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https://hackaday.com/2021/10/06/atari-st-still-manages-campground-reservations-after-36-years/ | Atari ST Still Manages Campground Reservations After 36 Years | Robin Kearey | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"atari st",
"camping",
"retrocomputer"
] | “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke”. That’s what we guess [Frans Bos] has been thinking for the past few decades, as he kept
using his Atari ST to run a booking system
for the family campground. (Video, embedded below.)
Although its case has yellowed a bit, the trusty old machine is still running 24/7 from April to October, as it has done every year since 1985. In the video [Frans] demonstrates the computer and its custom campground booking system to [Victor Bart].
To be exact, we’re looking at an Atari 1040STF, which runs on a 68000 CPU and has one full megabyte of RAM: in fact it was one of the first affordable machines with that much memory. Output is through a monochrome display, which is tiny compared to the modern TFT standing next to it, but was apparently much better than the monitor included with a typical DOS machine back in the day.
Since no campground management software was available when he bought the computer, [Frans] wrote his own, complete with a graphical map showing the location of each campsite. Reservations can be made, modified and printed with just a few keystrokes. The only concession to the modern world is the addition of a USB drive; we can imagine it was becoming difficult to store and exchange data using floppy disks in 2021.
We love seeing ancient hardware being actively used in the modern world: whether it’s
floppy disks inside a Boeing 747
or an
Amiga running a school’s HVAC system
. Thanks to [Tinkerer] for the tip. | 40 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6388101",
"author": "tomás zerolo",
"timestamp": "2021-10-06T08:21:56",
"content": "This was a hell of a machine. Writing programs in Modula-2, doing TeX and Metafont.Good ol’ time. My next one was a 386-40 with 4MB(!) RAM, Linux and X. Man, was that one fast.",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,372,928.899018 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/breadbin-is-an-8-bit-ttl-cpu-on-a-breadboard-in-a-bread-bin/ | BreadBin Is An 8-bit TTL CPU On A Breadboard, In A Bread Bin | Robin Kearey | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"65c816",
"breadboard",
"cpu",
"ttl"
] | Building a CPU out of logic gates is a great way to learn about the inner workings of microprocessors, and we’ve seen several impressive projects in this area. [c0pperdragon] set himself the task of designing a very capable
8-bit CPU using just 74HC type logic chips
on a large plug-in breadboard. To emphasize the “bread” theme, he put the whole thing inside an actual bread bin and named the accompanying software BERND after an anthropomorphic loaf from a German TV channel.
Getting a reliable breadboard big enough for the task at hand required some engineering by itself: cheap breadboards often have trouble making a reliable contact at each and every pin, while the length of the ground path and lack of shielding cause trouble for high-speed circuits. [c0pperdragon] therefore bought high-quality breadboards and soldered the ground wires together to get a proper low-resistance path. A ground plane made of aluminium foil should also help to prevent signal integrity issues.
The total circuit is incredibly compact for a complete CPU, using just 33 chips. This includes 64 KB of flash to store programs as well as a 555 timer to generate a clock signal. I/Os are limited to simple eight-bit input and output buses, but a sixteen-bit address bus gives it plenty of space to add ROM, RAM or fancier interfaces.
The aforementioned BERND program is an emulator that allows the BreadBin to run code written for the 65C816 processor, the 16-bit CPU used in the Super Nintendo and the Apple IIGS. This makes it easy to re-use programs developed for [c0pperdragon]’s earlier
OS816
system, which uses an actual 65C816 chip.
This has to be one of the cleanest breadboard CPU designs we’ve seen so far, certainly a lot cleaner than
this one.
If you’d like to watch a detailed guide to building an 8-bit CPU on a breadboard, we recommend
this project
. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6388072",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2021-10-06T06:06:51",
"content": "Unfortunately, parallel wiring is susceptible to cross talk, depending on clock speeds. Neat is less noise tolerant than rats nest in some situations.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,372,928.763021 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/repairing-underground-power-cables/ | Repairing Underground Power Cables | Al Williams | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"Power Distribution",
"scattergood olympic",
"underground cable"
] | When we were kids, overhead power cables were a constant fixture in the neighborhood. Not only were they the bane of our kites, but they also had a tendency to fail during storms leaving us in the dark. These days lots of cables go underground — safer for kites and harder to storm damage. On the other hand, if they do need repair, it is a major operation, as [Practical Engineering] discusses in
a recent post
you can watch below.
In the story, a large underground distribution cable — the Scattergood-Olympic transmission line — had a failure in the late 1980s. The 10 mile line has three high-voltage phases and when the line was created, running high voltage lines underground was a bit exotic.
One big problem with burying cables is a need to minimize the size of the trench, while keeping the cables far apart so they don’t arc. The video covers how the transmission line used oil to insulate the conductors.
In 1989, the power cable had an insulation problem and one of the biggest challenges was to find the location of the problem. Several approaches didn’t work but they finally located the approximate location.
In the end, the repair turned out to take longer than expected because they found latent failures and decided to fix them all at one time. The oil-filled cable continued to have problems, though, and at the end of the video, you’ll hear the story about how the power company finally used new wiring to replace the old cables.
The power system is one of those things you don’t often think about until it doesn’t work. It is interesting to see all the technology that goes into doing something common — moving electricity over a wire — at a giant scale.
This isn’t the first time we’ve mentioned this
engineering repair
. But if you think burying cable underground is audacious, try
sinking one in the ocean
back in the 1850s. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6388016",
"author": "BobbyMac99",
"timestamp": "2021-10-06T02:46:54",
"content": "I wonder what a vertical shift during an earthquake of say 2 inches or more would do to such a line? Or do they put the line inside another much wider pipe? (even though that pipe isn’t filled with oil... | 1,760,372,929.100498 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/mini-camera-crane-for-your-workbench/ | Mini Camera Crane For Your Workbench | Danie Conradie | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"camera crane",
"photography",
"videography"
] | If you’ve ever tried to document a project on your workbench with photos or videos, you know the challenge of constantly moving tripods to get the right shot. [Mechanistic] is familiar with this frustration, so he built a small
desktop camera crane
.
Heavily inspired by
[Ivan Miranda]’s large camera crane
, this build scales it down and mainly uses 3D printed parts. The arm of the crane can pivot along two axes around the base, uses a parallel bar mechanism to keep the camera orientation constant through its vertical range of motion. The camera mount itself allows an additional 3 degrees of freedom to capture any angle and can mount a DSLR or smartphone. To offset the weight of the camera, an adjustable counterweight is added to the rear of the arm. Every axis of rotation can be locked using thumbscrews.
We can certainly see a crane like this being useful on our workbench for more than just camera work. You could create attachments for holding lights, displays, multimeters, or some helping hands. For some tips on creating an
engaging project video
check out [Lewin Day]’s excellent video on the subject. | 10 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387990",
"author": "mrehorst",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T23:34:38",
"content": "This looks great, but why 3D print the arm in sections then run a steel rod through it when you could simply use a piece of aluminum tubing or t-slot with a few fittings?",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,372,928.712635 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/kinetic-synth-kebab-sculpture-plays-punk-sequentially/ | Kinetic Synth-Kebab Sculpture Plays Punk Sequentially | Ryan Flowers | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"555",
"555 timer",
"atari punk console",
"Circuit Sculpture",
"kinetic sculpture",
"mechanical synthesizer",
"synth",
"synthesizer"
] | What’s better than an Atari Punk Console synthesizer? How about
four
Atari Punk Console synthesizers. And what better way to present them but as brass wire art sculptures. We’d have forgiven [iSax] if he’d stopped at four brass wire synths, but he took things to another level with his kinetic sculpture that does double duty as a mechanical sequencer. Called the
Cyclotone – The Mechanical Punk Console Sequencer
, it features wood, brass, brushes, and 555 timers. You can see the demonstration in the video below the break.
If you’re not familiar with the Atari Punk Console, it’s a circuit first described as a “Sound Synthesizer” in Forest Mims’ “Engineer’s Notebook: Integrated Circuit Applications” first published in 1980. It utilized two 555 timers in a single chip, the 556. Later dubbed the “Atari Punk Console”, the circuit has stood the test of time and is still quite popular among hackers of all sorts.
[iSax]’s build adds a sequencing element that allows the synths to be played automatically. The synthesizers are skewered 90 degrees from each other on a square dowel, which is turned at a variable RPM by a stepper motor controlled by a knob at the base of the sculpture.
On either side of each synth is a commutator that contacts salvaged rotary tool brushes which provide power through the hexagonal brass supports. Each synth retains its own speaker and controls and has its own segmented numeral displayed with discrete LED’s that light up when each synth is played.
We applaud [iSax] for a well executed and imaginative build that successfully meshes circuit scultpure, kinetic sculpture, classic electronics and even blinkenlights. If you enjoyed this build, you should also go have a look at a
free form Atari Punk Console build
and
another one built into a joystick
. If you come across a project of any kind that catches your fancy, be sure you let us know about it via the
Tip Line
! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387584",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T08:11:20",
"content": "It’s been wrongly named. Should be the vertical rotating fart machine, Nice build in any case.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6387612",
"aut... | 1,760,372,929.149259 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/whats-on-your-bank-card-hacker-tool-teaches-all-about-nfc-and-rfid/ | What’s On Your Bank Card? Hacker Tool Teaches All About NFC And RFID | Donald Papp | [
"Security Hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"contactless",
"flipper",
"hacking",
"hardware",
"NFC",
"reverse engineering",
"rfid",
"wireless"
] | The Flipper Zero is a multipurpose hacker tool that aims to make the world of hardware hacking more accessible with a slick design, wide array of capabilities, and a fantastic looking UI. They are struggling with manufacturing delays like everyone else right now, but there’s a silver lining: the team’s updates are genuinely informative and in-depth.
The latest update is all about RFID and NFC
, and how the Flipper Zero can interact with a variety of contactless protocols.
Popular 125 kHz protocols: EM-Marin, HID Prox II, and Indala
Contactless tags are broadly separated into low-frequency (125 kHz) and high-frequency tags (13.56 MHz), and it’s not really possible to identify which is which just by looking at the outside. Flipper Zero can interface with both, but the update at the link above goes into considerable detail about how these tags are used in the real world, and what they look like from both the outside and inside.
For example, 125 kHz tags have an antenna made from many turns of very fine wire, with no visible space between the loops. High-frequency tags on the other hand will have antennas with fewer loops, and visible space between them. To tell them apart, a bright light is often enough to see the antenna structure through thin plastic.
Low-frequency tags are “dumb” and incapable of encryption or two-way communication, but what about high-frequency (often referred to as NFC) like bank cards and applications like Apple Pay? One thing demonstrated is that mobile payment methods offer up considerably less information on demand than a physical bank or credit card. With a physical contactless card it’s possible to read the full card number, expiry date, and in some cases the name as well as recent transactions. Mobile payment systems (like Apple or Google Pay) don’t do that.
Like many others, we’re looking forward to it becoming available, sadly there is just no getting around
component shortages that seem to be affecting everyone
. | 29 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387473",
"author": "Fyllyx",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T05:06:18",
"content": "Besides being a great tool, I too have been over joyed by the Flipper team’s updates. They’re very informative and I feel included as a supporter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,372,928.969851 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/removing-threadlocked-screws-with-a-soldering-iron/ | Removing Threadlocked Screws With A Soldering Iron | Chris Wilkinson | [
"how-to",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"adhesive",
"repair",
"screws",
"soldering iron",
"threadlocker"
] | We’ve all been there – that last stubborn screw, the one thing between you and some real progress on a repair or restoration. It’s stuck tight with thread-locking fluid, and using more torque threatens to strip the head. Frustration mounting, drilling that sucker out is starting to seem pretty tempting. But wait! [Daniel] offers a potential solution using
nothing but a soldering iron.
This tool hack is pretty simple, but all the great ones tend to be straightforward. In the video, [Daniel] is faced with a titanium Torx screw that refuses to come loose due to threadlocker, an adhesive that is applied to screws and other fasteners to prevent them coming loose. Available in a variety of strengths, thread-locking fluid is great at keeping screws where they need to be, but too much (or the wrong kind) can seize a screw permanently.
Instead of drilling out the offending screw, [Daniel] reaches for his soldering iron. By applying a significant amount of heat to the screw head, the adhesive starts to give. After heating, working the screw back and forth breaks the threadlocker, thus freeing the screw. The whole process takes just a couple of minutes, and potentially saves the repairer from destroying a screw.
The chemistry behind thermoset adhesives
makes for some great bedtime reading
, however the main takeaway is that threadlock fluid, while somewhat resistant to heat, will eventually become brittle enough for the screw to come loose. Unlike most adhesives, which melt under high temperature (think glue sticks), thermoset materials tend to initially harden with the application of heat, before turning brittle and breaking. While high-temperature threadlocker derivatives exist, typical Loctite-branded threadlocker (and similar products) would not appear to be able to stand the heat of a typical soldering iron.
This soldering iron hack isn’t the first we’ve featured on Hackaday – check out this method on
removing enamel from magnet wire
. If you’re not too squeamish, also check out our thoughts on
soldering iron cauterization
. | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387306",
"author": "cliff claven",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T23:09:26",
"content": "Never thought to use a soldering iron, but regularly use heat. It is, after all, in the documentation. Many types are also quite susceptible to solvents, and common thread fits being at least a tad l... | 1,760,372,928.67263 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/bicycles-are-bad-at-towing-even-with-crawler-gears/ | Bicycles Are Bad At Towing, Even With Crawler Gears | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"gearing"
] | Gearing can make a huge difference to a cyclist, enabling even the least fit rider to climb a steep hill, albeit slowly. [Berm Peak Express] took that to the next level, creating a super-low geared bicycle capable of actually
towing seriously heavy loads.
The build consists of a custom 74-tooth sprocket for the rear wheel, paired with a 24-tooth chain ring for the pedals. The custom sprocket doesn’t have any holes drilled or other lightening measures taken, but given the slow speeds involved, the extra rotating mass probably isn’t much of an issue. With that gearing, 3.08 turns of the pedals will result in just one turn of the rear wheel, with the aim to provide tractor-like torque with the trade-off being incredibly low forward speed.
Installing the giant rear cog required using a 3D-printed guide to keep the chain tensioned, and the rear brakes are entirely absent, but it all came together. Bikes aren’t built for towing, and some issues are faced with dragging a Jeep as the bike struggles with balance and traction. However, with some effort, a grown adult can be towed in a child carriage up a hill, no problems.
The bike proves difficult to ride as the forward speed is so slow that balance is problematic. However, it was interesting to see the experiment run, and the wear marks on the hub from the huge loads put through the rear wheel. If you’re digging the weird bikes, though,
check out this hubless design as well
. Video after the break. | 43 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387224",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T20:04:30",
"content": "Ah, and just think of the big leg muscles one will get.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6387324",
"author": "Bruce",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,372,929.049945 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/enraged-rabbit-project-is-a-filament-cocktail-special/ | Enraged Rabbit Project Is A Filament Cocktail Special | Sonya Vasquez | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d prining",
"filament management",
"MMU",
"multi-material"
] | As long as 3D printers have been around, it seems as though many of us have dreamed about nozzle-sharing solutions for multicolor 3D prints. Just because Prusa’s MMU has had the spotlight for some time doesn’t mean that there’s no space to design something original. If you’re craving something new to feast your eyes upon, look no further than the
EnragedRabbitProject
by [EtteGit]. Built for Voron 3D printers, it’s a scalable filament changing solution designed from the ground up that expands to accommodate up to 9 filaments.
EnragedRabbitProject is broken into four main components. First comes the Enraged Rabbit
Carrot Feeder
(ERCF), the system that handles filament selection, retraction, and loading. Next, comes the
Carrot Patch
(ERCP), a spool holder/buffer combo that’s needed per spool. For those unfamiliar with filament changers, unspooling filament is easy, but rewinding it back onto the spool is hard. And since the nozzle will retract a significant length of filament when it switches between filaments, it’s important to manage all this extra loose filament to prevent tangles. A filament buffer is the solution; it’s a clever mechanical addition to the spool holder that will manage the extra filament that gets unwound during these filament changes. Beyond these two systems is
the King’s Seat
(ERKS) a Voron-2 setup that purges extra filament into beads instead of purge blocks, and finally, the
filament sensor
, which detects filament presence for filament changes.
It’s sometimes hard to appreciate the reliability of these sorts of CNC systems. On that note, keep in mind that the prints on the project’s landing page are the results of hundreds if not thousands of filament swaps — truly an astonishing feat. Beyond reliability is the project’s presentation. [EtteGit] has kindly posted STEP and STL files for all mechanical components, the Klipper configuration files, and a
bill-of-materials
that will scale according to the number of filaments you’re installing.
We’re thrilled to see folks continue to innovate on the concept of what it means to be a multi-color or multi-material 3D printer. For other takes on multi-filament setups, have a look at [Paul Paukstelis’]
microscope-inspired head changer
, and [MihaiDesigns’]
removable tool head concept
. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387159",
"author": "Dustin Speed",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T18:47:54",
"content": "I have one of these and even while still in development this is one of the most fully complete solutions out there today.Ette has a stunning design and 1.1 was just released and is even better than b... | 1,760,372,928.813904 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/snails-sensors-and-smart-dust-the-michigan-micro-mote/ | Snails, Sensors, And Smart Dust: The Michigan Micro Mote | Robin Kearey | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Science",
"Slider",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"michigan micro mote",
"miniaturization",
"motes",
"snails"
] | If you want to track a snail, you need a tiny instrumentation package. How do you create an entire data acquisition system, including sensors, memory, data processing and a power supply, small enough to fit onto a snail’s shell?
Throughout history, humans have upset many ecosystems around the world by introducing invasive species. Australia’s rabbits are a famous example, but perhaps less well-known are the Giant African land snails (
Lissachatina fulica
) that were introduced to South Pacific islands in the mid-20th century. Originally intended as a food source (
escargot africain
, anyone?), they quickly turned out to be horrible pests, devouring local plants and agricultural crops alike.
Not to be deterred, biologists introduced another snail, hoping to kill off the African ones: the Rosy Wolfsnail (
Euglandina rosea
), native to the Southeastern United States. This predatory snail did not show great interest in the African intruders however, and instead went on to decimate the indigenous snail population, driving dozens of local species into extinction.
A Rosy Wolfsnail carrying a light sensing Micro Mote on its back. Source: Cindy S. Bick et al., 2021
One that managed to survive the onslaught is a small white snail called
Partula hyalina
. Confined to the edges of the tropical forests of Tahiti, biologists hypothesized that it was able to avoid the predators by hiding in sunny places which were too bright for
E. rosea
. The milky-white shells of
P. hyalina
supposedly protected them from overheating by reflecting more sunlight than the wolf snails’ orange-brown ones.
This sounds reasonable, but biologists need proof. So a team from the University of Michigan set up
an experiment
to measure the amount of solar radiation experienced by both snail types. They attached tiny light sensors to the wolf snails’ shells and then released them again. The sensors measured the amount of sunlight seen by the animals and logged this information during a full day. The snails were then caught again and the data retrieved, and the results proved the original hypothesis.
So much for science, but exactly how did they pull this off?
The Michigan Micro Mote (M3)
The low-power circuit research team at the University of Michigan, led by David Blaauw, developed an ultra-miniaturized computer they dubbed the
Michigan Micro Mote
. The term “mote” refers to a wireless sensor node that can measure some quantity and report its findings to a larger computer system. Tiny motes like this are sometimes referred to as “smart dust”, a term that saw some hype in the early 2000s but thankfully hasn’t yet lived up to some of the
more apocalyptic visions
.
A Micro Mote with a temperature sensor. Source: Cindy S. Bick et al., 2021
Not much larger than a grain of rice, the M3 has been dubbed the world’s smallest computer. Measuring about 2 mm x 2 mm x 3 mm, it consists of several bare chips stacked right on top of each other. Together they make up a complete wireless sensor node. Powered by a battery and a solar cell, they can measure something, store the results in RAM and send out the results using a wireless communication link.
The common thread linking the design of each of these elements is low power. And by low we mean really low: active power is in the microwatt or nanowatt level, while standby power is measured in picowatts. Such extremely low power consumption is needed because very little power can be generated and stored in the limited volume available.
Sensors
The top layer of the Mote is a sensor. The Micro Mote team has developed sensors for temperature and pressure as well as an image sensor. The temperature sensor is an
ultra-low power one
that can measure between zero and 100 °C, with an accuracy of about 1.5 °C, using only 71 nW. The
pressure sensor
is a MEMS device designed to measure the pressures inside the human body. Such a measurement can be useful in diagnosing glaucoma (when embedded in an eye) or tracking the efficacy of chemotherapy when inserted into a tumor.
A Micro Mote with an image sensor. Credit: Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
As for the
image sensor
, those looking for full-motion HD video will be disappointed: a monochrome sensor with 160 x 160 pixels is all that fits inside the volume and power constraints. A
gradient index
rod lens is fitted on top of the sensor to focus the image. The sensor can work in a low-power mode in which it performs motion detection by scanning a very low resolution image, only taking a full-resolution picture when there is significant movement.
The snail study actually used Micro Motes with a temperature sensor, and cleverly used the solar cell, described below, for both light sensing and power generation, eliminating the need for a power-hungry dedicated light sensor.
Data processing
A diagram showing the components of the imaging Micro Mote. Source: Gyouho Kim et al., 2014
The heart of the Mote’s operations is formed by pair of microprocessors. Both are ARM Cortex-M0s, but each is made in a different manufacturing process to either provide high performance or extremely low power. The higher-speed CPU is needed for such tasks as processing the data from the image sensor, while the lower-power CPU does general housekeeping tasks such as coordinating data flow between the different chips.
The interface between the CPUs and the rest of the system naturally had to be ultra-low-power as well. Standard buses like SPI and I
2
C were far too power-hungry; the research team therefore developed a new bus named
MBus
. Geared towards integrated nanosystems, it is able to work with subsystems that are in sleep mode or completely powered down.
Communications
The Mote’s miniscule size means that there are no connectors available to get data in or out, so all communication has to be done wirelessly. Two interfaces are available for this: an optical path for system programming, and a radio link for outputting data.
Programming the Mote with light. Note how this Mote was packaged in a standard IC package for testing. Credit: Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
The
optical path
uses photodiodes that are strategically placed near the bond pads so they’re exposed to ambient light. By flashing light onto them in a specific pattern, the CPU enters programming mode, enabling the user to write into the main code memory.
The sensor data can be read out again using low-power radio: the user hold a receiver near the Mote to read out any data stored in its memory. Transmitting in the 915 MHz ISM band, the radio has a range of about two meters, although Dr. Blaauw says the plan is to increase that to 20 meters. This larger range would also allow multiple motes to communicate with one another, which would enable complete self-contained sensor networks. The limited power budget and physical constraints on the antenna make this a real challenge however.
Power
The Mighty Mote is powered by a lithium battery, again miniaturized to fit in the chip stack. Its capacity is a miniscule 5.7 uAh (for the image sensing version) or 2 uAh (for the other two versions). This is about one-millionth the size of the average smartphone battery, but still enables the Mote to work for a day or two. However, this can be extended indefinitely thanks to the solar cell that forms the bottom layer of the stack. This cell has an area of about one square millimeter and generates around 20 nW, depending on the amount of light.
A power management unit (PMU) generates the proper supply voltages (1.2 V and 0.6 V) for the various chips from the battery’s 3.8 V. Is also manages the operation of the solar cell, tracking its maximum power point to extract as much energy as possible. All chips also include generous amounts of on-chip decoupling capacitance, because the Mote is way too small to hook up even the tiniest of SMD capacitors.
In the Tahitian snail study, the control signals of the PMU were cleverly used for reading out the incident solar radiation. As the amount of light fluctuates, so does the frequency of the internal charge pump, and by logging this value the researchers obtained an accurate measurement of the solar radiation without having to add a separate light sensor.
Packaging
As mentioned above, a complete system is made from these parts by simply stacking the chips in a staircase-like fashion and wiring them up with gold bond wires, which is basically the same way ordinary multi-chip-modules (MCMs) are manufactured. The solar panel is at the bottom, with the sensors located at the top. The entire assembly is then encapsulated in epoxy, with transparent sections where needed.
The exact packaging design is dependent on the end application of the Mote. For the snail study, the chips were simply encapsulated in black epoxy with a window for the solar cell, then glued onto a bolt that could be threaded into a nut on the snail’s shell. Motes that will be implanted into eyes or tumors will need a bio-compatible enclosure, while those meant to work in harsher environments may need a stronger package.
Applications
Early in its development, the Micro Mote was aimed at medical applications such as measuring pressure inside eyes or tumors. A similar design was also developed that could be
injected into the body
. Not much has been published on medical applications of the Mote since about 2016, but we imagine that’s not for a lack of opportunities, since it should make development of things like
smart pills
much easier.
The Tahitian snail study is a great example of using wireless sensor nodes in conservation efforts. The research team is already working on another study
involving monarch butterflies
, which requires even more miniaturization to fit the devices to the monarchs’ tender bodies.
The version with the image sensor has potential applications in security and surveillance. A wireless, autonomous camera the size of a grain of rice can easily be hidden almost anywhere. However, the limited range of the radio still precludes actual
remote
observation.
A company called
Cubeworks
, a spinoff of David Blaauw’s research group, is commercializing the technology by making small wireless sensors for applications in logistics and pharmaceuticals, such as temperature logging of a chemical while it is being transported. This can help ensure that high-value goods like vaccines have been kept properly refrigerated throughout their entire journey from factory to clinic.
Overall, the Michigan Micro Mote is a great example of how to build electronic systems in an extremely confined space and with an even smaller power budget. While not exactly within reach of the average hobbyist, the basic ideas can be replicated in a larger volume using commercially available components. Snails might be a bit too small to work with, but I’m already thinking of all the sensors I could attach to my cat’s collar. Something more than just
a camera
, of course.
[Heading image: a Michigan Micro Mote sitting on the edge of a coin. Credit: Martin Vloet, University of Michigan] | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387015",
"author": "aleksclark",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T17:15:23",
"content": "Getting some “Fire Upon The Deep” vibes here, no lie",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6387027",
"author": "mac012345",
"timestamp": "2021-1... | 1,760,372,929.207724 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/hackaday-remoticon-tickets-and-t-shirts/ | Hackaday Remoticon: Tickets And T-Shirts! | Mike Szczys | [
"cons"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Remoticon"
] | Tickets for the Hackaday Remoticon are now available
and there’s one big addition this year: Shirts!
As you have doubtless heard, the Supercon is on hold for one more year, so we’re doing Remoticon round two. And aside from missing the direct human contact, our conference t-shirt drawer is getting a little empty. While we can’t fix the global pandemic, we can fix the latter problem with this eye-catching design, the latest in a long line of art created by Aleksandar Bradic for Hackaday Conferences.
Remoticon will kick off on Friday, November 19th with some new social shenanigans. All day Saturday we’ll present talks, capped off by the Hackaday Prize Ceremony and a party that evening. Keep your eyes peeled for more info, but grab your ticket today and block off your calendar.
Attendance is free, and your registering early helps us plan our infrastructure to handle the crowd. If you want a t-shirt, you can order one at the same time for $25. Shipping for people in the US is included, but because of the realities of postal costs, shipping will be $10 for those everywhere else in the world.
We’re also still looking for more great talks
! The
Call for Proposals
is open until October 14th. Don’t sit on the sidelines, do your Hackaday duty and give a talk about something that interests you. There’s a critical mass of other geeks into the same stuff that will delight in hearing from you! Come join us. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386983",
"author": "jnesselr",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T16:15:39",
"content": "Looks like the link is broken for the eventbrite",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6387615",
"author": "Elliot Williams",
"timestamp... | 1,760,372,929.489741 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/investigating-a-defective-usb-power-bank-module/ | Investigating A Defective USB Power Bank Module | Tom Nardi | [
"Parts",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"application schematic",
"boost converter",
"datasheet",
"IP5306",
"solder mask",
"usb power bank"
] | Call us old fashioned, but we feel like when you buy a piece of hardware, the thing should actually function. Now don’t get us wrong, like most of you, we’re willing to put up with the occasional dud so long as the price is right. But when something you just bought is so screwed up internally that there’s no chance it ever could have ever worked in the first place, that’s a very different story.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what
[Majenko] discovered when he tried out one of the USB-C power bank modules
he recently ordered. The seemed to charge the battery well enough, but when he plugged a device into the USB output, he got nothing. We don’t mean just a low voltage either, probing with his meter, he became increasingly convinced that the 5 V pin on the module’s IP5306 chip literally wasn’t connected to anything.
So close, yet so far away.
Curious to know what had gone wrong, he removed all the components from the board and started sanding off the solder mask. With the copper exposed, his suspicions were confirmed. While they did route a trace from the chip to the via that would take the 5 V output the other side of the board, it wasn’t actually connected.
This is a pretty blatant bug to get left in the board, but to be fair, something similar has happened at least once or twice to pretty much everyone who’s ever designed their own PCB. Then again, those people didn’t leave said flaw in a commercially released module…
At any rate, [Majenko] just needed to solder a jumper on one of the non-sanded boards, and everything should be good to go. Well, not exactly. Adding a jumper got some power heading to the output side of the module, but only 3 V. Clearly, something else was wrong in the circuit. After some additional research and a few [BigClive] videos, he realized that some components were actually missing. Consulting the application schematic from the datasheet, it was clear that a capacitor and resistor had been left off. While the absent capacitor didn’t seem like it would be enough to cause the failure he was seeing, the resistor is supposed to be connected to the battery sense pin, and could explain why the chip wasn’t boosting the voltage.
IP5306 application schematic, missing components highlighted.
With the resistor in place, the module started working as expected. [Majenko] notes that he still can’t get more than 1.5 amps out of these boards that are supposedly good for 2 A, but that’s another story entirely. With so many problems, it seems likely this module was a failed prototype and never meant to actually go on sale.
But with part shortages ravaging the industry
, it seems even the broken modules are getting pushed out the door.
Incidentally this isn’t the first time [Majenko] has tracked down some errant components in a supposedly turn-key board. Earlier this year he noticed that
tweaking some of the parts used in the Raspberry Pi 4’s power supply helped reduce low-voltage warnings
. | 25 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387908",
"author": "Grayson Graybotics",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T20:10:08",
"content": "I can’t tell you how many low cost power related modules I’ve snagged off Amazon and turned out to be either straight garbage or hilariously so over spec’d that using as “intended” ends up in d... | 1,760,372,929.790081 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/demonstrating-thermoacoustics-with-the-rijke-tube/ | Demonstrating ThermoAcoustics With The Rijke Tube | Dave Rowntree | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"rijke",
"rubens tube",
"thermoacoustics"
] | The
Rijke tube
is a very simple device that demonstrates the principle of
thermoacoustics
quite clearly. Construction is quite straightforward, simply place a metal gauze at the bottom end of a tube, approximately one quarter of the way up, apply a source of heat to the gauze, and instant sound. The heat produces convection, setting up a longitudinal standing wave. This is due to air passing over the hot gauze, suddenly expanding and causing a pressure change, which rushes out the tube. Next, the airflow cools and slows, and air starts to head back into the tube, and the cycle repeats. Adjusting the tube length by slipping a sleeve over it, adjusts the pitch of the note, simply because the air has a different distance to travel. If there is a flame aimed at the gauze from below, the sound will stop since the air is already hot when it hits the hot gauze, no pressure change occurs, and no oscillation.
