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https://hackaday.com/2021/04/05/solid-tips-for-casting-colored-silicone-tires/ | Solid Tips For Casting Colored Silicone Tires | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"molding",
"oogoo",
"silicone",
"tires"
] | For people who work with wheeled robots or RC vehicles, sooner or later one gets interested in making custom tires instead of dealing with whatever is available off the shelf. [concreted0g]’s preferred method is to design and 3D print wheel hubs, then cast some custom silicone tires to fit over them. Of course, the devil is in the details and this process can be a bit messy, so
he’s shared useful tips on how to get reliable results with simple materials
.
The casting material is cheap silicone caulking from a hardware store, and color can be added with a small amount of cheap acrylic paint. A few drops of glycerin added to the silicone thins it out slightly and helps it flow into a mold better. Mix well (the paint will also serve as a visual indicator of how well it is mixed), then scoop the mixture into the mold while trying to avoid creating air pockets. If your mold is in two pieces, assemble the mold and remove any overflow, then let it sit undisturbed for at least several hours while it cures.
Mounting the resulting tire to a wheel hub can be done with a thin film of super glue, which seems to work perfectly well for small tires and is easy to apply.
The rules are going to be a bit different for big objects. We know that silicone caulking can have difficulty fully curing when it’s applied thickly, especially when sealed into a mold with little to no airflow. In such cases,
adding cornstarch (in about a 5:1 ratio of silicone to cornstarch by volume) is all that it takes to cure even thick wads of goop in less than an hour
. Stirring cornstarch in tends to introduce more air bubbles into the mixture, but for larger pieces that can be an acceptable tradeoff. Cheap silicone caulking is versatile stuff, one just needs to know what to expect, and take a few steps to deal with the messiness.
Need something tougher? Maybe check out
using slices of automotive silicone hose for robot wheels
to get something that works just as well, but is a lot more durable. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6337208",
"author": "Blue Time",
"timestamp": "2021-04-05T15:19:35",
"content": "I see something the kids will enjoy doing at the local Best Robotics team!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6337252",
"author": "LightningPhil",... | 1,760,373,132.822618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/05/ai-upscaling-and-the-future-of-content-delivery/ | AI Upscaling And The Future Of Content Delivery | Tom Nardi | [
"Featured",
"Games",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Software Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"artificial intelligence",
"machine learning",
"neural network",
"Nintendo Switch",
"NVIDIA",
"upscaling"
] | The rumor mill has recently been buzzing about Nintendo’s plans to introduce a new version of their extremely popular Switch console in time for the holidays. A faster CPU, more RAM, and an improved OLED display are all pretty much a given, as you’d expect for a mid-generation refresh. Those upgraded specifications will almost certainly come with an inflated price tag as well, but given the incredible demand for the current Switch, a $50 or even $100 bump is unlikely to dissuade many prospective buyers.
But
according to a report from
Bloomberg
, the new Switch might have a bit more going on under the hood than you’d expect from the technologically conservative Nintendo. Their sources claim the new system will utilize an NVIDIA chipset capable of Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), a feature which is currently only available on high-end GeForce RTX 20 and GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs. The technology, which has already been employed by several notable PC games over the last few years, uses machine learning to upscale rendered images in real-time. So rather than tasking the GPU with producing a native 4K image, the engine can render the game at a lower resolution and have DLSS make up the difference.
The current model Nintendo Switch
The implications of this technology, especially on computationally limited devices, is immense. For the Switch, which doubles as a battery powered handheld when removed from its dock, the use of DLSS could allow it to produce visuals similar to the far larger and more expensive Xbox and PlayStation systems it’s in competition with. If Nintendo and NVIDIA can prove DLSS to be viable on something as small as the Switch, we’ll likely see the technology come to future smartphones and tablets to make up for their relatively limited GPUs.
But why stop there? If artificial intelligence systems like DLSS can scale up a video game, it stands to reason the same techniques could be applied to other forms of content. Rather than saturating your Internet connection with a 16K video stream, will TVs of the future simply make the best of what they have using a machine learning algorithm trained on popular shows and movies?
How Low Can You Go?
Obviously, you don’t need machine learning to resize an image. You can take a standard resolution video and scale it up to high definition easily enough, and indeed, your TV or Blu-ray player is doing exactly that when you watch older content. But it doesn’t take a particularly keen eye to immediately tell the difference between a DVD that’s been blown up to fit an HD display and modern content actually produced at that resolution. Taking a 720 x 480 image and pushing it up to 1920 x 1080, or even 3840 x 2160 in the case of 4K, is going to lead to some pretty obvious image degradation.
To address this fundamental issue, AI-enhanced scaling actually creates new visual data to fill in the gaps between the source and target resolutions. In the case of DLSS, NVIDIA trained their neural network by taking low and high resolution images of the same game and having their in-house supercomputer analyze the differences. To maximize the results, the high resolution images were rendered at a level of detail that would be computationally impractical or even impossible to achieve in real-time. Combined with motion vector data, the neural network was tasked with not only filling in the necessary visual information to make the low resolution image better approximate the idealistic target, but predict what the next frame of animation might look like.
NVIDIA’s DLSS 2.0 Architecture
While fewer than 50 PC games support the latest version of DLSS at the time of this writing, the results so far have been extremely promising. The technology will enable current computers to run newer and more complex games for longer, and for current titles, lead to substantially improved frames per second (FPS) rendering. In other words, if you have a computer powerful enough to run a game at 30 FPS in 1920 x 1080, the same computer could potentially reach 60 FPS if the game was rendered at 1280 x 720 and scaled up with DLSS.
There’s been plenty of opportunity to benchmark the real-world performance gains of DLSS on supported titles over the last year or two, and YouTube is filled with head-to-head comparisons that show what the technology is capable of. In a particularly extreme test,
2kliksphilip ran 2019’s
Control
and 2020’s
Death Stranding
at just 427 x 240
and used DLSS to scale it up to 1280 x 720. While the results weren’t perfect, both games ended up looking far better than they had any right to considering they were being rendered at a resolution we’d more likely associate with the Nintendo 64 than a modern gaming PC.
AI Enhanced Entertainment
While these may be early days, it seems pretty clear that machine learning systems like Deep Learning Super Sampling hold a lot of promise for gaming. But the idea isn’t limited to just video games. There’s also a big push towards using similar algorithms to enhance older films and television shows for which no higher resolution version exists. Both proprietary and open software is now available that leverages the computational power of modern GPUs to upscale still images as well as video.
Of the open source tools in this arena,
the Video2X project is well known and under active development
. This Python 3 framework makes use of the waifu2x and Anime4K upscalers, which as you might have gathered from their names, have been designed to work primarily with anime. The idea is that you could take an animated film or series that was only ever released in standard definition, and by running it through a neural network specifically trained on visually similar content, bring it up to 1080 or even 4K resolution.
While getting the software up and running can be somewhat fiddly given the different GPU acceleration frameworks available depending on your operating system and hardware platform, this is something that anyone with a relatively modern computer is capable of doing on their own. As an example, I’ve taken a 640 x 360 frame from
Big Buck Bunny
and scaled it up to 1920 x 1080 using default settings on the waifu2x upscaler backend in Video2X:
When compared to the native 1920 x 1080 image, we can see some subtle differences. The shading of the rabbit’s fur is not quite as nuanced, the eyes lack a certain luster, and most notably the grass has gone from individual blades to something that looks more like an oil painting. But would you have really noticed any of that if the two images weren’t side by side?
Some Assembly Required
In the previous example, AI was able to increase the resolution of an image by three times with negligible graphical artifacts. But what’s perhaps more impressive is that the file size of the 640 x 360 frame is only a fifth that of the original 1920 x 1080 frame. Extrapolating that difference to the length of a feature film, and it’s clear how technology could have a huge impact on the massive bandwidth and storage costs associated with streaming video.
Imagine a future where, instead of streaming an ultra-high resolution movie from the Internet, your device is instead given a video stream at 1/2 or even 1/3 of the target resolution, along with a neural network model that had been trained on that specific piece of content. Your AI-enabled player could then take this “dehydrated” video and scale it in real-time to whatever resolution was appropriate for your display. Rather than saturating your Internet connection, it would be a bit like how they delivered pizzas in
Back to the Future II
.
The only technical challenge standing in the way is the time it takes to perform this sort of upscaling: when running Video2X on even fairly high-end hardware, a rendering speed of 1 or 2 FPS is considered fast. It would take a huge bump in computational power to do real-time AI video scaling, but the progress NVIDIA has made with DLSS is certainly encouraging. Of course film buffs would argue that such a reproduction may not fit with the director’s intent, but when people are watching movies 30 minutes at a time on their phones while commuting to work, it’s safe to say that ship has already sailed. | 29 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6337188",
"author": "steve",
"timestamp": "2021-04-05T14:24:15",
"content": "This is how Skynet begins…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6337194",
"author": "Feinfinger (today just a moderate meanie)",
"timestam... | 1,760,373,132.328997 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/05/giant-nintendo-switch-is-actually-playable/ | Giant Nintendo Switch Is Actually Playable | Zach Zeman | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"controller hack",
"game console",
"gaming hack",
"Giant Scale",
"nintendo",
"Nintendo Switch"
] | The Nintendo Switch has been a hugely successful console for the century-old former playing card manufacturer. At least part of that success has come from its portability, of which [Michael Pick] has probably lost a bit with his
65-pound giant Nintendo Switch built for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital
. (Video, embedded below.) What he’s lost in portability has been more than made up in coolness-factor, though, and we’re sure the kids will appreciate that they can still play the monster gaming machine.
From its plywood body to the 3D-printed buttons, the supersized build looks solid. Docked inside the left Joy-Con is the actual console powering its big brother. Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, is that tiny (well, normal-sized) Joy-Cons are also hidden inside. These are manipulated via servos for the buttons and a direct pass-through setup for the joysticks to control games on the Switch.
While the Joy-Cons are unmodified and completely removable, [Michael] does recognize this isn’t necessarily the ideal solution. But he was certain it was a hack he could make work in the time he had, so he went for it. He’s looked into
the controller emulation possible with Teensys
and would probably use that solution for any giant Switch projects in the future. Of course, with this build, players can still pair regular Joy-Cons and pro controllers for more practical gaming.
Most Nintendo mods we see attempt to make the console smaller
, not larger, so this is an eye-catching change of pace. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the colossal console in action after it was installed, only some stills of hospital staff wheeling it in the front doors. But we can imagine that the children’s smiles are at least as big as ours were when we saw it.
[via
Reddit
] | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6337182",
"author": "Blamoo",
"timestamp": "2021-04-05T14:00:12",
"content": "Nintendo: Awesome project! Loved it! 10/10*drops a DMCA*",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6337189",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,373,132.629002 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/04/color-changing-sutures-detect-infection/ | Color-Changing Sutures Detect Infection | Kristina Panos | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"anthocyanin",
"beet",
"infection detection",
"pH",
"pH indicator",
"suture"
] | If you’ve ever had surgery, you know firsthand how important it is to keep the wound from getting infected. There are special conductive sutures that sense changes in wound status via electrical signal and relay the information to a computer or smart phone. As awesome as those sound, they’re a first-world solution that is far too pricey for places that need it most — developing countries. And surgical wounds in developing countries are about four times more likely to get infected than those in the US.
Iowa high-school student [Dasia Taylor] found a much simpler solution that could drive down the infection rate.
She used beets to develop color-changing sutures that turn from bright red to purple within five minutes if an infection is present.
Beets, and other fruits and vegetables like blackberries, plums, and blueberries are natural indicators of pH. They have a compound called
anthocyanin
that gives them both their pigment and this cool property. Beets are perfect because they change color at a pH of nine — the same pH level of infected human skin, which is normally around five.
[Dasia] experimented with several types of suture thread to see which ones would absorb the beet juice in the first place. She settled on a cotton-polyester blend that is braided. While it probably helps absorb the beet juice, it would also give bacteria several places to hide. Another problem is that many surgeries involve cutting muscle, too, and by the time a deeper infection would show up on the sutures, it would be pretty late in the game. But if these color-changing sutures can be made to be cost-effective, safe for skin, and of course, keep wounds together, this solution is way better than nothing at all and definitely worth producing. You can see [Dasia] talk about her project in the video below.
Want to know more about natural pH indicators?
Sure you do
. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336961",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-04-04T13:50:11",
"content": "Practicality aside, the concept of using pH to activate a chemical alarm is sound. With a bit of bioengineering, you could modify an organism to produce the material for the sutures that incorporates a pH... | 1,760,373,132.391604 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/04/hiding-behind-the-silkscreen-the-carolinacon-2021-badge-has-a-secret/ | Hiding Behind The Silkscreen: The Carolinacon 2021 Badge Has A Secret | Jenny List | [
"cons",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"badgelife",
"Carolinacon",
"pcb art"
] | The pandemic may have taken away many of our real-world events, but as they’ve gone online their badge teams have often carried on regardless.
One of these comes from Carolinacon
, and it’s decided to eschew the bleeding edge of electronic wizardry and instead push slightly at the boundaries of PCB art. It contains a hidden message in a copper layer behind a band of white silkscreen, which is revealed by a set of LEDs on the reverse of the board shining through the translucent FR4.
Electronics-wise it’s a pretty simple design, sporting only an ATtiny microcontroller and a photoresistor alongside the LEDs, and with the secret message being triggered when the badge is placed in the dark. The conference’s pig logo is eye-catching, but it has no pretences towards being a dev board or similar. The technique of LEDs behind copper and silkscreen is an interesting one though, and something that we think could bear more investigation in future designs. It’s pleasing to see that there are still new avenues to be taken in the world of PCB-based art.
This isn’t the first time this event has had an eye-catching badge,
we’ve covered one of their previous offerings
. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336969",
"author": "Piecutter",
"timestamp": "2021-04-04T14:48:11",
"content": "This is also human hacking, ’cause now I want some hickory smoked BBQ, for some odd reason.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6337214",
"au... | 1,760,373,132.769191 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/03/3d-printer-as-robot-the-functograph/ | 3D Printer As Robot: The Functograph | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"Additive Manufacturing",
"robotics"
] | A 3D printer is really a specialized form of robot. Sure, it isn’t exactly Data from Star Trek, but it isn’t too far from many industrial robots. Researchers from Meiji University made the same observation and decided to create a 3D printer that could swap a hot end for other types of robotic manipulators. They call their creation the
Functgraph
. (Video, embedded below.)
Some of the tasks the Functgraph can do including joining printed parts into an assembly, breaking support material, and more. The surprise twist is that — unlike traditional tool change schemes — the printer prints its own end effectors together with the print job and picks them up off the build plate.
The printer is a pretty stock CR-10 with two additions. There is a system on the X carriage to pick up a printed end effector, and there is also a tower on the side of the printer for dropping off an end-effector after use. The attachment point uses a barb so that pressing down mates the attachment arm to the part. Then raising the Z axis lifts the part off the build surface.
The team shows different techniques to use custom-shaped hooks to break away support, fold printed parts together, or remove parts from the build plate and relocate them.
We wonder if this would be better if you had a
SCARA arm
sitting next to a 3D printer, although we admit that might be less flexible in theory. Not that the idea of using
two robots to print
is totally new.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZnTdPuAecs | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336919",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2021-04-04T07:01:39",
"content": "WOW.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6336936",
"author": "Arthur Wolf",
"timestamp": "2021-04-04T09:04:11",
"content": "This is extremely ... | 1,760,373,132.576593 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/03/satellite-ground-station-upcycles-trash/ | Satellite Ground Station Upcycles Trash | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"dish",
"dish antenna",
"GOES",
"Ground Station",
"satellite",
"upcycle",
"weather satellite"
] | While the term “upcycle” is relatively recent, we feel like [saveitforparts] has been doing it for a long time. He’d previously built gear to pick up low-Earth orbit satellites, but now wants to pick up geosynchronous birds which requires a better antenna. While his
setup won’t win a beauty contest
, it does seem to work, and saved some trash from a landfill, too. (Video, embedded below.)
Small dishes are cheap on the surplus market. A can makes a nice feedhorn using a classic cantenna design, although that required aluminum tape since the only can in the trash was a cardboard oatmeal carton. The tape came in handy when the dish turned out to be about 25% too small, as well.
The dish isn’t just ugly, it probably won’t stand up to everyday use. The bit error rate was a bit high, but he did manage to pull down images from GOES-16. It sounds like he has plans to weatherize it and mount the dish permanently. The Raspberry Pi scripts would not work properly on his laptop, so he finally switched to a Pi. The images looked great
It seems to be a rite of passage to build
a ground station out of junk
. You might have better luck with some of the other
software that is available
. | 30 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336902",
"author": "UberHobber",
"timestamp": "2021-04-04T03:12:02",
"content": "I just started working on a collapsible umbrella reflector for GOES after giving up on a dish like that last summer. Right when you move on, someone else suddenly solves your problem hahahaha!",
"p... | 1,760,373,132.461137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/03/ford-and-hp-teamed-up-to-drive-down-plastic-waste/ | Ford And HP Teamed Up To Drive Down Plastic Waste | Kristina Panos | [
"car hacks",
"green hacks",
"News"
] | [
"ford",
"HP",
"injection molding",
"printer waste",
"sustainability"
] | This mass manufacturer movement towards electric cars is one thing, but what about sustainability on the plastic part production line?
Ford and HP have teamed up to turn used 3D printed parts and powders into pellets that will be fodder for injection-molded parts
— specifically the fuel-line clips for Super Duty F250 trucks.
Two of the sustainably-made fuel clips.
According to
Ford’s press release
, their goal is to reach 100% sustainable materials in all their vehicles, not just the diesel-drinking Super Duty. Their research team found ten other Fords whose existing fuel-line clips could instead be made sustainably, and the company plans to implement the recycled plastic clips on all future models.
There are all sorts of positives at play here: the recycled clips cost 10% less to make and end up weighing 7% less than traditionally-made clips, all the while managing to be more chemical and moisture resistant.
And so much plastic will be kept out of landfills, especially once this idea takes off and more manufacturers get involved with HP or form other partnerships. One of the sources of Ford’s plastic is Smile Direct Club, which has 60 printers cranking out over 40,000 dental aligners every day.
There’s more than one way to combine 3D printing and sustainability.
Did someone say fungal sound absorbers?
[Images via
Ford
] | 25 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336880",
"author": "Somun",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T23:20:31",
"content": "This is great for the PR…. If you are asking yourself where is the hack, you are at the wrong site.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6336887",
... | 1,760,373,132.526885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/03/reverse-engineering-silicon-one-transistor-at-a-time/ | Reverse Engineering Silicon, One Transistor At A Time | Jenny List | [
"chemistry hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"chip decapping",
"decapping",
"reverse engineering"
] | Many of will have marveled at the feats of reverse engineering achieved by decapping integrated circuits and decoding their secrets by examining the raw silicon die. Few of us will have a go for ourselves, but that doesn’t stop the process being a fascinating one. Fortunately [Ryan Cornateanu] is on hand with
a step-by-step description of his journey into the art of decapping
, as he takes on what might seem an unlikely subject in the form of the CH340 USB to serial chip you’ll find on an Arduino Nano board.
Starting with hot sulphuric acid is probably not everyone’s idea of a day at the bench, but having used it to strip the epoxy from the CH340, he’s able to take a look under the microscope. This is no ordinary microscope but a metallurgists instrument designed to light the top of the sample from one side with polarised light. This allows him to identify an area of mask ROM and zoom in on the transistors that make each individual bit.
At this point the chemistry moves into the downright scary as he reaches for the hydrofluoric acid and has to use a PTFE container because HF is notorious for its voracious reactivity. This allows him to take away the interconnects and look at the transistor layer. He can then with a bit of computer vision processing help extract a bit layer map, which with some experimentation and guesswork can be manipulated into a firmware dump. Even then it’s not done, because he takes us into the world of disassembly of what is an unknown architecture. Definitely worth a read for the armchair chip enthusiast.
If you’re thirsty for more,
of course we have to direct you towards the work of [Ken Shirriff]
. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336869",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T21:29:49",
"content": "A nitpick:“There are two types of metal typically used in the semiconductor fabrication process: aluminum (Al) alloy 6061 and/or copper (Cu) .”I really doubt a structural alloy of alloy of alumnum is use f... | 1,760,373,132.729002 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/03/this-vintage-led-matrix-lives-in-a-gold-bathtub/ | This Vintage LED Matrix Lives In A Gold Bathtub | Donald Papp | [
"LED Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"5802-7002",
"5x7",
"forgotten hardware",
"HP",
"led",
"led matrix",
"vintage"
] | Early LED displays came in all sorts of configurations. Because the LED was fairly new technology, all kinds of ideas were getting tried, and with all that work there was plenty of opportunity for hardware that didn’t make the cut to fall into obscurity. That’s exactly what happened to the
Hewlett-Packard 5082-7002
, a 5×7 LED matrix display with something many of its brethren didn’t: an oversized gold tub to sit in.
It doesn’t seem that these displays were ever used in any actual products, and its origins are a mystery, but the device itself was nevertheless assigned an HP part number. Beyond that, not much is known about them, but [Industrial Alchemy] reminds us that many early LED devices were poorly documented and never produced in any real quantities. They became forgotten hardware, waiting to be rediscovered.
The 5082-7002 has a oversized gold tub that makes the 5×7 LED matrix mounted inside look puny by comparison, and reading any display made from these units would be difficult because the large size of the device would mean a lot of empty space between each character or digit. But it’s definitely got a striking look to it, no doubt about that.
What’s neat is that the 5802-7002 actually showed up in a video we featured with
a look back at cool old LED technology
. If you would like to (briefly) see the HP 5802-7002 a bit closer under a microscope,
here is a link to the video, cued to 2:19
. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336844",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T18:12:08",
"content": "They must have intended to have a bubble magnifier on these, then readability in a row would have been better. It reminds me of the bubble digit era.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,373,132.682424 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/03/when-the-right-tool-is-wrong/ | When The Right Tool Is Wrong | Elliot Williams | [
"cnc hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants"
] | [
"cad",
"CAD CAM",
"cam",
"newsletter",
"open source",
"open source cam",
"tools"
] | I’m a firm believer in using the right tool for the job. And one of the most fantastic things about open-source software tools is that nothing stops you from trying them all. For instance, I’ve been going back and forth between a couple, maybe three, CAD/CAM tools over the past few weeks. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, and so if I’m doing a simpler job, I use the simpler software, because it’s quicker and, well, simpler. But I’ve got to cut it out, at least for a while, and I’ll tell you why.
The first of the packages is
FreeCAD
, and it’s an extremely capable piece of CAD/CAM software. It can do everything, or so it seems. But it’s got a long shallow learning curve, and I’m only about halfway up. I’m at the stage where I should be hammering out simple “hello world” parts for practice. I say, I
should
be.
Fortunately/unfortunately, some Hackaday readers introduced me to
KrabzCAM
through the comments. It’s significantly less feature-full than FreeCAD, but it gets the job of turning your wife’s sketches of bunnies into Easter decorations done in a jiffy. For simple stuff like that, it’s a nice simple tool, and is the perfect fit for 2D CAM jobs. It’s got some other nice features, and it handles laser engraving nicely as well. And that’s the problem.
Doing the simple stuff with KrabzCAM means that when I
do
finally turn back to FreeCAD, I’m working on a more challenging project — using techniques that I’m not necessarily up to speed on. So I’ll put the time in, but find myself still stumbling over the introductory “hello world” stuff like navigation and project setup.
I know — #first-world-hacker-problems. “Poor Elliot has access to too many useful tools, with strengths that make them fit different jobs!” And honestly, I’m stoked to have so many good options — that wasn’t the case five years ago. But in this case, using the right tool for the job is wrong for me learning the other tool.
On reflection, this is related to the never-try-anything-new-because-your-current-tools-work-just-fine problem. And the solution to that one is to simply bite the bullet and stick it out with FreeCAD until I get proficient. But KrabzCAM works
so well
for those small 2D jobs…
A hacker’s life is hard.
This article is part of the Hackaday.com newsletter, delivered every seven days for each of the last 200+ weeks. It also includes our favorite articles from the last seven days that you can see on
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.
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! | 76 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336817",
"author": "Anthony",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T14:32:33",
"content": "It seems to me that these problems would go away if FreeCAD would just “be more like solidworks” when it comes to interface. Everything that’s quick to do just takes too many steps. It’s hard to create ... | 1,760,373,133.199762 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/03/you-can-now-build-your-own-glowing-led-d20-with-a-whopping-2400-leds/ | You Can Now Build Your Own Glowing LED D20 (with A Whopping 2,400 LEDs) | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"D20",
"glowables",
"glowing icosahedron",
"icosahedron",
"LED d20"
] | The D20, or twenty-sided die, is most commonly known in the shape of a regular icosahedron. It’s a fantastic, enchanting geometry, and one that has held the balance of fate in innumerable tabletop roleplaying games over the years. It was this sacred geometry that [Greg Davill] chose to bless with the glory of glowing RGB LEDs. Now,
[Greg] has shared the files so you can build your own.
The development blog of the D20
is a great read, highlighting the challenges of creating such a compact item that glows so brilliantly. The design uses a full 2400 1.5 mm x 1.5mm LEDs, in the old-school RGB style, split evenly between the twenty sides. That’s right, there’s no fancy self-addressing smart LEDs here — each LED is manually controlled directly by [Greg]’s hardware. A SAMD51 and ICE40UP5K FPGA are put to work running the displays. Each panel is held together in a barely-there 3D printed frame, linked together with ribbon cables to keep things compact. A Sony camera battery is slotted inside the tight confines of the frame to supply the necessary power.
We first covered the project late last year
, and it’s great to see it out there now in a form that’s readily reproduced. Assembly of such a board is not for the faint of heart, however, with plenty of fine SMD parts to tangle with. We suspect this is just yet another salvo in the ongoing arms race of LED glowables, and we can’t wait to see what [Greg] — and the rest of the community — comes out with next. If you’ve got a lead on the new glowing hotness,
let us know
. Video after the break. | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336815",
"author": "ConsultingJoe",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T14:13:18",
"content": "Thats awesome. This one came a long way.More of a product or kit now than a hack. Lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6336825",
"author": "... | 1,760,373,133.081349 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/03/playing-snake-on-a-pcb/ | Playing Snake On A PCB! | Jenny List | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"pcb",
"pcb-rnd",
"snake"
] | When conversation turns to the older Nokia mobile phones, it’s unlikely to be the long battery life or ability to conjure a signal out of thin air that tickles people’s memory, instead it’s the
Snake
game built into the stock firmware. Snake was an addictive yet extremely simple game in which a line of pixels — the snake in question — was navigated around the screen to eat the fruit without crashing into walls or itself. As the game progressed the snake grew in length, making it a surprisingly difficult challenge. If you hanker for
Snake
, as [VK5HSE ] writes,
you can now play it in a PCB layout
.
The software in question is
PCB-RND
, a cross-platform open-source PCB CAD tool, and the game is achieved through the magic of user scripting. Simply
download the script
, run it in your favourite circuit board, and away you go!
We can’t imagine a productive use for this piece of software, but it wouldn’t surprise us to see a snake slithering into a few boards we feature. It does provide a handy reminder though of the power in your PCB CAD tool’s scripting features, something it’s likely not many of us use to their full potential.
We’ve featured [VK5HSE]’s work with PCB-RND before, in
a very useful Eagle import tool
. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336778",
"author": "ROB",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T09:05:00",
"content": "I first wrote this game in the late 70’s on a TRS-80 Model 1 in BASIC. it was just an array with two incrementing indexes.Now I know what causes those missing pads and random isolated tracks.",
"parent_id... | 1,760,373,133.28802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/finger-bend-is-a-textile-flex-sensor-you-can-sew-at-home/ | Finger Bend Is A Textile Flex Sensor You Can Sew At Home | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"flex sensor",
"piezoelectric fabric",
"textile"
] | So often, we use control devices for electronics that involve our fingers directly grasping, touching, or moving another object or surface. It’s less common for us to use interfaces that detect the motion of our bodies directly. Flex sensors are one way to do that,
and it’s exactly what [WillpowerStudios] aims to do with Finger Bend.
The construction of the sensor is simple, using piezoresistive fabric which changes its resistance when deformed. By sewing this into a sheath that can be placed on the finger, and wiring it up with conductive threads, it can be used to detect the flexion of the wearer’s digits by sampling the resistance with an analog to digital converter on any garden variety microcontroller. Expanding the technique to a full hand is as simple as creating a Finger Bend per digit and wiring up each one to its own ADC channel. If you want to get really fancy,
you could even scan through them at speed with a multiplexer.
It’s similar to the technology used in
Nintendo’s infamous Power Glove,
and while it’s never caught on in the mainstream, it may have applications yet. Video after the break | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336755",
"author": "noidfumbler",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T06:04:05",
"content": "To me it matters how long it might last and how gracefully it fails.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6336765",
"author": "Rocodrilo",
"ti... | 1,760,373,133.239989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/freecad-takes-off-with-a-rocket-design-workbench/ | FreeCAD Takes Off With A Rocket Design Workbench | Donald Papp | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"freecad",
"open source",
"rocket design",
"rocketry"
] | Here’s how FreeCAD works: the program’s design space is separated into different “workbenches”, each of which is intended for a particular set of operations, and a piece of work can be moved between them as needed. There is a sketching workbench, a part design workbench,
and now a Rocket workbench
has been added to the healthy ecosystem of FreeCAD add-ons. There’s even
a series of video tutorials
; ain’t open source grand?
It all started when
[concretedog] posted on the FreeCAD forums
, making a strong case for a Rocket-themed workbench. People got interested, and a short while later [DavesRocketShop] had some useful tools up and running.
Here’s a blog post by [concretedog]
which goes into detail and background, and while the Rocket workbench is available via FreeCAD’s add-on manager,
the very latest experimental builds are available for manual installation on [Dave]’s GitHub repository
.
This sort of development and utility is exactly the kind of thing our own Elliot Williams was describing when he made the point that
one of open source’s greatest strengths is in the little things
, like the FreeCAD ecosystem letting people scratch strange and specific itches, and the ability to share those solutions with others. | 25 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336744",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T04:20:40",
"content": "Looking forward to the brain surgery workbench.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6336809",
"author": "lars-mander",
"timestamp": "202... | 1,760,373,133.348849 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/adjustable-low-impact-keeb-is-about-as-comfortable-as-it-gets/ | Adjustable, Low-Impact Keeb Is About As Comfortable As It Gets | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ball magnets",
"d-pad",
"DataHand",
"keyboard",
"magnets",
"QMK"
] | What’s the coolest-looking way to ease the repetitive stress of typing without quitting altogether? Move nothing but your fingers, and move them as little as possible without any stretching or reaching. We’ve been fans of the weirdly wonderful DataHand keyboard since we first laid eyes on one, but [Ben Gruver] has actually been using these out-of-production keyboards for years as a daily driver. And what do we do when we love something scarce? Make our own, improved version like [Ben] has done, with the lalboard.
[Ben] has been using the lalboard for about two years now and has a laundry list of improvements for version two
, a project we are proud to host over on IO. Many of the improvements are designed to make this massive undertaking a bit easier to print and put together. Version one uses copper tape traces, but [Ben] is working on a fab-able PCB that will use something other than a pair of Teensy 2.0s, and perhaps QMK firmware.
Something that won’t be changing is the fantastic optical key switch design that uses an IR LED and phototransistor to capture key presses, and tiny square magnets to return the key to the home position and deliver what we’re quite sure is a satisfying clack.
