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https://hackaday.com/2021/08/05/vintage-computer-festival-west-is-this-weekend/ | Vintage Computer Festival West Is This Weekend | Kristina Panos | [
"cons",
"News"
] | [] | This weekend is the
Vintage Computer Festival (VCF) West
, which will be held in-person at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
Here is the complete schedule of events
.
If you’re in the area, go get your retrocomputing on at this two-day event that Hackaday are proud to sponsor. Who knows? You may end up hobnobbing with original system developers who are finally at liberty to spill the tea about the old days.
Case in point: Hackaday’s own Bil Herd will be there virtually to talk about the
new Commodore inside history book
he wrote with Margaret Moribito. Other speakers include Bob Purvy, who will discuss
his novel about the Xerox Star
. This isn’t your average history book — it uses fictional characters to play out actual events. Another talk delves into the history of computerized tic-tac-toe, and yet another will cover recovering lost floppy disks with an oscilloscope. Finally, Liza Loop will speak about the history of computing in education to close out the weekend’s talks.
There are also plenty of exhibitions on the schedule, too, including Rare Computers from Japan and Analog Computing in the 1960s. And don’t forget, you’re at the Computer History Museum, so there should never be anything approaching a dull moment. Have fun! | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6370178",
"author": "Randy",
"timestamp": "2021-08-05T15:57:10",
"content": "If you’re looking for Bob Purvy’s book, it’s called Inventing the Future, under the pen name Albert Cory.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6370187",
... | 1,760,372,995.326343 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/05/linux-fu-the-windows-x11-connection/ | Linux Fu: The Windows X11 Connection | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"linux",
"windows",
"windows subsystem for Linux",
"wsl",
"x11"
] | The life of a Linux user can be a bit difficult. Sometimes you have to — or want to — run Windows. Why Windows? Sometimes you have a work computer or a laptop that Linux doesn’t support well. Or it might be software. Although there are plenty of programs that can edit, say, Word documents, there’s always that one document that doesn’t quite translate correctly. Things like videoconferencing software sometimes works on Linux but might have fewer features.
So what do you do? You can dual boot, of course, but that’s not very handy. You can run Windows in a virtual machine if you have enough horsepower. There’s also Wine, but that often has its own set of problems with features and stability of complex programs. However, recent versions of Windows provide the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
With WSL, you can have most of what you like about Linux inside your Windows session. You just have to know how to set it up, and I’m going to show you one way that works for me with reasonably stable versions of Windows 10.
About WSL
WSL is pretty powerful since it gives you a good Linux environment and it is tightly optimized with Windows. However, there are a few caveats. WSL actually has two variants. The first, version 1, works well enough, but doesn’t have complete compatibility and has slower disk I/O speeds. Most normal programs will work, but things like Docker and FUSE won’t. Version 2 requires virtualization support on your computer, but operates much much faster. It also provides a real Linux kernel, so most everything will run using WSL2.
If you are willing to take the recent developer versions of Windows 10 you can even
run graphical programs
if you are willing to run that far beyond the edge. But turns out, you don’t have to use the developer version at all. If there’s one thing X is good at, it is having a server running on one machine and clients running on another. So there’s no reason you can’t run X clients inside WSL and use a Windows-based X server to display.
First, Get an X Server
There’s no shortage of Windows-based X servers both free and commercial. I used Cygwin’s and, more specifically, I used a preconfigured Cygwin X11 setup called
Swan
. Unfortunately, the Swan project seems defunct, but
Cygwin
still exists and works fine.
Another option is
VcXsrv
and several other similar projects. The best part about these is they don’t have a lot of superfluous stuff. Cygwin has lots of things that, normally, will be very useful, but those things will be duplicates of what you will want to install under WSL.
I suggest you get the X server running first and test it out from another Linux machine or a virtual machine. If you have a system like Cygwin, you can just run native apps. If your X server doesn’t work for some reason, WSL won’t be able to use it either.
Version 2 for Performance
If you’ve used WSL for a bit, you should check to see if you are still using version 1. You can pretty easily switch between versions and even have multiple installations with different versions. To figure out which you have, open a PowerShell as an administrator:
wsl --list --verbose
You should see a line for each Linux distro you have installed and a version number. If you have version 1, make sure you have virtualization support turned on in your BIOS and also make sure the “Virtual Machine Platform” Windows feature is turned on. Then enter:
--set-version Ubuntu 2
Of course, use whatever name you saw in the list which may or may not be “Ubuntu.” This will take a bit of time or you will get an error message if you don’t have the BIOS and Windows settings right. You may also get some directions to
download some updated kernel support
. Just follow the instructions. If the command doesn’t take a bit to run, it probably is complaining about something not set up correctly. You can verify it with the list command again.
The version is important because the networking setup is different from the old version. While it is possible to configure the older WSL the same way, you might as well enjoy the performance increase. However, if your machine or OS don’t meet the requirements, you might have to stick with version 1.
You can also set version 2 to be the default from PowerShell:
wsl --set-default-version 2
If you happen to be running Windows 10 version 2004 or later, it is
easier to install wsl
now. However, you still want to make sure you are running version 2.
Connectivity
X11 clients know how to reach their display via the DISPLAY variable. Normally, you’ll see it set to :0 or :0.0 and that’s understood to be the first screen on the current machine. That won’t work here, though, because WSL is on a virtual network that isn’t the same as your Windows OS.
There are basically three steps you’ll need to work through to get things to work:
Open port 6000 on your PC firewall, if you use one
Tell the X server to allow connections from a different computer (in this case, a virtual computer)
Set the DISPLAY variable to point to the WSL address that corresponds to the Windows computer
The exact steps will depend on what firewall and server you use. However, the general steps are the same for any tool you happen to use.
If you use the Windows Defender firewall you can open port 6000 by searching settings for Windows Defender Firewall. Select Advanced and then create a new inbound rule for TCP port 6000. However, Windows may pop up a firewall window the first time you run the server asking you if you want to allow connections. In that case, you probably won’t have to configure the firewall manually.
Setting access control for your X server will depend on the server you use. For Cygwin, try running
xhost +
from a Cygwin prompt. For VcXsv, you’ll want to check the startup option that allows external connections. You may not like the idea of opening up your X server, but if you can restrict your firewall settings or use an XAuthority file. First, get it working, then you can tighten up security. If you are behind a home router you can block things using its firewall.
The DISPLAY variable is the easiest of them all. A quick way to learn the Windows IP address from the WSL side is to look at how the nameserver is set. Dump
/etc/resolv.conf
and you should see something like this:
# This file was automatically generated by WSL. To stop automatic generation of this file, add the following entry to /etc/wsl.conf:
# [network]
# generateResolvConf = false
nameserver 172.25.32.1
This means the DISPLAY variable should be set to 175.25.32.1:0.0 like this:
export DISPLAY=175.25.32.1:0.0
You could automate this with, say,
awk
but remember a proper shell script won’t set your environment. You’d need to source the script to allow that. For example, here’s a script that resides in
/usr/local/bin/setWinX
:
WINIP=$(awk '/^nameserver / { gsub("nameserver ",""); print; }' /etc/resolv.conf)
export DISPLAY="$WINIP:0.0"
You could, of course, arrange for that to run on startup, too by sourcing it from
.profile
:
source /usr/local/bin/setWinX
Depending on your X server and applications you might need to coax programs to use particular output drivers. For example, I’ve heard that this line will fix some problems:
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
Once you have nice Linux/Windows integration, you can add some
launcher support
. Set your X server to autostart and you can merrily mix and match Windows and Linux apps on the same screen.
Unfair!
It hardly seems fair. Getting Windows stuff to run under Linux is tricky because Windows is closed. Making Linux run under Windows is much easier because Linux is open. Of course, sometimes you really have to run Linux for real. For example, I needed to directly read a mouse and found that the way WSL routes input events isn’t much like a regular Linux installation. Still, it works awfully well and performs nicely, too.
This isn’t the first time we’ve
looked at WSL
and that post has some good tricks if you are just starting out. How do you deal with using Windows and Linux? The ideal answer is you don’t and you just stick with one or the other. But tell us what you are doing in the comments. | 38 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6370160",
"author": "SPD",
"timestamp": "2021-08-05T14:52:37",
"content": "I just run windows in a vm with a nice little activate windows on the side.Don’t even bother with wine as it just doesn’t like me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,372,995.404579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/05/this-is-a-3d-ink-jet-printer/ | This Is A 3D Ink Jet Printer | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"3 axis",
"3d",
"how it's made",
"ink jet",
"inkjet"
] | We spend a lot of time thinking of how to create 3D objects, but what about being able to print full color graphics on the objects we create? This isn’t just multicolor, this is full-color! Here’s one elegant solution that
uses ink jets to print full color images on 3D terrain models
.
Admittedly we are very late to the party on this one as the technology was spotted on
season 22, episode 7
of
How It’s Made
that aired way back in 2013. The segment shows terrain models — think of the physical contour map under glass that you might see at a National Park or at the main lodge of a ski resort. It’s easy enough to envision how the elevation is carved out of foam by a CNC. But the application of color printing to those surfaces is what caught our eye this time around. It’s a custom rig that a company called Solid Terrain Modeling built for this purpose. Since the height at any point on the work material is already known from the milling process, four ink heads (black, cyan, magenta, yellow) have been added to individual Z-axis actuators, applying a raster image as they traverse the surface.
Part of what makes this work is the post-processing steps that follow milling. The model is very carefully cleared of debris before being sprayed with primer. Another coat of an undetermined material (“a specialty coating to receive the ink”) gets the piece ready for the ink. The final step after printing is a protective clear coat. In the
How It’s Made
episode, buildings and other structures are then 3D-printed and added.
It seems like the trick is to get the heads to have as small of a footprint as possible for clearance when printing in sloped areas. We’re not experts in all the available consumer ink-jet printers out there, but finding a setup where the heads are separated from the reservoirs would be key. Watching this segment made us so excited to think of the person/people who got to hack this rig together as part of their job.
Looking for other ways to abuse ink jet parts? [Sprite_TM] came up with a way to make them handheld so you print on anything from latte foam to your buddy’s forearm. There’s no better name for that than
the Magic Paintbrush
. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6370123",
"author": "Alice Lalita Heald",
"timestamp": "2021-08-05T12:15:04",
"content": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoZW1xlycckor those remote tank ink jet modifications",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6370130",
"autho... | 1,760,372,995.940699 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/05/knowing-the-bits-and-bytes-that-make-images-live-in-memory/ | Knowing The Bits And Bytes That Make Images Live In Memory | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Software Development"
] | [
"image encoding"
] | We know we’re living in the future because there’s hi-resolution, full color images plastered on every high-density screen in sight. Of course this comes at a cost, one that’s been hidden away by the myriad improvements in the way we digitally represent those pretty pixels and how we push them to the screens. Nobody thinks about this, except those who are working behind the screen to store and light up those pixels. And hey, chances are that’ll be you some day. Time to learn a bit more about image encoding!
Test renders illustrate the time savings from premultiplied alpha formats
[Scott W Harden] put together
a succinct primer on representing images in memory
. It focuses on the basics of how images are stored: generally with the B before the G, sometimes including an alpha (transparent) channel, and with a number of different bit depths. Having these at the front of your mind is crucial for microcontroller projects, where deciding what types of images to support is often limited by the amount of memory available for frame buffers, and the capabilities of the screen chosen as the device’s display.
Speaking of display specifics, [Scott] shares some detail about mapping the memory to the dimensions of your screen. If the byte count of pixel data doesn’t line up nicely with the dimensions of the screen, padding the rows out may help in the processing overhead it takes to get those pixels onto the screen. He also has some tips about “premultiplied alpha” which makes the transparency calculation a part of the image itself, rather than demanding this be done when trying to update the screen. Running a test in C# on one million frame renders shows the type of savings you can expect.
Decades of trial and error landed us with these schemes. Looking back is literally an archaeology project, as one hacker discovered when
trying to get a set of digital images off of a floppy
from a 1990s photo processing service. | 16 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6370093",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2021-08-05T09:26:19",
"content": "Oh boy, I wish my retro platform of choice had a nice linear framebuffer like that, rather than something resembling a LFSR pattern…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,995.514486 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/light-bulb-plant-propagation-station-is-a-bright-idea/ | Light Bulb Plant Propagation Station Is A Bright Idea | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"light bulb",
"macrame cord",
"plant propagation",
"recycling",
"upcycling"
] | We’ve always enjoyed having a few indoor plants around the Hackaday dungeon because they just make the days more cheerful. Apparently there’s a big craze for them right now, which has led to price increases of things like propagation stations — places where cuttings from mature plants go to grow a root system before getting planted in dirt. Many plants will root readily in water, and it’s better for them to start out this way because soil can come with a bunch of problems.
This goes really well with the older craze of Edison-style light bulbs. We’re glad we never bothered with those because [JGJMatt] says they don’t last long at all.
The bulbs themselves are really nice looking, so [JGJMatt] decided to turn a few of them into hanging water propagation stations
. After cleaning out the bulb and embiggening the opening, [JGJMatt] formed a holder by applying a torch to brass rod. This dulls the brass, so they shined it up with steel wool and some automotive polishing compound. Then it’s time for some simple macrame to hang it with, because it will soon be full of water.
Does the handle sound familiar? It ought to — [JGJMatt]’s elegant builds
have graced these pages a few times before
. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6370063",
"author": "vib",
"timestamp": "2021-08-05T06:14:24",
"content": "It´s awesome, what an amazing idea, I´m jealous. The pinnacle of home hacking, it must be so exciting to write about such wonderful hacks. Lucky roots, they were adapted to live in complete darkness, yet they... | 1,760,372,995.55929 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/phase-coherent-beamforming-sdr/ | Phase Coherent Beamforming SDR | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"RTL-SDR",
"sdr",
"software-defined radio"
] | The days when software defined radio techniques were exotic are long gone, and we don’t miss them one bit. A case in point: [Laakso Mikko’s] research group has built a
multichannel receiver
using 21 cheap RTL-SDR dongles to create a phase coherent array. This is useful for everything from direction finding and passive radar or beam forming. The
code
is also available on GitHub.
The phase coherence does require the dongle’s tuner can turn off dithering. That means the code only works with dongles that use the R820T/2. The project modifies the dongles to use a common clock and a switchable reference noise generator.
A single coupler can accommodate seven dongles for a cost of about $180. The team has used up to 5 of these to create arrays of 35 receivers. The processing is a bit math-intensive and some of the code is in Matlab.
In addition, some of the paper deals with increasing performance of sparse arrays of receivers to approach the performance of a fully-populated array. Obviously, even at this low price, fewer receivers will be desirable for cost, space, and power concerns.
Of course, not everyone needs dozens of channels of phase coherent receiving, but if you do, it is good to know an inexpensive way to get there.
The RTL-SDR makes many
projects
easy that would be harder to do in a conventional manner. From medical devices to
satellites
, one cheap piece of hardware can do it all, it seems. | 18 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6370045",
"author": "Bruce J Perens",
"timestamp": "2021-08-05T03:52:24",
"content": "Lucky they are European, this is probably export restricted within ITAR 121. It may also run awry of some European regulation, but the fact that they have already published a scientific paper helps... | 1,760,372,995.460143 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/upgrade-a-3d-printed-cnc-milling-machine-by-using-it/ | Upgrade A 3D Printed CNC Milling Machine By Using It | Danie Conradie | [
"cnc hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"ivan miranda",
"machining",
"milling machine"
] | One of the original ideas behind the RepRap project was for the machines to create their own upgrades. That philosophy is shining brightly in [Ivan Miranda] CNC milling machine project, which has been used to
upgrade its aluminum and 3D printed frame components to steel
.
For precision machining on hard metal, machine rigidity is of utmost importance. [Ivan]’s
original CNC mill
made extensive use of lightweight aluminum extrusions with 3D printed fittings. The machine worked, but the lack of rigidity was visible in the surface quality of the machine parts. The latest upgrade included a completely new frame from welded steel tubing and heavy aluminum mounting plates. The original machine was used to slowly machine slots in the steel tubes to retain the adjustability of the Z-axis. Some of the 3D printed motor mounts remained, so in the second video after the break [Ivan] used the newly upgraded machine to mill some aluminum replacements.
While this machine might not be perfect, we have to respect [Ivan]’s willingness to toss himself in at the deep end and show all failures and lessons learned the hard way. This project was clearly used as an opportunity to improve his welding and machining skills. His fabrication skills have come a long way from mainly 3D printed projects like the
giant tracked tank
and
screw tank
. | 22 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6370000",
"author": "turtle-z",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T23:41:23",
"content": "It’s not a 3D printed milling machine. How many of the functional parts are actually 3D printed?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6370024",
... | 1,760,372,995.660549 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/working-lego-space-computers-are-a-chip-off-the-old-block/ | Working LEGO Space Computers Are A Chip Off The Old Block | Kristina Panos | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"lego",
"LEGO space computer",
"oled"
] | We all have our favorite classic LEGO bricks, and wouldn’t be surprised if one or more of the various space computers showed up on pretty much everyone’s list. [dyoramic] loves them so much that
they built two different working versions that do different things
.
The first one is about six times the size of the original brick. Inside the 3D printed case is an ESP32 and a 1.5″ OLED display. [dyoramic] wired up the top six buttons as inputs and the rest are just for looks. The screen defaults to the classic white cross on green that just sits there looking legit. But start pushing buttons and you’ll find other modes — the cross becomes a radar screen in one, the computer spits out space facts in another, there’s a falling bricks game, and finally, a time and date screen.
The second LEGO space computer build is even bigger — both were designed around the size of their screens. It has a Raspi 4 and shows a dashboard with the weather, time, date, latest xkcd, and a few cryptocurrency prices. [dyoramic] has an even bigger version in the works that will use a 720 x 720 screen and a handful of brown key switches as inputs. We can’t wait to see that one! For now, check out the build and demo of the first two after the break.
What can’t you do with LEGO? It feels like we’ve seen it all, from
cameras
to
microscopes
to
continuously variable transmissions
. Wouldn’t you love to drive one of those around the block? | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,995.280833 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/cablecam-is-an-exercise-in-system-integration/ | Cablecam Is An Exercise In System Integration | Danie Conradie | [
"drone hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"cable robot",
"Jetson Nano",
"raspberry pi"
] | Drones have become the standard for moving aerial camera platforms, but another option that sees use in the professional world are cable cameras. As an exercise in integrating mechanics, electronics, and software, [maxipalay] created his own
Cablecam
.
Cablecam is build around a pair of machined wood plates, with some pulleys and motor reduction gearing between them. A brushless hobby motor moves the platform along the rope/cable, driven a drone ESC. Since the ESC doesn’t have a reverse function, [maxipalay] used four relays controlled by an Arduino to swap around the connections of two of the motor wires to reverse direction. The main onboard controller is a Raspberry Pi, connected to a camera module mounted on a two-axis gimbal for stabilization. A GPS module was also added for positioning information on long cables.
The base station is built around an Nvidia Jetson Nano connected to a 7″ screen mounted in a plastic case. Video, telemetry and control signals are communicated using the open-source
Wifibroadcast
protocol. This uses off-the-shelf WiFi hardware in connectionless mode to broadcast UDP packets, and avoids the lengthy WiFi reconnection process every time a connection drops out. The motion of Cablecam can be controlled manually using a potentiometer on the control station, or use the machine vision capabilities of the Jetson to automatically track and follow people.
We’ve seen several
cable robots
over the years, including a
solar-powered sensor platform that resembles a sloth
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369946",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T19:34:22",
"content": "I’m trying to understand why it requires four relays to reverse the motor, and hackaday.io is such a pain to navigate I didn’t find the answer there. They’re SPDT relays — I’ve got the same board in front o... | 1,760,372,995.60632 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/new-part-day-an-esp-with-zigbee/ | New Part Day: An ESP With ZigBee | Jenny List | [
"Parts"
] | [
"EPS32-H2",
"ESP32",
"espressif",
"RISC-V",
"zigbee"
] | It seems that the folks at Espressif are doing their best to produce chips to fit every possible niche in the microcontroller-with-radio market, because here comes news of their latest chip bearing the ESP32 name: a single-core 96MHz RISC-V part with built-in IEEE 802.15.4 to support ZigBee 3.x and Thread 1.x. The
ESP32-H2
is not the most powerful of the Espressif line-up, but it will find its place in home automation products and projects.
The ESP32-H2 joins a multitude of other IEEE 802.15.4 devices from manufacturers such as Microchip, ST, NXP, and Nordic in an increasingly crowded marketplace, so what can if offer that the others can’t? If previous ESP chips are anything to go by we’d expect it to compete on price as well as the obvious attraction for developers used to working with other Espressif products. We look forward as always to seeing what you do with it. | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369928",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T18:34:38",
"content": "Probably more interesting from home automation enthusiasts is Thread support, if someone develops a Material library you’d have a off the shelf extremely low cost way to link devices using Apple HomePod mini ... | 1,760,372,995.815218 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/better-mousetraps-or-screw-drives-dont-always-win/ | Better Mousetraps (or Screw Drives) Don’t Always Win | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"bolt",
"cold rolling",
"lathe",
"screw",
"thread",
"threads"
] | I’ve noticed, lately, that slotted screw heads are all but gone on new equipment. The only thing that I find remarkable about that is that it took so long. While it is true that slotted heads have been around for ages, better systems are both common and have been around for at least a century.
Check out those cool threads.
The reason slotted heads — technically known as the drive — are so common is probably because they are very easy to make. A hacksaw is sufficient for the job and there are other ways to get there, too. The only advantages I know of for the user is that you can easily clean a slotted drive and — possibly — use field expedient items like butter knives and quarters to turn the screw. I’ve heard people claim that it also is a feature that the screwdriver can pry things like paint can lids, but that’s a feature of the tool, not the screw drive.
The disadvantages, though, are significant. It is very hard to apply lots of torque to a slotted screw drive without camming it out or snapping the head off the screw. The screwdriver isn’t self-centering either, so applying force off-axis is common and contributes to the problem.
A Bit of History
Threaded wood for things like olive presses started showing up about 2,000 years ago or so. By the 15th century, metal screws appeared, but being hand-made they were not very regular and were only popular in limited applications. Job and William Wyatt patented a screw machine in 1760, but it would be ten more years before a workable model would appear.
In 1770, Englishman Jesse Ramsden invented the first workable screw-cutting lathe which he used to create micrometers and other scientific instruments. He was also a mathematician and you may know him from his contributions to optics. Around 1800, Henry Maudslay invented a large screw-cutting lathe and American machinist David Wilkinson created a similar lathe. The lathe allowed for the production of interchangeable parts which were key to the industrial revolution where people like Eli Whitney were able to move to mass production of items like guns which had previously been one-of-a-kind.
Screw-cutting lathe from around 1800.
Prior to Maudslay’s inventions, lathes were generally operated with a foot treadle and the operator simply held the tool to the work piece. This was not accurate enough to cut threads, so screws were made by the freehand use of chisels and files. Maudslay’s lathe had changeable gears that allowed for different pitch threads. Wilkerson’s was a larger machine, but was not easily configurable. Even so, the government used around 200 lathes like Wilkerson’s and awarded him $10,000 for the invention — That would be about a quarter of a million dollars today.
All of this time, the heads were nearly always a simple slot. In 1744, you could get a flat blade that fit a carpenter’s brace sort of like today’s drills will take a drive bit. By 1800, though, handheld screwdrivers were common.
Cutting threads with a lathe is only one way to form threads. While it is precise, it is also expensive and weakens the metal. Cold rolling is economical and doesn’t remove any metal, but the first attempts by William Keane in 1836 failed because cast iron dies were not up to the task. In 1867 Harvey J. Harwood also attempted cold rolling, but practical thread formation using this method had to wait for Hayward Harvey and Charles Rogers in the early 1880s. Some special bolts are still cut, though, and the video below shows a modern operation, and the second video shows the more usual modern process.
Modern Problems
Canadian patent drawing for a Robertson drive screw.
Ironically, while assembly lines became possible because of standard screw threads, they also were responsible for dissatisfaction with the slotted drive. Inventors wanted to do better. In 1908, Canadian Peter Robertson invented a square-head screw drive where the driver and the hole had a slight taper. There had been other attempts at producing similar drives, but they were all difficult to manufacture and did not catch on. Robertson’s invention was conducive to inexpensive manufacturing using a die.
This has several advantages. First, the drive is self-centering. Second, the driver won’t slip out even at high levels of torque. The Canadian Model T Ford used over 700 Roberson screws.
Ford and Phillips
A Phillips driver, although those screws look suspiciously like Robertsons.
Ford found that the Robertson drive saved a few bucks on the production cost of each car, but was wary of having a single supplier. Robertson, however, had a bad experience licensing in England and was reticent to enter into another license deal.
In the 1930s, Henry Philips building on work by John Thompson, had introduced the Phillips drive for screws. This also self-centered and was more amenable to automated methods compared to a slotted drive. Too much torque could cam out the head, though, as you’ve probably experienced. The company claimed this as a feature to prevent over tightening. GM wound up using the Phillips drive in the 1936 Cadillac, and its popularity was assured.
Robertson
drive screws account for almost all screws sold in Canada and are virtually unused everywhere else. Even though most people consider the Robertson drive superior, a business decision made it a small player.
Even More
Pozidriv screw heads can be identified by the extra notch marks
There are a staggering number of
drive types
out there, many of which don’t have the problems the Phillips head has. William Allen’s hex drive is used in many applications. Pozidriv is uncommon outside of Japan. Yet the slotted drive survives and Phillips remains nearly ubiquitous in much of the world.
It makes us wonder. The old saying is that if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. But that doesn’t seem to be true. It is more like if you build a better mousetrap, market it successfully, build a great distribution network, and defend your intellectual property… well, you get the idea.
I focused on the driver technology, but
the screw threads themselves are a fascinating design
that our own Dan Maloney dove into a few years back. If you want to know more about other types of bolts and their appeal, the amusing video below has a lot of good information. It still doesn’t answer the question of why we don’t see more use of “better” drives. What do you think?
If you want to try your own bolts, maybe you need a
mini lathe
. Or maybe you just want some advice on getting the
perfect set of screwdrivers
. | 114 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369898",
"author": "David taylor",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T17:22:09",
"content": "thanks for calling them slotted heads instead of flat heads. for everyone who constantly gets this wrong, slotted describes the driver shape. flat describes the shape of the screw’s head.",
"pare... | 1,760,372,996.119905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/were-hiring-come-join-us-5/ | We’re Hiring: Come Join Us! | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"contributor",
"hiring"
] | You wake up in the morning, and check Hackaday over breakfast. Then it’s off to work or school, where you’ve already had to explain the Jolly Wrencher to your shoulder-surfing colleagues. And then to a hackspace or back to your home lab, stopping by the skull-and-cross-wrenches while commuting, naturally. You don’t bleed red, but rather #F3BF10. It’s time we talked.
The Hackaday writing crew goes to great lengths to cover all that is interesting to engineers and enthusiasts. We find ourselves stretched a bit thin and it’s time to ask for help. Want to lend a hand while making some extra dough to plow back into your projects? We’re looking for contributors to write a few articles per week and keep the Hackaday flame burning.
Contributors are hired as private contractors and paid for each article. You should have the technical expertise to understand the projects you write about, and a passion for the wide range of topics we feature. You’ll have access to the Hackaday Tips Line, and we count on your judgement to help us find the juicy nuggets that you’d want to share with your hacker friends.
If you’re interested,
please email our jobs line (jobs at hackaday dot com)
and include:
One example article written in the voice of Hackaday. Include a banner image, at least 150 words, the link to the project, and any in-links to related and relevant Hackaday features. We need to know that you can write.
Details about your background (education, employment, interests) that make you a valuable addition to the team. What do you like, and what do you do?
Links to your blog/project posts/etc. that have been published on the Internet, if any.
What are you waiting for? Ladies and Gentlemen, start your applications! | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369959",
"author": "just passing",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T20:11:25",
"content": "If your blood is #F3BF10-hued, you’re probably going to be too busy seeking urgent medical assistance to be applying for new jobs…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,996.238607 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/semiconductor-shortage-never-mind-that-theres-a-vacuum-shortage/ | Semiconductor Shortage? Never Mind That, There’s A Vacuum Shortage! | Jenny List | [
"Parts"
] | [
"parts shortage",
"tubes",
"vacuum tubes",
"valves"
] | As those of us who work in electronics are grappling with a semiconductor shortage making common devices unobtainable and less common ones very expensive, it’s worth noting that there’s another supply crunch playing out elsewhere in the electronics industry. It’s not one that should trouble most readers but it’s a vexing problem in the guitar amp business,
as guitar.com reports
. At its root is the Chinese
Shuguang
factory, which it is reported has been forced to close down and move its operations. There’s nothing about this on the Shuguang website, so we hope that the plant has been relocated successfully and production will resume.
The specialist audio market that forms the lion’s share of tube customers in 2021 is a relatively tiny corner of the electronics business, but it’s interesting to note that the three major plants which supply it, in Slovakia, Russia, and China, are still not enough to prevent it being vulnerable when one of them fails. The likelihood of a fourth tube plant emerging somewhere else in the 2020s to take up the slack is not high, but it’s evident that the demand remains healthy enough.
If you’d like to know more about the supply of new vacuum tubes,
we went into the subject in greater detail last year
. | 28 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369864",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T15:20:10",
"content": "One of those back-burner, I’ll-do-it-one-day projects in my mind has often been to wonder how feasable it would be to produce FET-based tube replacements. I’m thinking a tube base with a vertical tube-sized ci... | 1,760,372,996.190167 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/exps-2-keyboard-adapter-translates-ps-2-and-usb-to-msx/ | EXPS/2 Keyboard Adapter Translates PS/2 And USB To MSX | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"external keyboard",
"Gradiente Expert",
"keyboard",
"msx",
"PS/2"
] | Say what you will about suitcase computers, but at least most of them still have their keyboards with them. [danjovic] has this vintage Brazilian computer from the 1980s called a Gradiente Expert. These were MSX machines with Z80 chips that ran BASIC, DOS, and CP/M, and they looked like state-of-the-art dual-deck stereo systems. You can still find them pretty easily, but sadly, most of them have lost their rad mechanical keyboard with its giant arrow keys and proprietary connector.