As [Keith], the reader who sent in the tip, suggests it would be fun to attach a servo to a sleeve on the tube, build multiple units and hang the whole thing off a MIDI controller. This could make for some fun times, and we have to agree. The problem of keeping the gauze hot could be solved in a number of ways, direct resistive heating could work, but maybe inductive heating would be cleaner?
Now, we can’t find an instrument which works in this manner, which sounds like a hack in the making for someone out there so inclined.
There have been a few fire-orientated musical devices over the years, such as this
Rijke Tube Organ
, various variants on the pyrophone, including
this neat one performing with a tesla coil,
and while we’re talking about music fire, howsabout a
two dimensional rubens’ tube variant
?
Thanks [Keith] for the tip! | 20 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387859",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T18:42:40",
"content": "Make a musical instrument using a variety of pipe sizes and stoppers.and then play “Rijke don’t lose that number”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "63878... | 1,760,372,929.542491 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/yes-you-can-put-out-a-burning-gas-well-with-a-nuclear-bomb/ | Yes, You Can Put Out A Burning Gas Well With A Nuclear Bomb | Lewin Day | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"History",
"Misc Hacks",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"atoms for peace",
"nuclear bomb",
"nuclear weapon",
"peaceful nuclear explosion"
] | Nuclear explosives were first developed as weapons of war in the pitched environment of World War II. However, after the war had passed, thoughts turned to alternative uses for this new powerful technology. Scientists and engineers alike dreamed up wild schemes to dig new canals or blast humans into space with the mighty power of the atom.
Few of these ever came to pass, with radiological concerns being the most common reason why. However, the Soviet Union did in fact manage to put nuclear explosions to good use for civilian ends. One of the first examples was using a nuke to plug an out-of-control gas well in the mid 1960s.
The Conventional Method Attempted
The towering flame reached as high as 120 meters into the sky.
On December 1, 1963, Well No. 11 in the Urta-Bulak gas field suffered a blowout due to a violation of proper drilling procedures. The 2409 meter deep hole opened up a gas reservoir underground with pressure of 300 atm. The blowout caused significant destruction in its wake, and the gas quickly caught fire at the surface, stretching 120 meters into the sky. Tractors were used to clear the site, but the flame continued burning 12 million cubic meters of gas every day.
The situation was a difficult one from the outset. Initial attempts used water to cool the area and reduce the size of the flame so that diverters could be installed to redirect the gas and burn it off safely.
Well No. 11 wasn’t giving up without a fight however, and the pressure restriction introduced by the new diverter cap simply led to the gas permeating other subsurface layers around the original borehole. The gas had a high hydrogen sulfide content, and craters began forming at the surface with the poisonous gas bubbling up from underground. This situation was far too dangerous to continue, so the diverter was removed shortly after.
Two more years were spent trying to stem the flow of gas with traditional methods. Multiple relief wells were drilled in an attempt to pump fluid into the gas formation to stem the flow. However, the problem was that the original Well no. 11 had been drilled well off-vertical, being up to 120 meters off-target at the 2400-2600m depth. Thus, drilling a relief bore was difficult as crews didn’t know exactly where they really should be drilling to gain access to the reservoir.
Screw It, Time For Nukes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KJ6p4JVN4g
The summer of 1966 saw a new plan come to fruition, spawning a film which followed the experiment
along the way
. The Soviet government had recently established a program to explore the use of nuclear explosions for peaceful ends, by the name of Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. The aim was to explore a wide variety of ways in which powerful nuclear explosives could help achieve peaceful goals in industry and other fields.
The basic concept at play: the shockwave from the nearby nuclear blast underground seals the well shut.
With the new program up and running, the leaders were approached as to whether a nuclear explosion might be put to the task of closing the recalcitrant Well No. 11 at the Urta-Bulak gas fields. The hope was that a nuclear explosion underground, next to the well, could squeeze the hole closed. The plan called for a 30 kiloton nuclear device to be detonated within approximately 25-50 meters of the original well hole. Geological analysis suggested that the well should be pinched off approximately 1500 meters underground. This depth featured sandstone sediments beneath a thick layer of clay above, with the clay considered likely to be non-permeable enough to seal off the well.
To achieve the task, the well’s actual path had to be determined, and it was eventually found to be 50-60 meters to the northeast of its intended vertical path at the 1500 meter depth. With the location of the well now known, a killing well was carefully drilled that would allow the nuclear device to be placed in an appropriately close position.
Huge amounts of equipment were brought on site to handle the task. Radiological and seismic monitors were all on hand for the first-of-its-kind experiment. A command station was established on site to allow the nuclear device to be detonated, specially built for the purpose by the Arzamas nuclear weapons laboratory. The nuclear explosive was carefully lowered into place, and the killing well was then cemented in order to avoid leaving a secondary path for gas to leak to other geological strata underground.
The 30 kiloton nuclear device being carefully lowered into the killing well. Note the striking paint scheme.
The device was detonated on the morning of September 30, 1966, by which point the well had been leaking gas for a full 2 years and 9 months. A 5 km blast radius was cleared for safety, with all personnel and vehicles removed from this area. The explosion was surprisingly undramatic, with a slight shift seen in the ground and a rumble heard and felt, but little more than that. The gas flare immmediately began to shrink, and extinguished just 23 seconds after detonation.
Radiological safety planes flew over ground zero shortly after, reporting no major radiation above background and no traces of methane. Radiation at ground level was also detected to be within usual limits. Overall, the experiment had worked, quickly bringing to an end what had been a thus far intractable problem. From there, it was a simple job of sealing up the upper section of the well and putting to rest what had been a long and difficult chapter in the Urta-Bulak gas fields.
Four More Times
Sealing off the well saved billions of cubic meters of gas from being wasted, and the experiment was seen as a great success. As explored in a wide-ranging
US government report from 1996
, the Soviets went on to use the same concept a total of four more times. Wells at the Pamuk, Mayskii, and Krestishche gas fields were each successfully sealed off with nuclear devices from 1968 to 1972. The last attempt was made in 1981, at a well in the Kumzhinsky gas deposit on Russia’s northern coast. Details are scarce, but the explosion failed to seal the well, potentially due to poor information on the location of the target to be sealed.
Since then, the concept of using nuclear explosions for peaceful ends has largely fallen out of favor. Concerns about radiological contamination, nuclear proliferation, and the potential theft and misdirection of nuclear devices have all been cited as reasons against such use. The Soviet program itself ended after moratoriums on nuclear testing came in to being in the late 80s and early 90s. However, as the Soviets demonstrated ably in the mid-20th century, a nuclear explosion could seal a blown out gas well. On those merits and those merits alone, it did the job! | 30 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387820",
"author": "Danjovic",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T17:11:09",
"content": "Great story!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6387998",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2021-10-06T00:22:30",
"content": "... | 1,760,372,929.613612 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/raspberry-pi-plots-world-wide-earthquakes/ | Raspberry Pi Plots World Wide Earthquakes | Dave Rowntree | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"earthquakes",
"raspberry pi"
] | What do you do when you stumble across a website posting real-time earthquake data? Well, if you’re [Craig Lindley]
you write some code to format it nicely onto a display
, put it in a box, and watch it whilst making dinner.
[Craig] started off with coding in Forth on the ESP32, using
ESP32Forth
, but admits it didn’t go so well, ditching the ESP32 for a Raspberry Pi 3 he had lying around, and after a brief detour via C++, he settled on a Python implementation using Pygame.
A case was 3D printed, which he says worked OK, but needs a little tuning to be perfect. There is no shortage of casing options for the Pi with the official 7″ display, [Craig] suggests that it probably wasn’t worth the effort to 3D print the case and if he was building it again would likely use a commercially available option which had a better fit.
When developing the code, and watching it work, he noted clusters of earthquakes around Hawaii, then he found out Kilauea had just gone up. Wow.
For a similar take, check out
this other recent build
using an ESP32 and the same data source. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387781",
"author": "Nick Scipio",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T15:58:11",
"content": "Very cool project, but that website it hard on the eyes. Orange background and Comic Sans. Woof!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6387871",
"a... | 1,760,372,929.42382 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/need-a-new-programming-language-try-zig/ | Need A New Programming Language? Try Zig | Matthew Carlson | [
"Featured",
"Skills",
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"programming languages",
"rust",
"Software Engineering",
"zig"
] | Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t.
Zig is a new programming language
that seems to be growing in popularity. Let’s do a quick dive into what it is, why it’s unique, and what sort of things you would use it for. (Ed Note: Other than “
for great justice
“, naturally.)
What Is It?
You’ve likely heard of
Rust as it has made significant inroads in critical low-level infrastructures
such as operating systems and embedded microcontrollers. As a gross oversimplification, it offers memory safety and many traditional runtime checks pushed to compile time. It has been the darling of many posts here at Hackaday as it offers some unique advantages. With Rust on the rise, it makes sense that there might be some space for some new players. Languages like
Julia
,
Go
,
Swift
, and even
Racket
are all relative newcomers vying for the
highly coveted mindshare of software engineers everywhere
.
So let’s talk Zig. In a broad sense, Zig is really trying to provide some of the safety of Rust with the simplicity and ease of C. It touts a few core features such as:
No hidden control flow
No hidden memory allocations
No preprocessor, no macros
First-class support for optional standard library
Interoperable by design
Adjustable Runtime Safety
Compile-time code-execution
The last one, in particular, is perhaps the most interesting, but we’ll come back to that. Let’s look at some code, but skipping past hello world and headed straight to opening a file. Here’s the C++ code:
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main (int argc, char const *argv[]) {
ifstream file("nonexistingfile.txt");
char buffer[1024];
file.read(buffer, sizeof(buffer));
cout << buffer << endl;
file.close();
return 0;
}
Now let’s look at some comparable Zig code:
const std = @import("std");
using namespace std.fs;
pub fn main() !void {
const stdout = std.io.getStdOut().writer();
const file = try cwd().openFile(
"nonexistingfile.txt",
.{ .read = true },
);
defer file.close();
var buffer: [1024]u8 = undefined;
const size = try file.readAll(buffer[0..]);
try stdout.writeAll(buffer[0..size]);
}
(Thanks to Erik Engheim for the C++ and Zig
sample code
.)
As you might have guessed from the file name, the file doesn’t exist. The C++ code doesn’t explicitly check for any errors and in this scenario, it is perfectly valid code that displays no indication that anything failed. Zig, on the other hand, we have to do a try since that file could fail. When it does fail, you get a nice stack trace:
error: FileNotFound
/usr/local/Cellar/zig/0.7.0/lib/zig/std/os.zig:1196:23: 0x10b3ba52e in std.os.openatZ (fileopen)
ENOENT => return error.FileNotFound,
^
/usr/local/Cellar/zig/0.7.0/lib/zig/std/fs.zig:754:13: 0x10b3b857e in std.fs.Dir.openFileZ (fileopen)
try os.openatZ(self.fd, sub_path, os_flags, 0);
^
/usr/local/Cellar/zig/0.7.0/lib/zig/std/fs.zig:687:9: 0x10b3b6c4b in std.fs.Dir.openFile (fileopen)
return self.openFileZ(&path_c, flags);
^
~/Development/Zig/fileopen.zig:8:18: 0x10b3b6810 in main (fileopen)
const file = try cwd().openFile(
Removing the try results in a compilation error. The backtrace here is especially impressive because this is a relatively simple language without a garbage collector, runtime, or virtual machine.
Let’s talk about some of Zig’s other features: interoperable by design, adjustable runtime safety, and compile-time code execution.
“Interoperable by design” means that ordinary Zig is easily consumed by C and in turn, consumes C. In many other languages, such as Python, you need to specifically marshall data for C and C++ interoperability. Zig can include C files directly in the main code by virtue of the built-in Clang compiler. The output of Zig libraries is a
.o
file that can be fed right into GCC. Functions can be used by C code by just prepending
export
to the beginning of function definitions. Structs and datatypes have similar ease.
“Adjustable runtime safety” means that many of the runtime checks that Zig has can be turned on or off depending on the application. Things like integer overflow, bounds checking, unreachable code, and others.
You might notice in some code you’ve seen that there’s a data type in Zig known as
comptime
. You can use it in function arguments and in the program itself. It means that the value must be computable at compile time. It can be used to implement a form of generics or templates. This is a pretty powerful feature that can be used in interesting ways.
What Would You Use It For?
Since Zig is LLVM-based, the targets for Zig include:
x86_64
ARM/ARM64
MIPS
PowerPC
WASM32
RISCV64
Sparc v9
Linux
MacOS
Windows
FreeBSD
DragonFly
UEFI
Given that it interoperates with C so smoothly, it’s quite simple to swap out small chunks or libraries for Zig equivalents.
Additionally, Zig can be used on microcontrollers. As a bit of a cherry-picked example, [Kevin Lynagh] recently went through
the journey of converting his keyboard firmware from Rust to Zig
. Many of Rust’s well-known language features such as features, macros, and pattern matching are used to initialize and scan ports for key presses. In Zig, these are replaced by
inline for
, a for loop that is unrolled at compile time, and some clever use of
comptime
. In particular [Kevin] points out the consistency of the language and how it is a language that he feels like he could master.
If you’re looking for inspiration, there’s
a Github repo with hundreds of excellent examples written in Zig
. There are Gameboy emulators, HTTP/DNS servers, ray tracers, several kernels and booters, databases, and compilers.
How Can I Get Started?
There’s a
learning section on Zig’s homepage
as well the site
ziglearn.org
that is chock-full of great resources.
Ziglings is a Github project
that has small broken programs that need small tweaks to get working again, allow you to get a feel for Zig. Maybe just dipping your toes in the water isn’t enough, and
you want to dive into the deep end of the language implementation itself
. | 131 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387734",
"author": "macsimski",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T14:39:22",
"content": "Sombody set upon us the bomb!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6387904",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T20:03:04",
... | 1,760,372,930.262051 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/how-does-a-sail-drone-bring-home-hurricane-footage-in-record-time/ | How Does A Sail Drone Bring Home Hurricane Footage In Record Time? | Ryan Flowers | [
"drone hacks",
"News",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"autonomous saiboat",
"hurricane",
"Iridium NEXT",
"l-band",
"LEO",
"sail wing",
"satellite communication",
"weather forecast"
] | It is unlikely that as a young lad [Richard Jenkins] would had have visions of sailing into the eye of a Category-4 hurricane. Yet that’s exactly what he’s done with the Explorer 1045, an uncrewed sailing vehicle built by his company, Saildrone. If that weren’t enough, footage from the vessel enduring greater than 120 MPH (almost 200 km/h) winds and 50 foot (15 M) waves was
posted online the very next day
, and you can see it below the break. We’re going to take a quick look at just two of the technologies that made this possible: Advanced sails and satellite communication. Both are visible on Explorer 1045’s sibling 1048 as seen below:
Saildrone Explorer 1048, a sibling of Explorer 1045, each one of five vessels equipped with a “hurricane wing”
The most prominent feature of course is the lack of a traditional sail. You see, from 1999-2009, [Richard Jenkins] was focused on setting the land world speed record for a wind powered vehicle. He
set that record at 126.1 mph
by maturing existing sail wing technology. [Richard] did away with conventional rigging and added a boom with a control surface on it, much like the fuselage and empennage of a sailplane.
Instead of adjusting rigging, the control surface could be utilized to fly the wing into its optimal position while using very little energy. [Richard] has been able to apply this technology at his company, Saildrone. The
23 foot Explorer vessel and its big brothers
are the result.
How is it that the world was treated to the view from inside the eye of a hurricane only a day after the video was recorded? If you look at the stern of the vessel, you can see a domed white cylinder. It is a satellite communication base station called the Thales VesseLINK. Thales is one of the partner companies that built the satellites for the Iridium NEXT fleet, which has 66 operational satellites in Low Earth Orbit. The Iridium Certus service uses its L-Band (1.6 GHz) signal to provide up to 352 kbps of upload speed and 704 kbps down. While not blazing fast, the service is available anywhere in the world and is reliable because it is not prone to rain fade and other weather based interference.
With just these two recent innovations, the Explorer 1045 was able to sail to the eye of a hurricane, record footage and gather data, and then ship it home just hours later. And we’re hardly exploring the tip of the iceberg. More than just sailboat based cameras, these scientific instruments are designed to survive some of the harshest environments on the planet for over a year at a time. They are a marvel of applied engineering, and we’re positive that there are some brilliant hacks hiding under that bright orange exterior.
If uncrewed sailing vessels float your boat, you might also enjoy this
autonomous solar powered tugboat
, or
that time a submarine ran out of fuel and sailed home on bed sheets
. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387690",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T12:55:41",
"content": "Am I correct in thinking these are 23 feet from stem to stern?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6387697",
"author": "Ryan Flowers",
"... | 1,760,372,929.916551 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/05/hackable-smart-watch-is-also-open-source/ | Hackable Smart Watch Is Also Open Source | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"bangle.js",
"nRF52840",
"sma q3",
"smart watch",
"watch",
"wearable"
] | When they first came to market, many detractors thought that smart watches would be a flop or that there wouldn’t be much use for them. Over the past few years, though, their sales continue to increase as people find more and more niche uses for them that weren’t previously considered. The one downside to most of these watches is unsurprisingly their lack of openness and hackability, but with some willpower and small circuit components
there are a few options available for those of us who like to truly own our technology
.
This smartwatch is the SMA Q3, the next version of this smartwatch
that we saw at the beginning of last year
. Like its predecessor, it boasts a sunlight-readible display powered by a Bluetooth SoC, but this time uses the upgraded nRF52840. All of the standard smartwatch features are available, but this version also includes SWD pins on the back, and additionally has support for Bangle.js and can run
some of the apps from the app loader
. Some details still need to be worked out for this specific hardware, but there are some workarounds available for the known problems.
The project is also on
Kickstarter
right now but is well past its funding goals. We’re excited to see adoption of an open-source smartwatch like this, and to that end all of the hardware details and software are freely available on the project’s page, provided you can order some of the needed parts from overseas. If you’re looking for
something a little more BASIC
, though, we have you covered there as well. | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6387655",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-10-05T11:36:39",
"content": "I really wish they would start integrating an amorphous solar cell into smartwatches and ditch the radio, so that you don’t have to charge them. Putting in a radio not only eats power (if you use it) but ... | 1,760,372,929.9842 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/using-arduinos-to-drive-undocumented-displays/ | Using Arduinos To Drive Undocumented Displays | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"barometer",
"forecasting",
"sensor",
"vacuum fluorescent display",
"vfd",
"weather",
"zambretti"
] | For those of us old enough to remember the VCR (and the difficulty of programming one), the ubiquitous vacuum fluorescent display, or VFD, is burned into our memories, mostly because of their brightness and contrast when compared to the superficially-similar LCD. These displays are incredibly common even apart from VCRs, though, and it’s easy to find them for next to no cost, but figuring out how to drive one if you just pulled it out of a 30-year-old VCR is going to take some effort. In this build, [mircemk] shows us
how he drives unknown VFD displays using an Arduino in order to build his own weather forecasting station
.
For this demonstration [mircemk] decided to turn a VFD into a weather forecasting station. First of all, though, he had to get the VFD up and running. For this unit, which came from a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, simply connecting power to the device turned on a demo mode for the display which let him know some information about it. From there, and with the knowledge that most POS terminals use RS232 to communicate, he was able to zero in on the Rx and Tx pins on the on-board microcontroller and interface them with an Arduino. From there it’s a short step to being able to output whatever he wanted to this display.
For this project, [mircemk] wanted the display to output information about weather, but rather than simply pull data from some weather API he is actually using a sensor suite connected to the Arduino to measure things like barometric pressure in order to make a 12-hour forecast. The design is inspired by old Zambretti weather forecasters which used analog wheels to input local weather data. It’s an interesting build not only for the VFD implementation but also for attempting to forecast the weather directly with just a tiny sensor set instead of downloading a forecast to display. To do any better with your own forecasts,
you’d likely need your own weather station
. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386982",
"author": "Vib",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T16:01:15",
"content": "Most alphanumeric VFD modules like this one had serial TTL interface. It’s really just a matter of finding the pinout of the module, which is rather trivial once the power supply pins are identified",
"pa... | 1,760,372,929.851858 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/counting-down-to-the-final-atlas-rocket/ | Counting Down To The Final Atlas Rocket | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Space"
] | [
"atlas",
"BE-4",
"Blue Origin",
"SM-65 Atlas",
"ULA",
"United Launch Alliance",
"vulcan"
] | The Atlas family of rockets have been a mainstay of America’s space program since the dawn of the Space Age, when unused SM-65 Atlas intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were refurbished and assigned more peaceful pursuits. Rather than lobbing thermonuclear warheads towards the Soviets, these former weapons of war carried the first American astronauts into orbit, helped build the satellite constellations that our modern way of life depends on, and expanded our knowledge of the solar system and beyond.
SM-65A Atlas ICBM in 1958
Naturally, the Atlas V that’s flying today looks nothing like the squat stainless steel rocket that carried John Glenn to orbit in 1962. Aerospace technology has evolved by leaps and bounds over the last 60 years, but by carrying over the lessons learned from each generation, the modern Atlas has become one of the most reliable orbital boosters ever flown. Since its introduction in 2002, the Atlas V has maintained an impeccable 100% success rate over 85 missions.
But as they say, all good things must come to an end. After more than 600 launches, United Launch Alliance (ULA) has announced that the final mission to fly on an Atlas has been booked. Between now and the end of the decade, ULA will fly 28 more missions on this legendary booster. By the time the last one leaves the pad the company plans to have fully transitioned to their new Vulcan booster, with the first flights of this next-generation vehicle currently scheduled for 2022.
An Impressive Dance Card
Over the years, the Atlas V has lofted some particularly notable payloads. It sent the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
on the path towards the Red Planet in 2005, and provided the initial kick that sent
New Horizons
on its decade-long trip to Pluto a year later. It launched the OSIRIS-REx mission in 2016, which resulted in the
first NASA vehicle to successfully collect a surface sample from an asteroid
.
An X-37B being prepared for launch.
The venerable booster has also carried the autonomous X-37B spaceplane into orbit on all but one of its missions, which do double duty as both shadowy military affairs and
opportunities to perform commercial scientific research
. In 2019 the Atlas V even demonstrated its crewed aspirations by carrying the first Boeing Starliner into orbit, and
although the spacecraft itself failed to achieve its mission goals
, the rocket performed flawlessly. Finally, it had the honor of carrying both the
Curiosity
and
Perseverance
Mars rovers.
While you could argue that most of the Atlas V’s future flights won’t have quite the historic gravitas as its previous missions, there’s certainly some very important launches in the pipeline. For example, the booster is currently manifested to carry no less than five Boeing Starliner capsules to the International Space Station by the end of 2023, with most of them being operational crew missions.
In 2022 it’s slated to launch an exciting NASA project to demonstrate reentering the atmosphere with an inflatable heat shield, and in
October of this year it will launch the agency’s
Lucy
spacecraft
that’s designed to study six so-called “Trojan” asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter over a twelve year period.
There’s also a whole slew of communication and Earth-observation satellites it’s scheduled to carry into orbit, including at least one that’s currently classified by the National Reconnaissance Office. Amazon has also contracted nine Atlas V launches from ULA to help build out their Project Kuiper satellite constellation, which will eventually consist of thousands of satellites, and is
designed to compete with Starlink from SpaceX
.
A Change in the Wind
With a perfect safety record, a long list of historic accomplishments, and plenty of customers still eager to put their payload onboard, why sunset the Atlas V? The most obvious reason is cost, as the expendable booster simply can’t compete with the new generation of vehicles from commercial launch providers like SpaceX. ULA has reduced their prices in an effort to stay relevant, but a flight on the expendable rocket still costs at least $100 million. The reusable Falcon 9 on the other hand, can put nearly as much payload into the same orbit for roughly half the price.
The RD-180 is powerful, but politically unsustainable.
But the price tag is only part of the problem. After all,
customers like NASA are far more concerned with making sure the mission goes off without a hitch
than they are in saving a few million dollars. The final nail in the Atlas V’s coffin has nothing to do with how much money it takes to put a payload into orbit, but everything to do with the engines the rocket uses to do it.
Since the introduction of the Atlas III in 2000, the Atlas family of rockets have been powered by the RD-180. This extremely efficient staged combustion engine burns liquid oxygen and kerosene, and in many respects, is considered one of the finest rocket engines ever flown. Unfortunately, it’s also made in Russia.
Politically, this is simply no longer sustainable. At various points in time Russia has threatened to stop shipping the engines to the United States, and for its part, the US Congress has imposed limitations on how many RD-180s can be imported. In 2016, partly in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea, a bipartisan agreement
banned the use of Russian-made rocket engines for any national security missions beyond 2022
.
Vulcan to the Rescue
Facing the loss of the extremely lucrative national security flights in 2022, United Launch Alliance had to come up with a solution. The company had considered swapping out the Russian RD-180s for a domestically produced engine, but in the end, it made more sense to create a whole new vehicle that would be more price competitive against newer rockets like the Falcon 9.
Vulcan’s BE-4 engines are being built by Blue Origin, and the relatively comparable temperatures of its liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellants has allowed the use of lighter orthogrid tanks and reduced bulkhead insulation, improving the overall mass ratio of the fuselage. While the first stage of Vulcan is projected to be only a few meters taller than that of the Atlas V, the fact that it’s considerably wider at 5.4 m (18 ft) compared to its predecessor’s diameter of 3.81 m (12.5 ft) means that the newer rocket to carry approximately 50% more propellant.
Like the Atlas V, the Vulcan supports optional solid rocket boosters (SRBs) that are attached radially around the first stage. The Vulcan will use larger versions of the GEM-63 SRBs currently flying on the Atlas V, mounted in symmetrical pairs; a departure from the unique asymmetrical booster arrangement used previously. The Vulcan will also include an upgraded version of the Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage, which ULA’s CEO Tony Bruno says will be more than twice as powerful as the current configuration.
Unfortunately, Vulcan missed the planned July 2021 date for its first launch. Construction of the vehicle itself and its associated ground support equipment has progressed well, with a prototype booster rolled out to the launch pad in August for fit and tanking tests, but flight-ready engines have yet to be delivered by Blue Origin. With the development of Vulcan’s main engine now four years behind schedule, and the 2022 cutoff date for the RD-180 fast approaching, United Launch Alliance may soon find itself even farther behind its New Space rivals. | 32 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386925",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T14:16:12",
"content": "Wonder who the new customers are going to be for the RD-180 once the US stops buying? Maybe China with their space ambitions.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,372,930.07669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/flame-spitting-dragon-head-heats-up-halloween/ | Flame-Spitting Dragon Head Heats Up Halloween | Donald Papp | [
"Art",
"hardware"
] | [
"decoration",
"dragon",
"dragon head",
"fire",
"fire breathing",
"halloween"
] | Halloween is looming, and [Jonathan Gleich] decided that an ideal centerpiece would be
a flame-spitting dragon’s head
. It started with an economical wall-mount dragon’s head, combined with a variety of off-the-shelf components to become something greater.
Spark from high-voltage ignitor, right at the torch opening.
The fire comes from a kind of propane torch sold as a weed killer set, which looks a little like a miniature tiger torch. The flow of propane is limited by a regulator (which keeps the flame short and fixed), and controlled with a gas-rated 12 V solenoid valve. Ignition is done with the help of a spark igniter that fires up on demand, fed by a high-voltage ignition coil. The two combine at the Dragon’s mouth, where the flame originates, but the electrical components are otherwise isolated from the gas elements as much as possible.
The dragon head is made of acrylic, and if exposed to enough heat acrylic will first melt, then burn. To help avoid a meltdown, the dragon breathes fire only intermittently. [Jonathan] also gave the mouth area a heat-resistant barrier made from generous layers of flame-blocking mortar and sealants from the hardware store. The finishing touch comes in the form of bright red LEDs in the eyes, which give the head a bit more life.
Watch the ignitor in action and see the head spewing flames in the two short videos embedded below. The head should make for some good pictures come Halloween, and is a good example of how repurposing off-the-shelf items can sometimes be just what is needed for a project.
Interested in something smaller, but still fiery?
Check out this pet fire-breathing dragon project
for all your robotic animal companion needs. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386936",
"author": "Tom Barrack",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T14:36:13",
"content": "That’s really cool. I hope I’m around to see it this Halloween!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386976",
"author": "Nate12",
"... | 1,760,372,930.312303 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/this-audio-mixer-is-a-eurorack/ | This Audio Mixer Is A Eurorack | Jenny List | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"DJ mixer",
"eurorack",
"mixer",
"modular"
] | Music making and DJing have both become arts predominantly pursued in a computer, as the mighty USB interface has subsumed audio, MIDI, and even DJ turntable interface controllers. There was a time though when an indispensable part of any aspiring performer’s equipment would have been an analog mixer, a device for buffering and combining multiple analog audio signals into a single whole. A mixer is still a useful device though, and [Sam Kent] has produced a very nice one that
takes the form of a set of Eurorack modules made from PCB material
. There are two types of modules, the main channel module which you can think of as the master module, and a series of isolator modules that handle the individual inputs.
Mixer preferences are as individual as each user, so for example where we’d expect sliders he’s used rotary potentiometers, and for us placing the master channel on the left-hand side is unfamiliar. But that’s the beauty of a modular design, there’s nothing to stop anyone building one of these to simply configure it as they wish. We notice that for a mixer described as for DJs there’s no RIAA preamp for the turntable fans, but it’s not impossible to fix with an off-board preamp. Otherwise, we like it and have a sudden hankering for it to be 1992 again with a pair of Technics SL1200s and a room full of people.
Designing a mixer, even a simple one, isn’t easy. Our own [Lewin Day] wrote
a retrospective of his experiences
with one. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386899",
"author": "H. Hubert Dreiling",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T10:57:56",
"content": "Why do you only use the frontplate for the circuits?Is the space behind left free or is it used?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6386911",... | 1,760,372,930.361983 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/maakrapu-is-a-buggy-drawn-by-a-five-legged-beast/ | Maakrapu Is A Buggy Drawn By A Five-Legged Beast | Robin Kearey | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"steampunk",
"strandbeest"
] | The steampunk aesthetic can take on many forms, and while pipes, valves, and boilers can look great, having complicated machinery with lots of moving parts really makes your project shine. A team of steampunk enthusiasts over at Tampere Hacklab did this by building
a vehicle named Maakrapu
. It’s a two-wheeled buggy that looks like it’s being pulled forward by some kind of five-legged creature. The extremely smooth motion of its legs conjures up images of lobsters or crabs (“Maakrapu” means “land crab” in Finnish), and is also reminiscent of
Theo Jansen’s Strandbeesten
.