The absolute coolest part of this keyboard is that it’s so adjustable. Every key cluster can be adjusted in 6 directions, which includes the ability to dial in different heights for each finger if that’s what works best. Once that’s all figured out, then it’s time to print some perfect permanent standoffs. Want to make one of these sci-fi clackers for yourself? [Ben] has
the BOM, some printing instructions and tips, and a guide to making the copper tape PCBs
over on GitHub. Check it out in action after the break as [Ben] rewrites Kafka’s
Metamorphosis
at 120 WPM.
Interested in learning more about the original DataHand keyboard?
Here’s our take
. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336712",
"author": "Todne",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T00:02:06",
"content": "Then use an extension like Word Replacer. That way you can censor the internet to look however your little heart desires. It’ll be a lot more effective than whining in comment sections.",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,373,133.410487 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/micro-quadcopter-designed-in-openscad/ | Micro Quadcopter Designed In OpenSCAD | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"drone",
"openscad",
"quadcopter"
] | Quadcopters are fantastical things, and now come in a huge variety of flavours, from lithe featherweight racers to industrial-grade filming rigs worth tens of thousands of dollars. The Beatle-1 from [masterdezign] comes in at the smaller scale,
and its body was created entirely in code.
To create the Beatle-1, [masterdezign] used OpenSCAD, a 3D modelling program that uses code rather than visual tools for producing geometry. Thus, with a series of Boolean operations, extrusions and rotations, a basic lightweight quadcopter frame is created in a handful of lines of text. Then, it’s just a simple job of 3D printing the parts, wiring up four Olimex F1607 motors and hooking up a flight controller and the little drone is ready for takeoff.
The Beatle-1 serves as not only a fun flying toy but also a great example of applying OpenSCAD modelling techniques to real-world applications.
Parts are available on Thingiverse for those wishing to roll their own.
3D printed drone frames are popular,
and we’ve seen a few around these parts before.
Video after the break. | 20 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336672",
"author": "Daniel Dunn",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T20:05:09",
"content": "I admire the patience of anyone who can actually design anything real in OpenSCAD. I used to use it before Realthunder’s FreeCAD assembly3 got really good…. And I don’t think I’ll be going back anyt... | 1,760,373,133.556817 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/smashed-amiga-2000-gets-new-lease-on-life/ | Smashed Amiga 2000 Gets New Lease On Life | Tom Nardi | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"3D printed parts",
"amiga 2000",
"floppy emulator",
"plastic repair",
"restoration"
] | For most people, opening up a package and seeing that the Amiga 2000 you purchased on eBay had been smashed up by the delivery carrier would be a heartbreaking moment. But not [Drygol]. If you live and breathe vintage computer restorations like he does,
finding your latest acquisition is in need of more repairs and upgrades than you originally anticipated
is actually a bonus.
The first issue that needed sorting out was the broken case. This Amiga must have had one wild ride, as there were several nasty cracks in the front panel and whole chunks had been broken off. We’ve seen [Drygol] repair broken computer cases before, but it seems like each time he comes up with some new tricks to bring these massacred pieces of plastic back to like-new condition. In this case plastic welding is used to hold the parts together and fill in the gaps, and then brass mesh is added to the backside for strength. The joints are then sanded, filled in with polyester putty, and finally sprayed with custom color matched paint. While he was in the area, he also filled in a hole the previous owner had made for a toggle switch.
Before
After
Then [Drygol] moved onto the internals. Some of the traces on the PCB had been corroded by a popped battery, a socket needed to be replaced, and as you might expect for a machine of this vintage, all of the electrolytic capacitors were suspect and needed to go. Finally, as the system didn’t have a power supply, he wired in a picoPSU. That got the 34 year old computer back up and running, and at this point, the machine was almost like new again. So naturally, it was time to start with the upgrades and modifications.
Case fan, video adapter, and picoPSU.
[Drygol] added an IDE interface and connected a CompactFlash adapter as the computer’s primary drive. For the secondary, he installed a GoTek floppy drive emulator that lets you replace a mountain of physical disks with a USB flash drive full of images. Between the two, all of the computer’s storage needs are met with nary a moving part.
The emulator was given its own 3D printed front panel to fit with the Amiga’s visual style, and he also printed out a holder for the RGB4ALL S-Video/Composite adapter installed on the rear of the machine. To help keep all this new gear cool, he finished things off with a new case fan.
Some will no doubt complain about the addition of the extra gadgetry, but to those people,
we suggest you just focus on the phenomenal case restoration work
. While you might not agree with all of the modifications [Drygol] makes,
there’s no question that you can learn something
by going through his
considerable body of work
. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336651",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T19:06:22",
"content": "Sucks that the case was busted during shipping (never ship with Ace Ventura Shipping!) but at least the Amiga got to a guy who knows how to take care of it, it’s nice to see this machine will be running... | 1,760,373,133.458986 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/python-will-soon-support-switch-statements/ | Python Will Soon Support Switch Statements | Adam Zeloof | [
"Featured",
"News",
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"match",
"python",
"switch"
] | Rejoice! Gone are the long chains of
if
…
else
statements, because
switch
statements will soon be here — sort of.
What the Python gods are actually giving us are
match
statements.
match
statements are awfully similar to
switch
statements, but have a few really cool and unique features, which I’ll attempt to illustrate below.
Flip The Switch
A
switch
statement is often used in place of an
if
…
else
ladder. Here’s a quick example of the same logic in C, first executed with an
if
statement, and then with a
switch
statement:
Essentially, a
switch
statement takes a variable and tests it for equality against a number of different cases. If none of the cases match, then the
default
case is invoked. Notice in the example that each
case
is terminated by a
break
. This protects against more than one case matching (or allows for cascading), as the cases are checked in the order in which they are listed. Once a case is completed,
break
is called and the
switch
statement exits.
A Match Made In Heaven
You can think of
match
statements as “Switch 2.0”. Before we get into the nitty-gritty here, if all you want is
switch
in Python then you’re in luck, because they can be used in the same way. Here’s a similar example to what we looked at earlier, this time using
match
in Python.
There are a few differences to note right off the bat. First, there are no
break
statements. The developers were concerned about confusion if a
break
statement were called inside a
match
statement inside a loop — what breaks then, the loop or the match? Here, the first case that is satisfied is executed, and the statement returns. You’ll also notice that rather than
default
, we have
case _
, which behaves in the same way.
The Power of Pattern Matching
So, we’ve got a
switch
statement with slightly different syntax, right? Not quite. The name
match
was used for a reason — what’s actually going on here is something called Pattern Matching. To illustrate what that is, let’s look at a more exciting example, right out of the feature proposal to add the keyword in question to Python:
Wow! We just took an object, checked its type, checked it’s shape, and instantiated a new object without any indexing, or even a
len()
call. It also works on any type, unlike the classic
switch
which only works on
integral values
. In case this wasn’t cool enough for you, patterns can be combined. Again, from the feature proposal:
Okay, okay — one more example. This is where the
match
statement gets really powerful. Patterns themselves can include comparisons, known as guards. This lets you filter values within each
case
statement:
Sold! When Can I Try?
We’ll get our hands on this magical new command in Python 3.10, slated for a full release on October 4th, 2021. For the adventurous,
an alpha version (Python 3.10.0a6) is available for download today
. It might be worth spending some time getting acquainted with the pattern matching, like understanding
the difference between matching literal values and matching variables
.
So why doesn’t every language have
match
statements? They’re clearly better than
switch
statements!
That’s what I said at least, and my girlfriend Sara was quick to raise her eyebrows and explain that there’s a huge performance overhead involved. The
switch
statement in C is relatively simple. It compares integers to one another, executing
n
constant-time operations. All of the power and convenience that comes with the
match
statement means a lot is going on in the background, which in turn slows down the code execution — an incredibly Pythonic tradeoff to make.
I find an efficiency hit a small price to pay for such expanded functionality, but as a Mechanical Engineer my favorite languages are Matlab and Python so you probably should take my opinion here with a grain of salt. | 113 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336597",
"author": "Rob R.",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T17:15:13",
"content": "Looks kind of like Rust’s match!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6336746",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2021-04-03T04:29:53",
... | 1,760,373,133.717953 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/hackaday-podcast-112-we-have-an-nft-racing-a-mobius-strip-and-syncing-video-with-opencv-and-blender/ | Hackaday Podcast 112: We Have An NFT, Racing A Möbius Strip, And Syncing Video With OpenCV And Blender | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys celebrate the cleverest projects from the week that was. We tried to catch a few fools on Thursday with our Lightmode™ and NFT articles — make sure you go back and read those for a good chuckle if you haven’t already.
While those fall under
not a hack
, many other features this week are world-class hacks, such as the 555 timer built from 1.5-dozen vacuum tubes, and the mechanical word-clock that’s 64 magnetic actuators built around PCB coils by Hackaday’s own [Mortiz v. Sivers].
A treat for the ears, [Linus Akesson] aka [lft] shows off a Commodore64 that seriously sounds as big as a cathedral organ. And a masterpiece of OpenCV and Blender, you can’t miss the project by [Matthew Earl] that overlays video of the Mars landing on still satellite photos… perfection!
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)
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
Google Podcasts
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
Episode 112 Show Notes:
New This Week:
Boston Dynamics Stretch Robot Trades Lab Coat For Work Uniform
MIT Robot Learns How to Play Jenga – YouTube
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Putting Perseverance Rover’s View Into Satellite View Context
An AI-Free Way To Catch Wildlife On Camera
The Sixtyforgan Proves That Church Organs Are Definitely Chiptune
Chipophone Plays Video Game Classics
Bitbuf Delivers Some Of The Best Chiptune Effects Around
Craft
3D Printed Wobbly Wheels Put Through Their Paces
Reuleaux triangle – Wikipedia
A Mobius Strip Track For Superconductor Levitation
[0803.3090] A Classroom Demonstration of Levitation and Suspension of a Superconductor over a Magnetic Track
Superconducting Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) on a Magnetic Track – YouTube
Demonstrating Science At Harvard University
The Wonders of Physics, UW-Madison – YouTube
The Word Clock You Can Feel
Mechanical Seven-Segment Display Really Sticks Out From The Pack
Should Have Used A Vacuum Tube 555
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks
Scanimate Analog Video Synths Produced Oceans Of Motion Graphics
Oh Brother, Would You Look At This Cistercian Clock
Wires Vs Words — PCB Routing In Python
Mike’s Picks
NVMe Boot Finally Comes To The Pi Compute Module 4
A Floppy Controller For The Raspberry Pi
A Deep Dive Into E-Ink Tag Hacking
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Hershey Fonts: Not Chocolate, The Origin Of Vector Lettering
Hackaday Forced Into Light Mode
NFTs Are The Hope For A New Tomorrow! | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6338206",
"author": "Dean Drover",
"timestamp": "2021-04-08T19:40:16",
"content": "Never miss a podcast, Mike and Elliot. It is a habit now. I kind of wish that all of your podcasts could be like Youtube videos that never stop.Thanks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,373,133.502326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/electric-window-motor-becomes-mini-chainsaw/ | Electric Window Motor Becomes Mini Chainsaw | Donald Papp | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"chainsaw",
"cordless",
"handheld",
"window motor"
] | This mini handheld chainsaw
by [Make it Extreme] is based around an electric motor from a car door, the same ones used to raise and lower car windows. They are common salvage parts, and with the right modifications and a few spare chainsaw bits attached, it turns out that the motor is more than capable of enough zip to cut through a variety of wood. Add a cordless tool battery pack, and the portable mini handheld chainsaw is born.
What’s really remarkable about the build video (embedded below, after the break) is not simply that it shows the build process and somehow manages to make it all look easy. No, what’s truly remarkable is that in the video it is always clear what is happening, and all without a single word being spoken. There’s no narration, no watching someone talk, just a solid build and demonstration. The principle of “show, don’t tell” is definitely taken to heart, here.
So, how well does it work as a chainsaw? It seems to work quite well! [Make it Extreme] does feel that a chain with smaller teeth and a higher motor speed would probably be an improvement, but the unit as built certainly can cut. You can judge for yourself by watching the build video, embedded below.
Are mini chainsaws your thing? Of course they are, so get ready to see
the cutest little chainsaw you ever did see get upgraded with a powerful RC motor
. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336600",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T17:23:04",
"content": "I’ve used angle grinders since my youth and fail to understand how people can use them without the protective hood. in this case not even the handle ! made the build video unwatchable for me",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,373,133.768871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/this-week-in-security-ubiquity-update-php-backdoor-and-netmask/ | This Week In Security: Ubiquity Update, PHP Backdoor, And Netmask | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"Git",
"Netmask",
"This Week in Security"
] | Back in January, we covered the news that Ubiquiti had a breach of undisclosed severity.
One reader pointed out the compromise of a handful of devices
as potentially related. With no similar reports out there, I didn’t think too much of it at the time. Now, however,
a whistleblower from Ubiquiti has given Krebs the juicy details
.
The “third party cloud provider” the original disclosure referred to was Amazon Web Services (AWS). According to the whistleblower, just about everything was accessible, including the keys to log in to any Ubiquiti device on the internet, so long as it was cloud enabled. The attackers installed a couple of backdoors in Ubiquiti’s infrastructure, and sent a 50 bitcoin blackmail threat. To their credit, Ubiquiti ignored the blackmail and cleaned up the mess.
To the claim that there was no evidence attackers had accessed user accounts, it seems that the database in question simply has no logging enabled. There was no evidence, because nothing was watching. So far, I’ve only seen the one report of device compromise that was potentially a result of the attack. If you had a Ubiquiti device go rogue around December 2020 – January 2021, be sure to let us know.
Safe Mode Ransomware
This is a new trick — We usually use safe mode to fix computers, but
one strain of malware is abusing it to break them
. The idea seems to be that your antivirus probably isn’t running in safe mode, so the encryption process is more likely to succeed. On the other hand, safe mode might mean that your server’s shared folders aren’t accessible, limiting the destruction to a single computer.
The fancy trick to making this work is to put the payload in a
RunOnce
registry key, and prefix the key’s name with an asterisk. This incantation signals to Windows that it should run even in safe mode. The encryption process delays the launch of
explorer.exe
, so the machine will seem to hang at the blank “Safe Mode” screen.
PHP Git Breach
A
malicious commit
was sneaked into PHP’s code on the 27th, and reverted about five hours later. The developer account that pushed the bad code was assumed to be compromised, and access was revoked. A few hours later, the reversion was reverted by a different developer account. This time the bad code was present for less than two hours before it was reverted with the humorous commit message of
Revert "Revert "Revert "[skip-ci] Fix typo"""
The consensus is that the server hosting the PHP code was likely compromised in some way, and
the decision was made to move the PHP development process to GitHub
.
The malicious code was quite simple. It checked for a magic string in the
useragent
header, and executed PHP code from that header if found. If a PHP release had actually shipped with this code intact, the damage would be astounding, as this would be a simple-to-use backdoor in every web service using PHP. It is worth pointing out that the open source nature of the PHP project led to a very rapid discovery of the injected code, and because of that speed, the actual damage from this attack will probably be essentially nil. This doesn’t seem to be a particularly sophisticated attack, and it wasn’t even disguised to look like innocent code. Was it just a test run?
Via
Phoronix
OpenSSL Flaws
OpenSSL just fixed a pair of serious bugs
in their 1.1.1k release
. The first is CVE-2021-3449, which allows a malicious renegotiation request to crash the OpenSSL server. It’s a null pointer dereference, which is notoriously difficult to turn into a full RCE, though not impossible.
The second bug, CVE-2021-3450, is less annoying, but potentially more serious. If OpenSSL is configured to verify a certificate, and a certain strict mode flag is enabled, then a self-signed certificate could be accepted as a signed one. This happens because the strict mode check can overwrite the results of the trusted CA check.
Netmask Woes
There is a little quirk in how IP addresses are written. We normally write an IP in the “dotted decimal” format. Consider the three following IP addresses:
10.0.0.1
,
010.0.0.1
, and
0x10.0.0.1
. The first two are identical and the last one is an invalid address, right? Well, it depends. If you’re sticking to what is considered “standard” dotted-decimal, then yes. But an early BSD implementation of dotted decimal notation also included hexadecimal and octal. This has become something of a competing standard, and pops up from time to time. See the image to the right for a surprising example.
Now, what about a library like NPM’s
netmask
, which checks whether a given IP address is part of a defined network? Netmask’s
.contains
function takes a dotted string as input, and returns true or false based on whether the IP is in the given subnet. In versions prior to 2.0.0, it understood decimal notation, and hexadecimal notation, but ignored the leading “0” otherwise. This means that an octal representation would instead be understood as decimal. This is a problem when other parts of your application see the IP as octal. The netmask sanity check thinks the IP is part of the local network (10.0.0.1), when it really belongs to Level 3 Communications (8.0.0.1). The security front-end sees the connection as coming from the local network, when it’s really coming from outside.
This little quirk was discovered by [Victor Viale], and fixed by a cadre of researchers
who’s work we’ve looked at before. In fact, it was the earlier fixes to the
private-ip
package that led to this discovery. That package considers
0127.0.0.1
to be a private address. That’s correct… unless your code understands
0127.0.0.1
to be equivalent to
81.0.0.1
. Let’s do a little experiment. Try to navigate to, or ping that IP address with the leading 0. What does your browser or terminal understand it as? The octal format is surprisingly widely accepted.
Now here’s the kicker. How do you fix this? Remember, there isn’t an RFC that explicitly defines how dotted notation of IPs works. I’m confident that some packages on NPM ignore leading zeros in IP addresses, and some OSes likely do the same. If you change
netmask
to understand octal notation, then those applications are now vulnerable in exactly the way you’re trying to fix. No matter what, something is going to break.
Semantic Versioning
helps here, though it isn’t a silver bullet. NPM uses a 3-number system, starting with 1.0.0 for initial releases. For bug fixes that are otherwise backwards compatible, increment the third number. For updates with new features, but that don’t break compatibility, increment the second number. And finally, for major changes that do break backwards compatibility, the first number gets the bump.
Netmask
is no longer backwards compatible, so the fix was released as 2.0.0. Many applications are written with a flexible dependency section, allowing automatic updating on-the-fly when bug fixes are released, but not automatically switching major versions. It doesn’t automatically fix the problem, but again, that wasn’t really possible.
Ransomware Refund?
Bleeping Computer brings the story of a ransomware campaign that’s doing something unexpected —
paying the ransom back to the victims
. Well, that is the claim. No bitcoin has been paid back yet. The claim is that the malware authors are afraid of law enforcement action, and plan to become legitimate researchers after paying back the ransom. You’ll excuse me if I’m a bit skeptical, but this sounds too good to be true. Time will tell whether this is a second scam, or a true change of heart.
Researcher Campaign Redux
Remember the North Korean APT that was targeting researchers with a fake security company and malicious links? The folks at Google who keep track of these things, the Threat Actor Group, have warned that
this campaign is back under a different name
. “SecuriElite” is the new bogus company, and a new gang of fake researchers are active on Twitter and LinkedIn. That is, they were active until Google’s TAG raised the alarm. The attackers will likely go to ground for a week or two, and then pop up somewhere else. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336563",
"author": "KD9KCK",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T14:40:25",
"content": "Well that explains why i have had SecuriElite in useragents of things poking at my server with weird requests trying to get in.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comm... | 1,760,373,133.837779 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/ultrasonic-sonar-detects-hidden-objects/ | Ultrasonic Sonar Detects Hidden Objects | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"microcontroller",
"motor",
"radar",
"rangefinder",
"ultrasonic"
] | While early scientists and inventors famously underestimated the value of radar, through the lens of history we can see how useful it became. Even though radar uses electromagnetic waves to detect objects, the same principle has been used with other propagating waves, most often sound waves. While a well-known use of this is sonar,
ultrasonic sensors can also be put to use to make a radar-like system
.
This ultrasonic radar project is from [mircemk] who uses a small ultrasonic distance sensor attached to a rotating platform. A motor rotates it around a 180-degree field-of-view and an Arduino takes and records measurements during its trip. It interfaces with an application running on a computer which shows the data in real-time and maps out the location of all of the objects around the sensor. With some upgrades to the code, [mircemk] is also able to extrapolate objects hidden behind other objects as well.
While the ultrasonic sensor used in this project has a range of about a meter, there’s no reason that this principle couldn’t be used for other range-finding devices to extend its working distance. The project is similar to
others we’ve seen occasionally before
, but the upgrade to the software to allow it to “see” around solid objects is an equally solid upgrade. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336538",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T11:05:32",
"content": "I made a similar project a few years back but couldn’t get any useful data due to the propensity of everyday objects to attenuate and scatter ultrasound.Regarding the Radar comparison surely Sonar is ... | 1,760,373,133.895509 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/02/slimming-the-raspberry-pi-pico-the-quick-and-dirty-way/ | Slimming The Raspberry Pi Pico With A Hacksaw | Lewin Day | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"pico",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | The Raspberry Pi Pico is the hot new star of the microcontroller scene, with its fancy IO hardware and serious name recognition. Based on the RP2040 “Raspberry Silicon” chip, it’s introducing fans of the single-board computer line to a lower level of embedded development. The Pico isn’t big, as its name suggests, but miniaturization is a never ending quest for improvement –
so [That Dragon Guy] decided to see if the devboard could be smallified further at a minimum of cost.
While other smaller RP2040 boards are reaching the marketplace, they all cost a lot more than the $4 of the Pico. Thus, [That Dragon Guy] got creative. Having realised that the bottom section of the board was only full of passive traces and pads, he simply hacked it off with a scroll saw and sander. This gives a 30% reduction in footprint, at the cost of some mounting holes, GPIO pins and the debug interface.
In testing, the rest of the board continued to function perfectly well, so we’re calling this a win. It builds on amusing experiments [That Dragon Guy] had done before with the Raspberry Pi B+
which gave us a good chuckle.
The Raspberry Pi has always been a minimalist darling,
with the Pi Zero of 2015 being a bit of a gamechanger, and much beloved by this writer.
Video after the break.
This
@Raspberry_Pi
Pico hack is…a literal hack. There are smaller RP2040 form factors but nobody can touch the original’s $4 price. So…
pic.twitter.com/FQTqr9uZyv
— That Dragon Guy (@PaintYourDragon)
March 29, 2021
Just 1 grainy pic. Had to mock up an A+ case before they shipped. Cut a B+, glued on fake USB port, made case. Forgot about it for a year, grabbed board for a MAME project. Games ran great w/GPIO input, but lost HOURS figuring why keyboard wouldn’t work! 😂
pic.twitter.com/iWJMOErIYe
— That Dragon Guy (@PaintYourDragon)
April 3, 2020 | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336525",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T08:28:36",
"content": "Ordered a couple 24th Jan shipping date still TBA ergh",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6336555",
"author": "Shannon",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,373,133.949781 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/over-engineered-incandescent-numerical-display-shows-great-workmanship/ | Over-Engineered Incandescent Numerical Display Shows Great Workmanship | Donald Papp | [
"LED Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"7-segment display",
"incandescent",
"led",
"vintage"
] | Back before LED technology came into its own, displays used incandescent bulbs. These vintage incandescent displays weren’t necessarily big; the
Eaton 925H-C fiber optic display
, for example, has numbers barely 7 mm tall and packs two of them into a tiny area. Of course, the
depth
of the display module itself is huge by today’s standards; those components have got to go somewhere, after all.
This particular device is, in [Industrial Alchemy]’s words, “[d]ripping with the spending excess that only a bottomless military budget can provide… the Eaton 925H-C may not be a practical device, but it is certainly an impressive one.”
The way the display works is this: individual incandescent bulbs light up fiber optic light guides, which terminate on the face of the display in small dots to make up a numerical display. With only fourteen bulbs, the dots we see here clearly aren’t individually addressable; the two digits are most likely broken up into seven segments each, with three dots making up each segment.
No expense seems spared in the design and manufacture of these displays. Even the incandescent lamps have individual shock absorbers.
The sheer amount of workmanship in these displays is remarkable, and their design makes them easy to retrofit with LED technology instead of replacing the tiny incandescent lamps. In a stark contrast to all of the machined aluminum and gold plated contacts seen here in the Eaton 925H-C, take a look at
this Soviet-era seven-segment incandescent display
whose construction is far less sophisticated, but shows off its own clever engineering. We’ve also seen more modern DIY takes on the concept, using
LED light sources and cured UV resin light pipes
to get that vintage look to the displays. | 18 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336502",
"author": "MinorHavoc",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T05:58:40",
"content": "I’m not quite sure of the snark in the quote–I fail to see how it’s not practical. It’s a rather straightforward design that seems to do the job just fine. Gold plating? Common and absolutely needed... | 1,760,373,134.108144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/vintage-spectrometer-gets-modern-interface-upgrade/ | Vintage Spectrometer Gets Modern Interface Upgrade | Lewin Day | [
"Science"
] | [
"lab equipment",
"monochrome",
"spectrometer"
] | There’s plenty of specialized, high-end scientific equipment out there running on antique hardware and software. It’s not uncommon for old lab equipment to run on DOS or other ancient operating systems. When these expensive tools get put out to pasture, they often end up in the hands of hackers, who, without the benefit of manuals or support, may try and get them going again.
[macona] is trying to do just that with a 740AD spectrometer
, built by Optronic Laboratories in the 1990s.
Originally, the device shipped with a whole computer – a Leading Edge 386SX25 PC running DOS and Windows 3.0. The tools to run the spectrometer were coded in BASIC. Armed with the source code, [macona] was able to recreate the functionality in LabVIEW. To replace the original ISA interface board, an Advantech USB-4751 digital IO module was used instead, which dovetailed nicely with its inbuilt LabVIEW support.
With things back up and running, [macona] has put the hardware through its paces,
testing the performance of some IR camera filters.
Apparently, the hardware, or the same model, was once used to test the quantum efficiency of CCDs used on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Seeing old lab equipment saved from the scrap bin is great, but you can’t always rely on what you want being thrown out. In those cases,
you’ve got to build your own from the ground up.
Video after the break. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336696",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T22:05:05",
"content": "I was thinking about the Scanning Electron Microscope at a former workplace.It used a Sun IPC running a SCSI controller.That was 20 years ago, by that time the Sun IPC was already old.",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,373,134.194058 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/sixteen-channel-retro-rotary-fader/ | Sixteen Channel Retro Rotary Fader | Chris Lott | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"bbc",
"Crystal Palace",
"Radiophonic Workshop",
"wobbulator"
] | Musician and electronic musical machine builder [Sam Battle] has recreated the unusual
Crystal Palace Audio Fader over at Look Mum No Computer
. The Crystal Palace was a rotary fader developed by engineer Dave Young at the
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
back in the late 1960s. Doctor Who fans might recognize it from the
“The Krotons” series
theme music. It’s a wild mechanical mixer, which fades between sixteen different inputs to produce its output by using a variable speed rotating pickup.
Dave Young’s Crystal Palace
After Young built the prototype, three of these were made and put into cases cut out of scrap plexiglass) from a dumpster — hence they became known as Crystal Palaces after the
1851 glass and iron structure
of the same name.
[Sam] decides to build this using some inductors and an old tape head. After proving out the concept on a breadboard, he mounts sixteen inductors on a 3D-printed circular frame. The rotating pickup transfers the signal via slip-rings at the top. An array of input jacks and level pots are mounted on the enclosure’s face plate, which contains a vector board full of op amps that drive the coils. Strictly speaking, the original fader used capacitive coupling, not inductive, but that doesn’t detract at all from this project. And as he states upfront, he intentionally didn’t dig too deep into the original, so as to put his own spin on the design.
How Many Wobbulators are in Your Lab?
We love how [Sam] starts off testing with a motor that’s anchored, not by duct tape, but by the
roll
of duct tape (he later tidies that up a bit). And near the end, don’t miss when he pulls out six (that we can count) 1960s-era B&K
wobbulators
and uses them to drive the fader in period-suitable style — as one does. Thanks to [Taper] for the tip. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336521",
"author": "Taper Wickel",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T08:10:31",
"content": "Woo, first time I’ve had a tip published.My favorite filip Sam’s done with the design on this is the normalization on the input jacks. Were they each wired in separately, you’d need to provide sixtee... | 1,760,373,134.155392 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/off-the-shelf-parts-make-a-tidy-heater-for-resin-printer/ | Off-The-Shelf Parts Make A Tidy Heater For Resin Printer | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3D resin printer",
"heater",
"resin 3d printer",
"resin heater",
"resin printer",
"w1209"
] | Resin printers can offer excellent surface finish and higher detail than other 3D printing technologies, but they come with their own set of drawbacks. One is that they’re quite sensitive to temperature, generally requiring the resin chamber to be heated to 25-30 degrees Celsius for good performance. To help maintain a stable temperature without a lot of mucking around, [Grant] put together
a simple chamber heater
for his printer at home.
Rather than go for a custom build from scratch with a microcontroller, [Grant] was well aware that off-the-shelf solutions could easily do the job. Thus, a W1209 temperature control board was selected, available for under $5 online. Hooked up to a thermocouple, it can switch heating elements via its onboard relay to maintain the set temperature desired. In this case, [Grant] chose a set of positive-temperature coefficient heating elements to do the job, installing them around the resin chamber for efficiency.
The heater can preheat the chamber in under fifteen minutes, much quicker than other solutions using space heaters or heat mats. The time savings will be much appreciated by [Grant], we’re sure, along with the attendant increase in print quality. If you’re still not sure if resin printing is for you,
have a read of our primer.
And, if you’ve got your own workflow improvements for resin printing,
drop us a line! | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336443",
"author": "philosiraptor117",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T21:51:00",
"content": "eh, id like someone to make a drop in device to keep resin from having its pigments dropping out of suspension whilst stored in the tray, just had some sirya tech resin poop its pigment all over ... | 1,760,373,134.288854 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/flashpen-is-a-high-fidelity-pen-input-device/ | Flashpen Is A High Fidelity Pen Input Device | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"hid",
"human interface device",
"input device",
"pen",
"Pen computing",
"pen input",
"pen input device"
] | Pen input has never really taken off in the computing mainstream, though it’s had somewhat of a renaissance in the last decade or so. Various smartphones and tablets are shipping with the technology, and some diehard users swear by it as the best way to take notes on the go. Recently, researchers at the Sensing, Interaction and Perception Lab at ETH Zurich have been working on Flashpen,
a high-fidelity pen interface for a wide range of applications.
The fundamental technology behind the pen is simple, with the device using an optical flow sensor harvested from a high-end gaming mouse. This is a device that uses an image sensor to detect the motion of the sensor itself across a surface. Working at an update rate of 8 KHz, it eclipses other devices in the market from manufacturers such as Wacom that typically operate at rates closer to 200Hz. The optical sensor is mounted to a plastic joint that allows the user to hold the pen at a natural angle while keeping the sensor parallel to the writing surface. There’s also a reflective sensor on the pen tip which allows cameras to track its position in space, for use in combination with VR technology.
The team show off the device being used in several ways, primarily in VR tasks, but also in simple handwriting and coloring work. It’s a project that could readily be replicated by any eager experimenter by gutting a gaming mouse and getting down to work;
our writers will expect six of your submissions by June 1st to the tipsline.
Those eager to learn more can check out
the project paper
, and may also find
the team’s TapID technology interesting.
Video after the break. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336400",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T18:54:46",
"content": "” It’s a project that could readily be replicated by any eager experimenter by gutting a gaming mouse and getting down to work; our writers will expect six of your submissions by June 1st to the tipsline... | 1,760,373,134.247233 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/nfts-are-the-hope-for-a-new-tomorrow/ | NFTs Are The Hope For A New Tomorrow! | Jenny List | [
"Fiction",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"april fools",
"blockchain",
"crypto",
"NFT"
] | Here at Hackaday, we’re always working as hard as we can to bring you the latest and most exciting technologies, and like so many people we’ve become convinced that the possibilities offered by the rise of the Blockchain present unrivaled opportunities for humanity to reinvent itself unfettered by the stifling regulations of a dying system. This is why today
we’ve decided to join in with the digital cognoscenti and celebrities embracing Non-Fungible Tokens
, or NFTs, as a new promise of non-corporeal digital investment cryptoasset that’s taking the world by storm.
