undoubtedly true though is that a vinyl record doesn’t have the 22.05 kHz Nyquist limit of the CD, and so can record and reproduce frequencies much higher than that. Records are recorded and mastered using a filter that reduces the bass frequencies to stop the needle jumping out of the groove, and the turntable preamplifier will have a so-called “RIAA” filter to boost that lost bass, but in theory that’s it. You might consider it settled then, that vinyl can reproduce higher frequencies than CD, and is automatically better, but unsurprisingly there is a further snag. Even if those frequencies are present in the vinyl recording, their presence in the sound you hear depends on the ability of your record player to pick them up.
Does The Vinyl Version Even Have Those Higher Frequencies In The First Place?
Your copy of
Sergeant Pepper
will almost certainly be a CD-quality remaster rather than direct from Abbey Road’s tape recorders. Josephenus P. Riley,
CC BY 2.0
.
In theory, vinyl is capable of returning higher frequencies than CD, assuming that you as the listener have a decent enough record player. But we’ve also established that unless you are a child you probably won’t be able to hear the difference much if at all.
The last nail in the vinyl coffin, however, is that while a vinyl record may have the capability to hold more information than a CD, the reality is that these days it’s generated from the same master as its digital rivals, so it has probably been cut from the same 44.1 kHz, 16 bit data stream anyway. Maybe vintage recordings can escape this, but then you need to think about the frequency response of whatever magnetic tape was in the studio back when it was recorded. It might be that the reason that you can’t hear the difference between your vinyl and your CDs is that there isn’t a difference to hear in the first place.
What is certainly true is that a good quality cartridge, turntable, and amp will deliver a superlative listening experience that is the equal of an uncompressed digital stream. And that a lousy turntable will sound atrocious. So enjoy your vinyl if you still use it, after all there’s a pleasure to be had in the feel and look of a 12″ album and its cover. But perhaps don’t make any claims about it that can’t be substantiated without a calibrated reference 10-year-old child.
I suspect now after writing this, that one of my friends is going to call me a muppet.
Next in the series, we’ll take a look at magnetic tape recording. A tape deck will probably not hold the same pride of place in a Hi-Fi stack in 2021 as it might once have done, but even if you’ve never had the joy of creating your own mixtape there are still a surprising amount of technological tricks waiting in magnetic audio recording to be discovered. | 62 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6400058",
"author": "Peter Knoppers",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T15:18:14",
"content": "There is more to audio reproduction quality than frequency range. You also need to consider signal to noise ratio and susceptability to damage (like finger prints, other dirt and scratches). In the... | 1,760,372,881.409137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/star-trek-tap-controller-take-two/ | Star Trek Tap Controller, Take Two | Chris Lott | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"badge",
"tap controller",
"wearable"
] | Engineering student and DIY enthusiast [Xasin] thought that the usual ways of controlling various home devices, such as phone apps and web interfaces, were too boring. Instead, he developed
the wearable Tap interface
which is a cross between a Star Trek comms badge and mobile holo-emitter. The basic idea is to control stuff by tapping the pendant. But things got a little out of hand since this project started two years ago.
[Xasin] began with
Tap version 1
back in 2019, and learned all about coding for BLE, making 3D printed cases, and eventually working out all the kinks in the system. Tap v1 used capacitive touch sensing, but the current version detects physical taps using an accelerometer and also can detect gestures. Feature creep along the way brings a sensor array, an array of emotive LEDs, an OLED screen, and a speaker. The whole thing is powered by a dual-core ESP32 Pico MCU. [Xasin] has published his project on GitHub in case you want to explore some of these other features on your own.
The project is only partially up and running because a few critical components are unavailable due to the global parts shortage. But it will soon be able to control smart home devices, such as [Xasin]’s standalone Dragon’s Home smart home system
that we wrote about earlier this year
. If you want to learn more about tap controlling in general,
check out this article from 2018
. You can see the Tap introduce itself and its features in the short video below the break. | 24 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399999",
"author": "Viktor",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T12:15:07",
"content": "Does it come with built in NSA client?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6400281",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-11-19T03:00:55... | 1,760,372,881.472446 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/18/c-is-the-greenest-programming-language/ | C Is The Greenest Programming Language | Chris Lott | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"energy consumption",
"programming languages"
] | Have you ever wondered if there is a correlation between a computer’s energy consumption and the choice of programming languages? Well, a group of Portuguese university researchers did and set out to quantify it. Their 2017 research paper entitled
Energy Efficiency across Programming Languages / How Do Energy, Time, and Memory Relate?
may have escaped your attention, as it did ours.
Abstract: This paper presents a study of the runtime, memory usage and energy consumption of twenty seven well-known soft- ware languages. We monitor the performance of such lan- guages using ten different programming problems, expressed in each of the languages. Our results show interesting find- ings, such as, slower/faster languages consuming less/more energy, and how memory usage influences energy consump- tion. We show how to use our results to provide software engineers support to decide which language to use when energy efficiency is a concern.
While we might take issue with some of the programming languages selected as being “well known”, the project was very thorough and quite well documented. Most people would take for granted that a computer program which runs faster will consume less energy. But this might not always be true, as other factors enter into the power consumption equation besides speed. The team used a collection of ten standard algorithms from the
Computer Language Benchmarks Game
project (formerly known as The Great Computer Language Shootout) as the basis for their evaluations.
Last year they updated the functional language results, and all the setups, benchmarks, and collected data can be found
here
. Check out the paper for more details. Have your choice of programming language ever been influenced by energy consumption? | 185 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399943",
"author": "Stephen Walters",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T09:04:02",
"content": "And where is FORTH.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6399945",
"author": "YGDES",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T09:07:27",
... | 1,760,372,881.789294 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/binaural-hearing-modeled-with-an-arduino/ | Binaural Hearing Modeled With An Arduino | Al Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"audio",
"binaural",
"binaural audio",
"stereo"
] | You don’t have two ears by accident. [Stoppi] has
a great post about this
, along with a video you can see below. (The text is in German, but that’s what translation is for.) The point to having two ears is that you receive audio information from slightly different angles and distances in each ear and your amazing brain can deduce a lot of spatial information from that data.
For the Arduino demonstration, cheap microphone boards take the place of your ears. A servo motor points to the direction of sound. This would be a good gimmick for a Halloween prop or a noise-sensitive security camera.
Math-wise, if you know the speed of sound, the distance between the sensors, and a few other pieces of data, you wind up with a fairly simple trigonometry problem. In non-math terms, it is easy to get a feel for why this works. If the sound hits both microphones at once, it must be coming from straight ahead. If it hits the left microphone first, it must be closer to that microphone and vice versa. If the sound were right in line with both microphones but closer to the left, the time delay would be exactly due to the speed of sound over the distance between the sensors. If the time is less than that, the sound must be somewhere in between.
The microphone modules have both analog outputs and digital outputs. The digital output triggers if the sound level exceeds a limit set by a potentiometer. By using these modules, the circuit is trivial. Just an Arudino, the two modules, and the servo motor.
Now imagine that you wanted all this spatial detail to come through your headphones. Recording binaural audio is a thing. You can
3D print a virtual head
if you are interested. We’ve seen
projects for this several times
. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399470",
"author": "PWalsh",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T19:38:15",
"content": "Um… if the sound hits both ears at the same time, how do you know the zombie isn’t *behind* you?The human sense of hearing is exceptional. By tilting the head and hearing the same sound, you can get a 3d m... | 1,760,372,881.523281 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/microplastics-are-everywhere-land-sea-and-air/ | Microplastics Are Everywhere: Land, Sea And Air | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"environment",
"microplastics"
] | Plastics took off in the 20th century, with the new class of materials finding all manner of applications that metal, wood and paper simply couldn’t deliver on. Every field from electronics to the packaging of food found that plastics could play a role.
Now, over 150 years since the development of Parkesine in 1867, we’re now realizing that plastics come with more than a few drawbacks. They don’t break down well in nature, and now microplastics are beginning to appear all over the Earth, even in places where humans rarely tread. It seems they may even spread via the air, so let’s take a look at this growing problem and what can be done about it.
What Are Microplastics?
Microbeads became a popular ingredient of many cosmetics like exfoliating scrubs. Some jurisdictions
have now banned microbeads
for their perceived negative impact on the environment. Credit: Lewin Day
Microplastics are commonly defined as any type of plastic particle less than 5 mm in length. The term was coined by Richard Thompson, who discovered the particles in abundance on British beaches while
working as a marine ecologist in 2004.
The particles are shed from all manner of plastic items, from food and beverage containers to polyester fleece clothing.
Microplastic particles have been found everywhere;
in table salt
,
drinking water
, and crucially, even
floating in the air itself
. Transport via the wind has carried microplastics to
far off-locales
where humans rarely tread, with particles found in Arctic snow and in remote mountainous areas too.
The simple fact is, there is a huge amount of plastic
out in the environment
. With heat, UV light and general exposure, it’s all degrading and shedding tiny particles all the time. Many of these are so small and light that they can float freely in water or even the air, and have been found at altitudes of 11,000 feet
in aerial sampling.
Is It A Problem?
Given the prevalence of these plastics across land, sea, and air, it’s perhaps unsurprising to know that we may be ingesting anywhere up to 100,000 microplastic particles daily. The fact that you’re not regularly fishing out chunks of plastic from your bottled water or food indicates that most are smaller than can be seen with the naked eye.
A study by
the World Wildlife Foundation
stated that people may be consuming up to five grams of plastic a week, roughly as much as makes up the average credit card. This figure was quickly cited far and wide by the world’s media, but
other studies
have determined human intake to be much lower, on the order of perhaps one credit card a year in the worst cases. Median levels, however, are expected to be much lower. Interestingly, microplastics in the air are considered a significant contributor to these figures, though bottled water and seafood are bigger concerns.
Artificial turf made out of ground-up tires is shown here as a source of microplastics in the environment, with the particles often washed away by rain.
Credit:
Soleincitta
, CC-BA-SA-4.0
The problem is that the impact of this microplastic intake on human health is not yet clear. Studies are only just beginning to look at the issue, and it’s a very complicated thing to investigate. Microplastics come in a variety of materials, all with their own unique properties, and may absorb toxins from the environment or interact chemically in various ways themselves.
Plastic particles behave differently depending on their size too. Great concern exists around nanoplastics, which are small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier responsible for protecting our brains from the nastier stuff circulating in our body. These particles are also small enough that they could cross into cells and disrupt their behaviour.
Thus far, the potential health effects remain unclear and the subject of further research. However, there are broader concerns too. Microplastic particles could come to have an effect on the Earth’s climate. Thus far,
research suggests
that microplastics in the air could create a scattering effect, reflecting sunlight back into space in a similar way to aerosols in the atmosphere. However, the effect would be small, especially given the concentrations of microplastics presently in the air. These particles can also theoretically absorb heat emitted from Earth, so the effect is not guaranteed to be entirely positive. To determine the absolute net effect will likely require further investigation, though pumping lots of tiny plastic particles in the air won’t be a solution to global warming. It would cause altogether too many other problems along the way.