If you now want to get one of these awesome pieces of computing history and would like to be able to talk to it,
[danjovic] has you covered with the open-source EXPS/2 keyboard adapter
. It will allow you to connect either a PS/2 keyboard or a USB keyboard in fallback mode to the Expert using an ATMega328P and a bespoke DIN-13 to DB-13 cable. As it turns out, there’s
a wealth of information on MSX keyboard matrices
out there.
How much do you know about the USB keyboard interface? If you want a warehouse of information delivered to your brain in the most pleasant way possible,
go watch [Ben Eater] break it down with pen and paper
. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369512",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T10:27:25",
"content": "Interesting.When I acquired my SGI Indigo, I had the same problem: no (proprietary interface) keyboard or mouse. Thankfully, the SGI is a bit more popular here, and someone had built an intelligent ... | 1,760,372,996.36398 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/levitation-by-sound/ | Levitation By Sound | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"levitation",
"ultrasonic",
"ultrasound"
] | Levitating things with magnets is no great feat these days. We don’t see as many projects with sonic levitation. However, Japanese engineers have a new method to
lift objects
using sound. The process isn’t totally reliable yet, but it may lead to better methods in the future. You can see a video about the work below.
Manipulating very small items via laser or acoustics isn’t new. However, there are significant limitations to current methods. This new approach uses an array of hemispherical ultrasound transducers. By controlling the amplitude and phase of each transducer, an acoustic trap forms and can pick up a 3 mm polystyrene ball without direct contact.
Manipulating objects without contact interests us for a few reasons, not the least of which is circuit assembly. Robust technology of this type could also add new dimensions to additive manufacturing. Of course, it is a long way from a 3 mm polystyrene ball to a surface mount component. However, you have to admit watching components just float through the air to their final resting places would be something to see.
Not that we haven’t seen
sonic levitation before
.
Magnetic levitation
tends to be easier, but also has some limitations. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369448",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T04:25:28",
"content": "Just in case you’re thinking it would be cool to levitate something large, like yourself, with this, do the arithmetic: It scales very poorly indeed. You’ll need something like 150 dBA sound pressure level,... | 1,760,372,996.531053 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/dedicated-led-animation-framework-for-esp32/ | Dedicated LED Animation Framework For ESP32 | Danie Conradie | [
"Art",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"RGB LED",
"ws2812"
] | [Eric Arcana] has been creating animated holiday decorations for several years, which involved a lot of custom code to make things light up the way he wanted, pulling the microcontroller to make changes. Using ESP32s with remote software updates is easier, but [Eric] also wanted to make the code simpler. To achieve this he created
Fade
, a custom programming language/framework for controlling LED animations from the ESP32.
Fade is written for addressable RGB LEDs like the Neopixel/WS2812. It keeps track of the current color of every LED in the system and allows the user to define what color it should be at a specified time in the future. Time is specified using 10 ms clock cycles. The LEDs will smoothly change from one color to the other in the specified number of clock cycles, without needing to specify what the intermediate colors should be.
Code is written in simple IDE, running on a web server on the ESP32 itself, or on a remote Windows PC. The language is very simple, but still powerful enough to create complex LED animations. A key part of it is the ability to specify multiple concurrent state changes in just a few lines of code. [Eric] also included optioning to take touch button inputs and use them to update the animations. Another nice feature is a simulation window on the desktop IDE. It allows you to create custom LED layouts on PC, and test your code without needing to send it to the ESP32.
Addressable LEDs have made creating large LED installations a lot simpler, like this
6 foot LED ball
or a
LED Video Wall
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CXQz1x2k9o | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369452",
"author": "Eric Gunnerson",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T04:56:35",
"content": "Creator here.Code is available if you want to try it out yourself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6369472",
"author": "vib",
... | 1,760,372,996.480797 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/single-wheel-motorcycle-trailer/ | Single-Wheel Motorcycle Trailer | Danie Conradie | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bike trailer",
"Make It Extreme",
"motorcycle"
] | A motorbike might not take up a lot of parking space, but this is not true for the trailer required to transport one. To solve this problem, [Make It Extreme] built a custom
single-wheel motorbike trailer
barely wider than the motorcycle itself.
The frame of the trailer is welded together from a couple of sections of large diameter steel tube, with a single car wheel mounted to a C-shaped portion on the rear end. A standard ball hitch would allow the entire trailer to tilt over to one side, so a pin hitch is used instead, with a pivot to allow up and down movement. Another pivot was added to the frame just ahead of the rear wheel to allow the trailer to lower to the ground for loading. It is raised and lowered with a manually pumped hydraulic cylinder, and a small pivoting ramp at the back also acts as a stop for the motorbike’s rear wheel. With the rigid frame and no suspension, we’re just wondering how well it will handle bumps at high speed.
[Make It Extreme] really likes his recreational vehicles, which include a
monotrack motorbike
, a
monowheel
, and an
all-terrain hoverboard
, among others. | 40 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369326",
"author": "Chris O",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T20:31:56",
"content": "Excellent workmanship, I could have used one of those 20 years ago.It would be interesting to see how high that back end could fly up if it hit a serious pot hole.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,372,996.437889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/mag-lev-switches-are-the-future-of-clacking/ | Mag-Lev Switches Are The Future Of Clacking | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"clack hacks",
"keyboard",
"keyswitch",
"magnetic switch"
] | While there’s probably a Cherry MX clone born every year or so, it’s not often that such a radically different type of switch comes along. These “Void” switches are Hall-effect magnetic levitation numbers devised by keyboard connoisseur and designer [riskable]. Can you imagine how satisfying it is to clack on switches that actuate with magnets? They have adjustable tactility
and
travel thanks to even more tiny magnets. But you won’t be able to get these in a group buy or anything.
If you want some of these babies, [riskable] says you’ll have to print and assemble ’em yourself
.
These attractive switches don’t have a Cherry MX footprint, either, so you’ll need some of [riskable]’s AKUs, or
Analog Keyboard Units
(YouTube) to actually use them. [riskable] predicts that unlike the switches, the AKUs will likely be available to buy at some point in the future. (Okay good, because we really would love to know what these feel like in a keyboard!)
So, how do they work? As explained in the first video embedded below, there is one magnet in the slider and another in the housing. These two are attracted to each other, so actuating the switch separates them, which is where the Hall effect comes in. A third magnet in the keycap acts as the levitator to help return the switch to open position. The tactility of these switches is determined by the thickness of the plastic between the two lovebird magnets, so you could totally dial that in to whatever you want, in addition to all the other customization that 3D printing affords.
Tour and Teardown
The inimitable [Chyrosran22] featured these mag-nificent switches in one of his teardown videos, which is embedded below. One of the things [riskable] sent was a tactility sampler that ranges from an unimaginably tactile 0.0 mm of plastic in between them to not quite 2 mm.
In case you’re wondering, the video is remarkably safe-for-work, which is surprising given the content creator’s propensity for long strings of creative and hyphenated curses. We suppose [Chyrosran22] saves that stuff for the bad keyboards, then.
Stick around after the rightfully glowing review for [riskable]’s tour of a hand-wired analog macro pad using these switches. When you have a few extra minutes,
check out the video build journey of these switches on [riskable]’s YouTube channel
.
So, would these switches make the clickiest keyboard ever? Maybe, but
consider this striking solenoid setup
. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369361",
"author": "reg",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T21:42:40",
"content": "This sounds pretty interesting. The idea of using magnets instead of springs is pretty cool. Expensive, but cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "636... | 1,760,372,996.594307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/andxors-def-con-29-electronic-badge-is-an-assembly-puzzle/ | AND!XOR’s DEF CON 29 Electronic Badge Is An Assembly Puzzle | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Reviews",
"Slider"
] | [
"AND!XOR",
"badgelife",
"DEF CON",
"defcon 29",
"hardware badge"
] | For years I’ve looked forward to seeing each new unofficial hardware badge that comes out of the #Badgelife powerhouse known as AND!XOR. A mix of new and interesting components, alternate-reality game, and memes, you never know what they’re going to throw down.
A bubble pack landed on my desk on Thursday with the newest offering,
the AND!XOR electronic badge built for DEF CON 29
, happening this weekend as a hybrid in-person and online conference. While each previous year upped the ante on complexity and manufacturing magic tricks, it’s no surprise considering the uncertainty of both the global pandemic and global chip shortage that they took a different tack. What we have here is a badge hacking puzzle that challenges you to just figure out how to put the thing together!
The Hardware
Unpacking the badge it is clear that this is a solder kit. In addition to the main PCB and four daughter PCBs, there’s a small zipper bag of components in tape, along with two coin cells, a battery holder, and a beautiful color lanyard. You’ve got to put all of this stuff inside of a package to ship it, so the meme factory decided to roll out a pack of “Damonitos”, a play on Doritos-brand corn chips and the badge collective’s recently adopted hashtag-mascot, Matt Damon. I haven’t asked why and neither should you.
The thing is, there’s nothing programmable here; through and through this is a hardware badge. I’ll dive into the assembly details later on, but this looks like surface mount resistors, capacitors, and transistors, and one through-hole trimpot. It’s a clever way to sidestep the problem of reliably sourcing microcontrollers in any kind of volume in 2021.
The boards themselves are obviously the “After Dark” treatment of OSH Park (and sure enough, their logo is on the back of the board). The iconic treatment uses black substrate (the board itself), clear solder mask to let the copper traces show through, ENIG plating for golden pads, and white solder mask.
The Assembly Puzzle
I think AND!XOR is hands-down
the best at documenting their badges
, but within a limit of the puzzles they design into them. In this case, most people would reach for the schematic and begin putting paste on the board for assembly. But head over to their project page and you’ll find no such resources available.
What you will find is
encouragement to break the glyph cipher used as component reference
next to each footprint on the back of the board. There are sixteen icons used in the key, which strikes me as nice number for hex-values, but I’m just spitballing. I have not yet had time to start work on this challenge, but it’s all I want to do right now. Not great for the outlook on getting my actual work done,
thaaaaaanks
AND!XOR.
Three-legged footprints are easy enough to figure out, but two different tape strips of transistors have me thinking that you’ll need to establish PNP versus NPN. Even if you get that sorted out, and crack the code on resistor values, there’s also a routing puzzle afoot.
The daughter PCBs themselves are an interesting part of the challenge. The front of each has two faces, split in half at the edges. Castellated edges on the tip and bottom match up with footprints on the front of the main PCB. For some reason this bring to mind slot machines, where you want to match up like images for each spin. On the back of the daughterboards you can see that electrically they each route traces to different destinations.
I’m told the board is sized to exactly match an official CDC COVID vaccine card (which I suppose also explains the alcohol wipe and bandaid that came with it). Other notable features include the “rounded” edges that use the 1980s style of 8-bit rounded corners. The square holes for badge lanyards continue the aesthetic.
While this doesn’t rise to the same heights as something like
their DC27 badge
which included phosphorescent stickers that integrated with the PCB, light pipes for dimensional effects, and masterful use of a stippled silk screen, we’re living in a very different world from two years ago. After our lives got turned upside down, it’s refreshing to see a new take that is much more accessible to your average person than the multiplayer, only-at-the-con challenges of previous years. Even if you don’t have this kit in your hands, you should be able to take images I included in this article, map the traces, and crack the code to figure out the circuit. I’m smitten.
AND!XOR put together 800 badge kits. So far about 400 have been sold through their online store. The rest will be given out in person at DEF CON 29, and they’ll once again resume their practice of having “local drops” at points around the globe. If you want to get one, and can tolerate — or even embrace — a constant stream of memes,
follow their socials
over the next few days. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369238",
"author": "DKE",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T17:47:56",
"content": "Thanks for the pictures, but how about the components too?A fair bit of useful information could be discerned by component counts and values.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,372,996.685137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/vtol-tailsitter-flies-with-quadcopter-control-software/ | VTOL Tailsitter Flies With Quadcopter Control Software | Danie Conradie | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"quadcopter",
"rc plane",
"vtol"
] | Quadcopters are great for maneuverability and slow, stable flight, but it comes at the cost of efficiency. [Peter Ryseck]’s
Mini QBIT quadrotor biplane
brings in some of the efficiency of fixed-wing flight, without all the complexity usually associated with VTOL aircraft.
The Mini QBIT is just a 3″ mini quadcopter with a pair of wings mounted below the motors, turning it into a “tailsitter” VTOL aircraft. The wings and nosecone attach to the 3D printed frame using magnets, which allows them to pop off in a crash. There is no need for control surfaces on the wings since all the required control is done by the motors. The QBIT is based on a research project [Peter] was involved in at the University of Maryland. The
2017 paper
states that the test aircraft used 68% less power in forward flight than hovering.
(Editor’s Note: [
Peter
] contacted us directly, and
he’s got a newer paper about the aircraft
.)
Getting the flight controller to do smooth transitions from hover to forward flight can be quite tricky, but the QBIT does this using a normal quadcopter flight controller running Betaflight. The quadcopter hovers in self-leveling mode (angle mode) and switches to acro mode for forward flight. However, as the drone pitches over for forward flight, the roll axis becomes the yaw axis and the yaw axis becomes the reversed roll axis. To compensate for this, the controller set up to swap these two channels at the flip of a switch. For FPV flying, the QBIT uses two cameras for the two different modes, each with its own on-screen display (OSD). The flight controller is configured to use the same mode switch to change the camera feed and OSD.
[Peter] is selling the parts and STL files for V2 on his website, but you can download the
V1 files
for free. However, the control setup is really the defining feature of this project, and can be implemented by anyone on their own builds.
For another simple VTOL project, check out [Nicholas Rehm]’s
F-35
which runs on his
dRehmFlight
flight control software. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369185",
"author": "petercat",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T15:55:12",
"content": "Cool!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6369189",
"author": "Doug Leppard",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T16:10:33",
"content": "Impressive!!!"... | 1,760,372,996.639047 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/3d-printing-may-disprove-lord-kelvin/ | 3D Printing May Disprove Lord Kelvin | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"3d printing",
"isotropic helicoid",
"Lord Kelvin",
"physics"
] | If you think 3D printing is only good for benchies, key chains, and printer parts, you might enjoy the paper by two physicists from Wesleyan University and the University of Gothenburg. Lord Kelvin — also known as William Thomson — hypothesized a shape known as an isotropic helicoid. As its name implies, the shape would look the same from any angle. Kelvin predicted that such a shape would spin as it sank in a liquid. Turns out,
3D printing proves it wrong
. (The actual
paywalled paper
is available.)
It might seem strange that scientists are only now getting around to disproving a 150-year old hypothesis. However, the paper’s authors think Kelvin may have built the structures — he provided precise instructions — and simply dropped it when it proved incorrect.
However, Kelvin wasn’t totally wrong. The shape of the helicoid does transmit linear force into rotation. It just isn’t sufficient to cause the shape to rotate. The team intends to try some similar shapes to see if Kelvin might be onto something.
We’ll be honest — we aren’t sure what the practical application of such a shape might be other than just scientific curiosity. But we were interested that 3D printing makes testing something like this much easier and allows incremental changes to the test shapes very quickly, something that would not be true in Kelvin’s day.
Lord Kelvin shows up in the strangest places. We’ve seen him in
long-distance cables
and
electrostatic generators
, among other things. | 28 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369655",
"author": "irox",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T19:04:09",
"content": "“If you think 3D printing is only good for benchies, key chains, and printer parts…”I notice quite a few 3D printer HaD articles start out like that and it gives the impression that the author/editor doesn’t... | 1,760,372,996.753293 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/gladys-west-modelled-the-earth-so-that-we-can-have-gps/ | Gladys West Modelled The Earth So That We Can Have GPS | Al Williams | [
"Biography",
"Featured",
"gps hacks",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"biography",
"geoid",
"gps",
"measurement",
"navy",
"satellite navigation"
] | The name Gladys West is probably unfamiliar, but she was part of creating something you probably use often enough: GPS. You wouldn’t think a child who grew up on a sharecropping farm would wind up as an influential mathematician, but perhaps watching her father work very hard for very little and her mother working for a tobacco company made her realize that she wanted more for herself. Early on, she decided that education was the way out. She made it all the way to the Naval Surface Warfare Center.
While she was there she changed the world with — no kidding — mathematics. While she didn’t single-handedly invent satellite navigation, her work was critical to the systems we take for granted today.
Flying High
West had a passion for satellite altimeters. We think of a satellite being a certain height over the surface of the Earth, but that’s not really accurate. The Earth’s surface isn’t a smooth ball. Passing over a hill or a valley means that the exact distance from the surface to the satellite changes almost constantly. Passing over water is another problem. If you want to be precise, all these things matter. And if you want to build a Global Positioning System, you want to be precise.
West modeled the Earth’s exact shape based on data from the GEOS satellite. She later became the project manager for SEASAT, which used radar to measure the ocean surface. Her interest led her to work with the IBM 7030 computer to refine models of the Earth known as the
geoid
. This takes into account things like tidal forces and gravity to compute the true shape of the Earth, rather than simply assuming that it’s a perfect sphere. An accurate geoid is an important part of today’s GPS and similar navigations systems.
Full Ride
Her family did not have the money to send West to school, so she worked hard to earn a full scholarship. The top two graduating high school students got a full ride and through discipline and her intellect, graduated valedictorian in 1948.
She was excellent in all her subjects but elected to major in math. After a brief tenure teaching, she went back for a Master’s degree. Even with an advanced degree, though, teaching didn’t pay very well. Despite her trepidation in moving to Virginia during the 1960s, the Navy job offered her a better wage and she stayed in that job until retirement over four decades later.
Legacy
West received several awards during her time at work. In addition, she was
inducted into the Air Force Hall of Fame
in 2018. The Navy even produced a short video that you can see below.
Of course, many people
worked on GPS
— known as NAVSTAR at its inception. It wasn’t even the first system of its kind. That honor probably goes to the 1960 Transit project. But all of these systems needed accurate mathematical models of the Earth, and West was a key part of the team that made that happen. Making accurate clocks, keeping them in sync, and shrinking all the components down with a low cost have their own stories and heroes, but for the math, we can thank Gladys West.
We like knowing the stories behind the tech we use every day. We think Gladys West is even more inspiring because of her humble beginnings and the obvious determination and intellect she had to carry her so far. Gladys got her PhD after she retired, but we understand she still prefers to use paper maps.
Want to know more about GPS?
We can help
. Just want to use it? We’ve
come a long way
from $3,000 handheld GPS units. | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369622",
"author": "William J. Jackson",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T17:30:22",
"content": "A very intelligent and determined person, I salute her!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6369698",
"author": "Hirudinea",
... | 1,760,372,997.110101 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/reminder-bring-a-hack-is-this-thursday-august-5th/ | Reminder: Bring-A-Hack Is This Thursday August 5th | Kristina Panos | [
"cons"
] | [
"Bring A Hack",
"pandemic",
"remote"
] | Hey you! What have you been working on lately? No, wait, don’t tell us just yet! Save the juicy details for
the summer edition of Bring-A-Hack
. It’s going down in just two days — that’s Thursday, August 5th at
1:00 PM Pacific Daylight time
(4pm EDT | 9pm BST/CET).
Go register right now!
Historically, Hackaday has attended (or hosted) Bring-a-Hack events as a social activity along with live conference. You grab something off your bench and it gives you a thing to talk about as you see friends old and new. This virtual Bring-a-Hack walks in those footprints — anyone who wants to present their to the group can just type ‘I would like to present’ in the Crowdcast chat once the event gets under way. We also plan to have breakout rooms for more interaction.
If you were too shy to show off one of your projects at the last one of these back in April, now is your chance! Are you building something for the Hackaday Prize? What have you done to make working from home more tolerable? Whatever you’re into, we want to see it, so come and show it off to the hacker elite from around the world. And just because they’re elite, it doesn’t mean they’re elitist: it doesn’t matter what level your project is on. What matters is that you’re passionate about it, and that you probably learned something along the way — something you can share with the community that will bring you many virtual pats on the back.
So go and get registered
, shine up those hacks, and we’ll see you there! | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,996.786838 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/tool-generates-interactive-pcb-diagrams-from-kicad/ | Tool Generates Interactive PCB Diagrams From KiCAD | Donald Papp | [
"Parts",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"documentation",
"html",
"interactive",
"javascript",
"KiCAD",
"pinion"
] | Nearly everyone likes nice pinout diagrams, but the more pins and functions are involved, the more cluttered and less useful the diagram becomes. To address this, [Jan Mrázek]
created
Pinion
, a tool to help generate interactive diagrams from KiCad design files
.
The result is an interactive diagram that can be viewed in any web browser. Hovering over a pin or pad highlights those signals with a callout for the name, and clicking makes it stay highlighted for easier reference. Further information can be as detailed or as brief as needed.
Interestingly, Pinion
isn’t
a web service that relies on any kind of backend. The diagrams are static HTML and JavaScript only, easily included in web pages or embedded in GitHub documentation.
If you think Pinion looks a bit familiar,
you’re probably remembering that we covered [Jan]’s much earlier PcbDraw tool
, which turned KiCad board files into SVG renderings but had no ability to add labels or interactivity. Pinion is an evolution of that earlier idea, and its diagrams are able to act as both documentation and interactive reference, with no reliance on any kind of external service.
Interested?
Pinion has a full tutorial and demo
and a growing library of parts, so check it out. | 21 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369578",
"author": "Vib",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T15:04:00",
"content": "This is incredibly convenient and showcases how relevant FOSS is!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6369663",
"author": "JanW",
"timesta... | 1,760,372,997.165504 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/murata-to-deliver-solid-state-batteries-to-market-in-the-fall/ | Murata To Deliver Solid State Batteries To Market In The Fall | Lewin Day | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Featured",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"battery",
"lithium ion",
"lithium polymer",
"solid",
"solid-state battery"
] | Solid state batteries have long been promised to us as the solution to our energy storage needs. Theoretically capable of greater storage densities than existing lithium-ion and lithium-polymer cells, while being far safer to boot, they would offer a huge performance boost in all manner of applications.
For those of us dreaming of a 1,000-mile range electric car or a 14-kilowatt power drill, the simple fact remains that the technology just isn’t quite there yet. However, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has just announced that
it plans to ship solid state batteries in the fall
, which from a glance at the calendar is just weeks away.
It’s exciting news, and we’re sure you’re dying to know – just what are they planning to ship, and how capable are the batteries? Let’s dive in.
Benefits of Solid State over Li-Ion/Li-Po
A graph published by Murata in 2019 regarding the expected performance regime of their upcoming solid-state battery technology.
If you’re unfamiliar with solid-state batteries, the basic idea is to build a battery using only solid materials, eliminating liquid electrolytes as used in lithium-ion batteries. The hope is that this would allow the use of lithium metal as an anode material, which promises a far higher energy density than existing battery designs. Raw lithium metal isn’t used in current battery anodes as it grows harmful dendrites that quickly destroy a battery. The solid state design also brings other benefits, such as greater safety due to the elimination of the flammable liquid electrolyte, and thus faster charging as temperature limits become less critical to avoid blowing everything to pieces. The compelling benefits are there, yet have thus far proved difficult to achieve.
As for Murata, it’s a company well known for producing multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) and other similar devices, though they have been branching out into battery technologies after purchasing Sony’s battery division back in 2017. With these new solid state batteries, the company hopes to stake its claim as a major competitor in the battery market, after having invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the business.
Starting Small, But Permanent
This promotional image gives us the best look thus far at what a potential solid-state battery from Murata might look like. The image suggests that the cell itself will be combined with the necessary sensors and protection circuitry all in one single solderable package.
According to Murata’s own report from 2019,
their new batteries will be aimed at the wearables and Internet of Things market. The batteries will be on the order of 2 to 25 mAh in capacity, based on graphics in the press release, with energy densities in the realm of 500 Wh/L. This puts the batteries in the realm slightly above the performance of current lithium-ion cells. It also far exceeds existing solid state designs, currently only really used in pacemakers and other very-low-power applications. The company aims to eventually deliver 100,000 parts a month, though will ramp up production slowly over the next 12 months or so.
Murata’s batteries will thus be small, compact, and not wildly powerful. However, their solid state nature brings one exciting benefit — they’ll be able to be soldered directly to PCBs in much the same way as any other component. Solid state batteries have many admirable benefits like these, in fact. By virtue of eliminating liquid electrolytes, the batteries are typically non-flammable and far hardier than traditional lithium-ion cells.
YouTuber [Great Scott] tested prototype solid-state cells from ProLogium
. The cells could be punctured with a nail or cut with shears without catching fire or sustaining terminal damage.
Those hoping for solid-state cells to drop this year with huge current delivery numbers and stratospheric energy densities might be disappointed. However, if big time solid state batteries like that were even close to ready, we’d have more to go on than just a simple press release by this stage. However, it is an exciting development. Through the use of ceramic coating technologies developed through their capacitor business, combined with learnings from the battery business purchased from Sony, Murata have seemingly managed to develop a viable solid state battery that outperforms the very basic, low power designs available thus far, and by significant margin.
Everyone Wants a Piece of This Emerging Sector
As we’ve reported,
BMW are betting big on the technology
, even as competitors like Fisker have fallen by the wayside. Toyota also intend to throw their hat in the ring, with just about every other automaker involved in one way or another. The reason is simple: if solid state batteries can live up to their promises, electric cars could see a huge performance boost almost overnight. Batteries with higher energy density would provide for much longer range between recharges, while the lack of flammable liquid electrolyte would lessen overheating risks and potentially allow faster charge times. These two fixes would leave the electric vehicle world to then solely contend with the infrastructure issue, which is already well on the way to being solved in some locations. It’s compelling stuff.
For all that to happen, though, will require plenty of research and development. That’s well underway, of course, with
Electronic Design
reporting on
multiple cutting-edge projects
in the solid-state battery space late last year. The inherent difficulty most projects face is in the separator material. Placed between the anode and cathode, the separator must allow for lithium ions to pass freely from one side of the battery to another, while resisting the formation of lithium dendrites that could short circuit the battery. There’s a wide variety of approaches and chemistries at play, with it being anyone’s guess as to which, if any, will come out on top.
There’s some fundamental science to be done yet, and with hundreds of millions of dollars pouring in to research labs around the world, there’s plenty going on. YouTuber [Just Have a Think] has been
following along with these developments
, and covers the Murata development along with the state of play in the automotive scene, if you want to dig a bit deeper into the developments.
We can’t wait until these devices are shipping en masse, particularly as densities and current capacity increase. The advent of a lighter, more powerful, and crucially, more robust battery should herald a new wave of projects and technologies in much the same way that lithium-ion batteries did 30 years ago.
[Main image via
Murata online exhibition
about solid state batteries] | 43 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369570",
"author": "Robby",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T14:26:26",
"content": "Ok, so they’re safer than regular Lithium cells, but what about lifetimes? A regular Li cell only take a few hundred charegs before serioulsy losing capacity and becoming useless. How many charge-discharge ... | 1,760,372,997.254697 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/strangest-upside-down-3d-printer-fits-in-a-filament-box/ | Strangest Upside-Down 3D Printer Fits In A Filament Box | Danie Conradie | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"FDM",
"h-bot",
"kralyn",
"portable 3D printer",
"positron printer"
] | It’s rare these days for a new FDM printer to come along that sparks our interest, but the [Kralyn]’s
Positron
managed to do it. (Video, embedded below.) It prints upside down and packs down into a filament box while still boasting a print volume of 175 mm x 176 mm x 125 mm.
Unlike most 3D printers, the hotend and XY-gantry is mounted below the build plate, directly onto the base. You might assume that a printer needs to extrude plastic with gravity to work properly, but the real action is in the smooshing of the plastic layers. It appears that it might even improve bridging since the hotend is supporting the plastic as it gets extruded. A clear glass build plate is used, with the same heating strips found on the rear windows of most cars. This also allows the user still see the part, and provides the added advantage of being able to quickly spot bed leveling and adhesion problems.
Another interesting side effect of this arrangement is rigidity. There is no need to suspend the XY gantry with the heavy hotend in the air, so it can be mounted directly on the thick aluminum base plate. It uses an
H-bot style gantry
, with Synchromesh timing cables instead of belts, which eliminates the concern of belt twist. To get the best possible print volume within the size of a filament box, the gantry axes are arranged diagonally across the base plate. The Z-axis can disconnect and lay flat on top of the printer and uses the linear rails to keep it perfectly straight and perpendicular when mounted.
To reduce the hotend’s height to fit the available space, the filament comes in from the side and the molten plastic makes a 90-degree turn before being extruded. It took [Kralyn] a few revisions to get this to works right, but the large volume of the melt zone allows for increased flow. However, we suspect it might also make hotend maintenance slightly more difficult. The only other concerns we have are the reduced visibility of the printed part and the possibility that bits of plastic might drop into the gantry mechanism and jam it. As far as compact
folding printers
go, this is probably the best design we’ve seen so far. The design is licensed under
CC BY-NC
, and all the design files are linked in the video description.
Thanks for the tips [IraqiGeek] and [Jasper Jans]! | 47 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369531",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T11:21:47",
"content": "Awesome. I want one! Even if I have to build it myself.Another excellent catch by Hack-a-day.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6369533",
"author": ... | 1,760,372,997.335792 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/custom-risc-v-processor-built-in-vhdl/ | Custom RISC-V Processor Built In VHDL | Bryan Cockfield | [
"FPGA",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"fpga",
"hardware",
"neorv32",
"open source",
"RISC-V",
"SoC",
"vhdl"
] | While ARM continues to make inroads into the personal computing market against traditional chip makers like Intel and AMD, it’s not a perfect architecture and does have some disadvantages. While it’s a great step on the road to software and hardware freedom, it’s not completely free as it requires a license to build. There is one completely open-source and free architecture though, known as RISC-V, and its design and philosophy allow anyone to build and experiment with it,
like this build which implements a RISC-V processor in VHDL
.
Since the processor is built in VHDL, a language which allows the design and simulation of integrated circuits, it is possible to download the code for the processor and then program it into virtually any FPGA. The processor itself, called NEORV32, is designed as a system-on-chip complete with GPIO capabilities and of course the full RISC-V processor implementation. The project’s creator, [Stephan], also struggled when first learning about RISC-V so he went to great lengths to make sure that this project is fully documented, easy to set up, and that it would work out-of-the-box.
Of course, since it’s completely open-source and requires no pesky licensing agreements like an ARM platform might, it is capable of being easily modified or augmented in any way that one might need. All of the code and documentation is available on the project’s
GitHub page
. This is the real benefit of fully open-source hardware (or software) which we can all get behind, even if there are still limited options available for
RISC-V personal computers
for the time being.