Crypto Non-Fungible Investment Gains!
Imagine for a minute, yourself owning a very expensive car. Skievl,
CC BY-SA 4.0
.
An NFT is a digital token representing something in the real world, and coupled to a unique ID held in a secure entry in the Blockchain. It’s non-fungible, which means that it’s unique and not interchangeable in the manner of a traditional old-style cryptoasset such as Bitcoin. As it allows a real-world object to be tokenised in digital form it represents a way to own something that provides an irrefutable connection to it as as a digital cryptoasset.
It’s a complex system that’s maybe too difficult to explain fully in a single article, but think of an NFT as a way to invest in a cryptoasset in digital form with its uniqueness guaranteed by Blockchain security, without having the inconvenience of physically owning it. Instead your NFT is safely held on a server on the Internet, and can’t be physically stolen as it would from a bank vault because it has the Blockchain cryptosecurity baked in.
Non Fungible Blockchain Cryptoassets!
You don’t own this. Yet.
NFTs have so far found a space in the creative markets, where they have provided a revolutionary opportunity for artists to expand their sales in the digital realm by selling NFTs of their work. A struggling artist can now access buyers all over the world, who can in turn now invest with confidence in creative talent to which they would never otherwise be exposed. It’s a win-win situation in which both cryptoinvestor and artist benefit from
The Power of the Blockchain
.
Hackaday is excited to offer a once-in-a-lifetime chance to acquire a Blockchain-cryptosecured NFT representing one of our own articles;
our first ever NFT
is the only officially sanctioned digital copy of a Hackaday article presenting a novel method of
handling toilet paper shortages
. The original article will continue to exist on Hackaday.com with all rights reserved, but we will not make any other NFTs of it. We may also decide to update the original article to let everyone know you are the lucky owner of the only digital copy of this piece of greatness. That’s right, this NFT will let you prove you own a screenshot!
Having today sold you on the incredible cryptoinvestment opportunity offered by NFTs, we’ll be back on another date with a more sober and in-depth technical examination of the technology behind them. Meanwhile should our brief foray into NFTs garner any interest (and we really hope it does not), we will donate proceeds to the excellent
Girls Who Code
, a truly solid investment with a tangible bright future.
Thanks [Micah Scott] for some NFT consultancy during the making of this piece. | 54 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336345",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T17:02:55",
"content": "Well, I guess the joke is on us today. If you for some reason wanted to bid on our NFT you may have noticed there is no way to actually do that. We lined up this gem of an article well in advance, but... | 1,760,373,134.387325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/extinguish-squeaks-24-7-with-refillable-wd-40/ | Extinguish Squeaks 24/7 With Refillable WD-40 | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"fire extinguisher",
"lubricant",
"lubricants",
"Schrader valve",
"tire valve",
"WD-40"
] | It’s 10:34PM and you’ve just run out of water displacement formula #40. You could wait until tomorrow to get a new can, or you could spend the rest of the night
turning an old, empty fire extinguisher into a refillable and re-pressurizable WD-40 dispenser
like [liquidhandwash] did. The part count is pretty low, but it’s awfully specific.
And the emphasis is on empty extinguisher. Part of the deal involves twisting the gauge off, and we wouldn’t want you to get blasted in the face with any last gasps of high-powered firefighting foam. In order to make the thing re-pressurizable, [liquidhandwash] stripped all the rubber from a tire valve and removed the core temporarily so it could be soldered into the fitting where the gauge was. The handy hose is from a large can of WD-40, which is also where the label came from — since it’s no longer a fire extinguisher, it needs to stop bearing resemblance to one, so [liquidhandwash] removed the sticker, painted it blue, and glued the cut-open can to the outside.
To use it, [liquidhandwash] fills it up about halfway and then pressurizes it through the tire valve with a bike pump or compressor. (We think we’d go with bike pump.) Since [liquidhandwash] goes through so much lubricant, now, they can just buy it by the gallon and keep refilling the extinguisher.
Is WD-40 your everything hammer?
Variety is the spice of shop life
. | 43 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336302",
"author": "CH",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T15:39:10",
"content": "Funny how the wd-40 spray bottles are $12 a piece, and a gallon of the product is only a couple dollars more…. And at least around me, you cannot find the nicely labeled spray bottle available in retail stores... | 1,760,373,134.464288 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/spinning-up-a-water-cooled-3d-printed-stirling-engine/ | Spinning Up A Water Cooled 3D Printed Stirling Engine | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed parts",
"heat engine",
"stirling engine",
"water cooled"
] | The Stirling external combustion engine has fascinated gear heads since its inception, and while the technology has never enjoyed widespread commercialization, there’s a vibrant community of tinkerers who build and test their own takes on the idea. [Leo Fernekes] has been working on a small Stirling engine made from 3D printed parts and common hardware components, and
in his latest video he walks viewers through the design and testing process
.
We’ve seen Stirling engines with 3D printed parts before, but in most cases, they are just structural components. This time, [Leo] really wanted to push what could be done with plastic parts, so everything from the water jacket for the cold side of the cylinder to the gears and connecting rods of the rhombic drive has been printed. Beyond the bearings and rods, the most notable non-printed component is the stainless steel spice shaker that’s being used as the cylinder.
The piston is made of constrained steel wool.
Mating the hot metal cylinder to the 3D printed parts naturally introduced some problems. The solution [Leo] came up with was to design a toothed collar to hold the cylinder, which reduces the surface area that’s in direct contact. He then used a piece of empty SMD component feed tape as a insulator between the two components, and covered the whole joint in high-temperature silicone.
Like many homebrew Stirling engines, this one isn’t perfect. It vibrates too much, some of the internal components have a tendency to melt during extended runs, and in general, it needs some fine tuning. But it runs, and in the end, that’s really the most important thing with a project like this. Improvements will come with time, especially once [Leo] finishes building the dynamometer he hopes will give him some solid data on how the engine’s overall performance is impacted as he makes changes.
If you’ve got a glass test tube laying around,
putting together a basic Stirling engine demonstration
is probably a lot easier than you might think. Commercial kits are also available if you’re looking for something more substantial,
but even those can benefit from some aftermarket modifications
. With a little effort, you’ll have
a power plant ready for the surface of Mars in no time
.
[Thanks to Baldpower for the tip.] | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336010",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T19:22:34",
"content": "“External ‘combustion'” engine?!?!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6336013",
"author": "Jacob W Hildebrandt",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T19... | 1,760,373,134.51114 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/direct-memory-access-data-transfer-without-micro-management/ | Direct Memory Access: Data Transfer Without Micro-Management | Maya Posch | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"hardware",
"Microcontrollers",
"Software Development"
] | [
"dma",
"hardware",
"microcontrollers",
"microprocessors"
] | In the most simple computer system architecture, all control lies with the CPU (Central Processing Unit). This means not only the execution of commands that affect the CPU’s internal register or cache state, but also the transferring of any bytes from memory to to devices, such as storage and interfaces like serial, USB or Ethernet ports. This approach is called ‘Programmed Input/Output’, or
PIO
, and was used extensively into the early 1990s for for example
PATA
storage devices, including ATA-1, ATA-2 and CompactFlash.
Obviously, if the CPU has to handle each memory transfer, this begins to impact system performance significantly. For each memory transfer request, the CPU has to interrupt other work it was doing, set up the transfer and execute it, and restore its previous state before it can continue. As storage and external interfaces began to get faster and faster, this became less acceptable. Instead of PIO taking up a few percent of the CPU’s cycles, a big transfer could take up most cycles, making the system grind to a halt until the transfer completed.
DMA
(Direct Memory Access) frees the CPU from these menial tasks. With DMA, peripheral devices do not have to ask the CPU to fetch some data for them, but can do it themselves. Unfortunately, this means multiple systems vying for the same memory pool’s content, which can cause problems. So let’s look at how DMA works, with an eye to figuring out how it can work for us.
Hardware Memcpy
At the core of DMA is the DMA controller: its sole function is to set up data transfers between I/O devices and memory. In essence it functions like the
memcpy
function we all know and love from C. This function takes three parameters: a destination, a source and how many bytes to copy from the source to the destination.
Take for example the
Intel 8237
: this is the DMA controller from the Intel
MCS 85
microprocessor family. It features four DMA channels (DREQ0 through DREQ3) and was famously used in the IBM PC and PC XT. By chaining multiple 8237 ICs one can increase the number of DMA channels, as was the case in the IBM PC AT system architecture. The
8237 datasheet
shows what a basic (single) 8237 IC integration in an 8080-level system looks like:
In a simple request, the DMA controller asks the CPU to relinquish control over the system buses (address, data and control) by pulling HRQ high. Once granted, the CPU will respond on the HLDA pin, at which point the outstanding DMA requests (via the DREQx inputs) will be handled. The DMA controller ensures that after holding the bus for one cycle, the CPU gets to use the bus every other cycle, so as to not congest the bus with potentially long-running requests.
The 8237 DMA controller supports single byte transfers, as well as block transfers. A demand mode also allows for continuous transfers. This allowed for DMA transfers on the PC/PC AT bus (‘ISA’).
Fast-forward a few decades, and the DMA controller in the STM32 F7 family of Cortex-M-based microcontrollers is both very similar, but also very different. This MCU features not just one DMA controller, but two (DMA1, DMA2), each of which is connected to the internal system buses, as described in the STM32F7 reference manual (RM0385).
In this DMA controller the concept of streams is introduced, where each of the eight streams supports eight channels. This allows for multiple devices to connect to each DMA controller. In this system implementation, only DMA2 can perform memory-to-memory transfers, as only it is connected to the memory (via the bus matrix) on both of its AHB interfaces.
As with the Intel 8237 DMA controller, each channel is connected to a specific I/O device, giving it the ability to set up a DMA request. This is usually done by sending instructions to the device in question, such as setting bits in a register, or using a higher-level interface, or as part of the device or peripheral’s protocol. Within a stream, however, only one channel can be active at any given time.
Unlike the more basic 8237, however, this type of DMA controller can also use a FIFO buffer for features such as changing the transfer width (byte, word, etc.) if this differs between the source and destination.
When it comes to having multiple DMA controllers in a system, some kind of priority system always ensures that there’s a logical order. For channels, either the channel number determines the priority (as with the 8237), or it can be set in the DMA controller’s registers (as with the STM32F7). Multiple DMA controllers can be placed in a hierarchy that ensures order. For the 8237 this is done by having the cascaded 8237s each use a DREQx and DACKx pin on the master controller.
Snooping the bus
Keeping cache data synchronized is essential.
So far this all seems fairly simple and straight-forward: simply hand the DMA request over to the DMA controller and have it work its magic while the CPU goes off to do something more productive than copying over bytes. Unfortunately, there is a big catch here in the form of
cache coherence
.
As CPUs have gained more and more
caches
for instructions and data, ranging from the basic level 1 (L1) cache, to the more recent L2, L3, and even L4 caches, keeping the data in those caches synchronized with the data in main memory has become an essential feature.
In a single-core, single processor system this seems easy: you fetch data from system RAM, keep it hanging around in the cache and write it back to system RAM once the next glacially slow access cycle for that spot in system RAM opens up again. Add a second core to the CPU, with its own L1 and possibly L2 cache, and suddenly you have to keep those two caches synchronized, lest any multi-threaded software begins to return some really interesting results.
Now add DMA to this mixture, and you get a situation where not just the data in the caches can change, but the data in system RAM can also change, all without the CPU being aware. To prevent CPUs from using outdated data in their caches instead of using the updated data in RAM or a neighboring cache, a feature called
bus snooping
was introduced.
What this essentially does is keeping track of what memory addresses are in a cache, while monitoring any write requests to RAM or CPU caches and either updating all copies or marking those copies as invalid. Depending on the specific system architecture this can be done fully in hardware, or a combination of hardware and software.
Only the Beginning
It should be clear at this point that every DMA implementation is different, depending on the system it was designed for and the needs it seeks to fulfill. While an IBM PC’s DMA controller and the one in an ARM-based MCU are rather similar in their basic design and don’t stray that far apart in terms of total feature set, the DMA controllers which can be found in today’s desktop computers as well as server systems are a whole other ballgame.
Instead of dealing with a 100 Mbit Ethernet connection, or USB 2.0 Fast Speed’s blistering 12 Mbit, DMA controllers in server systems are forced to contend with 40 Gbit and faster Ethernet links, countless lanes of fast-clocked PCIe 4.0-based NVMe storage and much more. None of which should be bothering the CPU overly much if it all possible.
In the desktop space, the continuing push towards more performance, in especially gaming has led to an interesting new chapter in DMA, in the form of storage-to-device requests, e.g. in the form of NVidia’s
RTX IO technology
. RTX IO itself is based on Microsoft’s
DirectStorage API
. What RTX IO does is allow the GPU to handle as many of the communication requests to storage and decompressing of assets without involving the CPU. This saves the steps of copying data from storage into system RAM, decompressing it with the CPU and then writing the data again to the GPU’s RAM.
Attack of the DMA
Any good and useful feature of course has to come with a few trade-offs, and for DMA that can be mostly found in things like
DMA attacks
. These make use of the fact that DMA bypasses a lot of security with its ability to directly write to system memory. The OS normally protects against accessing sensitive parts of the memory space, but DMA bypasses the OS, rendering such protections useless.
The good news here is that in order to make use of a DMA attack, an attacker has to gain physical access to an I/O port on the device which uses DMA. The bad news is that any mitigations are unlikely to have any real impact without compromising the very thing that makes DMA such an essential feature of modern computers.
Although USB (unlike FireWire) does not natively use DMA, the addition of PCIe lanes to USB-C connectors (with Thunderbolt 3/USB 4) means that a DMA attack via a USB-C port could be
a real possibility
.
Wrapping Up
As we have seen over the past decades, having specialized hardware is highly desirable for certain tasks. Those of us who had to suffer through home computers which had to drop rendering to the screen while spending all CPU cycles on obtaining data from a floppy disk or similar surely have learned to enjoy the benefits that a DMA-filled world with dedicated co-processors has brought us.
Even so, there are certain security risks that come with the use of DMA. In how far they are a concern depends on the application, circumstances and mitigation measures. Much like the humble
memcpy()
function, DMA is a very powerful tool that can be used for great good or great evil, depending on how it is used. Even as we have to celebrate its existence, it’s worth it to consider its security impact in any new system. | 16 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335987",
"author": "retiredJan",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T17:28:30",
"content": "Nice writeup, learned something as i was only familiar with the 8237 (from the PC-XT era where the dma also was used for DRAM refresh (in stead of a dedicated dram-controller).",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,373,134.570417 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/scanimate-analog-video-synths-produced-oceans-of-motion-graphics/ | Scanimate Analog Video Synths Produced Oceans Of Motion Graphics | Kristina Panos | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"analog motion graphics",
"analog video",
"scanimate",
"vaporwave"
] | Why doesn’t this kind of stuff ever happen to us? One lucky day back in high school, [Dave Sieg] stumbled upon a room full of new equipment and a guy standing there scratching his head. [Dave]’s curiosity about this fledgling television studio was rewarded when that guy asked [Dave] if he wanted to help set it up. From that point on, [Dave] had the video bug. The rest is analog television history.
Today, [Dave] is the proud owner and maintainer of two
Scanimate
machines — the first R&D prototype, and the last one of only eight ever produced. The Scanimate is essentially an
analog synthesizer for video signals
, and they made it possible to move words and pictures around on a screen much more easily than ever before. Any animated logo or graphics seen on TV from the mid-1970s to the mid-80s was likely done with one of these huge machines, and we would jump quite high at the chance to fiddle with one of them.
Analog television signals were continuously variable, and much like an analog music synthesizer, the changes imposed on the signal are immediately discernible. In the first video below, [Dave] introduces the Scanimate and plays around with the Viceland logo a bit.
Stick around for the second and third videos where he superimposes the Scanimate’s output on to the video he’s making, all the while twiddling knobs to add oscillators and thoroughly explaining what’s going on. If you’ve ever played around with Lissajous patterns on an oscilloscope, you’ll really have a feel for what’s happening here. In the fourth video, [Dave] dives deeper and dissects the analog circuits that make up this fantastic piece of equipment.
Here’s another way to play with scan lines:
delay the output to some of them and you have a simple scrambler
.
Thanks for the tip, [morgan]! | 21 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335940",
"author": "carpetbomberz",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T15:52:46",
"content": "Back then there was no other choice than to use analog means to achieve these ends. Is wasn’t until 1981 before a Quantel product could start to do a “few” minor things the Scanimate had already bee... | 1,760,373,134.692836 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/the-difference-between-4wd-and-awd/ | The Difference Between 4WD And AWD | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks",
"Featured",
"Original Art"
] | [
"4wd",
"all wheel drive",
"awd",
"car",
"car hacks",
"cars",
"four wheel drive",
"offroad",
"offroading"
] | Car manufacturers will often tout a vehicle’s features to appeal to the market, and this often leads to advertisements featuring a cacophony of acronyms and buzzwords to dazzle and confuse the prospective buyer. This can be particularly obvious when looking at drivelines. The terms four-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, and full-time and part-time are bandied about, but what do they actually mean? Are they all the same, meaning all wheels are driven or is there more to it? Let’s dive into the technology and find out.
Part-Time 4WD
Part-time four-wheel drive is the simplest system, most commonly found on older off-road vehicles like Jeeps, Land Cruisers and Land Rovers up to the early 1990s, as well as pickup trucks and other heavy duty applications. In these vehicles, the engine sends its power to a transfer case, which sends an equal amount of torque to the front and rear differentials, and essentially ties their input shafts together. This is good for slippery off-road situations, as some torque is provided to both axles at all times. However, this system has the drawback that it can’t be driven in four-wheel drive mode at all times. With the front and rear differentials rotating together, any difference in rotational speed between the front and rear wheels — such as from turning a corner or uneven tyre wear — would cause a problem. The drive shaft going to one differential would want to turn further than the other, a problem known as
wind-up.
Part-time 4WD systems are often found in older off-road vehicles and trucks, such as the Suzuki Samurai, early Land Crusiers, and Jeeps.
Wind-up causes transfer case components to snap or break. Thus, these systems should only be driven in four-wheel drive mode on loose surfaces, where tyres can slip a little to avoid wind-up in the drive train. Hence, they are called
part-time four wheel drive
systems, as the transfer case can be shifted to 2WD mode, sending power to just one axle for driving on sealed roads. This avoids the wind-up problem, but means that these systems only really add traction when engaged off-road on dirt, sand, or snow.
These systems also often incorporate a “low-range” gear in the transfer case, which gears down the drive ratio to the wheels, allowing much greater torque to be generated at the tyre and the vehicle to be driven more slowly. This is of major benefit in low-traction situations and when trying to slowly negotiate complex trails full of obstacles and ruts.
All-Wheel Drive, or Full-Time 4WD
Obviously, in some situations, it’s desired to drive all four wheels of the vehicle even on high-traction, sealed surfaces. Thus, a solution to get around the problem of driveline wind-up is to install a third differential in a vehicle, in between the front and rear axles, in place of the transfer case. This center differential can allow for rotational speed differences between the front and rear axles, thus making it possible to drive all four wheels even on paved roads.
AWD is more typically found in more car-like vehicles, as well as more modern off-road vehicles. In the latter application, center differential locks or limited-slip differentials are used to ensure good off-road performance.
However, this comes with the drawback that the system can only deliver as much torque to one axle as is given to the other, due to the way differentials work. Thus, for example, if the front wheels are slipping, the rear axle will only receive as much torque as the front, and thus the vehicle will not be able to gain traction.
A variety of solutions are used to get around this problem. Off-road vehicles such as modern Land Cruisers and Range Rovers will have a switchable lock in the center differential, allowing equal torque to be sent to both ends when necessary. Alternatively, any one of a variety of limited-slip differentials can be installed in the center differential location, allowing a variable torque split depending on conditions. These systems are less capable offroad, but are less fuss for typical driving conditions. They are most commonly installed in cars intended for use on-road, but in occasional slippery conditions such as snow and ice. They’re also used in performance cars that drive all four wheels to put down power as effectively as possible for faster acceleration and better grip.
Front-Wheel Drive Based Systems
The other type of popular all-wheel drive system are the front-wheel drive based systems, most notably the Haldex type used in many smaller cars. These are installed most commonly in performance hatchbacks from brands like Volkswagen, Audi, and Mercedes. The systems work by
having a typical front-wheel drive engine and transmission layout, with an extra drive shaft
that goes to a special coupling which is then connected to the rear differential. Under normal conditions, the coupling, containing clutch packs, stays open, sending no torque to the rear wheels. However, under conditions where the front wheels start to slip and spin faster than the rears, the clutch pack is progressively engaged, sending up to 50% of torque to the rear wheels. The clutch pack is designed to operate at various levels of slip, allowing a variable amount of torque to be sent to the rear, usually anywhere from 100:0 front to back to a full 50:50 split. The Haldex system is often mocked and referred to as “faux-wheel drive”, as it only engages under such conditions.
However, it is possible to engage the system manually using hacked controllers.
Haldex AWD is most commonly found on performance hatchbacks, though the technology is also used on mid-engined supercars, too.
These systems are also used in rear-wheel drive based applications — such as the Bugatti Veyron and Lamborghini Aventador. The concept is the same, but as these vehicles are mid-engined, the coupling is instead installed on the front axle, with the rear axle getting the majority of the torque under most conditions.
Conclusion
Automotive marketing will always rely on buzzwords because it’s simply not practical to explain the mechanical specifics of a given vehicle’s driveline in a 30-second ad. However, armed with this knowledge, you should now be confident to shop for a vehicle that meets your needs based on what it’s got under the frame, not just on whatever fancy words are emblazoned on the badging. Be particularly wary of manufacturers that twist widely-accepted naming conventions to trick unknowing customers, and look at the components installed on the vehicle rather than the marketing terms to get a full understanding of how a given car will perform. Once you know what you’re looking for, you’ll be all the more ready to make the right decision! | 102 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335901",
"author": "wizardpc",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T14:37:22",
"content": "Certain Jeep (and maybe Dodge) models had mechanical transfer cases that allowed you to select Rear-wheel drive, Part Time 4WD Low, Part Time 4WD High, and Full Time 4WD. The NP242, for example, could be... | 1,760,373,134.856633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/web-tool-cranks-up-the-power-on-djis-fpv-drone/ | Web Tool Cranks Up The Power On DJI’s FPV Drone | Tom Nardi | [
"drone hacks",
"Radio Hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"DJI",
"drone",
"radio",
"uav",
"unlock",
"Web Serial API"
] | Apparently, if the GPS on your shiny new DJI FPV Drone detects that it’s not in the United States, it will turn down its transmitter power so as not to run afoul of the more restrictive radio limits elsewhere around the globe. So while all the countries that have put boots on the Moon get to enjoy the full 1,412 mW of power the hardware is capable of, the drone’s software limits everyone else to a paltry 25 mW. As you can imagine, that leads to a considerable performance penalty in terms of range.
But not anymore. A web-based tool called B3YOND
promises to reinstate the full power of your DJI FPV Drone
no matter where you live by tricking it into believing it’s in the USA. Developed by the team at [D3VL], the unlocking tool uses the new Web Serial API to send the appropriate “FCC Mode” command to the drone’s FPV goggles over USB. Everything is automated, so this hack is available to anyone who’s running a recent version of Chrome or Edge and can click a button a few times.
There’s no source code available yet, though the page does mention they will be putting up a GitHub repository soon. In the meantime, [D3VL] have documented the command packet that needs to be sent to the drone over its MODBUS-like serial protocol for others who might want to roll their own solution. There’s currently an offline Windows-only tool up for download as well, and it sounds like stand-alone versions for Mac and Android are also in the works.
It should probably go without saying that if you need to use this tool, you’ll potentially be violating some laws. In many European countries, 25 mW is the maximum unlicensed transmitter power allowed for UAVs, so that’s certainly something to keep in mind before you flip the switch. Hackaday isn’t in the business of dispensing legal advice, but that said, we wouldn’t want to be caught transmitting at nearly 60 times the legal limit.
Even if you’re not interested in fiddling with drone radios, it’s interesting to see another practical application of the Web Serial API.
From impromptu oscilloscopes
to
communicating with development boards and conference badges
, clever developers are already finding ways to make hardware hacking easier with this new capability.
[Thanks to Jules for the tip.] | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335879",
"author": "Tim McNerney",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T13:12:15",
"content": "Radio spectrum is a precious shared resource. Even perfectly legal radio devices can cause problems for other radio devices (e.g. as more people install home WiFi routers, neighborhood WiFi gets wors... | 1,760,373,135.132139 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/boston-dynamics-stretch-robot-trades-lab-coat-for-work-uniform/ | Boston Dynamics Stretch Robot Trades Lab Coat For Work Uniform | Roger Cheng | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"boston dynamics",
"box",
"boxes",
"cardboard box",
"depth perception",
"manipulator",
"motion planning",
"Robot manipulator",
"warehouse"
] | Boston Dynamics has always built robots with agility few others could match. While great for attention-getting demos, from outside the company it hasn’t been clear how they’ll translate acrobatic skills into revenue. Now we’re getting a peek at a plan in
an interview with IEEE Spectrum
about their new robot Stretch.
Most Boston Dynamics robots have been research projects, too expensive and not designed for mass production. The closest we got to date was Spot, which was
offered for sale
and picked up a few high profile jobs like
inspecting SpaceX test sites
. But Spot was still pretty experimental without an explicit application. In contrast, Stretch has a laser-sharp focus made clear by
its official product page
: this robot will be looking for warehouse jobs. Specifically, Stretch is designed to handle boxes up to 50 lbs (23 kg). Loading and unloading them, to and from pallets, conveyer belts, trucks, or shipping containers. These jobs are repetitive and tedious back-breaking work with a high injury rate, a perfect opportunity for robots.
But warehouse logistics aren’t as tightly structured as factory automation, demanding more adaptability than typical industrial robots can offer. A niche Boston Dynamics learned it can fill after releasing an earlier demo video showing their research robot Atlas moving some boxes around: they started receiving inquiries into how much that would cost. Atlas is not a product, but wheels were set in motion leading to
their Handle
robot. Learning from what Handle did well (and not well) in a warehouse environment, the designed evolved to today’s Stretch. The ostrich-like Handle prototype is now relegated to further
research into wheeled-legged robots
and the occasional
fun dance video
.
The Stretch preproduction prototypes visible in these videos lacks acrobatic flair of its predecessors, but they still have the perception and planning smarts that made those robots possible. Those skills are just being applied to a narrower problem scope. Once production models are on the job, we look forward to reading some work performance reviews.
[via
Ars Technica
] | 30 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335853",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T10:46:07",
"content": "Welp, there goes my job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6335858",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T11:14:41",
"co... | 1,760,373,134.972358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/sawblade-turned-beyblade-looks-painful-to-tangle-with/ | Sawblade Turned Beyblade Looks Painful To Tangle With | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"beyblade",
"saw blade",
"sawblade"
] | Beyblades were a huge craze quite some years back. Children battled with spinning tops in small plastic arenas, or, if their local toy stores were poorly merchandised, in salad bowls and old pie dishes. The toys were safe enough, despite their destructive ethos, by virtue of being relatively small and lightweight.
This “Beyblade” from [i did a thing] is anything but, however.
The build begins with a circular saw blade over 1 foot in diameter, replete with many angry cutting teeth that alone portend danger for any individual unlucky enough to cross its path. Saw blades tend to cut slowly and surely however, so to allow the illicit Bey to deal more traumatic blows, a pair of steel scraps are welded on to deliver striking blows as well. This has the added benefit of adding more mass to the outside of the ‘blade, increasing the energy stored as it spins.
With the terrifying contraption spun up to great RPM by a chainsaw reeling in string, it’s able to demolish cheap wood and bone with little resistance. Shrapnel is thrown in many directions as the spinner attacks various objects, from a melon to an old CRT TV. We’d love to see the concept taken further, with an even deadlier design spun up to even higher speeds, ideally with a different tip that creates a more aggressive motion across the floor.
As aggressive as this saw blade looks in action, not all are so scary.
Even paper can do the job under the right conditions
. Video after the break. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335830",
"author": "irox",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T07:02:55",
"content": "Well, that looks fun and entertaining. I’ll be on the lookout for semi-abandoned drug dealers’ houses in my neighborhood.Perhaps welding a little nub off center on the end of the contact point would get it ... | 1,760,373,134.905913 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/hackaday-forced-into-light-mode/ | Hackaday Forced Into Light Mode | Elliot Williams | [
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"april fools",
"CSSFTW",
"dark mode",
"light mode"
] | Hackaday has always been dark mode.
Gray10
is less jarring when you’re burning the midnight oil on a project, so we give you a lot of it. Fifteen years ago, it was called “reverse video” or “
trog mode
“, and we were the freaks. We were doing it wrong. We had the colors “backwards”. Dark mode used to be edgy, outré, but dare we say it, a bit sexy.
Hackaday … QuickBooks. Just sayin’.
They even ripped our highlight yellow!
Flash forward, and everyone has come over to the dark side. Facebook has a dark mode. Google has dark mode. Across the Microsoft empire, from Windows 10 to GitHub, you can live your life in the dark. Heck, even the
White
House
has a dark mode! (They call it high-contrast mode, but they’re not fooling anyone.)
Dark mode here, dark mode there. It’s mainstream. Dark mode has become
corporate cool
which is nobody’s idea of cool.
We’re not saying that all of the aforementioned institutions are biting the Hackaday style, but, well, they’re all biting our style. Where were they when we were the only website on the whole darn Internet with a sensible background color? Huh? Dark-mode-come-latelys!
But Hackaday doesn’t rest on its laurels. We have our fingers on the pulse on the modern hacker. Where previously you would be up late at night researching Hackaday for juicy nuggets of communal wisdom to help out with your current hack, you’re probably “telecommuting” these days — a euphemism for working on your private projects even while the fiery ball is still in the sky. (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) It’s only natural that you’d want a lighter background color to match your new lifestyle. We hear you!
So we present you, Hackaday Light Mode™. Enjoy!
[Editor’s note: For historical accuracy, we had phosphor green headings in the very beginning, in place of the jarring white. If you want to relive those glory days of yore, or just to go back to Hackaday in dark mode,
there’s always CSS scripting
.] | 95 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336248",
"author": "Sloof Lirpa",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T14:06:26",
"content": "I see the light!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6336276",
"author": "Thinkerer",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T14:45:35",
"... | 1,760,373,135.263174 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/mining-bitcoin-on-the-nintendo-game-boy/ | Mining Bitcoin On The Nintendo Game Boy | Lewin Day | [
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"bitcoin",
"game boy",
"gameboy",
"nintendo",
"Nintendo Game Boy",
"nintendo gameboy"
] | Mining cryptocurrency is a power intensive business, with big operations hoarding ASIC rigs and high-end GPUs in an endless quest for
world domination
money.
The Bitcoin-mining Game Boy from [stacksmashing] is one of them.
(Video, embedded below.)
The hack is relatively straightforward. The Game Boy is hooked up to a PC via a Raspberry Pi Pico and a level shifter to handle the different voltage levels. The Game Boy runs custom software off a flash cart, which runs the SHA hash algorithm on incoming data from the PC and reports results back to the PC which communicates with the Bitcoin network.