Current Outlook
At this stage, researchers aren’t yet convinced there’s a huge risk to human health. Levels are still too low to cause obvious problems. However, the problem is concerning, and with the huge amount of plastic degrading in landfills and rivers and oceans around the world, it’s not going away any time soon.
Microplastics are generally too small to be effectively cleaned up after the fact. If they do turn out to be deleterious to our health or survival, the only way to solve the issue will be to collect as much plastic trash as possible from the environment and minimise production as well.
In any case, research will continue to shed light on the scale of the issue, and ideally, potential solutions. In the mean time, cutting down on your plastic intake is simple. Reduce the use of plastic food containers and bottles, and especially stop microwaving food and beverages in those containers.
It’s not all alarmist, of course. We’ve been living with microplastics in the environment for years now, even if we didn’t know it.
Particulate pollution
from other sources is also a problem, and that hasn’t taken us out just yet either. As it stands, however, the microplastics in our food, water, and air are something we’ll have to continue living with in the meantime.
Banner image: Microplastic particles found by researchers at Oregon State University. Credit:
Oregon State University
, CC-BA-SA-2.0 | 65 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399448",
"author": "macsimski",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T18:17:38",
"content": "I wonder if in a few milion years that microplastic layer will be mined by the the intelligent species. Or will the time period be too short to get a thick enough layer.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,372,881.991783 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/3d-printed-marble-music-machine-looking-good-already/ | 3D Printed Marble Music Machine Looking Good Already | Dave Rowntree | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"korg",
"marble machine",
"resin"
] | Inspired by the enormous marble music machines from the staggeringly talented [Wintergatan] and the marble run builds by [Daniel de Bruin], [Ivan Miranda] has been busy again building a largely 3D printed contraption to test his ideas around
building his own marble music machine from scratch
. (Video, embedded below.)
Leveraging his recent experiences with resin printing and his own
giant 3D printer
, he had no difficulty in producing everything he needed from his workshop, even if the design work apparently took ages.
The build shows how early in development this project is, as there are clearly quite a few issues to be dealt with, but progress looks encouraging so far. To be clear, plans are to ‘go big’ and this little eight-channel testbed is just to explore this issues around ball guiding, transport and ball release onto the first audio test device, a Korg Nano Pad 2.
Some significant teething problems were identified, such as when [Ivan] designed the ball lifter, he intended the balls to load from the rear, but then needed to switch it to load from the front. No big deal, simply reverse the motor direction to load balls on the opposite side of the mechanism. Sadly, that also meant the directly coupled note drum was now also rotating the wrong way to release the balls. Oops. A quick hack later and [Ivan] was back in business. Various parts needed shimming up with plates, but with 3D printers on the bench, knocking those out took little time or effort. This just shows how darn useful 3D printers can be, allowing you to iterate in a short time and feed your hacks back into the final version.
[Ivan] is clearly going to have a lot of ‘fun’ with this one, as
[Wintergatan] will surely testify
, these big musical marble machine builds are quite some undertaking. We shall definitely be tuning in later on to see where this one goes!
While we’re on the subject of the [Wintergatan] marble machines, here’s a
mini homage to the latest Marble Machine X
, and if you’re in the need for a 3D printed marble clock,
then try this one for starters
. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399443",
"author": "matega",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T17:41:11",
"content": "Mechanical contraptions designed to trigger an input for a computer rub me the wrong way. Button pushers, mouse movers, touchscreen actuators – you could have just injected those input events from software... | 1,760,372,882.118458 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/tech-in-plain-sight-eyeglasses/ | Tech In Plain Sight: Eyeglasses | Al Williams | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [] | Glasses wearers, try a little experiment. Take off your glasses and look at this page or, at least, at something you can’t see well without your glasses. Now imagine if you lived in a time where there was nothing to be done about your vision. If you wear contacts or you have good vision — perhaps you had surgery — then congratulations. But for most of us, vision changes with age are a fact of life. Even many young people need glasses or some other intervention to get good eyesight. At first glance, you might think eyeglasses are an obvious invention, but it turns out we didn’t get real glasses for quite some time and modern glasses are truly a piece of high tech that hides — quite literally — right in front of your face.
What’s Wrong?
Parts of the eye (CC=BY-SA 3.0 by [Holly Fischer]
Before we talk about correction vision, it helps to know what can go wrong with your eyes. To understand that, it helps to review how your eye works to start with.
First, light enters the eye through the cornea, a clear dome in the front. The light then passes through the pupil, the black dot in the center. The colored part of your eye, the iris, controls how much light goes through, sort of like a lens aperture on a camera.
Inside your eye is a transparent lens structure that focuses the light rays. They pass through a jelly-like substance that keeps your eye round and the focal point is at the retina which contains light-sensitive nerves. Unlike a camera, the retina isn’t flat like a piece of film but curves. However, like any camera, the image is now upside down, but your brain doesn’t mind. As an aside, though, if you flip your vision around so it is really upside down, your brain will eventually dutifully flip it back for you as you can see in the video below.
When Things Go Wrong
People generally think of vision problems as being far-sighted or near-sighted. That is, fuzzy objects up close or far away, respectively. However, you can also have astigmatism which just causes general fuzziness and what we think of as far-sight can be caused by two distinct problems with your eye.
Astigmatism is when the shape of the cornea is not perfect, so light coming in can wind up at more than one spot on the retina. If you have astigmatism, everything looks fuzzy and something like an LED will appear to be more than one LED from a distance.
Hyperopia, a type of far-sightedness, and myopia or near-sightedness happen when the length of the eye is not correct or the lens system has an incorrect focal length. For hyperopia, the image focuses behind the retina and myopia has the focus ahead of the retina. The other cause of far-sightedness is presbyopia which is where the center of the eye’s lens hardens with age. The end effect is the same as hyperopia and it is why as we get older we can’t read fine print.
The Optics
You can think of a lens as two prisms either base to base or apex to apex
You can think of a lens as two prisms. For a concave lens, the two prisms meet at their tips. For a convex lens, they meet at the base. If you aren’t used to thinking of a lens as a pair of prisms, you might enjoy the video below.
As the video mentions, light sort of bends around the base of a prism. Ok, it doesn’t really bend, but that’s a good way to think about it. So as light goes into a concave lens, it tends to spread out but through a convex lens it tends to converge on a spot some distance from the lens — the focal length.
That’s true, at least, of a spherical lens. You can also have a
cylindrical lens
that focuses to a line instead of a point. If you need both types of lenses at one time, you need to find a
toric
lens.
By making the image spread out or converge before it hits your eye, glasses can correct for common vision problems. With a cylindrical lens, you can fix astigmatism, too. Obviously, if you have multiple problems, you’ll need a toric lens.
Ancient History
While it seems simple to create a lens and hang it in front of your face, there are two parts to that. First, you have to know how to make a lens or find one that occurs naturally. Next, you have to have the idea of how to suspend them in front of your eyes.
Glass has been around for at least 4,000 years, but not high-quality glass. There are quite a few claims of ancient lenses used to either magnify or focus the sun to start fires, but they are either natural stones or very poor quality glass, and there is debate if they would have worked for either case.
The Romans became good at making glass in the first century and realized that a bean-shaped piece of glass — a convex lens — would make objects appear bigger. The word lens comes from the Latin word for lentil.
However, history is a little vague about the use of lenses to help people see. It looks like an Arab created reading stones in the 900s and they became relatively common by the year 1,000. If you’ve ever used one of those solid plastic bars that you put on something small like a phone book to make the text bigger, that’s the same idea. Of course, the material would be glass or crystal.
Glasses Arrive
This portrait by El Greco from about 1600 shows Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara wearing glasses (Public domain)
It would be the 13th century before we started seeing what we would think of as simple glasses. Early glasses in Italy were crude blown glass held with a frame of leather or wood. Until around 1600, though, you’d hold the glasses in your hand or push them down on your nose. The early glasses were all convex, although by the 1400s concave lenses were known. It would be 1604 before Kepler would explain why they all worked.
Around 1600 someone worked out how to clip glasses to your ears although this is often attributed to Edward Scarlett in 1727. As you can see from the adjoining El Greco painting, though, some people had this style of eyewear as early as 1600.
Earpieces were a game-changer although you can still find the occasional monocle or pince-nez. There was still one major problem: glasses strong enough to help you see things close up made a mess of things that were far away.
Benjamin Franklin, who had poor vision, invented the bifocal where each lens had a near part and a far part. There have been some claims that Franklin didn’t invent them but, rather, popularized them. It would be 1825 before astronomer George Airy would figure out how to correct astigmatism.
Modern Glasses
Like everything else, glasses went high-tech at an accelerating rate through the 20th century. Frames are now made with memory alloys that return to their original shape. Lenses made of special material are lightweight and durable. They also can have coatings to reduce glare, block UV light, or turn dark in bright lights.
One of the biggest improvements stemmed from the bifocal. First, there were trifocals with three lenses. However, now sophisticated lens grinding techniques allow progressive lenses where the lens has different properties that vary continuously across the lens.
Computers can grind lenses in classic shapes or create aspheric or atoric lenses that can correct vision in more sophisticated ways than a normal lens. You can see a common eyeglass lab’s process in the video below.
RX and Other Solutions
It helps to know Latin if you want to read an eyeglass prescription. You’ll see numbers under the heading OS and OD and rarely OU0. The O is for oculus (eye), the S is for sinister (left) and D is for dextrus (right). The U means both eyes.
If you don’t have astigmatism, you’ll see diopter numbers for each eye. This is the amount of focusing change you need and lower numbers are better (a diopter is the reciprocal of the focal length in meters). A negative number means you are near-sighted and a positive means far-sighted. A zero would mean you didn’t need glasses, so you probably won’t see that unless you have only one bad eye.
For astigmatism, you’ll see three numbers. The first is the diopter, the same as above and is referred to as the SPHERE. The next number is a measure in diopters of how much astigmatism requires correction (CYLINDER). The final number is the axis between 0 and 180 degrees which gives you the rotation of the correction.
If you need bifocals or progressives, you’ll see an ADD number as well. This is the additional diopters needed for a bifocal. In the case of a progressive lens, of course, there will be a continuous slope of magnification across the lens. This number is nearly always the same for both eyes, but if one of them has PAL next to it, then it should be used for both eyes with progressive lenses and the other number is for proper bifocals. You’ll sometimes see a PD or pupillary distance. That’s for setting up the frames but doesn’t affect the optics.