How does this compare to
VexRISC
or
PicoSOC
? We don’t know yet, but we’re always psyched to have choices. | 30 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369491",
"author": "Electric Ed",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T08:57:09",
"content": "What are those disadvantages in ARM’s architecture?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6369497",
"author": "hnss",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,372,997.495134 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/inputs-of-interest-safetype-vertical-keyboard-with-mirrors-puts-pain-in-the-rear-view/ | Inputs Of Interest: SafeType™ Vertical Keyboard With Mirrors Puts Pain In The Rear-View | Kristina Panos | [
"Featured",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"epoxy blob",
"ergonomic keyboard",
"homing bump",
"keyboard",
"rubber dome"
] | Yep, this keyboard is another ebay special. I can’t stay away! This is a
SafeType™ V801
from probably the early 2000s, although there is no date on it anywhere. I’m basing my guess on the fact that there are so many media buttons. I’ve been eyeing these weirdo mirrored keebs for a while, and when I saw how cheaply this one was going for, I had to have it. That’s just how it goes. I was really excited to clack on it and I’m only marginally disappointed by it. But I can tell you that if
my Kinesis
were to suddenly die, I would probably reach for this keyboard until the new one showed up.
Yes, mirrors on a keyboard are weird. But if you can’t touch-type the numerals and F keys, they’re absolutely necessary.
So, why does it look like this? There are varying levels of ergonomics when it comes to keyboards. This one fights strongly against wrist pronation and forces you into a position that helps the shoulders and neck as well. You’d think it would be weird to hold your arms aloft at right angles, but it’s actually not that strange in practice because you’re pressing inward to type, kind of like playing an accordion or something.
The weird part is looking in the rear-view mirrors to accurately hit the numerals and F keys, though I’ll be honest: in my test drives, I found myself using the mirrors mostly to make sure my hands were on the home row. And that’s with three homing protrusions apiece on F and J! More about that later.
So yes, some of the keycap legends are backwards so you can read them in the mirror. If you don’t like using the numeral row, there’s a num pad in the center, along with the Home/End cluster, a quartet of comically large arrow keys, and a boatload of dedicated media and program launch buttons. All the buttons in the middle are fairly awkward to reach because you must either pull your hand down and around the bottom, or else go over the top.
The view from usage.
Let’s Get to Clackin’
I kind of like this keyboard, enough that I wish it had more ergonomics going for it. I’m disappointed that it isn’t ortholinear and doesn’t have mechanical switches. I have small hands, so the staggering is pretty noticeable after using an ortho for so long and a laptop keyboard a few times a week. Beyond the split and the verticality, it’s really not that ergonomic. Although this has rubber dome key switches, they’re not completely terrible and mushy. They’re kind of sproingy, actually, and because of the angle, they give off a pleasant popcorn popping or bubble wrap sound. Oddly enough, though, the sound varies. It’s like the left half is higher-pitched or something.
Like any self-respecting split keyboard, the SafeType™ has thumb keys, but unfortunately, all that real estate in the thumb area is wasted on one Space and one Backspace. That’s it. And look how big they both are!
Look at all that wasted (back)space! Give me Delete and maybe a Ctrl!
There’s room for at least two or three thumb keys where that Space is.
Check out all these homing thingies on F and J!
I’m all about homing bumps to help with touch-typing and returning to the keys without looking. This is definitely not a keyboard for hunt-and-peck typers. Although this keyboard doesn’t have nearly as many as the
TypeMatrix
, there are three different homing protrusions on both F and J: a bump in the center, a bar at the bottom, and something I’ve never seen before – a little fingertip-shaped arch across the top. All this homing help may seem excessive, but it’s really quite helpful, what with the verticality and all. I would probably be lost without all the homing topography, but there’s always the mirrors. Don’t like the mirrors? Don’t need ’em? They fold and stow away but do not appear to come off without dismantling the thing. I’ll let you know when we get into the teardown.
Some Good Stuff, Some Bad Stuff
Like I said, I really dig the topographical features of F and J. I have nothing derogatory to say about those. Media buttons are kind of nice to have, especially if you can reprogram them. But the legends on those rubber buttons are terrible. Maybe we can put that one down to age.
Look at the size of those arrow keys!
With the mirrors stowed
ISO Enter is an interesting choice!
Yeah, I could fit one of my legs through there.
I dig the massive arrow keys and don’t really understand why they’re so big. That’s the main redeeming quality of the middle layout, which otherwise has its drawbacks. You have to go to the middle of the board for Delete, or else Backspace everything. I use Delete (and Home and End) pretty often, so that would annoy me constantly.
Another thing that would bother me is reaching in to use the number pad — it’s a little cramped, and you have to do unconscionable things with your wrist to use it. You know what would be nice? If it were at a 45° angle or something. Or you know what? They should have made the num pad and the Home/End cluster a separate piece and turned the middle into a mousing arena.
There is this pair of plastic humps that stick up into your palm hollows as you type. At first they feel kind of nice, but ask me again after a full day of typing — not that that’s happening any time soon. I will say that this keyboard is solidly built and doesn’t move around on the desk. Plus, if you turn it over, it doubles as a small breakfast-in-bed tray.
Let’s Talk About Those Mirrors
Can’t touch-type the number row of or the F keys? The mirrors are nice to have, at least until they get in your way. The problem is that they are floppy and too easily knocked out of position, and you will probably run your hand into them at some point while flying to the mouse and back. If you can get away with not using the mirrors at all, they do swing around and stow away nicely in the middle.
The fact that there are mirrors at all was a great idea considering that you can’t see the keycaps at all while you’re typing, and don’t seem so absurd once you’ve got this keeb under your fingertips. The backwards and rotated legends are kind of hilarious on their own, but sadly, you don’t get to look at them because they’re vertical.
As huge as the mirrors are, you’ll still want a separate blind spot mirror to catch people sneaking up behind you at work. The mirrors themselves seem cheap, and the arms are stiff and feel easy to break. Moving them in and out of storage is a bit of a time investment. They’re also cloudy, and both have fallen out of their holders. I put them back in place with double-sided tape.
The Teardown
I can’t believe how many screws are holding this thing together, so I’m really glad that I was able to use an electric screwdriver for most of them. I’m not sure where I expected the controller to be, but it’s on the bottom. And although there are only two screws holding it down, there is a whole bunch of hot glue around the connector that prevented me from flipping the board over. Still, I could lift it up just a little, enough to see a black blob. So really, the guts are rather unremarkable, except for the engineering that went into making a split membrane keyboard with two right angles. And I don’t think you can take off the mirrors without breaking them.
Just inside the bottom panel.
Ribbon cable to left side.
Ribbon cable to right side.
Under those keycaps.
Let’s see those rubber domes!
Yep, standard rubber domes.
So many screws!
I think I see a blob, but that’s as far as I can lift the board.
The reason I can’t lift up the board.
Semi-Safe Typing
You know, I could have maybe seen my way to using this thing instead of the Kinesis when I was first in my keyboard crisis. But there seems to be a lot more hand movement required of this keyboard, most likely because of the row staggering.
And this keyboard is fairly easy to get used to. This would be an awesome alternative if you like Natural keebs but they aren’t doing it for anymore, or if you aren’t ready to go ortholinear, but think that Backspace on the thumb is a great idea. Control + Backspace is one of my best friends, but I wouldn’t use it on this keyboard because they’re both under the pinkies.
They really should have used mechanical switches. Aside from the split and the verticality, this is barely an ergonomic keyboard if you ask me. Ergonomics go deeper than shoulder width and wrist pronation. Switches matter. Heck, springs matter. Do we need to do a post about that? | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369857",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T14:34:56",
"content": "I have to confess I had to look at the calendar when I first saw this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6369858",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,372,997.554495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/raspberry-pi-crammed-into-old-film-camera/ | Raspberry Pi Crammed Into Old Film Camera | Al Williams | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"camera",
"digital camera",
"film",
"film camera",
"photography",
"raspberry pi",
"SLR"
] | If you wanted an expensive film camera when you were a kid, you are in luck. Used film SLRs are super cheap now that everyone wants digital cameras. Of course, in reality, you want a digital camera, too. So do what [befinitiv] did. Make a
film cartridge
out of a Raspberry Pi that can convert your camera to digital. (Video, embedded below.)
In theory, this sounds like a genius idea. The practical aspect isn’t perfect, though. For one thing, the small image sensor used means that the camera is zoomed in quite a bit. Also, the shutter button isn’t integrated, so the shutter is open all the time. You may think that doesn’t matter, but don’t forget that the way an SLR works means if the shutter is open, there’s no viewfinder.
Still, the packaging is neat and we wondered if it might spur someone to take it a little further. You can find the design files in
OnShape
.
It seems clear you really need a larger image sensor, although we suppose you could mount a wide angle lens or adapter to help some. You could also put some optics inside the camera but that would be more packaging problems. We don’t know if the resulting image would be any better or worse than what you got on a film negative, either.
We think of digital cameras as relatively new technology, but they have
quite a history
. Or hack a camera for
full spectrum
. | 21 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369828",
"author": "Andy Pugh",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T11:14:33",
"content": "https://hackaday.com/2021/07/15/analog-camera-goes-digital/?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6369838",
"author": "Howard",
"times... | 1,760,372,997.390502 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/04/mega-man-hack-drops-charge-shot-adds-classic-style/ | Mega Man Hack Drops Charge Shot, Adds Classic Style | Drew Littrell | [
"Games",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"megaman",
"nes",
"nintendo",
"Nintendo Entertainment System",
"rom hacks"
] | When it comes to the six original Mega Man games there is a clear dividing line between the first three and the last. Mega Man 4 introduced the charging shot mechanic that allowed players to hold down the fire button in order to power-up a single blast from Mega Man’s arm cannon. The aptly named,
“Mega Man 4: Free of Charge” ROM hack by [Peter]
seeks to bring cohesion with the first trilogy of Mega Man games by removing the charge shot mechanic completely. To compensate for the change, enemy health bars were also adjusted so that enemies aren’t as bullet-spongy.
The Mega Man 4: Free of Charge download comes as an IPS patch file. There are free utilities out there like Floating IPS that can apply the patch file to a clean dump of a NES cartridge. This ROM hack is playable on original Nintendo Entertainment System hardware via a flashcart device, or it can be played by any common NES emulator like FCEUX or Nestopia.
One of the most annoying parts of Mega Man 4 (minus the difficulty) was the constant whir of the charge shot drowning out the brilliant soundtrack. With a patch like [Peter]’s this is no longer a going concern, and players are able to give their thumbs a bit of a break by not needing to continually hold down fire throughout a run. All welcomed changes aside, it still won’t change the fact that the Japanese TV commercial for the game is cooler than the print ads in the US.
For another fresh take on a NES classic, check out
this Zelda II: The Adventure of Link ROM Hack. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369815",
"author": "Senile Data Systems",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T10:13:18",
"content": "Did they fix the part where the boss bar takes forever to fill up when entering the boss room?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6371121",
... | 1,760,372,997.429691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/rocket-league-inspired-homebrew-reverses-onto-nintendo-gamecube/ | Rocket League Inspired Homebrew Reverses Onto Nintendo GameCube | Drew Littrell | [
"Games",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"demo",
"gamecube",
"homebrew",
"nintendo",
"nintendo gamecube"
] | Would it have been too obvious to call a game about soccer playing RC cars, Soc-Car? Well [Martin] thought so and opted to call
his Nintendo GameCube homebrew game, Retro League GX
. The game clearly takes inspiration from Rocket League developed by Psyonix, as it pits teams of cars on a pitch plus comes complete with boosts to boot. There are some impressive physics on display here, and
according to Krista over at GBATemp
everything is playable on original hardware. Though those without a GameCube can certainly get a match in via the Dolphin emulator.
There are a number of ways to boot homebrew on a Nintendo GameCube, however, the most essential piece of software would be Swiss.
Swiss is a homebrew utility
that interfaces with all the myriad of ways to load code onto a GameCube these days. Common ways loading homebrew include saving files onto an SD card then using a SDGecko device that plugs into the memory card ports, or a SD2SP2 device that plugs into one of the GameCube’s expansion ports located on the bottom of the console. Those who prefer ditching the disc drive entirely can load homebrew via a optical disc emulator device like the GC Loader.
Still on the roadmap Retro League GX are ports for 3DS, PSP, Wii, and Linux. LAN and Online multiplayer are in the works as well. So at least that way GameCube broadband adapter owners may get to branch out beyond Phantasy Star Online for once. Best of all, [Martin] stated that the code for Retro League GX will be open sourced sometime next year.
For more things GameCube, check out
this mod of the beloved/belied GameCube keyboard controller
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369782",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T05:35:41",
"content": "Ooooh, a PSP port with multiplayer would be nice!Also, Psyonix sucks. They sold out to Epic, they removed a bunch of features, and dropped Linux and Mac support completely. The game I spent money to buy so I... | 1,760,372,997.596692 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/fail-of-the-week-flipped-cable-leads-to-fried-radio/ | Fail Of The Week: Flipped Cable Leads To Fried Radio | Donald Papp | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"fail of the week",
"mobile",
"reverse polarity",
"yaesu"
] | [Doug]’s newly-installed Yaesu FT-891 mobile transceiver failed to power up despite a careful installation, and
it turns out to have ultimately been caused by a reversed cable
. There’s a happy ending, however. Since the only real casualties were a blown resettable fuse and a badly-burned resistor that damaged the PCB, [Doug] was able to effect a repair. Things could have been worse, but they also could have been better. Damage could have been prevented entirely with some better design, which [Doug] explains during his analysis of what went wrong.
The destroyed SMT resistor and pads were easily replaced with a through-hole version, thanks to the schematics.
The main problem was that the generic RJ12 cable that [Doug] used to connect radio components had its connections reversed. This would not be a problem if it was used to connect a landline telephone to the wall, but it was a big problem when used to connect the radio components together. According to the radio schematics, the two center wires carry +13 V and GND, which meant that a reversed cable delivered power with reversed polarity; never an optimal outcome.
Once the reversed power arrived at the other end, [Doug] discovered something else. Diodes whose job would be to protect against reverse polarity were marked DO NOT INSTALL, probably to shave a few cents off the bill of materials. As a result, the full 13 V was soaked up by a 1/8 W surface mount resistor which smoldered and burned until a fuse eventually blew, but not before the resistor and pads were destroyed. Thankfully, things cleaned up well and after replacing the necessary parts and swapping for a correct cable, things powered up normally and the mobile radio was good to go.
Curious for a bit more details about mobile radio installations?
Check out our own Dan Maloney’s rundown on installing a discontinued (but perfectly serviceable) Yaesu FT-8900R
. | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369763",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T03:31:50",
"content": "In looking at the blog written by the owner, the diode across the voltage regulator, if installed, would only protect the regulator during the few milliseconds of power down time. With reverse polarity 13.8V... | 1,760,372,997.6556 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/wooden-keyboard-with-scrabble-tiles-goes-the-extra-mile/ | Wooden Keyboard With Scrabble Tiles Goes The Extra Mile | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Buckling Spring",
"keyboard",
"Model M",
"Scrabble tiles",
"unicomp",
"woodworking"
] | [Steve M. Potter] loves and respects a good, solid keyboard as much as we do and wanted to build
an heirloom-level battleship to grace their home office
. Well, you couldn’t ask for a better donor keeb. [Steve] used a Unicomp, the modern Model M. The cases on them are nowhere near as nice as a real model M, but hey, where else are you going to find a keyboard with new buckling spring switches? You’re not. (If anyone has a line on new buckling spring switches by themselves, please let us know.)
Although it has those wonderful buckling spring switches, this body is made of solid cherry. After dialing in the general shape of the case, [Steve] carefully routed out all the key cluster holes using a plunge router. This appears to have been the easy part, because making the keycaps looks terribly tedious.
The alphas a number row are all made from 3/4″ maple dowel rod cut down into cylinder nuggets and topped with Scrabble tiles. The F keys and modifiers are cut out of square poplar rod with bird’s eye maple veneer for a unique look. We particularly like the colored F keys — they look like candy or whisky stones, and just happen to be in resistor color code order. But our favorite part has to be the Caps Lock light. We’ll never understand why in situ lock lights went out of fashion.
Like the look of this keyboard but don’t have this much time to invest?
Macropads look good in wood, too
. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369730",
"author": "scott.tx",
"timestamp": "2021-08-04T00:39:54",
"content": "from then on every sentence he wrote include a Q or a Z",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6369753",
"author": "richfiles",
"timestam... | 1,760,372,997.932998 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/03/3d-printer-automated-bed-swapping-system-loads-from-a-magazine/ | 3D Printer Automated Bed Swapping System Loads From A Magazine | Danie Conradie | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"infinite build volume printer",
"magnetic print bed"
] | FDM 3D printing has gone beyond prototyping and is being used as a production tool by many companies. However, conventional printers still require an operation to pop the finished part of the bed and start a new print. [Thomas Sandladerer] wanted a way to swap beds without human intervention, so
he built an automatic print surface changing system
.
The most obvious solution to this problem may appear to be
belt printers
like the Creality CR-30, but these come with some trade-offs. Bed adhesion can be a problem, and the lack of a rigid print surface causes some parts to come out warped. [Thomas] wanted to be able to use PEI-coated steel beds to avoid these issues. His solution is a system that pulls beds from a “magazine” and pushed out the old bed after a part is finished. It still uses a magnetic heatbed, which lowers out of the way before changing print surfaces. Each print surface is fitted inside a 3D printed frame which rests on the tool changer frame and keeps it in place as the heatbed drops down. The bed frames are printed using ASA, can handle 90 C without problems. The pusher mechanism and the heatbed lowering system are driven by stepper motors which connect to the spare motor outputs on the printer’s control board. The printer in question is a Voron 2.4, which is perfect for this application thanks to its high print speed.
This tool-changing system is only the first prototype, but it still worked very well. [Thomas] plans to make key improvements like a larger print bed and reduced height. This system might be a good fit for small and large print farms. We’ve seen another
bed-clearing system
that doesn’t require extra build surfaces, but instead scrapes off the completed part. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369689",
"author": "josephsleary",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T20:25:27",
"content": "Awesome start!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6369712",
"author": "Autodrop3d (@autodrop3d)",
"timestamp": "2021-08-03T21:34:17",
"... | 1,760,372,997.85848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/01/ostrich-robot-machine-learns-itself-to-5k/ | Ostrich Robot Machine-Learns Itself To 5K | Jenny List | [
"Machine Learning",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"bipedal",
"machine learning",
"robot"
] | Ever since humanity has grasped the idea of a robot, we’ve wanted to imagine them into walking humanoid form. But making a robot walk like a human is not an easy task, and even the best of them end up with the somewhat shuffling gait of a Honda Asimo rather than the graceful poise of a balerina. Only in recent years have walking robots appeared to come of age, and then not by mimicking the human gait but something more akin to a bird.
We’ve seen it in the Boston Dynamics models, and also now in a self-balancing two-legged robot developed at Oregon State University
that has demonstrated its abilities by completing an unaided 5 km run
having used its machine learning skills to teach itself to run from scratch. It’s believed to be the first time a robot has achieved such a feat without first being programmed for the specific task.
The university’s PR piece envisages a time in which walking robots of this type have become commonplace, and when humans interact with them on a daily basis. We can certainly see that they could perform a huge number of autonomous outdoor tasks that perhaps a wheeled robot might find to be difficult, so maybe they have a bright future. Decide for yourself, after watching the video below the break. | 43 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368896",
"author": "steven13",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T17:07:49",
"content": "That’s not running.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6368910",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T19:09:41",
"con... | 1,760,372,998.101913 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/01/hacking-a-pic-to-redefine-a-microphones-transmit-frequency/ | Hacking A PIC To Redefine A Microphone’s Transmit Frequency | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"Microchip PIC",
"pic",
"PLL",
"sennheiser",
"wireless microphone"
] | Software defined radio and widespread software-controlled PLL synthesis for RF has been a game changer. Things like the RTL-SDR can be any kind of radio you like on almost any frequency you like. But not every SDR or PLL system opens the configuration doors to you, the end user. That was the problem [vgnotepad] faced when trying to connect a Sennheiser wireless microphone to some receivers. They didn’t use the same frequencies, even though the transmitter was programmable. The solution to that is obvious —
hack the transmitter!
The post is only part one of several parts and if you read to the end, you’ll learn a lot about what’s inside the device and how to crack it. Luckily, the device uses a PIC processor, so getting to the software wasn’t a big issue.
The PIC uses I2C to communicate with the configuration EEPROM, so a little snooping on the bus went a long way. Dumping things out led to finding the frequency settings. By part six of the post, things were all working great.
If you need a primer on PLLs,
start here
. Or
build your own with an Arduino
. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368902",
"author": "Clara Listensprechen",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T18:13:15",
"content": "At the end there’s a link to a great article on how to reverse engineer a microcontroller. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,372,998.152852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/01/the-oscope-restoration/ | The O’Scope Restoration | Al Williams | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Teardown",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"HP",
"oscilloscope"
] | These days, a pretty nice oscilloscope can fit in your toolbox and even a “big” instrument is probably something you can tuck under your arm. But that hasn’t always been the case. Consider this old
HP 150A
, restored by [USagi Electric]. (Video, embedded below.)
The 10 MHz dual channel scope might not seem very high-tech today, but when HP rolled it out in the 1950s to challenge Tektronix, it was quite respectable. The $1,000 price tag just for the mainframe was pretty respectable, too. Unfortunately, the scope wasn’t very reliable with more than 50 tubes in it, and HP quickly had to develop new entries in the scope market.
On the other hand, the machine was great to work on since all the boards were mounted so they would swing out for access. The case is a beast and the whole thing weighs in at about 80 pounds.
[Usagi] thought the scope would only need cleaning but — spoiler alert — it needed more than that. The cleaning and painting job was impressive, and there’s also a custom PCB milled out for the electrolytic capacitors.
There’s more to the story. A tube substitution turned out not to be such a good idea. And the power supply problems were probably due to the fact the scope was set for 230V input.
By the end of the video — which in all fairness is part one — the scope isn’t quite working. But you do get to look at the beautiful insides and it does have some trace in some modes. We’re looking forward to part two.
Really interesting to compare the teardown of an old scope like this compared to
a modern one
. Then again, $1,000 was a lot in the 1950s so maybe comparing it to
a more modern instrument
would be fairer. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368903",
"author": "Philip S. Crosby",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T18:14:48",
"content": "I really enjoyed the first section of the HP 150A ‘scope restoration article. As a summer employee at Tektronix, I worked on a dual-trace mod to the Tek 515, having 15MHz BW. It appeared later, t... | 1,760,372,998.340067 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/01/stereo-recording-made-easy-with-a-3d-printed-mount/ | Stereo Recording Made Easy With A 3D-Printed Mount | Jenny List | [
"hardware"
] | [
"audio",
"audio recording",
"microphone",
"recording",
"stereo"
] | When making a recording it can be surprisingly difficult to capture a good stereo image. A well-known technique is the ORTF microphone arrangement in which two cardoid microphones sit at 110 degrees to each other and 17cm apart, and thus pick up a readily reproducible stereo separation. It’s something that we’ve been known to do in our student days with a pair of Shure SM58s and a stack of Post Office elastic bands, but [marsairforce] has done a much nicer job with
a very neat 3D-printed microphone clip
.
Designed in OpenSCAD, the first iteration printed on a resin printer proved to be too brittle for the task, so a second version was printed on an FDM machine. This incorporated significant strengthening, as well as a screw mount for a microphone stand. The result is an extremely useful and cheap addition to any recording set-up, and anyone who has wrestled with achieving a good stereo image will appreciate it. You can see some of what went into it in the video below the break.
If this is your field of interest,
you might also wish to look at a binaural microphone
. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368851",
"author": "mihrs",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T08:41:56",
"content": "Lots of effort for something that could be done in 30 minutes with a stick welder and few pieces of scrap steel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6368... | 1,760,372,998.557892 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/31/an-epic-tale-of-reset-line-detective-work/ | An Epic Tale Of Reset Line Detective Work | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"cluster",
"Pine64",
"sopine"
] | The Pine64 folks have given us so many tasty pieces of hardware over the last few years, but it’s fair to say that their products are for experimenters rather than consumers and can thus be a little rough around the edges at times. Their Clusterboard for example is a Mini-ITX PCB which takes up to seven of their SOPINE A64 compute modules, and networks them for use as a cluster by means of an onboard Gigabit Ethernet switch. It’s a veritable powerhouse, but it has an annoying bug in that it appears reluctant to restart when told. [Eric Draken]
embarked upon a quest to fix this problem
, and while he got there in the end his progress makes for a long and engrossing read.
We journey through the guts of the board and along the way discover a lot about how reset signals are generated. The eventual culprit is a back-EMF generated through the reset distribution logic itself causing the low-pulled line to never quite descend into logic 0 territory once it has been pulled high, and the solution an extremely simple application of a diode. For anyone who wishes to learn about logic level detective work it’s well worth a look. Meanwhile the board itself with its 28 ARM cores appears to have plenty of potential. It’s even a board we’ve mentioned before,
in a personal supercomputer project
. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368845",
"author": "Allan-H",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T07:28:58",
"content": "Pro tip: do not use 1A Schottky diodes for isolating primary cells. The reverse current through the diodes can be quite large, typically exceeding the maximum charging current for the cell (which may be s... | 1,760,372,998.385774 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/31/a-satellite-upconverter-need-not-be-impossible-to-make/ | A Satellite Upconverter Need Not Be Impossible To Make | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"Es'hail-2",
"satellite"
] | Those readers whose interests don’t lie in the world of amateur radio might have missed one of its firsts, for the last year or two amateurs have had their own geostationary satellite transponder. Called Es’hail-2 / AMSAT Phase 4-A / Qatar-OSCAR 100, it lies in the geostationary orbit at 25.9° East and has a transponder with a 2.4 GHz uplink and a 10.489 GHz downlink. Receiving the downlink is possible with an LNB designed for satellite TV, but for many hams the uplink presents a problem. Along comes [PY1SAN] from Brazil with
a practical and surprisingly simple solution
using a mixture of odd the shelf modules and a few hand-soldered parts.
An upconverter follows a simple enough principle, the radio signal is created at a lower frequency (in this case by a 435 MHz transmitter) and mixed with a signal from a local oscillator. A filter then picks out the mixer product — the sum of the two — and amplifies it for transmission. [PY1SAN]’s upconverter takes the output from the transmitter and feeds it through an attenuator to a MiniCircuits mixer module which takes its local oscillator via an amplifier from a signal generator module. The mixer output goes through a PCB stripline filter through another amplifier module to a power amplifier brick, and thence via a co-ax feeder to a dish-mounted helical antenna.
The whole thing is a series of modules joined by short SMA cables, and could probably be largely sourced from a single AliExpress order without too much in the way of expenditure. It’s by no means easy to get on air via Es’hail-2, but at least now it need not be impossibly expensive.
Even the antenna can be made without breaking the bank
.
We covered Es’hail-2 when it first appeared
. May it long provide radio amateurs with the chance to operate worldwide with homebrew microwave equipment! | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368826",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T02:07:10",
"content": "off-the-shelf*",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6368828",
"author": "limroh",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T02:19:20",
"content": ... | 1,760,372,998.511776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/31/retrotechtacular-mechanical-tv-from-the-people-who-made-it-happen/ | Retrotechtacular: Mechanical TV From The People Who Made It Happen | Jenny List | [
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"baird",
"mechanical TV",
"nipkow",
"nipkow disk",
"tv"
] | If we have a television in 2021 the chances are that it will be a large LCD model, flat and widescreen, able to display HD images in stunning clarity. Before that we’d have had a CRT colour TV, them maybe our parents grew up with a monochrome model. Before those though came the first TVs of all, which were mechanical devices that relied on a spinning disk to both acquire and display the image. The BBC Archive recently shared a vintage clip from 1970 in which two of the assistants of [John Logie Baird], the inventor of the first demonstrable television system,
demonstrated its various parts and revealed its inner workings
.
We’ve covered the Nipkow scanning disk in a previous article
, with its characteristic spiral of holes. We see the original Baird Televisor, but the interesting part comes as we move to the studio. Using the original equipment they show a dot of light traversing the presenter’s face to scan a picture before taking us to a mock-up of the original studio. Here there’s a surprise, because instead of the camera we’d expect today there is a Nipkow disk projector which traverses the subject sitting in the dark. A bank of photocells above the projector senses the reflected light, and returns a video signal.
The resulting low-resolution pictures had a low enough bandwidth to be broadcast over an AM radio transmitter, and for a tiny 30-line picture in the glowing pink of a neon light they provide a surprising amount of detail. With such a straightforward principle it’s not surprising that they’ve appeared in a few projects on these pages, including
an Arduino driven colour video monitor
, and
a POV clock
. Take a look at the video below the break.
#OnThisDay
1930: The first, experimental TV play was transmitted from John Logie Baird's studio.
40 years later, two of Baird's assistants – Tony Bridgewater and D.R. Campbell – demonstrated how mechanical television worked, on Review.
Fascinating stuff!
pic.twitter.com/F6YFDAOAUg
— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive)
July 14, 2021 | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368805",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-07-31T23:06:51",
"content": "The chemicals for creating cyanotype pictures can be obtained online fairly readily these days.A large A1 sheet or a canvas and it could make a pretty interesting analog camera.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,372,998.203495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/github-copilot-and-the-unfulfilled-promises-of-an-artificial-intelligence-future/ | GitHub Copilot And The Unfulfilled Promises Of An Artificial Intelligence Future | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"Machine Learning",
"Original Art",
"Software Development"
] | [
"artificial intelligence",
"github",
"GitHub Copilot",
"GPT-3",
"machine learning"
] | In late June of 2021, GitHub
launched
a ‘technical preview’ of what they termed
GitHub Copilot
, described as an ‘AI pair programmer which helps you write better code’. Quite predictably, responses to this announcement varied from glee at the glorious arrival of our code-generating AI overlords, to dismay and predictions of doom and gloom as before long companies would be firing software developers en-masse.
As is usually the case with such controversial topics, neither of these extremes are even remotely close to the truth. In fact, the OpenAI Codex machine learning model which underlies GitHub’s Copilot is derived from OpenAI’s GPT-3 natural language model, and features many of the same stumbles and gaffes which GTP-3 has. So if Codex and with it Copilot isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be, what is the big deal, and why show it at all?