[stacksmashing] does a great job of explaining the project, covering everything from the Game Boy’s link port protocol to the finer points of the Bitcoin algorithm in explicit detail. For the technically experienced, everything you need to know to recreate the project is there. While the Game Boy manages just 0.8 hashes per second, trillions of times slower than cutting edge hardware, the project nonetheless is amusing and educational, so take that into consideration before firing off hot takes in the comments below. If you’re really interested in the underlying maths,
you can try crunching Bitcoin hashes with pen and paper
.
[Thanks to Stephan for the tip!] | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336227",
"author": "CodeMonkey",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T12:19:06",
"content": "You can do that with a 555 ;-P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6336361",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T17:30:37",... | 1,760,373,135.334315 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/04/01/jit-vs-am-is-additive-manufacturing-the-cure-to-fragile-supply-chains/ | JIT Vs. AM: Is Additive Manufacturing The Cure To Fragile Supply Chains? | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"News",
"Rants"
] | [
"3d printing",
"Additive",
"JIT",
"just in time",
"logistics",
"manufacturing",
"shipping",
"Suez",
"supply chain"
] | As fascinating and frustrating as it was to watch the recent Suez canal debacle, we did so knowing that the fallout from it and the analysis of its impact would be far more interesting. Which is why
this piece on the potential of additive manufacturing to mitigate supply chain risks
caught our eye.
We have to admit that a first glance at the article, by [Davide Sher], tripped our nonsense detector pretty hard. After all, the piece appeared in 3D Printing Media Network, a trade publication that has a vested interest in boosting the additive manufacturing (AM) industry. We were also pretty convinced going in that, while 3D-printing is innovative and powerful, even using industrial printers it wouldn’t be able to scale up enough for print parts in the volumes needed for modern consumer products. How long would it take for even a factory full of 3D-printers to fill a container with parts that can be injection molded in their millions in China?
But as we read on, a lot of what [Davide] says makes sense. A container full of parts that doesn’t arrive exactly when they’re needed may as well never have been made, while parts that are either made on the factory floor using AM methods, or produced locally using a contract AM provider, could be worth their weight in gold. And he aptly points out the differences between this vision of on-demand manufacturing and today’s default of just-in-time manufacturing, which is extremely dependent on supply lines that we now know can be extremely fragile.
So, color us convinced, or at least persuaded. It will certainly be a while before all the economic fallout of the Suez blockage settles, and it’ll probably longer before we actually see changes meant to address the problems it revealed. But we would be surprised if this isn’t seen as an opportunity to retool some processes that have become so optimized that a gust of wind could take them down. | 46 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336161",
"author": "Rick",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T08:09:25",
"content": "One thing the 3D-printing fanboys constantly seem to ingore: Injection molding IS additive manufacturing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6336163",
... | 1,760,373,135.414094 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/haptic-feedback-for-fps-games-relies-on-opencv/ | Haptic Feedback For FPS Games Relies On OpenCV | Lewin Day | [
"Games"
] | [
"fps",
"haptic feedback",
"opencv"
] | PC gamers consider their platform superior for the sheer processing power that can be brought to bear, as well as the inherent customisability of their rigs. Where they’re let down perhaps is in the typical keyboard and mouse interface, which tends to eschew fancy features such as haptic feedback which have long been standard on consoles. Aiming to rectify this,
[Neutrino-1] put together a fancy haptic feedback system for FPS games.
The hack is quite elegant, using a Python app to scrape the GUI of FPS games for a health readout. The health numbers are gleaned using OpenCV to do optical character recognition, and the resulting data is sent to an ESP12E microcontroller over a USB serial connection. The ESP12E then controls a series of Neopixel LEDs and vibration motors, providing color and haptic feedback in response to the user’s health bar changing in game.
Using image recognition allows the system to be quickly reconfigured to work with different games, without the mess of having to learn different APIs for every different title. It’s a really fun way to quickly get a project interfacing with a piece of software that we’d love to see more of in future. It makes a nice complement to other hacks we’ve seen in this space,
like the gaming mouse with recoil feedback.
Video after the break. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336137",
"author": "Gonzotron5000",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T05:12:11",
"content": "Pc is tops because of the keyboard and mouse, the games that those controls enable, the creative freedom and limitless development of games. Not really “customization”. Sound like something dell or ... | 1,760,373,135.466347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/one-bit-cpu-runs-at-a-blistering-60hz/ | One Bit CPU Runs At A Blistering 60Hz | Al Williams | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"cpu",
"eeprom",
"MC14500",
"state machine"
] | If you really think hard about it, a CPU is just a very general-purpose state machine. Well, most CPUs are, anyway. The MC14500 is a one-bit computer that has only 16 instructions and was meant to serve in simple tasks where a big CPU wouldn’t work for space, power, or budget reasons. However, [Laughton] took the idea one step further and created
a single-bit computer
with no real instructions to control a printing press. The finished machine uses a clever format in an EEPROM to drive an endless program.
Honestly, we’d say this is more of a state machine, but we like the idea of it being a minimal CPU which is also true. The design uses the EEPROM in an odd way. Each CPU address really addresses a block of four bytes. The byte that gets processed depends on the current phase and the status of the one-bit flag register.
Each four-byte block has two sections. There are two instructions that read inputs and sets outputs. The first instruction executes if the flag register is false and the second executes if the flag register is true. All of the inputs and outputs are, of course, single bits. The second pair of bytes are two addresses for the next instruction. Again, the first instruction is for a false flag register and the second is for a true flag register.
The I/O is a bit peculiar. Each phase 1 instruction selects an input to store in the flag register and can set or clear one of 7 output bits. Of course, you might not want to write an output on each instruction, so there is an eighth bit that isn’t connected. Writing to it has no effect.
There’s no actual RAM memory, but the design loops back two output bits to the input bits so that you can store two bits and read them back later. Really, sort of an EEPROM-based
state machine
but still a fun idea. We’ve seen a few
MC14500
builds, too, if you want to find out more about what inspired this machine. | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336120",
"author": "BobbyMac99",
"timestamp": "2021-04-01T03:09:14",
"content": "Old 2716 trick used to be driving 7-segment displays by putting in the segment combinations at each address point and multiplexing the output. That of course was when they were plentiful. I still have... | 1,760,373,135.522631 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/scratch-built-co2-laser-tube-kicks-off-a-laser-cutter-build/ | Scratch-Built CO2 Laser Tube Kicks Off A Laser Cutter Build | Dan Maloney | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"carbon dioxide",
"cnc",
"co2",
"cutter",
"helium",
"high voltage",
"laser",
"nitrogen"
] | When we see a CO
2
laser cutter build around these parts, chances are pretty good that the focus will be on the mechatronics end, and that the actual laser will be purchased. So when we see
a laser cutter project that starts with scratch-building the laser tube
, we take notice.
[Cranktown City]’s build style is refreshingly informal, but there’s a lot going on with this build that’s worth looking at — although it’s perhaps best to ignore the sourcing of glass tubing by cutting the ends off of an old fluorescent tube; there’s no mention of what became of the mercury vapor or liquid therein, but we’ll just assume it was disposed of safely. We’ll further assume that stealing nitrogen for the lasing gas mix from car tires was just prank, but we did like the rough-and-ready volumetric method for estimating the gas mix.
The video below shows the whole process of building and testing the tube. Initial tests were disappointing, but with a lot of tweaking and the addition of a much bigger neon sign transformer to power the tube, the familiar bluish-purple plasma made an appearance. Further fiddling with the mirrors revealed the least little bit of laser output — nowhere near enough to start cutting, but certainly on the path to the ultimate goal of building a laser cutter.
We appreciate [Cranktown City]’s unique approach to his builds; you may recall his
abuse-powered drill bit index
that we recently covered. We’re interested to see where this laser build goes, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted. | 30 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336080",
"author": "Mark",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T23:23:46",
"content": "I was under the impression that the slightest trace of grease or dirt would cause the whole system to explode and/or catch fire.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,373,135.587099 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/31/classic-triumph-gets-a-modern-digital-dash/ | Classic Triumph Gets A Modern Digital Dash | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks"
] | [
"CAN",
"can-bus",
"canbus",
"digital gauge",
"digital gauges",
"gauge",
"gauge cluster",
"raspberry pi",
"triumph"
] | Analog gauges gave way to all manner of fancy electroluminescent and LED gauges in the ’80s, but the trend didn’t last long. It’s only in the last decade or so that LCD digital gauges have really started to take off in premium cars. [Josh] is putting a modern engine and drivetrain into his classic Triumph GT6, and realised that he’d have to scrap the classic mechanical gauge setup. After not falling in love with anything off the shelf,
he decided to whip up his own solution from scratch
.
The heart of the build is a Raspberry Pi 4, which interfaces with the car’s modern aftermarket ECU via CANBUS thanks to the PiCAN3 add-on board. Analog sensors, such as those for oil pressure and coolant temperature, are interfaced with a Teensy 4.0 microcontroller which has the analog to digital converters necessary to do the job. Display is via a 12.3″ super-wide LCD sourced off Aliexpress, with the graphics generated by custom PixiJS code running in Chromium under X.
The result is comparable with digital displays in many other modern automobiles, speaking to [Josh]’s abilities not just as a programmer but a graphic designer, too. As a bonus, if he gets sick of the design, it’s trivial to change the graphics without having to dig into the car’s actual hardware.
Gauge upgrades are common on restomod projects;
another route taken is to convert classical mechanical gauges to electronic drive
. If you’re cooking up your own sweet set of gauges in the garage,
be sure to drop us a line!
Video after the break. | 46 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336036",
"author": "rasz_pl",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T21:05:42",
"content": "> PixiJS code running in Chromium under Xso a minute before the dash boots?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6336039",
"author": "Josh",
... | 1,760,373,135.670822 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/high-end-case-mods-to-a-playstation-5/ | High-End Case Mods To A PlayStation 5 | Lewin Day | [
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"brass",
"PlayStation 5",
"ps5"
] | Modern consoles bring joy to televisions around the globe, but they’re fundamentally mass-produced totems to gaming excellence. That wasn’t good enough for [Matt], who decided that
his PlayStation 5 needed a total case makeover
. (Video, embedded below.)
The material of choice is brass. Capable of being polished to a mirror-like shine while being readily workable and available, it’s perfect for making a PlayStation 5 look just a little more
deluxe.
While [Matt] has worked with brass before, replicating the PS5’s case in the metal pushed him to learn new skills. The main center divider was easy enough, with paper used to create a cutting template to match the form which bends through 90 degrees. The real challenge, however, was the side panels. With complex curves across several axes, manually bending metal plates to match the shape proved impossible. Instead, a custom wooden and plaster jig was made, onto which brass plates could be clamped to match the curves. A blowtorch was then used to release the plate’s internal stresses in a process called normalisation.
[Matt] does a great job of making the whole thing look easy. With that said, the final results are stunning enough that we’re sure it would be difficult to replicate without a lot of experience and attention to detail. In particular, the deft way the side panel clips were dealt with had us nodding in sage approval. The final console makes a great companion for the brass-housed monitor
[Matt] created for his [DIY Perks] channel quite recently
. Video after the break. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335619",
"author": "djsmiley2k",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T13:30:08",
"content": "Recently? He’s been making videos for 9 years on youtube, might not of all been under the name DIY perks, but I’d swear he’s been going a few years at least?(is the google sign in for comments broken f... | 1,760,373,135.848465 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/putting-perseverance-rovers-view-into-satellite-view-context/ | Putting Perseverance Rover’s View Into Satellite View Context | Roger Cheng | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Space"
] | [
"blender",
"image processing",
"mars",
"Mars 2020",
"Mars 2020 Rover",
"Mars Landing",
"opencv",
"Perseverance",
"pytorch",
"rover",
"rover JPL",
"satellite",
"video"
] | It’s always fun to look over aerial and satellite maps of places we know, seeing a perspective different from our usual ground level view. We lose that context when it’s a place we don’t know by heart. Such as, say, Mars. So [Matthew Earl] sought to give Perseverance rover’s landing video some context by projecting onto orbital imagery from ESA’s Mars Express. The resulting video (embedded below the break) is a fun watch alongside the technical writeup
Reprojecting the Perseverance landing footage onto satellite imagery
.
Some telemetry of rover position and orientation were transmitted live during
the landing process
, with the rest recorded and downloaded later. Surprisingly, none of that information was used for this project, which was based entirely on video pixels. This makes the results even more impressive and the techniques more widely applicable to other projects. The foundational piece is SIFT (
Scale Invariant Feature Transform
), which is one of many tools in the OpenCV toolbox. SIFT found correlations between Perseverance’s video frames and Mars Express orbital image, feeding into a processing pipeline written in Python for results rendered in Blender.
While many elements of this project sound enticing for applications in robot vision, there are a few challenges touched upon in the “Final Touches” section of the writeup. The falling heatshield interfered with automated tracking, implying this process will need help to properly understand dynamically changing environments. Furthermore, it does not seem to run fast enough for a robot’s real-time needs. But at first glance, these problems are not fundamental. They merely await some motivated people to tackle in the future.
This process bears some superficial similarities to projection mapping, which is a category of projects
we’ve featured
on
these pages
. Except everything is reversed (camera instead of video projector, etc.) making the math an entirely different can of worms. But if projection mapping sounds more to your interest,
here is a starting point
.
[via
Dr. Tanya Harrison @TanyaOfMars
] | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6336493",
"author": "Jeff Greinert",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T04:56:50",
"content": "Very cool and impressive work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6336637",
"author": "rpavlik",
"timestamp": "2021-04-02T18:36:38",
"... | 1,760,373,135.798874 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/the-sixtyforgan-proves-that-church-organs-are-definitely-chiptune/ | The Sixtyforgan Proves That Church Organs Are Definitely Chiptune | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"c64",
"church organ",
"commodore 64",
"organ",
"reverb",
"reverb tank",
"spring reverb"
] | Church organs may be mechanically complicated and super old-school, but they share something in common with the earliest computer sound chips. In theory, and largely in practice, they produce very simple waveforms. The primary reason that church organs seem so full and rich compared to your old Commodore 64 is that they have the benefit of a whole church’s worth of reverb to fatten out the sound.
[Linus] demonstrates this with the Sixtyforgan.
The Sixtyforgan is a Commodore 64 hooked up to a spring reverb tank. By running the relatively basic waveforms from the Commodore’s SID chip through this reverb, it’s possible to generate sounds that are eerily similar to those you might hear at your local Sunday service. While we won’t expect chiptune luminaries like
[chipzel] to start busting out songs of praise at events like Square Sounds
, it’s kind of awesome to think of the composers of antiquity rocking out to some mad Game Boy jams way back when.
It’s a great demonstration of the Commodore’s musical abilities, and we particularly like the application of the chromatic button layout borrowed from the accordion. We’d love to see this setup combined with an orchestra of the retro computers,
like this demonstration playing The Sugar Plum Fairy.
Alternatively, Billy Corgan on the Sixtyforgan playing Tiberius would be pretty great, too. Pretty sounding video after the break. | 44 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335554",
"author": "Lee Hart",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T05:23:19",
"content": "Wonderful! What a clever idea! :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6335563",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T06:53:25",
"co... | 1,760,373,135.75674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/moving-things-with-electricity/ | Moving Things With Electricity | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"high voltage",
"ping pong",
"ping pong ball",
"van de graaff"
] | We use electricity to move things with the help of motors and magnets all the time. But if you have enough voltage, you can move things with voltage alone. As [James] found out, though, it works best if your objects — ping pong balls, in his case —
are conductive
.
He wanted to add a Van de Graaff generator to add to his “great ball machine” which already has some cool ways to move ping pong balls. However, to get the electrostatic motion, [James] had to resort to spraying the balls with RF shielding spray.
We liked that he did some experiments to see how the balls would work before spending a lot of time 3D printing the final project. We did wonder, though, if there were cheaper options to make the balls conductive such as graphite or conductive ink.
The end result is a 3D printed low-energy ping pong rail gun, more or less. The design is pretty clever and you might find some ideas even if you don’t want to actually accelerate ping pong balls. An Arduino, of course, controls the whole affair. If you do want to replicate it, you can find the
CAD files and the software
on GitHub.
We’ve always had a soft spot for Van de Graaff generators, even
tiny ones
. If you
understand how they work
, they aren’t very difficult to build. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335541",
"author": "oldnerd",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T02:50:06",
"content": "Why does this video remind me of Hitch hiker’s guide to the galaxy?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6335571",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,373,136.193178 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/oh-brother-would-you-look-at-this-cistercian-clock/ | Oh Brother, Would You Look At This Cistercian Clock | Kristina Panos | [
"clock hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"Cistercian",
"Cistercian monks",
"ESP-01",
"RGB LEDs"
] | We were beginning to think we’d seen it all when it comes to RGB clocks, but [andrei.erdei] found a fast path back into our hearts and minds.
This clock is a digital representation of an ancient numeral system used by 13th century Cistercian monks
before the Indo-Arabic system that we know and love today took over. It’s a compact system (at least for numbers 1-9,999) that produces numerals which sort of look like 16-segment displays gone crazy.
Image via
Wikipedia
Every numeral has a line down the middle, and the system uses the four quadrants of space around it to display the ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands positions starting in the upper right corner.
[andrei] adapted the system to show time by assigning tens of hours to the thousands quadrant in the bottom left, hours to the hundreds quadrant in the bottom right, tens of minutes in the upper left, and minutes in the top right. The tricky part is that the system has no zero, but [andrei] just darkens the appropriate quadrant to represent zero.
The timekeeping is done with an ESP-01, and there are a total of 31 RGB LEDs including the middle bit, which blinks like a proper digital clock and doubles as a second hand. As usual, [andrei] has provided everything you’d need to build one of these for yourself. We admit that the system would take a little time to learn, but even if you never bothered to learn, this would make a nice conversation piece or focal point for sitting and staring. Take a minute to check it out in action after the break.
We love a good clock build no matter how it works.
Sink your teeth into this clock that’s driven by a tuning fork
. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335519",
"author": "A",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T00:26:22",
"content": "Predators clock",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6335537",
"author": "Rumble_in_the_Jungle",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T02:16:11",
"... | 1,760,373,136.144775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/put-the-perfect-point-on-your-tungstens-with-this-die-grinder-attachment/ | Put The Perfect Point On Your Tungstens With This Die Grinder Attachment | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"diamond",
"electrode",
"fabrication",
"grinding",
"metalwork",
"tig",
"tungsten",
"welding"
] | Aspiring TIG welders very quickly learn the importance of good tungsten electrode grinding skills. All it takes is a moment’s distraction or a tiny tremor in the torch hand to plunge the electrode into the weld pool, causing it to ball up and stop performing its vital function. Add to that the fussy nature of the job — tungstens must only be ground parallel to the long axis, never perpendicular, and at a consistent angle — and electrode maintenance can become a significant barrier to the TIG beginner.
A custom tungsten grinder like this one
might be just the thing to flatten that learning curve. It comes to us by way of [The Metalist], who turned an electric die grinder into a pencil sharpener for tungsten electrodes. What we find fascinating about this build is the fabrication methods used, as well as the simplicity of the toolkit needed to accomplish it. The housing of the attachment is built up from scraps of aluminum tubing and sheet stock, welded together and then shaped into a smooth, unibody form that almost looks like a casting. Highlights include the mechanism for adjusting the angle of the grind as well as the clever way to slit the body of the attachment so it can be clamped to the nosepiece of the die grinder. We also thought the inclusion of a filter to capture tungsten dust was a nice touch; most TIG electrodes contain a small amount of lanthanum or thorium, so their slight radioactivity is probably best not inhaled.
We love builds like this that make a tedious but necessary job a little quicker and easier to bear, and anything that stands to make us a better welder — from
simple purpose-built fixtures
to
large-scale rotary tables
— is OK in our book. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335460",
"author": "Phyvyn Last5%",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T20:28:53",
"content": "Nice. Being HAD I am stuck with the concept of an automatic cut-off rechargeable keychain “pencil sharpener.” Maybe LEDs bright enough to use mask-on, reservior might need to accept hot-stick.",
... | 1,760,373,138.280916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/bluetooth-ps3-controllers-modernize-the-nintendo-gamecube/ | Bluetooth PS3 Controllers Modernize The Nintendo GameCube | Tom Nardi | [
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"adapter",
"bluetooth",
"DualShock",
"gamecube",
"playstation 3"
] | While the PlayStation 3 and Gamecube come from opposing sides of the aisle, and in fact aren’t even from the same generation of hardware, this
DIY adapter built by [Jeannot] allows Nintendo’s console to use Sony’s Bluetooth controllers
with surprisingly little fuss. This might seem unnecessary given the fact that Nintendo put out an official wireless controller for the system, but given how expensive they are on the second-hand market, you’d need to have pretty deep pockets for an untethered four-player session. Plus, there’s plenty of people who simply prefer the more traditional control layout offered by Sony’s pad.
The internals of the 3D printed adapter are actually quite straightforward, consisting of nothing more than an Arduino Nano wired to a MAX3421E USB host shield. A common USB Bluetooth adapter is plugged into the shield, and the enclosure has an opening so it can be swapped out easily; which is important since that’s what the PS3 controller is actually paired to.
A Gamecube controller extension cable must be sacrificed to source the male connector, though if you wanted to fully commit to using Bluetooth controllers, it seems like you could turn this into an internal modification fairly easily. That would let you solder right to the controller port’s pads on the PCB, cutting the bill of materials down ever further.
[Jeannot] says the firmware is the product of combining a few existing libraries with a fair amount of experimentation, but as demonstrated in the video below, it works well enough to navigate the console’s built-in menu system. Future enhancements include getting the stick sensitivity closer to the values for the Gamecube’s standard controller, and adapting the code to work with newer PS4 controllers.
We’ve seen a fair amount of projects dedicated to the Gamecube’s official wireless controller, the Wavebird. From
reverse engineering its RF communications protocol
to
adapting it for use with Nintendo’s latest console
. There’s little debate that the Wavebird is a fine piece of engineering, but with how cheap and plentiful PlayStation controllers are, they tend to be the one hackers reach for
when they want a dual-stick interface for their latest creation
. | 19 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335421",
"author": "robertop",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T18:36:14",
"content": "Wouldn’t make more sense to use an esp32, it has BLE and its 3.3v native…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6335444",
"author": "dwillmore",... | 1,760,373,137.905011 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/wires-vs-words-pcb-routing-in-python/ | Wires Vs Words — PCB Routing In Python | Chris Lott | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"EDA Software",
"PCB design",
"PCB routing",
"python"
] | Preferring to spend hours typing code instead of graphically pushing traces around in a PCB layout tool, [James Bowman] over at ExCamera Labs has developed
CuFlow
, a method for routing PCBs in Python. Whether or not you’re on-board with the concept, you have to admit the results look pretty good.
GD3X Dazzler PCB routed using CuFlow
Key to this project is a concept [James] calls rivers — the Dazzler board shown above contains only eight of them. Connections get to their destination by taking one or more of these rivers which can be split, joined, and merged along the way as needed in a very Pythonic manner. River navigation is performed using Turtle graphics-like commands such as
left(90)
and the appropriately named
shimmy(d)
that aligns two displaced rivers. He also makes extensive use of pin / gate swapping to make the routing smoother, and there’s a nifty
shuffler
feature which arbitrarily reorders signals in a crossbar manner. Routing to complex packages, like the BGA shown, is made easier by embedding signal
escapes
for each part’s library definition.
We completely agree with [James]’s frustration with so many schematics these days being nothing more than a visual net lists, not representing the logical flow and function of the design at all. However, CuFlow further obfuscates the interconnections by burying them deep inside the wire connection details. Perhaps, if CuFlow were melded with something like the
SKiDL Python schematic description language
, the concept would gain more traction?
That said, we like the concept and routing methodologies he has implemented in CuFlow. Check it out yourself by visiting the
GitHub repository
, where he writes in more detail about his motivation and various techniques. You may remember [James] two of his embedded systems development tools that we covered back in 2018 — the
SPI Driver
and the
I2C driver
. | 30 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335792",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T03:15:35",
"content": "I have to say, I like the concept. I make an analogy with the mechanical design world where I have embraced OpenSCAD. I would much rather write code that click away on some GUI CAD system. ... | 1,760,373,138.352125 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/custom-built-12-port-a-v-switch-keeps-crt-well-fed/ | Custom Built 12-Port A/V Switch Keeps CRT Well Fed | Tom Nardi | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"home entertainment",
"rotary encoder",
"s-video",
"vfd",
"video switch"
] | Classic gaming aficionados who prefer to play on real hardware know the struggle of getting their decades-old consoles connected to a modern TV. Which is why many gamers chose to keep a contemporary CRT TV around for when they want to take a walk down memory lane. Unfortunately those old TVs usually didn’t offer more than a few A/V ports on the back, so you’ll probably need to invest in a A/V switch to keep them all hooked up at once.
That’s the situation [Thomas Sowell] found himself in, except he couldn’t find one with enough ports. Rather than chain switches together,
he decided to build his own custom 12-port console selector
. With an integrated amplifier to keep everything looking sharp, a handsome walnut and metal enclosure, and a slick graphical interface that shows the logo of the currently selected console on a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD), the final product is a classic gamer’s dream come true.
A peek under the hood.
To switch the audio [Thomas] is using a pair of ADG1606 16-channel analog multiplexers, while video is shuffled around with four MAX4315 8-channel video multiplexer-amplifiers. The math might seem a bit off at first, but he’s using one ADG1606 for each stereo channel and since the switch is for S-Video, each device has a luminance and color signal that needs to be handled separately. The multiplexers are flipped with a ATmega2561 microcontroller, which is also responsible for reading user input from a rotary encoder on the front of the case and displaying the appropriate console logo on the 140×32 Noritake VFD.
You may be surprised to find that [Thomas] considered himself an electronics beginner when he started this project, and that this is only the second PCB he’s ever designed. Was this a bold second project? Sure. But it also speaks to how far DIY electronics has come over the last years.
Powerful open source tools
, modular components, and of course a community of creative folks willing to share their knowledge and designs, has gone a long way towards redefining
whats possible for the individual hacker and maker
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335767",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T23:14:16",
"content": "Sweet. Did he design 70’s stereo equipment in a past life?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6335769",
"author": "spiritplumber",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,373,138.062682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/pneumatic-actuator-made-out-of-lasercut-plastic/ | Pneumatic Actuator Made Out Of Lasercut Plastic | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"acetal",
"pneumatic",
"pneumatic actuator",
"Pneumatics"
] | Pneumatics are a great solution for all kinds of actuators, and can even be used for logic operations if you’re so inclined. Typically, such actuators rely on nicely machined metal components with airtight rubber seals. But what if you did away with all that?
[Richard Sewell] decided to investigate.
The result is a pneumatic actuator built out of lasercut acetal parts. The mechanism consists of of two outer layers of plastic acting as the enclosure, and a cut-out middle layer which creates the air chamber and houses the actuating arm itself. It’s a single-acting design, meaning the air can push the actuator one way, with a spring for return to the neutral position. The action is quite fast and snappy, too.
[Richard] aims to tweak the design further by improving the registration between the features of each layer and reduce the rubbing of the actuator’s rotor on the surrounding parts. If you’ve got the know-how, sound off in the comments. Alternatively,
consider looking into soft pneumatics as well
. Video after the break.
Can you make a pneumatic actuator out of lasercut acetal and hope ? And, more importantly, should you?
pic.twitter.com/6ge3Ercyzi
— Richard Sewell (@jarkman)
March 28, 2021
[Thanks to Robert for the tip!] | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335745",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T21:11:24",
"content": "Heck, I’ll bet you can build a Roots blower using similar techniques. Adding acetal to my next McMaster order…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "633582... | 1,760,373,138.116103 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/a-floppy-controller-for-the-raspberry-pi/ | A Floppy Controller For The Raspberry Pi | Lewin Day | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"floppy",
"floppy drive",
"raspberry pi"
] | The Raspberry Pi is the darling single board computer that is everything to everyone. It even has lit up the eyes of the older set with the Pi 400 mimicking the all-in-one keyboard computer design so popular in the 1980s.
Another project that harkens back to that golden era is this Raspberry Pi floppy controller board from [Dr. Scott M. Baker].
[Scott] is no stranger to floppy controllers, having worked with the popular WD37C65 floppy controller IC before with the RC2014 homebrew Z80 computer. Thus, it was his part of choice when looking to implement a floppy interface on the Raspberry Pi. The job was straightforward, and done with just the IC itself. Despite the Pi running at 3.3 V and the controller at 5 V, [Scott] has found no problems thus far, implementing just a resistor pack to try and limit damage from the controller sending higher voltage signals back to the Pi. With that said, he plans to implement a proper level shifter down the road to ensure trouble-free operation long term.
The project is rounded out with a bunch of Python tools used to interface with the controller,
available on Github
. Performance is limited by the non-realtime nature of the Raspberry Pi’s user mode operation, which [Scott] notes could be fixed with a kernel module. With that said, if you’re looking for performance, floppies aren’t it anyway.
We do love the Pi put to use in retro tasks;
it can even be a SCSI Swiss Army Knife if you need one
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Baldpower for the tip!] | 27 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335711",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T19:04:59",
"content": "Very nice and simple setup. Well done. You have probably seen them but you may also like to take a look at the BBC-FDC project herehttps://github.com/picosonic/bbc-fdcwhich is also for Raspberry Pi. Ignore t... | 1,760,373,138.018487 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/hershey-fonts-not-chocolate-the-origin-of-vector-lettering/ | Hershey Fonts: Not Chocolate, The Origin Of Vector Lettering | Chris Lott | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"History",
"Slider"
] | [
"charactron",
"computer history",
"Dr Hershey",
"fonts",
"optical printing",
"vector font"
] | Over the past few years, I kept bumping into something called Hershey fonts. After digging around, I found a 1967 government report by a fellow named Dr. Allen Vincent Hershey. Back in the 1960s, he worked as a physicist for the Naval Weapons Laboratory in Dahlgren, Virginia, studying the interaction between ship hulls and water. His research was aided by the
Naval Ordnance Research Calculator (NORC)
, which was built by IBM and was one of the fastest computers in the world when it was first installed in 1954.
The NORC’s I/O facilities, such as punched cards, magnetic tape, and line printers, were typical of the era. But the NORC also had an ultra-high-speed optical printer. This device had originally been developed by the telecommunications firm Stromberg-Carlson for the Social Security Administration in order to quickly print massive amounts of data directly upon microfilm.
IBM NORC at NWL Dahlgren
System flow diagram from:
SC4020 Computer Recorder Information Manual
Stromberg-Carlson, August 1964
Perhaps you’ve heard stories of programmers waiting impatiently for printouts from mainframe operators? Well you would have waited even longer for your optical plots. Since they used film, they required chemical processing to become photos, slides, or microfilm. But despite this wait time, the printing speed was much faster than line printers of the day: 7000 lines per minute vs 150. While this printing speed was certainly impressive, the ability to plot entire graphs and figures in just fractions of a second was no doubt well appreciated by the scientists at Dahlgren.
Charactron Tube Diagram (US Patent
2735956
)
What made this device so fast? It was the
Charactron Tube
which
we covered back in 2017
. This special CRT has an internal metal screen into which a font is etched. The electron beam projects an entire letter on the phosphor face of the tube in one “flash”, which in turn exposes photographic film. No raster scanning or vector drawing was involved, so the process was fast. But soon the system would be utilized in ways not imagined by the original designers.
Inspiration
Back in those days, before
roff
, LaTex, and WYSIWYG word processors, preparing technical reports full of complicated mathematical equations and data plots was quite time consuming. The text itself would be prepared using an ordinary typewriter. But special-purpose typewriters like the Varityper were needed to typeset math equations. Plots and figures would generally be hand-drawn or by pen plotter. Hershey came to the realization that the NORC’s optical printer could take on a new role and be used as a typesetter. Dr Hershey not only saw this possibility, but possessed a keen interest in calligraphy and didn’t mind spending his evenings developing this new capability.