You’d think with contacts and laser surgery for vision correction eyeglasses wouldn’t be very common. But they are. Why not? They are relatively cheap, don’t take much in the way of maintenance, and they work well. While the tech that goes into them today requires computer-controlled grinding machines and lots of math, even the simple glasses available centuries ago must have seemed like a miracle to people who could no longer read or see things clearly.
It is possible to
build your own lenses
, but it is hard to match the quality of a real lab. Glasses used to be nerdy, but now they are fashionable. If you want to look like a nerd again and you need progressives,
maybe you’ll prefer a pair of these
. | 47 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399369",
"author": "Rich Holmes",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T15:11:56",
"content": "If it were plain sight, I wouldn’t need the eyeglasses.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6399376",
"author": "joelfinkle",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,372,882.079329 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/for-all-their-expense-electric-cars-are-still-the-cheapest/ | For All Their Expense, Electric Cars Are Still The Cheapest | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric vehicle",
"ev",
"TCO"
] | A criticism that we have leveled at the move from internal combustion vehicles to electric ones is that their expense can put them well beyond the range of the not-so-well-heeled motorist. Many of the electric vehicles we’ve seen thus far have been niche models marketed as luxury accessories, and thus come with a specification and list price to match. It’s interesting then to see
a European report from LeasePlan
looking at vehicle ownership costs which reveals that the total yearly cost of ownership (TCO) for an electric car has is now cheaper that comparable internal combustion vehicles across the whole continent in all but the fiercely competitive sub-compact segment.
TCO includes depreciation, taxes and insurance, fuel, and maintenance. Perhaps the most interesting story lies in electric cars progressing from being a high-depreciation, risky purchase to something you can sell on the second-hand market, even if they cost more up front. For example, the electric VW ID3 costs around $11,000 more than the comparable gas-powered VW Golf up front, but the higher resale price later offsets this and helps keep the TCO lower.
We’ve been following electric vehicles for a while now
in the hope that an electric people’s car would surface, and have at times
vented our frustration on the matter
. It’s encouraging to see this particular trend as we believe it will encourage manufacturers to produce more accessible electric vehicles, especially given that we’ve just complained that driving electric
seems like more of a rich man’s game
.
(via
Heise
)
Header image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas /
CC-BY-SA-3.0
. | 191 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399301",
"author": "steelman",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T12:05:36",
"content": "The most environment friendly car is the one that hasn’t been produced.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6399305",
"author": "ev",
... | 1,760,372,882.335096 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/making-your-own-touchpad-with-pwm-and-rust/ | Making Your Own Touchpad With PWM And Rust | Matthew Carlson | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"rust",
"stm32",
"TouchPad",
"usb"
] | The modern touchpads are incredible feats of engineering, with everything from complex signal processing for noise and tremendous economies of scale driving prices low. So [Kevin] decided to see if he could
make his own touchpad
. Partially out of curiosity of what makes one touchpad better than another, but also because he was curious if he could. Using an STM32 and a custom PCB, he was off to the races in an incredibly cost-effective way.
After writing some quick firmware in Rust, he was reporting the values read by the PWM channels. Using python, he could get a good idea of the raw values that were being written over USB and visualized. So rather than implement filtering in hardware or firmware, he elected to do the filtering and processing on the host computer side in Python. We suspect this gave him much shorter iteration cycles.
If you like the idea of making your own touchpad but perhaps are dreaming a little bigger, why not
make a tablecloth-sized touchpad
? | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399282",
"author": "Pooo",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T10:04:22",
"content": "Next, someone will likely kick off an effort to rewrite the firmware in C.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6399302",
"author": "Gravis",
... | 1,760,372,882.376426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/pluto-spectrum-analyzer-uses-command-line/ | Pluto Spectrum Analyzer Uses Command Line | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Pluto",
"pluto sdr",
"plutosdr",
"sdr",
"spectrum analyzer"
] | If you don’t care about shortwave frequencies, the PlutoSDR is a great deal. The device is supposed to be an evaluation board for Analog Device’s radio chips, but it does great as a software-defined radio that can receive and transmit and it even runs Linux internally. [SignalsEverywhere] shows how to use it as
a spectrum analyzer
that works from the command line in the video you can see below.
The software used is
Retrogram
. Despite the ASCII graphics, the program has many features. You can use simple keystrokes to change the center frequency, the sampling rate, the bandwidth, and more. You can run the software on a Linux host or compile a binary on the box or cross-compile using tools on the Raspberry Pi.
The Pluto connects via USB but looks like a network adapter. That means you can talk to it like a remote computer and software can run on the host computer or directly on the hardware which has an ARM processor (
or two, if you hack it
).
We noticed on the GitHub site that plans are in the works for generic device support like the ubiquitous RTLSDR dongles. We’d love to see someone pick up that work. There are also plans for mouse tuning, waterfall displays, and HTML output.
We’ve talked about
the Pluto before
. We’ve also seen [SignalsEverywhere] cover
how to connect the Pluto Ethernet
. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399259",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T06:38:39",
"content": "So it’s a hardware SDR that’s actually an evaluation board, and the same company (maybe?) is making the software spectrum analyzer that works with the SDR board. The software presumably comes preinstalled on... | 1,760,372,882.507876 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/russian-anti-satellite-weapon-test-draws-widespread-condemnation/ | Russian Anti-Satellite Weapon Test Draws Widespread Condemnation | Lewin Day | [
"News"
] | [
"anti-satellite",
"ASAT",
"LEO",
"low earth orbit",
"nasa",
"satellite",
"space junk"
] | On the morning of November 15, a Russian missile destroyed a satellite in orbit above Earth. The successful test of the anti-satellite weapon has infuriated many in the space industry, put astronauts and cosmonauts alike at risk, and caught the attention of virtually every public and private space organisation on the planet.
It’s yet another chapter in the controversial history of military anti-satellite operations, and one with important implications for future space missions. Let’s examine what happened, and explore the greater context of the operation.
Analysis from several sources indicates that an anti-satellite weapons system destroyed a Russian satellite designated COSMOS 1408. The satellite served in an electronic and signals intelligence role for the Soviet Union, and was launched in 1982 with an expected mission life of six months. The 2,200 kg satellite had been defunct for decades, and was sitting in Low Earth Orbit at an altitude of approximately 480 km.
US Space Command have since released a statement, indicating that Russia fired a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile which struck COSMOS 1408. The findings were independently verified by a number of private-sector space organisations, including
LeoLabs
and
Seradata.
Exact details are hard to come by, but suspicions centre around the use of the Russian PL-19 Nudol missile for the test. The PL-19 is a ground-launched missile which has been seen in testing
as recently as last year
, and has anti-ballistic missile applications in addition to the anti-satellite role. The two missions share similar requirements – the need for a missile with high delta-V and high maneuverability in order to hit fast-moving targets at orbital altitudes. It’s not Russia’s only recent anti-satellite project, either, with the country reportedly recently testing a satellite designed
to kinetically attack other satellites in orbit.
YouTube video: Data captured by LeoLabs indicates the debris field from the anti-satellite weapon test passing near to the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS).
The test quickly drew widespread condemnation from much of the space community. Perhaps most notably, according to a
statement from NASA.
astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the ISS were instructed to shelter in place. The team onboard donned their spacesuits, closed hatches to some radial ISS modules, and boarded the SpaceX Crew Dragon currently docked with the space station. These measures were taken for the first few passes through the debris field generated by the test, before NASA deemed the situation safe. As reported by multiple sources, hatches between the US and Russian parts of the space station remain open. Notably, two of the seven people aboard the space station are Russian cosmonauts, who were also placed at risk by the Russian test.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson expressed anger with a statement noting that he was “outraged by this irresponsible and destabilizing action. With its long and storied history in human spaceflight, it is unthinkable that Russia would endanger not only the American and international partner astronauts on the ISS, but also their own cosmonauts. Their actions are reckless and dangerous, threatening as well the Chinese space station.”
The problem with such testing is the huge amount of debris generated, which places other spacecraft at risk from damage or destruction.
Reports from US Space Command
indicate that the test generated over 1500 trackable pieces of debris, and likely “hundreds of thousands” of smaller pieces of debris that are too small to be monitored with current technology.
Present estimates indicate that the debris could remain in orbit for years, if not decades, threatening spacecraft in a wide orbital region that’s heavily used by existing spacecraft. The ISS orbits generally around 300 km – 400 km, and took aforementioned precautions around the debris field.
SpaceX Starlink
satellites orbit around 550 km, incidentally, a low orbit chosen so that they’ll deorbit and burn up
after their service life is over
to avoid adding to the problem of space junk in LEO. The Hubble Space Telescope orbits at 540 km, and the Chinese space station Tiangong similarly orbits between 340-450 km.
India’s ASAT missile, launched in 2019. Credit: Press Information Bureau, Indian Ministry of Defence
A similar test
by India in 2019
drew ire as well, though by virtue of occurring at a lower altitude and with less political context, perhaps was not quite as poorly received as today’s Russian test. Current modelling suggests that most of the fragments from the Indian test, which destroyed the Microsat-R satellite at an altitude of 270 km, would deorbit relatively quickly, within the next few years.
Conversely, a Chinese test in 2007 targeted the FY-1C weather satellite at a much higher altitude of 865 km, leaving debris in a much higher orbit. Over half of the debris from the test still orbits above 850 km, and is expected to remain in orbit
for decades or centuries to come
. In 2011, a piece of the destroyed satellite
passed within six kilometers of the ISS
, highlighting the very real dangers of such activity.
The Soviet Union (later Russia) and the United States have both run significant anti-satellite weapons development programs since the dawn of the space era. Each side has tested a variety of approaches, taking in everything from ground-launched and aircraft-launched missiles, to laser systems and other fancier ideas such as satellites that could take down other satellites kinetically or by other means.
A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) launched from the U.S. Navy AEGIS cruiser USS Lake Erie was used to destroy a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite in 2008. At the time, the satellite was at just 247 kilometers altitude, meaning most of the debris quickly deorbited due to atmospheric drag. Credit: US Navy, public domain
Meanwhile, the most recent publicaly-known test from the United States involved the use of an RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 missile to shoot down a failed National Reconnaissance Office satellite designated USA-193,
in 2008.
The RIM-161 missile was designed for an anti-ballistic missile role, making it well-suited to the anti-satellite mission. The stated reason for the destruction was that the satellite was deemed to be a hazard, carrying 1,000 pounds of toxic hydrazine fuel that could threaten human lives if reentry happened over a populated area.
However, Russian statements claimed that the hydrazine fuel was merely an excuse to test an anti-satellite weapon in the wake of the Chinese test in 2007. Speculation at the time was that this could lead to a new
arms race in space
.
