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https://hackaday.com/2021/09/05/interactive-led-shoes-that-anyone-can-build/ | Interactive LED Shoes That Anyone Can Build! | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"led shoes",
"shoes"
] | Normally when we see blinky projects these days, it’s using addressable LED strips with WS2812Bs, or similar alternatives. However, old-school blobby round LEDs are still on the market, and can still be put to great use. These DIY LED shoes from [TechnoChic] are
an excellent example of just that.
The shoes use big 10mm LEDs that have color-changing smarts baked in. Simply power them up and they’ll fade between a series of colors. They’re run from a coin cell sewn on to the side of each shoe, with the LEDs jammed into the rear of the sole. A conductive product called Maker Tape is then used to create a circuit for the LEDs and the coin cell, along with a pressure switch inside each shoe. When the wearer puts weight on their heel, the switch conducts, lighting up the LEDs as the wearer takes each step.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a pair of shoes bedazzled with LEDs
, but it’s arguably the easiest version of the concept to grace these pages. This is a quick way to create interactive flashing LED gadgets, and a great way for beginner makers to jazz up their projects. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377895",
"author": "Howard",
"timestamp": "2021-09-05T14:59:54",
"content": "I would agree that this is a creative solution that any crafty middle schooler could manage. Pre-COVID I was an instructor at a hands-on kids’ technology summer camp, and this is the sort of build we had ... | 1,760,372,961.705917 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/quiet-on-the-set-goes-for-objects-too/ | ‘Quiet On The Set’ Goes For Objects, Too | Kristina Panos | [
"how-to",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"noise reduction",
"props",
"silent paper",
"silicone",
"vinyl"
] | Unless you’re sonically savvy, trying to sleep, or simply on edge, you probably don’t realize just how noisy common items can be. Pretty much everything makes enough racket to ruin a sound man’s day, or at the very least, their chance of picking up the dialogue between two characters. What you need on a set are noiseless but realistic versions of common noisemakers like paper bags, ice cubes, and to a lesser extent, billiard balls.
If you’ve spent any time at all on Reddit, you’ve probably seen frustratingly short GIFs of [Tim Schultz] quickly explaining how this or that noiseless prop is made.
Embedded below is a compendium of prop hacks
with more information worked in along the way. Talk about dream job! Problem solving and then hacking together a solution for a living sounds terrifying and delightful all at once.
Speaking of terrifying and delightful hacks, there’s still plenty of time to enter our
Halloween Hackfest contest
, which runs through Monday, October 11th. Halloween is the best time to go all out, so show us what you can do!
Via
adafruit | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377866",
"author": "AcousticAlfred",
"timestamp": "2021-09-05T07:08:11",
"content": "Now they need to use these in cinemas where people make constant noise going through their bags of edibles.There is a reason you are not allowed to smuggle in chips bags. And it is not just that th... | 1,760,372,961.627417 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/giving-a-console-controller-mouse-like-precision-aim/ | Giving A Console Controller Mouse-Like Precision Aim | Danie Conradie | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"game console",
"game controller",
"keyboard and mouse hack"
] | Controller vs keyboard and mouse is one of the never-ending battles in the world of gaming, with diehard proponents on both sides of the fence. [Tech Yesterday] has been working to create a controller that’s the best of both worlds. His latest
Mouse Pro Controller V5
features an inverted mouse riding on ball bearings.
Mouse Pro Controller V1-3
‘s main focus was to create the largest possible moving surface for an optical thumb mouse for precision aiming. However, [Tech Yesterday] found that one’s thumb doesn’t work well for traversing a large flat surface, but works better with a concave surface.
On V4 he flipped the optical sensor around
, embedding it in the controller, with a small circular “mouse pad” attached to his thumb. The concave surface was made from the diffuser of a large LED light bulb. It had slightly too much friction for [Tech Yesterday]’s liking, so he embedded an array of small ball bearings in the surface using magnets.
While this “thumb mouse” has excellent precision, it can be a bit slow when you need to make large movements, like when performing 360° no scopes for the clips. For these situations, [Tech Yesterday] embedded a thumb stick on the back of the controller to allow for fast sideways movements using his middle fingers.
[Tech Yesterday] is already working on V6, but feels close to the limit of his skills. If you are interested in working with him, be sure to
get in touch
! Modding controllers for fun and performance are great, but
for gamers with prosthetic fingers it’s a requirement
. | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377878",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2021-09-05T10:17:05",
"content": "Very interesting, I’d love to try it, maybe it really will change my thoughts below.Seems backwards to have a thumb disk in that dish rather than a trackball arrangement to me. Trackballs have a few adv... | 1,760,372,961.391843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/fan-lets-rc-car-drive-on-the-ceiling/ | Fan Lets RC Car Drive On The Ceiling | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"fan car",
"hc-05",
"R/C car",
"remote control car"
] | Downforce is a major part of modern motorsport, keeping cars glued to the track at high speeds. However, for small radio control cars, adding a fan for a little suction can achieve even greater feats, as demonstrated by
this build by [DD ElectroTech].
The build began as a simple two-motor, skid-steer RC car build with a fan for suction. Controlled by a smartphone app, a cheap Arduino board with an HC-05 Bluetooth module ran the show. However, when this was all assembled, the car was too heavy to climb walls or stick to the ceiling.
Thus, a weight-saving plan was in order. Wheels were swapped out for lighter 3D printed parts. The electronics saw significant re-engineering, too, with the multiple separate modules all condensed down into one single custom PCB. After a few other tweaks, the new lighter car was able to easily drive on the ceiling and even climb walls, albeit with some difficulty.
It’s a fun little build and a good demonstration of how easy it is to whip up cool projects with modern electronics and 3D printed parts. We’ve seen
other printed fan car builds
before, too, but did you know the concept was first trialed
in real-world motorsport competition
? Video after the break. | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377808",
"author": "Cluso99",
"timestamp": "2021-09-05T01:09:09",
"content": "Congratulations! Shows what you can do if you put your mind to it :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6377812",
"author": "Lifeweaver",
"times... | 1,760,372,961.299031 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/3d-printed-synth-kit-shares-product-design-insights/ | 3D Printed Synth Kit Shares Product Design Insights | Donald Papp | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"3d printing",
"dfm",
"kit",
"oskitone",
"product design",
"synth"
] | We’ve always been delighted with the thoughtful and detailed write-ups that accompany each of [Tommy]’s synth products,
and the background of his newest instrument, the Scout, is no exception
. The Scout is specifically designed to be beginner-friendly, hackable, and uses 3D printed parts and components as much as possible. But there is much more to effectively using 3D printing as a production method than simply churning out parts. Everything needed to be carefully designed and tested, including the 3D printed battery holder, which we happen to think is a great idea.
3D printed battery holder, with spring contacts inserted by hand.
[Tommy] also spends some time explaining how he decided which features and design elements to include and which to leave out, contrasting the Scout with his
POLY555 synth
. Since the Scout is designed to be affordable and beginner-friendly, too many features can in fact be a drawback. Component costs go up, assembly becomes less straightforward, and more complex parts means additional failure points when 3D printing.
[Tommy] opted to keep the Scout tightly focused, but since it’s entirely open-sourced with a hackable design, adding features is made as easy as can be. [Tommy] designed the PCB in KiCad and used OpenSCAD for everything else. The Scout uses the ATmega328, and can be easily modified using the Arduino IDE.
STL files can be downloaded here
and all source files are on
the project’s GitHub repository
, which also contains detailed assembly and modification guides. Watch it in action in the video, embedded below. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377907",
"author": "drthrthrt",
"timestamp": "2021-09-05T17:54:13",
"content": "can you show long touch of keys?is possible printing more massive keys? metal inside?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,372,961.667274 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/animatronic-puppetry-controller-skips-joystick-or-keyboard/ | Animatronic Puppetry Controller Skips Joystick Or Keyboard | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"animatronics",
"portal",
"puppetry",
"robot controller"
] | One of the major challenges of animatronics is creating natural looking motion. You can build something with an actuator for every possible degree of freedom, but it will still be disappointing if you are unable to control it to smoothly play the part. [Mr. Volt] has developed a passion for animatronic projects, but found programming them tedious, and manual control with keyboard or controller difficult to do right. As an alternative, he is building
Waldo, an electronic puppetry controller
.
The Waldo rig is being developed in conjunction with [Mr. Volt]’s build of
Wheatley
, the talkative ball-shaped robot from the Portal 2 game. The puppetry rig consists of a series of rings for [Mr Volt]’s hand, with the position of each being read by angle sensors. This allows him to control Wheatley’s orientation of the body and eyeball, eyelids, and handles. Wheatley and Waldo both still need a few refinements, but we look forward to seeing the finished project in action.
The
Portal
games have inspired several featured projects, including
GLaDOS
, the
turrets
, and of course more
Wheatly
builds. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377768",
"author": "Nitpicker Smartyass",
"timestamp": "2021-09-04T17:44:35",
"content": "quite promising experiments, although my feeling is that “old fashioned mechanic/hydraulic controls” were quite good if used by skilled people …",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,372,961.333601 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/getting-back-into-hackerspaces/ | Getting Back Into Hackerspaces | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"COVID",
"hackerspaces",
"newsletter"
] | Last week, I got my first chance to get out and about among the hackers in what feels like forever. Hackerspaces here in Germany are finally able to re-open for business-as-almost-usual, allowing access to reasonable numbers of people providing they’re immunized or tested, and wearing masks of course. And that meant that I got to take up [Andreas’] invitation to come see his
Stereo Ninja inspection microscope project
in person.
Stereo Ninja basically makes clever use of two Raspberry Pi cameras, swaps out the optics for greater enlargement, and displays the results on a 3D monitor — to be viewed with shutter glasses. This is one of those projects that you really have to see in person to “get it”. He’s still working on stripping the build down to make it simpler and more affordable, to make the project more accessible to the average hacker.
We talked about DIYing a 3D monitor. It turns out that the shutter glasses are cheap, and it looks like they’re synced by an IR pulse to the monitor. There should be a hacker solution for 3D to work with a fast gaming monitor at least. [Andreas] also pointed me to this
great breakout board for the Raspberry Pi CM4
that breaks out both camera lanes for easy stereo / 3D capture. I got the tour of the
FabLab
, and we talked welding, metal 3D printing, software, hardware and assorted nerdy stuff. [
Alex
] showed up on his way out of town for the weekend — it’d been ages since we hung out.
In short, I remembered how it used to be in the before-times, when visits with other hackers, and to other hackerspaces, were possible. There’s this spontaneous and mutually inspirational kind of chat that’s just impossible remotely, and is tremendously important.
We’re not done with the COVID pandemic yet, I fear, and different parts of the world have entirely different trajectories. If you told me two years ago that I would be visiting hackerspaces with a mask and proof-of-vaccination, I would have thought you were crazy. But at the same time this brief visit gave me a little boost of hope for the future. We will get through all of this, and we’ll all meet up again at our local hackerspaces.
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
! | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377721",
"author": "Andreas",
"timestamp": "2021-09-04T14:28:17",
"content": "It was great having you at the FabLab München, Elliot! Hope to see you around again soon!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6377741",
"author": "Cp... | 1,760,372,961.497338 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/motorcycle-simulation-rig-is-off-to-the-races/ | Motorcycle Simulation Rig Is Off To The Races | Matthew Carlson | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"motorcycle",
"sim rig",
"theQ",
"welding"
] | Many arcade machines can be emulated and handily controlled with the standard joystick and button combos. However, a few don’t feel quite right without some extra equipment, motorcycle racing games being one of them. So, no longer content to go to an arcade to get his fix, [The Q]
welded his own motorcycle simulation rig for playing racing games at home
.
After an initial design was sketched out, rectangular tube steel was cut to size and welded together with a MIG welder. A central shaft linked to some secured bearings made the central pivot point. A few pistons offered the resistance needed for leaning into the curves. To the central shaft, a seat and an old bicycle fork were attached. A clever linkage from the handlebars to the base causes the bike to tilt when turning the handlebars and vice versa.
The bike was ready for prime time after some grinding, orange paint, a license plate, and some lights and grips. [The Q] just needed to get the angle of the bike into the simulation of their choice. While we expected a teensy or other microcontroller emulating a controller, [The Q] went for a somewhat simpler approach, and 3D printed a cradle to hold a PlayStation controller. Little levers pull strings to articulate the joystick, and a cable from the throttle grip pulls back the trigger on the controller. All in all, the experience looks pretty decent, particularly when you’re comparing it to a motocross arcade machine. What it really needs are some fans blowing for the effect of the air stream coming at you.
If you’re thinking about busting out the MIG to make a rig of your own, maybe consider making a
homemade car racing rig to complement the bike
. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377705",
"author": "Meir",
"timestamp": "2021-09-04T12:00:02",
"content": "Awesome project. Be careful because in real life motorcycle stearing is opposite.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377780",
"author": "Casey S... | 1,760,372,961.449672 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/04/making-oled-displays-in-the-home-lab/ | Making OLED Displays In The Home Lab | Dan Maloney | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ITO",
"oled",
"organic light-emitting diode",
"photolithography",
"physical vapor deposition",
"PVD"
] | Just a general observation: when your project’s BOM includes ytterbium metal, chances are pretty good that it’s something interesting. We’d say that
making your own OLED displays at home
definitely falls into that category.
Of course, the making of organic light-emitting diodes requires more than just a rare-earth metal, not least of which is the experience in the field that [Jeroen Vleggaar] brings to this project. Having worked on OLEDs at Philips for years, [Jeroen] is well-positioned to tackle the complex process, involving things like
physical vapor deposition
and the organic chemistry of coordinated quinolones. And that’s not to mention the quantum physics of it all, which is nicely summarized in the first ten minutes or so of the video below. From there it’s all about making a couple of OLED displays using photolithography and the aforementioned PVD to build up a sandwich of Alq3, an electroluminescent organic compound, on a substrate of ITO (indium tin oxide) glass. We especially appreciate the use of a resin 3D printer to create the photoresist masks, as well as the details on the PVD process.
The displays themselves look fantastic — at least for a while. The organic segments begin to oxidize rapidly from pinholes in the material; a cleanroom would fix that, but this was just a demonstration, after all. And as a bonus, the blue-green glow of [Jeroen]’s displays reminds us strongly of
the replica Apollo DSKY display
that [Ben Krasnow] built a while back. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377682",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2021-09-04T09:05:39",
"content": "I wonder could probably be made even better with a Getter and seal made Wood’s metal or Field’s metal. But I guess you would need some low temperature alloy that can wet the glass for a really good seal.(re... | 1,760,372,961.752785 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/retro-shield-replaces-springs-with-jumpers-includes-blinkenlights/ | Retro Shield Replaces Springs With Jumpers, Includes Blinkenlights! | Ryan Flowers | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"556",
"556 timer",
"blinkenlights",
"lm386",
"retro shield"
] | Is it an AM radio? Yes. It is a 555 LED flashing circuit? Yep. How about a hex counter with a 7 segment display? That too. Five different colored LED’s to satisfy your need for blinkenlights? Even that! What
is
this magical contraption? Is it one of those old school 30-in-1 or 50-in-1 “Science Fair” kits with the jumper wires and the springs?
Almost!
When [grandalf]’s friend showed them a project where a 555 timer was installed on an Arduino shield, they realized two things: This whole “could have done that with a 555 timer” meme is a lot of fun, and “I’ve got an old 556 chip, I wonder if I can build one?” The answer is yes, and so much more.
Starting with the 556 timer, and inspired by the old spring-and-jumper kits of the past, [grandalf]’s
“556 on a Proto Shield
” project evolved into a creation they call the Retro Shield. Snowballing like so many hacker projects, it now includes several built in circuits and components. Breadboard jumpers are used to connect components through strategically placed pin headers, of which there are quite a few!
To make it all fit, some parts were substituted with more compact pieces such as an LM386 instead of an LM380. The AM radio portion is supplied by an all-in-one radio chip, the ZN414. With the scope creep picking up steam, [grandalf] eventually added so called sidecars- bits of board that contain controls and a speaker hanging off the side of the Proto Shield.
It is not mentioned if the Retro Shield integrates with the Arduino or not. All the same, the Retro Shield has been used to pick up local AM stations, blink LED’s and amplify audio with the LM386. Like [grandalf] we’re sure that the Retro Shield can be used for much more. We hope that [grandalf] expands on the concept and inspires future hackers to answer the question “I wonder what happens if I try
this.”
If you haven’t set eyes on one of the all-in-one kits, check out
this 200-in-1 kit teardown and review
. And of course, if you have your own hacked up projects to share, be sure to let us know through the
Tip Line
! | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377663",
"author": "Hans Summers",
"timestamp": "2021-09-04T05:08:31",
"content": "Love it!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377678",
"author": "Ellis",
"timestamp": "2021-09-04T07:19:21",
"content": ... | 1,760,372,961.255401 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/smooth-servo-motion-for-lifelike-animatronics/ | Smooth Servo Motion For Lifelike Animatronics | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"animatronics",
"arduino",
"servo"
] | Building an animatronic robot is one thing, but animating it in a lifelike fashion is a completely different challenge. Hobby servos are cheap and popular for animatronics, but just letting it move at max speed isn’t particularly lifelike. In the video after the break, [James Bruton] demonstrates how to
achieve natural motion with a simple animatronic head and a few extra lines of code
.
Very little natural body movement happens at a constant speed, it’s always accelerating or decelerating. When we move our heads to look at something around us, our neck muscles accelerate our head sharply in the chosen direction and then slows down gradually as it reaches its endpoint. To do this in Arduino/C code, a new intermediate position for the servo is specified for each main loop until it reaches the final position. The intermediate value is the sum of 95% of the current position, and 5% of the target position. This gives the effect of the natural motion described above. The ratios can be changed to suit the desired speed.
The
delay
function is usually one of the first timing mechanisms that new Arduino programmers learn about, but it’s not suited for this application, especially when you’re controlling multiple servos simultaneously. Instead, the
millis
function is used to keep track of the system clock in the main loop, which fires the position update commands at the specified intervals. Adafruit wrote an excellent tutorial on this method of multitasking, which [James] based his code on. Of course, this should be old news to anyone who has been doing embedded programming for a while, but it’s an excellent introduction for newcomers.
Like most of [James]’s projects, all the code and CAD files are open source and available on
GitHub
. His projects make regular appearances here on Hackaday, like his
mono-wheel balancing robot
and
mechanically multiplexed flip-dot display
. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377677",
"author": "ihdp",
"timestamp": "2021-09-04T07:17:24",
"content": "8 bit micro doing floating point math for something so trivial. Great job,",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377746",
"author": "Gravis",
... | 1,760,372,961.804792 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/an-earthquake-display-to-keep-you-abreast-of-rumblings-worldwide/ | An Earthquake Display To Keep You Abreast Of Rumblings Worldwide | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"earthquake",
"ESP32",
"seismograph"
] | The Internet has brought us the ability to share data all over the globe, and nearly instantaneously at that. It’s revolutionized the sharing of science across the world, and taking advantage of this global data network is this earthquake display
from [AndyGadget].
The build relies on an ESP32 fitted with an ILI9486 TFT display. The screen is in color and has a nice 480×320 resolution. This enables it to display a reasonably legible world map using the
Web Mercator projection
to fit the rectangular screen. The microcontroller then pulls in information from
Seismic Portal
, a site that aggregates data from seismographs and other sensors scattered all over the world. Data from the site is pulled into the device live and overlaid on the world map, allowing the viewer to see the location of any current earthquakes at a glance.
It’s a great project, and one that we reckon would make a great addition to any university geology department. If it’s sparked an interest,
consider diving deeper into the world of seismic analysis and data yourself! | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377820",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2021-09-05T01:54:54",
"content": "This looks cool, but…Before you can download and look at the code for this project you need to sign up for a Forum [1] and flash your ESP32 with something web-based called “Annex RDS”. As it says on the Ann... | 1,760,372,961.856698 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/coaxcopter-to-carry-man/ | Coaxcopter To Carry Man | Danie Conradie | [
"drone hacks",
"News"
] | [
"coaxial",
"drone",
"helicopter",
"redundancy"
] | One of the major perks of all the affordable flight controllers and motors available from the hobby market is that you can really experiment with some crazy aircraft designs. [amazingdiyprojects] is
experimenting with a coaxial helicopter design
, with the goal off possibly using for a manned version in the future. (Video link, embedded below.)
The aircraft uses a pair of coaxial counter-rotating motors with large propellers, with several redundant control surfaces below the propellers. One of the theoretical advantages of this arrangement, compared to the more conventional quadcopter type designs, is redundancy. While a quadcopter will start tumbling when a single motor fails, this design will still be able to descend safely with just one motor.
It is also not dependent on the main motors for yaw, pitch and roll control. In multirotors, the motors need to keep a significant amount of the motor’s available power in reserve to increase torque at a moment’s notice for attitude control. This craft can use all the available thrust from the motors for lift, since control is provided by the control surfaces. There are five sets of redundant control surfaces below the propellers, each set connected to a separate flight controller.
Another advantage of this design is efficient for a given footprint, since one large propeller will always be more efficient than multiple smaller propellers. One of the goals for [amazingdiyprojects] is to fit the full size craft in a shipping container or on a trailer for transport without dissasembly.
[amazingdiyprojects] has built manned drones before, using both
electric motors
and
internal combustion engines
. And don’t miss
the most gonzo wind tunnel ever
at 7:00 in the video below. | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377459",
"author": "WereCatf",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T09:31:07",
"content": "The blurb mentions a couple of advantages, but what would be the disadvantages here? There’s always a trade-off with everything, so surely there are some disadvantages with this approach as well.",
"... | 1,760,372,962.075475 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/pi-pico-emulates-rom-for-speedy-retro-hacking/ | Pi Pico Emulates ROM For Speedy Retro Hacking | Tom Nardi | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"eeprom",
"emulator",
"eprom",
"pi pico",
"rom"
] | If you’ve ever worked on a system that loads its software from a ROM or EPROM, you know how much of a hassle it can be to make frequent changes to the code. Pulling the chip, flashing it, and sticking it back into the socket each time you change a line isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. Which is why
[Nick Bild] has come up with the PicoROM, a way to emulate a ROM chip using the Raspberry Pi Pico
.
With the Pi Pico standing in for the original ROM, updating firmware takes a fraction of the time and doesn’t require you to actually disconnect any of the hardware. [Nick] had done something similar with FPGAs in the past, but the far cheaper and easier to work with Pi Pico makes this version particularly appealing. The secret to getting it to work is the overclocking potential of the Pico, which he says has been pushed to 400 MHz for this particular application.
PicoROM on a breadboard.
The downside is that you can’t access the Pico’s onboard flash when the chip is running that fast. To get around that limitation, all of the code is loaded into the microcontroller’s RAM. With a healthy 264 KB of memory this isn’t really a problem when emulating 32 KB chips, but [Nick] says his method would quickly fall apart for larger ROMs.
Beyond the Pi Pico itself, [Nick] is using a trio of 74LVC245AN 8-bit logic level shifters so the chip can talk to the 5 V logic of his homebrew 6502 computer. With everything wired up on a simple breadboard, PicoROM has no trouble serving up the operating system as it hums along at 2 MHz.
Of course, a modern high-performance microcontroller isn’t strictly necessary. In the past we’ve
covered devices that could emulate an EPROM using 1990s era silicon
. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377442",
"author": "Raspico",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T07:58:57",
"content": "Next step : build a slightly adjusted raspico DIP40 compatible and replace the CPU itself … (PiStorm…) :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6377447",... | 1,760,372,962.026308 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/making-web-pages-with-word/ | Making Web Pages With Word? | Chris Lott | [
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"html",
"HTML conversion",
"Microsoft Word",
"Technical documentation",
"Web pages"
] | If you’ve ever examined the messy HTML that results from doing a
Save As HTML
from Microsoft Word, you can appreciate [Jim Yuill]’s motivation for his
WordWebNav (WWN) project
. [Jim] uses Word to document his technical projects, and wanted an easy way to generate web pages. Not only is Word-generated HTML nearly unreadable, [Jim] notes there are known bugs, as well. His project attempts to solve these shortcomings, and adds new features like a navigation pane and headers, among others.
Here is a link to a dummy project
which shows off these features.
There are, of course, other ways of generating web pages from your technical documentation — there is the Markdown / Pandoc combination, various Wiki solutions, or GitHub Pages, for example. If you’re Python-focused, there’s always the Jupyter Notebooks / JupyterLab approach which
we wrote about in 2019
. But these presume the source documents are in a certain format. If you have years of existing documentation in Word, or you prefer (or are required) to use Word, [Jim]’s WWN tool might be of interest.
The open source, Python-based program can be found in
the project’s GitHub repository
. [Jim] has a lot of experience writing software, and the clean and well-organized source code reflects this. Do you convert project documentation to HTML for browsing, be it local or online? If so, share your techniques in the comments below. | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377430",
"author": "ubvt",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T06:17:48",
"content": "Hint: use TeX.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377495",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T13:49:42",
"content": "Hi... | 1,760,372,962.261847 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/a-giant-engine-needs-a-giant-engine-stand/ | A Giant Engine Needs A Giant Engine Stand | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"engine",
"engine stand",
"steel"
] | Engine stands are great to have on hand for when you need to work on an engine outside a vehicle. However, if your engine is particularly large, you might find off-the-shelf solutions difficult to find. [Liebregts] was recently contacted by someone in just such a pickle, who had an 8-litre Bentley engine from 1928 and nothing to put it on.
Thus, constructing a custom engine stand was in order.
The original home of the hefty 8-liter engine.
The stand is built out of stout 50x50x4mm steel tubing in order to handle the weight of the gigantic vintage engine. It’s designed with an eye to ground clearance, such that an engine crane can easily slide under the stand when it’s time to lift the engine back in the car. It also allows the whole engine to be turned upside down, and even raised and lowered. This makes it easier to get to different parts of the engine, while keeping the center of gravity where it needs to be to avoid the whole assembly falling over.
It’s not a hugely complicated build, but it goes to show just how much of a difference it can make when you have the right tools for the job. With the engine out and on its stand, it’s much easier to work on and handle the many complicated tasks in its restoration. It also benefits from being custom built to suit the dimensions of the Bentley engine. Everything fits and it just works!
While few of us have rare 1928 Bentleys in need of an engine-out service, it’s a build that should serve as great inspiration for those working on similar tasks. Meanwhile, consider building yourself
a custom engine crane
to help out around the garage. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377394",
"author": "Andy Pugh",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T23:14:42",
"content": "1928? Yeah, I don’t have much to do with that modern stuff :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6377411",
"author": "Kirby",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,372,962.155391 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/extending-bicycle-will-let-you-stand-out-above-the-crowd/ | Extending Bicycle Will Let You Stand Out Above The Crowd | Danie Conradie | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"ebike",
"Make It Extreme",
"Pneumatics"
] | Some bicycles are built primarily for practicality, while others are more focused on novel looks. [Make It Extreme]’s latest project, the
extending bicycle
, falls squarely in the latter category.
Built around four custom-machined pneumatic pistons, this electric bike can lift the rider about a meter into the air with the flick of a switch. The front pair forms the bicycle’s forks, while the rear pair is mounted between the frame and swingarm. A small onboard compressor is used to charge a pair of modified fire extinguishers, which feed the pistons via pneumatic valves mounted on the handlebars. The wheels and brakes were scavenged from an old scooter. Since the length between the crankset and rear wheel never changes, there is no need to struggle with chain tensioners as the ride height changes.
While we would hate to face-plant from that height, it certainly looks like a fun ride and conversation starter. This is the case for many of [Make It Extreme]’s projects, like a
ridable tank track
and
monowheel motorcycle
. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377395",
"author": "Comedicles",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T23:38:33",
"content": "A 36 minute Wordless Workshop is four times too much. But the result is outstanding :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377479",
"autho... | 1,760,372,962.199091 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/a-microcontroller-friendly-ar-headset-on-the-cheap/ | A Microcontroller Friendly AR Headset On The Cheap | Tom Nardi | [
"The Hackaday Prize",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"augmented reality",
"IPS display",
"wearable display"
] | Generating the real-time images required for augmented reality (AR) goggles usually requires a fair amount of processing power, to the point that DIY efforts based around the Raspberry Pi often have trouble keeping up. But what if your AR aspirations don’t require fancy high-resolution graphics? If text and the occasional icon is enough to get the job done, then
these lo-fi AR goggles from [bobricius] might be the ideal solution
.
As with previous homebrew AR rigs we’ve seen, this one starts with
an affordable headset designed to project the display of a smartphone
onto a pair of curved optical combiners. But instead of tucking a phone into the headset, [bobricius] is using a custom PCB that holds a pair of ST7789 1.3 inch 240 x 240 IPS displays. Connected over SPI and supported by just about any microcontroller you’d care to use, tossing some textual data over your field of vision can be accomplished in just a few lines of code.
[bobricius] has actually put together a couple different versions of the PCB for this project. One uses his custom ATSAMD21E18-based “ArmaBrain” module that packs the MCU and an array of common components onto a 28 mm square board that can be easily dropped into other projects. If you’d rather roll your own solution, the second version of the board that simply holds the two displays in the appropriate position and routes the SPI lines to a convenient header should do nicely.
We’ve seen augmented reality displays using microcontrollers like the ESP32 before
, but those were essentially just remote displays for a more powerful system. We like this simplified approach, as there are plenty of applications where just getting a few lines of text or some low-resolution images would be more than sufficient for the task at hand. Plus, the commercially-made headset this project is based on certainly looks better than
some of the other donor goggles we’ve contemplated modifying in the past
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377428",
"author": "Haq",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T06:05:47",
"content": "What was the first headset, can anyone tell me the name of it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377441",
"author": "Adrian",
"timestamp... | 1,760,372,962.311984 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/japanese-rocket-engine-explodes-continuously-and-on-purpose/ | Japanese Rocket Engine Explodes: Continuously And On Purpose | Lewin Day | [
"Engine Hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"aerospace",
"engine",
"rocket",
"rocket engine",
"rocketry",
"rotating detonation engine",
"science"
] | Liquid-fuelled rocket engine design has largely followed a simple template since the development of the German V-2 rocket in the middle of World War 2. Propellant and oxidizer are mixed in a combustion chamber, creating a mixture of hot gases at high pressure that very much wish to leave out the back of the rocket, generating thrust.
However, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has
recently completed a successful test of a different type of rocket, known as a rotating detonation engine
. The engine relies on an entirely different method of combustion, with the aim to produce more thrust from less fuel. We’ll dive into how it works, and how the Japanese test bodes for the future of this technology.