The Many Definitions of AI
Baker Library at DarthMouth College. (Credit: Gavin Huang, CC BY 3.0)
The first major attempt at establishing a true field of artificial intelligence was the
Dartmouth workshop
in 1956. This would see some of the foremost minds in the fields of mathematics, neuroscience, and computer sciences come together to essentially brainstorm on a way to create what they would term ‘artificial intelligence’, following the more common names at the time like ‘thinking machines’ and
automata theory
.
Despite the hopeful attitude during the 1950s and 1960s, it was soon acknowledged that Artificial Intelligence was a much harder problem than initially assumed. Today, AI capable of thinking like a human is referred to as artificial general intelligence (
AGI
) and still firmly the realm of science-fiction. Much of what we call ‘AI’ today is in fact artificial narrow intelligence (
ANI
, or Narrow AI) and encompasses technologies that approach aspects of AGI, but which are generally very limited in their scope and application.
Most ANIs are based around artificial neural networks (
ANNs
) which roughly copy the concepts behind biological neural networks such as those found in the neocortex of mammals, albeit with major differences and simplifications. ANNs like classical NNs and recurrent NNs (RNNs) — what’s used for GPT-3 and Codex — are programmed during training using
backpropagation
, which is a process that has no biological analog.
Essentially, RNN-based models like GPT-3 are curve fitting models, which use
regression analysis
in order to match a given input with its internal data points, the latter of which are encoded in the weights assigned to the connections within its network. This makes NNs at their core mathematical models, capable of efficiently finding probable matches within their network of parameters. When it comes to GPT-3 and similar natural language synthesis systems, their output is therefore based on probability rather than understanding. Therefore much like with any ANN the quality of this output is is highly dependent on the training data set.
Garbage In, Garbage Out
The historic Pioneer Building in San Francisco, home to OpenAI and Neuralink. (Credit: HaeB, CC BY-SA 4.0)
All of this means that an ANN is not capable of thought or reasoning and is thus not aware of the meaning of the text which it generates. In the case of OpenAI’s Codex, it has no awareness of what code it writes. This leads to the inevitability of having a human check the work of the ANN, as also concluded in
a recent paper by OpenAI
(Mark Chen et al., 2021). Even though Codex was trained on code instead of natural language, it has as little concept of working code as it has of proper English grammar or essay writing.
This is borne out by the
FAQ
on GitHub’s Copilot page as well, which notes that on the first attempt to fill in a blanked out function’s code it got it right only 43% of the time and 57% when given 10 attempts. Mark Chen et al. tested the generated Python output from Codex against prepared unit tests. They showed that different versions of Codex managed to generate correct code significantly less than half the time for a wide variety of inputs. These inputs ranged from interview questions to docstring descriptions.
Furthermore, Chen et al. note that since Codex has no awareness of what code means, there are no guarantees that generated code will run, be functionally correct, and not contain any security or other flaws. Considering that the training set for Codex consisted of gigabytes of code taken from GitHub without a full validation for correctness, function, or security issues, this means that whatever results roll out of the regression analysis has at most the guarantee of being as correct as code copied from a vaguely relevant StackOverflow post.
Let’s See the Code
Of note when it comes to using GitHub Copilot is that OpenAI’s Codex being based on
GPT-3
, it too is exclusively licensed to Microsoft, which also explains its association with GitHub, and why at least during the current technical preview phase it requires the use of the Visual Studio Code IDE. After installing the
GitHub Copilot extension
in VSC and logging in, your code will be sent to the Microsoft data center where Codex runs, for analysis and suggestions.
Any code suggestions by Copilot will be offered automatically without explicit input from the user. All it needs is some comments which describe the functionality of code that should follow, and possibly a function signature. When the system figures it has found something to contribute, it will show these options and allow the user to pick them.
Unfortunately, the technical preview for Copilot only provides access to a very limited number of people, so after the initial
Zerg Rush
following the announcement I haven’t been able to obtain access yet. Fortunately a couple of those who have gained access have written up their thoughts.
One TypeScript developer (Simona Winnekes) wrote up their thoughts after using Copilot
to create a minimal quiz app
in TypeScript and Chakra. After describing the intention for sections of the code in comments, Copilot would suggest code, which first involved bludgeoning Copilot into actually using Chakra UI as a dependency. Checking Copilot’s suggestions would often reveal faulty or incorrect code, which got fixed by writing more explicit instructions in the comments and picking the intended option from Copilot’s suggestions.
Simona’s findings were that while Copilot works with JavaScript, Python, and TypeScript, and can help when writing repetitive code or unit tests, the generated code needed constant validation and Copilot would often refuse to use desired modules and dependencies. The generated code had a distinct ‘stitched together’ feeling to it as well, lacking the consistency expected from a human developer. Ultimately writing this quiz by hand took Simona about 15 minutes, and two hours while humoring this Copilot AI buddy. Enthusiasm for continued use of Copilot was understandably low after this experience.
Over at Scott Logic, Colin Eberhardt had a
very mixed experience
with Copilot. While he acknowledged a few ‘wow’ moments where Copilot was genuinely somewhat useful or even impressive, but the negatives won out in the end. His complaints focused on the latency between typing something and a suggestion from Copilot popping up. This, along with the ‘autocomplete’ model used by Copilot leads to a ‘workflow’ akin to a pair programming body who seemingly randomly rips your keyboard away from you to type something.
Colin’s experience was that when Copilot stuck to suggesting 2-3 lines of code, the cognitive load of validating Copilot’s suggestions was acceptable. However, when larger blocks of code were suggested, he didn’t feel like the overhead of validating Copilot’s suggestions was worth it over just typing the code oneself. Even so he sees potential in Copilot, especially once it becomes a real AI partner programming buddy.
The
most comprehensive analysis
probably comes from Jeremy Howard over at Fast.ai. In a blog post titled ‘Is GitHub Copilot a blessing, or a curse?’, Jeremy makes the astute observation that most time is taken up not by writing code, but by designing, debugging, and maintaining it. This leads into the ‘curse’ part, as Copilot’s (Python) code turns out to be rather verbose. What happens to code design and architecture (not to mention ease of maintenance) when the code is largely whatever Copilot and kin generate?
When Jeremy asked Copilot to generate code to fine-tune a PyTorch model, the resulting code did work, but was slow and led to poor tuning. This leads to another issue with Copilot: how does one know that the solution presented is the most optimal one for a given problem? When digging through StackOverflow and programming forums and blogs, you’re likely to stumble over a whole range of possible approaches, along with advantages and disadvantages.
Since Copilot’s generated code goes through no such considerations, what is ultimately the true value of the generated code beyond that it passes the (auto-generated) unit test?
Evolution, Not Revolution
Also helpfully noted by Jeremy is that Copilot isn’t nearly as revolutionary as it makes itself out to be. For a number of years now there have been options like GitHub’s
Semantic Code Search
,
Tabnine
with an ‘AI assistant’ that works with a myriad of languages (including non-scripting ones), and earlier this year Microsoft released
IntelliCode for Visual Studio
. The common pattern here? AI-based code completion.
Example of Microsoft’s Visual Studio IntelliCode ‘AI-assisted development’.
With this much competition already out there for GitHub’s Copilot, it’s more important than ever to realize where it fits in the development process, and how it could be adjusted to fit different development styles. Most importantly, we need to get rid of the bubbly, starry-eyed notion that these are ‘AI pair programmer buddies’. Clearly these are more akin to ambitious auto-completion algorithms, with all of their advantages and disadvantages.
Some developers love to toggle on all auto-completion features in the IDE, from brackets to function and class names so that they can practically hit Enter to generate half of their code, while others prefer to painstakingly chisel each character into the file alongside screens filled with documentation and API references. Obviously Copilot isn’t going to win over such disparate types of developers.
Perhaps the most important argument against Copilot and kin is that these are just dumb-as-bricks algorithms with zero consideration for the code they generate. With the human developer always having to validate the generated code, it would seem that the days of StackOverflow et al. aren’t quite numbered yet, and software developer jobs are still quite safe. | 36 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369147",
"author": "ben",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T14:32:54",
"content": "This is not bright for new projects since you’re putting all of your capital expense write-offs into the post-deployment issue log and then wasting more time since nobody knows what’s going on. If the model ... | 1,760,372,998.46397 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/home-depot-is-selling-power-tools-that-require-activation-in-store/ | Home Depot Is Selling Power Tools That Require Activation In-Store | Danie Conradie | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"home depot",
"power tools",
"securit"
] | Shoplifting is a major problem for many brick-and-mortar retail stores, and it seems that stealing and then selling power tools is a lucrative enterprise for some criminals. To combat this,
Home Depot is starting to sell power tools that will not work unless they are activated at the checkout counter
.
According to a 2020 survey in the US, “organized retail crime” cost retailers $719,548 per $1 billion dollars in revenue. One thief was recently arrested after
stealing more than $17,000 worth of power tools
from Home Depot. While many stores put high value items in locked display cases, Home Depot felt that this tactic would negatively affect sales, so they partnered with suppliers to add an internal kill switch. Although persistent criminals might find a way to deactivate this feature, it sounds like Home Depot is hoping that will be just enough trouble to convince most criminals to look for easier targets somewhere else.
We would be really interested in getting our hands on one of these power tools to see what this kill switch looks like and how it works. Something like a Bluetooth activated relay is one option, or maybe even something that is integrated directly in the motor controller. If it were up to us, we would probably pick something that
receives power wirelessly
using a coil and requires a unique code. For their sake, we hope it’s not something that can be
deactivated with just a large magnet
.
Thanks for the tip [Garth Bock]! | 344 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369056",
"author": "jssh",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T11:07:59",
"content": "Why would you want HD “tools” in the first place? Might as well do your work using toilet paper soaked in kool aid.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "63... | 1,760,372,999.186406 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/apollo-dsky-display-glows-again/ | Apollo DSKY Display Glows Again | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Space"
] | [
"agc",
"apollo",
"Apollo Guidance Computer",
"display and keyboard",
"DSKY",
"logic",
"phosphor",
"relay",
"retro",
"spaceflight"
] | We love seeing old technology brought back to life, especially when it’s done in the context of how the device was originally intended to be used. And double points when it’s space gear, like what [Curious Marc] and his usual merry band of cohorts did when they managed to
light up a couple of real Apollo DSKY displays
.
The “Display and Keyboard” formed the human interface to the Apollo Guidance Computer, the purpose-built machine that allowed Apollo missions to fly to the Moon, land safely, and return to Earth. Complete DSKYs are hard to come by, but a lucky collector named [Marcel] was able to score a pair of the electroluminescent panels, one a prototype and one a flight-qualified spare. He turned them over to AGC guru [Carl Claunch], who worked out all the details of getting the display working again — a non-trivial task with a device that needs 250 volts at 800 Hertz.
The first third of the video below mostly concerns the backstory of the DSKY displays and the historical aspects of the artifacts; skip to around the 12:30 mark to get into the technical details, including the surprising use of relays to drive the segments of the display. It makes sense once you realize that mid-60s transistors weren’t up to the task, and it must have made the Apollo spacecraft a wonderfully clicky place. We were also intrigued by the clever way the total relay count was kept to a minimum, by realizing that not every combination of segments was valid for each seven-segment display.
The video has a couple of cameos, like [Ben Krasnow], no slouch himself when it comes to
electroluminescent displays
and
DSKY replicas
. We also get a glimpse of
well-known component slicer
and
MOnSter 6502
-tamer [TubeTime
]
too. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369040",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T08:55:59",
"content": "Beautiful! I particularly like how the unlit options are visible, so you can see what the other (inactive) options are. The transition to LCDs on consumer devices hid this often-useful information.",
"par... | 1,760,372,999.23672 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/01/living-the-dream-new-pcb-for-a-dirt-cheap-calculator-watch/ | Living The Dream: New PCB For A Dirt-Cheap Calculator Watch | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"ATSAML22",
"calculator watch",
"lcd controller",
"pcb",
"PCB design",
"watch"
] | Well, this hack has us tickled pink. We love the idea of buying some really cheap piece of technology and doing something amazing with it, and this is a textbook example of that. [davedarko] found the cutest little calculator watch on Ali Express and is
working on making a new PCB for it
. The plan is to use an ARM processor and Arduino and add a few extras like 24-hour mode and a pink (or potentially RGB) backlight. The new brain will be an ATSAML22G18A, which has an on-board LCD controller and exactly one I/O pin to spare without charlieplexing the buttons.
One of [davedarko]’s primary goals is to keep the LCD and figure out how to talk to it. The first order of business was reverse engineering the watch’s LCD controller by sussing out the secrets from beneath the black blob of epoxy. This was an eye-opening experience as [davedarko] had never worked directly with LCDs before. A strange reading made him bust out the oscilloscope.
Long-ish and informative story short
, [davedarko] found out that it uses a bias of 1/2 for generating the wave necessary to multiplex the segments and keep the signal alternating. This is definitely one to watch!
We love timepieces around here and have seen all kinds of hacks, especially on Casio watches. Want dark mode?
Done
. Enable the hidden countdown timer?
We’ve got that, too
. And have you ever wondered
just how water-resistant
the F91W is? | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6369016",
"author": "davedarko",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T05:51:06",
"content": "Thank you Kristina :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6369021",
"author": "futaris",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T06:05:34",
"content": "Go... | 1,760,372,998.647025 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/01/custom-instrument-cluster-for-aging-car/ | Custom Instrument Cluster For Aging Car | Bryan Cockfield | [
"car hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"can-bus",
"car",
"gage cluster",
"instrument cluster",
"lcd",
"skoda",
"volkswagen"
] | All of the technological improvements to vehicles over the past few decades have led to cars and trucks that would seem borderline magical to anyone driving something like a Ford Pinto in the 1970s. Not only are cars much safer due to things like crumple zones, anti-lock brakes, air bags, and compulsory seat belt use, but there’s a wide array of sensors, user interfaces, and computers that also improve the driving experience. At least, until it starts wearing out. The electronic technology in our modern cars can be tricky to replace, but [Aravind] at least was able to
replace part of the instrument cluster
on his aging (yet still modern) Skoda and improve upon it in the process.
These cars have a recurring problem with the central part of the cluster that includes an LCD display. If replacement parts can even be found, they tend to cost a significant fraction of the value of the car, making them uneconomical for most. [Aravind] found that a 3.5″ color LCD that was already available fit perfectly in the space once the old screen was removed, so from there the next steps were to interface it to the car. These have a CAN bus separated from the main control CAN bus, and the port was easily accessible, so an Arduino with a RTC was obtained to handle the heavy lifting of interfacing with it.
Now, [Aravind] has a new LCD screen in the console that’s fully programmable and potentially longer-lasting than the factory LCD was. There’s also full documentation of the process on the project page as well, for anyone else with a Volkswagen-adjacent car from this era. Either way, it’s a much more economical approach to replacing the module than shelling out the enormous cost of OEM replacement parts. Of course, CAN bus hacks like these are often gateway projects to doing more involved CAN bus projects like
turning an entire vehicle into a video game controller
. | 32 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368992",
"author": "[skaarj]",
"timestamp": "2021-08-02T03:41:57",
"content": "Wizard Hackers install CRT instrument displays in their car console:https://hackaday.io/project/10579-retro-futuristic-automobile-control-panel/log/39074-building-the-terminal",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,372,998.827252 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/01/hackaday-links-august-1-2021/ | Hackaday Links: August 1, 2021 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"backup",
"Blue Origin",
"container",
"cw",
"emergency",
"Ever Given",
"explosive bolts",
"hackaday links",
"ham",
"morse",
"shipping",
"Space Shuttle",
"Suez"
] | Amateur radio operators have a saying: When all else fails, there’s ham radio. And that’s true, at least to an extent — knock out the power, tear down the phone lines, and burn up all the satellites in orbit, and there will still be hams talking about politics on 40 meters. The point is, as long as the laws of physics don’t change, hams will figure out a way to send and receive messages. In honor of that fact, the police in the city of Pune in Maharashtra, India, make it a point to
exchange messages with their headquarter using Morse code
once a week. The idea is to maintain a backup system, in case they can’t get a message through any other way. It’s a good idea, especially since they rotate all their radio operators through the Sunday morning ritual. We can’t imagine that most emergency services dispatchers would be thrilled about learning Morse, though.
Just because you’re a billionaire with a space company doesn’t mean you’re an astronaut. At least that’s
the view of the US Federal Aviation Administration
, which issued guidelines pretty much while Jeff Bezos and his merry band of cohorts were floating about above the 100-km high Kármán line in a Blue Origin “New Shepard” rocket. The FAA guidelines make it clear that those making the trip need to have actually done something to qualify as an astronaut, by “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety.” That’s good news to the
“Old Shepard”
, who clearly was in control of “Freedom 7” during the Mercury program. But the Bezos brothers, teenager Oliver Daemen, and
Wally Funk
, one of the “Mercury 13” group of women who trained to be NASA astronauts but never got to fly, were really just along for the ride, as the entire flight was automated. It doesn’t take away from the fact that they’ve been to space and you haven’t, of course, but they can’t officially call themselves astronauts. This goes to show that even billionaires can just be ballast too.
Good news, everyone — if you had anything that was being transported aboard the Ever Given, your stuff is almost there.
The Suez Canal-occluding container ship finally made it to its original destination in Rotterdam
, approximately four months later than originally predicted. After plugging up the vital waterway for six days last March, the ship along with her cargo and her crew were detained in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, perhaps the coolest sounding body of water in the world next to the Dead Sea. Legal squabbling ensued at that point, all the while rendering whatever was in the 20,000-odd containers aboard the ship pretty much pointless. We’d imagine that even with continuous power, whatever was in the refrigerated containers must be pretty nasty by now, so there’s probably a lot of logistics and clean-up left to sort out.
I have to admit that I have a weird love of explosive bolts. I don’t know what it is, but the idea of fasteners engineered to fail in a predictable way under the influence of pyrotechnic charges just tickles something in me. I mean, I even wrote
a whole article on the subject
once. So when I came across
this video explaining how the Space Shuttles were held to the launch pad
, I really had to watch it. Surprisingly, the most interesting part of this story was not the explosive aspect, but the engineering problem of supporting the massive vehicle on the launch pad. For as graceful as the Shuttles seemed once they got into orbit, they really were ungainly beasts, especially strapped to the external fuel tank and booster. The scale of the eight frangible nuts used to secure the boosters to the pad is just jaw-dropping. We also liked the idea that NASA decided to catch the debris from the explosions in a container filled with sand. | 27 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368964",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T23:50:43",
"content": "That means that Yuri Gagarin would not have qualified as an astronaut. His craft was under ground control. He had an envelope of override codes to use if ground control failed.Never mind that given the FAI r... | 1,760,372,998.760736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/01/retrotechtacular-understanding-protein-synthesis-through-interpretive-dance/ | Retrotechtacular: Understanding Protein Synthesis Through Interpretive Dance | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"amino acid",
"art",
"dance",
"molecular biology",
"mRNA",
"protein synthesis",
"retrotechtacular",
"ribosome",
"translation",
"tRNA"
] | With the principles of molecular biology very much in the zeitgeist these days, we thought it would be handy to provide some sort of visual aid to help our readers understand the complex molecular machines at work deep within each cell of the body. And despite appearances,
this film using interpretive dance to explain protein synthesis
will teach you everything you need to know.
Now, there are those who go on and on about the weirdness of the 1960s, but as this 1971 film from Stanford shows, the 60s were just a warm-up act for the really weird stuff. The film is a study in contrasts, with the setup being provided by the decidedly un-groovy Paul Berg, a professor of biochemistry who would share the 1980 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contributions to nucleic acid research. His short sleeves and skinny tie stand in stark contrast to the writhing mass of students capering about on a grassy field, acting out the various macromolecules involved in protein synthesis. Two groups form the subunits of the ribosome, a chain of ballon-headed students act as the messenger RNA (mRNA) that codes for a protein, and little groups standing in for the transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules that carry the amino acids float in and out of the process.
The level of detail, at least as it was understood in 1971, is impressively complete, with soloists representing things like T-factor and the energy-carrying molecule GTP. And while we especially like the puff of smoke representing GTP’s energy transfer, we strongly suspect a lot of other smoke went into this production.
Kitsch aside, and with apologies to Lewis Carroll and his Jabberwock, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a modern animation that captures the process better. True, a more traditional animation might make the mechanistic aspects of translation clearer, but the mimsy gyre and gimble of this dance really emphasize the role random Brownian motion plays in macromolecular processes. And you’ll never see the term “tRNA” and not be able to think of this film. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368921",
"author": "Shoe",
"timestamp": "2021-08-01T20:36:26",
"content": "I was going to say that someone should do a high-res reinterpretation of this, but I somehow doubt it would capture half the charm.It’s worth pointing out that the annual Dance your PhD contest is a thing, t... | 1,760,372,999.277736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/31/one-of-the-largest-large-format-cameras-you-will-ever-have-seen/ | One Of The Largest Large Format Cameras You Will Ever Have Seen | Jenny List | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"digital camera",
"large format camera",
"lens"
] | When fate lands a very high quality lens in front of you, what do you do with it? If you are [Tim Hamilton], the solution is obvious.
Use it in a huge large-format camera
.
The lens came from a newspaper magnifier made redundant by digitalisation and used as a paperweight. It’s an extremely high quality piece of optical equipment so seeing it wasted in this way was a source of distress. So after characterising it an enormous scaled-up box and bellows was constructed, and set upon a suitably substantial wheeled tripod.
Instead of a huge piece of film or some unobtainable giant electronic sensor, the image is projected onto a large screen at the rear of the camera. A modern digital camera is mounted inside the box just beneath the lens and photographs the screen, resulting in the feel of the largest of large format cameras with the convenience of a digital format. The resulting images have a special quality to them that recalls pictures from the past, and definitely makes the camera a special if slightly inconvenient device.
This may be one of the larger cameras we’ve featured, but
it’s not the first that uses a similar technique
. | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368769",
"author": "cody",
"timestamp": "2021-07-31T20:29:44",
"content": "Ethan Moses (of Cameradactyl) has also been playing around with ultra-large format cameras recently using paper negs– not much to be seen of the camera itself but the results are looking pretty cool:https://... | 1,760,372,999.547191 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/31/british-big-rigs-are-about-to-go-green/ | British Big Rigs Are About To Go Green | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric truck",
"freight",
"infrastructure",
"truck"
] | An increasing fact of life over the coming years will be the decarbonisation of our transport networks, for which a variety of competing solutions are being touted. Railways, trucks, cars, and planes will all be affected by this move away from fossil fuels, and while sectors such as passenger cars are making great strides towards electric drive, there remain some technical hurdles elsewhere such as with heavy road freight. To help inform the future of road transport policy in the UK then,
the British government are financing a series of trials for transportation modes that don’t use internal combustion
. These will include a battery-electric fleet for the National Health Service and a hydrogen-powered fleet in Scotland, as well as a trial of the same overhead-wire system previously given an outing in Germany, that will result in the electrification of a 12.4 mile section of the M180 motorway in Lincolnshire.
We’ve written about the overhead electrification project in Germany in the past
and subjected it to a back-of-envelope calculation that suggested the total costs for a country such as the UK might be surprisingly affordable. The M180 is
something of a backwater in the UK motorway network
though, so it will be interesting to see how they approach the problem of finding real-world loads for their tests that ply such a short and isolated route. We’d expect the final picture to include all three technologies in some form, which can only be a good thing if it increases the available electric and hydrogen infrastructure. We’ll follow this story, though sadly we may not be able to blag a cab ride on the M180 in one of the trucks. | 78 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368721",
"author": "fndm",
"timestamp": "2021-07-31T17:22:47",
"content": "Unpopular opinion but idea of electric vehicle becoming popular is a fallacy that will be massively scaled down in 10-15 years once it becomes apparent that it was a stupid decision in the first place. Impos... | 1,760,372,999.494015 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/31/the-man-machine/ | The Man-Machine | Elliot Williams | [
"cnc hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"newsletter",
"pick and place",
"semi-automatic"
] | This week we saw a couple DIY tools for small-run manufacturing at home that help make your life easier if you’re climbing out of the
happy bucket and into the pit of despair
— when you’re making enough of the item that it’s not fun any more, but you still don’t have the volume to leave the manufacturing to someone else.
The first was an automatic
through-hole soldering machine made from a 3D printer
. This actually makes sense even if you’re getting boards assembled for you, because through-hole pads are a lot more expensive than SMT parts, and they usually charge per pin. Put a 2×20 pin header on your project, and it can end up costing a lot. Or you can robotificate the solution.
This week’s second solution really caught my eye.
PnPassist
is machine that turns your PCB around, locates a laser crosshair over the next SMT piece that you need to place, and even has an OLED screen that tells you what to put there. There are many great mechanical design choices here, but what really drew my attention is how well this machine fills a gap between manual and fully automatic pick-and-place.
I know you hate looking back and forth between the board and the schematic or parts list, trying to find just where Q23 is on the darn board, or looking up resistor values. With PnPassist, you still have to do the placing, but with machine guidance. If you don’t have the money or the space for a fully automatic PnP, this is an obvious win, but also for short runs when loading up the reels takes more time than populating the board, this could be a huge win.
I love this kind of human-capability-enhancing machine, and I’m always happy to see a design like this. It reminds me of the
very clever Shaper Origin
, or even just this
handy automatic XY table for drilling many precise holes
. In all these cases, there’s some part of the problem that would be hard to solve, require extremely bulky or expensive machinery, or can just be more simply accomplished by a meatbag. But combining machine precision with the human element produces something more than the sum of the parts.
What’s your favorite human-enhancing tool?
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.
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! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368722",
"author": "geocrasher",
"timestamp": "2021-07-31T17:25:12",
"content": "Obligatory Kraftwerk:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQe9eK_4U0U",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6368725",
"author": "deshipu",
"timestamp... | 1,760,373,001.274958 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/31/a-lipo-cell-makes-a-4aa-pack-for-a-gameboy/ | A LiPo Cell Makes A 4AA Pack For A GameBoy | Jenny List | [
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"aa battery",
"battery pack",
"game boy"
] | Electronic toys of yesteryear were fantastic objects of desire, but came with the fatal flaw of requiring batteries. Batteries that cost more than the average youngster’s pocket money and for which the pestered parent were usually unwilling to fork out every couple of days to support an incessant playing habit. It’s something [Sen] has addressed for the Nintendo Game Boy, and rather than cutting the device up and soldering wires, the result is
a unit that neatly slots into the existing 4AA battery enclosure
.
Much more convenient than Nintendo’s own effort!
Electrically it’s a simple case of wiring up an Adafruit module and a pouch cell, but that’s not the essence of the job in this case. Instead a huge quantity of work and iteration has gone into CAD design to the perfect-fitting pack. It’s sure to be a boon for today’s Game Boy player, but much more than that it should be of interest to owners of far more devices that take four AA cells. Most of us probably keep a few packs of AAs for just those moments, perhaps meanwhile something like this could be a handy thing to have instead.
More traditional conversions resort to extreme measures,
as with this Game Boy Color
. | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368665",
"author": "Peter Holmberg",
"timestamp": "2021-07-31T11:22:13",
"content": "Most devices that runs on 3 or 4 AA can be run on a power bank :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6368672",
"author": "Cricri",
... | 1,760,373,001.13808 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/31/developing-the-first-ics-in-orbit/ | Developing The First ICs In Orbit | Jenny List | [
"History",
"Parts"
] | [
"integrated circuits",
"SN510",
"ti"
] | Over six decades of integrated circuit production we’ve become used to their extreme reliability and performance for a very reasonable price. But what about those first integrated circuits from the early 1960s? Commercial integrated circuits appeared in 1961, and recently Texas Instruments published
a fascinating retrospective on the development of their first few digital ICs
.
TI’s original IC product on the market was the
SN502
, a transistor flip-flop that debuted at $450 (about $4100 today), which caught the interest of NASA engineers who asked for logic functions with a higher performance level. The response was the development of the 51 series of logic chips, whose innovation included on-chip interconnects replacing the hand interconnects of the SN502. Their RCTL logic gave enough performance and reliability for NASA to use, and in late 1963 the
Explorer 18
craft carried a telemetry system using the SN510 and SN514 chips into orbit. 52 and 53 series chips quickly followed, then in 1964 the
54 series TTL chips
which along with their plastic-encapsulated 74 series equivalents
are still available today
.
Considering that in 1961 the bleeding edge of integrated circuit logic technology was a two-transistor chip with hand interconnects, it seems scarcely conceivable that by ten years later in 1971 the art had advanced to the point at which
the first commercially available microprocessors would be produced
. It’s unlikely that many of us will stumble upon any of the three-figure SN1-series logic chips, but to read about them is a fascinating reminder of this pivotal moment in the history of electronics.
Header: Mister rf,
CC BY-SA 4.0
. | 19 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368655",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2021-07-31T09:13:23",
"content": "One can’t help being struck by the similarities of those first ICs and modern SMDs. I wonder how they came to go from surface-mount to through-hole? Difficulties with mass production?",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,001.442241 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/build-that-catan-board-you-designed/ | Build That Catan Board You Designed | Rich Hawkes | [
"Games",
"News"
] | [
"cnc",
"settlers of catan"
] | A couple of months ago, we posted about the
one day design
[Sam March] did of an electronic Settlers of Catan board. Now he’s released a video with the second half. His first video was about the design of the game, specifically the electronic components. In this video, [Sam] takes us through the physical build of the board.
A couple of visits to his local maker space allows him to cut both the wooden parts of the board, as well as the acrylic hexes that go on top of each piece. Even with a CNC machine, there’s still some clean-up that needs to be done. After cleaning up the edges of the wood with a chisel and staining it, it’s time to put the circuit boards in, wire them up and program them. The build includes a dice roller – pushing a button shows the number rolled by lighting up the tiles in the form of the rolled number. The final touch is having some friends over to actually play the game.
Between the design process in the last article and the build process in this one, we get a good look at the way [Sam] designs things from beginning to finished product. Take a look at our previous article on [Sam]’s design as well as some
other
Catan
articles
. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368684",
"author": "Freman",
"timestamp": "2021-07-31T13:38:48",
"content": "Some RGB LEDs in the tracks between the tiles would mean no more little sticks for roads…Version 2?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6368726",
"aut... | 1,760,373,001.187097 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/rare-radio-receiver-teardown/ | Rare Radio Receiver Teardown | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Repair Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"radio",
"shortwave"
] | We’ll admit we haven’t heard of the AGS-38, it reminds us of the shortwave receivers of our youth, and it looks like many that were made “white label” by more established (and often Japanese) companies. [Jeff] found a nice example of this Canadian radio and
takes it apart
for our viewing pleasure. He also found it was very similar to a
Layfayette
receiver, also made in Japan, confirming our suspicions.