The US, Russia, India, and China have successfully tested ASAT weapons, with sour enough results already. In any case, with today’s active test of a Russian ASAT weapon, as well as many rumblings of other anti-satellite tests in recent years, it seems that space may now be more weaponized than ever. Such activity poses a major risk to all spacefaring activities, and many will hope that testing quickly ceases once all countries involved are done proving their points and rattling their sabres. As always, time will tell. | 44 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399705",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T15:24:34",
"content": "I wonder whatever happened to the treaty that declared space to be off limits to such asinine stupidity?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "639971... | 1,760,372,882.460513 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/arduino-library-makes-digital-rain-like-its-1999/ | Arduino Library Makes Digital Rain Like It’s 1999 | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Library",
"digital rain",
"ESP32",
"ESP8266",
"matrix",
"matrix digital rain",
"TFT display"
] | There’s going to be a new
Matrix
movie in theaters next month, and you know what that means: we’re about to see a whole new generation get obsessed with the franchise’s iconic “Digital Rain” effect. Thanks to modern advertisement technology, expect to see lines of glittering text pouring down the displays of everything from billboards to gas pumps pretty soon.
Doesn’t get much easier than that.
For those of us who’ve just been looking for an excuse to break out the old
Matrix
screensavers, you might as well get a jump on things using
this handy Arduino library for the ESP8266 and ESP32.
Developed by [Eric Nam], it lets you start up a digital rainstorm on displays supported by the TFT_eSPI library as easily as running
digitalRainAnim.loop()
.
You can even install the library through the Arduino IDE, just open the Library Manager and search for “Digital Rain” to get started. You’ve still got to hook the display up to your microcontroller, but come on, [Eric] can’t do it all for you.
Looking at the examples, it seems like various aspects of the animation like color and speed can be configured by initializing the library with different values. Unfortunately we’re not seeing much in the way of documentation for this project, but by comparing the different examples, you should be able to get the high points.
While our first choice would
certainly be a wall of green alphanumeric LED displays
, we can’t help but be impressed with how easy this project makes it to spin up your own little slice of the
Matrix
on the workbench. | 31 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399655",
"author": "rpavlik",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T12:15:39",
"content": "Now this has me wondering if the effect is still recognizable on a relatively coarse LED matrix, I kinda want to put it on my Adafruit EyeLights.Really cool to see a library for this, nice hack!",
"pa... | 1,760,372,882.635941 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/ntp-rust-and-arduino-make-a-phenomenal-frequency-counter/ | NTP, Rust, And Arduino Make A Phenomenal Frequency Counter | Jenny List | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"frequency counter",
"Frequency Standard",
"ntp"
] | Making a microcontroller perform as a frequency counter is a relatively straightforward task involving the measurement of the time period during which a number of pulses are counted. The maximum frequency is however limited to a fraction of the microcontroller’s clock speed and the accuracy of the resulting instrument depends on that of the clock crystal so it will hardly result in the best of frequency counters. It’s something [FrankBuss] has approached with
an Arduino-based counter
that offloads the timing question to a host PC, and thus claims atomic accuracy due to its clock being tied to a master source via NTP. The Rust code PC-side provides continuous readings whose accuracy increases the longer it is left counting the source. The example shown reaches 20 parts per billion after several hours reading a 1 MHz source.
It’s clear that this is hardly the most convenient of frequency counters, however we can see that it could find a use for anyone intent on monitoring the long-term stability of a source, and could even be used with some kind of feedback to discipline an RF source against the NTP clock with the use of an appropriate prescaler. Its true calling might come though not in measurement but in calibration of another instrument which can be adjusted to match its reading once it has settled down. There’s surely no cheaper way to satisfy
your inner frequency standard nut
. | 28 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399626",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T09:28:50",
"content": "I’m sick of seeing Rust being pushed relentlesslyI get it, its the best thing since sliced bread",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6399632",
... | 1,760,372,882.569637 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/cramming-a-ds-inside-a-gameboy/ | Cramming A DS Inside A Gameboy | Matthew Carlson | [
"Games",
"handhelds hacks",
"Nintendo DS Hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"Case mod",
"gameboy",
"nintendo",
"Nintendo DS"
] | Many holiday recipes and console hacks share a common theme: cramming a thing inside another thing. Whether it’s turducken or a
Nintendo DS inside a Gameboy,
the result is always unexpected. The chassis for this mod is a humble Gameboy color with a Gameboy SP screen tackled on the top to serve as the secondary display. Unfortunately, this mod lost touch screen functionality, limiting some of the games you can play.
[TheRetroFuture] received the custom handheld from [GameboyCustom], which was somewhat damaged in shipping. The original screw mounts had to be removed and the case glued back together to fit the DS motherboard. So for [TheRetroFuture] to get inside to start troubleshooting involved a razor blade and patience. Testing various points and swapping components got [TheRetroFuture] closer to the root problems. The fix ended up being a few wires that came loose during shipping. Finally, after reseating a display connection and some careful soldering, it booted and started playing games.
Overall, it’s pretty impressive to see Mario Kart DS running on both screens on the tiny handheld. But you might be asking, why? Why shove one handheld inside another handheld? Sometimes it’s to gain new functionality
like this Raspberry Pi inside a PSP body
. Sometimes, it’s just because we can. Video after the break. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399780",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T18:39:38",
"content": "Best opening line in ages!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6399812",
"author": "TerryMatthews",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T21:33:49",... | 1,760,372,882.670968 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/hacking-multiplication-with-karatsubas-algorithm/ | Hacking Multiplication With Karatsuba’s Algorithm | Al Williams | [
"Software Development",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"algorithms",
"math",
"multiplication"
] | People tend to obsess over making computer software faster. You can, of course, just crank up the clock speed and add more processors, but often the most powerful way to make something faster is to find a better way to do it. Sometimes those methods are very different from how a human being would do the same task, but it suits the computer’s capabilities. [Nemean] has a video explaining a better multiplication algorithm known as
Karatsuba’s algorithm
and it is actually quite clever. You can see the video below.
To help you understand the algorithm, the video shows a simple two-digit by two-digit multiplication. You can see that the first and last digits are essentially the result of one multiplication. It is all the intermediate digits that add together. The only thing that might change the first digit is a carry.
Using clever math, you can compute the first and last digit, along with a sum that contains the middle parts added to the first and last digits. By subtracting them out, you can get all the required digits using fewer multiplications than the traditional method. Adding and subtracting is generally cheap, so trading those for multiplications can result in major time savings.
Of course, these days your multiplication probably occurs in hardware but it still may not be as fast as addition and subtraction. The complexity of this algorithm, though, means it isn’t often used unless you are dealing with very large numbers. Either way, it is a clever application of math and disproved what “everyone” knew — that the best method had already been found. It makes you wonder how many other known things will be disproven in the future.
We are always interested in
odd math methods
. Some of them
are rather colorful
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399622",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T08:35:39",
"content": "I like the algorithm and started reading around the subject, and on Wikipedia I found this “As a rule of thumb, Karatsuba’s method is usually faster when the multiplicands are longer than 320–640 bits”. And... | 1,760,372,882.713286 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/quick-and-not-very-dirty-negative-voltage-supply/ | Quick And (Not Very) Dirty Negative Voltage Supply | Adam Zeloof | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"boost converter",
"boost-buck converter",
"buck converter",
"inverter",
"negative voltage",
"power supply"
] | There comes a time in every hardware hacker’s career during which they first realize they need a negative voltage rail in their project. There also comes a time, usually ~10ms after realizing this, when they reach for the
Art of Electronics
to try and figure out how the heck to actually introduce subzero voltages into their design. As it turns out, there are a ton of ways to get the job done, from expensive power supplies to fancy regulators you can design, but if you’re lazy (like I am) you might just want a simple, nearly drop-in solution.
[Filip Piorski] has got you covered there. In a recent video,
he demonstrates how to turn a “China Special” $1 buck converter from Ebay into a boost-buck converter
, capable of acting as a negative voltage supply. He realized that by swapping around the inputs and outputs of the regulator you can essentially invert the potential produced. There are a few caveats, of course, including high start-up current and limited max. voltages, but he manages to circumvent some of them with a little clever rewiring and a bit of bodge work.
Of course, if you have strict power supply requirements you probably want to shell out the cash for a professionally-built one, or design one yourself that meets your exact needs. For the majority of us, a quick and easy solution like this will get the job done and allow us to focus on other aspects of the design without having to spend too much time worrying about the power supply. Of course,
if power electronics design
is
your thing, we’ve got you covered there, too
.
Thanks to [Bornach] for the tip! | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399571",
"author": "Tom Hargrave",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T00:57:29",
"content": "There is a much easier way to accomplish this, depending on what your loads need.For example, if you need +/- 5V for an op amp just regulate to +10v and set up a 5V voltage divider. And then using yo... | 1,760,372,882.871763 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/16/jigglypuff-sensor-breathes-co2-so-you-dont-have-to/ | Jigglypuff Sensor Breathes CO2 So You Don’t Have To | Tom Nardi | [
"Art",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"dust sensor",
"environmental monitor",
"pcb art",
"pokemon",
"sensor"
] | We’ve seen a lot of environmental monitoring projects here at Hackaday. Seriously,
a lot
. They usually take the form of a microcontroller, a couple sensors, and maybe a 3D printed case to keep it all protected. They’re pretty similar functionally as well, with the only variation usually coming in the protocol used to communicate their bits of collected data.
But even when compared with such an extensive body of previous work,
this Jigglypuff IoT environmental monitor created by [Kutluhan Aktar] is pretty unusual
. Sure, the highlights are familiar. Its MH-Z14A NDIR CO2 sensor and GP2Y1010AU0F optical dust detector are read by a WiFi-enabled microcontroller, this time the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, which ultimately reports its findings to the user via Telegram bot. There’s even a common SSD1306 OLED display on the unit to show the data locally. All things we’ve seen in some form or another in the past.
Testing the electronics on a bread board.
So what’s different? Well, it’s all been mounted to a huge Pokémon PCB, obviously. Even if you aren’t a fan of the pocket monsters, you’ve got to appreciate that bright pink solder mask. Honestly, the whole presentation is a great example of the sort of PCB artwork
we rarely see outside of the BadgeLife scene
.
Admittedly, there’s a lot easier ways to get
notified about the air quality inside your house
. We’re also not saying that haphazardly mounting your electronics onto a PCB designed to look like a character from a nearly 20+ year old Game Boy game is necessarily a great idea from a reliability standpoint. But if you
were
going to do something like that, then this project is certainly the one to beat. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399515",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T21:36:01",
"content": "Not being a Pokeholic, I had trouble wondering what the pink thing was in the Title Photo!B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,372,883.090484 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/what-it-takes-turning-a-hatchback-into-a-race-car/ | What It Takes: Turning A Hatchback Into A Race Car | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks"
] | [
"citroen",
"citroen c1",
"motor racing",
"motorsport",
"race car",
"racing"
] | We’ve spoken a lot about building race cars here at Hackaday, but what does it actually look like to go out and do it? The boys from [Bad Obsession Motorsport] dived into that very question with their
Bargain Racement series last year.