Deflagration vs. Detonation
Humans love combusting fuels in order to do useful work. Thus far in our history, whether we look at steam engines, gasoline engines, or even rocket engines, all these technologies have had one thing in common: they all rely on fuel that burns in a deflagration. It’s the easily controlled manner of slow combustion that we’re all familiar with since we started sitting around campfires.
A diagram of the JAXA rotating detonation engine, showing the intended operation in which the shock wave from detonating fuel travels around the engine in the annular channel to continue the combustion cycle. Source:
JAXA
However, there are potential efficiency gains to be had
by combusting fuel in a detonation instead
. This is where the combustion creates a shock wave that travels faster than the speed of sound that rapidly propagates the detonation reaction further, and comes with a huge pressure increase to boot. The key advantage of burning fuel in this manner is that there is more energy to be gained from that huge pressure increase. Thus, by releasing more energy from the same amount of fuel, engines operating on a detonation-based process could theoretically be more energy efficient.
There are several issues with operating an engine on a detonation-based cycle, however. It can be difficult to sustain a continuous detonation reaction. Additionally, large spikes in temperature and pressure from the detonation process and the associated shockwaves can easily damage or destroy parts made of even very tough materials. Thus far, engineers in many fields have struggled to tame and control detonation processes to the point where they can be used successfully.
The rotating detonation engine consists of a combustion chamber that has a annular, ring-type construction. In this ring, fuel and oxidizer is injected, and ignited in such a way to detonate the mixture. The aim is for the shockwave of this detonation to travel around the ring-shaped combustion chamber causing further detonations as it goes in a continuous cycle.
Getting the concept to work has proved difficult; despite the concept being first developed in the 1950s at the University of Michigan, it was only in recent years that engineers had successfully demonstrated a rotating detonation engine in continuous operation. A team at the University of Central Florida
demonstrated a hydrogen-oxygen fueled engine in 2020,
producing up to 200 lbf (890 N) of thrust in testing. The feat was achieved through careful tuning of the size of the jets that inject the propellants to get the mixture just right for controlled detonation to go on. Get the mixture wrong, and the fuel will burn in a slower deflagration, with no benefits to thrust or efficiency.
Japan’s Live Test
Unlike the experiment by the University of Central Florida, the Japanese effort involved launching an actual rocket. The test used a standard sounding rocket with a conventional engine to launch the test payload hundreds of kilometers above the Earth, with the second stage of the rocket mounted the rotating detonation engine. The mission took place using sounding rocket S-520-31,
launched from the JAXA Uchinoura Space Center on July 27, 2021.
The JAXA rotating detonation engine in operation over Earth. Source: Nagoya University, JAXA
The second stage fired successfully, running for six seconds and producing 112 lbf (500 N) of thrust during that period, 56% of the Florida team’s ground demonstrator. Data collected from the experiment confirmed that the engine operated as expected, combusting its fuel in the detonation regime.
JAXA hopes to put the technology into practical applications within five years, given the successful demonstration of the flight hardware. Built in collaboration with a team from Nagoya University, the hope is to develop the technology further to create more efficient spacecraft in future. It could find application in a variety of areas, from first stage and second stage rocket motors, to being applied to deep space missions to make the most of limited fuel resources.
The technology has come a long way in the past few years. With multiple independent groups now demonstrating working engines, it’s shaken the “impossible” title that had become attached to the rotating detonation concept for half a century. Obviously, much engineering will be required to build practical engines that outperform existing designs. However, with the recent strides made in the field, there’s now a spark of hope that tells us it could be done. | 62 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377325",
"author": "David Beck",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T17:47:11",
"content": "Several years ago there was a detonation powered airplane displayed at the experimental aircraft flyin in Oshkosh Wisconsin. The plane used part of a car motor and a series of tuned pipes to create reo... | 1,760,372,962.408245 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/arduino-measures-20v-signals-using-quantizer/ | Arduino Measures 20V Signals Using Quantizer | Chris Lott | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"A/D",
"adc resolution",
"arduino",
"quantizer"
] | Canadian electronics geek and nascent YouTuber [Technoyaki] wanted to measure 20 volt signals on his Arduino. One might typically use a voltage divider to knock them down to the 5 volt range of the Arduino’s 10-bit A/Ds. But he isn’t one to take the conventional approach. Instead of using two resistors, [Technoyaki] decides to build an
analog circuit out of sixteen resistors, four op amps and a separate 6 VDC supply
.
What is a quantizer? In the usual sense, a quantizer transforms an analog signal (with an infinity of possible values) to a smaller (and finite) set of digital values. An A/D converter is a perfect example of a quantizer. [Technoyaki], stretching the definition slightly, and uses the term to describe his circuit, which is basically a voltage slicer. It breaks up the 20 V signal into four separate 5 V bands. Of course, one could almost accomplish this by just using an Arduino Due, which has a 12-bit A/D converter (almost, because it has a lower reference voltage of 3.3 V). But that wouldn’t be as much fun.
Why use all these extra components? Clearly, reducing parts count and circuit complexity was not one of [Technoyaki]’s goals. As he describes it, the reason is to avoid the loss of A/D resolution inherent with the traditional voltage divider. As a matter of semantics, we’d like to point out that no bits of resolution are lost when using a divider — it’s more accurate to say that you gain bits of resolution when using a circuit like the quantizer. And not surprising for precision analog circuitry, [Technoyaki] notes that there are yet a few issues yet to be solved. Even if this circuit ultimately proves impractical, it’s a neat concept to explore. Check out the video below the break, where he does a great job explaining the design and his experiments.
Even though this isn’t quite a cut-and-paste circuit solution at present, it does show another way to handle large signals and pick up some bits of resolution at the same time. We wrote before
about similar methods for doubling the A/D resolution of the Arduino
. Let us know if you have any techniques for measuring higher voltages and/or increasing the resolution of your A/D converters. | 25 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377604",
"author": "Arthur Mezins",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T21:04:15",
"content": "Resolution and accuracy are not the same. You claim to use 5% resistors to make “differential” amplifiers for the front end, but gain accurate diff amps need something like 0.1% or better resistor “... | 1,760,372,962.472909 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/wearable-scope-lets-your-fingers-do-the-probing/ | Wearable Scope Lets Your Fingers Do The Probing | Tom Nardi | [
"The Hackaday Prize",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"digital Oscilloscope",
"nRF5340",
"oscilloscope",
"wearable"
] | For frantic hacking sessions where seconds count, this
forearm mounted oscilloscope with fingertip probes built by [aniketdhole]
might be just what you need. Well, maybe. It’s not immediately clear
why
you might want to wear an oscilloscope on your arm, and sticking your fingers inside of powered up electronic devices sounds specifically like something your mother probably told you not to do, but here it is anyway.
The scope consists of an nRF5340 evaluation board in a 3D printed mount, with an SPI-connected Adafruit 2.8″ TFT display on top. With a pair of wires run from the board’s ADC and ground pins, [aniketdhole] just needed a bit of code to glue it all together and show some basic signal visualizations on the display. It’s been tested against PWM signals generated by an Arduino and some potentiometer controlled voltages, but anything much wilder than that is probably a bit too much to ask for from this rig in its current configuration.
In the future, [aniketdhole] wants to add some step-down circuity so you can probe higher voltages than the nRF5340 can handle normally, as well as a shunt to allow current measurement. Once the hardware is in place, the next order of business will be an improved touch-capable user interface that lets the user adjust settings and switch between functions.
Even if you’re not sold on the idea of an arm-mounted oscilloscope, this is still an interesting platform for general wearable experimentation.
Throw enough sensors into it
, and we’re sure there’s more than a few hackers who wouldn’t mind strapping one of these on.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377566",
"author": "12L14",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T18:51:44",
"content": "scary…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377567",
"author": "purplepeopleated",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T18:59:31",
"content":... | 1,760,372,962.522533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/troubleshooting-a-method-for-solving-problems-the-right-way/ | Troubleshooting: A Method For Solving Problems The Right Way | Ryan Flowers | [
"Featured",
"Lifehacks",
"Skills"
] | [
"adam savage",
"notes",
"problem solving",
"scientific method",
"sherlock holmes",
"shotgun approach",
"troubleshooting",
"troubleshooting method"
] | We’ve all experienced that magic moment when, after countless frustrating hours of experimentation and racking your brain, the object of our attention starts working. The 3D printer finally produces good output. The hacked up laptop finally boots. The car engine finally purrs. The question is, do we know why it started working?
This is more important than you might think. Knowing the answer lets you confirm that the core problem was solved, otherwise you may have just fixed a symptom. And lack of understanding means fixing one problem may just create another.
The solution is to adopt a methodical troubleshooting method. We’re talking about a structured problem solving technique that when used properly can help us solve a problem at its core without leaving any loose ends. Such methodology will also leave you knowing why any solution did or didn’t work in the end, and will give you reproducible results.
Understanding The Product or Process
Oh yeah, let’s just get our wrench and dig right in!
It is not reasonable to expect that we can effectively repair anything we do not understand. For example, if a car isn’t running quite right, it’ll be pointless to attempt a fix if you don’t know the basics about ignition timing, fuel delivery, how the engine functions at least on a basic level.
If you’re trying to build something from scratch or do a significant modification on an existing product, then a solid understanding of what the end product should look like will be needed. If you’re not up to speed on these things, it might be time to do a deep dive, going down the rabbit hole as they say, on the subject at hand.
Wikipedia, technical articles, forums, social media communities (groups.io, facebook groups, reddit, etc), and of course Hackaday are all possible resources for learning. Once you understand how any system is supposed to work, then you can begin the next step of troubleshooting: The process of elimination.
Process Of Elimination
Now that you’re as expert as you’re going to be on your subject of choice, it’s time to dive in and see what’s wrong. Armed with our clear vision of what a successful process looks like and the process of elimination, we’re going to investigate. Yep, we’re going full Sherlock Holmes! If you grew up playing a certain trademarked and copyrighted board game, then you’ll have a clue how this works.
The goal is simple: Identify all the steps that make up a successful process, and then check them one by one, starting with the first step — even if (especially if!) you think you know where the problem already is. One step at a time. Not multiples, and definitely not all of them. No skipping ahead. Just one. And then, after you check on just one of the items at a time, you make a note: Did it solve the problem? Yes? No? Not sure? That’s fine.
At each stage, record your results and then move on to the next item on your list. Recording the results is vital to the process. And sometimes we don’t have all the facts until later in the investigation. So being able to review notes will help us spot trends we’d never have noticed otherwise.
Even if you think you solved the problem, keep going through your list. Go through the entire system to make sure that the whole thing works the way it should. Troubleshooting is incomplete if you only look at a portion of the process.
In more complex systems, a tiered approach will be very useful. Start with a high level overview of the system at hand. Step through the process until you find something broken. Once you isolate the problem area, restart the troubleshooting process in that problem area, making notes as you go. If you do fix a problem, then go back up to the first tier of troubleshooting and continue until the process is completed. This will help you answer the next question.
Is It Really Fixed?
If you’ve identified and solved what you believe to be the core problem, then it’s time to verify that the fix is effective. The best way to do this is to put your item or process under test in the same way that it’ll be used. Sometimes this is simple: The Thing works, and it’s fixed; there’s very little in between to be had. Other times, more extensive testing is needed. Imagine fixing a car that won’t start, handing the keys to its owner, and then finding out the hard way that it also had no brakes!
So it may be that you need to go for a ‘test drive’ so to speak. The goal should be to verify that you didn’t solve one problem but create two more and that the entire system works as designed.
When Good Troubleshooting Goes Bad
Just like any method or process, it’s quite possible to think we’ve got it right when we don’t. Troubleshooting is no different. If we skip ahead in the process at all or don’t take notes along the way, it’ll be pretty easy to miss the problem. Similarly, if we don’t fully understand the subject, we might not be able to identify when something doesn’t look quite right.
On the other hand, maybe we’re taking a project over from somebody else and they’ve told us what’s wrong with it, but admit that they don’t know how to fix it. This raises a thorny question: If they don’t know how to fix it, then how can they be sure what’s wrong with it to begin with? Take the incoming info with a grain of salt and verify for yourself what the problem is before you start looking for a solution.
When I was young, I heard the woes of backyard mechanics who lamented that they’d replaced hundreds of dollars worth of parts, but the issue they were experiencing went unsolved. I distinctly recall them blaming the fancy new “electronic stuff” (fuel injection) for their problems.The reality is that they didn’t understand the system they were working with and therefore could not troubleshoot it effectively, and so they stopped analyzing the problem and just reacted to it by throwing parts at it until something hopefully worked. And this is another way to fail at the troubleshooting process.
Alternatives to Troubleshooting
There are some instances when the exact troubleshooting process can be overkill. To lean on the car analogy again, imagine that you have an older fuel injected vehicle that isn’t running right. It may be that due to the age of the overall system, no single thing will really solve the problem. Years of crud, poor connections, and worn out parts all contribute to a vague problem that is difficult to reproduce. Furthermore we don’t know when the system was last serviced. In such cases, taking the shotgun approach may be needed. And no, I’m not talking about taking it out back and shooting it!
The aforementioned troubleshooting method could be described like a high precision rifle: We aim carefully and apply a fix. The shotgun method is the exact opposite: We aim in the general direction of the problem and fire multiple projectiles, hoping that one of them hits their mark and solves the problem.
In our ailing EFI example, it might not be unreasonable to replace all of the sensors and any broken connectors. This would be followed by rebuilding the mechanical portion such as the throttle body. Even replacing fuel pumps, filters, and cleaning the fuel delivery system with a fuel additive can be helpful. And then once the system has been brought back to a known state, it can be tested and any remaining faults can be scrutinized using the proper troubleshooting technique.
Another use case for the shotgun approach is when we have a time sensitive issue that needs to be fixed. The root problem may have only a few known causes, so applying all of the fixes at once may be faster in some cases. For example we might not have time to properly troubleshoot a mission critical server with an unknown hardware problem. Swapping the storage system into a new computer will get it back online quickly, and then the previous hardware can be subjected to testing without such time constraints.
No matter the case though, having a solid understanding of the system you’re working on will help you to take the correct approach to solving the problem.
A Noteworthy Note
You might have noticed that the troubleshooting methods discussed are mighty similar to the scientific method that at the very least, most of us learned in school. And that’s why taking notes is so important.
Adam Savage famously quipped “Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down!” (This was
later attributed to Alex Jason
.) And that’s really the point here: Writing things down, making notes about things whether they work or not is a vitally important part of this entire process. Otherwise, we’re just blindly stabbing into the darkness.
I hope that this foray into fixing fiddly things has been useful for you. Do you have your own troubleshooting story, method, or “Aha!” moment to share? Be sure to let us know in the comments below! | 48 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377551",
"author": "Sobigy",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T17:29:34",
"content": "Great Article – Thanks for the write up. I’m actually going to share this with a few colleagues.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377634",
"... | 1,760,372,963.433929 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/hackaday-podcast-134-hackers-camping-metal-detecting-360-hearing-and-pocket-computing/ | Hackaday Podcast 134: Hackers Camping, Metal Detecting, 360° Hearing, And Pocket Computing | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys are joined by contributing editor Jenny List to talk about her adventure at Born Hack last week. We also discuss the many capacitor values that go into regen receivers, the quest for a Raspberry Pi handheld that includes a slide-out keyboard, and how capacitive touch might make mice (mouses?) and touchpads better. There’s a deep dive into 3D printer bed leveling, a junk-box metal detector build, and an ambisonic microphone which can listen any-which-way.
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 134 Show Notes:
What’s that Sound?
That sound was
the Mac chimes of death
[Joe] was randomly drawn from eight correct responses and wins the shirt!
New This Week:
Ask Hackaday: What Is Amazon Thinking By Entering The Palm-Reading Business?
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Raspberry Pi And ESP32-S2 Team Up For MutantC_V4
Ambi-Alice Goes Down The Rabbit Hole Of Ambisonic Microphones
Build a PZM Microphone UPDATED! : 6 Steps – Instructables
Regen Receiver With Few Parts
ELECTRONICS NOW: Hobbyist sucessor to “Radio Electronics”
A Simple Regen Radio for Beginners
(PDF)
Just How Simple Can A Transceiver Be?
Capacitive Mouse Built For A Friend Makes For A Touching Tale
Ben Krasnow At Supercon: Making Alien Technology In Your Own Shop
Impromptu Metal Detector Built From The Junk Bin
A Graph Plotting Metal Detector
Heavy Metal Detectors
Motorola 68000 SBC Runs Again With A Raspberry Pi On Top
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks
3D Printing Your Own Sturdy Lens Caps
Small Footprint Scara Laser Engraver Has Massive Build Area
Calculate Like It’s 1989 With This HP15C Emulator
Mike’s Picks:
Resin 3D Prints Get A New Look With Paint Injection
A Simpsons TV For A Golden Age
DIY Wigglegram Camera Lens Sends A Message To Big Photo
Can’t-Miss Articles:
3D Printering: Is Hassle-Free Bed Leveling Finally Here?
Reporting From BornHack 2021: Hacker Camps Making It Through The Pandemic | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6379017",
"author": "Opossumax",
"timestamp": "2021-09-09T15:49:25",
"content": "The biggest advantage to having a sensor probe the bed is if you have a warped print bed like mine you can have the firmware automatically compensate for it.The other advantage is using different bed ma... | 1,760,372,962.568458 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/the-bornhack-badge-gets-a-bubble/ | The BornHack Badge Gets A Bubble | Jenny List | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"badgelife",
"silicone",
"soft robotics"
] | In a year of semiconductor shortages it’s a difficult task to deliver an electronic conference badge, so this year’s BornHack camp in Denmark had an SAO prototyping board as its badge. Some people made blinkies with theirs, but that wasn’t enough for [Inne] who had to go a step further with
a light-up pneumatic bubble badge
. It’s based upon a previous project
producing silicone inflatable bubbles,
but in a portable badge form.
On the front of the PCB is a multi-colour LED for illumination, while on the back is a small microcontroller board, a pressure sensor, and a motor driver circuit. A small air pump and battery sits in a pocket connected by a cable and a flexible tube, allowing the bubble to inflate at will. An interesting detail was the use of a cut-down hypodermic needle to carry the air through the silicone wall of the bubble. When seen up close at the camp it was an unnervingly organic effect, if there’s an uncanny valley of badges this is it.
We don’t see much in the way of soft robotics on these pages, so this happy crossover with BadgeLife is a special treat.
It’s not entirely alone here though
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377541",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T16:54:53",
"content": "“it was an unnervingly organic effect, if there’s an uncanny valley of badges this is it.”My reaction as well, just from looking at the Title Photo!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,372,962.63442 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/this-week-in-security-ransomware-decryption-openssl-and-usbgadget-spoofing/ | This Week In Security: Ransomware Decryption, OpenSSL, And USBGadget Spoofing | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"keyfob",
"openssl",
"This Week in Security"
] | We’ve covered a lot of ransomware here, but we haven’t spent a lot of time looking at the decryptor tools available to victims. When ransomware gangs give up, or change names, some of them release a decryption tool for victims who haven’t paid. It’s not really a good idea to run one of those decryptors, though. The publishers don’t have a great track record for taking care of your data, after all. When a decryptor does get released, and is verified to work, security researchers will reverse engineer the tool, and release a known-good decryption program.
The good folks at
No More Ransom
are leading the charge, building such tools, and hosting a collection of them. They also offer Crypto Sheriff, a tool to identify which ransomware strain got your files. Upload a couple encrypted files, and it will inform you exactly what you’re dealing with, and whether there is a decryptor available. The site is a cooperation between the Dutch police, Interpol, Kaspersky, and McAfee. It may surprise you to know that they recommend reporting every ransomware case to the authorities. I can confirm that at the very least, the FBI in the US are very interested in keeping track of the various ransomware attacks — I’ve fielded a surprise call from an agent following up on an infection.
OpenSSL
The OpenSSL project has
fixed a pair of vulnerabilities
, CVE-2021-3711 and CVE-2021-3712 with release 1.1.11l. The first is a possible buffer overflow caused by
a naive length calculation function
. A “fixed” length header is actually dynamic, so a carefully crafted plaintext can overflow the allocated buffer.
The second vulnerability
is less severe, but more interesting. It’s a mismatch between the formal specification of the
ASN1_STRING
structure, and how that struct is used in practice, in OpenSSL. The structure contains, among other things, a byte array and a length. The question is whether that array is null terminated. In essentially all of the OpenSSL code, this is treated like a standard C string, but nowhere does the documentation enforce the null terminator. The real problem comes when a program uses the OpenSSL library, and constructs an ASN string locally. Strictly following the documentation would lead to an unterminated array. When OpenSSL acts on that value, it prints out that information to the log using
printf()
and the
%s
placeholder, which keeps printing characters til the next null character is hit. This can disclose all sorts of unintended information.
Atlassion’s Confluence Vulnerable
Confluence is a knowledge management platform, essentially a fancy wiki for businesses.
They just patched a vulnerability
that is present in the last four major release versions. CVE-2021-26084 is a OGNL injection problem with a severity of 9.8. An attacker can abuse the bug to execute code on the underlying server, in some cases even unauthenticated.
OGNL is the Object-Graph Navigation Language, and is described as an expression language for Java. The injection problem is quite similar to a SQL injection attack, where user supplied data can contain expressions. OGNL injection often looks like
${(#rt = @java.lang.Runtime@getRuntime(),#rt.exec("calc.exe"))}
.
Clever Girl^H^H^H^HHacker
Remember the trivial privilege escalation to SYSTEM when plugging in a Razer mouse? The hardest part of that attack was that you had to physically bring the Razer or SteelSeries device to the computer you want to compromise. Well no longer. If you have root on your Android phone, you can now use
usbgadget-tool
to spoof the right kind of hardware. The drivers used by these two specific devices will likely be fixed very soon, but there’s sure to be quite a few similar cases, rife for abuse.
This is a particularly simple exploit to pull off, and you may be tempted to actually use it on a work computer, or a similar situation. This is your periodic reminder that plugging in a Razer mouse is a crime — if you do it to gain SYSTEM on a machine without permission. In the immortal words of Bosnian Bill, “stay safe, and stay legal.”
Honda’s Hackable Key Fobs
Rolling key codes have been in use since 1995. An incrementing counter is used as part of an encryption key, and is kept synced between a vehicle and keyfob. This arrangement makes replay attacks much harder, as it allows the vehicle to ignore messages signed with a previously used counter value. There have been some very clever attacks devised against this system, like capturing a message while simultaneously jamming it so the vehicle doesn’t receive it. This isn’t one of those clever hacks.
This really looks like a broken system deployed in the wild
.
[Blake Berry] was working on a simple script to highlight different bits in two strings, and tested it on a pair of keyfob captures sent to a Honda vehicle. The two strings
were disconcertingly similar
. After further work, it was discovered that a captured lock command could be replayed with a few specific bits flipped, and the vehicle would unlock. The attack has been confirmed on a vehicle as old as 2009, as well as a 2020 model. It seems that Honda/Acura simply does not do any effective cryptography in their keyfob system at all. This issue has been assigned
CVE-2019-20626
, which makes the presence of the flaw in the 2020 model particularly revealing.
(Editor’s note: We were initially skeptical about this, because it’s just
too
obvious, and we’ll note here that the CVE is “undergoing reanalysis” at the present. If we had a Honda, we’d test it out before lunch. Could you? Let us know.)
Subdomain Takeover Via DNS
Subdomain takeover is when an authorized party can run arbitrary services at the IP referred to by a subdomain. There have been a few ways to pull this off, like deleting a GitHub Pages site, but leaving the DNS running. Someone else can come along and claim the same name, and then host their own content on that subdomain. There’s another way to pull this off, via hosted DNS, and
there’s a new tool to find vulnerable domains.
DNSTake lets you specify a domain, and it will walk up the DNS chain to find the nameservers, looking for odd DNS status responses.
The goal is to find a domain that uses a hosted DNS provider, where the domain has been deleted in that provider’s interface, but the NS records still exist. For many such providers, anyone can go add a DNS record for the unclaimed domain. There’s quite a range of mischief possible once an attacker has control over a subdomain. | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377524",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T15:53:03",
"content": "” …can confirm that at the very least, the FBI in the US are very interested in keeping track of the various ransomware attacks”Can you write about your direct experiences with FBI people? Did you consider ... | 1,760,372,962.925196 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/bartop-arcade-machine-that-isnt-afraid-of-change/ | Bartop Arcade Machine That Isn’t Afraid Of Change | Matthew Carlson | [
"Games",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"bar top",
"barcader",
"bartop",
"cnc",
"diy engineering",
"Fusion 360",
"retropie"
] | Arcade machines have a distinct look and feel with large imposing cabinets and smaller bartop machines that try to keep the look and feel of a traditional upright arcade cabinet while taking up less space. An entirely new aesthetic has been given for this
engineering marvel of a bartop arcade that [DIY Engineering] has made
. Gone is the expansive angular box, and in its place are sleek and slender curves. The key piece that makes this build work is the curved monitor.
He started with a detailed design in Fusion360
that really focused on the tools and techniques that [DIY Engineering] knew would work. The backbone of the device was formed from wooden dowels around which 3d printed parts slid on. To the sides of the dowels, two pieces of acrylic are screwed on to act as an LED diffusor. To that acrylic, two pieces of CNC’d red oak are attached with two arcade buttons for pinball-style actuation. Over the top, cast acrylic was heated and then bent into the desired shape with the help of a two-part mold press. The screen slotted right in perfectly. Part of the display at the top was reserved for a marquee, and the look is extraordinary with the dark acrylic. Ten arcade buttons and an eight-way joystick offer an array of options for input.
Internally, a temperature-controlled fan and a Raspberry Pi are running the show. Controls are wired as GPIO and read by the Pi. So naturally, the games on the SD card tend to look best on a long vertical screen: vertical shooters and the like.
Arguably, the best thing about this project isn’t just the execution (which is fantastic) but the look behind the curtain at the process. So many potential problems were solved in the modeling stage, and fabrication went fairly smoothly as a result (or so we think youtube hides a multitude of sins). The results speak for themselves, and we think this is an enviable arcading machine. [DIY Engineering] has mentioned providing files in the future for you to build your own. If perhaps it seems a little intimidating, why not give
a smaller 3D printable bartop
a try?
Video after the break. | 24 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377476",
"author": "Hue",
"timestamp": "2021-09-03T11:25:29",
"content": "All that time, money, and effort invested, and he’s running a raspberry pi? Dang.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377525",
"author": "josephsl... | 1,760,372,963.028428 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/perusing-the-peoples-computing-company/ | Perusing The People’s Computing Company | Chris Lott | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"archives",
"People's Computer Company"
] | If you are a certain age, you might recall the
People’s Computing Company
(PCC) from the 1970s. It was not really a company, but rather a folksy computer newsletter in the visual style of the times. In the first issue, published in October 1972, founders Dennis Allison, Bob Albrecht and George Firedrake explained their reasons for starting the newsletter:
Computers are mostly used against people instead of for people, used to control people instead of to
free
them; time to change all that — we need a … People’s Computer Company
The Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View CA has a print collection of these issues donated by [Jim Warren], spanning its ten-year publication run (it changed name to
Recreational Computing
in 1979). Despite the museum being closed to the public these days over Covid concerns, CHM supporter [Bob Zeidman] has scanned all the issues and they are available at the
CHM collections archive
.
It’s really fun to browse through these old issues, and see the kinds of topics which were of interest back then. Many would still be of interest today, and many others have become obsolete by advances in technology (but are still fun to read if you have an interest in retro-computing). For example, in the first issue you can read about why you might use different lenses on your Bell & Howell film projector, a comparison of DEC and HP computers as used in educational settings, and how to save money on your teleprinter maintenance contracts and consumables like TTY paper, ribbons, and punched paper tape. If you have some time to kill, check out these archives and take yourself back to a time when desktop publishing meant literally typing and drawing freehand with metal styli on special stencils which were mounted on drums in your mimeograph machine one page at a time.
The PCC was an early supporter of copyright-free software, teaching computer programming, using computer games as a learning tool, and encouraging computer literacy for everyone. They did this not only via the newsletter, but educational books, an organization called ComputerTown USA! for teaching kids, and spin-off periodicals like
DragonSmoke
and
Dr. Dobb’s Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia
(edited by [Jim Warren] mentioned above) which went on to become the popular computer magazine
Dr. Dobb’s Journal
which stayed in publication until 2014. We wrote a piece a few years ago about
a software-defined radio project from the PCC back in 1975
. Do you have any favorite old journal archives that you like to peruse from time to time? | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377307",
"author": "Old Codger",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T15:37:29",
"content": "Running light without overbyte! I miss Dr. Dobbs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377330",
"author": "Valéry S.",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,372,962.968843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/pining-for-a-de-googled-smartphone/ | Pining For A De-Googled Smartphone | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Phone Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"android",
"degoogle",
"linux",
"mobian",
"open source",
"pinephone",
"privacy",
"ubuntu touch"
] | Last summer in the first swings of the global pandemic, sitting at home finally able to tackle some of my electronics projects now that I wasn’t wasting three hours a day commuting to a cubicle farm, I found myself ordering a new smartphone. Not the latest Samsung or Apple offering with their boring, predictable UIs, though. This was the
Linux-only PinePhone
, which lacks the standard Android interface plastered over an otherwise deeply hidden Linux kernel.
As a bit of a digital privacy nut, the lack of Google software on this phone seemed intriguing as well, and although there were plenty of warnings that this was a phone still in its development stages it seemed like I might be able to overcome any obstacles and actually use the device for daily use. What followed, though, was a challenging year of poking, prodding, and tinkering before it got to the point where it can finally replace an average Android smartphone and its Google-based spyware with something that suits my privacy-centered requirements, even if I do admittedly have to sacrifice some functionality.
Setting the Stage
First, a bit of a disclaimer. This article is not a critique of the PinePhone compared to a flagship Android phone. Rather, it’s a journey into the open-source world with respect to a smartphone that is designed to run Linux from a person who is willing to go to extremes to use free and open source software (
I still use this computer daily
, for example) without appearing
too
crazy. The developers at Pine64 have done an incredible job bringing one of the only Linux-first smartphones to market. I also owe a huge debt to the FOSS community who continues to build and maintain free software for these devices. Even though the experience isn’t yet as refined as an iPhone or Galaxy, it’s still quite possible to use one for regular, daily use but there are some missing pieces to acknowledge.