The radio looks very similar to an Eico of the same era — around the 1960s. With seven tubes, radios like this would soon be replaced by transistorized versions.
[Jeff] gives us a look at the inside and the always interesting hand wiring under the covers. As is often the case with radios this old, it appears this one had a repair done to its power switch and it didn’t mean [Jeff’s] approval so he redid the repair. He also had to replace the filter caps, another common failure on these old radios. Otherwise, the radio still seemed serviceable after all these years.
There isn’t much to hear on the shortwave bands anymore, especially during the day. [Jeff] did manage to demonstrate picking up some AM broadcast stations, though.
This radio reminded us of the
Radio Shack DX-160
, although that one was solid state. If you want to learn more about restoring old radios,
we have just what you need to get started
. | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368606",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2021-07-31T02:52:06",
"content": "At that low end, “communications receiver” is hype. It made the kids spending all their money on one feel like they’ve got something great, and are in a league beyond what they got.I got my Hallic... | 1,760,373,001.38848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/step-n-snack-fanny-pack-motivates-with-mms/ | Step ‘n Snack Fanny Pack Motivates With M&Ms | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"calories",
"fanny pack",
"step counter"
] | [Sam March] has made a lot of different kinds of things, many of which have appeared on these very pages. Nowadays he wants to get the viewers more involved in his projects, so he started doing a monthly collaboration with YT viewers. Basically, he gives a prompt, and people comment with their wild and crazy ideas on the topic. Whoever has the winning idea gets the finished build. The maiden prompt was ‘fanny pack’, and you can
check out the result in the build video
(embedded below).
Someone suggested a Reese’s cup-dispensing fanny pack that gives you one cup for every 10,000 steps you take. We like what [Sam] did with that idea, because it’s way more practical —
M&Ms are the original travel candy
, and this way, you get to eat chocolate way more often. Depending on your sweet tooth, Reese’s Pieces would be a good compromise.
[Sam] figured out that the average human burns one calorie for every 25 steps, and that the average plain M&M is worth four calories, so he built a fanny pack with a step counter that dispenses one M&M for every 100 steps taken using a tiny auger. It’s calorie-neutrality!
You might be wondering if [Sam] made the fanny pack, too, or used something store-bought. The answer is neither: at some point in the build process, a company graciously offered to make a fanny pack with a special compartment in the bottom for the M&M dispenser. If you want to build one of these for yourself,
you can get the CAD file for the milled base, the screw, the hopper, and the lid plus the code and also the gerbers on GitHub
. We see a place for the sewing pattern, but as of now, the folder is empty. Be sure to check out the build and demo video after the break as [Sam] hits the town in a screaming set of neon workout wear to test the dispenser.
Most of the M&M-based projects we see around here are designed to sort by color.
Here’s one that searches for the holy grail
— peanut M&Ms that didn’t get a peanut. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368593",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T23:55:37",
"content": "It’s very dystopian, and I like dystopian stuff, so it’s got that going for it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6368613",
"author": "ben",
... | 1,760,373,001.582581 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/charger-caddy-shows-what-3d-printers-were-meant-for/ | Charger Caddy Shows What 3D Printers Were Meant For | Bryan Cockfield | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"cable",
"cables",
"desk",
"desktop",
"elegant",
"hole",
"management",
"port",
"simple"
] | As computers became more popular in the late 80s and into the 90s, they vastly changed their environments. Of course the technological changes were obvious, but plenty of other things changed to accommodate this new technology as well. For example, furniture started to include design elements to accommodate the desktop computer, with pass-through ports in the back of the desks to facilitate cable management. While these are less common features now there are plenty of desks still have them,
this 3D printed design modernizes them in a simple yet revolutionary way
.
While these ports may have originally hosted thick VGA cables, parallel printer cables (if they would fit), and other now-obsolete wiring, modern technology uses simpler, smaller solutions. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t any less in need of management, though. This print was designed to hold these smaller wires such as laptop chargers, phone chargers, and other USB cables inside the port. A cap on the top of the print keeps everything hidden until it is lifted by hand, where a cable can be selected and pulled up to the top of the desk.
While it might seem like a simple project at first, the elegance of this solution demonstrates excellent use of design principles and a knack for integrating slightly older design decisions with modern technology. If you have a 3D printer and a cable management port on your desk, the print is available on
Thingiverse
. Not every project needs a complicated solution to solve a problem, like
this automatic solar tracker
we recently saw which uses no complicated electronics or algorithms to reliably point itself at the sun. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368570",
"author": "mrehorst",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T20:41:56",
"content": "This is GREAT! Thanks for sharing it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6368579",
"author": "ConsultingJoe",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T21:16:4... | 1,760,373,001.228219 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/build-a-barebones-68000/ | Build A Barebones 68000 | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"68000",
"eprom",
"motorola",
"parts",
"pcb",
"programmable",
"retro",
"retrocomputing"
] | The 68000 chip was ubiquitous in the computing world well past its heyday in the 1980s. It was used as the basis for many PCs and video game consoles, and even in embedded microcontrollers. Now, one of its niche applications is learning about the internal functions of computers. 68000 builds are fairly common when building homebrew computers from scratch, but projects like these can be complicated and quickly get out of hand.
This 68000 project, on the other hand, gets the job done with the absolute minimum of parts
and really dives into the assembly language programming on these chips. (
Google Translate from Spanish
)
[osbox68] built this computer by first simulating its operation. Once he was satisfied with that, the next step was to actually build the device. Along with the MC68008 it only uses two other TTL chips, a respectable 32 kilobytes of ram, and additionally supports a serial port and an expansion bus. A few 74-series chips round out the build including a
74HC574 used for debugging support. With a custom PCB to tie everything together, it’s one of the most minimal 68000 builds we’ve seen that still includes everything needed to be completely functional.
After all, including the TTL and 74XX chips the entire circuit board only uses 10 integrated circuits and a few other passive elements for a completely functional retro computer. [osbox68] also includes complete schematics for building a PCB based on these chips to make construction that much easier. Of course, emulating an old microcontroller instead of using TTL components can save a lot of real estate on a PCB
especially if you’re using something like an FPGA
. | 32 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368555",
"author": "rthtyjty",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T19:08:02",
"content": "interesting, i dreaming about macintosh se but on lcd, usb printer free firmware and system like a wine (emulating only functions)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,373,001.342031 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/fresh-paint-or-patina-of-ages-thats-the-antique-question/ | Fresh Paint Or Patina Of Ages, That’s The Antique Question | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Interest",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"antiques",
"restoration",
"retr0bright",
"retrocomputing"
] | The world of antique furniture and the world of hackers rarely coincide, and perhaps the allure of the latest tech is greater for most of us than that of a Chipendale cabinet. But there are times when there are analagous situations in both worlds, so it’s worth taking a moment to consider something.
This late-17th-century dressing box would not be of such value or interest were a restoration to strip it of its patina.
Daderot, CC0
.
Antique furniture has survived for hundreds of years before being owned by today’s collectors. Along the way it picks up bumps and scrapes, wear, and even the occasional repair. Valuable pieces turn up all the time, having been discovered in dusty attics, cowsheds, basements, and all sorts of places where they may have been misused in ways that might horrify those who later pay big money for them. Thus there is a whole industry of craft workers in the field of furniture restoration whose speciality lies in turning the wreck of a piece of furniture into a valuable antique for the showroom.
The parallel in our community if you hadn’t already guessed, can be found in the world of retrocomputers. They are the antiques we prize, they come to us after being abused by kids and then left to languish in a box of junk somewhere. Their capacitors are leaking, their cases may be cracked or dirty, and they often possess the signature look of old ABS mouldings, their characteristic yellowing. This is caused by the gradual release of small quantities of bromine as the fire retardant contained within the plastic degrades under UV light, and causes considerable consternation among some retrocomputing enthusiasts. Considerable effort goes into mitigating it, with the favourite technique involving so-called Retr0bright recipes that use hydrogen peroxide to bleach away the colour.
Do We Lose Something In A Quest To Recreate Our Childhoods?
Is this any less a Macintosh because it shows its age? htomari,
CC BY-SA 2.0
.
In the antique furniture world there are operators at all levels from the shysters pushing imitation furniture made last month in China to the specialist dealers in high-end genuine pieces. Antique restoration has strata to match, and at the quality end they do work to the highest possible standards.
Consider though, given a priceless antique that needs work, what is the objective? It would certainly be possible to return it to the same condition in which it left the cabinet maker’s workshop hundreds of years ago, but is that their aim? Instead they restore it to a very good condition but leave it with a patina of age. Shelves bow downwards slightly in the middle, there are slight marks under the polish, and the feet bear some of the scuffs they have picked up over the years. Over-restoration in which it looks too new just isn’t the thing, because then it ceases to look like the real thing that it is.
Spending a lot of time over the years around retrocomputers and retrocomputing enthusiasts, it’s interesting to make that comparison with antique furniture. Why do we not allow our antiques to wear with pride the patina acquired through the decades, and why do we prefer to pretend that it’s 1988 and they’ve just come out of the box? Is it because we’re really recreating our own childhoods (or perhaps those we wish we’d had) rather than appreciating the devices as relics in their own right?
With an increasing number of modern reproductions of classic cases and motherboards being produced, it seems to me that we’re blurring the line between the original and the reproduction just as an imitation furniture maker does to the genuine antique. Will we in time seek to differentiate our classic machines from the repro pretenders by the patina of age? Maybe it will be left to a future generation of retrocomputing collectors to make that jump.
Header: Mark Fosh,
CC BY 2.0
. | 46 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368535",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T17:41:53",
"content": "Computer cases do have one quality most furniture doesn’t. The ability to be separated from their electronics with minimal damage. One could store away that historic case in exchange for something newer,... | 1,760,373,001.537143 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/hackaday-podcast-129-super-clever-3d-printing-jigs-and-registration-things-90s-car-audio-and-smooth-led-fades/ | Hackaday Podcast 129: Super Clever 3D Printing, Jigs And Registration Things, 90s Car Audio, And Smooth LED Fades | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams have found a critical mass of projects this week that wouldn’t be possible without 3D printers. There’s an absolutely astounding model roller coaster that is true to the mechanisms and physics of the original (and beholden to hours of sanding and painting). Adding sheet material to the printing process is a novel way to build durable hinges and foldable mechanisms. Elliot picks out not one, but two quadruped robot projects that leverage 3D-printed parts in interesting ways. And for the electronics geeks there’s a server rack stuffed with Raspberry Pi, and analog electronic wizardry to improve the resolution of the WS2811 LED controller. We wrap it all up with discussions of flying boats, and adding Bluetooth audio to old car head units.
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.)
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
Google Podcasts
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
Episode 129 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:
FTC Rules On Right To Repair
New Privacy Policy Gets Audacity Back On Track
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Modified 3D-Printer Solders Through-Hole Components
Belgrade Experience: MikroElektronika, Museums, And FPGA Computing
Image of the selective soldering machine at work (6.38 MB)
ACE KISS 104 Selective Soldering – YouTube
Cool WS2811 Trick Makes LED Art Installation Smooth
Raspberry Pi Server Cluster In 1U Rack-Mount Case
See This Hybrid Approach To Folded 3D Printed Mechanisms
3D Printed Roller Coaster Looks Pretty Darn Fun
Instagram album:
Train car detail
Instagram album:
Launch mechanism
Servo-based walkers:
Little Quadruped Uses Many Servos
Tardygrade Walker Is A Lesson In 3D Printed Design
Robot Arm Achieves Amazing Accuracy With Just Servos
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks
Why Make Coffee When You’re Tired? Let A Robot Do It For You
Detecting Ripeness In Fruit And Vegetables Via Neural Networks
LEGO Pole Climbers Are Great Study In What It Takes To Go Vertically Upwards
Climbing Bike Storage Thwarts Thieves?
Elliot’s Picks:
Classroom Surplus Becomes Linux Powerhouse
Dominate Video Calls With Game Boy Camera Webcam
PnPAssist: A “Smart” Build Platform For Manual PCB Assembly
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Who Flew Across The Atlantic First? The Airborne Boats Of 1919
How To Modify Your Car Stereo For Bluetooth Or Aux-In | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368603",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2021-07-31T02:18:14",
"content": "I’ve been catching up on Hackaday Podcasts this past week while driving hundreds of miles on vacation. My spouse knows not to ask “what do you want me to pull up on your playlist?”. She knows I’ll just sa... | 1,760,373,001.61961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/mobile-sauna-for-on-the-go-relaxation/ | Mobile Sauna For On-The-Go Relaxation | Bryan Cockfield | [
"car hacks"
] | [
"camper",
"camping",
"car",
"heat",
"mobile",
"oven",
"Panels",
"Sauna",
"solar",
"stove",
"trailer"
] | While it might be nice to imagine owning a cabin in the woods to escape from society, complete with an outdoor sauna to take in the scenic views of nature, most of us will be satisfied with the occasional vacation to a cabin like that. For those trips, or even for long-term camping trips, [Schitzu] and a group of friends thought it would be nice to be able to ensure access to a sauna. For that, they created
this mobile, timber-framed sauna that he can tow behind his car
.
The sauna is built out of a combination of spruce and Douglas fir, two types of lumber with weather-resistant properties. For an additional layer of protection, the frame was varnished after assembly. The walls are filled with baked cork for insulation, and heat is provided by a small wood-fired oven placed in the corner of the sauna with a stove pipe plumbed through the roof. Performance of the sauna shows good design too, as it can heat up quickly and performs well in all of the tests so far. The final touch on the mobile sauna was to finish the roof with some solar panels in order to gather some energy for long-term camping trips and also to ensure that the roof was protected from rain and weather.
The sauna is designed for two adults to sit in, but it will also accommodate a single person to lay down and sleep (presumably when not using it as a sauna), so the entire trailer actually makes a fairly capable mobile camper too. With the addition of a panoramic window, anyone can take in the sights as well as someone with their own permanently-located sauna could, which is a win in all of our books. If you’re looking for a mobile sauna that’s a little more discrete though, be sure to check out
this one which is built in the back of a white panel van
. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368521",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T16:00:04",
"content": "There’s a whole category of tent saunas that are also quite handy. These are usually military style canvas tents with folding wooden benches inside, but there are also portable sweat lodges modeled after yur... | 1,760,373,001.714739 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/this-week-in-security-fail2rce-tpm-sniffing-fishy-leaks-and-decompiling/ | This Week In Security: Fail2RCE, TPM Sniffing, Fishy Leaks, And Decompiling | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"supply chain",
"This Week in Security",
"TPM"
] | Fail2ban is a great tool for dynamically blocking IP addresses that show bad behavior, like making repeated login attempts. It was just announced that
a vulnerability could allow an attacker to take over a machine
by being blocked by Fail2ban. The problem is in the
mail-whois
action, where an email is sent to the administrator containing the whois information. Whois information is potentially attacker controlled data, and Fail2ban doesn’t properly sterilize the input before piping it into the
mail
binary. Mailutils has a feature that uses the tilde key as an escape sequence, allowing commands to be run while composing a message. Fail2ban doesn’t sanitize those tilde commands, so malicious
whois
data can trivially run commands on the system.
Whois
is one of the old-school unix protocols that runs in the clear, so a MItM attack makes this particularly easy. If you use Fail2ban, make sure to update to 0.10.7 or 0.11.3, or purge any use of
mail-whois
from your active configs.
Breaking Encryption by Sniffing the TPM
“All bets are off once you have physical access.” This seems to be a mantra proven true once again, even when modern techniques are at play to try to defeat it. This story starts when
the red team at Dolos Group were sent a “stolen” laptop from their client
. The challenge was to see whether an attacker with access to a company laptop could use it to break in to the protected corporate network. The laptop was locked down well, with full disk encryption via a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and Bitlocker being the cherry on top.
That makes it impossible to make any progress, right? Not quite. The laptop wasn’t configured to require a password or PIN to boot. In this configuration, the TPM automatically sends the encryption key to the boot loader during boot. This key is sent over an SPI interface in plaintext. All that is needed is to probe the SPI bus during boot. While the TPM is physically small enough to make this quite difficult, the SPI interface is a bus, meaning that it connects to multiple chips on the board. One of which is a CMOS chip, with much larger pins. The capture was successful, and they soon had access to the filesystem on the encrypted drive. There wasn’t much of interest on this particular machine, aside from a VPN client.
To gain access to this client, the attackers opted to use a very old trick to bypass the Windows login — the sticky keys backdoor. If you’re not familiar with this clever hack, take notes. When you have access to a machine’s drive, but not a user account on the machine, you can copy
cmd.exe
over one of a handful of system binaries in order to bypass login. The virtual keyboard binary is a popular choice, but in this case
Utilman.exe
(sticky keys) was chosen. They booted the modified image as a virtual machine, and at the login screen, used the Windows + U key combo to launch their command shell. Since the machine itself was already connected via VPN, and logged in to the domain via a machine account, they had a toehold to play in the internal network. Uploading a file to the scanner directory on one of the servers was enough to score a win for the penetration test.
Fishy Clubhouse Dataset
Clubhouse, the trendy audio social network is the center of a new data scraping story. On one of the darknet forums,
a user is offering to sell a database of 3.8 billion phone numbers
, allegedly taken from Clubhouse servers. It’s odd, because all that the database consists of is the phone numbers. Clubhouse has announced that it is not a valid leak, and that they believe the numbers to have been randomly generated. The sheer amount of numbers, with basically no additional information, is enough to make the database useless even if it is real. There seems to be very little to worry about here.
Guessing Names at Linkedin
A scraping technique that isn’t all hype is
the
revealin
tool
, from [mxrch]. The tool takes the profile of a user with a hidden last name, and reveals the complete name one letter at a time. It’s a nifty tool, but you can do this yourself, by hand, on the Linkedin homepage. The problem is the Linkedin search function, which sends each keystroke to the server, to update the list of possible matches. The matching algorithm has access to the full last names, so you can figure out the name one character at a time. Take [Thomas H.] for instance. Type that much in, and the link to his profile shows up in the list. Add an “a” to it, and it disappears. Keep trying till you guess an “e”, and the profile is still there. Now you know the second letter is an “e”.
Revealin
does the exact same process, just much faster. I did test it out, and found that it worked until I started hitting Linkedin’s rate-limiting. Rinse and repeat on a thousand cloud instances? All told, it’s a clever little tool.
16 year old Bug
You probably have
a vulnerable driver installed on your Windows machine
. HP, Xerox, and Samsung printer drivers all install the SSPORT driver, and that contains CVE-2021-3438, a 16 year old vulnerability. Look for
C:\windows\system32\drivers\ssport.sys
. It contains a trivial buffer overflow that can be used for local privilege execution. The updated driver is available, or you can uninstall the driver if you no longer use a printer that relies on it.
Dependency Security
Supply chain attacks have been a big issue for a long time. The danger of an upstream package or library being compromised has played out a few times in recent history, like
event-stream
and the Dependency Confusion attacks. Gitlab and Github have both announced projects to try to improve the situation. Gitlab’s
Package Hunter
is a behavior profiling tool that assembles your code and dependencies in a sandbox, and puts it though its paces looking for odd behavior. The downside is that it’s currently limited to NodeJS and Ruby projects. Even at that, it should be a useful addition to a CI pipeline to find problems right away.
Github already has a handful supply chain security features, like the security advisory database entry we linked to in the Fail2ban story at the beginning of the article. The news is that
they are bringing those features to Go
. That includes the advisories, the dependency graph, automated alerts on announced vulnerabilities, and even automated pull requests to update the vulnerable dependency. It’s a useful set of tools, and great to see them available to yet another language.
Reverse Engineering for
Dummies
Beginners
You have a binary, and you need to know what it’s doing under the hood. Easy, just decompile it! Now that we have tools like Ghidra, it’s fairly easy to make that
jmp
into assembly. But if you’ve never done any assembly programming, the list of
push
,
mov
, and
pop
commands aren’t much more helpful than the raw machine code. Well, add
this quick guide
from [Sami ALAOUI KENDIL] to your reading list. He covers the basic assembly commands and patterns you should know to follow the flow of execution. Just like it says on the tin, it’s an excellent guide to reading decompiled code. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368500",
"author": "Steven Clark",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T14:38:44",
"content": "I’m guessing Bitlocker is designed with TPM 1.2 instead of 2.0 feature set in mind an that’s why they weren’t using a session encryption key. Or maybe it’s designed to work with TPMs that don’t have... | 1,760,373,002.835393 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/streaming-video-from-a-mouse/ | Streaming Video From A Mouse | Matthew Carlson | [
"computer hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"8051",
"ADNS-9000",
"firmware",
"Intel 8051",
"mouse",
"optoelectronics"
] | The first optical mice had to be used on a specially printed mousepad with a printed grid that the four-quadrant infrared sensor could detect. Later, mice swapped the infrared sensor for an optoelectric module (essentially a tiny, very low-resolution camera) and a powerful image processing. [8051enthusiast] was lying in bed one day when they decided to crack the firmware in their gaming mouse and eventually start
streaming frames from the camera inside
.
Step one was to
analyze the protocol between the mouse and the host machine
. Booting up a Windows VM and Wireshark allowed him to capture all the control transfers to the USB controller. Since it was a “programmable” gaming mouse that allowed a user to set macros, [8051enthusiast] could use the control transfers that would normally query that macro that had been set to return the memory at an arbitrary location. A little bit of tinkering later, and he now had a dump of the firmware. Looking at the most abundant bytes, it seems to match a profile similar to the Intel 8051. In a fascinating blur of reverse engineering, he traced the main structure of the program back from the function that sets the LED colors for the scroll wheel (which is dependent on the current DPI setting). Unfortunately, the firmware prevented the same macro mechanism from writing to arbitrary locations.
Looking through the code, a good old buffer overflow exploit seemed possible, but it caused the system to reset via watchdog. So he took another approach, invoking recovery mode and loading an entirely new firmware on the device, which a
set_repor
t control transfer can invoke.
Next,
he moved onto the ADNS-9800 optical sensor
(pictured in the top image provided by
JACK Enterprises
), which had a large encrypted blob in the firmware. Some poking around and deduction lead to a guess that the optical sensor was another 8051 system. With some clever reasoning and sheer determination, [8051enthusiast] was able to crack the XOR stream cipher encryption with a program that showed him versions of the disassembled assembly and allowed him to pick the one that was the most likely. With the firmware decrypted, he was able to see the encryption code and confirm his deducted algorithm.
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/8051enthusiast_sensor-decrypt-1.mp4
With the sensor now cracked open, it was onto the 30 x 30 240 fps video stream. The sensor communicates over SPI, and the USB controller has to bit-bang the connection as it doesn’t have the hardware. Putting two custom firmware images on with a few extra functions was easy enough, but the 7 fps was somewhat lacking. The first optimization was loop unrolling and removing some sleeps in the firmware, which bought it up to 34 fps. By measuring the cycle counts of individual instructions, he was able to find some alternatives such as a mov instead of a
setb
that took one less cycle. Going from a 17 cycle loop to an 11 cycle loop and some other optimizations gave him 54 fps. Not content to stop there, he modified the ADNS-9800 firmware to continuously sample rather than waiting for the USB controller to finish processing. While this yielded 100 fps, there was still more to do: image compression. At a whopping 230 fps, [8051enthusiast] decided to call it done.
However, there was one last thing he wanted to do: control the mouse with the video stream. Writing some image processing into his Python-based program that received the image files allowed him to use the mouse, however impractically.
All in all, it’s an incredible journey by [8051enthusiast], and we would highly recommend reading the whole journey yourself. This isn’t the first time he’s modified the firmware of 8051-based devices, such as
modifying the firmware of the WiFi chipset in his laptop
.
[Thanks to
JACK Enterprises
over at Tindie for the use of
the image of an ADNS9000
]. | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368459",
"author": "none",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T11:52:28",
"content": "Ever since sprite_tm’s optical mouse hack, I thought this might be possible. Sounds like an awesome project, will watch.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,373,002.22332 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/30/heres-how-to-sniff-out-an-lcd-protocol-but-how-do-you-look-up-the-controller/ | Here’s How To Sniff Out An LCD Protocol, But How Do You Look Up The Controller? | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"character lcd",
"i2c",
"reverse engineering",
"ST7032",
"Winstar"
] | Nothing feels better than getting a salvaged component to do your bidding. But in the land of electronic displays, the process can quickly become a quagmire. For more complex displays, the secret incantation necessary just to get the things to turn on can be a non-starter. Today’s exercise targets a much simpler character display and has the added benefit of
being able to sniff the data from a functioning radio unit
.
When [Amen] upgraded his DAB radio he eyed the 16×2 character display for salvage. With three traces between the display and the controller it didn’t take long to trace out the two data lines using an oscilloscope. Turing on the scope’s decoding function verified his hunch that it was using I2C, and gave him plenty of data to work from. This included a device address, initialization string, and that each character was drawn on screen using two bytes on the data bus.
He says that some searching turned up the most likely hardware: a Winstar WO1602I-TFH- AT derived from an ST7032 controller. What we’re wondering is if there is a good resource for searching this kind of info? Our go-to is
the LCD display and controller reference
we covered here back in March. It’s a great resource, but turns up bupkis on this particular display. Are we relegated to using DuckDuckGo for initialization strings and hoping someone’s published a driver or a logic dump of these parts in the past, or is there a better way to go about this? Let us know in the comments! | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368426",
"author": "Nath",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T08:15:48",
"content": "This is something, after months of procrastinating I’m back at sniffing HD44780 signals for a PCB with a dead and unobtainium LCD and HaD just run this article.I’m really eager to read all your comments now ... | 1,760,373,002.16827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/cloud-based-atari-gaming/ | Cloud-Based Atari Gaming | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games"
] | [
"2600",
"atari",
"browser",
"cloud",
"container",
"gaming",
"kubernetes",
"raspberry pi",
"vnc"
] | While the Google Stadia may be the latest and greatest in the realm of cloud gaming, there are plenty of other ways to experience this new style of gameplay, especially if you’re willing to go a little retro. This project, for example,
takes the Atari 2600 into the cloud
for a nearly-complete gaming experience that is fully hosted in a server, including the video rendering.
[Michael Kohn] created this project mostly as a way to get more familiar with Kubernetes, a piece of open-source software which helps automate and deploy container-based applications. The setup runs on two Raspberry Pi 4s which can be accessed by pointing a browser at the correct IP address on his network, or by connecting to them via VNC. From there, the emulator runs a specific game called Space Revenge, chosen for its memory requirements and its lack of encumbrance of copyrights. There are some limitations in that the emulator he’s using doesn’t implement all of the Atari controls, and that the sound isn’t available through the remote desktop setup, but it’s impressive nonetheless
[Michael] also glosses over this part, but the Atari emulator was written by him “as quickly as possible” so he could focus on the Kubernetes setup. This is impressive in its own right, and of course he goes beyond this to show exactly how to set up the cloud-based system on
his GitHub page
as well. He also thinks there’s potential for a system like this to run an NES setup as well. If you’re looking for something a little more modern, though, it is possible to set up a
cloud-based gaming system with a Nintendo Switch
as well. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368437",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T08:59:13",
"content": "The sound should be doable. You might have to route through an encoder and stream it through the browser as a second tab, but that’s not much more than what has already been done. I know most VNCs don’t do s... | 1,760,373,001.99401 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/3d-printed-material-might-replace-kevlar/ | 3D Printed Material Might Replace Kevlar | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"3d printing",
"bulletproof",
"kelvin cell",
"kevlar",
"tetrakaidecahedron"
] | Prior to 1970, bulletproof vests were pretty iffy, with a history extending as far as the 1500s when there were attempts to make metal armor that was bulletproof. By the 20th century there was ballistic nylon, but it took kevlar to produce garments with real protection against projectile impact. Now a 3D printed
nanomaterial
might replace kevlar.
A group of scientists have
published a paper
that interconnected tetrakaidecahedrons made up of carbon struts that are arranged via two-photon lithography.
We know that tetrakaidecahedrons sound like a modern invention, but, in fact, they were proposed by Lord Kelvin in the 19th century as a shape that would allow things to be packed together with minimum surface area. Sometimes known as a Kelvin cell, the shape is used to model foam, among other things.
The 3D printing, in this case, is a form of lithography using precise lasers, so you probably won’t be making any of this on your Ender 3. However, the shape might have some other uses when applied to conventional 3D printing methods.
We’ve actually had an interest in the
history of kevlar
. Then again, kevlar
isn’t the only game in town
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368411",
"author": "rnjacobs",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T06:12:49",
"content": "Apparently there are a lot of different 14-hedrons, and although the article provides clear enough pictures of them, I’m not certain which one these are. Maybe a truncated cube or octahedron?",
"pare... | 1,760,373,002.043449 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/create-large-scale-domino-art-with-a-robot/ | Create Large Scale Domino Art With A Robot | Danie Conradie | [
"Art",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"dominos",
"raspberry pi",
"robot"
] | Creating large domino art displays is a long and nerve-racking process, where bumping a single domino can mean starting from scratch. To automate the process of creating these displays, a team consisting of [Mark Rober], [John Luke], [Josh], and [Alex Baucom] built the
Dominator
, a robot capable of laying 100 000 dominos just over 24 hours. Video after the break.
[Mark Rober] had been toying with the idea for a few years, and the project finally for off the ground after [Mark] mentioned it in a talk he gave at the 2019 Bay Area Maker Faire. To pull it off, the team created an entire domino laying system, including an automated loading station, a precision indoor positioning system, and the robot itself. The robot is built around a frame of aluminum extrusions, riding on three omnidirectional wheels driven by precision servo motors. A large tray mounted to the front of the robot can hold and release 300 dominos at a time. The primary controller is a Raspberry Pi 4, which receives positioning information from a Marvelmind indoor positioning system and a downward-facing IR camera that looks for reflective markers on the floor. The loading system uses a conveyor system to feed the different colored dominos to an industrial Kuka robot that drops them down a grid of tubes that can hold multiple layers at once.
[John Luke] and [Josh] built the mechanics, while [Alex] handled the electronics and software. [Alex] also wrote an excellent series of posts (linked above) detailing the development process, hardware, control system, software architecture, and trajectory generation. He also released all the code on
GitHub
.