The CityCar Cup championship aims to keep entry costs low and racing competitive by racing cheap hatchbacks with a strict ruleset. Credit:
Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup
The series follows the duo as they build a Citroen C1 into a competitive race car to take on the City Car Cup, an entry-level racing series focused on keeping the field competitive and the racing close.
Even at this level, there’s plenty to do to prep the car for competition. The rollcage needs to be installed, seats changed out for race-spec gear, and plenty of wiring to do as well. [Nik] and [Richard] have plenty of experience in the field of motorsport, and shine a great light on how to do the job, and do it right.
All in all, building the car cost £5995 pounds, starting from a used £850 Citroen C1. However, actually going racing costs more than that. Between race suits and boots, a helmet, club memberships and race entry fees, it cost a full £8273 to get to the first race. It’s steep, though much of those costs are upfront. Keep the car off the walls and year on year, you only need to keep paying for entry fees, memberships and consumables like fuel and tires.
It’s a great look at everything from building a race car, to testing and then actually competing as well. It serves as an excellent real-world example of what we talk about in our series on
how to get into cars
, which just recently touched on
prepping a car for endurance competition
. Video after the break. | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399916",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T06:21:10",
"content": "No matter how fast it goes, that thing will always be a CLOWN CAR!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6400030",
"author": "Henry Kowalski",
... | 1,760,372,883.046214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/linux-coming-soon-to-m1-macbooks/ | Linux: Coming Soon To M1 Macbooks | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"arch",
"arm",
"asahi",
"linux",
"M1",
"mac",
"macOS"
] | Regardless of the chipset or original intended use of any computer system, someone somewhere is going to want to try and run Linux on it. And why not? Linux is versatile and free to use as well as open-source, so it’s quite capable of running on almost anything. Of course, it takes a little while for the Linux folk to port the software to brand new hardware, but it’s virtually guaranteed that it’s only a matter of time before
Linux is running on even the most locked-down of hardware, like the M1 MacBooks
.
[Hector Martin] aka
[marcan]
has been hard at work getting Linux up and running on the latest Apple offerings with their ARM-based M1 processors. Since these are completely divorced from their x86 product line the process had to be worked from the ground up which included both booting Linux and modifying the kernel to include support for the hardware. [marcan] has a lot of hardware working such as the USB ports and the SD card slot, and notes that his setup is even compatible with the webcam notch included in the latest batch of MacBooks.
There are a few things still missing. He’s running Arch and doesn’t have the GPU configured yet, so all of the graphics are rendered in software. But he has put the computer through the wringer including running some computationally-intense software for nearly a full day before realizing that the machine wasn’t charging, which did not make much difference in performance. These machines are indeed quite capable with their new ARM chipsets and hopefully
his work going forward
will bring Linux to the rest of us who still use Macs
even if they don’t want to run macOS
. | 62 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399883",
"author": "Cluso99",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T03:09:25",
"content": "IMHO it would be in Apple’s interest to allow linux to run on the M1 Macs. It would mean a lot more sales!But hey, we all know Apple :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,883.294203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/nixie-tube-indicator-tells-you-how-many-tasks-youve-got-left-to-do/ | Nixie Tube Indicator Tells You How Many Tasks You’ve Got Left To Do | Robin Kearey | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"nixie",
"to-do list"
] | For busy people, keeping track of all the tasks on your to-do list can be a daunting task in itself. Luckily there’s software to help you keep organized, but it’s always nice to have a physical artifact as well. Inspired by some beautiful nixie clock designs, [Bertrand Fan] decided to
build a nixie indicator
that tells him how many open items are on his to-do list, giving a shot of instant gratification as it counts down with each finished task.
The task-management part of this project is a on-line tool called Todoist. This program comes with a useful Web API that allows you to connect it your own software projects and exchange data. [Bert] wrote some code to extract the number of outstanding tasks from his to-do list and send it to an ESP8266 D1 Mini that drives the nixie tube. Mindful of the security implications of letting such a device connect directly to the internet, he set up a Mac Mini to act as a gateway, connecting to the ESP8266 through WiFi and to the Todoist servers through a VPN.
The little ESP board is sitting in a 3D-printed case, together with the nixie driver circuits and a socket to hold the tube. A ceramic tile glued to the front gives it a bit more of a sturdy, luxury feel to match the shiny glass and metal display device. The limitations of the nixie tube restrict the number of tasks indicated to nine, but we imagine this might actually be useful to help prevent [Bert] from overloading himself with too many tasks. After all, what’s the point of having this device if you can’t reach that satisfying “zero” at the end of the day?
Although nowadays nixie tubes are mostly associated with fancy clocks, we’ve seen them used in a variety of other uses, such as
keeping track of 3D-printer filament
, adding a
display to a 1940s radio
, or simply
displaying nothing useful at all
.
https://bert.org/assets/posts/nixie/todo.webm | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399855",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-11-18T00:07:29",
"content": "It would be difficult to build one suitable for my life, for every task I would remove, the count would increase by two or three.B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,372,883.130525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/finally-a-piano-bbq-grill-that-you-can-drive-around-the-workshop/ | Finally, A Piano BBQ Grill That You Can Drive Around The Workshop | Lewin Day | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"barbecue",
"bbq",
"grill",
"piano"
] | It’s a truth universally acknowledged that sometimes a little music can add much to a nice afternoon picnic. It’s also well-known that meat cooked over hot coals should be turned regularly to allow for even cooking. This barbecue grille project from [Handy Geng]
delivers on both counts.
The project uses a full 88 motors, activated by pressing keys on an electronic piano. The technique used is simple; rather than interface with the keyboard electronically or over MIDI, instead, a microswitch is installed under each individual key.
Thus, when the piano keys are pressed, the corresponding motors are switched on. Each motor turns a skewer loaded with meat, sitting above a box of hot coals. Thus, playing the piano turns the meat, allowing it to be cooked on all sides without burning.
As a further bonus, the entire piano barbecue grille is also motorized, allowing [Handy Geng] to do laps around his workshop while playing the piano and cooking up lunch. It’s a great way to cook up some grilled kebabs while simultaneously entertaining one’s guests.
We’ve seen some other fun grill hacks too –
even robotic ones
! Video after the break.
[Thanks to moonhouse for the tip!] | 36 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399808",
"author": "Then",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T21:14:29",
"content": "How do deal with such sublime work! How to relate to such a high form of information, technology, art. My life seems to have lost all meaning, or is it confirmation? Small existential crisis here.",
"par... | 1,760,372,883.196994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/friday-getting-social-with-discord-and-bring-a-hack/ | Friday: Getting Social With Discord And Bring-a-Hack | Tom Nardi | [
"cons"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon",
"BringAHack",
"Discord",
"Remoticon"
] | With just a few days to go before the kickoff of the
2021 Hackaday Remoticon
, we’re still working furiously behind the scenes to pack as much content as possible into the two day virtual event. In fact, there’s so much going on that we thought you’d appreciate getting a bit of a head start as far as planning your own personal course through the weekend goes. The event might be free, but that’s no reason not to squeeze as much out of it as you can.
Chat It Up on Discord
To begin with, you’re really going to want to
join the official Hackaday Remoticon Discord server
. We know some subset of the Hackaday readership would rather we used Matrix, or IRC, or maybe carefully modulated smoke signals; but at the end of the day, Discord has bubbled to the top as the defacto choice for this kind of thing. Give it a shot, you might actually like it.
The Discord server isn’t just a place for like-minded hackers to hang out and
discuss the musical stylings of DJ Jackalope during the Saturday afterparty
. It’s also how attendees can ask questions at the end of each presenter’s talk, as we’ll be turning off YouTube chat to keep things centralized. Even if you don’t plan on communicating with others (though you really should), the Discord server has an interactive schedule of events which will let you sign up to be notified when the talks you’ve selected are about to start, and we’ll be dropping important announcements and links in there as the event goes on.
Friday Bring-a-Hack on Gather Town
Like this, but with soldering irons.
Friday night ends with a Bring-a-Hack where attendees can show off whatever they’ve been working on using Gather. It’s a video chat platform inside a virtual 2D world that looks a bit like
Legend of Zelda.
Using this virtual environment, you can easily drop into an ongoing video stream simply by walking up to the presenter. Once you’ve seen enough, just walk over to the next little cluster of users. The point is to recreate the experience of stopping by a crowded after party where everyone brought some hardware project along with them to get spark conversations. Space will be limited, with ticket holders and people in Discord getting the first dibs, so keep an eye on your inbox for information about how to join.
Of course this is not the only Friday evening activity. A few weeks ago we announced that
Lewin Day will be hosting Hacker Trivia
, giving our beloved commenters the chance to show off your unimpeachable knowledge of technology and Hackaday history. The Friday talk stream will dump immediately into trivia, but
here’s the dedicated link
if you want to set a reminder for yourself.
Try It, You’ll Like It!
It’s difficult, perhaps even impossible, to truly recreate the experience of going to an in-person hacker con. But with interactive events and the latest and greatest communication software, we’re hoping the 2021 Remoticon can get pretty close. All the pieces are in place, the only thing we need now is to have a whole bunch of excited hackers to join in and have a good time. Think you can help us out? | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399814",
"author": "Mr Name Required",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T21:48:55",
"content": "I looked at the Remoticon events, and all the event times are in US PDT time, leading me to think it’s really catering just to US attendees or is it ok / possible for non-US people to take a look... | 1,760,372,883.350786 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/scpi-on-teaching-your-devices-the-lingua-franca-of-laboratories/ | SCPI: On Teaching Your Devices The Lingua Franca Of Laboratories | Maya Posch | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Skills",
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"lab automation",
"scpi"
] | One could be excused for thinking sometimes that the concept of connecting devices with other devices for automation purposes is a fairly recent invention. Yet for all the (relatively) recent hype of the Internet of Things and the ‘smart home’, laboratories have been wiring up their gear to run complicated measurement and test sequences for many decades now, along with factories doing much the same for automating production processes.
Much like the chaotic universe of IoT devices, lab equipment from different manufacturers feature a wide number of incompatible protocol and interface standards. Ultimately these would coalesce into IEEE-488.1 (GPIB) as the physical layer and by 1990 the first Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (
SCPI
) standard was released that built on top of IEEE-488.
SCPI defines (as the name suggests) standard commands to interact with instruments. It has over the past decades gone on to provide remote interaction capabilities to everything from oscilloscopes and power supplies to exotic scientific equipment. Many off the shelf devices a hobbyist can buy today feature an SCPI interface via its Ethernet, USB or RS-232C port(s) that combined with software can be used to automate one’s home lab.