The wooden legs are linked together with a metal crankshaft, which was welded together from plasma-cut parts. A steering wheel is included to orient the legs in the direction of travel, although the actual steering of the vehicle is done through differential braking. An earlier version had no propulsion and was meant for downhill riding only, but this latest model comes with an electric motor and a battery, making it actually somewhat useful as an urban runabout.
The video embedded below shows the design of the Maakrapu as well as a long drive from the center of Tampere back to the Hacklab. If you like vehicles with lots of little moving legs like this, check out the
Strandbeest Bicycle
. For a more literal “steam”-punk experience, try
this steam-powered bike
. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386803",
"author": "Pekka",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T06:25:11",
"content": "Eh, I’m kind of sick of seeing strandbeests all the time. Nice to see a local guy here though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386812",
"aut... | 1,760,372,930.424282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/telepresence-robot-for-doing-the-rounds/ | Telepresence Robot For “Doing The Rounds” | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"inspection",
"ROS 2",
"telepresence robot"
] | When you are responsible for maintaining devices at a client’s location, software tools like remote desktop and SSH are great, but sometimes they are not enough. For some problems, you need to get eyes and hands on the device to figure out what’s going on and fix the problem. This is a challenge [Will Donaldson] from EDM Studio is all too familiar with. They develop and maintain interactive museum exhibits all over the world, so they created
Omni
, a modular telepresence robot for inspection, maintenance, and a variety of other tasks.
The Omni uses a set of three omni-wheels under its base, powered by DC geared motors with encoders, each controlled by a separate motor driver and Arduino Nano. A similar arrangement was used by Mark Rober for his
domino art robot
. The main controller is a Raspberry Pi 4 running ROS2 (
Robot Operating System
), which takes inputs from a 360 LIDAR sensor, high-quality camera module, and IMU.
All the components are mounted on a series of plates separated using threaded rods. This arrangement allows for maximum flexibility and space, especially the open-top plate, which has a grid of holes machined in to allow almost anything to be mounted. In this case, a robotic arm is mounted for manipulating the environment. Another neat feature is the charging station connector, consisting of two parallel metal strips on the outside of the robot.
Omni’s mission is very similar to that of
Spot
, the robotic dog from Boston Dynamics intended, among other things, for Industrial Inspection. What practical purposes would you use Omni for? Let us know in the comments below. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386721",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T02:33:12",
"content": "Dalek 1.0",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386819",
"author": "K1R4",
"timestamp": "2021-10-04T07:12:42",
"content": "Quick! So... | 1,760,372,930.473122 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/hackaday-links-october-3-2021/ | Hackaday Links: October 3, 2021 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"adafruit",
"antenna",
"anthrax",
"course",
"eda",
"factory tour",
"hackaday links",
"helicopter",
"Ingenuity",
"irradiation",
"PCB design",
"resonance",
"skycrane",
"Swashplate",
"tower"
] | It’s one thing to speculate about what’s happening with the Mars helicopter Ingenuity, but it’s another to get
an insider’s view on recent flight problems
.
As we previously reported
, Ingenuity is starting to face a significant challenge, as a seasonal atmospheric pressure drop on Mars threatens to make the already rarefied air too thin to generate useful lift. Mission controllers tested the chopper at higher rotor speeds, and while that worked, later attempts to fly using that higher speed resulted in an abort. The article, written by one of the NASA/JPL engineers, is a deep dive into the problem, which occurred when Ingenuity sensed excessive wiggle in two of the servos controlling
the rotor swashplate
. The thought is that accumulated wear in the servos and linkages might be causing the problem; after all, Ingenuity has made thirteen flights so far, greatly exceeding the five flights originally programmed for it. Here’s hoping they can adapt and keep the helicopter flying, but whatever they do, it’ll have to wait a few weeks until Mars completes its conjunction and pops back out from behind the Sun.
With all the attention understandably paid to the recent 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, it’s easy to forget that barely a month after that day, a series of what appeared to be follow-on attacks started: the Anthrax Attacks. Members of Congress and media outlets were targeted via the mail with highly refined anthrax spores, leading to the deaths of five people, with dozens more injured and exposed to anthrax. IEEE Spectrum has
an interesting article that goes into some of the technology
that was rapidly deployed in an attempt to sanitize the mail, including electron beam and X-ray irradiation to kill any spores. The article also points out how this wasn’t the first time people were afraid of the mail; outbreaks of yellow fever in 1899 led to fumigation of the mail with sulfur, after perforating it with a wicked-looking paddle.
Attention PCB-design newbies — now’s your chance to learn the entire PCB design process from the ground up, with the guidance of industry professionals.
TeachMePCB
is back again this year, offering to teach you everything you need to know about properly laying out a PCB design in pretty much any EDA software you want. The course requires a two- to five-hour commitment every week for two months, after which you’ll have designed a PCB for a macropad using a Raspberry Pi Pico. The course facilitator is
Mark Hughes
from Royal Circuits, who did
a great Hack Chat with us last year on PCB finishes
. This seems like a great way to get up to speed on PCB design, so if you’re interested, act soon — 460 people are already signed up, and the deadline is October 10.
Some of us really love factory tours, no matter what the factory is making. All the better when the factory makes cool electronics stuff, and better still when it’s
our friends at Adafruit showing us around their New York City digs
. True, it’s a virtual tour, but it has pretty much become a virtual world over the last couple of years, and it’s still a great look inside the Adafruit factory.
Hackaday got an in-person tour back in 2015
, but we didn’t know their building used to be a Westinghouse radio factory. In fact, the whole area was once part of the famed “Radio Row” that every major city seemed to have from the 1920s to the 1960s. It’s good to get a look inside a real manufacturing operation, especially one that’s right in the heart of a city.
And finally, those with a fear of heights might want to avoid watching
this fascinating film
on the change-out of a TV transmitter antenna. The tower is over 1,500′ (450 m) tall, lofting an aging antenna over the flat Florida terrain. Most of the footage comes from body-mounted cameras on the riggers working the job, including the one very brave soul who climbed up the partially unbolted antenna to connect it to the Sikorsky S64 Skycrane helicopter. It’s a strange combination of a carefully planned and slowly executed ballet, punctuated by moments of frenetic activity and sheer terror. The mishap when releasing the load line after the new antenna was placed could easily have swept the whole rigging crew off the antenna, but luckily nobody was injured. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386673",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T23:06:02",
"content": "I thought Radio Row was demolished to make way for the World Trade Center. There was an article about it in CQ in the mid-sixties",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,930.518246 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/a-glowing-potato-peeler-makes-a-nernst-lamp/ | A Glowing Potato Peeler Makes A Nernst Lamp | Jenny List | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ceramic",
"lamp",
"nernat lamp"
] | Over the last couple few decades there has been a great shift in electric lighting, first towards more compact and efficient fluorescent lights, and then towards LED bulbs. The old incandescent bulbs, while giving a pleasant light, were not by any means efficient. Digging into the history books the incandescent bulb as we know it was not the only game in town; while suspending a filament in a vacuum stopped it from being oxidized there was another type of light that used a ceramic element at atmospheric pressure. The Nernst lamp required its filament to be heated before it would conduct electricity, and [Drop Table Adventures]
has made one using the blade from a ceramic potato peeler
.
The right ceramic is not the problem given the ease of finding ceramic kitchen utensils, but two problems make a practical light difficult. The copper connections themselves become too hot and oxidize, and preheating the ceramic with a blowtorch is difficult while also keeping an even heat. Finally, they do manage a self-sustaining lamp, albeit not the brightest one.
If you think the Nernst lamp sounds familiar, maybe it’s because we covered it
as part of our retrotechtacular series
. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386454",
"author": "CrossDraw",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T00:07:19",
"content": "I wonder if Ceramic Vaping “Donut” Coils would work (mainly ones made with SS316/SS316L)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386466",
"autho... | 1,760,372,930.658906 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/2021-chaos-communication-congress-cancelled/ | 2021 Chaos Communication Congress Cancelled | Jenny List | [
"cons"
] | [
"37C3",
"ccc",
"CCC congress",
"cons"
] | With mass vaccination programmes and careful application of public health measures it almost feels for some of us as though the pandemic is under control. Any thoughts of it being over are illusory though, and if further reminders were needed we have the news that once more
this year’s Chaos Communication Congress has been cancelled
due to the safety of its attendees and the extra precautions that its organizers would have to undertake.
This event in Leipzig between Christmas and New Year is probably the largest of the European gatherings in our community, and its loss will be a great disappointment. Last year’s cancelled event was replaced by a remote one, we’ll see whether they repeat that feat in 2021. If so, we’ll be there, virtually.
We can only sympathise with our German friends, as while it must be extremely annoying it’s to their credit that they are taking the pandemic seriously. We’re sure that they will be back with the same event in 2022 as the world slowly inches towards normality, and Hackaday will be there to bring you the best of the event.
Somehow we didn’t do a big overview post of the 36C3 in 2019, so if you want to bask in the glory of a Congress, you have to
travel back in time all the way to 35C3 in 2018
, long before the arrival of COVID-19.
Header image: Yves Sorge,
CC BY-SA 2.0
. | 24 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386363",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T20:23:38",
"content": "Maybe by next year all the mandates will have worked. Then we can go back to some semblance of order.https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/mandates-are-working-employer-ultimatums-lift-vaccination-ra... | 1,760,372,930.857649 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/3d-printed-vtol-craft-can-land-and-recharge-itself-and-team-up-with-other-drones/ | 3D Printed VTOL Craft Can Land And Recharge Itself, And Team Up With Other Drones | Danie Conradie | [
"drone hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"solar plane",
"vtol. ardupilot"
] | For a long time fixed wing VTOL drones were tricky to work with, but with the availability of open source flight control and autopilot software this has changed. To make experimentation even easier, [Stephen Carlson] and other researchers from the RoboWork Lab at the University of Nevada created the
MiniHawk, a 3D printed VTOL aircraft
for use a test bed for various research projects.
Some of these project include
creating a longer wingspan aircraft
by combining multiple MiniHawks in mid-flight with magnetic wing-tip mounts, or “
migratory behaviors
“. The latter is a rather interesting idea, which involves letting the craft land in any suitable location, and recharging using wing mounted solar panels before continuing with the next leg of the mission. With this technique, the MiniHawk could operate on mission almost indefinitely without human intervention. This is a departure from some
other solar planes
we’ve seen, which attempt to recharge while flying, or even
ditch batteries completely
, which limits operation to sunny weather conditions.
The design is open source, with all the relevant information and files available on
GitHub
. This looks like a fun craft even if you don’t plan on doing research with it, and [Stephen] also created an FPV specific canopy cover.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386341",
"author": "Dustin",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T18:31:36",
"content": "Add a bit of machine vision to identify roofs. These things could land on top of most roofs and charge for days with minimal losses to people stealing or damaging them. Deploy thousands in an urban area. ... | 1,760,372,930.713053 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/get-yer-halloween-on/ | Get Yer Halloween On! | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"hacks",
"halloween",
"spooky"
] | Halloween is basically
built
for the hacker. Besides the obvious fabrication of absurd costumes, there’s also the chance to showcase your skills, be they mechanical, audio, or video. It’s also a great time to show off our coolest tricks to inspire the young proto-hackers. If you need inspiration,
we’ve got 150 ideas
.
[Brankly]’s
Candy Dispenser
My personal problem with Halloween, though, is that I always start at the last minute, and my ideas far outreach my time budget. Or because it’s all done in the last minute, a whole bunch of ideas that should “just work” in theory run into the immovable object that is practice. At least that’s what happened with last year’s spooky sound effects — my son and I spent so much time collecting and recording scary audio samples that I ran out of time while still getting the sensitivity on the motion detector set just right, and then the battery died halfway through the night.
But this year will be different, I swear! I’m going to get it done early and test it out, with the luxury of time to debug the inevitable spiders. And you can swear too. Get started
now
on your Halloween project. Or at least next weekend.
What’s your favorite Halloween Hack?
Contests
If you need any more encouragement to fire up your black and orange hacking machine, think of Hackaday.io’s
Halloween Hackfest
. It runs until Oct 28, and all you have to do to enter is document your Halloween project on IO and press the “Submit” button. The deadline is the 28th, which still gives you a couple of nights to debug whatever didn’t work before the real deal. Prizes are shopping sprees at Digi-Key, and Adafruit is doubling the gift certificate if you use any Adafruit parts in the build.
If you don’t give a pumpkin about stupid ol’ Halloween, that’s cool too. (Grinch!) The
2021 Hackaday Prize has entered the final wildcard round
. If your project didn’t fit in any of the previous categories, I’m pretty sure it’ll fit just fine in the anything-goes phase. Go nuts. We’d love to see what you’re working on.
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
! | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386358",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T19:44:31",
"content": "I’s sure with a little editing Halloween can indeed be the day of the hacker.https://phys.org/news/2021-09-mini-crispr-genome.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,930.60597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/wild-lego-bot-pronks-about-your-patio/ | Wild Lego-Bot Pronks About Your Patio | Sonya Vasquez | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"lego",
"pronk",
"quadruped"
] | Legged robots span all sorts of shapes and sizes. From the paradigm-setting quadrupeds built from a pit-crew of grad students to the Kickstarter canines that are sure to entertain your junior hackers, the entry point is far and wide. Not one to simply watch from the sidelines, though, [Oracid] wanted to get in on the quadruped-building fun and take us all with him.
The result is 5BQE2, a spry budget quadruped
that can pronk around the patio at a proper 1 meter-per-second clip.
Without a tether, weight becomes a premium for getting such a creature to move around at a respectable rate. Part of what makes that possible is [Oracid’s] lightweight legs. Designing the legs around a five-bar linkage tucks the otherwise-heavy actuators out of the leg and into the body, resulting in a limb that’s capable of faster movement. What’s more, 5BQE2 is made from the LEGO plastic building bricks of our heydays. And with a full
bill-of-materials
, we’re just about ready to head over to our parents’ garage and dust off those parts for a second life.
For some action shots of 5BQE2, have a look at the video after the break. And since no set would be complete without the building instructions, stay tuned through the full video to walk through the assembly process step-by-step.
Here at Hackaday, we’re certainly no stranger to walking automatons, but not all robots use their legs for walking. For a trip down memory lane, have a look at [Carl Bugeja’s] buzzing
Vibro-bots
and UC Berkeley’s leaping
Salto
. | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386289",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T14:04:00",
"content": "Now that is clever! Very cool Lego creation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6386338",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T17:48:22... | 1,760,372,931.766275 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/water-is-the-secret-ingredient-when-laser-cutting-ceramics-to-make-circuits/ | Water Is The Secret Ingredient When Laser Cutting Ceramics To Make Circuits | Dave Rowntree | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Ceramic PCB",
"co2 laser",
"picoflow",
"raspberry pi",
"reflow soldering"
] | [Ben Krasnow] over at Applied Science was
experimenting with cutting inexpensive ceramic sheets with his cheap CO2 laser cutter
when he found that (just as expected) the thermal shock of the CO2 beam would cause cracking and breaking of the workpiece. After much experimentation, he stumbled upon a simple solution: submersion under a thin layer of water was sufficient to remove excess heat, keeping thermal shock at bay, and eventually cutting the material. Some prior art was uncovered, which we believe is
this PHD thesis
(PDF) from Manchester University in the UK. This is a great read for anyone wanting to dig into this technique a little deeper.
The CO2 laser cutter is a very versatile tool, capable of cutting and etching a wide range of materials, many of natural origin, such as cardboard, leather and wood, as well as certain plastics and other synthetic materials. But, there are also materials that are generally a no-go, such as metals, ceramics and anything that does not absorb the laser wavelength adequately or is too reflective, so having another string in one’s bow is a good thing. After all, not everyone has access to a fibre laser.
After dispensing with the problem of how to cut ceramic, it got even more interesting. He proceeded to deposit conductive traces sufficiently robust to solder to. A mask was made from vinyl sheet and a squeegee used to deposit a thick layer of silver and glass particles 1 um or less in size. This was then sintered in a small kiln, which was controlled with a Raspberry Pi running
PicoReFlow
, and after a little bit of scrubbing, the surface resistance was a very usable 2 mΩ/square. Holes cut with the laser, together with some silver material being pushed through with the squeegee formed through holes with no additional effort. That’s pretty neat!
Some solder paste and parts were added to the demo board, and with an added flare for no real reason other than he could, reflowed by simply applying power direct to the board. A heater trace had been applied to the bottom surface, rendering the board capable of self-reflowing. Now that is cool!
Thanks [Baldpower] for the tip! | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386258",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T10:32:04",
"content": "That’s very cool. Can he do the most beautiful solder masks ever with ceramic glazes?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386261",
"author": "Fold... | 1,760,372,931.008276 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/mouse-and-keyboard-controls-on-the-n64/ | Mouse And Keyboard Controls On The N64 | Lewin Day | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"n64",
"nintendo 64",
"usb"
] | The Nintendo 64 was one of the consoles that properly heralded in the era of 3D gaming. However, its controller is of a design we wouldn’t consider ideal today. For the FPS games that were so popular on the N64, a mouse and keyboard could do much better.
[The Hypocaust] set out to make it happen.
The N64 polls the controller and receives button and analog stick data in return. Four bytes are sent by the controller, with 14 bits covering the buttons and 8 bits covering the horizontal and vertical axes of the analog stick, respectively. Thus, if keyboard presses and mouse movements from a PC could be pumped to a microcontroller which reformatted the data into signals the N64 could understand, everything would work nicely.
Initial attempts to get things working with
code borrowed from a [James Read]
faced an issue of a 3-second lag between keypresses and actions reaching the N64. Upgrading to a faster microcontroller only made things worse, taking the lag out to a full 16 seconds. The problem? The code borrowed for the project was storing keypresses in a buffer that was creating the delay. Once eliminated, the system worked.
An installer for the software is available, but you’ll have to be comfortable with running a strange executable
if you want to use it.
We’ve seen similar work before too,
such as the USB64 project
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Keith Fulkerson for the tip!] | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386239",
"author": "Jarek Lupinski",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T06:19:36",
"content": "can’t wait to see the RWhiteGoose about how this will affect speedrunning“My friends, it just keeps happening…”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,372,930.954183 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/laser-theremin-turns-your-hand-swooshes-into-music/ | Laser Theremin Turns Your Hand Swooshes Into Music | Sonya Vasquez | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"laser",
"MEMS",
"quadrant",
"theremin",
"time of flight",
"TOF"
] | In a world where smartphones have commoditized precision MEMS Sensors, the stage is set to reimagine clusters of these sensors as something totally different. That’s exactly what [chronopoulos] did, taking four proximity sensors and turning them into a custom gesture input sensor for sound generation. The result is
Quadrant
, a repurposable human-interface device that proves to be well-posed at detecting hand gestures and turning them into music.
At its core, Quadrant is a human interface device built around an STM32F0 and four VL6180X time-of-flight proximity sensors. The idea is to stream the measured distance data over as fast as possible from the device side and then transform it into musical interactions on the PC side. Computing distance takes some time, though, so [chronopoulos] does a pipelined read of the array to stream the data into the PC over USB at a respectable 30 Hz.
With the data collected on the PC side, there’s a spread of interactions that are possible. Want a laser harp? No problem, as [chronopoulos] shows how you can “pluck” the virtual strings. How about an orientation sensor? Simply spread your hand over the array and change the angle. Finally, four sensors will also let you detect sweeping gestures that pass over the array, like the swoosh of your hand from one side to the other. To get a sense of these interactions, jump to the video demos at the
2:15 mark
after the break.
If you’re curious to dig into the project’s inner workings, [chronopoulos] has kindly put the
firmware
,
schematics, and layout files
on Github with a generous MIT License. He’s even released a companion paper [
PDF
] that details the math behind detecting these gestures. And finally, if you just want to cut to the chase and make music of your own, you can actually snag this one on
Tindie
too.
MEMs sensors are living a great second life outside our phones these days, and this project is another testament to the richness they offer for new project ideas. For more MEMs-sensor-based projects, have a look at this
self-balancing robot
and
magic wand
. | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386639",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T20:11:04",
"content": "I really like this project… Seems like there is a huge amount you can do with that magic sensor setup, it has certainly given me some ideas.That said I think I’d still rather have a real Theremin or Tan... | 1,760,372,931.199014 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/forget-digital-computing-you-need-an-analog-computer/ | Forget Digital Computing, You Need An Analog Computer | Dave Rowntree | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"analog computer",
"hybrid computing",
"Lorentz attractor"
] | The analog computer of decades-gone-by is something many of us younger engineers never got the chance to experience first hand. It’s pretty much a case of reading about them on these fine pages or perhaps looking at a piece of one behind glass in one of the more interesting museums out there. But now, there is another option,
(THAT) The Analog Thing
. Developed by Berlin-based Analog computer-on-chip specialist
Anabrid
, THAT is an Open Source
analog computer
you can build yourself (eventually) or buy from them fully assembled. At least, that’s their plan.
From the 1970s onwards, digital computers became powerful enough to replace analog computers in pretty much every area, and with the increased accuracy this brought, the old analog beasts became obsolete overnight. Now,
there seems to be a move to shift back a little
, with hybridized analog-digital approaches looking good for some applications, especially where precision is not paramount. After all, that pile of fatty grey matter between your ears is essentially a big analog computer, and that’s pretty good at problem solving.
Looking over
the project Wiki
there are a few application examples and some explanatory notes. Schematics are shown, albeit only images for now. We can’t find the PCB files either, but the assembly instructions show many bodge wires, so we guess they’re re-spinning the PCB to apply fixes before releasing them properly. This is clearly work-in-progress and as they say on the main site, their focus is on chips for hybrid analog-digital computing, with a focus on energy-efficient approximate methods. With that in mind, we can forgive that the community-focused learning tools are still being worked on. All that said, this is still a very interesting project, and definitely would be a Christmas present this scribe would be more than happy to unwrap.
We’ve covered many aspects of analog computing lately,
like this story of restoration (and ultimately demise)
,
a maritime astrolabe found in the Arabian Sea
, and even an
FPGA simulating an analog computing architecture
.
The video shows a simulation of a
Lorenz attractor
running on THAT, slowed down 100x (by changing integrator settings) so that the simulation can run slow enough to be plotted by a mechanical X-Y plotter.
https://the-analog-thing.org/w/images/3/33/Lorenz_plotter.mp4 | 62 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386585",
"author": "Grumpy",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T18:13:29",
"content": "Carburetors are hydraulic/pneumatic analog computers. Doesn’t really change the truth of the first line.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386644",
... | 1,760,372,931.14996 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/supercapacitor-e-bike-with-diy-motor/ | Supercapacitor E-Bike With DIY Motor | Danie Conradie | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"e-bike",
"super capacitors",
"tom stanton"
] | Supercapacitor technology often looks like a revolutionary energy storage technology on the surface, but the actual performance numbers can be rather uninspiring. However, for rapid and repeated charge and discharge cycles, supercaps are hard to beat. [Tom Stanton] wanted to see if
supercaps have any practical use on e-bikes
, and built a DIY electric motor in the process.
One of the problems with supercaps is the rapid voltage drop during discharge compared to batteries, which can limit the amount of usable energy. In an attempt to get around the voltage limitation, [Tom] built his own axial flux motor for the bike, using 3D printed formers for the coils and an aluminum rotor with embedded magnets. He expected torque to be severely limited, so he also machined a large sprocket for the rear wheel. He built a capacitor bank using six 2.7V 400F supercaps, only equivalent to the capacity of a single AA cell. Although it worked, the total range was only around 100 m at low speed. When he hooked the motor up to a conventional battery, he did find that it was quite usable, if a bit underpowered.
The controller for the DIY motor was not capable of doing regenerative braking, so he fitted the capacitors to another e-bike that does have regenerative braking. Using this feature, he was able to reclaim some power while slowing down or going downhill. Since this type of charging cycling is what supercaps are suited for, it worked, but not nearly to the level of being practical.
[Tom]’s projects are a popular feature here on Hackaday, and he has also experimented with supercaps in
RC “rockets”
and a
flywheel for energy storage on the same bike
. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386539",
"author": "Jan Praegert",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T14:05:01",
"content": "8 is the new 6?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386638",
"author": "bluecat57",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T20:10:47",
"... | 1,760,372,931.259017 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/what-goes-into-a-high-voltage-diode/ | What Goes Into A High Voltage Diode? | Jenny List | [
"Parts"
] | [
"diode",
"high voltage",
"semiconductor"
] | When we use an electronic component, we have some idea of what goes on inside it. We know that inside a transistor there’s a little piece of semiconductor with a junction made from differently doped regions etched into it, and in a capacitor, there will be metalized plates on the surface of some kind of dielectric. Reverse engineering has given us extensive die photography of integrated circuits, but there remain a few component mysteries to be uncovered. One is laid bare by [WizardTim], as he cross-sections a 20KV high-voltage diode.
A conventional low-voltage silicon diode has a forward voltage drop of about 0.7V and a relatively low maximum reverse voltage, for example with the 1N4001 rectifier it’s 50V. For the higher-spec 1N4007, the reverse voltage rating is 700V. This diode has a 25KV reverse voltage, and a clue to its construction comes in its quoted 45V forward voltage. Sure enough, when mounted in resin and carefully sanded and polished flat it reveals its interior as a stack of diodes in series to increase the reverse voltage at the expense of forward voltage.
Revealing the inner workings of an unusual component is fascinating, and the lapping technique used is definitely worth a look. It’s something we’ve seen before, for example in
reducing CPU thickness for increased performance
. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386536",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T13:37:50",
"content": "Have had success connecting a low of avalanche diodes in series to make HV stack – tough with way higher current ratings than dinky monolithic devices. It seems sensible, when stacking them, to err on the c... | 1,760,372,931.302509 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/03/some-pleasing-experiments-in-8-bit-video-cards/ | Some Pleasing Experiments In 8-Bit Video Cards | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"cga",
"ibm",
"isa",
"MDA",
"vga"
] | These days, supply chain factors and high demand have made it incredibly difficult to lay one’s hands on a GPU. However, if you’re into older computers, you might find it hard to source old-school video cards too. Fear not, for [Dave’s Dev Lab] has been cooking up some experiments with a goal of eventually producing
a new 8-bit ISA video card from scratch.
The long term goal is to recreate the original design of early IBM hardware, namely, the MDA and CGA video cards of decades past. The experiments center around the venerable
Motorola 6845
which was widely used in computers in the 1980s. However, [Dave] intends to make them suitable for outputting to modern screens using typical VGA and DVI outputs, as well as those expected by modern TFT LCDs.
Thus far, [Dave] has achieved
successful VGA output
in a 40×35 text mode. With an 8×16 font, and the display running at 640×480 resolution at 60 Hz, everything hums along nicely. Similar experiments with a modern 480×272 LCD display
have also worked well
.
There’s a long way to go before [Dave’s] hardware is playing Commander Keen, but it’s great to see such effort being put into the platform. It could yet serve as a great upgrade for those wishing to use their vintage IBM metal without having to source a tired old CGA monitor.
We’ve seen similar work before too,
with the Graphics Gremlin from [Tube Time] achieving a similar task.
If you’ve been brewing up your own ISA hardware at home,
do drop us a line
. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386510",
"author": "hartl",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T09:27:08",
"content": "“… vintage IBM metal without having to source a tired old CGA monitor”Almost all modern TV sets can display CGA, since it’s timing is very close to NTSC. You just need RGB or YUV inputs and some simple anal... | 1,760,372,931.353029 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/mini-laser-engraver-could-carve-out-a-place-on-your-desk/ | Mini Laser Engraver Could Carve Out A Place On Your Desk | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"how-to",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Uno",
"dvd drive",
"laser",
"laser engraver"
] | Got a couple of old DVD-RW drives lying around, just collecting dust? Of course you do. If not, you likely know where to find a pair so you can build
this totally adorable and fully dangerous laser engraver
for your desk. Check out the complete build video after the break.
[Smart Tronix] doesn’t just tell you to salvage the stepper motors out of the drives — they show you how it’s done and even take the time to explain in writing what stepper motors are and why you would want to use them in this project, which is a remix of
[maggie_shah]’s design
over on Thingiverse. As you might expect, the two steppers are wired up to an Arduino Uno through a CNC shield with a pair of A4988 motor drivers. These form the two axes of movement — the 250mW laser is attached to x, and the platform moves back and forth on the y axis. We’d love to have one of these to mess around with. Nothing that fits on that platform would be safe! Just don’t forget the proper laser blocking safety glasses!
Need something much bigger that won’t take up a lot of space?
Roll up your sleeves and build a SCARA arm to hold your laser
. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386482",
"author": "pac",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T05:21:43",
"content": "Seen it before, but never with this refined of an approach. Nice work!Coincidentally, I pulled a bunch of these drives apart recently hoping to do exactly that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,372,931.398261 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/02/steppers-and-esp32-make-this-retro-modern-flip-clock-tick/ | Steppers And ESP32 Make This Retro-Modern Flip-Clock Tick | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"analog",
"clock",
"digital",
"ESP-32",
"flip clock",
"flip-card",
"h-bridge",
"L298N",
"stepper"
] | Before LEDs became cheap enough to be ubiquitous, flip-card displays were about the only way to get a digital clock. These entirely electromechanical devices had their own charm, and they have a certain retro cachet these days. Apart from yard sales and thrift stores, though, they’re a bit hard to source — unless you roll your own, of course.
Granted,
[David Huang]’s ESP32-based flip clock
is worlds apart from the flip cards of the “I Got You, Babe” era. Unfortunately, the video below is all we have to go on to get the story behind this clock, but it’s pretty self-explanatory. [David] started the build by making the flip cards themselves, a process that takes some topological tricks as well as a laser cutter. 3D-printed spools are loaded with the cards, which are then attached to frames that hold a stepper motor and a Hall-effect sensor. The ESP32 drives the steppers via L298N H-bridge drivers, but it’s hard to say if there’s an RTC chip or if the microcontroller is just getting time via an NTP server.
[David] might not be the only one trying to
recapture that retro look
, but we’ve got to hand it to him — it’s a great look, and it takes a clever maker to not only build a clock like this, but to make a video that explains it all so clearly without a single word of narration.
[Bin Sun] sent us this tip. Thanks! | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386465",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T02:46:45",
"content": "Including the day of the week was something that I have not seen before on a flip clock!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6386475",
"author": "Willie ... | 1,760,372,931.553685 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/drone-replaces-kite-in-recreation-of-famous-atmospheric-electricity-experiment/ | Drone Replaces Kite In Recreation Of Famous Atmospheric Electricity Experiment | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"atmosphere",
"charge",
"corona motor",
"discharge",
"drone",
"electroscope",
"Franklin bell",
"spark",
"STATIC"
] | Finally, someone decided to answer the question that nobody was asking: what if [Benjamin Franklin] had had a drone rather than a kite?