I have also been on a journey to remove as much of Google’s concerning ecosystem from my life as possible over the last five years or so. Some things are easy, such as using Duck Duck Go as a search engine and Firefox as a browser. Some things were a little bit of a hassle at first, like switching to ProtonMail as an email and calendar service. And some things still are extremely difficult, like removing Google services from my Android devices. To that end, I had originally purchased a OnePlus 3T several years ago with the intention of installing
the de-Googled LineageOS variant of Android
on it, but perhaps due to a lack of confidence in not bricking the $400 device during the installation procedure I could never quite bring myself to wipe the phone clean of its factory-installed operating system. Now, the Android phone is so well-worn that the USB port no longer connects the data pins on the cables so even if I wanted to flash a new firmware on it now, it would be virtually impossible.
Some (Software) Assembly Required
When I first purchased the PinePhone, it came with Ubuntu Touch pre-installed. The distribution was once an official Canonical-supported software project to bring the ease of Ubuntu to the smartphone world. Canonical abandoned the project for reasons not worth mentioning here, but since the software was open source it continued as a community-driven project directed by UBports. Hoping that the Ubuntu name meant that I would easily be able to get started, I purchased the device. Most things worked out-of-the-box, such as calling, text messaging, and internet browsing. There were some notable exceptions, such as the lack of
dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF)
support. These are the touch tones that a phone sends which correspond to the number pad. I thought briefly that this might not be a deal breaker, but I found out quite quickly that I couldn’t dial in to conference calls, check my voicemail, or interact with any automated phone system without this support.
After exploring this problem for a while, it seemed like a solution may have been to install any of a number of alternative operating systems to see if they had solved this issue already. Unlike Android phones, which require unlocking the bootloader, installing custom recovery software, and backing up and flashing ROMs, any one of which may brick the device if you take a wrong step, this is incredibly easy on the PinePhone. Simply imaging a microSD card with the operating system of choice and placing it in the PinePhone allows the device to automatically boot to this image rather than the one installed on the phone’s built-in memory. This makes testing software extremely easy and surprisingly user-friendly. To solve the DTMF issue I tried PostmarketOS which seemed like the furthest along of all of the various Linux distributions for phones, but this OS was much less refined than Ubuntu Touch so I gave up for the time being and shelved the phone.
The author’s PinePhone (left) beside a OnePlus 3T. The differences are not obvious on the surface but become apparent quite quickly when used. Note: this photo was not taken with the PinePhone’s camera for several reasons.
I would come back to the phone every month or so to see if the UBports packages had been updated to support DTMF but I was continually disappointed until about two months ago where I found this feature finally working. This also coincided with, in my opinion, a horrible yet unsurprising decision by my former service provider (AT&T) to start locking out service for anyone who switches their SIM card to another device unless that device is on a whitelist. (Other carriers in the US such as Verizon seem to be actively restricting devices in other ways as well, so be sure to check with your carrier before swapping your SIM to a PinePhone.) Even after switching my SIM back to the heretofore-working OnePlus, my service would remain locked out unless I called AT&T customer service to have it reactivated which was quite the catch-22 and
often required several levels of escalation
. This made it a no-brainier to switch to a carrier that (so far) hasn’t riddled my life with arbitrary hassles, though.
Slowly Adding Options
With that speed bump out of the way, and finally in possession of a working Linux-only phone with most of the capabilities of a flip phone from 2007, I started experimenting with other modern smartphone features. I knew going in not to expect everything to work flawlessly, but there are a few notable absences from the Linux ecosystem. Obviously I was fine with losing Google Maps, but the GPS functionality on the PinePhone paired with something like
OpenStreetMap
is not yet a full replacement for that. Additionally, my international friends tend to use WhatsApp for texting, but there is not a version of that available for anything not Android- or iOS-based. Similarly, Spotify, Signal, and my ProtonMail calendar are also not available. I also assume that various social media apps may not be available either, but from a privacy perspective I can’t recommend anyone having social media accounts in the first place.
The camera boasts reasonable specs but the app that controls it is, at best, still in development. Similarly, while there are respectable podcast and music apps available, the phone gets uncomfortably warm in my pocket while simply listening to audio with them. This is one of the only complaints that most who have the phone notice, specifically in regards to battery consumption, and it seems like a lot of the power optimization for running single applications isn’t quite there yet. I feel like the phone essentially acts as a laptop with every background process running all the time unless it’s fully in sleep mode, but I still give this phone a pass because of the clear understanding that it’s still very much in development.
The Key to Happiness is Low Expectations
But enough about the obvious missing features. For me, a privacy-conscious person who doesn’t want to waste time staring at a phone more than I need to anyway, it’s almost perfect. There are physical switches for various hardware such as the cellular modem, microphone, and cameras, and I leave the front camera switch in the “off” position all the time because that hardware has always struck me as slightly creepy anyway. On the software side, a mobile version of Firefox is available for it which does almost everything I need from a mobile browser. The most important feature for me also works flawlessly: the WiFi hotspot. Except for a little hiccup where my ancient Apple laptop wouldn’t connect to it for some reason (which I solved by adding a tiny USB WiFi dongle instead of using the built-in chip), and another hiccup where I couldn’t get the hotspot to work in Ubuntu Touch at all (which has since been fixed), everything that I need works as well as I need it to.
The rear case is easily removed without tools, exposing (from top left, clockwise) a heat sink, six pogo pins, the six hardware kill switches (with 3.5 mm headphone jack for scale), microSD and SIM card slots, and removable/replaceable battery
I have also been able to easily experiment with other operating systems since it’s basically encouraged with this device. I have had excellent success with another distribution called Mobian (“mobile Debian”) and use this distribution nearly full-time now. Mobian is great for me personally because I have been using a Debian variant of some kind or another on my personal computers since 2005 and I am not interested in switching to or learning anything else anytime soon, and Ubuntu Touch (while being Debian-based) has some needlessly difficult aspects to it that Mobian seems to have solved. Besides Mobian and Ubuntu, though, there are some Arch-based distributions available if that’s more your style, and plenty of other offerings outside of either. One of the other excellent features of this phone and OS combination is that I can SSH into it just like I would any other computer and use
apt
to install whatever software I like. This worked surprisingly well for installing the Kodi media player, for example. There’s even a dock that connects to the USB-C port on the phone that essentially turns it into a fully-featured Linux desktop with Raspberry Pi vibes, but I haven’t tried this out yet. I do find it intriguing as a feature, though.
Almost all of the other downsides of using a PinePhone were things I was going to accept in my life anyway because of privacy issues, even if this phone didn’t exist at all. For GPS I have been planning on getting a standalone (or possibly handheld) device specifically for navigation that doesn’t need to connect to the Internet at all. Similarly, I am thinking about a standalone audio player similar to a classic iPod for music and podcasts. For email, which I haven’t even tried to set up on my PinePhone yet, I simply connect to the hotspot and check it on my laptop rather than have my phone continually interrupt my life for what often turns out to be minutiae. For notes, I use an even older set of tools: a piece of paper and a pencil. It might seem like I am turning into a bit of a Luddite, but to me the invasion of my privacy for mild convenience is no longer worthwhile. If I have to carry around a GPS, iPod, phone, and notepad like it’s 2007 again in order to preserve a shred of digital privacy then I think I will manage to survive. The only thing that I find to be a true downside for my use case is the lack of MMS support (
without taking extreme measures
), but I will have to take that as an acceptable loss for the time being and rely on a real camera when I need one.
Opening the Door for Options
Further, I think that the exercise in using open technology like this is a way for people like me to put their money where their mouths are. Everything about this phone is something I’ve wanted from my Android devices but have never been able to get in one package such as a replaceable battery, removable storage, hardware kill switches, an unlocked bootloader, the ability to easily flash any image I want, and lack of any Google software. Even things
like the I2C interface
and the six pogo pins are nice to have and
make the device upgradable with whatever you want
. There aren’t any mainstream options on the market for “regular” users that even approach this, and there won’t be unless people like us support underdog developers like Pine64 or
Purism
. There won’t be a real choice until the choice is real for a large number of people.
My experience points out how difficult it still is, but that it is possible. Even if you don’t think you can fully switch to a Linux-only device like this for your daily life, it’s worth it to pick one up and start tinkering with it. There are plenty of niche applications for these devices well beyond their use as a simple phone, and it’s worth the time to experiment with them. | 89 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377276",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T14:28:02",
"content": "when i read that he found it usable, i was already impressed. but when i read that he found it usable despite being the kind of guy who polls for updates instead of adding DTMF to the dialer app himself, ... | 1,760,372,963.239932 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/google-maps-now-on-the-nes/ | Google Maps, Now On The NES | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"google maps",
"nes",
"nintendo"
] | Many years ago, Google created one of its famous April Fools jokes suggesting it would make an 8-bit version of Google Maps for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. [ciciplusplus] decided it needed to become a reality, however,
and set to work.
(Video, embedded below.)
It’s a suitably blocky, low-resolution implementation, but it nevertheless is a mapping app running on an NES. Zooming in and out is via the A and B buttons, while the D-pad is used to scroll. Country and city labels are rendered on the map in the relevant areas in a charming old-school font.
The project uses a Raspberry Pi 3A+ and a Cypress Semiconductor FX2LP microcontroller, which fits inside a NES cartridge. It works the same way as the earlier
NES Doom project
which uses the Raspberry Pi to feed data to the NES’s Picture Processing Unit. It’s achieved with a simple bit of code burned on a ROM inside the cartridge, which boots up the NES and primes it to receive data from the Raspberry Pi via the FX2LP.
In current form, it’s not capable of doing much more than allowing the user to scroll around and zoom in on parts of the map. We’d love to see a fully-fledged version that could deliver driving directions or similar, however. If you end up achieving such a feat, be sure to let us know. | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377242",
"author": "Abe",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T12:20:08",
"content": "Perhaps If Mario had this he wouldn’t have had to search every other castle.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6377259",
"author": "derpa",
"timest... | 1,760,372,963.072688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/neat-little-airboat-built-from-old-drone-parts/ | Neat Little Airboat Built From Old Drone Parts | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"air boat",
"airboat",
"FPV"
] | Multirotor drones tend to need quality and well-matched parts in order to stay balanced and in the air. However, crash enough drones and you might find you’ve got plenty of mistmatched bits and pieces lying around. In just this vein, [Jason Suter] decided to raid his junk box and
built himself a little FPV airboat using spare parts.
The airboat consists of a 3D printed hull, paired with a separate power module. The power module houses the flight controller, and mounts twin motors on the rear. Fitted with three-blade props, they propel the boat and allow it to be steered with differential thrust instead of a rudder. It’s then fitted with a camera to allow it to be piloted with an FPV headset.
Handling still isn’t perfect, and water on the FPV antenna causes some issues with video transmission. However, it’s a fun project that makes good use of old parts. Of course, if you’re having vibration problems with your own FPV projects, consider building
a vibration-absorbing mount
. Video after the break. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377265",
"author": "baz",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T13:53:22",
"content": "Nice. Looks like the sort of fun build I could tackle with the kids. Colour me inspired",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6377472",
"author": "der-Fric... | 1,760,372,963.109291 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/upgrade-board-adds-gpio-pins-to-your-replica-pdp-11/ | Upgrade Board Adds GPIO Pins To Your Replica PDP-11 | Tom Nardi | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"gpio",
"gpio expander",
"i2c",
"pdp-11",
"PiDP-11/70"
] | Like many Hackaday readers, [Steven Stallion] has had his eyes on the replica PDP-11 created by [Oscar Vermeulen] for some time now, and this summer he finally got the opportunity to build one himself. But while most owners might be content to just watch the Raspberry Pi based faux-retro computer blink away on a shelf, he wanted to explore putting the machine to more practical use.
The end result is the PiDP-11 I/O Expander
, an add-on that lets the modern minicomputer interact with the world around it.
Developed after some discussion with [Oscar] himself, the Microchip MCP23016 based expander board fits neatly onto the PiDP-11 PCB, and [Steven] has made sure his installation guide meshes well with the replica’s documentation. The Pi’s I2C bus is actually broken out on the original PCB, so you just need to solder a header on and run some jumpers to where the expander is mounted. You’ll need to pull 5 V as well, and the installation guide has a few tips on convenient connection points.
The installed PiDP-11 I/O Expander
Each expander board gives you 16 GPIO pins which can be accessed over I2C, including support for interrupts which has been connected to GPIO 19 on the Raspberry Pi. [Steven] notes that you should be able to stack multiples of his expander up should you need even more free pins, though some fiddling with pull-up resistors and I2C addresses will likely be necessary.
The PCBs for the expander have been released under the two clause BSD license, so you’re free to spin up your own copies however you see fit. But if you’d like to save some time,
[Steven] is offering assembled boards on Tindie
.
Since
[Oscar] first teased it at the 2015 Hackaday Supercon
, we’ve been enamored with his fantastic PDP-11 replica. We’re always glad to see when somebody has picked up one of these wonderful kits, and doubly so
when they’ve figured out a way to expand it in unexpected ways
. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377176",
"author": "mmmdee",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T06:29:55",
"content": "Good job on the project. In a prior career, I worked with PDP 11/34s running Unix System III and RSX. Modified a driver for IEEE-488 and remember discovering the FUBAR device register (Failed UniBus Addres... | 1,760,372,963.34487 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/detect-lightning-strikes-with-an-arduino/ | Detect Lightning Strikes With An Arduino | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"am",
"analog",
"arduino",
"detection",
"galvanometer",
"lightning",
"nano",
"radio",
"sensitivity",
"TA7642"
] | Lightning is a powerful and seemingly mysterious force of nature, capable of releasing huge amounts of energy over relatively short times and striking almost at random. Lightning obeys the laws of physics just like anything else, though, and with a little bit of technology some of its mysteries can be unraveled. For one, it
only takes a small radio receiver to detect lightning strikes
, and [mircemk] shows us exactly how to do that.
When lightning flashes, it also lights up an incredibly wide spectrum of radio spectrum as well. This build uses an AM radio built into a small integrated circuit to detect some of those radio waves. An Arduino Nano receives the signal from the TA7642 IC and lights up a series of LEDs as it detects strikes in closer and closer proximity to the detector. A white LED flashes when a strike is detected, and some analog circuitry supports an analog galvanometer which moves during lightning strikes as well.
While this project isn’t the first lightning detector we’ve ever seen, it does have significantly more sensitivity than most other homemade offerings. Something like this would be a helpful tool to have for lifeguards at a pool or for a work crew that is often outside, but we also think it’s pretty cool just to have around for its own sake, and
three of them networked together would make triangulation of strikes possible too
. | 20 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377146",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T02:55:54",
"content": "you may also enjoy lightningmaps.org. the best feature is that it shows the shockwave expanding at the speed of sound so once you calibrate for the delay, you can tell roughly which strike you are hearing ... | 1,760,372,963.296282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/measuring-led-flicker-with-phototransistor-and-audio-app/ | Measuring LED Flicker, With Phototransistor And Audio App | Donald Papp | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"flicker",
"led bulb",
"light bulb",
"photosensor",
"phototransistor"
] | No one likes a flickering light source, but lighting is often dependent on the quality of a building’s main AC power. Light intensity has a close relation to the supply voltage, but bulb type plays a role as well. Incandescent and fluorescent bulbs do not instantly cease emitting the instant power is removed, allowing their output to “coast” somewhat to mask power supply inconsistencies, but LED bulbs can be a different story. LED light output has very little inertia to it, and the quality of both the main AC supply and the bulb’s AC rectifier and filtering will play a big role in the stability of an LED bulb’s output.
The DIY photosensor takes the place of the microphone input.
[Tweepy] wanted to measure and quantify this effect, and found a way to do so
with an NPN phototransistor, a resistor, and a 3.5 mm audio plug
. The phototransistor and resistor take the place of a microphone plugged into the audio jack of an Android mobile phone, which is running an audio oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer app. The app is meant to work with an audio signal, but it works just as well with [Tweepy]’s DIY photosensor.
Results are simple to interpret; the smoother and fewer the peaks, the better. [Tweepy] did some testing with different lighting solutions and found that the best performer was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a lighting panel intended for photography. The worst performer was an ultra-cheap LED bulb. Not bad for a simple DIY sensor and an existing mobile phone app intended for audio.
Want a closer look at what goes into different LED bulbs and how they tick?
We have you covered
. Not all LED bulbs are the same, either.
Some are stripped to the bone
and others are
stuffed with unexpected goodness
. | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377097",
"author": "Eric Weatherby",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T23:12:01",
"content": "It’s brilliant in its simplicity!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377112",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2021-09-02T... | 1,760,372,963.495999 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/better-3d-scans-through-a-slowed-down-turntable/ | Better 3D Scans Through A Slowed Down Turntable | Tom Nardi | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d scanner",
"3d scanning",
"stepper motor controller",
"turntable"
] | 3D scanners aren’t cheap, and the last thing you want to see after purchasing one is bad data. But that’s what [Dave Does] and others were getting from their Revopoint POP scanners until some communal brainstorming uncovered the reason: the motorized turntable that came with the Kickstarter edition of the product was spinning too fast for the software to accurately keep track of the object.
So he decided to replace the stepper motor controller in his turntable
and document the process for anyone else who’s scanner might be struggling.
Plenty of room for expansion.
In the video below, [Dave] pops open the plastic case of the turntable and reveals a pretty sparse interior. There’s an incredible amount of empty space inside, and even some mounting studs to screw down new components, should you want to get into some hardcore upgrades. But for his purposes, a generic stepper motor controller that featured a potentiometer to adjust the speed was enough. He found a suitable board online for around $5 USD, and got to designing a 3D printed bracket that mates up to the existing screw holes on the turntable.
But it’s not exactly a drop-in replacement. For one thing, you’ve got to pop a hole in the side of the enclosure for the potentiometer knob to stick out of. You’ve also got to solder wires coming from the original DC jack and power switch to the new board to get it hooked up, but at least the motor plugs right in. In the video below, you can see [Dave] demonstrate the impressively deep throttle capability of the new driver.
If you’d rather build than buy, we’ve covered some
impressive DIY turntables in the past
that could fit the bill nicely, from
automatic models that handle camera control
to fully 3D
printed versions that you’ve got to crank yourself
. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376712",
"author": "Steven Naslund",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T18:24:17",
"content": "Looks like Revopoint cheaped out there. Would be best if the scanning software advanced the turntable as it mapped the object. Simple to map objects could be faster and more complex objects could... | 1,760,372,963.543929 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/linux-fu-user-space-file-systems-now-for-windows-too/ | Linux Fu: User Space File Systems — Now For Windows, Too! | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"fuse",
"linux",
"Linux Fu",
"windows"
] | One of the nice things about the Unix philosophy that Linux inherited is that the filesystem is very modular. That’s good, too, because a typical system might want a choice of filesystems like
ext4
,
reiserfs
,
btrfs
, and even network systems like
nfs
. Besides that, there are fake file systems like
/sys
and
/dev
that help Linux make everything look like a file. The downside is that building a filesystem required changing the kernel or, at least, writing a loadable module. That’s not as hard as it sounds, but it is a little more difficult than writing a normal program. Then came
FUSE
— file system in user space. This is a single file system module that allows you to create new file systems by writing ordinary code.
My Favorite Fuses
There are several FUSE filesystems that are really useful. Here are some of my favorites:
sshfs
– Mount a remote filesystem using nothing more than ssh access
rclone
– Rclone can access and mount many remote file systems
tagassistant
– Store files with a unique tag access method
fuse-zip
– Mount zip files
gitfs
– Mount with git
There are many
others
. You can find systems to work with, for example, NTFS and a slew of cloud service providers.
What about Windows?
If this is such a great idea, is there a Windows equivalent? Yes, there is.
Winfsp
looks like a great way to get the same effect under Windows, although it isn’t just plug-and-play compatible with FUSE. There is a FUSE compatibility wrapper that lets you more easily port existing FUSE code. In fact, there are two FUSE wrappers, one for version 2.8 and another for version 3.2.
This is a newer project, but there is also
Dokan
which also claims to have a FUSE wrapper for their API. According to the
Winfsp
-provided benchmarks, though,
Winfsp
performs better.
And So?
If you have a favorite FUSE system, it is probably open source and you could try porting it to Windows, if you were so inclined. If you don’t use Windows, and you want to write your own FUSE system, these systems offer you a way to possibly easily move your work to Windows.
For example, you might have a data logger and want to expose its data as a file system. It isn’t that hard to do. There’s a data structure to fill in, and you don’t have to fill all of it in. You provide functions that the data structure points to that read and write things like directories and file data. Here’s an
example in C
. Or try
a C++ wrapper
that enables you to write one with even fewer lines of code. The example has just four simple functions. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376670",
"author": "daniel",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T14:29:02",
"content": "I’d love to have unionfs-fuse on windows.There is an endless list of of badly designed corporate tools that use hard coded path names",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,372,963.666496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/motorola-68000-sbc-runs-again-with-a-raspberry-pi-on-top/ | Motorola 68000 SBC Runs Again With A Raspberry Pi On Top | Robin Kearey | [
"classic hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"68k",
"raspberry pi",
"SBC",
"serial port"
] | Single-board computers have been around a long time: today you might be using a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino, or an ESP32, but three decades ago you might find yourself programming a KIM-1, an Intel SDK-85, or a Motorola 68000 Educational Computer Board. These kind of boards were usually made by processor manufacturers to show off their latest chips and to train engineers who might use these chips in their designs.
[Adam Podstawczyński] found himself trying to operate one of these
Motorola ECBs
from 1981. This board contains a 68000 CPU (as used in several Macintoshes and Amigas), 32 kB of RAM, and a ROM program called TUTOR. Lacking any keyboard or monitor connections, the only way to communicate with this system is a pair of serial ports. [Adam] decided to make the board more accessible by adding a Raspberry Pi extended with an RS232 Hat. This add-on board comes with two serial ports supporting the +/- 12 V signal levels used in older equipment.
It took several hours of experimenting, debugging, and reading the extensive ECB documentation to set up a reliable connection; as it turns out, the serial ports can operate in different modes depending on the state of the handshake lines. When the Pi’s serial ports were finally set up in the right mode, the old computer started to respond to commands entered in the terminal window. The audio interface, meant for recording programs on tape, proved more difficult to operate reliably, possibly due to deteriorating capacitors. This was not a great issue, because the ECB’s second serial port could also be used to save and load programs directly into its memory.
With the serial connections working, [Adam] then turned to the aesthetics of his setup and decided to make a simple case out of laser-cut acrylic and metal spacers. Custom ribbon cables for the serial ports and an ATX break-out board for power connections completed the project, and the 40-year-old educational computer is now ready to educate its new owner on all the finer points of 68000 programming. In the video (embedded after the break) he shows the whole process of getting the ECB up and running.
[Adam] made a similarly clever setup with
a Commodore 64 and an Arduino
earlier. [Jeff Tranter] recreated a similar
68000 development board
from scratch. And a few years ago we even featured our own
custom-built 68k computer
. | 30 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376643",
"author": "Osgeld",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T12:20:29",
"content": "connects computer to RS232 port, makes box",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6376710",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T18:1... | 1,760,372,963.615437 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/small-footprint-scara-laser-engraver-has-massive-build-area/ | Small Footprint Scara Laser Engraver Has Massive Build Area | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"how to mechatronics",
"laser engraver",
"scara"
] | One of the limitations of the conventional Cartesian CNC platforms is that the working area will usually be smaller than its footprint. SCARA arms are one of the options to get around this, as demonstrated by [How To Mechatronics], with his
SCARA laser engraver
.
This robot arm is modified from the original build we featured a while back, which had a gripper mounted. It uses mainly standard 3D printer components with 3D printed frame parts. The arms lengths are sized to fold over the base and take up little table horizontal space when not in use. It can work in a large semi-circular area around itself, and if a proper locating and homing method is implemented, it can be moved around and engrave a large area section by section.
One of the challenges of SCARA arms is rigidity. As the cantilevered arm extends, it tends to lean over under its weight. In [How To Mechatronics]’s case, it showed up as skewed engravings, which he managed to mitigate to some degree in the Marlin firmware.
Another possible solution is to reduce the weight of the arms by moving the motors to the base, as was done with the
Pybot
or
dual-arm SCARA printers
like the
RepRap Morgan
. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376600",
"author": "norro211",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T08:04:56",
"content": "You should point out how reckless it is not to have it in an enclosure.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6376607",
"author": "Foldi-One",
... | 1,760,372,963.725478 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/criss-cp-m-provides-modern-hardware-for-a-classic-os/ | CRISS CP/M Provides Modern Hardware For A Classic OS | Robin Kearey | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"ATmega 1284P",
"AVR",
"CP/M",
"z80"
] | Today you might choose run Windows, Linux, MacOS or some other OS on your computer. Back in the 1980s however, you generally had little choice: a certain home computer came with a certain OS, and that was it. If yours was based on a Z80 processor, chances are it ran CP/M. While differences in hardware often made direct data exchange difficult, CP/M provided at least a basic level of software compatibility between various Z80-based computers. Although eventually supplanted by MS-DOS (which initially aimed to be compatible with CP/M), enthusiasts kept the classic OS running on old hardware throughout the 90s and even beyond.
[Igor] decided to make a 21st-century CP/M machine by designing the
CRISS
, a single-board computer based mainly on AVR microcontrollers. The CPU is a 20 MHz ATMEGA1284P, which imitates a 4 MHz Z80 through machine-code emulation. A pair of ATMEGA328s run the peripheral controller and a VGA output, so the CRISS can be used with modern monitors. True to its heritage however, the image is monochrome green-on-black, looking instantly familiar to users of Kaypros, Osbornes and other contemporary CP/M machines.
Software is loaded through an SD card that holds floppy images. The CRISS can directly run programs written for the Kaypro II and Robotron 1715 computers, although other platforms can be supported as well with a software upgrade. [Igor] shows it running programs ranging from the Turbo Pascal compiler to games like Xonix and Tetris.
Housed in a neat little case, the CRISS can communicate with standard PS/2 keyboards and serial printers. Even an Ethernet port is provided for those willing to experiment with network connectivity (a rare feature in the 1980s).
We love seeing modern retro builds like this; similar projects we’ve covered before include the compact
ZZ80MB
and the huge
Z20X
. Others have used different ways of running CP/M on modern hardware, such as booting it directly
on a Raspberry Pi
or emulating an Altair
on an ESP32
. | 30 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376578",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T05:04:17",
"content": "In 1984 I got a Radio Shack Color Computer, specifically because it could run Microware OS-9. The closest thing to Unix I could afford.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,372,963.86884 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/printing-ceramics-made-easier/ | Printing Ceramics Made Easier | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"3d printing",
"ceramic",
"TPU"
] | Creating things with ceramics is nothing new — people have done it for centuries. There are ways to 3D print ceramics, too. Well, you typically 3D print the wet ceramic and then fire it in a kiln. However, recent research is proposing
a new way to produce 3D printed ceramics
. The idea is to print using TPU which is infused with polysilazane, a preceramic polymer. Then the resulting print is fired to create the final ceramic product.
The process relies on a specific type of infill to create small channels inside the print to assist in the update of the polysilazane. The printer was a garden-variety Lulzbot TAZ 6 with ordinary 0.15mm and 0.25mm nozzles.
The process doesn’t sound quick. After printing, the part stayed in an acetone bath along with a tiny bit of a platinum-based catalyst for 15 minutes. Then they added the polymer and waited four hours followed by a 24 hour air dry.
The firing was probably not easy to do in a normal kiln, either. The final stage was 1200C for an hour in nitrogen. We don’t know how this would work with more conventional tools and we know the catalyst is a bit pricey. On the other hand, you don’t use much of it. This might be an area for experimentation if you have some experience and tools for working with ceramics.
This is pretty different from the
usual approach
we see. If you want to roll your own kiln,
start here
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376561",
"author": "Osgeld",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T02:49:27",
"content": "if you want a ceramic poo I am sure there are easier way’s",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6376761",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2021-08-3... | 1,760,372,963.909833 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/chordie-chording-keyboard-speaks-no-qwerty/ | Chordie Chording Keyboard Speaks No Qwerty | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"asetniop",
"chording",
"chording keyboard",
"Kailh chocs"
] | What is the fastest way to get thoughts out of your brain and into relative permanence? Well, yeah, probably a voice recorder. But after voice recorders comes typing in a distant second. Typing, especially QWERTY-style, has its limitations. The holy grail method it comes to typing quickly has got to be a chording keyboard, hands down. How can court reporters possibly keep up with everything that’s uttered during a trial? When you can press a few keys at the same time and type entire words, it’s not that difficult. It just takes a whole lot of memorization and muscle memory to get to that point.
So if you’re going to go for the glory, check out
Chordie, a snazzy little chording keyboard
that does it all with just 14 keys. [kbjunky] based Chordie on the Ginny, a cute little bare-bones bat-wing chording keyboard that uses
the ASETNIOP chording engine originally built for soft keyboards
.[kbjunky] added open-face trackball support via printed cradle, but it’s not necessary to use a trackball since there’s a pair of rotary encoders and a mouse layer.
This keyboard looks fantastic with its rocket ship MCU holder and its flush-mounted I/O expander breakout boards. Apparently [kbjunky] used polyimide tape to keep the solder from making blobs. It’s all there in the nice build guide.
We would probably argue that chording is not totally ergonomic. Sure, you barely move your hands or wrists, but chording itself can be hard on the digits, especially the pinkies. To that end, [kbjunky] used low-profile switches with light springs. Totally ergonomic or not, we have to admit that we love the idea of clacking along at 300 WPM someday far, far down the learning curve of
ASETNIOP
. Take a look at
the key map
, and check out [kbjunky]’s
follow-up post
if you want to see a demo.
Maybe you prefer a completely different typing experience.
Well, ASETNIOP works with digital pianos, too
.
Via
r/ErgoMechKeyboards | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376574",
"author": "Hamish",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T04:20:21",
"content": "Cool keyboard! Love the split trackball design. Minor quibble with the article: ASETNIOP keyboards and other chorded keyboards that output a single character per chord are generally slower than traditional... | 1,760,372,964.596741 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/arms-chinese-venture-goes-sour/ | ARM’s Chinese Venture Goes Sour | Jenny List | [
"ARM"
] | [
"arm",
"china",
"semiconductors"
] | We’re used by now to many of the more capable microcontrollers and systems-on-chip that we use having an ARM core at their heart. From its relatively humble beginings in a 1980s British home computer, the RISC processor architecture from Cambridge has transformed itself into the go-to power-sipping yet powerful core for manufacturers far and wide. This has been the result of astute business decisions over decades, with ARM’s transformation into a fabless vendor of cores as IP at its heart.