Varityper used for report preparation
The key to make this happen was to define a new mode of output which bypassed the internal stencil fonts. Rather, the film would be exposed by using the period (full stop) stencil as a “dot”, and moving the dot under program control. When applied to text, this is of course slower than using the stencil, but it allows an arbitrary selection of fonts, or repertories as Dr Hershey called them. Furthermore, it opens up the ability to plot data directly onto film, bypassing the slower pen-plotter and even slower hand-drawing techniques of the day.
Dr Hershey learned that engineers at the Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey had developed a font for their optical printer using a similar technique, approaching it from a rasterization point of view. Dr Hershey realized he could expand this to embrace more exotic and artistic glyphs. He focused on using vectors to design his fonts, and embarked on the lengthy journey of researching and building his collection of vector-based fonts.
Works for All Languages (Except Dragons in Motion)
In hindsight, he not only built a set of tools to solve the needs of the Dahlgren community, but pushed the limits of the optical plotter to the extreme. In his reports he demonstrated fonts not only in English, but in other languages such as Greek, Russian, and Japanese. In addition to mathematical symbols, he showed how the plotter could draw electronic circuit diagrams, stellar maps of the galaxy, maps in general, chemical bonds, etc. An example of his thoroughness is found in his 1967 report
“Calligraphy for Computers”
. Although Hershey only implemented a subset of Japanese characters as a demonstration, he searched through over 5000 of them looking for glyphs which might exceed the limitations of his method. He could only find one such case, which he reasonably decided to ignore:
With some omission of detail in tight spaces and some overflow in complicated cases, this size [a height of 21 raster units] is believed to be adequate for all characters in Nelson’s dictionary except No. 5444. Inasmuch as this character represents dragons in motion, it is of doubtful utility.
Composite of font charts created by
Paul Bourke
All in all, Dr. Hershey generated about 1400 western and 800 Japanese glyphs, all drawn painstakingly by hand on graph paper. There were five different optical font sizes and three different stroke types, not to mention all sorts of symbols used in mapping, science, mathematics, etc.
The Importance of Hershey Font Today
Hershey was trying to generate pleasing fonts for printed reports using the leading technology of the day. By far the greatest number of glyphs were complex — that is, they were constructed with multiple lines, or strokes, to give increased and variable stroke width. These strokes are often depicted today as thin lines when you search for his fonts online, but when properly drawn, taking into account the size of the SC4020 beam, solid letters will result. Today we have a plethora of fonts at our disposal, so why are Hershey fonts still being used? You might be tempted to say because they are public domain. But probably the biggest reason is the single-stroke family of fonts, which are still quite useful in so many different applications. Here are some examples I’ve encountered over the years.
OpenSCAD (not needed since 2015)
Technical Lettering Style from 1865 Textbook
Today if you want to draw text in OpenSCAD, there is built-in support. But when I was first learning OpenSCAD in early 2015, this wasn’t available. A project I was working on needed text, so I decided to make my own. As I went down the rabbit hole of simple lettering that I could implement using the graphics primitives of OpenSCAD, I discovered this is a technique with a long history.
It was during this
research
when I first stumbled upon Hershey fonts. I have since learned that these classical lettering styles were a source of inspiration for Dr. Hershey, including the Leroy lettering sets used by draftsmen and some comic book letterers.
At the time, I passed on Hershey fonts because they only used lines, and it seemed that real curves would look better. I made my own vector font based on these simple drafting lettering styles which used only lines and circular arcs — things I knew how to make with OpenSCAD. Looking back at this now, I see that text was integrated into OpenSCAD in March of that year. If I had just waited three months, I would’ve saved myself the time and hassle.
Leroy Lettering Set
Front panel lettering
Example of Engraved Panel Lettering
As a young engineer, some of my company’s projects required durable front panel markings. We made these by having the lettering and symbols engraved into the panel using a CNC machine. One well-proven way was to engrave a panel then fill in the grooves with epoxy paint. Today we can even skip the hassle of machine engraving all together. Low-cost direct laser etching provides a cleaner and often more affordable technique. Both these methods work by moving the head, a milling tool or laser beam, along paths which are defined by X-Y pairs. This is a perfect fit for vector fonts. They can be made more or less bold by changing the diameter of the milling tool or laser beam size, and can be easily scaled or rotated as needed using basic trigonometry. Trying to do this with a bit-mapped font would be awkward at best.
PCB Artwork Lettering
We’ve all put text on our PCB’s silkscreen and copper layers, but perhaps didn’t stop and think about the details. When you generate files for manufacturing, the traces and features of your board, themselves naturally vectors, are expressed in the familiar Gerber format (
RS-274X
). Letters are expressed in the same way.
Gerber 6241 Photoplotter from the early 1980s
The first photoplotters used for making PCB film artwork were made by the
Gerber Scentific company
in the 1960s. This device grew out of a family of large computer-controlled X-Y tables. These were originally used for tasks like cutting patterns from fabric and making prescription eyeglass lenses. The Gerber Photoplotter’s basic operation was not unlike a pen-plotter or CNC engraving machine, except that a beam of light would shine through a selectable aperture to expose photographic film. A wheel containing different aperture sizes allowed you to change the line width and also used to “flash” pads. It was only natural that vector commands were used to control the photoplotter. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Gerber defined a subset of the CNC digital interface standard RS-274D that had been around since the 1950s. With a few extensions and revisions, this is still the format we use today to convey our PCB artwork to the fabrication shop.
As in many fields, technology marches on. PCB fabrication shops don’t actually use Gerber-style photoplotters anymore. These days, more often than not, the manufacturer will convert your Gerber files so that the artwork is transferred to film using a high-resolution, high-speed raster printer. In some cases, the artwork is projected directly onto the PCB itself, entirely bypassing the film and intermediate transfer step.
That said, I don’t think we will ever send rasterized PCB artwork to the manufacturers. The features of the PCB that we send to the shop, traces and pads, are inherently vector-like in nature. And for proper results, the manufacturer needs to identify these features in order to tweak them according to their own unique manufacturing process. That’s the meaning of fabrication notes like “Line, pad, and via dimensions are specified as finished size” and “Controlled impedance traces xxxx should be 75 ohm”. Even silk-screen lettering widths may need to be adjusted depending on the process being used. Adjusting these parameters on a raster-based image, while not impossible, would be much more complicated.
CAD Tools
Hershey Format of the letter H
I needed to put some Korean text on a PCB for a client awhile back. After
discussing this on the KiCad forum
I learned that within KiCad, the PCB lettering is stored internally as vectors — using the original Hershey font format. I won’t go into the
gory details
, but the original Hershey format is peculiar, to say the least. Hershey used only printable letters, what we could call printable ASCII today, to describe the coordinates in very compact style. There is a letter-based Cartesian grid system with the letter
R
as zero. The letter
S
is 1,
P
is -2, etc. The letter
H
would appear as
508 9G]KFK[ RYFY[ RKPYP
in this notation.
TTGO
TurtlePlotBot Draws Using Hershey Fonts
I was recently playing around with Micropython on the ESP32-based TTGO module, in order to experiment with text on the tiny TFT screen. I discovered that Hacakday.io user [Russ] used
Hershey fonts
in his
Turtle Plot Bot
. This gave me a great jump start for some of my experiments, and is yet another example of finding Hershey fonts under the hood of modern projects.
CRT Vector Drawing Machines
Oscilloscope Clock Using Hershey Fonts
CRT-based projects using vector graphics have become popular in recent years. There are
clock projects
and
general purpose vector displays
. This is yet another application where describing fonts with vectors matches nicely with the underlying operation of the display. And you won’t be surprised to learn that Hershey fonts are commonly found on these projects. For example,
this tutorial
by [Trammel Hudson] on vector display basics shows how to draw Hershey font letters on the screen.
The Hershey Legacy
What would Dr Hershey think about his simplistic single-stroke fonts still being used over 60 years later? Considering all the multi-stroke letters and Japanese symbols that he so meticulously designed by hand, he might be a little surprised if not disappointed. Let us know if you have encountered or used Hershey’s fonts in your projects. If you want to learn more, here is an interesting presentation by Frank Grießhammer about Dr Hershey himself and the development of his fonts . | 57 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335683",
"author": "nekoplanetd",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T17:15:56",
"content": "As I guess someone will have the same need to know which one is the kanji 5444…Is 龘 (tau): dragons in motionhttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%BE%98",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,373,138.453503 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/the-word-clock-you-can-feel/ | The Word Clock You Can Feel | Zach Zeman | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"custom PCB",
"electromagnet",
"electromagnetic display",
"haptic",
"magnet",
"word clock"
] | By this point, pretty much everyone has come across a word clock project, if not built one themselves. There’s just an appeal to looking at a clock and seeing the time in a more human form than mere digits on a face. But there are senses beyond sight. Have you ever heard a word clock? Have you ever
felt
a word clock? These are questions to which Hackaday’s own [Moritz Sivers] can now answer yes, because he’s gone through the extreme learning process involved in designing and building
a haptic word clock driven with the power of magnets
.
Individual letters of the display are actuated by a matrix of magnetic coils on custom PCBs. These work in a vaguely similar fashion to LED matrices, except they generate magnetic fields that can push or pull on a magnet instead of generating light. As such, there are a variety of different challenges to be tackled: from coil design, to driving the increased power consumption, to even considering how coils interact with their neighbors. Inspired by research on other haptic displays, [Moritz] used ferrous foil to make the magnets latch into place. This way, each letter will stay in its forward or back position without powering the coil to hold it there. Plus the letter remains more stable while nearby coils are activated.
Part of the fun of “ubiquitous” projects like word clocks is seeing how creative hackers can get to make their own creations stand out. Whether it’s
a miniaturized version of classic designs
or
something simple and clean
, we love to see them all. Unsurprisingly, [Moritz] himself has impressed us with
his unique take on word clocks
in the past. (Editor’s note: that’s nothing compared to
his cloud chambers
!)
Check out the video below to see this display’s actuation in action. We’re absolutely in love with the satisfying *click* the magnets make as they latch into place. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335680",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T17:04:21",
"content": "very very nice, the clicking effect is memorizing.What fascinates me is the build up of the mechanism, I would definitely like to see more detailed pictures of the construction of a single letter as there is... | 1,760,373,137.950857 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/30/google-calls-it-quits-with-vr-but-cardboard-lives-on/ | Google Calls It Quits With VR, But Cardboard Lives On | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Slider",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"cardboard",
"google cardboard",
"head mounted display",
"virtual reality",
"vr"
] | Google giving up on one of their projects and leaving its established userbase twisting in the wind hardly counts as news anymore. In fact, it’s become something of a meme. The search giant is notorious for tossing out ideas just to see what sticks, and while that’s occasionally earned them some huge successes, it’s also lead to plenty of heartache for anyone unlucky enough to still be using one of the stragglers when the axe falls.
So when the search giant acknowledged in early March that they would
no longer be selling their Cardboard virtual reality viewer
, it wasn’t exactly a shock. The exceptionally low-cost VR googles, literally made from folded cardboard, were a massive hit when they were unveiled back in 2014. But despite Google’s best efforts to introduce premium Cardboard-compatible hardware with their Daydream View headset two years later, it failed to evolve into a profitable business.
Google Cardboard
Of course if you knew where to look, the writing had been on the wall for some time. While the Daydream hardware got a second revision in 2017, and Google even introduced a certification program to ensure phones would work properly with the $100 USD headset, the device was discontinued in 2019. On the software side, Android 7 “Nougat” got baked-in VR support in 2016, but it was quietly removed by the time
Android 11 was released in the fall of 2020
.
With Cardboard no longer available for purchase, Google has simply made official what was already abundantly clear: they are no longer interested in phone-based virtual reality. Under normal circumstances, anyone still using the service would be forced to give it up. Just ask those who were still active on Google+ or Allo before the plug was pulled.
But this time, things are a little different. Between
Google’s decision to spin it off into an open source project
and the legions of third party viewers on the market, Cardboard isn’t going down without a fight. The path ahead might be different from what Google originally envisioned, but the story certainly isn’t over.
The Case For Cheap VR
Clearly Google was cooling on the idea of phone-based VR for some time, but their exit from the market was further accelerated by the arrival of new stand-alone VR headsets from the likes of Oculus that far outperformed Cardboard. But not all consumers saw this as a step forward. While the new VR headsets were undoubtedly impressive, they were also expensive and
introduced new software ecosystems that many users were reluctant to buy into
. There’s still a market for cheap headsets that allow smartphones to be used for rudimentary VR, but it simply isn’t lucrative enough to entice a company like Google.
Of course not all companies have such high standards.
Despite the considerable limitations of smartphone VR
, there’s no shortage of Cardboard-like headsets available for consumers to chose from. They range from cheap toy store fodder to more advanced units that try to deliver the high-end experiences Google offered with their own Daydream Viewers.
A quick search on Amazon or eBay returns a seemingly unending string of VR headsets for every possible budget or application; all relying on nothing more than the smartphone you already bought and paid for. It’s easy to look at these headsets, many coming from fly-by-night companies, and see them as cheap clones looking to capitalize on Google’s idea. But the reality is, the
Cardboard viewer specification was always intended to be open source
.
Even if most manufacturers decided not to take the literal cardboard route that Google pioneered, the general layout of the viewer and the best practices outlined in the accompanying documentation were an invaluable base to work from. It didn’t take these companies long to adapt the basic Cardboard premise into a rigid plastic frame, and from there, start layering on new features and capabilities to set themselves apart from the competition.
Can a $5 USD plastic box with shoddy lenses compete on a technological level with stand-alone VR headsets, to say nothing of the models that use a gaming PC to provide the visuals? Of course not. But that’s hardly the point. Outfitted with a second-hand phone, these low-cost devices can deliver immersive 360° visuals at a fraction of the price. That means bringing VR to people and places that otherwise never would have had access to the technology.
Software for Seeing Double
While the state-of-the-art might not evolve much beyond where it is currently, Cardboard derived VR headsets aren’t going away anytime soon. Of course, the hardware is only one half of the equation. With the VR functionality already stripped from the latest release of Android, what will users actually be able to use these devices for?
The good news is that while Android might have lost its native VR capabilities, they were never terribly important in the first place. Achieving a basic stereoscopic effect is as easy as displaying two viewpoints on the screen at once and letting the optical properties of the headset handle the rest. It’s a simple enough trick that can even be pulled off with an
ffmpeg
filter, and certainly doesn’t require any operating system level optimizations. Especially given the ever-increasing computational power of the average smartphone.
But as it so happens, Google has also
released the Cardboard SDK as an open source project
. This allows developers to create cross-platform VR experiences for Android and iOS, and provides functions for motion tracking and stereoscopic rendering. The official roadmap shows there are plans to continue development of the SDK, though it’s worth noting no commits have been made since December of 2020. That said there are a number of active forks of the project, so even if Google is no longer actively contributing, the community seems willing to keep pushing the SDK ahead for the time being.
Pioneering Responsibly
Google has rightly caught a lot of flack in the past for abandoning products without giving them a chance to succeed, or worse, killing a product off
without having an exit plan in place,
but it’s hard to find fault in how they’ve decided to wind down Cardboard. We could debate why they were unable to monetize the concept of phone-based VR, especially with public interest being so high, but it’s a moot point. The important thing is that the community was given unfettered access to the Cardboard hardware and software once Google decided they couldn’t make money off of the idea.
Ultimately, Google’s handling of Cardboard is a fantastic example of innovation done right. Tech companies will always engage in this sort of speculative development in pursuit of the next best thing, and invariably, many of those ideas will fail to become profitable. Instead of locking up all that research and development where no one can access it, we should encourage companies that take the noble route of open sourcing their harebrained schemes. Just because they couldn’t figure out how to make it profitable doesn’t mean we can’t figure out how to make it work. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335639",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T14:38:28",
"content": "Maybe they should have gone the Microchannel route once they lost control of the “making money” route.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6335662",
... | 1,760,373,137.844763 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/28/should-have-used-a-vacuum-tube-555/ | Should Have Used A Vacuum Tube 555 | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"5555",
"bias",
"comparator",
"flip-flop",
"pentode",
"replica",
"retro",
"timer",
"vacuum tube"
] | “You should have used a 555” has become a bit of a meme around these parts lately, and for good reason. There seems to be little that these ubiquitous chips can’t be used for, and in a world where code often substitutes for hardware, it’s easy to point to instances where one could have just used a simple timer chip instead.
Definitely not in the meme category, though, is
this overkill vacuum tube 555 timer
. It comes to us via [David Lovett], aka [Usagi Electric], who has lately caught the “hollow state” electronics bug and has been experimenting with all sorts of vacuum tube recreations of circuits we’re far more used to seeing rendered in silicon than glass. The urge to replicate the venerable 555 in nothing but vacuum tubes is understandable, as it uses little more than a pair of comparators and a flip-flop, circuits [David] has already built vacuum tube versions of. The only part left was the discharge transistor; a pentode was enlisted to stand in for that vital function, making the circuit complete.
To physically implement the design, [David] built a large PCB to hold the 18 vacuum tubes and the handful of resistors and capacitors needed. Mounted on eight outsized leads made from sheet steel, the circuit pays homage to the original 8-pin DIP form of the 555. The video below shows the design and build process as well as testing of all the common modes of operation for the timer chip.
You can check out more of our coverage of [David]’s vacuum tube adventures, which started with
his reverse-engineering of an old IBM logic module
. And while he did a great job explaining the inner workings of the 555, you might want to take a deeper dive into
how the venerable chip came to be
. | 65 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335230",
"author": "Steven Gann",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T02:02:05",
"content": "Time to build a vacuum tube Atari punk console",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6335237",
"author": "nakazoto",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,373,138.228954 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/28/hackaday-links-march-28-2021/ | Hackaday Links: March 28, 2021 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"chip shortage",
"demoscene",
"drought",
"fab",
"hackaday links",
"infrastructure",
"Revision 2021",
"ribbon microphone",
"supply chain",
"taiwan",
"Texas"
] | If you thought the global shortage of computer chips couldn’t get any worse, apparently you weren’t counting on 2021 looking back at 2020 and saying, “Hold my beer.” As if
an impacted world waterway
and
fab fires
weren’t enough to squeeze supply chains, now we learn that
water restrictions could potentially impact chip production in Taiwan
. The subtropical island usually counts on three or four typhoons a year to replenish its reservoirs, but 2020 saw no major typhoons in the region. This has plunged Taiwan into its worst drought since the mid-1960s, with water-use restrictions being enacted. These include a 15% reduction of supply to industrial users as well as shutting off the water entirely to non-industrial users for up to two days a week. So far, the restrictions haven’t directly impacted chip and display manufacturers, mostly because their fabs are located outside the drought zone. But for an industry where a single fab can use millions of gallons of water a day, it’s clearly time to start considering what happens if the drought worsens.
Speaking of the confluence of climate and technology, everyone problem remembers the disastrous Texas cold snap from last month, especially those who had to endure the wrath of the unusually brutal conditions in person. One such victim of the storm is Grady, everyone’s favorite YouTube civil engineer, who recently released
a very good post-mortem
on the engineering causes for the massive blackouts experienced after the cold snap. In the immediate aftermath of the event, we found it difficult to get anything approaching in-depth coverage on its engineering aspects —
our coverage
excepted, naturally — as so much of what we found was laden with political baggage. Grady does a commendable job of sticking to the facts as he goes over the engineering roots of the disaster and unpacks all the complexity of the infrastructure failures we witnessed. We really enjoyed his insights, and we wish him and all our friends in Texas the best of luck as they recover.
If you’re into the demoscene, chances are pretty good that you already know about the upcoming
Revision 2021
, the year’s big demoscene party. Like last year’s Revision, this will be a virtual gathering, but it seems like we’re all getting pretty used to that by now. The event is next weekend, so if you’ve got a cool demo, head over and register. Virtual or not,
the bar was set pretty high last year
, so there should be some interesting demos that come out of this year’s party.
Many of us suffer from the “good enough, move on” mode of project management, leaving our benches littered with breadboarded circuits that got far enough along to
bore the hell out of us
make a minimally useful contribution to the overall build. That’s why we love it when we get the chance to follow up on a build that has broken from that mode and progressed past the point where it originally caught our attention. A great example is
Frank Olsen’s all-wood ribbon microphone
. Of course, with magnets and an aluminum foil ribbon element needed, it wasn’t 100% wood, but it still was an interesting build when we first spied it, if a bit incomplete looking. Frank has fixed that in grand style by continuing the wood-construction theme that completes this
all-wood replica of the iconic RCA Model 44 microphone
. It looks fabulous and sounds fantastic; we can’t help but wonder how many times Frank glued his fingers together with all that CA adhesive, though. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335217",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T00:34:34",
"content": "“But for an industry where a single fab can use millions of gallons of water a day, it’s clearly time to start considering what happens if the drought worsens.”Don’t they recycle?",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,373,138.507105 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/28/code-talkers-programming-with-voice/ | Code Talkers: Programming With Voice | Al Williams | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"speech recognition",
"voice recognition"
] | IEEE Spectrum had an interesting post covering several companies trying to sell
voice programming interfaces
. Not programming APIs for speech recognition, but the replacement of the traditional text editor to produce programs.
The companies, Serenade and Talon, have very different styles. Serenade has fairly normal-sounding language, whereas Talon has you use very specific phrases and can even use eye tracking to figure out what you are looking at when you issue a command. There’s also mention of two open-source products (Aenae and Caster) that require you to use a third-party speech engine.
For an example of Talon’s input, imagine you want this line of code in your program:
name=extract_word(m)
You’d say this out loud: “Phrase name op equals snake extract word paren mad.” Not exactly how Star Trek envisioned voice programming.
For accessibility, this might be workable. It is hard for us to imagine a room full of developers all talking to make their computers enter C or Python code. Until we can say, “Computer, build a graphic using the data in file hackaday-27,” we think this is not going to go mainstream.
The actual
speech recognition part
is pretty much a commodity now. Making a reasonable set of guesses about what people will say and what they mean by it is something else. It seems like this works best when you have a very specific and limited vocabulary, like operating
a 3D printer
. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335189",
"author": "Juergen",
"timestamp": "2021-03-28T20:44:51",
"content": "Intersting approach. I would suggest Forth as the language, where you can start with simple blocks and start building your application in small blocks that are later connected.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,138.915547 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/28/a-deep-dive-into-e-ink-tag-hacking/ | A Deep Dive Into E-Ink Tag Hacking | Stephen Ogier | [
"hardware",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"ARM Cortex-M3",
"digital photo frame",
"e-ink",
"e-ink price tag",
"eink",
"embedded systems",
"epaper",
"Intel 8051",
"zigbee"
] | Over the last decade or so, e-ink price tags have become more and more ubiquitous, and they’ve now reached the point where surplus devices can be found inexpensively on various websites. [Dmitry Grinberg] found a few of these at bargain-basement prices and decided to
reverse engineer and hack them into monochrome digital picture frames.
Often, the most difficult thing about repurposing surplus hardware is the potential lack of documentation. In the two tags [Dmitry] hacked, not only are the labels not documented at all, one even has an almost-undocumented SoC controlling it. After some poking around and some guesswork, he was able to find connections for both a UART and an SWD debugging interface. Fortunately, the manufacturers left the firmware unprotected, so dumping it was trivial.
Even with the firmware dumped, code for controlling peripherals (especially wireless devices) is often inscrutable. [Dmitry] overcomes this with a technique he calls “Librarification” in which he turns the manufacturer’s firmware into libraries for his custom code. Once he was able to implement his custom firmware, [Dmitry] developed his own code to wirelessly download and display both gray-scale and two-color images.
Even if you’re not interested in hacking e-ink tags, this is an incredible walk-through of how to approach reverse-engineering an embedded or IoT device. By hacking two different tags with completely different designs, [Dmitry] shows how to get into these systems with intuition, guesswork, and some sheer persistence.
If you’d like to see some more of [Dmitry]’s excellent reverse-engineering work, take a look at his
reverse-engineering and ROM dump of the PokeWalker
. If you’re interested in seeing what else e-ink tags can be made to do, take a look at this
weather station made from the same 7.4″ e-ink tag. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335154",
"author": "rpavlik",
"timestamp": "2021-03-28T17:35:53",
"content": "Wow, this is a cool hack. And a cool technique, turning the original firmware into a library. I assume the author most have some degree of eink experience to be able to figure out grey luts for a complete... | 1,760,373,139.003044 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/28/a-practical-electric-motorcycle-made-from-a-motorcycling-classic/ | A Practical Electric Motorcycle, Made From A Motorcycling Classic | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric conversion",
"Honda C70",
"motorcycle",
"wheel motor"
] | If you were to try to name the vehicle that brought transport to the world’s masses, where might you start? The Ford Model T perhaps, or maybe the VW Beetle? If this was the direction you took, then we’re sorry to say you aren’t even close. The answer lies in Soichiro Honda’s Dream and its descendants, small cheap and reliable motorcycles that have been manufactured in their many millions in some form continuously for over seven decades, and which have been sold in every country in the world that has any form of road. They may be unglamorous, but if you had to pick a bike to circumnavigate the globe they can be fixed by a local mechanic anywhere on the planet. That little horizontal single-cylinder engine may be reliable though, but it’s hardly green. [David Budiatmaja] has fixed that,
by transforming an elderly Honda C70 into an electric motorcycle worthy of a 21st-century city
(Indonesian,
Google Translate link
).
The conversion appears to have achieved wide coverage in the Indonesian motoring press, and there’s more about it in
the video we’ve placed below the break
(Indonesian, you may have to enable subtitle translation). The C70 has been stripped of its fairing, engine, and gearbox, and a wheel motor has been laced into the rear rim. There are three battery packs made from surplus 18650 cells, and an ammo can top box containing most of the electrical wiring. Driven at 72V, it gives a modest top speed that isn’t exactly fast but isn’t too bad on a city bike. A set of trail bike bars replaces the stock ones, and something of a cosmetic makeover has given it a tougher image than your local pizza delivery bike. If it didn’t still sport the C70’s somewhat archaic front forks, it might be easy to mistake it for something else entirely.
If wheel motor motorcycle conversions interest you,
this isn’t the first one we’ve brought you
. | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335157",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2021-03-28T17:40:51",
"content": "Surely putting that much unsprung weight in a wheel must make for awful handling. Maybe it’s a good thing this rig can’t go very fast.Compare, for example, the Zero Motorcycle.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,139.366853 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/28/building-the-dolphin-emulator-in-ubuntu-on-a-nintendo-switch/ | Building The Dolphin Emulator In Ubuntu On A Nintendo Switch | Zach Zeman | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"dolphin emulator",
"emulation",
"emulator",
"linux",
"Linux ARM",
"nintendo",
"Nintendo Switch",
"ubuntu"
] | [LOE TECH] has made a habit of trying out various emulation methods on his Nintendo Switch and recording the results for our benefit. Of that testing, some of the best performance he’s seen makes use of the Dolphin emulator running in Ubuntu Linux, and he has made
a tutorial video documenting how to build the project, as well as how to make some performance tweaks to get the most out of the mod
.
We love seeing Linux run on basically anything with a processor. It’s a classic hack at this point. Nintendo has traditionally kept its consoles fairly locked down, though, even in the face of
some truly impressive efforts
; so it’s always a treat to see the open-source OS run relatively smoothly on the console. This Ubuntu install is based on NVIDIA’s Linux for Tegra (L4T) package, which affords some performance gains over
Android installations on the same hardware
. As we’ve seen with those Android hacks, however, this software mod also makes use of the Switchroot project and, of course, it only works with specific, unpatched hardware. But if you’ve won the serial number lottery and you’re willing to risk your beloved console, [LOE TECH] also has
a video detailing the process he used to get Ubuntu up and running
.
Check out the video below for a medley of Gamecube game test runs. Some appear to run great, and others, well… not so much. But we truly appreciate how he doesn’t edit out the games that stutter and lag. This way, we get a more realistic, more comprehensive overview of unofficial emulation performance on the Switch. Plus, it’s almost fun to watch racing games go by in slow motion; almost, that is, if we couldn’t empathize with how frustrating it must have been to play.
[via
Reddit
] | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,138.85966 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/28/to-lovers-of-small-boxes-a-3d-printable-design-just-for-you/ | To Lovers Of Small Boxes: A 3D Printable Design Just For You | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"design for manufacture",
"dfm",
"organization",
"stackable",
"storage"
] | Print them at 50% scale for a far cuter (and much less useful) result.
[Jacob Stanton]’s design for
3D-printable, stacking and locking boxes
is a great example of design for manufacturability (DFM). MicroStacks show how part of good DFM is taking the manufacturing method’s strengths and weaknesses into account. [Jacob]’s boxes are created specifically with 3D printing in mind, which is great design whether somebody is making one, or dozens.
The boxes have sturdy parts that all print without any need for supports, fasteners, or post-processing. In addition, since no two 3D printers are quite alike and some print better than others, the parts are also designed to be quite forgiving of loose tolerances. Even on a printer that is less well-tuned than it could be, the design should still work. The boxes also have a nice stacking feature: a sturdy dovetail combined with a sliding tab means that once boxes are stacked, they’re not coming apart by accident unless something breaks in the process.
The boxes as designed are about big enough to store AA cells. Not the right size for you? One nice thing about a 3D-printable design that doesn’t need supports is that it’s trivial to uniformly scale the size of the models up or down to match one’s needs without introducing any print complications in the process. You can watch [Jacob] assemble and demonstrate his design in the video, embedded below.
As 3D printers have become more commonplace, the ability to print objects on demand has led to specialized storage and organization solutions like
stackable surface mount component storage
, and even
organizers made from empty filament spools
. | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335097",
"author": "Fosselius",
"timestamp": "2021-03-28T08:52:31",
"content": "i do like the stackability and locking, would have been awesome to be able to lock on the side as well. but that would cause access issues..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,373,139.30619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/a-few-of-my-favorite-things-pens/ | A Few Of My Favorite Things: Pens | Kristina Panos | [
"Art",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Lifehacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"ballpoint pen",
"calligraphy",
"fountain pen",
"gel pen",
"nib",
"pens",
"rollerball",
"tools"
] | Pens! They just might be the cheapest, most important piece of technology ever overlooked by a large group of people on a daily basis. Pens are everywhere from your desk to your car to your junk drawer, though they tend to blink out of existence when you need one. Where would we be without them? Probably still drawing on cave walls with dandelions and beets.
Photo of a Pilot Metropolitan by
Aaron Burden
on
Unsplash
Why do I think pens are so great? Well, they’re a relatively cheap tool depending on the pen you get, but whatever you spend, you’re getting a lot for your money. Pens are possibility, pure and simple, and they’re even conveniently packaged in a portable device.
Aesthetically speaking, I like pens because of how different they can be both inside and out. Some of them make thick lines, some make thin lines, and in the case of flexible nibs, some alternate between thick and thin lines depending on pressure. I use pens for a number of reasons, most notably for writing. Everything you read here that bears my name began life as pen marks on paper.
Pens are revolutionary because they can be used to make ideas permanent and/or illustrate any concept. It’s up to you to use the pen wisely. You can use other, better tools later, but pens are always a great first tool. If you’re not encumbered by an uncomfortable grip, ink that skips, or a scratchy, draggy contact point, your ideas will flow more freely. When you find the right pen for you, you aren’t hindered by your tool — you’re elevated by it.
A handful of the more interesting pens from my collection.