Granted, [Jay Bowles] didn’t fly
his electricity-harvesting drone
during a thunderstorm, but he did manage to reach some of the same conclusions that [Dr. Franklin] did about the nature of atmospheric electricity. His experimental setup was pretty simple: a DJI Mini2 drone with enough payload capacity to haul a length of fine-gauge magnet wire up to around 100 meters above ground level. A collecting electrode made of metal mesh was connected to the wire and suspended below the drone. Some big nails were driven into the soil to complete the circuit between the drone and the ground.
[Jay] went old-school for a detector, using a homemade electroscope to show what kind of static charge was accumulating on the electrode. Version 1 didn’t have enough oomph to do much but deliver a small static shock, but a larger electrode was able to deflect the leaves of an electroscope, power a beer can version of
a Franklin bell
, and also run a homemade
corona motor
. [ElectroBOOM] makes a guest appearance in the video below to explain the physics of the setup; curiously, he actually managed to get away without any injuries this time. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386300",
"author": "Piotrsko",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T14:52:53",
"content": "Ok so is he harvesting static or is it inductive?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386394",
"author": "D",
"timestamp": "2021-10-0... | 1,760,372,931.597113 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/secret-keychain-safe-looks-just-like-a-bolt/ | Secret Keychain Safe Looks Just Like A Bolt | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bolt",
"hidden safe",
"safe"
] | While conventional safes can be a good place to put valuables, sometimes it’s even better to hide your things where nobody will even look in the first place. [Wesley Treat] has a build that will allow you to do just that, which secrets away papers, money, or small items
within the body of a bolt.
There’s a surprising amount of room inside.
The build starts in a proper hacker fashion, using a power drill to turn an aluminium blank against a power sander creating an ersatz lathing setup. The outside of the blank is then threaded with the aid of a socket wrench and die, to great success. A cavity is created inside and threaded internally, and a separate head is then machined to screw on top. It’s all achieved without the use of a real lathe, with [Wesley]’s power drill doing most of the heavy lifting instead. It’s great stuff.
The end result has the appearance of a socket-head cap screw, while being lighter than a typical example due to the aluminium construction. Inside, there’s room for money, matches, and more, and [Wesley] even put in a small hole so the bolt can be used as an attractive keychain.
It’s a neat build, and one that we’d love to have as part of
our own everyday carry
. Video after the break. | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386140",
"author": "wolf arthur",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T23:03:10",
"content": "I *just* bought *this exact same thing* on Aliexpress a few hours before seeing this article, what are the odds …The plan is to hide a small/fun/nice message on a bit of paper, as well as a tiny candy... | 1,760,372,931.665585 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/minimalist-timer-counts-down-with-led-matrix/ | Minimalist Timer Counts Down With LED Matrix | Tom Nardi | [
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"acrylic",
"kitchen timer",
"led matrix",
"led matrix display",
"rotary encoder",
"timer"
] | Looking for something with a bit more style than the traditional kitchen timer,
[Martin Jonasson] decided to take the last couple of months to design and build his own take on the idea
using a rotary encoder, 16×9 LED matrix, and a Teensy 2.0 microcontroller. Were there better things he could have spent that time on? Possibly. But you probably wouldn’t have been reading it about it here, so we won’t trouble ourselves with such thoughts.
Put together on a piece of perfboard, the handwired circuit also includes an Adafruit PowerBoost 500 Charger, a 3.7 V 2500 mAh LiPo battery, a IS31FL3731 Charlieplexed PWM LED driver, and a piezo buzzer. The top of the rotary encoder has been capped off with a sold metal knob, which combined with the enclosure made of stacked laser cut 3 mm acrylic sheets, really gives the device a very sleek and classy look.
While the hardware is quite nice, it’s the software that really pulls this whole project together. A game developer by trade, [Martin] went all in on the timer’s GPLv3 licensed firmware. From using the toneAC library to play melodies at the end of the countdown, to the custom fonts and the code that pauses the timer while the user is spinning the knob, there’s plenty of little touches that should make the timer a joy to use.
We’ve seen some unique kitchen timers over the years
, but the attention to detail put into this build really raises the bar.
[Martin] has provided everything you need to create your own version of his timer, including the SVG file for the laser cut case. While not strictly required, coming up with a custom PCB for this project would be a nice touch, should you want to put your own spin on it.
[Thanks to Tom for the tip.] | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386318",
"author": "Garth Bock",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T16:05:54",
"content": "This is excellent! I like the rotary encoder to set the interval rather than pressing and holding buttons. Rarely do you see a knob to set the timer. ( I remember James Bond had that on a bomb timer – ... | 1,760,372,931.707059 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/pixel-pump-pick-place-positions-parts-precisely/ | Pixel Pump Pick & Place Positions Parts Precisely | Stephen Ogier | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"assembly tools",
"bench tools",
"pick and place",
"smd",
"surface mount",
"tools"
] | You’ve finally decided to take the plunge and build a board with surface-mount parts. After carefully dispensing the solder paste with a syringe, it’s time to place the parts. You take up your trusty tweezers and reach to grab a SOIC-14 logic IC—only there’s not a great way to grab it. The IC is too long to grab one way and has leads obstructing the other. You work around the leads, drop the IC into place, and then pick up an 0402 resistor. You gently set the resistor into your perfectly dispensed solder paste, pull the tweezers away, and the resistor has stuck to your slightly magnetic tweezers. [Robin Reiter] realized that hobbyists and small manufacturers needed a better way to assemble their surface-mount designs, so he’s building the
Pixel Pump Pick & Place, an open-source vacuum assembly tool
.
Vacuum assembly tools use a blunt-tipped needle and suction to pick up surface-mount parts. Pressing an attached foot pedal disables the vacuum, allowing the part to be gently released. [Robin] thought to include a few thoughtful features to make the Pixel Pump even more useful. It has adjustable suction presets and a self-cleaning feature to blow out any solder paste you accidentally suck up. Most of the non-electronic parts are 3D printed, and [Robin] intends to make the entire design open-source.
[Robin] has a long history of designing tools to make surface-mount assembly easier—you may remember his
3D-printed magazines for dispensing surface-mount parts
. If you want to take your PCB assembly setup to the next level, check out the
PnPAssist, which shines a laser crosshair right where you should put each part
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386112",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T19:15:20",
"content": "Tongue-twister.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6386127",
"author": "8bitwiz",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T20:33:34",
"content": "The prope... | 1,760,372,932.062618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/flaw-in-amd-platform-security-processor-affects-millions-of-computers/ | Flaw In AMD Platform Security Processor Affects Millions Of Computers | Lewin Day | [
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"amd",
"athlon",
"Ryzen",
"security",
"vulnerability"
] | Another day, another vulnerability. This time, it’s AMD’s turn, with a broad swathe of its modern CPU lines falling victim to a dangerous driver vulnerability that could leave PCs open to all manner of attacks.
As reported by TechSpot
, the flaw is in the driver for AMD Platform Security Processor (PSP), and could leave systems vulnerable by allowing attackers to steal encryption keys, passwords, or other data from memory. Today, we’ll take a look at what the role of the PSP is, and how this vulnerability can be used against affected machines.
What is a PSP, Anyway?
The AMD Platform Security Processor is functionally the company’s equivalent to the Intel Management Engine (ME),
which we’ve discussed before.
AMD refers to it as a subsystem “responsible for creating, monitoring, and maintaining the security environment.” It consists of an ARM microcontroller core baked into the main CPU die, and interfaces with the main system memory, IO, and CPU registers.
In short, it’s a coprocessor that has access to just about every part of the computers to which it’s inside. This makes it a prime target for attacks. Introduced around 2013, it’s also entirely closed source, existing as an unknown black box within modern AMD CPUs, which makes the security-conscious highly wary. Operating at a low-level, entirely outside the purview of the main CPU and operating system, the PSP, like the IME, is often considered a potential backdoor into a machine.
CPUs have been adding security features for years, with other technology including AMD’s Secure Memory Encryption and Intel’s System Guard Extensions. These subsystems allow sections of memory to be partitioned off and secured for special uses. However, these features have also proved to be
subject to vulnerabilities too.
How The Vulnerability Works
The now-ancient Athlon X4 is listed as one of the earliest chips affected by the vulnerability.
The vulnerability is found in a range of AMD chipsets. It affects everything from modern Ryzen processors to chips stretching all the way back at least as far as the AMD Athlon X4 from 2013 according to
AMD’s own disclosure
. The issue was first reported to the company by [Kyriakos Economou] from ZeroPeril Ltd, who prepared
a useful report on the vulnerability.
The vulnerability gives low privileged users access to uninitialised memory. This may sound unimportant, but uninitialised memory is often teeming with data left behind from prior processes, even if the computer has been rebooted or power cycled. It can be an easy way to gain access to encryption keys, password hashes, or all manner of other data that is sitting in unallocated RAM.
The first part of the problem is when a user makes a call to the AMD driver to allocate some uninitialised memory using the AMD PSP. When a request is made to initialise a certain amount of memory, the driver rounds up the request to the default memory page size, usually on the order of 4096 bytes.
AMD’s latest Ryzen platforms are also affected. Image credit:
Ilya Plekhanov
If the user requests to initialise 1 byte, the driver will round that up to a full 4096 bytes, and allocate that much memory to the user. However, it will only initialise the first byte, leaving the rest in its prior state. The user can then access the remaining 4095 bytes which have been untouched, thus gaining access to the contents of uninitialised memory.
The second problem involves calls to the driver to free up contiguous memory space that has previously been allocated. When certain calls of this type are made, the driver does not properly release the allocated memory and keeps it privately associated to the original process making the call. This creates a memory leak and can quickly tie up great amounts of memory, making it unavailable to the rest of the system.
The research group were able to access gigabytes of uninitialised memory. The data recovered included everything from user password hashes to pool addresses that could help an attacker get around security features like kernel address space layout randomization (KASLR) which try to make it harder for hackers to know where to find crucial system areas in memory.
Patch Early, Patch Often
Thankfully, downloading
the latest AMD chipset drivers
should be enough to stave off any potential attacks. AMD’s advice is to upgrade to the ADM PSP driver 5.17.0.0 through Windows Update, or to download AMD Chipset Driver 3.08.17.735. Presumably, this solves the issue by properly zeroing out memory during allocation, as well as freeing up memory properly when its no longer needed.
Overall, a software fix is enough to solve the issue, and its a vulnerability that lacks some of the scare factor of bigger finds
like Meltdown and Spectre from years past
. However, it just goes to show that computer security is an ever-shifting target. There’s always another vulnerability lurking just around the corner. | 30 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386090",
"author": "Matthew Carlson",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T17:31:20",
"content": "Hopefully they can figure out a fix. Unlike the Intel ME, the PSP cannot be really disabled much as it functions as a root of trust for the processor and does memory init (https://www.igorslab.de/... | 1,760,372,931.872433 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/hackaday-podcast-138-breakin-bluetooth-doritos-rockets-wireless-robots-and-autonomous-trolling/ | Hackaday Podcast 138: Breakin’ Bluetooth, Doritos Rockets, Wireless Robots, And Autonomous Trolling | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys peruse the great hardware hacks of the past week. There’s a robot walker platform that wirelessly offloads motor control planning to a computer. We take a look at automating your fishing boat with a trolling motor upgrade, building the Hoover dam in your back yard, and playing Holst’s Planets on an army of Arduini. Make sure you stick around until the end as we stroll through distant memories of Gopher, and peek inside the parking garages of the sea.
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
(60 MB or so.)
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 138 Show Notes:
What’s that Sound?
That sound was
Tesla coils playing the Super Mario Bros. Theme
(Artist: ArcAttack!)
[cmbalancio] was randomly drawn from 66 correct responses and wins the shirt!
Here’s
the code used for the random drawing
New This Week:
A Coolant Leak The Likely Culprit For Aussie Tesla Battery Bank Fire
It’s Wildcard Time, Your Last Chance To Enter The Hackaday Prize!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
3D Printed Research Robotics Platform Runs Remotely
Linux-ESPNOW
A Promising Start For The Doritos Space Program
A High Power Wood Rocket In 5 Days
OpenRocket Simulator
What You See Is What You (Laser) Cut
Arduino Orchestra Plays The Planets Suite
GitHub – dwhinham/mt32-pi: 🎹🎶 A baremetal kernel that turns your Raspberry Pi 3 or later into a Roland MT-32 emulator and SoundFont synthesizer based on Circle, Munt, and FluidSynth.
little-scale
Open Source Autopilot For Cheap Trolling Motors
Bluetooth Vulnerability: Arbitrary Code Execution On The ESP32, Among Others
Espressif Bluetooth Security Advisory
GitHub – Matheus-Garbelini/esp32_bluetooth_classic_sniffer: Active Bluetooth BR/EDR Sniffer/Injector as cheap as any ESP32 board can get. Works with Scapy ;-)
35C3: Finding Bugs In Bluetooth
Reinforced Concrete: Versatile At Any Size?
xkcd: Model Rail
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks
Erasable Pen Ink Adds Colors To 3D Prints
DuoLux Is A Stylish Lamp And You Should Definitely Print Your Own
Project HERMITS Robots Mimic Crabs With Mechanical Shells
Mike’s Picks:
The Most Important Device In The Universe Is Powered By A 555 Timer
Making Linux Offline Voice Recognition Easier
Put A Landscape Scanner On Your Bike And Ride
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Gopher, The Competing Standard To WWW In The ’90s Is Still Worth Checking Out
RORO Vessels: Driving Cars Across The Ocean | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386248",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp": "2021-10-02T07:38:33",
"content": "“an army of Arduini”. I will use this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386251",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,372,931.916789 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/why-make-a-combat-robot-that-walks/ | Why Make A Combat Robot That Walks? | Jim Heaney | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"battle bot",
"battlebot",
"battlebots",
"combat robot",
"gyro",
"robot",
"walker"
] | If you watch it on TV or see clips on YouTube, you’ll notice that most combat robots have wheels, which would make sense. They are simple, work well, and if designed right they can take a bit of a beating. So why did [Luke] design his 12-pound bot with no wheels, or any locomotion system for that matter? You can find out more about this peculiar bot in his
build report with more than 130 images
.
[Luke’s] bot, called Kitten Mittens, is a gyro walker combat robot. This means that instead of traditional tank treads or wheels to move about, [Luke] navigates by angling his bot’s weapon and using the angular momentum to lift up one side of the bot to “walk” forward. Watch the video after the break to see it in action. While this does leave Kitten Mittens much slower and less agile than competitors, it gives one massive leg up; weight. Kitten Mittens fights in the 12-pound combat robotics weight class, but most leagues have weight bonuses for bots that have no wheels or use otherwise nontraditional locomotion. Where [Luke] competes, the Norwalk Havoc Robot League, this means that his bot can be up to 6 pounds heavier than the other competitors!
A printed prototype of the weapon, showing off the integrated hub motor.
So how did [Luke] take advantage of that extra 6 pounds? The biggest thing was the weapon. It is made of 3/4-inch S7 tool steel and has a custom hub motor integrated into the center, bringing its rotating weight to 5.5 pounds. In addition to thickness, the added weight allowance permitted a larger spinning diameter so that Kitten Mittens could hit opponents before they hit him.
[Luke] is not new to the world of combat robotics, and knew it would take more than just a big weapon to win. Part of the extra weight budget was also used to beef up his armor and internal structure of the bot, so that hits from opponents would just bounce him around the cage harmlessly. This even included custom bent titanium guards surrounding the weapon, to help in self-righting.
When it first debuted in February of 2021, Kitten Mittens was a smashing success! It went 4-0 in the 12lb weight class at NHRL, winning the $1,000 prize and earning its spots in the annual finals, where [Luke] will compete against other finalists from the rest of the season for a chance to win the $12,000 first-place prize.
Bots that walk, shuffle, or crawl are becoming more of a trend lately in all weight classes. Even Overhaul, a 250-pound bot, has been given a new set of feet to shuffle around on.
You can read more about this interesting concept here. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6386030",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T15:32:59",
"content": "not sure it would do any good but the bout in the video makes an interesting case for autonomous countrol. the flat robot seems fast enough to circle KM and always attack from the rear, but the pilot isn’... | 1,760,372,932.170304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/this-week-in-security-openoffice-vulnerable-ios-vulnerable-outlook-you-get-the-idea/ | This Week In Security: OpenOffice Vulnerable, IOS Vulnerable, Outlook… You Get The Idea | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"netgear",
"openoffice",
"This Week in Security"
] | We start this week with
a good write-up by [Eugene Lim] on getting started on vulnerability hunting
, and news of a problem in OpenOffice’s handling of DBase files. [Lim] decided to concentrate on a file format, and picked the venerable dbase format,
.dbf
. This database format was eventually used all over the place, and is still supported in Microsoft Office, Libreoffice, and OpenOffice. He put together a fuzzing approach using
Peach Fuzzer
, and found a handful of possible vulnerabilities in the file format, by testing a very simple file viewer that supported the format. He managed to achieve code execution in
dbfview
, but that wasn’t enough.
Armed with a vulnerability in one application, [Lim] turned his attention to OpenOffice. He knew exactly what he was looking for, and found vulnerable code right away. A buffer is allocated based on the specified data type, but data is copied into this buffer with a different length, also specified in the dbase file. Simple buffer overflow. Turning this into an actual RCE exploit took a bit of doing, but is possible. The disclosure didn’t include a full PoC, but will likely be reverse engineered shortly.
Normally we’d wrap by telling you to go get the update, but OpenOffice doesn’t have a stable release with this fix in it. There is a
release candidate that does contain the fix
, but every stable install of OpenOffice in the world is currently vulnerable to this RCE. The vulnerability report was sent way back on May 4th, over 90 days before full disclosure. And what about LibreOffice, the fork of OpenOffice? Surely it is also vulnerable? Nope. LibreOffice fixed this in
routine code maintenance back in 2014
. The truth of the matter is that when the two projects forked,
the programmers who really understood the codebase went to LibreOffice
, and OpenOffice has had a severe programmer shortage ever since. I’ve said it before: Use LibreOffice, OpenOffice is known to be unsafe.
iOS Woes
Denis Tokarev, AKA [illusionofchaos], has had it with Apple’s bug bounty program, and
disclosed a trio of unfixed iOS bugs
, far after 90 days had expired. But first, a vulnerability that was fixed, in release 14.7. Prior to the fix, any app on the device could read the analytics logs unrestricted, a trove of information. This data leak was fixed quietly, with no disclosure or credit from Apple. [Denis] asked, and was told that he would be credited in a later release. Three further security releases have come and gone, and still no disclosure or credit.
Two additional vulns were reported in May, and the third in March of this year. Those are: a permission bypass allowing an app to read wifi information, an unintended method for an app to determine what other apps are installed, and a serious flaw allowing an app access to all sorts of things including a user’s authentication token. After six months sitting on the oldest issue, [Denis] gave Apple a 10 day final deadline, and when that passed, published them all.
The
followup post
would be interesting on its own, showing some techniques for sneaking malicious code through the App Store’s analysis process. If you expected cutting-edge, advance techniques, prepare to be disappointed. Apple’s analysis will catch
NSClassFromString(["GKLocalPlayerInternal"])
as accessing an Apple-only API. The workaround, that really does avoid detection?
NSClassFromString(["GKLoc","lPlayerInternal"].joined(separator: "a"))
The rest of the post is not security related, but raises some valid points about other failings of the App Store.
Netgear’s Circle
A handful of Netgear routers ship with the Circle Parental Control Service, and while the actual web filtering is off by default, the update service runs automatically anyway. [Adam] discovered
a pair of problems with this update process
, starting with the use of HTTP for fetching updates. This allows an attacker to perform a man-in-the-middle attack on the check for updates, but the update process checks the update blobs for valid signatures. The second problem is that these Netgear routers use a
busybox
binary from 2007. Busybox is an all-in-one binary that provides the basic set of Unix tools for embedded devices. One such tool is
tar
, and in ’07 an important security feature was missing: absolute path blocking.
Remember how the Circle update process checks binaries for a valid signature before updating? Binaries aren’t the only thing that gets updated, there is also a database update, and that is distributed as a tarball and isn’t signed. Because of the insecure tar handling, a malicious database update can overwrite system startup scripts, AKA easy RCE. Patches are available, so check to see if your device is affected.
Outlook Autodiscover
Researchers at
Guardicore have discovered a logic flaw in Outlook
that turns an old vulnerability into a big problem. The old issue
was disclosed in 2016
, and boils down to an encryption downgrade attack. If a mail client trying to use Exchange autodiscovery were coerced to connect to an attacker-controlled server, the authorization method can be downgraded to a Base64 encoded username/password. At the time, Microsoft declined to issue any guidance or patches regarding this scenario.
What Guardicore discovered is a flaw in the auto discover URL domain-walking logic. When setting up a new email address, Outlook will attempt to locate an Autodiscover.xml file on the new address domain. So for an address like
user@mail.example.com
, the first location checked is
https://Autodiscover.mail.example.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml
. If the autodiscover file can’t be found at that domain, Outlook will traverse upwards, and check
autodiscover.example.com
. So far so good. The problem is that the logic doesn’t stop here, but will also check
autodiscover.com
, which is almost certainly not controlled by the mail provider. This problem exists for every Top Level Domain.
Guardicore researchers purchased 20
autodiscover.X
domains, and waited for traffic. During a five day period, they collected almost 100,000 unique requests. Shockingly, these requests included the account credentials sent using Basic Authentication, AKA clear text. (OK, it’s Base64 encoded, but that’s an encoding, so it’s still cleartext.) It seems that they were performing an authorization downgrade attack by accident. The suggested solution for end users? Block the whole list of
autodiscover.TLD
domains at your DNS provider.
AirTag XSS
In somewhat humorous news,
the new AirTag by Apple has a Cross-Site Scripting flaw
. The owner of an AirTag can set a custom message and phone number to show to whoever finds the missing device. That phone number field is currently unvalidated, so you can put anything you want there, including code. It’s possible for the finder to scan the AirTag and get redirected to a malicious site as a result. Thankfully, this should be a fairly easy fix, and isn’t actually a hardware problem. Also of note, this is another 0-day, again the result of Apple’s less-than-stellar approach to dealing with researchers.
Oops
Remember back in May, when Apple Shortcuts went belly up for a while? It turns out
it was a security researcher, [Frans Rosen], working on a vulnerability
in Apple’s CloudKit service, a data storage framework. He discovered that there are multiple APIs supported, and they give slightly different results when accessing or manipulating. He tried a delete request on the default zone for shortcuts, and it worked. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did. And shortcuts were trashed worldwide for Apple users. I am possibly more amused by Apple’s response than I should be.
Thank you for the information. Please stop…
There were eventually three bugs found and fixed. In this case, [Frans] was impressed with the Apple security team. They did pay him bounties for all three problems, even though he deleted the entire world’s shortcuts while finding one of them.
Leftover Bytes
EFF is
retiring HTTPS Everywhere
because HTTPS is actually everywhere now. The extension will be in maintenance mode for 2022, and likely will be fully retired after that. Not only do many sites automatically redirect users to an HTTPS connection, this feature is also built in to the major browsers now, too.
Not unrelated, Let’s Encrypt is about to
make a change to their certificate backing
. The IdenTrust certificate is what allowed Let’s Encrypt to initially get off the ground, but enough time has passed, and enough devices now trust the Let’s Encrypt root cert, that the EdenTrust certificate is no longer needed. There is a list of some rather old hardware and software that will have problems as a result, go check it out at the link.
Trend Micro’s
ServerProtect product has been updated
to fix a 0-click RCE in their security product. While an insecure security product is nothing new, this one is particularly bad, with a CVSS of 9.8. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385969",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T14:05:32",
"content": "Thanks, I will stop using OpenOffice and switch to LibreOffice.(sigh!)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6386147",
"author": "LordNothing",
... | 1,760,372,932.111608 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/giant-working-nerf-gun-runs-on-tiny-arduino/ | Giant Working NERF Gun Runs On Tiny Arduino | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino pro mini",
"nerf gun",
"pool noodle",
"PVC",
"worlds-largest"
] | Well, here it is: a shoe-in for the new world’s largest NERF gun
. (Video, embedded below.) The Guinness people haven’t shown up yet to award [Michael Pick], but at 12.5 feet, this baby is over twice as long as the current record holder, which belongs to former NASA mechanical engineer Mark Rober
and his now-puny six-foot six-shooter
.
We have to wonder if it is technically bigger than the six-shooter, because they seem to be roughly the same scale, except that [Michael] chose a much bigger model to start from. The main body is made from wood, and there are a ton of 3D-printed details that make it look fantastically accurate. The whole thing weighs over 200 pounds and takes at least two people to move it around. We especially love the DIY darts that [Michael] came up with, which are made from a PVC tube inside a section of pool noodle, topped off with a 3D printed piece for that distinctive orange cap.
Propelling those darts at around 50 MPH is a 3,000 PSI air tank connected to an Arduino Pro Mini that controls the trigger and the air valves. While [Michael] hasn’t run the thing quite that high, it does plenty of damage in the neighborhood of 40-80 PSI. As you’ll see in the video after the break, this is quite the ranged weapon. Watch it blow a hole clean through a sheet of drywall and much more.
Want to build something with a bit more stealth?
Make it death from above with a NERF quadcopter
. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385931",
"author": "Viktor",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T11:16:49",
"content": "I prefer power so I use airsoft.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6385947",
"author": "oopsitaflame",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T12:28:00",
"... | 1,760,372,932.218624 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/01/awesome-python-video-tutorials-keep-you-motivated/ | Awesome Python Video Tutorials Keep You Motivated | Dave Rowntree | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"learning",
"python"
] | Programming languages are one of those topics that we geeks have some very strong and often rather polarised opinions about. As new concepts in computing are dreamt up, older languages may grow new features, if viable, or get left behind when new upstarts come along and shake things up a bit. This scribe can remember his early days programming embedded systems, and the arguments that ensued when someone came along with a project that required embedded C++ or worse, Java, when we were mostly diehard C programmers. Fast forward a decade or two, and things are way more complicated. So much choice, so much opinion.
So it’s really nice to come across some
truly unique and beautifully made Python tutorial videos
, that are engaging and fun to watch. Fronted by Canadian actress [
Ulka Simone Mohanty
] who some may recognise from such lofty titles as the game “Magic: The Gathering Arena” and various films and TV shows, she delivers a dead-pan avatar-like presentation of the most important areas of Python. We were particularly amused by the comment “Loopus Interruptus” as the exception condition iterating off the end of a list.
If you’ve been putting off putting the effort to really get a good overview of Python and get some programming experience, we think this would be a very good place to start. Even if you already use Python, you’ll probably pick up some good insight from these videos. We don’t know how you’re spending your next few hours, but we’ll be learning more Python.
The pithy anonymity of Lambda Expressions:
“We are now going to learn how to create and use lists, and we will do so in a linear and orderly fashion” | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385853",
"author": "hammarbytp",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T08:25:50",
"content": "And now for something completely different",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6385856",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2021-10-... | 1,760,372,932.275503 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/the-ultimate-brrrt-simulator-fully-featured-a-10-warthog-cockpit/ | The Ultimate BRRRT Simulator: Fully Featured A-10 Warthog Cockpit | Danie Conradie | [
"Games",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"A-10 Warthog",
"cockpit",
"DCS",
"flight simulator"
] | The Fairchild Republic A-10 “Warthog” with its 30 mm rotary cannon has captured the imagination of friendly soldiers and military aviation enthusiasts on the ground for as long as it’s been flying. One such enthusiast created the
Warthog Project
, a fully functional A-10 cockpit for Digital Combat Simulator, that’s almost an exact copy of the real thing.
It started as a four monitor gaming cockpit, with a Thrustmaster Warthog H.O.T.A.S. The first physical instrument panels were fuel and electrical panels bought through eBay, and over time more and more panels were added and eventually moved to dedicated
left
and
right
side units. All the panels communicate with the main PC over USB, either using Arduinos or purpose-made gaming interface boards. The Arduinos take input from switches and control knobs, but also run 7-segment displays and analog dials driven by servos. The panels were all laser-cut using MDF or perspex and backlit using LEDs.
The main instrument panel is a normal monitor masked with laser-cut MDF and Thrustmaster multi-function display bezels. The cockpit is run by the open source
Helios Cockpit Simulator
for DCS. The main monitors were replaced by a large custom-built curved projection panel lit up by a pair of projectors. It seems this is one of those projects that is never quite finished, and small details like a
compass
get added from time to time. Everything is documented in detail, and all the design files are available for free if you want to build your own.
We’ve seen a few impressive simulator cockpit builds from hardcore enthusiasts over the years, including a
Boeing 737
,
P-51 Mustang
, and even a
Mech cockpit for Steel Battalion
. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385829",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T05:42:37",
"content": "Wow. That is, incredible. Imagine how cool it would be if there was somewhere you could go that had 10 of these and you could dogfight with your friends.First couple of rounds would probably be like playing ... | 1,760,372,932.339914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/fourier-transforms-and-more-using-light/ | Fourier Transforms (and More) Using Light | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"fourier transform",
"light",
"optical computing"
] | Linear transforms — like a Fourier transform — are a key math tool in engineering and science. A team from UCLA recently published a paper describing how they used deep learning techniques to design
an all-optical solution for arbitrary linear transforms
. The technique doesn’t use any conventional processing elements and, instead, relies on diffractive surfaces. They also describe a “data free” design approach that does not rely on deep learning.
There is obvious appeal to using light to compute transforms. The computation occurs at the speed of light and in a highly parallel fashion. The final system will have multiple diffractive surfaces to compute the final result.
The deep learning the paper’s authors refer to was all set up with TensorFlow using the Adam optimizer. It appears that the paper relies on simulations of the diffraction surfaces, not an actual implementation. We aren’t sure how hard it is to realize high-resolution diffraction surfaces with the very specific patterns called for by the designs.
If you are looking to get started with TensorFlow yourself, we’ve covered
quite a few tutorials
. On the other hand, we talk quite a bit about
Fourier
transforms, too. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385790",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-10-01T02:07:41",
"content": "I could see this being a feature of space-craft with low power requirements. It could also become a part of M/A/V/R headsets.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,372,934.276181 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/super-8-camera-brought-back-to-life/ | Super 8 Camera Brought Back To Life | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"8 mm",
"antique",
"camera",
"digital",
"film",
"raspberry pi",
"recorder",
"stream",
"super 8",
"video",
"wifi"
] | The Super 8 camera, while a groundbreaking video recorder in its time, is borderline unusable now. Even if you can get film for it (and afford its often enormous price), it still only records on 8mm film which isn’t exactly the best quality of film around, not to mention that a good percentage of these cameras couldn’t even record audio. They were largely made obsolete by camcorders in the late ’80s and early ’90s, although some are still used for niche artistic purposes. If you’d rather not foot the bill for the film, though,
you can still put one of these to work with the help of a Raspberry Pi
.
[befinitiv] has a knack for repurposing antique analog equipment like this while preserving its aesthetic. While the bulk of the space inside of this camera would normally be used for housing film, this makes a perfect spot to place a Raspberry Pi Zero, a rechargeable battery, and a power converter circuit all in a 3D printed enclosure that snaps into the camera just as a film roll would have. It uses the Pi camera module but still makes use of the camera’s built in optics which include a zoom function. [befinitiv] also incorporated the original record button so that from the outside this looks like a completely unmodified Super 8 camera.