Recent news suggests that perhaps the astuteness has been in short supply of late though
, as it’s reported that ARM’s Chinese subsidiary has gone rogue and detatched from the mothership taking the IP with it.
It seems that the CEO of the Chinese company managed to retain legal power when sacked by the parent company over questionable ties with another of his ventures, and has thus been able to declare it independent of its now-former parent. It still has the ARM IP up to the moment of detatchment and claims to be developing its own new products, but it seems likely that it won’t receive any new ARM IP.
What will be the effect of this at our level? Perhaps we have already seen it, as more Chinese chips such as the cheaper STM32 clones are likely to get low-end ARM cores as a result. It seems likely that newer ARM IP will remain for now in more expensive non-Chinese chip families, but in the middle of a semiconductor shortage it’s likely that we wouldn’t notice anyway. Where it will have a lasting effect is in future Chinese joint ventures by non-Chinese chip companies. Seeing ARM’s then-owner Softbank getting their fingers burned in such a way is likely to provide a disincentive to other companies considering a similar course. Whether ARM will manage to resolve the impasse remains to be seen, but it can hardly be a help to
the rocky progress of their Nvidia merger
. | 69 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377037",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T20:06:40",
"content": "Bah, they should put their forces behind RISC-V instead of stealing a soon outdated ARM core IP",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6377058",
"auth... | 1,760,372,964.439375 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/see-the-unseen-with-this-magnetic-field-visualizer/ | See The Unseen With This Magnetic Field Visualizer | Tom Nardi | [
"The Hackaday Prize",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"e-paper",
"electronic paper",
"magnetic field"
] | The average Hackaday reader likely knows, at least in the academic sense, what a magnetic field looks like. But as the gelatinous orbs in our skull can perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum, we have to take those textbook diagrams at face value. That is, unless you’ve got
one of these nifty magnetic field visualizers developed by [Dr.Stone]
.
Using an XMC1100 microcontroller development board and a TLV49 3D magnetic sensor, the device is able to track the poles of a magnet in real-time and produce an approximation of what the field lines would look like on its electronic paper display. Relative field strength is indicated by the size of the visualization, which allows the user to easily compare multiple magnets. Incidentally, [Dr.Stone] notes that the current version of the hardware and software can only handle one magnet at a time; visualizing complex magnetic fields and more than two poles would take an array of sensors and likely a more powerful processor.
Do you
need
to visualize the field lines around a magnet? Perhaps not. But being able to quickly get an idea of how strong a magnet is and identify where its poles are could certainly come in handy. We’d like to see [Dr.Stone] take the project to the next phase and turn this into a handheld device for convenient workbench use. It would be a lot less messy than
some of the previous methods we’ve seen for visualizing magnetic fields
, though if you’re only worried about field strength,
there’s arguably more straightforward ways to display it
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6377029",
"author": "tomás zerolo",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T19:44:13",
"content": "When I was a kid we used to visualise that with iron filings on a piece of paper. A mighty multiprocessor cluster, I tell you!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,964.120005 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/so-how-does-a-rocket-fly-sideways-anyway/ | So HowDoesA Rocket Fly Sideways, Anyway? | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"Astra",
"avionics",
"commercial space",
"failure",
"guidance system",
"rocket engine",
"thrust"
] | It’s often said that getting into orbit is less about going up, and more about going sideways very fast. So in that sense,
the recent launch conducted by aerospace startup Astra
could be seen as the vehicle simply getting the order of operations wrong. Instead of going up and then burning towards the horizon, it made an
exceptionally
unusual sideways flight before finally moving skyward.
As you might expect, the booster didn’t make it to orbit. But not for lack of trying. In fact, that the 11.6 meter (38 feet) vehicle was able to navigate through its unprecedented lateral maneuver and largely correct its flight-path is a testament to the engineering prowess of the team at the Alameda, California based company. It’s worth noting that it was the ground controller’s decision to cut the rocket’s engines once it had flown high and far enough away to not endanger anyone on the ground that ultimately ended the flight; the booster itself was still fighting to reach space until the very last moment.
Astra’s rocket on the launch pad.
There’s a certain irony to the fact that this flight, the third Astra has attempted since their founding in 2016, was the first to be live streamed to YouTube. Had the company not pulled back their usual veil of secrecy, we likely wouldn’t have such glorious high-resolution footage of what will forever be remembered as one of the most bizarre rocket mishaps in history. The surreal image of the rocket smoothly sliding out of frame as if it was trying to avoid the camera’s gaze has already become a meme online, arguably reaching a larger and more diverse audience than would have resulted from a successful launch. As they say, there’s no such thing as bad press.
Naturally, the viral clip has spurred some questions. You don’t have to be a space expert to know that the pointy end of the rocket is usually supposed to go up, but considering how smooth the maneuver looks, some have even wondered if it wasn’t somehow intentional. With so much attention on this unusual event, it seems like the perfect time to take a close look at how Astra’s latest rocket launch went, quite literally, sideways.
Perfectly Balanced
Everyone knows that sending a rocket to space is hard, but unless you’ve read up on the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, you might not realize just how true that statement really is. Even if everything goes right, which is already a lot to ask for, the physics that govern chemical rockets are particularly brutal. Put in the most simplistic of terms, the “Rocket Equation” governs how much of a rocket’s liftoff mass is dedicated to propellant versus what it’s actually carrying. In the aerospace community, this is often expressed as a booster’s
payload fraction
.
The Space Shuttle only managed a payload fraction of around 1.5%, while the SpaceX Falcon 9 is capable of slightly more than 4%. Astra hasn’t provided detailed specifications for their current launch vehicle, but given how small it is and some back of the envelope math, we can assume it’s operating at a payload fraction of not more than 1%. We can further estimate that, at the time of liftoff, the vehicle’s thrust-to-weight ratio (TWR) must be quite low.
The destructive failure of one of the rocket’s engines, captured in just four frames from the live video.
Which is precisely what we saw in the live video from the August 28th launch. Right after ignition, one of the rocket’s five first stage engines failed. This reduction of thrust brought the TWR of the vehicle so close to equilibrium that, instead of climbing vertically, it entered into a remarkably stable hover. As luck would have it, the failed engine happened to be the one diametrically opposed to the launch tower, which meant the asymmetrical thrust of the remaining engines moved the vehicle laterally away from the launch pad. Had one of the other engines failed, there’s an excellent chance the rocket would have struck the launcher or some other piece of ground support equipment.
The rocket, now clear of any structures and traveling horizontally, was still consuming propellant at an incredible rate. At around five seconds after engine startup, it had burned through enough fuel and oxidizer that the mass of the vehicle was once again below the total thrust of the engines. With a positive TWR, the vehicle began to climb away from the launch area, albeit at a far lower rate than normal. During the live stream, you can see the obvious confusion of the camera operator, who expected the rocket to be much higher at this point in the flight and needed to pan back down to keep it in frame.
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/astraslide_tracking.mp4
As the rocket climbed higher and faster it started to look like a fairly typical launch, and after about a minute of flight time, you’d never have known how close the vehicle came to being obliterated at liftoff. Its reduced thrust and skewed ascent meant it would never make it all the way to space, but it certainly made a valiant effort.
Just before the mission elapsed timer clicked over to 2:00, an astonished member of ground control could be overheard on the live stream saying that the rocket was actually approaching its nominal downrange trajectory; a sentence that seems destined to
become an Easter egg in the next
Kerbal Space Program
.
A Truly Remarkable Failure
It’s easy to look at this launch and see it as a major setback for Astra. Indeed, the company’s stock price plummeted nearly 20% when trading started on Monday morning. But while clearly not the ideal outcome, the reality is, things could have gone far worse. For one thing, the fact that the launch site was completely unscathed is nothing short of miraculous.
When an Antares rocket exploded a few seconds after liftoff in 2014
, it took nearly two years to repair the launchpad at a cost of approximately $20 million.
The team at Astra was also undoubtedly able to collect valuable data about the vehicle’s performance during this truncated flight. Remember, the rocket technically never
failed.
It was still flying strong, though not necessarily on the correct flight path, when the command to activate the flight termination system was given. At that point the rocket had flown for nearly two and a half minutes and reached an altitude of 50 kilometers (30 miles), an impressive accomplishment for a
fledgling company that lofted their first vehicle just two years ago
.
Finally, this event is definitive proof that whoever is handling the guidance and navigation systems on this rocket is well worth whatever they’re being paid. An avionics package that can not only keep the vehicle balanced vertically while it’s translating laterally but eventually find its way back to its prescribed trajectory afterwards could only be designed by the most steely-eyed. If there was ever a question as to
whether or not you could build a rocket-powered Segway
, it seems the fine folks at Astra just answered it for us. | 43 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376974",
"author": "RichC",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T17:12:51",
"content": "As Scott Manley pointed out, it was lucky that the left the gate to the launch complex open, as it looks like the rocket managed to manoeuvrer through the gap in the fence.",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,372,964.216016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/big-f-key-to-pay-big-respects/ | Big ‘F’ Key To Pay Big Respects | Kristina Panos | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"F",
"Gateron",
"gateron red"
] | So your ally was slain. Your comrade has fallen. And somehow, that capital F coming from that tiny key is supposed to convey your respect? Please. What you need is a giant, dedicated F key that matches the size of your respect.
And [Jaryd_Giesen] is gonna teach you how to build your own
. Well, kind of. Between the Thingiverse build guide and the hilarious build video below, you’ll get the gist.
One of the coolest things about this build is the custom spring. Between a birthday time crunch and lockdown, there was just no way to source a giant spring in two days, so [Jaryd] printed a cylinder with a hole in it to chuck into a drill and stand in for a lathe. Ten attempts later, and the perfect spring was in there somewhere.
We love the level of detail here — making a pudding-style keycap to match the main keyboard is the icing on this clacky cake. But the best part is hidden away inside: the stem of the giant switch actuates a regular-sized key switch because it’s funnier that way. Since it’s a giant Gateron red, it doesn’t exactly clack, but it doesn’t sound linear, either, mostly because you can hear the printed pieces rubbing together. Check out the build video after the break, and hit up the second video if you just want to hear the thing.
Seeing things embiggened is one of our favorite things around here.
Some things are just for looks
, but
other times they’re useful tools
.
If you just want to hear it,
here’s a link to the exact timestamp
.
[via
r/gaming
] | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376987",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T17:35:42",
"content": "well… this one made my day!Brilliant! Thanks for posting.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6377013",
"author": "josephsleary",
"timestamp": "2021-... | 1,760,372,964.999519 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/the-postmortem-password-problem/ | The Postmortem Password Problem | Eric Evenchick | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"passwords",
"security"
] | Death and passwords: two things we just can’t avoid. With so much of our lives tied up in cloud services nowadays, there’s good reason to worry about what happens to these accounts if we drop dead tomorrow. For many of us, important documents, photos, financial information and other data will be locked behind a login prompt. Your payment methods will also expire shortly after you have, which could lead to data loss if not handled promptly. The most obvious way to address this is to give a trusted party access in case of emergency.
A Bad Solution
Let’s start with the simplest solution: using the same password everywhere. Great, all you need to do is put this on a Post-it note, stuff it in an envelope, and let someone know where to find it. Unfortunately, using a single password for many services is a terrible idea. Password breaches happen, and if you’re using a single password across the internet, they can be disastrous.
Password breaches are usually the result of an attacker finding a vulnerability that allows reading password data from an application’s database. Odds are high that your information has been leaked in one of these breaches. You can check if your email is on a list of known breaches with
Have I Been Pwned
. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been pwned, my email shows up on six different breaches, and this service only indexes publicly known breaches!
Depending on the competency of the company that was breached, your password may have been stolen in a few different formats. In the worst case, the passwords were stored as-is (i.e., cleartext), and the breach contains your actual password. Nowadays, storing passwords in cleartext is never considered acceptable. A hash of the password is stored instead. Attackers need to use a tool like
hashcat
to try to recover the passwords via brute force hash cracking. This is slow for complex passwords, but is always getting faster as GPUs improve.
So we really need to use different passwords everywhere, or our Tumblr account from 2013 could give access to our bank account. Given the large number of services we use and our inability to remember passwords, we’re going to need to use a password manager.
You Want a Password Manager
A password manager is any tool that lets you securely store a large number of passwords. These will let you randomly generate a long, secure passphrase that you’d never want to remember. This lets use unique passwords for each service, and passwords that are sufficiently complex that they would be tough to crack.
We will also need to think about emergency access to these tools. How will someone be granted access to your password manager, and how can we protect that process? The goal is to create a backdoor to all your accounts, then ensure it is reasonably well protected.
There are a lot of password managers out there, and this isn’t intended to be a comparison of them. In fact, security experts disagree about what tools are best. To generalize, these tools fall into two categories: hosted and self-managed.
Hosted Password Managers
The interface Dashlane uses for storing and accessing your passwords
These are Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools that handle storing your passwords and provide access across devices. Most will have desktop, mobile, and web extension clients. Firefox and Chrome both have built in password managers that also fall into this camp. Other popular products include LastPass, 1Password, and Dashlane.
These tools tend to be the easiest to use, since all the data is managed for you. Downsides include subscription fees and the need to trust a third-party with your password data. While most management services are designed so that only you can decrypt the password database, you still need to trust the software they provide. In general, browser extensions for these services are considered less secure. For more on this, see Tavis Ormandy’s
article on password managers
.
When it comes to emergency access, many of these tools provide features to help. LassPass and Dashlane both allow for “emergency contacts” who can be request access to your account. If you don’t decline access within a time period, access is granted. 1Password uses a low-tech solution, providing a printable Emergency Kit document which contains everything needed to access your account.
Self-Managed Password Managers
KeepassX interface
The other password management option is to manage your own data using local software.
KeePass
(and
KeePassXC
) and
pass
are two popular open-source options. With these tools, it’s up to you keep your password database safe and synced between devices. It’s also up to you to figure out emergency access.
If you’re going to use these tools, it’s probably worth thinking about the person who will be getting access in an emergency. Will they be able to identify what software is required, install it, get access to the database file, and decrypt it? While the pass tool provides some interesting options via gpg, such as using a a hardware token for decryption, this additional complexity may make emergency access harder.
If using a self-managed solution, you’ll want to build your own version Emergency Kit for access. This should include everything needed to view the password data and instructions on accessing the encrypted password database.
Trust and Storage
It goes without saying that you’ll need to trust whomever you’re providing with emergency access. Some hosted services provide features to minimize this trust by requiring a timeout before access is granted. For services that allow an emergency contact, this means trusting you designated contacts. For solutions that require storage of an Emergency Kit, this means ensuring only trusted parties have physical access.
Hosted services like LastPass include notification emails for logins and when settings are changed.
Another concern is knowing that emergency access has been used. If an attacker gains access to your password manager without your knowledge, they can potentially maintain access indefinitely. Hosted services will provide notifications about new logins from unknown devices. For self-managed services, this is up to you. Tamper evident envelopes and boxes are an option, but these are never perfect.
Don’t Forget 2FA
You have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled on your accounts, right? If not, go turn it on, we’ll wait here. If so, have you ever lost access to your authentication codes?
Some services will allow resetting 2FA via email. This isn’t great from a security prospective, but means that losing your 2FA codes is a minor inconvenience. Other services make this process much more difficult. For example, losing all access to 2FA for Google requires going through a manual support process that can take days. It’s worth thinking about how someone would get access to your 2FA backup codes, at least for critical accounts.
No Perfect Solution
Providing emergency access will always make your password management less secure, and that’s okay. In this case, we’re compromising security for a specific, important reason. There’s no perfect solution here, but the goal is to balance security and usability. This delicate balance is unfortunately unavoidable when designing secure systems. | 82 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376897",
"author": "HiroProtagonist",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T14:18:17",
"content": "Not a problem here, I simply do not exist. Other than a near empty Linkedin there is nothing about me. I am literally just pseudonyms on the net. And I don’t see a reason to let anyone log into my... | 1,760,372,964.338222 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/new-part-day-dlp300s-the-next-big-thing-for-low-cost-resin-printing/ | New Part Day: DLP300s The Next Big Thing For Low Cost Resin Printing? | Dave Rowntree | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"3D resin printer",
"Anycubic Photon",
"DLP printer",
"texas instruments"
] | The majority of non-SLA resin 3D printers, certainly at the hacker end of the market, are most certainly LCD based. The SLA kind, where a ultraviolet laser is scanner via galvanometers over the build surface, we shall consider no further in this article.
What we’re talking about are the machines that shine a bright ultraviolet light source directly through a (hopefully monochrome) LCD panel with a 2, 4 or even 8k pixel count. The LCD pixels mask off the areas of the resin that do not need to be polymerised, thus forming the layer being processed. This technique is cheap and repeatable, hence its proliferance at this end of the market.
They do suffer from a few drawbacks however. Firstly, optical convergence in the panel causes a degree of smearing at the resin interface, which reduces effective resolution somewhat. The second issue is one of thermal control – the LCD will transmit less than 5% of the incident light, so for a given exposure at the resin, the input light intensity needs to be quite high, and this loss in the LCD results in significant internal heating and a need for active cooling. Finally, the heating in the LCD combined with intense UV radiation degrades the LCD over time, making the LCD itself a consumable item.
Enter stage left, Digital Light Processing or DLP to his close friends. DLP technology is not new, and is the basis for many projection systems you see all the time. DLP is much more efficient, needing much lower intensity light sources, resulting in cooler running, and vastly improved life. Unlike LCDs, the DLP chip does not degrade noticeably at all.
For UV applications, DLP devices already do exist, but they are
very
expensive. Until now. Texas Instruments have started production of a new
DLP300s product for UV applications
, [
datasheet
] optimised specifically for 3D printing applications, with a low price point of US$30 at 1k/units this will enable DLP printers at a price point you and I could consider. DLP printers produce considerably sharper features compared to LCD, which can sometimes be a curse, but the DLP300s has another cool feature. 8-bit grayscale support provides resin cured-edge smoothing where needed and only where needed.
Now, if only someone, somewhere had designed a machine with this DLP chip in mind? Enter stage right the
ANYCubic Photon Ultra DLP
coming to kickstarter on September 14
th
. How long before we see DLP take over the SLA market? It’s probably just a matter of time, and price.
DLP Chip:
Anycubic Kickstarter: | 73 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376839",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T11:28:05",
"content": "2, 4, 8k pixels count, that´s a such a pixel “proliferance” of a few thousands…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6376840",
"author": "Bob",
"times... | 1,760,372,964.546457 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/01/test-for-3d-printer-runaway/ | Test For 3D Printer Runaway | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"fire hazard",
"safety",
"thermistor"
] | A few 3D printers have had a deserved reputation for bursting into flames. Most — but apparently not all — printers these days has firmware that will detect common problems that can lead to a fire hazard. If you program your own firmware, you can check to see if you have the protection on, but what if you have a printer of unknown provenance? [Thomas] shows you how to
check for a safe printer
. Also check out his video, embedded below.
The idea is to fake the kind of failures that will cause a problem. Primarily, you want to have the heaters turned on while the thermistor isn’t reading correctly. If the thermistor is stuck reading low or is reading ambient, then it is possible to just drive the heating element to get hotter and hotter. This won’t always lead to a fire, but it could lead to noxious fumes.
Of course, if a thermistor reads too hot, that should take care of itself since the firmware ought to just turn off the heater and wait for the temperature to drop which it won’t do. We’ve had a thermistor pop out before and we’ve also had a tiny thermistor wire break and make intermittent connection. Proper firmware will detect this and stop heating. [Thomas] simulates this by deliberately removing either the heater or the thermistor and also by unplugging the thermistor.
He tried two printers, an Ender 3 and an Aquila. The Ender 3 was safe, although it was surprising that it rebooted on an error. On the other hand, that was sure to turn off the heaters, so that’s good. The Aquila was disappointing, though, because it froze and kept heating in some of the failure modes.
Of course, there are other things that could cause a problem, so just passing these tests isn’t a free pass to total safety, but it is a good indicator. For example, though, a FET shorting out (or a short on the PCB) could cause a heater to turn on and the firmware would be unable to turn it off. That should be rare, though. These other modes are much more likely.
We are no strangers to tools that get hot. Soldering irons, hot air guns, and even our kitchen appliances do it all the time. But 3D printers seem to have a lot more potential issues and there are stories of them
burning down spectacularly
.
Bad connectors
are often a culprit, but even if you are certain of your connectors, your power supply, and you firmware, you probably shouldn’t leave a printer operating unattended. | 22 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376833",
"author": "mark",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T10:33:09",
"content": "so I have added a smoke alarm beside my printer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6376865",
"author": "Spot",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T... | 1,760,372,964.653838 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/impromptu-metal-detector-built-from-the-junk-bin/ | Impromptu Metal Detector Built From The Junk Bin | Tom Nardi | [
"Parts",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"555 timer",
"broom handle",
"coil",
"diy metal detector",
"metal detector",
"salvage"
] | Have you ever found yourself suddenly in need of finding a small metal object hidden in the woods? No? Well, neither have we. But we can’t say the same thing for [zaphod], who’s family was hoping to settle a dispute by finding the surveyor stakes that marked the corners of their property. It was a perfect job for a metal detector, but since they didn’t own one,
a serviceable unit had to be assembled from literal garbage
.
To start with, [zaphod] had to research how a metal detector actually works. After reviewing the pros and cons of various approaches, the decision was made to go with a beat frequency oscillator (BFO) circuit. It’s not the greatest design, it might even be the worst, but it could be built with the parts on hand and sometimes that’s all that matters. After packing a 2N3904 transistor, an LM386 amplifier, and every Hackaday reader’s favorite chip the 555 timer into an enclosure along with some of their closest friends, it was time to build the rest of the metal detector.
Look ma, no MCU!
The sensor coil was made by salvaging the wire from an old fluorescent lamp ballast and winding it around the lid of a bucket 27 times. This was mounted to the end of a broom handle with some angle pieces made from PVC sheet material, being careful not to use any metal fasteners that would throw off the detector. With the handle of an old drill in the middle to hold onto, the metal detector was complete and actually looked the part.
So did [zaphod] save the day by finding the surveyor stakes and reconnoitering the family’s plot? Unfortunately, no. It wasn’t a technical failure though; the metal detector did appear to work, although it took a pretty sizable object to set it off. The real problem was that, after looking more closely into it, the surveyors only put down one stake unless they are specifically instructed otherwise. Since they already knew where that one was…
If your homemade metal detector can’t find something that was never there, did it
really
fail? Just a little something to meditate on. In any event, when even the cheapest smart bulb is packing a microcontroller
powerful enough to emulate early home computers
, we’re always happy to see somebody keep the old ways alive with a handful of ICs. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376509",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T20:12:50",
"content": "Cool build, i like the concept of using “scrap” for parts. And the used parts used are so recognizable that build is a joy to look at.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,372,964.70549 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/capacitive-mouse-built-for-a-friend-makes-for-a-touching-tale/ | Capacitive Mouse Built For A Friend Makes For A Touching Tale | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"capacitive touch",
"mouse",
"TTP223"
] | Those tiny switches inside your mouse may be rated for 50 million clicks or more, but your fingers will likely wear out much sooner than that. Trust us — mouse arm and/or hand fatigue is no fun at all. If you’ve never had the displeasure, just try to imagine not being able to click or move the mouse around without extreme discomfort.
For this year’s Hackaday Prize,
[BinSun] hacked together a capacitive mouse for a friend who has ALS
. Instead of micro switches, it uses touch sensors to detect left and right clicks and LEDs to indicate when a click has taken place. That makes us think that haptic feedback could be cool, but it might get old quickly, or even worse, you might get used to it after a while and not feel it anymore.
This mouse would be a good alternative for anyone with limited mobility from any condition — ALS, arthritis, trigger finger, or carpal/cubital tunnel syndrome. It would also benefit anyone who wants to mouse much more stealthily, like in a library, a small shared space, or late at night. The only downside we can see is that you’d either have to get used to hovering your fingers, or else learn to rest them out of the way of the capacitive buttons. Otherwise, you’re gonna actuate them more often than you really want to.
If you want to build one of these, you’ll find a nice set of instructions over on IO that includes the minor modifications necessary to make the TTP223 capacitive modules sensitive enough to detect the presence of a finger. All you really have to do is bridge a couple of pads, add a capacitor and remove the SMD LEDs. [Bin Sun] says this is an ongoing project. He’s gotten a handful of beta testers involved at this point, and is planning to make a dedicated PCB pretty soon. Squeak past the break for a couple of brief demonstrations.
The right kind of mouse can save your limbs, sure.
Hack together a different type of mouse, and you might be able to save your crops from elephant raids
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376482",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T18:49:12",
"content": ">Those tiny switches inside your mouse may be rated for 50 million clicks or moreMight want to catch up than making things up. That’s not what people found out IRL. The switches prematurely fail beca... | 1,760,372,964.767435 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/fusion-ignition-what-does-the-nifs-1-3-mj-yield-mean-for-fusion-research/ | Fusion Ignition: What Does The NIF’s 1.3 MJ Yield Mean For Fusion Research? | Maya Posch | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"News",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"inertial confinement fusion",
"llnl",
"national ignition facility",
"nif",
"nuclear fusion"
] | Earlier this month, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced to the world that they had achieved a
record 1.3 MJ yield
from a fusion experiment at their National Ignition Facility (NIF). Yet what does this mean, exactly? As their press release notes, the main advancement of these results will go towards the US’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
This pertains specifically to the US’s nuclear fusion weapons, which LLNL along with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and other facilities are involved in the research and maintenance of. This traces back to the NIF’s roots in the 1990s, when the
stockpile stewardship
program was set up as an alternative to nuclear weapons testing. Much of this research involves examining how today’s nuclear weapons degrade over time, and ways to modernize the existing arsenal.
In light of this, one may wonder what the impact of these experimental findings from the NIF are beyond merely ensuring that the principle of
MAD
remains intact. To answer that question, we have to take a look at inertial confinement fusion (ICF), which is the technology at the core of the NIF’s experiments.
Everything Is Better With Lasers
ICF
is one of the two main branches of fusion research, the other being magnetic confinement fusion (
MCF
) which includes
today’s tokamaks and stellarators
. Much like with the initial optimism in MCF and the crushing disappointment when Z-pinch fusion turned out to be unworkable, ICF has had its own share of disappointments. Although it was initially regarded to be a practical way to produce power from fusion, it soon turned out that the power requirements to initiate (ignite) fusion were much higher than estimated, and far less easy to achieve.
MCF found a second life in the form of tokamak and stellarator research, which were more complicated, but promised solving the Z-pinch issues, in particular the plasma instabilities. ICF got a fresh start with the invention of powerful lasers, which might be powerful enough to heat fuel and initiate fusion. This process involves subjecting a sphere of fuel uniformly either directly to laser energy (direct drive), or indirectly (indirect drive).
Laser Bay 2 at the NIF.
LLNL has been involved in ICF since the 1950s, but only in the 1970s with the advent of more powerful lasers could the first high-power experiments take place. These included the
Shiva laser
in 1978 and the
Nova laser
starting in 1984. Both of these laser systems failed to achieve ignition and only got middling results, mostly due to variations in the laser beam’s irradiation.
Despite a funding crunch for fusion research in the 1980s, the findings from these experiments ultimately helped LLNL to establish the NIF, which can be regarded as the successor to the Shiva and Nova laser programs. Through its primary objective of research for the US’s nuclear stewardship program it was ensured of funding, even though construction of the NIF would take significantly longer than originally planned.
Similar to the NIF is the
Z Pulsed Power Facility
(also known as the Z machine) at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. This facility uses the Z-pinch principle, making it an MCF system. Despite Z-pinch-based MCF having been discarded as an avenue for power production, it is nevertheless useful for research purposes, making it an important part of the same nuclear stewardship program.
Putting Things Into Perspective
Target chamber at the National Ignition Facility of LLNL in 2008.
Summarized, the stages in ICF to achieve fusion involve heating up the surface of the fusion target, causing the resulting plasma envelope to expand and thus compressing the fuel. This compression increases the temperature and density of the fuel to the point where it ignites, meaning that the alpha particles produced from fusion are captured inside the fuel and contribute to heating it up.
This in turn causes more fusion events inside the fuel, triggering a chain reaction which ideally fuses all of the fuel, thus releasing all of the potential energy.
In the case of the NIF, a 500 TW (pulse) laser is used, delivering all of the energy to the target within a few picoseconds. Due to the intense stresses on the laser system the NIF is limited to a few hundred firings per year. The fuel is generally not directly irradiated by the laser, but is contained in a
Hohlraum
, which is a specially shaped hollow object that, when the laser beams enter the cavity (not hitting the fuel pellet) causes it to emit a specific wavelength of radiation. In the case of the NIF this Hohlraum is designed to produce X-rays. This Hohlraum can have two entrance holes, or more, as detailed for e.g.
a three-axis hohlraum design
by Longyu Kuang et al.
These X-rays heat up the fuel pellet, starting the fusion process. The advantage of using a Hohlraum is that it makes an even heating of the fuel pellet much more straightforward. Even so, the energy requirements to heat up the fuel pellet with ICF are immense. This is detailed in the following diagram from the
Wikipedia entry
on the NIF:
Diagram of NIF laser energy to hohlraum x-ray to target capsule energy coupling efficiency.
It takes roughly 422 MJ of energy to power the laser system (total system input), of which only a percentage is converted into the laser beam energy that ultimately makes it to the Hohlraum. Of this energy, most contributes to the generating of X-rays within the Hohlraum, only a fraction of which ultimately contributes to the compression of the fuel pellet.
When one considers that it took 422 MJ in order to get a return of approximately 1.3 MJ out of the fuel target, it probably does not require an extensive explanation why this approach to fusion is unlikely to ever reach the point of breakeven, i.e. a Q of 1. The notable aspect here is rather that this amount of released energy was 70% of the input laser energy, meaning that ignition was almost achieved.
No More LIFE
Between 2008 and 2013 LLNL did in fact work on the Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (
LIFE
) effort which sought to turn the lessons from NIF into a nuclear fusion power plant, using solid-state semiconductor lasers and mass-produced fuel. Yet by the end of the project’s life it was clear that a power plant using ICF was eminently unrealistic, especially in the light of ICF ignition not having been achieved yet.