Even better is that it’s relatively straightforward to add SCPI functionality to one’s own devices as well, so long as it has at least an MCU and some way to communicate with the outside world.
Reinventing the Wheel Is No Fun
As much fun as it is to come up with one’s own communication standard for a custom widget, there is a lot to be said for sticking to existing standards, instead of adding another ‘standard’ to the pile. One good reason is the time you will spend on coming up with a protocol that works, which covers all of the edge cases and leaves enough room for future expansion when new features are added.
Another reason is that of compatibility with existing software, which also touches on why end users likely to be enthused about this awesome new protocol. When using SCPI, it can be fairly painlessly integrated into existing (lab) automation software, as the whole concept behind SCPI is that each instrument will implement its own range of custom commands in addition to a number of required ones.
For users of software like LabVIEW or
Sigrok
, the ideal scenario is that the device speaks SCPI, and that in the worst-case a custom handler has to be written for the custom SCPI commands when one isn’t available yet. What will never change here is the basic SCPI syntax, allowing for rapid bootstrapping of new devices, the prevention of bugs (no parser is perfect) and reusing of code. SCPI’s base command set also enables functionality like synchronization mechanisms by default.
Despite this, when yours truly looks at the current stack of measurement gear and programmable power supplies piled up in the home lab, not all of them speak SCPI. The Rigol
DS1104Z
oscilloscope does via its Ethernet port. The little brother of the Owon
XDM2041
DMM (XDM1041) speaks SCPI via its USB port. So far so good, but then the electronic load (Arachnid Labs
Reload Pro
) speaks a
custom protocol
via USB that could have been SCPI.
The Manson
HCS-3304
programmable power supply does the same thing with yet another custom protocol, with the commands listed in the manual revisions apparently also often being wrong. With only some of these devices supported by Sigrok at this point, automating tests would involve hacking my own decoder together, rather than a bit of high-level fumbling with custom SCPI device commands.
Using standards appropriately can save a lot of time, sanity and grey hairs. Which leads to the next question: just how easy is it to add SCPI to one’s own Awesome Widget?
Enter LibSCPI
Not everyone wants to write their own SCPI parser from scratch, which is why the SCPI parser library v2, or simply ‘
libscpi
‘ is a good start. It implements the current
SCPI 1999
standard. Since we’d be interested in using SCPI on an embedded device, we’ll take a look at the provided FreeRTOS with LwIP (netconn)
example
. This shows the implementation of an SCPI server which runs in a FreeRTOS thread.
The SCPI server sets up a TCP listening port on the standard SCPI port (5025), after which commands can be sent to the device via any Telnet client or comparable in raw mode, i.e. plain text. Note that in this server example, LwIP netconn’s
NETCONN_COPY
is used instead of
NETCONN_NOCOPY
. This is essential to preventing data corruption (use of buffer data after delete) when using chained SCPI commands.
To use libscpi with a USART or other interface, the first thing to do is set up the library by calling
SCPI_Init
.
The following methods must also be implemented in your code:
SCPI_Write(
scpi_t
* context,
const
char
* data,
size_t
len)
SCPI_Flush(
scpi_t
* context)
SCPI_Error(
scpi_t
* context,
int_fast16_t
err)
SCPI_Control(
scpi_t
* context,
scpi_ctrl_name_t
ctrl,
scpi_reg_val_t
val)
SCPI_Reset(scpi_t* context)
These functions are mostly self-explanatory. As can be ascertained from the example implementation, SCPI_Write allows libscpi to write to your output of choice, with SCPI_Flush used to flush any output buffers that may exist. SCPI_Error prints error messages from libscpi, SCPI_Reset resets the device, and SCPI_Control is used to write to the control channel (optional feature, here on TCP port 5026).
To get libscpi to parse any fresh incoming strings (always terminated with a newline,
\n
, or
\r\n
), your code calls
SCPI_Input
, or in the case of singular commands,
SCPI_Parse
can also be used directly.
An example implementation of libscpi on STM32 with the ST HAL alongside FreeRTOS and a simple HTTP server can be found in
this GitHub repository
. This targets the Nucleo-F746ZG development board.
SCPI Digital Multimeter
Also provided with the libscpi example is the example implementation of a
digital multimeter device
. If we open the command definitions and implementations in
scpi-def.c
, it gives us a good glimpse at what a custom device implementation would require. This starts with the command table, called
scpi_commands
.
This table defines all commands in the format of a pattern with associated callback (all but the core ones implemented in the same file), starting with the IEEE mandated commands, e.g. *CLS (CLear Status):
{ .
pattern
=
"
*CLS
"
, .
callback
= SCPI_CoreCls,}
The ‘*’ (asterisk) in front of a command means that it is a required,
common SCPI command
that every device must implement. Important ones are
*IDN?
, which queries (note the question mark) the device about its identity,
*RST
to command the device to reset and
*WAI
that tells the device to wait with executing any new commands until the commands preceding this command have been completed.
After this block of required commands, we get the block with the DMM functions:
{.pattern = "MEASure:VOLTage:DC?", .callback = DMM_MeasureVoltageDcQ,},
{.pattern = "CONFigure:VOLTage:DC", .callback = DMM_ConfigureVoltageDc,},
{.pattern = "MEASure:VOLTage:DC:RATio?", .callback = SCPI_StubQ,},
{.pattern = "MEASure:VOLTage:AC?", .callback = DMM_MeasureVoltageAcQ,},
{.pattern = "MEASure:CURRent:DC?", .callback = SCPI_StubQ,},
{.pattern = "MEASure:CURRent:AC?", .callback = SCPI_StubQ,},
{.pattern = "MEASure:RESistance?", .callback = SCPI_StubQ,},
{.pattern = "MEASure:FRESistance?", .callback = SCPI_StubQ,},
{.pattern = "MEASure:FREQuency?", .callback = SCPI_StubQ,},
{.pattern = "MEASure:PERiod?", .callback = SCPI_StubQ,},
The reason for the mixed upper and lowercase use in the commands has to do with the ‘pattern’ aspect: in SCPI only the uppercase part of the pattern is required, and the lowercase section of a command can be omitted for brevity. As noted earlier, a command followed by a question mark is a query. The use of colons is to separate the levels of the tree hierarchy that defines an SCPI interface.
To use this hierarchy to measure voltage and current for DC in a single string, one would use the following command:
MEASure:VOLTage:DC?;:MEASure:CURRent:AC?
The semi-colon separates individual commands, and the leading colon resets the hierarchy to the root of the command tree. This latter feature can be used to create very brief concatenated command strings for e.g. measuring both AC & DC voltage:
MEASure:VOLTage:DC?;AC?
Since the first command left us in the
VOLTage
hierarchy level, the subsequent command would trigger the
AC?
query. This means that a well-designed interface for a device can make controlling it quite efficient even when manually typing in queries by avoiding unnecessary repetition.
Advanced Features
All of this merely scratches the surface of what SCPI is capable of, of course. In addition to plain text output, numeric strings can also be marked as being hexadecimal (#H), as octal (#Q), or as binary (#B). Arguments can be provided along with commands separated by a space. With libscpi these arguments can then be retrieved in the callback function.
Complex sequential and overlapping command sequences can also be set up using the
*OPC
and
*WAI
commands, along with the
*OPC?
query. These can be used in combination with the status register commands and any device-specific commands to control specifically timed sequences.
The best part about SCPI is probably that it scales along with the complexity of the device, whether it’s a simple voltage meter, or a scientific instrument reading quantum-level perturbations, the underlying protocol does not change. By not having to reinvent the same basics every single time, the developer and user of the device can instead focus on the things that matter.
In the case of the end-user, that is probably the experience of unpacking the device, plugging it in and programming in the SCPI sequences that make it perform the desired functions. Which is the major benefit of following established standards.
[Heading image: Back of Rigol DS1104Z oscilloscope with the Ethernet and USB ports visible. Credit: Rigol] | 30 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399777",
"author": "Neira",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T18:33:52",
"content": "That is quite a coincidence – I am currently writing my own SCPI library from scratch, for a project at University.My implementation is more C++ oriented to wrap things up with a cleaner interface (and let’... | 1,760,372,883.416964 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/17/how-to-make-a-classy-brassy-cardboard-pulp-mold/ | How To Make A Classy, Brassy Cardboard Pulp Mold | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"brass",
"cardboard",
"cardboard pulp",
"pulp mold",
"sustainable materials",
"wire screen mold"
] | When we last checked in with prolific prototypist [Eric Strebel], he was perfecting the design of an eco-friendly wireless charger and turning his initial paper prototype into a chipboard version 2.0 that takes manufacturing concerns into consideration. At the end of this second video in a series, [Eric] was printing out the early versions of the form by which he would eventually make a brass screen mold for working with cardboard pulp. You know, the stuff that some egg cartons are made from.
In the video below, it’s time to build the pulp mold by creating three smaller molds and then joining them into one horizontal mold
. The result is a single piece that then gets folded up into a charging stand, much like the egg carton. [Eric] is using brass screen here, but says that copper would be a good choice, too.
After cutting the brass with scissors and pounding them flat, he uses the 3D-printed molds from the previous video to press them into the correct shapes. Each of the three pieces needs a frame, which [Eric] makes from more brass screen, then stitches it to the mold piece with loose screen threads before securing the unions with solder.
Since the weight of all the water would likely bend the brass out of shape, [Eric] finished off the mold by soldering on a frame of flat brass strip. Check out this awesome process below, and stay tuned for the next video when [Eric] pulps some cardboard and pumps out some eco-friendly chargers.
Does this look too complicated?
You could always skip the whole mesh mold thing and shape your cardboard confetti directly into 3D printed parts
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399779",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-11-17T18:38:46",
"content": "This doubles as a fairly good starter for people looking to make little Faraday cages for rf things.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6399794",
... | 1,760,372,883.455836 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/machine-learning-shushes-stressed-dogs/ | Machine Learning Shushes Stressed Dogs | Adam Zeloof | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Machine Learning"
] | [
"arduino",
"dog",
"machine learning",
"Mbed OS",
"TinyML"
] | If there’s one demographic that has benefited from people being stuck at home during Covid lockdowns, it would be dogs. Having their humans around 24/7 meant more belly rubs, more table scraps, and more attention. Of course, for many dogs, especially those who found their homes during quarantine, this has led to attachment issues as their human counterparts have begin to return to work and school.
[Clairette] has had a particularly difficult time adapting to her friends leaving every day, but thankfully her human [Nathaniel Felleke] was able to come up with a clever solution.