[Mark Rober] is well known on YouTube for collaborating on ambitious projects like the
auto-bullseye dartboard
,
glitter bombs
targeting package thieves, and the
guided bowling ball
. | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368406",
"author": "Alessio Rigoli",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T05:29:46",
"content": "This is awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6368428",
"author": "Alice Lalita Heald",
"timestamp": "2021-07-30T08:27:00",
"co... | 1,760,373,002.277747 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/pinewood-derby-scale-measures-cg/ | Pinewood Derby Scale Measures CG | Al Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"center of gravity",
"cg",
"cog",
"pinewood",
"pinewood derby",
"scale"
] | If you suffer from nostalgia, you might remember carving a block of wood into a car, adding some wheels, and racing it against other contestants in a pinewood derby. Today’s derby is decidedly high tech though, and we were impressed with
this car scale that also figures out the car’s center of gravity
.
Based on an Arduino, of course, along with a pair of HX711 load cells. Why a pair? That’s how the device measures the center of gravity is by weighing the front and rear of the car separately.
We really liked the wooden case and found the use of wood satisfying if not ironic. Our only input is that since you need the wheelbase of the car to do the CG calculations, we’d have glued a ruler down. On the other hand, probably any self-respecting pinewood derby creator knows their wheelbase by heart.
Why does CG matter? If you are too far forward, you lose some acceleration. If you are too far back, the front wheels might pop up. With this device, you can know exactly where your center is and make adjustments accordingly.
If you’d rather build something for the actual race, why not
a photo finish system
? Or, perhaps you need
a jet-powered (illegal) entry
. | 23 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368337",
"author": "Daniel",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T20:20:46",
"content": "i don’t want to give away this secret, but i can’t resist, you actually want one of the front wheels to be lifted off the track. 1 less wheel = less friction and less rotational momentum you have to spin u... | 1,760,373,002.335045 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/bright-bike-light-might-make-them-back-off/ | Bright Bike Light Might Make Them Back Off | Kristina Panos | [
"The Hackaday Prize",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize"
] | [Tegwyn☠Twmffat] recently got a job as a part-time bike courier and has come to realize just how dangerous it can be to mix leg-powered transportation with various sizes of engine-driven machinery. Some people would be content with a light, but why use a measly little bulb or two when you can have
a giant, illuminated sign with a clear call to action
? Because is there really any ceiling when it comes to safety precautions?
We think that 180 LEDs in a familiar formation oughta do it. An ultrasonic sensor detects cars behind the bike with the help of an Adafruit Feather. All those LEDs are controlled by a pair of L293 motor driver chips and a slide potentiometer for some dimming action. After all, they need to get enough juice to be visible in broad daylight, but also be dimmable so as not to blind people at night.
[Tegwyn☠Twmffat] calls this a simple project that is suitable for beginners. We think that is great, because bespoke safety measures should be accessible for everyone. So go get those Gerbers and make one for yourself! You can check it out in action on the back of a tricycle after the break.
Want a more relaxing ride?
Recumbent is the reclined way to go
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 26 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368308",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T18:37:30",
"content": "Great idea and implementation. It would be good if the potentiometer were replaced by a Light Dependent Resistor. This would allow for auto-dimming when for example passing through a tunnel, and would also p... | 1,760,373,002.395487 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/fail-of-the-week-the-metal-hot-end-upgrade/ | Fail Of The Week: The Metal Hot End Upgrade | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3d printing",
"all metal hotend",
"E3D",
"hotend"
] | My son, Patrick, has observed on more than one occasion that I do not like 3D printing. That may sound odd, because I built a printer back in 2012 and since then I’ve built a lot of printers and I currently have at least three in my lab. But Patrick correctly realized that I don’t actually enjoy printing things that I need. What I do enjoy is building, fixing and even more importantly improving the printers themselves. If you are reading Hackaday, you probably know how that is. This is the story of an upgrade gone bad, although the ending is happy enough. If you’ve ever thought about moving from a traditional hot end to an all-metal hot end, you might want to hear me out and maybe I can save you some trouble.
A few years ago, I picked up an Anet A8 for a really low price.
As printers go, it is adequate
. Not bad, but not amazing. But it is a fun printer because you really need to do some work on it to brace the acrylic frame and fix other shortcomings. I merrily improved the printer quite a bit over a relatively short period of time and I also bought a bunch of aluminum extrusion to rebuild the frame to the
AM8 plans you can find on Thingiverse
.
An AM8 is Born
The All Metal Hotend in Action Finally!
But life happens, and that box of extrusions sat on the shelf for a few years. Looking for a pandemic project, I decided it was time to take the plunge and the results were great. Having a solid metal frame on the printer really turned it into a world-class printer. Except for one thing.
The extruder on the A8 — actually, the entire X assembly — doesn’t really change on the AM8 build. I had made some very simple changes to the extruder, but it was mostly stock and that was a pain. The extruder is a NEMA17 stepper in a U-shaped metal frame with a conventional extruder bolted to it. A fan totally covers the extruder and the heat break screws right into the bottom, followed by the heat block and the nozzle.
I’d already
moved the fan for access
, something most people with A8s do. However, the thing was a pain to load and with the cooling not so great on the heat break, jams were reasonably common, if not as common as you might expect. Clearing jams was quite painful though.
New Extruder
I knew for a long time I wanted to put something better in place and I had a few knock-off E3D V6 hot ends sitting around. Like the extrusions, they’ve been in storage for a few years. I printed a mount and got that working great. Once that worked, I redesigned the mount, put on a clone Titan extruder, and fed it with a Bowden tube.
It was great! Easy to load, rarely jammed and any clogs were simple to fix. Time to call it a day, right? Of course, not. I had to make just one more change.
All Metal
If you haven’t taken a hot end apart before, the general flow is that plastic enters into a heat sink. Then it travels through a little tube called a heat break or a throat. This tube tries to isolate the hot part of the hot end from the filament that is heading towards the nozzle. The far end of the heat break butts up against the nozzle inside the heat block which is a metal block that holds the heating element and the thermistor. Ideally, the filament melts just before it leaves the heat break and enters the nozzle.
Hot End before Tightening; note heat break between heat sink and block
Hot End after Tightening; heat break is no longer visible
The normal heat break has PTFE inside which keeps the filament on track even if it gets a little soft. However, at temperatures above 250C, the PTFE tube can break down, so they also make heat breaks out of only metal. A normal metal heat break will be very thin stainless steel, but you can also get some made of titanium or even some that use two different metals. The video below shows a nice assembly guide for two common types of hotends.
So, obviously, an all-metal hotend would be better, right? Maybe not. It depends on what you are trying to do. While an all-metal hotend will let you crank up the temperature, they have their own problems. First, some plastics really want to stick to the metal. This is especially problematic for doing retractions. Second, if heat creeps up the heat break, it can melt early and this can cause jamming and underextrusion, as well.
If you don’t need temperatures above 250C, you might consider not changing to all-metal. But of course, I wanted that temperature range and I did it. That led to a mystery and, like many mystery stories, the culprit will turn out to be a minor player briefly glimpsed.
At First…
At first, I put a generic stainless steel heat break in with the new nozzle. It came with a little envelope of heat compound and I used it on the cool-end of the heat break. The printer would jam almost at once. Keep in mind that with the old nozzle and heat break, all was fine.
A heat break is supposed to have as little thermal conductivity as possible, so that the filament doesn’t melt until it gets down into the heat block. Usually, the tube is very thin since this conducts less heat. For some reason, the new heat break without the PTFE in it was jamming badly.
The jams seemed to occur on retraction. Turning off retraction worked, but left me with very stringy prints. I tried reducing retraction, but no matter how low I went, the hot end would jam. When I would pull the filament back out, it would have a mushroom-like head blocking it from reentering the heat break.
Everything on a 3D printer seems to be interrelated. So I took the 30 mm cooling fan off — it was a cheap clone after all — and replaced it with a 40 mm fan that should have had more flow. I used
a printed adapter
to put it together. It didn’t seem to help.
I also ordered a titanium heat break. Titanium has even worse thermal conductivity so, in theory, it should keep the cold part of the hot end even colder. That didn’t seem to work very well either and I was running low on the thermal paste.
Solutions
Since I had so little of the thermal paste, I thought about using some CPU compound. However, looking up what I had, the maximum temperature was a bit low. However, upon reflection, I realized that the cold-side of the heat break shouldn’t be as hot as the nozzle anyway, so it should be workable.
The idea of only putting compound on the upper threads is that you deliberately want to stop heat transfer from the hot block to the heat break. But whatever heat does go into the break, you want to convey to the heat sink with maximum dispatch.
The new thermal paste — something called Ice Mountain #1 — did the trick. I don’t know if the generic white paste was old or just of poor quality. The Ice Mountain is some carbon/silicone compound and seems to work great. No more jams or heat creep.
Butterfly Effect
This is a great example of how almost every setting and component in 3D printing is interrelated. The new hot end required adjustment of the bed height, the flow temperature, and retraction settings. It also required adequate heat transfer between the hot end components.
Was it worth it in the end? Just for PLA, probably not. However, now I’m ready to experiment with different filaments and the PLA prints seem to be doing fine.
What’s next? Maybe
multiextrusion
? If you really want to test your hotend knowledge, try
resurrecting a mistreated machine
. | 44 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368278",
"author": "Taylor Schweizer",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T17:14:58",
"content": "That heat block shouldn’t be touching the heat sink like that. This is what happens if you use a Creality type nozzle with an E3D hotend. The Creality type nozzles have shorter threads than the E... | 1,760,373,002.534821 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/new-video-series-raspberry-pi-pico-and-rp2040-deep-dive-with-uri-shaked/ | New Video Series: Raspberry Pi Pico And RP2040 Deep Dive With Uri Shaked | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"how-to",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"HackadayU",
"Raspberry Pi Pico",
"rp2040"
] | In case you’ve been living under a rock that doesn’t have internet access, the Raspberry Pi Foundation got into the silicon sales and microcontroller game all at once this year with
the Raspberry Pi Pico
. It’s small, it’s capable, and it costs a measly $4. Surely you have one or two of them by now, right? But how much do you know about what it can do?
Or maybe you don’t have one yet, but it’s on your list. In either case, you can get started learning about them right away because [Uri Shaked]’s
Raspberry Pi Pico and RP2040 Deep Dive
course has recently been freed from the hallowed halls of HackadayU. He even built an emulator to go with it. [Uri] is a great instructor, and we’re sure that goes double if you ever need a salsa dance teacher, which he has also mastered.
This class was held for five weeks beginning in May 2021, with each session being roughly an hour long. The only prerequisite is a basic understanding of bitwise math, but there are resources for that on the class IO page linked above.
Each class is incredibly well-organized and informative. In
the first class
, [Uri] begins building
a living document
that includes the class agenda, links to all resources used and mentioned, code examples, and assembly instructions where applicable. It’s basically a syllabus plus a whole lot more. [Uri] also spends a lot of time in
the incredibly thorough 649-page data sheet for the RP2040
, and a little bit of time in the much shorter
Getting Started guide
. If you think the data sheet is inaccessible, you’ll likely change your tune by the end of the first class after you’ve seen [Uri] use and peruse it.
Class one starts out as sort of a big-picture high-level intro, but [Uri] quickly gets into nitty gritty stuff using the Pico emulator — like how to blink multiple LEDs without a lot of code by writing directly to the memory register of the output pins. By the same token, you can read in from multiple inputs. I learned a lot from just watching the first course, including an easy way to address the I/O pins and
a really neat GitHub trick
I’d never seen before.
As the classes go along, you’ll dive deep into the RP2040 and immerse yourself in the system architecture, the hardware registers, and the basics of the ARM assembly language. By the end, you’ll be swimming in knowledge of the Programmable Input/Output (PIO) — a unique and exciting feature of the RP2040 chip that lets you create additional hardware interfaces.
The 2021 session of HackadayU may be out for summer, but don’t sweat it. In the meantime,
go check out the back catalog over on Hackaday.io
and find something to help fill the hours productively until then. | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368264",
"author": "M (the first)",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T16:32:29",
"content": "I read all the literature, then passed on the Pico, before I could actually get my hands on one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6368307",
... | 1,760,373,002.447108 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/3d-printed-tooling-enables-diy-electrochemical-machining/ | 3D-Printed Tooling Enables DIY Electrochemical Machining | Dan Maloney | [
"cnc hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"anode",
"cathode",
"ecm",
"EDM",
"electrochemical machining",
"electrode",
"electrolysis",
"electroplating",
"subtractive"
] | When it comes to turning a raw block of metal into a useful part, most processes are pretty dramatic. Sharp and tough tools are slammed into raw stock to remove tiny bits at a time, releasing the part trapped within. It doesn’t always have to be quite so violent though, as
these experiments in electrochemical machining
suggest.
Electrochemical machining, or ECM, is not to be confused with electrical discharge machining, or EDM. While similar, ECM is a much tamer process. Where EDM relies on a powerful electric arc between the tool and the work to erode material in a dielectric fluid, ECM is much more like electrolysis in reverse. In ECM, a workpiece and custom tool are placed in an electrolyte bath and wired to a power source; the workpiece is the anode while the tool is the cathode, and the flow of charged electrolyte through the tool ionizes the workpiece, slowly eroding it.
The trick — and expense — of ECM is generally in making the tooling, which can be extremely complicated. For his experiments, [Amos] took the shortcut of 3D-printing his tool — he chose [Suzanne] the Blender monkey — and then copper plating it, to make it conductive. Attached to the remains of a RepRap for Z-axis control and kitted out with tanks and pumps to keep the electrolyte flowing, the rig worked surprisingly well, leaving a recognizably simian faceprint on a block of steel.
[Amos] admits the setup is far from optimized; the loop controlling the distance between workpiece and tool isn’t closed yet, for instance. Still, for initial experiments, the results are very encouraging, and we like the idea of 3D-printing tools for this process. Given his previous success
straightening his own teeth
or
3D-printing glass
, we expect he’ll get this fully sorted soon enough. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368263",
"author": "philosiraptor117",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T16:26:05",
"content": "people are currently using this to make rifled barrels at home, cool as hell, and opens previously impossible geometry to the home machinist",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,373,002.584552 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/know-audio-amplifiers-and-distortion/ | Know Audio: Amplifiers And Distortion | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"amplifiers",
"audio",
"distortion",
"hi-fi"
] | As we’ve traced our no-nonsense path through the world of Hi-Fi audio, we’ve started with the listener, understood the limitations of the human ear, and thence proceeded to the loudspeaker. We’ve learned a bit about speaker cabinets and their design, so it’s time to venture further down the chain to the amplifier that drives those speakers.
The sharp-eyed will be ready to point out that along this path also lies the speaker cables, but since we’ll be looking at interconnects at a later date we’ll be making the dubious and simplistic assumption for now that the wires between speaker and amplifier are ideal conductors that don’t have a bearing on listening quality. We’ll be looking at amplifiers in enough detail to warrant more than one piece on the subject, so today we’ll start by considering in a slightly abstract way what an amplifier does and where it can fall short in its task. We’ll be introducing probably the most important thing to consider in any audio system, namely distortion.
The job of an audio amplifier is to take an audio signal at its input and present the same signal on its output at a greater amplitude. In the case of a preamplifier it will usually be designed to work with high impedances in the order of 50 kΩ at both input and output, while in a power amplifier designed to drive speakers or headphones it will drive a much lower impedance. Commonly this will be 4 Ω or 8 Ω for loudspeakers, and 32 Ω for headphones.
All Amplifiers Are (Slightly) Broken
In the ideal amplifier, what appears at the output should be a completely faithful replica of what is presented at the input. In reality, this perfectly linear device does not exist, because of the flaws of electronic components. Though we can make amplifiers that are astoundingly good, there will always be a slight difference between the output and input signals beyond merely their amplitude.
Measuring single-frequency THD+N through a flowgraph in GNU Radio
If we were to imagine for a moment an extremely non-linear amplifier which when fed with a pure sine wave returned a square wave on its output, most of us are probably aware that
the square wave would be the sum of that original sine wave and a series of its multiples, or harmonics
. Any audio amplifier we are likely to encounter will be far closer to a perfect linear amplifier than that, but even the smallest non-linearity will result in detectable harmonic levels on the output.
It’s these harmonics generated within the amplifier that are referred to as harmonic distortion, and they are measured by feeding a pure sine wave into the device and measuring the ration of fundamental frequencies to harmonics on the output (
Our 2020 April Fool
may have been poking fun at high-end cables, but included
a method for doing this with GNU Radio.
) This is expressed as Total Harmonic Distortion, usually as a percentage of the output which is composed of harmonics. A good quality Hi-Fi amplifier will typically have a %THD in the order of a fraction of a percent. THD is measured at a single frequency at any one time and the quoted figure is usually at 1 kHz, but it’s worth considering the effects across multiple frequencies. It’s usual for an amplifier to have a slightly worse THD at higher frequencies, for example.
The power supply transformer and capacitors at the front of this amplifier are the largest of its components. Christian Herzog,
CC BY 2.0
.
When we think of distortion it’s harmonic distortion that comes to mind, but THD is not the only type of amplifier shortcoming that can make a difference to the output. For example, if you deconstruct the task an audio power amplifier performs, from one perspective it amplifies the input to drive the speakers, but from another it forms the bridge between its power supply and via the speaker cables, those speakers.
Put simply, its task is to turn high power DC from the power supply into high power AC for the speakers. Thus the amplifier is only one part of the circuit, and speakers, amplifier, and power supply must be matched in their capabilities and up to the task in hand.
Should you open up a high-end linear Hi-Fi amplifier you’ll find that its case is mostly filled up with power supply components; a very large mains transformer and a block of smoothing capacitors. This is because the power supply is designed to be able to service much higher instantaneous loads than its normal constant load, to adequately handle peaks in the audio stream such as drum beats. The point of exploring this avenue is to understand that the distortion of an amplifier depends not only on the amplifier itself but also the quality of the components that surround it, in that a seemingly distortion-free amplifier can still be exhibit distortion at times if it is paired with an inadequate power supply.
Another example of distortion from an unexpected source could be found in
the stereo tube amp that was my youthful folly
. It suffered from an appalling phase response that gave a spectacularly wooly sound, yet it still had a pretty decent frequency response and THD that would otherwise have labelled it as a good amplifier. Fortunately it’s not likely that you’ll be troubled by that in any reasonable amplifier, but we hope to have shown that there are many potential sources for distortion in amplifier design beyond a simple THD measurement of the amplifier block itself.
Is this
£10 Chinese audio kit
better than any transistor amp simply because it has a couple of tubes? We don’t think so.
There’s one more moment in which you’ll hear distortion mentioned in discussion of Hi-Fi that’s worth exploring here, and it’s unexpectedly in a positive light even if it’s in a very subjective context.
It’s a long-running thing in audiophile circles as to whether a tube amplifier is better than a transistor one, and one of the arguments mobilised in the defence of the tube amplifier is that behind the much-vaunted “tube sound” is that tubes produce more even harmonic distortion while transistors produce more in the odd harmonics.
It’s one of those things that almost certainly has more to do with legend than reality, and probably originates in the days when transistor Hi-Fi was in its infancy and tube amplifiers were a mature technology. Many transistor amplifiers from the 1960s had noticeable flaws, and it’s possible that some of their legacy has rubbed off through the decades. It’s safe to say though that the art of making a very good transistor amplifier was cracked a very long time ago, and aside from the bragging rights there should be little reason to favour one over the other of equivalent quality in 2021.
Trust Only Your Instruments
In the previous paragraph we’re coming close to the original motivation for this series and the conclusion of our distortion overview. Saying that a good tube amp is no better than a good transistor amp will doubtless have some audiophiles exclaiming in disbelief that I clearly have no idea what I’m talking about and the difference is obvious in listening, to which I would like to remind them of
the first article in this series about the human ear
. Given the choice between a subjective assessment from a human ear and a reproducible measurement from a calibrated instrument, the only trustworthy information comes from the instrument. A hallmark of audiophile writing is often preposterous claims about audio components, so this series is presenting an introduction to audio based upon real engineering. Thus any discussion of distortion should end with this: only take notice of verifiable readings from trustworthy instruments.
We’ll be returning to the subject of distortion in a later instalment when we look in more detail at its measurement. Meanwhile we will return in the next article of the series to look in more detail at the amplifiers themselves. We’ll cover their different types, and their relative merits and disadvantages. | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368247",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T15:00:11",
"content": "Why isn’t predistotrion used with audio amplifiers ?If a very high quality microphone was placed correctly, you could even use predistortion to correct for some non-linearities in the speakers.(I’m thinking... | 1,760,373,002.732966 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/3d-printer-add-on-makes-sharpie-colors/ | 3D Printer Add On Makes Sharp(ie) Colors | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"color 3d printing",
"multicolor"
] | We’ve all seen 3D printed jigs that use a permanent marker to color filament as it goes into the hot end. [Sakati84] has a completely different idea. A holder on the print head can
pick up one of several pens and use it to color the layer the hot end just laid down
. In the video below, it looks like it works well and, although we imagine it will be a bear to calibrate on height, it seems like something you could replicate with nearly any conventional printer.
Logically, you print a layer with no pen in the holder and when you do pick up a pen, it will need to be somewhat lower than the print nozzle or else you’ll drag around in the fresh plastic.
You have to 3D print a rack and some pen holders depending on the brand of pen you want to use. There’s also the holder that fits on the hot end. You can see in the video how the head picks up and releases pens out of the rack. The rack will hold up to six pens.
To switch pens takes a lot of Z axis motion, so we expect print speed is relatively slow in aggregate. There’s talk in the project wiki about increasing Z speed and tips for calibration, but it still isn’t going to be that fast.
For software, there is a Cura postprocessing script. The software thinks there are seven extruders with the first one being for unpainted filament. Extruders 2-7 are virtual and will cause the print to get color after printing each layer.
Overall, this looks like a fun project even if we worry about the health of our Z axis rods. We’ll be interested to see if anyone takes up the challenge to adapt it for other printers.
We’ve played with
virtual extruders
in a more manual way before. Or, just bite the bullet and add some
more real extruders
. | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368192",
"author": "Braddo",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T11:10:37",
"content": "What a great idea! I guess there’s some risk to interlayer adhesion but colors are much more vivid that the pens on filament while printing technique.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,373,002.783849 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/29/orbiter-is-now-open-source/ | Orbiter Is Now Open Source | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Space"
] | [
"DSKY",
"orbiter",
"space",
"Space Shuttle",
"space simulation",
"space simulator"
] | We always have it on our list to learn more about Orbiter. If you haven’t seen it, it is a hyperrealistic space simulator. Granted, you can put it in an easy mode, but its real strength is you can very accurately model spacecraft like the Space Shuttle and have very realistic controls. In order to spur development,
the program is now open source
.
We think this is interesting for two reasons. First, if you ever wanted to contribute into a project of this scope, here’s your chance. You might not want to write a full-blow space simulator but you might have something to add. However, open source also means you can see how the program works and either reuse it in your own open source projects or just simply learn from the techniques.
As an example, we know lots of people make replica
DSKY
devices. How cool would it be to interface one to Orbiter? Or build out an entire
Shuttle
cockpit? We wish Orbiter was cross-platform but we hear it will run under
WINE
.
If you haven’t run into Orbiter before, here’s the description from their FAQ:
Orbiter is a real-time 3D space flight simulator for the Windows PC. The concept is similar to traditional flight simulator software, but you are not limited to atmospheric flight. Orbiter allows you to experience manned and unmanned space flight missions from the pilot’s perspective. Take control from launch to orbtial insertion, rendezvous with space stations, deploy and recapture satellites, and re-enter and land on a planetary surface. The playground is our solar system, and you can even execute missions to the moon or other planets. (Time compression is available to shorten long cruise phases.) Orbiter accurately models the physics of spaceflight, which makes it possible to either recreate historic missions, or use it as a sandbox for futuristic spacecraft concepts.
Don’t forget when you build a great project around this to drop us a
note
. | 30 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368171",
"author": "Jonathan Wilson",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T08:33:31",
"content": "Now that its open source, someone could port it to Linux or other platforms if they wanted to :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6368182",
... | 1,760,373,003.00215 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/tabletop-basketball-with-tentacles/ | Tabletop Basketball With Tentacles | Danie Conradie | [
"Games",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cable mechanism",
"Homebrew Tentacle Mechanisms",
"Tabletop",
"tentacles"
] | Unlike football/soccer and foosball, basketball doesn’t really lend itself to being turned into a tabletop game quite that easily. [The Q] has found a way around that,
employing tentacle mechanisms to create a two-player, basketball-like game
.
Each player uses a pair of two-axis control sticks and a foot pedal to operate a cable-driven tentacle with a gripper on the end. These are two stage tentacles, meaning that the top and bottom halves are independently controlled. The tentacles consist of a series of laminated foam discs clued onto bicycle cable sleeves. The cables are open in the section they control, and operate in a push-pull arrangement. The spring-loaded grippers are operated by the foot pedals, with a single cable running down the center of the tentacle.
The game looks quite fun and challenging, and we can imagine it being even more entertaining with teams of two or three people operating each tentacle. Add a bit of alcohol to adult players, and it might become downright hilarious, although the mechanisms would need to be beefed up a bit to survive that level of punishment.
We suspect [The Q] read [Joshua Vasquez]’s incredibly detailed
three-part guide on two-stage tentacle mechanisms
. Combine that with his guide to
cable mechanism math
, and you’d be well-equipped to build your own. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368164",
"author": "Hans",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T08:00:23",
"content": "Nice build and without any CAD software, Laser cutter or 3D printer, respect. The finale product itself, well, …at least the players at 4:36 in the video seem to have a pretty fun game ;-)",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,373,002.936936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/liquid-nitrogen-isnt-suitable-for-steam-engines/ | Liquid Nitrogen Isn’t Suitable For Steam Engines | Lewin Day | [
"Science"
] | [
"hero's engine",
"liquid nitrogen",
"steam engine"
] | Liquid nitrogen is fun stuff to play with, as long as you’re careful and avoid freezing your own fingers off and shattering them on the workbench. As the liquid turns to gaseous nitrogen at around -196 C, [The Action Lab] figured that it could be used to propel a simple steam engine at room temperature.
Testing this out had amusing results.
The device under test is
a Hero’s Engine
, otherwise known as an aeolipile. This consists of a hollow sphere filled with water, fitted with a series of nozzles that shoot out steam when the vessel is heated. Via the rocket principle, this causes the device to rotate about its axis.
When filled with water and heated with a candle, the aeolipile spun at up to 2520 RPM. [The Action Lab] next tested it filled with water in a vacuum chamber, with the low pressure causing the water to boil at room temperature. The effect was less impressive however, with the engine spinning at a much slower rate.
The best result was with liquid nitrogen inside the engine. With the nitrogen quickly boiling at room temperature, the aeolipile quickly spun up to a great speed. The engine stand had to be steadied to avoid it tipping over, before the seal at the top of the engine blew off from overpressure.
We’d love to see the same experiment done with
a piston-type steam engine, too
. Video after the break. | 28 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368127",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T02:51:31",
"content": "It’s not suitable for this steam engine..Let’s ask Blonde Hacks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6368137",
"author": "Osgeld",
"timestamp": "202... | 1,760,373,002.89883 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/video-feedback-effects-make-a-glorious-spectacle-in-hd/ | Video Feedback Effects Make A Glorious Spectacle In HD | Lewin Day | [
"Art"
] | [
"4K",
"video",
"video feedback"
] | Video feedback is perhaps best known for its appearance in the film clip to Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s not a particularly popular effect that you see too often, as it’s rather messy to set up what with cameras filming screens and what not. Regardless, the effects possible are glorious,
as demonstrated by [Dave Blair] and his amazing video feedback kinetic sculpture.
No computer is involved at all in the process – it’s just classic, old school video feedback. It’s produced by pointing a camera at a screen and feeding the image back to that same screen. Three cameras are combined with twin video switchers and a beam-splitting pane of glass, along with a source image via an HDMI input.
By turning and spinning the various cameras, [Dave] is able to generate beautiful curving fractal-like effects using the source imagery, with a rainbow of color melting and warping together as he interacts with the sculpture. It’s a beautiful effect and something we’re surprised we don’t see more of in the video industry.
Hopefully [Dave] is enlisted to put his machine to work on the next [Doja Cat] film clip so we can get more of this goodness. Video after the break. | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368093",
"author": "RÖB",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T23:17:36",
"content": "Take me to your drug dealer!Definitely VERY 60’s",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6368099",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2021-07-29T0... | 1,760,373,003.185713 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/scanning-medium-format-film-on-a-35mm-scanner/ | Scanning Medium Format Film On A 35mm Scanner | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"film",
"film scanner",
"medium format",
"scanner"
] | Scanning film is great for archival purposes as well as sharing said photos digitally. However, if you’re scanning 120 film, aka medium format, it can be expensive to get the requisite hardware. 35mm scanners are comparatively more common,
so [Christian Chapman] decided to modify one to suit medium film instead.
The hack is for the Plustek 8100, and requires modifying the scanner in two ways. Firstly, the driver has to be scanned to sweep a longer range to take into account the bigger film. Secondly, a part of the film carriage has to be replaced so it doesn’t show up in the scanners field of view.
The former is achieved by using the sane-genesys scanner software backend, which can be easily modified to adjust the scan length values appropriately. The latter is achieved via 3D printing replacement components that fit without blocking the requisite area.
It’s a tidy hack and one that allows [Christian] to both scan medium format film as well as overscan 35mm film to capture details from the sprocket hole area.
We’ve seen fully custom film scanner builds before, too.
If you’ve built your own scanner,
be sure to drop us a line! | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368054",
"author": "Gösta",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T20:28:48",
"content": "For stuff like this 3D printers do magic. Great hack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6368057",
"author": "asheets",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T2... | 1,760,373,003.044231 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/swamp-gas-will-get-you-home/ | Swamp Gas Will Get You Home | Jenny List | [
"green hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"methane",
"motorcycle",
"swamp gas"
] | The energy to power a motorcycle has to come from somewhere, be it a power station, a solar panel, a gas station, or a hydrogen plant. There have been many ways to reduce the cost of extracting that energy over the years, but we think [Gijs Schalkx] may have hit upon one of the cheapest and simplest we’ve ever seen. It may not be free gas, but it is
free swamp gas
! His
Uitsloot
(we think that’s Dutch for “From the ditch”) motorcycle gets its power from methane generated in the sediment at the bottom of the Netherlands’ many waterways.