When one compares the monumental challenges that ICF faces in competing with MCF approaches, with the JET and HL-2M tokamaks as well as the Wendelstein-7X stellarator showing highly promising results in terms of plasma stability and heating, not to mention a Q factor that is tantalizingly close to 1, it should be clear that ICF is not a player in the future power plant game, barring some amazing breakthrough.
What ICF projects like the NIF do however contribute to is increasing our understanding of physics, not just nuclear physics, but also those related to exceedingly powerful laser systems and energy physics in general. That by itself makes this almost-ignition event at the NIF something to cheer at.
[Heading image: Preamplifier at the National Ignition Facility by
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
CC-BY-SA 3.0] | 37 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376478",
"author": "Zerg",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T18:25:01",
"content": "Fusion research seems to be nothing but a works programs\\ for turbo nerds. Year after year we here “in five more yearsL",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,372,964.850999 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/regen-receiver-with-few-parts/ | Regen Receiver With Few Parts | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"radio",
"regenerative radio"
] | We like regenerative receivers. They perform well and they are dead simple to create. Example? [Radio abUse] modified a few existing designs and built
a one-transistor receiver
. Well, one transistor if you don’t count the dozens that are probably on the audio amplifier IC, but we won’t quibble. You can watch a video about the simple receiver — which looks good on a neatly done universal board — below.
The coil of #22 wire dominates the visual layout, and we imagine winding it might have been the most time-consuming part of the project. The layout would work with a single-sided PCB and would be a great board to produce by hand if you were inclined to develop that skill.
Regenerative receivers work by holding an amplifier just shy of oscillating at a certain frequency. This provides extremely high gain at a particular frequency which allows just a single stage to really pull in signals.
We were a little sad to find out there was a plan to tear the radio down to build something else. But, we suppose, that’s progress. We’d be tempted to make a module out of the audio amplifier and then keep the RF section intact. But, then again, we have a lot of partial projects like that gathering dust on the shelf, so maybe that’s not such a great idea.
While regenerative receivers aren’t the
most common architecture
today, they still have their place. The inventor,
Edwin Armstrong
, developed quite a bit of radio tech that we still use today. | 22 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376450",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T16:48:25",
"content": "Actually, when regens were king, kicking them into oscillation was often important. You needed that if receiving morse code, the oscillation beating the incoming signal down to audio. When oscilla... | 1,760,372,967.05761 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/3d-printering-is-hassle-free-bed-leveling-finally-here/ | 3D Printering: Is Hassle-Free Bed Leveling Finally Here? | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Featured",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"3d printer",
"3D Printering",
"bed leveling",
"first layer calibration",
"load cell",
"print bed",
"strain gauge",
"tramming"
] | 3D printers have come a long way over the past several years, but the process of bed leveling remains a pain point. Let’s take a look at the different ways the problem has been tackled, and whether recent developments have succeeded in automating away the hassle.
Anycubic Vyper, with an auto-leveling feature we decided to take a closer look at.
Bed leveling and first layer calibration tends to trip up novices because getting it right requires experience and judgment calls, and getting it wrong means failed prints. These are things 3D printer operators learn to handle with time and experience, but they are still largely manual processes that are often discussed in ways that sound more like an art than anything else. Little wonder that there have been plenty of attempts to simplify the whole process.
Some consumer 3D printers are taking a new approach to bed leveling and first layer calibration, and one of those printers is the
Anycubic Vyper
, which offers a one-touch solution for novices and experienced users alike. We accepted Anycubic’s offer of a sample printer specifically to examine this new leveling approach, so let’s take a look at the latest in trying to automate away the sometimes stubborn task of 3D printer bed leveling.
Why is Bed Leveling an Issue?
In 3D printer terms, bed leveling (or simply “leveling”) is a broad term for a process whose end result is getting the first layer of a print deposited optimally onto the build platform. A good first layer is the foundation of a successful print.
To accomplish this, the nozzle needs to remain a constant distance from the build platform across its whole range of movement. If the nozzle is too close to the bed in some places, but too far away in others, that leads to poor quality and failures. Adjusting the printer’s bed until it is parallel to the nozzle’s range of motion is called leveling. (Machinists would correctly call the process tramming, because nothing actually has to be perpendicular to the earth’s gravitational field.)
The extruder in the process of laying down a first layer.
The next step is first layer calibration. This adjusts the Z-axis offset, or the distance between the tip of the nozzle and the surface of the build platform. There needs to be just enough space for the critical first layer of plastic to be deposited evenly, in a uniform thickness, and pressed into the build surface well enough to remain stuck during printing.
Complicating this is the fact that no build platform is perfectly flat. When fractions of a millimeter count, even small imperfections cause problems. High spots or low spots in a build platform are problems because no amount of tilting the print bed will adjust them away. This is one of the reasons leveling problems have persisted over time.
No individual part of bed leveling is particularly complicated, but the many interconnected factors can make it a complex, fiddly task. It’s no surprise that people have tried different ways to make the whole process as easy and repeatable as possible.
Some Attempted Solutions
Rafts (a type of sacrificial build platform) were an early method of dealing with bed imperfections, but most solutions now revolve around
mesh leveling
.
Mesh leveling is a method of compensating for an imperfect print bed in software, but it requires a way to measure the build platform. By taking measurements with a sensor, a software model representing the build surface, and its imperfections, can be created. This model modifies the path of the print head as it lays down the critical first layer, adjusting for an imperfect surface by attempting to follow those imperfections, instead of moving as though they don’t exist.
One way to accomplish mesh leveling is by using an inductive sensor to sense the build platform without touching it.
Prusa
printers use this method to take measurements in a 3 x 3, or optionally 7 x 7, grid before every print. Manually determining an appropriate Z-axis offset for a particular build sheet is still up to the user.
Another option is a physical probe. The
BLTouch
, for example, is a popular sensor that comes into physical contact with the build platform. Its success as an aftermarket add-on, as well as how often it has been copied, is a good indicator of how much bed leveling remains a pain point for 3D printer owners.
The Latest Approach: Integrating a Strain Gauge
The printer’s nozzle acting as a touch sensor.
This method uses the tip of the nozzle itself as a sensor. Not only is it easier to take measurements from the point where extrusion actually happens, but doing so opens the door to automatically setting an appropriate Z-offset as well.
One way to do this is by integrating a strain gauge into the extruder itself, turning the hot end into a kind of load cell. We saw this approach
in a DIY project that used SMD resistors as strain gauges
, and the method is also used in the
Smart Effector for delta printers
.
Two recent consumer 3D printers, the Anycubic Vyper and the Creality CR-6 SE, implement their own factory-made versions of the idea. We accepted a sample Vyper printer from
Anycubic
specifically to examine this feature, so let’s take a closer look.
How It Works
Vyper’s extruder, cover removed. Colored wires to the left go to the strain gauge built into the hot end mount.
The Anycubic Vyper’s extruder assembly contains a fork-shaped metal mount for the hot end which has a strain gauge built into it. This turns it into a
load cell
similar to what would be found in an electronic scale.
Any force exerted on the hot end will slightly deform the mount, and the strain gauge turns this deformation into an electrical signal that can be measured and quantified. Even very light pressure on the hot end can be detected in this way.
Thanks to this functionality, the nozzle itself becomes a touch sensor. When the machine is directed to auto-level itself, the extruder is repeatedly lowered toward the build platform until the nozzle comes into contact with it. Even a light touch can be reliably detected, so this process doesn’t involve much force.
By taking multiple measurements in a grid pattern, mesh leveling can be implemented. Also, since the physical distance between nozzle tip and build surface can be sensed, a reasonable Z-axis offset can be implemented automatically, leaving the operator to worry only about fine tuning.
The fork-shaped mount has a strain gauge built into it.
Strain gauge visible as a white patch under the mount.
Hot end removed from fork-shaped mount.
A light touch on the mount triggers the touch sensing.
It’s a neat idea, and the extruder has clearly been designed around the feature.
Results? Perfectly Serviceable
A perfectly serviceable first layer. Fine tuning can be done in +/- 0.05 mm increments.
How well does it work? I’m happy to say the feature appears to work as advertised, including the automatic setting of an effective initial Z-offset.
One simply installs the build plate, makes sure the nozzle and the build surface are clean, then instructs the printer to perform the auto-leveling process. The machine will pre-heat, ensuring calibration is done under printing conditions instead of cold, and then the nozzle touches the build platform in a 4 x 4 grid pattern, after which it silently applies mesh leveling and an initial Z-offset that can be fine-tuned if desired. In theory, the process doesn’t need to be repeated unless the build platform changes, but the user can trigger the process whenever they wish.
There Are Limits
The auto-leveling works as advertised, but there are limits to what it can do. First of all, problems related to the quality or type of filament, or the material of the build platform, are separate issues that can still trip up a novice. These are not fixed by an auto-leveling feature.
Both the print surface and the nozzle tip must be clean in order to get the best results, so it’s best to unload filament from the hot end before auto-leveling. Because the machine pre-heats and touches each grid point twice, a loaded nozzle leaves little dabs of molten plastic at each point, and this extra material between the nozzle and the build surface can affect the accuracy of measurements. Indeed, this might be the Achilles heel of all nozzle-based sensors.
There is a limit as to what can be sensed and modeled with a 4 x 4 grid of touch points. A build surface with serious imperfections might not get modeled accurately. I briefly tested this by using shims to simulate mixed high and low spots of up to 0.8 mm in the build sheet before running the auto-leveling process. Unsurprisingly, a 4 x 4 grid of touch points was insufficient to accurately model where exactly these imperfections started and stopped, but I was pleased to see that the resulting first layer was at least still serviceable, if a bit thin and overly-squished around some of the high areas. It would be nice to have an option to increase the number of measurement points, or perhaps manually refine the mesh, as a way to better deal with special cases.
Lastly, the machine’s firmware is not very verbose about the details of its auto-leveling process. There seems to be no way to modify the sensitivity, no way to see the actual measurements taken, and no way to manually fine-tune anything other than the Z-offset, which can be changed up or down in 0.05 mm increments.
Is This The Way?
The Vyper’s auto-leveling and initial Z-offset work as advertised and give serviceable results, even if the firmware is a bit quiet about what exactly is going on under the hood. It’s awfully convenient, the strain gauge integration looks solid, and as a whole it’s a clever system that’s nice to see in a factory offering.
What do you think about this method of automating away the dull drudgery of bed leveling and first-layer tuning? Is turning the hot end into a load cell the right way to go? We want to know what you think, so let us know in the comments. | 72 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376387",
"author": "amenjet",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T14:05:38",
"content": "The Fisher delta printer has always had bed leveling, one click of the GUI and it does it. I’ve not used anything else on this printer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,967.005314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/hacker-claims-honda-and-acura-vehicles-vulnerable-to-simple-replay-attack/ | Hacker Claims Honda And Acura Vehicles Vulnerable To Simple Replay Attack | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks"
] | [
"acura",
"Honda",
"key fob",
"keyfob",
"replay attack",
"rolling code"
] | Keyless entry has become a standard feature on virtually all cars, where once it was a luxury option. However, it’s also changed the way that thieves approach the process of breaking into a car. After recent research, [HackingIntoYourHeart] claims that many modern Honda and Acura vehicles can be accessed with a simple replay attack
using cheap hardware.
It’s a bold claim, and one that we’d love to see confirmed by a third party. The crux of the allegations are that simply recording signals from a Honda or Acura keyfob is enough to compromise the vehicle. Reportedly, no rolling code system is implemented and commands can easily be replayed.
Given these commands control features like unlocking the doors, opening the trunk, and even remote starting the vehicle, it’s a concerning situation. However, it’s also somewhat surprising. Rolling code technology has been around for decades, and makes basic replay attacks
more difficult
. Range extender attacks that target keyfobs sitting inside homes or gas stations are
more common these days.
Whether Honda has made a security faux pas, or if there’s something more at play here, remains to be seen. If you’ve got more information, or have been able to recreate the same hack on your own Honda,
be sure to let us know. | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376342",
"author": "Cogidubnus Rex",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T11:54:00",
"content": "Regarding the ‘traditional’ keyless entry attacks with range extenders, how hard would it be to implement a check on the RTT of the comms between car and (relay) key?Timing would be tight and likel... | 1,760,372,966.847292 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/raspberry-pi-and-esp32-s2-team-up-for-mutantc_v4/ | Raspberry Pi And ESP32-S2 Team Up For MutantC_V4 | Tom Nardi | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"handheld",
"mutantC",
"qwerty",
"slider",
"umpc"
] | Back in 2019 we first came across the mutantC, an open source 3D printable Raspberry Pi handheld created by [rahmanshaber] that took more than a little inspiration from Sony’s VAIO ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) from the early 2000s. It was an impressive first effort, but it clearly had a long way to go before it could really be a practical mobile device.
Well after two years of development and three iterative versions of this Linux powered QWERTY slider,
[rahmanshaber] is ready to show off the new and improved mutantC_v4
. Outwardly it looks quite similar to the original version, with the notable addition of a tiny thumbstick and a pair of programmable buttons on the right side that can be used for input in addition to the touch screen. But inside it’s a whole other story, with so many changes and improvements that we hardly even know where to start.
Inside the mutantC_v4, showing off the ESP32-S2
Probably the most notable improvement is
the addition of an ESP32-S2
, specifically a bare ESP-12K module, to the main PCB. Previous versions of the hardware used an Arduino Pro Micro to interface with all the hardware, but the added horsepower of the ESP32 should come in handy with the array of sensors, controls, and NeoPixels that [rahmanshaber] has tasked the chip with. There’s even a buzzer and a coin-style vibration motor in there to provide some feedback to the user. While the board has changed significantly, it still retains compatibility with the Pi Zero, 2, 3, and 4.
Another notable addition is the expansion connector on the bottom of the handheld that has pins for I2C, UART, and 3.3 V. In the video below, [rahmanshaber] mentions that this feature was previously implemented with a standard 2×6 female header block, but is now using a far slimmer female USB-C port. We do wonder if it’s not a bit confusing to have this faux-USB port right next to the
real
one that’s actually used to charge the system, but with such cramped quarters occasionally you’ve got to make some tough decisions like that.
It’s quite inspiring to see how [rahmanshaber] has honed his skills since
releasing the first version of the mutantC
. The 3D printed parts and PCBs have matured considerably over the last two years, showing how quickly a dedicated hobbyist can advance their abilities. The most recent version
has been entered in the 2021 Hackaday Prize
. But the show isn’t over yet, as we hear v5 of this impressive handheld may tackle the
Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module
. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376306",
"author": "airbass",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T09:11:37",
"content": "Great work, big kudos!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6376315",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T10:06:45",
"content": "Yes,... | 1,760,372,966.705198 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/building-a-hundred-year-old-radio-transmitter/ | Building A Hundred-Year-Old Radio Transmitter | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"1BCG",
"amateur radio",
"transmitter"
] | Our Hackaday team is spread across the world, but remains in easy contact through the magic of the Internet. A number of us hold amateur radio callsigns, so could with a bit of effort and expenditure do the same over the airwaves. A hundred years ago this would have seemed barely conceivable as amateurs were restricted to the then-considered-unusable HF frequencies.
Thus it was that in December 1921 a group of American radio amateurs gathered in a field in Greenwich Connecticut in an attempt to span the Atlantic. Their 1.3 MHz transmitter using the callsign 1BCG seems quaintly low-frequency a hundred years later, but their achievement of securing reception in Ardrossan, Scotland, proved that intercontinental communication on higher frequencies was a practical proposition. A century later a group from the Antique Wireless Association
are bringing a replica transmitter to life
to recreate the event.
A free-running oscillator is today rarely seen in a radio transmitter, but at the time their single-tube Colpitts oscillator using a UV-204 transmitting tube would have been considered a stable source. That fed a 1KW power amplifier using three more UV-204s in parallel, which in turn fed a Marconi-style T antenna design with an earth counterpoise of multiple radial wires. The replica was originally built for an event in 1996, and substitutes the similar 204A tube for the now unobtainable UV-204. Even then, hundred-year-old tubes are hard to find in 2021, so they could only muster a single working example for the PA.
All in all it’s a very interesting project, and one of which we hope we’ll hear more as the anniversary approaches. If we can get the transmission details we’ll share them with you, and let’s see whether the same distances can be traversed with the more noisy conditions here in 2021.
To demonstrate how advanced this transmitter was for 1921, take a look at
the Alexanderson alternator, its mechanical contemporary
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376815",
"author": "2ftg",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T08:05:59",
"content": "Damn, that’s some proper power from a free running oscillator.I hope they span the Atlantic with it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6376834",
"auth... | 1,760,372,967.24864 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/one-wood-ring-to-rule-them-all/ | One Wood Ring To Rule Them All | Danie Conradie | [
"Art"
] | [
"lord of the rings",
"segmented wood turning",
"woodworking"
] | [Olivier Gomis] did not have access to the fires of Mount Doom to forge a
large replica of the One Ring
, so he had to settle for patience, maple, and a wood lathe. It does have the added convenience of not needing to fire to expose its true nature, just angry pixies from a wall socket.
[Olivier] made the ring in separate inner and outer sections from 72 blocks of maple. The blocks were glued together in 12-sided rings, and stacked in layers to achieve the desired width. The surfaces were cut smooth and thinned out on a wood lathe, and an internal channel was created for LED strips. The Black Speech was cut through the walls of both the inner and outer surfaces using a manual router. Using the ring itself as a former, he made a wooden base for the router to allow it to slide across the surface without wobbling.
The inside wall was cut into sections and glued into a recess in the external portion. The inscriptions were covered with a maple veneer, which still allows it to be visible when the internal LEDs are switched on. The wiring runs from the base of the stand through an S-shaped stem that was made from layers of veneer clamped in a former. A total of 53 hours of painstaking effort went into this work of art, but the end product would make any hardcore Lord of the Rings fan envious.
For more LOTR-themed hacks, check out the
secret door to the Mines of Moria secret door
, and a
sword that glow blue in the presence of unsecured WiFi
.
Thanks for the tip [Keith Olson]! | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376824",
"author": "Nitpicker Smartyass",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T08:49:14",
"content": "Beautiful!If you WANT critics, well, the only thing I can say is – why replicate something so “mundane” since you have the skills to create something unique and of your own. Then again … it’s ... | 1,760,372,966.740382 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/3d-printing-your-own-sturdy-lens-caps/ | 3D Printing Your Own Sturdy Lens Caps | Lewin Day | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"dslr",
"lens",
"lens cap"
] | Lens caps are important for protecting expensive camera lenses from damage. Dust, grit, and other nasty things will all quickly spoil the quality of a shot, and can even permanently damage a lens if you’re unlucky. However, lens caps are also lost quite easily. Thus, it’s useful to be able to make your own, and
[DSLR CNC DIY] has the low down on how to do it.
The benefit of printing your own lens caps is customization. No matter the oddball size and shape of your lens, when you’re 3D printing your own cap, you can design it to fit. The video also shows off the benefits of being able to embed text right into the body of the cap, so you’re never confused as to which cap goes with which lens. The caps use the metal lever from a binder clip in order to provide the clamping force necessary to hang on to the lens. It’s an improvement over some living-hinge designs that grow weaker over time.
Overall, if you’ve got a bunch of lenses that need a new cap, this could be the project for you. It’s also likely much cheaper and easier than hunting down replacement caps for obscure lenses online. Alternatively, contemplate what you could do with
fancy lens adapters
. Video after the break. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376771",
"author": "rpavlik",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T23:07:10",
"content": "Ooh, I like the built in label, and will have to look into the spring feature too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6376801",
"author": "tehmwak",... | 1,760,372,966.891823 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/simple-tactile-drawing-pad-is-quite-impressive/ | Simple Tactile Drawing Pad Is Quite Impressive | Kristina Panos | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize"
] | Everyone needs to be able to communicate and express themselves, even people with blindness or low vision. Embossing paper with some kind of stylus is a popular, low-tech option, but there’s one big problem: pressing paper from the top leaves a dent, and so letters have to either be written backwards or else felt-read backwards. For this year’s Hackaday Prize,
[Subir Bhaduri] is working on a fantastic tool that embosses positively, and from the top side of the paper
.
Here’s how it works: a pointed stylus pushes upward from the underside and meets up with a concave receiver on the top side through the paper. The two stylii move in concert thanks to the pantograph-inspired parallelogram setup, which we imagine would make it easier for someone with low vision to keep their bearings as they move around the page.
The video below shows prototype #2, which is the first one that worked. Well, it works, but [Subir] says it needs improvement, so prototype #3 is in the sketching stage now. [Subir] is planning to fix the paper in place somehow and also figure out how to keep the pantograph arms out of the user’s way.
Pantographs are used for all sorts of things, but
the sweetest use we’ve seen was to carve messages into chocolate hearts
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376731",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T20:16:30",
"content": "Interesting, don’t know anybody with similar problems to know if it would really be helpful to them, but it sounds like a good idea.I wonder if perhaps the user experience would be better if they moved ... | 1,760,372,966.789293 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/calculate-like-its-1989-with-this-hp15c-emulator/ | Calculate Like It’s 1989 With This HP15C Emulator | Dan Maloney | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"15C",
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"atmega328",
"calculator",
"emulator",
"hewlett packard",
"programmable",
"scientific"
] | Back in the day, your choice of calculator said a lot about your chops, and nothing made a stronger statement than the legendary Hewlett-Packard Voyager series of programmable calculators. From the landscape layout to the cryptic keycaps to the Reverse Polish Notation, everything about these calculators spoke to a seriousness of purpose.
Sadly, these calculators are hard to come by at any price these days. So if you covet their unique look and feel, your best bet might be to do like [alxgarza] and
build your own Voyager-series emulator
. This particular build emulates the HP15C and runs on an ATMega328. Purists may object to the 192×64 LCD matrix display rather than the ten-digit seven-segment display of the original, but we don’t mind the update at all. The PCB that the emulator is built on is just about the right size, and the keyboard is built up from discrete switches that are as satisfyingly clicky as the originals. We also appreciate the use of nothing but through-hole components — it seems suitably retro. The video below shows that the calculator is perfectly usable without a case; a 3D-printed case is available, though, as is an overlay that replicates the keypad of the original.
We’ve seen emulators for other classic calculators of yore, including
Sinclair
,
Texas Instruments
, and even
other HP lines
. But this one has a really nice design that gets us going.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 41 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376715",
"author": "mrehorst",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T18:57:20",
"content": "Very cool! I have a 15C that’s my daily driver since 1982. I recently replaced the batteries for only the third time since I got it. The keyboard is still perfect, unlike my POS HP49G+ that failed in abo... | 1,760,372,967.20197 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/reporting-from-bornhack-2021-hacker-camps-making-it-through-the-pandemic/ | Reporting From BornHack 2021: Hacker Camps Making It Through The Pandemic | Jenny List | [
"cons",
"Featured",
"Slider"
] | [
"BornHack",
"COVID",
"hacker camps"
] | In a normal summer we would be spoiled for choice here in Europe when it came to our community’s events, with one big camp and a host of smaller ones near and far. Only the most hardcore of travelers manage to make it to all of them, but it’s usually possible to take in at least one or two over the season. But of course, this isn’t a normal summer. Many of us may now be vaccinated against COVID-19, but we remain in the grip of a global pandemic. The massive Dutch MCH camp was postponed until 2022, and most of the smaller camps have fallen by the wayside due to uncertainty. But one hacker camp carried on.
BornHack in Denmark was the world’s only in-person summer hacker event of 2020, and on
its return last week
made it the only such event in Europe for 2021. Having secured a ticket earlier in the year when they went on sale, I navigated the tricky world of cross-border European travel in a pandemic to make my way to the Hylkedam scout camp on the Danish isle of Fyn for a week in the company of hackers from all over Northern Europe. BornHack had achieved the impossible again, and it was time to enjoy a much-needed week at a hacker camp.
Safely Gathering In A Danish Forest
Flamethrowers provided plenty of entertainment
This is a scout camp, of course it’s got a full-sized fire pit!
Lasers and the moon made for a great shot after a lot of trying.
Hylkedam lies in a dense forest accessed from the main road by roughly half a mile of dirt track, which widens out into the main BornHack field. It’s here that I found the orga and info desk, as well as most of the villages. A short walk away down the site’s tracks and paths are the bar, the noisy and quiet fields, as well as the speaker’s tent and the scouting buildings which house the camp’s many workshops.
First order as always was check-in, worthy of remark this time because of the requirement for proof of vaccination or COVID test. The atmosphere was more relaxed than had been the case last year with extreme social distancing and hygiene, but there was still an emphasis on the camp not becoming a spreader event. With 310 people on site it was more than twice the size of its predecessor, so this was something the orga took very seriously indeed.
As the only opportunity for hackers to spend a while in a field this summer, the event had attracted attendees from across the Scandinavian countries as well as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and even a very few Americans and Brits like me. Villages were evenly spread between countries, groups, coding languages, and hackerspaces, so there was a good variety of places to wander by and say hello
The BornHack amateur radio station.
For the radio amateurs among us there was a special event station with the unusual callsign OZ1H4CK, and by night we were treated to flame and laser shows courtesy of Dimitri Modderman whose work has become a fixture at hacker camps over the years.
The lively bar served the impressive range of Danish beer styles we’ve grown used to and the catering came courtesy of an excellent East Asian food truck, so all our needs were served as we lazed away our days in hammocks sending slow-scan TV meme pictures to each other over our PMR446 radios.
A hacker camp is about relaxing and hanging out with your friends, but of course it’s also about
a full programme of talks and workshops
. Some of them I made it to in person such as Anne Ogborn’s SWI Prolog workshop, while others I caught up with on YouTube. Here follows a selection for your viewing pleasure.
Hacker Camp Talks
First up is Jørgen Kragh Jakobsen, whose
Open source tools for IC developement
takes the viewer through the very basics of chip design and the process of preparing a new device for production. It’s split into two parts by the vagaries of BornHack’s streaming system, so here’s
part one
and then
part two
.
Then there was Mikkel Mikjær Christensen with
The Danish Comet – The first Danish microcomputer!
, an in-depth look at a line of Danish-made computers from the 1970s and 1980s. We’ve mentioned his work in passing before, and the depth of his knowledge and painstaking research on the subject of retrocomputing is second to none.
Meanwhile we all have some idea of how the Internet works, but there’s still plenty to learn from William Ben Embarek’s
Start your own ISP (Or just learn how an ISP works)
. Mark-Jan Bastian’s
Power Supply stability and risks
should appeal to any hardware engineer who’s faced a PSU challenge. And [Moem]’s
Ubuntu Touch for the casual user
is a reminder that the mobile OS is still alive and kicking.
Badges Amid a Chip Shortage
A little more than just a prototyping board: the BornHack 2021 badge.
As well as being a year still in the midst of a global pandemic, 2021 is also notable as the year of the semiconductor shortage. BornHack badge designer Thomas Flummer thus elected to produce a BornHack badge without components this year, but
it’s far from simply a fancy prototyping board
. Instead he’s produced a Shitty Add-On prototyping board, based upon the likelihood that most attendees would be likely to have either the
2019
or
2020
BornHack badges with them.
The design has both through-hole and SMD prototyping areas, with a centrally placed SAO connector footprint whose lines are brought out to prototyping pads. There were a variety of discrete components available at the badge hacking tent, with which some minimal blinkies and a few more impressive projects were created. We think he made the right call, because there was much potential for supply chain problems to interfere with the delivery of a more complex badge.
A Chance To Get Away From It All
One of the scouting buildings dotted throughout the woodland.
The memorial to fallen members of the Danish scouting movement during the Second World War.
The real value in a camp like BornHack, especially so during the pandemic, is the rare chance it offers to see friends again after so long in isolation. Hanging out together, going swimming in the Baltic, and taking a trip to Lego House, are all things denied for so long and which the vaccine means we can now do with a modicum of safety. Finally there’s the place itself, as I mentioned earlier Hylkedam lies in a dense forest, but that doesn’t adequately describe how peaceful and beautiful some parts of the site are. It’s easy to leave the camp behind and take off into the woods, and a slight concern about ticks notwithstanding, there are plenty of quiet corners in which to relax. Getting to this camp involves quite a trek, but the friendly welcome from the Danes and the attractiveness of the surroundings mean that it’s a fixture on my itinerary. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376708",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T18:02:36",
"content": "Thank you for the report.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6376709",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T18:04:01",
"conte... | 1,760,372,967.12417 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/31/ten-winners-of-the-hackaday-prize-supportive-tech-challenge/ | Ten Winners Of The Hackaday Prize Supportive Tech Challenge | Mike Szczys | [
"contests",
"Slider",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"supportive tech"
] | Congratulations to the ten projects that have been selected to receive $500, and continue to the finals of the 2021 Hackaday Prize! Each of these are a different take on the
Reimagine Supportive Tech Challenge
that sought ways to make great hardware ideas work for more people.
Ebooks have made it possible for everyone to have a library in their pocket, and that has included the visually impaired as text-to-speech can read the printed word. But that’s not a complete replacement for reading for yourself and so
the Thenar steps in as an affordable, portable braille ebook reader
. It leverages a single braille cell on the edge of the device, and a tank-track-style scroll wheel for user input. Complete with a docking station to inductively charge the battery, it’s a high-end reader for those who need an alternative to epaper.
Okay, pop-quiz; how many of us want to have a future involving solar-powered everything? Most of us now have our hands up, but how many of us can set up a high-efficiency solar charge controller ourselves? If this next finalist (pictured at the top) has its way the answer will be just about everyone.
The 2.5 kilowatt solar generator in a rugged brief case
is packing a whopping 160 (!) 18650 lithium cells. The charging side of the design handles the maximum power-point tracking (MPPT) while the discharging side protects the user with a circuit breaker and all kinds of regulated outputs like 120 V, 24 V, 12 V, and of course all of the USB-C functionality you’d expect from a system like this.
Ten Finalists, Eight Dozen Entries
We cherry-picked two excellent finalists above, but all ten of these are easily worth their own mention (and many have already been individually featured on these pages). Congrats to the folks who will be headed to the finals in October!
Thenar – portable and affordable Braille book
Mini Pupper – First ROS,Open-source Robot Dog
Capacitive Touch Button Computer Mouse Hack
Rugged Solar Generator 2.5KW
T.O.F. Wristband V2
Eye-to-Speech Module
PECS Communication Board
Raspberry Pi Spectrometer
BioAmp EXG Pill
FlowIO Platform
It was
a tight field of nearly 100 entries for this round
, make sure to take some time to check those out and offer kudos in the comment sections of each project. We’re excited to see what comes of
the robotics-oriented challenge currently underway
!