The camera can connect to a WiFi network and can stream live video to a computer, or it can record video files to an internal SD card. As a bonus, thanks to the power converter circuit, it is also capable of charging a cell phone. [befinitiv] notes that many of the aesthetic properties of 8 mm film seem to be preserved when using this method, and he has several theories as to why but no definitive answer. If you’d like to take a look at some of his other projects like this,
check out this analog camera that is now able to take digital pictures
. | 32 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385769",
"author": "bob",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T23:38:46",
"content": ">The Super 8 camera, while a groundbreaking video recorder in its time<The Super 8 was a movie camers, not a video recorder. It had absolutely no video capability, though in 1973 sound recording capability wa... | 1,760,372,934.227325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/expanding-on-the-creation-of-collapsible-containers/ | Expanding On The Creation Of Collapsible Containers | Kristina Panos | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"3D printed molds",
"collapsible",
"silicone"
] | You might remember that industrial designer [Eric Strebel] tried to make a collapsible silicone container with 3D printed molds a few weeks ago, and was finally successful after dozens of attempts. Someone commented that commercial containers are molded in the collapsed position instead of the expanded position, so naturally,
[Eric] had to try it
once he saw the photographic proof of these molds.
This time around, [Eric] made things easier on himself by adding some handles to the mold and using both wax and spray mold release before pouring in the degassed silicone. The first one was a failure — he had let it cure the whole time in the collapsed mold, and it just didn’t want to stay expanded. On the second attempt, [Eric] decided to pull the piece while it was curing, about 5 1/2 hours into the process.
After carefully de-molding the piece, he pressed it into the grooves of one of the older molds from the days of molding containers in the expanded state. Then he filled it with sand and let it cure the rest of the way. That worked out quite well, but even so, [Eric] made a third attempt that he pulled after 3.5 hours or so when the silicone was still sticky. He did the sand trick again, but this time, he ran a piece of string up the wall and over the edge so that the air that gets trapped under the sand can escape. The final result looks great, albeit a little bit floppy, but [Eric] fits the final product into a frame that makes them much sturdier. Check out the process in the video after the break.
Did you miss the first installment?
It’s worth a look into the science of creating collapsible walls
. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,933.895223 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/microsynth-mixes-all-analog-fun-with-a-little-business/ | MicroSynth Mixes All-Analog Fun With A Little Business | Dan Maloney | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"analog",
"octave",
"synthesizer"
] | While
[MicroKits]’ MicroSynth
is an all-analog synthesizer that fits on a business card-sized PCB, and he actually does use it to break the ice in business meetings, that’s not really the idea behind this project. Rather, [MicroKits] is keen to get people playing with synths, and what better way than a synth you can build yourself?
There was an ulterior motive behind this project, too: prototyping circuits for a more complete synthesizer. Thus, the design is purposely very simple — no microcontrollers, no logic chips, and not even a 555 to be found. It doesn’t even have buttons; instead, the one-octave keyboard just has interdigitated traces that are bridged by the player’s fingers, forming resistive touchpads. The keyboard interface circuit is clever, too — [MicroKits] uses a pair of op-amps to convert the linear change in resistance across the keyboard to a nearly exponential voltage to drive the synth’s voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The video below shows what it can do.
We love projects like these because they show what can be accomplished strictly using analog circuits. We don’t have any problem with other synth designs, mind you —
this 555-based dub siren
we featured recently was great, too.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385718",
"author": "Giorgio Filardi",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T19:06:13",
"content": "It is beautiful. I wonder how many hours were spent in developing it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6385725",
"author": "Ren",
... | 1,760,372,934.122621 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/nasa-sets-eyes-on-deep-space-with-admin-shuffle/ | NASA Sets Eyes On Deep Space With Admin Shuffle | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"Artemis",
"deep space",
"human spaceflight",
"international space station",
"iss",
"nasa"
] | Since the Apollo 17 crew returned from the Moon in 1972, human spaceflight has been limited to low Earth orbit (LEO). Whether they were aboard Skylab, Mir, the Space Shuttle, a Soyuz capsule, or the International Space Station, no crew has traveled more than 600 kilometers (372 miles) or so from the Earth’s surface in nearly 50 years. Representatives of the world’s space organizations would say they have been using Earth orbit as a testing ground for the technology that will be needed for more distant missions, but those critical of our seemingly stagnated progress into the solar system would say we’ve simply been stuck.
Many have argued that the International Space Station has consumed an inordinate amount of NASA’s time and budget, making it all but impossible for the agency to formulate concrete plans for crewed missions beyond Earth orbit. The Orion and SLS programs are years behind schedule, and the flagship deep space excursions that would have utilized them, such as the much-touted Asteroid Redirect Mission, never materialized. The cracks are even starting to form in the Artemis program, which appears increasingly unlikely to meet its original goal of returning astronauts to the Moon’s surface by 2024.
But with the recent announcement that
NASA will be splitting the current Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate into two distinct groups
, the agency may finally have the administrative capacity it needs to juggle their existing LEO interests and deep space aspirations. With construction of the ISS essentially complete, and the commercial spaceflight market finally coming together, the reorganization will allow NASA to start shifting the focus of their efforts to more distant frontiers such as the Moon and Mars.
A Lasting Foothold
The Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) will oversee existing and future operational programs in low Earth orbit. In the immediate sense, that means the ISS as well as the commercial crew and cargo missions that support it. Crewed lunar operations would also fall under the purview of the SOMD, but only once they have moved into their operational phase.
Critically, SOMD will also be tasked with assisting in the commercialization of LEO. That could include everything from managing the logistics of civilian missions like the recent
Inspiration 4
flight, to making it easier for researchers to get their experiments onto the ISS. If all goes according to plan, the department will also be in charge of the commercial expansions that are currently being considered for the ISS, which would leverage the Station’s existing systems to help
kick-start the development of its eventual replacement
.
Commercial stations could be assembled at the ISS.
Ultimately NASA is looking to transition from taking an active roll in the development of low Earth spacecraft, and instead use its collected data and experience to provide logistical support for commercial operators to take its place. This has been their stated goal for many years, but only recently, with the rise of New Space companies like SpaceX, has it actually been within reach. Just as NASA now pays to fly their astronauts and cargo on commercially developed and operated rockets rather than maintaining their own vehicle, the space agency would like to one day simply book lodging for their astronauts on a commercial space station.
The goals of the Space Operations Mission Directorate are essentially identical to that of the previous Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, minus the tacked-on deep space responsibilities. SOMD will even be helmed by Kathy Lueders, the same person that was previously overseeing all of NASA’s human spaceflight programs. In a way, the establishment of this new directorate could be seen not as a dramatic operational shift, but as a way to take some of the workload off of Lueders.
Expanding Our Reach
To better tackle the challenges of expanding humanity’s presence in the solar system, the new Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) will concern itself only with the missions, programs, and hardware that operate beyond low Earth orbit. As of right now that means the agency’s
troubled Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket
, the Orion crew capsule, and the totality of the Artemis lunar program. Looking ahead, the ESDMD would be responsible for taking the experience gained on and around the Moon and adapting it towards a crewed mission to Mars sometime in the 2030s.
NASA has selected James Free to head the ESDMD, an experienced engineer who got his start working on propulsion systems at Goddard Space Flight Center in 1990. He supported the development of the Orion capsule in several positions, and served as overall manager for the Orion Service Module.
He was eventually promoted to Director of the Glenn Research Center, and finally to Deputy Associate Administrator for Technical in the human spaceflight division, before retiring from the agency in 2017. Since then, he has worked as an aerospace consultant in the private sector.
By bringing Free back from retirement to head the ESDMD, NASA is banking on his considerable first-hand experience with deep space hardware to help guide the decision making process for SLS, Orion, and the lunar Human Landing System. On the other hand, some in the industry have already expressed concerns that he lacks the experience with commercial spaceflight that Kathy Lueders has developed over the last several years.
Going Boldly
The Space Operations Mission Directorate represents the part of NASA that simply wants to be one passenger of many, performing LEO research as cheaply and safely as possible by virtue of vibrant commercial competition. On the other end of the spectrum, the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate better represents the derring-do space agency of old that broke new ground at every turn and put astronauts on the Moon.
Of course, until there’s fresh boot prints on the lunar surface, it’s all just politics. Only time will tell if this administrative restructuring is enough to rekindle the type of passion that led the agency through the Apollo years. But one thing is for sure: separated from the banality of LEO, the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate will have the freedom to truly commit to deep space exploration in a way that hasn’t been possible for a long time. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385708",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T18:03:35",
"content": "Be great to have the NASA of the 60s back with the percentage of funding for them of the 60s. Instead of the moon we get more (arguably useless and far more expensive to launch from Earth) mars robots. But th... | 1,760,372,934.072837 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/make-this-halloween-a-spider-stomping-good-time/ | Make This Halloween A Spider-Stomping Good Time | Kristina Panos | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"3d scanner",
"halloween",
"Kinect",
"projector"
] | We can count on one hand the number of times that we haven’t needed a coat on Halloween night around here. Even if it was fair and sunny the day before, you can count on Halloween being appropriately windy, cold, and spooky. Trick-or-treating only keeps a kid so warm, and we would have loved to happen upon a house with
a spider-stomping sugar-burning good time of a game
going on in the driveway.
[Kyle Maas] built this game a few years ago, and it has proved quite popular ever since. It’s so popular, in fact, that they have to have someone on duty with a vaudeville hook to yank spectators off the playing field. The point is to stomp as many spiders as you can in a set amount of time, though you only need to stomp one to win. It can handle one to four players, depending on the size of the projection, but [Kyle] says it’s kind of hard to track more than two at a time.
The setup is fairly simple, provided you can reliably affix your projector to something sturdy. [Kyle] used a
Structure
sensor for the 3D scanner, but you could easily use a Kinect instead. Conversely, the calibration was challenging. [Kyle] ended up using a DSP math trick known as the inverse bilinear transform to be able to calibrate the system using the 3D scanner itself.
If you’re more into scaring the children, just
rig up a coffin bell
. Either way, don’t forget about
our Halloween Hackfest contest
, running now through Monday, October 11th.
There are more details over on IO
. While you’re there, why not
check out the list of entries
? | 11 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385710",
"author": "X",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T18:12:05",
"content": "We should teach kids to squash bugs, not spiders.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6385715",
"author": "pac",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T18:... | 1,760,372,934.163778 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/the-coming-copper-shortage-aluminum-or-carbon-nanotubes-to-the-rescue/ | The Coming Copper Shortage: Aluminium Or Carbon Nanotubes To The Rescue? | Maya Posch | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"carbon nanotubes",
"cca",
"CNT wire",
"copper",
"copper-coated aluminium"
] | The use of aluminium in wiring is unlikely to
bring a smile to the face
of anyone who has had to deal with it in a 1960s, or early 1970s-era house. The causes behind the fires and other accidents were myriad, including failure to deal with the higher thermal expansion of aluminium, the electrically insulating nature of aluminium oxide, and the general brittleness of aluminium when twisted.
Yet while copper is superior to aluminium in terms of electrical conductivity and ease of installation, copper prices have skyrocketed since the 1970s, and are on the verge of taking off to the moon. A big part of the reason is the increased use of copper in everything from electronics and electrical motors to generators, driven by large-scale deployment of wind turbines and electrical vehicles.
As the world moves to massively expand the use of electrical cars and installation of wind turbines, copper demand is predicted to outstrip current copper supply. With aluminium likely to make a big return as a result, it’s worth taking a look at modern-day aluminium-based wiring, including copper-clad aluminium and the use of carbon-based replacements.
How to Make Copper Expensive
In hindsight, copper prices weren’t that bad yet in the 1960s and 1970s, as we can see in the following graph of copper prices of the past 45 years:
Copper prices per pound – 45 year historical chart. (Source: Macrotrends.net)
These price increases are driven largely by an
increasing demand
for more electrical vehicles and wind turbines, which over the coming years look to accelerate, putting further pressure on the existing supplies. Although the
USGS has identified
likely undiscovered copper resources, this does require for a mining operation to be established, and not all copper ore can be economically mined and turned into raw copper.
Earlier this year the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a
report on the role of critical minerals
in the energy transition to low-carbon sources. Taken from this report, in the below images we can see the relative metal requirements per type of source, per rated output capacity, as well as the material requirements for electrical vehicles (EVs) compared to conventional (ICE) cars:
Minerals used in clean energy technologies compared to other power generation sources (Source: IEA)
Minerals used in electric cars compared to conventional cars. (Source: IEA)
Meanwhile, the expected demand curve for copper in light of current sustainable development policies at the same time is expected to look something like the below image, contrasted against current copper mines output and expected new mining operations.
Committed mine production and primary demand for copper, 2020-2030. (Source: IEA)
Not unsurprisingly, since many of such policies have come into effect around 2000 and alongside increasing demand from other industries, copper prices have been steadily rising, far beyond the highs of the 1960s that made prospective home owners decide between installing copper or aluminium wiring.
At this rate, we might see the end of common use and easy availability of copper in a matter of years. At the same time, as copper’s properties make it ideal for certain applications, other uses that may be fine with alternatives may have to look elsewhere. Very likely this would mean that everything from house wiring to customer electronics may soon find itself priced out of the copper market. What alternatives are there, and how do they compare to copper?
Trying to Top the Best
Copper is a favorite for electrical wiring for a number of reasons, not the least of which are its excellent thermal and electrical conductivity. This is why copper is a preferred material for heatsinks, and for electrical wiring in both houses and in electrical devices. In comparison, pure aluminium has only 61% of the electrical conductivity of copper by cross-section.
Yet aluminium has one major benefit over copper, and that is that it is twice as electrically conductive by mass, owing to copper’s density at room temperature of 8.96 g/cm
3
, versus 2.70 g/cm
3
for aluminium. For this reason applications where weight is more of a concern such as
transmission and distribution wiring
. Especially when running large bundles of cables between pylons, the higher conductance to weight ratio of aluminium offers major benefits.
Cross section of copper-coated aluminium (CCA) wire. (Source: Fujikura Ltd.)
When properly installed and used, aluminium is a fine choice as electrical conductor, but that doesn’t mean that it is the only option. Something that’s commonly seen in wiring since the 1970s is copper-clad aluminium (
CCA
) wire. This is basically what the name says: an aluminium core that is clad in copper, making it a bimetal. The main goal of CCA is to combine the benefits of both copper and aluminium in a single wire, meaning closer to copper-like conductivity, while avoiding the pitfalls of aluminium as the installation method is the same as for copper wire.
If we take a look at the specifications which
Fujikura lists for CCA
(also called CAW), we can see that while CCA isn’t as good as solid copper wire, it is significantly better than solid aluminium wire. If we add to this the major benefits that a copper skin adds in terms of near-elimination of thermal creep and compatibility with copper-compatible termination methods and technologies, it would seem to form a good alternative to both.
Interestingly, CCA has been competing with both copper and aluminium wiring for a while now, particularly for building wire, as noted in
this excellent write-up
by the IAEI Magazine on the history of aluminium building wiring. An important detail that this article adds is that the creation of CCA is fairly labor-intensive, meaning that its popularity has always been dependent on the current copper prices.
The IAEI notes that until late 2005, copper prices were still fairly low (as noted in the earlier historical copper prices graph) , but have since risen to the point where CCA is now highly competitive with copper.
A Dash of Carbon
The various allotropes of carbon.
CCA is not the pinnacle of materials science when it comes to electrical conductors. Carbon-based structures, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have
much higher electrical conductivity
than copper, as does
graphene
. The main issue is that making wires out of them is not exactly straightforward. Yet what if they could be merged with a metal like aluminium, or even spun into wires?
An article by
Lekawa-Raus et al.
published in 2014 titled
Electrical Properties of Carbon Nanotube Based Fibers and Their Future Use in Electrical Wiring
examines the research literature at that point in time on the production of CNT fibers, which can be spun into CNT wires. Based on the research, these wires would have superior electrical conductivity and weight, outperforming both copper and aluminium handily on all counts.
Connecting these CNT wires could be handled with a carbon solder, which at the time was under development at Cambridge. Even so, many challenges in producing flawless CNTs with the appropriate morphology remained, especially when moved from a laboratory to an industrial setting. Many of these concerns remain in 2020, when
Cesano et al.
performed another review study. They note that although progress has been made in the intervening years, full-carbon wires are still a future prospect.
Even so, CNT fibers can be
commercially purchased
for not entirely insane amounts of money, as well as CNT
composites with copper
and other metals like silver and gold. Recent studies by
Zhang et al. (2018)
,
Pradhan et al. (2020)
and
Chyada et al. (2017)
show improvements in thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity as well as tensile strength respectively for graphene-aluminium composites.
The addition of CNTs has also found use in other applications, such as the mechanical reinforcement of aluminium parts, with
Nyanor et al. (2020)
, detailing an aluminium matrix reinforced with CNTs as well as micron-sized titanium-carbide (TiC) particles. This creates a material that has 2.3 times the hardness of pure aluminium, with significantly improved wear resistance.
The Yazaki company of Japan has filed
numerous patents
on Al-CNT composite materials that are intended to be used in upcoming wire products.
Tirupati Graphite Plc
meanwhile has made claims about an Al-graphene composite that
claims
to have copper-like electrical conductivity, better thermal conductivity than copper and better micro-hardness than copper.
Electrifying Changes
With sky-high copper prices a potential prospect over the coming years, it would seem pertinent to take a good hard look at the available alternatives. Whether CCA is an acceptable alternative to copper depends on a lot of factors, but with real-world usage data available for the past five decades for house wiring and other applications, it is at least a known quantity.
Perhaps more exciting is the prospect of graphene and CNT-based wiring, which offers more than just a trade-off compared to copper. Instead these may result in an alternative to copper that is actually better in all respects, with better conductivity, higher tensile strength, higher resistance to corrosion and higher conductivity for both a given cross-section and weight.
From a hobbyist perspective, CCA is probably the most likely alternative one will end up with, based on a cost perspective and ease of handling. As it behaves and can be processed similarly to copper wire including soldering using standard solder alloys, it can replace copper wire with just a small bump in diameter to compensate for the worse electrical conductance.
It would be rather cool if future generations are wiring up their projects with CNT wires and carbon-based solders, however. Here’s to more carbon in our future. | 90 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385640",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T14:06:57",
"content": "If the y axis on that historical chart were scaled properly it would indeed be a very scary scenario on the price.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "63... | 1,760,372,934.543932 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/whats-in-a-raspberry-pi-processor-update/ | What’s In A Raspberry Pi Processor Update? | Jenny List | [
"Parts",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"BCM2711",
"chip revisions",
"Pi 4"
] | Those of us who have followed the Raspberry Pi over the years will be familiar with the various revisions of the little board, with their consequent new processors. What may be less obvious is that within the lifetime of any chip there will often be minor version changes, usually to fix bugs or to fine-tune production processes. They’re the same chip, but sometimes with a few extra capabilities. [Jeff Geerling]
didn’t miss this when the Raspberry Pi 400 had a BCM2711 with a newer version number than that on the Pi 4
, and now he’s notices the same chip on Pi 4 boards.
Why might they run two different revisions of the chip in parallel? It seems that the update changes the amount of memory addressable by the eMMC and the PCIe bus, the former could only see the first 1GB and the latter the first 3Gb. For the lower-spec Pi 4 boards this doesn’t present a problem, but for those with 8 gigabytes of memory it could clearly be an issue. Thus the Pi 400 and the top spec Pi 4 now have a newer BCM2711 version. This will almost certainly pass unnoticed for the average Raspberry Pi OS user, but the extra memory addressing space should be of interest for hardware experimenters wishing to expose that PCIe bus and talk to peripherals such as a GPU. That said, though he suggests the Compute Module 4 has the newer revision,
his own experiments were unsuccessful
.
[Editor’s Note:
our own overclocking experiments
show the C-version SOCs to run cooler/faster than their B counterparts, so it’s nice to have the better chips in the “normal” Pi form factor and not just the Pi 400 and compute modules.] | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385605",
"author": "Joe Schubert",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T11:56:24",
"content": "Yeah, I guess that they should have worded that as “and now he’s noticed the same chop on newer Pi 4 boards.” Since it wasn’t the chip in use previously.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,372,934.329127 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/automate-your-graffiti-with-the-graffomat/ | Automate Your Graffiti With The Graffomat! | Jim Heaney | [
"Art",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"art",
"graffiti",
"paint",
"plotter",
"pulley",
"spray"
] | In Banksy’s book,
Wall and Piece
, there is a very interesting quote; “Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked…”. This sounds like it would be a very exciting city to live in, except for those of us who do not have an artistic bone in their body. Luckily, [Niklas Roy] has come up with the solution to this problem;
the Graffomat, a spray can plotter
.
The Graffomat is, in its creator’s own words, a “quick and dirty graffiti plotter.” It is constructed primarily from wood and driven by recycled cordless drills that pulls string pulleys to move the gantry. The Arduino Nano at the heart of the Graffomat can be controlled by sending coordinates over serial. This allows for the connection of an SD card reader to drip-feed the machine, or a computer to enable real-time local or over-the-internet control.
We are especially impressed with how [Niklas] handled positional tracking. The cordless drills were certainly not repeatable like a stepper motor, as to allow for open-loop control. Therefore, the position of the gantry and head needed to be actively tracked. To achieve this, the axes are covered with black and white striped encoder strips, that is then read by a pair of phototransistors as the machine moves along. These can then be paired with the homing switches in the top left corner to determine absolute position.
Graffomat is not the first automated graffiti machine we’ve covered.
Read here about the robot that painted murals by climbing smokestacks in Estonia.
[via
r/arduino
] | 30 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385562",
"author": "tgoacher",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T08:32:54",
"content": "Would be very slow to write “Romane ite domum” 100 times with this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6385570",
"author": "mime",
"t... | 1,760,372,934.00525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/convention-plays-pokemon-on-giant-color-game-boy-costume/ | Convention Plays Pokemon On Giant Color Game Boy Costume | Kristina Panos | [
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"cosplay",
"emulator",
"game boy color",
"pokemon",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | Standard cosplay is fun and all, but what is there for admirers to do but look you up and down and nitpick the details? Interactive cosplay, now that’s where it’s at. [Jaryd Giesen] knows this, and managed to pull together
a working color Game Boy costume
in a few days.
The original plan was to use a small projector on an arm, like one of those worm lights that helped you see the screen, but [Jaryd] ended up getting a secondhand monitor and strapping it to his chest. Then he took the rest of the build from there. Things are pretty simple underneath all that cardboard: there’s a Raspberry Pi running the RetroPie emulator, a Pico to handle the inputs, and two batteries — one beefy 12,000 mAH battery for the monitor, and a regular power pack for the Pi and the Pico.
As you’ll see in the build and demo video after the break, nearly 100 people stopped to push [Jaryd]’s buttons. They didn’t get very far in the game, but it sure looks like they had fun trying.
Since we’re still in a pandemic, you may want to consider
incorporating a mask
into your Halloween costume this year. Just a thought. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385539",
"author": "qwert",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T05:37:03",
"content": "…Wait I don’t remember a game boy having a joystick right in the middle beneath the screen?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6385620",
"author... | 1,760,372,933.934543 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/bfree-brings-intermittent-computing-to-python/ | BFree Brings Intermittent Computing To Python | Tom Nardi | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"CircuitPython",
"energy harvesting",
"intermittent computing",
"off grid",
"python",
"solar power"
] | Generally speaking, we like our computing devices to remain on and active the whole time we’re using them. But there are situations, such as off-grid devices that run on small solar cells, where constant power is by no means a guarantee. That’s where the concept of intermittent computing comes into play, and now thanks to the BFree project, you can
develop Python software that persists even when the hardware goes black
.
Implemented as a shield that attaches to a Adafruit Metro M0 Express running a modified CircuitPython interpreter, BFree automatically makes “checkpoints” as the user’s code is running so that if the power is unexpectedly cut, it can return the environment to a known-good state instantaneously. The snapshot of the system, including everything from the variables stored in memory to the state of each individual peripheral, is stored on the non-volatile FRAM of the MSP430 microcontroller on the BFree board; meaning even if the power doesn’t come back on for weeks or months, the software will be ready to leap back into action.
In addition to the storage for system checkpoints, the BFree board also includes energy harvesting circuity and connections for a solar panel and large capacitor. Notably, the system has no provision for a traditional battery. You can keep the Metro M0 Express plugged in while developing your code, but once you’re ready to test in the field, the shield is in charge of powering up the system whenever it’s built up enough of a charge.
The product of a collaboration between teams at Northwestern University and Delft University of Technology, BFree is actually an evolution of the
battery-free handheld game they developed around this time last year
. While that project was used to raise awareness of how intermittent computing works, BFree is clearly a more flexible platform, and is better suited for wider experimentation.
We’ve seen a fair number of devices that
store up small amounts of energy over the long term
for quick bouts of activity, so we’re very interested to see what the community can come up with when that sort of hardware is combined with software that can be paused until its needed. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385257",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2021-09-29T11:39:07",
"content": "Amazing. I had no idea Python and power-efficient computing could ever exist in the same universe.Still seems to me to be the wrong axis to optimize here…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,372,934.598743 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/is-your-movie-too-loud-cant-hear-the-dialogue-this-circuit-can-help/ | Is Your Movie Too Loud? Can’t Hear The Dialogue? This Circuit Can Help. | Jim Heaney | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"audio analyser",
"infrared",
"infrared detector",
"movies"
] | Everyone loves watching movies, that is, so long as you can hear what the characters on screen are saying. [GreatScott] found this second part difficult while watching through BladeRunner 2049,
so he designed an automatic volume adjuster to assist
.
At a high level, the solution is fairly straightforward; when there is loud music playing in a movie, turn the volume down. The challenge is how to actually achieve that. The first step was controlling the volume. To avoid having to modify or damage his sound system, [GreatScott] opted instead to mimic the volume up and down signals of his remote over IR. Using the very handy IRremote library for Arduino and its built-in decoding functionality, he was able to identify and replicate the signals with his own IR LED.
The second step in this process was measuring the volume of the movie. [GreatScott] achieved this with a microphone and amplifier circuit, that was then piped into one of the analog pins of the Arduino Pro Micro at the heart of the build. Since the audio being sampled could have a frequency as high as 20 kHz, the ADC Prescaler had to be adjusted from its standard value, which would have only permitted measurements at less than 5 kHz.
The third step was writing the algorithm to detect loud music and adjust the volume accordingly. The Arduino will measure the audio until a sound greater than the dead band value, set with one of the two onboard potentiometers, is detected. This then triggers the Arduino to start a timer, to see how frequently the upper limit is being surpassed. If it is just one or two occasionally loud noises (like a scream, a clap, whistling, etc.) the Arduino will not take any action, but multiple loud noises in rapid succession will then trigger the volume down command over the IR LED. A second potentiometer allows for adjustment of this timer’s critical value, so that you can make the system respond faster or slower depending on the movie.
Once the sound has been detected to have dropped down below a critical vaue, the Arduino assumes that the movie is back to dialog and will increase the volume by the number of times it decreased it before, leaving you back at the perfect volume.
Maybe you’re the type that cares more for the visuals of a movie, rather than the audio. In that case,
this e-paper movie display
will be perfect for giving you time to appreciate every frame! | 67 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385210",
"author": "Wibble",
"timestamp": "2021-09-29T08:06:13",
"content": "How does turning the volume down help clarify dialogue? Surely this really needs to move into dynamic filtering and EQ? At which point you are esentially replicating a simple digital hearing aid (and would... | 1,760,372,934.694221 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/sew-able-carbon-nanotube-thread-could-spin-a-lot-of-awesome/ | Sew-able Carbon Nanotube Thread Could Spin A Lot Of Awesome | Kristina Panos | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"carbon nanotube thread",
"carbon nanotubes",
"conductive thread",
"ekg",
"heart monitor"
] | Plenty of people just plain dislike wearing jewelry, even (or especially) smart watches. Nevertheless, they’d like to have biofeedback like everybody else. Well, we watch-less ones have something to look forward to, because a group of graduate students at Rice University have created
extremely strong conductive thread woven from carbon nanotubes
, which can be sewn into standard athletic clothing and used as electrodes, antennas, or simply as ballistic protection.
At 22 microns wide, the original carbon nanotubes were too skinny to use as thread. Instead, the team braided together three bundles of seven ‘tubes each using the type of machine that model boat builders use to make tiny rigging. Then they zig-zag stitched the threads into a shirt, which gives the stitches added flexibility. This thread maybe as strong and conductive as metal, but the fibers are soft and flexible, and most importantly, machine-washable. Between its strength and conductivity, this thread could have a long list of applications from military down to civilian. Check out the introduction in the video after the break.
For now, the shirt has to be pretty snug, but future garments could easily have higher concentrations of nano-threads in order to get a better signal. Good thing, because we’re still carrying around our COVID nineteen — aka the weight we’ve gained since the longest March of anyone’s life, and never liked tight shirts anyway.
What else can carbon nanotubes do? Plenty, like
keep 3D prints from delaminating
.
Via
New Atlas | 18 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385206",
"author": "Andy Pugh",
"timestamp": "2021-09-29T07:35:49",
"content": "The mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes (stiff, light, strong) make me wonder why they would be “softer” than a metallic thread produced and used in the same way.I would suspect that similarly thi... | 1,760,372,934.747819 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/excel-ray-tracing-with-help-from-c/ | Excel Ray Tracing With Help From C | Al Williams | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"c programming",
"dll",
"excel",
"ray tracing",
"xll"
] | It isn’t news that [s0lly] likes to do ray tracing using Microsoft Excel. However, he recently updated his set up to use functions in a C XLL — a DLL, really — to accelerate the
Excel
rendering. Even if ray tracing isn’t your thing, the technique of creating custom high-performance Excel functions might do you some good somewhere else.
We’ve seen [s0lly’s] efforts
before
, and you can certainly see that the new technique speeds things up and produces a better result, which isn’t especially surprising. In addition to being faster, the new routines produce more detail.
The Microsoft
documentation
on doing this is pretty clear if you want to give it a go. One of the things you can do in your C code is to take advantage of things like threads to get better performance, which [s0lly] shows in his example.
Of course, you could argue that you don’t need Excel here, but what fun would that be? Besides, then you’d need to handle all the data input and output which would be a pain in its own right.
If you need a
simple explanation of ray tracing
, we just covered that. We aren’t above abusing
spreadsheets
, ourselves. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385175",
"author": "Alan",
"timestamp": "2021-09-29T04:14:15",
"content": "Cudos for the work that’s gone into this.Last time I even looked at ray tracing, Pov-Ray was the program everyone was using. I modelled a top down view of a beam of white light, passing through a prism. Ther... | 1,760,372,934.906079 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/a-coolant-leak-the-likely-culprit-for-aussie-tesla-battery-bank-fire/ | A Coolant Leak The Likely Culprit For Aussie Tesla Battery Bank Fire | Jenny List | [
"News"
] | [
"Australia",
"Big Battery",
"Megapack",
"tesla"
] | Followers of alternative energy technology will remember how earlier in the year a battery container at Tesla’s Megapack Australian battery grid storage plant caught fire. Lithium ion batteries are not the easiest to extinguish once aflame, but fortunately the fire was contained to only two of the many battery containers on the site.