He trained a TinyML neural net to detect when she barked and used and Arduino to play a sound byte to sooth her
. The sound bytes in question are recordings of [Nathaniel]’s mom either praising or scolding [Clairette], and as you can see from the video below, they seem to work quite well. To train the network, [Nathaniel] worked with several datasets to avoid overfitting, including one he created himself using actual recordings of barks and ambient sounds within his own house. He used Eon Tuner, a tool by Edge Impulse, to help find the best model to use and perform the training. He uploaded the trained network to an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense running Mbed OS, and a second Arduino handled playing sound bytes via an Adafruit Music Maker Featherwing.
While machine learning may sound like a bit of an extreme solution to curb your dog’s barking, it’s certainly innovative, and even appears to have been successful. Paired with this
web-connected treat dispenser
, you could keep a dog entertained for hours. | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399229",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T03:17:30",
"content": "I leave a radio tuned to a talk station for my dog.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6755427",
"author": "cdilla... | 1,760,372,883.507373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/designing-electronics-that-work/ | Designing Electronics That Work | Dave Rowntree | [
"Reviews"
] | [
"book",
"electronics",
"hardware",
"manufactuing",
"test"
] | [Hunter Scott] who has graced these pages a fair few times, has been working on electronics startups for the past ten years or so, and has picked up a fair bit of experience with designing and building hardware. Those of us in this business seem to learn the same lessons, quite often the hard way; we call it experience. Wouldn’t it be nice to get up that learning curve a little quicker, get our hardware out there working sooner with less pain, due to
not
falling into the same old traps those before us already know about? The problem with the less experienced engineer is not their lack of talent, how quickly they can learn, nor how much work they can get done in a day, but simply that they
don’t know what they don’t know
. There’s no shame in that, it’s just a fact of life. [Hunter] presents for us, the
Guide to Designing Electronics that Work
.
The book starts at the beginning. The beginning of the engineering process that is; requirements capturing, specifications, test planning and schedule prediction. This part is hard to do right, and this is where the real experience shows. The next section moves onto component selection and prototyping advice, with some great practical advice to sidestep some annoying production issues. Next there’s the obvious section on schematic and layout with plenty of handy tips to help you to that all important final layout. Do not underestimate how hard this latter part is, there is plenty of difficulty in getting a good performing, minimal sized layout, especially if RF applications are involved.
The last few sections cover costing, fabrication and testing. These are difficult topics to learn, if up till now all you’ve done is build prototypes and one-offs. These are the areas where many a kickstarter engineer has fallen flat.
Designing Electronics That Work doesn’t profess to be totally complete, nor have the answer to everything, but as the basis for deeper learning and getting the young engineer on their way to a manufacturable product, it is a very good starting point in our opinion.
The book has been around a little while, and the latest version is available for download right now, on a pay what-you-want basis, so give it a read and you might learn a thing or two, we’re pretty confident it won’t be time wasted! | 36 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399200",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2021-11-16T00:07:09",
"content": "That isn’t what eutectic means. Look it up. If this is an example of his wisdom . . . . .",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6399211",
"author":... | 1,760,372,883.573995 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/extending-an-e-bike-range-from-good-to-wheelie-good/ | Extending An E-Bike Range From Good To Wheelie Good | Matthew Carlson | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"e-bike",
"ebike",
"electric bike",
"ev",
"lithium battery"
] | It may not look like it in some parts of the world, but electric vehicles are gaining more and more market share over traditional forms of transportation. The fastest-growing segment is the e-bike, which some say are growing at 16x the rate of conventional bikes (which have grown at 15% during the pandemic). [Jacques Mattheij] rides an S-Pedelec, which is a sort of cross between a moped and an e-bike. There were a few downsides, and one of those was the pitiful range, which
needed to be significantly upgraded
.
The S-Pedelec that [Jacques] purchased is technically considered a moped, which means it needs to ride in traffic. The 500 watt-hour battery would only take him 45km (~28 miles) on a good day, which isn’t too bad but a problem if your battery runs down while in traffic, struggling to pedal a big heavy bicycle-like thing at car speed. You can swap batteries quickly, but carrying large unsecured extra batteries is a pain, and you need to stop to change them.
There were a few challenges to adding more batteries. The onboard BMS (battery management system) was incredibly picky with DRM and fussy about how many extra cells he could add. The solution that [Jacques] went with was to add an external balancer. This allowed him to add as many cells as he wanted while keeping the BMS happy. The battery geometry is a little wonky as he wanted to keep the pack within the frame. Putting it over the rear wheel would shift the center of gravity higher, changing the bike’s handling. After significant research and preparation, [Jacques] welded his custom battery back together with a spot welder. The final capacity came in at 2150wh (much better than the initial 500wh). An added benefit of the extra range is the higher speed, as the bike stays in the higher voltage domain for much longer. In eco mode, it can do 500km or 180km at full power.
It’s awe-inspiring, and we’re looking forward to seeing more e-bikes in the future. Maybe one day we’ll
have tesla coil wireless e-bikes
, but until then, we need to make do with battery packs. | 25 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399192",
"author": "ooooo",
"timestamp": "2021-11-15T22:39:16",
"content": "Electric vehicles have been and still are a dead end. Already the infrastructure is struggling to keep up with demand when everyone goes to make a cup of tea during evening news. If it gets loaded with mill... | 1,760,372,883.63144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/circuit-sculpture-lamp-is-a-colorful-cube-companion/ | Circuit Sculpture Lamp Is A Colorful Cube Companion | Lewin Day | [
"Art",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"brass rod",
"Circuit Sculpture",
"ws2812b"
] | Circuit sculpture is engineering and art all at play together. One must combine the functional with the aesthetically appealing. [EdwardA61] did just that
with this enchanting lamp build
.
Like many other circuit sculptures, the build relies on the aesthetic qualities of brass, though [EdwardA61] notes that copper wire can be used as well. Four WS2812B LEDs, in their bare PCB-mount form, are soldered into a circuit using the brass to carry the power and data signals as needed.
A Seeduino Xiao microcontroller is responsible for controlling the show, though relies on a typical PCB rather than a circuit sculpture in and of itself. It does provide for easy powering and programming however, with the benefit of its USB-C connector.
It’s a simple skeleton design, as so many circuit sculptures are, but it’s a form that we’ve come
to love and appreciate
. [EdwardA61] did a great job of photographing the build, too, showing how the colors on each LED interplay with each other as they’re cast on the table.
It’s a lamp we’d love to build ourselves, and we hope that [EdwardA61] follows through on plans to cast a similar design in clear resin, as well. If you’ve built your own artistically electrical sculptures,
be sure to let us know! | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399156",
"author": "vazhnov",
"timestamp": "2021-11-15T19:12:50",
"content": "Why are the most of instructables are under CC-BY-NC-SA? For me, they are not opensource :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6399172",
"auth... | 1,760,372,883.807395 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/dj-jackalope-live-set-will-close-out-hackaday-remoticon/ | DJ Jackalope Live Set Will Close Out Hackaday Remoticon | Mike Szczys | [
"cons"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon",
"DJ Jackalope"
] | Remoticon is almost here, but by Saturday night it’ll be gone! The best sendoff we can think of is with a party, and DJ Jackalope is playing a live set to make that happen.
DJ Jackalope [Photo credit:
Eli Omen Photography
]
We’ve been lucky to have live music from DJ Jackalope at numberous Hackaday Superconferences immediately after the Hackaday Prize ceremony. This year she reached out and suggested we continue the tradition,
offering up her Twitch stream
as the audio/video platform.
Everyone can enjoy the music, and still socialize via the Remoticon Discord server (invites will be sent out on Wednesday). Her set is scheduled to begin at 7:35 pm Pacific time on Saturday, November 20th.
But really you should plan to show up on the Remoticon live stream for Jeremy Fielding’s keynote at 5:25 pm followed by the Hackaday Prize ceremony at 6:25 pm — if not for the entire day. You can see why we need to cap the evening with a party!
All speaker and schedule info is available
on the Remoticon website
. Be sure to grab a free ticket; we’ll remind you about the live stream links, and that’s also how you’ll get access to Friday night’s Bring-a-hack. It bums us out that we can’t be together in person this year, but we’re going to do everything possible to enjoy each others’ company — come be a part that! | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399157",
"author": "Miss Jackalope",
"timestamp": "2021-11-15T19:13:17",
"content": "I am so excited to play again!!! Thank you so much, Hackaday, for having me back. (And for that smashing write up!) I love playing for everyone. I’m planning on bringing some bass house and of cour... | 1,760,372,884.033085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/vacuum-tube-might-replace-gps-one-day/ | Vacuum “Tube” Might Replace GPS One Day | Al Williams | [
"gps hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"gps",
"quantum accelerometer",
"quantum gps",
"quantum gyroscope",
"quantum navigation",
"rubidium",
"sandia national laboratory"
] | GPS and similar satellite navigation systems changed everything. The modern generation is far less likely to have had to fold a service station map or ask someone for directions on the side of the road. But GPS isn’t perfect. You need to see the sky, for one thing. For another, an adversary could jam or take down your satellites. Even a natural disaster could temporarily or permanently knock out your access to the satellites.
The people at Sandia National Labs worry about things like that and they want to replace GPS with quantum accelerometers and gyroscopes. The problem: those things take expensive and bulky vacuum systems and lasers. Sandia, however, has had
a sealed device about the size of an avocado
that weighs about a pound that could possibly do the job. Their goal is to see it work without maintenance for four more years.
This is no ordinary vacuum tube, though. It is made of titanium and sapphire. By itself, the device doesn’t do much of anything, but it shows that rubidium can be contained in a sealed chamber with no additional pumping. These quantum sensors aren’t anything new, but a tiny self-contained cold-atom sensor can pave the way for putting these sensors in vehicles like ships, aircraft, and ground vehicles. Submarines, which don’t usually have a clear shot at the sky without floating an antenna, are also candidates for the new technology.
A navigation system
based on this technology
uses a laser to cool the subject atoms and then measures their movements. This allows very precise determination of acceleration and rotation which allows for a more precise inertial navigation system.
If you need a refresher on
how GPS works
, we can explain it. If you think the idea of a module containing rubidium is far-fetched, don’t forget you can already get them for
precision clock work
. | 27 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399127",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-11-15T16:47:38",
"content": "Could it work for spelunking?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6399128",
"author": "Piotrsko",
"timestam... | 1,760,372,883.766511 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/mining-and-refining-pure-silicon-and-the-incredible-effort-it-takes-to-get-there/ | Mining And Refining: Pure Silicon And The Incredible Effort It Takes To Get There | Dan Maloney | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"crystal",
"metallurgy",
"Mining and Refining",
"polysilicon",
"Quartz",
"quartzite",
"silane",
"silicon",
"silicon dioxide"
] | Were it not for the thin sheath of water and carbon-based life covering it, our home planet would perhaps be best known as the “Silicon World.” More than a quarter of the mass of the Earth’s crust is silicon, and together with oxygen, the silicate minerals form about 90% of the thin shell of rock that floats on the Earth’s mantle. Silicon is the bedrock of our world, and it’s literally as common as dirt.