Ballpoints
Fountains
Multis
Rollerballs
Pens from a previous life
This Machine Kills Fascists
In Margaret Atwood’s terrifying sci-fi future of
The Handmaid’s Tale
, the only women who are allowed to read and write are the Aunts — high-ranking women who train Handmaids and dole out punishment to anyone who’s earned it, regardless of rank. All signage and packaging in the republic of Gilead has been reduced to ideograms to prevent Handmaids, Wives, and little girls from reading literally anything, ever — lest they be empowered to organize and change their fates. Get caught reading or writing in this hellscape, and you’ll lose a hand.
There is true freedom inherent in writing implements that most people take for granted. You are free to write anything you want, though you may want to burn it afterward. Sure, the freedom is all within the larger construct of humanity and what is humanly possible, but pens push us toward possibilities and into the future. Most importantly, pens help us think. They are works of art that produce works of art. I once found a pencil that bears
Woody Guthrie’s proclamation
‘THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS’. I wish it were a pen instead, because pencil marks can be easily erased by fascists.
Pens help us communicate ideas and explore our thoughts. They are a tool of total insight. Typing may be faster, but writing by hand gives us more time to form what we’re going to say as we go along. It’s much easier to haul around a pen and paper everywhere you go than to lug a laptop or typewriter. As long as you have ink and a substrate, you’re good to capture any thought or idea, no batteries required. Now that’s freedom.
My daily driver G-2 is all blobby again even though I wiped the tip an hour ago.
Pen Psychology
If I ever feel stuck or out of ideas, sometimes all I have to do is change my pen. I also change pens when I need a fresh mindset, or if I want to color-code something.
Until recently, I would change my pen color just about every day, but a few months ago I got stuck on this one 0.7 mm black Pilot G-2. For some reason, I just got into the flow of that one pen even though they always get blobby on the tip, and there’s no point in fighting against something that’s getting me to a flow state.
I wanted to try the bold ones (1.0 mm) and I did, and now
those
are officially my jam until further notice. I’m sure I’ll go back to using a rainbow of pens at some point, or at least get bold G-2s in more colors.
Gels Are Swell
My current crop of favorite gels. L-R: old Zebra Sarasa, orange and green Pentel Energel Xs, Paper♥Mate InkJoy gel, another old Zebra, Pilot G-2 bold, old Zebra #3, Bic Gelocity, Pentel Energel Needle Tip, another G-2 bold, and a Pilot B2P which is just a G-2 in a body that’s made from recycled plastic bottles.
My pocket Cross pen.
I’d have to say that gel pens are my hands-down favorite pen as far as everyday use.
Gel pens came about in the mid-1980s and hit the United States in the late 1980s
, and I remember them supplanting rollerball pens as the hottest thing out there among the young pen nerds. Anyone who was anyone at my elementary school had Pilot Precise Rolling Ball pens in four colors, but only the super cool kids had Gelly Roll pens.
I have a tendency to tense up and press way too hard when I write, and this comes from learning to write with pencils and ballpoints. The dark and free-flowing, easygoing marks made by gels help me to back off so I can write for much longer periods of time without fatigue.
I like gels because for the most part, they’re always ready to write and they don’t get all faint and skip-prone like ballpoints do. I go through phases where I’ll use a rollerball or a fountain pen for a while, but I always come back to gels. They’re easy to carry around, especially the pocket Cross pen I’ve had for about twenty years now. Isn’t it cute? You just pull it apart to open it, twist to change the cartridge, and push it back together to close it.
Fountains of Fun
L-R: Pilot Varsity, Sheaffer with missing clip, bold Sheaffer, medium Sheaffer, Pilot Varsity, old-style Pilot Varsity, Pentech Sabre (a cheap refillable Walgreens pen from 20 years ago), Zebra V-301, Jinhao (from ebay), Pilot Something or Other, that dreadful Lamy Safari, another hooded nib ebay special, and an old Parker Duofold Jr.
I really like to use fountain pens, even though I have to write more slowly with them. I’ll go in and out of using one of my fountains exclusively until I get tired of uncapping and recapping it all day long, and then I go back to gels. There are several retractable fountain pens out there, but they’re all quite expensive ($80+).
For the most part, I prefer the cheap and mid-range fountains to the expensive ones, but I’ve only had one expensive one so far and I didn’t like it: the Lamy Safari. I think the problem was that I didn’t bring my own paper to the fancy pen store, which I would now recommend to anyone. They have paper, sure, but it’s always fancy paper and not everyday paper like you find in a spiral, legal pad, or composition book. Also, see if they’ll let you sit down to try the pens instead of hunching over the glass case, because sitting versus standing makes a difference, too.
There is a line of disposable fountain pens called the Pilot Varsity that I’ve used for around twenty years. They’re disposable in the sense that you can’t easily refill ’em, unless you’re dedicated and savvy and willing to get a little bit inky at some point. I’ve done it myself using
this method
, and it was surprisingly easy to both remove and re-seat the nib using a pair of nylon jewelry pliers.
Varsities are great for everyday use, except they’re a little scary to carry around. If it gets uncapped and encounters anything that can wick the ink out, that’s gonna be a bad time. But they hold a ton of ink and pretty much always work right away even if I haven’t touched them in months or even years. Really.
Fancy Pens for Fancy Letters
I have long been attracted to typography and calligraphy and sometimes mess around with both, so I have all kinds of calligraphy markers, nib holders, nibs, and brush markers.
Among the weirder ones are a couple of dip pens that are just cleverly-carved sticks of bamboo. I also have two pencils taped side-by-side that produce calligraphic letters when held at a 45° angle. I’ve even got this pen I made that looks like a little prison shiv made out of a piece of Sprite can that’s taped to a never-sharpened pencil. And fright is kind of the point — you just dip it in ink and it holds a few words worth of drippy, slasher film-type letters. I got a lovely glass pen for my anniversary this year. It’s a dip pen, but the spiral ink feeder holds more ink than you’d think.
My Beef with Ballpoints
There are a few kinds of ballpoints that aren’t so bad.
I straight-up don’t like ballpoints. Okay, that’s not fair. I like ballpoints quite a lot in theory — their viscous, oil-based ink doesn’t get used up as quickly as gel inks or water-based inks,
they can make beautiful artwork
, and above all they represent the era
when ink-powered writing implements became cheap and portable
. But they’re just not for me.
I wish I liked iconic, ubiquitous, everyday ballpoint pens like the Bic Cristal or the lowly Round Stic. I press pretty hard when I write even though I try not to, and ballpoints usually make me press even harder which makes my hand and wrist ache sooner. I can’t and I won’t use ballpoints for the most part, unless they are really smooth to use and make a dark mark.
I do like Paper♥Mate InkJoys and wish other ballpoint makers strove to make theirs as bold and smooth. And once in a while, I’ll find a promotional pen that writes really nicely for some reason. Those are ballpoints 99% of the time, and nearly always have black ink. I wish I liked ballpoints so that I could enjoy using one or more of my collection of four-color pens from decades past. I have the 4-color InkJoy and the output is really disappointing compared to regular single-color InkJoys.
Thinking with Ink
Top to bottom: vintage Pilot Precise V5, Stabilo Worker, another vintage Precise but V7, two modern retractable Pilot Precise, super-vintage Pilot Precise V5, and a Pilot Precise Rolling Ball that may predate them all.
I really enjoy the act of writing longhand
, and using the right kind of pen can make a huge difference in my output and flow of ideas. A good, comfortable pen is a great way to get going and start flowing no matter what you want to do, especially if you need to get a bunch of thoughts in order first. What are some of your favorite implements for capturing and fleshing out your ideas? Let us know in the comments! | 111 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335393",
"author": "abjq",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T17:20:52",
"content": "I just bought a set of used Rotring Isograph and Micronorm pens off fleabay. I used to use these as a student, being left-handed they were better at keeping my hand off the still-drying ink, and also made my... | 1,760,373,139.261121 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/physics-of-lightning-hack-chat/ | Physics Of Lightning Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"Hack Chat",
"high voltage",
"lightning",
"physics",
"tesla coil",
"Tesla tower"
] | Join us on Wednesday, March 31 at noon Pacific for the
Physics of Lightning Hack Chat
with
Greg Leyh
!
Of all the things that were around to terrify our ancestors, lightning must have been right up there on the list. Sure, the savannahs were teeming with things that wanted to make lunch out of you, but to see a streak of searing blue-white light emerge from a cloud to smite a tree out of existence must have been a source of dread to everyone. Even now, knowing much more about how lightning happens and how to protect ourselves from it, it’s still pretty scary stuff to be around.
But for as much as we know about lightning, there are plenty of unanswered questions about its nature. To get to the bottom of this, Greg Leyh wants to build a lightning machine of gargantuan proportions: a pair of 120 foot (36 m) tall Tesla towers. Each 10-story tower will generate 8.8 million volts and recreate the conditions inside storm clouds. It’s an ambitious goal, but Greg and his team at
Lightning on Demand
have already built and demonstrated a 1/3-scale prototype Tesla tower, which is
impressively powerful
in its own right.
As you can imagine, there are a ton of engineering details that have to be addressed to make a Tesla tower work, not to mention the fascinating physics going on inside a machine like this. Greg will stop by the Hack Chat to answer our questions about the physics of lightning, as well as the engineering needed to harness these forces and call the lightning down from the sky.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, March 31 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. If time zones have you tied up, we have a
handy time zone converter
.
Click that speech bubble to the right, and you’ll be taken directly to the Hack Chat group on Hackaday.io. You don’t have to wait until Wednesday; join whenever you want and you can see what the community is talking about. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335570",
"author": "BotherSaidPooh",
"timestamp": "2021-03-30T07:26:17",
"content": "IIRC this is about 5pm UK time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6336068",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-03-31T22:45:47",
"co... | 1,760,373,138.957296 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/an-ai-free-way-to-catch-wildlife-on-camera/ | An AI-Free Way To Catch Wildlife On Camera | Dan Maloney | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"ai",
"focus",
"Laplace",
"machine vision",
"opencv",
"photo trap"
] | Judging by the over-representation of the term “AI” in our news feeds these days, we’re clearly in the exponential phase of the artificial intelligence hype cycle, and very nearly at the dreaded “Peak of Inflated Expectations.” It seems like there’s nothing that AI can’t do, and nowhere that its principles can’t be applied to virtuous — and profitable — effect.
We don’t deny that AI has massive potential, but we strongly suspect that there will soon come a day when eyes will roll and stomachs will turn at yet another AI application that could have been addressed with something easier. An example of the simpler approach can be seen in
this non-AI wildlife photo trap
, cobbled together by [Sebastian] to capture pictures of some camera-shy squirrels. Rather than train an AI with gigabytes of squirrel images, he instead relies on his old Sony Alpha camera, which has a built-in WiFi. A Python script connects to the camera, which is trained on a feeder box and set to a very narrow depth of field. That makes a good percentage of the scene out of focus until a squirrel or other animal comes along looking for treats. The script detects the increased area of the scene that is now in-focus with a Laplace operator in OpenCV, and triggers the camera shutter. [Sebastian] ended up with some wonderful shots of the shy squirrels using this scheme; the video below describes the setup in more detail.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen
Laplace transforms used to gauge image sharpness
, of course, but we really like the approach [Sebastian] took here for its simplicity. The squirrels are cute too. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335355",
"author": "WurstCase",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T15:16:57",
"content": "This can be done with a 555 ….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6335371",
"author": "DKM",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T16:03:53",
... | 1,760,373,139.416496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/wet-country-wireless-how-the-british-weather-killed-a-billion-pound-tech-company/ | Wet Country Wireless; How The British Weather Killed A Billion Pound Tech Company | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Radio Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"ionica",
"microwave link",
"telecoms",
"weather"
] | A dingy and cold early February in a small British town during a pandemic lockdown is not the nicest time and place to take your exercise, but for me it has revived a forgotten memory and an interesting tale of a technology that promised a lot but delivered little. Walking through an early-1990s housing development that sprawled across the side of a hill, I noticed a couple of houses with odd antennas. Alongside the usual UHF Yagis for TV reception were small encapsulated microwave arrays about the size of a biscuit tin. Any unusual antenna piques my interest but in this case, though they are certainly unusual, I knew immediately what they were. What’s more, a much younger me really wanted one, and only didn’t sign up because their service wasn’t available where I lived.
All The Promise…
The TV advert looked promising in 1998.
Ionica was a product of Cambridge University’s enterprise incubator, formed at the start of the 1990s with the aim of being the first to provide an effective alternative to the monopolistic British Telecom in the local loop. Which is to say that in the UK at the time the only way to get a home telephone line was to go through BT because they owned all the telephone wires, and it was Ionica’s plan to change all that by supplying home telephone services via microwave links.
Their offering would be cheaper than BT’s at the socket because no cable infrastructure would be required, and they would aim to beat the monopoly on call costs too. For a few years in the mid 1990s they were the darling of the UK tech investment world, with
a cutting edge prestige office building
just outside Cambridge, and
TV adverts
to garner interest in their product. The service launched in a few British towns and cities, and then almost overnight they found themselves in financial trouble and were gone. After their demise at the end of 1998 the service was continued for a short while, but by the end of the decade it was all over. Just what exactly happened?
Inside the Ionica rooftop antenna. From Andrew McNeil’s teardown video that we’ve placed at the bottom of the page.
The technology behind Ionica’s service could probably be replicated for a few dollars worth of WiFi modules in 2021, but at the time it lay at the bleeding edge of what was possible near the consumer end of the market. A tower was erected with a base station for each community to be served, and if the customer’s premises were on a line-of-sight from it they could have that biscuit-tin antenna installed.
The fixed line-of-sight link operated at 3.5 GHz, and used custom hardware made for Ionica by Nortel Networks.
A teardown on a surviving unit from 2015
which we’ve placed below the break was put up on YouTube in 2015, and it reveals a phased array of patch antennas as well as the RF and control boards. The overwhelming impression is that this would have been an extremely expensive device to manufacture in the mid 1990s, as many of its exotic RF functions would now be integrated into newer silicon and probably performed using SDR technology.
… But Not Quite The Delivery
To be on a housing estate like the one I saw the antenna on in the winter of 1996 or so would have been to see Ionica technicians doing site surveys and making installations. There was genuine demand for the service at the time, as BT’s monopoly meant a high line rental and call charges, and the promise of not one but two phone sockets allowed the possibility of using the phone and the Internet alongside each other. Heavy stuff a quarter century ago, and I wanted one.
The rainbow didn’t bring good luck for Ionica.
Perhaps it’s just as well that I didn’t have the chance, because I would surely have lost money (
It wasn’t the only time that decade I failed to see the inevitable
!). Shortly after the hype surrounding the service’s availability there surfaced stories of it dropping out during wet weather. We were assured that they were working on a solution, but worse was yet to come.
As spring turned into summer in about 1997, some customers struggled to receive any service at all, at fault was the verdant British tree foliage. It seems that site surveys performed in winter failed to take account of summer leaves obstructing the line-of-sight to the base station, and this seasonal service only added to the company’s woes.
With hindsight, Ionica’s product was one in some ways before its time, yet in others, one whose time had nearly passed. The expensive hardware and limited base station range would now be solved using much cheaper SDR chipsets and many more base stations, so in this decade the roll-out could have been performed much more easily and reliably. But the product itself now seems ludicrously dated, because who now needs a pair of analogue phone lines? ADSL connections arrived in the UK around 2000, so very shortly after the company’s demise they would have been stuck with a product that couldn’t deliver customer expectations. Could they have used the same hardware to deliver an always-on connection? Perhaps, but it never appeared in their published plans, and it’s unlikely that it would have had enough bandwidth to compete with ADSL.
It’s now over two decades since Ionica’s demise, and while cable TV fibre and local loop unbundling to put ISP racks in telephone exchanges have changed the telecom landscape significantly, there remains for most people a last mile connection owned by BT.
Wired analogue phones are now a legacy item
that increasing numbers of people only have because it comes with their broadband line, and even mobile calling is inexorably being usurped by online services.
Perhaps only now with the arrival of 5G mobile phones we’ll see that lingering BT last-mile monopoly broken. Meanwhile aside from a few weathered antennas in suburbia little remains of the company; its base station hardware turns up on eBay and is sought-after by radio amateurs and its prestige headquarters building by the A14 in Cambridge is now home for several occupants of the city’s wildly successful technology park. Brits spend a lot of their time battling the rain, but it’s not often that it brings down a billion pound company. | 51 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335343",
"author": "abjq",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T14:30:08",
"content": "Nice write-up Jenny. You missed one of the more hilarious causes of loss of service.A customer had the CPE installed and if lost coverage only a few days later, despite having ecellent signal level on the s... | 1,760,373,139.507777 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/the-vibrating-reed-inverter-possibly-the-simplest-inverter-you-can-make/ | The Vibrating Reed Inverter: Possibly The Simplest Inverter You Can Make | Jenny List | [
"hardware"
] | [
"inverter",
"power",
"reed",
"relay",
"Robert Murray-Smith"
] | Those of us who work on the road have a constant dread of being stuck somewhere without power, facing a race between a publication deadline and a fast-failing laptop battery. We’re extremely fortunate then to live in an age in which a cheap, lightweight, and efficient solid-state switch-mode inverter can give us mains power from a car cigarette lighter socket and save the day. Before these inverters came much heavier devices whose transistors switched at the 50Hz line speed, and before them came electromechanical devices such as the rotary converter or the vibrating reed inverter.
It’s this last type that [Robert Murray-Smith] has taken a look at
, making what he positions as the simplest inverter that it’s possible.
If you’ve ever played with relays, you’ll probably be aware that a relay can be wired as a buzzer, and it’s this property that a vibrating reed inverter harnesses. He takes an octal relay and wires it up with a small mains transformer for an immediate and very cheap inverter. It’s not perfect, as he points out the frequency isn’t right. The relay will eventually wear out unless the arcing problem is improved with the addition of a capacitor. But it does make a rough and ready inverter if you find yourself in a MacGyver-style tight spot with only your junk box for salvation.
If inverters pique your interest,
it might benefit you to know how they work
. | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335307",
"author": "Chris Snyder",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T11:41:31",
"content": "Having been in the phone business for most of my life I I frequently ran in to these in telephone exchanges and with electro mechanical PBXs. Their contacts were tungsten, and desigined for continuou... | 1,760,373,139.569616 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/29/nvme-boot-finally-comes-to-the-pi-compute-module-4/ | NVMe Boot Finally Comes To The Pi Compute Module 4 | Tom Nardi | [
"Parts",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"benchmark",
"cm4",
"compute module 4",
"NVMe"
] | Since the introduction of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, power users have wanted to use NVMe drives with the diminutive ARM board. While it was always possible to get one plugged in through an adapter on the IO Board, it was a bit too awkward for serious use.
But as [Jeff Geerling] recently discussed on his blog
, we’re not only starting to see CM4 carrier boards with full-size M.2 slots onboard, but the Raspberry Pi Foundation has unveiled beta support for booting from these speedy storage devices.
The MirkoPC board that [Jeff] looks at
is certainly impressive on its own
. Even if you don’t feel like jumping through the hoops necessary to actually boot to NVMe, the fact that you can simply plug in a standard drive and use it for mass storage is a big advantage. But the board also breaks out pretty much any I/O you could possibly want from the CM4, and even includes some of its own niceties like an RTC module and I2S DAC with a high-quality headphone amplifier.
Once the NVMe drive is safely nestled into position and you’ve updated to the beta bootloader, you can say goodbye to SD cards. But don’t get too excited just yet. Somewhat surprisingly, [Jeff] finds that booting from the NVMe drive is no faster than the SD card. That said, actually loading programs and other day-to-day tasks are far snappier once the system gets up and running. Perhaps the boot time can be improved with future tweaks, but honestly, the ~7 seconds it currently takes to start up the CM4 hardly seems excessive.
NVMe drives are exciting pieces of tech
, and it’s
good to see more single-board computers support it
. While it might not help your CM4 boot any faster, it definitely offers a nice kick in performance across the board and expands what the system is capable of. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335274",
"author": "[skaarj]",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T08:15:44",
"content": "sdcards soon fail because commercial is preferred over more expensive industrial sdcards. So even if nvme current compatibility state involve slow speed, it’s better than sdcard.My rpi3 BSD-based web sit... | 1,760,373,139.612318 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/28/triton-ar-headset-blends-stock-and-printed-parts/ | Triton AR Headset Blends Stock And Printed Parts | Tom Nardi | [
"Virtual Reality",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"augmented reality",
"head mounted display",
"wearable display"
] | Augmented reality (AR) and natural gesture input provide a tantalizing glimpse at what human-computer interfaces may look like in the future, but at this point, the technology hasn’t seen much adoption within the open source community. Though to be fair, it seems like the big commercial players aren’t faring much better so far. You could make the case that the biggest roadblock, beyond the general lack of software this early in the game, is access to an open and affordable augmented reality headset.
Which is precisely why
[Graham Atlee] has developed the Triton
. This Creative Commons licensed headset combines commercial off-the-shelf components with 3D printed parts to provide a capable AR experience at a hacker-friendly price. By printing your own parts and ordering the components from AliExpress, basic AR functionality should cost you $150 to $200 USD. If you want to add gesture support you’ll need to add a Leap Motion to your bill of materials, but even still, it’s a solid deal.
Exploded view of the Triton
The trick here is that [Graham] is using the reflectors from a surprisingly cheap AR headset designed to work with a smartphone. By combining these mass produced optics with a six inch 1440 x 2560 LCD panel inside of the Triton’s 3D printed structure, projecting high quality images over the user’s field of view is far simpler than you might think.
If you want to use it as a development platform for gesture interfaces you’ll want to install a Leap Motion in the specifically designed socket in the front, but otherwise, all you need to do is plug in an HDMI video source. That could be anything from a low-power wearable to a high-end gaming computer, depending on what your goals are.
[Graham] has not only provided the STLs for all the 3D printed parts and a bill of materials, but he’s also done a
fantastic job of documenting the build process
with a step-by-step guide. This isn’t some theoretical creation; you could order the parts right now and start building your very own Triton. If you’re looking for software, he’s also selling a Windows-based “Triton AR Launcher” for the princely sum of $4.99 that looks pretty slick, but it’s absolutely not required to use the hardware.
Of course, plenty of people are more than happy to stick with the traditional keyboard and monitor setup. It’s hard to say if wearable displays and gesture interfaces will really become the norm, of they’re better left to science fiction. But either way, we’re happy to see affordable
open source platforms for experimenting with this cutting edge technology
. On the off chance any of them become the standard in the coming decades, we’d hate to be stuck in some inescapable walled garden because nobody developed any open alternatives. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335258",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2021-03-29T05:55:30",
"content": "Nice! I’ve got one of those headsets on my desk but don’t currently have a phone that fits in the original holder, so having a starting point for a custom mount instead is awesome.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,373,139.660242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/27/super-mario-sunburn-mod-shines-up-a-gamecube-favorite/ | Super Mario Sunburn Mod Shines Up A GameCube Favorite | Drew Littrell | [
"Games",
"Nintendo Wii Hacks"
] | [
"gamecube",
"nintendo wii hacks",
"rom hacks",
"videogames"
] | Super Mario Sunshine always felt a little under-baked when it came to 3D Mario games. Whether it was wonky camera controls, aggravating coin quotas, or the inclusion of a sentient super-soaker the game didn’t quite fulfill fan expectations. Seeking to wash-away that reputation
[Wade] created a mod to revitalize the oft disparaged GameCube game
. Over two years in the making, Super Mario Sunburn breaks Super Mario Sunshine wide open with new levels, more coins, and the freedom of a modern open-world game. Collecting in-game shine collectibles no longer automatically warps Mario back to the island hub, but rather allows Mario to keep filling those pockets.
In order to apply the Sunburn mod patch, a clean rip of Super Mario Sunshine for Nintendo GameCube is needed. The easiest method of ripping GameCube discs is actually with a Nintendo Wii —
provided it can run CleapRip via the Homebrew Channel
. With a clean game image, the Sunburn patch can be applied on Windows by running Delta Patcher. From there a Sunburn-patched image can be enjoyed via emulator with the optional HD Texture pack, or even real Nintendo hardware. A comprehensive mod like this is surely deserving of some WaveBird time.
The arrival of [Wade]’s mod comes at a crucial time for many Mario fans. Late last year Nintendo released an underwhelming compilation of 3D Mario games called Super Mario 3D All-Stars. The release brought with it the lightest of touches and failed to provide a suitable modernization of Super Mario Sunshine. The company didn’t even allow players to play in 16:9 widescreen (
unlike Sunburn
). At the end of March Nintendo will cram Super Mario 3D All-Stars into “Bowser’s Vault” thereby removing it from store shelves. All the more reason to give Super Mario Sunburn a try.
If you were looking for a mid-2000s twist on Nintendo’s modern console offering, then you might be interested in
this GameCube controller Switch grip mod
. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335101",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2021-03-28T10:13:21",
"content": "Mind blowing work. It always makes me wonder what could these people achieve with dev tools instead of having to patch.Also had no idea Super Mario Sunshine wasn’t highly thought of, it was a simpler ... | 1,760,373,139.707881 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/27/an-ancient-8-inch-floppy-with-a-pc/ | An Ancient 8 Inch Floppy, With A PC | Jenny List | [
"classic hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"8 inch floppy disk",
"8\"",
"eight inch"
] | Most of us may have gratefully abandoned the floppy disk a decade or more since, but even today many PCs and their operating systems retain the ability to deal with these data storage relics. The PC was widely fitted with either 5.25″ or 3.5″ disk drives, but other formats such as the older 8″ discs were not a fixture in the 16-bit desktop computing world. It’s something [Jozef Bogin] has taken aim at,
with his exploits in connecting a variety of 8″ drives to a PC
.
In the early 1970s there were a variety of different 8″ drive standards that weren’t all entirely compatible, but a
de facto
standard emerged as clones of the Shuggart drives used by IBM. It’s a modified version of this interface that can be found in a PC floppy controller. While there is enough electrical compatibility to connect the two there remains a variety of connectors used on the drives. There are also a wide range of power supplies, with drives requiring 5, 12, and 24 volts, and some of them even requiring AC mains with different versions for 50Hz and 60Hz mains frequencies.
With an 8″ drive hooked up to a PC, how might DOS, or even older Windows versions, interface with it? To that end he’s created a piece of software called
8format
, which not only allows 8″ disks to be formatted for the PC, but also provides a driver that replaces the BIOS floppy settings for these drives. This doesn’t work for imaging disks from other older platforms, but he provides pointers to more capable floppy controllers for that.
If these drives interest you, there’s more to be gleaned from
a tale of interfacing them with 8-bit retrocomputers
. | 41 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335054",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-03-28T02:05:59",
"content": "Haven’t seen an 8′ since my Tandy days.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6335055",
"author": "Eric S Chapin",
"timestamp": "2021-03... | 1,760,373,139.780598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/27/image-sensors-demystified-by-imsai-guy/ | Image Sensors Demystified By [IMSAI Guy] | Al Williams | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"digital camera",
"image sensors",
"photodiode"
] | The February 1975 issue of Popular Electronics had what was — at the time — an amazing project. The Cyclops, a digital camera with a 32 by 32 pixel resolution with 4 bits per pixel. It was hard to imagine then that we would now all carry around high-resolution color cameras that were also phones, network terminals, and so many other things. But how much do you know about how those cameras really work? If you want to know more, check out [IMSAI Guy’s] recent video on
how image sensors work
.
The video doesn’t cover any practical projects or circuits, but it has a good explanation of what goes on in modern digital cameras. If you don’t know what digital cameras have in common with an octopus, you might want to watch.
If you want to see what the state of the art in 1975 was, have a look at
this post
. The image sensor in that camera didn’t have much in common with the ones we use today, but you have to admit it is clever. Of course, 1975 was also the year Kodak
developed a digital camera
and failed to understand what to do with it. Like the Cyclops, it had little in common with our modern smartphone cameras, but you have to start somewhere. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335078",
"author": "Arthur Mezins",
"timestamp": "2021-03-28T04:06:51",
"content": "Forgive me if some of my brain cells have degenerated over time, but I recall that back in 1977, Fairchild (originally a camera company whose semi division soon overshadowed it) made a “discovery” a... | 1,760,373,139.965133 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/27/homebrew-68k-micro-atx-computer-runs-its-own-os/ | Homebrew 68K Micro-ATX Computer Runs Its Own OS | Tom Nardi | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"homebrew computer",
"m68k",
"Micro-ATX",
"Motorola 68000",
"retro computer"
] | We’re no stranger to home built Motorola 68000 computers here at Hackaday, but more often than not, they tend to be an experiment in retro minimalism. The venerable processor is usually joined by only a handful of components, and there’s an excellent chance they’ll have taken up residence on a piece of perfboard.
Then [NotArtyom] sent in his Blitz
, and launched the bar into the stratosphere.
Make no mistake, the Blitz isn’t just some simple demo of classic chips. The open hardware motherboard has onboard floppy, IDE, and PS/2 interfaces, with a trio of 8-bit ISA expansion slots for good measure. The Motorola 68030 CPU is humming along at 50 MHz, with 4 MB of RAM and 512 KB of ROM along for the ride. Designed to fit the Micro-ATX motherboard standard, you can even mount the Blitz in a contemporary PC case and run it on a standard ATX power supply.
An earlier prototype of the Blitz motherboard.
As if the hardware wasn’t impressive enough, [NotArtyom] went ahead and
created his own open source DOS-like operating system for it to run
. Written in portable C, G-DOS can run on various m68k boards as well as ARM and PowerPC machines. It’s an incredible project in its own right. If you’re looking for something to show off your homebrew computer, you could certainly do worse than pulling down a copy of G-DOS. If you do port it to a new board, make sure to let [NotArtyom] know.
It’s taken [NotArtyom] three years to develop Blitz and G-DOS with his only goal being to better understand homebrew computers. He has no interest in monetizing the design or turning it into a kit, but instead hopes it will be a resource and inspiration for others with similar interests. Oh yeah, and he did all of this before he even graduated high school. If you weren’t questioning your life’s accomplishments before, now would be a great time to start.
Interested in building your own Motorola 68000 computer, but haven’t yet attained the wizarding level of [NotArtyom]? You could start with
something a bit simpler like the 68k-nano
, or if you’re really in a pinch,
just dead bug a Dragonball 68328
. | 23 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6335012",
"author": "Michael Black",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T20:18:53",
"content": "Of course, there was a 68000 based computers described in a long series in Radio Electronics, the PT-68K , written by Pete Stark. An ISA compatible, it could use a lot of boards.Peter Stark had an... | 1,760,373,140.152675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/27/archery-release-becomes-reusable-balloon-cutdown-mechanism/ | Archery Release Becomes Reusable Balloon Cutdown Mechanism | Donald Papp | [
"hardware",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"archery",
"archery release",
"bow release",
"cutdown",
"HAB",
"high altitude balloon"
] | A cutdown in high-altitude balloon (HAB) parlance refers to detaching a payload, and can refer to the act of severing a line or to the mechanism itself. How is this done? The most common way is the “hot wire” method: a segment of wire is heated rapidly with a high current, causing it to melt through something like a nylon line.
But there’s more than one way to solve a problem, and while documenting different cutdown methods, [KI4MCW] found that
a caliper-style archery release plus hobby servo could be used as a high strength cutdown mechanism
. An archery release (or bow release) is a tool to assist in holding the string of a bow in the drawn position, and cleanly release it at the touch of a lever or button. It occurred to [KI4MCW] that these features might be made to serve as a payload release as well, and you can see here the crude but successful prototype for a reusable cutdown.