The regulator Energy Safe Victoria
have completed their investigation into the incident
, and concluded that it was caused by a coolant leak in a container which caused an electrical component failure that led to the fire. It seems that the container was in a service mode at the time so its protection systems weren’t active, and that also its alarm system was not being monitored. They have required that cooling systems should henceforth be pressure tested and inspected for leaks, and that alarm procedures should be changed for the site.
When a new technology such as large-scale battery storage is brought on-line, it is inevitable that their teething troubles will include catastrophic failures such as this one. The key comes in how those involved handle them, and for that we must give Tesla and the site’s operators credit for their co-operation with the regulators. The site’s modular design and the work of the firefighters in cooling the surrounding packs ensured that a far worse outcome was averted. Given these new procedures, it’s hoped that future installations will be safer still.
You can read our original coverage of the fire here, if you’re interested in more information
.
[Main image source:
CFA
] | 36 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385133",
"author": "Spacedog",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T23:33:52",
"content": "Dave Jones of EEVblog did a video on this, rightly pointed out that’s there’s absolutely no reason for these banks of cells not to be more spaced out and airgapped. Had a battery fire like this n my city... | 1,760,372,934.856805 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/printed-adapter-puts-vintage-lens-back-to-work/ | Printed Adapter Puts Vintage Lens Back To Work | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"lens",
"lens adapter",
"lens mount",
"printed threads",
"threaded"
] | While browsing through an antiques shop, [Nick Morganti] came across a Kodak slide projector with an absolutely massive lens hanging off the front. Nearly a foot long and with a front diameter of approximately four inches, the German-made ISCO optic was a steal for just $10. The only tricky part was figuring out
how to use it on a modern DSLR camera
.
After liberating the lens from the projector, [Nick] noted the rear seemed to be nearly the same diameter as the threaded M42 mount that was popular with older film cameras. As luck would have it, he already had an adapter that let him use an old Soviet M42 lens on his camera. The thread pitch didn’t match at all, but by holding the lens up to the adapter he was able to experiment a bit with the focus and take some test shots.
Encouraged by these early tests, [Nick] went about designing a 3D printed adapter. His first attempt was little more than a pair of concentric cylinders, and was focused like an old handheld spyglass. This worked, but it was quite finicky to use with the already ungainly lens. His second attempt added internal threads to the mix, which allowed him to more easily control focus. After he was satisfied with the design, he glued a small ring over the adapter so the lens could no longer be unscrewed all the way and accidentally fall out.
To us, this project is a perfect application of desktop 3D printing.[Nick] was able to conceptualize a one-of-a-kind design, test it, iterate on it, and arrive on a finished product, all without having to leave the comfort of his own home. To say nothing of the complex design of the adapter, which would be exceedingly difficult to produce via traditional means. Perhaps some people’s idea of a good time is trying to whittle a lens bayonet out of wood, but it certainly isn’t ours.
So it’s probably little surprise we’ve seen a number of similar projects over the years.
From monstrous anamorphic adapters
to
upgraded optics for the Game Boy Camera
, it seems there’s a healthy overlap between the 3D printing and photography communities. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385120",
"author": "H",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T21:41:29",
"content": "This is great, it kind of makes me sad to see beautiful, old lenses sitting around not being used because they don’t fit on modern cameras, good work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,372,935.122418 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/microwave-ovens-need-more-power-use-lasers-instead/ | Microwave Ovens: Need More Power? Use Lasers Instead! | Dave Rowntree | [
"cooking hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"cooking",
"laser",
"magnetron",
"microwave"
] | You know how it is, you get in late from work, you’ve been stuck in traffic for what seems like an eternity, and you’re hungry. You reach for the microwave meal, and think, if only I didn’t have to wait that three-and-a-half minutes, 900 watts just isn’t enough power. What you need is a laser microwave, and as luck would have it,
[Styropyro] has built one, so you don’t have to
. No, really, don’t.
After he observed a microwave only operating on a half-wave basis, and delivering power 50% of the time, he attempted to convert it to full-wave by doubling up the high voltage transformer and rectification diodes. While this worked, the poor suffering magnetron didn’t go the full mile, and died somewhat prematurely.
Not to be disheartened, the obvious thing was to ditch the whole concept of cooking with boring old radio waves, and just use a pile of frickin’ lasers instead. Now we’re not sure how he manages to get hold of some of the parts he uses, and the laser array modules look sketchy to say the least, and to be frank, we don’t think they should be easy to get given the ridiculous beam power they can muster.
With the build completed to the usual [Styropryo] level of excellent build quality, he goes on to produce some mouthwatering delicacies such as laser-charred poptart, incinerated steak with not-really-caramelised onions and our favourite laser-popcorn. OK, he admits the beam has way too much power, really should be infrared, and way more diffuse to be even vaguely practical, but we don’t care about practicality round these parts. Who wouldn’t want the excitement of going instantly blind by merely walking into the kitchen at the wrong time?
We’ve covered a fair few microwave oven related hacks before, including a
neat microwave kiln
, and hacks using microwave parts, such as a
janky Jacob’s ladder
, but this is probably the first laser microwave we’ve come across. Hopefully the last :)
And remember kids, as [Styropyro] says in pretty much every video on his channel:
All the crazy stuff I’m about to do was done for educational purposes, in fact if you were to try any of this stuff at home, you’d probably die… | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385056",
"author": "Jeremy G",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T18:47:16",
"content": "K, I’ll be that guy. Autocorrect strikes again. :) “Use lasers instead.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6385124",
"author": "Garth Bock",... | 1,760,372,934.955631 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/shortwave-radio-picks-up-sideband/ | Shortwave Radio Picks Up Sideband | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Reviews",
"Teardown"
] | [
"radio",
"receiver",
"SI4732",
"ssb"
] | With the push to having most of a radio receiver as part of a PC, it might seem odd to have a standalone communication receiver, but
[OM0ET] reviews the latest one he picked up
, an ATS25. Inside isn’t much: a battery, a speaker, an encoder, and a Si4732 that provides the RF muscle.
It appears the receiver is pretty broadband which could be a problem. [OM0ET] suggests adding selectivity in the antenna or adding an extra board to use as a bandpass filter.
The design is simple enough, we are sure you could easily hack the unit to do different things. Most coverage stops at 30MHz, but there is an FM band, so we wondered if you could get the thing to work on other frequencies, too.
Clearly, the Arduino portion would be easily hackable. For the price, we were both impressed with the touchscreen and build, but maybe less impressed with the RF filtering. On the other hand, the small form factor would be great for backpacking or portable use and it isn’t that expensive. It does seem to work pretty well in practice.
We’ve seen similar homebrew radios
using the same chipset
or, at least,
a similar one
. | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385520",
"author": "Allan-H",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T03:59:16",
"content": "The Si4732 appears to be obsolete. Silicon Labs recently sold that division to Skyworks, who list a number of related tuner ICs on their website but not that exact part number.https://www.skyworksinc.com... | 1,760,372,935.004901 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/robust-i2c-and-spi-in-space-thanks-to-bus-isolation/ | Robust I2C And SPI In Space Thanks To Bus Isolation | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bus",
"i2c",
"robust",
"satellite",
"satellite design",
"spi"
] | Imagine you’re sending a piece of hardware to space on a satellite. Unless you’re buddy-buddy with NASA, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll ever be able to head up there and fix something if it goes wrong once it’s launched. Robust design is key, so that even in the event of a failure in one component, the rest of the hardware can keep working.
The example I2C isolation circuit from [Max’s] paper. The SPI implementation is even simpler.
[Max Holliday] found himself in this exact situation, running 69 I2C and SPI devices in a single satellite. Thus, he came up with circuits to auto-isolate devices from these buses in the event of an issue. That work is the subject of a research paper now available on
the TechRxiv Preprint Server.
The problem is that these simple buses aren’t always the most robust, being vulnerable to single-point failures where one bad part takes down other parts of the bus. [Max] notes that vast numbers of sensors and devices rely on these standards, and it can be difficult or prohibitively expensive to design without them, so a solution was needed.
To fix this, [Max] developed a simple external circuit that could be placed on each node of a I2C or SPI communication bus. In the event of malfunction, that node can be cut off from the bus by this circuit, allowing the rest of the system to go on functioning.
With little more than a few transistors, MOSFETs and passives, you too could protect your buses from malfunctions using these techniques. [Max] did just that on the NASA V-R3x mission which flew successfully in January 2021 if you needed any further confirmation of the value of this technique.
It’s something that won’t bother the home hobbyist building a garage door opener, but it could be of great value to those designing systems that must fail gracefully if they fail at all. Be sure to share your best tips and tricks for robust SPI and I2C buses in the comments below! | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385486",
"author": "Fworg64",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T00:46:11",
"content": "Capacitance, capacitance, capacitance",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6385495",
"author": "Neil",
"timestamp": "2021-09-30T01:27:41... | 1,760,372,935.068373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/raspberry-pi-pico-makes-for-expeditious-input-device/ | Raspberry Pi Pico Makes For Expeditious Input Device | Tom Nardi | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"input device",
"micropython",
"pi pico",
"usb hid"
] | With its copious number of GPIO pins and native USB, the Raspberry Pi Pico is arguably the ideal microcontroller for developing your own platform agnostic USB Human Input Devices. But you don’t have to take our word for it. Check out how quickly the $4 USD board allowed
[Alberto Nunez] to put together a pair of foot pedals for his computer
.
Wiring doesn’t get much easier than this.
A peek inside the enclosure reveals…well, not a whole lot. All that’s hiding inside that heavy-duty plastic box is the Pi Pico and some screw down terminals that let [Alberto] easily wire up the female bulkhead connectors for the pedals themselves. Incidentally, while you could certainly make your own pedals, the ones used for this project appear to be the sort of
commercially available units we’ve seen used in similar projects
.
With the hardware sorted, [Alberto] just needed to write the software. While he could have taken the easy way out and hard coded everything, we appreciate that his CircuitPython script loads its configuration from a text file. This allows you to easily configure which GPIO pins are hooked up to buttons, and what key codes to associate them with. He didn’t really need to go through this much effort for his own purposes, but it makes the project far easier to adapt for others, so our hats off to him.
If you’re looking for a bit more inspiration, our very own
[Kristina Panos] put together a Python-powered macro foot stool
that you can put under your desk for rapid fire keyboard shortcuts. Plus you can stand on it to reach the top shelf, if need be. | 28 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385407",
"author": "Quite a few newtons to press a \"foot button\"?",
"timestamp": "2021-09-29T20:38:15",
"content": "How much force does it take to actually activate those foot pedals? My guess is not something ergonomic at all! Really like the idea here but it’s really only for i... | 1,760,372,935.236522 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/ic-shortage-keeps-linux-out-of-phone-charger-for-now/ | IC Shortage Keeps Linux Out Of Phone Charger, For Now | Tom Nardi | [
"hardware",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"Embedded Linux",
"openwrt",
"penetration testing",
"WiFiWart"
] | We’ve been eagerly following the development of the WiFiWart for some time now, as a quad-core Cortex-A7 USB phone charger with dual WiFi interfaces that runs OpenWrt sounds exactly like the sort of thing we need in our lives. Unfortunately, we’ve just heard from [Walker] that
progress on the project has been slowed down indefinitely by crippling chip shortages
.
At this point, we’ve all heard how the chip shortage is impacting the big players out there. It makes sense that
automakers are feeling the pressure
, since they are buying literally millions of components at a clip. But stories like this are a reminder that even an individual’s hobby project can be sidelined by parts that are suddenly 40 times as expensive as they were when you first put them in your bill of materials.
The new miniature compute board.
In this particular case, [Walker] explains that a power management chip you could get on DigiKey for $1.20 USD a few months ago is now in such short supply that the best offer he’s found so far is $49.70 a pop from an electronics broker in Shenzhen. It sounds like he’s going to bite the bullet and buy the four of them (ouch) that he needs to build a working prototype, but obviously it’s a no go for production.
Luckily, it’s not all bad news. [Walker] has made some good progress on the power supply board, which will eventually join the diminutive computer inside the USB charger enclosure. Part of the trick is that the device is still supposed to be a functional USB charger, so in addition to 5 VDC for the output port, the power supply also needs to produce 1.1 V, 1.35 V, 2.5 V, 3.0 V, and 3.3 V for the computer. We’re glad to see he’s taking the high road with his mains circuitry, making sure to use UL listed components and maintaining proper isolation.
When we
last checked in on the WiFiWart back in July
, [Walker] had already managed to boot Linux on his over-sized prototype board. Now he’s got PCBs in hand that look far closer to the final size and shape necessary to tuck them into a phone charger. It’s a shame that the parts shortage is slowing down progress, but we’re confident we’ll at least get to see a one-off version of the WiFiWart powered up before the year is out. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385378",
"author": "Thomas",
"timestamp": "2021-09-29T18:55:42",
"content": "Change the design to use what Onion Mega uses. MT7688AN which is MIPS24KEc. It runs WRT. The onion is so small it could go in to a 12w wall adapter. You could even stick a camera on it in that size.",... | 1,760,372,935.553952 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/101-uses-for-an-everready-flashlight-history/ | 101 Uses For An Everready — Flashlight History | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Slider"
] | [
"everready",
"flashlight"
] | For some reason, I’m always interested in why things are called what they are. For example, I’ve been compelled in the past to research what Absorbine Senior is. Not that it is important, but Absorbine Junior is a smaller size of horse liniment, so you don’t have to buy a drum of ordinary Absorbine just to rub down your sore thumb. So it isn’t a mystery that I would find myself musing over why we call a flashlight a flashlight.
You don’t think of a flashlight as flashing, under normal circumstances, at least. Turns out the answer lies in the history of the device, its poor beginnings, and our willingness to treat imperfect components as though they were much better than they are. That last point, by the way, still has ramifications today, so even if you aren’t a fan of flashlight history, keep reading.
Portable Lighting
Ever since people learned to use fire, there’s been a desire for portable lighting. Torches, candles, and even oil lamps have all had their place. But burning things for light in small cramped spaces leaves a lot to be desired. It isn’t surprising that people quickly turned to electricity when that seemed to be feasible.
To make a good portable light, though, you needed a good battery and a good bulb. Both of those things were not immediately forthcoming. Early batteries, in particular, had wet chemistry. They were heavy and they needed to be kept upright.
Flashlight by [Belb], CC-By-2.5 Generic
In 1887, dry cell batteries that used a paste electrolyte began to appear. Mass-produced units didn’t show up until 1896. By 1899, David Misell, a British inventor, filed a US patent for what anyone would recognize as a modern flashlight. Several D cells in a paper tube along with a bulb and a reflector created a clean portable light source.
The patent assignee — the American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company — donated a few of the devices to the New York City police department. They were impressed, but the bar was pretty low and we wouldn’t think much of these lights today. The company did make a success of it, though, and would eventually become known as EverReady.
You’ll notice that even in the early advertisements, the word “flashlight” appears. It turns out, the low-quality battery and filament conspired to create a light that wouldn’t stay on very long. Turning the light on almost immediately caused the battery voltage to droop. The result is you’d get a little flash of light that would immediately dim until you let the battery rest for a second.
Better Everything
Of course, everything gets better over time when it comes to electronics. Tungsten filaments were a big help and battery tech got better, too. These days even an incandescent bulb isn’t found very often as solid-state equivalents are generally better. If you do find a regular bulb, it is probably filled with gas like xenon.
Part of a flashlight pamphlet
Still, a clean, cool portable light had its uses. By the early part of the 1900s, you could find
101 Uses for a Flashlight
and a wide variety of different types were available, as you can see in this pamphlet.
Circuits
Even today, lightbulbs are a strange circuit component and require special handling. We like to think of them as purely resistive loads with stable characteristics and we like to think of batteries as ideal voltage sources, too. Neither of those things are, of course, true.
There are really two things, at least, that happens when you try to power an incandescent bulb. First, a real battery isn’t perfect. So while you may think that the battery looks like a perfect 1.5 V cell, it really looks more like a perfect cell in series with a small resistor. The better the battery, the smaller the resistor and the less effect it has on the circuit performance.
For example, suppose the cell has a 1/4 ohm of internal resistance. Further, imagine that you have some (for now) ideal light bulb that will draw 1.5 mA at 1.5 V meaning it should look like a 1000 ohm resistor.
If you look at a
circuit like that
in a simulator, you’ll see there’s not much difference since the 1/4 ohm is so small compared to the 1K. But if you play with the numbers, you’ll see as the ratio gets smaller, the effect of the voltage and current into the load makes a difference.
More Problems
The other problem with a practical flashlight is that filaments don’t act much like resistors. A filament will have a certain resistance value when cold, but that resistance will increase rapidly when heated. This change in resistance causes an inrush current when you apply power that can be many times higher than the nominal operating current.
This can be a common problem when you are trying to drive a real light bulb directly from a digital output. That initial inrush current can cause havoc with an output that is rated sufficient for nominal operations. In some designs, the varying resistance of a lightbulb is
used as a design parameter
.
So all these things combine to give us the flashlight. A high-resistance battery that droops as the poor-quality filament draws a high inrush current. It was fortunate, I suppose, that any light was forthcoming, at all.
Nowadays, of course, a flashlight doesn’t flash unless you want it to. There are gas-filled bulbs, LEDs, lasers — even our phones have a dedicated flashlight key. Some flashlights have
a lot of LEDs
. Or, you can go with
fewer LEDs
but more — ahem — power. | 53 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385357",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2021-09-29T17:10:13",
"content": ">A filament will have a certain resistance value when cold, but that resistance will increase rapidly when heated. This change in resistance causes an inrush currentNope. The much lower cold resistanc... | 1,760,372,935.375422 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/plotting-to-restore-a-r0tring-cs-50/ | Plotting To Restore A R0tring CS-50 | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"ISO lettering",
"pen plotter",
"plotter",
"restoration",
"Rotring",
"scriber",
"technical drawing"
] | If you’re of a certain vintage and have ever done any technical drawing, chances are good that you used a r0tring of some kind, be it pencil or pen. Well, r0tring makes more than writing implements. They also made electronic scribers — a small plotter that pens ISO lettering on technical drawings based on typed input. This was a huge time saver over doing it freehand or stenciling each letter. The CS-50 is designed to hold the top-of-the-line r0tring drawing pen, which turned out to be the most expensive part of this restoration aside from the time spent sniffing out issues.
[Atkelar] likes to open things up and give them a visual inspection before powering them on. We think this is good practice, even if the suspense kills you. But really,
[Atkelar] did so much more than that
. He started by replacing the likely late-80s-era coin cell even though it registered north of 3 V. Then he swapped out all the electrolytic caps and one tantalum, cleaned the rubber dome keyboard parts with a cheap electric toothbrush, (another great idea), and completely disassembled the x-y mechanism to clean and re-oil it.
Glue boss!
Then came the moment of truth. The input works and shows up on the screen, but the steppers don’t move. The waveform from the motors looked good, but seemed to be over voltage by about 3 V. Although [Atkelar] couldn’t find a manual online, he did find a blog post about this machine that confirmed 15 V on the steppers is right.
As it turns out, there was a ground issue. The sheathing of the power cable acts as a common ground, so pressing it against the bottom plate of the disassembled case made steppers work. But after a while, they quit. [Atkelar] cleaned terminals, but nothing had changed — the steppers would work for a while and then stop.
We thought this would turn into a Fail of the Week for sure, but [Atkelar] checked more of the motor pins and found that one of the driver chips was dead. Fortunately, he found a replacement and the thing works like new. Check out the complete restoration video after the break, and look for our favorite part. That’s when [Atkelar] molded a new screw boss end by building a wall with polyimide tape and filling up the cavity with cyanoacrylate glue and baking soda.
In the mood for more restorations?
You can’t go wrong with something by [drygol], that’s for sure
.
Thanks for the tip, [macsimski]! | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385342",
"author": "Matthew Smith",
"timestamp": "2021-09-29T16:01:29",
"content": "My appetite to understand the mechanics of this thing are not satisfied. Would love to see a more in depth discussion of the motion systems",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,372,935.28831 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/29/teardown-sling-adapter/ | Teardown: Sling Adapter | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Slider",
"Teardown"
] | [
"cypress",
"development kit",
"dish network",
"h.264",
"mpeg2",
"slingbox",
"transcoding"
] | The consumer electronics space is always in a state of flux, but perhaps nowhere is this more evident than with entertainment equipment. In the span of just a few decades we went from grainy VHS tapes on 24″ CRTs to 4K Blu-rays on 70″ LED panels, only to end up spending most of our viewing time watching streaming content on our smartphones. There’s no sign of things slowing down, either. In fact they’re arguably speeding up. Sure that 4K TV you bought a couple years back might have HDR, but does it have HDMI 2.1 and Dolby Vision?
So it’s little surprise that eBay is littered with outdated A/V gadgets that can be had for a pennies on the dollar. Take for example the SB700-100 Sling Adapter we’re looking at today.
This device retailed for $99 when it was released in 2010
, and enabled Dish Network users to stream content saved on their DVR to a smartphone or tablet. Being able to watch full TV shows and movies on a mobile device over the Internet was a neat trick back then, before Netflix had even started rolling out their Android application. But today it’s about as useful as an HD-DVD drive, which is why you can pick one up for as little as $5.
Of course, that’s only a deal if you can actually do something with the device. Contemporary reviews seemed pretty cagey about how the thing actually worked, explaining simply that plugging it into your Dish DVR imbued the set-top box with hitherto unheard of capabilities. They assured the reader that the performance was excellent, and that it would be $99 well spent should they decide to dive headfirst into this brave new world where your favorite TV shows and movies could finally be enjoyed in the bathroom.
Now, more than a decade after its release, we’ll crack open the SB700-100 Sling Adapter and see if we can’t figure out how this unusual piece of tech actually worked. Its days of slinging the latest episode of
The Office
may be over, but maybe this old dog can still learn a few new tricks.
A Crimson Enigma
To be sure, the Sling Adapter is a very unusual device. It has no controls, no display, and its only link to the outside world is the short USB pigtail that’s permanently attached to the rear of the unit. Yet despite its apparent simplicity, its heat-dissipating metal enclosure hints at considerable raw power underneath its Merlot hood. Even today the device looks impressively high-tech, which may explain why the reviewers from the previous decade were so enamored with it. If the Sling Adapter looks like some piece of advanced technology now, imagine what they thought of it in 2010.
Upon opening up the device we’re greeted with a healthy application of thermal compound, which confirms that the metallic grid case is essentially a massive heatsink. With the removal of four more screws, the 70 mm x 80 mm PCB can be lifted out of the case, and surprisingly, the USB pigtail can be disconnected from what turns out to be a female Mini-B jack. As far as disassembly goes,
it surely doesn’t get much easier than this
. But of course, we’ve still got to figure out what this board does.
Before I went any farther and potentially damaged something, I decided it would be wise to plug the board into the computer to see what happens.
We’ve found unexpected USB functionality in previous teardowns
, but even still, I’ll admit to being momentarily stunned by the output of
lsusb
.
Incredibly, the Sling Adapter was immediately recognized as a
Cypress CY7C68013 EZ-USB FX2 Development Kit
. The EZ-USB FX2 pairs an
Intel 8051 microcontroller with a high-speed USB 2.0 interface
that’s designed to facilitate bulk transfers and has the ability to renumerate itself on the fly. A bit of digging uncovers that firmware for the chip is generally downloaded from the host system and copied into RAM on power-up, after which point the code is executed and the USB parameters readjust as necessary for the new application.
It would appear that, accidentally or otherwise, the Sling Adapter’s default state is to advertise itself as a development board until a firmware image has been provided by the Dish DVR. My first thought was that the device
might be operating as sort of a security dongle
, where the DVR would upload some code to it and wait to see if it gets the appropriate response after execution. But the device wouldn’t be generating the sort of heat its’s clearly been designed for if it was just calculating some checksums; obviously there’s some serious number crunching going on.
H.264 on a Chip
After spending some quality time with cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol, we have our answer. Hidden under the thick layer of thermal compound is a Magnum DX6225-LHG00-A3 that was
designed to transcode MPEG-2 video to a lower-resolution H.264 stream
suitable for playback on early smartphones and tablets. The two identical chips next to it are obviously external RAM, but I’ve been having some trouble identifying them conclusively. My best guess is that they are Micron 8 MB MT47R64M16’s with some alternate branding, but even for 2010, 16 MB of RAM seems pretty low.
Combined with the bulk transfer capabilities of the EZ-USB FX2, things are starting to make sense. The Dish DVR pushes the MPEG-2 video stored on its hard drive to the DX6225 over USB, where its transcoded in real-time to a mobile friendly format and sent back to the set-top box where it’s ultimately distributed over the network.
It’s a concept we still see in use today, albeit with considerably different workloads. The Coral USB Accelerator and Intel Neural Compute Stick are essentially modern answer to the Sling Adapter; plug-in modules that handle the computational workload of machine learning so the host system can focus on the logistics and user interface.
This helps performance-constrained “edge” platforms such as the Raspberry Pi
handle tasks like high-framerate computer vision, and back in 2010, it let Dish subscribers play videos on their phones without bogging down the DVR.
New Marching Orders
I know what you’re thinking. If the USB side of the Sling Adapter is really based on a Cypress CY7C68013 EZ-USB FX2 development kit, does that mean you can buy one of these things for $5 and load new code into its 8051 MCU? The answer, at least so far, would appear to be yes. But as usual, the Devil is in the details.
After compiling the open source cyusb linux suite
, I was successfully able to connect to the EZ-USB FX2 and upload one of the included demonstration firmware images into RAM. After the Sling Adapter renumerated, a program running on the computer was able to establish a loop-back connection with the firmware. While I haven’t personally tested it yet, you should be able to use the official (and relatively modern)
EZ-USB FX3 Software Development Kit from Cypress
to start writing your own firmware as its backwards compatible with FX2.
Note the changed product ID and device description after firmware upload.
Now for the bad news. Remember how I said the Sling Adapter doesn’t have any controls or displays? Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it a very exciting platform for experimenting with. Sure you can get it to run your own code, but this is a machine built for a
very
specific purpose, so there’s not much that code can actually do. Though if you do manage to create a custom firmware for these things that does something interesting,
we’d certainly love to hear about it
. | 27 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385332",
"author": "sampleusername",
"timestamp": "2021-09-29T15:33:43",
"content": "What was the point of the article if you can’t make the device useful after tearing it down?But this really leaves me to wonder, how many millions of devices running embedded OS are currently going... | 1,760,372,935.622056 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/tico-robot-plays-tic-tac-toe-by-drawing-on-a-tiny-whiteboard/ | TICO Robot Plays Tic-Tac-Toe By Drawing On A Tiny Whiteboard | Robin Kearey | [
"Games"
] | [
"arduino",
"tic-tac-toe",
"whiteboard"
] | Tic-tac-toe (or “Noughts and Crosses”) is a game simple enough to implement in any computer system: indeed it’s often used in beginner’s programming courses. A more challenging project, and arguably more interesting and useful, is to make some kind of hardware that can play it in real life. [mircemk]
built a simple yet elegant machine
that can play tic-tac-toe against a human player in a way that looks quite similar to the way humans play against one another: by drawing.
The robot’s design and programming were developed at PlayRobotics, who named the project
TICO
. The mechanical parts are available as STL files, to be printed by any 3D printer, and a comprehensive manual explains how to assemble and program the whole thing. Since it’s all open source, anyone can build it from scratch and modify it to their liking. The pictures show the original design by PlayRobotics, while the video (embedded after the break) shows [mircemk]’s version, which includes a wooden frame that gives it a bit more presence.
The electronic components are an Arduino with an OLED screen and a buzzer, plus three servos to operate the mechanical parts. Lacking a 3D printer, [mircemk] cut the plastic parts from a 3 mm sheet of PVC, which seems to have worked surprisingly well. The game board consists of a small whiteboard on which the robot and the human can draw their O’s and X’s.
The mechanical structure of the robot looks a bit like a tiny human using both arms to draw with an enormous marker. When starting a game, the robot clears the whiteboard using a little eraser, then draws the standard 3×3 grid and makes its first move. The human then draws their move and uses a remote control to tell the robot what they did (no machine vision here), after which the game continues until there is either a winner or the game results in a draw.
Although it looks like the program’s playing strategy may need some fine-tuning, the mechanical part is well-designed and the arms’ motions are quick and steady. We love the celebratory “cheering” at the end of a game, which TICO does whether it won or not.
The robot’s basic design is inspired by the
Plotclock
, which uses a similar setup to draw the time. We’ve seen other
tic-tac-toe ‘bots
before, as well as some
clever electronic implementations
of the game. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384822",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T23:14:55",
"content": "I feel this needs a number of players zero war games easter egg.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6384868",
"author": "Steve Holt",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,372,935.696895 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/project-hermits-robots-mimic-crabs-with-mechanical-shells/ | Project HERMITS Robots Mimic Crabs With Mechanical Shells | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"hermit",
"hermit crab",
"robot",
"robots",
"swarm robot",
"swarm robotics"
] | Hermit crabs are famous for being small critters that, from time to time throughout their lives, abandon one shell carried on their back to pick up a new one. Project HERMITS by [Ken Nakagaki] is inspired by this very concept, and involves table-top robots that dock with a variety of modules
with different mechanical mechanisms.
As shown in the project video, the small robots augment themselves by interfacing with attachments referred to as “mechanical shells.” They variously allow the robot to move differently or interact in a new way with the world.
One shell allows the robot to activate a small fan, while another lets it rotate arrows in various directions. others let robots work together to actuate a bigger mechanical assembly like a gripper or a haptic feedback joystick.
A particularly cute example is the “lift shell” which allows one little robot give another one a boost in height. Another series of shells allows the robots to play the role of various characters in a performance of Alice in Wonderland.
The technology is all built around Sony’s tiny two-wheeled
toio robots,
but adds a vertical actuator to the platform that lets the robots actively dock with a variety of shell designs.
It’s an involved hack
, but key to the whole enterprise. The individual bots are all controlled by Raspberry Pis communicating over Bluetooth.
We always love to see
cute robots working together.
Video after the break.
[Thanks to Cedric Honnet for the tip!] | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384806",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T21:18:57",
"content": "Aibo was cute too!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,372,935.73103 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/its-wildcard-time-your-last-chance-to-enter-the-hackaday-prize/ | It’s Wildcard Time, Your Last Chance To Enter The Hackaday Prize! | Mike Szczys | [
"contests",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"Reactive Wildcard"
] | The final entry round of
the Hackaday Prize
begins today, and the theme is… anything! While we’ve guided you through work-from-home, robots, displays, and supportive devices, there are countless great ideas that don’t fit in those boxes. So for this round, just show us what you got!