But just because we have a lot of it doesn’t mean we have much of it in its pure form. And it’s only in its purest form that silicon becomes the stuff that brought our world into the Information Age. Elemental silicon is very rare, though, and so getting appreciable amounts of the metalloid that’s pure enough to be useful requires some pretty energy- and resource-intensive mining and refining operations. These operations use some pretty interesting chemistry and a few neat tricks, and when scaled up to industrial levels, they pose unique challenges that require some pretty clever engineering to deal with.
Hard as Rock
The raw material for most silicon production is the mineral quartzite. Quartzite comes from ancient deposits of quartz sands that formed sedimentary deposits. Over time and with heat and pressure, these quartz sandstones were transformed into the metamorphic rock quartzite, which is at least 80% quartz by volume.
Quartzite. Source:
Geology.com
Quartzite is an incredibly tough rock, and where it pokes above the surface, it forms ridges that strongly resist weathering. Significant formations of quartzite are scattered all around the world, but there are relatively few places where it makes financial sense to quarry the rock for silicon production, since the formations need to be easily accessible and relatively close to the other raw materials and energy supply needed.
Raw quartzite is mostly silicon dioxide (SiO
2
), and the refining process begins with a reduction reaction to get rid of the oxygen. Crushed quartzite is mixed with carbon in the form of coke (coal that has been heated in the absence of oxygen). Woodchips are added to the charge as well; they serve both as a carbon source and a physical bulking agent that allows gasses and heat to circulate better in the furnace.
The arc furnaces for silicon smelting are massive installations with huge carbon electrodes. The electrodes are consumed during smelting, so new electrodes are screwed onto the tops of the current electrodes to make sure the process isn’t interrupted. The arc furnace requires massive amounts of electricity to maintain the 2,000°C temperature needed, so silicon refineries are often located where electricity is cheap and plentiful.
The reduction reactions inside the melt zone are actually pretty complicated, but can be summed up with two main reactions:
In both reactions, the oxygen in the silicon dioxide combines with carbon to form the main waste product, carbon monoxide. A side reaction that occurs in a part of the melt zone inside the furnace produces silicon carbide (SiC), which is an unwanted byproduct (at least when the goal is to purify silicon; silicon carbide itself is a useful industrial abrasive). By making sure that silicon dioxide is far in excess in the furnace, the second reaction where the SiC acts as a carbon source for the reduction of silicon dioxide is favored, and silicon with up to 99% purity can be tapped off the bottom of the furnace.
The silicon produced by this process is referred to as metallurgical silicon. For almost all industrial uses, this highly purified silicon is good enough. About 70% of metallurgical silicon goes to the manufacture of metal alloys such as ferrosilicon as well as aluminum-silicon, an alloy that contracts minimally upon cooling and is therefore used to cast aluminum engine blocks and similar items.
More Nines
Monosilane is the silicon equivalent of methane. In trichlorosilane, three of the hydrogens are substituted for chlorines. Source:
WebElements
As useful as metallurgical silicon is, even at 99% pure it’s not even close to the purity needed for semiconductor and photovoltaic applications. The next steps in purification take the silicon to the purity level that’s needed for semiconductor manufacture. Purification starts by mixing powdered metallurgical silicon with hot, gaseous hydrochloric acid. This reaction produces silanes, which are compounds with a central silicon atom surrounded by four attachments, in this case three chlorine atoms and one hydrogen. This trichlorosilane is a gas at the temperature inside the reaction chamber, which makes it easier to handle and purify by fractional distillation.
When the trichlorosilane gas has been sufficiently purified, polycrystalline silicon production can begin. The Siemens process is the main method here, and is a form of chemical vapor deposition. A large bell-shaped reaction chamber contains several thin threads of highly purified silicon, which are heated to 1,150°C by passing an electric current through them. A mixture of gaseous trichlorosilane and hydrogen flows into the chamber; the gas decomposes on the hot electrode leaving behind the silicon, which accretes into rods that are about 15 cm in diameter. Polycrystalline silicon made by the Siemens process can have a purity of 99.99999% (“seven nines”, or 7N) or more. 7N to 10N polysilicon is mostly used for photovoltaic cells, although some polysilicon in this purity range also makes it into MOSFET and CMOS semiconductors.
Polysilicon rods from a Siemens process chamber. Source:
Silicon Products Group GmbH
While the Siemens process is the polysilicon workhorse, it has its disadvantages. The main problem is that it’s an energy hog — keeping the growing polycrystalline rods hot enough to decompose the feedstock requires a lot of electricity. To work around this problem, a fluidized bed reactor (FBR) process is sometimes used. An FBR reactor is shaped like a tall tower, the walls of which are lined with a quartz tube. Silane gas, either the familiar trichlorosilane or monosilane, which is just a silicon atom surrounded by four hydrogens, is injected into the chamber. Powdered silicon is dropped into the reaction chamber from the top, while heated hydrogen gas is injected into the bottom of the chamber through a series of nozzles. The gas flow keeps the hot silicon powder fluidized, allowing it to mix with the silane gas and decompose it. As in the Siemens process, the silicon accretes onto the seed particles, which eventually get too large for the fluidized bed to support. The polycrystalline silicon beads drop to the bottom of the chamber, where they can be collected.
Aside from power savings — up to 90% less when using monosilane as a feedstock — the FBR method’s main advantage is that it’s a continuous process, since the finished beads can just be pumped out of the chamber. The Siemens process is more of a batch process, since the reactor chamber has to be opened to remove the polysilicon rods when they’re finished. That said, FBR polysilicon hasn’t really taken off, in part because managing the fluid dynamics inside the reaction chamber can be difficult. But the main reason is that the Siemens process is just so easy, and as long as factories can be located near a source of cheap electricity, it’s just easier to use the brute-force method.
One Crystal Only, Please
Using either of these methods, polycrystalline silicon can be brought to extremely high purity, up to 11N. But purity isn’t the only metric for silicon; sometimes, the nature of the crystalline structure on the end product is just as important as purity. The next step in silicon production is the creation of monocrystalline silicon, where the entire silicon ingot is a single crystal.
Growing a single crystal of ultra-pure silicon to a size that’s industrially useful is no mean feat, and relies on some tricks discovered in 1916 by Polish chemist Jan Czochralski.
We’ve covered the Czochralski method
in depth before, but briefly, polycrystalline silicon is melted in a quartz crucible in an inert atmosphere. A puller rod bearing a single ultra-pure silicon crystal that is very precisely oriented is lowered into the molten silicon. The seed crystal causes silicon to condense, continuing the crystal structure as the puller rod is slowly withdrawn from the furnace while rotating. Single-crystal ingots up to 450 mm in diameter are possible with the Czochralski method.
Another method to produce monocrystalline silicon is the float zone method, which uses a polycrystalline silicon rod as the starting material. Inside a reaction chamber with an inert gas atmosphere, a radio frequency signal is passed through a coil that surrounds the rod. The RF signal heats the polysilicon, creating a confined melt zone. Single crystals of ultra-pure silicon are added to the melt zone, which causes the molten silicon to crystallize around it. The RF coil is slowly moved up the rod, moving the zone of heating until the entire rod is a single crystal of silicon. Float-zone monocrystalline silicon has the advantage of never being in contact with the quartz walls of the Czochralski method crucible, and so will have less contamination from oxygen and other impurities. | 30 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399126",
"author": "Barry Carter",
"timestamp": "2021-11-15T16:43:08",
"content": "love these articles! It is fascinating to learn how the things we take for granted are incredibly complex all the way down the chain",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,883.908516 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/teensy-midi-air-harp-sounds-huge/ | Teensy MIDI Air Harp Sounds Huge | Kristina Panos | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"aetherharp",
"air harp",
"distance sensor",
"infrared",
"midi",
"Teensy"
] | Some of the coolest sounds come from wild instruments like orchestra strings, fretless basses, and theremins — instruments that aren’t tied down by the constraints of frets and other kinds of note boundaries.
[XenonJohn]’s air harp
is definitely among this class of music makers, all of which require a certain level of manual finesse to play well.
Although inspired by Jean-Michel Jarre’s laser harp, there are no lasers here. This is a MIDI aetherharp, aka an air harp, and it is played by interrupting the signals from a set of eight infrared distance sensors. These sensors can be played at three different heights for a total of 24 notes, plus there’s a little joystick for doing pitch bends.
Inside the wooden enclosure of this aetherharp is a Teensy 3.5 and eight infrared distance sensors with particularly long ranges. On top is a layer of red acrylic that doesn’t affect the playability, except in bright sunlight. Although you could use most any MIDI software to produce the actual sounds, [XenonJohn] chose VMPK (Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard). Be sure to check it out in action after the break.
Not dangerous enough for you?
Here’s a laser harp that involves a Tesla coil
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399087",
"author": "Andrzej",
"timestamp": "2021-11-15T12:10:27",
"content": "This instrument doesn’t seem to match the first sentence of the article. It has 24 clearly defined notes, unlike various fretless instruments.Also, despite what the instructable states, VMPK does not prod... | 1,760,372,884.117554 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/15/treasure-hunting-with-a-handful-of-common-components/ | Treasure Hunting With A Handful Of Common Components | Adam Zeloof | [
"classic hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"555 timer",
"electronics",
"metal detector",
"treasure hunt"
] | Sometimes simpler is better — when you don’t need the the computational power of an onboard microcontroller, it’s often best to rely on a simple circuit to get the job done. With cheap Raspberry Pis and ESP32s all over the place, it can be easy to forget that many simpler projects can be completed without a single line of code (and with the ongoing chip shortage, it may be more important now than ever to remember that).
[mircemk] had the right idea when he
built his simple induction-balance metal detector
. It uses a couple of 555 timers, transistors, and passives to sense the presence of metallic objects via a coil of wire. He was able to detect a coin up to 15 cm away, and larger objects at 60cm — not bad for a pile of components you probably have in your bench’s spare parts drawer right now! The detector selectivity can be tuned by a couple of potentiometers, and in true metal detector fashion, it has a buzzer to loudly blare at you once it’s found something (along with a LED, in case the buzzer gets too annoying).
All in all, this metal detector looks like a terribly fun project — one perfectly suited to beginners and more seasoned hackers alike. It serves as a great reminder that not every project needs WiFi or an OLED display to be useful, but don’t let that stop you from overdoing things! If touchscreens are more your speed,
[mircemk] has got you covered with a smartphone-integrated version as well
. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6399071",
"author": "Bret Tschacher",
"timestamp": "2021-11-15T10:32:29",
"content": "Just looked at this project for the second time and was thinking a pot for volume would be nice. Going to construct it to see how well it works for me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,372,884.079366 |
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