At its heart is a venerable Honda Cub moped, we’re guessing of the 50 cc version. On its pillion is a large clear container, inside of which is a balloon filled with gas. He doesn’t go into details in the video below the break, but we’re guessing he’s injecting the gas into the Honda’s airbox from which the engine can suck the gas/air mixture. We like his gas collector, a large inner tube with a collector funnel in its centre that floats on the water. He dons some waders and pokes the sediment with a long stick to release bubbles of methane. He then uses a long hose and a bicycle pump to inflate the balloon with the collected gas. We see him zipping around the streets of Arnhem under this unconventional power, though sadly we don’t see how far a full balloon will take him.
There’s a discussion to be had as to the environmental credentials of this project, but we think given that the naturally generated methane which would find its way into the atmosphere eventually
has a greater effect on the climate than the CO2
produced by the engine, he may be onto a winner. It is however not a system that would scale to more than a few drivers poking at bogs with a stick. | 61 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6368010",
"author": "uda-thortit",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T18:43:38",
"content": "I would like to see some video of bubbles coming up from the pond when prodded (without the collector thing there). I’m surprised that you get that much gas.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,003.279301 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/how-to-modify-your-car-stereo-for-bluetooth-or-aux-in/ | How To Modify Your Car Stereo For Bluetooth Or Aux-In | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks",
"digital audio hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Original Art"
] | [
"audio",
"aux",
"bluetooth",
"car",
"retrofit"
] | If you’re an automotive enthusiast of taste, you can’t stand the idea of fitting a janky aftermarket stereo into your nice, clean ride. Flashy, modern head units can spoil the look of a car’s interior, particularly if the car is a retro, classic, or vintage ride.
Thus, we’re going to look at how to modify your existing stock car stereo to accept an auxiliary cable input or even a Bluetooth module. This way, you can pump in the latest tunes from your smartphone without a fuss, while still maintaining an all-original look on the dash.
Fundamentals
A simple Bluetooth module designed for wiring into car audio systems. There are two wires for 12 V power from the vehicle, and the audio signal is sent out over the RCA plugs. The RCA plugs can be cut off and the module hard wired inside your stereo if you have room. Cutting off the plastic case can help too.
Depending on your choice of audio player, you may prefer a 3.5 mm aux jack, or you might want to go with Bluetooth audio if your smartphone no longer has a headphone port. Whichever way you go, the process of modifying the stereo is largely the same. To achieve your goal, you need to find a way of injecting the audio signal into the head unit’s amplifier stage, while making sure no other audio sources are getting sent there as well.
Whether that audio source is a 3.5 mm jack or a Bluetooth module doesn’t matter. The only difference is, in the latter case, you’ll want to buy a Bluetooth module and hardwire it in to the auxiliary input you create, while also splicing the module into the stereo’s power supply. In the case of a simple headphone jack input, you simply need to wire up an aux cord or 3.5 mm jack somewhere you can get to it, and call it done.
This guide won’t cover every stereo under the sun, of course. Edge cases exist and depending on the minute specifics of how your original car radio works, these exact methods may or may not work for you. However, this guide is intended to get you thinking conceptually about how such mods are done, so that you can investigate the hardware in front of you and make your own decisions about how to integrate an external audio input that suits your usage case.
Guide 1: Old School Radio/Cassette Decks
An old two-knob AM radio from a 1970s Ford Bronco, modified with an auxiliary input. Often it’s as simple as wiring in to the back of the volume pot.
If you’ve got something quite retro, this hack can be very simple indeed. This normally applies to radio/cassette players from the 1970s and early 1980s that have an analog volume knob on the front. In this case, the audio signal flows to the amplifier directly through the volume knob. Some kind of rudimentary switching decides whether the radio or cassette signals get to the volume knob and are then passed out to the amplifier section and on to the speakers.
Thus, there are a number of ways you can splice in your own audio on these units. The easiest is to cut the stereo audio traces or wires going to the volume knob, and hook them up to a DPDT toggle switch. Hook the volume knob’s wires up to the middle two pins of the switch, and hook the original stereo feed up to a pair of pins on one side. You can then wire in your new aux cord or Bluetooth input up to the other pins on the toggle switch. The toggle switch then selects between standard operation, or the external feed. Install that switch somewhere tidy and the job is done!
Alternatively, you might find that there’s a button on the deck that switches the radio into cassette mode whether or not a tape is inserted. In that case, you may be able to wire up your auxiliary audio into the cassette module’s audio output, and simply use the existing switches on the deck to select cassette mode. With no cassette in the deck providing a signal, only your external audio will be going through to the volume knob and then on to the speakers. Easier, and even cleaner!
Guide 2: Digital Era Radio/Cassettes and CD Players
This Volvo cassette player from 1987 is firmly in the digital era – note the LCD display.
Head units from this era are usually easy to hack, with relatively large components and traces inside and simple signal flows. The equalizer input could likely also easily be modified in a similar way to the Guide 1 method.
In the digital era, things get a touch more complicated. This refers to head units that use digital displays and push button controls, with a microcontroller running the whole show. Interestingly, many 1980s and 1990s radios used simple 4-bit microcontrollers, which had just enough capability to run a simple head unit while being presumably cheaper than the more usual 8-bit parts. Basically, if your 80s or 90s stereo has an LCD on it, this part of the guide may be for you.
Digitally-controlled decks typically use a chip called a mux or a multiplexer to determine which signal gets sent to the amplifier. The mux is basically a chip with many inputs and a single output. The main microcontroller in the head unit will typically control the mux chip, either by toggling a few GPIO pins or using a serial, SPI, I2C, or other interface. When a user presses the button for the FM radio, for example, the microcontroller will send a signal to tell the mux to route the FM radio input to the output to the amplifier. If they hit the button for tape, the microcontroller will instruct the mux to route out the tape audio instead.
The Hitachi HD14052BP in the middle of this image decides which audio gets sent out to the amplifier.
Thus, by controlling the mux, you can control the audio that gets to the amplifier and thus the speakers. Depending on the mux chip used, and how integrated it is with the rest of the hardware in the stereo, this can be easy or rather difficult.
Most muxes will be a variant of the
4051/4052 series
. For example, an early 90s stereo using the Hitachi HD14052BP multiplexer is easily modified with an auxiliary input; simply flipping a few pins changes the mux’s input. Thus, with a properly wired switch, the mux can be told to select the cassette or CD input even when no cassette or CD is present. Simply then wire up your aux input to those same pins and you’re in business.
Guide 3: Modern-Era CD Decks
This Mercedes-branded head unit was built by Alpine.
It uses an integrated mux and signal processor, making it harder to hack an audio input into the stereo. The newer technology also uses finer-pitch surface mount parts, making it harder to work with for beginners.
More modern stereos can prove difficult, however. Often, the multiplexer is integrated into more complicated chips that handle multiple functions. To get the multiplexer to switch inputs, it often requires the use of a silent audio CD, or commanding these chips over interfaces like I2C, serial, or SPI. This is on top of the job of wiring in the auxiliary input into the tape, CD, or other audio input subsystem.
For instance, the Mercedes Audio 10 CD head unit, as produced by Alpine in the late 1990s, features the Philips TEA688OH signal processor IC. This chip handles volume, treble, and bass controls, as well as certain radio signal processing tasks while also acting as the multiplexer as well.
Wiring the auxiliary input into the CD input is simple enough, but getting the stereo to actually switch to that input is harder. Many elect to simply burn an audio CD with a silent track that lasts an hour. Inserting that into the deck gets the CD input selected, and the auxiliary audio can play through on top of the silent output from the CD itself. However, it’s an inelegant solution that requires the user to keep a disc on hand to switch into auxiliary mode, and it also means the mechanical disc player must be maintained in working order.
Here, an Arduino is used to command the TEA688OH signal processor (QFP chip top right) to switch inputs on command. A DPDT switch is used here to switch the I2C lines between the Arduino and the stereo’s own microcontroller. If the Arduino is left connected to the I2C lines instead, volume and other settings cannot be adjusted, so the switch is necessary. A relay allows the Arduino to automate switching the I2C control back and forth.
A more elegant solution in this case would be to force the TEA688OH to switch to the CD input, or another input, regardless of whether or not a CD was in the drive. This is quite possible, as the chip receives signals from the main microcontroller over I2C,
and these are all listed in the chip’s datasheet
. However, it requires adding in a Arduino or similar that can speak I2C, a DPDT relay, and some supporting components.
The I2C lines between the stereo’s microcontroller and the TEA688OH signal processor must be cut, and wired up to the relay. Under command from the Arduino, the relay normally routes signals from the stock microcontroller to the signal processor, allowing the normal control of volume and other features.
However, if the user wishes to switch to their aux input wired into the CD input, they can simply press a button hooked up to the Arduino. The Arduino then flips the DPDT relay, connecting its own I2C interface to the signal processor. Then, the command to switch inputs can be sent over I2C, and then control restored to the standard microcontroller so normal functionality of volume controls and such is resumed.
In final form, a Bluetooth module and Arduino Pro Micro are stuffed inside the stereo along with a DPDT relay to switch the I2C bus. An external button is used to trigger the Arduino to switch to auxiliary input on command.
Obviously, the latter case is much harder work, and requires knowledge around the use of microcontrollers and I2C communications. The final result is a lot more elegant, however, with the unit able to switch over to auxiliary input at the touch of a button. While the example given is for a specific Mercedes head unit, other OEM stereos from the era use similar components, and can be modified in a similar way. It’s simply a matter of finding a way to get your auxiliary input piped out to the amplifier subsection via the onboard multiplexer.
Appendix: CD Changer Inputs
Sometimes, you get lucky, and there’s a simple additional input already hanging off the back of your standard stereo. Often, stock stereos come with a CD changer input so that the option can easily be added to cars without changing over the basic head unit. These inputs typically come with analog audio inputs and even a power supply, with a rudimentary way of determining whether a CD changer is connected. In the case of the Kenwood standard CD changer input, it’s as simple as tying a certain pin to another via a resistor, and the head unit can be switched to the CD changer input and audio can be piped in.
A pinout for certain Kenwood CD changer inputs. However, be wary. There are many stereos out there with 13-pin CD changer inputs with completely different pinouts that aren’t compatible at all. Ask me how I know.
However, others are more complex. Certain luxury cars in the late 1990s use a digital audio input over optic fibre that is difficult to spoof with off-the-shelf hardware. Also, some head units use serial or other communication methods to control the CD changer and won’t switch to the input unless they receive the right messages back from the hardware. If you don’t have a CD changer already, it can be difficult to figure out how to spoof this communication as well.
It’s a great method if you can make it work, though. Often it allows a custom input to be hacked in without even opening the stereo.
Old-school car audio hackers have been doing it for decades in cars like the Mazda Miata,
swapping in their own audio inputs without spoiling the tasteful stock look of the original dash layout.
Summary
Overall, all you need to do to hack in an auxiliary audio input, whether Bluetooth or otherwise, is to get your signal to the amplifier in the place of any other. If you can figure out how signals are routed from the various subcomponents of the head unit – such as the CD player, tape deck, and radio modules – then you should be able to figure out how to route in your own signals instead. Hopefully this guide has served to illustrate the basic processes required so that you can figure out how to hack any stereo out there. Good luck, and if you pull off a particularly nice hack,
send it in on the tip line
. Have fun! | 42 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367974",
"author": "Nikolai",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T17:19:00",
"content": "I most cases just having a good bluetooth speaker on the back seat sounds much better than stock system. Simple and modern solution.Only the problem, you will need to turn on/off the speaker eavery time y... | 1,760,373,003.362668 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/workshop-tools-are-available-in-first-class/ | Workshop Tools Are Available In First-Class | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"airplane",
"cnc",
"food cart",
"machine",
"mdf",
"tool",
"toolbox",
"workbench"
] | Most of dream of having a fully-stocked shop with all of the tools needed to build our projects, at least if we don’t already have such a shop. In the meantime, a lot of us are hacking together our own tools and working on whatever bench space might be available to us. While [Emiel] aka [The Practical Engineer] has an envious shop to work from, his latest project goes to show how
repurposing some aircraft-grade equipment
can result in a high-quality toolbox for himself, without shelling out for any consumer-level solution. (Video, embedded below.)
The core of his workshop cart build is actually a recycled food service cart from an airline. While the original probably only housed some soft drinks and ice, this one has been kitted out to be much more functional. Since [Emiel] is using this to wheel around his machine shop, he used a CNC machine to cut out slots in black MDF sheets which would hold his drill bits, taps, and other tools. Working with MDF on a CNC machine turned out to not be as simple as he thought, since the MDF would separate and break away unless the CNC tool heads were operated in a specific way.
The build also includes several buckets for other tools, and a custom enclosure for the top of the cart specifically built for his machine tools’ tools to sit while he is working. It’s certainly a more cost-effective solution to a wheeled shop toolbox than buying something off-the-shelf, and a clever repurposing of something which would have otherwise ended up in a landfill. [Emiel] is no stranger to building any tools that he might need,
including this custom belt sander
built completely from the ground up. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367941",
"author": "steelman",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T15:41:32",
"content": "I believe Laura Kampf was first topresentsuch project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6368029",
"author": "John Gadbois",
"timest... | 1,760,373,003.411853 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/more-than-just-hubble-the-space-observatories-filling-the-skies-today-and-tomorrow/ | More Than Just Hubble: The Space Observatories Filling The Skies Today And Tomorrow | Maya Posch | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Space"
] | [
"Chandra",
"Chang'e 3",
"Hubble Space Telescope",
"james webb space telescope",
"jwst",
"observatory",
"telescope"
] | Amidst the recent news about the Hubble Space Telescope’s troubles (and
triumphant resurrection
), it is sometimes easy to forget that although Hubble is a pretty unique telescope, it is just one of many space-based observatories that are currently zipping overhead right now or perched in a heliocentric orbit. So what is it that makes these observatories less known than the iconic Hubble telescope?
Hubble is one of the longest-lived space telescopes so far, and it is also the only space telescope that was both launched and serviced by the Space Shuttle. None of the other telescopes have this legacy, the high-profile, or troubled history of Hubble’s intended successor: the James Web Space Telescope (JWST).
Even so, the mission profiles of these myriad other observatories are no less interesting, least of the many firsts accomplished recently such as a long-term moon-based telescope (Chang’e 3’s LUT) and those of the many upcoming and proposed missions. Let’s take a look at the space observatories many of us have never heard of.
Why Telescopes Don’t Like People
Observing the center of the Milky Way using the laser guide star facility at Yepun, one of the four Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The Laser Guide Star (LGS) is part of the VLT’s adaptive optics system and is used as a reference to correct the blurring effect of the atmosphere on images.
The obvious question with space-based telescopes is ‘why?’. As in, why go through all the trouble of getting a package of generally rather fragile instruments up into space, instead of building a nice, big observatory on Earth where transporting the equipment and building materials can be done by truck and ship, rather than per rocket? Part of the answer can be found in the locations picked by those Earth-based telescopes.
The presence of people means
light pollution
, radio-frequency pollution (for radio telescopes) and other unwanted influences. Additionally, the thicker the atmosphere between the telescope and space, the worse effects like
atmospheric scintillation
(‘twinkling stars’) are likely to be. While strategies such as
adaptive optics
(AO) and simply placing observatories on top of mountains far away from society help to mitigate many of these issues, they do not address some annoying features of the Earth’s atmosphere.
While the Earth’s atmosphere is absolutely great for us biological critters in that it blocks most UV radiation, X-rays, and attenuates infrared and other parts of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum, this is obviously rather undesirable when trying to observe the universe in those parts of the EM spectrum. Although
airborne observatories
on airplanes such as
NASA’s SOFIA
or balloons help a bit here, in order to get a good look at everything the universe has to offer, one has to venture into space to get an unobstructed view.
The Great Observatories
Overview of NASA’s Great Observatories series. (Credit: NASA)
Hubble is part of NASA’s
Great Observatories program
, which includes the Hubble, Chandra, Compton, and Spitzer space-based observatories. The roots for this program go as far back as 1946, when astronomer Lyman Spitzer
wrote a paper
(PDF) that was published on July 30th, 1946 on the advantages of space-based observations over terrestrial ones.
Without the blurring effect of the Earth’s atmosphere and the blindfold-like effect which the same atmosphere induces with UV, X-ray and other types of measurements, humanity’s knowledge and understanding of the universe, our galaxy and nearby planets could be expanded in ways previously deemed inconceivable. With the NASA Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (
AOA-2
, nicknamed
Stargazer
) space observatory that launched in 1968 the feasibility of such an observation platform was confirmed.
Essential to an observatory is the ability to focus on a target for extended periods of time, which in space is enabled through
star trackers
, which enable a spacecraft to maintain a fixed orientation relative to e.g. stars. These enabled
Stargazer
to focus its
Vidicon-derived
UV-sensitive camera tubes (
Uvicon
) on a research target to get a clear picture. When
Stargazer
‘s mission ended in 1973, similar missions such as X-ray observatory
Uhuru
had been launched as well, and beyond NASA other space organizations around the world would launch
their own space-based observatories
.
Where the Great Observatories are unique is in that all four were designed to be complementary, covering the entire spectrum from visible light and near-IR (Hubble), to IR (Spitzer), X-ray (Chandra) and gamma radiation (Compton). This provided observations that were impossible back in the 1990s with ground-based observatories and which in many cases are still impossible today, due to the aforementioned effects of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Today, only Hubble and Chandra remain active. Compton’s mission ended in 2000 after 9 years and 2 months when it was intentionally deorbited after one of its three gyroscopes had failed. Spitzer’s mission ended on January of 2020, after 16 years and 5 months. Even though it had already run out of coolant for far-IR observations by 2009, a limited mission profile was continued until the shutdown signal was sent in 2020. Spitzer will continue to drift along a heliocentric orbit in this shutdown state.
Traffic Jams in Space
At this point in time, there are over twenty active space-based observatories. Roughly split by their primary capabilities, these are:
Gamma-Rays:
International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (
INTEGRAL
, geocentric).
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
(formerly GLAST, geocentric LEO).
Astrorivelatore Gamma ad Immagini Leggero (
AGILE
, geocentric LEO).
Neil Gehrels
Swift
Observatory (
Swift
, geocentric LEO).
Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimeter (GAP, onboard
IKAROS
, heliocentric, possibly lost).
X-Rays:
Chandra
X-ray Observatory (formerly AXAF, geocentric highly elliptical).
X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (
XMM-Newton
geocentric).
Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (
NuSTAR
, geocentric near-equatorial).
Astrosat
(geocentric near-equatorial).
Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (
HXMT
, geocentric LEO).
Spektr-RG
(Sun-Earth L
2
Lagrange point).
UV & Visible Light:
Hubble
Space Telescope (geocentric LEO).
Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (
IRIS
, geocentric sun-synchronous).
Hisaki
(also known as SPRINT-A, geocentric LEO).
Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope (
LUT
, Lunar surface).
Bright-star Target Explorer (
BRITE
, geocentric).
Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (
NEOSSat
, geocentric sun-synchronous).
Gaia
(Sun-Earth L
2
Lagrange).
Transitioning Exoplanet Survey Satellite (
TESS
, high Earth elliptical orbit).
Characterising Exoplanets Satellite (
CHEOPS
, geocentric sun-synchronous).
Infrared:
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (
WISE
, geocentric sun-synchronous).
Microwave:
Odin
(geocentric LEO).
Particle Detection:
Interstellar Boundary Explorer (
IBEX
, geocentric HEO).
Alpha magnetic Spectrometer (
AMS-02
, attached to ISS).
Dark Matter Particle Explorer (
DAMPE
, sun-synchronous).
More to Come
While some of the observatories from the active list will soon be deorbited or deactivated as they reach the end of their mission or overall lifespan, there are around a dozen new missions which we should be able to welcome over the coming years, starting this year with no fewer than three:
Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (
IXPE
, X-ray, geocentric LEO).
James Web Space Telescope (
JWST
, UV/visible/IR, Sun-Earth L
2
Lagrange halo orbit).
X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (
XPoSat
, X-ray, geocentric).
These will be followed by no fewer than four new missions:
X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (
XRISM
, X-ray, geocentric LEO).
Aditya-L1
(Solar observation, Sun-Earth L
1
).
International Lunar Observatory (
ILO-1
, visible, Lunar South Pole).
Euclid
(visible/near-IR, Sun-Earth L
2
).
Visualization of the Sun-Earth Lagrange points.
Of these the ILO-1 mission is both
perhaps the most exciting
as it will create the second permanent Lunar observatory after Chang’e 3’s LUT and add visible observations to LUT’s ultraviolet. Although details are somewhat sketchy, it appears that the
ILO-X
exploration mission may launch on a
Nova-C lunar lander
designed by Intuitive Machines. The IM-1 mission would be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in early 2022, with
ILO-1
targeting IM-2 for late-2022.
Regardless of whether ILO-1 works out, NASA is also eyeing the Moon for a telescope. This would be the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (
LCRT
) and be the biggest in the solar system at 1 kilometer in diameter. The
LCRT
would allow for radio observations of the universe at wavelengths larger than 10 meters (<30 MHz frequencies), which are frequencies that are blocked by the Earth’s ionosphere.
The obvious implication here is also that although satellites in space are convenient, sometimes you just want to have an instrument that is larger than is practical with a space-based observatory. In that case, using the Moon for an observatory, whether remotely controlled or manned, provides a tantalizing alternative. As humanity prepares to return manned flights to the Moon, who knows, maybe before long a Moon colony will feature a big telescope or half a dozen?
The Future is in Space
Notional view of LCRT on the far-side of the Moon.
Credit: Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay
Although there is a lot we can learn about our planet and the universe from our cozy spot within Earth’s biosphere, to really learn how everything from our galaxy to the laws of physics work we must look beyond. Whether this is through upcoming missions like ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (
LISA
) mission that is currently penned in for the 2030s and seeks to measure gravitational waves, or by venturing further ourselves.
The goal after all of these space-based observatories is to look beyond Earth, to satiate our curiosity about the world around us, as we seek to increase our understanding. Whether it was Galileo, Copernicus, Einstein or any of the other scientists who have worked ceaselessly to push humankind that little bit closer to grasping the whole of existence, their efforts have brought us here. To a point where we are no longer bound to Earth, but can consider looking beyond.
Though to many on Earth today much of the images and data returned may seem like boring science-y stuff, contained in them are the seeds for humanity’s future. Even if today it is mostly the instruments we sent along in observatories like Hubble and kin that allow us to see and experience beyond our own senses here on Earth, perhaps before long we can join them on this journey among the stars and other wonders of the universe.
All we have to do is keep our eyes open and stay curious.
[Heading image: Artist’s concept of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)] | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367929",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T14:59:00",
"content": "There’s also the little matter of a bunch of LEOs coming on board. So space-based will address that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6367933",
"... | 1,760,373,003.465962 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/it-takes-a-lot-to-build-a-hackers-laptop/ | It Takes A Lot To Build A Hacker’s Laptop | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"expandable laptop",
"hacker laptop",
"laptop"
] | An essential tool that nearly all of us will have is our laptop. For hardware and software people alike it’s our workplace, entertainment device, window on the world, and so much more. The relationship between hacker and laptop is one that lasts through thick and thin, so choosing a new one is an important task. Will it be a dependable second-hand ThinkPad, the latest object of desire from Apple, or whatever cast-off could be scrounged and given a GNU/Linux distro? On paper all laptops deliver substantially the same mix of performance and portability, but in reality there are so many variables that separate a star from a complete dog. Into this mix comes a newcomer that we’ve had an eye on for a while, the
Framework
. It’s a laptop that looks just like so many others on the market and comes with all the specs at a price you’d expect from any decent laptop, but it has a few tricks up its sleeve that make it worth a glance.
These USB-C based modules are a neat idea.
Probably the most obvious among them is that as well as the off-the-shelf models, it can be bought as a customised kit for self-assembly. Bring your own networking, memory, or storage, and configure your new laptop in a much more personal way than the norm from the big manufacturers. We like that all the parts are QR coded with a URL that delivers full information on them, but we’re surprised that for a laptop with this as its USP there’s no preinstalled open source OS as an option. Few readers will find installing a GNU/Linux distro a problem, but it’s an obvious hole in the line-up.
On the rear is the laptop’s other party trick, a system of expansion cards that are dockable modules with a USB-C interface. So far they provide USB, display, and storage interfaces with more to come including an Arduino module, and we like this idea a lot.
It’s all very well to exclaim at a few features and party tricks, but the qualities that define a hacker’s laptop are only earned through use. Does it have a keyboard that will last forever, can it survive being dropped, and will its electronics prove to be fragile, are all questions that can be answered only by word-of-mouth from users. It’s easy for a manufacturer to get those wrong — the temperamental and fragile Dell this is being typed on is a case in point — but if they survive the trials presented by their early adopters and match up to
the competition
they could be on to a winner. | 80 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367848",
"author": "Rastersoft",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T11:03:50",
"content": "Mmmm… it sounds like a very good idea: to define a module specification for laptops based on USB-C.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6367971",
... | 1,760,373,003.916534 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/28/emulating-the-ibm-pc-on-an-esp32/ | Emulating The IBM PC On An ESP32 | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"FabGL",
"IBM PC",
"pc"
] | The IBM PC spawned the basic architecture that grew into the dominant Wintel platform we know today. Once heavy, cumbersome and power thirsty, it’s a machine that you can now emulate on a single board with a cheap commodity microcontroller. That’s thanks to work from [Fabrizio Di Vittorio],
who has shared a how-to on Youtube.
The full playlist is quite something to watch,
showing off a huge number of old-school PC applications and games running on the platform. There’s QBASIC, FreeDOS, Windows 3.0, and yes, of course, Flight Simulator. The latter game was actually considered somewhat of a de facto standard for PC compatibility in the 1980s, so the fact that the ESP32 can run it with [Fabrizio’s] code suggests he’s done well.
It’s amazingly complete, with the ESP32 handling everything from audio and video to sound output and keyboard and mouse inputs. It’s a testament to the capability of modern microcontrollers that this is such a simple feat in 2021.
We’ve seen the ESP32 emulate 8-bit gaming systems before, too. If you remember [Fabrizio’s] name, it’s probably from
his excellent FabGL library.
Videos after the break. | 60 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367805",
"author": "Alice Lalita Heald",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T08:21:00",
"content": "So DOS is faster than linux ?:D (see prev esp post)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6367809",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
"ti... | 1,760,373,003.558169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/rooting-the-atari-vcs-800/ | Rooting The Atari VCS 800 | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"atari",
"atari vcs 800",
"root",
"root access"
] | The Atari VCS 800 is a modern product, a hybrid of a PC and a games console. Fundamentally, its a bunch of modern chips in a box running Linux that will let you browse the web or emulate some old games. Now, thanks to [ArcadeHustle],
you can have persistent root access to the VCS 800 at your leisure.
The trick is simple, and begins by interrupting the systemd startup scripts on boot. One can then merge files into the /etc directory to achieve root access, either by the tty terminal or over TCP. It’s all wrapped up in the script available at the Github link above.
You can actually run a variety of OSs on the hardware, as it’s powered by an AMD Ryzen R1606G CPU and runs straightforward PC architecture. However, if you want to customize the existing OS to do your bidding, this hack is the way to go.
Hacking to get root access is key if you want to get anywhere with a system. We’ve seen it done on
thin clients
as well as
car infotainment systems
to give the owner full control over the hardware they own. If you’ve got your own root exploit you’d like to share, do drop us a line,
won’t you? | 9 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367786",
"author": "Steven Clark",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T06:10:31",
"content": "Who the heck leaves systemd interruptible and the VTs running on a kiosk system? Seems sloppy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6367792",
... | 1,760,373,003.607039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/black-and-white-tv-was-hiding-a-special-input-board/ | Black And White TV Was Hiding A Special Input Board | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"composite video",
"television",
"tv"
] | [John Floren] found a nice old black & white TV in a thrift store, and as so many of us would, he decided to take it home. He was surprised upon getting it there that it had, in addition to the VHF and UHF antenna inputs, a mysterious extra connector on the back. Naturally,
he set about investigating
.
On the rear was an obviously hacked-in F-type connector, paired with a toggle switch, both unlabelled. Running the output of an RF modulator to the connector didn’t net an image on the screen, even though the same method worked when hooked up to the antenna inputs. Undeterred, [John] dug deeper.
Inside, a little PCB bearing the mark “TVM.04” was inside, bearing a handful of components. The device turned out to be a Pickes and Trout TVM-04 adapter, designed in the 1970s for hooking a computer up to a television for use as a monitor. The adapter board allows the Hitachi TV to accept a composite video input. [John] was able to test the TV with a NES clone outputting composite video and voila, it worked! [John] then went further, adding an audio input and installing standard RCA jacks to make it easier to use the input with more modern electronics.
It’s a great example of how simply opening up some electronics and poking around can teach you something.
Hacking on old-school TVs is a popular pastime around these parts,
it seems. If you’ve been working on your own retro display hack,
be sure to let us know. | 71 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367752",
"author": "Don Latham",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T02:11:18",
"content": "yea; I remember Pickles and Trout…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6367754",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2021-07-28T02:42:34",
"c... | 1,760,373,003.802295 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/ftc-rules-on-right-to-repair/ | FTC Rules On Right To Repair | Elliot Williams | [
"News"
] | [
"FTC",
"justice",
"right to repair"
] | A few days ago, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) came out with a 5-0 unanimous vote on its
position on right to repair
. (PDF) It’s great news, in that they basically agree with us all:
Restricting consumers and businesses from choosing how they repair products can substantially increase the total cost of repairs, generate harmful electronic waste, and unnecessarily increase wait times for repairs. In contrast, providing more choice in repairs can lead to lower costs, reduce e-waste by extending the useful lifespan of products, enable more timely repairs, and provide economic opportunities for entrepreneurs and local businesses.
The
long version of the “Nixing the Fix” report
goes on to list ways that the FTC found firms were impeding repair: ranging from poor initial design, through restrictive firmware and digital rights management (DRM), all the way down to “disparagement of non-OEM parts and independent repair services”.
While the FTC isn’t making any new laws here, they’re conveying a willingness to use the consumer-protection laws that are already on the books: the
Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act
and Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair competitive practices.
Only time will tell if this dog really has teeth, but it’s a good sign that it’s barking. And given that the
European Union is heading in a similar direction
, we’d be betting that repairability increases in the future.