Entering
the Reactive Wildcard round
is easy. Publish a page about your project over on Hackaday.io and use the left sidebar “Submit-to” menu on that page to add it to the Hackaday prize. The point is to build a better future, and we can’t wait to see what you think that looks like. Need some inspiration? Check out the four challenge update videos below to see what others have been entering so far this year.
What’s at stake here? Ten entries in this round will each receive a cash prize of $500 and move onto the final round. There, they content with finalist from the other four rounds for the $25,000 Grand Prize, and four other top prizes. There is also the geek cred of making the finals, a priceless achievement, even if we do say so ourselves. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,935.653789 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/e3d-on-patents-and-not-being-evil-about-them/ | E3D On Patents And Not Being Evil About Them | Jenny List | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"E3D",
"intellectual property",
"patents"
] | In our community it’s certain that there will be many people with very strong views about patents. It’s fair to say that the patents system is at times not fit for purpose, with such phenomena as patent trolls, submarine patents, and patent war chests doing nothing but leading it into disrepute. So it’s interesting to read the words of 3D printer hotend manufacturer E3D,
as they talk about why they feel the need to patent some of their inventions, and how they intend to proceed with them
.
The result is a no-nonsense explanation of why their work being reproduced by overseas competitors has brought them to this point, and in short: they’re patenting very specific inventions rather than broad catch-alls, they are making what they call a legally binding promise not to enforce the patents against non-commercial or academic experimenters, and they will continue to open-source as much as they can.
Will it work for them, or is it the start of a slippery slope? We can see why the E3D folks have taken this step, and we hope that they will continue to act in a responsible manner. If not, as those who have followed the maker-oriented 3D printing business for a long time will know:
treading the line between open-source and closed-source can be fraught with danger
. | 24 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384758",
"author": "3dPrintingIsAwsome",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T18:24:58",
"content": "Autodrop3d has applied an FRAND licence to the auto ejection technology to prevent a larger company from locking down the IP and preventing any one from using it like Stratasys. It realyl depen... | 1,760,372,935.791181 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/hurricane-hunting-from-outer-space/ | Hurricane Hunting From Outer Space | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"History",
"Space"
] | [
"hurricane",
"satellite",
"space",
"TIROS",
"weather satellite"
] | If you live in the right part of the world, you spend a lot of the year worried about hurricanes or — technically — tropical cyclones. These storms carry an amazing amount of power and can change your life. However, we are relatively spoiled these days compared to the past. It is hard to imagine, but there was a time when a hurricane’s arrival was something of a mystery. Sure, ships would report what they encountered, but finding exact data about a hurricane was a bit hit or miss. We often talk about space technology making life better. Weather forecasting — especially for tropical storms — is one place where money spent in space has made life much better on Earth.
The lack of data about storms can be fatal. The Great Galveston hurricane of 1900 took around 12,000 lives. It might have had a better outcome, but forecasters missed where the storm was heading, announcing that it would go from Cuba to Florida which was just totally wrong. Not that a forecaster couldn’t make a mistake today, but with aircraft and satellite coverage, you’d know very quickly that the prediction was wrong and you’d sound the alarm. In truth, the prediction models have become very good over the years, so the chances of this happening today are virtually nil in any event. But being able to precisely locate and track storms helps reduce the impact of the storm and also feeds data into the models that makes them even more accurate for the future.
Recon Aircraft
You’d think it would be a bit of a risk to fly a plane into a hurricane. You’d be right, although if you do it correctly and everything goes well, you stay out of the hurricane but — of course — things don’t always go well.
The first man to fly into a hurricane — at least, on purpose
On July 27, 1943, U.S. Army Air Forces Lt. Col. Joseph B. Duckworth who was an experienced instrument-rated commercial pilot in civilian life, decided to fly into the eye of a hurricane deliberately. He and a navigator found the eye of a storm near Houston and after identifying it, flew into it again with a meteorologist aboard.
The flight was unauthorized and possibly the result of a bet, but the data was useful enough that the service made more hurricane flights later that year and this began a long tradition of hurricane hunter flights.
Outer Space
Of course, in the space age, why do you need an airplane to get a view of a hurricane? The answer is, naturally, you don’t. We take it for granted today that satellites beam images of the Earth down, but that hasn’t always been the case. The Television Infrared Observation Satellite Program (TIROS) in the 1960s was a trailblazer for beaming down pictures of the Earth from space.
The TIROS 3 satellite before launch
According to NASA, TIROS I was a technical marvel for its day:
The spacecraft was 42 inches in diameter, 19 inches high and weighed 270 pounds. The craft was made of aluminum alloy and stainless steel which was then covered by 9200 solar cells. The solar cells served to charge the on-board batteries. Three pairs of solid-propellant spin rockets were mounted on the base plate.
Two television cameras were housed in the craft, one low-resolution and one high-resolution. A magnetic tape recorder for each camera was supplied for storing photographs while the satellite was out of range of the ground station network.
The antennas consisted of four rods from the base plate to serve as transmitters and one vertical rod from the center of the top plate to serve as a receiver.
The craft was spin-stabilized and space-oriented (not Earth-oriented). Therefore, the cameras were only operated while they were pointing at the Earth when that portion of the Earth was in sunlight.
The satellite was only operational for 78 days although the next similar satellite flew for over a year.
Hurricane Esther imaged from TIROS 3
However, it was TIROS 3 that would make hurricane history. In 1961 it found hurricane Esther. There had been pictures of storms from space before, but Esther was the first storm found by a satellite.
By random coincidence, this storm was also one the Navy used to test a theory that seeding the eye of the storm with silver iodide might reduce storm intensity.
The initial reports were that the seeding cooled water at the eye and reduced storm strength, but later analysis suggests the process was ineffective. Regardless, the ability to search the oceans for storms from orbit was a game-changer. Between advance warning to ships and populations and improved data for forecasting, the capability has saved an untold number of lives as well as dollars of property damage.
Today
The photo of Esther looks decidedly low-tech today. Compare it to this recent image from the GOES satellite of a storm forming:
Modern image of a tropical storm from space
Hurricane forecasts are now better than ever, especially for
position
, while intensity forecasts still cause some problems. In addition to getting information to the general public, this is also a boon to the citizen scientist. The data is available if you want to study it, or maybe just to build your own
early warning system
. | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384744",
"author": "bluecat57",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T17:25:13",
"content": "Hunting? How can you not see a hurricane?You hunt things you need to find.You simply observe a hurricane. No looking for one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,372,936.630914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/robot-dogs-hack-chat/ | Robot Dogs Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"big dog",
"boston dynamics",
"Hack Chat",
"quadruped",
"robot dog",
"robotics",
"ros",
"spot",
"stem"
] | Join us on Wednesday, September 29 at noon Pacific for the
Robot Dogs Hack Chat
with
Afreez Gan
!
Thanks to the efforts of a couple of large companies, many devoted hobbyists, and some dystopian science fiction, robot dogs have firmly entered the zeitgeist of our “living in the future” world. The quadrupedal platform, with its agility and low center of gravity, is perfect for navigating in the real world, where the terrain is rarely even and unexpected obstacles are to be expected.
The robot dog has been successful enough that there are commercially available — if prohibitively priced — dogs on the market, doing everything from inspecting factory processes and off-shore oil platforms to dancing for their dinner. All the publicity around robot dogs has fueled a crush of DIY and open-source versions, so that hobbyists can take advantage of what the platform has to offer. And as a result, the design of these dogs has converged somewhat, with elements that provide a common design language for these electromechanical pets.
Afreez Gan has been exploring the robot dog space for a while now, and his
MiniPupper
is generating some interest. He’ll stop by the Hack Chat to talk about MiniPupper specifically and the quadruped platform in general. We’ll talk about what it takes to build your own robot dog, what you can do with one once you’ve built it, and how these bots can play a part in STEM education. Along the way, we’ll touch on ROS, lidar, machine vision with OpenCV, and pretty much anything involved in the care and feeding of your newest electronic pal.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, September 29 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. If time zones have you tied up, we have a
handy time zone converter
. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384738",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T16:33:19",
"content": "Robot dogs hack chat.A bunch of robodogs chain barking?B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6384892",
"author": "Afreez",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,372,935.829696 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/duolux-is-a-stylish-lamp-and-you-should-definitely-print-your-own/ | DuoLux Is A Stylish Lamp And You Should Definitely Print Your Own | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [] | Lamps are interesting pieces of homeware. They can be purely functional, but often they become expressions of the true vibrancy of industrial design. The “DuoLux” from [seabirdhh] may not yet have graced the cover of prestigious European design journals, but this folding lamp does have some great style
for a 3D-printed design.
The lenses themselves are cut from scrap polycarbonate twin-wall sheet with a linear pattern which does much to add some art-deco flair. They’re placed inside a pair of 3D-printed tubes mounted on a zig-zag arm, with the tubes themselves carrying G4 lamp sockets for use with compact plug-in LED modules. 3D-printed knurled knobs allow the easy adjustment and aiming of the lamp as required. Power is from a 12 V DC adapter as you might expect, and everything is mounted upon a simple round base.
It’s a tidy build, and one that could be improved further by adding a weighted base for more flexibility in aiming the lights. It’s something we’d love to have on our own desk given the clean geometric style and presumably great light output from the LEDs. Alternatively, consider modelling your lamp
on Earth’s very own moon itself! | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384721",
"author": "Alice Lalita Heald",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T15:37:21",
"content": "Cute Wall-e kind.Base could you gcode arc welder.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6384735",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2021-09... | 1,760,372,935.870073 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-where-shift-happens/ | Keebin’ With Kristina: The One Where Shift Happens | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"books you should read",
"foot pedal",
"George Blickensderfer",
"Kinesis",
"Kinesis Savant Elite",
"Nocoblick music typewriter",
"parametric design"
] | It’s been an exciting few weeks for me personally on the clacking front. I got a couple of new-to-me keyboards including my first one with ALPS switches, an old TI/99A keyboard with Futaba MD switches, and a couple of what are supposed to be the original Cherry switches (oh man they clack so nicely!) But enough about my keyboard-related fortuitousness, and on to the hacks and clacks!
Putting My Pedals to the Metal
I picked up this Kinesis Savant Elite triple foot pedal from Goodwill. It works fine, but I don’t like the way it’s programmed — left arrow, right arrow, and right mouse click. I found the manual and the driver on the Kinesis website easily enough, but I soon learned that you need a 32-bit computer to program it. Period. See, Kinesis never wrote an updated driver for the original Savant Elite pedal, they just came out with a new one and people had to fork over another $200 or figure something else out.
I’m fresh out of 32-bit computers, so I tried running the program in XP-compatibility mode like the manual says, but it just doesn’t work. Oh, and the manual says you can brick it if you don’t do things correctly, so that’s pretty weird and scary. It was about this time that I started to realize how easy it would be to
open it up and just replace the controller with something much more modern
. Once I got inside, I saw that all three switches use JST plugs and right angle header. Then I though hey, why not just re-use this set-up? I might have to make a new board, but it how awesome would it be to plug these pedals’ JSTs into my own board?
This is the original controller.
I had GPIO/GND pairs to spare.
Let’s see if I can cram it all in there!
But, I didn’t have to make a new board! As it turns out, the Raspberry Pi Pico has more than enough GPIO pins and distributed ground pins that I was able to de-solder the headers from the Kinesis controller and stick all three sets on one side of the Pico. I barely got the lid screwed back down on the enclosure, but it was worth it.
This pedal set is streets ahead of my all-plastic Shift pedal. It’s made of steel, and the pedals are definitely rugged enough for use with shoes on, though I’m more of a sock-footed typist. So far, I like it. I was already used to using a pedal for Shift, so I assigned that to the middle pedal as a reference point. Left pedal does Ctrl, and right pedal does Alt. My only gripe is that the switches aren’t clicky, so I don’t get that nice auditory feedback that I’m used to. I’m going to see about changing those out, possibly to some heavy key switches like Cherry greens. It’s a little difficult to tell the pedals apart without feeling around for reference, so I’ve got an adhesive felt furniture circle as a temporary homing device while I figure out something cooler to use, like maybe half of a bouncy ball or something.
Check This Out: Keycap Playground
As part of [riskable]’s quest to build a completely 3D-printed keyboard, they made a keycap playground in OpenSCAD that’s really more akin to one of those mega-fun complexes with go-karts and mini-golf
and
bowling. But, you know, for keycap fun. You want your ‘cap to look like a smashed accordion bellows? Sure. (Can you imagine how fun it would be to pick at those keycaps while you’re thinking of the next line?)
This playground is gigantic, and now
it’s open to the public
. You can see in the demo video below just how powerful it is for customizing everything from the dish to the corner radius to the legends. Right now it handles DSA and DCA profiles, but [riskable] says that it’s fairly easy to make new ones. If you think this is cool,
check out [riskable]’s 3D-printed mag-lev switches
that are gonna go underneath these unique keycaps.
Future Hotness:
Shift Happens
by Marcin Wichary
Image via
Medium
I’ve been wanting to tell you about
this upcoming book
, and I just don’t see the point in waiting any longer even though it’s not due out until 2022.
While I was researching August Dvorak and looking for pictures, I came across a helpful tweet by one [
Marcin Wichary
], a typographer in San Francisco who is working on a book about the complete history of keyboards, including typewriters.
For the last 18 months I’ve been getting periodic updates about the book from [Marcin]’s
low-frequency mailing list
. Far more than mere updates, each one offers a fascinating lesson about anything from
skeuomorphs
to
moire lines
as they relate to printing photographs. If the updates are any indication, it’s going to be deliciously comprehensive and full of fantastic photographs. I can’t wait to get my hands on this book!
Historical Clackers: The Nocoblick Music Typewriter
Image via
Music Printing History
This is not the first music typewriter, but it’s one of the early ones.
The Nocoblick Music Typewriter
was produced in Cologne, Germany and was in use from 1910 to 1917.
The interesting thing about this machine is that the position of the platen is determined by a scale, which helps place the notes and symbols accurately. At first, the machines used paper pre-printed with staff lines, but later versions laid out the staves as well.
Nocoblicks used an interchangeable kind of type wheel designed by Remington competitor
George Blickensderfer
– one for music notes, and another for letters. With a simple change of the type wheel and the flick of a lever, it could print lyrics as well. The Nocoblick didn’t sell well for some reason, and when Blickensderfer died in 1917, his type wheel was discontinued,
effectively killing off any machine that used it
.
ICMYI: Pay Your Respects to (and with) the Giant F key
This bad boy shot to the top of r/all when it was posted, and
we had to give you our take as soon as possible
. It doesn’t clack so much as scrape and
ka-chunk
, but that is super awesome, too.
[Jaryd] even made their own spring for this beast using a drill and a 3D-printed cylinder chucked into it. But the best part has to be the way it works: by actuating a regular-sized key switch connected to an Arduino.
Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards?
Help me out by sending in a link or two
. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to
email me directly
. | 24 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6385036",
"author": "jake",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T17:55:43",
"content": "Maybe I’m out of the loop, but why is it helpful to have Shift, Control, and Alt on a foot keyboard?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6385054",
... | 1,760,372,936.16672 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/is-lab-grown-coffee-worth-a-hill-of-beans/ | Is Lab-Grown Coffee Worth A Hill Of Beans? | Kristina Panos | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"biomass",
"caffeine",
"coffee",
"cultured coffee"
] | Historically, coffee has needed two things to grow successfully — a decent altitude and a warm climate. Now, a group of scientists from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
have managed to grow coffee in a lab
. They started by culturing coffee plant cells, and then planted them in bioreactors full of nutrient-rich growing medium. But they didn’t grow plants. Instead of green beans inside coffee cherries, the result is a whitish powdered biomass that resembles pure caffeine. Then the scientists roasted the powder as you would beans, and report that it smells and tastes just like regular coffee.
There are plenty of problems percolating with the coffee industry that make this an attractive alternative — mostly worker exploitation, unsustainable farming methods, and land rights issues. And the Bean Belt, which stretches from Ethiopia to South America to Southeast Asia is getting too hot. On top of all that,
coffee production is driving deforestation
in Vietnam and elsewhere, although
coffee could help the forests regenerate more quickly
.
Coffee purists shouldn’t be dismayed, because variety is still possible using varying cell cultures to dial in the caffeine level and the flavors. We’ll drink to that.
Another thing in the industry that’s a real grind is coffee cupping, but
spectroscopy could soon help determine bean quality
. | 36 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384982",
"author": "Thinkerer",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T15:49:04",
"content": "For what it’s worth I was peripherally involved in the coffee industry’s efforts to prop up sagging demand in the early 1980s as new coffee drinkers failed to materialize among young people who consider... | 1,760,372,936.581911 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/gopher-the-competing-standard-to-www-in-the-90s-is-still-worth-checking-out/ | Gopher, The Competing Standard To WWW In The ’90s Is Still Worth Checking Out | Chris Wilkinson | [
"Featured",
"History",
"internet hacks",
"Original Art"
] | [] | The 30
th
anniversary of the World Wide Web passed earlier this year. Naturally, this milestone was met with truckloads of nerdy fanfare and pining for those simpler times. In three decades, the Web has evolved from a promising niche experiment to being an irreplaceable component of global discourse. For all its many faults, the Web has become all but essential for billions around the world, and isn’t going anywhere soon.
As the mainstream media lauded the immense success for the Web, another Internet information system also celebrated thirty years – Gopher. A forgotten heavyweight of the early Internet, the popularity of Gopher plummeted during the late 90s, and nearly disappeared entirely. Thankfully, like its plucky namesake, Gopher continued to tunnel across the Internet well into the 21
st
century, supported by a passionate community and with an increasing number of servers coming online.
What is Gopher?
In the northern summer of 1991, while the primordial Web was being bootstrapped at CERN,
the first Gopher servers were coming online at the University of Minnesota
(PDF). Spawned from the need for a campus-wide information system, the Gopher client and server software eventually escaped out onto the wider Internet, and into the hands of eager early adopters.
The name ‘Gopher’ is a play on ‘Go-fer’, usually an employee or volunteer that fetches and delivers item requests. In the same way, the Gopher client was designed to be able to retrieve information from a Gopher server, and present that information in a human-readable format. The gopher also happens to be the University of Minnesota’s mascot.
For a time, Gopher was
the
new hotness. Users could search for and find text files via way of a simple hierarchical menu structure, reminiscent of Web hyperlinks but more regimented in their implementation, and not unlike the file and folder structure of contemporary operating systems. Setting up a Gopher server was relatively easy and only required modest hardware – reportedly, the first Gopher servers used off-the-shelf Apple computers, including the Macintosh IIci and SE/30 running A/UX (Apple UNIX).
While a resource in its own right, Gopher acted as a jumping off point to other parts of the Internet. If something wasn’t available on Gopher, chances were you could tunnel from Gopherspace all the way to the Web, or to an FTP server, or to a newsgroup, to find the content you were looking for. Veronica (or “Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computer Archives”) was a robust Gopher server search engine, and was constantly expanding its database of Gopher sites. Other services such as Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) were also available.
The first Gopher servers were consumer-grade Macintosh computers, including the Mac IIci.
While Gopher had a promising start, the Web was destined to become the preferred method of accessing information on the Internet. Hypertext steadily grew in popularity among the masses, fueled by the likes of
NCSA Mosaic
, one of the first mega-successful Web browsers. The rigidity of Gopherspace was starting to look a little tired when compared with the colorful and illustrative Web, which was becoming increasingly more ‘surf-able’, thanks to speedier modems and their ability to support a richer multimedia experience. Despite some truly fascinating experiments such as GopherVR, community concerns over licensing costs imposed by the University of Minnesota was the figurative straw that nearly saw the end of Gopher forever. By the late 1990s, Gopher servers had become an endangered species, while the Web reigned supreme as the premier Internet experience.
Why Gopher Today?
It’s been decades since Gopher was last in vogue. There is a desire, nay, an assumption today that accessing the Internet must be a bombastic multimedia experience, a characteristic that bolstered the early Web to where it is now. With its roots as a relatively pedestrian (if not efficient) method to transfer research data, the Web is now central to how we consume media. It goes without saying that the Web has eclipsed Gopher in almost every respect, and it’s understandable that some would see Gopher as a peculiar, vestigial relic of the old Internet.
Be sure to check out Gopherpedia
I first logged onto Gopher earlier this year, long past its prime, and was instantly met with a certain
je
ne sais quoi
. Nostalgia and desiderium came in waves. Here was a service quite utterly different to the Web, but not for the reasons that I expected.
The first session started over at
gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70
, but it didn’t take long to start traversing Gopherspace at warp speed. The text-only interface certainly made things speedier compared to the relatively bloated Web, but the real speed came from the simplicity of the layout – regimented menus, all alike but clearly labelled, meant that navigation through Gopherspace was effortless. Text-only formatting ensured that every single piece of content was as legible as the next. Weather and news were easily accessible, as was software (especially for vintage computers), phlogs (Gopher blogs) and more. Veronica-2, a revision of the original Veronica search engine, is Gopher’s answer to Google (although ‘I Veronicaed it’ isn’t as catchy). Further digging revealed modern proxies for
reddit
and
Wikipedia
, both welcome finds that further delayed my inevitable return to the Web.
Using Gopher was not only intuitive, it was
fun.
Framing Gopher as a vestigial relic of the old Internet doesn’t do it justice – using the service felt genuinely informative, and in many respects it bested the Web.
How to Gopher
Gopher clients are still available for all major operating systems.
Modern clients have made getting onto Gopher easier than ever – or at least as easy as it used to be, as today’s browsers have dropped support for Gopher.
The Overbite project
has solutions for using Gopher on older versions of Firefox, but there are several standalone GUI clients available for all major operating systems. Lynx naturally supports Gopher, and is a great choice for computers of any age. Clients are also available for modern smartphones.
If finding a client is too big a hurdle, there are proxy services available that allow access to Gopher content over HTTP, such as
the Floodgap Public Gopher proxy
. This allows Gopher sites to render in almost any modern HTTP browser, and is a great choice for first timers.
Speaking of Floodgap, users old and new will often find their Gopher sessions starting on the Floodgap server at
gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/
. This server has been accessible since 1999 and lists all the major services and sites that Gopher has to offer. Floodgap also has plenty of helpful tips and tricks for new Gopher users, and does a great job at explaining the Gopher philosophy.
Once you’ve leapt into Gopherspace, there’s not a lot more that needs to be said on ‘how’ to Gopher. The experience can feel very linear, and this can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your point of view. At times, navigating Gopher can feel like browsing a catalogue of files on a local disk, jumping from one folder to the next, examining files, then traveling backwards on the path just traveled, up to another jumping off point. A text-based browser like Lynx feels especially fast for this kind of hierarchical navigation.
Downloading files is similarly effortless, which is a good thing since most Gopher browsers don’t support in-line images (although more are adopting this functionality as time goes by).
Learning ‘how to Gopher’ is, at most, a five minute exercise.
Privacy? What Privacy?
Gopher is very much a product of its time. While this is somewhat charming, there are some concerns around individual privacy.
Encryption? Forget about it. This makes using Gopher an effortless experience for even the oldest of computers, however it’s worth noting the potential privacy issues. Much like the early WWW, your browsing history, form submissions and other information is all transmitted in plain text, meaning that it’s a trivial task to intercept this data. Currently, it’s not a good idea to use Gopher for anything vaguely private or personal.
There are proposals and back-of-the-napkin concepts
on how to deal with encryption on Gopher, but to date there has been precious little progress in this area. Projects like
Gophernicus
might be of interest to those looking into setting up a Gopher server with extra security.
In contrast to the modern Web, publicly accessible server logs are most definitely a thing on Gopher, even on relatively popular servers like Floodgap. It’s possible to track (or be tracked) all over Gopherspace through these logs, and it’s something to keep in mind if you’re at all conscious about security and privacy.
Take Your Next Vacation in Gopher Country
Let’s get this out of the way – there is some irony in advocating for Gopher on the World Wide Web. But here I am, doing just that.
GopherVR was an early experiment. Modern derivatives are still available today.
It would be all too easy to compare Gopher’s ousting as a viable Internet protocol with many of the other ‘format wars’ from the previous decades — VHS over Betamax, Blu-Ray over HD-DVD. When framed this way, it would make sense to attribute any talk of a Gopher resurgence to technological neanderthals, perhaps those that still have a chip on their shoulder after the ‘war’ was lost in the 1990s.
For better or for worse, we will now always spend the majority of our online existence on the Web. The resounding success of the Web to capture people’s imagination doesn’t mean that Gopher is a write-off, a relic. These days, it’s actually quite the opposite. Where it once competed for dominance, Gopher now exists in harmony with the Web. HTTP proxies allow access to Gopher content, blurring the lines between the two protocols. For those that decide to dig deeper, they’ll realise that Gopher was never really defeated after all — it exists now as it (pretty much) always did, a refuge for people and content that doesn’t quite fit onto the Web.
Cameron Kaiser, sysadmin for the Floodgap server,
puts it nicely in a phlog
:
It would be remiss to dismissively say Gopher was killed by the Web, when in fact the Web and Gopher can live in their distinct spheres and each contribute to the other. With the modern computing emphasis on interoperability, heterogeneity and economy, Gopher continues to offer much to the modern user, as well as in terms of content, accessibility and inexpensiveness. Even now clearly as second fiddle to the World Wide Web, Gopher still remains relevant.
My brief sojourn down into Gopherspace started as a nostalgic trip, but has genuinely left an impact. While the Web has long overtaken Gopher as our primary medium for online communication, webmasters would do well to take inspiration from Gopher.
Check out
Where Have all the Gophers Gone
for more fascinating insights about the rise and near-extinction of Gopher, as well as articles by
Minnpost
and
TidBITS
. | 78 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384949",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T14:08:32",
"content": "Well, you should make a >10 minutes Youtube video about how to gopher properly !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6384951",
"author": "Rog77",
"ti... | 1,760,372,936.512274 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/erasable-pen-ink-adds-colors-to-3d-prints/ | Erasable Pen Ink Adds Colors To 3D Prints | Bryan Cockfield | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"color",
"erasable pen",
"ink",
"software",
"thermochromic"
] | Changing colors during a 3D print is notoriously difficult. Either you need multiple heads ready to go during the print which increases operating and maintenance costs for your printer, or you need to stop the print to switch the filament and then hope that everything matches up when the print is resumed. There are some workarounds to this problem, but not many of them are as smooth an effortless as
this one which uses erasable pen ink to add colors to the filament on the fly
.
Erasable pen ink is a thermochromic material that doesn’t get removed from paper when erased like graphite from a pencil. Instead the heat from the friction of erasing causes it to become transparent. By using this property for a 3D print, the colors in the print can be manipulated simply by changing the temperature of the hot end. Of course the team at [Autodrop3d] had quite a learning curve when experimenting with this method, as they had to run the extruder at a much lower temperature than normal to have control over the ink’s color, had to run the print much slower than normal, and were using a very sticky low-temperature plastic for the print.
With all of these modifications to the print setup, there are bound to be some limitations in material and speed, but the results of the project speak for themselves. This allows for stock 3D printers to use this method with no hardware modifications, and the color changes can be done entirely in software. While everyone catches up with this new technology, there are some other benefits to a 3D printer with multiple print heads, though, and
some clever ways of doing the switching without too much interruption
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384915",
"author": "Alice Lalita Heald",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T11:37:21",
"content": "Now that’s a hack!Isn’t there a color additive that’s changes between 150-300 more drastically?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6384934",
... | 1,760,372,936.304974 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/28/nasa-is-looking-for-a-next-gen-astronaut-van/ | NASA Is Looking For A Next-Gen Astronaut Van | Tom Nardi | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"apollo",
"Astrovan",
"Commercial Crew",
"nasa",
"Space Shuttle"
] | Since the Apollo program, astronauts making the nine mile trip from the Operations and Checkout Building to the launch pad have rode in a specialized van that’s become lovingly referred to as the
Astrovan.
The original van, technically a modified motorhome, was used from 1967 all the way to the first Shuttle missions in 1983. From then on, a silver Airstream Excella emblazoned with the NASA “meatball” carried crews up until the final Shuttle rolled to a stop in 2011.
With crewed flights for the Artemis lunar program on the horizon,
NASA has put out a call to companies that want to build a new Crew Transportation Vehicle (CTV)
. As you might expect from rocket scientists, the space agency has provided an exacting list of specifications for the new CTV, down to the dimensions of the doors and how many amps each of its 12 VDC power jacks must be able to handle. Perhaps most notably, NASA requires that the new 8-seat
Astrovan
be a zero-emission vehicle; which given the relatively short distance it has to drive, shouldn’t actually be too difficult.
Interior of the Shuttle-era
Astrovan
In the document, NASA explains that the new CTV could either be a completely new one-of-a-kind vehicle, or a commercially available vehicle that has been suitably modified, as was the case with the previous vans. But interestingly, it also says they’re open to proposals for refurbishing the Shuttle-era 1983 Airstream and putting it back into service.
This is particularly surprising, as the vehicle is currently part of the
Atlantis
exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center
. Presumably the space agency thinks there would be some bankable nostalgia should Artemis crews ride to the pad in the same van that once carried the Shuttle astronauts, but given the vehicle’s history and the fact that it’s literally a museum piece, it seems somewhat inappropriate. This is after all the very same van that once carried the
Challenger
and
Columbia
crews to their ill-fated spacecraft. Luckily, the chances of anyone willing to turn a 1983 Airstream into a zero-emission vehicle seem pretty slim.
If you’re wondering, SpaceX carries astronauts to the pad in specially modified Tesla Model X luxury SUVs, and Boeing has already partnered with Airstream to build their own
Astrovan II
. There’s still no date on when Boeing might
actually get their CST-100 Starliner up to the International Space Station
, but at least the van is ready to go. | 39 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384880",
"author": "Glen Kleinschmidt",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T08:26:55",
"content": "Ginger Billy is the guy NASA needs to see:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vxukz1x_eU",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6384922",
"... | 1,760,372,936.888313 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/put-a-landscape-scanner-on-your-bike-and-ride/ | Put A Landscape Scanner On Your Bike And Ride | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"raspberry pi"
] | Google have a fleet of cars travelling the roads of the world taking images for their online StreetView service. You could do much the same thing pedalling on two wheels,
with the help of this landscape scanner from [Celian_31].
The basic concept is simple. A powerbank on the bike runs a Raspberry Pi, kitted out with its typical Pi Camera within a 3D-printed housing. A reed switch on the bike’s frame detects pulses from a magnet attached to the valve stem of one tire, and this is used to trigger the taking of photos at regular intervals with the aid of a Python script. Further scripts are then used to knit all the photos taken on a ride together into one contiguous image.
It’s unlikely you’ll recreate Google’s entire StreetView in this fashion.
You’d probably want a spherical camera anyway.
However, if you wish to undertake regular static surveillance of your local area in an inconspicuous fashion, this would be a great way to do it while also staying in shape. If you do that, please don’t tell us as it would be a major violation of operational security.
We’d love to hear about any other projects, though!