The archery release [KI4MCW] obtained opens its jaws when a trigger-style lever on the side is pulled. The force required to trigger this is remarkably low, and a low-torque economical hobby servo easily does the job. In fact, the force needed to trip the release is so low that [KI4MCW] added a short rubber band to provide some opposing tension on the lever, just to be sure no spontaneous triggers occurred. The device hasn’t flown yet, but the prototype looks promising. Maybe a mechanism like this would be appropriate for a payload like
dropping a high-altitude RC glider from a balloon
. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334985",
"author": "Alexander Wikström",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T17:42:32",
"content": "Another advantage of a bow string release is that they are made to handle the “weight” of a bow.Or in other words a tension of around 30-80+ pounds of force, or 150-400+ Newton.A fairly heavy p... | 1,760,373,140.017141 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/27/putting-your-time-in/ | Putting Your Time In | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Robots Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"hack",
"motor",
"newsletter",
"robot",
"servo"
] | I was absolutely struck by a hack this week — [Adam Bäckström]’s
amazing robot arm built with modified hobby servos
. Basically, he’s taken apart and re-built some affordable off-the-shelf servo motors, and like the 6-Million-Dollar Man, he’s rebuilt them better, stronger, faster. OK, and smoother. We have the technology.
The results are undeniably fantastic, and enable the experienced hacker to get champagne robot motion control on a grape-juice budget by employing some heavy control theory, and redundant sensors to overcome geartrain backlash, which is the devil of cheap servos. But this didn’t come out of nowhere. In his writeup, [Adam] starts off with “You could say this project started when I ordered six endless servos in middle school, more than 15 years ago.” And it shows.
Go check out
this video of his first version of the modified servos
, from a six-axis arm he built in 2009(!). He’s built in analog position sensors in the motors, which lets him control the speed and makes it work better than any other hobby servo arm you’ve ever seen, but there’s still visible backlash in the gears. A mere twelve years later, he’s got magnetic encoders on the output and a fast inner loop compensates for the backlash. The result is that the current arm moves faster and smoother, while retaining accuracy.
Twelve years. I assume that [Adam] has had some other projects on his plate as well, but that’s a long term project by any account. I’m stoked to see his work, not the least because it should help a lot of others who are ready to step up their desktop servo-arm projects. But the real take-home lesson here is that if you’ve got a tough problem that you’re hacking on, you don’t have to get it done this weekend. You don’t have to get it done next weekend either. Keep hammering on it as long as you need, but keep on hammering. When you get it done, the results will be all the better for the long, slow, brewing time. What’s the longest project that you’ve ever worked on?
This article is part of the Hackaday.com newsletter, delivered every seven days for each of the last 200+ weeks. It also includes our favorite articles from the last seven days that you can see on
the web version of the newsletter
.
Want this type of article to hit your inbox every Friday morning?
You should sign up
! | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334963",
"author": "Rusty shackleford",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T14:10:19",
"content": "7 years rebuilding a restomod motorcycle. I may submit to the tip line when I feel like making a build log",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,373,140.084341 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/27/dont-fret-over-the-ukulele/ | Don’t Fret Over The Ukulele | Bryan Cockfield | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"chord",
"disability",
"easy fret",
"education",
"motor",
"music",
"theory",
"ukulele"
] | A ukulele is a great instrument to pick to learn to play music. It’s easy to hold, has a smaller number of strings than a guitar, is fretted unlike a violin, isn’t particularly expensive, and everything sounds happier when played on one. It’s not without its limited downsides, though. Like any stringed instrument some amount of muscle memory is needed to play it fluidly which can take time to develop, but for new musicians there’s a handy new 3D printed part that can make even this aspect of learning the ukulele easier too.
Called the Easy Fret
, the tool clamps on to the neck of the ukulele and hosts a series of 3D printed “keys” that allow for complex chord shapes to be played with a single finger. In this configuration the chords C, F, G, and A minor can be played (although C probably shouldn’t be considered “complex” on a ukulele). It also makes extensive use of compliant mechanisms. For example, the beams that hit the chords use geometry to imitate a four-bar linkage. This improves the quality of the sound because the strings are pressed head-on rather than at an angle.
While this project is great for a beginner learning to play this instrument and figure out the theory behind it, its creator [Ryan Hammons] also hopes that it can be used by those with motor disabilities to be able to learn to play an instrument as well. And, if you have the 3D printer required to build this but don’t have an actual ukulele, with some strings and tuning pegs
you can 3D print a working ukulele as well
. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334943",
"author": "tilk",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T11:48:09",
"content": "No video clip?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6334990",
"author": "rok",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T17:58:57",
"content": "Cons... | 1,760,373,140.344151 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/hackaday-podcast-111-3d-graphics-are-ultrasonic-lobotomizing-alexa-3d-printing-leaky-rockets-and-gaming-the-font-system/ | Hackaday Podcast 111: 3D Graphics Are Ultrasonic, Lobotomizing Alexa, 3D-Printing Leaky Rockets, And Gaming The Font System | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams curate a week of great hacks. Physical displays created in 3D space are a holy grail, and you can make one with 200 ultrasonic transducers, four FPGAs, and a lot math. Smart speakers have one heck of a microphone array in them, it’s yours for the hacking if you just roll your own firmware. Hobby servos can be awful, but this week we saw they can be made really great by cracking open the DC motor to add a simple DIY position sensor. And lasers are making their way into car headlights; we illuminate the situation in this episode.
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)
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
Google Podcasts
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
Episode 111 Show Notes:
New This Week:
Digital PlayStation 3 Purchases May Only Live As Long As Your PRAM Battery Without Sony Servers
Fire At Renesas Plant Fuels Chip Supply Woes
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
An Entire Game Inside Of A Font
Amazon Echo Gets Open Source Brain Transplant
Surf’s Up, A Styrofoam Ball Rides The Waves To Create A Volumetric Display
A volumetric display for visual, tactile and audio presentation using acoustic trapping : Sussex Research Online
A Crash Course On Sniffing Bluetooth Low Energy
Robot Arm Achieves Amazing Accuracy With Just Servos
3D Printed Vortex Cooled Rocket Needs To Stop Leaking
Isogrid – Wikipedia
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks
Clock-of-Clocks Adds Light-Pipe Hands For Beauty And Function
Flip-Dots Enter The Realm Of Fine Art
Bringing Some Coulter To The Bench: Measuring Tiny Particles With Nanopore Sensing
Elliot’s Picks:
A Hi-Fi Speaker From Some Foil And Magnets
Reproducing A Reproducer: Servicing A Cylinder Phonograph In The Year 2021
Cursed USB-C: When Plug Orientation Matters
Arduino Serial Vs SerialUSB
Can’t-Miss Articles:
How Laser Headlights Work
Laser headlight teardown — MikesElectricStuff
Efficiency of LEDs: The highest luminous efficacy of a white LED. – DIAL
Laser headlights from BMW and Aliexpress – YouTube
Hey Google, Is My Heart Still Beating?
USB Audio Streaming : UMA-8-SP USB mic array | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334937",
"author": "chris",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T11:11:31",
"content": "2 new echo dot 3 50 Euro including post.They sell for 25 Euro each 2nd hand on ebay + post on top. CrazyHow many ADCs and GPIOs and i2C and One-Wire does and echo dot have anyway?",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,140.291022 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/serial-silicone-molding/ | Serial Silicone Molding | Chris Lott | [
"how-to"
] | [
"3D printed molds",
"silicone mold",
"zoetropes"
] | The techniques for making single-digit quantities of custom molded parts don’t scale well when you need to make dozens, as [Kevin Holmes] discovered. He needed to make 80-some sets of a silicone motor mount, and the one-up mold process was not going to work. He explores several solutions, which he rejects as being too complicated. Finally [Kevin] comes up with the idea of daisy-chaining banks of molds clamped together with rails of stock metal bars.
It’s a pretty nifty process to watch
and you can check the video out below, which is not unlike a very slow 7495 four-bit shift register.
Even though the silicone he uses is clear, pay attention and you can still see the carry-out as it propagates from mold to mold. He manually performs the nibble carry operation from one bank to the next — we wonder if he could cascade these banks, and inject all 80 in one really big squeeze?
Why would someone need 80 sets of silicone rubber motor mounts, you may ask? Well, you may remember the
4-mation 3D zoetrope
that we
wrote about back in 2018
. [Kevin] is one of the founders of this mesmerizing project, and it would seem that their Kickstarter project has been successful. As he demonstrates in the video below, without some type of noise dampening mounts, a rumble from the motor is amplified through the stage of the zoetrope. If you have any favorite mold-making tips for small batch manufacturing, let us know in the comments below. Thanks to [George Graves] for sending this tip our way. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334789",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T17:43:15",
"content": "The analog with the shift register is pretty contrived.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6334798",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestam... | 1,760,373,140.392197 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/this-week-in-security-xcodespy-insecure-sms-and-partial-redactions/ | This Week In Security: XcodeSpy, Insecure SMS, And Partial Redactions | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"redaction",
"sms",
"This Week in Security"
] | There seems to be a new trend in malware, targeting developers and their development and build processes. The appeal is obvious: rather than working to build and market a malicious application, an attacker just needs to infect a development machine. The hapless infected developers can now do the hard work to spread the malicious payload.
The newest example is
XcodeSpy
, discovered by a researcher who chose to remain anonymous. It works by using the Xcode IDE’s
Run Script
function to, well, run a script that completely backdoors your computer. The instance was found in a repackaged open source project, TabBarInteraction, but they’re just innocent victims. It was simple enough for someone to insert a script in the build process, and distribute the new, doped package. It’s probably not the only one out there, so watch out for
Run Scripts
with obfuscated payloads.
Drupal Module Security
Drupal is much like WordPress, in that the core project has very few serious vulnerabilities, but very serious problems are often found in the library of available extensions. Case in point,
the Fast Autocomplete module has a “moderately critical” vulnerability
. There are two interesting points here. The first is the problem itself, which is a data exposure issue. This extension provides a search bar experience that shows suggested auto-completions, and provides snippets associated with that auto completion. By default, those search results are limited to what an anonymous user can access on the site. The extension also provides the option to search private content, using the permissions available to the user accessing the site. The problem is that the extension caches all those results, and doesn’t properly segregate the results in the cache. So, once a privileged user has searched for something private, any user can repeat the search and access the snippets, even though that information is on a non-accessible page.
Drupal does something interesting, called their
Security Advisory Policy
. To put it in a nutshell, the Drupal team selects a handful of extensions that are widely used, and provide limited security support for those projects. This seems primarily mean coordinating vulnerability announcements.
Cell Number Dangers
You know how almost every online service wants to know you cell number? One of the reasons is that receiving a text message is one of the most popular second factor of authentication, not to mention account recovery mechanisms. While this is popular, it’s a horrible idea. There have been multiple attacks against SMS that easily lead to account takeover through this recovery procedure. An attacker can call your mobile provider and request a new SIM card for your number, known as a SIM swap attack. They can spoof your identity to the SS7 network, leading to SMS and voice call spying. And don’t forget the ever popular number migration fraud, where an attacker claims to be you, moving your number to a new provider.
It turns out, there’s an even easier way to intercept SMS messages. [Lucky225] has been intrigued by SMS fraud for years, and
brings us his work on SMS Routing
. NetNumber ID is a routing service intended for VoIP and business users to handle text messages, even though they aren’t using a traditional SMS device. There is a distinct lack of oversight over this process, and until recently, it was possible to hijack any cell number’s SMS routing through a simple request.
Vice has a rather nice example
of [Lucky225] demonstrating the attack, using $16 and a fake Letter of Authorization.
Zoom Showing Too Much
Oversharing on Zoom is one of the fun, cringey, and sometimes disturbing collective memories we have of 2020. From roommates walking into the shot, to meetings sans pants, it was a crazy time. There’s another way to overshare, at least when you’re sharing a video feed of your desktop or an open application. It’s common sense not to leave anything sensitive open on your machine when you’re sharing your desktop view. However, a pair of researchers from SySS discovered that even when sharing only an application,
other application windows may briefly appear in the video feed
.
When a different application is drawn on top of the one captured by Zoom, a few frames of the sent video may contain the image of that application. If the call is recorded by one of the other parties, they can pull the frame and see exactly is unintentionally visible. Now this is usually going to be as mundane as seeing what browser tabs are open, or getting a look at notes for the call. From a password manager, to personal information, there are certainly ways this bug could end very badly.
Partial
Redaction
Speaking of unintentional data exposure, I came across a fun story about
a partially redacted RSA key that was posted online
. As our lot are wont to do, a few crypto geeks set about trying to figure out the whole key from the partial screenshot. Within three hours, they had deduced the full key. The write-up states that the hardest and most time consuming element was converting the screenshot back into text.
There have been many stories over the years about redaction failures. Redacted PDFs can sometimes be
read through simple copy and paste
. In some images, you can figure out text based on a single row of pixels visible above and below the deleted text. And finally, the simple blurring tools from photo editing suites are reversible, leading to easily recovered text. All this to say, doing redaction properly can be very difficult, and as the writeup concludes, “if you find something private, keep it that way.” | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334741",
"author": "Reg",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T15:00:31",
"content": "Read Ken Thompson’s Turing address, “Reflections on Trusting Trust”.https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/358198.358210Then consider that being done to gcc and distributed as a binary pkg via one or more of the ma... | 1,760,373,140.513934 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/usb-comes-to-the-esp32/ | USB Comes To The ESP32 | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ESP32",
"host",
"keyboard",
"mouse",
"native",
"software",
"usb",
"usb 1.1"
] | Since the ESP8266 came on the scene a few years ago and revolutionized the way microcontrollers communicate with other devices, incremental progress on this chip has occurred at a relatively even pace. First there was the realization that code could be run on the chip itself. Next the ESP32 was released which built more on that foundation. The next step in that process of improvement may be here now as well, with
this project which turns the ESP32 into a USB host
.
USB is not a native feature on all microcontrollers or even Arduino-compatible boards. While some do have it built in like those based on the 32u4 for example, most either don’t have it at all or rely on a separate on-board chip to do some form of translating. The ESP32 is lacking this advanced feature so the USB needs to be cobbled together from scratch if you want this specific board to be able to interface directly with peripherals. This project does just that, allowing for four USB 1.1 devices to be connected directly to the ESP32 without a separate dedicated chip.
If you’ve been waiting for USB on this tiny, capable microcontroller this might be your chance to try it out. All of the project’s code is available on the project page. And, while it is limited in scope, it’s easily able to handle a keyboard or mouse. This might be a more cost-effective way of doing something like a KVM switch rather than
doing it with three Arduinos
. | 20 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334703",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T11:30:22",
"content": "From this Hackaday article it was unclear to me what this project does exactly.The project description (in the link in the article) does make it clear though:Pure software implementation of USB LS HOST st... | 1,760,373,140.572217 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/undocumented-x86-instructions-allow-microcode-access/ | Undocumented X86 Instructions Allow Microcode Access | Al Williams | [
"computer hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"microcode",
"speculative execution",
"undocumented instructions",
"x86"
] | For an old CPU, finding all the valid instructions wasn’t very hard. You simply tried them all. Sure, really old CPUs might make it hard to tell what the instruction did, but once CPUs got illegal instruction traps, you could quickly just scan possible op codes and see what didn’t throw an exception. Modern processors, though, are quite another thing. For example, you might run a random instruction that locks up the machine or miss an instruction that would have been valid but the CPU is in the wrong mode. [Can Bölük] has a novel solution: By
speculatively executing the target instruction
and then monitoring the microcode sequencer, he can determine if the CPU is decoding an instruction even if it refuses to execute it.
Some unknown instructions may have power for good or evil, such as the recently announced
undocumented instructions
that can apparently rewrite the microcode. We expect to see a post soon on how to reprogram your Intel processor to run as a 6502 natively.
The speculative execution exploit is quite clever. Modern processors execute code out of order and run different parts of instructions at the same time. In other words, it might be fetching instruction C while storing the result of instruction A and decoding instruction B. The problem is when the code can conditionally branch it causes a problem. If instruction A is a conditional jump, do you take B and C as the next instructions or the instructions at the branch address? Either way, if you are wrong you’ll need to discard any work you’ve already done and restart.
One answer is to simply stall the pipeline until the decision is final. That’s bad for performance, though. Another common technique is to try to guess what direction a branch in your code will take and use that. That might be a simple heuristic such as mode jumps go backward or it could keep a history of where the jump has gone in the past.
The key is that the code is partially executed, but can’t do whatever it is supposed to do until the branch resolves. Normally, that wouldn’t be helpful, but watching the performance counters of the microcode translators tells you if the instruction generated actual low-level microcode instructions or was simply pruned out immediately as a bad instruction. The assumption is that if the CPU designer sent an instruction to microcode it must do something. [Can] provides a list of instructions found on his i7 6850K CPU.
We love these
deep dives into CPU architecture
. Sometimes it leads to
god-like powers
, at least at the CPU level. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334681",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T09:12:14",
"content": "> reprogram your Intel processor to run as a 6502 nativelyThat would be cool, but the 16 bit address space would limit you to 64KiB of RAM :)But having all your RAM fit in the CPU L2 Cache four times could ... | 1,760,373,140.449791 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/25/data-blaster-is-a-hip-rpi-cyberdeck/ | Data Blaster Is A Hip RPi Cyberdeck | Lewin Day | [
"Cyberdecks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"cyberdeck",
"raspberry pi",
"raspberry pi 400"
] | Cyberdecks were once a science fiction approximation of what computing might look like in the future. In the end, consumer devices took a very different path. No matter, though, because the maker community decided cyberdecks were too awesome to ignore and started making their own. After lusting after some of the amazing builds already out there, [Zach Freedman] decided it was time to start his own build,
resulting in the Data Blaster.
Epoxy holds the printed parts to the Pi 400
The Raspberry Pi has always been popular in the nascent cyberdeck scene, providing real Linux computing power in a compact, portable package. Now, we have the Raspberry Pi 400, which is exactly that, built into a shell that is, approximately, half of a cyberdeck. This formed the base of [Zach]’s build, coming in handy with its full-sized keyboard.
To that,
he added a widescreen 1280×480 LCD
, wearable display, and a USB powerbank, turning it into a true go-anywhere terminal. The 3D-printed handles are a particularly nice touch, making it easy to use the deck from a standing position, something that no laptop really does well. As a bonus, there’s even a tiny software defined radio on the side, complete with a collapsible antenna for that added
cool factor.
It’s a fun build, and a useful one too. We suspect the chunky plastics and grabbable design might actually make the Data Blaster preferable to a laptop in rugged field use versus a more traditional laptop.
We’ve seen some other great work in this area, too
. Video after the break. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334658",
"author": "blorbin",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T07:06:06",
"content": "Great, now i want a cyberdeck as well. Gonna put in a bunch of sensors though.Maybe a tricorder/cyberdeck hybrid?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,373,140.633087 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/25/speaker-is-fully-3d-printed/ | Speaker Is Fully 3D Printed | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"speaker"
] | [Thomas] is always up to some kind of 3D printing project. His latest?
A fully 3D printed speaker
. This is possible because of
designs
by [Paul Ellis] that use 3D printed materials for nearly all parts of the speaker. You can see and hear the speaker in the video below.
You might expect different parts of the speaker use different filaments. There are also different techniques such as the use of single-wall printing that makes the speaker possible.
There is a bit of hardware involved, and parts that need glue. You can’t just replicate a speaker in one pass, at least, not yet. [Thomas] tests the speaker with raw audio and also with some DSP processing to match the speaker’s characteristics. It isn’t going to put a dent in the audiophile speaker market, but it sounded fine.
The video mentions that this project is at the limit of what you can do with a common FDM printer. We don’t disagree, but we wonder what other “impossible” projects are really possible with a little ingenuity and invention.
We do see 3D-printed
speaker enclosures
regularly. We’ve also seen some good results with a 3D printer and a laser cutter, but
those speakers
do have more exotic store-bought parts. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334632",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T02:15:23",
"content": "*not fully…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6334648",
"author": "irox",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T04:47:01",
"content": "Well,... | 1,760,373,140.681242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/27/virtual-reality-with-a-dash-of-live-shakespeare/ | Virtual Reality With A Dash Of Live Shakespeare | Roger Cheng | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"theater",
"theatre",
"virtual reality",
"vr",
"William Shakespeare"
] | Virtual reality headsets enforce an isolated experience, cutting us off from people nearby when we put one on our head. But in recent times, when we’re not suppose to have many people nearby anyway, a curious reversal happens: VR can give us a pandemic-safe social experience. Like going to our local community theater, which is an idea [Tender Claws] has been exploring with
The Under Presents
.
VR hype has drastically cooled, to put it mildly. While some believe the technology is dead and buried, others believe it is merely in a long tough climb out of the
Trough of Disillusionment
. It is a time for innovators to work without the limelight of unrealistic expectations. What they need is a platform for experiments, evaluate feedback, and iterate. A cycle hackers know well!
The Under Presents
is such a platform for its corner of VR evolution.
Most VR titles are videogames of one genre or another, so newcomers to the single-player experience may decide its otherworldly exploration feels like
Myst
. A multi-player option is hardly novel in this day and age, but the relatively scarcity of VR headsets means this world is never going to be as crowded as
World of WarCraft
. This is not a bug, it is a differentiating feature. Performers occasionally step into this world, changing the experience in ways no NPC ever could. A less crowded world makes these encounters more frequent, and more personal.
Pushing this idea further, there have been scheduled shows where a small audience is led by an actor through a story. As of this writing, a run of
a show inspired by Shakespeare’s
Tempest
is nearing its end. The experience of watching an actor adjusting and reacting to an audience used to be exclusive to an intimate theater production. But with such venues closed, it is now brought to you by VR.
How will these explorations feature in the future of the technology? It’s far too early to say, but every show moves VR storytelling a little bit forward. We hope this group or another will find their way to success and prove the naysayers wrong. But it is also possible this will all
go the way of phone VR
. We are usually more focused on the
technical evolution of VR
here, but it’s nice to know people are exploring
novel applications of the technology
. For one can’t exist for long without the other. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334953",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T13:15:09",
"content": "“Virtual reality headsets enforce an isolated experience, cutting us off from people nearby when we put one on our head.”MR might help with that. Another neglected element is good sound design.",
"pa... | 1,760,373,140.78015 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/raspberry-pi-zero-beams-back-video-from-100000-feet/ | Raspberry Pi Zero Beams Back Video From 100,000 Feet | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Space"
] | [
"balloon",
"high altitude balloon",
"horus"
] | The Project Horus team routinely launches high-altitude balloons in Australia. However, despite their desire for it, they haven’t beamed back live video. Until now.
Horus 55 beamed video back to the ground from over 100,000 feet
using a Raspberry Pi and some software-defined radio gear. Be sure and check out their video, below.
You might think this is easy, but there are many technical hurdles. First, the transmitter needs some power, but the thin atmosphere creates problems with cooling. In addition a really good receiving station is required, and the project wanted to stream that video to the Internet, which they were able to do.
The balloon carried a Raspberry Pi Zero W to capture and compress video. A LimeSDR Mini provided the DVB-S transmission on 70cm along with a power amplifier to get to about 800mW. Power dissipation in the payload was about 6 watts and required a special heat sink system to operate. The payload was powered by eight lithium AA primary cells, which perform well at low temperatures.
As you’ll see in the video, the balloon eventually burst, so if you were imagining yourself onboard, that’s a little disconcerting. There’s also a second video discussing the preparation for the flight that’s worth checking out.
Balloons have a long history, though we don’t think any
World War II-era balloons
sent back video. We remember another
balloon that had a Raspberry Pi onboard
that didn’t work out so well. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334961",
"author": "RF Dude",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T13:32:11",
"content": "Great work! Lots of logistics and planning (7 P’s avoided) and some success, and even recovery of the payload. Congrats.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_... | 1,760,373,140.736949 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/move-over-cesium-clock-optical-clocks-are-taking-over/ | Move Over Cesium Clock, Optical Clocks Are Taking Over | Al Williams | [
"clock hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"atomic clock",
"Frequency Standard",
"optical clock"
] | We normally think of atomic clocks as the gold standard in timekeeping. The very definition of a second — in modern times, at least — is 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of a stationary cesium-133 atom at a temperature of 0K. But there is a move to replace that definition using
optical clocks that are 100 times more accurate
than a standard atomic clock.
In recent news, the Boulder Atomic Clock Optical Network — otherwise known as BACON — compared times from three optical clocks and found that the times differed a little more than they had predicted, but the clocks were still amazingly accurate relative to each other. Some of the links used optical fibers, a method used before. But there were also links carried by lasers aimed from one facility to another. The lasers, however didn’t work during a snowstorm, but when they did work the results were comparable to the optical fiber method.
A standard atomic clock takes a beam of atoms that are in two states and uses a magnetic field to remove all the atoms in one state. The remaining atoms are subjected to a microwave signal which causes some of the atoms to flip to the opposite state. Another magnetic field removes one state and the remaining atoms are counted. When the microwave signal exactly matches the material’s resonance frequency — 9.192631770 GHz, in the case of cesium — the number of atoms changing state will be at a maximum, so you know when you’ve hit the right frequency.
Optical clocks such as the aluminum ion, ytterbium, and strontium clocks have much higher resonance frequencies, high enough to be in the spectrum of light. This allows a much more precise frequency in the same way that a ruler with 32 marks will be more precise than the same ruler with 4 marks. While a cesium clock may be off one second in 100 million years, the optical clocks will take 15 billion years to have the same magnitude of inaccuracy.
If you want to build your own clock, you might
start with rubidium
at a less accurate 6.8 GHz. If you want to know more about
how atomic clocks work
, we have just the video for you. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334875",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T02:56:44",
"content": "Well great, now my cesium watch is inaccurate garbage.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6335015",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,373,140.929258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/skid-steer-robot-chassis-takes-a-beating/ | Skid Steer Robot Chassis Takes A Beating | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"belt drive",
"robot",
"skid steer"
] | [Engineering After Hours] wanted a highly maneuverable robot chassis with a tight turning radius. Skid steering seemed to be the perfect solution, but the available commercial options didn’t take his fancy. Thus, a custom build was the answer –
with impressive results
.
The build packs two large RC motors, one for each side, with each driving two wheels through a belt drive. This reduces the electronics required to the bare minimum for skid steering. It’s all assembled within a plasma-cut metal chassis which is more than tough enough to take some hard knocks.
One of the primary goals on the build was to eliminate the risk of vibrations and shock damaging the motors and gearboxes. Many off-the-shelf designs couple the wheels directly to gearbox output shafts, potentially damaging the expensive components over time. In this design, a separate bearing assembly is used to take the load from the wheels instead.
It’s a great example of how an engineering-first approach can build a sturdy ‘bot with a minimum of fuss. Outfitted with some fat off-road tyres the performance is impressive, with the ‘bot having no trouble tearing it up in mud, snow, and water.
We’ve seen other great builds from [Engineering After Hours] before,
like the active aero RC build.
Video after the break. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334883",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2021-03-27T03:34:27",
"content": "The YouTube video is indeed entertaining (up to the around the third ad), but where’s the meat? I want to see some still macro-photos of the build and a BOM with P/N’s & sources. I mean is there a web site ... | 1,760,373,140.974874 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/nixie-shot-timer-adds-useful-elegance-to-espresso-machine/ | Nixie Shot Timer Adds Useful Elegance To Espresso Machine | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino nano",
"electromagnetic field",
"espresso shot timer",
"nixie tube"
] | Once you’ve ground the beans and tamped the grounds just so, pulling the perfect shot of espresso comes down to timing. Ideally, the extraction should last 20-30 seconds, from the first dark drips to the tan and tiger-striped crema on top that gives the espresso a full aftertaste.
[Marco] has a beautiful espresso machine that was only missing one thing:
an equally beautiful shot timer with a Nixie tube display
. Instead of messing with the wiring, [Marco] took the non-invasive approach and is using a DIY coil to detect the magnetic field of the espresso machine’s pump and start a shot timer.
An LM358-based op-amp magnifies the current induced by the machine and feeds it to an Arduino Nano, which does FFT calculations. [Marco] found a high-voltage interface driver to switch 170 V to the Nixies instead of using two handfuls of transistors. Grab yourself a flat white and check it out after the break.
The last Nixies may have been mass-produced in the 1980s, but never fear —
Dalibor Farny is out there keeping the dream alive and making new Nixies
. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334829",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T20:24:52",
"content": "Those Nixie tubes are glorious.FFT didn’t even occur to me in this kind of setting.There’s got to be a simpler more reliable option? Running the FFT seems to be he biggest computational task here?Ardu... | 1,760,373,141.082234 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/real-time-object-detection-for-59/ | Real Time Object Detection For $59 | Al Williams | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"Jetson Nano",
"NVIDIA",
"object detection",
"opencv"
] | There was a time when making a machine to identify objects in a camera was difficult, even without trying to do it in real time. But now, you can do it with a Jetson Nano board for under $60. How well does it work?
Watch [Murtaza’s] video
below and see what you think.
The first few minutes of the video piqued our interest, and good thing, too, because the 50 lines of code get a 50-plus minute video! It is worth watching, though, because there’s a lot of good information about how to apply this technique in your own projects.
Of course, there is a lot more than 50 lines of code doing the work. The Jetson code and OpenCV do a lot of heavy lifting. But it is a great thing to leverage powerful tools to make tough jobs easy.
We were impressed with the neural network’s ability to reason out images. There was an image of a person opening up a sofa into a bed and the system correctly identified it as both a sofa and a bed. Pretty impressive.
We’ve seen
dedicated object recognition systems
at this price point, but the Jetson has a lot of flexibility. We were excited to see the Jetson Nano and with 128 cores and a good bit of memory, we are waiting to see more really powerful projects built around it. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334803",
"author": "rok",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T18:38:19",
"content": "AI does not “reason”, AI infers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6334822",
"author": "BaffledPenguin",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T19:51:2... | 1,760,373,141.13787 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/26/bare-metal-stm32-please-mind-the-interrupt-event/ | Bare-Metal STM32: Please Mind The Interrupt Event | Maya Posch | [
"ARM",
"Featured",
"Microcontrollers",
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"EXTI",
"interrupts",
"Nested Vector Interrupt Controller",
"NVIC",
"stm32"
] | Interruptions aren’t just a staple of our daily lives. They’re also crucial for making computer systems work as well as they do, as they allow for a system to immediately respond to an event. While on desktop computers these interrupts are less prominent than back when we still had to manually set the
IRQ
for a new piece of hardware using toggle switches on an ISA card, IRQs along with DMA (direct memory access) transfers are still what makes a system appear zippy to a user if used properly.
On microcontroller systems like the STM32, interrupts are even more important, as this is what allows an MCU to respond in
hard real-time
to an (external) event. Especially in something like an industrial process or in a modern car, there are many events that simply cannot be processed whenever the processor gets around to polling a register. Beyond this, interrupts along with interrupt handlers provide for a convenient way to respond to both external and internal events.
In this article we will take a look at what it takes to set up interrupt handlers on GPIO inputs, using a practical example involving a
rotary incremental encoder
.
Some Assembly Required
Diagram of the Cortex-M4 core in the STM32F4 family of MCUs. (ST PM0214, section 1.3).
Interrupts on STM32 MCUs come in two flavors: internal and external. Both types of interrupts use the same core peripheral in the Cortex-M core: the
Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller
, or NVIC. Depending on the exact Cortex-M core, this peripheral can support hundreds of interrupts, with multiple priority levels.
These interrupts are not all freely assignable, however. If we look at the reference manual for the STM32F4xx MCUs (specifically
RM0090
, section 12), we can see that for the NVIC interrupt lines, we get whittled down to 82 to 91 maskable interrupt channels from the up to 250 total for the NVIC core peripheral in the Cortex-M4.
These interrupt channels all have a specific purpose, as defined in the vector table (e.g. RM0090, Table 62), which has over 90 entries. Some of these interrupts are reserved for processor, memory or data bus events (e.g. faults), while the ones which are usually most interesting to a developer are those related to non-core peripherals. Just about any peripheral — whether it’s a timer, USART, DMA channel, SPI, or I2C bus — has at least one interrupt related to them.