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376706",
"author": "Afreez",
"timestamp": "2021-08-31T17:43:52",
"content": "Thanks so much! Mini pupper Kickstarter campaign will go live soon, if you have any questions, pelease join our facebook group, thanks!Facebook grouphttps://www.facebook.com/groups/519009562699751",
"p... | 1,760,372,967.350917 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/__trashed-23/ | 1949 Gyroscope Spins Up Again | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"gyro",
"gyroscope"
] | [Curious Marc] has an Apollo-era gyroscope but isn’t quite ready to put it through this paces without some practice. So he borrowed a 1949 vintage
Sperry C5 gyro
and did some experiments with it using a 3-phase power supply he plans to use on the other gyro.
There is a little bit of troubleshooting and a lot of gorgeous close up shots of these electromechanical marvels. They sure are noisy, though.
[Marc] wanted a gyro testing table that can control the orientation of a gyro under test. He went the auction route to get a pretty expensive piece of gear for a relatively low price but without the expensive software. In a stroke of luck, he managed to score the required software from the vendor who was intrigued by his project. It looked to us like a table like this wouldn’t be that hard to build from scratch, either.
We are interested in what [Marc] will do with his gyros next. It is hard to imagine that gyros have come from this sort of device to a
tiny IC inertial measurement unit
that can fit in a phone. Imagine packing the Sperry unit on your next walking robot or self-balancing unicycle.
Need a refresher on how gyro’s work?
We got that
, too. It even covers the modern kind. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376098",
"author": "jack324",
"timestamp": "2021-08-29T17:07:33",
"content": "I have heard alot of small planes starting up and there is usually this high pitched whine that builds up and smoothes out as the plane starts up. I always assumed it was a pump or some other mechanism in... | 1,760,372,967.39692 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/irc-server-for-ms-dos/ | IRC Server For MS-DOS | Chris Wilkinson | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Software Development"
] | [
"IBM 5150",
"irc",
"ms-dos",
"ngircd"
] | The recent flurry of projects based around Internet Relay Chat (IRC) should be a fair indication that the beloved protocol is not going anywhere. Now, thanks to [Mike Chambers], you can add to the IRC ecosystem by
hosting your very own MS-DOS based IRC server.
This port of ngIRCd (Next Generation IRC Daemon) has already been spun up on 8088-based PCs running at just 4.77MHz, but you’ll still need at least 640KB of RAM. If your vintage IRC server takes off, you might want to think about dropping in an 10MHz V20 for a bit of a performance boost. Even so, it’s impressive that this server can get up on the 40-year-old IBM 5150, and should absolutely scream on an AT-class system.
The limitations of the 16-bit platform means that SSL and ZLIB are unsupported, and Mike has capped total connections at 50 in his port (however, this limitation can be adjusted by rebuilding from source, should you want to find out how far 640KB of RAM can take you). You’ll also need a few other things to get your server up and running, such as a packet driver for your network card and an mTCP configuration file.
Setting up your own IRC server is arguably a
right
rite of passage for most hackers and tinkerers, but getting this up and running on a decades-old beige box would make for a fun weekend project. [Mike] has all the juicy details
on GitHub
, and you can check out a test server running the latest build over at
irc.xtulator.com
.
Also, don’t forget to visit the #hackaday IRC channel over on
irc.libera.chat
.
[Thanks Sudos for the hot tip] | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375996",
"author": "defdefred",
"timestamp": "2021-08-29T08:52:58",
"content": "Best on energy efficient microcontroller, no?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6376002",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-08... | 1,760,372,967.690754 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/turning-heat-into-electricity/ | Turning Heat Into Electricity | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"energy harvesting",
"thermocouple"
] | You don’t really create energy, you convert it from one form to another. For example, many ways that we generate electricity use heat from burning or nuclear decay to generate steam which turns a generator. Thermocouples generate electricity directly from heat, but generally not very much. Still, some nuclear batteries directly convert heat to electricity, they just aren’t very efficient. Now researchers have developed
a way of preparing a material that is better at doing the conversion: tin selenide
.
Tin selenide is known to have good performance converting heat into electricity when in its crystal form. However, practical applications are more likely to use polycrystalline forms, which are known to have reduced conversion performance.
The material works well because it is not very thermally conductive and it has a favorable band structure that allows multiple bands to participate in charge transport. However, in polycrystal configurations, the results are not as good due to higher thermal conductivity. Yet crystalline tin selenide is difficult to manufacture and not very robust in real-world use.
The team worked out that the polycrystal material’s thermal properties were due to tin oxide films on the surface. Using a particular method of construction, you can remove the tin oxide and improve performance even better than the crystal version of tin selenide.
Creating this material might be beyond your garage lab, though. You need a fused silica oven that can reach a pretty tight vacuum. Although
you might be able to swing it
. Otherwise, you might stick with
more conventional methods
. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375981",
"author": "Chris Maple",
"timestamp": "2021-08-29T03:50:19",
"content": "I skimmed through the article to understand this a bit better. The problem with the tin oxide is that it completely surrounds each grain of crystal, effectively making a thermal short circuit around t... | 1,760,372,967.866751 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/clearing-the-air-about-proprietary-consumables-with-a-xiaomi-filter-drm-resetter/ | Clearing The Air About Proprietary Consumables With A Xiaomi Filter DRM Resetter | Brian McEvoy | [
"hardware",
"home hacks"
] | [
"air purifier",
"mod chip",
"proprietary",
"razor and blade",
"xiaomi"
] | The “razor and blades model” probably set a lot of young hackers on their current trajectory. If we buy a widget, we want to pick our widget refills instead of going back to the manufacturer for their name-brand option. [Flamingo-Tech] was having none of it when they needed a new filter for their Xiaomi air purifier so they set out to
fool it into thinking there was a genuine replacement
fresh from the box. Unlike a razor handle, the air purifier can refuse to work if it is not happy, so the best option was to make a “mod-chip.”
The manufacturer’s filters have a Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip and antenna which talk to the base station. The controller receives the filter data via I
2
C, but the mod-chip replaces that transmitter and reassures the controller that everything is peachy in filter town. On top of the obvious hack here, [Flamingo-Tech] shows us how to extend filter life with inexpensive wraps, so that’s a twofer. You can create your own mod-chip from the
open-source files
or grab one from [Flamingo-Tech’s]
Tindie store
.
We usually hear about
mod-chips in relation to games
, but we are happy to extend that honor to
3D printers
. Have you ever fooled a “razor?”
Thank you, [The_mad_ping], for the tip. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375961",
"author": "NiHaoMike",
"timestamp": "2021-08-29T00:41:18",
"content": "Wouldn’t it be cheaper to 3D print an adapter to connect a replacement filter to a common computer fan or is it one of those cases where a complete unit only costs a small amount more than the replaceme... | 1,760,372,967.741256 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/binary-clock-lets-the-nixies-glow/ | Binary Clock Lets The Nixies Glow | Brian McEvoy | [
"clock hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"clock",
"custom PCB",
"nixie",
"Nixie driver",
"nixie tube",
"nixie tube clock",
"nixie tubes",
"timepiece"
] | We’re not here to talk about another clock. Okay, we are, but the focus isn’t about whether or not it can tell time, it’s about taking a simple idea to an elegant conclusion. In all those ways, [Marcin Saj] produced a
beautiful project
. Most of the nixie clocks we see are base-ten, but this uses base-two for lots of warm glow from more than a dozen replaceable units.
There are three rows for hours, minutes, and seconds. The top and bottom rows are labeled with an “H” and “S” respectively displayed on IN-15B tubes, while the middle row shows an “M” from an IN-15A tube. The pluses and minuses light up on IN-12 models so you’ll need eighteen of them for the full light show, but you could skimp and use sixteen in twelve-hour mode since you don’t need to count to twenty-four. We won’t explain how to read time in binary, since you know, you’re here and all. The laser-cut acrylic is gorgeous with clear plastic next to those shiny nixies, but you have to recreate the files or buy the cut parts as we couldn’t find vector files amongst the code and schematics.
Silly rabbit, nixies
aren’t just for clocks
. You can
roll your own
, but they’re not child’s play.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375925",
"author": "mmmdee",
"timestamp": "2021-08-28T20:27:53",
"content": "Well executed project and excellent write up. Speaking only for myself, we can never have too many “Clock“ projects.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,372,967.904648 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/never-lose-a-piece-with-3d-printed-sliding-puzzles/ | Never Lose A Piece With 3D Printed Sliding Puzzles | Jim Heaney | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"Autodesk Fusion 360",
"physical puzzle",
"print in place",
"puzzle"
] | Have you ever been about to finish a puzzle, when suddenly you realize there are more holes left than you have pieces? With
[Nikolaos’s] 3D printed sliding puzzles
, this will be a problem of the past!
The dovetails, integrated into each piece, keep the puzzle together but still allows pieces to move.
The secret of the puzzle is in the tongue and groove system that captures the pieces while allowing them to slide past each other and along the puzzle’s bezel. The tongues are along the top and right sides of the pieces shown here, with the grooves along the left and bottom. There is only one empty spot on the board, so the player must be methodical in how they move pieces to their final destinations. See this in action in the video after the break.
[Nikolaos] designed the puzzle in Fusion 360, and used this as an opportunity to practice with parameters. He designed the model in such a way that any size puzzle could be generated by changing just 2 variables. Once the puzzle is the proper size, the image is added by importing and extruding an SVG.
Another cool aspect of these puzzles is that they are print-in-place, meaning that when the part is removed from the 3D printer, it is ready to use and fully assembled. No need to remove support material or bolt and glue together multiple components. Print-in-place is useful for more than just puzzles, you could also use this technique to
3D print wire connectors
!
I made these 3D Printed Map Sliding Puzzles! Hope you’ll like them!
from
Fusion360
[via
r/Fusion360
] | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375890",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2021-08-28T17:19:59",
"content": "That is very clever! I remember doing this sort of puzzle as a kid on long car rides. Excellent idea making it easily scalable as well as print-in-place.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,372,967.953004 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/who-owns-the-machine-anyway/ | Who Owns The Machine Anyway? | Elliot Williams | [
"Featured",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"McDonald's",
"newsletter",
"Rant",
"right to repair"
] | The story of the
McDonalds’ frozen treat machine
involves technology, trade secrets, inside business dealings, franchiser/franchisee friction, and an alleged NDA violation. In short: lots of money and lawyers. But it also involves something that matters to all of us hackers — what it means to own a machine.
The brief background is that McDonald’s requires its franchisees to buy a particular Taylor Soft Serve machine. The machine would enter pasteurizing mode and has opaque error codes that are triggered apparently without the owners or operators understanding, at which point Taylor service techs come in to fix them — and get paid for their service, naturally. A small hardware startup, Kytch, stepped into the mess with a device that man-in-the-middles the Taylor machine’s status codes, allowing the machine’s owners to diagnose and monitor it themselves. Heroes, right?
Taylor, naturally, wants to look at a Kytch device, but they’re locked up under NDAs that Kytch require users to sign in order to protect their trade secrets. So when Taylor gets their hands on one, Kytch takes them to court for, ironically, reverse engineering their device that they built to reverse Taylor’s protocols.
There are no good guys in this fight: it’s corporate secrecy fighting corporate secrets. None of which, by the way, is Hackaday particularly fond of. Why? Because these secrets rob the ostensible
owners of the devices
of their ability to inspect, fix, and operate
their
machines. This is akin to the “
right to repair
” idea, but it’s somehow even more fundamental — the right to know what your own devices are doing.
What this story needs is a Robin Hood. And as the devices we get sold become increasingly wrapped up in EULAs and NDAs, and full of secret sauce that’s out of our control, we’re going to need a lot more Robin Hoods. It’s McDonald’s frozen treat machines, but it’s also your smart thermostat and your inkjet printer and your — you name it. Have at it, Hackaday!
Robot Utopia
We see so many dystopian visions of automation, it’s time for us to do it right! The
Redefine Robots round of the 2021 Hackaday Prize
just started, and it’s your chance to build robots that respect the users. It doesn’t have to be the largest project in the world, but it does have to be automatic and helpful. Start your engines!
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
! | 42 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375865",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-08-28T14:22:43",
"content": "“This is akin to the “right to repair” idea, but it’s somehow even more fundamental — the right to know what your own devices are doing.”Is it when McDonalds owns the very land one’s franchise lies on? S... | 1,760,372,968.033073 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/dyson-award-goes-to-emergency-medical-device-for-treating-stab-wounds/ | Dyson Award Goes To Emergency Medical Device For Treating Stab Wounds | Al Williams | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"dyson",
"dyson awards",
"emergency medicine",
"knife wound",
"medical",
"stab",
"stabbing"
] | [Joseph Bentley] must be one of those people who sees opportunity in problems. He had several friends who were victims of knife attacks, so he developed
REACT, a device that would allow police or other first responders to quickly help victims of stab wounds
. The project won the Dyson award and you can see the video about it, below.
The device has two parts: a medical-grade silicone sleeve and a handheld actuator. The sleeve actually inserts into the stab wound and the actuator pressurizes the sleeve based on the location of the wound. The actuator has a user interface to allow the operator to select the area of the body affected.
We don’t know much about emergency medicine, but apparently, the current method is to apply pressure externally and this doesn’t do much for internal bleeding. The sleeve solves that and [Bentley] thinks the device can save many lives if brought to market. Of course, getting a medical device actually on the market is a long road fraught with regulatory peril. We hope the Dyson award will help [Bentley] get the product in the hands of people who can use it to good purpose.
We are very interested in
replacing damaged body parts
, but saving people from losing body parts or life is good, too. Sometimes, just
calling for help
is worthwhile. | 68 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376280",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T06:05:04",
"content": "I read this article giddily waiting for the hilariously morbid failure. When I got to the end, I realised I was thinking of the wrong award. “Dyson Award” and “Darwin Award” are too close together.",
"par... | 1,760,372,968.636982 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/nokia-lcd-goes-transparent-for-hands-free-reminders/ | Nokia LCD Goes Transparent For Hands-Free Reminders | Tom Nardi | [
"Parts",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"computer vision",
"ESP32",
"Nokia 5110 LCD",
"Nokia LCD",
"qr code",
"transparent display"
] | These days everyone’s excited about transparent OLED panels, but where’s the love for the classic Nokia 5110 LCD?
As the prolific [Nick Bild] demonstrates in his latest creation
, all you’ve got to do is peel the backing off the the late 90s era display, and you’ve got yourself a see-through cyberpunk screen for a couple bucks.
View through the modified LCD.
In this case, [Nick] has attached the modified display to a pair of frames, and used an Adafruit QT Py microcontroller to connect it to the ESP32 powered ESP-EYE development board and OV2640 camera module. This lets him detect QR codes within the wearer’s field of vision and run a TensorFlow Lite neural network right on the hardware. Power is provided by a 2000 mAh LiPo battery running through an Adafruit PowerBoost 500.
The project, intended to provide augmented reality reminders for medical professionals, uses the QR codes to look up patient and medication information. Right now the neural network is being used to detect when the wearer has washed their hands, but obviously the training model could be switched out for something different as needed. By combining these information sources, the wearable can do things like warn the physician if a patient is allergic to the medication they’re currently looking at.
Relevant information and warnings are displayed on the Nokia LCD, which has been placed far enough away from the eye that the user can actually read the text; an important design consideration that
[Zach Freedman] demonstrated with his (intentionally) illegible wearable display
a few weeks back. That does make the design a bit…ungainly, but at least you
don’t have to worry about hand-cutting your optics | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376252",
"author": "uda-thortit",
"timestamp": "2021-08-30T03:03:29",
"content": "Interesting project. The transparent LCD looks to be quite close to the eye. A bit further away than the other one that is linked to, but still quite close. I suppose you could just move it further aw... | 1,760,372,968.07423 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/hackaday-links-august-29-2021/ | Hackaday Links: August 29, 2021 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"android auto",
"bitumen",
"Covid-19",
"cryogenic",
"finger cot",
"foreign object",
"hackaday links",
"Liquid oxygen",
"LOX",
"medical",
"oxidizer",
"pipeline"
] | If you thought that COVID-19 couldn’t possibly impact space travel, think again. The ongoing pandemic is having unexpected consequences for companies like SpaceX, who are
worried about liquid oxygen shortages due to increased demand for medical oxygen
. Massive amounts of liquid oxygen are used as the oxidizer for each rocket launch, of course, as well as in hospitals, which have giant tanks of liquid oxygen somewhere on site. Whether destined for space or for patient care, liquid oxygen comes from cryogenic separation plants, and SpaceX fears that they would have to delay or even cancel launches if manufacturers can’t keep up with demand and have to prioritize their healthcare customers. We’re actually not sure if this is a concern, though, since there are usually separate supply chains for medical and industrial gasses. Then again, we’d suspect a rocket engine might prefer to breathe ultra-pure LOX too.
Speaking of space, if you want to be an astronaut, perhaps the first skill you need to develop is patience. Not only might your ride not be ready to go when you are, but at least in the EU, you’ve got a long line of applicants in front of you. The European Space Agency announced this week that
they’re working through a backlog of 23,000 applications
for astronaut positions. About 20% of those will apparently be dropped in the pre-screening process, but the rest will (eventually) get an invitation to a full-day test at one of the ESA’s facilities. We imagine the attrition rate from there increases dramatically; either that or the ESA intends to hire a lot of astronauts.
Back here on Earth, Google this week did what it seems to do a lot of, and killed off one of its popular apps. This time
the victim is the Android Auto phone app
, although we have to admit the whole thing is confusing. The app allows you to connect your phone to the infotainment system in a compatible late-model car, letting you access all your apps without having to fiddle with your phone while driving. But Google also had an app that offered the same experience directly on the phone, for cars without a compatible display. As far as we can tell, the on-phone app is the only thing that’s going away in Android 12; the app for in-car displays will continue to be supported. Former users of the phone-only app are being encouraged to migrate to Google Assistant’s Driving Mode. Or, you know, you could just drive the car instead.
So your brand-new video card is running hot, and you can’t figure out why. At your wit’s end, you crack open the card’s cover and find the reason — a somewhat suspicious-looking foreign object. That’s what happened to
Antony ter Horst and his Nvidia RTX 3090, which had a finger cot wedged inside it
. It would appear to have slipped off the finger of some assembly worker, and it was clearly interfering with heat flow inside the card. Antony posted the pictures on reddit, which of course found much humor in the finger cot’s resemblance to another latex object. For our part, it put us in mind of some other stories of foreign objects found in common products —
there’s a reason why we always check a loaf of bread before using it
.
And finally, in a lot of ways YouTube has become the new “vast wasteland” of useless content. But like television before it, there are occasional gems to be found, especially to those of us who love to learn a little something as we watch. And so when we stumbled upon
a video with the title “Hot Tap and Stopple Bypass at Smoky Lake”
we had to check it out just to find out what each of those words meant. It turned out to be a great video on pipeline construction methods. The “hot tap” refers to cutting into the pipeline, containing high-pressure diluted bitumen from the shale oil fields near Smoky Lake, Alberta, without interrupting the flow of product. The “stopple” is a device that can be threaded into the pipe to permanently seal it, diverting the flow to a newly installed bypass. The whole process is fascinating, so we thought we’d share. Enjoy. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376177",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2021-08-29T23:11:48",
"content": "Hot Tap and Stopple Bypass is my new band name. We’re gonna have a big concert at Smoky Lake.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6376479",
"aut... | 1,760,372,968.140222 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/bake-it-to-remake-it-cooking-old-magnetic-tape-to-recover-data/ | Bake It To ReMake It: Cooking Old Magnetic Tape To Recover Data | Dave Rowntree | [
"Games",
"Repair Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"data recovery",
"games",
"magnetic tape",
"microVAX",
"tape"
] | Those of us old enough may remember the heyday of the text adventure game genre from the first time around. London-based Magnetic Scrolls was an early pioneering company producing titles for the first Amiga and Atari ST platforms. Fast-forward to 2017 and [Hugh Steers], the original co-founder and core developer for Magnetic Scrolls has formed an initiative to revive and re-release the original games on modern platforms. Since the 1980s-era DEC MicroVAX used originally for development is not particularly rare in retro computing circles, and media containing source code was found in someone’s loft space, reviving the games was not a tall order.
First, he needed to
recover a copy of the original source code from the backup tapes
. But there was a problem, it turns out that the decaying tapes used a unstable polyurethane-based binder to stick the oxide material (which is what stores the data) to the backing tape, and this binder can absorb water over the years.
Not much happens until you try to read the tape, then you trip over the so-called
sticky-shed syndrome
. Secondly you may find that a small amount of the oxide layer sheds from the tape, coating the read head, rollers and guides inside the complicated tape mechanism. This quickly results in it gumming up, and jamming, potentially chewing up the tape and destroying it permanently.
This was further exacerbated by the behaviour of the DEC TK50Z tape drive, which needed to shuttle the whole length of the tape as part of its normal operation.
A temporary solution was to bake the tape in an oven to drive out the moisture and reduce the stickiness enough to run it through the drive safely. Then only the oxide-shedding problem remained. The TK50Z drive was swapped for a TZ30 which shuttles the tape less, but also critically with a simple hack, would allow the heads to be cleaned with IPA between read passes. This was enough to keep the gumming up at bay and allow enough data to be read from the tapes to recover several games worth of code, ready for the re-releasing process.
The video after the break shows [Rob Jarratt] working through the process of the data recovery. | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376143",
"author": "synthimuse",
"timestamp": "2021-08-29T20:19:51",
"content": "Been there with all my old 1/4 inch analog tapes.My earliest 1973, latest 1999.Baked them 60C for 3 hrs per batch of 2 or 3.It was a long boring process but very glad to have it done.I wasnt very good... | 1,760,372,968.191427 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/clever-mechanism-easily-automates-pulling-the-blinds/ | Clever Mechanism Easily Automates Pulling The Blinds | Jim Heaney | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"3dprinting",
"Arduino-esp32",
"curtains",
"ESP32",
"home assist"
] | There are few things that we all can agree we hate, and the shrill of your alarm clock waking you from a wonderful slumber is definitely high on that list. To wake up more naturally, [nutstobutts] created an
automated curtain opener
.
The curtain opener is very simple; a stepper motor in the control box pulls a string, which is run to an idler on the far side of the curtain rod and through two clips, attached to the back of each curtain. This design makes it so that both curtains will open smoothly at the same time, and will always come closed again directly in the center. This design is especially favorable for students in dorms or those that live in an apartment, as the installation requires no screws in the wall or permanent modification to the curtains.
The curtains can be opened and closed either by pressing a button on the control box or by sending HTTP requests to the ESP32 that controls everything. This allows for integration with many different IoT systems, for instance [nutstobutts] has been having Home Assistant open the curtains every morning at 6:30 a.m. in lieu of an alarm clock, and then closing them automatically at 9:00 a.m. to help save on cooling costs.
Automated curtains are a great first IoT project if you are looking to just get your feet wet,
check out a different style we covered a few months back
for more inspiration!
[via
r/functionalprint
] | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376133",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2021-08-29T19:38:23",
"content": "Adhesive rips a hole in the wall surface when removed, not exactly non-destructive. I’d slide a metal shim behind the trim to avoid holes in the wall. Or make a flat metal extension mounted under the cu... | 1,760,372,968.404935 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/diy-machine-enables-pemf-therapy-on-a-budget/ | DIY Machine Enables PEMF Therapy On A Budget | Tom Nardi | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"electromagnet",
"electromagnetic field",
"emf",
"laptop charger",
"mosfet"
] | We’re certainly not qualified to say whether or not pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy will actually reduce your stress or improve your circulation, but there seems to be enough legitimate research going on out there that it might be worth a shot. After all, unless you’ve got a pacemaker or other medical implant, it seems pretty unlikely a magnetic field is going to make anything
worse.
Unfortunately commercial PEMF machines can cost thousands of dollars, making it a fairly expensive gamble.
But what if you could build one for as little as $10 USD? That’s the idea behind the
simple DIY PEMF machine [mircemk] has been working on
, and judging by its ability to launch bits of metal in the video below, we’re pretty confident it’s indeed producing a fairly powerful electromagnetic field. Even if it doesn’t cure what ails you, it should make an interesting conversation piece around the hackerspace.
While the outside of the machine might look a bit imposing, the internals really are exceptionally straightforward. There’s an old laptop power supply providing 19 VDC, a dual-MOSFET board, a potentiometer, and a simple signal generator. The pulses from the signal generator trip the MOSFET, which in turn dumps the output of the laptop power supply into a user-wound coil. [mircemk] has a 17 cm (6.7 inch) open air version wrapped with 200 turns of copper wire used for treating wide areas, and an 8 cm (3 inch) diameter version with 300 windings for when you need more targeted energy.
Some skepticism is always in order with these sort of medicinal claims, but
commercial PEMF machines do get prescribed to users to help promote bone growth and healing
, so the concept itself is perhaps not as outlandish as it might seem. | 48 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376050",
"author": "Menno",
"timestamp": "2021-08-29T14:25:23",
"content": "It is quite simple: how does one call alternative medicine that has been proven safe and efficacious?Medicine.PEMF is quackery.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,372,968.778148 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/29/the-curious-case-of-the-radio-amateur-and-the-insulin-pump/ | The Curious Case Of The Radio Amateur And The Insulin Pump | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"insulin pump",
"rf interference"
] | A substantial part of gaining and holding an amateur radio licence relates to the prevention of radio interference. In days past this meant interference to analogue television broadcasts, but with ever more complex devices becoming commonplace in homes it applies to much more. This has hit the news in Marion County Florida, where
a radio amateur in a senior’s community has shut down his radio station after a potential link emerged between it and another resident’s insulin pump
. There is a legal challenge ongoing that relates to the complex’s rules over transmitting antennas.
It’s obviously a serious occurrence for an insulin pump to be affected by anything, and it sounds as though the radio amateur concerned has done the right thing. But it’s clear that something has gone badly wrong in this case whether it’s due to the amateur radio transmissions or not, because for a manufacturer to produce a medical device so easily affected by RF fields should be of concern to everyone. We’d hope that the FCC might take an interest in this story and get to the bottom of it in an impartial manner, because whether it’s the radio amateur at fault, the insulin pump, or something else entirely, it presents a risk to anyone dependent upon such a device.
Perhaps this might also be a case for the ARRL, as we’ve reported before
they have some form when it comes to radio investigations
.
[Main image source:
MailariX
, CC-BY-SA 4.0] | 93 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376010",
"author": "Saabman",
"timestamp": "2021-08-29T11:21:24",
"content": "Curious I that there is no indication in the article that the pumps have now started operating correctly since the transmitter was shutdown.Sounds more like a case of somebody doesn’t like looking at a r... | 1,760,372,969.162083 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/grappling-hook-robot-swings-like-spiderman/ | Grappling Hook Robot Swings Like Spiderman | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"batman",
"climbing",
"robot",
"spider",
"spider bot",
"spiderman",
"swinging",
"tarzan",
"wall climber",
"wall climbing"
] | We’ll admit it is a bit of a gimmick, but [Adam Beedle’s]
Spider-Bot
did make us smile. The little robot can launch a “web” and use it to swing. It is hard to picture, but the video below will make it all clear. It can also use the cable to climb a wall, sort of.
The bot’s ability to fling a 3D printed hook on a tether is remarkable. Details are scarce, but it looks like the mechanism is spring-loaded with a servo motor to release it. Even trailing a bit of string behind it, the range of the hook is impressive and can support the weight of the robot when it winches itself up. There’s even a release mechanism that reminds us more of Batman than Spiderman.
If we were going full autonomous, we’d consider a vision system. On the other hand, you could probably tell a lot by the tension on the cable and some way to measure the angle of it coming out of the robot. If you come up with a practical use for any of this,
we’d love to see it
.
We’ve seen robots that fly,
jump
, and can
climb walls
before. We don’t remember one that swings like Tarzan. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375847",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-08-28T11:55:33",
"content": "For a minute I thought the reference was to Disney Stuntronics.https://la.disneyresearch.com/stuntronics/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6375858",
... | 1,760,372,968.459882 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/28/ebike-conversion-on-a-budget-uses-skateboard-motor/ | EBike Conversion On A Budget Uses Skateboard Motor | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"conversion",
"e-bike",
"ebike",
"electric bike",
"Outrunner"
] | [Dave Schneider] has been chasing an electric-bike build for more than 10 years now. When he first started looking into it back in 2009, the cost was prohibitive. But think of how far we’ve come with the availability of motors, electronic speed controllers, and of course battery technology. When revisiting the project this year,
he was able to convert a traditional bicycle to electric-drive for around $200
.
Electric skateboards paved the way for this hack, as it was an outrunner motor that he chose to use as a friction drive for the rear wheel. The mounting brackets he fabricated clamp onto the chain stay tubes and press the body of the motor against the tire.
The speed of the motor is controlled by a rocker switch on the handlebars, but it’s the sensors in the brake levers that are the neat part. Magnets added to each brake lever are monitored by hall-effect sensors so that the throttle cuts whenever it senses the rider squeezing the front brake (effectively free-wheeling the bike), while the rear brake triggers a regenerative braking function he’s built into the system!
Sure you can buy these bikes, you can even buy conversion kits, but it’s pretty hard to beat the $88 [Dave] spent on the motor when the cost of purpose-built motors is usually several times this figure. The rest is fairly straight-forward, and besides ordering batteries and an electronic speed controller, you likely have the bits you need just waiting for you in your parts bin. | 30 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375827",
"author": "shrad",
"timestamp": "2021-08-28T09:04:46",
"content": "I have made myself confident that the motor from a cheap Chinese electric chainsaw would be a better candidate for this kind of contraption, costing around half that price for a classical 300W with shipping... | 1,760,372,968.848739 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/cool-your-apple-ii/ | Simple Fan Controller Helps Apple II To Beat The Heat | Chris Wilkinson | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"apple II",
"cooling",
"retrocomputing"
] | In its day, the Apple II computer didn’t typically require active cooling. However, the increasing scarcity of replacement hardware convinced [Joshua Coleman] to come up with a
more robust active cooling solution for his Apple II+
, increasing the likelihood that it will keep on crunching numbers for decades to come.