Video after the break. | 33 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384860",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T06:22:43",
"content": "I remember putting a dozen line level lasers on a pushbike, over a decade ago now, it produced a six by six grid of lines on the path ahead of the front wheel, you got a good impression of the contours of ... | 1,760,372,936.954346 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/homebrew-wattmeter-pays-homage-to-sturdy-original/ | Homebrew Wattmeter Pays Homage To Sturdy Original | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"antenna",
"Coax",
"ham",
"micoammeter",
"RF",
"slug",
"transmitter",
"wattmeter"
] | If there’s one instrument that hams and other radio enthusiasts covet, it’s the venerable Bird 43 Thruline wattmeter. The useful RF tool has barely changed in the nearly 70 years since it was first introduced, and they’re built like a tank. This makes Bird meters highly desirable, and therefore quite expensive either brand new or on the swap-meet circuit.
But radio amateurs are nothing if not resourceful, and
building a homebrew version of the Bird wattmeter
(in Portuguese; Google translate tool at the bottom of the page) as Brazilian ham [Luciano Sturaro (PY2BBS)] did is a good way to get your hands on one. Granted, [Luciano] had a head start: a spare line set, which is the important bit from a Bird wattmeter. The machined metal part is in effect an air-insulated section of coaxial cable that the RF signal passes through on its way from transmitter to antenna. A “slug” is inserted into the cavity in the line set to sense the RF and couple it to the meter electronics; the slug can be rotated to measure RF traveling in either direction, allowing the user to determine how much RF is getting reflected by the antenna system.
[Luciano]’s version of the meter is faithful to the sturdy construction of the original, with a solid steel case that mimics its classic lines — the case even sports the same color scheme and stout leather carry handle. There are some changes to the electronics, and the meter movement itself is different from the original, but all in all, the “Buzz 50” looks fantastic. We especially love the detailed nameplate as an homage to Bird.
The thing about Bird — and Bird-like — meters is that the slugs are like potato chips; you can’t have just one. Curious as to how these slugs work? Check out
this slug repair project
.
[Featured image of Bird 43 Wattmeter:
Martin RF Supply
]
Thanks to [Niko Huenk] for the tip! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384852",
"author": "Gold",
"timestamp": "2021-09-28T04:35:23",
"content": "Faithful? Those awful things always fail their calibration. You can’t even swap elements between two different meters because they have to be adjusted to the exact deflection current of the meter.Not to ment... | 1,760,372,936.392896 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/26/how-to-get-into-computer-game-development-in-1982/ | How To Get Into Computer Game Development In 1982 | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"Atari 400",
"commodore 64",
"computer games",
"Jet Set Willy",
"ZX Spectrum"
] | If you are a follower of retrocomputing, perhaps you caught the interactive
Black Mirror
episode
Bandersnatch
when it came out on Netflix. Its portrayal of a young British bedroom coder finding his way into the home computer games industry of the early 1980s was of course fictional and dramatised, but for those interested in a real-life parallel without the protagonist succumbing to an obsession with supernatural book there’s
a recent epic Twitter thread
charting an industry veteran’s path into the business.
An acceptance letter like this from Artic Software would have been the wildest dream of any early-80s bedroom coder.
[Shahid Kamal Ahmad]
now has an impressive portfolio
spanning his his nearly four decades at the forefront of gaming, but his story starts in 1982 as a diabetic British Pakistani teenager from a not-privileged background in London writing in BASIC on his Atari 400. His BASIC games are good, but not good enough to gain acceptance from a publisher, so he sells his prized BMX bicycle to buy books on Atari 6502 assembler, a coffee percolator, and for curiosity’s sake, [Rodnay Zaks’]
Programming the Z80
. An obsessive three-month learning of 6502 programming and the Atari’s architecture ensues, and his game
Storm in a Teacup
sells to Artic Software. He’s a professional game developer.
We follow him through a couple more projects until he arrives at Software Projects in Liverpool to try to sell his game
Faces of Haarne
, which he secures publishing for but also lands the opportunity of a lifetime.
Jet Set Willy
is the smash hit of the year on the ZX Spectrum, and they urgently need a Commodore 64 port. Can he do it in four weeks, with a bonus if he manages three? The subsequent descent into high-pressure assembly coding and learning the quirks between two completely different 8-bit architectures is an epic in itself, but he manages it in just a shade over the three weeks and they pay him the bonus anyway. His career in the computer game industry is cemented.
Through this tale the reminders of 1980s Britain are everywhere, far from bring a retro paradise it was a place hollowed out by industrial decline, with very little for those at the bottom of society to be optimistic about. His descriptions of casual racism are hard-hitting, but the group of computer-addicted friends at school is probably something that all teenagers of the era whose interests lay in that direction can relate to. The real hero of the story is probably his mother, who somehow found the resources for that Atari 400 and who provided him with much-needed support and encouragement.
This thread captures a unique and never-to-be repeated era in which a teenager could master an emerging technology and make a living in it without an expensive education.
Like Bil Herd’s description of his career at Commodore
in the same period, it’s well worth a read. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384524",
"author": "spiritplumber",
"timestamp": "2021-09-26T17:42:28",
"content": "Wow.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6384529",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-09-26T18:13:07",
"content": "“The real hero... | 1,760,372,936.684087 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/26/fpga-retrocomputer-return-to-moncky/ | FPGA Retrocomputer: Return To Moncky | Bryan Cockfield | [
"FPGA",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"16-bit",
"arty",
"c++",
"compiler",
"fpga",
"instruction set",
"moncky",
"retrocomputer",
"risc"
] | Part of the reason that retrocomputers are still so popular despite their obsolescence is that it’s possible to understand the entire inner workings of a computer like this, from the transistors all the way up to the software. Comparatively, it will likely be a long time (if ever) before anyone is building a modern computer from discrete components. To illustrate this point, plenty of 8-bit computers are available to either restore from original 80s hardware or to build from kits. And if you’d like to get even deeper into the weeds
you can design your own computer including the instruction set completely from the ground up using an FPGA
.
This project, called the Moncky project, is a step above the usual 8-bit computer builds as it is actually a 16-bit computer. It is built around an Arty Spartan-7 FPGA dev board running around 20 MHz and has access to 2 x 128 kB dual-port RAM for memory. To access the outside world there is a VGA output, PS/2 capability, SPI, and uses an SD card as a hard drive. This project really shines in the software, though, as the project creator [Kris Demuynck] builds everything from scratch in order to illustrate how everything works for educational purposes, and is currently working on implementing a C compiler to make programming the computer easier.
All of the project files, as well as all of the code, are available on
the project’s GitHub page
if you’d like to follow along or build on this homebrew 16-bit computer. It’s actually the third iteration of this computer, with the Moncky-1 and Moncky-2 being used to develop the more basic building blocks for this computer. While it’s
not the first 16-bit computer we’ve seen implemented on an FPGA
, it is one of the few that builds its own RISC instruction set and associated software rather than cloning a known existing processor. We’ve also seen some interesting
x86 implementations on an FPGA
as well.
Thanks to [koen-ieee] for the tip! | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384522",
"author": "Kris",
"timestamp": "2021-09-26T17:41:09",
"content": "Thank you for publishing this, Bryan!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6384530",
"author": "thrthrtfhrt",
"timestamp": "2021-09-26T18:44:51",
... | 1,760,372,936.720067 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/26/elderly-remote-keeps-things-simple/ | Elderly Remote Keeps Things Simple | Al Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"accessibility",
"arduino",
"remote control"
] | If you are lucky, you’ve never experienced the heartbreak of watching a loved one lose their ability to do simple tasks. However, as hackers, we have the ability to customize solutions to make everyday tasks more accessible. That’s what [omerrv] did by creating a very
specific function remote control
. The idea is to provide an easy-to-use interface for the most common remote functions.
This is one of those projects where the technology puzzle is now pretty easy to solve: IR remotes are well-understood and there are plenty of libraries for recording and playing back signals. The real work is to understand the user’s challenges and come up with a workable compromise between something useful and something too complex for the user to deal with.
Fortunately, with all the prototyping tools readily available now, it is easy to experiment with different setups to see what would work best. Larger keys? Color coding? A different arrangement of buttons? All of those things are easy to experiment with and, of course, what works for one person might not work for another. Even given time, it is possible that different configurations will work better or worse for the same person.
It isn’t likely that you’d duplicate [omerrv’s] remote directly. It may not work for your purpose. But it is a good inspiration on how we can use our ability to create customized hardware to improve the quality of life for those who need help.
We’ve seen
similar projects
— each one is a bit different. We wonder
if old-fashioned remotes
with their natural limitations would be a bit easier for people to handle? | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384471",
"author": "rewolff",
"timestamp": "2021-09-26T11:16:30",
"content": "2 weeks ago I 3D-printed a “box” that goes around the remote that covers all the keys except those that the user actually needs. (93, dementia: Does not want to look at EPG or access other functions than ... | 1,760,372,937.015489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/26/reinforced-concrete-versatile-at-any-size/ | Reinforced Concrete: Versatile At Any Size? | Jenny List | [
"hardware"
] | [
"concrete",
"model making",
"reinforced concrete"
] | In our community we’re no strangers to making things, and there are plenty among us who devote their efforts to modelmaking. It’s uncommon, though, for a scale model of something to be made using the exact same techniques as whatever it’s copying. Instead a model might be made from card, foam, glassfibre, or resin. [tiny WORLD] takes an opposite tack,
building scale model civil engineering projects just as they would have been for real
. (Video, embedded below.)
Here, a scale model of the Hoover Dam bypass bridge is made as the original, from reinforced concrete. In place of rebar is a wire grid in place of wooden shuttering is what looks like foam board, the concrete is a much smoother mortar, but otherwise it’s the real thing. We see the various bridge parts being cast in situ, with the result being as strong as you’d expect from the original.
We can see that this is a great technique for modelling concrete buildings and structures, but it’s also a material that we think might have other applications at this scale. How would the rigidity, strength, and mass of small-scale reinforced cement compare to 20-20 extrusion, 3D-printed plastic, or wood, for example? Regardless, it’s interesting to watch, as you can see from the video below the break.
Thanks [Michael Field] for the tip. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384450",
"author": "solipso",
"timestamp": "2021-09-26T08:43:26",
"content": "Just get some passivated glass fibres and you will never think about the steel armature anzmore. It is so much better to cast Glas fiber reinforced concrete. The outcome is almost always superior both in... | 1,760,372,937.0649 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/25/covid-green-pass-validator-with-raspberry-pi/ | COVID Green Pass Validator With Raspberry Pi | Kristina Panos | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"COVID",
"Covid-19",
"digital green certificate",
"qr code",
"QR codes",
"raspberry pi"
] | It seems like every nation is dealing with the plague a little differently. In June, the EU instated a COVID Green Pass which comes in the form of a paper or digital QR code. It was designed to grease the wheels of travel throughout Europe and allow access to nursing homes. As of early August, the Green Pass is now required of those 12 and older in Italy to gain access to bars and restaurants, museums, theaters, etc. — anywhere people gather in sizeable groups. The Green Pass shows that you’ve either been vaccinated, have had COVID and recovered, or you have tested negative, and there are different half-lives for each condition: nine months for vaccinated, six for recovered, and just forty-eight hours for a negative test.
[Luca Dentella] has built a
Green Pass validator
using a Raspberry Pi and a Raspi camera. Actual validation must be done through the official app, so this project is merely for educational purposes. Here’s how it works: the user data including their status and the date/time of pass issuance are encoded into a JSON file, then into CBOR, then it is digitally signed for authenticity. After that, the information is zipped up into a base-45 string, which gets represented as a QR code on your phone. Fortunately, [Luca] found the Minister of Health’s GitHub, which does the hard work of re-inflating the JSON object.
[Luca]’s Pi camera reads in the QR and does complete validation using two apps — a camera client written in Python that finds QRs and sends them to the validation server, written in Node.js. The validation server does formal verification including verifying the signature and the business rules (e.g. has it been more than 48 hours since Karen tested negative?) Fail any of these and the red LED lights up; pass them all and you get the green light. Demo video is after the break.
Are you Canadian?
Then check this out, eh? | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,937.104245 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/25/the-simplest-ft8-transceiver-youll-ever-build/ | The Simplest FT8 Transceiver You’ll Ever Build | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"FT8",
"Si47xx",
"SI5351",
"transceiver"
] | Probably the most interesting facets of amateur radio in 2021 lie in the realm of digital modes. Using the limitless possibilities of software defined radios has freed digital radio communication from the limits of what could be done with analogue electronics alone, and as a result this is a rare field in which radio amateurs can still be ahead of the technological curve. On of these newer digital modes is FT8 created by the prolific [Joe Taylor K1JT].
And it’s for this mode that [Charles Hill]
has created an easy-to-build transceiver
. Its brains are aTeensy 3.6, while the receive side is a
Si4735
receiver chip and the transmitter is a
Si5351
programmable clock chip driving a Mini-Circuits GVA84 power amplifier with an appropriate filter. The interface is via a touchscreen display. It relies on existing work that applies a patch on-the-fly to the Si4735 receiver chip for SSB reception, and another project for the FT8 software.
The charm of this transceiver is that it can be assembled almost in its entirety from modules. Some radio amateurs might complain that homebrew radios should only use the most basic of components assembled from first principles, but the obvious answer to that should be that anything which makes radio construction easier is to be welcomed. If the 100 mW output power seems a bit low it’s worth remembering that FT8 is a weak signal mode, and given the right propagation conditions the world should be able to hear it despite the meagre output.
We’ve featured quite a few radios using the Si47XX series,
which can be made into very tidy receivers indeed
. | 48 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384419",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2021-09-26T03:29:17",
"content": "That itty-bitty waterfall is adorable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6384424",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2021-09-26T04:08:59",
"co... | 1,760,372,937.184445 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/25/making-linux-offline-voice-recognition-easier/ | Making Linux Offline Voice Recognition Easier | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"deepspeech",
"json",
"linux",
"pocketsphinx",
"speech",
"voice"
] | For just about any task you care to name, a Linux-based desktop computer can get the job done using applications that rival or exceed those found on other platforms. However, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to get it working, and speech recognition is just one of those difficult setups.
A project called
Voice2JSON
is trying to simplify the use of voice workflows. While it doesn’t provide the actual voice recognition, it does make it easier to get things going and then use speech in a natural way.
The software can integrate with several backends to do offline speech recognition including CMU’s pocketsphinx, Dan Povey’s Kaldi, Mozilla’s DeepSpeech 0.9, and Kyoto University’s Julius. However, the code is more than just a thin wrapper around these tools. The fast training process produces both a speech recognizer and an intent recognizer. So not only do you know there is a garage door, but you gain an understanding of the opening and closing of the garage door.
In addition, the tools are all made to work in Unix-style pipelines which is refreshing. Here’s an example configuration from the project’s website:
[GarageDoor]
open the garage door
close the garage door
[LightState]
turn on the living room lamp
turn off the living room lamp
There are templating features so you can specify optional words and alternative words in a single rule. There are other features like mapping an object like living room lamp into something more computer-friendly.
Overall, this looks like a fun tool to have in your kit. If you do something interesting with it, be sure to drop us a
tip
so we can cover it. Meanwhile, we’ve been watching
Linux speech
for quite a while. Of course, what we really want is
speech commands
like the USS Enterprise, and we have to admit it is getting closer. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384395",
"author": "Martin",
"timestamp": "2021-09-25T23:20:22",
"content": "Can anybody recommend a good offline speech recognition engine that has pretrained models for german?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6384432",
... | 1,760,372,937.252713 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/commonwealth-fusions-20-tesla-magnet-a-bright-sparc-towards-fusions-future/ | Commonwealth Fusion’s 20 Tesla Magnet: A Bright SPARC Towards Fusion’s Future | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"News",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"Commonwealth Fusion Systems",
"high-temperature superconductors",
"nuclear fusion",
"ReBCO",
"YBCO"
] | After decades of nuclear fusion power being always ten years away, suddenly we are looking at a handful of endeavours striving to be the first to Q > 1, the moment when a nuclear fusion reactor will produce more power than is required to drive the fusion process in the first place. At this point the Joint European Torus (JET) reactor holds the world record with a Q of 0.67.
At the same time, a large international group is busily constructing the massive ITER tokamak test reactor in France, although it won’t begin fusion experiments until the mid-2030s. The idea is that ITER will provide the data required to construct the first DEMO reactors that might see viable commercial fusion as early as the 2040s, optimistically.
And then there’s Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a fusion energy startup. Where CFS differs is that they don’t seek to go big, but instead try to make a tokamak system that’s affordable, compact and robust. With their
recent demonstration
of a 20 Tesla (T) high-temperature superconducting (HTS) rare-earth barium copper oxide (ReBCO) magnet field coil, they made a big leap towards their demonstration reactor: SPARC.
A Story of Tokamaks
CFS didn’t appear out of nowhere. Their roots lie in the nuclear fusion research performed since the 1960s at MIT, when a scientist called Bruno Coppi was working on the
Alcator A
(
Al
to
Ca
mpo
To
ro being Italian for High Field Torus) tokamak, which saw first plasma in 1972. After a brief period with a B-revision of Alcator, the Alcator C was constructed with a big power supply upgrade.
Based on the research findings, an improved Alcator DCT with superconducting field coils was proposed, but never saw the light of day due to the budget crunch for fusion research in the 1980s. Instead Alcator C was modified (hence C-Mod) as a compromise solution. Alcator C-Mod would continue to be used for fusion research at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) until it was shutd own in 2016.
Panorama view of Alcator C-Mod’s outer wall. The rotated ion-cyclotron frequency antenna with its four copper antenna straps can be seen on the left. The Lower Hybrid Launcher with its grid of small rectangular waveguides can be seen in the middle and the non-rotated Ion-Cyclotron frequency antennas are toward the right with four copper straps. The entrance for the neutral beam is the large circular hole near the right. (Credit: Robert Mumgaard)
CFS is a
spin-off
of MIT’s PSFC, which seeks to combine decades worth of data and lessons learned from the Alcator tokamaks with brand-new ideas and brand-new materials. Much of their business plan is contained in a paper published in 2015 in
Fusion Engineering And Design
, by B.N. Sorbom et al. (
ArXiv preprint
) titled
ARC: A compact, high-field, fusion nuclear science facility and demonstration power plant with demountable magnets
.
Here ARC stands for both Affordable, Robust and Compact, as well as being a nod to Howard Stark’s
Arc reactor
in the fictional Iron Man universe.
High-Tech and Easy to Assemble
An exploded diagram of an ARC reactor, showing the ease of accessing the vacuum vessel. No divertors are shown for simplicity. (Credit: B. N. Sorbom et al. 2015)
What makes the ARC reactor and the prototype SPARC reactor so fascinating compared to other tokamaks is its highly modular nature, while adding design elements that are not found in other tokamaks. The major design element that was demonstrated with the 20 T HTS magnet this month is fascinating not just because of its immense field strength for its size and power input, but also in that it can be easily disassembled.
The entire ARC reactor is built around the premise of a core vacuum vessel in which the fusion reactions take place, with this vacuum vessel surrounded by a FLiBe (Fluorine Lithium Beryllium) liquid blanket that provides neutron moderation, shielding and cooling functionality, as well as breeding the tritium that forms part of the deuterium-tritium fuel which powers the reactor.
Surrounding the vacuum vessel and containment for the FLiBe liquid are the
ReBCO
HTS magnets in a characteristic D-shape that was experimentally determined via the Alcator tokamaks. Yet rather than being singular magnets, they can open, to allow for the inner assembly including the vacuum vessel to be easily swapped for maintenance and for trying out different test configurations.
As also noted in the 2015 paper by B. N. Sorbom et al., these magnets are the only major risk in the entire design, in the sense that nobody had before used
YBCO
(yttrium barium copper oxide) HTS materials for electromagnets like this. What the recent demonstration shows, however, is that CFS now seems to have tackled this problem.
Through the use of these ReBCO-based magnets, a SPARC reactor should be able to generate immensely strong fields with very little power input. This is key to ARC’s success as the model for a potential commercial reactor and bodes well for the SPARC reactor.
Another major benefit is that the use of HTS magnets means that SPARC won’t be need the exotic and expensive cryogenic helium that cools ITER’s magnets, but can use much cheaper liquid nitrogen instead.
Next Steps
Schematic cross-section view of ReBCO superconductor tape by SuperPower Inc. as used by SPARC. (Source: B. N. Sorbom et al. (2015))
Commonwealth Fusion Systems has
laid out a roadmap
on its website detailing which milestones are still left to be tackled. Step one was to get the basics together using the Alcator C-Mod, as noted earlier in this article. Step two was to sort out the HTS magnets, which now appears to have been checked off the list as well. This then takes us to step three, which is the construction of a
SPARC
reactor.
The fourth and final step is the construction of an ARC reactor, which is labelled by CFS as the commercialization stage. What this essentially means is that with the magnet stage tackled, CFS can now move on to proving that the ARC concept works.
According to the CFS website, a site has been selected for the construction of SPARC and construction is underway. The subsequent events would be first plasma and net electricity generation, with a predicted Q > 2, much of which would depend on any potential issues found during construction and the initial testing.
An obvious item that was not covered in the original 2015 paper, and which has not since been covered in great detail to this writer’s knowledge are the
divertors
in SPARC (and subsequently ARC). These are devices that allow for impurities to be removed from the plasma while the reactor is active. They are essential for sustained operation of a fusion reactor.
Generally, fuel would constantly be added to the fusion reaction, while the fused helium would be removed, to ensure that the fusion reaction is not interrupted by the waste products. In Alcator C-Mod divertors were implemented along the top and bottom of the vacuum vessel, while in ITER and JET the bottom of the vessel is used for the divertor.
As divertors are the region where the plasma comes closest to the wall, so these have to be cooled. In the case of ARC and SPARC, this would have to be done using the FLiBe fluid. A major research and development question with SPARC is likely to be the exact configuration and operation of these divertors. Naturally, since rapid swapping of the vacuum vessel and surrounding structures is a feature of SPARC, it should be possible to work through a wide number of configurations in little time.
Looking Ahead
With the
ARC reactor
it is hoped to create a fusion reactor with a radius of 3.3 m that can achieve a Q of > 13, with a 270 MW electrical output. This compares to a major radius of 6.2 m for ITER with an on-axis magnetic field of 5.3 T, where ARC would have an on-axis magnetic field of 9.2 T. The exciting prospect with ARC is thus essentially that of achieving a similar thermal and electrical output in a much smaller reactor.
As with all such projects it’s hard to tell for sure what will work out, as demonstrated last century with the Z-pinch fusion reactors that seemed to be mere years away from commercialization in the 1950s. Even so, our knowledge of plasma physics and related fields has increased significantly since those early days. Whether ARC, another tokamak design, or perhaps a stellarator derived from the
Wendelstein
project will be the first to show the way to economically viable commercial nuclear fusion is still up in the air.
One thing that is however quite clear, and that is that the old adage about fusion power always being a decade away is at severe risk of being shelved for good within the coming years.
[Heading image: Conceptualized image of a SPARC reactor cross-section with humans for scale. (Credit: Commonwealth Fusion Systems)] | 62 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384700",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T14:36:08",
"content": "Looks like something Tony Stark would come up with. In a cave… with a box of scraps.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6384809",
"author": "anda... | 1,760,372,937.451908 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/how-good-are-the-headamame-3d-printed-headphones/ | How Good Are The Head(amame) 3D Printed Headphones? | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"3d printing",
"head(amame)",
"review"
] | 3D printing lets the average maker tackle building anything their heart desires, really, and many have taken to using the technology for audio projects. Printable speaker and headphone designs abound. The Head(amame) headphones from [Vector Finesse] are a design that combines 3D printed parts with hi-fi grade components to create a high-end listening experience. [Angus] of Maker’s Muse decided to try printing a set at home and has shared
his thoughts on the hardware.
Printing the parts has to be done carefully, with things like the infill settings crucial to the eventual sound quality of the final product. Using a properly equipped slicer like CURA is key to getting the parts printed properly so the finer settings can be appropriately controlled. The recommendation is to print the pieces in PETG, which [Angus] notes can be difficult to work with, and several prints were required to get all the parts made correctly.
Assembly is straightforward enough with kits available with all the fasteners and electronic parts included. Subjectively, [Angus] found the sound quality to be impressive, with plenty of full bass and clearly defined highs. Overall, it’s a positive review in the areas of comfort and sound quality.
Detractors will note that the kit of parts costs
over $100 USD alone,
and that after hours of work and printing, the user is left with a set of headphones made out of obviously 3D-printed parts. It seems destined to be a product aimed at the 3D printing fanbase. If you want a set of headphones you can customise endlessly in form and color, these are ideal. If you prefer the fit and finish of a consumer-grade product, they may not be for you.
It’s a good look at a design sure to appeal to a wide set of makers out there.
We’ve seen 3D printing put to good use in this realm before, too
. Video after the break. | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384663",
"author": "CRImier",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T11:15:06",
"content": "You might be able to find the parts (or substitutes) from the parts kit for cheaper, to be fair, and then get the files.That should help you with the “high price” thing, and maybe then it’ll appear to a “... | 1,760,372,937.352532 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/3d-printed-research-robotics-platform-runs-remotely/ | 3D Printed Research Robotics Platform Runs Remotely | Dave Rowntree | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"ESPNOW",
"robotics"
] | The
Open Dynamic Robot Initiative Group
is a collaboration between five robotics-oriented research groups, based in three countries, with the aim to build an Open Source robotics platform based around the torque-control method. Leveraging
3D printing
,
a few custom PCBs
, and off-the-shelf parts, there is a low-barrier to entry and much lower cost compared to similar robots.
The eagle-eyed will note that this is only a development platform, and all of the higher level control is off-machine, hosted by a separate PC. What’s interesting here, is just how low-level the robot actually is. The motion hardware is purely a few BLDC motors driven by
field-orientated control
(FOC) driver units, a wireless controller and some batteries. The FOC method enables very efficient motor commutation, giving excellent efficiency and maximum torque. A delve into the maths of how this method operates will be an eye opener for the uninitiated. Optical encoders attached to the motors give positional feedback for the control loop.
It is this control loop that’s kinda weird, in that operates over Wi-Fi! Normally one would do all the position, torque and speed sensing locally within the leg unit, with local control loops, as well as running all the limb kinematics and motion planning. This would need some considerable local processing grunt, which can make development more difficult.
This project side-steps this, by first leveraging the
ESPNOW protocol
, initially aimed at the ESP8266 and friends. By
patching
Ubuntu Linux, and enabling preemptive multitasking for real-time scheduling, as well as carefully selecting Wi-Fi drivers, it was possible to get raw packets out to robot in about 1 ms, enabling control loop bandwidths of around 1 Khz. And, that, was fast enough to
run at least sixteen motors in parallel
.
By pushing all the processing grunt to a fast PC, it is possible to get very creative with the kinematics, and develop new ideas much faster than the embedded approach, without worrying about running low on local CPU resource. You can see from the videos below, that the platform is already significantly advanced, capable of walking over uneven, and inconsistent surfaces,
jumping vertically a meter
, as well as
recovering from shoves, slips and other external perturbations
. The
project YouTube
has many more videos of the testing process to whet your appetite.
There are many repositories to explore on the
project GitHub
, which would be a great start for your next robot build, so if robots are your thing, this is definitely one to study up on. Maybe start with the
research paper
and get stuck into the
discourse
?
Newest 12 DOF four-legged platform, “Solo” goes for a walk:
6 DOF Biped, “Bolt” being poked around: | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384634",
"author": "Mike Massen, Perth, Western Australia",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T08:24:41",
"content": "Gosh !I don’t damn well stamp my feet when I go walkabout because of course, I have local control. If I had to rely on external control then I damn well would have to stamp m... | 1,760,372,937.294305 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/26/columbia-decides-3d-printed-food-tastes-like-chicken/ | Columbia Decides 3D Printed Food Tastes Like Chicken | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed chicken",
"3d printed food",
"3d printing",
"laser"
] | Researchers at Columbia have used
multi-wavelength lasers to cook 3D-printed chicken
. Apparently, it tastes like chicken. We were not overly surprised that 3D printed chicken protein cooked up to taste like chicken, but, then again, you have to do the science.
While additive manufacturing is the latest buzzword for all kinds of manufacturing, there’s also been a variety of attempts to 3D print food. We’ve seen pizza printers and fake steak printers, too. It makes sense that you don’t want to print raw food — the finished product needs to be cooked. You can see several videos about the process, below.
On the plus side, chicken cooked with blue and infrared lasers shrinks less than conventional cooking techniques. It also supposedly retains twice the moisture content, so it is possible that 3D printed chicken might have some real advantages compared to just throwing some fryer on the grill.
We aren’t sure we are ready to convert our printer to create nuggets and we’ll stick to more conventional cooking for now. But it is good to know that when we are ready to print our next meal, there’s scientific data to help us.
If your tastes range for
beef analog
, we’ve seen that printer before.
Converting a printer
to work with food doesn’t appear to be that hard, although your results, of course, may vary. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384632",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T07:51:45",
"content": "Well. The replicators in Star Trek are just good’ol 3D printers. :)Proof is right here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1065413857162803or google Star trek picard + flashforge",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,372,937.498473 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/26/automated-window-blinds-using-mqtt-and-home-assistant/ | Automated Window Blinds Using MQTT And Home Assistant | Chris Lott | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"home automation",
"home-assistant",
"mqtt",
"window blinds"
] | Finnish software engineer [Toni] is on a quest to modernize his 1991 house, and his latest project was to
automate the window blinds and control them using Home Assistant
. Unless your blinds have built-in motors, most of the effort of such a project centers around how to integrate and attach the motor — and as [Toni] points out, there are tons of different blinds with all kinds of operating mechanisms. But once you solve that issue, half the battle is over.
These particular blinds require less than one turn of the control rod to go from fully open to fully closed, and [Toni] selects a 270-degree range-of-motion, 20 kg*cm torque servo motor to drive them. He really wanted to install the motor inside the window, but it just wouldn’t fit. Instead, each servo motor is mounted in a custom 3D-printed case installed on the window frame just below the operating rod. An ESP8266-based controller box is installed above the window, hidden behind curtains, and operates all three servos.
On the software side of things, the project is coded in C++ and uploaded using the Ardiono IDE. The blinds communicate to [Toni]’s Home Assistant network using MQTT. All the software is available on the
project’s GitHub repository
, and the 3D-printed case design is
posted on Thingiverse
. Even though your blinds may be of a completely different design, we think many parts of [Toni]’s project are still useful — do check out this project if you’re thinking about doing something similar. The notion of motorized window blinds has been around for a some time — we covered
one project way back in 2013
and
another in 2016
. If you have added automation to your window blinds, let us know how it went down in the comments section. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6384629",
"author": "Andy",
"timestamp": "2021-09-27T07:38:19",
"content": "This was so ridiculous It made me laugh, having been in the blinds trade for over 20 years I’m just glad I know what I know.I thought hacks were meant to be clever and useful, my alternative hack would be to... | 1,760,372,937.555739 |
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