EXTI peripheral block diagram (RM0090, 12.2.5).
The same is true for the EXTI (EXTernal Interrupt/event controller) peripheral. On the STM32F1, F4, and F7 STM32 families, the EXTI peripheral has 7 interrupts associated with it, and 3 on the F0 (STM32F04x and others). For the first group, these are described as:
EXTI line 0
EXTI line 1
EXTI line 2
EXTI line 3
EXTI line 4
EXTI line 5 through 9
EXTI line 10 through 15
As one can see, we get 16 lines on the EXTI peripheral which can be used with GPIO pins, but some of those lines are grouped together, requiring a bit more work in the interrupt handler to determine which line got triggered if desirable. The lines themselves are connected using muxes to GPIO pins as in the following diagram:
STM32F4 EXTI to GPIO peripheral mapping. (RM0090, 12.2.5)
What this means is that on the F1 through F7 families, GPIO pins 0 through 4 get a dedicated interrupt which they share with other GPIO peripherals. The remaining 11 pins on each GPIO peripheral get grouped into the remaining two interrupts. On the STMF0xx family, lines 0 & 1, as well as 2 & 3 and 4 through 15 are grouped into a total of three interrupts.
The remaining EXTI lines are connected to peripherals like RTC, Ethernet, and USB for features like Wakeup and Alarm events.
Demo Time: Incremental Encoders and Interrupts
Mechanical rotary incremental encoder mounted on a PCB.
The way that
mechanical rotary incremental encoders
work is that they alternately create a contact between the single input pin and the A & B output pins. The result is a pulsing output from which one can deduce the rotation direction and speed. They are commonly used in control panels, where an additional two pins provide a push button functionality.
In order to properly sense these pulses, however, our code that runs in the MCU has to be aware of every pulse. Missed pulses will result in visible effects to the user such as a sluggish response in the system, or even a direction change that doesn’t get picked up immediately.
For this example, we’ll use a standard rotary encoder, connecting its input pin to ground, and connecting the A & B pins to GPIO inputs. This can be any combination of GPIO pins on any port, as long as we keep in mind that we do not overlap with pin numbers: if we use, say, PB0 for signal A, we can not use PA0 or PC0 for signal B. We can however use PB1, PB2, etc.
Setting Up External Interrupts
The steps involved in setting up an external interrupt on a GPIO pin can be summarized as follows:
Enable
SYSCFG
(except on F1).
Enable
EXTI
in
RCC
(except on F1).
Set
EXTI_IMR
register for the pin to enable the line as an interrupt.
Set
EXTI_FTSR
&
EXTI_RTSR
registers for the pin for trigger on falling and/or rising edge.
Set
NVIC
priority on interrupt.
Enable interrupt in the
NVIC
register.
For example an STM32F4 family MCU, we would enable the SYSCFG (System Configuration controller) peripheral first.
RCC->APB2ENR |= (1 << RCC_APB2ENR_SYSCFGCOMPEN_Pos);
The
SYSCFG
peripheral manages the external interrupt lines to the
GPIO
peripherals, i.e. the mapping between a
GPIO
peripheral and the
EXTI
line. Say if we want to use PB0 and PB4 as the input pins for our encoder’s A & B signals, we would have to set the lines in question to the appropriate
GPIO
peripheral. For port B, this would be done in
SYSCFG_EXTICR1
and
SYSCFG_EXTICR2
, as each 32-bit register covers a total of four
EXTI
lines:
SYSCFG_EXTICR1 register for STM32F4 MCUs. (RM0090, 9.2.3)
While somewhat confusing at first glance, setting these registers is relatively straightforward. E.g. for PB0:
SYSCFG->EXTICR[0] |= (((uint32_t) 1) << 4);
As each line’s section in the register is four bits, we left-shift the appropriate port value to reach the required position. For PB4 we do the same thing, but in the second register, and without left shift, as that register starts with line 4.
At this point we’re almost ready to configure the EXTI & NVIC registers. First, we need to enable the GPIO peripheral we intend to use, and set the pins to input mode in pull-up configuration, as here for PB0:
RCC->AHB1ENR |= (1 << RCC_AHBENR_GPIOBEN_Pos);
GPIOB->MODER &= ~(0x3);
GPIOB->PUPDR &= ~(0x3);
GPIOB-&>PUPDR |= (0x1);
Say we want to set PB0 to trigger on a falling edge, we have to first enable Line 0, then configure the trigger registers:
pin = 0;
EXTI->IMR |= (1 << pin);
EXTI->RTSR &= ~(1 << pin);
EXTI->FTSR |= (1 << pin);
All of these registers are quite straight-forward, with each line having its own bit.
With that complete, we merely have to enable the interrupts now, and ensure our interrupt handlers are in place. First the NVIC, which is done most easily via the standard CMSIS functions, as here for PB0, with interrupt priority level 0 (the highest):
NVIC_SetPriority(EXTI0_IRQn, 0);
NVIC_EnableIRQ(EXTI0_IRQn);
The interrupt handlers (ISRs) have to match the function signature as defined in the vector table that is loaded into RAM on start-up. When using the standard ST device headers, these have the following signature:
void EXTI0_IRQHandler(void) {
// ...
}
When using C++, be advised that ISRs absolutely need to have a C-style function symbol (i.e. no name-mangling). Either wrap the entire ISR in an
extern "C" {}
block, or forward declarations of the ISRs to get around this.
Wrapping Up
With all of this implemented and the encoder wired up to the correct pins, we should see that the two interrupt handlers which we implemented get triggered whenever we rotate the encoder. Much of the code in this article was based on the
‘Eventful’ example
from the
Nodate
project. That example uses the APIs implemented in the
Interrupts class
from that framework.
While at face-value somewhat daunting, using interrupts and even setting them up manually as described in this article should not feel too intimidating once one has a basic overview of the components, their function and what to set the individual registers to.
Using the NVIC and EXTI peripherals for detecting external inputs is of course just one example of interrupts on the STM32 platform. As alluded to earlier, they serve a myriad more purposes even outside the Cortex-M core. They can be used to wake the MCU up from a sleep condition, or to have a timer peripheral periodically trigger an interrupt so that a specific function can be performed with high determinism rather than by checking a variable in a loop or similar.
It’s my hope that this article provided an overview and solid basis for further adventures with STM32 interrupts. | 27 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334780",
"author": "Cerald",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T17:22:58",
"content": "Encoders are dangerous examples when it comes to external interrupts. For encoders the absence of hysteresis is a quality criterion as it allows for greater positional accuracy. This also means that tiny b... | 1,760,373,141.283003 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/25/earth-day-challenge-a-better-way-to-wrangle-water/ | Earth Day Challenge: A Better Way To Wrangle Water | Kristina Panos | [
"contests"
] | [
"Earth Day",
"Earth Day Challenge",
"Jerry can",
"water"
] | How far do you have to go for a glass of clean water? Not very? Just go to a sink and turn on the faucet? We would venture to guess that is the case for most Hackaday readers. Maybe you even have a water softener, or a filter on your tap to make your drinking water even more palatable and free of heavy metal.
In Ethiopia and many other countries, people do not have access to clean, flowing water and must walk several kilometers to fetch it from somewhere that does. And they’re not doing this on paved roads, either — these women are cutting treacherous paths across mountains and through muddy, rocky terrain that make wheeled transport nearly impossible. How do you comfortably lug around 25 kg (~55 lbs) worth of sloshing water? You don’t, unless you have
[Anteneh Gashaw]’s ingenious jerrycan
.
As you can see in the video below, the current crop of jerrycans are just big plastic jugs that have to be carried on top of the head or the shoulder, both of which are bad for bodies. [Anteneh]’s can evenly distributes the weight by wrapping it completely around the person carrying it and suspending it from both shoulders like a beer-and-peanuts vendor’s carrying case. Basically, it’s a PVC inner tube with shoulder straps. Simple, cheap, and effective = absolute genius in our book. Ideally, everyone would have free access to clean water, both cold and hot. Until that time, [Anteneh]’s entry into
our Earth Day Challenge
is a great workaround that will no doubt save a lot of spines.
Potable water may be closer than you think. Build
a portable potability predictor
and you might not have to travel so far. | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334613",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-03-26T00:36:14",
"content": "Inner tube is about right for distributing weight. Just watch the neck.Anyway some people draw well water. Others rain barrels.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,373,141.208017 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/25/vibration-isolation-helps-improve-fpv-video-feed/ | Vibration Isolation Helps Improve FPV Video Feed | Lewin Day | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"FPV",
"vibration"
] | First-person view technology has become hugely popular in the RC community, letting the user get a vantage point as though they were actually within their tiny scale vehicle. It can be difficult to get a good, clean video feed though, particularly in models that have a lot of drivetrain vibration. [Engineering After Hours] decided to tackle this problem
with a simple vibration isolator design
. (Video, embedded below.)
The first step is to analyse the vibration to get an idea of the frequencies that are most important to target. WIth that done, a simple 3D printed camera mount is designed with three flexible joints between the camera and the base which is rigidly coupled to the RC boat or car’s body. The modal analysis tools in Fusion 360 were used to get a rough idea of the frequency response of the system, helping to get things in the ballpark with a minimum of fuss.
The final design does help cut down on vibrations, though it is unable to counteract heavy vibration from driving on extremely rough surfaces. In these cases, [Engineering After Hours] recommends the use of a gimbal instead. Proper damping can be a godsend in many applications; bricks can make a huge difference for your 3D printer, for example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBxt8B7kVDk | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334566",
"author": "Mark4931",
"timestamp": "2021-03-25T20:52:15",
"content": "Certainly interesting. As we know, most video encoding schemes are not very good at filtering high frequency noise. Maybe this is something that could be looked at from a software side also? I wonder if ... | 1,760,373,141.326916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/25/cnc-scroll-saw-add-on-cuts-beautiful-wooden-spirals/ | CNC Scroll Saw Add-On Cuts Beautiful Wooden Spirals | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"g-code",
"grbl",
"jig",
"linear slide",
"screw",
"scroll saw",
"spiral",
"stepper",
"tool",
"woodwirking"
] | If there’s one thing that woodworkers have always been good at, it’s coming up with clever jigs and work-holding solutions. Most jigs, however, are considerably simpler and more static than
this CNC-controlled scroll saw add-on
that makes cool wooden spirals a snap.
As interesting as the products of this setup are, what we like about this is the obvious care and craftsmanship [rschoenm] put into making what amounts to a hybrid between a scroll saw and a lathe. Scroll saws are normally used to make narrow-kerf cuts in thin, delicate materials, often with complicated designs using very tight radius turns. In this case, though, stock is held between centers on the lathe-like carriage. The jig uses a linear slide driven by a stepper and a lead screw to translate the workpiece perpendicular to the scroll saw blade while a geared headstock rotates it. Starting with the blade inserted into a through-hole, the saw slowly cuts a beautiful nested spiral down the length of the workpiece. An Uno, a GRBL shield, and some stepper drivers let a little G-code control the two axes of the jig.
The video below shows it in action; things do get a bit wobbly as the cut progresses, but in general the jig works wonderfully and results in some lovely pieces. At first we thought these would purely be
objets d’art
, but then we thought about
this compression screw grinder
for DIY injection molding machines and realized these wooden screws look pretty similar. | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334539",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2021-03-25T18:56:45",
"content": "Wait… where does the computer control come in?Oh yeah, used my computer to watch the video of a woodworking jig in slow mo and fast speed. I’ll be adding that to my collection as soon as I get my triangle c... | 1,760,373,141.467096 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/25/the-50-ham-wspr-ing-around-the-world/ | The $50 Ham: WSPR-ing Around The World | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Original Art",
"Radio Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"digital",
"joe taylor",
"propagation",
"The $50 Ham",
"weak signal",
"WSJT-X"
] | Everybody has a bucket list, things to be accomplished before the day we eventually wake up on the wrong side of the grass. Many bucket-list items are far more aspirational than realistic; very few of us with “A trip to space” on our lists are going to live to see that fulfilled. And even the more realistic goals, like the trip to Antarctica that’s been on my list for ages, become less and less likely as your life circumstances change — my wife hates the cold.
Luckily, instead of going to Antarctica by myself — and really, what fun would that be? — I’ve recently been getting some of the satisfaction of world travel through amateur radio. The last installment of “The $50 Ham” highlighted
weak-signal digital modes using WSJT-X
; in that article, I mentioned a little about the Weak Signal Propagation Reporter, or WSPR. It’s that mode that let me test what’s possible with very low-power transmissions, and allowed me to virtually visit six continents including Antarctica and Sweden-by-way-of-Alaska.
Whispers in the Noise
Ask a random amateur radio operator what’s on his or her mind at any given moment and chances are pretty good the answer will be, “How are the bands right now?” That’s shorthand for what the current state of the ionosphere is, which largely determines how well RF signals will bounce off the various layers of charged particles that wrap around the planet. These layers shift and move in diurnal cycles, and undergo longer-term cycles of strengthening and weakening that depend on the cycles of magnetic activity on the Sun.
Assessing the state of the ionosphere and finding out which bands have a path to which points on the globe used to be something that hams had to do by spinning the dial and listening for beacon stations. Beacons are stations that transmit a generally low-power signal from a fixed, know location on a regular schedule. If you can hear the beacon, chances are good that you’ve got a propagation path between you and the general area of the beacon on that frequency.
While beacons are useful, they have their limits. They depend on the kindness of strangers, who devote resources to running and maintaining the beacon station. Beacons are also subject to occasional maintenance outages, so not hearing a beacon you expect does not necessarily mean that you don’t have a path between two points. But perhaps the most limiting aspect of traditional beacons is that they operate on a pull model — you have to sit down at your radio and intentionally tune into the beacon’s frequency and decode what you hear — beacons almost always use continuous wave (CW) mode with Morse code. Add to that the fact that whatever you learn about the propagation paths available to you stays pretty much within your shack, and beacons have limited utility.
WSPR signal
by Louis Taber, CC BY-SA 4.0
With those limitations in mind, Joe Taylor (K1JT) began working on a digital mode in 2008 specifically for exploring propagation paths. The protocol was dubbed WSPR, which of course everyone pronounces as “whisper,” which given its capabilities is an apt name indeed. WSPR is a digital mode that employs special digital signal processing algorithms to decode signals with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of -28 dBm in a bandwidth of 2,500 Hz.
When transmitting, WSPR sends a compressed 50-bit message that encodes the station’s callsign, the grid location, and the transmitter power. The message is modulated using frequency-shift keying at a very low bit rate — less than 1.5 baud. This means an entire message with error correction takes almost two full minutes to send. Transmissions are synchronized by the WSPR software to begin one second into each even-numbered minute, making accurate time synchronization essential.
Propagation Made Visual
The shape of things to come — east coast stations are hitting Antarctica on 20 meters, which means I might too in a few hours when the Sun sets over my QTH.
As cool as the WSPR protocol is, the magic of WSPR comes from the “R” part of its name: reporting. This is where WSPR closes the loop that traditional beacons leave open, since WSPR client software can be configured to log any WSPR signals received and decoded by a station to a central database. WSPRnet.org is the place where all the reports go; the site contains a searchable database of all “spots” reported as well as a map that shows current contacts by many, many stations.
The map on WSPRnet is admittedly a bit janky — it’s based on Google Maps, and an error dialog pops up every time you load a new view. There are other visualizations, though, but even with the issues, WSPRnet’s map is a great way to see what propagation paths may be available to you at the current time.
For example, I took a quick peek at the 20-m band just now and found that from my area, I’ve got solid paths to pretty much all of North America. More importantly, I can see that I have no paths into Europe or Asia, and very little to the south into Central and South America. But, by looking at what’s going on with paths on the east coast of the US, where the sun is currently setting and which are actively reaching several stations in and just offshore of Antarctica, I might have a path to the bottom of the planet coming up as the sun sets over me.
Doing My Part
As I mentioned in my first weak-signals article, I’ve currently got WSJT-X running on a Raspberry Pi 4 that I have dedicated to ham radio use. WSJT-X has a built-in WSPR mode, which makes it easy to switch back and forth between exploring possible propagation paths with WSPR and exploiting that information to make actual QSOs using FT8 or one of the other supported modes.
The beauty of using WSJT-X for WSPR work is that it’s basically completely automated. Depending on how you set it up, you can either be a dedicated WSPR receiving and reporting station, or you can choose to also transmit.
When I’m going to be in the shack / office, which is almost always, I set up WSJT-X to transmit on WSPR with a 20% duty cycle — that is, one out of every five two-minute blocks will be dedicated to transmitting. That way, I can do my part contributing to the WSPR map — there generally aren’t many WSPR beacons operating in my part of North Idaho, so I figure this is my way of pitching in. Plus, I get the occasional bonus of nabbing a cool contact, like the aforementioned hit on DP0GVN-1, a German research vessel parked off the coast of Antarctica that I reached on the 30-m band using just five watts.
Sweden, By Way of Alaska
As cool as it is to know you’ve made a solid contact over a path of about 10,000 km on less power than it takes to run an LED light bulb, there’s also a lot to be said for the unusual stations you receive when you leave your WSPR station running. Case in point: the other day I glanced up at WSJT-X and noticed a strange callsign, SA6BSS. After a while of looking at callsigns you get to know which general areas they come from, and I suspected this was a “rare DX” coming from Europe, which is really hard for me to hit with my antenna from the inland Pacific Northwest. A quick lookup on QRZ.com confirmed that SA6BSS is a ham named Mikael Dagman, based in southern Sweden — cool!
I quickly spun up the WSPRnet map and was surprised to see that Mikael’s station was reporting its position as coming from Alaska rather than Sweden. I zoomed in the map a little and found that the signal was coming from a grid hundreds of kilometers south of Unalaska Island in the Aleutians. What in the world would a Swedish ham be doing in the North Pacific in February?
I shot Mikael a quick email about the contact, and he confirmed that I had indeed received a correct position report from his WSPR station, currently floating around the world on a party balloon!
Since he released the balloon on Feb 23
, it has traveled at around 11,000 meters altitude from Sweden to the Middle East, across Asia, and over the Pacific to just off the coast of Oregon. There it took a hook and headed back out to sea; as I write this it’s heading roughly in the direction of Hawaii.
Literally WSPR-ing around the world — at least halfway so far. SA6BSS launched a balloon carrying a WSPR transmitter on Feb 23 that crossed the Pacific; I copied it when it was south of the Aleutians.
Mikael was kind enough to include a little information on the WSPR transmitter he included on his balloon, which is completely solar-powered and weighs in at only 2.6 grams. The spareness of his design is almost comical — it’s just a GPS module, an ATMega328, and an Si5351 for the transmitter. It’s a perfect example of what can be done on a budget, which is right in line with “The $50 Ham” concept. So naturally, building a lightweight, inexpensive WSPR beacon will be the basis of the next installment in this series. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334501",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-03-25T17:17:24",
"content": "First on my bucket list:Make it out of this life alive.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6334534",
"author": "Rog77",
"timestamp": "2021... | 1,760,373,141.531604 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/25/the-futures-so-bright-you-gotta-wear-arduglasses/ | The Future’s So Bright, You Gotta Wear Arduglasses | Tom Nardi | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"Arduboy",
"flexible PCB",
"oled",
"transparent oled",
"wearable"
] | Tiny OLED displays are an absolute must-have in the modern parts bin, so what better way to
show your allegiance to the maker movement than with a pair of Arduino-compatible OLED glasses
? Created by Arduboy mastermind [Kevin Bates], these digital spectacles might not help you see any better — in fact, you’ll see a bit worse — but they’ll certainly make you stand out in the crowd at the next hacker con. (Whenever we can have one of those again, anyway.)
The key to this project is a pair of transparent CrystalFonts OLED displays, just like the ones
[Sean Hodgins] recently used to produce his gorgeous volumetric display
. In fact, [Kevin] says it was his success with these displays that inspired him to pursue his own project. With some clever PCB design, he came up with some boards that could be manufactured by OSH Park and put together with jewelry box hinges. Small flexible circuits, also from OSH Park, link the boards and allow the frames to fold up when not being worn.
The Arduglasses use the same ATmega32U4 microcontroller as the Arduboy, and with a few basic controls and a small 100 mAh rechargeable battery onboard, they can technically run anything from
the open source handheld’s extensive software library
. Of course,
technically
is the operative word here. While the hardware is capable of playing the games, [Kevin] reports that the OLED displays are too close to the wearer’s eyes to actually focus on them. That said the ability to easily create software for these glasses offers plenty of opportunity for memes, as we see in the video below.
For reasons that are probably obvious, [Kevin] considers the Arduglasses an experiment and isn’t looking to turn them into a commercial product or kit. But if there’s interest, he’s willing to put the design files up on GitHub for anyone who wants to
add a pair of Arduino glasses to their cyberpunk wardrobe. | 21 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334477",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2021-03-25T15:56:30",
"content": "really a neat bit of work! “the OLED displays are too close to the wearer’s eyes to actually focus on them.” though…lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,373,141.593768 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/25/how-fast-is-the-universe-expanding-the-riddle-of-two-values-for-the-hubble-constant/ | How Fast Is The Universe Expanding? The Riddle Of Two Values For The Hubble Constant | Moritz v. Sivers | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"cosmic microwave background",
"dark energy",
"expanding universe",
"hubble constant"
] | In the last decades, our understanding of the Universe has made tremendous progress. Not long ago, “precision astronomy” was thought to be an oxymoron. Nowadays, satellite experiments and powerful telescopes on earth were able to measure the properties of our Universe with astonishing precision. For example, we know the age of the Universe with an uncertainty of merely 0.3%, and even though we still do not know the origin of Dark Matter or Dark Energy we have determined their abundance with a precision of better than 1%.
There is, however, one value that astronomers have difficulty in pinning down: how fast our universe is expanding. Or, more precisely, astronomers have used multiple methods of estimating the Hubble constant, and the different methods are converging quite tightly on two different values! This clearly can’t be true, but nobody has yet figured out how to reconcile the results, and further observations have only improved the precision, deepening the conflict. It’s likely that we’ll need either new astronomy or new physics to solve this puzzle.
The Discovery of the Expanding Universe
In the 1920s Edwin Hubble used the newly built telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory to study fuzzy objects known as nebulae. Back then, astronomers were arguing whether these nebulae are clouds of stars within our Milky Way or if they are whole different galaxies. Hubble discovered stars within these nebulae whose brightness slowly fades in and out. These were known as Cepheids and previously studied by Henrietta Levitt who showed that there was a tight relationship between the star’s intrinsic brightness and the period of its variation. This means Cepheids could be used as so-called standard candles which refers to objects whose absolute brightness is known. Since there is a simple relationship between how the brightness of an object decreases with distance, Hubble was able to calculate the distance of the Cepheids by comparing their apparent and intrinsic brightness. He showed that the Cepheid stars were not located within our galaxy and that nebulae are actually distant galaxies.
Hubble also measured the velocity at which these distant galaxies are moving away from us by observing the redshifts of spectral lines caused by the Doppler effect. He found that the further away the galaxy is located, the faster it is moving away from us described by a simple linear relationship.
The parameter H
0
is what is known as the Hubble constant. Later the Belgian priest and physicist Georges Lemaître realized that the velocity-distance relationship measured by Hubble was evidence for the expansion of the Universe. Since the expansion of space itself causes other galaxies to move away from us we are not in any privileged location but the same effect would be measured from any other place in the Universe. An effect that is sometimes illustrated by drawing points on a balloon, when it is inflated the points move away from each other at a speed that depends on their distance. It is also better not to think of the cosmological redshift as being caused by a real velocity as the parameter
v
in the above equation can easily exceed the speed of light.
Since astronomic distances are commonly measured in Megaparsec (Mpc), which is equal to 3.26 million light-years, the Hubble constant is expressed in (km/s)/Mpc. The value of H
0
is about 70 (km/s)/Mpc which can also be expressed as 7%/Gyr, meaning that the distance between two objects will increase by 7% after a billion years.
The Hubble Constant is Not Constant
Even though we speak of the Hubble constant it is a bit of a misnomer since its value is changing over time. We call this the Hubble parameter H(t) while H
0
is simply the value of H(t) today. We now know that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, so what does this mean for the Hubble constant? One might think that it will get bigger but actually it is decreasing, which can be shown with a little bit of math. We can express the Hubble parameter using the distance between two points
and its time derivative
:
If we have an accelerated expansion
, we get
and thus
. This means H(t) is decreasing with time. The velocity of any galaxy will increase over time because it is further away. If we look at a fixed distance, however, the velocities of different galaxies that will pass by this point will decrease over time.
How do we actually know that we live in an accelerating Universe? The proof for this came from the measurement of the redshift of distant supernovae made in the late 1990s. Similar to Cepheids, supernovae of Type 1a can be used as standard candles (i.e. their distance can be derived from their apparent brightness). Since exploding stars are generally very bright objects they can be seen from very far away.
Looking at very distant supernovae also means looking far into the past, so when the Hubble constant is changing it will have had a different value when the light from that supernovae started traveling towards us. When plotting the distance vs the redshift of supernovae one will thus see a deviation from the linear relation of the Hubble–Lemaître law for high redshifts. In the 1990s, astronomers expected to see evidence for a decelerating Universe as they thought the expansion should be slowed down due to the gravitational pull exerted by matter. Surprisingly, they found an accelerated expansion which was evidence for another form of matter or energy that acts repulsively.
Einstein originally introduced such a force to his equations of General Relativity known as the cosmological constant, denoted by the Greek letter Λ (Lambda). Ironically, it was introduced to generate a static Universe so Einstein abandoned the idea (“
my biggest blunder
“) when Hubble discovered the expansion of the Universe. Later the term Dark Energy was coined for the force that drives the accelerated expansion.
The Echo of the Big Bang
How do we tell how far away other stars are anyway? Astronomers have constructed a cosmic distance ladder that successively increases distance measurements using different methods. At the base of the ladder are nearby stars whose distance can be directly determined through measurements of the
parallax
— the apparent shift of an object’s position due to a change in an observer’s point of view. This measurement can then be used to calibrate the distance of Cepheids which then are used to calibrate the distance to Type 1a supernovae, which have brightnesses that
depend on other physical properties
.
Besides the distance ladder measurements described above, there are also other ways to determine the Hubble constant. One of the most precise measurements of the properties of our Universe comes from the observation of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The CMB was accidentally discovered by the radio-astronomers Penzias and Wilson after they ruled out that the signal they saw was caused by pigeons nesting in their antenna. This omnipresent source of electromagnetic radiation that peaks in the microwave region was created about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Before that, the Universe was an opaque plasma as light did constantly bounce off free electrons and protons. Once the plasma had cooled down to about 3000K, electrons combined with protons to form neutral hydrogen atoms and light could travel freely thus the Universe became transparent.
This light which has been redshifted due to the expansion of the Universe can now be observed as the CMB. Since CMB photons are moving freely after they were last scattered they contain a snapshot of the Universe as it looked 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Through measurements of the CMB and the comparison with cosmological models, it is thus possible to extract important parameters like the aforementioned amount of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, or the Hubble constant.
Is the Universe Expanding Faster Than It Should?
Beginning at left, astronomers use the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to measure the distances to Cepheid variables by their parallax. Once the Cepheids are calibrated, astronomers move beyond our Milky Way to nearby galaxies (shown at centre). They look for Cepheid stars in galaxies that recently hosted Type Ia supernovae and use the Cepheids to measure the luminosity of the supernovae. They then look for supernovae in galaxies located even farther away.
Credit:
NASA, ESA, A. Feild (STScI), and A. Riess (STScI/JHU)
, CC BY 4.0
Currently, the most precise measurement of the CMB was performed by the Planck satellite. Its observation agrees with the current cosmological standard model, the ΛCDM model, where Λ stands for Dark Energy in form of the cosmological constant and CDM for Cold Dark Matter. The Hubble constant derived from the
Planck measurement
is H
0
= (67.4 ± 0.5) km/s/Mpc.
However, distance ladder measurements give a value that is about 10% higher. The most precise value, in this case, was derived by the SH0ES team which used the known distance of nearby Cepheids in the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud to calibrate the distance of extragalactic Type 1a supernovae as illustrated in the picture. Compared to the Planck measurement
they arrive at a significantly higher value
of H
0
= (74.03 ± 1.42) km/s/Mpc. The tension between these two values is 4.4 standard deviations which corresponds to a probability of <0.001% as being due to chance.
The difference between distance ladder-based measurements of H0 and the value derived by CMB and BAO measurements. The arrows indicate how the value of H0 would be altered by new physics.
Credit:
A. G. Riess, et al.
Of course, many people have tried to pin this discrepancy down to any unaccounted errors in either of the experiments but without success. Also, the discrepancy is not only between these two experiments but there are other distance ladder measurements that all point to a higher value of H
0
.
Making the whole situation even stranger, the CMB measurement by Planck
has recently been confirmed by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope
which measured a Hubble constant that is consistent with Planck’s value. In addition, CMB measurements are backed by observations of so-called
baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO
) combined with other astronomical data. In general, one can observe the trend that the values of
H
0
derived from the early Universe (CMB, BAO) are lower than those from the distance ladder measurements which use objects with much lower redshift and thus capture a more recent state of the Universe.
An important point is that the CMB measurement is model-dependent meaning that
H
0
is derived under the assumption that the ΛCDM model describes our Universe. So an exciting explanation for the discrepancy would be new physics beyond the current cosmological standard model. Among the many new physics interpretations for the H
0
discrepancy is the idea that Dark Energy is not simply a constant but also time-dependent. Other theories include interacting Dark Matter or new relativistic particles. However, as can be seen in the figure none of these ideas can completely resolve the Hubble tension.
New Techniques to Measure Cosmic Expansion
Other techniques for determining the Hubble constant include the measurement of gravitational-lensing time delays.
Strong gravitational lenses
can create multiple images of an object located behind them. Since the images have different light paths there is also a time delay at which these images arrive which can be measured when the object varies in brightness. By modeling the gravitational potential of the lens and knowing the redshift of both the lens and the source, it is possible to extract the Hubble constant from this time-delay measurement. The H0LICOW (
H
0
Lenses in COSMOGRAIL’s Wellspring –astrophysicists have a weakness for wacky acronyms) collaboration has
recently used this method to determine the Hubble constant
, and their value is consistent with the distance ladder measurements and in tension with the CMB result.
In the future, completely independent measurements of the Hubble constant may shed more light on this mystery. One of them is the use of gravitational waves “standard sirens”. In this case, the absolute distance can be directly determined from the gravitational-wave measurement while the redshift is determined from simultaneous observation of electromagnetic radiation. The advantage of using gravitational waves is that the absolute distance of the source can be directly determined without any intermediate distance measurements. So any systematic error that we might have in the cosmic distance ladder will not influence the result.
The method was used to extract the Hubble constant from the gravitational-wave events
GW170817
and
GW190521
, however, due to the large error bars, the results are consistent with both CMB and distance ladder measurements. Fortunately, the uncertainty will shrink as more and more gravitational-wave events are detected and so we will likely be able to tip the favor for either the high or low H
0
value in coming years.
On the one hand, the Hubble tension is an annoying inconsistency in our otherwise well-confirmed understanding of the Universe. On the other hand, it might be an exciting glimpse of new physics. So let’s keep the hopes up that future observations will solve this puzzle and lead to new revelations. | 44 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6334443",
"author": "Darren",
"timestamp": "2021-03-25T14:28:01",
"content": "What we can see is expanding. It’s expanding into other parts of the universe.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6335238",
"author": "jawnhe... | 1,760,373,141.68716 |
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