Thanks [deshipu] for tipping us off on this one! | 59 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367723",
"author": "thatblindguy",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T23:19:47",
"content": "Well implemented right to repair could open up availability of a lot of interesting parts to hobbiests",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6367728... | 1,760,373,003.698557 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/building-a-stump-grinder-from-the-ground-up/ | Building A Stump Grinder From The Ground Up | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"custom",
"cutting",
"engine",
"gas",
"gear reduction",
"grinder",
"safety",
"scratch",
"stump",
"tool"
] | Felling a tree properly is a skill that takes some practice to master, especially without causing any injuries or property damage. Getting the tree cut down though is sometimes only half of the battle, as the stump and roots need to be addressed as well. Unless you have a few years to wait for them to naturally decompose you might want to employ a stump grinder, and unless you want to spend a chunk of money on a stump grinding service or buy your own,
you might want to do what [Workshop from Scratch] did and build your own
.
This stump grinder isn’t anything to scoff at, either, and might even fool some into thinking it’s a consumer grade tool from a big box store. Far from it though, as almost everything down to the frame is custom machined specifically for this build. The only thing that isn’t built from scratch, including the cutting wheel, is the beefy 15 horsepower motor. Once it gets going it is able to carve stumps down to the ground in no time thanks especially to some gear reductions in the drive line from the motor to the cutting head.
Before anyone mentions safety, it looks like [Workshop from Scratch] has made some upgrades since his last project which was
a gas-powered metal cutting chainsaw
. Since then it looks like he has upgraded the sheet metal to something a little thicker, even though a stump grinder has arguably lower risk due to the slower speed of the cutting wheel and also to the fact that the cutting medium is wood and not metal. There are also brakes and an emergency shutoff switch. It sure seems like a fine addition to his collection of completely custom tools. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367696",
"author": "microgadgethacker",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T20:11:02",
"content": "Impressive build! Regarding this: “lower risk due to the slower speed of the cutting wheel and also to the fact that the cutting medium is wood and not metal”. Not really lower risk. Having ... | 1,760,373,003.959602 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/see-this-hybrid-approach-to-folded-3d-printed-mechanisms/ | See This Hybrid Approach To Folded 3D Printed Mechanisms | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"ackermann",
"Laser cutting",
"living hinge"
] | 3D printers are quite common nowadays, but we’re still far from exhausting new ideas to try with them. [Angus] of [Maker’s Muse] recently got interested in
3D printing small mechanical assemblies that can be put together by folding them up
, and also depend on folding linkages for the moving parts. (Video, embedded below.) The result would be lightweight, functional assemblies that would be simple to manufacture and require very few parts; but how to make the hinges themselves is the tricky part. As a proof-of-concept, [Angus] designed a clever steering linkage that could be printed flat and folded together, and shows his work on trying to make it happen.
[Angus] points out that that 3D-printed hinges have a lot of limitations that make then less than ideal for small and lightweight assemblies. Printing hinge pieces separately and assembling after the fact increases labor and part count, and print-in-place hinges tend to have loose tolerances. A
living hinge
made from a thin section of material that folds would be best for a lightweight assembly, but how well it works depends a lot of the material used and how it is made.
[Angus] tries many different things, and ultimately decided on a hybrid approach, combining laser cutting with 3D printing to create an assembly that consists of a laser-cut bottom layer with 3D printed parts on top of it to create a durable and lightweight device. He hasn’t
quite
sorted it all out, but the results show promise, and his video is a fantastic peek at just how much work and careful experimentation can go into trying something new. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367674",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T19:09:31",
"content": "It’s called a “living hinge” till it cracks in two, “dies”. Rest in one piece.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6367703",
"author": "Matthew Smi... | 1,760,373,004.002819 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-with-the-mad-model-m/ | Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Mad Model M | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"casemod",
"ibm model m",
"Model M",
"Model M Keyboard",
"motors",
"Zergo Freedom"
] | Hand-Wired
Hell
Help
Do you dream of building a curvy ergonomic keyboard or macro pad, even though the idea of hand wiring gives you nightmares? You can make it a bit less troublesome with
a tiny PCB for each key switch
, as long as you have a reflow oven or you’re okay with a bit of surface-mount soldering for the diode, LED, and capacitor.
As a bonus, these should make switches a bit more secure against movement, and you could probably even get away with using hot swap sockets if you wanted. [Pedro Barbero] has the Gerber files available if you want to get some fabbed. We sort of wish we had used these on our dactyl, though the case is awfully tight and they might not fit.
Ultra-Mechanical Keyboard Angles with Lifter Motors
Lots of people prefer an angled keyboard, but plenty of new keebs, especially mechanical ones, just don’t offer that at all. Well, the wait for an adjustable 75% is over, at least. Okay, that’s not exactly true.
The wait for a group buy to begin for an adjustable 75% is almost over
.
Nestled in between the arrow cluster and the menu key of the Besides Studios M-One is a rocker switch that angles the keyboard from 3° to 7° slowly but surely, like an adjustable bed. This is going to be a bare-bones group buy, meaning that it won’t come with any switches, stabs, or keycaps, but that doesn’t mean it will be cheap at $299. [BadSeed Tech] got an early prototype and built it out with Gateron Ink Black V2 switches in the video below in order to give it a proper spin.
Check This Out: the Thocc Podcast
Don’t tell me you don’t have time for another podcast.
This one is different
. It only comes out every 4-6 weeks, and averages a little over an hour long. And it’s about keyboards! Co-hosts [ThereminGoat] and [VogonPT] frequently do interviews with keyboard designers, people from the community, and other keyboard podcasters. There was even a Christmas Special featuring the dulcet tones of [Chyrosran22]. Those thoccers have only done fourteen episodes so far, so get in on the ground floor of this thing!
Wrist Freedom is the New Hotness
I’m not sure how long ago this came out, but it’s new to me. The
Zergo Freedom keyboard
looks like a nice little ergonomic split. But upon closer inspection, there are some strange choices at play. For one, the layout isn’t fully ortholinear — the ZXCVB row is staggered, and seemingly for no other reason than to accommodate the completely unnecessary 2.5u left Shift.
Those wrist rests slide around like air hockey paddles.
Hooray for thumb keys, but left thumb should always handle Backspace if you ask me. Oddly enough, they’ve got it in the Caps Lock position. And don’t get me started on those gigantic bottom row keys. I say, do that stuff to the top row so people with stubby fingers like me don’t have to reach so far to get to the alphas.
There are a few semi-interesting points to this keyboard, like the sliding wrist rest option versus the full-sized standard. The sliding rests sound fairly interesting, and we imagine that they just move with you instead of being a nuisance you have to aim for every time you put your hands back on the keys. And you can only get it with box whites or box browns. If you’re willing to pay $339 for a keyboard, let’s just say there are better options out there, like building your own.
Historical Clackers: A Mad Model M Mod
Yeah, this one is going to be divisive among Model M purists
. But I think the OLED touch screen is a beautiful addition and quite well done to boot. It would have made a great entry in our Reinvented Retro contest.
This is not a cyberdeck — it’s made to be used with a PC as an extra display with touch input. [CMYKBloodOmen] is watching OSes move toward touch inputs and wanted to bring this old battleship into the future. Really, it would be a great mini monitor for stuff like chat programs and music players. If you’ve got a Model M you’d like to upgrade,
here is the STL for the screen holder
.
[CMYKBloodOmen] also
bolt-modded
it added weights inside to get it closer to the Model F’s class. What a beautiful
bludgeoning device
workmate. Happy vintage clacking, [CYMKBloodOmen]. May your springs buckle and sproing with youthful vitality for years to come.
In Case You Missed It
Did you see this awesome prototyping tool for keyboard designers?
There’s no soldering necessary, but you will have to bend all the diodes just so because the connections to the key switches are proximity-based. But hey, you can reuse them over and over until everything is just right.
Show Me What You Got
Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards?
Help me out by sending in a link or two
. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to
email me directly
. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367651",
"author": "Tommy",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T17:37:57",
"content": "These funky keyboard posts are always my favorites.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6367652",
"author": "Kristina Panos",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,373,004.183764 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/ten-projects-won-the-refresh-work-from-home-life-round-of-the-hackaday-prize/ | Ten Projects Won The Refresh Work-From-Home-Life Round Of The Hackaday Prize | Kristina Panos | [
"contests",
"Roundup",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"work from home"
] | Here we are, a year and change into this pandemic, and if you were new to working-from-home every day at the start, surely it has lost its luster by now. We asked you to stand back and assess what can be better about WFH life and you took it from there, building incredibly useful things we couldn’t have dreamed of. From a pool of more than one hundred entries, the judges have selected ten projects whose creators have each been awarded a $500 prize, and will advance to the final round of the
2021 Hackaday Prize
in October.
Are your prototypes a mess of wires? Or do you spend way too much time making sure each jumper is cut to the perfect length? Either way, you’re better off using
breadWare, which takes a standard breadboard and changes the connection process into a software solution
. That’s right — any rail including the power rails can connect to any other thanks to a handful of analog CMOS switch chips.
Maybe you’d love to build the perfect keyboard to grace your battlestation, but are afraid of all that hand wiring.
Make it easier on yourself by soldering each key switch to its own little PCB
.
If your home office is sometimes overrun by little humans that need immediate attention, you’ll no doubt appreciate the value of
a device that can deactivate your web camera and mic automatically when it no longer senses your presence
.
You may have left that awful office lighting behind, but you’re still getting plenty of prolonged exposure to blue light. This project aims to head that off a bit by
replicating the current outdoor light temperature with indoor lighting
. And don’t forget — air quality is just as important, so crack open a window once in a while and build yourself
a smart lamp that can give you hard numbers
.
This was the second of five challenges in the 2021 Hackaday Prize, which means that the ten finalists linked below will have until the end of October to flesh out and polish their projects before the final round of judging. Meanwhile, we’ve kicked off the next round with
the Re-imagine Supportive Tech challenge
. Show us how you would make electronics and devices more accessible, as in more modular, hackable, or affordable.
Ten Finalists from the Refresh Work From Home Challenge:
LoRaLamp AIRQuality
KEEP CLEAR
Present! Availability sensing for Zoom meetings
breadWare
PCB for HandWired Keyboards
Gesture/Pattern Recognition Without Camera : TOF !
Making Work-From-Home Lighting Work-For-Me
SOLAR DISPLAY CASE v2.0
PnPAssist
ThunderScope
If you like these, take some time to kick back and peruse
the entire list of entries in this challenge
. You deserve it.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367638",
"author": "Steven Gann",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T16:53:20",
"content": "Great projects, everyone.That BreadWare idea has me full of great applications.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6367684",
"author": "Dennis",... | 1,760,373,004.230558 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/cool-ws2811-trick-makes-led-art-installation-smooth/ | Cool WS2811 Trick Makes LED Art Installation Smooth | Dan Maloney | [
"Art",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"constant current",
"differential",
"led",
"pwm",
"ws2811"
] | Normally, when a project calls for addressable LEDs, we just throw a strip of WS2812s and an Arduino together, cobble together some code from the examples in the FastLED library, and call it a day. We don’t put much thought into what’s going on under the hood, unless and until we run into
an LED project that’s a little more challenging
.
Inventor [Leo Fernekes] found himself in such a situation recently, when he pitched in on an LED art installation. The project called for rings of LED bars around the trunks of trees on a private estate. The physical size of the project and the aesthetic requirements created significant challenges, though. One of these was finding a way to control the LED bars, each of which draws about 100 mA and needs to be very smoothly dimmed. [Leo] looked at the WS2811 LED driver, but found that the low drive current and the 8-bit PWM output failed to tick either of those boxes.
[Leo] solved both problems by using two of the three PWM channels on the chip in concert — one to control the current and one to PWM the LED. The circuit he came up with is deceptively simple — just four transistors, a Schottky diode, and a bunch of passives. The other clever bit is the data interface between LED bars, which can be configured as either single-ended or differential. This allows the same interface to be used for the short distance between bars on a tree, and the longer runs between trees.
As usual, [Leo] does a great job of explaining his design and how it works, which we find very instructional. He did something similar when he managed to
dim a non-dimmable LED fixture
. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367621",
"author": "Alice Lalita Heald",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T15:26:51",
"content": "Firefly effect would be more pleasing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6367626",
"author": "jake",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T15:53:... | 1,760,373,004.281596 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/hand-on-review-tcam-mini-wifi-thermal-imager/ | Hands-On Review: TCam-Mini WiFi Thermal Imager | Donald Papp | [
"Crowd Funding",
"digital cameras hacks",
"Featured",
"Reviews",
"Skills",
"Slider"
] | [
"camera",
"ESP32",
"lepton",
"open source",
"tCam",
"tcam-mini",
"Thermal",
"thermal camera",
"wireless"
] | A thermal camera is a tool I have been wanting to add to my workbench for quite a while, so when I learned about the
tCam-Mini, a wireless thermal camera
by Dan Julio, I placed an order. A thermal imager is a camera whose images represent temperatures, making it easy to see things like hot and cold spots, or read the temperature of any point within the camera’s view. The main (and most expensive) component of the tCam-Mini is the
Lepton
3.5 sensor, which sits in a socket in the middle of the board. The sensor is sold separately, but the campaign made it available as an add-on.
Want to see how evenly a 3D printer’s heat bed is warming up, or check whether a hot plate is actually reflowing PCBs at the optimal temperature? How about just seeing how
weird
your pets would look if you had heat vision instead of normal eyes? A thermal imager like the tCam-mini is the tool for that, but it’s important to understand exactly how the tCam-mini works. While it may look like a webcam, it does not work like one.
What It Is
Looks like a webcam, doesn’t work like one.
tCam-Mini is a command-based, wireless ESP32-driven board using the Lepton 3.5 sensor for thermal imaging. In the images here, the USB cable is being used to deliver power, but all thermal image data is being exchanged with a desktop application over WiFi. tCam-mini uses a JSON-based packet interface, and the easiest way to get up and running is to use the desktop application to view images and stream video.
The tCam-Mini is intended as a small, network-only device. The desktop application provided by Dan is the easiest way to stream data and access the full functionality of the sensor, but a web app and Python library are also in development.
What It Isn’t
The tCam-Mini is not a self-contained camera device, and it does not work like either a webcam or digital camera. There is no screen, no memory card on which to store photos and videos, nor are there any hardware controls on the camera itself. The closest thing it has to a display is a single red/green status LED, and the only button on the board performs a WiFi reset. The tCam-Mini is really intended to be a remote camera, accessed over WiFi by a host. (Also, the tCam-mini should not be confused with tCam, which is a larger and more full-featured, battery-powered version with touchscreen display that is still under development.)
While the tCam-Mini is a camera with a WiFi interface, it is not running a web server and it cannot serve up thermal images through a browser interface directly. It must be used via its command interface, for example by using the desktop app.
Setup and Desktop App
The first thing the tCam-Mini does when it powers up is enable WiFi so that it can accept connections from a host. Power can be provided via the USB cable, or by applying power directly to the 5 V input on the board.
By default, the camera boots into AP mode (acting as a wireless access point) with a fixed IP address of 192.168.4.1. One must connect the host computer to the tCam-Mini’s access point, then run the desktop app and click the “Connect” button. Once the board accepts the connection (the status LED will turn green to indicate this), all functions will be available in the desktop app, including streaming of thermal images.
The desktop app can also be used to change the tCam-Mini’s startup behavior, instructing it to connect to an existing wireless network (optionally with a static IP) instead of booting into AP mode. If things go terribly wrong, simply hold the button on the tCam-Mini down for several seconds until the status LED blinks, and all will be forgiven as the tCam-mini returns to its default AP-mode behavior.
Sample Thermal Imagery
The tCam-mini is capable of representing thermal data using a variety of color palettes, and here are a few of them. Once an image is exported, it is just an image, but stills or video saved natively from within the desktop application can have different palettes applied (or temperature read from different points in the image, if the image was taken in radiometric mode) freely. This makes it useful for analyzing data after the imagery was saved.
Grayscale (default)
Fusion palette
Ironblack (my favorite)
Arctic palette
Thermal imagery is neat,
and can be occasionally surprising or counter-intuitive. For example, through the lens of the tCam-mini, my eyeglasses look like sunglasses. Also, two materials in particular had interesting properties when I viewed them through the camera: an opaque black garbage bag was transparent, and a sheet of mirrored acrylic was opaque.
Two materials that behave somewhat unexpectedly: mirrored acrylic, and a black plastic garbage bag.
The black garbage bag is completely opaque to the naked eye, but the thermal camera sees right through it.
This mirrored sheet on the other hand appears opaque in a thermal sense (though my fingers leave a mark.)
To show off some dynamic results, here is a short video of the build platform of my Prusa MK3/S 3D printer pre-heating to 60 °C. (In the video, monitoring points are placed and occasionally moved to different areas of interest. The temperature of each point is shown just above the video window. S is the central square marker, the others are m1 through m4.)
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/PRUSA-MK3S-Heatbed-Warmup-Video-3x-Subtitled.mp4
As you can see, after about two minutes, the pre-heating is complete and the surface of the build platform is quite uniform. For anyone who noticed that the surface of the bed appears to end up a few degrees shy of 60 °C, this is a good time to point out that while the Lepton 3.5 sensors are excellent at profiling temperature changes, they technically have a stated accuracy of +/- 5-10 °C. While recording the video, I occasionally spot-checked areas with my non-contact thermometer. These readings always seemed to agree with what the tCam-mini was reporting, which was good enough for me, but
Dan has nevertheless been looking to improve the accuracy of the Lepton 3.5 sensors
.
Radiometric versus Automatic Gain Control (AGC) Mode
Two terms that will come up regarding the Lepton 3.5 sensor are Radiometric and AGC mode. The camera can work in either of these two operating modes, and the desktop application allows switching between them.
In radiometric mode, every pixel of the image contains a temperature reading. AGC mode on the other hand prioritizes image quality, but at a cost: every pixel will no longer contain its own temperature reading. AGC mode creates a better visual representation of a scene’s temperature changes and gradients, whereas radiometric mode is more “pure” in its role as a temperature sensor.
Both modes work similarly as far as the interface is concerned, with the exception that setting more than one measurement point is not possible while in AGC mode.
Resource Roundup
The tCam-Mini is a piece of hardware with a very specific role, and because it is not
quite
plug-and-play, it is important to understand how it works. Understanding what it does (and doesn’t) do will avoid problems during setup and operation. The good news is that the device isn’t at all difficult to use, and the excellent desktop application makes it very easy to operate and manage.
Since there are many different parts to the tCam-mini, here is a cheat sheet of where to find the necessary reference information.
tCam-mini at GroupGets
Original campaign page
GitHub Repository
For everything tCam related (tCam and tCam-mini)
tCam-mini Resources
Details specific to the tCam-Mini
Desktop Application
How to use tCam’s Desktop Application
Download page
Download page for Desktop Application (and firmware) binaries
Hackaday.io project page
Project page for details and news regarding tCam development
Thermal Imaging Has Come a Long Way
I’ve always been more than a bit fascinated with anything that allows one to see beyond the normal ranges of our senses, and thermal imaging is definitely that. In fact, it blows my mind that this is possible in such a tiny device. If you have a favorite extra-sensory tool, or favorite thermal imaging application, I’d love to hear about it, so share in the comments! | 30 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367592",
"author": "Alice Lalita Heald",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T14:11:15",
"content": "What about seeing pin sequence on ATM?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6367594",
"author": "Thomas",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T14:1... | 1,760,373,004.422761 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/classroom-surplus-becomes-linux-powerhouse/ | Classroom Surplus Becomes Linux Powerhouse | Jenny List | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"linux",
"SMART Response XE",
"terminal"
] | The SMART Response XE is a handheld computer that was originally sold for use in the classroom as a terminal for pupils taking tests. It’s now cheap enough on the surplus market to have become a target for experimenters, and we’ve seen them with a variety of cool hacks. We particularly like
what [chmod775] has done with it
, putting a VT100 terminal emulator on the device and hiding a NanoPi Neo Air single board computer in the battery bay. Powered from a USB battery bank, it gives a fully-featured Linux terminal in the palm of the hand. We see it running an Ubuntu LTS version, and it’s clear that it’s a functional and usable device.
This raises a more abstract question though: We’d guess comparatively few of us write software through an old-style dumb terminal, instead we’re more likely to get our terminal experience at a much more accomplished command line with all the conveniences of a modern desktop surrounding it. How many of us could comfortably return to the limited confines of a VT100 emulator on an odd-sized LCD display? We’d be interested to hear [chmod755]’s experiences using it, because if it retains usability it’s a device we wouldn’t mind having ourselves.
Hungry for more SMART Response XE hacks? Take a look at the
BASIC computer
, or the
spectrum analyser
. | 30 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367542",
"author": "lthemick",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T11:16:40",
"content": "That’s neat!Something like this could make a nice handheld remote for a home automation setup… I see [chmod755] replaced the power source; I wonder how long the device would run on it’s original batteri... | 1,760,373,004.34623 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/vintage-monochromator-makes-monochromatic-light-mechanically/ | Vintage Monochromator Makes Monochromatic Light, Mechanically | Donald Papp | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"diffraction grating",
"measurement",
"optical",
"tool",
"vintage",
"wavelength"
] | A monochromator is an optical instrument that permits only a narrow selection of wavelengths to be transmitted from a source, and
the particular model [Doug] obtained renders visual light monochromatic
by way of a mechanically-adjusted system of mirrors and diffraction gratings that allows only the selected wavelength to pass. The big dial is how the operator selects the desired wavelength, and is labeled in ‘mu’ (or milli-micro), but [Doug] helpfully points out the more modern term for that is nanometers.
LCD monitor viewed through a monochromator set to pass red wavelength only, showing that images remain intact.
How does it work? Light enters the device via an opening at the base, and only the selected wavelength exits from the top. The dial’s range is from 450 nm to 640 nm (representing violet-blue to red), which [Doug] demonstrates by shining a white LED flashlight into the unit and showing how only green, red, or blue will exit from the top depending on the setting of the dial.
An interesting side note is that with this particular device, images can be rendered monochromatic but otherwise remain intact. [Doug] demonstrates this by viewing a small section of his LCD monitor through the device, as shown in the photo he managed to capture.
It’s an interesting piece of vintage equipment that shows what is possible with passive optical components and a clever mechanical design. These devices are therefore entirely manually-operated tools (at least
until someone sticks a stepper motor to the adjustment dial
to create an automated scanner, that is.) | 27 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367490",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T08:12:06",
"content": "It’s worth looking back at the late Commander Hatfield’s Solar Observatory that used tuning forks to filter specific optical wavelengths, hydrogen alpha I think. I never understood it, but always wanted to b... | 1,760,373,004.583046 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/26/a-single-ssds-journey-from-system-7-to-high-sierra/ | A Single SSD’s Journey From System 7 To High Sierra | Chris Lott | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"mac mini",
"macbook air",
"macintosh",
"Performa",
"power mac",
"upgrading"
] | With some time to kill and an array of old Apple computers on hand, [Pierre Dandumont] wondered if he could continuously upgrade a single OS drive from the oldest system he had, System 7.1 on a Performa 630, to the latest version of MacOS on a MacBook Air. He recalled watching an old video which demonstrated a continuous upgrade from DOS to Windows 10 (we think
this video from 2016
may be the one), which gave him the inspiration for this journey. [Pierre] documents his efforts on
his blog
(in French; English translated link is
here
).
Along the way, he installed 24 different operating systems
System 7.1.2, 7.5
Mac OS 7.6
Mac OS 8.0, 8.1, 8.5, 8.6
Mac OS 9.0, 9.1, 9.2
Mac OS X 10.0 – 10.11
macOS 10.12, 10.13
on seven Mac computers
Performa 630 (ca. 1994, Motorola 68040)
Power Mac G3 Beige (ca. 1997, Motorola PowerPC 730)
Power Mac G3 Blue (ca. 1999, Motorola PowerPC 730)
Power Mac G4 Digital Audio (ca. 2001, Motorola PowerPC 7400)
Mac mini G4 (ca. 2005, Motorola PowerPC 7447)
Mac mini 2009 (Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn)
MacBook Air 2012 (Intel Core i5/i7)
across three of the four processor families spanned by the Macintosh line of computers since their introduction in 1984. You can see in the lead photo the success, where the Mac OS 8 search tool Sherlock is shown in the dock of a MacBook Air running High Sierra.
The process was not without its glitches, most of them having to do with the OS disk partitioning and format. [Pierre] selected an M.2 SATA solid state disk drive, which with the appropriate adaptors, can present itself as a parallel ATA drive, a serial ATA drive, or just used directly as an M.2 SSD in the more modern computers. Making the project more challenging was that [Pierre] wanted to record the video of the process, which involved capturing the computer screen during all the various upgrades. He kept a disk image backup at each stage of the process, so he could recover from errors without having to start all over again.
What eventually stopped the journey was the file system. [Pierre]’s SSD began using HFS file system, but somewhere during the Power Mac G3 Beige phase of the migration, he had to upgrade to the HFS+ (extended HFS) file system, an exercise not for the faint hearted. This HFS+ file system had to be extended and tweaked a couple of times along the way, as well. But the journey came to an abrupt halt at macOS 10.13 High Sierra. The next release, 10.14 Mojave, requires the APFS file system (not to be confused with the now-deprecated AFP file system). [Pierre] believes even that could be overcome, as the issue seems to stem from the minimum block size of 4096 bytes imposed by APFS. It seems possible this could be overcome by cloning the drive, but that would go against the spirit of his original challenge.
Be forewarned, the video below the break is a 2 hour “abbreviated” version of the whole process (the DOS to Windows 10 video clocks in at 11 hours). We’re not sure what practical purpose this serves, but it was certainly intriguing to read about the process and the hiccups that [Pierre] had to solve along the way. What’s the longest that you’ve kept migrating a system drive on your computers? Let us know in the comments down below. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367463",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2021-07-27T06:04:44",
"content": "Traditionally, my OS partition would shit the bed long before an upgrade was even available. Stability improvements have reduced the pain considerably, but between flaws in the upgrade process, failure in s... | 1,760,373,004.470828 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/26/get-some-close-air-support-with-a-nerf-drone/ | Get Some Close Air Support With A Nerf Drone | Danie Conradie | [
"drone hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"2021 Hackaday Prize",
"drone",
"nerf gun",
"quadcopter"
] | Working from home has the major advantage of spending more time with loved ones, but it all that time can sometimes lead to friction. [Cory] found that Nerf battles with his kids is an effective way to blow off some steam, but felt he was getting a bit too much exercise in the process. Instead, he
equipped an FPV quadcopter with a 3D printed Nerf gun
to take his place.
Since manually reloading the Nerf gun after every shot wasn’t an option, he needed to create an autoloader. The darts are propelled by a pair of brushless drone motors mounted side-by-side, with just enough space for a dart the squeeze between. The motors are allowed to spin up, and then a dart is loaded servo-operated plunger, out of an off-the-shelf Nerf magazine. The motors ESCs and servo is controlled by an Arduino Nano, which receives the fire command from one of the spare outputs on the drone’s flight controller. To nerf gear is easily removable from the drone, so [Cory] to also fly the drone on more peaceful missions. See the video of one of the battles after the break. [Cory] might need to find an alternative control location to prevent himself being used as cover by his adversaries.
Nerf guns are a fun and harmless way to live out your sci-fi warfare fantasies, especially with the technology we have available these days. From
FPV sentry guns
to
auto-aiming rifles
, and
heavy artillery
, anything is possible.
The
Hackaday
Prize2021
is Sponsored by: | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367257",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2021-07-26T12:21:35",
"content": "It’s always surprising how people with good intentions can justify whatever atrocity without even blinking.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6367261",
... | 1,760,373,004.515204 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/26/seeing-inside-a-gas-regulator/ | Seeing Inside A Gas Regulator | Jonathan Bennett | [
"News",
"Teardown"
] | [
"Gas Regulator",
"Hidden Engineering",
"regulator"
] | We’re surrounded by interesting engineering, but some of it is sealed inside a housing, away from easy inspection. A case in point; the humble gas regulator. It’s in equipment all around us, from a propane grill to welding gear. It’s a sealed unit — have you ever seen the inside, to know how it really works? Well thanks to [FarmCraft101],
we get to do just that
, in the video after the break.
To let the cat out of the bag, it’s essentially a hydraulic lever. A large diaphragm is pressurized by the low pressure side of the regulator, and is held back by a spring. When the pressure compared to ambient atmosphere is high enough to overcome the spring tension, the lever is tilted, closing the high pressure valve. Hence, pressure is determined by spring strength. We also get a look at how the system can fail — in this case it seemed to be some grit interfering with the valve. We find hidden engineering to be supremely satisfying, particularly when we get to understand it so clearly as we do here. Enjoy! | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367287",
"author": "Tom Hargrave",
"timestamp": "2021-07-26T15:04:41",
"content": "A good analogy would be a one sided balance beam type scale. One where you put what you are measuring on one side and the counter weights on the other side. But in this case ‘one side’ is the regulat... | 1,760,373,004.688315 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/25/a-simple-sun-tracker-with-very-few-parts/ | A Simple Sun Tracker With Very Few Parts | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"solar",
"solar panel",
"solar tracker",
"sun tracker"
] | There are a huge number of ways to track the sun if you have some reason to do so. You can use time-based algorithms, or feed in coordinates from the Internet, or you could do it with minimal parts and no electronic processing at all.
The latter is how this project from [3D Printer Academy] works.
One key thing about this project is that you shouldn’t be fooled by the solar panels. They’re not here to generate power for external use. Instead, they’re wired up in opposing polarities to a DC gear motor. The motor turns the panel assembly. As one panel is hit by the sun, it turns the assembly to bring the other panel into the sun as well simply by applying a DC voltage to the motor. The other panel is wired up the opposite way, so if it is in the sun, it brings the other panel into alignment as well.
This serves as a very simple planar solar tracker. If you want to track the sun with minimal parts, this is a very easy way to do it. You’ll just need to put whatever you want to actually aim at the sun on top of the assembly. if that happens to be a larger solar panel, it may be cumbersome and another more complex design may be more suitable.
It’s an ingenious and easy way of tracking the sun, even if it’s not immediately apparent how the device would be useful in its current form. If you’ve got an idea how you would use such a mechanism, let us know in the comments.
We’ve seen other solar tracker projects before, too
. Video after the break. | 59 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6367201",
"author": "Mike Massen, Perth, Western Australia",
"timestamp": "2021-07-26T05:39:14",
"content": "Ah a new take on it, thanks for post.I recall seeing an air/water ballast system that automatically moved the who panel arrays for time of day And season too some decades ago... | 1,760,373,004.897392 |
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