Joshua mentions that he recorded temperatures inside his Apple II+ peaking at 110 Fahrenheit (over 43 Celsius). This isn’t totally unexpected for a fully-loaded Apple II system, and components were built to handle this – the original datasheet for the 6500 microprocessor family reveals that the CPU can handle temperatures as high as 158 Fahrenheit (70 Celsius). Unfortunately, we’re not dealing with brand new components anymore. Decades-old microprocessors don’t necessarily have the same thermal tolerance as they once did. All components will eventually wear out, and heat can certainly accelerate the aging process.
In the interests of maintaining his system, Joshua cobbled together an Arduino-based cooling system for his Apple II+. A temperature/humidity sensor continuously monitors the heat situation inside the case – when things get too toasty, a 12V fan powers up to draw fresh air over the logic board and expansion cards. A simple cooling curve reduces wear on the fan motor and relay.
This is hardly the first active cooling system for the Apple II line – in the 1980s, Kensington produced a popular (if not stupendously ugly) ‘System Saver’ accessory, an external bolt-on fan that kept things running cool. These were often deployed in schools and by power users looking for added reliability when maxing out the Apple II expansion slots, a configuration that could increase temperatures due to the extra power requirements and reduced airflow.
There’s a lot of room to expand on this project. Anyone looking to take this even further can find the project details and Arduino code on
Joshua’s blog
.
This isn’t the first time that Joshua’s Apple II hacks have appeared on this site.
We recently covered his project to print breaking news on a dot matrix printer
. Video of that hack is below. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375828",
"author": "e",
"timestamp": "2021-08-28T09:26:36",
"content": "The notion of a 16MHz 8 bit supervisory MCU with 32k of RAM looking after a fan on an Apple II+ 6502 has a certain appeal.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,372,968.685494 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/cable-modem-turned-spectrum-analyzer/ | Cable Modem Turned Spectrum Analyzer | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"address",
"analyzer",
"cable",
"ethernet",
"modem",
"radio",
"RF",
"spectrum",
"tool",
"web"
] | Hopefully by now most of us know better than to rent a modem from an internet service provider. Buying your own and using it is almost always an easy way to save some money, but even then these pieces of equipment won’t last forever. If you’re sitting on an older cable modem and thinking about tossing it in the garbage, there might be a way to repurpose it before it goes to the great workbench in the sky. [kc9umr] has
a way of turning these devices into capable spectrum analyzers
.
The spectrum analyzer feature is a crucial component of cable modems to help take advantage of the wide piece of spectrum that is available to them on the cable lines. With some of them it’s possible to access this feature directly by pointing a browser at it, but apparently some of them have a patch from the cable companies to limit access. By finding one that hasn’t had this patch applied it’s possible to access the spectrum analyzer, and once [kc9umr] attached some adapters and an antenna to his cable modem he was able to demonstrate it to great effect.
While it’s somewhat down to luck as to whether or not any given modem will grant access to this feature, for the ones that do it seems like a powerful and cheap tool. It’s agnostic to platform, so any computer on the network can access it easily, and compared to an RTL-SDR it has a wider range. There are some limitations, but for the price it can’t be beat which will cost under $50 in parts
unless you happen to need two inputs like this analyzer
.
Thanks to [Ezra] for the tip! | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375802",
"author": "Cable ModemSaver",
"timestamp": "2021-08-28T02:43:25",
"content": "“thinking about tossing it in the garbage”If the readership of Hackday is like me, this is probably not only the last thing on our minds but also borderline unthinkable.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,372,969.219093 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/ai-generating-paintings-off-to-a-flying-art/ | AI Generating Paintings Off To A Flying Art | Matthew Carlson | [
"Art",
"Machine Learning"
] | [
"ai",
"art",
"Jetson",
"max fischer",
"NVIDIA",
"samsung frame"
] | The philosophical question of “What is art?” has an ethereal, transient quality to it. A definition seems to slip away as you get close to an answer. Embracing that quality, [Max Fischer] has created
an AI-powered painting that paints a new piece of art at the push of a button
. When the button below the screen is pushed, a new image is generated and the old one is forever lost, which in a way, makes the frame a piece of art itself.
The really makes this project stand is the sheer quality of documentation on the GitHub repo. The instructions are incredibly detailed. Everything from setting up the Jetson to building the control box out of half-inch MDF (12mm for the sane part of the world) is laid out with copious pictures. Despite the ease of generating images ahead of time, [Max] took the
hard route
Hackaday route and did all inference locally and in real-time. To handle the processing requirements, an Nvidia Jetson Xavier NX single-board computer was used. He trained
StyleGAN
with high-resolution abstract art that gets generated whenever the button below the screen is pushed. To prevent screen burn-in, a PIR was added to turn the screen off when no one is around.
Here at Hackaday, we’ve seen several projects
putting old laptop screens or monitors into a nice wooden case and mounting them to the wall
. Since 32″ laptops are rather hard to find, [Max] opted to take a different approach and instead got a 32″ Samsung Frame for relatively cheap.
For all their detail, [Max] did leave one thing out of the readme: the AI that generates the art. [Max] hints that he wants others to create their picture frames, but with their own art generation. So what are you waiting for? Go make some art. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375784",
"author": "Still an ethereal, transient quality?",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T23:59:02",
"content": "Serious question. What about the philosophical question of “What is pornography?” in the sense that does that have any correlation to this post’s question? What about complet... | 1,760,372,968.89526 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/custom-soldering-fume-fan-doesnt-skimp-on-features/ | Custom Soldering Fume Fan Doesn’t Skimp On Features | Tom Nardi | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"fan controller",
"fume extractor",
"oled display",
"solder fume extractor"
] | Prolific maker [sjm4306] tells us the first iteration of his soldering fan was little more than some cardboard, electrical tape, and a hacked up USB cable. But as we all know, these little projects have a way of evolving over time. Fast forward to today,
and his custom fan is a well-polished piece of kit
that anyone with a soldering iron would be proud to have on their workbench.
Cardboard has given way to a 3D printed enclosure that holds the fan, electronics, a pair of 18650 cells, and a easily replaceable filter. Between the marbled filament, debossed logo, properly countersunk screw holes, and rounded corners, it’s really hard to overstate how good this case looks. We’ve shamefully produced enough boxy 3D printed enclosures to know that adding all those little details takes time, but the end result really speaks for itself.
Fan internals, with a look at the custom PCB.
The user interface running on the OLED is also an exceptionally nice touch. Sure the fan doesn’t
need
a graphical display, and [sjm4306] could have saved a lot of time and effort by using a turn-key speed controller, but the push-button configuration complete with graphical indications of fan speed and battery life really give the final product a highly professional feel.
In the video below, [sjm4306] reveals that while the finished product might look great, there were a few bumps in the road. Issues with clearance inside the case made him rethink how things would be wired and mounted, leading to a far more cramped arrangement than he’d anticipated. Part of the problem was that he designed the case first and tried to integrate the electronics later, rather than the other way around; a common pitfall you’d be wise to watch out for.
It’s been proven that, without some external input,
solder smoke is going to go right in your face
. Whether or not
you need to do something this complex
is naturally up for debate, but if you
want to keep all that nasty stuff out of your lungs
, you’d do well to
outfit your workbench with some kind of fan
. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375788",
"author": "Gary Briggs",
"timestamp": "2021-08-28T00:53:42",
"content": "I like this, I run a few of my own that I built and only change I would make is to run it off of DC, only because I have it running for like 14 hours a day. I really think that I’m going to try this o... | 1,760,372,968.944435 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/customized-work-from-home-lighting/ | Customized Work-From-Home Lighting | Chris Lott | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"home lighting",
"light color temperature"
] | [Jon] wants his home office lighting to mimic the light outside, at least from a color perspective. To that end, he has
embarked on a design
which monitors both the outdoor light and at his work station, and accordingly drives a pair of LED lamps of different colors. One lamp is rated at above 5000 K and provides “cool” lighting, , and the other is rated at less than 3000 K for “warm” lighting.
Commercial solutions do exist, but they are proprietary and do this within a single bulb and seem difficult to control in an orchestrated manner throughout the house. [Jon] plans for his approach to be scalable, eventually consisting of a variety of lighted areas of the house from a single microcontroller.
One of the design goals for this project is to create something that could disappear into the room, rather than the science fair aesthetic of my prior project.
One commenter on his project’s site asked why [Jon] is doing this, that is, what is the value of controlling the color of your indoor lighting? While [Jon] doesn’t have a specific goal in mind at the moment, he notes that these techniques could potentially be helpful for enhancing productivity, managing circadian rhythms, and as light therapy for seasonal depression.
We covered [Jon]’s science-fair-like project that in
this writeup from last year
. If the topic interests you, check out the white papers he links on his project page for further reading.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375680",
"author": "Piero",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T18:57:59",
"content": "https://github.com/basnijholt/adaptive-lighting",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6375707",
"author": "smellsofbikes",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T2... | 1,760,372,969.273202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/ask-hackaday-what-is-amazon-thinking-by-entering-the-palm-reading-business/ | Ask Hackaday: What Is Amazon Thinking By Entering The Palm-Reading Business? | Kristina Panos | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"Current Events",
"Lifehacks",
"Original Art",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"amazon",
"Amazon One",
"biometric",
"biometrics",
"contactless payment",
"convenience",
"facepalm",
"palm print"
] | Have you heard about this One? At least three United States senators have, and
they want to know what Amazon plans to do with all the biometric data collected by the
Amazon One
program
. It’s their new contactless payment method that uses your unique palm print instead of cards or phones to make purchases, gain access to venues of work and play, and enter or pay in whatever other spaces Amazon can invade down the line. The idea is that one day, we’ll all be able to leave our homes without any form of money or ID of any kind, because we’ll all be stored away in Bezos’ big biometric file cabinet.
We tossed this one around in the writer’s room back when the
Amazon One concept
was nothing but a pile of buzzwords and a render or two, but these kiosks are now active in 50+ Whole Foods and
Amazon 4-Star locations
across the US. Here’s the deal: you can only sign up at a participating store that has a kiosk, because they have to scan your palms into the system. We were worried that the signup kiosk could easily take fingerprint scans at the same time, but according to the gifs in
Morning Brew’s review
, it just uses another of their point-of-sale palm scanners along with a touch screen and a card reader. But you still have to hover your entire hand over it, so who’s to say that the scan ends where the fingers begin?
Your Biometrics Are Worth More than $10
Registering for Amazon One using an Amazon One scanner. Image via
GeekWire
So then you give it your phone number and insert whatever credit or debit card you want to
tie your hands with
tie to your hands, and the thing scans both of your palms in the name of convenience. See, this way, you don’t have to remember which palm you signed up with, and going forward, you can pay for stuff with either hand if you happen to be holding a wiggly toddler or a big bag of dog food under one arm or something.
And then voila, in exchange for a measly $10 in Amazon credit, they have a copy of both of your palm prints forever more. You know, that unique pair of bio-identifiers that can’t be swapped, only maimed or destroyed. Oh, but according to
the Help page
, palm prints are not stored in the kiosks, they can be deleted whenever you want to cancel your account, and they’ll automatically disappear from the database if you don’t make an Amazon One purchase for two years. Right.
So, how much is relative anonymity worth to you? Would you give it up for the convenience of paying for things by scanning your palm? Plenty of people use their fingerprint to unlock their phone, not that they’re the type to read Hackaday. Is having both of your palm prints on file with Amazon any creepier than storing your fingerprint on your phone to unlock it? Of course it is, because your phone (presumably) is not sending your fingerprint to, say, Samsung. But let’s be clear: using your biometric fingerprint is still not great — as Elliot Williams wrote years ago,
finger prints aren’t secret, they’re not hashable, and you can never change them
.
Go Ahead, You Know You Need That Coffee
This woman’s about to pay for coffee with her palm print while the cyclist in line behind her searches for his wallet.
We think it’s telling that Amazon is
using a cartoon woman and a cartoon world on their landing page
to sell this idea, because it detracts from the seriousness of the issue of having a database of people’s palm prints. Just what is Amazon planning to do with this handy database? The mind reels.
What do you think, Hackaday? Shouldn’t we be trying harder to keep corporations at arm’s length?
They’re already trying to scan in our bodies so they can create the perfect custom t-shirt
. Does any of this make your skin crawl? | 60 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375642",
"author": "Mr Obvious",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T17:38:04",
"content": "I think I know. They will want you to buy stuff…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6375783",
"author": "programmin01",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,372,969.373366 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/hackaday-podcast-133-caustic-lenses-not-ice-cream-automation-archery-mech-suit-and-the-cheapest-robot-arm/ | Hackaday Podcast 133: Caustic Lenses, Not Ice-Cream Automation, Archery Mech Suit, And The Cheapest Robot Arm | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams wade into a week of wonderful hacks. There’s an acrylic lens that hides images in the network of caustics: the light rays that shine through it. Boston Dynamics is finally showing the good stuff; people wrenching on ‘bots, and all kinds of high-end equipment failure, along with some epic successes. Can you grow better plants by inferring what they need by accurately weighing them? In more turbulent news, a police drone slammed into a Cessna mid-flight, the ISS went for an unexpected spin, and McDonald’s not-ice-cream machines have a whole new layer of drama around them.
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 133 Show Notes:
What’s that Sound?
Tell us your answer for this week’s “What’s that sound?”
. Next week on the show we’ll randomly draw one name from the correct answers to win a rare Hackaday Podcast T-shirt.
New This Week:
Drone Hits Plane — And This Time It’s A Real (Police) One!
RealSense No Longer Makes Sense For Intel
Intel’s Vision For Single Board Computers Is To Have Better Vision
Redefine Robots Is The Newest Hackaday Prize Challenge
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Math, Optics, And CNC Combine To Hide Secret Images In Acrylic
Rotating Lithophane Box Turns With Time
The Julia Programming Language
Beginning The Machine Shop Journey With A DIY CNC
RIGCNC- Aluminum Upgrade Rigidity Test – YouTube
Boston Dynamics Atlas Dynamic Duo Tackles Obstacle Course
Minimalist Robot Arm Really Stacks Up
Building An Archery Mech Suit To Skip Practice
Occam’s Razor: Gardening Edition
Wirelessly Weighing Plants With The ESP8266
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks
Wooden Monowheel Build Is Simplicity Itself
Modern Tape Echo Made Easy
Arduino Caller ID Display Is Better Late Than Never
Elliot’s Picks:
SQLite On The Web: Absurd-sql
Pint-sized Sumo Robot Is Adorable, Accessible And Totally Awesome
Interactive Musical Art Installation Mixes Vintage, Modern, Lasers, And…Bubbles? Bubbles.
ESP32 Is The Brains Behind This Art Installation
Can’t-Miss Articles:
As ISS Enters Its Final Years, Politics Take Center Stage
Freezing Out Ice Cream Machine Competition
The REAL Reason McDonalds Ice Cream Machines Are Always Broken – YouTube | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6376857",
"author": "Jonathan Whitaker",
"timestamp": "2021-09-01T12:36:42",
"content": "Great show as always :) Mike if you need a robot to remind you to take breaks, my take on one was the screaming sun from Rick and Morty printed and pasted on the CD tray of an old cd/dvd drive. ... | 1,760,372,969.415314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/resin-3d-prints-get-a-new-look-with-paint-injection/ | Resin 3D Prints Get A New Look With Paint Injection | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"contrast",
"paint",
"resin printer",
"sla",
"translucent"
] | As cool as resin-based 3D printers are, they’re not without their shortcomings. One sore point, especially for those looking to document their prints, is that the translucent resins often favored for stereolithography can make the finest details difficult to see.
Injecting paint into the model
is how [Andrew Sink] decided to attack this problem, and the results are pretty striking.
For sure, this isn’t a problem that everyone making resin prints is going to face. Some resins are nicely opaque, and the fine details of a print show up just fine. But transparent resins lend a nice look to some projects, and might benefit from [Andrew]’s technique. It’s pretty much as simple as it sounds: choose a hollow model — or modify an existing one — print it up in the usual way, and clean thoroughly inside and out with isopropanol before curing under UV. Using a curing station that can get UV light up into the voids is probably a smart idea.
To finish off, the cured model is injected with acrylic paint. Nothing special here, just craft store acrylic in a syringe. [Andrew] seemed to prefer a thicker paint; we don’t want to second guess, but intuitively a thinner paint would seem to have some advantages. In any case, be sure to provide adequate vent holes for the displaced air. The video below has a few before and after shots, and the technique really works well to show off surface detail. Plus it just plain looks cool.
This seems like a good technique to keep in mind, and might even work well for hollow FDM prints done with transparent filaments. Still on the fence about FDM vs. SLA?
We can help with that
. | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375608",
"author": "TRPA",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T15:06:24",
"content": "Make the interior void skeleton-shaped and you would get a really cool visible man effect.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6375609",
"author": "Dude... | 1,760,372,970.349307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/this-week-in-security-through-the-mouse-hole-zoom-rce-and-defeating-defender/ | This Week In Security: Through The Mouse Hole, Zoom RCE, And Defeating Defender | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"blockchain",
"This Week in Security",
"Windows Defender"
] | Windows security problems due to insecure drivers is nothing new, but
this one is kinda special
. Plug in a Razer mouse, tell the install dialog you want to install to a non-standard location, and then shift+right click the Explorer window. Choose a powershell, and boom, you now have a SYSTEM shell. It’s not as impressive as an RCE, and it requires hands-on the machine, but it’s beautiful due to the simplicity of it.
The problem is a compound one. First, Windows 10 and 11 automatically downloads and starts the install of Razer Synapse when a Razer device is plugged in. Note it’s not just Razer, any branded app that auto installs like this is possibly vulnerable in the same way. The installation process runs as system, and because it was started automatically, there is no admin account required. The second half of the issue is that the installer itself doesn’t take any precautions to prevent a user from spawning additional processes. There isn’t an obvious way to prevent the launch of Powershell from within the FolderPicker class, so an installer running as SYSTEM would have to go out of its way to drop privileges, to make this a safe process. The real solution is for Microsoft to say no to GUI installers bundled with WHQL signed drivers.
Zoom RCE
Researchers from Sector 7, part of Computest, pulled off an impressive hack at Pwn2Own, achieving an
RCE via the Zoom client
. The caveat is that the attacker has to be accepted as a contact, either manually, or through being in the same organization. The central vulnerability is CVE-2021-30480, a heap buffer overflow, a result of a static buffer being allocated for a string generated by a connecting remote client. While the overflow is a very powerful vulnerability, turning it into a full exploit took quite some effort.
To pull it off, the researchers discovered a data leak vulnerability, based on URI confusion in image links. A malformed contact request could be sent with an odd member image link. In normal usage, the
pic_relative_url
field would start with a leading “/”, and specify a picture at the
marketplacecontent.zoom.us
domain. In the strange contact request they crafted, they used a relative URL that didn’t start with that leading slash, but instead started with a partial domain name, like
example.org
. When the Zoom client attempted to download the remote image, it ended up making the request from
marketplacecontent.zoom.usexample.org/...
, a domain an attacker could control. This URL confusion bug could be combined with the overflow mentioned above to leak data about the current memory state of the victim machine.
The last vulnerability used was a seemingly insignificant one, the maximum size limit of messages could be sidestepped by sending a GIF from GIPHY. Additionally, sending multiple copies didn’t trigger multiple downloads, but did cause multiple copies to be made in memory. Pushing these copies into memory allowed the researchers to set up their exploit chain, with the full attack hitting about a 50% success rate when confined to the 5 minute limitations of the contest.
https://sector7.computest.nl/post/2021-08-zoom/demo.webm
Update 8/27/21:
A company spokesperson reached out to Hackaday with the following statement on this issue:
We take security very seriously and thank Computest for their work to help us enhance the security of our platform through this responsible disclosure. We also want to thank the Zero Day Initiative for allowing Zoom to sponsor and participate in the Pwn2Own Vancouver 2021 competition that led to the discovery of these issues. The issues have been addressed with a server-side fix as well as a client-side fix in Zoom version 5.6.3, released on April 19, 2021.
2nd Opinion on Pegasus
Citizen Lab has released
an outside review of Amnesty International’s work on the NSO Group’s Pegasus
Spyware program. Their investigation has found that the technical aspects of Amnesty’s findings were correct — the infection analysis, IOCs, and identified infrastructure all seem to be correct. The biggest question raised by Amnesty International’s report is entirely unaddressed: the list of targets. The source and veracity of that document is still entirely uncorroborated.
Long-term Windows Defender Bypass
The research group, APTortellini has published
their guide to defeating Windows Defender
. A few commenters on this particular write-up scoffed at the first step, elevating to SYSTEM. You might even wonder, what’s the point if you’ve already compromised a machine to the point of being root? Getting SYSTEM access is only the beginning for an actual malicious campaign. This research is all about how to nullify Windows Defender without actually disabling it.
The first thing to know is that modern Windows systems have adopted quite a few elements from Unix, with the Windows legacy stuff bolted on top. To make that point clear, note that a Windows 10 C: drive is actually located at
\Device\HarddiskVolumeX
, with a series of symbolic links to make the C: notation work. One of those links is
\SystemRoot
, which by default points to
\Device\BootDevice\Windows
. Even for SYSTEM, that link can’t be modified, but it can be deleted and recreated. That particular path happens to be part of where Windows Defender looks to load its back-end driver,
WdFilter.sys
.
The technique essentially consists of remapping
\SystemRoot
to a fake Windows directory, and then restarting the Windows Defender service, causing it to reload the driver from the spoofed location. The replacement driver still must be signed, but that still leaves a great amount of leeway. In the write-up, they used
the RWEverything driver
. Recreate the original symlink, and you have a placebo Defender that looks like it’s working properly, and a arbitrary-but-signed driver running instead.
$610 Million Recovered
Poly Network is a Decentralized Finance protocol. I’m not going to get into the weeds describing what exactly that means, as this is a security column, not This Week in Blockchain. Just know that it’s a blockchain platform that uses smart contracts to accomplish something similar to a bank or investment firm. Poly Network had a problem earlier this month, where
just over $600 million was moved out of their control
. This feat seems to have been the result of a vulnerability in the smart contracts themselves. See
SlowMist for more technical details
.
The new news is that [Mr. White Hat] has actually returned control of all of the stolen funds back to the Poly Network. The whole story is bizarre, and reminiscent of
the attack on The DAO, many years ago
.
More Suspicious Activity in Iran
On the heels of one hacktivist group targeting Iranian infrastructure, we have the story of
another group breaking into the security camera systems at the Evin Prison
in Tehran, and releasing the video evidence detailing prisoner treatment. Part of the dump is a security camera showing the displays in the main security room. It really is a case of real life imitating art.
This clip of a security control room at Iran's most notorious prison being shut down by hackers is straight out of a movie.
Hackers are now leaking stolen CCTV from across the Evin prison to highlight the abuse of inmates, per
@AP
.
pic.twitter.com/Ts2jbKmoqL
— Ed Clowes (@EdClowes)
August 24, 2021
This attack has been claimed by a group calling themselves “The Justice of Ali.” At some point, the question must be asked whether these attacks are really grassroots efforts from independent hackers. It’s easy to imagine that these are simply fronts all run by western intelligence agencies.
T-Mobile Update
Remember the T-Mobile breach?
[John Binns] has claimed credit
for it, and apparently provided sufficient evidence to convince the Wall Street Journal of that claim. He claims that he found an unsecured router by scanning the internet, and used that foothold to access an internal data center network. This likely means he was scanning for one of the trivial RCEs that we’ve covered in the last few months, and found a gateway that hadn’t yet been updated. His past history reads like a bad spy novel, with about half of it being believable. It’s still unclear if he actually sold the data to anyone. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375598",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T14:17:06",
"content": "” Even for SYSTEM, that link can’t be modified, but it can be deleted and recreated.”Why should one even have the power to delete?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,969.459834 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/consoles-consoles-on-the-wall-can-alexa-help-me-play-them-all/ | Consoles, Consoles On The Wall, Can Alexa Help Me Play Them All? | Tom Nardi | [
"Games",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"alexa",
"classic gaming",
"ESP8266",
"game console",
"video switch",
"voice control"
] | If you’ve got a collection of classic game consoles, finding the space to set them all up can be a challenge. But the bigger problem is figuring out how to hook them all up to a TV that, at best, might only have two or three inputs.
[odelot] recently wrote in to tell us how he solved both problems
with his voice-controlled wall of gaming history.
To mount the systems to the wall, [odelot] designed and printed angled brackets that attach to specially shaped pieces of 3 mm MDF. They do a pretty good job of holding the systems at a visually interesting angle while making themselves scarce, with only the notoriously slick-bottomed Wii needing some extra clips on the front to keep it from sliding off. He also printed up a series of blocks and pipes, no doubt a reference to
Mario Bros.
, to hold the power and video cables for each system.
As to connecting them all up to his TV, [odelot] picked up an eight-device Extron VGA switch that features a serial port for remote control. After getting all the systems adapted over to the appropriate video standard, he then wired an ESP8266 to the switch and wrote some code that ties it into Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.
By just saying the name of the system he wants to play, the microcontroller will flick the switch over to the appropriate input and turn on a ring of blue LEDs under the appropriate shelf to signify which console has been selected. There’s even an array of solid state relays that will eventually control the mains power going to each system, though [odelot] hasn’t fully implemented it yet. Currently the electronics for this project live on a fairly packed breadboard, but it looks like he’s in the early stages of designing a proper PCB to clean it all up.
Not content to simply control a commercial A/V switch? In the past we’ve seen
truly dedicated console collectors design their own custom switches
from the ground up,
complete with a display to show the currently selected system’s logo
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375572",
"author": "Alice Lalita Heald",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T11:32:01",
"content": "Perfect for game clubs, but for home usage I would prefer an emulator with many games.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6375699",
"auth... | 1,760,372,969.782709 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/27/ambi-alice-goes-down-the-rabbit-hole-of-ambisonic-microphones/ | Ambi-Alice Goes Down The Rabbit Hole Of Ambisonic Microphones | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ambisonic",
"ambisonic microphone",
"microphone",
"xlr"
] | Theoretically, ambisonic microphones allow you to perfectly encode the soundscape around you and recreate it from the focal point of any direction. To do this, you need at least four microphone capsules and some math. Ambisonic microphones have been around for 50 years, but
[DJJules] wanted to bring ease of use to these tools and push them into the open source fold
.
As you’ll see in the video below, there were a few iterations before this one. Everything changed for the better when [DJJules] found out about TSB25905 capsules. These are electret condenser mics with 1″ diaphragms and built-in EMI/RFI-suppressing capacitors. Another big help was deciding to color code everything from the XLR cable boots to the cable sleeves to the electrical tape that’s protecting each of the P48 resistor-capacitor pairs inside the XLR plugs.
[DJJules]’ buddy [Tom] designed and printed a single piece that holds the four capsules in a perfect tetrahedral array, and an elegant two-piece basket that protects the mics and provides a base for a one of those furry windscreens. The mics and the basket are separated with four silicone plugs designed for quadcopters that provide both isolation and vibration dampening.
If you want to make one of these yourself, [DJJules] has STLs for both a normal microphone stand and another for GoPro mounts. Check out the build video after the break and the sound demos on Instructables.
No need for a rich soundscape?
Build a USB microphone instead
, or if that’s too cold and modern,
whittle up a wooden a ribbon mic
. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375710",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T20:08:38",
"content": "> Everything changed for the better when [DJJules] found out about TSB25905 capsules.Should that be a “TSB-2590A” ( or JLI-2590A )",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,372,969.826715 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/digging-into-an-attiny-simulator-bug-with-gdb/ | Digging Into An ATtiny Simulator Bug With GDB | Stephen Ogier | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"attiny",
"ATTiny 85",
"debugger",
"gdb"
] | Being able to track down a bug in a mountain of source code is a skill in its own right, and it’s a hard skill to learn from a book or online tutorial. Besides the trial-by-fire of learning while debugging your own project, the next best thing is to observe someone else’s process. [Uri Shaked] has given us a great opportunity to brush up on our debugging skills, as he demonstrates
how to track down and squish a bug in the Wokwi Arduino simulator
.
A user was kind enough to report the bug and include the offending Arduino sketch. [Uri]’s first step was to reduce the sketch to the smallest possible program that would still produce the bug.
Once a minimal program had been produced, it was time to check whether the problem was in one of the Arduino libraries or in the Wokwi simulator. [Uri] compiled the sketch, loaded it onto a ATtiny85, and compared the behavior of the simulator and the real thing. It turns out the code ran just fine on a physical ATtiny, so the problem must have been in the Arduino simulator itself.
To track down the bug in the simulator, [Uri] decided to break out the big gun—GDB. What follows is an excellent demonstration of how to use GDB to isolate a problem by examining the source code and using breakpoints and print statements. In the end, [Uri] managed to isolate the problem to a mis-placed bit in the simulation of the timer/counter interrupt flag register.
If you’d like to see more of [Uri]’s debugging prowess, check out his
dive into an ATtiny’s write protection and configuration fuses
. If you’ve been wowed by the power of GDB and want to learn more,
check out this quick tutorial! | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375511",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T06:11:51",
"content": "I read this: “Running GDB in the Browser” by [Uri Shaked]:https://blog.wokwi.com/running-gdb-in-the-browser/This Wokwi Blog entry traces the very interesting development path for GDB in the browser. Yeah th... | 1,760,372,969.737642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/making-high-quality-copies-of-existing-parts-using-a-silicone-mold/ | Making High Quality Copies Of Existing Parts Using A Silicone Mold | Danie Conradie | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"casting resin",
"eric strebel",
"silicone mold"
] | 3D printing has made it incredibly easy to produce small runs of plastic parts, but getting rid of the 3D printed look can be tricky and time-consuming. When you need a smooth and polished finish, or you want to make exact copies of an existing injection molded part,
casting resin parts in silicone molds
is an excellent option. [Eric Strebel] has plenty of experience with the process, and demonstrates it in detail while creating copies of violin chin rests that are no longer in production. It’s an interesting application, where 3D-printed layer lines are not just an aesthetic issue, but something that would irritate the user’s skin if present.
Creating silicone molds requires a bit of forethought about the mold design. You want to select the split line to make it as easy as possible to remove the finished parts, while also placing the resin pouring sprue and vents to prevent air bubbles from getting trapped in the mold. In [Erics] case, it’s impossible to use a simple planar split line, so he mounts the master part on a block of wood and uses cardboard and modeling clay to create a volume where the second side of the mold will protrude in the first side. It’s important to note that sulfur-free clay must be used, otherwise the silicone might not cure.
One side of the silicon mold is cast first, and after curing it is placed back in the mold box with the master part to allow casting the other side of the mold. At this point [Eric] super glues the sprue-former and vent rods to the master parts before molding the second side. A release agent consisting of petroleum jelly and naphtha is added wherever the two sides of the mold will touch, to prevent them from sticking together.
Bubbles are your enemy while resin casting, so ideally you need a vacuum chamber to degas the silicone and resin before casting, and a pressure chamber to allow the resin part to cure. While pouring the silicone for the molds, the mold box is placed on a vibration table to allow any bubbles to rise to the surface. While the entire mold-making and molding process is time-consuming, the copied parts are almost indistinguishable from the original.
[Eric] has also shown us how to make
much larger silicone molds
in the past. If you find yourself making lots of different-sized mold boxes, it might be worth building an
adjustable mold box
. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375538",
"author": "Alice Lalita Heald",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T08:19:46",
"content": "This is what 3D printing was intended.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6375606",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": "2021-08... | 1,760,372,969.658797 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/a-simpsons-tv-for-a-golden-age/ | A Simpsons TV For A Golden Age | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"3d printer",
"Fusion 360",
"golden age",
"raspberry pi",
"simpsons",
"television",
"tv"
] | While the pace of technology continues to advance at breakneck speed, certain things in the past are left behind largely subject to the whims of nostalgia. Televisions, for example, are lighter, cheaper, and bigger than they were in the early 90s, but they did have a certain design aesthetic that doesn’t exist anymore. Meanwhile, Simpsons episodes have been (arguably) on the decline since the golden age of the 90s, so [buba447] decided to combine these two facets of a nostalgic past
into a custom TV that only plays these older Simpsons episodes
.
Update:
Now there’s
a build guide
.
The TV is 3D printed but takes design cues from CRT-based technology from decades past. It even has working knobs emblematic of that era as well. Inside the “television” is a Raspberry Pi which is hooked up to a small screen. The Pi powers up and automatically starts playing Simpsons episodes once it boots. There is a power button at the top of the TV which mutes the sound and also turns off the display. As an added touch, the display outputs in 640×480 resolution, which is also somewhat historically accurate, even if the TV itself is much smaller than its ancient relatives.
Of course, the TV only plays episodes from The Simpson’s first eleven seasons, which includes all of the episodes of The Simpson’s golden era (and a few extra) and omits those episodes from the modern era, which will please certain Simpsons fans as well. This actually isn’t the first time we’ve seen a 24 hour Simpsons device. This Pi-based build serves up Simpsons episodes nonstop as well,
but sends them out over the airwaves instead
.
I designed and printed a working Simpsons TV. Plays the first 11 seasons at random without internet. Knobs work too!
from
3Dprinting | 17 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375434",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T23:16:21",
"content": "Simpsons did it",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6375457",
"author": "Cartman",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T01:36:31",
"content": ... | 1,760,372,969.887162 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/ferrofluid-display-gets-new-better-driver-circuitry/ | Ferrofluid Display Gets New, Better Driver Circuitry | Jim Heaney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"display",
"electromagnet",
"ferrofluid",
"PCA9685"
] | In 2019 [Simen] and [Amud], two students from the University of Oslo, set out to design a unique open-source display. The result was Fetch, a display that uses electromagnets to suspend ferrofluid on 252 “pixels” across the screen. After some delays due to COVID,
they have recently unveiled version 2.0 of the display on their project’s page
.
While the duo managed to overcome the mechanical challenges associated with using ferrofluids fairly easily, they were quickly bottlenecked by their electronics. The use of electromagnets holding up a liquid presented a unique challenge; the magnets could not be switched off, even for a millisecond, or else the “pixel” would fall down to the bottom of the screen. That immediately ruled out any sort of multiplexing and meant everything would have to be driven in parallel. As if that wasn’t already difficult enough to work around, the effect of having multiple electromagnets activated next to each other would change how the ferrofluid flows. This meant that the strength of each electromagnet would have to be adjusted based on what is currently being displayed, rather than just being on or off.
The mess of connections were not helped with the layout of the old driver boards shown here. The new design puts the connections closer to each individual electromagnet.
All of this, paired with other overhead like generating pulse-width modulation for the inputs, was just too much for a single microcontroller to handle. So, the pair set out to design a better version of their electronics that would offload a lot of the hard work. At the same time, they decided a bit of mechanical optimization was in order; they redesigned the boards to be longer and thinner, allowing them to fit cleanly behind the row of electromagnets they controlled.
The new boards feature a PCA9685 IC, which allows for the control of up to 16 channels of 12-bit PWM over i2C, perfect for the size of the display. Since this IC can’t source enough current to drive the electromagnets, it was paired with a ULN2803 Darlington Transistor Array, capable of delivering up to 500mA to each electromagnet.
With prototypes in hand (and a few bodge wires here and there), [Simen] and [Amud] had the new driver boards running beautifully, displaying text in a mesmerizing way that no ordinary display could match. Watch the video after the break for a demonstration of the new controllers in action, as well as a deeper dive into the process of developing them.
Want to learn more?
Check out our previous article about Fetch
! Or if you’re looking for another cool way to use ferrofluids, how about
making it dance in a custom speaker
!
[Main image animation is slowed by a factor of 3] | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375393",
"author": "JWhitten",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T20:29:54",
"content": "Curious why it wasn’t done with some serial-input latches w/ transistor of some kind to deal with the current?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "637... | 1,760,372,970.813994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/universal-bio-electrical-signal-amplifier-makes-reading-body-signals-easy/ | Universal Bio-Electrical Signal Amplifier Makes Reading Body Signals Easy | Robin Kearey | [
"Medical Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"biosensors",
"ecg",
"eeg",
"emg",
"eog",
"sensing"
] | The electrical signals emitted by the human body tell us a lot about what’s going on inside. But getting those signals inside your microcontroller is not straightforward: the voltages are too small for most ADCs, and the ever-present 50 or 60 Hz mains frequency makes it hard to discern subtle changes. Over at Upside Down Labs, [Deepak Kathri] developed a universal biosensor interface called the
BioAmp EXG Pill
to make all this a lot easier.
Its name refers to the fact that it can be used for several different bio-electrical sensing applications:
ECG
,
EMG
,
EOG
and
EEG
, which deal with signals coming from the heart, muscles, eyes and brain, respectively. To enable such flexibility, the board has connectors for two or three electrodes, as well as solder pads to mount resistors and capacitors to adjust the gain and bandwidth. An instrumentation amplifier increases the strength of the desired signal while rejecting noise and interference.
The form factor allows easy connection to electrodes on one side and a data acquisition system on the other. Measuring just 25.4 mm long and 10 mm wide, it should be easy to integrate into any type of biosensing gizmo you can come up with. [Deepak] has made several demo setups, showing him using the Pill with an Arduino to measure his
heart rate
, detect
eye blinks
, and even
control a robot arm
using his own arm muscles!
The EXG Pill is an evolution of
an earlier EMG-only project
. We’ve seen several great
ECG
and
EEG
projects before, but is the first time we’ve seen one amplifier that can do them all.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375373",
"author": "k-ww",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T19:45:56",
"content": "This looks like a nice product, but I would add something to the circuitry – an isolated amp/power supply chip such as the AMC3330DWE, to break any possible shock hazards, so that when you hook it up to your... | 1,760,372,969.943507 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/fm-radio-the-choice-of-an-old-generation/ | FM Radio, The Choice Of An Old Generation | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"analog radio",
"broadcasting",
"fm",
"VHF"
] | Had the pandemic not upended many of this summer’s fun and games, many of my friends would have made a trip to the MCH hacker camp in the Netherlands earlier this month. I had an idea for a game for the event, a friend and I were going to secrete a set of those low-power FM transmitters as numbers stations around the camp for players to find and solve the numerical puzzles they would transmit. I even bought a few cheap FM transmitter modules from China for evaluation, and had some fun sending a chiptune Rick Astley across a housing estate in Northamptonshire.
To me as someone who grew up with FM radio and whose teen years played out to the sounds of BBC Radio 1 FM it made absolute sense to do a puzzle in this way, but it was my personal reminder of advancing years to find that some of my friends differed on the matter. Sure, they thought it was a great idea, but they gently reminded me that the kids don’t listen to any sort of conventional broadcast radio these days, instead they stream their music, so very few of them would have the means for listening to my numbers stations. Even for me it’s something I only use for BBC Radio 4 in the car, and to traverse the remainder of the FM dial is to hear a selection of easy listening, oldies, and classical music. It’s becoming an older person’s medium, and it’s inevitable that like AM before it, it will eventually wane.
There are two angles to this that might detain the casual hacker; first what it will mean from a broadcasting and radio spectrum perspective, and then how it is already influencing some of our projects.
Shifting To Digital For A Disappearing Audience
If you grew up listening to this, do you listen to FM? KarleHorn,
CC BY 3.0
In July we marked
the passing of the last few analog NTSC television stations
on the North American continent. These holdouts were the so-called “FrankenFM” stations whose sound subcarrier lay just below the FM broadcast band and could thus be picked up with a receiver at the very bottom of the FM dial serving niche audiences. Oddly if you live close to one you’ll notice that it hasn’t gone away, because despite the cessation of analog TV, the FM carriers remain due to a special quirk in the ATSC 3.0 digital broadcasting standard that allows a broadcaster on that channel to emit a narrower digital multiplex alongside the analog audio. But given the demographic shift away from FM among younger listeners mentioned in the last paragraph, have they won the right to remain in a broadcast band whose days are just as numbered as the NTSC TV channels that have just been shuttered?
In the USA there has been a small move towards
HD Radio
as an eventual digital replacement for FM either as simulcast with analog stations or as digital-only, while in Europe and elsewhere the
DAB
standard has had mixed impact. The Republic of Ireland
has abandoned DAB entirely
, and
Norway has completely dropped FM
for the new system, while in the UK the Government’s ambitious plans for a switchover have met with indifference from the public mostly because as the first adopter of DAB the country is largely stuck with its inferior first version. So with younger listeners growing into adulthood not using their radios and with many governments around the world still pressing for a move to digital, the sense of FM’s days being numbered can only deepen.
The Last Analogue First Project
So if FM is slowly shuffling off this mortal coil, what does it mean for our community? Do many of us listen to FM radio? Perhaps one or two of us do, but the impact I’m thinking of isn’t with the older hackers. Analogue radio has a useful property of being accessible with simple and easy to understand components, so it remains one of those gateway drugs that introduces a youngster to electronics.
In days gone by a starter project might have been a crystal radio, and while that might have gone by the wayside as AM radio has declined and point-contact diodes become a rarity it’s still common to make an FM transmitter
from a transistor or two
or even
a Raspberry Pi’s clock generator
. It’s true that today’s kid with a Pi could probably whip up a media server for the radio experience via a streaming app, but it’s the method rather than the end result that matters here. The spark that ignites a lifetime of interest will be different for everyone, and it’s difficult not to feel that one of those sparks is growing dim. Perhaps in the comments you’ll have your own ideas as to what could catch the interest of a kid predisposed to a bit of analogue electronics.
Header: Joe Haupt from USA,
CC BY-SA 2.0
. | 123 | 41 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375336",
"author": "Old Man",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T17:34:27",
"content": "Until recently I didn’t think FM crystal radios were a thing but apparently they are. I would recommend checking out Billy Cheung’s Youtube channel. He has videos where he makes a bunch of them in variou... | 1,760,372,970.158892 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/custom-keyboard-from-a-cash-register/ | Custom Keyboard From A Cash Register | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"cash register",
"custom",
"keyboard",
"linux",
"macro",
"pyton",
"script"
] | Having a high-quality mechanical keyboard is often a rite of passage in the computing world, with gamers and coders alike having strong opinions on the best devices. Even then, the standard keyboard layout can be substantially limiting, and often something a little extra and customizable is needed beyond even the highest-quality QWERTY keyboards. Reddit user [RonaldMcWhisky] was looking for a keyboard to use for macros, and
discovered that it is possible to put cash register keyboards into service for any unique task
.
Cash register keyboards have a number of advantages over a standard QWERTY design. They have big keys, the keys can be labeled, and the keys can be ordered in a way the user wants. The hardware is also cheap since cash registers are everywhere. Adapting one to work with a standard computer took a little bit of doing. Since this is /r/linuxhardware, you’re not going to find any Windows support here, but assuming you have the minimum system requirements of a Linux install to recognize the keyboard itself, a Python script can handle the events as the keys are pressed and interpret them in whatever way you want.
The actual hardware in this specific build was a Wincor Nixdorf TA85P — let us know in the comments if you’ve got one of those in your junk box. But the idea of using a cash register for a custom keyboard is interesting, and certainly a lot of work is already done for you if you don’t want to
build your own custom keyboard from the ground up
. | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375298",
"author": "John Chau",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T15:59:52",
"content": "> Since this is /r/linuxhardware?I thought this was hackaday.com",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6375342",
"author": "Gilliam Vespa",
... | 1,760,372,970.294463 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/hands-on-mnt-reforms-the-laptop/ | Hands-On: MNT Reforms The Laptop | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"Featured",
"hardware",
"laptops hacks",
"Reviews",
"Slider"
] | [
"cyberdeck",
"laptop",
"MNT",
"open source hardware",
"open source software",
"review"
] | When we met our contact from MNT in the coffee shop, he was quietly working away on his laptop. Jet black and standing thick it was like an encyclopedia that didn’t quite blend in with the sea of silver MacBook lookalikes on the surrounding tables. After going through all the speeds and feeds we eagerly got our 64 piece driver kit out to open it up and see what made this marvel tick, but when the laptop was turned over it became clear that no tools were needed. The entire bottom of the machine was a single rectangle of transparent acrylic revealing everything from sharp white status LEDs on the bare mainboard to individual 18650 LiFePO4 battery cells in a tidy row. In a sense that’s the summary of the entire product: it’s a real laptop you can use to get work done, and every element of it from design to fabrication is completely transparent.
The MNT Reform
The device pictured here is called the
Reform and is designed and manufactured by MNT
, a company in Berlin, Germany (note MNT stands for MNT, it’s not an acronym). The Reform is a fully open source laptop which is shipping today and available via
distribution through Crowd Supply
. If the aesthetic doesn’t make it clear the Reform is an opinionated product designed from the ground up to optimize for free-as-in-freedom: from it’s solid metal chassis to the blob-free GNU/Linux distribution running inside.
We’re here to tell you that we’ve held one, it’s real, and it’s very well built.
The Hard Numbers
Let’s get the spec punch list out of the way first. The currently shipping MNT Reform is powered by a
Boundary Devices Nitrogen 8M System On Module
which contains a quad core 1.5 GHz ARM64 processor (the NXP i.MX8M Quad) with 4 GB of RAM. This is packaged into a module that slots into a SODIMM slot on the mainboard next to a standard M key m.2 2280 socket with PCIe for an NVMe drive of the user’s choice, and a mini PCIe card slot for a WiFi or cell radio. All together this should make for a serviceable hardware package for daily use, especially with that fast PCIe storage, though the processor will be a little anemic by the standards of a modern personal computer, or even a high end smartphone.
Exposed along the edges of the laptop chassis are three USB 3 ports in the USB-A form factor, full sized SD card, a 1/8″ TRRS jack, gigabit Ethernet, and power via a barrel jack. If we were designing a machine from scratch today, we’d love to see that barrel jack replaced with USB-C and Power Delivery, but that’s a minor complaint, and as the saying goes the sources are available, so we could always fix that ourselves!
Moving to the outside we can report that the MNT Reform feels exactly the way it looks in all the pictures; like an absolute brick of a machine. This particular unit has been lovingly bestickered but the bead-blasted, CNC milled chassis is absolutely every bit as well-built as we had hoped. In traditional notebook reviews, thin and light laptops get lambasted for wibbly-wobbly bendy screens and failing the “one handed open test”, which checks if the display can be opened without a second hand to keep the base of the computer planted on the table. The Reform certainly has no problems in either of these departments. The screen escapes its retaining magnets with a satisfying pop and swings smoothly open to past 180º on stiff hinges with nary a complaint or flex in sight.
Human Interface
Lacking a camera or internal microphone, the primary interface an operator will have with the MNT Reform is via keyboard and pointing device. As the astute reader has no doubt noticed, this portable computer is rather thick compared to the slivers of aluminium that you’d find at your favorite electronics retailer. But thickness has some tangible benefits in the interface department.
First we’ll point out the pointing device, which is a modular USB peripheral the user can specify when purchasing the machine. Besides the 1337-hacker choice to have no pointing device at all, the Reform is available in two configurations; trackpad and luxurious trackball.
An exploded trackball schematic
We haven’t seen the trackpad in person so can only speculate about how it operates. It’s an off the shelf capacitive affair packaged under glass to give your digits the smoothest glide possible. It supports a standard range of multi finger gestures and we’re sure it’s perfectly fine. But this is Hackaday, so we were absolutely thrilled to get our digits on the glorious trackball.
The trackball is an option that emphasizes the aesthetic the Reform is really built to indulge. The ball and five mechanical keys are packed into the same rectangular surface area as the trackpad to allow either to be installed, but there is plenty of room to maneuver. The ball is big at 2.5 centimetres in diameter, and just the right balance between tacky for good finger grip and smooth for easy rolling. Significantly, the ball is large enough that it’s easy to execute precise movements without much trouble, an issue we’ve experienced before on tiny trackballs.
Above the pointing device is the keyboard, and what a keyboard it is. As enthusiasts ourselves, we were excited to see that the unusually deep chassis here was leveraged once again to include real mechanical switches for a premium typing feel. These aren’t full sized keyswitches, but Kailh Choc low profile switches. Even so they provide a deep 3 mm of travel, closer to the 4 mm of a traditional full size Cherry MX switch than the 1 mm you’d get on a 2021 keyboard from Apple.
The keyboard layout is not completely standard, but with a little typing we don’t think it would be a problem. The other notable detail is the keycaps themselves. Kailh Choc switches use special keycaps that are typically of the utterly flat chicklet variety in vogue on modern laptops. Bucking this trend once again, the Reform has very deep keys which we found helped our digits distinguish them when typing quickly. Needless to say in our short time with the machine it was a very comfortable keyboard to clack away at. The only note against it was the flexure in the center of the deck, which got a little bouncy when we were aggressive with the keys. But this was only noticeable after it was specifically pointed out as an area for improvement.
Deep keycaps help fingers find focus
Also notable is the small display above the keyboard. This is a sort of system management display, or rather an interface to the main processor’s supervisory micro. It connects with the keyboard and allows the user to view certain system information like battery status even while the machine is completely off. Of course it’s fully programmable just like the rest of the system.
To wrap up the device, we will mostly elide what it was like in the few minutes we spent using it as a computer. It’s fine. It’s a Linux computer. If you’ve used one before you know what to expect here, which is in its own way a complement in its banality. By default each machine comes with the relatively conservative Debian distribution and a mainline kernel, so for daily use you won’t need to be a terminal wizard and switching to another OS should be straightforward.
The Reform is a niche product for a niche audience. It’s unapologetically hefty. An interested buyer will pay north of $999 to buy one, and at that lower price will have to assemble it themselves: pre-assembled units start at $1,550. It has a processor that is sufficient for daily use but lags behind the latest 4.5 GHz burst octa-core behemoth from Intel or AMD. But none of that is the point.
Comparable ‘Rigs
It’s hard to come up with a substantial list of competitors to the MNT Reform. If you were lucky enough to be in the market for a portable computer at the right time there was
the Novena
; a similarly open source, similarly expensive, similarly rectangular computing device from [Bunny] and [Xobs]. More recently there are the devices from Pine64,
the Pinebook
and
Pinebook Pro
. These are also easy to service, though there isn’t nearly enough room inside for much in the way of additions. They have even more anemic processors than the Reform, and most importantly have open software but – as far as we know – totally closed hardware. Lastly there is the
tide of cyberdecks
(which we love!), generally in the form of a Raspberry Pi coupled to a battery, screen and keyboard. Few if any of these are commercial products, and even if they were, the constituent parts are similarly non-free.
OLKB’s ortholinear concept render
And that’s it. Besides the Novena we’re hard pressed to find any totally comparable devices, especially not ones with commercial availability and a production volume higher than one. We’re sure you’ll let us know if we missed something. So that leaves us with an unusual beast in the MNT Reform. It’s open to a fault, from the bits in the flash to the atoms in the aluminum. It’s built by hand by
a four person team in Berlin
(plus requisite shop dog). Its thickness is best measured in integer inches, and it’s fairly expensive. So why does it exist?
In some ways these unusual traits hearken back to one of the influences of the MNT Reform: retrocomputing. Not in the literal sense that this is a Commodore 64, but in the spirit of the thing. The machine is large and invites you to poke around inside, with clear labels and an easy entry method. It comes with a thick manual that starts with friendly instructions about how to get around the Linux command line and ends with the complete schematics for the entire machine. It’s a useful tool but also one you can learn and grow with. And from that openness inspires people to learn from its example and mod it to suit their needs.
Building a completely open computer whose every design element caters to a group of enthusiastic hackers means that it didn’t take long for improvements to begin appearing. The highest profile of these might be
the new keyboard design from crowd favorites OLKB
, known for making a variety of diminutive keyboards with ortholinear layouts like
the Planck
. Of course this new keyboard is only real when it’s shipping, but as OLKB is a long established entity with a history of shipping keyboards in relatively high volume it seems like a safe bet.
Besides a new keyboard we’ve heard of multiple replacement System On Modules which should change the available compute capabilities in exciting ways and keep the Reform usable for years to come. MNT itself is working with a partner to bring
a module powered by the the NXP Layerscape LS1028A
and a whopping 8 or 16 GB of RAM to market. And [Lukas Hartmann] the founder of MNT has posted some very tantalizing renders of a
SOM card containing a burly Kintex-7 FPGA
which may one day play host to anything from RISC-V cores to
a supercomputer of Z80s
.
Where Do We Go From Here?
The MNT Reform we had our hands on
This is a real laptop, that you can buy today. It’s built out of high quality materials and will probably survive the rigors of daily metro trips in a messenger bag, and dirt from working in the park. It runs software whose source you can inspect in totality and build yourself, and if the color doesn’t suit your liking the mechanical CAD is available to manufacture your own enclosure. The processor isn’t the cutting edge but it’s socketed and can be trivially replaced so we expect it to continue evolving and improving.
That diversity we talked about above is really the takeaway from our time with the MNT Reform. We live in a world where professional-grade manufacturing capability is easily accessible to a casual hobbyist, let alone a motivated team like MNT. It’s possible to produce a real commercial electronics product of non-trivial complexity for a niche market, and that’s nothing short of astounding. With a global audience we’re not worried in the least about selling through the initial 450 unit manufacturing run. So why shouldn’t it exist?
Bonus Round: A Moment of Keyboard
The standalone MNT keyboard
Engaged Hackaday readers may note MNT has another upcoming product which is a close relative to the the Reform laptop. The keyboard we praised earlier has grown legs and stepped away from the trackball to become a standalone product. We had a chance to spend a few minutes with a preproduction unit and can confirm it’s exactly as satisfying as the integrated version. In fact, besides a firmware update, it’s literally the same as the one in the Reform laptop. Same extra deep keycaps, same satisfying but tactile action on the Kailh Choc keyswitches, and same programmable OLED screen. In this case the screen obviously isn’t integrated into the host machine so it’s relegated to providing metadata about the keyboard’s configuration, but MNT indicates you can draw to it with properly formed USB HID packets. We’re looking forward to the first
Mavis Beacon
integration. If you’re looking for a thin and light mechanical keyboard for on the go clacks and dig the unusual layout, it may be worth a look. | 120 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375262",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T14:19:08",
"content": "Running Linux Mint on the MNT?B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6375263",
"author": "Rog Fanther",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T14:29:23",
"con... | 1,760,372,970.973025 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/proto-pda-regains-its-memory-with-the-help-of-a-raspberry-pi-pico/ | Proto-PDA Regains Its Memory With The Help Of A Raspberry Pi Pico | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"Datapak",
"eprom",
"flash",
"Organiser",
"pico",
"programmable",
"Psion",
"raspberry pi"
] | Remember the Psion Organiser? If you do, chances are you were an early adopter, as the 8-bit pocket computer had its heyday in the mid-1980s. Things have come a long way since then, of course, but just how far is illustrated nicely by the fact that
a Raspberry Pi Pico can stand in for the Psion’s original memory packs
.
Like many of the early attempts at putting a computer in your pocket, the Psion II had removable modules, which were dubbed “Datapaks”. The earliest versions of the Datapaks were little more than an EPROM chip on a small PCB, and the technical limitations of the day plus the quirky way of addressing the memory made it possible for [Amen] to mimic a Datapak using a modern microcontroller.
The first version was a breakout board that extended out of the Datapak slot significantly, with a Pico, OLED display, SD card slot, and a bunch of pushbuttons. That prototype proved that the Pico was indeed fast enough to fool the Psion into thinking a legit Datapak was plugged in. [Amen] later refined the design by making a board that stuffs everything into the Datapak slot, with the exception of the OLED which still dangles out where it can be seen. He puts the faux memory to the test in the video below.
It’s great to see groundbreaking tech of yesteryear like the Psion being taken care of and returned to use. We’ve seen others try before; here’s a hack that uses a Pi to
connect a Psion Organiser to the internet
through its RS-232 serial port. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375643",
"author": "rnjacobs",
"timestamp": "2021-08-27T17:41:38",
"content": "This is awfully cool. I wonder what other old computers are in range?I was initially thinking this a similar protocol to what Atari’s Lynx used, but there they already split out the clocks to counters to... | 1,760,372,970.38893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/26/razer-mouse-grants-windows-admin-privileges/ | Razer Mouse Grants Windows Admin Privileges | Bryan Cockfield | [
"News"
] | [
"admin",
"exploit",
"mouse",
"power shell",
"Razer",
"system",
"vulnerability",
"windows",
"Windows Update"
] | As the common saying goes, “all networked computers are vulnerable to exploits, but some networked computers are more vulnerable than others”. While not the exact wording from
Animal Farm
, the saying does have plenty of merit nonetheless. Sure, there are some viruses and issues with Linux distributions but by far most of the exploits target Windows, if only because more people use it daily than any other operating system. The latest Windows 10 exploit, discovered by [jonhat], is almost comically easy too, and
involves little more than plugging in a mouse
.
While slightly comforting in that an attacker would need physical access to the device rather than simple network access, it is very concerning how simple this attack is otherwise. Apparently plugging in a Razer mouse automatically launches Windows Update, which installs a driver for the mouse. The installation is run with admin privileges, and a Power Shell can be opened by the user simply by pressing Shift and right-clicking the mouse. While [jonhat] originally tried to let the company know, they weren’t responsive until he made the exploit public on Twitter, and are now apparently working on solving the issue.
Others have confirmed
the exploit does in fact work, so hopefully there is a patch released soon that solves the issue. In the meantime, we recommend not allowing strangers to plug any devices into your personal computers as a general rule, or plugging in anything where its origins are unknown. Also remember that some attacks don’t required physical or network access at all, like this one which
remotely sniffs keystrokes from a wireless keyboard
with less than stellar security, also coincidentally built by Microsoft. | 50 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375201",
"author": "Intensive piggeries",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T08:26:44",
"content": "And anyone with Linux Kernel 5.x with an NVIDIA driver had betterblacklist hid_logitech_hidppblacklist hid_logitech_djIt is worse in many ways, as it leaves no trace of what happens on some In... | 1,760,372,970.763829 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/25/can-metal-plated-3d-prints-survive-400000-volts/ | Can Metal Plated 3D Prints Survive 400,000 Volts? | Dave Rowntree | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"cosplay",
"electroplating",
"musical tesla coil"
] | It appears they can. [Ian Charnas] wanted his very own Thor Hammer. He wasn’t happy to settle on the usual cosplay methods of spray painting over foam and similar flimsy materials. He presents a method for
nickel plating onto a 3D printed model
, using conductive nickel paint to prepare the plastic surface for plating. In order to reduce the use of hazardous chemistry, he simplifies things to use materials more likely to be found in the kitchen.
As the video after the break shows, [Ian] went through quite a lot of experimentation in order to get to a process that would be acceptable to him. As he says, “after all, if something is worth doing, it’s worth over-doing” which is definitely a good ethos to follow. Its fairly hard to plate metals and get a good finish, and 3D printed objects are by their nature, not terribly smooth. But, the effort was well rewarded, and the results look pretty good to us.
But what about the 400 kV I hear you ask? Well, it wouldn’t be Thor’s hammer, without an ungodly amount of lightning flying around, and since [Ian] is part of a
tesla coil orchestra group
, which well, it just kinda fell into place. After donning protective chainmail to cover his skin, he walks straight into the firing line of a large pair of musical tesla coils and survives for another day. Kind of makes his
earlier escapade with jet-powered roller skates
look mundane by comparison. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375178",
"author": "Vib",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T06:13:11",
"content": "One must be breathing an awful amount of ozone when doing this job, no?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6375188",
"author": "e",
"times... | 1,760,372,970.433069 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/25/welcome-to-our-new-robot-nurses/ | Welcome To Our New Robot… Nurses | Al Williams | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"androids",
"grace",
"Hanson robotics",
"nurse",
"robot"
] | Hanson robotics wants to make robots, but not “Lost in Space” [Robby] robots. Think more [Data] from Star Trek robots. They’ve announced
[Grace], a lifelike robot made to take on nursing duties for doctors and the elderly
. In conjunction with Singularity Studio, the robot resembles the company’s [Sophia] robot which is made to be as realistic as possible given current technology and, apparently, has Saudi citizenship.
The robot has heat-sensitive cameras and other sensors so it can read data from patients directly. It uses the company’s Frubber for the face. The company says:
[Frubber is] a proprietary nanotech skin that mimics real human musculature and skin. This allows our robots to exhibit high-quality expressions and interactivity, simulating humanlike facial features and expressions.
As you can see in the video, the Frubber technology is pretty good but isn’t going to fool anyone anytime soon. But you could say the robot looks most realistic when standing still. We were amused to see an Arduino Uno in the frame as the narrator talked about artificial intelligence.
[Grace] speaks English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, not surprising since Hanson is based in Hong Kong. Would you be put off by a robotic nurse? Our guess is most Hackaday readers would be fine with it and maybe even curious. The general public, though, might be a different story.
Then again, at least she has hands and not
tentacles
. She is more realistic looking than some refitted
children’s toys
. | 47 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6375128",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-08-26T02:04:38",
"content": "People are going to be tripping and falling all over the uncanny valley.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6375139",
"author": "Gravis",
... | 1,760,372,970.682279 |
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